Historieal Sketch of the. Greek Klephtai. 
on their part; but from. the circumstance 
of their having become acquainted with 
only the most. effeminate and degraded por- 
tion of the Greek,nation. , ‘Tourists. natu- 
tally resorted to those ,parts of Greece 
which were. the. most. accessible,.and the 
most worth visiting... But the fertility and 
exposure of these very spots had long en- 
sured, on the part of the Turks, both the 
will and the power to seize them. Thus, 
their Greek inhabitants became debased by 
patient submission to a barbarous yoke; 
avhile those, who really deserved the glo- 
tious title of Greeks, abandoned such pol- 
duted spots, and took refuge among barren 
and inaccessible mountains. Hence arose 
a considerable portion of that gallant class 
termed by the invaders Klephtai, or rob- 
bers, a title which they afterwards bore 
with pride and exultation.””—‘‘ But the ori- 
gin of a numerous portion of those Kleph- 
tai, with whom %t is the object of the first 
‘part of my first class to bring the reader ac- 
quainted, was yet more glorious. 
*When the Turks seized upon Thessaly, 
the more timid and feeble part of the popu- 
dation submitted to the overwhelming num- 
-vers of their oriental invaders ; but all those, 
whose souls were as intrepid as their frames 
were hardy, teok refuge among the sur- 
rounding mountain chains of Olympus, 
Pelion, Agrapha, and Pindus. From 
thence they waged an incessant warfare of 
descents, for the purpose of plunder and 
desolation, till not only their oppressors, 
-but sometimes even those of their cauntry- 
men who had betrayed the common cause, 
and were cultivating the lands as Turkish 
tenants, found that they were paying a dear 
rent for the usurpation of the fertile Thes- 
salian plains. 
“The protracted resistance of even a con- 
quered nation ‘always procures for it, in the 
end, favourable terms from the victor; and, 
accordingly, the Turks, whose insolence is 
ever cowed by long opposition; soon pro- 
posed a treaty with these mountain heroes. 
Here again a second schism took place 
among the Greeks. Some refused to enter 
into any agreement with the infidel usurp- 
ers of their country, and they have main- 
tained their glorious determination up to 
the present day; at the risk of passing with 
all genteel diplomatists for ultra-liberals : 
men who carry the love of virtue and 
freedom to a criminal degree of infatuation ! 
Others agreed to cease from molesting the 
Turks in their new acquisition, upon con- 
dition of being themselyes secured in their 
Bosstssions, and of being allowed to form, 
for their own defence, a body of militia, 
called Armatoloi, or armed men. 
' * All Greece, from the Vardar, or Axius, 
to the Isthmus of Corinth, was thus gra- 
dually divided into seventeen: Armatoliks ; 
the ‘Turkish termination used in Pashalik, 
Cadilik, &e. being applied to the district 
placed under the superintendance of a ¢ap- 
tain (Kamdlavos) of Armatdles, whose 
Montuty Mac. No. 412.— Supp. 
609 
office was. denominated Protaton, or that_of 
primates. OF these, ten were in Thessaly 
and Livadia; four in Etolia, Epirus, and 
Acarnania ; and three in Southern Mace- 
donia. The Morea never contained any ; 
that wretched province, long after their in- 
stitution, having been alternately snatched 
‘and mangled by the: talons of Turkey and 
Venice, those most odious of despetic and 
oligarchical monsters. The rank of cap- 
tain was hereditary; and the profession, of 
an Armatodle probably descendible. . The 
members composing each band were called 
Pallikars: aterm for which we haye no 
English equivalent, but which nearly an- 
swers. to the French expression “des 
braves.”” Of these, the first, or Protopa- 
likar, acted as lieutenant and secretary to 
the captain, and bore, as a badge of office, a 
silver writing-case affixed to his sash; be- 
sides the silver plates bound over the knees, 
and the ornamented buttons which studded 
‘the breast of every Armatole. 
“The most fatal of all national miscal- 
culations, -is the attempt of feeble posses- 
.Sors to coax rapacious foes into friendship. 
That which had happened on a gigantic 
scale to the Roman empire, occuired in 
miniature to those Greeks who fell into 
this system of conciliation.’ The Armatdles 
‘were considered out of the Turkish pal, 
and every effort was employed to extirpate 
them, principally by bestowing the office 
.of Dervendgi-Basht,” nominally «grand in- 
spector of roads, on the most active Pasha 
of Greece. The first step in this atre- 
-cious system of policy, was, to destroy the: 
Klephts by means of the Armatéles, who,. 
by the terms of the treaty, were unhappily 
pledged, at the requisition of the Pasha, or 
of his delegate, the Mousselim, aud the 
Greek primates, or notables, to assist in 
maintaining the public tranquillity against 
all who infringed it. The latitude gained 
by this vague expression, may be easily 
imagined by all those who see throughout 
Europe every atrocity daily practised: on 
the plea of heeping things quiet. — Ac- 
cordingly, the Armatdles were but. too 
often employed in hunting down the 
Klephts. Foiled in this. chase by the 
activity of the prey, and the wildness 
of their mountain eovers, the Moslems 
directed their policy to the’ extirpation of 
the Armatdles, whose possessions were 
more defenceless, and whose courage they 
believed to be less untameable. Happily 
this idea was erroneous : for the Armatoles, 
convinced, at length, of the folly of tempo- 
rising with men at once ferocious and faith- 
less, generally resented the infraction of 
their rights by flying into the mountains, 
where they led the life, and often either 
proudly assumed, or were ignominiously 
branded with, the name of Klephts. | Still 
their warfaye was desultory and occasional, 
and its duration uncertain. Frequently 
they won or received back their districts, 
and resunwd eve their former name ; and. 
41 owing 
