Connecticut western news., 1877-06-15
The Island of Crete.

A writer in Blockooood's Magaziae says: Wherever we went in the coun-# try-whether on hin-tops among villas ges, or on the plain among the olive grove, however beautiful the land in which we rOde-a sense of silence and desolation depressed us. Every where are the ruins of farms, the villa ges are thinly peopled; one hears no murmur of voices, no laughter, no shouts of children. The few peasants who are seen wander about listlessly, like ghosts among deserted halls. In sensibly the silent Elysian Fields pre- sent themselves before our mind. For the waves of strife and battle that have passed over this beautious isle have have swept away all the flower of it's manhood, and the remnant that is left is watched and held in check by armed men. For nearly seven centuries Crete has been ruled by force, always striving to exchange it's existing gov ernment for another." ssWe have the vessel almost to ourselves. One fellow passenger, young Cretan Greek, walks with us on deck awhile under the clear stars, and pOurs out to us his hopes and aspirations. He is a medical stud ent, passing through his course at the medical school and hospital at Athens, aMd is going for his vacation to his dear native isle. Greek he is, and proud to be called Greek and we have early won his heart by repeating, as we speak of the still night, some lines of that lovely chorus in Alkestis, 'To-night, sleep giver to understanding mortals.' But like all men mountain born, he has the true heimveh, the longing for home seen cry and air. Athens, with all its magic associations, has not for him the charm of home. It is of Crete, not of Athens, that he longs to speak. He tells us of the longing of his island race for liberty, and says it.is to England that they look for help. When will the day come when England will cease to uphold the Turks and why does she herself, gen. erous beyond stint to Greece, support the Moslem ill holding provinces and herself given up to the Hellenes? Why, he asks, does England force Greece to look towards Russia, nation whose aims are purely selfish, traitorous child of the Greek church? And so he pours out his tale of woes, and then bursts forth, Better that England should herself take Crete, and that it should never again join Greece, than that | it should lie prOstrate under the heel of the sultan.' He has read in the news papers at Athens articles translated from English journals, saying England was likely to take Egypt and Crete, and let Turkey be broken up. Is it true? He knows>she has bought the Suez canal :; perhaps she will buy Crete.'' Three millions judiciously offered would buy Crete, and the island in two years could take the debt upon it's own shoulders, and in twenty years pay it off from the profits of it's revived trade in Cretan wine, the Malavoisie- of our ancestors, the Malmsey of our grandfathers, and | which still exists in Crete.
 "What shall we say of the wine, the Malavese wine which our host had treated so lightly that he had been giy- ing it to his servants to drink? Of a pale, amber color dry and clean on the palate, with the purity of the purest montilla and a bouquet exquisitely it's own, for it was nectar of the gods. And no wonder, for it came from the very cradle of the finest ,Malmsey vines, and was ripened to perfection by the clim- ate.'' z-ss.e ~..t s. .... ..'tf ,--