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TURKEY
Edson Lyman Clark
A
New York
P.F. Collier
1898
CONTENTS.
PART FIRST.
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
CHAPTER I. '*"
JVrSTI.VIAN.
Tht Fall of the Rctnan Empire of the East Il
CHAPTER II.
Heraclius.
Causes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire of the East —
The Restoration of the Empire — The Transition from Roman to
Byzantine History 19
CHAPTER III.
Leo the Isaurian.
The Empire a Great Commercial State — Its Social Condition and
General Characteristics 28
CHAPTER IV.
Mental Asphyxia.
Complete Moral Enslavement of the Empire — Intellectual Stupor
of the Church — The Paulicians 40
tv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V. '*<*■
Basil the Macedonian.
The Decay of the Empire 54
CHAPTER VI.
The End.
Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders — Four Empires — Re-
covery of Constantinople by the Greeks — Conquest of the City,
and Extinction of the Empire by the Turks 63
PART SECOND.
THE MODERN GREEKS AND THE ALBANIANS.
CHAPTER I.
True Character of the Modern Greeks — Government of
THE Earlier Sultans — Reasons for the Willing Sub-
mission OF the Greeks 77
CHAPTER II.
Good and Bad Qualities of the Greeks — Their Political
Regeneration — Population of European Turkey, and
the Distribution of its Several Classes and Races 102
CHAPTER III.
State of Learning — State of Religion — The Greek
Church '27
CHAPTER IV.
Condition of the Greeks in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries — Armatoli and Klephts — The Age of Piracy
— Venetian Conquest of the Morea 148
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
INS OR ARNi
Yannina.
The ALBA.NIANS OR ArNAUTS — SCANDERBEG — AlI PaSHA OF
167
CHAPTER VI,
The Greek Awakening.
The Phanariots — Education and Letters — Commerce — Preparation
for the Revolution — The Commercial Greeks — The Primates —
The Agricultural Peasants -■ The Klephts — The Heteria 189
CHAPTER Vn.
The Greek Revolution.
Fall of Ali Pasha of Yannina — Revolt of the Greeks — The Turks
Completely Defeated in Four Campaigns — Greek Independence
Fairly Won in 1824 224
CHAPTER VIII.
Ibrahim Pasha in the Morea.
Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt — His Army Called in by the Divan
— The Greeks Powerless Before a Disciplined Force— Fall of Me-
solonghi — Fall of Athens — Ruin of the Greek Cause — Inter-
ference of the Western Powers — Treaty of London — Battle of
Navarino — Greece Free
244
CHAPTER IX.
The Kingdom of Greece.
Presidency of Capo d'Istrias — Reign of Otho of Bavaria — Accession
of Prince William George of Denmark 262
CHAPTER X.
Present Condition and Prospects of the Greeks.
The Government still Weak — Brigandage — Progress of the Kingdom
— Morals — Education — Religion — The Greek Church — Mis-
sionaries — Agriculture Depressed — Great Want of the Kingdom
— The Greeks one People — The Greece of the Future 279
Vl CONTENTS.
PART THIRD.
THE TURKISH SLAVONIANS, THE WALLACHIANS,
AND THE GYPSIES.
CHAPTER I. PAOB
The StAvic Race 309
CHAPTER II.
The Bulgarians.
The Earlier and Later Bulgarian Kingdoms 321
CHAPTER III.
The Servians.
Rise of the Servian Empire — Stephen Dushan — The Battle of Kos-
sovo — The Turkish Conquest 33 ;
CHAPTER IV.
Montenegro 353
CHAPTER V.
The Servian Revolution 379
CHAPTER VI.
Free Servia 397
CHAPTER VII.
Stara-Servia — Herzegovina and Bosnia — The Morlaks and
The Uscocs 421
CHAPTER VIIL
The Modern Bulgarians 442
CHAPTER IX.
The Wallachians.
The Daco-Roumanian People — Wallachia — Moldavia — Roumania —
I'he Roumanian Jews 463
CHAPTER X.
The Gypsies 499
CHAPTER XL
The Congress or Berlin 507
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TURKEY
Frontispiece — Sultan of Turkey
The Bosphorus
Constantinople
Passage of the Ingour
HISTORY OF TURKEY
INTRODUCTION.
Nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, Bishop Berke-
ley penned that famous line, a hne which has passed into
a proverb, and become familiar as household words to all
peoples whose mother tongue is the English language —
*' Westward the course of empire takes its way."
Never, surely, did poet express a great historic truth
more tersely, or more happily. For twenty-five centu-
ries, steadily, unvaryingly, the seat of imperial dominion
in the civilized world has been moving towards the West.
From Persia to Macedon, from Maccdon to Rome, from
Rome to the Empire of Charlemagne, from mediaeval Ger-
many to France and England, from France and England
across the Atlantic to these distant shores of the New
World, the imperial seat of civilization and political power
has constantly advanced in the direction of the setting
sun.
But now at last, having reached the waters of the Pa-
cific, and thus completed the circuit of that part of the
earth's surface occupied by the royal Aryan race, the
Star of Empire has turned in its course. At the present
time, aside from the fortunes of our own countr}'-, the
progress of civilization and political power is not toward
the West, but toward the East ; and this eastward move-
2 INTRODUCTION.
ment of the course of empire is plainly destined to con-
tinue for generations and centuries to come.
Within the past few years, we have seen Germany rise
to the ascendant in the political horizon of Europe. The
history of the German people has been strange and sad.
A people whose blood flows in our own veins ; one of the
grandest, noblest races that lives on the earth; simple,
true-hearted, and earnest; ever toiling on with an industry
which nothing can weary or discourage; standing at the
post of duty or of danger with a courage as quiet and
immovable as the rocks beneath their feet ; with a power
and scope of thought which long ago gave them the intel-
lectual leadership of the world ; and, to crown all, a pre-
eminently reverent and God-fearing people, the Germans
have lain, through weary centuries, paralyzed by their
endless and hopeless divisions, awaiting their time, filling
no place, taking no part in the great movements of the
political world at all commensurate with their powers or
their worth. First Italy, then Spain, then France, then
England, then England and Frarrte together, rose to po-
sitions of controlling influence in Europe; but still Ger-
many lay shorn of her strength, divided and despised.
But at last her time also has come. Her ancient wounds
have been healed. She has risen in her full strength, and,
with a step of imperial majesty, has taken that foremost
place which is her right. To every man of Teutonic blood
this grand unification of Germany may well be the occa-
sion of profoundest satisfaction, of devoutest thankful-
ness. For the predominance, the controlling influence,
of this simple, earnest, laborious, and thoughtful people
forebodes to the world nothing of evil, but only good.
INTRODUCTION. j
Passing north-east, from Germany into the vast Em-
pire of Russia, we seem to have stepped backward three
hundred years in the order of human advancement
Wc find a people still in the childhood of their political
and social development. The peasantry, forming the
great majority of the nation, have but just been emanci-
pated from a serfdom which bound them to the land they
tilled. They are rude, ignorant, uncleanly, and super-
stitious. The communal system is an effectual bar to in-
dividual enterprise and progress, and during the sixteen
years which have passed since emancipation, theii moral
and social condition has not greatly improved.^ Yet in
the political and social condition of the Russian people as
a whole, there has been, during the past thirty years, a
breadth and rapidity of progress to which few parallels
can be found. It is not too much to say that during this
period tlie Russian people has awoke to political self-
' The great want of the Russian peasant is a fair chance to reap the fruits
of his own industry. From this the communal system in great measure de-
bars him. The commune, or village, owns the land, assigns to every family
the fields it is to occupy for the year, fixes every man's social position, has a
hold upon him from which he cannot release himself, assigns his taxes arbi-
trarily, will not permit him to leave without a pass, and can call him back
imperatively, even from St. Petersburg, and from the midst of the most
important business, at a moment's warning. The Russian peasant has thus
no freedom of action, no fair field for the exercise of his industry and his
powers. He is in complete bondage to the commune. This ancient princi-
ple of social organization, so peculiar to the eastern and soutliern Slavonian
peoples, must be abandoned, or greatly modified, in Russia — the peasant
must be made the master of his own hands, liis own fortunes, the products
of his own industry — before there can be rapid and substantial progress
among tlic common people. It is clear from l\Ir. "Wallace's admirable work
that this second and final emancipation has already begun, and that the time
is not distant when it will be fully accomphshed.
See Wallace's " Russia," chapters viii. and ix-
4 INTRODUCTION.
consciousness. Heretofore the world has been concerned
only with the selfish, autocratic Russian government;
hereafter it will have to do with the Russian nation.
Towards the fifty millions of the Slavonians of Russia the
Star of Empire is steadily taking its course. Far behind
the nations of the West as they are in social and political
development, there is that in them which must place them,
in their time, among the foremost of earthly powers.
And their coming time is not so far in the future as we
have been wont to think. The distance which separates
them from their more favored brethren they are already
passing with mighty strides. In the Russian people we
see the childhood of a grand and mighty manhood. Few
races have ever existed more munificently endowed by
nature than the Slavonians of Russia. A people so stead-
fast and patient ; so simple, docile, and obedient ; so grave
and serious ; so deeply, intensely religious ; so full of poetry
and song, with intellectual aptitudes and capacities so va-
rious and so great; so stubbornly, immovably faithful,
loyal, and true, is a people which deserv'es to rise, and
which must rise, in the long course of events, to no sec-
ond place among the arbiters of the world.
Nowhere else, perhaps, is this east\vard march of civili-
zation and political power more conspicuously apparent
than among the peoples whose rising fortunes are the
subject of the present volume. No one, at all familiar
with the present state of things in the East, can have
failed to be impressed with the fact that for the past fifty
years the Greeks and the Slavonian peoples of European
Turkey have been rapidly rising to a position of great
social and pohtical importance in those fair and fruitful
INTRODUCTION. 5
regions so long blighted and held in check by the bar-
barian tyranny of the Turks. In the summer of 1876 no
nation in Europe held a position of greater political
importance than the little Principahty of Servia. What
action the Prince and people of that small state were
about to take in the desperate struggle of the Christians
of Herzegovina and Bosnia with their Moslem tyrants,
was a question discussed with absorbing interest in every
cabinet, in every newspaper, in every city and town of
the civilized world. In the terrible struggle which fol-
lowed, through lack of experience, of organization and
discipline, of good leadership, and of effective arms, the
Servians failed as deplorably as the armies of our own
Union failed in the first battle of Bull Run. But that
great disaster to them, like our first crushing defeat,
was only a blessing in disguise. It was a fiery trial, pro-
ducing in the end, not weakness and disgrace, but true
courage, union, and strength. The Servians are now
under a cloud ; but the time is coming when they will
emerge from obscurity and stand before the world in a
very different light, as their fathers did sixty years
ago.
Widely unlike as the Greeks and the Servians are. in
language, in race, and in their early histor}'-, four centuries
of Turkish oppression have placed them side by side in a
similar social and political condition, and very nearly upon
the same level. The Greeks were already an ancient
people, had ages before played the grandest part ever
taken by any people in the history of mankind, had fallen
from their high estate, had sunk to the lowest stages of
servitude and degeneracy, when, in the thirteenth and
6 INTRODUCTION.
fourteenth centuries, the Servians were just emerging
from barbarism, just entering on what seemed the promise
of a great national career.
To the Servians ' the result of the Turkish conquest
was chiefly to arrest their progress, to hold them, so to
speak, in a state of suspended political animation, a fixed
and stationary condition, for three hundred years. With
the Greeks the case was very far otherwise. In their
condition, that great catastrophe wrought a most impor-
tant, a most beneficent change. It brought them a grand
enfranchisement. It effected their political regeneration,
made them a new people. In that fiery ordeal, the old
political, ecclesiastical, and social system of the Greek
Empire, with all its monstrous tyrannies and abuses, was
wholly and forever burned away. By the Turkish con-
quest the Greeks were reduced to a condition of perfect
equality ; and from that day no people in the world has
been filled with a spirit more intensely democratic. They
were left very poor, and ignorant, and weak ; they were
reduced to the lowest round in the social ladder, and had
to begin over again the whole order of their social and
political development ; but they began it in newness of
life. They had passed through a new political birth, they
were a new people. From that day, although for many
centuries their progress was tedious, and painful, and very
slow; although even yet they have not passed beyond
the weakness of childhood, their course has been just as
surely and steadily upwards as that of the sun in the
heavens. Of this truth every thoughtful reader of the
' The Montenegrins and the Slavonians, both Moslem and Christian, of
Herzegovina and Bosnia, are all Servians by race.
INTRODUCTION. 7
following pages will find evidence sufficient and con-
clusive.
The Servians have been essentially free for sixty-five
years. In national character they are very unlike the
Greeks, although members of the Greek Church. They
are grave, serious, and conservative ; more brave and war-
like than the Greeks, more steadfast and persistent in
their purposes. They have been more successful than
the Greeks in the establishment and administration of
their free institutions. The Principahty of Servia has
been more powerful and more influential than the King-
dom of Greece. What may be in store for these little
States in the stormy and troubled future which seems to
be before them, no one can foresee. But whatever may
be their lot, these peoples are destined, beyond all doubt
or question, to rise slowly but surely in political power
and in social and material prosperity, until they hold
some great and leading position in the magnificent regions
of south-eastern Europe.
The peoples whose history and fortunes are traced in
the following pages, deserve to be better known than they
have yet been by American Christians. They are worthy
of our warmest sympathies, of our efficient and constant
aid. The preparation of this volume has been a labor of
love. If it shall result in disseminating among his coun-
trymen a better knowledge of these most interesting
peoples, and in deepening and strengthening their inter-
est in them, the author's end will have been fully attained
Southampton, Mass.,
June, 1878.
PART FIRST.
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
The Authorities chiefly followed are :
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Finlay's Greece under the Romans, and History of the
Byzantine and Greek Empires.
Neander's History of the Christian Religion and Churcha
Milman's History of Latin Christianity.
CHAPTER I.
JUSTINIAN.
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE EAST.
When in the year 622 Mohammed established both
his religion and his power by his flight from Mecca to
Medina, it might well have seemed to him that the Em-
pire of Rome had very nearly reached the end of its
great career. Internal confusion and disorganization had
left the Empire the helpless prey of foreign enemies. The
Avars, a powerful Tartar tribe which had invaded Europe
and established itself to the north of the Danube, had
overrun the European provinces ; while on the east, the
Persian monarchy, under Chosroes, the greatest of its later
kings, had suddenly blazed up in a brief expiring flash
of glory rivaling that of its early conquests under Cyrus.
Invading the Roman dominions in 603, in the course of
twenty years of uninterrupted victory, Chosroes subdued
Syria and Palestine, traversed Egypt from the Mediterra-
nean to the borders of Ethiopia, crossed the Lybian
deserts and subdued the rich and beautiful province of
Cyrcnc, nov/ Barca, vanquished the Roman armies in
Asia Minor itself, and advanced to the shores of the Bos-
phorus, where in 626 he joined his forces with the Avars
12 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
for the siege of Constantinople, in the vain hope of end-
ing forever the Empire of Rome.
This descent of the Empire, from the highest pitch of
power and splendor to the very verge of ruin, had been
strangely rapid.^ The glory of the Roman Empire of
the East culminated and expired in the long reign of
Justinian, who ascended the throne of Constantinople in
the year 527, and died in 565. The reign of Justinian
opened with brilliant promise. His Empire embraced
something less than half of the vast dimensions of the
early Caesars. Western Europe was lost ; the Vandals
reigned over north-western Africa ; and the Persians had
pushed their frontier westward, until the Romans re-
tained but the western half of Armenia and the north-
western third of Mesopotamia. But, narrowed as it was,
the Empire inherited by Justinian still embraced sixty-
four provinces and nine hundred and thirty-five cities,
and made its master by far the richest and most powerful
sovereign in the world. The European provinces of the
Empire were bounded by the Danube, the Save, and the
Adriatic, though Moesia and Illyricum had already been
sadly wasted by barbarian inroads. In Asia, the Roman
arms still held the grand peninsula of Asia Minor, west-
ern Armenia, the five north-western provinces of Meso-
potamia, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia Petraea. In Africa,
the great and fruitful provinces of Egypt and Cyrene still
furnished their abundant revenues of both money and
corn to the government of Constantinople.
Justinian found the Empire in a condition of unusual
' Gibbon, voL iv. pp. 46, 466; Finlay's Greece under the Romans,
chapters iii and iv.
JUSTINIAN, 13
quiet and stren^h. The provinces «vere peaceful and
obedient, the treasury was full, the army was efficient and
well appointed, while both the civil and military service
presented an array of able men unsurpassed either before
or afterwards in the Eastern Empire.
The reign thus auspiciously inaugurated was not un-
marked by great events, worthy of such a beginning.
In the year 533, Belisarius, a general worthy of the best
days of Rome, sailed from Constantinople for the con-
quest of the Vandal kingdom in the north of Africa;
and with such consummate generalship and such perfect
discipline was the expedition conducted, that a single
brief campaign sufficed to annihilate the once terrible
power of the Vandals, while scarcely a village was plun-
dered, and the capture of the great city of Carthage did
not interrupt for a single day the traffic of its busy streets.
The great province thus so easily recovered remained for
a hundred years, until it was conquered by the Saracens,
one of the most prosperous and most valuable possessions
of the Empire.
The splendid success of his African expedition inspired
Justinian with the hope of breaking the power of the
Ostrogoths in Italy. Belisarius entered upon this second
and more difficult undertaking in 535. Sicily and Naples
were speedily subdued, and in 536 Belisarius entered
Rome. The Goths, however, were a people who were
not to be easily subdued. The war thus begun continued
with various vicissitudes for twenty years. It was ended
by Narses, who although a eunuch — and perhaps the
only eunuch who ever displayed the energy and ability
of a great military leader — was fully the equal of Beli-
14 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
sarius. In 554, Narses destroyed the last remains of the
Ostrogothic kingdom, restored the whole of Italy to the
Empire, and became the first Exarch of Ravenna, under
which title he governed his conquests for more than
fifteen years. While these events were transpiring in
Italy, a considerable district was also wrested from the
hands of the Visigoths in the south of Spain — ^an acqui-
sition of greater value to the Empire commercially than
it was politically.
While Justinian derived no little glory from these great
military achievements, his reign was made yet more illus-
trious by the peaceful labors of his civil officers, which
have proved a permanent blessing to mankind. Under
the personal direction and supervision of the Emperor,
Tribonian and his fellow-jurists produced that great digest
of Roman law known as the Code, the Pandects, and the
Institutes of Justinian, which has ever since remained one
of the highest legal authorities of the Christian world.
From these great achievements, the merit of which
was in no small degree his own, Justinian derived a just
renown. Nor can it be denied that he displayed many
of the qualities of a great sovereign and a good man.
He was morally virtuous, abstemious in his mode of life,
sincere in his religious convictions, and zealous in the
discharge oi his rehgious duties. The master of consid-
erable and varied learning, he was one of the most dili-
gent and studious men of his times. After a smgle
hour's sleep he often rose from his bed and passed the
rest of the night in study, while his indefatigable industry
made him familiar with the minutest details of the vast
machinery of the imperial government. Yet with al]
yUSTINIAN. 15
this, the government of Justinian was one of the worst
ever administered by an active and virtuous sovereign.
He was a weak, narrow-minded pedant. His religion
was a puerile superstition, his zeal a fanatical bigotry,
his industry a meddlesome and mischievous interference
with the details of the several departments of govern-
ment. His ample revenues were wasted with such lavish
profusion in his distant and costly wars, his ruinous pas-
sion for building in every part of his dominions, and in
ignominious tribute to his barbarian neighbors, that his
treasury could be supplied only by the most oppressive
extortion. Hence the single merit of large and regular
remittances to the treasury was suffered to cover the
greatest tyranny and official corruption in the provincial
governors, until the whole Empire groaned under an in-
tolerable burden of oppression.
Through almost the whole of his reign, the peace of
the capital was destroyed by a bloody and terrible feud
between the rival factions of the circus.^ The contending
parties of charioteers in the hippodrome were distin-
guished by the blue and green colors of their respective
dresses. With one or the other of these parties almost
the whole population of Constantinople took sides, so that
the whole city came to be divided between the blue and
green factions of the circus. The incessant conflict of
these rival factions was carried into every question of
social and political life, and very often stained the streets
of the city with blood. The blue faction proclaimed
themselves, and were regarded by Justinian, the especial
champions of his person and government ; and for tliis
* Gibbim, iv. 73, 387; Finlay's Greece under the Romans, pp. 235-274.
l6 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
reason were tolerated in a career of violence and crime
hardly to be paralleled in the history of civilized nations.
" No place was safe or sacred from their depredations ;
to gratify either avarice or revenge they profusely spilt
the blood of the innocent ; churches and altars were pol-
luted by atrocious murders ; and it was the boast of the
assassins that their dexterity could always inflict a mor-
tal wound with a single stroke of their dagger. The dis-
solute youth of Constantinople adopted the blue livery
of disorder ; the laws were silent, and the bonds of society
were relaxed. Creditors were compelled to resign their
obligations, judges to reverse their sentences, masters to
enfranchise their slaves, fathers to supply the extrava-
gance of their children ; noble matrons were prostituted
to the lust of their servants ; beautiful boys were torn
from the arms of their parents ; and wives, unless they
preferred a voluntary death, were ravished in the pres-
ence of their husbands.
*' The despair of the greens, who were persecuted by
their enemies and deserted by the magistrates, assumed
the privilege of defence, perhaps of retaliation ; but those
who survived the combat were dragged to execution,
and the unhappy fugitives, escaping to woods and caverns,
preyed without mercy on the society from whence they
were expelled." ^
It was the great defect of the imperial government that
it v/as a vast corporation by itself, wholly distinct from
the people of the Empire. Justinian's whole policy
tended to increase and perpetuate this evil. He feared
his own subjects more than his barbarian enemies. He
^ Gibbon, iv. 59.
JUSTINIAN. VI
would not intrust them with arms for their own defence ;
even the imperial armies were recruited from barbarian
tribes. The ancient municipal institutions of the Empire
— the domestic governments of the cities and towns —
which had been the foundation of its strength and pros-
perity, were deprived of their resources. Their revenues,
which had provided for a local police, for the repair of
roads, bridges, and fortifications, and for the ordinary
municipal expenses, were transferred to the imperial
treasury. The impoverished cities were thus left to
fall to decay, or become the helpless prey of barbarian
invaders." ^
This misgovernment and oppression produced its natu-
ral results. The people of the provinces, especially those
more remote from the capital, were inspired with a bitter
hatred of the imperial government, which prepared them
to welcome any foreign invader as a deliverer from the
oppression under which they groaned. To make the
condition of the unhappy people still worse, the govern-
ment of Justinian was as feeble as it was tyrannical.
During the latter years of his reign, his Empire lay the
easy prey of every invader. A disgraceful tribute pre-
served a semblance of peace with the Persians and the
Avars, but the Bulgarians, Slavonians, and Huns ravaged
the provinces of the West almost unresisted, until the peo-
ple whom they had slaughtered or enslaved were counted
by millions, and wide regions, before populous and pros-
perous, had been changed to deserts.
It seemed as if nature itself had conspired with a weak
and tyrannical government for the ruin of the Empire
' Finlay's Greece under the Romans, chap. iii. , sects, i and 3.
l8 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
Terrible earthquakes destroyed some of the most populous
cities of the East, two hundred and fifty thousand per-
sons perishing in Antioch alone ; and a dreadful pesti-
lence, which sprang up in Egypt in the fifteenth year of
Justinian's reign, destroyed half the population of Con-
stantinople, left whole cities desolate in both the East and
the West, and continued for half a century to ravage the
whole civilized world. Justinian died in the year 565,
after a life of eighty-three years, and a reign of thirty-
eight, leaving the Empire, which he had inherited in the
fullness of power and prosperity, trembling upon the verge
of ruin.
His three successors,^ two of whom were men of char-
acter and ability, struggled hard and with some success
to uphold the falling Empire. But in the year 602, by a
mutiny of the demoralized army headed by Phocas, an
ignorant and worthless centurion, the government was
overturned: Phocas was raised to the throne, murdered
in cold blood his deposed sovereign and all his family,
and soon proved himself one of the most incompetent and
brutal tyrants that ever disgraced the imperial throne.
Chosroes, the Persian king, had obtained his throne by
the aid of the slain Emperor Maurice. Upon the acces-
sion of Phocas, he declared a relentless war upon the
murderer of his benefactor, and entered at once upon his
great and long continued career of conquest. Phocas
reigned eight years, from 602 to 610, and in that short
period the ruin of the Empire was complete,
'Justin II., 565-578; Tiberius II., 578-582; Maurice, 582-602. Tibe-
rius and Maurice were able men.
CHAPTER II.
HERACLIUS.
CAUSES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE OF THE EAST — THE RESTORATION OF
THE EMPIRE — THE TRANSITION FROM ROMAN TO
BYZANTINE HISTORY.
In this emergency, all eyes were turned to Heraclius,
the aged Exarch of the now prosperous and powerful
province of Africa, as the only hope of deliverance from
the unendurable tyranny of Phocas. Too old to take the
burden upon his own shoulders, Heraclius devolved the
task of redeeming the Empire upon his son of the same
name, who soon sailed for Constantinople at the head of
a powerful fleet. The tyrant fell ignominiously, almost
without a blow, and in 6io the young Heraclius was
raised to the throne. '
Of the great qualities which he was afterwards to dis-
play, and the dazzling splendor of his subsequent military
exploits, the first years of the youthful Emperor gave
little promise. With the imperial purple he had grasped
but the shadow of imperial power. The Empire was
prostrate; its affairs, both military and civil, in hopeless
' Gibbon, iv. 457.
90 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
confusion ; its territories upon the east and the west ex-
posed without defence to the arms of victorious enemies.
The fall of Antioch was the first news which greeted the
ears of the young Emperor, and the Persians and Avars
continued to advance until the capital, with some for-
tresses in its neighborhood, Macedonia, Greece, the south
of Italy, Sicily, and north-western Africa, were nearly all
that remained to Heraclius of the once vast dominions of
Rome.
This utter prostration of the Roman power in the first
years of Heraclius must be regarded as the transition
point between the Roman and Byzantine Empires. The
shattered and prostrate Empire was to rise from its ruins,
and to stand for centuries the richest, most civilized, and
most powerful state of the world ; but it was to rise a
Greek and not a Latin power. Italy, Africa, Syria, and
Egypt were to be finally severed from the Empire ; Latin
was to give place to Greek as the language of the govern-
ment and the law ; and the common faith of the Greek
Church was to become the vital and enduring bond of
union to a reasonably homogeneous and harmonious
people.
If we regard the conquests of Chosroes as the final
destruction of the Roman Empire, we may properly
pause at this point to notice the causes of the decUne and
fall of that vast dominion.
I. The first cause of the decay and disintegration of
the Empire is seen in the incongruous and irreconcilable
elements of which it was composed. So far as the Latin
language prevailed, the various conquered nations became
insensibly blended into one great people. By the over-
HERACLIUS: %i
mastering influence of the power, civilization, and institu-
tions of Rome, the inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, Spain,
Southern Germany, Moesia, Thrace, and north-western
Africa were gradually fused into a single people, with a
common language, common ideas and institutions, and a
common religious belief But in the eastern half of the
Empire the case was far otherwise. Among the Greeks,
the tribes of Asia Minor, the Armenians, the Syrians, and
the Egyptians, the Latin language gained little ground,
and never became anything more than the official language
of the government. All these peoples retained not only
their own languages and nationality, but, excepting the
non- Hellenic tribes of Asia Minor, which were heartily de-
voted to the Greek Church, certain striking peculiarities
of religious belief A strong antagonism and tendency
to separation thus grew up, not only between the
West and the East, between the Latin-speaking and the
Greek-speaking portions of the Empire, but in the East
itself, between the Greeks, the Syrians, and the Egyp-
tians. To the Syrians and Egyptians, the government
of Constantinople was the hated rule of strangers and
heretics. They submitted with no great reluctance, many
of them gladly, to the successors of Mohammed — a fact
which explains the ease and rapidity of the first Saracen
conquests.
II. The second and most efficient cause of the decay
and fall of the Roman Empire lay in two great and radi-
cal vices of the imperial government ; its entire separa-
tion from the people and all the interests of society, and
its fiscal oppression. The imperial government, after the
time of Constantine, was a close corporation, forming a
tS THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
vast establishment complete in itself, holding the Empire
in absolute subjection, allowing to the people no rights of
self-government or even of self-defence, and governing
them solely for its own advantage. Its great end from
first to last was to bring the largest possible amount of
money into the imperial treasury. As distinct from this
end, the public good was something little regarded, rarely
thought of As might be expected of such a govern-
ment, its fiscal extortions were universal, constant, and
terrible. The population of the Empire was regarded in
hardly any other light than as a great instrument for the
production of revenue. The measure of the exactions
laid upon the provinces was simply the largest amount
that could be wrung from them. The taxes upon agri-
culture, already ruinous before the time of Constantine,
were retained and increased by the Christian Emperors.
Gradually the small farmers were everywhere ruined,
everywhere disappeared ; but, by a cruel refinement of
fiscal ingenuity, every community was taxed as a whole,
and the rich, so long as any remained, were compelled to
make good the deficiencies of the bankrupt poor. As
the result of these grinding extortions, the farming popu-
lation of the country districts was everywhere ruined
throughout the Empire. The great class of small land-
holders disappeared, and the whole agricultural territory
of the Empire, beyond the immediate neighborhood of
the cities, became divided into great estates, tilled only
by serfs and slaves. The free laborers, reduced to utter
poverty and helplessness, and worse off than the foreign-
bought slaves, sunk to the condition of serfs; and lesi
the land should be left untilled and thus yield no revenue,
HER AC LI us. 23
a law was enacted that any freeman who had cultivated
lands for the space of thirty years should remain forever
attached with his descendants to the same estate. The
position of the slaves, as the chief producers of the agri-
cultural wealth of the Empire, gave them great importance
in the view of the government ; and while the free laborers
sunk to serfs, the slaves gradually rose to the same con-
dition. Long before the time of Justinian this vast class
of serfs and slaves had so increased as probably to exceed
half the population of the Empire.' This fact is of itself
sufficient to explain the fatal weakness of the state. That
sturdy yeomanry, which must form the bone and sinew
of every really vigorous country, had been annihilated by
the fiscal oppression of the government and the vast
and universal system of slavery. The only population
remaining capable of any effort in self-defence was con-
fined to the cities. But the people of the cities were so
distrusted and feared by the government that they were
not permitted to arm themselves for their own protection.
They were compelled to depend wholly for safety upon
their fortifications and the presence of regular garrisons.
But this was not all. The entire separation of the gov-
ernment from all the interests of the people, and the
oppression to which they were constantly subjected, had
rendered all patriotic feeling impossible, and had filled
the provinces not only with indifference as to the fate of
the imperial government, but with positive hatred towards
it. Thus, totally destitute of strength in the affections
' Sir James Stephen's Lectures on the History of France, Lect. I., on
Ancient Gaul ; Finlay's Greece under the Romans, pp. i8l, 231, 240; Gib
bon, voL i. pp. 47-52, and notes.
«4 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
and support of its people, the Empire rested alone upon
its organized military force.
III. The third and immediate cause of the fall of
the Empire was the demoralization of its armies. For
the first three centuries of its existence, the Roman
Empire was the military government of the commander-
in-chief of the legions. So long as the army retained its
early discipline, and the Emperors were men of energy
and ability, the peace and order of society were tolerably
well preserved. But it soon appeared how fatally insecure
was the foundation on which this military government
reposed. It did not take the army long to learn that it
was really the master of both the Empire and the
Emperor. Soon, in the full consciousness of its power,
it began with a reckless and fatal levity to make and un-
make its sovereigns. Through the whole of the third,
and the first quarter of the fourth century, this tyranny
of the army destroyed the prosperity of the Empire, and
filled the provinces with constant and ruinous civil wars.
Thus things went on until the accession of Constantine, in
324. That great man effected a complete revolution in the
constitution of the Empire, and transformed it from a
military to a civil government. The Emperor became
the head, not of the army, but of the state, a lawful
sovereign, to whom army and people alike were bound to
render a loyal and implicit obedience. During the long
and prosperous reign of Constantine, this great change
was quietly and successfully accomplished. The army
was effectually subordinated to the civil power, and came
to feel a loyal devotion to the Emperor as its lawful
sovereign. By this revolution the Empire was in great
HERA C LI us, 25
measure relieved for two hundred years from the terrible
military disorder under which it had so long groaned.
But during the later years of the reign of Justinian, his
miserable mismanagement, and the pitiful weakness of his
government, prepared the way for the revival of the
worst evils of the third century. The discipline of the
army was relaxed, its efficiency was greatly impaired, a
mutinous, insubordinate spirit spread itself through the
ranks, and the train was laid for the fearful explosion by
which, forty years later, the army rose against its sove-
reign, hurled him from the throne, elevated a worthless
centurion in his stead, and thus destroyed the ancient
Empire of Rome.
The first twelve years of the reign of Heraclius, from
6io to 622, were a period of such complete weakness and
helplessness that the end of the Empire seemed close at
hand. He had neither army nor revenue, and his hum-
ble supplications for peace, upon almost any terms, were
rejected by the Persian king with silent contempt. In
his personal character he displayed as yet none of the
great qualities which were afterwards to astonish the
world. He seemed a feeble, effeminate youth; thinking
more of pleasure than of his arduous duties, with none of
that energy, that imperial force of will which his position
so urgently required. But after twelve years of insult
and feebleness, and when his own fortunes and those of
the Empire had sunk to the very lowest point, he sud-
denly awoke, as a lion from sleep. Supplying his want
of money by borrowing the consecrated wealth of the
churches, he at length succeeded in getting together a
considerable force» made up of raw levies and the remains
2
S6 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
of the broken, demoralized legions. From this point his
movements were marked by the energy and far-ieeing
sagacity of military genius. Putting to sea with his
undisciplined and as yet worthless army, he followed the
southern coast of Asia Minor until he reached the Gulf
of Scanderoon, the north-eastern extremity of the Med-
iterranean Sea. There, in a deep and secure valley,
inclosed by the mountains of Cilicia on the north, and
those of Lebanon on the south, he formed his camp, and
gave himself with the utmost patience and ardor to the
training and discipline of his army. His success was
complete, and he soon had the satisfaction of seeing his
army fired with his own spirit, and eager to meet their
foes. In a few months he was ready for action. By a
series of skillful maneuvers the Persian forces in the
neighborhood were brought to fight a great battle under
unfavorable circumstances, and were totally defeated.
He then moved northwards with his victorious army, and
fixed his winter quarters in the fruitful valley of the
Halys. The next spring he advanced along the south-
ern coast of the Black Sea to Armenia, the inhabitants
of which flocked with enthusiasm to his standard. Thence
he boldly struck southward for the very heart of the
Persian kingdom. Disregarding the vast and victorious
armies of his enemies in his rear ; paying no heed even
to the siege of his capital by the combined forces of the
Persians and Avars, he crossed the Tigris, penetrated to
regions never reached before by the Roman arms, de-
feated the Persian armies in a series of great and obsti-
nately contested battles, took Dastagerd, the Persian
capital, and did not leave the field until by four of the
HERACUUS. vi
most brilliant campaigns ever conducted by a Roman
general, he had broken the power of Persia, driven
Chosroes from his throne, and left his kingdom a shat-
tered wreck, to fall before the first wave of Saracen
invasion.'
After these stupendous achievements Heraclius re-
turned to Constantinople to celebrate his triumph and
reorganize his Empire. The Avars retired again beyond
the Danube, and the Croats and Servians, invited from
the Carpathian Mountains to repeople the desolate
provinces of the north-west, became a firm barrier against
their further encroachments.
The Empire was restored, but it was sadly weakened
and shattered, and in his old age and feeble health
Heraclius found himself but poorly able to meet the tre-
mendous onset of the Saracens. Before his death, in
642, Persia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt had been again
subdued, and made part of the vast Empire of the
Caliphs. A few years later Africa was lost ; and in the
comparatively small fragment yet remaining of the
boundless conquests of imperial Rome, the Byzantine
Empire received its enduring form and dominion.
* For the military caxe«r of Heraclius, see Gibbon, iv. 464-84.
CHAPTER III.
LEO THE ISAURIAN.
THE EMPIRE A GREAT COMMERCIAL STATE — ITS SOCIAL
CONDITION AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Of the ten Emperors who followed Heraclius from 641
to 717, there is no occasion to speak particularly.* A
single great event stands out conspicuously in the history
of this otherwise unimportant period — the first siege of
Constantinople by the Saracens.^ In the year 672 the
Caliph Moawiyah assembled a vast mihtary and naval
force, which the inefficiency of Constantine Pogonatus
permitted, in the following spring, to advance unresisted
to the very walls of the city. The Saracens pressed the
siege with ineffectual valor until the approach of cold
weather compelled them to retire for winter quarters to
' The order of succession was as follows : Constantine III. and Herac-
leonas, the sons of Heraclius, 641 (Constantine died, and Heracleonas was
deposed the same year) ; Constans II., son of Constantine III., 641-668 ;
Constantine IV. (Pogonatus), son of Constans II., 668-685; Justinian II.,
son of Constantine Pogonatus, a ferocious tyrant, and the last of the Hera-
clian line, 685-711. ^From 695 to 705, Justinian II. was an exile, and the
throne was occupied successively by two usurpers, Leontius and Tiberius.)
Philippicus, 711-713; Anastatius II., 713-716; Theodosius III., 716-717.
* Gibbon, v. 273.
LEO THE ISAURIAN. 99
the Island of Cyzicus. In this strange way they contin-
ued the siege for seven years. But the strong fortifica-
tions of the city, and the bravery of its garrison, defied
their unskillful attacks ; the terrible Greek fire, then
just invented, consumed their ships and spread conster-
nation through their ranks, and the enterprise ended
at last in disastrous failure. The land forces were cut
off while attempting to retreat through Asia Minor,
and the fleet was destroyed by a tempest off the coast of
Pamphylia.
During the six years of confusion — from 71 1 to 717—
which followed the extinction of the Heraclian dynasty,
the Empire seemed again upon the very eve of destruc-
tion. But at this critical juncture, the accession of an-
other great man to the throne again restored its fortunes,
marked a great era in its history, and laid the founda-
tion of its prosperity and power for three hundred years.
This man was Leo III., the Isaurian and Iconoclast.
The accession of Leo the Isaurian, in 717, marks the
completion of the great revolution which transformed the
Roman into the Byzantine ^ Empire. Leo was a man of
humble birth, a native of Isauria, a mountainous region
in south-eastern Asia Minor. His father appears to have
removed to Thrace, where he acquired considerable
wealth as a grazier. A well-timed gift of five hundred
sheep to the tyrant Justinian II. enabled the Isaurian
shepherd to secure an honorable position for his son
in the Emperor's guards. Thus introduced to the miU-
tary service, Leo rose by the force of his genius to be
the ablest general of the Empire. His masterly meas-
* So called from Byzantium, the original name of Consta ntinople.
JO THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
ures for the defence of Asia Minor against the Saracens
turned all eyes upon him as the only hope of the Em-
pire, and he was hailed Emperor by the general voice
of the army and the people. The virtuous but incom-
petent Theodosius III. gracefully retired, and Leo as-
cended the throne.*
The beginning of Leo's reign was made illustrious by
the defeat of the second great effort of the Saracens for
the capture of Constantinople — an event that marks the
final repulse of the Saracen power in its conflict with the
Empire. Hardly had Leo been crowned in the Church
of St. Sophia, on the 25 th of March, 717, when Mosle-
mah, the equally able brother of the energetic Caliph
Sulieman, advanced to the siege of Constantinople at the
head of the best appointed and most powerful expedi-
tion ever sent by the Caliphs against the Christians.
Eighty thousand soldiers constituted the land army,
while the whole expedition by land and sea is said to
have numbered one hundred and eighty thousand men.
Leo met this tremendous attack with a bold and confi-
dent defiance. The vast naval armanent was allowed to
enter the very harbor of Constantinople, where it suf-
fered a series of overwhelming defeats. The land force
was able to make no impression upon the defences of
the city, and, by the timely aid of the Bulgarians, was
defeated with great slaughter. The siege was feebly pro^
tracted into the second year, when the Saracen host,
broken and dispirited, wasted by hardship, famine, and
pestilence, abandoned the enterprise in despair. The
land force succeeded in effecting its retreat through Asia
* Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. 15-17, 28-32.
LEO THE ISAURIAN.
SX
Minor, but the fleet was so nearly annihilated that no
more than five ships returned to Syria.'
His power firmly established by this great success, the
new Emperor proceeded to reorganize his Empire, and
to impress upon it that distinctive and permanent char-
acter which it retained for three hundred years. To the
genius of Leo III. the Byzantine Empire owed its per-
manent organization and long continued prosperity. At
this point then let us pause to notice briefly its leading
characteristics.^
During the century and a half which preceded the
accession of Leo, the population and wealth of the Em-
pire had greatly declined. The country districts, once
densely peopled with a thriving yeomanry, had been
desolated by barbarian inroads and fiscal oppression, until
many of them, particularly in the northern European
provinces, were almost uninhabited ; and generally they
had been divided into great estates, cultivated by serfs
and slaves. Universal and long continued confusion had
greatly relaxed the iron order of State and Church.
Roads and bridges had decayed, and the provinces were
no longer bound together by means of easy and free com-
munication. In tlie cities, left far more than formerly to
themselves, there had been a partial revival of municipal
vigor, but with the decline of wealth and free communi-
cation, there had been a corresponding decline of intelh-
gence and social activity. All ideas and habits of thought,
and all business enterprise, had become narrow, local,
selfisL The great strength of the Empire, its strong
^ Gibbon, v. 278.
• See Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. i-io.
ja THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
bond of union, now lay in the Church. Since the loss of
Syria, Eg>'pt, Italy, and Africa, almost the whole of the
remaining population was zealously devoted to the faith
of the orthodox Greek Church ; and that church had
become far more popular in character. The bishops,
everywhere the most intelligent and most influential men
in their several provinces, and men whose interests were
completely identified with those of their people, were
everywhere the leaders of society.' They were the presi-
dents of the curiae or city senates, judges, and provincial
governors. The Emperors had long been striving to
make their authority as absolute in ecclesiastical as it was
in civil affairs, and for two hundred years had presumed
by imperial edicts to dictate the faith of the Church ; but
at this time the popular and measurably independent
position of the bishops gave the Church great strength,'
and the bishops personally a great, and, on the whole,
beneficial influence over the people.
The regenerated Empire of Leo was Greek in language
and in faith, but not in spirit, or in the controlling ele-
ments of its population. The old transplanted Roman
aristocracy of Constantinople was nearly extinct, and a
new official aristocracy had arisen, of which the control-
ling element was from Asia Minor and Armenia. The
upper classes of Constantinople were chiefly Asiatic, the
middle classes largely Greek, the lower, a mixed mul-
titude of all the races of the Empire. But all classes
■ Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. 25.
* The bishops, in effect, were the Church, as they had been for fou*
hundred years ; the people were but so many sheep, to be governed — and
fleeced.
LEO THE ISA UR IAN. 33
alike still proudly styled themselves Romans, and spoke
contemptuously of the people of Greece proper as Hella-
dikoi.^ And in fact the civilization of the Empire was
far more Roman than Greek. Its spirit was utilitarian,
practical, positive. The Greek classics were still the basis
of education, but were despised as the production of ideal-
ists and dreamers. There was still much sound learninGr.
and many learned men. The upper classes were well
educated for practical life, and the civil and military
service abounded in able and competent men. The
moral tone of society was comparatively good, perhaps
better than it had ever before been in a population equally
extensive.*
Leo and his successors for a hundred and twenty-five
years, the golden age of Byzantine history, are known as
the Iconoclast or image-breaking Emperors. The preva-
lence of Asiatic influences at the capital explains this
great iconoclastic movement.^ The ecclesiastics and
common people had degraded Christianity into a worship
of saints, images and relics. But there was still a strong
party, especially among the better instructed Asiatic
laymen, who protested against the prevalent image wor-
ship as a base idolatry.
This feeling found expression in the legislation of Leo,
which, at first, while not denying the usefulness of pictures
or decreeing their entire destruction, strictly forbade their
worship, A later decree required that all images should
' The Greeks still continued to call themselves Romaioi until the revival
of their national spirit within the past century, when they once mora
resumed their proper national appellation, and styled themselves HelUnes.
• Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. 258.
* Id., i. 41.
2*
34 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
be destroyed. It is worthy of notice that upon this point
Charlemagne and the leading men of the Prankish Church
were in accord with their iconoclastic contemporaries ol
Constantinople. Charlemagne himself wrote against the
worship of images, and it was emphatically condemned by
the Council of Frankfort in 794.^ For a hundred and
twenty- five years, excepting the period from 780 to 813,
the iconoclastic policy was firmly pursued by the imperial
government, and image or picture worship was generally
suppressed. But the great body of the people were far
too ignorant and superstitious to be reformed in this par-
ticular. Upon the death of the Emperor Theophilus,
in 842, the reign of this " Asiatic Puritanism" came to an
end, and image worship was finally and joyfully restored.
The great reform effected by Leo was the reorgani-
zation and purification of the civil government. Ever
since the days of Constantine, the imperial government
had been assuming more and more completely the form of
a great beaurocracy, each department constituting a profes-
sion by itself, the details of which could be mastered only
by long practice and patient application, and promotion in
which was almost sure to follow the display of diligence
and ability. It was this regular and scientific form of the
imperial government, the like of which the world had
never before seen, which gave it its great and enduring
strength. These remarks are especially true of the
administration of justice. The uniform procedure of the
Roman law established throughout the empire, raised up
everywhere a body of learned lawyers and judges, who, in
* Neander, vol. iii. pp. 234-243. See also Milman's Latin Christianity,
book »v. chapters vii. and viii., and book v. chapter i.
LEO THE /SAURIAN. 35
turn, by the strong spirit of conservatism natural to their
profession, gave to the law itself a degree of stability and
consistency which not only afforded a great safeguard to
person and property, but formed a strong check upon the
absolute power of the Emperors. The government of the
Empire was emphatically a government of law ; and the
regular and tolerably impartial administration of justice
did more than almost anything else to reconcile the people
to their lot under the absolute and oppressive govern-
ment of the Emperors.
To those accustomed to the comparative brevity and
purity of legal proceedings in English and American
courts, this praise of the Byzantine judicature may seem
but poorly deserved. The laws, an inheritance from a
former age, and enacted many of them for a different
condition of society, were often antiquated, confused, and
even contradictory. The cumbrous and costly mode of
procedure, still retained in the chancery and civil law
courts of Europe (in distinction from the common law
courts of England) afforded ample opportunity to skillful
and unprincipled lawyers to protract their suits to the
great loss of their clients; while the hearing and adjudi-
cation of all causes before a single judge without a jury,
and a judge holding his office only at the pleasure of an
arbitrary master, opened wide the door to corruption and
bribery. The administration of justice in the Byzantine
Empire was very far from being characterized by the
purity and impartiality which have been attained in the
courts of England and our own country ; but it was far
in advance of anything enjoyed, or which had ever been
enjoyed, in any other country, and was justly regarded
3fl THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
by the people of the Empire as the great glory of their
civilization.'
The long period of confusion which preceded the reign
of Leo had left the legal tribunals of the Empire in a
condition of sad disorder and corruption. His first
measure of reform was the restoration of comparative
vigor and purity in those tribunals. The beneficent
results of this reform were felt for many generations
throughout the Empire. His second measure was the
thorough reorganization of the fiscal administration. He
was obliged to rather increase than diminish the public
burdens ; but those burdens were judiciously arranged to
press as lightly as possible upon the industry and enter-
prise of the country, while the revenue was collected and
disbursed with order and economy. The result of these
measures was a perceptible and immediate revival of
prosperity throughout the Empire.
A third and very striking feature of the government of
Leo and his immediate successors was their commercial
policy. They saw clearly that henceforth commerce was
to be the corner-stone of the strength of the Empire ; and
seeing this, they so framed the financial system of their
government as to foster and promote the commercial in-
terests of their subjects. Monopolies and restrictions were
abolished, and duties and imposts were made fixed and
moderate. Under this wise policy, the Empire became
at once a great commercial state. During the eighth,
ninth, and tenth centuries, until the rise of the commer-
' See Gibbon's masterly account of the Roman Jurisprudence, in chapter
xliv. of his History ; also Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 80, and
book iii. chapter xxvii.
LEO THE ISAURIAN. jy
cial republics of Italy, the commerce of the world cen
tered at Constantinople, and brought with it enormous
wealth.* The islands and maritime cities of the Empire
again grew rich and prosperous ; their vast mercantile
marine again covered the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
An immense caravan trade passed from Cherson (an
ancient Greek colony upon the site of the modern Sebas-
topol) along the north shores of the Black and Caspian
Seas to the frontiers of China ; a second route connected
the cities of Armenia and northern India; while the
Saracen merchants brought to the eastern shores of the
Mediterranean, not only the products of their own coun-
try, but the rich traffic of the islands and coasts of the
Indian Ocean. The commodities which thus flowed in
abundant streams to Constantinople from the several
quarters of the eastern world, were again disseminated in
the West, partly by caravans through Bulgaria and by the
course of the Danube to central Europe, and partly by sea
to the numberless seaports of the South. The nations of
the West, in their rudeness and poverty, could return but
little money, but few of the products of industry or skill
to the Greek merchants. But unfortunately their inces-
sant wars supplied, in numberless captives, a commodity in
constant demand throughout the Mohammedan as well as
the Christian world ; and the slave trade became one of
the most important branches of Byzantine commerce.
Of this vast and terrible mediaeval slave trade, the Island
of Crete or Candia was the principal mart.^
* Finlay's Byzantine Empire, vol. i. p. 248.
* Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. 65, note; 328, 515, note. See also Hal-
Um's Middle Ages, p. 473, and note. Mr. Hallam mentions some very sur-
38 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
The export trade of the Empire was largely sustained
by its manufactures, and its production of wine and oil.
The manufacturing skill of the civilized world was now
largely concentrated in the Byzantine cities. The cities
of Greece, especially Thebes, Corinth, and Argos, grew
wealthy and populous in the manufacture of silk,^ linen,
and woolen fabrics of great variety and excellence ; while
many inland cities of Asia Minor enjoyed an equal pros-
perity in the production of needles, cutlery, combs, and a
multitude of similar articles, with which they supplied the
markets of the West. The large population employed in
commerce and manufactures produced a great and con-
stant demand for the fruits of the soil. This demand
gave a high value to labor, and every city contained
within its walls a large agricultural population who culti-
vated like a garden a considerable adjacent territory.
The military and naval forces of the Empire long re-
mained vigorous and efficient. The army was almost
wholly recruited from the neighboring barbarian tribes;
but the tactics and discipline of the early Empire were in
prising as well as i-<amful facts, showing the prevalence of a trade in slaves
even in England, in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. From these
statements it would appear that there were people in England in those times,
who sold not only their servants, but their own children and other relatives
to foreign dealers for slaves. He cites the following passage from the canons
of a council held at London in 1 102 : " Let no one from henceforth presume
to carry on that wicked traffic, by which men of England have been sold like
brute animals." To this citation he adds : " And Giraldus Cambrensis says
that the English before the conquest were generally in the habit of selling
their children and other relations to be slaves in Ireland, without having
even the pretext of distress or famine."
^ Silk had been introduced from China in the reign of Justinian I. — Gib-
bon, ir. 66-71
LEO THE ISAURIAN. 39
great measure still preserved. Until the middle of the
eleventh century the Byzantine armies remained the best
armed and disciplined, and the most formidable military
force in the world. When well commanded, they never
failed to prove themselves more than a match for any force
which they encountered.
Thus, by the genius of Heraclius and Leo the Isaurian,
was the falling Empire restored to lasting prosperity and
power. For many generations it seemed to contempo-
rary nations a grand and imposing state, unequaled in
wealth and magnificence, and enjoying almost the perfec-
tion of civilization and social order. No other nation
could boast of an administration of justice so regular
and impartial, based upon a code of laws so elaborate and
so rational. Its able lawyers, financiers, and civil officers
of every class were trained in excellent schools ; commer-
cial enterprise and manufacturing skill filled its numerous
cities with a busy and prosperous population; a vast and
opulent commerce poured a constant stream of wealth into
its treasury; its ably commanded and well disciplined
legions sustained in many a desperate conflict tlie ancient
renown of the Roman arms. Thus for three hundred
years the Christians of the West, in their darkness, bar-
barism, and confusion, looked upon the Byzantine Empire
as the proud embodiment of all that could give greatness
and splendor to a nation.
CHAPTER IV.
MENTAL ASPHYXIA.
COMPLETE MORAL ENSLAVEMENT OF THE EMPIRE —
INTELLECTUAL STUPOR OF THE CHURCH — THE
PAULICIANS.
The Empire had risen from its ruins, and in all its
material interests was flourishing and prosperous ; but
mentally and spiritually there was no revival ; a terrible
paralysis had seized upon its whole intellectual life.
There was no lack of learning, or of learned men. The
ancient treasures of knowledge were still preserved and
diligently studied ; but learning had become fruitless ;
the intellectual soil was barren. The mental eye had
become fixed steadily and only upon the past. The
march of society in State and Church had become a dead
routine, in which the only effort was to see to it that
nothing diverged in the least degree from the beaten
track of earlier days.
The Byzantine Empire presents the strange and un-
paralleled spectacle of a highly civilized people, unfet-
tered by the system of caste, possessing and carefully
preserving the literary treasures of an earlier and better
day, yet existing for seven hundred years without discov-
ering one new truth, developing one important or fruit-
MENTAL ASPHYXIA. 41
ful idea., or producing one book, which for either style or
substance deserved to be remembered by succeeding
ages. This strange and miserable decay of the intellect-
ual life of society and the Church, which marked the last
thousand years of the history of the Empire, is something
unique in human history. The like of it has never oc-
curred elsewhere, either before or since. ^ To an ob-
server of the third or fourth century, it might well have
seemed that the restless, versatile activity of the Greek
mind could only cease with the destruction of the Greek
race. That mind had been the light, the intellect of the
ancient world. From it, excepting only the religion and
sacred writings of the Jews, had sprung all that the world
had yet seen which had risen above the low level of a
material civilization. The poetry, the history, the philos-
ophy, the science; all the freedom of thought, all the bold-
ness of investigation which had as yet enlarged and en-
nobled the human mind, had sprung directly or indirectly
from the intellect of Greece. Converted to Christianity,
the Greeks began at once to reason and speculate upon
their new religion in all its doctrines, aspects, and rela-
tions, with the same vigor and subtlety which they had
displayed in the fields of a heathen philosophy. That
elaborate and harmonious system of doctrine, which
from that day to this has commanded the assent of the
Christian world, was in great measure the work of their
skillful hands. When the spiritual life of the Church had
almost passed away, this intellectual activity still re-
mained. Fierce controversies upon disputed points of
' Chinese civilization approaches nearest to a resemblance ; but the
Chinese and the Greeks can hardly be compared.
42 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
doctrine still raged, and divided not only the clergy and
theologians of the day, but the common people. In the
fourth and fifth centuries, these religious controversies
were the great subject of conversation, and of loquacious,
endless discussion, even to the shopkeepers, artisans, and
barbers of Constantinople. " Everywhere in that new
capital of the world, at the races of the hippodrome, at
the theatres, at feasts, in debauches, the most sacred
names were bandied to and fro in eager disputation.
Every corner, every alley of the city, the streets, the
markets, the drapers' shops, the tables of money-changers
and of victualers, were crowded with these off-hand dog-
matizers. If a trader was asked the cost of such an arti-
cle, he answered by philosophizing on generated and un-
generated being. If a stranger inquired the price of
bread, he was told, "The Son is subordinate to the
Father." If a traveler asked whether his bath was ready,
he was told, "The Son arose out of nothing." ^
But as the process of decay went on, even this intel-
lectual activity, which, for a thousand years, had seemed
an indestructible attribute of the Greek mind, at last died
away. By the year 850, the dead sea of the Greek
Church had almost ceased to be agitated, even by the
acrid blasts of fanatical controversy. Men worshiped
their pictures, their relics, and their guardian saints, and
accepted their creed as it was fixed for them by the iron
hand of authority, without one inquiring thought, or one
longing aspiration for the freedom which they had lost.
This steady decay and final extinction of the intellect-
» "The Council of Constantinople," Edinburgh Review for July, 1867
p. 51.
MENTAL ASPHYXIA. 43
ual vigor and activity of the Greek race, while still pre-
serving and diligently using the literary treasures which
were its priceless inheritance, and while the civilization
of die ancient world still existed in almost undiminished
splendor, is one of the strangest and saddest facts of
human history. Few inquiries could be more instruc-
tive or profitable than tliat which should point out clearly
the causes of this gloomy and at last total obscuration
of the light of the ancient world.
It naturally occurs to us that there were several
causes working together under the long and complete
despotism of the Roman and Byzantine Emperors to
produce this disastrous result ; — the degeneracy of man-
kind under so many centuries of despotic rule ; the
depression, impoverishment, and disintegradon of society
by fiscal oppression ; and especially, the vast and uni-
versal system of slavery.
But neither any one of these causes separately, nor
all of diem together, are enough to account for the great
fact under consideration. For in the first place, at no
time in the history of the Empire did there exist in the
great body of its people a degree of physical or mental
imbecility or degeneracy, which a single generation of free
and rational government would not have been sufficient
to remedy. After the concentrated beaurocracy estab-
lished by Constantine the Great had held society in its
iron grasp for almost a thousand years, it was still found
that if the people of the cities were left to themselves,
even partially, and for a short time, their mihtary vigor
was soon restored, and with it pohtical sagacity enough
for the successful management of their own affairs
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
When, after the capture of Constantinople by the Cru-
saders, in 1 204, the Greek Emperors were compelled to
remove their seat of government to Nicaea, in Asia
Minor, and to fall back for support upon the devotion
of their people, the archers of Bythinia soon became the
most formidable part of their military force, proving
themselves in no way inferior to their ancestors of
ancient times. And when, about the year 1325, the
progress of the Seljukian Turks cut off the city of Phil-
adelphia from all connection with the Empire, its citi-
zens, undismayed by the ruin which surrounded them,
stood manfully and successfully in their own defence;
and, relieved from the tyranny and extortions of the im-
perial government, through two generations of entire
independence, they enjoyed a degree of prosperity un-
known to them for ages before. Mr. Finlay affirms, and
apparently with good reason, that at the very time
when the intellectual life of the Empire was finally dying
out, its population was characterized by a higher moral
tone and a better social order than had ever before been
seen in any equally numerous portion of the human
race.' Plainly, the race had not degenerated. There
was no imbecility, either physical or mental, to account
for the cessation of its intellectual activity.
That sad result did not spring from the impoverish-
ment and disintegration of society produced by the fiscal
extortions of the government. In the fourth century
the cities of Greece had already begun to revive, and in
the time of the Iconoclast Emperors, the sails of their
vast and opulent commerce whitened the waters of the
* Byzantine Empire, voL L pp. 258-260.
MENTAL ASPHYXIA. 45
neighboring seas. But, contrary to what has appeared
in almost every other similar case in ancient or modern
times, this great commercial activity brought no enlarge-
ment to the field of thought, wrought no deliverance to
the human mind.
It cannot be referred wholly or chiefly to the blight-
ing, deadening influences of a vast and universal system
of slavery. The social and intellectual activity of the
ancient world was confined mostly to its cities. But in
the commercial cities of the Byzantine Empire there
was far less of slavery than there had been in ancient
Greece, or under the first Christian Emperors of Constan-
tinople.
Nor can we say with Lord Macaulay, that this intel-
lectual decay was produced by the fusing down of the
whole civilized world into one uniform and stagnant
mass, under " the vast despotism of the Caesars." ^ It
seems a rash thing to call in question a teaching of that
great authority ; yet it is clear that such an hypothesis
is not sustained by the facts in the case. As we have
already seen, the power and institutions of Rome did not
avail to reduce the whole population of the Empire to
one common and homogeneous mass. The peoples of
the eastern half of the Empire still retained their lan-
guages and their national characteristics. It was the
strong and irreconcilable antagonism between the three
great national tendencies of the Empire, which we may
call the Italian, the Greek, and the Egyptian, which pro-
duced the fierce and long continued controversies of the
• See the briUmot article on " History," in Lord Macaulay's Miscellaneous
Essays.
46 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
Christian Church, and which led finally to the dissolution
of the Empire.
No more is the long and unyielding despotism of the
civil government a cause sufficient to account for this
decay. Some of the most brilliant literary periods of
both ancient and modern times have occurred under
governments as despotic, in theory and in fact, as that
of the Roman and Byzantine Emperors. It was under
the same imperial government that the Empire was made
illustrious by the two golden ages of Roman literature,
the pagan and the Christian. No reason can be pointed
out, in the character and working of that government,
why learning and literature should not have continued
to flourish in the Empire, as they did in Egypt, under
the Ptolemies, as they have in modern times in France,
in Germany, and in Russia. Indeed, no despotic govern-
ment could well be more liberal in this respect than was
that of the Roman Empire, until it formed its disastrous
alliance with the ecclesiastical power of the Christian
Church. The pagan Emperors, satisfied with acquies-
cence in their authority, the payment of their fiscal
exactions, and a nominal acknowledgment of the re-
ligion of the state, left their subjects free, in great
measure, to think, to write, and to teach as they pleased.
Even the persecutions of the Christians were occasioned
far more by a political dread of a religion which seemed
hostile to the Roman institutions, than by religious intol-
erance. The last century and a half of the pagan Em-
pire formed a period of universal disaster and confusion.
Attendant upon this state of things, there was neces-
sarily a considerable decline of popular intelligence and
MENTAL ASPHYXIA. 49
liteiary activity. Yet the intellectual decay of the Em-
pire during this period was in seeming rather than in
reality. The moral and mental vigor of society had not
passed away; it had been transferred to the disciples of
a new religion. In due time, under the first Christian
Emperors, it displayed itself in a brilliant period of the
most vigorous and widespread intellectual activity thaL
the Empire had ever seen. If the Christian Emperors
could have imitated the tolerance of their pagan prede-
cessors, and, even while sustaining Christianity as the
religion of the state, could have allowed the old freedom
of discussion and belief within the pale of the Church,
there can be no doubt that the same results would have
followed then, which have appeared in modern times
under the equally arbitrary governments of Germany.
The splendid theological literature of the fourth century
would have branched forth into a rich and multiform
intellectual activity. History, poetry, philosophy, and
natural science would soon have begun to inspire the
earnest devotion of clear and powerful minds, and the
stores of human knowledge would have been greatly
increased.
But this could not be. The arbitrary principle em-
bodied in the imperial government had taken full posses-
sion of society. Naturally and inevitably, the bishops
began to copy in the Church the despotism of the civil
government, and to combine themselves into a vast and
powerful hierarchy analogous to that of '■he State. The
same despotic authority which the imperial beaurocracy
exercised in civil society, this stupendous hierarchy as-
serted over the Church. It claimed to rule the Church
48 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
by the same divine right by which the Emperor gov-
erned the State. It assumed the right to fix beyond all
appeal, and by an authority from which no man might
dare to dissent, every article of religious belief, even to
tlie minutest point. By its alliance with the government
it was able to grasp this authority, and to wield it with
h-resistible power. It thus bound the human mind in an
iron bondage from which there was no escape. In this
moral despotism of the hierarchy of the Church appears
the great and fatal secret of the decline and final destruc-
tion of the intellectual life of the Empire. That deplor-
able catastrophe was the result of one mighty and suffi-
cient cause — the substitution of authority for reason in
the decision of every moral and religious question. The
government had already closed all political questions
against free discussion. The Church now stepped in, and
extended the fatal interdict to every question of morals
and religion. Thus cut off from every subject of vital and
practical interest, the human mind found nothing in the
comparatively cold fields of philosophy and natural sci-
ence to rouse and call forth its energies, and sunk into
lethargic inactivity — a sad and terrible result which never
has failed, and never can fail, to follow the invasion of the
high prerogatives of the human reason by ecclesiastical
authority, in exact proportion to the extent and energy of
the invasion. This deplorable enslavement of the human
mind was already complete before the time of Justinian,
and its fatal effects became ever more and more apparent
until the final extinction of the Empire by the Turks.
To this long and dreary reign of a dead orthodoxy
there came one memorable interruption. Upon the dis-
THE PAULICIANS.
49
tant banks of the Euphrates there arose, about the year
670, a new sect, called Paulicians, or followers of St.
Paul.' The strange and unhappy history of this sect,
which, with all its errors, remained the best and most
Christian part of the Christian Church for more than five
hundred years, demands a passing notice.
In the village of Mananlis, near Samosata, on the
Euphrates, there lived a man in humble circumstances,
but of a sincere and earnest mind, named Constantine.
It happened, about the year 660, that this man entertained
a deacon of the Greek Church returning from captivity.
In gratitude for his kindness, his guest, upon departing,
bestowed upon him a copy of the New Testament. Con-
stantine at once gave himself to the study of his new-
found treasure with the greatest earnestness. Catching
the true spirit of St. Paul, he not only embraced, but
began most zealously and successfully to preach, the sim-
ple doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone. Taking
St. Paul for his example, and striving not only to teach
his doctrines, but to imitate his evangelical labors, he
baptized the churches which he founded with the name
and with much of the spirit of the great Apostle. Rising
above the superstitions which then universally debased the
Christian world, these simple churches of the distant East
rejected the worship of the Virgin Mary, of images, relics,
and saints, and displayed a nearer approach than had been
seen for centuries to the simple piety of primitive Chris-
tianity.
But their truth was strangely mixed with error. In
' For the rise and melancholy history of the Paulicians, see Neander,
voL ilL pp. 244, and Gibbon, chap. liv.
so THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE,
the midst of the moral and intellectual darkness which
surrounded them, it was hardly possible that they should
discern the truth in its fullness and simplicity. In those
Eastern regions the old Persian dualism — the doctrine of
two eternal and hostile powers, the one good and the
other evil — had been preserved through the Gnostic and
Manichaean heresies, and still kept a strong hold upon the
public mind. With this doctrine the faith of Constantine
was deeply tinged ; and the constant antithesis presented
In the New Testament between light and darkness, good
and evil, God and the world, seemed to him to give it
strong confirmation. The Paulicians thus came to believe
not only in the existence of an eternal being, evil by na-
ture, and forever hostile to the God of light and truth,
but that this evil being created the world, and was the
author of the old dispensation and the Old Testament
Scriptures. They therefore rejected the Old Testament,
and with it the Epistles of St. Peter, and everything in
the New Testament which savored of the leaven of Juda-
ism, They denied also the human body and actual suf-
ferings of the Lord Jesus, adopting the Gnostic view, that
He presented to the eyes of man only a seeming body
and seeming sufferings.
But these errors, great and strange as they were, did
not prevent them from apprehending, by faith, the love
of God in His Son, nor from fixing in the one Mediator
between God and man a simple and saving trust. Ac-
cordingly, there was soon manifest in the churches of
these poor, unlearned people a resurrection of the true
Christian life long unknown in the degenerate Church.
For twenty years the Paulician churches flourished in
THE PAUUCIANS. 51
prosperity and peace ; but by that time they had attracted
the attention of the authorities at Constantinople, and the
decree went forth for their extirpation. For a hundred
and fifty years from this time they endured in frequent
persecutions all that tyrannical power was able to inflict,
and many thousands of them were put to death. This
cruelty of the government finally drove them to open
rebellion. They found ready and powerful allies in their
Saracen neighbors, and for a time they waged war against
their fellow- Christians with terrible success. But the
final issue was against them — their country was wasted
with fire and sword, and vast numbers of them were
transported from the remote east to the extreme west of
the Greek dominions, that their well-tried bravery might
become a defense to the Empire against die barbarians of
Europe. Planted in western Thrace and Macedonia, in
the desolate border-land between the Greeks and Bulga-
rians, and there left to itself, the new colony took root and
grew into a strong and prosperous community. It occu-
pied the city of Philippopolis, and a long range of villages
and strongholds stretching south-west from that city as
far as the mountains of Epirus.
The mission of the Paulicians was not yet fulfilled. In
their new seats they still displayed something of the same
simplicity of faith and of earnest, evangelizing zeal which
had marked their earlier history in the distant East
During the Middle Ages, when the people of Western
Europe were buried in ignorance and superstition, and
groaning under an intolerable tyranny in both Church
and State, many a light was kindled at the smouldering
embers of the Paulician altars, which illuminated the uni-
5S THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
versal darkness with a bright and cheering ray.* The
Paulicians of Thrace and Macedonia engaged in active
missionary labors, by which their doctrines were dissemi-
nated far and wide in both Eastern and Western Europe ;
and many a pilgrim, pausing among them upon his jour-
ney to the Holy Sepulchre, imbibed their purer doctrine
and nobler spirit, and carried them with him to his distant
home. By the year i lOO the Paulician doctrine had
taken deep root among the Bulgarians and Servians, in
Italy and in Sicily.^
But it was among the Albigenses of the south of France
that this so-called heresy obtained its firmest hold, ac-
complished its greatest work, met its most tragic fate. In
the twelfth century the cities of Italy and the south of
France were beginning to rejoice in the rising light of a
new civilization. While barbarism still maintained an
unbroken reign throughout the north of Europe, the
people of Provence and Languedoc had already acquired
a large measure of social culture and material prosperity.
With this rising civilization among the Albigenses there
sprung up a bold and free spirit which disdained a spirit-
ual bondage to the Court of Rome, and led them to open
^ There were two of these great migrations of the Paulicians to the West ;
the first, from motives, possibly, of policy rather than persecution, under
the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, about the year 750 ; the second, en-
forced by John Zimisces, in the latter part of the tenth century. " Con-
stantine Copronymus, with their own consent, transported a great body of
Paulicians into Thrace, as an outpost to the Byzantine Empire. John Zim-
isces conducted another great migration to the valleys of Mount Haemus." —
Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. v. p. 159.
* In its long career and great extension, the Paulician faith branched into
several distinct forms. The Euchites, Bogomilians, and Cathartists were all
of a similar character and common origin.
THE PAUUCIANS. 53
their minds gladly to the PauHcian faith. To this revolt
from the authority of the Papal Church there could tlien
be but one issue. The time had not yet come when those
bonds could be broken, and the unhappy Albigenses were
doomed. In the year 1207, Pope Innocent III. pro-
claimed a crusade against them, in which their savage
and greedy neighbors were but too eager to engage. The
horrors suffered by the disciples of the same faith five
hundred years before, upon the banks of the Euphrates,
were re-enacted and surpassed in the south of France.
The blood of countless thousands of the people drenched
the soil; the faith of the Albigenses was rooted out ; and
the country, before essentially independent, was sub-
jected at once to the temporal despotism of the King of
France, and the spiritual despotism of the Pope.
Such is the end of the sad history of the Paulician
sect — a sect characterized, through all its long and event-
ful career, by an earnest though unsuccessful struggle
with the darkness of the intellectual world and the re-
morseless tyranny of Church and State. There is one
very important truth taught by this history which the
Church of those evil times had never learned, which many
in our own day seem unable to receive. It is that a
great deal of doctrinal error may coexist in the human
mind and in the Church, with that love to God and man
which is the fulfilling of the law, and that faith which
saves the soul. The Paulician heresy seems to have been
the last flicker of light and life in the Eastern Church.
That heresy suppressed, the dreary reign of superstition
and of political and spiritual despotism remained age
after age, unbroken and undisturbed.
CHAPTER V.
BASIL THE MACEDONIAN.
THE DECAY OF THE EMPIRE.
From the accession of Leo the Isaurian, in 717, the
Iconoclast Emperors held the throne for a hundred and
twenty-five years, until the death of Theophilus, in 842.*
This period was the golden age of the Byzantine Em-
pire. The Emperors were most of them men of energy
and ability, the vast machine of the civil government was
in full vigor and efficiency, justice was regularly admin-
istered, a rapidly growing commerce filled the Empire
with wealth, and the iconoclastic policy of the govern-
ment gave to the Church and society a moral tone, which
was lost upon the restoration of image worship, never
again to be recovered.
Theophilus left his throne to his wife Theodora and
son Michael III,, whose moral and intellectual manhood
was purposely ruined by his mother, that she might
^ The order of succession was as follows: Leo (IH.) the Isaurian,
717-741; Constantine ( V. ) Copronymus, 741-775; Leo IV., 775-780; his
widow, the Empress Irene, and his son, Constantine VI., 780-802; Nice-
phorus I., 802-811; Michael (I.) Rhangabe, 811-813; Leo (V.) the Ar-
menian, 813-820; Michael (II.) the Stammerer, 820-829; Theophilus,
829-842. Theophilus was succeeded by his wife, the Empress Theodora,
as regent for their son, Michael (III.) the Drunkard, who reignel 842-867
BASIL THE MACEDONIAN. 55
retain the power in her own hands. The first measure
of Theodora was the restoration of image worship ; and
this reaction agamst the comparative austerity of the
iconoclast government was marked, Hke the EngHsh Res-
toration of Charles II., by a carnival of license and vice.
Mr. Finlay observes that "the overthrow of the Icono-
clasts, and the destruction of the Paulicians, were victo-
ries of the Greek race and Church over the Asiatics, which
were neither forgotten nor forgiven," and that the con-
quest of Asia Minor by the Turks was facilitated by the
hatred of the native Asiatics to Greek rule.' From this
time on, the history of the Empire is but the painful
record of slow but steady and hopeless decay, which
deserves and will repay but a very brief review.
The year 867 was marked by the accession of Basil
I., surnamed the Macedonian, the founder of the longest,
perhaps the most powerful dynasty which ever occupied
the Byzantine throne. Basil had entered Constantinople
a simple Slavonian peasant, with his wallet upon his
shoulder, seeking employment. His intelligence and
ability, his athletic figure and great strength, and his
marvelous skill in taming unruly horses, in wrestling,
and the sports of the chase, soon attracted the attention
of Michael the Drunkard, and secured him an important
position in the imperial household. The Slavonian
groom soon became the worthless Emperor's prime
favorite; and at length, as much apparently from caprice
or spite as from any other motive, Michael placed the
imperial crown upon his head, and made him his col-
league in the government. Basil repaid this boundless
' Byzantine Empire, vol. ii, pp. 107, 108.
$6 THE B YZANTINE EMI TRE.
favor by assassinating his benefactor, and became sole
Emperor in ZGj. He was a man as destitute of moral
character as of any civil or military training for the high
position to which he had been so suddenly and so strange-
ly elevated. But so perfect was the political system of
which he found himself at the head, and such was his
native shrewdness and ability, that he was able to con-
duct the government with eminent success. A man of
the people, and familiar with the popular wants and bur-
dens, he set himself with no little energy to lighten the
pressure of taxation and to introduce order, economy,
and vigor into every department of his administration.
His diligence was rewarded by the continuance of his
family in the government of a powerful and prosperous
empire for nearly two hundred years.^
As we contemplate the history of the Empire during
' The Emperors of the Basilian dynasty were as follows : Basil I.,
867-886 ; his son, Leo VI. (the Philosopher), 886-912 ; Alexander, brother
of Leo VI., 912-913 ; Constantine (VII.) Porphyrogenitus, son of Leo VI.,
913 (Romanus I. was his guardian, afterwards his colleague or master,
9i3-944)-949; Romanus IL, son of Constantine VII., 949-963; Basil II.
(Bulgaroktonos), 963 (the Emperors Nicephorus II., 963-969, and John
Zimisces, 969-973, were his guardians during his minority)-i025 ; Con-
stantine VIII., brother of Basil II., 1025-1028; Romanus III., husband
of Zoe, daughter of Constantine VIII., 1028-1034; Michael IV. (the Paph-
lagonian), second husband of Zoe, 1034-1041 ; Michael V., third husband
of Zoe, 1042; Constantine IX., fourth husband of Zoe, 1042-1054; the
Empress Theodora, another daughter of Constantine VIII., and the last
scion of the family of Basil the Macedonian, 1054-1056.
Basil II. , surnamed Bulgaroktonos, or Slayer of the Bulgarians,
was the last really able man who ever occupied the Byzantine throne
To recount the long list of undistinguished, and too often worthless
Emperors, who reigned from 1056 to the accession of Constantine (XI.)
Paleologus, the last Greek Emperor, in 1448, would be alike tedious and
anprofitable.
BASIL THE MACEDONIAN. 57
this long period, we are struck at once by its still re-
maining grandeur, prosperity, and power, and by the
most unmistakable indications of political, social, and in-
tellectual decay. A diligent and skillful manufacturing
industry and a vast and opulent commerce still filled the
Empire and the imperial treasury with enormous wealth.
The richness and magnificence of Constantinople at this
period have rarely been equaled in any city of either
ancient or modern times. When the Empress Theodora
was forced to abdicate in favor of her son Michael the
Drunkard, she reported as then in the treasury the im-
mense sum of one hundred and nine thousand pounds
weight of gold, and three hundred thousand pounds of
silver, besides rich stores of other precious commoditiet
The Emperor Basil II., after twenty-five years of costly
wars, left an accumulated treasure hardly less in amount
At the same time the Empire abounded in wealthy mag
nates whose riches bore no inconsiderable proportion t.
those of the government.^ Literature and science wer^
cultivated and ostentatiously patronized, and many men
of great and varied learning still adorned society. The
elaborate machinery of the civil government moved as
yet with quiet and efficient order, and the military es-
tablishment showed no signs of decay. The reigns of
Nicephorus II., John Zimisces, and Basil II. form a
period of conquest and military glory hardly surpassed
by any in the history of the Empire. Crete, Cyprus, Anti-
och, and northern Syria were recovered from the Sara-
cens, and the boundaries of the Empire were once more
' Finlay's Byzantine Empire, vol. i. p. 252; Gibbon, vol. v. pp. 348"
353-
3*
58 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
extended to the Tigris ; and finally, the able and inde-
fatigable, but stern and cruel Basil II., surnamed Bul-
garoktonos, or Bulgarian-slayer, after an obstinate strug-
gle of twenty-two years, compljitely destroyed the pow-
erful kingdom of the Bulgarians, and extended his
Empire to the Danube and the Adriatic.
But this magnificence and military success were but
the delusive covering of radical and universal decay. The
despotism of the Emperors was now absolute in both
State and Church. They elevated and deposed the
patriarchs at their pleasure ; the provincial bishops be-
came the mere creatures of the civil power ; all munici-
pal institutions were abolished ; the imperial senate had
sunk into a mere executive council. A pompous and
tedious ceremonial, which should conceal the sacred per-
son of the emperor from the eyes of mankind, became a
chief subject of thought and study to the degenerate
Greeks. The court, much of the time thoroughly cor-
rupt, was too often disgraced by shameless vice and by
constant intrigues and conspiracies.
It was during this period that the wonderful machinery
of the civil government, which had so long upheld the
Empire, began to be neglected and broken up. Instead
of the able and thoroughly trained ministers and civil
officers who had heretofore filled the several depart-
ments of government, high and responsible trusts now
began to be committed to eunuchs and slaves. With
this neglect of the civil system there was a correspond-
ing decline in the learning and ability of its members ;
and as the judges became poorer and less learned, the
administration of justice became less regular and impar-
BASIL THE MACEDONIAN. 59
tial, and the security and order of society were sadly
impaired.
With this period also passed away the commercial
prosperity of the Empire. The wise policy of Leo the
Isaurian was abandoned, and monopolies and imperial
favoritism were allowed to obstruct the channels of trade.
Swarms of Saracen pirates began to rove the seas and
ravage the islands and coasts of the ^gean. Constant
wars, which were in reality little else than great slave-
catching expeditions, had long been waged by the Sara-
cen emirs upon the border provinces, until eastern Asia
Minor was almost depopulated ; the long struggle of Basil
II. with the Bulgarians left the provinces of the West
equally exhausted ; and thus the general vigor, the trade,
and the population of the Empire were wasting away.
As the middle classes disappeared, the country every-
where passed into the hands of great military nobles, who
reigned like kings upon their vast estates, and lived in
royal magnificence at Constantinople.
With the death of Basil XL, in 1025, the glory of the
Empire departed. The sovereigns of his line, who still
occupied the throne for thirty-four years, were as incom-
petent as they were base and profligate. Everything
tended steadily to ruin. The old vigor of the govern-
mental system was gone; the army, no longer either
properly disciplined or ably commanded, lost its ancient
superiority over the forces of neighboring powers ; places,
privileges, and justice itself were openly and shamelessly
sold ; and the whole Empire groaned beneath an intol-
erable burden of corruption, misgovernment, and oppres-
sion.
6o THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
The death of the Empi .ss Theodora, the last scion of
the family of Basil the Macedonian, in 1057, was followed
the same year by a most important revolution, which
placed the imperial crown upon the head of Isaac Com-
nenus, one of the great nobles of Asia Minor. From this
time on until the Turkish conquest the throne remained
in the possession of one or another of these great fami-
lies. In the eyes of his contemporaries, the Empire of
Isaac Comnenus seemed hardly less magnificent, pros-
perous, and powerful than that of Basil the Macedonian.
It was, however, but a splendid shadow from which the
strength and substance had departed. The old civil sys-
tem now fell almost entirely into disuse. Official educa-
tion and regular promotion in great measure ceased, and
the offices of government were mostly intrusted to ser-
vants of the Emperors from their private principalities.
"This change in the position of the dignitaries of the
Empire enabled the sovereign to intrust the direction of
the government to the stewards of his household. Now,
though these men were not trained in the public service,
yet their previous duties prevented the practice from pro-
ducing so great an amount of public inconvenience as to
cause general dissatisfaction We must
recollect that many of the great families in the Byzantine
Empire at this period possessed households so numerous
as often to count their domestic slaves by thousands.
Those who maintained such establishments in the capital
were proprietors of immense estates in the provinces, and
the intendants who managed their affairs were conse°
quently trained to business in a school which afforded
them as extensive an experience of government as cau
BASIL THE MACEDONIAN. 6l
now be gained by the individuals who direct the admin-
istration of many of the German principaHties." ' Yet
the change was every way and immensely for the worse.
The policy of the new imperial system was narrow, short-
sighted, and selfish. Roads, fortifications, the administra-
tion of justice, commerce, all the great interests of society
were everywhere neglected, and universal decay seized
upon the Empire.
While the ancient dominion of Rome was thus bowing
with the decrepitude of age, other powers, fresh with the
vigor of youth, and with which the tottering Empire
found itself unable to cope, were rising to their place in
the political sphere — powers whose appearance indicates
the dawning of the modern age. The small but ener-
getic and powerful republics of Italy were now beginning
to fill the seas with their fleets and to dispute the ancient
commercial supremacy of Constantinople. The Normans,
already established in southern Italy and Sicily, were
soon, under their famous leader, Robert Guiscard, to dis-
play their erratic but marvelous energy in the western
provinces of the Empire ; while in the distant east the
Seljukian Turks had begun to pour the swarms of their
irregular cavalry over the high plains of Armenia.
The conquest of Asia Minor by the Scljuk princes was
one of the most eflficient of the immediate causes of the
fall of the Empire. In the year 1063, the great Alp
Arslan ascended the throne of Persia, and two years later
he effected the conquest of Armenia and Georgia. The
presence of the victorious Turks in Asia Minor compelled
the Empress Eudocia, the widow of Constantine Ducas,
I Finlay*s Byzantine Empire, vol. li. p. 4.
6a THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
the successor of Isaac Comnenus, to give her hand to a
soldier ; and Romanus Diogenes, a brave but rash and
injudicious general, was crowi ed Emperor in 1068.
Romanus opened his campaign with great vigor and suc-
cess. The scattered bands of the Turks were chased
beyond the Euphrates, and had the Emperor listened to
the fair proposals of Alp Arslan, an honorable peace
might have been secured. Those proposals were con-
temptuously rejected, and in the great battle which fol-
lowed, Romanus was defeated and taken prisoner. Aftei
this great disaster to the Christian arms, the progress of
the Turks was steady and irresistible. Upon the death
of Malek Shah, in 1092, the Seljukian Empire was broken
up. The vast dominions of the dead Sultan were divided
among his sons, while Soliman, the head of another branch
of the royal line, marched to found for himself a new
kingdom in the fair provinces of Asia Minor. A double
rebellion in the Empire invited his arms to the very shores
of the Bosphorus. Asia Minor was lost, and the ancient
city of Nicaea became the capital of this new conquest of
Islam, the Turkish Kingdom of Roum. The country
thus subdued was at once colonized, and, in the course of
a single generation, the Turks formed a majority of the
inhabitants in Cappadocia, Phrygia, and Galatia.
CHAPTER VI.
THE END.
CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE CRUSADERS —
FOUR EMPIRES — RECOVERY OF CONSTANTINOPLT?
BY THE GREEKS — CONQUEST OF THE CITY AND
EXTINCTION OF THE EMPIRE BY THE TURKS.
In the year 1081, a successful rebellion raised Alexis
Comnenus to the throne — an emperor famous in history
for his connection with the First Crusade. Alexis took
Constantinople by storm. The city was pillaged and in
part destroyed, thus receiving the first great blow which
had ever been inflicted upon it. From this time on, the
incessant march of the vast crusading hosts became to
the government of the Empire the one topic of absorb-
ing interest and its source of greatest danger. The First
Crusade (in 1096-7) afTorded Alexis some temporary re-
lief by breaking the power of the Turkish Kingdom of
Roum, and restoring the western half of Asia Minor to
the Empire. But the help brought to the Greeks by the
Crusaders was transient and delusive, while the danger
to the Empire from these vast barbarian movements was
constant and ever increasing. The Crusaders accused the
Greek government and people of indifference, and even
64 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
of hostility to their cause. The mutual jealousies of race
and religion were deepened by the licentious, marauding
propensities of the Crusaders into a fierce and deadly en-
mity, until, finally, the adventurers of the West, forgetting
their vows and the purpose for which they had ranged
themselves under the banner of the Cross, turned their
arms against their fellow-Christians of the Empire. That
Empire was already rotten to the core and well deserving
of such a fate, when, in 1203, the knights of the Fourth
Crusade, aided by the Venetians, laid siege to Constanti-
nople. The inadequate garrison defended the city with
great bravery, but fortune soon decided in favor of the
besiegers, and on the 12th of April, 1204, the ancient
capital of the Caesars bowed for the first time to a foreign
foe.' Then followed a scene of horror rarely surpassed
in all the dark history of war. The victorious Crusaders
set fire to the city, and in the light of a vast and awful
conflagration entered upon their fiendish work of plunder,
lust, and blood. The city was ruined. Those of its
opulent citizens who escaped with life, after having seen
their houses plundered, their wives dishonored, and their
children reduced to slaver}^, were driven forth in poverty
beyond the walls. Every insult was heaped by the
Catholic victors upon the ceremonies and the churches of
the Greek faith. Horses were stabled in some of the
churches, while others were made the scenes of licentious
orgies too vile to be described. At length, after these
scenes of horror had continued for seve ral days, the LatiiJ
leaders restored some semblance of order, divided their
enormous booty, proceeded to organize the government,
* Gibbon, vi. 85-93 > Milman, book ix. chap. vii.
CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 65
and on the 9th of May, 1204, elected Baldwin, Count of
Flanders, the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople.
The new Latin Empire, however, was but a pitiful
counterfeit of even the degenerate Greek Empire of the
twelfth century. In the nominal division of their con-
quests, the Crusaders allowed to the new Emperor but a
fourth part of the Byzantine dominions, while, in fact, the
Empire of Baldwin soon embraced little more than the
city of Constantinople, with the adjacent regions of Thrace.
The Venetians reserved for their share the provinces of the
north-west, with Adrianople for tlieir capital, while Mace-
donia and Greece, under the name of the Kingdom of
Saloniki, or Thessalonica, were bestowed upon Boniface,
Marquis of Montferrat. The conquest of the capital,
however, was very far from securing to the Latins the
full possession of the Empire. Two members of the im-
perial family succeeded in establishing themselves as inde-
pendent sovereigns. Michael Angelos Comnenus became
the first Despot of Epirus ; and a few years later his
brother and successor, Theodore, having expelled Deme-
trius, the son of Boniface, from Macedonia, and the Vene-
tians from Adrianople, assumed the title of Emperor of
Thessalonica. Alexis Comnenus was Governor of Trebi-
zond, when Constantinople was taken by the Crusaders.
Assuming the purple as heir to the tlirone, he and his
successors continued their poor play of imperial greatness
in tliat distant province, until it was ended by Moham-
med n. in 1 46 1.
The honor of the Greek name and arms, however, was
most successfully vindicated by Theodore Lascaris, who
had been hastily invested with the imperial purple in tlie
66 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
midst of the tumult occasioned by the final assault of the
city by the Crusaders. Theodore escaped across the
Bosphorus, and, by his prudence and ability, soon suc-
ceeded in reorganizing the poor remains of Byzantine
power and dominion in north-western Asia Minor. The
important city of Nicaea opened its gates to him, and
became for nearly sixty years the capital of a fourth
Empire, which, by its prosperity and growing power, soon
made good its claim to be regarded as the true representa-
tive of the ancient dominion of the Caesars. Theodore
Lascaris (1204— 1222) and his two successors, John III.
(1222-1254) and Theodore Lascaris II. (1254-1258),
were all of them men of character, courage, and unusual
administrative ability. Under their government, the his-
.tory of the Empire of Nicaea presents one of the most
pleasing and instructive portions of the later Byzantine
annals.^ The affairs of the Church were kept, to a far
greater extent than formerly, separate from those of the
State. The government was administered with liberality,
economy, and vigor. The people, now proprietors of the
lands they tilled, and made to feel a personal interest in
the government, not only became industrious and pros-
perous, but rapidly regained their long lost military spirit.
The Empire of John III. presented to the world the
strange spectacle of a Greek Empire, strong in the field
by the valor of its own citizens, and wealthy and pros-
perous through the agricultural and manufacturing indus-
try of a free people. The Empire of Nicaea thus soon
found itself superior in military strength to all its neigh-
^ Finlay's Byzantine Empire, book iv. chap. i. ; Gibbon, vi. i4l-5>
END OF THE LA TIN EMPIRE. 67
bors, and extended its limits on every hand. The power
of the Seljukian Turks was now thoroughly decayed, and
tlie several emirs, little else than independent sovereigns
in their several provinces, were no match for the well-
organized forces of their Greek neighbors. The Empire
of Thessalonica possessed no elements of enduring
strength, and its feeble existence soon came to an end.
About the year 1240, Theodore Comnenus resigned the
crown to John III., and the two Empires were again
united.
The Latin Empire, the abortive result of the conquest
of Constantinople by the Crusaders, pursued its feeble
and inglorious career for a period of fifty-seven years,
without revenues or resources of any kind, and with no
military strength but what they derived from western
adventurers, who, for a short time, flocked to Constanti-
nople to share in the spoils of the East; the Latin
Emperors were soon reduced to wander from court to
court in western Europe, begging for succors which were
grudgingly and scantily bestowed. At last, this poor
shadow of an Empire Avholly faded away, and in 1261
Michael Paleologus, Emperor of Nicaea, recovered Con-
stantinople by the aid of the Genoese, and restored the
Byzantine Empire.*
By this achievement Michael Paleologus acquired a
renown which he in no wise deserved. " He was a type
of the Constantinopolitan Greek nobles and officials in
the Empire he founded and transmitted to his descend-
ants. He was selfish, hypocritical, able, and accom-
plished ; an inborn liar, meddling and ambitious, cruel
' Gibbon, vi. 150; Finlay's Byzantine Empire, iL 423-8.
68 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
and rapacious. ... He ought to be execrated ;is
the corrupter of the Greek race." ' With the recovery
of Constantinople, the short-lived revival of the social
and political life of the Greeks, which had appeared in
the Empire of Nicaea, came to a sudden end. All the
old vices of the Empire were revived in an exaggerated
form. " Literary taste, political honesty, patriotic feeling,
military honor, civil liberty, and judicial purity, seem all
to have abandoned the Greek race." ^ A more wretched,
shameful history than that of the restored Greek Empire,
until its final overthrow by the Turks, does not disgrace
the annals of mankind. Government and people were
ahke corrupt, and the slaves of a groveling superstition.
There was abundance of heresy and schism, but the very
subjects of these barren controversies reveal the de-
graded condition of the Church. A party called Quiet-
ists had arisen among the monks of Mount Athos, who
placed the seat of the soul in the navel, and taught that
if a man would shut himself up in solitude, and fix his
eyes and his thoughts day after day upon his abdomen,
he would, after a time, discern a mystical light, and be
filled with ineffable joy. Gibbon cites the following
directions from a Quietist abbot, as to the method of
conducting this ecstatic meditation: " When thou art
alone in thy cell, shut thy door, and seat thyself in a
corner ; raise thy mind above all things vain and transi-
tory; recline thy beard and chin on thy breast; turn thy
eyes and thy thoughts towards the middle of thy belly,
the region of the navel, and search the place of the
heart, the seat of the soul. At first all will be dark and
1 Finlay's Byzantine Empire, iL 463. * Id. ii., 462.
GREEK EMPIRE RESTORED. 69
comfortless ; but if you persevere, day and night, you
will feel an ineffable joy ; and no sooner has the soul
discerned the place of the heart, than it is involved in a
mystical and ethereal light." ' A vigorous attack upon
this absurdity by Barlaam, a Greek monk of Calabria,
in southern Italy, drove Gregory Palamas to take the
ground in defense that God dwells in actual but un-
created light, which was revealed to human vision at
the transfiguration upon Mount Tabor, and which the
pious soul, withdrawn from all transitory things in holy
and long continued meditation, may still hope spiritually
to behold. The dispute between the Barlaamists and the
Palamites raged long and furiously, until a formal Synod
of the Greek Church, presided over by the Emperor
John Cantacuzene in person, decided in favor of the
uncreated light of Mount Tabor, and Barlaam and his
followers were pronounced heretics and schismatics. But
though Barlaam saw his own teachings, with all sense
and reason, rejected by the degenerate Church of the
East, he did not live in vain. In the rising intelligence
of the West he found a more congenial soil, and left a
deep impress upon his age. He was a man of profound
learning and true liberality of mind — the first of that
long list of scholars and men of genius who made the
Italy of the Middle Ages illustrious. Barlaam was the
friend of Petrarch, and the first to call the attention of
Western Europe to the poetry of ancient Greece in its
original tongue. Leo Pilatus, a pupil of Barlaam, was
the first teacher of Greek in the cities of Ital}^^
Both the capital and the Empire were now but the
' Decline and Fall, voL vi. p. 194. * Id., vi. 328-330.
^ THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
miserable wrecks of their former greatness. The wealth
and splendor of Constantinople were gone, its commerce
was neglected and ruined. The Genoese had established
a strong commercial colony at Galata, one of the suburbs
of Constantinople, and the fierce war which they were
waging with the Venetians led to obstinate conflicts
within the very walls of the city. Three great fires,
kindled by the victorious Crusaders, had left a large part
of Constantinople a dreary waste of ashes and blackened
ruins. Finlay cites Villehardouin, the historian of the
Latin conquest, as affirming that more buildings were
destroyed by these three fires than were contained in the
three largest cities of France.*
The Turkish emirs, now stronger than the Emperors,
were already crowding the Greeks steadily back to the
sea, when, a little later than the year 1300, the conquest
of Prusa, or Br{isa, by Orchan, the son of Othman, laid
the foundation of the Ottoman Empire. The new power
advanced with rapid strides, and Asia Minor was soon
lost forever to the Greeks ; nor were the Turks long con-
fined to Asia. They crossed the narrow straits of the
Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, and ravaged almost un-
resisted the opposite districts of Thrace. Turkish mer-
cenaries became the principal military reliance of the
imperial government. A deeper disgrace has rarely
been inflicted upon the Christian name, than when the
Empress-regent Anne of Savoy and John Cantacu^ene,
in their civil struggle for the possession of the throne
(i 341-1346), both depended for success upon Turkish
allies, and both paid their barbarian hirelings by allow-
» Byjantine Empire, ii. 332.
DEGRADA TIOM OF THE GREEKS. 71
Ing them to carry off into slavery the Christian inhabi-
tants of Thrace. Yet a lower depth of degradation was
reached, if such a thing were possible, when about the
year 1390, the Emperor Manuel, displaying the imperial
standard at the head of the Greek contingent, attended
Sultan Bajazet, as his humble vassal, to the siege of
Philadelphia. The brave citizens of that last sad strong-
hold of Greek municipal vigor and independence at first
disregarded Bajazet's summons to surrender. But when
they saw the Emperor and the imperial standard among
their besiegers, their hearts sunk within them, and they
opened their gates in despair.
Amurath I., the successor of Orchan (i 360-1 389),
made himself master of the greater part of the European
possessions of the Empire, and removed his capital from
Brijsa to Adrianople. From this time until the defeat
and capture of Bajazet by Timour, in 1402, the Greek
Emperors remained the humble vassals of the Turks.
The hour of doom to the ancient Empire of Constan-
tinople, inevitable though long delayed, was now near
at hand. The time had come when the last mission of
that Empire could be performed. With all their feeble-
ness, their intellectual stupor, and their childish super-
stition, the Greeks still preserved in all their perfection,
for a fresher soil and a brighter day, the ancient lan-
guage and literature of their race. The new custodians
of this priceless treasure were now ready to receive their
trust. In north-western Italy there had sprung up a
cluster of little commercial republics, foremost among
which were Pisa, Genoa, and Florence. Full of youth-
ful vigor and enterprise, tliese little states grew rich and
72 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
powerful, and gradually drew to themselves a large share
of tlie ancient trade of Constantinople. With this traffic
came great naval power, and the sudden and wonderful
accumulation of wealth. And with power, wealth, and
the energetic, intense activity which characterized the
people of these small but glorious repubhcs, there soon
came also increasing civilization and refinement and an
eager thirst for knowledge. About the middle of the
fourteenth century appeared the two immortal Tuscans,
Petrarch and Boccaccio, the splendid first fruits of the
learning and letters of regenerated Europe. Until that
time there had been very few men in all the nations
of Western Europe who could read the New Testament
in the original Greek.* This long reign of darkness and
ignorance was now to be broken. In the year 1 360, Leo
Pilatus took up his residence at Florence, in the house
of Boccaccio, and became the first teacher of Greek in
Italy ; and about the year 1400, an eminent Greek
named Manuel Chrysoloras established at Florence a
school for teaching the language and literature of his
native land. That school was soon crowded by the gen-
erous youth of Italy, and ere long the new learning had
taken vigorous root in this fresh and fruitful soil. The
mission of the Greek Empire was now accomplished.
It had faithfully preserved, and safely transmitted to the
rising civilization of modern times, the inestimable treas-
^ "From the subversion of the Western Empire, or at least from the
time -when Rome ceased to pay obedience to the Exarchs of Ravenna, the
Greek language and literature had been almost entirely forgotten within the
pale of the Latin Chui'ch. . . . For the scholars of Italy Boccaccio
positively asserts that no one understood so much as the Greek character. "—»
Hallam's Middle Ages, p. 545.
FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. fo
ures of the ancient world. Venerable in nothing but
age, feeble and decrepit with the burden of years, it was
now to sink into the grave.
After the restoration of the Ottoman power, in 141 3,
the great ambition of the Turkish Sultans was the cap-
ture of Constantinople and the destruction of the Greek
Empire. This grand enterprise was first and vainly
attempted by Amurath II., with an army of two hundred
thousand men, in 1422. This was the last escape of the
devoted city. Thirty years later Mohammed 11. repeated
the attempt in which his father had failed, with ampler
resources and more complete preparation ; and in the
month of February, 1453, the final siege of Constantino-
ple was formed.
The fall of the city was not without dignity, nor alto-
gether unworthy of its ancient fame. Constantine Pa-
leologus, the last of the Emperors, was a brave and pat-
riotic man, and worthy of a happier fate. He determined
to defend the city to the last, and if it fell, to perish be-
neath its ruins. The garrison, made up largely of Latin
auxiliaries, seconded his valor with the courage of de-
spair, and the success of the Turks was not won without
a tremendous and destructive conflict. But as the siege
progressed, the walls crumbled under the fire of the
Turkish artillery, the garrison was thinned and exhausted,
and it was evident that the end was near. The final
assault was made on the 29th of May. After a short
but terrible struggle, the Emperor fell bravely fighting in
the post of cxtremest danger; the Turks surmounted the
walls, and the ancient Empire of the East was no more.
Upon tlie terrible scenes which followed — a repetition of
4
94 THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
the horrors endured by the city upon its first fall before
the arms of the Crusaders — we need not dwell. Suffice it
to say that the city was abandoned to the passions of the
soldiery, its remaining wealth was plundered, and vast
multitudes of the wretched people, after suffering every
outrage that the cruelty of their captors could inflict,
were chained together in droves and driven to a distant
and hopeless slavery. When the Turks departed they
left behind them a depopulated, empty city. They left,
however, soon to return, to make Constantinople the capi-
tal of their own Empire, and the seat of a mightier power
than any which, with a stable and enduring dominion,
had for centuries swayed the destinies of the East.^
* For a brief account of the fall of Constantinople, and the events folIoVi
iog, see *<The Arabs and the Turks," chap. x.
PART SECOND.
THE MODERN GREEKS AND THE
ALBANIANS.
The Authorities followed are :
Finlay's History of Greece under Othomap and Venetian Domination.
Sir James Emerson Tennent's History of Modern Greece.
Stanley's History of the Eastern Church.
Creasy's History of the Ottoman Turks.
Urquhart's Turkey and its Resources.
The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, in Asia Minor, Bulga-
ria, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Russia, in the six years from 1653 to
1659, in Nine Parts, written by his son and attendant, the Archdea-
con Paul of Aleppo, and translated from the original Arabic by F.
C. Belfour, LL.D., for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Brit-
ain and Ireland.
The Works of Col. William Martin Leake.
The eleven volumes of Col. Leake's Researches and Travels in the Mo-
rea, Albania, Northern Greece, Macedonia, and Asia Minor, are an over-
flowing treasury of the most exact and valuable information upon almost all
points relating to the Greeks of both ancieat and modern times.
CHAPTER I.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS.
TRUE CHARACTER OF THE MODERN GREEKS — GOV-
ERNMENT OF THE EARLIER SULTANS — REASONS
FOR THE WILLING SUBMISSION OF THE GREEKS.
As we enter upon this second period of our history,
we are met by a very important question which has been
long and earnestly discussed, and upon which much
learning and ability have been expended. Who and what
are the modern Greeks ; and in what relation do they
stand to the imperial race of the ancient world whose
name they bear ? Some have maintained that the mod-
ern Greeks are but a mongrel, barbarian race, in whose
blood so many and so various foreign elements have been
mingled that their true Hellenic character has been
wholly lost. Others insist, and with better reason, tliat
they are true and proper Greeks, who, through all the
vicissitudes of two tliousand years, have preserved their
blood and their national existence essentially unmingled
and unchanged ; that they are the lineal, legitimate
descendants of the old Hellenic race. The question seems
now to have been satisfactorily answered. The modem
Greek or Romaic language bears a resemblance to th«
98 THE MODERN GREEKS.
ancient Greek surprisingly close and striking. It has
been affirmed that the language of an educated Athenian
of the present day does not differ more from that of his
ancestors of the time of Pericles, than does that of the
New Testament writers. It should be observed, however,
that the educated Greeks are now making a strenuous
effort to assimilate their language to the classic Greek.
The statement above referred to has no application to the
spoken language of the people. But even the ordinary
vernacular of the common people seems to be much more
like the ancient Greek than Italian is like the Latin.
According to information collected three hundred years
ago from prominent Greeks, by Dr. Martin Kraus, it
appears, that although some seventy dialects of Greek
were at that time spoken in Greece and the islands, these
were all so much alike that one who understood one of
them could readily understand them all, while in some
retired localities of Thessaly and the Morea the language
was still spoken in what to the educated Greeks of that
day seemed its original purity.^ But the true Hellenism
of the modern Greeks is proved most conclusively, not
so much by their language as by the physical and mental
peculiarities which have universally characterized them
as a race. The Greeks of seventy-five years ago, under
the Turkish Sultans, except that they were far more igno-
rant and debased, were, in every feature of body and
' Tennent's Modern Greece, vol. i. p. 206. For a full and critical account
of the Romaic or Modem Greek language, see Col. Leake's Researches in
Greece, pp. 1-226 ; see also Tennent, chap. xiii. ; and for an admirable
account of the language as it is now spoken and written in Greece, Felton's
"Greece, Ancient and Modern," vol. ii. pp. 501-10.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 79
mind, almost the exact counterparts of their ancestors of
seventeen centuries earher, under the Roman Emperors.
" Were there wanting any more convincing proof of the
genuineness of the descent of the modern Greeks from
their illustrious ancestors, than that they speak the same
language, which has undergone fewer corruptions than
almost any other ; that they employ precisely the same
characters in writing ; that tlicy call places by the same
names ; that they inhabit the same spots ; that they retain
many of the prejudices, the manners, and customs that
are recorded of the old Greeks ; we say, if more proof
should be thought wanting, it will be found in the physi-
cal aspect, and in the character of the people. The same
natural quickness of intellect, love of learning, attachment
to country, vivacity, the same fickleness, the same deceit,
are stamped in the character of the Greeks of to-day, as
they were in the minds of the Greeks of the older
times." ' It now seems to be fully estabhshed that the
modern Greeks are the lineal descendants, the true repre-
sentatives of the ancient Greeks; that they have not
become so much intermingled with foreign elements as to
change essentially their national character. No one can
carefully follow through the long history of the Byzantine
Empire without being struck with the truth, that the
Greeks have always remained as completely distinct from
the various peoples with which they were mingled and
surrounded, as they were two thousand years ago, and as
' Howe's Greek Revolution, p. 1 7. President Pulton, than whom, per-
haf)6, no higher American authority on this question could be cited, held
the same opinion as strongly as Dr. Howe. See his Lectures on Greece,
Andent and Modem, vol. ii. pp. 313-4.
J|B THE MODER27 GREEKS.
they are to-day. The population of Constantinople in
the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries was just as it is
now, a mixed multitude of Greeks, Slavonians, and
Asiatics. But, by some strange law of Eastern social life,
these races haA'e always remained inveterately distinct.
The several types of national character among the Chris-
tian peoples remain at the present day just as separate
and well-defined as they were a thousand years ago.^
Even the kindred Bulgarians and Servians, though united
in the same church, have shown little tendency to coa-
lesce. The Epirot, or Albanian, is as unlike the Greek
as his fathers were in the time of Pyrrhus, and the Greek
has always been entirely distinct from them all. We may
well inquire, however, what has become of that numerous
population, sprung from the original inhabitants of the
country, which, in the time of the Iconoclast Emperors,
formed probably a majority of the people of central and
eastern Asia Minor, and which were a race entirely dis-
tinct from both the Greeks and the Armenians ? Almost
alone, of all the peoples which have had an existence
during the past fifteen hundred years within the countries
subdued by the Turks, this race has disappeared. The
ancient Lydians, Phrygians, and Cappadocians have no
modern representatives. The race which furnished to
the Byzantine Empire some of the best and ablest of its
^ " How strongly difference of race can tell under identical conditions of
climate, religion and government, is exemplified in towns where Greeks
have been dwelling side by side with Bulgarians for centuries. The one is
commercial, ingenious and eloquent, but fraudulent, dirty and immoral ; the
other is agricultural, stubbo-n and slow-tongued, but honest, cleanly and
chaste." — Mackenzie and Irb ••, Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey
in Europe, p. 23.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 8i
sovereigns has wholly passed away. The history of its
disappearance is a sad one. It was in great measure
exterminated by the slave-hunting inroads of the Sara-
cens, and the destructive conquests of the Tartars and the
Turks. The poor remains of this once vast population,
through their ever deepening hatred of Greek rule, were
but too much inclined to coalesce with their conquerors.
Great numbers of them embraced Mohammedanism, and
were thenceforth known as Turks. The few of them whc
still held fast to their faith after the Turkish conquest
would seem to have been lost in the growing numbers of
the Armenians ; although, possibly, a careful examination
might still discover some scattered relics of this once
important race among the Christians of Asia Minor.
The Greeks now boast loudly of their Hellenic blood
and descent, and imagine that in them are centered all
the ancient glories of their race. But this claim, on their
part, is of very recent date. Until the great awakening
of political life and activity among them a hundred years
ago, they had almost forgotten their own nationality.
The greatness and long dominion of Rome had wholly
eclipsed in their minds the memory of the earlier and
more splendid civilization of Greece. They never called
themselves Hellenes or Greeks. They were Romaioi or
Romans ; their language was Romaic, and the fond and
constant dream of their ambition was the restoration of
the lost Empire of Rome. For the last two hundred
years before the conquest of Constantinople by the
Turks, all that remained of the Empire was almost
entirely Greek. But this Greek Empire was one of
the most pitiful, contemptible tyrannies that ever dis-
4*
^ THE MODERN GREEKS.
graced the Christian world.' By long centuries of op-
pression the Greeks had been thoroughly enslaved.
All true manliness, all patriotic aspirations, all political
virtue and honesty, all unselfish devotion to the pub-
lic good, seemed to have been banished from the race.
The common people were industrious, frugal, temper-
ate, chaste ; but they had no higher thought than de-
votion to their orthodox faith, and to live in such com-
fort as they could under the heavy yoke which pressed,
with no relief, or hope of relief, upon their necks. The
higher and more intelligent classes were wholly unprin-
cipled and corrupt — the willing tools, for their own selfish
ends, of any tyrant, the terrible oppressors of their own
people whenever they had the power. During this period
the Greeks were doomed to drink the cup of servitude
to its last and bitterest dregs. The government of the
Emperors was bad enough, but that of the Venetians
and the numerous Italian and Frankish despots, who
had established themselves at various points in Greece
proper and the Islands, was in most cases far worse.
These latter were Roman Catholics ; and to a tyranny
no less grinding than that of the Greek Emperors they
added tlie more cruel oppression of ecclesiastical hatred
and religious persecution.
With the fall of Constantinople and the conquests of
Mohammed II., the Greeks as a nation disappeared from
^"A corrupt aristocracy, a tyrannical and innumerable clergy, the op-
pression of perverted law, the exactions of a despicable government, and
still more, its monopolies, its fiscality, its armies of tax and custom col-
lectors, left the degraded people neither rights nor institutions, neither
duace of amelioration nor hope of redress." — Urquhart, p. 19.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 83
history. Their fall was most ignoble, without one re-
deeming feature. They subsided at once into the will-
ing, unmurmuring slaves of the Sultans. They were
still industrious and thrifty, and their diligence was one
of the main supports of Turkish power ; they were the
best sailors in the Levant, and formed the bone and
sinew of the mighty naval force of the Sultans ; but
for nearly three hundred years they were invested with
no more of political importance than the cattle they fed
or they ships they sailed. At the great battle of Le-
panto, in 1571, forty thousand Greeks were serving on
board the two contending fleets. Rut the/ were there
simply by a tyrant's will, seemed to have no interest in
the issue, to be entitled to no consideration from either
of the contending powers. The willing submission of the
Greeks to Turkish rule during all this long period, while
still preserving their language, their nationality, and the
vivid remembrance of their former glories, and while
rather rising than sinking in the social scale, is one of
the most remarkable phenomena of history. The gov-
erment treated them merely with the toleration of con-
tempt ; they were rayaJis and infidels, a subject caste, a
class of slaves ; they paid the hated kharatch or capita-
tion tax, the conspicuous and ever-present badge of their
servitude, for every male above the age of ten or twelve
years ; they paid the land tax of the Sultan's tenths, and
all the endless exactions of their local rulers ; they paid
the stranger, the more inhuman tax of every fifth male
child to fill the ranks of the janizaries and the civil
servants of the Sultan ; yet, for many generations,
even the Mohammedans of Asia Minor were not more
Sf THE MODERN GREEKS,
submissive or more faithful subjects of the Porte than
the Greeks.
But for this comparative content of the Greeks under
Turkish rule, there were some very substantial rea-
sons. In the first place, it cannot be doubted that the
Turkish conquest was an actual benefit to the Greeks,
wrought a positive improvement in their condition.
The Turks were far better men, and far abler rulers
than the wretched tyrants whom they superseded. As
a rule, they were grave, serious, honest, and straight-
forward, while their vigor and energy in the conduct of
affairs made them the wonder of the world. The gov-
ernment was vigorous and well sustained, its fiscal ex-
actions were not severe, order and quiet were main-
tained, Moslem law was administered with tolerable
impartiality, and the Greeks found themselves far better
off than they had been before. It seems to be con-
ceded that for the first century following the fall
of Constantinople, the Turkish dominions were better
governed and more prosperous than most parts of
Christian Europe ; that the people, both Mohamme-
dan and Christian, enjoyed a larger measure of private
liberty and of the fruits of their labor, than fell to the
lot of their contemporaries under the confused and too
often tyrannical governments of the West. This was
owing, in some degree, to the fact that the great major-
ity of the high officials of the Empire were men of Chris-
tian birth. They had been drawn from the ranks of the
tribute children, and carefully educated, and thoroughly
trained for the posts they were to fill. It is probable
that a knowledge of the honorable service to which
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 85
the children, torn from them, were devoted, in both
military and civil hfe, had much to do in reconciling the
Greeks to this cruel and unparalleled tax.'
These Christian children, derived from captives and
the quadrennial tribute, were the strong foundation of the
Ottoman power. That power rested on no popular basis,
was not the supremacy of a dominant race. It was the
despotic rule of a single family, resting upon a powerful
military and civil force of household servants, absolutely
devoted to the person of the Sultan. The tribute chil-
dren filled the ranks of the janizaries and the regular
cavalry, and from their number came three out of four,
probably, of all government officials. In the reigns of
Solyman the Magnificent and Selim IL, eight out often
Grand Viziers, twelve of their ablest generals, and four
admirals, were of Christian birth.^ '♦ Never was a more
perfect instrument of despotism created by the hand of
man. Affection and interest alike bound the tribute
children to the service of the Sultan ; no ties of affection
and no prejudices of rank or race connected them with
the feudal landed interest, or with the oppressed subjects
of the Empire. They were as ready to strike down the
proudest descendant of the Seljuk emirs, or the Arab who
boasted of his purity of blood, as they were to go forth
to plunder the Christian enemies of the Sultan, and ex-
tend the domain of Mohammedanism. The Turks formed
*"It is said that there was seldom need to employ force in collecting
the requisite number of suitable children, and that the parents were eagtr
to obtain the enrollment of their boys in the list of janizary recruits."—
Creasy, i. p. 161.
•Creasy, i. p. 175.
86 THE MODERN GREEKS
a dominant race in the Ottoman Empire, but the tribute
children were a dominant class even among tlie Turks."'
To this iron despotism of the imperial family, the great
Mohammedan feudatories of Asia Minor were as sternly
subjected as the Christian peoples of the European prov-
inces. The ecclesiastico-judicial posts of the Ulema
were open to them, as to all educated Mohammedans ;
but it was rare indeed that one of them was intrusted
with any other important civil office, or with high mili-
tary command. In the long decline of the Empire the
great mass of the Moslem population have been even
more oppressed than their Christian fellow-subjects.'* Yet
from the beginning the Turks have ever stood immovably
loyal to their Sultans, revering them as the heads of theii
faith, the vicegerents of God.
But the vigor and stability of the Ottoman govern-
ment were not owing wholly or chiefly to the ability and
training of these Christian-born officials. These officials
were but servants of the Turks, and by Turkish institu-
' Finlay, p. 49. " Of the forty-eight Grand Viziers who succeeded to the
office after the conquest of Constantinople, twelve only were native Turks.
— Hammer, viii. 421." Id., p. 140.
^ On his return to Antioch in 1659, Macarius passed through Argosti, a
town in ancient Pontus, some fifty miles north-east from Tocat. Speaking
of the condition of the Christians of this town, Paul of Aleppo observes:
" Concerning their political condition, we were told, that besides the Kha-
radge they give no more any year to the government than the Moslems do ,
and that the Moslems, at every period of time that a new Aga comes to then:
from Constantinople, pay him each person a Sanbadge of twenty piastres,
or something less ; and that they are used with an indescribable degree of
tyranny ; so that they would prefer having to pay tribute as Jews or Chris-
tians, rather than as Mohammedans, and it would be lighter for them."—
Travels of Macarius, ii. p. 438. See also Finlay, p. 343, and Col. LeakeV
Tour in Asia Minor, p. 7.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 87
tions thev were made all that they became. The great-
ness and long-enduring power of their government was
the proper result of the superior qualities, not military
alone, but social, intellectual, and moral, of the Turks
themselves. Their religion, as compared with the childish
superstition of the Greeks, was a living and earnest faith,
impelling them to the zealous peiformance of moral
duties, and giving tone and dignity to the national char-
acter. In education and intellectual culture the Turks
were in advance, not of their Christian .-subjects alone, but
of the greater part of Christian Europe. The members
of the Ulima, comprising the great body of educated
ecclesiastical lawyers, and the schoolmaster, were held in
high honor. Every village had its schools, every large
town had its medressehs or colleges, in which were
taught the ten regular courses of grammar, syntax, logic,
metaphysics, philology, the science of tropes, the science
of style, rhetoric, geometry, and astronomy." Equally
thorough and effective was their practical training for the
duties of public life. For a hundred and fifty years the
household of the Sultan was a great and admirable school
in which the princes of the blood, a great number of
Turkish youth, and a multitude of the more promising
tribute children, were trained together, under the strictest
discipline, for the public service in its various branches.
The same thing was true in its degree of the household
of almost every great Pasha and high dignitary of the
Empire. "The Deftardar (High Treasurer), Iskender
Tchelebi, who was put to death in tlie year 1535, had up
wards of six tliousands slaves, consisting chiefly of cap
' Creasy, i. pp. 170-3.
88 THE MODERN GREEKS.
tives torn from their parents at an early age, many of
whom were of Greek origin. These slaves were edu-
cated in his household in a manner not very dissimilar to
that adopted in the serai of the Sultan for the tribute
children. The greater part was in due time formed into
bodies of troops, and served in the Ottoman armies ;
many received a learned education, and were trained to
enter the political and financial departments of the admin-
istration. The superiority of their education is proved
by the fact that when they passed into the Sultan's
household, after their master's execution, several rose to
the highest offices of the state, and no less than seven of
these purchased slaves of Iskender Tchelebi obtained
the rank of vizier." '
Another point in the training of the Turks which must
not be overlooked, was that remarkable domestic and
social discipline, which down to the beginning of the
present century remained so universally characteristic of
all the better portions of Turkish society — a discipline
which formed the youthful Turk so invariably to a grave
and serious dignity of demeanor, to quiet self-command,
and to such imperturbable composure and self-possession
under all circumstances however trying.* When at Yan-
nina, the capital of Albania, in 1809, Mr. Hobhouse went
to visit two little grandsons of the famous Ali Pasha, one
of them twelve, the other seven years of age. These two
boys had each his own separate establishment, and lived
» Finlay, p. 54.
* " I am not surprised at anybody's sympathy with the Turks, for they
and the Spaniards are still in manners the first gentlemen of Europe. "
Correspondence London Times, in "The Mail," Dec. 29, 1875.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 89
in his own house. The elder of the two Mr. Hobhouse
found alone with his tutor, a grave and reverend Moslem,
with a beard flowing low upon his breast, who sat com-
posedly upon his marrowbones, with many bows, but
saying never a word. But not so the young prince, who
received his illustrious visitor with a lofty courtesy, a
gravity and dignity of deportment, and an easy self-pos-
session which would have become a cabinet minister, and
which filled him v/ith surprise. After doing the honors
of his own house the lad attended his guest on a visit to
his brother. In this child of seven years Mr. Hobhouse
found hardly less of sobriety, dignity of demeanor, cour-
tesy, and self-possession than had been displayed by his
elder brother. Once he so far forgot himself as to show
a little of the playfulness of childhood, when his brother
gravely admonished him, saying, " Remember, brother,
that there are strangers present." ^
Afterwards, on visiting the Pasha of Negropont, at the
city of Egripo, Mr. Hobhouse had a very ludicrous expe-
rience, in which these peculiar characteristics and results
of the social discipline of the Turks are no less strikingly
displayed : The Pasha " then asked what I had come to
see, and was answered, ' The town and its situation,
which were reported to be very beautiful, and also the
strait, a great natural curiosity.' This last object was not
clearly understood; and when, as an explanation, I added
that it was the stream of water under the bridge to which
I alluded, the visages of all in the room put on an air of
astonishment, mixed with a certain smile chastised by the
gravity of their looks, altogether indescribable ; and the
* Travels in Albania, etc., i. p. 60.
90 THE MODERhT GREEKS.
Vizier (Pasha) asked me, with a great deal of naiveld,
whether I had no water of that sort in my own country,
adding, that England being, as he heard, an island, he
should have thought we had great plenty. I endeavored
to inform him that it was not the saltness of the water to
which I alluded, but the flux and reflux. That this did
not serve me in any stead was evident from the continued
surprise marked in the faces of all present; but his High-
ness assured me that I should have the proper attendance
to convey me to the bridge, where I might view the object
of my journey. . . . Several of the Pasha's soldiers
were waiting without in the yard, and these, preceded by
two of the most reverend-looking personages of the whole
Court, with white wands, and their beards hanging down
to their waists, accompanied me in a sort of procession
towards the bridge. We had some distance to walk, the
crowd gathered as we proceeded, and in a short time our
train filled the street. We walked very slowly, the two
majestic conductors being saluted respectfully by fifty
people, and very leisurely returning the salam and usual
obeisance. The passengers and surrounding crowd per-
petually questioned my attendants as to the object of
the procession, and were told that a Frank was going to
look at the water. I could hear the Turkish words sig
nifying ' water, water,' a hundred times repeated. I ad-
vanced to the bridge with all my suite, went half way
across it, and looking over the railings for half a minute,
turned round to one of the grave chamberlains, and said
I was satisfied, when he and his companion bowed pro-
foundly, and, without saying a word, turned on their heels,
and marshaled and preceded the attendants back to the
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 9I
house where I had left my horses, a great crowd follow-
ing as before."^ These solemn and stately chamberlains
were true Turks, and the same grave and courteous dig-
nity, the same composure, the same quiet self-possession
and self-command which they displayed, have been uni-
versally characteristic of their countrymen for four hun-
dred years. Prof. Creasy observes that the Turks, as a
people, were trained to dignity, self-respect, truthfulness,
a sense of justice, sobriety, cleanliness, integrity, and
charity, though power or fanatic war often transformed
this character by taking off the restraint'* These facts
must be well considered and carefully borne in mind, if
we would understand the willing submission of the Chris-
tian peoples to their Turkish conquerors, or the effects of
their subjection upon themselves.
We must also remember that all that can be said in
favor of the government of the Sultans, even in its best
days, is but partial and comparative praise. After all,
that government was but a rude barbarian despotism,
based upon no principle of justice or of right. As com-
pared with the Christian governments of the present day,
it was a crushing, relentless tyranny. The life and fortune
of every subject were absolutely at the mercy of the Sul-
tan and his ministers. Heads were struck off continually
and without compunction ; justice was venal and uncer-
tain ; against the rapacity and extortion of men in power
there was no safeguard ; Moslem morality was not Chris-
tian morality, and polygamy, concubinage, and the crime
against nature spread as a moral leprosy through the
whole framework of Turkish society. The Christians
• Id., L 369-71. » Ottoman Turks, i. 177-8
92 THE MODERN GREEKS.
were a subject and helpless caste, whose very existence
was at the mercy of their conquerors.
And yet, for a hundred and fifty years, with all its
anomalies, defects, and abuses, the Ottoman Empire was,
for the times, and as compared, not alone with the wretch-
ed tyrannies which it had superseded, but with most of
the nations of Christian Europe, a well-ordered and pros-
perous state. The hand of an able and powerful master
was felt in every department of the government, in every
province of the Empire. The local governors were, as a
rule, men of education, ability, and character. The ex-
actions of the government were comparatively very mod-
erate, yet so carefully were its revenues collected and
husbanded that they far surpassed those of any other
European state. " It was this financial moderation,
coming as a relief after the rapacity of the Greek Empe-
rors, which made the Greeks hug their chains ; and it forms
a strong contrast to the excessive financial burdens and
constant interference with individual liberty which char-
acterize the system of administration in modern central-
ized states." ^
A surprising degree of quiet and good order were
maintained by a rude but vigorous police in both city
and country. Crimes, except as committed by lawless
local tyrants, were extremely rare, and travelers from
the west were surprised to find wealthy Turks going un-
armed, yet without fear. " In the populous cities of the
Ottoman Empire, and particularly in Constantinople,
which contained more inhabitants than any three Chris-
tian capitals, the order reigning in the midst of social
' Finlay, p. 39.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 93
corruption, caused by extreme wealth, the conflux of
many different nations, and tlie bigotry of several hostile
religions, excited the wonder and admiration of every ob-
servant stranger."' The great highways of the Empire
were lined with massive and commodious khans, usually
one at the end of every half day's journey, while the num-
ber of these costly structures in the great cities was sur-
prisingly large. In 18 10, Mr. Hobhouse found three hun-
dred and eighty khans in Constantinople, many of them
very fine ; " so many immense stone barracks or closed
squares," open absolutely to all.* Wise and liberal trade
regulations filled these great thoroughfares with the steady
currents of an enormous traffic. The fertile plains of
Asia Minor and Macedonia became the granary of
Southern Europe, and the other products of the Empire,
both agricultural and manufactured, were largely ex-
ported. A great part of this immense commerce soon
passed into the hands of the Greeks, who thus accumu-
lated great wealth. The middle classes of the towns
were industrious and thriving, while the rayahs, or Chris-
tian peasants of the country, depressed as was their social
condition, lived in comfort and plenty. Mr. Urquhart
affirms that down even to 1833 there was no peasantry
in the world so well housed, clothed, and fed, and every
way so comfortably off, as the Greeks, and more especially
the Bulgarians of Macedonia and Bulgaria.'
In 1806, Col. Leake visited Serres, the capital of the
dominions of Ismail Bey, in the large and fruitful valley
' Id., p. 192. * Albania, &c., ii. p. 339.
* Turkey and its Resources, pp. 99-102. To the same effect, see Slade's
Turkey, ii. p. 97.
94 THE MODERN GREEKS.
of the Strymon, in south-eastern Macedonia. He there
found one of the few remaining illustrations of what must
have been the general condition of the Empire two hun-
dred and seventy-five years ago. " The surrounding
plain is very fertile, and besides yielding abundant har-
vests of cotton, wheat, barley, and maize, contains exten-
sive pastures now peopled with oxen, horses, and sheep.
No part of the land is neglected, and the district, in its
general appearance, is not inferior to any part of Europe ;
though probably neither the agricultural economy, nor
tlie condition of the people, would bear a close inspec-
tion. ... A large portion of that part (of the val-
ley) which is in the district of Serres, is the private pro-
perty of Ismail Bey and his family, one of the richest
and most powerful subjects of the Sultan, if he can be
called a subject who is absolute here, and obeys only
such of the orders of the Porte as he thinks fit, always,
however, with a great show of submission. Besides his
landed property, he is engaged in commerce, and derives
great profits from the farm of the imperial revenues.
. . . When he builds a new palace, or repairs a road,
or builds a bridge, the villages furnish the materials and
labor, so that his household and troops are his principal
expenses. Deficient in the extraordinary talents of Aly
Pasha (of Albania), he is said to be free from his cruelty,
perfidy, and insatiable rapacity. Though he never con-
ceals his contempt of Christians, and treats them with the
usual harshness of the most haughty Mussulman, he is
spoken of by the Christians themselves as a just and
attentive governor, and whose extortions are compara-
tively moderate. Hence his territory presents a more
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 95
prosperous appearance than any part of Aly Pasha'Sk
The culture of cotton being very advantageous to him,
he is anxious to encourage its exportation, in which he is
himself engaged, and hence the Greek merchants of Ser-
res, who carry on an extensive trade with Vienna, enjoy
sufficient protection, though personally they are often igno-
miniously treated by him. As to the rayahs in general, it
is sufficient to mention one of the labors and exactions
imposed upon them, to show their condition even under
a governor who has the reputation of being indulgent.
Every village is bound to deliver the Bey's tithe of the
cotton in a state fit for immediate exportation, that is to
say, cleared of the seeds and husks, instead of supplying
it as it comes from the field ; and even to make good the
loss of weight caused by the abstraction of the seeds, by
the addition of an equal weight of cleared cotton. The
Turks justify this oppression by alleging that it is custom-
ary in all cotton districts ; the only kind of answer they
ever deign to give when they are the strongest. . . .
The Greek community is governed with very little inter-
ference from the Bey by the Greek metropolitan bishop
and the archons." * Ismail Bey would seem to have be-
longed to the famous order of Dere Beys, or local, hered-
itary, and almost independent feudatories of the Empire,
so important in the last century, but exterminated by
Mahmoud II. An equally pleasing aspect of prosperity
and good government was seen at the same time in the
dominions of the famous Kara Osman Oglu, another of
the Dere Beys, and perhaps the foremost and most pow-
* Travels in Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 201.
96 THE MODERN' GREEKS,
erful of his order. The capital of this prince was at
Magnesia, forty miles north-east from Smyrna, and his
ample domains, held by a tenure older than the Empire
itself, formed a large province in south-western Asia Minor.
His exactions were so moderate, his government so mild
and equable, and his people so prosperous, that for the
first twenty years of the present century there was a great
and constant migration to his dominions from almost every
part of Greece.
The considerable measure of protection and prosperity
enjoyed by the Greeks under the earlier Sultans, which
caused their situation to be envied by the subjects of
some of the neighboring Christian powers,^ was one great
reason of their willing and cheerful submission to their
Turkish conquerors. Another, and perhaps more effect-
ive reason, was the ostentatious patronage extended by
Mohammed II. to their national Church. They had been
more oppressed and more bitterly persecuted by the
Roman Catholics of the West than by the Turks them-
selves. Mohammed II., with ail his brutal ferocity, was a
sagacious and far-seeing statesman. He saw very clearly
the advantage of making the bitter hatred between the
Greek and Latin Churches subservient to his own pur-
poses ; of rendering the Greek hierarchy a servile instru-
ment of his power, and of leaving the Greeks behind him,
in his westward progress, contented and loyal subjects,
rather than secret but restless and dangerous enemies.
' It seems to be generally conceded that the Hungarians were ready to
welcome the Turks as deliverers, greatly preferring the yoke of the Sultans
to that of the Germans of Vienna. See Creasy, i. p. 330. "TheTransyl-
vanians and Hungarians long preferred the government of the House cf
Othman to that of the House of Hapsburg." — Finlay, p. 7.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 97
He accordingly claimed to assume the same relation to
the Greek Church which had been borne by the Empe-
rors before him. Calling upon the Greek prelates to elect
a Patriarch in due form, he directed that he should be
inaugurated with all the ancient pomp and ceremony,
bestowed with his own hand the insignia of his office,
gave him a purse of a thousand goldert ducats, and a
horse with gorgeous trappings, on which he was privi-
leged to ride with his train through the city, assigned
him a palace for his residence, and made him an acknowl-
edged agent of his government' The greatness of the
Patriarch was by no means an empty show. He was
made the responsible head of the Greek subjects of the
Porte. In common with all the bishops in their several
provinces, he was invested with judicial powers in all
causes between Greek and Greek, extending to fines, im-
prisonment, and sometimes to capital punishment. A prison
was provided for his use, and the ministers of the govern-
ment were directed to enforce his judgments. This policy
of the Porte was completely successful. " The Sultans
never involved themselves in ecclesiastical disputes. . . .
Theological differences and church government only inter-
ested them as questions of public order and police, and
personal preferences were only determined by pecuniary
payments. Hence the Greek Church was for a long
period left at liberty to arrange its own internal affairs;
its vices and its virtues were the spontaneous efforts of its
own members ; its religious action was rarely interfered
with, so that it must bear the blame if morality and faith
did not prosper within its bosom." ^ Nominally the Pa-
' Tennent, i. 342. * Finlay, 162.
98 THE MODERN GREEKS.
txiarch was elected by the Synod of the Greek Church ;
but in reality, with every bishop in the Empire, he owed
his appointment directly to the rescript of the Sultan.
The whole hierarchy thus became entirely dependent
upon the government, its devoted servants, too often the
wilHng and rapacious tools of its tyrannical power.
Under such a government the condition of the Church
was, of course, precarious. Great dangers sometimes
threatened it; it sometimes suffered great oppression.
The fierce and bigoted Selim I. seriously contemplated
the extirpation of Christianity from his dominions, and
actually ordered that all stone churches should be given
up to the faithful, that the Christians should be suffered
to worship only in houses of wood. But these outbursts
were infrequent and transient; the danger was most com-
monly averted by judicious bribes. For a very long
period the Greeks, especially the higher Greek priest-
hood, contemplated their ecclesiastical condition with
great satisfaction. Under the protection of the mighty
Sultan, the cause of orthodoxy reposed in perfect safety
from the hatred and tyranny of the Papal West. They
accounted themselves happy in their servitude, and loudly
extolled the tolerant liberality and generous protection of
their Moslem masters.
Of the state of feeling among the better classes of the
higher Greek priesthood while the Empire was still
powerful and prosperous, Paul of Aleppo, superstitious,
and somewhat narrow-minded and bigoted, but simple,
honest, kindly, gossipy, shrewdly observant, and labori-
ously exact, the very Herodotus of modern travelers, is
an excellent example. The whole tone of his ponderous
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. 99
work is that of contented, satisfied loyalty. There is no
undercurrent, no indication of a hidden feeling, of disaf-
fection, of the conscious suffering of oppression and wrong,
towards the government of the Sultans. He follows the
imperial highway from Aleppo to Constantinople ; notes
the populous villages and plentiful comfort which he finds
on the road ; visits Briisa and Constantinople, and is filled
with admiration at their magnificent churches, large con-
gregations, and imposing church services ; speaks with
affectionate loyalty of Mohammed IV., the reigning Sul-
tan, prays for his long life and prosperity, and relates
with grateful interest that the year before he had pitched
his tent that he might observe the Easter festivities of his
Greek subjects ; — in short, he tells his story throughout
as if he had no other thought than that the Greek churches
were enjoying the fullness of peace and prosperity, subject
to no tyrannical yoke, to no oppressive burden.*
The visit of Macarius to Moscow was just at the time
when the Cossacks and Russians were freeing themselves
from the terrible tyranny of the Poles. The sight of the
murderous atrocities inflicted by the Poles upon the Cos-
sacks, his fellow-Christians of the Greek Church, filled
our writer with the fiercest indignation, and caused him
to break forth in language which displays at once the
strength of his antipathy against the heretics of the West
and his grateful sense of the security enjoyed by tlie Or-
thodox Church of the East under the tolerant protection
of Turkish power. " We all wept much over the thou-
sands of martyrs who were killed by those impious
wretches, the enemies of the faith, in these forty 01 fifty
* Travels of Macarius, book L
too THE MODERN GREEKS.
towns. The number probably amounted to seventy or
eighty thousand souls. O you infidels ! O yon monsters
of impurity! O you hearts of stone ! What had the nuns
and women done ? What the girls and boys and infant
children, that you should murder "them ? " "And why
do I pronounce them (the Poles) accursed ? Because
they have shown themselves more debased and wicked
than the corrupt worshipers of idols, by their cruel
treatment to Christians, thinking to abolish the very
name of Orthodox. God perpetuate the Empire of the
Turks forever and ever ! For they take their impost,
and enter into no account of religion, be their subjects
Christians or Nazarenes, Jews or Samarians : whereas
these accursed Poles were not content with taxes and
tithes from the brethren of Christ, though willing to serve
them; but according to the true relation we shall after-
wards give of their history, they subjected them to the
authority of the enemies of Christ, the tyrannical Jews,
who did not even permit them to build churches, nor
leave them any priests that knew the mysteries of their
faith." ^ This was the feeling of the great majority of the
higher orders of the Greek clergy, and probably, to a
considerable extent, of the Greek people also, down al-
most to the present century. Partly from conviction and
a sense of security and protection, partly from interested
and mercenary motives, the members of the priestly hier-
archy were not only loyal subjects but zealous support-
ers of the Turkish government. "Their instructions
were to preach to their flocks interminable hatred to the
Latins, and due submission to the Divan, as gentle mas-
^ Id., voL i. pp. 183, 165.
THE GREEKS UNDER THE SULTANS. loi
ters, who exacted from them no miHtary service, ana for
whose occasional acts of tyranny they were bound to
feel grateful to Heaven, as entitling them to that ultimate
comfort which is promised to all who mourn. " *
* Tennent ii. p. 55. "Had Mohammed II. treated Greece as Ferdi-
nand and Isabella treated Grenada, Turks, Slavonians, Wallachians, and
Albanians would have instantly occupied the country. But the conqueror
chose a nobler and a wiser course ; . . . without fear, he gave them a
new centre of nationahty, by restoring the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constan-
tinople. . . . The boon thus voluntarily conferred on the Greek nation
enlisted the prejudice and bigotry of the people in the cause of the Sultan's
government. He was accepted as the temporal head of the Orthodox Church
because he was regarded as its protector against Catholicism. By this in-
sidious gift the Sultan purchased the subservience of the Greeks, and for the
two succeeding centuries his successors were the acknowledged defenders
of the orthodox against the pretensions of the Pope. . . . Not only was
he Christian treated -with more humanity in Mussulman countries than the
Mohammedans were treated in Christian lands; even the Orthodox Greek
met with more toleration from Mussulmans than from Catholics ; and the
knowledge of this difference formed one strong reason for the preference
with which the Greeks clung to the government of the Ottoman Sultans in
their wars \vith the Christian powers for more than two centuries."— Jin
lay. P- «S*«
CHAPTER IL
GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES OF THE GREEKS — THEIR
POLITICAL REGENERATION — POPULATION OF EU-
ROPEAN TURKEY, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF ITS
SEVERAL CLASSES AND RACES.
The modern Greeks have never been favorites with
the Christians of the West. The old antipathy between
the Greek and Latin Churches has been a heritage too
well preserved, even among the Protestants of England
and America.^ None could doubt the inestimable value
of the services rendered by the Greeks in the fifteenth
century to the rising civilization of the West. None at
all familiar with the facts in the case could overlook the
remarkable qualities which have always characterized
them as a race — their tough, long enduring, indestructi-
ble national spirit ; their intellectual quickness and versa-
' " The schisT. oetween the Eastern and Western Churches, the rivalry
between the Eastern and Western Empires, had wrought a lasting effect on
the minds of many who had never heard of either Church, or either Empire.
A kind of dislike or contempt towards the Christian nations of the East
had been fostered for ages in the minds of the Christian nations of the
West. The ' Greek of the Lower Empire ' was held up to scorn as the
type of everything that w£s vile, and the modern Greek was held to be, if
anything, a little viler than his Byzantine forefather." — Edward A. Free-
man, on "The True Eastern Question," Littell's Living Age, Jan. 8,
1876, p. 68.
POLITICAL REGENERA TION. toj
tility ; their love of learning; their vivacity and cheerful-
ness under the most depressing social conditions ; their
patient industry and irrepressible commercial enterprise ;
their astonishing aptitude and ability in the conduct of
every form of business; their intense love for their native
land, or their undying, unconquerable faith in their
national destiny. Those who knew them best were also
aware that the great mass of simple, home-keeping Greeks
had always been marked by a very high degree of honesty
and social virtue ; that vices and crimes were almost
unknown among them ; ^ that the simple village elders
who apportioned the taxes and had charge of the finances
of the little communities were almost always faithful to
their trust; that even the Turks could trust the Greek
peasants to pay their taxes in kind. And while the
Greek merchant, schooled to craft and bribery in his
dealings with corrupt and rapacious Turkish officials, was
too often looked upon throughout Europe as an adept in
every form of knavish chicanery, it was known that at
home the little manufacturing and mercantile communi-
ties of the Greeks were generally characterized by a
degree of probity and mutual fidelity which has never
been surpassed. In the latter part of the last century,
the manufacturers (embracing the whole body of the
people) of the litde village of Ambelakia, in north-eastern
Thessaly, and the merchants (Albanian Greeks) of the
* In European Turkey, excepting the ruder tribes, the Armatoli, and in
general all pistol wearers, "crimes are unheard of, save amongst those
whose office is the preservation of order ; and the most remarkable industry
and frugality, I will not say characterize the body of the nation, but fomi
the essential features of each individual disposition," — through the despotic
power of public opinion in the little Greek municipalities. — Urquhart, p. 9.
104 THE MODERN GREEKS.
small island of Hydra — two communities which may be
taken as examples of many others — taking advantage of
the peculiar circumstances of the times, built up with
wonderful skill and rapidity a vast system of business
operations which brought them sudden and enormous
wealth. Yet these immense transactions were conducted
by these simple people without law or judge, without
bond, receipt, or note, and for years neither fraud nor
bankruptcy was known among them.^ In a word, the
best authorities are unanimous in their testimony that the
laboring, home-keeping classes of the Greeks, forming
the great majority of the nation, from the Turkish con-
quest to the present time have been generally character-
ized by industry, honesty, sobriety, and domestic virtue.
But in the obscure and isolated condition of the
Greeks, these better qualities of the national character
were comparatively hidden and unknown, while they
were attended and overshadowed by others far more con-
spicuous, and too often repulsive. As a race, the Greeks
' Id., pp. 47-52, 55, 56. An English reviewer cites the following testi-
mony of a Scotch gentleman, who, in the triple character of soldier, lawyer,
and professor, had lived long among the Greeks and knew them well:
"The Fanariots . . . were the most cultivated, but also the most
intriguing; the grocers were grinding and avaricious; the military chiefs
ferocious and depraved ; the bishops, who in former times were almost all
Fanariots, partook of the virtues and vices of that class ; the peasants were
honest and simple ; so, in a measure, were the feudal proprietors and the
married parochial clergy ; so in an eminent degree were the Hydriot mer-
chants. During their long period of carrying trade it is said that they never
kept accounts, and never broke their word. Masses of specie were trans-
ported from island to island in the girdles of sailors, or poured out on the
tables of the cabins, and then loosely tied up in a bag with a ship-rope ;
and in their dealings they shrank from ever adding an oath to their word."—
London Quarterly Review for April, 1869, p. 256.
POLITICAL REGENERATION. 10$
were blustering, fickle, and immeasurably vain, inclined
to be envious, jealous, and factious,^ while in the higher
and more intelligent classes, long ages of oppression had
developed all the vices of slaves. The prelates, primates,
tax-gatherers — all, in short, whose position brought them
into direct dependence upon Turkish officials, were too
generally selfish, rapacious, and corrupt to the last de-
gree. " The governing class, in the ecclesiastical estab-
lishment, was selected from the aristocratic element, and
no more selfish and degraded class of men has ever held
power, than the archonts of modern Greece and the
Fanariots of Constantinople."^
These things were open to the eyes of the world.
All men saw them, and were disgusted with them. All
the great services, all the better qualities of the Greeks,
were forgotten or unknown ; these vices of a notorious
class were charged upon the whole people, and for them,
most unjustly, the Greeks, as a race, were despised. In
the eloquent language of President Felton, " For the
second time in the history of civilization, the arts and
' This envious, quarrelsome disposition has been everywhere the bane of
Greek society. Ambelakia, referred to above, is one of the twenty-four
villages of Mount Pelion, the ancient Magnesia, in south-eastern Thessaly.
The people of this district, secure in their mountain fastnesses, have been
for many generations perhaps the freest and most prosperous section of the
continental Greeks. " But they make a foolish use of their advantages.
Internal discord divides every village into parties ; a similar jealousy pre-
vails between the principal towns, and each of them strives by bribery,
intrigue, and the interest of their patrons at Constantinople, to injure its
particular rival or adversary. The Turks are, of course, enriched, and the
Greeks impoverished by these quarrels."— Col. Leake's Travels in North-
em Greece, iv. 390.
* Finlay, p. 1 78.
5*
lo6 THE MODERN GREEKS.
letters that embellish life were scattered by the Greeks
over the world, after a tremendous national catastrophe ;
and for the second time the recipient world, having
eagerly availed itself of the proffered benefactions, re-
quited the unfortunate race from which the benefac-
tions came, with the most unmeasured denunciations,
insomuch that the very name of Greek became synony-
mous with all that is mean, treacherous, and false." ^
The progress of the Greeks for the past fifty years
has not been such as greatly to encourage their friends,
or to awaken any public enthusiasm in their behalf. Few
truly great and noble characters have been produced
among them. Their independent government has seemed
to many observers a miserable failure. Their public men
have been pronounced selfish and venal. Their religion
is still but a childish superstition, a bigoted devotion to
ceremonies and empty forms. With all their schools,
intense and widespread as has been their eagerness for
learning, their mental activity has borne little practical
fruit. It has seemed as if education only served to de-
stroy all taste for honest industry, to produce a narrow,
selfish thirst for office and power. Seeing these things,
many very intelligent men have been inclined to pro-
nounce the Greeks a childish, selfish, and conceited race,
wholly incapable of any really high and honorable na-
tional career. But any such judgment is hasty and very
wide of the truth. These discouraging facts are only
upon the surface. They merely indicate that the Greeks
are, as yet, in the childhood of their political develop-
ment; that they have not yet had time to outgrow the
' Greece, Ancient and Modern, ii. p. 390.
POLITICAL REGENERATIOS I0»
enormous evils entailed upon them by ages of servitude;
that the great mass of the common people, in whom, for
centuries, has been the real life and hope of the nation,
has thus far been too poor, too ignorant, too destitute of
social organization, and too little schooled for political
action, to make its influence decisively felt; and that
hitherto the predominant element in their social and
political life has been the old corrupt, aristocratic class,
formed under the Turkish regime. If we look beneath
the surface, to those slow and quiet movements on which
the progress of society and the destinies of nations really
depend — movements mighty and irresistible in the end, but
which often pursue their course for years and generations
with little display of their power ; which lie, it may be,
almost hidden from the hasty glance of the superficial
observer — we shall find abundant reason for a much more
hopeful view.
Pitiful as has been the figure made by their indepen-
dent government, the progress of the Greeks as a people
during the past century has been rapid and immense. A
hundred and twenty-five years ago the nation was made up
of two widely dissimilar sections. On the one hand was
what we may call, though not very correctly, the aristo-
cratic party, embracing the prelates, monks, primates, tax-
gatherers — all, in short, who were devoted to Turkish
interests, and seeking for wealth, place, or power in con-
nection with the government. The men of this class
were comparatively intelligent and wealthy ; they were
active, ambitious, and pushing. There were among them
a few virtuous and worthy men, but as a rule they were
thoroughly selfish, dishonest, and corrupt, schooled to
io8 THE MODERN' GREEKS.
every form of craft, intrigue, and bribery, and too often
worse and more rapacious tyrants to their own people
than the Turks themselves. On the other hand were the
haj-d-working common people, constituting the vast ma-
jority of the nation ; — a simple peasantry, industrious,
frugal, sober, honest, and chaste, but steeped in poverty
and ignorance, shut up in their little communities, cut off
from all political knowledge and activity, knowing nothing
of the outside world, and accustomed to bow submissively
to a tyrant's nod.
With the great changes of the past hundred years,
more especially of the past fifty years, both these classes
are becoming slowly but completely transformed. In in-
dependent Greece the old Turkish aristocracy disappeared
with the Revolution. Many of its members had died,
and their places were taken by new and younger men.
Of those who still survived, many became prominent
under the new order of things ; and although the Ethio-
pean could not change his skin, and in moral character
they were much the same as before, in the total change in
their circumstances and relations they became at one*
very different men. They were no longer slaves of the
Porte; they were free citizens of independent Greece;
and, whatever their faults or their vices, they were filled
with intensest love for their native land. They might
have little political integrity, might not be superior to a
bribe, might be intriguing and self-seeking, but they loved
their country, and, after their own selfish interests, were
willing to labor for its good. Many of these very mei
thus filled their positions under the new order of things
as bishof s, cabinet ministers, governors, legislators, and
POLITICAL REGENERATION. 109
judges, with a fair degree of diligence and success. Much
of the old leaven still remains ; but better influences are
steadily gaining strength, and the time is soon coming
when there will be needed only the balance-wheel of an
intelligent and powerful public sentiment to make the
public men of Greece as honest and faithful as those of
other Christian nations.
But, important as is the change which has taken place
in the higher classes of the Greeks, a yet greater trans-
formation is going forward in the ignorant and oppressed
peasantry, who form the large majority of the nation.
They have become fired with an eager thirst for knowl-
edge. Their old lethargy and ignorance are giving place
to activity and intelligence ; not the intelligence of school-
books and newspapers alone, but that political intelli-
gence which prepares men to perform wisely and success-
fully the duties of citizens in a free commonwealth. As
neet's must be, this great change is very slow. The habits
of ages are not overcome in a day. Even now it is only
in its earlier stages. The Greek peasantry are still igno-
rant and oppressed. They still lack that political intelli-
gence which would enable them to provide effectually for
the public good, to compel their government to be hon-
est and just. But, though slow, it is steady and sure.
Considering their unfortunate circumstances, their pro-
gress and improvement, even within the past thirty years,
can only fill us with surprise. However slowly, the
Greeks are surely rising to a position of manly and intel-
ligent freedom. The old burdens which have so long
oppressed them will be thrown off; the shackles which
have so long bound them will be broken ; their narrow-
no THE MODERN GREEKS.
ness and bigotry will broaden into an intelligent liberality
of sentiment ; rising above their present childish super-
stition, their minds will become freely open to the truth,
to the teachings of a purer Christianity ; the grievous
faults of their national character will be chastened and
corrected ; and they will yet take that high place to
which their great qualities as a race so clearly entitle
them, among the free and Christian nations of the earth.
Just as surely as we believe in the inherent progressive-
ness of human society ; just as surely as we believe in the
wise and all-controlling providence of the God who made
man in his own image ; so surely may we believe that
the Greeks are yet to fulfill a grand and worthy destiny
as a nation, that they shall yet rival and repeat the ancient
glories of their race.
The movements which, so slowly, yet so steadily and
surely, are carrying the Greeks onward to the high posi-
tion they are one day to occupy, date back to the Turk-
ish conquest. Such a brief survey of the history of the
Greeks from that great event to the present time as will
enable us to trace these movements in their origin, their
working, and their results, will be the purpose of the fol-
lowing pages.
Paradoxical as the statement may appear to those not
familiar with the subject, it is none the less true that the
Turkish conquest wrought a grand and permanent en-
franchisement for the Greek nation — was to them the
birthday of a regenerated political life. This great revo-
lution in their political and social condition effected for
the Greeks, by a slower process and in remoter conse-
quences, all that the French Revolution accomplished for
POLITICAL REGENERATION. \\\
the oppressed peasantry of France. It swept away all
castes, classes, privileg-es, distinctions, and left the whole
nation on a footing of absolute equality. It seemed to
make them slaves, bowed them by sheerest force under a
heavy and tyrannical yoke; but there was a deeper sense
in which, in their narrow and lowly sphere, under the
overarching firmament of Turkish power and oppression,
they were left almost perfectly free. "The Ottoman
government, though in some respects the most tyrannical
in Europe, was in others the most tolerant It fettered
the body, but it left the mind free. The lower orders of
its Christian subjects were in general possessed of more
intellectual cultivation than the corresponding ranks of
society in other parts of Europe. The Greeks particu-
larly were no longer industrial slaves or agricultural serfs ;
their labor was both more free and more valuable, and
their civil rights were as great as those of the same class,
even in France, before the Revolution. The Ottoman
government corrupted the higher classes of the Greeks
more than it oppressed the lower. The cruelty and in-
justice of the Turks were irregularly exercised, and were
more galling than oppressive."^
As to the religious affairs of its Christian subjects, the
government gave itself no concern. For the first time
in a thousand years the Greeks were free to think, teach,
preach, and believe as they would. So long as they paid
their taxes, and met the various demands of their local
governors promptly and cheerfully, the Turks left tliem
almost wholly to themselves.
' Finlay, p. 341.
IM THE MODERN' GREEKS.
But this is not all. The Greeks are directly indebted
to the Turks for those municipal institutions which have
proved of such incalculable importance to them in their
later history. It was not simply that they were left free
in their little communities to manage their own affairs as
they pleased. They were forced into a municipal organi-
zation and to municipal action which laid the foundation-
stone of their political progress, fixed and intensified their
national life, and through long ages of servitude effec-
tually schooled them for the freedom which was sure to
come.^ This subject demands and will repay a careful
consideration.
The Turkish conquest found the Greeks bound hand
and foot in a most miserable bondage, which, as Mr.
Urquhart observes in a passage already cited, " left the
degraded people neither rights nor institutions, neither
chance of amelioration nor hope of redress."^ That
great revolution destroyed the rapacious and tyrannical
aristocracy, reformed the corrupt and overgrown hier-
archy, swept away all monopolies, all distinctions of caste
and class, all oppressive social exclusions, and leveled the
whole nation to perfect equality ; " so that in industry
alone this hitherto effeminate people were reduced to
1 The vital importance of these municipal institutions has been clearly
seen and strongly set forth by Prof. Creasy, Mr. Finlay, and other historians.
See Creasy's History of the Ottoman Turks, i. pp. 169-330, and Finlay's
Greece Under Ottoman and Venetian Domination, pp. 174-351. But per-
haps no other writer has ever studied this subject so thoroughly, or treated
it with such fullness and convincing force, as Mr. David Urquhart, in
his admirable work referred to at the conunencement of the preceding
chapter.
* Turkey and its Resources, p. 19.
POLITICAL REGENERATION. fij
seek merit and distinction, as well as the means of exist«
ence." '
At the same time the nation underwent a great and
terrible sifting. The Turkish conquest was attended
and followed by a vast and widespread apostasy from
the Christian faith. This defection extended to all classes
of society. Among laymen and ecclesiastics, the rich
and the poor, the high and the low, the learned and the
ignorant alike, the timid and wavering, the time-serving
and selfish, the bold, ambitious, and warlike, hastened to
escape from impending servitude, and to secure the
power, privileges, and protection of a dominant class by
abjuring their faith. It has been estimated that at the
end of the seventeenth century there were not less than
a million of Mohammedans, in the European provinces of
the Empire alone, of Christian birth or descent. Only
those held fast to their faith in whom the national feeling
was invincibly strong. And whatever may have been
their weaknesses, their vices, or their ignorance and
superstition, from that day to this, the Greeks, as a peo-
ple, have loved their religion, have clung to their national
hopes and aspirations with a love stronger than life.
To the Turks, the Greeks were mere tax-payers — a
conquered people, their own rayahs ^ — on the fruits of
whose industry they were to live. They cared nothing
for the religion, the belief, the education, or even the
' Id., p. 20.
* " When the allied powers endeavored to intercede in favor of the
insurgent Greeks, the substance of the answer of the Porte, for a Ion"- time,
was little more than, ' Are they not our rayahs ? ' — meaning, have we not a
right to do as we like with our own human cattle ? "-—Col. Leake's Travels
in Northern Greece, i. 467, note.
114 THE MODERN GREEKS.
social well-being of this subject caste, except as these
things affected their own interest or the general order of
society. They did not want the trouble of governing
their rayahs, and therefore not only did not interfere in
their domestic affairs ; they compelled them to take care
of themselves — a contemptuous neglect on the part of
their conquerors which proved of inestimable value to
the Greeks. They were forced into a municipal organi-
zation, municipal action, and municipal freedom, which
were the salvation of their national life.
After the conquest, the great majority of the Greeks
remained a quiet, rural, agricultural population, holding
their land upon various but usually definite and not very
burdensome terms. But to enable them to meet the
exactions of the government, and to insure their submis-
sion and obedience, everywhere, in every town, every vil-
lage, and every country district, the Greeks were formed
into little corporate bodies or municipalities, each with
its own elders, heads, primates, or archons. These com-
munities were held collectively responsible in all things
to the government. The elders divided and assessed the
taxes ; to them the local governors addressed all requisi-
tions, as for extraordinary contributions, for quarters and
entertainment to traveling officials, and for the compul-
sory labor, a certain number of days in the year, to which
the villagers were held, upon roads, bridges, fortifications,
and other public works ; they were answerable for the
presence as well as the obedience of all their members.
In their small way these communities soon became, in
a surprising degree, little self-contained, self-suf!icient,
and self-governing republics, in which the most perfect
POLITICAL REGENERATTO?!. iij
equality prevailed. Their clergy were their arbitrators
and judges ; their elders, chosen yearly in the church,
their administrators and financiers. The municipal tic in
these little comm.unities soon became exceedingly strong.
In them was generated a public sentiment of prodigious
power, which became the law and the life of the nation.
" It was regarded as one of the worst crimes of which a
Greek could be guilty, to appeal to a Mohammedan
judge, if a Christian bishop could be made arbitrator of
his difference." '
This moral bond became almost the only law of the
rayah, not so much punishing as preventing crime. The
people of each community were shut up togetlier, watch-
ing and watched, jailers to themselves. These munici-
pal institutions fixed and preserved the language, rehgion,
and national character. It is not their Church or their
priesthood which has kept the Greeks in full vitality and
vigor through all the weary ages of their servitude; it is
this municipal life, into which they were forced by the
Turks. " It is the moral authority — it is the support of
fellowships and friendships that results from the close
pressure of man and man, and the strong Unking of in-
terests, and opinions, and affections, under the municipal
bond ; so that the good opinion of the fraternity in which
each has been brought up is to every man more than
faith or law. " ^ "The local energies and local patriotism
of all the Christian municipalities in the Ottoman Em-
pire could readily unite in opposition to Ottoman oppres-
sion, whenever a connecting link to centralize their efforts
> Finlay, p. 175. • Urquhart, 36-3s>.
Il6 THE MODERN" GREEKS.
could be created. . . , Ecclesiastical ties greatly
facilitated this union, but they neither created the impulse
towards independence, nor infused the enthusiasm which
insured success. The first step to liberty in modern
Greece was made in the municipalities. They were the
political soul of the nation."'
This municipal form of society was not confined to the
Greeks. It was a fundamental principle of the Turkish
polity throughout the Empire. The earlier Sultans always
aimed to leave all local affairs, expenditures, public im-
provements, and police, to the local authorities and mu-
nicipalities. All towns and cities were thus endowed
with important municipal privileges and powers. To this
municipal constitution of society was owing that surpris-
ing degree of social order and the absence of crime
among the common people which has always character-
ized the Empire. When Mr. Senior was in Constanti-
nople, in 1857, he visited Achmed Vefic Effendi, an in-
telligent and accomplished Turk, then Minister of Justice,
and who lost his office a few days afterwards because he
was a just judge. This eminent official assured our author
that in that great, dark, unwatched city, there was little
crime ; that it was prevented by the municipalities of the
several districts. He said that the people of each dis-
trict formed a senate, who would not tolerate evil doers
among them ; that they had no dangerous class but the
dogs ; and that there was ten times more of disorder and
crime in the Frankish quarters of Galata and Pera than in
the city proper.^
' Finlay, pp. 351-2. ' Senior's Journal, p. iSL
POLITICAL REGENERATION. n}
In a greater or less degree these statements seem to
have been true of Constantinople for four hundred years ;
and not of Constantinople alone, but of all the better
ordered parts of the Empire. There have been robbery
and violence enough on the part of armed robbers, a law-
less soldiery', and tyrannical officials, but among the great
mass of the quiet, home-keeping people, crime has al-
ways been very rare indeed. Rev. T. C. Trowbridge, for
eighteen years a missionary in Asiatic Turkey, in a man-
uscript communication dated July ist, 1875, uses the
following language : " I have lived in Turkey for eight-
een years ; have passed through the most disturbed
districts of Kurdistan and other dangerous regions, such
as the Balkan Mountains in European Turkey and the
Taurus in Asiatic Turkey, and I give it as my sober
opinion that life is more secure in Turkey than in the
United States. There are more murders and homicides
in New England in a month than there are in the whole
of Turkey in a year." It is the strong municipal bond
under which the people have thus for ages been educated
to social order, and which so powerfully restrains them
from crime. Nor has this restraining influence been felt
in Turkey alone.- In a greater or less degree it has pre-
vailed in most parts of the East
Under the Turks also, the Greeks had this great
advantage, that the yoke to which they were subjected
was one of open and acknowledged force. The tyranny
was heavy, but it was frank and open. It was fully seen
and understood. There were no spies, no secret police
no interference with the ordinary life of the people. It
did not, as the infinitely worse tyranny of so many so-
Its THE MODERN- GREEKS.
called Christian governments has done, penetrate with its
deadly espionage into the innermost life of the subject,
destroying all freedom of action and of opinion. Within
the sacred sphere of their moral and social life the Greeks
were free. The tyranny from which they suffered was
mere naked violence, which, if they could not escape,
they could manfully endure. The weak yielded and
apostatized ; the firm and faithful bore their burdens,
excluded from the full enjoyment of their rights of tlieir
own free will, and patiently sufifering for conscience sake.*
Another point to be always borne in mind is that from
the beginning the Greeks always felt themselves the
rivals of the Turks. They never wholly lost their polit-
ical hopes and aspirations, or their faith in their national
destiny ; never ceased to feel that their bondage was only
for a time ; that the day was surely coming when their
freedom and their lost dominion would be regained. It
might be possible by just and equal legislation to unite
Turks and Arabs, or Turks and Armenians in a common
national destiny. Turks and Greeks could never be so
united. The Greeks were only biding their time, wait-
ing for the day, surely coming, however distant, when
they should break the yoke of their tyrants and drive
them from the land of their fathers.^ As the Turkish
power slowly waned, and the Greeks began to rise in
intelligence and conscious strength, this feeling grew
steadier and more intense, and long before the close of
the last century, the revolution, a mortal struggle between
the two races, was manifestiy near at hand.
' This point is ably discussed by Mr. Urquhart, pp. 12, 13.
* Finlay, pp. 37-8.
POLITICAL REGENERATIOI^. 119
We thus have before us the proof of our proposition,
that the Turkish conquest effected a grand and perma-
nent enfranchisement for the Greeks as a nation, was
to them the birthday of a regenerated poHtical hfe. The
Turks found the Greeks the cowering, hopeless victims of
a crushing tyranny ; helpless, enervated, debased ; a race
of slaves. The whole system of that moral and social as
well as political oppression under which they had so long
been bowed to the earth, the conquerors at once and for-
ever swept away. Freed wholly, among themselves, from
all class distinctions and privileged orders, the Greeks
were left in absolute equality to begin their political career
anew. Relieved from the financial exactions of their old
tyrants, they lived in comparative plenty and comfort ;
the restoration of the Patriarchate and the protection of
their national Church gave a centre and bond of union to
their national life ; above all, the thorough and effective
municipal organization which the entire nation was forced
to adopt, and through which it was constrained con-
stantly to act, proved to it the salvation of language,
religion, and national life, the source of a new and power-
ful national spirit, the effectual school of a true republican
freedom.
From this great revolution we are to date the rise of a
regenerated Greece. For many generations, owing not
so much to the oppression of their Moslem masters as
to their own prostrate and helpless condition, the pro-
gress of the Greeks was very slow. But progress there
has been from the beginning, even under the Turks — a
movement advancing at first by feeble and almost im-
perceptible steps, but gradually gathering force and mo-
ISO THE MODERN GREEKS.
mentum, until more than a hundred years ago it had
begun to display itself in an intensity of national feeling,
a widespread and vigorous activity, and a rapidity and
energy in its onward march which arrested and fixed the
attention of Europe. For three hundred years the Greeks
had disappeared from history, had been lost sight of and
forgotten. But from that time they could be forgotten
no more. They had resumed their place among the
Christian peoples — a place destined to become even more
important and commanding as the generations pass away.
They are still weak and superstitious, fickle, childish, and
vain. As yet they have not passed the childhood of their
new political development But they have two great and
priceless possessions, the fruits of their long municipal
pupilage, which make their future secure— one, the per-
fect democratic equality; the other, the full moral and
social freedom, which have become the perpetual, inde-
structible birthright of the race. These two great pos-
sessions, of which no revolution, no temporary subjuga-
tion can deprive them, are the sure conditions of constant
and unending advancement ; the certain promise that the
auspicious movement so long ago begun in the history
of this oppressed race will go steadily on to a final and
worthy consummation.
Let us now turn to inquire briefly concerning the pop-
ulation of the European provinces of the Empire under
the earlier Sultans, and the distribution of its several
classes and races. According to the conjectural estimate
of Prof, Creasy, the Greeks in the time of Solyman tlie
Magnificent numbered three millions of souls. Of these
there were one million in Asia Minor, tv/o millions in
POPULATION OF EUROPE A f7 TURKEY. I2i
Europe. He rates the population of European Turkey
at fourteen millions, without counting the few genuine
Turks — reckoning the Slavonians (Bulgarians and Ser-
vians) at six and a half millions, the Wallachians at four,
the Greeks at two, and the Albanians at one and a half
Of the Asiatic Greeks, those near the coast spoke their
own language ; those of the interior had been subdued
by the old Seljuk princes three hundred and seventy-
five years before the taking of Constantinople, and,
having forgotten their native tongue in this long interval,
spoke then as they do now, only Turkish.^
The number of true Turks in the European provinces
outside of Constantinople has never been large. The
predecessors of Mohammed II., in their first conquering
inroads into Europe, granted certain districts in Thrace,
Macedonia, Thessaly, and Bulgaria, as feudal holdings to
their Turkish followers. These Turks, from Iconium, the
ancient capital of the Seljuk kingdom in Asia Minor,
the Greeks have always called Koniarides, or Iconians.
With these Iconian Turks came some tribes of Yuruks, or
nomad, shepherd Turks, who fixed themselves in the
same neighborhood, and gradually abandoning their wan-
dering habits, became settled and agricultural. In the
early years of the present century Col. Leake found these
Yuruk and Iconian Turks still occupying their ancient
seats, a quiet, peaceful, industrious people, the only Turks
in Europe who did not despise agricultural labor, and
little inclined to obey a summons to arms, or to seek their
fortunes abroad in the service of the government. To
this rule, however, Mehemet All, the famous Viceroy of
' Ottoman Turks, i. p. 320. * Macarius, i. pp. 6-7.
6
133 THE MODERir GREEKS.
Egypt, who was a Turk from the neighborhood of Kav-
ala, formed one remarkable exception.* Besides these
two classes of Turks, who seem to have been the only
Turkish colonists who ever settled in Europe, weie the
spahis or feudal cavaliers, who were fixed everywhere in
the conquered territory. As each district was subdued,
its land was divided into three parts. The first part was
vacouf, or sacred ; its revenue was devoted to the sup-
port of mosques, hospitals, &c. The second part was
made allodial, and was held as freehold property, Moslem
occupants paying the land tax (Sultan's tenths), and
Christians the land tax and capitation tax. The third
part was reserved as the Sultan's domain lands ; and
from these lands were granted the three classes of mili-
tary fiefs — the timars, ziamets, and beylics, or lordships.^
The timariot held from three hundred to five hundred acres,
and was bound to be always ready to follow the Sultan's
standard, mounted, armed and equipped, either alone or
followed by from one to three men at arms, according to
his income. The ziam held more than five hi*ndred
acres, and was bound to appear with from four to nine-
teen mounted followers. The later writers sp» ak of
timariots and ziams together as spahis or cavaliers The
Sandjak Bey was the commander of the cavahers of his
district, and was to appear at the head of twenty i How-
f^rs and upwards from his own fief
These cavaliers exercised no authority over theii ten-
ants ; they were simply entitled to the land tax foi theii
support In the time of Mohammed 11. there were tJur
• Leake's Travels in Northern Greece, iii. pp. 1 74-5; Finlay, 14)
* Creasy, i. pp. 25-26, 160-6; Finlay, p. 51.
MJUTARY FIEFS. laj
ty-six sandjaks in the European provinces, each furnish-
ing four hundred cavaliers. These fiefs were first granted
to the soldiers of the old regular army, infantry and
cavalry, who, after the organization of the janizaries,
were paid not in money but in lands. Most of the earlier
spahis were thus genuine Turks. At first these fiefs were
granted only for life ; but hereditary descent being allow-
ed, soon became established. In the time of Solyman
the Magnificent, they descended regularly from father to
son. A considerable part of the Turks found seventy-
five years ago in the villages and country towns of Euro-
pean Turkey, belonged to the families of the old spahis.
The spahis served as irregular cavalry in the field ; for
the defence of the country, a garrison of janizaries was
established in every fortress and important city. The
janizaries were allowed to marry, and for the support of
their families were permitted to engage in trade and other
pursuits. At length they were suffered to enroll their
children in their ranks, and became at each post a settled
colony of trading militia, without discipline or military
training, and little inclined to obey a summons to tlie
field. But the janizaries originally were all of Christian
birth. Beyond Constantinople, almost the only true
Turks in Europe were the spahis and their descendants
(and many of these were of Christian blood), the Yuruks
and the Iconians.
If we start from Saloniki (Thessalonica) in southern
Macedonia, draw a line north-westwards to Ochrida, and
thence onwards to Scutari and the Adriatic, we shall
have a loose approximation to an important ethnological
boundary. Above this line to the nortliern border of
134 THE MODERN GREEKS.
the Turkish dominions, the country is almost wholly oc-
cupied by the Bulgarians, Servians, and Wallachians.
The country below this line is the land of the Greeks and
Albanians. If now we start from Ochrida, and passing
along the chain of the Pindus Mountains to the northern
boundary of independent Greece, turn thence westwards
to the north-eastern corner of the Gulf of Arta, we shall
have another boundary line, separating Albania from the
country of the Greeks. In the territory, including the
Morea or Peloponnesus, south of our first boundary line,
and east and south of the second, the European Greeks
are mainly found. Albania embraces the two districts
known in ancient times as Epirus and Illyria, The sou-
thern district is still known by its ancient name, and the
modern Epirots are almost as unlike their northern
countrymen as the ancient Epirots were unlike their
neighbors the Illyrians. The Epirots speak their own
language and have their own peculiar manners, usages,
and dress; but they are in many points intimately associ-
ated with the Greeks. The two peoples mutually and
largely interpenetrate each other's territory. Yannina,
the capital of Epirus, is properly a Greek city, as are the
seaports Arta and Prevesa, and many villages have a
numerous Greek population. On the other hand, even
before the Turkish conquest a great Albanian immigra-
tion had commenced in the districts properly Greek. As
war and oppression drove the Greeks more and more
from the open country, the spaces thus left vacant were
filled by colonies of this ruder and hardier race. " The
whole surface of Bceotia, Attica, Megaris, Corinthia, and
Argolis, a considerable part of Laconia, several districts
ETHNICAL DIVISIONS. 135
m Messenia, and a portion of Arcadia, Ells, and Achaia,
were colonized by Albanians, whose descendants pre-
serve their peculiar language and manners, their simple
social habits, and their rude system of agriculture to the
present day."' They occupy also the islands of iEgina,
Hydra, Ipsara, and Spetzia. These Albanians are grad-
ually intermarrying and blending with the Greeks, and
made common cause with them, as did many of the
Christians of Albania, in their great revolt against the
Turks. Marco Botzaris, the noblest hero of the Greek
Revolution, was a Christian Epirot from the mountains
of Suli. It can hardly be doubted that the Greeks
and Epirots are destined, sooner or later, to be united in
a common national development.
Besides the Albanians, and the Turks, correctly or in-
correctly so called, who at the beginning of the present
century formed a large minority of the population in
many of their towns andr villages, the Greeks had among
them, in the mountainous districts of Thessaly, numerous
and flourishing colonies of still another people, the Wal-
lachians. Col. Leake found these Wallachians a quiet,
diligent, and prosperous people, largely devoted to mer-
cantile and mechanical pursuits at a distance from their
homes, and every way an important and valuable class of
the population.^ Many of them were wealthy merchants
in Italy, Spain, Austria, and Russia. Others were shop-
' Finlay, p. 147.
* Travels in Northern Greece, i. pp. 274-283. According to the state-
ments in this passage, of five hundred Wallachian villages, none of then?
small, scattered among the mountains of Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia.
two of the largest and most important are Metzovo and Kalarytes, in t',e
Pindus range.
126 THE MODERN GREEKS.
keepers, silversmiths, gunsmiths, and tailors in the cities
of Turkey. But wherever they might wander to seek
their fortunes in the years of active life, they were pretty
sure to return with their gains to spend the evening of
their days at home.
CHAPTER III.
STATE OF LEARNING— STATE OF RELIGION—
THE GREEK CHURCH.
Before the Turkish conquest, as we have already
seen, the religious and intellectual life of the Greeks was
at a very low ebb. Although here and there a single and
partial exception appeared to a statement so sweeping, all
manly independence and vigor of thought, all soundness
of literary judgment, all critical discrimination and cor-
rectness of taste, seemed to have disappeared from the
race. The Greek writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries have little to recommend tliem except tlie in-
formation which may be gleaned from their pages in re-
lation to contemporary events. " When their language is
free from grammatical barbarisms, tlie imagination of tlie
reader is tortured by involved phraseology, undefined
epithets, and obsolete expressions, or his patience is ex-
hausted by a profusion of tasteless ornament or inappli-
cable imagery. Of those who confined themselves to the
humbler walk of compiling from the labors of otliers, the
only object seemed to be an anxiety to amass material,
however gross, and congregate incidents, however ill-
attested. Tru^h and fable, the sacred and profane, super-
stition and historical veracity, are promiscuously blend-
nS THE MODERN GREEKS,
ed throughout their volumes. . . . During nearly
twelve centuries, no new discovery calculated to promote
the dignity or happiness of mankind, no fresh idea to cast
a light over the speculative pursuits of their fathers, no
high production of discerning judgment, no grand effu-
sion of creative genius, was added to the patrimony which
they had derived from their ancestors."^
The educated classes still studied, wrote, and spoke
their ancient language ; and their Greek would seem to
have been as good as the Latin of the monkish writers of
the West. But with the common people, even of Con-
stantinople, it was not so. In their speech the classic
Greek had already become transformed into Romaic. Sir
Emerson Tennent agrees with Col. Leake in the opinion
that the modern Greek language was formed in the East
at about the same time with Italian and French in the
West.^ But, feeble and puerile as the literature of the
Greeks had become, they had not lost that intellectual
curiosity and love of knowledge which seems the perpet-
ual and indestructible characteristic of their race. Their
ancient literary treasures were still diligently studied. In
the century preceding the Turkish conquest, an important
change was manifest in the scholastic pursuits of the
Greeks. They began to write less and to give themselves
with more eager enthusiasm to study — a change healthful
and hopeful, in so far as it indicated in them a growing
consciousness of their own weakness and appreciation of
the more manly and vigorous productions of a better
age. "Apparently ashamed of their own degenerate
* Tennent, ii. pp. l^O'X, * Id., ii. 66.
STATE OF LEARNING. 129
productions, the enlightened body of the people turned
with avidity towards the literature of their ancestors,
and by degrees the passion for authorship was aban-
doned for domestic study and the culture of their ancient
tongue. It was to this revolution that we are indebted
for the host of illustrious scholars, who, about the period
of the downfall of their country's independence, awoke
in Italy and the West a taste for the learning and lan-
guage of the early Greeks." '
With the capture of Constantinople and Trebizond,
tlie learning of the Greeks in great measure disap-
peared. Their scholars were dispersed, their schools were
broken up, and although the monasteries still possessed
their libraries, -sometimes large and valuable collections
of ancient authors, the selfish, scheming monks and
higher clergy, unmindful of both the duties and the op-
portunities of their position, seemed to think only of
pushing their own interests under the patronage of the
Turks. The light of learning was not wholly extin-
guished, but it only glimmered faintly here and there
in the darkness, and, for two hundred and fifty years, the
education of even the more intelligent Greeks enabled
them to do little more than read and understand the ec-
clesiastical Greek of their Church services.
The state of learning among the Greeks of the latter
half of the fifteenth century was low enough, but their
religion was yet more debased. They had forgotten tke
Scriptures ; ^ they had ceased from all controversy and
' Tennentjii. 155-60.
* Except as they were formally read in ancient Greek in the regular les-
sons of the Church service. — See Travels of Macarius, i. p. 186.
6»
tgp THE MODERN GREEKS.
discussion upon matters of faith, save as they were pro-
voked by their fierce hatred of the Latin Churches of the
West ; they accepted their Church ritual with the unin-
quiring, unthinking acquiescence of a dead orthodoxy.
Dissociated from morahty, rehgion consisted wholly of
outward forms. " Prayers were morality, kneeling was
religion." The common people were devout, there was
no lack of fervor in their worship ; but that worship was
paid almost wholly to the Virgin, to the saints, to pictures
and relics. There was depth of religious conviction and
strength of religious sentiment ; but their religion had
been perverted into a heathenish superstition which could
be made to cover and sanction the greatest crimes. The
pirate and the robber would not start upon their plun-
dering errands until they had obtained the blessing of a
priest, kept a lamp always burning before a picture of
the Virgin, humbly besought her guidance and help in
their bloody work, paused over their victims before strik-
ing the murderous blow, to see whether they had the
means to buy absolution from the Church, hung up votive
offerings at some neighboring shrine, and in the midst
of a thousand enormities, would shudder at the idea of
.eating meat on a fast day.^
From the religion of the Greeks the life and light of
a true Christianity had almost disappeared — almost but
not wholly. The traditions of the Church, the pictures of
Biblical scenes which covered the walls of the churches,
the ritual, even the ceremonial of their Church service —
all these things, like the traditions and ceremonial of the
Jews, had their value to a people so rude and simple,
' Tenrent, i. 373-4.
STATE OF RELIGION. 13I
afforded them something of spiritual light and guidance,
something of moral and religious instruction.
Of the state of religious feeling, belief, and practice
among the better classes of the more cultivated and intel-
ligent Greeks, during the earlier centuries of Turkish rule,
we have an excellent illustration in the Travels of Maca-
rius. Paul of Aleppo is very sincere and earnest, very
religious and devout. He loves the Christian faith and
the Greek Church, more especially the latter, with in-
tensest devotion. He is no monk, has a wife and chil-
dren whom he tenderly loves, is in sympathy with men,
and has a mind large enough and liberal enough to observe
with thoughtful interest the character of the government
and the condition of the people in the countries which he
visits. But his religion is little in advance of that of the
monks of the West three centuries earlier. It finds its
expression almost wholly in ascetic austerities and the
observances of the Church. Of the Scriptures he has
nothing to say, except some casual references to them as
they are read in the regular services. Respecting the
great fundamental truths of the Christian faith, he is
wholly silent. They have been fixed forever in the
ancient creeds, there is no longer any occasion to speak
of them, or think of them, except as they are assailed by
heretics. All his religious interest is centered upon the
rites, usages, and ritual of the Church. The holiness
which he loves, and to which, so far as the weakness of
the flesh will permit, he aspires, is to be sought almost
exclusively in the rigid observance of every fast, the
scrupulous fulfillment of every rite, the diligent, con-
scientious, complete performance of every appointed rituaJ
133 THE MODERN GREEKS.
service, by day and by night ; above all, in reverent devo-
tion — he does not call it worship— before every sacred
picture and relic.
The devout Syrian is filled with wonder ; he labors to
express the depth of his delighted admiration at the
almost superhuman piety of the whole Russian people,
from the Czar to the lowest peasant. The filthy austeri-
ties of the monks were to him evidence of surpassing
holiness. " We saw upon several of them, with our own
eyes, girdles of iron chain, which they had worn upon
their bodies for a period of forty years. Their shirts and
their other body garments they never change till they
are entirely worn out upon them. They never wash them
at all ; and the odor and unction of devotion and sanctity
are manifest on their persons. Yet, wonder of wonders !
for all this, their smell was to us as that of musk ! Oh,
their sleekness, blessedness, and felicity ! God set our
portion with them ! We thank Almighty God that he has
vouchsafed us, in our time, a sight of these saints." ^
Such piety as was manifested in the universal adora-
tion of holy pictures, he had never seen. " Here all,
both at the doors of their houses and of their shops, and
also on all the public streets and roads, set up holy
images ; to which every person, as he enters or goes out,
turns his face and crosses himself So, likewise, whenever
they come within sight of a church-door, they bow to
the images from a distance. . . This is, indeed, a
blessed country, and here the Christian faith is preserved
in its undoubted purity."* And then, such wonders of
* Travels of Macarius, iL p. 197. ■ Id., L p. 273.
STATE OF RELIGIOf^. ,33
faith and devotion as were seen in the constant attend-
ance of the people, high and low, insensible to fatigue
and to the fiercest rigors of Arctic cold, upon their per-
petual and interminable church services. "We did not
go forth from the church till the sun was risen. . .
We suffered, during this night, from the severe cold and
frost, what was sufficient to kill us, especially as we had
to stand upon the iron pavement. God is witness that
our souls were ready to depart from us. . . . But
what surprised us most was to see the boys and little
children — not those of the common people, but the sons
and daughters of the great ofiicers of state — standing bare-
headed and motionless like statues, without betraying
the smallest gesture of impatience. What wonderful
constancy and faith ! " ^ " The worst of all was that we
did not leave the church until evening ; and then
scarcely had we seated ourselves at table, when the bells
were again tolled for vespers, at which we must rise to
give our attendance. What is to be thought of this per-
severing assiduity, from which this pious nation never
deviates, in its attention to all the ofl!ices of rehgion,
amidst the most trying circumstances ? Are we to sup-
pose them insensible to fatigue, and to believe that they
can live without eating ; that they are never to be satiated
with the most constant succession of prayers and meta-
noias, standing up to them on their legs during the whole
time, with their heads uncovered in the coldest weather,
without the smallest appearance of weariness or faintness
from the length of the service, which is always so exces-
sive ? " '
' Travels of Macarius, ii. 22^7. • Id., i. p. 35a
194 THE MODERN- CREEKS,
But when he comes to speak of the new and strange
fancy of the Patriarch Nicon in adding to the long ser-
vice a sermon for the instruction of the people, his
amazement has no bounds. He can only express his
utter astonishment at the incredible piety and fortitude
of these Russian saints. " We entered the church as the
clock struck three, and did not leave it till ten, having
stood there with them about seven hours on our legs, on
the iron pavement, enduring the most severe cold and
piercing frost But we were consoled for all this by wit-
nessing the admirable devotion of this people. Nor was
the patriarch satisfied with the ritual and the long synax-
aria, but he must crown all with an admonition and a
copious sermon ! God grant him moderation ! His
heart did not ache for the Emperor, nor for the tender
infants ! What should we say to this in our country ?
Would to God we were thus patient ! Without doubt
the Great Creator has granted to this nation to be His
peculiar people ; and it becomes them to be so, because
all their actions are according to the spirit, and not to
the flesh ; and they are all of this disposition. Nor was
yet this enough; but after the Emperor and the Patriarch
had sent us a banquet, and we had sat down to table,
still in that state of stupefaction, the bells immediately
began to ring for vespers ! " *
The religion brought before us in these passages is in-
deed perverted and obscured. We hardly recognize in it
the faith once delivered to the saints — the faith of the
Apostles, the early Christians, and of our own evangelical
• Travels of Macarius, iL 51-2.
STATE OF RELIGION. 135
churches. Yet after all, we cannot help feeling that there
have been far worse forms of Christianity than that of the
simple, devout, kindly and honest archdeacon of Aleppo.
He was true to his convictions, fervent and sincere, faith-
ful according to the light he enjoyed ; and of him more,
perhaps, was not required. The like charity wc may ex-
tend to his fellow-believers, the rude and lowly Greek
peasantry of Europe. Their religion was most unscrip-
tural ; was mixed with much which may truly be called
heathenish superstition. It was a childish faith, but it
was the faith of children in moral and intellectual devel-
opment ; and living in honesty and domestic virtue,
industrious, frugal, and patient, following the spiritual
guidance of their simple pastors — as poor, almost as igno-
rant as themselves — standing steadfastly for the faith as it
had been taught them, and performing faithfully what
they believed to be their religious duties, we may trust
that even their poor, distorted service was not unaccepted
of Him who will not break the bruised reed nor quench
the smoking flax.
Although the early perversions of Christianity kept
nearly equal pace in the East and the West, the Greek
and Roman Churches have been distinguished for fifteen
centuries by radical and most important differences. The
Eastern Church retained the rhetoric and the subtle
philosophy of the Greeks ; the Western Church, practical,
unphilosophical, submissive, inherited the legal, organiz-
ing, administrative genius of Rome. The Greek Church
was unpractical, unaggressive, intellectual, contempla-
tive, stationary. The Roman Church, with neither love
nor aptitude for subtle speculation, received its theology
ijS THE MODERN GREEKS.
from the Greeks, but was active, flexible, progressive, im-
perial. " The East enacted creeds, the West discipline."*
" The first decree of an Eastern Council was to determine
the relations of the Godhead. The first decree of the Pope
of Rome was to interdict the marriage of the clergy."*
Monasticism was as widely prevalent, as highly hon-
ored, in the one church as in the other. But be-
tween the monks of the East and those of the West there
was this immense difference : The monks of the East
were inactive, unaggressive, never thinking of any earnest
effort to extend the triumphs of their faith, but preferring
rather to escape from all labor, whether of body or of
mind, and seek for perfection through spiritual repose
and holy contemplation. The monks of the West, on the
other hand, when living up to their discipline, were among
the most earnest and laborious of men. Their great idea
was to seek for holiness by an unceasing conflict with the
weaknesses of the flesh. To this end they deemed no
means more effectual than such constant occupation,
either physical or mental, as should give the tempter no
access to their souls. Perpetual employment, either in
religious exercises, in the literary labors of the cloister, in
subduing and tilling their ample fields, or in Christian ac-
tivity abroad, was thus the law of their life. They were
filled with an irrepressible energy and zeal for conquest ;
and from the days of St. Patrick to those of Francis
Xavier, they have been among the most laborious, enter-
prising, and successful missionaries that the Christian
Church has ever produced.
' Milman's Latin Christianity, i. p. 119.
* Stanley's History of the Easterr. Churchy p. 109.
THE GREEK CHURCH. \yi
But while the Christian West has thus been ever ad-
vancing to new conquests, among the ancient churches of
the East, excepting only the mission of Ulfilas to the
Goths, and the stupendous operations of the Nestorians,
any such aggressive Christian labor has been almost un-
known for fifteen hundred years.
" In the midst of the Mohammedan East the Greek
populations remain like islands in the barren sea ; and the
Bedouin tribes have wandered for twelve centuries round
tlie Greek convent of Mount Sinai, probably without one
instance of conversion to the creed of men whom they
yet acknowledge, with almost religious veneration, as
beings from a higher world." *
For the thousand years which followed the division of
the Roman Empire between the sons of Theodosius in
395, the balance of advantage in the radical differences be-
tween the Christianity of the East and that of the West was
immensely in favor of the Church of Rome. The Church
of the East stood motionless and helpless in the midst
of its foes. But not so the mightier Church of the West
That Church grappled manfully with the new world of
barbarism, by which it seemed about to be overwhelmed,
subdued it to itself, and out of the moral and social chaos
which surrounded it, slowly but surely built up a new
civilization, better and nobler than that which had been
destroyed. But in modern times the scales have turned;
and now, for many generations, the Greek Church has
held a position far more favorable, far less oppugnant to
the development of light and truth and the progress of
society than that of its ancient rival.
^ Stanley, p. 122.
138 THE MODERN' GREEKS.
The Church of the West, obedient to the tenderiv-fes
which it had inherited from imperial Rome, early assumed
a centralized and monarchical form, with unlimited spirit-
ual authority in the hands of the Pope. And the Popes,
thus clothed with absolute power, became the source and
the authors of an immense body of ecclesiastical legislation,
the decretals and canon law, which fixed rigidly and un-
changeably almost every point relating to the moral and
religious interests of society and the Church. In its long
contest with the barbarism of the Middle Ages, this cen-
tralized, energetic power of the Western Church was the
ground of its invincible strength, and to it we are largely
indebted even for the better things of later times. But
when the age of darkness began to pass away, and the
Christian communities of the West were ready to break
forth in a larger and freer development, this despotism of
the Roman Church, so minute and all-embracing, so ab-
solute and relentless, became an iron bondage, a mill-
stone about the neck of society, an insuperable bar to all
healthful progress, to all freedom of thought and of action.
The Church of the East, on the other hand, has always
been comparatively free. It has had no spiritual sover-
eign, no centralized and despotic power. The Patriarchs
have been no more than presiding bishops, and the great
body of the bishops have formed an aristocracy with no
monarchical head except the Emperors. The constitu-
tion of the Eastern Church was thus as distinctively aris-
tocratic as that of the Western was monarchical and des-
potic. Again, the Church of the East has never been
cursed with a mania for ecclesiastical legislation. Almost
all points left undetermined by the great councils have
THE GREEK CHURCH. 139
remained unfixed by any ecclesiastical authority. In
this respect alone, the Greek Church, as compared with
the Papal, enjoys a measure of freedom at the present
time of incalculable value and promise. No ecclesiastical
law has ever prohibited or limited the reading of the
Scriptures and the services of the Church in the language
of the common people ; or enjoined the celibacy of the
parochial clergy ; or denied the sacramental cup to the
laity ; or asserted the infallibility of the Church ; or re-
quired auricular confession ; or affirmed the doctrines of
transubstantiation, purgatorial punishment, and works of
supererogation ; or sanctioned the sale or granting of
indulgences.^ The principle has always been established
that the church services of every nation of the Greek
faith should be in its own language ; and although, with
the lapse of time, the language of these services has in
most cases become antiquated and unfamiliar to the com-
mon ear, the principle is still the same. So also the cir-
culation of the Scriptures in the vernacular of each peo-
ple has never been forbidden, has in many cases been
favored and earnestly promoted. " The Arabic transla-
tion of the Scriptures, even in the Coptic Church, is lis-
tened to with the utmost attention, and is taught in
Coptic schools."^
The parochial clergy are usually in Turkey, always
in Russia, married men, but arc not allowed to marry
after ordination. The bishops and higher clergy are all
from the order of monks, and therefore unmarried. The
laity hold a far higher and more important position ; the
separation between laity and clergy is far less wide and
' Stanley, Lecture I. ; Tennent, chap. x. » Stanley, p. 127.
140 THE MODERN GREEKS.
complete in the Greek Church than in the Latin. The
Greek priesthood claim no such divine powers as are ar-
rogated to themselves by the priesthood of the Romish
Church. The words of ordination are a simple prayer for
the divine blessing ; the words of absolution, not as in the
Romish Church, " I absolve thee," but, "May the Lord
absolve thee."^ The vows of the Greek priest are not,
hke those of his Latin brother, indelible. It is possible
for him to divest himself of holy orders and return to the
ranks of common life. The monks are not necessarily
priests, as in the West. " The monastic orders, although
including many clergy, are yet in the East to a great ex-
tent, as they are never in the West, but as they were
entirely in early times, lay and not clerical institutions.
The vast community of Athos is, practically, a lay corpo-
ration, assisted by a small body of chaplains." ^ These
statements make it clear that the Greek Church has been
subjected to the bondage of ecclesiastical authority in a
far less degree than the Church of Rome. But another
and far more important point remains to be considered.
As we have seen, the Turkish conquest reduced the whole
* Stanley, p. 126.
' Id., p. 126. This statement of Dean Stanley, however true at the pres-
ent time, is a little misleading as to the condition of the Greek monasteries
in the past. When Colonel Leake visited the Greek monasteries of
Thessaly and Macedonia, in the first decade of the present century, it
would seem that the lay brethren did not outnumber the clerical monks or
caloyers. At Meteora, in western Thessaly, there were twenty caloyers,
whom alone he calls monks, and as many lay inmates. Lavra (or Laura)
and Vatopedhi, two of the largest of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos,
had, the former four hundred, the latter three hundred caloyers, either pres-
ent or absent, besides which each had connected with it, " a great number
of cosmics," or lay brethren. — Travels in Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 1 14-
140; voU iv. pp. 537-542-
THE GREEK CHURCH. 141
Greek nation to a perfect legal equality, transformed it
into a vast democracy. As the result of this revolution,
there gradually grew up among the commonalty of the
Greek Church a powerful and indestructible spirit of
democratic freedom. And as this spirit grew and strength-
ened, there came with it an ever-widening distinction be-
tween the great body of the people, with their simple
and lowly married pastors on the one hand, and the vast
ecclesiastical corporation of the monks and higher clergy
on the other.
The whole hierarchical system of the Greek Church is
based upon the monastic order ; and of the Greek monas-
tic order, the twenty convents of Mount Athos, the Holy
Mountain, are the central, and in the eyes of all Christians
of the Greek communion of whatever nation, the sacred
seat.* But the Greek monastic life, as we have already
seen, has been from the beginning indolent, stationary,
fruitless. Averse to all labor, whether of body or of
mind, save as they engaged in it for their own subsistence
or in the hope of gain, the Greek monks for many centu-
ries have lived in stupid ignorance, leaving the treasures
of ancient learning stored up in their libraries unstudied
and neglected ; have put forth no evangelistic effort for
^ Mount Athos is the ancient promontory or peninsula of Acta, sixty
miles south-east from Saloniki or Thessalonica, across the narrow neck of
which, a mile and a half wide, Xerxes dug his famous ship canal, on his in-
vasion of Greece. The monastic community occupies the whole peninsula,
on which no female, whether woman, beast, or domestic fowl, is permitted
to land. In these convents are represented all the families of the Greek
faith — the Greek, Bulgarian, Servian, Wallachian, Russian, and Georgian.
Besides the peninsula, they possess large estates in different parts of Eu-
ropean Turkey, some of them in Russia.
143 THE MODERN GREEKS.
the instruction of the people and the advancement of
their faith ; have had i.o thought or aspiration for the
public good. The only virtue to which they aspired was
the rigid observance of the ritual of the Church, and the
fasts, austerities, and penances prescribed by their monastic
rule. Their only passion was for the accumulation of
money and the pushing of their own personal interests.
Such a life made the Greek monks, as a rule — a rule not
without its honorable exceptions — narrow, bigoted, self-
ish, and useless in the last degree. From this order the
bishops and all the higher clergy were taken, and formed
a hierarchy worthy of such a parentage. To make the
matter worse, the high offices of the Church were prizes
eagerly coveted by the wealthy Greeks ; and many of
these, often among the most worthless of men, were con-
tinually entering the monasteries for the most selfish
ends.* Among the Greek prelates for the three hundred
and seventy years following the fall of Constantinople,
there were always here and there men of virtue, honesty,
and public spirit, sometimes of sound learning and true
liberality of mind. Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constanti-
nople in 1635, was a man whose " whole life was a com-
plicated struggle against the Jesuits of the Latin and
the hierarchy of the Greek Church, and a yearning after
the Protestant, chiefly the Calvinistic, theology of Geneva,
Holland, and England." "^ Germanos, Bishop of Patras,
was the first to raise the standard of revolt in 1821, and
there were other prelates who took part in the revolution
with a patriotism as manly and disinterested as his. But
the great majority of the Greek bishops from 1453 to
' Finlay, p. 178. * Stanley, p. 455.
THE GREEK CHURCH. 143
1 82 1 were mere tools of the Porte, mere hangers on
upon Turkish officials, always ready to secure their per-
sonal ends by bribery and intrigue, the selfish and rapa-
cious tyrants of their flocks. " The monks and the dig-
nified clergy became intriguers at Turkish divans, flat-
terers of Ottoman officials, and systematic spies on the
conduct of the parish priests, and on the patriotic senti-
ments of the laity. They served for three centuries as
the most efficient agents of the Ottoman government, in
repressing the national aspirations for independence
among the Greeks."' "The entire body of the un-
married clergy, from the humblest cenobitc to the en-
throned chief of their religion, may thus be looked upon
as one connected and classified system of tyranny ; each
individual existing by the spoils of those immediately
beneath him, and all supported by the hard-wrung con-
tributions of the Greeks. They can only be regarded as
an insulated weight, an incubus imposed upon the mass of
the people, with whom they had no mutual sympathies,
and from the midst of whom they might have been re-
moved without rending a single tie or inflicting an
essential injury."^
Under the Turks the four original Patriarchates of the
Eastern Church were still represented. There were, i,
the Patriarch of Constantinople ; 2, the Patriarch of
Alexandria, who, with all his pompous titles, was a pre-
late without a church, supported by the enforced contri-
butions of the merchants, Copts, and Roman Catholics of
Egypt ; 3, the Patriarch of Antioch, established in the
time of Macarius at Damascus, and the head of the
* Finlay, p. 159. * Tenncnt, vol. i. p. 412.
144 THE MODERN GREEKS.
feeble remnant of the orthodox Arabic-speaking Chris-
tians of Syria ; and 4, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the
poorest of the four, and the only one empowered to
name his own successor. Of these once mighty digni-
taries, the Patriarch of Constantinople was the only one
possessed of any real power or importance. The other
three were, after a time, driven by their poverty to Con-
stantinople, and their offices became little more than high
titular dignities in the Greek Church.^
In reorganizing the affairs of the Greeks, Mohammed
II. constituted a Grand Synod of the leading prelates of
the Greek Church, under the presidency of the Patriarch
of Constantinople, to stand as the responsible head of the
Church and nation, and to be the medium of all commu-
nications between the government and the Greek people.
It consisted at first of sixteen archbishops. Four of these,
the Archbishops of Heraclea, Cyzicum, Chalceden, and
Drekos, held their seats ex officio ; the other twelve were
named by the Patriarch. This Synod elected (or rather
nominated, for in every case the real appointing power
was reserved to the Sultan)^ the Patriarch of Constanti-
nople, the minor Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch,
and the archbishops and bishops generally. It took cog-
nizance of all the affairs of the Greek people, secular as
well as ecclesiastical ; through it were forwarded all the
firmans of the Porte relating to them ; it was empowered
to confirm or annul all decrees of the minor prelates in
^ Tennent, i. p. 361.
z " Waddington, Greek Church, 54, says the words of the barat of the Sul-
tan were, ♦ I command you to go and reside as bishop at , according
to the ancient custom, and to the vain ceremonies of the inhabitants.'" — Fin-
lay, p. 163, note.
THE GREEK CHURCH.
«4S
their respective sees.* The first four Patriarchs obtained
their office by a fair election, without any money pay-
ment. The fifth, Simeon of Trebizond, bought the dep-
osition of his predecessor and his own elevation for a
thousand ducats. From this time the Patriarchate, and
every other important office in the Church, had its price.
The Patriarch held his position only until another candi-
date appeared with a sufficient bribe ; bribery, simony,
and intrigue, as universal as they were shameless, became
almost the only ladder of advancement to the corrupt
hierarchy. Thus, while the great body of the nation,
with its simple married pastors, was slowly growing into
a vast Christian democracy, the monks and higher clergy
formed a great and corrupt ecclesiastical corporation, en-
tirely separate in their whole character and in all their
interests from the mass of the people. The common peo-
ple looked uf) to the bishops with something of respect,
mingled with superstitious awe and fear, as the heads of
their faith, and as holding in their hands the awful powers
of the Church ; yet too often hated them as rapacious
tyrants, and were glad to be freed from their power. Ac-
cording to Sir Emerson Tennent, there were many dis-
tricts which obtained from the Porte the privilege of living
without bishops, and of being governed by Exarchs
without salary, chosen from the ranks of their married
priests.^
Of the papas (popes) or married parochial clergy of
the Greeks as a body, for the three hundred years fol-
lowing the Turkish conquest, the best authorities are
agreed in speaking with much respect. The members of
» T^ennent, L 353. « Modern Greece, L 411.
146 THE MODERN GREEKS.
this order differed greatly in character, according to their
varying circumstances. Among the wild robbers of the
mountains the priests were sometimes tempted to make a
trade of pardoning crimes, and to promote rather than
oppose the wickedness which brought Ihem gain. In the
towns, through their ignorance, poverty, and inferior social
position, they were greatly demoralized, and many of
their number were base and worthless men. But the
great body of the order, living away from the corrupting
influences of the towns in the quiet agricultural districts
of the country, were simple, virtuous, and sincere. Cut
off from all hope of Church preferment, living with their
families among their people, sharing in their toils, their
burdens and trials, their pleasures and their joys, com-
pletely identified with them, looked up to by them with
reverent affection as their friends as well as their spirit-
ual guides, they were generally, as far as their qualifica-
tions would permit, true pastors to their flocks.
They were as poor, as superstitious, almost as ignorant
as their people. Their education merely sufficed to en-
able them to read the Church services; they were often
obliged to pursue some industrial calling for the support
of their families. But with simple faithfulness they per-
formed the ministries of their Church, and kept their peo-
ple steady and true in their devotion to a persecuted reli-
gion. " The parish priests were a class of men destitute
of learning, and possessing no great personal authority;
but as the agricultural classes in the villages formed the
heart of the nation, the parish priests had an influence on
the fate of Greece quite incommensurate with their so-
cial rank. . . . The secular clergy, without seeking
THE GREEK CHURCH. I47
the mighty charge, and without being suited worthily to
fulfill the mission, became by the nature of things the
real representatives of the Greek Church, and the nation-
al ministers of religion. To their conduct we must surely
attribute the confidence which the agricultural population
retained in the promises of the Gospel, and their firm
persistence in a persecuted faith. The grace of God ope-
rated by human means to preserve Christianity under the
domination of the Ottomans." '
* Finlay, pp. l8o>|.
CHAPTER IV.
'ONDITION OF THE GREEKS IN THE SIXTEENTH
AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES — ARMATOLI AND
KLEPHTS — THE AGE OF PIRACY — VENETIAN CON-
QUEST OF THE MOREA.
For a hundred and fifty years after the conquest of
Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire remained in the full-
ness of power and prosperity, and the population, both
Mohammedan and Christian, steadily increased.* The
Sultans were able and energetic men who held the reins
of government firmly in their own hands ; the Pashas
and local officials were held in steady subjection ; rebel-
lions and civil dissensions rarely disturbed the peace of
the provinces ; the laboring classes, both in the agricul-
tural districts and the towns, were industrious and pros-
perous ; manufactures flourished ; the trade of the Em-
pire, both domestic and foreign, was vast and lucra-
tive. " Various manufactured articles were, for two cen-
turies, generally imported from the Sultan's dominions
into other countries, particularly camlets, a strong stuff
composed of silk and mohair called grogram, rich bro-
caded silks, embroidered scarfs, Turkey carpets, leather
and yarn, besides Angora wool, cotton wool, and raw
> Finlay, p. 6i.
DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE. 149
silk, flax and hemp, in addition to the usual produce ex-
ported from the Levant, Southern Italy and Sicily at the
present day. . , . Livadea and Atliens . . .
supplied sail-cloth for the Ottoman navy. English ships
already visited the Morea and Missolonghi to load cur-
rants, and often brought back rich scarfs, sashes of varie-
gated silk and gold tissue, and Turkey leather of the
brightest dyes, which were manufactured at different
towns in Greece, particularly at Patras, Gastouni, and
Lepanto." '
But with the seventeenth century began the decline of
the Ottoman power, and a period of great depression
and calamity to the Greeks. The Sultans were no longer
masters of their own Empire ; supreme power was in
the hands of ministers and favorites ; the great Pashas
had become semi-independent and defiant, the minor
officials rapacious and tyrannical ; rebellions and civil
wars laid waste the provinces ; ^ and a vast and terrible
system of piracy and slave-catching destroyed the trade
of the Empire, and depopulated and ruined the islands
and coasts of Greece. In the seventeenth century, the
Greeks descended to the lowest point of feebleness and
misery ever reached in all their history — a point from
which they began to rise in the vigor of a regenerated
national life.
The social condition of the Greeks during the first
' Finlay, p. 187.
' When Macarius and Paul of Aleppo returned to Asia Minor, in 1659,
they found the whole Peninsula, from Briisa to Aleppo and Diarbekir, iu
confusion, through the formidable rebellion of Abaza Hassan El Jelali,
Pasha of Aleppo. — Macarius, vol. ii. pp. 415, 431, 435.
I50 THE MODERN' GREEKS.
three centuries of Turkish rule dififered widely in different
parts of the Empire. In the extent of their sufferings
at the outset, through the havoc of the conquest itself;
in the character and degree of their subsequent servi-
tude ; in their exposure to corrupting influences, to local
oppression, and to the inroads of enemies, their circum-
stances varied as widely as the districts in which they
dwelt.
I. The Greeks were very numerous in Western Asia
Minor, in Southern Macedonia, and in the neighborhood
of the capital. In these central regions of the Empire,
which foreign foes never invaded, which were rarely
wasted by civil strife, and in which the power of Turkish
rule was steady and irresistible, the condition of the
Greeks differed very widely, in some respects for the
better, in others for the worse, from that of their brethren
in Greece proper and the islands. In the first place,
having yielded in most cases to overwhelming force
and without resistance, they had suffered less at the
great revolution of the Turkish conquest. In some
districts, especially in the Morea and the islands, where
the Venetians made a stubborn defence, the destruc-
tion of the Greek population was so great as to essen-
tially diminish the numbers of the race. To say no-
thing of the awful carnage which followed the subjuga-
tion of any city or province in which serious resistance
was encountered, the immense deportation of the inhabi-
tants which followed left many districts entirely depopu-
lated. Nor was this devastation Hmited to places taken
at the point of the sword. The fate of the great island
of Lesbos, or Mytilene, is an example in point. This
CONDITION OF THE GREEKS. 151
rich and populous island had belonged to sei^iors of
the Genoese family of Gattilusio. In the hope of preserv-
ing his dominions, the last Seignior of Mytilene, Nicholas
Gattilusio, not only surrendered his capital, but turned
Mohammedan ; while the people who hated their Catho-
lic lords were equally prompt in transferring their allegi-
ance to the Turks. The island had become a nest of
Sicilian, Italian, and Spanish pirates, who from this con-
venient refuge infested the Turkish waters, and in 1462
Mohammed II. determined to break it up. Neither
prince nor people were saved by their submission. The
seignior was rewarded for his treacherous apostasy by
the bowstring ; one-third of the people, the most intelli-
gent and skillful, were removed to fill the empty streets
of Constantinople; a second third, the youngest and
fairest, were sold into slavery, and only the remaining
third, the poorest and meanest of the inhabitants, were
left to occupy the island.
The booty in slaves was one of the chief rewards of
the Turkish soldiery. It was thus a prime end of every
expedition, as had been the case in almost all the wars
of the ancient world, to bring back a great host of cap-
tives for the slave market. Whatever the event of the
campaign, the captives must be gathered, the slaves must
be had. The second invasion of Germany by Solyman
the Magnificent, in 1531, resulted in an ignominious re-
treat ; but thirty thousand captives served to appease tlie
army and defray the cost of the campaign.^ "Those ter-
rible incursions into Styria, Carinola, and Carinthia, and
into Italy as far as the banks of the Isonzo and Tag.
• Upham's Ottoman Empire (Constable's edition), vol. ii. p. n.
IS* THE MODERN GREEKS.
Hamento, were often made merely to gratify the troops
with a rich booty in slaves, not with the intention of
making any permanent conquests." ^
The Venetians pursued the same course on their part.
"The Venetian government excited the activity of its
mercenary troops by granting them two-thirds of all
tlie booty they collected, and by establishing regular sales
by auction of the captives brought into the camp, paying
the soldiers three ducats a head for each prisoner."^
Thus, between the Turks and Venetians, the unhappy
Greeks of the South were ground as between the upper
and the nether millstone. Modon was destroyed by the
Turks, Megara by the Venetians. The Greek population
in the neighborhood of Argos and Nauplia was extermin-
ated ; the great island of Negropont was taken from the
Venetians after a brave defence, and most of its Greek
inhabitants sold for slaves. In 1537, the island of .^gina,
then flourishing under Venetian rule, was taken by the
famous Barbarossa, the Admiral of Solyman the Mag-
nificent. The city was destroyed, all the males capable
of bearing arms were slain, six thousand young women
and children were carried into slavery, and the island was
left without inhabitants.'
From horrors like these, the Asiatic and Macedonian
Greeks of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were in
great measure free. They subsided quietly into their
new position under Turkish rule — a position which re-
mained fixed and permanent. They were not greatly
oppressed ; they lived in comparative comfort and plenty
—and so they remained for four hundred years ; as well
* Finlay, p. 77. « Finlay, p. 77. » Id., 83.
CONDITION OF THE GREEKS. 153
off, according to the statement of Mr. Urquhart, already
cited, as any agricultural peasantry in the world. Yet,
though always a prolific race, their numbers have re-
mained for all these four hundred years very nearly the
same. There has been no essential increase. Of this
important fact the reasons are obvious. The Greeks of
these provinces lived shut in and kept down by a military
aristocracy of an alien race and a hostile faith. They
paid their taxes in kind, and labored, hoped for, nothing
more than the means of subsistence from year to year.
The weight of Turkish power was so heavy, so steady,
and so utterly irresistible, as to leave them neither hope
nor aspiration for any change. Worst of all, they lived
in constant, intimate exposure to Turkish influences in
their most depressing, corrupting form. The temptation
to apostasy was great and never-ceasing, and there can
be no doubt that for three centuries their loss by apostasy,
and the tribute of the fifth male child, was enough to
counterbalance the natural increase in their numbers.
For the past hundred years it would seem that the Greek
population had slowly but steadily increased.
II. For the first three centuries of Turkish rule, the
inhabitants of Northern Greece and Albania, from Mount
Olympus, Ochrida, and Scutari on the north, to the
Gulf and Isthmus of Corinth on the south, held a posi-
tion very peculiar, and in some respects singularly ad-
vantageous. Throughout this wide region, almost alone
in the Ottoman dominions, a great part of the Christian
population retained their arms and a large measure of
freedom. The Albanians will demand a separate consid-
eration. In Northern Greece, through all this period,
154 THE MODERN' GEEEITS.
we meet with two classes of brave and warlike Greeks,
always in arms, always trained to a life of hardihood,
adventure, and military daring, which were destined to-
gether to play a very important part in the coming
events of their national history — the Armatoli and the
Klephts}
The whole of Northern Greece, as far as the boundaries
of Attica, was subdued by Bajazet I. and Amurath 11. ;
Albania finally surrendering to Amurath in 1432.^ At-
tica, Megaris, and the Morea yielded to the arms of Mo-
hammed II. after the fall of Constantinople. From that
time, excepting the twenty-three years of Scanderbeg's
heroic reign in Albania, and now and then a successful
Venetian invasion, the whole of Northern Greece le-
mained in the undisputed possession of the Turks. Their
authority, however, was very imperfectly established.
The plains of Thessaly and Karlili ^ were occupied and
appropriated in the usual way, but the warlike mountain-
eers, who formed a large majority of the population of
Northern Greece, were really unsubdued. Safe in their
fastnesses among the mountains, and encouraged and
supported by the Venetians, they continually vexed and
wasted the Turkish settlements in the plains.
' For a full account of the Armatoli and Klephts of Northern Greece,
see Tennent, chap. xi.
"^ Tennent, i. pp. 122, 166.
3 Karlili is the name given by the Turks to the district lying south of
Albania, between Arta and the Gulf of Corinth, including 1»he ancient
Acarnania and ^tolia. " The name is supposed to have been attached to
the country by the Turks, because on their first arrival they found it in pos-
session of a Frank prince, named Charles Tocco." — Leake's Travels in
Northern Greece, voL i. p. ^24, note.
THE ARMATOLI AND KLEPHTS. 155
Too much occupied with other and more profitable
enterprises to undertake the almost impossible task of the
thorough conquest of these wild mountains, the Sultans
finally had recourse to concession and compromise. The
Christian mountaineers, upon the payment of tribute,
were permitted to retain their arms, and were formed into
regular and permanent bands. These bands were re-
ceived into the service of the Porte as a kind of local
militia for the defence of the country and the preserva-
tion of order. Thus arose the famous bands of the Chris-
tian Armatoli, which for nearly three hundred years oc-
cupied the whole of Northern Greece (not including Al-
bania), from the Isthmus of Corinth to the borders of
Macedonia. Each canton had its own independent band;
and each band its hereditary captain, whose residence
was in the chief town of his district, and whose jurisdic-
tion was called an armatolic. The members of these bands
were called pallikaris ; and each captain had a lieutenant
or secretary, called proto-pallikari.
But besides the Armatoli, there were great numbers
of armed mountaineers, who, disdaining submission to
the Turks, maintained themselves in their mountain fast-
nesses in fierce and haughty independence. Owning a
nominal allegiance to some distant Turkish official, and
paying their tribute with greater or less regularity, they
were really free ; and keeping up a perpetual warfare with
the Turks of their own neighborhood, they were known
as Klephts, or robbers — a name which soon came to be
held in highest honor among the Greeks.
The greater part of Northern Greece was thus left in
the enjoyment of a very unusual measure of freedom.
1S6 THE MODERN GREEKS.
There were some important districts which really govern-
ed themselves with little interference on the part of the
Turks, and in which the Greek inhabitants lived in quiet
and prosperity until the beginning of the present century.
One of these, the neighborhood of Mounts Ossa and
Pelion in eastern Thessaly, has been already referred to.
Another, the little republic of Agrafa, deserves more
particular mention.
Agrafa^ is a district about fifty miles in length by
thirty-five in breadth, lying in the mountainous region
south of Thessaly. At the beginning of the present cen-
tury it contained eighty-five towns and villages, and fifty
thousand inhabitants. Its peculiar privileges, dating back
apparently to a period far anterior to the Turkish con-
quest, were preserved in its capitulation with Moham-
med II., and until the times of Ali Pasha and the Greek
Revolution, it kept its proud position as a free republic,
tributary to the Porte. Every year the people chose
their archon and council ; and under the direction of
the archons, a Christian captain with two hundred men,
and a Mohammedan Albanian with three hundred, kept
the peace and guarded the roads. In the more favored
districts agriculture was very flourishing, and large quan-
tities of wine, butter, cheese, wool, silk, honey, sheep,
goats, cows, and oxen were exported. There were man-
ufactures of cotton, wool, gold, silver, sword-blades, gun-
barrels, and pistol-locks, giving employment to a third of
the whole population, while great numbers of the men
were engaged abroad as shopkeepers, artisans, and car-
riers. These, and many similar examples which might
' Leake's Travels in Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 266-274.
THE MORE A AND THE ISLANDS. 157
be cited, are conclusive proof that the Greeks of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries needed only to
be let alone to insure their prosperity and rapid advance-
ment.
Until the close of the seventeenth century, the Greek
Armatoli were in high favor with the Turks. The Porte
looked to them as a ready means for curbing its mutinous
spahis ; the Pashas kept them in pay as a force on which
they might hope to depend in any quarrel with the Porte.
But after the conquest of the Morea by the Venetians, in
1687, and their final expulsion from Greece by the treaty
of Passarovitz, in 1718, the Porte began to look upon
these Christian soldiers with a jealous eye, and to devise
means to disunite and destroy them. To this end a
Dervent-Aga, or guardian of the roads, was appointed,
with a jurisdiction extending over all Northern Greece,
and having his guard-houses and company of Albanian
guards at every important point. After 1 740, this ofhce
was bestowed upon the Albanian Pashas of Epirus ; and
finally, towards the close of the last century, by the craft
and force of Ali Pasha of Yannina, the Armatoli were
effectually broken up. Many of them enlisted in the
service of Ali, but the great majority were driven to swell
the ranks of the independent Klephts.
III. While the Christians of the northern provinces were
thus living in comparative quiet and prosperity, to the
Greeks of the Morea and the islands, through the rivalry
and frequent wars of the Turks and Venetians, the six-
teenth century was a troubled and calamitous period.
The Morea was repeatedly invaded by the Venetians,
and although the Christian forces were expelled by the
158 THE MODERN GREEKS,
Turks, each of these bloody and desperate struggles en-
tailed fearful loss and sufferings upon the unhappy Greeks.
The islands were wrested slowly, and one by one, from
their Latin masters. Mytilene was subdued in 1462,
Zante and Cephalonia in 1479, Rhodes in 1522, the
Cyclades in 1537-8, Cyprus in 1570, while Candia, the
last stronghold of the Venetians in the ^gean,^ held out
until 1669. The story of most of these successive con-
quests is the same sickening recital of the pillage, slaugh-
ter, and enslavement of the wretched inhabitants. Thus,
hardly had the power of the Sultan been firmly estab-
lished in these southern regions, hardly had the unhappy
Greeks begun to look forward to something of peace and
prosperity under Turkish rule, when the Empire entered
upon its long decline, and the dark, disastrous age of the
seventeenth century set in.
Throughout the Mediterranean and its tributary waters,
the seventeenth century was the age of piracy. Draguts
and Barbarossas no longer commanded the Turkish fleets.
The naval force of the Empire, though still powerful, and
an equal match for the navies of the West on great occa-
sions, was cumbrous and unwieldy. It only put to sea in
strong force, and, usually, once or twice in the year. The
trade, islands, and coasts of the Empire were thus left,
with no efficient protection, to be the prey of every swift
and enterprising spoiler. Such spoilers, both Moslem and
Christian, soon swarmed in every sea. Innumerable cor-
sairs issued from the ports of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis,
and Tripoli, to prey upon everything Christian within
their reach on sea and land ; while an equal number of
* Excepting Timos, which was held by the Venetians until 1715.
THE AGE OF PIRACY. 159
Christian corsairs, fitted out by the Knights of St John
at Malta, from Catalonia, Sicily, Genoa, Tuscany, and Dal-
matia,' plundered with no less rapacity everything belong-
ing to the infidel. The poor Greeks were pillaged, kid-
napped, and enslaved by both parties alike — by the
Moslems because they were Christians, by the Christians
because they were heretics, and subjects of the Turk.
So destructive and frequent did these inroads become,
that the Greeks were everywhere compelled to abandon
the open country near the sea, and fix their abodes in
distant and secure retreats.*
While the sea was thus filled with freebooters, the
Greeks upon the mainland also found their condition
much changed for the worse. The Pashas and other local
officials, no longer held in strict subjection by the central
government, were allowed to plunder their subjects and
wage war upon one another at their pleasure. The num-
ber of Turkish, or rather Moslem, landholders had con-
siderably increased; the janizaries, now settled as military
colonies in all the principal towns, were crowding the
Greeks from the various callings which hitherto they had
' The pirates of Dalmatia, long ago turned Mohammedan, maintained
their celebrity until the present century. Mr. Hobhouse speaks of the peo-
ple of Dulcigno as " six thousand pirates," and says that the inhabitants of
Dulcigno and Antivari were the only Albanians who were sailors. At that
time, they took service with the Barbary powers, and with Ali Pasha. —
Travels in Albania, &c., vol. i. p. 146.
Through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Knights of St.
John at Malta regularly sold their Moslem captives into slavery. The
households of the Spanish grandees, and the Spanish and French galleys
were largely supplied from this source. — S<h? Ed. Review for April, 1876, p,
230.
" Finlay, pp. 103-117.
|60 THE MODERN GREEKS.
largely engrossed ; and, to crown all, the barbarous expul-
sion of their Moslem brethren from Spain in 1609, had
embittered the Turks against the Christian name, and
inspired them with a fanatical and intolerant spirit, which
for two hundred years they had rarely displayed.
The seventeenth century was thus a period of great
depression and calamity to the whole Greek race. Their
trade was annihilated, their resources straitened, their
numbers diminished, and their condition rendered in
every respect troubled and precarious. Never had they
been so much depressed and despised, never had such
discouragement and despondency seized upon their
minds, never, since the reign of Mohammed II., had
apostasy been so alarmingly prevalent among the middle
and lower classes, " Still it was not from direct oppres-
sion that the number of Greek renegades was increased
towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Those
who quitted the orthodox faith were led to take that step
by a feeling of despair at their despised condition in soci-
ety, and by a desire to bear arms and mix in active life.
The spirit of the age was military, and violence was one
of its characteristics. The Greeks could only defend their
families against the insolence of the Turks and the rapacity
of the Frank corsairs by changing their religion ; when
galled by acts of injustice, and eager for revenge, they
often flew to the most violent and most effectual remedy
their imagination could suggest, and embraced Moham-
medanism." ^
To the Greeks of the islands, however, these over-
whelming calamities of the seventeenth century proved
» Finky, pp. 139-40.
ftV<»-4Ll|/WlMV^~^'f «^^^^^X r »'»rt- .
k--^f
BEGINNING OF BETTER DA YS. i6i
but the preparation for a brighter and better day. Tlie
incessant and determined warfare waged against the
Turks in the waters of the ^gean by the Knights of St.
John and other Christian corsairs, effectually drove the
Turks from the islands. No Turkish governor was found
hardy enough to hold a position so dangerous, and in
many of the islands not a Turk remained. The islanders
were thus enabled to enter into an arrangement with the
Porte, by which, upon the payment of a definite tribute,
to be collected by the Capitan Pasha on his annual round,
they were to be left, without the presence of any Turkish
official, to manage their own affairs.^ The way was thus
prepared for that astonishing development of which some
pf tliese islands were to be the theater a hundred years
later.
As the janizaries became changed into a fixed and
hereditary class, the tribute of Christian children was no
longer needed to fill their ranks. By the middle of the
seventeenth century, this tribute had ceased to be regu-
larly exacted. Only a few instances are mentioned in
which it was demanded in later times, the last beino- a
levy of a thousand Christian children in 1703.^
The total defeat of the Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha,
before Vienna in 1683, by John Sobieski, King of Po-
land, was followed by events of great importance to the
Greeks. Previous to this time the Porte had assumed a
tone of contemptuous arrogance in its dealings with the
Christian powers, which their faithlessness and pusilla-
nimity had gone far to justify. Never had the demands
of the Porte or the rapacity of its high officials been so
' Tennetit, i. p. 179, note. « Finlay, p. 195, and note.
l62 THE MODERN GREEKS,
exorbitant and intolerable. "The Sultan's government
complained, and not witliout reason, that no treaty of
peace with a Christian monarch afforded any guarantee
for its faithful observance. . . . The deportment of
the ambassadors of the Christian powers at ConstantiuO-
ple did not increase the consideration in which they w^re
held. Unwise exhibitions of presumption and petulawce
by some French ambassadors were not supported vvJth
proper firmness. Many scandalous scenes occurrod.
The son of M. de la Haye, the French ambassador, was
bastinadoed by the Turks and his father imprisoned.
Louis XIV. sent M. Blondel as envoy extraordinary to
demand satisfaction for the insult ; but this envoy could
not gain admittance to Sultan Mohammed IV., and re-
turned to France without delivering his sovereign's letter.
Some time after, the younger de la Haye, who had re-
ceived the bastinado, became himself ambassador, and
conducted himself in such a manner at his first meeting
with the Grand Vizier, that he was pushed oft'" the stool
on which he was seated, and beaten by the Grand Vizier's
attendants. The Marquis of Nointel, who was sent to
Constantinople in 1670 to repair the imprudences of his
predecessors, . . . was turned out of the room by
the shoulders, the tshaoiis shouting as he pushed him
along, 'March off, infidel!' The eagerness with which
the ambassadors of the Christian powers intrigued and
bribed in order to overreach one another at the Porte, the
importance they attached to sitting in an arm-chair in
public, and the tricks they made use of to obtain exclu-
sive privileges, each for his own nation, led the Turks to
conclude that the Christian character was a very despi-
VENETIAN CONQUEST OF THE MOREA. 163
cable compound of childish folly and extreme selfishness.
The Ottoman ministers acted on this persuasion, and
treated the representatives of the Christian powers at
Constantinople with the insolence of contempt, while
the commerce of the merchants in the Empire was con-
sidered as a fair object for constant exactions." '
Under these circumstances the Venetian Senate deter-
mined to take instant advantage of the great reverse suf-
fered by the Turkish arms in Germany, to attempt the
recovery of some portion of the ground they had lost.
An alliance offensive and defensive was formed with
Germany and Poland, and war was declared in July, 1684.
This war resulted in the last great success ever achieved
by the declining Republic. In three brilliant campaigns,
aided by strong bodies of German mercenaries led by
able German commanders, not only were the Turks
wholly driven from the Morea, but the power of the
Porte was broken in extensive districts north of the Gulf
of Corinth. By the treaty of Carlovitz in 1699, Northern
Greece was restored to the Turks, while the Morea re-
mained in the possession of Venice. The Turks had been
driven from the peninsula, but in their retreat they had
ravaged and ruined the country. The population of the
Morea before the war had been reckoned at two hundred
and fifty thousand Christians and fifty thousand Moslems.
After the war but one hundred thousand remained.
Deeply sensible of the precarious tenure by which they
held their conquest, the Venetians reversed their usual
policy in the treatment of their dependencies, and en-
deavored to so govern the Morea as to secure not the
' Finlay, pp 197-200.
l64 THE MODERN GREEKS,
prosperity of the people alone, but ftieir hearty attach
ment to themselves. They succeeded in giving the
Greeks prosperity, but not in winning their afifection.
Greek and Latin could not forget the strife of ages, and
dwell together in unity. Justice was fairly administered,
peace and good order were maintained, and wise com-
mercial and financial regulations were established. The
good effect of these measures at once appeared. Indus-
try revived, the scattered people returned, immigrants
from neighboring districts flocked into the Morea, and in
1 70 1, the population had risen again to two hundred
thousand souls. The influence of the Catholic clergy in
the Morea, feeble as was the hold which they were able
to obtain upon the native population, was productive of
much and permanent good. Through their superior in-
telligence, activity, and devotion to the duties of their
calling, the Greek papas were made sensible of their own
ignorance and inferiority, and were shamed into greater
diligence. Many schools were established, and a new
impulse, which has never since been lost, was given to
education.^
There was nothing which impressed the Venetians
more strongly at this time than the invincible repugnance
of the Greeks of the Morea to the profession of arms
No young men could be found, except among the war-
like Mainats, who were willing to serve as soldiers. The
Greeks of the Morea would not fight on any side, even
for their own deliverance. The Morea was prosperous
under Venetian rule, to a degree probably never equaled
at any other time for the past four hundred years Yet
' Finlay, p. 256.
VENETIAN CONQUEST OF THE MORE A. 165
that rule soon became exceedingly distasteful to the
Greeks. They hated the yoke of the Latin Christian
more than that of the Moslem Turk. All classes were
jealous and suspicious. The higher orders, idle, selfish,
and rapacious as usual, were restless and discontented.
By many of this class the return of the Turks was greatly
desired, as promising greater freedom and license to them-
selves, with less restriction to their selfish, tyrannical
schemes.
It was clear that the rule of the Venetians in the Morea
could not be permanent, and events soon transpired which
brought it to a sudden close. From 1701 to 171 3 West-
ern Europe was convulsed by the long and terrible war
of the Spanish Succession. From all participation in
this war the Venetian Republic kept so timidly aloof that
at the peace of Utrecht in 171 3 she was left without an
ally or a friend. Meantime, the disastrous defeat of Peter
the Great by the Turks in 1 7 1 1 left the Ottoman govern-
ment at liberty to put forth its full strength for the re-
covery of the Morea. The Turkish Grand Vizier at this
time was the celebrated Ali Cumurgi, one of those able
and energetic men who appeared from time to time
among the Ottoman officials to revive the memory of
greater and better days. Ali Cumurgi was the son of a
charcoal burner of Asia Minor ; but in childhood he had
been received into the household of the Sultan and edu-
cated for the public service. In June, 171 5, Ali Cu-
murgi entered Greece with an army of seventy thousand
men, while the Capitan Pasha sailed to co-operate by sea.
To this overwhelming force the Venetians could offer no
effective opposition. The Grand Vizier maintained the
i66 THE MODERN GREEKS.
strictest discipline in his camp, paid liberally for all sup-
plies, protected the people from spoliation, and proclaimed
that they were to be treated not as the enemies, but as
the subjects of the Sultan. As the result of this wise
policy, the Moreots flocked to his standard and filled his
camp with abundant supplies. The Venetian fortresses
were speedily subdued, and in one short and brilliant
campaign the whole of the Morea was regained. The
next year the Ottoman forces were totally defeated by
Prince Eugene at the great battle of Peterwardein on the
banks of the Danube, and Ali Cumurgi was among the
slain. By the peace of Passarovitz, in 171 8, the Morea
was finally abandoned to the Turks.
The establishment of the power of Venice in the Mo-
rea in 1688 was the turning point in the fortunes of the
Greeks. Their prospects brightened, their condition im-
proved, and from that day they began slowly but surely
and steadily to rise.
CHAPTER V.
THE ALBANIANS OR ARNAUTS — SCANDERBEG—
ALI PASHA OF YANNINA.'
The Albanians,^ Arnauts, as the Turks call them, or
Skipetars (rock-dwellers), as they call themselves, inhabit
the territory covered by ancient Epirus and the country
of the Illyrians in Western Macedonia, extending from
Montenegro on the north to the Gulf of Arta or Ambra-
cia on the south, and from the coast of the Adriatic on
the west to the central chain of Pindus on the east.
Epirus is stupendously wild and mountainous, the very
Switzerland of Greece, yet abounding in valleys of great
beauty and fertility. The Ancient Epirots were as dis-
tinct from the Hellenes as the Albanians are from the
* Knolles' Turkish History, 3 vols, folio, London, 1687.
Leake's Travels in Northern Greece ; and Researches in Greece.
Sir John Cam Hobhouse (Lord Broughton), Journey through Albania
and other Provinces of European and Asiatic Turkey.
Mackenzie and Irby, The Slavonic Provinces of Turkey in Europe,
chaps, xvii., xxxiii., and xxxiv.
Prof Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language; and Languages
of the Seat of War.
Brace's Races of the Old World.
Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. Ixvii.
* Mr. Hobhouse observes that the country began to be called Albania in
the eleventh century, or earlier. — Journey in Albania, etc, vol, i. 118.
168 THE MODERN GREEKS.
modern Greeks. The Greek writers accounted them a
Pelasgic race, or descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants
of the country. They formed a cluster of rude highland
clans, much like the Highlanders of Scotland a hundred
and fifty years ago — brave, warlike, fierce, illiterate,
and barbarian. Sometimes the several clans or tribes
were essentially independent ; sometimes they coalesced
into little kingdoms of greater or less extent. In the
times of the successors of Alexander the Great, Epirus
had made considerable progress in civilization, and its
kings exerted no little influence in the affairs of Eastern
Europe. Pyrrhus, one of the latest of these kings, was a
man of eminent ability, and made both himself and his
country illustrious. Crossing the Adriatic in defence of
the Greek colonies of Southern Italy, or Magna Graecia,
he grappled not unsuccessfully with the rising power of
Rome, and won for himself an honorable place among the
great commanders of the ancient world.
In the year 167 B. C. the Romans wreaked a terrible
vengeance upon Epirus, destroying seventy towns, and
reducing a hundred and fifty thousand of the people to
slavery. This was probably the only time that the Epi-
rots have ever been thoroughly subdued. But even the
Roman conquest seems to have wrought little change in
their social condition. They still retained their own lan-
guage and their national manners and usages, still re-
mained a distinct and peculiar people.
The question has been much discussed whether the
Albanians are genuine Epirots and Illyrians, or a new
people, formed by large and repeated infusions of barba-
rian elements from the north. The question seems to
THE ALBANIANS. 169
have been finally decided upon evidence furnished by
their language. Prof. Max Miiller and Prof Pott deem
it clear that the Albanian language is the true represen-
tative of the ancient Illyrian. The Epirots and Illyrians
were neighbor and kindred tribes, speaking different dia-
lects of the same language. It may now perhaps be
considered as settled that the Albanians are the direct
descendants of these ancient tribes,^ though mingled in
the course of ages, especially in the northern districts,
with other and foreign elements.
Prof Pott considers it certain that the Illyrian is one
of the aboriginal races of Europe, and that if the term
Pelasgi was ever used as the designation of a particular
people, this must have been the race to which it belonged.
He finds reason to beheve that their numerous tribes ex-
tended far to the north, even beyond the Danube, and
that the Wallachians are lineal descendants from the same
stock. According to these views, it would seem that the
Illyrian race must have been the earliest branch of the
Indo-European race to settle in Europe, preceding even
the Celts.*
The old division between Epirots, and Illyrians has its
modern counterpart in the marked distinction between the
Northern and the Southern Albanians ; these two sections
of the race being quite dissimilar, and manifesting a strong
mutual dislike. Yannina, or loannina, of which Yannina
is the vulgar pronunciation, is the capital of Epirus, as
* Col. Leake observes that in Epirus and New Epirus (Central Albania)
the aborigines of the country have probably always held their ground. —
Researches in Greece, p. 238.
' Miiller's Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 201 ; and Languages
of the Seat of War, pp. 50-64.
8
IT© THE MODERN GREEKS.
Scutari, or Skadar, is of the northern province. Until
the fall of the famous Mustapha Pashai in 1833, Northern
Albania had been held for some centuries, under the
Turks, by a renegade branch of a princely Servian house.
By descent, therefore, Mustapha Pasha, like so many
others of the high Ottoman officials, was not a Turk, but
a Servian.
The modern Epirots are true mountaineers, light and
agile, and fight on foot They are more sprightly and
vivacious than their northern kindred, in this respect
being more like the Greeks. Col. Leake observes that
the Epirots and mountain Greeks are very much alike,
though the Epirots are more even-tempered, prudent, and
faithful, as also more selfish and avaricious; that both
^ The "Turk," who was sleeping "in his guarded tent," when Marco
Bozzaris broke in upon his dream. Scutari (Scodra) is an ancient town, as
old as the Roman Empire. Yannina has always been a Greek city, with a
Greek population. It has been important for seven hundred years, and at
the Turkish conquest stood next to Thessalonica. — Leake's Researches, pp.
243, note, and 415.
These apostate Servians of Scutari, the famous family of the Bushatlia,
were a powerful and semi-royal house, which no Sultan for centuries had
been able to displace. The same thing was true of the hereditary Pashas of
Uskup in Northern Macedonia. Mustapha Pasha, or Skodra Pasha, as the
Turks called him, a man not destitute of ability, or of culture, was a power-
ful prince, who could bring into the field an army of thirty-five thousand men.
If he had chosen to act with vigor against the Greeks, very likely he might
have ended the rebellion; as, in 1829, he might have prevented the Russians
from passing the Balkans. But his great enen.y was not the Greek, or the
Musco\nte, but Sultan Mahmoud himself, who had determined to destroy
him, vrith all the hereditary Pashas of his class. While, therefore, he obeyed
the commands of the Sultan to march, now southwards against the Greeks,
and now northwards against the Russians, and the rebels of Bosnia, his
chief purpose always was to see to it that his own forces were kept well in
hand, ani suffered no diminution. — See Ranke's Servia, pp. 285, 334-7.
DESPOTS OF EPIRUS.
171
classes display the same religious prejudice and supersti-
tion, the same activity, keenness, and enterprise, and that
they are alike hardy, patient, and laborious.^ The North-
ern Albanians, inhabiting a more open country, have re-
ceived, in the course of ages, a much larger infusion of
foreign — especially of Slavonic — blood. They are taller
and more stalwart than the Epirots, as they are more
surly and stubborn ; but though just as mercenary, cruel,
and rapacious, they are not accounted as brave, and pre-
fer to fight on horseback.
Of the history of the Albanians from the decline of the
Roman power to the Turkish conquest, not very much
is known. They adopted Christianity, and rendered an
obedience more or less complete to the imperial govern-
ment of Rome and Constantinople. They were after-
wards partially subjected to the Bulgarian and Servian
Empires;^ but, defended by their impenetrable moun-
tains and their indomitable spirit, they seem to have re-
mained age after age the same race of unconquerable,
infusible barbarian mountaineers which they had been
from the beginning. When Constantinople was taken
by the Crusaders, in 1204, Michael Angelos Comnenus,
a member of the imperial family, retired to Epirus, and
there founded a little kingdom which embraced almost
the whole of Northern Greece. These despots of Epirus,
as they are known in history, retained their power for a
hundred and thirty-three years, when their territory was
reunited with the Greek Empire.
' Researches in Greece, pp. 251-2.
* Seethe "Addtional Note" to Leake's Travels in Northern Greece,
vol. iv. p. 353.
172 THE MODERN GREEKS.
After the Turkish conquest, the Epirotic kingdom was
revived for a time by the renowned hero Scanderbeg.
The Christian name of Scanderbeg was George Castriot
His father, John Castriot, was the hereditary prince of a
small district lying between the mountains of Epirus and
the Adriatic. Hard pressed by Bajazet I. about the year
1404, he was compelled to submit to the Turks, to pay
tribute, and surrender his four sons as hostages. George
was at that time but eight years of age. His sprightli-
ness, manly bearing, and extraordinary abilities soon at-
tracted the attention of the Sultan, who caused him to be
circumcised, received him into the imperial household,
and educated him for the military service.^ He was
thenceforth known by his Turkish name, Iskanderbeg, or
Lord Alexander, and under this name was destined to
become one of the most redoubtable champions of the
Christian faith. He early won great renown by his mili-
tary exploits, and was made commander of five thousand
Turkish horse.
Upon the death of John Castriot, Amurath H. caused
the three older sons to be put out of the way, and privately
seized the principality. Iskander, he imagined, he had
bound securely to himself But in this he was greatly
deceived ; bitter exasperation and thirst for revenge filled
the mind of the young Greek, and he only waited an op-
portunity to throw off the mask and declare himself the
avenger of his family. The opportunity soon came. In
the confusion following a defeat suffered by the Turkish
arms in the Hungarian war, near Belgrade, Scanderbeg
seized the flying Reis Effendi, or Secretary of State, com-
* Tennent, voL L pp. 167-9.
SCANDERBEG. 17,
pelled him to sign an order directed to the governor of
Croia in Albania, requiring him to surrender the city and
fortress to himself, and then put the unfortunate official
to death, that his treason might not be immediately-
known. The Turkish garrisons obeyed the imperial
charter, and Scanderbeg was master of Albania.
He at once abjured Islam and proclaimed himself
the avenger of his family and the champion of the
Christian faith.^ At that time the Albanians were all
Christians. They flocked to his standard, and, with them,
many of the bravest spirits of Western Europe. At the
head of these forces, by his valor, energy, and great quali-
ties as a military leader, Scanderbeg withstood for twen-
ty-three years the mightiest efforts of the Turks. The
story of his exploits, in the quaint and prolix narrative of
old Knolles, reads like a romance of chivalry.^ Accord-
ing to this account, with almost every returning year,
Amurath II. and Mohammed II. sent against Scanderbeg
their ablest generals, at the head of from twenty to forty
thousand men, to meet nothing but defeat and destruction,
until at last, in the fullness of years and honors, the old
hero yielded up his life, bequeathing his kingdom and his
youthful son to the friendly guardianship of the Vene-
tians. Modern criticism has shown that these early accounts
were much exaggerated ; but Scanderbeg was unques-
tionably one of the great men of his times, and deserving
of a place among the foremost of the brave Christian
soldiers who finally checked the victorious career of the
' This part of the story of Scanderbeg is told as correctly as it is beaat^
fully, in Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inu.
' Turkish History, vol. i. pp. 248-275.
1 74 THE MODERN GREEKS.
Turks. He was buried on Venetian territory, near the
waters of the Adriatic; but the Turks soon obtained
possession of his grave, and wrought his bones into rings
and amulets in the hope of making Scanderbeg's fortune
their own.
After the death of Scanderbeg, Albania became again
subject to the Sultan, though the several tribes and clans
remained as essentially independent as before. The
pashalic of Scutari was bestowed upon a renegade Ser-
vian noble from Montenegro, who, as has been already
observed, founded the house which reigned in Northern
Albania until 1833. Berat, Yannina, and other towns,
were the seats of pashalics in the central and southern
districts. But sixty years ago, Col. Leake wrote as fol-
lows of the Turkish rule in Albania: " It is not proba-
ble that the Porte has ever been able to enforce a more
implicit obedience to its orders than it now does, when it
is unable to appoint or confirm any provincial governor
who is not a native of Albania, and who has not already
estabhshed his influence by his arms, policy, or connec-
tions." ^ The political condition of the country at the
same time is thus described by Mr. Hobhouse : " Speci-
mens of almost every sort of government are to be found
in Albania. Some districts and towns are commanded
by one man, under the Turkish title of Bolu Bashee, or
the Greek name of Capitan, which they have borrowed
from Christendom ; others obey their elders ; others are
under no subjection, but each man governs his ov/n
family. The power in some places is in abeyance, and
although there is no apparent anarchy, there are no
^ Researches in Greece, p. 250.
THE ALBANIANS. 175
rulers. Thia was the case in our time in the large city
of Argyro Castro.^ There are parts of the country
where every Aga or Bey, which perhaps may answer to
our ancient country squire, is a petty chieftain, exercising
every right over the men of the village. The Porte, which,
in the days of Ottoman greatness, divided the country
into several small pashalics and commanderies, is now
but little respected, and the limits of her different divi-
sions are confused and forgotten." ^
The allurements of mercenary service under Ottoman
officials were the great thing which tended to reconcile
the Albanians to the Turkish yoke. Like many other
mountaineers, the Albanians delight in a military life be-
yond all other occupations, and are quite ready to sell
their valor to the highest bidder. Albanian irregular
troops. Christian as well as Mohammedan, soon became
the main dependence of the Turkish government in all
its internal administration. The Empire was filled with
their bands, passing from pasha to pasha — as they still
do to a considerable extent, though less than before tlie
• " Argh)^-© Kastro contains 4,000 houses, two-thirds of which are Mus-
sulman ; but the Turks and Greeks live upon nearly equal terms. \Mien
friends visit, even though of different religions, they do not hide their
women, but show them great respect, rising to make way for them; and
this custom is observed both in the houses and streets. But . . . both
Greek and Turkish women are in the same servile condition. Each head
of a family has weight and influence in proportion to the numbers of his
relations and adlierents, in which are generally included all the collateral
branches. The persons of chief power, and who upon ordinary occasions
are looked up to as composing the government of the olace, are the
brothers Mortezi Bey and Khotad Eey. They assume the power of im-
prisoning, judging, and even of inflicting capital punishment." — Leake'i
Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 499.
•Journey iu Albania, &c., vol. i. pp. 141-2.
1^6 THE MODERN GREEKS.
days of "reform" — wherever they could obtain the
highest pay or the best chance for plunder. These un-
disciplined, untamable mountaineers were a cruel, re-
morseless race, and woe to the town or village which was
given over to their tender mercies.
The temptations of Turkish military service soon led
the Albanians, in great and growing numbers, to change
their religion. At the final subjugation of the country,
after the death of Scanderbeg, they were all Christians.
At the beginning of the present century they were more
than half Mohammedans.^ As the power in their native
country passed more and more into Moslem hands,
those great migrations of Christian Albanians into va-
rious parts of Greece took place to which reference has
already been made. As the conversion of the Moslem
Albanians was altogether from mercenary motives, their
religion, in many places, has ever since been a strange and
motley affair. The men marry Christian wives ; the boys
go to the mosque, and the girls to church ; the man eats
mutton while his wife eats pork from the same table, or
even the same dish.^ The Turks do not like this loose
and tolerant spirit, and call the Albanians all infidels to-
gether.
Moslem rule in Albania has brought little-social degra-
dation to the Christians. The Christians perhaps have
been a little more quiet and agricultural than their Mo-
* Leake's Researches, p. 250.
*Id., p. 250; Hobhouse's Albania, &c., vol. i. p. 150. "The Greeks
hardly regard them as Christians, or the Turks as Moslems ; and in fact
they are a mixture of both", and sometimes neither." — Lord Byron, Notes
to Childe Harold, canto IL
THE ALBANIANS.
177
hammedan neighbors, but the difference has been small.
Both classes have retained their arms and their military
habits ; have found the same ready employment in the
service of the local pashas ; have displayed the same fierce,
proud, untamable spirit, the same intense national feeling.
Ask one of them who he is, and he will answer, not I am
a Turk, a Greek, a Mohammedan, or a Christian, but, I
am a Skipetar, or Albanian. Christians and Moslems
alike are accounted the bravest soldiers in the Empire, and
look upon all others as cowards. Both of them, in the
good old times, had the same fondness for the wild and
lawless life of the Klephts. Some from almost every vil-
lage were among the Klephts; almost every village was
in either warfare or alliance with them. Every sprino-
two, three, five, or even ten hundred men would assem-
ble in some mountain fastness, and from thence carry on a
predatory warfare upon their own account And while
private stealing was held in abhorrence, this public robbery
was looked upon as lawful and honorable. Among the
common people no class of men was more popular than
the Klephts.^
Towards the close of the last century, under the famous
Ali Pasha of Yannina, Albania became again for many
years the seat of a really independent power, of sufficient
importance to exert a considerable influence upon public
affairs. Ali Pasha^ was born at Tepeleni, a small town
on the Viossa (the ancient Aous), twenty miles south-east
from Avlona, about the year 1745. All's father, grand-
' Hobhouse, i. pp. 127-140.
« For the history of Ali Pasha, see Tennent, chap. xvi. ; Leake's North-
era Greece, vol. L pp. 41-2, 463-97 ; and Researches, p. 409.
8»
178 THE MODERN GREEKS.
father, and great-grandfather had been petty magnates,
beys or pashas in the neighborhood. Ah's father died
when he was a Httle child. Upon that event the enemies
of the family came upon them, despoiled them of their
power and possessions, left Ali to grow up among Klephts
and brigands, and carried his mother and sister into slavery
where they suffered every extremity of violation and
hardship. For this outrage Ali in later years inflicted
an awful retribution upon the people of the two offending
towns.
The great man of Albania at this time was Kurd Pasha
of Berat, Dervent Aga, or Dervendji Bashi of Northern
Greece, a relative of All's mother. As Ali grew to
manhood, his lawless courses cost him a long imprison-
ment at Berat, from which he was finally delivered by
the kindness of Kurd Pasha. He then returned to Tepe-
leni, attached himself to the local beys, and rose slowly
to considerable military importance. About this time
he married the gentle Emineh, daughter of Capelan Pasha
of Delvino. Soon after he procured the death of his
father-in-law, in the hope of succeeding to his pashalic.
Disappointed in this, he determined to make himself
master of Tepeleni. By a characteristic trick he suc-
ceeded in destroying the beys ; their goods and houses
were bestowed upon his own followers, and he was su-
preme in his native place. " He now employed every
engine of intrigue and tyranny to establish and extend his
power ; his soldiers he attached to him by gold, by prom-
ises, and by companionship ; and his people he concili-
ated by an anxiously assumed display of justice and im-
partiality. Every step, however, in his higher walks of
THE SUUOTS. 179
ambition was based upon the blackest crimes ; in the hope
of succeeding to the pashalic of Argyro Castro, he induced
his sister Chainitza to unite with him in murdering her
husband, and when, contrary to his calculations, the office
was bestowed upon another, Selim Coka, he denounced
him to the Porte as a traitor, and stabbed him with his
own hand, in pursuance of the Sultan's firman. For
this service he was rewarded with the pashalic of Triccala
in Thessaly, and subsequently advanced to the office of
Dervendji Bachi." '
By this last appointment the power of Ali was firmly
established. As Dervent Aga, he gathered about him a
strong force, enlisting Moslems and Christians, Klephts
and Greek Armatoli, impartially in his service ; and
Thessaly was soon reduced to a condition of unwonted
quiet His next attempt was to obtain the govern-
ment of Yannina. In this, by his usual instrument-
alities — intrigue, gold, and poison — he succeeded. He
was named Pasha of Yannina in 1788, and thus found
himself master of Southern Albania. Central Albania,
the pashalic of Berat, was now governed by Ibrahim
Pasha, son-in-law of Kurd Pasha. To add this rich and
fruitful province to his dominions was the next object
of Ali. His schemes in this direction, however, were in-
terrupted by a rising of the SuHots, at the instigation of
Catherine II. of Russia.
The Suliots,^ the countrymen of Marco Botzaris, and
the bravest of Eastern mountaineers, were a tribe of Al-
banian Christians, numbering about twenty-five hundred
' Tennent, vol. i. p. 385-6.
' Leake's Northern Greece, voL i. pp. 501-523.
i8o THE MODERN GREEKS.
warriors, and inhabiting a mountainous district, in itself
an almost impregnable natural fortress, lying between
Yannina and the Gulf of Arta. Arms were the pro-
fession, war was the trade of the Suliots, and here, up to
this time, they had maintained themselves in fierce inde-
pendence. In eight successive wars the Suliots had held
their own against the Albanian pashas, when, in 1789,
Ali Pasha, in conjunction with his rival, Ibrahim of Berat,
sent against them an army of three thousand men. The
invading force found the villages deserted as usual, and
was proceeding to burn and waste the country, when the
Suliots rushed forth upon them, and drove them in com-
plete rout to the gates of Yannina. In 1792, Ali deter-
mined to make a second and desperate effort for the con-
quest of Suli. Twenty-two thousand men were collected
for the expedition, and after a severe contest, eight thou-
sand chosen Albanians succeeded in penetrating the
mountains and occupying the village of Suli. But in
this last extremity, the Suliots, men and women together,
assailed the invaders with such furious valor that they
were totally defeated ; twenty-five hundred Albanians
were slain on the field of battle, and only one thousand
returned in arms to Yannina.
This was the last escape of the heroic mountaineers.
In the year 1 800, Ali Pasha was prepared to assail them a
third time with twenty thousand men. On this occasion,
through the defection of one of their most prominent
and most trusted leaders, Georgio Botzaris, the grand-
father of Marco Botzaris, who held the villages in the
low grounds towards Yannina, and had charge of the am-
munition of the Suliots, he was able to attack them un-
THE SUUOTS. i8i
piepared and without a leader. But taken thus at every
disadvantage, so fierce and stubborn was their defence,
that it was only after four years of desperate fighting, and
the suffering of enormous losses, that Ali was able to
accomplish his purpose, and thoroughly subdue the Su-
liot mountaineers.
The fate of the Suliots was tragic and pitiful in the ex-
treme. Multitudes had fallen in the long and terrible
contest, and great numbers were remorselessly slaughtered
upon the conquest of their mountains. A band of two
thousand escaped to Parga, and another band of eight
hundred took refuge at Tzalongo, on the banks of
the Acheron. Here they were soon besieged by an
overwhelming force of Albanians. " In this awful
crisis the women of the tribe were the first to perceive
the hopelessness of their situation, and sixty of them,
taking their children in their arms, repaired to a lofty
cliff which overhung the bed of the Acheron : the river,
foaming through its rocky channels, rolled beneath them,
but at such a depth that the noise of its current could be
but dimly heard from the towering precipice where they
were assembled. Here, after a brief consultation, they
embraced their infants, and imprinting the last kiss upon
their innocent lips, they hurled them into the abyss be-
low ; then advancing to the verge of the precipice, and
joining hands, they commenced one of their national
dances to the chanting of a wild and melancholy dirge,
and each, as her turn approached, sprang from the beetiing
rock, till the last of the band had perished." '
Upon the surrender of the principal stronghold, Samu-
* Tennent, voL iL p. 479.
l82 THE MODERN GREEKS.
el the Calo^^r, a monk who had acquired great influence
over the Suliots towards the close of the struggle, remain-
ed with five companions to complete the transfer, and
receive the stipulated price for the ammunition which
was to be given up. Two Turks and a secretary of Ali
were present to conclude the purchase. " ' And now,'
said the latter to the monk, as he paid down the stipulated
price, ' what punishment, caloyer, do you imagine the
Vizier has prepared for you, since you have thus foolishly
intrusted yourself within his power?' ' He can inflict
none,' said Samuel, * that can have any terrors for one
who has long hated life, and who thus despises death;'
at the same instant he fired his pistol into the case of
gunpowder on which he was seated, a terrific explosion
ensued, and the monk, the Turk, and his attendants, were
buried in the ruins." ^ The feeble remnants of the tribe
were settled in locations where they could no longer be
dangerous to the Pasha's government. The warriors
who had escaped, with their families, passed over to the
lo-iian Islands, to be once more restored to their native
mountains in 1820, when Ali Pasha, then in his own last
extremity, looked to them for help against the armies of
the Sultan.^ Among those who thus returned to Suli
were Kitzo Botzaris and his son Marco — a young man
destined to stand from that time until the fatal vic*-ory of
Karpenisi, three years later, the bravest and the noblest
leader, not of the Suliots alone, but of the Greek Revo-
lution.
The destruction of this Christian tribe, which had so
long and so successfully defied the authority of the Porte,
^ Tennent, p. 477. * Howe's Greek Revolution, p. 35.
ALI PASHA. 183
was welcome news at Constantinople, and AH was at once
rewarded with the post of Rotimeli Valisi, or command-
er-in-chief of the European provinces of the Empire.'
In this high office he moved, in 1804, at the head ot
eighty thousand men, to subdue the robbers and rebels
of Bulgaria. Returning the same year, he devoted him-
self to the suppression of the ArmatoH and Klephts
throughout his dominions. In 1806, his two sons,
Mouctar and VcH, were made, the first. Pasha of Lepanto,
the second, Vizier of the Morea. In January, 1 8 10, Berat
surrendered to his arms, and Ali was, in effect, King of
Greece.
Ali Pasha was an unscrupulous, remorseless tyrant
His career was marked by a long succession of the most
atrocious crimes. His abilities were equal to his villainy.
"By the surrounding Pashas he was regarded at once
with fear and admiration ; they were in every point of
view his inferiors, both in power and talent; and he never
failed to extract equal advantages from their friendship
and hostility. . . . No one of the many circumstances
favorable to his ambitious policy escaped his keen and
prying observation ; his agents were everywhere, and his
information on every topic connected with his interests
was constant and correct. With an unerring perception
of character, his manner was accurately suited to the ex-
igencies of every situation ; every tone of expression was
assumed, and varied, and abandoned, as suited the emer-
gency of the moment ; and even those who suspected the
' From this time Ali Pasha was usually spoken of as the Vizier, his prop-
er title, as a Pasha of three horse-tails, having jurisdiction over more than
one province.
l84 THE MODERN GREEKS.
professions of the Vizier seldom failed to be seduced into
acquiescence by his politic and wily address." ^ He must
be judged, however, according to his circumstances, and
the moral and social standard of his own people. Mr.
Hobhouse suggests that perhaps he was not more cruel
or rapacious than was to have been expected from an Al-
banian in his position ; that perhaps a government like
his was the only one which could have tamed those fierce
mountaineers.^ There were some good things about his
rule. Some roads, bridges, and khans were built ; robbers
were suppressed and the highways made usually secure ;
the country was opened to trade, which was fostered by
some judicious regulations ; a multitude of beys and local
chiefs, most of them lawless and freebooting men, were
exterminated ; Christians and Moslems were placed upon
the same level in his service ; and, strangest of all, this
singular tyrant displayed no little zeal in promoting the
education of his Christian subjects, especially at Yan-
nina.^
In the main, however, the government of Ali Pasha
was a selfish, rapacious tyranny which crushed his people
' Tennent, ii. p. 392.
'^Albania, &c., vol. i. pp. 105-13.
' " It is probably rather a consequence of the Vizier's indifference to the
distant consequences of his measures, and with a view to some supposed
immediate advantage, than with any better feeling, that he has always
•ncouraged education among the Greeks. He frequently recommends it to
the attention of the bishops, the generality of whom . . . are too much
disposed to neglect it. To the old schoolmaster Balano he often holds
the same language, exhorting him to instruct the youth committed to his
care with diligence, to give them a good example, and never to entertain any
doubts of receiving bis counbnance and protection." — Leake's Northero
Greece, vol. iv. p. 149.
AU PASHA. 185
to the earth by its enormous and ever-increasing exac-
tions. Col. Leake, who visited almost every district and
corner of his dominions, found this everywhere the case.
Everywhere he heard the same sad story of taxes dou-
bled, trebled, or quadrupled ; of prominent men seized and
imprisoned on one pretext or other for the purpose of
extorting money ; of trade and industry fettered and de-
stroyed ; of declining prosperity, and diminishing popu-
lation. Yet it would seem that, on the whole, the long
reign of Ali was a benefit to Greece. The old local, frag-
mentary, barbaric constitution of society was in great
measure broken up, and the way was prepared for an order
of things more comprehensive and liberal, more sys-
tematic and progressive.
Ali never so far broke with the Porte as to declare
himself independent, but his allegiance was little more
tlian nominal, and he was long looked upon at Constanti-
nople with fear and distrust, as a most dangerous man.
At length, early in 1820, Mahmoud II., in pursuance of
his purpose to break down all the great feudatories of
the Empire, declared him fernianli, or outlaw, and sum-
moned the whole strength of the Empire for his destruc-
tion. The usual means of intrigue and bribery were
employed, and witli complete success. All's forces melt-
ed away ; his own sons deserted him ; and with a few fol-
lowers the old tyrant was obliged to shut himself among
his useless treasures in his stronghold at Yannina.' For
' Since the fall of Ali, Southern Albania has became the scene of the
same decay, the same increasing poverty and depopulation, which have been
inanifest in every province of Mahmoud's "reformed" Empire. — See
Lady Strangford's Eastern Shore of the Adriatic, pp. 10-27.
l86 THE MODERN GREEKS.
nearly two years the siege went on, but early in 1822 \ti,
surrendered to Kurchid Pasha, and was treacherously
stabbed to the heart by an old friend, Mohammed Pasha
of the Morea.
The Albanians, or Arnauts, number somewhere from
a million to a million and a half of souls. They are a
nation of soldiers. Christians and Moslems alike have a
very strong national feeling, and never forget their native
land. Through fierce and cruel in war, they are not
malignant or treacherous, are faithful to their engage-
ments, and capable of strong and lasting attachments.^
They are exceedingly high-spirited, carry themselves
proudly and loftily, are always perfectly at their ease
in the presence of their superiors — who often can hard-
ly be distinguished from their soldiers in dress and ap-
pearance, yet are cheerfully and promptly obeyed — have
no objections to being shot, beheaded, or even hung, if
occasion so require, but will never endure a blow.
Their national costume is picturesque ; when new and
clean it is elegant, often rich ; but in their personal habits
they are most uncleanly. They never wash their gar-
ments, and rarely take them off until they drop to pieces
upon their persons.^ Yet they live very comfortably.
Their houses are very neat, well swept and comfortable,
usually with a garden attached, and arc commonly pro-
vided with an abundance of wholesome food. The men
' See Lord Byron's account of his Albanian attendants, note 1 1 to the
Second Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
* For a full and excellent account of the appearance, manners, customs,
and social conditions of the Albanians, see Hobhouse's Alb*nia, &c., vol. i.
pp. i27-4a
THE ALBANIANS. 187
dislike to labor, and despise their priests because they
are not soldiers. The women perform most of the out-
door labor. They are tall and well formed, but with an
air indicative of hard work and a menial position. They
are very brave, and can fight, in case of necessity, as
fiercely as their husbands. They know little of conjugal
love, and are little better than servants or slaves. " Mr.
Lear, in his 'Journals of a Landscape Painter in Alba-
nia,' relates how he was shocked by meeting a number
of Epirot women, toiling up a mountain with their enor-
mous burdens. ' The fact is,' said his guide, utterly mis-
taking the cause of his disapproval, ' there is no remedy,
for mules there are none here, and women are next best
to mules. Vi assicuro, Signore, though certainly far in-
ferior to mules, they are really better than asses, or even
horses.'"' It is very singular that in respect for and
treatment of their women, these once (and still partially)
Christian mountaineersof Europe should present so great
a contrast to the Druzes and Kurds, those similar Asiatic
tribes, which have been heathen or Moslem from the be-
ginning. The social morals of the Albanians are bad
enough. The men care little for their wives, and the
crime against nature is perhaps nowhere else so common ;
yet in language and deportment they are said to be sin-
gularly decorous, rarely offending by any improper act
or word. They all carry a variety of weapons, as much
for ornament as use, and a company of Albanian shep-
herds, as the traveler meets them upon the mountains,
present a very formidable appearance.*
' Edinburgh Review for April, 1863, p. 302.
* " A person who had his notions of the pastoral life from a visit to Salk
l88 THE MODERN GREEKS.
The Christian Albanians are mostly connected with
the Greek Church, though upon the shores of the Adri-
atic the old Venetian rule has left a considerable number
of Roman Catholics. The Albanians in Greece retain
every^vhere their national language, manners, and appear-
ance, though not their national spirit. They mingle but
slowly with the Greeks, though the time cannot be dis-
tant when, like the Gaels and Saxons of Scotland, they
will become blended together in a common national
career. The Albanian language seems never to have
been written — has neither alphabet, grammar, or diction-
ary, a fact of itself sufficient to show how essentially bar-
barous the race has always remained. But as the influ-
ences of civilization extend and strengthen around them,
these wild mountaineers must ere long begin to feel their
beneficent power. The Christian Albanians, many of them,
made common cause with the Greeks in their struggle
for independence ; and they would seem destined to form
an important element in that civilized and Christian state
which will one day hold the fair regions of ancient Greece
and Southern Macedonia.
bury Plain, or from the pleasing pictures of an Arcadian romance, would
never have guessed at the occupation of those tremendous looking fellows.
They had each of them pistols, and a large knife stuck in their belts ; their
heads were covered and their faces partly shaded by the peaked hoods of
their shaggy capotes, and leaning on their long guns, they stared eagerly at
the Franks and the umbrellas, with which they were probably as much
taken as were we at their uncouth and ferocious appearance." — Hobhouse's
Albania, &c., vol. i. p. 53.
" The Albanians have onepractice which might possibly be objected to by
persons of fastidious tendencies. They consider abundant eructation after
eating a compliment to the cookery of their host. After dinner they like to
have a general eructatory set-to, when the louder and more frequent they
can make their demonstrations the better." — Id., i. 42.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GREEK AWAKENING — GREEK ISLANDS — GREEK
MERCHANTS IN EUROPE — THE PHANARIOTS —
EDUCATION AND LETTERS — COMMERCE — PREPA-
RATION FOR THE REVOLUTION — THE COMMER-
CIAL GREEKS — THE PRIMATES — THE AGRICUL-
TURAL PEASANTS — THE KELPHTS — THE HETERIA.
As has been already observed, the conquest of the
Morea by the Venetians, in 1685-7, was the turning
point in the fortunes of the Greeks. During the thirty
years' rule of the Venetians, the social and industrial in-
terests of the Morea received an impulse which was not
lost when the Turks recovered the country in 171 5;
while throughout the Turkish dominions the Greeks
found their condition, from this time, sensibly and stead-
ily improving. The Turkish authorities were compelled,
from a regard to their own interests, to adopt a more
liberal policy towards their Christian subjects. Upon the
reconquest of the Morea, the land-tax was remitted for
two years, and proclamation was made that all who
would settle upon and cultivate the unoccupied lands
should hold them free of taxes for three years.^ The
' Finlay, p. 283.
I90 THE MODERN GREEKS.
same liberal policy was pursued elsewhere, and the Greeks
throughout the Empire found their circumstances, and
their relations to the dominant race, suddenly and greatly
changed. Many causes were working together at this
time to produce this result.
In the first place, the Greeks were much benefited by
the improved condition of things throughout Europe.
The confusion and violence which had so generally pre-
vailed during the preceding century, especially upon the
sea, were giving place to the quiet and order of modern
times. The Barbary corsairs were still troublesome, but
the general piracy and slave-catching which had so long
and so terribly wasted the islands and coasts of the Levant
had in great measure ceased. The Greeks could till their
deserted fields, and pursue in peace their humble coasting
trade from island to island, and from port to port
In the second place, the Christian subjects of the Porte,
as the agricultural and producing class of the Empire,
had acquired a new and greatly enhanced importance.
The Turkish armies no longer brought back their im-
mense trains of captives to fill the slave market. Slaves
could no longer be obtained for the labors of the field
and before the end of the seventeenth century, predial
slavery had mostly disappeared from the European prov-
inces south of the Danube. Turkish landholders were
thus compelled to depend upon the rayahs for the culti-
vation of their estates. The rayahs on their part obtained
for themselves very favorable terms. They were gener-
ally able to commute for all claims upon them by fixed
and definite payments in money or in produce, and so
became in fact and in law the owners of the lands they
THE GREEK A WAKENING. 191
tilled.' Villanage and serfdom, under the Turks, the
rayahs had never known ;^ the tribute of Christian
children had ceased, and the Greeks were now approxi-
mating to the condition of a freeholding, independent
yeomanry. Early in the eighteenth century the results
of this change began to appear. As the Greeks became
free laborers, so — slowly, feebly, partially, it is true, but
really and increasingly — they began to feel the sentiments
of freemen. The change was manifest in a higher and
bolder spirit, in awakening enterprise, in kindling desires
for material and social improvement, in a revival of na-
tional feeling, and a deep and powerful quickening of the
national life. " No power could now have enforced the
collection of a tribute of Greek children."^ The obse-
quious prelates still inculcated faithful and implicit obe-
dience to the Porte as the defender of the orthodox faith,^
but the people were beginning to reject these teachings,
and to be less patient and contented under the Turkish
yoke.
From this time, again, as the Greeks were steadily
rising, so the Turks were steadily sinking. The spahis,
no longer enriched by the booty of constant and success-
ful wars, were growing poor ; and ere long the Turkish
population in the country districts began to decline. The
Turks had lost their prestige, not with the people of
Western Europe alone, but in a measure also with their
Christian subjects. The power of the Sultan no longer
inspired the Greeks with submissive and hopeless awe ;
• Finlay, p. 281.
■ Creasy, vol. i. pp. 32S-30.
• Finlay, p. 281.
• Tennent, voL iL p. 55 ; Finlay, p. 283.
192 THE MODERN GREEKS.
it no longer seemed to them so mighty, so irresistible, so
almost divine, as it had a hundred and fifty years before.
The idea of a coming deliverance, and of a national
destiny of their own, was no longer impossible ; and it
was not long before that idea began to be cherished by
some of the more advanced and inteUigent among them
with a cheerful hope. After the middle of the eighteenth
century the lower classes of the Turks were, in general,
no better off, in many districts oT the Empire they were
worse off, than the Greeks. " The Turkish peasant and
trader suffered quite as much from fiscal exactions as the
Greek, and the political obstacles to his rise in the social
scale were generally greater. Few native Turks of the
provinces ever acquired as much influence over the pub-
lic administration as was systematically and permanently
exercised by the Phanariots. The local authorities of
the Mussulman population in the rural districts rarely
possessed the same power of defending the people from
injustice as, and they certainly possessed fewer rights and
privileges than, the Greek communities. It is not, there-
fore, surprising that the Greeks were superior in social
and political civilization to the Turks." ^ During the
long reign of Ali Pasha, it was a prime featuro of his
policy to plunder and break down all wealthy and in-
fluential Turks, and by the beginning of the present cen-
tury the great majority of the Turkish population of
Greece proper had sunk to a very low and thriftless con-
dition.
^ Finlay, p. 342. See also Leake's Asia Minor, p. 7 ; Morea, vol. i. pp.
221, 400, and 431 ; and Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 222, 279, 325, and
357.
THE GREEK ISLANDS. I93
Before the beginning of the eighteenth century, there
were two classes of Greeks who had enjoyed positions
exceptionally advantageous, and were already far in ad-
vance of the great majority of their countrymen. First,
there were the inhabitants of some of the islands, espe-
cially Scio and Tinos. The large and fertile Island of
Scio has been highly favored by nature. Almost all itg
productions are of such superior quality as to be eagerly
sought for in the markets of the world. Wrested from
the Greek Empire by the Genoese, it passed, in 1346,
into the hands of a trading company, the Maona of the
Justiniani, who governed the island, first under the
Genoese and afterwards under the Turks, for two hun-
dred and twenty years. So wise and liberal was the
government of these merchants, that, under their rule,
the island always enjoyed a remarkable degree of pros-
perity ; and when in 1566 Scio was reduced to full de-
pendence upon the Porte, its condition was not greatly
changed. Until the Greek Revolution in 1820, this
island remained one of the richest, most prosperous, and
most cultivated communities of the East. The great
prosperity and superiority of the Sciots, however, was
owing not so much to their peculiar privileges as to thek*
social and moral character. They were honest, virtuous,
and diligent. Industry was held in universal honor
among them, and there was no class of wealthy young
men who disdained to labor with their own hands. The
secret of all this was the excellent moral and social train-
ing which the Sciots received, generation after generation,
in their own families. It was this admirable domestic
education which placed the people of this island in the
9
194 THE MODERN GREEKS.
van of their countrymen, and prepared them to take a
leading part in the grand development of the eighteenth
century.^ Tinos was far less favorably situated than
Scio, but its inhabitants were marked by the same vir-
tue and industry, the same high social and moral char-
acter.
Secondly, there was the immense number of self-ex-
patriated Greeks, who, for purposes of trade, had located
themselves either temporarily or permanently in almost
every part of Europe. The manufactures and trade of
the Greeks, although greatly depressed in the seventeenth
century, had never been intermitted, had been at all
times considerable and important. The manufactures of
the Greeks were carried on privately in the dwellings of
the artisans. The Sciots were famous for their skill in
dyeing silk and cotton in brilliant colors, and in working
these materials into various costly fabrics. Similar indus-
tries were diligently pursued upon the mainland at many
different places. Colored leathers, cotton yarn in great
quantities, and silk> cotton, linen, and woolen goods of va-
rious descriptions, were produced and sent forth to the
markets of the world. Before the middle of the seven-
teenth century the manufacturers of Manchester were de-
pending for the supply of cotton yarn upon the spindles
of Greece. ^
The trade sustained by these manufactures was largely
carried on overland by traveling merchants who made
their way to Hungary, Austria, Poland, Germany, and
indeed to almost every part of Europe, and by wealthy
Greeks who settled in ever-increasing numbers at almost
1 Finlay, pp. 86-91, 283-289. » Id., p. 187.
GREEKS IN WESTERN EUROPE. 195
every important commercial center.' When in the sev-
enteenth century the commerce of the Greeks by sea was
destroyed by piracy, this overland traffic still continued,
and being comparatively secure, was no doubt greatly ex-
tended. At the beginning of the present century Col.
Leake found the people of the mountain villages in the
central and western districts of Northern Greece very
generally engaged in the pursuits of trade away from
home.'* Many were located at various seaports and com-
mercial centers, many were traveling merchants, many
were shopkeepers in the towns of Italy and elsewhere,
while others of the poorer class pursued a humble carry-
ing trade nearer home. Of these commercial Greeks
there were many wealthy families permanently settled
abroad, while the greater number returned with their
gains to spend the evening of their days at home. This
state of things had existed for a great length of time.
There were towns which had already become enriched by
this foreign trade, and had reached the height of their
prosperity at the beginning of the eighteenth century.^
Before the year 1700, there were thus a vast multitude
of Greeks scattered through almost every part of West-
ern and Northern Europe, many of them wealthy, all of
them eager, inquisitive, and quick of apprehension, re-
ceiving new ideas and impressions, deeply sensible of the
' " Meletius, in his Geography, written about the beginning of the last
century, estimates the number of absentees in Austria alone at 80,000 fam-
ilies; . . . but this computation is evidently exaggerated." — Tennent,
ii. p. 284, note.
* Northern Greece, vol. i. pp. 275, 296, 307, 310, 392-3; vol. iii. p^
299 ; vol. iv, p. 207. See also Hobhouse, vol. L pp. 72-4.
'Northern Greece, i. 343.
196 THE MODERN GREEKS.
depressed condition of their race, and already feeling ne-w
hopes and aspirations for the future. These expatriated
Greeks never lost their national feeling, never ceased to
cherish a strong affection for their native land ; and
their earnest zeal and generous, patriotic action were
among the most potent instrumentalities in the great
awakening of their people in the eighteenth century.
About the same time rose the Phanariots;^ a class of
Greek officials who soon attained a most commanding po-
sition in the Ottoman administration, and who, although
too often thoroughly detestable in their moral and social
character, exerted a powerful influence upon the destinies
of their race. Precluded by their pride, as well as their
religion, from learning the languages of the infidel, in
their negotiations with the Christian powers the Turks
had always been obliged to depend upon interpreters.
But, until the last quarter of the seventeenth century, these
official interpreters, or dragomans, had been mere slaves
of the Sultan, without honor or influence. The acces-
sion of Panayotaki to this office, in 1669, marked a com-
plete change in the management of the foreign aft'airs of
the Porte, and laid the foundation of Phanariot power.^
Panayotaki was a Sciot by birth, and had studied med-
icine and philosophy in the universities of Italy. He
was a man of ability and learning, and was yet more dis-
tinguished among the venal Greeks of Constantinople
for his manly character, and those high moral qualities
at that time so characteristic of the people of his native
^ So called from the Phanar, the quarter of the capital occupied by th«
Patriarch of Constantinople and the leading Greeks.
' Tennent, chap. xii. ; Finlay, pp. 293-9.
THE PHANARIOTS. 197
island. By his skill in medicine, and his knowledge of
astrology, then very popular among the Turks, he won
the favor of the able and virtuous Grand Vizier, Achmct
Kueprili, whom he attended as his dragoman upon his
great expedition to Candia, in 1667. Here a brilliant
opportunity opened before him. By a bold and skillful
stratagem he procured the surrender of the city, and so
ended this long and disastrous war of twenty-two years.
This great service raised Panayotaki to a position of the
highest favor and influence with the Porte.
At this time the foreign relations of the Empire had
become very complex and delicate ; and for their suc-
cessful management there was need of a high degree of
intelligence and diplomatic skill— qualities in which the
Turks were almost entirely wanting. Panayotaki, there-
fore, had no difficulty in convincing Kueprili and his
master, Mohammed IV., that the important office of
official interpreter could no longer be safely intrusted to
a mere slave. As the result, Panayotaki was himself
raised to the post of Divan Terziman, or Dragoman of
the Council, with a rank among the highest officials of
the Empire.
From this time the Dragoman of the Council was
really the Foreign Secretary of the Porte. Through
him all treaties were negotiated, all transactions with for-
eign states were conducted. In influence with the ad-
ministration, in patronage, and in substantial power, the
State Dragoman, if an able and judicious man, almost
rivaled the Grand Vizier himself. As the Turks knew
nothing of foreign affairs, and litde of trade, with the
Divan Terziman rested the appointment of a Greek
198 THE MODERN GREEKS.
charge d'affaires at every foreign capital, and of consuls
and vice-consuls at every seaport and commercial town.
Pursuing the same policy still further, Mohammed IV.
appointed a second officer of similar character, the Drag-
oman of the Fleet, the Interpreter of the Capitan Pasha
upon his annual round, whose power soon became very
formidable to the Greeks of the islands and coasts.
To Panayotaki succeeded Alexander Mavrocordato,
also a Sciot, and one of the most illustrious Greeks whose
names adorn the Turkish annals. Mavrocordato was a
physician, and was as eminent for his learning as for his
ability and high moral character. He was familiar with
eight languages, had studied medicine in Italy, had
written an able treatise in Latin upon the circulation of
the blood, and had lectured with success at Constanti-
nople upon the same subject.^ As Dragoman of the
Council, he rose to a position of most commanding in-
fluence. At the treaty of Carlowitz in 1699, he repre-
sented the Porte as Minister Plenipotentiary, and received
the titles of Bey, and Mahremi Esrar, or Depositary of
Secrets, which descended to his successors. But the
fairest title of Alexander Mavrocordato to the grateful
remembrance of posterity, is derived from his wise, gen-
erous, and untiring efforts for the improvement of his
countrymen. He fostered the schools already existing,
especially the seminary at Yannina, and obtained per-
mission to establish others. " During the course of a
long life, his wealth and his energies seemed devoted ex-
clusively to the intellectual wants of his countrymen.
From the institutions which he supported or established,
* Tennent, voL ii. pp. 290-1.
THE PHANARIOTS. 19^
issued a crowd of enlightened scholars, who, after com-
pleting their studies in Europe, returned to devote their
exertions to the furtherance of the cause which had con-
ferred on them their own distinction. ... He died
in A. D. 1709, leaving behind him, according to Procopi-
ces, immense wealth, and a reputation, even to old age,
unsullied by a blot." '
In 17 16, the fabric of Phanariot power was completed
by the determination of the Porte to appoint the Hospo-
dars of Wallachia and Moldavia from the number of its
faithful Greek servants at Constantinople. From this
time, for a hundred years, these important tributary
sovereignties were held by Phanariot nobles, and became
the means of opening the flood-gates of venality and cor-
ruption upon the higher classes of the Greeks. A bound-
less field was opened to the ambition and cupidity of the
youthful Greek. As Dragoman of the Council or the
Fleet, he might hope to rival the first grandees of the
Empire in wealth and political influence; as Hospodar
of Wallachia or Moldavia, he might aspire to reign over
a great principality in royal magnificence and power;
and under these chief magnates of his race, the places of
power and profit open to his ambition were numberless
and infinitely various. The trade of the Empire and
the foreign affairs of the government passed almost wholly
under the control of the Phanariots. They had their
spies, their diplomatic agents, and their subordinate oflS-
cials everywhere. In their service appeared on every
hand openings for the wily and rapacious Greeks.
Nor was the influence of the Phanariots limited to the
• Tenncnt, voL ii. 291-2, and note.
200 "HE MODERN GREEKS.
commercial and foreign affairs of the Empire. They
ivere the bankers and financiers of the capital ; and, as
such, soon acquired a control hardly less complete over
the internal administration. Every post and office was
to be bought, and he who could pay for it the highest
price could command it. The Phanariot bankers were
the men who could bid highest, and although they could
not hold the offices themselves, they had their candidates
and proteges, for whom they bought their offices, whose
action they controlled, and from whom they exacted
ample returns. To secure these numerous and glitter-
ing prizes, every instrumentality of cunning, intrigue, and
the most shameless corruption was brought into constant
and vigorous use. Perhaps a more selfish, rapacious,
and worthless set of public men has never existed than
these Phanariot nobles of the last century. " A perpet-
ual smile of adulation, a ready laugh, a bow of obsequi-
ousness, a tongue tipped with flattery, and an eye twink-
ling with cunning, completed the picture of the Phana-
riot."^ Yet, after all, their power was but the power of
favored slaves. Their wealth and their very lives were
at the mercy of proud, unscrupulous masters, a word
from whom could at any time send them to instant death.
After the full establishment of their power, the Phana-
riots did nothing directly and intentionally for the good
of their countrymen. Their ends were thoroughly selfish,
their influence was evil and debasing to the public mind.
Yetby their restless, unbounded activity, unscrupulous and
vicious as it was, a great impulse was given to the cause
of education among the Greeks, while (a more doubtfuJ
' Tennent, voL ii. p. 51.
EDUCATION AND LETTER!^. aoi
benefit) there was manifest among the wealthier classes a
great advance in social culture and refinement of man-
ners. A more positive and more important advantage
which resulted to the Greeks from the power of the
Phanariots, was the awakening in the minds of the whole
nation of a sense of political importance and conscious
strength. After the middle of the last century, the
Greeks were no longer the submissive, unquestioning
slaves of the Sultan. They had begun to scrutinize
sharply the grounds of the authority by which they were
held in bondage, were already preparing to measure their
strength with their oppressors.
Through the whole of the eighteenth century educa-
tion, intelligence, and letters were making rapid progress
among the Greeks. Before the year 1700 the commer-
cial Greeks, settled so numerously in the cities of North-
ern and Western Europe, had begun to establish schools
at the places of their residences for the education of their
own children and their youthful countrymen, and were
already affording that steady and generous support to the
cause of education and letters in their native land which
has never ceased to the present time.^ Seminaries had
been founded at Constantinople, Mount Athos, Yannina,
Smyrna, Patmos, Corfu, Zagora, Larissa, Moskopoli, Bu-
charest, and other places, which were numerously and
zealously attended, and the youth of Constantinople,
* Baron Simeon Sina, a Greek banker of Vienna, worth thirty-five or
forty millions of dollars, died early in 1876. His father, who died in 1S56,
after a residence of twenty-five years in Vienna, was a Greek of Seres in
Macedonia. The elder Baron Sina was one of the half dozen richest bank-
ers of the continent ; and was well known for his munificent benefactions to
the cause of education in Greece, especially to the University of Athens.
202 THE MODEkN GREEKS.
Smyrna, and the Islands, as we have already seen in the
case of Panayotaki and Mavrocordato, had begun to fre-
quent the universities of Western Europe, especially those
of Italy.' Previously, Greek education had been almost
entirely limited to the service of the Church,^ and a little
theology and ecclesiastical history ; but from this time it
became more liberal and comprehensive.
A native literature began to be formed. Alexander
Mavrocordato, besides his work on the circulation of the
blood, which was published in Latin, Greek, and Turkish,
wrote treatises on Logic, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics, Com-
mentaries on some of the Greek Classics, and a History
of the Jews. Valuable works were translated into Greek
from the languages of Western Europe ; and, most impor-
tant of all, modern Greek, the dialect of the common peo-
ple, began to be cultivated as a literary language. Native
poets sprang up in all directions, and every mountain and
valley of Greece resounded with songs and ballads, ex-
pressing all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears, the
passions and aspirations of the popular mind.
In the latter part of the last century and the first twenty
years of the present century, this intellectual and literary
activity became very great. An eager enthusiasm had
seized upon the national mind ; the schools and colleges
were crowded with pupils; science, history, and belles-
lettres were diligently studied ; and a multitude of learned
' Tennent, vol. ii. pp. 283-8.
^ " By the word liturgy," says Mr. Waddington, " the Greeks under*
stand only the Communion Service ; and as to the rest, it varies every day
in the year, and every part of the day ; so that the whole body of the ser-
vice is sufficient to fill twenty folio volumes, besides one sinuikr volume
containing directioiis for the use of the rest." — ^Tennent, ii. 287, note.
THE GREEK PEASANTRY. 203
scholars and able authors, teaching and wiiting, with a
wise and earnest patriotism, in the speech of the common
people, gave form and charcter to the Romaic language,
enriched it with large and various stores, and founded the
literature of modern Greece.^
It is to be observed, however, that this social awaken-
ing and intellectual activity were by no means equally
disseminated throughout the mass of the Greek nation.
The enthusiastic youth who filled the schools and colleges
were drawn mostly from the principal cities and a few
favored islands. They belonged largely to the class most
demoralized by Turkish and Phanariot influence, and with
all their intellectual progress, their moral character re-
mained deplorably low. In the first ten years of the
present century, Col. Leake found the agricultural peas-
antry of the continent — then as always the true bone and
sinew, the real heart and life of the nation — still crushed
by heavy burdens, oppressed by their Turkish masters,
a»:d worse oppressed often by their own primates and
archons, with few schools, and those of the poorest charac-
ter ; with almost nothing to read, if their instruction had
been ever so thorough ; apathetic, unintelligent, unaspir-
ing.^ Yet even these oppressed masses of the common
people, dumb and helpless as they appeared, had been
penetrated by the fermenting leaven of new ideas ; and
when the hour of the decisive struggle came, they were
ready to throw themselves into it, not with the high spirit
and reckless bravery which have marked the struggles
* Tennent, chap, xviii. ; Finlay, pp. 347-50.
* Researches, pp. 67, 227, 231; Morea, i. pp. 61, \TJ^\ Nor hem
Greece, i. pp. 331-2, iv. 387-8.
»04 THE MODERN GREEKS.
for freedom of more favored peoples, but with a patient,
uncomplaining, self-sacrificing, and endless devotion,
which no stress of calamity or suffering could exhwust,
which could not be overcome.
Those who did most for the emancipation and n gen-
eration of Greece were residents, not in the East, i.nder
the corrupting influences of Turkish power, but in the
freer and healthier atmosphere of the West. The most
faithful and the most munificent patrons of learning and
letters in Greece were the Greek merchants of Austria,
Germany, and Holland. Rhiga, the founder of the Hete-
ria, the popular poet whose songs stirred most deeply
and powerfully the minds of his countrymen, lived at
Vienna.^ Adamantios Koraes, most illustrious name of
all, the father and legislator of Modern Greek, the ablest
and most revered instructor and guide of the unfolding
intellect of his native land, although a Sciot by parent-
age, and born at Smyrna (in 1748), passed all the active
years of his long and noble life at Amsterdam, Mont-
pelier, and Paris.^ It is estimated that at the beginning
of the present century, fifty thousand of the wealthiest
Greek families were settled in Northern and Western
Europe.^ Happy was it for Greece that in this time of
her awakening from the torpor of ages, when by reason
of her weakness and inexperience, of the evil and cor-
rupting influences which surrounded her, of the measure-
less difficulties which beset her path, and of the cruel
bondage — a bondage moral and social as well as polit-
ical — by which her energies were fettered, she stood so
' Tennent, ii. 425-30. * Id., ii. 523-38.
' Leake's Researches, p. 67.
GREEK COMMERCE, 30$
much in need of help, she had these children of her bosom
dwelling in happier lands, and free from the evils by
which she had so long been oppressed, to extend to her
their generous sympathies and their helping hands.
After the middle of the last century the commerce of
the Greeks began to show signs of reviving life. Its
movements were at first cautious and timid, but in the
course of twenty-five years it had risen to considerable
importance. Events then transpired which gave it a sud-
den and astonishing development. By the treaties of
1779 and 1783,^ the Greek vessels secured the protection
of the Russian flag, and were allowed to arm themselves
for protection against pirates. Then came the wars re-
sulting from the French Revolution, and for twenty-five
years the Greeks were able to monopolize the corn trade
of Russia and the carrying trade of the Levant, which
yielded them enormous profits, and from which they ac-
cumulated incredible wealth. In a few years the Greek
commercial marine numbered six hundred vessels, with
twenty thousand sailors and six thousand guns. " Of
these, Hydra alone, in 181 3, furnished sixty sail, manned
by two thousand of her own inhabitants. Her merchants
were among the richest capitalists of Europe, and so gen-
erous in behalf of their country that one individual alone,
Varvaki, is said to have contributed three hundred thou-
sand piasters towards improving the harbor of his native
island. Nor is this a solitary instance of the intensity of
that spirit of patriotism which characterizes the march of
later events in Greece. Suffering and tyranny seemed to
have inspired the whole nation with one common impulse,
> Finlay, pp. 327, 344.
2o6 THE MODERN GREEKS.
the energies of every individual were directed to the same
end ; and to this resistless combination must be attributed
the singularly rapid advancement and regeneration of
Greece.'
During the greater part of the last century, through
the strong sympathies of the Christians of European
Turkey with their powerful co-reHgionists of Moscow and
St. Petersburg, the Greeks were subject to a predominant
Russian influence, which tended strongly to develop their
national feeling, and to prepare them for resistance to
Turkish oppression. But Russian despotism could have
no fellowship with democratic freedom ; and the tendency
of this foreign influence was rather to strengthen the power
of the clergy and the Phanariots, than to promote the real
and healthful progress of the nation. But towards the
end of the century other agencies appeared upon the field
by which these conservative tendencies were effectually
neutralized. The French Revolution broke out, and the
^ Tennent, vol. ii. pp. 567-8. "The Greeks of the island of Psara (or
Ipsara), and of the town of Galaxidhi in the Corinthian Gulf, and the Al-
banians of the islands of Hydra and Petzas (or Spetzia), carried on an exten-
sive commerce in their own ships. Many of the sailors were part proprie-
tors both of the ship and cargo, and united the occupations of capitalists and
sailors. AJl shared in the profits of the voyage. Their extensive commer-
cial enterprises exercised a direct influence on the great body of the Greek
population, which dwells in general near the seacoast." — Finlay, pp. 344-5.
"An extensive and enterprising marine population soon made Hydra,
Spetzia, Ipsara, Miconi, Cranidhi, Galaxidhi, and other places, but lately
unknown, important ports ; whence issued fine vessels, which competed
with, and soon gained a complete ascendency over, the European traders in
the Levant ; doing the carrying trade much cheaper than they could, and thus
excluding them. They were in danger from the Algerian and other pirates,
and hence they had an excuse for arming their vessels ; they carried from six
to sixteen cannon, and thus was formed the organ of the future regeneration
of Greece." — Howe's Greek Revolution, p. 23.
PREPARATION FOR THE REVOLUTION. 207
fire of democratic sentiment, which spread throughout
Europe from this flaming volcano with such rapidity and
power, found a most congenial atmosphere among the
Greeks, and very soon the whole Greek mind was kindled
and aglow with this new inspiration. In 1797 the French
took possession of the Ionian Islands, formed an alliance
with Ali Pasha of Yannina, and began to exert a control-
ling influence in the affairs of Greece. It needed but
this torch to fire the train already laid, and from that time
the Greek Revolution was sure, sooner or later, to come.
Through the first twenty years of the present century,
the preparation for the coming explosion advanced with
rapid pace. The Ottoman Empire had sunk to the low-
est stage of weakness and confusion. The Turks in the
European provinces were everywhere growing fewer,
weaker, more thriftless, and more wretched. Organized
and efficient military force there was none. The janiza-
ries had become a mere city trading militia, without order
or discipline. The spahis, poor and neglected, were
formidable only as they were ready to join any local pasha
in rebellion. The great Pashas were little else than trib-
utary and almost independent sovereigns in their own
provinces. The central government had become in the
main a mere fiscal agency, intent upon extorting the
largest possible amount of money, by any means, whether
fair or foul, from the individuals, cities, provinces, and
pashas of the disjointed Empire.^ Meanwhile, all the
city, maritime, manufacturing, and commercial classes of
the Greeks were filled with intensest activity, and were
advancing with rapic" strides in wealth, in public and
' Finlay, pp. 352-4.
10
2o8 THE MODERN GREEKS,
patriotic spirit, and in conscious strength. It should be
observed, however, that this accumulation c^ wealth by
the Greeks at home was confined to a few localities, and
to comparatively a few individuals. As a people, the
Greeks were still very poor.
We have thus followed the fortunes of the Greeks to
the eve of their great and decisive conflict with Turkish
power. At this point, let us pause for a brief and com-
prehensive glance at their condition, that we may see
what they have grown to be, morally and socially, as
well as materially and politically, and what preparation
they have for the great struggle before them. We find
them divided into four classes, each one of which will fill
a very important place in the coming revolution — the
Merchants, the Country Gentry, the Agricultural Peas-
antry, and the Klephts.
I. The Commercial Greeks. In the year 1815, per-
haps there were nowhere in the world two communities
more prosperous and flourishing than the islands of Scio
and Hydra. The whole body of the people were living
in affluent abundance, while the merchants had accumu-
lated great wealth. With this material prosperity, there
had been a corresponding social advancement. Large
and beautiful dwellings were erected, schools were opened,
hospitals established, and society began to assume a truly
European aspect The merchants of Scio, by a voluntary
tax of two per cent, upon their property, had established
a college about the close of the last century, which, in
1823, numbered fourteen professorships and eight hun-
dred students, and was furnished with a library, a print-
ing office, and an ample collection of philosophical instru-
THE COMMERCIAL GREEKS. 209
ments. Emphatic testimony to the high moral character
of the people of both these islands has been already ad-
duced, and Dr. Howe speaks in language equally strong
of the social qualities of the Sciots : " The Sciot mer-
chant was ever, abroad, sharp and close, but at home
generous and hospitable. We have seen in their females
much of that delicate refinement which gives a zest to
society at home ; we have experienced in the bosom of
their families not only the right of hospitality, but we
have been sustained in the dreary days of sickness by
their kind and untiring attentions ; and we can never for-
get the heartfelt gratitude and earnest thanks with which
they reward the slighest service done by strangers to
their country."' The Hydraots, true to their Albanian
blood, were far braver and more warlike than the Sciots,
and, at the same time, far less intelligent But nowhere
else in Greece perhaps was there so much of neatness
and domestic comfort as at Hydra.^
The Hydraots were exceedingly clannish, and almost
the whole of their immense mercantile business was
conducted upon joint stock and co-operative principles.
Merchant, captain, and crew were all part owners in ship
and cargo — were, in fact, usually connected by family
relationship ^ — and worked together upon terms of most
' Greek Revolution, pp. 18-9.
* "In fact, they value education but little; . . . they are too de-
vout worshipers of Mammon to apply themselves much to learning. . . .
They are extremely neat in their persons ; and there is perhaps hardly a
spot in the world where the whole people are so well and cleanly dressed
as at Hydra. Their houses are as clean as those of Dutchmen." — Id., p.
165.
' Id., pp. 25^-60.
2IO THE MODERN GREEKS.
democratic equality. And such was their mutual good
faith and strictness in dealing among themselves, that for
nearly thirty years, as we are told by those who knew
them well, without law or judge, without bond, receipt,
or note, they carried on their vast system of commercial
transactions, reaching to every part of the world, and
bringing them in enormous wealth, without a single case
of bankruptcy, " never keeping accounts, and never
breaking their word." ^ The same business methods, and
measurably also the same mutual good faith, which
characterized the merchants of Hydra, prevailed in every
part of Greece. All mercantile, all manufacturing, all
fishing enterprises, were conducted upon the same co-
operative principle.^ The Greek had no law or court to
1 London Quarterly Review for April, 1869, p. 256 ; Urquhart, pp.
55-6. " Conversing with Mavrocordatos a few days before I left Greece, I
expressed to him my doubts about what I had often heard of the honesty
and good faith of the Hydraots previous to the commencement of the Rev-
olution. He replied, ' I do not wonder at it ; it is hard to conceive how
seven years should so completely change? a body of men ; yet so it is. War,
and its attendants, anarchy and confusion, have altered the Hydraots from
an industrious, sober, and honest people, to what you now see them. Such
a thing as a note or bond was almost unknown ; a merchant would lend
another money, and only request him to make a minute of it ; he would
ship goods on board a vessel, and take no bill of lading ; vessels would
come into port, and the captain and crew run to see their friends, leaving
the vessel unlocked, and perhaps specie on board. Shops were left open
by their owners without fear, and often the shutters only closed and the door
latched during the night. This was the case also in Spetzia and Ipsara;
the word of a merchant or a sea captain was sacred.' " — Howe, p. 166, note.
^ "While the sale of fish is going forward (at Prevesa, on the Gulf of
Arta), the money is laid by in a common purse, which, when the mukdtesi
has been paid, is equally divided between the merchants and the fishermen.
This, and other modes of giving an interest in profits to all the individuals
employed in any speculation, are common in the mercantile, and even in the
agricultural undertakings of the Greeks. The greater part of the maritime
THE COMMERCIAL GREEKS. SIl
which he could appeal with any hope of securing justice ;
bonds, notes, and written contracts were of no value
when there was no tribunal to enforce them ; the only-
ground on which it was possible for these numberless and
complicated co-operative transactions to be conducted
was an entire confidence in the mutual good faith of the
parties ; and such was the moral power of that munici-
pal bond under which these rayahs all lived in their own
communities, that in this confidence the Greek did not
often find his trust deceived.
And yet the Greek merchants as a class bore a bad
character in Europe. They were looked upon as very
cunning, very deceitful, and very knavish — a judgment,
in fact, which was extended to the whole Greek race.
" A traveler," says Dr. Howe, " meets with Greeks in
Constantinople, Smyrna, &c. ; he has for his servant a
Franco-Greek who has learned the vices of Europe with
the languages, and who steals from him on all occasions;
he trades with the Greek merchant, who lives only by
chicanery, and who cheats him in every bargain ; his
cicero7ie is a Greek, who practices a thousand frauds upon
commerce and carrying trade is managed upon the same principle ; and it
often happens that every sailor is in part owner of the ship as well as the
cargo. Such customs are at once an effect and a support of the republican
spirit which it is curious to find prevading a people subject to such a despot
as the Sultan." — Leake's Northern Greece, i. 182-3.
"The Trikeriots (upon the eastern coast of Thessaly) usually fit out
their ventures in the same manner as the people of Hydra, Spetzia, Poro,
and many other maritime towns ; that is to say, the owner, captain, and
sailors all have shares in the ship and cargo, the sailors generally sharing
a half among them, which is in lieu of all otht: demands. During the
scarcity of corn in France at the beginning of the revolution, a sailor's share
for the voyage amounted sometimes to three purses, which at that time was
equivalent to ;^I50 sterling.'' — Id., iv. 395.
21 a THE MODERN GREEK.
lim ; wherever he turns he finds some sharp-witted
Greeks to take advantage of his ignorance, to gull his
credulity, and to fleece him without robbing him, and he
indignantly condemns thewhole race as base and trickish.
The merchants and naval men who visit the Archipelago,
or who trade to Smyrna and Constantinople, meet with
the Greek merchants there, who are more cunning and
knavish than the Israelites themselves ; who live imme-
diately under the rod of despotism ; who are " cringing,
crouching slaves ;" who can acquire money only by de-
ception and trick, and who can retain it only by coun-
terfeiting poverty ; . , . and we hear them denounce
the Greeks as a nation of rascals, less worthy of our atten-
tion than the Turks." ^
Never, perhaps, were statements so directly opposite,
so strangely contradictory, made of the character of any
other people, and made, on both sides, so near the truth.
While we admit, as we must, all that has been affirmed
of the singular honesty and good faith of the people of
Hydra, of Ambelakia, and a hundred other Greek com-
munities, among themselves, we must also admit that the
Greeks have borne for twenty-five hundred years the
same national character — that they have always been the
same cunning, sharp-witted, intriguing, and deceitful race.
It is also true, as we have already seen, that there was a
large class of Greeks, and of Greek merchants among the
rest, who, living in intimate subjection to Turkish influ-
ences, had become thoroughly demoralized ; who dis-
played no moral character, no honesty or uprightness,
either abroad or at home.
' Greek Revolution, pp. 15-16.
THE COMMERCIAL GREEKS. sij
We must admit more even than this. The Greek
merchants of the better class, those who displayed the
highest moral qualities in their domestic transactions,
bore very often a double character. They were one
thing at home, wholly another thing abroad. At home,
they were what they had been made by the steady and
powerful moral discipline of their municipal life. Abroad,
they were what they had been made by constant deal-
ings with Turkish officials. They lived under a govern-
ment which cared nothing for them or their interests,
which regarded neither law or right in its dealings with
them, which sought only to wring from them the largest
possible amount of money. Honesty in dealing with the
corrupt and rapacious officials upon whom they were de-
pendent seemed in most cases out of the question. To do
business successfully at all, they felt compelled to bribe,
to cheat, to outwit and deceive. And as they had learned
to deal with Turks, so they were very likely to deal
with the Franks of the West Of all this class of men,
as of the great body of the Greek nation, this important
observation is to be made. Their virtue at home, not
their chicanery abroad, was the real, essential basis of
their character. All that they were at home, under
more favoring circumstances, they might be justly ex-
pected to show themselves abroad. Their virtues were
their own — the natural, healthful product of their own
institutions, their own domestic life. Their vices were
in great measure an unnatural deformity into which
their moral growth had been forced by the evil influ-
ences amid which they were compelled to live.
II. The Country Gentry. We may use this ternj, for
214 THE MODERN GREEKS.
want of a better, to describe the large class of the more
wealthy and influential Greeks in all the country districts,
who for their own selfish ends were content to be the ser-
vants and tools of the Turks. To this class belonged
the hodja-bashis, proesti, or primates — men who were
appointed or recognized by the Pashas as the elders or
chiefs of the several communities. These men assessed
the taxes, and had the general direction of affairs in their
several districts and villages ; were in fact their respon-
sible heads. They formed a local aristocracy of com-
parative wealth and great influence, and were in many
cases the real rulers of the Greeks. Of this class all wit-
nesses agree in speaking with strong detestation. They
were selfish and rapacious, and more tyrannical than the
Turks themselves ; they cared nothing for the good of
their people, and went into the revolution, many of
them, only in the hope of succeeding to the despotic
power of the Turkish governors.^
Col. Leake cites Dr. S. of Gastuni as saying that the
proesti were in everything the ruin of the nation, and con-
tinues as follows : " In the Morea, where so many Greeks
have authority, they naturally become under the Ottoman
system a sort of Christian Turks, with the usual ill quali-
ties of slaves who have obtained power. The chief
proofs among them of a good birth and genteel education
are dissimulation, and the art of lying with a good grace,
which they seem often to exercise rather with a view of
showing their ability in this way, than with any settled
design. . . . Though it is impossible not to be disgust-
ed with these things, one can hardly blame the Greeks
' Howe, pp. 33-65.
THE AGRICULrURAL PEASANTRY. 215
for them ; for what other arms have they against their
oppressors ? Under such a cruel tyranny, deceitfulness
unavoidably becomes a national characteristic."' This
class was wholly a growth of the Turkish system, and
was only an evil and a burden to the nation.
III. The Agricultural Peasantry. At the time of which
we are now speaking, this class, comprising the great ma-
jority of the Greeks in Greece proper, was much depress-
ed and very poor. In Northern Greece the exactions of
Ali Pasha weighed heavily upon them, while in the Mo-
rea, through the tyranny of Turkish officials and their
own primates, they were usually but little better off.
The Greek villages were usually clustered among the
hills, while the rich plains, which had been originally ap-
propriated by the Turks, were either thinly peopled and
half cultivated or wholly desolate. Every village was
treated by the Turkish officials as a whole, held to a unit-
ed and corporate responsibility, and thus forced into that
municipal character and action which had become so
characteristic of Greek political life. The several villa"-es
held their lands by various tenures. In some, the peas-
ants had owned the fields they tilled in a kind of freehold
property. More commonly, however, the villages and
tlie lands about them were tlie property of some Moslem
or Greek landlord. In either case, the terms were, nomi-
nally, not severe, as compared with the burdens of the
farming peasantry in other parts of Europe.
The freeholding villages had to pay, first of all, the
kharatc/i, or capitation tax, which in Greece at this time
' Morea, vol. iL pp. 177-f, See also Northern Greece, ii. loS, and iiL
515-8.
2i6 THE MODERN GREEKS.
amounted to about two dollars for each male over twelve
or fifteen years of age ; ^ there was then the miri, or Sul-
tan's land tax, amounting to about one-seventh of the crop,
and levied upon all, Christians and Moslems alike ; and the
angaria, or forced contribution for public works, likewise
exacted from all alike. These taxes, with various cus-
toms and duties upon articles sold, and the konakia or free
lodging which the villages were obliged to furnish for
military guards and traveling officials, were the chief of
the regular burdens which the freeholding villages were
compelled to bear. The tenant farmer, after all taxes had
been paid from his crop, divided the remainder with his
landlord. But helpless as they were — at the mercy of
every local tyrant, whether Moslem or Christian — they
were subject to such numberless exactions, such constant
extortion, that with all their industry they were hardly
able to obtain the means of subsistence from year to
year.
Almost every village in the power of All Pasha had
been compelled to incur a heavy debt, at ruinous rates of
interest, to meet his exorbitant demands. So heavy and
hopeless had this burden of debt become to many villages
before freeholding and independent, that they had been
compelled to give up their lands to the Vizier, and either
to forsake their homes or to remain as tenants at will.
In the depth of their poverty and misery, multitudes of
Greeks, in Northern Greece and in the Morea, had fled
from their homes to seek new settlements in western
Asia Minor, under the mild and tolerant rule of Kara
Osman Oglu.
■ Howe, p. 12.
THE AGRICULTURAL PEASANTRY. zif
The ordinary dwellings of the Greek farming peasantry-
would have seemed to an American eye but comfortless
huts.* They had neither floor nor chimney, nor, except-
ing a little matting, had they any beds ; and a few of the
simplest articles comprised the whole stock of household
furniture. Sometimes the cottage consisted of one room,
a bare inclosure of rough walls, perhaps thirty feet in
length by fifteen in breadth ; but more commonly, espe-
cially in the plains, the building was longer and was
divided into two rooms by a partition of baskets, in which
were deposited the household stores. The room below
the partition was assigned to the cattle of the establish-
ment, while the family occupied the other. In these
dwellings the traveler from the West usually found it
most agreeable "to rest during the meridian hours, which,
especially in the villages, are by far more quiet than the
night, when asses, hogs, dogs, fowls, rats, bugs, fleas,
gnats, are all in a state of activity." ^
The women of this class, though ignorant and very
much depressed socially, were virtuous, kindly, and very
industrious. In the mountain districts they were often
very Imrdy and endowed with great physical strengtli.
Among the highlands upon the river Crathes in the north
of the Morea, Col. Leake saw a hundred women, each
bearing a great load of wood from the mountains, and
spinning as she made her way over the rough ground.^
In the midst of their poverty and oppression, the
Greeks were a buoyant, light-hearted race, full of songs,
' See Baird's Modem Greece, p. 1S9; Leake's Morea, i, 222 ; and Nor-
them Greece, iii. 362.
* Leake's Normern Greece, vol. i. p. 221. ^ Morea, vo iii. p. 173.
10
ai8 THE MODERN GREEKS.
of which the exploits of some valiant Klepht were more
commonly the theme, and always ready for the social pas-
time and the evening dance when the labors of the day
were done. This Hght-hearted cheerfulness could not be
overcome, even by the utter homelessness, nakedness,
and destitution to which thousands of them were reduced
towards the close of their terrible revolutionary struggle.
"They took refuge in the recesses of the mountains, in
caverns, iu the center of swamps ; . . . they lived
in little wigwams or temporary huts, made by driving
poles in the ground and thatching them with reeds ; they
were obliged to wander about in quest of food, and their
naked feet were lacerated by the rocks ; their faces, necks,
and half-exposed limbs were sunburnt, and their hollow
eyes and emaciated countenances gave evidence that
their sufferings had been long endured. . . . Yet,
amid all this misery, strange as it may appear, the light
and volatile Greek was not always depressed ; the boy
sang as he gathered snails on the mountains, and the girls
danced around the pot where their homely mess of sorrel
and roots was boiling. The voice of mirth was often heard
in those miserable habitations, and the smile of fond hope
was often seen on those countenances, which mere want
and exposure, and not care, had rendered so wan and
emaciated. " ^ The Greek peasantry have been doomed to
a hard and weary lot To tlie abject misery of their con-
dition under Turkish tyranny, independence has as yet
brought them but partial relief Yet through all the
painful experiences of the past two hundred years, they
have borne themselves with a simple virtue and truthful-
* Howe's Greek Revolution, pp. 369-70.
THE KLEPHTS. 219
ness, a cheerful hope, a patient industry, and a resolute
purpose to make the best of their hard lot, which ought
to insure them the respect and the cordial sympathies of
all Christian people.
IV. The Klephts.* The Greek Klephts of this period
were by no means all alike. The term had been origin-
ally applied to clans or bands of free-spirited mountain-
eers, who, disdaining submission to the Turkish yoke,
had retired to some secure retreat among the mountains,
and there maintained themselves in sturdy and complete
independence. These Klephts were nearly akin to the
Armatoli — the latter being little else than Klephts in the
service of the Porte. Of these proper and original
Klephts, the Suhots were the noblest and most conspicuous
example. Through seven successive wars this heroic
tribe, a race of soldiers, with whom robbery of the Turks
(and not always of Turks alone) was a lawful and most
honorable vocation, had fiercely defended their native
hills, and were at last only destroyed inch by inch, inflict-
ing meantime greater loss upon their foes tlian they suf-
fered themselves.
The true mountain Klephts were the great heroes of
the Greek race. Their exploits were celebrated in a
thousand songs, and whenever they descended to the
plains, as, driven by the snows of winter, they sometimes
reluctantly did, they were followed by admiring crowds,
who looked upon them as beings of a superior race. But
after the middle of the last century, tlirough the tyranny
of the Turks and the disorders of the times, the Klephts
as a class began to deserve much more justly their tide
• Tennent, chap. xi. ; Howe's Greek Revolution, pp. 19-21, 28-9.
220 THE MODERN GREEKS.
of robbers. Freebooting bands were formed in almost
every mountain district, which waged incessant warfare
upon the Turks, and very often plundered impartially
Turk and Christian alike. Towards the close of the
ceuvury wholesale brigandage became a regular summer
trade with thousands of Greeks, Albanians, and Greek
Wallachians who had their homes and their winter resi-
dences in the mountain villages. Every spring these
robbers would assemble in companies numbering from
ten to several hundreds, retire to some impregnable
fastness of the mountains, and from these secure retreats
wage a constant predatory warfare upon all within their
reach. ^ There were extensive districts which had been
almost ruined and depopulated between these robbers
and the Dervent guards. To the Greeks this brigandage
assumed the guise of warfare upon the Turk, and was
accounted highly honorable. The robber was a popular
character, even in the districts which he had helped to
waste.* But these village robbers were a very different
* Hobhouse, i. pp. 127-40.
* The high honor in which Klephts and heyducs have always, until very
recently, been held by the Christian peoples of European Turkey, seems to
us very strange. But if we would refresh our minds a little in regard to
our own ancestral history, our wonder at this matter would cease. We
ourselves have not so long outgrown the Klephtic age, at least as it respects
freebooting on the sea, as some of us may imagine. Less than three hun-
dred years ago the pirate and the buccaneer were held in as high honor in
England as the Klepht has ever been in Greece. "The whole body of
early naval history proves that ' pirate ' was not a term of opprobrium.
Capturing a foreign merchant ship, throwing her crew overboard, or selling
them as slaves, and appropriating the cargo, was a slightly irregular, but
by no means dishonorable proceeding. ... In point of fact, the pirates
were privateers, and were so esteemed by their countrymen." — Ed. Review,
April, 1876, p. 228. Hawkins and Drake, those great heroes of the English
navy in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, were little else than mighty Klephtt
of the sea.
THE KLEPHTS. 221
class of men from the old independent Klephts, who had
breathed for ages the free air of the mountains, and had
never bowed their necks to a Turkish yoke.
The true mountain Klepht was among the bravest of
the brave. Trained from infancy to arms and the endu-
rance of every hardship, he was as hardy and vigorous,
as quick and agile as the wild antelope of the mountains.
In full armor, he could outrun a horse and his rider, and
of Nico Tsaras, one of their most renowned heroes, it was
said that he could leap over seven horses standing abreast.
Steady of nerve and strong of hand, his aim was so sure
that he could drive a pistol ball through a ring of the
same size, his sight so keen that his aim was as sure and
deadly by night as by day. Relentless in his hatred to
the Turk, he was not cruel. His prisoners were never
tortured, and women, even Turkish women, were safe,
and sure of courteous treatment at his hands. If he fell
alive into the hands of the Turks, he laughed at the tor-
tures they inflicted upon him, and, though his legs were
crushed inch by inch with sledge-hammers, not a groan
would escape from his lips.' After Ali Pasha's success
in breaking the power of the Armatoli, he turned his
arms against the Klephts. But in this, almost alone of
the great enterprises of his life, he signally failed. A few
bands were broken up, a few Klephts were taken and
killed. But the chief result of the Vizier's hostility was
to force the Klephtic bands into a closer union and more
efficient measures for the common defence, and to swell
^ For an actual case of just this fiendish cruelty on the part of Ali Pasha
of Yannina, and of just this heroic fortitude on the part of a captive Klepht,
see Tennent, i. p. 441.
as i±t£ MODERN' GREEKS.
their ranks with multitudes of the disbanded Armatoli,
and other men, who in all quarters were flying from his
tyranny. In the last years of Ali, and just before the
breaking out of the Greek Revolution, almost every
mountain fastness in Greece had become a fortress of
freedom, and ten thousand Klephts were in arms, ready
to turn their long muskets and yataghans against the
Turks.^
The agency which had most to do in directly prepar-
ing the way for the Greek Revolution, was the Heteria,*
a vast secret organization, born of the ferment attending
the French Revolution, and founded, about the year 1795,
by the poet Rhiga, whose fiery patriotic songs were sung
everywhere and with intensest feeling by the whole Greek
race. Rhiga had taken up his residence at Vienna, but
was given up by the Austrian government to the Turks,
and beheaded at Belgrade in 1798. After the death of
Rhiga the Heteria seemed for a time to have been sup-
pressed; but in a few years it revived again, and spread
with astonishing rapidity wherever the Greek race was
found. The order was governed by a secret council, and
as each member upon his initiation paid about one hun-
dred dollars into the treasury, the council had ample
means at its command. Upon entering the order, the
Heterist took a solemn and impassioned oath to devote
himself with absolute and perpetual consecration to the
emancipation of his country and the destruction of the
power of the Turks. Before the year 1820 the Heteria
had drawn within its circle almost every influential Greek,
of whatever class, character, or occupation. It had be-
* Howe, p. 29 * Tennent, ii. 426-32, 573-77; Howe, 30-33.
THE HETERIA. 223
come a national league, in which the whole people had
sworn together to free themselves from bondage to the
Turk. In the secret councils of the Heteria, there was
neither wisdom nor unity of purpose. Its funds were
embezzled or misapplied, and in tangible military results
it accomplished nothing. But its moral influence upon
the nation was powerful and decisive. The whole body
of the Greek people was roused to an eager enthusiasm
in the common cause; they were kept quick and alert,
and ready to throw themselves at once into the revolu-
tionary movement whenever the signal should be given.
CHAPTER VII.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION.^
FALL OF ALI PASHA — REVOLT OF THE GREEKS — THE
TURKS COMPLETELY DEFEATED IN FOUR CAM-
PAIGNS — GREEK INDEPENDENCE FAIRLY WON IN
1824.
In February, 1820, the fetwa of the Grand Mufti was
pronounced declaring Ah Tepeleni, Vizier of Epirus, fer-
manli, and under the ban of the Empire. In this emer-
gency the Vizier gathered his forces for a desperate re-
sistance, while the Sultan prepared for an equally despe-
rate effort to destroy him. On both sides the Christians
of Greece were summoned to arms; a call which, on both
sides, was eagerly and promptly obeyed. This was a
step which, in the weakness of the Ottoman government
at that time, could not be retraced. In three months the
whole of Northern Greece was in arms, and, in reality
though not by any overt insurrectionary act, the Greek
Revolution was begun. The Vizier seemed irresistibly
strong; and so perhaps he would have been if he could
• Howe's Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution.
Tennent's Sketch of the Greek Revolution.
Gordon's History of the Greek Revolution.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 225
have overcome his own avarice, and made a judicious use
of his treasures. But this he could not do, and, as the
Turkish forces approached, his sons and most trusted
commanders all deserted his cause, almost without a
blow. By the end of August Ali had left his capital a
mass of smoking ruins to be occupied by Ismael Pasha,
the Turkish Seraskier (commander-in-chief), and had re-
tired with a few followers to his impregnable fortress in
the lake. Ismael Pasha had invited the Suliots to join
his standard, promising them full restoration to their
country and their ancient freedom. The Suliots obeyed
his call, but the promises were not fulfilled. Exasperated
at last by the contemptuous neglect with which he and
his countrymen had been treated by the Turks, Marco
Botzaris made his way to the Vizier, who still held pos-
session of the Suliot fortresses, and proposed to him that
if he would give up the fortresses to the Suliots, with the
sum of ten thousand dollars to enable them to send for
their families, they would at once desert the Seraskier's
army and begin a guerrilla warfare against him. Ali
readily acceded to these terms, and on the 24th of No-
vember the Suliots left the Turkish camp. This secession
of the Suliots was the first act of open rebellion, the real
beginning of the revolutionary war.* From that time
until the whole tribe was completely wasted away by the
vicissitudes of the struggle, the Suliots remained the
bravest and most determined enemies with whom the
Turks had to contend.
The Heteria determined to take advantage of this
conjuncture of affairs to precipitate the Revolution for
1 Howe, 34-36.
lO*
226 THE MODERN GREEKS.
which it had been so long preparing the way. Wallachia
and Moldavia were ripe for revolt ; and as the Greeks
were looking confidently to Russia for support and ef-
fective aid, it was decided to make these provinces the
theater of the first insurrectionary movement. Accord-
ingly, Prince * Alexander Ypselanti, the Arche or Chief
of the Heteria, raised the standard of revolt at Yassi, on
the 7th of March, 1821. The people of both provinces
flew to arms, and in a few days considerable forces had
been assembled. But the expected favor of the Russian
authorities was denied ; the Emperor Alexander frowned
upon the movement, and under this chilling influence it
rapidly declined, until it was ended by the battle of
Stinga, on the 19th of June. The insurgents were en-
tirely scattered or cut to pieces ; Ypselanti fled north-
wards, and was consigned to an Austrian prison, and the
unhappy provinces were left to feel the full weight of
Turkish vengeance.
The news of this uprising of the Greeks reached the
capital in March, and with these tidings came rumors
of a terrible plot to fire the city, massacre the Turkish
inhabitants, and overturn the government of the Sultan.a
These reports produced a fearful agitation among the
Turks, and roused their fanatic passions to fiercest in-
tensity. The leading Phanariots were at once seized
and put to death. Multitudes of Greeks fled to the ships
in the harbor, where they were afterwards hunted out
and killed ; many were slain in the streets, and those who
* So called because the son of a Hospoclar of Wallachia.
* The actual existence of such a plot seems to be conceded. See Tennen^
p, 48, and Howe, p. 33.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 227
remained alive in the city were shut up in their own
houses. The passions of the people and the soldiery-
were kept under some restraint until Easter, about the
middle of April, when they burst forth with ungovern-
able fury. Gregory, the venerable and blameless Patri-
arch of Constantinople, now ninety years of age, was
seized on Easter day and hung at the door of his own
church. His body was left hanging for some days ex-
posed to the insults of the populace, and was then cut
down and given to a party of Jews, who dragged it
through the streets and threw it into the harbor. With
the Patriarch suffered three archbishops and eight chap-
lains of the cathedral. For four days an indiscriminate
slaughter had gone on, and ten thousand Greeks, by
flight or massacre, had disappeared from the city. The
same fanatic fury spread to the cities and towns of
Western Asia Minor, Thrace and Macedonia, and it is
estimated that in three months the blood of thirty thou-
sand Greeks had consecrated the opening of their strug-
gle for freedom.'
Meantime an order had been issued by the Divan ^ for
disarming the Christians of the provinces ; and the at-
tempt of a subordinate official to execute this order in the
. Morea kindled the flames of revolution at once in every
part of Greece. The population of the Morea at tliis
time numbered something like half a million of souls, of
• Tennent, 48-51.
2 Before the middle of the last century, " the Divan " began to take the
place of "the Porte," as the usual designation of the Ottoman govern-
ment. The Divan was properly the Turkisli Council of State; and this
cliange in the appellation of the government indicated the decline of thw
personal power of the Sultan.
328 THE MODERN GREEKS.
whom no more than fifteen or twenty thousand were
Moslems, not including the Albanian soldiers of the
Pasha.* The capital of the province was Tripolitza, a
town situated on the high plateau of ancient Arcadia, a
few miles south-east from the center of the Peninsula.
The Pasha had usually but a small military force at his
command, the eight fortresses of the Peninsula being
deemed sufficient to hold it in subjection. These eight
fortresses were Tripolitza, the capital ; Corinth, Nauplia,
or Napoli di Romania, at the head of the Gulf of Nauplia ;
Monemvasia, or Napoli di Malvasia, on the eastern coast
of Maina; Koron, Navarino, and Modon, on the south-
west coast ; Arkadia on the west ; and the citadel of
Patras in the north-west.
In March, 1821, Kiirchid Pasha of Tripolitza was
absent with all his available forces in Epirus, when,
hearing of the rising in Moldavia and the threatening
state of affairs in his own province, he sent orders to his
kaimacam, or lieutenant, to summon the Greek primates
to Tripolitza, to hold them as hostages, and to disarm the
Morea. The orders were given, and a few bishops and
primates obeyed. The majority, however, delayed, feel-
ing that the decisive hour had come. Among these was
Germanos, Bishop of Patras. Germanos had set out for
Tripolitza, and had reached Calavrita, a town among the
mountains between Achaia and Arcadia, when he sud-
denly paused, and, on the 4th of April, 1821, amid a
great concourse of peasants, raised the standard of the
cross and called his countrymen to arms.'*
* Hobhouse, i. p. 196.
■ « On our way down the mountain, our guide had pointed out to as ia
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 229
The response was instant and universal. The whole
Christian population of the Morea flew to arms, the
Turks were driven to the fortresses, and an assembly of
primates convened at Calamata, under the name of the
Senate of Messenia, proceeded at once to organize the
rebellion, sent for arms and ammunition to the ports of
the Mediterranean, and issued manifestoes to the people
of Greece and the governments of Europe. The Islands
of the Cyclades caught the flame and joined in the
revolt, and on the 28th of April a fleet of twenty-two
vessels, fitted out by Hydra, Spetzia, and Ipsara, sailed
to cruise in the Archipelago.^ Before the end of June
the whole of the Morea, except the fortresses, was in
the hands of the insurgents, while extensive districts ot
Northern Greece were also in arms.
As soon as intelligence of these movements reached
Kurchid Pasha, who meantime had been appointed to
the chief command in Epirus, he dispatched his lieuten-
ant Mohammed with six thousand men to quell the insur-
rection. Mohammed crossed the Gulf of Corinth to Pa-
tras, passed eastwards across the peninsula, ravaging the
the distance a large edifice, about a couple of miles southward of Calavrita,
as the Monastery of St. Laura, where the plan of revolt already concocted at
Patras was fully perfected by the original conspirators, who, headed by the
Archbishop of that city, had gone thither upon the pretext of a journey to
TripoHtza, to escape the narrow inspection to which the presence of the
Turks subjected them. From this place, when the plot was quite ripe for
execution, letters were sent throughout the breadth of the land to apprise
all the patriots of the design." — Baird's Modern Greece, p. 224.
Germanos held a military command for a short time, but soon resigned it
for a more appropriate post in the Senate. He died in 1825, leaving behind
him a historical work of great value on the first three years of the war,
entitled " Memoirs of the Revolution." — Id., 334.
' Howe, p. 47.
ajo THE MODERN GREEKS.
country as he went, sacked and burned Vostitza, rein-
forced the garrisons of Corinth and Nauplia, and retired
within the walls of Tripolitza. In May, Mohammed
marched to attack an insurrectionary force of about twen-
ty-five hundred Greeks posted at Lalla, near Pyrgos in
Elis,^ under Colocotroni, from this time one of the most
prominent (and worthless) leaders of the Revolution, and
Germanos, Bishop of Patras. He hoped by one decisive
blow to end the rebellion, but the result proved exactly
contrary to his expectation. His troops were received
with a fire so deadly that they were utterly routed, and
pursued to the walls of Tripolitza. This defeat ended the
operations of the Turks in the Morea for the year 1821,
and raised the courage and enthusiasm of the Greeks to
the highest pitch.
Meanwhile Tombazi was at sea with his squadron of
Greek merchant vessels armed with a few small cannoHj
when the first division of the Turkish fleet, consisting of
five ships of the line, four frigates, and a number of trans-
ports, issued from the Dardanelles. The two fleets came
in sight of each other on the 5th of June, but the Capitan
Pasha, afraid to risk an engagement, retired within the
harbor of the Euripus, and dispatched a fifty- gun frigate
to Constantinople to hasten the sailing of the other divi-
sion of the fleet. Tombazi promptly pursued this frigate,
drove it on shore, attacked it with a fire-ship, and burned
it to the water's edge. This was the first use of an agency
by which, all through the war, the Greeks won most of
their successes at sea and kept their enemies in constant
' This is Dr. Howe's statement (p. 45), while Tennent (p. 56) places th«
scene of this action at Valtezi, a village a few leagues east from Tripolitza.
THE GREEK REVOLUTTOl^. 931
terror. Tombazi then stood south-east to the coast of
Asia Minor, hoping to rouse the Greeks of those regions
to revolt. He was in time, however, only to witness the
awful massacres at Smyrna and Aivali, about the middle
of June, and to take on board five thousand wretched
fugitives from the latter place, all that remained of its
population of thirty tliousand, and of what but one week
before had been one of the most flourishing and most
beautiful cities of the East.^
In June, Prince Demetrius Ypselanti, a brother of Alex-
ander, arrived in the Morea, and was appointed to the
command of the Greek forces. Demetrius Ypselanti was
honest, patriotic, and brave, but insignificant in personal
appearance, destitute of commanding abilities, proud and
vain. The Moreot primates and leaders disliked him and
united against him ; he accomplished little, and soon dis-
appeared from the scene.^
Early in the summer another Phanariot noble appeared
in Greece who was destined to prove the real leader of
the Revolution. This was Prince Alexander Mavrocor-
dato, a man of polished manners, liberal education, and
unquestioned patriotism, and who, amid ample opportu-
nities for dishonest gain, remained always poor ; but
somewhat foppish and vain, destitute of eminent ability,
and, true to his Phanariot education, inclined to a crafty
and tortuous policy. Mavrocordato was in France at the
' Howe, p. 58.
* He lived, however, to see his country independent, and to win, in
1829, the last battle fought by land with the Turks. At his death he left
his whole fortune to found a school at Nauplia, at which, in 1854, three or
four hundred students were pursuing their studies. — Felton's Greece, An-
cient and Modem, voL ii. pp. 454, 517.
II
«32 THE MODERN GREEKS,
breaking out of the rebellion, but, loading a brig with
arms and supplies, he sailed to Mesolonghi, and devoted
himself with zeal and success to organize the Revolution
in Suli and Acarnania, the south-western districts of
Northern Greece. At the beginning of July there were
said to be more than eighteen thousand Greeks in arms,
and for the rest of the year they remained masters of the
field. It was, however, a singular and nondescript kind
of army which they formed. They were frugal, patient,
hardy, and intensely patriotic ; they would march all day
upon no other provision than a biscuit and an onion, and
lie down at night with no other covering than their thick
capotes ; they were brave enough in their way, and be-
hind breastworks were excellent fighters. But they were
a mere rabble of peasants, armed with their long guns
and yataghans, with neither camp equipage, artillery, or
military stores ; with neither organization, discipline, or
habits of obedience. They would come and go as they
pleased, and fight or run as they pleased ; and their cap-
itani or leaders were more insubordinate, more intrac-
table than they.^
By this rabble of musketeers the fortresses were speed-
ily invested, and in the course of the year several of them
were starved into surrender. Arkadia, Monemvasia, and
Navarino were taken in the latter part of the summer,
and Tripolitza on the 5 th of October. Upon the fall of
these fortresses, a terrible vengeance was exacted for the
rivers of Greek blood which had flowed earlier in the
season. The garrison of Navarino, more than four hun-
dred starving wretches, were slaughtered in cold blood,'
' Howe, pp. 60-1. ' Tennent, p. 61.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 233
while a worse fate was reserved for Tripolitza, the capital.
Into this city were crowded almost all the Turks of the
Morea, with all their movable wealth. Reduced at last
to utter starvation, and seeking in vain for some com-
petent authority to which it might safely surrender, the
place was taken by surprise, and the whole Moslem pop-
ulation, excepting the Albanian soldiers, who saved them,
selves by their arms, was remorselessly put to the sword.
Fifteen thousand dead bodies choked the ruined streets,
and an enormous booty was divided among the selfish
and bloodthirsty capitani.^
After the fall of Tripolitza, Demetrius Ypselanti issued
a call for a national convention of the Greeks to meet at
Tripolitza on the first of November. The convention
assembled, but, owing to the terrible condition of tlie
city, found it necessary to adjourn to Epidaurus, where a
Declaration of Independence and Constitution were
drawn up, which were promulgated to the nation in
January, 1822. Alexander Mavrocordato was chosen
President of the new government, and at once entered
upon the Herculean task before him.
The year 1822 opened with events of great importance
to the Greeks. The estabhshment of the new constitution
and something like a regular government gave the Revo-
lution a new character and new importance in the eyes
of Europe. And although the Powers of tlie Holy Alli-
ance, Great Britain not excepted, frowned upon the
movement, and did everything in their power indirectly
to suppress this rising of an oppressed people against
constituted authority, the sympathies of the people were
• Howe, pp. 79-81.
234 THE MODERfT GREEKS.
everywhere deeply stirred in behalf of the struggling
Greeks. On the 2 2d of January, Corinth surrendered to
Ypselanti, and in Februa\y, Ali Pasha of Yannina, having
already surrendered to Kurchid Pasha, was treacherously
stabbed, thus leaving the Divan free to put forth all its
energies for the suppression of the Greek rebellion.
The plan adopted by the Turkish authorities for the
military operations of the year was ably conceived, and
might well have seemed sure of success. The fleet was
to sail early and in irresistible force, and having entered
the Gulf of Corinth, was to be in readiness to transport
the army of the Seraskier from Mesolonghi to Patras ;
while a second army was to move southwards from Thes-
saly, and enter the Morea by the Isthmus of Corinth.
The first blow of the year fell upon unhappy Scio, This
island, so beautiful and peaceful, so prosperous and weal-
thy, which for more than three hundred years had been
one of the brightest jewels in the Ottoman crown, had
been precluded by its situation from taking any active
part in the revolt, and had remained perfectly quiet,
until, on the 17th of March, a band of six hundred Sami-
ans landed upon the island, and, rallying a few peasants
to their aid, drove the Turks to the citadel. The Sciots
now saw that the die was cast, and that their only hope
lay in joining their revolted countrymen and driving the
Turks from the island. They accordingly laid siege to
the citadel, and sent urgent entreaties to the Morea for
arms and help^
But on the nth of April the Turkish fleet arrived and
cast anchor in the port. The Capitan Pasha landed six
thousand men from his ships, and spent three days in
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. ajj
bringing over a horde of Turks from the mainland. On
the i5th the preparations were complete, the signal
was given, and the dreadful work began. Of the eighty
thousand inhabitantsof Scio, twenty thousand were put to
the sword, and as many more were driven on board the
fleet to be sold for slaves. Of the remaining forty thou-
sand, some concealed themselves in the interior, while
the majority escaped by sea. " And when the Capitan
Pasha sailed for the coast of Natolia, he moved from a
shore where not a living form was visible ; a thin column
of smoke curled upwards from the ruins of Scio, and
silence, desolation, and death reigned throughout the
lately beautiful and opulent island." '
But speedy and terrible was the retribution which
overtook the Capitan Pasha, the inhuman monster who
had perpetrated this awful crime. On the night of the
2 2d of June the fleet was again at anchor in the Straits
of Scio, when Constantine Kanaris^ of Ipsara, a name
famous forever among the heroes of the sea, sailed
quietly into the midst of it upon a fire-ship. Driving
full upon the huge flagship of the admiral, he fired tlie
train with his own hands, leaped into his boat and safely
escaped. In a few minutes botli ships were a mass of
flames. The Capitan Pasha, attempting to escape in his
boat, was crushed by a falling mast, and his ship with
' Tennent, p. 71.
* Kanaris lived to prove himself one of the best and wisest public men
of liberated Greece, and to enjoy in a green old age the honors so nobly
earned in the revolutionary struggle. He was one of the three men who
formed the Provisional Governme\t of Greece upon the expulsion of King
Otho in 1862, and whose wisdom and moderation commanded the approval
of all. See Edinburgh Review for April, 1S63, p. 306.
C|6 THE MODERN GREEKS.
its crew of twelve hundred men was totally consumed.
On the same day with this brilliant achievement the
Acropolis of Athens surrendered to the Greeks.
The military operations of Kurchid Pasha were de-
layed, and all his well-laid plans finally defeated, by the
heroic stand made by the Suliots in their native moun-
tains. Through the whole summer of the year 1822
the armies of the Seraskier were held at bay, and not
until September did the Suliots finally surrender, when
they were once more transported to the Ionian Islands.
Meanwhile, early in July, the Seraskier had dispatched
Drama All Pasha with thirty thousand men to ravage
Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, and Megaris, and to enter the
Morea by the Isthmus of Corinth. The southward march
of Drama Ali was marked by the most fiendish atroci-
ties.^ He met with no opposing force, passed the Isthmus
^ " The Turkish hordes scattered themselves over Phocis and Boeotia,
plundering and burning ; enslaving, torturing, and murdering. No resistance
was made — none could be made. The peaceful villages, scattered over the
country, were in apparent security, and the peasantry would hardly get the
terrible news of an invasion, ere the tramp of horses and the wild hurra of the
horsemen would be heard, as they came rushing into the village and cut down
all they met. They then galloped up and down the streets, waving their
bloody scimeters and firing their pistols, till they were certain nothing was
left to oppose and endanger themselves ; when, bursting into the rooms
where the half-distracted females had shut themselves up, they would
butcher one or two, the more to intimidate the rest, and then force them to
tell where their husbands, brothers or sons had hid themselves. These
were dragged forth, hacked to pieces, and their heads severed from their
bodies. 'Give us your money,' cried the brutal Turks ; and when all was
done, when those poor females had suffered indignities worse than death,
they were stabbed, their noses and ears cut off, and then left to writhe on
the headless bodies of their relatives. None were spared, except perhaps
the most beautiful, who were loaded with the spoils, and often widi a string
of ears aod noses, and driren off like beasts of burden. But the scene
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 237
on the 13th of July, advanced to Argos, and relieved
the important fortress of Nauplia when on the very
point of surrendering to the Greeks. But in Argos the
Pasha found himself fatally entrapped. The crops had
been destroyed, the army had no provisions, the wild
mountains around were impracticable for cavalry, and
every mountain and narrow pass was occupied by its
band of Greeks. The Turkish army soon became com-
pletely demorahzed, and in danger of absolute starva-
tion.
Drama Ali was compelled to give the order for retreat.
But to retreat in safety was impossible. Between Argos
and Corinth two long and dangerous defiles must be
passed, and these defiles were filled with Greeks, with
their long muskets and their sharp yataghans. The
Turks knew their danger, but there was no escape, and
they rushed desperately forward into the narrow defiles.
Then ensued a scene of awful carnage rarely surpassed
in all the history of war. From the rocks on either side
the Greeks poured a torrent of balls upon the confused
and struggling mass below, and then, rushing down, as-
sailed their panic-stricken foes with the yataghan. The
goigcs were heaped with dead, and only a few strag-
gling fragments of the Turkish host emerged upon the
plain of Corinth. But even then there was no escape.
The passes of the north were occupied, and Drama Ali
was compelled to remain at Corinth, where he died, and
closed not here : some fugitives might still be concealed, or the wounded
might live ; the fire would find what the sword had missed ; then the torch
was appHed, and as the flames arose, these human tigers mounted their
horses and galloped away witli wild yells, to seek in other villages new
scenes of tri'imph." — Howe, p. 130.
9fi THE MODERN GREEKS.
the last remnant of his army surrendered to the Greeks
in October, 1823.' Upon this disastrous failure of his
plans, Kurchid Pasha was so overwhelmed with shame
and despair that he took poison and so ended his life.
After the surrender of Suh, in September, Reschid
Pasha and Omer Vriones Pasha ^ moved southwards and
formed the siege of Mesolonghi. But Mavrocordato and
Marco Botzaris had improved the interval, allowed them
by the heroic resistance of the Suliots, to put this impor-
tant place in a good state of defence. The siege was
kept up until Christmas, when it ended in the hurried
and disastrous retreat of the Turks.
After the defeat of Drama Ali the garrison of Nauplia
had been again reduced to great distress, when in Sep-
tember the Turkish fleet of some sixty ships of war ap-
peared for their relief. But Tombazi was at hand with
his little Greek brigs and fire-ships, and so frightened the
Capitan Pasha that he turned and sailed away without
so much as entering the harbor. The garrison had now
lost all hope, and on the 12th of December Nauplia fell
into the hands of the Greeks. Constantine Kanaris fol-
lowed the Turkish fleet with two fire-ships, and at Tene-
dos, on the night of October 21st, succeeded for the
second time in burning the flagship of the Capitan
Pasha with nearly all on board. Terrified at this disaster.
* Tennent, p. 74; Howe, pp. 129-40.
2 Omer Vriones, who figured so extensively among the Turkish leaders
in the first three years of the war, was an Albanian Bey from the neighbor-
hood of Berat, who had accumulated great riches by ten years of fighting
and plimdering in the service of Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt— Leako**
Northern Greece, voL iv. p 219.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 239
the fleet retired precipitately within the Dardanelles, and
so ended the naval operations of the year.
The military operations of the year 1823 were confined
almost wholly to Northern Greece. Mustapha Pasha of
Scodra (Scutari) was appointed to the chief command,
and the plan adopted for the campaign was similar to
that of the previous year. But such were the mutual
hatred and dissensions of the Turkish leaders, that their
forces were .slow in assembling, and were feeble and in-
efficient at last.^ The Seraskier was moving southwards
with twelve thousand men, when at Karpenisi, a small
village among the mountains between Thessaly and
Acarnania, at midnight on the 19th of August, he was
suddenly attacked by Marco Botzaris with twelve hun-
dred Suliots. The Turkish army was utterly routed and
scattered ; but the victory was dearly bought. Botzaris
had penetrated almost to the tent of the Seraskier when
he was struck by a random shot and instantly killed.
Thus ended the brief career of the noblest patriot and
ablest military leader of the Greek Revolution. The fall
of Botzaris left Mustapha Pasha free to reassemble his
scattered forces and start again upon his southward march.
In October he reached the Gulf of Corinth, where a
feeble and fruitless attempt to capture Anatolico, a small
outpost of Mesolonghi, ended his operations for the year.
' Mustapha Pasha, the powerful Pasha of Scutari, was an able and ener-
getic commander, who could bring into the field a force of thirty thousand
men. If he had chosen to do so, ^t might have ended the Greek rebellion
in a slnf^le campaign. But such a result was very far from his purpose.
His great enemy was Sultan Mahmoud himself; and his great aim was to
avoid wasting his own forces, or strengthening the government against him-
8el£ — Ranke's Servia and Bosnia, p. 335.
t40 THE MODERN GREEKS,
The eastern division of the Seraskier's army, under Ber-
kofzali Pasha, met with no better success. It advanced
as far as Attica, where it was met and routed by Ulysses,
a famous partisan leader who held command of the Aero-
polls of Athens.^
The year 1823 was chiefly noted for an open rupture
in the Greek Provisional Government, which had long
been divided into two hostile factions. On the one hand
was the military party, headed by Colocotroni and other
lawless military chiefs, and supported by a considerable
part of the army ; on the other was the party of order
and constitutional government, headed by Mavrocordato,
and supported by the Islanders, the fleet, and the great
body of the nation. So far were the dissensions between
these two parties carried that in December, 1823, the
military party seceded and set up as a rival government,
while Colocotroni and the other chiefs stood out in open
rebellion. For six months a state of mild civil war pre-
vailed in the Morea, though little blood was shed on
either side. The government, however, was sustained
by the public sentiment of the nation, and in the course
of the following summer the military chiefs, having been
deserted by their own followers, were obliged to sur-
' Ulysses had been in the service of Ali Pasha of Yannina, and in hardi-
hood and power of endurance, as well as in valor and lawless independence,
was an excellent example of the Greek Klepht. He first attracted the
notice and won the favor of the Vizier by an astonishing feat in running.
He challenged the best horse in All's stud to run with him on rising
ground, until the horse should drop down dead, engaging to forfeit his
head if he did not win the race. The race was run, the horse fell, and
his human rival won the race. Frcra that day the fortunes of Ulysses were
established. — Howe, p. 161.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 141
render one by one, and were imprisoned on the island of
Hydra.
The mihtary operations of the Turks in the campaign
of 1824 were very feeble and led to no result. By sea,
however, they succeeded in inflicting a terrible blow upon
the Greeks. Miaulis,^ one of the noblest heroes of the
Greek Revolution, was at this time in command of the
Greek fleet, but for want of money had not been able to
get his vessels ready for sea, when, in the beginning of
June, tlie Capitan Pasha sailed from the Dardanelles.
Having taken on board a body of Albanian troops at
Saloniki, the Turkish fleet of one hundred and fifty sail
rendezvoused at Mitylene, whence, suddenly and without
warning, it swooped down upon the island of Ipsara.
Ipsara. opulent, beautiful, and prosperous, contained at
this time a population of twenty-five thousand souls.
On the 3d of July the Turks landed on the back of the
island, where the scenes of Scio were re-enacted in all
their horror. For two days the work of slaughter and
' " Miaulis was born at Hydra, and educated on the water; he is about
sixty years of age ; his frame, large and rather corpulent, is well made and
full of vigor. . . . Strangers are always struck by his patriarchal appear-
ance, and after ever so short an interview, go away satisfied that there is at
least one honest, pure patriot in Greece. . . . For a great number of years
he sailed in his own ship, and by commerce gained a very considerable for-
tune ; and always stood high in character among the Hydraots. . . . When
once the blow was struck he embarked heartily in the cause, and has ever
been foremost in exposing himself, in sacrificing his fortune, in giving an
example of obedience to government, and perfect disinterestedness of ac-
tion. Such is the man who commanded the Greek fleet ; and so irreproach-
able is his character, that even in Greece, where the people are so jealous
and suspicious of their leading men that the least foible cannot escape them,
no voice is ever raised against Miaulis ; all parties unite in considering hint
perfectly pure and disinterested in his patriotism." — Howe, pp 165-67.
II
243 THE MODERN GREEKS.
pillage went on, and on the third day the Turks sailed
away, leaving Ipsara a desert. This great crime was not
wholly unavenged. No sooner did the sad intelligence
reach Hydra than Miaulis, hastening to sea with his half-
furnished vessel^, sailed to Ipsara, and drove the Turkish
garrison from the island. Then attacking a Turkish fleet
of twenty vessels cruising in the neighborhood, he burned
one of them, captured two, and drove the rest ashore on
the island Scio, where the ships were destroyed, though
the crews escaped.
With the full establishment of the authority of the
Greek Government in the summer of 1824, the war
of the Revolution ought to have come to an end. As
between the Greeks and the Turks, the contest had been
fought out. The Turks were powerless for any further
effective opposition ; the Greeks were masters of the situ-
ation, the Revolution was an accomplished fact. " The
situation of Greece at the commencement of 1825 was
one in every way gratifying to the feelings of the philan-
thropist and the patriot ; every branch of her adminis-
tration, civil and military, seemed to have acquired
strength and permanence by the successful continuance
of the revolutionary struggle. The government was
universally respected and obeyed, their councils had
been freed from the contamination of the factions and
the disaffected among the chieftains, and the whole avail-
able forces of the nation were thoroughly at the disposal
of the ministry, with the exception of the clans of Liva-
dia. . , . An effective judiciary system had been estab-
lished throughout the recovered provinces ; . . . schools
on the Lancasterian system were established in all the
THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 243
principal towns ; and journals, issuing from the presses
of Hydra, Athens, and Mesolonglii, were disseminated
tlirougliout every district and island. The enthusiasm of
the nation was universally excited, the government was
already in firm possession of an extended territory, the
blockade of Patras was resumed, and such measures taken
as promised, in a brief period, to place them in possession
of the two trifling fortresses which the Turks still occu-
pied in Messenia." *
Under these circumstances, the governments of West-
ern Europe ought to have interfered, as they did with far
less reason three years later, to insist that the war should
cease, and that the Greeks should be left in the enjoy-
ment of their fairly earned freedom. A strong enthusi-
asm had been awakened in behalf of the Greeks, and the
people in every part of Europe were ready and eager for
such an intervention. But not so the despotic sovereigns
of the league forever infamous under the name of the
Holy Alliance. Those guardians of order would tolerate
no form of revolution, no rebellion of the people against
constituted authority, even of enslaved Christians against
their Turkish tyrants. They therefore looked coldly on
while the Sultan, utterly foiled and defeated in his own
efforts to subdue the Greeks, called in the powerful dis-
ciplined army of his nominal subject but most dangerous
enemy, Mehemet Ali, Vizier of Egypt, to ravage and
destroy the provinces which he could not subdue.
* Tennent, pp. 90-91.
CHAPTER VIII.
IBRAHIM PASHA IN THE MOREA.
MEHEMET ALI, VICEROY OF EGYPT — HIS ARMY CALLED
IN BY THE DIVAN — THE GREEKS POWERLESS BE-
FORE A DISCIPLINED ARMY — FALL OF MESOLON-
GHI — FALL OF ATHENS — RUIN OF THE GREEK
CAUSE — INTERFERENCE OF THE WESTERN POW-
ERS — TREATY OF LONDON — BATTLE OF NAVA-
RINO — GREECE FREE.
Mehemet Alt,' Vizier or Viceroy of Egypt, was an
Iconian Turk from the neighborhood of Kavala, in
south-eastern Macedonia. After the invasion of Egypt
by Napoleon in 1788, the Governor of Kavala sent
thither, as his contingent for the defence of the country,
a body of three hundred Albanians, under the orders of
his son. Mehemet Ali attended this expedition, of which
he was soon left in command. In the struggle between
the Turks and the Mamalukes, which followed the expul-
sion of the French, always able to depend upon his Alba-
nians, he conducted himself with such consummate craft
and ability that he soon made himself master of the
'Leake's Northern Greece, voL iii. pp. 174, 237; voL iv. p. 219.
Howe, pp. 171-6.
MEHEMET ALL t45
country. He was now too powerful and too necessary to
the Divan to be disregarded, and was named Pasha of
three tails and Vizier of Egypt. The power thus con-
ferred upon him was speedily consolidated and perma-
nently established. In 1807 he freed himself from the
Mamalukes. On one bloody day, by measures of the
most perfidious treachery, they were everywhere seized
and put to death — an act by which this ancient and mag-
nificent body of horsemen was finally destroyed. Then
began his so-called improvements and reforms.* The
two millions of his subjects were subjected to a system of
the mo.st grinding and relentless exactions. Every man
was compelled to labor from sunrise to sunset, and all the
fpuits of his toil, saving the smallest pittance on which life
could be sustained, were swept into the treasury of the
Vizier. The cultivation of cotton, indigo, silk, and su-
gar, was vigorously pushed. A canal connecting Alex-
andria with the Nile, fifty miles in length, ninety feet in
width, and twelve feet in depth, was excavated in one
year. European arts and artisans were introduced, and
saw mills, steam engines, and cotton mills were brought
into use. Arsenals and dock-yards were established ; a
powerful fleet of vessels of war built in Europe was col-
lected ; and an army was formed, which was organized,
armed, and equipped on the European system, and com-
manded and disciplined by European officers, and which
in a few years numbered thirty thousand men. At the
breaking out of the Greek Revolution, Mehemet Ali was
more powerful than his master the Sultan, and was
already in reality, as his descendants have ever since
' Howe, pp. 171-6.
S46 THE MODERN GREEK'S,
remained, an independent sovereign. As yet, however,
he professed the most devoted loyalty to the Porte. Ten
years later he threw off the mask. His son, Ibrahim
Pasha, invaded and subdued Syria in 1832, and in 1833
marched through Asia Minor upon Constantinople. He
was already at the gates of Brusa, and Constantinople
seemed about to fall without a blow, when Nicholas of
Russia interfered, and the throne of the House of 0th-
man was saved.
Upon this dangerous vassal, dreaded and feared as he
was, and certain as such a measure seemed to increase his
formidable power, the Divan was compelled to call, in
the year 1824, to suppress the rebellion of the Greeks.
Mehemet Ali responded with alacrity to the call, feeling
no doubt that Greece would soon and easily be added to
his dominions. One hundred and fifty merchant vessels
were hired for transports, and these were attended by a
naval force of thirty-five frigates and many smaller ves-
sels of war. Upon this fleet was embarked an army of
twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry,
tolerably disciplined, and thoroughly furnished and
equipped.^
The news of this calling in of Egyptian mercenaries to
crush the Greeks was heard with sympathetic indignation
throughout Europe. The interest of the people in the
Greek cause was everywhere deepened and strengthened,
and many men of standing and influence hastened to de-
vote to it their personal services. Among these was Lord
Byron, who with liberal supplies and a loan to the Greek
government of thirty thousand dollars, all from his own
' Tennent, p. 88.
SAMOS SA VED. 147
private resources, arrived at Mesolonghi in January, i 24,
From this time, for the four short months which inter-
vened before his sudden and untimely death, Lord Byron
gave himself to the cause he had espoused with a gen-
erous kindness, and a wise, patient, and energetic devotion
which have made his name forever dear to the Greeks.
After the destruction of Ipsara, in the beginning of July,
1824, the Capitan Pasha sailed to inflict the same doom
upon Samos. For this purpose a large land force had
been collected upon tlie neighboring coast of Asia Minor
to be transported by the fleet to the devoted island. This
plan was defeated by tlie arrival of Vice- Admiral Sakturis
with his Greek brigs and fire-ships. Kanaris with his
fire-ships grappled and burned a frigate under full sail ;
another fire-ship burned a brig of war, and a third a cor-
vette, when the Turks retired in consternation, the land
force disbanded, and Samos was saved.
The Capitan Pasha now thought only of effecting his
junction with the Egyptian fleet, which had sailed from
Alexandria early in June. The two fleets were united
on the 26th of August, but soon encountered Miauhs
with a Greek fleet of seventy sail. The Moslem com-
manders were thwarted and confused ; vessel after vessel
of their fleet was burned by the Greek fire-ships, until on
the 7th of October the Capitan Pasha, thoroughly dis-
heartened, retired to Constantinople. " Ibrahim Pasha
could only curse God and man, kill or bastinado his
officers and men for their poltroonery',"^ and get his own
fleet together for an advance upon Candia. For three
days he sailed unmolested, but when very near Candia
' Howe, p. 2l6w
348 THE MODERN GREEKS.
the Greeks were again encountered. A sharp action
ensued, which resulted in the complete scattering of the
Egyptian fleet Eight ships returned to Alexandria,
where the captains of four of them, who were Turks,
were taken by Mehemet Ali and nailed up by the ears.
Ibrahim Pasha with the rest of the fleet found refuge at
Rhodes.
These brilliant exploits ended the prosperity of the
Greeks. In December, Miauhs was obliged to return to
Hydra, when Ibrahim Pasha, having collected his scat-
tered forces, set sail from Rhodes and reached Candia in
safety. In February, 1825, his fleet appeared unexpect-
edly in the harbor of Modon and landed eight thousand
men. In March the second division of the army was
safely disembarked, and Ibrahim laid siege to Navarino
with fifteen thousand men. Before this disciplined, per-
manent, and amply furnished army, Greece stood power-
less and helpless. As for anything that she could do for
her own salvation, her cause was lost. Navarino sur-
rendered on the 23d of May, when the Egyptian army
moved inland. Messenia was speedily overrun, and on
the 20th of June, Ibrahim appeared before Tripolitza,
which the Greeks fired and abandoned at his approach.
In the meantime Miaulis had not been idle. On the
1 2th of May he sailed boldly into the harbor of Modon
and attacked with fire-ships the fleet lying at anchor there.
Two frigates, eight corvettes, and a number of trans-
ports, in all about thirty vessels, were set on fire and con-
sumed. About the same time Sakturis encountered the
Turkish fleet as it issued from the Dardanelles. Advanc-
ing boldly to the attack, he burned three ships of war,
SIEGE OF MESOLONGHI. 249
captured a number of rich transports, and completely
scattered the fleet. These successes, however, availed
but little. Ibrahim Pasha had made good his foothold in
the Morea, and had little difficulty in obtaining all needed
reinforcements and supplies.
The conduct of the war in Northern Greece for the
year 1825 was intrusted to the Roumeli Valesi,^ Kiutahi
Pasha, an officer of courage, judgment, and ability, who
infused into the Turkish military operations a degree of
vigor and efficiency long unknown. On the 27th of
April he appeared before Mesolonghi, and began the third
siege of that place, now containing a population of about
twelve thousand souls, and having risen to be the most
important city in Western Greece. The city was bravely
defended, and all the skill and valor of the Seraskier
were put forth in vain for its reduction, until, on the 13th
of October, he was obliged to suspend operations and
wait for the arrival of the Egyptians. On the 25 th of
December Ibrahim joined him with ten thousand disci-
plined troops, and from that day the doom of the un-
happy city was sealed.
In January, 1826, the besieged had been reduced to
the last extreme of want and distress. Their dwellings
were ruined ; their fuel, ammunition, and provisions were
alike exhausted ; their clothes were worn to rags, and
sickness was rapidly thinning their ranks. At this time,
Miaulis, by one of the noblest deeds of his noble life,
forced his way into the harbor with twenty-four armed
brigs, and landed provisions and supplies. Ibrahim was
' Governor-General of Roumelia, or European Turkey south of the Bal^
kans.
w
^0 THE MODERN GREEKS.
pressing the siege with the utmost vigor, and well-
founded hope of escape there was none. Yet no word
was heard of surrender or retreat. Cheerfully the rag-
ged, emaciated citizens bade farewell to their country-
men, determined to defend their dearly loved city to the
last. Every assault of the besiegers was fiercely repulsed,
and Ibrahim was at last compelled to await the slow re-
sults of famine.
The time at length came when the starving people of
the city could hold out no longer. No mercy, no quar-
ter was to be hoped for ; they must either break through
the Turkish lines or perish with the city. Their meas-
ures were taken accordingly. It was determined that
those who had strength and courage for the attempt
should be assembled in two bodies, and endeavor to
break through the Turkish forces and escape to the
mountains. Many of the women and children, the aged,
wounded, and sick, all to whom there was no hope of es-
cape, were collected in a large mill, in which was stored
a great quantity of powder. They were to make resist-
ance enough to gather the Turks thickly about them,
and then blow themselves and their enemies together
into the air. Under one of the bastions a mine had
been run, in which thirty barrels of powder had been
placed. A wounded old soldier took his seat upon this
powder, ready to fire it when the Turks should be crowd-
ing over the wall.
It was on the night of the 2 2d of April that the attempt
to escape was made. The first body, consisting of about
three thousand persons, broke through the Turkish lines,
and, with the loss of four hundred of their number,
SIEGE OF ATHENS. «5I
reached the mountains. The second body, containing a
larger number of women and children, was less fortunate.
They were not ready when the word to start was given,
and were driven back within the walls by the Turks. The
besiegers \\ ere now streaming into the city when the old
soldier in the mine fired his train. An awful explosion
followed, by which hundreds of Turks were destroyed.
For a few moments all was still ; but soon, recovering from
their momentary terror, the Turks again rushed forward,
and in a short time almost the whole city was in their
hands. The mill now attracted their attention ; and not
doubting, from the stubbornness with which it was
defended, that it contained booty of great value, they
were swarming around it in great numbers, endeavoring
to force their way in, when fire was put to the powder,
and there was another tremendous explosion, another
awful destruction of human life. About three thousand
Greeks were slain at the taking of the city, as many more
were sold for slaves, and Mesolonghi was left a deserted
ruin.^
After the fall of Mesolonghi, Ibrahim Pasha resumed
his ravaging expeditions in the Morea, and the Seraskier*
moved eastward for the subjugation of Bceotia and Attica.
As the winter of this year (1826) drew on, the Greeks
found themselves in the last extremity of weakness and
misery. Athens had been besieged since the 17th of
August ; almost the whole of Northern Greece had been
effectually subdued ; the islanders, ruined and desperate,
had betaken themselves to piracy ; the IMorea was utterly
desolate, and a hundred thousand of the people were
* Howe, pf 3CX>-9; Tennent, pp. 102-4. * Commander-in-chiet
aS3 THB MODERN GREEKS.
hiding in mountains and in swamps, without shelter of
clothing or food. Worst of all, the government was
paralyzed by dissensions and party spirit, and the selfish
military chiefs seemed to be thinking only of how they
might grasp, in the impending break-up, each one the
largest share of plunder for himself.
About this time, however, the courage of the Greeks
was revived by the arrival of two out of eight war ves-
sels, contracted for from the proceeds of loans nego-
tiated in London, and long and anxiously expected.
The Perseverance, a steam corvette, mounting eight
sixty-eight-pound cannon, reached Naupha on the 14th
of September, and the Hope, a fine frigate of sixty-four
guns, built in New York, arrived in December.^ In
March, 1827, Lord Cochrane arrived in Greece — an En-
glish naval officer of ability, experience, and doubtful
character, from whom great things had been expected in
command of the new fleet. Soon afterwards the Fourth
National Assembly of the Greeks met at Troezene.
' Two loans, one of ^800,000, the other of ^2,000,000, making together
about $14,000,000, had been raised in London. The history of these loans
is one of which Greeks, Englishmen, and Americans have all and equally
reason to be ashamed. The first loan was negotiated at 59 per cent., the
second at 55^ per cent. At these rates they should have yielded
$8,000,000. The net proceeds were in fact $6,600,000. Of this sum,
$2,000,000 were sent to Greece ; but such were the shameful mismanage-
ment and rapacity of Greek agents, Greek committees, and other parties
concerned in London and New York, that for the remaining $4,600,000,
the two vessels named above, worth together not more than $500,000,
were nearly all that the Greeks ever received. The Hope was worth
$300,000, and cost the Greeks $750,000. The sum of $800,000 had been
appropriated for building and arming six steam vessels, of which one only
had reached Greece. Of the balance of the loans no satisfactory account
ould be given. — Howe. pp. 371-9-
MISERY OF THE GREEKS. 253
Cochrane was made High Admiral; Sir Richard Chuich,
an English gentleman of high character and standing,
who had commanded a Greek force under the British
government in the Ionian Islands, was appointed Gen-
eral-in-chief ; ' and Count John Capo d'Istrias, a Greek
of Corfu, who had long served with distinction in the
Russian civil and diplomatic ^ service, was chosen Gover-
nor of Greece for the term of seven years.
Meanwhile Ibrahim Pasha was lying inactive at Mo-
don, and all eyes were turned upon Athens, now hard
pressed by Kiutahi Pasha, on which seemed to depend
the last hope of Greece. Early in May, Church and
Cochrane made a vigorous but ill-directed effort to break
the lines of the Turks and raise the siege ; they were
defeated with great loss, and on the 5th of June the
Acropolis surrendered to the Turks.
All this time the Greeks, especially in the Morea, were
sinking ever more deeply and hopelessly in poverty and
distress, and the stream of charity, which flowed un-
ceasingly from Western Europe, was almost the only
support of their sinking cause. " Switzerland took the
lead ; in every mountain hamlet the peasantry associated
together to raise funds for the relief of the Greeks ; they
had regular times of meeting, they eagerly sought the
news from Greece, they rejoiced in her successes, they
deplored her losses, they shut their eyes upon, or kindly
forgot her faults ; and they set aside a portion of their
' General Church was still living in 1S72, and although more than
ninety years old, was still Commander-in-chief of the Greek army. See
Tuckcrman's "The Greeks of To-day," p. 55.
* He had been Confidential Minister to the Emperor Alexander.—
Howe, p. 441.
854 THE MODERN GREEKS.
earnings to contribute to the general fund. ... It
was a rational, systematic, and continued effort, and it
extended throughout Germany and France. Committees
were formed in every province, who remitted the funds
collected in their various circles to the general com-
mittees in the capitals; and these last, having agents
of high respectability in Greece, sent to tliem the cash,
to expend as they might find most necessary. . , .
The result of all this was that the agents . . . were
enabled to afford very efficient aid ; and most of the late
warhke expeditions undertaken by the Greeks were sup-
ported by the fund of the European charity." ^ In 1827,
the cry of famishing Greece reached our own country,
and seven cargoes of food and clothing were collected
and dispatched for the relief of " the suffering non-com-
batants" — the old men, women, and children of Greece.
"The news of the arrival of these vessels spread with
astonishing rapidity through the country ; it was heard
in the hiding places of the mountains, and their inhabit-
ants came running to the sea-shore with the eagerness
which hunger alone could have given. They came from
many leagues in the interior ; they crowded round the
vessels of our country ; and these crowds presented pic-
tures of human woe and wretchedness which can never
be exceeded. , . . Thousands put up their prayers
to God for their benefactors, and their children learned
first to lisp the name of America with a blessing. The
news of the distributions, extending all over the country,
produced a still greater effect by the encouragement it
gave to the people, who saw that they were considered
' Howe, pp. 438-9.
NA VARINO. 355
worthy of having a helping hand stretched out to them
from across the globe." ^
Through the months of summer Ibrahim Pasha lay
quietly waiting for reinforcements to enable him to finish
his work. On the 9th of September the Egyptian fleet
came safely to anchor in the harbor of Navarino, and
Ibrahim prepared at once to consummate the ruin of
Greece. But here a heavy and terrible hand was laid
upon him, and his career in Greece was brought to a sud-
den and disastrous close. On the 20th of October, 1827,
was fought that tremendous battle in the harbor of Na-
varino — a battle brought on by accident, and wholly
contrary to the intent of the Western Powers — by
which in one day the Turkish and Egyptian naval forces
were destroyed, and Greece made forever free. Let us
now turn back to trace briefly the course of events which
led to this strange and unexpected catastrophe.^
The Western Powers, in particular the Emperor Alex-
ander of Russia, had long been growing restive at the
fearful disorders which prevailed in tlie Turkish seas, and
at the ever-increasing injury suffered by their own com-
mercial interests ; nor were they at all inclined to see an
Egyptian naval power established in Greece, and control-
ling the waters of the Levant. Their ambassadors at
Constantinople were therefore instructed to use all reason-
able endeavors to bring the war to an end. These move-
ments, however, were feebly pressed, and led to no re-
sult The Western Powers sympathized too strongly
' Howe, p. 440.
* Creasy's History o< the Ortoman Turks, vol. ii. pp. 414-20; Howe, ppw
ji4J-6; Tennent, pp. 11 7-**.
12
«56 THE MODERN GREEKS.
with the Sultan in his efforts to put down his rebel-
lious subjects ; they were too thoroughly committed to
the support of despotic power at home and abroad,
to put forth any effectual interference in behalf of the
Greeks.
But with the accession of the Emperor Nicholas,
December 24th, 1825, the Russian policy was wholly
changed. Nicholas was a man of strong Russian feeling;
opposed to the Turks, and inclined to favor the Greeks.
By this time also the pressure of public opinion had
brought the English government to a similar attitude in
respect to the affairs of Greece. Accordingly, when in
1826 the Duke of Wellington was sent to St. Petersburg
to congratulate the new Emperor on his accession to the
throne, he was directed to propose to the Russian Court
that some united and effectual measures should be adopt-
ed for the pacification of Greece. The result of this
movement was the signing of a protocol by the ministers
of England and Russia on the 4th of April, 1827. Aus-
tria and Prussia declined all interference, but France
coming heartily into the movement, on the 6th of July,
1827, these three Powers signed a treaty pledging them-
selves to an immediate and effective interference for the
purpose of ending the war in Greece.
By the terms of this treaty an immediate armistice was
to be required of the contending parties. The three con-
tracting Powers were then to propose their mediation
between the Turks and the Greeks on the following
basis, viz. : that Greece should be constituted a semi-in-
dependent PrincipaHty, governing itself, choosing its own
rulers, subject to the approval of the Divan, and paying
THE ADMIRALS AT NA VARINO. 957
a definite tribute to the Turkish government. It was
further agreed that if either of the belhgerents should
refuse to accede to these terms, the contracting Powers
would take all proper steps, without taking part in the
war on either side, to prevent further hostilities.
By the Greeks the proposed interference was joyfully
accepted ; by the Turks it was scornfully rejected. The
naval forces of the three Powers in the Levant were
therefore united and augmented, and Sir Edward Cod-
rington, the English Admiral, was directed to see to it
that no furtlier reinforcements from Turkey or from Egypt
should be landed in Greece. But before Codrington
was ready to act, the 9th of September had already passed,
and the Egyptian fleet was safely anchored in the harbor
of Navarino. The Admirals were then directed to pre-
vent the saihng of any part of the Turco-Egyptian force
from Navarino to any other port, until the pending ques-
tions were decided.
On the 2 5 til of September, an armistice was conclu-
ded with Ibrahim Pasha by which he engaged to comply
with these terms until the arrival of further instructions
from his father, or from the Porte. Hardly, however,
had the Pasha signed this engagement before he broke it,
and sailed with a powerful armament for Patras. In this
movement he was sternly met by the Admirals, and com-
pelled to return to Navarino. Enraged at this repulse,
Ibrahim let loose his land forces, and recommenced hi?
ravages and butcheries in the Morea. The Admirals
justly felt that these atrocities could not be tolerated, and
they determined to propose to Ibrahim, as the only
means of ending the war, that he should retire with his
258 THE MODERN GREEKS.
forces from Greece. On the 19th day of October a note
to this effect was sent to him, but was returned unopened
with the statement of the dragoman that the Pasha was
not to be found. The Admirals then determined to sail
directly into the harbor of Navarino, and by a display of
open force to insure acquiescence with their demands.
On the 20th of October, 1827, this purpose was car-
ried into execution, and the allied fleet, led by Sir Ed-
ward Codrington, and consisting of twenty-nine vessels —
ten ships of the line, ten frigates, four brigs, and five
schooners — entered the harbor. The Turco-Egyptian
fleet consisted of about seventy vessels of war, forty trans-
ports, and four fire-ships ; the whole lying under cover of
the batteries of the town. The result of this movement
may best be told in the words of Dr. Howe :
" On the entrance of the European fleet, the Turks ev-
idently supposed they had come to engage them, and
prepared for battle in their confused way, without other
order than the example of the Capitan Bey ; the Egyp-
tian admiral, Moharem Bey, in fact declaring that he
would not fight. But before all the European vessels had
come to anchor, a boat, sent by one of them to a Turkish
fire-ship requesting her to move, was fired upon, and
some of her men killed. This was answered by a return
fire of musketry. An Egyptian corvette then impru-
dently fired a cannon shot into the Dartmouth, which of
course brought on a return fire ; and the Turks madly
answering it from several vessels, part of the line began
an action. Meantime Admiral Codrington in the Asia,
desirous of preventing a general action, fired only upon
the ships of the line of the Constantinople admiral, who
BA TTLE OF NA VARINO. W^fi
had fired first. The Egyptian admiral lying upon his
other bow, was not molested, until Codrington, sending
his pilot (a Greek) to the Egyptian admiral, to signify
his intention of not fighting if he could avoid it, the
boat was fired upon, the pilot and some men were killed,
and the Egyptian fired upon the Asia.
" Then Codrington, opening his tremendous broadside
upon the Egyptians on one side, and the Turks on the
other, poured forth such a terrible fire as in a few mo-
ments reduced them both to mere wrecks, and they
swung, utterly destroyed, to leeward, thus uncovering the
second Turkish line of vessels, which lay behind them,
and which opened their whole fire upon Codrington.
" The action now became general ; the vessels of each
nation striving to outdo the other, the Turks firing with
the blind fury of desperation. They were more than
double in number, and, warmly seconded by the whole
line of land batteries, poured forth such a tremendous
volley of shot, as, well directed, must have utterly de-
stroyed the Europeans in a few minutes. But the latter
sent back as rapidly a smaller but much more dreadful
fire; for every gun was well pointed, every shot told,
and in a few minutes it was seen which way the scale
would turn.
'* Burning with generous emulation, each European
commander strove to distinguish himself; boats were
sent out, and the men, boarding the Turkish brulots
(fire-ships), cut them away, set them on fire, and let them
drive in among tlieir fleet. In a few minutes the scene
became more terrible by the flames which began to rise
from several vessels and their successive blowing up.
960 THE MODERN' GREEKS.
The two long lines of ships, from which roared two
thousand cannon ; the blazing fire-ships driving to and
fro among the huge Turkish vessels, whose falling masts,
shattered hulls, and gory decks began to show how the
battle went ; the sea covered with spars and half-burned
masses of wood, to which clung thousands of Turks es-
caped from their exploded vessels; the line of batteries
on shore, which blazed away all the time, and which, as
well as the battlements of the town, were covered with
the anxious soldiers of Ibrahim ; the noise, the explo-
sions, the flames, the smoke, the hurrahs of the Euro-
pean sailors, the curses and the Allah shouts of the
Turks, presented one of the most impressive scenes ever
witnessed.
" The battle raged from three o'clock P. M. until seven.
. . . The Turkish fleet was almost utterly destroyed.
Many ships had been blown up, sunk, or burned ; the
rest were pierced through and through, shattered, dis-
masted, or driven on shore. Not more than fifteen ves-
sels had escaped undamaged, and more than five thousand
Turks had been killed. The rest were overwhelmed with
confusion and rage, but not with fear ; and they contin-
ued during the night madly to set fire to and blow up
their vessels which were on shore or disabled, regardless
of the word sent by Codrington that he had finished.
" Thus an action commenced by accident ended in the
almost complete destruction of the naval power of Turkey.
The news reached the cabinets of Europe, exciting sur-
prise and regret. It reached the Sultan, stunning and
overwhelming him ; but his first impulse to deluge his
Empire in the blood of infidels was checked by a feeling
GREECE FREE. 86i
of impotency. The day had gone by when Turkey could
oppose a single European power, much less the greatest
united. But to Greece, to poor Greece, the news was
the reprieve of her death-warrant. Joy and exultation
were in every heart, rejoicing was on every tongue, hope
beamed on every countenance ; and from Arta to Ther-
mopylae, from Pindus to Taygetus, Hellas felt that her
chains were broken ; she was freed forever from the yoke
of Mussulman bondage." '
The war was ended ; its purpose had been securely
achieved. In January, 1828, Capo d'Istrias arrived in
Greece, and was at once invested with the presidency ;
the last Moslem enemy left the Morea on the 7th of
October, and twelve months later the independence of
Greece was virtually acknowledged by the Porte.*
' Greek Revolution, pp. 443-5.
^ Tennent, p. 123. Atdca, Euboea, and Lamia were not evacuated by
the Turks until 1833.
CHAPTER IX.
THE KINGDOM OF GREECE.*
PRESIDENCY OF CAPO D'ISTRIAS — REIGN OF OTHO
OF BAVARIA — ACCESSION OF PRINCE WILLIAM
GEORGE OF DENMARK.
The assumption of the reins of government by Capo
d'Istrias brought immediate rehef to the country. The
people returned to their homes and began once more to
till their deserted fields, and very soon something of
comfort and prosperity was apparent on every hand.
The public affairs of the new state, however, were still
unsettled. Its boundaries had not been fixed, nor had
the great Powers as yet come to a final decision as to
what character it should bear. At length, in February,
1830, it was determined that Greece should be wholly
free, and that it should be governed by a King, to be
' Lectures on Greece, Ancient and Modern, by C. C. Felton, LL.D.,
late President of Harvard University.
Senior's Journal in Turkey and Greece in 1857-8.
Modem Greece, by Henry M. Baird, M.A., New York, 1856.
Tlie Greeks of To-Day, by Charles K. Tuckerman, late Minister Resi-
dent of the United States At. Athens, New York, 1873.
Articles on Modern Greece — Westminister Review, April, 1834; North
British Review, February, 1863 ; Edinburgh Review, April, 1863 ; Lon
don Quarterly Review, April and July, i86q.
LEOPOLD ABDICATES. tdj
chosen from one of the reigning families of Western
Europe. The throne was offered to, and accepted by,
Prince Leopold, the husband of the Princess Charlotte of
England, the same Prince who afterwards reigned for
many years so wisely and successfully as King of Bel-
gium.'
Happy would it have been for Greece if Leopold could
have filled her throne ; if her government, during those
first critical years, could have been directed by his wise
counsels, his steady and vigorous hand. But this was not
to be. As if to make some amends to the Sultan for the
loss of his territory, the Allies determined that the new
Kingdom should be left very small, with a northern bound-
ary running from the mouth of the river Aspropotamos,
or Achelous, north-easterly to the mouth of the Sper-
chius, leaving Acarnania, ^Etolia, and Thessaly, with the
great Islands of Samos and Candia, still in the hands of
the Turks. Neither Kingdom nor King could accept
this strange arrangement. The districts of Northern
Greece, which were now free from Turkish rule, and
which according to this plan were to be forced back again
into slavery, had furnished more than half the armies of
the Revolution, and many of its ablest leaders. Leopold
informed the Allies that he could not undertake the gov-
ernment of Greece on such terms, and on the 22nd of
May, 1830, he abdicated the throne.^
Very soon after Leopold's resignation, and before any
further steps had been taken in the matter, Charles X.
was driven from the throne of France, and the Allies,
fully occupied with affairs nearer home, left Capo d'ls-
' Felton, ii. 458. * Felton, ii. 460.
afi4 THE MODERN GREEKS.
trias to get on as he could with the government of Greece.
Capo d'Istrias was able, energetic, and honest ; and at first
his administration promised to prove a brilliant success.
But his prospects were soon overcast. Great difficulties
beset his way, difficulties which in some respects he was
poorly fitted to meet. The country was steeped in pov-
erty, the old revolutionary leaders were turbulent and
refractory, disorder and misrule filled the country. Capo
dTstrias felt, and felt justly, that order and law must be
established at whatever cost. But he had been trained
in a Russian political school; all his sympathies and
leanings were towards Russia; he had no sympathy
with the extravagant notions of freedom which filled the
breasts of his countrymen. As difficulties thickened
about him, he was the more inclined to act under Rus-
sian influence, and to depend on Russian support, until
finally he began to arrest and imprison the most promi-
nent members of the government who opposed his meas-
ures, in entire disregard of the constitution and of all
personal right.
By this high-handed course almost all the old revolu-
tionary statesmen were estranged from the President, and
compelled to unite against him. Mavrocordato, Miaulis,
and Conduriotti waited upon him as a committee of the
opposition, to inform him that they would submit to his
usurpations no longer, even though they should be forced
to the extremity of civil war. Capo d'Istrias would not
yield, and the committee returned to Hydra to prepare
for armed resistance. The President took measures to
suppress the movement ; and to prevent the fleet from
passing into his hands, Miaulis set fire to the Hellas — the
PRESIDENCY OF CAPO Lf /STRIA S. 365
American-built frigate which had cost the nation so dear,
and which then lay at Pores — and that, with twenty -
eight other vessels, was consumed.
Soon after this the career of Capo d'Istrias was brought
to a sudden and tragic end. Among those whom he had
imprisoned was Petro Mavromichalis, the old Bey of
Maina, perhaps the most influential man in the Morca,
and then in charge of the department of war. Maina,
the rocky promontory lying between the Messenian and
Laconian gulfs, was the Suli of the Morea. Its fierce
and warlike clans had long maintained a complete inde-
pendence of the Turks, and had never been thoroughly
subdued. Before the Revolution they had been subject
to the jurisdiction of the Capitan Pasha, and had been
governed by Beys chosen by themselves from their own
leading families.
Nowhere in the world was there a more high-spirited
race of mountaineers ; nowhere else was there a tribe of
which the clansmen would feel more imperatively bound
to revenge a wrong done to their chief The brother
and son of Petro, Constantine and George Mavromichalis,
went to Nauplia to intercede in his behalf, but were them-
selves arrested and committed to the charge of the police.
The Russian admiral sailed to Nauplia for the same pur-
pose, but found the President immovable. When, on the
6th of October, 1831, these facts were made known to
the old Bey, he bared his head, raised his hand to heaven,
and vowed vengeance upon this tyrant of Greece and
persecutor of himself and his family. Three days later
Capo d'Istrias was shot by Constantine and George
Mavromichalis at the door of a church as he was enter-
12
966 THE MODERN GREEKS.
ing to attend the morning service.' Constantine was in-
stantly torn in pieces by the populace, George was
brought to trial, convicted, and condemned to be shot.
After the death of the President, his brother, Augustine
Capo d'Istrias, was hastily placed at the head of the gov-
ernment He attempted to carry out his brother's policy,
and summoned a congress to meet at Argos, from which
the delegates of Northern Greece and the islands were
excluded. He soon found, however, that he could do
nothing, and disappeared from the scene. In April,
1832, the excluded delegates entered Argos in triumph,
and on the 15 th of the same month Augustine Capo
d'Istrias sailed with the body of his brother for Corfu.
In August, 1830, the Greek senate had petitioned the
great Powers to name another sovereign for them in the
place of Prince Leopold. This request was at length
complied with, and on the 7th of May, 1832, Otho, the
second son of Louis, King of Bavaria, then seventeen
years of age, was designated for the vacant throne. For
this choice there were some excellent reasons. King
Louis was an old and true friend to the Greeks. He had
helped them with money and with men in their revolu-
tionary struggle, and was still an enthusiast in their cause.
The terms which he obtained for his son were far more
favorable than those before insisted on. The kingdom
was to retain Acarnania and iEtolia, the northern boun-
dary running directly east from the north-east corner of
the Gulf of Arta to the south-west corner of the Gulf of
Volo. A loan of sixty millions of francs was secured, the
interest to be guaranteed by the Allies, and an army of
» Felton, ii. 465.
RElGl\r OF OTffO. «67
thirty-five hundred men was to be raised, for the support
of the government and the preservation of order.
These terms were acceptable to the country, and on
the 8th of August, 1832, amid great and universal re-
joicing, Otho was acknowledged King of Greece. As a
regency, to conduct the government during the three
years of Otho's minority. King Louis determined to send
with his son three of his ablest men. Count Armansperg,
Von Maurer, and Hcideck. On the 6th of February,
1833, the king and his regency landed at Nauplia, and
at once assumed the government* The reign thus
commenced continued for thirty years, until, in Octo-
ber, 1862, by the impending bankruptcy of his govern-
ment, the deep discontent of his people, and the general
dissatisfaction of Europe, Otho was driven from his
throne.
Over this long and feeble reign we need pause only to
notice a few of its leading events, and to inquire briefly
respecting its general character and results.
In the beginning of 1835, the seat of government was
transferred from Nauplia to Athens — a city at the present
time of forty-eight thousand inhabitants, but which in
1832 had contained scarcely half a dozen inhabited
houses.* On the ist of June, 1835, Otlio came of age,
dismissed his regency, and took the reiirs of government
into his own hands ; and on the 22d of November, 1836,
he was married to the Princess Amelia, daughter of the
Grand Duke of Oldenburg, a lady of many virtues, an
ardent friend to the Greeks, and who was pronounced by
' Felton. ii. 471.
• Senior's Journal, p. 231 ; Tuckennan, p. 44.
S6S THE MODERN GREEKS.
President Felton in 1852, the most beautiful and most
fascinating of European Queens. •
In the treaty whicn placed Otho upon the throne of
Greece, not one word was said of a constitution, or of
any guarantee for the rights of the people. For eleven
years no constitution was adopted, no National Assembly
was convened ; the King conducted the government upon
his own sole authority. But the time came at length
when the people would not longer endure this arbitrary
rule of the King, and the draining of the resources of
the kingdom by a host of Bavarian favorites and officials
The cry for a constitution was becoming loud and threat-
ening, and the government was endeavoring by vigorous
measures to suppress the movement, when suddenly, on
the night of the 14th of September, 1843, the King
found his palace surrounded by the garrison and popu-
lace of Athens, and heard from General Kalergi, the
quiet but determined declaration, that they were there to
demand a constitution, and that not until a National
Assembly had been called would they leave the ground.
The King held out long, but seeing at last the hopelessness
of his position, yielded with a good grace and in good
faith. A proclamation was issued convening the National
Assembly for the purpose of framing a constitution, and
the troops, after having been under arms for thirteen
hours, retired to their quarters. Never was revolution
more quietly conducted. Not a drop of blood was shed,
there were no signs of riot or lawless violence, the courts
held their sessions as usual, the business of the city was
not interrupted for an hour. The next day the King and
* Greece, Ancient and Modern, ii. 174.
KEIGN OF OTHO. 369
Queen rode out as usual, and found themselves more
popular than ever.^
By the Assembly thus convened, which commenced
its sittings on the 20th of November, 1843, ^" excellent
constitution was adopted, and from that time to the pre-
sent, Greece has been a constitutional kingdom. In its
hopes from this change, however, the nation was doomed
to disappointment. The government was not improved,
and the evils under which the nation groaned were rather
increased than diminished. The elections were quietly
vianaged by the ministry ; the government candidates
were almost always returned ; the legislature proved
itself a servile instrument of the court, and the King was
more absolute, because less unpopular, than before.*
As a man, President Felton gives King Otho a very
high character : " In the first place, his private life is
without a stain. He has a strong sense of religious obli-
gation. No vice, no dissipation, no profligacy, has ever
dishonored his youth, or been allowed to enter his court.
In tliis respect he sets an example to his subjects which
could not be improved. In the next place, he is an in-
telligent and accomplished prince. I do not mean that
he is a man of brilliant talents, or of great sagacity. I
do not think he is ; but he is a man of considerable
knowledge, speaking four languages fluently, of great
industry, and attentive personally, in no common degree,
to the public business. I will add to this, that I believe
him to be a conscientious man, and devoted heart and
• Felton, ii, 482-4.
* Senior's Journal, pp. 247, 250-5, 271 ; Felton, ii. 488 ; Ed. Review
for April, 1863, p. 299.
Sjo THE MODERN GREEKS,
soul to the country over which he is called to rule. He
is charitable to the poor, who are never turned from the
palace-doors by the sentinels stationed there. I never
entered the palace without seeing twenty or thirty poor
women, or disabled men, waiting in the great corridor
until the King could attend to their petitions, or the
King's physician could prescribe for their complaints;
and I was told by one in the confidence of his Majesty,
that these poor people are never allowed to go away
without words of kindness, and that no small part of the
King's revenue is expended for their reUef " ^
But unfortunately, a good man does not always make
a good king. King Otho was, in some respects, poorly
fitted for the position in which fortune had placed him,
and, with all his virtues, his reign was not successful.
He lacked vigor of mind, breadth of view, and the power
to adapt himself to circumstances. He was a Bavarian
through and through. His only idea of government had
been borrowed from the " paternal " rule of his father's
kingdom, and by such a system he attempted to govern
restless, democratic Greece. If to his many -irtues he
had added a resolute will, and great energy of character,
a government like this might, under the circumstances,
have been the best that the kingdom could have had.
But, unfortunately, these were just the qualities in which
the King was lacking. His government was weak and
slipshod throughout. The communes were not allowed to
arm for their own defence, the government did not pro-
tect them, and the whole kingdom, north of the Gulf and
Isthmus of Corinth, became the constant prey of brigands.*
» Greece, Ancient and Modern, ii. 514 15. * Senior, 322.
REIGN OF OTHa 271
The miserable, half-disciplined army was filled by a
conscription which seemed to the people so unequal and
unjust that young men were constantly flying to the
mountains and turning robbers to escape the service.'
The wretched fiscal system of the old Turkish regime
was retained ; the immense national domain, consisting
of the lands which had been owned by Turks, was kept
in the hands of the government, and only leased to the
occupants for a heavy rent in kind ; all taxes and rents
were farmed and collected in kind ; and such were the
burdens, under the tyranny of the tax-gatherer, by which
the agriculture of the kingdom was crushed, that the
rural population of independent Greece remained through
the whole reign of Otho less prosperous, and worse off
pecuniarily, than their brethren still under the rule of the
Sultan in many districts of Thessaly and Macedonia.*
The resources of the kingdom were drained by an army
of self-seeking officials. " The whole government was
one enormous job." ^
But faulty and inefficient as the government of King
Otho proved, the progress of the kingdom during the
thirty years of his reign was very great. The Bavarian
regents, who governed the kingdom during Otho's mi-
nority, gave themselves to their work with earnest dili-
gence, and soon brought order out of confusion. The
kingdom was divided into ten Nomoi or provinces, thirty
Eparchies or cantons, and these into four hundred and
' Senior, 313-14.
* Urquhart, 2-6 ; Leake's " Greece After Twenty-three Years of Pro
tection," p. 17.
' Senior, p. 313-14.
«7? THE MODERN GREEKS.
fifty-three Demoi or communes, presided over by No*
marchs, Eparchs, and Demarchs. The army and navy
were reorganized ; an excellent judicial system was
established, with courts on the French plan ; and, most
important of all, the foundation was laid of that vast and
excellent system of public schools, which, long before the
close of Otho's reign, had begun to command the admi-
ration of the world. The population of the kingdom rose
from seven hundred thousand to eleven hundred thou-
sand ; its commerce revived, and the Greek merchants
again controlled the trade of the Levant.^
Half the soil of the kingdom lay untilled, and the
rural population, having no encouragement to do more
than provide themselves with the barest necessaries of life,
were miserably poor. Yet, after their fashion, they lived
in comfort; pauperism and beggary were almost un-
known ; they were quiet, cheerful, contented, and loyal.*
The picture drawn by President Felton of the life of the
Greek peasantry in 1852, is as interesting as it is import-
ant, and may well be copied here : —
" The Greek peasant, according to my experience, is
simple-hearted, almost childlike, and hospitable after the
manner of the heroic ages. He is intelligent, docile,
grateful for kindness, unselfish, except where he has been
exposed to the corrupting influence of foreign travelers.
. . . In a journey of twenty-one days through the in-
terior, two attempts only were made to cheat us. . . .
The mass of the population are living in a state of poverty
' Baird, p. 16.
* See the testimony of King Otho on this point, as expressed to Mr.
Senior. — Senior's Journal, p. 350.
REIGN OP OTHO. 273
quite beyond any conception of poverty we can form
in this country. The most ordinary arrangements, not
only for comfort, but for health and decency, are generally
wanting, except in a few of the largest towns. You see
no tables, chairs, beds, or glass windows, in the northern
provinces, though in the Peloponnesus the state of things
in these respects is somewhat better. The arts of un-
dressing and going to bed, of washing one's hands and
face, of occasionally changing one's linen, of conducting
smoke through chimneys, of eating with knives and forks,
are quite unknown. . . . But notwithstanding this
apparent wretchedness, there are scarcely any beggars in
the country. Every man has his flock, or his olive-
grove, or his little farm, or hires land of the government,
and labors enough to supply his simple wants. In the
meanest huts, when you can find nothing else, you will
probably find school-books.
" In crossing a spur of Mount Helicon, I was overtaken
by one of those tremendous rains, which seem in a mo-
ment to bring back Deucalion's Deluge. I was obliged to
take shelter in a hut picturesquely placed on the top of
the mountain, and to pass the night there. . . . The
house consisted of one room, the lower end of which was
occupied by the domestic animals, to which our horses
were now added. The floor was of hardened earth
mixed with straw. Towards the upper end there was a
raised circle, on which the fire was burning ; but as there
was no chimney, the smoke floated about in graceful
curls among the timbers of the roof, the cracks in which
served the purpose of not letting out the smoke, and of
letting in the rain. The family were tlie father, mother,
12*
374 THE MODERN GREEKS.
four children, and a maiden aunt, who, like maiden aunts
all over the world, was making herself useful in a variety
of ways — rocking the baby, which, according to the fash-
ion in Greece, was swathed like an infant mummy ; spin-
ning too, not with a wheel, but in Homeric style, sitting
upon her heels, and whirling a spindle on the ground.
They had no beds, and therefore required no bedrooms;
they had no chairs, and therefore sat on the floor ; they
had no knives and forks, and therefore ate with their
fingers. In searching for supplies, a disconsolate old
hen was found on the premises; and when the good
mother returned from washing clothes, like Nausicaa, in
a neighboring stream, she tipped the baby out of the
cradle — leaving him to roll helplessly on the floor — poured
in it a quantity of Indian meal, and kneaded a mighty
loaf, which she baked under the ashes. Perhaps some
of my over-fastidious hearers think they would have hesi-
tated to partake of a loaf whose antecedents were such as
I have described. But, I can assure them, that loaf
of bread, and that old hen boiled in an earthen pot by
tlie Hght of a blazing pine torch, made a supper fit for a
hungry Homeric hero, or a hungrier American Profes-
sor, in the very presence of Apollo and the Muses Nine.
At the proper time, the family went to bed, figuratively
speaking; that is, they plumped down on a piece ol
coarse matting, just as they were, extending their feet, like
radii of a circle or spokes of a wheel, towards the fire ;
while we plumped down on the other side, with our sad-
dles for pillows, and with our feet extending like opposite
spokes towards the hub of the same wheel." ^
* Greece, Ancient and Modern, ii. 261-3.
REIGN OF OTHO. 275
The testimony of the same high authority to the com-
pleteness and excellence of the system of public instruc-
tion at this time, ten years before the end of King Otho's
reign, must not be omitted : " The schools are well
graded, from the lowest children's schools, up through
the Hellenic schools, the gymnasia, and the University,
and they are all supported by the government ; so that
a young man who has the bare means of subsistence may
acquire the best education the country affords — and that
is as good as can be had anywhere in Europe — witliout
its costing him a farthing. The quality of the instruction,
both in the schools and in the University of Athens, is
very excellent. . . . The zeal for instruction among all
classes of the people is indescribable, greater than I have
witnessed anywhere else in the world." ^
The schools and courts with which Otho endowed his
kingdom are of themselves enough to entitle his reign to
a favorable judgment, and himself to the lasting gratitude
of Greece. The rock on which his government foun-
dered, and over which, to his own amazement, he found
himself suddenly precipitated from his throne, was finan-
cial insolvency. His finances had been always in a bad
way, and always growing worse. With a revenue at
first of one and a half millions of dollars, and which, dur-
ing Otho's reign, never rose above four millions, the
kingdom began its career with a debt of twenty-seven
millions of dollars. But of this sum, so large a part had
been kept back by the usurers who furnished the money,
and so much had been expende^I to set up King Otho's
Bavarian Court, that not more than five or six millions of
^ Id., iu 263.
76 THE M0DERI7 GREEKS.
dollars had gone to meet the necessities of the kingdom.'
The interest on this enormous debt was paid until 1843,
but after that fell hopelessly in arrears, until, in 1856, the
three Powers which had guaranteed the interest appointed
a commission to inquire into the financial condition of the
kingdom. The report of this commission in 1859 showed
the finances of the government to be in a condition so
utterly hopeless and irreclaimable, that from that time, by
the silent judgment, not of the Greeks alone, but of all
Europe, the Bavarian dynasty was doomed.^ For three
years the Greeks patiently endured, fearing lest by the
premature overthrow of their government some worse
thing might come upon them ; but in 1 862 there was a
sudden and general revolutionary movement, and in the
last days of October, King Otho abdicated his throne.
This revolution was as quiet, orderly, and bloodless as
that of 1843, and gave the civilized world a new idea of
the peculiar characteristics of the Greeks.^ A provisional
government was appointed, consisting of three members,
of whom old Constantine Kanaris was one, who imme-
diately proceeded with great calmness and dignity to
secure peace and order at home, and to take the only
' Edinburgh Review, April, 1863, p. 304.
* North British Review, February, 1863, p. 79.
2 " ' The Greek people,' says About, in his * Grfece Contemporaine,'
' may be said to have no inclination to any kind of excess, and to enjoy all
kinds of pleasure with equal sobriety. They are a race without strong
passion. They are capable of love and hatred ; but neither their love nor
their hatred is blind. They do good and ill on reflection, and reasoning
is always mixed up with their most violent actions.' As far as politics are
concerned, the clever though paradoxical Frenchman's observations have
been confirmed by the events of the last two revolutions." — Ed. Review,
A.pril, 1863, p. 294.
GEORGE OF DENMARK. rn
Step possible under the circumstances for the resettle-
ment of the government, by seeking another king from
the Allied Powers, In this emergency the Greeks turned
to England, as the Power from which they had least to
fear, and which they could most confidently trust, and,
with one accord and great earnestness, chose Prince
Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria, for their king.
The treaty stipulations between the three Powers were
such that this choice could not be ratified, and the
election finally fell, and with happy unanimity, on Prince
William George, the second son of the present King of
Denmark, and brother of the Princess of Wales, who
ascended the throne of Greece, amid the universal joy
of the nation, October 31st, 1863.
On the 27th of October, 1867, King George was mar-
ried to the Princess Olga, daughter of the Grand Duke
Constantine of Russia — " a woman lovely to look upon,
whether standing in royal robes, crowned with a tiara of
diamonds, or sitting in sweet abandon in her nursery
surrounded by her children ; and from her amiability of
disposition, and her avoidance of all intermeddling with
politics, . . . universally beloved by her people." '
King George is a sincere Protestant,^ and just before
the return of Dr. King to this country, in 1864, he sum-
moned the veteran missionary to the palace to receive
' Tuckerman, p. 28.
* From fear of Rome on the one hand and Russia ou the other, the
Greeks at this time were resolutely determined to have no man for their
king who was not a Protestant. The declaration was distinctly and em-
phatically made at Athens during the interregnum, that the nation would
sooner return to its old position under the rule of the Sultan, than accep«
another Catholic king. See Ed. Review, April, 1863, p. 307.
THE MODERN GREEKS.
the communion at his hands. The impression made
upon Dr. King by the youthful sovereign, then only
nineteen years of age, was very happy. He seemed
frank, honest, virtuous, and truly religious, very simple
and unostentatious in his manners, and well deserving
the love of his people.^ He has now filled the throne
for fourteen years, and these happy first impressions
have been confirmed. He has administered the govern-
ment, not perhaps with the highest energy and ability,
or with the most brilliant success, producing no great and
sudden improvement in the condition of the kingdom,
but with such virtue, such honesty of purpose and kind-
liness of disposition, as to win the love of his people
and the hearty respect of those who have been brought
into the most intimate relations with him.^
' These facts, and many others in regard to his work in Greece, were
communicated to the writer by Dr. King orally during his stay in his native
land.
' Tuckertnan, pp. 35-31* ia6»lj.
CHAPTER X.
PRESENT CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF
THE GREEKS.
THE GOVERNMENT STILL WEAK — BRIGANDAGE —
PROGRESS OF THE KINGDOM — MORALS — EDUCA-
TION — RELIGION — THE GREEK CHURCH — MIS-
SIONARIES — AGRICULTURE DEPRESSED — GREAT
WANT OF THE KINGDOM — THE GREEKS ONE
PEOPLE — THE GREECE OF THE FUTURE.
The hopes of those who looked for a great and
immediate improvement in the condition of the kingdom
as the result of a change of dynasty, have not been
fully realized. The state of things is still very much as
it was at the time of President Felton's visit twenty-four
years ago. Agriculture is still greatly depressed. Less
than half the arable land of the kingdom is under culti-
vation.^ The old Turkish fiscal system is still retained,
and the peasants, still bound hand and foot by the tax-
gatherer, arc hardly less indolent and unaspiring, in
many parts of the kingdom, than they were in King
Otho's time.^ As in Mr. Senior's day, the government is
still something of a "job," successive ministries (with
* Tuckerman, p. 159. • Id., pp. 162-4.
aSO THE MODERN GREEKS,
whom, rather than with the King, as is the case in
England, rests the larger share of substantial power)
managing the government in the interest of their own
followers and friends, so that a multitude of needless
officials in the military, naval, and civil services swallow
up the funds which are urgently needed for the building
of roads and the payment of the national debt.^ Worst
of all, the northern districts of the country have still con-
tinued to be cursed by brigandage, to such a degree that
no traveler was safe unless protected by a strong mili-
tary guard.
In January, 1870, a band of twenty-eight robbers
crossed the northern boundary of the kingdom from the
Turkish territories, and produced the greatest consterna-
tion at Athens.*^ They were at once pursued by flying
detachments of soldiers, and several of them were killed
or taken. They then disappeared, and were not heard
of again until April, when they waylaid a party of trav-
elers in the neighborhood of Marathon, and made cap-
tives of three English gentlemen of the highest standing,
with Count De Boyl, secretary of the Italian Legation.
As a ransom for their prisoners they demanded the sum
of twenty-five thousand pounds sterling. The money
was immediately raised, and was ready for delivery, when
the robbers raised their demand, and insisted upon a free
pardon and full amnesty for all their band. This the
government could not grant, and, after long and fruitless
negotiations, an attempt was made to secretly surround
the band with a cordon of soldiers, in the hope of taking
them all alive with their prisoners. The attempt resulted
* Tuckerman, p. 159. * Id., pp. 255-91.
BRIGANDAGE. s8l
only in a fearful tragedy, which shocked the whole civ-
ilized world. Finding themselves entrapped, the robbers
put their prisoners to death and took to flight. Ten only
escaped, the leader and seven of the band being killed
and four taken prisoners. This most painful catastrophe
produced a wild outburst of indignation and wrath from
Western Europe, and especially from England, against
the Greeks and their government, as if the whole people
were a race of cut-throats, their whole country a den of
robbers and pirates.
In his remarks upon this subject, Mr. Tuckerman shows
clearly the entire injustice of these sweeping charges,
and the exceeding difficulty of extirpating brigandage
from Northern Greece, unless the Turkish authorities
will co-operate with energy and good faith on the other
side of the line. The brigands for the most part are
Turkish subjects, and have their retreats upon Turkish
territory, where they are safe from the Greek patrols. The
country is very sparsely settled, wholly destitute of
roads, and full of wild and almost inaccessible mountain
fastnesses. The villagers, to say nothing of some old and
hereditary respect for the mountain Klepht,' are wholly
at the mercy of the brigands, and are compelled to con-
nive at their proceedings and to furnish them with sup-
plies. This connection with village voters often gives the
brigand chiefs no small political power, if not a strong
secret foothold with the government itself; since they
' For an admirable account of modem Greek brigands and their rela-
tions with the common people, an account applying to Greece as truly as to
Asia Minor, the reader is referred to Dr. Van Lennep's graphic little story,
♦* Ten Days among the Greek Brigands."
aSS THE MODERN GREEKS.
are able to decide many a local election, and to insure
success or defeat to many an aspirant for place and power.
Up to 1870, the government, first of Otho and afterwards
of King George, partly through weakness and remissness
and partly through the great difficulties of the undertak-
ing, had so entirely failed to suppress brigandage in
Northern Greece, that a stranger of wealth was hardly
safe, if traversing the country alone, even in sight of the
capital itself But by the terrible tragedy above described,
both the Greek and Turkish governments were roused to
such vigorous action that, for the time, the robber bands
were very generally hunted down and broken up.
Thus far, it must be acknowledged, the country has
remained very poor, the government has been to a pain-
ful degree inefficient and weak. Yet, looking back over
the forty years of settled government which the kingdom
has enjoyed, we see at once that its progress has been
steady and on the whole very great. " Greece has . . .
in these thirty-five or forty years of freedom doubled
her population,^ and increased her revenues five hundred
per cent. Eleven new cities have been founded on sites
formerly deserted. More than forty towns reduced to
ruins by the war have been rebuilt, restored to regular
proportions, and enlarged, presenting at present the as-
pect of prosperous and progressive cities. . . . Eight
or ten ports have been cleared, deepened, and opened to
' The population of the kingdom in 1870 was 1,457,894; the chief in-
crease within the past fifteen years having been frcm the acquisition of the
Ionian Islands (Corfu, Santa Maura, Ithica, Cephalonia, and Zante), which
formerly constituted a small republic, with a population of about 220,000,
under the protection of Great Britain, but were annexed to the Kingdom
of Greece by a treaty signed November 14th, 1863.
PROGRESS OF THE KINGDOM. 28j
communication. Lighthouses and bridges have been
erected. From four hundred and forty vessels, measuring
61,410 tons, her merchant fleet has increased to more
than five thousand vessels, of 330,000 tons. Nearly a
hundred thousand vessels enter Greek ports yearly, of
which more than three-quarters are engaged in the coast-
ing trade. The united value of imports and exports ex-
ceeds twenty-five millions of dollars. Greece has five
chambers of commerce, numerous insurance companies,
and a national bank, the associated capital of which ex-
ceeds eight millions of dollars. In 1830, the small
dried grape of Corinth, of which the word " currant " is
a corruption, and which forms the chief article of ex-
port, sold at about $120 the ton. It now sells at from
$20 to $30, which indicates the enormous increase in the
production of this one article of commerce, from about
ten millions of pounds before the Revolution, to about
one hundred and fifty millions now." '
The progress of the kingdom has not been alone in the
direction of a merely material prosperity ; in the moral,
social, and intellectual interests of society it has been
yet more marked and encouraging. The Greek peas-
antry were virtuous and honest, as a class, before the
Revolution, and they are so still ; while the vices engen-
dered by Turkish rule in the wealthier and more influ-
ential classes have in great measure disappeared. Pres-
ident Felton found the educated Greeks " not only well
bred, but generally of high and honorable views." ^ Mr.
Tuckcrman expresses a similar judgment at much length
and with equal confidence. He found the commercial
' Tuckerman, 14S-9. * Greece, Ancient and Modern, ii. 260.
88« THE MODERN GREEKS.
and working classes of " free Greece " as respectable and
honest as people in the like circumstances in any other
part of Europe. A Greek servant could usually be
safely intrusted with money or valuables to any amount,
would very rarely steal. The common people were uni-
versally chaste, temperate, and hospitable. " Domestic
fidelity, maternal affection, family unity, and the cheerful
discharge of the duties and responsibilities of wedded
life are nowhere more beautifully illustrated than among
the Greeks." ^
Of political corruption, Mr. Tuckerman did, unhappily,
find abundant evidence.^ Not, however, in the way of
venality, peculation, and personal dishonesty. Of these
vices there seemed to be as little as in any other country.
The high officials of the government were usually poor,
and left office as poor as they entered it. The evil prac-
tices lay rather in the endeavor of each successive ministry
to manage the elections, and direct the whole machinery
of government in the interests of its own party and
political dependents. For these evils there are two suffi-
cient reasons in the peculiar circumstances of the country.
The first is the absence of any efficient and salutary
check upon the government in an intelligent and power-
ful public sentiment. The Greeks are no longer an igno-
rant people. So far as mere school instruction is con-
cerned, they are, perhaps, the best educated people in
the world. " It may be safely asserted that no man,
woman, or child born in the kingdom since the organi-
sation of free institutions is so deficient in elementary
^ See Mr. Tuckerman's closing chapter — " Character of the Greeks."
« " The Greeks of To-day," pp. 94-7.
POLITICAL NEEDS. 285
knowledge as not to be able to read and write." ^ With
a free government, such a people will certainly learn in
no very long time to take care of themselves.
But as yet the knowledge of the Greeks, universally
diffused as it is, is a mere school-boy knowledge. To
the great body of the people, that political intelligence
and training which would fit them to form a just opinion
upon important questions, and to exert a controlling in-
fluence in public affairs, is entirely wanting. " Such a
thing as a public meeting in village, town, or city, com-
posed of the working or industrious classes, for the pur-
pose of discussing or enforcing a public measure, is a
spectacle never witnessed in Greece." ^ The peasantry
' Id., p. 179. "At present, according to official reports, there are 73,-
219 persons under instruction in Greece at public establishments, and 7,978
persons at private establishments, making in all 81,197, or one to about 18
of the population. First come the primary schools, 1,141 in number.
. . . The Hellenic grammar schools and gymnasia (colleges) follow
with about 2,000 pupils ; and the University completes the system of ed-
ucation. . . . The University . . . has 50 professors and 1,244
Students, a large proportion of whom are Greeks from the Turkish prov-
inces. . . . Connected with the University is a library of about a hun-
dred thousand volumes ; a mathematical museum, a museum of natural
history (incomplete), an astronomical observatory, erected by Baron Sinna,
the \\ ell-known Greek banker at Vienna, ... a botanical garden, and
a polytechnic school. . . . This desire for mutual improvement ex-
tends to all classes and ages. Men who have missed opportunities of
schooling when young devote their evenings and moments of leisure . . .
to earnest study." — Id., 179-80.
"The aisles of the University lecture rooms were crowded with young
wen, and sometimes old men, who, having an hour to spare from their
daily labors, would come in to pick up the crumbs of instruction that were
falling from the tables of their more favored juniors. Not once did I enter
a school-house, during a three montlis' residence in Athens, without wit-
nessing this extraordinary spectacle." — Felton, ii. 518.
' Tuckemum, p. 113.
2S6 THE MODERN GREEKS.
are quiet, peaceable, and loyal, and never think of resist-
ing the government, whatever course it may pursue.
Acting thus, without the needful and controlling restraint
of an intelligent and powerful public sentiment, each suc-
ceeding ministry is under the constant and strong temp-
tation to provide for its own friends, to carry its own
measures, and maintain itself in power, by questionable
and illegitimate means.
In the second place, it is probable that in no other
country in the world does so large a proportion of the
educated class of young men look to political life as a
permanent profession and source of livelihood. Before
tlie multitude of young men graduating every year from
the University and other higher schools, the openings to
useful and profitable employment are comparatively very
few and narrow. To the Church they rarely give a
thought. The parish priest is usually too ignorant and
too poorly paid to make his post at all inviting. The
legal profession is greatly overstocked, and the mercan-
tile houses have already a crowd of applicants for every
vacant post. As teachers, there is employment for a few
at home ; for more, if they can bring their minds to such
a life, among their countrymen in the various provinces
of the Turkish dominions.
Too often the young man finds himself prepared for
active life with nothing before him but to become a hanger
on of some political clique, in the hope that in some
way, and at some time, he may secure some office, and so
climb to power. The class of professed politicians, always
needy, hungry, and ready for any service, honorable or
dishonorable, is thus constantly recruited and enlarged.
FOIBLES OF THE GREEKS. 287
The political world in Greece is thus always divided into
two large and hostile parties ; one of them in power, and
doing its best to maintain itself, and make the most of its
little day ; the other out of power, and straining every
nerve to oust the existing ministry and get itself into the
vacant places. This evil will hnd its natural and effectual
remedy in the advancing prosperity, especially the agri-
cultural prosperity of the country, as wider and more in-
viting fields are opened to the activity of intelligent
young men.
The population of the Greek cities is quiet, orderly, and
peaceable. Mr. Tuckerman assures us that in Athens, a
city of nearly fifty thousand inhabitants, a criminal or a
"rowdy" class is almost unknown. "Such crimes as
housebreaking, highway robbery, or even pocket-pick-
ing, are extremly rare at Athens, On the occasion of
the celebration of the semi-centennial anniversary of Greek
independence, when the streets were choked for hours with
dense crowds, not less than fifty thousand people, as was
estimated, being in the streets to witness the military pa-
geant, when every house, excepting those in the line of the
procession, was deserted, " not the meanest servant con-
senting to remain at home on such an occasion," not the
slightest disturbance occurred ; no house or shop was en-
tered, not a pocket was picked. . . . No crowd is
more easily gathered together than a Greek crowd, and
nowhere docs a large assembly more quietly disperse." '
The chief and universal foibles of the Greeks are an
inordinate egotism and vanity, and a love of subtilty
and finesse. They are a passionate race, though their
» "ITie Greeks of To-day," pp. 345 7.
a88 THE MODERN GREEKS,
passions are almost always under control, and jealousy
and revenge rankle deeply in their minds. In the wilder
districts the knife and the pistol are too often appealed
to for swift retribution upon fancied wrongs. " The Greek
is notoriously sharp-witted, and takes a pride in his wit.
To be outmaneuvered in a bargain, especially by one
of his own countrymen, is a source of the deepest mor-
tification. Hence the proverb, ' When Greek meets
Greek, then comes the tug of war.' It is very amusing
to stand by and watch the process of a business trans-
action, even if it be the buying and selling of a string
of dried onions." ^ In keenness, shrewdness, and sub-
tilty, the Athenian of to-day is hardly inferior to his
ancestor of twenty-two centuries ago. " A Greek will
look one in the eye and fathom one's thoughts before ex-
pressing his own. He calculates your wants rather than
his own ; he assents, or seems to assent, with eyes and
tongue, while mentally snapping his fingers at your
ignorance or folly. You may leave him with the im-
pression that your superior intelligence or persuasion
has made a deep impression ; he may leave you with a
feeling that he is relieved of a bore. He understands
you better than you understand him ; and while you go
away deceived by your own want of perception, he goes
away with a respect for your honesty, but more and
more convinced that your nation and habits are at fault.
The Greek will not contrive to delude unless in a game
of wits ; but he despairs of assimilation, and, wishing
your friendship, avoids antagonism. If he believes in
anything, it is himself, and in his origin ; in his capabil-
» Id., 341.
SUPERSTITION. S8^
ities, in the superiority of his rights. If he is despised
and thwarted, he laments his fate, which he puts upon
his poverty, or his physical inability to cope with his
adversary. He appears weak, and offers no resisting
hand ; but he wraps himself in his own merits, and finds
compensation in ideas." ^
To the American Christian, the most discouraging
feature in the present state of things among the Greeks
is the steadfast, unanimous adherence of the whole na-
tion to the superstitions and formalities of their Church.
In this respect there has been, as yet, but little apparent
change. With very few exceptions, the whole body of
the people, educated and uneducated, urban and rustic,
commercial and agricultural, cling with the same inimov-
able, unquestioning devotion to their national Church.
Rapid as has been the spread of education and intelli-
gence among the peasantry within the past thirty years,
their old superstitions still seem to maintain a steady hold
upon their minds. In their faith in ceremonies and forms,
in their reverence for relics, pictures, and saints, especially
in their veneration for the Virgin Mary, they appear to be
hardly behind their fathers of a hundred years ago.
This reign of superstition and ecclesiasticism is, how-
ever, far less complete and secure than, to a casual ob-
server, it might at first appear. This we shall see plainly
enough as we go on. We shall also see that for the
steadfast, not to say bigoted, orthodoxy of all classes of
the Greeks, and for the superstition and religious igno-
rance of the common people, there have been two strong
and sufficient reasons.
» Id., 334.
290 THE MODERN GREEKS,
In the first place, the immovable devotion to their na-
tional Church, which fires the breasts of all intelligent
Greeks, is far more political than religious. Their Church
is now, as it has been for four hundred years, the one
and only bond of union and nationality to the Greek
people. They are a nation without a country. The
little Kingdom of Greece embraces less than half their
numbers ; and " The Great Idea " of a Greek Empire in
which they shall all be united — an Empire which shall
rival the power and glory of mediaeval Constantinople —
is an idea which they can hope to see realized only in a
distant future. Meanwhile, the only thing which binds
them together, which gives them a conscious and vigor-
ous national life, and makes them feel that they are one,
is their national Church. Thus, for a Greek to forsake
the church of his fathers is something more than to
change his religion. It seems to him that it is to dena-
tionalize himself, to give up all his patriotic aspirations,
and prove false to that glorious country of the present
and the future which he loves a hundred times more
than he loves his life. ^ This is the great reason why
the best educated, the most liberal, even the most free-
thinking Greeks, almost without a single exception, re-
main so invincibly loyal to their Church. In their Church
the Greeks are one ; out of it, as it seems to them, their
nationality would be hopelessly dissolved.
In the second place, the continued prevalence of super-
stition and religious ignorance among the peasantry is
largely owing to the unintelligent and greatly depressed
condition of the parish priesthood. The parochial priests
' See Tuckerraan, pp. 339-40'
PREACHING. 391
are married; they live with their families among their
people, and are in general kindly and worthy men. But
for the most part they are deplorably ignorant and very
poor. This low condition of the regular priesthood, the
spiritual shepherds and teachers of the people, is perhaps
the greatest hindrance in the way of the true and health-
ful advancement of the Greeks. It springs, in great part
at least, from the old and inveterate evil by which the
Greeks have been cursed for a thousand years, and upon
which we have already dwelt — the hostile rivalry of the
monkish hierarchy towards the married parochial clergy.
As no married priest can rise to the higher dignities
of the Church, the bishops are all monks; and as all
ecclesiastical power is in their hands, they have been able
thus far to prevent the parish priests from obtaining
either intelligence or influence. " The love of power is
nowhere more strongly manifested than in the Synod of
Bishops. To retain their power they discourage the ele-
vation of the lower orders of the clergy, and would, if
they could, debar them from rising into popular notori-
ety or favor by the exercise of any natural talents they
may possess. . . . Among the priests there occasionally
appear men, who, from having been in contact with for-
eign society, or from having acquired the advantages of
foreign education, desire to cleanse the Church of its im-
purities, and incite a more active religious principle in
the masses. To do this they have established regular
preaching in the churches, which has heretofore been
almost neglected in Greece. But difficulties and hin-
drances have been thrown in the way of their noble efforts,
'vhich seriously discourage the hopes of permanent re-
S92 THE MODERN GREEKS.
forms. The preacher, especially if he is in danger of be-
coming popular, is closely watched ; and if anything in
his language from the pulpit can be construed into too
great latitude in points of religious faith, the interdiction
of the bishop falls upon his head, and for a series of Sab-
baths, or of months, he is suspended from the exercise of
his holy functions. ... At present the Fathers of the
Church are little better than an oligarchy, whose impe-
rious will brings the entire priesthood into a narrow ma-
terial subserviency to power, which degenerates and
weakens the whole system." '
This is a sad and discouraging statement, but it evi-
dently describes a state of things which cannot last. In
a country where every man can read, and is eagerly
watching for every new idea — a country flooded with
newspapers and periodicals, and enjoying the most per-
fect freedom of discussion and opinion — it is very clear
that this selfish tyranny of a few stupid monks will not
long be endured. The parochial clergy must rise in in-
telligence as their people rise, and the time cannot be
distant when they will assert their rights, and take the
place which is justly theirs. When they shall have done
this, there is not very much in the constitution and laws
of their Church to prevent them from preaching the gos-
pel of Christ in its purity and simplicity. The movement
referred to above in the direction of preaching, and the
active religious instruction of the people, is full of prom-
ise. For more than twenty years able and in some re-
spects excellent sermons — sermons sometimes two hours
long — have been constantly listened to by crowds of peo-
' Tuckennan, 203-6.
THE GREEK CHURCH. 993
pie in the churches of Athens,^ and probably of the other
cities as well. In such preaching, in a free country, there
is a power which cannot be withstood ; and it must and
will extend itself throughout the Kingdom.
The Church of the Kingdom stands on a footing of en-
tire independence. Since the Revolution the Patriarch
of Constantinople has been a mere tool of the Porte, to
whom the Greeks could not pay their allegiance. For
thirty years the ecclesiastical affairs of the Kingdom re-
mained in a confused state ; but in 1852 a law was pass-
ed which gave the Greek Church within the Kingdom an
independent and permanent organization. The govern-
ment of the Church was vested in a Holy Synod, con-
sisting of the Archbishop of Athens as Metropolitan and
presiding officer, and five other members with equal
votes, chosen from the diocesan bishops of the Kingdom.
At the meetings of the Synod a government commis-
sioner is always present, though without a votc.^
For more than forty years a missionary work has been
sustained in Greece by the American churches of several
denominations; but for reasons already explained, the
results of these labors apparent to the eye of the casual
' Baird, 134; Felton, ii. 519; Tuckerman, 204. The greatest practical
difficulty in the way of the preaching of a pure gospel by the Greek priest, is
the worship of the Virgin, which seems to be impregnably fixed at once in
the canons of the Church, in the books of devotion, and in the hearts of the
r^opie. bee Baird, 122.
^ Report of the Greek Minister of Public Worship for the year 1S65, in
the London Colonial Church Chronicle for 1866. From this report it ap-
pears that four hundred and twelve convents had been closed, and that in the
Kingdom of Greece there then remained one hundred and fifty-two convents,
with three thousand monks and two hundred nuns. The monks art still
6Qual in numbers to the parish priests.
•91 THE MODERN GREEKS.
observer have been limited. Dr. King was sent to Greece
by the ladies of New York, in May, 1822, and received
his commission as a missionary of the American Board in
1830. Dr. Riggs joined him in 1833, and Mr. Benjamin
in 1836. These able and earnest representatives of our
American Christianity at once entered zealously upon
their labors. They established schools, translated and
published books, circulated the Scriptures, and preached
the gospel as opportunity was given them. For a time
they were welcomed by the authorities and the people,
and their labors seemed to promise large results. But
these favorable indications did not long continue. The
bishops took alarm, seeing clearly enough that their own
power was becoming endangered, and at their instigation
the government took such action as in great measure
closed the door to the usefulness of the missionaries. As
the result, Dr. Riggs left the field in 1838, and Mr. Ben-
jamin in 1843. From that time for twenty-one years,
until in 1864, a war-worn veteran, he left the field for a
visit to his native land, Dr. King remained at his post
alone.
Few nobler examples of an heroic and exhaustless pa-
tience, and an entire devotion to the cause of Christ and
humanity, have adorned the annals of the missionary
work. Constantly opposed and persecuted, sometimes
imprisoned and threatened with the loss of all things,
sometimes in peril even of his life, he steadily adhered to
his one inflexible purpose to give the labors of his life to
the cause of Christ in Greece. Thus he stood manfully
at his post, while, so far as the world could see, he was
laboring almost in vain. He has entered into his rest and
DR. KING. 395
his work is done ; but even now, to the superficial obser-
ver, there appears as the fruit of all these forty years of
indefatigable toil no important and enduring result. Dr.
King founded no church, made no considerable numbei
of converts, gathered about himself no strong or influen-
tial party, in Church or in State. But his work was not
in vain, did not fail of important and satisfying results.
The life of Dr. King in Greece was one long and earn-
est protest against the errors of the Greek Church. With
a piety of apostolic fervor and simplicity, with great learn-
ing, and with irresistible clearness and cogency of reason-
ing, he never ceased in his endeavors to make those errors
clear to the minds of the Greeks, and to teach them a
more excellent way. The Greeks are quick-witted and
free-spirited, and nothing so delights them as keen and
vigorous discussion. They are always ready to read
everything both for and against their own views, and Dr.
King could never complain that he was refused a hear-
ing. His arguments and those of his friends were care-
fully listened to and widely read. They carried convic-
tion to many enlightened and liberal minds, and proved
a powerful leaven which is still pursuing its silent but
ever extending work.
Dr. King's first great struggle was for the free dissemi-
nation of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. This had
never been forbidden by the Church, but with the clear
instincts of an ecclesiastical despotism, the bishops set
themselves resolutely against it. The battle, however,
was triumphantly fought out, and now every Greek in
Greece may read freely in his own tongue the Word of
eternal trutli. But when from this success Dr. King ad-
a96 THE MODERN GREEKS.
vanced to attack the worship of the Virgin Mary, he
touched the Greeks upon a very tender point. The com-
mon people, as strong in their devotion to " the Mother
of God " as their fathers in the days of Nestorius, were
filled with an intense and fanatical bitterness, and from
the whole Kingdom rose one universal clamor for his ex-
pulsion or punishment. The crisis of Dr. King's career
in Greece occurred in his famous trial before the Crimi-
nal Court of Athens, on the charge of reviling the Greek
Church, March 5th, 1852.^ He had scrupulously con-
formed in all things to the letter of the law. He had
preached only in his own house, had formed no church,
and in all his writings for the press had never trans-
cended the rights secured to him in the plainest terms
by the constitution and the laws. But the clamors of
the clergy and the populace at last prevailed, and the
government determined to bring the troublesome mis-
sionary to trial.
The proceedings in this memorable trial were a mere
farce from beginning to end. Law and evidence were
alike disregarded, and the Court, determined beforehand
to convict, speedily reached its judgment, that Dr. King
should be imprisoned for fifteen days, should pay the
costs of prosecution, and afterwards be expelled from
Greece. No sooner, however, was the trial over than a
strong reaction set in. All intelligent men were shocked
and disgusted at such a flagrant mockery of justice, and
the Athenian press, almost with one accord, was loud in
denunciation and ridicule of the whole affair. Nor waa
this all. Dr. King was at this time Consular Agent of
' Baird, 355-67 ; Felton, ii. 489-93 ; Tuckennan, 214-17.
DR. KING. £97
the United States at Athens. As such, he drew up a re-
port of the injustice to which he had been subjected,
which he forwarded to Mr. Webster, then Secretary of
State. Mr. Webster acted in the matter with character-
istic promptitude and energy. He at once directed Mr.
Marsh, American Minister at Constantinople, to proceed
to Athens and investigate the subject. The next year,
Mr. Everett, who succeeded to the Department of State
on Mr. Webster's death, acting on Mr. Marsh's report,
addressed an energetic remonstrance to the Greek gov-
ernment, as the result of which, after some delay, the un-
just action of the court was entirely annulled.
From this time Dr. King found his position at Athens
greatly improved. Not only had a strong expression been
called forth in his favor among the Greeks, but the whole
nation had been compelled to look with respect upon
him and the Republic of the West, of which he was a cit-
izen and representative. When in 1863 Prince William
George of Denmark was called to the throne of Greece,
Dr. King found his influence and his opportunities for
usefulness yet further increased. King George is a sin-
cere Protestant, and very soon manifested his appreciation
of and respect for the character of tlie old missionary hero,
by inviting him to the palace that he might receive the
communion at his hands. This act of royal justice as
well as kindness at once turned the tide of popular feel-
ing. The last vestiges of public hostility disappeared, and
Dr. King became, not indeed a popular man, but a man
universally respected for his honesty and his irreproach-
able character.
From this time until his death, in May, 1869, Dr. King
13*
393 THE MODERN GREEKS.
lived in quiet usefulness at Athens, enjoying a peaceful
and happy evening to the long and stormy day of his
missionary life. His last days were spent in active and
generous labors for the relief and assistance of the sixty
thousand Cretan refugees, whose pitiable condition ap-
pealed so strongly to the Christian world during the un-
fortunate insurrection in their native island. A very
pleasing scene which occurred during the last year of
the grand old missionary's life is thus described by Mr.
Tuckerman : " One evening I was informed that a pro-
cession of Cretan children, refugees from their unhappy
island, had called to pay their respects to the American
minister. They numbered about nine hundred, and had
been brought by their teachers, missionaries of the Ame-
rican Board, and were ranged in line, up and down the
street, before the legation. They were all of tender years,
and were neatly dressed. A large crowd had collected
at the unwonted spectacle, which was altogether quite
touching. There they were, the helpless children of poor
and suffering mothers, who had been cast upon the shores
of Greece to find that subsistence which was denied to
them at home, where their fathers and elder brothers were
sustaining all the hardships of a struggle which, in the
face of tremendous odds, they still hoped might terminate
in the independence of an island which is theirs by right
of nationahty, language, religion, and numbers. To our
countrymen at home they were indebted for the very
clothes on their backs, and for the food which from day
to day kept the feeble life within them, while to the dis-
interested labors of our missionaries at Athens they
owed a moral and intellectual salvation from something
aiRS. HILL. 999
worse than death itself. After singing t»vo or three
hymns, they saluted the minister with cheers, which forced
him to address them with a few sympathetic and encour-
aging words, the venerable Dr. King acting as interpreter.
. Then, with more singing, and more * zetos,'
the assembly quietly dispersed." ^
One of the most pleasing signs of progress in Greece
during the past thirty years has been the advancement
in female education. A fifth part of the pupils in the
public schools of the kingdom are now girls, while private
schools of a high order for the training of young women
have not been wanting, and have been liberally sus-
tained. One of the most useful and most fruitful mission-
ary enterprises in Greece has been the large boarding-
school for girls at Athens, conducted for nearly forty
years by Dr. and Mrs. Hill, missionaries of the American
Episcopal Board. Many hundreds of girls have graduated
at this school with a moral and intellectual training never
before enjoyed by the women of Greece.'^
We thus see that in the political, commercial, educa-
' The Greeks of To-day, 22-3.
* This school has been the subject of much and very sharp controversy
in this country, it being alleged by many that its conductors have not only
acquiesced in, but actually taught the errors of the Greek Church. It seems
plain that the school was not properly a Protestant school. Its conductors
complied with all the requirements of the Greek ecclesiastical authorities,
and the Greek catechism was taught in it, at least a portion of the time, by a
Greek priest. But Mrs. Mill, although holding apparently very High
Church views, seems to have been a person of sincere and earnest piety,
and the influence which she and her husband have exerted in elevating and
ennobling the women of Greece, has unquestionably been very great. See
an able and thorough, though somewhat narrow and partial examination of
this subject, in a pamphlet by Dr. C. W. Andrews of Virginia, entitled
*' Historic Notes of Protestant Missions to the Oriental Churches."
jM THE MODERN GREEKS,
this rule ; and if their industry presented a ready means
for the securing of comfort, abundance, and wealth, they
would not remain, as they now do, contented with a
wretched and squalid poverty.
We might be sure beforehand that there is some rea-
son for their thriftless indolence in the peculiar circum-
stances of their condition. A very brief examination of
those circumstances will show us that there is such a
reason, and one more than sufficient to account for the
facts we are considering. The Bulgarians would prob-
ably work when the Greeks stand idle ; but the truth is,
that very few races now exist, or ever have existed, who
in their circumstances would be more industrious than
they are. They have no inducement to labor. Even if
by hard work they have raised an abundant crop, that
crop brings them not wealth and comfort, but only vexa-
tion and trouble. It would cost them all that it is worth
to get it to market ; for there arc no roads, and it must
be transported by wretched tracks over mountains and
through valleys upon the backs of horses, mules, or serv-
ants, and everything obtained in exchange for it must be
brought back in the same way.
But this is not all nor the worst. More unendurable
even than the state of the roads is the tyranny of the tax-
gatherer. ' All the produce in the country must pay a tithe
to the government And as two-thirds or more of the soil
belongs to the state, the greater part of the farmers must
add to this about another tenth and a half for rent, mak-
ing in all about one-quarter of the produce. The amount
' Senior*8 Journal, pp. 176-7; Edinbvirgh Review for April, 1864,
o. 301.
THE TAX-GATHERER. 903
of this exaction is not so grievous as the mode of its col-
lection. As the peasants have no money, the tax must
be paid in kind. And lest the government be defrauded,
no crop can be cut until the collector's license has been
obtained. If he is disposed to make trouble, he has
every opportunity to do so. Sometimes he will require
the crop to be cut before it is ripe. Sometimes he with-
holds his license until it is over-ripe and half ruined.
Then all the grain for miles around must be carried over
the mountains to the collector's public threshing-floor,
where it lies, perhaps for months, until he gets ready to
thresh it; and if he chooses to be extortionate in his
tithing, the poor peasant has generally no redress.
When the grain has been threshed, a large stamp is im-
pressed upon every part of the pile, so that it cannot be
disturbed without leaving indications of the fact, and then
the farmer must watch it night and day, or leave it at his
own risk, until the tithe has been taken.
Under such circumstances, what wonder if the poor
farmer considers the least excess in his crop over the
absolute wants of his family to be an evil and not a bless-
ing. The larger the crop the greater the trouble and
worry, with no hope of proportionate gain in the end.
Considering these facts, we may well inquire whether the
people has ever .existed, who, situated as the Greeks now
are, would not be as poor, as thriftless, and as indolent
as they are. Some more satisfactory compensation than
vexation and trouble has been usually needed to incite
men to patient and cheerful industry. With these facts
before us, we may confidently infer that Greece only
needs a few years of honest, energetic, common-sense
14
304 THE MODERN GREEKS,
government to launch her upon a career of prosperity
such as she has not yet known.
The one grand necessity of the country is roads, ave-
nues of communication, by which the farmers can get
iheir produce to the sea, and thus to the markets of the
world. The British government has given comparative
wealth to the Ionian Islands, by the simple expedient of
granting aid to the peasants in building roads for them-
selves. In May, 1858, Sir John Young wrote home: " It
is quite surprising the amotint of work I got done in this
way, by small grants in aid. The villagers were willing
to give, and actually gave, scrftie thousands of days of
gratuitous labor in order to complete branch roads from
the main lines to their villages aad enable carts to pass ;
for they know that a man with a cart and horse, when
there is a practicable communication, can support a fam-
ily, while a man with a horse, obliged to use paniers only,
can scarcely pay his expenses. It is a gratifying fact that
the number of carts on the Island of Corlu has well-nigh
doubled in the last four or five years." ^
The same results would follow upon the mainland.
Once make it possible for the Greeks to get thcif produce
to market on wheels, and thus give them the ability to
commute their present ruinous exactions for a reasonable
money tax, and we should soon hear no more of their in-
dolence, or of their thriftless, contented poverty. With
roads and a ready access to the markets of the world, would
come deliverance from the tyranny of the tax-gatherer;
for it would then be for the interest of government and
producer alike, that the taxes should be paid in money.
» Edinburgh Review fee April, 1 863, p. 302.
THE GREEKS AS A NATION, «■
And with the possibility of making money and gaining
wealth by his caUing, the peasant would soon desire to
buy the farm he now rents of the government, as the
law now allows him to do on easy terms,^ and to own
the land he tills. Roads are the one thing needful for
Greece ; ^ the one thing which would at once give pros-
perity and vigor to her agriculture, bring her waste lands
under cultivation, double her country population, and
redeem the whole Kingdom from its present poverty and
weakness.
The Greeks of the Turkish provinces, although they
have kept pace with their brethren of free Greece in
material prosperity, have fallen far behind them in moral
and social advancement. They live under all the demoral-
izing influences of Turkish rule, and are still very much
what their fathers were two generations ago. The Greek
in Turkey does the work and receives the money. He
vitalizes the sluggish mass around him, but is quite as
unscrupulous as his masters. How can it be otherwise,
when he possesses all the characteristics of a conquered
race. "At sight of a Mussulman," says an intelligent
observer, " the rayah's back bends to the ground, his
hands involuntarily join on his breast, his lips compose
themselves to a smile ; but under this conventional mask
you see the hatred instilled even into women and children
toward their ancient oppressors." ' The moral and social
emancipation which the Revolution brought to the inhab-
* Tuckerman. 164.
* Leake's "Greece after Twenty-three Years of Protection," p. 17;
Tuckerman, 158.
> Tuckerman, 121.
306 THE MODERN- GREEKS.
itants of Greece was a greater deliverance than the
breaking of their political yoke. By their half century
of freedom, the Greeks of free Greece have been pre-
pared to take the lead in a wider and grander national
development than that now going on within the narrow
limits of their little Kingdom. The Greeks are one peo-
ple — one in national character, one in feeling and sym-
pathies, and one in their patriotic aspirations. Crete,
Samos, Thessaly, and Macedonia are but parts of their
common inheritance, withheld from them as yet by
arbitrary power, but sure whenever that grasp is re-
laxed, to join themselves to Greece, and so in due time
to expand the Kingdom into a large, prosperous, and
opulent state.
PART THIRD.
THE TURKISH SLAVONIANS, THE WALLA-
CHIANS, AND THE GYPSIES.
The leading Authorities followed are :
The Histories of Gibbon and Finlay.
" Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Na-
tions," by Talvi (Mrs E. Robinson).
Ranke's History of Servia, the Servian Revolution, and Bosnia, with the
Treatise of Cyprien Robert on "The Slave Provinces of Tvu^key;"
Bohn's Standard Library.
Upham's History of the Ottoman Empire.
"Dalmatia and Montenegro; with a Journey to Mostar in Herzego\'ina,
and Remarks on the Slavonic Nations ; the History of Dalmatia and
Ragusa; the Uscocs ;" &c., &c., by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, F.R.S.
Brace's " Races of the Old World."
"Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey in Europe," by Lady
Muir Mackenzie, and Miss Irby.
'♦Servia and the Servians," and "Serbian Folk-Lore," by Rev. W.
Denton, M.A.
"The Eastern Shores of the Adriatic in 1863," by Vicountess Strang-
ford.
"The Slavonic Provinces South of the Danube," by William Forsyth,
LL.D., London, 1876.
"Servian Popular Poetry," translated by Sir John Bowring.
Owen Meredith's " Serbski Pesme, or National Songs of Servia."
Special Eastern Correspondence of the London Times, in the years
1875 and 1876.
Articles on "Montenegro." Edinburgh Review, April, 1859; "Servia,"
London Quarterly Review, January, 1865 ; " The True Eastern
Question," Littell's Living Age, Jaiiuary 8th and February 12th,
1876; "The Herzegovinian Question," International Review, Ja»»
uary, 1876.
CHAPTER L
THE SLAVIC RACK
Of the widespread Japhetic, Indo-European or Ar-
yan race, the various families of which have extended
their conquests and their settlements from the Ganges
on the East to the shores of the Pacific on the West,
the Teutonic or German branch has now for five cen-
turies held the foremost place in civilization, wealth, and
power. But at the present time another family of the
same imperial race is rising rapidly to a position second
only to that of its Teutonic neighbors. It may well be
doubted whether, in the course of another hundred
years, the Slave will not fully equal the Teuton, not
only in military and political power, but in social and
intellectual culture, in all the highest developments of a
Christian civilization.
In point of numbers the Slavic race is hardly inferior
to the Teutonic. Its several families — the Russians,
Poles, Bohemians, and Moravians, the Slovaks of Hun-
gary (in distinction from the Magyars, who are a Scythic
or Turanian people akin to the Turks), the Croats, Ser-
vians, and Bulgarians — have for a thousand years occupied
little less than the eastern half of the continent of Eu-
rope.
3IO THE SLAVIC RACE.
The several peoples of this race are separated by a
two-fold division. The first and most ancient division is
into Eastern and Western.' The Russians, Bulgarians,
and Servians received Christianity from the East, and
became associated, both politically and ecclesiastically,
with Constantinople. The Western tribes received their
faith from Rome, and connected themselves politically
with the German Empire. Except in the case of the
Dalmatians and Austrian Croats, this separating line still
exists with undiminished clearness.
But during the past century another division has de-
veloped itself which may be destined in the future to
prove yet more important. While the Northern Slavonic
nations have been slowly forming their national character
and advancing in civilization under the despotic govern-
m^ents of Russia and Austria, the kindred tribes of the
South, including the Bulgarians and Servians of Turkey,
the independent Montenegrins, and the inhabitants of
Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, the three south-western
provinces of Austria, have begun to display a common
and intense national spirit. Almost everything in their
circumstances and mutual relations tends strongly to this
result. Geographical position, similarity of blood and
language, the glorious memories of their early history, and
the fact that they all stand upon the same social level,
and are inspired by the same feelings, sympathies, and
aspirations — the result of ages of common and bitter
oppression — all these things tend strongly to draw and
bind them together, and to impel them onwards to a com
mon destiny.
* Talvi, p. 8 ; Brace, 112.
TURKISH SLA VONIANS. jlt
As a convenient designation, these tribes may be call-
ed the Southern Slavonians. In distinction from their
Northern brethren, they are characterized by an intensely
democratic spirit' Turkish despotism has wrought at
least this beneficial result. It has placed the despised
rayahs all upon the same level, and made every man
among them the equal of every other ; so that as they rise
they all rise together. It may be that there is a deep
purpose of the Divine Providence in thus developing these
two opposite political tendencies side by side in kindred
tribes of the same race ; and that while the Russians of the
North are displaying the grandest experiment which
modern times have seen of centralized despotic power,
the Servians of the South may be destined to show to the
world a new and surprising example of the measureless
energy of free institutions in promoting the progress of
society and the well-being of mankind.
The primitive Slavonians,^ although squalid and sav-
age barbarians, exceedingly cruel, and always ready to
ravage the territories of weaker neighbors, were in many
respects a most interesting people, and one of the noblest
' That the Austrian Croats, who have never been subject to Turkish
power, who have for centuries been separated from their Servian kindred
by their Roman Catholic faith and their partially Latinized language, should
show so strong a tendency to unite with the Slaves of Turkey, who are
mostly of the Greek Church, is somewhat surprising. The fact is to be
accounted for by the strong sympathies of race, and similarity of social po-
sition. For, while the Croats have never been subject to Turkish power,
their troubled and dangerous situation in the border land between Islam
and Christianity has been a great hindrance to their progress in civilization ;
and they now find themselves upon very nearly the same social level, and
in nearly the same circumstances generally, with their Servian brethren.
* Gibbon, iv. 196 ; Finlay's Greece under the Romans, p. 310.
3ia THE SLAVIC RACE.
of the Japhetic races. They were wholly unlike the Ger-
mans, having neither their lofty stature, their military
ardor and invincible valor, nor their aptitude for political
organization. They were rather quiet and unmilitary in
their habits, inclined to agriculture and commerce. In
the early centuries of the Middle Ages they built Kief on
the Dnieper, Novgorod on the Volkof, Vineta at the
mouth of the Oder, and Arcona on the Island of Rugen,
and conducted a large and important traffic between the
Black and Baltic seas.^ As such characteristics would
lead us to expect, they were more industrious, thrifty,
and wealthy than the other races about them. Not be-
ing very warlike, they were easily subdued by other
tribes, and were tyrannized over by Goths, Avars, Huns,
and Tartars, until at last, having acquired strength and
order from the slow progress of civilization, they passed
from subjects to masters, and two great Empires, the Rus-
sian in the North and the Servian in the South, rose to
a prominent place among the semi-barbarous powers of
Europe in the Middle Ages.
But while the early Slavonians were not a very war-
like race, in devotion to the great idea of personal free-
dom they surpassed the Germans themselves. " The
Slavonian disdained to obey a despot, a prince, or even
a magistrate ; . . . but each tribe or village existed
as a separate republic, and all must be persuaded where
none could be compelled." ^ The same simple communal
organization of society, which still prevails in Russia, and
in a modified form among the Southern Slaves also, exist-
ed among their rude progenitors from the earliest times
' Wilkinson, ii. 14. * Gibbon, iv. 197.
SLAVIC POETRY. 313
Their most remarkable quality, however, was a patient,
much-enduring toughness of character, which enabled
them to hold their ground indestructibly, while one mur-
derous wave after another of Gothic or Scythian invasion
passed over them, so that they remain to-day strong,
flourishing, and predominant in the very seats which their
fathers occupied at the dawn of authentic history.
As a race, the Slavic peoples have always been marked
by the same general characteristics. They are grave,
serious, and sincere; quiet, peaceable, industrious, and
frugal ; very earnest, reverent, and devout ; very docile,
tractable, and loyal. As soldiers, while they lack the
fiery valor of the Gaul and the invincible courage of the
German, they have always displayed a steadfast patience,
fortitude, and fidelity to their national cause, which in the
critical emergencies of their history have made them no
less heroic and no less successful than the more brilliant
peoples of the West
In all its branches and tribes, the Slavic race has al-
ways been among the most poetical, the most song-lov-
ing of mankind.^ Long before it had been reduced to
writing, in the far distant ages of an unknown past, the
Slavic language, like the Greek and the Arabic, had be-
come, as it remains to the present day in almost all its
various dialects, the vehicle of an immense body of un-
written poetry ; and through that poetry it had been
carried to a high degree of richness and literary culture.
Popular poetry is still the spontaneous, the constant and
abundant ptoduct of the Slavonic mind. " The general
prevalence of a musical ear and taste among all Slavic
' Talvi, 318.
lA.
314 THE SLA VIC RACE.
nations is indeed striking." " Where a Slavic woman is,**
says Schafifarik, "there is also song. House and yard,
mountain and valley, meadow and forest, garden and
vineyard, she fills them all with the sound of her voice.
Often, after a wearisome day, spent in heat and sweat,
hunger and thirst, she animates, on her way home, the
silence of the evening twilight with her melodious songs.
What spirit these popular songs breathe, the reader may
learn from the collections already published. Without
encountering contradiction, we may say that among no
other nation of Europe does natural poetry exist to such
an extent, and in such purity, heartiness, and warmth of
feeling as among the Slavi."^
An immense number of epic and heroic poems, to which
new pieces have been constantly added, are continually
sung by the winter hearth and the festal table of the Ser-
vians, among whom, and among them alone, the Homeric
age has been continued to the present day. " Indeed, what
epic popular poetry is, how it is produced and propagated,
what powers of invention it naturally exhibits — powers
which no art can command — we may learn from this
multitude of simple legends and complicated fables. The
Servians stand in this respect quite isolated ; there is no
modern nation that can be compared to them in epic pro-
ductiveness ; and a new light seems to be thrown over
the grand compositions of the ancients."'^
The Slaves are evidently one of the latest offshoots
from the great Aryan stock. Their geographical and
chronological relations to the other races of Europe can
> Talvi, 318-19. • Id., 374.
ARRIVAL IN EUROPE. 315
be made plain in a few words.^ The aboriginal inhabit-
ants of Europe were a Finnic or Scythian race, akin to
the Tartars of the North of Asia. Relics of this early-
population, as is known from their language, still exist in
the Finns and Lapps of the North of Europe, and the
Basques of the North of Spain. Then came the first wave
of Japhetic or Aryan immigration in the once mighty race
to the Celts (or Kelts), the fathers of the ancient Gauls,
Britons, Scots, and Hibernians.^
Following this, though after what interval of time no
one can say, came two great movements of other fam-
ilies of the same race. The German tribes passed into
Europe to the north of the Black Sea, while another mi-
gration, from which sprung the Lydians, Phrygians, Thra-
cians, Macedonians, Greeks, and Romans, settled the west-
ern regions of Asia Minor, and passed on into the South
of Europe. In the wake of the German tribes came the
Slavonians, who were settled upon the vast plains of Eu-
ropean Russia long before the Christian era. From
these their primitive seats they gradually moved west-
ward, until they had occupied the territory which their
descendants still retain.
At what time the Slaves began to infiltrate themselves
into the Roman Empire it is difficult to say. It is pro-
bable, however, that it was as early as the third or fourth
^ Brace's Ethnology, 7S-122. See also Max Miiller's Lectures on the
Science of Language ; and Languages of the Seat of War.
* Unless the Pelasgic or Illyrian race was an earlier offshoot from the
Japhetic stock, and the first to find its way into Europe. Italy seems to
have been occupied by Pelasgic tribes of Japhetic blood before the arrival
of the Celts. — Brace, p. 93. See also the views of Max Miiller and Pro£
pott, cited in Prrt Second, chap. v. of this volume.
3i« THE SLA VIC RACE.
century of our era that they began to be numerous in
Moesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, as a class of hardy,
industrious shepherds and laborers, very much as the
Bulgarians now are in the neighborhood of Constantino-
ple, on both sides of the Bosphorus, or as the Irish are
among ourselves. By the sixth century, they had evi-
dently become an important element of the population.
They not only filled the north-western provinces as a
simple agricultural and pastoral peasantry, but had begun
to rise to the higher walks of civil and military life ; and
from that time we frequently find them in the highest
and most commanding positions of the Empire. The
famous Emperor Justinian, who ascended the throne of
Constantinople in 527, and became the lawgiver, not of
the Roman Empire alone, but of a great part of the
Christian world from that day to this, was a Slave, as
appears from his native name, Upravda, of which Justi-
nian is a Latin imitation.^
As the Empire declined, and wide districts began to
be left uninhabited, this Slavic immigration rapidly in-
creased. By the year 700, an immense population of
rude Slavonian peasants and shepherds, many of them
little better than barbarian robbers, had occupied all the
' Justinian was bom at Tauresium, near the modem Skopia, in north-
western Macedonia. His father's name was Istok, and his mother and
sister were both called Wigleritza. These names seem to place the Slavo-
nian descent of Justinian beyond a question.— Finlay's Greece under the
Romans, p. 235.
See also Mackenzie and Irby, p. 134. This very valuable work contains
much carefully collected and authentic information upon the early history
as well as the present condition of all the Christian peoples of European
Turkey.
SLA VONIANS IN GREECE. 'jif
more open and unprotected districts from the Danube
to the Gulf of Corinth. "They became almost the sole
possessors of the territories once occupied by the Illy-
rians and the Thracians. They advanced southward,
occupying the waste lands ; but, as they penetrated into
the heart of Greece, they met with more obstructions
from a denser population, especially in the neighborhood
of the still remaining walled towns. In the early part of
the eighth century, nearly the whole of the Peloponnesus
was occupied by the Slavonians. It was then regarded
by pilgrims from Europe as Slavonic soil ; and the com-
plete colonization of the whole country of Greece and
the Peloponnesus is dated by the Emperor Constantine
Porphyrogenitus from the time of the great pestilence
that depopulated the East in 746. . . . Such are
the principal facts known in history with regard to this
extraordinary series of events, by which an old popula-
tion was almost entirely displaced in the course of two
centuries by swarms of another race coming into the
country, partly as warriors and enemies, partly as agri-
culturists, herdsmen, and shepherds, to occupy the
lands left vacant by the greatly diminished numbers of
the Greeks. . When they were once established,
they lived in a rude and wild independence. They took
possession chiefly of the valleys and the interior of the
provinces. . . . The Greeks themselves still held
the seacoasts and the large towns. . . . The singu-
larity of this chapter in Greek history consists in the fact
that this great body of intrusive settlers gradually dis-
appeared from the soil of Greece as m\-steriousl>- cis they
came. Some had, of course, mingled with the Greeks,
3lt THE SLAVIC RACB.
were converted to Christianity in the course of time by
the blending of families, became Hellenized in language,
manners, and blood, and were to all intents and purposes
Greeks ; just as the descendants of foreign settlers in
England, mingling their blood with the native race, lose
the original nationality of their ancestors, and become
Englishmen." ^
So steadily and so far did this invading wave recede,
that after the Turkish conquest the several races of the
European provinces were distributed much as they are
now, and few Slavonic settlements existed south of Mace-
donia, The modern representatives of those early Slaves,
who, before the time of Justinian, had already swarmed
so numerously into the decaying provinces of the Empire,
and whose descendants have held their ground even to
the present time, are seen, not in the Servians, but in
the Bulgarians. The Servians had another and later
origin, as we shall presently see.
The vast region extending from the Adriatic to the
Danube had been already ruined by incessant barbarian
inroads, when Justinian surrendered it to the Lombards,
that in them he might find a barrier against the tribes of
the North. The Lombards had not been long in posses-
sion, when, becoming weary of the poverty and desola-
tion which everywhere surrounded them, about the year
570. they migrated in a body for a new and permanent
conquest in the North of Italy. This was just at the time
when the formidable Kingdom of the Avars was rising
' Felton's Greece, Ancient and Modern, ii., 311-12. In the latter part
of the ninth century, the Greeks were rapidly recovering their ascendency in
the Peloponnesus. — Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. 303.
SER VI AN MIGRA TION. 319
into power to the north of the Danube.* It was to rcpeo-
ple the territory thus left vacant by the Lombards, and at
the same time to raise a firm barrier against the power
of the Avars, that the Emperor HeracHus, who reigned
from 610 to 641, invited the Servians and the Croats to
migrate from the neighborhood of the Carpathian Moun-
tains, and seek a permanent home within the limits of the
Empire.
The invitation was accepted, and several tribes of these
Western Slaves, a race far more spirited and warlike than
their eastern kindred, took up their abode in the seats
which their descendants have ever since retained. This
movement proved eminently advantageous to the Empire.
The Servians entered at once into quiet possession of their
new homes, readily blending with the considerable Slavic
population, which had before occupied the country, as
the oppressed servants of the Lombards, and formed the
Zupanias (Zhupanias) or Bannats of Servia, Croatia,
Bosnia, Rascia,^ and Dalmatia. The chiefs of these small
barbarian kingdoms were called Zupans (Zhupans), a title
to which Pan or Ban seems to have been nearly equiva-
lent. The Voivode was a leader in war and a judge in
peace ; the nobles were called Boyars ; Kniaz or Knez,
the proper title (with Gospoda or Hospodar) of the pre-
' The Avars were a Tartar tribe, driven from Asia by the Turks, whose
conquests at this time first revealed their name and nation to the world.—
Gibbon, iv. 200.
* Rascia was the ancient Dardania, named from the river Rashka,
the small stream on which stands the modern Novi Bazaar. Novi Bazaar
occupies very nearly the site of the capital of Nemanja, the founder of the
Servian Monarchy.— Wilkinson, ii. 283, note; Mackenzie and Irby, p. 315;
Forsyth, p. 22.
)90 THE SLA VIC RACE.
sent sovereigns of Montenegro and Servia — ^was equiva-
lent to Prince, Krai to King, and Tzar to Emperor.^ These
Servian principalities acknowledged a nominal allegiance
to the Emperors of Constantinople, but were from the
beginning essentially independent, and pursued unre-
stricted their own normal and healthful political develop-
ment.^
^ Wilkinson, ii. 25-6 ; Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 14S-9.
' Finlay's Greece under the Romans, p. 408.
CHAPTER II.
THE BULGARIANS.
THE EARLIER AND LATER BULGARIAN KINGDOMS.
As already observed, the modern Bulgarians represent
in the main that great Eastern Slavic population, which,
before the year 600, had become established in the re-
gion to the south of the Danube. Their name is derived
from a Finnish or Hunnish tribe, which first subdued
them, long ruled over them, and finally became lost
among them. It was very much as if the Normans, after
the victory of William the Conqueror, had given their
name to the English nation.
The Huns, Avars, Turks, Tartars, and Bulgarians were
all kindred Turanian or Scythian tribes from Centra!
Asia. The Bulgarians ^ are said to have been mentioned
by Armenian writers as early as six hundred years before
Christ, when they are reported to have invaded Armenia
from their primitive seats beyond the Caspian. Some
centuries later a branch of the nation moved westward
and settled upon the River Volga, which derived its name
from them. About A. D. 500, they moved still further
westward, and subdued the Huns and Slaves upon the
nortli-west shores of the Black Sea, and the lower Dan-
^ Gibbon, iv. 195; and Finlay's Greece under the Romans, 311-18.
f4*
322 THE TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
ube, thus coming into dangerous proximity to the Roman
Empire and the civihzed regions of the South.
In the weakness and confusion which marked the last
years of the long reign (A. D. 527-565) of the Emperor
Justinian, the mingled tribes of the Bulgarians, Huns, and
Slaves became a terrible scourge to the declining Empire.
Breaking across the Danube, these fierce enemies entered
upon a long career of slaughter and devastation. At
first the aged Belisarius (himself as well as his master
probably a Slave) took the field against them, and added
the crowning glory to his long career by inflicting upon
them a serious defeat. This check, however, was but
momentary, and very soon the waves of this fearful in-
vasion rolled almost unresisted over the devoted regions
of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. Year by year the
barbarians returned to renew the work of destruction,
and the Byzantine historians bitterly complain that in
every inroad they robbed the Empire of two hundred
thousand of its people. Vast multitudes of these unhappy
captives were put to death with cruel tortures, while the
rest were carried into slavery or held for ransom. Before
many years, however, these tribes fell under the yoke of
the Avars, and for a time their destroying career was
checked.
In the year 635, the Bulgarians again made them-
selves free, and established a widely extended dominion,
reaching from the Carpathian Mountains to the Sea
of Azof. It was about the year 670 that Asparuch, a
powerful chief of this Bulgarian kingdom, crossed the
Danube at the head of his tribe and perhaps an equal
number of Slavonian allies and subjects, not so much for
FIRST BULGARIAN KINGDOM. 313
plunder as for conquest and permanent settlement.^ The
Slavic inhabitants, then almost the only occupants of
the district between the Danube and the Balkan Moun-
tains, readily united with the invaders, and Asparuch
established his throne at Varna, upon the Black Sea.
An expedition sent against him by the Emperor Con-
stantine Pogonatus was totally defeated ; the humiliated
Emperor was compelled to pay tribute to the Bulgarian
chief, and the whole of the district now known as the
province of Bulgaria was left quietly in his possession.
Thus was founded the first Bulgarian kingdom within
the ancient territory of Rome. Soon after the capital
was removed to Preslav (Marcionopolis), the ruins of
which may now be found about fifteen miles south of the
city of Shumla.
For two hundred years longer the Bulgarians re-
mained a pagan people, but in process of time, familiar
and constant intercourse with the now reinvigorated
Byzantine Empire began to impart to them some rudi-
ments of civilization. Commerce, the great civilizcr, was
beginning to bend them to her potent sway. The passes
of the Balkans were the channels through which flowed
the rich and extensive traffic between Constantinople
and the vast regions of Central Europe ; and of this
source of wealth the Bulgarians soon learned to avail
themselves. This social progress ^ prepared the way for
* Finlay's Greece under the Romans, p. 485.
* Before their conversion to Christianity, the Bulgarians advanced in
the arts of war far more rapidly than in those of peace. The Bulgarian
armies appeared at the very gates of Constantinople armed in complete
steel, and in possession of all tlie military engines then in use. In the year
81 1» the Emperor Niccphorus I. \vas com|^letely defeated by them and
3a« THE TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
Christianity ; and, strange as it may appear, the frequent
and cruel wars between this barbarian kingdom and the
Greek Empire had much to do in conveying the first
knowledge of the gospel to the Bulgarians. In every
war numerous captives were taken on both sides ; and
these captives of either party proved efficient propagators
of Christianity among the Bulgarians. The Greek cap-
tives were rarely wanting in zeal for their faith ; and not
infrequently Bulgarian men and women, living for years
in captivity among a Christian people, embraced Chris-
tianity, and returned to communicate their new religion
to their brethren at home.^
Christianity was first actively preached in Bulgaria
about the year 813, by a captive bishop, whose labors
met with little success, and won him a martyr's crown.
But in the year 861, a sister of King Bogoris, who had
been detained at Constantinople as a captive or a host-
age, and had there embraced Christianity, returned to her
brother's court and set herself with great earnestness to
secure his conversion. At first her efforts were vain ;
but, softened by trouble and famine, the King began at
length to listen more thoughtfully to his sister's instruc-
tions, and even to call for help from the Christians' God.
At this time there appeared at the Bulgarian court —
purposely sent for, according to some accounts, by the
King's sister — a monk named Methodius, who was a
skillful painter. This monk was employed by the King
fell upon the field of battle, leaving his skull to be made into a drinking
cup by the Bulgarian king. — Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. 124-38.
' For the conversion of the Bulgarians, see Neander, iii. 307-15; and
Maclcar's History of Christian Missions in the Middle Ages, 279-83.
CONVERSION OF THE BULGARIANS, 325
to paint for him the walls of a hunting-lodge ; but in-
stead of depicting the scenes and incidents of the chase,
he improved the opportunity to paint a vivid repre-
sentation of the Day of Judgment. The King and his
attendants are said to have been greatly impressed by
this painting, and, by earnestly asking its meaning, to
have given the artist what he desired — an opportunity to
preach Christ and Him crucified.
Soon afterwards the King avowed himself a Christian
and was baptized. Having himself forsaken the religion
of his fathers, he at once proceeded, and with no little
violence and cruelty, to force his subjects to a like
change in their faith; and thus it was that about the
year 865 the Bulgarians became nominally a Christian
people. For a time, however, their religious affairs re-
mained in such confusion that Bogoris finally applied to
Pope Nicholas I. for instruction, and for a definite state-
ment of the doctrines of Christianity. Nicholas re-
sponded by sending him two bishops and an excellent
letter of counsel and instruction. After this the Bul-
garians wavered for a time between Rome and Con-
stantinople, but finally turned to the latter, and became,
as they have ever since remained, attached to the Greek
communion.
About the year 850, Cyril ^ and Methodius, two bro-
thers of Thessalonica, themselves probably of Slavonic
descent, entered upon their noble career as the great
apostles of the Slavonic race. Whether Methodius,
the brother of Cyril, was the same person with the
' The baptismal name of Cyril was Constantine. At Constantinople ht
was known as Constantine the Philosopher. — Neander, iiL 314,
326 THE TURKIStT SLAVONIANS,
artist monk of the same name, already spoken of, is not
sure. The Bulgarians believe that they were the same ;
and for this reason, in the pictures of the two brothers in
the old Bulgarian churches, St. Methodius is always re-
presented with his painting in his hand.^ About the year
860, Cyril invented what has ever since been known as
the CyriUic alphabet, and reduced the Slavonic language
to writing.^ Soon afterwards the two brothers translated
portions of the Scriptures into the Slavonic language,
and, with a liberality beyond their age, they everywhere
conducted in this, the dialect of the common people, all
the services of public worship.
From that day to this the language of the Cyrillic
Scriptures has remained the sacred language of the Bul-
garians, the Servians, and the Russians. The modern
dialects have not so far deviated from it but that it is
still easily understood by all the families of the Slavonic
race ; and of late years the Southern Slaves are every-
where reviving this grand old language as their best and
most vital bond of nationality. The names of Cyril and
Methodius are spoken with reverence by the whole Sla-
vonic race. In the year 1862, the thousandth anniver-
sary of these great apostles of Eastern Europe was cele-
brated with a deep and sacred enthusiasm " by more
than eighty millions of Slavonic Christians, without dis-
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 40.
^ The Servians still employ this alphabet, while the Bulgarians make use
of the modified form of the same character, which, ever since the days of
Peter the Great, has been in use in Russia. Tliere was an older and
ruder Slavonic alphabet, called the Glagolitic. When or by whom it was
invented, or where it was used, is not clear. — Talvi, p. 37.
CZAR SIMEON, 337
tinction of sect or denomination, from Prague to the
Pacific, and from the Baltic to Salonica."^
After their conversion to Christianity, the progress of
the Bulgarians was for a time very rapid. The young
men of their leading families were many of them edu-
cated at Constantinople ; the lucrative traffic between the
East and the West, which passed through their hands,
gave them wealth, and the refining influences of civiliza-
tion were widely and powerfully felt. In the long and
prosperous reign of Simeon, the son of Bogoris, the Bul-
garian power reached its culminating point. In the year
923, this prince appeared for the second time before the
walls of Constantinople, and, as the result of a treaty
then entered into, he assumed the title of Emperor, and
took the proud position of the equal of his imperial bro-
ther of Constantinople. By the same treaty was estab-
lished the entire independence of the Bulgarian Church,
of which the Archbishop of Dorostylon (Silistria) was
made Patriarch.'^ Simeon also subdued the neighboring
Servian provinces, which he laid waste with terrible
cruelty. It would not seem, however, that the Bul-
garian kings ever extended a well established authority
over any large portion of the Servian territories ; and, by
the treaty above referred to, the Balkan Mountains were
still recognized as the southern boundary of Simeon's
dominions.
The sceptre of Simeon descended to feebler hands, and
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 46.
* Finlay's Byzantine Empire, i. 369. Tzar was the proper title of the
Bulgarian and Servian, as it now is of the Russian sovereigns. The capital
was called the Tzarigrad, or King's Fortress.
15
328 THE TURKISH SLAVONIANS,
in the years 968 and 970 occurred two great Russian inva-
sions, by which the Bulgarian armies were defeated and
the whole kingdom subdued. The throne of Constantino-
ple was occupied at this time by John Zimisces, an able
sovereign and valiant soldier. It was the purpose of the
Russian commander to pass the Balkans and lay siege to
Constantinople ; but his dreams of conquest were sud-
denly cut short. Early in the spring of 971, John Zim-
isces marched from Adrianople, penetrated the passes of
the Balkans before the Russians dreamed of his approach,
entirely defeated them, and recaptured Boris, the Bulga-
rian King. Boris was compelled to surrender the inde-
pendence not only of his kingdom but of the Bulgarian
Church ; and the frontiers of the Greek Empire were
again extended to the Danube. Thus fell the first Bul-
garian kingdom, after an existence of just three hundred
years.*
The subjection of the Bulgarians, however, was but
short. Hardly had John Zimisces breathed his last, in
976, when four brothers of a noble Bulgarian family
roused their countrymen to a renewed struggle for inde-
pendence. Three of the brothers soon perished, but
the fourth, Samuel by name, succeeded in establishing
himself firmly upon the Bulgarian throne. Samuel the
Bulgarian proved one of the ablest leaders who ever con-
tested the sceptre of empire with the sovereigns of Con-
stantinople. Not content with the narrow limits of the
old Bulgarian kingdom, he passed the Balkans, and car-
ried his victorious arms as far south as the Peloponnesus,
' Finlay's Byzantine Empire, L 410.
SECOND BULGARIAN KINGDOM. 329
Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus were in great part add-
ed to his dominions.
Understanding well the difficulty of maintaining \v.m-
self in the plains of Bulgaria proper against the superior
discipline of the Roman armies, Samuel transferred the
seat of his kingdom to north-western Macedonia, and
fixed his capital at Achrida or Lychnidus, on Lake
Achrida. At the same time the independence of the
Bulgarian Church was restored, and the Archbishop of
Achrida was consecrated Patriarch.
The strength of this second Bulgarian Kingdom lay in
the Slavonic population to the south of the Balkans ; and
its establishment marks the complete fusion of the Bul-
garians and Eastern Slavonians. Unfortunately for the
cause of Bulgarian independence, however, the throne of
Constantinople was at this time occupied by a sovereio-n
not only of eminent ability, but of a fierce and terrible
energy. The Emperor Basil II., sumamed Bulgaroktonos,
or Slayer of the Bulgarians, assumed the imperial purple
in 976.* Perfectly aware that the establishment of this
new barbarian kingdom at the gates of his capital men-
aced the very existence of his Empire, he determined
upon a mortal struggle which should end only with the
complete subjection of one or the other of the rival pow-
' Basil Bulgaroktonos was himself of Slavonic blood. Basil I., the
founder of this imperial family, was a Slavonian groom, whom the caprices
of fortune and his rare talents and crimes raised to the imperial throne. lie
entered Constantinople carrying all his goods in a wallet upon his shoulder,
and not knowing where he could find lodging for the night. He obtained
employment in the service of an officer of the Imperial Court, and it was liis
skill in taming unruly horses which first brought him into notice.— Finla/s
Byzantine Empire, i. 271. See above. Part I. chap. v.
33© THE TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
ers. His first campaigns were disastrous, and served only
to establish the power of Samuel upon a firmer basis.
But, like Frederick the Great, acquiring skill fi-om defeat,
he persevered, and ere long the tide of success turned in
his favor. His first great victory was won in 996. From
this time for twenty-two years he prosecuted the war with
unflagging determination, until at last his end was attain-
ed, and the last Bulgarian stronghold surrendered to his
arms. The decisive battle was fought in 1014, resulting
in the total defeat of the Bulgarians. Basil followed this
victory by an act of atrocious cruelty, which covered his
name with lasting infamy. He put out the eyes of fifteen
thousand prisoners, leaving a single eye to the leader of
every hundred, that he might conduct his wretched com-
panions to their master. Samuel went out to meet the
returning captains, but, overpowered by the horrible
sight, fell senseless to the ground, and died in two days.
This act of fiendish cruelty roused the Bulgarians to a
desperate resistance, but it was without avail. Samuel
left his throne to his son Gabriel Radomir, who was soon
murdered and succeeded by his cousin Ladislas. Ladislas
fell after a short reign of two years and five months, when
the kingdom, left without a head, surrendered without
further resistance, and in 1018 the Byzantine Empire
was once more extended to the Adriatic and the Danube.
After this thorough subjugation, the Bulgarians re-
mained dependent upon the Byzantine Empire for about
one hundred and seventy-five years. And when, about
the year 1190, in the reign of the Emperor Alexis, a
successful revolt established the third Bulgarian Kingdom,
another people, the Wallachians, the descendants of the
THIRD BULGARIAN" KINGDOM. 331
old Latin-speaking population which had occupied these
regions under the Empire of Rome, had risen to a prom-
inent position, and it was a Wallachian family which se-
cured possession of the throne.^
The third Bulgarian Kingdom had its capital at Ter-
novo, which was made the seat of a Bulgarian Patriarch,
thus once more restoring the independence of the Bulga-
rian Church. This Kingdom was limited to the prov-
inces north of the Balkans ; and, excepting a temporary
subjection to the great Servian Emperor Stephen Du-
shan, it endured for a period of two hundred years, until
it was swallowed up in the conquests of the Turks. Like
those before it, it was not characterized by a high degree
of social quiet and good order. Unlike the Servians, the
Bulgarians never developed among themselves a healthful
and progressive political life. Their institutions were
confused and ill-jointed, nor did they ever afford the
promise of permanent and advancing prosperity. The
hope of the Southern Slaves, then as now, was in the
Servians, who from the beginning have always given
promise of a great and progressive national development.
Still, the Kingdom of Ternovo was to some extent a
civilized and prosperous state, and displayed no little of
opulence and magnificence. The rich caravan trade be-
tween the East and the West still passed through its
borders, and the massive storehouses of the princely
merchants of Sophia remain to this day an indestructible
monument to their enterprise and their wealth.''
' Finlay's Byzantine Empire, ii. 306.
* " The remains of the old entrepot for the goods conveyed by the Bul-
gariaa caravans from Asia into Europe, are as imposing as tliose of a Roman
33*
THE TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
Many of the Bulgarian Kings were patrons of learning
and letters, and some of them were themselves writers.
The great Simeon was an author, and a curious chronicle
of John Asan, one of the Tzars of the third Bulgarian
Kingdom, is said to have been published a few years ago
in modern Bulgarian. The last Bulgarian king was John
Shishman, who styles himself, in a golden bull addressed
to the monastery of Rilo, " Faithful Tzar and Autocrat
of all cne Bulgarians and Greeks." Shishman surrendered
himself and his capital to the Turks in 1390.^
amphitheatre. They consist of a vast square, flanked by three superb ranges
of vaulted galleries, placed one over the other. The upper arch has in part
broken down, but the others, built of large masses of granite, are entire."—
Cyprian Robert, p. 475.
^ Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 17 uA laik
CHAPTER III.
THE SERVIANS.
RISE OF THE SERVIAN EMPIRE — STEPHEN DUSHAN —
THE BATTLE OF KOSSOVO — THE TURKISH CON-
QUEST.
The history of the Servians, in both mediaeval and
modern times, is full of interest Not only is it perhaps
the best example known to us of a Slavonic people pur-
suing quietly the natural course of its own proper devel-
opment ; but it is the history of one of the noblest races
of the human family, evidently formed by nature to
play no insignificant part in the great drama of human
advancement. This history is most instructive because
there is about it from beginning to end a strong and
delightful flavor of Slavonic originality. The strong
points in the character of the Servian people are peculiar
to themselves. Almost alone of modern civilized peo-
ples, they have preserved unadulterated the simplicity
of their original character, the flavor of the soil from
which they sprung.
Loving freedom with ardent devotion, from the days
of their savage ancestors the Servians have always been
remarkable for the quiet and peaceful order of their
village life. Though as brave as any other people in
defence of their rights and their homes, they have never
been inclined to aggression and conquest, have never
been really warlike. As compared with other nations.
334 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
they have always been remarkable as a quiet, orderly,
home-keeping and industrious people, living in comfort
and abundance, of grave and dignified demeanor, almost
wholly free from most of the grosser vices which degrade
humanity, possessing a temperament in a high degree
poetic, and delighting, above all other things, in the
opulent store of ballads and legends which recount the
glories and vicissitudes of their history. In the days
of the great Stephen Dushan they seemed upon the
very eve of making Constantinople the seat of a powerful
and enduring Servian Empire — an empire which would
have excluded the Turks from Europe, and changed the
course of modern history. In our own times, though
situated in the very heart of the Turkish dominions, and
with the territories of their oppressors surrounding them
on three sides, they have for more than half a century
successfully asserted their independence, and now display
a spectacle of well established freedom, and of advancing
intelligence, prosperity, and wealth hardly to be paralleled
in Eastern Europe.
We have already seen that the Croats and Servians
belonged originally to the western branch of the Slavonic
stock ; that they were settled in the neighborhood of the
Carpathian Mountains ; and that about the year 630, in
response to an invitation of the Emperor Heraclius, they
came by a great national migration to occupy the deso-
late western provinces of the Greek Empire.^ The Croats
moved first, and occupied the north-western districts near-
est the Adriatic ; the Servians followed, and settled the
regions next adjoining upon the east. The territory thus
^ See p. 319.
SERVIAN NOBILITY, 335
colonized extended from Epirus or Albania upon :he
south to the River Drave on the north, and from the
Adriatic on the west to Bulgaria on the east. It is a
magnificent and fruitful country, much of it wild and
mountainous, but everywhere abounding in forest-crown-
ed slopes and sunny valleys and plains.
The colonists brought with them in full perfection their
Slavonic customs and institutions, and, although they ac-
knowledged some allegiance to the Greek Emperor, were
always essentially independent. The only nobility among
the early Servians was a nobility of office. The Zupan '
or Knez was the governor of a province; the master of
several provinces was a Grand Zupan ; they called their
military leaders Voivodes,^ and the heads of their petty
kingdoms were Krals. There had been many Krals of
Servia, Bosnia, Rascia, and Dalmatia, when, in 1222,
Stephen Radoslav was crowned the first " Tzar of all the
Servian lands." The organization of society among the
Servians was upon the same communal principle which
seems to have prevailed everywhere among the early
Slaves. A description of the "House Communion," as it
may still be seen in free Servia and Montenegro in almost
its primitive character, will give the reader a very good
idea of the manner of life of their ancestors in mediaeval
times.
The household or community is a sort of clan, consist-
' Pronounced Zhupaan. For the early history of the Servians, see
Ranke's Servia, chap. i. ; Finlay's Greece under the RoniaD«s chap, iv.,
sect. 6; Wilkinson, chap, i,; Mackenzie and Irby, chap. xii.
^ Voivode, not Woiwode, or Waiwode. " There is only one letter in
the Slavish language for v and w. The Slavic w is always pronounced like
the English z^." — Talvi, p. 411, note.
336 TURKISH SLA VONIAlfS,
ing of several families, more commonly all related to each
other, although strangers may be received upon a foot-
ing of entire equality. The male members form the Za-
drooga, or corporation. The Zadrooga chooses the Sta-
reshina (housefather), who is the responsible head and
director of the community. The Stareshina has charge
of the common business of the family, apportions in-
comes and expenditures, and is the guardian of orphan
children. The " House Communion " is strictly a joint
stock corporation, each member of which is entitled to
share in the profits according to what he has contributed
or produced. Each family establishment forms a little
village by itself Sometimes the comparatively large and
imposing house of the Stareshina will appear in a cen-
tral position, while round it are grouped a number of
smaller dwellings, of which each separate family has one.
In other cases, and perhaps more frequently, the whole
household is accommodated beneath the same roof; the
large common room occupying the middle of the house,
while the smaller family rooms open out of it on the
sides of the building. These family rooms or houses,
however, are little more than sleeping apartments.
The real home of the whole community is the large
common room, or the house of the Stareshina. Here
they all live and take their meals together. " Evening
finds the family by the household hearth, by the bright
burning fire in the house of the Stareshina. The men
cut and repair the agricultural tools and house vessels.
The elders rest from their labors, smoke, and discuss
what is to be done next day, or the events of the village
and the country. The women group themselves, quietly
GRE^^ COMMERCIAL CITIES. 337
working, in a circle near them ; the merry little ones
play at the feet of their parents, or beg the grandfather
to relate to them about Czar Troyan, or Marko Kralie-
vitch. Then the Stareshina, or one of the other men,
takes the one-stringed gusla from the wall. To its
singular monotonous accompaniment are sung legends,
heroic songs, and such as in burning words relate the
need of the fatherland, and its wars of liberation. Thus
the house of the Stareshina becomes the social gathering-
point of the whole family. At his hearth is kindled the
love of individuals for the old traditions of the family and
people, and the inspiring enthusiasm of all for the free-
dom and prosperity of their native land."^
For a considerable time after their migration the Croats
and Servians formed several bannats or principalities, in
a greater or less degree independent. The unifying, na-
tional movement among the Servians had its origin from
the south-west corner of their territory, where the neigh-
borhood of Greek and Latin commercial cities had com-
municated to the rude Slaves the beginnings of civiliza-
tion. In the twelfth century the Adriatic was already
the scene of a vast commercial activity, and of rapidly
advancing civilization. Venice was rising steadily to her
proud position as mistress of the seas, while two hundred
and fifty miles down the eastern shore the little republic
of Ragusa was pursuing a career no less honorable and
successful. Still further south were Cattaro, at the head
of the gulf of the same name, and Antivari, lying be-
tween Lake Scutari and the sea, while further inland
' F. Kanitz in the Oestr. Revue, vol. viii., quoted by Mackenzie and
Irby, p. 670. ^
338 TURKISH SLAVON^TA.VS.
upon the watei^ of the lake was the old Latin city of
Dioclea. From the fruitfulness of the soil and the com-
mercial enterprise and activity of its population, all this
region upon the Dalmatian coast was making rapid pro-
gress in prosperity and civilization.
For many generations before this period we dimly
trace a long succession of Servian Knezes and Krals,
many of whom were but the petty chiefs of narrow ter-
ritories, while others were kings of considerable power.
The founding of the Servian Empire is dated from the
accession of Stephen Nemanja,^ whose paternal domin-
ions as Duke of Chelmo * and Grand Zupan of Rascia
embraced all the Servian lands upon the Dalmatian coast
Zeta or Zenta, the wealthy and cultivated region about
Dioclea on Lake Scutari, seems to have been the cradle
of the Servian state.^ Nemanja is said to have reigned
over all Servia, and to have taken from the Byzantine
governors all the fortified places within the Servian limits.
Among those fortresses were Skopia and Prizren, the lat-
ter of which was made the Servian czarigrad or capital.
Nemanja was succeeded in 1196 by his son, Stephen
Tehomil.*
Of the three sons of Tehomil, the youngest, named
^ Pronounced N^manjra, the accent on the first syllable.
^ Chelrao or Zaciilinia was the district upon the seacoast extending
northwards from Ragusa to the River Narenta. — Wilkinson, ii. 96.
* " Montenegro was then called Zeta or Zenta, which was divided into
Upper and Lower Zenta, the latter extending to the Lake of Scutari, hence
called Lake of Zenta." — Wilkinson, i. 477, and note.
* Wilkinson, i. 448, note, and IL Appendix C. Ranke (Servia, p. b)
makes St. Sava the son of Nemanja, and Nemanja himself in his old age the
monk Simeon. But the authorities foUowed by Wilkinson seem to warrant
the statement in th« text.
ST. SAVA, 339
Rasko or Predislav, but better known in history by hia
monastic name as St. Sava, was destined to accomplish a
work for his country and his race greater even than that
of his royal grandfather. In spite of all that his parents
could do to prevent, he forsook his royal station, and, be-
taking himself to Mount Athos, became a caloyer or
monk. After Rasko's departure, Stephen Tehomil him-
self so wearied of the cares of royalty, so yearned for
the society of his son, that after a reign of only a single
year he placed the crown upon the head of his oldest
son, Stephen Radoslav or Velkan, and, following Rasko
to Mount Athos, became himself a monk under the
name of Simeon.
After his father's abdication St Sava entered upon his
long and zealous labors for the good of his country. He
obtained from the Greek Emperor and the Patriarch
of Constantinople a recognition of the independence
of the Servian Church, and of his brother as the Tzar of
the Servian peoples. Having been consecrated as Metro-
politan of Servia, he returned to his native land, and
fixed his ecclesiastical throne at the church and monas-
tery of Zitchka. Here, in the year 1222, he convened a
great Sabor, or Parliament, at which he crowned his
brother Stephen " Tzar of all the Servian lands and the
Pomoria." ' Considering the barbarous character of his
country and his age, St. Sava left an honorable record.
He completed the ecclesiastical organization of the king-
dom, built churches and monasteries, secured peace with
foreign nations, healed dissensions at home, and preached
' Or Primorie ; the commercial cities upon the Rcacoast. — Ranke'e
Servia, p. 7.
540 TURKISH SLAVONIANS,
the gospel to the poor. He has also the doubtful praise
of having finished the work of his father and grand-
father in rooting out heresy. What this language
means, however, is not very clear, as the Paulician
sects ^ (the Patarenes and Bogomilians, aj<in to the
Waldenses and Albigenses of the South of Europe) con-
tinued to be very numerous among the Servians down
almost or quite to the Turkish conquest.
Previous to the time ot Nemanja the religious affairs of
the Croats and Servians, lying, as they did, midway be-
tween Rome and Constantinople, had been in great con-
fusion. Part inclined to the Papal Church, and part to
the Greek, while the Paulicians formed a third party of no
little strength and influence. The decision of Nemanja
connected the Servians wholly and permanently with
Constantinople, while the Croats turned finally to Rome,
The separation between the Croats and Servians was
political as well as religious. Most of their Zupans had
been subject to Charlemagne, although afterwards they
were united in a powerful kingdom of their own, which
included Dalmatia and a part of Bosnia. Before the rise
of the Servian Empire, the Croats had already placed
their crown upon the head of their neighbor the King of
Hungary.
From the time of St. Sava, the Servian state pursued
the course of its political and social development with
more or less of quiet and steadiness, until it reached its
culminating point in the reign of its renowned Emperor
Stephen Dushan, who ascended the throne in 1333. The
sway of this able and powerful prince extended over the
• See above, Part I. chap. iv. ; and Wilkinson, ii. 97-114.
STEPHEN DUSHAN. 341
whole of the South Slavonic race excepting the Croats.
The Bulgarian Kingdom was for the time made subsid-
iary, and his authority extended over Macedonia, Thessaly,
and Epirus. His Empire thus embraced the whole of
the present territories of Turkey in Europe south of the
Danube, with the exception of Thrace.
The designs of Stephen Dushan were vast and far-
reaching.' The Greek Empire now presented but the
shadow of imperial power, and the Turk was already
standing defiantly at tlie gates of Europe. It was evident
that either the Ottoman or the Nemanyitch^ line must
very soon reign in Constantinople. The instincts of self-
preservation and the honor of the Christian name coin-
cided with the impulses of ambition in impelling the Ser-
vian Tzar to his decision. He determined to restore in
his own person the Roman Empire of the East, as, six
hundred years before, Charlemagne had that of the West
He accordingly assembled a great Sabor or Parhament at
Skopia, at which he was solemnly crowned Emperor of
' Krtinke, p. ii; Finlay, ii. 551; and the sketch of the history of
Stephen Dushan in Mackenzie and Irby.
* N^manyitch is the proper surname of all the Servian princes descended
from Ndmanja. It is the usual Slavonian usage to designate each man by
the name of his father appended to his own. The terminal itch, vich, vitch,
or vitsch in Slavonian patronyrrtlcs signifies the son of. The heir apparent
to the Russian throne is the Czarevitch, or Czar's-son. Vuk Stephanovitch
is Vuk the son of Stephen. Alexander Kara Georgevitch is Alexander the
son of Kara George ; and Milosch Obrenovitch is Milosch the son of Obren.
Vitsch is the spelling of Prof. Ranke, and this, unpronounceable as it seems
to English ears, is probably the nearest approach to the correct orthography.
Mrs. Robinson observes (pp. 14-23) that the Slavonic languages abound in
sibilants which can hardly be represented by EngUsh characters, or articu-
lated by any foreigner; sh, tsh, sht, shtsh (Polish sscx), &c, being repre-
tented in the old Slavonic by single letters.
343 TURKISH SLAVONIANS,
the Rotimelians or Romans. At another Sabor, held at
Seres, the successor of St. Sava was elevated to the rank
of Patriarch, and Ipek was made the seat of his ecclesias-
tical authority.
The new Emperor then proceeded to arrange every-
thing in his dominions preparatory to his grand march
upon Constantinople, The several provinces were put in
charge of deputies, or viceroys, whose titles were gradu-
ated according to their dignity.' Seven years of his
earlier hfe Stephen Dushan had passed at Constantino-
ple.^ He had thus enjoyed the opportunity of acquiring
not only the best education which the times afforded, but
a knowledge of the laws and polity of the Greek Empire,
and a minute acquaintance with all its affairs. This early
training bore important fruit in his after life. At the Sabor
of Skopia was enacted a code of laws which has ever
since borne the Emperor's name, and is one of the most
interesting and valuable remains of the old Servian lite-
rature and institutions. Nothing else perhaps is able to
throw so clear a light upon the state of Servian society
at this time. From those laws it is clear that the Ser-
vians were still a free people. The sovereigns took no
important step without the advice and consent of their
Sabor or Parliament. These Sabors were not always the
same. Sometimes they were attended only by the official
nobles ; sometimes the summons included " all men of
note in the Servian lands." The feudal system, and its
' These titles were Krai (King), Despot, Cassar, Sevastocrator (the
three latter being dignities borrowed from the Greeks), JCnez (Prince)^
Ban (Count), and Voivode (General).
* Finlay, ii. 550.
LA IVS OF STEPHEN DUSHAN. 343
tvretched attendant, serfdom, seem never to have existed
in Servia There was a large and powerful body of no-
bles whose titles were hereditary, but their nobility was
based not in landed estates but in office.
Perhaps these laws present no more striking evidence
of a sound statesmanship than in the careful protection
which they afford to trade. Everything is ordered to
favor the construction of roads and bridges. The gov-
ernment undertakes, for a moderate sum, to insure the
foreign merchant against losses by robbery; and it is
provided that when he is brought before a legal tribunal
on any charge, half the jury shall be of his own coun-
trymen. It was during this period, and owing in part,
no doubt, to the protection afforded to their commerce
by the Servian princes, that Ragusa and the other im-
portant cities upon the seacoast acquired that wealth and
strength which enabled them to exist so long as inde-
pendent republics after the conquest of the Servian Em-
pire by the Turks.*
This period was the most flourishing age of the Ser-
vian Church. Letters were patronized, and books, chiefly
ecclesiastical, were multiplied. The arts made great pro-
gress, and many fine churches and monasteries still re-
main, in which the best talents of both Byzantine and
Italian art were made subservient to the taste of the
Nemanyitch princes.
His preparations at length complete, Stephen Du-
* Ragusa remained rich, prosperous, and powerful until the city was al-
most wholly destroyed by a dreadful earthquake, April 6th, 1667. This
little republic fell at last, with many other and mightier states, before the
power of Napoleon, in 1806. — Wilkinson, chap. v.
344 TVRKISH SLAVONIANS,
shan assembled the forces of his Empire, and began his
march upon Constantinople. His design was not so
much to conquer that ancient seat of imperial power as
to present himself a rightful and irresistible candidate for
the throne to which his Empire had for so many cen-
turies been subject, and which had been already filled
by so many Emperors of Slavonic blood. It is vain to
speculate on what might have been the subsequent
course of events in Eastern Europe if this great founder
of Servian power had lived to old age. The imagina-
tion dwells fondly upon this young and vigorous Empire,
replacing the worn-out pageant at Constantinople, hold-
ing the gates of Europe firmly against the Turk, and
advancing side by side with Germany, France, and Eng-
land in prosperity and civilization ; but all this was not
to be. Hardly had the Servian Emperor set out on his
march for Constantinople, when, in 1355, a fever seized
him and carried him quickly to his grave.
Dushan had sought to provide for such an emer-
gency, and had named Vukashine, Krai of Zenta, Regent
of the Empire and guardian of his son, Urosh, in the
event of his decease. But the Regent proved treacher-
ous, the young Tzar was but a helplejs boy, dissensions
filled the imperial family, and the majestic fabric reared
by the genius of Stephen Dushan rapidly crumbled
away. Bulgaria and Bosnia recovered their indepen-
dence; the Southern nobles threw ofT their allegiance,
and were one by one subdued by the Turks, now firmly
established in Thrace; and finally, in 1368/ the young
Emperor, Stephen Urosh V., was secretly murdered by
> Wilkinson ii., Appendiy C.
DEA TH OF STEPHEN DUSHAN, 345
Vukashine, who, pretending that his master had gone
on a long pilgrimage, held the government in his own
hands. Vukashine retained his ill-gotten power until
1 37 1, when, after a defeat suffered from the Turks under
Amurath I., his standard-bearer discovered the guilty
secret, and laid the traitorous Krai dead at his feet.
It is hardly possible for the less simple-minded and
poetic men of the West to understand the vividness with
which the constant chanting of their old traditionary bal-
lads and legends has impressed these and all the events
of iheir early history upon the minds of the whole Ser-
vian race. We cannot better take our leave of this great
Servian hero, whose glories are sung by day and by
night, in every Servian market-place and by every Ser-
vian hearthstone, than in the simple and pathetic lan-
guage of one of these old heroic poems : —
"When Stephen Dushan felt the hand of death upon
him, he bade them carry him to the top of a hill from
whence he could look, on the one hand towards Constan-
tinople, and on the other towards the Servian lands.
And, behold, when he had looked this way and that, bit-
ter tears gathered in the eyes of the Tzar. Then said
his secretary, King's-son-Marko,^ ' Wherefore weepest
thou, O Tzar ? ' The Tzar answered him, ' Therefore
weep I, not because I am about to leave the countries
where I have made good roads, and builded good bridges,
and appointed good governors ; but because I must leave
' That is, " Marko Kralievitch," the son of Krai Vflkashine. Marko
Kralievitch is one of the most famous characters and heroes of Servian leg-
endary lore. For his story, see Mackenzie and Irby, chap. viiL, and
Ranke's Servia, pp. 52-55.
346 TURKISH SLAVONIANS,
them without taking the City of Empire ; and I see the
gate standing open by which the enemy of the land will
enter in.' Then the secretary Marko made haste, and
wrote down the words of the Tzar, that they might be
remembered by his son, the boy Urosh ; that they might
be remembered by the Servian nation ; that they might
be remembered by all peoples among the Sclaves." ^
The murder of Urosh extinguished the Nemanyitch
line ; and when Vukashine had paid the penalty of his
crime, a Sabor of the Servian nation was convened for
the election of another Tzar. The choice fell upon Lczar^
(Lazarus), a natural son of Stephen Dushan, Knez of Sir-
mium, a frontier province north of the Save. Lazar
proved a virtuous and able sovereign, but he could not
fill his father's place, or restore the greatness of his fath-
er's Empire. This fact was but too manifest when the
Servians came to their mortal struggle with the Turks, in
the battle of Kossovo, in 1389. Upon that fatal field the
brave Lazar fell.^ With him died the independence and
the glory of his kingdom, but not unavenged. The
Turks won their victory at a terrible cost, and as Sultan
Amurath stood surveying the field of blood, a Servian
noble, rising from amidst the heaps of slain, plunged a
dagger into his bowels, and left him stretched upon the
same field with the last of the Servian Tzars.
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 161.
« Wilkinson says (ii. 284, and Appendix C) that Lazar bore only the
title of Knez. This statement is obviously incorrect. Owen Meredith af-
firms (p. 65), though without indicating his authority, that he was conse-
crated Czar in 1376.
3 See Owen Meredith's translation of the long Servian heroic poeni^
• The Battle of Kossovo."
BATTLE OP KOSSOVO. ygl
As the result of this battle, Sultan Bajazet and
Stephen Lazarevitch, the successors of the two fallen
monarchs, entered into a compact by which Stephen
acknowledged his kingdom to be subsidiary to the
Turkish power, gave his sister in marriage to Bajazet,
and formed with him a league of brotherhood.' This
compact Stephen observed faithfully to the day of his
death. At the terrible battle of Angora, at which the
Turkish power was annihilated, and Bajazet himself taken
prisoner by Timour (Tamarlane), Stephen was present
with his contingent, and fought bravely for his brother-
in-law. More surprising still, when the victory of Ti-
mour had opened the way to the recovery of Servian
independence, instead of availing himself of the oppor-
tunity, Stephen still remained faithful to his engagement,
and stood by the sons of Bajazet until they recovered
their father's throne.
His fidelity availed nothing for his people. No sooner
had he breathed his last, in 1428, than the Turks laid
claim to his kingdom. One stronghold after another
surrendered to them until Servia was prostrate at the
feet of the Sultan. After the death of Stephen, George
Brankovitch, as Despot of Servia, succeeded to some
poor remains of his power, and made common cause
with John Huniades when that famous Hungarian hero
beat back the Turks and gave the Servians a last oppor-
tunity to throw off their yoke. But the aversion of the
Servians to the Roman Church was stronger than their
aversion to the Turks ; and ratlier than pass under the
ecclesiastical rule of the Pope, they chose to remain with
^ Ranke, p. 16.
348 TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
their Greek brethren under the civil rule of the Sul^-an.
George Brankovitch was deposed in 1458, and in 1459
Servia was made a Turkish province. Bosnia, which
since the death of Stephen Dushan had been again an
independent kingdom, surrendered to Mohammed II. in
1463, and Servian freedom was at an end.
In their hope that under Ottoman rule they might en-
joy fair treatment and ecclesiastical freedom, the Servians
were woefully deceived. No sooner were their strong-
holds opened to the Turks than they were made to feel
in its most grinding form the o-ppression of Moslem
tyranny. The country was parceled out into spahilics;
every fifth year the terrible tribute of a tenth of the
Christian youth was exacted for the service of the Sultan ;
the nobles either apostatized to save life and power, fled
from the country, or were destroyed ; and the whole re-
maining body of the people sunk into helpless, unarmed
Rayahs. So many of both nobles and people escaped to
Hungary that they formed there a little principality,^
the rulers of which were long called Despots of Servia.
George Brankovitch, the last of these Hungarian Despots
of Servia, after filling various high positions under the
Austrian government, and writing a history of Servia,
died in an Austrian prison in 1711.^
There were, however, a few Servian nobles, and a
larger number in Herzegovina, who, strong in their moun-
tain fastnesses, and the support of a brave and well-armed
people, were able to make such terms with the Turks
that they retained both their power and their religion.'
' The province of Slavonia, between the rivers Drave and Save.
* Talvi, p. Ill ; Eowring, Introduction, p. 23, note.
' Ranke, pp. 20, 28.
THE SERVIAN CHURCH. 349
But the number of these Christian chiefs under Turkish
rule was always comparatively very small, and grew less
as time passed away. The Servian nobles mostly disap-
peared; the Bosnian nobles nearly all apostatized and
became Turkish Beys, though retaining their national
language.
For more than three hundred years after the Turkish
conquest, the Servian Churoii retained its independence,
and for two hundred years the Patriarchs of Ipek remain-
ed an important centre and representative of Servian na-
tionality, paying an annual tribute to the Porte of sixty-
three thousand aspers.' But in 1646 the Turks seized
the Servian Patriarch and sent him to Brusa, in Asia
Minor, where he was ignominiously hanged. This out-
rage was probably occasioned by threatening movements
already in progress, and seems to have driven the Ser-
vians to open rebellion. In 1689, the new Patriarch,
Arsenius Tzernoievitch, joined an invading Austrian
army at the head of a strong Servian force, hoping to
secure the final deliverance of his country from Turkish
oppression. The issue of the war was not according to
his hopes, and at its close he migrated to Hungary at the
head of thirty-seven thousand Servian families, leaving
Stara Servia almost denuded of inhabitants, to be re-
settled by Albanians.^ After this great national move-
ment, the Patriarch of Ipek was appointed by the Porte,
■ Id. , p. 24, note.
* Ranke, p. 22. Stara Servia (Old Servia) is the Servian territory south
of the Balkans, containing Ipek and Prizren, the ecclesiastical and civil capi-
tals of the Servian Empire. Though now containing but few inhabitants
of Slavonian blood, it is very dear to the Servians as the ancient seat cf their
national glory.
350 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
until 1737, when, as the result of another rebellion, the
Servian Patriarchate was entirely suppressed, and the
Servian Church made dependent upon the Greek Pa-
triarch of Constantinople. The Greek proved a worse
tyrant than the Turk. The national language was pro-
scribed, and the churches were filled with Greek bishops,
a set of greedy cormorants, whose only care for their
flocks has been to squeeze from them the largest possible
amount of money. This measure completed the subju-
gation of the Servian people. By it, so far as Turkish
tyranny could accomplish such a result, their last right
was sacrificed, their national existence destroyed. ** The
Rayahs, excluded from all share in the conduct of public
affairs, appeared only as persons to be ruled over, . . .
a weaponless herd, whose duty was obedience and sub-
jection."
The immense numbers of Servians who from time to
time removed to the Austrian dominions were settled
as a military colony to maintain a perpetual guard against
the Turks, This military colony, known as the Grenzer,
or Borderers, occupied the whole Austrian frontier from
Croatia to the borders of Transylvania. It was main-
tained in full vigor and efficiency until 1871, and could
bring into the field a well-trained force of one hundred
thousand of the best and bravest soldiers of the Austrian
Empire. This colony is organized into communes and
" House Communions " on the Servian principle, although
but one-third of its people are reckoned as Servians.'^
' Ranke, pp. 32, 33.
* See a statement from the London Times, on the authority of Prol
Kloeden o; Berlin, in New York Semi- Weekly Times, March 10, 1876.
FALL OF SERVIAN' FREEDOM. 351
The fall of the rising, vigorous, Christian civilization of
the Servian people before the barbarian, unprogressive
Turk, is one of the many things in the history of the
past which we find it difficult to reconcile with the wis-
dom of a Divine Providence. We can understand why
Mohammedanism was permitted to triumph over the
decaying civilization of the East. The living, vigorous
faith of the Saracens and the Turks was better than the
dead Christianity of Western Asia ; the universal and
equal servitude of Turkish oppression was better than the
chattel slavery which held in bondage half the population
of the later Roman Empire. But here was a people in-
stinct with the energy of youth, and just entering upon
the grand career of their social and political development ;
a nation of freemen, whose future seemed bright with
promise for themselves and for the world. Why was this
promise blighted, and a nation which seemed entering
upon a career as grand and worthy as that of France or
England, suffered to be thus buried for centuries, not
only from the activities, but almost from the knowledge
of the Christian world, beneath the deluge of Moslem con-
quest ? Can it be that it was necessary for the Servians
to lie for four centuries in a state of suspended political
animation to preserve them from the fate of their north-
ern kindred, that the Turk was a needful agent to pre-
vent a mighty despotism like that of Russia from fixing
its iron grasp upon the fair regions of Southern Europe ?
It may be so. If Stephen Dushan had succeeded in his
great designs, and had firmly enthroned himself in " the
City of Empire," he would have thenceforth reigned in
the fullness of imperial power. The traditions, tlie pol-
16
3$8 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
icy, and the essential spirit of the Byzantine despotism
would, in all probability, have been transferred to his
government. The patient, quiescent Servians would
have submitted but too readily to the fatal change, and
they might have found themselves ere long fettered with
a bondage far worse than that of the Turks.
It is at least clear that the long catalepsy which the
Servians have suffered under Turkish oppression has
transferred the grand career of their national develop-
ment from a despotic age to an age of freedom. And no
thoughtful student of their recent history can have failed
to notice that the most remarkable characteristic of their
new-born political life, like that of the Greeks, and from
tlie same causes, is an intensely democratic spirit
CHAPTER TV.
MONTENEGRO.
The Servian monarchy received its death-wound upon
the field of Kossovo, and died with Stephen Lazarevitch.
But amidst the strong fastnesses of the mountains of the
West a wonderful fragment of this ill-fated Empire has
preserved not only its own independence but the lan-
guage, the institutions, the manners, and the spirit of the
mediaeval Servians to the present time.
This narrow and politically insignificant but glorious
remnant of the Servian Empire is called, in the language
of its own people, Tzernogora, or the Black Mountain ;
to the world it is known by the Venetian translation
of the same name — Montenegro. Its territory, lying
upon the rugged mountains overlooking the Adriatic and
the Gulf of Cattaro, just at the lower extremity of the
Austrian province of Dalmatia, is no more than sixty
miles in length by thirty-five in breadth, occupied by a
population of about a hundred and twenty thousand
souls, with perhaps twenty thousand fighting men.^
This tiny state, not more from its wonderful history
than from the present position, character and manners
^ Wilkinson, i. 406; Slave Provinces of Turkey (Bohn), p. 394. Ac-
cording to a statement of Lady Strangford, Prince Nicolas reckoned the
population of Montenegro and the BerJa, in 1863, at two hundred thou-
sand. — Eastern Shores of the Adriatic, p. 1 72.
J54 TURKISH SLA VONTANS.
of its people, is one of the most curious and interesting
communities to be found in the world. Its whole ter-
ritory is one vast natural fortress, easily defended at al-
most every point against an invading force. Upon those
sterile rocks a race of Servian heroes, who prized their
ancient freedom above all other possessions, has stood
for four hundred years in proud defiance, the bulwark of
Christendom, and a thorn in the side of the Turk.
Like other and greater states, Montenegro has not
been without sad vicissitudes of fortune, and sometimes
her strength has been brought very low. After several
generations of victory and independence, the Turkish
forces, led by her own renegade sons, were able to re-
duce the principality to great distress and partial sub-
jection. But at length, by their own unaided valor, her
people broke the yoke of Turkish oppression. From
that day to this they have maintained their indepen-
dence, constantly defeating, and often with annihilating
victories, the incessant efforts of the Turks to reduce
them to submission. In more than forty campaigns has
this minute commonwealth borne the full weight of Tur-
kish invading power, until at last her valor has received
its reward, and her rights as an independent state have
been recognized and secured by being brought under
the common law of Europe.
It was by the memorable battle of Grahovo, in May,
1858, that Montenegro finally assured her position in
the European political system. A description of this
short but decisive conflict will illustrate the style of
Montenegrin warfare, and the way in which these in-
vincible mountaineers have so long preserved their free-
MONTENEGRO. ' 355
dom. Elated as it would seem by the advantages won
for them by the arms of their allies in the Crimea, and
forgetting their own solemn declaration at the Paris Con-
gress, that they would respect the status quo, the Turks,
early in 1858, concentrated on the Montenegrin frontiers
the forces of the neighboring provinces, while a succes-
sion of powerful armaments bore by sea, from Constan-
tinople to the scene of action, fresh battalions and muni-
tions of war.
The district of Grahovo, bordering on Herzegovina,
was the first point of attack; and there, on May 13th,
1858, some of the choicest troops of the Turkish Empire,
their breasts covered with French and English Crimean
decorations, which are now exhibited as trophies in the
arsenal at Tzetrnie,' were as utterly routed 01 cut to
pieces by the clans of the Black Mountains, as the En-
glish army at Prestonpans by the Scotch Highlanders in
1745. An eye-witness, who beheld the battle from a
neighboring hill, has given a vivid description of the
charge of the Montenegrin columns. " They rushed furi-
ously forward, keeping up a rolling fire on the enemy.
When about a pistol shot from the Turkish lines, they
paused for a few seconds, while each man devoutly
crossed himself, looking up to heaven. Then, dropping
their muskets and rifles, and drawing their handjars and
yatagans ^ (dirks and broadswords), they threw them-
selves headlong on the foe. It was Ascension Day, and
' ITie name of the Montenegrin village capital is wTitten sometimes
Tzetitiie, and sometimes Cetinje. In either case the pronunciation i>; the
same, the C in the second form having the sound of Ts, and the j the sound
• Sir Gardiner Wilkinson speaks of the hanjar, or khangiar, and the
356 ' TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
at the moment of closing, the various cries of the Christ-
ians swelled into one thrilling, enthusiastic shout, which
rang clearly above the roar of battle — ' Glory to God in
the highest ! ' Neither the flashing volleys of cannon
and musketry, nor the bristling hedge of bayonets, nor
the long lines of Turkish intrenchments, withstood for
more than a few minutes that tremendous shock. Hard-
ly was the first onset over, when the mingled torrent of
the conquerors and the conquered went raving down the
stream of fight. Never was victory more complete ;
never were the vanquished more nearly annihilated. The
Turks who escaped from the field of battle mostly fell
into the Montenegrin ambuscades in the defiles through
which they had marched on the preceding day." ^
In this battle, according to the official report of Mirko
Petrovitch, the Montenegrin commander, to his brother,
Prince Daniel, two Turkish pashas and seven thousand
Turks were slain ; eight pieces of artillery, twelve hun-
dred caparisoned horses, and five hundred tents were
taken ; while the Montenegrin loss was but forty-seven
killed and about sixty wounded. " The success of the
Montenegrins at Grahovo," observes the writer just cited,
borrowing an expression from Lord Macaulay, " was cer-
tainly a ' victory of strange and almost portentous splen-
dor.' " It fixed the admiring eyes of the civilized world
upon the little principality, and gave it a firm standing
in the political system of Europe.
After Grohovo the Turks would perhaps have been
yatagan^ or more properly ^'aiaian, as the same weapon — a long knife for
cut and thrust, worn in the girdle. — Dalmatia and Montenegro, i. 431.
' Edinburgh Review, April, 1859, p. 421.
MONTENEGRO. 357
quite willing to let the Montenegrins alone. But fighting
and plundering the Turks liad been for ages the constant
employment of those fierce mountaineers, and their
marauding bands would no more be restrained than the
overflowing waters in the floods of spring.^ Under such
provocation it was inevitable that the Porte should recom-
mence hostilities, and in 1862, the Turkish armies, under
the famous Omer Pasha,^ again invaded the Montenegrin
territory. This able leader was more successful than his
predecessors had been four years before. He made good
his foothold in the principality, inflicted great loss and
suflcring upon the Montenegrins, and seemed likely to
effect a permanent conquest of some part of their territory.
But Montenegro was now under the protection of the
Great Powers. Through their interposition the Turks re-
tired, and the Montenegrins were induced to cease from
' At Mishke, the scene of a great victory over the Turks, and the deatk
of Mustai Pasha, Sir Gardner Wilkinson was hospitably entertained at the
house of a peasant. In the evening the party was " increased by a visit from
some strangers of the village ; dusky mountaineers, well known for warlike
deeds ; who, sitting on wooden stools, began to talk of a foray across the
border. . . . ' Is there not,' I asked, ' a truce at this moment, be-
tween you and the Turks of Herzegovina ? ' They laughed, and seemed
much amused at my scruples. ' We don't mind that,' said a stern, swarthy
man, taking his pipe from his mouth, and shaking his head to and fro, ' they
are Turks ; ' and all agreed that the Turks were fair game. ' Besides,'
they said, ' it is only to be a plundering excursion ; ' and they evidently
considered that any one refusing to join in a marauding expedition into Tur
key at any time, or in an open attack during a war, would be unworthy the
name of a brave man." — Dalmatia and Montenegro, i. 521.
* Omer Pasha was the son of an Austrian official in Austrian Croatia, and
in his youth became a cadet in an Austrian regiment. He ran away, crossed
the frontier, turned Mohammedan, entered the military service of the Sultan,
and rose to be Generalissimo of the Turkish forces in the Crimean War.—
See the account of him in the New American Cyclopedia.
358 TURKISH SLA VONTANS.
their plundering inroads, and to live on better terms with
their Moslem neighbors. From that time a great change
came over the Montenegrin people. They entered upon
a career of peaceful development which has proved even
more surprising than the fierce and stubborn valor with
which for so many ages they withstood the Turk.
The Principality of Montenegro is a part of the old
Zupania of Zenta, the cradle of the Servian monarchy.
At the breaking up of the Empire, this province formed
the government of the Knez (Prince) George Balsha, a
son-in-law of Tzar Lazar, whose capital was the city of
Zabliak (Zhabliak), at the north-western extremity of
Lake Scutari. This prince and his successors bravely
and successfully defended their province against the Turks
for a considerable time.^ The son and successor of
George Balsha was the famous Stratzimir, surnamed
Tzernoie, or the Black.^ The successor of Stratzimir was
his son, Stephen Tzernoievitch, the contemporary, it
would seem also the brother-in-law, of the famous Alba-
nian hero Scanderbeg, in firm alliance with whom he held
his ground stoutly against the Turks. After the death of
Scanderbeg the Servians of Zenta could no longer main-
tain themselves, and Ivan Tzernoievitch, the son of Ste-
phen, found himself compelled to abandon the whole open
country. He therefore called his followers about him, and
taking an oath of them that they would be true to their
' V/ilkinson's Dalmatia and Montenegro, i. 476 ; The Slave Provinces
of Turkey (Bohn), p. 411. The sketch of early Montenegrin liistory given
by Sir Gardner Wilkinson was prepared for him by the secretary of the
Vladika, Peter II. The Zupania of Zenta or Zeta included the fruitful plain
about Lake Scutari, and the Herzegovina. Ot these districts the Prince of
Montenegro still considers himself the rightful sovereign.
* Hence the appellation of the Tzernoievitch family.
MONTENEGRO.
3M
country and theh faith, he left his "white castle of
Zabliak," and took refuge in the fastnesses of the Black
Mountains, where he built the monastery of Tzetinie, and
there, in its last remaining stronghold, erected the Ser-
vian standard in 1485.'
Ivan Tzernoievitch was the civil founder of the new
principality. He fixed its institutions and established its
laws. In all "Ca^xx piesmas, or national ballads, the Mon-
tenegrins celebrate him as their greatest hero. In firm
alliance with Venice, Ivan, and after him his son George,
reigned long and prosperously. But George had married
a lady belonging to a princely Venetian house, and hav-
ing no children, and wearying at last of the constant cares
of his troubled reign, he assembled the elders of his peo-
ple, solemnly made over his authority to the bishop, and
retired to Venice. This occurred in 15 16; and from this
date until 1852, the Vladikas, or Prince-bishops, were
the sovereigns of Montenegro.^ The Montenegrins could
not forgive this desertion of their Prince, and in their
ancient ballads he is confounded with the renegade Ser-
vian who founded the powerful family of the Pashas of
Scutari, or Skadar.^
^ Wilkinson, i. 479.
* Id., i. 480; Slave Provinces, p. 419. Valiant warriors and able com-
manders, as many of them proved themselves, the Vladikas were all regular
caloycrs (monks), and bishops of the Greek communion.
' The Pashas of Skadar, the semi-independent sovereigns of Northern
Albania, became the worst and most formidable enemies of Montenegro,
and after a time reduced the principality to great distress. This family
retained its power until the fall, in tlie year 1833, of the famous Mustaplia
Pasha, the Turk who was sleeping
" At midnight, in his guarded tent,"
when his dreams were cut short by Marco Boziaris. — The Slave Provinces,
p. 418.
36o TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
The marriage of Prince George, or Stanisha, to a Ven-
etian wife, seems to have been followed by singular and
very tragic results. The story as told in the piesmas is
evidently not, in all points, historically correct, but is
doubtless the narrative in a poetical form of events which
actually took place. The beginning of this affair is thus
related by the poet : —
" The Tzernoievitch Ivo (Ivan) writes a letter to the
Doge of great Venice : ' Hearken to me. Doge ! As they
say that thou hast in thy house the most beautiful of
roses, so there is in my house the handsomest of pinks.
Doge, let us unite the rose with the pink.' The Venetian
Doge replies in flattering terms. Ivo repairs to his court,
taking with him three loads of gold, in order to woo the
fair Latin in his son's name. When he had lavished all
his gold, the Latins agreed with him that the wedding
should take place at the next vintage. Ivo, who was
wise, uttered foolish words at his departure. ' Friend
and Doge,' said he, * thou shalt soon see me again with
six hundred chosen companions ; and if there is among
them a single one who is handsomer than my son Stan-
isha, give me neither dower nor bride. The delighted
Doge pressed his hand and presented him with the apple
of gold. Ivo then returned to his states. . . . The
winter passed off cheerfully, but in the spring Stanisha
was seized with the small-pox, which pitted his face all
over. When the old man assembled his six hundred
The Pashas of Skadar, or Skodra, surnamed BushatUa, boasted their
own descent from the Merlyaftchevitches, the family of Krai Viikashine, the
guardian, murderer, and successor of Urosh, the son of Stephen Dushan.
Tliis semi-royal family no Sultan for centuries had been able to displace.—
Ranke's Servia, pp. 285, 335.
MONTENEGRO. 361
companions at the approach of autumn, it was easy for
him, alas ! to find among them a Yunak handsomer than
his son. Then his forehead was gathered into wrinkles,
and the black mustaches that reached to his shoulders
grew limp." '
After his foolish boast, Ivan did not dare to present his
disfigured son to claim the fair Venetian. He there-
fore proposed to his followers that they should choose
the handsomest youth from their number to take the
place of the Prince at the coming marriage. As his re-
ward, the pseudo husband was to receive half the mar-
riage gifts. The choice fell upon Djuro, the young Bey
of Dulcigno. The plan was carried out, and the decep-
tive marriage consummated. But when the party had
returned to Montenegro, Djuro refused to fulfill the com-
pact, and kept all the presents for himself The bride,
naturally, was not at all satisfied with this state of things ;
and at last, stung to madness by her constant lamenta-
tions and reproaches, Stanisha sought out his handsome
rival, and with a single blow of his hanjar laid him dead
at his feet.
The family and followers of the fallen Bey held them-
selves bound to avenge his death, and a bloody and ex-
terminating feud was the result, which carried desolation
to almost every house in the districts of the two chiefs.
According to the picsmas, Stanisha and Obren V{ik, the
successor o^ Djuro, were both finally compelled to leave
the country, and both, turning Mohammedans, entered
the service of the Sultan. It is added that after some
years of valiant service they were both rewarded with
^ Slave Provinces of Turkey, p. 415.
16
36a TURKTSff SLAVOmANS.
important governments, which became hereditary in
their families ; Stanisha becoming Pasha of Skadar, or
Northern Albania, and Obren Vuk Pasha of Dukagine,
near Ipek.^
For a long period, the Vladikas were not able to hold
their own against the Turks and the powerful Pashas of
Skadar. The defiles were penetrated, garrisons were es-
tablished within the Montenegrin frontiers, and from the
villages within their reach a small Kharatch (capitation
tax) was exacted, which was contemptuously appropri-
ated to pay for the Sultan's slippers. For a hundred
years the Turks affected to regard Montenegro as a con-
quered country, and reckoned it a part of the Pashalik of
Skadar. So powerful did the Turkish influence become,
that many of the people in the frontier districts turned
Mohammedans, and took military service with the neigh-
boring Pashas.^ But the country was not subdued.
The Montenegrins were always taking part with the Ve-
netians in their frequent wars with the Porte, and in
open warfare, or by incessant plundering raids, they in-
flicted incalculable loss upon the Turks.
It is related that on one occasion, when the Turkish
officials came to exact their little tribute of corn, and
charged the Montenegrins with cheating by measuring
the corn in bushels which were too small, the exasperated
mountaineers broke the bushels over the heads of the
astonished Turks, and vowed thenceforward to pay their
Kharatch in that coin alone. Whether or not that was
the end of the Montenegrin capitation tax does not ap-
1 Slave Provinces, pp. 415-19. * WUkinson, i. 481.
MONTENEGRO. 563
pear; but in 1703 occurred an event from which is to be
dated the complete independence of the principality.
The people of a district upon the borders of Skadar had
obtained permission of the Pasha to build a little church.
But when the Vladika Daniel came to consecrate it, he
was treacherously seized by the Pasha, and released only
upon paying a ransom of three thousand ducats. The
Montenegrins were not the people to submit to oppression
hke this when they felt strong enough to avenge them-
selves. No sooner had Daniel returned to Tzetinie, ac-
cording to the piesmas, than he called the tribes together
and told them that the only hope for their country and
their faith lay in the instant destruction of all the Turks
living among them. His words were listened to at first
with silent awe and fear, afterwards with fierce approval,
and on Christmas eve, 1703, as the piesmas relate, every
Moslem in the principality who would not forswear the
Prophet and embrace Christianity was put to death in
cold blood.^ This slaughter ended all semblance of Turk-
ish domination in Montenegro. Soon after these events,
the Slavonians of the Black Mountain began to receive
effectual aid from their kindred in the great Empire of
the North. In 171 1, Peter the Great sought the alliance
of the Montenegrins in his struggle with the Turks ; and
from that time to the present they have been wont to
look up to the Muscovite Czar as not onlj' their pro-
* Ranke, pp. 23, 420. This massacre seems to have been mostly lim-
ited to one of the four nahias, or provinces, for th<; reason, probably, that
in this alone was there any considerable Moslem population. The " Turks "
thus forcibly conver/^d or put to death, were all, or nearly all, apostate .Ser
riam*.
364 TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
tector and friend, but as in some sense their political
head.^
From time to time, for the past two hundred and
seventy-five years, the Turks have put forth prodigious
efforts to effect the complete subjugation of these fierce
mountaineers. In 1623, Suleiman Pasha of Skadar in-
vaded Montenegro with a great army. He penetrated
to Tzetinie, burned the convent, and laid waste the whole
district, but was compelled to retire with no permanent
result. In 1712 (according to the piesmas), enraged at
the alliance of the Montenegrins with Peter the Great,
the Sultan sent the Seraskier Pasha against them with an
army of fifty thousand men. This force is said to have
suffered an entire defeat, leaving eighty-four standards in
the hands of the Montenegrins. For this defeat, how-
ever, the Turks inflicted a fearful retribution. In 17 14,
the Grand Vizier, Nauman Kiuprili, invaded the prin-
cipality at the head of one hundred and twenty thou-
sand men. By treacherously proposing terms of peace
the Grand Vizier was able to seize and put to death
thirty-seven of the Montenegrin chiefs. Deprived of
their leaders, the people were able to make but a feeble
resistance. The convent of Tzetinie was again burned,
and the whole mountain was wasted with fire and sword.
But the country was not subdued. No sooner had the
Turks departed than the Montenegrins returned and
''■ The Montenegrins atknowledged themselves subjects of Peter the
Great, and took the oath of allegiance to him. At the time of Wilkinson's
visit, the Vladikas were still receiving pecuniary subsidies from the Russian
government, and went to St. Petersburg for consecration to their office.—
Dalmatia and Montenegro, i. 448, 456, 482-5.
MONTENEGRO. 365
rebuilt their- ruined villages. In a few years the little
republic was erect again, as resolute and defiant as before.
At length, in the terrible battle of Krussa, fought in
1796, the Montenegrins won a great victory' — a victory
greater and more " portentously splendid " than even
that of Grahovo— over the Turks under Kara Mahmoud
Bushatlia, Pasha of Skadar, which assured their position
and compelled the Porte to tacitly acknowledge their
independence. They were led by their Prince-bishop,
Pietro Petrovitch, who, occupying a difficult pass with
five thousand marksmen, silently drew the main body of
his forces to the rear of the Turks. For three days the
battle was fiercely contested, resulting at last in the com-
plete destruction of the Turkish army. Thirty thousand
Turks were slain, and Mahmoud Bushatlia himself fell.
The Pasha's head, remaining in the Vladika's hands, was
embalmed, and is still preserved at Tzetinie, a significant
trophy of this decisive repulse of the Moslem powcr.^
As a consequence of this victory, the seven mountains
of the Berda were severed from the Pashalik of Skadar,
and have ever since remained confederate with Mon-
tenegro, adding three more to the four original nahias
of the principality.^ From that time, by the common
consent of all concerned, Montenegro has proudly taken
her place among the independent states of Europe.
This result, however, was not achieved by the strength
and valor of the Montenegrins alone. Their mountains
have always afforded a ready and safe asylum to the
oppressed Slavonians of the neighboring Turkish prov-
inces. From this source the population of the principaU
' Wilkinson, i, 489-90. * Id., i. 404; Slave Provinces, p. 432.
366 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
ity has been constantly recruited. " O Slavonian, wher-
ever thou art," sings one of their native poets, " whether
freeman or serf, rejoice that so long as the Black Moun-
tain exists, thou hast liberty and a country ! " In Octo-
ber, 1875, twenty thousand fugitives from Herzegovina
and Bosnia had sought and found refuge in Montenegro.^
For the past hundred years until quite recently the
Montenegrins have amply repaid in their own coin the
scorn and cruelty of their old oppressors. They have
kept up a constant predatory warfare, and Turkish pris-
oners were pretty sure to lose their heads, which were set
up as trophies upon stakes. In 1839, Sir Gardner Wil-
kinson found the Montenegrin capital garnished with
numbers of these ghastly trophies.* To his humane and
earnest efforts with both parties it was largely owing that
some years later this practice of beheading prisoners was
finally abandoned.
The Montenegrins are very poor. Until the recent
conquest of Scutari and Antivari by Prince Nicolas, the
Austrian and Turkish territories, meeting upon the narrow
strip of coast in their front, cut them off entirely from the
sea. Although they had here and there a fine valley,
the greater part of their old territory is a mass of wild
and bleak mountains, which afford but the scantiest sub-
' E. A. Freeman, Littell, February 12, 1876, p. 397.
* " On a rock immediately above the convent, is a round tower pierced
with embrasures, but without cannon, on which I counted the heads of
twenty Turks fixed upon stakes round the parapet, the trophies of Montene-
grin victory ; and below, scattered upon the rock, were the fragments of other
skulls, which had fallen to pieces by time ; a strange spectacle in a Christian
country, in Europe, and in the immediate vicinity of a convent and a bishop's
palace." — Wilkinson, i. 511.
MONTENEGRO. 367
sistence to their inhabitants. They are exceedingly clan-
nish in their habits and mode of life, a single family with
its Stareshina, or housefather, often forming an entire vil-
lage. As among the old Scottish Highlanders, fierce and
long enduring blood feuds between these clans have
always been until recently of frequent occurrence.
They are as poetical as their neighbors and kindred the
Servians. Every event in their history, every exploit of
their male and female heroes, has its own picsma or bal-
lad ' — the materials for another Iliad by some future Sla-
vonic Homer. In no part of the world, probably, is
there a state of society now existing which illustrates so
perfectly the simple manners, the warfare, and indeed the
whole mode of life of Homeric Greece. Of these national
ballads the Montenegrins never grow weary, always lis-
ten to them with kindling eye and fierce enthusiasm.
They are sung by day in every gathering, by night in
every household circle, until the Montenegrin youth be-
comes as familiar with them, and, through them, with all
^ "After dinner (at Ostrok) it was proposed that I should hear their
g^sla, or Slavonic violin, and some of the songs of their bards ; which, on
a frontier constantly resounding with the din of arms, are hailed with delight
by every Montenegrin. Independent of the gratification of my curiosity, I
was glad to have the opportunity of witnessing the stirring effect produced
by these songs. The subjects related to their contests with tlieir enemies,
the vain hopes of the Turks to subdue their country, and the glorious vic-
tories obtained over them both by themselves and the heroes of Servia ; in
some of which the armed bard may have had his share of glory. For, like
Taillefer, the minstrel of William the Conqueror, these men are warriors ;
and no one would venture to sing of deeds he could not emulate. The
sounds of the gUsla were not according to European taste, and the tune was
only varied by the intonation oi the voice ; but the enthusiasm of the per-
former compensated for the monotony of the one-stringed instrument"—
Wilkinson, i. 533.
368 TURKISH SLA VONIANS,
the long and eventful story of his country's history, as he
is with his father's name.
While manifesting a strong regard for their Church
and its rites, the Montenegrins were too ignorant and too
fierce to be very religious, even in the way of supersti-
tion. Yet every little department of the country had its
own church, and the few monks and more numerous
popes or priests were generally men of strict and austere
lives. The priests were just as warlike as their flocks,
and constantly attended them to the field of battle ; but,
that their hands might not be stained with blood, they
usually contented themselves with weapons of wood.
Like the Vladikas, however, some of their priests have
been among their bravest warriors and most famous
heroes.^
The Prince-bishops who reigned in Montenegro for
the hundred and fifty years ending with 185 1, were for
' " Another hour brought us to Podbflkovo. ... In this straggling
village we stopped to lunch, at the house of a reverend captain of the
guards ; for, like other military chiefs of Montenegro, he was a priest, and
united, as of old, the two offices of killing bodies and saving souls." — ^Wil-
kinson, i. 516.
At Ostrok, near the northern or Herzegovinian frontier, ' ' an elderly
priest came in, a man of quiet demeanor, who asked me various questions,
some of which I in vain attempted to understand. ... I was fortunately
relieved from my embarrassment by the arrival of Signor Giacovich, who
performed for me the office of interpreter. He also gave me to understand
that the reverend priest, Pope Yovan, or Ivan Knezovich, was the most
renowned and gallant warrior of Montenegro ; and the same who twenty
years ago had defended the convent of Mora9a with two hundred men
against twenty thousand Albanians. ' He lives,' he added, 'in the very
midst of the Turks, in the neighborhood of Sp(iss ; and he has fought and
defeated them in many battles, without ever having been wounded ; though
balls have strnck his pistols and his dress, and numbers have fallen at his
side.' ... It was pleasing to see the mild, unassuming manner of the
MONTENEGRO. 369
tiie most part an able and commanding set of men. The
last of them was Peter II., the friend and host of Sir
Gardner Wilkinson in 1839. In him, certainly, the long
and distinguished line came to a worthy close. In no
European of modern times, probably, has the true
Homeric hero ever been so perfectly exemplified as in
this last of the Vladikas. He was at once the champion,
hero, legislator, king, poet, teacher, and father of his
people.' A well formed and handsome man, six feet and
eight inches in height, he stood, like Saul among the
Israelites, the goodliest of his race. No soldier of his
guards could point a rifle or a cannon with more uner-
ring aim than he, while he alone, probably, among them
all, could throw a lemon into the air and pierce it while
falling with a pistol ball.
Educated in Dalmatia and Russia, he was a man of
culture and intelligence, well acquainted with European
politics, and an able diplomatist. His foreign education,
however, had in no degree diminished his patriotic spirit.
He was Slavonian, Servian, Montenegrin through and
through. He loved the minstrelsy of his native land,
and by his own songs and ballads had won a high posi-
tion among the Servian bards of his time. His whole
life was given, with a devotion as wise and patient as it
was earnest and successful, to the elevation and improve-
ment of his people. Roads were opened, schools were
established ; a senate of twelve or sixteen of the leading
old warrior, so consistent with real courage ; and when, on my return to
Tzetinie, I told the Vladika of my meeting him at Ostrok, his expressions of
regard for him showed the high estimation in which he is held throughout
the country." — Id., i. pp. 530-2.
* Wilkinson, i. 460-71 ; Slave Provinces, pp. 447-S.
j6»
370 TURKISH SLA VOmANS.
chiefs was instituted with judicial as well as legislative
functions; one hundred and thirty- five inferior officials
were armed with judicial and executive powers in the
several districts ; there were forty captains, or pretors,
who acted as provincial judges, and eight hundred
guards served as a general police throughout the prin-
cipality.
The Vladika himself was High-priest, Chief-justice,
Legislator, King, and Commander-in-chief Under the
firm and able government of Peter 11. the condition of
the principality rapidly improved. The old barbarian
customs — among which the lex talionis and blood revenge
had been as prominent and as universally prevalent as
among the Arabs of the desert — which before had been
the only law, gradually gave place to legal enactments
and regular judicial proceedings;^ while the inveterate
propensity of these wild mountaineers to harry and
plunder their neighbors was to some extent curbed and
held in check.
The predecessor of Peter (Pietro Petrovitch) II. was
Peter I., the hero of Krussa, whose long reign of fifty-
three years, from 1777 to 1830, was perhaps the most
memorable in the annals of Montenegro. Peter (Pietro
' '• The rude patriarchal justice of the chieftains and elders of the tribe
has been collected and embodied; and the Montenegrins (happy people!)
have justice administered to them by their prince according to the provi-
sions of a code of eighty-nitze articles. The Montenegrin code lias acquired
great fame and popidarity among the Christians of the neighboring Otto-
man provinces. The people of Herzegovina especially now very generally
refer their disputes for arbitration to Tzetinie, instead of trusting to what is
facetiously termed the justice of the Turkish cadis." — Edinburgh Review,
April, 1859, p. 247, and note.
MONTENEGRO. 371
Petrovitch) I. is now the patron saint of Montenegro,
venerated, almost worshipped, by the whole body of his
countrymen. Well were it, certainly, if all the saints in
the calendar had given as good grounds for their can-
onization. When asked why they render such homage
to St. Peter, the simple-hearted mountaineers reply :
" There are still with us men who lived under St. Peter's
rule, heard his words, and saw his life. For fifty years
he governed us, and fought and negotiated for us, and
walked before us in pureness and uprightness from day
to day. He gave us good laws, and put an end to the
disorderly state of the country ; he enlarged our frontier,
and drove away our enemies ; even on his death-bed he
spoke words to our elders which have kept peace among
us since he is gone. While he yet lived we swore by
his name ; we felt his smile a blessing, and his anger a
curse ; we do so still." ^
The government of Montenegro is properly a primitive
democracy, under the leadership of nominally elective,
but really hereditary chiefs. The people, all armed, and
as free in spirit as the Bedouins of the desert, have no
doubt whatever of their right to a voice in every impor-
tant measure. Under the Vladikas this right was exer-
cised in frequent assemblies. All official proceedings were
marked by the most primitive simplicity. The senate-
house was an oblong stone building of one story, covered
with thatch. It contained three rooms ; one used as a
stable for oxen and donkeys ; a second filled with bed-
steads covered with straw for the use of the senators,
whose rifles hung suspended upon the walls ; and a third,
> Mackenzie and Irby, p. 622.
)7a TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
which was the court-room or senate-house. In the mid-
dle of this room was a fireplace, and round the wall?
ran a stone bench. The Vladika, when present, occupied
a seat on the bench covered with a rug. The senators
sat on the bench or on low wooden stools about the fire-
place, smoking their pipes.^
The Diet, or general assembly of the people, was held
in the open air. The place and the deliberations of this
assembly are thus described by Wilkinson : " In a semi-
circular recess, formed by the rocks on one side of the
plain of Tzetinie, and about half a mile to the southward
of the town, is a level piece of grass land with a thicket
of low poplar trees. Here the Diet is held, from which
the spot has received the name of mali sbor, ' the small
assembly.' When any matter is to be discussed, the
people meet in this, their Runimede, or ' meadow of
council ; ' and partly on the level space, partly on the
rocks, receive from the Vladika notice of the question
proposed. The duration of the discussion is limited to
a certain time ; at the expiration of which the assembly
is expected to come to a decision ; and when the mon-
astery's bell orders silence, notwithstanding the most
animated discussion, it is instantly restored. The Metro-
politan (Vladika) asks again what is their decision, and
whether they agree to his proposal or not. The answer
is always the same, ' Let it be as thou wishest, Vladika.' " ^
When Peter II. died, in 185 1, his nephew, Prince
' Slave Provinces, p. 449.
^ Dalmatia and Montenegro, i. 456. On the 20th of February, 1875, the
first fugitives from Herzegovina found the whole armed population of Mon-
tenegro assembled in council at Tzetinie. — Consular Report in London
Mail, December 15, 1875.
MONTENEGRO, 373
Danilo, or Daniel, was pursuing his studies at Vienna.
While returning home, he chanced to fall in with a fair
young countrywoman at Trieste, for whom he conceived
a strong attachment. This circumstance so opened his
eyes to the evils of uniting civil and ecclesiastical powers
in the same hands, that he determined to separate them.
He accordingly married, and became simply Knez, or
prince, leaving his ecclesiastical honors to another. His
matrimonial choice proved most happy, and his noble
wife, the Princess Darinka, soon came to be revered in
all the Servian lands as a wise and energetic promoter of
every good cause. Prince Daniel prove4 fully worthy to
fill the place of Peter I. and Peter H. ; and under his rule
his people enjoyed great prosperity. His reign, unhap-
pily, was short. He was shot by an assassin in i860, at
Cattaro, whither he had attended his wife, that she might
have the benefit of sea baths.'
Mirko, the hero of Grahovo,* was the elder brother of
Prince Daniel, and as such, upon the death of Peter I.,
was entitled to the succession. He was, however, only a
stern, uncultured warrior, while he felt that his country
had need of a prince of European education. He accord-
ingly waived his own claims in favor of his brother. Prince
Daniel left no son, and Mirko was again entitled to the
succession. For the same reason as before he again de-
clined, and his son, Nicolas, or Nikita, was crowned in
his uncle's room. Prince Nicolas still rules in Montene-
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 593.
''■ In 1863, Mirko was President of the Montenegrin Senate. In this
capacity he might be seen every day, sitting in the door of a house judging
the j>eople. From his decisions an appeal lay to the Gospodar, or prince^
who was often present, walking up and down. — Mackenzie and Irby, p, 625.
,3SrJ TURKISH SLA VOm a NS,
gro, and under no one of his predecessors, probably, has
the principality ever enjoyed greater prosperity, or ad-
vanced with such rapid strides in the culture of a true
civilization.^
The long succession of wise and able princes who have
ruled this little principality for the past hundred years is
one of the marvels of recent history. Prince Nicolas
seems to be inferior to no one of his predecessors, and
to have filled his most difficult position, since the break-
ing out of the revolt, with a wisdom and firmness which
have deservedly won him the respect and confidence of
the statesmen of Europe. The special correspondent of
the London Times, a man of large intelligence and ex-
cellent judgment, who was with him much, and knew
him well in the last months of 1875, speaks of him in
the very highest terms. His ambition seemed less for
himself than for his country, less for Montenegro than
for the Servian race. He seemed willing to accept any
position for himself, even to surrender the independence
of his principality, so that the grand possibilities of the
Servian future might be assured. " No European Power,"
he observes, " has anything to fear from his weakness,
or his ambition ; and no Power, whether Russia, or any
other, will make him the instrument of any ulterior pur-
poses. I have never met a character more admirably
fitted for a position such as seems to be preparing for
some potentate, than that of Prince Nikita."^
The change through which the people of this little
' Lady Strangford, p. 137; Freeman, in Littell, February 12, 1876, pp.
394-5 ; Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 563-611.
* London Mail, Dec 6, 1875.
MONTENEGRO. 39J
State have passed in the last thirty years is very great.
Within that period they have, indeed, taken the long
step from a barbarous to a civilized state of society.
They are no longer the marauding, cattle-lifting heydncs^
which Sir Gardner Wilkinson found them in 1839. Law
and order have taken the place of blood feuds and the
lex talionis. Very tolerable roads have been carried in
all directions over the precipitous mountains ; the dwell-
ings of the peasants begin to display the comforts and
conveniences of civilized life ; the post-office and the
newspaper have long been established institutions. But
the most surprising and most gratifying progress has
been manifest in the multiplication of schools, and the
general education of the children. An excellent girls*
school has been established at Tzetinie, to which young
women are drawn even from the shores of the Gulf; and
Mr. Freeman affirms that as the older generation passes
away, every man and woman in Montenegro will be able
to read and write.*
' Heyduc is the Slavonian equivalent for the Greek Klepht, or robber.
Forty years ago the Montenegrins gloried in the title of heyducs, which pro-
perly belonged to them all. Now, " robbery of every kind is utterly come
to an end ; there is no part of the world where property is safer, or where
the traveler may go with less risk of danger, than within the bounds of
Montenegro." — Freeman, Littell, Feb. 12, 1876, p. 390.
" They have another virtue besides this simplicity of life — this is tlieii
perfect honesty. I happened to mention that I had dropped a gold bracelet
in Albania. ' Had you dropped it here, even in the remotest comer of
the Black Mountain, it would have been brought to me in lliree days,*
said the prince. I am sure this was not mere talk, for I heard it con-
firmed by enemies as well as friends ol the Montenegrins." — Lady Strang-
ford, p. 171.
* Littell, Feb. 12, 1876, p. 391. Since these words were written, twi
years of constant and desperate fighting have sadly demoralized Montenegrin
society.
17
tfi TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
The Montenegrins are a nation of soldiers, every man
trained to arms, ready for the field at a moment's notice,
and, if the Turk is the foe to be met, fiercely eager for
the fray. At the breaking out of the late insurrection it
was exceedingly difficult to hold them back from going
to the help of their struggling brethren in Herzegovina,
and, if allowed to have their own way, they would have
made short work with the Turks in that province. In
the struggle which followed, the Servians failed, but the
Montenegrins, under their able and heroic prince, have
fully maintained their old renown.
From highest to lowest, these simple people are great
lovers of hospitality. The stranger is always welcome,
and may be sure that his host will entertain him with
the best the house affords, and guard and defend him
even at the hazard of his own life. Another sterling
and universal virtue is a sacred regard for the honor of
women. Violations of the law of chastity are very rare,
and always severely punished. "The forms and fea-
tures of the maidens of the Black Mountain are often
cast in Nature's best mould ; but early exposure to the
sun and wind, and a fare as hard as the incessant toil to
which they are condemned, almost from their cradles,
soon nip their beauty in its bud. Like other high-
landers, the Montenegrins devolve almost all manual
occupations upon their women, except the labors of war,
of the chase, and of agriculture (that is, the actual tilling
of the soil). Nor do the women repine at their lot. Tall
and strong, they may be seen cheerfully toiling up the
steepest ascents, or stepping nimbly along the verge of
precipices, under such loads of corn or firewood as men
MONTENEGRO. 3^
seldom carry in other countries ; while, as if they did not
feel their enormous burdens, they hold their distaffs in
their hands, and chat gayly together as they spin."* Nor
have these stout-hearted Montenegrin women been at
all careful to limit themselves to the labors of peace. In
many a fierce conflict with the Turks, they have left the
distaff for the rifle and the yatagan, and fought right
valiantly by the side of their husbands and sons.
Such is this strange and wonderful little state, the liv-
ing relic of an age and order of things long since passed
away, and clothed in everything pertaining, either to its
past history or its present condition, with the most fascina-
ting interest. It can hardly be that before this proud and
ancient principality there should not lie some worthy
destiny yet to be realized in the future. In conjunction
with its younger sister, the principality of Servia, it may
yet prove the nucleus about which the whole South Sla-
vonic race shall gather into one free and powerful state.
Certain it is that if things were allowed to take their
natural course, the whole Slavic population of Turkey
in Europe would soon be ranged under the banners of
these two principalities. The ultimate issue of this two-
fold development may have been foreshadowed in the
memorable words addressed by Prince Daniel to Prince
Milosh of Servia: " Prince, go forward, and I also will go
forward. Whenever our ways meet, trust me for being
the first to hail you as Czar of the Serbs ; " excepting
that, in accordance with the present judgment of the civil-
ized world, the coming " Tzar of all the Servian lands "
ought to be, not the less competent Prince who xiow
* Edinburgh Review, April, 1859, p. 240.
378 TURKISH SLA VONTANS,
reigns in Servia, but Nicolas Petrovitch of Tzemogora,
the heroic scion of a heroic race, the direct and true
representative of the ancient glory of the Servian name
and the imperial dominion of Stephen Dushan.
CHAPTER V.
THE SERVIAN REVOLUTION.
The Principality of Servia lies between the Danube
on the north and the Balkan Mountains on the south,
Bulgaria proper on the east and Bosnia on the west Its
territory measures about one hundred and sixty miles in
length from north to south, and one hundred and fifty
miles in breadth from east to west Its population is
reckoned at about one million of souls. Yet so secluded
is it in the heart of the Turkish dominions, and so little
has it been brought into communication with the Chris-
tian nations of the West, that many very intelligent
persons are still in ignorance of the fact that the
Servians present the first example of an ancient Chris-
tian people revolting successfully against Mohammedan
oppression ; and that for seventy years, with one brief
interval of defeat and disaster, they have maintained
themselves in essential independence of the Turkish
government Preceding the Greeks in their revolt by
fifteen years, and far more successful than they, as
well in their revolutionary struggle as in political or-
ganization and self-government, the Servians have now
for a long time held an acknowledged place in the
political system of Europe, and seem to be perma-
nently established as an independent people.
38o TURKISH SLA VOmANS.
The Turkish conquest served not so much to enslave
and degrade the great body of the Servian people as to
produce a complete suspension of their political life. They
sank into a helpless multitude of unarmed rayahs, whom
their contemptuous masters tyrannized over and trampled
upon at their pleasure. Still, there was much in their
circumstances favorable to the preservation of their nation-
al spirit. The Turks ^ were mostly confined to the towns,
while the Servians lived by themselves in the retired vil-
lages of the country. The Turks, especially in later
times, had little disposition, in fact were not allowed, to
roam at will about the country, while the Servians had
good reason for avoiding the towns. Many Servians
lived to old age without ever setting foot in the towns of
their own neighborhood.^ The two classes were thus
kept in great measure apart, the rayahs paying their
taxes, and living, under their own village elders, in com-
parative peace.
The so-called Turks, who held the Servians in subjec-
tion, were of three classes. First, there were the Pashas
and other high officials, who received their appointment
from Constantinople. Secondly, there were the janiza-
ries of Belgrade, originally the garrison of that important
city and fortress, but which, here as elsewhere, had grown
into a powerful military caste ; and thirdly, there was
the large body of Moslem landholders — Begs,^ Aghas,
' Or rather Moslems, for the ' ' Turks " of Servia were mostly the de«
scendants of apostate Servians.
2 Ranke, p. 34.
' " Beg " is the Turkish form of the word; " Bey" is the Anglicized
form of tbe sam4 title. — Mackenzie and Irby, p. 345.
THE SERVIANS UNDER THE TURKS. 381
and Spahis, or Timariots — whose estates were scattered
throughout the province, and who were nearly all of
Slavonic descent. As elsewhere throughout the Em-
pire, the Servian Spahis had no feudal jurisdiction
over their estates, but were simply men-at-arms, to
be supported by their tenant rayahs, that they might
be always in readiness to follow the standard of the
Sultan.
In all the Slavonian provinces of European Turkey, it
has been the peculiar hardship of the Christians, who
have long, if not always, formed a majority of the popu-
lation, to be held in subjection by local tyrants of their
own blood. When the country first yielded to Turkish
supremacy, the Sultans treacherously offered the most
favorable terms to the princes and nobles who would sub-
mit to their authority. As in the case of Stephen Lazar-
evitch, they were permitted to retain their positions and
their religion, and to serve as Christian allies in the Tur-
kish armies, upon the payment of a moderate tribute.
Large bodies of Christian troops thus came to be enrolled
under the Ottoman banners. But no sooner was the
power of the Turks firmly established than the mask was
thrown off. Nobles and people alike were compelled to
abjure their faith or to surrender their arms and descend
to the ignoble and helpless condition of rayahs. Already
demoralized by the Turkish military service, great num-
bers of the Christian soldiers chose the former alternative,
forsook their people and their religion, and became, ac-
cording to their rank, Turkish Begs, Aghas,^ or Timari-
' The Turkish Beg or Agha was simply a landholder or local magnate
answering neuly to the English squire or lord of the manor.
382 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
ots. It was the extortion and tyranny of these Slavonian
landlords which proved the immediate cause ^f the late
insurrection in Herzegovina.'
The train of events which resulted in Servian inde-
pendence dates back to the war which broke out be-
tween the Austrians and the Turks in 1788. The Em-
peror Joseph had already taken the Servian Patriarchate
under his protection, when, in the year just named, he
declared war upon the Turks with the avowed purpose
of driving them from Europe, " to revenge mankind on
those barbarians."^ As an important means to the end
in view, he organized, armed, and disciplined a strong
body of Servian refugees, who did excellent service in the
war. The Austrians were entirely successful. The Turks
were everywhere defeated, a large part of Servia was torn
from their grasp, and the Servians fully believed that the
day of their deliverance had come. Their hopes, how-
ever, were doomed to bitter disappointment. The suc-
cess of Austria awakened the jealousy of tlie other Euro-
pean Powers, and the tremendous movements of the
French Revolution, just then beginning, compelled the
sovereigns of Eastern Europe, giving up all ideas of for-
eign conquest, to look to the preservation of their own
power. The result was, that, without a thought for the
unhappy Christians just rescued from Turkish tyranny,
the conquered territory was restored and Servia given
back to its chains.
But the spell of Turkish authority had been broken,
^ See an able and valuable Consular J\.eport in the London Mai! foi
December 15, 1875.
« Ranke, p. 58.
THE RA YAHS ARMED. 383
never to be restored. When the Turks came back to re-
occupy their cities and strongholds, with amazement and
dismay they saw march out of them a powerful body of
their old despised rayahs, with the arms, the discipline,
and the proud bearing of a Christian soldiery. " Neigh-
bors," cried one of them, " what have you made of our
rayahs ? "' This was a germ from which most important
results were to spring; and events soon transpired which
nourished it into sudden and unexpected growth.
A profound sense of the helpless weakness of the
Turkish government before the stronger forces of the
West and North, inspired by a long succession of reverses
and disasters, impelled Sultan Selim, just at the close of
the last century, to enter upon his great project of
" reform." ^ This project involved the complete reorgan-
ization of both the military and political systems of the
Empire. What concerns our present purpose is, that the
old janizaries and irregular cavalry were to be superseded
by a regular army, equipped and disciphned in the Euro-
pean manner. But the janizaries were not to be so easily
supplanted. This ancient and famous body now num-
bered a hundred and fifty thousand registered members,
who were scattered as permanent garrisons in all the
principal cities of the Empire. Allowed to marry, and to
engage, for the support of their families, in the various
avocations of trade, they had long forgotten their military
duties, and had grown up into a wealthy and powerful
military caste.^ The janizaries of the Barbary States had
already thrown oflf their allegiance to the Sultan and ele-
' Ranke, p. 60. * Upham's Ottoman Empire, L 307.
* Ranke, pp. 64, 66.
384 TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
vated their leaders to supreme power. With the inau
guration of the new project of reform, the division of
janizaries established at Belgrade, the capital of Servia,
assumed a similar rebellious attitude.
Thus, at the very outset of their national movement,
the Servians had the good fortune to find their enemies
fatally divided against themselves. The Pashas and
Spahis sided with the government and sympathized with
the Christians ; the janizaries were in rebellion against
the government, and desired only to plunder its subjects
and establish their own power. Soon after the close of
the Austrian war the Pasha of Belgrade received an im-
perial firman commanding the janizaries to leave the city
and the province. The Spahis rallied strongly to the
Pasha's support, and, after the treacherous assassination
of the leader of the janizaries, the order was promulgated
and enforced. After this, under the mild and paternal
rule of their Pasha, Hadji Mustapha, the Servians enjoyed
a short season of great quiet and prosperity.
At this time, however, the famous Osman Pasvan Oglu,
a formidable rebel, who, but for his opportune death in
the year 1800 might perhaps have overturned the Otto-
man throne,^ was at the height of his power as the leader
and champion of the imperiled order of the janizaries in
every part of the Empire. Pasvan was master, and at
length, by the enforced consent of the Porte, Pasha and
Vizier of Widdin, an important city on the Danube, just
over the Servian border in Bulgaria. With Pasvan Oglu
the expelled janizaries of Belgrade found refuge ; and by
' Upliam, i. 308-13.
RETURN OF THE JANIZARIES. 385
his aid they endeavored to regain their lost position in
Servia.
In this emergency, Mustapha Pasha did not hesitate to
take the step before unheard of in Moslem history, of
calling the Christian rayahs to arms for the defence of
their common rights. They obeyed his call with alacrity,
and the janizaries were repelled. The very complete-
ness of their success, however, proved, for the time, their
ruin. This defeat of true believers by armed Christians
caused too great a shock to Moslem prejudice, and Sultan
Selim was compelled to order the return of the janiza-
ries to Belgrade. They did return, and like vultures to
their prey. Mustapha Pasha was put to death, and the
four Dahis, or leaders of the janizaries, at once proceeded
to appropriate the province to themselves. Then followed
a reign of terror and of blood such as Servia had never
known before. The Dahis determined to exterminate
the whole body of Servian leaders, and thus to make
their power secure for the future.
These measures led to an issue far different from that
which their ferocious originators intended. They re-
sulted in giving the death-blow to the Turkish dominion
in Servia. The people, already conscious of their strength
and accustomed to the use of arms, fled to the moun-
tains, thinking only of preserving their lives. Turkish
tyranny had long before filled the mountains with bands
of Hey dues, or robbers, the same in character with the
Greek Klcphts, who maintained a constant though irreg-
ular warfare against their oppressors. These bands be-
came the nucleus of a revolutionary force. Everywhere
leaders appeared, and the whole country rose in arms.
17
386 TURKISH SLAVOI^TANS.
The Pasha of Bosnia joined the insurgents in their con-
flict with -the hated janizaries. The movement rushed
forward with the speed and the resistless power of a con-
flagration. In a single campaign the janizaries were swept
from the country, and their four Dahis, intercepted in
their flight, were put to death. To their own astonish-
ment, the Servians thus found themselves suddenly the
perfect masters of themselves and their country, and that
while fighting only the Sultan's enemies, by the side of
his own loyal lieutenants.^ These events took place in
1804.
It was obvious that the Servians, now for the third
time victorious over the Turks, could not return to their
former oppressed condition. This they strongly felt;
and, after mature deliberation, they determined to solicit
the mediation of Russia and to demand the same con-
cessions for themselves as had already been made to the
neighboring provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. It
seemed for a time as if these demands would be granted,
but it could not be. The old Moslem spirit was too
fiercely aroused, and these presumptuous rayahs must be
humbled. The Porte first temporized, then decisively
rejected the Servian demands, and finally ordered the
Pashas of Bosnia and Scutari to march against the Servi-
ans with an immense army. No doubt was entertained
that this imposing force would make short work with the
Servian rebellion, as Moslem fanaticism now chose to re-
gard it. But the martial spirit of the Servians was now
thoroughly aroused, and the whole people, numbering
perhaps a million of souls, had become a nation of soldiers.
» Ranke, pp. 78-86.
fiTARA GEORGE. 3S7
Undismayed by the dangers which beset them, Ihey
hastened to accept the liroffered wager of battle, deter-
mined now to strike for complete independence.
The time hds now come to introduce to the reader a
very remarkable man, the hero of Servian independence.
This man was George Petrovitch, or, as the Turks called
him, and as he is more familiarly known, Kara George.*
Kara George was the son of a peasant in the neighbor-
hood of Belgrade. He was a rude, uncultured child of
nature, fired with fiercest resentment at the wrongs ot
his country and his people, with very indefinite ideas in
regard to the moral character of his acts, capable of
great things for evil as well as for good, and displaying
from his youth up those high and commanding qual-
ities which made him the saviour of his people, and
gave him a great name in his country's history. He be-
gan his career by blowing out the brains of a Turk for
some insulting act, and afterwards taking the life of liis
own father for his steadfast adherence to the Turkish
cause.^ In tlie Austrian war he had served in the Ser-
vian corps, with the rank of sergeant. With the restora-
tion of Turkish power he betook himself to the moun-
tains, for a time, as a heyduc? Aftenvards he returned to
' That is. Black George. His appellation, of the same meaning, among
his own countrymen was Tzerni George. "This man," forcibly observes
Dr. Croly, "was one of the bold creations of wild countries and troubled
times — beings of impetuous courage, iron strength, original talent, and
doubtful morality." — Ranke, p. 131, note.
^ Upliam, i. 313 ; Ranke, p. 130.
* At tliis time Kara George is said to have entered into the '* bond of
brotherhood," tlie relation so peculiarly sacred and binding among all the
Servian peoples, with Pasvan Oglu of Widdin.— Servia and the Slave
Principalities, p. 487.
388 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
more lawful and peaceable pursuits, engaged in business,
and accumulated wealth as a dealer in swine. Servia is
covered with immense forests of oak ; and the swine
fattened upon the acorns of these forests constitute, as
in the days of Ulysses, and of Cedric the Saxon, an im-
portant part of the wealth of the people. In Servia,
consequently, there is no more lucrative or more honor-
able calling than that of the dealer in swine.
Kara George had just collected a herd of swine to be
driven over the frontier into Austria for sale, when the
Dahis entered upon their general massacre. Leaving the
herd to take care of itself, he fled to the mountains, and
at once took a leader's place among his exasperated
countrymen. Every other district had its own leader in
the same way ; but the central position of the Schuma-
dia, the district of Kara George, and his superior and
commanding ability, soon gave him a controlling influence
throughout the province ; and in 1 804, at a meeting of
the Servian leaders, he was formally elected commander
of the Servians. In the events which followed, he soon
proved his title to this position.
In 1806, the Pashas of Bosnia and Scutari were upon
the borders of Servia with two armies, numbering to-
gether forty thousand men. Leaving a few hundred men
in the east to hold the Pasha of Scutari in check, Kara
George flew to the west at the head of a small but gal-
lant army, and in a short but sanguinary battle inflicted
upon the Bosnians a total defeat. Two Pashas, almost
all the Turkish leaders, and all the flower of the Bosnian
youth, were among the slain, while the Servian loss was
^AjR/t GEORGE. 389
rery small.* After this decisive victory Kara George
returned to the east, and presented himself with so im~
posing a front that the Pasha of Scutari declined the con-
flict and proposed conditions of peace. These conditions
would have satisfied the Servian leaders, but they were
rejected at Constantinople, and the war went on. The
next year, 1 807, the Servians took all the remaining for-
tresses, and drove the Turks out of the country.
Servia was now free, with Kara George at its head.
The seat of government was fixed at Belgrade, and mea-
sures were taken to bring some kind of political order
out of the confusion which everywhere prevailed. A
Senate was instituted, consisting of twelve members, one
for each of the twelve districts (nahias), with both legis-
lative and executive powers." The several revolutionary
leaders were made Voivodes, or military governors, of
their respective districts, and, while an inferior jurisdic-
tion was left in the hands of the Kmetes, or head men of
the villages, in the chief town of every district, in place
of the old Turkish Kadis, a legal tribunal was established,
consisting of a President, Assessor, and Secretary, with
appeals to the Senate itself
More important still was the founding at this time of
' Ranke, p. 108. This Ijatlle was fought near Schabatz on the Save.
* The Skuptschina, or General Assembly of the leading men of the na-
tion, was held from time to time from the first. The members of this body,
coming together at first, it would seem, without any regular appointment,
were afterward summoned indi\-idually by the Prince at his pleasure. No
provision for the regular election of a legislative body by the people was
made until 1S4S. — See an excellent accomit of the Servian Skuptschina la
the Eastern Correspondence of the London Times, London Mail, Nov. 5,
1875-
59© TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
that system of public schools which has since grown to
such magnificent proportions. Efforts were made to es-
tablish a good common school in every district town,
while a high or collegiate school, with three teachers,
was established at Belgrade. The principal agent in car-
rying out all these excellent measures was Dr. Phihppo-
vitch, Secretary of the Senate, who, with most of the
leading teachers in the schools, was an Austrian Ser-
vian.'
The new government, however, did not work smoothly.
The old leaders, turbulent and refractory, were little in-
clined to acknowledge any authority superior to their
own. As the only method of establishing an orderly and
efficient administration, Kara George eventually found
himself compelled to suppress his rivals, many of whom
v/ere banished, and make himself the sovereign of the lit-
tle state. Thus for the six years from 1807 to 18 13,
Servia remained free and independent under the leader-
ship of Kara George, who, for the last three years of this
period, reigned over the principality in prosperity, and
with absolute power.
At this point we may pause for a moment to survey
the picture, which has been drawn by a master hand, of
this famous Servian hero. " Kara George was a very
extraordinary man. He would sit for days together
without uttering a word, biting his nails. At times when
addressed, he would turn his head aside and not answer.
When he had taken wine he became talkative ; and if
in a cheerful mood, he would perhaps lead off a kolo-
dance. Splendor and magnificence he despised. In
^ Ranke, pp. 122-4.
UTAJIA GEORGE. 391
the Aays of his greatest success, he was always seen in
his old blue trousers, in his worn-out short pelt, and
his well-known black cap. His daughter, even while her
father was in the exercise of princely authority, was seen
to carry her water vessel, like other girls of the village.
Yet, strange to say, he was not insensible to the charms
df gold.
" In Topola he might have been taken for a peasant.
With his inomkes ^ he would clear a piece of forest land,
or conduct water to a mill; and then they would fish
together in the brook Jasenitza. He ploughed and tilled
the ground ; and spoiled the insignia of the Russian Or-
der, with which he had been decorated, whilst putting a
hoop on a cask. It was in battle only that he appeared a
warrior. When the Servians saw him approach, sur-
rounded by his momkes, they took fresh courage. Of
lofty stature, spare and broad shouldered, his face seamed
by a large scar, and enlivened with sparkling, deep-set
eyes, he could not fail to be instantly recognized. He
would spring from his horse — for he preferred fighting
on foot — and though his right hand had been disabled
by a wound received when a Heyduc, he contrived to
use his rifle most skillfuly. Wherever he appeared, the
Turks became panic-stricken, for victory was believed to
be invariably his companion.
" In peace, Kara George evinced, as has been shown,
a decided inclination for a regular course of proceeding ;
' Every Servian leader had a band of momkes, or mounted followers,
who lived upon the lands of their chief and ate at his table. These bands
of momkes were the only cavalry in the country. They were often very law-
less, and sometimes their leaders, depending upon their support, played th«
petty tyrant in their ova districts.
39* TURKISH SLA VQNIANS.
and altho'jgh he could not himself write, he was fond
of having business carried on in writing. He allowed
matters to follow their own course for a long time to-
gether ; but if they were carried too far, his very justice
was violent and terrible. His only brother, presuming
on his name and relationship, took unwarrantable license ;
and for a long time Kara George overlooked his miscon-
duct ; but at length he did violence to a young maiden,
whose friends complained loudly, exclaiming that it was
for crimes of such a character that the nation had risen
against the Turks. Kara George was so greatly enraged
at this vile deed that he ordered this only brother, whom
he loved, to be hanged at the door of the house ; and
forbade his mother to mourn outwardly for the death of
her son.
"Such was Kara George: a character of extraordinary
strength, unconscious, as it were, of its own powers,
brooding in the vague sense of dormant energies, till
roused to action by some event of the moment, but then
bursting forth into vigorous activity, for good or for evil,
as circumstances might direct." ^
Kara George combined the strength and the weakness
' Rankt, p. 131. The following passage, from a paper by Marshal Die-
bitch, a representative of the Russian government at Belgrade, in the years
1810 and 181 1, is added in a note: "George Petrovitch . . . is an
important character. His countenance shows a greatness of mind which is
not to be mistaken ; and when we take into consideration tlie times, circum-
stances, and the impossibility of his having received an education, we must
admit that he has a mind of a masculine and commanding order. . .
He has very little to say for himself, and is rude in his manners ; but his
judgments in civil affairs are promptly and soundly framed, and to great
address he joins unwearied industry. As a soldier there is but one opinion
of his talents, bravery, and enduring firmness." — Id. p. 133.
KARA GEORGE. 393
of an untrained, undisciplined child of nature. Though
endowed with prodigious force and energy, and some-
times displaying flashes of the highest genius, his mind
was capricious and ill-balanced. In the intervals of his
almost superhuman exertions, he was subject to fits of
gloomy dejection, inaction, almost of lethargy ; and this
peculiarity of his mental constitution proved his ruin.
His fall was as sudden and disastrous as the opening of
his career had been successful and glorious.
For six years, with the firm and steady support and
protection of the Court of St. Petersburg, the Servians
maintained their complete independence. But in 18 12,
Napoleon undertook his great expedition for the conquest
of Russia; and this movement compelled the Russians
to assemble all their forces and bend all their energies
for their own defence. The Turks, thus left free from
foreign interference, determined to put forth a great effort
for the subjugation of the revolted Servians. The exter-
nal danger on this occasion was not greater than that
which the Servians had triumphantly met again and
again. The difficulty, the fatal difficulty, was within. Like
the Second Napoleon, and like many another successful
autocrat, Kara George had not succeeded in establishing
his own individual power without essentially modifying
and weakening the old and vital institutions of his people.
The Knezes, Voivodes, Gospodars, who had been the
natural leaders of the people in their old struggles, had
most of them been deprived of their authority. Some
were in exile, others were nourishing a sullen and wide-
spread opposition to the government at home. Many
of the most important posts were occupied by mere selfish
I7»
3M TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
adventurers, who were no soldiers, were inspired by no
patriotic devotion to their country, were totally unfit to
guide her destinies in a sudden and dangerous crisis like
this.
In the year 1813, Kurschid Pasha, Grand Vizier of the
Empire, appeared with a powerful army upon the Ser-
vian borders.' The first attack was upon Negotin, a
fortress upon the Danube. The defences in this quarter
were under the command of Veliko, a stout and valiant
old Heyduc chief, but who, at this time, had little favor
with the principal officers of the Servian government.
His calls for help were met only with scornful neglect,
and Veliko soon fell fighting bravely at his post. After
the fall of Veliko, all effectual defence was at an end.
The Turkish armies crossed the frontier, and half the
province was speedily lost. But even then the condition
of things was in nowise desperate. The people were all
in arms, looking eagerly for the appearance of their great
leader, and ready to rally under his standard as one man
to drive back the invaders.
If at this juncture Kara George had put himself at
their head, with a tithe of the valor and enthusiasm with
which, in 1806, he had faced the Pashas of Bosnia and
Scutari, no doubt another victory, no less complete and
decisive, would have crowned his arms. But he did not
appear. The cowardice and defection of his civil and
military servants, who were steaHng in crowds across the
Austrian frontier for safety, seemed to have filled him
with deep and hopeless despondency. He issued no
commands to his armies, spoke no word of courage and
' Ranke, chap. xv.
FALL OF KARA GEORGE.
395
inspiration to his people, took no measures for the de-
fence of his principality. And so, without striking one
blow for the realm he had so gloriously won, without one
effort for the preservation of the imperiled freedom of
his native land, he too joined the swelling current of
fugitives, and stole ignominiously across the Danube,
The astonished Turks thus found their power over
their revolted province restored as suddenly as it had
been wrested from them seven years before. Their tri-
umph, however, was but short. While most of the Ser-
vian leaders had followed Kara George in his flight, one
of them, Milosch Obrenovitch by name, more brave and
patriotic than the rest, determined to remain and share
the fate of his countrymen. To him the Turkish com-
manders applied for aid in pacifying the province. As
the best that could be done under the circumstances,
Milosch readily complied with their request, and zeal-
ously exerted himself to persuade his countrymen to
make the best terms possible with their conquerors. By
this course, he not only secured the entire confidence of
the Turkish officials, but became the acknowledged leader
of the Servian people." '
At first, the Turkish authorities seemed inclined to use
their recovered power with some fairness and moderation;
but very soon the expelled Spahis and Moslem proprie-
tors returned to their estates, determined to wreak a ter-
rible vengeance upon the spoilers of their inheritance.
As the result, a fearful reign of violence and blood soon
prevailed.^ This state of things could not last, and in
' Ranke, pp. 1S9-90.
* " In 1814, three hundred Christians were impaled at Belgrade by the
396 TUUKTSH SLA VONTANS.
the spring of 1 8 1 5 the exasperated Servians constrained
Milosch to lead them in a fresh revolt' The movement
was crowned with complete success ; the Turks were
everywhere beaten, and, except a few of the principal
fortresses, the country was again freed from their presence.
Thus in the year 181 5, by "a campaign which would
not lose by comparison with any that had ever occurred
in Servia," ^ did Milosch Obrenovitch finally secure and
establish the essential freedom of the Servian people-
The Turks still called the country their own, and for fif-
teen years longer the state of things was very unsettled.
A Turkish Pasha held his court in Belgrade. Turkish
garrisons held the fortresses, the Turkish Spahis claimed,
to some extent received, the rents of their estates. Yet,
none the less, Servia was essentially free. The country
districts had been wholly cleared of their old Moslem
population ; the so-called Turks were now found only
in the fortified towns, and even there were rapidly dwin-
dling away ; the internal administration was wholly in
Servian hands ; the Turkish money claims of all kinds
were gradually commuted for a gross sum to be paid by
the Servian authorities, forming a very light tax upon
the householders, who were thus transformed into an in-
dependent yeomanry ; the jurisdiction of the Pasha of
Belgrade extended only over the Moslems in the few
fortified towns ; and the real sovereign of Servia was the
Grand Knez, Milosch Obrenovitch.^
Pasha, and every valley in Servia presented the spectacle of infuriated Turk-
ish Spahis avenging on the Servians the blood, exile, and confiscation of the
ten preceding years." — Paton's Servia, p. 199.
1 Ranke, pp. 195, 198. ^ Id., p. 205.
' Paton, p. 307 ; Ranke, chap. xviiL
CHAPTER VI.
FREE SERVIA.
The country which is the home of the Servian people
is one of the finest and most delightful regions of the
earth's surface. Although in the latitude of Tuscany and
the Gulf of Lyons, its situation, upon the northern slopes
of the Balkan Mountains, has given it the climate, vege-
tation, and general character of the South of England
rather than the South of France. Mr. Denton observes
that the flora or vegetation of Servia is almost entirely
English. But nowhere in England, probably, docs this
flora reach a development so luxuriant and magnificent
as it everywhere displays upon these sunny slopes.
The heart of Servia is the broad and fruitful valley of
the Morava, in its lower course a large and navigable
river, which, with its branches, waters the interior dis-
tricts of the principality in its whole length from north
to south. This valley presents a wide expanse of fer-
tile land, mostly without timber,' and yielding ample
crops of wheat and other grains. On either side of this
valley the country rises into detached hills and low
mountains which are covered with magnificent oaks and
> Paton, p. 178.
398 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
Other trees in great variety, and clothed with richest ver-
dure to their very summits.
The whole Principality, especially in the interior and
southern districts, is but sparsely settled, and no more
than a fifth or sixth of the soil is under cultivation. But
in their almost extravagant admiration of the natural
beauty of the scenery among those wooded hills, all visit-
ants from the West are quite agreed. " This part of Ser-
via (the Servian bank of the Drina near Liubovia) is a
wilderness, if you will," says Mr. Paton. " So scant is it
of inhabitants, so free from anything like inclosures, or
fields, farms, laborers, gardens, or gardeners ; and yet it
is, and looks, a garden in one place, a trim English lawn
and park in another. You almost say to yourself. The
man or house cannot be far oft" what lovely and exten-
sive grounds ! where can the hall or castle be hid ? " ^
The vegetation which so luxuriates in these secluded re-
gions is mostly spontaneous. The grassy slopes are filled
with strawberries, and the forest glades with raspberries,
while whortleberries are found abundantly upon the
lighter soil of the hills. Almost every kind of flower that
beautifies the English landscape is scattered in prodigal
profusion among these Servian hills. "Trees, indeed,
that are comparatively rare in England are met with in
profusion in Servia. The wild pear and cherry, the plum
and the apple may be seen in great numbers in the woods;
the acacia and laburnum are met with by the sides of the
roads, and lilacs abound on all the hillsides."^
As we advance southwards and upwards towards the
' Paton, p. 153.
• London Quarterly Review, January, 1865, p. 97.
FREE SERVTA.
399
higher summits of the Balkan range, the scenery becomes
entirely changed. The oak and beech give place to the
cedar ; the mountains rise precipitous and wild ; the lux-
uriant fruitfulness of the lower districts disappears ; even
the pasturage is scanty and poor.^ Yet to this bleak and
sterile region the mind of every Servian turns with the
deepest and most reverent interest ; for here are thickly
scattered the monuments of the ancient glories of his
race.^ At Novi Bazar, just over the line in Bosnia, was
the ancestral seat of Nemanja, the founder of the Servian
Empire. At Zitchka is the ancient monastery at which
was rai.sed the archiepiscopal throne of St. Sava, the
patron saint of all the Servian lands, and in which seven
Servian Tzars were crowned. A little further south, and
a little higher up among the mountains, is the famous old
monastery of Studenitza, built by Nemanja in the latter
part of the twelfth century, and containing within its walls
a magnificent church of white marble and Byzantine archi-
tecture — magnificent still, after all the abuse and mutila-
tions which it has suffered at the hands of the Turks —
in which are seen the tombs of St. Simeon, the son of
Nemanja, and of St. Sava, the son of St. Simeon, and
ecclesiastical father of the Servian Church. This church
was built by Stephen Urosh, Tzar of Servia, in 13 14,
and is one of thirty-five similar churches in the same
district which bear witness to the magnificence, the
piety, and the architectural taste of the Nemanyitch
Tzars.
The social life and character of the rural Servians, who
' Paton, p. iSS.
* Id., chap. xvii. ; Forsyth, p. 22; Mackenzie and Irby, p. 315.
18
400 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
form the great majority of the nation,' present a subject
of singular and fascinating interest. Secluded among
their mountains, forests, and quiet vales, they have pre-
served almost unchanged the manners and mode of life
of their ancestors in mediaeval times. No doubt they
have been characterized by the vices, the rudeness, vio-
lence, and lawlessness, as well as the virtues of a semi-
civilized people ; but the impression which they make
upon the traveler from the West is, on the whole, most
pleasing. They are an exceedingly simple-hearted peo-
ple, so hospitable as almost to reverence the stranger;
grave and serious, frank, honest, and dignified, and stand-
ing erect in the proud consciousness of a freedom nobly
won. Turkish tyranny has had the same leveling effect
upon them as upon the Greeks, and has inspired them
with a spirit intensely democratic. To the inquiry of a
traveler if there were no nobles in Servia, the character-
istic answer was returned, " Every Servian is noble."
The women are exceedingly diligent, and every family is
comfortably clothed in the products of the domestic loom.
The men too are industrious, but not like the Bulgarians,
who annually cross the frontier in great numbers to assist
them in gathering their harvests. Their domestic morals
are above reproach, the members of the family circle be-
ing bound together by strong affection, while licentious-
ness is almost unknown. The " bond of brotherhood "
is a peculiar relation which has been common among
^ The Servians of the towns, who have always lived, until within a few
years past, under Turkish influence, are far inferior to their brethren of the
country. They are characterized by more of the vices which long continued
servitude everywhere engenders. — See Owen Meredith, p. i6.
FREE SERVIA. 401
them from ancient times, although, in the complete change
in their circumstances, it is now bec« ming less frequent
Two young men (and the maidens have a similar cus-
tom), having been drawn together by interest or affection,
take an oath of brotherhood " in the name of God and
St. John," and become thenceforth faithfully devoted to
each other until separated by death.' Singularly enough,
this bond was often formed between Christians and Mos-
lems. The bond-brother of Kara George was Pasvan
Oglu, afterwards Pasha of Widdin ; the bond-brother of
Prince Milosch Obrenovitch was a Turkish official ; "^ and
Sultan Bajazet was the bond-brother of the Servian King,
Stephen Lazarevitch, who, with true Servian feeling,
remained true to his oath after the defeat and capture of
Bajazet by Tamarlane.^
According to the ancient traditions of the race, the
Servian wife still holds, in theory, an inferior and some-
what servile position. She is expected for a long time
after her marriage to be very modest and retiring, and
not until she becomes the mother of grown up children
does she rise to full equality with the other females of
the family. When the husband dies, it is the mother
and sisters, not the wife, who publicly mourn his loss. On
his journey from Belgrade to Schabatz, Mr Paton met
a very pretty young woman, who, in response to the sal-
utations of the party, bent herself almost to the earth.
In answer to his inquiries respecting this singular humil-
ity, he was informed that the young woman was a bride,
' Ranke, p. 37. * Ranke, p. 197.
' Mr. Layard found something resembling this Servian league of brother
hood among the Shammar Arabs. — See his " Nineveh and Babylon," p. 201.
402 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
and that custom required her to display this humility
and reverence.^ The Servian woman is an excellent
housekeeper, and in all the better class of houses the
traveler from the West is surprised and delighted to find
scrupulous cleanliness, snowy sheets, and comfortable
beds.
The social system of the Servians is strikingly patri-
archal. This is the explanation of the communal form
of their village life. The father, as long as he lives, is
the head of the family in all its branches. The Servian
" House Communion " is, in its origin, and frequently
in fact, a clan ; and the Stareshina, or " housefather,"
whether the actual father of the family or its ablest mem-
ber chosen to fill the ofiice, rules his little community
with quiet dignity and firm authority. The " House
Communion " is the basis not only of society but of na-
tionality among the Servians. This communal system
does not favor the development of individual energy and
enterprise. It is already giving way, and must ere long
become greatly modified, if it does not wholly disappear,
as social order and the progress of civilization awaken
the strong personal impulses of the several members of
each community. Yet there can be no doubt that, in
the dark and troubled ages of the past, it has been of in-
calculable value to the Servian people. As every house-
hold forms a considerable community by itself, and re-
quires no little space, a Servian village necessarily extends
over a great amount of ground.
The same principle which governs the House Com-
munion has a more extended application in the village,
* Servia, p. 86.
^JiSE SEHVIA. 403
which is a close corporaticii, electing its own elders and
Seoski Khez, Kmete, or mayor, who, under the Turks,
were the viitual rulers of the Servian people. The Ser-
vians have a strong dislike for professional lawyers, and
the village Kmetes, with their council of elders, are still
the courts to which the people of the country districts
generally resort for the settlement of their disputes. In
some villages a " reconciliation house " has been pro-
vided for the accommodation of this rustic tribunal,
which sits every Sunday, and decides all cases without
fee or charge. More commonly, ho»vever, it holds its
sessions in the open air, sitting in patriarchal simplicity,
the Kmete in the center, the elders grouped around
him.^ Every village and every household has its own
titular saint, whose anniversary was formerly observed
with much ceremony. In the general want of churches,
the clergy found in these stated rites one uf their most
important points of union with their flocks.
As has been already observed, the Ser\na.ij are a re-
markably poetic race. Everything in their hiUory, down
even to the present moment, has been embodied in verse.
The spontaneousness with which, in Servia, even the most
common and prosaic occurrences seem to take on the
poetic form, and go flying on the wings of song from one
' Forsyth, p. 65. " Seeing a large house (at Skela, on the Save) ,»ithin
aninclosure, I asked what it was, and was told that it was the reconciliation
house, a court of first instance, in which cases are decided by the \'illage
elders, without expense to the litigants, and beyond which suits are seldom
carried to the liighcr courts. There is, throughout all the interior of Servia,
a stout opposition to the nascent lawyer class in Belgrade. I have been
more than once amused on hearing an advocate, greedy of practice, style
this laudable economy and patriarchal simplicity, ' Avarice and aversion
from civilization.' " — Patoo, p. 87.
404 TURKISH SLAVONIAI^S,
end of the land to the other, is one of the most remark-
able facts of modern times, one of the most striking illus-
trations of the Homeric age. Such verses, Mr. Denton
observes, are not employed alone in celebrating the
glories of Stephen Dushan, the heroism of George Bran-
covitch, or the mournful defeat of Kossovo. " Long
tedious debates in the National Parliament, or Skoup-
china, of 1870, on the liberty of opening and keeping
shops in villages as distinguished from towns, were sum-
med up and reported throughout the country, in a way
which would astonish the readers of the debates in our
English Parliament. The whole discussion, with the argu-
ments of the various speakers, took the form of a long
song or poem, which was recited in the open air before
the villagers assembled to hear the course and result of
the debate. Perhaps in a similar manner the military
and naval incidents, the contentions of mighty chiefs, the
debates before the tent of Agamemnon, or in the council-
house of Troy, were thrown into verse by the Father of
Poetry, the Prince of story-tellers, . . . and thus
made known throughout Greece in the form of the
Iliad." ' A vast number of poems and ballads, of many
of which no one knows the author, and which are con-
stantly being added to or reproduced in different forms,
are always passing from mouth to mouth, and are sung
or recited to the monotonous accompaniment of the
gusla^ on all occasions, public and private. Sometimes,
as at the tables of the chiefs, in public assemblies, and by
' Serbian Folk-lore, p. 23.
* The^j/a is a one-stringed violin, with a long neck. Mr. Paton writei
the yrovdigoosely, whirf . very nearly represents the correct pronunciation.
FREE SERVTA. 405
the fireside of the country inn, the singing is by profes-
sional rhapsodists, many of whom are blind. But the
ability to chant these national poems is a universal ac-
complishment ; and in the long evenings of winter,
" When round the lonely cottage
Roars loud the Tempest's din,
And the good logs of Algidus
Roar louder yet within ;
When young and old in circle
Around the firebrands close,
When the girls are weaving baskets
And the lads are shaping bows ;
When the good-man mends his armor,
And trims his helmet plume,
And the good-wife's shuttle merrily
Goes flashing through the loom ; "
very often the venerable grandsire, excused on account
of his years from the active labors in which the younger
men are busy, takes down the gtisla, and whiles away
the evening hour by chanting the glorious deeds of the
great Dushan, of Marko Kralievitch, of the good Czar
Lazar, or of Kara George.
Among a people so simple and primitive in their man-
ners and feelings, and of so poetic a temperament, we
find, as we might expect, an ardent sympathy with
nature. The whole year is filled with rites, supersti-
tious perhaps, but none the less simple and pleasing,
in which the dependence of man upon the powers of
nature is acknowledged and vividly set forth. In this
way almost every change in the circling seasons is cele-
brated. " As soon as ice and snow disappear from the
surface of water and land — that being the first harbinger
of the renovated year — they commence with these sym-
#q6 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
boHc rites. On the eve of St. George's festival, towards
the end of April, the women gather young flowers and
herbs ; then catching the water cast from a mill-wheel
they throw into it the flowers and herbs, and let both
remain during the night, for the purpose of bathing in
the water the next morning." ^ And so with mystic
rites, with dance and song, with rustic processions and
social festivities, they celebrate each successive period
of the advancing year.
Before the Revolution the people were very ignorant,
the clergy in this respect having but little the advantage
of their flocks, and their public religious services were
little more than superstitious forms. Since the Revolu-
tion the Servians have become an intelligent, compara-
tively an educated people ; and many of their clergy have
been able and public-spirited men, who have exerted
themselves with zeal and success for the moral and intel-
lectual improvement of their countrymen. Yet it is to
be feared that even now true evangelical piet}'', based
in an intelligent study of the Scriptures, has little exist-
ence among them. But the Servians are and have al-
ways been of a grave, religious character. They love to
sing the grand old hymns of their ancient Church, and
engage in all the public and private services of religion
with great punctuality and fervor. " They have three
daily prayers — early in the morning, before supper, and
on retiring to rest — in which they do not employ estab-
lished forms ; and at table, instead of one asking a bless-
ing on the food, each individual expresses in his own
words gratitude to the Supreme Being. In drinking, the
' Ranke, p. 41.
FREE SERVIA. tfifj
toast or sentiment of the Servians is, " To the glory of
God ; " and no one would presume to take his seat at
the head of a convivial party, who was not able to extem-
porize a suitable prayer." ^
The few fine old churches which have been preserved
from mediaeval times were wholly inadequate to the
wants of the people, and as the Turks would allow no
new churches to be built, the usual public services of
religion upon the Sabbath were not generally observed.
For this reason the parish clergy were a less important
and influential body among the Servians than among any
other of the Christian peoples of the East. They were
usually very poor, and fortunate it was for them if they
had land of their own on which they could labor for
their bread. " Father," asked a boy one day of a priest,
"do you also tend your oxen?" " My son," was the
answer, " I would they were mine [ tended."
The monks enjoy the respect and veneration of the
people in a far higher degree than the parish clergy.
This was owing to the fact that the monasteries, far away
from Turkish scruti.jy in the hidden recesses of the forests
and the mountains, became important centres of the so-
cial as well as religious life of the people. On certain
established days the population of the surrounding dis-
tricts were accustomed to assemble at these places, not
only for confession and worship, but for a social and fes-
tive gathering. Many parties arrived the preceding
evening, and passed the night around a fire. The morn-
ing hours were given to confession and the communion,
after which followed a market and a fair. The young
' Ranke, p. 43.
408 TURKISH SLA VONTANS.
people engaged in various sports, while their seniors sat
apart in grave consultation. In August, 1844, Mr. Paton
had the good fortune to be present at one of these gath-
erings at the monastery of Tronosha, in the valley of the
Drina. The party reached the monastery, " an edifice
with strong walls, towers, and posterns," in the afternoon.
" After coffee, sweetmeats, &c.," he continues, " we passed
through the yard, and, piercing the postern gate, unex-
pectedly came upon a most animated scene. A green
glade, that ran up to the foot of the hill, was covered
with the preparations for the approaching festivities.
Wood was splitting, fires lighting, fifty or sixty sheep were
spitted, pyramids of bread, dishes of all sorts and sizes,
and jars of wine in wicker baskets, were mingled with
throat-cut fowls, lying on the banks of the stream side
by side with pigs at their last squeak. ... In the
evening we went out, and the countless fires, lighting up
the lofty oaks, had a most pleasing effect. The sheep
were by this time cut up and lying in fragments, around
which the supper parties were seated cross-legged.
Other peasants danced slowly, in a circle, to the drone
of the somniferous Servian bagpipe. When I went to
bed, the assembled peasantry were in the full tide of
merriment, but without excess. ... I dreamed I
know not what absurdities ; suddenly a solemn swelling
chorus of countless voices gently interrupted my slum-
bers — the room was filled with light, and the sun on
high was beginning to begild an irregular parallelogram
on the wainscot — when I started up and hastily drew
on some clothes. Going out to the makad, I per-
ceived yesterday's assembly of merry-making peasants
FREE SERVIA. 409
quadrupled in number, and all dressed in their holiday
costume, thickset on their knees, down the avenue to the
church, and following a noble old hymn. . . . The
whole pit of this theater of verdure appeared covered
with a carpet of white and crimson, for such were the pre-
vailing colors of the rustic costumes. . . . After the
midday meal we descended, accompanied by the monks.
The lately crowded court-yard was silent and empty.
'What,' said I, 'all dispersed already?' The Superior
smiled, and said nothing. On going out of the gate, I
paused, in a state of slight emotion. The whole assem-
bled peasantry were marshaled into rows, and standing
uncovered in solemn silence, so as to make a living ave-
nue to the bridge. ... I took off my fez, and said,
' Do you know, Father Igoumen, what has given me the
most pleasure in the course of my visit ? I have seen a
large assembly of peasantry, and not a trace of poverty,
vice, or misery.' The Igoumen, smiling with satisfac-
tion, made a short speech to the people. I mounted my
horse; the convent bells began to toll as I waved my
hand to the assembly, and ' Sretnj poot ' (a prosperous
journey) burst from a thousand tongues." ^ It is Prof.
Ranke's opinion that through the dark centuries of Turk-
ish oppression these secluded monasteries were the most
efficient means of preserving both the religion and the
nationality of the Servian people.^ Since the Revolu-
tion the influence and the numbers of the monks have
greatly decreased. As the parish priest is required to be
a married man, and permitted to marry but once, on
the death of his wife he is compelled to enter a mon-
' Servia, pp. 134-9. * Servia and Bosnia, p. 40.
410 TURKISH SI A VONIANS.
astery. If it were not for these involuntary recruits,
the Servian monks would soon disappear.'
Let us now turn back to trace the political development
of the principality since the final establishment of its
essential freedom in 1815. The long reign of Milosch
Obrenovitch, from 181 5 to 1839, was a transition period.
The rule of Prince Milosch, by birth and education an
illiterate peasant, unable to write or read, and knowing
nothing of any other kind of government than that of
the Ottoman officials, was more like that of a Turkish
Pasha than that of an enlightened and constitutional
chief magistrate.^ His great aim was to accumulate
wealth and to establish his family in a hereditary satrapy,
under the Porte, like that of the Pashas of Scutari and
Uskup. He monopolized commerce, forced his own goods
and produce upon the markets at his own price, filled
the posts of government with his own creatures, and
struck off heads with little regard to the fonns of
law.
One of the first to fall by his ruthless hand was his
brave but injudicious and unfortunate predecessor, Kara
George. After his flight from Servia, Kara George had
taken refuge in Bessarabia, under the protection of Rus-
sia. In 1 8 16, the Greek Hetaeria enlisted him in their
cause, and inspired him with the hope of placing himself
once more at the head of the Servian people, and uniting
them with the Greeks in their impending struggle for
independence He accordingly returned secretly to
Smederevo, where, at the demand of the Pasha of Bel-
' London Quarterly Review, January, 1865, p. 100.
* Ranke, chap. xxi. ; Paton, chap. xxx. ; Forsyth, pp. 50-56.
FREE SERVTA. 411
grade, and by the orders of Milosch, he was treacherously
stabbed while asleep.^
Milosch was recognized by the Porte as the virtual
head of the Servian people, and in 18 17 was chosen
Grand Knez by the Servians themselves. He thus ruled
by a two-fold authority, and his position, although pre-
carious and equivocal, was maintained with consummate
shrewdness and skill. Arbitrary, and in some respects
tyrannical, as his government was, it was probably the
best which could have been obtained under the circum-
stances, and under it, for a long time, the Servians pros-
pered and were content.
Meantime the external relations of the principality
were constantly improving. The Russian people sym-
pathized strongly with their fellow Slavonians of the
South, and the imperial government was always in-
clined to mediate in their behalf in a tone of command-
ing authority. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg was sup-
ported in these measurer, by England and France, and,
in accordance with the demands of the three Powers, at
the Conference of Akjerman ^ in 1826, the Porte con-
sented to concede to Servia a position of semi-independ-
ence, with nearly the same measure of internal freedom
and territorial extent, excepting the occupation of the
fortresses, which had been enjoyed under Kara George.
In 1830 a Hatti-sheriff was issued from Constantinople
giving full effect to these provisions, and recognizing
Milosch Obrenovitch as hereditary Prince or Grand
Knez of Servia.^
* Ranke, p. 217. * Akyerman; Ranke, p. 235.
• Ranke, pf 241-247.
412 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
But during this long interval of fifteen years, the poli-
tical education of the Servians had been making rapid
progress. A national party was slowly forming, embrac-
ing the great majority of the more intelligent and pros-
perous classes of the people, which was inclined to offer
a strenuous opposition to the arbitrary proceedings of
Milosch, and to insist upon a regular government in ac-
cordance with the forms of law. The demands of this
powerful party at length became too loud and impera-
tive to be resisted, and at the Skupschina of 1835,
Milosch promised to convene the Senate, to appoint a
ministry, and to govern according to the laws. At this
assembly a charter or code was drawn up, consisting of
one hundred and twenty-two articles, which was solemnly
adopted, and was thenceforth to be the law of the land.
Milosch did not keep his promise. After the adop-
tion of this code his government was more arbitrary and
oppressive than it had been before, until not the Servians
alone, but the Porte and the Christian Powers became
thoroughly dissatisfied with his course. As the result,
Milosch was compelled to abdicate his throne, which he
did in 1839,^ in favor of his eldest son, Milan, retiring to
Austria.
Milan was very sick at the time of his father's abdica-
tion, and soon after died. Michael, a younger son of
Milosch, then received the crown, and arrived in Servia
from Constantinople qn the 12th of March, 1840. The
government of Prince Michael proved no more accepta-
ble to the Servians than that of his father, and in 1843
he too was forced to retire.
- Milosch was deposed June 13, 1839. — Forsyth, p. 56^
FREE SERVIA. 413
The Servians now, with one voice, demanded Alexan-
der, the son of Kara George, for their Prince. He was
accordingly chosen, by the Skupschina in September,
1842, and by the people in a free and popular election on
the 15th of June, 1843. The government of Alexander
Kara Georgevitch proved mild, successful, and eminently
beneficial to the country. Roads were opened, churches,
plain and simple, but neat and commodious, were built
everywhere in the country districts, schools were multi-
plied, and a great impetus given to the social and mate-
rial advancement of the principality. When Mr. Paton
visited Servia, in 1 843-4, he found a people living in peace
and quietness, enjoying comfort and abundance, with
" not a trace of poverty, vice, or misery." ^ The Moslem
population had almost entirely disappeared, except in
the towns held as fortresses by the Porte, and these were
rapidly dwindling away. The authority of the Pasha of
Belgrade and the other Turkish officials was entirely
limited to the garrisons and the people of their own
faith. All the pecuniary demands of the Turks, includ-
ing the rents of the Spahis, had been commuted for a
small annual tribute, and the Servians felt themselves
to be essentially and truly free.
Alexander Kara Georgevitch lived and ruled on the
best of terms with the Turks, a fact to which was largely
caving the peace and prosperity of his reign for many
years. In the Crimean war he maintained a strict neu-
trahty, for which he received from the Porte, at the close
of the war, a full confirmation of the liberties of his prin-
cipality. This complacency towards their old enemies
' Servia, p. 138.
414 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
and oppressors, however, became at length an offence in
the eyes of his subjects, and wrought his overthrow in
the end. His disposition to look to the Turks for the
support of his own power and the punishment of his per-
sonal enemies,^ provoked at last a violent opposition, be-
fore which he was obliged to retire. He was deposed
from the government in December, 1857.
With that fidehty to their leaders which has always
characterized their race, the Servians now turned to their
old deliverer, Milosch, and with great enthusiasm brought
him back to his throne. Milosch himself was now very
old ; but since he and his son had been in exile, the latter
had made good use of his time. He had traveled much
in Europe, and had qualified himself to fill ably and suc-
cessfully the high position which he was destined a second
time to hold. In i860 Milosch died, and Michael Obren-
ovitch again became Prince of Servia.^
The second administration of Prince Michael was emi-
nently vigorous and successful. He foresaw clearly that
there must come sooner or later another and decisive
struggle between the Slavonian Christians of European
Turkey and their Ottoman masters, and for that struggle
he set himself in earnest to prepare. He gave the gov-
ernment a more efficient organization, founded an arsenal,
obtained a supply of arms, and enrolled the whole adult
male population of the principality as a militia, with fifty
thousand men ready for immediate service, and seventy
thousand as a reserve.^
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 187.
* See "The Story of Serbia," Mackenzie and Irby, chaps, xii. and xiii.
■ " All this was due to the energy of Prince Michael, whose policy was
to place his country in such a position that she might have a voice in the
FREE SERVIA. 415
In 1862 occurred an event which led to a result for
which the Servians had hardly dared to hope — the com-
plete evacuation of the Servian fortresses by the Turks.
In a panic occasioned by a tumult in the city, and an at-
tack upon a Turkish guard-house, the Pasha of Belgrade
bombarded the Christian quarter of the capital. This
" untoward event " effectually reopened the " Eastern
Question." The Great Powers interfered, and the Turks
were compelled to withdraw their last soldier from the
Servian territories. Since that time a simple green flag
on the fortress of Belgrade has been the only sign of Turk-
ish power in Servia.^ The reign of Prince Michael was
brought to a sudden and painful close by his assassination,
in June, 1868. More painful still it is to record that
Alexander Kara Georgevitch was convicted by the Aus-
trian courts of complicity in this great crime, for which
he and his posterity have been justly declared forever
excluded from the Servian throne.
Prince Michael was succeeded by his nephew, Milan,
then a boy only fourteen years of age, and who, until
August, 1872, when he came of age,^ remained under
councils of Europe when her own interests, or even existence, were at
stake. A nation of a million and a half unarmed peasants -might be dis-
posed of with as little regard to tlieir interests as if they were so many
sheep ; but a nation that could summon to its standard one hundred thou-
sand armed men, . . . with two hundred rifled artillery, . . .
would, as the Prince judged, be listened to. All these ambitious projects
were reahzed, and Servia was placed, by the determination, self-sacrifice,
and energy of Prince Michael, in a better position than she had ever been
since the fatal field of Kossovo in 1389." — British Quartarly Review, in
Littell, April 22, 1876, p. 201.
• Forsyth, p. 63.
* At eighteen.
4l6 TURKISH SLA VONTANS,
the tutelage of a regency. When the late disastrous
war with Turkey broke out, in the summer of 1876, Prince
Milan was but twenty-one years of age. That an inex-
perienced youth should have proved himself unequal to
the tremendous burden thus so suddenly thrown upon
him need not excite our wonder. In the opinion of
those best qualified to judge, the young Prince is begin-
ning to show himself master of the extremely difficult
position in which he is placed, and to give promise of the
same ability and force of character which characterized
his predecessor.'
Belgrade, now the unfettered capital of Servia, al-
though beautifully located and strongly fortified, is but a
small metropolis, containing a population of something
less than thirty thousand souls. The peninsular fortress
juts out into the river exactly against the point of land
which divides the Danube from the Save. From the
fortress runs back the street or esplanade, which, during
the Turkish occupation, divided the Moslem half of the
city from that occupied by the Christians. The Chris-
tian quarter sloped upwards to the Save ; the Moslem
quarter lay to the east upon the Danube. The city pre-
sents a very quaint and motley aspect. It is not well
paved or* lighted ; and fine old mansions built by the
Germans in the days of Prince Eugene and earlier, are
intermingled with ricketty structures of Turkish architec-
ture, the cheap and humble dwellings of the poor, and
the ambitious but unfinished edifices and squares of the
government and magnates of the present day. Here are
■ Eastern Correspondence London Times, in "The Mail," April 26^
1876.
FREE SERVIA. 41 T
the palace of the Prince and the offices of government,
and here the Servian Skupschina holds its sessions.
The changes which have taken place in the constitution
and character of the Skupschina are an excellent index
to the political progress of the principality. Formerly,
the Servian Skupschina was convened only at the pleas-
ure of the Prince, who summoned individually such men
as he pleased from the several districts. When in ses-
sion, the functions of the assembly were wholly limited
to accepting or rejecting such measures as the Prince laid
before it. With such a diet, or parliament, the Servians
soon became dissatisfied ; and, as early as 1 848, an or-
ganic law was enacted intended to make the Skupschina
a truly representative and legislative assembly. During
the lifetime of Prince Michael, however, and under the
regency, this law was little regarded, and things continued
nnich as they had been before.
But the time at length came when the voice of the
nation could be no longer unheeded, and in 1873 the pro-
posed changes were carried into effect. The Skfipschina
is now a true legislature, clothed with formidable powers.
It is composed of one hundred and thirty-four members,
of which one hundred and one are chosen at a popular
election, one member for every two thousand voters,
while the remai-ning thirty-three are still named by the
government. All male citizens twenty-one years of age,
paying taxes, and not servants or Gypsies, are allowed to
vote.'
* Forsyth, p. 65. There are about 25,000 Gypsies in Servia, who are,
in the main, industrious and useful citizens. They fought bravely in the
war of the Revolution, are mostly settled, and employed as smiths, farriers,
dealers in live stock, &c.
i8»
4l8 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
The Skfipschina thus constituted soon became fully
conscious of its power, and began to wage a relentless
warfare upon the army of placemen and employes, which,
under the regency, had filled the country and exhausted
the resources of the government. In the autumn of 1875,
the Skupschina is described as made up mostly of village
Kmetes and landed proprietors, plainly dressed, most of
them, in their native costume, fine looking and well
meaning men, though inexperienced, and sometimes in-
clined to overstep the proper limits of their authority.*
The Senate is now a kind of Council of State, consisting
of one member summoned by the Prince from each
nahia, or department. The population of the principcil-
ity in 1872 was estimated at one million and one hun-
dred thousand.
There are few great landholders in Servia. The
peasants are the owners of the lands they till, and in no
other country in the world, perhaps, is there a nearer ap-
proach to social equality. As the result of this demo-
cratic equality, the Servians are strongly conservative,
slow to adopt even improvements and reforms. Capital
has accumulated slowly, and the most needed public
works have been sadly neglected. Railroads there are
none, and highways and bridges are too often wanting.
In devotion to popular education, however, the Servians
have shown a commendable zeal. According to a state-
ment taken apparently from official sources, in 187 1 there
were in Servia four hundred and eighty-four primary
schools, with six hundred and five teachers and twenty-
five thousand two hundred and seventy scholars. There
•"The Mail," Nov. 5, 1875.
FREE SERVTA. 419
are also ten schools of a higher order, and three dig-
nified with the name of university. It is said also that
since 1869 libraries have been established in connection
with every primary school, and that at the end of two
years the number of volumes in connection with these
libraries was eighteen thousand. Among the schools
there were forty-seven for girls, with sixty-four female
teachers and nearly three thousand scholars.
The religious wants of the Servian people are now far
better supplied than they were under the Turks, or in
the early days of their freedom. Neat whitewashed
churches adorn the villages, in which, on Sundays and
feast days, the people assemble in reverent multitudes to
participate in the ancient services of their Church. And
although these services are in the old Slavonic, the lan-
guage of Cyril and Methodius, this is not so far a dead
language that it is not easily and fully understood by
the people, who join in their grand old hymns with a
power and fervor which fill the traveler from the West
with delighted surprise.^
At the present time the Servian people are exciting a
very deep interest among the older communities of the
West. There is in them not alone the weakness, the inex-
perience, and the ignorance, but also the simplicity, the
freshness, the exuberant vigor, and the brilliant promise
of early youth. They stand, in the long course of their
social development, where the English people stood four
hundred years ago. They are a people whose career is
yet to be run, whose work in the world is yet to be done ;
and as we reflect upon the many interesting and excel-
" Paton, p. 70.
420 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
lent qualities which they display, we cannot doubt that,
in the not distant future, they have some great part to
play in those magnificent regions, so long blighted by
the barbarian tyranny of the Turk.
CHAPTER VII.
STARA SERVIA, HERZEGOVINA, AND BOSNIA —
THE MORLAKS, THE USCOCS, AND THE ML
RIDITES.
Stara Servia, or Old Servia, is a term used by the
Servians to denote that part of the old Servian territory
which formed the central seat of the Empire of Stephen
Dushan, not including the ancient Zupania of Zcnta. It
lies on both sides of the Balkan ridge, though the name
is usually applied in a more restricted sense to the dis-
trict still under Turkish dominion south of the Balkans
and east of old Zenta. In this sense, the sense in which
we are now to consider it, the heart of Stara Servia is
the splendid plain of the Metochia, in north-eastern
Albania. In this beautiful plain were Prizren, the Ser-
vian czarigrad, or capital ; Ipek, the scat of the Servian
Patriarch ; and, midway between these two cities, the
famous church of Detchani, the most magnificent of all
the Servian ecclesiastical edifices. In this plain, which
was called the garden of Servia, most of the higher nobility
had their residence. It thus contained a great part of
whatever wealth, refinement, and magnificence the Ser-
rian Empire could boast.'
1 Mackenzie and Irby, chap. xiiL
433 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
When this district surrendered to the Turks, it was
upon terms which seemed very liberal. The nobles were
to retain their position as vassals of the Sultan, and the
people were to enjoy full religious freedom, upon pay-
ment of the stipulated tribute. But no sooner was the
Turkish power firmly established, than this mild, paternal
government was changed to the most terrible oppression.
The noble families were exterminated, Christian children
were carried off, the girls to Turkish harems and the boys
to the janizaries, and the Christians as a class were
crushed into unarmed and helpless rayahs.
But at length the tide of Turkish conquest turned ; and
the Austrians, having cleared their own territories of Mos-
lem invaders, called upon the Servians to join with them
in driving the Turks back to Constantinople. The Ser-
vians raUied at this call, and in 1689 the Austrian generals
crossed the Save. But the campaign was a failure; the
Austrians were driven back, and the unhappy Servians
were left to feel the full terrors of Turkish vengeance.
Arsenius Tzernoievitch, the Servian Patriarch at this
time, a man of great energy and patriotism, had taken a
prominent part in rousing his countrymen to arms. Too
deeply compromised to remain under Turkish rule, and
despairing of his native land, at the invitation of the Aus-
trian government he migrated, in 1690, at the head of
thirty-seven thousand Servian families, across the Aus-
trian frontier. As already related, these emigrants were
settled as a military colony to guard the frontiers of
Christendom against the Turks — a duty which they have
ever since performed, forming an invaluable nursery for
the Austrian armies.
THE FRUSCA GORA. 433
But these exiles have not forgotten their native land.
The patriotic flame burns as brightly as ever in their
bosoms, and their eyes are still turned in constant long-
ing to the home of their fathers. Should the Turk be
driven from Stara Servia, many of them, without doubt,
would at once return thither. Significant of this strong
attachment to their fatherland is the fact that they have
consecrated the mountainous peninsula of the Frusca
Gora, between the Danube and the Save, to these pat-
riotic memories. Here the exiles built churches, named
after those which they had left behind, and in one of
them they deposited tlie remains of their last sovereign,
the Tzar Lazar. " The day of the battle of Kossovo is
observed as the Tzar's anniversary. On it, thousands
of people make pilgrimages to his shrine, crowding
around the open coffin wherein he lies, robed in the
garments in which he fought and fell." '
This great migration left Stara Servia almost depopu-
lated. The place of the departed Servians was gradually
filled by truculent, mercenary Albanians, who mostly
turned Mohammedans, and who, although they hate and
defy the Turks, sadly tyrannize over their unarmed Ser-
vian neighbors. To make the matter worse, the Senaans
of this region, since the abolition of the Servian Patri-
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 249. "The mummy of the canonized Knei
Lazar is to be seen to this day. I made a pilgrimage, some years ago, to
Vrdnik, a retired monastery in the Frusca Gora, where his mummy is
preserved with the most religious care, in the church, exposed to the atmos-
phere. It is, of course, shrunk, shriveled, and of a dark brown color, be-
decked with an antique embroidered mantle, said to be the same worn at
the battle of Kossovo. The fingers are covered with the most costly rings,
BO doubt since added." — Paton, p. 227.
19
424 TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
archate, have had the tyranny of Greek bishops added
to that of the Turks and Albanians. Still, their present
is not devoid of consolation, nor their future of hope
The grand old churches of their fathers still exist among
them, they still cherish the memories of their ancient
glory, and know that the day cannot be far distant when
the yoke of the Turk shall be broken from their necks.
Over the border, but a few hours distant, their brethren
of Servia and Montenegro are already free ; and the Al-
banians themselves would, many of them, be ready to
welcome a Servian force, and to make common cause
with them in expelling the Turks.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, since the Turkish con-
quest, have usually formed a single vilayet, or province,
Herzegovina being simply a sandjak under the Vizier of
Bosnia.^ The population of the two districts is similar
in race and character, and their political and social con-
dition is, and under the Turks has always been, very
* In 1844, Sir Gardner Wilkinson found the Pasha of Mostar, as a re-
ward for distinguished services, bearing the title of Vizier, and governing
Herzegovina with a jurisdiction independent of the Vizier of Bosnia. — Dal-
matia and Montenegro, ii. 72. Since the breaking out of the insurrection,
this division of the province has been renewed. Ali Rizvan Begovitch, the
host of Sir Gardner Wilkinson in 1844, was a Moslem of Servian blood,
and one of the hereditary Kapetans, or Barons, who divided among them
jimost the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the Vizier of Bosnia,
Ali Rizvan held the impregnable fortress of Stolatz. In the great rebellion
of 1828-32, Ali Rizvan stood firmly for the Porte. Arming his rayahs, who
fought bravely under his banner, he successfully held his ground. As liis
reward, he was named Vizier of Herzegovina It was the arming of the
Christians in this long and desperate struggle which prepared the way for
the present insurrection. — See Ranke, pp. 345-48.
HERZEGOVINA.
4*5
nearly the same. After some preliminary observations
upon Herzegovina, therefore, the two may be most con-
veniently spoken of together as the Vilayet of Bosnia.
Herzegovina, divided from Bosnia proper by a low
range of mountains, is the Turkish pashalik, lying north-
west from Montenegro, and bordering on Austrian Dal-
matia. Excepting the small comer district of Turkish
Croatia, it is the westernmost region of the Ottoman do-
minions in Europe. The name Is derived from the title
of •' Herzog," or Duke, given by Tuartko, King of Bos-
nia, to the governor of the province in 1358.' The
pashalik consists of the extensive and fruitful valley of the
Narenta, with the adjacent highlands and mountains. The
Narenta is a large and navigable river ; and in the ninth
gentury the Servian tribes upon its upper waters, issuing
from its mouth in their light vessels, proved themselves
formidable pirates. The Narentines of those days were
long the terror of the Adriatic, and were not afraid to
match their strength with the naval forces of Venice.^
Among the mountains of Herzegovina there are some
districts which have never been effectually subdued by
the Turks ; but which, strong in their natural defences,
and in the arms of a warlike population, have always pre-
served a condition of semi-freedom and independence,
protected by the berats of successive Sultans.^
The religious history of Herzegovina and Bosnia is very
interesting. In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth
centuries, a large part, sometimes a controlling majority
of the people of these regions, were the Protestants of
* Wilkinson ii. 96. « Id., ii. n. » Ranke, p. 359.
426 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
the East A branch of the great Paulician sect,^ which
in those times, under the names of Patereni, Cathari, Wal-
denses, and Albigenses, spread itself so widely in Europe,
became very numerous among all the South Slavonic
peoples. These Slavonian Paulicians were called Bogo-
mili. from the two Slavonian words, Bog, God, and
milai, have mercy.^ Of the social and intellectual life
of these Slavonian Protestants of the Middle Ages but
little is known. They were rude and ignorant, and some-
times retaliated upon their adversaries the cruelties too
often suffered at their hands. But in the earnestness and
consistency of their protest against the corruptions which
filled the churches of both the East and the West, they
were hardly behind the reformers of a later day.^ Pursued
with anathemas and excommunication by the Popes, and
often persecuted by the Hungarian and Bosnian Kings,
the Bogomili still flourished, and were able to hold their
ground until the Turkish conquest. After that great
catastrophe they disappear from history, and are heard
of no more.
The Christians of the western districts of the old Vila-
yet of Bosnia are now divided between the Greek and
Papal Churches ; * the Catholics being chiefly found in
Turkish Croatia, and in Herzegovina upon the right or
western bank of the Narenta. The Catholics of Herze-
govina are under the rule of monks of the Order of St.
Francis, and have kept aloof from the present insurrec-
tion.
' See abo^e, Part I. chap. iv. * Wilkinson, ii. 98. ' Id., ii. 104-5.
* Their numbers are estimated at 576,756 of the Greek faith, and 185,.
503 Catholics.— Forsyth, p. 86.
VENETIAN- CHRONICLES. 427
Long before the Turkish conquest the Venetians had
established themselves upon the Dalmatian coast, and
Herzegovina was, for many generations, the scene of a
petty but constant warfare between the Republic and its
Moslem neighbors. Of these affairs full and minute
accounts were sent home by the Venetian agents, which
are still in existence, and some of which have been given
to the world. The reader will find long extracts from
these old documents in Sir Gardner Wilkinson's admira-
ble work,^ which he will peruse, probably, with as much
surprise as instruction. They are not at all the dry,
formal, heartless communications which we might expect
from a secret agent of the Venetian Senate. On the con-
trary, they are full to overflowing of life and incident,
and even of kind and generous feeling. They present,
perhaps, the most vivid and graphic, and at the same
time truthful portraiture of the life and character of the
Turks as they appeared to their neighbors in the golden
age of Ottoman power, which is now in existence. They
show that in the Turks of those times, with a great
deal of overbearing insolence, of lawlessness and violence,
there was also much of manly dignity, of chivalrous
honor, of conscientious morality, and of kindness and hu-
manity. " I relate these circumstances," says one of these
agents, " that your Excellencies may perceive on what
terms we are with the Turks ; and it may be truly affirmed
that no nation are all evil alike ; seeing how some of them
are without conscience, laws, or honor, while others are
true and loyal cavaliers; who if they pledge their faith,
keep it as honestly as if they were of our own holy relig-
^ Vol ii. chap. is.
428 TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
ion ; an instance whereof your Excellency may have
heard by the mouth of the Honorable Supercargo Mali-
piers, of the Chersonese galley, touching that good and
upright Turk Belusso.
" It so happened that Alet, the son of the Dasdar, ran
off to Clissa with a daughter of Gaspar Tonielli ; . . .
and grief brought the poor father well nigh to death's
door; which, coming to the ears of Belusso, who had often
had dealings with him in the way of business, he went to
the Dasdar, and told him how his son had carried away
the girl, which is a crime prohibited by the Koran and
their Prophet Mahomet. Whereupon the old father, being
a strict follower of their law, summoned his son, and in-
sisted on his restoring the damsel forthwith ; and accord-
ingly she was given up to the charge of Belusso, with all
tenderness and respect. Gaspar, weeping, flung his arms
round Belusso, and swore that he looked on him as his
brother, and should never cease to bear witness and pro-
claim, to the very ends of the world, where he might
wander, even to those far lands first beholden by the
Spaniards, the generous compassion shown by a Turkish
noble heart to an enemy in affliction and disgrace. And
he would have continued to bewail the dishonor of his
family, had not Belusso stopped him, . . . promising
that in six days he would bring back from Alet a decla-
ration, written and subscribed in due form, that Madde-
lena had in nowise wronged her family, and might walk
with an unsullied brow in the light of the sun.
He was as good as his word ; and in the space of five
days returned with the certificate, solemnl}' attested and
signed, according to his promise." ^
i Wilkinson, ii. 342.
HERZEGOVINA. 4S9
The soil of Herzegovina is less rich than that of Bosnia
and Servia, its scenery is less beautiful and picturesque.
Yet it is a fine and fruitful country, full of minerals, and
in its navigable river, and its proximity to the Adriatic,
enjoying every opportunity for great prosperity and rapid
development. But, like every other province of the Tur-
kish Empire, it is remarkable only for the miserable wast-
ing of the riches which nature has lavished upon it. Its
resources are undeveloped, its mineral wealth is almost
wholly neglected, its rich lowlands are undrained and
filled with deadly malaria, its fertile hillsides are either
half tilled 01 wholly uncultivated, and everywhere among
its sparse and scanty population there is seen only pov-
erty and wretchedness, where there ought to be wealth,
comfort, and steadily advancing prosperity.
Bosnia proper, like Servia, only to a far greater extent,
is largely a magnificent wilderness. Save in their splen-
did and ever-varying scenery, and their exuberant fruit-
fulness, these wild barbarian regions present little that is
attractive to the Western eye. So fer as the handiwork
of unaided, unobstructed nature is concerned, they are
indeed most beautiful. In the words of Prof Ranlce,
"The richest vegetation is produced spontaneously by
nature, and comes forth and fades away, year after year,
unnoticed and unused. No eye enjoys its beauty, no
botanist has described its flora. In many cases the rich-
est pastures have no owners. The mountain heights are
crowned with large trees, of which stately ships and tall
masts might be made ; for there is no want of rivers to
float the timber down to the coast ; but no one thinks of
turning these natural advantages to account. It is left tc
430 TURKISH SLA VONJANS.
nature, in her own appointed periods, to consume what
she has produced." *
When we turn from the realm of nature to that of
man, we find a prospect altogether repugnant to the cul-
tivated mind. Society is rude, barbarous, chaotic. The
old mediaeval order of things, changed but not destroyed
by the Turkish conquest, has been overturned. The new
order of things is yet in its incipient stage, and, to the
casual observer, gives little promise of that which, with-
out doubt, it is in due time destined to become. It is
not until we look forward to the future, and consider the
position which the people of these provinces, who are
now gradually emancipating themselves from the terrible
effects of long centuries of oppression, and slowly rising
into a new social and political life, are destined to hold
in that great Slavonic state which must one day form it-
self in the magnificent region lying between the Danube
and the Kingdom of Greece, that we see the importance
of the movements now going on in these regions, and
learn to look at them with the interest which they de-
serve.
In considering these movements, we may now enlarge
the limits of Bosnia, and regard it as co-extensive with
the old vilayet of that name, including Turkish Croatia
and Herzegovina, with its four or five subordinate pasha-
liks, its Vizier residing at Travnik, but looking upon the
important city of Seraivo, or Bosna-Serai, as its provin-
cial capital.
As has been already observed,^ the Servian nobles
were properly an aristocracy of officials, without great
' Servia and Bosnia, p. 313. ' See above, chap. iii.
BOSNIAN NOBLES. 43I
landed estates. But in these north-western regions,
Hungarian and German influences had essentially modi-
fied the original structure of Servian society. The no-
bles became landed proprietors, with a position much
more nearly resembling that of the barons of Western
Europe. At the Turkish conquest, these Bosnian (or
more properly, Bosniac) nobles, to save their estates
and their power, turned Mohammedans, and became
Turkish Begs or Aghas.' Under the Sultans, they thus
formed a turbulent aristocracy, a confederacy or oligar-
chy of nobles almost independent of the Turks, and far
more powerful than before. Their castles formed the
centres of life and activity in their several districts, and
under their local and hereditary rule, even their Christian
subjects enjoyed some measure of protection and pros-
perity. Bosnia was one of the rudest and most back-
ward districts of the Servian Empire. It had but {g:\v
churches or monasteries ; and this imperfect establish-
ment of the Servian Church among them was probably
one reason why the Bosnians proved so ready to aban-
don their religion.
In the good old times, these Bosnian nobles, or Kape-
tans, of whom there were forty-eight in the Vizierat,*
lived in rude and warlike independence, much like the
great barons of France and Germany in the twelfth cen-
tury. They were all of Slavonic blood, still retained their
Slavonic language, customs, and names, hated the Turks,
and despised the officials of the Sultan. A Vizier, who
was not a native of the vilayet, was appointed by the
Porte, but was able to exercise little more than a rom-
' Ranke, p. 317. * Ranke, p. 318
432 TURKISH SLAVOhTIANS.
inal authority. The nobles went on fighting with one
another, or with him, very much as they pleased. They
would not suffer the Vizier to live, nor to remain for more
than one night, in Seraivo, their capital, but compelled
him to hold his official residence at Travnik.
Thus things went on until, in the first quarter of the
present century, Sultan Mahmoud entered upon his great
project of " reform." Against the sweeping changes
then undertaken, the Bosnian nobles of course arrayed
themselves in deadly hostility. They had no idea of
sinking into mere tools and helpless servants of the offi-
cial slaves of the capital. Their neighbor, Mustapha
Pasha of Scutari, expressed the feeling and determination
of every one of them, when he declared that he would
serve the Sultan with the same firelock and in the same
manner as his fathers had before him, and no other.*
The great struggle then begun, between the central gov-
ernment at Constantinople and the Bosnian nobles, has
occasioned the great and radical change in the condition
of the whole vilayet, which has taken place within the
past fifty years, and of which, in the late insurrection,
we see " the beginning of the end."
About the year 1815, Sultan Mahmoud resolved up-
on a great effort to subdue the refractory nobles of
Bosnia.^ The conflict then inaugurated continued until
long after the death of Mahmoud, in 1839, and was only
ended by the vigorous measures of the famous Omei
Pasha in 185 1.
The tedious history of this long struggle we have no
occasior to follow. Sometimes an able and crafty Vizier
* Ranke, p. 337. * Ranke, p. 322.
BOSmAN BEGS, 433
would succeed in reducing the nobles to temporary sub-
mission ; then they would rally, and, gathering a strong
military force, drive the representative of the Sultan
from the country. The fatal weakness of the Bosnian
nobles, as of all the local magistrates of the Empire so
ruthlessly crushed by Sultan Mahmoud, was in their di-
vided interests, and their lack of unanimity and cohesion.
By intrigue and bribery, the subtle Viziers, always per-
fect masters in the arts of duplicity and cunning, were
able to break up their most powerful combinations, to
defeat their best laid plans. In 183 1, the famous Mus-
tapha Pasha of Scutari * (Scodra Pasha, as the Turks
called him), at the head of forty thousand men, and with
the whole force of the Bosnian nobles at his back, started
on what seemed sure to prove a triumphant and almost
unresisted march upon Constantinople. It was univer-
sally believed that the city would fall, that Mahmoud
would be dethroned. But Reschid Pasha, the able and
crafty Grand Vizier, proved equal to the emergency.
The Bosnians were bought off by large and specious
promises ; the officers of Mustapha were corrupted, and
his whole army was filled with traitors to his cause. As
the result, this mighty and threatening movement came
to nothing. Reschid Pasha laid siege to Scutari, the city
was taken and subjected to horrible cruelties, Mustapha
Pasha himself was captured and exiled, and the ancient
reign of the Bushatlia was brought to an end.^
But this long conflict, thus going on with ever-varymg
success, was steadily working out the emancipation oi
' The Slavonian •' Turk " who was defeated by Marco Bozzaris.
• Ranke, pp. 340-44.
19
434 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
the Rayahs. On the one hand, it was an essential feature
of the new policy of " reform " to raise the Christians of
the Empire more nearly to the level of their Moslem
neighbors. The government thus appealed to them
strongly to take its part in its struggle with their tyran-
nical lords. The nobles, on the other hand, appealed to
them in self-defence, and armed them in their own ser-
vice. Thus, through this intestine conflict of their ene-
mies, the long oppressed Christians of these provinces
were gradually taught to feel their power, and to stand
up for the defence of their own rights.
At length, about the year 1845, the able and energetic
Tahir Pasha was sent to Bosnia, commissioned entirely
to crush out the old refractory spirit. The new Vizier
entered upon his work with a display of justice and lib-
erality rarely seen in a Turk, and with such vigor and
wisdom that, in the course of a few years, he achieved a
complete success.^ The Rayahs learned to regard him
as their guardian angel. He abolished every kind of
forced labor, and reduced all their numberless exactions
to a single tax, which was never to exceed a third of
the crop, and which was to be fixed, not by the Moslem
landlords, but by the elders of each village. On the
other hand, he applied the bastinado without mercy to
the haughty Spahis and other petty tyrants who re-
sisted the Sultan's commands.
Things were in this condition when the revolutions of
1848 broke out, followed by the Hungarian war. These
events acted upon the troubled elements of Bosnian soci-
ety like fire upon a magazine of powder.^ The whole
' Servia and Bosnia, p. 377. " Id., p. 378.
REVOLUTIONS OF 1848. 435
Bosnian race, Moslem and Christian alike, seemed all at
once <-o remember its unity and its common blood. With
high enthusiasm, and a vehement energy of purpose, the
Slavonians of both religions in these regions determined
to throw off the Turkish yoke and establish their inde-
pendence. Tahir Pasha saw at once the hopelessness of
endeavoring to resist a movement like this. At his sug-
gestion the Porte consented to treat with the leaders of
the insurrection, and, in 1849, ^ l^ind of Slavic congress
was convened at Travnik. No sooner, however, was this
congress assembled, than it appeared how impossible it
was for Moslems and Christians to act together with
common sympathies and a common purpose. To make
the matter worse, the Bosnians found themselves without
allies. Neither the Servians, nor their neighbors of Scu-
tari, nor the Montenegrins, would make common cause
with them. Seeing this state of things, the Porte ordered
Tahir to dismiss the congress, and stand on the defen-
sive. This, however, was more than he could do. The
deputies dismissed the Vizier, and scattered to fan the
flames of war in their several districts.
But the task to which Tahir thus found himself un-
equal was speedily and effectually accomplished by the
rapid movements and energetic measures of Omer Pasha
in 1850 and 185 1.' Appearing suddenly in the heart
of the countr)^ and leaving strong bodies of insurgents
unnoticed behind him, he proclaimed the absolute
equality before the law of all classes of the people,
broke by a few decisive blows both tlie power and the
spirit of the rebellion, and hunted down the more
* Id., pp. 387-90.
436 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
Stubborn and rebellious of the nobles in their moun-
tain fastnesses like wild beasts. Travnik was aban-
doned as the residence of the Vizier ; Omer Pasha, now
Roumeli-Valesi, established himself triumphantly in Se-
raivo, and " order reigned " in Bosnia.
Thus, the new order of things, and one with which,
for the time at least, the Rayahs had good reason to be
satisfied, was firmly and finally estabhshed. The old
nobles have never recovered their power or their social
influence. Still the oppressive landlords of the Rayahs,
they are almost as helpless and as poor. They are ex-
cluded from office, their castles are crumbling to ruin,
their haughty spirit and fiery courage are gone, they
are debased, ignorant, and corrupt'
As soon as Omer Pasha had made himself master of
the country, he convened all the Turkish officials at
Travnik, and read in their hearing the new firmans by
which Moslems and Christians alike were from that time
to be subject to the same taxes and the same military
conscription. At the same time he displayed all possi-
ble clemency, kept his soldiers under steady discipline,
went about the country explaining and enforcing the
new regulations. If there were any such thing as order,
or efficiency, or consistent practical statesmanship about
the Turkish government, these changes would have per-
manently benefited the Bosnian Christians. But no such
result has followed. Here, as in Asia Minor, the de-
struction of the local nobility has only wrought the ruin
' Forsyth, p. 82. They are showing by their present conflict with the
Austrians (September, 1878) that something of their old spirit and courage
Btill remains.
BOSNIA I^ ''TURKS7* 437
of the country. Like all Turkish "reforms," the change
in Bosnia left the state of society worse than before. A
swarm of officials, constantly changed, drained the life-
blood of the people, and the unhappy Rayahs soon
found that, to them, the only result of the revolution
had been to impose upon them two sets of profligat* and
rapacious tyrants, when before they had had but one.
It long ago became clear that to these oppressed Slavo-
nians there is but one door of escape from the terrible
bondage under which they groan ; and that this door is
the one through which the Servians have already passed
to freedom and prosperity.
In natural endowments, the Bosnians are a very supe-
rior race. In the days of Ottoman greatness and military
supremacy, the Bosnian cavaliers, tall and athletic, full
of vigor and martial fire, were the glory of the Turkish
armies. In the midst of the poverty, the wretchedness,
the complete demoralization of Bosnian society at the
present time, these natural characteristics of the race are
still preserved, the certain promise of better things to
come.
The great obstacle to the speedy and complete eman-
cipation of the Slavonians of these provinces is found in
the fact that more than one-third of their number,^ em-
bracing all the Begs, Aghas, and Spahis, all the landlords
and local aristocracy and gentry, of whatever name, are
Mohammedans. For centuries the Bosnian Moslems
have been exceedingly zealous, and even fanatical in
' The population of the old Vilayet of Bosnia is given at 1,216.856,
divided as follows: Mohammedans, 442,050; Christians, 762,259; Jews,
3,000 ; Gypsies, 9,537. — Forsyth, p. 86.
43* TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
their religion. Yet, for all this, their apostate faith has
never struck deep root in the national Tiind, and is, with-
out doubt, destined at no distant day to pass away.
Their seeming devotion has had its chief support, not so
much in any depth of conviction as in a feeling of aris-
tocratic pride. " By this craft we have our wealth."
The Bosnian " Turks " have always remained as true Sla-
vonians as their Christian brethren ; and, more than this,
have all the while retained a secret reverence for the
religion of their fathers — a secret feeling that that relig-
ion was again to become the common faith of their race.
It is said that a Bosnian Beg has sometimes taken a
Christian priest with him to the cemetery, in the dark-
ness of the night, that he might bless the graves of his
ancestors and pray for their souls.' With all its fanati-
cism the Mohammedanism of the Bosnians is but a super-
ficial faith, which the progress of liberal ideas and of the
Christian influences of the West will ere long banish from
the land. The Bosnian nobles and landlords are bitterly
hated by their own rayahs, whom they grievously oppress;
but they in turn hate the Turks, while they arc on very
good terms with their Slavic kindred both north and south
of the Austrian frontier.^ If the Turkish yoke were
once effectually broken, they would probably have little
difficulty in accepting the new order of things.
It remains to give some brief account of two classes
of Slavonians, whose names are frequently met with in
the history of these regions for the past three hundred
years — the Morlaks, or Morlacchi, and the Uscocs.
The Morlaks, at the present time, form a large proper-
' Ranke, p 317. ''■ See Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 390-93.
THE MORLAKS. 435^
tion of the peasant population of Austrian Dalmatia.*
They were originally Slavonian shepherds upon the hills
of Bosnia and Croatia; but steadily retiring as the Turks
overran the country, they finally took refuge upon the
seacoast in the territories of Venice. The hospitality
thus shown them they royally repaid. They continued
to serve the proud and selfish Republic with intrepid
valor and loyal devotion, until, in 1797, amid their tears
and bitter grief, the Lion of St. Mark was humbled at
the feet of Napoleon. Although they are Roman Catho-
Ucs in religion, and have now lived for more than three
hundred years under powerful Italian influences, the IMor-
laks still retain the language, the customs, and the man-
ner of life of their ancestors upon the Bosnian hills. In
the service of Venice they learned to love the sea, and
they now furnish most of the seamen for the Austrian
navy. Their houses are mere comfortless cabins, and
they are poor, ignorant, and rude ; but, like all the South
Slavonic peoples, they are hardy and athletic, simple-
hearted, earnest, and loyal, well worthy of the better
fortunes which await them in years to come.
The Uscocs,^ for a hundred years the terror of the up-
per Adriatic, are now little more than the memory of
wild exploits and evil times long since passed away.
They were originally a body of Slavonian fugitives from
Turkish oppression, who, about the year 1520, taking
possession of Clissa, a strong fortress some ten miles in-
land from the Venetian town of Spalato, carried on a
vigorous partisan war with the Turks. Clissa soon feU
* Wilkinson, ii. 152-80, 293-6.
* Wilkinson, 384, 430. The name Uscocs signifies fugitivet.
440 TURK I SIT SLA VOA'TAI^S.
into the hands of the Turks, when the Uscocs moved up
the coast one hundred and twenty miles to the Austrian
town of Segna, upon the intricate interior passages of the
Gulf of Carnero. Secure in this retreat, partly from its
inaccessible situation and partly from the apathy, the in-
efficiency, or the connivance of the German and Austrian
authorities, they maintained themselves a nest of daring
and terrible pirates and freebooters for almost a century.
The most desperate spirits from every part of Europe
were drawn to their ranks, and in a body of them who
were taken and executed in 1618, there were nine Eng-
lishmen, five of whom were of the rank of gentlemen. At
length the general outcry of Europe compelled the im-
perial government to interfere, and about the year 1625
the Uscocs were scattered and their piracies brought to
an end. Most of them were removed to inland settle-
ments in the neighborhood of Carlstadt. Some of them,
it would seem, found refuge among the mountains of
Montenegro, where their descendants have never ceased
to carry on the old war with the Turks. We have lately
read of bands of Uscocs from the borders of Montenegro
among the insurgents in Herzegovina.
There is one other name which has frequently appeared
during the past two years in the military reports from
the neighborhood of Lake Scutari — the Miridites. The
Miridites are a wild and lawless clan of Papal Christian
Albanians, inhabiting the mountainous district, a vast
natural fortress, lying south-east from Scutari, and in-
closed by the great horseshoe bend of the Drina River
Their capital is the town or village of Oroschi. They
number about twenty thousand souls, with six or seven
THE M/R/DITES. 441
thousand fighting men. In the late war the Miridites
and Montenegrins made common cause in fighting the
Turks, although, owing to their difference of faith, they
have not usually been on friendly terms. Bib Doda, the
hereditary Prenk or Chief of the Miridites, had been de-
tained for eight years at Constantinople, and did not show
himself a man of much courage or ability.^
' For an account of the Miridites, with a map of their country, see Lon-
don Mail (tri-weekly edition of the London Times), April 16 and 23,
1877.
19*
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MODERN BULGARIANS.
The Bulgarians are the most numerous of all the Chris-
tian peoples at present within the limits of the Turkish
Empire. Including the Mohammedans, who are perhaps
a third of the whole, the Bulgarian nation numbers about
four and a half millions of souls. Mingled with the Bul-
garians are many Mohammedans of other races. Con-
siderable Turkish colonies were settled in the principal
towns; great numbers of Nogai Tartars have fixed them-
selves in the low-lying districts adjoining the Black Sea ;
and of late years the Turkish government has endeavored,
though not very successfully, to form upon the Servian
border a kind of military frontier of Circassian settlers.
There is a broad separation between the Turks in Bul-
garia and the Mohammedan Bulgarians. The latter de-
test the former, and are mostly settled in the country,
the majority of them, probably (excepting certain tribes of
Moslem Bulgarians to be hereafter mentioned), as Spahis.
They are called Poinaks ; and this appellation, which
seems to signify allies, indicates their origin. They are
the descendants of Christian soldiers in the service of the
Porte, who, to save themselves from being degraded into
unarmed rayaks, abandoned their faith. Mr. Urquhart
THE MODERM BULGARIANS. 443
speaks of two powerful tribes of Moslem Bulgarians; one
the Tulemans of Macedonia, found in the mountains of
Rhodope (Despoto Dagh) above Kavalla ; the other, the
Pomaks north of the Balkans. In the latter he seems to
include the Spahis of Northern Bulgaria, already men-
tioned. These tribes seem to have served long in the
Turkish armies as Christian allies, and finally to have gone
over to Islam in a body. They are spoken of as being
physically a very fine set of men, brave soldiers, excel-
lent horsemen, and able to furnish from their own num-
bers an army of forty or fifty thousand men. But they
retain their own language and industry, are very jealous
of the Turks, have long been disinclined to engage in the
Turkish military service, and will tolerate no armed force
but their own within their territory.^
If by the term Bulgaria we mean the territory actu-
ally occupied by the Bulgarian people, we can by no
means restrict the southern boundary to the chain of
the Balkans. The districts to the south of these moun-
tains are as truly Bulgarian as those to the north. Leav-
ing out the Thracian penuisula, or the district east of a
line drawn from Burgas on the Black Sea to the mouth
of the Maritza, and a narrow strip of seacoast,^ the Bul-
garian districts embrace all the rest of Eastern Turkey
in Europe, almost to the borders of Thessaly. Macken-
zie and Irby observe that the old Roman Via Egnatia,
running from Salonika to Achrida, may be roughly
taken as the southern Bulgarian boundary.^
■ Turkey and its Resources, 40-43. See also Mackenzie and Irby, p. Z4.
* The district thus excluded may be called Greek, but is inhabited by a
yery mi.xed population. • Slavonic Provinces, p. 19.
444 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
This extensive region is divided by the Balkans and
the mountains of Rhodope into three distinct sections.
The people of Bulgaria proper, the great province north
of the Balkans, have preserved most perfectly their
national character and manners. The inhabitants of the
central district, the chief town of which is Philibeh, (Phil-
ippopolis),^ are thoroughly Bulgarian in feeling; but
their national character had been somewhat modified by
Greek influences. This district also has felt, somewhat
more than the others, the quickening and elevating in-
fluences of civilization. To this district, with the neigh-
boring regions of Macedonia, the missionary operations
of the American Board in behalf of the Bulgarians have
been mainly confined. The district south of Rhodope
has Seres for its capital. The Bulgarians of this pro-
vince are subject to a powerful Greek influence, and have
been less able to resist the tyranny of Greek ecclesiastics.
They accordingly appear very dull and listless, and have
been far more willing than their brethren further north
to listen to the overtures of the Papists. Bulgaria pro-
per, again, has a three-fold division — the country of the
Nogai Tartars upon the Black Sea, with its capital at
Varna ; the valley of the Danube, of which Widdin is
the capital ; and upper or southern Bulgaria, of which
Sophia is the most important place, as it is also the an-
cient sacred city of the whole Bulgarian race. The
whole country of the Bulgarians is sometimes spoken
' Now formed into the Province of Eastern Roumelia. The Paulicians,
who held Philippopolis eight hundred years ago, and for a long period later,
seem now to have disappeared. A hundred years ago a feeble remnant of
them were still in existenca
• THE MODERN BULGARIANS. 445
of as the Five Provinces, centering respectively at Wid-
din, Varna, Sophia, Philibeh, and Seres.*
As a people, the Bulgarians are no less interesting
and no less promising than their Slavonian kindred of
the tribes further west; yet in some respects they are
strangely unlike them. To the traveler who knew
the Bulgarian race only in the story of their warlike
ancestors of a thousand years ago, their present con-
dition and character would be an occasion of the pro-
foundest surprise. The contrast between the primitive
and the modern Bulgarians is indeed most remarka-
ble. The former were among the fiercest and most
terrible of all the tribes which successively devastated
the Empire of Constantinople ; the latter are by far
the most peaceful, quiet, and almost immovably pa-
tient of all the subjects of the Turkish government.
This is to be accounted for in part by the thorough-
ness of their subjugation ; but it has in part, also, an
ethnical explanation. In the course of ages the bold
and warlike Bulgarians have become entirely merged
and lost in the mass of their less spirited Slavonian
subjects; the Bulgarians are now very much as their
quiet, plodding Slavonian ancestors of the same regions
were in the fourth and fifth centuries, before the Bulga-
rian invasion.
The chief characteristic of the Bulgarian is a patient,
frugal, plodding industr}^ which nothing can weary or
discourage. " Unlike the Serb, the Bulgarian does not
keep his self-respect alive with memories of national glory,
' Servia and the Slave Provinces of Turkey, p. 457.
446 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
nor even with aspirations of glory to come ; on the othei
hand, no amount of oppression can render him indifterent
to his field, his horse, his flower-garden, nor to the scru-
pulous neatness of his dwelling ; " he is " agricultural,
stubborn, and slow-tongued, but honest, cleanly, and
chaste."* The following account of the Bulgarians, their
peculiarities, and their manner of life, from the pen of
Cyprien Robert, may be received with entire confidence,
as it is fully corroborated by the communications of our
own missionaries.^
" In spite of its numerous mountains, and the snows
that lie upon them in winter, Bulgaria is one of the most
fertile countries in Europe. The mountains are clothed
with humus up to their summits. Between their vertical
and cloud-capped peaks lie meadows, the path to which
lies through forests of cherry, plum, and walnut trees
of majestic foliage, and filbert trees as large as oaks.
Struck only by the agricultural activity of the
Bulgarian, and forgetting the extortions under which he
groans, some English tourists have represented that part
of the Empire as an earthly paradise, flowing with milk
and honey. The reality is very different. Nothing is
more like a group of savages' huts than a celo, or Bulga-
rian village. Always remote from the high road, or from
the waste space to which that name is given, and conse-
quently invisible to most travelers, the celo usually stands
in a meadow along the border of a stream, which serve?
it for a ditch and natural defence.
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 23.
* See especially an able paper by Dr. H. G. O. Dwight, of Constantino
pie, in the Missionary Herald foi October, 1858.
THE MODERN BULGARIANS. 447
"The^e villages are very numerous, succeeding each
other almost from league to league. Each consists of
four or five courts, or groups of houses, separated from
each other by grass-grown spaces. The courts, sur-
rounded by a thick hedge, are like so many islands in a
sea of verdure. The huts composing one of them are al-
most always ten or twelve in number, and are either
formed of wattles, so as to resemble great baskets, or are
sunk in the ground, and covered with a conical roof of
thatch, or of branches of trees. Each species of creature
has its own separate abode in this ark of the wilderness;
there are huts for the poultry, for the sheep, for the pigs,
for the oxen, and for the horses; and in the midst the
proprietor occupies a cabin which serves him for cellar,
granary, kitchen, and bedroom. Little more than the
roof of these dark dwellings rises above the ground. You
descend into them by a short flight of steps, and the
doors are so low that you must stoop as you enter them.
Nevertheless, these poor huts are as clean, and as neatly
arranged inside, as they can be made by the indefatigable
baba (Bulgarian housewife), to whom employment is
so necessary that she plies her spindle even while cook-
ing or carrying her goods to market. The melancholy
stork usually perches upon these conical huts, as upon
the chimney of the Pohsh peasant, standing on his long
shanks and brooding over his big nest for whole days,
without giving token of his existence by the least move-
ment or the least cry.
" Formidable as were the Bulgarians in early mediaeval
times, when the ambitiou« Tartar race occupied the
national throne, they are now, perhaps, the least lux-
20
448 TURKISH SLAVONIANS.
urious and the most pacific people in Europe. All who
know the Bulgarian are unanimous in praise of his peace-
ful virtues, his good-natured readiness to oblige, his assi-
duity in labor, and his extreme frugality. He never acts
without deliberation, but, once his mind is made up, he
displays in all his enterprises a prodigious perseverance,
which, seconded by his atiiletic strength, makes him
encounter the greatest dangers coolly and without boast-
ing. Though he is the most oppressed of the five peo-
ples of the peninsula, penury has not made him vile.
Still, as of yore, his bearing is manly, his figure tall and
commanding, his honor invincible. You may safely in-
trust to him any sum of money without witnesses ; he
will carry it safely to its destination. He is accused of
trembling before the Turk ; he docs not tremble, but when
all resistance is impossible, he submits in silence like any
reasonable man.
"The Bulgarian women are gentle, compassionate, and
laborious. The motherly and sisterly care they bestow
on the stranger guest in their cabins is really affecting.
Their demeanor towards him is marked by the perfect
confidence of innocence ; for their virtue has no need of
the precautions which are elsewhere necessary.^
They are, next to the Greeks, the handsomest women in
European Turkey, and are especially remarkable for the
length and luxuriance of their hair, with which they
could literally cover themselves as with a garment; it
' Tlieir chastity "has from early times attracted respect towards the
South Slavonic peoples. Their ancient laws visit social immorality with
death, and at present, their opinion, inexorable towards women, does not,
like our own, show clemency to men." — Mackenzie and Irby, p. 24.
THE MODERN BULGARIANS, 449
often sweeps the ground below their feet. The young
girls let their tresses flow loosely, and their only head-
dress is a wreath of flowers or a single rose. Those whose
charms are on the wane adorn themselves with necklaces
and bracelets of glass beads, a girdle of copper gilt, or an
ugly head-piece in the form of a helmet, festooned with
strings of (coins). ^
" The Bulgarian retains many traits of his Tartar ori-
gin, such as the shaven head, with one thick tuft on the
crown, which he divides into two tresses. Like the son
of the steppes, he is inseparable from his horse. In the
country parts every Bulgarian, the poorest not excepted,
is mounted, and never goes even a few hundred yards
from his cabin except on horseback. . . . His cos-
tume is the same as that of his ancestors on the cold
plateaus of Northern Asia. His short capote, with or
without sleeves, the thick bands with which he swathes
his legs, his trowsers, his tunic, his broad belt, are all
woolen.
" The frugality of this people is inconceivable, and
they enjoy a singular vigor of temperament. A Bulga-
rian on a journey will live for three weeks on the stock
of bread and the bottle of raki he has taken with him, and
he will carry home the whole of his earnings without ex-
pending a single para. On his caravan expeditions he
sometimes indulges the spirit of luxury so far as to add
to his provisions some pieces of meat dried slowly in the
' These head-dresses of coins are a peculiar and almost universal feature
of female attire in all Turkey, from Montenegro to the Persian frontier.
They descend as heirlooms from mother to daughter, and are often of great
value, containing coins, perhaps of silver or gold, as old or older than Con-
stantmople itself.
«^5o TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
sun. ... At home, the usual diet of the Bulgarian
as of the Greek, consists of dairy produce, pulse, olives,
and maize bread. His ordinary drink is water, with which
he cures all his diseases ; wine he reserves for holidays.
Such is his indifference to all the comforts of life, that he
does not even think of protecting himself in winter from
the intense cold, or in summer from the overpowering
heat. Families are to be seen sleeping outside their cab-
ins, exposed to the cold winds of the autumn mornings,
on the carpets which served them for beds among the
flowers of May.
"The simplicity of the Bulgarian's habits exempts him
from many of the maladies to which the dominant caste
are victims. The plague spares the Bulgarian Christians,
who take precautions against it, while it carries off the
Mussulman fatalists. Every great plague takes from
Turkey nearly a miUion of inhabitants. That of 1838
was fatal in Bulgaria alone to eighty-six thousand per-
sons, nearly all Turks. . . . The rural Bulgarians,
like the Hebrews during the seven plagues of Egypt, en
joyed uninterrupted good health throughout that fatal
period. . . . To mark the simplicity of these peo-
ple, I will only mention one fact. During the first
months of my sojourn among them, my answer to their
constant question whence I came, was, * From Frankistan
'Europe).' 'You are happy, brother,' they exclaimed,
'there are none but Bulgarians in your country.' ' Bul-
garians ! I never saw a single one there.' 'What! no
Bulgarians in the country of the Franks ? And what
are you ; are you not a Bulgarian ? ' * Not at all.'
When I said this they hung their heads sadly, and ut-
THE MODERN BULGARIANS, 4$!
tered not a yord. It was not until after many repetitions
of this dialogue I became aware that to their minds the
name of Bulgarian is significant of all the Christian nations
in contradistinction to those of Islam." '
In the lowest and least intelligent class of the Bulga-
rian peasantry, the national sobriety and patience sinks
to an almost ox-like heaviness and stolidity. To this
class belong most of the Bulgarian laborers, so numerous
in the neighborhood of Constantinople, on both sides of
the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, employed as farm
hands, gardeners, and shepherds. The Bulgarians have
always shown a great disposition to emigrate, and colo-
nies of them are found widely scattered in various parts
of European Turkey. But wherever they are, they still
preserve their language and national peculiarities, and
refuse to mix or coalesce with their neighbors.
As already stated, Bulgaria, from its first conquest by
the Turks, has remained in a state of complete subjuga-
tion. The country was parceled out into spahilics, and
the Spahis, living like a local nobility upon their revenues,
had their residences upon their estates, being bound in
return to obey every summons of the Sultan to the field.
The Bulgarians were thus helplessly at the mercy of
their Turkish masters, and have been from the first sub-
jected to great oppression and extortion. Their beauti-
ful daughters were seized and carried off, their religious
services were broken in upon, their churches were dese-
crated, and, amid all the exuberant fruitfulness of the
soil, the endless exactions of the Spahis and government
* Servia and the Slave Provinces of Turkey, pp. 458-62.
.)SJ TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
officials left but a scanty pittance for the support of theif
families.
Of the disorders attending the reforming projects of
Sultan Selim and the rebellion of the janizaries, Bulgaria
proper had more than its full share. In 1792, Pasvan
Oglu established himself at Widdin, the capital of the
province, of which he was afterwards acknowledged Pasha
and Vizier. The career of this great outlaw, rebel, free
booter, and champion of the janizaries, has been already
alluded to.^ Bulgaria was at his feet, and was filled by
his mercenary plundering soldiery with violence and
blood. Sultan Selim was helpless before him, and but for
his opportune death in 1800 might have been driven by
him from his throne.^ At the same time bands of Bul-
garian heyducs swarmed through all the mountainous dis-
tricts of the interior, and tyrannized over the whole region
of central Bulgaria from Sophia to Adrianople. Between
these two sets of plunderers the unhappy people were
reduced to the greatest distress.^ These heyducs, how-
ever, were not mere bandits. Like the Greek Klephts,
they represented the national sentiment of resistance to
Turkish oppression ; and when the Greek Revolution
broke out, they repaired in great numbers to the camps
of the insurgents.
All these early troubles, however, moved this patient,
much-enduring people only to some partial, ill-concerted,
and fruitless movements. It was not until 1838 that the
national spirit became so roused as to explode in a for-
midable insurrection. But even then the Bulgarians had
* See above, chap. v. * Upham, i. 30S-13.
' Servia and the Slave Provinces, p. 488.
THE MODERlSr BULGARIANS. 45]
neither arms, nor skill, nor able leaders, nor trustworthy
allies. The rebellion was easily suppressed and merci-
lessly punished. After this " order reigned " in Bulgaria
until the great revolutionary movements of 1848. These
■movements, aided by Russian intrigue, excited the popu-
lar mind in this province hardly less than in Bosnia,
and the Bulgarians once more rose. This insurrection
was no more successful than the former had been. It
had been crushed, and the vengeful Spahis and merce-
naries (bashi bazouks) were already visiting the helpless
villages with lust, rapine, and slaughter, when the terri-
ble Omer Pasha, leaving his work of conquest and paci-
fication in Bosnia but half accomplished, " fell among
them like a thunderbolt, and all was silence. The Bul-
garian ceased to flee, the Spahis to pursue ; and what
was more, the Russian army of Wallachia halted at the
moment it was about to cross the Danube." ^
Omer Pasha pursued the same policy in Bulgaria
which he had already inaugurated in Bosnia. A general
amnesty was proclaimed, the complaints of the Christians
were listened to, and their most oppressive wrongs were
redressed. After this pacification of the province, the
condition of the Bulgarians was a little more tolerable ; so
little, however, that in any other land it would still have
been considered unendurable. " Meanwhile a variety of
evils pressed on Bulgaria — outbreaks of heyducs, some
political outlaws, some highwaymen ; influx of Moham-
medan Tartars from the Crimea, for whom the Bulgarians
were forced to build houses and provide food ; emigra-
tion of Bulgarians to Russia, succeeded by their destitute
' Servia and the Slave Provinces, p. 385.
454 TURKISH SLAVONIANS,
return ; attempt of other Bulgarians to get off to Servia,
frustrated by the Turkish authorities ; finally, a shoal of
bashi bazouks turned loose among the villagers, on pre-
text of guarding the frontier from the Serbs. In the sum-
mer of 1862 we were witnesses to this state of things." ^
The one great purpose, which, since the quickening of
their national life, has inspired the thoughts and the efforts
of the Bulgarians, has been emancipation from their long
bondage to Greek ecclesiastics. Before the Turkish con-
quest the Bulgarians had their own national church, at
the head of which was a Patriarch, who, although re-
ceiving consecration from the Patriarch of Constantinople,
was in other respects independent. The Turks permitted
this order of things to exist until 1764. It was then
brought to an end, and the Bulgarians were subjected to
that helpless tool of the Porte, the Greek Patriarch of
Constantinople. The result was most disastrous. The
national language was excluded from everything per-
taining to the Church. The Bible and all religious books
were printed, the Church service was performed, in Greek.
All ecclesiastical posts, above the simple priesthood, were
given to Greek extortioners, who, not knowing even the
language of the people, and holding their places solely
as a means of gain, thought only of squeezing the last
para from their unhappy flocks.
The patient Bulgarians endured this tyranny as no
other Christian people in Turkey would have borne it,
yet to escape from it they were engaged for many years
in a constant struggle. This long, weary, but at last
successful struggle was of a singular and peculiarly Bul-
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 34.
THE MODERN BULGARIANS. 45J
garian character. There was no violence, no outburst
of popular fury. It was the passive, but most stubborn
display of the steadfast determination of the Bulgarian
people that they would not longer submit to Greek eccle-
siastics. " Churches were closed in order that the Greek
liturgy might not be read therein. When the Greek
bishops returned from their revenue gathering progresses,
they found their palaces locked, and were conducted be-
yond the city walls. If they entered a church to officiate,
no Bulgarian priest would take part in the service ;
when they departed, the floor was ostentatiously swept,
as if to remove traces of impurity. In Sophia, when a
new bishop was expected, men, women and children
filled the palace and blocked it up, till, unarmed as they
were, they had to be expelled by Turkish soldiers. The
bishop then dwelt in isolation, until, on occasion of a
burial, he got hold of a Bulgarian priest, and demanded
why he did not come to see him. The priest answered
that he must stand by his flock ; that as it would not
acknowledge the bishop, neither could he. Thereupon
the priest's beard was shorn, the fez of the dead man was
stuck on his head, and he was turned out into the streets
as a warning and a sign. Again the unarmed citizens
rose, shops were shut, houses evacuated, and thousands
of people prepared to leave Sophia. Their elders waited
on the Pasha and said, ' Either the Greek bishop must
go, or we.' The Pasha advised the prelate to withdraw,
and as the authorities in Constantinople would not per-
mit the people to elect a new one, Sophia resolved to
do without a bishop at all." ^
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 33.
456 TURKISH SLA VONTANS.
Unwilling to relinquish so potent an instrumentality of
political power, the Turkish authorities long temporized
and evaded, making many fair promises, but in reaUty
conceding little or nothing. But the stubborn purpose
of the Bulgarians, strongly supported by Russian influ-
ences, at last won the day. In 1870 a firman was issued
decreeing the essential independence of the Bulgarian
Church, under an Exarch of its own choice. In Feb-
ruary, 1872, this great reform was carried into effect,
and Anthimios, Metropolitan of Widdin, was chosen
the first Bulgarian Exarch. In October of the same
year, the entire Exarchate was excommunicated by the
Greek Synod of Constantinople.
It is now a little more than twenty years since tht
Bulgarians began to attract the attention and excite the
profoundest interest of our American churches. The
nation was then just awakening from its long sleep, and
beginning to cry earnestly for light and help. The peo-
ple were everywhere establishing schools, and the Bible,
as well as other books, both religious and secular, was
eagerly received. The field seemed one of richest pro-
mise ; and our brethren at Constantinople believed, not
without reason, that if it could be at once and effectually
occupied, results would be speedily achieved surpassing
those which had followed their labors among the Arme-
nians. These hopes and expectations, it is true, have not
been fully realized. The old experience among the
Greeks has, to some extent, been repeated among the
Bulgarians. For, like the Greeks, the Bulgarians have
an intense feeling of nationality ; and, like them also,
they see their only bond of national unity in a firm ad-
inE MODERN BULGARIANS. 457
here.ice to their national church. For this reason, our
brethren of the Bulgarian mission have had but little
success in gathering the people into their congregations,
and but few conversions, comparatively, have resulted
from their labors. These labors, however, have not been
in vain. Through the press, the circulation of the Scrip-
tures, their efforts in the cause of education, and other
similar agencies, our missionaries have been able to exert
a powerful influence, which is slowly leavening the whole
national mind.^
The most interesting and hopeful feature in the relig-
ious character of the simple-minded Bulgarians is their
reverence and love for the Holy Scriptures. This may
be owing in part to the powerful influence exerted upon
them in early days by the Paulicians, who were settled in
their neighborhood before their conversion to Christian-
ity. The first efforts of our missionaries in their behalf
was to send colporters among them with the New Tes-
tament, which was everywhere eagerly received. So
rich and hopeful did the field appear, that the American
Board determined at once to occupy it ; yet so vast was
it, and so urgent in its demands, that the Board felt
wholly unable to provide for it throughout its whole
extent. Deciding, therefore, to limit its own operations
among the Bulgarians to the regions south of the Balkans,
the Board sought aid from some other branch of the
Church in evangelizing Bulgaria proper.
' This fact is gratefully recognized even by the Roman Catholic Bohe-
mians, who feel a deep interest in the welfare of their Southern kindred-
See Mackenzie and Irby, Introduction, p. 19. See also an interesting and
able letter from Rev. Dr. Wood of Constantinople, in the Missionary
Herald for October, 1872, p. 307.
20
<5S TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
In cordial and hearty response to their invitation, the
Missionary Board of the American M. E. Church deter-
mined to occupy this field, and to this end in 1857 sent
out two missionaries, Messrs. Long ' and Prettyman,
who were soon afterwards joined by a third. In the
prosecution of its own part of the work, the American
Board sent Mr. Morse to Adrianople, in 1858, and, the
next year, Mr. Meriam to Philippopolis (Phihbeh), and
Mr. Byington to Eski Zagra. Since that time the mis-
sionary work among the Bulgarians has been prosecuted
steadily, patiently, in the face of great opposition and
many difficulties, but with an ever-widening influence,
and with results which are becoming constantly richer
and more satisfying.
In 1875 the American Board had three stations among
the Southern Bulgarians, located at Samokove, Eski Za-
gra, and Monastir, in Western Macedonia. In connection
with the station at Samokove, there was a theological
^ Rev. A. L. Long, D.D., now professor in Robert College, Constanti-
nople. After this chapter was written, by the kindness of the Secretaries
of the M. E. Board of Missions, I received full information in regard to
the state of their missionary work in Bulgaria proper. In 1876, the Metho-
dist Mission in Bulgaria was in charge of Rev. F. W. Flocken, Superin-
tendent, whose station was at Rustchuk on the Danube. Rev. D. W. C.
Challis was stationed at Sistova on the Danube, and Rev. E. F. Lounsbury
at Temova in the interior. Native circuit preachers were stationed at
Loftcha, Lorn Palanka, Plevna, Orcharia, Widdin, and Tultcha. At all, or
nearly all these stations, small churches and Sunday-schools had been gath-
ered. Three colporters were employed, who, in 1875, disposed by sale of
425 Bibles and parts of the Bible, I,li6 religious books, and 3,702 tracts
and pamphlets. There were three schools, and six young men in training
for missionary work. Though here, as south of the Balkans, the direct re-
sults of missionary labor appeared small, the brethren of the mission
seemed full of hope and courage, confident that indirectly their work WM
yielding abundant fruits.
THE MODERN BVLGAKIANS. ^
school, with eleven students ; an important female board-
ing school ; three ordained missionaries, with their wives ;
two unmarried American ladies, employed as teachers;
four out-stations; one native pastor, and five licensed
preachers. Eski Zagra had three ordained missionaries,
with their wives ; two helpers ; three out-stations, with
two organized churches ; two native pastors ; two licensed
preachers, and one teacher. At Monastir were two
ordained missionaries, with their wives ; one licensed
preacher, and one helper. In addition to the work at
these three stations. Rev. Elias Riggs, D.D., LL.D., and
Rev. T. L. Byington, were engaged at Constantinople in
literary labors connected with the mission.
The general aspects of the Bulgarian field, for the past
twelve years, are well set forth in the following extracts
from a letter to the author of this volume, by Dr. A. L.
Long, while in this country ten years ago, superintending
the electrotyping of the Bulgarian New Testament : —
" The progress of the Bulgarian people during the last
ten years, in general intelligence and public spirit, with
all their disadvantages, has been, in my opinion, greater
than that of any other of the subjects of the Sultan.
Schools have been multiplied, both male and female,
until almost every village has its school. Books, news-
papers, and periodicals have been published, and very
many, who before were unwilling to be known as Bulga-
rians, now seem proud of their nationality.
" The platform of the Bulgarian party is ' Bulgaria for
the Bulgarians;' and they are willing to bide their time
for the consummation of their hopes. Their sympathies
and affinities with Russia are stronger than with the
4l6o TURKISH SLAVONIANS,
Greeks ; but they look with distrust upon Rui sian plans,
knowing that their distinct nationahty would soon be
absorbed by her in the event of her success. A Bulga-
rian will always, however, call a Russian ' brother,' much
more cordially than he can apply that term to a Greek,
who has been, perhaps, brought up in the same town with
himself. Their controversy with the Greeks is not a Rus-
sian scheme, as some English diplomatists have supposed.
Russia has never been willing to see the Bulgarians suc-
ceed in establishing an independent hierarchy, lest they
should depart from orthodoxy, if left to themselves. The
fear also of being reproached with heresy, by Russia
and other Slavic peoples, has had a powerful influence in
keeping the Bulgarians back from any radical reforms.
" Missionary labor among them, although not effecting
what was expected, has not been fruitless. My own ex-
perience has been, I believe, pretty much that of the
brethren with whom it has been my privilege so harmo-
niously to co-operate. There is an increasing respect
paid to the missionaries, and to the word which they
preach ; and there is a greater readiness to receive evan-
gelical literature. An influence is being acquired over
the rising generation which cannot fail of good results.
Even if the Bulgarian people should never become a fully
Protestant people, I doubt not many will be led into a
higher spiritual life, through the Scripture truth which
has been circulated, and is being circulated among
them."
The Moslem population of Bulgaria proper, as has been
the case in every other part of European Turkey, has for
a long time been rapidly diminishing. The decrease in
THE MODERN BULGARIANS, 461
the ten years previous to 1864 was estimated by Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Neale, English Consul in Bulgaria, at one
hundred thousand.' Since 1864 it is probable that the
rate of diminution has increased. The Moslems have
been poorer than the Christians, but for this reason only
the more incHned to insult and plunder them, in revenge
for their own decaying fortunes. Never before, since
the pacification of the country by Omer Pasha in 1848.
did the Bulgarians suffer such fearful wrongs and out-
rages as during the year previous to the breaking out of
the recent war.
The Bulgarians are as intensely democratic as the Ser-
vians or the Greeks, and this fact of itself is an insuper-
able barrier to any willing union between them and the
Russians. On the other hand, they have a strong fellow-
feeling towards the Servians, and have long been looking
to them for help which, hitherto, they have not been
able to afford. What course the Bulgarians would take,
if left free to choose for themselves, was unmistakably in-
dicated when, in the time of the Crimean war, they in-
vited Michael Obrenovitch, afterwards Prince of Ser\da,
to become their sovereign.
The Bulgarian and Servian languages are but dialects
of the same Slavonic speech, so nearly similar that the
people of the two provinces find little difficulty in un-
derstanding each other. The words and forms of the
old Slavonian afford a medium through which the same
books and papers can be circulated among both peoples.
The Servian language is the purest Slavonian, the Bulga-
rian having more the character of a patois^ with a harsh
' Mackenzie and Irby, p. 2^ note.
409 TURKISH SLA VONIANS.
and rude pronunciation, and a large admixture of foreigp
words. The present tendency is strongly to draw the
two peoples together, in language as in political ideas
and aspirations. The Bulgarians are as poetical and
song-loving as the other Slavonic peoples. Their lan-
guage is very rich in ballads and historic poems, which,
contrary to what might have been expected, differ very
little from those of the Servians.'
That a great crisis in the fortunes of the Bulgarians, as
of all the Slavonic peoples of European Turkey, is now
near at hand, is very clear. May He who rules supreme
in earth as in heaven, give them guidance to a happy
issue. Well certainly may we, American Christians, pray
and hope that the result of this struggle may be to break
the yoke of the Turk forever from the necks of those
long oppressed followers of the Cross, and to unite these
kindred peoples in one free, prosperous, powerful, and
Christian state.
» Tilyi, p. 313.
CHAPTER IX.
THE WALLACHIANS.»
THE DACO-ROUMANIAN PEOPLE — WALLACHIA — MOL-
DAVIA — ROUMANIA — THE ROUMANIAN JEWS.
The Wallachian or Roumanian people are by no
means confined to the territory now comprised in the
PrincipaHty of Roumania. Five hundred years ago
they were very numerous throughout the whole region
extending from the Carpathian range north of Transyl-
vania to the southern borders of Thessaly. The south-
western districts of Thessaly were long known as Great
Wallachia, and governed by a semi-independent Walla-
chian Prince ; the so-called Third Bulgarian Kingdom,
' Gibbon's Decline and Fall.
The Greek Histories of Finlay and Tennent.
Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, in the years 1654, 1658, and
1659.
Walsh's Narrative of a Journey from Constantinople to England. Phil-
adelphia, 1828.
Roumania, the Border Land of the Christian and the Turk. By James
O. Noyes, M.D. New York, 1857.
Boner's Transylvania, Edinburgh Review for January, 1866.
Writings of Viscount Strangford. 2 vols. London, 1869.
War Correspondence of the London Daily News. 2 vols. Loodoo,
187&
4^4 THE WALLACHIANS.
founded at the end of the twelfth century by the three
brothers, Peter, Asan, and John, was more properly a
Wallachian Kingdom ; while the Wallachs formed then,
as they do still, a large and important element of die
population in the province of Transylvania and the
whole region of the Carpathian Mountains.^ After re-
maining for a long period too poor and depressed to
attract attention, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
the Wallachs began to increase rapidly in numbers, in
wealth, and in political importance. In the confusion
attending the last years of the Greek Empire, and the
rise of the Turkish power, they again so greatly declined*
that for four hundred years, beyond the limits of the
semi-independent principalities of Wallachia and Molda-
via, they were almost unknown to the world. In dimin-
ished numbers, however, they have always existed, and
still exist, still speaking the same language, remaining
essentially the same people, in many of the districts in
which their fathers were so powerful in the days of the
Crusades.
In Transylvania the Wallachs form a majority of the
entire population, numbering 1,227,000, against 536,000
Hungarians, 192,000 Germans, 78,000 Gypsies, and
15,000 Jews.^ The Hungarians (Magyars and Szeklers)
are the landholding gentry ; the Germans, whose fathers
(invited into the country by the Magyar Kings in the
twelfth century) grew rich and powerful in the days of
the old overland trade with the East, are yeomen in the
' For the early History of the Wallachians, see Finlay's Byzantine Em-
pire, ii. 276-282.
* Id., ii., 600. » Boner, Edinburgh Review, January, 1866, p. 68.
THE WALLACHIANS. 465
country and burghers of " the seven cities ; " the Wal-
lachs, everywhere rude and very poor, are shepherds
among the mountains, a depressed peasantry upon the
plains. The old Roumanian population of Great Walla-
chia has still its numerous representatives in the moun-
tains of Pindus. Colonel Leake found about five hundred
Wallach villages in the mountains of Thessaly, Epirus,
and Macedonia, some of them small, others large and
prosperous. The people of these villages were diligent
and thrifty, a valuable and important element of the
population. Many of the men were mechanics and
traders employed away from home, some of them being
wealthy merchants in Italy, Spain, Austria, and Russia ;
but all were sure to come back in old age to spend the
evening of their days upon their native soil. The two
largest and most important of these villages were Met-
zovo and Kalarytes, in Pindus.^ There are many Wal-
lachs also, called Tzintzars by their Slavonian neighbors,
in the districts further north. They inhabit some villages
in Eastern Servia, form a prosperous trading class in the
larger towns, and are numerous as wild and savage shep-
herds among the mountains. Of these Tzintzars, Mac-
kenzie and Irby saw much. They speak of them as
shrewd and industrious, but sly, grinding, and ser\'ile.
At the grand old monastery of Rilo they met some speci-
mens of the shepherd Wallachs, which are thus described:
" Strange worshipers were in the temple — shepherds
from the Balkan, talking a barbarous dialect of Latin, and
calling themselves * Romans, while they live as savages.
These people herd flocks, and, when the men are absent,
' Northern Greece, L 274-283.
466 THE WALLACHIANS.
the women defend the huts, and Hke the female Alba-
nians are noted for their accurate shooting." " But for
such monasteries as that of Rilo, these shepherds would
be shut out from any form of worship ; but here they
assemble at certain times to confess and take the sacra-
ment. How far these people are edified by services in
a language which they understand not is an open ques-
tion ; but we were witnesses of the instruction which in
such instances may be conveyed by sacred pictures. A
fresco of the birth of Christ is painted on the wall of the
church. One of the shepherd pilgrims caught sight of it,
and shouted out in rapture, ' See, there is the birth of
the Christ' The women crowded round him, and he
pointed out to them the Babe, the mother, and the star;
the shepherds, the ox, the ass — explaining as he went
on." ^ The number of people now living who speak the
Wallachian language is estimated at eight millions.
Wallachian, Wallach, or Vlach is a name of doubtful
origin and meaning,^ which the Roumanian people them-
selves reject, acknowledging no other appellation than
Roumani, or Romans. This fact and the kindred fact
that the language everywhere spoken by them, and
everywhere the same, is nothing else than a barbarized
Latin, point unmistakably to their origin. They are the
descendants of the mixed population which, under the
Roman Emperors, occupied the provinces of Macedonia,
Thrace, Moesia, and Dacia — a vast region, stretching
• Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 73 and 128.
* Colonel I^ake observes that the Slavonians called their Latin-speak*
ing neighbors Vlachs, or shepherds, from their usual occupation. But thil
oiigin of the term other authorities are inclined to question;
THE WALLA C HI ANS. 467
from the frontiers of Greece to about the forty-eighth
parallel of north latitude. By the overmastering energy
of Roman civilization and the Roman administration, the
whole of this immense population, in the course of a few
generations, was effectually fused and blended into one
thoroughly Romanized and Latin-speaking people. By
the year 500 this social transformation was complete ;
and the language spoken by the common people of
Thrace and Moesia was very nearly the same with the
Wallachian of the present day.'
For a period of perhaps two hundred years the peo-
ple of these provinces lived in prosperity and peace.
Foreign wars there were none, the fiscal exactions of the
imperial government were not excessive, its civil admin-
istration was vigorous and steady, its laws were com-
paratively equal and mild. But long before the Roman-
izing process was complete among them, the days of
their prosperity had passed away to return no more.
The Roman legions had learned the terrible secret of
their own power, and had begun to make and unmake
Emperors at their will. Rival Emperors filled the Em-
pire with strife, the provinces were wasted and ruined
by civil wars. The necessities of the Emperors were in-
creased by the confusion of the times, and, while the
wealth of society was diminishing, they were obliged to
multiply taxes and exactions of every kind. And then,
to complete the ruin of the unhappy Empire, came the
successive waves of barbarian invasion from the North.
By the fiscal tyranny of the imperial government, and
the destroying inroads of the northern tribes, which be-
* Finlaj's Byzantine Empire, ii. 281 ; Gibbon, i. 44.
468 THE WALLACHIANS,
gan with the great invasion of the Goths in the year 250;
the Romanized, Latin-speaking people of these provinces
were gradually wasted and consumed ; until, in the course
of three or four hundred years, they entirely disappeared.
But they had not perished. They had retired to the
mountains adjacent to their several districts, and in these
secure retreats, almost forgotten and unknown by the
world at large, they still existed as a race of rude and
hardy shepherds, until, as we have seen, the time came
for them to reappear and once more play an important
part in the great drama of human affairs.
The Principality of Roumania, with the small disputed
province of Bessarabia, between Roumania and Russia,
forms about the south-eastern half of the Roman province
of Dacia. The other half of Dacia is now part of the
Empire of Austria. It extended on the west nearly or
quite to the River Theiss ; on the north to the Carpa-
thian Mountains and the River Dniester. When, in the
year 98, Trajan assumed the imperial purple, the Dan-
ube, throughout its entire length, had long been the
northern boundary of the Empire of Rome. Dacia was
then a powerful state, governed by King Decebalus, one
of the ablest and most formidable enemies ever en-
countered by the Roman arms.
The Dacians were a Sarmatian people, belonging to
the great Slavonian family, and had made considerable
progress in civilization. Decebalus had inflicted a dis-
astrous defeat upon the Emperor Domitian, and com-
pelled him to purchase an ignominious peace. The trib-
ute promised by Domitian Trajan indignantly refused to
pay, and prepared to vindicate the insulted majesty o^
THE WALLACHIANS. 46f
Rome. The war which followed was long and desperate.
The Dacians, neither giving nor receiving quarter, doing
all in their power to exasperate and infuriate the Romans,
fought with the ferocious courage of despair. To such a
war there could then be but one issue. The Dacian ar-
mies were defeated and scattered ; their cities were one
after another taken and destroyed ; Decebalus died by
his own hand, and, after five years of hard and bloody
fighting, Trajan returned to Rome boasting that he had
exterminated the Dacian race.^ This boast was, of course,
a great exaggeration of the truth. The armies and cities
of the conquered country had been destroyed, but a
large part of the Dacian people must have still been in
existence, to become merged in the new population.
The fruitful and magnificent region thus subdued, Trajan
determined to organize into a Roman province, and make
it the defence and granary of his Empire. This last ex-
tension of the Roman boundaries was effected in the year
105. Settlers were invited from all quarters, and soon
thirty thousand colonists had occupied and effectually Ro-
manized the new province. For a hundred and sixty-five
years Roman civilization went on, doing unimpeded its
proper work upon the Dacian territory, until the whole
population of the province had become insensibly melted
into the great Latin-speaking people of the Empire.
In the year 270 the Emperor Aurelian ended a long
and terrible struggle with a vast invading host of Goths
and Vandals, by a treaty of peace in which he tacitly re-
linquished to them the province of Dacia, which the
weakened Empire could no longer defend, and with-
> Gibbon, i. 6.
470 THE WALLACHIANS.
drew the Roman armies to the south of the Danube. A
large body of the people of the abandoned province were
removed across the Danube, and received a new settle-
ment in the wasted districts of Moesia; but the great
majority of the provincials remained in their homes to
teach the arts of industry and civilization to the Goths.
This new arrangement proved highly advantageous to
all concerned. The Goths, here as afterwards in Italy
and Spain, proved themselves apt and ready pupils of
their better instructed subjects, adopted gradually their
manners and their language, and became fused with them
to some extent into one people.'
The new and independent kingdom thus formed re-
mained for about fifty years in firm alliance with the
Empire, and proved often its surest safeguard against
the barbarians of the North. How far, during these
fifty years, the old Latin-speaking population of Dacia
was increased by accessions from the Goths, it is impos-
sible to say. It is clear, however, that at the end of
this period this people had reached the utmost limit of
its prosperity and its numbers. After this, the Goths of
Dacia seem to have been lost in the ever-shifting hordes
of the Ostrogoths (or Eastern Goths, in distinction from
the Visigoths, or Western Goths), who, advancing towards
the south-east from Scandinavia and Germany, had occu-
pied the country as far to the east as tlie River Dnieper
and the Sea of Azov.^ From this time^ on, the old
Romanized inhabitants of Dacia, driven step by step
from the cities and open country, would seem to have
been gradually concentrated among the highlands of the
* Gibbon, i. 342. * Id., i. 289; ii. 169, 582. ^ About A.D. 325,
THE WALLACHIANS. 471
Carpathian Mountains, where for many centuries they
remained forgotten by the world.
About the year 375 came the great invasion oi' the
Huns — the first of those destroying deluges in which, for
a thousand years, the Tartar nations of Central Asia
continued to dash themselves upon Eastern Europe. In
a few years the terrible Attila had fixed the camp or
capital of the Huns upon the plains of Upper Hungary,
from which he swayed the nations of Europe from the
Tiber to the Baltic and from the Volga to the Rhine.' A
hundred and fifty years later, the Bulgarians, a kindred
tribe who had entered Europe in the wake of the Huns,
crossed the Danube with their Slavonian subjects, to de-
vastate the provinces of Moesia and Macedonia, Avhich
they afterwards occupied in permanent possession.^ Af-
ter the Bulgarians came the Avars, another tribe of the
same great Tartar race, who, in the latter part of the
sixth century, established a kingdom embracing the same
territories which had belonged to the old province of
Dacia, and which endured for two hundred and thirty
years.^ Towards the close of the ninth century, another
Hungarian invasion established the Magyars in Hungary
and Transylvania, where they have ever since remained
the dominant race,'* while the Szeklers are supposed to
represent the older Huns, and perhaps the Avars.' In the
ten years following 1235 came by far the most terrible
of all these successive waves of Tartar invcsion. At the
head of five hundred thousand horsemen, Batou, the
* Gibbon, iii. 391, 409. ' Id., iv. 205, 392.
* Id, iv. 198, V. 405. ■• Id., V. 410-421.
" Boner, Edinburgh Review, January, 1866, p. 68.
31
47S THE WALLACHIANS.
grandson of Ghengis Khan, swept over Russia, Poland,
Hungary, Bosnia, Servia, and Bulgaria, leaving his track
everywhere a desert of ashes and blood. Upon the
death of Octal Khan, in 1245, Baton returned to build
upon a branch of the lower Volga the new city ani
palace of Serai, where for two hundred years he and h"?
successors, the Khans of the Golden Horde, continue 1
to reign over Russia and the pastoral tribes of Kipzak in
Western Asia.^ For a long time after the founding of
Serai, the Tartars wandered in sole and undisputed pos-
session over the Crimea, the steppes of Southern Russia,
and the lowlands of Moldavia and Wallachia, to the base
of the Carpathian Mountains. The Crimea was occu-
pied by them, as nominal tributaries to the Ottoman
Sultans, until 1783. During all this time the Crimea
was the seat of a great and terrible trade in slaves, most
of whom, at least in earlier times, were captives, taken
by the Moslem Tartars from their Christian neighbors.^
Through all these troubled and bloody ages, the old
Latin-speaking people, who had been expelled from the
plains of Dacia in the fourth century, and who now be-
come known to us under their new name as Vlachs, or
Wallachs, had been living, in more or less of security
and prosperity, the life of hardy and rugged shepherds
among the Carpathian Mountains. In the latter part of
the thirteenth century we find them a numerous and
widely extended people, living under a Count or Voivode
of theii own, tributary to the King of Hungary.^ Paul
of Aleppo spent three years, in 1654-5 and 1657-9, '^
* Gibbon, vi. 219; Wallace's Russia, chap. xxii.
" Wallace, p. 353. ^ Macarius, ii. 329.
THE WALLA CfflANS.
41S
Moldavia and Wallachia. In his simple and gossippy, but
full and trustworthy narrative, he has thrown a flood of
light upon the condition of the Principalities at that time,
and no little also upon their earlier history. In the pas-
sage just referred to, he tells us that the territories of
Wallachia and Moldavia were formally occupied by the
Tartars of Southern Russia, but wholly destitute of fixed
inhabitants; and that the Count of the Wallachians,
coming down from the Carpathians to pasture his horses
in these lands, obtained leave from the King of Hungary
to occupy them in permanent possession. Having ob-
tained this permission, he was able to expel the Tartars,
and became lord of all Wallachia. This first Voivode
of Wallachia was Rudolph the Black, who, at the head
of his boyars or nobles, established himself in the Princi-
pality in 1290.
In 1359 Bogden Dragosch crossed the Carpathians at
the head of another Wallachian colony, and became the
first Voivode of Moldavia.' Until they submitted to the
Turks, these princes claimed to be independent ; but be-
tween the Hungarians on the west, the Poles on the
north, and the Cossacks and Tartars on the east, they
were harassed by constant and bloody wars.
In 1 391 Bajazet crossed the Danube, and made the
Principalities tributary provinces of his Empire. In 1460
Mohammed II. granted a capitulation or constitution to
Wallachia, which, in substance, remained in effect almost
' Noyes, p. 156. It would seem that the Wallachian boyars nay have
belonged originally to some one of the barbarian tribes, perhaps the Goths,
who established themselves as a domina it race upon the Dacian territory
After the withdraMral of the Roman armies.
'^4 THE WALLACHIANS.
to the present day. By the terms of this charter, the
Voivodes were to be freely elected by the prelates and
boyars, subject to the approval of the Porte ; were to
acknowledge themselves the subjects of the Sultan, and
pay an annual tribute of ten thousand piastres, in return
for which they were to be entitled to military protection.
The Principality was to be governed by its own laws, was
to have the right to make war and peace, and no Turk
was to settle in it unless for some sufficient reason. Apos-
tates from Christianity, abjuring Islam, were to be safe in
Wallachia. No mosque should ever be built in the Prin-
cipality ; no Wallachian should be enslaved by a Turk,
or subjected to the capitation tax in Turkey ; and the
Sultan was never to interfere by firmans in the internal
affairs of the province. After the battle of Mohacs, in
1529, Solyman I. granted a similar constitution to Mol-
davia.^
These charters were by no means a dead letter. They
remained the basis of government in the two Principali-
ties until their union in 1861. And yet it is more than
doubtful whether this semi-independence of the Rouma-
nian people has not been an evil to them rather than a
good ; whether it would not have been far better for them
if the Turkish conquest of their country had been as
complete and permanent as it was in the provinces the
other side of the Danube. The judgment of Dr. Noyes,
recorded soon after the Crimean war,^ that the Wallaeh-
ians were the worst governed people in the world, is but
the embodied verdict of all intelligent witnesses for the
past two hundred years. The Voivodes, or Hospodars
• Walsh, p. 15s; Tennent, ii. 20, 21. * Roumania, p. 113.
THE WALLACHIANS. 475
(their more common appellation), holding their power by
a very uncertain tenure, have usually been little else than
rapacious tyrants, making it their great aim to scrape to-
gether the largest possible amount of treasure while the
power remained in their hands. The boyars, a set of
feudal landlords, without refinement or character, their
houses filled with slaves, and their veins often with ser-
vile blood — cringing, fawning sycophants in the presence
of the Hospodars — were worse tyrants than they upon
tlieir own estates. The peasants, mere serfs and slaves
of the boyars, without any rights or any hope of better
days, burrowing in filthy underground huts, were sunk
in an utter squalidness of wretchedness, poverty, and
want, to be found nowhere else in the civilized world.'
It is probable that no other country in Europe has had
a history so bloody and troubled as that of Wallachia and
Moldavia throughout almost the whole period of their
political existence. There is nothing to indicate that the
three years spent by the Patriarch Macarius and his son
in the Principalities were unusually filled with misfortunes
and disasters to the Roumanian people, yet the story of
two of these three years, as told by Paul of Aleppo, is
simply appalling. On the arrival of our travelers at
Yassi, the capital of Moldavia, in the summer of 1654,
they were received with great kindness and courtesy by
the Voivode, Vasili Beg, a prince of unusual attainments,
ability, and energy, who had filled the throne for twenty-
three years.^ But Vasili Beg was a Greek ; and under
' Tennent, ii. p. 33-45 ; Noyes, p. 208.
' Our author was filled with wonder at "tlie venerable dignity of the
Beg, his knowledge and acq-i\rements, the excellence of his good sense, hig
^j§ THE WALLACHIANS,
his government all offices were filled with Greeks, while
the Wallachian boyars were treated with cruel oppression
and scorn.
Of the Moldavian people, the Archdeacon formed a
very unfavorable opinion. " God Almighty has not cre-
ated upon the face of the earth a more vicious people
than the Moldavians ; for the men are all of them mur-
derers and robbers. . . . As to their wives and
daughters, they are utterly destitute of modesty and
character ; and though the Beg cuts off their noses, and
puts them in the pillory, and drowns many of them, so
as to have caused some thousands of them to perish, yet
he proves too weak to correct their manners. . . . The
fast of Lent is strictly observed by the Court and the
higher classes of the people. But the lower orders keep
no fast, nor perform any prayer, nor appear to have any
religion at all. They are Christians only in name ; and
their priests set them the example of passing whole nights
in debauchery and intoxication. Such are the scenes we
witnessed in this country. But in Wallachia, which God
preserve ! it is very different ; and the religiousness of its
profound acquaintance with tlie writings of the Ancients and the Modems,
as well Pagans and Christians as Turks," and adds : "He has printed a
great deal in his time— Church books, Practices of Devotion, and Com-
mentaries—and for his own people in Moldavia, works in the Wallachian
language. Formerly the people read their prayers only in the Servian
tongue, which is akin to the Russian ; for, from Bulgaria and Servia to
A^allachia and Moldavia, thence to the country of the Cossacks and to Mos-
cow, they all read in the Servian, in which all their books are written. But
the language of the Wallachians and Moldavians is Wallachian, and they do
■not understand what they read in Servian. For this reason, he has built for
them, near his monastery, a large college of stone, and has printed for them
books in their own language."— Travels, &c., i. 58.
THE WALLACHIANS.
477
inhabitants, their moderation and good conduct, are pre-
eminent." The justice of Vasili Beg had been terrible,
and a woman could travel in safety with gold upon her
person. " It is calculated that since the time that Vasili
became Beg, he has put to death more than fourteen
thousand robbers, by register of judgment. And yet he
condemned not to death for the first crime, but used to
flog and torture and pillory the criminals." ^
Our travelers had hardly settled themselves pleasantly
at Yassi, when their quiet and comfort were rudely dis-
turbed. The unfairness and severity of Vasili's govern-
ment had prepared the way for his sudden and violent
overthrow. The Great Logothete, or High Chancellor,
stole away to Bucharest, and presently returning with a
force of Wallachians and Hungarians, proclaimed the de-
position of Vasili and his own accession to the throne.
In this emergency Vasili sent for help to his son-in-law,
Timotheus, the son of Akhmil, the Hctman of the Cos-
sacks. The Cossacks soon appeared, chased the invad-
ing army out of the Principality, and restored Vasili to
his capital, pursuing meantime the adherents of the new
Beg, and the unfortunate Jews and Turks of the capital,
with every form of cruelty and extortion. Presently,
however, the Cossacks were themselves defeated, and the
' Travels of Macarius, i. 62-63. The judgment of the good Archdeacon
respecting the character of the Moldavians and Wallachians must evidently
be taken with some grains of allowance. lie saw- the Moldavians through
the eyes of Vasili Beg and his Greek underlings, whose iron but hated rule
had filled the country with enemies and outlaws. On the other hami, the
abject superstition of the Wallachians, which caused them to bow in hum-
ble reverence before " ou' Lord the Patriarch," seemed to our author tb*
very perfection of piety.
478 THE WALLACHIAl^.
invading army returned to wreak a more terrible ven-
geance upon the Greeks and the adherents of Vasili. In
the course of these movements Timotheus himself fell,
when Akhmil sent to the assistance of Vasili a fresh army
of forty thousand Cossacks and twenty-eight thousand
Tartars. The terror of the Tartar name was the last drop
in the cup of the unhappy Principality. The whole peo-
ple forsook their homes and fled to the deserts and the
mountains. In Yassi not an inhabitant remained ; even
the convents were deserted.^ During these days of con-
fusion and violence the breast of our gentle historian was
filled with fears and alarms which no language could de-
scribe. " We were confined as prisoners all this time in
Moldavia, confused in mind and straitened in spirit
These terrors, these dreads and horrors which rushed
upon us were such as might turn the hair of children
gray. . . . We had no power to move on our tra-
vels, neither forward to the country of the Cossacks, nor
yet backwards ; for the people of the provinces were all
turned robbers and assassins, and murdered every per-
son on the road whom they caught in his flight."*
Akhmil's Cossacks and Tartars advanced as far as the
River Pruth, when, hearing that Vasili's treasures had
' The convents, or monasteries, which were very numerous, were very
strongly built, and were the fortresses of the country.
^ Id., i. 93. The terror inspired among the Moldavians by the coming
of the Tartars was not without good reason. Our author closes his account
of Moldavia in these words : " Its population is innumerable, although the
Tartars are continually making incursions into it, and carrying off its in-
habitants. In the time of Vasili, but some five years before he assumed
the government, they came on a sudden, and carried away about seventy-
five thousand souls." — Id., i. loo. Tbe prisoners thus taken went to stock
the slave markets of the Crimea. See above, p. 472.
THE WALLACHIANS. 499
been taken, they halted and returned home. After this,
Stephani Beg, the rebel Chancellor, received his investi-
ture as Hospodar of Moldavia.
Early in the spring of 1655, Macarius and his son left
Moldavia and proceeded to Torghist, the winter capital
of Wallachia. Here they were kindly received by Mat-
thi Beg, the Voivode, who soon after died. Matthi Beg
had lived on good terms with the Turks and Tartars, and
had reigned prosperously for twenty-three years. He
had accumulated a large treasure, which he left behind
him, altliough he had expended great sums in building
churches and monasteries in every part of the Principality.
To the circumstance of Matthi Beg's death at this time
we are indebted for the full and important account given
us by Paul of Aleppo, of the election and investiture of
his successor. " All the Grandees assembled in the first
place and held a council ; then they elected without delay
an archon, who was called Constantine Efendi-Kopulo.
Then they went forth from the church to the
outside of the palace, and the Metropolitan ascended to a
high place and said to the people, ' Your Efendi (judge)
is deceased ; whom therefore do you wish that we should
raise in his place to be Governor over you ? ' The cry
of the Grandees, the army, and the whole people, with
one voice, was, * We will have none but Constantine,
son of Shraban, for Voivoda.' " Constantine was then led
to the cathedral, where he was solemnly consecrated,
clothed in sacerdotal and royal robes, and seated upon
the throne, after which the oath of allegiance was admin-
istered to the boyars and officials. At this time the ^wo
Principalities were under the supervision of the Pasha of
48o THE WALLACHIANS.
Silistria, through whom alone the Voivodes could hold
communication with the Sublime Porte. Having been
duly elected and enthroned by his own people, Constan-
tine's next step was to send to Constantinople, through
the Pasha of Silistria, for the throne and banner with
which the Sultans were accustomed to grant investiture
to the newly elected Hospodars. By liberal payments all
round, amounting in the aggregate to one million piastres,
or about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, these
insignia of office were readily obtained.^ Our travelers
were impressed very favorably by the religious and moral
character, and the quiet, orderly conduct of the Wallach-
ian people, especially by the modesty and virtue of the
women. They were greatly surprised at the multitude —
" tribes and tribes " — of soldiers. But although wine,
beer, and spirits were sold everywhere, and the soldiers
drank as freely as they pleased, they saw among them no
intoxication or disorders of any kind.^ Immediately
after the accession of Constantine, the Patriarch and his
son departed for Russia, where they remained for two
years and three months.
Late in the autumn of 1657 they returned to Walla-
chia, where they spent a year very agreeably in visiting
the multitude of rich and strongly fortified monasteries
with which the Principality was filled. But just at the
beginning of the winter of 1658-9 events suddenly oc-
curred by which everything was changed. " News
arrived from Constantinople," the Archdeacon writes,
'*' that the Beg was deposed. . . . This became the
occasion of the ruin of Wallachia, of the abduction of
1 Id., i. 144-153' * Id-» »• 121, 131. 133-
THE WALLACHTANS. 481
Its inhabitants into captivity and slavery, and of its utter
desolation. To us it became tlie source of innumerable
and indescribable frights and horrors."' The year pre-
vious, the Grand Vizier had demanded of the King of
Hungary, and the Voivodes of the two Principalities, a
heavy and illegal war contribution, which they refused to
pay. Enraged at this affront, he now obtained an impe-
rial firman deposing the three princes and elevating to
the throne of Wallachia a man named Michael, the son
of a former Voivode of Wallachia, but for twenty-five
years a member of the Sultan's household at Constanti-
nople. This seems to have been the first case in which '
the Sultan had ever appointed a Voivode for either Princi-
pality — an exception which sixty years later was to be-
come the rule.
The deposed King of Hungary gathered an army to
defend his rights, when a ruinous war began. In the
beginning of winter the Turks crossed the Danube, and,
witli a strong confederate force of Tartars from the Cri-
mea, entered the Principalities. All was terror and con-
fusion. The cold was intense, and the snow lay deep
upon the ground, but the people of almost the whole of
Wallachia abandoned their homes and fled to the moun-
tains. " The circumstances of the miserable Wallachians
were such," observes our author with good reason, " as
to draw tears and wailings from the beholder." The
retreating Constantine, out of a vengeful spite against
his rival and successor, ordered Bucharest to be burned
to the ground, The command was obeyed, and of the
g^eat city, the ancient capital of the Voivodes, nothing
' Id., ii. 382.
21
483 THE WALLACHTANS.
was left but the vaulted and fire-proof churches. In re«
venge for this outrage the Turkish Pasha ordered Torg-
hist to be burned, of which the destruction was so com-
plete that not one building remained above ground-
The Tartars pursued the flying people to their retreats
and filled the mountains with rapine and blood, until, hav-
ing set Michael upon the throne of the ruined Principal-
ity, they retired, driving before them a miserable crowd
of captives, variously estimated at from seventy-five thou-
sand to a hundred and fifty thousand souls.
The next spring the Turks gathered their forces for
the invasion of Hungary, when the Wallachians, expect-
ing that the Tartars would return, again fled from their
homes. Bucharest was emptied of inhabitants, and the
Patriarch and his son were reduced to great distress. Their
chief desire now was to escape from the country. With
much difficulty the Archdeacon succeeded in obtaining
two wagons, in which, in company with other fugitives,
he conveyed the baggage of the party to Galatz. He
then returned in safety to Bucharest, a distance of about
a hundred and twenty-five miles, through the awful soli-
tude of an absolute desert. " Our greatest timidity," he
writes, " was occasioned by the total emigration of the
whole people of the country, on our track of march ; for
we found not a single person, nor even a dog, or any
other animal, from Galatz to Bokaresht We stumbled
on some dead bodies in our path, and the whole world
was a blot. Except Almighty God, we had no com-
panion of our journey, during which our eyes were con-
tinually going the round of the horizon ; and at night we
could sleep only in open fields, removed from the road
THE WALLACHIANS. 483
for fear our steps should be traced and we should be
vertaken and swept away. We reached Bokaresht on
le Saturday preceding the Lent of Our Lady, in forty
Jays in all, with our hearts rent by continual fears and
the loss of our horses, which we killed with the fatigue of
almost constant running both day and night." Soon af-
ter this comparative quiet Avas restored for a short time,
and, in September, 1659, our travelers reached Galatz on
their homeward journey, where they embarked for Sinope,
on the coast of Asia Minor.'
Towards the close of the seventeenth century, Panayo-
taki, a Greek of the Island of Scio, and a man as eminent
for virtue ahd patriotism as for his learning and ability,^
was elevated to tlie office of Dragoman of the Council.
In this office he really held the high position of Minister
for Foreign Affairs to the Sublime Porte. This was the
beginning of their great and long-enduring power to
the Greeks of the Phanar. Early in the eighteenth cen-
tury the Sultan determined to bestow the Hospodariats
of Wallachia and Moldavia upon the most faithful and
eminent of his Greek servants at Constantinople. In
pursuance of this plan, Nicholas Mavrocordato, a son of
Alexander Mavrocordato, was made Hospodar of Molda-
via in 17 1 5. In 1 7 16, Nicholas was transferred to Buch-
arest, and made the first Phanariot Hospodar of Wal-
lachia.^ This reign of the Phanariot Hospodars in the
Principalities continued until 1823, when, at the demand
of Russia, the old constitution was restored. This change
' Travels of Macarius, ii. 382, 417. * See above, p. 196.
' Finlay's Greece under Othoman and Venetian Domination, p 296;
tee also above, pp. 196-9.
T( THE WALLACHIANS.
in the government of the PrincipaUties was a change from
bad to worse. Many of the Phanariot Hospodars were
men of learning and ability ; a few of them were virtuous
and just. They did much for the cause of learning at
their capitals, a little towards developing the material in-
terests of their principalities. As a rule, however, they
were a set of rapacious, insatiable tyrants, as pompous
and luxurious as they were unscrupulous and corrupt.
Having obtained their appointments, they set forth in
royal magnificence and started for their capitals, where
the boyars gathered around them in obsequious homage,
and where they found themselves the absolute masters of
their principalities. In their palaces, amid a crowd of
pompous officials with high-sounding titles, they endea-
vored to copy the frivolous etiquette and cumbrous cere-
monial of the Court of the later Greek Emperors at Con-
stantinople.' In the wake of the Hospodars followed a
swarm of hungry, unscrupulous Greek adventurers, ready
to seize upon every office and lucrative position, who
spread themselves like cormorants throughout the Princi-
palities.^ If this monstrous system of sponging and ex-
tortion deserved the name of government, it was certainly
as bad a government as anything by which that vener-
able name has ever been disgraced. " No other Chris-
tian race in the Othoman dominions was exposed to so
long a period of unmitigated extortion and cruelty as the
Roumanian population in these unfortunate provinces. It
' See a curious account of the Wallachian Court in one of the later
chapters of Curzon's Armenia.
^ These Phanariot officials of the Principalities vere the true original
carpet-baggers, whose example would seem to have been well studied by
leif worthy successors in South Carolina and Louisiana.
THE WALLACHIANS. 485
is the sad duty of history to record that the Othoman
Turks were better masters to the various races they con-
quered than the Phanariot Greeks to the fellow Christians
committed to their care and protection." ^
This state of things continued until 1802, when Alex-
ander of Russia interfered, claiming and securing the
right of supervision over the affairs of the Principalities.
In 1823 Alexander demanded and obtained the restora-
tion of the old constitution, the perpetual exclusion of
the Phanariots from the government of the Principali-
ties, and the free election of the Hospodars for a term of
seven years. Under this new arrangement Nicolas Ghika
was chosen Hospodar of Wallachia, and Jonan Stourdza
Hospodar of Moldavia.^ In 1829 anodier change was
made, in accordance with which the Hospodars were to
be chosen for life, the Divan having no power to depose
them. By this change the Roumanian people were
effectually relieved from the rapacious tyranny of Greek
and Turkish officials, but beyond this it brought Httle
improvement to their condition. It was the Crimean
war which fixed the attention of Europe upon the Prin-
cipahties, and led to such radical changes in their institu-
tions and government as brought their long oppressed
people a great emancipation and the beginning of better
days.
In 1859 Alexander John Couza was elected Hospodar
by the people of both provinces. This double election,
looking manifestly towards union, was a surprise to the
* Finlay's Greece under Othoman and Venetian Domination, p. 297 : se«
also Tennent, ii. 30-4$.
* Tennent, ii. 3a
486 THE WALLACHIANS.
Cabinets of Europe. The movement encountered some
hostility at first, but it was clearly for the best interests
of the people of the two provinces ; there was a strong
public sentiment in favor of healing old divisions and
bringing broken, divided peoples together ; France inter-
posed her good offices, and all opposition was overcome.
In December, 1861, the Union was proclaimed, and the
ancient Hospodariarts of Wallachia and Moldavia were
merged in the Principality of Roumania. Couza was not
successful in his administration, and in February, 1866,
he was compelled to abdicate. The Roumanian people
now, as the Greeks had done after the abdication of
Otho, turned their eyes to the West. They desired a
Protestant Prince, connected with one of the reigning
families of Europe ; a Prince who should be well trained
and qualified for his difficult position ; who should be free
from the dictation of Russia, and from all associations in
the Principality itself; who should come to the throne
supported by the prestige and influence of some leading
European power, and should thus be able, under a wise
and liberal constitution, to give to the Principality a just
and efficient government of law. To this end their choice
seems to have been wisely and happily directed. It fell
upon Prince Charles of the royal Prussian family of Ho-
henzollern-Sigmaringen. Charles I., Prince of Rouma-
nia, was elected on the 14th of April, 1866, and took the
oath of office the following July. The twelve years of
his reign thus far are years long to be remembered by
the Roumanian people. The reign of Prince Charles has
brought them a great deliverance in the present and the
promise of better things to come.
TBE WALLACHIAI7S. ^
Roumania is one of the richest and most fiuitful, as it
is also, in its upland districts, one of the most beautiful
and delightful countries in Europe. The belt of country
stretching back for fifty or sixty miles from the Danube,
from the Iron Gates to the sea, is prairie-like in its char-
acter, low and level, exuberantly fertile, and mostly des-
titute of wood. Along the Danube, in some localities,
are extensive marshes, with islands and lagoons. In
Wallachia, this low country stretches away in immense
and monotonous plains, upon which one may travel for
a day together without seeing a stone or a tree.^ The
lowlands of Moldavia are very different, and wholly
unique in their character. Forming an undulating steppe,
covered with immense growths of grass and cultivated
crops, they are interspersed with innumerable lakes and
ponds, many of which are artificial, formed by dams
upon the numerous streams. In ancient times these
lowlands were inhabited by the Venedi, whom Dr. Neale
calls the beavers of the human race. Their habit was
to throw dams across their streams, so as to flow the
marshy country above and form large ponds. About
these ponds they fixed their dwellings, feeding appa-
rently upon the fish and wild fowl with which the ponds
were filled. This manner of life has been continued to
the present time by the Moldavian peasantry, whose sim-
ple dwellings are found clustered about the ponds.
The low country is malarious, and often unhealthy to
strangers ; but having crossed it, we come to the high-
land district, which, through the whole length of the
Principality, reaches back, northwards and westwards, to
' Walsh, p. 135.
488 THE WALLACHTANS.
the Carpathian Mountains. This highland region is one
of the most delightful districts in Europe. It is high and
salubrious, a land of forest and mountain, of verdant
slopes and crystal streams, as rich in the beauty of its
scenery as in the fruitfulness of its soil.
The productions of Roumania are very much like those
of the valley of the Upper Mississippi. Almost every
kind of grain and of fruit common to the warmer dis-
tricts of the Temperate Zone grows here in great luxu-
riance and perfection. Roumania might well be the gran-
ary of the Levant ; and, since foreign capital has given
the country a system of railways as an outlet for its pro-
ductions, immense quantities of wheat, maize, and other
grains are shipped annually upon the Danube for the
various ports of Southern Europe. Lying, as it does,
in the latitude of Lower Canada, between the Black Sea
on the east, the Balkans on the south, and the Carpa-
thians on the north and west, the Principality has a cli-
mate which is very variable, and subject to great ex-
tremes. The winters are long and cold, snow lies deep
upon the ground, and the Danube is often frozen to a
great thickness. Long and destructive droughts are not
uncommon in the summer, and immense swarms of lo-
custs sometimes appear, which strip whole districts of
every green thing.
The face of an old acquaintance, met with in a for-
eign land, is always interesting, whether the acquaint-
ance is pleasant or the contrary. One such acquaint-
ance we encounter, in company with our friend Paul of
Aleppo, in a delightful retreat among the mountains of
Wallachia. "The liver," he says, " is most particularly
THE WALLACHIANS. 489
revived by the sight of these mountains, by the surround-
ing verdure, and by the delicate eating of those beauti-
ful fish called Bastrovus, which exist only in situations
like this, and live only in waters rushing down from the
hills, feeding amidst the rocks, and averse to mud and
stagnant depths. It resembles the fish Soltan Ibrahim
at Terapolis, and is prettily marked with red spots. Its
taste is fine, and superior in flavor to that of roast fowl ;
nothing indeed can surpass it as a delicate morsel."*
Surely the gentle Izaak himself could not have angled
with a more glowing enthusiasm for the trout of those
mountain streams. At Yassi, soon after his first entrance
into Moldavia, the good Archdeacon fell in with another
acquaintance of ours, from whose unwelcome company
he found it very hard to escape, and of which he speaks
in language to which many an American reader of these
pages can groan a dismal response. " These terrors,
these dreads and horrors which rushed upon us, . . .
caused us grevious sickness and agues, with hot and cold
fits, which I, the poor historian, labored under from the
end of July till the following Whitsuntide ; and suffered
therefrom intense pains, during the severity of the winter
cold and frosts." "The hot and cold fever . . .
used to come on us every two days twice or thrice ; and
we werf" helpless of any remedy, particularly in the sea-
son of 1 he cold and ice, and during the nights.
Our eating was cut off altogether ; one draught of water
we were compelled to allow ourselves on the mornings
after our fits, by the burnings of our insidcs. We would
have given our souls for a pomegranate ; and at last we
' Macarius, ii. 341.
2I»
4SP THE WALLACHlAyS.
s?w some brought from Romelia at a quarter of a doUaf
the couple." ' During the winter one of the Patriarch's
company died of the chills and fever taken at Yassi.
In extent and population the Principality of Rouma-
nia is almost exactly equal to the State of New York ;
having an area of 46,808 square miles and an estimated
population of four and a half millions. Besides the Wal-
lachians, who constitute about four-fifths of the popula-
tion, there are 300,000 Gypsies, 274,000 Jews, 45,000
Roman Catholics, 29,000 Protestants, 8,000 Armenians,
and 1,300 Mohammedans. Bucharest, the capital, has
a population of 122,000, and Yassi, the capital of Molda-
via, about 90,000. Galatz, an important shipping port
at the head of the deep waters of the Danube, and thi
chief commercial town of the Principality, is a busy place,
filled, during certain seasons of the year, with traders
from abroad, and seeming to be a much more populous
city than it really is. Its permanent inhabitants may
number perhaps 20,000. Giurgevo, opposite Rustchuk,
as a railroad centre and miHtary post, has been a place
of great importance during the late war. A railway from
Giurgevo to Bucharest was completed in 1869. Other
lines now run from the capital westwards to Krajova,
Turn, and Austria, and eastward to Moldavia and Russia.
After the Crimean war, and before the union of Wal-
lachia and Moldavia, when the attention of Europe first
began to be strongly fixed upon the affairs of the two
Principalities, it very soon appeared that their social and
political condition was depressed and wretched beyond
all parallel or comparison. In the strong language of Dc
' Id-, L 93, 154.
THE WALLACHIANS. 491
Noyes, already cited, the Wallachians were the worst
governed people in the civilized world. Scattered sparse-
ly over one of the richest and most fruitful countries in
the world, the Wallachian peasantry were living, many
of them, in underground huts or dens, in an utter squa-
lidness of penury and wretchedness beyond anything to
be found in the foulest quarters of New York or London.*
The selfish, worthless boyars were, in effect, not the ab-
solute masters alone, but the owners of their estates and
everything on them. Of the 300,000 Gypsies in the
two Principalities, 250,000 had been until 1844 chattel
slaves — one-half belonging to the government and the
monasteries, the other half to the boyars as house and field
servants. In 1844 a law was passed in Wallachia giving
freedom to the slaves under the control of the govern-
ment. This law had been but very partially carried into
effect, while no steps had been taken towards emancipat-
ing the Gypsy slaves of the boyars. This slavery was
worse than anything ever known in our own Southern
States. The slave, in property, person, and life, was ab-
solutely at his master's mercy. The boyars would allow
no census of their slaves, would tolerate no interference
with their human cattle. The slaves were of the same
color as their masters, and many of them beautiful and
finely formed — a fact which led to all sorts of illicit con-
nections, and filled the boyar families with Gypsy and
servile blood.^
Except in the relations of domestic life, the Wallachian
peasants enjoyed hardly more of freedom than the Gypsy
slaves. Formerly, in law as in fact, they had been the
* Noyes, 202; Tennent, ii. 33-45. * Noyes, 129-38.
4gs THE WALLACHIANS.
serfs and slaves of the boyars. A law of Constantine, the
second Phanariot Hospodar of Wallachia, had nominally
enfranchised the Wallachian serfs ; but this law had re-
mained a dead letter, the peasant still remained in help-
less slavery to the boyars.^ Bound thus hand and foot,
with no rights, no comforts, no ambition, and no hope, it
is not strange that they remained, generation after gen-
eration, in the same condition of moral and social degra-
dation. The women were very industrious and diligent,
but the men were accounted the laziest mortals on the
face of the earth. Their houses, mere cellars usually,
walled round with clay and roofed with thatch, had but
one living room, its floor the well-trodden earth, a raised
divan of earth around the sides its only provision for seats
and beds, in which, crowded together, the whole family
lived, ate, and slept. The whole population was steeped
in ignorance and superstition, while, as needs must be in
such a state of things, there was too much of profligacy
and vice. In this respect, however, there was a marked
difference between the people of the plains and those of
the hills. No sooner had Dr. Walsh risen from the
plains to the wooded, breezy, and healthful uplands, than
he found the people, though still living in the same sub-
terranean huts, more comfortable, more cheerful, and
more free spirited.*
Bucharest was a city of wonderful and painful con-
trasts. It spread over a great extent of country, and
the better class of houses, built of brick and stuccoed,
were surrounded by pleasant gardens. From the days
of the old Phanariot Hospodars of the last century, it
» Tennent, ii. 40-1. ^ Narrative, &c., p. 139.
THE WALLACHIANS.
49S
had possessed very fair schools, which had given society
something of culture and refinement. There was a great
taste for French Hteraturc, French manners, and French
cookery. But the streets, mere filthy cesspools bridged
over loosely with timber pavements, were much of the
time in a horrible condition ; * and side by side with the
shabby gentility, the tattered, flaunting pomp of the
boyars, were the wretched huts of the Gypsies and peas-
ants, the abodes of such poverty, and filth, and misery,
as could be found in no other capital in Europe. In no
class of the Roumanian people, whether high or low, was
there anything of intelligence, or patriotism, or public
spirit, or large-hearted philanthopy, or elevation of char-
acter. This miserable social and political condition of
the Roumanian people was the result, not of any lack of
natural endowments, or of native fitness for better things,
but of their unfortunate circumstances, and the grinding
tyranny to which for ages they had been exposed. Nat-
urally they are a fine and capable race, vigorous and
well formed, vivacious and cheerful, full of poetry and
song.^ It was long ago evident that they needed but a
fair measure of freedom, justice, and good government to
enable them to rise gradually from their depressed and
miserable condition, and take their places side by side
and on equal terms with the most favored peoples of
Eastern Europe.
In a good degree this great want has been met by the
' Walsh, p. 136.
* The Wallaclis are strikingly unlike their Slavonian neighbors. The
war correspondents speak of them as a gentle and delicate race, almost femi-
nine in their physical aspects and cast of countenance. All agree, however,
that they are well developed, vigorous, and finely formed.
494 THE WALLACHIANS.
government of Prince Charles. During these twelve
years the Roumanian people, for the first time in all
their history, have known something of the blessings of
freedom and good government Prince Charles is a
Prussian soldier, well prepared by his early training for
the position he holds. A man of unquestioned energy
and ability, he seems also to be liberal in his views, honest
and upright. He appears to have given himself to the
duties of his most difficult and responsible position with
a heart thoroughly in his work, earnestly devoted to the
welfare of his adopted country. His government is a
government of law. The constitution of the consolidated
Principality appears to be liberal and wise. It provides
for a Senate and Chamber of Deputies, and gives the
right of suffrage to every taxpayer. The voters, how-
ever, are arranged in four classes. The lowest of the four
classes, which includes the Gypsy voters, does not vote
directly for members of the national legislature, but ex-
ercises its franchise indirectly through electors. Liberty
of conscience, of the press, and of public meetings is as-
sured, and public instruction is made obligatory.
Of the working of this constitution for the past twelve
years, and the present condition of society in the Princi-
pality, the information before the public is far less full
and satisfactory than we could desire. The essential
character of a people cannot be wholly transformed, evils
and abuses under which they have groaned for ages
cannot be entirely outgrown and thrown off, in the short
space of twelve years. But we know enough of what
has been transpiring in Roumania to see clearly that even
in this brief period the change in the condition of the
THE WALLACHIANS. ^
Wallachians has been rapid and very great. They have
begun to breathe the air of freedom, to tread with the
firm step and manly bearing of free men. The law en-
forcing public education has not been a dead letter. A
multitude of schools have been established, and the same
intense eagerness for learning which has been manifest
among the Greeks, the Servians, and the Bulgarians, is
steadily pervading the whole body of the population.
Of the state of religion and the Church in Roumania
there is little of an encouraging character to be said.
The Wallachians are all of the Greek communion, and
in neither intellectual nor moral character do their clergy
differ essentially from their brethren south of the Dan-
ube. The progress of society is rather in spite of the
Church than by its aid and under its leadership.
In nothing else, perhaps, is the improved condition of
the Roumanian people so strikingly apparent as in their
military spirit and their strong and growing feeling of
patriotic devotion to their country. Prince Charles
found his people a spiritless and servile race, who, ten
years before, had been as destitute of all soldierly qual-
ities as of moral elevation and true patriotism. In the
great struggle of 1877 he led to the field an army of sixty
thousand soldiers, thoroughly disciplined and prepared,
who in manly bearing, courage, endurance, and all mar-
tial qualities, did not suffer in comparison with any other
class of the combatants in that memorable war. In that
terrible assault which carried, and In the desperate valor
which held, the Gravitza redoubt at Plevna, on the nth
of September, 1877, the stain of cowardice was forever
wiped away from the Wallachian name. Prince Charles
22
496 THE WALLACHIASS.
is pre-eminently a soldier; and during all the eleven years
of his administration his energies had been steadily di-
rected to prepare his principality for the great struggle
which he saw was sure to come. For he and his people
believed, as they had the right to believe, that the time
was near at hand when they and their fellow Christians ,
south of the Danube should be forever freed from bond-
age to the Turk. With kindling patriotism, therefore,
the Prince's subjects seconded his endeavors ; and when
the war came it found him with a regular army of 56,000
men, thoroughly disciplined and fully armed and equip-
ped, and with a militia force of 100,000 men also ready
for the field. ^ And we are told by those well qualified
to judge, that in courage and endurance the militia were
fully equal to their brethren of the regular army. This
patriotic devotion of the Prince and his people has had
its reward. By the Treaty of Berlin the full independ-
ence of the Principality has been acknowledged, and
henceforth Roumania is free.
The circumstance which has attracted public attention
most painfully to affairs in the Principality during the
past few years has been the great oppression to which
the Roumanian Jews have been subjected, partly by the
Roumanian authorities, and partly by fanatical outbursts
among the people. Almost precisely the same state of
things exists in Servia; and the statements about to be
made respecting the Roumanian Jews would apply with
'War Correspondence London Daily News, i. 73-87,484; ii. 206. —
London Mail, September 17, 1877. The numbers in the text are those
given by the War Correspondence of the News. The correspondent of the
London Times puts them considerably lowe»-.
THE WALLACIIIANS. 497
nearly equal force to the sister Principality.* The Rou-
manian Jews number about 275,000 souls. They are not
citizens, live in the country as aliens and sojourners, and
are -accused by the Wallachians of " incivism," that is, of
having no interest in the welfare of the state. Yet their
position in society is a very important one. They consti-
tute almost the only middle class. " All the butchers of
Yassi are Jews," ^ and everywhere they are the traders,
hucksters, and usurers of society. They are keen,
shrewd, and well instructed — many of them speaking four
or five different languages — patient, frugal, and indus-
trious.' They add nothing to the burdens of society, take
part in no disorders or disturbances, and are every way
useful members of society. The only trouble with them
has been that they were too shrewd and too prosperous.
Craftsmen of other races could not compete with them,
and they had become a creditor class. This has produced
a great outcry against them, and drawn down upon them
much legal oppression and much popular violence. But,
as Lord Strangford points out, this is an evil which is
rapidly passing away with all the abuses of an evil past.
With the progress of intelligence and the formation of a
true middle class, the Jews are ceasing to hold their
peculiar position, and the popular sentiment against them
is steadily dying out. The time is not far distant when,
in Roumania as in our own country, the Jews will be en-
dowed with the common rights, and lost in the common
mass, of prosperous and well ordered citizens.
As I close this chapter,'' I read the words addressed by
' Viscount Strangford, i. 246-50. " Noyes, p. 124.
« Id., i. 258-64. « July 19, 1878.
498 THE WALLACHFANS.
Prince Charles to the assembled representatives of his
people, in view of the great events of the past io^N weeks :
"We will so conduct ourselves as to show that we de-
served better of the Congress of Berlin."* Signifkant
words, expressing the manly trust of a brave and true-
hearted Prince in a brave and loyal people. Let us hope
that these words may prove prophetic of the prosperity
and well-being of the Roumanian people ; of their steady
and long-continued advancement in that career of pro-
gress and improvement upon which they have so auspi-
ciously entered.
' Referring to the enforced retrocession of Bessarabia to Russia.
CHAPTER X.
THE GYPSIES.*
Of the seven or eight hundred thousand Gypsies sup-
posed to be Hving at the present time in Europe, more
than half, probably, are found in the valley of the Dan-
ube. And, while in most of the other European coun-
tries they are mere outcasts and wandering x-agabonds,
too few in number and too entirely disconnected from
the settled population to be of much importance, in the
Danubian provinces they are so numerous, so firmly fixed
upon the soil, have made their influence so strongly felt
in society, that they cannot be passed without notice in
our survey of the races of European Turkey. The val-
ley of the Danube seems to have been the starting point
of the Gypsies in their European wanderings ; and here,
so fai as numbers are concerned, they have been for four
hundred years an important element of the population.
Dr. Noyes reckons the Gypsies of Roumania at 300,CXD0 ;
in Transylvania, according to Mr. Boner, they number
78,000 ; Dr. Forsyth puts the Gypsies of Servia at 24,607,
and those of Bosnia and Herzegovina at 9,537 ; while of
' Noyes' Roumania, pp. 129-38; Brace's Races of the Old World, pp.
401-4; " Tlie History and language of the Gypsies," by Professor Pas-
pati of Constantinople, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. vii. ;
** Origin and Wanderings of the Gypsies," Edinburgh Review, luly, |87&
i«>
THE GYPSIES.
the large Gypsy population of Bulgaria I have seen no
estimate. According to these figures, the Gypsies of
the whole valley of the Danube, from Vienna to the sea,
cannot amount to less than half a million of souls. It has
been supposed that there may be five millions of Gypsies
in the world.
The indications are that the Gypsies entered Europe
through Southern Russia and Moldavia, in some loose
connection with the Tartars of the Golden Horde, and
under the shadow of the Khans of Serai. Before the
year 1350 their roving bands seem to have scattered
themselves through Moldavia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria,
where many of them were seized and reduced to a most
miserable slavery by the cruel Wallach and Bulgarian
nobles. In the year 141 7 a horde of Gypsies made their
appearance in north-western Germany, claiming to be
Christian pilgrims from " Little Egypt." Their thievish,
vagabond character was soon manifest, and they were
driven away to begin their perpetual wanderings through
every European country.
The claim to an Egyptian origin, set up for their own
advantage by these strange wanderers, was so consonant
with their whole appearance and manner of life that for
a long time it was popularly accepted. This appears in
their name, which is evidently but a vulgarized form of
Egyptians. No sooner, however, had some knowledge of
their language been acquired, than this position was fon; _'
to be wholly untenable. The discovery of this fact only
added to the curiosity of scholars as to the origin and eth-
nical relations of this remarkable race. Much learning was
eicpended upon the question, careful investigations were
THE GYPSIES fOi
made in different countries, notably by M. de Gobineau
in Persia, and various theories were proposed. The final
solution of the problem, however, was reserved for the
science of philology in our own times. Among the many
curious and important revelations for which we arc in-
debted to this youngest of the sciences — the comparative
study of the languages of mankind — has been the unex-
pected discovery that the Gypsies are really an offshoot
from the Hindu race, being nothing else than a wander-
ing tribe from the valley of the Indus. 1 his fact is proved
by their language, which is a branch of the ancient San-
scrit, akin to the modern dialects of Northern India. Sir
Henry Sleeman, in his exceedingly valuable and instruct-
ive work on India, observes that the G}'psies are probably
the descendants of the multitudes of Hindus driven from
their homes by the various Tartar invaders ; and that the
Gypsy language so closely resembles the dialects of
Northern India that a modern Hindu could probably
make himself understood by any tribe of Gypsies in
Europe.' Other writers suggest that they may have been
a nomadic, plundering tribe before these invasions drove
them from India. The probabilities are that the Gypsies
were driven from India by Mahmoud the Gaznevide,
whose reign is reckoned from 997 to 1028.^
All things considered, we must regard the Gypsies as
the most singular and remarkable people to be found on
the globe. Without history, or traditions, or religion, or
' " Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official," ii. 29S. The Gyp-
sies seem to be directly connected with the Jats. a Ilindd tribe still numerom
in the regions of the Lower Indus.— Edinburgh Review, July, 1S7S, p. 69.
* " The Arabs and the Turks," p. 70.
y» THE GYPSIES.
literature, or written language; with nothing to bind
them together but the indelible, unchangeable strain of
their savage blood, they display a pertinacity of race sur-
passing that of the Jews. Everywhere present, from
Persia to Ireland, and from Siberia to Central Africa, and
everywhere oppressed, outcast, and despised, they have
always kept their race separate and distinct with a rigid
exclusiveness to which probably no parallel can be found.
From the Arctic Circle to the Equator, with some rare
and partial exceptions, in language, in physical pecuhar-
ities, in their social and moral character, in their pursuits
and habits of life, they are everywhere essentially the
same. With difference in climate there appears little dif-
ference in their color and complexion ; change in food
and outward circumstances works little variation in their
physical type and peculiarities ; they remain uninfluenced
by the civilization or barbarism of the people among
whom they sojourn. Until recently, no form of civil
poHty, of civilization, or of religion has ever been able to
obtain any effective and permanent hold upon them, or
to redeem them from their degraded and savage condi-
tion.
The only mechanical pursuit for which they show any
aptitude is that of the smith. In this they sometimes ex-
cel; and in Persia there have been Gypsies who were
eminent for their skill as workers in gold and silver.
Usually they are farriers and horse-jockeys ; sometimes,
under favorable circumstances, they do a larger business
as dealers in live stock. A few Gypsies, chiefly in Rus-
sia, have accumulated wealth ; but most of them, in all
lands, have been the same worthless, poverty-stricken
THE GYPSIES. 503
vagabonds which they usually appear. The men are
horse-jockeys and pilferers, the old women tell fortunes,
and the young women sing love songs, decent and in-
decent, in the public streets. They have no principles,
no religion, serve no God but the God of gain and fraud.
They have no word in their language for God, or for im-
mortality. Outwardly, however, and for their own ad-
vantage, they are ready to adopt any religion as cir-
cumstances may require. They make a trade of exciting
and pandering to the licentious passions of others, yet
are themselves, in some countries at least, rigidly chaste.
It is said that a merciless death hangs over the G>'psy
woman who forms an unlawful connection with any man,
whether Gypsy or stranger. They have a wild weird
music of their own, in which, in some countries (particu-
larly in Hungary), they are very proficient, and which is
not destitute of beauty and power.^ Their language has
no alphabet and no literature, except a few miserable
songs which are passed from mouth to mouth. They
cHng with a passionate and invincible attachment to their
wild and lawless life, and guard with jealous exclusiveness
the language and secret legends of their race. They
always converse with strangers in the vernacular of the
people among whom they dwell ; and it has been with
the greatest difficulty that scholars have succeeded in
discovering the true character of their native tongue.
There is not wanting among them a kind of wild and
savage dignity and independence of character; and a
female leader or Gypsy queen will sometimes be met
' Some of the greatest masters of the violin ever known are f»und among
the Gypsies of Hungary and Bohemia.
$04 THE GYPSIES.
with in their encampments who displays a majesty of
demeanoi worthy of a Gypsy throne.
The condition of the Gypsies in the valley of the Da-
nube is in some respects peculiar, and very different in
the several countries. In Servia, the leveling power of
Turkish rule, exerted for successive ages, had the effect
jf elevating the Gypsies somewhat towards the social
status of the other rayahs. Here, therefore, although
they are still an inferior caste, and not allowed to exer-
cise the rights and powers of citizenship, the Gypsies are
perhaps less widely separated from the peasantry around
them than anywhere else in Europe. They fought bravely
with their Servian neighbors against the Turks, and as
smiths, farriers, and dealers in live stock, have many of
them earned a comfortable livelihood, and proved them-
selves respectable members of society.
The circumstances of the hundred thousand Gypsies
in Transylvania and the Banat are also somewhat pe-
culiar. In 1768, the Empress Queen Maria Theresa,
moved by the miserable condition and lawless character
of so large a class of her people, promulgated a law that
the Gypsies of Hungary and Transylvania should cease
from their wandering life, should become settled in per-
manent habitations, and earn their livelihood by some
industrial occupation. This law remained inoperative
until 1782, when the Emperor Joseph II. adopted more
strenuous measures to carry it into effect. The Gypsies
were to be settled as New Peasants, in the enjoyment of
a modified form of citizenship, and under a Voivide of
their own. These measures resulted in a partial, though
but very partial, success. It is to be hoped, however
THE GYPSIES 505
that what has been already achieved in this direction may
prove the beginning of a movement which will lead to
more satisfactory results in the future.
The equalizing effects of Turkish despotism in Servia
and the philanthropic measures of the Austro- Hungarian
government in Hungary and Transylvania have made the
condition of the Gypsies somewhat more favorable and
hopeful in these countries than in the other states of Eu-
rope. On the other hand, it is probable that, until the
accession of Prince Charles, the Roumanian Gypsies were
more terribly oppressed, sunk to a lower depth of poverty,
wretchedness, and degradation, than any other part of
their race, in any other region of the world. The great
majority of the Roumanian Gypsies were slaves, held in
a rigor of bondage which has never been surpassed ;
slaves with no rights, no protection, and no hope ; mere
human cattle of whom their cruel, selfish owners would
suffer no census to be taken. So long and relentless had
this servitude been, that many of the Gypsy slaves had
forgotten their own language, and been effectually sep-
arated from their race. This fact may perhaps prove
some compensation to their children for the ages of op-
pression under which they have groaned. The social
condition of the free Gypsies of Wallachia and Moldavia
was hardly to be preferred to that of the Gypsy slaves.
They were living, many of them, in an utter squalidncss of
wretchedness and poverty, of nakedness and filth, deeper
and lower than that of the lowest and most wretched
Wallachian peasants. With the happiest results, how-
ever, the Wallachian Gypsies have been emancipated,
and all taxpayers among them are allowed to vote.
22
§06 THE GYPSIES.
What hope or promise there is in the future for such
a race as this it is difficult to say. It may be that in
the uniformity and completeness of the degrading op-
pression to which all the lower classes in Roumania have
been subjected, there is hope for the Gypsies, and hope
for all. It may be that, rising from their low estate, under
the genial influence of freedom and good government,
Gypsies and Wallachs may rise together to the enjoy-
ment of a common citizenship in a free and prosperous
country. It may be that this is the beginning of a
movement which will gradually extend into other lands,
until the great body of the Gypsies throughout the civil-
ized world, subsiding gradually into a quiet and settled
life, will at length become merged and lost in the mass
of the common people. Let us hope at least that so it
may be.
CHAPTER XL
THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN.
While the previous chapters of this volume have been
going through the press, events have occurred by which
the present condition and the prospects for the future
of the races of European Turkey have been suddenly
and wonderfully changed. As the Congress of Berlin, in
whatever aspect we view it, must be considered as one
of the great events of the present age, so the Treaty
formed by that Congress, and now ratified and established
by the Ottoman government, and by all the leading
Powers of Europe, marks the greatest era in the history
of European Turkey since the taking of Constantinople
by Mohammed II. in 1453. That treaty has gone far
towards lifting the yoke of the Turks forever from the
necks of their Christian subjects in Europe. At the same
time comes to us the announcement of another Treaty,
hardly less important, by which England assumes posses-
sion of the Island of Cyprus, and a protectorate, with
efficient governmental control, over the Turkish domin-
ions in Asia.
In view of these facts, a brief survey of the events which
led to the assemblini;- of the Congress of Berlin, and of
the great changes which the action of that Congress has
5o8 THE CONGRESS OF BERtm.
effected in the several provinces of European Turkey, will
form an appropriate close to the present volume.
These movements began with the insurrection in Her-
zegovina and Bosnia, in the spring and summer of 1875.
This insurrection was simply the turning to bay of the
Christian peasantry, driven desperate by the unmeasured
tyranny and extortion, first, of their own Greek bishops ; '
second, of their Mussulman landlords; and thirdly, and
at that time more particularly, of the farmers of the taxes,
who came in to take the little that the others had left'
The Christians, although forming the large majority of
the population,^ were unarmed and accustomed to sub-
mit. The Mohammedans, all of them, like the Christians,
of Slavonian blood, were poor, ignorant, fanatical, and
lawless, fully armed, regarding the rayahs with contempt,
and ready for any excess. The Turkish officials were
not so much unjust as indifferent and powerless Having
no regular force at their command, they could onl} accept
the services of an irregular bandit soldiery, the terrible
bashi bazouks, and leave the Christian insurgents to their
tender mercies. Very soon, however, the tables were
turned. The Montenegrins came to the help of the in-
surgent Christians, with arms, leaders, and a strong force
of their own heroic mountaineers ; and gathering ccurage
' A set of Phanariot harpies from Constantinople, who did not know tho
language of their Slavonian flocks, and whose only aim was to wring from
them the largest possible amount of money. — See Edinburgh Review for
October, 1876, p. 281.
* See an able Consular Report, giving a history of the insurrection to
the end of 1875, in the London Mail for December 15, 1875.
* The Christians of the two provinces were reckoned at 762,259; tbt
ilohammedans at 442,050. — Forsyth, p. 86.
THE CONGRESS OF BE RUN. 999
from experience and success, the rayahs were very soon
masters of the situation. In the course of the summer
the movement spread throughout the two provinces, and
at the end of 1875 there were twelve thousand Christians
in arms, a force which, in the face of the aroused pubhc
sentiment of Europe, could not be suppressed.
In May, 1876, came the rising in Bulgaria, a move-
ment of a very different character. The Bulgarians, a
frugal, industrious, patient, and peaceable race, never,
under any circumstances, inclined to armed resistance, at
this time had been freed from the tyranny of Greek eccle-
siastics,* and, excepting the burdens of increased taxation,
were living in comparative comfort and prosperity. The
rising of May, 1876, did not spring up upon tlie soil; it
was the work of a Committee, with its headquarters at
Bucharest It seems clear from the reports of Mr. Bar-
ing and Eugene Schuyler ^ that the terrible scenes which
followed ^yere the result, in great measure, of panic ter-
ror on both sides. The Bucharest Committee, having
persuaded the poor Bulgarian peasants that they were
about to be massacred by the Turks, and that it was
necessary that they should rise for their own preservation,
laid down their programme of slaughter and burning, and
induced the peasants of two or three insignificant \allages
to take arms and to destroy such Mussulmans as were
within their reach. This movement, weak and foolish as
it was, filled the Turks with wrath and fear. A regular
force of a thousand men, sent promptly to the* scene of
the disturbance, would at once have restored order. With
* See above, p. 456.
• See Edinburgh and London Quarterly Reviews for October, 1876.
5IO THE CCNGRESS OF BERLIN.
wicked indifference the Grand Vizier refused to send this
force ; the bashi bazouks were let loose, and then followed
those awful atrocities which curdled the blood of the civ-
ilized world, which effectually cut off from the Turks all
sympathy and help, and left them to meet, single-handed
and alone, the mortal struggle which evidently was just
before them.
At the beginning of July, 1876, the Servians declared
war upon the Turks, and began that ill-starred and dis-
astrous campaign which, but for the interference of the
European Powers, would have ended in their complete
subjugation. This war, it is now clear, was not so much
a national movement under Servian leaders as the work
of outside agitators, like the insurrection in Bulgaria. It
was led and controlled by a crowd of Russian adven-
turers,^ who despised and abused the Servians, and be-
tween whom and the Servian soldiers there was from the
beginning a deep antipathy, which grew as the war went
on, into a bitter, too often a deadly, hatred. We are told
that " a Servian regiment went into battle at Alexinatz
with twenty- two Russian officers, of whom only four
came out alive, and all those who were found on the field
were shot in the back," that is, by Servian bullets.*
These facts, with the youth and inefficiency of Prince
Milan, are quite enough to explain the complete failure
of the Servian campaign.
In the latter part of the autumn of 1876, the state of
' In the autumn of 1876, there were from fifteen to twenty thousand
Russians in the Servian army. General Tchernaieff, the Commander-in-
chief, was a Russian.
* London Quarterly Review for October, 1876, p. 302.
THE CONGRESS OF BERLII9 511
things in European Turkey was such as to engage the most
serious attention of every government of Europe. There
was no hope that the Turkish authorities could ever rem-
edy the anarchy and terrorism which filled the northern
provinces ; the sympathy of the Russian people in behalf
of their Slavonian kindred had been roused to the highest
pitch of intensity, and the government of St. Petersburg
found it almost impossible to resist the popular demand
for an instant declaration of war. The time had evidently
come when it was necessary that the Powers should in-
tervene, not simply to restore order in European Turkey,
but to preserve the peace of Europe.
Under these circumstances, it was proposed that a
Conference of the Great Powers should be held at Con-
stantinople, for the purpose of giving to the disturbed
provinces a permanent and efficient government, under
the guarantee and subject to the supervision of the Pow-
ers. To this proposition, with an ill grace and very
reluctantly, the Turks gave their consent, and the Confer-
ence met on the lotfl of December. It very soon ap-
peared, however, that the heads of the Turks had been
turned by their successes in Servia, and that they would
make no important concessions. One proposal of the
Conference after another was rejected, until, on the 15th
of January, 1877, it presented its ultimatum to the Porte,*
with the distinct announcement, that if this proposition
should not be accepted, the members of the Conference
' This final demand was, that the governors of the disturbed provinces
should be appointed for five years with the consent of the Powers ; and
that mixed commissions of Christians and Turks should be established to
regulate the affairs of those provinces.
5ia THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN.
would at once take their departure, and that thereaftel
the Sultan could hope for no further sympathy or sup-
port from the Powers. On the 17th of January this ul-
timatum was peremptorily rejected, and the Conference
dispersed. The result of this immense folly on the part
of the Turkish authorities was to remove all obstacles to
the advance of the Russians, and to make it certain that
with the Russians they must now, single-handed, fight
out the controversy to the bitter end.
In the course of the next three months some futile
efforts were made for the preservation of peace, but on
the 1 2th of April (O. S.), 1877, the Czar declared war^
and on the 22d of June his armies crossed the Danube.
The Roumanians made common cause with the Russians,
and declared their complete independence of the Sultan.
In the course of the summer a Roumanian army of fort}'
thousand men, well disciplined and equipped, joined the
invading force. At first fortune favored the Turks. In
Bulgaria and in Asia Minor the Russians suffered serious
reverses, and for a time it seemed as if the rash confidence
of the Turks might be justified by the event. On the
30th and 31st of July the Russians suffered a disastrous
defeat in their attempt to carry the Turkish works at
Plevna, a place some twenty-five miles south of the Dan-
ube, and from that time on, this unimportant town became
the point on which turned the fortunes of the war. Id
September another unsuccessful attack upon Plevna cost
the Russian and Roumanian forces a loss of eight thou-
sand men. A month later the tide turned. On the 15th
of October Muktar Pasha was totally defeated in Armenia,
and on the i8th of November Kars surrendered, leaving
THE COI^GRESS OF BERLIN. $13
the Russians masters of Eastern Asia Minor. On the
lOth of December the long and desperate struggle at
Plevna was brought to an end by the unconditional sur-
render of Osman Pasha with his whole army. The fall
of Plevna was followed by the sudden and complete col-
lapse of the Turkish cause. All power of resistance was
at an end. On the 20th of January, 1878, the Grand
Duke Nicholas entered Adrianoplc, and on the 3d of
March (N. S.) the Treaty of San Stefano was signed.
This treaty was signed while the Russian armies lay
encamped at the gates of Constantinople, unresisted and
irresistible, holding the capital, the government, and the
Empire securely in their grasp. It was the dictation of
relentless power to a crushed and helpless state. The
treaty provided for the complete independence, with en-
larged territories, of Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania;
and for a war indemnity of more than one billion of dol-
lars, in lieu of the greater part of which the Czar was to
accept territory and fortresses in Armenia. The most
important article of the treaty, an article which came very
near embroiling all Europe in war, and which led finally
to the Congress of Berlin, was that constituting the new
Principality of Bulgaria. This principality would have
included almost all that was left of European Turkey, ex-
tending from the Danube to Kavala and the Archipel-
ago, and from Adrianople to the head waters of the
Drina and the mountains of Albania. It was to be sub-
ject and tributary to the Porte, but its government and
all its conditions were so arranged as to make it in reality
a mere dependency of Russia. The effect of the treaty
would thus have been to firmly establish the power of
22*
f 14 THE CONGRESS OF BERUlf.
Russia, not upon the Bosphorus alone, but upon the Ar-
chipelago and the Mediterranean.
English writers and statesmen, seeing all things East-
ern in the light of their own interests, have arraigned
the attacks of Servia, Russia, and Roumania upon the
Turks in the wars of the past two years, as wholly selfish
and aggressive, without provocation or justifying cause.
But let it not be forgotten that the Turk is a stranger and
an alien in Europe, holding his possessions by no other
right than that of a most cruel and murderous conquest ;
that his rule has been that of the true believer over
Giaours and Christian dogs ; that, save as they were wrung
from him and held by the strong hand, he has conceded
to his Christian subjects no rights whatsoever, but the
right — a partial and uncertain right — to live, upon the
payment of tribute ; and that his government in this
nineteenth century has been a monstrous anachronism, a
hideous chaos of anarchy, confusion, poverty, and social
stagnation, incapable of improvement or reform. Cer-
tainly, Europe owes the Turk no consideration, is under
no obligations to him, save upon the bond of treaty stipu-
lations ; his Christian subjects owe him no allegiance, have
no duty towards him but the duty to break his evil yoke
from their necks just as soon as they have the power.
Nevertheless, it was not for the well-being of Europe,
least of all was it in accordance with the interests of Eng-
land and Austria, that a Russian despotism should super-
sede that of the Turk at Constantinople. Hardly, there-
fore, had the Russian armies taken their position before
Constantinople, when they found themselves confronted
by a British fleet, while the English government put forth
THE CONGRESS OF BERUlf. $15
its peiemptory demand that the Russians should still hold
themselves bound by the treaty of 1856, and submit the
treaty of San Stefano to a Congress of the European Pow-
ers. It seemed at first as if this demand could not be con-
ceded; but wise and peaceful counsels at last prevailed;
Russia yielded to the voice of Europe, and on the 14th of
June, 1878, the Congress opened at Berlin — a Congress
composed, not of envoys and ambassadors, but of the
Prime Ministers of the several Powers, embodying in it-
self the power and authority of Europe, and marking,
by the mere fact of its convening, a new era in the history
of the civilized world. A spirit of wisdom, conciliation,
and righteous dealing, not always seen in such assemblies,
marked the sessions of the Congress, and on the 13 th of
July, with the joyful approval of Christian Europe, the
Treaty of Berlin was signed.
The chief points in this treaty, important to our pre-
sent purpose, are the following : ' —
1. Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro are recognized
as free and independent states, on condition that they
establish the perfect freedom of religious worship and the
perfect equality of all religions and the followers of all
religions before the law. And, by Article 62, the same
religious freedom, the same equality of the adherents of
all religions in all political rights, privileges, and preroga-
tives, is extended to and made the fundamental law of
the whole Turkish Empire.
2. The boundaries of the three independent states thus
formed receive the following modifications : —
' Official EnglisL Text of the Treaty of Berlin. — London Mail, July 17,
1878.
5l6 THE CONGRESS OF BERim.
Roumania restores to Russia the territory lying e<ist
of the River Pruth, and receives the islands at the mouth
of the Danube, and the Dobrudja, a district south of the
mouths of the Danube, extending to a line drawn from
a point on the Danube just below Silistria south-eastward
so as to strike the Black Sea below Mangalia.
Servia receives an accession of territory on the south-
east, the eastern and south-western boundaries of the
Principality being extended so as to meet on the water-
shed between the Morava and the Struma, at a point
nearly west from Sophia.
Montenegro is enlarged upon the south ; the south-
eastern boundary being removed so as to pass between
Antivari and Dulcigno and cross Lake Scutari. The
free navigation of Lake Scutari and the Boyana River
are assured to the Montenegrins. Antivari and its terri-
tory are thus given to the Principality, but on condition
that its harbor be closed to the ships of war of all nations,
and that Montenegro shall have neither ships of war nor
flag of war.
3. Bulgaria, the province lying north of the Balkans,
and extending west to the new boundary of Servia so as
to include Sophia, is constituted a semi-independent
principality on the same footing formerly occupied by
Servia. The Principality is to have its own Prince, freely
chosen by the people, its own militia and domestic govern-
ment, and is to be tributary to the Sultan, but under the
supervision of the Great Powers.
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina are to be " occupied and
administered by Austria-Hungary."
5. Central Bulgaria, the district south of the Balkans,
THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 517
of which Philippopolis (Philibeh) is the capital, is consti-
tuted an autonomous province, subject to ihe Sultan,
under the name of Eastern Roumclia. The southern
boundai-y of Eastern Roumclia follows the range of the
Despoto Dagh Mountains until it strikes the River Arda,
then turns north, crosses the Maritsa and the Tunja a
few miles above Adrianoplc, then strikes eastwards to
the Black Sea. Eastern RoumeHa is to have a Christian
Governor-general, appointed by the Porte with the con-
sent of the Powers, for the term of five years. Its system
of government and domestic administration is to be elab-
orated by a European commission to be appointed at
once. It is to have its own militia and police forces.
The Sultan may occupy and defend the province by his
regular army, never by irregular forces or bashi bazouks.
6. The Kingdom of Greece will rectify its northern
boundary by agreement with the Porte, in accordance
with the 13th Protocol of the Congress of Berlin. The
arrangements now in force in the Island of Crete are to
be strictly carried out ; and Turkish commissions, in
which the native populations shall be largely represented,
acting with the advice of the European commission for
Eastern Roumelia, arc to extend the same arrangements,
with necessary modifications, to the other provinces of
the Turkish Empire.
In considering the effects of the two treaties — the
Treaty of Berlin and the Anglo-Turkish Convention —
upon the present and the future of the Turkish Empire,
it is to be observed : —
I. The northern boundary of the Sultan's European
dominions is in effcg: removed southwards from the Car-
5i8 THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN.
pathians and the Danube to the line of the Balkans ; re-
ducing the area of Turkey in Europe by more than cne-
half Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro are wholly
free ; Bulgaria, in every point except its annual tribute,
is equally free ; and Bosnia and Herzegovina, " occupied
and administered by Austria-Hungary," without terms
or limitations, must be regarded as permanently annexed
to Austria.
2. By this loss of territory the Empire is not essentially
weakened ; is, on the contrary, greatly benefited and
strengthened. Eastern Roumelia is still subject to the
authority of the Porte,^ and, under a better government,
will soon become more valuable to the Empire than ever
before. Bulgaria is lost, but its tribute still remains;
and beyond Bulgaria the loss of territory is in every re-
spect a great gain. The Porte has been relieved of the
incumbrance of an immense territory of which it had
long had but the most partial control and enjoyment,
which had been and would still have remained the occa-
sion of frequent, costly, and ruinous wars. The Eu-
ropean provinces still remaining form a vast and mag-
nificent region, compact, homogeneous (comparatively),
and easily defensible, enough in themselves to form a
great and powerful state.
3. The independence of the Ottoman government is
(for the time) effectually swept away. By these two treaties
the Powers have extended their authoritative interference
and their efficient control to every part of the Turkish
Empire and administration. But with this supervisio i
' The relation of Eastern Rwmelia to the Empire will be almost ©
actly like that of one of our own States to the General Government.
THE CONGRESS OF BERUN. 519
there is also protection ; and while, for the first time in
many generations, good government and prosperity are
now made possible to all the peoples of the Empire, it
is at the same time relieved from all occasion for its pres-
ent great and ruinous armaments.
4. The last and most important effect of the Treaty
of Berlin is one not distinctly stated, perhaps not contem-
plated, in that instrument. By this treaty the Powers
have in reality drawn a permanent dividing line between
the Greek ard the Slavonian peoples of the Empire, and
" distributed " European Turkey between them. The
peoples north of the dividing line ' are made the masters
of their own territories, their own institutions, their own
destinies, while the Greeks, excepting one general pro-
vision, are passed by in silence. But this one provision
in behalf of the Greeks may prove in the end the most
important point of the whole Treaty. For that provision
is the charter of full deliverance and freedom to the
whole Greek race — a charter already given in form and
words by the new Turkish Constitution, but now sealed,
guaranteed, and made effectual by the authority of
Europe. No person in the Turkish Empire can hereafter
be excluded, on the ground of difference of religion, from
the exercise cf civil or political rights, from the public
service, functions, and honors, or from the exercise of any
profession or industry/ This provision of the Treaty
must result, in no long time, in transferring to Greek
' Except in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, in their present di^'ided,
barbarian state, can only be «joverned by a strong hand, and are most wisely
subjected to the authority of Austria.
' Articles 23 and 62.
23
Sso
THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN.
hands the complete control of all that remains of Euro-
pean Turkey.' Theirs are the brains, the intelligence, the
capital, the restless activity, the keen sagacity, the prac-
tical skill ; and now that all disabilities are removed, in
their hands must soon center the positive power. By the
Treaty of Berlin there is no position open to a Turk to
which the Greek may not equally aspire. A Greek may
become Pasha, Ambassador, or Grand Vizier, may rise to
command the armies of the Sultan. Higher even than
this are the possibilities of his future ; for in the event —
not improbable, perhaps not very remote — of a change of
the dynasty reigning at Constantinople, it is at least
possible that a Greek should attain to the imperial throne,
and so fulfill the fond and long-cherished dream of his
race.
' Excepting Albania.
521
CHAPTER XII.
TURKEY SINCE THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN.
The provisions of the Congress of Berlin, summed up
in the last chapter, although accepted by the Sultan,
were met with opposition by some of his subjects, as-
sisted, as some think, secretly by the government at
Constantinople. One of these underhand protests
against the arrangements made by the treaty of 1878,
was the formation of the Albanian League. Some
years later a Kurdish League also was discovered to
be in existence. The Moslem population of Albania,
displeased with the check to Islamism, revolted, formed
a league, and raised 25,000 armed men. Mehemet Ali,
the Turkish commissioner who was to carry out in
Albania the provisions stipulated at Berlin, was mur-
dered. The Albanians have never been thoroughly
under the rule of the Turks. They now resolved to
govern themselves, giving up no part of Albania to for-
eign nationalities, but remaining subject to the Sultan.
This rendered it hard for the Porte to accede to the de-
mand made by the other powers of Europe that porti(^ns
of Montenegro should cease to belong to Turkey. In
1881 the Albanian League had increased in power and
demanded the union of all Albania under one govern-
ment superintended by the Porte, that the Albanian
language should be the official language, and should
522 TURKEY SINCE THE
be taught in the schools, that Albanian customs and
laws should remain in force, and that the boundaries
should be once and for all fixed.
In 1897 this was further extended by a demand that
the Porte should grant autonomy to Albania, appoint-
ing an Albanian as governor. This, being ignored by
the Sultan, led to an uprising which was quelled by the
Turkish troops.
In 1884, upon the expiration of the term of office of
Aleko Pasha, the governorship of Eastern Roumelia
became vacant. Aleko was not reappointed because of
his revolutionary tendencies, and the place was given
to his minister, Christovitch, a native Bulgarian.
In the following year a revolution broke out in Rou-
melia, the object of which was to get rid of Christovitch
and place Aleko Pasha on the throne as King of United
Bulgaria, deposing Prince Alexander. Another party,
however, wished to put Alexander on the United Bul-
garian throne.
In 1885 this matter was adjusted by making Alexan-
der the Governor-General of Eastern Roumelia.
It was agreed by the signers of the Berlin Treaty that
the Sultan should undertake "scrupulously to apply
in the Island of Crete the Organic Law of 1868, with
such modifications as may be considered equitable,"
and that the Sultan should depute special commissions
for the management of affairs in the island, in which
commissions the native element should be largely rep-
resented.
In 1884 there was some disturbance in Crete, the
cause of which was the innate hatred between the
Greek and Moslem inhabitants. This was most bit-
terly expressed whenever a Greek priest was arrested
CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 523
and tried by Turkish common law, and was accentu-
ated in the present case by the fact that the governor-
ship of Crete, which had beome vacant this year, was
about to be filled by a Moslem appointee. The Greek
population sent protests, in the shape of petitions by
telegraph, both to the English government and to the
Sultan. The result of these was the appointment of
the former governor of Crete, whose term had just ex-
pired, for five years more. Further efforts were made
on behalf of the Greek priests, and, on the refusal of
the Porte to change the order making them subject
to Moslem common law, the interposition of Russia was
gained, a change in the Turkish ministry took place,
and the Sultan finally granted that the Greek priests
need not be brought before civil tribunals.
In 1887 further concessions were made to the people
of Crete. Half the revenue of the island was to belong
to the Cretans, a deficit in the budget in one year was
to be compensated for in other more favorable years,
the acts of the Cretan Assembly were to be approved
in Constantinople within three months, and the Chris-
tian element in the island was to be given a greater
recognition in matters of local government.
In 18S9 the attention of the European powei-s was
called again to Crete. The discontent of the Christian
inhabitants had reached such a pitch that acts of vio-
lence were common. Additional Turkish troops were
sent to the island, the governor was replaced, and two
villages in the interior were the scenes of bloody en-
counters between the natives and the Turkish soldiery.
A movement was set on foot for the annexation of Crete
to Greece. The Turkish troops were finally ordered to
remain in garrison, which gave opportunity for further
524 TURKEY SINCE THE
violence in the rural districts. Many persons fled to
Greece for safety. At this juncture the Greek govern-
ment addressed a circular letter to Austria, Great Brit-
ain, Italy, Germany, Russia and France, asking them
to unite in sending military and naval forces to Crete
sufficient to restore order, and said if this could not be
done Greece would herself send "her whole armament
to Crete for that purpose. The request was not granted
by the powers, on the ground that the disturbance wa^
not international in character, and that they were no.
permitted to do so by the Treaty of Berlin of 1878. The
Turkish government kept on sending troops till there
were 40,000 in the island, and comparative quiet was
gradually restored. This was followed by a decree
from Constantinople which considerably diminished the
privileges of the Cretans. Their assembly was reduced
to fifty-seven members, the governor-general was to
be appointed for an unlimited term of office, a Turkish
police force was established all over the island, and an
amnesty granted to all the Cretans except the leaders
of the last disturbance. This was met, however, by a
firm determination on the part of the Cretans not to
yield to the conditions imposed, and the foreign minister
of Greece pointed out to the powers that the decree was
not in accordance with agreements with the Porte,
which had been made even before the Congress of
Berlin, and had been again confirmed by that body.
He added that the Greek government would be unable
to acquiesce in the carrying out of the decree. The
position of Greece in the European world was just at
this time strengthened by the marriage of the Crown
Prince of Greece, the Duke of Sparta, to the Princess
Sophie, sister of Wilham II. of Germany.
CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 525
In 1890 more atrocities were committed by Turkish
vroops in Crete, and excesses of l)otli Christians and
Moslems caused another exodus to Greece, more than
2,000 persons having crossed from Crete. A decree of
the Sultan pardoning certain political prisoners made
matters more peaceful for a time, but a dispute arose
concerning the appointment of Bulgarian bishops to
Greek sees.
In 1895 Christian uprisings again occurred. The
Turkish forces attacked the insurgents near Apokorona
on December 10th but were repulsed. After being re-
enforced thoy captured a number of Christians. In
1896 further friction between Christian and Moslem
elements was followed by the retirement of Abdullah
Pasha, the governor-general, and the substitution of
Georgi Berovitch Pasha, Prince of Samos, who was
thought to be both enlightened and humane. Abdullah
was retained, however, as commander-in-chief of troops.
The Cretans made still further demands upon the Porte,
looking to the powers to help them obtain them. The
demands included as before that a Christian should be
appointed governor, and added others : viz. ,the establish,
ment of a native militia; the confinement of the Turk-
ish troops to three forts on the island; that a propor-
tionate number of Christian officials should be allowed
to hold public office, and, chief among other requests,
that the powers should guarantee their fulfillment.
After considerable delay upon the Sultan's part, all of
these demands were conceded, and an agreement was
made between the Sultan and the powers. The carry,
ing out of these provisions was almost prevented by the
tact that the commander of the Turkish army in Crete,
Abdullah Pasha, was superior in rank to the governor-
626 TURKEY SINCE THE
general, Berovitch Pasha, and on many occasions re-
fused to co-operate with him.
In l-sOY an attempt, at first ineffectual but later suc-
cessful, was made by the European powers to come to
an understanding among themselves by which they
could unite in £, combined method of coercion to force
the Sultan, by a military and naval display, to carry
out in reality the much-needed reforms that he had so
long promised. Meanwhile a war had broken out be-
tween Greece and Turkey on the borders of Thessaly,
and Crete had declared independence from Turkey, with
the long-cherished hope of becoming united with Greece.
The Island of Crete had become the scene of murder
and vandalism. The insurgents on March 25th at-
tacked the Turkish troops in their blockhouses in Akro-
tisi, and drove them out, but were, after a bombard-
ment by the fleet, forced to retire. The Cretans were
rfc-enfc:ced by Greek troops. The powers proposed
the autonomy of Crete and thf" Sultan agreed to the
proposal, but it did not please either Greece or Crete.
The year 1897 passed without any event of impor-
tance occurring in Crete, save perhaps the withdrawal
of a German army corps. This was thought to be an
indication that Germany, who has large commercial
interests in the Balkan provinces of Turkey, had con-
cluded not to countenance the attitude of the great
powers toward Turkey.
In 1H98 the peaceful blockade of the island still con.
tinned, and after several outbreaks of the disorders, in
one of which some British marines were killed, com-
parative order was restored by the combined efforts
of the admirals. In September they resolved that the
Ottoman troops should be obliged to withdraw from the
CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 527
island for good, and the month of October was set for
their departure. Difficulties arose, however, in Octo-
ber, the powers not agreeing as to how much force
should be exercised to make the Turks give up their
arms.
During the peiiod under review in this chapter, from
1878 to 1898, Tui-key has received more attention and
disapprobation, for her almost criminal negligence in
the management of Armenia, than for anything else
that has happened in her administration.
The troubles in Armenia were heard from as early as
1880, when accounts came to the civilized world of ter-
rible destitution and death by starvation in the prov-
ince of Van. They were oppressed by unjust taxes,
only part of which ever reached the imperial treasury
at Constantinople; they were continually harassed by
the Kurds, who seem to have had no aim but massacre
and pillage. Several hundred villages were destroyed,
the inhabitants fleeing for protection to Russian ter-
ritory. Armenia was supposed to have a force of gen"
darmes, as appointments for the purpose had been made
in Constantinople, but had so far been only committed
to paper. Immediate protests were registered with the
Porte by the powers, and as usual reforms were agreed
upon, but as always before and many times atterward
the Sultan made little pretense of carrying out his
promises. Wliere he did as he had said, he followed
the letter and not the spirit of the agreement. For
instance, he was persuaded to divide Armenia into dis-
tricts more easily to be administered, and such that the
Armenians should have some voice in the local man-
agement ; but the districts when finally made were so
divided as to give the Moslems a majority in every dis-
5 '^8 TURKEY SINCE THE
trict. To make matters still harder for the Armenians,
the Kurds were organized into a "League" somewhat
similar to the Albanian League already noticed.
In 1881 the condition of the Armenians was no better,
as they continued to suffer from the inroads of the
Kurds; and in 1883 a further protest from Armenia
was heard against the delay of the Turkish authorities
to carry out the promised reforms. In 1889 Europe
again had to interpose, in the cause of justice and in
behalf of the Armenians, against the ravages of the
Turkish Kurds, whose leader, Moussa Bey, was forced
to go to Constantinople for trial; where he was ac-
quitted, as might have been expected, of most of the
charges made against him.
In 1890 the affairs of the Armenians were in so sorry
a condition that their cause was taken up by a number
of Armenian archbishops and bishops, who made a
report to the Constantinople government and a petition
that the privileges of the Armenian Church might be
given back to it, and that the reforms promised by the
Sultan's representatives at the Congress of Berlin should
at last be made. Charges were trumped up against
the churches that they contained rifles and ammimition
and that the priests fomented a spirit of revolution, but
upon investigation these charges proved to be un-
founded. The search made for arms had resulted only
in arousing the people to much bitterness of feeling and
in damage to the church property. Shops were closed,
and, after a Christian attack on some Mohammedan
shops, a great slaughter of the Christian inhabitants
followed, an armed mob falling upon unprotected men
and women, killing them and smashing their houses.
The windows of the British consul's office were broken
CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 529
and the lives of the consul and his wife were imperiled.
Twenty persons were killed and over five hundred
wounded. Another serious scene of violence was the
Armenian Cathedral, in a small town near Constanti-
nople. In this affair two Armenians lost their lives
and thirty were wounded. The Patriarch of the Church
resigned and a reign of anarchy was about to begin,
when the Sultan appointed a commission to inquire into
the causes of the disaffection on the part of the Arme-
nian people. The commissioners, who were Armenians,
reported that their people had no intention to revolt
provided they were given the right to live without
incessant persecutions. Their report was re-enforced
by the statements of two foreign ambassadors. The
Sultan persisted in his policy of delay, and named com-
missions one after the other to investigate fiirther and
further ; but no good came of them, save that the Patri-
arch who had resigned was persuaded to take back his
resignation for the peace of the community.
In 1894, after the Kurdish depredations, the Arme-
nians were unable to pay their taxes, and were pun-
ished by extremely cruel treatment indicted on them
by the Turkish troops. The first force sent against the
mountaineers of the 8assun district was repulsed, but a
large number of soldiers was then collected, finishing
their work of subduing and pacifying the debtors by
1-aying waste twenty-five villages and murdering sev-
eral thousand Christians. This was the report sent to
civilized Europe from Armenian sources.
The Turkish government published an account of the
massacre which may be given as the characteristic
Moslem view of these troubles: "Some Armenian brig-
ands, provided with arms of foreign origin, joined an
530 TURKEY SINCE THE
insurgent Kurd tribe for the purpose of committing
excesses, and they burned and devastated several Mus-
sulman villages. To give an idea of the ferocity of
these Armenian bands, it is reported that, among other
abominable crimes, they burned alive a Mussulman
noble. Regular troops were sent to the scene to protect
the peaceable inhabitants from these depredations. The
Ottoman troops not only protected and respected the
submissive portion of the population, as well as the
women and children, but re-established order to the gen-
eral satisfaction. It is not true that the Kurds seized
the furniture, effects and cattle of the fugitive Arme-
nians. The latter took their property into the moun-
tains before breaking out into revolt, and confided them
to the care of their Kurdish acolytes. The Armenian
women at present with the Kurds belong to the families
of the brigands, and went of their own accord with
their husbands to the insurgent Kurds. As regards
the Armenian villages said to have been destroyed, it
was the Armenians who carried off all their belongings
from their own villages before giving themselves up to
brigandage." As was the custom a comnaission was
appointed to "look into the misdeeds of the Armenian
brigands," but it was doubted by all the European na-
tions that this, any more than any other commission,
would serve the ends of real justice.
The year 1895 saw absolutely no improvement in
the condition of the Armenians. The Sultan again
put off the powers of Europe with the appointment
of further commissions and the enactment of further
laws for the carrying out of reforms, but these were
no more fruitful of good result than the many empty
promises which he had before given. It seemed as
CONGRESfi OF BERLIN. 531
likely that he was unable as that he was unwilling
to enforce the carrying through of the improvements
in administration. And to make matters even worse
for the Armenians, it became known that a secret revo-
lutionary society had been formed by them in 1887,
which had for its objects the assassination by shooting,
stabbing or bomb-throwing of the persons whom they
found to be most in their way, besides attacks to be
made upon mosques and barracks, and upon the Mo-
hammedan officials, including the tax-collectors. They
also resolved forcibly to release prisoners arrested for
revolutionary demonstrations. It was these facts, and
the further statements made by Europeans resident
in Turkish provinces, admitting the occasional barbar-
ity of the Armenians themselves in their encounters
with the Turks, which delayed the full sympathy of
the European nations. But the atrocities reported by
eye-witnesses finally became so great that the forcible
interposition of civilized nationalities became necessary.
A German merchant's report of what he involuntarily
saw and heard might be mentioned as a mild instance
of the barbarity displayed by Turks against defenseless
Armenians. He was on board an Austrian vessel, ly-
ing otf the city docks of Trebizon, at the time of the
massacre of October 8, 1895. An Armenian was shot,
wounded, and pushed from the docks into the water.
As this was not deep enough to drown him, he was
showered with stones. Finally some Turks rowed out
to him in a boat, and instead of shooting him dead,
cracked his skull with a stone. Another was thrown
into the water and held imder till he drowned. Ac-
counts even worse than this of torture and butchery
would fill a volume and leave the reader with the im-
532 TURKEY SINCE THE
pression that there is no respect in the hearts of the
Turks for the humanity of anything not Moslem, and
that Armenians are hated by them and treated by them,
in almost every way, worse than dogs of the street.
The year 1896 in the history of Armenian troubles
was signalized by the attack upon the Ottoman Bank
and the massacres at Constantinople and in Anatolia.
The revolutionary party among the Armenians had
acquired such strength that a number of them were
emboldened to seize the Ottoman Bank at Constanti-
nople August 26, and to threaten that, if the Sultan
did not allow them and their fellow Christians, then
in imprisonment, to leave the country in safety, they
would blow up the bank and themselves along with
it. This act, committed with no view of robbing the
bank, but only as a means of impressing the Porte
with the desperate straits of their countrymen, brought
upon the Armenians in Constantinople a visitation of
cruelty and barbarity at the hands of the Turks that
has not been equaled in many years. The number of
persons killed in the rioting which filled the next two
days was estimated to be over six thousand. A signifi-
cant characteristic of the attitude of the Porte in these
troubles is furnished by the facts laid before the Sultan
in the following collective note, which was sent to him
by Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and
Russia: "The representatives of the Great Powers be-
lieve it their duty to draw the attention of the Sublime
Porte to an exceptionally serious side of the disorders
which have recently stained with blood the capital and
its environs. It is the declaration on positive data of
the fact that the savage bands which murderously at-
tacked the Armenians and pillaged the houses and
CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 53?
shops, which they entered under pretense of lookiuj^
for agitators, were not accidental gatherings of fanat-
ical people, but presented every indication of a special
organization, known by certain agents of the authori-
ties, if not directed by them. This is proved by the
following circumstances: 1. The bands rose simultane-
ously at different points of the town at the first news
of the occupation of the bank by the Armenian revolu-
tionaries, before even the police or an armed force had
appeared on the scene of the disorder, while the Sub-
lime Porte admits that information was received in
advance by the police regarding the criminal designs
of the agitators. 2. A great part of the people who
composed these bands were dressed and armed in the
same manner. 3. They were led or accompanied by
Softas, soldiers, or even police officers, who not only
looked on unmoved at their excesses, but at times even
took part in them. 4. Several heads of the detective
police were seen to distribute cudgels and knives among
these Bashi Bazouks, and point out to them the direc-
tion to take in search of victims. 5. Thes' were able
to move about freely, and accomplish their crimes with
impunity, under the eyes of the troops and their offi-
cers, even in the vicinity of the imperial palace. 6.
One of the assassins, arrested by the dragoman of one
of the embassies, declared that the soldiers could not
arrest him. On being taken to the Yildiz Palace, he
was received by the attendants as one of their acquaint-
ances. 7. Two Turks, employed by Europeans, who
disappeared during the two days' massacre, declared,
on their return, that they had been requisitioned and
armed \^^th knives and cudgels in order to kill Arme-
nians. These facts need no comment. The only re-
534 TURKEY SINCE THE
marks to be added are that they recall v^hat happened
in Anatolia, and that such a force, springing up under
the eyes of the authorities, and with the co-operation of
certain of the latter's agents, becomes an exceedingly
dangerous weapon. Directed to-day against one na-
tionality of the country, it may be employed to-morrow
against the foreign colonies, or may even turn against
those who tolerated its creation. The representatives
of the Great Powers do not believe it right to conceal
these facts from their governments, and consider it
their duty to demand cf the Sublime Porte that the
origin of this organization should be sought out, and
that the instigators and principal actors should be dis-
covered and punished with the utmost rigor. They
are ready, on their part, to facilitate the inquir}', which
should be opened by making known all the facts brought
to their notice by eye-witnesses, which they will take
care to submit to a special investigation."
The Sultan thereupon denied that the government
had had any part in the control of the murdcT-ers, but
his statements were received with doubt, as massacres
went on in other parts of the empire.
The year 1897 saw continued massacres of Arme-
nians, but more attention was paid to the war with
Greece, which broke out on April 9th. Besides sym-
pathizing with the Cretans in their contest with Mo-
hammedans, the Greeks had been led to mobilize their
troops on their northern frontier, where Turkish sol-
diers were being collected in suspiciously large num-
bers. The first blow seems to have been struck by
Greece, though her officers said the attack upon the
Turkish encampment in Thessaly had been made with-
out their orders. The war was a series of successes for
CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 535
Turkey. By the treaty of peace, signed September 18,
1897, the forts on the northern frontier were given into
the possession of Turkey, together with a large war in-
demnity to be paid by Greece. The result of the war
was what had been expected, as the Greeks were un-
trained, ill armed, and badly generaled, and the Turks
are thought to have had the skilled advice, in their
maneuvers, of certain German army oflScers.
We have thus given a short account of what has
happened since the last chapter was written in two of
the principal divisions of the Ottoman Empire; viz.,
Armenia and Crete. It would be fruitless to follow
the intricacies of the history of Bosnia, Bulgaria, East-
ern Roumelia, and other states belonging to or tribu-
tary to the Turkish government. A word should be
said, however, in this place concerning the later history
of Egypt, which is the most important vassal state of
Turkey.
In 1879 the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, was deposed by
the Sultan, and his son, Tewfik, was made Khedive.
His position was, to say the least, uncomfortable, as he
had several masters — the English and French, who had
sent commissioners to supei*intend Egyptian finances,
in order that the money loaned on the Suez Canal
should be properly managed and eventually paid back;
the Sultan, who had placed him upon the Egyptian
throne; and a new so-called "nationalist" party, of
which the leader was Arabi Pasha, who had risen
from a Fellah to be colonel in the army. With the
motto, "Egypt for the Egyptians," he rallied around
him the army and the populace, who hated the Euro-
pean Christians. It was not' until September 9, 1881,
that any open demonstration was made. On that day
536 TURKEY SINCE THE
Arabi Pasha marched several regiments of Egyptian
troops to the palace of the Khedive, and, with cannon
trained on the palace windows, demanded that the Riaz
ministry, unpopular with the army, should be retired,
that the Chamber of Notables should be summoned,
and that certain reforms desired by the army should
be carried out. After some hesitation the Khedive
granted the first demand, and Arabi gave up the other
two. This compromise was followed by the appoint-
ment of Slierif Pasha as Prime Minister, with liberty to
choose his own Cabinet. Arabi Pasha then took his
regiment from Cairo, In the following year, however,
the prospect of a military revolt was so evident that
two war vessels were sent to AlexEindria. The Egyp-
tians began to throw up earthworks opposite the shij^s
as they lay at anchor and to place cannon behind them.
The English admiral demanded that these be taken
away. Upon the refusal of the troops, who were vir-
tually under the sole control of Arabi, to do this, Ad-
miral Seymour opened fire on them and then on the
town. The forts at the entrance of the harbor returned
the fire, but at the end of two days a flag of truce was
displayed. It was found that Arabi had fled with his
regiment. The city was given up to riot and pillage.
The British soldiers, coming several days later, took
possession of the town, and restored to his palace the
Khedive Tewfik, who had fled to a place of safety.
Arabi was pursued to Tel-el-Kebir, where he made a
stand, but was finally defeated after a sharp battle.
Arabi was taken prisoner, sentenced to death by the
Khedive, but finally his punishment was commuted to
banishment to the island of Ceylon.
The Egyptian army was now reconstructed. About
CONGRESS OF BERLIN. 537
eleven thousand men were conscribed, half the officers
being- British. Since then an army of occupation, con-
sisting of four thousand five hundred men, has been
maintained in Egypt by Great Britain.
The financial affairs of Egypt were managed b}' a
French and an English adviser — M. Blignieres and
Mr. Wilson— until 1883, when the so-called Dual Con-
trol was abolished, and an Englishman, Sir A. Colvin,
was made financial councilor to the Khedive.
In 1877 Charles George Gordon was appointed by
the Khedive governor of the whole of the Soudan,
which post he kept until 1880, when he resigned to
go to India as secretary to the British governor-gen-
eral. He was in 1884 persuaded by the Khedive again
to take charge of the Soudan, to win it back for the
Khedive from the power of the Mahdi, or alleged Mo-
hammedan Messiah, who had got a large following,
and, accompanied by Osman Digna, was beginning a
revolt of threatening proportions. His efforts in put-
ting down the Mahdist movement were unsuccessful;
and after being shut in Khartoum, which was sur-
rounded by the Mahdists, he was finally taken by them
and killed, just before a relief expedition of British sol-
diers could arrive. The British then retired from the
Soudan until 189fi, when the restlessness of the Mah-
dists, after the defeat of the Italians in Eretria, and the
successes of the new Mahdist leader, the Khalifa, in-
duced the British government to send another force to
regain possession of the Soudan. The expedition had
succeeded in 1898, under General Sir H. H. Kitchener,
in regaining Omdurman, the city built opposite the
ruins of Khartoum; and in September of that year
had progressed as far as Fashoda, some four hundred
538 SINCE THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN.
miles southward, where, to their great sui'prise, they
found a French force, under General Marchand, al-
ready in possession. It was feared that this would
lead to serious complications between France and Great
Britain.
The anomalous condition of Egypt to-day, which, as
tributary to Turkey, pays her $3,600,000 annually, is
well described by a writer in the "Fortnightly Review."
"The serious question for responsible people now to
ask themselves is : Whether the beneficial improvement
that has taken place in the Khedive's Egypt is to con-
tinue, or whether it is to be checked and probably en-
tirely destroyed? One thing is certain, that, unless
there is some European control, all the advances that
have been gained since 1885 would vanish. Were
Egypt left to herself, if that were possible, or were it
again to pass under the control of Turkish pashas, all
old methods and old abuses would be revived. . . .
It is probable that, were European control withdrawn,
there would be such a rebound that the last state of
the land would be worse than the first. Even the
great works that have been commenced would almost
certainl}^ be neglected, and, by inattention and care-
lessness, go to ruin,"
INDEX.
Achrida, capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, 329.
Agriculture of Greece, depressed condition of, 300-4.
Albanians, history and character of, 167-77, 186-^.
Albigenses of Southern France, 52-3.
Alexander Kara Georgevilch, accession and government of, 413-14; ex>
eluded from the throne of Servia, 415.
Alexis Comnenus, reign of, 63.
Alfred of England, chosen by the Greeks for their King, 277.
Ali Cumurgi recovers the Moreaand falls at the battle of Peterwardein, 165-6.
Ali Pasha of Yannina, his history, character, and government, 177-86;
his young sons visited by Sir John Cam Hobhouse, 89 ; his sons
Miiktar and Veli, 183 ; his outlawry and fall, 185-6, 224, 234.
Amelia, Queen of Greece, 267.
Antioch taken by the Persians, 20.
Apostasy after the Turkish conquest, 113; in the 17th century, 160.
Armatoli and Klephts, origin, character, and comparative freedom of, 155-6.
Annies of the Roman and Byzantine Empire demoralized, 24, 59 ; re-
stored, 38, 57.
Arsenius Tzemoievitch, last Servian Patriarch, 422.
Asia Minor desolated by the Saracens, 59 ; conquered by the Seljukian
Turks, 61-2.
Asiatic influences in the Byzantine Empire, 32-3.
Athens made the capital of Greece, 267.
Avars, origin of, 318; invade Dacia, 470; assist the Persians in the siege
of Constantinople, 26.
Baldwin, Count of Flanders, first Latin Emperor of Constantinople, 65.
Balsha, George, Knez of Zenta, 358.
Barlaam of Calabria, 6g.
Basil the Macedonian, Emperor, 55.
540 'f/DBX.
Basil Bulgaroktonos, 58, 32^30.
Belgrade, description of, 416.
Belisarius, conquests of, 13.
Belusso the Turk, story of, 428.
Benjamin, Rev. Nathan, in Greece, 294.
Berlin, Treaty of, its essential points, 514-16; results to the Tnrfdsli Em
pire, 516-18; to the Slavonians and the Greeks, 518-19.
Bib Doda, hereditary Prenk of the Miridites, 440.
Bogden Dragosch, first Voivode of Moldavia, 472.
Bogomilians, the Protestants of the East, 426.
Bogoris, first Christian King of the Bulgarians, 324-5.
Boris, last King of the first Bulgarian Kingdom, 328.
Bosnia, an independent Kingdom, 348 ; Vilayet of, under the Turks, 424,
430-7 ; government and social condition of, 431-7.
Bosnia proper, the country and its people, 420-5 ; given to Austria by the
Treaty of Berlin, 515.
Bosnian nobles, 430-7 ; and people, 437 ; religion of, 437-8.
Botzaris family, 180, 182; Marco, 182 ; begins the Greek RevolutioQ, 225$
death of, 239.
Brankovitch, George, Despot of Servia, 347-8.
Brigandage in Greece, 280-2. '
Brusa, first Ottoman capital, 70.
Bulgarians, origin and ethnical character of, 318-21 ; ravage and occupy the
north-western provinces of the Greek Empire, 322-3 ; converted to
Christianity, 324; prosperity and power, 327-31.
Bulgaria and the Bulgarians, Modern, account of, 442-51 ; Five Provinces,
444-5 ; oppression and insurrectionary movements, 451-3 ; pacified by
Omer Pasha, 453; missions and their results, 457-60; language and
education, 459-62; insurrection and massacres in 1876, 508; Princi-
pality constituted by the Treaty of San Stefano, 512; by Treaty of
Berlin, 515.
Bulgarian Church, attached to the Greek Communion, 325 ; independence
of, 327-31 ; subjected to the Patriarch of Constantinople, 454; resist*
ance and recovered freedom, 454-6.
Bulgarian Kingdoms, First, Second, and Tliird, 322-32.
Bucharest, account of the city, 491-2.
Bushatlia, house of, 170, 174, 359, n. ; fall of, 433.
Byzantine Empire, fully established under Leo the Isaurian, 31 ; condition
of under Leo, 31-9; military strength, 38-57; moral enslavement, and
reasons therefor, 40-8 ; wealth, prosperity, and decline under the Ba-
"siliaji dynasty, 1:7-8.
INDEX. 541
Ckpo d'Istrias, Coint John, chosen Governor of Greece, 253 ; b made Pres-
ident at the close of the Revolution, 261 ; his government and deaths
264-6.
Capo d'Istrias, Augustine, 266,
Caravan trade through Bulgaria, 323, 331.
Catholics of Herzegovina, 426.
Charles I., Prince of Roumania, 485 ; his character and government, 493-5.
Chosroes, King of Persia, conquests of, 1 1 ; vanquished by Ileraclius, 26.
Chrysolaras, Manuel, teaches Greek at Florence, 72.
Church, Sir Richard, General-in-chief of the Greeks, 253.
Circus, blue and green factions of, at Constantinople, 15.
Cochrane, Lord Alexander, Admiral of the Greek fleet, 252-3.
Codrington, Sir Edward, English Admiral at Navarino, 257-61.
Colocotroni, one of the Greek Revolutionary leaders, 230 ; in rebellion, 2 40 .
Commerce of the Byzantine Empire, 36-8.
Commercial cities on the eastern coast of the Adriatic, 337.
Conference of Constantinople, 510-11.
Congress of Berhn, importance of, 506 ; assembUng, character and issue di,
514-
Constantine Beg, Hospodar of Wallachia, 478-9.
Constantinople besieged by Persians and Avars, 1 1 ; two sieges of by the
Saracens, 22^-30 ; taken by the Crusaders, 64 ; by the Turks, 73 ; good
order of under the Turks, 117 ; Conference of, 510-11.
Cretan children under care of American missionaries at Athens in 1868,
298-9.
Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles of the Slavonian race, and i, 000th anni-
versary of, 325-6.
Dacia and the Dacians, account of, 467-9.
Daniel, first Secular Prince of Montenegro in modem times, 373,
Darinka, Princess of Montenegro, 373.
Der6 Begs of the Ottoman Empire, 94-5.
Drama Ali, his cruelty and his fate, 236-7.
Earthquakes in the time of Justinian, 18.
Education among the Greeks in the i8th century, 201-3; during the Rer*
lution, 242 ; under Otho, 275 ; at the present time, 285.
Epirots and Greeks, 124-5.
Epirus, history and description of, 167-77.
Epirus, Despots of, 171.
Eogeoe, Prince, defeats Ali Cumurgi at the battle of Peterwardein, i66l
542 mDEX.
Felton, President, account of Kin(; Otho, 369; cl Gmk peasant! and
school system, 272-5.
Fireships of the Greeks, 230, 235.
Fiscal oppression of the imperial government, 22.
French ambassadors insulted by the Porte, 162.
Frusca Gora, peninsula of, 423.
Genoese, the, in Constantmople, 70.
George Tzernoievitch marries a V'^enetian wife, surrenders the government
of Montenegro to the Bishop, and retires to Venice, 359-62.
Germanos, Bishop of Patras, inaugurates the Greek Revolution, 228.
Germany, unification of, 2.
Grahovo, battle of, 353-6.
Greece, Kingdom of determined upon, 262; present condition, 279; pro-
gress in fifty years, 282.
Greece, Northern, subdued by the Turks, 154; comparative freedom of
155-6.
Greek Church under Leo the Isaurian, 32; under the Sultans, 97-9; com-
pared with the Papal Church, 135-8; peculiarities of, 142-3; clergy
and constitution of, 143-7 ; present condition, 289-93.
Greek Empire, its vices and decay, 68, 82 ; tributary to the Turks, 70-1.
Greek Islands, miserable condition of in the 17th century, 157-8; Turks
driven from them by pirates, l6l ; great prosperity for fifty years be-
fore the Revolution, 193, 205-9 ; revolt of, 229.
Greek Letters preserved and transmitted to Italy, 69-72.
Greek Merchants in Europe, 194-6 ; services to the cause of learning, 20l,
204-5.
Greek Peasantry, 215-19, 272-4.
Greek Primates, character of, 213-15.
Greek Revolution begun, 224 ; Inde|>endence declared and Provisional Gov-
ernment formed, 233 ; faction and civil war, 240 ; freedom fairly won
in 1824 242-3; Ibrahim Pasha in, 246-8; fall of Mesolonghi, 249;
fall of Athens, 253 ; battle of Navarino, 255-61.
Greek School system in 1824, 242; under Otho, 275; at the present time,
285.
Greek Soldiers of the Revolution, 232.
Greeks, how affected by the Turkish c mquest, 6, 83 ; condition of under
the early Sultans, 96-101, 149-50
Greeks, Modern, true character of, 77-9, 102-10; social and political re-
generation. 1 10-19; municipal institutions, 1 12-17; great depression ic
rl»» 17th century, i<io; rapid improvement in the i8th century, 19O5
INDEX. 54;j
native literature developed, 202 ; activity of before the Revolu: ion, 207 ;
character of at the present time, 283-9 ; religious character and con-
dition, 289-93 ; ^""S "^"^ people, will form one nation and one state,
306; how affected by the Treaty of Berlin, ^19,
Greeks, Commercial, 208-15.
Gregory Palaraas, 69.
Gregory, Patriarch of Constantinople, 227.
Grenzer, the, Servian military colony on the Austrian frontier, 350.
Gypsies in Roumania, 496, 504; in the Valley of the Danube, 498, $03-4;
origin of, 499-500 ; character and social condition, 501-3.
Heraclius, Exarch of Africa, 19.
Heraclius, Emperor, 19; Persian campaigns of, 26-7.
Herzegovina, the country, its history, and its people, 425-9; insurrection
in, 507; given to Austria by the Treaty of Berlin, 515.
Heteria, the, opens the Greek Revolution, 222-3.
Heyducs, Bulgarian, 452.
Hill, Dr. and Mrs., girls' school of, at Athens, 299
Hobhouse, Sir John Cam, at Yannina and Negropont, 89-91 ; at Coo-
stantinople, 93.
Holy Alliance, the, frowns on the Greek cause, 243.
Hope, the, Greek frigate, 252 ; burned by Miaulis, 264-5.
Huns invade Dacia and settle Hungary, 470.
Hydra, prosperity of, 209, 225.
Ibrahim Pasha subdues Syria and Asia Minor, 246 ; sails for Greece and is
defeated by Miaulis, 247 ; in the Morea, 248-51 ; end of his career io
Greece, 255, 257-61.
Iconoclasm at Constantinople, 33-4.
Illyrians, ancient, 168-9.
Ipsara, prosperity of, 208-9 J destroyed by the Turks, 241.
Ismail Beg of Serres, 94.
Italian Republics, 71-2.
Ivan Tzemoievitch, founder of Montenegro, 359.
Janizaries, the, 123 ; a settled trading militia, 159, 161 ; r«bellJon o^ 383^;
expelled from Servia, 386.
yews in Roumania and Servia, 496-7.
Jurisprudence of the Byzantine Empire, i^ 35.
JuatanioQ, rugn aadckaractar di, 12, 18.
24
544 fNDEX.
Kalergi, General, compels Oilio to grant a constitution, 268.
Kanaris, Constantine, burns Turkish flag-ship, 235, 238; at SaiLOS, a47J
in 1862, 276.
Kara George of Servia, 387-95 ; his death, 410.
Kara Mustapha, defeated by John Sobieski, 161.
Kara Osman Oghi, Bey of Magnesia, 95.
Karpenisi, battle of, 239.
Khans on routes of travel, 93.
King, Dr. Jonas, in Greece, 277-8, 294-9.
Kiutahi Pasha, Roumeli Valesi, besieges Mesolonghi, 249.
Klephts, the, origin of, 155;' of Albania, 177; before the RevolutioDi
219-22.
Koraes, Adamanlios, the father of Modem Greek, 204.
Kossovo, battle of, 346.
Kr&ssa, battle of, secures Montenegrin independence, 365.
Ktirschid Pasha, first Turkish commander in Greek Revolution, 229-38.
Kflrschid Pasha subdues Servia, 394-5-
Lascaris, Theodore, Emperor of Nicaea, 66.
Latin Empire of Constantinople, 65-7.
Lazar, last Servian Tzar, falls at Kossovo, 346 ; his body still preserved and
reverenced, 423.
Learning and letters in the Byzantine Empire, 33, 57» 127 ; after the Turkish
conquest, 129.
Leo the Isaurian, Emperor, 29 ; his government, 34-8.
Leo Pilatus, first teacher of Greek in Italy, 72.
Leopold chosen King of Greece, 263.
Lesbos, conquest of by Mohammed II., 15.
Loans, Greek, in London, 252.
Long, Dr. A. L., in Bulgaria, 458-60.
Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, and Paul of Aleppo, in Constantinople and
Moscow, 99-100, 131-5 ; in Moldavia and Wallachia, 474-82.
Magyars invade and occu])y Hungary, 470
Massacres, at the opening of the Greek Revolution, 226-7 ; at Solo, 231 ;
at Smyrna and Aivali, 231.
Matthi Beg, Hospodar of Wallachia, 478.
Mavrocordato, Alexander, Second Phanariot Dragoman of the Council,
198-9.
Mavrocordato, Aknandar, Prseidrai of Greek P»ovisional Government, 231,
INDEX. 545
Mavromichalis, Petro, Bey of Maina, 265.
Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, origin of, 122 ; his history and govenuneni
244-5 ■ called in to subdue the Greeks, 246.
Mesolonghi, first siege of, 238; taken by Ibrahim Pasha, 249-51.
Methodius, monkish painter at the Court of King Bogoris, 324-5.
Methodius and Cyril, Aposdes of the Slavonic Race, 325-6.
Miaulis, Greek Admiral, 24 ; avenges Ipsara, 242 ; defeats combined Turkish
and Egyptian fleets, 247; burns thirty vessels in the harbor of Modon,
248 ; relieves Mesolonghi, 249 ; burns the Greek fleet, 264-5.
Michael Obrenovitch, twice Prince of Servia, his government and assassina
tion, 412-15.
Milan Obrenovitch (I.), accession and death, 412.
Milan Obrenovitch (II.), accession and government, 415-16.
Military system of the Roman Empire, 24 ; declines, is restored by Con-
stantine, 24 ; breaks down under Justinian, 25 ; again restored by the
Byzantine Emperors, 38, 57.
Milosch Obrenovitch, delivers Servia, twice Prince, 395-6, 410-14.
Miridites, the, 440.
Mirko, the hero of Grahovo, 373-5.
Missions in Greece and results, 293-9.
Misery of the Greeks in 1827, 253-4.
Moawiah, Caliph, besieges Constantinople, 28.
Moldavia, founded by Bogden Dragosch, 472 ; subdued by Sultan Bajazet,
472 ; charter of Solyman I., 473 ; social condition, 474-5 ; Phanariot IIos.
podars, 482-4 ; union with Wallachia, 485 ; Greek Revolution begun in,
226.
Monasteries, Greek, 14 1-3 ; Servian, 407-9.
Monasticism in the East and in the West, 136.
Montenegrins, character and social condition of, 366-8, 375-7.
Montenegro, position and history of, 353, 358-9 ; alliance with Russia,
363-4; massacre of Moslems, 363; independence of virtually secured
by battle of KrOssa, 365; government, 371 ; independent, 514; en-
larged by Congress of Berlin, 515.
Morea, the, wasted by wars between the Turks and Venetians, 152-3;
calamities of in the 17th century, 159-60; conquered by the Venetians
in 1684-7; prosperity under Venetian rule, and reconquest by the
Turks. 163-6.
Morlaks, the, 439.
Moslem Bulgarians, 442-3 ; steady diminution of, 460-1.
Municipal institutions of the, Roman Empire, decline of under Justinian,
17 of the Greeks under the Sultans, 112-17.
546 INDEX.
Mustapha Pasha of Scutari, 170; defeated by Marco Botzaris, 239; fati
of, 433-
Mustapha Pasha of Belgrade calls the Servians to arms, 385.
Narenta River, the, and the Naren tines, 425.
Narses conquers Italy, and is made first Exarch of Ravenna, 14.
Navarino, battle of, 255, 257-61.
Nicjea, capital of the Kingdom of Roum, 62 ; of the Empire of Theodoi
Lascaris, 66.
Nicholas, Pope, letter of to King Bogoris, 325.
Nicholas of Russia befriends the Greeks, 256.
Nicolas or Nikita, Prince of Montenegro, 373-5.
Nico Tsaras, the model Klepht, 221.
Northern Greece subdued by the Turks, 154; comparative freedom of
Annatoli and Klephts, 155-6.
Olga, Queen of Greece, 277.
Omer Pasha, origin of, 357; subdues Montenegro, 357; subdues Bosnia,
435-6 ; pacifies Bulgaria, 453.
Omer Vriones, 238.
Otho of Bavaria, King of Greece, 267; grants a canstitution, 268; his
character and government, 269; abdication, 276.
Ottoman Empire, condition of under the early Sultans, 91-3, 148-9.
Panayotaki, first Phanariot Dragoman of the Council, 196-7, 482.
Patriarchs of the Eastern Church, 143 ; of the Bulgarian Church, 327, 329^
331 ; (Servian) of Ipek, 349-50-
Pasvan Oglu of Widdin, 383-5, 452.
Paul of Aleppo, feelings of towards the Turkish Government, 99, lOO;
his religion, 131-5 ; in Moldavia and WaUachia, 474-82.
Paulicians, their histo/y and fate, 49-53 ; in Bosnia, 425-6.
" Perseverance," the, Greek steam corvette, 252.
Persians conquer Syria and Asia Minor, 1 1 ; subdued by Heraclius, 26.
Pestilence in the reign of Justinian, 18.
Peter I. (Saint) of Montenegro, wins the battle of Krilssa, 365; characta
and services of, 370-1.
Peter II., account of, 369-70.
Phanariots, rise, power and character of, 196-201, 482-4.
Philadelphia surrenders to the Turks, 71.
Phocas, Emperor, elevation and tyranny of, 18; fall, 19.
Plevna, long struggle for the possession of, 5II-I3.
Piracy in the 17th century, 158-9.
rVDEX. 547
Pomaks, Moslem Bulgarians, 442-3.
Population of the Kingdom of Greece, 282^ n.
Porte, Sublime, contemptuous trreatment of Christian ambassadors by in
the 17th century, 161-3.
Preachers at Athens, 292.
Preslav (Marciono'^ '": ' capital of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, 323
Prizren, the Servian Tzarigrad, 338
Pyrrhus, Iving of Epirus, 168.
Quittists of Mount Athos, 68.
Queen Amelia of Greece, 267.
Queen Olga of Greece, 277.
Rascia, the Servian Pro\-ince of, 319, n.
Regency, the Bavarian, in Greece, 267.
Religion, state of among the Greeks after the Turkish conquest, 12^35.
Rhiga, popular Greek poet and founder of the Heteria, 204, 222.
Riggs, Dr. Elias, in Greece, 294.
Roads, greai want of in Greece, 304.
Romaic or Modern Greek language, 78-9.
Roman Empire, the, extent of in the time of Justinian, 12; prostrate, II,
20 ; causes of its decline and fall, 20-5.
Romanus Diogenes, Emperor, defeated and taken prisoner by Alp Arslan,
62.
Roumania, constituted a Principality, 485 ; the country and its people,
486-92 ; progress and improvement under Prince Charles, 493-7 ; in-
dependent, 495, 514 ; new boundaries, 515
Roumelia, Eastern, 444, n., 515-16.
Rudolph the Black, first Voivode of Wallachia, 472.
Russia, present and future of, 3.
Russians, the, in the 17th century, 132-4; invade and conquer Bulgaria,
328.
Russo-Turkish war of 1877, 511-13,
Sabor of Skopia, 342.
Sacturis, Greek Vice- Admiral, saves Samos, 247 ; defeats the Turkish fleet,
248.
St. John, Knights of, at Malta, pirates in Turkish waters, 159, and n-
St. .Sava, founder of the Servian Church, 339.
Samos, saved by Sacturis, 247.
Sar.-'^ak Begs, 122.
«3
648 INDEX.
Samuel, founder of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, 328-3a
Samuel, the Suliot Caloyer, 182,
San Stefano, Treaty of, 512.
Saracens, conquests of, 27 ; first siege of Constantinople by, 28 ; second dOkt
30-
Scanderbeg, history and exploits of, 1 72-4.
Scio, happy condition of, 193, 208 ; massacre at, 234-5.
Serfs, freemen reduced to, in Roman Empire, 23.
Servians, the, migrate and settle in their present seats, 319, 334 ; ofiicen
and organization of, 319-20, 335 ; form a Principality in Austria, 348.
Servians, Modern, described, 400-8.
Servia, Despots of, 347; conquered by the Turks, 348; boundaries, popu-
lation, and condition under the Turks, 379-81 ; events leading to Ser-
vian independence, 382-7; freedom won, 387-9; subdued by Kurschid
Pasha, 394-5 ; again free, 395-6; the country and the people, 397-408;
evacuated by the Turks, 415 ; constitution, population, and general
condition, 417-20; independence acknowledged and boundaries en-
larged by Treaty of Berlin, 514-15.
Servian Empire, rise of, 338 ; culminates under Stephen Dushan, 341 ; falls
at Kossovo, 346.
Servian Church, 340, 347-50, 407-9 ; at the present time, 418-19.
Servian Commune or House-communion, 336-7, 402.
Servian Laws, 342-3.
Servian Poetry, 403-5.
Servian War of 1876, 509.
Shishman, John, last Bulgarian King, 332.
Simeon, King of Bulgaria, 327.
Slaves in the time of Justinian, 23 ; captives enslaved, 151-2; fewer slaves
in Turkey in the 1 7th century, 190.
Slavic race, origin, character, numbers, and divisions of, 309-15 ; poetry ofi
313-14; in the Roman Empire, 315-18.
Slavonic alphabet of Cyril and Methodius, 326.
Slavonic languages, ancient and modern, 326.
Sobieski, John, King of Poland, defeats the Turks before Vienna, l6l.
Spahis, 123.
Stara Servia, history and present condition of, 421-4-
Stephen Dushan, Tzar of the Servians, 340 ; crowned Emperor of th«
Romans, 342; death of, 345-6.
Stephen Lazarevitch, last King of the Servians, 347.
Stephen N^manja, founder of the Servian Empire, 338k
Stephen Radoslav, first Tzar of Servia, 339.
INDEX. 5-19
Stephen Tehomil, second Servian Tzar, 338.
Stinga, battle of, 226.
Suliots, accouiTc of, 179; conquered by Ali Pasha, 181 ; restored and begin
Greek Revolution, 225 ; final surrender, 236.
Szeklers, descent of, 470.
Tahir Pasha pacifies Bosnia, 434.
Tartars in Russia and Roumania, 471, 476-81.
Taxes in Greece under the Turks, 215.
Tehomil, Stephen, second Servian Tzar, 338.
Tenure of land in Greece under the Turks, 215.
Tcrnovo, capital of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom, 33I,
Theodore Lascarics, Emjieror of Nicsea, 66.
Thessalonica, Empire of, 65-7. .
Timars and Ziamets, 122.
Timotheus the Cossack, 476-7.
Tinos, happy condition of, 194.
Tombazi, Greek Admiral, 230.
Trade of the Greeks in the 1 7th century, 194-6; sudden expansion of after
1 780, 205-6.
Transylvania, population of, 463.
Travnik, residence of the Pashas of Bosnia.
Treaty of July, 1827, for the relief of the Greeks, 256.
Tribute children, 85 ; cease to be exacted, 161.
Tripolitza, capital of the Morea, 228 ; taken by the Greeks, 233.
Turkey in Europe, population of, 121 ; ethnical divisions of, 123-6.
Turks and the Turkish administration, character of, 84-90.
Turks, number of in Europe, 121; decline of in the 17th century, 192;
weakness and poverty of at the beginning of the present century, 207.
Tzintzars, Wallachian shepherds, 464.
Urosh, son of Stephen Dushan, 344.
Uscocs, the, 439.
Varna, first Bulgarian capital, 323.
VasiliBeg, Ilospodar of Moldavia, 474-6.
Venetian conquest of the Morea, 163-4 ; effects of, 18^
Venetians in Dalmatia, 427-8.
Vladikas, the Prince-bishops of Montenegro, 359, 369-7ia
Vaka-shine, Krai of Zenta, 344.
550 INDEX.
'Vallachians, early history of, 462-72 ; in Thessaly, 125, 463; in the Third
Bulgarian Kingdom, 331, 462-3 ; social condition of at the accession of
Prince Charles, 489-92 ; advancement, 493 ; patriotism and military
spirit, 494-5.
Wallachia, occupied by Rudolpii the Black, 473; government and social
condition of, 473-4 ; character of the people, 479 ; election of Hospo-
dar, 478-9 ; terror of Tartar invasions, 480-1 : Phanariot Hospodars,
199, 482-4; union with Moldavia, 486.
Wallachia, Great, 462-4.
William George of Denmark, King of Greece, 277-8. '
Ypselanti, Alexander, Chief of the Heteria, 226.
Ypselanti, Demetrius, Commander of the Greek forces, 23I.
Zenta, or Zeta, the cradle of the Servian Empire, 328.
Ziamets and Timars, 122.
Zimisces, John, Emperor of Coa^tantiaople^ coaqos^ Firs? BiilgaLi^ Kiag-
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