Narrative of a Journey through Greece, in 1830. With remarks upon the state of the naval and military power of the Ottoman Empire

Preface

. So many works have been published lately relative to Greece, that I fear my adding another to the abeady overstocked list may be considered a superfluous task ; but Greece hitherto has only been described as she appeared during the Turkish rule ; and whilst her struggle for independence was still undecided, her condition at the termination of an eight years' war is not generally known ; and it is in the hope of supplying some information on this point, that I venture to publish the accompanying notes. They are hastily, and, I grieve to say, carelessly written : my absence from England until the present moment having prea

PREFACE.

. vented my preparing them properly for the press ; but I hope my readers will bear in mind that I am sensible how open my style is to criticism ; and I only urge in extenuation of my faults, that the circumstances I have narrated are undoubted facts ; and that those incidents which did not come under my own observation are related on the authority of others, in whom I place implicit reliance. As I am perfectly unconnected with Greece, and Grecian politics, I trust that my remarks upon the President's Government may be 'con sidered unprejudiced. I went to Greece rather biased in favour of his proceedings, but a nearer view of bis policy dispelled my illusion ; and the manner in which he since succeeded in in fluencing the decision of the Prince nominated to the throne of Greece, is a proof how deep are his designs.

The remarks upon the Ottoman Army and Navy were drawn from correct sources of in formation at Constantinople ; and the EngUs h were in such high favour with the Turks when

PREFACE.

. V I was there, that I was enabled to examine se veral of tbe public establishments, which had hitherto been closed to strangers. I cannot conclude these observations without expressing my renewed thanks to many of my countrymen, to whose hospitality I was much indebted during my travels in the East ; and although I abstain from mentioning their names, yet I trust that they will not suppose me un mindful of their kindness. T. A. T. London, 25th Oct. 1830. C ONTEN T S.

Chapter I

Chiarenza. — Land at Katacolo. — Pyrgos. — Olympia. — Tri potamia. — Plain of Dara. — Mount Artemesius. — Pass of Portes. — Plain of Argos . . Page 1

Chapter II

Count J. Capo d'lstrias. — Parties in Greece. — Arrival of the President. — His ambitious views and bad Government. — Counts Viario and John Capo d'lstrias. — Assembly at Argos. — Greek Oratory. — State of Finances. — Argos. — Hydra. — Spezzia. Ipsara. — Scio. — Vourla . . 40

Chapter III

The Cyclades. — Cape Colonna. — Temple of Minerva. — Ægina. — Tombs. — Palicari. — Orphanotrope. — Museum. — Temple of Jupiter. — Panhellenium. — Temple of Venus. — Quarantine. — Prince Demetrius Ypsilanti. — Ipsariot boat men. — Poros. — Russian squadron. — Greek fleet — Commerce. — Damala. — Trœzen . . CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Ruins of Trœzen. — Grove of Æsculapius. — Theatre. — Mo nastery of Agios Demetrios. — Argos. — The Citadel.— Ancient Theatre. — Temple of the God Cephissus. — Monastery — Rejoicings on Christmas Day. — Fount of Erasinus. — Marsh of Lerna. — Jocrisse's Cave. — Cyclopian Tower. — Ruins of Mycenæ. — Tomb of Agamemnon. — Temple of Juno. — Tiryns . . . . .109

Chapter V

Napoli di Romania. — The Palamide. — Colocotroni at tacks Griva, and is repulsed. — State of society at Napoli. — Greek ladies. — Deficiency of education. — Greek troops. — Regular forces. — Infantry. — Cavalry. — Pay of the army. — Leave Napoli. — Plain of Argos . . 140

Chapter VI

Plain of Tripolizza. — Mantinea. — Tripolizza. — Turkish Prisoners. — Concealed wealth. — Battle of Navarino. - We enter Laconia. — Greek marriages. — Source of the Alpheus. — Village of Bruliah. — Sparta. — Mistra. — Logotheti. — The Epiphany. — The Curfew bell. — Ancient marbles at Mistra. — Ruins of Sparta.— Sarcophagus at Cologonia 167

Chapter VII

Ceremony in the Metropolitan Church. — Revenues of the priests. — 'Present state of the Greek Church. — Mavromi chalis, or Petro Bey. — Remarks on the necessity of colo nizing Greece — We leave Mistra. — Cypress-tiee at Tru pæ.—Fount osthe Eurotas. — Sleep at Spaneika. Lon dari. — Megalopolis Caritena.— Character of Colocotroni. — Temple of Apollo, at Bassæ.— Khan in the plain of Tri polizza.—We reach Argos . CONTENTS. IX

Chapter VIII

Nomination of Prince Leopold to the Sovereignty. — Dis appointment of Capo d'lstrias. — Opinions of the Greeks. — Discussions relative to the Frontiers. — Epidaurus. — Arrival of the Duchess of Plaisance at Ægina. — We proceed to Athens ; anchor in the Piræus. — Karaskakai. — Enter Athens. — Bey's Palace . . . 242

Chapter IX

Ruins of Athens. — Monument of Lysicrates. — Temple of Jupiter Olympius. — Fount of Callirhoe. — Temple of Theseus. — The Pnyx. — The Parthenon. — The Erectheion. — Bey of Athens. — Ypsali and Padishah. — The Maid of Athens. — Va lue of Land. — Sieges of Athens. — Operations of Sir Richard Church.— We sail for Salamis . . . 262

Chapter X

Salamis. — Vasso. — Colouri. — Departure of the President. — Irregular army. — Origin of the Palicari. — Their conduct during the war.. — Instances of broken faith. — Marco Bot zaris. — Skirmish in Albania. — We leave Salamis, and land at Kenchræ. — Isthmus of Corinth. — American Colony at Hexamilia. — Proceedings of the American Committee — The Acro-Corinthus. — Corinth. — Sicyon.— Gulf of Corinth, — Pass of Acrata. — Defeat of the Turks . . 291

Chapter XI

We proceed towards Megaspileon. — Arrive at the Con vent. — Remarks of the Monks upon religion. — The Church. — Picture of the Holy Virgin painted by St. Luke. — Origin X CONTENTS of the Monastery. — Wealth of the Priests— The Library. — Ibrahim repulsed from Megaspileon. — Vostizza. — Lepanto. — Castles of the Morea and Roumelia. — Patras. — Hadgi Christo's irregular Cavalry. — Society at Patras. — Embark for Zante. — Remarks . . 322 Remarks on the Actual State of the Naval and Military Power osthe Ottoman Empiiie . 351 ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVINGS. P.ge Castle of C'alavrita* . . . Frontisfiece Jocrisse's Cave, near Argos . . . .130 View of Mistra ..... 191 Temple of Apollo, at Bassæ .... 238 Megaspileon ...... 322 The Dardanelles . . . . . .433 WOODCUTS. Harpy ....... 88 Gate of Lions, Mycenæ . . . . . 13.5 Torso of a Persian or Caryatides . . . 272 * This should be Castle of Caiitcna NARRATIVE of a JOURNEY THROUGH GR E E C E.

Chapter I

Chiarenza. — Land at Katacolo. — Pyrgos. — Olympia. — Tripotamia. — Plain of Dara.— Mount Artemesius. — Pass of Portes. — Plain of Argos. The month of October 1829 had nearly terminated when I embarked in His Majesty's ship Ferret, Captain Hastings, on rny way from Corfu to Pyrgos, a small town on the western coast of the Morea, which of late years has been the principal point of communication between the Ionian Islands and Greece ; and from thence it was my intention to proceed to Napoli di Romania and Constantinople. B STA. MAURA— LEUCAS— ITHACA. 2 At this moment both Greece and Turkey offered plentiful sources of amusement to the traveller, a nine years' contest having at last restored to the first her independence, whilst the latter, after seeing her Northern enemies at the gates of Istamboul, was, for the first time, undeceived as to her power, and forced to ac knowledge that victory had passed away from the standard of Mahomet.

To Greece, however, my attention was particularly directed ; for not only was I strongly tinctured with a classical enthusiasm for the country which had been the scene of such celebrated deeds in early times, but I also felt anxious to see those sturdy moun taineers who, emulating the fame of their an cestors, had for so many years successfully defied the power of the Porte, and who, whatever may be their failings, deserve much credit for the many sacrifices they made in the cause of liberty. I was however prepared to meet with some difficulties and much inconvenience dur ing my projected tour ; and experience proved to me that I was not mistaken. The day after leaving Corfu, we saw Sta. Maura and the promontory of Leucas, whence Sappho cast herself into the sea ; we then passed the rocky island of Ithaca, and ran close to ZANTE— CEPHALONIA, &c. 3 the precipitous shores of Cephalonia, which to the northward are bleak and dreary ; but on doubling the western point, the scene improves ; groves of olive-trees and whitewashed houses are scattered along the slope of the mountains, and above them rises the black mountain, which is said to be five thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea : but tbe most beau tiful of the Ionian Islands is Zante ; and when I first saw it, I could not but coincide in the remark of a Zantiot who was standing near me, and exclaimed with great fervor — " Zante !

Zante ! Fior di Levante ;" for such is the attribute bestowed upon it by the Ionians : Corfu, with much less justice, is styled the " Fior del Mundo." In the evening, when the sunset, the view from our ship was delightful. To seaward were Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Sta. Maura ; the bold mountains of Western Greece, Parnassus, Mount Olenos, and the plains of Gastouni, or Elis, occupied the opposite line of the horizon ; and to the southward, Cape Katacolo stretched far out to sea, and almost hemmed us within a circle of land ; but the bright tints of a Medi terranean evening were wanting to render the B CHIARENZA. scene more characteristic, — already had the hea vens assumed the cold hues of winter, and the distant mountains were capped with snow. On the coast of Greece, one of the most pro minent objects was Castel Tomese, an old Vene tian fort, now a ruin, but in former days affording protection to the town of Chiarenza, or Clarentza, which by a strange decree of fortune has given the title of Clarence to our Royal Family.

It would appear that, at the time when the Latin conquerors of Constantinople divided the Western Empire amongst their leading chieftains, Clarentza, with the district around it, and which comprised almost all of ancient Elis, was formed into a duchy, and fell to the lot of one of the victorious nobles, who trans mitted the title and dukedom to his descend ants, until the male line failed, and the heiress of Clarence married into the Hainault family. By this union, Philippa, the consort of Edward the Third, became tbe representative of the Dukes of Clarence; and on this account was Prince Lionel invested with the title, which has since remained in our Royal Family. It is certainly singular that a wretched village in Greece should have bestowed its name upon the British Monarch. Baffling winds and adverse currents prevent- QUARANTINE. 5 ed our reaching Cape Katacolo until the third day of our voyage ; and although this point is ten miles distant from Pyrgos, yet I was obliged to land there, the coast opposite to the town being dangerous from the surf which beats upon it.

There is a small wooden house at Katacolo, used as a dogana ; and when I landed there, having by chance touched a bale of cotton, I from that moment was cut off from all communication with my companions in the boat, and by a penance of three weeks' strict seclusion could alone hope to rejoin civilized society. I felt as if I were outlawed, for the very name of quarantine is disagreeable ; the plague, sickness, death — all are allied to it, and one never hears a person speak with much satisfac tion of the time he passed when immured in a Lazaretto. Yet this is one of the necessary evils to which a traveller in the Levant must submit without repining, convinced as he is of the inestimable benefits these establishments have conferred upon Europe.

The custom-house was occupied by a Greek, who promised to procure horses for my con veyance to Pyrgos ; and until they arrived, I tried to look with admiration on the classic ii'round around me: I called to mind that I was treading on the land which had produced those THEODORE. 6 great and virtuous men whose exploits and glo rious deeds had been the theme of my early lessons; that this was the country where first civilization dawned upon Europe, and from whence we derived our first lights of science ; and that within a few miles of me was the celebrated Olympia, where, in former days, the fiery youth of Greece were seen eagerly contending for the prize, and displaying an emulation which too often ripened into rivalry and hatred : but there was nothing in the scene before me to call forth corresponding ideas, — the country was uncultivated, and apparently uninhabited ; I could not see a single house, and, instead of viewing any of the fancied forms of ancient heroes, I perceived a tattered, dirty-looking wretch driving before him three miserable little horses, which I understood were the animals provided for my service ; so, after placing my baggage on one, my servant and I mounted the others, and sitting sideways like the Greeks, we commenced our journey.

My servant Theodore, by the by, was a great character in his own way, and seemed quite transported with delight on having again touched the shores of Greece. At the com mencement of the Greek Revolution he gave up his place at Corfu, and taking with him REMAINS OF PYRGOS. 7 what little money he had saved, proceeded to join the Patriot army ; when having levied a few men, and thus transformed himself into a sort of officer, he, according to his own account, spent all his money, fought like Leonidas, and at last, finding that he had no chance of gain ing either pay, rank, or even food amongst his kindred warriors, was glad again to become a servant at Corfu. His visit to Greece with me seemed to have revived his warlike feelings, and a couple of human skulls which were whitening on the road-side called forth the remark — ■ " Ha, Sir ! look at those rascally Turkish heads : the Greeks fight like lions, and shoot the Turks same as lambs."

The road from Katacolo to Pyrgos is over a plain capable of being profitably cultivated, though now covered with weeds and brambles ; the sea bounds it on the west ; and inland runs a range of rocky hills, where I observed a fortified cavern which had served as a tempo rary refuge to the inhabitants of an adjacent village, during the inroads of the Turkish cavalry. A little beyond this we came to the remains of what had once been Pyrgos, but which now merely presented a dreary assemblage of roof less mud walls: the merciless troops of Ibrahim INHABITANTS OF PYRGOS. had here deeply imprinted the marks of their talent for destruction, the bare walls of two churches and a halfdemolished tower being tbe only indications that a town formerly stood here. Pyrgos once contained about four thousand inhabitants, who being mostly Greeks, the town had not experienced any injury from the contests which took place during the four first years of the war; and in 1825 it was in a flourishing state, and had a considerable trade in the small manufactures of the country ; but its open and unprotected situation in the plain left it an easy prey to the Arabs, who in the follow ing year reduced it to the state in which I saw it.

This was the first proof I remarked of Ibra him's deadly hatred to the Greeks. I had yet to learn, that from Cape Matapan to the Gulf of Corinth, not a single town had escaped the flames, nor a solitary house remained uninjured. The inhabitants of Pyrgos, who, during the war, fled to the most inaccessible spots in the mountains, where many perished from tbe in clemency of the weather and scarcity of food, had now returned and recommenced buildino their dwellings, and two or three houses and several huts had already arisen amidst the ruins. A GREEK BEAUTY. 9 To one of the former I was directed, as the residence of Signor Pasqualigo, tbe British Vice-Consul. All the travellers who had lately visited this part of Greece returned deeply im pressed with the beauty of one of his daughters, whose fame appears to vie with that of the maid of Athens of former days.

On my approaching the house, a pair of sparkling black eyes, which I saw peeping from behind a window, and the succeeding chatter of female voices, assured me that the lady in question was within ; and when I ascended the steps, a very pretty young girl in her national costume, with arched eyebrows, Oriental eyes, and an European complexion, stepped forward to welcome me, in the absence of her father. Amidst the squalid wretchedness which Pyrgos presented, the apparition of such a pretty person was quite gratifying, and I most cordially subscribed to the received opinion respecting her attractions. Katrina and her sister Euphrosyne having ushered me into the house, and invited me to rest upon the sofa until the arrival of their father, com menced preparing a dinner for me ; and when it was ready, they brought it in themselves, and waited at table ; not from necessity, for they bad many servants, but merely in pursu- A GREEK BEAUTY. 10 ance of the ancient custom, which appears to have remained firmly rooted in Greece since the days of Homer.

A person who is unaccus tomed to Greek habits finds these attentions irk some, and feels inclined every moment to request the lady not to give herself any trouble ; but when we reflect that, not many centuries since, our noble dames performed almost equally me nial offices, and that in tbe heroic ages even the daughters of kings scrupled not, when fulfilling the sacred rite of hospitality, to wait upon the stranger, we set aside our modern notions of de votion to the weaker sex, and are perhaps not sorry to find that, for once, it is our turn to take the lead. Pretty Katrina had however one great defect in common with her country women; her eyebrows were painted, and her cheeks were rouged ; but this is so customary among the Greeks, that they scarcely attempt to disguise it. They perhaps still think, as did the Athenian ladies in the time of Pe ricles, that they are not dressed unless their countenances are covered with paint.

If painting is excusable at any time, it is when people have had a fit of the Morea fever; and this was the case with the Vice-Consul and his family, who were just recovering from tbe insidious attacks of their annual foe. The marshes TRAVELLING IN GREECE. 11 between Pyrgos and the sea cause most noxious exhalations* and the wan, sallow complexions of the inhabitants betoken how much they are in jured by them ; indeed, scarcely any part of the Morea is quite exempt from this curse ; and as cultivation and cleanliness are the only remedies for the evil, it is to be feared that many years must elapse ere it is eradicated. Fresh horses having been brought to the door, I bade the young beauties and their father adieu, and, under the especial guidance of an active young Greek, named Anastasius, and two of his countrymen, resumed my journey over the mountains.

Travelling in Greece is conducted in so different a manner from that of any other country, that a person who does not make up his mind to experience every kind of hardship and annoy ance will be much disappointed. Bad horses, a scarcity of food, no inns, and, what is worse, no roads, are only a few of the troubles a traveller has to encounter. Until very lately, he ran the risk of being fired at from behind a tambour, or robbed by some marauding sol diers ; and although no danger of this kind is now to be apprehended, the exposure to the extremes of beat and cold — to the burning rays of the sun in a valley, and the piercing blasts of TRAVELLING IN GREECE. wind on the summit of the mountain, is ex tremely trying to the constitution. In the space of one hour I have been panting with heat and shivering from cold.

At night, with the earth for a bed and his saddle for a pillow, a person feels happy in sharing the fire-side of some peasant, whose filthy mansion he views in the morning with feelings of utter disgust ; and when he awakes, and prepares to pursue his journey, he is still heated, feverish, and unre freshed. In spring and summer travelling is more agreeable, as it is then unnecessary to sleep beneath a roof; but at this time of the year shelter is indispensable. From there being no roads, or at least mere pathways, it is impossible to travel beyond the rate of two or three miles an hour ; and thus, after passing the whole day on horseback, a traveller finds that he has not ridden more than twenty or thirty miles ; and in winter he will not be able to perform more than half that distance. My journey from Pyrgos to Napoli will give a tolerable idea of what travelling is, in the present day, in Greece.

The sun had nearly set when I rode out of Pyrgos ; but time was of importance to me, and 1 determined to hasten onwards, leaving Olympia and the vale of the Alpheus to the right, and following a path OLYMPIAN PLAINS. 13 leading towards the mountainous district of Lalla. At the moment when I was quitting tbe town, an officer and a detachment of French soldiers entered it, escorting some waggons laden with statues and antique marbles, the spoils of Olympia, which the French " savants" had rescued from obscurity by excavating on the supposed site of the temple dedicated to Olympian Jove. The discoveries they made there were not very great ; but the Alpheus during this win ter having been much swollen by the rain, carried off a considerable portion of the soil near where the excavations had been undertaken, and has brought considerable remains to light.

Pouqueville, whose first " Voyage en Grece" is just as fabulous as the stories related by that ingenious person Mendez Pinto, gives a detailed description of what he did not see at Olympia. A gentleman of my acquaintance, some years afterwards, chanced to visit the Olympic plains in company with the author of the " Regene ration de la Grece," who was preparing materials for his second work ; and whilst they were walking over it, he begged Pouqueville to act as cicerone. "Eh! — but, my dear friend," said the other, " I know no more about it than you do : I have never been here before." VILLAGE OF LANZOI. " How !" said the interrogator, affecting sur prise, — " have you never been here before, — you who, in your work upon Greece, say that ' at every step we made, we trampled bronzes and inscriptions under our feet ?' " Bronze helmets have been repeatedly found in the bed of the Alpheus ; and I have seen two, which were apparently votive offerings, one of them having the name of the donor (Dionysius) inscribed upon it : they had been purchased here from the peasants for a few piastres.

After leaving Pyrgos, we rode for some hours through an uneven country, until the barking of dogs, and the glimmering of lights amidst the trees, warned us that we were approaching a village, which my guide called Lanzoi. Here it was resolved that we should rest for a few hours, and Anastasius accordingly knocked at the door of a miserable hovel, where we hoped to obtain admittance. An aged couple presented themselves; and by the light of the fire, which blazed in the middle of the tenement, I could perceive that the distrust which was manifested on their countenances did not cease until they ascertained that I was an Englishman ; for so shamefully did the armed Greeks tyrannize over the peasants, that they were almost as much A FIRE-SIDE PARTY. 15 dreaded as the enemy. A spot by the fire-side was cleared for my reception, where I spread out my cloak as a bed ; and a few eggs having with difficulty been procured in the hamlet, these, with some brown bread, formed my sup per.

Whilst I ate this, my host and hostess, their daughter, a pretty blackeyed maid, some wild bandit-looking Greeks, with fierce countenances and large black moustacbios, and dress ed in the Albanian garb,formed a circle round tbe hearth, and after eliciting from my servant all the information they could respecting me, began to tell their own tales, which related mostly to the events of the last war, and were strongly tinctured with the spirit of exaggeration, or, in other words, lying, for which Greeks both of the olden time and present day have alike been justly famed. One of them declared, that when Ibrahim's troops advanced in this direction, se venty-five Greeks, including himself, had en trenched themselves in a small monastery near the Alpheus, where, for three successive days, they resisted the assaults of seven thousand Arabs, who tried to breach and blow up the walls, but without success !

At last, their water having failed at midnight of the fourth day, they formed themselves into a compact body, and, uttering an inspiriting hurrah, dashed into MARVELLOUS FEATS. 16 the midst of their foes, slew three hundred of them, and succeeded in regaining their moun tain-wilds without the loss of one man. An other of my companions, afraid lest his valiant deeds should be unheard of, declared that he one day killed seven Arabs, and had an oppor tunity of shooting Ibrahim himself, but was afraid to do so, as he must have paid the forfeit of his life. A third then took up the conver sation ; and so they continued praising them selves, until I was weary of listening. Theo dore, who acted as my interpreter, did not fail to remark, when he translated these tales, " You see, Sir, Greeks shoot Turks same as lambs."

I certainly thought, that were I to credit all the marvellous feats related to me, I should have some reason to be of his opinion. The poor people with whom I lodged had been considered wealthy, but they were involved in the common ruin of their village, and now had barely sufficient clothes to shield them from the inclemency of the weather; their daughter, a girl of seventeen, must once have been beautiful, but hardship, starvation, and severe work, had bronzed the tints of her cheeks, and destroyed the delicacy of her features. Notwithstanding their fall from affluence to poverty, they were quite cheerful and happy. THE NABURA. 17 To re-occupy their village, after many months' wandering in the mountains or concealment in caves, was comparative bliss ; and they hoped by assiduous industry, in a few years, to regain their former state of prosperity.

I requited the hospitality of these people with a gift, which, however trifling, far exceeded their expectations. The old man shook me by the hand, and then performing the Greek salutation, by resting his right hand on his heart, wished me happiness and blessings innumerable. The path we followed in continuation of our journey, ran along the banks of the Na bura, a brawling stream which eventually empties its tributary waters into the Alpheus. On either side rose rocky hills, diversified by shrubs and patches of verdure ; and here and there a few oak-trees spread forth their knotty branches in solitary grandeur, or were clustered in beautiful groups, intermixed with the pine, cestus, and dark-leafed cypress. The glen was singularly wild and romantic, and there were no symptoms of habitations near : the only living creature we perceived being a huge wolf, who, when the morning mist cleared up from the valley, was dis closed to our view, on the brink of an over hanging precipice, from which he peered down c A ROMANTIC GLEN. 18 upon tbe dale below.

We continued gra dually ascending the stream until we reached a spot where it was hemmed in by two precipitous rocks, meeting above tbe river, and forming a natural bridge, below which the tor rent rushed at tbe depth of many fathoms:* the track of a footpath denoted that this sin gular communication was often crossed by the fearless Arcadian shepherds. Some of the oaks here appeared to have stood unmolested for ages past, and, although winter was fast approaching, were still clad with verdant leaves ; the earth, covered with nutritive grass instead of being parched by tbe heats of summer, was refreshed by numerous rills which trickled down the mountain sides ; and when we emerg ed from the glen, we discerned around us numerous flocks of sheep and goats, tended by shepherds clad in sheepskin capotes, armed with guns, pistols, and ataghan, and attended by stout dogs of a noble race peculiar to this country, and who are so fierce and powerful, that they fear neither man, or the beasts of tbe forest.