IN THE MOREA. 



41 



Tlie coast indented with small creeks, containing the i-ow-boats 

 used universally in piratical excursions, is every where surrounded l)y 

 rocks and exposed to winds which render it unsafe for transports and 

 ships of burden. On the arrival of an enemy, their villages and 

 towers along the shore were deserted, and the people retired to the 

 mountains, the steep ridges of Tiiygetus, that rise from the shore, 

 where other villages and securer valleys afforded them a temporary 

 shelter from the storm of invasion. Should a body of troops be 

 landed, and wreak their vengeance on the deserted habitations, the 

 first rising gale cuts them off from all hopes of assistance from their 

 fleet. A hardy people, well acquainted with every path of their 

 native mountains, armed to a man with excellent rifles, dispersing 

 easily by day, and assembling as easily every night, would distress 

 them every hour they staid, and harass them at every step, if they 

 advanced. The very women, well acquainted with the use of arms, 

 have more than once poured ruin from the walls of some strong-built 

 tower, or well-situated village, on the assailants, from whom they had 

 nothing to expect but slaughter or captivity, if conquered. The 

 country admits not of the conveyance of artillery, and their towers, 

 ill calculated as they may seem for the improved warfare of more 

 polished nations, offered a powerful means of resistance against the 

 efforts of the Turks, and had more than once materially delayed their 

 progress. 



Should the Turks attack them by land, their frontier to the nortli 

 is still more impenetrable. The loftiest and most inaccessible rocks, 

 and the highest summits of Taygetus occupy the whole line, leaving 

 only two roads that are shut in by the mountain on one side, and the 

 sea on the other. The passes of the interior part of the country are 

 known only to the natives, and to penetrate along the coast, while the 

 Mainiots are in possession of the mountains, would require courage 

 and discipline very superior to such as are generally displayed by the 

 Turkish soldiery. In the war conducted by Lambro, with Russian 

 money, the Mainiots were found so ti-oublesome to the Turks, that a 

 combined attack was made upon their country by the fleet under the 



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