LIFE IN ATHENS--ELEUSIS--TRANSPORTATION OF ÆGINA MARBLES TO ZANTE.
My father was now in for a long stay in the country, and seeing
something more of it than the usual tourist, even of those days. One or
two entries from his diary give one a slight insight into the barbarous
condition of the country at this time.
"The Pasha of Negropont has sent a demand of a certain number of purses
of the people of Athens. Logotheti, Greek Archon of Athens, excited the
people to go to the cadi and present a protest, which he promised he
would support. The people went as far as the house, when Logotheti
stepped aside into a neighbouring house, whence he could see the cadi's
countenance and judge how to speak to him. He saw he took it well, and
then he spoke in support of the protest. This Pasha of Negropont,
however, is a redoubtable person. It was expected that he would send
troops to attack Athens, but it seems that was too strong a measure even
for him. Instead, he has intercepted some poor Albanian cheese
merchants, and detains them until some or all of the money has been
paid him.[22]
One day I went to the waiwode on business. We had a long talk consisting
mainly of questions about England, in which he displayed his ignorance
to great advantage. After inquiring after his great friend Elfi Bey [?
Lord Elgin], he asked what on earth we came here for, so far and at so
much trouble, if not for money. Did it give us a preference in obtaining
public situations, or were we paid? It was useless to assure him that we
considered it part of education to travel, and that Athens was a very
ancient place and much revered by us. He only thought the more that our
object must be one we wished to conceal. I told him of the fuss made in
London over the Persian ambassador, and that if he went all the world
would wonder at him. At this he got very excited, and said he wished he
had a good carico of oil which he could take to England, thereby paying
his journey, and that once he was there he would make everyone pay to
see him. All that he knew about England was that there were beautiful
gardens there, especially one named Marcellias (Marseilles)! The man's
one idea was money, and he kept on repeating that he was very poor. No
wonder Greece is miserable under such rulers.
Veli Pasha, Governor of the Morea, passed through Athens a short time
ago in a palankin of gold, while the country is in misery.
The Greeks, cringeing blackguards as they are, have often a sort of
pride of their own. One of our servants, who received a piastre a day
(1s.), has just left us. His amorosa, who lived close by, saw him
carrying water and performing other menial offices and chaffed him, so
he said he could stand it no longer and threw up a place the like of
which he will not find again in Athens.
I went into the council of the Greek primates. There I saw the French
proclamation on the birth of the Roi des Romains: 'The Immortal son of
Buonaparte is born! Rejoice, ye people, our wishes are accomplished!'
The primates, however, soberly objected that none but God was [Greek:
athanatos]. What took me there was to back an Englishman who had got
into a quarrel with a neighbour, a Greek widow, about 'ancient lights'
which were blocked by a new building he was putting up. The woman
maintained her cause with much spirit and choice expressions: 'You
rascal, who came to Athens with your mouth full of dung! I'll send you
out without a shoe to your foot.' Our man retorted 'putana,' equally
irrelevantly, and the affair ended in his favour.
One morning by agreement we rose at daybreak and walked to Eleusis,
intending to dig, but we found the labourers very idle and insolent;
and after a few days, discovering no trace of the temple, we gave it up.
The better sort of Greeks have some respect for the superior knowledge
of Franks as evinced in my drawings; one man, a papa or priest, asked me
whether I thought the ancients, whom they revere, can have been Franks
or Romaics.
An awkward incident occurred during our stay. We had in our service a
handsome Greek lad to whom the cadi took a fancy and insisted on his
taking service with him. The boy, much terrified, came and wept to us
and Papa Nicola, with whom we lodged. We started off at once to the
cadi, and gave him a piece of our mind, which considerably astonished
and enraged him. He was afraid to touch us, but vowed to take it out of
old Nicola, and the next day went off to Athens. One night, the last of
our stay, arrived a man from the zabeti, or police, of Athens to take up
Nicola to answer certain accusations brought against him by the cadi.
This soldier, who was a fine type of the genuine Athenian blackguard,
swaggered in and partook freely of our wine, having already got drunk at
the cadi's. He offered wine to passers-by as if it was his own, boasted,
called himself [Greek: 'palikar,'] roared out songs, and generally made
himself most objectionable. He began to quiz a respectable Albanian who
came in; and when the latter, who was very civil and called him 'Aga,'
attempted to retort, flew into a rage, said he was a palikar again, and
handled his sword and shook his pistols. I could stand it no longer at
last, and said this was my house and no one was aga there but myself;
that I should be glad to see him put his pistols down and let me have no
more of his swaggering; otherwise I had pistols too, which I showed him,
and would be ready to use them. I then treated our poor Albanian with
great attention and him with contumely. This finished him and reduced
the brute to absolute cringeing as far as his conduct to me went. The
wretched papa he bullied as before, and when he got up to go he and all
the rest were up in an instant; one prepared his papouches, another
supported him, a third opened the door, and a fourth held a lamp to
light him out. But he had not yet finished his evening. Soon I heard a
noise of singing and roaring from another house hard by, and received a
message from him to beg I would sup with him, for now he had a table of
his own and could invite me. The table was provided by some wretched
Greek he was tyrannising over. Of course I did not go, but I moralised
over the state of the country. Next day he carried off Nicola.
Another instance of the tyranny of these scoundrels was told me as
having occurred only a few days before. A zabetis man had arrived and
pretended to have lost on the way a purse containing 80 piastres. All
the inhabitants were sent to search for it, and if they did not find it
he said it must be repaid by the town--and it was.
Among the people we met at Eleusis was a Greek merchant, a great beau
from Hydra, at this time the most prosperous place in Greece; but away
from his own town he had to cringe to the Turks like everyone else. On
our way back to Athens we overtook him carrying an umbrella to shade his
face, and with an Albanian boy behind him. When he saw our janissary
Mahomet the umbrella was immediately lowered.
The population of Greece is so small now[23] that large spaces are left
uncultivated and rights to land are very undefined. In the neighbourhood
of towns there is always a considerable amount of cultivated ground, but
although the cultivator of each patch hopes to reap it, there is nothing
but fear of him to prevent another's doing it, so far as I can see. A
field is ploughed and sown by an undefined set of people, and an equally
or even less defined set may reap it. And in point of fact people do go
and cut corn where they please or dare. We met a lot of Athenians on our
way back, going to cut corn at Thebes."
By the middle of July the Æginetan Marbles had been thoroughly
overhauled and pieced together, and it was pressing that something
should be done about them. The schemes of selling them to Lord Sligo and
Messrs. Knight and Fazakerly had fallen through, and it had come to be
seen that the only fair way for all parties was to sell them by public
auction. To do this they must first be got out of the country, and
various schemes for effecting it were considered and abandoned.
As the proprietors meanwhile were in daily fear of their being pounced
upon by the Turkish authorities, they agreed at length to put the whole
matter into the hands of one Gropius, a common acquaintance. He was half
a German, but born and bred amongst Orientals, and being conversant with
their ways and languages, and a sharp fellow besides, they felt he was
more likely than themselves, unassisted, to carry the business through
successfully. They accordingly appointed him their agent, and settled
that the collection should be got to Zante, as the nearest place of
security.
Eight days were spent in packing, and on July 30 the first batch, on
horses and mules, was sent off at night to a spot indicated on the Gulf
of Corinth, near a town and castle [? Livadostro.--ED.].
Cockerell followed two days afterwards with the rest, and sleeping two
nights at Condoura, on the third day reached the rendezvous. There they
found the first batch all laid out on the beach, and congratulated
themselves on having got so far unmolested. Gropius went into the town
to hire a vessel while the rest sketched and rested. The weather was
furiously hot, and Cockerell, who was very fond of the water, went out
for a long swim in the bay, but some fishermen he came up with
frightened him back by telling him that they had seen sharks about.
Gropius returned in the evening with a boat, and all set to work to get
the packages aboard. It took them nearly the whole night to do it. When
finally he had seen them all stowed, Cockerell, tired out, lay down to
sleep. When he woke they were already gliding out of the bay.
They sailed along prosperously, and had long passed Corinth and Sicyon
when, as evening came on, they heard the sound of firing ahead.
"Our first idea was pirates, and when we presently came up with a large
ship, which summoned us to come to, we were rather anxious. Our felucca
was sent aboard. She turned out to be a Zantiote merchantman, and had
been attacked by four boats which had put out from the shore to examine
the cargo in the name of Ali Pasha. She had refused to submit to
overhauling, and when asked what her cargo consisted of had replied
'Bullets.' When the captain understood we had four milordi on board, he
begged pardon for detaining us, and let us go on. Next day we made
Patras, where we went ashore to see Strani, the consul, and get from him
passports and letters for Zante. In the town we fell in with Bronstedt
and the rest of that party, who were, of course, much interested and
astonished to hear all our news and present business, and when we set
sail in the evening gave us a grand salute of pistols as we went out of
port. We had a spanking breeze.
A storm was brewing behind Calydon, and when at length it came upon us
it burst the sail of a boat near us. We were a lot of boats sailing
together, but when the rest saw this accident they took in their sails.
Our skipper, however, insisted on carrying on, so we soon parted company
with the others; and after a fair wind all night we arrived in the
morning at Zante."
FOOTNOTES:
[22] In the end the city had to pay him 10,000 piastres, and they had
spent 5,000 in putting themselves in a state of defence.
[23] According to De Pouqueville, 548,940, in 1814; it is now over
2,000,000.