This delusion as to their natural military capacity was never dispelled until the later disaster in Thessaly.

The army did in fact cross the frontier, but within forty-eight hours they were obliged to return to Greek territory for want of provisions--the commissariat had been forgotten! Outside of political agitation we found living in Corfu delightful, and I question if there is, within the limits of the north temperate zone, any more delightful winter residence than was that of Corfu in the period we were there.

What remained of the advanced civilization of the English garrison period gave the island a distinct advantage over all the other Greek isles, and even over Crete with its superior natural advantages.

Greek enterprise and civilization are so far superior to that found anywhere in the Turkish territory that they are capable of maintaining the substantial progress which the English occupation achieved in Corfu; and, though we found the peasantry not largely inoculated by the fever of progress, the better classes of the city population succeed in supporting the better condition attained to.

But the obstinacy of the conservatism retained by the agricultural classes is equal to that in the least frequented islands of the Aegean.