26 HISTORY.

wandered about the country as cripples, begging their

daily bread from their neighbours, deprived of their

noses, ears, or tongues, or with their eyes put out.

We may now easily imagine what fate befel this

ill-starred country, when it became subject to the

Turks. In former days, the inhabitants lived in

freedom, without care, in the consciousness of secu-

rity of property, or at least of life ; but, when the

Turks gained possession of this province, a total

change took place ; from that moment, the right

of property ceased to exist, and the government

considered all possessions as its own. Add to this

the inhuman conduct of the Defturdar, which

brought the people to the verge of despair ; for

the slightest suspicion that any one subject had

amassed a small fortune, either in goods, money,

or cattle, was sufficient to bring him, under some

pretext, to death, in order to be able to confiscate

his property. The Defturdar was insatiable ; he

robbed everything, if he only knew where to find it,

and had thus collected immeasurable wealth in a

very short space of time.

The government is, indeed, at present, rather

more lenient, and its officers have received a check

in their arbitrary abuse of power ; but the distance

from the seat of government is too great to render

the superior authorities cognizant of all abuses,

too many of which, unfortunately, yet afflict this doomed province.