ARBERIAONLINE

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
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 cf Scotland a hundred
and fifty years ago — brave, warlike, fierce, illiterate,
and barbarian. Sometimes the several clans or tribes
were essentially independent; sometimes thoy coalesced
into little kingdoms of greater or less c>itcnt. 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 Grascia,
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 Epinis, 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.

Tlie question has been much discussed whether the
Albanians are genuine Epirots and lllyrians, or a new
people, formed by large and repeated infusions of barba-
rian elements from the north. The question seems to

TBE ALBANIANS. 169

have been finally decided upon evidence furnished by
their language. Prof. Max MuUer and Prof. Pott deem
it clear that the Albanian language is the true represen-
tative of the ancient lllyria. 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 believe 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 lllyrians 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
Scutari, or Skadar, is of the northern province. Until
the fall of the famous Mustapha Pasha* 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 arc 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 slecfring " in his guarded tent," when Marco
Bozzoris broke in upon his dream. Scutari (Scodrn) 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 Turldsh conquest stood next to Thessalonica. — Leake's Researches, pp.
443, note, and 415.

These apostate Servians of Scutari, the famous family of the Bushatlia,
were a powerful and semt-royal house, which no Sultan for centuries had
been able to displace. The same thing «as 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, H-as a power-
ful prince, who could bringinto the field an armyof Ihirly-five thousand men.
If lie had chosen to act with vigor against the have ended the rebellion ; as, in 1EI39, he might liavc prcvcntcil the Russians
from passing the Balkans. But his great enemy was not the Greek, or the
Muscovite, but Sultan Mahmoud himself, who had determined to destroy
him, with all the hcreiiitary Pashas of his class. \\'hilc, therefore, he obeyed
the commands of the Sultan to march, now southwards against llic Greeks,
and now northwards against the Russians, and the rebels of Bosnia, his
chief purpose always was to see lo it that his own forces were kept well in
band, and suffered no diminution, — See Ranke's Servio, pp. 385, 334-7.

DESPOTS OF EPISUS. l^\

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^-cspecially 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.

I7» THE MODERN CREEKS.

After the Turkish conquest, the Epirotic kingdom was
revived for a time by the renowned liero 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, Iskandcrbeg, 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 fiv^ thousand
Turkish horse.

Upon the death of John Castriot, Amurath II. caused
the three older sons to be put out of the way, and privately
seized the principahty. 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 i. pp. 167-9.

SCANDERBEG. 173

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 11. 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 ofhis times, and deserving
of a place among the foremost of the brave Christian
soldiers who finally checked the victorious career of the

' This port of the storj of Scanderbeg is told as correctly as it is beauti-
fnlly, in Longfellow's Tries of a Wajiside Inn,
• Turkish History, vol. i. pp. 248-275.

1 74 THE MODERl^ CREEKS.

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
established 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 Bashce, 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, ^50.

THE ALBANIANS. 175

rulers. Tills was the case in our time in the large city
of Ar^yro Castro.' There are parts of the country
where every Aga cr 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 foi^otten."*

The allurements of mercenary service under Ottoman
ofRcials 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 the

' " Arghyro Kastro contains 4,000 houses, two-lhirds of which are Mus-
sulman; but the Turks and Greeks live upon neaily equal (erms. When
friends visit, even though of differcnl religions, they do not hide Iheir
nomen, but show them great respect, rising to make way for (hem; and
this custom is observed both in the houses and streets. Cut . ■ . iMth
Greek and Turkish women are in the same servile condition. Each head
of a family has treight and influence in proportion to the numbers of his
relations and adliercnls, in which arc generally included all the collateral
brunches. The persons of chief power, and who upon ordinary occasions
are looked up to as composing the government of the place, are the
brothers Morleid Bey and Khotdd B^y. They assume the power of im-
prisoning, judging, and e\-en of inflicting capital puiushment." — Leake'i
Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 499.

* Journey in Albania, &c, voL i. pp. 141-2.

i;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 Httle-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; Hobhousc's Albania, &C., vol. i. p. 15a "The Greeks
hardly regard ihem as Christians, or the Turks as Moslems ; and in bet
Ihcy arc a mixture of both, and sometimes neither." — Lord Byron, Notes
to ChUtle Harold, aoto ii

THE ALBANIANS. 177

hammedan neighbors, but the difference has been small.
Both classes have retained their arms and their miHtary
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 Skipctar, or Albanian. Christians and Moslems
alike arc 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 Klcphts. Some from almost every vil-
lage were among the Klcphts; almost every village was
in either warfare or alliance with them. Every spring
two, three, five, or even ten hundred men would assem-
ble in some mountain fastness, and from thence carry on a
predatory warfare upon tlieir 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 Klcphts.'

Towards the close of the last century, under the famous
Ali Pasha of Yannina, Albania became again for many
years the scat of a really independent power, of sufficient
importance to exert a considerable influence upon public
affairs. AH Pasha^ was bom at Tepeleni, a small town
on the Viossa (the ancient Aous), twenty miles south-east
from Aviona, about the year 1745. Ali's father, grand-

' HobJiouse, i. pp. 127-140.

• For the history of Aii Pasha, see Tennent, chip. xvi. ; Leake's North-
ern Greece, vol, i. pp. 41-*, 46J-97; and Researches, p. 409.


178 THE MODERff GREEKS.

father, and great-grandfather had been petty magnates,
beys or pashas in the neighborhood. Ali's father died
when he was a little 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 ef violation and
hardship. For this outrage Ali in later years inflicted
an awful retribution upon the people ©f 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 Ali's mother. As Ali grew to
manhood, his lawless courses cost him a Jong 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 Tcpeleni. 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 SULIOTS. 179

ambition -wss 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 Colca, 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 AH was firmly
established. As Dervent Aga, he gathered about him a
strong force, enlisting Moslems and Christians, Kleplits
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,
tlie pashalic of Herat, was now governed by Ibrahim
Pasha, son-in-law of KiJrd 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 Suliots, at the instigation of
Catherine H. 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.

* Ltake's Notlhcrn Greece, vol. i. pp. 501-513.

tSo 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 1 789,
All Pasha, in conjunction with his rival, Ibrahim of Bcrat,
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 1793, AH 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 1800, 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 SULIOTS. l8l

prepared 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, ai.d
the suffering of enormous losses, that AH was able to
accomplbh 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 tlieir 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 hps, 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 beetling
rock, till the last of the band had perished." '

Upon the surrender of the principal stronghold, Samu>' Tennent, voL u. p. 479.

I8z THE MODERN CREEKS.

el the Caloyer, 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
Ionian 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 victory of
Karpenisi, three years later, the bi-avest 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,
' Tcnnent, p, 477. ' Howe's Greek Revolution, p.'sS-

A. PASHA, 183

was welcome news at Constantinople, and Ali was at once
rewarded with the post of Roumeli Valisi, or command-
er-in-chief of tile European provinces of the Empire.'

In this high office he moved, in 1S04, 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 Vcli, were made, the first, Pasha of Lepanto,
the second. Vizier of the Morea. In January, 1810, 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 borse-tails, having jurisdiction over more than
one province.

I84 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

' Tenncnt, ii. p. 392.

' AlbanLa, &c, vol. i. pp. 105-13,

' "It is probably ralher a consequence of the Vizier's indifference to the
distant consequences of his measures, and with el view to some supposed
immediate advantage, than with any better feeling, that he has always
encouraged education among the Greeks. He frequently recommends it to
the altenlion of the bishops, the generality of whom . . . are loo much
disposed to neglect it. To the old schoobnosler Bolano he often holds
the same language, exhorting him to instruct tlie youth committed lo hi.s
care with diligence, 10 give ihem a good exajnple, and never to enlerlain any
doubts of receiving his countenance and protection." — Leake's Northern
Greece, vol. iv. p. 149.

A. PASHA. iSs

lo 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 fettercrf 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
than 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 fcrinanli, 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 with 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 fal! of Ali, Southern Albania has became the scene of the
some decay, Ihe same increasingpoverlyiuid tiepopulation, wliich have been
manifest in every province of Mihmoud's "reformed" Empire. — See
Lad; Stiongford's Eastern Shores of (he Adriatic, pp. 10-27.

■86 THE MODERN GREEKS.

nearly two years the siege went on, but early in 1822 he
surrendered to Kurchid Pasha, and was treacherously
stabbed to the heart by an old friend, Mohammed Pasha
of the Morea.

The Albanians, or Amauts, number somewhere from
a million to a million and a half of soub. 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 are commonly pro-
vided with an abundance of wholesome food. The men

' Sec Lord Byron's account of his Albaniia attendants, note 11 to the
Second Canlo of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

' For a full and excellent account of the appearance, nuuuiers, customs,
and social conditions of the Albanians, see Hobhouse's Albania, &c., toI. i.


pp. \^^-ap.

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 arc 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 mountaineers of Europe should present so great
a contrast to the Druzes and Kurds, those similar Asiatic
tribes, which have been heathen or Moslem from the bo-
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 pccson who had his notions ai the pastoral life from a \;isit to Salis-

iSS THE MODERN CREEKS.

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
everywhere 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 clement in that civilized and Christian state
which will one day hold the fair regions of ancient Greece
and Southern Macedonia.

buiy Plain, or from the pleasing pictures of an Arcadian romaDce, would
never have guesseU at the occupation of those tremendous looking fellows.
They tiod each of them pistols, and a large knife stuck in their lielts ; their
heads were covered and iheir 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 nt their uncouth and ferocious appearance." — IIobbouK's
Albania, &c., vol. i. p. 53.

" The Albanians have onepraclice 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 Kel-(o, when the louder and more frequent they
can mol'e iheir demonstrations the better." — Id., i. 42.