states soon fell into decay, and Greece once more returned under the sovereignty of the Byzan'tine emperors. 3. The followers of Moham'med had in the very first century of their victorious career wrested Syria from the eastern empire, and progressively mastered the Asiatic provinces one after another. The condition of the empire, and the vices of its subjects were such, indeed, that we may well be surprised at the length of time which elapsed before its ruin was finally consummated; and had not the successive Tartar invasions given sufficient employment to the Moham'medans in Asia, Constantinople would have fallen before the termination of the crusades.* 4. Nor would this ruin have been averted by the interference of any of the other Christian states; for in consequence of some slight difference in their respective creeds, the followers of the eastern and western churches hated each other more cordially than either did the infidels. During the crusades, the Greek emperors frequently betrayed the Latin adventurers, and the latter in their turn looked on the Greeks with equal contempt and detestation. 5. When at length the Turkish power was A.D. consolidated under Othman or Ottoman, the rich 1352. S provinces of the Grecian empire became the prey of that warlike chieftain. His conquests were extended by his successors, who subdued all the northern provinces that form the present kingdom of Turkey, and made Adrianople the capital of their dominions. 6. The fate of Constantinople was for a time averted by the conquests of Timour or Tamerlane in Asia, which compelled the Turkish sultan to provide for the safety of that part of his dominions; and by the valour of Scanderbeg, the king of Epirus. The destruction of the Grecian empire might probably have been averted, if Scanderbeg had possessed resources equal to his skill and courage; but unfortunately he could never assemble more than a handful of followers, and all appeals to the Greeks to join him in struggling for independence were disregarded. After his death, the Turks, believing him something more than mortal, made relics of his bones, and wore them as a preservative against danger. A.D. 7. Mohammed II., the most warlike of the 1453. Turkish sultans, resolved to complete the overthrow of the Greek empire, and laid siege to Constantinople. The defence of the city was obstinate; Constantine, its last * See Historical Miscellany, part III. chap. VIII. sovereign, a prince equally conspicuous for piety and valour, showed himself most worthy of his crown at the moment when he was about to lose it for ever; the garrison seconded the labours of their gallant leader; the citizens fought bravely in defence of their families and homes. But all was in vain; the Turks having conveyed their galleys over land, launched them in the harbour of Constantinople, and the city was at the same moment attacked with overwhelming forces both by sea and land. On the 29th of May, the fatal assault was given, Constantine fell gallantly fighting to the last, and the eastern empire was no more. 8. The Turks, on this as on all other occasions, treated the vanquished with the most remorseless cruelty, and murdered them by thousands in cold blood. The rest of Greece soon shared the fate of the capital, and except a few wanderers, who took shelter in the mountain-fastnesses, the entire country became subject to the Mohammedans. 9. In the latter end of the seventeenth century, the Venetians acquired great power in the Ægean sea, and made themselves masters of the Morea or southern peninsula of Greece, anciently called the Peloponnesus. Though boasting of their republican constitution, the Venetians treated their Greek subjects very tyrannically, and when they were driven from their conquests at the beginning of the eighteenth century by the Turks, there was little reason for the inhabitants of the Morea to lament the change of masters. 10. The gradual decline of the Turkish empire during the last and present century is sufficiently obvious. By obstinately adhering to the institutions of their ancestors, the Turks have remained stationary, while the nations around them have been rapidly advancing; and were it not for the mutual jealousy of the European sovereigns, they would long since have been driven back to the deserts of their forefathers. The Greeks still preserved in their bondage the memory of their former national glory, but the jealous tyranny by which they were deprived of the use of arms rendered all their aspirations for freedom vain. Their condition indeed was the most wretched that can be conceived; the meanest Turk insulted the most honourable Greek with impunity; their properties, their lives, the honour of their wives and children, depended on the caprice of ferocious barbarians, who hesitated not to commit the vilest outrages in mere wantonness. If under such circumstances the Greek character became sullied by treachery and cunning, let it be } remembered, that stern necessity leaves no other means of defence in the power of a slave. The Greeks were sufficiently sagacious to perceive the decay of the Turkish power in the middle of the last century, and even at that early period projects for obtaining independence appear to have been formed. 11. When Catherine II. empress of Russia, went to war with Turkey, she incited the Greeks to revolt; an invitation which, unfortunately for themselves, they A.D. obeyed. The Russians made peace with the Porte, 1792. but entered into no stipulations in behalf of their allies. The Turks consequently massacred, without interruption and without mercy, innumerable multitudes of the Greeks; nor was their vengeance limited to those who had taken a share in the insurrection; women and children were murdered as well as soldiers, and the entire extermination of the Greek nation was prevented only by the dread of losing the capitation-tax, which the Turkish government A.D. levies on its Christian subjects. 12. The invasion 1798. of Egypt by the French produced some abortive attempts at revolt in the Morea, which were punished with the usual barbarous severity; the extermination of the Greeks was a second time proposed, and a second time A.D. Turkish avarice prevailed over Turkish cruelty. 1800. 13. The first great insurrection which shook the Ottoman power was that of the Servians; they were headed by Georges Petrowich, more usually named Czerni (i. e. Black) George, from the colour of his hair. This fierce leader of insurrection had been in his early youth obliged to fly from his country, in consequence of his having murdered a Turk, by whom he had been insulted. He entered into the Austrian service, but never attained higher rank than that of sergeant. His call on his countrymen to shake off the yoke was enthusiastically obeyed, and so successful were his efforts, that in 1806 he became master of Belgrade. 14. The war with Russia, which broke out in the following year, afforded the Servians great opportunities of securing their freedom, but the Russians were soon obliged to withdraw their forces, in order to repel the French invasion. A treaty was concluded with Turkey, by which the 1812. Servians were abandoned to their fate; overwhelming forces were sent against them, and Czerni George, after a brave but useless resistance, fled for safety to Russia. 15. The Turks, as usual, made a cruel use of their success, and on this occasion added perfidy to their barbarity; for in A.D. order to entice their victims into their power, an amnesty was published, and all those who returned on the faith of it were cruelly put to death. Czerni George attempted to renew the war in 1817, but was betrayed to the Turks, and instantly executed. 16. The Greeks had sunk into a state of ignorance almost as brutal as that of their oppressors, but towards the close of the last century a taste for literature began to spread through the nation, and impatience of the Turkish yoke gained strength with the advance of knowledge. The patriotic songs of Rhigas, whom the oppressors put to death, were circulated among the peasantry, and made them ripe for revolt. A confederacy of the higher ranks, called the Hetari'a, (society,) was formed for the ostensible purpose of diffusing knowledge, but really with a view to establish Grecian independence. The year 1825 was chosen for making the grand attempt, as by that time the members calculated that their preparations would have arrived at sufficient maturity. 17. Circumstances, however, precipitated the A.D. commencement of the revolt. The celebrated Ali 1820. Pacha of Jannina, having subdued the Suliotes, who had till then preserved their independence in the mountain-fastnesses of Epirus, and having obtained possession of Parga, the last retreat of Grecian freedom, thought himself sufficiently strong to resist the sultan, and commenced a civil war. The Greeks saw with pleasure their oppressors wasting cach other's strength, and had the additional gratification of being courted by both parties. In the course of the war several Grecian troops were organized and armed; but the Turks soon became aware of the error they had committed, and prepared to retrace their steps. 18. The Hetærists saw that no time was to be lost, and having chosen prince Alexander Ipsilanti as their leader, resolved immediately to commence the war. Ipsilanti was at the time an officer in the Russian service, and it is doubtful whether his enterprise, though subsequently denounced, was not tacitly approved by that government. 19. On the 6th of March, 1821, he crossed the Pruth, and erected the standard of revolt in Moldavia. About the same time an adventurer named Theodore Vladimiresco, had revolted in Wallachia, and obtained possession of a great part of the province; he joined his forces to those of Ipsilanti, but being soon detected in a treasonable correspondence with the enemy, he was deservedly executed. But there were more traitors than one. in the army of Ipsilanti; on the 17th of June he was attacked by a Turkish army, and owing to the treachery of some generals, and the cowardice of others, was totally defeated. In this unfortunate battle, The Sacred Band, consisting of four hundred youthful students, the pride and the hope of Greece, refusing to yield or retreat, fell bravely as their predecessors had done on the fatal field of Charonei'a. 20. Ipsilanti retreated into the Austrian dominions, intending to pass into southern Greece, where the flame of insurrection had already broken out, but he was seized on by the Austrian government, and detained as a prisoner. 21. When the news of Ipsilanti's revolt reached Constantinople, the Turks commenced a ruthless massacre of all the unfortunate Greeks in their power; among others the venerable patriarch, whom the Greeks looked upon as the head of their church, was butchered. Similar scenes of cruelty were enacted in the different Turkish cities, and there was every reason to believe that the extermination which had been twice proposed before was now seriously contemplated. The Greeks of Morea took up arms on the 1st of May, and the insurrection soon spread through northern Greece and the islands. 22. The war between the Greeks and Turks, like every other war between tyrants and slaves, was distinguished by remorseless massacres on both sides. But there is one of such fearful extent, and surpassing atrocity, that it deserves to be more particularly noticed. The people in the island |