PATHOS, now ST. JEAN DE PA•INO, is an island of the Grecian Archipelago, celebrated as the place of St. John's retirement. It is about 10 miles long, 5 broad, and 28 in circumference. Its coasts are intersected by a variety of gulfs and caves, and present many good harbours, among which that of Scola is one of the finest in the Archipelago. Rabbits, pigeons, partridges, and quails, are numerous. The monastery of St. John of the Apocalypse stands on the top of a steep mountain, and is fortified by several ir regular towers, which defend it, and the inhabitants who come here take refuge under it, from the depredations of the pirates. Dr. Clarke describes it as a very powerful fortress, built upon a steep rock, with several towers and lofty thick walls, which, if mounted with guns, might be made impregnable. The library contains about 1000 vo lumes, of which about 200 were in MS. Among these Dr. Clarke discovered the Patmos Plato, and a Lexicon of St. Cyrill. He found also the curious work of Philo upon Animals, and saw an original letter from the Empe ror Alexius Comnenus. Nothing can be more remarka
ble, says Dr. Clarke, than the situation of the town, built upon the edge of a vast crater, sloping off on either side like the roof of a tiled house. Perry has compared it to an ass's back, on the highest ridge of which stands the monastery. The Holy Grotto, where the Apocalypse is said to have been written, is nothing more than a hermi dependent on the principal monastery. The women of the island are very handsome, and keep their houses very clean. The beds, which are ten feet high, are as cended by steps. The inhabitants have twelve small ves sels, with which they trade to different ports in the Euxine and the Adriatic, bringing corn for their own use. Popu lation about 300. East Long. 40'. N. Lat. 37° 30'. See Tournefort's Voyage du Levant, torn. ii. p. 150; Perry's View of the Levant, p. 483 ; Sonnini's Travels in Greece, p. 473 ; and Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 348 364.