The spirit of the East

PURCHASED FOR THE

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

FROM THE

CANADA COUNCIL SPECIAL GRANT

FOR

HI STORY

the y

SPIRIT OF THE EAST,

ILLUSTRATED IN A

JOURNAL OF TRAVELS

THROUGH ROUMELI

DURING AN EVENTFUL PERIOD.

BY

D. URQUHART, Esq.

AUTHOR OF

"TURKEY AND ITS RESOURCES," "ENGLAND, FRANCE, RUSSIA,

AND TURKEY," &c

Men are not influenced by Facts, but by Opinions respecting Facts." — Epicteics.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,

GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1838.

4*7

u?

JUH31 1974

^?S„V OF ^

DEDICATED

TO

Cftc iHemorg

OF

WILLIAM THE FOURTH.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

Page
Introduction xi

CHAPTER I.

Objects of the Journey — Departure from Argos — Hard-
ships and Enjoyments of Eastern Travel 1

CHAPTER II.

State of the Greek Peasantry in 1830 — Military and Poli-
tical Importance of the Gulf of Corinth — Incident in
the War of Independence — Naval Action in the Bay
of Salona 15

CHAPTER HI.

Patrass — Turkish and Greek Flags 32

CHAPTER IV.
Western Greece — Greek Opinions of the Duke of Welling-
ton — Missolonghi — The Horn of Plenty — Battle of
Lepanto 41

CHAPTER V.

Anatolico — Trigardon — Marsh of Lezini — Swimming
to a Monastery — Depression of the Coasts of Acar-
nania and Epirus — European Politics, and Turkish
Policy — Comparison of Turkish and Roman Conquest
— Administration introduced by the Turks 62

Vlll CONTENTS.

Pnge

CHAPTER VI.

Refugees in the Lake of Vrachori — Antiquarian Researches
and Mishaps — Effect of Gunpowder on Governments
and People — Refinement and Ruins of Alyzea — A
Picturesque Scene 96

CHAPTER VII.

Change in the Palicars — The Vlachi Soldier-Shepherds —
Pouqueville's Blunders — Fetes in the Makronoros —
Boar Hunt — Arrival in Albania 119

CHAPTER VIII.
The Protocol 144

CHAPTER IX.

The Three Commissioners — Departure from Prevesa —
Prospects of Convulsion in Albania — The Plain of
Arta 150

CHAPTER X.

Political, Social, and Diplomatic Disquisitions with a
Governor, a Noble, and a Judge 160

CHAPTER XI.

State of Parties, Dispositions for Opening the Campaign. . 177

CHAPTER XII.

Town of Arta — Departure for, and Arrival at, Janina —
State of the Country — Female Costume and Beauty —
Domestic Industry — Distribution of the Troops — Sud-
den Panic, and Preparations for an Expedition 193

CHAPTER XIII.
Skipetar Expedition to the Pindus 222

CONTENTS. IX

Page

CHAPTER XIV.

Meeting of the Camps — Conference between the Chiefs —
Fresh Alarms 242

CHAPTER XV.

Impressions produced by the Skipetar Camp — Past State
and Future Prospects of Albania — Comparison of the
Characters of Insurrection in Turkey and in Europe . . 265

CHAPTER XVI.

Departure from the Camp — Adventure on the Pindus —
Hoisted into a Monastery — The Meteora — Discovery
of Strange Intrigues — Radical Governor of Triccala —
Arrival at Larissa 277

CHAPTER XVII.
Thessaly 298

CHAPTER XVIII.
Reception of the Albanian Beys at Monastir 307

CHAPTER XIX.

A Retrospect — Mahommed IV. and his Times — Diplo-
matic Intercourse — International Wrongs — Drago-
mans in the East — Commercial Restrictions in the
West 34 1

CHAPTER XX.

Social Intercourse with the Turks 36 1

CHAPTER XXI.

Characters of an Eastern and an Ancient Room — Pre-
sentation of a European in Eastern Society 371

X CONTENTS.

Page

CHAPTER XXII.
Rambles in Olympus, and Ascent to its Summit 398

CHAPTER XXIII.

Judicial Administration and Foreign Relations of a Moun-
tain Pirate-King — Organic Remains of the War of
Troy 439

Plan of an Ancient and an Eastern Room to face p. 374, Vol. I.

INTRODUCTION.

No traveller offers a work to the public without
supposing that he has some new facts or ideas to
communicate, or some erroneous statements or
opinions in the works of his predecessors to cor-
rect. If this is true with reference to countries
that are at our doors, and with the language, in-
stitutions, and customs of which we are perfectly
familiar, it must be far more applicable to countries
at a distance, with manners and institutions dis-
similar to our own ; with whose language we never
are acquainted ; of whose literature we know
nothing; with whose society we never mingle;
between whose inhabitants and the natives of our
own country, friendship seldom or never exists.
The casual wanderers in such a land, must, in
the impossibility of correctly observing, receive a
multitude of loose impressions, and these impres-
sions on their return home are poured forth with

Xll INTRODUCTION.

the same facility and diversity as those with which
they were received. It is not, therefore, with the
idea that there is much to be corrected in the
opinions which have resulted from such statements
respecting the countries of which these volumes
treat, but with the conviction that there is nothing
known — that I offer these volumes to my country-
men. It is with the manners of a people as with
their language : no part can be correctly described,
no passage accurately applied, unless the mind of
the one, as the grammar of the other, has been
laboriously studied, and is perfectly understood.

The claims which I can offer as the grounds of
my own confidence, or of the confidence of others,
in my opinions, are — ten years unremittingly
employed in the acquisition of the necessary in-
formation for judging of the countries which are
here in part described. During this period, unoc-
cupied with any other pursuit, my time has been
entirely devoted to investigation in detail, or to
general studies collaterally bearing on the laws,
history, commerce, political and diplomatic position
of the East, and more particularly of Turkey. So
that, although these inquiries have been extended
over fields wide and diversified, they have been
systematically directed to the elucidation of one
question, and of that question which most nearly

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

touches the interests, and, perhaps, the political
existence, of Great Britain.

During my early travels, and engaged as I
originally was in the war between Greece and
Turkey, I was led to form the most unfavourable
conclusions respecting the character of Eastern
countries, and of the Turkish government and
people in particular. It was after three years of
diligent statistical inquiries, that I began to per-
ceive that there were institutions connected with
the East. From the moment that I did perceive
the existence of peculiar, though still indistinct,
principles, an intense interest was awakened in
my mind; and I commenced a collection of financial
details, with a view to understanding the rules
upon which they were based. Three more years,
I may say, were spent in this uncertainty, and
I collected and noted down the administration of
two hundred and fifty towns and villages, before I
was struck with the common principles that guided
their administration.

It was also only after one half of the time
which I spent in the East had passed by, that I
began to perceive that there were certain rules and
principles of social manners and customs which it
was necessary to study in themselves, and the

XIV INTRODUCTION.

acquisition of which was a condition to useful social
intercourse.

Having gone through this laborious process,
it is but natural for me to suppose that a know-
ledge of the East involves long and assiduous
labour, which cannot be undertaken except by one
who has no other occupation or pursuits ; who is
gifted with energy and perseverance ; and is pre-
pared to make an entire sacrifice of all the' com-
forts, luxuries, and enjoyments of life, to which he
had been accustomed.

A work on the East is a task which no man
who correctly feels, can lightly or willingly under-
take. It is exactly in proportion to the progress
made, that the difficulties of such a study will be
apparent, and, consequently, that the diffidence of
the inquirer will increase.

If a botanist, accustomed to a region con-
taining a limited number of species, who has
founded his theory of botany on such generalisa-
tions as this limited number of facts allowed him
to draw, or enabled him to apply, suddenly comes
into another region, where he finds his principles
inapplicable, or insufficient, he must immediately
revise the whole science of which he is a professor.
So, in the consideration of nations, if you come to

INTRODUCTION". XV

ideas which, when correctly understood, cannot be
accurately rendered by the symbols of your own
language, you must immediately revert to first
principles — you come back to the reconsideration
of human nature.

In this lies the difficulty of the East — the real
cause of that embarrassment which seems to in-
crease in proportion as information accumulates.
The man who sees the East for a day can sketch
external objects by the words which exist in Eu-
ropean language ; but to be able to convey thoughts,
he must feel as they do, and describe those
feelings in a language which is not theirs ; and this
is an overwhelming task. Language is the con-
ventional representation of impressions ; but when
impressions are not identical, they cannot be
conveyed by common sounds ; and, therefore,
where there is difference of impressions, there is no
possibility of obtaining a common language.

In this difficulty of intercommunication, it is but
natural to suppose that each party has suffered in
the eyes of the other : we have been deprived of
the means of appreciating that which is good ; we
have exaggerated that which is bad, and inter-
preted unfavourably that which is indifferent. The
original deficiency of language has been the cause,
subsequently, of justifiable hostility ; and, in this

XVI INTRODUCTION.

reaction of cause and effect, a reciprocal contempt
of the one for the other has finally resulted. This
misintelligence which has taken root amongst the
Europeans who have settled in the East, excludes
travellers, by the existing hostility, from intercourse
with the natives of the country. They have not
the key to intercourse, and are dependent for the
first impressions by which their whole subsequent
career is necessarily guided, on the residents in
the East, who speak the same language as them-
selves.

It is to be supposed that those who turn their
faces towards the rising sun, are impelled by a
generous ardour for the pursuit of knowledge ; that
their imagination is warmed by the poetry of
Eastern existence, and by the splendour of East-
ern scenery ; that men, whose early education has
been formed upon the Bible, and whose boyish
aspirations have been fired by the Oriental breath of
the " Arabian Nights," should look with sympathy
and interest upon those institutions, those habits,
and those effects, which live alone in the " clime of
the East." Nevertheless, it is unfortunately but
too true, that, whilst European visitors have ne-
glected the political and moral interest and character
which that land affords, they have also neglected
even those external and physical features, which

INTRODUCTION. XVII

come within the scope of the sciences which ab-
sorb the still available faculties of observation and
comparison of the present age. The botany, the
geology, the mineralogy of European and Asiatic
Turkey, have been scarcely extended since the days
of Tournefort. We owe our recent geographical
knowledge respecting the regions of Upper Asia to a
translation made at Paris from a Chinese geographer,
whose work was published fifteen hundred years
ago ! Until the survey of Lieutenant Burnes, the
only information we possessed respecting the course
of the Indus, — the channel of Indian commerce,
and the frontier of the British dominions, — was
derived from the historians of Alexander! We
need not, therefore, be surprised that we should be
ignorant of the character of the Eastern mind —
of the limits of Eastern knowledge — of the tide
and current of Eastern opinion.

The admission, as a general proposition, of diffi-
culty in the study of the East, of ignorance of facts,
of erroneousness of conclusions, may remain a
truism inoperative and unfruitful ; it is, therefore,
necessary to shew how the use of certain terms
applicable to our state becomes the source of error,
while the observer cannot, by any possibility,
suspect, that the error lies in the use of the lan-
guage with which alone he is familiar. I will,

b

XVlll INTRODUCTION.

therefore, give a few instances, which may serve to
illustrate the stumbling-blocks which preconceived
and European notions cast in the path of Oriental
inquiry.

When we look back to the history of Great
Britain not many years ago, we find a population
degraded, miserable, insulated. We see the pro-
gress of the arts, of agriculture, and, above all, the
construction of roads, producing a concomitant
improvement in the condition of men; and we
naturally infer that good roads, mechanical skill,
&c, are conditions of well-being, and, where these
are . not, that every thing must be degradation
and misery. When, therefore, we hear of countries
where the roads are in as bad a condition as they
were fifty years ago in England, we conclude
that the social condition of these countries is such
as it was in England, or as we suppose it (for the
dogmatic character of the day is ever prone to
revile the past) to have been in England at a
former period. But in England, and in countries
lying in the same latitude, the enjoyments of the
people are derived from a distant zone ; have to be
transported from afar ; and the superabundance of
home produce has to be exported before it can be
exchanged to obtain these luxuries. A population
so situated, if without the easy means of transport,

INTRODUCTION. xix

must remain destitute of all those enjoyments which
result from interchange, and which beget industry.
To them, therefore, roads become of vital import-
ance; but roads are by no means a question of
equal importance to countries where every village
has within its reach the comforts and the luxuries
which Northern populations have to obtain from a
distance.

In the same way, the population of Great Bri-
tain, before the introduction of green crops, was
restricted, during the long inclement months of
winter, to provisions of the worst description. Salt
bacon, and, at an earlier period, eels, were -the
only addition which the peasant could expect
to his rye or barley during six months of the
year ; and we naturally, therefore, esteem the
improvements of modern agriculture as necessary
to a good and wholesome diet, and necessary to
the well-being of every agricultural population.
But in countries where the winter is not of the
same duration, and where the character of the
produce is more varied, the progress of the science
of agriculture is not in the same degree requisite
for the well-being of the community. " The
backward state of agriculture " is, therefore, a form
of words which does not convey the same idea when
applied to countries in different latitudes.

XX INTRODUCTION.

Again, in our constitutional combinations, the
point of departure, to which we look back, is feud-
alism ; the mass of the population was then mere
property ; and every step which has been made in
the acquisition of social rights, in the establishment
of equality, in the elevation of the power and the
character of a central judicature, having been an
improvement upon the original constitution of the
state, we consider " progress," synonymous with
improvement. In the East, the point of de-
parture is — the free right of property of every
man, and equality of all men before the law : —
every departure from that original constitution
has been in violation of its principles, and in
violation of national rights. Eastern populations,
therefore, appeal to stability as the sanction of
popular rights ; the European, who understands
the advancement of popular rights to lie in the
word " progress," does not comprehend the Eastern,
who looks on that which is stationary as that
which is excellent : and while his preconcep-
tions deprive him of the faculty of perceiving a
train of thought so important and so valuable, he
establishes erroneous data as the foundation of all
his conclusions.

Again, the word " Feudalism" is productive of
similar confusion. Feudalism, in its true and

INTRODUCTION'. XXI

real sense, has existed throughout the East from all
times, and exists now ; and yet, in reducing to its
simplest expression the difference existing between
the East and the West, I have been obliged to
have recourse, as defining that difference, to draw-
ing a line between those nations that have passed
through feudalism, and those nations that have
not passed through feudalism ; by the former
meaning the inhabitants of the West of Europe,
with the exception of some fragments of races —
the Basque Provinces, for instance, the islands
Guernsey, Jersey, &c.

Although feudalism was brought from the East
to the West, it underwent in our Western regions
modifications and changes which completely al-
tered its nature. The primitive character was that
of a local military organisation for the defence of
the soil, for which a regular contribution was given,
the remuneration amounting to one-tenth of the
produce of the soil so protected. The tenure of
those feoffs was dependent upon the will of the
sovereign, and generally, in the earlier periods,
they were yearly appointments. In the West,
the feudal lords became the proprietors of the soil
which they had been charged to protect, and
thus entirely overthrew the principles, and vitiated
the object, of that system, Feudalism in the East

XX11 INTRODUCTION.

leaves to the cultivator the right of property;
feudalism in the West has deprived him of that
right — has conferred the land on the holder of
the feoff, and converted the cultivator into a serf.
The system is completely different : — but the
word is the same. The European comes to a fact,
which he designates feudalism, — he instantly, there-
fore, makes the application of his views of Western
feudalism to a state of society where nothing of
the kind was ever known : hence our misconcep-
tion of the rights of property of our Hindoo sub-
jects, and a fundamental source of misconception
of every principle of Eastern government, law,
property, and legislation.

The government of Turkey, as of other Eastern
nations, it has been the habit to designate as
" despotism ; " and this designation has not been
confined to books of travels, but is used by writers
of a scientific character, and in the classification of
countries. Now it is a singular thing, that our idea
of despotism is unknown to the Eastern mind ; that,
to explain the word to a native of the East, it is
necessary to describe to him a state of society
where men disagree regarding the principles of law
and justice. The idea of despotism, or the falsifi-
cation of right, through the violence of power, can
coexist only with two standards of right and wrong ;

INTRODUCTION. XX1U

so that a fluctuating and accidental majority im-
poses its will as the rule of justice and of law.
Such a state of things has given birth to, and
developed, feelings of deep animosity between man
and man ; there has, consequently, been an exas-
peration of expression, in all ideas associated with
politics. But, in countries where the principles
of the government have never been in opposition
to the opinions of any class of the people, the
abuse of power is * tyranny," but not " despotism ;"
men may suffer from the violence of power, but
they are not exasperated by the conversion into
laws of opinions which they repudiate.

In addition to the sources of fallacy common to
all Europeans, there are those which flow from the
sectional and party views of travellers. Every
Englishman belongs to one or other of the political
parties that divide his native country. Unable to
take an impartial view of his own country, how
can he be the judge of another ? His language is
itself inapplicable to the subject-matter ; and these
terms call forth the antipathies of his party
bias. The Liberal, calling Turkey a " despotic"
government, reprobates it by that term alone,
and inquires no further; the Tory sees in it
popular principles, and looks no further ; the
Radical sees there principles which he considers

XXIV INTRODUCTION.

aristocratic ; and the favourer of aristocracy despises
it because there is no hereditary aristocracy; the
Constitutionalist deems a country without a par-
liament scarce worth a thought; the Legitimist
takes umbrage at the limitations there placed to
regal power ; the Political Economist is met by a
system of taxation which he terms inquisitorial ;
and the advocate of " protection of industry" can
see no well-being, no civilisation, without a custom-
house. Thus, the member of every party, and
the professor of each class of opinions, finds in the
terms which he is forced to use that which shocks
his principles and overthrows his theory.

The next obstacles that present themselves
are of a social character. Fallacies of a meta-
physical, logical, and political character mislead
our reason ; fallacies touching manners irritate
our feelings. We are treated in the East as
outcasts and as reprobates. We do not inquire
into the cause ; we do not gain the knowledge
by which our position can be changed; we are,
consequently, disposed to conclude unfavourably
when that is possible, and are either excluded
from their society, or labour under unceasing irri-
tation of mind when admitted to it.

The next and last source of fallacy which I
shall touch upon is religion. In contradiction of

INTRODUCTION. XXV

the liturgy of the English Church, we look on the
Mussulmans as "infidels;" and, in the spirit of
our age and country, no less fanatic in religion
than in infidelity, no less intolerant in faith than in
politics, we treat as enemies of our religion those
who admit the Gospels as their creed, and suppose
in them the same intolerance towards us, that we
are guilty of towards them.

In undertaking this Work, one of my principal
objects was the exposition of the characters, both
in dogma and in practice, of Islam ; but circum-
stances, into which it would be irrelevant to enter,
have deprived me of the leisure necessary for
treating this question as it ought to be treated.
I must, therefore, dismiss it for the present, with
this single remark, that as a Presbyterian and a
Calvinist, I consider Islam nearer in dogma to
the true Church * than many sects of so-termed
Christians; since the Mussulman admits justifi-
cation by faith, and not by works, and recognises
the Gospels as inspired writings, and the rule
of faith; since he looks on Christ as the Spirit
of God, as without original sin, and as being
destined in the fulness of time to bring all men
into one fold.

* Such was the opinion of Churchmen at the time of the
Reformation.

XXVi INTRODUCTION.

But the social and political influence of Islam-
ism has been entirely misunderstood; and I
therefore beg to offer a few observations on the
exclusively worldly and temporal characters of
Islamism, with a view of exposing another source
of error in our estimation of the East.

In the East, the word religion does not convey
the same meaning as in Europe; it is with us
faith and dogma, wholly distinct from measures
of policy and forms of government. At the period
of the rise of Islamism, the struggle of religions
represented, though with nobler and more useful
characters, the struggle of opinions in the West
at the present day. Our struggle of opinions has
reference to forms of government; their struggle of
religions had reference to measures of government.
The Greek (faith and system) maintained heavy
taxation, monopolies, and privileges. The Mussul-
man (Arabs and followers of Mahommed) denounced
monopolies and privileges, and recognised but a
single property-tax. Tulleihah, a rival prophet,
won over several tribes, by expunging the law
against interest, and by a change in sundry civil
precepts. Mosseylemah, the great rival of Mahom-
med, had formed a code differing so little from
that of his successful competitor, that local and
personal accidents alone influenced "the struggle

INTRODUCTION. XXVH

which was to decide whether the tenets of Ma-
hommed, or the code of Mosseylemah, should
give laws to the Eastern world." He had merely
copied the principles of cheap government, equal
law, and free trade, which the genius of Mahom-
med had seized, as the levers by which the existing
order of things could be overthrown, and a new
order introduced ; and which he combined with
religious dogmas in deference to the ideas of his
age and country, improving on that which did
exist, and forming that whole which has endured
as a religion without losing its political features,
and triumphed as a political system, without cast-
ing off its devotional character.

After long and anxious consideration, during
which I have relied more on living impressions
than on the cold records of the past, and having
had the advantage of looking into the causes and
effects of the recent adoption of Islamism by
Christian, as by Pagan populations, I have come
to the following estimate of the political character
of Islam.

As a religion, it 'teaches no new dogmas ;
establishes no new revelation, no new precepts ;
has no priesthood, and no church government.
It gives a code to the people, and a constitution
to the state, enforced by the sanction of religion.

XXV111 INTRODUCTION.

In its religious character it is devotional, not
dogmatic.

In its civil character it is so simple, compre-
hensive, and concise, that law is supported by
moral obligation.

In its political character it limited taxation;
it made men equal in the eye of the law ; it con-
secrated the principles of self-government,* and
the local control of accounts. It established a con-
trol over sovereign power, by rendering the execu-
tive authority subordinate to that of the law,f
based on religious sanction and on moral obli-
gations.

The excellence and effectiveness of each of
these principles (each capable of immortalising its
founder) gave value to the rest; and the three
combined endowed the system which they formed,
with a force and energy exceeding those of any other
political system. Within the lifetime of a man,
though in the hands of a population wild, ignorant,
and insignificant, it spread over a greater extent

* As in America.

f Thus the provision for the poor, although a fixed sum,
being 2| per cent on the income of every man of competent
means, was left to his own distribution. Hence the funda-
mental stone of the Mussulman character; hence hospitality
and good-will between neighbours and men.

INTRODUCTION. XXIX

than the dominions of Rome. While it retained
its primitive character, it was irresistible, and its
expansive power was arrested only when a lie*
was recorded in its annals.

A faith, a code, and a constitution, were thus
combined in one comprehensive plan, where the
service of the altar, the administration of the
village, the collection of taxes, were services of
honour, and not of profit ; and where no class or
body had a place with interests at variance with
those of the community. The sublimity of its
devotion, the simplicity of the code, the excellence
of the financial system, the freedom of its political
doctrines, seemed to endow Islamism with the
means at once of firing imagination and of sub-
duing reason, of sufficing for all exigencies, realising
every object for which society is constituted, and
exhausting every mode of influencing men.

Having dwelt so much on the difficulties that
stand in the way of a correct estimate of the East,
I must observe, that these difficulties reside solely
in a Europeans preconceived opinions. Let a Eu-
ropean of a powerful or a simple mind go to the
East, and the key of knowledge is at once within
his reach. As proof of this assertion, it is sufficient

* About the year 30 of the Hejira.

XXX INTRODUCTION.

to refer to Lady Mary Wortley Montague, whose
residence in Turkey did not exceed fourteen
months, and who has accurately observed, and
faithfully painted, almost every feature of society
in that country ; and while she has been the only
European who has justly estimated it, she is also
the only one who has ever acquired there influence
and consideration. The cause of this extraordinary
phenomenon, I take to be her residence in a 'Turk-
ish establishment, from the first hour of her en-
trance into the country ; which at once carried her
beyond the noxious influence of Frank residents
and interpreters ; while, being a Woman, she was
not versed in the fallacies of political life, nor com-
mitted to the errors of politicians.

I cannot omit here mentioning Mr. Lane's
work on Egypt — the only delineation in a Euro-
pean language of Eastern manners. This work I
conceive to be eminently calculated to improve
our position in the East, because it is now im-
possible for a traveller to proceed thither without
knowing that there exists there a distinct code of
manners and politeness, which he must study if he
pretends to know the people or to judge them.

With regard to these volumes I have now to
say, that I think they will promote investigation
and discussion, if they do no more. The ground-

INTRODUCTION. XXXI

work is a trip in European Turkey of five months ;
they have, from scanty notes made at the time,
been extended, whilst living amongst Turks, and
on the banks of the Bosphorus. They were
however, written as a distraction, rather than as
an occupation, whilst suffering severely, bodily and
mentally, and under impressions the most painful —
those of seeing the best interests of my country
sacrificed, and the conservative principles of the
Turkish government and society undermined, less
by foreign and hostile influence, than by a fatal
imitation of Western manners, prejudices, and
principles.

>

JOURNAL,

frc. src.

CHAPTER I.

OBJECTS OF THE JOURNEY — DEPARTURE FROM ARGOS HARD-
SHIPS AND ENJOYMENTS OF EASTERN TRAVEL.

Ix the early part of 1830 I was at Argos, returning
to England from Constantinople, after having spent
nearly three years in Greece and Turkey. Just as
I was on the point of embarking, and of bidding
adieu to a land in the destinies of which I had
been deeply interested, but which now was stripped
of its dramatic attributes and attractions, and was
placed, in honour and repose, under the protecting
wings of the three greatest powers in the world —
just at that moment — a vessel, a King's ship, touched
its shores, and landed a Protocol; which, with a
power only to be compared to magic, set, instanter,
every body by the ears. To tell how the people
went and came, and harangued and gesticulated —
how the fustanels* flounced about, how the mus-

* The Albanian kilt, which is white, longer than the Scotch
kilt, and very full.

VOL. I. B

2 OBJECTS OF THE JOURNEY.

tachoes were twirled up — would be a task indeed.
This was at Argos ; but elsewhere the effect of
this recent importation was no less marvellous.
Day by day news reached us from province after
province, from city after city : every where as at
Argos, all other thoughts and occupations were
laid aside ; and the people pouring out of their
shops and dwellings, but having no agora in which
to take counsel together, assembled in the various
caffenes,* or coffee-shops, and there established
arenas of hot debate, and schools of energetic
eloquence.

All this, as may be imagined, was a great treat
for travellers; but it was very puzzling, how a
piece of paper with three autographs was to set a
whole country in a state of fermentation. What
increased the difficulty we experienced in account-
ing for the strange scenes passing before our eyes,
was, that this very document concluded by mutual
and reciprocal congratulation from the signers to
themselves — because of their joint conception of
the actual Protocol ; which was to lead in for
Greece a new and lucid order of things ; the din
of arms and the voice of faction were alike to be
hushed, and the Greeks henceforth and for ever-

* The principal coffee-house at Napoli had, in consequence
of the favourable effect of a previous protocol, been designated
" Les Trois Puissances." On the arrival of the protocol of the
3d of February, 1830, it was immediately designated "Cafe
des Trois Potcnces."

OBJECTS OF THE JOURNEY. 8

more were to attune their hearts and harps to the
praise and honour of the triple Alliance.

But it was clear all this would not end in
words : we could arrive at no satisfactory conclu-
sions, because men of equal ability, and possessed
of equal means of information, entertained opi-
nions the reverse of each other. At all events, all
parties were agreed in this, that the self-gratula-
tions of the protocol were premature ; and this
point was constantly insisted on as revealing the
degree of ignorance of the Conference of London ;
an ignorance which they averred could only proceed
from wilful misrepresentations made from Greece.

While these subjects were under debate at
Argos, news arrived that the Suliotes in Albania
were again in arms ; then, that the Albanians were
in arms. Some said that they, too, had resolved to
resist the infliction of the Protocol ; others, that
they were preparing for a general irruption into
Greece ; but the generally prevailing opinion was,
that a grand federation of Albanian Christians and
Mussulmans, headed bv the formidable Pasha of
Scodra, was preparing to carry war into Macedonia
and Thrace, and to plant, in imitation of Mustafa
Bairactar, the Illyrian banner on the heights that
command the imperial city.

The coincidence, therefore, of this Protocol,
which launched Greece again on a sea of troubles,
with the movements of Albania threatening the
very existence of the Porte, and menacing, in that

b 2

4 DEPARTURE FROM ARGOS.

event, to pull down the existing fabric of European
power; induced me to postpone my return to
England, in order to make myself, in as far as a
knowledge of the points in dispute could make me,
master of the question. I determined on visiting
Continental Greece and the disputed boundary;
and feeling that my interest in Greece, as well
as any knowledge I possessed of that country,
arose from having taken a share in her struggle,
I resolved on endeavouring to make myself ac-
quainted with Albania in the same manner ; and
to join the first camp and leader that chance
should throw in my way.

On the 7th of May, 1830, I set out from Argos
in company with Mr. Ross of Bladensburg; but,
in consequence of the prevailing alarm, we were
under the necessity of concealing our ultimate
destination. Our friends would have looked on us
as madmen, had they suspected us of an intention
of visiting the wild Arnaouts : that might matter
little ; but we certainly should not have got ser-
vants to accompany us.

I suppose things are altered now — much for
the better, of course ; but at the time of which I
am writing, when Greece still was light-hearted and
young, it was a hard thing for a man to keep his
own counsel. At every turn of a passage, every
angle of a street, every furlong along the road,
you were stopped at all times to have a long string

DEPARTURE FROM ARGOS. O

of questions put to you. " Whence do you come?"
" Whither are you going ?" * What is your busi-
ness?" " How is your health ?" " Where is to be
seen your venerable paternal mansion ?" " Which
of the great allies has the honour of claiming you ?"
" What ?iews?"* — and this, be it observed, between
perfect strangers ; but when friends or acquaint-
ances meet, and especially should one or both be
women, then, with the redoubled sigmas of Greek
interrogatories, commences a sibilation which one
might take for a dialogue of boa-constrictors.
Your state, health, humour, are all separately
asked for ; similar inquiries are then instituted re-
specting all and each of your known relatives,
horses, and dogs. You must, in reply, present
the appropriate compliments of the individual thus
distinguished — thus : * How is the venerable Ar-
chon, your Father ?" " He salutes you." — " How
is the valuable Citizen, your Brother ?" " He kisses
your eyes." — " How is the hopeful stripling, your
Son ?" " He kisses your hand." And a dozen per-
sons will each exercise his right of calling you
separately to account, and each will repeat the
identical questions which he has heard put and
answered.

During my previous ramblings in Greece, I

* This question is, for greater precision, often repeated in
triplicate ; one expression derived from the Italian, one from
the Turks, and one Hellenic, viz. MfS mandata — ti chaberi-^
ti nea V

b HARDSHIPS AND ENJOYMENTS

had become nervously irritable under this perse-
cution, which is the more annoying after leaving
Turkey, where all personal questions, when indi-
cating any thing like curiosity, are perfectly re-
pugnant to feelings and custom. At length, I hit
upon a plan that stifled curiosity, and that was
by telling the people that I came from Constan-
tinople, and was going to Janina, — so strange an
announcement putting an end to all further parley.
But now that in reality I was going from Constan-
tinople to Janina, I had to renounce the benefits
of the avowal, and submit to the cross-examina-
tion with the patience that years bring, and travel
hastens.

Bent, as we were, on a pilgrimage to the towers
and tombs (long undisturbed by the footsteps of
hyperborean wanderers) of the heroes who as-
sembled from far and near on the shore of Aulis
and swore fealty to the " King of Men," we could
not more appropriately commence that pilgrimage
than by paying our vows at the tomb of the great
Agamemnon, and by perambulating with reverent
footstep the grey ruins of Troy's rival, Mycene.
These ruins are distant a few miles from Argos ;
and there did we resolve on resting for the first
night. Our tent, which, I have some pride in
saying, was entirely of domestic manufacture, had,
with the servants and baggage horses, been sent
forward in the morning. It was, therefore, after
the evening shades had commenced to lengthen

OF EASTERN TRAVEL. /

out along the plain, that we cleared the strag-
gling lanes of Argos, and bade adieu to its hos-
pitable inhabitants. We passed under the abrupt
and singular rock, on the summit of which stands
the old fortress called Larissa, and then, wading
through the scanty stream of " Father Inachus,"
entered on the magnificent plain which still bears
the name of the city of Agamemnon.

Even after the lapse of more than seven years,
it is a real enjoyment to recall the feelings with
which I commenced this journey ; and, although it
may not be easy to describe that which can only
be understood when felt, still do I conceive it
incumbent on me to endeavour now, before we
start, to give the reader who is to accompany me
some insight into the manner of our future march.

Throughout European, and a great portion of
Asiatic Turkey, as also in Persia and Central Asia,
people travel on horseback. With the same horses,
the average rate may be 20 to 25 miles a day.
With post horses, changing at stages varying from
10 to 48 miles, 60 miles a-day may easily be
accomplished ; 100 is fast travelling ; 150 the
fastest ; 600 miles in four days and a half, and
1200 in ten, are, indeed, feats, but not very un-
common ones.

This mode of travelling, even when not going
at such a pace as that just mentioned, involves
hardship, exposure, and fatigue. It is not a recre-
ation suited to all men, and is trying even to those

8 HARDSHIPS AND ENJOYMENTS

who are vigorous and indifferent to luxuries and
comforts ; but there is none of that languor and
feverishness that so generally result from travelling
on wheels. The very hardships bring enjoyment
with them, in invigorated health, braced nerves,
and elevated spirits. You are in immediate con-
tact with nature, every circumstance of scenery and
climate becomes of interest and value, and the mi-
nutest incident of country, or of local habits, can-
not escape observation. A burning sun may some-
times exhaust, or a summer storm may drench
you ; but what can be more exhilarating than the
sight of the lengthened troop of variegated and gay
costumes dashing at full speed along, to the crack
of the Tartar whip, and the wild whoop of the sur-
rigee ? what more picturesque than to watch their
reckless career over upland or dale, or along the
waving line of the landscape, — bursting away on a
dewy morn, or racing "home" on a rosy eve ?

You are constantly in the full enjoyment of the
open air of a heavenly climate, — the lightness of the
atmosphere passes to the spirits, — the serenity of
the clime sinks into the mind ; you are prepared
to enjoy all things and all states ; you are ready
for work — you are glad of rest ; you are, above all
things, ready for your food, which is always savoury
when it can be got, and never unseasonable when
forthcoming. Still I must in candour avow, that
no small portion of the pleasures of Eastern travel
arises from sheer hardship and privation, which

OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 9

afford to the few unhappy beings who have not to
labour for their daily bread, a transient insight into
the real happiness enjoyed three times a-day by
the whole mass of mankind who labour for their
bread, and hunger for their meals.

To travel in the East with comfort or advan-
tage, it is necessary to do so according to the rule
and custom of the country. This it is easy to
lay down as a rule, but very difficult to put in
practice, because it supposes long experience and
perfect acquaintance with a subject, when you
enter only on its threshold. But, supposing that
this can be effected, you will proceed on your
rambles accompanied by attendants who perform
the various functions of your establishment as
they would do in a fixed abode ; you carry also
along with you every requisite and every comfort,
and feel yourself almost entirely independent of
circumstance or assistance ; and thus, in the desert,
as in the peopled city, the associations of home
pursue you, and practically inform you of those
feelings of locomotive independence, and of that
combination of family ties and nomade existence,
which are the basis of Eastern character. How
do these inquiries, which appear, at a distance, so
abstruse, become homely and simple when you
surround yourself with the atmosphere of custom !
You can at once lay your hand on motives ; you
spring at once to conclusions without the trouble
of reflexion, or the risks which so unfortunately

10 HARDSHIPS AND ENJOYMENTS

attend the parturitions of logic. Placed among a
strange people, if you inquire, you must use lan-
guage not applicable to their ideas ; if you argue,
you deal with your impressions, not theirs ; but
when you put yourself in a position similar to theirs,
you can feel as they do, and that is the final re-
sult of useful investigation. Burke, in his essay
on the " Beautiful and Sublime," mentions an
ancient philosopher who, when he wished to un-
derstand the character of a man, used to imitate
him in every thing, endeavoured to catch the tone
of his voice, and even tried to look like him :
never was a better rule laid down for a traveller.

Thus drawn within the pale of Eastern exist-
ence, what interesting trains of thought, — what
contrasts arise at every turn, and what import-
ance and value trivial circumstances, not merely
those of the East, but those of Europe also,
assume ! How are you struck with relationships,
unobserved before, between daily habits and the
national character of centuries ; between domestic
manners and historic events! The smoke rising
from your hearth, before the door of your tent,
pitched only ten minutes before, brings at once to
your mind, through your feelings, the difference
beween Gothic and Eastern colonisation and pa-
triotism. You pitch, perhaps, by the ruins of a fane
of Hellenic mythology ; an attendant brings in
herbs for supper, collected on the field of a battle
that has stirred your school-boy soul, and calls

OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 11

them by the names that Hippocrates or Galen
would have used; while your groom pickets your
horse according to the practice of the Altai Moun-
tains.

But the thirst of the European traveller for
novelty will not be gratified, unless he turn his
mind to what I would call the novelty of antiquity.
The finer and minuter portions of the existence
of former ages, not being recordable by words, are
lost to our times and in our portion of the globe.
In the East, those habits of ancient days still live
and breathe. There may you dine as people dined
at Athens ; there may you enjoy the greatest, the
lost luxury of antiquity, and bathe as they bathed
at Rome ; and while there you may look upon, in
real flesh and blood, the Homeric visions of three
thousand vears — mav you also behold the Eying
counterpart of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, as de-
scribed by Bede, and assist at gemots in each
parish, as convened by Alfred.

If I might recall one hour from this simple and
nomade state of existence more delicious than the
rest, it would be that of the evening bivouac,
when you choose your ground and pitch your
tent wherever fancy or caprice may decide, — on
a mountain brow, in a secluded vale, by a run-
ning brook, or in a sombre forest; and where,
become familiar with mother earth, you lay your-
self down on her naked bosom. There you may
establish sudden community with her other child-

12 HARDSHIPS AND ENJOYMENTS

ren — the forester, the lowland ploughman, or
the mountain shepherd ; or call in, to share your
evening repast, some weary traveller, whose name,
race, and land of birth, may be equally unknown,
and who may, in the pleasing uncertainty, but
certain instruction of such intercourse, wile the
evening hour away with tales of the Desert, or
stories of the Capital, and may have visited, in this
land of pilgrims, the streams of Cachmere, or the
parched Sahara.

But, though never can you better enjoy, still
no where can you more easily dispense with man's
society, than in your tent, after a long day's fa-
tigue. It is a pleasure, which words cannot tell,
to watch that portable home — every where the
same — spreading around its magic circle, and
rearing on high its gilded ball; as cord by cord
is picketed down, it assumes its wonted forms,
and then spreads wide its festooned porch, dis-
playing within, mosaic carpets and piled cushions.
There the traveller reclines, after the labour of the
day and the toil of the road, his ablutions first
performed at the running stream, and his namaz
recited, — to gaze away the last gleam of twilight,
in that absorbed repose which is not reflexion,
which is not vacancy, but a calm communing
with nature, and a silent observation of men and
things. Thus that pensive mood is fostered, and
that soberness of mind acquired, which, though not
profound, is never trivial. Thus at home in the

OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 13

wilds should the Mussulman be seen — picturesque
in his attire, sculpturesque in his attitude, with dig-
nity on his forehead, welcome on his lips, and
poetry in all around. With such a picture before
him, the ever-busy Western may guess at the
frame of mind of those to whom such existence
is habitual, and who, thence, carry into the busi-
ness of life the calm we can only find in soli-
tude, when, escaping from our self-created world
of circumstance, we can visit and dwell for a
moment with the universe, and converse with it
in a language without words.

Nor are these, the shadows of which I have en-
deavoured to catch, the whole enjoyments of East-
ern travel. The great source of its interest to a
stranger is — man ; the character of the people, and
their political circumstances; facts new and varied;
action dramatic, simple, and personal. With us,
the national circumstances which demand the in-
quirer's attention are of so analytical and scientific
a character, that they are unapproachable, save by
those who have devoted a lifetime of labour to
each particular branch. He who has done so
becomes absorbed in an exclusive study; he who
has not, has no right to opine, and shrinks from
examining. ' But, in the East, by the simplicity of
system in public combinations, and by the clear
perception of moral right and wrong in personal
character, — all subjects worthy of engaging our
attention are placed within the reach of the un-

14 HARDSHIPS AND ENJOYMENTS, ETC.

scientific, and reduced to the level of ordinary
capacity. But the stranger must commence with
laying previous opinions aside, as the first step to-
wards becoming acquainted with feelings different
from those implanted by the education of his
national habits, and by the experience of his native
land.

STATE OF THE GREEK PEASANTRY. 15

CHAPTER II.

STATE OF THE GREEK PEASANTRY IX 1830 MILITARY AND

POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE GULF OF CORINTH INCI-
DENT IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE — NAVAL ACTION IN
THE EAY OF SALON A.

After spending the first night of our journey, as
already stated, at the ruins of Mycene, we pro-
ceeded next morning to Corinth. Passing through
the Dervenaki, celebrated for the check which the
Pasha of Drama here received, we observed, not
without interest, the tambouris (breast-works) which
then had been thrown up, and listened to various
versions of the gathering and success of the Greeks.
A few miles further on, I was delighted to look
again on the little plain of Xemaea, consecrated by
its scene-like ruins ; but I had to regret that a
whole year had neither added to its cultivation nor
improved the condition of the wandering vlachi
(shepherds). The same month found them again
churning their butter under the same tree, sus-
pending their simple implements by the same
column ; without one burden diminished, — I wish
I could add, without one prospect overcast.

The present state of the country is far from

16 STATE OF THE GREEK PEASANTRY.

realising the anticipations I had been led to form
from the progress I had observed while travelling
over the same ground the year before. All pro-
posals for the cultivation of national lands, for the
formation of agricultural and other establishments,
for the construction of roads, had been discouraged
or rejected by the Government, which arrested
every enterprise, even by intimidation and threats ;
and made a mystery of its ultimate measures and
intentions. The very fact of the existence of a
government had, during the previous year, spread
life and activity through the whole country, and the
effect was perfectly miraculous. But those ener-
gies were repressed when the system which the
Government chose to adopt came into operation ;
and, now, not an additional hut had been raised,
nor a tree planted, nor a field enclosed, nor a
bridge rebuilt, nor a road restored. But this was
not all.

From the public lands, which include the rich-
est and plain lands, the Government exacted three
tenths of the produce. The peasants, for the most
part, employed money borrowed at 2£ per cent per
month, or received the seed for which they bound
themselves to return one-half of the net proceeds.
At sowing time, the price of grain was very high,
owing to the blockade of the Dardanelles, while
the seed-grain bore a still higher price, owing to
the universal prejudice, that no seed will give a
good crop save that which is grown in the country,

STATE OF THE GREEK PEASANTRY. 17

the quantity of which was very small. At harvest-
time, the blockade having been raised, prices fell
one-half — a remarkable indication of the influence
of the Dardanelles over the surrounding countries.

The expense of cultivation in Greece is greater
than in England. The modes and implements are
rude and cumbersome ; every transport is made
on the back of mules ; the land must be ploughed
three times before sowing; their plough displaces
the soil without turning or breaking the clods ;
no manure is laid on the land, which generally
bears but two crops in three years, and a great
deal more seed than necessary is sown. With all
these expenses and disadvantages, one-third of the
crop (besides 12 per cent custom on all produce
and goods shipped or unshipped) goes to Govern-
ment, one-half of the remainder to the provider of
cattle and seed; so that the peasant receives
3i-tenths of the net proceeds to discharge the
interest on his advances, to cover the expenses of
cultivation, to maintain his family, and fulfil the
expectations he had entertained of entering on a
new and happier state of existence.

The labouring population is yet far better off
than the landed proprietors. Many of these had,
through all the vicissitudes of the revolution, saved
something as a last resource, and they eagerly
seized the moment of their being put in peaceable
possession of their properties to dispose of what-
ever valuables they still retained, and applied the
vol. i. c

18 STATE OF THE GREEK PEASANTRY.

proceeds, together with any advance they could
obtain, to the restoration of their lands. But their
resources were generally inadequate, and their
expectations always exaggerated. After building
houses and farm-offices, buying cattle, breaking
up and clearing land, proprietors have been left
without the means of buying seed.

The olive, and especially the mulberry-trees,
which give their crops without outlay or care, and
are the surest resources of an unsettled country,
had been in a great measure cut down for firewood
during the war : the vineyards and currant-vines
could only be restored with considerable expense
and the loss of several seasons.

Thus, within a short year, panic had succeeded to
speculation. The establishment, and subsequently
the opening of the blockade of the Dardanelles, pro-
duced a ruinous fluctuation of price, which, joined to
the scarcity of foreign capital (owing to the policy
of Capodistrias), has now reduced the landed pro-
prietors to a state of bankruptcy and exasperation,
which does not augur much for the future tran-
quillity of the country. Their irritation is also to
be attributed to the introduction of laws question-
able in their utility, and decidedly objectionable
from their unpopularity; to say nothing of what
the people consider the loss of the rights and
advantages which, under the old administration,
would have enabled them to profit by the tran-
quillity which existed, or to bear up against the

STATE OF THE GREEK PEASANTRY. 19

temporary evils arising from accidents of the sea-
sons and fluctuations of commerce.

The distance from Argos to Corinth is only
eight hours ; so, on the forenoon of the second day
of our journey, we perceived our tent (which had
been sent forward the day before) shining in the
sun amid the ruins of the Serai of Kiamil Bey, at
Corinth.

The rock and ruins having sufficiently occu-
pied the pen and pencil of poets, topographers,
and painters, I need not carry my reader to enjoy
the sunset and sunrise with us from the immortal
summit. "What I have to say respecting the isth-
mus, and the canal which has been commenced
across it, awaits in an Appendix the perusal of the
curious geologist and antiquary ; as, also, observ-
ations on the intermittent fever which afflicts the
shores of the Gulf.

From Corinth we directed our course to Pa-
trass along the beautiful border of the Gulf of
Corinth. The road generally runs close to the
beach, with the lake-like Gulf on the right. A nar-
row border of the most productive land on the face
of the earth, bearing the currant-bush, is interposed
between the shore and low hills, of a flesh-coloured
clay, stretching in long parallel ledges, and studded
with dark green shrubs. Mountains, chiefly of con-
glomerate rock, rise behind, with rectangular out-
lines, perpendicular sides, and parallel ridges, fringed

c 2

20 MILITARY AND POLITICAL IMPORTANCE

with pines ; their sombre hues and imposing forms
rendered more gloomy and severe by the lively
colours and fantastic sweeps of the foreground. I
first beheld these mountain groups from the centre
of the Gulf, in the dim haze of morning ; they looked
like gigantic fortresses most scientifically and elabo-
rately traced out ; the hand of nature had formed
them to shelter the children of her soil. Only
the year before, the bones of Tartar hosts lay
whitening in the surf, along the shores of Acrata :
not a vestige of them could I now discover.

The Gulf, closed at its narrow entrance by the
fortresses termed the " Little Dardanelles," since
the invention of gunpowder, has been, and ever
must be, essential to the military occupation of
Greece. Its importance was no less sensible to the
Osmanli in peace than to other nations it would have
been in war, owing to the diplomatic nature of the
ties that connect their dominion, and to the sepa-
rate and often hostile action which that empire of
balance can endure without disruption. Points
of local strength or weakness, mountain barriers,
lowland morasses, often measure the terms which
one party can exact, or fix the privileges on
which a community can take its stand. These
circumstances are, therefore, every-day consider-
ations ; and reasons of state and combinations
of strategy, which in Europe are confined to the
cabinet of an empire, or to the staff of an army,

OF THE GULP OF CORINTH. 21

are gravely debated in village vestries. Turkey,
in her European provinces, has long used, dreaded,
and punished the lords of the mountains, the
Arnaouts. The Gulf of Lepanto bars them the
road to the fertile valleys of Greece : they have
on three occasions been transported thither to
suppress insurrection ; each time have they been
guilty of the wildest excesses, and their only re-
straint was, the knowledge that retreat was im-
practicable without the consent of the Porte, as
Turks held the castles, and a Greek militia the
Isthmus of Corinth.* Therefore is every child
familiar with the political importance of the pos-
session of the Gulf.

It is only necessary to cast a glance on the
map of Greece, to appreciate the value of this arm
of the sea. The region to the north, from Le-
panto to the borders of Attica, is so intersected
with mountains, and indented by bays, that it is
impracticable for an army, and difficult of access
for a traveller. Whoever holds the castles of the
Little Dardanelles, commands all communication
by land as well as by sea, between Western
Greece, Arta, Albania, and the Morea.

No wonder, then, that this barrier was con-
sidered by the Osmanli as the setting by which

* The celebrated Hassan Pasha extirpated a body of them
after the insurrection of 1780, by intercepting their retreat at the
isthmus, and at the " Little Dardanelles."

22 MILITARY AND POLITICAL IMPORTANCE

they held the fairest gem of the European turban.*
The bristling batteries of the double castles closed
its portals to the infidel. For a long century their
battlements had never blazed in wrath/f the waters
of the Gulf had never felt a stranger keel, or re-
flected from its tranquil mirror other pennant save
that of the " blood-red flag."

During the first six years of the war of inde-
pendence, the communication between Continental
and Peninsular Greece was maintained Jby the
superiority of the Greeks at sea. During that long
period, the Gulf remained in the possession of
the Turks, severing the parts of a country neces-
sary to their mutual support; and, consequently,
the western parts of Continental Greece, if not
completely subdued, were deprived of the power
of further resistance.

In the autumn of 1827, when the last sands of
the destinies of Hellas seemed to mark her ap-
proaching dissolution, the news of the treaty of
July inspired her with fresh hopes, and called forth
the renewed energy of her sons. The intelli-
gence, spreading to the north, aroused Acarnania
from her lethargy ; the Armatoles of Valtos and
Xeromeros urged the return of their brothers

* Two turbans were formerly carried before the Sultan ; one
to represent Asia, the other Europe.

t Even in the two previous revolutions of Greece, the guns
of these fortresses had never once been used.

OF THE GULF OF CORINTH. 23

serving in the Morea, and invoked the assistance
of the Peloponnesians in expelling again the Al-
banians, and in regaining the former, and the ne-
cessary frontier of the Macronoros.

But the attempt seemed hopeless ; all the lines
of communication with Continental Greece were in
the hands of the enemy : Albanians held Macro-
noros and the level districts and forts of Acarnania ;
Turks occupied Lepanto and the castles of the
Gulf; Egyptians held Patrass, and the whole of
Elis and Achaia ; the Egyptian and Turkish fleets
crowded the Ionian Sea, and Missolonghi was
theirs. The Greeks were assembled in some force
in Argolis, and on the east of the Peloponnesus ;
but, even if the Turks could not oppose them,
when once arrived in Western Greece, how make
their way thither ? If they could have penetrated
through the continental highlands, the Turks
would have arrested them at Rachova and at
Thermopyle. The Egyptians would have met
them, if they attempted to cross the Morea ; and
the combined Mussulman fleets anchored on its
shores at Navarino, Patrass, or Missolonghi, put
all idea of transport by sea out of the question ;
and between these horns of an inextricable di-
lemma stretched the waters of the Gulf of Lepanto,
in possession of a Turkish squadron.

Still, what availed the treaty of July, unless
Continental Greece were recovered ?

From the dispositions of the two English chiefs

24 INCIDENT IN THE

of the Greek army and navy, it soon became evident
that some enterprise had been determined on, in
which the whole resources of both were to be
combined ; and though all felt the urgent necessity
of arousing the Continental Greeks, yet they no
less sensibly felt the difficulty, if not the impracti-
cability, of sending troops from Argos to Acarnania.
The Greek fleet, though it might make its passage
from place to place, could neither afford support
to the army, nor receive assistance from it. Still
it was evident that a descent on Western Greece
was in contemplation.

Corinth had been assigned as a rendezvous by
General Church ; but little hope was excited by this
unexplained gathering, and the captains of the
Palicari did not flock to his standard with any zeal.
Those who followed him, accustomed to exercise
the liberty, alike> of free discussion and free will,
had no heart for an enterprise in which neither was
allowed ; and they asked, if the Archi-Stratigos
intended to transport them to Acarnania in walnut-
shells ? However, a considerable body had at length
assembled; and on the 22d of September, 1827, as
they were scattered over the grand amphitheatre
that commands the Gulf, from the summit of the
Acropolis of Corinth to the shore, — a square-rigged
vessel was descried full before the Gulf wind, and
standing straight for the Isthmus. Turkish men-of-
war never approached this coast, and what other
vessel could have ventured through the straits ?

WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 25

A thousand hopes, and surmises, arose and spread
through the anxious throng ; the few glasses which
the camp and the citadel could afford, were ap-
pealed to in vain ; the swelling topsails concealed
her colours. The vessel presently hauled her wind
for Loutraki, a port at the northernmost angle of
the Isthmus : her broad ensign then blew out and
displayed the silver cross on its azure field! A
shout of welcome arose from the expectant host,
and the merry peals of the whole artillery of the
citadel proclaimed, after two thousand years of
subjection, the inauguration of the emblem of
Greece on the waters of Lepanto.

It was now ascertained that Lord Cochrane,
having assembled a squadron, had proceeded to
await the army without the straits, to transport it
to Western Greece. But he had anxiously looked,
and looked in vain, for the preconcerted signal-fires
on the mountain; he had, therefore, determined
on forcing a passage to embark the troops within
the Gulf. But, on his communicating his intentions
to the captains, they declared they would not ex-
pose their vessels to such danger, and he was forced
to abandon his design. The squadron was an-
chored off Missolonghi ; the Admiral made signal
to two vessels, also manned by Greeks, though
officered by Englishmen. They instantly weighed
and stood for the Gulf. These vessels were the
steamer Perseverance, and the brig Sauveur : the
latter vessel alone passed the batteries, and entered

26 INCIDENT IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

the Gulf. This is a romantic incident in the cir-
cumstances that led to the establishment of Greek
independence, and I may be excused for continuing
the narration of the event that immediately led to
the battle of Navarino.

Proceeding up the Gulf, scarcely injured by the
passage, the brig sailed for, and entered, a deep
bight within Galaxidi, on the northern shore of the
Gulf, opposite to Vostizza. The windings of the
channel opened to the eyes of the Greeks a
Turkish squadron huddled close together in equal
security and confusion, — their sails drying, their
men on shore, and, as it proved, without ammu-
nition on board. But the dreams of bloodless
victory were soon overcast ; and, on the evening
of the same day, the Sauveur just managed to
effect her escape, and run for Corinth. Her
flag it was that caused the rock of Corinth to
ring with artillery and acclamations.

The effect of the appearance of this vessel in
the Gulf was miraculous ; the talisman of Turkish
supremacy was broken, and the passage to Western
Greece opened. The Palicari now flocked round
General Church, urging him to lead them for-
wards. The camp broke up from Corinth ; and
the Sauveur, now joined by the steamer, made
sail for the westward.

It was determined that the two vessels, the
steamer and brig, should attack the squadron at
Salona, before the entrance of which they arrived

NAVAL ACTION IN THE BAY OF SALON A. 27

on the morning of the 28th. The Turks were
busily occupied in making dispositions for defence ;
landing guns, erecting batteries on the shore, and
collecting from 1500 to 2000 men from the sur-
rounding posts.

During the night the sounds of preparation on
board the steamer floated on the still breast of
the Gulf; and the watches of the two vessels, from
time to time, enlivened their labours with answer-
ing cheers. The morrow was to be an eventful
day for Greece : on its issue depended the mastery
of the Gulf, and all the advantages contingent on
its possession ; but, above all was it to decide the
highland chiefs, now wavering between Turks and
Greeks. But still more important and unforeseen
results were in store.

The contemplated attack was bold, if not des-
perate. The memory of the recent failure did not
tend to diminish the apprehensions which the dis-
proportion of numbers, and disadvantage of posi-
tion, might suggest; and prepared, as the Turks
now would be, it was evident that there was no
alternative between destruction and success.

The morning broke in loveliness on the beau-
tiful and classic scene ; the sun rose in splendour,
there was not a cloud in the sky nor a breath on
the waters ; at length, a volume of dense smoke,
from the funnel of the steamer, shot upwards like
the iiTuption of a volcano. To the Turks this
steamer, the first they had ever beheld, was an object

28 NAVAL ACTION IN THE BAY OF SALONA.

of wonder and of horror. Scarcely did they deem
it the work of mortal hands; so strange in its
form and movements, peopled with beings that
seemed fresh from the infernal regions ; and so
dreadful the effects of the projectiles it seemed to
have received hot from below.*

The ensuing scene, although myself a sharer
in its dangers and its triumph, I will relate as
described to me by one of the officers attached
to General Church. The Greek army was marching
along the southern coast, watching the movements
of the vessels. It halted at Vostizza, which was
immediately opposite the Gulf of Salona, and dis-
posed themselves to witness the attack with the
excitement of an army in ' repose assembled to
await the decision of its fate by the skill or fortune
of a single combat.

The two vessels had to enter a narrow land-

* Shells, eight inches in diameter, fired from horizontal
guns, and sometimes used red-hot ; they were, in fact, hollow
shot, which, from their comparative lightness, skimmed the
surface of the water in innumerable ricochets. It was thus,
with a smooth sea, almost impossible to miss ; and this mass of
red-hot iron, or shell, or hollow ball, pouring out inextinguish-
able fire, according to the projectile used, was a guest, in a
structure of wood, canvass, pitch, and gunpowder, which might
have appalled abler navigators than the Turks. This new com-
bination of the science of gunnery will, no doubt, greatly
modify future maritime war and naval architecture ; and this
first experiment of its power in face of an enemy, gives addi-
tional interest to the event which I am narrating.

NAVAL ACTION IN THE BAY OF SALONA. 29

locked bay, which could be entered only with'a lead-
ing wind that would prevent retreat, there to attack
vessels mounting four times their number of guns,
made fast to the shore, presenting their broadsides
like steady batteries, with batteries erected on the
beach, and a couple of thousand soldiers lining the
shore; and that in a warfare where no quarter
was expected on either side.

It was a curious sight to see the black cloud
from the funnel of a steamer driven by the
breeze from Achaia towards the Delphic heights
and Parnassus. It was strange to hear the patter
of paddle-wheels sounding far and wide on the
Corinthian wave. The Greek vessels, as they
rounded the point, came suddenly in view of
the Turks, drawn up in line at the bottom of the
bay, and dressed as for a gala scene in broad and
bloody flags and long streaming" pennants. The
shore, also, displayed flags of defiance where fresh
earth batteries had been cast up ; a goodly show
of green tents and the glittering of arms enlivened
the hills around, forming altogether a sight less
enticing than picturesque. " It was only," said
my informant, " when we saw them turn the point
that we really felt that the attempt was in earnest ;
it was only then that we felt all the danger of the
enterprise, or the consequences of a failure. With
what anxiety did we watch the white sails and the
black smoke, as they disappeared beyond the low
point ! Of what intense suspense was that half

30 NAVAL ACTION IN THE BAY OF SALONA.

hour that elapsed between that moment and the
first distant peal of cannon that boomed along the
water, and the mist of gray smoke that slowly
rolled up from the hollow of the bay along the
side of Parnassus ! After a quarter of an hour's
incessant cannonade, a black volume of smoke
suddenly shot to the sky ! Was it friend or foe
that had 'gone to heaven or to hell?' Our sus-
pense was not of long duration ; a second volume
followed, blacker, higher than the first. 'They
are lost, they are lost!' burst from the compressed
lips of the astounded Greeks ; when a third explo-
sion proved that it was the enemy's ships that were
burning. Then arose the wild notes of that un-
earthly war-cry; imagination and lungs were ex-
hausted in metaphors and shrieks."

Notwithstanding an event which appeared de-
cisive of the day, an irregular cannonade was
heard, with little interruption, until sunset. The
wind had sunk, and a canopy of smoke overhung
the spot on which their attention was fixed; and
when the sun went down, and the dark mantle of
night was spread around, the flame of eleven
burning vessels shone brightly forth from its
cloudy pall, and glassed itself in the

" Waves that saw Lepanto's fight."

That was a memorable day for Greece — for Eu-
rope too. Ibrahim Pasha sailed to the Gulf of
Lepanto from Navarin, to punish the affront, after

NAVAL ACTION IN THE BAY OF SALONA. 31

having pledged his word not to quit that harbour.
He was compelled by Admiral Codrington to re-
turn. The allied squadrons, which had dispersed
for the winter, were recalled to Navarin ; and
what followed need not be retold.

32 PATRASS.

CHAPTER III.

PATRASS TURKISH AND GREEK FLAGS.

We journeyed leisurely. There is no menzil or
post in Greece. I have found it more convenient
to travel in that country with my own horses :
provender is always to be procured ; a tent is
always clean; and one is entirely independent of
the caprices of muleteers, the want of cattle, and,
indeed, of almost every casualty that, in these
countries, falls to the traveller's lot. We were
three days passing along the Gulf; and would
willingly have devoted a longer period to this
portion of our journey, which presented every
where the appearance of a newly settled country ;
but our ulterior objects barred all delay. Occa-
sions were not wanting to fill us with indignation
at the introduction of the police system, with all
its demoralising effects. I cannot express the
alarm with which I now commenced to look to
the future fate of this country. We afterwards
learnt that all our steps had been watched, and
our words and acts reported, at an expense to

PATRASS. 33

the eleemosynary Government, of several hundred
pounds.

The third evening we slept at a Khan close
to the ancient port (now a marsh) of Panormo,
where the single Athenian galley was consecrated
as a record of the defeat of the Lacedaemonians,
rather than of their triumph.

A band of eleven robbers, who, the day before,
had stopped all passengers, pillaged and bound
them to trees, had left the Khan the same morn-
ing. They had destroyed whatever they could
not consume or carry away; so we had but in-
different fare. One man they had broiled on the
hot embers to extort from him a discovery of some
supposed treasure. The peasants were in a state
of the greatest alarm, and of the deepest indig-
nation. " Such a thing had never happened,"
they said, " during the anarchy of the revolution."
The supplies of the soldiery have always been ex-
acted as of right, " but to touch the belt of a
Greek, to undo a female zone, were crimes
unheard of; and now that we have a regular
Government, that we pay every tax, and obey
every order — now that our arms are taken from
us — must we endure what was unknown even in
our troubled days ?"

Next morning, we made ourselves very gay,
to appear becomingly before the beau monde at
Patrass. From the Khan to the Castle of Morea

VOL. I. d

34 PATRASS.

there is blue clay, over which the water from the
hills spreads, so as to form a deep morass. To
avoid this, we kept along the shore ; but a Charyb-
dis awaited us. Though we were keeping within the
ripple of the Gulf to avoid the morass, suddenly
our horses began to sink, and before we could
extricate ourselves we were wallowing in the mire
and mud, and escaped only by getting into the
sea, and dragging our horses into the deep water.
A fine exhibition we made at Patrass on a sunny
day, covered with mud from head to foot !

Patrass is remarkable as having been the point
of the earliest recorded meeting of the followers of
Mahomet and the Sclavonic races. The latter, in
the eighth century, had overrun the Morea; the
Saracens swept the seas : both united in the siege
and plunder of Patrass.

The roughness of the weather, and the want at
the castles of a boat sufficiently large to transport
our horses, detained us six days ; which we spent
very pleasantly between the castle and Patrass,
with Colonel Rayko, the only Russian who had
been a Philhellene. He used his utmost en-
deavours to dissuade us from prosecuting further
our fool-hardy project of visiting Acarnania and
.the frontier line. But little did he suspect our
ulterior project of attempting Albania : I am con-
vinced that if he had, he would amicably have put
us under arrest. We had, therefore, to conceal

TURKISH AND GREEK FLAGS. 35

it carefully from our friends, lest we should be
laughed at or forcibly detained ; and from our ser-
vants, lest they should leave us.

As we crossed the narrow strait between the
two castles, the scene was forcibly recalled to my
memory which I had observed from that spot on a
former occasion, when I passed these batteries in
a hostile bark, under the fire of every mouth on
either battlement. That was a moment of beauty
on the shore, with its rich and thronging cos-
tumes, glittering arms, and canopies of smoke.
The proud excitement, the taunting gesture, the
insulting scoff that characterised a warfare where
system, undeviating discipline, and unfathomable
counsels, had not rendered men machines — gave
to that struggle all the play of the passions, and,
to individual character, the developement which
rendered the wars of antiquity so poetic, and has
caused the age, whose wars are described with
greatest truth, to be called heroic. How different
was the aspect of these battlements now — cold,
pale-faced, eyeless, voiceless — they gave no
signs of life to watch, of malice to fear, of hatred
to excite, of danger to repel! A breath of air
skimmed and ruffled the glassy Gulf, and my eye
instinctively sought the flag-staff, to contemplate the.
now triumphant standard of Greece flouting the air
in the proud station so long occupied by the em-
blem of Arabia ! There the Greek now beholds
another flag — his flag, the flag of freed and so-

d2

.36 TURKISH AND GREEK FLAGS.

vereign Greece ! But, on the young standard, the
contrasted colours of the nine alternate bars* por-
tend a different harmony from that of the muses.
Compare this pale and chequered standard with
the gorgeous colours of the Ottoman ; bold, rich,
and simple — the day star of fortune, and the cres-
cent of power, emblazoned on a purple cloud.
Most poetic among standards ! Most spirit-stirring
among national emblems ! And how much of the
enthusiasm that stirs the spirit, and nerves the
arm, may not depend on the poetry of an em-
blem ? Could a nation — could even a faction —
exist without the rhetoric of colour ? What, then,
must not be the effect of clothing the personifica-
tion of nationality with beauty, and of inspiring its
martial genius by associating with its glory the sub-
limest works of nature ? All these are united in the
standard of the Ottomans, and are combined in no
other. This, too, is the historic standard, which
has flown, with the swiftness of a thunder-cloud,
over Asia, Europe, and Africa, from the palaces of
Delhi to the foot of Atlas ; from the wastes of
Abyssinia to the marshes of the Don ; which has
proved its power on the plains of Tours and Ron-
cesvalles, before the walls of Vienna, on the Indus

* The flag of Greece is nine horizontal stripes of blue and
white, with a white cross in the corner, on a blue ground, in
memory of the silver cross seen in the sky by Constantine,
during the battle with Maxentius : whence the labarum of the
Greeks.

TURKISH AND GREEK FLAGS. 37

and the Oxus. Thirty years after its birth, it had
humbled the two greatest empires of that day ;
and, in eighty years, boasted more tributary lands
than Rome had subdued in eight centuries. That
flag had now disappeared from the castles, where
I saw it so lately, reddened at once with anger and
with shame ; and, as the Scythians of old re-
hearsed before the departed, the history of their
lives, so now did I dwell on the features and the
story of that personification of Mussulman greatness
which had sunk before my eyes, while I marvelled
at the means by which it had been overthrown.

When I first landed on the shores of Greece,
more interested in the nature of the rocks than in
the sanguinary contest which was there proceed-
ing, I was soon filled with hatred and aversion for
the Turkish name ; and, with the enthusiasm of
youthful feeling, I became a partisan. But the
Ottoman, who had aroused this animosity by the
violence of triumph, dispelled it when he appeared
in defeat and captivity, — a personification of stoical
firmness and of dignified resignation. The sym-
pathy which is the tribute of misfortune, I now
transferred to the vanquished ; but that sympathy
was combined with admiration for a fortitude and
respect for a character, the energy and durability
of which I never could have known but for the
trial to which I had seen it subjected. Thus, one
who had so lately looked upon the red flag as the
symbol of bloodshed and devastation, now recalled,

38 TURKISH AND GREEK FLAGS.

with interest and with awe, the fasts of its glory,
the dates and limits of its sway.

I do not mean to say that the present Mussul-
man flag, the silver star and crescent on a field of
red, was the very flag that waved at Bagdad, or
was carried into Spain, nor even that which was
originally planted at Constantinople, and thence
directed, with conquering course, to the Ukraine,
Vienna, and the Alps. The Mussulman colours
are green, not red, though other colours have
been adopted at various periods and in different
countries. Mahomet's flag was yellow; the Sara-
cens first appeared under a black eagle ; to
this succeeded the party colours, white and black,
of the rival families pretending to the califate.
The sacred green* was the first colour displayed
by the Ottomans in Europe ; but it is associated
with so many national and religious feelings, that,
however it might tend to inspire the enthusiasm of
a charge ot an assault, the loss of so highly praised
an emblem was calculated to depress the spirits of

* Tokoli displayed his green flag of Independent Hungary
before the Turkish army, to warm in his favour Mussulman
enthusiasm. The present Hungarian flag is green, white, and
red. At a very recent period, the Circassians, in adopting
a national flag, selected green, not more to have a national
emblem by which they were distinguished from their enemies,
than to indicate to their coreligionists to the south, that the
existence of all they held dear depended on the maintenance of
the standard unfurled on the Caucasus.

TURKISH AND GREEK FLAGS. 39

an army. In 1595, the first Turkish flag was
taken by Sigismond, Prince of Transylvania, and
sent to Pope Clement VII. The colour was then
changed from green to red ; the star and crescent
were Byzantine emblems, borrowed, with many
other things, from the Greeks. This change by
the Turks of their national colours, indicates great
sensitiveness to national honour. The Romans
concealed the real name which they had given to
their city, that a foreign army might not evoke the
Penates before their walls. Venice concealed so
effectually the stolen bones of St. Mark, that no
trace of their existence has been found. Both
nations dreaded that the bond of their political
existence would be dissolved, if the symbols of
worship and nationality passed into other hands.

I said, I looked for the flag of Greece, waving
over these battlements that guard the Gulf of
Lepanto, in the place of the Ottoman standard,
but it was not there. I looked for one flag-staff,
and I saw three, side by side, like the three crosses
on a Catholic Calvary. One bore a white sheet
sans taclie and sa?is meaning or expression. One
mingled angles of red, white, and blue, with more
geometry than poetry in its folds, however inspir-
ing may be the ten centuries of its manhood, or
the wide-spreading zones that own its sway. The
third displayed cross-bars of blue on a field of
white, like an upset hour-glass, and representing
icebergs and snow. England, France, and Russia,

40 TURKISH AND GREEK FLAGS.

the powers under whose joint command are placed
above 290,000,000 of men, had united to displace
the Turkish flag ; occupying its territory as friends ;
burning its vessels as allies ; blockading its ports
as neutrals ; protocolising Greece as wellwishers
— strange enigmas for an age not gifted with an
GEdipus !

WESTERN GREECE. 41

CHAPTER IV.

•WESTERN GREECE — GREEK OPINIONS ON THE DIKE OE WEL-
LINGTON MISSOLONGHI — THE HORN OE PLENTY — BATTLE

OF LEPANTO.

We were received at Lepanto by the Commandant,
Colonel Pieri, a Corfiote, who was chief of the
artillery, and who entertained us, almost as much
as himself, with the relation of his various gallant
exploits. We had here our first conversation with
some Suliotes on the protocol. They strongly
expressed their grief and their alarms, but said
that the fear of appearing to oppose the inclination
of the cabinets, and of beinsr thought bv them tur-
bulent and fickle, prevented the nation from mak-
ing any public demonstration of their feelings.
Indeed, they said, but for this, the government of
Capodistrias would not be endured a day.

There are 500 Greek families remaining out of
1000. 6000 stremmata* belong to the Greeks,
and 25,000 to the Turks, which are now national ;
but so inferior are the Greek to the Turkish
lands, that, although the latter are taxed two-
thirds more, the Greeks abandon their own to cul-
tivate them.

* A stremrna is nearly a third of an acre.

42 WESTERN GREECE.

20th May. — We left Lepanto at daybreak, and
passed through a little fertile plain, that extends in
a semicircle from the base of Rizina, on the extre-
mity of which stands Lepanto, to the lower mame-
lons of Mount Corax, which descends to the Castle
of Roumelie. The roots of olive-trees are thickly
scattered over it ; it is marshy towards the sea,
but the marsh might easily be drained. The low
hills, above the castle, through which we passed,
are formed from an aluminous and earthy stratum,
easily carried off by the water; it is tHus cut
out into little detached masses, with abrupt sides,
the intervals and summits flat, and proper for cul-
tivation ; while the precipitous sides might bear
every variety of tree, and render the scenery en-
chanting. We saw nothing of the warm and sul-
phureous springs in the vicinity of Kakascala,
which gave the epithet of " stinking" to this por-
tion of the Locrians. The pass is of the greatest
natural strength, the path winding over the face of
the mountain, which drops nearly a-peak into the
sea. After crossing a lower ridge, we reached the
beautiful little valley of Cavouro Limne, where
Miletius places the ancient Molycria. Here, under
the shade of some lofty platan i, a fire was soon
made ; we hung up our arms on the branches ;
turned out our horses to graze on yellow, white,
and purple clover, wild oats, and corn. Our car-
pets were spread, and soon appeared the cofFee-
tray and refreshing pipes.

WESTERN GREECE.

43

This little but enchanting valley afforded a
prospect seldom to be met with in the Morea. It
is surrounded by irregular, but not lofty, hills of
soft sandstone, varying in form and character,
sometimes bare, sometimes wooded. It is traversed
by two streamlets with deep beds, whence spring
rows of spreading and beautiful Oriental plane-
trees. It is after having been deprived for some
time of the sight of trees, that one really enjoys
the beauty of their foliage and forms, and the
freshness of their shade — that one feels their
loveliness or learns their value. The prospect of
the hills that now surrounded me was no less a relief,
wearied as my eyes had been with the monotony
of the calcareous mountain chains of the Morea,
devoid alike of picturesque and geological interest,
rendered fatiguing by the abominable paths which
lead across them, and by the absence of fountains
and of shade.

I was also delighted to find myself again in
Western Greece; a country studded with exten-
sive ruins of the most remote antiquity, which,
though laid low, even at the epoch of Grecian
splendour, served then for the models of Grecian
military architecture.* It was inhabited by men,
who, bringing with them the refinement and sci-
ence of Greece, and the activity of her race,

* Nun fill TiTcnrtHiwtizvxt to ol TrccXxtoi T^oryyiuot, tm 'EAAesSoj »j»

t*vt« t« KtivfActrx. — Strabo, lib. i. c. ii. p. 3,

44 WESTERN GREECE.

sought and found, on a richer soil, refuge from the
persecutions, and repose from the endless and
blood-stained dissensions, that distracted the Pelo-
ponnesus.

This country has been peculiarly the field of
mythological and poetic fiction. Its military
strength, so important to the conservation of the
new state, is illustrated by the events of the wars
of Philip, of the Romans, the Goths, the Gauls,
and of the late revolution. If it was the happiest
and only peaceable portion of Greece during the
days of her ancient splendour, the reverse has
been its lot from that period up to the present, —
from its depopulation, under Augustus, for the
peopling of Nicopolis, to its depopulation by the
late protocol, for no purpose whatever.

An hour and a half* from the river of Cavouro
Limne, we beheld the Evenus through a belt of
majestic platani and tall willows, which formed a
sort of drop-scene to a little woodland theatre.
The river wandered over its large and stony bed,
in rapid but limpid streams, and glittered through
the curtain of deep green foliage. A bank on the
other side rose steep and broken, and matted with
shrubs. It required no great effort of the fancy to
restore to this Thespian scene the fabled groups of
Meleager and the Boar, Dejanira and the Centaur.

* It is scarcely necessary to observe, that distances are
calculated by hours ; hour, in the East, as the stund of Ger-
many, may be translated league.

WESTERN GREECE. 45

Keeping the river to the right, we wound round
the base of Mount Chalcis, and sought in vain for
vestiges we could have called by the names of
Makynia and Chalcis, and, on the other side of the
river, of Tophiasson and Caledon. The difficulty,
generally, is to find names for the multiplicity of
vestiges ; we were now embarrassed with an abun-
dance of names, without a cornice or a broken
column to fix them on. But, after crossing the
river, on ascending a slight eminence to the right
of the road, which immediately overlooks Hypo-
chorion, we found ourselves, unexpectedly, in the
midst of most extensive Hellenic ruins, which,
with Strabo in hand, we imagined might be iden-
tified, most satisfactorily, with old Plevrona. It is
much to be regretted that Strabo had not visited
these countries himself, and that the only con-
nected account that has been preserved of Western
Greece should be so meagre in general description,
and, when it descends to details, sometimes so con-
fused. Miletius is here worse than nothing ; but,
at all events, better than Pouqueville. Polybius is,
indeed, the only companion for Acarnania and
Etolia ; and from Thucydides must be borrowed
the only glimmering light which can be thrown on
the disputed positions connected with the Amphi-
locian Argos.

But to return to Plevrona. "The Evenus,"
says Strabo, " after running by Calydon and Chal-
cis, directs its course, westward, to the plain of the

46 WESTERN GREECE.

old Plevrona, and then turns towards its mouth
and the south." Now, it is at the bend of the
river thus described, that rises the hill crowned by
these ruins, which are, in extent and style, of a
first-rate order. Some of the stones were nine
feet long : the wall is generally nine feet thick ; at
one part, which seemed to join the two Acropolido,
it was barely five feet, with buttresses of 4J feet
square, strengthening it on the inside, and on
which, probably, planks were laid, to form the
banquette. The walls surround two summits, on
each of which seemed placed an Acropolis ; that
towards the north partly Cyclopean. The elevated
plateau, enclosed within the contour, may have a
circumference of 3000 paces ; the lower area is at
least as extensive. A few bricks and tiles, harder
than the stones, were the only relics I could see.
Greek faction has made for itself a record, in the
total subversion of such walls and such a city.

While passing through the suzu^og xupwog of
Plevrona, we overtook several people with mules,
laden with all their worldly gear. They told us
that they had escaped from the vicinity of Janina,
with the intention of going to settle in Greece, but
that they were stopped at the Castle of Roumelia,
and 12 per cent, ad valorem, demanded for their
mules and baggage. Not being able to pay the
money demanded, and exasperated at being flung
back on the vengeance they had aroused, they
were returning to the country they had abandoned.

MISSOLONGHI. 47

"Thousands," they said, "are preparing to fly
from Albania ; but we shall tell them what iliiriyfci
(liberty) means."

I know not whether the impolicy or the inhu-
manity of this measure is most to be reprobated.
On arriving at Missolonghi, we mentioned the cir-
cumstance to the district Governor, who declared
the demand was entirely without the sanction of
Government, and that he should instantly have a
stop put to it.*

Three hours after sunset we arrived at the
gate of Missolonghi. We knocked, and sent for
permission to enter, which was denied ; we asked
for food, and could obtain none; — commence-
ments of civilisation worthy to be recorded ! And
such regulations are literally considered as suc-
cessful imitations of Europe. Our servants and
tent had preceded us while we were examining
the ruins of Plevrona (from which we did not get
away till it was quite dark), with orders if they
found that we could not be admitted after sunset,
to pitch without the walls. We could neither
see nor hear any thing of them ; but one of our
horses very sagaciously broke loose ; and, in pur-
suing him, we stumbled over the cords of the tent,
to which he had led us.

At Missolonghi, we spent three days almost
constantly listening to, or engaging in, discussions

* It is superfluous to say, that no stop was put to the
exactions complained of.

48 GREEK OPINIONS ON THE

on the Protocol and the limits ; the circumstances,
means, and prospects of Acarnania; and the por-
tions of Etolia excluded from the new state. A
great number of the Greek chiefs and old Arma-
toles were here assembled, Vernachiotes, the
Grivas, and others who considered themselves
half Tacticoes, that is, who were enrolled on the
list of irregular regulars ; while others were wholly
untamed, and termed themselves rebels, gepTeXkot,
in contradistinction to the regular troops.*

The insufficiency, in a military point of view,
of the new limits, was so apparent, that ridicule
was mingled with exasperation. I must say I was
no less surprised than confused by the shrewdness
of some of their remarks, — " The Duke of Wel-
lington," said they, " is the first military man in
Europe ; we, of course, rejoiced that such a man
was to decide on the question of our limits. He has
commanded in Spain, where the mode of warfare re-
sembles our own ; and mountains, woods, and rocks,
defy discipline and science ; but what are we to
think of this Protocol that pretends to make peace
by taking from us the very positions for which the
war is made, and the only defences by which
peace is at this hour maintained ?" I remarked,
that the Duke of Wellington was deceived by

* These regular irregulars are in a state of transition from
the former hordes to disciplined troops, being subject to a
regular succession of subordinate grades, but not being disci-
plined.

DUKE OF WELLINGTON". 49

faulty maps ; " Then," retorted they, " he should
have looked at events. It is not this war alone
that has proved that Greece has two gates, and
that you need not shut the one if the other be left
open ; and, besides, the positions we have been
able to occupy, and by occupying which (without
the assistance of a Protocol) we have maintained
peace for the last twelve months, must be the military
boundaries : if it were even possible to find better,
these ought to be sanctioned."

If the possession of the excluded district could
at all advantage the Turks, it would be by esta-
blishing strong colonies to cut off all communi-
cation between Albania and Greece. But this,
of course, is entirely out of the question. With
Greece independent, the Porte dare not foster the
system of Greek Armatoles as formerly. No
Turkish population could be induced to settle
between the Albanians and the Greeks no longer
dependent on the support of the Turks for pro-
tection against the Albanians ; so that this dis-
trict, thus torn from Greece, and laying it bare to
the ravages of the Arnaouts, instead of being of
advantage to Turkey, will only serve to maintain,
by the attractions of plunder, the turbulence of
the Albanians ; to maintain incessant quarrels
between the Porte and the Greek state, and to
perpetuate a feeling of hostility by an interchange
of recrimination and wrong. If the alliance acted
with the avowed object of convulsing the East, it

vol. i. e

50 MISSOLONGHI.

would deserve praise and admiration for its intel-
ligence and ingenuity. Such were the observations
of Makri and Grivas.

The English bear all the odium of the measure.
The surrender of the Greeks of Parga to their
Albanian foe disgraced the name of England, which
before had been looked up to with awe and respect.
Subsequently, the policy that ejected from the
Ionian Islands the families of those who were
denominated Clefti by Ali Pasha (see Hobhouse),
assisted in throwing this province into Ali Pasha's
hands. The people now imagine that the present
measure is a continuation of the same policy. No
doubt, these past events would never have recurred
to them, or the impression thence derived would
not have been deep or general, but for the activity
of the Government authorities and agents in spread-
ing these reports.

We were exceedingly gratified with the man-
ners, style, and appearance of the majority of the
Roumeliote chiefs. They are, certainly, a fine race
of men ; their vices arise immediately from the
slippery circumstances in which they have been
placed ; but, whence comes their urbanity, their
knowledge of the world, facility of expression,
acuteness of observation, that ardent desire for
acquiring information, and facility of applying it ?

Missolonghi is a place of which it would be
very difficult to give an idea to one who has not
seen Turkish and Greek warfare. A pigmy imita-

MISSOLONGHI. 51

tion of a bastion and curtain does exist on both
sides of the gate, but the contour of the place is
nothing more than an enclosure of wicker-work
supporting earth ; round this runs a narrow ditch
with three feet water. This enclosure and ditch
sweep round in a semicircle from shore to shore,
looking to the north. There is, however, a display
of engineering which I must not omit to mention, —
a lunette to which you might leap from the top of
the wicker-work with a slight indication of coun-
terscarp and glacis. The whole height of the
enclosure, from the bottom of the ditch, could
nowhere, except at the gates, exceed twelve feet.
I speak from recollection, but I think I am rather
over than under the mark.

The Turks drew three parallels round the
town, the nearest within four or five yards of the
ditch with numerous zig-zags ; these with the
breaching batteries and the lines thrown up at a
greater distance, for the protection of their various
camps, have cut up the whole plain in the most
extraordinary manner. The fact of its being ulti-
mately reduced by famine, notwithstanding the
prosecution of the siege in so regular a manner,
the slightness of its defences, and the multitudes
of its assailants, excuses, if it does not justify, the
vanity of its gallant defenders.

The ground is all worked into holes, and torn
up by the bursting of the shells and the plunging
of shot. The soil is a mixture of earth and iron ;

e 2

52 MISSOLONGHI.

broken shells and shot being mingled with it as
stones ; and within and without the circumference
are scattered the now whitened bones and skulls
of men and horses.

They had just been collecting the skulls of the
Greeks, which were distinguished from those of
the Turks by the positions in which they lay.
They paid peculiar veneration to those which
strewed the line by which the remnant of the
garrison made their last and desperate sally ; and
a few of whom only succeeded in cutting their
way through. I picked from out the heap one
beautifully formed skull, which bore the traces of
four wounds. It was grazed across the forehead
by a pistol-ball ; behind, on the right side, two
back-hand sabre strokes had ploughed, but not
penetrated the bone, and a deep cleft gaped over
the left brow, — of course, wounds received in
cutting through an enemy. This skull was long
a very cumbersome companion.

The garrison lived in holes dug in the earth
close under the walls, but were sadly galled by
the Turkish fire crossing from every point.
Every vestige of building had disappeared from
what once had been the town, except the ruins of
some stone houses near the beach. From the
extent of circumference, the shells fell chiefly in
the centre, and were thrown so high by the Turks,
that they sank into the earth to a great depth,
and, bursting under ground, did little injury.

MISSOLONGHI. 53

Two hundred houses had been now rapidly run up
or restored ; a little bazaar was beginning to look
gay, and coffee-houses to be thronged with idlers
playing billiards and eating ices. We assisted at
the shaving of the bridegroom, and at the toilet of
the bride, of the first marriage since the destruction
and restoration of their town.

We had a long chat with the father of the
bride, who had saved her alone of a numerous
family. Their past sufferings seemed lost in the
happy present ; and the exultation of feeling
that pervaded all classes, was perfectly beyond
my power of description, and was a repetition
of what a year before I had witnessed in the
Morea; no starvation, no alarms, no hurried
flights, or trembling suspense, no emaciated coun-
tenances and squalid looks, ruined hearths and
tattered clothing; but, in their stead, flesh and
health ; peace, plenty, and contentment ; gaudy
dresses and festive sounds. But, among these
revellers, must not be numbered the remnants of
the populations affected by the Protocol.

We quitted Missolonghi with regret, and were
escorted to the gate by part of the family of
Makri, an old chief who had for years main-
tained a lawless independence in the Echinades, as
legitimate successor of the king who mustered
thirty ships for the siege of Troy. He was one
of the chief defenders of Missolonghi, and his
wife and daughters had headed the fatigue parties

54 THE HORN OF PLENTY.

of the women during the night in working at the
fortifications ; eastern decorum constrained the
women not to work by day. When we got into
the plain, we were stopped continually by the
ditches, zig-zags, and entrenchments, filled with
water and mud ; nor was it without some danger
and damage, and a couple of hours of laborious
toil, that we reached the base of the hill on which
stand the ruins called Kyria-irene, between two
and three miles from Missolonghi. These ruins,
we imagined, from their style, extent, and position,
to be the new Plevrona : the hill on which they
stand, a portion of Zygos, is a prolongation of
Callidromos. From its summit, we had a beautiful
and extensive view of the plain of Missolonghi
immediately below us, of the coast from the mag-
nificent Mount Chalcis to the Echinades, the
Lagunes, and the Vivaria (fish preserves), shut
from the sea, and intersected by long straight lines.
Round to the right, the Venetian Anatolico lay
floating like a lotus on its little gulf. The plain
rolled out below, is rich alluvium from the Achilous
and the Evenus, but offers little now to redeem
the honour of Plenty's choice, although a fatter
pollution than the Centaur's blood has fertilised
the Caledonian fields; and the Achelous, with his
u fat waters," has gone on assembling new islands.
The Vivaria, Strabo tells us, were farmed by
Romans of Patras, but their extent and value must
now be much greater than formerly, and they are

THE HORN OF PLENTY. 55

so amazingly stocked, as to seem quite alive. I
heard applied to them an expression I remember
used by the Hungarians in speaking of their
Theisse, " they smell of fish." Thus, the fertility
of the earth has been replaced by the productive-
ness of the sea ; Neptune is enticed over the land
to form reservoirs for the finny tribe, instead of
being excluded, as elsewhere, to make room for
the ears of Ceres; and the Amalthean horn, to
typify the wealth of its favoured plain, must now
exchange its golden sheaf and ruby fruits for
kegs of salted fish and strings of smoky rows.

But the scene beneath, extending from the
Curzolero rocks, or Echinades, to the opposite
coast of the Morea, possesses an interest of another
kind : here was fought one of the greatest of naval
actions, and one which has exercised a more last-
ing influence on the state of Europe than any
other sea-fight, from the battle of Actium to that
of Trafalgar. On the 7th of October, 1571, close
upon the shore now reposing in silence at our feet,
and on the waters now tranquil as a lake and un-
dotted by a single sail, were engaged in deadly
combat, five hundred gallies ; the waters, for the
space of ten miles, were covered thick with a mass
of human beings, breathing rage and dealing death ;
combining the savage excitement of ancient war
and weapons with the sublime horrors of modern
artillery. When the sun went down on this scene
of carnage, two hundred and fifty wrecks lay mo-

56 BATTLE OF LEPANTO.

tionless on the waves, reddened by the life-blood
of five and thirty thousand men. Such was the
scene presented by that memorable battle of Le-
panto, the recollection of which Cervantes, in his
old age, declared to be dearer to him than the
right arm it had cost him.

The forces of the Turks and of the allies (the
Pope, Spain, and Venice) were pretty nearly equal ;
both equally eager for the combat, — equally
confident of success ; and on either side, their dis-
tinguished leaders inspired confidence, excited emu-
lation, insured scientific combination, and boded a
desperate struggle. The Turks were stationed at
anchor, eastward of Missolonghi ; the Venetian
fleet, running down the coast of Acarnania and
passing between the Curzolero Islands, came un-
expectedly in sight of the enemy. The first divi-
sion of the allies, under Doria, bore away to seaward
so as to allow the centre and rear divisions to come
up, and form the line of battle abreast : their line
stretched four miles, the interval of a ship's length
being left between each vessel.

" Immediately as the Infidels were discovered,"
says the animated narrative of Contarini, "that
happy news ran from ship to ship. Then began
the Christians right joyfully to clear their decks,
distributing arms in all necessary quarters, and
accoutring themselves according to their respective
duties : some with harquebusses and halberts,
others with iron maces, pikes, swords, and poniards.

BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 57

No vessel had less than two hundred soldiers on
board ; in the flag-ships were three or even four
hundred. The gunners, meantime, loaded their
ordnance with square, round, and chain shot, and
prepared their artificial fire with the pots, grenades,
carcasses, and other instruments requisite for its
discharge. Every vessel was dressed with flags,
streamers, pennons, banners, and banderols, as on
a day of jubilee and festivity ; the drums, trumpets,
fifes, and clarions, sounded : a general shout rang
through the armament ; and each man invoked for
himself the Eternal Trinity and the Blessed Mother
of God ; while the priests and many of the captains
hastened from stem to stern, bearing crucifixes in
their hands, and exhorting the crew to look to
Him who had descended visibly from Heaven to
combat the enemies of His name. Moved and
inflamed by ghostly zeal, this great company as-
sumed, as it were, one body, one spirit, and one
will ; careless of death, and retaining no other
thought except that of fighting for their Saviour.
Those who had mutually inflicted or suffered
wrong, embraced as brethren, and poured out tears
of affection while they clasped each other in their
arms. Oh blessed and merciful omnipotence of
God, how marvellous art thou in thy operations
upon the faithful ! " *

The fleets at first approached each other slowly

* Contariui, 48 b.

58 BATTLE OF LEPANTO.

and majestically ; the sun had already passed the
meridian, and shone therefore dazzlingly in the
faces of the Turks ; and a westerly breeze spring-
ing up just before they closed, gave the allies the
advantage of wind also ; so that when the can-
nonade began, the smoke was driven full upon the
Infidels. A Corsair who had been sent forward to
reconnoitre, not having seen the rear division,
reported erringly of the Christian numbers ; and
stated, moreover, that the large galeasses in the van
carried guns only on their forecastles. The Turks,
therefore, bore up to them fearlessly, supposing
that when their bows were passed, all danger was
at an end. Great, then, was their consternation
when a close, well-directed, and incessant fire, in
which every shot told, from the admirable level of
the guns pointed much lower than those of the
loftier Turkish vessels, burst from each broadside,
scattering destruction over every object within its
range. The wind blowing in their teeth kept the
Mussulmans long exposed to these deadly volleys ;
and whenever at intervals the smoke cleared away,
they saw a horrible confusion of shivered spars,
yards, masts, and rigging : here, galleys split asun-
der ; there, others in flames ; some sinking, some
floating down the tide, no longer manageable, their
banks of oars having been shot away ; and every
where the face of the sea covered with men
wounded, dead, or drowning.*

* Contarini, p. 51.

BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 59

Ali Pasha and Don John, each distinguished by
the standard of chief command, singled each other
from the melee. Thrice was Ali's galley boarded,
and his crew driven to their main-mast ; and thrice
were the Spaniards repulsed ; till, at one critical
moment, Don John, pressed by an immeasurably
superior force, which had hastened to the Pasha's
assistance, appeared lost beyond the possibility of
rescue. By the seasonable advance of a reserve,
Don John was enabled to renew the combat with
his distinguished antagonist; and as his boarders
grappled again with the Pasha's galley, and sprang
once more upon its deck, Ali fell by a musket-shot,
and his crew threw down their arms. The Pasha's
head was severed from his body, set upon the point
of a spear, which Don John himself displayed from
the top of his own mast. The grisly trophy, soon
recognised, struck terror into the whole Mussulman
fleet, and decided the hitherto wavering fortune of
the day.

The shout of " Victory " from the main battle
of the allies was answered by the same glad word
from their left, but on the right the engagement
was still continued with less assured success.
Doria had swept round in a wide and distant com-
pass, as if to outflank the enemy ; and had, con-
sequently, not yet been in action. The practised
eye of Ulucci-Ali perceived at once the great
advantage thus afforded him by the breach in the
Christian line ; and bearing down upon fifteen of

60 BATTLE OF LEPANTO.

their ships thus separated from their mates, he
captured a Maltese and set fire to a Venetian
galley.

The superiority of the tactics of the Algerine
commander continued to baffle Doria, till he boldly
dashed onward through the line which he had
already broken, made for the Curzolari, and ef-
fected his retreat with between twenty and thirty
of his squadron. This small remnant, with a reserve
of about an equal number, were all that remained
of the vast Turkish armament after five hours'
battle. Fearful, indeed, was it, says Contarini, to
behold the sea discoloured with blood and shrouded
with corpses ; and piteous to mark the numberless
wounded wretches tossed about by the waves, and
clinging to shattered pieces of wreck ! Here might
you observe Turks and Christians mingled indis-
criminately, imploring aid while they sank or swam ;
or wrestling for mastery, perhaps on the very same
plank. On all sides were heard shouts, or groans,
or cries of misery ; and as evening closed and dark-
ness began to spread over the waters, so much
more was the spectacle increased in horror.

The Turks lost in this naval action the scarcely
credible number of 40,000 men, killed, prisoners,
and emancipated, and above 200 vessels of war ;
yet, within sixteen months of this murderous defeat,
the triumphant alliance had been dissolved, and a
treaty signed which obliged Venice to pay tribute
to the Porte ; " making it appear," says Voltaire,

BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 61

" as if the Turks, not the Christians, had gained
the battle of Lepanto." But the cause of this
event is simple enough : in six months, by an
effort paralleled only by the Romans in the first
Punic war, the Turks had equipped a fleet equal
to that which they had lost, and more than a
match for the allies, who, declining combat, could
not keep the seas. Nevertheless, the victory of
Lepanto saved Venice, and prevented the invasion
of Italy or Spain by the Turks. Should the
possessor of Constantinople again menace the
Mediterranean, it is to be feared that Venice,
Barcelona, and Ancona, will equip no fleets to
maintain the independence of their common inhe-
ritance. The once Queen of the Adriatic possesses
no Doria now ; Spain, no John of Austria, for
whose brow again might grow the laurels of
Lepanto.

62

CHAPTER V.

ANATOLICO TRIGARDON MARSH OF LEZINI — SWIMMING

TO A MONASTERY DEPRESSION OF THE COAST OF ACAR-

NANIA AND EPIRUS.

At Anatolico we slept at the archbishop's, where
the frontier line, the only subject the people have
any inclination to speak about, was inflicted on
us again all that evening and the next morning.
Somehow, the topic assumed always a new form,
and we were not unentertained by the militant
prelate Porphyrius's version and opinion. He had
formerly been Archbishop of Arta; but, during
the revolution, had " zoned himself," wore pistols
in his belt, and, on some occasion, led a cavalcade
with the cross in one hand, and the sword in the
other. We went to see the spot in the church
where a well was luckily opened by a shell, whilst
the Pasha of Scodra was besieging the town, and
was on the point of reducing it from want of
water.

Against regular military operations Anatolico
might be much more easily defended than Misso-
longhi, which, indeed, has no facility for defence
whatever ; although far preferable for a Greek

ANATOLICO. 63

defence and a Turkish attack, as the event has
proved. The Greeks little dreaded breaches and
storm, but they feared the overwhelming and un-
ceasing showers of shells, which the great extent
and soft ground of Missolonghi rendered less de-
structive than they would have been in the circum-
scribed space and rocky soil of Anatolico.

The 25th. — From Anatolico to Niochori the
distance is an hour ; thence to Catochi, where you
cross the Aspropotamus, another hour. Turning
to the left, and descending the river, half an hour
brought us to the ruins of Trigardon, enclosing,
within an extensive circuit of Cyclopean and Hel-
lenic walls, three hills, which once must have been
an island of the group of the Echinades. Nearly
one half of the circumference touches the extensive
marsh of Lezini. On the northern side, within the
marsh, there appears to be remains of a port. A
deep canal leads through the marsh from the sea
to that point, and in its course none of the reeds
were to be seen, which made the rest of the
marsh, as far as the hill on the north, ten or twelve
miles off, appear like a plain covered with green
crops.

We were much surprised at the extent and
magnificence of the ruins of Old Plevrona, com-
pared with the confined extent of the country.
New Plevrona surprised us still more ; but Tri-
gardon, and the numbers of Hellenic remains we
now perceived on all sides, filled us with wonder.

64 TRIGARDON.

Here were monuments of wealth and power,
crowded into the space of one day's march, ex-
ceeding, in this almost unknown corner, all that
remains of the glory of the Peloponnesus. But,
then, it is to be remembered, that these were the
fields for which the Augean stable supplied the
manure ; where the arm of Hercules held the
pitchfork ; where the agricultural science and the
industry recorded in this mythological language,
were blessed with the bounty of the earth and the
tribute of the sea. No wonder, then, that it' should
be here that

" Plenty leapt to laughing life with her redundant horn."

Therefore were such structures raised to defend
the goods which the gods bestowed, and to bear
testimony, at the distance of two thousand five
hundred years, to the refinement that accompa-
nied so much energy, and the science that was
associated with so much prosperity.

An elegant young lad, of whom at Catochi we
inquired our way to Trigardon, offered to accom-
pany us. He mounted his horse, and shewed us
that which was most interesting, and which might
have taken us days to find by ourselves. We
regretted we had sent our tent on, and thus had
but a few hours to wander about. The thickness
of the underwood, and especially of the black
thorn, which has every where been our arch-
enemy, rendered difficult the visiting of every

TRIGARDOX. 65

portion, and completely prevented us from exa-
mining what must have been the ancient port.
A large tower, of Hellenic construction, even now
nearly fifty feet high, defends the harbour, as it
were, against the city ; and polygonal walls, which
stretch from the tower, and encircle the port, are
connected with the ramparts by walls evidently of
another date. Among these ruins the polygonal
construction prevailed ; but entirely destitute of
the characters of antiquity to be traced in the
Cyclopean remains of Tyrins, or even of Mycene.
The stones were of nearly equal dimensions, beau-
tifully joined and chiselled on the edges. While
scrambling over the wall encircling the port, we
came, much to our surprise, to a gateway in the
polygonal wall, with an arch over it. The arch
was very flat, nearly semicircular, the stones that
formed it preserving their polygonal character.

Although this arch exists in a wall of that style
of architecture which belongs to the remotest an-
tiquity, yet I do not claim for it equal rank with
the ruins of Plevrona and Chalcis, or even with
those of the age of Pericles. Still, I think it may be
referred to a period anterior to the arrival of the
Romans in Greece ; and, if so, it will prove that,
though arches were not commonly used, they were
at least known in Greece before the Roman con-
quest. The ruins of Kyria Irene afford confirma-
tion of this hypothesis. The small posterns in the
walls are arched, although the arch is composed

VOL. I. F

66 GREEK ARCH.

sometimes but of two stones, that meet from either
wall, hollowed out into a semicircle ; but the arch
is also at times formed of three stones, one of
them a regular key-stone. At the same place
there is a large cistern in the rock, traversed by
three walls, in each of which there are several
arches : but though their form is Gothic, the
principle on which they are constructed is Hindoo.
The dome of the building at Mycene, commonly
called Agamemnon's Tomb, is formed by a suc-
cession of circles, narrowing as they rfse, each
circle being a horizontal arch.

Trigardon (a corruption of a Sclavonic term
for three cities) must be the ancient (Eniadae. If
a doubt existed, it would be dispelled by compar-
ing the description I have given of the port, and
the walls connecting it with the ramparts, with the
following passage from Polybius, in the wars of
Philip the Second with the Etolians. After his
successful incursion into Etolia, and the sack of
Thermus, Philip retired on (Eniadae, his fleet
having been sent to that point to await the return
of the army to the coast. The Etolians prepared
to defend this strongly fortified place ; but on the
approach of Philip they were panic-struck, and
evacuated it. Philip took possession ; thence
ravaged the Calydonian territory, and deposited
the booty that had been collected within its walls,
" remarking," observes the historian, " the admir-
able position of this city, placed at the confines of

TRIGARDON. 67

Acarnania and Etolia, on the mouth of the Ache-
lous, at the entrance of the Corinthian Gulf, distant
only 100 stadia from the coast of the Pelopon-
nesus ; strong, besides, by its fortifications, and the
surrounding marsh — he determined on strength-
ening it. He surrounded, therefore, the port and
naval station with a wall, and joined these to the
citadel."*

Our guide told us, that there were in some
parts subterranean crypts, or altars (fiapot), to
which, when a child, he had been taken down ;
the sides covered with paintings (&yycaf<a), not
those of saints. He did not, however, recollect
the place. There is a theatre cut in the rock, the
right and northern horn supported by a mound,
and faced with polygonal masonry ; the southern
extremity with Hellenic, and a flight of steps
beyond the seats. The area is almost thirty-five
paces across ; twenty rows of seats, two and-a-half
feet deep, run all round, and, perhaps, double that
number behind. This city has been overturned
as completely as its contemporaries ; but it is so
much wooded, and so extensive, that it is with
more difficulty examined, and may contain unex-
plored archaeological treasures.

The sun was not far above the horizon, when
we reluctantly quitted the ruins. We had to

%u(>u vvterycct 5T£0f TK* *%£cci. — Polyb. iv. 65.

r 2

68 SWIMMING TO A MONASTERY.

return to Catouna; thence it was two hours to
the monastery of Lezini, and an equal distance
to Gouria, the village where we had directed our
tent to be pitched. We determined on taking the
road to the monastery. Like every path in
Greece, the road to Lezini was scarcely distin-
guishable from the sheep-walks ; it lay, besides,
over a thickly wooded hill, and it was not without
great self-gratulation (unattended as we were),
that we found ourselves, half an hour after dark,
on the border of the marsh, but the monastery
stood in the middle of it ! We were now, indeed,
in a dilemma ; we shouted and hallooed for half
an hour, and received but jackal cries in answer.
What was to be done? We were exceedingly
fatigued, equally hungry, and particularly disin-
clined to adopt either of the alternatives of re-
tracing our steps, or of lying down supperless on
the cold rocks amid the croaking of myriads of
frogs, whose innumerable voices rising from so
great an extent of marsh (twenty or thirty square
miles), falling into a sort of measure, might be
compared to pulsations of the earth. I therefore
stripped, tied my shirt round my broad-brimmed
straw hat, and committed myself to the Naiads of
the marsh. But I made a sad mistake in my
estimate of distance. The night was pitch dark ;
a canal leads through the marsh to the monastery;
the sides seemed firm, but when I attempted to cling
to, or to climb upon them, I sank in the slime, or

SWIMMING TO A MONASTERY. 69

got entangled in and torn by the thorns and
broken reeds. I was thus compelled to keep to
the clear channel, and the water presently, having
reached my shirt and hat, weighed down my head,
and closed my ears. Swimming slowly along in
this far from enviable predicament, I suddenly
perceived (for I could not hear at all) a boat close
upon me, and on the point of running me down.
I shrieked out with all the emphasis that could be
given by sudden fright, and a mouthful of water.
The boatman, not a whit less terrified at the
inhuman cry from the water, and the sight of a
white floating substance like an enormous water-
lily, under which form they personify the goul
or spirit of the marsh, shrieked and roared in
his turn ; punted away with all his might, ran
foul of the bank, and, tumbling head over heels,
lost his pole. He then paddled away back to
the monastery with the seat of the boat. I
had nothing to do but to swim after him, when,
fortunately, I stuck upon a knot of reeds, clung to
them to rest myself, and thus raised my head with
its wet load for a moment out of the water. Cries
from a short distance met my ear of, " Who are
you ? " " Turn back." " Speak, or we will fire ! "
and only, after a quarter of an hour's assurances
and explanation, was I permitted to approach the
bank, having the comfortable assurance, repeated
over and over again, that twenty muskets and a
nine-pounder full of grape were pointed upon me.

70 SWIMMING TO A MONASTERY.

in faith of which the lighted match was held up
and whirled about. Even in the shivering, lace-
rated state in which I was, I could not help
making myself merry at their warlike preparations;
but, having convinced them that I was no spirit,
for in that case I would not have asked their
permission ; that I was no robber, or I should not
have made such an outcry; and that I was but
one naked individual ; they allowed me to land,
and gave me the warmest reception that had ever
fallen to my lot. One took his shoes off to put
on my feet ; another slipped off his fustanel to
wipe me with ; another wrapped me in his hot
jacket ; and my toilet was completed, to the in-
finite amusement of the whole party, with the
canonicals of the venerable Abbot. In this state
I went, or was rather lifted along, to the monas-
tery, which was at some distance, while the boat
was sent for my companion. Upon the distance,
he and I could never agree : he made it but half
a-mile; I, at the least, a mile and a-half: and,
surely, having swam it, I should know best.
The Greeks were much amazed at this feat ; it
had only been once performed before, though
hundreds had perished in attempting it in escaping
from the Turks.

The Abbot's best suit was brought out for me.
An old Calogria, or nun, who was living in sisterly
love with the Abbot, had me bathed in hot water
and rubbed with oil, as there was not a square

LEZINI. 71

inch of my skin untom; and summed up her
solicitous attentions by a restoring cup of Greek
athol aroge — hot rakki and honey.

Lezini is a small, low, rocky island, in the
marsh of that name, which extends from Petala to
Trigardon. In some places it is separated only
by a narrow beach from the sea, and, nearCatouna,
it approaches the banks of the Aspropotamos. It
has the appearance of a fertile plain, covered with
tall and green reeds, the roots of which spring
from, and bind together, a constantly increasing
crust of decayed vegetables. This forms a second
soil, which will not bear the foot, but which, being
two or three feet in thickness, is perfectly imper-
vious to boats. It is supended four or five feet
at least from the bottom, but does not float, for
the winter floods rise over its surface. Canals
traverse it from the shore to Lezini, thence to
Trigardon ; from Trigardon to the discharge to
the N. W. ; thence another canal winds along
the northern shore, and turns round to Lezini.
The discharge is near Petala, and the fall of the
stream suffices to turn a mill ; so that, according
to the construction of their mills, it cannot be less
than eight or ten feet. This makes me think that
a cut from the marsh to the sea would probably
convert the greater part of this immense and
noxious morass into fertile fields. Besides, the
lowering of the water in this basin might ren-
der it possible to lead through it the waters of the

72 LEZINI.

Achelous, where they would deposit, as in a tank,
the immense load of earth now carried by that
river to the sea.*

It has been supposed that the marsh of Lezini
is one or both of the lakes to which Strabo gives a
length of twelve miles. The resemblance of the
sounds of Cynia and Lezini is adduced in confirm-
ation of the supposition ; and the difference of the
breadth is accounted for by the gradual encroach-
ment of the shore on the sea. I am inclined,
however, to think that those lakes were further to
the south, and are now become a portion of the
firm land of the Paracheloitis. He enumerates
them in proceeding southward ; after GEniadse,
comes Cynia, then Mylete and Uria, and then
the Fish Marshes ; so that they must have lain
between the northern mouth at GEniada? and the
ancient southern mouth, or Anatolicon Stomma,
now Anatolico. I am, therefore, of opinion, that
Lezini is a marsh of recent formation.

As far as I could judge of the nature of its
bottom, it is clay. The alluvial deposits have, of
course, grown more or less ; but I have invariably
remarked on these shores, that clay bottoms, them-
selves liable neither to increase nor decrease, in-
variably indicate a depression of the coast. By

* Its modern name of Aspropotamos or '• White River," is
derived from the colour of its charged waters, which whiten the
sea around the Curzolero Islands, and render it daily more
shallow.

DEPRESSION OF THE COAST. 73

the evident construction of Strabo's words, the
marshes of Cynia, &c. were to the south of the
Achelous. There are there no marshes of import-
ance now ; the soil is alluvial, and its level has
been raised by natural growth. To the north of
the Achelous there were no marshes ; * now there
is a very extensive one, its bottom is clay. Leu-
cadia was formerly connected with the Continent
by an isthmus of dry land over which the Lacede-
monian galleys were dragged. That peninsula is
clay ; it is now covered with water. The Roman
paved road along the northern shore of the Gulf
of Arta runs over clay : that road was certainly
not constructed under water; there is now four
feet of water over it. The ancient Aby, the ruins of
which are called Phido Castro, was certainly not
built in the water ; it is now only accessible by
boat. The entrance of the Gulf of Corinth is
stated by Strabo to be seven stadia; it is now
twice that breadth : the land on either side is low,
and the stratum is clay. Of course, wherever the
coast is alluvial such depression cannot be visible ;
and, on the contrary, such spots have risen as
compared with the level of the sea.

I regretted much not having had time to ascer-
tain this point satisfactorily by more extensive

* Polybius mentions a marsh round (Eniadae ; that was with
reference merely to the defence of the town : had a marsh any
thing resembling that of to-day then existed, the place must have
been uninhabitable.

74 DEPRESSION OF THE COAST.

observation ; but, in favour of the supposition of a
depression of the coast, I would also adduce the
comparatively small increase of the Deltas of the
Evenus and Achelous in modern, compared with
remoter, periods ; a circumstance which, in Pau-
sanias' time, had already been observed, since he
attempts to account for it.

On the highest parts of Lezini are the ruins of
a Venetian fortress of respectable extent, with very
thick walls. The island has constantly been a
place of refuge during the revolution ; and is the
only virgin spot of Greece. When the Pasha of
Scodra ravaged Acarnania, the island was crowded
with nine hundred fugitive families. The youthful
Pasha and his Ghegs, burning with vengeance for
the irruption into their camp, and the havoc made
among them by Marco Bozari * and his handful of
heroes, arrived on the borders of the marsh exult-
ing in the prospect of immolating to their lost
comrade the fugitives assembled in the island.
They attempted to establish a footing on the
treacherous crust of the lake ; their foot soldiers
were entangled, horsemen dashed in, and horse
and rider were quickly swallowed up. The checked
and disappointed horde now dispersed over the
hills, stripped the branches from the trees, and
commenced forming hurdles to establish a passage.
But their unorganised efforts were of no avail ;

* Though the story of his entering the Pasha's lent is a
sheer fabrication.

THE PASHA OF SCODRA. 75

when they made some progress, their weight, ill
adjusted to their precarious causeway, opened a
passage through the yielding crust ; whole masses
were engulfed ; more were entangled amid the
reeds, or half buried in the slime. The crafty
Albanians, who had cheered them on, now sneered
at their woful plight ; and the Greeks from the
island sent forth shouts of derision and defiance,
and, secure behind their rocks, plied their u nine-
pounder " and their muskets. It was next deter-
mined to fell trees and construct rafts ; but where
were hatchets to be procured ? Delay was occa-
sioned. The country around was entirely depopu-
lated, and provisions were scarce. The few tools that
were procured were soon rendered worthless, and
no progress was made. Th§ choler of the Pasha
having, in the meantime, had time to cool, he per-
ceived that " lejeu ne valait pas la chandelle ;" and
at length moved on. His army, which for muscle,
stature, animal courage, and devotion to its leader,
was one of the finest that of late years has followed
a Turkish banner, was thus led about exposed
to be cut off in detail, and to expend its energies
on rocks and marshes, through the intrigues of the
Southern Albanian Omer Vrionis. A miserable
remnant alone returned to Scodra in the winter of
1823. The rising inclination of the Ghegs to
interfere in the affairs of their neighbours was
checked ; and the Greek war remained, as before,
a source of plunder, pay, and importance, to the

76 THE BOUNDARY LINE.

military Mussulman* populations of middle Al-
bania.

The next morning we bade adieu to the exha-
lations of Lezini, and recrossed the Aspropotamos,
at Gouria, where we got sight of our tent. A
Suliote Captain, stationed at the passage of the
river, hearing that we were expected, had prepared
a feast, in which, of course, figured the roasted
lamb, with a Suliote's frank and hearty welcome.

We pushed on that night along the left bank of
the Achelous, through an enchanting and parklike
country, and pitched our tent close to the ruined
little village of Angelo Castro, nestled behind a
pointed hill, on which stand a portion of a lofty
Venetian tower, and a small dilapidated chapel.
From this point we had an extensive view of the lake
Ozeros, of the river, and the disputed plain, as far
as the corners of the lakes of Vrachori and Angelo
Castro, on the extreme right. Immediately below
runs a clear and rapid stream, over which is a
bridge, and around it one of the sweetest glimpses
that wood and water can afford.

The boundary line proposed by the Protocol
just comes up to the fertile plain that nourishes
the inhabitants of all the surrounding mountains,
and then turns off to the east, leaving the plain
without the Greek state. It is well wooded,
chiefly with oak, but interspersed with gigantic, but

* In Mustapha Pasha's army only one-sixth were Mussul-
mans, the remainder were Christians.

THE BOUNDARY LINE. 77

distorted Italian poplars and elms. There appear
all over it the nearly effaced traces of myriads of
irrigation canals, intersecting each other at right
angles ; a system which here was at one period
carried to the highest perfection. The luxuriance
of the trees, brushwood, and wild oats, barley, and
grasses, that cover the country, while they produce
the most beautiful and picturesque effect, recalls
at every step the regret that such a country, after
the struggles it had made to obtain independence,
should be again abandoned to the ravages of Alba-
nian invasion. We met several muleteers who
had escaped from the vicinity of Janina, and had
abandoned their possessions, but not without infi-
nite risk and difficulty : little, however, did they
anticipate the reception that awaited them in
" free" Greece!

78 EUROPEAN POLITICS AND

CHAPTER V.

EUROPEAN POLITICS AND TURKISH POLICY COMPARISON OF

TURKISH AND ROMAN CONQUEST ADMINISTRATION INTRO-
DUCED BY THE TURKS.

There are many provisions of the Protocol'besides
the limits, the practicability or justice of which
may, perhaps, be easily explained in London, but
which are very difficult to comprehend in Greece.
For instance, the Greeks and Turks have each
permission to dispose of their possessions. What
would be the value of a Greek's property in those
districts so ravaged, when the proprietor himself
seeks to abandon it ? But the property of the
Turk in Greece has disposable value. Moreover,
land unjustly acquired may thus be disposed of
without reference to the real proprietor, who may be
alive, or who may be the farmer of his own fields.*
Ali Pasha was obliged to give up his project of
sending a pilgrim to Mecca because the law re-

* This refers merely to the districts mutually ceded in con-
sequence of the decision of the Conference. In the remainder
of Greece, the Turkish property, by a fallacy which I cannot now
enter into, was constituted as appertaining to the Sultan, and
confiscated for the benefit of the Greek state.

TURKISH POLICY. 79

quired the expenses to be defrayed by the sale of
land ; and the possessor of millions of stremata did
not hold, according to the decision of the Turkish
cadi, property, legitimately acquired, sufficient for
this purpose.

This is a fearful and gigantic exhibition of
wrong. It is not to be accounted for, by saying
that Ali Pasha was a great tyrant. It is not to
be explained, by saying that Turkish Pashas do
such things. Our eyes have rested with intense-
ness on Greece alone of all the dependencies of
the Ottoman Porte ; and there two former revolu-
tions, followed by wars and subjugation, have
led to the confiscation of property. In Egypt,
the rule of the Mamelukes, even before the
wholesale robbery of Mohammed Ali Pasha, had
there also familiarised us with the violation of
private property, and led to the idea of its insecu-
rity in Turkey. Without entering into the prin-
ciples of their government, or recurring to past
events, a single consideration will, I think, suffice
to shew, that the Porte must have habitually
respected property and local customs ; and that
consideration is, the extent of dominion and the
past history of the small tribe denominated Osman-
lis, who actually rule over Greeks, Turks, Alba-
nians, Illyrians, Bulgarians, Servians, Wallachians,
Jews, Armenians, Turcomans, Lesguis, Curds, Ma-
ronites, Druzes, Bedouins, Berbers, Copts, Moors,
&c, exceeding twenty times their own number.

80 EUROPEAN POLITICS AND

The fact which I have mentioned, respecting
the unjust possessions of an Albanian Pasha, brings
to light, at the same time, an indication of the
fundamental principles of Turkish jurisprudence.
In a matter where law and religion were both
combined, the Turkish judge stood forth to utter
a withering decision against the (t Albanian Leo-
pard " in his hour of apparent omnipotence.

The policy of the Porte had been to control
the Albanians by fostering the Greek Armatoles,
or militia; but the insurrections of 1770, and, more
particularly, of 1790, which had been organised by
a Christian power, and of which religion had been
made the active principle, drove the Porte into
hostility with this Christian militia, against whom
it now combined with the Mussulman Albanians.
And, perceiving the intimate knowledge of Russia
of the internal state of Turkey, I should not be
surprised if the overthrow of the Greek militia
had, in reality, been the object she had in view
in revolutionizing the Morea; a measure which,
without this solution, would appear to have been
ill advised.

The preponderance which the Albanians now
acquired led to the granting of the horse-tails to
an Albanian, — that is to say, that to those warlike
bodies, which the Porte had hitherto restrained, its
authority was now delegated ; the circumstances
were, consequently, reproduced which first led the
Greeks to call in the Turks. The fountains of

TURKISH POLICY. 81

justice were broken up ; and in this internal revolu-
tion of power, throughout which the finger of
foreign diplomacy is at every step to be traced,
Ali Pasha then, as Mohamet AH Pasha now, be-
came possessed of a disciplined force which ren-
dered practicable such violations of private rights ;
whilst not only the weakness, but the general
discredit thence resulting, has fallen on the Turkish
Government, to enfeeble still further its controlling
power. Singularly enough, the Alliance has min-
gled itself up with these violations to legalise them.
This, to be sure, is a minute point ; but the whole
questions that have absorbed the deep contem-
plation of the Great Allies, affect property which,
even in extent, scarcely equals the estates of the
Duke of Sutherland.

Again, as to allowing a year to Greeks and
Turks to retire to their respective countries. Could
the Turkish Government, while it yet commanded
a fortress or a man-of-war, consent to a measure
which would place in jeopardy the whole landed
property of the empire ? Had the Alliance such
an object in view when they penned the provi-
sion ? To carry it into effect, you must have ap-
pointed agents to see this liberty of emigration re-
spected, and thus made the European, or perhaps
the Greek consuls, the dictators of Turkey. The
consequence of this liberty of emigration is still
more serious, and could still less have been endured
by the conference, had they understood the effect

VOL. i. g

82 EUROPEAN POLITICS AND

of their own measures. The communities are,
more or less, in debt : the individual peasants are
jointly responsible for these debts ; if one or more
quits his village, the burden falls on the remainder.
Suppose, then, that the right to emigrate is pro-
claimed under the sanction of the three great
powers of Europe, the immediate effect would be
a general panic. The very agitation of such a
measure must disturb all relations of private in-
terest, and convulse political order and adminis-
tration. If the provisions of the Protocol were not
intended to go this length, they were perfectly
ineffective and nugatory ; as, in fact, they have been
found to be, except in so far as they threw Greece
back again into uncertainty, Turkey into agitation
enabled Capodistrias to deter Prince Leopold from
accepting the proffered crown, and brought about
the reverse of those objects that England desired,
and that the Alliance professed.

After passing through the plain, from Angelo
Castro, a distance of rather more than two hours,
we arrived at the Turkish burgh of Zapandi. The
minarets of two ruined mosques stand picturesque,
but melancholy objects. As we wandered through
the deserted streets, hundreds of ravens croaked
from the tops of the walls, on which they seemed
as if they had long remained in undisturbed posses-
sion. This is a scene in a small province which
the great powers of Europe had for three years
been labouring to pacify.

TURKISH POLICY. 83

Half an hour further on, we reached Vrachori,
capital of the district. We passed for some time
amidst the ruins hefore we were gratified by the
not very common sight of a roofed house. At the
corner of the once bazaar stood a venerable pla-
tanus, the trunk of which measured nearly twelve
yards round ; and a little further on, a tall pole
spread to the breeze a shabby Greek flag, as if
jealous of every moment it had yet to flutter in
Acarnania.

A thunderstorm delayed us in the house of
the Governor. We there saw the Primates of the
place, who prognosticated the disasters that must
ensue from the cession of the country, and of this
plain in particular, which gave winter work, and
summer food, to the inhabitants of the surrounding
mountains. They spoke of the Makronoros as their
saviour and friend, and seemed very incredulous of
any protection the European powers could afford
them, if the barrier of the Makronoros were thrown
open. From being the most independent subjects
of the Porte ; where the Turkish inhabitants of the
country were at best but on a footing of equality
with the Greeks ; where no Turkish troops were
permitted, and no Turkish authority, excepting the
cadi or the judge, existed ; — they were reduced by
x41i Pasha to a state of subjection below that of the
rest of his dominions, as he wished to extinguish
their martial spirit, which, since the commencement
of the Ottoman rule, had limited, on this side, the

G 2

84 EUROPEAN POLITICS AND

excursions of the Albanians. The Captain was
their military chief; the Codga Bashi, the civil
chief. The first held his situation on the nomina-
tion of the Greek municipality ; the latter was a
municipal officer (or council, as the number varied),
annually elected. The Cadi, or Mousselim, was
there to give the sanction of Turkish form to
the authority of the Captain ; but his influence was
slight, save when there was dissension among the
Greeks. The Bishop was the depositary of the
higher judicial authority ; and when he required
the secular arm, he applied to the Cadi, who com-
manded the Captain to enforce his decrees. The
impositions, which were very trifling, were, as else-
where, apportioned and collected by the municipal
body, and consisted of charatch, for which they
compounded, the tithe and house-tax : besides
these, they assessed themselves for the Captain's
pay and for local expenses.

This policy of the Turks of balancing the power
of the Albanians by the Greeks, dated from their
establishment at Adrianople. Indeed, the Turks
first appeared in Greece as friends and allies.
This statement may appear at variance with re-
ceived opinions, and I may, therefore, be excused
for entering into some details to substantiate it.

After the fall of Constantinople, Demetrius and
Thomas, the brothers of the last of the Paleologues,
retained the Peloponnesus. It might have afforded
a refuge and a sanctuary to humbled pride and

1

TURKISH POLICY. 85

fallen greatness, if disasters and misfortune could
ever have driven from the breast of the Greeks, the
vain aspirations which have unceasingly urged
them to sacrifice that which they did possess, in
the pursuit of what was beyond their reach. But
Demetrius and Thomas had no sooner secured
each a fragment of their distracted patrimony,
than they quarrelled between themselves. The
Albanians, who had been gradually attracted by
the service offered them under the various Despots,
seeing the shrivelled house of Byzantium divided
against itself, withdrew from the service of both
Princes, and prepared to impose upon the degene-
rate and unwarlike, though yet warring Greeks,
a yoke more to be dreaded even than that of their
Latin conquerors, from whom the Morea had been
so lately, and not altogether, emancipated.

Demetrius and Thomas, united by the common
danger, offered tribute to the conqueror of Con-
stantinople, and claimed his assistance. Scarcely
had they been united against their Albanian foes,
when a Cantacuzene was found to head a revolt
amongst the Greeks against themselves ; and the
Albanians, who had occupied, or ravaged, the
greater part of the champaign country, sent also
to the Porte to offer their submission, and a tribute
for the Morea, if allowed to hold it as a fee from
the Porte. " At this period," says M. von Hammer,
" would the empire of the Greeks in the Pelopon-
nesus have been entirely extinguished, if the Greek

86 COMPARISON OF

commander of Corinth had not requested, and ob-
tained, from the Sultan, a Turkish succour. Tura-
khan, who, thirty years before had conquered
Hexamilia, and had penetrated to Lacsedemon,
Leontopoli, and Gardica, and had routed the Alba-
nians at Tavia, now again returned, with his sons
and a Turkish army, as the allies of the Greeks,
and to defend the Peloponnesus against the Alba-
nians."

Chalcondylas, in relating these events, puts
the following words in the mouth of the Turkish
commander, as addressed to his countrymen :
" You must have been ruined if the Sultan had not
been moved with compassion for you, and come to
your succour. It is clear you have not governed
your state as you ought to have done ; but now an
absolute necessity requires you to govern your
subjects in future in a better manner." The Turk-
ish veteran further holds up to their imitation,
what he asserts to be the secret of his countrymen's
success ; viz. securing the love of their subjects in
peace, and inspiring their enemies with terror in
war.

The Albanians were driven from the Pelopon-
nesus, and pursued, by the Greeks and Turks united,
even into their own mountains. But scarcely had
Turakhan withdrawn with his Turks, when a revolt
broke out against the two Despots ; and after four
years of revolt, treachery, massacre, and anarchy
— in which figured, now as allies and now as

TURKISH AND ROMAN CONQUEST. 87

enemies, the two Greek rivals, the Greek party
opposed to both, the Albanians and the Turks : a
bloody campaign put the Turks in possession of
smoking cities and a devastated country. Thus was
again enacted, and from the same causes, the in-
tervention of Rome in favour of Greece which had
taken place 1500 years before ; and in an equal
period of time, through the same national cha-
racters of vanity and faction, did Greece disappoint
the hopes, and provoke the vengeance, of her libe-
rators; so had she hailed Rome as a saviour to
curse her as a tyrant ; extolled a Flaminius to the
skies, and denounced a Glabrio, with the damning
volubility of her tongue. In four years Greece
saw her Latian allies united to her old Macedonian
oppressor ; and after the extinction of that king-
dom, the savage devastation dispensed by Mum-
mius far exceeded the destruction which afterwards
followed in the rear of Alaric.

This is a very singular coincidence : Romans
and Turks appear as protectors of Greece ; and
both people, within the same period of four years,
became its oppressors. It would, however, be
most unjust to compare the acts of Mummius with
the advice of Turchan, and the last part of the
Roman intervention with the first portion of the
Turkish.* This, however, is what M. Von Ham-

• About the same period has sufficed for the Alliance to
extinguish the customs, laws, and independence of the Greeks ;

88 ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS.

mer does, reversing the picture, and comparing
the first portion of the Roman with the last of the
Turkish intervention. He terminates in these
words, the tragic scene of the conquest of the
Peloponnesus : — (* What a picture of volcanic
horror is this, and what a contrast with the glorious
brightness of the conquering Consul of Rome,
Quintus Flaminius, who, on the day of the Isth-
mian games, with no less humanity than policy,
on assembled Greece, which, agitated and doubt-
ful, expected its fate, conferred, in the midst of
universal jubilations, the dream of liberty!"*

But having, for the purpose of pointing out an
honest error of judgment in a man of high and
merited scholastic reputation, referred to one of
those books which are written on the East, I am
reminded of a literary effusion of a descendant and
representative of that class of Greeks who, after
sacrificing the throne of Constantine, and ruining
the Peloponnesus, coiled themselves round the
heart of the Ottoman empire ; who corrupted the
simplicity of the Turkish system by their political
doctrines, the primitiveness of the Turkish pastoral
habits by the servility of their own bearing and
conduct ; and who, after dismembering the empire

but the ingenious Alliance has been labouring in its disinterested
efforts solely for " the pacification of the East."

* M. Von Hammer's work has since appeared in French :
it is very singular that this passage is omitted.

ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS. 89

by their intrigues, now stand forth to glory in their
treachery towards those whom they served. I
allude to M. Jacovaki Rizo's work, entitled
" L'Histoire Moderne de la Grece." Gibbon, in
quoting four Greek authors of the lower empire,
of whom two were statesmen, and two were monks,
remarks, that " such was the character of the
Greek empire, that no distinction is observable
between churchmen and politicians." So the work
of If. Rizo, without his name and titles as " first
minister of the Princes of Wallachia and Moldavia,"
as minister for foreign affairs, and commissioner
under Capodistrias, and member of several of the
subsequent administrations of Greece, would cer-
tainly have been taken for the production of a
monk, conceived in a cloister, and penned upon a
lutrin, in the intervals between penance and
liturgy. Religion (that is, the ceremonial of the
Eastern church) is, with him, the all-explaining
cause, the all-directing impulse ; and, speaking of
the state of the Greeks under Turkey, and of the
causes of their revolution, he reduces all these
questions to points of theology and church-govern-
ment.

The only interesting part of his book is the
anecdotes he gives us of the Mussulmans, which
are all, without exception, instances of benevolence
and of tolerance : and these, in verification of the
old proverb, that the antidote grows beside the
poison, present themselves in singular contrast

90 ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS.

with the opinions which his work is intended to
promote, and the epithets in which it so courage-
ously indulges.

M. Rizo, how and why it matters not, is unac-
quainted with the fact that the Turkish policy had
always been directed to support the Greeks against
the Albanians. But this is not enough ; he dis-
covers in the strength of these very Albanians, the
oppressors of the Greeks, the proof that the Greek
religion had been the preserver of the remnants of
Greece against the hostility of Islamism. He lays
Phranza and Chalcondylas aside, and speaks as
follows : — " Whilst the rapid successes of the
Turkish arms filled with affright the Christians of
the Eastern church, whilst Mohamet II. occupied,
without resistance, the island of Mitylene, Attica,
the Peloponnesus, and Eubcea, a Greek displayed
to his co-religionists the example of heroism, in
braving alone,* with his little army, all the forces
of the conqueror. This Christian hero was —
George Castriote, Prince of Epirus!! surnamed by
the Turks, Scanderbeg. Alone, and during thirty
years, he struggled against the power of Murad
and Mohamet; destroyed their armies; infested
their provinces ; and ceased to conquer only when
he ceased to breathe. His government did not

* Were the Caraman princes, and the remnants of the Sel-
jouks, no allies of Scanderbeg? Were Humiades, the king of Ser-
via, and" the Impaler" of Wallachia, no enemies of Mohamet ?

ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS. 91

•

survive him ; but Epirus and Albania learned, from
that moment, to despise the Turks. From that
epoch dates the establishment of the Christian Ar-
matoles."

Is it possible to conceive a greater jumble of
facts and sense than is exhibited in this paragraph ?
An Albanian ! and a Catholic ! and, moreover, a
Mussulman renegade ! positively set down as a
Greek, in the political and religious acceptation of
the word, by a Fanariote historian of Greece, by
a professor of Greek history, by a minister of Free
Greece, and by the most philosophical and the
most distinguished Greek writer of the present
day! The victories of the historic enemies of the
Greeks are set down as — the date and the source
of the establishment of the Greek Armatoles : the
establishment of which is of prior date to the
victories of Scanderbeg. But the adherents of
Scanderbeg were finally subdued. How then,
supposing them to have been Greeks, could their
victories have led to this organisation ?

" Albania," he says, immediately afterwards,
" by its inaccessible mountains, the warlike spirit
of its inhabitants, the extent of its coast, its prox-
imity to the Venetian possessions," (and, why does
he not add, by its adhesion to the Latin creed ?)
" was terrible to the Ottoman Government. Mount
Agrapha, the natural bulwark of Epirus" (that is,
the limits of the Greeks and the Albanians, and

92 ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS.

the bulwark, at this day, of the former against the
latter), " was the first country which obtained, by
capitulation, the prerogative of having a captain,
with a sufficient number of soldiers, to maintain
order, and to preserve the security of its towns
and villages. Its inhabitants obtained from Mu-
rad II." (that is, before the war with Scanderbeg)
" the right of having two deliberative voices out of
three in the administration of their civil affairs.
The Turkish judge had the first ; the Greek
bishop,* the second ; and the Greek captain, the
third. This right subsisted to the time of Alt
Pasha. This organisation was subsequently ex-
tended to all the provinces of Continental Greece."
— Page 49.

Speaking afterwards of the Albanian chiefs,
whom, with his usual accuracy, he terms " feudal,"
he says, — " There existed, therefore, between
these Mussulman chiefs" (they were not their
Mussulmans) " and the Ottoman Porte, a reciprocal
mistrust and animosity, which turned to the profit
of the Greeks of these provinces" (he means
Christians, for there is no Greek population in
them) u in consolidating, more and more, the con-
stitution of the Armatoles, in strengthening these

* It was the Codga bashi, or municipal authority, which
had the second voice ; but that would not have suited the
religious theory.

ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS. 93

mountaineers in their retreats, and in facilitating
the commerce and the industry of the Christian
inhabitants of the towns." — Page 53.

Was it not worth the while of a man, clothed
with the character of a statesman, and aspiring to
that of a philosopher and a historian, to dwell,
at least for a moment, on the extraordinary fact
here recorded ?

The descendants of Scanderbeg, Christians
then, are now Mussulmans, and still stand in
precisely the same relation to the Porte ; whilst
the Greeks, protected by the Porte against the
Albanians, then and now, are in both cases Christ-
ians. The following extract will shew at once
the power deliberately granted to the Greeks,
and the union of their interests with those of
the Turks.

" From the origin of their conquests in Thes-
saly, the Turks established, in the vast plains
watered by the Peneus, a Mahometan colony drawn
from Iconium, and which, up to the present day,
bears the name of Coniar. These colonists, peaceful
agriculturists, soon became an object of con-
tempt to the Albanians, who pillaged them with
impunity.* The neighbouring Pashas not being

* It was not the Albanians who pillaged them, but the
Sclavonians. It would be curious to know the cause of the
substitution of the name of the one people for the other. But
without looking to other associations, the true statement of the
fact which he raistates is the complete overthrow of his theory,

94 ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS.

able to reduce these numerous bands of Ma-
hometan* (?) and Christian robbers employed
against them the vigilance and the courage of
the Armatoles, or Greek Captains. Thus did this
Greek body continue always to be recognised by
the Government; and was so far from being an
object of mistrust, that the Hospodars of Wal-
lachia and Moldavia were authorised to draw from
them the guards of their persons and their prin-
cipalities." f

Thus will it appear from the testimony of three
writers inimical to the Turks, and the last of whom
wrote expressly during the war to make out a case
against them, and to excite sympathy for the
Greeks ; that the Turks appeared in Greece on the
requisition of the Greeks, and twice restored to
them their country, after overthrowing the Al-
banians; that, when they did occupy it, they
left the assessment of taxes to the inhabitants ;
established an elective council in each district;
organised a Greek militia, with elected officers;
and, I may further add, that they imposed no

because this Turkish population was placed as a barrier to the
ravages of a population which professed the Greek creed ;
namely, the Bulgarians.

* The word " Mahometan" is certainly here only introduced
to keep the word " Christian" in countenance. At that time
there were no Mussulman Albanians. The changes rung on the
words " Greek" and " Christian" are very amusing.

f " L'Histoire de la Grece," p. 54.

ADMINISTRATION INTRODUCED BY THE TURKS. 95

restriction whatever on commerce, and exacted
no retribution or fees of any kind for their own
clergy or church. A comparison with these
principles, of those which have regulated the
colonial policy of some other nations, might be
instructive.

96 REFUGEES IN THE LAKE OF VRACHORI.

CHAPTER VI.

REFUGEES IN THE LAKE OF VRACHORI ANTIQUARIAN RE-
SEARCHES AND MISHAPS EFFECT OF GUNPOWDER ON

GOVERNMENTS AND PEOPLE REFINEMENT AND RUINS

OF ALYZEA A PICTURESQUE SCENE.

The plain of Vrachori is supposed to contain
35,000 acres, of which 25,000 belonged to the
Turks, and 10,000 to the Greeks. From the sur-
rounding mountains of Carpenizi, Agrapha, Cra-
vari, and Patragick, 10,000 men descend to work
during the winter, which is here the season of
labour; and, in exchange for their work, carry
back with them Indian corn and grain for six
months' consumption, and the little foreign luxu-
ries they require. Peasants from other districts,
having some property, and Vlachi, a distinct race
of shepherds, originally from Wallachia, were ac-
customed to rent land from the Turks, for the
season : 4000 labourers, from the Ionian islands,
were in constant employment. Of resident pro-
prietors, there were 1300 hearths in the plain, and
200 in Vrachori. Not above a third of these are
to be seen at present.

REFUGEES IN THE LAKE OF VRACHORI. 97

The position of Acarnania, and the character
of its inhabitants, rendered it peculiarly liable to
the excitement of the revolution ; and, though
they had heard of the defeat of Ypsilanti, yet the
state of Albania, and the necessity, which then
became apparent, of supporting Ali Pasha against
the Porte, at once excited and perplexed them.
On the 21st of May, 1821, the whole country
suddenly flew to arms ; 1600 Albanians and Turks
were butchered, or shut up in their castles ; and
Isko, with a handful of men hastily collected,
occupied the important passes of Makronoros just
in time to arrest the progress of Ismael Pasha,
who, on the first indication of insurrectionary
movements in the South, was hastening to quell
them before they gathered head. The Greeks,
startled at the new position they had assumed of
resistance to a Turkish authority, were with ex-
treme difficulty retained by their leader at their
posts, and brought to fire on the Turks, who
advanced, boldly and exposed, ridiculing the very
idea of open warfare. After a few minutes of
appalling indecision, a close and deadly discharge
struck the Turks with amazement and terror, and
filled the Greeks with confidence and exultation :
the door was closed to all reconciliation, and the
revolution was sealed. But, to return to our
journey.

When the weather cleared up, we galloped
down to the Bridge, across the lake of Vrachori,

vol. i. H

98 REFUGEES IN THE LAKE OF VRACHORI.

or rather the Marsh, which separates it from the
lake of Angelo Castro. It had previously been
very sultry ; but now the freshness of the woods and
fields, the coolness of the air after the storm, the
stillness of the two lakes that reflected, in unruffled
mirrors, the surrounding mountains, presented one
of the calmest and most beautiful landscapes. The
bridge, of thirty arches, seems like a low and nar-
row causeway crossing a marsh ; but the water
is "clear and in rapid movement among the trunks
of the trees ; the bottom firm, and filled with
sedges : alder, ash, fig-trees, and elms, festooned
with creepers, grew out of the stream. The whole
country wears the aspect of luxuriant harvest.
We rode through fields of fern, which covered
our horses, and wild oats, some heads of which
were taller than man and horse. The borders of
the lakes are exceedingly marshy, and the lakes
themselves very shallow, especially that of Angelo
Castro : they abound in fish and eels, and are
filled with tall reeds. In the various passages of
the Turkish troops, the inhabitants took refuge in
these marshes : on one occasion, 500 families had
made themselves habitations by fixing posts and
branches, and binding together the growing reeds.
The Turks made desperate efforts to destroy
them ; many horsemen perished in attempting to
reach them ; rafts and monoxylos were made use
of, but they could not penetrate in sufficient num-
bers, and were singly exposed to the fire of the

ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS. 99

Greeks. The Turks attempted to set fire to the
reeds, but they would not burn : and, lastly, they
attempted to starve them out ; but the shores of
their little sea were open to them, and, like the
Ichthyophagi of Herodotus, they were supported
by the fish beneath their dwellings.

Next day, we sent on our servants to pitch
our tents among the ruins of Stratus, ourselves
starting in the direction of the ruins of Thermus,
as laid down by Pouqueville. We traversed a
mountain stream, ascended and descended thickly
wooded and steep hills, and, after losing our way
several times, at last climbed an abrupt hill of
solid, rectangular form, that appeared from the
plain below like a fortress. This rock was crowned
with the ruins of the ancient Thermus ; very little
agreeing, however, with Pouqueville's description.*
The ancient gate still gives access to the fortress ;
the remains of the massive walls, formed into tam-
bours, with small stones and earth, supported with
wicker-work, have oftentimes served, during the
late struggles, as a place of refuge for the inha-
bitants of the country.f

* Those fortress-looking rocks are masses of conglomerate
overlying sandstone ; and wherever they appear on elevated
positions, they have been chosen for the erection of places of
strength.

t The position of Thermus having been the subject of con-
siderable antiquarian controversy, in consequence of a passage
of Polybius ill understood, and of the descriptions given by

H 2

100 ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS.

We spent a considerable portion of the day
in examining the country from this elevated spot.
It was not till we had descended the most rugged
part, and had untied our horses, which had been
grazing below, in a beautiful recess, on the richest
clover, that we recollected that we had four and
a half hours' march to the ford of the Aspropo-
tamos. To pass this ford by daylight, without
guides, was said to be impracticable ; and the sun
was already bordering on the horizon. We pushed
on rapidly through Vrachori and Zapan'di; but
neither the last twilight, nor the clear moonshine,
shewed us any traces of the road. After galloping
over the plain, I climbed one of the loftiest trees,
and, to my surprise, perceived the extensive and
white bed of the Achelous (Aspropotamos) within
a quarter of a mile. The stream was rapid, broad,
troubled, and, apparently, deep ; we dashed in,
however, nothing daunted, and were soon on the
dry ground beyond it, laughing at the accounts we
had heard : but we soon discovered that our en-
terprise was only begun, as the more formidable
streams and eddies were still to be breasted, with
quicksands between, in more than one of which we
got entangled. Our horses were soon knocked
up, and the adventure was gradually despoiled of

Pouqueville, I consign to an appendix an account of Philip's
expedition against Thermus, which, I think, will satisfactorily
explain the meaning of Polybius, and reconcile his statement with
the topography of the place.

ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS. 101

all its illusions. After an hour's anxious and toil-
some wading and piloting, we had the satisfaction
of finding ourselves on the firm ground. What,
however, was now to be done ? To bivouac sub
Jove frigido, we were in a worse condition than
before the passage ; and great was our joy when,
after half an hour's march up the bank of the
river, we perceived a light, which we soon made
out to be a fire, surrounded by the ferrymen, who,
with their horses, instead of boats, ply at the ford.
When they heard our story, they crossed them-
selves ; but did not believe us, till they had felt
our horses and our clothes. They conducted us
to Lepenou, once a rich and happy township, of
2000 souls, where we found our tent pitched
beside the still-flowing, clear fountain — the only
animated being in the midst of the deserted vil-
lage. We perceived, on a rising ground near the
ford, the outlines of the remains of Stratus, which,
by * pale moonlight," gave us an exaggerated im-
pression of their magnificence and extent.

The people of the country may, in time, and &
force cle voyageurs, become good Cicerones ; but,
at present, they are of but little assistance to the
traveller. Many of the inhabitants, indeed, are
recent settlers ; and their ignorance, even of names
and places, frequently misled us. A compass and
Lapie's map (which has but too often followed
Pouqueville) were our only guides ; but the dis-

102 ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS.

agreement of these led us into the recommendable
practice of ascending the hills to take a bird's eye
view. Difficulties and adventures have, conse-
quently, been our inseparable companions, as we
wandered along a country where the roads are
effaced, houses and villages deserted, and the sight
of man a rare occurrence ; but these circumstances
forced upon us a more particular knowledge of
the localities than would have been obtained by
greater facilities of travelling and longer residence;
and gave a romantic interest to the excursion,
which is wholly incompatible with straight cut and
ditched roads, rectangular fields, sign-posts, toll-
bars, and other evidences of civilisation.

Next morning, by daylight, we were amidst
the ruins of Stratus. Strabo places it at ten
stadia from the Achelous, which he says was navi-
gable up to this point. At present, one branch of
that river runs under its walls. Their circum-
ference is from three to four thousand paces ; the
blocks being of sandstone, have not the freshness
and sharpness of angle that the hardness of con-
glomerate and limestone have given to the other
ruins. The remains of the solid wall have out-
lived all it was destined to preserve. A gate near
the water still leads into the vacant enclosure : at
this spot the wall retains nearly its original height
of twenty feet. On an elevated point, looking to
the west, are heaps of sections of unfluted columns

ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS. 103

(old Doric), triglyphs, and capitals of beautifully
-white limestone, obtained either from Vrachori or
Machala. On the highest ground northwards,
there are remains of a more ancient cyclopic
citadel. The other ruins formed an undistinguish-
able mass, matted over by an impervious growth
of thistles. Rock-bees had established themselves
amidst the crumbled layers of stone ; and large
brown and reddish serpents lay basking along the
walls, and, disturbed by our researches, came
leaping and thumping on the stones below. From
a mossy rock, under the shade of a fig-tree, fell, or
rather dropped into an ancient sarcophagus, the
tiny stream of an icy fountain, and supplied irri-
gation for a single field of Indian corn, the only
cleared space within the enclosure.

By inquiry from a peasant, and the examination
of our map, and a still persevering faith in Pouque-
ville, we satisfied ourselves that the present Aetos
was the ancient Metropolis, and made up our
minds to be at Metropolis that night. Early in
the morning, accordingly, the tent was sent on,
with orders to be pitched at Aetos, while we
started some hours after directing our inquiries for
the Ruins. But this was the last time we staked
our bed and supper on the identity of an ancient
and modern city ! The morning had been fati-
guingly spent in taking the plan of Stratus ; and we
were quite exhausted by the excessive heat, and
bv an hour's race after our horses, which, while we

104 ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS.

were busied with the ancient architecture, made
an excursion in pursuit of. recent botanical speci-
mens into the field of Indian corn ; so that the
sun was already, as the Albanians would say, "two
fathoms above the Eastern horizon," when we set
forward in search of Metropolis. After crossing
the plain to the westward for nearly two hours,
we wandered along the base of the mountains
from the little to the great Ozeros (lakes), without
meeting a living creature, or being able to descry
any path. At length, in exhaustion and despair,
we unsaddled and picketed our horses, and laid
ourselves down under a tree. The day passed,
and evening came ; but no one appeared, so we
mounted again. We had to cross the mountains,
but to engage in them unless by a path, and with
a point in view, was perfectly hopeless ; and the
more we studied the map, the more bewildered we
were. In this perplexity, we had the good luck
to meet with a flock of horses, and a herd of
swine; the advantage of this coincidence and
rencontre may not at first be very intelligible.
The pigs were accompanied by a biped, whose
explanations might not have served us much, but
who, on the exhibition of a hundred para piece,
secured one of the wandering stud, and conducted
us to the path that leads up, through a ravine in
these abrupt and difficult hills, to Machala.

We passed the monastery of Licovitza, beau-
tifully situated high on our left; and the twilight

ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS. 105

shewed us an amphitheatre of hills opening to the
south, with their shelving sides studded with vil-
lages, and with a degree of cultivation which sur-
prised us after the deserted appearance of the rich
plain that we had left below.

The ruins of Metropolis are now termed Porta.
Though we did not reach them before it was quite
dark, we descried their position, crowning and
encircling a small but steep and rugged hill, where
now stands the monastery of St. George, sur-
rounded by a score of little huts like bee-hives,
belonging to fugitives who had ventured back into
Acarnania. The ruins of Metropolis have an air
of antiquity from their being polygonal, from the
absence, or at all events the fewness, of towers,
and from the destruction of the walls.

This if Porta ; we doubted not that it had been
Metropolis, but it certainly was not Aetos; and
therefore no tent was to be seen ; so we had to
pass a not very comfortable night within the court
of the almost deserted monastery ; the solitary
Calogeros sparing us a very little very black bread,
and a rug to cover us from the cold. But we
were soon glad to rid ourselves of the treacherous
gift.

Next morning we were up betimes from our
bare cold dewy sod ; indeed, we had paced the
court during the greater portion of the night, and,
descending from the inhospitable rock, passed for
three miles through the little plain of Aetos, en-

106 ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS.

circled with lofty hills, and filled with thorns and
oak. Under a perpendicular rock, crowned by a
Venetian castle at its opposite extremity, we were
delighted to get a glimpse of our tent among the
dark underwood. The smoke rising close by, like
a tall, straight poplar, bushy at the top, was
indeed a welcome sight; and as the little watch-
dog came running towards us, and we saw our
accustomed beasts of burden hopping in their
shackles among the trees, the strange wilderness
appeared familiar. The whole of this Jay our
tent was allowed to occupy its position ; nor
for the rest which Nature demanded, could we
have desired a more delightful spot. On the
opposite hill, there was a hamlet from which
smoke arose, and which, therefore, was inhabited.
As we had molested neither a flock of sheep, nor
a herd of swine, in our vicinity, and appeared
altogether very tame and peaceable creatures, the
women of the hamlet, towards evening, made a
trip of curiosity and traffic ; they brought their
pitchers for water (we had pitched by the well),
and eggs and yaoort for sale. We were soon on
the best terms with our fair visitants. An old dame,
jocose and spirituelle, was the chaperone of the
party ; and wherever she moved, the young ones
all ran and clustered behind her, so that they
always presented to us the apex of a Mace-
donian phalanx, the leader cased in the armour
of sixty winters, the rank and file from the rear

ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES AND MISHAPS. 107

wielding * eyes for their lances." We gratified the
old lady with a cup of coffee ; but our liberality
could go no further, — they were too many for our
cups or our coffee, and we had no wish to fling the
apple of discord among them by partial preference.
Afterwards, we had a visit from the men, who
chatted about ancient Greece, Turkey, Europe,
and, of course, about the Protocol; and we amused
ourselves in thinking how the hinds of any other
country would have kept up a conversation on such
subjects.

From Aetos we ascended, for one hour, north,
to Zeuki, once a considerable village. Another
hour brought us to a gorge, through which a tor-
rent, descending by Zeuki, forces its way into the
plain of Mitika. On the height of the gorge, above
the road, stands, almost entire, a small and beauti-
ful Hellenic tower, fifteen feet square, and twenty
high ; the wall only a foot and a half thick, and
the loopholes, on the outside, three feet by five
inches.

As we descended, wre perceived ruins upon one'
of the hills to the left, in the chain through which
we were passing. We were sorry to leave them
unvisited, and yet their numbers increased so ra-
pidly upon us, and they were often of such difficult
access, that the task of examining each was beyond
our strength. We, at present, determined on di-
viding our labours. My companion scaled the
hill, and I directed my course through the plain of

108 EFFECTS OF GUNPOWDER

Mitika, to the ruins of the ancient Alyzea, at its
northern extremity.

The ruin on the hill is Cyclopean, without
towers ; has only two gates, formed by a transverse
slab resting on two uprights; there is a cistern
quarried in the rock. There are two extremely
rude bas reliefs, cut in the limestone rock, and
much obliterated. One exhibits two figures, seated,
with a snake between them ; the other represents
a warrior, naked, holding a spear, and a woman,
draped, standing beside him.

What a strange state of society do these re-
mains indicate ! Populations pressing on each
other by their density, shrinking from each other
by their fears, expending their labours in the con-
struction of defences, and their time in toiling up
the mountains and precipices, where their places
of strength were situated. The projectiles of mo-
dern warfare would have either put an end to the
causes of mistrust, or, perhaps, they would have
annihilated the sources of this plethoric population.
Rival towns could then almost insult each other
from wall to wall ; and some powerful states of an-
tiquity could now exchange shot and shell from
capital to capital.*

We have been so much in the habit of con-
sidering the effects of gunpowder, as used by one
state against another, that we have neglected to

* Olynthus and Potidea, for example.

ON GOVERNMENTS AND PEOPLE. 109

consider the effect of this invention on the states
themselves. I believe that it may be shewn to
have materially influenced, throughout Europe,
the character of society, of institutions, and of
government. By artillery, the advantage and re-
sistance of localities have been lost, the most war-
like tribes have had their spirit broken ; and,
amidst the strongest positions, the once sturdy
mountaineer is pursued, if unarmed, by his armed
oppressors ; or, if possessed of these means of de-
struction, is tempted to become a robber and an
oppressor in his turn.

In the "West, gunpowder, with its concomitant
standing armies, has succeeded in extending a
tranquil domination, which disguises the military
character of the sources of European power. The
political institutes of the West, more or less
oppressive in their uniform and regulated ope-
ration, provoke not local resistance, but awaken
general discontent. Local resistance becomes in-
effective, because of the increased military means
of the executive ; local resistance is superseded by
the moral character of the resistance which is called
forth by the exceptional principles which have
found their way into the administrative practice
and science, so called, of Europe ; which degrades,
amongst the people, respect for their own per-
ceptions, by substituting laws for justice, and a
Government's regulations, for duty and for right.

In Turkey, the feelings and habits of the people

110 EFFECTS OF GUNPOWDER.

not having been levelled by a military power of
this description, the abstract principles of the ad-
ministration have retained, in a great degree, their
primitive simplicity ; the increased efficiency, there-
fore, given by gunpowder to the proportionably
small number of men who carry arms by the right
of authority or revenge, serves to increase the acci-
dents of wrong, but not to establish uniform but
legal injustice. The difference is rendered im-
mense between the soldier and the bandit, now
wearing a musket, and the peasant who no'longer
can match his sithe or his flail with the spear or
sabre, or escape, by a single stride, beyond the
reach of such weapons. But the soldier in Turkey
has been, as yet, only the retainer of the Pasha.
When he becomes the servant of the Government,
happy indeed will be this country, if that Govern-
ment retains the moderation, the simplicity, and
the character, of supreme and impartial judge, now
imposed on its military weakness as the only prop
of its authority, or support of its existence. Still
the cultivator of the ground, superior in the re-
lative scale of civil society to the cultivator of the
soil in Europe, has sunk below that consideration
which he formerly enjoyed, and must sink infi-
nitely lower when discipline has been added to
gunpowder, and a disciplined insurrection* imposes

* Has not the insurrection of Mehemet Ali — does not the
state of the peasant in Egypt and Syria — forcibly illustrate this
truth ?

RUINS OF ALYZEA. Ill

conditions on the Porte, or a standing army levels
all differences before its equal weight and constant
pressure.

The plain of Mitika is a triangular level. The
shore is the base ; two chains of lofty and abrupt
mountains form the sides, and stretch beyond it
into headlands. The island of Calamo rises from
the sea, in front of the plain, at the distance of one
or two miles. The mountains are limestone : some
conglomerate crops out at their base, inclining
towards them. The plain is clay, and is marshy
towards the shore, from want of cultivation. The
Vernacus has forced a magnificent passage through
the limestone, near the angle of the plain ; and
there, restrained by an embankment at the gorge,
accumulates its waters for the irrigation of the
plain. I speak of it as it was, not as it is. This
embankment is the vestige of antiquity which
pleased me most in Acarnania. Here Hellenic
construction, and Cyclopic labours, have been de-
voted to a useful work, and remain, at the present
hour, an instructive lesson. The discovery of this
ruin gave me a peculiar interest in this city, and
every thing connected with it. I fancied that its
protecting barrier of rocks disconnected it from
the events of Acarnania, shielded it from the deso-
lating neighbourhood of the Etolians ; that its little
lake gave exuberant fertility to the soil ; that its
sheltered harbour brought commerce to its shores ;
and that here the peaceable, intellectual, and ima-

112 RUINS OF ALYZEA.

ginative portions of the spirit of Greece enjoyed, in
not inglorious peace, and not unmanly refinement,
the richness of this lovely spot, and the security of
this strong position.

Alyzea possessed, among many other inspira-
tions of " Sculpture's Attic muse," the " Labours of
Hercules," from the chisel of Lysippus. I heard,
from the peasants, of a great many inscriptions
among their huts, but could discover only two.
The walls are in the best Hellenic style ; and, pro-
bably, of all these cities, Alyzea would best repay
excavation and research.

The excitement which the arrival of Europeans
every where produced, was here called forth in a
most striking manner. They thronged round me,
anxiously inquiring where the limits really were to
be ; and, when I told them that they were without,
they stood like men who had listened to a sentence
of death. A fine, intelligent boy, certainly not
more than ten years of age, and who, for an hour,
had been leading me about the ruins, exclaimed,
" We never will allow the Turks * to come here
again !" " Will you prevent them, my little man ?"
said I. With a look and attitude full of indig-

* It may be worth while to remark, that the word Turk is
used in Greece much as it is in Europe. These populations had
never but once seen a Turkish army — they had never fought
against Turks. To the Turks they owed, as already stated,
their original institutions, and continual protection against their
historic enemies, the Albanians.

ALYZEA. 113

nation, he replied, " You may laugh, if you please,
but the Turks will never take alive even a little
child " Q>h 0oi kiuoovv Zpothuvov prpz paioov tocioi). " I
would shoot my sister," pointing to a girl older
than himself, " sooner than that she should again
be made a slave."

Half an hour before sunset we left Candile for
Vonizza : we put spurs to our horses, and reached,
with daylight, the gorge near Alyzea, through
which the Vernacus passes. On the shoulder of
the right precipice, which rises perpendicularly at
least five hundred feet, stands a Venetian fortress,
called Glossa. After passing the cliffs, the gorge
winds to the left ; the mountains rise on either
side. We were here suddenly stopped by a Hellenic
wall, filling up the whole glen. We dismounted,
and, after groping about for some time, discovered
a passage to the right. This was the dyke to
which I have before alluded, the superior layers
receding so as to give it a pyramid-like inclination :
eleven layers still appear. The night had closed
in, but we had the advantage of a most brilliant
moon, which threw a flood of light through the
gorge we had passed. W'e stood in the deepest
shade, to acknowledge the reUgio loci, and enjoy
the fragrance and freshness of an eastern evening
that succeeds a fatiguingly brilliant and sultry day.
We threaded our way through groves of myrtle
under the deep shade of the lovely and magnificent
Chenar, that, filling the bed of the stream and the

VOL. I. i

114 THE ACARNANIAN OLYMPUS.

bottom of the glen, threw their spreading branches
like arches over our heads. An hour's distance
from the first, we came to the second gorge ; there
the want of fodder prevented us from passing the
night. Half an hour brought us to a mill, before
which, on a green sward, a circle of muleteers sat
in the moonlight, smoking, singing, and playing the
guitar.

About midnight we established ourselves on an
exposed brow, close to a clear fountain ; turned
out our mules and horses to graze, and lighted a
blazing fire, which added much to the picturesque
character of our situation, but did not seem to
please the wild boars and jackals, which kept up
a continual snorting and screaming around us.
After pipes and coffee, I prepared to taste not the
least of the traveller's enjoyments, slung between
two trees in a Mexican hammock, after one of the
pleasantest days of a most delightful journey.

Next morning we were en route at dawn, and,
in two hours, crossed the highest part of the pass
of the Acarnanian Olympus. An hour further on,
we looked down on the fertile little plain of Livadia.
As we passed by, some shepherd-soldiers, from a
little grove on the right, brought out and offered
us milk newly drawn, and fresh " mgithra" (curds)
the Italian ricotta. We went to visit their wood-
land habitation : huts, sheepfolds, roofs, and pali-
sades, formed of green boughs and live shrubs bent
into the forms of walls : it was quite a labyrinth of

THE ACARNAMAN OLYMPUS. 115

foliage — a hamlet of live verdure; their arms and
rude implements were hung upon the trees ; the
sun, which shone brightly on the opposite hills, and
on half the plain below, had not reached them ;
the grass was still wet with dew. We gladly
accepted their hospitality, and made a hearty
breakfast on their simple fare, while they were
churning, cleaning their arms, milking their goats
and sheep, and shearing around us. They were
astonished at our inquiries, and could not credit
the admiration we expressed at their encampment ;
they even suspected that we were amusing our-
selves at the expense of their simplicity : some of
them, who knew a little of the world, began to
expatiate to the rest, on the palaces, luxuries, and
learning of England, and wondered how m'rfordi
could find pleasure in observing their ignorance and
poverty, " we, beasts that we are" — (rjpsTg Z&cc qkov

On a little hill to the north, are the ruins of
Pyrgi, or a farm establishment, built by Ali Pasha :
it has remained for years untouched by the plough,
and is now a rich meadow ; for the right of their
respective adherents to pasture on which, Verna-
chiotti and Zonga are at present at variance, and
probably may soon be at war.

We descended gradually from plateau to pla-
teau. The country is partially wooded : the
basins, although the rocks are limestone, filled
with rich soil. The path descends several times

i2

116 A PICTURESQUE SCENE.

through chasms, burst open by the torrent, which
reproduced, in miniature, the grander scenes of last
night. These chasms were overhung with varieties
of oak, — the quercus, smooth-leaved, prickly-leaved,
ilex, and with ash, elm, and other forest trees.
Moss, which is uncommon in this climate, hung pro-
fusely from the damp rocks and from the trunks and
branches of the trees, over which wandered innumer-
able creepers, chiefly the clematis, which flings its
slender stems from the very summits of the trees
to the banks of the stream below the rock,' where
they coiled as loose rigging hanging from a mast.

About an hour from Livadia, we came succes-
sively in sight of the serrated shores and bays of
the Ambracian Gulf, the Leucadian Promontory,
and the ' ' Azrrj 'Ea-s/^oib. Before us rose the land
of Pyrrhus, Scanderbeg, and Ali Pasha ; and, to the
right, the mountain altars of ancient mythology,
the ridges of the Pindus, " sublimed with snow."
An hour more brought us to Paradisi, when, turn-
ing to the left, we saw a narrow plain stretching
to the Gulf, on the shore of which rose a small
round knoll, crowned with the Venetian towers and
fortifications of Vonizza.

It was near mid-day when we reached the base
of the hills : the heat was tempered by ample
shade, and by the sea-breeze that had just set in.
The country seemed to smile around us in its
reckless richness. We found ourselves on a bright
green sward, half encircled by a bend of the

A PICTURESQUE SCENE. 117

rocky stream, and shadowed by a deep border of
that constant ornament of running waters, the
friendly Chenar. The foreground presented a
masterpiece of nature's art, which a Salvator Rosa
or a Byron, alone, was worthy to look on. A
troop of Palicars, though there was no village nor
even house in the vicinity, had chosen this situation
for their encampment, and fixed their habitations
among the trees. They were allured only by the
amenity of the place, the abundance of water and
shade, and their innate taste. Each Palicar had
woven for himself a pallet of green boughs covered
with fern, which, according to his fancy, he sup-
ported by stakes driven into the bed of the stream
or its banks, or nestled in the forks of the massive
trunks and branches of the trees, or, to catch the
cool current of air, suspended from the boughs
crossing each other from the opposite sides of the
stream. Their goats, for every soldier has one or
more, were resting under these pallets, or standing
in the water. Some of the Palicars were bathing,
some, in their rich picturesque and warlike cos-
tumes, seated crosslegged, smoking ; some grouped
round fires preparing their food, while the smoke
rising through the thick foliage, passing over the
trunks, or curling round the light-green smooth
branches, caught and reflected the rays that had
penetrated through the canopy of verdure, and
produced a thousand beautiful effects. The sharp
tingling of a single tambouriki, softened by the

118 A PICTURESQUE SCENE.

murmur of the tumbling torrent, formed a happy
accompaniment to the dream, — for such it seemed.

The Platanus, the Chenar of Persian poet.s, is a
tree so elegant in its form, so docile in its growth,
that it gives beauty to all that surrounds it ; shoot-
ing up like the poplar when confined ; spreading,
when at liberty, like the oak ; and drooping like the
weeping willow over streams — it adapts itself to
every position of soil, and assimilates itself to every
style of landscape. The foliage, by the broadness of
the leaves and their springing at the extremity of
the branches, is bold and massive, without being
dense or heavy. Vast and airy vaults are formed
within, excluding the strong light and the sun's
rays ; and through these verdant domes, the round,
long, naked boughs, of a light-green hue and vel-
vety texture, meander like enormous snakes.

We lingered in this valley, which deserves its
name, if aught on earth can deserve such a name,
(Paradisi), to allow time for the pitching of our
tent at Vonizza, and for preparing a dinner to
compensate us for our long privations : but, alas !
on our arrival we found ourselves in reality restored
to terrestrial cares, for neither tent nor dinner were
there, — our servants had quarrelled by the way,
and were literally at daggers-drawing.

CHANGE IN THE PALICARS. 119

CHAPTER VII.

CHANGE IN THE PALICARS THE VLACHI SOLDIER-SHEPHERDS

POUQUEVILLE's BLUNDERS FETES IN THE MAKRONOROS

BOAR HUNT ARRIVAL IN ALBANIA.

Step by step, as we proceeded northward, the
alarm of commotion and anarchy vanished before
us. Like fame and the rainbow, that fly the pur-
suer and pursue the flier, alarms now flourished
in our rear ; and we heard of nothing but com-
motions in the Morea. We were arrived at
the place which had the reputation in the Morea
of being the very focus of disaffection and dis-
orders ; but here, as elsewhere, we found the most
perfect tranquillity : nor had we to take the slight-
est precaution for the preservation of ourselves or
of our most trifling effects ; nor, during our whole
peregrinations in Acarnania, had ever the idea of
precaution presented itself to us.

General Pisa was Military Commandant of West-
ern Greece ; and we were soon put in possession of
all the details of its state and organisation. Some
months before serious disturbances had taken
place amongst the soldiery ; but these were ex-

120 CHANGE IN THE PALICARS.

cited, I will not say by the incapacity, but by the
very sight, of Augustin Capodistrias. The Greek
Armatoles might submit to the authority of a
European officer, commanding respect by his
abilities, and sharing with them their dangers
and fatigues : the arrogant bearing of an upstart
Frank, and, above all, a Corfiote, no soldier, and,
withal, a vain and silly man, could only excite
amazement, to be followed by contempt.

Since the appointment of General Pisa, the
most perfect tranquillity has prevailed, from no
other reason, I believe, than because he is not
Augustin Capodistrias ; nor, by intermeddling, has
he yet informed them, that he is General Pisa.

Vonizza is the head-quarters for the troops
posted on the Makronoros, and in different points
of the Gulf, with which the communication is
maintained by Mysticos. The regular alternation
of land- and sea-breezes, renders this inland navi-
gation most sure and expeditious. When we pro-
posed going to visit Caravanserai by land, that
we might inspect the southern shores, we were
recommended to go by water, because the passage
was usually made by water ; the route by land
being circuitous and bad, and the breezes favour-
able and certain, — I retain the remark, because it
may prove illustrative of the passages of Philip
and the Lacedaemonians from Leucas to Limnaea,
in the last of which the omission, as I imagine,
of the word " by sea," has given rise to discussions

CHANGE IX THE PALICARS. 121

among learned commentators in their closets,
which the inspection of the localities would easily
set at rest.

We were much gratified, not only by the good
feeling that seemed to exist among the soldiery,
but also by their strict and cheerful subordination,
which the example of the Peloponnesians had
hardly led us to expect. Since the organisation
had been effected, one single case requiring penal
animadversion had occurred. A subaltern officer,
not in activity (wzopuyjog), had beaten, in a quarrel,
an old man at Vonizza. He was tried by a court
of his peers, and sentenced to lose three months
of his half-pay, and be confined for six months
in the Castle of Lepanto. This sentence was the
spontaneous suggestion of the officers themselves,
as was also the mode of putting it in execution ;
namely, delivering the order for his confinement
to the convicted officer himself, that he might
present it to the Governor of Lepanto, offering
himself, at the same time, for imprisonment.
This is an exemplification of the point of honour,*
which is, of course, quite unknown in the East.
The officers spoke with delight of their first
judicial proceedings.

* It is strange enough that the word " honour," which we
have been told by travellers has no synonyme in Turkish, is
itself a Turkish word, " Huner" which is, in its strict sense, order.
In Greek, the word for " honour," rip.*, means, also, price.

122 THE VLACHI SOLDIER-SHEPHERDS.

Though Vonizza was the head-quarters, there
was no body of troops in it, and only one of the
Capitani, Zongas, the chief of the Vlachi, — a popu-
lation which has contributed to the revolution, at
various times, as many as ten thousand men :
Zongas has mustered as many as two thousand
at once. The Vlachi, though not Armatoles, more
readily become soldiers than the Greek Rayah.
Their nomade habits, and the little contact they
have with the Turks, render them less submissive,
and familiarise them with danger and the use of
arms ; while their property in flocks and cattle,
which they can so easily remove, and in butter,
cheese, and capotes, which are disposed of every
where with equal facility, leaves their roaming
habits unconfined, while it deprives them of the
necessity or inclination to engage in brigandage.
I suppose I need not observe that the Vlachi are
originally from Wallachia ; and that, to the amount
of about half a million of souls, they are wandering
shepherds all over European Turkey, changing
their abode with the seasons, possessing a large
proportion of the sheep of the country, and often
having additional flocks confided to their care by
the stationary populations.*

* The following description of the Vlachi in the thirteenth
century, is a curious illustration of the permanency of Eastern
habits and interests : —

" The Vlachi are a wandering race, who have acquired con-
siderable wealth by their flocks and herds, whose pastoral life

THE VLACHI SOLDIER-SHEPHERDS. 123

Their celebrated chief, Cach Antoni, who was
one of the Klephti heroes of Ali Pasha's reign, had
been a wealthy proprietor of sheep and .goats, of
horses and mules. A party of Albanians once
alighted at his encampment : sheep were killed,
and skins of wine untied. When they had feasted
themselves, they proceeded to the most shameful
outrages ; and fell victims, during their sleep, to
the violated chastity of the Vlachi establishment.

Cach Antoni, exasperated by the dishonour of
his family, and now irrevocably excluded from all
hope of pardon, set fire, on the spot, to his tents
and weightier movables, mingled the blood of two
thousand slaughtered sheep with that of the Al-
banians, and, as they emphatically express it,
" took to the mountain" (engt to fiovvo). A man
of a daring, not to say of a lofty mind, and of an
iron frame, he now became the hero of the Vlachi
name, recruiting his band from these hardy
mountaineers, no where fixed, but always to be
found where the wolves have dens and the eagles
nests. For many years he defied the power of
Ali Pasha, but was caught, at length, suffering
from the ague, and concealed in a cave ; whither
one of his sons, who had carried him far, had been

has inured them to fatigue, and endowed them with great strength
and hardness of body ; while a habitual practice of the chase has
taught them the first rudiments of war, and frequent skirmishes
with the imperial troops have trained them to a considerable skill
in the use of arms." — Pachymeer, Hist. Andr. lib. i. cap. 27.

124 THE VLACHI SOLDIER-SHEPHERDS.

forced to deposit him. In this state he was
brought to Janina ; and suffered a cruel and lin-
gering death by the successive fracture of every
bone in his body, while he uttered neither groan
nor complaint ; and reproached one of his sons
for dishonouring his house, by evincing weakness
while undergoing the same torture.

Zongas was his Proto-palicari, and, shortly
after his death, submitted to Ali Pasha. He in-
herited his former patron's authority among the
Vlachi, who thus appeared, for the first time, as
Armatoles. Though distinct from the Greeks in
language and in race, they were identified with
them in every other respect ; and thence the same
ready transition, on the breaking up of the domi-
nion of Ali Pasha, from Klepht to Armatole, and
from Armatole to Patriot.

After spending three days at Vonizza, we pro-
ceeded to make the tour of the Gulf. General
Pisa placed at our disposal one of the government
mysticos ; and when the sea-breeze had set in, we
left Vonizza, and skimmed along the Gulf right
before the wind, '* wing and wing." Our first
object was Caravanserai, where we had nearly
made up our minds to find the Amphilochian
Argos ; and were certainly exceedingly disap-
pointed at the uninteresting appearance of the
narrow cove, the barrenness of the limestone hills,
and the insignificance of the ruins themselves.
They consist of a simple Hellenic wall, two thou-

pouqueville's blunders. 125

sand five hundred paces in circumference. The
walls extend from the shore round the summit of
a little rocky hill : to the north is the narrow cove
of the Gulf ; to the south, the long river-like lake
called Ambracia ; and to the east and west rise
abruptly two barren mountains, which intercept
the view, and scarcely afford, in the vicinity of
the ruins, a spot of level ground large enough for
a garden.

This place has been pitched upon for the locality
of the Argos Amphilochicum by D'Anville, Barbie
de Bocage, Arrowsmith, &c. D'Anville, not content
with finding an Argos, has made an Inachus for
his Argos, by drawing a meandering line from the
Achelous entering the Gulf at this spot. The
description I have given of the locality will shew
that there never could have existed any stream at
Caravanserai. Pouqueville, with his usual exube-
rance of blunders, makes it out to be Olpae. He
observes, that D'Anville calls this place Argos
Amphilochicum, and that the peasants call it Am-
brachia, " which is no less an error on the part of
the geographer than on that of the peasant ; but,"
continues the facetious consul, "pour mot qui savois
that Ambrachia is the Acropolis of Rogous, and
Argos is the submerged town of Philo- Castro
(Phido-Castro — snake-castle), I discovered in Am-
brachia the ancient Olpse." Above all, is he fixed
in this conviction by the "precise" distance from
Argos — his Philo-Castro. Shortly before this, he

126 pouqueville's blunders.

had " discovered" in Combote, some ten or twelve
miles to the north, Crenae, which the Lacedaemo-
nians, coming from the south, had to pass during
the night, to arrive at Olpae in the morning; and
as to his " precise" distance, instead of the twenty-
five stadia between Argos and Olpae, there are at
least two hundred and fifty between Phido-Castro
and Caravanserai. The quotations he gives in
confirmation are themselves perfectly conclusive
against his suppositions, besides being, as usual,
misquoted. The perfect confidence, no less than
the errors, of Pouqueville, would, at times, make
one think that his book was intended for a hoax.
Throughout Acarnania his discoveries have not
extended much beyond the one we have just seen
of Olpae in Caravanserai, and of Thermus, where it
is likely no mortal will ever " discover " it again ;
but he tells us, " j'ai souleve le voile qui couveroit
des problemes geographiques jusqu'a present inso-
lubles, j'ai revivifie l'Acarnarnie entiere."! Again,
says he, " Je donnai, par une sorte d'inspiration,
des noms a tous les lieux qui m'environnoient!"
What an invaluable accompaniment he would have
been for Ross or Parry's northern expeditions ! *

* Pouqueville places Lymnaea at Loutraki, and, to support
this position, says that Cnemus " l'abandonna au pillage en se
detournant un pen du che?nin qu'il tenoit pour penetrer dans
l'Agraide ; en effet, ce general parti de Leucade avait du
prendre sa route au niidi du Lac Boulgari pour se porter vers le
defile de Catouni, et ne put passer a Lymnee qu'en derivant a

pouqueville's blunders. 127

We returned to sup and sleep on board our
mystico, and sailed about midnight with the soft
land-breeze that dies away again in the morning.
A little before sunrise, we were awakened by our

gauche." It belongs but to Pouqueville to combine, in so short
a sentence, so many errors, misconstructions, and such incon-
ceivable assurance. In a note he reports some of the words of
Thucydides, adding again, within parentheses ("en se detour-
nant un peu de sa route.")*

Thucydides says that Cnemus left Leucadia in great haste,
leaving some of his troops behind, to reach Stratus, thinking, if
he could surprise it, the rest of Acaruania would submit. He,
therefore, passed through Argis (not " l'Agraide" of Pouque-
ville), and, arriving by sea, as Philip did afterwards, and as
seems to have been, as it still is, the common practice, pillaged
Lymnaea ; but there is not a single word about quitting his road
for that purpose. The words are :

Kxt ot* tj)? Agyw«c$ iflmj Aiuteuxt x-tttcni irojjiw cx«g0i|rar.
AtyixyoZrrxi rt iici ILr^ttm. — x. t. A.

" Stephanus, of Byzantium," says Pouqueville, " is wrong
in making Lymnaea a burgh of Argolis" (as Thucydides, in this
very passage, does), because he had not the benefit of Mr.
Pouqueville's discovery of Argos, in Phido-Castro, and, conse-
quently, " a pris le change relativement a Argos Amphilochi-
cum." Palmerius quotes this very passage of Stephanus, in
rejecting a proposed emendation of this passage of Thucydides
by some commentator. And Gronovius, in his notes to Stepha-
nus, says that, in carefully examining the passage of Thucy-
dides, he must adhere to the correct judgment of that learned
geographer.

* And, besides, this intercalation supplies Thucydides with
a reason for the pillage — " pour encourager les soldats."

128 FETES IN THE MAKRONOROS.

keel grazing the beach of the Makronoros. The
commander Verri was standing on the beach to
receive us. The style, the outline of the figure,
the arms, the tail, suggested the comparison with
the old Scottish chieftain ; "but the climate, the
refinement of manner, the classical language, and I
must, in spite of early associations, say elegance of
costume, were in favour of the Greek. The strug-
gles of the Scotch Highlanders and of the Greek
mountaineers, probably, had very many points of
resemblance, but their principles and results have
been very dissimilar. The Scotch bravely shed
their blood for the sinking cause of bigotry ; the
Greeks for that of rising liberty ; and, fortunately,
the same principle triumphed in the failure of the
former and the success of the latter.

Thus did we lucubrate then and there ; and these
dreams of Greek regeneration afforded us many an
hour of real enjoyment. The enthusiasm of mutual
sympathies opened to us many a heart, now closed
in bitterness against every thing that comes from
incapable Europe.

Verri, the Tagmatarch, led us to a chamber,
fresh wove of the boughs of oak, arbutus, and
myrtle, supported on posts, driven into the sand
within the sea-mark. It was open towards the
sea ; a rugged trunk of a tree was laid in imitation
of a natural ladder to the entrance from the beach.
I was quite enchanted with the novel and beautiful
idea. A similar apartment had been prepared for

FETES IN" THE MAKRONOROS. 129

us wherever we halted during our stay in the
Makronoros, varying in style and form, but always
fresh ; and, seeing the trouble they had taken to
do us honour, we could not but be strongly pre-
possessed in favour no less of the taste, than of the
sedulous hospitality, of our entertainers. Just such
another little apartment must have been the earliest
Temple of Delphi, woven of green laurel boughs.

It is, of course, superfluous to say that the
whole of the morning was spent in abusing the
Protocol. The point of chief importance here
was the practical means of frustrating it. " Here
we are," said they, " not because the Europeans
have put us here, but because the Turks have
been unable to drive us out. If the Alliance
orders the Greek troops to retire from Acarnania,
the Greek troops will retire ; that is to say, our
commissions in the Greek service will be sent
back, but we will remain in Makronoros. The
Protocol will neither make the Turks' swords
sharper, nor their powder stronger. The Alliance
will not be able to attack us, for we will renounce
the connexion with Greece ; and if shots are again
fired across the frontier, independent Acarnania
will have a hundredfold more to gain than to lose,
and may render to the North the service she has
already rendered to the South ; and the Protocol,
intended to give peace instead of war, will bring
war, where peace at present exists. Our state is
now very different from what it was at our former

VOL. i. k

130 FETES IN THE MAKRONOROS.

rising. From our mountains all around, we could
then only look upon our enemies : now half the
horizon is filled with victorious co-religionists.
Then, we struggled for existence : now, we fight
for independence. Then, our wives and children
grasped our fustanels, and implored us to hold
our hands : now, our women and children encou-
rage us to resistance, and would revile us for sub-
mission."

This sad Protocol has alienated no less the
respect than the confidence and affection 'of these
people. Little could we then have anticipated the
lengthful series of these dire diplomatic instru-
ments, whose snakelike and tortuous course has
wound itself in many and deadly folds around the
destinies of Greece. No ! never can revive again
those moments of hope and exultation ; no revo-
lution can bring Greece back again to that state in
which she was, at the period here described. Her
futurity has been shipwrecked after the danger
was passed ; and the wreck will remain a great and
lamentable example of the crimes that benevolence
can commit, when destitute of knowledge.

At noon the roasted sheep made its appear-
ance, imbedded in a wicker tray of myrtle ; and we
were afterwards lulled to our siesta by the rising
ripple brought in by the sea breeze, which, as it
freshened, dashed the swelling waves against the
stakes, and rocked us in our cradle of verdure.
When we awoke we found horses ready capari-

FETES IN THE MAKROXOROS. 131

soned, and adorned with boars' tusks, to carry us
to the position above. Our intention was to sail
from Makronoros that night with the land breeze ;
but we found that, before our arrival, where and
when we should eat and sleep for three successive
days had been decided on, and preparation accord-
ingly made. An officer from each of the other
Tagmata came to meet us ; and, of course, all our
plans were gladly sacrificed to the enjoyment of
such distinguished and interesting hospitality.

Accompanied by several officers, and a guard
of Palicars, we proceeded to the Tagma of Veli, an
old friend and companion in arms. The road first
lay through low brushwood, myrtle, lauro-cerasus,
bramble, tall heather, thorns, and palluria, a shrub
with multitudes of long and slender branches, set
with strong thorns, perfectly unapproachable itself,
and binding up the underwood into an impervious
mass; when a sheep gets entangled in it, unless
found by the shepherd, it perishes. These thorns
have been the principal strength of the Makronoros.
The path was like an arched way cut through this
underwood, and we rode along almost doubled on
our horses. In some places it has been cleared by
fire, in others it opens into forests of oak; and
still, under a canopy of verdure, one seems passing
from corridors to spacious halls. After a couple
of hours' journeying on, without seeing any thing
of the country through which we were passing, we

k 2

132 FETES IN THE MAKRONOROS.

came at length to a space open to the heavens
above. A band of the forest was before us, a
green brow rose close behind it, and on its sum-
mit were squatted Veli and his men ; their white
fustanels were soon flying about, as they scam-
pered down the hill ; and, after we entered the
forest, we found them drawn up in two lines, wait-
ing for us.

We dismounted at the proper distance, sa-
luted and embraced, and then walked with Veli
through the ranks of his men, who gave us a
hearty welcome as we passed. Our guard from
below went on a-head; these followed two and
two behind ; their fustanels were all snow white,
their persons and clothes clean and tidy to minute-
ness, their looks fresh and cheerful, their manner
orderly and submissive ; and I said to myself,
" Are these the same men — the ' horde' — that I
saw eighteen months ago, filthy and discontented,
in the camp before Lepanto ? "

Rizo has truly said, and Mr. Gordon has given
tenfold weight to the remark by repeating it, that
a man who sees Greece in one year, will not recog-
nise it in the next. Most forcibly was this observa-
tion pressed upon me, by the state in which I
found the soldiery of Makronoros. On leaving
Greece for Turkey, little more than a year before,
if I had been asked, what the greatest benefit was
that could be conferred on Greece, I should have

FETES IN THE MAKRON0ROS. 133

said, — a deluge, to sweep away the whole race of
Liapis.* On my return I found, to my surprise,
industrious and docile labourers and muleteers,
who had previously been soldiers. I explained
this by the supposition that the best disposed had
resumed habits of industry, but was still far from
supposing that any improvement had taken place
in the mass, or from suspecting that, in judging of
them formerly, I had not estimated correctly their
capabilities. It was now, therefore, with quite as
much surprise as gratification, that, by observing
them under other circumstances, I formed a truer
and a higher estimate of their qualifications and
their dispositions.

Arriving at Veli's bivouac, we found on a little
knoll, shaded by an oak, and commanding a pro-
spect of the Gulf and Plain of Arta, a large table,
and an ample sofa on each side, formed of branches
fixed in the ground, wove with boughs, thickly co-
vered with oak-leaves ; quite of a different charac-
ter, but quite as tasteful — more so it could not be
— as the chamber over the sea in which we had
been received in the morning. Whilst we were
taking our coffee, the Palicars formed a large
circle around, and shewed, by the conscious smile
that followed our encomiums on their Arcadian
taste, the part and the interest they had taken in

* Liapi is one of the tribes of Middle Albania, celebrated
for its rapaciousness and filth. Hence the word has become an
epithet of contempt.

134 FETES IN THE MAKRONOROS.

the preparatives for our reception. They paid us
a pretty compliment by the mouth of the Gram-
maticos; and, after standing about ten minutes,
their chief said, " The Hellenes may now retire."
Formerly it would have been the " Palicars ;" but
their hopes were now warmer, their aspirations
higher, and they disclaimed even the names that
were associated with their previous history.

Our evening repast was positively sumptuous ;
five large fires had been put in requisition for it.
A community of shepherds could not have boasted
of greater variety, or excellence of laitage ; and
here, in the wilderness, we had whiter and sweeter
bread than I ever tasted in Paris or London.
Young zarcadia (wild deer) and little brindled
boars picked up the crumbs around, and disputed
them with the pups of Macedonian greyhounds.
When the evening had set in, and the moon arose,
the long Romaika was led out on the mountain's
brow.

" Their leader sung, and bounded to his song,
With choral voice and step, the martial throng."

For two long hours did the leaders dip and twirl,
while the long tail ebbed and flowed, like a follow-
ing wave, to the mellifluous air —

IlSj TO T§//3oW, TO 7T/7r6g<

' 0« otxfioXoi KxXoy'i'pot.

Next morning we were very anxious to get up

ARGOS AMPHILOCHICUM. 135

a boar-hunt, but we abandoned the idea when we
understood, that young Botzari had prepared for
receiving us at noon ; and, an active messenger pro-
mised that in the afternoon we should there find
every thing prepared for a regular Chevy Chase.
We were taken to see a tomb which had been dis-
covered in making an oven ; it contained some
bones, some pieces of a broadsword, and two Ro-
man coins — it makes an excellent oven. There
seemed to be many others in the neighbourhood.

Accompanied, as before, by the " Hellenes,"
we ascended the highest point of the Derveni,
towards the south, where it looks down on the
plain of Vlicha, and where, if my calculations are
correct, still remains to be discovered the site of
the Amphilochian Argos. Here we found the re-
mains of an Hellenic city, of considerable extent,
and, apparently, of a superior style of architecture ;
and, in the uncertainty of its locality, I might have
supposed this the disputed Argos, had it not been
for its remoteness from any thing like a stream,
and the commanding position, which, had that
city been possessed of, must certainly have been
recorded. Standing on this point, Thucydides'
description of the march of Eurylochus is perfectly
graphic. Passing by Lymnsea (Caravanserai), he
ascended the Thyamus (the Spartonoros), then
descended into the plain of Argos (the plain of
Vlicha), then passed between Argos and Crena?,

136 ARGOS AMPHILOCHICUM.

where the troops of the enemy were stationed,
probably on commanding positions, and were
reached after passing from the plain below ; there-
fore, they were on the hill on which I stood ; this
very place, Crense. Olpse a ruin, on a command-
ing situation, three or four miles to the north ; or,
if this were Olpae, Argos would have been three
miles lower down. In either case, the ruins of
Argos are still to be discovered in the plain of
Vlicha, or between it and Makronoros. Having
ascertained it to be between those two points, we
must not despair of finding it, because there is no
river worthy of the name of Father Inachus, and
because there is no ruin on the shore. Thucydides
calls it hri Oukuaiu, but not fact QoLkdaarig. The term
" maritime." might be applied to almost any city in
the neighbourhood of the Gulf; and had he more
strictly defined its position to have been on the
sea, the difficulties, instead of being diminished,
would have been increased. We do not dispute
the locality of Stratus, because Livy calls it a city
" super Ambracicum sinum."

The stream which Pouqueville's map calls
Crickeli, may very well answer for the Inachus.
Strabo merely says that it flows to Argos towards
the south ; * the Crickeli first flows to the south,
and then to the west; the simple mention of the

* Strabo, Book vii.

BOTZARI. 137

stream when so much importance was given to
water of every description, shews how insignificant
it must have been.*

We now turned northwards along the ridge,
and in about an hour and a half, descending among
rocks and through oaken forests, we caught a
glimpse of the pretty little encampment of Bot-
zari, in a small and sheltered flat, where rocks and
woods would have hidden it from observation,
except from above. A shot from our guards was
answered by a bugle from below; here was no
formal greeting, but the Suliotes came bounding
up the rocks with their young chief foremost in
the race. Here we found a perfect temple of
green boughs; it was raised high on stakes, and
had windows all round it ; the sides, roof, and
floor, of green oak boughs ; the floor strewed with
fern, and the windows wreathed with garlands of
wild flowers ; the whole so fresh, that they seemed
scarcely plucked an hour.

Botzari was Upo-Tagmatarch, and had the
command in his superior's absence ; he is a fine

* Purus in occasus parvi sed gurgitis iEas
Ionio fluit in raari, nee fortior undis
Labitur avectse pater Isidis. — Lucan, lib. vi. v. 362.
Inachus, or Ino, father of the Egyptian Isis. — See Pulmerii
Grae. ant. dem. lib. ii. c. 7.

However, the original Inachus might have been contented
with a very slender streamlet for its representative. Again,
Pausanias says, r«Tt v$«§ tVi ir»*v \%i%ilrttt t«s yns.

138 BOAR HUNT.

manly youth, not above twenty, if so much, and
the youngest brother of the Suliote hero : I can-
not say that his countenance was distinguished;
in manner he was shy and bashful, but I have
been seldom so interested by any one on so short
an acquaintance. Here, again, we were astonished
at the excellence and variety of their dairy ; our
young host observed that it was but natural, since
f it was May, and the flocks feed only on flowers,
and our milk is drawn by hands which have been
hitherto accustomed only to the musket and the
yatagan."

Afterwards, we had a delightful boar-hunt. Not
that the game was rife. There were about three
hundred men engaged in it. They ascended, by a
circuitous path, to the upper part of a ravine, then
beat it downwards, on both sides of the slope, with
the stream and with the wind. The principal party
of marksmen were placed at the opening of the dell ;
and large Albanian greyhounds were turned into
the cover, but did not succeed in disturbing many
deer. We were in want of proper dogs, and were
too near the encampment ; our sport was, there-
fore, confined to a few ineffectual shots at a couple
of wild goats, which broke away. During the
battue, we had a splendid prospect of the plain
and gulf. The land and water below displayed
the most strangely variegated tints ; and the de-
scending sun burnished the still vivaria (fish pre-
serves). Amongst the lower mountains, to the

MILITARY DISCIPLINE. 139

north and east, lead-coloured thunder-clouds were
thickly rolling ; heavy peals came echoing along
the hills, while the plain, to the left, seemed undis-
turbed by a breeze ; and the lofty cliffs of the
Djumerca, which rose out of the very thickest of
the storm, reddened by the evening sun, looked
serenity and smiles.

In the evening, we enjoyed the merriment of
the men, and their indefatigable dancing, in the
moonlight. I could not help repeatedly express-
ing to their young chief the lively impression that
the happiness of their condition made upon me.
His answer expressed, in one single idea, the
strong thirst of the Greek character, and more
particularly of the young men, for information.
" The boys," said he, " are happy, because they
know no better ; but do you think I can be happy,
while I see strangers, like you, knowing every
thing about my country, while I know nothing of
theirs?"

I was here much struck with the strict military
subordination which, without accompanying disci-
pline or instruction, had taken place of the pre-
vious turbulence. It is generally supposed that
the Greeks had a great objection to become regular
troops, and that this objection was the most em-
barrassing question under Capodistria's admini-
stration. With all the means at his disposal, with
French officers and French commissariat, the Pre-
sident mustered eight hundred men, and these, for

140 MILITARY DISCIPLINE.

the most part, adventurers from Turkey and the
Ionian Islands. Favier, by his own next to unas-
sisted efforts, and on a portion of the eleemosynary
contributions from Europe, managed to collect, at
one time, three thousand regulars. The President
expressed, indeed, earnestness to form troops —
his actions implied no wish of the kind. To or-
ganise the Greeks, regular pay alone was requisite,
as the present state of Makronoros proves. The
men were not clothed in uniform, but they were
dressed very much alike, if not entirely so ; some
with white jackets and blue embroidery, some
with red ; and all of them with clean fustanels.
They were divided, though undisciplined, into
Lochi and Tagmata, with successive gradations of
command, with titles from the Spartan bands.
The utmost subordination and etiquette divided
these ranks, a result of eastern habit and ideas ;
but the authority of the Capitan had altogether
vanished. They were precisely at that point
where the uniformity of the action of a machine
met, without having as yet impaired the value and
intelligence of the individual. The greater portion
of these troops are lads whose services commenced
with their recollection, who have lived like goats,
amidst rocks and caverns, and who have been
spared much that was debasing in the hard expe-
rience of their fathers. They are proud to call
themselves the children of the revolution, and dis-
tinguish themselves as such from the old men,

THE MAKRONOROS. 141

whom they call Turks. The common epithets of
Klephti, or Palicar, are now become terms of re-
probation. Their only designation is Hellenes,
which they apply to each other in familiar con-
versation.

Next morning, we bade adieu to the Suliotes,
and descended to Palaio-koulia, the second ridge.
Here are the remains of a small Hellenic fortress,
six hundred paces in circumference ; thence we
descended to the little plain of Menidi, where we
had disembarked.

I have had occasion several times to allude to
the strength of the position of the Makronoros ;
I have mentioned Iskos arresting here, with forty
men, a body of Turks, which, had they passed,
would have extinguished at its dawn the revolu-
tion in Acarnania, — perhaps, in the Morea. The
recovery of Western Greece, and its present ad-
dition to the New State, is owing to a bold move-
ment of General Church, who, with five hundred
men, surprised the strong posts of the Makron-
oros : by this movement a convoy of provisions
was arrested ; and the fortresses of Lepanto, Mis-
solonghi, the castle of Roumelie, with four thou-
sand prisoners, consequently fell into the hands
of the Greeks.*

* General Church was recalled by the President, in disgrace,
after this splendid achievement, which secured to Greece that
portion of territory, which was no sooner withdrawn by the

142 THE MAKRONOROS.

Before visiting the spot, I could not under-
stand how a pass of such evident importance
should not have been more particularly indicated
by Thucydides, in describing the double action in
its vicinity between the Ambracians and the Acar-
nanian league ; but an inspection of the localities
reconciled the apparent discrepancy, for the po-
sition is very much stronger now, than it was
anciently.

Makronoros is a sandstone hill, in three escarp-
ments, appearing one above the other. The face
is abrupt, but seldom precipitous ; the back dips
considerably but equably ; they present their abut-
ments to the gulf and the west ; and, conse-
quently, the ridges and the valleys are at right
angles to the frontier line : this, of course, is not
a strong military frontier, and it has only become
so now, because covered with an impervious mass
of thorns, underwood, and forests.

In the night we sailed ; and awoke in the
morning at Caraconisi, an island connected with
the fish preserves and shallows on the north of
the gulf; it is occupied by the Greeks. We there
got into a monoxylo, and punted away to Phido-
Castro, so pompously announced by Pouqueville
as his " revived " Argos Amphilochicum, and were,

conference, than the President declared it necessary to the
existence of Greece, and made it the principal subject of his
Jeremiads to Prince Leopold.

THE MAKRONOROS. 143

of course, disappointed. This ruin is in the middle
of the vivaria ; is a small circuit of Hellenic walls,
the base of which is submerged four or five feet :
we heard of inscriptions and columns that had
been blasted, and carried away for building, by the
Turks. The bottom of the vivaria is covered
with a thick succulent grass, on which they say
the mullet feeds. The preserves were farmed this
year, for 40,000 piastres, to Nicholas Zerva, the
Suliote Tagmatarch at Vouizza.

On our return to Caraconisi, we found a per-
fectly English breakfast — coffee, eggs, toast and
butter, &c, awaiting us at the quarters of Malamo,
the Suliote Tagmatarch, who had been in the
English service. We passed a most interesting
day with him, though he was suffering from the
ague.

As usual, we sailed with the land breeze at
night ; and when we awoke in the morning, found
ourselves between the points of Actium and Anac-
torium, and opposite Prevesa. The mystico would
not run up under the fort ; but we hailed a fishing-
boat, and soon rejoiced in pressing, at length,
the shore of Albania : our journey was now to
commence.

144 THE PROTOCOL.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PROTOCOL.

In quitting Greece, I must, in a few words, ex-
plain the nature of the Protocol of February 3d,
1830, which gave rise to so much confusion.' The
previous Protocol of March 22d, 1829, had been
framed in accordance with the suggestions of
the Ambassadors of the Three Powers, who, as-
sembled at Poros, had instituted an inquiry into
the previous government of Greece, and into the
statistics, topography, and finances of the various
populations of Continental Greece who had taken
part in the war. This Protocol fixed, as the
boundary of the Greek State, that which was the
natural line of demarcation between the contend-
ing populations, and which constituted the real
military frontiers both of Turkey and of Greece ;
defined by natural lines of demarcation, and sup-
ported by positions of military strength. This was
the great and practical object of an intervention
aiming at pacification ; and the Ambassadors, in
adopting the line so recommended, did little more
than admit what did exist, and sanction rights
which had been practically acquired.

THE PROTOCOL. 145

This frontier extended from the passes of
Thermopyle, on the Gulf of Volo, to the passes
of the Makronoros, on the Gulf of Arta.

The Protocol of the 2 2d March further esta-
blished the independent administration of Greece ;
reserving the suzerainete, and a yearly tribute, to
the Porte.

This act received the approbation of the
Greeks. The Porte rejected it officially, because
it bore, together with the signatures of the pleni-
potentiaries of England and France, that of the
plenipotentiary of Russia, with which power she
was actually at war on the receipt of the docu-
ment ; and, as the allies persisted in forcing
this signature upon her, she declared the arrange-
ment as established " de facto" and admitted the
intervention as " sous entendue."

A few days, however, previously to the signa-
ture of the treaty of Adrianople, she formally
acceded to the Protocol. At the treaty of Adria-
nople, that Protocol was made a positive stipu-
lation between the contracting parties, being con-
sidered as binding as if inserted verbatim in the
treaty.

The Protocol of March 22d, was thus proposed
by the parties to the treaty of the 6th July, and
was finally admitted by the belligerents ; it there-
fore satisfactorily settled the material questions
relating to the pacification of Greece. It was the
conclusion of the acts emanating from the Triple

VOL. I. l

146 THE PROTOCOL.

Alliance, and was, furthermore, established by a
separate treaty between Russia and the Porte :
and the basis thus definitively settled, after costing
so much anxiety and labour ; exposing for so
long a period the peace of Europe to continual
hazard ; involving pecuniary sacrifices to so great
an amount ; after having given rise to the battle
of Navarino and the Russian war ; — was now
ratified with a solemnity no less imposing than
the previous complications had been alarming:
and Europe and the East, for the first time after
ten years of war and convulsion, could breathe
with freedom ; and yielded to the illusion, that,
at length the alliance of July had accomplished its
end — the " Pacification of the East."

This illusion had endured for four months,
when it was dissipated by the Protocol of February
3d, 1830, which created Greece an independent
and sovereign state ; and, in compensation to
Turkey for this change in the original stipulations,
reduced on one side the territory previously as-
signed to Greece — restoring Acarnania to Turkey,
but extending the Greek territory on the east, for
the purpose of fixing a better frontier line : that is
to say, the natural frontiers were thrown open
by this new act ; and, while an expensive system
of government was imposed on Greece, its territory
and resources were diminished ; the previous acts
of the Alliance set at naught, and the solemn com-
pact with Turkey violated.

THE PROTOCOL. 147

Thus the Alliance interfered, without necessity,
under the pretext of adjusting differences between
parties, who neither of them, in this respect, claimed
its intervention : the judgment, so given, was a vio-
lation of compact, it unsettled that which did exist,
and it was rejected by both parties to whom it was
offered.*

When powers with hostile interests, stand face
to face, each with half the world at its back,
balancing each other's power, and controlling each
other's supremacy ; — when two powers, one aiming
at universal dominion, by disorganising and con-
vulsing states ; the other looking only to peace,
and seeking to consolidate and defend — sign a
compact by which they are bound to act together,
then either the aggressive or the conservative
policy must wholly triumph throughout the world.
By this Alliance, either the ambition of Russia was
sacrificed to the preponderance of England, or the
power of England was rendered available for the
projects of Russia. A knowledge of the East would
have given to England the means of controlling

* " Having by this treaty (of Adrianople) imposed upon
Turkey the acceptance of the Protocol of March 22d, which
secured to her the suzerainete of Greece, and a yearly tribute
from that country, Russia used all her influence to procure the
independence of Greece, and the violation, by herself and her
allies, of the agreement which she had made an integral part of
the Treaty of Adrianople." — Progress of Russia in the East,
p. 10G.

l2

148 THE PROTOCOL.

Russia ; our ignorance of the East has given to
Russia the control of England, the disposal of her
treasure, the direction of her foreign department
and marine, the keeping of her character and her
honour, and the patronage of her diplomatic ser-
vice. Thence the perversion of the national mind,
toleration of insult, familiarisation with contempt ;
and, finally, we have arrived at that point of po-
litical degradation, where we pursue the policy
of Russia, believing it to be the interest of
England.

Greece, when struggling for existence, passed
fundamental laws for the exclusion of the influence
of Russia, her former patron, the projector of her
revolution, and the enemy of the Porte ; and she
surrendered herself to England, invoking her pro-
tection, direction, and a sovereign of her choice.
Now, England has there neither consideration nor
influence : Russia is supreme ! England has ad-
vanced to Greece nearly 5,000,000/., and has no
right to remuneration — certainly, none to grati-
tude. Russia has advanced 666,000/., of which a
sum of 500,000/. has found its way back to her,
and holds the mortgage for two-thirds of the allied
loan of 2,400,000/. ! England having abandoned
her claims, and having sacrificed her former mort-
gage for the previous loans of 2,800,000/. Greece,
in an evil hour for her and for us, invoked our
protection ; we have betrayed her to the power she
dreaded ; we have transferred her and our money to

THE PROTOCOL. 149

the power we sought to restrain. In Greece, no less
strikingly than in Turkey, Persia, Central Asia, &c,
has Russia advanced towards supremacy and do-
minion, by the use she has been enabled to make
in the East of the power of England, while exhi-
biting to the Eastern world her European pre-
ponderance, in insult and injury, heaped with im-
punity on Great Britain.

Turkey is perishing, and, useful lesson ! perish-
ing through the absence of diplomacy. But some
of the greatest men of England have considered
England's power and dominion, and therefore ex-
istence, contingent on the preservation of Turkey.
May not this consideration have occurred to other
cabinets ? Unless some mind arises in England
equal to the circumstances, most certainly will
the desire and prospect of sharing the spoils of
England present themselves to the governments
whose aggressions we suffer to proceed unopposed ;
whose appetite will be whetted, and whose power
will be increased, by the incorporated fragments of
the Ottoman empire. The partition of Turkey
will become a maritime, as that of Poland was a
territorial, bond of union.

150 THE THREE COMMISSIONERS.

CHAPTER IX.

THE THREE COMMISSIONERS DEPARTURE FROM PREVESA

PROSPECTS OF CONVULSION IN ALBANIA — THE PLAIN OF
ARTA.

The seclusion of our worthy consul, Mr. Meyer,
had not been broken in upon by a stranger for
eight years. We remained here a couple of weeks,
crossed to Santa Maura, visited the opposite point
of Anactorium, and roamed about the ruins of
Nicopolis : of all which places enough has been
said.

Permission had been requested for H. M. S.
Mastiff to enter and survey the Gulf; the Meteor,
also, Captain Copeland's surveying vessel, was
heard of in the Gulf of Volo, at the other extremity
of the proposed frontier line : their simultaneous
appearance occasioned great alarm, to which our
presence added, being supposed to be the commis-
sioners sent to fix the boundary. My companion's
valet being dressed, as we then were, a la Franpaise,
there was no use in denying that we really were
the three commissioners, — English, French, and
Russian, sent to plant stakes.

DEPARTURE FROM PRE VESA. 151

We were very anxious to visit the Greek chiefs,
Gogo and Coutelidas ; but Mr. Mayer induced us
to forego this plan, lest the Turks should have
suspected us of some political object. We had,
therefore, no alternative but that of returning to
Greece, or endeavouring to reach Janina, which
was actually in possession of Veli Bey. The road
was safe as far as the Pende-Pigadia ; thence we
might get to Veli Bey's camp ; and then trust to
chance, and to the movements of the troops, for
penetrating further ; and, if we found that imprac-
ticable, we had only to return, as, whatever might
become the relative positions or circumstances
of the adverse factions, Veli Bey had his retreat
secured on Arta and Prevesa.

Having determined, therefore, on an attempt
to reach Janina, on the 16th of June we sailed
with the sea-breeze at noon for Salaora, where we
arrived in two hours. Our boatman was an Arab,
whom we had hired in consequence of having
been spectators of a dispute between him and the
harbour-master of Prevesa, a Greek, and formerly
commander of one of the mysticoes that had forced
so gallantly their way into the Gulf. The Arab,
with great patience, submitted to insults and ex-
actions from the Greek and his Albanian under-
lings; but, when he got on board of his caique,
while the shore was lined with Turks and Albani-
ans, he stood, like Palinurus, on the elevated poop,

152 PROSPECTS OF

and, taking off his cap, raised his arms, and impre-
cated Heaven's wrath on the whole Skipetar race.

We saw at Salaora several of the Greek sixty-
eight-pound shot, which had destroyed the few
houses that were there. It was no easy matter to
procure horses. A Cephaloniote went to the Aga,
and proposed that we should hire his ati (charger),
saying, " They will pay you a dollar for the trip ; "
at which proposal the Aga seemed very indignant,
which produced on the part of the Greek a torrent
of the most foul-mouthed abuse. During the al-
tercation, several Greeks, squatted around, and gave
evident signs of approbation, while the Turkish
soldiers* pretended not to understand the matter,
and the Aga affected to laugh.

" Are dollars so rife amongst you," exclaimed
the Ionian, u that you spurn them so ? Why,
then, do you not get a new fustanel for yourself,
and pay your soldiers their arrears ? And what
have you to do with horses ? Get zarouchia (rulde
slippers used by the mountaineers) instead, for you
will soon have to run and hide yourselves among
the rocks."

This seemed most strange, according to our
preconceived notions of Albanian fierceness and
haughtiness ; and, putting together the scorn of

* This, of course, should be " Albanian soldiers." In my
journal, large additions have been made, but the records made
on the spot, of impressions received, have been preserved.

CONVULSION IN ALBANIA. 153

the Arab, and the volubility of the Greek, we
began to think that, after all, even the Skipetars
might be more sinned against than sinning.

Along the road, on approaching Arta, we saw
on all sides gardens and well-cultivated fields, filled
with labourers. We passed 140 pack-horses between
Salaora and Arta. We met the Greeks armed,
Greek priests singing in chorus, with wild-looking
Albanians, and could not resist the momentary
conclusion, that we had come all this way for
nothing, and that Albania wTas as tranquil as any
other land. We asked our muleteer (a Greek) if
the Turks oppressed him ? he answered, " some-
times;" but immediately afterwards related how,
some days before, twenty of his countrymen had
been taken {angaria *) to transport to Janina the
baggage of Veli Bey. There, other Turks had
seized upon them ; and only eighteen returned to
Arta : two had been killed, and their mules taken.
We asked him how they could endure such treat-
ment, and why he did not go into Greece ? He
said it always had been so, and if he attempted to
escape he might be killed ; and who knew if, after
all, he would be better treated in Greece ? This
fact, the first that came more immediately under

* That is, corvee, or forced labour ; which, in Turkey, is
not in principle the same as the former practice throughout
Europe, or of some countries at the present day. The corvee in
Turkey is allotted by the municipal authorities. The present
and similar instances are, of course, direct violations of the law.

154 THE PLAIN OF ARTA.

our eyes, relieved us from further alarm ; we saw
we were yet in time to come in for a share of the
dramatic and the picturesque.

From Salaora to Arta they calculate three
hours and a half; but, displaying a regard for our
property which we denied to our persons, we had
left our watches behind : we were, therefore, never
able to keep any exact register of distance by time.
The necessity of travelling with the lightest pos-
sible baggage not -only deprived us of every species
of convenience, such as canteen, bed and bedding,
but also of the more important utensils for a
traveller, books of reference. We were generally
prevented, by the jealousy even of our own guards,
from taking notes ; and, so far from being able to
carry away geological and other specimens, I had
to make it a rule not to pay attention to the strata.
However, the political circumstances of the coun-
try, and the present condition and future prospects
of the inhabitants, were the inducements which
led us to run the risks, and undergo the hardships
of such a journey at such a moment, and left us
little time for collecting a hortus siccus, or for
forming a register of births and marriages.

We soon came on the road which Ali Pasha
had made for carriages, from Prevesa to Janina.
It looks quite civilised ; thirty feet wide, a ditch
on either side, supported by a wall; but it is
traversed every twenty-five paces by a row of
stones, intended, I suppose, to preserve it in form,

THE PLAIN OF ARTA. 155

and to ensure its convexity. But the soil having
been worn away, the rows or walls of stones rise
above the level of the road, and render it perfectly
impracticable for carnages, and strange hopping
for foot passengers, whether bipeds or quadrupeds.
The plain, as well as the portion now under water,
that forms the Vivaria, is clay. The small por-
tions of it which I have been able to examine con-
tain neither organic remains nor minerals ; neither
are those under .water, nor the borders on the
shore, covered with vegetable soil. Further from
the shore, and in the centre of the plain, it is
covered with a thin crust of earth ; to which
circumstance I am inclined to attribute the
proverbial fertility of the plain of Arta. Their
ploughs, which scratch and move the soil to the
depth of three or four inches, never reach nor
turn up to the surface the deeper soil, which has
been fertilised by the sinking of the finer earth,
and the filtration of decayed vegetables and animal
matter. In deep soils all this is irrevocably lost
to them ; but here, on the clay, which, once satu-
rated, is impervious to moisture, the natural ma-
nure remains mixed with the shallow soil, and is
kept within the reach of their superficial culti-
vation. The clay is very tenacious, and cracks
excessively in drought ; so, that in the lower part of
the plain, trees are scarce, and the few there are
have spreading roots.

As we approached the city, the road, though

156 ARTA.

broken and clogged up, with its ditch on either
side, and overhanging trees, presented a scene such
as I had not had the gratification of seeing for
four years. Vineyards and gardens smiled around,
mingled with fruit-trees, and divided by hedges ;
and some apparently magnificent building appeared
above the trees, and marked the position of the
city. The very dust along the road had its
interest ; and I anticipated finding an equally
pleasing contrast in Arta with the ruined cities
I had become accustomed to of late. Very dif-
ferent, however, was the prospect awaiting me.
In Greece the destruction of the towns is so com-
plete, as now to present little more than the
interest of historic facts : but here the causes of
destruction are still active ; and, on entering Arta,
we were stopped by masses of ruins, over which
a path had not yet been formed, and from which
the dust seemed scarcely to have been blown away.
At the commencement of the revolution, and
before its characters were well defined, the Alba-
nians, who at first saw only the fact of resistance
to the Turks, were inclined to make common
cause with the Greeks ; but the moment they per-
ceived that the Greek movement was a national
one, they immediately abandoned the hasty alli-
ance. But, on the other hand, the Albanians have
frustrated every plan of the Porte for the subjuga-
tion of the Peloponnesus. At Arta the Albanians
assisted the Greek rising ; but the house we occu-

ART A. 157

pied, designated " Casa Comboti," was defended
for fifteen days by the Turkish muselim, who had
been sent by Ismael Pasha, then besieging Ali
Pasha at Janina. The walls and upper windows
still bear the marks of bullets — the door, of fire
and the axe ; the traces of Marco Botzari's first
exploit. Here his name was first made familiar
with men's lips, and his daring boldness recorded
as that of another Capaneus, —

Ammunition failing, the Greeks offered to sup-
ply it ; and Ta'ir Abas was sent by the Albanians
to receive it at Missolonghi, and, at the same
time, to observe the condition and penetrate the
designs of the Greeks. He soon returned, and
told his compatriots that he had seen flags with
crosses, and heard of nothing but " yivog" and
" IXivkcicc" " race " and " liberty." They received
the ammunition — turned their arms against the
Greeks (who were also betrayed and deserted by
their co-religionists, Gogo and Contelidas) — and
drove them beyond the Makronoros. Then, in
turn, abandoning Ali Pasha, they submitted to the
Porte. The Greeks did not injure the town.
Many of the inhabitants, who had not been con-
nected with the insurrection, but who feared the
indiscriminate vengeance of the Turks, retired
with them. The Turks, again in possession of
the place (that is to say, the Albanians, after they
had changed sides), destroyed the houses of those

158 ARTA.

who had fled ; although, when too late, they re-
pented them of their blind fury. A few hours after
the flight of the Greeks, the Albanians arrived,
ravaging the country in their march. The whole
population, suddenly panic-struck, took to flight.
The Albanians, exasperated, pursued them, and
were but at a short distance, when — " fortunately
it was near supper time" — a flock of 5000 sheep
crossed their path and spoiled the scent. The
fugitives, during the night, put Makronoros be-
hind them. Among these was the own«r of
the house we occupied. She had spent five
years at Corfu, and returned still possessed of
some little property, which she expended in fitting
up a house and clearing a garden. On which
twenty Albanians were immediately quartered upon
her, and she took refuge in the consulate (the
house is hers, but rented by the English consul),
and lives now in one of the stalls of her father's
stables.

Within the year, the township, in its present
wretched condition, has paid 200,000 piastres to
Veli Bey. To me it is inexplicable where these
Greeks get their money ; but, however little men
may gain, if they spend less, they are rich. Besides
the contributions in money, they have' to lodge,
feed, clothe, serve, and even shave the soldiers,
gratis ; unless we reckon notes of hand, and " pro-
mises to pay " when they receive their arrears. I
forgot to inquire at what discount this scrip

ARTA. 159

could be obtained. Thus, under circumstances
that would have driven to desperation the more
impatient and less easily satisfied Gothic tribes of
Western Europe, this population perseveres in
industry and in hope ; improving every hour, hus-
banding every resource ; sowing their seed by
stealth, and reaping their own as if it were a
theft. What must be their condition, when they
look back with gratitude to Ali Pasha! His
tyranny, though indiscriminate, was single : neither
robbery nor oppression, indignity nor violence, had
any one to apprehend whose account was settled
with him. They say, u We thought him a tyrant,
and we rejoiced in his destruction ; but it is not
his feet we would kiss, but the very dust beneath
them, could he be restored to us ! "

160 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR, BEYS, AND CADI.

CHAPTER X.

POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND DIPLOMATIC DISQUISITIONS, WITH A
GOVERNOR, A NOBLE, AND A JUDGE.

17th. — We spent this day in paying (and receiving
in return) visits to the governor, two beys, and the
cadi. We found our vice-consul, Dr. Lucas, an
excellent cicerone. He is of Albanian extraction,
that is, from the Albanian colonies established in
Sicily, has long resided in this country, and
speaks the Greek as well as his mother tongue.
His quality of physician is, no doubt, of great
service to him ; and we found him most atten-
tive and communicative. He is the only servant
of the British government whom I ever met with
in the East, who has assisted me in my endeavours
to establish an intercourse with the natives of the
country. Musseli Bey, the governor, brother of
Veli Bey, who is ruler of all Lower Albania, occu-
pies the palace of the archbishop, once the resi-
dence of Porphyrius, our host at Anatolico. The
church is a granary ; a mosque, a den of palicari.

PALACE OF MUSSELI BEY. 161

Devastation is now the ruling deity, and " no fond
abodes" circumscribe its worship. The palace is
one of the few buildings that still stand. The
apartments are airy and spacious ; and the view
from the windows of the divan, overlooking a bend
of the river, and extending towards the hills, was
so beautiful, that it constantly distracted me from
the long and varied conversation we had with the
Bey, and his Albanians who filled the spacious
apartment. We obtained so much favour among
them, that when he came to return our visit, *
they crowded every part of the house we occupied,
though it was not a small one. They stood up
even on the sofas, and left behind them an odour
which scarcely with ventilation and time was got
rid of.

* This circumstance may appear remarkable. Turkish go-
vernors are not in the habit of paying such honours to travel-
ling gentlemen ; and there was no possibility of our having ac-
quired, immediately upon our arrival, any personal consideration
peculiar to ourselves. We attributed the circumstance at the
time, and I think justly, to the remarkable contrast between the
English agent here and in other places. However humble
his station, he had a character for honesty ; and mixed
with the people as in other parts of the world, knowing their
manners, and speaking their language. Strange that such
qualification in the holder of a most insignificant vice-consulate
should be a subject of remark and observation to two English
travellers, and should be the cause of their receiving marks of
respect and means of information.

VOL. I, M

162 CONVERSATION WITH MUSSELI BEY.

Musseli Bey had heard the report that we
were come to settle the frontiers, and was ex-
ceedingly satisfied to learn that this was not the
case. He anxiously inquired where the line was
to be drawn ; and exclaimed against the injustice
done to Albania, whose " bread " was thus given
away. We answered, that they had already lost
not only so much, but more than the Protocol
had assigned to the Greeks ; that so many years
of war had advanced them nothing; and that
the Greeks complained of not having at least all
the territory they had conquered. It was here
evidently the realisation of the old proverb. The
Greeks made an outcry, why should the Albanians
be behind them ? The Protocol was the mad dog,
and every one flung his stone. The conversation
now turned on the greatness, power, and inven-
tions, of England. We were overwhelmed with
questions, which might have gone on till now, had
we not stopped their mouths with steam-coaches
and Perkins's guns. Going from Arta to Janina
in an hour, and mowing down a regiment, while a
barber was shaving a single chin, were calculations
which they immediately made. When their asto-
nishment had somewhat subsided, a last, lagging
question surprised us in our turn : " And what
have you invented since f "

A Bin Bashi, who had been listening in silence,
at length turned round to his people, and said,

CONVERSATION WITH MUSSELI BEY. 163

with a thoughtful shake of the head, " We must
take the crown from them, and give it to the
Americans."

They fancy the Americans our enemies ; that
they were formerly our rayas ; and that they will
overturn England, as Greece will Turkey. The
Bey overheard the remark, and, having had his
eyes opened at Shumla and Varna, reproved him
sharply. " Are you not ashamed," said he, " of
such filthy ignorance ? Are we, who owe to others
the crown we have kept, to speak of giving away
the crowns of Europe ? "

The Albanians seem most anxious to display,
on all occasions, their respect for England ; and
are most forward to confess their obligations to
us in the Russian war.* But you may perceive,
in every expression, a mixture of hatred and fear ;
for they look at Greece, that severer wound to
Osmanli pride than any triumph of the Russians,
and attribute its independence to England. Our

* This gratitude, which I, no doubt, then thought justly
founded, I have since been puzzled to account for ; but certain
it is, that, through the whole of Turkey, the belief was at that
time established, that England had saved Turkey from imminent
destruction. Perhaps, it was merely because they thought she
ought to do so. This general conviction was strengthened
by the dread of the Russians for England, which every Al-
banian or Turk, who had come in contact with a Russian
bivouack, must have obtained the consciousness of.

m2

164? CONVERSATION WITH MUSSELI BEY.

power and our motives are equally incomprehen-
sible to them ; and no wonder.

The subject of religion was broached among
them. One of the party was defending high
church principles, when an officer — filthy, ugly,
and, though not old, toothless, and altogether a
jovial sort of savage, calling himself a "Frank" —
came and placed a chair before us, and seated
himself in our fashion. He pointed his finger
at the defender of the faith, and burst into the
most immoderate fit of laughter. When h'e had
recovered his breath, he exclaimed, " That fool,
then, goes to his mosque and prays one way,
as if God were not every way. " Then, pointing
to us, " You go to church, and pray to your
Panagia (Mary), and each thinks the other will
be damned ; which one or other, or, perhaps,
both of you certainly will be. I worship both,
and revile neither; so, when I go to Paradise,
I am sure of one friend, if not of two." The
other inveighed against the depravity of the age
that tolerated such unbelievers; and said, that
even the Greeks would not suffer amongst them
an infidel like him. The scoffer had, however,
the laugh on his side ; and, when his antagonist
muttered something of his repenting this one day,
he was seized with a louder fit of laughter than
before, in which the bystanders joined; clearly
shewing the tendency of Albanian faith — % auxKovXcc

CONVERSATION WITH MUSSELI BEY. 165

hvcci rj "^vyji pov avrrj vcc faku Kd>Jka — " My purse is
my soul ; may it prosper." We recognised the
freethinker for a Turkish freemason, or Becktashi,
by the polished piece of stalagmite from the cave
of Hadgi Becktash, suspended round his neck.
Another of the Bin Bashis wore the same symbol ;
but we could not extract from them any inform-
ation as to the extent and feelings of the order
in Albania, except this, that a Christian may be-
come a Mussulman, a Turk, a Jew ; but a Beck-
tashi is a Becktashi for ever.

Hearing that Musseli Bey was going into
Chamouria, to put an end to a dispute betwixt
two factions of the Chami, 2000 of whom were
fighting hard only twenty miles from Arta, we
requested permission to accompany him. He
would have been very glad of our company, he
said, but that his presence was no longer neces-
sary; we had nothing left, therefore, to do, but
to submit, with what patience we could muster, to
the disappointment of being twelve days in Al-
bania, existing in the midst of the most perfect
tranquillity.

The Bey is a middle-aged man ; spare, but
well put together. He left on me the impression
not of the best parts of the Skipetar character :
his unquiet eye, his lank and sallow countenance,
were deeply stamped with depravity and cunning.
For the sake of contrast, I suppose, was seated by
his side, the governor of the fort — a fat, stupid,

166 CONVERSATION WITH MUSSELI BEY.

good-natured looking being, short and round as
Bacchus, or a butt. The men were rather tall than
short ; some of them handsome ; no superfluous
flesh ; clean limbed and round jointed, with ex-
pressive countenances, and free carriage. Muscle
seemed to beat both bone and blood ; and energy
to bear away the palm from strength. But there
was no family-like resemblance amongst them ;
and their dress, which shews so well the outline
of the person, and leaves completely bare the
neck, forehead, and temples, is not a costume
calculated to give an air of uniformity. None of
them were particularly cleanly ; but every kirtle,
or fustanel, was flounced about as if it had been
a peacock's tail; and every urchin of three feet
strutted along with the air of a Colossus.

We next went to Calio Bey, the first Osmanli
family in the country; and, as Mr. Meyer had
told us, one of the most intelligent men. He re-
ceived us with extreme politeness and urbanity.
On our previous visit to the governor we had been
amused at the avidity with which every expression
was caught at that could be construed unfavour-
ably to the Sultan, or the Turks. We now,
amongst the Osmanlis, heard the Albanians
abused in the most unqualified manner, and, of
course, the poor Greeks, who are free game to
both parties. Our Osmanli host did not know
which of the two, Albanians or Greeks, he detested
most ; but he was very sure of two things, that

CONVERSATION WITH CALIO BEY. 167

they were both degenerate races, and that neither
of them would come to a good end. But he had
held a situation in Greece under Veli Pasha ; and
when we came to speak of things in detail, we
found that there were many lights to pick out in
the broad shadows of his national prejudices. In
answer to his inquiries, we informed him of the
rise of value of land in Greece ; of the progress of
building ; of the extension of cultivation ; of the
immunity of the peasant, save from government
taxes (fortunately, he was not inquisitive upon that
score, nor as to the election of municipal officers,
or the administration of justice, because all these
things seemed to the Turks as the necessary ac-
companiment of tranquillity), and the security of
the property of the rich.* We told him we had
seen Turks pleased and contented in Greece, and
allowed to retain their arms while the Greeks were
disarmed. Though he said little, he seemed to
reflect much on these facts, which he could believe
from the mouth of an European. Perhaps we left
him less certain than we found him, of the bad end
the Greeks would come to, determining on our
next visit to endeavour to set the Albanians also
right in his opinion, which, I must allow, we
should have found rather a more difficult task.

The political affections of the Osmanlis are
strangely distracted. They are generally satisfied

* This, of course, refers to the progress made between
1828-9, before Capodistrias could pull up.

168 CONVERSATION WITH CALIO BEY.

with the destruction of the Janissaries ; but they
greatly fear the consequent increase of the Sultan's
power. They detest the Albanians, to whose vio-
lence and tyranny they are subject,* and appre-
hend more the protection of the regular troops,
because they see in them a system which, once es-
tablished, will be all powerful. They wish the
Albanians to beat the Greeks ; and they wish the
Albanians to be beaten : they wish the Nizzamf to
thrash the Albanians ; but are excessively averse
to the Nizzam being in any way successful.

At Constantinople, we had found it very dif-
ficult to ascertain the sentiments of the Turks on
the subject of the new military organisation.
Here there were no motives for disguise,^; and
Calio Bey candidly allowed many of its advantages,
while, instead of concealing his objections, he
anxiously endeavoured to convince us of their
justice, and urged them not as a matter of party,
but of faith. We thus discussed the subject with
him at great length.

* In such a state of humiliating dependence are the Os-
manlis kept, that Turkish Beys are often not allowed to visit
their farms without the written permission of the Arnaout
governor.

f Regular troops.

J And, what was far more important, there were oppor-
tunities of intercourse. The supposition of there being motives
of disguise originated in this, that when I began to have means
of intercourse, my ingenuity was taxed to find reasons for not
having had it before.

CONVERSATION WITH CALIO BEY. 169

The following conversation, which I set down
nearly verbatim, immediately after it occurred, will,
perhaps, hest illustrate the opinions of the best
class of Turks on these heads.

" Our law," said he, " is the Koran ; and we
must judge of the acts of the Sultan, not by the
praise or blame of the ignorant, but by their
conformity with the precepts of our religion. For
some of his acts I applaud him ; for some, I
condemn him. Our law and our practice are
widely different. The law justifies a Raya in
killing a Mussulman if he enters his house by
force, or even against his will. What connexion,
then, can it have with the oppression and injustice
which now pervade the land ? ' One hour,' says
Mahomet, '■ usefully devoted to the administration
of justice, and the state, is worth seventy years of
Paradise.' The Koran tells us that * the ink of the
wise man is more precious than the blood of the
martyr.' Is it, then, our religion that has ren-
dered us ignorant, or has driven away the science
by which we nourished, to raise the Europeans
over our heads ? Religion and policy applaud the
Sultan for humbling men who were oppressors and
tyrants, enemies of the people, as well as of the
Sultan, and alike ignorant of and despising religion
and letters. The Sultan has thrice saved Turkey
from perdition; he has destroyed the Janissaries,
the Dere Beys, and the great rebel chiefs. As to
regular troops, when our law flourished were not

170 CONVERSATION WITH CALIO BEY.

ours the best disciplined in the world ? and had
that law been maintained, would the Janissaries
have become a wound instead of a sword in the
hand of the state ? Can religion forbid men to
stand or to walk together, to obey their superiors,
and fight their enemies ? Is it not, besides, from
our very practices of religion, that men first learnt
discipline ? Do we not kneel all together with the
Imaum ? do we not rise up with him ? do we not
raise our hands at the same moment ? Men may
object to the Nizzam because they are enemies of
honesty and peace, but not because they are
friends of the law of Islam. But there are
other points upon which the Sultan is to be con-
demned. He has violated our system of taxation ;
he has, more than his predecessors, falsified the
coin ; and, in copying Europe, he has introduced
practices and manners which are no profit to him,
and which exasperate men's minds against him.
He has dressed all men alike, so that respect is not
paid where it is due ; and he has dressed Mussul-
mans like Franks, so that we risk giving the sa-
lutation of peace to infidels. One of our prin-
cipal articles of faith is the abdest five times a day :
why, then, dress us in tight sleeves and pantaloons,
and, above all, with stockings and shoes, to the
constant inconvenience of the whole people, so as
to make the observances of religion oppressive?"

We asked him, if the Sultan, as Caliph, and
the Ulema, could not, by their joint authority,

CONVERSATION WITH CALIO BEY. 171

change an article of faith ? He replied, warmly,
" The Sultan as Caliph, and the Mufti and Ulema
as expounders of the law, would lose their own
authority if they attempted to undermine the sole
basis on which it rests. The Sultan and Mufti, to
preserve the unity of the faith, may decide upon a
question that divides the faithful ; but the subject
of the difference, and the grounds of the decision,
must be alike drawn from the Koran."

We asked him, if these opinions were uni-
versal, how they had not prevented the Sultan
from attempting such innovations ? He said,
"the best portion of the people, rejoiced at the
destruction of the Janissaries, were strongly pre-
possessed in favour of the Sultan, and, if they
were dissatisfied with other things, they held their
tongues, through ignorance of their own feelings
and power. They had, besides, before their eyes,
the apprehension of a reaction ; the decision and
executions of the Sultan had inspired universal
terror. The defection of Greece, the Persian and
the Russian war, had broken the spirit of the
nation, while the subdivision of interests, and the
separation of races, allowed no union to be formed
which would have brought the national feeling to
bear usefully. But, above all, were the Ulema
and Constantinople to blame ? They should have
secured a national and permanent Divan, before
sanctioning and effecting the destruction of the
Janissaries. How has the Sultan maintained him-

172 CONVERSATION WITH A CADI.

self hitherto ? What is his Nizzam ? What is
their number or instruction ? They will no doubt
become powerful ; but what have they been hither-
to, but boys of ten or twelve years of age, who
know not what religion or duty mean, and who
already presume to despise their betters, and will
grow up to divide Mussulmans into two factions —
and all about pantaloons and turbans ?"*

Our next most interesting acquaintance was
the Cadi, an Osmanli from the metropolis : a man
not unlike Rossini in features, though I had' no
means of judging of his musical powers ; but he
was free of speech to volubility ; and some of his
louder tones, though diplomacy was his theme,
positively broke into recitative. He was at dinner
when we first called on him; but the hospitable
habits of Osmanlis know no unseasonable in-
trusions. - With him — a man acquainted with
? the town," and versed in public life and affairs —
our conversation turned on foreign politics. He
expressed the greatest indignation at the inter-
ference of the three powers in the affairs of
Greece ; and asked us by what arguments our
governments pretended to justify to their own
people so flagrant a violation of the rights of
nations ; which, backed by such power, had dis-
membered their empire, overcast every prospect

* We went to visit a farm of Calio Bey, celebrated for its
tobacco. For an account of the cultivation of this article, see
Appendix, No. 6.

CONVERSATION WITH A CADI. 173

of internal amelioration, and cast them, a bound
victim, to their treacherous foe, and our treacherous
friend ? However, we debated the point with him ;
and, of many arguments used, one alone succeeded
in making any impression ; I may therefore men-
tion it, as, in fact, it is the only ground upon
which the question can be put in opposition to a
Turkish antagonist.

The Sultan, I observed, as sovereign of Greece,
had entered into treaties with us for the com-
merce of that country ; these treaties became null
by the confusion that prevailed; we could only
appeal to the legitimate sovereign. The Greeks,
subjects of the Sultan, had committed piracies
to an enormous extent on our commerce ; we
applied to their sovereign for indemnification. He
has one of two courses open to him — to give us
compensation; or, by declaring them pirates, to
abandon them to the justice of those they had
injured. Our government, in justice to their
own subjects, had but one of two courses open to
them also — that of compelling compensation from
the Sultan, or from the Greeks. The Sultan
would adopt neither course ; the European govern-
ments leniently deferred the enforcing their just
claims, and seven years of procrastination and
patient remonstrance, had only accumulated wrong
on wrong, and left the solution as hopeless at the
end of that period as it was at the commencement.
The enforcement of our treaties, the compensation

174 CONVERSATION WITH A CADI.

of our subjects, the restoration of so long inter-
rupted tranquillity, and the free navigation of the
seas, required us, at length, to exert the power we
possessed, not to avenge, but to pacify ; not to
make war, but to restore peace. With what wis-
dom that intervention was exercised, facts would
shew : the intractable rebels and incorrigible pi-
rates had immediately become quiet and peace-
able ; the seas were reopened to commerce ; from
enemies they became useful allies, and offered to
the Turks a place of refuge from their own in-
ternal convulsions, and a personal security, which
their own government could not afford.

The Cadi said that this was to him altogether
a new argument, and that he felt its force; but
that, still, he could not see that our right to in-
demnify ourselves, gave us any right so to exercise
our power, that the Ottoman empire should be
overturned by our good intentions and benevolent
support.

We answered, in turn, that his objection was
equally just ; and that the independence of Greece,
which did not enter into our first plans, was
brought about by the obstinacy of the Sultan.
He has only to go on in the same course to bring
about the independence of more countries than
Greece, even with our best dispositions to prevent
it. " May the devil's ears be stopped /" exclaimed
the Cadi. " Well, well," said he, after a moment's
pause, "wrong or not, we are always sure to

CONVERSATION WITH A CADI. 175

suffer; the weakness and corruption of our go-
vernment are likely enough to give you a pretext.
I know/' he added, " that it is to you we owe our
deliverance from the Russians, who were brought
upon us by the perverseness of the Sultan,* at the
very moment that he had taken from his people
the means and the inclination to resist them.
What would you say of a man who wTould invite
his friends to a marriage-feast, without having
butter and rice in the house ? and if you cannot
make a marriage-feast without pilaf, can you make
war without pilaf? Not content with cutting off
the Janissaries, he immediately afterwards attempt-
ed to exterminate the Becktashis. I was then at
Constantinople, and every morning I felt my head
with both my hands (suiting the action to the
word) before I was sure that it was on my
shoulders. In the midst of this panic, he assem-
bles the Pashas, Beys, and Ayans, and asks them
if they would fight the Russians ? Who would
dare to say to the Sultan that he would not ? But
who would fight for such a government when they
would have preferred a Jew or a Gipsy for a
Sultan ? I have left my home and avocations at
Constantinople for the hovel you see me in, and
am contented to live among these savages, because

* The war was by no means the Sultan's act ; but I give
the conversation as it occurred. It illustrates the political
effects that may be the result of the dissemination of news ;
which power is altogether in Russian hands.

176 TURKISH REGENERATION.

I am out of the Sultan's reach." I need not add
that our friend was a Becktashi.*

The discordant opinions and interests of the
different communities into which the population is
split, the changes in progress in Turkey, and the
altered position of Greece, the agitation of the
question of the limits, the ignorance in which they
are of, and the eagerness they have to know, the
dispositions of the European cabinets, together
with the strange occurrence of travellers in their
country, have surrounded us with an interest, and
a confidence, quite extraordinary. They over-
whelm us with questions, and hang upon our
answers ; and thus are exposed to us their secret
aims and motives. Here Turkish opinion, unveiled
and undisguised, displays an activity and intelli-
gence that would in vain be sought for in Con-
stantinople ;f and the hope daily grows upon me,
that the present fermentation will lead to political
regeneration — a thing not so difficult in Turkey, I
should think, as many suppose.

* This, and all other individuals of whom facts or opinions
are recorded, which, by any contingency, might be injurious
to them, have been ascertained to be beyond the reach of
consequences.

f The people here almost all spoke Greek, and I did not
then know a word of Turkish. *

STATE OF PARTIES. 177

CHAPTER XL

STATE OF PARTIES, DISPOSITIONS FOR OPENING
THE CAMPAIGN.

By the intelligence which has arrived to-day, June
the 19th, the plot seems to thicken fast. The
military chest, baggage, and avant-guard, of the
Sadrazem, we were informed by a Tartar, had left
Adrianople eight days ago, and are expected to-
day at Monastir. The avant-guard is composed
of eight tambours (regiments), and amounts to be-
tween five and six thousand men, regulars, who
have served in the Russian campaign. The Sa-
drazem's (Grand Vizir) departure is retarded, for
a short time, by the measures he is taking to crush
Arslan Bey at the first blow. Before proceeding
westward, he wished to put in movement the
Ayans and Spahis of Roumeli, with the twofold
object of making them act against the Albanians,
and of preventing insurrectionary movements in his
rear. He wished, also, to give time to Mahmoud
Pasha, of Larissa, to obtain some advantage over
Arslan Bey, to add eclat to his arrival. The de-
vastations committed by Arslan Bey and four thou-

178 STATE OF PARTIES.

sand followers, at Zeitouni, Triccala, and on the
northern borders of Thessaly, and the recent sack
of Cogana, afforded the Sadrazem a splendid op-
portunity for declaring himself the protector and
avenger of the agricultural population, and for re-
solving the struggle between the Albanians and the
Porte into a question of government or no govern-
ment. Arslan Bey has consequently been placed
under the ban of the empire and the church, and
declared a Firmanli. Ten thousand men, it is
said, are assembled under Mahmoud Pasha, who
promises to send the head of every rebel follower
of Arslan Bey to Monastir. The result of this first
operation will, no doubt, materially affect the pro-
spects of both parties. Arslan Bey, if beaten, will
find a passage by the mountains into Albania ; but
he will bring discouragement to his party. The
line of separation between the Sultan's Skipetar
friends and foes is not distinct and straight, but
confused and undulating; and many of the wa-
verers will watch the first turn of fortune. Should
Arslan Bey be successful, the Sadrazem may mount
his horse and return to Constantinople, for his only
strength lies in opinion, and in the Sultan's name ;
and, by declaring Arslan Bey Firmanli, he has
staked every thing on this throw.

Arslan Bey is a young man and an Albanian
hero, tells a story well, is good-looking, sings well,
fights well, and drinks well, and has inherited from
his father, Meuchardar of Ali Pasha, a quarter of

STATE OF PARTIES. 179

the hoarded treasure the Vizir left in trust to his
four principal favourites. He was named Governor
of Zeitouni by the late Roumeli Valissi, who also
made Selictar Poda Governor of Janina, and
strengthened, as much as possible, that party.
The difference betwixt the party of Selictar Poda
and Veli Bey is entirely of a personal nature.
There is blood between their houses ; but their
retainers enlist with either, according to the con-
ditions they can obtain. They all of them turn
their eyes towards the pay of the Porte; but they
are all equally indignant at the attempt of the
Sultan to controul them in their native mountains,
and, above all, to compel them to enlist in the
regular troops, and to wear trousers.

Veli Bey's feud with Selictar Poda made him a
fit instrument for the designs of the government ;
while he was glad to obtain, by such a coalition,
consideration and importance. Thus a party, fa-
vouring the Sultan, was established, though the
individuals composing it had no common interest
with the Porte, or inimical feelings to the other
Albanians. Their numbers were few, but they
had possession of the important positions of
Janina, Arta, and the passage over the Pindus
by Mezzo vo, from Epirus to Thessaly.

Selictar Poda is not the chief, but the most
influential man of the other party. He holds in
his hands the cords which connect the remnants of
the faction of Ali Pasha ; he is wary, artful, and,

n 2

180 STATE OF PARTIES.

if his reputation is not great in the field, it is unri-
valled in the council ; he has great wealth, and
possesses a fortress which has the name of being
impregnable. The other chiefs are men of little
consideration, and little known beyond their own
sphere. They are, Geladin Bey, of Ochrida, uncle
to Scodra Pasha; the Beys of Avlona, Argyro-
Castro, Tepedelene, Gortcha, and Colonias (though
the most influential of these last is attached to the
Grand Vizir). These men are rivals, rather than
confederates. They will not yield obedience to
any of their peers, and, consequently, cannot act
with union or energy. If the contest is prolonged,
their rivalries and their rapacity will lead to de-
fections ; and mutual distrust will bring them to
anticipate each other's treachery. As for the men,
they will stick to their leaders as long as they can :
it is, indeed, the respect and regard of the common
men that alone elevates one man above his fellows.
At present, this confederation occupies all the
plains and fortresses of their country. Impunity
and license, under a powerful chief, may keep
them together, without regular pay ; but, if shut
up in their mountains, where clothing, food, and
every necessary of life, have to be procured with
money, and also to be obtained at sea-ports, or
regular marts, and transported by fortresses, and
through guarded passes, their resources and pa-
tience would soon be exhausted, and they would
abandon their chiefs, and the cause of Albania, for

STATE OF PARTIES.

181

the accustomed rations and pay, even if these were
only granted on the hard condition of doffing the
fustanels.

Looking on the Albanians and Turks as open
enemies, and on their struggle as regular war, the
supposition of their being shut up in their moun-
tains, and expelled from the plains and fortresses,
could only be the result of a successful campaign ;
and yet I have assumed this as a preliminary step
to the operations of the campaign. The fact is,
that, though each party looks upon the other as an
enemy, yet, in the forms of their intercourse, the
greatest harmony appears to exist, and the rebel
does not dare to avow opposition, or to encourage
himself or his followers by a watchword or a sym-
bol. A buyourdi, or order, of a Pasha, is received
by an Albanian commander of a fortress with the
utmost submission. It requires him, perhaps, to
give up the fortress ; he answers, that he is most
ready to obey his highness's orders ; that he is
most anxious to come and kiss the fringe of his
sofa, but that his troops, having arrears owing them
by the Porte, retain him as a hostage, and the
castle as a pledge ; that he is daily in danger of
violence at their hands, and entreats and implores
the Pasha to send the money that is owing, for

tat otherwise he cannot answer for the conse-
mences, nor for his own life. And this was often

lid with truth. In fact, the Albanians would
lardly commence by positive opposition, without

182 DISPOSITIONS FOR OPENING

some justifiable grounds. Here, too, lies the
strength of the Porte — a moral strength, which, if
properly wielded, laughs at numbers and at arms ;
but therefore does all depend on the intelligence
that directs. This, too, in a more practical and
commonplace point of view, gives the Porte the
immense advantage of choosing the moment of
action and the point of attack ; and, without pro-
ceeding to open hostilities, by satisfying claims and
liquidating arrears, it can obtain the evacuation
and possession of places of strength and im-
portance. Thus, the Albanians may be enclosed in
their mountains, which is, as I have above said,
but a preliminary step to the approaching struggle,
should Arslan Bey be beaten, and the war carried
into Albania.

If, however, Arslan Bey, after being declared
a Firmanli, maintains his ground, blood having
been spilt, the fortresses will be held without
scruple, and pay and provisions will be exacted
from the peasantry. The want or incapacity of
a chief would then alone prevent them from carry-
ing their ravages elsewhere, and raising, in earnest,
a standard of revolt, before which the sixty horse-
tails of Roumeli might be humbled in the dust.

The Albanians feel the precariousness and dan-
gers of their position, though they despise their
enemies, and are convinced that their numbers
and warlike vigour would assure them an easy
victory, if they could be properly directed ; but

THE CAMPAIGN. 183

they want confidence in each other, and they want
a leader. In this dilemma, their eyes are turned
towards the Pasha of Scodra. The independence
of the Ghegues (or northern Albanians, subject to
the Pasha of Scodra) has ever been more complete
than that of the Albanians ; they are united, too,
under one head ; are equally warlike, but a more
stubborn race, who have not been accustomed to
take service among the Turks. " They unite,"
says Colonel Leake, " the cruelty of the Albanian
to the patience of the Bulgarian." Rich in terri-
torial possessions, with an equal distribution of
substance, they care as little for the spiritual as
for the temporal authority of the Sultan. The
spirit of Scanderbeg may have but scantily de-
scended on his successors, but the geographical
positions and military strength that made Croia (a
dependency of Scodra) the centre of a momentary
empire, still exists, and Scodra is now, as it has
ever been, the capital and the pride of Albania.
The dispositions, then, of Mustapha Pasha are all
important, but, as yet, they are enveloped in mys-
tery. The Albanians affirm that he is in perfect
intelligence with them ; nor is it likely that, owing,
as he does, his Pashalik to a victory of his grand-
father over the Sultan's troops, he should like
to see the Albanians forming a part of the standing
army of the Porte.

The positions occupied by the partisans of the
Grand Vizir are as follow : the plains of Thessaly,

184 DISPOSITIONS FOR OPENING

by Mahmoud Pasha, a Circassian, and protege of
the Grand Vizir, a man devoted to him, of great
personal courage, Persian address, dignified man-
ner, and said to possess great ability ; Janina, the
Plain of Arta, and the communication by sea of
Prevesa and the Gulf, by Veli Bey, a dependent
of the Grand Vizir, bound to him by domestic
ties, equivalent to those of blood. For an Al-
banian, Veli Bey is a man of letters ; and, though
not exempt from the vices of his country, nor un-
sullied by the crimes of his times and station, yet I
should think it very difficult to find amongst his
compeers his intelligence or extended views, or the
talents that have raised him to, and maintained
him in, his precarious elevation. The important
pass of Mezzovo is confided to the ability and
devotion of a worthy veteran Gencha aga.

The Albanians — I mean the hostile party — are
in strength to the north of a line drawn north-east
from the shore, opposite Corfu, to the Pindus ; to
the west of an undulating line which, from the vi-
cinity of Castoria, encircles the central group of
the Albanian mountains, leaving Monastir to the
east. On the north of this tract, the Ghegues, the
Mirdites, the Bosniacs, and Servians, secure the
insurgents from attack, even if they do not afford
them the powerful assistance now expected.

To the south of the Albanians, the mountains
of Chimara, Paramithea ; to the east, the central
chain of the Pindus, and the Pierian mountains, are

THE CAMPAIGN. 185

occupied by twenty thousand armed Greeks, Arma-
toles, who now stand between the contending
parties, and may cause to preponderate the scale
into which they throw their weight ; but they are
geographically dispersed, without common motives,
or a chief.

The centre of the Grand Vizir's operation is
Monastir. This position, not defensible as an insu-
lated point, is most important, as at once the civil,
the political, and the military centre of Albania.
Its military strength consists in the surrounding
passes and fortresses, which draw closer and closer
circles of defence against every approach ; while,
from this point, the plains of Albania are open on
one side, and of Macedonia on the other. Thes-
saly and Epirus are equally accessible. From
Monastir, it is easy to intercept the communication
between Albania and Scodra. Concentrating the
communications of the surrounding country, this
position is no less available for receiving supplies
from Constantinople, and for collecting the con-
tingents of Roumelie, than for directing operations
against Albania, and for overawing the Pasha of
Scodra.

I have spoken of Veli Bey as commanding at
Janina ; but the nominal authoritv belongs to Emin
Pasha, son of the Grand Vizir, who had been sent,
the year before, to Monastir, to keep up communi-
cations with the Sultan's party in the south, but
without venturing into the country. A secretary

186 DISPOSITIONS FOR OPENING

of his, a young Greek, by all accounts of consider-
able ability and extended views, but, being edu-
cated in Europe, little acquainted with the nature
of the people with whom he had to deal, was
received at Janina, then in the possession of Se-
lictar Poda, with every demonstration of submission
and respect. He was assured, by that crafty disciple
of old Ali Pasha, that he was ready to obey, and
proud to submit to the orders of his master's son ;
that he rejoiced in the opportunity of proving his
allegiance, and refuting the calumny that would
make him the enemy of the Grand Vizir, because
he was the enemy of his unworthy favourite, Veli
Bey. The secretary despatched letter after letter
to his master, entreating him, by his presence, to
secure these favourable dispositions ; and the
youthful Pasha, dazzled with the prospect of re-
ducing both factions of Albania to submission
before he could receive an answer from his father,
then engaged in the Russian campaign, hastened to
Janina, was received with unbounded devotion,
carried in triumph to the palace of Ali Pasha,
within the castle, which had been prepared for
his reception, and found himself a captive and a
hostage. Veli Bey, indignant, of course, at the
insult offered to his master's son, sought and found
the means of expelling the adverse party ; arrived,
triumphant, at Janina, to deliver his adopted bro-
ther from his unworthy thraldom, and transfer the
prize to himself.

THE CAMPAIGN. 187

Such was the state of parties at our entrance
into Albania, which coincided with the expedition
of Mahmoud Pasha against Arslan Bey, the de-
parture of the Grand Vizir's first troops from
Adrianople, and an attempt, by negotiation, to
gain possession of the most important fortress to
the north, which shewed the extraordinary justice
of the Grand Vizir's coup cVceil, and was attended
with his usual success. The value of the acqui-
sition to which I allude, the fortress of Berat, can
best be illustrated by a comparison of the position
of the two parties in the war of Ali Pasha, and at
the present moment.

Though Ali Pasha possessed the fortresses of
Gortcha, Castoria, and Ochrida, and the surround-
ing mountains, yet Monastir, for five years previous
to his fall, had been in the hands of the Roumelie
Valissy, who had succeeded him in that office, and
who was devoted to the Porte. Thus, to the Porte
the value of that position was neutralised by Ali
Pasha's possession of the surrounding country, in
which he again was not secure, by the enemy's
lodgment in Monastir. In the present struggle,
the importance of Monastir will equally depend on
the reduction of Ochrida.

In the former war, the attack upon Albania
was simultaneously made from three different
points. An army, under Pechlevan, penetrating
through Thermopylae, and, ravaging Phocis, Doris,
Locris, and Etolia, fell upon Acarnania, and, leaving

188 DISPOSITIONS FOR OPENING

Prevesa blockaded by the Turkish squadron, occu-
pied, without resistance, the Pente-Pigadia, at the
moment that Ismael Pasha had but shewn himself
on the Thessalian passes of the Pindus, to receive
the submission of Omer Vrioni and Moustas, with
twelve thousand Albanians and Greek Armatoles,
the strength and the trust of Ali Pasha; a force
which would have amply sufficed for the defence of
the eastern and southern passes of Albania against
any force of the Sultan's, had they been attached,
by interest or inclination, to the cause of the
Vizir. The third army was that of young Mus-
tapha Pasha of Scodra, who had assembled his
Ghegues and Mirdites, occupied Tyranna, Elbassan,
and Cavalla, and had already reached Berat, when
the news of an incursion of the Montenegrins, sup-
posed in consequence of the intrigues of Russia,
into his Pashalik, was gladly seized by him as a
pretence for returning ; for, however rejoiced he
might be at the humbling of so dangerous a
neighbour, he would have been very sorry to con-
tribute to his total overthrow ; still he wrote to
Ismael Pasha, urging him to occupy the cham-
paign country of Middle Albania ; and, shortly
afterwards, the Roumeli Valissi commenced ope-
rations from the strong positions he occupied
against Mouchtar Pasha, who held Berat ; and, in
this, if not assisted, at least was neither menaced
nor incommoded by the Ghegues. Yet, after the
loss of all these positions, after the defection of his

THE CAMPAIGN. 189

troops and his sons, Ali Pasha, but for treachery,
would at last have been conqueror.

In the present contest, the independence of
Greece guarantees the Albanians from attack from
the south. The dispositions of the Pasha of
Scodra, to all appearance, not only protect them
from open aggression on his part, but close to the
Grand Vizir the strong barriers that stretch from
Ochrida to the passes of Catchanic and the Bosnian
mountains ; but, as Janina is already in the hands
of the party of the Sadrazem, and as, besides
Janina and Scodra, there is no position, combining
at once military strength, territorial riches, and a
succession of lines of military defence, I should be
inclined to think that, unless the Pasha of Scodra
places himself at the head of the league, a central
point of communication will be as fatal a want to
them as that of an efficient leader.

The Grand Vizir, therefore, having only the
means of penetrating into Albania by Monastir or
Mezzova, it is all-important to him, as he is already
in possession of Janina, to carry his point as far
north as possible, to strengthen Monastir by the
acquisition of the surrounding positions, to reach
the plains of Tyranna, Croia, and Berat, where his
cavalry could act, so as to interpose himself be-
tween the Albanians and the Ghegues, while he
takes the Albanians in the rear, and cuts them off
from the plains and the sea.

190 DISPOSITIONS FOR OPENING

These preliminary observations will render in-
telligible the events I have now to relate.

While we were congratulating ourselves in not
having been deterred, by the fears of our friends
in Greece and Roumeli, from entering Albania,
and in being so fortunate as to arrive at the very
moment of the explosion, a Greek captain, a re-
lative of the Consul's wife, entered our apartment,
and told us that he had just arrived from Berat,
and that there the first scene of the tragedy had
been enacted. "At- Berat!" we exclaimed.' Our
previous impressions were confirmed by this single
word, which declared at once the dispositions of
Mustapha Pasha, the apprehensions of the Grand
Vizir, the plan of his campaign, and the depth of
his views.

The castle was held by a relative of Selictar
Podas, with a garrison of five hundred Albanians.
The Grand Vizir's Meuchardar (seal-bearer) had
presented himself before the gates, and summoned
it to surrender. The Commander answered, that
his men would not allow him to give it up till their
arrears were paid. The Meuchardar answered,
" Perfectly right ; " requested to be made ac-
quainted with their claims, examined the accounts,
struck the balance, then repaired to Scodra, and
received from the Pasha, it was said, 800 purses,
about 6400/v with which he returned, and displayed
the money before the walls. The Albanians were

THE CAMPAIGN. 191

now in a sad dilemma. They had no orders, they
knew not to whom to look for any ; they knew not
the dispositions of their compatriots; they feared
committing their cause, or compromising them-
selves ; and they were, above all, perplexed by the
unaccountable intelligence which seemed to exist
between the Pasha of Scodra and the Grand Vizir.
The Commander went mad ; whether the derange-
ment was real or feigned, is immaterial ; it served
for a pretext for delaying the surrender of the
castle, and it shewed, evidently, that the Sultan's
name, and the Grand Vizir's ability, were yet a
tower of strength. The brother of the Commander,
who succeeded him, professed entire ignorance of
the state of the accounts, and refused to give up
the fortress ; but there was little doubt but that
the Grand Vizir's agent was, by this time, in
possession of it.

The Meuchardar Effendi had been received
with apparent submission by the Beys of Berat
(the castle is on a rock, beneath which, and
on either bank of the Beratino, extends the town),
but they seemed inclined to traverse all his plans,
and little disposed to afford him the assistance and
support he required. A public assembly was held,
in which he indignantly reproached them with
their want of spirit, and told them that he had
very little to say to them, only this : " that if they
were Jews, they might at once renounce their
faith ; that if they were Mussulmans, they owed

192 CAMPAIGN COMMENCED.

obedience to the Sultan and his Vizir." " What ! "
said Souleman Pasha, " are the Odjacks of Albania
to submit to the dictation of a stranger ? Are you,
because the slave of the Vizir, to speak to your
betters with insolence ? Are you, or am I, Odjack
here ?" " Did you get no schooling," replied the
Meuchardar, " in the dungeons of Ali Pasha ? Has
the Balta, suspended over your head, not sharp-
ened your eyesight ? Have the 500,000 piastres
revenue, which the Sadrazem has restored to you,
given you neither sense nor gratitude ? You ask,
whether you or I am Odjack here ? You are
Odjack,* and I will tell you what that is — two
upright stones, with burning wood between them ;
but the master's foot is close by ; one kick over-
turns stones and fire, and nothing remains but
smoke and ashes." The refractory Odjack was
silenced, and all professed their readiness to co-
operate in the reduction of the castle.

Our informant had, in two days' march, counted
fifty dead bodies along the road. Even between
this place and Pente-Pigadia, four tambours, or
posts, are not sufficient to secure the road ; and,
within the last few days, two parties have been
attacked, and several men shot.

* Odjack, which means a fire-place, is the designation as-
sumed by the Albanian, and other chiefs of substance and
family.

TOWN OF ARTA. 193

CHAPTER XII.

TOWN OF ARTA DEPARTURE FOR AND ARRIVAL AT JANINA

STATE OF THE COUNTRY — FEMALE COSTUME AND BEAUTY

DOMESTIC INDUSTRY — DISTRIBUTION OF THE TROOPS

SUDDEN PANIC, AND PREPARATIONS FOR AN EXPEDITION.

The river of Arta, opening from the hills, is met
by a prolonged sandstone ridge, running north and
south. The river bends back, and encircles its
northern extremity, skirts it on the western side,
then runs southward to the Gulf. On the low
point of this ridge, to the north, stands the castle,
a long and narrow structure, with lofty towers, of
all forms and dimensions, over them ; and over the
wall the ivy rambles, fills up the embrasures, and
even clusters round the muzzles of the few harm-
less guns. Storks, the only visible occupants, stand
sentry on the towers, or solemnly pace the battle-
ments, undisturbed by the flocks of crows, with
gray crops and bright green plumage, that croak
and flutter around them. This structure is ren-
dered quite Eastern and allegorical, by a ruined
towTer, that rises above the others, bearing aloft a
date-tree, which waves " the banner of the clime,"
beside a tall dark cypress, the dismal telegraph of
the times. Behind the castle, but still on the low

I vol. i. o

194 TOWN OF ARTA.

ground, are spread the ruins rather than the town,
remarkable for the number of the arcades, arches,
and built columns, still standing amongst them.
The ancient circumference of the walls embrace
four times the extent of the present town : they
are of old Hellenic construction, but, on the east-
ern side, the structure is perfectly unique. The
stones are joined with the greatest precision, the
surface hewn perfectly smooth, the layers exactly
parallel, but the stones not always rectangular.
The first layer is of five feet, and the stones are
some of them six, seven, and nine feet in length,
and four in width : we found one eight feet by ten
and a half, and four in thickness.

The church of Parygoritza is a large square
building of brick and mortar, with well-turned
arches and good masonry. It contains marble and
granite columns, taken from Nicopolis. Its ex-
ternal appearance is strange and curious, and, as
we approached Arta, it looked like a palace. At
Barletta, and in other parts of Apulia, there are
similar churches, which are erroneously termed
Gothic, or Lombard. The Albanians had been
bivouacking in the church, and defacing the little
that remained. We found the inscription, so mag-
niloquently announced by Pouqueville : we could
scarcely make out three letters together ; but this
we could satisfactorily ascertain, that there was
scarcely a single letter in his copy correspond-
ing with the original. We were not the less

TOWN OF ARTA. 195

provoked for having made out AIIOAA HPAK
AIONT2I02.

Close to the castle is a kind of open mosque,
where the first day of Bairam is celebrated. Close
to the raised steps for the Imaum, a cypress grows
out of the trunk of another tree, the name of
which, both in Greek and Albanian, I have for-
gotten ; but it is the emblematic tree of Albania ;
has a small, oval, serrated, and glossy leaf, hard
wood, and I was told it bore a small berry, which
they eat in winter.

On the 23d we left Arta, recrossed the bridge,
then, turning to the right, soon reached the low
limestone hills, which are a continuation of that
above Arta. For an hour we skirted their base,
having on our left a marsh, and, beyond, the plain.
Ali Pasha's road runs on the rocky base of the
hills, or on a causeway, over and through the
marsh. Under, and sometimes over, this cause-
way, clear and abundant streams of water gush
from the perpendicular fissures of the limestone.
This marsh had been drained in a scientific man-
ner, under Ali Pasha. A deep canal collected the
waters at their source, and, carrying them first
northward, then, turning to the west, crossed the
plain, and discharged them into the river of Rogous.
Ali Pasha was in the habit of ascending this canal
in his boat. At an hour and a half from Arta we
came to the first guard-house, on a projecting

Iock between the hill and the marsh. After an-
o 2

196 ARRIVAL AT JANINA.

other hour, through a low valley, where the heat
was suffocating, we arrived at a ruined Khan.

The scenery had the worst characters of lime-
stone country : the hills were lofty, without grand-
eur or variety ; they were rude, without boldness ;
or tame, without richness or beauty. The pre-
cipices and asperities are rounded and obliterated ;
but the wildness thus lost is replaced neither by
forests nor verdure, fountains nor shade. But I
speak as a prejudiced person, for I candidly con-
fess I dislike limestone rocks ; and was once
moved to most sudden and sympathetic friendship
for a Turkish proprietor, who told me he liked to
pay dear for the carriage of his lime.

In an hour and a half more, we came to the
third guard, where a fat, jocose, old, and dirty
captain, seated on a ragged sofa, in a tottering
hovel, did us the honours, with coffee, milk,
cheese, and butter-milk, and begged us to excuse
him, as he was in the wilderness, and could treat
us neither as we deserved, nor as he desired. He
told us that his men had stumbled on a ruin in the
mountains hard by ; but we were not now in
Acarnania, and could not think of venturing off
the road. We had already been often enough
chid by our guards, who declared they would not
be responsible for us, unless we kept the place and
pace they prescribed. Two hours and a half
brought us to Pente-pigadia, which is a castle, or a
Khan, enclosed with high walls, overtopped by a

ARRIVAL AT JAMWA. 197

Martello tower, and placed in a gorge at the
highest part of the chain looking towards the
north. A rapid descent brought us to a little
plain, whence we again had to ascend the hills.
The rocks are limestone (which slits almost like
slate), aluminous schist, and sandstone. The
country now suddenly opened to the left, and
descended in successive levels to the deep bed of
the river of Rogous, which was hidden from our
view. We could trace, however, its course, till
met by the barrier of the mountains of Pente-
pigadia, through which it disappears by a sub-
terraneous channel. The hills of the theatre
around (no longer limestone), presented a scaffold-
ing of terraces, with vines, fields, and villages ; and
above them rose the bleak gray peaks of the
Metzekali. Descending from this last elevation,
we entered a narrow plain, which, winding and
extending as we advanced, spread an undulating
surface around us, without a tree, a house, or even
a ruin, to recall the richness of this same scenery
ten years ago. The only striking feature in the
landscape was a wall-like chain of lofty mountains
diagonally crossing the direction of our road, and
which we knew to rise behind the long-looked-for
lake of Janina. At length, we reached the sum-
mit of the last undulation, and, at last, looked
down on the lake, the island, the ruined fortresses,
and prostrate city !

Here is the centre of all the associations con-

198 ARRIVAL AT JANINA.

nected with the events of this country, with the
history of the various populations of Souli, Acar-
nania, Epirus, Illyria, and even Thessaly and the
Morea. This is the Manchester and Paris of
Roumeli. It was the capital of the ephemeral
empire of Ali Pasha ; it was the arena of his last
protracted and desperate struggle. To him, and to
that epoch, it was that our thoughts incessantly
reverted as we looked upon it now, and we anx-
iously inquired where the beleaguring hosts had
encamped, where the flotilla had lain, and listened
with untired curiosity and renewed gratification, to
each soldier's and peasant's description of events
which, in their time, have excited, even in Europe,
such dramatic interest.

The place is now a scene of complete de-
vastation ; the only distinction is between the
wrecks of nine years and the catastrophe of yes-
terday. During that long period of unceasing
destruction, faction, and anarchy, the accumulation
of ruin, and the flow of tears and blood, may have
won for Janina a name in the annals of misery,
equal to that of Carthage or Syracuse. But here
no mutilated statues, no fractured columns, no
prostrate temples nor pillared precipices, woo the
pilgrim of taste to the shrine of desolation. Mas-
sive dungeons, tottering battlements, gaudy shreds
of barbarian splendour, alone encumber the banks
of the Acheron, and leave the stranger to marvel
how a race, known only for its genius for de-

ARRIVAL AT JANINA. 199

struction, could have afforded aught for others to
destroy, or had the merit to awaken foreign sym-
pathy by its ruin.

On arriving at Janina, we went straight to the
conak of Veli Bey, from whom we met with a most
cordial reception. His appearance and train were
in the first style of Skipetar magnificence ; his man-
ners prepossessing, and air dignified. His house,
he said, should have been ours, but he feared that
there we might be disturbed, and he had therefore
given directions for our reception at the only new
and good house in the place : the Dragoman of
the Grand Vizir should be our host.

We were exceedingly pleased with this ar-
rangement, and had every reason to be so. We
intended making Janina our head -quarters for
some time ; and it was no small matter to be so
established. Alexis, the Dragoman, we understood,
was a man highly respected by the Turks, and as he
had been constantly attached to the Grand Vizir
for the last five or six years, and had accompanied
him during the wars in Greece, we promised to
ourselves no little instruction from his society.
During the month that we were his guests, the
unceasing attentions, not only of our host and
hostess, but of every branch of their family, would
have rendered it difficult to quit a less interesting
place than Janina. His wife was of one of the first,
if not the first, family of Janina. Under Ali Pasha,
their house had generally been the abode of Eng-

200 FEMALE COSTUME AND BEAUTY.

lish travellers ; and I think both Dr. Holland and
Mr. Hughes speak highly of the venerable and ex-
cellent old man, Dimitri Athanasiou, uncle to our
hostess; who, though not, strictly speaking, a
beauty, was a pretty lady-like person, and with
all the style and manners of a leader of ton in
the centre of Greek and Albanian fashion. Not-
withstanding all her amiable qualities, I fear that,
in London, she would not have escaped the damn-
ing character of a blue. She presumed to admire
Sophocles as well as Alfieri. Her dress was'in the
style called Chami, or lower Albanian ; which,
when arranged by the artistes of Janina, is, for
composition and colour, the most perfect thing in
the way of costume I ever saw ; and is indebted for
effect neither to pearls and precious stones, nor to
the false glare of gold and silver lace, or of gaudy
and contrasted colours. The inner garments are
of silk, or silk and cotton, closely striped, or of chali
of delicate tints. The outer garment, which gives
the costume its characteristic beauty, is of cloth
of a light but not a lively colour, such as fawn,
drab3 or stone, and beautifully embroidered with
small round silk braid, generally of the same tint,
but a shade lighter or darker than the cloth.
Now that Turkish embroidery is so much the
fashion, this hint will not, I hope, be thrown away,
for nothing can be more un-Turkish than the mix-
ture of all discords of colour, that one sees, as our
neighbours say, " swearing at each other," under

FEMALE COSTUME AND BEAUTY. 201

ladies' fingers. This outer garment has no sleeves,
fits like a cuirass to the form, especially round the
celnture behind, and then spreads into flowing
skirts. On the back, and on the waist at either
side, the embroidery is most elaborate.

Art assists nature less than with us, in setting
off the contour of Eastern belles. Their costume
can neither conceal nor disguise faults and im-
perfections. Many circumstances tend, in the
East, to give a great variety to character, phy-
siognomy, and, consequently, to beauty. Races
are kept distinct from each other ; populations are
fixed to localities ; and great changes of atmos-
phere, variations of climate, and exposure, act
upon physical constitutions, which seem more
delicate and more susceptible of these influences
than the inhabitants of northern regions, which, by
their geographical structure, are exposed less to
atmospheric change. In the fair sex these varia-
tions must be more sensible than in the firmer
constitutions of the men ; and beauty, in some
parts of the country, is as rife as it is rare in
others. We may be, very naturally, inclined to
overrate Eastern beauty ; the difficulty of approach,
the sanctity of the harem, envelope with new
charms the goddess that delights in mystery.
The female form is never seen, save in deep shade,
shrouded by veils, or screened by lattices. It is
never vulgarised by robust exercise, never tinted
by exposure to the sun. The distinguishing

202 RUINS OF FORTRESSES.

charms of the East are a most beautiftil skin and
clear complexion, large, full, vivid, and intellectual
eyes, and a marble forehead.

" Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes ;
Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies,"

may be said of all women, and is said of every
mistress, and would be repeated with equal fervour
by a wooer of New York, or a swain of Abydos.
But the exquisitely striking, the contrasting
character of Eastern beauty, is the eye ;' it can
only be described, and that description cannot be
surpassed, by the comparison of the Persian, who
must have felt its nearer inspiration when he
likens his Eastern mistress's eye to a " starry
heaven, bright and dark."*

The fortress of Janina offers an irregular out-
line of dismantled battlements, crowned by the
shapeless remains of the ruined Serai : behind it,
some of the loftier points of the Coulia and Lith-
aritzi appear, overtopping the enormous cairns of

* It may be doubtful whether Byron's

" Like the light of a dark eye in woman "

be a plagiarism or not ; but, at all events, the celebrated lines
on Kirke White —

" Lo ! the struck eagle stretched upon the plain," &c.

are almost a verbal translation from the Persian, and are far
from equalling the original.

RUINS OF FORTRESSES. 203

their own wreck. The Coulia was a fortress of
five stories, with a palace of two stories on the top
of it. The thick masses of masonry, the solid
pilasters and arches of hewn stone, that, rising one
above the other, support the structure, or, rather,
keep the space open, and appear like caves in a moun-
tain, had internally suffered but little from either
fire or shot. The palace above had disappeared,
and, in wandering over the Egyptian-like pile, we
found Albanians at work, wrenching out the stones
to extract the cramps and bars of iron that secured
the lower works. The Coulia communicated with
the lake by a little canal. Ali Pasha used to
enter with his boat, then step into a small car-
riage, drawn by mules, which, rolling up an in-
clined plane, round a large staircase, landed him,
a hundred feet above, at the door of his Serai.
There is but the interval of a few yards between
this building and the Litharitzi, the first fortress
he constructed. Its upper part alone has been
destroyed during the siege. So important, in
Turkish warfare, is the advantage of ground, that
this place, defended by 150 men, was stormed in
vain by 18,000, who are said to have left an
incredible number at its base. The true secret of
the defence, perhaps, is, that the chiefs of the
besiegers were as little inclined as the defenders,
that the treasures within should be placed at the
mercy of the storming horde.

The day after our arrival, we went to pay

204 EMIN PASHA.

our visit, and present our letters and firman, to
Emin Pasha Sadrazem Zade, that is, son of the
Grand Vizir. We were left waiting for some time
without : the haughty Odjacks, with their sweeping
trains, were passing in and out ; and the stare of
retainers, strangers, and attendants, became so
annoying, that, at length, we left the place in
disgust; but, in getting home, we lost our way,
and found messengers already arrived from the
palace. We felt very little inclined to return ;
but the messengers protested, that their heads or
backs would answer for our appearance, and put
us in good humour by the mode they took to
prove to us the Pasha's regard, who, they said,
was so anxious to see us, that, unless we came
voluntarily, he would have us carried by force.
On our way back, we met messenger after mes-
senger ; and we were reconducted with an ovation,
which made up for the scowl the menials had
cast upon us in our retreat. We were led through
the divan, from which the Pasha had retired ;
then through a labyrinth of rooms, passages, and
stairs, and hedges of capidgis and guards, to a
small remote apartment, where the young Pasha,
attired in a most splendid Albanian costume, re-
ceived us in a very courteous, and, as it was
intended, friendly and unceremonious manner.

The Sadrazem Zade is a handsome and elegant
youth of nineteen, very inquisitive about Europe :
he occupies a still, habitable portion of the palace

EMIN PASHA. 205

of AH Pasha, whose Tourbe or tomb, in a cage of
iron filigree-work, stands in a corner of the court,
or square, before it. His head alone is buried at
Constantinople.

Before the gates of the fortress, a coffee-house
was pointed out to us, where AH Pasha had taken
his stand, when, on the approach of the Sultan's
forces, the Albanians within the fortress closed the
gates against their master, with a sudden resolution,
but without preconcerted plan, of making their
own peace with the Porte. AH Pasha, who had
been reconnoitring, found, to his amazement, the
gates closed on his return : he entered this coffee-
house, which was close to the ditch, and a parley
soon ensued betwixt him and the Albanians on the
wralls ; and, after cajoling them with assurances
that his peace was made with the Porte, and that
the march of Ismael Pasha was only a feint, their
resolution wavered, and some of them unbarred
the gates. No sooner was he within than his
repressed fury broke forth ; the most faithful of
his men were rewarded, and the doubtful attached
by the immediate plunder of the city, which, when
only half plundered, was fired ; and, when fire was
not sufficiently destructive, shot and shell levelled
to the ground every thing within their range. A
population of thirty thousand souls were thus
scattered in the most perfect state of destitution ;
the plain to the north of the city was filled
with fugitives, of all stations and ages — mothers

206 DOMESTIC INDUSTRY.

carrying their children, others endeavouring to
save some wrecks of their property — many pe-
rished from want, and the rest were scattered far
and near from Corfu to Constantinople.

Janina is the centre both of art and of fashion,
and fits all the beaux of Roumeli. The silk
braid and gold lace, so universally used in Eastern
costume, are most extensively prepared by its
Jews. The Morocco leather of Janina is in highest
repute, and also extensively manufactured. The
savat, or blackening of silver, their mode tff orna-
menting guns, drinking cups, cartridge boxes, and the
buckles that they wear, and which ornament their
trapping, is an art almost exclusively exercised by
a settlement of Vlachi at Calarites. In their vici-
nity grow the herbs they use for dying, which is
here a domestic art. Every house has its looms,
where the women, as in the patriarchal ages,
employ their leisure in weaving, according to their
wealth, coarse or fine cotton stuffs, and that beauti-
ful and delicate texture of silk and cotton gauze, or
of silk alone, which they use for shirting. They
are no less celebrated for their skill in confec-
tionary ; and the preserves of Janina are as much
distinguished as those of Scotland. Elsewhere
women may be as laborious, or as industrious ; but
I never saw so much activity combined with so
much elegance as at Janina, or housewifery assume
such important functions. To the most sedulous
attention to all the business of domestic economy

DOMESTIC INDUSTRY. 207

were added the rearing of the silk-worms, the
winding of silk, the preparing of cotton, the dying
and the weaving of these materials, and the pre-
paration from them of every article of wearing
apparel or household furniture.

Their tailors are no less characterised by taste
and dexterity ; and the costumes of the men by
the elegance of the cut, the arrangement of
colours, and excellence of workmanship. What
a contrast the artizans of this clear sky present
with ours I Sudden disasters may fall upon them ;
but no industry falsely bolstered up leaves them
a prey to incessant fluctuations. Money may, at
times, be extorted from them by violence ; but they
have not the irritating example before their eyes
of injustice of taxation, which spares the rich and
oppresses the poor.* They tend their silk-worms,
prepare their dyes, weave their delicate tissues
and rich laces, and embroider their fermelis and
zuluchia, not by smoky firesides, but under shady
vines ; and instead of becoming callous and in-
different under the unfortunate insecurity of the
times, they exert themselves the more to avert

* No hatred can be there conceived between master and
workman, no combination, no strikes : taxes fall in a mass on
the district ; therefore, each individual constantly feels that he
is interested in every neighbour's prosperity. The excellence
of the principle prevents all difference of political opinion ; the
working of the system unites all classes, and maintains sympathy
and good-will between man and man.

208 TYRANNY OF LAW.

or to meet danger and oppression. This appears
most unaccountable to Europeans, who are ac-
quainted with oppression and its effects only by
examples of systematic despotism ; but the differ-
ence between the tyranny of man and the tyranny
of law is one of the most instructive lessons the
East has to teach. The one is uncertain, and
leaves to the oppressed chances and hopes of
escaping it ; it varies with the individual ; and
those who suffer, if not benefited, are, at least,
consoled by the vengeance that, sooner o'r later,
overtakes the guilty. The tyranny of law is a
dead and immovable weight, that compresses at
once the activity of the limb and the energy of
the mind ; leaves no hope of redress, no chance
of escape ; is liable to no responsibility for its acts,
or vengeance for its crimes. For fifty years, in
Turkey, convulsion has followed convulsion as wave
rolls after wave ; and Europe, judging by its own
cumbersomeness of machinery, and consequent diffi-
culty of readjustment, has looked on each succeed-
ing disaster as a prelude to the fall of the Ottoman
empire. Turkey's political state may be com-
pared to its climate : an unexpected hurricane
in a moment wastes fields and forests, covers
the heavens with blackness, and the sea with
foam. Scarcely is the devastation completed, when
nature revives, the air is all mildness, and the
heavens all sunshine. As destructively and as
suddenly do political storms and military gather-

DEATH OF ALI PASHA. 209

ings overwhelm the provinces; and no sooner
are they past, than industry is busy preparing
her toil, and security is scattering seed, or wreath-
ing flowers.

Emin Pasha had placed at our disposal his
boat, the only one saved from the flotillas of Ali
Pasha, and of his adversaries ; there are, however,
a great many monoxyla on the lake. There is
abundance and variety of water-fowl ; and one of
our friends, a great sportsman, was anxious to
shew us how they manage these matters at Janina,
but the disturbed state of affairs prevented us from
seeing a regular duck-hunt. It is conducted in
this manner : thirty or forty monoxyla, with a
sportsman in each, and covered with boughs that
hang into the water, form an extensive circle,
which, gradually narrowing, drives the fowl to a
centre. As the monoxyla approach them, they
dive, or rise ; the sportsman who raises a bird fires,
or the opposite line fires if it attempt to pass ; but
the alarm is not general; they do not rise all
together, as the circle is not drawn very close :
thus the sport continues long, and generally there
is great havoc made.

The first object of our curiosity was, of course,
the island, and its little monastery, where was
concluded the tragedy of Ali Pasha's life. With
no little interest did we visit the mean chamber in
which he expired ; the dirty little kitchen, wiiich was
Vasiliki's harem ; the grotto, where his remaining

vol. i. p

210 DEATH OF ALI PASHA.

wealth was concealed. We examined the bullet-
holes through the floor, and listened, in the midst of
the undisturbed witnesses of his death, to the details
of the destruction of a tyrant, whose memory has
been consecrated by the crimes of his successors.
Courchid Pasha, bringing his pretended pardon,
landed close to the monastery, and entered by a
small passage under the chamber occupied by Ali
Pasha ; a ladder conducted to a small corridor,
into which the chamber opened. The court
within, and the rocks overlooking the courts oppo-
site the entrance, were occupied by Ali Pasha's
adherents. Courchid Pasha's train followed him
to the foot of the ladder, and filled the passage
below the chamber, and the lane without, to the
landing-place. The Pasha ascended to the cor-
ridor, and Ali Pasha came to the room-door to
meet him. While in the act of embracing, Cour-
chid Pasha fired a pistol, which was concealed by
his long sleeve, at Ali's body, and wounded him in
the arm ; he fell back into the room, shutting the
door. The Albanians on the rocks feared to fire,
lest they should hit their own people. A cha?ni,*
named Flim, celebrated for his unflinching der
votedness to his master, was lying in the corridor,
with a fit of the ague ; he was for a moment alone
with Courchid Pasha, and, starting up, he aimed
at him a sabre-cut, but his erring blow was arrested

* Inhabitant of Chamouria.

DEATH OF ALI PASHA. 211

by a beam, which still bears its mark. The
moment Ali Pasha was wounded, he called out to
his remaining attendant within to shoot Vasiliki ;
but before the order could be obeyed, a discharge
from the passage below passed through the floor-
ing, and a ball entered his bowels. His death
once known, his adherents had nothing more to
contend for, they instantly submitted to Courchid
Pasha, whom their guns had, the moment before,
only spared for the sake of their sick comrade,
Flim. Courchid Pasha arrived, effected his mis-
sion, and retired in less time than it has taken the
reader to peruse the relation of the event.

Well may this lake and its streams claim the
gloomiest names of ancient fable. Cocytus, Styx,
and Avernus, have no imaged horrors to vie with
the real atrocities which have left their traces and
their memory fresh on the scenes around us.
Each rock, each stream, each patch of earth, has
its distinctive tale of blood and crime.. As we
sailed under a rocky projection of the island, —
" Here," said the captain of the boat, f were thrown,
pinioned, into the lake, the Cardikiots, confined in
the castle on the night of the destruction of Car-
diki." This captain had been twenty-five years in
the service of Ali Pasha : he commanded his brig
on the lake, and was present at the destruction of
Cardiki, which Pouqueville has dramatised. The
facts were thus: — After some ineffectual resistance

p 2

.

212 MASSACRE OF CARDIKI.

the Cardikiots were brought down to the Khan, in
the plain where Ali Pasha sat in his carriage ; a
portion of the population, after being stripped of
their property, had been sent off to Prevesa ; the
remainder were brought before him; A secretary-
took down the name and family of each, and the
place where his treasures were concealed. Those
who were not of the race of his former enemies
were suffered to depart; the remainder, under 100
men, were sent into the court of the Khan. Masons
were in attendance, and the door was immediately
walled up, while the devoted victims stood like
statues, awaiting their fate in silence, but not in
suspense. The Mirdites and Ghegs were ordered
to the rising ground that overlooked the Khan to
fire on them, — they refused. Athanasi Va'ia, de-
voted to execration by Pouqueville, for his officious
services when Ali Pasha was on the point of
pardoning the Cardikiotes, was not even present ;
he was collecting their property in one of the vil-
lages, the name of which I have forgotten ; but
Zongas, the companion and successor of Catch-
Antoni, was called upon by Ali Pasha to- shew his
new fidelity by destroying the Cardikiotes. He
collected eighty of his vlacks, who commenced the
work of destruction very reluctantly, but it was
soon completed by other tribes of Christians and
Turks that joined them. The revolting details of
the horrors perpetrated by his sister on the Mus-

SIEGE OF JAN IN A. 213

sulman women of Cardiki are but too true ; as
also that she used to sleep on a raattrass made of
their hair.

During the siege the lake must have presented
a most magnificent spectacle. Ali Pasha had a
flotilla and a brig ; the Sultan's party had a flotilla
of twenty-two gun-boats ; the heights were lined
with tents — the plains covered with cavalry, and
tribes of all races, from the Caucasus to the Adri-
atic ; breaching batteries and mortars encircled
the wide extent of the city. The besiegers plied
their guns with more assiduity than effect, while
Ali answered fast and well by 250 mouths from
the island, the castle, the Koulia, and Litharitza.
Sixteen months was the siege prolonged, the
besiegers often in want of ammunition and pro-
visions, and blockaded in their turn by the Christ-
ians, whose hopes had been excited, but with
whom faith had not been kept. Meanwhile, Ali
Pasha, with well- stored magazines and coffers, and
commanding his little sea, had fresh provisions
from the mountains, and fresh fish from the lake.
How grand must have been the scenes at times
presented, when the day was clouded, and the
night illumined, by the crossing fire, on such a
theatre, of so many points of resistance and
attack.

During our stay the place was pretty tranquil ;
the troops had been principally sent out of the
town, and were encamped, to the number of 7000,

214 FRESH DIFFICULTIES.

at two and three hours' distance. Selictar Poda
remained quiet; hut the country, to the north,
was every day assuming a more hostile and de-
termined attitude. The troops of Veli Bey dared
not penetrate above twenty miles among the
mountains north of the city. We could gain no
information whatever as to the ulterior objects of
either party, but were exceedingly anxious to see
Selictar Poda, and then to visit, if possible, Argyro
Castro, Tepedelene, Berat, and Monastir. Having
arrived at Janina without the slightest risk', after
being assured in Acarnania, by those who seemed
best acquainted with the state of the country, that
such a journey would be attended with the great-
est difficulties and danger; having passed unmo-
lested through Acarnania, after being assured in
the Morea that we should certainly have our
throats cut if we ventured into that distracted
province, we were now at first inclined to disregard
the warnings we received, against attempting to
penetrate further into Albania. We were not long
in discovering that however certain we were of the
best protection the chiefs of either party could
afford, still it was next to impossible for us to pass
from one party to another, nor could we venture
even outside the town without a considerable
guard. In this dilemma we asked counsel from
Veli Bey : we told him how anxious we were to
penetrate into Upper Albania; and even frankly
confessed that we were desirous of seeing Selictar

SUDDEN ALARM. 215

Poda; thinking, that by telling him what our
intentions were, we should save ourselves from the
possibility of being suspected, and prevent him
from secretly thwarting our plans, by giving him
an opportunity of objecting to them directly. He
urged us to abandon our proposed journey, adding,
that if we persisted in it, he could have us safely
conducted as far as the first passes occupied by
Selictar Poda ; but, said he, " I cannot allow you
to start without an escort of 200 men." At such
a moment as this, when men could only with diffi-
culty be obtained for the most necessary services,
the mention of such an escort was tantamount to
a positive refusal. There was clearly nothing now
to be done but to remain quietly at Janina, or to
return to Prevesa.

While we were debating which of these two
alternatives we should adopt, news were brought
that Arslan Bey was approaching Janina, and was
now posted on the heights to the north of Mezzovo,
with the intention of cutting off the communi-
cation by Mezzovo with Thessaly; and placing
himself between Monastir and Janina, he hemmed
in the plain country on every side, and could
annoy, blockade, or attack Veli Bey at his own
convenience. The fortresses of Janina were not
provisioned ; the population and the soldiers de-
pended on the corn that was daily arriving from
Thessaly by Mezzovo; so that the occupation of this
important position would have probably led to dis-

216 PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.

turbance among the troops of Veli Bey, and to
the loss of the city. It was therefore suddenly
determined that Veli Bey should anticipate him,
if possible, in occupying the mountains at Milies,
or, at all events, should be ready to support
Mezzovo in case of his making an attack upon that
place. This resolution we learned accidentally,
and immediately hurried to the palace of the
Pasha in the castle, where troops and chiefs were
crowding, and where every thing seemed in the
greatest disorder, and every indication was'visible
of a sudden decision, as well as of an unexpected
movement. Our object was to obtain permission
to accompany the expedition.

Veli Bey was too busily engaged to give us an
opportunity of conversing with him ; we therefore
desired the Dragoman to repeat to him our request,
and to bring us his answer. He soon returned,
and told us that Veli Bey had other things to
think of, and that he was much surprised at
amateurs thrusting themselves in where they could
be of no use, and might give a great deal of
trouble. This was a dreadful disappointment ; we
little expected language so severe from Veli Bey ;
we thought it strange, but, nevertheless, could not
say it was unjust. We were now deprived, at the
very moment when the door seemed thus opened,
of every chance of realising our long and ardent
hopes of mixing in the events of this land, or even
of looking further upon its mountains and its

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 217

plains. We had no further chance of seeing Veli
Bey, or of hoping to soften him ; still we lingered,
vexed and disappointed, about the spacious court,
watching the movements, and admiring the ac-
coutrements, of the various chiefs and their tails,
which never had the same interest for us before,
and gazing- upon the preparatives for an expedition
which had lost all its perils, and preserved only its
attractions from the moment we found ourselves
debarred from accompanying it. While in this
mood, a young Albanian - lad, a relative of Veli
Bey, came to us and asked us if we should not
like to accompany the expedition ? we answered,
that nothing would delight us so much, and asked
if he would undertake to be our advocate with
Veli Bey. The request was no sooner made than
granted, and the young Albanian ran off to catch
his relative as he was passing from one chamber to
another. We waited for some time, but with very
little hope of a favourable result; yet, congratu-
lating ourselves upon our dexterity in not having
cooled the ardour of our new advocate by inform-
ing him of the unfavourable decision to which his
chief had already come. When he returned, he
told us that Veli Bey was very much surprised
with the request, and would not believe that we
were in earnest, and that he would speak to us
himself upon the subject. We went to him ; we
expressed to him, concisely, but earnestly, the
anxiety we had to become acquainted with Al-

218 PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.

bania, which had induced us to come so far — the
pain he would give us if he refused — the gratifica-
tion we would derive from his permission — the
chances of benefit from Europeans becoming ac-
quainted with their country — the tendency of the
Turkish Government, which could not render
intercourse with us disadvantageous to him, and
might have the contrary effect.

After thinking some time, he said, "Well, if
you will go, the risk must be on your own heads,
for I cannot answer for my own ; and if you' do go,
you must be ready to start to-night." " In ten
minutes," was our reply. His eye suddenly bright-
ened, and he looked all round, leisurely, on the
Beys seated on three sides of the room, and seemed
to say, " Look at the confidence that strangers
place in my fortunes and in me." We recollected
the characters, but did not gather the sense at the
time.

But what will be said of the interpreter who
brought us the first pretended message ? It being
one of the first opportunities I had had of under-
standing that race, I wras very much puzzled to
account for his conduct. He could have no motive
in deceiving us ; he had hitherto shewn us the
utmost kindness and hospitality, and it, probably,
originated in a purely kindly feeling, because, had
he been unfriendly, he would have been glad to
have got rid of us ; but here broke out, not the
man, but the Dragoman, in their habitual control

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 219

over the minds and bodies of those between whom
they are intermediaries.

We followed Veli Bey into the divan, to take
leave of the voung Pasha. We had seen him half
an hour before, playing at the djereed, an exercise
in which he displayed the greatest ardour and dex-
terity. He had now relapsed into the sombre and
stately Osmanli, and, wrapped in the ample folds
of Benishes and Harvanis, reclined in the centre of
the spacious divan that once was Ali Pasha's. He
was exceedingly surprised at our determination of
accompanying Veli Bey, and charged him to take
the greatest care of us. The Bey answered, "On
my head ! "

That night the town was all in movement, but
the Bey's departure was postponed till next morn-
ing; and, after obtaining his promise that we
should be duly warned of the hour at which he
was to set out, we retired to our quarters, to com-
plete our own preparatives. Next morning we
were ready to start before the dawn, and waited
anxiously for a summons to join the Bey. Our
impatience increasing as the day advanced, we de-
spatched messenger after messenger, but could
learn neither when he intended to start, what
road he intended to take, nor even where he
actually was ; whether or not he intended to go,
or was already gone. The intelligence received,
and the operations about to commence, were alike
a mystery to us. The most contradictory and

220 PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.

alarming reports were in circulation : at one time
the rumour was that Arslan Bey had gained a
complete victory, had occupied the mountains to
the north, and even that he had interrupted the
communications with Triccala ; immediately after-
wards we heard that he had been completely
beaten, that he was a fugitive, and ready to submit.
We remarked that the Albanians spread the ru-
mours of his success, the Greeks those of his dis-
comfiture, which, if they were of little value as
news, were of importance to us, as confirming, in
our minds, the identity of interest between the
Sultan's party and the Greeks ; a novel combina-
tion, as we, coming from Europe and from Greece,
naturally imagined. The chiefs we knew and could
fall in with, either knew no more than ourselves, or
were too busy with their own affairs to attend to
our questions. In this uncertainty we remained,
until ikindee, or three o'clock, when we positively
ascertained that the Bey had started two hours
before, and had already reached the south-eastern
extremity of the lake, on his road to Mezzovo.
We immediately determined on following him ;
our friends joined to urge upon us arguments and
entreaties, but, in spite of these, in spite of fresh
difficulties about our horses, and the impossibility
of obtaining guards, or even guides, we found our-
selves, at sunset, just beyond the skirts of the city.
Our travelling establishment had been gradually
reduced, and now consisted of but a single attend-

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 221

ant, who had previously been dignified with the
title of Dragoman, but now had to perform the
offices of Dragoman, valet, Tartar, and cook. Our
Surrigee, who was attached to us for the expedi-
tion, was a savage-looking Ghegue, who could speak
nothing but his own barbarous tongue, and de-
voured, on the first evening of our march, the
whole of the provisions we had taken for two
days.

222 SKIPETAR EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

CHAPTER XIII.

SKIPETAR EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

The sun, as we have said, was but " one fathom "
above the western horizon, when, unheeded amid
the prevailing bustle and confusion, we issued from
the gate of Janina, secretly rejoicing at the disco-
very that we could pass unobserved. But, no
sooner were we in the open plain, than we felt all
our helplessness. Up to this time we had worn
European clothes — short jackets and straw hats —
upon which the natural effects of wear and tear
had done their worst. Our now single attendant
wore the same costume, and, amid such a move-
ment and such excitement, without escort or pro-
tection, ignorant alike of the language and manners
of the people, our forebodings were gloomy enough,
and the figure we cut was rather of the scarecrow
kind. Our baggage, hastily packed, was constantly
tumbling off; our wild Ghegue of a postilion, in
the absence of any civilised means of intercourse,
exhibited the state of his mind by an almost unin-
terrupted flow of imprecation, now directed against
the baggage, now against the horses, and some-

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 223

times against ourselves. Our interpreter consoled
us, on every tumble of our baggage, by assuring us
that the breakage of our coffee service, telescope,
pistols, &c. was of no moment at all, as " our
throats would certainly be cut before morning."

An hour after sunset, we, however, arrived at a
Khan, called Baldouna, four miles from Janina, at
the eastern extremity of the lake. We were there
rejoiced to behold a face we knew, Abbas Bey, a
relative of Veli Bey. We thought our troubles
and our dangers now over ; but gratification at the
rencontre did not seem reciprocal. We soon per-
ceived that, while anxious to appear kind, he was
much embarrassed at being seen by his country-
men with two such questionable looking figures
seated beside him. He left us abruptly, and we
presently learned that he had removed with his
people elsewhere. This circumstance deeply af-
fected us. There is a sense of loneliness in the
world, a coldness that comes over the heart, when
you feel yourself despised and avoided, that curdles
the feelings, and jars upon the nerves ; then do
dangers and sufferings, in their worst forms, seem
enviable, if blessed with the companionship of our
fellow men.

Our friends at Janina had prepared a well-
appointed wallet. We thought the time had ar-
rived when such appliances might give a little
distraction to our thoughts, and vigour to our phi-
losophy. But, alas ! while we had been discussing

224 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

public affairs, our single Ghegue had devoured the
whole of our provisions! Supperless, exhausted,
and not venturing even to ask for water, for fear of
betraying our helplessness, and of meeting with a
refusal, we retired to a rising ground, and being
unable to keep watch, we set up a figure, with a
turban, having the end of a gun resting on its
shoulder. Thus, gaining confidence, and satisfied
with our device, we laid ourselves down, and fell
asleep, after having relieved ourselves from our
fears, rage, and irritation, by giving them velit.

That evening, what were the contrasts we drew
between the scenes we had witnessed on the Ma-
kronoros and that now around us ; between the
enthusiastic greeting and splendid hospitality of
the Greek bands, and the contemptuous scowl,
and the savage air, of the Skipetar hordes! Yet
here we were entirely at the mercy of any one of
these bandits, without any means of protection, or
the slightest chance of retribution to arrest vio-
lence. These reflections, placed in every possible
light, led us to no other conclusion than a sincere
wish to find ourselves, once more, in our comfort-
able quarters at Janina. But we had maturely
resolved on making this attempt ; we had been
strengthened in our resolution by the dissuasion of
our friends, and we could never have brooked the
commendations we were sure to have heaped upon
us if we had re-appeared at Janina.

We ascertained, the next morning, that Veli

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 225

Bey was to remain the whole of the day at a Khan,
twenty-four miles distant. With the dawn, we
were in motion. Troops had been arriving and
departing continually during the night. Between
two and three thousand men might have passed ;
but the bustle and confusion would have led one
to suppose that there had been three times that
number. There was no order of any kind ; they
were grouped around chiefs of great or little re-
pute, and the minor chiefs again clustering round
the greater. These bodies had each their inde-
pendent views and modes of action. The men
looked but to their immediate leaders. The re-
lationship or intercourse between these depended
on, or was modified by, a thousand influences, but
all wore (as every thing in the East does, in conse-
quence of the absence of political and party dif-
ferences) a personal character ; the very antithesis
of our notions of military discipline and political
combination.

We managed to start by ourselves, and a little
before a Bey with a large retinue, so as to appear
to belong to his party. After ascending a low
chain of sandstone hills, we reached, by a rapid
descent, the vale, or rather the channel, of the
river of Arta, which opened out straight before us,
and seemed to penetrate to the very roots of
Pindus. Through this channel we journeyed, inces-
santly crossing the stream, and, at each turn, stop-
ping to admire the magnificent peaks that towered

VOL. I. Q

226 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

up before and around us, in grandeur and in
beauty.

At mid-day, without more adventures, and
almost without having seen a single Albanian,
did we arrive at the Khan of Roses, where, to
our infinite joy and relief, we were told that Veli
Bey really was. We were conducted by a ladder
to an upper loft, rather than a room, where, with
a couple of men in strange costumes, Veli Bey
was seated on the floor. Miserable as the hovel
was, the group was a picture ; and the chief we
had sought with so much anxiety, reclining on his
white capote, magnificent in figure, and no less
classic * than splendid in attire, was a subject for a
Lysippus, and the personification of a monarch.

Veli Bey stood up on our entrance. This
single act shewed us at once our position, and his
intentions, and relieved us from all doubts as to
his disposition or his power of making his good-
will effective. It established our character and

* Veli Bey wore the white Arab benish over the golden
Albanian fermeli, which, with the fustanel and leggings, em-
broidered in gold, to represent metal grieves, gave him the air
of a Roman statue, and was the most magnificent costume I
have ever beheld. It was made for the ^masters of the world.
In Titian's wood-cuts to the work on costumes, published at
Venice, in 1598, the "Ambassador" and the "General" of
Venice are represented as wearing that remarkable cloak. It
may be recognised by the three tufts on one shoulder, — that is,
when the arm is drawn through the hood. The tufts come to
the throat when the benish is drawn over the head.

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 227

position, not alone among his retainers, but also
in the camp, and, I may say, in Albania. A west-
ern, accustomed to the broad shadows of social
equality, can have no conception of the effects and
combinations of manner in the East. From the
moment that manner becomes a means of action,
not a movement or a sign can be matter of indif-
ference. It is a conventional mode of intercourse,
like speech, and thus they have two languages to
our one. But this was the first time, after an in-
tercourse with easterns, which I then thought both
long and instructive, that a Mussulman had got up
to receive me. I thought such a thing alike re-
pugnant to their faith and their habits.* The fact
opened a new, but still indistinct field of inquiry :
however, it served, at least, to excite curiosity,
encourage observation, strengthen resolution, and,
above all, filled us with self-satisfaction at having
undertaken this expedition, and at not having
turned back to Janina the night before.

At the very moment that we entered, dinner was
preparing to be served ; no words passed, no invi-
tation was given, and scarcely had we time to look
about us, when the round leather tray was unfolded

* At the time, I was not aware, nor do I conceive Europeans
in Turkey generally are, that in Turkey alone do Mussulmans
decline to pay this mark of respect to the professors of other
faiths. Further on, I shall endeavour to explain the cause of
this peculiarity, which has grown out of the hostile feelings of
Europe.

q2

228 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

on the floor in the middle of the party, and the long
napkin, whirled by a dexterous hand, fell at once
over the knees of the Bey, the two Turkish stran-
gers, and ourselves. An admirably roasted lamb,
dressed whole, but served cut up, with excellent
wheaten cakes, composed our fare. During our
repast, not a word was exchanged, and we had too
much to think of, and to do, to make the meal
appear long or the silence irksome. The Bey
seemed to have forgotten that we were present, and
we felt that all we could expect was to be suffered
to be there, and that, from untimely questions, we
should neither fare the better nor know the more.
Perhaps, accustomed to that laconic, but expressive
manner which we then first began to feel, he thought
that our reception told us all that it was necessary
for us then to know, — namely, that he was not dis-
pleased with our coming, and would give us a share
of his carpet and his lamb. The reserve thus imposed
upon us, and the dependence of our position, brought
us to that happy state — attentive and. humble obser-
vation— a benefit which, perhaps, few western travel-
lers have enjoyed. Instead of speaking, criticising,
and deciding, we watched, examined, waited, and
held our tongues, and felt, for the first time, not
only the elegance of eastern style, and the dignity
of Turkish manner, but its real power.

Fearful of being in the way, we retired imme-
diately, and wandered to a grove above the Khan,
to converse at liberty on all we had seen. The

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 229

Bey was taking his siesta, and the few attendants
had followed his example. In about an hour and
a half, several horsemen arrived in haste : we had
placed ourselves so as to observe the Khan and
the road, determined not to be again left behind.
We returned to the Khan, where now all was
astir, and the Bey, whom we found alone, gave us
a frank and hearty welcome ; he expressed his
astonishment at our following him, and confessed
he had intentionally omitted to send to us before
his departure, as he feared that even if no mis-
fortune happened, the poor entertainment he could
give would send us away to England with a bad
opinion of Albania. Peace was soon made, and
we assured him that we felt the propriety of his
disinclination to take with him in such an expedi-
tion a couple of useless and, as he might suppose,
inquisitive and intractable Franks ; but that we
should give him no trouble, ask him no questions,
and never be seen by him except at his own desire.

Having come to this satisfactory understand-
ing, he told us that we must now prepare for
the mountains — that he was to encamp that
night at ten miles distance, in a vale on the summit
of the Pindus.

On leaving the Khan, we turned off to the left
from the Janina road, and commenced the ascent
of the lofty chain that separates Thessaly from
Albania. We were at that time in possession but
of scanty and uncertain light respecting the

230 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

strength and object of the expedition, or the
positive force, intentions, and character, of the
insurgents ; however, we perceived that the pea-
santry were in the greatest alarm, and that the
hearts of the Albanians, even those of our own
party, were with Arslan Bey, who, they asserted,
had fifteen or twenty thousand men. We were
astonished not to see any troops with ourselves,
and Veli Bey starting with a retinue of not more
than twenty horsemen. Without obtruding our-
selves on his presence or attention, we endeavoured
to read his countenance. He rode along by himself,
his chin almost resting on his breast, quite lost to
things around him. His pipe-bearer from time to
time rode up with a fresh lit pipe, which he took
and put to his lips mechanically. What might be
supposed to occupy his thoughts ? On one side,
Arslan Bey, master of Mezzovo, the rations cut off,
Janina fallen — Selictar Poda there again, and in
possession of the person of Emin Pasha — Veli Bey
sunk for ever, a fugitive in Greece, or his head on
the Seraglio gate. On the other, Arslan Bey beaten
back — Janina saved — Emin Pasha retained — Selic-
tar Poda humbled — Albania organised — the Alba-
nians disciplined — Veli Bey general of brigade —
Veli Bey farmer of the fish preserves — Veli Bey
governor of Prevesa — of Arta — of Janina — Veli —
Pasha ! Ay, and who could tell ? perhaps Vizier !
The day even might come when Veli Jacchio
might be Zadrazem! Such may have been the

EXPEDITION TO THE PIXDUS. 231

waking visions which the Father of the Gods and
men had mingled for him, from either vase which
contains the dreams of ambitious mortals. But not
less anxious must have been the cares imposed
upon him by his actual state, immediate danger,
and necessities. Subordination to maintain without
money — an enemy to meet without troops — a
master to obey whose success was destruction — an
antagonist to resist in self-defence, whose discomfi-
ture was fatal — and implements to use which could
neither be trusted nor neglected. Lost in the
mists of destiny which a breath might call down in
iron rain, or dispel in brightness and in sunshine,
well might he refuse to add a traveller's questions
to his cares, drop his chin upon his breast, and
smoke his empty pipe as if it had been full.

The mountain we were climbing was, as I have
already said, the central range of the Pindus, run-
ing north and south through continental Greece,
separating Thessaly from Epirus — long, lofty, and
narrow — rising like a wall from the dead levels of
Thessaly on one side, and the plains of Arta and
Janina on the other. We were crossing it near the
central group from which flow the five largest rivers
of Ancient Greece, running eastward and westward,
and also north and south. On our right, detached
from the more continuous ridges, arose this group,
high above the rest, with its breaker-like peaks.
Masses of earth and rock, rather than mountains,
were piled up and scattered all around. The cliffs

232 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

were naked, and as if fresh broken off; the earth
seemed just to have slipped down, and the land-
scape looked like a scene in a crater, or the morrow
of the Deluge, idealised by the magnificent sensation
of silence, which is half the poetry of desolation.

In this eternal amphitheatre of nature, what were
the human atoms that might be discovered creeping
along its cornices and domes ? Their passions dis-
turbed not its sublimity ; their shouts of victory or
cries of agony could scarcely break in upon its
repose! If the sight of masses of the earth towering
to the clouds — aspiring to and shutting out the
heavens from our eyes — turns us back at all times
to our fellow creatures, inclined to pity, but more
inclined to wonder ; — if

" All that refines the spirit, yet appals,
Gather around these summits " —

how much the more must their grandeur strike
with awe when seen in such company ; how must
their mass and their eternity impose when standing
beside, measuring with the mind and eye the petty
mortal of a fathom and a day, that calls himself
their lord and master !

We had started with a slender escort, and won-
dered what had become of the numerous bands
which we had seen scattered over the plain of
Janina, and which had passed us during the night.
As we ascended, the Pindus appeared a perfect
solitude, but our escort imperceptibly increased ;

EXPEDITION TO THE PIXDUS. 233

we could not comprehend whence came the acces-
sions to our numbers ; we turned round to admire
the view, and to see if any bodies were overtaking
us. When we resumed our march, the whole moun-
tain above us was suddenly covered with men. This
had been the place of rendezvous and refreshment ;
and, in taking their siesta, the troops had composed
themselves to sleep with a Skipetar's instinct of con-
cealment. Soldiers now started up from under every
bush and tree, and from behind every rock — and
what a place for this sudden apparition ! The road
ascended by divers zig-zags over five or six succes-
sive summits. It was instantaneously thronged
with Spahis and lance-bearing Chaldupes ; Beys on
gallant chargers, and long lines of the kirtled Ski-
petar, in all the gorgeousness of glancing armour,
and of shining colours, and in every variety of
martial and picturesque costume. These files, set
quickly in motion, produced an effect which no
words can convey; — now seeming to cross each
other with the turns of the zig-zag path — now lost
in the foliage, now appearing in bold relief on the
rocks — now drawn out in straight and lengthened
lines on the face of the dark mountain — now sud-
denly breaking from the regular path, and clamber-
ing like goats to the road above ; thus diminishing
on the receding distances and ascending heights till
we could trace them only by the white line of their
snowy capotes and fustanels, and by the glittering
of silver and of steel.

234 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

As if nature had resolved on adorning the pro-
spect with all the charms her fancy could suggest,
and with all the power her elements could bestow —
mountains of snow-white clouds rose into the deep
blue sky ; and, during twenty minutes, a thousand
changes of light and shade were cast over the
heavens and the earth. Then the storm approached,
darkened, descended ; and long, distant, and melo-
dious chords of music, worthy of the scene, pealed
among the halls of Pindus. Large drops of rain
began to fall, glittering through the not yet ex-
cluded sunshine ; but the dense and heavy masses
came on, enveloping us in darkness and drenching
us in rain ; stunning peals burst like explosions from
the earth, or fell like blows dealt by the unseen
genius of the storm, shattering the rocks, while the
flashes shot from cloud to cloud, and the thunders
were sent around from cliff to cliff. The road
became a torrent ; the rain was succeeded by hail,
driven by tremendous gusts of wind, which now
dashed the torn clouds against us, and now swept
them past. As we took shelter under a rock, a
break in the driving clouds opened, for a moment,
a glimpse of the world far below : there lay the vale
we had traversed in the morning, in silence and in
beauty, gazing upwards, as Love is figured watching
Madness. There no shred of the tempest had fallen ;
not a rain-drop had broken the mirror of its foun-
tains, nor a breath stirred the leaves of its bowers.
The stream meandering below sent up to our region

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 235

of strife and darkness the reflected rays of the de-
clining sun, and gliding through meadows of velvet
green, shone like a silver chain cast on an embroi-
dered cushion.

These summer storms are rare, and scarcely
ever fall on the plains ; but where they do fall their
fury is uncontrolled. Sheds, houses, and trees, are
torn up, and cattle and sheep are blown over the
precipices ; but their ravages do not extend far, nor
does their fury endure long. When they sweep the
sea of this ship-strewn shore, their destructiveness is
not less felt, though not so much sung, as of yore.
Still, every man who has been a schoolboy exclaims,
as he sails along the coast, resplendent in the sun
and fragrant in the breeze — " Infames scopuli Acro-
cerauniae ! " I had before seen such a storm from the
Makronoros, -and have described the effect it had
from a distance. The plain below was tranquil ; so
seemed the cliffs above ; but midway a chaos of
black and leaden clouds seemed writhing in agony,
and casting their zig-zag lightning against the
mountain, or on the plain. An object full of gran-
deur to behold, but not a very pleasant experiment
to repeat.

After the storm was over, it was indeed a sight
to view the gay Palicars, wringing their drenched
fustanels, and with their dripping embroidery drag-
gling in the mud. But what with the soaking, the
chill of the atmosphere by the storm, and, at this
elevation, the great change of temperature from the

236 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

hot plains below, no one was disposed to make him-
self merry at the expense of others.

About sunset we reached the Khan of Placa,
at the summit of the pass, where Veli Bey was to
spend the night. The troops moved on to a little
plain, where an encampment had already been
formed, and where a thousand men had been for
some time stationed, to command or support the
various passes. There preparations had been made
for the reception of this fresh body, which, we
now understood, mustered five thousand muskets.
Looking from the heights of the Pindus, we at
once comprehended the state of parties and things,
and we had the additional satisfaction of finding
that we owed our perceptions to the first cause of
all knowledge, and the parent of all science —
geography. What is there, like a bird's-eye view of
a country, for the comprehension of all its human
interests ; and how pleasing it is to arrive at know-
ledge through the observation of things, and not
through men's tongues !

The Khan of Placa is an old, ill-adjusted, and
spacious building — a court in the centre is sur-
rounded by galleries, corridors, and some dingy,
deal-separated apartments. The wall without, and
the lower part within, are in masonry ; the rest is
crazy and creaking timber. The crowds of sol-
diers and attendants, rendered weightier still by
their wet capotes, made the whole edifice shake
and rock. The court was filled with baggage-

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 237

horses, and just in the busiest moment of unlading,
a second burst of hail and thunder rendered the
animals quite ungovernable, and a scene of inde-
scribable confusion ensued. In a short time, how-
ever, things were shaken down into something like
order, the lucky ones got into dry clothes, and we
were of the number ; a general forage was made
in search of firewood, some ran to the surrounding
forests, some collected dryer materials elsewhere,
and the timbers of the old Khan were found to burn
like tinder. A dozen fires within and without the
court soon sent up volumes of flame and smoke, and,
as if by magic, half a dozen sheep, at full length,
were spitted, and laid down before them, on long
poles, resting on a fork, stuck in the ground, with
a crotchet at one end, which was slowly turned
round by the hand.

We ascended a little eminence that overlooked
the Khan. What a contrast with the brilliant
scene of the forenoon ! what an antithesis to the
storm that followed it! Now, not a breath was
stirring; that darkness reigned around which fol-
lows the last expiring rays of twilight, and which
was deepened, almost to blackness, by the glare
of the fires, except where their light was reflected
from the tall columns of smoke above, and from
the rocks and trees around. A sensation the most
delicious was produced by the fragrance of the
atmosphere after the storm ; and, standing on the
edge of a cliff, at the height of between four and

238 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

five thousand feet, we inhaled the air, rising up
warm and soft, and charged with the odours of the
blossoms and the plants it had caressed as it
rose, from lowly flowers to myrtle groves, and to
mountain heather. Our companions revelled in
the balmy air, they bared their arms and breasts,
and stood, like sea-gulls on rocks, stretching their
necks to catch the breezes, and expressing their
delight by short cries, and by the flutter of their
extended wings.*

But an odour not less rich and savoury soon
wooed our thoughts, and attracted our steps else-
where. A rich brown had succeeded to the milky
hue of the prostrate mutton, as we again ap-
proached the fires ; the escaping steam, and
strengthening odour, the increased activity of the
arms of the turnspits, and the perspiration pouring
from their heated faces, announced the approach-
ing termination of their labours.

* While revising this sheet, I find the following charac-
teristic sketch, in a little old book, by one Mr. Robert Withers,
published in 1650, and entitled M A Description of the Grand
Signor's Seraglio."

" Nor, indeed, doth a Turke at any time shew himself to be
so truly pleased and satisfied in his senses, as he doth in the
summer time, when he is in a pleasant garden. For he is no
sooner come into it (if it be his own, or where he thinks he may
be bold), than he puts off his upper coat, and laies it aside, and
on that his Turbant ; then turns up his sleeves, and unbuttoneth
himself, turning his breast to the winde, if there be any, if not,
he fans himself, or his servant doth it for him. Again, some-
times, standing upon a high bank, to take the fresh air, holding

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 239

But with all the contentment which such a
prospect might afford, we had not the comfortable
feeling of being " at home." Two fires blazed in
the middle of the court ; between them it was just
possible to pass without being suffocated or
scorched, and there we determined to promenade,
where we could certainly neither fail to be seen
nor observed in connexion with supper. First,
one sheep was lifted up, the long pole shouldered
by a Palicar, and away he ran with the smoking
trophy, but no announcement followed that supper
was ready. Another went, and then another, and
they all went, but no censal proclaimed, " Mon-
sieur est servi."

We had roasted ourselves to no purpose ; our
scheme but betrayed our ignorance, and insulted
Turkish hospitality. A laconic " buiurti* dispelled
our doubts, and we found the Bey in a small room,
or rather box, most comfortably lined with shaggy

his arms abroad (as a cormorant, sitting on a rock, doth his
wings, in sunshine, after a storm), courting the weather and
sweet air, calling it his soul, his life, and his delight ; ever and
anon shewing some visible signs of contentment. Nor shall the
garden, during his pleasant distraction, be termed otherwise
than Paradise ; with whose flowers he stuffes his bosom and
decketh his turbant, shaking his head at their sweet savour.
Sometimes he singeth a song to some pretty flower, by whose
name his mistress is called; and uttering words of as great joy
as if, at that instant, she herself were there present. And one
bit of meat in a garden shall do him more good than the best
fare that may be, elsewhere."

240 EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS.

capotes, large enough to hold us and give us
elbow-room, with a whole sheep, divided into
manageable morsels, piled on the leather tray in
the middle of the floor, for us three to pick and
choose the tit-bits, or devour in toto, if so dis-
posed.

After the drenching, and the ride, the Bey-
indulged in a few extra glasses of rakki, and of
wine ; and truth, the proverbial attendant of the
juice of the grape, suddenly increased his confi-
dence. He burst forth in a violent philippic
against the allied powers, and, wonderful to relate,
as it was startling for us to hear, fell upon the
poor reprobated Protocol with no less acrimony,
and, apparently, no less justice, than the peasants
of Acarnania, or the Hellenes of Makronoros. We
looked at each other with surprise : — Good God!
thought we, is it possible that these sage diplo-
matists, and these cabinets, which we at that time
considered oracles, have equally succeeded in
exasperating Greeks, Turks, and Albanians ? And
what a strange coincidence is it, that here, again,
all the blame should be laid upon the shoulders of
England ? "I care not," said Veli Bey, with an
incoherence that evinced the depth of his feelings,
" what the French have done, what the Russians
have done — they could have done nothing without
England ; but that England should so have treated
us, is incomprehensible and unbearable. England,"
he repeated, with measured pathos, " which we

EXPEDITION TO THE PINDUS. 211

placed above our heads," raising his hands as if to
give effect to his faltering words ; but at that
moment the strength of his feelings quite overcame
him, he fell on his cushion, and his pipe dropped
from his hand ; we started up for cold water and
burnt feathers, but a loud snore apprised us that
he had found temporary relief from the sense of
political degradation, to which he was so painfully
alive.

VOL. I.

242 MEETING OF THE CAMPS.

CHAPTER XIV.

MEETING OF THE CAMPS — CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE
CHIEFS FRESH ALARMS.

The next morning we set forward to the place of
encampment, which was in a beautiful little cleared
plain. The hills here are covered with forests of
magnificent beech ; there is no underwood amongst
the trees, and no brushwood between the forest
and the cleared land, and, consequently, the
scenery presents that character which we desig-
nate '* parklike." Wherever you ascended from the
level ground, you came upon the round, straight,
columnlike trunks of the beech, giving access to
the deep shadows as if of pillared temples; and
here again was the Skipetar gathering almost in-
visible. On extending our observations, we per-
ceived numerous and diversified preparations for
bivouacking; sheds, made of green boughs, were
erected on the ground ; pallets were reared on
stakes, or suspended from the branches ; and the
white busy figures were seen every where glan-
cing through the trees. In the open ground,
troops of horses were grazing, and the place re-

MEETING OF THE CAMPS. 243

sounded with the rattling of the Turkish curry-
comb. After wandering about for some time we
again sought the Bev, and found him established
on the summit of a little knoll, just within the
edge of the forest, shaded by its foliage, and com-
manding through the trunks a prospect all around.
We were invited to a place on his own carpet ; the
Beys and Agas were seated around in a large circle
two or three deep ; and behind these, stood some
hundred soldiers. For a couple of hours did we
sit, spectators of this assemblage, without under-
standing a word of the language, or having any
idea of what was going on. A decision at length
was taken. The standards had been planted in the
plain below, and the standard-bearers formed part
of the circle. An order to them from the Bey
sent them rushing down, with a hundred of their
fellows at their heels, to pluck two of the four
standards from the ground ; and the savage war-
whoop that was sent up at the same moment, and
the tinkling larum of the tambourgi, made the
plain and the hills resemble a disturbed ant-hill.
The chiefs, surrounded by the principal persons,
followed at a slow and dignified pace, while the
horsemen galloped forward, and wheeled around
them, whirling their tnjenks and long misdrachi
(lances). Those who had to use their own legs
seemed scarcely less active ; they commenced, by
discharging their tufenks, singing, shouting, scam-
pering over the hills, and running races, till,

r 2

244) MEETING OF THE CAMPS.

finally, a general rush and race took place towards
the gorge through which the Bey had to pass.
We had remained on the eminence where the Bey
had been, and saw all this passing beneath us, and
we now ascertained that about one-half of the men
only accompanied the Bey. We determined to
follow the moving body, although it was no very
pleasant thing to follow in the rear, and without a
chance of reaching, in these narrow defiles, the
chief party. It was not, however, to be over-
looked, that this position gave us imme'nse ad-
vantages in case of a retreat. We therefore set
forward, as heretofore, three ridiculous figures, in
shabby, tattered, jejune, frank habiliments, which,
in their trimmest style, and newest fashion, would
have been miserable compared even with the
meanest costume around us. At this moment
suddenly appeared Abbas Bey, our friend of the
Khan of Baldouna. We at first determined to cut
him dead, but, in two minutes after, we were pro-
ceeding along in friendly converse together, he
having declared that henceforward he took us under
his own special protection, that he should every
where see to our being comfortably housed, and
would keep us informed of every thing he knew.
He spoke Greek fluently. These were, of course,
offers not to be rejected. He explained his leaving
us at the Khan, by saying, that he did not know
whether the chief approved of our coming, and
he did not know whether we might not be Russian

MEETING OF THE CAMPS. 245

spies ; he had heard at Janina that we were Eng-
lish, but he did not know whether we were true
English ; " but now, since we see how the Bey
treats you, it is quite another thing."

We learned from our new friend that Veli Bey
was proceeding to meet Arslan Bey, in a little
valley called Milies, where a conference was to be
held between the two parties, and whither each
was to repair attended by the chief men. We
remarked, that Veli Bey's suite appeared in that
case somewhat too numerous. " Oh," answered
Abbas Bey, " you may be sure that Arslan Bey
will come with at least as many!" Our informant
severely reprehended the excesses of which Arslan
Bey and his party had been guilty ; " but," said
he, with a shake of the head, u he is the only man
for Albania; and I, for my part, was always of
opinion that Veli Bey should have remained at
Janina, because, if this expedition is cut off, as
there is every chance it will be, there is not a man
remaining who has sufficient authority to collect
troops ; and then, you know, what will become of
the poor Greeks, whom we are toiling thus, and
risking our lives, to protect?"

After crossing some low sandstone hills we
arrived at a rapid descent. The rock is serpentine,
of shining and glassy lustre, of all shades of blue,
green, and brown. Here the Bey had halted, and,
conducted by our new guardian and friend, we
found him seated at a distance on the rock, with a

246 MEETING OF THE CAMPS.

single person, whom we understood was an emis-
sary from his antagonist. When he returned to the
road he told us, smiling, that Arslan Bey thought
of submitting instead of fighting; and gave us to
understand that he was reduced to very desperate
circumstances. But still, instead of waiting to re-
ceive the suppliant, we found we were to proceed to
meet him. After descending the rugged hill, an
hour, through a narrow valley, brought us to the
plain of Milies. At the gorge, a troop of Arslan
Bey's horse was drawn up. They made their obei-
sance in the most lowly guise as the Bey approached,
and, when he had passed, joined the throng behind
him. The ground was confused, and there was
now a general rush from behind forward ; the men
on foot had been gradually expelled from the centre
by the pressing of the horses, and we entered the
meadow at full gallop. The press, the confusion,
the dust, was such that we could distinguish neither
where we were going, nor the ground we were
passing over ; and I am sure that, if a hundred
muskets had been discharged at us, a general scam-
per and rout must have taken place, and we should
have upset each other, attacked our friends, or
have fled from them. It is a very singular thing to
see warfare conducted between enemies wearing
the same costume, speaking the same language, and
without any distinctive signs, marks, or watchwords.
Here soldiers are instruments, but not machines ;
the most powerful assemblages of troops may be

MEETING OF THE CAMPS. 247

melted away in a moment, and gatherings may as
suddenly assemble, fit to change the fate of pro-
vinces and of empires, through agency of a moral
character, which it is most painful for a stranger to
trace with accuracy, but which still is one of the
most interesting features, and one of the deepest
inquiries, presented by the East.

Between the European and the Eastern com-
mander there is this most remarkable difference,
that the intercourse of the first with his men ceases
with the duty of the field ; he is known to them
only through the discipline he enforces, and the
services he commands, and makes no appeals to
their affections in social life. The Eastern com-
mander, on the contrary, is the Patriarch of his
followers ; — he is the arbitrator of their differences
— the chief of their community — knows each, and
the affairs of each — and such is the equalising
effect of those manners which appear to us to place
so immeasurable a distance between man and man,
that the humblest soldier may, under certain circum-
stances, be admitted to break bread with his gene-
ral. The characters which there ensure fidelity
and raise to power, are ability indicated by success ;
and the disposition to repay loyalty by protection,
indicated by generosity. And if I were to place in
order the qualifications which lead to greatness, I
should say : justice first, then generosity ; and only
after these, military skill and personal valour.

In the middle of the little plain, and close to a

248 MEETING OF THE CAMPS.

clear fresh stream, stood a splendid weeping willow :
this was the spot chosen for meeting, and here Veli
Bey dismounted ; he was soon seated on his carpet,
and a circle of Beys and men formed around him.
It appeared to us extraordinary that Arslan Bey
was not already here, and the more so, as the higher
ground all around was occupied by his men. Many
suspicions crossed our minds, and we retired up the
side of the hill to make our observations, and to
escape the effects of the first discharges, which we
had now no doubt would, at some preconcerted
signal, be poured on the crowd in the plain. There,
thought I, are those men with the eye-ball of de-
struction glaring upon them, sitting with the same
infatuation that year after year lures to destruction
the chiefs and the rebels of Turkey ! There scarcely
is an example of a revolt that has not been sub-
dued, or of a struggle between rival chieftains
which has not been concluded by an act of trea-
chery, in which the party deceived has been led
into the noose with a facility which appears to us
both childish and incomprehensible : the reason of
this I at that time was just beginning to see.
These movements, not being connected with gene-
ral principles, can be annihilated only in the person
of their conductors ; and that apparent confidence
by which so unaccountably those appear to be be-
trayed, is the result of the daring and decision
upon which alone their authority depends.

In the midst of these reflections a cloud of dust

MEETING OF THE CAMPS. 249

arose at the opposite extremity of the meadow, and
shouts of "He comes! he comes!" arose on all
sides. An alley of two hundred paces was opened
from the willow-tree, lined on both sides by the
troops of Veli Bey. At the extremity were planted
in the ground the two standards of our chief, — the
one pure white, the other white and green, bearing
a double-bladed sword, and blood-red hand, and
some masonic diagrams. A troop of about two
hundred horse dashed up in most gallant style, and
with a greater air of regularity than I had ever wit-
nessed before. When they reached the standards
they pulled sharp up, trotted on to the willow-tree,
filling up the whole breadth of the alley, and then
wheeling right and left, ranged themselves behind
the lines of Veli Bey's foot-soldiers. At this mo-
ment Arslan Bey himself reached the standards — he
there dismounted ; at the same moment Veli Bey
stood up under the willow-tree ; this was a signal
for a general discharge of the whole muskets of
both parties ; and when the smoke cleared away
we saw the two chiefs embracing each other in the
centre of the alley, to which, with equal steps, they
had advanced from either extremity. Each then em-
braced the principal adherents of his antagonists : —
this was the signal for the respective troops to follow
their example ; and all around nothing was to be seen
but figures bending down and rising up with such a
motion as a field of battle presents when men are
struggling hand to hand, and closing in the embrace

250 MEETING OF THE CAMPS.

of hate. This was a strange meeting of the rival
hordes of a Firmanli and his commissioned execu-
tioner ; and whoever had looked upon the fervour
and simplicity of that meeting — " where they fell
and wept on each other's necks," — might have
deemed it that of Lot and Abraham with their
households. In embracing, they bend down as they
meet each other, kiss the mouth, then press cheek
to cheek on either side, while they either formally
extend their arms, or more or less closely press
each other. But the lowness to which they stoop,
whether or not the kiss on the lips is given, or one
or both cheeks are pressed, or the embrace is formal
or close, constitute an endless series of shades and
distinctions, indicating degrees of acquaintance,
friendship, affection, relationship, station, relative
rank, authority, and command.

Broken and abrupt ground rising on either side,
over which fell in little cascades the water that
turned several mills ; well-wooded hills beyond, in
which the fir predominated, and above these, the
lofty and precipitous cliffs of the Pindus, displayed
to the best advantage the troops bristling along
each summit, or crowded in the valley. Beneath
the willow was assembled the principal group; —
five thousand men were scattered in parties, above,
below, and around us ; — congratulations, embra-
cings, and loud laughs, activity, bustle, and ever-
varying and pleasing confusion, the different ex-
pressions of their countenances, their elaborate

MEETING OF THE CAMPS. 251

compliments, the variety and beauty of their cos-
tume, richness of accoutrement, strangeness of
arms, brilliancy and contrast of colours, fatigued the
curiosity they could not cloy. While we congratu-
lated ourselves at being present at so extraordinary
a scene, every novel effect and striking character
made us deplore the absence of such a graphic pen
as that which had rendered Ashby-de-la-Zouch
classic ground.

The public conference lasted about a quarter of
an hour ; a general movement then informed us
that the chieftains were about to retire to a Khan
near at hand for private discussion. We pressed
forward to obtain a closer view of Arslan Bey. The
two walked on, half embraced, when Veli Bey,
perceiving us, stopped, and patting Arslan Bey on
the breast, cried out — " Here is the Turk ! You
see we have caught the Klepht you were so anxious
to fight with." Taking this for an Albanian mode
of presentation, we bowed low, whilst the young
" Lion," drawing himself to his height, scanned us
from head to foot ; but, strange as our figures were,
his thoughts were evidently not with his eyes. They
moved on and entered the Khan ; the doors were
closed upon them, and a black attendant of either
chief defended them against the throngs of Palicars
that pressed, like swarms of bees around their
queens.

The scene which presented so much agitation
gradually sank into repose. The Palicars, in social

252 CONFERENCE OF THE CHIEFS.

groups, nestled themselves in the bushes ; nothing
was to be seen but groups of grazing horses. After
an hour's ramble, exhausted by the mid-day heat,
we turned towards the Khan. From every bush,
as we passed, we heard the words repeated, " Signor
&cc ygoc^psrs touto ?" — Will you write this ? meaning
— Will you print it ? The constant, and not friendly
stare of the Albanians of the other party almost
determined us on retiring to the first encampment,
when Abas Bey again came to our assistance, and
proposed our entering the chamber, as the confe-
rence was drawing to a close, and we could not
interrupt it, not understanding the Skipt. The
passage was consequently cleared, and we had the
satisfaction of being present at a conference on
which such immense results depended.

The two chiefs were seated on a mat under a
small window, which gave the only light to the
room, which fell with full power and with deep
shadows on the group : a white cloak, hung up on
the opposite side, increased the effect, by throwing
back a pale glare over their countenances. The
remainder of the dungeon-like apartment was dark.
In a remote corner, from time to time groaned a
sick man, who had been removed out of hearing
from a pallet on which we were seated. A bowl of
raki, a bottle of Samian wine, and a plate of salt-
fish, stood between the Beys. We sat for three
hours, during which their conference was still pro-
longed, sometimes gravely animated, sometimes in

CONFERENCE OF THE CHIEFS. 253

scarcely audible whispers, whilst they leaned forward
and seemed to look into each other's soul. Seve-
ral times drops of large perspiration started from
Arslan Bey's brow, and once Veli Bey impressed a
kiss on his forehead.

Our anticipations had been excited by the praises
we had constantly heard lavished on Arslan Bey ;
nor were we disappointed. His person was good,
though below the middle size ; his features fine,
with a mild expression, but a fierce eye ; a dark
handkerchief bound the small red cap over his high
and well-turned forehead ; his dress was plain and
soldierlike, and youth gave additional interest to the
ideal character which we always suppose, and to
the natural powers of mind and body that must
always be combined in a leader who struggles with
constituted authority. They told us he was only
twenty-two, but I should say he was twenty-five.
At an early age, Arslan Bey found himself at the
head of one of the first families of Albania, one of
the richest men, and endeared to the soldiery by
his personal courage and conviviality : his con-
nexion by marriage with Selictar Poda, increased
his influence, while his accession to the party of
the Selictar, rendered that party predominant.
Two years before he had been named Mousselim
and Dervend Aga of Triccala ; subsequently he was
sent, with five or six thousand men, to open a
passage for the Turkish regulars, that were blocked
up by the Greeks in Negropont and Attica. After

254 CONFERENCE OF THE CHIEFS.

this service he was made Governor of Zeitouni, in
Thessaly : the pay of his men was not remitted to
him, or it was not punctually paid by him ; the
men became outrageous — on one occasion even
seized him by the throat ; and excesses of every
kind were committed. At this moment the Sadra-
zem sent him orders to resign his command. His
party, from the reasons I have before stated, ap-
prehending the designs of the Sadrazem, thought
this a most favourable moment, by exciting the
exasperation of Arslan Bey, to strike a blow,' before
the Grand Vizier could bring his forces to bear
against themselves ; perhaps, too, the Selictar was
desirous, before declaring himself, to see how things
would turn ; for, after exciting Arslan Bey to re-
volt, he remained an indifferent spectator of the
contest. Arslan Bey then plundered Codgana, a
wealthy Greek township, and a great deal of booty
had been collected ; this he intended sharing among
his men, according to their rate of pay and length
of service. But this act had given cause to his
being declared Firmanli; whether successful or
not, the sword hung over his individual head, and
there was scarcely more subordination amongst his
men, than union amongst his party. Already be-
trayed by the last, the first, on any advantage or
check, might equally abandon him. He held the
destinies of Albania in his hands ; his will or ca-
price was actually the ruling power, and a word
from him might let the thunderbolt fall upon it.

CONFERENCE OF THE CHIEFS. 255

If he let it fall, what benefit could he expect?
If he restrained the storm, what assurance of
recompense, what guarantee of pardon, could he
obtain ? These arguments we imagined we could
trace in the imposing tones and manner of Veli
Bey, and in the deep reflectiveness of his antago-
nist, who, although he had his rival in his hands,
suffered him to assume so decided a superiority.
Veli Bey's cares were not less anxious, or his breast
more quiet, whatever was the serenity that sate on
his brow ; but all that I then knew of his inward
thoughts, and of his actual circumstances, I have
already detailed.

We remained silent and motionless in our
corner, catching at every word, tone, or gesture,
to which we could attach a meaning, and marking
the expression with which were uttered the words,
Sadrazem, Cagana, Lufe, Padechah, &c. Veli
Bey had, from time to time, been handing us over
raki, and giving vent to his satisfaction in rallying
Arslan Bey, and asking us how we liked the
Klepht ; but he could not induce the fixed features
of the young rebel to relax into a smile. At length,
Veli Bey called for dinner, and some of the prin-
cipal officers, who thronged the passage without,
in the most anxious expectation, burst into the
apartment. We ourselves were perfectly ignorant
of the result, nor could we exclude the idea that
the conference might terminate in blood ; and each
unexpected movement, in either chief, instantly

256 CONFERENCE OP THE CHIEFS.

riveted our attention. When the Beys entered
the room, Veli Bey exclaimed, "Brothers, it is
peace !" Those of his party again embraced Arslan
Bey, but more fervently than before ; they then
attempted to tear from his forehead the kerchief
that bound it; he struggled for a moment, but
they tore it from him, and stamped upon it. Veli
Bey seemed delighted, laughed, and pointed out to
us the new Tactico (Nizzam). During dinner, the
conversation was principally in Albanian, in which
Arslan Bey, with remarkable versatility of powers
and character, took the lead ; peals of laughter fol-
lowed every word he uttered. When we had eaten,
washed, and drank a cup of coffee, the room was
again cleared. The chief adherents of Arslan Bey
were then called back by name, and collected by
Veli Bey in a circle around him : he addressed
them in a long discourse. Often as I have had to
lament the ignorance of language, never did I de-
plore that ignorance as on this occasion. The
continuity, the oratorical sweep of his periods, the
variety of intonation, action, and expression — the
scorn, reproach, and, finally, pity, of which the
men before him were evidently themselves the
objects, exhibited powers no less extraordinary
than judgment, and not less courage than rhetoric ;
and we learned that day a lesson, with respect to
the characters of the Eastern mind, that neither,
probably, will soon forget. When he had com-
pletely mastered his hearers, his manner changed

CONFERENCE OF THE CHIEFS. 257

entirely, and their reconciliation was sealed in a
formal manner. One was placed opposite to Veli
Bey, two others on either side ; they rose together,
leaned forward, and, each stretching out his arms,
the four stood locked in one embrace. Veli Bey
kissed each separately, repeating, " We have
peace."

The conference, after eight hours of painful
anxiety, being thus happily concluded, Veli Bey
and Arslan Bey left the Khan as they had entered,
half embracing each other. The men started up,
thronging around them ; the Tambourgi's alarum
sounded, and we again ascended the hill, to see the
separating squadrons reiterating adieus, galloping
round their leaders, whirling their spears and mus-
kets, and running races up the hills or through the
valley.

We returned to the encampment, and had our
tent pitched in it. Veli Bey took up his quar-
ters with us. He had previously few thoughts or
words to spare ; but now, in the exultation of suc-
cess, he opened to us his own prospects, and his
hopes for Albania, and spent the greater part of
each day in giving us the history of the Grand
Vizier, of the Greek war, of his feud with Selictar
Poda, and of every thing he thought might be in-
teresting or instructive. The organisation of Alba-
nia was the subject he dwelt on with the greatest
satisfaction ; and his own appointment to the com-
mand of 12,000 men, which was the immediate
I vol. i. s

258 LIFE IN THE CAMP.

recompense held out for his reducing this insur-
rection. He seemed to take delight in speaking to
us, in the midst of his men, of the plans that had
been formed for organising Albania, as if to sound
their feelings, and to gain support from the appro-
bation of Europeans. On the other hand, the men
said to us, " Tell our Bey to leave us our fustanels,
and we will become any thing he pleases." With
equal earnestness, Veli Bey entered into the com-
mercial interests and prospects of his country, the
ameliorations that might be introduced ; aftove all,
the necessity of establishing friendly feelings be-
tween his own people and Europe, through which
foreign capital would pour in, and, by facilitating
the means of conveyance, greatly increase the
wealth of the country and the value of land. He
anxiously inquired into every improvement and
discovery in agriculture or machinery, with the
view of turning his triumph, as he said, to the
advantage of their children ; so that, when an old
man, he might bring his grandsons to see the
valley in the Pindus, where the projects were
conceived. His natural reserve, and the repre-
sentation in which they commonly live, had worn
off by the close contact in which we were placed,
apparently to the gratification of both parties. We
were delighted with having so excellent an oppor-
tunity of examining their character and ideas,
while he seemed equally pleased at being able to
express, unconstrainedly, his opinions of his own

LIFE IN THE CAMP. 259

people, of the Turks, and of European policy,
which, I need not say, he did not spare, and his
admiration of our military organisation and scien-
tific inventions. " Perhaps," said he, smiling,
"you may one day pay dear for the lessons you
have been at such pains to teach us." The steam-
gun and carriage were the chief lions. It was his
great delight, after each conversation, to repeat
these wonders to his people ; and then, with a
shake of his head, he would add, " Ay, these are
men." He expressed his determination, as soon as
the Sadrazem arrived, and he had three or four
months free, to go to England. He made every
inquiry as to his journey, stay, and the manner in
which he would be received ; and I am sure we did
not exaggerate the sensation he would have created
in London, if he went attended, as he proposed, by
twenty of his finest men.

While we remained in the camp, our tent, the
only one, was pitched in the little plain, and in it
he slept. At daylight, pipes and coffee were
brought ; we remained chatting, washing, and
dressing, till the sun was well risen : Veli Bey then
walked up into the wood, where his carpet was
spread on the spot already described. As soon as
he was perceived to be in motion, the officers
assembled from their different positions, and the
Beys, Odjacks, and Agas of Upper Albania, Epirus,
and Thessaly, were gathered in divan around him.
Here they conversed and smoked, and here busi-

s2

260 LIFE IN THE CAMP.

ness was transacted. Rayas came to make com-
plaints, primates to make their obeisance, and bring
presents — letters were read and written. During
the morning they would take two or three walks,
of a few hundred paces, and then suddenly sit
down again, but always so as to have a point of
view before them ; indeed, whether on the Bos-
phorus or the Peneus, on the Caucasus or the
Pindus, I have seldom heard a Turk expatiate on
the picturesque, but I have never seen one turn
his back on a fine view. We were constantly be-
set with such questions as these — "What is it
you see so attractive in our mountains ; have you
no mountains or trees of your own ?" The only
motive they could understand was, that our coun-
try was so cultivated, that we could no where enjoy
the simple and wild beauties of nature.

Our time was spent between the chief, the
officers, and the common men. We were now
become great favourites with all classes. Many of
the Beys were young men, unassuming, frank, and
anxious to acquire information.

But the common soldiers interested us infi-
nitely more than their leaders ; whenever we ram-
bled about their bivouacks, we were treated with
every mark of respect, we were invited to partake
of their fare, spent many an amusing hour, and
reckoned several stanch friends amongst them.
What a contrast with the first night at the Khan
of Baldouna, and what a subject for reflection, on

LIFE IN THE CAMP. 261

the causes by which events are determined, and on
the cords, insignificant or invisible, by which men
are led !

As mid-day approached, we usually joined Veli
Bey in the tent ; a dish was placed on the carpet,
containing slices of onion, salt fish, or salt cheese,
prunes, or something else, by way of provocative ;
a small cup was placed before each, and an attend-
ant stood behind, with a bottle of raki ; we used
to remain a full hour earning an appetite, by the
constant succession of a little of the zest, a few
whiffs of tobacco, and a sip of raki. Then was
brought in a round piece of leather, laced up like a
reticule ; it was spread in the middle, and, as it
opened, displayed a smoking lamb, cut or torn in
morsels, with pieces of an excellent flour cake,
thin and pliable, with which you might delicately
take hold of the meat, which, from the mode of
cooking, falls away from the bone with ease. A
dish of sauce, white as milk, is placed in the centre,
to dip the first pieces of bread in, as an additional
appetiser. This sauce is composed of garlic and
salt cheese, rubbed down in oil and vinegar, and
slices of onions swimming in it. The lamb was
followed by a large round pasty of cabbage, or of
cream, at least three feet in diameter, and three or
four stews, all excellent, so that we wondered how,
in such a place, where a human being did not seem
to be domiciliated, such fare could be procured.
The wine, strong and generous, circulated during

262 LIFE IN THE CAMP.

dinner as freely as the raki before ; nor ceased,
till the pipe had fallen from the Bey's mouth, and
he dropped over asleep on the spot where he sate,
and, as he lay taking his rest, an attendant drew
his cloak around him. The afternoon was an
exact repetition of the former ; in fact, out of one
day they make two little days, — a plan well
adapted to the climate, and to their habits, passing
from indolence to great activity. When not
aroused to exertion, they force their inclinations
to obtain a plethoric repose; they excite a ficti-
tious appetite that they may eat, and eat beyond
their appetite that they may sleep. I was one
day complaining of the quantity of salt put in
every thing, and was answered by the proverb, —
" If you do not eat salt, how can you drink ; and
if you do not drink, how can you eat ; and if you do
not eat, how can you sleep?" But this is a tra-
veller's remark, and I do not give it as worth more.

One evening, when at supper in our tent, a
Tartar arrived from the Grand Vizier, bearing
despatches for Veli Bey, and announcing the con-
firmation for life of the monopoly of honours and
dignities that had been heaped upon him.

Soon after our return from Milies, a personage
of greater consideration than the rest appeared in
the camp ; this was Gench Aga, Tufenkji Bashi of
the Sadrazem, and governor of Triccala and Mez-
zovo, and who, as I learned, a year and a half
afterwards, from himself at Scodra, was the chief

FRESH ALARMS. 263

agent in this plot, in which Veli Bey and Arslan
Bey were alike the puppets.

The result of the conference at Milies was,
that the plunder of Codgana, &c. should be re-
stored ; the arrears of Arslan Bey's men liqui-
dated ; that he himself should be absolved, received
into favour, and that he should accompany Veli
Bey to Janina. But Arslan Bey had to consult
his supporters, and, though the principal officers,
as far as we could judge by the dumb show we had
seen, seemed perfectly satisfied with these con-
ditions, he had still to return to his camp to confer
with the Skipetar. No answer having yet been
returned when Gench Aga arrived at the camp, he,
accompanied by our young friend, Abbas Bey,
went on to the head quarters of Arslan Bey ;
three or four days passed, and yet they did not
make their appearance. We joked Veli Bey on
their being caught by the Klepht : at first he affected
to laugh heartily at this supposition, but their
delay soon ceased to be a subject of merriment.
They did, however, return, and, after a private
conference with Veli Bey, Gench Aga sent for us,
and told us, in that decided way, that left us no
doubt that he had good reasons for what he said,
and, with that kindness of manner which relieved
us from all doubts as to his motives, that we must
allow ourselves to be guided by him in our future
plans ; that he would make himself responsible for
our safety, and could afford us an opportunity of

264 DEPARTURE.

extending our journey, but we must not remain
where we were. We expressed our readiness to
be guided by him : " In that case," he said, " you
must start with me immediately for Mezzovo. As
soon as this affair is settled, I will have to send a
body of horse to Triccala, and thus you will be
conveyed in safety beyond the sphere of the pre-
sent struggle." There are some few people in this
world who have an irresistible way with them ;
whose ideas are so like reason ; whose words are
so well chosen ; whose manner is so well calcu-
lated for producing on the given person the desired
effect, that there is no objecting, even with a disin-
clination to agree ; so it was with Gench Aga, and
never was I more surprised than in finding myself,
after ten minutes or less conversation with a per-
fect stranger, busily occupied in making prepara-
tives for departure from a camp which I had had
such infinite difficulty to reach, and from a country
in which, ten minutes before, I had thought my
rambles only commenced.

THE SKIPETAR CAMP. 265

CHAPTER XV.

IMPRESSIONS PRODUCED BY THE SKIPETAR CAMP PAST STATE

AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF ALBANIA COMPARISON OF

THE CHARACTERS OF INSURRECTION IN TURKEY AND IN
EUROPE.

Before bidding adieu to the Skipetar camp, I must
put together what I gathered from them during
this short but intimate intercourse, respecting the
dissipation of the powerful armies that, for six
successive years, have been poured into Greece,
without any other result than devastation of the
continental provinces, loss of life, and exhaustion
of the Sultan's treasury.

The domination of Ali Pasha had tended to
increase the warlike character of the Albanians,
for, besides the constant activity in which they
were kept during his reign, he dispossessed a great
number of landed proprietors, who found an equi-
valent in military service throughout the whole
country, from Berat to the Euripus, and beyond
the Isthmus. On the breaking up of Ali Pasha's
power, commenced the yearly campaign against

266 PAST STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ALBANIA.

Greece, affording pay and an employment agreeable
to their inclinations, to this large mass of irregular
and independent warriors.

They frustrated, with Albanian subtlety, every
measure of the Porte to put an end to the Greek
war. Missolonghi might, on several occasions,
have been taken with the greatest ease; but the
speculation was too profitable, and they termed it
their saraf, or banker. They managed to cross
every plan of the Sadrazem ; and, finally, after
receiving three months' pay in advance, 8000 of
them abandoned Jusuff Pasha at Loutraki, after
having attempted to rob the military chest. It
was on this conjuncture that the Porte reluctantly
called in the assistance of Mehemet Ali Pasha.

A calculation of the number of men, their pay,
and the expenses of the commissariat, may give us
a distant approximation to the sum expended by
the Sultan in Albania on account of the Greek
war. Five expeditions were made : the average
number of men may be 20,000; they received,
one with another, fifty piastres per month, from
the 1st of March O. S., to St. Demitri, the 8th of
November. Eight months and ejght days (the
regular Turkish campaign), at the above rate,
besides extra pay if they remained longer in the
field, will give a sum of 46,250,000 piastres. The
commissariat department is generally allowed to
expend a sum equal to the allowance for pay ; so
that these five expeditions must have cost the

PAST STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ALBANIA. 267

Porte above 90,000,000 piastres. Besides these
armies, there were 10,000 men in constant activity
as guards of the passes, garrisons of fortresses,
body-guards of Pashas, Use., whose pay, and other
expenses, during the same period, may be estimated
at 60,000,000 piastres.*

We have allowed in the commissariat expenses
for the waste and abuse of rations, but we have
not allowed for the extravagance and malversation
practised in contracts connected with the com-
missariat dealings and accounts, in which foreign
merchants, brokers, bankers, shared the spoil,
with official purveyors and military commanders.
It was not till the fourth year of the war, and at
the suggestion of the present Sadrazem, then
created Roumeli Valessi, that the Porte commu-
nicated to the ambassadors a proclamation, by
which she warned the foreign merchants, that she
would no longer be answerable for engagements
entered into with the Pashas. But so well aware
was the Sultan of this system of peculation, that
he appointed the most influential of the Janissaries
to the commissariat department in Albania, as the
only bait that could decoy them from their body ;
certain that their detection in some flagrant de-
linquency would soon give him the right to degrade
or to banish them, or even to punish them capitally.

* AH Pasha's 40,000 men cost him as much as 80,000
French soldiers. The troops under Capo d'Istrias were cal-
culated, I believe, at three times the cost of English troops.

268 PAST STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ALBANIA.

This sum of 150,000,000 paid in Machmondies,
value 25 piastres, or 3 dollars, at the commence-
ment of the war, would in 1830 represent a value
at Constantinople of 270,000,000 ; and at Janina,
of 360,000,000, equal to 3,000,000/.

Albania, during the war, thus received at least
2,500,000/. sterling of the Sultan's money, while
it paid no revenue. The loss of revenue in the
Peloponnesus, Continental Greece,* during the
whole war, and in Roumeli, during the first three
years of the revolution, could scarcely' be less
than 4,000,000/. The destruction of materiel and
ships of war (the cost of which is only in part
defrayed from the public treasury), if capable of
calculation in money, would probably not fall far
short of the sum just stated. I think I may there-
fore set down the cost of the Greek revolution at
10,000,000/. as positive expense, to a govern-
ment which receives but the surplus after the local
budgets are defrayed ; so that the provinces always
bear more than one-half of the expenses of war.
To estimate the real value of these ciphers, it
must be borne in mind, that in Turkey a peasant's
family can be maintained for 51. ; so that an

* Greece was supposed to contribute yearly the sum of
250,000/., as surplus revenue, after paying its civil expenses, as
tithe applied to support a militia force, and as rent to Osmanli
proprietors. This alone would give, during the ten years of the
revolution, 2,500,000Z. ; but I conceive this estimate, perhaps,
too high, and I am estimating only the loss to the treasury.

PAST STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ALBANIA. 269

expenditure of 20,000,000/. is equal to the yearly
support of 20,000,000 of souls. If we take into
account the difference of habits and price, we shall
find that the Greek war has cost Turkey a sum
nearly equivalent to the debt of 120,000,000/.
bequeathed to us by the war with America.
Turkey has, at all events, the satisfaction of
having incurred no debt.

However desirous the Sultan might be to quell
the insurrection in Greece, he would not have had
recourse to Albania, the only part of his empire
where war was a positive drain on the treasury,
had he not expected, in subduing Greece, to
weaken Albania ; and, after these enormous sacri-
fices, it must be most exasperating to see the
people, which he sought to reduce, become inde-
pendent, and the other, which he wishes to weaken,
rendered more refractory, by the very means
which he had used against them.

Since the loufe (pay) of the Sultan has ceased,
the Albanians have been reduced to the greatest
straits. The infuriated soldiery held meetings,
proposed to elect chiefs, and discussed plans, one
of which was, to seize the whole of the Greeks,
and sell them for slaves. At that moment the
Russian war exasperated them against the Greeks.
The menacing attitude of the Greek regular troops
detained them from the scene of action on the
Danube, while the Turkish government, appearing
on the point of dissolution, could neither interpose

270 PAST STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ALBANIA.

its authority, nor awe them by the dread of conse-
quences. Yet, their better feelings being appealed
to by an able chief, the storm did not then burst,
and it still hangs suspended ; it is actually reposing
on the summit of Pindus.

There is a remarkable similarity between the
Albanian and the Scotch Highlander. The chief-
tains, like the Celtic chiefs of old, move about
with their tails ; pistol in belt, sword by the side,
and musket over the shoulder. Though not pre-
cisely divided by name into clans, their cou'sinships
count as far, and they shew equal devotion to the
chief whose " bread" or " salt" they eat. Hench-
men in the field, torch-bearers at their meals,
endurance of fatigue and privation ; a life passed
in constant warfare ; their name and costume, par-
ticularly the fustanel, or kilt; and, though last,
not least, the minstrels, called by them bardi,
are features which almost identify them with the
sons of Albyn. The comparison was always an
interesting subject of conversation ; and, though
their respect for England was mixed with a cer-
tain portion of dread and aversion, they seemed
proud of the likeness. That shrewdness, which
a mixture, rather than an acquaintance with man-
kind, produces, is remarkably developed in both
people ; as also that love of adventure and spe-
culation, which scatters these two scanty popu-
lations, East, West, and South, over the face of
the earth : with equal love of home, both come

PAST STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ALBANIA. 271

back again " to the North" to spend the evening
of their days, and enjoy the savings of their fru-
gality, and the fruits of their industry.

The more immediate cause of the growth of the
Scotch mind, was the rich nourishment it received
from the literature of England, and the powerful
implement it possessed in the English language.
The Albanians equal the Scotch of two centuries
ago in numbers and enterprise, but surpass what
they were in regard to the first mental steps which
a people makes, that is, — a knowledge of geo-
graphy ; but they have no literature : their own
language is an unwritten language. The Turkish
is the only vehicle of instruction, and Turkish lite-
rature, the only means of civilisation open to the
Albanian, as to so many Mussulman tribes scatter-
ed over Africa and Asia. That language, so rich
in its tones, so philosophical in its structure, has
been, however, unfortunately rendered most cum-
bersome in use, by the imitation of Arabic and
Persian, and under the action of the policy and
opinion of Europe/Turkish literature has disdained
to borrow from us.

The future growth of civilisation and well-
being in Albania, as in Bokhara, Tartary, Cir-
cassia, Kurdistan, &c, must depend on the tran-
quillity of the East by the consolidation of the
Ottoman empire, and on the character of the ideas,
which, from Constantinople, that centre of the
Eastern world, may be spread both far and near ;

272 INSURRECTION IN TURKEY

when the " Penny Magazine," or some such work,
published in vulgar Turkish, will form packages on
the camel backs of the Khiva caravans, and load
the Tartars to Janina and Scodra.

I quitted these wild people with a feeling of
regret, and cannot help looking back to them with
more than interest. From almost every one with
whom I had come in contact, I had experienced
kindness, to many I was indebted for hospitality.
I had derived much instruction from them respect-
ing those things of which I had made it my busi-
ness to inquire ; and many of my then most
cherished opinions had been suggested by my
intercourse with them. The East, after this ex-
cursion, seemed less a chaos than it had appeared
before.

The drama which I have related, and the san-
guinary conclusion, of which I have yet to relate,
might be taken for proof of a reckless spirit of
adventure, that no art could tame, and power
alone could moderate. However, I do not take
such to be the case. These combinations affect
the chiefs, not the mass of the nation ; and it is
precisely the subordination of the men to their
immediate chiefs, that gives to them the means of
playing the important parts which we have seen.
These chiefs are easily to be managed, if handled
with dexterity : the events of that, as other Eastern
lands, resemble a game of chess, where skill and
science do not consist in the direction of force,

AND IN EUROPE. 273

out where ability resides in the intimate knowledge
of the inherent qualities of the instruments, success
depending on the relative positions in which these
are placed.

Let us contrast, for a moment, the civil war in
Spain with the war in Albania. In the former
country, you have a party attacking the govern-
ment, because their notions of right and wrong
are in opposition to those of another party of
their fellow citizens ; and that opposition is so
deep and reckless, that all that men hold dear
is staked on the struggle to which it gives rise.
What deep feelings of animosity between man and
man are here evinced ! How, as compared with
the East, must be weakened in the national mind
those feelings of respect for moral right and legi-
timate authority, which are the only real guaran-
tees of private integrity or of political union ! As
a natural consequence of a struggle springing from
such sources, you have unpitying bloodthirstiness
in the victor, and reckless contempt of life in the
vanquished. The captured Royalist expects no
favour at the hand of a successful antagonist;
and, consequently, bares his breast with indifference
to his fate, exulting at the vengeance which his
comrades will take.

In the Albanian struggle, who ever heard of
the execution of a vanquished foe ? A foe van-
quished, and in the power of the victor, not being
an object of hatred and dread in consequence of

VOL. I. t

274 INSURRECTION IN TURKEY

principles which he entertains, is neither attainted
as a traitor, nor executed as a rebel ; and you
never see the vengeance of the government fall,
except upon those whom its power cannot directly
reach. The most notorious rebels, after beingr
deprived, by defeat, of the influence they possessed,
have been spared by the arm of the law ; and the
government, so far from dreading the effects of its
moderation, proclaimed throughout the empire the
words of the Sultan to the rebel Pasha of Bagdad,
• — " Pardon is the tithe of victory! " *

But a European will exclaim — if Easterns do
not contend for political principles, it is because
they are not yet civilised — what is it that divides
Spain ? The Biscayans resist the suppression of
the self election of the municipal authorities ; the
government enforces it : the Biscayans resist the
suppression, by custom-houses, of the freedom of
their markets ; the government insists on its sup-
pression : the Biscayans demand the enjoyment of
rights established by capitulation and proscription ;
the government takes these rights away; and, these
differences existing, the pretext for the struggle is
the succession of the crown.

If the Biscayans had been subjects of Turkey,
no revolt could have taken place ; for each of
those principles, maintained by the Biscayans, is
adopted by the Ottoman government. The Otto-

* Meaning the share of the spoil which belonged to the state.

AND IN EUROPE. 275

man constitution places the supreme authority in
a lofty position ; but has circumscribed its power,
and debars it from interfering with customs. These
checks, which we have not well comprehended,
have maintained that authority, during six centuries,
as an unvarying point of union, and as an object of
universal veneration. Turkey entertains no pro-
ject hostile to a foreign state ; grants freedom of
commerce and jurisdiction in its territory to
foreign nations. Such a government ought, doubt-
less, to be considered an excellent neighbour.
This people has, however, been the victim of
false opinion, which has excited against it wars,
combinations, and hatred. Each, by turns, of
all the populations submitted to its sway, has
been excited to sedition by dark processes and
powerful means. Wounded, weakened, disheart-
ened, and exasperated, by a combination, so un-
christian, of all Christendom, it has still lived on,
where ten European governments must have been
irretrievably lost. The sources of this existence,
where are they to be found ? From Friar Bacon *
to Count Sebastiani, the churchmen and the states-
men of Europe have pronounced the political
empire of Islamism extinguished. The reason is,

* Friar Bacon read the prophetic number 666 as applying
to Islamism, and announced its immediate downfal. That
prophetic writer, Mr. Forster, thinks he was not very far wrong,
for, about that period, the Turk, Alp Arslan, overthrew the
Caliphate !

T 2

276 COMPARISON, ETC.

that the characters of its life are different from
those of our political existence, and have not been
inquired into or understood by us.

The Porte has had no standing army ; it has
possessed none of those institutions, and but a
small portion of the power through which our
Western systems exist; and, having only self-
government, Turkey is supposed, year after year,
to be on the very point of dissolution. But that
which leads us into error is the very reason why
the cry of liberty is not there a sound of terror ;
why the voice of faction and the whisper of principle
are alike unheard ; why religious differences do
not lead to religious struggle ; and why the defence,
even by arms, of local habits and interests, is not
insurrection.

ADVENTURE ON THE PINDUS. 277

CHAPTER XVI.

DEPARTURE FROM THE CAMP — ADVENTURE ON THE PINDUS

HOISTED INTO A MONASTERY THE METEORA DISCOVERY

OF STRANGE INTRIGUES RADICAL GOVERNOR OF TRIC-

CALA ARRIVAL AT LARISSA.

After very tender adieus from Veli Bey, and the
Albanian chiefs and soldiers, we proceeded south-
ward, and upwards through the mountain glen ; and,
after an hour's ride, suddenly came upon Mezzovo,
a town of 1000 houses, hung on the steep side of a
mountain, separated from mounts Zygos and Pro-
sillion by two deep ravines, whence the river of
Arta takes its source. On the road, we were let
into the secret of Veli Bey's excellent kitchen. It
was near noon, and we met two troops of women,
who, from their black clothing, and still more
sombre aspect, seemed funereal convoys. The de-
funct was a ready roasted sheep, fixed upon a stake,
which two of them bore upon their shoulders :
others followed with divers dishes, pasties, and pans ;
behind, a greater number tottered under 4000 okes
of bread, exacted daily from the town for rations.

278 ADVENTURE ON THE PINDUS.

We took Gench Aga for an ultra and an un-
compromising Turk ; but his sedulous attention to
every thing that regarded our safety and comfort,
soon placed his character in its true light, however
little credit we were, at the time, inclined to give
his countrymen for civility or humanity. But, ac-
customed as we had now become to a different sort
of treatment in the Albanian camp, we felt quite
shocked and indignant at falling down again to the
level of Franks.

Notwithstanding the approaching accommoda-
tion, we perceived the Aga was in a state of the
greatest anxiety. All the cattle having been con-
cealed in the mountains, he could procure no
horses to transport provisions to the castle, and the
troops at Janina. While we were with him, a couple
of secretaries were constantly employed in reading
and writing letters and buyourdis ; and we now
more than ever perceived the extent of the danger
that menaced the whole country.

Mezzovo, one of the most important, perhaps
the most important, pass of all Roumeli, situated
amidst such natural defences, having so large a
population of armed Greeks, with little landed pos-
sessions, had been hitherto singularly respected and
peculiarly favoured. We now found it in a state of
the utmost panic and alarm ; every door not occu-
pied by troops was barricaded, and apprehension
was deeply imprinted on every countenance ; the
sheep, cattle, and horses, were dispersed and hidden

ADVENTURE ON THE PINDUS. 279

among the rocks. The town was occupied by the
troops of a Turkish Binbashi, by those of Gench
Aga, and by those belonging to the municipality.
On the road to Milies, to the north, were the
troops of Arslan Bey ; to the west, those of Veli
Bey ; to the east, those of the Greek captains,
Gogo and Liacatas, were engaged in a separate
war, contending for the Capitanato of Radovich.

We looked down on the springs of the Aracthus,
flowing into the Gulf of Arta, separated by a single
ridge from the urn of the Achelous, which empties
itself into the Ionian Sea. Another ridge separated
this vale from the fountains of the Aous, which,
winding to the north, falls into the Adriatic. On
the eastern side of the same mountain, the Peneus
takes its rise : and the streamlet which we followed
from Veli Bey's camp falls into the Haliacmon,
flowing east and north into the Gulf of Salonica.

We could obtain but little information, in
answer to our inquiries from a population ab-
sorbed in complications no less alarming than be-
wildering ; yet, strange to say, at such a moment
as this they were occupied with repairing one of
their schools. It is incredible how ardent and
universal among the Greeks is the desire of instruc-
tion ; and how, in the wildest spots that man has
chosen for a habitation or a refuge, we have con-
stantly found tokens of an intellectual existence
and descent, aspirations after an ideal state — a
sort of political millennium — which they personify

280 ADVENTURE ON THE PINDUS.

with all the fertility of their imagination, and wor-
ship with all the timorousness of their servility.

No answer arriving from Arslan Bey, we deter-
mined on setting forward immediately, without wait-
ing for the detachment. Ten men and a captain,
the most savage-like travelling companions it had as
yet been my lot to fall in with, were given us as an
escort : before we had been half an hour on the
road, the captain began to treat us with the utmost
insolence ; and, receiving a rebuke unaccustomed
from a Giaour, he stopped with his men ; hut after
appearing to remain some time in consultation,
they followed us. We pushed on to overtake some
Greeks belonging to Gogo. We had scarcely
reached them, when they quitted the road and took
to the hills ; their appearance and manner were,
however, not much more inviting than that of the
party we had hoped to leave. We were now wind-
ing up the steep ridge of the highest chain of the
Pindus, the most dangerous part of the road. The
place was full of broken rocks, from behind which
sure aim could be taken ; and we were surrounded
by banditti that knew no chief, and were fighting
among themselves, who wanted neither opportunity,
inclination, nor a sense of impunity.

It being impossible either to halt or to return,
we trusted to Kismet and went on. Presently we
perceived a captain, with some mounted men, fol-
lowing us. Taking them to be of a higher caste,
we slackened our pace till they came up, and, after

ADVENTURE ON THE PINDUS. 281

the customary salutations, we proceeded together.
In scrambling up the rock, his horse passed that of
our servant, who seemed by no means disposed to
allow himself to be thus shoved out of the narrow
path : the captain turned round upon him, calling
him pezeveng and kerata, and was answered in the
same complimentary style. One man was close to
the captain. One of us returned to support the
servant ; and in a moment formed the most inter-
esting partie carree imaginable, each with a cocked
pistol in one hand, and a knife or a dagger in the
other. The captain's men, a little higher up ; and
our men, who were now close to us below, on
the first movement, unslung their guns, dropped
down behind the stones, and lay with their pieces
levelled on the group in the centre ; which stood
up to their full height, watching each other's eyes.
Seeing the pause, the chief of our guard, from
whom we were endeavouring to escape, rushed
forward and interposed ; the weapons were gra-
dually lowered, then put up, and we marched on
as if nothing had happened, passed over the sharp
ridge, and descended to the Khan close to it on the
other side. It was only there that we began to
think how romantic a fate had been ours, had our
funereal lotion been fresh poured from the urn of
Peneus, and our turf decked by the Dryads of
Pindus.

There was something very business-like in the
sudden drop of the men behind the stones : fami-

282 ADVENTURE ON THE PINDUS.

liar practice was marked in the first alertness, and
the subsequent indifference. This incident illus-
trated the advantage, in this world, of having
foes. Our escort, from whom we were endeavour-
ing to escape, and who entertained towards us,
while we had no need of their aid, no more friendly
feelings than we to them, now instantly proposed
to risk their lives in our defence, and to send their
bullets through their countrymen's hearts for our
sakes.

At the Khan we found ourselves in a most
beautiful situation ; the summits were covered by
lofty beech, straight as arrows, dropped, like plum-
met lines, on the inclined sward. This was the finest
timber of its kind I ever saw ; in the lower part
there is nothing to be compared to it. These lofty
trees shut out the view of the plains to the east,
and left our confined echappees embellished but by
the trees themselves, glaring lights and deep shade,
cool breezes and crystal springs, amid glassy rocks
of every hue. The Klefts, collected round the
Khan, chiefly deserters from Gench Aga, might
have delighted the spirit of a Salvator Rosa ; but
we at the time paid but little attention to the pic-
turesque of the landscape, or to the romance of
the figures in the foreground. We looked at the
cover they had at every point ; we marked every
inquisitive glance cast on our baggage, our arms,
and our persons. We, too, were Tartars in our
way, and might have passed for cousins of Ro-

DESCENT TO THESSALY. 283

binson Crusoe, our clothes torn by thorns and
thickets, with a pistol, a dagger, or a knife, ap-
pearing from each pocket-hole. We were deli-
berating whether we should advance, or barricade
ourselves within the Khan for the night, when a
detachment of the cavalry of Gench Aga galloped
up, inquiring loudly for us. Subsequently to our de-
parture, learning the state of the road, he had sent
on these, in all haste, to accompany us to Triccala.

In two hours we accomplished our descent to
the Khan of Malacassi. This place, an agglomera-
tion of dilapidated houses, was on the side of the
hill beyond the Peneus. The Khan, like all those
of Albania, was a filthy, dark, ruined building in the
style of Ali Pasha, the small door bolted, barred,
and barricaded ; the little grated window secured
the cage of the prisoner within, who, on receiving
his paras, dealt out garlic, salt, cheese, olives, and
sometimes resinous wine and raki. The wind blew
fresh, and the dust and sun compelled us to beg
admission of the Khanji, a favour readily granted
to the arzva., " tight" or Frank dress. Some black
barley bread, hot from the ashes, garnished a
dirty board ; the sofra was placed before us, with
a broken platter of coarse brown ware in the
centre, like the saucer of a flower-pot, on which
slices of onions and black olives swam in oil and
vinegar. I know not whether the art of the Thes-
salian equalled that of the Mantuan Thyestes ; but

284 THE METEORA.

that day, and the next, often did I exclaim, " O
dura alvanitorurn ilia ! "

We had still seven hours to the monasteries,
called Meteora, and we were obliged to hurry on.
The road was now flat, through or on either side
of the stony and large bed of the Peneus ; we left
the rampart-like Pindus behind ; the hills to the
right and left lowered and opened as we pro-
ceeded. On the higher parts the red earth ap-
peared through a sprinkling of dark shrubs, the
lower and level parts of the valley shewed 'but the
pallid yellow of the withered grass ; and, eager as I
was to catch and improve every charm, I must
confess it, " minor fama :" still along the stream,
wherever the platan us had been spared to gather
around it freshness and beauty, spots did appear,
shewing the paradise this country might become.
Across the opening of the hills we saw rising before
us a broken line of cliffs ; on these are seated the
monasteries of the Meteora. These cliffs, at first,
seemed as one united rock ; but, when the declin-
ing sun shone along it, throwing the light behind
those columnar masses, and their shadows against
the adjoining pinnacles, the strange group ap-
peared, in bold relief, like a gigantic bunch of
prismatic crystals.

At two hours' distance from the Meteora, we
were astonished to see what seemed an entire
population in the open fields : men and women,

THE METEORA. 285

infirm and aged, with infants and children, were
lying or sitting on heaps of baggage ; asses, mules,
a few sheep, dogs, and even cats, were wander-
ing through and around them. Being pressed for
time, we hurried by ; but, on inquiring afterwards,
we learnt that they were the inhabitants of Cli-
novo, one of the most flourishing burghs of the
Pindus, which had been pillaged the day before by
Liacatas, the Greek captain, in revenge of his
expulsion from Radovich ; and, after pillaging it, he
had set it on fire, over the heads of the wretched
inhabitants.

We seemed close to the monasteries, but it was
night before we reached their base, round which
we had to wind and clamber amid the colossal ruins
of rocks ; — now in the gloom of caverns and over-
hanging precipices, now seeing the stars glitter
through the openings of what appeared continuous
cliffs. Never have I seen a spot so calculated to
inspire superstitious awe ; — even ascetics and
cenobites savour too much of earth for such an
abode, fit only for a Sibyl's trances, or the orgies of
a Thessalian saga. The traveller who wishes to
enjoy their effect, should visit them by night : for
this purpose, instead of turning off to the right to
Calabaka, we pushed on to the cliffs, though at the
risk of spending a supperless night on the bare
rocks.

On arriving below a monastery, we strained

286 HOISTED INTO A MONASTERY.

our lungs, and exerted our eloquence in prayers
to be hoisted up, but breath and tropes were
alike unavailing: a basket, however, with a light
and some homely fare, came whirling down. Next
morning a net was let down ; it was spread on the
ground, and we were placed on it on a capote, our
legs, arms, and heads, properly stowed away, the
net gathered round us, and hitched on to a massive
hook. " All 's right," was shouted out from below ;
the monks began to heave round with the capstan
bars above, and gusts of wind made us spin round,
and thump against the rock in a majestically slow
ascent of 150 feet. When arrived at the top, we
were hauled in like a bale of goods in a Liverpool
warehouse ; and, the net being let go, we found
ourselves loose on the floor, and were immediately
picked up by the monks.

The monastery and monks resembled all other
Greek monasteries and monks ; the first filthy and
straggling, the second ignorant and timorous. I re-
collect but one object that particularly struck me; —
the chambers of the Turkish state prisoners ; for
Ali Pasha, reviving the tyranny of old, had con-
verted these recluses into jailors, and their retreat
into a dungeon, as under the Greek emperors.
They have a small library, containing, with some
Fathers and rituals, classics and translations of mo-
dern authors, Rollin, for instance. I searched for
MSS. and found a few, but they were all polemical.

HOISTED INTO A MONASTERY. 287

The monks confessed themselves ignorant and bar-
barous, but they spurned the idea of having made
use of their MSS. to heat their oven.

We were again slung in the net, and lowered
amongst mortals. This was the monastery of
Barlam.* We crossed over some rocks, and found
ourselves below the principal monastery, called
Meteoron. A basket was sent down, and in it we
deposited our teskere from Gench Aga, which was
hoisted up, inspected, and permission granted for
our ascent. We were, as before, stowed in a net, and
the monks going briskly to work, we were hauled
chuck up against the block, and then let down by
the run, in the midst of an expectant circle of
warriors and priests. It was fete day, and several
of the captains from the neighbouring mountains
had repaired to the monastery, with the threefold
purpose of performing their devotions, making a
good dinner, and discussing the Protocol, of which
we were become both sick and tired, and to which,
on leaving the Albanian camp, we thought we had
bidden a final adieu. Words cannot tell the delight
of our new acquaintances, as they unslung us
from the hook, and opened us out of the package,
at this unexpected importation from Europe. Two
reams of foolscap, or two bales of parchment, filled
with Protocols, could scarcely have delighted more
their eyes ■ and hardly had we got upon our legs

* Founded bv the Russian Patriarch of that name.

288 STRANGE INTRIGUES.

when we were subjected to a strict examination as
to the contents, character, and date of the expected
budget, as if they had been custom-house-officer
harpies, overhauling a ship's manifest, or a travel-
ler's carpet bag. Immense was their dissatisfaction
when we informed them, that we contained no new
Protocol, and that we were not come to the Meteora
to plant there the demarcation posts. We, on our
side, were perfectly bewildered at the consequences
and effects of a document drawn up in Downing
Street, and were infinitely flattered by this indica-
tion of the power our country possessed. We
dined, and spent the greater part of the day with
these people ; and left Meteoron perfectly surprised
at all we had heard on a subject which we believed
quite foreign to the country we had entered.

The Greeks, throughout this part of the country,
were perfectly convinced that the limits were to be
at the berdar, that is to say, at Salonica ; and that
the condition upon which the Allied Powers were
to grant them this frontier was, that they were not
to interfere in any way, either by connecting them-
selves with the movements in Greece, or by assist-
ing the Turks against the Albanians. When we
told them that that was all nonsense, they broke
out into violent recrimination, pointed out the
facility with which, during the Russian war, the
limits of Greece might have been extended as far
as the Meteoron ; and, at the present period, the
advantages which the Greeks might obtain by join-

STRANGE INTRIGUES. 289

ing the Grand Vizir against the Albanians, and
the necessity of their doing so for self-preservation ;
that they had sacrificed all to the will, and by the
orders, of the Alliance ; and they now had a right
to the fulfilment of the conditions promised on its
part. We were, for a while, very much amazed at
all this; we assured them we had never heard of
any thing of the kind, and that the limits positively
were to be at the Aspropotamos, that the Acarna-
nians even were excluded, and that the Greek
troops daily expected to be ordered to abandon the
Makronoros. We then inquired what the source
had been of such an opinion, — a question which
produced considerable confusion ; they looked at
each other without answering ; but, after some fur-
ther discussion, and the repetition of circumstances
which could leave no doubt as to the truth of our
assertions, a scene of mutual and violent recrimi-
nation took place between the captains and the
priests, and we discovered that agents had spread
throughout this country the conviction that the
Alliance would make the Verdar the limits of
Greece, if the Greeks of those countries desisted
from supporting the Porte against the Albanians.
The priests had been made the channels through
which these views were disseminated, and the mo-
nastery in which we were, probably, had been the
focus of these intrigues. But while the captains
reproached the priests for having deceived them,
and recalled all the suspicions they had expressed
vol. i. u

290 STRANGE INTRIGUES.

of the Corfiote Capodistrias, and the objections
which they had then urged, the priests asserted
that they had been made innocent victims, which is
probably true ; but they also asserted what was
more doubtful, namely, that Capodistrias must
have been deceived, and made a tool of by the
Alliance. They soon became, however, more bitter
than the captains, and one of them declared, that
not only should he consider it a holy deed to rid
their country of such a traitor, but that he himself,
if he were certain that Capodistrias had not been
himself deceived, would kill him with his own hand.
Here it was, that the full connexion of this intricate
and confused question flashed across us, that we
understood the game of Capodistrias, and the
authorship of the Protocol.

The earliest recorded establishment of these
monasteries is by Youssuf, a Bulgarian despot of
Thessaly, who abdicated on the approach of
Turkhan Bey. Thomas of Epirus had also ex-
changed his ducal coronet for an abbot's mitre ;
and on the establishment of the Turkish sway,
the Greeks of the provinces, as of the capital,
transferred to their spiritual pastors the pompous
designations of their temporal rulers : thus the
bishops of the x Greek church are now called
Despots.

This singular group of rocky pinnacles on which
the Meteora are seated is formed of a conglomerate
of crystalline rocks. Instead of being perishable,

THE METEORA. 291

and the monasteries being menaced with destruction
by their fall, these pinnacles must have remained
nearly in the state in which the Deluge left them.*
As we retired from these meteoric altars and
abodes, we turned constantly round to wonder
at, and admire, the strange exhibition of pinnacles,
precipices, clefts, and caverns, surrounding us on
all sides, and changing, in their combinations and
effects, like the scenes in a theatre. On their
summits, the various monasteries displayed their
grotesque forms : a mass of rock had slipped down
from one of the cliffs and carried away a monas-
tery ; but a portion of the painted cupola of a
chapel still hung attached to the precipice. In
the higher part of a lofty cavern (a state prison
under the Greek emperors,) scaffoldings are fixed,
one above the other, at some eighty or a hundred
feet from the ground, inhabited by refugees from
the plain. Holes and large horizontal caves, that
appeared on the perpendicular faces of the rocks,
were tenanted in the same manner : some looked
like handsome houses, with regular landing-places,
windows, and projecting balconies ; the smaller and
meaner ones were shut in with basket-work, with
a hole to enter by : these are reached by curious
ladders formed of pieces of wood, of two feet

* Pieces have been split off by frost, and lie all around. A
monastery or two has thus fallen, but the character of the whole
is unchanged.

u2

292 THE METEORA.

in length, bolted into each other by the transverse
steps. In the lower caves, these ladders, which
hang like chains, are pulled entirely up ; where
the ascent is longer (some of them are two hun-
dred feet), a rope is made fast to the bottom of
the ladder, which they pull up fifteen or twenty
feet from the ground ; and, when they are pulling
up or letting down several of these ladders at
once, they make a strange clattering noise. The
caves, in one place, are arranged in stories, one
communication ladder being made to serve for
several habitations.

Winding round the tallest of these pinnacles,
which may be 1000 feet in height, and the summit
of which looks like a crouching lion, we came in
sight of the plain of Triccala. On our right was
the Peneus ; on our left, the village of Calabaka,
overshadowed by the reverse of the rocks of the
Meteora, which on this side assumed a hilly and
rounded aspect. Around us were extensive planta-
tions of mulberry-trees ; and before us, at a dis-
tance in the plain, appeared the towers of Triccala.
On the left, a line of low naked hills stretched from
Calabaka towards Triccala ; and on the right, the
Pindus rose abruptly from the plain, and, stretching
to the south-east, was lost in the distance and the
mistiness of excessive heat.

As we approached Triccala we were much
pleased with the appearance of activity, comfort,
and prosperity, that reigned around — with the

TRICCALA. 293

peaceable, civilised, and, if I may say, burgher-like
demeanour of every individual we met. What a
contrast with our late friends! We were, above
all things, rejoiced to see the tracks of wheels —
a gratification somewhat diminished by the sight
of the unwieldy machines by which they had been
produced. A no less rare sight were stacks of
straw, under some splendid trees, near the entrance
of the town, which, scattered amid groves and
gardens, looked smiling, like every thing else,
with the exception of the assemblage of ruined
and diversified towers, once a castle of some im-
portance, which frown from a hillock in the centre
of the place.

We were met by three women, who stopped
us, questioned us, and welcomed us to their town :
one was a negress, one a Turkish, and one a Greek
woman. " It is long," said the latter, " since our
eyes have looked upon a Frank, and since then we
have seen nothing but misery and fear; but now
we shall see good times again since you are come
amongst us."

We dismounted at the residence of Gench Aga,
and were most courteously received by his nephew
and Vekil, who had even sent men to meet us
at the Meteora. He treated us (to preserve the
epithets which I then used) with all the observ-
ances of European politeness, and the sedulousness
of European urbanity. He refused to look at our
Firmans, remarking, that it would be his greatest

294 TRICCALA.

pleasure, and not as a duty, that he would serve
us in every thing we pleased to command. The
governor's residence was composed of two large
Serai's, occupying two opposite sides of a quad-
rangle ; along one of the remaining sides, horses
were stalled ; ammunition and baggage wagons
were arranged in the other ; in the centre,
artillerymen were going through their exercises
with a couple of field - pieces ; wheelwrights,
armourers, and blacksmiths, were at work in
various directions ; and every where there was
an air of bustle and activity, which seemed by
no means Turkish. In these martial preparations,
we could distinguish the finger of our veteran
friend ; but, in the respectful attitude and de-
meanour of the lowest menial towards us, we
thought we could trace the radical principles of
his polished nephew.

We staid a few days at Triccala, to make the
acquaintance of the principal Turks. Gradually the
habits of the country were growing over us : things
became more easy and less strange, we therefore
felt more at home, and became less industrious in
taking notes. The only record of our sojourn at
Triccala, which I find in my journal, is as follows :
" The collector of the Charatch told us, that a
few years ago there were in this district twelve
thousand Charatch Papers, and that now there were
only five thousand. We inquired what had be-
come of the others. He answered, • Oh, they are

TRICCALA. 295

a wicked race, and prefer ranging the hills, with a
loaded pistol in their belt, and empty tobacco
pouches, to industrious labour.' The opinions of
the principal Turks, with regard to all matters of
public interest, were much the same as elsewhere ;
and here there is no difference of opinion, in con-
sequence of difference of grades. At Triccala
there were no Janissaries ; and the remainder of
the population, whether pasha or porter, have the
same feelings, and may change places, without
violation of propriety or custom."

We were not disappointed, on further acquaint-
ance with Skender EfFendi (the nephew of Gench
Aga). With the enthusiasm of a young man, and
the zeal of a political neophyte, he was full of the
magnificent results of the new system ; and though
a stranger's eye is little fitted to seize changes and
ameliorations, amid the scenes of so many tragic
events, still the confidence which seemed restored
to all those with whom we conversed, and the
hopes which animated them, were proofs, and, I
may almost say, were portions of an improvement
neither doubtful nor unimportant. On taking
leave of Skender EfFendi, he said, " Spare us in
your Journal ; forget what you have seen amiss ;
and, if you speak of Triccala, say that we are
anxious to perform as much of our duty as we
have yet learnt."

From Triccala to Larissa is twelve hours.
There being nothing of interest on the road across

296 LARISSA.

the plain, and the heat excessive, we determined
on travelling during the night ; but my companion
being indisposed, was knocked up, and we were
obliged to stop at Zarco, a village in ruins half-
way. We passed abundant sources of water,
springing from the foot of the marble rocks. From
near this place an irregular, but apparently con-
tinuous chain, appearing like islets (and the plain
like a lake become solid), runs across to the neigh-
bourhood of Thaumaco, and separates the plain
of Triccala from those of Larissa and Pharsalia.
Here we rested for the remainder of the night.
In the morning we procured a wagon, with buf-
faloes, for my companion to follow at a stately
pace, while I proceeded with the menzil. The
road, to within three miles of Larissa, rises and
falls; the country is neither plain nor mountain;
the Salembria (Peneus) accompanies the road in
a tortuous bed, with steep sandy banks ; it is
not more than twelve or fifteen yards across,
sluggish, muddy, and overhung with bushes ; and
sometimes the prettiest parts might be compared
to the Charwell, though I must assert the supe-
riority of the academic over the classic stream.
I crossed it in a punt near a deserted village.
Farther on, a rising ground was covered with Turk-
ish tombstones, pieces of columns, and other Hel-
lenic remains. This was the site of Old Larissa.
Soon afterwards I came in sight of the long-looked-
for " Larissae campus opimse," extending to the base

LARISSA. 297

of Olympus and Ossa. The numerous minarets of
Yenicher rose and glittered above an oasis of trees
and verdure in the midst of a plain of sand ; for the
stubble and withered grass gave that appearance to
these fertile but naked fields, under a mid-day and
scorching sun, without a breath of air or a cloud
to relieve the brightness or the heat, except those
heaped on Olympus, and veiling its sacred head.

The brother of Sarif Aga, Charatch collector,
had given us a letter of introduction to him, and
directed us to go straight to his house, and put up
there. We met him, however, unfortunately, on
his way to Triccala, in a lumbering vehicle they
call a cotci, drawn by four horses, with two out-
riders. A very poor Konak was assigned us. We
went to call upon the Archbishop, a worthy and
intelligent old man, who regretted that he could
not ask us to his house, but said that if we com-
plained with sufficient energy of that we had got,
they might send us to him. On making our com-
plaint, several others were found for us, and to
each as they were offered, we had an objection
ready ; at last, much apparently against their will,
they sent to the Archbishop, begging he would
excuse them if they requested him to admit the
English Bey-Zades. He affected to appear rather
disconcerted, but since it was the order of the
Kehaya Bey, he could but obey : when the cavash
was gone he gave us a hearty welcome.

298 THESSALY.

CHAPTER XVII.

THESSALY.

There is something wonderfully ideal in the aspect
of Thessaly. In its naked plains there 'are no
details to intercept the vision. Amid the repose
and silence that reign around, the tones of the
past come back upon the ear more thrilling and
distinct than on any other theatre, of great, remote,
and diversified events. With the exception of
Attica, there is no region, of similar extent, so rich
in historic and poetic interest ; but Thessaly has
not been vulgarised by frequentation and by fami-
milar events. The dust from the footsteps of ages
lies there undisturbed ; and, as I reached its silent
plains from the lofty regions of the Pindus, filled
with agitation and strife, I seemed to have de-
scended to a valley of tombs, recently opened up
to human eyes, where the mind is brought into
immediate contact with the men whose ashes they
contain, and the great whose deeds they record.

All around the horizon range mountain chains,
the names of which are dear to the muses, — the
Pindus, (Eta, Pelion, Ossa, and Olympus. On the

THESSALY. 299

heights to the south were the primeval abodes of
the Pelasgi ; on the plains below arose the earliest
battlements of Hellas. Thessaly gave birth to na-
vigation and horsemanship : here the first coins
were struck ; here was the art of healing first
worshipped ; and here repose the ashes of Hippo-
crates. The land where rises the throne of Jupiter
— where is spread the vale of the muses — where
the battle of the Giants and the Gods was fought,
must be the cradle of mythology, and the birth-
place of poetry. Here were naturalised the earliest
legends of the East in the fable of Deucalion and
Pyrrha ; and hence departed Achilles and his Do-
lopes to feed the vulture on the Trojan plain, and
to bequeath to future times the grand realities of
the Homeric verse.

But what names succeed to these ! Xerxes,
Leonidas, Philip, Alexander, Philip III., Flaminius,
Caesar and Pompey, Brutus and Octavius. Of
how many, remote and mighty people, have the
destinies been decided on these ensanguined plains!
But for 2000 years Thessaly seems to have
lived only in the recollection of the past. During
this long period, the proverbial richness of her
soil has lain dormant in her breast ; no cities
have arisen in splendour, nor have hamlets reposed
in peace : no warrior has started forth to affix the
emblems of her power on stranger lands ; no bard
has appeared to paint her beauty or to sing her
triumphs. Two thousand years ago learned an-

300 THESSALY.

tiquaries disputed the site of her ancient cities,
and the names of her ruins ; * since then, no struc-
tures have arisen to perplex, with more recent
vestiges, the traveller who seeks to discover where
Hellas, Pheras, or Demetrias, stood.

The more immediate cause of the desola-
tion of Thessaly, from the period that the Roman
empire began to lose its energy, was the vicinity,
on the north and west, of mountains rilled with
a wild and armed population ; which, when the
Roman legions were withdrawn, and the pro-
consular fasces ceased to inspire respect, spread
themselves over the champaign country, and re-
tired with their booty to their inaccessible moun-
tains, before succour could be sent, or vengeance
taken. These mountaineers to the west were the
Albanians, and the description I have given of the
race of the present times may be equally appli-
cable to that period. But a more powerful and
formidable population subsequently occupied the
mountains to the north ; and after nearly 800 years
of continual collision with the Eastern Empire,
finally rendered it an easy prey to the Turkish
conqueror. These were the Sclavonians, or Rus-
sians, the principal tribes of which have remained to
the present day under the name of 'Bosnians, Ser-
vians, Bulgarians, and Croatians. The establishment

* Strabo is not quite certain whether Hellas was a city or a
province.

THESSALY. 301

of these northern hordes in such strong positions,
and in the very centre of the Eastern Empire,
broke its power, and rendered it incapable of pro-
tecting its subjects. Thessaly was the first to
suffer from this weakness, because immediately
exposed, without the defence of distance, or the
protection of mountains, to their incursions. The
plains of Thessaly were thus kept, during a space
of 1200 years, close cropped ; its unwarlike and
spiritless population dreading the very appearance
of prosperity and well-being, so likely to call down
ruin upon their heads.

When the Turkish conqueror appeared in
Europe, the state of things was changed. The
Ottomans were a nomad and warlike, not a po-
lished, population ; but they were possessed of sim-
plicity and integrity ; they were subordinate to one
authority, and acted upon one regular and uniform
system. Their position in Europe, from the few-
ness of their numbers, could only depend upon the
conciliation of adverse interests : and even before
the capture of Constantinople, the organisation
of Greek Armatoles, or military colonists, from
Olympus to the Pindus, from the Pindus to Acar-
nania, is an indication of a comprehensiveness of
system, and of at once an energetic resolution of
controlling the wilder population on the west and
north, and of protecting Thessaly from their ra-
vages. How much this policy served to smooth
the way to the conquest of Constantinople, by

302 THESSALY.

conciliating the affections of the Greeks, may
become an interesting illustration of the history of
the Ottomans, when they find an historian who
combines a profound acquaintance with the insti-
tutions and the feelings of the East, with the
analytical spirit and the method of the West.

But this establishment of Greek Armatoles not
proving sufficient against the north, a colony of
Turks was transplanted from Iconium, and settled
along the northern edge of the plain, and at the
passes at Mount Olympus, so as to form a'second
line in the rear of the Greek Armatoles.

Thessaly now again revived. Mosques, medresses,
churches, bridges, and khans, arose in twenty new
and important cities. Larissa again became a pro-
verb for wealth. To Tournovo was transplanted
from Asia Minor the arts of dyeing, printing,
weaving, &c. ; and from that city was subsequently
transplanted to Montpelier the improved methods
of dyeing, which have now become common in
Europe.

These arts and this industry and prosperity
subsequently passed from the Turkish settlement
to the Greek cities of Rapsan and Ambelikia, the
wealth and commercial enterprise of which have
appeared next to fabulous ; while in the southern
extremity of Thessaly, the province of Magnesia
was covered with a population of wealthy and
industrious Greeks, the rapidity of whose progress
is almost without a parallel.

THESSALY. 303

But, in the decay of the Ottoman, as of the
Greek power, these prospects have been overcast ;
the incursions of the Sclavonic populations had
destroyed the authority of the one ; the progress
of Russian diplomacy has broken the cohesion
of the other. The consequent exasperation of na-
tional and religious feelings has corrupted what has
not been destroyed, and has perpetuated in the
bosom of repose and of peace the worst effects of
war — doubt, insecurity, and alarm. The con-
nexion between its subjects, professing the Eastern
dogma, and Russia, has made the Porte look upon
the Armatoles, or militia of Roumeli, as enemies,
and has thus converted them into oppressors of their
own co-religionists : wide-spread convulsion and
deep-rooted hatred have been the result. The
wealth of Larissa is departed ; the industry of
Tournovo is annihilated ; the palaces of Am-
belikia are untenanted ; the independent, pros-
perous, and happy district of Magnesia, excited by
the ministers of its altars, and by the pretended
patrons of its race, raised the banner of revolt, and
has fallen a prey to the cimeter and the flames.

The flood-gates of anarchy have thus, for ten
years, been opened; and while the Turks have
been fighting with the Allied Powers in the harbour
of Navarin and on the Danube, Thessaly has been
left a prey to Albanian bandits, to Greek Arma-
toles, and to the errors of the Turkish authorities,

304 THESSALY.

blinded by hostility, and exasperated no less by
misrepresentation than by wrongs.

The very moment of our entrance into Thes-
saly seemed the commencement of a new epoch.
Turkey appeared delivered from Russian occu-
pation, and from English Protocols. The Greek
war was concluded, and a practical separation
established between the parties ; and the authority
of the Porte was now universally believed about
to be re-established throughout Roumeli, by the
triumph of the Grand Vizir over the Albanians.

But, at the moment of which I am writing, the
Armatoles, who occupied the whole country from
the Eastern Sea to Mezzovo, were become little
better than Klephts, and were almost considered by
the Turkish authorities as such ; so that this
militia, instead of protecting the passes of the
mountains into Upper Macedonia, closed them,
except to the passage of large bodies. Thus,
Thessaly not only found itself insulated from the
whole of the surrounding districts, but had its com-
munication with the capital almost entirely cut off.
It was true that the Armatoles had not united for
any common enterprise, nor had the duties of their
station been altogether overlooked ; but confidence
and security had been shaken : the apprehension
that they would sack and plunder the towns of
the plains was universal. The Greek inhabitants
of the plain dreaded the last contingency ; the

THESSALY. 305

Turkish authorities feared the first, and, by
their doubts, confirmed the hostility of the Ar-
matoles,* and disgusted the loyalty of the Greek
peasantry and urban population. What a chaos
must have followed any signal reverse which would
have caused the Grand Vizir to retire to the
eastward !

It was naturally with great difficulty that we
could see our way through this state of things :
the prejudices and animosity of each class for the
others was quite perplexing, and the distortion of
events and the falsification of news not less so.

Two points were, however, perfectly clear:
that the fate of European Turkey, and, conse-
quently, of the empire, was involved in the success
of the Grand Vizir ; and that the dispositions of
the Greek Armatoles would decide whether the
government or the Albanians should triumph. 1
cannot help thinking that our journey may have,
in some degree, influenced the result; because
our decided, and, under the circumstances, autho-
ritative, denegation of the views disseminated by
the agents of Capodistrias produced a deep sen-
sation on those with whom we came in contact;
and from these, clearer views of their position

* As the Armatoles were acted upon to prevent their co-
operation in the suppression of the Albanian insurrection ; so, no
doubt, were the Turks acted upon to inspire them with distrust
of the Armatoles.

VOL. I. X

306 THESSALY.

must have spread to the whole mass. At a sub-
sequent period I learned, as I shall have to relate
in a future place, that the Greeks and the Ar-
matoles did ultimately support the Grand Vizir,
who, himself, admitted that, without their co-
operation, he must have failed.

RECEPTION OF THE ALBANIAN BEYS. 307

CHAPTER XVIII.

RECEPTION OF THE ALBANIAN BEYS AT MONASTIR.

We had heard, some time after our arrival at
Larissa, that the Albanian affairs had been en-
tirely settled, and that the Beys had left Janina
for Monastir, accompanied by all their adherents.
We were excessively disappointed at not being
present at such an assemblage, and now began
sincerely to regret having followed the advice of
our worthy friend, Gench Aga ; but we had only to
submit with patience, and to console ourselves
with the reflection, that, if we had missed being
where events presented the greatest dramatic
interest, still, with regard to the knowledge of the
country and people, our time had been more use-
fully spent in Thessaly than if we had been all
the while following the Albanian camp.

To bring together as much as possible the
events connected with the Albanian insurrection,
I shall now pass on to a scene which occurred six
weeks after our first arrival at Larissa. As we were
sitting in a barber's shop (on our return in the
middle of August from Tempe to Larissa) to get

x2

308 - RECEPTION OF THE

our heads shaved, a Tartar came in just off a
journey ; we asked whence he had come, and
what news he had brought ? " From Monastir,"
he replied, " with news fit to load a three-decker !"
" And what are the Beys about ?" " The Beys !"
he said, with a laugh, " are on their way to Con-
stantinople ; the whole of them in the kibe (saddle-
bags) of a single Tartar." We understood him to
mean their scalps. This intelligence, so suddenly
communicated, and in so scoffing a manner, was
really sickening, and we were quite exasperated
at the triumph and exultation exhibited by both
Turks and Greeks at the announcement of this
treacherous destruction of men in whom we were
so deeply interested.

The mode of the catastrophe was as follows : —
On the arrival of the Beys at Monastir, the Sa-
drazem received them with the greatest affability
and kindness, gave them free access to his person,
and soothed them with promises and caresses. A
few days afterwards, he proposed giving to them, and
all their followers, a grand Ziafet (fete), when they
should meet and make friends with the Nizzam.
This was to take place at a Kiosk built by the
former Roumeli Valessi without the town, and
which now was the head-quarters of the regular
troops. On the day appointed, towards evening,
they proceeded to the place of rendezvous, ac-
companied by nearly four hundred partisans and
attendants, amongst whom were included almost

ALBANIAN BEYS AT MONASTIR. 309

all the Beys and Officers we had known in either
camp. As they approached the Kiosk, which is
concealed from the road until you come near to
it, they suddenly opened upon a clear space be-
fore it, and there perceived a thousand regulars
drawn up on two sides of a square, the one along
the direction they were to take, the other facing
them. Arslan Bey was mounted on a large and
splendid charger, and was on the left of Veli Bey,
and on the side which, on approaching the Kiosk,
would be next to the troops. Veli Bey was
mounted upon a small animal of high blood and
mettle, which he generally rode. At the sight of
the troops so drawn up, Arslan Bey seized Veli
Bey's bridle, exclaiming, " We have eaten dirt!"
Veli Bey smiled, and said, " This is the regular
way of doing honour. You don't mean to disgrace
yourself and me for ever by flinching now ?*' "At
all events/' said Arslan Bey, " let us change horses,
and let me get on the other side." This being
quickly done, and Arslan Bey being screened by
the stately person and lofty charger of Veli Bey,
they rode into the vacant space, where no superior
officer stood to receive them ; and they had proceeded
along the Turkish line, and nearly to its centre,
when the word of command was given from the
window of the Kiosk to make ready and present
arms, and the next moment the muzzles were
levelled — a fatal volley poured amongst the thunder-
struck Arnaouts, followed by a charge with the

310 RECEPTION OF THE

bayonet. Veli Bey and his horse instantly fell,
pierced by nineteen balls, but Arslan Bey escaped
unscathed. He, with those who had not suffered
from the fire of the first line, wheeled off to the
right, when the volley and the charge of the second
Turkish line took them again in flank. Arslan
Bey alone cut his way through, and had soon left
the field of carnage behind him. His flight was
observed from the Kiosk. Chior Ibrahim Pasha,
who had surrendered at Lepanto, quickly mounted
one of the fleetest steeds, and pursued the fugitive.
After a chase of three miles he gained upon him,
and Arslan Bey now perceiving but one pursuer
better mounted than himself, turned sharply round.
Ibrahim Pasha came on with his lance in rest ;
Arslan Bey's first pistol did not take effect, his
second brought down the horse of his antagonist,
who, as he fell, ran Arslan Bey through and
through.*

Veli Bey's decapitated body was left for dogs
and vultures to prey upon ! It was now evident
that each had been made the means of counteract-
ing the influence and decoying the person of the
other. With Veli Bey, and his troops in posses-
sion of Janina and its castle, and the person of
Emin Pasha, the Sadrazem could not have ven-
tured his own person there, nor would Veli Bey

• I give the details as they were subsequently related to me
at Monastir by one of the survivors, who was close to the Beys.

ALBANIAN BEYS AT MONASTIR. 311

have placed himself in the power of the Sadra-
zem unless he had been made the confidant of the
scheme against Arslan Bey, and unless he had felt
the necessity of getting rid of so dangerous a rival
in the affections of the Albanians ; while Arslan
Bey would never have placed himself in the power
of the Sadrazem, unless in the company of Veli
Bey, whom he must have felt to have run a com-
mon danger with himself. To have cut off the
one without the other, would have served but to
exasperate the Albanians, and to strengthen the
survivor. The scheme, therefore, as a combina-
tion, was a masterpiece.

But this blow must have been combined with
Selictar Poda. Has not the Sadrazem said to
him, " You are the chief and ablest man of Al-
bania : you never injured me. We have been
enemies on account of Veli Bey, who has used
me for his own ends, insulted me, and abused my
confidence. If you would be my friend, I will
sacrifice Veli Bey, but you must sacrifice Arslan
Bey ?" This appears the more probable, from
Arslan Bey's having been excited to revolt by the
Selictar, and subsequently abandoned by him at
the moment things wore the most favourable as-
pect. This rupture led to the meeting between
the two Beys at Milies, and their common de-
ception. If it is so, we will hear of a simultaneous
attack upon Janina by the party of Selictar Poda.
To him there remains behind this a double game.

312 RECEPTION OF THE ALBANIAN BEYS, &C.

The Selictar will have fathomed the plan of the
Sadrazem, and will further it, so far as to render
himself sole head of Albania ; while the Sadrazem
will use his co-operation so far as to prevent a
coalition against himself; and when this is effected,
the struggle will commence between these two.

The above was written the morning the news
arrived at Larissa. Two days later we received
intelligence that, on the day of the massacre of
the Beys at Monastir, Selictar Poda's party at
Janina, strengthened by small parties clandestinely
introduced into the town, and in concert with Emin
Pasha in the castle, attacked the party of Veli
Bey ; and, after a six hours' contest in the street,
in which half of the town was again reduced to
ashes, effectually subdued it, and sent to Monastir
the head of Mousseli Bey, Veli Bey's brother,
whom he had left at Arta.

Thus have we been walking on mined ground,
which has exploded both before and behind us.
We now understood the motives of Gench Aga in
removing us from the Albanian camp, and felt
grateful for the care he had taken of us at the
risk of placing himself in an embarrassing situation,
or even of betraying his master's counsels, had we
neglected his advice and communicated to Veli
Bey the apprehensions he entertained of our safety
from remaining in his company.

ZEITOUM. 313

CHAPTER XIX.

EXCURSIONS IS THESSALY POLITICAL POSITION OF ENGLAND

ADVENTURES AT THERMOPYLX — FIELD OF PHARSALIA

CONSTITUTION AND PROSPERITY OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF

MAGNESIA TOURNOVO IMPORTATION OF THE ARTS FROM

ASIA MINOR HISTORY OF TURKHAN BEY.

The six weeks I remained at Larissa, I employed
in making rapid trips to almost every portion of
Thessaly ; sometimes attended by a Cavash, but,
in the more dangerous parts, entirely alone.
Wherever I went — whatever class of the commu-
nity— whatever race I visited — every where did
the phantom Protocol rise upon my steps ; but, of
course, in the south, and in the neighbourhood of
the new frontier, its aspect was the most hideous,
and its voice most threatening. At Zeitouni,
where the Turks are menaced with expulsion, as
the Greeks are in Acarnania, it was introduced
even before pipes and coffee !

Zeitouni, the ancient Lamia, is an interesting
spot. In an equally lonely and illustrious region, it
stands on a hill that overlooks the plain of the
Sperchius, bounded by the lofty rampart of Mount
(Eta. The Sperchius flows into the Euripus, or
the channel which separates Eubcea from the main.

314 POLITICAL POSITION OF ENGLAND.

Every evening, during my stay at Zeitouni, I used
to repair to a Kiosk, by the ruins of the fortress,
to smoke and talk politics with the elders, and to
enjoy the magnificent scene, of which the. bluff
rocks of Thermopylae were at once the chief em-
bellishment and attraction. I was a guest at the
splendid, though now half-dismantled, palace of
Tefic Bey ; a youth of nineteen, with the most
perfectly classical features I ever saw in flesh and
blood ; and which were set off to advantage by the
taste and elegance of the most picturesque of cos-
tumes. He became very desirous of visiting Eng-
land ; but his mother, a grandaughter of Ali
Pasha, would not hear of his going amongst the
unwashed and immoral Franks. On my departure,
however, he told me, with a very resolute air,
though not venturing to speak in tones above a
whisper, that he was f determined to go to Eng-
land." His uncle, a respectable old man, with an
enormously large white turban and beard, used to
persecute me with the Protocol. " Ach ! — ach !
— ach!" he would say, holding up his hands,
" may Allah make you our enemies, and not our
friends!" Every where I found the Turks ready
to declare that they believed England acted hon-
estly ; — that the English, like themselves, " coveted
no man's land, and knew little of what was doing
in other countries."

I have often been astonished at the degree of
consideration in which England is held, because it

POLITICAL POSITION OF ENGLAND. 315

would appear natural for the Turks to estimate so
much higher the military power of France, of
Russia, or even of Austria. England, however, is
the country to which the Turk looks — which he
names first (no unimportant matter in the East) —
in whose integrity he confides, despite of appear-
ances and facts, and whom not unfrequently he
invokes as protector, to escape from this endless
complication of foreign wars and protocols, and
domestic insurrection. I endeavoured to account
for this high estimation of England in various ways ;
— similarity of character ; similarity of political
institutions, at least as contrasted with the other
governments of Europe — a nearer approach in
religious dogma. But these considerations, al-
though worthy of having weight, can have none,
while, as at present, no intercourse exists between
the two people. I then thought of the expedition
to Egypt, when, on expelling the French, we re-
stored that province to the Porte. I thought of
the efforts of Sultan Selim (the sole crowned
protester against the partition of Poland) to pre-
vent the aggression of the Mussulman States in
India against England, lest her consideration should
thereby be weakened in Europe, and a necessary
element in the balance of European power with-
drawn.* Such views, however, could not be sup-

* See, in Despatches of Lord Wellesley, a letter from Sultan
Selim to Tippoo Sultaun.

316 POLITICAL POSITION OF ENGLAND.

posed to influence the mass of the Turkish
people. The reply this old Turk made to me
seemed to be the real explanation of the respect in
which England is held, despite of her policy.
" England covets no man's land." This is the
point — this the great secret — which every nation
feels, and which has been the basis of our European
position. Nor does it say little for the strong
sense of the Turk, who lays his finger at once on
that character of England, which entitles her to
his confidence where she stands alone, but which,
under actual circumstances, places her power and
influence at the disposal of his enemy. " She
covets no man's land," therefore do we place im-
plicit confidence in her integrity, but " she knows
little of what is doing in other lands ; " and there-
fore is she easily betrayed into furthering the
aggressions which formerly it was her boast and
her glory to prevent. How often have I heard
both Turk and Greek exclaim, " If we could but
enlighten England as to our true position, we
should be safe ! "

England, since the period of her aggressive
wars in France, has assumed an importance in
Europe, wholly disproportioned to her power, in
consequence of her national justice. She has never
been the aggressor ; — she has never sought exten-
sion of her limits, or (in Europe) acquisition of
territory ; consequently, no feeling of nationality
has been aroused against her in particular states,

POLITICAL POSITION OF ENGLAND. 317

nor has the common sentiment of public justice
been outraged by her views and acts in policy or
in arms. She has interposed between contending
nations, to re-establish peace without subjugation.
Her neutral position has alone maintained the
repose which has intervened between four great
wars, which her arms and intervention have pre-
vented from combining continental Europe into a
single despotism.

England limited the power of aggressive Spain,
maintained the long doubtful equilibrium between
Spain and the empire. She then preserved the
balance between Austria and France, by opposing
the first while it preponderated, and by co-ope-
rating to restrain, and, finally, to reduce, the over-
whelming power subsequently developed by the
latter. " England," says Vattel, " without alarm-
ing any state on the score of its liberty, because
that nation seems cured of the rage of conquest ;
England, I say, has the glory of holding the
political balance ; she is attentive to preserve it in
equilibrium !"

But, during the last century a mist seems to have
arisen over the earth, which has obscured the politi-
cal vision of European statesmen and nations. All
western governments have become, day by day,
more involved in regulations, subdivided into de-
partments, and buried under details ; confusion of
mind has led to error in action : thence that separa-
tion of a nation into distinct and reciprocally hating

318 POLITICAL POSITION OF ENGLAND.

classes and interests. The gradual centralization
of power has paralysed the executive, and effaced
the political sense of nations, by extinguishing self-
government, and, with it, the clear perception
of details and comprehensive views of the whole.
Nations have ceased to act and to feel as
moral unities; they have become parties and
factions ; words have been substituted for things ;
and national interests have been replaced by party
principle. Then commenced an era of national
violence ; the fanaticism of religious infolerance
was transferred to politics, and nations rushed to
bloody encounter, because of differences in the
fashion of their social edifices. I should date
this system, in its silent operation on mind,
from the middle of the 17th century, when the
hitherto universal basis of taxation was aban-
doned ; but the first public and international error
committed by England, under its influence, does
not ascend higher than forty years. The first
step in this fatal career was the secret treaty be-
tween England and Russia, which was the prelude
to the wars of the Revolution. It is true, England
entered into that treaty for the professed purpose
of maintaining the balance of power, the only
object for which, up to that period, England had
engaged in a foreign contest. Why was this
compact secret ? Secrecy was treason to the ob-
jects of the alliance. " Why was the treaty
secret?" was the cry of the opposition in the

POLITICAL POSITION OF ENGLAND. 319

House of Commons. The minister did not, could
not, reply : the reason simply was, that Russia saw
the moment come when Europe could be con-
vulsed by political principle ; and by this treaty,
which her superiority in men enabled her to induce
us to keep secret, she obtained also a secret sub-
sidy, acted in her own name, and stamped the
character of political partisanship on the war thus
commenced. A proclamation to this effect was
published to Europe, announcing that Russia " flew
to the assistance of endangered thrones." Thus
commenced the first war of principle through
England herself — through the use then made, for
the first time, of her money, her name, and her
influence, for purposes which she did not compre-
hend, and for objects which all her power must
have been exerted to prevent, had she understood
them. England then ceased to be the England of
Yattel, and has latterly assumed a character the
very reverse of that by which she gained glory
without the sacrifice of justice, and acquired power
without losing respect. Now, alas! she appears
only as the friend of the powerful, and as the ally
of the aggressor. If she herself nurtured aggres-
sive views, her power would become harmless by
sinking into insignificance ; but, convinced as
men are of her integrity of purpose, and giving
her credit still for some degree of knowledge and
capacity, they revere her so, that her alliance is
invaluable as a cloak to violence and aggression.

320 ADVENTURES AT THERMOPYLAE.

Mankind is thus cursed through England by in-
tegrity without capacity, and by power without
knowledge.

Being so near to Thermopylae, I determined
to pay a visit to this celebrated Spa, which will, no
doubt, soon become a fashionable watering-place.
Tefic Bey would not suffer me to go alone ; my
Turkish cavash did not dare to accompany me, as
the Greek troops were in occupation, and the
intervening lands infested by robbers frdm Greece.
I was therefore attended by two Bosnian rforsemen
of the Bey's guard.

We crossed the rich plain of the Sperchius, and
saw but a single patch of cultivation. After cross-
ing the river, I spurred on impatiently to the arena
of Thermopylae, leaving my Bosnian companions
behind, thinking myself more usefully accompanied
by Herodotus in one pocket, and Pausanias in the
other.

The ground has lost much of the distinctness
of its ancient form, from the growing deposits of
the hot springs, which have increased the margin
between the mountain and the sea. I pushed
forward, in expectation of meeting with the narrow
gorge, until I found I had passed it, by perceiving
the country of Phocis to open and display the
ruins of Boudounitza, on the solitary rock that
once was the patrimony of Patroclus. I then
turned back, and after satisfying myself as to the
general positions of the place, I began to get

ADVENTURES AT THERMOPYL.E. 321

alarmed respecting my companions, and suspected
that, being themselves not quite satisfied as to the
reception they might meet with from the Greeks,
they had seized the pretext of my absence to turn
back to Zeitouni. I had ridden forward six or seven
miles from the spot where I had left them ; I had
now returned half that distance, and saw nothing
of them. The burning sun of a long June day was
verging to the horizon. I was overcome with the
heat ; my mule was completely knocked up ; not
a creature had I met ; and, in the absence of every
sound and hum of men, the whole air shook with
the buzzing of myriads of insects. I dismounted,
and allowed my mule to graze close to a canal
that conveys to the sea the principal body of the
hot spring. I undressed and took a bath, and
wandered up the current in the narrow channel.
On returning to the spot whence I started, my
clothes were nowhere to be seen. I leave it to
those who have always esteemed their clothing a
portion of their necessary existence, to judge of the
reflections to which such a state of things gave rise.
After turning the matter over in my mind for some
time, I attempted to lie down. Then it was that
the whole bearing of the subject came upon me ;
and I perceived that, where there is neither sand
nor greensward, it is utterly impossible to repose
in the state of nature. And how was I to pass
the night ? how appear in Zeitouni the next day,
in the costume of the Lady of Coventry ? I looked

VOL. I. Y

322 . ADVENTURES AT THERMOPYLAE.

around me in the hope of having some useful idea
suggested to my mind. I could not perceive even
a single fig-tree ! In sober earnest, this was one of
the most embarrassing situations in which a human
being could be placed, and one calculated to
suggest many philosophical reflections respecting
the origin of society. At length, I was startled
with a distant hallooing in the direction of Zeitouni.
I answered with all my might, for whoever the
intruders might be —

" Vacuus cantabit coram latronem viator."

My voice was answered ; and soon, on the opposite
side of the broad white band of the incrustations of
the fountain, appeared the red dresses of my Bos-
niacs. A Greek passing by had seen my clothes,
and carried them off, and was proceeding in triumph
with his booty, when he came suddenly on the two
Bosniacs, who were sitting waiting for me where
the path branched off to the right, and ascended
the mountain towards the Greek encampment.
They recognized my clothes, and suspected that he
had murdered me. On his insisting that he had
found the clothes close to the hot stream, they
respited him from execution till he should conduct
them to the spot. Words cannot express the
delight I experienced on getting back my clothes.
The Greek received free pardon, as he had got a
fright, and blows enough to cure him for ever of

ADVENTURES AT THERMOPYLAE. 323

the propensity of stealing the wardrobes of bathing
gentlemen.

It was now too late to think of attempting to
reach the Greek encampment, so we prepared to
turn our horses out to graze for four or five hours,
and to commence the ascent of GEta, when the
moon rose. As for ourselves, we had to be content
with the thoughts of the breakfast we should make
next morning, and with drawing our belts a little
tighter.

Our new companion said, that the country was
full of deer ; the mountain behind being inaccess-
ible, they could not break away in that direction ;
and, even without dogs, we might run the chance
of getting a shot and a supper. We were, in all,
five. The Greek, one of my guards, and their at-
tendant, ascended the two opposite sides of a little
glen lying against the precipitous face of the rock ;
the other Bosnian and I concealed ourselves in two
bushes at its lowest extremity. Our companions,
who had ascended, soon commenced shouting on
both sides, and beating the bushes ; but no deer
came bounding down. Just as all chance of success
seemed over, a boar made a sudden rush, and I
perceived it, straight-on-end, coming right for the
bush in which I was. I fired, but missed : he
turned aside, and approached the cover of the
Bosniac, who, with surer aim, hit him in the
shoulder, and he went whirling for fifty yards down
the hill. Our party was soon gathered, and a

y2

324 ADVENTURES AT THERMOPYLAE.

couple of shots more despatched him. But here
a new dilemma arose : the wild boar was pork,
a flesh forbidden to all true Mussulmans ; the
day was Friday, upon which the flesh of all hot-
blooded animals is forbidden to orthodox Greeks ;
my companions therefore evinced no alacrity in
rendering our game available for supper. A fire,
however, was made, and a well-garnished ramrod
was finally presented to me. The while I sup-
ped, my companions looked on with wistful eyes,
and inquired, with watery mouths, if the boar was
well cooked ? At length the Greek asked me, " If
it were possible for one man to bear the sins of
another?" I answered with the caution requisite
when one does not see to what the admission of a
postulate may lead. He explained as follows : —
" I want to know whether, as you have eaten
meat on your own account on Friday, you might
not also take upon yourself the additional sin of
my following your example." To this I agreed ;
and another ramrod was soon in requisition, and
festooned with " the beauteous white and red" of
the grisly boar. One of the Mussulmans now ob-
served, that, having taken the sins of the Greek
upon my shoulders, it would add little to my
burden if I were to take theirs also ; and very
soon the whole ramrods of the party were laid
over a clear bed of hot embers, raked out of the
fire.

Next morning, following the path taken by

PLAIN OF PHARSALIA. 325

Mardonius when he fell on the Spartans, we
reached betimes the Greek encampment. On the
side of the hill I came upon ruins not yet de-
scribed ; and which I made out, to my own entire
satisfaction, to have been the half-yearly seat of
the Amphyctionic Council. But I have no inten-
tion of carrying my reader back to Greece, or of
entertaining him with archaeological disquisitions.
Besides, these journeys through Thessaly were per-
formed so rapidly, that I have scarcely any records
of them made at the time ; and I travelled without
a tent, servants, or any of those accompaniments
which I had hitherto considered indispensable, not
only to the enjoyment, but to the supporting, of
such a journey.

On returning to Zeitouni, I found that Tefic
Bey had started the same morning for Larissa, with
a retinue of fifty or sixty horsemen ; and that he
was to sleep that night at Thaumaco. I determined
on making the journey, about seventy miles, in
one day, so next morning I was en route two hours
before the dawn, and overtook the Bey as he was
quitting Pharsalia.

That name may for a moment arrest my pen.
Pharsalia stands on the side of a gentle elevation,
looking to the north, and before it stretches the
field of death that bears that undvinsr name. On
entering the place, we stopped at a fountain which
gushes from a rock. The idea of an urn for the
source of a river must have originated in Thessaly.

326 PLAIN OF PHARSALIA.

The plains are level ; marble cliffs rise abruptly
from them ; and at the base of these, rivers,
rather than fountains, gush forth from fissures in
the rock. Here, under a wide and lofty canopy
of plane-trees, the water, pouring from twenty
mouths, spreads all around into a pond, which is
studded with little grass knolls, and from which
spring the rounded and smooth trunks of the trees.
Greek women, the descendants of the ancient
Pelasgi, were washing under the rock ; and in the
deep shade, children playing, and a herd of goats
sporting in the water. On the bank, a troop of
gipsies, descendants of the Hindoos, were blowing,
with skins, their little furnaces ; and I, a descendant
of the Northern Gauls, accompanied by a Scla-
vonian follower, of the faith of Mecca, stopped in
the midst of this strange assemblage, to request
from another stranger from the plains of Tartary,
a draught from the water of the fountain of
Pharsalia.

And here I looked around on the selfsame
prospect, upon which gazed the hostile arrays of
the divided world, on the morning of that memo-
rable day, when the parliamentary principle of
Rome sunk beneath her military genius. All that
consecrates the Plains of Thrasymene, Cannse, or
of Marathon, lives and breathes in the solitude of
Pharsalia. But here it is only at long intervals that
the spirit of the living holds converse with the
dead ; here the solemnity of the shrine of antiquity

TOWNSHIPS OF MAGNESIA. 327

is undisturbed by schoolboy quotations — undese-
crated by tourist sentiment ; and here no officious
vocabulary of a cicerone, restores, by the evocation
of words, the dominion of commonplace.

I made another excursion from Larissa to the
ruins of Pherse, Volo, and that remarkable district
Magnesia, which is formed by Mount Pelion, and
a promontory running out from it to the south,
and which then turns to the west, so as to encircle
the Gulf of Volo.

The road through the plains of Larissa and
Pharsalia, had been fatiguing alike to the body and
the eye, from the want of shade and of trees,
except in the vicinity of Pharsalia, and presented
nothing but the dirty yellow of the stubble and of
parched grass ; but on arriving on the limits of the
plain, which is considerably elevated above the
level of the sea, and after passing a little gorge,
with a round conical hillock called Pilafptee, you
suddenly look down on the small town of Volo,
lying in the midst of verdure and shade, girt by
a belt of towers, and surmounted by a single
minaret. Before it stretched the bav, with some
small craft ; beyond the bay and the town rose
abruptly the fore-foot of Pelion, with three or four
towns, rather than villages, clustering almost to
its summit ; the white dwellings inviting the steps
and eyes, from their deep and varied bowers of
cypress, fir, crania, oak, mulberry, and cherry
trees.

328 CONSTITUTION AND PROSPERITY OF THE

The geographer Miletius was a native of this
district, and has given, in his work, an excellent
and minute account of it as it was thirty years
ago. The revolutionary movement of Greece
spread to this then happy district, and it was con-
sequently ravaged by a Turkish army. I therefore
expected to find it in ruins ; but great was my
surprise at the aspect which it presented, and
which I shall endeavour succinctly to describe.

The very summits of Pelion are bare gneiss ;
then comes a covering of beech ; below these
forests of chestnuts ; lower down, apple, pear,
plum, walnut, and cherry trees ; lower down,
almond, quince, fig, lemon, orange, jejubier ; and
every where abundance of vines and mulberries.
The sides are every where abrupt, and sometimes
rugged ; rocks and foliage are mingled throughout ;
and water gushes from ten thousand springs.
Nestled in these rocks, and overshadowed by this
foliage, are the twenty-four townships of Magne-
sia. They are divided into two classes, termed
Vacouf and Chasia; there being fourteen of the
former, and ten of the latter. Makrinizza, the
chief borough of the Evkaf, is the seat of the
governing council, as also of the Bostanji from
Constantinople ; and all the neighbouring villages
have long stories to tell of its domineering spirit.

The happiness, prosperity, and independence
of this Christian population (an independence for
which, with the exception perhaps, though in a

TOWNSHIPS OF MAGNESIA. 329

minor degree, of the Basque Provinces, there is
now no parallel in Europe) is owing, not only to
the protection of the Mussulman faith against the
abuses of the Turkish Government, but to the
system of administration which Islamism has always
carried along with it, and maintained, when it has
had the political power to do so.

The other class of these communities, the
Chasia, are relics of the Zygokephalia established
by Justinian, and preserved by the Turkish admi-
nistration. Though they are not collected into one
body as the Vacouf villages, they are protected
by them, and in almost every respect assimilated
with them.

In each village the primates have a Turk, who
acts as a Huisser : they pay according to an assess-
ment in lieu of the Kharatch. As to their political
administration, their only law is custom, and they
require nothing more, as their primates ought to
be, and generally are, freely elected. Where there
is local administration, law is superfluous, because
the administrators are at once controlled and
strengthened by public opinion ; and public opin-
ion, under such principles of Government, is
always one.

As to their civil affairs, they are decided, in
cases of regular litigation, by the Code of Justinian.
There is no difficulty arising out of judicial pro-
cedure, because the primates are the judges; —
there is no difficulty arising out of opposition of

330 CONSTITUTION AND PROSPERITY OF THE

general laws and local custom, because the Turkish
Government gives the force of law to whatever
custom is universally followed or demanded by
the community, and because it renders legal the
decision of a third party, who is voluntarily chosen
as arbitrator between two litigants. It will be
observed, that the authority of the government, in
all these cases, never appears as initiative, or as
reglementaire : it appears merely when called
upon to interfere, having much more the cha-
racter of a judge than that of an administrative
authority.* I felt this to be a glimpse at the
action, in vacuo, of the principles of the Turkish
Government.

The district of Magnesia has certainly not yet
recovered from the effects of the catastrophe that
had fallen upon it seven years before ; — ruins and
uninhabited houses were to be seen. Nevertheless,
there was all around an air of well-being, gaiety,
and ease ; the handsome stone-built houses looked
so wealthy and comfortable, after the lath-and-
plaster edifices of the plain ; the inhabitants were
all well dressed, and seemed a fine and healthy
race. Makrinizza had several fauxbourgs, and counts
1300 houses ; Volo (not the Castle) at the base of
the hill, has 700 fires ; Portaria, the principal of

* This greatest of all truths once flashed across the mind of
Burke : " One of the greatest problems," said he, " is to
discover where authority should cease, and administration
commence."

TOWNSHIPS OF MAGNESIA. 331

the Chasia, and only three miles from Makrinizza,
has 600. The principal remaining villages are —
Drachia, 600 ; St. Laurentius, 400 ; Metis, 300 ;
Argalasti, 400 ; Vrancharoda, 400 ; and on the
last summit of the bare chain that encloses the
Gulf, Trickeri, 550.

The chief exports are oil, silk, dried fruits,
excellent cherries, and fine flavoured honey. Of
almost every other produce, they have abundance
for themselves. From the succession of heights,
they have fruits and vegetables earlier, later, and
longer than, perhaps, any other district. Cherries
they consider eatable from the 12th of March,
O. S., and they do not go out till the middle of
July, when the first grapes are ripe. Their prin-
cipal export is of manufactured articles, capotes,
or shaggy cloaks, belts, silk cord, lace, and blue
cotton handkerchiefs. Black for woollens, blue
for cotton, and crimson for silk, are their most
successful colours. Of dyed and wrought silk,
they export yearly 30,000 okes, and they pro-
duce 500 mule-loads of run silk. These are the
produce of that portion of Magnesia which is
formed by the mountain of Pelion itself; but,
further to the south, Argalasti produces butter,
cheese, and cattle ; and here a Turkish popu-
lation, in no ways distinct or distinguished from
the Greeks, cultivates the scanty fields, and tends
the flocks and cattle. The shores of the gulf

332 CONSTITUTION AND PROSPERITY OF THE

supply abundance of fish ; and the hills are stocked
with every species of deer, wild goats, wild fowl,
and game. Trickeri is celebrated for its mer-
cantile energy, and sends its fishermen to dive for
sponge all over the Levant. It possesses several
schooners and tricanderis, which carry on, princi-
pally, the cabotage of these parts, but also venture
as far as Alexandria and Constantinople. They did
not recollect having sent vessels to Soujouk-Kaleh,
and therefore it was needless to ask them about
the Argo, or to tell them that their ancestors,
thirty-five centuries before, had discovered Cir-
cassia, in a vessel, the timbers of which had
descended from their mountains. In this narrow
circuit of hills, enclosing the gulf, a great portion
of which, too, is perfectly bare and completely
barren, exists a population of 50,000 souls, amongst
whom arts so varied flourish, and who, for cen-
turies, have enjoyed freedom and abundance. Men
have seemed to spring, in this favoured region,
from the fructifying look of the rocks, still bearing
the names of Deucalion and of Pyrrha. They
have been protected, by their geographical po-
sition, from the savage tribes that, for so many
centuries, oppressed their neighbours of the plain,
and they have been shielded by the Church from
the abuses of the Government. This district exhi-
bits what the soil can produce, and what happiness
man can attain to when relieved from the intrusion

TOWNSHIPS OF MAGNESIA. 333

of laws.* Their only drawback was the traditional
h-fcovicc (jealousies), the domineering spirit of an-
cient Greece, and one might almost fancy Makri-
nizza a buffo representation of Athens, lording it
over her allies.

" This delightful spot (Magnesia) exhibits,"
says Mr. Dodwell, " in all their rich mixtures of
foliage and diversity of form, the luxuriantly
spreading plantanus, the majestically robust chest-
nut, the aspiring cypress, which are happily inter-
mingled with the vine, pomegranate, almond, and
fig. Here the weary may repose, and those who
hunger or thirst may be satisfied. Nor is the ear
left without its portion of delight ; the nightingale,
and other birds, are heard even in the most fre-
quented streets ; and plenty, security, and content,
are every where diffused.

" Pelion is adorned with about twenty-four
large and wealthy villages, some of which merit
rather the appellation of cities, inhabited by Greeks,
of strong and athletic forms, who are sufficiently
brave and numerous to despise their neighbours,
the Turks.f The streets are irrigated by incessant

* St. Augustin says, " Powerful men do evil, and then make
laws to justify themselves."

t Here their prosperity is explained by the ideas that would
suggest themselves to a European. Subsequently to Mr. Dod-
well's visit, they did trust to " numbers and to bravery," and
were reduced to subjection and misery. Under any western
government, after such provocation, their prosperity and their
liberty would have been extinguished, never to revive.

334 TOURNOVO.

rills and the clearest fountains, and shaded by
plane-trees, entwined with ample ramifications of
vines of prodigious dimensions, and clustering with
an exuberance of grapes."

Speaking of the southern parts of Thessaly, he
says, *' almost every step or turn of the road pre-
sented some characteristic diversity of view, which,
in multiplicity of picturesque charms, and in co-
piousness of enchanting landscape, far surpassed
any thing in Italy, or, perhaps, any other country
of the world. The beauty of the limes was'equalled
by the clear and vivid freshness of the tints.
No Italian mist dimmed the interesting distances,
which are sharp, distinct, and definite, without
harshness."

My next trip was to Tournovo, about ten
miles to the north of Larissa. My companion was
sufficiently recovered to resume his labours; and
our worthy host, the Archbishop, having a house
at Tournovo, proposed to be there, also, our enter-
tainer. We started in a couple of cotcis, or
Turkish carriages, in which there is no place for
the legs, and one has to fold them under, in lieu of
a cushion.

The following notices respecting this place, I
took down at the time from the mouth of the
Kaimakam, a descendant of the original Turkish
founder, and ruler of Thessaly, a memoir of whose
life is contained in an Arabic manuscript in the
public library of the burgh.

TOURNOVO. 335

About thirty years before the capture of Con-
stantinople, the inhabitants of Larissa, who had
been reduced to so weak a condition by the devast-
ations of their Bulgarian neighbours, and the
weakness of the empire, that they were obliged to
admit a Bulgarian Prince within their walls, called
to their deliverance one of the companions of
Murad II., named Turkhan Bey, who, appearing
before the city with 5000 Turks, was immediately
put in possession. The Bulgarians escaping, and
the Prince betaking himself to the monasteries of
the Meteora, one of which he had founded,*
Triccala, and the remaining portions of Larissa,
immediately submitted to Turkhan Bey ; but, sur-
rounded on every side by fierce mountaineers, the
authority he had so suddenly acquired, he found
himself without the material means of supporting
and defending. It was then, and, most probably,
according to the suggestions of this extraordinary
man, that the extensive system of the Greek
mountain militia was established, and that Murad II.

* The humble Greeks had even then imposed some respect
upon their Sclavonic oppressors, by imparting to them their
faith ; and that faith, in these latter times, has been turned by
the Russians, into an instrument for their destruction. If the
Turkish Empire is overthrown, it will be by the use that Russia
is allowed to make in the East of the Greek doctrine, and in the
West of the word Christian. And when the Turkish Empire is
overthrown, the independence and the existence of Greece at
once cease.

336 TURKHAN BEY.

came to be recognised sovereign of Thessaly in
so quiet and tranquil a manner, that the precise
date of the event is unrecorded.

Turkhan Bey sent emissaries to Iconium, at
that period in a state of hostility with the Ottoman
dynasty, and succeeded in inducing five or six
thousand families to emigrate to Thessaly, to
whom, being at once of a warlike and an indus-
trious character, he gave lands on the north of the
plain of Thessaly ; and thus, while interesting
them in the defence of the soil they inhabited,
placed them as a rampart between the unwarlike
Greeks and the Bulgarian mountaineers. He con-
structed for them twelve intrenched villages :
Tatar, Kasaklar,* Tchaier, Missalar, Deleer, Ku-
fala, Karadjoglan, Ligara, Radgoon, Karedemilli,
Derili, Balamout. The number of villages is now
much greater, and I think only three or four of
these names coincide with names of existing vil-
lages. In the rear of this military colony,
Turkhan Bey established Tournovo, for which he
obtained extensive immunities from Sultan Murad.
These immunities granted by the Ottoman Porte,
were placed under the sanction of the faith and
the superintendence of the Sherif of Mecca. Tour-
novo was made a city of refuge ; strangers, during
ten years, were exempted from all contribution ;
it was made Vacouf, and therefore emancipated

* Turkish plural for Cossack.

TOURNOVO. 337

from the control of the local governor ; no Turk-
ish Pasha could enter it — no Turkish troops pass
through it; there was never to be in it Corvee, or
forced labour ; the Kharatch and the tenths were
the only revenue that could be raised, and these
were to belong to Turkhan Bey and his successors,
as the reward of his integrity and success in a long
life of labour and of difficulty : he had also the
right of succession to property left without natural
heirs.* For thirty-five years, Turkhan Bey fostered
the prosperity of this district ; and the property
having been made Vacouf, he left to his posterity
only the superintendence of the administration of
the revenues, and their application to the various
pious and useful foundations which he had made,
not only in every portion of Thessaly, but even in
the Morea. Their administration was again con-
trolled by the Kislar Aga, as superintendent of the
Evkaf of Mecca, who had the power of displacing
the Kaimakaim of Tournovo, and the Metevellis
of the various Evkaf, in case of complaint of the
inhabitants against them, though their successors
had always to be chosen from the kindred of
Turkhan Bey.

One of the objects to which his attention was
principally directed, and in which he has conferred

* A man is considered without natural heirs who has no
relative nearer than cousins of the fourth degree ; who has no
adopted children, and has left no will.

VOL. I. Z

338 INTRODUCTION OF THE ARTS

the most important and lasting benefit upon Thes-
saly, was the introduction of the art of dyeing, and,
as a consequence of that, the other arts connected
with the manufacture of silk, cottons, and of
woollens. His care in this respect, was not cir-
cumscribed by the limits of his own favourite
township ; a large reservoir at Makrinizza, in Mag-
nesia, which to the present day is used for washing
the dyed stuffs, has an inscription recording its
construction by Turkhan Bey. Madder, yellow
berries, and the kali plant, from which their potash
is made, were then introduced at Tournovo, and
have now become common throughout all Rou-
meli and many parts of Europe.

The following are the various foundations
made by him out of Tournovo : — A mosque on the
spot where he first dismounted in Larissa, sup-
ported internally by six columns, to represent his
horse's four legs and his own two. Two other
mosques ; a handsome stone bridge over the Pe-
neus, and the Bezistein, which has lately been
almost destroyed by fire. Three medresess, or
colleges, and three baths.

At Triccala, he built two mosques, two me-
dresses, two baths, and several mills. He built
seven or eight Khans in various parts of Thessaly ;
and when, in his old age, he was invited by the
Greeks of the Morea, to protect them against the
incursions of the Albanians, as formerly related,

FROM ASIA MINOR. 339

and after driving the Albanians to their mountains,
and taking possession of Arta, he constructed there
the fish preserves.

The cultivation of the mulberry, for the pro-
duction of silk, seems to have been common at
Tournovo before it was known at Salonica,
Broussa, or Adrianople ; and though, during the
last thirty or forty years, Thessaly has been po-
litically in a more unfortunate position than any of
the surrounding provinces, still the mulberry is
extensively spread over these regions, the quality
of the trees preferred, and the skill of the in-
habitants esteemed above that of any other dis-
trict of European or Asiatic Turkey. The spinning
of cotton yarn had also here made extraordinary
progress ; and, at the close of the last century, the
exportation of dyed yarn, principally the Turkish
red, was enormous, not only Jo every portion of
the Levant, but to Europe. This prosperity and
industry have been sacrificed by the strangely
combined effects of Russian policy and of English
industry ; the first having convulsed their political
state, the second having supplanted their manu-
factures, not only in every foreign market, but in
their own.

So important a place had Tournovo become
in the middle of the seventeenth century, that the
Sultan for a while established his court here in so
formal a manner, that he wras attended by various
representatives of the Christian powers. The

z2

340 INTRODUCTION OF THE ARTS.

same year, 1669, an English traveller visited
Tournovo, and has left a short but valuable ac-
count of his residence in Thessaly. He tells us
'* that Tournovo was a large and pleasant city,
with eighteen churches and three mosques." This
latter fact is of some importance, as it shews that
this place, of exclusively Turkish creation, and the
institutions of which were, according to our no-
tions, far more religious than political, was com-
posed of six times as many Christians as Mussul-
mans, indicating a most remarkable feature in
Islamism, and which I was no less astonished at
first to observe, than I am confident at present in
asserting — the protection which, in its religious
government, it affords to other faiths and their
professors.

A RETROSPECT. 341

CHAPTER XIX.

A RETROSPECT — MOHAMMED IV. AND HIS TIMES DIPLOMATIC

INTERCOURSE — INTERNATIONAL WRONGS — DRAGOMANS IN
THE EAST COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS IN THE WEST.

The selection of Tournovo for the imperial resi-
dence, by the monarch whose reign was the very
cumulation of the tide of Ottoman conquest, and
the commencement of its ebb, has associated with
this place many of the events that belong to the
public history of Europe.

The long reign of Mohammed IV. was the
intermediate epoch between the triumphs of the
hero, the codes of the legislator, and the pompous
nullity of the caged puppets of the seraglio ; and
while the Ottoman standard was planting on
" Troy's rival, Candia," the now unwarlike, but still
spirited, Lord of Constantinople, and successor of
the Urcans, Mohammeds, Selims, Murads, and So-
leymans, was chasing the wild deer of Pelion and
Olympus, and displaying his sylvan pomp at La-
rissa and Tournovo.

This prince ascended the throne, which he
occupied for nearly half a century, at the tender

34*2 A RETROSPECT.

age of seven. His taste was formed, and his
inclination bent, by the dexterity of the octo-
genarian Mohammed Kiupreli, to passions and
pursuits which, during the whole period of his
long reign, left the sceptre and the sword, which
they wielded so well, to the family of the Kiupreli.

To the remote scene of the Sultan's recre-
ations, Pashas, Generals, Vizirs, and Embassies,
were seen hastening; and the splendour of the
seraglio, with its ceremonial, was transferred to
mountain-wastes and deserts ; amid untrodden
forests arose halls of western tapestry, and of
Indian texture, rivalling in grandeur, and sur-
passing in richness, the regal palaces of the Bos-
phorus.

Brussa, the Asiatic Olympus, the field of Troy,
the sides of Ida, the banks of the Ma?ander, the
plains of Sardis, were the favourite resorts of this
equal lover of the chase and of nature. But the
places more particularly honoured by his pre-
ference, were Yamboli, in the Balkan, about fifty
miles to the north of Adrianople, and Tournovo.
Whenever he arrived or departed, the inhabitants
of fifteen districts turned out to assist him in his
sport ; these festivities were rendered attractive to
the people by exhibitions and processions somewhat
in the spirit of ancient Greece, as well as in that of
Tartary,* where all the esnafs or trades, displayed

* Formerly there were similar exhibitions every fourth year
at Vevais.

MAHOMMED IV. AND HIS TIMES. 3-13

in procession the wonders of their art, or the
symbols of their calling, and in which exhibitions
of rare objects and grotesque figures were com-
bined with theatric pantomime.

During the sojourn of Sultan Mohammed at
Tournovo, this now insignificant village became
the residence of the representatives of the powers
of Europe. There were then assembled, with all
the gay, picturesque, and diversified trappings and
liveries of their various countries, and of that dress-
loving age, the numerous retinues that followed
the Imperial, the French, the Spanish, and the
English Envoys. Russians, Dutchmen, Poles,
Swedes, Ragusans, Transylvanians, in their na-
tional costumes, and in numbers sufficient to pre-
serve the distinctive tone and habits of their native
lands, might there be seen loitering before the
gateways of the various residences, lounging about
the public places, or retailing the news of their
respective homes in the coffee-houses, which then
began to compete with the barbers' shops * for the
resort of the fashionables of the day.

* "During the hot season," says Brown, in 1669, "we
went often to the barber, who would handsomely perform his
work, much to our refreshment, trimming each man according
to the fashion of his country. The Greeks preserve a ring of
hair on the centre of their heads, and shave the rest. The
Croatian has one side of his head shaved, and the other grows
as it will. The Hungarian shaves his whole head, except his
fore-top. The Polander has his hair cut short. The Turk
shaves his whole head, save a lock. The Franks wear their

314 A RETROSPECT.

It scarcely seems possible that such should
have been the scene presented by Tournovo only
a hundred and sixty years ago, and yet these are
but the appendages. The court of the Sultan,
with a whole army of officers, attendants, hunts-
men, and falconers, with all the interesting accom-
paniments of the chase, displaying a variety of
costume, which, for splendour, richness, and di-
versity, must have exceeded that of any former
period of the Ottoman Empire, and the dignity of
which had not then degenerated, as it afterwards
did, into an excess, cumbersome in use, and bur-
lesque in effect.

The plain around was adorned with vast tents,
of light green, with gilded balls; but tents that
resembled palaces rather than marquees ; some of
them with twenty and thirty poles, and many of
the poles twenty-five feet in height, divided into
various apartments, with windows opening through
their cloth separations ; Persian carpets, spread
below rich divans, reigning round ; curtains, lined
with brocade, velvet, and Cachmere shawls, drawn
open in front, or cast up and stretched forward

hair long only for the more amiable converse ; and, that nothing
about them might be offensive to those they live amongst, they
often tuck it up under their caps. The party to be shaved sits
low, so that the barber has the better advantage. There is a
vessel of water, with a cock, hanging over their hands, which
the barber opens as he pleases, and lets fall the water on them.
The Thessalians," he observes, " wear hats with brims like
Frenchmen."

DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE. 345

on other poles, so as to afford an extensive
shade ; the sides, the separations, the cushions,
and the slips that are passed over the cords, most
beautifully embroidered in needlework.*

It was at this time, and more particularly at
Tournovo, that commenced that system of haughty
and ignominious treatment f which, up to a very
recent period, has disgraced Turkey and incensed
Europe. Then commenced, too, the perfidious
system of Dragomans, w7hich confided to a few
Latin adventurers, from the islands of the Archi-
pelago, the counsels of every European state, and
rendered these adventurers the intermediaries, or,
to speak more truly, the representatives of those
states at the Porte. J

Then, too, commenced the more direct and
systematic interference of the Greeks in the affairs
of the Ottoman Empire ; and from Tournovo is
dated the Berat that appointed the first Greek a
Dragoman of the Porte. From Tournovo departed

* Some of the same tents may still be seen in the repo-
sitories of the Sultan, and in those of the grandees.

-j- " This was a time," says Von Hammer, " sufficiently
hazardous for foreign diplomatists, when the French Ambassador
was struck in the face, and beaten with a chair ; that of Russia
kicked out of the audience chamber; the minister of Poland al-
most killed, because he had not bent low enough ; and the
Imperial Interpreter, and that of the Porte, several times
stretched on the ground, and bastinadoed."

X The Imperial Court (which had at first exhibited so stub-
born an attachment for the German, that three interpreters and

346 A RETROSPECT.

the Turkish Embassy to Paris, that excited the
laughter of Europe by the ridiculous pretensions
of the Turks ; and while this ambassador was
actively employed in introducing into the saloons
at Paris, coffee, which has created a revolution in
our domestic tastes, a French cargo of false coin,
smuggled into Constantinople, led to insurrection
in the principal cities of the empire.

The general feelings at that time, of Christen-
dom towards Turkey, are indicated in the character
and the conduct of the Knights of Malta. The
motive assumed for plundering ships, interrupting
commerce, and enslaving men, was — the Christian
religion. The organization was supported by re-
venues drawn from every state of Europe ; it was
composed of the flower of European chivalry and
nobility ; it was the field of distinction and the
career of honour : the consequence could only be
reciprocal hatred and wrong.*

four languages were reported to have been used at a single in-
terview) had alone, at this time, regular Dragomans ; but, by
its constant intercourse and proximity, it subsequently found it
necessary to abandon the system, and at present a competent
knowledge of the Turkish language is a qualification required
in a minister of Austria.

Perhaps, also, while Austria had hostile projects, the Dra-
goman system might prove useful ; and it has been abandoned,
since her object has been conservation and peace.

* " I am not the apologist,'* says a "Western diplomatist, " of
Turkish prejudice, but it cannot be denied that the barbarous
invasion and excesses of the mad Crusaders ; the persecutions

DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE. 347

Such were the circumstances which led to
the insults which the Turks inflicted on the re-
presentatives of Christendom, and which these
representatives tamely bore. Then it was that a
Turkish Minister first disdained to rise to receive
a foreign ambassador ; and this point once yielded
was irrecoverably lost, and all consideration and
influence went with it, exemplifying the Russian
proverb, — " There is but one step from the top
of the stair to the bottom." The consequence was
the humiliation of the foreign representatives by a
treatment to which they had the meanness to
submit, and which their courts had either not the
spirit or the power to resent. Though, no doubt,
the increased importance which the interpreters
then obtained, and the prospects of emolument
and influence held out to them in the degradation
of the titular representatives of the Foreign
Powers, must have induced this class of men to
frustrate in every way the good dispositions of
either party, and to fan the flame of discord be-
tween functionaries ignorant of each other's lan-
guage and manners.

" However, in the midst of these circum-

and final expulsion of the Mahometans from Spain ; the uniform
language of all Christian writers, as well as the uniform conduct
of all Christian states towards the Ottomans, have combined to
furnish no slight justification of their feelings towards the nations
of Europe." — Constantinople and its Environs, by an Ame-
rican, vol. ii. p. 317.

348 A RETROSPECT.

stances," adds the author above quoted, " the
Imperial resident who had followed the camp, and
sojourned at Tournovo, in the vicinity of Larissa,
was so fortunate as to obtain three Berats in
favour of commerce : the first for Tuscany, the
second for Kaschan, the third for the Levant Com-
pany." What increases the strange contrast be-
tween the rudeness of the manners and the friend-
liness of the acts of the Turks is, that while the
foreign representatives were treated in this uncivil
style, they received an allowance of thirty, fifty,
and, on one occasion, of a hundred and fifty dollars
per diem, for their sustenance, being considered as
guests.

During the reign of Mohammed IV., and espe-
cially under his father Ibrahim, the envoys of
foreign states had occasionally been subject to
violence and outrage. But there seems to have
been no idea of systematically treating them as
inferiors, because of the faith they professed. The
animosity of a religious character proceeded, I
fear, from the animosities and the acts of Europe :
witness the depredations of the Knights of Malta —
the scarcely less honourable enterprises of Genoa
and Venice — the intermeddling of Russia in the
affairs of the Greek Church — the hostile breath
that constantly issued from the Vatican — the
zeal of Spain, Austria, and particularly of France,
in spreading all over the East, Jesuits, Franciscans,
and Capuchins mixed up in political machinations.

DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE. 349

In ascending to an earlier period, we find the
reception of an ambassador divested of the forms
which, though of Greek origin, did not reappear
with their full ceremonial until the age of Moham-
med IV., and the accurate details which have
been preserved of the various Austrian embassies
to Sulejman the Great, exhibit the opinions of the
Turks respecting the character of an ambassador,
whom they consider as the agent, and by no
means as the representative, of his sovereign ; and
whom they respect rather as their guest, than as
his master's envoy.

Ibrahim, the Vizir of Soliman, on the introduc-
tion of the envoys of Ferdinand, did not get up to
meet them; — it was a long time before he even
desired them to sit down (the conference lasted
seven hours), but this was not through the recently
supposed dogma of the unlawfulness of rising
before a Christian ; for when the letter of Charles V.
was presented, the Grand Vizir not only stood
up to receive it, but remained standing as long as
the conversation respecting Charles continued.
His manner to the ambassadors arose from Ferdi-
nand having called himself the brother of Ibra-
him, and being called so by him in return. This
brought the question of ceremony within the pale
of Turkish ideas, and Ibrahim could not have
thought of getting up to receive the agents of his
younger brother.

Ferdinand had sent, before the one I allude to,

350 A RETROSPECT.

six embassies to negotiate for peace, without re-
linquishing his title to Hungary. The seventh
would probably have had no better success, but
for the device resorted to by his "brother," and
which is another illustration of those differences of
ideas between the east and the west, which each
has got into the unfortunate habit of designating
in the other — prejudice. The following address
to the Sultan, was suggested by the Grand Vizir
to the Ambassadors, and by means of it peace was
concluded.

" The King Ferdinand, thy son, looks upon all
thou possessest as his ; and all that is his, thou
being his father, belongs to thee. He did not
know that it was thy desire to retain for thyself
the kingdom of Hungary, otherwise he would not
have made war against thee. But since thou, his
father, desirest to have it, he augurs thee fortune
and health, not doubting that thou, as his parent,
will assist him in the acquisition of this kingdom,
and of many others."

M. De Lahaye was the first ambassador whose
ignominious treatment was taken as a precedent ;
a secret intercourse was discovered between him
and the Venetians, then at war with the Porte.*
He was sent for from Constantinople; his son
came in his place ; he was beaten and con-

* The King of France had enrolled himself as a volunteer in
one expedition against his ally the Sultan, and had borne the
expenses of a second !

DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE. 351

fined because he refused to read an intercepted
letter written in cipher, and addressed to his father.
M. De Lahaye himself then came ; he declared
himself ignorant of the cipher, and was imprisoned
also. Louis XIV. sent another ambassador, M.
Blondel, to demand satisfaction ; he was the first
who was placed on a stool. M. De Lahaye and
his son were liberated from their prison ; but at the
moment of their departure, a French vessel having
carried off some Turkish merchandise, he was again
locked up till a ransom should be paid for him.

Some time afterwards, France sent back M. De
Lahaye again as ambassador to the Sublime Porte.
" He expected," says M. Von Hammer, " to be
received as the minister of England and Austria,
and refused the guard of only ten chaoushes sent
him by the Grand Vizir. The following day he
proceeded, without any state, to the French palace.

" The Grand Vizir, incensed against France
by the succour she had sent to Hungary, received
him in a haughty manner, without getting up, and
reproached him with the connexion of his country
with the enemies of the Porte. JM. De Lahaye
withdrew, and sent to the Grand Vizir to say that
if again he did not rise on his entrance, he would
restore the capitulations, and return to France.
In a secotid interview, he was received in the
same manner, and without the salute, on which
M. De Lahaye threw the capitulations at the
Grand Vizir's feet. The Grand Vizir called him a

352 A RETROSPECT.

Jew. The Grand Chamberlain pushed him from
the chair, and struck him with it. The ambas-
sador attempted to draw his sword, but a chaoush
gave him a blow in the face, and he was kept
three days shut up at the Grand Vizir's, who, after
consulting with the Mufti Vani Effendi, and the
Capitan Pasha, resolved on giving him another
audience, which should be regarded as the first.
He met* the ambassador with a friendly salute,
and said with a sardonic smile, " What is passed,
is passed ; henceforward, let us be good 'friends."
Thus an end was put to his stripes and blows,
which, probably, the ambassador never communi-
cated to his court, or which was intentionally
omitted by the historian of French diplomacy."

Subsequently to this period, Turkish ministers
did not rise to receive European diplomatists, until
new feelings were awakened in favour of one
European power by the restitution of Egypt by
English arms, when General Abercromby was
styled " father " and " Pasha " f by the Turkish

* The expression " met the ambasssador" would lead one
to suspect that the result of the conference of these great
functionaries was the compromise since practised of entering
the audience chamber at the same moment. A subterfuge
which proves and marks the change of style as well as the
ignorance of the Europeans of Eastern etiquette ; which,
indeed, must have been the principal cause of these broils, as it
now is the sole but effectual barrier to all intercourse.

t Yet this did not lead to any improvement of our position
at Constantinople. There we were in the hands of the Dra-

DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE. 353

commanders, and treated accordingly. Our con-
temptible policy in the expedition of 1807 against
Egypt and against Constantinople, deprived us, it is
true, of all the Eastern fruits of the policy of 1800.
France, however, succeeded in gaining exten-
sive prerogatives for the Jesuits and other Catholic
fraternities ; indeed, during more than two centu-
ries the whole influence and energy of France
seemed to be directed by a conclave of inquisi-
tors.* Attempts to convert the Greeks ; to unite
the Greek Church to that of Rome ; squabbles
about monasteries and churches throughout the
whole of the Levant ; pretensions on the holy
places of Jerusalem ; intrigues and insurrectionary

gomans, whose interest, as a body, whether English, French,
Russian, &c. is directly hostile to whatever leads to free inter-
course of friendly feeling between the Turks and European
diplomatists. It is true we then negotiated to obtain a better
position, and on the plea of the reception of Lady Mary
Wortley Montague ! We should have thought of the means
adopted by Lady M. W. Montague.

* I refer not to the enlightened views, on more than one
occasion, of the Cabinet of Versailles, but to the general tone
and character of the agents of France in the East. The Turks
could not easily reconcile the decided support of France, on
more than one critical occasion, with the unceasing support
given by her agents to the avowed enemies of the Ottoman
faith, and the incessant disturbers of the public peace.
w Murad IV.," says Sir Thomas Roe, " expressed his amaze-
ment that the friendship of the King of France could onlv be
obtained by the tolerance and protection of traitors" (the
Monks).

VOL. I. A A.

354 A RETROSPECT.

measures directed by the Jesuits, which threatened
the public peace, and brought on reactions which
endangered the whole European population,* —
seemed to have been the principal occupation of the
French mission.

England disclaimed, in her character of Pro-
testant, all community with a policy based on
religious motives ; and marked to the Turks her
religious separation from Catholic Europe. She
consequently acquired, in Turkey, a consideration
and an influence infinitely greater than her power
or political position could otherwise have secured
to her.

u Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, Queen of
England, France, and Ireland, powerful and invin-
cible defender of the true faith against the idolaters
that falsely profess the name of Christ."

Such is the superscription of the letter of Eliza-
beth to the Caliph of the Mussulmans. It explains
how and why the influence of England stood so
high. Here is an indication of the ideas and the
policy of England in the times of the Cecils, the
Raleighs, the Bacons, and the Sidneys. And to

* On two occasions, the whole European population as-
sembled in the churches of Pera and Galata, without any ex-
pectation of a reprieve from the doom of extermination that
hung over them. The frenzy or madness that excited such
fearful retribution can, in the present age, only be conceived
by those who have witnessed in the Levant the effects of the
fanatic hatred, against each other, of the various Christian sects.

DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE. OOO

the list of monarchs and statesmen who have felt
the importance of Turkey to the political balance
and system of Europe, — to the names of Gus-
tavus III., Frederick II., Hertzberg, Napoleon,
Chatham, Pitt, Talleyrand, and Metternich, — may,
perhaps, also be added that of our " Virgin Queen."

The spirit of Austrian diplomacy is displayed in
the Imperial Embassy of 1616, which, on entering
Constantinople, exhibited a flag, bearing, on one side,
the Austrian eagle, and on the other, Christ on the
cross. A general commotion was the result. The
Greeks, the Jesuits, and the European powers were,
all and each, suspected of having planned some
daring conspiracy against the Sultan, the city, or
the state. The Sultan patrolled the streets in
person during the night ; the Jesuits were confined
to the Seven Towers ; and the Austrian historian
and diplomatist exults in recording the fulfilment
of the prophecy of the commencement of the decline
of the Ottoman Empire, which, however, he had
already announced in the middle of the previous
century ! and which even before that he had fixed
as having commenced in the reigns of Bajazet II.
and Selim I.

The dissolution of that empire has been, of late
years, universally established throughout Europe,
with the exception of the Russian Cabinet, as one
of those axioms regarding which, neither doubt
could arise, nor difference exist. It created some

Irprise when a recent publication pointed out that
...

356 A RETROSPECT.

doctrine as spread by the emissaries of Peter the
First ; but the Austrian historian mentions it
nearly half a century before Peter, as the bond of
union of Greeks, monks, interpreters, and Hospo-
dars. But what will be said to the fact, that a
century previous even to this period, and when
Suleyman the Great was taking Rhodes and mena-
cing Vienna, that the Muscovite Prince Vassili was
impressing on the Emperor Maximilian the decline
of the Turkish power, and the facility with which
he could expel them from Europe ! In consequence
of the abesnce of a common language, and of the
means of direct intercourse, there has been an
uninterrupted series of false conclusions, drawn
from facts ill appreciated, of everyday occurrence.
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at if these con-
clusions have wholly prevailed since the Ottoman
power has ceased to make itself feared, since similar
conclusions were admitted even while the whole of
Europe trembled at its name.

Under Mohammed IV. was first developed the
influence of the Greek Church as an instrument in
the hands of Russia against the Ottomans.

The conqueror of Constantinople had seen
with gratification, and fostered with encourage-
ment, the connexion between the Sclavonic people
and the Patriarch of Constantinople, as a means of
extending the power of the Porte towards the
north ; but the Turks were not crafty enough, as
men, to follow out such a scheme, and too power-

INTERNATIONAL WRONGS. 357

ful, as a nation, to adopt indirect means. In two
centuries afterwards, that is, under Mohammed IV.,
we find the Porte startled by the revelation of a
political union being organised, by means of the
Church, between the Czar of Muscovy and the
Greek inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire. A
Patriarch, put to death in consequence of this dis-
covery,* tended but to increase the dangers that
were thus revealed ; and we subsequently find, at
the same moment, an embassy from Poland, sent
to warn the Sultan of a design, on the part of the
Czar, to revolutionise the Greeks, and the Patriarch
of Constantinople invited to Moscow to organise
the Church.

Thus was the game of the present times re-
hearsed nearly two centuries ago ; the same in-
tensity of purpose evinced, and precisely the same
means employed. The problem is, therefore, of
difficult solution, how Russia, having become ap-
parently so strong, and Turkey apparently so
weak, the unremitting use of such powerful means
of disorganisation has not long ago effected, and is

* In an intercepted letter to the Prince of Wallachia from
this Patriarch, created in 1657, there is this expression: —
" Islamism approaches to its end ; the universal dominion of
the Christian (Greek) faith is at hand ; and the Lords of the
Cross and the Bell will soon be, also, Lords of the Empire."
The letter was one of thanks for 100,000 ducats, sent by the
Prince to the " Lords of the Bell," the iMonks of Mount Athos.

358 DRAGOMANS IN THE EAST.

not sufficient yet to effect, the total subversion of
the Ottoman power ?

This period, so memorable, of Mohammed IV.,
by the introduction into Turkey, or the establish-
ment there, of a system hostile to itself as of
feelings inimical to Europe, coincides with the in-
troduction into Europe of principles as injurious to
the progress of man as to the friendly intercourse
of nations. At this period it was that Colbert
introduced into France the ideas of supporting
national industry by fictitious protection, and of
rendering those protections subservient to the
revenues of the state.

This fatal notion has spread to all nations, with
the exception of Turkey, fortunately, perhaps, for
future generations, protected from this infection by
its natural hatred to every thing coming from the
West. Wherever this so termed " protection sys-
tem" has been introduced, animosity has sprung
up between the various interests and classes of a
nation, disguised under the name of principle, and
a cankerous evil has been spread over the relations
of human intercourse, under the title of laws. To
this cause has been referred, even by European
writers, every revolution and every war in Europe
since 1667.*

* For instance, Brougham (Colonial Policy) ; Parnell
(Commercial Treaty with France) ; Storck (Cours d'Economie
Politique).

COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS IX THE WEST. 359

Nearly of the same date as the Ordonnances of
Colbert was the Navigation Act of England, which
at the time was but a record of a state of things,
but which indirectly involved England in foreign
difficulties and dangers, from its adoption by other
nations, and its application by them to herself.
This (a sister fallacy to that of Colbert) contri-
buted its share to the public convulsions of Europe,
and assisted in repressing those energies, and re-
tarding that progress, to which the splendid and
rapid discoveries in science and mechanics had
given so vast an extension, and so unparalleled an
impulse.

These fundamental errors now produce doubt
and schism on all social and political questions in
the minds of Europeans, so powerful in disqui-
sition, so stored with information. But the eastern
statesmen may well inquire why their finances are
involved in the midst of unparalleled production ?
Why a large portion of their population is plunged
in misery and crime, while wealth regorges, and
philanthropy abounds ? Why nations, desiring
harmony and professing peace, make war on each
other's commerce, as if it were an infectious
disease ?

The ancient frame of government still pre-
served in Turkey may yet, however, through
the new ideas and the larger views to which, by
extending the field of inquiry, it may give birth,

360 COMMERCIAL RESTRICTION.

contribute to sounder opinions on financial ques-
tions ; and the system of free trade, not overthrown
in that empire, may be taken advantage of by
England to establish an alliance of nations, based
on freedom of commerce, which may counteract
the restrictions that are gradually pressing upon
her energies, and which threaten, at no remote pe-
riod, to exclude her political influence, as well as
her manufactures, from the continent of Europe.

361

CHAPTER XX.

SOCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH THE TURKS.

At Larissa, as there is no Frank population, and
no Consuls, we found it practicable to gain ad-
mission into Turkish society ; and we saw at the
Archbishop's, or were taken by him to visit, the
principal citizens of the town, and the Beys and
proprietors of the neighbourhood. We were, on
our side, an object of some curiosity to them, for
the arrival of Europeans, at such a moment, was a
strange and interesting event.

But, after the friendly terms on which we had
lived with the Albanian Mussulmans, it was no
easy thing to descend to the grade which a
Christian occupies in Turkey, and which is quite
sufficient to justify the animosity which residents
and travellers, not ascending to its source, have
entertained against the Turks. This ignominious
treatment of Europeans I conceive, in a great
measure, to have been the cause of the absence of
inquiry into the mind and institutions of Turkey,

362 SOCIAL INTERCOURSE

on the part of those who have visited it. The
door to social intercourse was not only shut against
them, but flung back in their face. All sympathy
and interest was thus at once cut short ; and,
without a considerable share of both, no man will
apply himself to laborious investigation.

If you question a Turk as to the reason why
. he will not get up to receive a European ? Why
he will not lay his hand on his breast, when he
bids him welcome ? Why he will not give him the
salutation of peace ? Why the meanest Turk
would conceive himself disgraced by serving a
European, and the poorest would spurn the bread
bought by such service ?* The Turk will answer,
** My religion forbids me."

No wonder, then, that the stranger, taking this
assertion to be true, and not understanding the in-
fluence and power of manners, attributes this state
of intercourse to religion, and sets down Islamism
as a morose and anti-social creed, and that there
his investigations cease.

The Archbishop, while he acted the part of a
chaperon, which he did admirably, was sure to

* There are instances of Europeans having Turks as gar-
deners or as grooms, but these servants will not be resident in
the establishment ; and, though they will do their duty to their
master, they will not shew him any sign of respect. They will treat
him, in manner and in the choice of epithets, as an inferior,
which the European may not understand, but to which, should
he understand it, he is obliged to submit.

WITH THE TURKS. 363

keep us informed, to the full extent, of every dis-
respect, in manner or in terms, applied to us ; a
service which, at the time, we were little disposed
to estimate at its full and real value. For instance,
the news of the death of George IV. arrived. We
were not left in ignorance that the intelligence
was conveyed from mouth to mouth amongst the
Turks, by the words (they all speak Greek) "YStiurs o
K^a/. rrjg AyylJac, " the Krai of England has burst,"
an expression applied to animals when they die.

We were one evening invited to supper at a
Turkish Bey's, a circumstance at that time wholly
new to us. The table of the Turk, as his door, is
open to every comer, whatever his faith or station ;
but an invitation in a formal manner, together with
the kindness and attention that were shewn us (sub-
ject always to the nonobservances above indicated),
was a mark of interest quite novel and unexpected ;
we, therefore, returned home delighted and exult-
ing. But, the next day, the Archbishop, fearful that
we should be run away with, informed us, that, no
sooner had we departed, than a general hilarity
had been produced by observations on our style
and manners, and on the errors of etiquette of
which we had been guilty ; and that, when we
were spoken of, if any one designated us by the
title of the English Bey Zadehs, he immediately
added, \jX cvyyjootGiv, " with your pardon," an ex-
pression which they use after the mention of a pig,
an ass, or the like.

364 SOCIAL INTERCOURSE

However, we daily found our position altering ;
a general change of tone and manner on their
part, and probably on ours, ensued : and, with one
or two men of superior minds, the first steps were
then made of a long and lasting friendship.

A European doctor, a miserable quack, proved
of considerable service to us. We went nowhere
without him ; and, at first, he was quite an
authority with us ; but the progress we had
made was brought sensibly before us, when we
came to feel the necessity of getting rid of this
noxious appendage. We now began to perceive
that the treatment of Europeans by Turks pro-
ceeded from the natural contempt they entertained
for that hat-and-breeches-wearing population which
infests every part of Turkey, in the character of
Charlatans in medicine and other arts, of Drago-
mans, vagabonds, and the drivers of still less
honourable speculations. Thence are their opi-
nions drawn respecting all those who wear hats
and tight clothes ; while the forms thus established
between the two faiths, or rather the two cos-
tumes, render it perfectly impossible for any man
of education, or of generous feelings, to enter their
service, or to be attached to their persons.

So essentially are all the details of external
life bound up with the opinions and the feelings of
a Turk, that it is next to impossible for him to
separate, from things or ideas, the external signs
by which he has been accustomed as representing

WITH THE TURKS. 365

them. A European, possessing perfectly their lan-
guage and their literature, having that character of
mind which is fitted to gain an influence over
them, will yet remain, however he may be really
respected, distinct from their society ; and it would
be unfair in him towards his friends to exact those
observances which, nevertheless, are absolutely es-
sential to the possession of influence, or even to
the enjoyment of social intercourse ; let him
change, however, his costume, and his position is
immediately changed. But the costume alone is
of little, if of any use, until a man is capable of
acting his part as those who wear it.

A Frenchman, who had been travelling in the
eastern parts of Turkey, meeting me one day in a
Turkish costume, expressed his astonishment at
my resigning myself to the hardships attendant
on the wearer of such a dress. I was rather puzzled
at his observation, and supposed he alluded to the
difficulties attendant on supporting the character ;
so I answered, that I had at times found it to be so,
stating the reasons why. Nothing could exceed
the amazement of the French traveller at my ex-
planation ; and he informed me, that having started
on a botanical excursion of three years, some one,
for his sins, had recommended to him to put on
the costume of the Faithful ; that he, in conse-
quence, had run the greatest risks ; he had been
every where insulted, several times beaten, and on
lore occasions than one had with difficulty escaped

366 SOCIAL INTERCOURSE

with his life. I saw at once that there must have
been some glaring deviation from manners or cos-
tume ; and, after putting a few questions to him, I
discovered that, with a gay Osmanli turban, he had
worn a beard, which was not pricked away from
the corner of the ear downwards, so that whoever
glanced at him could not fail to set him down for a
Jew, passing himself off for a Mussulman. When
I explained to him the cause of his mishaps, after
musing for a while, he declared that I must be
wrong ; because, although it was true that every
body used to call him H Jew," yet that his Tartar
always denied that he was a Jew, and would have
told him how to trim his beard, if that really had
been the cause of his troubles. I replied, that pro-
bably his* Tartar thought him a Jew, but that he
endeavoured to protect him from the application of
the word " Chifoot," while he might see no harm in
their applying to him the term " Yahoody," both
equally signifying Jew, but the first being a term of
reproach.

He admitted that he recollected those two
words. "But," said he, "what made the thing
more strange was, that I was travelling with a
companion, and every night we used to dispute
which of us was most like to a Jew. My friend
had a black beard, and I had a red one. I used to
call him ' Jew,' and he used to retort by calling me
Judas Iscariot. At length I shaved my beard ;
but we were not a bit the better off : my friend's

WITH THE TURKS. 367

black beard then went ; but still, wherever we
went, ' Chifoot, Chifoot,' was hallooed out." " How
high," I inquired, "did you shave your beard?"
" How high ? " answered he with amazement, " I
never thought of that." " Then," I replied, " you
have shaved your beard and whiskers not quite to
the line of the turban ; so that a lock of hair has
appeared close to your ear, which is the distinctive
sign of Jews wrho shave their beards ! " " What a
pity," he said, "that I did not hear this before,
instead of after, my journey." I thought that the
pity was that a man should travel in a country before
studying its manners, and reason on it before under-
standing its feelings.

Among a class of young men in the capital,
chiefly belonging to the regular troops, there is an
affectation of every thing European. Among them
it is no extraordinary thing for a European to find
himself treated, as he supposes, with every external
mark of courtesy ; but a position which is only to
be gained by a change that remains to be effected,
and cannot be so without difficulty and without
danger, and the sphere of which is limited and in-
significant, is scarcely worthy of observation. To
establish the fact that a European may place him-
self within the pale of the national feeling, is,
I conceive, of the deepest importance, either as
throwing light on the Turkish character, or as
affording a new means of action on the Turkish
nation.

368 SOCIAL INTERCOURSE

I make these observations after two years inter-
course with Mussulmans, on the footing of the
most entire and perfect equality. It is true that
many of my friends, for a long time, severally
believed that they alone were in the habit of treat-
ing me in such a manner ; that such conduct was in
violation of the precepts of their religion, and was
only justified in my case from a supposed difference
with other Europeans. It is perhaps superfluous to
add, that in the faith of Islamism there is not the
slightest ground for this supposition. Had it been
so, Constantinople never could have been theirs.
As a notable instance of the reverse, the Conqueror
of Constantinople not only got up to receive the
Greek Patriarch, his subject and a Christian, but
accompanied him to the door of his palace, and
sent all his ministers on foot to conduct him
home.*

But, whatever have been the wrongs, feelings,
or habits of the past, a reaction has now taken
place in Turkey in favour of Europe. The change
of dress, in imitation of those nations whose policy
has been so injurious to them, exhibits great docility

* What a contrast with the Western feelings regarding reli-
gious toleration is exhibited in the conquest of Constantinople
by the Turks and by the Latins. When Dandolo planted the
banner of St. Mark on the dome of St. Sophia, the Christian
invaders placed in mockery, on the patriarchal throne, a pro-
stitute, wearing on her brows the mitre, and holding in her hand
the pastoral crook which Constantine had bestowed.

WITH THE TURKS. 369

i

of mind, and proves that there has existed, un-
observed by us, or, at all events, that there now
exists among them, a spirit of imitativeness, which,
in a nation (if well directed) contains the element
of progress and amelioration. And, as if to render
this proof the more conclusive, that which they
have imitated has neither inherent merit nor ex-
ternal attractions. Now a new duty devolves upon
us, — that of directing their docility, and assisting
their selection.

If undirected, their imitation will be of external
things, which can bring no good, but may do much
evil, by destroying habits, which are the signs of
thought, the expression of feelings, and the test of
duties. At present, I have no hesitation in saying
that the Turks have no individual possessed of a
thorough knowledge of Europe ; and yet no man, not
perfectly and equally conversant with the ideas, in-
struction, and institutions of the East and of the
West, can reason to a satisfactory conclusion re-
specting what they ought, or ought not, to imitate.
Amongst us there is no one sufficiently acquainted
with their institutions and character to be able to
become their guide. However beneficial, therefore,
this change of disposition might be, were we in
knowledge equal to the position offered us, it is to
me a subject, under actual circumstances, involv-
ing much anxiety and serious apprehension. They
have raised the anchor in a tide-way before ma-
turely considering whether there was a necessity

VOL. I. B B

370 SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.

of shifting their ground. They are losing their
hold before the sails have drawn. That is passed ;
now the moorings of custom are cast off; the
vessel is moving ; and those who have a stake
on board, ought not to rely on chance for his
getting into port.

371

CHAPTER XXI.

CHARACTERS OF AN EASTERN' AND AN ANCIENT ROOM PRE-
SENTATION OF A EUROPEAN IN EASTERN SOCIETY.

To understand the effect produced on an Eastern
by the manners and address of a European, we
must be conversant with their feelings, and ignorant
of our own.

The first is a matter of some difficulty ; the
second requires an effort of mental abstraction, of
rather an unwonted kind. When a stranger enters
a new country, he will be struck only with those
points of its manners which he does not compre-
hend ; and the native, understanding all points
equally well, is, by his knowledge of himself, pre-
vented from comprehending the effect which he
himself produces on the stranger. I will now,
therefore, previously to bringing the Frank tra-
veller before him, request the reader to forget, for
a moment, that he is cased in stiff-collar coat
and boots, and fancy himself enveloped in flowing
robes, or clad in richly embroidered vestments, re-
posing, but not with negligence, on the broad and

b b 2

372 CHARACTERS OF AN ANCIENT

cushioned sofa of an eastern room ; but that word
is not to be so easily disposed of. The word "oda"
we must translate room ; but there is no word in
our language that can express the idea of " oda,"
because we have not the thing. The habits of social
intercourse in the East could not subsist a day in
such lodgings as our western habitations afford ; it
is, therefore, requisite to commence with describing
the form and attributes of an eastern room.

We build our houses with reference not to the
inside, but to the out. It is the aspect of the ex-
terior, not the comfort of the apartment, that
engages our attention. We follow the rules of
architecture strictly in the details and decorations
of the stones of which it is built, and positively
have not, at this day, any fixed rules or principles
for the construction of the portion we are ourselves
to occupy, nor have we any idea of the existence
of such rules in any other country, or in any
former age.

The consequence is, that our rooms are of all
shapes, and have no settled character. They have
no parts. There is a commingling of doors and
windows, neither of these being rendered available
for determining the top, bottom, and sides. The
position of the seats is equally undefined, so that,
in regard to parts, character, proportion, access,
light, and accommodation, our apartments are re-
gulated by no intelligible principles, and cannot be

AND AN EASTERN ROOM. 373

rendered subservient to the social purposes of a
people between whom laws have not established
broad lines of demarcation, and who, therefore, in
the adjustment of the grades of society, preserve
the natural inequality of men. Forms of etiquette,
in their infinite variety, become the expression of
public opinion in determining rank and station.
Thus, a room in the East is not a box, shut in
from the weather, and converted into an apart-
ment solely by the value of the materials employed
to construct or adorn it ; it is a whole, composed
of determined parts, and capable of logical de-
finition by its parts ; it is a structure regulated by
fixed and invariable principles ; it is a court like a
college hall, where each individual's grade may be
known by the place he occupies ; and, while thus
constituted, it serves equally as our rooms for all
the purposes of domestic life. There distinctive
characters become a portion of domestic life and
duties, and are associated with the public cha-
racter of the state. Thus, to the stranger, a
knowledge of the attributes, if I may so say, of
the " Room," is the first step to acquaintance with
the East. The reader may have seen, at Pompeii,
the prototypes of the rooms I refer to, or he may
have heard or read of the Greek and Roman tri-
clinium ; but I may, I think, safely assert, that the
measurement and examination of these apartments
would lead no man to imagine that social habits,

374 CHARACTERS OF AN ANCIENT

ideas, and principles, different from ours, are indi-
cated by these forms and proportions. But, if it
can be shewn that certain social characters are
connected with, and have given rise to, the struc-
ture of the apartment now used by the Turks, and
if it is true that their domestic architecture ought
to be understood by whoever seeks to become ac-
quainted with their ideas and manners, then must
we admit that, in the East of this day, those social
details, those moral feelings, and living habits, are
to be seen, which coincided with a similar domestic
architecture 2000 years ago. I therefore dwell on
the form of the room as illustrative no less of
antiquity than of Turkey.

In Turkey, the room is the principle of all
architecture ; it is the unit, of which the house is
the aggregate. No one cares for the external form
of a building. Its proportions, its elegance, or
effect, are never considered. The architect, as the
proprietor, thinks only of the apartments, and
there no deviation from fixed principles is tole-
rated. Money and space are equally sacrificed to,
give to each chamber its fixed form, light, and
facility of access, without having to traverse a
passage or another apartment to reach it.

Every room is composed of a square, to
which is added a rectangle, so that it forms an
oblong.*

* See wood-cut.

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AND AN EASTERN ROOM. 375

There must be no thoroughfare through it. It
must be unbroken in its continuity on three sides.
The door or doors must be on one side only,
which, then, is the "bottom;" the windows at
another and the opposite side, which, then, is " the
top." The usual number of the windows at the
top is four, standing contiguous to each other.
There may be, also, windows at the ■* sides," but
then they are close to the windows at the top,
and they ought to be in pairs, one on each side ;
and, in a perfect room, there ought to be twelve
windows, four on each of the three sides of the
square ; but, as this condition cannot always be
realised, the room in each house, so constructed,
is generally called u the kiosk," as kiosks, or
detached rooms, are always so constructed.

Below the square, is an oblong space, generally
depressed a step ; sometimes, in large apartments,
separated by a balustrade, and sometimes by co-
lumns. This is the space allotted to the servants,
who constantly attend,* in a Turkish establish-
ment, and regularly relieve each other. The

* Men of the very lowest rank often enter the apartment of
the Turkish grandee. Elders, old men, tradesmen, &c. are al-
ways asked to sit down, which this form of apartment permits of,
without infringement of respect or etiquette. Even those who
are not invited to sit down come and stand below the balus-
trade, and thus every class in Turkey becomes acquainted with
the other ; and the idea of animosity between different grades or
classes of society, is what never entered any man's head.

376 CHARACTERS OF AN ANCIENT

bottom of the room is lined with wooden work.
Cupboards, for the stowage of bedding ; open
spaces, like pigeon-holes, for vases, with water,
sherbet, or flowers ; marble slabs and basins, for a
fountain, with painted landscapes as a back-ground.
In these casements' are the doors. At the sides,
in the angles, or in the centre, of this lower
portion, and over the doors, curtains are hung,
which are held up by attendants as you enter.

It is this form of apartment which gives to
their houses and kiosks so irregular, yet so pic-
turesque an air. The rooms are jutted out, and
the outline deeply cut in, to obtain the light
requisite for each room. A large space is conse-
quently left vacant in the centre, from which all
the apartments enter; this central hall, termed
" Divan Hani" gives great dignity to an Eastern
mansion.

The square portion of the room is occupied on
the three sides by a broad sofa, with cushions all
round, leaning against the wall, and rising to the
sill of the windows, so that, as you lean on them,
you command the view all round. The effect of
this arrangement of the seats and windows is, that
you have always your back to the light, and your
face to the door. The continuity of the windows,
without intervening wall or object, gives a perfect
command of the scene without ; and your position
in sitting makes you feel, though in a room, con-

AND AN EASTERN ROOM. 377

stantly in the presence of external nature. The
light falls also in a single mass, and from above,
affording pictorial effects dear to the artist. The
windows are seldom higher than six feet. Above
the windows, a cornice runs all round the room,
and from it hang festoons of drapery. Above this,
up to the ceiling, the wall is painted with ara-
besque flowers, fruit, and arms. Here there is a
second row of windows, with double panes of stained
glass. There are curtains on the lower windows,
but not on the upper ones. If necessary or desir-
able, the light below may be excluded ;* but it is
admitted from above, mellowed and subdued by
stained glass. The roof is highly painted and orna-
mented. It is divided into two parts. The one
which is over the square portion of the room occu-
pied by the triclinium, is also square, and some-
times vaulted ; the other is an oblong portion over
the lower part of the room close to the door ; this
is generally lower and flat.

The sofa, which runs round three sides of the
square, is raised about fourteen inches. A deep
fringe, or festoons of puckered cloth, hang down to
the floor.f The sofa is a little higher before than
behind ; and is about four feet in width. The

* In the harems the lower windows are latticed.

T On the floor there are seldom carpets. Fine mats are
used in summer, felt in winter, and over that, cloth the same as
on the sofas, which has an effect, in the simplicity and unity of

378 CHARACTERS OF AN ANCIENT

angles are the seats of honour;* though there is no
idea of putting two persons on the same footing by
placing one in one corner, and another in the other.
The right corner is the chief place ; then the sofa
along the top, and general proximity to the right
corner. But even here the Eastern's respect for
man above circumstances is shewn. The relative
value of the positions all round the room are
changed, should the person of the highest rank
accidentally occupy another place. These combi-
nations are intricate, but they are uniform.

So far the room is ancient Greek. The only
thing Turkish is a thin square cushion or shilteh,
which is laid on the floor in the angle formed by
the divan, and is the representative of the sheep-
skin of the Turcoman's tent. It is by far the most
comfortable place; and here, not unfrequently, the
Grandees, when not in ceremony, place themselves,
and then their guests sit upon the floor around,
personifying a group of their nomade ancestors.

In the change of customs effected during the
last few years, nothing has been more injurious,
and more to be deplored, than the degradation of
taste, and loss of comfort, in the style of their
apartments.

colour, which is most remarkable. In the actual breaking up of
habits, one of the first things that went was taste in colour.
The modern houses present the most shocking and vulgar
contrasts.

* So also among the ancient Greeks.

AND AN EASTERN ROOM. 379

The attempt at imitating what they did not
understand, has produced a confusion inconvenient
in practice and ridiculous in effect. The high nar-
row sofa which you now see stuck at one end of
the room, like a long chest with a padded cover,
and chairs round the others, is neither Oriental
nor European ; and the doors ornamented with
chintz curtains, festooned and drawn to either side,
and tucked up to lackered copper-work, would
make a stranger think that all around he sees the
ends of tent-beds. The construction of palaces for
the Sultan, in imitation of Europe, with straight
and regular lines, has entirely sacrificed that form
of apartments which was not only so elegant, con-
venient, and classical; but which was intimately
associated with their habits, and therefore with
principles and with duties.

In the modern buildings, the walls are painted
of one colour, and the roofs of another ; and style
and taste, comfort and originality, have disappeared
from their buildings as completely as from their
dress : but these aberrations of the day must be
kept out of sight till we have formed to ourselves a
clear idea of the original type, when alone we can
be able to judge of the value of what exists, and of
the effect of alterations.

This form of apartment, the happy selection
of position, the rigid uniformity of structure, the
total absence of these ornamental details which
make our rooms look like storeshops, must have

380 CHARACTERS OF AN ANCIENT

been the abode of a people sober in mind and dig-
nified in manner, while the ample means of accom-
modation for guests, indicated a hospitable character
and a convivial spirit. The undeviating form of
the apartment leaves no ambiguity as to the relative
position which each individual is entitled to occupy,
while the necessity of that arrangement is itself
the effect of a freer intercourse between various
ranks, than would be practicable with our manners
and apartments. Position in a room becomes
therefore a question of gravity and importance. It
was by seeing Easterns first introduced into our
apartments, and the confusion into which they
were thereby thrown, that the effect of the form of
their apartments on their manners, and the con-
nexion of the one and the other, first occurred
to me.

This mode of construction, independent of its
superiority with regard to light, and modes of
approach, has also the advantage of combining
economy (in furniture, if not in architecture) with
elegance, and simplicity with dignity. It is cha-
racteristic of the order, cleanliness, and decorum of
their domestic habits.

The reader has now, I hope, some idea of the
place of reception, and, consequently, of the im-
portance of presenting himself with self-possession,
but without presumption, and with a consciousness
that his personal consideration is always contingent
on his knowledge of the ideas and feelings of those

AND AN EASTERN ROOM. 381

around him. But, before introducing a European
stranger, I must introduce a native visitor.

The Osmanli guest rides into the court, dis-
mounts on the stone for that purpose, close to the
landing-place. He has been preceded and an-
nounced by an attendant. A servant of the house
gives notice to his master in the selamlik, not by
proclaiming his name aloud, but by a sign, which
intimates the visitor's rank, or, perhaps, even his
name. The host, according to his rank, proceeds
to meet him, at the foot of the stairs, at the top of
the stairs, at the door of the room, or he meets
him in the middle of the room, or he only steps
down from the sofa, or stands up on the sofa, or
merely makes a motion to do so.*^It belongs to
the guest to salute first. As he pronounces the
words " Selam Aleikum" he bends down, as if to
touch or take up the dust, or the host's robe, with
his right hand, and then carries it to his lips and
forehead. The master of the house immediately
returns, " Aleikum Selam," with the same action,
so that they appear to bend down together. This
greeting, quickly despatched, without pause or

* If a stranger, unknown and unannounced, enters a room,
the measure of his first step, the point where he stops to make
his salutation, and the attitude he assumes preparatory to his
doing so, wholly imperceptible as they would be to a European,
convey, instantaneously, to the master of the house, the quality
of the guest, the reception he expects, and which no man exacts
without being entitled to.

382 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

interval, instead of pointing the way, and disputing
who is to go first, the master immediately precedes
his guest into the room, and then, turning round,
makes way for his passage to the corner, which, if
he refuses to take, he may for a moment insist
upon, and each may take the other's arm, as leading
him to that part. With the exception of this single
point, the whole ceremonial is performed with a
smoothness and regularity, as if executed by ma-
chinery. There is no struggle as to who is to
walk first ; there is no offering and thanking, no
moving about of seats or chairs ; no difficulty in
selecting places ; there are no helpings ; no em-
barrassment resulting from people not knowing, in
the absence of a code of etiquette, what they have
to do. There is no bowing and scraping at
leave-taking, keeping people a quarter of an hour
awkwardly on their legs ; every thing is smooth,
tranquil, and like clockwork, every body knowing
his place, and places and things being always the
same.

I feel considerable embarrassment in pursuing
these details. The most important and solemn
matters, when they belong to different customs,
appear trivial, or even ridiculous, in narration. I
must, therefore, crave the indulgence of the reader,
and am encouraged to proceed, chiefly, in the be-
lief that these details may enable future travellers
to commence their intercourse with the East on less
disadvantageous terms than I have done myself.

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 383

The guest being seated, it is now the turn of
the master of the house, and of the other guests, if
any, to salute the new comer, if a stranger from a
distance, by the words, " Hosk geldin, sefa geldbi ;"
and, if a neighbour, by the words, " Sabahtiniz
heirola" " akshcwi shifter heirola" &c. according to
the time of the day, repeating the same actions
already described. The guest returns each salute
separately. There is no question of introduction
or presentation. It would be an insult to the
master of the house not to salute his guest. The
master then orders the pipes, by a sign indicating
their quality ; and coffee, by the words " Cave
marla;n or, if for people of low degree, " Cave
getur ;" or, if the guest is considered the host, that
is, if he is of superior rank to the host, he orders,
or the master asks from him permission to do so.
The pipes have been cleared away on the entrance
of the guest of distinction ; the attendants now re-
appear with pipes, as many servants as guests, and,
after collecting in the lower part of the room, they
step up together, or nearly so, on the floor, in the
centre of the triclinium, and then radiate off to the
different guests, measuring their steps, so as to
arrive at once, or with a graduated interval. The
pipe, which is from five to seven feet in length, is
carried in the right hand, poised upon the middle
finger, with the bowl forward, and the mouthpiece
towards the servant's breast, or over his shoulder.
He measures, with his eye, a distance from the

384 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

mouth of the guest to a spot on the floor, cor-
responding with the length of the pipe he carries.
As he approaches, he halts, places the bowl of the
pipe upon this spot, then, whirling the stick grace-
fully round, while he makes a stride forward with
one foot, presents the amber and jewelled mouth-
piece within an inch or two of the guest's mouth.
He then drops on his knee, and, raising the bowl
of the pipe from the ground, places under it
a shining brass platter (tepsi), which he has drawn
from his breast.

Next comes coffee. If the word has been
" Cave smarla" the Cafiji presents himself at the
bottom of the room, on the edge of the raised
floor, supporting on the palms of both hands, at
the height of his breast, a small tray, containing
the little coffee-pots and cups, entirely concealed
with rich brocade. The attendants immediately
cluster round him, the brocade covering is raised
from the tray, and thrown over the Cafiji's head
and shoulders. When each attendant has got his
cup ready, they turn round at once and proceed in
the direction of the different guests, measuring
their steps as before. The small cups (flinjan) are
placed in silver holders (zarf), of the same form as
the cup, but spreading a little at the bottom : these
are of open silver work, or of filigree ; they are
sometimes gold and jewelled, and sometimes of fine
china. This the attendant holds between the point
of the finger and thumb, carrying it before him,

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 385

with the arm slightly bent. When he has approached
close to the guest, he halts for a second, and, stretch-
ing downwards his arm, brings the cup, with a sort
of easy swing, to the vicinity of the receiver's mouth ;
who, from the way in which the attendant holds it,
can take the tiny offering without risk of spilling
the contents, or of touching the attendant's hand.
Crank and rickety as these coffee-cups seem to be,
I have never, during nine years, seen a cup of coffee
spilt in a Turkish house ; and, with such soft and
eel-like movements do the attendants glide about,
that, though long pipes, and the winding snakes of
narguilles, cover the floor when coffee is presented
by the numerous attendants, you never see an ac-
cident of any kind, a pipe stepped on, or a narguille
swept over by their flowing robes, though the diffi-
culty of picking their steps is still further increased
by the habit of retiring backwards, and of present-
ing, in as far as it is possible, whether in servants
or in guests, the face to the person served or
addressed.

When coffee has been presented, the servants
retire to the bottom of the room, where they stand
with their hands crossed, each watching the cup he
has presented, and has to carry away.* But, not

* Nothing is more offensive to Easterns than a tray; — a

tray extinguishes the whole dignity of an establishment. Once,

while stopping on a journey at the house of a European, my

attendants (Turks) entered the room, in the ordinary manner,

VOL. I. C C

386 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

to interfere with the guest's fingers, he has now to
make use of another manoeuvre to get possession
of it. The guest holds out the cup by the silver
zarf, the attendant opening one hand places it
under, then brings the palm of the other upon the
top of the cup; the guest relinquishes his hold,
and the attendant retires backward with the cup
thus secured.

After finishing his cup of coffee, each guest
makes his acknowledgment to the master of the
house, by the salutation above described, called
temena, which is in like manner returned ; and the
master of the house, or he who is in his place, may
make the same acknowledgment to any guest
whom he is inclined particularly to honour. But,
in this most important portion of Turkish ceremo-
nial, the combinations are far too numerous to
be detailed.

When the guest retires, it is always after
asking leave to go. From a similar custom has
probably remained our expression " taking leave"
and the French " prendre conge" To this question
the master of the house replies, " Douvlet icbal-
ileh," or " saadet ileh," or " saghlige ileh," according

to present the pipes and coffee. A Greek servant of the house
brought the cups on a tray, and walked up with his tray to the
guests, who were Turks. In an instant my servants turned on
their heels, and quitted the apartment. Had I enforced attend-
ance it would have been in violation of their self-esteem, and
I should have been despised, and powerless.

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 387

to the rank of his guest, which expressions mean
" with the fortune of a prince," " with prosperity,"
" with health." He then gets up, and proceeds
before his guest to the point to which he thinks fit
to conduct him. He there stops short ; the retiring
guest comes up, says, " Allah ismailaduk," to which
the host replies, " Allah manet ola," going through
the same ceremonies as before ; but, on both sides,
the utmost expedition is used to prevent embarrass-
ment, and not to keep each other on their legs.*

But in this ceremonial there is nothing either
lengthy or abrupt. It is gone through sedately but
rapidly, and so unobtrusively, that you have to
pay considerable attention to observe what is going
on ; yet the effect of the whole is impressive ; and
no stranger but must be struck with the air of dig-
nity in repose, and calmness in action ; hence
the Eastern proverb — Guzelic CherMstan ; Mahl

* The Greeks make use of two modes of taking leave : one
derived from the Turks, the other from the Italians. The
phrase used in the former mode is, »« fiov ^ecrtrx ri» «S<«» —
" Will you give me leave." It is common among the Eastern
portion of the Greeks, and in the interior. The other is, »« o-«s
<rt,x.a>eo) to /3^a; — " To relieve you from the weight ;" — from
the Italian, " levo 1' incommodo." This is more used among
the vulgarised Greeks of the West, and probably is by this
time common to free Greece. This expression (levo 1' incom-
modo), indicating ideas of intercourse and hospitality so hostile
to those of the East, seems to me a traditionary record of that
great people, among whom the words " stranger" and " enemy"
were almost synonymous.

c c 2

388 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

Hindostan ; AMI Frangistan ; Sultanatlic All
Osman : — " For beauty, Circassia ; for wealth,
Hindostan ; for science, Europe : — but, for ma-
jesty, Ali Osman." (The Ottoman Empire.)

In a Turkish symposium, instead of being
under the necessity of talking for the amusement
of others, it is considered decorous to keep silence
before those who are to be treated with deference
and respect ; and, consequently, before a man of
superior rank, if the guests have any thing private
to communicate one to the other, it is done in a
whisper ; when you wish to communicate any
thing to a servant or an inferior, you call him close
to you, instead of giving the order aloud.

The services that are mutually rendered to
each other, by people who sit in the same room,
or eat at the same table, are such as in Europe
would, if people understood or required them, be
rendered only by menials ; they are rendered, how-
ever, without affectation, and without any idea of
degradation ; and, in the midst of this constant
demonstration of respect, and notwithstanding the
immense interval that seems placed between rank
and rank, and between the highest and the lowest,
there is no impress of servility in the air, forms of
speech, or the tones of the humblest attendant,
who is never spoken to with haughtiness. A
master, in addressing his servant, will say, " Effen-
dum," without thinking such an expression a con-
descension, and will use epithets of endearment,

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 389

which will be received in kindness, but without
presumption. For instance : " My lamb," " my
soul," " my child." — " Kuzum," " Dganum,"
" Ogloum."

While the household thus receives value and
importance from the establishment of social inter-
course between master and servants, the character
of menial and mercenary service is effaced ; and the
children, the relatives in their various degrees, the
dependants, are assimilated to the household. It is
not by the degradation of these to the rank of me-
nials, but by the elevation of servants above the cha-
racter of mercenaries, that sympathies are deve-
loped, affections strongly knit ; and here may be
understood the expression, " the service of love
knows no degradation." This domestic character I
cannot omit, in attempting to sketch the aspect of
society ; for, unless the reader understands how
class becomes linked with class — how respect can
coincide with dependence — and affection with a
menial station, it would be impossible for him to
comprehend the decorum reigning in an apartment
where one side is almost constantly occupied by
men of the humble, or even the very lowest ranks of
society. From these combinations and habits spring
that constant watchfulness — that "eye service,"*

* This Scriptural expression does not mean as we interpret
the phrase : " Doing before people's faces what you would not
do behind their backs." It conveys, in two happy words, the
peculiarly Eastern causes of man's besetting sin — pride.

390 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

— which gives to every Eastern establishment the
air of a court.

From a Turkish reunion, however, neither
vivacity nor merriment are banished ; but there
never enters familiarity, gesticulation, nor vocife-
ration. Familiarity is excluded by the all-powerful
control of early habit and education ; gesticulation
and vociferation are equally so excluded, but they
are also rendered superfluous by the power and
richness of their language.

I have been often struck with the facility which,
as compared with other Europeans, an Englishman
possesses of making his way amongst the Turks,
and am inclined to attribute it to the manner of
conversation, which perhaps flows from common
qualities in the English and Turkish languages ;
while a Frenchman, whose character of mind must
be, to the eye of an Eastern, closely allied to that
of the Englishman, seems at once marked as one
with whom no sympathies can exist. The nerve-
lessness of the French language has, I conceive,
given to those who speak it, a loudness of tone,
and extravagance of gesture, which are intolerable
to the sensitive nerves and the high breeding of an
Eastern gentleman.

I shall endeavour, by an example, to render
intelligible my meaning as to the effect of language
on manner. A Frenchman says, " J'aime." It is
replied to him, " You do not." The French lan-
guage not affording vocabular means of strength-

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 391

ening the assertion, he can only reiterate, " J'aime!"
but he does so in a louder tone — he calls to his
aid the muscles of his arms, as well as those of his
throat, from the deficiency of his language to con-
vey the depth of his convictions. So simple a
cause, acting through centuries, must increase
acuteness of tones, engender habits of gesticula-
tion, and swell the importance of expression at the
expense of judgment.

The Englishman says, " I love." The proposi-
tion is denied. He retorts with lowered tone, and
with perfect calmness, " I do love." His language
affording him the means of strengthening his asser-
tion without the assistance of intonation or of
action, it is by the suppression of display that he
can best reach the conviction of others.

This power is possessed by the Turkish lan-
guage in a still higher degree than by the English.
The Turk can say, " I do love," but he can say it
in a single word. He has also an equal facility of
negation as of assertion, and can combine both
ideas with every mood and tense of the verb ; add
to this the extraordinary euphony of his lan-
guage, and some idea may be formed of the share
belonging to modulation in the discipline of social
intercourse.

I have thus endeavoured to place before the
reader the society to which I am about to introduce
the Western stranger. I have described the

392 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

theatre, the machinery, and the expectations of
the audience ; now, for the hero.

The European arrives, probably on foot, at-
tended by an interpreter ; he has nothing about
him of the state and style which commands re-
spect ; he meets with none, he expects none ; his
approach is perfectly unheeded. He ascends the
staircase in his tight and meagre costume — the
costume of the despised class of the country. Some
of the attendants, in reply to his inquiries, point to
the door of the Selamlik. A shuffling is then
heard by those seated within ; the Frank is getting
off his boots and putting on his slippers, or drawing
slippers on above his boots ; when he gets up with
a reddened face, and escapes from the door-curtain,
which has fallen on his head and shoulders, he
comes tripping into the room in his inconvenient
chaussure, and is certain to stumble, if not before,
on the step at the bottom of the room.

Ushered in thus to the party, he looks with a
startled air all round, to find out which is the
master of the house ; he does not know what salu-
tation to make, he does not know where to make
it; he does not know whether he ought to be
saluted by the host first ; and his bewilderment is
completed by the motionless composure of every
thing around him. He then retreats abashed to
the lower part of the room, or, in modest igno-
rance, not wishing to put himself forward, retires

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 393

to the corner which has been left vacant by the
mutual deference of two grandees. He then
either perches himself, like an Egyptian statue, on
the very edge of the sofa, or throws himself lolling
backwards, with his legs spread out ; an attitude
scarcely less indecorous than elevating the legs on
the table would be in England. These are in-
cidents which may deprive a stranger of con-
sideration, though they do not render him dis-
agreeable or offensive; but, unfortunately, too
often our countrymen make a display of awkward-
ness and presumption, by no means calculated
either to smooth the way for themselves, or to
leave the door of friendship open to future travel-
lers. Nothing is more common than treading
upon bowls of pipes; knocking over the coal or
the ashes on an embroidered carpet, or upsetting
a narguille ; scattering the fire about, while it rolls
over pouring the water on the floor : and many a
stranger, who considers himself degraded by put-
ting on slippers, will walk in with an assuming and
stately air with his boots on ; which is revolting
alike to every feeling of cleanliness, and every
principle of decorum. *

No sooner is the Frank seated, than his health

* We have recently in India enacted some regulation to
make the natives wear their shoes in the courts of justice. The
possession of an immense country by a handful of foreigners
who, I will not say have not the habit of respecting, but who
have not the faculty of understanding Custom, is a phenomenon

394 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

is inquired after by the master of the house, and
by those present. Observing that the first is
speaking to him, he turns an inquiring look upon
his interpreter, to ascertain what the nature of the
communication may be, while at the same moment
the interpreter is endeavouring to call his atten-
tion to the salutations from the guests, all round
the room : this completely puzzles him ; he twists
and turns backwards and forwards, looking one of
the most ridiculous figures it is possible to con-
ceive. My own gravity has repeatedly sunk
under such a trial ; but I never saw a Turk betray
the slightest symptom of surprise or merriment,
which could be construed into a breach of polite-
ness, or become a source of embarrassment to the
stranger. This is no sooner over than the Frank
(for he cannot sit silent) begins putting questions,
which are rendered more or less faithfully, but,
generally, less than more so ; and, if he is very
talkative or inquisitive, the interpreter takes leave
to introduce matter or to omit, or gives a signifi-
cant wink to the master of the house.

But when there are several Europeans together,
then does the effect become truly lamentable. The
slips of awkwardness, and the chances of mistake,
though multiplied, are nothing compared, as their

only to be explained by the character for power which England
owed to her former European station. Yet, what might England
not be in Asia, and therefore in Europe, did she possess a slight,
insight into Eastern institutions and character ?

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 395

Eastern observers would conclude, to the rudeness
of their mutual intercourse, the harshness of tones,
loudness of voice, and shortness of manner, in
addressing each other, and the differences of
opinion that are constantly arising. The dis-
tracted Dragoman, overwhelmed by the multi-
plicity of questions directed by the European party
to him, can only shrug his shoulders, and say to
the Turks, " They are mad ; " while he calms the
restlessness of his employers, by saying, " They
won't answer you ; " or, " they are fools ; " or,
" they don't understand." The effect produced
on an Eastern, by such exhibitions, is humiliating
in the extreme; but it can only be estimated by
one who has sate looking on as a spectator, know-
ing the feelings of both parties. If this were a
position of necessity, we might submit to it with
patience, but what aggravates the case is, that any
traveller who chooses, for a couple of days, to
attend to customs, will find his position wholly
altered.

The Dragoman of Mahmoud Hamdi, Pasha of
Larissa, spoke both English and French. An
English man-of-war touched at Volo, and two
officers were sent with a message to the Pasha :
a lieutenant, I believe, and a midshipman. The
Pasha directed the interpreter not to know Eng-
lish : one of the officers fortunately knew a few
words of French, and their observations were con-
veyed by this circuitous route to the Pasha. This

396 PRESENTATION OF A EUROPEAN

difficulty of communication they made up for with
quaint observations, in their native tongue, on every
thing they heard and saw. They evinced the
greatest anxiety to see the Pasha's pipes arrive.
The Pasha, on understanding this, ordered two of
the richest and longest to be brought; their ad-
miration knew no bounds; the dimensions were
calculated, and the value estimated ; and the envy
of the gun-room and the cockpit anticipated, if the
precious objects could be carried off. This, of
course, was faithfully reported to the Pasha, with
other discourse, in that schoolboy style which un-
fortunately is not confined to inmates of the cock-
pit, but is become the general characteristic of
Englishmen in other lands.

The Pasha thus gave himself the gratification
which an English spinster might have had in
sending to a circulating library for a volume of
Travels in Turkey ; drew equally profound con-
clusions respecting the English character, and by
the same process of reasoning which has esta-
blished our opinions regarding his country, Mah-
moud Pasha, arrived at an equally just conclusion
respecting the piratical disposition of the English
navy. This story was told me by the Pasha
himself, who, of course, only had the Dragoman's
report; I, therefore, by no means undertake to
vouch for its accuracy.

I do not venture on the description of the
blunders of a dinner-scene : the touching of viands

IN EASTERN SOCIETY. 397

with the left hand; the desperate and often un-
availing efforts to obtain food; the repugnance
excited by the mode of eating ; the mess made on
the table, and clothes of the unfortunate patient
himself; the destruction of embroidered napkins
and brocade floor-cloths — might afford many lu-
dicrous positions for the lover of the burlesque,
and do afford solid reasons for the exclusion of
Europeans from Turkish society.

398 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

CHAPTER XXII.

RAMBLES IN OLYMTUS, AND ASCENT TO ITS SUMMIT.

I now began to feel the absolute necessity of
making myself acquainted with the Greek Ar-
matoles, scattered over the mountains to the north
of Thessaly ; and, daily, the summits of Mount
Olympus seemed to invite me to scale their
heights. I could not have obtained a Turkish
guard sufficiently strong, merely because I was
curious to see the Greek mountaineers ; and such
a proposal to the Pasha, suspicious as the au-
thorities naturally were of England, might have
placed, on their part, an insuperable barrier to my
project. However, to neglect no precaution that
might be useful, I communicated my intentions to
an intelligent young Greek, a native of Mount
Olympus. After attempting to dissuade me from
the enterprise, he drew up for me a plan of ope-
rations. I was first to reach Alassona, there to get
acquainted with some of the stray Armatoles, and,
according to the companions I might find, I was

RAMBLES TN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 399

either to direct my steps toward the mountains of the
west, or, turning to the east, ascend Mount Olympus
itself. Becoming warmed with his subject, his ap-
prehensions gradually melted away, and he began
to be ashamed of shrinking from visiting his native
country, into which a stranger ventured alone. He
therefore proposed himself as my guide and com-
panion; a proposition which I declined. I had be-
come very fond of travelling alone, which, though
often exposing one to inconvenience and annoy-
ance, greatly increases the chances of interest and
instruction. In the present instance, I determined
on starting, with my hammock strapped to the
back of my saddle, and with no impedimenta of any
kind, without a servant, and without even coin in
my pocket, to set forward on my faithful mule.
This animal I feel it a duty formally to introduce
to the reader's attention. He had acquired a cer-
tain degree of celebrity by extensive travel, and by
qualities that were first appreciated on the banks
of the Nile ; he had visited, subsequently, the
kingdom of Minos and the mountain of Ida ; he
had thence again crossed the seas, landed on the
Morea, supported Ibrahim Pasha under many
of his difficulties in Greece, and, transferred to my
service from that of the Egyptian satrap, he had
visited three fourths of the ruins of the Hellenic
race, with which he had become so familiar, that
he came to a dead stop at every hewn stone ; and,
finally, he had collected herbs in far greater

400 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

numbers, and on more extensive fields, than Galen
or Dioscorides. In consequence of these various
pursuits and qualifications, he became known under
different names. Some persons, devoted to archae-
ology, called him Pausanias ; botanists termed him
Linnaeus ; while I, dwelling more on his moral
dispositions, called him Aristotle, because, like that
olden worthy, he sometimes kicked his master.
With such romantic projects in my brain, and
mounted on a charger so distinguished, it was with
justifiable exultation of mind, and buoyancy of
spirits, that I issued, a few minutes before sunrise,
on the last day of July, from the gates of Larissa.
The plain lay before me, and Olympus soared on
high, his triple crest illumined by the morning
rays. Breaking away from the road or path, I put
Aristotle to his speed, and only reined him in when
I had put sufficient distance between me and La-
rissa to make me feel that I had escaped and was
alone, and till I reached a tumulus, where I
turned to look at Larissa, and its thirty minarets,
glittering in the sun. As I stood on the solitary
mound, admiring the unrivalled prospect, I per-
ceived a horseman, at full speed, making after me.
Friend or foe, thought I, he is but one, and it will
be safer, as well as more decorous, to meet face to
face, and with the vantage ground on which I
stood. The horseman came bounding along, but,
perceiving neither lance in rest, pistol in hand, nor
the picturesque dangling of the sabre from the

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 401

wrist, I quietly awaited his approach ; and it was
only when, within three yards, his horse was
thrown at once back on his haunches, that I re-
cognised, under a ponderous turban and a broad
and shaggy capote, the companion whose services
I had rejected the night before. " Ah, ha ! " said
he, " you wished to escape from me, but I knew
my at (steed) would beat your mule, and I thought
when you saw me in this costume you would not
be ashamed of my company." The poor fellow
had imagined that I had rejected him in conse-
quence of the Rayah costume which he wore. I
assured him that I never thought either of his
costume the night before, nor of escaping from him
that morning ; but I pointed out the peril we now
should both run in consequence of that costume ;
that I trusted for my safety to the absence of all
objects of attraction, as also of all means of de-
fence, and to the influence which I had become
accustomed to exercise, and in which I felt con-
fident. But, in that costume, and with those arms,
we should be shot before any questions could be
asked or answered. I was armed only with a
sturdy stick, which, in these countries, has the in-
calculable advantage of not being considered a
weapon.* I therefore told him that, if before I

* I owe the preservation of my life, on several occasions, to

the determination never to carry pistols. They are of no use

against robbers ; long shots must decide the day, if resistance

is made. In other circumstances, the difficulty of making

VOL. I. D D

4-02 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

declined his company, I now decidedly objected to
it ; but subsequently agreed, in consequence of his
importunity, that he should accompany me as far
as Alassona.

We reached the foot of Olympus, at the
fountain-head of the spring, four or five miles
from Tournovo, the pure and light water of which
is supposed to contribute so much to the beauty
of the dyes of this district. We sat down on a
green sward, under some ever-beautiful platani,
close to the overflowing stream.

The marble rock behind us, which overhangs
Tournovo, meets the gneiss and granite of Olym-
pus, near this spot ; to the north, below their
juncture, and in the very centre of a retiring angle
of the chain, is the village of Mati. The con-
tracted portion of the plain before us, in the di-
rection of Tempe, moistened by this source, is of
an emerald-green sward, with dark green reeds,
brushwood, and trees, and contrasting with the
bare rounded forms of the marble formation, and

up your mind in decisive moments ; the loss of position, by
drawing a weapon, of time in cocking a trigger, give incal-
culable advantages to a stick, as compared with a pistol or
a dagger, especially if you use the stick as a small sword.
The rapidity of movement, the effect of what they consider
insignificant, the reach of your lunge, while you preserve your
equilibrium, and the faculty of disabling an enemy without the
destruction of life, and without drawing blood, are consi-
derations of deep moment to one who plunges into eastern
adventure.

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 403

the dingy, broken, but less naked appearance of
schistose Olympus. This water, united with those
of the Fountain, near Tournovo, must be the
Titaresus of Homer, or ought to be ; for the
winter torrent, bearing that name, shews now but a
broad, white bed, while this crystal water fills its
verdant banks ; and light, even now, to a proverb,
glides along, in a full, clear stream, and, in meet-
ing, spreads itself over the muddy Peneus. After
an ascent of scarcely an hour, in a steep ravine,
down which poured the legions of Pompey, pre-
vious to the battle of Pharsalia, and after a descent
of half the distance, the beautiful little mountain
plain of Alassona, about ten miles in circumference,
opened upon me. Like all the level part of Thes-
saly, its appearance is that of a lake suddenly con-
gealed into soil, surrounded by an irregular coast,
rather than by a circle of hills. Through their
openings, to the west, appeared the chain, extend-
ing from the Pindus to Olympus. Opposite to the
point where we entered, shone the minarets of
Alassona, and some whitish cliffs, whence it drew
its Homeric epithet ; and, on a rock, over it, the
monastery. Poplars, mulberries, and vineyards,
were scattered around. Tcerichines (from Tcerna,
in Bulgarian, a mulberry-tree) is to the right, under
the group of Olympus, seated on a gentle rise, with
rocks immediately overhanging it. The spreading
roofs, appearing above each other, and mingled
with foliage, give the place no less an air of well-

D D 2

404 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

being, than an aspect of beauty. We passed
through vineyards, choked up with weeds ; and
through plantations of luxuriant mulberry-trees,
which I, with difficulty, was convinced had been
shorn of their branches only twenty days before.

On entering the town (Tcerichines), it appeared
to have escaped the devastation to which, of late, I
had been accustomed ; yet nowhere have I had
the miseries to which this country has been a prey
presented to me in so impressive a manner. My
companion had been brought up at the school
here, and he had not visited it for twelve years.
At every step he pointed out some contrast in its
present to its past state, with all the force which
simplicity gives to feeling. Now he recognised
the servant of an old friend, whose entire house-
hold had disappeared ; now, the parent, whose
children were no more ; now he stopped at the
spot where some happy mansion had stood ; anon,
at the site of some desolate dwelling, where he had
once been happy. He insisted on our going to his
former schoolmaster. We soon found the house,
but, strange to say, the door was gone. After
calling for some time, an old head, with a little
black beard, and spectacles on nose, presented it-
self at the window. We were directed through a
door at some distance, and found our way into the
abode of the Aoyiorarog by a hole in his garden
wall, a classic mode of " sporting oak." The
schoolmaster we found seated on a carpet, at one

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 405

end of an extensive space, that once had been
separated into several apartments. The partition-
walls had been knocked down ; the roof, on one
side, was supported only on stakes ; the floor was
partly broken up. During the last three years, it
had been a konak for Albanians ; but, since he had
discovered the expedient of walling up his door,
and entering by a concealed passage, he lived un-
molested in the midst of the ruins. He laughed
heartily as he related his story, knowingly tapping
his forehead with his finger, somewhat in the fa-
vourite attitude of Swift, which, it is said, first led
Gall to fix on the organ of wit.

I was afterwards taken to visit one of the
former wealthy inhabitants of the place, and, as the
AtouGXGcXog told me, a learned man, and a philo-
sopher. We entered a spacious court, surrounded
by buildings of considerable extent ; we walked
through several dilapidated passages and corridors ;
untied the strings that fastened some doors ; but
could find no living soul. At length, a sharp and
cracked voice answering us, we were conducted by
the sound to a little chamber, where, seated in a
corner, on an old pelisse, and writing on a stool,
we found the philosopher of whom we were in
search. He was quite disconcerted by the unex-
pected appearance of a European, but immediately
assumed an air of constrained ease. I was at once
pleased and grieved to observe the contrast this
character displayed, with the incessant and empty

406 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

lamentations and aspirations of the Greeks. He
never once alluded to public complaints, or to
private misfortunes ; and artfully manoeuvred to
get a neighbour to make and bring in coffee as if
served by his own people. He told me that it was
quite intentionally that he left his court and house
in the forlorn condition in which I saw it, that it
might not attract the Albanians. This was the
first time I had made acquaintance with a Greek
who did not parade his misfortunes, his poverty
(real or simulated) before me ; and, without being
asked, in the first five minutes, lb ihm zappta
xaXhoovvri, xuvsvu 'iXsog ; " Is there to be no kindness,
no mercy for us?" " It is many years," said he,
" since, in these parts, the children of the Hellenes
have had to blush to be looked on by a freeman's
eye. All that remains to us now is the cup of
philosophy, that is, the dregs ; the rest is gone.
Looking at me, my costume, my condition, and my
den, you might well imagine yourself on a visit to
Diogenes ; but there, I am sorry to say, all likeness
ends."

Tcerichines, though presenting such a scene
of devastation, is, perhaps, the least miserable place
in Olympus. Corn must be sown, and vineyards
laboured ; but the mulberry produces its leaves
spontaneously. A little silkworm seed can easily
be procured; and silk, being of easy transport,
easily concealed, and of ready sale, is almost equal
to ready money. The mulberry-trees are remark-

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 407

able by their broad, deep green, and glossy leaves.
They do not strip the branches of their leaves, but
cut off the yearly shoots. They say the leaves
are thus more abundant and succulent ; and the
boughs, being laid on the worms, these mount
on them ; are more easily cleaned, more healthy,
and thrive better. After the shoots have been cut,
others spring again, with surprising rapidity ; so
that, a month after the operation, the tree appears
as if it never had been injured. The shoots re-
main till the ensuing season.

From Tcerichines to Alassona, it is less than
half an hour, along the base of the hills. Decom-
posed feldspar, from the gneiss, light-coloured sand
and clay, give the white aspect to the cliffs, which
form the northern belt of the beautiful little plain ;
though now these cliffs seemed almost of a darker
hue than the withered grass ; but, before the cliffs
had been so much obliterated, and when their hue
contrasted with forests above and cultivation below,
they must have appeared quite white. The Mon-
astery of the Virgin probably occupies the site of
the Acropolis of Oloasson. For the side posts of
the door of the church, a slab of marble, containing
a long inscription, in small letters, has been used.
The inscription is illegible. A column, within, is
entirely covered with small, well-formed letters,
but it is so much abraded that I could not make
out four letters together ; another column has
borne a similar inscription, which has been care-
fully picked out. Looking on these marbles, I

408 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

thought of Johnson reading over the catalogue of
Plutarch's last works, and comparing himself to
the owner of a vessel reading the hill of lading of a
shipwrecked cargo. But here the ruin was not the
work of chance, but of the hands bound to defend
and preserve. In the pavement, there is a bas
relief of a lion fighting with a bull, in good style,
but much worn.

The Monastery of the Virgin Mary was one of
the richest and most important in Thessaly or
Greece. An act of Cantacuzene granted it most
extensive possessions, the original of which I could
not see. A portion of these possessions were con-
firmed to it by firman, with immunity from head-
money on sheep, from duty on vines. It is vakouf.
Its charter is dated Adrianople, 825 oftheHegyra,
the year of the capture of Constantinople, and it is
much broken, and pasted on green silk. The
monks told me it was granted to them by Orchan.
I thought this so extraordinary, that I made as
minute a copy as I could of the document, though,
at the time, I did not know a Turkish letter.
From this copy, I have ascertained the firman, as
above stated, to be from Mohammed II.

All these immunities have now been withdrawn,
and replaced by exactions and oppressions. Long
and sad is the story of grievances I have had to
listen to in this as in other monasteries.

They keep up their flocks, they told me, and
work their fields and vineyards, at a loss, on money
borrowed, chiefly, from Turks, who, daily expect-

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 409

ing the present disorders to cease, reckon on a sure
and ample harvest. I received a statement of their
losses in exactions, for the last ten years, which
was drawn up by the monks, assembled in com-
mittee, and given to me, with the earnest request
that I should send it to the Allied Powers.

Fifteen days before, the brother of Arslan Bey
had been shut up in the monastery by the regulars
of Mahmoud Pasha. They pointed out to me the
fields of strife; and exulted in the thrashing the
Nizzam had given the Albanians ; but they gave
due praise to either chief, for their exertions in
preserving order, and protecting and saving both
monastery and town. I had heard a good deal of
their library, but was prevented from seeing it, as
it was in a crypt, or concealed chamber, the en-
trance to which was through a room where an
Albanian had konak. A table, with chairs around
it, tablecloth, plates, knives, and forks, was spread
in the moonshine for supper, the old Abbot leading
me to it with no little exultation. I may here, once
for all, remark that European style, as imitated by
an Eastern, I have always found as disagreeable
and filthy as Eastern habits imitated by a Western.

There was to be a panigiri, or fair, held on the
morrow (St. Elias), at which the captains to the
west of Olympus are accustomed to assemble and
make merry ; but, finding it a day's journey dis-
tant, and being much more anxious to ascend
Olympus, I reluctantly declined the offer of one of
the monks to accompany me thither, at least till I

410 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

had ascertained the impracticability of ascending
Olympus. At Tcerichines I had heard of a Captain
Poulio, but no one could tell me more about him
than this : that the rising and the setting sun never
found him in the same place. However, a Palicar,
hearing of my inquiries, came in a mysterious
manner to hint, that, if I had any business with
Captain Poulio, he could bring us together.
Yielding to the shrugs and signs of my friend, the
schoolmaster, I declined the offer. Now, finding
I could obtain from no other quarter any intelli-
gence of any neighbouring captain, and piqued by
the mystery and difficulty, I determined to return,
and to seek for the Palicar. On leaving Alassona,
I however met him. He revealed to me the im-
portant secret of the village where Poulio was to
be found ; but it was forty miles off. Finding me
little disposed to such a journey, he consoled me
by adding, that he had been there yesterday, but
" who knows where he is now?" Giving up, there-
fore, every idea of riding the country after this
Olympic Manfred, I returned to Tcerichines to
consult with my philosophic friend and the learned
Didascalos.

The remainder of the day was spent in at-
tempts at dissuasion, and then in the discussion of
various projects ; and we finally determined on
leaving the arrangements to the representative of
Diogenes, who volunteered to be ready the next
morning to accompany me to the top of Olympus,
or to the world's end. Accordingly, next morning,

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 411

at dawn, when I presented myself at the gate of
the deserted mansion, the little man stood before
me as complete a metamorphosis as human being
ever underwent, equipped for the journey in a cos-
tume worthy the pencil that sketched the " Mar-
riage-a-la-mode." The tidy kalpak, yellow slipper,
Jubbee, and Dragomanic air, were converted into
something between the Tartar and the scarecrow.
To begin by the foundation. On the step of his
door stood a pair of shapeless Turkish boots, into
which disappeared a pair of spindlelike and diverging
calfs, bound tight round by Tartar breeches, which,
as they rose beyond the knee, uniting, swelled into
the shape and form of a balloon ; several jackets,
with sleeves either hanging over the hand, or
shortened to the fore-arm, enlarged proportionally
the superior parts of the figure ; an old furred
pelisse was heaped on one shoulder ; the kalpak,
in a napkin, hung on the other side, and a tarbouch
(wadded night-cap), which once had been red,
was drawn over, and circumscribed the dimensions
of a little face, the diminutive lineaments of which
were disputed between drollery and benevolence.
His morning and glossy countenance beamed with
satisfaction as he surveyed his preparations, and was
convulsed with laughter when he contemplated his
own figure. He had picked up a singular appendage
in the shape of a little urchin, which seemed the per-
sonification of the proverb of an old head upon young
shoulders:— a face of thirty, to a body of seemingly

412 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

not nine years of age. All bones and eyes, he ap-
peared, as his patron remarked, to have eaten wood,*
instead of pilaf. For this reason, the philosopher
had preferred this Flibertigibet to numerous candi-
dates for the honour, rather than the profit, of being
his major domo, such habits suiting equally his
purse, and a somewhat hasty disposition. The boy
was summoned to receive his master's final instruc-
tions. He assumed the pose of a Palicar ; resting on
one leg, placing one hand on his hip, and laying the
other on the enormous key that was stuck, pistol-
wise in his belt. His head was thrown back, while his
master's was advanced forward, and bent over him ;
of course, both arms stuck out behind ; while he
rocked with the vehemence with which he uttered
threats of &Xo ko'KKv %vko : ■' birch and much birch,"
if, during the stewardship of Spiro, any thing- went
wrong, — both of them equally unheeding the fits
of laughter that seized the spectators. My new
companion's Rozinante, not the least strange portion
of his equipment, was now brought out ; a colo-
kythia, or dried gourd, with water, slung on one
side, the kalpak on the other. I ventured an
objection to this appendage, useless in the moun-
tains ; but he said, " I know you Englishmen. We
are now on our way to Olympus ; but, an hour
hence, may we not be on the road to Salonica
or Larissa ?"

* %v\6v i<petyi. He has been beaten: literally — " he has
eaten wood."

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 413

Thus equipped, and these arrangements com-
pleted, we set forward. The old man, boisterously
happy at visiting Olympus again, and with the
enthusiasm of a schoolboy, and the fervor of a hero
of July (this was in July 1830), quoting Homer,
and singing revolutionary Greek songs. Notwith-
standing his grotesque appearance, he was every
where treated with the utmost respect ; and the
abuse he was in the constant habit of pouring on
the Greeks ; and the epithets, " soulless," " spirit-
less," thick-headed," " bastards of their forefathers,
and unworthy of their country and name," in which
he delighted to indulge, were received in silence.
At the time, I was astonished at this ; but I have
since discovered that you stand all the better with
a people for abusing them, if not from malevolence.
One slight deviation from custom or etiquette will
injure a stranger more than the expression of any
opinions, however outrageous ; or the breach of
any duty, however sacred.

Before leaving Tcerichines, I must not omit to
mention two curious incidents which there occurred
to me. The one was a visit from a deputation sent
from two or three of the provinces, excluded by
the Protocol from the Greek state — Carpenizi and
Agrafa, I believe — to make their submission to the
Grand Vizier. These districts acquiesced in and
even anticipated that decision, and I was at the
time shocked with their apparent want of nation-
ality. I asked the deputies if they did not intend

414 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

to take advantage of this conjuncture for securing
their rights and privileges. That, they answered,
was their object ; but, as to the mode, they were
not agreed amongst themselves; they had, therefore,
sent two Primates and two Captains, who should
act according to circumstances, after they saw the
state of affairs at Monaster, and when they knew,
on the one hand, the disposition of the Grand
Vizier ; and on the other, the opinions of the other
Greeks in the higher part of Roumeli. Thus the
Captains were of one opinion, and the Primates of
another ; and the community had recourse to the
expedient of having the two opinions represented
in the same deputation. Yet, how much more
sensible it is to send the representatives of the
opposite opinions together, than to send, as great
nations do, first a representative of the one, and
then a representative of the other. I could not
help thinking of the old story, though perhaps not
out of date, of the English courier carrying orders
in one bag, and counter-orders in the other. The
Janus-faced deputation applied to me for a specific
by which their two faces should be turned one
way, and the two mouth-pieces converted into one ;
and, like many other practitioners, I ventured on,
and boldly announced, a recipe in which I had no
faith at the time myself; and, strange to say, the
desired effect was produced. " Fix," I said, " your
contributions at one sum ; secure the privilege of
sending one of the Primates with it to Constau-

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 415

tinople. The Captains will then retain the autho-
rity they have had without meddling with the
Paras." The Grand Vizier subsequently entered
into this view ; and admitted, when I saw him
eighteen months afterwards, at Scodra, that such a
system, if generally adopted, would entirely change
the face of Turkey.

The other incident was an inquiry from the
Didaskalos, and from my travelling companion
(whom I will term Diogenes, to keep Aristotle
company), about Colonel Leake ; how he was con-
sidered in England? what I thought of him my-
self? I told them that Colonel Leake was not
only well known, but looked up to as the chief, if
not the only, authority respecting their country;
and that the only work in English, on the Greek
Revolution, which would survive the present time,
was a small essay of his. I had given way to an
emotion of pride in hearing the name of a country-
man mentioned, and such minute inquiries after
him made in this sequestered hamlet ; but I soon
discovered that my new friends and I differed in
some respect in our opinion. So I inquired how,
when, and where they had known Colonel Leake ?
when the following facts came out: — In some
year which I have forgotten, Colonel Leake ar-
rived at Tcerichines with a Buyourdi and a Cavash
from Ali Pasha. My friend, Diogenes, was then
Codga Bashi, or Primate ; and, as he came to this

416 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

portion of his narration, he paused, stretched up
his turtlelike neck, shook his head, looked me full
in the face, and exclaimed, " Who was Ali Pasha
to me ? What was Ali Pasha's Buyourdi to me 1
What authority had a Tartar Cavash within the
holy precincts of Olympus ?" Then resuming, he
exposed how he had been delighted warmly to
welcome, and kindly to receive, an Englishman
and a scholar. But that Cplonel Leake, attributing
all their kindness and attention to the orders of the
Pasha, had contented himself with putting some
questions to them, but had never asked after the
health of one of them.* Diogenes, highly incensed
at not having his health inquired after, had spurred
off into the vale of Tempe ; whether Colonel
Leake was proceeding (probably upon the same
Rozinante upon which he now accompanied me, as
the event occurred not more than fifteen years be-

* But for this incident I might not have comprehended the
value of the instructions given by the Czar of Russia to the
first ambassador sent to Soliman the Great, " not to inquire
after the health of the Sultan, till the Sultan had inquired after
the health of the Czar." All Eastern diplomacy and history is
full of incidents bearing upon this point. I need only refer to
the recent and interesting details of Burnes's Travels. Every
thing is ridiculous that men are not accustomed to ; rendering
naked a portion of our body, appears to the Easterns a very
ridiculous mode of salutation ; and yet, taking off the hat on
entering a room, in Europe, is almost as essential as inquiries
and salutations in the East.

RAMBLES IX MOUNT OLYMPUS. 417

fore), and suspended in the vale of the Muses the
following indignant apostrophe, addressed by in-
sulted Hellas to the " hyperborean" intruder.

E<? to» ■xi£tnyrlTtii I#«»»>]s A»i*, tTiy^xfi Us rec Tiuirt} x-xo t«»«?
TgxiKovs t«j T<rxgiT?xtn$, ov<rxgisrn6/ix.MTx$ uiro t«» vxiP<pxiiixi tow.

H *EAA«j BtmO&yM

YLxi Treit (All Avx%xp<rns iTr^XSii <go» s/j oi>dx$

~'Ef>%orrxi text tin x>ogi$ wrigfitguoi
'AAA' o ftii ierogay ratoi x^xtiovrt wisdom*.

Z«o»* A4X Xoidgns xrt.o, (pup ifii, <ra» t« 3 sxej.

I insert this effusion as a singular instance of
that sensitiveness, which a man may travel for
years in the East without becoming even conscious
of, and therefore remain in equal ignorance of the
causes of what he sees, of the things he sees, of
the effect he produces, and of the effects he might
produce. This incident I have felt to be an in-
valuable lesson, if it were only from their mis-
judgment of a man so remarkable for a character
the very reverse of their estimate. f

From Tcherichines to the monastery of Spermos,
where we were to pass the night, is only a distance
of five hours, by the straight road, but we chose a

* This is meant for John : the generic designation of all
Englishmen in all foreign lands.

f I once inquired from a gentleman who has, more tho-
roughly than any other European, made himself master of
Eastern manners and customs, how it was that Burkhardt,
VOL. I. E E

418 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

circuitous path to pay a visit to one of the Cap-
tains, whom we had not the privilege of seeing,
though we found his place warm. This entailed
on us fourteen hours of a fatiguing journey.
On leaving Tcherichines, we immediately com-
menced the ascent of the mountain. On reaching
the summit of the chain of hills that encircles Alas-
sona, we turned round to look on the spreading
roots of Olympus ; which, seen from below, are
rugged and broken mountains, but which appeared,
from the spot where we stood, like a sanely plain
cut out by deep watercourses, the abrupt sides
darkened by immemorial forests of pine and oak.
The effect was that of a calcareous slab covered
with dendrites.

The central mountain, or rather group, of
Olympus, stands alone wholly disconnected from
the masses, which appear, when looked at from the
plain, to be continuous and connected elevations.
When you have climbed and passed over the
broken strata, which ascend fully two-thirds the
height of the mountain, you come suddenly upon
a deep ravine or valley, into which you have to
descend, and beyond which the central group,
distinct and alone, rises like a fortress from its
moat.

with all his knowledge of facts, had appreciated so little the
mind of the people. The reply was, " Because he constantly
put himself in a false and uncomfortable position — he had an
unfortunate practice — he used to whittle .'"

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 419

The sun was setting behind us as we readied
the point where the mountain broke upon us in
its solitude and grandeur. The snow, sprinkled
over the summit, was tinged of a red hue by the
effect of the setting sun, which, at this season of
the year, gave the declining rays the appearance of
a shower of brick-dust and of gold.* The lower
portion of the group was covered with dark forests,
and amongst them, just where the mountain rises
from the plain or valley, appeared the white walls
of the monastery of Spermos — a not unwelcome
sight.

Having got sight of our destination . for the
night, I pushed on alone, according to my prac-
tice ; and, thinking myself safer a-head than in
company with some wild acquaintance which the
philosopher had picked up, I succeeded in reach-
ing it about a couple of hours after sunset. I
knocked, but it was long before I could get any
notice taken of me. At length the monks came
out to reconnoitre on a little balcony, constructed
for that purpose, when I was subjected to a most
minute interrogatory ; and it was by appealing to
their charity and humanity, not only as a way-
worn traveller, but as one who had just escaped
the most imminent dangers, that, seeing I was

* I once observed the same effect in Italy, over the plain of
Thrasimene, and looking from the natal city of Fra Bartalomeo,
who, in more than one painting, has attempted the same
effect.

E E 2

420 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

quite alone, I succeeded in obtaining admission.
The heavy bar was removed, and the rusty hinges
set a-creaking ; and, no sooner had they barred
the door again, than, putting in practice the lesson
I had so lately learned, I politely inquired after all
their healths.

I was no sooner seated by a blazing fire, than
inquiries were made, as they took me for some
government officer, after servants, baggage, guards,
and such like things. I replied, that two hours
before, while journeying in company with their
much-esteemed compatriot of Tcherichines, we had
been overtaken by some savage Klephts ; but that,
being better mounted, I had made my escape ;
that they had now got with them my travelling
companion ; and I had little doubt they would
make use of him to gain admission to the monas-
tery. Now this was exactly the case, only that
the bandits had offered themselves for guards.
This intelligence produced a great fermentation
amongst the monks. Four old muskets were
brought from a cellar, new primed, and placed
close to the opening of the balcony. We were,
consequently, all upon the alert when the troop
came up. Seeing lights at the opening of the
building, and half-a-dozen heads peeping out, Dio-
genes rode up to the door, expecting to find all
the inmates awaiting his arrival, to greet and
welcome him. Finding the door closed, he came
under the balcony, where we were all watching.

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 421

" Eh !" exclaimed he, " Christiani, Caloyeri, Gou-
meni ! are you afraid of robbers ?" • Kalos
orisate — kalos orisate !" replied the Goumenos,
w you are welcome ! you are welcome ! But who
are those men standing in the shade?" "Oh!"
said Diogenes, " they are only two or three
Palicari that came with us from Micuni." " If
that is the case/' said the Abbot, u they must
have friends in the neighbourhood, and you had
better sup with them." Diogenes, now completely
perplexed, began to forget himself, and think of
me, so he inquired hastily if they had not seen
and taken in an Englishman. " Panagia," said I,
" the poor man has gone mad." " An English-
man ! " vociferated the monks ; " who ever heard
of such a thing?" The little man now danced
with rage. " Open the door, you cowled asses !
black-faced, ill-fated ! An Englishman has been
lost or murdered ; and you will have, all of you,
your skins flayed off; you will have a dozen of
Cavashes upon you, and a three-decker from the
King of England ! " The monks now began to
doubt whether Diogenes had lost his wits ; or
whether there might be some truth in what he
said : but, having the advantage of position, and
much greater practice in speech than in humility,
they ended by getting incensed at his redundancy,
and broke into a most vociferous rage ; to which
responded, loud and sharp, from below, the quick

422 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

iambics of Diogenes, supported by the graver
metres of the no less animated Palicars. When I
could muster sufficient gravity, I took the Gou-
menos aside, told him the real state of the case,
with the exception of my being the Englishman
lost or murdered, — that I had a little revenge to
take upon Diogenes, — that I was quite satisfied, —
and they had now better let him in. The alarms
of the monks had, in reality, been excited ; so that
they thankfully received this intelligence, and ran
to admit and pacify the philosopher. Seating
myself composedly at the fire, I presently heard
his shrill tones in the court, as he ascended the
creaking staircase, becoming clearer and louder,
but never ceasing. He continued vociferating, as
he entered the room, " An Englishman is lost —
an Englishman is murdered ! " until he reached
the middle of the floor, when, his eyes falling upon
me, he came to a dead pause, and a stand still :
his under-jaw and his arms dropped. I civilly in-
quired after his health, and bade him welcome to
Olympus.

Now burst forth the astonishment of the
monks. " An Englishman, a Frank ! " and they
flocked round me with staring eyes. Not one of
them had ever seen a European * before, and they

* It is superfluous to observe, that they were themselves all
Europeans. The word is, however, used generally, throughout
the East, rather in a social than a geographical sense.

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 123

seemed to look at me as if I had been a specimen
of the three-decker of the King of England, with
which they had been so lately threatened.

The distance from here to the summit is about
twenty miles. Notwithstanding the almost unin-
terrupted exertion of the two former days, I re-
solved on scaling its heights in the splendid
moonlight, to reach its summit by the dawn,
stay there the whole day, and return during the
next night ; my object being to see both effects of
sunrise and sunset, without passing the night on
the top. The proposition, of course, created an out-
cry, but I was so accustomed to being told that
this or that was impossible or impracticable, that
I had become expert in the various methods of
shutting objectors' mouths. Diogenes was exces-
sively alarmed, and, I think, not a little provoked,
for he had made up his mind, if not to ascend, at
least to attempt to ascend the mountain, and his
old bones seemed not likely to recover, for a week
to come, from this day's exertion. Supper was
hastily ordered ; a couple of shepherds were sent
for ; a long staff, with an iron point, was given me ;
•a small leathern bottle, slung over my shoulder,
was filled with rakki, and my telescope hung
to balance it. Thus equipped, I sat down to
snatch a hurried meal. Fresh curds, roast lamb,
ravanee, were successively pressed upon me, with
a sedulousness which, being unusual in these lands,
I could not, for fear of appearing to be offended

424 RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS.

with it,* altogether resist. I was pledged by
Diogenes, by the Abbot, and by others of the
cowled community; and, when the little round
table was expeditiously removed, I could not re-
fuse the necessary finale, coffee and a pipe. The
wine, however, seemed, unaccountably, to have
gone to my head, which nodded, as I thought,
for a single moment ; my pipe had gone out, and
I started up to ask for a light, and found myself
stretched on the sofa alone, and the gray morning
shining in at the window ! I should be ashamed
to tell the rage I was in, and it was infinitely in-
creased by the hilarity which the expression of it
produced ; and it was only afterwards, on the very
summit of Olympus, that, on recalling the arch
look with which Diogenes came in, in the morning,
to return my inquiries of the night before, that I
called to mind that, while all the other guests
drank a la ronde from a silver bowl, a distinct
tumbler had each time been presented to me.
The fact is, they thought the only way to save me
from getting my neck broken amongst the rocks,
while, at the same time, both parties squared
accounts with me, was to put just "mia dactylitra"«

* A Turk of the highest rank will go into the kitchen to see
a dish prepared for a guest, but he will never say he has done
so, and never press you when it is on the table ; but, if pressing
were the fashion, it would be a social result for the host to press
if his guest were of higher rank: it would not then be considered
an act of kindness, but unheard-of presumption.

RAMBLES IN MOUNT OLYMPUS. 425

(a thimble-full) of poppy juice in the bottom of my
glass, trusting for the rest to fafigue, a good supper,
and a blazing fire, a very necessary part of the
household furniture, even in the month of July, at
the Monastery of Spermos.

My companion now finally gave up all idea of
prosecuting the adventure further ; so, leaving him
in the hands of the hospitable monks, where he
promised me to keep himself warm, and every
body else merry, till I returned, I started, on foot,
with my guides, soon after the sun was up. The
flocks of the monastery were on our way, at the
distance of ten miles ; there we were to breakfast,
and there were we to pass the night, after ascend-
ing to the summit. They calculated seven hours
from the monastery to the summit. The sheep-
fold was half way ; so that, independent of the
asoent, we had thirty miles before us. It was a
long time since I had undertaken such a pedestrian
expedition, but I have always found that there is
no way to succeed, like putting oneself under the
necessity of action.

As we descended, the mist, which either covered
us or hung over the mountain, entirely shut out
the view until we reached the limits of the forest,
where we expected to find the flocks, shepherds,
and our breakfast. Here we emerged from the
mist, and seemed to be in the first story of the
heavens. Clouds covered the lower portion of the
mountain ; detached clouds were scattered to the

426 ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF

eastward, below the level at which we stood, and,
through them, from the seat of Jove, we looked
down on the

" Mare velivolum, terrasque jacentes."

We were on the bold face of the mountain,
looking towards the sea ; and I might have doubted
the reality of its hazy waters, but for the white
specks dotted along the frequented course between
Salonica and the southern headland of Thessaly.
Beyond, and far away to the east, might be guessed
or distinguished the peak of Mount Athos, and the
distincter lines, between, of the peninsulas Palene
and Sithonia. This glimpse of Mount Athos, at a
distance of ninety miles, made me resolve on visit-
ing its shrine and ascending its peak. I was struck
to find, far above the monastery, plum-trees, loaded
with fruit, which looked like wax ; they were of
all colours ; yellow, pink, and red, predominating.
Every where there was abundance of boxwood, of
colossal dimensions, which extended higher up than
even the pines. But the magnificent prospect
which displayed itself to my eyes on emerging from
the cloud, shewed nowhere, in our vicinity, the
shepherd encampment. We found the place where
they had been the night before, by the smoke
which ascended from the yet burning fire. My
guides now insisted on returning, and it was with
great difficulty that I succeeded in getting them to
go on ; and one of them, pretending to go in

MOUNT OLYMPUS. 427

another direction to look for the encampment, re-
turned no more. In half an hour we perceived
the flocks, but it was only after two hours of toil-
some march that we reached the fold.

The shepherds had been watching us as we
approached, and, having distinguished my un-
wonted costume, where dark clothes had probably
never appeared within the range of their memory,
they fancied I was a government officer in pursuit
of some fugitive, they consequently took to their
heels, in every direction, driving their sheep before
them, but, having got within hail of one of them,
we soon came to an understanding, and, by the
time I reached the fold, which was a permanent
structure of stones, like a tambour, circular, and
about the height of a man, to keep off the blast,
we saw them returning, followed by their sheep
and dogs. The dogs of the first we met exhibited
a marked spirit of hostility, and most ferocious-
looking animals they were. The menace of a stick
and a few stones had sufficed to impose some
degree of respect upon them ; but the barking
soon collected, from far and near, the whole canine
portion of the establishment. Finding their num-
bers strengthened, they now meditated a regular
declaration of war. I was unconscious of my
danger, but the shepherds hurried me into the
fold, made me lie down, and threw their capotes
over me, and then hastened to defend the wall.
One or two desultory charges were repulsed, when

4-28 ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF

the dogs, with combined forces, amounting to
about twenty, made one furious assault, and two
or three of them cleared the wall, when, had I not
been covered up with the cloaks, and on the
ground, I should have suffered ; but other shep-
herds coming up, they were beaten off, with great
damage, three or four limping away in a bad
plight, and repeating their complaints to the echoes
of Olympus. After the siege was raised, and treaty
entered into, the dogs got their dinner, and we our
breakfast. We received each of us a loaf of black
bread, weighing an oke ; the dogs getting each, in
addition to their commons, a lump of snow, and
we a drink of milk. I now bethought me of the
bottle of rakki, and, pouring a little into a drinking
cup, the milk from a goat was milked foaming
into it, and I can strongly recommend the same
beverage to all my readers who ascend Mount
Olympus.

We had still two hours' work to the peak,
which now overhung us, to the north, and we set
forward much revived. The grass and shrubs now
entirely disappeared, and we had to toil over
broken fragments of schist and marble, which, mi-
nutely fractured by the frost, might have made a
very good macadamised road, had it been fre-
quented by carriages and heavy wagons, for it
much resembled a road upon which the fresh-
broken stones are laid down. On one peak we
perceived the remains of pottery, and, on the

MOUNT OLYMPUS. 429

summit, a portion of a slab, which once had borne
an inscription. This they called St. Stephano ;
but, on arriving here completely exhausted, it was
with dismay that I perceived, separated from me
by an enormous chasm, another peak, which was
evidently higher than that on which I stood. The
difference, indeed, could not be much, for it cut off
but a small fraction from the mighty cloudless
horizon that reigned all around.

Determined, however, to stand on the highest
point, I made up my mind to make friends with
the dogs, and sleep with the shepherds that night,
to ascend the other peak, or that of St. Elias,
next day. I spent no more than an hour at this
giddy height, where the craving of my eyes would
not have been satisfied under a week. I seemed
to stand perpendicularly over the sea, at the height
of 10,000 feet. Salonica was quite distinguishable,
lying north-east ; Larissa appeared under my very
feet. The whole horizon, from north to south-
west was occupied by mountains, hanging on, as it
were, to Olympus. This is the range that runs
westward along the north of Thessaly, ending in
the Pindus. The line of bearing of these heaved-
up strata seems to correspond with that of the
Pindus, that is, to run north and south, and they
presented their escarpment to Olympus. Ossa,
which lay like a hillock beneath, stretched away at
right angles to the south; and, in the interval,
spread far, far in the red distance, the level lands

430 ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF

of Thessaly, under that peculiar dusty mist which
makes nature look like a gigantic imitation of an
unnatural effect produced on the scene of a
theatre.

When I first reached the summit, and looked
over the warm plains of Thessaly, this haze was of
a pale yellow hue. It deepened gradually, and
became red, then brown, while similar tints, far
more vivid, were reproduced higher in the sky.
But, when I turned round to the east, up which
the vast shadows of night were travelling, the cold
ocean looked like a plain of lead ; the shadow of
the mighty mass of Olympus was projected twenty
miles along its surface ; and I stood on the very
edge, and on my tiptoes. On such a spot what im-
pressions crowd upon the mind, bewilder the senses,
and absorb the soul ! Here, where the early Greek
was borne above the earth, and raised nearest to
the skies, has the torch of imagination been grasped
by the Hellenic race ; here was the idea of eternity
conceived, and genius called to life by the thought
and hope of immortality.

The cold was intolerable, and I commenced to
turn my face and my steps toward the nether
world, and soon discovered the difference between
ascending and descending, and thought that the
winged feet of the Olympus courier was a metaphor
so appropriate that it must have originated in the
very tract which I was passing over, and in similar
feats to those which I was performing. On re-

MOUNT OLYMPUS. 431

gaining the sheep-fold a new dilemma arose. I
was unprovided with clothing : none of the shep-
herds could spare me any thing ; they had only
ascended to that height for two days. It is a
a traditional point of honour amongst them to
reach, once a-year, this elevation ; and there were
neither trees, nor shrubs, nor grass with which
they could make a fire. There was nothing for it
but to proceed downwards to the monastery.

The shepherds played to me an instrument,
which seemed peculiarly adapted to such a situa-
tion. It was a rude pipe, made from the bone of
an eagle's wing. It is called Floera : the tones
are sweet and melodious. While I was in the
shepherd's encampment, I saw a shaving performed
in a very extraordinary manner. The thigh-
bone of a sheep was broken, and the marrow of it
smeared on the patient's head, cheeks, and chin.
The shepherds generally carry a sheep's thigh-
bone, to be ready for the operation, stuck in their
garter, just as a Highlander wears his little knife
for hamstringing deer.

There was scarcely an interval of darkness be-
tween the setting of the sun and the rising of the
moon, so brilliant were the stars ; and when the
orb of Diana arose, the rays she shot might even
have made her brother's face turn pale with envy.
A couple of shepherds besides my own guide ac-
companied me some way, so as to put us in the
true direction ; and having reached the track

432 ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF

which their flocks had recently made in ascending,
they left us to our fate. I had known what it is
to be hungry, thirsty, with one's limbs broken with
fatigue, and the nerves wholly overcome with long
privation of sleep ; I have known what it is to cast
myself, in recklessness of life, upon the cold earth,
or in the snow, or on the beach, after dragging
myself from the waves ; but the suffering of this
night surpassed every misery with which I had
become acquainted. During the next day I reached,
however, the monastery alone, having accomplished
forty miles of ascent and descent ; my guide, before
we were half-way down, having thrown himself on
the ground, where I was forced, from cold, to
leave him.

The structure of Olympus is very singular.
The central group is marble, sometimes in thin
"layers, varying from very fine to very coarse-
grained white, sometimes gray, with a little lime-
stone dispersed through it. Looking towards the
mountain, the sides seem all rounded ; but, looking
from the centre, the escarpments present them-
selves as cliffs. Towards the base of the principal
rock, a little gneiss appears overlying the marble.
The water from the mountain winds round it in a
vale somewhat irregular, formed by the back of
the marble and the face of a mingled formation of
stratified granite, gneiss, and mica shist : a more
extensive vale, and higher abutments succeed to
this. Through this stratum the water escapes to

MOUNT OLYMPUS. 433

the south-west, by a valley of denudation, and, to
the east, finds its way along the face of the gneiss to
the sea. At Sciathos, I remarked a section of a
rock-marble below, and mica shist above, conform-
ably overlying, but supposed it displaced. At
Naxia, the marble and gneiss regularly alternate
in layers, which seem identical with the stratifica-
tion of Olympus. Towards Tempe, also, mica
shist abounds, of a burnt amber colour, which,
together with the rugged and broken aspect of the
hills, gives that region a volcanic look ; and has,
perhaps, led to the supposition that the passage of
the Peneus was opened by an earthquake. Tempe
is a valley of denudation.

There have been considerable doubts as to the
source whence both verde-antico and giallo-antico
have been derived. The latter, which is merely
white marble, with yellow maculae, I saw in abund-
ance in the vicinity of Olympus. The former,
which is serpentine, I observed in situ in the fol-
lowing places : in the schistose mountains, above
Poros ; at Naxos, where it presents a number of
very singular varieties, and passes into white
earth ; on the summits of the Pindus ; I have
seen fragments of it also on Mount Olympus; I
have seen it again in situ in the mountains of
Chalcidice; and again in fragments in the island
of Sciathos. In speaking of the quarries of
Sciathos, Strabo tells us that thence were derived
the variegated marbles — the -irowlovg povoWovg —

VOL. I. f F

434 ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF

which caused the white marbles of Italy to go
out of fashion at Rome.* The coincidence
of this testimony with the presence of the sub-
stances in question, can leave, I think, no doubt,
that the verde-antico and the giallo-antico were
drawn from Thessaly and from the extensive quar-
ries of Sciathos. And if this required confirmation,
which I don't think it does, I might cite the
numerous works of antiquity in verde antique, still
remaining in the vicinity, and to be seen at
Larissa, Thessalonica, and Mount Athos.

The stratification of the mountains that sur-
round Thessaly on three sides — the west, the
north, and east — is identical; so, also, is the line
of dip and bearing : Pindus runs north and south ;
so does Pelion and Ossa ; and the chain is found
again prolonged to the south in the island of
Eubcea and Skiathos. To the north, the moun-
tains of Pieria, which connect Pindus and Olympus,
appear, as I have said, when seen from the summit
of the latter mountain, to have been thrown up in
a line, which runs at right angles with their line
of bearing ; so that the valleys run across the
chain, and do not give the idea of a strong bound-
ary line : and the history of Thessaly, for nearly
two thousand years, seems to corroborate the fan-

Kxpurricig, x.r.X., y,ovo\i&ov<; yu^ xei'vcc^ xeci kXccxxs y-tyaXxg otrov le-ui
xtt) ih'u 7r'i7roU% n rk XovxoXiQx ov 7roAAov *%ix.

MOUNT OLYMPUS. 435

pression respecting its geological structure, which
a glance at the country from the top of Olympus
made upon me.

The range of mountains, which forms the south
side of Thessaly,* is of a very different character.
It is limestone, towering almost like a perpendi-
cular, and stretching like a continuous wall ; —
thence the fame of Thermopylae, and the glory of
Leonidas.

I have been in the habit of designating as
Peloponnesian that peculiar limestone which pre-
vails in the Grecian Peninsula, from Thermopylae
southward. And, on historic grounds alone, that
name ought to belong to this rock. It is a detest-
able rock for the geologist, the botanist, the agri-
culturist, and the painter, because it has no variety,
no organic remains, and no minerals; it bears
few plants ; affords little soil ; and is tame
without softness, or rude without wildness.f It
makes amends, however, by the themes it has fur-
nished to the historian, and the home it has

* I refer to (Eta, and the mountains south of the Sperchius.
The mountainous tract on the north of the Sperchius is by no
means so elevated : is broken and irregular, and resembles, on
a small scale, the range of mountains on the north which
connect the Pindus and Olympus.

f This limestone, when highly stratified, becomes eminently
picturesque in its fractures, though bare and gray ; but I have
seldom seen it so except in continental Greece.

F F 2

436 ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF

afforded to the poet. The former owes to it the
scenes of Thermopylae, Marathon, and Cheronaea ;
the latter is indebted to it for Helicon, Ida, Olenos,
and Parnassus. Affording but a limited amount
of herbs and shrubs, it endows them with unrival-
led flavour ; hence the long renown of the flocks
of Arcadia; hence the fragrant heather, thyme,
and rosemary, that have immortalised the honey
of Hymettus.

This Peloponnesian limestone is mixed gray and
white, the gray appearing like maculae : the mass
often seems formed of older fragments, mixed up
in a new fusion, both substances being however
identical. The section of the centre portion of a
range exhibits a rock much contorted, and some-
times granular ; while, further away, on each side,
it assumes the air of stratification ; and, inclining
towards the centre, it becomes more and more
stratified as it recedes.

Before the Throne of Jupiter, and wandering over
the abode of the Gods, I, of course, interrogated
each site and rock for records of its former glory ;
and sought in the traditions or the superstition of
the ephemeral beings, who pasture their flocks
within its sacred precincts, for traces of the fictions
which have entwined its name with our earliest
associations, and which have stamped its character
and its memory on the master-pieces of art, and
the inspirations of genius. Strange to say, it was

MOUNT OLYMPUS. 437

not without satisfaction, that I did not find what
I sought, because I found instead, the original
impressions of the spot which had created the
mythology of Greece. They had no recollection
of the ** Thunderer;" no tradition of Apollo, or of
Phaeton ; but they told me that " the stars came
down at night on Olympus!" "that heaven and
earth had once met upon its summit, but that
since men had grown wicked, God had gone
higher up." It would seem as if Moore had
painted from the lips of the monks of Spermos,
and the shepherds of St. Elias.

" When in the light of nature's dawn,

Rejoicing men and angels met
On the high hill and dewy lawn,
Ere sorrow came, or sin had drawn

Twixt man and heaven her curtain yet ;
When earth lay nearer to the skies

Than in these days of crime and wo ;
And mortals saw without surprise,
In the mid-air, angelic eyes

Gazing upon this world below."

It was on the evening of the second day after
my return to the monastery of Spermos, that I
was in a fit state to mount again. Diogenes
seemed disinclined to risk himself any further with
such a companion ; and, having got a budget of
news which would be a marvel for a month in
Tcherichene, and a good story for ever afterwards,

438 ASCENT OF MOUNT OLYMPUS.

he determined on remaining at the monastery, to
return next day to his home.*

* I should have considered it a mere act of justice not to
deprive the reader of the perusal, or Diogenes of the gratifi-
cation, of my inserting an Iambic ode, now inscribed on the
marble tablet, more durable than brass, of the fountain of
Spermos ; but, unfortunately, when arranging these papers for
the press, a poet saw and admired the ode, and carried it away
for translation.

A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING. 439

CHAPTER XXIII.

JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND FOREIGN RELATIONS OF A

MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE WAR

OF TROY.

I now determined on visiting Captain Demo,
who has the Larissa district of Mount Olympus.
He was residing at a village of the name of Caria,
at the distance of ten miles from the monastery.
A young aspirant to the honours of Caloyerism,
volunteered his unbought services to accompany
me ; for, as I said before, I had no money in my
pocket. This state of my finances Diogenes was
aware of, as I had pointed it out to him as the
grounds of my confidence in visiting such a coun-
try at such a moment. " That might do very
well." he observed, " with Turks, or even with
Klephts, but it won't do at all with priests or
monasteries." He invited me to accompany him
to the chapel, before my departure, where he was
going to do something very extraordinary and
astonishing. As we entered, and in passing the
eleemosynary box, which had a very large slit for
the contributions of the faithful, lie did not drop

440 A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING.

into the slit, but laid beside it a bright and
shining yellow piece of twenty piastres, so that
the monks might not remain in doubt as to the
author of so generous a contribution. On starting,
I recommended particularly to his care the guide
I had dropped on the way, and who had not yet
made his appearance, but who had been found
next morning on the road, and carried in a
wretched plight to a hut in the woods. I reck-
oned on sending to himself a memorial worth his
preserving, of this trip ; but although I had not
hinted to him my intentions, he promised to the
Abbot, before me, three months' pay to the shep-
herd, amounting to the enormous sum of fifteen
shillings sterling.

Soon after leaving the monastery, we passed
by the small village of Scamea, of which about a
third of the houses seemed inhabited ; higher up
to our left, was that of Pouliana, entirely deserted.
Both were surrounded by orchards of fruit trees :
the plum-trees were peculiarly striking; their
boughs were weighed down like those of weeping
willows, and sometimes had been broken off by
the loads of fruit clustering on the branches ; the
leaves seemed like the garnishing of heaped up
desert-dishes.

Judging by the accounts I had heard of the
ubiquity of Captain Poulio, I had little expectation
of finding Captain Demo at Caria; and, at all

A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING. 441

events, reckoned on seeing in that village his place
of refuge, and also the frontier fortress of his legi-
timate domain, the beau-ideal of a robber's retreat,
perched on a precipice, or nestled in a cavern.
My surprise was therefore great, on coming sud-
denly to the edge of a precipice, to be assured that
a peaceful and smiling village which appeared in
the angle of an open plain was Caria ; that a
more stately mansion than the rest, placed in the
middle of it, with a light and airy aspect, white-
washed, composed of two stories, surmounted by a
Kiosk, was the place of abode of the redoubted
Captain Demo. As I approached it, however, I
saw indications of the manners, and the calling of
its proprietor in numerous loopholes, with which it
was pierced in all directions. He appeared a
homely and intelligent man, but not much dis-
posed to put himself out of his way for any thing
or for any body. He received me, however, cor-
dially enough ; told me that he had heard of me
for some time ; that he knew I liked the Klephts,
and that, therefore, the visit was not unexpected ;
and immediately insisted, despite my blistered feet
and jaded limbs, on taking me to see an English
garden which seemed to occupy all his thoughts.
I was exceedingly struck with it ; whether as to
extent, the nature of the plants and flowers, or the
care and neatness of the cultivation, it was what I
never should have dreamt of seeing in Olympus,

442 A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING.

especially at such a time as this. He earnestly
begged me to send him from Salonica seeds and
flowers, and, above all, potatoes ; and spoke of an
English plough, as the summit of his ambition
and the accomplishment of his desires. I engaged
to satisfy his wish as far as that should be prac-
ticable ; he, on the other side, promising to collect
for me arrow-heads, which they often dig up in
great quantity, and which they sometimes get
made into pistol barrels. These arrow-heads are
without a barb, and resemble exactly those used
by the Circassians at the present day. Two days
before, in digging a cistern for his garden, they
had opened a Roman tomb of mortar and brick ;
it was full ten feet long. They told me they had
found in it the bones of a giant. I was very
anxious to see them, but all we could find was a
portion of the skull : it seemed, indeed, a portion
of a human skull, but fearfully thick, which Captain
Demo averred was a proof that the owner must
have been a great man.

On the rock above Caria, there is a ruin of an
ancient fortress, which, on examination through
the glass, appeared to me Venetian ; but I rejected
the supposition as improbable. A Venetian for-
tress, in such a position, seemed to surpass what
could be expected from the maritime and com-
mercial settlements of Venice in the Levant. But
soon afterwards, a large silver coin was brought to

A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING. 443

me, presenting, in bold relief, the rampant lion of
St. Mark. On the reverse, was the bust of a
warrior, with a helmet and coat of mail ; below this
was a shield of St. George and the Dragon traced
upon it, with the inscription, " Da pacem, Domine,
in dies nos, 1642." Two years after which date,
Venice protected the piratical seizure, by the
Knights of Malta, of a Turkish vessel, having on
board a son of Sultan Ibrahim, whom they made a
friar (Padre Ottomano) ; which act gave rise to the
war which cost Venice her Eastern empire. Some
other coins of the Roman emperors were also
brought me ; but that which was the most remark-
able of all, as found in such a spot, was one of
those beautiful silver relics of the earliest coinage
of Greece, bearing the grazing horse and the
Hercules' head of the Enians.

At the distance of six miles south-west, across
the little plain, I was told of an inscription, which,
next morning, I went to visit. The place was evi-
dently the site of a town or city, and there was a
large stone erect, bearing an inscription of which
some letters were legible. It was Roman, of the
Empire, and the only words I could make out
were, " inventio ipsorum," which I thought happily
calculated to guide geographers in making this out
to be the site of some important city ; but, after
this warning, I leave to the learned to affix a name
to it.

Captain Demo and I soon became great friends,

444 A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING.

and he declared he would accompany me himself
to Rapsana, which overlooks the vale of Tempe.
We decided on starting the evening following my
arrival, intending to sleep at a village half way.
A milk-white charger, more remarkable for his
colour than his points, was brought into the court-
yard, and, with the other horses that were to ac-
company us, allowed to prepare themselves for the
journey by licking and crunching the mass of rock-
salt, which, in this country, is the hearth-stone for
all fourfooted animals.

We had already mounted, and had reached the
skirts of the village, when we were assailed with a
hue and cry, and some fifty people made a rush at
us, men, women, and children. It appeared that,
ten minutes before, the holy career of a young and
promising monk had been threatened with a speedy
and tragic conclusion, by the vengeance of an in-
jured husband. The neighbours, suddenly assem-
bled, had interposed ; the women fainted and
shrieked, the men swore, the children cried, and
the pigs, dogs, and cocks, all displayed their sym-
pathy, in the various tones by which their feelings
find expression. At that very moment was de-
scried the white charger of the judge of the people,
and the collective rush took place by which our
further progress was arrested. The Robber of
Olympus reined in, and, knitting his brow, scowled
around, like Stilicho, when he looked upon the
Goths. A disconsolate mother threw herself on

A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING. 445

her knees before him, and called for justice ; a
priest for vengeance ; a monk, with a broken pate,
for mercy ; the hapless female looked a prayer for
pity ; while the forensic tones of the injured hus-
band rose above the rest — he, of course, sued for
damages. Half-a-dozen children sobbed and cried ;
a sister shrieked and tore her hair; a brother
stood, with a roving eye and a compressed lip,
and turned, now on the husband, and now on the
monk, glances of hate and of vengeance. Captain
Demo listened for a while in patience; but what
patience could resist such discordant appeals and
dissonant voices ? and what judge could maintain
his equanimity when assailed from right and left,
from before and behind, from all around, and from
under, and where, according to the advantage of
position, his feet, legs, and hands, were seized as
means of reaching his ear ? The steed first gave
tokens of dissatisfaction, by capering about, and
carrying up and down, with gentle undulation, the
severe and frowning form of its rider. But, when
the Klepht began to storm, all that had gone be-
fore was as nothing. The metaphor of his threats
was perfectly Homeric, and heightened by a see-
saw motion of his hand across his throat, borrowed
from the Turks. I thought nothing would have
satisfied him but cutting off the heads of the whole
party ; and, if he had been so disposed, there was
nobody who could say to him, " you shall not."
The afternoon was wasted away in the investi-

446 A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING.

gation that followed the first clamours, and in the
summing up of evidence before pronouncing final
judgment, in which the priest figured not only as
counsellor, but as executioner ; for penance, alms,
crossings, and genuflexions, were liberally distri-
buted amongst all the delinquents. The offending
monk had seven thousand of the latter alone for
his share, while half the sum was inflicted on the
husband for having broken his head. The frail
fair one was to appear before a higher tribunal :
her case was to be submitted to the Bishop of
Larissa.

Our journey thus postponed till the morrow, I
spent another night at Caria, and scarcely had
concluded supper, at which the lowest menial of
the captain-judge sat down at the same table with
us, though the next moment they stood before
their master with awe in their looks, and reverence
in their attitudes, — no sooner, I have said, had
supper been concluded, than three travellers ab-
ruptly made their entrance. When they had
seated themselves, Captain Demo and I inquired
after their health ; they replied, " Thank God,
we are very well ; but," said one of them, a
little hastily, " we are come to inquire after our
horses." The Captain's pipe was removed from
his mouth, the very scowl I had seen two hours
before called up again, and cast full on the bold
questioner. " Do you take me for your groom ?"
he asked. V If I did not take you for the Captain

A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING. 447

of Olympus," retorted the stranger, " you would
not have seen me under your roof. I am come to
claim the property and the horses of which I
have been robbed." Captain Demo's eyes sud-
denly turned on me, but were as quickly averted.
He certainly had exhibited a vivid picture of the
happiness and tranquillity which the country en-
joyed by the protection of his arm, and the im-
partial severity of his justice. Now blow after
blow fell upon the theory he had erected. I ex-
pected another explosion, but was disappointed.
The new comer proved to be a wealthy Primate of
Monastir, known to be in great favour with the
Sadrazcm. The tranquillity, recently established
to the south and east of Monastir by the presence
of the Turkish troops, induced him, with his two
companions, to proceed to Larissa, to make pur-
chases ; and they were returning, with seven horses
laden with goods, when, that morning, they had
been surrounded by a party of Klephts, and their
money, baggage, and baggage-horses taken from
them, though they had not been otherwise mal-
treated.

They had instantly made their way to Caria
to seek redress. The circumstances, spot, and
time, were minutely inquired into ; the numbers and
appearance of the robbers ; the number of pack-
ages, and their contents, the horses, their colours,
and marks, were taken down, and then a general
divan was held of all Captain Demo's soldiers.

448 A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING.

They came to a unanimous conclusion as to who
the guilty people were, and, within an hour,
twenty men were on their way in pursuit. These
were divided into three bodies : one made straight
for the village to which the robbers were thought
to belong. With these was the Grammaticos
(penman) of the Captain. They were to seize
and carry off one or two persons, to be kept
until the robbers were given up. The two other
parties, of seven, were to track the robbers ^thern-
selves by different paths. Places and hours of ren-
dezvous were given, and the details of the ex-
pedition, combined with a sagacity only exceeded
by the alacrity shewn by those who had to carry
it into execution ; and next morning the plundered
men were to proceed on their journey to a village
at the distance of thirty miles, where Captain
Demo promised them that every thing they pos-
sessed should be restored to them on the following
evening; that a strap or a buckle should not be
wanting ; when they might, if they liked, give a
backshish to his men, and he only begged them
to tell the Sadrazem what strict justice he main-
tained in Olympus. I subsequently understood
that his promise was punctually performed.

These very men who now started upon this
expedition, and not one of whom would have
betrayed its object for almost any consideration,
might have been Klephts themselves a week be-
fore, or might become so the week after.

A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING. 449

The following is the list of villages — cities, I
should say — which owe allegiance to Captain
Demo, comprised in the Larissa district of Mount
Olympus, with the number of fires which he stated
they possessed ten years ago, that is, before the
Greek revolution, and those which they actually
contain in 1830. I give the villages as he enu-
merated them, though the legitimacy of his rights
over the three latter is disputed ; two of these
being claimed by Captain Poulio, and the last by
a captain whose name I forget. He declares he
can muster five hundred men; I suppose, when
he calls out the landwehr : but the standing army
only amounted to fifty.

Rapsana

Crania

Perietos- •

Egani

Avarnitza

Poroulies*

Nizero

Caria

Scamia

Pouliana

Mikuni

Fires in 1820.

Fires in 1830.

1000

10

600

10

300

. ... 100

40 ....

8

150

50

50

50

300

20

, 150

40

. 250

50

150

30

3

3020 341

The plain in which Caria is situated, is a por-

* This village is seated on a rock, and was the village
suspected of the robbery.

VOL. I. G G

450 A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING.

tion of the deep ravine which reigns all round the
central group of Olympus. After crossing it, we
ascended the ridge which forms the outer circle of
the ravine, and thence descended again to the
vale, the lake and the village of Nizeros distant
six miles from Caria. Close to the water's edge
stood two majestic aspens, as tall as the loftiest
poplar, but spreading like oaks, with their green
and silvery leaves twittering in the sun. The lake
seemed covered with myriads of water-fowl, which
had taken refuge in the most elevated sheet of
water from the August heats of the plains of
Thessaly. The change of temperature was quite
extraordinary, increased, no doubt, by the marshi-
ness of the land around, wrhich filled the atmo-
sphere with moisture. Our path had passed over
the remnants of a vast forest of fir-pine and beech,
which two years before had been consumed by a
conflagration which lasted fifteen days. It was
described to me as a thing magnificent, and truly
wonderful. A strong wind from the north had
carried the fire from the plain of Caria over the
thickly wooded enscarpment that looks to the
north, and gusts, confined in the chasms where the
trees were the thickest, and met from either side,
converted these chasms into furnaces, with a tre-
mendous drought ; burning boughs, and even whole
trees, were carried up, and shot as from a whirl-
wind.

At Nizeros, we were to spend the greater part

A MOUNTAIN PIRATE-KING. 451

of the day, and start in the evening for Rapsana,
ten miles further, overlooking the vale of Tempe.
Captain Demo had sent the day before, to make
grand preparations at Nizeros, but the expedition
which he had sent after the robbers had discon-
certed his plans. As we rode up to the neat little
cottage where we were to dine, and where we
expected to find dinner ready, we saw a sheep
just writhing in the last convulsions of life, which
they had hurriedly despatched on seeing us ap-
proach. Captain Demo, enraged at this tardiness,
made a spring from his horse, pushed the ope-
rators aside, drew his knife from his belt, turned
the dead animal out of its skin, slung it up by
the hind legs to a nail; then, after one dex-
terous slit, he put the knife between his teeth,
bared his arms up to the shoulders, plunged them
into the reeking bowels, spitted the animal upon a
stake, and had it down before the fire in a few
minutes. Scarcely was this task completed, before
the inhabitants of the village had assembled round;
nor did he deign to answer one of the lowly and
multifarious salutations with which he was greeted ;
but when he saw the sheep perform its first revo-
lution, he turned round, and wished many years to
the township. Some applicants came with long
stories to tell, and he seated himself upon a stone,
just by the spot where the sheep had been slaugh-
tered. I thought he was going to hold here his
" lit de justice." I was seated on a bench, at some

452 ORGANIC REMAINS

distance, and, seeing him seize a female by the
arm, thought he was going to proceed to the in-
fliction of some summary punishment. This time,
however, it was a patient that he was treating;
and presently, I saw the blood from her arm
spouting over that of the sheep. I cannot describe
how strongly I was struck by seeing this man
enact the Galen, examining patient after patient,
for the whole village was unwell, and discoursing
learnedly on symptoms and on simples with all
the old women of the place. After that, we went
to walk in the garden, and gather apples; and,
with the same versatility of his cares, whenever
he tasted one well-flavoured, he handed it over
to me.

I must now describe our Homeric repast. We
were seated on white capotes, under the shade of
an apple-tree ; a boy brought a large brass shining
basin, which, kneeling, he presented; over this
you hold your hands, and a girl poured water
upon them from a jar of the same metal, with a
long and narrow spout. Another attendant stood
ready to flirt a napkin, so as to make it fall open
upon your hands the moment you had finished
washing. After this, a small round wooden table
was brought in, and set upon the ground, and the
guests hurstled round it as close as they could. A
Palicar then came behind with a long narrow
napkin, of three, and sometimes even four, yards
in length, which, with a dexterous jerk, he threw

OF THE WAR OF TROY. 453

out above your head, so as to make it fall in a circle
exactly on the knees of all the guests. Dishes of
apples, pears, olives, and prunes, were placed on
the table ; and a diminutive tumbler of rakki, the
size of a liqueur glass, was carried round to each
guest. Presently, a Palicar came running with a
ramrod, on which had been entwined the choice
entrails of the sheep, hot and fizzing from the fire,
and, running round the table, discharged about
the length of a cartridge of the garnishing of the
ramrod, on the bread before each guest. This
first whet was scarcely discussed, when two other
men came running, each with a kidney upon a
wooden skewer, the hot morsels of which were
again distributed as before. After this was brought
the shoulder-blade of the right shoulder, which
had been detached from the sheep. It was cere-
moniously laid before Captain Demo : every sound
was hushed, and every eye turned upon him. He
cleaned it carefully, examined it on both sides, held
it up to the sun, and then prognosticated all the
good things that wishes could give, if they ruled
the decrees of fate. The road* of the Greeks was
bright without a tomb ; that of the Turks obscured
with mist ; the fields of the host were to be

* The course of two blood-vessels near the extremity of
the blade, and running from either side, represent paths, the
one of friends, the other of foes. Spots, on the transparent
parts of the bone, denote tombs. The fate and fortunes of the
host and hostess are displayed. in a part near to the condyle.

454 ORGANIC REMAINS

whitened with flocks, as if they were covered with
snow ; and the hostess was presently to present to
her lord a little blooming image of himself. The
assistants cried, "Ameen!" The coy dame, not
expecting, perhaps, this latter piece of gallantry,
came to kiss the captain's hand, and waddled away,
flourishing her blade bone, no doubt with the in-
tention of placing it in the family reliquary. The
guests now crossed themselves, and prepared in
earnest for the business which called us together.
The sheep, minus the right shoulder, made its
appearance on a tray of myrtle twigs. Captain
Demo unsheathed his yataghan, unjointed the
neck, laid the head upon the body, slit it open
with a sharp blow, and, dexterously turning out
the tongue, placed it before me. A single blow
then severed the spine, and the weapon passed
between the ribs, separated, in an instant, the
animal into two parts. Two ribs, with the ver-
tebrae attached to them, were then separated, and
also placed before me. This is the mode by which
honour is shewn to a guest ; and, no doubt, in the
self-same manner, did Achilles lay before Ulysses
the sacred chine.

During dinner, Captain Demo expatiated on
the amenity, the beauty, the fertility of his -<p&>pt,
or bread, meaning his district ; on the affection
and regard of the inhabitants; on the devotion and
bravery of his soldiers. He entertained me with
accounts of his various diplomatic relations with

OF THE WAR OF TROY. 455

the neighbouring potentates, and the difficulties in
which he was involved respecting his northern and
western frontiers. Before succeeding to his patri-
mony, he had, however, he thanked God, acquired
some knowledge in the ways of the world, and a
reputation which secured respect to himself, and
tranquillity to his people. " For," said he, •* for
thirty years have I been a robber on sea and on
land, and the name of Demo of Olympus has been
repeated with dry lips on the mountains of Mace-
donia, and on the shores of Caramania."

And this was on Olympus ; and, in visiting the
shrine of the Gods of Greece, I looked upon, not
a representation, but a real scene, from the wars
of Troy. Here alone has been preserved, to our
times, the genuine progeny of Greece. The moun-
tain-chains that surround Thessaly on every side,
its early cradles, have now become its last retreat.

For two thousand years have the lower portions
of Greece, with the Peloponnesus, been overrun
and ravaged by Sclavonians, Saracens, Goths,
Latins, Normans, Turks, and Skipetars ; and yet
these, by the successive destruction of the popula-
tion of that confined region, have been less suc-
cessful in destroying its ancient type and character,
than the importation of European ideas, costumes,
and manners, since the commencement of the Re-
volution. It is strange, that it is to Turkey that
one has to turn for the records of the Greece of
antiquity ; and that it should be amongst the

456 ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE WAR OF TROY.

scenes which witnessed the rise of the Pelasgi, the
(Enians, and the Hellenes, that now alone are to
be found those characters which recall aCalchas or
a Diomed ; and those circumstances which exhibit,
in their living effects, the moral process by which
letters, the plough, medicine, and the diviner's
wand, have been converted into charters of power,
and sceptres of dominion. But, alas ! the whirl-
wind of Western opinion has swept to Turkey,
after devastating Greece. While I trace^ these
lines, the race of 3000 years, which I am describ-
ing, is extinct ! A Turkish serjeant, in a blue
jacket and trousers, with red cuff and collars,
occupies the Kiosk, and lolls in the garden of the
Captain of Olympus !

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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The spirit of the East