Christians but chiefly by Turks, the former subsisting in a kind of impoverished vassalage beneath the tyranny of the latter. From this oppression they were released almost by the sole exertions of one enlightened citizen, John Economos, who obtained by his personal exertions, aided by his wealth, the government of the village, together with a firhman enjoining the immediate departure of the Mahomedan residents, and prohibiting their future return.* By the same authority the people were empowered to appoint their own magistrates and syndics, nor was an Armenian or Jew permitted to take up his abode in Kydonies. From this period the town rose rapidly in importance; it was protected and encouraged not only by the powerful family of the Kara Osman Oglou, but by that of the Durri Zades at Constantinople, in whose family it was an hereditary appanage, and under the wise government of Economos it became the asylum of the fugitive Christians from every district of Greece. Its inhabitants amounted in 1821 to upwards of thirty-five thousand, who were supported and enriched by an active commerce in olives and oil, which * Raffenel, Histoire des Evênemens de la Grèce, 1822, note, p. 195. + Jowett, p. 64. Raffenel, p. 196. they exported to Odessa, Taganroc, and the various ports of the Black Sea.* Its situation, naturally beautiful and picturesque, received double embellishment from the taste and generosity of its possessors; and its public buildings, its churches, and hospitals were rivalled only by those of the capital. Previously to the arrival of Benjamin, a number of smaller schools had existed at Aivali, but by his persuasions the extensive college, which subsequently conferred its chief distinction on the town, was completed in 1803. It was an extensive enclosed square, situated near the sea-shore, and containing accommodations for the professors and one hundred students, together with a library, laboratory, and lecture Rizo, Cours, &c. p. 69. + Rizo (p. 69.) says that the college was founded by Economos, but Economos died in 1791. His last days were embittered by chagrin and disappointment; he lost the favour of his fellow-citizens, was accused, whether falsely or not is doubtful, of tyranny and arbitrary measures, and finally declined altogether in his influence at Constantinople by the decease of some of his warmest patrons. The manner of his death is uncertain; by some it was attributed to age and disease, by others to poison, but it was most likely the consequence of a disappointed and broken heart. His remains were deposited in the Church of the Orphans, which he had himself built, without even a slab or an epitaph to mark the last resting-place of the friend of Kydonies. rooms. The former contained upwards of two thousand volumes,* and the course delivered in the latter comprised every branch professed in the other seminaries of Greece. Benjamin was its first professor, and continued for upwards of fifteen years to preside with honour over an institution which owed its origin solely to himself. A misunderstanding at last led to his resignation; he retired to Constantinople, and subsequently to Bucharest, where he was received and patronized by the Hospodar Karadza; by the flight of this nobleman in 1818,† he was left without a patron, he embarked with enthusiasm in the project of the revolution then in agitation, and became an active agent of the Heteria in arousing the Greeks to resistance. He lived to witness the first brilliant successes of their arms, but fell a victim to the epidemic fever which in 1824 ravaged Napoli di Romania. ‡ The college of Couroutchesmé, on the Thra* Fisk's Memoirs, p. 87. See vol. ii. of this History, c. xii. p. 29. The destruction of Aivali, which took place in June 1821, was one of the first acts of retaliation inflicted by the Turks on their revolutionary subjects; an account of its pillage and conflagration will be found in the Memoir of M. Raffenel, who was attached to the French Consulate at Aivali. See vol. i. c. ix. of his Histoire des Evènemens de la Grèce. cian Bosphorus, was amongst the most gratifying monuments of the benefits conferred on his country by Demetrius Morousi, who has been already mentioned as the agent of Selim III. for the promotion of education throughout his dominions.* Proius, a native of Scio, was its first director, and occupied for many years the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, but being transferred to the bishopric of Adrianople, he perished amongst the earliest victims of the revolution. Platon, his countryman and successor, and Stephen Dounkas, a Thessalian, who in turn held the same honourable office, were equally distinguished with their predecessor; the latter, especially, was remarkable for his generous and extended patriotism, and to his liberality and talents Ampelakia was deeply indebted for her literary distinction. The prosperity of Couroutchesmé, notwithstanding occasional impediments, continued till the death of its patron to be strikingly progressive. The fate of Morousi, its benefactor, resembled that of numbers of his class; he was appointed Drogueman to Halet Effendi, the plenipotentiary of the Porte at the treaty of Bucharest in 1812; and the liberal concessions then made to Russia having excited the resent * See vol. ii. c. xvi. p. 423. ment of the Vizir, Demetrius, on his return to Schumla, was sabred in the court-yard of the palace, and his head dispatched to decorate the gate of the seraglio.* In mentioning the names of those institutions, to which I have here alluded, I have selected only the most prominent of the Grecian seminaries; but it is by no means to be inferred that these were the only sources whence the nation was to derive education and enlightenment. The offshoots of knowledge, like the branches of the banyan-tree, bloom not, to blossom and decay; each strikes deep root into the soil which it overhangs, and becomes in turn the prolific parent of a congenial progeny. But a brief period elapsed from the first ardent cultivation of learning in Greece till its blessings were almost universally diffused; and notwithstanding the vigilant jealousy of despotism, the interruptions of civil war, and the perpetual obstructions of poverty, scarcely fifteen years of the present century had passed till every community of the Greeks, either at home, in Turkey, or abroad, possessed a school for the instruction of youth in an acquaintance with their vulgar tongue, and in most instances with their ancient language and the sciences of * Rabbe, p. 108. Walsh, pp. 274, 275. Rizo, p. 103. |