GREECE IN THE SPRING OF 1825, BY GIUSEPPE PECCHIO.* -most of all, Albion to thee: the ocean queen should not EVERY thing promised success to Greece when I left England at the beginning of March. The recognition of the independence of the South American republics induced an expectation, not without foundation in justice, that a similar act was at hand in regard to Greece. A second loan, contracted by the Greek government at the same period, placed that government in a condition to commence a vigorous campaign. The dissolution of the English Levant Company was, besides, one obstacle less that the cause would have to encounter in the inte rests of a privileged body of merchants. A French committee, composed of many distinguished persons, established in Paris to favour the instruction of the Greek youth, appeared to reanimate the sympathy of the French nation in favour of the cause. And lastly, the government had triumphed over its internal enemies. I departed, therefore, full of confidence that I should become a spectator of the ultimate triumph of a people, who for four years past have been combating, with various success, for their liberties. But my presentiment was illusory. The fortune of Greece changed all at once; and, on my arrival there, I found a prospective very different from what I had imagined, as will be seen in the sequel.-My hopes were changed to fears. * The author introduces his subject by the following remarks. "L'Iliade non ha forse avuto tanti commentatori quanti ne ha già la guerra presente della Grecia. L'affluenza dei libri è un buon augurio; è una prova dell' interesse che l'argomento inspira. Come la bellezza dell' Iliade suscitò gli ammiratori, così la giustizia della causa Greca aumenta ogni giorno il numero de' suoi fautori. Sotto questi auspizj dell' attenzione pubblica oso anch' io dare alla luce una rapida relazione di ciò che ho veduto nel soggiorno che feci in Grecia dai 20 Aprile agli 11 Giugno di quest' anno. Questa mia relazione differirà forse in alcuni punti da ciò che hanno scritto i viaggiatori che mi hanno preceduto. Questa diversità non è colpa forse di alcuno di noi. La scena di una rivoluzione è una scena mobile, varia, incostante. Il moto, le passioni che agitano un popolo che combatte per la sua indipendenza, le vicende della fortuna or prospera or avversa, alterano sovente il suo aspetto e il suo carattere. Il ritratto adunque di un tal popolo, simile a quello di un gladiatore durante gli accidenti della pugna, riescirà diverso secondo il momento in cui è fatto. Questa mia osservazione e' dettata dal desiderio che nutro di conservare la buon' armonia co' mici predecessori, che considero e apprezzo in questo argomento come miei buoni e potenti alleati. Ansi non voglio tralasciare di fare menzione onorevole di due libri sulla Grecia che lessi con mio infinito piacere e vantaggio-A Visit to Greece in 1823 and 1824 by George Waddington, Esq.-An Historical Outline of the Greek Revolution. Le notizie sulla Grecia contenute nel libro del Sigr. Waddington sono molte esatte. L'autore ha percorso la Grecia con attenzione, diligenza, imparzialità. Molte volte calcai le sue pedate in Grecia, e riscontrai esatti i suoi dati. Alcuni Greci che lo conobbero mi dissero ch' era sembrato loro un uomo un po' freddo, ed io risposi loro: "perchè non voleva ingannare nè essere ingannato.” Quanto all' Outline, amerei di conoscere il nome dell' autore per fargli le mie sincere congratulazioni. E' una storia rapida, ma fidele, e frammista di giudiziose osservazioni. Io ne portai meco alcuni esemplari in Grecia, e ne feci a quel gover no un presente. Se i Greci fossero disposti a seguire i savj consiglj, non potrebbero scegliere un miglior Mentore di questo libro. "Londra, G. P. 1825. After a fifty days' voyage we finally cast anchor before Napoli di Romania. This city, seated at the foot of a gigantic and abrupt rock; the Palamidi Castles, which, in appearance impregnable, rest on its summit; a palm-tree, which rises its head above the turreted walls like the banner of the climate; Argos, and the beautiful plain of Argos in front of the gulf; the snowy summit of the frowning Taygetus on the left; all the scenery around renders the view of Napoli di Romania one of the most picturesque in the world. But as soon as the stranger puts his foot on shore, his enthusiasm ceases, the enchantment disappears. The narrow streets, the houses meanly built, the air, heavy and impregnated with fetid smells, strike him with disgust. The nuisances, in short, are such, that it would be the labour of Hercules to remove them.-This is one of the causes of an epidemic and almost exterminating fever, which raged during the last year. When I disembarked, the fever had but just ceased: and we still met in the roads the livid countenances of those who had been infected. Possibly, this epidemic will reappear with the heat, as the government has taken no precaution to eradicate it. The Greeks have in some measure inherited the fatalism of the Turks. The latter are accustomed to the plague, and the former are becoming so to the epidemia. Napoli di Romania is surnamed, from its situation and its aspect, the Gibraltar of the Archipelago. In appearance it merits this epithet; but with respect to its strength, I fear that it would be the Gibraltar when in the hands of the Spaniards. Some officers who visited it with the eye of experience, told me that it was in a miserable state of defence. It is destitute of provisions, artillery, and artillery-men; the few cannon which are mounted have not carriages capable of resisting a dozen discharges. It possesses no one advantage but the commander of the Palamidi, General Fotomara, a Suliot, who has grown grey alike in arms and in sentiments of honour. The diversions of this capital consist of some ill-furnished coffee-houses and cracked billiards; an evening promenade in a small square, overshadowed in the midst by a friendly and majestic plane-tree; and in the indulgence of an eager curiosity, constantly excited by news and anecdotes. Woman, that compensation for every calamity and privation, is invisible, as the men do not allow her to be seen. For more than five and twenty centuries the fair sex in Greece have been condemned, under various pretexts, to domestic confinement. The ancient Greeks, that they might preserve their manners pure, kept them almost from the contact of the air; and imprisoned them in the gynæceum; subsequently the Turks shut them up in harems; and the modern Greeks, through jealousy, keep them secluded from society. The population of this city is fluctuating, as it depends on contingencies. It may, however, amount to 15,000. There can be no doubt that, according to its scale, it is the most populous capital in the world; for the houses are so small, and the people so confined, that in every room are found three or four inhabitants. I was desirous of paying a visit to the members of the government. Without any introduction, without any ceremony, my desire was soon accomplished. They are accessible to all, and at all hours of the day. They are not lodged in a palace. The Government House belongs to none of the known orders of architecture-but when, and where has Liberty had its cradle of gold!—It is a wild-flower that blooms among thorns and precipices. At the head of a clumsy wooden staircase I found them seated, or rather squatting, on cushions, which formed around the room a sort of sofa. The costume, the reclined position, the serious immobility of countenance of every member, made me at first believe myself before a divan. The vice-president, Signor Botazi, of Spezzia, with his legs crossed, was counting the beads of an oriental rosary. The rest of the members, clad in a costume between Grecian and Turkish, were either smoking or running over a similar trinket. At Paris and at London it is insisted that the Greeks are no longer Turkish; and that, wishing to enter into the great European family, they ought to divest themselves of their ancient practices, and adopt the habits and customs of the new family, which is anxious to embrace them as brothers. Such a sentiment is reasonable enough, but it is premature. To change the habits and dress of a whole people, is not so easy as are the theatrical transformations of Paris and London. What labour did not Peter the Great encounter in cutting the beards of his Muscovites, and in casing them in a Prussian uniform? The fact is, that the Greeks sit à la Turque, (and will continue to do so for a long time to come.) They eat pilaw à la Turque; they smoke with long pipes; they write to the left; they walk out accompanied by a troop of armed people; they salute; they sleep; and they loiter about, à la Turque. Thus, instead of abandoning the habits of their oppressors, they appear, since the revolution, to have followed them more closely. They make a display of wearing the turban trimmed with white, the red papauchi, and, in short, (horribile dictu!) of throwing around them the green cafetan,-three terrible prohibitions in the time of Turkish despotism. They therefore, from the pleasure of revenge, and as a sign of triumph, love to do all that their tyrants once interdicted, that the slave might not resemble his master. Besides this, the Greek people are accustomed to venerate only vestments loaded with gold and silver and pearls, which the Pachas cause to be respected (with the executioner always at their side); but under our European dress the people distinguish nothing but ambulating doctors. The women, who are always captivated by the brilliant and the magnificent, cannot bear the sight of our simplicity, so mean in comparison of eastern pomp. This preference of the fair sex will doubtless. long be a great obstacle to any change of the national dress. The government is composed of five individuals, and of a secretary of state. The president and secretary of state were absent on my arrival they were at the camp of Navarino. I shall give an account of them hereafter. Botazi, who holds the post of vice-president, is a rich merchant of Spezzia,-perhaps the richest man there. He is a fresh-looking old man; he speaks only Greek. Had he been prac➡ tised in public affairs, he would be an excellent magistrate, having the reputation of a sound patriot. Mauromicali, a Spartan, and one of the members of the family of Petro Bey, who has made the most painful sacrifices for the liberty of his country, is also unacquainted with any foreign language. He may be versed in the arts of diplomacy, but he has the stamp on his countenance of a nobleness of cha racter which he has never belied. I have had no opportunity of be coming acquainted with Spigliotachi, another of the members of the government, and a native of the Peloponnesus. Of him I have heard neither good nor ill. Lastly, Coletti is the head of a party, who, to great natural intelligence, unites an European information. He is a native of Epirus, and was from his youth esteemed by Ali Pacha, who maintained him at his studies at the university of Pavia; he afterwards became physician to Mouktar, the son of Ali Pacha. He speaks and writes Italian well-he affects a style of dress rather Turkish than Grecian. Under an imperturbable gravity altogether Turkish, may be discerned in his countenance the Greek vivacity and cunning. From his lofty deportment every one perceives that he has been educated in the seraglio of an Eastern despot. It would be useless to make mention of the seven existing ministers, as they exercise no authority. The government leaves them nothing but the name. It assumes every duty itself; it does not yet recognize the utility of a division of labour. The legislative body is very ill lodged. In a short time, however, its sittings will be transferred to a mosque which has been converted into a senatorial chamber. The number of the legislators exceeds eighty; but there are only fifty present, the rest being employed on extraordinary services. Many of them are habited in the European style. The president, Notara, is generally venerated, not so much for the ancient nobility of his family, which is perhaps the most illustrious in the Morea, as for the candour of his disposition. Tricupi of Missolonghi is the most eloquent of their orators. Although there are many warm parties in the assembly, the dissensions have hitherto been carried on with great decorum. Three days after I had arrived in Napoli, the 24th of April, the news arrived that the Greek camp at Cremidi had sustained a defeat from the Egyptians, with a loss of 140 men; amongst whom were generals Zafiropulo, Xidi, and colonels Eleuteri and Cormoriti. It is here necessary, in order to render clear my account of the events which I witnessed, to refer to some of the transactions which occurred a few months before my arrival, and which almost totally changed the situation of Greece. During the last autumn, the chiefs of the Morea, Zaimi, Londo, Diliani, and Sessini, desirous of participating in the government, intimated, with arms in their hands, that, according to the convention, the two bodies, the executive and the legislative, should be renewed, the year of their legal duration having expired. Colocotroni, with other generals, joined them, and consented to become their instrument-with the intention of seizing afterwards for himself the whole power. The government, threatened at that moment on many points by the enemy, did not think such a change either prudent or practicable. It armed itself, therefore, with great vigour, to repel a request which had all the appearance of rebellion rather than of a simple claim. It spared neither money nor flattery to draw over the principal commanders of the Roumeliots, and to induce their entrance into the Morea. Coletti was entrusted with this expedition; and, by an unexpected celerity and artful expedients, he conquered, dispersed, and disarmed the insurgents, and compelled the chief of them to surrender to the government, with |