1779. A.D. mily, whose name was Issas, or Jesus, an appellation still common in the East, came originally from Asia Minor with the hosts of Bajazet Ilderim;* and his grandfather, Mouctar, was one of those who fell at the siege of Corfu, by Dianun Cogia, in 1716.† He left three sons, of whom the youngest, Veli, after exercising for some years the profession of a bandit in the mountains of Albania, returned to Tepeleni, murdered his elder brothers, seized upon the property of the family, and became the first Aga of his native village. He subsequently married a daughter of the Bey of Conitza, by whom he had two children, Ali, the future lord of Joannina, and his sister Chaïnitza; and, after a life of crime and debauchery, he expired, whilst his offspring were still in their infancy. Khamco, his widow, a woman of singular energy, was shortly after his decease despoiled of her possessions by the inhabitants of Tchormovo and Gardiki, and with her daughter carried off into captivity to the latter, a village among the hills of Liaburia. * According to Pouqueville they were Albanians by descent; the story of their Asiatic origin is that of Ali himself. + Fauriel, p. 9. Besides these, he had likewise two sons and a daughter by a slave, who with their mother fell victims to the jealousy of Khamco. Dr. Holland, p. 104. Dufey, c. ii. p. 26. 1779. After suffering all the horrors of violation and A.D. the miseries of servitude, they were at length ransomed by the generosity of a merchant of Argyrocastro,* and restored to liberty and their home. The remembrance of these outrages gave, from the earliest period, a tone of ferocity to the feelings and disposition of her children, into whose minds she instilled the fiercest principles of violence and revenge. Ali, from the age of fourteen, was associated with robbers and banditti; and long ere he had attained maturity, was distinguished as the boldest rider, the surest marksman, and the swiftest runner of his clan. His habits were those of toil, privation, and endurance, and his only resources for subsistence were derived from predatory adventures amidst the passes of Pindus. Detection, however, and a long confinement at Berat, where he owed his life solely to the personal kindness of Courd Pacha, a distant kinsman of his mother, served, in some degree, to detach him from his lawless habits; he returned to Tepeleni, attached himself to the parties of the Beys, and, rising gradually into importance by his military talents, he obtained in marriage Emineh, the gentle daughter of Capelan the Tiger, the Pacha of Del By a-Bey of the family of Dost, according to Mr. Hughes, (v. ii. c. v. p. 103.) 1779. A.D. vino. This occurrence took place about the period when Stephen the Little was fomenting the insurrection of the Montenegrins; and Capelan having at the suggestion of Ali held back his forces from joining the general levy ordered to march against him, he was secretly denounced to the Porte by his adviser, and beheaded at Monastir. Ali, however, failed in his hopes of succeeding to the government of his father-in-law, which was conferred on Ali, Bey of Argyrocastro, who subsequently married Chaïnitza, the sister of the traitor. After this disappointment, he turned his attention towards home, and resolved on attempting the subjection of Tepeleni. Here he had numerous and powerful adversaries, but by one master-stroke of barbarous policy he freed himself for ever from their machinations, and achieved the object of his ambition. He had been accustomed, after the heat of the chase, to enjoy a cool siesta in the forest of Bentcha, in the vicinity of the village. By means of an attached partisan, he induced his enemies to attempt his assassination on one of those occasions; and having himself given the plan of the adventure, he retired to the wood, flung his capote over the body of a goat, corded and * Dr. Holland states erroneously that he married a daughter of Courd, Pacha of Berat, p. 106. muzzled, and secured to the ground, and retired in safety to his house, whilst the unfortunate animal was dispatched by a shower of bullets from the pistols of Ali's supposed assassins. The appearance of a party of his retainers at the instant compelled them to retire without examining the body; and in the evening, whilst drowned in debauchery and wine, they were assailed and slaughtered by his followers; their goods and houses were confiscated to his soldiers, and from that hour Ali became absolute in Tepeleni.* He now employed every engine of intrigue and tyranny to establish and extend his power; his soldiers he attached to him by gold, by promises, and by companionship; and his people he conciliated by an anxiously assumed display of justice and impartiality. Every step, however, in his higher walks of ambition was based upon the blackest crimes; in the hope of succeeding to the pachalic of Argyrocastro he induced his sister Chaïnitza to unite with him in murdering her husband, and when, contrary to his calculations, the office was conferred on another, Selim Coka, he denounced him to the Porte as a traitor, and stabbed him with his own hand, in pursuance of the Sultan's firhman. A.D. 1779. A.D. For this service he was rewarded with the 1787. pachalic of Triccala, in Thessaly, and subsequently advanced to the office of Dervendji Bachi. From this appointment Ali dates his first firm advancement towards power and fortune. Under the pretext of ridding the passes of robbers, he attached around him an army of followers whose influence became paramount in Northern Greece, and whose expeditions quickly restored tranquillity to Thessaly. Justly conceiving that the Greeks were not the only brigands in his dominions, he was careful to let the disorderly Ottomans share an equal portion of his retributive hostility; and by taking into his pay those of the Klefts and Armatoli who were willing to serve against the Infidels, he succeeded in attaching to himself the leaders of both parties. The Porte, though sometimes alarmed for his power, were never able to deprive him of it; and Ali had always in readiness some complaint against robbers, some encomium of his services, or some petition for their continuance, on every occasion when the question of his deposition was agitated at Constantinople.+ In a short time, so successful had been his expeditions, and so Hughes, p. 105. + Leake's Outline, &c. p. 32. Pouqueville, v. i. p. 49. |