1767.

selves by a solemn agreement to eternal hosti- A.D. lity against their tyrants.

Favouring the report of his royal identity, Stephen now attracted around him all those who were known to be in correspondence with Russia. He exacted and received from them the most devoted homage; he walked abroad, attended by a numerous guard, levied from the people a tribute for his support, and pointing towards the direction of Constantinople, promised emancipation and freedom to his followers. He received, with imperial pomp, the abject salutations of the archbishop and the prelates; and in his proclamations to the Montenegrins, he assumed the singular title of

66

Stephen, little amongst the little, a Sinner among Sinners, and a Saint amongst Saints;" whence he derived the popular appellation, by which he is still distinguished, of Piccolo Stephano, or Stephen the Little. The mountaineers, anticipating his pretensions, believed him a direct agent of Heaven, and hasted to proclaim him Emperor of the Greeks; and the rival bishops of Sava and Pech contended for the honour of his coronation and recognizance.

Matters were, however, succeeding too rapidly with the new monarch, and he began to dread a premature explosion in the North ere

1767.

A.D. Pappas Oglou should have sufficiently arranged his plans in the Morea. In order to let the excitement of his partisans cool a little, he selected a body of chosen guards, and issuing from the mountains in October 1767, he crossed over into the Venetian district of Cattaro, where he attempted the same system of agitation and revolt. The Pastrovick pirates, the people of Cattaro, who are chiefly the descendants of refugees from the Peloponnesus, the inhabitants of a town, called from its founders Maina, but occupied by a race who have forgotten their original language, and the natives of a few other districts, flocked at once to his standard, and hailed him with the same enthusiasm as the Montenegrins.

This measure was probably suggested in some degree by the hope of involving Venice in a rupture with the Porte; but the wary republic was not to be so easily entrapped. Her commandant at Cattaro sent to learn the pretensions of Stephano, if avowed; or to require his immediate departure, should he persist in his mysterious incognito. The Senate was in fact reduced to the necessity, either of quarrelling with Turkey, of disobliging Russia, or of declaring hostilities against the Montenegrins. Without doing either, it took such official precautions as satisfied all. It issued a

1767.

proclamation, affixing a price to the head of A.D. each of its lawful subjects, who espoused the cause of rebellion, and, without taking actual cognizance of existing facts, it rested content by avowing hostility against their future oc

currence.

Europe, in the mean time, expected with intense interest the measures of Catharine in this conjuncture. She had already been seriously annoyed by the proceedings of another impostor, at Woronetz, who had attempted to excite insurrection against her, by assuming the title of Peter III.; but, in this instance, the phantom was one of her own creation, and, to the surprise of Christendom, she regarded it with complacency; she even proceeded so far as to request the intervention of the Sultan in quelling this insolent pretender. One of the Pachas of Albania had already sent a body of troops, under the command of a capidji, to put down the malcontents; but Stephen terminated his expedition by burying him alive, and dispersing his detachment.* His troops then acquiring more audacity began to levy contributions on the loyal subjects of the Porte, stopped the caravans, and even intercepted the tributes destined for Constantinople. The flame thus kindled on the coast spread rapidly to the interior; * Rulhiere, v. iii. p. 304; Rabbe, p. 130.

1767.

A.D. Servia, and Bosnia, the Sclavonians of every tribe, the inhabitants of the Acroceraunian mountains, and the Chimariots, who boast to be the descendants of the ancient Myrmidons,* espoused, with one consent, the cause of liberty; and the line of the Adriatic coast was aroused from its northern almost to its southern extremity. The Porte, who had originally regarded Stephano as an unsupported fanatic, became now sensible of the necessity of checking his proceedings, and orders were issued for the Pachas of Albania to march against him. The Chimariots, on the first appearance of hostility, laid down their arms, and retired to their native fastnesses, whilst the territory of the Montenegrins was inundated on every side by hosts of Albanians. After a protracted and sanguinary campaign, the forces of the insurgents were completely broken, their villages were burned, and the heads of the bravest of their leaders were sent to decorate the court of the Seraglio. Stephano, escaping by a miracle from his pursuers, fled from cavern to cavern amongst the desolated mountains, and succeeded in concealing himself till the arrival of a Russian vessel,

* The Chimariots are amongst the most warlike inhabitants of Greece. Like the Montenegrins, their profession is war, and from their passion for military service, they have obtained from the Italians the title of the Grecian Swiss.

1767.

which professed to come to the succour of the A.D. Montenegrins. He was arrested by the commander, on the charge of assuming the title of Peter III.; but was almost immediately set at liberty, and received from Orloff a commission in the service of the Empress.*

Such was the situation of affairs in Greece,

when, in the month of October 1768, the Porte was induced, by the intrigues of the French cabinet, to declare war against Russia, on the grounds of her undue interference in the affairs of Poland. One of the first measures of the Divan was, the disarming of the Christian population, in the accomplishing which, the grossest atrocities were practised against the unfortunate Greeks; and, at the same juncture, the representations of Orloff, and the influence of Catharine, wrung from the cabinet of St. Petersburgh an unwilling consent to the fittingout an expedition for the Mediterranean.‡

During the two preceding years, Pappas Oglou had been actively employed in stirring up the Mainotes, and other inhabitants of the Morea. With the former, his success had not been flattering. He landed in 1766, at Porto

Rulhiere, v. iii. pp. 305. 359.

+ Life of Catharine II. v. i. p. 422; v. ii.

P. 4.

Rabbe, p. 132. 138. Rulhiere, v. iii. p. 330. Life of

Catharine II. v. ii. p. 28.

Oct.

1768.