Henry Skene, Esq., on the Albanians. 327 



Alexius Angelas, and Baldwin. He says that they had not 

 yet been converted to Christianity,* and this historian wrote 

 about the year 1200. But the Blaeko-Bulgarian kingdom 

 was for a time attached to the See of Rome by Pope Innocent 

 the Third, therefore their conversion must be ascribed to some 

 date in that interval. The correspondence on this subject 

 with the Archbishop of Zagorei, alludes to the Italian origin 

 of the Blackst, and, it seems to have been admitted by all 

 the Byzantine historians, that they were the remains of the 

 Roman Colonies, planted by Trajan in Dacia and Moesia. 

 Chalcocondylas notices the Blacks, in the fifteenth century, as 

 extending from Dacia to Mount Pindus ;J and their princi- 

 pal town in the present day is Metzovo, situated on that great 

 mountain range. 



These are nearly all the data, which have been handed 

 down, with regard to this people, which still exists in the 

 identical state described by the writers of the Lower Empire. 

 Their language appears not to be a Sclavonian dialect, as 

 some have said, but it contains so many words of Latin deriva- 

 tion that a western origin must be assigned to it, in prefer- 

 ence to a northern one. It is a singular fact, that the Blacks 

 call themselves in their own patois, Romans. Their total 

 number in the provinces of European Turkey is supposed 

 to exceed half a million ; and, during the Greek revolution, 

 they furnished at least ten thousand armedmen under Zougas. 

 This leader was formerly the protopalicar, or lieutenant, of 

 their famous chief Catz Antoni, who was put to death in the 

 most cruel manner by Ali Pasha for numberless acts of bri- 

 gandage. Zougas and his Blacks were the executioners of 

 the unfortunate Gardikiotes, whom Ali immolated to his thirst 

 for revenge. 



Some inhabitants of this ill-fated town had outraged the 

 mother and sister of the " Albanian Leopard," about forty 

 years before. On her death-bed, the old woman obliged her 

 two children to swear that they would inflict a bloody ven- 

 geance for her insulted honour ; and Ali kept his vow. The 



* Nicetas Anual., Alex. Comnen, lib. 3. c. 5. p. 337 

 t Gesta Innocentii Tertii, p. 32. c. 68. 

 I Lnonicas Chal. 1. 1. p. 16. 



