20 



CAUSES OF THE WEAKNESS AND DECLINE 



many Christian communities, the Nestorians and Jacobites in Me- 

 sopotamia, the Maronites of Libanus, the Sphachiots of Crete, the 

 Mainotes of Peloponnesus protected by the fastnesses and narrow 

 defiles of their retreats, escape the depredations and destruction which 

 are often inflicted on the more exposed parts of the country. 



6. There are many districts in Asiatic and European Turkey 

 which are appanages of the great officers of the Porte, or part of the 

 Imperial family. These as well as the Timars or fiefs held under the 

 Sultans are not taxed so severely as other parts of the provinces. 

 On the conquest of the country by the Turks, lands were appro- 

 priated to the maintenance of the church, and the ecclesiastical pro- 

 perty of the nation since that time has been much increased. Many 

 parts of the crown demesnes have been bestowed in this manner by 

 different Sultans, and have become Wakouf. They were formerly 

 rented by governors and nobles who were annual tenants, but in 

 consequence of the great abuses which they committed, during their 

 possession, an alteration took place in the mode of letting them, and 

 they have been granted since the year 1759 on leases for lives. 

 (D'Ohsson.) * 



7. In the islands of the Archipelago, which are only visited by 

 the Turks when the capitation money is collected, industry is not so 

 much interrupted as in those where Turkish governors reside, and 

 by arbitrary and injudicious regulations interfere with the employ- 

 ment of the inhabitants. Cyprus and Candia are ruled by Pashas ; 

 and the former is, perhaps, the most depopulated part of the empire. 

 But in many of the islands, and indeed wherever the rigour of the 

 Turkish government is relaxed, we find the Christian inhabitants 

 active and laborious. The merchants of Thessaly, Macedonia, and 

 Epirus, the islanders of Scio, the sailors of Hydra and Spezzia, the 

 Armenians of Constantinople and Smyrna may be particularly dis- 



* If, however, the church lands in Asia Minor are let in the exorbitant manner which 

 regulates the leases in Egypt, the tenant of the mosque is not in a much belter situation 

 than the tenant of the government. Browne, 61. 



