GREECE. 
cloned to filthy animals, and covered witli ruins and 
nibbifli. Pirates and robbers are almofi; tlie only men 
wlio land there; tlrey go thither to lhare the fruit ot 
their plunder, or concert new fchcmes of rapine, feated 
on fragments of altars where incenfe and perfumes burnt 
in honour of tlie god of day. The ruins of Delos, the 
impofmg remains of the rnolf beautiful edifices of which 
ancient Greece was proud, are now no longer what they 
were at the periods when modern travellers vifited and 
deferibed them. They themielves have their ruins, 
and they owe their frelh degradation to the profane bar.; 
bariliu of people who coiUe thither to take materials 
for building their houfes, or to wretched Turkilh fculp- 
tors, who carry oif every year precious pieces, in order 
to make of them thofe little pillars fuiinounted by a 
turban, which the Mahometans eredt over the graves 
of the dead. 
In the Travels of M. Stephanopoli through Greece 
in 1798, it is Hated, “ that if a Greek appears in a rich 
habit, the loweft Turk will envioufly take out his knife, 
and cut it in pieces^ Throughout Romelia, a Greek 
male child is no fooner born, than the firlt Turk who 
hears of it fends his handkerchief to the father, and 
from that moment the child is his Have ; if the father 
refufes the’handkerchief, the Tusk foon finds out a me¬ 
thod of ruining both fatlier and child, A Turk, how. 
ever low, confiders every Greek whom he meets as be¬ 
ing at liis command, and orders him as he pleafcs. A 
Greek iflander was lately meafuring out corn from his 
boat; a Turk on the pier ordered him to fetch fire to 
light his pipe ; the Greek flopped to fill his fack, which 
wanted very little of being full ; and the Turk, bev 
caufe he did not obey him inllantly, Ihot him dead. 
“ StravacJii, a Greek, while a fort of intendant to 
the beys of Wallachia and Tranfylvania, accumulated 
a large fortune. Repeated vexations, which his wealth 
liad brought on him, induced him to prefent himfelf 
before the grand leignior, whom lie thus addrefl'ed : — 
“ Pleafe your highnefs, I am worth twelve milliotis of 
piaflres ; I have no child; thou flialt be my heir; gua¬ 
rantee my fortune to me for my life.” The fultan, 
pleafed with the offer, laid his hand on the other’s 
flioulder, and faid, “Enjoy thy fortupe in fafety.” For 
Ibmc years he was iinmolelted ; but, at laft, they 
thought that he lived too long ; they accufed him to 
the fultan of intending to efcape, with his fortune, to 
Ruflia ; they obtained a decree of death againfl him ; 
^nd he was inflantly taken and hung.” 
The flateinents of thefe foreign writers are fully con¬ 
firmed by our own countryman, Mr. Eton, who was 
many years refident in Turkey. He remarks that the 
captain pafha, or grand admiral of the Archipelago, 
goes annually with a fleet to colledl the tribute : it is 
then that the poor Greeks feel the weight of the iron 
feeptre that governs them, and all the infults and op- 
preflion of the vile fatraps of the tyrant. When a fhip 
of the fleet arrives in a port, all the people who can, 
fly to the mountains or into the country, others flint 
themfelves up in their houfes, without daring to flir 
out. All who are on the roads are plundered by tlie fol- 
diers and failors of the fliips, and if they are not cut or 
maimed, they efteem themfelves happy; even in the 
ftreets it is the fame. Thus the poor Greeks pay ano¬ 
ther contribution to the fleet, which is heavier, to thofe 
on whom it unhappily falls, than that to the fultan. 
If a woman, or a girl, or even a boy, is met by them 
in any place not immediately under the eye of their of¬ 
ficers, or where they might be expofed to refiflance, 
they are inflantly made vitlinis to their brutality. In 
fniall towns and villages, this fometimes happens in the 
Itreets, The officers cannot always, and often will not, 
reflrain them, except where the efime is too public, 
and complaint might be made to the porte. Tlie cap¬ 
tains ami officers raife contributions for themfelves on 
tJie pfincipal inhabitants under various pretences. The 
Voi., Vlll. No. 559 
961 
Greeks are generally prevented from complaining, out 
of fear that the next fliip wliich comes will take re¬ 
venge. Wlien the Tiirkifli llyljis of war are met at fea,. 
they arc little better than pirates to tlic Greeks and 
Ragiifans. 
The infenfibility of thefe barbarians is at the fame 
time aftonilliing : living amid t'le effulgence of genius, , 
they have not caught one fingle Ipark; tliey gaze with 
unfeeling flupidity on the wonder and boafl of art, on 
their glorious moiinmcn.ts, on their temples, and coiv. 
clude they were built by genii, and then deltroy them, 
to burn the marble for lime to make flucco for tlieir 
houfes, whence ti’e fine arts are banii'htd ; wliere igno- 
ra.ace, tyranny, ftipcrflition, and giofs f'enfuality, dwell; 
and lay wafte the country round, imbruing their hands, 
in the blood of the helplefs, by murdering, withaut re- 
morfe, thofe they have conquered. Thus tlie fiiiefl: 
countries in the world are ahnofl become defects ; part 
inhabited by favage beafls, and part by more favagr 
men; the poor aborigines fkulking in liiding plucs 
like the timid hare, (which epithet tlie Turks give them 
in derilion,) while thofe beafls of prey in human'fliape 
roam abroad. Every objedl moral and phyfical, the 
fair face of ancient Greece, and the iiitelleclual ener¬ 
gies of the inhabitants, liave alike been blaflcd and de¬ 
li led by Mahomm.edan tyranny. As an inflance of 
thofe changes wdiich the country has undergone, wc 
need only conlider the illand of Cyprus, now an alniolt 
uninhabited defert, which was, not only in ancient times, 
but when it was taken by the Turks fronffthe Vene¬ 
tians, populous and exceedingly ricli. The number 
and excellency of its prodiRlions were wonderfui. At 
prefent only a little cotton, fome filk and wine, and a 
lew drugs, are its produce ; but of no great amount. 
Even the falt-works, which were fo great a branch of 
revenue and commerce to the Venetians, have produced 
nothing fince the Turks have been poffeffed of the 
illand.—See the article Cyprus, vol. v. p. 545. 
Of the defects of the Grecian character, Ibme are 
doubtlcfs owing to their ancient corruptions ; but mofl; 
of them take their rife in the humiliating ftate of de- 
prellTon in which they are held by the Turks. This 
degradation and fervility of their lituation has operated 
for centuries, and has confequently produced an accu¬ 
mulated efl'eit on the mind ; but were this weight taken 
off, the fuperior vigour of the foul would have wide 
room for expanfion ; and though it cannot be expected 
tliat they would at once rife to the proud animation of 
their former heroes, they would doubtlefs difplay ener¬ 
gies of mind, which the iron hand of defpotifm has 
long kept dormant and inert. It is rather allonilhing 
that they have retained fo much energy of character, 
and are not more abafed ; for like noble couriers they 
champ the Lit, and fpurn indignantly the yoke ; when 
once freed from thefe, they would doubtlefs re-enter the 
courfe of glory. When alfo we view the modern 
Greeks in their more comprehenfive charafler as a na¬ 
tion, their fuperiority over the Turks in knowledge is 
fiirprifingly great; they pofl'efs an enlarged degree of 
genius and invention, and are of a lively imagination ; 
both men and women I'peak much, and with natural 
volubility and boldnels ; numbers of them fpeak Ita¬ 
lian, but all have an activity and Iprigtulinefs which 
ftrongly contrails with the fenfelefs gravity of theTur.ks j 
an European finds himfelf as it were at home with tliern^ 
and amongft creatures of his own fpecies; wliilll with 
Mohammedans tlicre is a dillance, a non-aliimilation, a 
total difl'erence of ideas ; and the more lieknow’s of their 
language, the more he perceives it; on the contrary, 
the more intimately he knows the Greeks, the more limi- 
lar does he find them in habits and manners to other 
Europeans : their bad reputation is more owing to tlie 
Hander of their enemies, than to any great degree of de¬ 
merit. In general, they are an agreeable and a I'ervice- 
able people, but they are much given to levity, are im- 
ii I’l moderately 
