On October 18, 1827, at around five in the evening, a small Levantine vessel, sailing sharply into the wind, strove to reach the harbor of Itilon before dark, a harbor located at the entrance to the Gulf of Korea. This harbor—Homer called it Etil—lies in one of three deep inlets formed by the Ionian and Aegean seas, which make Southern Greece resemble the outline of a plane tree leaf. On this likeness of a serrated leaf, the ancient Peloponnese—modern Morea—stretches out.