The following extracts from letters to his wife will illustrate the
nature of the work, and also give an idea of Jenkin's clear and graphic
style of correspondence :-
May 14.--'Syra is semi-eastern. The pavement, huge shapeless blocks
sloping to a central gutter; from this base two-storeyed houses,
sometimes plaster, many-coloured, sometimes rough-hewn marble, rise,
dirty and ill-finished, to straight, plain, flat roofs; shops guiltless
of windows, with signs in Greek letters; dogs, Greeks in blue, baggy,
Zouave breeches and a fez, a few narghilehs, and a sprinkling of the
ordinary continental shop-boys. In the evening I tried one more walk in
Syra with A----, but in vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to spend
money, the first effort resulting in singing DOODAH to a passing Greek
or two, the second in spending--no, in making A---- spend--threepence on
coffee for three.'
Canea Bay, in Candia (or Crete), which they reached on May 16, appeared
to Jenkin one of the loveliest sights that man could witness.
May 23.--'I spent the day at the little station where the cable was
landed, which has apparently been first a Venetian monastery and then a
Turkish mosque. At any rate the big dome is very cool, and the little
ones hold batteries capitally.
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