Travels and Discoveries in the Levant/Volume 1/Letter X

by Charles Thomas Newton

X.

Mytilene, December 15, 1852.

Some weeks ago I reported to the Embassy a case in which the Pasha and Mejlis of Mytilene had refused to punish a Turk for beating an Ionian. In consequence of this complaint, the Porte, at the instance of Colonel Rose, sent Ali Nehad Effendi, an imperial commissioner, to investigate this charge of mal-administration of justice, who has now been staying at Mytilene for several days. He was for some time secretary to the Turkish. Embassy at Vienna, and speaks French with perfect fluency, and very fair English. He has studied European manners, and has consequently substituted for the graceful and courtly ceremony of Turkish de- meanour a brusquerie which does not seem more natural to him than the European uniform does to the modern Turkish soldier; but he is a good, clear-headed man of business, and if his professions are to be believed, has severely reprimanded the Pasha for his conduct in the case which I had to refer to Constantinople. Probably, the Porte took advantage of this opportunity to extort from the unlucky governor of Mytilene a heavy subsidy in aid of the distressed finances of the empire. Ali Nehad Effendi asked me if I had any other grievances to complain of, and I pointed out to him that the commercial tribunal called Tijaret Mejlis had never been introduced into Mytilene, though it had now been established in the principal towns of the Turkish empire. This court is composed of Turkish and Christian members, of whom some are Ottoman subjects named by the Pasha, others Europeans chosen by their respective consuls. Its jurisdiction is restricted to purely commercial cases, and is guided by rides derived from the French Code de Commerce. It has now been established in Turkey for some years, and is of great service to the mercantile world. Ali Nehad Effendi at once carried out my suggestion, and ordered the Pasha to establish this tribunal. I took advantage of the visit of the Imperial Commissioner to explore the citadel, which I have been in vain trying to enter for six months; but at his word the iron door flew open like magic, and the obsequious commandant showed us every part of the fortress. I found little of interest except an inscription, in which the name of Francis Gatelusio occurs, and the date 1373. This inscription is over the gate called Orta Capou. It is as follows:—

m^o-ccclxxiii du
prima Aprilis
magnificus et potēs dñs
dñs franciscus . gatelus
ius. dñs . insule . met
elini . et c̄ fecit fieri hoc edificium.

It is inscribed on an oblong stone divided into four compartments, thus:—On the right a double-headed spread eagle, crowned. Next a monogram; next the bearing of the Gatelusio family—a shield papillouné; lastly, the above inscription.

The Francesco Gatelusio mentioned in this inscription was one of a noble Genoese family, which we find in possession of Ænos, in Thrace, about the middle of the 13th century. By a treaty in 1352, the Byzantine emperors ceded to the Genoese in Pera many commercial rights and privileges, and it must have been very soon after this treaty that Francesco Gatelusio sailed from Genoa with two well-armed galleys, on a roving expedition in the Black Sea.

At Tenedos he fell in with John Palæologos, then at war with his father-in-law and rival on the imperial throne, John Cantacuzene.

Palæologos at once engaged the Genoese adventurer in his service, and by his aid accomplished the daring stratagem which gave him possession of Constantinople, and dethroned Cantacuzene.

On a dark stormy night in December, 1354, a large ship was driven by the wind towards the port of HejDtaskalon at Constantinople. The soldiers who guarded the tower at the entrance of the port were induced to open their gates by the declaration of the crew that their vessel carried a valuable cargo of oil and was in danger of foundering, and that a large reward would be given for salvage. The guard having been thus inveigled from their post, two galleys following in the wake of the merchantman landed a body of troops, who seized the unguarded fortifications, and being joined by the partisans of Palseologos, proclaimed him emperor.

For this exploit Gatelusio was rewarded with the hand of the sister of Palæologos, and invested with the sovereignty of Mytilene as her dower.

He was succeeded by his son Jacobo, who obtained from the Sultan the ransom of the Count de Nevers and other lords of France, taken prisoners at the battle of Nicopolis, and conveyed them to Mytilene. Froissart, who tells us this, describes the wife of the lord of Mytilene as "perfectly well-bred, and as fully accomplished as any lady in Greece, for in her youth she had been brought up at the court of Constantinople, with the lady Mary of Bourbon." He adds, that she gave the French prisoners a most kind reception and clothed them with fine new linen and cloth of Damascus."⁴⁹

The Gatelusio family reigned in this island till 1462, when Nicholas, the last of the dynasty, after gallantly defending the castle of Mytilene, surrendered it to Mahomet II. The dynasty of Gatelusio struck coins in silver and copper, which are of great rarity, and have been only recently identified by numismatists. Since I have been there I have succeeded in olitainiug a small collection of these for the British Museum.⁵⁰

A portion of the castle called Chan Koolessy is separated from the remainder by a moat. Here are three towers, connected by a curtain-wall. In the western face of the centre tower is an oblong slab inscribed with three escutcheons. On the left a double spread eagle, crowned; next, a cross between four B's, the arms of the Palæologi: on the right, the coat of the Gatelusio already noticed.⁵¹

Below are six slabs, with reliefs representing Roman gladiators, in a late coarse style. They are apparently on the same scale as two or three in a small church at Thermæ which I have already noticed (ante, p. 61).

Here and there I copied fragments of Greek inscriptions, and in the wall of a street was part of a dedication to Pompey with the title of Soter. In the castle is the Kuli Jamessy, built by Sultan Mahomet II. in 1462, after the conquest of Mytilene. This mosque has been so much repaired that very little is left of the original building.

There is another mosque in the citadel, called Malimoud Paslia Jamessy, after the grand vizier of Maliomet II. This seems to have been an ancient Byzantine chapel converted into a mosque. The castle is garrisoned by a small force of native militia, commanded by a binbashi or colonel.

Ali Nehad Effendi invited me to Smyrna to see a recently-discovered amphitheatre outside the town. "I must give you a guard of cavasses," he said, "otherwise the brigands will assuredly lay hold of you." The condition of the environs of Smyrna is something quite incredible. The merchants can hardly walk a yard out of the town without being robbed. This state of things has been brought about partly, by the imbecility of the Turkish government, partly, I grieve to say, by the complicity of certain Europeans with the brigands; the result of which is a conspiracy against property, ramifying through all classes of society. Nobody in Smyrna knows whether his servant, or even his friends or acquaintances, are not in secret communication with the terrible Janni Katerji, the head of this band of robbers.

A short time since three Smyrna gentlemen, one of them son of a rich Greek merchant, went out shooting near a village where many Europeans have houses, but which has long been the resort of brigands. They had not gone far before they met Janni Katerji, who constantly visits Smyrna in open day in disguise. He accosted the three unhappy sportsmen very courteously, and asked them to have some coffee, according to the usual Eastern fashion. When they had drunk their coffee, he informed them, with the greatest civility, that the richest of the three must pay a ransom of £700. The prisoners were detained by the brigands about twelve hours, till the money arrived from Smyrna, when they were released without having experienced any maltreatment. What makes the matter worse is that the father of the gentleman who had to pay the ransom, had done his best to persuade the governor of Smyrna to grant a pardon to Janni Katerji, to take him into his service and pay him so much a year, in order to keep the neighbourhood of Smyna clear of brigands, in fact, to make a Turkish Vidocq of him. But the Turks did not enter into the scheme, and so Janni Katerji is still at large.

Yesterday we had an interesting ceremonial here. The Archbishop of Mytilene has just been made a member of the Synod at Constantinople, a step towards the higher digniity of Patriarch. Yesterday he was installed in his now office, and bid farewell to his flock here. The ceremony took place in the principal church of Mytilene, when he was in- vested with his new robes, and very gorgeous they were ; consisting of a tiara covered with jewels, and various robes stiff with gold: at his side hung a square piece of embroidery on which he kneels. The ceremony lasted several hours. First was an immense deal of very nasal and most detestable chanting;—a chorus of pigs and cats could not have been worse. Then came the changing of robes, which was done by a number of priests. Each article was blessed and kissed by the Archbishop before he put it on, and after each of these blessings the priest kissed his hands. After the robing, the Archbishop sat on his throne, aud the hierokeryæ, or preacher, who forms part of the episcopal retinue, ascended into a lofty pulpit and delivered an extempore discourse in very fluent and classical Greek in praise of the Archbishop. This gentleman wore a most picturesque black veil or coif, and a gown of the same colour; his action was rather singular, with very much more gesticulation than is practised in our northern climes. Then the Archbishop made a parting speech in very beautiful language; shedding tears, which I really believe to have been genuine, if anything of the kind can be warranted genuine in the Levant. At the close he begged his flock to forgive him, if, in the course of his ministry, he had failed in his duty; and descending from the pulpit at the close of his discourse into the dense crowd of listeners, he bowed to the ground three times, turning his body in different directions, and said, "My brethren, my brethren, forgive me," three times. After the Archbishop had with great dignity gone through this parting ceremony, he retired with the whole body of priests into what we should call the chancel, where the sacrament was administered to him. A long procession, flanked by torches and silver crosses, conveyed the elements into this inner sanctuary, where no layman is admitted. The bread was borne on the head of a priest, the cup in the hand of another, both concealed from the gaze of the multitude by a blue cloth spangled with gold.