JOURNEY TO PLAT.^A. 101 
among people who are well fed, a conversation chap. 
began upon the faults of their rulers, and the 
grievous oppressions under which they laboured. 
We then began to perceive that these poor pea- 
sants are not so entirely ignorant of the antient 
renown of their country, or of its present re- 
sources, as might be supposed. They said, that 
the land they cultivated had once been tilled by 
a race of famous warriors ; and that it would be 
found now, as formerly, full of heroes, if a leader 
were to present himself. The family of our host 
consisted of himself and his wife, and eight sons 
and daughters. His boys were stout and sturdy, 
and his girls extremely beautiful. He said that 
the daily expense of his household amounted 
to three paras a head ; and that his annual pay- 
ment to his Turkish masters came to an hundred 
and fifty piastres more, which he found it a very 
difficult thing to supply. Allowing, therefore, 
that the amount of his earnings barely equalled 
his expenditure, his income altogether, for the 
maintenance of a wife and eight children, would 
not be equal to twelve pounds sterling of our 
money, according to the average of exchange 
between England and Turkey"^. 
(2) Reckoning fiiie&n piastres for the pound sterling, as the par of 
exchange. 
