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Porte. After a short consultation with his friend, he dismissed him to return and meet the deputies, who waited a few days on the road, and then proceeded straight to Ioannina. The beys, to whom its contents had been already intimated, advanced as far as the suburbs to meet the firman. It was produced, and drawn out of its crimson case; when each reverently applied it to his forehead, in token of submission to its dictates. It was then opened, and to the utter consternation of the assembly it announced Ali, pasha of Ioannina, and ordered instant submission to his authority.

The forgery was suspected by many, but some credited it; whilst others, by timely submission, sought to gain favour with the man who they foresaw would be their ruler: in short, his partizans exerted themselves on all sides, the beys were dispirited, and whilst they were irresolute and undetermined, Åli entered the city amidst the acclamations of the populace: his chief enemies in the mean time sought their safety by flight, passing over the lake and taking refuge in the districts of Arta, Etolia, and Acarnania.

'Ali's first care was to calm the fears of all ranks; to the people he promised protection, to the beys who remained rich offices and plunder; his friends were amply recompensed, and his enemies reconciled by his frankness and engaging affability: in the mean time he put a strong garrison into the castron or fortress, and thus acquired firm possession of the pashalic before the imposture of the firman was discovered. It was now too late to dispossess him of his acquisition : his adherents increased daily; a numerous and respectable deputation, led by Signore Alessio's father, carried a petition to Contantinople, and seconding it with bribes to a large amount ultimately prevailed in establishing his usurped dominion. Thus, according to custom, despotism succeeded to the turbulence of faction, and the people not unwillingly submitted to the change.'

Soon afterwards, Ali, doubtless by the same potent agencygold, obtained from the Porte the important office of derven-pasha of Rumelia: whether he had a lieutenant, is not stated, but if he had, he took good care that he should not trade in licenses to the kleftes. This office not only augmented his revenue, 'but gave him an opportunity to create an influence in many provinces of the Turkish empire. His next step was to pick a quarrel with his neighbour, the pasha of Arta, and to annex his territories, as well as the whole of Acarnania, to his own dominions. Then, in order to establish a free communication between loannina and his native territory, he attacked and took possession of the strong post of Klissura, following it up by the reduction of Premeti, Ostanizza, and Konitza, which secure the whole course of the Voïussa, from its source in Mount Pindus to Tepeleni.

We are at a sad loss, throughout Mr. Hughes's narrative, for dates. The year 1792, however, is given as the date of Ali's first expedition against the Suliots, a warlike tribe who, in their almost impregnable mountain fastnesses, braved his power, and did not scruple, when he was attacking some of his northern

neighbours, to carry their incursions into the southern districts of his territory. According to our Author's statement, it was not, therefore, without ample provocation, and a sort of political necessity, that Ali determined upon subduing them; and worthy representatives as they might be of the ancient Greeks, fond as they were of their mountain homes, their wives, and their wild freedom, it does not appear that they were really any better than a clan of banditti. Mr. Hughes has made a very affecting story, however, of the heroic resistance by which they long succeeded in baffling their infuriated foe. It forms the most interesting chapter in the volume. Ali was at one time during this campaign in great personal danger. A detachment of these brave mountaineers, to the number of 200, marched out with the determination to take him alive or dead, and, but for the information conveyed to Ali by a traitor, would probably have succeeded, as the despot was at the time encamped with only his body guard at a distance from the main army. The women took an active part in the defence of the republic, and very materially contributed to the success which, in the first war, crowned the exertions of the mountain patriots. Ali was completely repulsed, with the loss of all his baggage and ammunition. The victorious Suliots pursued their enemies as far as the village of Vareatis, within seven hours of Ioannina; and about six thousand of the Albanians are said to have been slain or taken prisoners. Ali himself killed 'two horses in his precipitous escape, and when he arrived at his

capital, he shut himself up in his harem for several days, where " he admitted no one to his presence except a few of his most 'confidential friends.' At length, he concluded a peace with the Suliots on the degrading conditions of ceding to them possession of their acquired territory as far as Dervitziana, of restoring the seventy prisoners he had in the outset obtained by an act of the most shameless treachery, together with the son of one of their chiefs, and of paying a very large sum as a ransom for his captive troops. This was in the summer of 1792. His second expedition, eight years after, was not more successful, although he had by bribery won over to his interest, Botzari, one of the Suliot leaders. The Albanians were in their repeated attacks driven back and put to rout with great slaughter, the loss in killed and prisoners far exceeding in numbers the sum total of the Suliot army. Despairing to subdue such valiant and determined enemies in open warfare, Ali turned the siege into a blockade, resolving to trust to famine and treachery; but his troops began to desert, and while the Suliots are said by a Parghiote historian to have lost in nine months but twenty-five men, Ali lost by defection and in various skirmishes within the same period, nearly 4000. In the desperate emergency to which the besieged were sometimes reduced, many stratagems were resorted to for procuring

provisions, among which the contrivance of Gianni Striviniotti deserves particular mention.

This man having received intelligence that the Turks had lately procured a large supply of cattle from the neighbouring pastures, dressed himself in his white capote and camise, and concealing himself till the shades of evening had descended, walked out on all fours from his lurking place, and mingling with the herds, entered together with them into the stalls where they were shut up. In the dead of the night he arose silently, opened the doors, unloosed the oxen, and drove them towards a party of his friends who were in waiting to receive them. The Albanians heard the noise, but were so alarmed by suspicion of an ambuscade, that they lay still, and preferred the loss of their cattle to the danger of their lives.'

About this time, Ali was called off by orders from the Porte to lead his contingent against Paswan Oglou, and the Suliots availed themselves of his absence to lay in stores both of provisions and arms. On his return, he again had recourse to a false and treacherous proposal of peace, on the conditions of being allowed to build and garrison one tower within their district, and of their banishing of the brave Foto Tzavella from the Suliote territory, as the chief impediment in the way of tranquillity. It does not appear that the former condition was complied with; and yet the fully and infatuation which a compliance with it would have displayed, would not have been greater than the Suliots were actually guilty of in' requesting the secession' of their bravest captain, whose highest panegyric was conveyed by the insulting proposal. Ali's ambassadors on this occasion were, as usual, two traitors who had deserted their country's cause; and by dint of threats and promises they prevailed. Foto, on finding himself forsaken by his deluded followers, set fire to his dwelling, declaring that no enemy of Suli should ever cross the dwelling of the Tzavellas; he then buried his sword, and left his countrymen much in the same state,' remarks Mr. Hughes, as the silly sheep who were persuaded by the wolves to dismiss their guardians.' After this act of folly and baseness, one really feels a diminished interest in the fate of the republic.

Whether a peace was or was not nominally concluded, or whether the Suliots were still in a state of blockade, is not very clear; but in May 1803, the Suliots made a vigorous attack upon an Albanian fortress at Villa, which served as the principal magazine for Ali's army. This they succeeded in taking, and destroyed by fire and sword nearly the whole garrison. daring an achievement could not but inflame their implacable enemy to the utmost height of fury. He issued proclamations calling upon every Mahommedan throughout his dominions to avenge this slaughter upon the heads of the infidels, and an immense army was again brought into the field against this

small band of mountaineers. Treachery opened to the invaders the otherwise impenetrable passes, and the Suliots, worn down at length by war and famine, and strictly blockaded, were reduced to the necessity of accepting terms of capitulation, which Ali never meant to fulfil. The treaty was ratified on the 12th of Dec. 1803, by which the whole population was to be allowed to emigrate and settle wherever they might please. Men, women, and children being gathered together, they separated into two bodies; one taking the direction of Parga, the other that of Prevesa. Both parties were waylaid by the troops of the perfidious tyrant: the former fought their way through, but the latter all eventually perished. A party of about a hundred women and children, being cut off from the rest, fled, it is stated, to a steep precipice near the monastery of Zalongo: there, the children were first thrown over the rocks by their mothers, and then the matrons, joining hand in hand, and raising their minds to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by native songs, whirled round and round in a species of frantic dance till they approached the edge of the cliff, from which they one and all threw themselves headlong. Another small detachment had been taken captive and subsequently released, and allowed by Ali to settle at Vurgareli at the foot of Mount Tzumerka; but this was only a treacherous respite: they were afterwards extirpated by an army of Albanians, except a few that escaped into Acarnania. The scattered remnant of the tribe took refuge, some at Santa Maura, others with the Albanian beys; but the greater part retired to Parga and Corfu, to subsist on charity, or to enrol themselves in the service of their protectors. A number of them subsequently entered into the Russian service, and formed a regiment in the Albanian battalion. After the peace of Tilsit, this corps passed into the service of the French under Col. Minot. Foto Tzavella and Mosco his mother, both held commissions for some time, but resigned them from disgust at ill treatment. The former passed over to Ioannina, threw himself at the feet of the destroyer of his country, and was received into his service. Mosco, who accompanied him, married a second husband, and was living in the capital at the time of our Author's visit. Their native mountains form now the strongest post in their conqueror's dominions, and a splendid fortified serai adorns the highest top of Kiaffa as a monument of his base triumph.

The conquest of Suli cost the invader one year more than was occupied by the siege of Troy, and the struggle is not less worthy of an epic. But there is no Romaic Homer. Mr. Hughes gives us, however, a specimen of some patriotic songs in which the valour of the sons of Suli is still commemorated:

the song is stated to be still a great favourite in Albania. A respectable version accompanies it.

During this protracted series of operations against the Suliots, Ali did not lose sight of other means of consolidating his power. In 1797, when the French gained possession of the Ionian Islands together with the continental towns on the opposite shore, Ali sent a confidential agent to Bonaparte's head quarters in the north of Italy, and, as the fruits of a secret alliance, gained permission for his flotilla to sail through the channel of Corfu. To establish himself on the coast, he surprised the two independent towns of Aghio Vasili and Nivitza one Easter Sunday, and massacred the inhabitants in the churches. His next acquisitions were, the important fishery at Santa Quaranta and the excellent harbour of Porto Palermo. All which acts, his agents at Constantinople represented as having for their meritorious object the extirpation of infidels; and Ali did not fail to confirm the representation by paying tribute to the Porte for his conquests. He took care, at the same time, to keep at a respectful distance from the court of his sublime Sovereign, Once, during the campaign against Paswan Oglou,

the Grand Vizir, under pretence of bestowing public approbation upon his conduct, requested his attendance in full divan. Ali, conscious how much more he merited the bowstring than half the victims upon whom that punishment has fallen, went boldly, but surrounded the vizir's tent with six thousand faithful Albanians: as might be expected, his reception was courteous, but the conference was short.'

When the Porte declared war against the French Republic, Ali, finding that it would not suit his purpose to maintain any longer his French alliance, seized upon Prevesa: it was given up to pillage, and the prisoners, according to his diabolical custom on similar occasions, massacred in cold blood. Santa Maura and Parga, at the same period, narrowly escaped falling into bis hands, before they were taken possession of by the Russian fleet; a disappointment which he never forgave. To console him under it, he received the public thanks of the Porte for his eminent services, was presented with the kelich-caftan (a fine ermine pelisse) and a sword richly decorated with brilliants, and was made viceroy of Rumelia, by virtue of which office he acquired the high title of vizir.

His complicated intrigues and counter-intrigues with French and English, alternately, and sometimes at one and the same period, now become too interwoven with historical details, to admit of being brought within the compass of this brief sketch. His grand object was, the possession, by any means, of Parga and the Seven Islands. Through the French minister at the Porte, when his influence was dominant, he procured the pashalics of Lepanto and the Morea for his sons Mouchtar and

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