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"Fierce are Albania's children, yet they lack

Not virtues, were those virtues more mature.
Where is the foe that ever saw their back?
Who can so well the toils of war endure?
Their native fastnesses not more secure

Than they in doubtful time of troublous need:
Their wrath how deadly! but their friendship sure,
When Gratitude or Valour bids them bleed,
Unshaken rushing on where'er their chief may lead."

Nationality, a passion at all times stronger in mountaineers than in inhabitants of the plains, is their strongest characteristic. No foreign country or new scenes can take from them the remembrance and the love of their mountains, their friends, and their villages. They are perpetually making invidious comparisons between their native place and everything about them in other countries. They consider all men, whether Moslems or Christians, as cowards, if opposed to their own countrymen; and justly pride themselves on their established fame as the best soldiers in the Ottoman Empire. All of them are warriors, and equally capable of using the sword and the long gun; and as they all carry arms, it is not easy to distinguish the soldier from the peasant. Their arms are not worn for parade, every district having been for years engaged in defensive war against bands of robbers, or in alliance with them in rebellion against the Porte. The recesses of Metzovo, and of the hills of Agrapha, which command the passes from Ætolia and Thessaly into Epirus, were the favourite haunts of these formidable bands of banditti, who had spies throughout the country to give notice of the approach of any one they could plunder. They lived in caves or in the open air during the summer, returning to the towns in winter. Treachery is a vice rarely found among the Albanians. Those who have once "eaten your bread," and even those who are hired into your service, are capable of the most devoted attachment. Lord Byron says, "No nation is so detested or dreaded by their neighbours as the Albanese; the Greeks hardly regard them as Christians, or the Turks as Moslems; in fact they are a mixture of both, and sometimes neither. Their habits are predatory; all are armed; and the red-shawled Arnaouts the Montenegrins, Chimariots, and Guegues, are treacherous; the others differ somewhat in garb, and essentially in character. As far as my own experience goes, I can speak favourably. I was attended by two, an infidel and a Mussulman, to Constantinople and every other part of Turkey which came within my observation; and more faithful in peril or indefatigable in service are rarely to be found. The Infidel was named Basilius, the Moslem, Dervish Tihiri; the former a man of middle age, and the latter about my own. Basilius was strictly charged by Ali Pasha in person to attend us; and Dervish was one of fifty who accompanied us through the forest of Acarnania to the banks of Achelous, and onward to Mesolonghi in Etolia. There I took him into my own service, and never had occasion to repent it till the moment of my departure.

"When, in 1810, after the departure of my friend Mr. Hobhouse for England, I was scized with a severe fever in the Morea, these men saved my life by frightening away my physician, whose throat they threatened to cut if I was not cured within a given time. To this consolatory assurance of posthumous retribution, and a resolute refusal of Dr. Romanell's prescriptions, I attributed my recovery. I had left my last remaining English servant at Athens; my dragoman was as ill as myself, and my poor Arnaouts nursed me with an attention which would have done honour to civilization. They had a variety of adventures; for the Moslem Dervish, being a remarkably handsome man, was always squabbling with the

husbands of Athens, insomuch that four of the principal Turks paid me a visit of remonstrance at the convent, on the subject of his having taken a woman from the bath-whom he had lawfully bought, however a thing quite contrary to etiquette. Basilius also was extremely gallant amongst his own persuasion, and had the greatest veneration for the Church, mixed with the highest contempt of churchmen, whom he cuffed upon occasion in a most heterodox manner. Yet he never passed a church without crossing himself; and I remember the risk he ran in entering St. Sophia, in Stamboul, because it had once been a place of his worship. On remonstrating with him on his inconsistent proceedings, he invariably answered, Our church is holy, our priests are thieves; and then he crossed himself as usual, and boxed the ears of the first 'papas' who refused to assist in any required operation, as was always found to be necessary where a priest had any influence with the Khodjà Bashi of his village. Indeed a more abandoned race of miscreants cannot exist than in the lower orders of the Greek clergy. (?)

"When preparations were made for my return, my Albanians were summoned to receive their pay. Basilius took his with an awkward show of regret at my intended departure, and marched away to his quarters with his bag of piastres. I sent for Dervish, but for some time he was not to be found; at last he entered, just as Signor Logotheti, father to the ci-devant Anglo-consul of Athens, and some other of my Greek acquaintances, paid me a visit. Dervish took the money, but on a sudden dashed it to the ground; and clasping his hands, which he raised to his forehead, rushed out of the room, weeping bitterly. From that moment to the hour of my embarkation he continued his lamentations, and all our efforts to console him only produced this answer, 'M' àpive,' 'He leaves me.' Signor Logotheti, who never wept before for anything less than the loss of a para (about the fourth of a farthing), melted; the padre of the convent, my attendants, my visitors wept also-and I verily believe that even Sterne's 'foolish fat scullion' would have left her fish-kettle,' to sympathize with the unaffected and unexpected sorrow of this barbarian."

3. The Wallachs (Bλáxo, Romouni).

Amidst the innumerable emigrations of different races which characterize the history of Eastern Europe, from the decline of the Roman Empire until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, the Wallachs formed to themselves a national existence and a peculiar dialect in the country which they still occupy on the northern bank of the Danube. They grew out of the Roman colonies, which spread the language and civilization of Italy in those regions by amalgamating themselves with a portion of the ancient Dacian population. As early as the twelfth century a portion of the Wallachian race had settled in Thessaly, which, from their occupancy, is often styled in Byzantine history Great Wallachia. The remains of this Wallachian colony still exist in that part of the chain of Pindus which separates Epirus from Thessaly, where they now inhabit the towns of Metzovo and Kalarytes, and some large villages. Their whole number, however, in this district is stated by Mr. Finlay not to exceed 50,000 souls. (For the description of Wallachia and Moldavia see HANDBOOK FOR TURKEY.) Like their countrymen north of the Danube, the Wallachs of Pindus belong to the Greek Church, and have preserved their own language, a debased Latin strongly resembling Italian, but spotted with foreign terms and idioms, and still call themselves Romouni, Romans (in German Romaner). In Slavonic, Wallach, or Vlak, signifies [Greece.]

D

a Roman or Italian, being akin to the epithet of Welsh or Velsh, given by the Anglo-Saxons to the Italianized provincials of Britain, and by the Germans to the Italians.

Besides keeping flocks and cattle in their native mountains, the Wallachs are to be found in nomade encampments throughout Northern Greece, whence their name is often applied by the Greeks, indiscriminately of race, to denote any wandering shepherds. They perform, moreover, a great part of the carrying trade between Thessaly and Albania, for which occupation Metzovo, situated near the Zygos pass, is a convenient position. The Wallachs have more peaceable habits and more industry than the Albanians; and if they are endowed with less native acuteness and desire for information than the Greeks, they possess at least equal steadiness and perseverance.

SECTION I.

IONIAN ISLANDS.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION.

1. Historical Sketch and actual Condition, &c.-2. Climate, Soil, &c.3. Packets.-4. Money.-5. Shops, Servants, &c.-6. Inns and Accom modation for Travellers.

1. HISTORICAL SKETCH AND ACTUAL CONDITION, &c.

THE Ionian Islands lie along the coast of Epirus, Acarnania, and the Peloponnesus, between the parallels of 36° and 40° N. lat., and 19° and 23° E. long. The principal islands, with their area and population, are as follows:

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Besides the above seven islands, there are a number of others of minor importance, Fano, Merlera, Salmatrakí, Antipaxo, Meganisi, Calamos, Petala, Cerigotto, &c., dependent on them, and together with them constituting the Ionian Islands. Under the Venetian régime, Butrinto, Parga, Prevesa, Vonitza, and one or two other stations on the coast of the main land, were annexed to the Ionian Islands, and, equally with them, were governed by a Proconsul, styled Provveditore Generale.

An outline of the history of each of the islands will be given under its separate head, for in former times they were connected by no common bond of union, but formed separate states, often distinct in race and polity. Like the rest of Greece, they passed under the Roman sway, and in the decline of the Empire were partitioned out among various Latin princes, and desolated by the ravages of corsairs, Christian as well as Mahommedan. After many vicissitudes, the inhabitants of Corcyra, or Corfu, placed themselves in A.D. 1386 under the sovereignity of Venice; and the other islands of the Ionian Sea successively fell during the next two centuries under the dominion of that modern Carthage. The Greek possessions of the Republic were systematically governed by corruption and tyranny. In each island, the executive was composed entirely of natives of Venice, presided over by needy and rapacious Provveditori, sent out to enrich themselves, after the

old Roman fashion, on the spoils of the provinces. These officials rarely swerved from the maxims laid down for their guidance by the famous Venetian Councillor of State, Fra Paolo Sarpi, and which are epitomized by Daru (Histoire de Venise,' xxxix. 17) as follows:-" Dans les colonies se souvenir qu'il n'y a rien de moins sûr que la foi des Grecs. Etre persuadé qu'ils passeraient sans peine sous le joug des Turcs, à l'exemple du reste de leur nation. Les traiter comme des animaux féroces; leur rogner les dents et les griffes, les humilier souvent; surtout leur ôter les occasions de s'aguerrir. Du pain et le bâton, voilà ce qu'il leur faut; gardons l'humanité pour une meilleure occasion."

In conformity with these amiable precepts, the Ionians were heavily taxed for the support of the Venetian garrisons and fortresses; the administration of justice was utterly corrupt; bribery was all-powerful in every department of government; the greater portion of the revenue was embezzled by the collectors; and open war was waged against a nationality which had endured throughout the vicissitudes of two thousand years. The young Ionians of the higher orders were sent to the Italian Univerities, where, to quote the French General de Vaudoncourt (‘Mémoires sur les Iles Ioniennes,' cap. ii.), "an act of the most perfidious Machiavelism, decorated with the pompous title of privilege," enabled them to purchase degrees without passing the regular examinations required of other students. At home, all education whatsoever was discouraged, and the Greek language was banished from all official documents and from the society of the upper classes, though the peasants in the country districts still clung fondly to their national dialect along with their national creed. The Roman Catholic was declared the dominant Church, though it numbered among its votaries few beyend the Venetian settlers and their descendants. Again, some of the insular oligarchies, by a more ample use of corruption, were empowered to oppress and overawe their own countrymen: hence factions arose in all the islands, which, though the laws were faithfully and rigidly executed under the British Protectorate, are not yet totally extinct; and from time to time-as in Cephalonia in 1848 and 1849-have broken out into cruel and bloody

excesses.

On the fall of Venice in 1797, the treaty of Campo Formio transferred the Ionian Islands to the French Republic, and they were occupied by a small French garrison, which was ere long expelled by a combined Russian and Turkish expedition. According to the provisions of a treaty between the Czar and the Sultan (March 21, 1800), the Ionian Islands were now erected into a separate state, under the vassalage of the Porte, and dignified with the title of the Septinsular Republic. But within the short space of two years, all the Seven Islands had been guilty of treason and rebellion against their general government, while each separate island had also risen repeatedly against its local authorities. Horrors resembling those of the Corcyræan factions described by Thucydides were of daily occurrence; in Zante alone assassinations have been so numerous as one for each day in the year-an unusual average for a population of less than 40,000. Terrified by this condition of their affairs, the principal Ionians sent, in 1802, an envoy named Naranzi to the Russian Emperor, to implore his immediate interference, as the only means of putting an end to such anarchy. Naranzi was instructed to state that the Ionians were disposed to receive with blind resignation whatever new constitution might be granted to them; that they wished it to be the work of the "adorable hand" of the Autocrat himself, or, at all events, of "a single legislator;" and that it should be supported by "an imposing force of Russian soldiers." In consequence of this address, the Czar empowered his plenipotentiary, Count Mocenigo, a native of Zante, to remodel the form of government established in 1800; and under his

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