Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one VolumeWalsh, R. (Robert)
History
Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one Volume
Walsh, R. (Robert)
Istanbul (Turkey) -- History; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Pictorial works
During the Greek revolution, these islands were made the prison of
the suspected. The families of the Fanal were sent here, to be kept
in sale custody till their fate was decided in the capital; every day
some unfortunate victim was taken away, and never re-appeared, yet this
seemed to make little impression on the survivors. They were constantly
seen in groups under some favourite trees, playing dominos, chess, or
other games, and entering with as much earnestness and disputation into
the chances, as if they were in a state of perfect security. Sometimes
a caïque was seen approaching, and the turbaned head of a chaoush
appeared over the gunwale−-he landed, approached the groups of players,
and laid a black handkerchief on the shoulder of one of them; the
doomed man rose from his seat, followed the chaoush to the caïque, and
never returned again. His place was supplied by another, and the game
was continued as if nothing extraordinary had happened. The bouyancy
and reckless character of the Greeks, during the perils of their
revolution, was nowhere, perhaps, so displayed as on these occasions;
they saw their friends daily taken from the midst of them, and knew
they were led away to be strangled or decapitated, yet it seemed
but little to affect the careless hilarity of the daily decreasing
survivors.
Among the suspected shut up in one of these insular prisons was the
venerable and learned archbishop of Mount Sinai. After the execution of
the patriarch and his prelates, he hourly expected his mortal summons;
yet it never affected his cheerfulness: he was engaged in a work on
the ancient and modern state of Constantinople, and his only wish,
unfounded then on any hope, was, that he might be allowed to live and
finish it. His wishes, contrary to his expectations, were fulfilled. I
left him in his Patmos, every day looking for death; and I found him,
on my return to Turkey, some years after, elevated to the patriarchal
throne. His susceptibility to the beauties of nature that smiled here
in his prison, was not impaired by any dismal apprehensions. In his
work, since published, he describes with enthusiasm the view presented
from his island: “The prospect from hence,” said he, “formed by the
circle of lovely objects around, is inimitable on the earth; it stands
like the varied representations of some grand amphitheatre, and the
astonished and delighted eye, at sunset, sees the exceeding splendour
of nature’s scenery.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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