A description of the present state of Samos, Nicaria, Patmos, and Mount Athos by Joseph Georgirenes ... ; translated by one that knew the author in Constantinople.

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.

THe habitable Earth, by Di∣vine disposal, bestow'd upon the Children of Men, is but one great Island. And those Four eminent Parts of it which divide the whole among them, not by equal portions, but by the casual in∣tervention of Seas, are not totally separated one from another; but make one perpetual Continent. Africa is joyn'd to Asia, by no very small neck of Land betwixt the Mediterranean and the Red Sea: And is no more an Island properly so call'd, than Peloponnesus. Europe and Asia are joyn'd above the Lake of Maeotis with a large space of ground betwixt the Hyperborean Oce∣an, and that Lake. And Asia is joy∣ned to America, by the Streights of

Anian in all probability. There has nothing yet been discover'd to the con∣trary, and the great Absurdities that attend the peopling of it are no way so∣easily solv'd. Besides this Main Con∣tinent which is mounted above the Face of the Waters in one entire continua∣tion of parts, there are many lesser Islands, entirely surrounded by the Sea, and divided from all other ground. And all these are but smaller Sisters to that great product of Nature, the Main Continent, not differing from it in kind, but in bulk and size. Whether they owe their birth to the general De∣luge, or date their antiquity from the day of the Creation, the Scripture is silent, and so am I. The Opinion of several Islands being rent from the Main Continent, by the violent Incur∣sion of Seas, has been more forwardly embrac'd, than convincingly prov'd, and owes more to Poetical Fancy, than to any solid Foundations of Philosophy. However, certain it is, that many Islands are of later Antiquity than either the Creation, or the Flood, as on the contrary, many have either

subsided, or been over-whelm'd.

The same Earthquake does sometimes produce both effects; and the same time brings Birth to one, and Burial to another. But these are the irregular miscarriages of nature, labouring un∣der a Convulsion Fit, and teach us what may be, not what must be; what na∣ture may sometimes suffer, not what she always doth. As for the whole Globe of Earth and Water, the admi∣rable intermixture of them both for use and beauty, doth highly bespeak the Wisdome of the Maker, and doth no less merit our contemplation, than the Canopy of Heaven. And that the rather, because the inferiour World doth more neerly approach our Senses, and affords us clearer notice of their state and condition. Among all the associate Collection of Islands, that by reason of their mutual vicinity, pass under one common name, there are none more remarkable than those of the Aegean Sea, or the Archipelago. These were so eminent in the days of the Prophets of the Old Testament, that from them all the Western parts of

the then known World that was plan∣ted principally by the Sons of Japhet, went under the common name of the Isles of the Gentiles, and the Islands of Chittim. The Phoenicians, the first eminent Navigators since the Flood, and the first Planters of Lear∣ning and Civility, as well as Colonies, along the shores of the Mediterranean and Atlantick Seas, began their discoveries in these Islands: And there they have left such visible Foot∣steps of their first Plantation, that the names they bear to this day are most of them of Phoenician Extraction. The Colonies planted in these Islands by the Phoenicians, gave beginning to all those Arts and Sciences for which the Greeks were afterwards so famous, and their Language been held in such admiration to this day. The Aethio∣pick Islands are known all by Greek names; but they are as far inferiour to the Cyclades in renown, as they are in number, having neither been the Scene of Actions recorded by such Im∣mortal pens, nor the native Soil of persons so eminent for Arts and Arms.

The conceit of Elysium, or such a future happiness as the Heathens dream't of, was thought fit by their Poets to be fix'd upon some remote Islands; therefore call'd the Blessed, or Fortunate Islands. The Hespe∣rides and Canaries have been Compe∣titors for the Title, and our modern sear∣chers into Brittish Antiquity do strain hard to make the Cassiterides, or the Scilly and Man, and Anglesey, put in for a claim. But the Poets have been more accurate in maintaining the Cha∣racter of an earthly Paradise, and describing a felicity of state beyond that of a Platonick, or Utopian Commonwealth, than in directing us by any rules of Geography, where it is to be found. And as they have left it indifferent to the Reader to fix the Local Situation of such Islands where they will, so they have left it impossi∣ble to any Reader to find such a place in the whole World. Indeed it is the high prerogative of great and lasting Wits to affix an esteem and veneration upon those places they make the Stage of their Stories, be they true or false.

But in this point of credit, the Islands of the Archipelago do far surpass any other in the World. And this is true, not only of the licentious and extra∣vagant Fables of their Romantick My∣thologie; but also in the graver and more creditable Records of sober History. They did heretofore in a manner en∣gross the Monopoly of all the Wit and Fancy both of Greece and Rome: Insomuch, that 'tis hardly possible for a man well vers'd in the Greek and Latin Tongues, to be a stranger to the antient Geography of these Places: And Pliny, who was in nothing less erroneous, than in this part of his natural History of these Islands, does honour the Bay wherein they are situate, with the Ti∣tle of Sinus claritatis literarum. A large Encomium, and such as no other aggregate body of Islands had equal right to. The Japan, Philip∣pine, and Molucco Islands in the Oriental Ocean, are far beyond these for number; but the only thing they are sought for is some natural products peculiar to their Soil and Climate, in which commendation, they do not ex∣ceed

the late discoveries in the Ame∣rican Ocean; but we find not that the World was ever beholding to the one, or the other, for the Propagation of Learning or Civility. Nor is it only fa∣mous for the early rise of Humane Lear∣ning and civil Culture, in the days of Gentilism; but also for the early appea∣rance of the more glorious Sun-shine of the Heavenly Doctrin of the Gospel. St. John the Divine, honoured in the Oracles of God, with the peculiar Title of the Disciple whom Jesus loved, was once an Inhabitant of these Islands; where he founded the Christian Reli∣gion, and writ that Divine and Myste∣rious Book, which was indeed to him Apocalypse, but to all future ages Apocrypha. St. Paul, that great Apostle of the Gentiles, did often cross this Sea, to plant the Doctrin of Salva∣tion in all the neighbouring Shores of Europe and Asia. And in future ages, when the Divine Providence rai∣sed up a Christian Emperour to protect his Church from persecution, these Islands were the very centre of once the most Orthodox and learned Church in

the World. To whom we owe not only the transmitting the Holy Scriptures to our knowledge; but also the digesting the Doctrin of them into Articles of Faith, the defence of Truth against all invasion of Errour, the faithful Re∣cords of most pure and primitive Tra∣dition, the clear Exposition of many obscure passages, which without their direction, might have been at this day unintelligible, and the great advan∣tage of many bearned and elaborate Volumes of Orthodox Divinity, both Polemical and Practick. And of all those many different Sects of Christi∣anity in the East, they have to this day most firmly retain'd the ancient Truths, and made the least Deviation into Er∣rour. If that ignorance which those barbarous extinguishers of learning, the Turks, keep them in, renders that afflicted Nation obnoxious to be impos'd upon, and incapable of knowing better, it deserves rather our pity, than our contempt and scorn. It is rather a Mi∣racle of Gods gracious Providence, that under such tyrannous Masters, and such proud and contemptuous enemies of

the common name of Christianity, the light of Evangelical Truth is not only dim'd, but utterly extinct, as it has hap∣ned in the Latin Church in Africa, once inferiour to none for purity of Doctrin, and piety and learning in their Profes∣sours. Yet this cannot be deny'd them, but that they accord with us in many things wherein we differ from the Ro∣mish Church. I may add this more, that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Greek Church doth not bear that confor∣mity or similitude with the Romish Church, as the great Champions for Po∣pery would affix upon them. And that will easily appear in these particulars. 1. They use not the Elevation of the Host. 2. No carrying it in Procession. 3. The People stand when they receive it. 4. They give it in both kinds to all. 5. The bread is of a common sort before Consecration. It is besides, the business of this Preface, to enlarge upon the present State of the Greek Church, which the reverend Author hath in some measure done in his account of Sa∣mos, and Mount Athos: And that subject is more largely handl'd by a late

learned Author in the Latin and English Tongues. All that I shall add is, that scarce any part of Greece has less intermixture with the Turks than these Isles, where the Greek Lan∣guage and Religion is less intrench'd up∣on. There are no less than twenty Bishops in the Archipelago, some with the Title of Metropolite, as Mete∣lyn and Methymia; others with the Title of Arch-Bishop, as Samos, and Andros, and some with the bare Title of Bishop, as Sciathus. Yet neither of the two first differ from the last in any thing, but in Title, or priority of Place. Their jurisdiction is alike, it being ordinary here for a Metropolite, and an Arch-Bishop to be without a Suffragan. The reason is, because of the great Revolutions, many of the old Bishopricks are lost, and the ancient frame of Ecclesiastical Polity much alter'd. The Patriarch continues the Title of Metropolite upon all the places that formerly were so, and the litle of Arch-Bishop, upon those that depend immediately upon the Patriarch, with∣out any subjection to a Metropolite,

although they have no Bishop under their jurisdiction. The following Trea∣tise giveth an account of three Islands of the Archipelago, and Mount Athos, the Great Academy for the Greek Clergy. In all these places, he liv'd, and writes nothing, but what he saw, or what he receiv'd from the constant Tradition of the places: So that as to matters of fact, he may be better rely'd upon than those that write of places to which they are great stran∣gers. For the Truth of what is rela∣ted, is the main Postulatum of an Hi∣story.

Notes

• Smith's remarks upon the Turks.