we mean the increase of the religion of Mohammed in Albania.

Although it cannot be doubted that many Greeks have abandoned the cross for the crescent, since the Turkish conquest, and that there is a considerable proportion of Greek blood in the present race of Ottomans, as well from the male as from the female side, it is nevertheless certain that the Greeks have in general shewn an attachment to their church, very remarkable in their oppressed state, and highly honourable to the nation. In return, their church has been a great consolation to them in their servitude, has maintained union and nationality among them, and, by preserving the use of the Hellenic in the church service, has saved their language from the utter corruption to which it would otherwise have been exposed from the absence of all Greek literary education, and from the mixture of the Turkish, Albanian, and Bulgarian tongues.

The Albanians on the other hand, who are the remains of the ancient Illyrians, a race in all times very inferior to the Greeks in the scale of humanity and civilization, and among whom Christianity had probably never taken a very deep root,

have shewn a much slighter regard for their religion since the period of the Ottoman invasion, although they have not had that degreee of excuse for their apostacy, which the complete subjugation of some parts of Greece may be thought to have afforded to the Greeks. Half the Albanian nation has relinquished the Christian faith for that of Mohammed. The poverty of the soil prompting a large portion of the people to seek a subsistence abroad, and the military habits acquired in their domestic wars leading the greater part of them to prefer the profession of arms, their reputation as soldiers has increased as the Osmanlys have degenerated, until they have become the only effective infantry in the Turkish dominions, and are to be found in the service of almost every Turkish chieftain in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

This enterprizing, poor, and mercenary people was not slow in perceiving the advantages attached to a conformity with the governing religion; that it opened to them a road to all the distinctions which the Ottoman government affords, or at least that it facilitated the acquisition of a fortune, with which they might retire to their native mountains. Some of the chieftains, supported by their followers, obtained possession of small dis

tricts in Northern Greece, and even in the Moréa; while others endeavoured to increase their power and possessions in Albania, where these acquisitions being generally made at the expense of their Christian neighbours, numerous families of the latter were forced to emigrate into Greece and other parts of Turkey in pursuit of subsistence by trade or agriculture; while others, sometimes by whole districts at a time, converted their churches into mosques, made peace with their Moslem neighbours, retained their possessions, and became partakers of the advantages enjoyed by the profession of the Islam.

The apostacy of Albania having advanced in an increasing ratio, its effects have been most felt in the last half century, or at the same time that the moral and political changes, which we have already described in the Greeks, have been most remarkable. When it is considered therefore that, in this period, insurrections encouraged by an enemy of the Porte, have twice been quelled chiefly by the Musulman Albanians, and that the military strength of the Turkish government in Greece has of late years been derived almost entirely from them, it seems evident, that it is to the conversion of so large a proportion of the Alba

nian nation to the faith of Mohammed, that the Porte is indebted for having so long been able to maintain any degree of authority over Greece.

However the Turks may despise the Albanians as Moslems; however they may detest them for their superiority in military qualities, and for the success with which their chieftains have generally maintained, in defiance of the Porte, their acquired authority in Greece and Albania, the community of religious interests which unites all classes of Mohammedans against Christianity has a corresponding political effect here as well as in every part of the Musulman world; for it cannot be doubted that the union of the Ottoman empire has been not less supported by the common fear and common hatred of Christians, entertained by the followers of Mohammed, all of whom, to the westward of Persia, look to the Sultan as the head of the church, than by the mutual jealousies of the great powers of Europe.

It will readily be supposed, from what has been stated, that the far greater part of the Albanian soldiers in the service of the Porte, or of the provincial governors in European Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Barbary, are Mohammedans.

Some Christian tribes, especially the Roman

Catholics of the north of Albania, are occasionally found in that situation: but in general, the Christian Albanian soldiers have either remained at home for the defence of their native districts, or have entered into the service of the Greek governors of the Ultra-Danubian provinces, or have joined the bands of robbers which infest various parts of European Turkey, or have been united to the Armatolí and Kleftes of Greece.

The Armatolí (águaτwλol), or Greek militia, was an establishment of the Byzantine empire; their most important employment was to keep the roads free from danger, and to guard the Kaɛıcougar, or mountain-passes, which are so frequent in Greece, and of so much military importance. The Ottomans found it necessary to maintain the same kind of police; in some instances the inhabitants of the district adjacent to the passes were made responsible for the safety of the roads, were authorized to maintain Armatolí for this purpose; and, in consideration of the trust and expense, were allowed certain privileges, such as that of being exempted from the customary burthen of entertaining persons travelling in the service, or under the protection of the government. The villages of the Elutheris and Megaris, occupying