Chapter V: Part 5

Corfu, the ancient Corcyra, has always held the foremost place amongst the Ionian Islands. It owes this position to the vicinity of Italy, and to the commercial advantages derived from an excellent port and a vast roadstead almost resembling an inland lake. The inhabitants are fond of appealing to Thucydides in order to prove that Corfu is the island of the Phæaces of Ulysses. They even pretend to have discovered the rivulet in which beauteous Nausicaa washed the linen of her father, and the shaded walks near the city are known by them as the gardens of Alcinous. Corfu is the only one of the islands which can boast of a small perennial stream, the Messongi, which is navigable for a short distance in barges. The hills, which are placed like a screen in front of the plains of the Epirus, are exposed to the full force of the south-westerly winds, which bring much rain; the vegetation, consequently, is rich: orange and lemon trees form fragrant groves around the city, vines and olive-trees hide the barren ground of the hills, and waving fields of corn cover the plains. Corfu, unfortunately, is exposed to the hot sirocco, blowing from the south-east, and this very much curtails its advantages as a winter station for invalids. {76}

The city occupies a triangular peninsula opposite the coast of the Epirus, and is the largest, and commercially the most important, of the former republic. It is strongly fortified, and its successive possessors—Venetians, French, Russians, and English—have sought to render it impregnable. A beautiful prospect may be enjoyed from its bastions; but far superior is that from Mount Pantokratoros, the “commandant,” for it extends across the Strait of Otranto to Italy. The commercial relations with the latter, as well as the traditions of Venetian dominion, have converted Corfu into a city almost half Italian, and numerous families residing in it belong to both nations, the Greek and the Italian, by descent as well as language. Italian remained the official language of the island until 1830. Maltese porters and gardeners constitute a prominent element amongst the cosmopolitan population of the city.

Corfu formerly owned the town of Butrinto and a few villages on the mainland; but an English governor thought fit to surrender them to the terrible Ali Pasha, {77} and the only dependencies of Corfu at present are the small islets near it, viz. Othonus (Fano), Salmastraci, and Ericusa, in the north; Paxos, with its caverns, and Antipaxos, the rocks of which exude asphalt, on the south. Paxos is said to produce the best oil in Western Greece.

Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zante, and a few smaller islands, form a crescent-shaped archipelago off the entrance to the Gulf of Patras. They are the summits of a half-submerged chain of calcareous mountains, alternately flooded by the rains or scorched by the sun. Their valleys, like those of Corfu, produce oranges, lemons, currants (“Corinthians”), wine, and oil, which form the objects of a brisk commerce. The inhabitants very much resemble those of Corfu, the Italian element being strongly represented, except on Ithaca.

From the French Staff Map.

Scale 1 : 200,000.]

Leucadia, or the “white island,” thus called because of its glittering chalk cliffs, is evidently a dependency of the continent. The ancients looked upon it as a peninsula converted into an island by Corinthian colonists, who cut a canal through the isthmus which joined it to the mainland; but this legend is not borne out by an examination of the locality. These Corinthians probably merely dug a navigable channel through the shallow lagoon which separates the island from the coast, and does not exceed eighteen inches in depth. In fact, if there were any tides in the Ionian Sea, the island of Leucadia would be converted twice daily into a peninsula. A bridge, of which there still exist considerable remains, formerly joined the island to the mainland near the southern extremity of the lagoon, whilst an island occupied by the citadel of Santa Maura—a name sometimes applied to the whole of the island—defended its entrance to the north. {78} Until recently this was the only spot in Western Greece where a grove of date-trees might be seen. A magnificent aqueduct of two hundred and sixty arches, which was also used as a viaduct, joined the citadel to Amaxiki, the chief town and harbour of Leucadia. This monument of Turkish enterprise—it was constructed in the reign of Bajazet—has sustained much injury from earthquakes. Amaxiki might be supposed to be haunted by fever, owing to the salt swamps and lagoons which surround it; but such is not the case: on the contrary, it is a comparatively healthy town, and its women are noted for freshness of complexion and beauty. To the south of it rise the wooded mountains which terminate in the promontory of Leucate (Dukato), opposite to Cephalonia. On the summit of this promontory stood a temple of Apollo, whence, at the annual festival of the god, a condemned criminal was hurled as an expiatory victim. It was celebrated, also, as the lover’s leap, whence lovers leaped into the sea to drown their passion.

Cephalonia, or rather Cephallenia, is the largest of the Ionian Islands, and its highest summit—Mount Ænus, or Elato—is the culminating point of the entire Archipelago. Mariners from the centre of the Ionian Sea can see at one and the same time Mount Ætna in Sicily and this mountain of Cephalonia. The forests of conifers, to which the latter is indebted for its Italian name of Montenero, have for the greater part been destroyed by fire, but there still remain a few clumps of magnificent firs. On its summit may be seen the remains of a temple of Jupiter. The island is fertile and populous, but suffers much from want of water. All its rivers dry up in summer, the calcareous soil sucking up the rain, and most of the springs rise from the bottom of the sea, far away from the fields thirsting after water. On the other hand, two considerable streams of sea-water find their way into the bowels of the island.

This curious phenomenon occurs a short distance to the north of Argostoli, a bustling town, having a safe but shallow harbour. The two oceanic rivers are sufficiently powerful to set in motion the huge wheels of two mills, one of which has been regularly at work since 1835, and the other since 1859. Their combined discharge amounts to 35,000,000 gallons daily, and naturalists have not yet decided whether they form a vast subterranean lake, in which beds of salt are constantly being deposited, or whether they find their way through numerous threads, and, by hydrostatic aspiration, into the subterranean rivers of the island, rendering their water brackish. The latter is the opinion of Wiebel, the geologist, and thus much we may assume for certain—that these subterranean waters and caverns are one of the principal causes of the severe earthquakes which visit Cephalonia so frequently. The island of Asteris, between Cephalonia and Ithaca, upon which stood the city of Alalkomenæ, exists no longer, and was probably destroyed by one of those earthquakes.

Ithaca of “divine Ulysses,” the modern Theaki, is separated from Cephalonia by the narrow channel of Viscardo, thus named after Robert Guiscard. The island is small, and all the sites referred to in the Odyssey are still pointed out there, from the spring of Arethusa to the acropolis of Ulysses; but the black forests which clothed the slopes of Mount Neritus have disappeared. The inhabitants are {79} excessively proud of their little island, rendered so famous by the poetry of Homer, and in every family we meet with a Penelope, a Ulysses, and a Telemachus. But the present inhabitants have no claim whatever to be the descendants of the crafty son of Laertes, for during the Middle Ages their ancestors were exterminated by invaders, and in 1504 the deserted fields were given, by the Senate of Venice, to colonists drawn from the mainland. Most of those immigrants came from the Epirus, and the dialect spoken by the islanders is much mixed with Albanian words. At the present time the island is well cultivated, and Vathy, its chief port, carries on a brisk commerce in raisins, currants, oil, and wine. Ithaca, as in the days of Homer, is the “nurse of valiant men.” The inhabitants are tall and strong, and Dr. Schliemann is enthusiastic about the high standard of virtue and morality prevailing amongst them. There are neither rich nor poor, but they are great travellers, and natives of Ithaca are met with in every populous city of the East.

According to Wiebel.

Scale 1 : 78,000.]

“Zante, fior del Levante,” say the Italians. And, indeed, this ancient island, Zacynthus, is richer in orchards, fields, and villas than any other of this Archipelago. An extensive plain, bounded by ranges of hills, occupies the centre of this “golden isle”—a vast garden, abounding in vines, yielding currants of superior quality. The inhabitants are industrious, and not content with cultivating their own fields, they assist also in the cultivation of those of Acarnania, receiving wages or a share of the produce in return. The city of Zante, on the eastern coast of the island, facing Elis, is the wealthiest and cleanest town in the Archipelago. {80} Unfortunately it suffers frequently from earthquakes, to which a volcanic origin is ascribed. Nor is this improbable, for bituminous springs rise near the south-eastern cape of the island, and though worked since the days of Herodotus, they still yield about a hundred barrels of pitch annually. Oil springs discharge themselves close to the shore, and even at the bottom of the sea; and near Cape Skinari, in the north, a kind of rank grease floats on the surface of the waters.

The only islets dependent upon Zante are the Strivali, or the Strophades, to which flew the hideous harpies of ancient mythology.[19]

VI.—THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF GREECE.

The Greeks, although they have not altogether fulfilled the expectations of Philhellenes, have nevertheless made great strides in advance since they have thrown off the yoke of the Turks. The deeds of valour performed during the war of independence recalled the days of Marathon and Platæa; but it was wrong to expect that a short time would suffice to raise modern Greece to the intellectual and artistic level of the generation which gave birth to an Aristotle and a Phidias. Nor can we expect that a nation should throw off, in a single generation, the evil habits engendered during an age of servitude, and digest at once the scientific conquests made in the course of twenty centuries. We should likewise bear in mind that the population of Greece is small, and that it is thinly scattered over a barren mountain region. The numerous ports, no doubt, offer great facilities for commerce, nor have their inhabitants failed to avail themselves of them; but there is hardly a country in Europe which offers equal obstacles to a development of its agricultural and industrial resources. The construction of roads, owing to the mountains, meets with difficulties everywhere, whilst the blue sea invites its beholders to distant climes and commercial expeditions. No immigration from the neighbouring Turkish provinces has consequently taken place, whilst many Hellenes, and more especially natives of the Ionian Islands and the Cyclades, annually seek their fortune in Constantinople, Cairo, and even distant India. Men of enterprise leave the country, and there remains behind only a horde of intriguers, who look upon politics as a lucrative business, and an army of government officials, who depend upon the favour of a minister for future promotion. This state of affairs explains the singular fact that the most prosperous Greek communities exist beyond the borders of the kingdom of Greece. These foreign communities are better and more liberally governed than those at home. In spite of the Pasha, who enjoys the right of supervision, the administration of the smallest Greek {81} community in Thracia or Macedonia might serve as a pattern to the independent and sovereign kingdom of Greece. Every one there takes an interest in the prosperity of the commonwealth; but in Greece a rapacious bureaucracy takes care only of its own advancement, the electors are bribed, and the expenses thus illegally incurred are recovered by illegal exactions and robbery, such as have prevailed for many years.

The actual population of Greece may amount to 1,500,000 souls; that is to say, it includes about two-fifths of all the Greeks residing in Europe and Asia. The population is less dense than in any other country of Europe, including Turkey. Greece, at the epoch of its greatest prosperity, is said to have supported 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 inhabitants. Attica was ten times more populous at that time, and many islands which now support only a few herdsmen could then boast of populous towns. Sites of ancient cities abound on the barren plateaux, on the banks of the smallest rivulet, and crown every promontory throughout the ancient countries of the Hellenes, from Cyprus to Corfu, and from Thasos to Crete.

The country, however, is being gradually repeopled. Before the war of independence, the population, including the Ionian Islands, amounted, perhaps, to 1,000,000; but battles and massacres diminished it considerably, and in 1832 the number of inhabitants was 950,000 at most. Since that epoch there has been an annual increase varying between 9,000 and 14,000 souls. This increase, however, is spread very unequally over the country. The towns increase rapidly, but several islands, and more especially Andros, Santorin, Hydra, Zante, and Leucadia, lose more inhabitants by emigration than they gain by an excess of births over deaths. The swamp fevers prevailing in continental Greece much retard the increase of population. Naturally the climate is exceedingly salubrious, but the water, in many localities, has been permitted to collect into pestilential swamps, and the draining of these and their cultivation would not only add to the wealth of the country, but would likewise free it from a dire plague.[20]

Unfortunately agriculture progresses but slowly in Greece, and its produce is not even sufficient to support the population, still less to supply articles for export. And yet the cultivable soil of Greece is admirably suited to the growth of vines, fruits, cotton, tobacco, and madder. Figs and oranges are delicious; the wines of Santorin and the Cyclades are amongst the finest produced in the Mediterranean; the oil of Attica is as superior now as when Athene planted the sacred olive-tree; {82} but, excepting a little cotton grown in Phthiotis, and the raisins known as currants or Corinthians, which are exported from the Ionian Islands and Patras to the annual value of about £1,500,000, agriculture contributes but little towards the exports. One of the principal articles is the valonia, a species of acorn picked up in the forests, and used by tanners.

In a country so far behindhand in agriculture manufactures cannot be expected to flourish. All manufactured articles have consequently to be imported from abroad, and especially from England. Greece does not even possess tools to work its famous marble quarries, though they are richer than those of Carrara. There is only one metallurgical establishment in the whole of the kingdom—that of Laurion. The ancients had been working argentiferous lead mines in that part of the country for centuries, and vast masses of unexhausted slag had accumulated near them. This waste is now being scientifically treated in the smelting-works of Ergastiria, and nearly ten thousand tons of lead, and a considerable quantity of silver, are produced there annually. Quite a brisk little town has arisen near the works, and its harbour is one of the busiest in all Greece. But the founders of this flourishing concern had to struggle against jealousies, and the “Laurion question” nearly embroiled the Governments of France and Italy with Greece.[21]

The Greeks do not support themselves by agriculture, nor can they boast of manufactories, and they would be doomed to starvation if they did not maintain six thousand vessels acting in the lucrative business of ocean carriers throughout the Mediterranean. This Greek mercantile marine is superior to that of Russia, almost equal to that of Austria, and six times larger than that of Belgium, and we should bear in mind that many vessels sailing under Turkish colours are actually owned by Greeks. The ancient instinct of the race comes out strongly in this coast navigation. The large fleets of swift ocean steamers belong to the powerful companies of the West, and the Greeks are content to sail in small vessels suited to the requirements of the coasting trade, which hardly ever extend their voyages beyond the limits of the ancient Greek world. None can compete with them as regards low freight, for every sailor has an interest in the cargo, and all of them are anxious to increase the profits. One may have furnished the wood, another the rigging, a third a portion of the cargo, whilst their fellow-citizens have advanced money for the purchase of merchandise, without requiring any bond except their word of honour. On many of these vessels all are partners, all work alike, and share in the proceeds of the venture.

But, whatever the sobriety and intelligence of these Greek mariners, they cannot escape the fate which has overtaken the small trader and the handicraftsman throughout the world. The cheap vessels of the Greeks may be able to contend for a long time against the steamers of powerful companies, but in the end they must succumb. The country will lose its place amongst the commercial nations of the world unless its agricultural and industrial resources are quickly developed, {83} and railways are constructed to convey the products of the interior to the sea-coast. Greece, even now, has only a few carriage roads, not so much because the mountains offer insurmountable obstacles, but because its heedless inhabitants are content with the facilities for transport offered by the sea. It would be impossible in our day to travel from the Pylos to Lacedæmon in a chariot, as was done by Telemachus; for the road connecting these places leads along precipices and over dangerous goat paths. Greece and Servia are the European states which remained longest without a railway, and even now the former is content with a short line connecting Athens with its harbour. It has certainly been proposed to construct several lines of the utmost importance, but, owing to the bankrupt condition of the Greek exchequer, these works have not yet been begun. The public income is not sufficient to meet the expenditure, the debt exceeds £15,000,000, and the interest on the loans remains unpaid.[22]

The poverty of the majority of the inhabitants of Greece is equal to that of the State. The peasants are impoverished by the payment of tithes, and of a Government impost double or even treble their amount. Though naturally very temperate, they are hardly able to sustain life; they dwell in unwholesome dens, and are frequently unable to put by sufficient means for the purchase of clothing and other necessaries. The young men of the poorest districts of Greece thus find themselves forced to emigrate in large numbers, either for a season or for an indefinite period. Arcadia may be likened in this respect to Auvergne, to Savoy, and to other mountain countries of Central Europe. The Ætolians, however, exchange their fine savage valleys for foreign cities only very reluctantly, though they, too, suffer intensely from the weight of taxation. In ancient times, before their spirit was broken by servitude, they would have resisted the tax-gatherer with arms in their hands. They now content themselves with sallying forth from their villages, in order to pile up a heap of stones by the side of the high-road, as a testimony of the injustice with which they have been treated. This heap of stones is _anathema_. Every peasant passing it religiously adds a stone to this mute monument of execration, and the earth, the common mother of all, is thus charged with the task of vengeance.

Ignorance, the usual attendant of poverty, is great in the rural districts of Greece, and especially in those difficult of access. In Greece, as in Albania and Montenegro, they believe in perfidious nymphs, who secure the affections of young men, and then drag them down below the water; they believe in vampyres, in the evil eye and witchcraft. But the Greeks are an inquiring race, anxious to learn, in spite of their poverty. The peasant of Ithaca will stop a traveller of education on the road, in order that he may read to him the poetry of Homer. Elementary schools have been established in nearly every village, in spite of the poverty of the Government. If no school buildings can be secured, the classes meet in the open air. The scholars, far from playing truant, hardly raise their eyes from the books to notice a passing stranger or the flight of a bird. The scholars in the superior schools and at the University of Athens are equally {84} conscientious and assiduous. It may be that some of them merely aspire to become orators, but they certainly do not resort to a city on the pretence of study, whilst in reality they yield themselves up to debauchery. Amongst the students of the University of Athens there are many who work half the night at some handicraft, others who hire themselves out as servants or coachmen, to enable them to pursue their studies as lawyers or physicians.

This love of study cannot fail to secure to the Greek nation an intellectual influence far greater than could be looked for from the smallness of its numbers. The Greeks of the East, moreover, look upon Athens as their intellectual centre, whither they send their sons in pursuit of knowledge. They found scholarships in connection with the schools of Athens, and largely contribute towards their support. And it is not only the rich Greek merchants of Trieste, Saloniki, Smyrna, Marseilles, and London who are thus mindful of the true interests of their native country, but peasants of Thracia and Macedonia, too, devote their savings to the promotion of public education. The people themselves support their schools and museums, and pay their professors. The Academy of Athens, the Polytechnic School, the University, and the Arsakeion, an excellent ladies’ college—these all owe their existence to the zeal of Greek citizens, and not to the Government. It may readily be understood from this how carefully these institutions are being watched by the entire nation, and how salutary must be the influence of young men and women returning to their native provinces after they have been educated at them.

It is thus a common language, common traditions, and a common hope for the future that have made a nation of the Greeks in spite of treaties. Greek patriotism is not confined to the narrow limits laid down by diplomacy. Whether they reside in Greece proper, in European or Asiatic Turkey, the Greeks feel as one people, and they lead a common national life independently of the Governments of Constantinople and Athens. Nay, amongst the Greeks dwelling in foreign lands this feeling of nationality is, perhaps, most intense, for they are not exposed to the corrupting influence of a bureaucracy. They have more carefully guarded the traditions and practices of municipal government, and are practically in the enjoyment of greater individual liberty. The Greek nation, in its entirety, numbers close upon 4,000,000 souls. Its power, already considerable, is growing from day to day, and is sure to exercise a potent influence upon the destinies of Mediterranean Europe.

We are told sometimes that community of religion might induce the Greeks to favour Russian ambition, and to open to that power the road to Constantinople. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Hellenes will never sacrifice their own interests to those of the foreigner. Nor do there exist between Greece and Russia those natural ties which alone give birth to true alliances. Climate, geographical position, history, commerce, and, above all, a common civilisation, attach Greece to that group of European nations known as Greco-Latin. In tripartite Europe the Greeks will never range themselves by the side of the Slav, but will be found amongst the Latin nations of Italy, France, and Spain.

By E. G. Ravenstein, F.R.G.S.

Scale 1 : 5,000,000.]

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VII.—GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS.

The protecting powers have bestowed upon Greece a parliamentary and constitutional Government, modelled upon West European patterns. Theoretically the King of the Greeks reigns, but does not govern, and his ministers are responsible to the Chambers, whose majority changes with the fluctuations of public opinion. In reality, however, the power of the King is limited only by diplomacy. Nor do those Western institutions respond to the traditions and the genius of the Greeks, and although the charter has been modified three times since the declaration of independence, it has never been strictly adhered to.

In accordance with the constitution of 1864, every Greek citizen possessing any property whatever, or exercising a profession, has a right to vote on attaining his twenty-fifth year, and becomes eligible as a deputy at thirty. The deputies, one hundred and eighty-seven in number, are elected for four years, and are paid for their services. The civil list of the King, inclusive of a subvention granted by the protecting powers, amounts to £46,000 a year.

The orthodox Greek Church of Hellas is independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople. It is governed by a Holy Synod, sitting in the capital, and presided over by an archbishop as metropolitan. A royal commissioner is present at the meetings of the Synod, and countersigns every proposition that is carried. Decisions not bearing this official signature are void. The King, on the other hand, is permitted to dethrone or remove a bishop only by consent of the Synod, and in accordance with the canon law. The constitution guarantees religious liberty, but this official Church nevertheless exercises considerable powers, and frequently calls upon the civil authorities to give force to its decrees. The Synod carefully watches over the observance of religious dogmas; it points out to the authorities heretical or heterodox preachers and writers, and demands their suppression; exercises a censorship over books and religious pictures; and calls upon the civil tribunals to punish offenders.

There are no longer any Mohammedans in Greece, except sailors or travellers, and the last Turk has quitted Eubœa. The only Church besides the established one which can boast a considerable number of adherents is the Roman Catholic. It prevails amongst the middle classes on Naxos, and on several others of the Cyclades, and is governed by two archbishops and four bishops.

Greece is divided into thirteen nomes, or nomarchies, and these, again, into fifty-nine eparchies. Each eparchy is subdivided into districts, or dimes (dimarchies), and the latter into parishes, governed by paredres, or assistant dimarchs. These officials are appointed by the King, and are in receipt of small emoluments. The number of officials is proportionately greater in Greece than in any other part of Europe. They form the sixtieth part, or, including their families, the twelfth part of the population, and although their pay is small, they swallow up between them more than half the public income. {86}

The thirteen nomes and fifty-nine eparchies of Greece, with their population in 1870:―

Eparchies. Population.

Mantinea 46,174 Kynuria 26,733 Gartynia 41,408 Megalopolis 17,425 ─────── Arkadia 131,740 ═══════

Lakedæmon 46,423 Gythion 13,957 Itylos (Œtylos) 26,540 Epidauros Limera 18,931 ─────── Lakonia 105,851 ═══════

Kalamæ 25,029 Messini 29,529 Pylia 20,946 Triphylia 29,041 Olympia 25,872 ─────── Messenia 130,417 ═══════

Nauplia 15,022 Argos 22,138 Korinthia 42,803 Spetsæ and Hermionis 19,919 Hydra and Trizinia 17,301 Kythyra 10,637 ─────── Argolis and Korinthia 127,820 ═══════

Syros 30,643 Koa 8,687 Andros 19,674 Tinos 11,022 Naxos 20,582 Thira (Thera, Santorin) 21,901 Milos 10,784 ─────── Kyklades 123,293 ═══════

Attiki 76,919 Ægina 6,103 Megaris 14,949 Thiva (Thebæ) 20,711 Livadia 18,122 ─────── Attiki and Viotia (Bœotia) 136,804 ═══════

Khalkis 29,013 Xerochorion 11,215 Karystia 33,936 Skopelos 8,377 ─────── Euvia (Eubœa) 82,541 ═══════

Phthiotis 26,747 Parnasis 20,368 Lokris 20,187 Doris 49,119 ─────── Phthiotis and Phokis 106,421 ═══════

Mesolongion (Missolonghi) 18,997 Valtos 14,027 Trichonia 14,453 Evrytania 33,018 Navpaktia 22,219 Vonitza and Xeromeros 18,979 ─────── Akarnania and Ætolia 121,693 ═══════

Patras 46,527 Ægialia 12,764 Kalavryta 39,204 Ilia (Elis) 51,066 ─────── Achaia and Ilis (Elis) 149,561 ═══════

Kerkyra (Corfu) 25,729 Mesi 21,754 Oros 24,983 Paxi (Paxos) 3,582 Leucas (Santa Maura) 20,892 ─────── Kerkyra (Corfu) 96,940 ═══════

Kranæa 33,358 Pali 17,377 Sami 16,774 Itaki 9,873 ─────── Kephallinia 77,382 ═══════

Zakynthos (Zante) 44,557

The modern nomenclature has been adopted in the above table.

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TURKEY IN EUROPE.[23]

I.—GENERAL ASPECTS.

The Balkan peninsula is, perhaps, that amongst the three great peninsulas of Southern Europe which enjoys the greatest natural advantages, and occupies the most favourable geographical position. In its outline it is far less unwieldy than Spain, and even surpasses Italy in variety of contour. Its coasts are washed by four seas; they abound in gulfs, harbours, and peninsulas, and are fringed by numerous islands. Several of its valleys and plains vie in fertility with the banks of the Guadalquivir and the plains of Lombardy. The floras of two climes intermingle on its soil, and add their charms to the landscape. The mountains of Turkey do not yield to those of the two other peninsulas in graceful outline or grandeur, and most of them are still covered with virgin forests. If they are less accessible than the Apennines of Italy or the _sierras_ of Spain, that is owing simply to the want of roads; for they are, as a rule, of moderate elevation, and the plateaux from which they rise are narrower and more extensively intersected by valleys than is the table-land of Castile. Both Spain and Italy are closed in the north by mountain barriers difficult to cross, whilst the Balkan peninsula joins the continental trunk by almost imperceptible transitions, and nowhere is it separated from it by well-defined natural boundaries. The Austrian Alps extend without a break into Bosnia, and the Carpathians cross the Danube in order to effect a junction with the system of the Balkan. To the east of the “Iron Gate” there are no mountains at all, and Turkey is bounded there by the broad valley of the Danube. {88}

The proximity and parallelism of the coasts of two continents confer upon the Balkan peninsula an advantage unrivalled, perhaps, throughout the world. It is separated from Asia only by the narrow channel which joins the Black Sea to the Ægean Sea: this channel is an ocean highway, and yet forms no serious obstacle to the migration of nations from continent to continent. If the Black Sea were larger than it is at present; if it still formed _one_ sea with the Caspian, and extended far into Asia, as it did in a past age, then Constantinople would necessarily become the great centre of the ancient world. That proud position was actually held by it a thousand years ago, and even if it should never recover it, its geographical position alone insures to it an importance for all time to come. If the city were to be razed to day, it would arise again to-morrow at some other spot in the neighbourhood. In the dawn of history powerful Ilion kept watch at the entrance of the Dardanelles: it survives in the city on the Bosphorus; and had there been no Byzantium, its mantle would have descended upon some other town in the same locality.

We know the part played by ancient Greece in the history of human culture. Macedonia and Thracia, the two other countries bordering upon the Ægean, have played their part too. It was those provinces which, after the invasion of the Persians, gave birth to the movement of reaction which led the armies of Alexander to the Euphrates and Indus. The power of the Romans survived there for a thousand years after Rome itself had fallen, and the precious germs of civilisation, which at a later period regenerated Western Europe, were nurtured there. It is true, alas ! that the Turk has put a stop to every enterprise of a civilising nature. These conquerors of Turanian race were carried into the Balkan peninsula in the course of a general migration of nations towards the west, which went on for three thousand years, and was attended by perpetual broils. It is now five hundred years since the Turks obtained a footing in the peninsula, and for more than four hundred years they have been its masters, and during that long period the old Roman empire of the East has been severed, as it were, from the rest of Europe. The normal progress of these highly favoured countries has been interrupted by incessant wars between Christians and Mohammedans, by the decay of the nations conquered or enslaved by the Turks, and by the heedless fatalism of the masters of the country. But the time is approaching when that important portion of Europe will resume the position due to it amongst the countries of the earth.

Vast tracts of the Balkan peninsula are hardly better known to us than the wilds of Africa. Kanitz found rivers, hills, and mountains figuring upon our maps which have no existence. Another traveller, Lejean, found that a pretended low pass through the Balkans existed only in the imagination. Russian geodesists engaged upon the measurement of an arc of a meridian found that Sofia, one of the largest and best-known cities of Turkey, had been inserted upon the best maps at a distance of nearly a day’s journey from its true position. The entire chain of the Balkans had to be shifted considerably to the south, in consequence of explorations carried on within the last few years. Men of science have hardly ventured yet to explore the plateaux of Albania or Mount Pindus, and much remains yet to {89} be done before our knowledge of the topography of the Balkan peninsula can be called even moderately complete. The voyages and explorations of a host of travellers[24] have, however, made known to us its general features and its geological formations. Their task was by no means an easy one, for the mountain masses and mountain chains of the peninsula do not constitute a regular, well-defined system. There is no central range, with spurs running out on both sides, and gradually decreasing in height as they approach the plains. Nor is the centre of the peninsula its most elevated portion, for the culminating summits are dispersed over the country apparently without order. The mountain ranges run in all the directions of the compass, and we can only say, in a general way, that those of Western Turkey run parallel with the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, whilst those in the east meet the coasts of the Black Sea and the Ægean at right angles. The relief of the soil and the water-sheds make it appear almost as if Turkey turned her back upon continental Europe. Its highest mountains, its most extensive table-lands, and its most inaccessible forests lie towards the west and north-west, as if they were intended to cut it off from the shores of the Adriatic and the plains of Hungary, whilst all its rivers, whether they run to the north, east, or south, finally find their way into the Black Sea or the Ægean, whose shores face those of Asia.

This irregularity in the distribution of the mountains has its analogue in the distribution of the various races which inhabit the peninsula. The invaders or peaceful colonists, whether they came across the straits from Asia Minor, or along the valley of the Danube from Scythia, soon found themselves scattered in numerous valleys, or stopped by amphitheatres having no outlet. They failed to find their way in this labyrinth of mountains, and members of the most diverse races settled down in proximity to each other, and frequently came into conflict. The most numerous, the most warlike, or the most industrious races gradually extended their power at the expense of their neighbours; and the latter, defeated in the struggle for existence, have been scattered into innumerable fragments, between which there is no longer any cohesion. Hungary has a homogeneous population, if we compare it with that of Turkey; for in the latter country there are districts where eight or ten different nationalities live side by side within a radius of a few miles.

Time, however, has brought some order into this chaos, and commercial intercourse has done much to assimilate these various races. Speaking broadly, Turkey in Europe may now be said to be divided into four great ethnological zones. The Greeks occupy Crete, the islands of the Archipelago, the shores of the Ægean Sea, and the eastern slopes of Mounts Pindus and Olympus; the Albanians hold the country between the Adriatic and Mount Pindus; the Slavs, including Servians, Croats, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, and Tsernagorans (Montenegrins), occupy the Illyrian Alps, towards the north-west; whilst the slopes of the Balkan, the Despoto Dagh, and the plains of Eastern Turkey belong to the Bulgarians, who, as far as language goes, are Slavs likewise. As to the Turks, the lords of the land, {90} they are to be met with in most places, and particularly in the large towns and fortresses; but the only portion of the country which they occupy to the exclusion of other races is the north-eastern corner of the peninsula, bounded by the Balkans, the Danube, and the Black Sea.

II.—CRETE AND THE ISLANDS OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.

Crete, next to Cyprus, is the largest island inhabited by Greeks. It is a natural dependency of Greece, but treaties made without consulting the wishes of the people have handed it over to the Turks. It is Greek in spite of this, not only because the majority of its inhabitants consider it to be so, but also because of its soil, its climate, and its geographical position. On all sides it is surrounded by deep seas, except towards the north-west, where a submarine plateau joins it to Cythera and the Peloponnesus.

There are few countries in the world more favoured by nature. Its climate is mild, though sometimes too dry in summer; its soil fertile in spite of the waters being swallowed up by the limestone rocks; its harbours spacious and well sheltered; and its scenery exhibits both grandeur and quiet beauty. The position of Crete, at the mouth of the Archipelago, between Europe, Asia, and Africa, seems to have destined that island to become the great commercial emporium of that part of the world. Aristotle already observed this, and, if tradition can be trusted, Crete actually held that position for more than three thousand years. During that time it “ruled the waves;” the Cyclades acknowledged the sway of Minos, its king; Cretan colonists established themselves in Sicily; and Cretan vessels found their way to every part of the Mediterranean. But the island unfortunately became divided into innumerable small republics jealous of each other, and was therefore unable to maintain this commercial supremacy in the face of Dorian and other Greeks. At a subsequent period the Romans subjected the island, and it never recovered its independence. Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians, and Turks have held it in turn, and by each of them it has been laid waste and impoverished.

The elongated shape of the island, and the range of mountains which runs through it from one extremity to the other, enable us to understand how it was that at a time when most Greeks looked upon the walls of their cities as synonymous with the limits of their fatherland, Crete became divided into a multitude of small republics, and how every attempt at federation (“syncretism”) miserably failed. The inhabitants, in fact, were more effectually separated from each other than if they had inhabited a number of small islands forming an archipelago. Most of the coast valleys are enclosed by high mountains, the only easy access to them being from the sea, and communications between the towns occupying their centres are possible only by crossing difficult mountain paths easily defended. In all Crete there exists but one plain deserving the name, viz. that of Messara, to the south of the central mass of mountains. It is the granary of the island, and the Ieropotamo, or “holy river,” which traverses it, has a little water even in the middle of summer. {91}

The contour of Crete corresponds in a remarkable manner with the height of its mountains. Where these are high, the island is broad; where they sink down, it is narrow. In the centre of the island rises Mount Ida (Psiloriti), where Jupiter was educated by the Corybantes, and where his tomb was shown. Its lofty summit, covered with snow almost throughout the year, its gigantic buttresses, and the verdant valleys at its base render it one of the most imposing mountains in the world; but it was still more magnificent in the time of the ancient Greeks, when forests covered its slopes, and justified its being called Mount Ida, or “the wooded.” On the summit of this mountain the whole island lies spread out beneath our feet; the horizon towards the north, from Mount Taygetus to the shores of Asia, is dotted with islands and peninsulas; and in the south a wide expanse of water extends beyond the barren and inhospitable island of Gaudo.

The Leuca-Ori, or “White Mountains,” in the western extremity of the island, are thus called on account of the snow which covers their summits, or because {92} of their white limestone cliffs. They are exceedingly steep, and perfectly bare, hardly any verdure being met with even in the valleys at their foot. They are known, also, as the Mountains of the Sphakiotes, the descendants of the ancient Dorians, who have retired into their fastnesses, where they are protected by nature against every attack. Some of their villages are accessible only by following the stony bed of mountain torrents leaping down from the heights in small cascades. During the rains the water rushes down these ravines in mighty torrents. The “gates are closed” then, as it is said. One of these gates, or _pharynghi_, is that of Hagio Rumeli, on the southern slope of the Leuca-Ori. When rain threatens it is dangerous to enter these gorges, for the waters rush down and carry everything before them. During the war of independence the Turks vainly endeavoured to force this “gate” of the strong mountain citadel. The level pieces of ground on these heights are sufficiently extensive to support a considerable population, if it were not for the cold. The villages of Askyfo occupy one of these plains, which is surrounded on all sides by an amphitheatre of mountains. In former times this cavity was occupied by a lake. This is proved by ancient beaches and by other evidence. But the waters of the lake found an outlet through some katavothras (_khonos_, “sinks”) and discharged themselves into the sea.

The remaining mountains of the island are less elevated and far less sterile than the White Mountains. The most remarkable amongst them are the Lasithi, and, still farther west, those of Dicte, or Sitia, a sort of pendant to the Mountains of the Sphakiotes. Raised sea-beaches have been traced along their northern slopes, covered with shells of living species, and they prove that that portion of the island has been upheaved more than sixty feet during a recent geological epoch. The northern coast, between the White Mountains and Mount Dicte, offers a greater variety of contour than does the south coast. Its capes, or _acroteria_, project far into the sea, and thence are gulfs, bays, and secure anchorages. For these reasons most commercial cities have been built upon that side of the island, which faces the Archipelago and presents a picture of life, whilst the south coast, facing Africa, is comparatively deserted. All the modern cities on the northern coasts have been built upon the sites of ancient ones. Megalokastron, better known by its Italian name of Candia, is the Heracleum of the ancients, the famous haven of Cnossus. Retimo, on the western front of Mount Ida, is easily identified with the ancient Rithymna; whilst Khanea (Canea), whose white houses are almost confounded with the arid slopes of the White Mountains, represents the Cydonia of the Greeks, famous for its forests of quince-trees. Canea is the actual capital, and although not the most populous, it is nevertheless the most important and the busiest city of the island. It has a second haven to the east, Azizirge, on Suda Bay, one of the best sheltered on the island, and promises to become one of the principal maritime stations on the Mediterranean.[25] {93}

Crete has certainly lost much in population and wealth, and the epithet of the “isle of a hundred cities,” which it received from the ancient Greeks, no longer applies to it. Miserable villages occupy the sites of the ancient cities, their houses built from the materials of a single ruined wall, whilst immense quarries had to be opened in order to supply the building materials required in former times. The famous “labyrinth” is one of the most considerable of these ancient quarries. Crete, in spite of its great fertility, exports merely a few agricultural products, and nothing now reminds us of the fruitful island upon which Ceres gave birth to Plutus. The peasants are the reputed owners of the land, but they take little heed of its cultivation. Their olives yield only an inferior oil, and though the wine they make is good in spite of them, it is no longer the Malvoisie so highly prized by the Venetians. The cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and of fruit of all sorts is neglected. The only progress in agriculture which can be recorded during the present century consists in the introduction of orange-trees, whose delicious fruit is highly appreciated throughout the East. M. Georges Perrot has drawn attention to the singular fact that, with the exception of the olive-trees and the vine, the cultivated trees of the island are confined to particular localities. Thus chestnuts are met with only at the western extremity of the island; vigorous oaks and cypresses are confined to the elevated valleys of the Sphakiotes; the valonia oaks are met with only in the province of Retimo; Mount Dicte alone supports stone-pines and carob-trees; and a promontory in South-eastern Crete, jutting out towards Africa, is surmounted by a grove of date-trees—the finest throughout the Archipelago.

Scale 1 : 2 470,000.

The district inhabited by Mohammedans is shaded vertically.]

The inhabitants of Crete and the neighbouring islets are still Greek, in spite of successive invasions, and they still speak a Greek dialect, recognised as a corrupted Dorian. The Slavs, who invaded the island during the Middle Ages, have left no trace except the names of a few villages. The Arabs and Venetians, too, have been assimilated by the aboriginal Cretans; but there still exist a considerable {94} number of Albanians, the descendants of soldiers, who have retained their language and their customs. As to the Mohammedans or pretended Turks, who constitute about one-fifth of the total population, they are, for the most part, the descendants of Cretans who embraced Islamism in order to escape persecution. They are the only Hellenes throughout the East who have embraced, in a body, the religion of their conquerors; but since religious persecution has subsided several of those Mohammedan Greeks have returned to the religion of their ancestors. The Greeks of Crete are thus not only vastly in the majority, but they hold the first place also in industry, commerce, and wealth; it is they who buy up the land, and the Mohammedan gradually retires before them. All Cretans, with the exception of the Albanians, speak Greek, and only in the capital and in a portion of Messara, where the Mohammedans live in compact masses, has the Turkish language made any progress.

We need not be surprised, therefore, if the Greeks lay claim to a country in which their preponderance is so marked. But, in spite of their valour, they were no match against the Turkish and Egyptian armies which were brought against them.

The Cretans are said to resemble their ancestors in the eagerness with which they do business, and in their disregard of truth. They may possibly be “Greeks amongst Greeks—liars amongst liars;” but they certainly cannot be reproached with being bad patriots. On the contrary, they have suffered much for the sake of their fatherland, and during the war of independence their blood was shed in torrents on many a battle-field. The vast cavern of Melidhoni, on the western slope of Mount Ida, was the scene of one of the terrible events of this war. In 1822 more than three hundred Hellenes, most of them women, children, and old men, had sought refuge in this cavern. The Turks lit a fire at its mouth, and the smoke, penetrating to its farthest extremity, suffocated the unfortunate beings who had hoped to find shelter there.

* * * * *

The profound “Sea of Minos,” to the north of Crete, separates that island from the Archipelago. All the islands of the latter have been assigned to the kingdom of Greece—Astypalæa, vulgarly called Astropalæa or Stampalia, alone excepted, which still belongs to the Turks. The ancients called this island the “Table of the Gods,” although it is only a barren rock. It clearly belongs to the eastern chain of the Cyclades, as far as geological formation and the configuration of the sea-bottom go; but the diplomats allowed its fifteen hundred inhabitants to remain under the dominion of Turkey.

Amongst the other islands inhabited by Greeks, but belonging to Turkey, Thasos is that which lies nearest to the coast of Europe. The strait which separates it from Macedonia is hardly four miles across, and in its centre there is an island (Thasopulo), as well as several sand-banks, which interfere much with navigation. Though a natural dependency of Macedonia, this island is governed by a mudir of the Viceroy of Egypt, to whom the Porte made a present of it. When Mohammed II. put an end to the Byzantine empire, Thasos and the {95} neighbouring islands formed a principality, the property of the Italian family of the Gateluzzi.

According to Robiquet. Scale, 1 : 5,170,000.

The map is shaded to express the depth of the sea. The palest tint indicates a depth of less than 55 fathoms; the next tint a depth of 55 to 275 fathoms; the next a depth of 275 to 550 fathoms; and the darkest tint a depth of over 550 fathoms.]

Thasos is one of those countries of the ancient world the present condition of which contrasts most unfavourably with former times. Thasos, an ancient Phœnician colony, was once the rival, and subsequently the wealthy and powerful ally, of Athens: its hundred thousand inhabitants worked the gold and iron mines of {96} the island; they quarried its beautiful white marble; cultivated vineyards yielding a famous wine; and extended their commercial expeditions to every part of the Ægean Sea. But now there are neither mines nor quarries, the vines yield only an inferior product, the agricultural produce hardly suffices for the six thousand inhabitants of the island, and the ancient haven of Thasos is frequented only by the tiniest of vessels. The island has recovered very slowly from the blow inflicted upon it by Mohammed II., who carried nearly the whole of its inhabitants to Constantinople. Thasos after this became a haunt of pirates, and its inhabitants sought shelter within the mountains of the interior. They are Hellenes, but their dialect is very much mixed with Turkish words. Unlike other Hellenes, they are not anxious to improve their minds. They are degenerate Greeks, and they know it. “We are sheep and beasts of burden,” they’ repeatedly told the French traveller, Perrot.

Thasos, however, is the only island of the Archipelago where wooded mountains and verdant landscapes survive. Rains are abundant, and its vegetation luxuriant. Running streams of water murmur in every valley; large trees throw their shade over the hill-sides; the villages near the foot of the mountain are hidden by cypresses, walnut, and olive-trees; the valleys which radiate in all directions from the centre of the island abound in planes, laurels, yoke-elms, and vigorous oaks; and dark pine forests cover the higher slopes of the hills, the glittering barren summits of Mount St. Elias and of other high mountains alone rising above them.

Samothrace, though smaller than Thasos, is much more elevated. Its mountains are composed of granite, schists, limestones, and trachyte, and form a sort of pendant to Mount Athos, on the other side of the Ægean Sea. If we approach Samothrace from the north or the south, it presents the appearance of a huge coffin floating upon the waters; from the east or west its profile resembles a pyramid rising from the waves. From its summit Neptune watched the fight of the Greeks before Troy. In the dark oak forests of the Black Mountains were carried on the mysteries of Cybele and her Corybantes, as well as the Cabiric worship, which was intimately connected with them, and Samothrace was to the ancient Greeks what Mount Athos is to the moderns—a sacred land. Numerous ruins and inscriptions remain to bear witness to the zeal of devout travellers from all parts of the world. But with the downfall of the heathen temples the pilgrims disappeared. There is only one village on the island now. Its inhabitants lead a secluded life, and the only strange faces they see are those of the sponge-fishers who frequent the island during summer. The entire absence of harbours, and the dangerous current which separates Samothrace from Imbro, keep off the mariner, and though the valleys are extremely fertile, they have not hitherto attracted a single immigrant from the neighbouring continent.