"We were first received in the apartments of the principal officers, who spoke to us with eagernefs of the French revolution, and of the war which we then had to fuftain against the natural enemies of the Porte. We replied to all their queftions with referve: this fubject was too delicate to be treated of in Turkey. We were offered pipes, coffee, fherbet, and perfumes, after which it was announced to us that the pacha was ready to receive us. "He talked to us of gangs of thieves and robbers who infefted the roads, and who would murder us if we were to go to Mount Ida and to Gortyna, as we wanted. That cannot be,' said we in our turn: there are no gangs of 'thieves and robbers in a country well governed: punishment would follow 'too clofe on guilt, for villains to dare to make their appearance.'-' No 'doubt,' faid the pacha to us, there ' are much fewer robbers fince I com'mand; but there are still enough for you to be expofed to lose your lives." We defired the drogueman to cut fhort a converfation which might become difagreeable to all, and to obtain permiffion for us to retire; which was granted. "We were very much astonished at this ftrictnefs of the pacha, and were endeavouring to divine the cause of it, when a word from the drogueman afforded us a ray of light. The pacha, faid he to us, made a difficulty in 'granting you what you afked him, only because there paffed not long ago a foreigner, who gave him five hundred piaftres for going to fee I 'forget what ruins, ten leagues from this place.'- Very well,' replied we; 'tell the pacha that we will not pur'chafe at fo dear a rate the fight of fome heaps of ftones, and that he may commit extortions on the Greeks and Jews if he is in want of money: as for us, we have not five hundred "We had found nothing but fofas in the apartment of the officers; we faw two chairs in that of the pacha, placed at a little distance from him. On entering, we made him our faluta tion in the oriental ftyle, which he returned *. He invited us to fit down : the drogueman and the agent's fon fquatted on a carpet. After the cufto mary compliments on our fafe arrival, the pacha spoke to us of his health, and begged us to feel his pulfe. He was a good-looking old man, upwards of seventy years of age. We complied with his requeft; we told him that he was in good health, and that he had ftill upwards of twenty years to live. He appeared satisfied with this prediction. "He afterwards afked us what was the object of our travels. Curiosity and the defire of acquiring knowledge,' antwered we, bring us into C your island. We have passed some months at Conftantinople; we have * vifited most of the islands of the Ar-piaftres, and if we had, we would chipelago; we would wish to take a ♦ look at the celebrated country which " you govern, and gather fome of thofe balfamic plants which Heaven has here fcattered with profufion."* That cannot be,' faid he to us coldly I cannot give you fuch a permiffion.' We showed him our firmans, by which we had the power of vifiting all the countries fubject to the Ottoman government. That cannot be,' continued the pacha. We intanced feveral travellers; we spoke of feamen, who walk about the island with the greatest freedom, who go a shooting, and wherever they pleafe. The pacha ftill repeated, That cannot be; your life would be expofed: to this I can$ not confent.' find means to employ them to a better purpose.' The drogueman endea voured to get us to confent to some fmaller facrifice. Not a piaftre, not a 'parat,' faid we; befides, it should not be through your means that we 'would treat, if we fhould entertain fuch a wifh.' "It was ufelefs, in the prefent circumftances, to make a longer stay in Candia. We resolved to go, if possible, by land to Canea, perfuaded that we fhould find from the conful every ac commodation of which we ftood in need. We asked for a janizary to accompany us; the aga fent us a man well known, who had been fettled in the town for a long time: a Turkish muleteer, himself a'janizary, furnished "It confifts in carrying the right hand to the heart, and inclining the head a little. The Turks pronounce between themselves their falam alaik, falam alaik-hom, which they take good care not to say to a non-Musfulman.” 4 0 2 us with horses, and ferved us as a guide. We knew that there was nothing to fear from the Greeks, and two janizaries fettled and married, who publicly undertook to conduct us to Canea, were a fufficient fecurity to us. We tranquillized the French fhip-captains, who expreffed uneafinefs on our account. We fent our baggage by fea with a Greek fervant, and fet out by ourfelves, and without baggage, on the 17th of Thermidor (4th of Auguft) in the morning. "Thefe janizaries, born in the island, fpoke Greek very well, and drank wine and brandy ftill better. We were extremely well fatisfied with them; and we learnt, even from their mouth, that the pacha had spoken to us of robbers only in order to get money, and have a pretext for giving us, at our own expenfe, an escort on which he would have levied his claims. I should have fuppreffed this anecdote, which is of little importance, had I not thought that it may be useful to travellers, and did it not fhow, at the fame time, how greedy the agents of the Turkish government are after money, and what little delicacy they ufe as to the means of procuring it. "The environs of Candia prefent a few fertile plains, cultivated, and fome riting grounds fufceptible of being so. At a little distance to the fouth, is feen an infulated mountain, in the form of a pyramid, at the foot of which one paffes in going to vifit the ruins of Gortyna: the Europeans know it by the name of Jupiter's mountain. To the fouth-welt, Mount Ida, covered with fnow almost all the year, throws out, on one fide, fome branches towards the town; and, on the other, runs to join the mountains of Sphachia, in like manner covered with fnow during eight or nine months." Vol. ii. p. 184. CRETE GOVERNMENT OF THE "THE ifland of Crete is divided into three pachaliks or governments, the chief places of which are Candia, Canea, and Retimo. In the first of thefe towns is a pacha with three tails, frafkier, or general in chief of all the forces of the ifland. In the other two, is a pacha with two tails, independent of that of Candia, as to the adminiftrative part and the police, but subject to him in every thing that concerns the military department. All three, in their turn and in their provinces, are to fuperintend the collection of the impoft, and the fafety of the places which are intrusted to them. They are also bound to caufe juftice to be done by the cadis, and to order their fentences to be executed, as we have said elsewhere. "The pachaliks are divided into a certain number of diftricts, and each district comprifes, in its extent, a certain number of villages, fome of which belong to the imperial mofques, fome to the fultana-mother; and the greater number, under the name of MalikianeAgaffi, are granted for life to agas or lords, in confideration of a fum of money, more or lefs great, paid into the imperial treasury before the firman of inveftiture, and an annual quit-rent, which is carried into the coffers of the treasurer of Candia, for the maintenance of the fortreffes and the pay of the troops of the country. "All land owners, Greeks or Muffulmans, pay to the aga, to the mofque, or to the fultan, a seventh of the produce of their lands. They are alfo obliged to carry their olives to the mills which the agas alone have a right to caufe to be conftructed. Oil pays a feventh; and, what becomes a very important object to the lord, the crufts, or miry waters, which remain as an indemnification for the workmea whom he places at the mill for the extraction of the oil, and for the horses that he furnishes for the preffing of the olives. "The police of the village belongs to the aga: for this purpose he appoint a foubachi, a Muffulman like himself, a fubaltern tyrant, always more greedy, more untractable, than his mafter. Being an informer of every thing he fees, of every thing he hears, a troublesome * "Crufts or lees. From these a rather confiderable quantity of oil is drawn, as well as from the waters which have been poured boiling on the lees after the extraction of the virgin oil. These waters are received into large, refervoirs : the oil which detaches itself from the lees, or thick part, rifes by degrees to the furface of the water." inquifitor inquifitor into the fortune of all, inceffantly occupied in fetting the inhabitants at variance, in fomenting hatred among them, the foubachi is the moft mifchievous being that Turkish policy has created for the misfortune of the Greeks. The aga makes ufe of him for punishing the fmalleft faults, real or fuppofed, by arbitrary fines, by imprisonment, and not unfrequently even by the baftinado. "The Greeks appoint among themLelves a capitan, or primate, charged to conciliate people's minds, and to terminate in an amicable manner the differences which may arife among them. He is a juftice of the peace, to whofe opinion the wifeft always fubmit, in order to avoid the formidable claw of the cadi, to whofe tribunal all litigious affairs are carried as a laft refort. The primate also watches over the intereft of all. To him it is that the aga addreffes himself when he has orders to give, or requests to make; when he requires labourers for the culture of his fields, or for works of public utility. The Greeks alfo appoint a dafcalos, or writer, who keeps a regifter of the names of the inhabitants, of the fums at which they are taxed for their karatch, and of those which they are to pay the aga after each harvest. "No Greek can marry without the permillion of the aga, a permiffion which he must purchase by a prefent, fuch as a sheep, à lamb, or a few fowls. If the fair one please the aga, he fometimes keeps her for himself, without any one daring to oppofe it. The cudgel is always ready to ftrike the reluctant Greek; and woe be to the audacious man who thould prefer a complaint to the pacha or to the Porte! He would pay with his fortune, and frequently with his head, for fuch a ftep. The aga, in this cafe, marries, in the kapin manner, with the free confent, or what is understood to be fuch, of this woman. Ottoman manners oppofe his living with her; and if the perfifted in refuting to receive his hand, however powerful the aga might be, he would be obliged to defift from his pretenfions. Not unfrequently, after having kept this Greek woman two or three years, he turns her off for another, and marries her to fome Greek inhabitant of the village, who dares not refufe her. It is afferted, that it is uncommon for a Greek woman not to be flattered at fharing the bed of her lord, young or old, whatever may be, the fhame which the men attach to it, and the fate that he must experience fooner or later; fo true is it that here, as elfewhere, authority is feductive, and vanity not to be refifted. "Married men are not permitted to quit the island, unlefs they are mariners or merchants. There has been feen hanging to the maft of his boat a karavokéri, who had dared to infringe this law, and who had, by ftealth, carried unhappy beings to the Gulf of Ephesus. Bachelors are, nevertheless, permitted to go and work in the Morea and elsewhere; but a tax of fixty parats or two piaftres a head is required of them before their departure. "If a murder happen in the village, or on its territory, and the delinquent be not known, the aga muft pay to the pacha a fum of money, which he levies on all the inhabitants. He retains a part for himfelf: this is the cuftom in Turkey; never does money pafs through the hands of a man without his keeping a portion of it. Taxes here are always arbitrary, and more or lefs heavy, according to the population and the circumstances of the inhabitants. If it be a Muffulman who has been found dead, the fum demanded is exorbitant, because religion has been outraged in one of its members. Such an affaflination, befides, is almost always followed by the death of feveral Greeks. The relations and friends of the deceased think it. their duty, and that their honour is interefted, to affaflinate, in their turn, the firft inhabitants that happen to fall in their way; and though the law does not authorize them to do this, and ought even to punish them, they are almoft always abfolved by popular opinion. "If a Greek have committed a serious offence, or if he be accused of any, which amounts nearly to the fame thing, the pacha intervenes, and demands the delinquent, in order to have him tried and condemned. For this purpofe he muft apply to the aga, who gives him up immediately, or de * "Master or captain of a bark, boat, or vessel." fends fends him till after the fentence of the cadi. The Greek often gets out of a fcrape, by means of the arrangements which he enters into with his aga, and of the facrifices which he makes towards him and the pacha. He who has nothing, pays with his head; he who poffelles fomething, is inceffantly exposed to lose it, as has been shown: this depends on the will of the pacha, and fiequently too on that of the foubachi. THE SPHACHIOTS. "THE inhabitants of the high mountains fituated to the fouth of Canea and Retimo, are confidered as the real defcendants of thofe famous Cretans fo long mafters of the country. Known at the prefent day under the name of Sphachiots, they are diftinguished from the other Greeks by their tall ftature, by their handsome look, by their love of liberty, by their courage, their skill, and, above all, by the hatred which they have vowed against the ufurpers of their island. "With all the means which the law of the strongeft has put into the hands of the aga, it may well be fufpected" Mountains have been at all times, that he never fails to abuse them, and to fqueeze as much as he can the unfortunate cultivators. For inftance, he purchases, at a low price, their commodities (with the exception of wine), which he generally does not pay for till after he has fold them, and derived from them confiderable profit. "All that I have juft faid is applicable only to the Greek villages fubject to the agas. Thofe which belong to mofques, or to the fultana-mother, are fomewhat lefs oppreffed than the others, becaufe the cultivators may have their complaints heard by the fultan or the inspectors of the mosques, who are interested in protecting them against the agents that they employ for the recovery of their rights. The Turkish villages, like thofe of the Greeks, are fubject to the police of the aga. Owners of eftates pay in the fame manner; but they are all exempt from gratuitous labour, and the aga would foon be difplaced and punished, if all the inhabitants preferred at once their complaints to the pacha, or to the Porte, against any injuftice of too revolting a nature. "It is unneceflary to repeat here that the Greeks can neither occupy employments emanating from the government, nor can be admitted into any corps of troops, unless they have embraced the religion of Mahomet. "Thus it is that the island, which fo long profpered under the laws of Minos, is at this day governed; thus it is that the inhabitants of a country, where liberty in a manner took birth, are bent under the yoke of the moft fhameful flavery, notwithftanding the fea which furrounds them, and the mountains by which they are defended." P. 202. and among all nations, the last afylum of liberty, as they have always been the abode of ftrength and health. A rugged untractable foil, which affords little fubfiftence, which compels man to a long and obftinate labour, which fubjects him to fobriety, and condemns him to all forts of privations, scarcely tempts conquering nations; when every rock, befides, is transformed into a fortrefs; when it is necessary to fight at every step vigorous, energetic men, who defend with obftinacy the foil which has given them birth, and the independence which it procures them. "Under the Romans, under the Saracens, under the Venetians, and under the Turks, the Sphachiots had found means to preserve their laws and their customs. They annually appoint. ed their magistrates in the general affemblies of the people. Obliged by the Turks to tranfport, in fummer, from the top of their mountains, the ice neceflary for the consumption of the inhabitants of Canea and Retimo, they paid no tax, no impost; they had no agas; they never faw among them the agents of the Turkish government; they formed, in a word, a republic in fome measure independent, when, in 1769, fome Ruffian emiffaries came to difturb the peace, and impair the happiness which these privileged Greeks enjoyed on their mountains. "Whether Catharine had really conceived the project of expelling the Turks from Europe, and of placing her grandfon on the throne of Con ftantine; whether the wifhed only to call the attention of her enemies to a diftance from the places whither the was going to carry her principal forces; it is certain that, on the unexpected appearance of fome Ruffian line-of battle battle fhips, in February 1770, in the environs of Coron and of Navarin, all the Greeks of the Morea, thofe of Macedonia and of Epirus, and the greater part of thofe of the Archipelago, rofe at the fame inftant, flew to arms, and manifefted a courage of which they were not thought capable. At this period twenty thousand mufkets diftributed opportunely, and ten thousand Ruffians commanded by experienced generals, would certainly have produced, throughout European Turkey, a revolution which would for ever have delivered the Greeks of thofe countries from the Ottoman yoke. "The Sphachiots, in thefe circumftances, were not the laft to take up arms. Some hundreds of the braveft among them went and joined the Mainots their friends, and proceeded together to offer their fervices to Count Orloff. A greater number were preparing to fet out, when they received an account that the Ruffians, who had but three ships of the line and two frigates, which were deftitute of military ftores and land forces, had raised the fiege of Coron, and deferted the Greeks, who had already made themfelves masters of Navarin, Patras, Mifitra, and fome other towns lefs important. “The Albanian Mussulmans, against whom no precaution had been taken, either by fea or by land; they, who a few batteries on the Ifthmus of Corinth, and a few vessels of fmall force in the Gulfs of Lepante and Athens, would have prevented from coming into the Morea, immediately spread themfelves over that peninfula, beat every where the Greeks, difheartened by the unexpected retreat of the Ruffians, and inade among them a horrible faughter. The ravage which thefe Albanians committed on that unfortunate land, will never be repaired as long as the Turks shall be mafters of thofe countries, and the caprice of a few rulers fhall be able to difpofe of the fortunes and the lives of the inhabitants. "The pacha of Candia, informed of the conduct of the Sphachiots, refolved, in the fame year 1770, to march against them with all the forces of the ifland. He wished to exterminate them, and by those means afford a terrible example of feverity to all the Greeks who might be tempted to imitate them. The Turks always ready to fight when they are perfuaded that there are Chriftians to be killed, towns to be plundered, boys and girls to be violated, and slaves of all ages and of both fexes to be fold, were foon united under their colours. Soldiers and cultivators, traders and workinen, all wished to take a part in this expcdition. Fifteen thousand men, armed at all points, arrived in a few days at the neareft mountains, on which they found not one inhabitant. The women and children of the Sphachiots, accompanied by the old men and the infirm, had gained the most elevated fpots, and the moft inacceffible places. Thofe whofe age allowed them to handle a mulket or a fword, to the number of upwards of two thoufand, pofted with intelligence at the fecond chain of their mountains, difputed with courage every rock, stopped for a long time at every gorge the Turks by no means habituated to this manner of fighting; and when a paffage was forced, or a rock carried, the Sphachiots, lightly clothed, and lightly armed, accustomed to climb mountains, disappeared in a moment; while the Turk, who knows not how to fight but on horfeback, who is both heavily clothed, and heavily armed, could not follow his enemy across the rocks and precipices, which it was neceffary to clear, in order to reach him. "During the whole fummer the Turks difplayed a great deal of perfeverance in fighting the Sphachiots, but being afterwards furprised at a refiftance which they did not expect, difappointed in their hopes, frightened at the approaches of the cold, and tired of a painful and difagreeable war, they loudly demanded to return home. The Sphachiots, on their fide, found themfelves reduced to the last extremity: almost all their villages had been fet on fire; a great number of their women and children had been carried off; they had loft their flocks; their provifions were exhaufted; and the earth, which they could not cultivate, no longer afforded them any thing; fo that they received with pleasure the firft proposals that were made to them: they confented to pay the annual tribute to which all the Greeks are fubject; and, by thefe means they were enabled |