TURKISH CHARACTER. 213 



Salonica what I would not have believed if I had 

 not seen, and what has, I fear, disclosed to me 

 too much of the natural barbarity of the Turkish 

 character. 



I would willingly persuade myself that what I 

 am now about to relate was nothing more than a 

 night-mare, the child of my own disturbed ima- 

 gination, but the reality is unhappily but too vi- 

 sible, even now, to my eyes. I would willingly 

 pass over so disgusting a scene, the very recol- 

 lection of which alternately boils and chills my 

 blood ; but truth forbids me to be silent, and in- 

 dignation impels me to proclaim it. Will it be 

 credited that what I am about to relate took 

 place in Europe in the nineteenth century ? I 

 fear it is but too clear an indication of what one 

 might see, if it were possible to look behind the 

 scenes in Turkish life, that the much vaunted ad- 

 vances of the Turks in civilization are imaginary, 

 and that Turks, in general, are at this day, what 

 they have ever been, and, I have no doubt, will 

 ever remain. 



A short time previously to our arrival at Salo- 

 nica, a savage murder had been committed. A 

 woman, her two children, and her niece, who was 



