DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0097
ALBANIAN ROBBERS. 73
Beats, and without further ceremony began to smoke their pipes.
After a few minutes' silence, and mutual gazing, the captain of the
thieves opened the discourse, and told us he came first to pay his
respects to the Milordoi, and then to offer his services, and that of
several hundred irahtxabty or brave fellows, he had under his com-
mand, who would follow us any where we might choose to lead
them ; being at that moment idle and unemployed, having lately
plundered the Turks on the opposite coast, and having brought
away every thing that was of any value. We expressed all due ac-
knowledgments for the kind offers of the captain, which we how-
ever begged to decline.
These thieves are Albanian Christians,2 who long exercised their
predatory talents in the territory of the Pasha of Joannina; but
owing to the vigilance of his police, have been obliged to take re-
fuge in the neighbouring islands, where they have found an asylum
under the protection of the Septinsular republic. They profess only
to pillage Mohamedans, against whom they wage an eternal and
religious warfare, in imitation of more powerful crusaders; they
even condescend to rob on the seas, and Ithaca was the deposit of
their plunder. Captain Jano, their leader, is an Acarnanian, and
has a brother, also captain of another band, and as great a thief as
himself.
It is necessary to explain, that no shame or disgrace is attached
to the name of thief, or to the profession of robbing, in Greece,
when it is done in a grand style, and with plenty of desperate fel-
lows, who plunder openly on the highways, take prisoners whom
1 This word is nearly equivalent to the Delhi of the Turks, and is given to those who are sup-
posed to be more than usually brave, and answers to the stulte temerarius of the Latins.
s Some defend the Albanian character from the general imputation of wickedness and
ferocity ; but Phranza accuses them of being profligate and rapacious, and capable of every
excess, 1>. 3. c. 23. After the death of Scanderbeg, many Albanian communities, rather
than submit to the Mohamedan yoke, emigrated to the kingdom of Naples, particularly to
Calabria and Sicily. There are now in that state, about sixty villages, forming a population
of more than 60,000 Albanian inhabitants.
VOL. I. L
Beats, and without further ceremony began to smoke their pipes.
After a few minutes' silence, and mutual gazing, the captain of the
thieves opened the discourse, and told us he came first to pay his
respects to the Milordoi, and then to offer his services, and that of
several hundred irahtxabty or brave fellows, he had under his com-
mand, who would follow us any where we might choose to lead
them ; being at that moment idle and unemployed, having lately
plundered the Turks on the opposite coast, and having brought
away every thing that was of any value. We expressed all due ac-
knowledgments for the kind offers of the captain, which we how-
ever begged to decline.
These thieves are Albanian Christians,2 who long exercised their
predatory talents in the territory of the Pasha of Joannina; but
owing to the vigilance of his police, have been obliged to take re-
fuge in the neighbouring islands, where they have found an asylum
under the protection of the Septinsular republic. They profess only
to pillage Mohamedans, against whom they wage an eternal and
religious warfare, in imitation of more powerful crusaders; they
even condescend to rob on the seas, and Ithaca was the deposit of
their plunder. Captain Jano, their leader, is an Acarnanian, and
has a brother, also captain of another band, and as great a thief as
himself.
It is necessary to explain, that no shame or disgrace is attached
to the name of thief, or to the profession of robbing, in Greece,
when it is done in a grand style, and with plenty of desperate fel-
lows, who plunder openly on the highways, take prisoners whom
1 This word is nearly equivalent to the Delhi of the Turks, and is given to those who are sup-
posed to be more than usually brave, and answers to the stulte temerarius of the Latins.
s Some defend the Albanian character from the general imputation of wickedness and
ferocity ; but Phranza accuses them of being profligate and rapacious, and capable of every
excess, 1>. 3. c. 23. After the death of Scanderbeg, many Albanian communities, rather
than submit to the Mohamedan yoke, emigrated to the kingdom of Naples, particularly to
Calabria and Sicily. There are now in that state, about sixty villages, forming a population
of more than 60,000 Albanian inhabitants.
VOL. I. L