228

CHARACTER OF THE MODERN GREEKS.

these lofty sentiments, and this proud spirit of independence. Besides, decisive opinions abound in an age when nothing is doubted but the existence of God. But, as the general opinions which we form of nations are very often contradicted by experience, I shall beware of forming any. I merely think that there is still abundance of genius in Greece; I even think that our masters in every line still reside there: just as I conceive that human nature still preserves its superiority at Rome; by which I would not be understood to say, that superior men are now to be found in that city.

If even

But, at the same time, I fear that the Greeks are not too well disposed to break their chains. they were released from the tyranny which oppresses them, they would not lose in a moment the marks of their fetters. They have not only been crushed beneath the weight of despotism, but for these two thousand years they have been a superannuated and degraded nation. They have not been renovated, like the rest of Europe, by barbarous nations; and the very nation which has conquered them has contributed to their corruption. That nation has not introduced among them the rude and savage manners of the natives of the north, but the voluptuous customs of southern climes. To say nothing of the religious crime which the Greeks would have committed in abjuring their altars, they would have gained nothing by the adoption of the Koran. In the book of Mahomet there is no principle of civilization, no precept that can impart elevation to the character that book inculcates neither a hatred of tyranny, nor a love of independence. In embracing the religion of their rulers, the Greeks would have renounced the arts, sciences, and letters, to become the soldiers of fortune, and blindly obey the caprice

TURKISH OPPRESSION.

229

of an absolute sovereign. They would have spent their lives in ravaging the world, or in slumbering on a carpet among women and perfumes.

The same impartiality, which obliges me to speak of the Greeks with the respect which is due to misfortune, would have prevented me from treating the Turks with the severity which I do, had I seen among them any thing besides the abuses which are too common among conquering nations. Unfortunately, republican soldiers are not more just masters than the satellites of a despot; and a proconsul was not less rapacious than a pacha.* But the Turks are not ordinary oppressors, though they have found apologists. A proconsul might be a monster of lust, of avarice, and of cruelty, but all the proconsuls did not delight, systematically and from a spirit of religion, in overthrowing the monuments of civilization and the arts, in cutting down trees, in destroying harvests, nay, even whole generations; and this is done by the Turks every day of their lives. Is it conceivable that there should exist tyrants so absurd

* The Romans, like the Turks, frequently reduced those whom they had conquered to slavery. But, if I may be allowed to say what I think, in my opinion this system of slavery was one of the causes of the superiority of the great men of Athens and Rome over those of modern times. It is certain that you cannot exercise all the faculties of the mind, unless when you are relieved from the material cares of life, and you are not wholly relieved from these cares, but in countries where the arts, trades, and domestic occupations are relinquished to slaves. The service of the man whom you hire, who leaves you when he pleases, whose negligence or whose vices you are obliged to put up with, cannot be compared with the service of him whose life and death are in your hands. It is likewise certain that the habit of absolute command imparts an elevation to the mind, and a dignity to the manners, which can never be acquired in the equality of our cities. But let us not regret this superiority of the ancients, since it was not to be purchased but at the expence of the liberty of mankind, and let us bless Christianity, which has burst the bonds and broken the fetters of servitude.

TURKISH OPPRESSION.

as to oppose every improvement in things of the first necessity? A bridge falls down; it is not built up again. A man repairs his house; he becomes the victim of extortion. I have seen Greek captains run the risk of shipwreck with their tattered sails, rather than mend them; so apprehensive are they lest their industry should excite suspicions of afflu ence. Finally, had I found in the Turks free and virtuous citizens at home, though ungenerous to conquered nations, I had been silent, and secretly sighed over the imperfection of human nature: but, to behold in one and the same person the tyrant of the Greeks and the slave of the Grand Signor; the executioner of a defenceless people, and the servile wretch whom a pacha has the power to plunder of his property, to tie up in a leather sack and throw into the sea-this indeed was too much, and I know not the brute but what I would prefer to such a man.

The reader will perceive that I did not indulge on Cape Sunium in the most romantic ideas-ideas which, nevertheless, the beauty of the scene might be expected to excite. Being on the point of quitting Greece, I naturally reviewed the history of that country: I strove to discover, in the ancient prosperity of Sparta and Athens, the cause of their present degradation, and in their present lot the germs of their future destiny. The dashing of the sea against the rock, gradually growing more violent, apprized me that the wind had risen, and that it was time to continue my voyage. I awoke Joseph and his companion. We went down to the vessel, where our sailors had already made the necessary preparations for our departure. We stood out to sea, and the breeze, which blew from the land, rapidly wafted us towards Zea. As we withdrew from the shore, the

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231

columns of Sunium appeared more beautiful above the waves: we could perfectly distinguish them on the azure sky, from their extreme whiteness and the serenity of the night. We were at a considerable distance from the Cape, when we could still hear the breaking of the surges against the foot of the rock, the murmuring of the wind among the juniper-trees, and the chirping of the grasshoppers, the only modern inhabitants of the ruins of the temple. These were the last sounds that met my ear on the shores of Greece.

PART THE SECOND.

THE ARCHIPELAGO, ANATOLIA,

AND

CONSTANTINOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

Islands of the Archipelago-Zea―M. Pengali and his FamilyEminent Natives of Zea, the ancient Ceos-Its CommerceA Wedding-Tino-Embarkation for Smyrna-View of the Cyclades Chio-Smyrna-Choiseul's Account of the CityFarewell Visit to the Author's Interpreter-Kan of Menemen -The River Hermus-Ruins of Cyme and Neon TychosHomer's Residence there-A Caravan.

THE islands which I was now about to traverse formed, in ancient times, a kind of bridge thrown over the sea, to connect Asiatic Greece with the original Greece. Free or dependent, following the fortunes of Sparta or of Athens, of the Persians or of Alexander and his successors, they fell at length under the Roman yoke. Alternately wrested from the Greek empire by the Venetians, the Genoese, the Catalans, and the Neapolitans, they had their own princes and dukes, who assumed the general title of dukes of the Archipelago. Finally, the sultans of Asia appeared on the coasts of the Mediter