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taphors; as for example, that of a monarch and rebellious subjects: they are also often drawn out to an excessive length. In truth, the heaviest fault of the Author's manner, is, such an unsparing and leisurely amplification of every point, as has given a bulk to the work which will inevitably circumscribe its circulation and usefulness. We are strongly disposed to wish that the Author could have the magnanimity to subject his two volumes to a process which should precipitate the heavier portions of them, and leave to the public about the quantity of one. Such a volume would surely obtain for itself a lasting estimation. But even as it is, we have already without hesitation hazarded the opinion, that there is a vigour in the work which will enable it to live long beyond the date of the common crowd of religious publications.

Art, II. Travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania. By the Rev. Thomas Smart Hughes. Two Volumes, 4to. London. 1820.

(Concluded from p. 318.)

THE HE readers of our Journal are already familiar with the name and character of the redoubted Vizir of Albania. Both Mr. Hobhouse and Dr. Holland have drawn his portrait at full length, and the former has given us the outlines of his history.* But it has been reserved for the present Writer, to furnish the completest biographical memoir of the life of Ali Pasha that has yet appeared. The earlier part of his career is already involved in the obscurity of tradition, and cannot be very authentically or accurately detailed. Mr. Hughes states, that he perused nearly fifty accounts compiled from oral traditions, without meeting with two that agreed with each other either in the relation of facts or the development of motives.' Among the rest, he obtained a transcript of the life of the Ali Pasha in Romaic verse, written by a native Albanian poet; but, unfortunately, the hand-writing is so confused, that this curious document has been, he says, of no service to him.

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Ali, whose surname is Hissas, was born at Tepeleni, a small town of the Toskides, about the year 1750. His family had been established in that place for several centuries; and one of his ancestors, named Muzzo, having been very successful in the honourable profession of a kleftes, or robber, procured for himself the lordship of Tepeleni, which he transmitted to his descendants, who continued to hold it by a kind of feudal tenure under the pasha of Berat. Ali's grandfather, after whom he is named, is stated to have been deemed the greatest warrior of his age. The father of Ali, named Vely Bey, was a man of humane disposition and excellent character: he held for some time the pashalic of Dervino, but lost it through the intrigues of a cabal, and re

* Ecl. Rev. N. S. Vol. IV. p. 530; and Vol. VII. p. 339.

tired to his native lordship of Tepeleni, where, harassed by the neighbouring beys and agas, who were little better than freebooters, and unable to make head against his enemies, he is said to have died of grief and vexation. He left two widows and three children.

C The mother of Ali and of his sister Shaïnitza, was a woman of uncommon talents, undoubted courage, and determined resolution, but fierce and implacable as a tigress. Her first act was to get rid of her rival, whom together with her child she took off by poison, thus securing all the rights and property of her husband to Ali, who at this time was about fourteen years of age. Far from yielding under the disastrous circumstances of fortune, she armed herself with double fortitude, and rising superior to the weakness of her sex, carried a musket against her enemies in the field at the head of her faithful clan, performing all the duties both of general and soldier. In most of these enterprises she took Ali as an associate, though she kept him within the strictest limits of obedience. Plainly foreseeing that his security depended chiefly upon his military education, she accustomed him early to the perils of an active and romantic life, and improved his naturally strong constitution by exercise and temperance: she engaged the oldest and most faithful retainers of her family to animate his zeal by a recital of the history and exploits of his ancestors, to correct his rash impetuosity by their experience, to instruct him in all the manly exercises of an Albanian palikar, and to school him in the knowledge of mankind and the arts of governing them, rather than in the lore of book learning and science. Ali's progress kept pace with her most sanguine hopes.'

Mr. Hughes has rather too paraphrastic a style in stating a fact. As to what this worthy old lady plainly foresaw, it is mere conjecture or assumption, nor is it a matter of any consequence: what we want to come at, is, the fact, what she did, which was neither more nor less than this; she brought up her son according to the custom of the country, and he soon became an accomplished robber. At an early age he distinguished himself as the best horseman, the swiftest runner, and the most expert marksman of his day; and by traversing the country with his musket on his shoulder, he acquired a perfect knowledge of all the mountain fastnesses, and every opening for advance or retreat. His memory is said to be so strong, that when an old associate in the profession of kleftes has been taken and brought before him, he has sometimes astonished the culprit with a recital of all the principal events of his life.

While he was yet very young, an event is stated to have occurred, which, if well autheuticated, would seem, on the principle of retaliation, to justify almost any excess of vengeance, and in the mind of a barbarian to constitute revenge a sacred duty. Mr. Hughes's account of it, however, has all the cha racter of an imperfect relation. The inhabitants of Gardiki, a

large town in the mountains of Liapuria, made a secret expedition by night against Tepeleni, and succeeded in carrying off both the mother and daughter, Ali being accidentally absent. The seizure of their persons could not, however, have been the primary object of the expedition, especially as undertaken by the inhabitants at large of a distant town, unless it was expected that they should obtain a high ransom. The atrocious treatment which these defenceless women are described as having met with at Gardiki, would not in that case have been ventured upon; nor is it credible that the leaders of the expedition, or the chiefs of the place, should have permitted so general a participation of their prize. Conduct such as Mr. Hughes mentions, has scarcely a parallel in barbarian annals, and must, if it took place, have originated in some powerful motive,-in cool, refined malignity. Unexplained, it carries on the face of it the highest degree of improbability. After they had been detained prisoners more than a month, the indignant Ali, we are told, was just preparing to attempt their liberation, when a bey of Gardiki, at the hazard of his life, conducted their escape to Tepeleni.

This stain upon the honour of Ali's house was considered indelible but by blood. The authority of his mother, and the never-ceasing entreaties of his sister, who inherited all her mother's spirit, (and who, as the old governor of Tepeleni told us, had she been a man, would have fought with Ali inch by inch for his dominions,) were exerted to keep alive within his heart the flame of vengeance. The former on her death-bed conjured her son, never to stop till he had exterminated the guilty race; and the latter, in all her conversations with him, ended every speech by the expression that she never could know peace of mind, or die with satisfaction, till she had stuffed the couches of her apartment with the hair of the Gardikiote women. After a lapse of forty years the vengeance of these furies was executed to the full by Ali's stern decree-the guilty but unfortunate Gardiki is no more, and Shaïnitza's head reclines upon the raven tresses of its daughters.'

Forty years was rather a long term of impunity for this devoted town to enjoy. The authors of the outrage would, in the natural course of events, be all extinct, and the raven tresses of even their daughters have become tolerably grey, be fore Ali fulfilled his mother's dying injunction. There is nothing, however, so patient as revenge. It must have been no ordinary provocation, assuredly, that induced the Vizir, when he had attained the plenitude of his power, to inflict such signal vengeance on a town, the population of which was entirely Mahommedan. Ali's own generals discovered are luctance to execute his vindictive intentions, upon which he despatched a confidential officer, at the head of a large body of Greek and Albanian troops, with instructions to act promptly in combination with all the other Greeks in the army. They, he well

knew, would exterminate a Mahommedan tribe with the greatest alacrity; and as the Turkish generals did not dare interfere, the city was soon given up to all the horrors of assault. Very few persons escaped. Those who were reserved as prisoners, were afterwards, to the number of between seven and eight hundred, massacred in cold blood in the presence of Ali, and their bodies left unburied to rot upon the place of execution, which was a large han near the commencement of the Gardikiote territory. The gateway of the area was then walled up, and an inscription placed over it cut in stone, which signifies, Thus perish all the enemies of Ali's house.' It is stated, that every individual victim underwent a personal examination by the Vizir himself, previously to the order being given for the execution, and that some few were in consequence spared, probably on its being found that they were unconnected with the old inhabitants. On the same day, seventy-two Gardikiote beys and other prisoners of distinction, who had been conveyed to Ioannina, and treated with a delusive shew of clemency and respect, were all strangled. From the han Ali marched to Gardiki itself, which he laid in ruins, placing it under an anathema, and prohibiting it from ever again becoming the habitation of man. The property of its citizens he had already converted to his own use; and as they were great merchants, he is stated to have kept an accurate account of all the debts due to them, and to have exacted the most punctual payment.

Every Gardikiote that was subsequently discovered within the dominions of Ali was arrested and put to death, when his corpse was sent to augment the mouldering heap of his unfortunate countrymen at the han of Soliarè. The vizir was grievously offended with his son Vely, who refused to put to death some Gardikiotes in his service, or surrender them up. It is scarcely necessary to observe that Ali glories in this deed, which he considers one of just and pious retribution. It occurred on the 15th of March, 1812.'

We have deviated from the course of the narrative for the purpose of connecting with the most marked circumstance in Ali's early life, the tragical and characteristic sequel. Soon after it had occurred, the young chieftain, impatient to try his strength against his enemies, extorted from his mother an unwilling consent that he should take the field.

"He was fortunate in his first attempts, but had neither troops nor money to prosecute his success: he was then defeated in his turn, and wandering about the country to escape his pursuers, was indebted for his safety to the benevolence and fidelity of several individuals. On his return to Tepeleni, he was received with the most indignant reproaches by his mother, who it is said threatened to clothe him in female attire, and shut him up in the harem; and when, after the most ardent solicitations, he gained from her fresh supplies, and per

mission again to try the fortune of war, she added, in the true laconic style, that she expected to see him return upon the shoulders of his troops, either as a conqueror or a corpse.'

Again he met with reverses, but in his retreat, accidentally discovered, we are told, a treasure within the ruins of a deserted monastery, that enabled him to appease his mother and to raise fresh levies. At the same time he is stated to have connected himself very advantageously in a matrimonial alliance; but the particulars which should verify the statement, are not given. His mother still held the reins of government, and Ali appears to have taken the field as her general, accompanied in the expedition both by his mother and his bride. The contest, however, appears to have been very unequal: against the forces headed by this youthful hero, the confederate beys of ArgyroCastro, Gardiki, Kaminitza, Goritza, Chomovo, and some others, brought an over-whelming army. The Tepelenites were routed and dispersed among the mountains of Mertzika, whose barriers alone saved them from the fury of the conquerors. At this crisis, Ali exhibited all the latent energy and sagacity of his character. The measure which he resolved upon, will appear most extraordinary: it was a desperate one; as such, it was suited to the state of his fortunes; but the result shewed that Ali had not inaccurately calculated upon the probabilities of success. Mr. Hughes tells us, indeed, that he ran no hazard from thus placing himself in the power of his foes, inasmuch as the voluntary suppliant of an Albanian chieftain, whatever may be his demerits, is sure not only of protection in his presence, but of an escort on his return.

Knowing that a very considerable detached portion of his enemies were encamped upon the plain, and that the chiefs of ArgyroCastro and Gardiki, the most powerful of his opponents, had retired to their respective cities, he at once determined upon his mode of action. Leaving his bed about midnight, he gave strict orders to his wife that she should keep the door of their apartment locked, and that when his mother came, according to custom, very early in the morning to inquire after her son, she should answer that he was asleep and wished not to be disturbed. He then departed alone and unprotected, gained the camp of the confederates, and soon after the dawn of day stood in the presence of those who sought his life. Astonished at his appearance they demand the motives of his conduct: when the young chieftain with a modest but undaunted air thus addresses them: "The life and fortunes of Ali are in your hands; the honour and existence of his house depends upon your will: here I am, driven to despair: I have fought till my means are exhausted; I now throw myself into your power, and you must either destroy or support me against my enemies: but do not deceive yourselves and suppose that you would derive benefit from the death of Ali: my enemies are in fact your own, and they seek my destruction only to be enabled more

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