The Cruise of the Branwen

CRUISE OF THE BRANWEN rugged sheep-paths; the springs of water; the olive-trees above the sea. Odysseus sailed here from Phreacia. It was to Phreacia the Branwen steered the next morning as soon as wind and wave grew favourable; for the land of the Phreacians is Corcyra, which is Corfu, where we landed at half-past seven on Friday, May 4. One of the most beautiful results produced by the storm of the past twenty-four hours became visible as we left Santa Maura on the horizon to the south and saw Paxos and Anti-Paxos on the northern skyline. The ground-swell had had some strange effect on the chalk bed of the sea, which gave it the loveliest sapphire tints I ever saw, light where the sunshine caught the crests of the still whitening waves, and deeper ·in the hollows where the roller curved before it broke. We were on the trade-route to the last outpost of the old Hellenic commerce ; Greece we should soon leave behind ; and the Palace of Alcinous was to be our last reminder of Odysseus and Athene. The town of Corfu looked inviting enough in the quiet light of the evening, and we strolled happily through its quaint and narrow streets from the Custom House, until we came upon the broader Strada Nikephoros and so out upon a broad and breezy boulevard above the sea. Coffee and cigarettes were too ternpting to be missed at the Hotel d'Angleterre et Venise, from which there was a lovely view, and we stayed on till late into the night. Some three hours' drive out of Corfu, slightly 152