Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-03-26
THE EPIRUS0F TO-DAY
IT'S CHIEF PLACES AND COAST AND
MOUNTAIN ROADS.
rerrib,e Events in Its History-The
Devastation Caused by the Turks
w,or. The uostiIe Forces May Con-
front Each Other.
New York SUM-

| gress Turkish rule Is.
Within three days journey from Lon
don. and a few hours steam from Brin-
dist. lies a country. Epirus, that is little
more advanced than some parts OF Cen
trail Africa. Yet on all sides may be seen
traces of ancient civilization and the
ruins Of once fiourishing towns, INDUSTRY
\ and agriculture. The absence OF roads
/ and anything like decent lodging have
been obstacles to travel, and II Is only IN
recent years that the province could be
| traversed with anything like complete
safety.
| The country IS full Of historic interest
/ and poets from Virgil to Byron have writ
ten of il. but what treasures Of art or his
tory it may contain cannot be known
until the Turk has Quilted it and some
more civilizing government Is In posses
sion. Travellers in Epirus have the
choice of several points at which TO en-
ter the country from Europe. From CORFU
a steamer may be taken TO port to the
northeast Of Corfu called by the Italians
Sanu Quaranti and by the Greeks Aga
| Saranda or the Holy Forty. From here
a road goes by Delyino, a Graeco-Alba-
nian town. past Zitsa, spoken OF by
Byron. to Janina, the capital, on the lake
| of the same name. Another way, ana
perhaps the more interesting, is by SAIL
| ing boat to Sayada, on the coast, imme-
! diately opposite the town of Corfu. rms
place is merely a landing place, not far
| from the mule track from the old castle
/ of Butrinto to the interior
| The first stopping-place on the road to
| Janina from Sayada is Philiates, 10
which. according 10 the Aenid, Aeneas
carried his father, Anchise, on his back
| from the sea, in their wanderings after
| the fall Of Troy and his reflections Of the
overtures of Dido, of Carthage.
Trees and water are the recommended
/ ton Of Philiates, the former being espe-
cially rare in the country, except in iso-
| lated patches. a short distance down
the coast below Sayada is the mouth OF
| the Kalamas river, proposed at the Ber-
/ lin Congress of 1878 as the new northern
frontier of Greece on that side. The
road TO Janina from Sayada by way Of
Philiates follows the course Of the Ka-
! lamas pretty closely, at varying alti-
tudes, the bed of the river being deep
| down in a gorge made by some great con-
vulsion Of nature through the tumbled
sea of mountains lying between the coast
and Janina.
From PhGlates to Raveni, the next
stopping-place, the track traverses ridges
of hills that rise abruptly across the path,
or else along the sides of the gorge look
ing down several hundred feet into
chasm below, where a false step Is the
end Of life. Raveni is a scattering viii
lage, situated on high cape, rising al
most perpendicHarly out of the valley Of
the Kalamas, from which the view is
lost among the rugged mountains and
broken crags that meet the eye in every
direction. The population is sparse,
owing to the infertility Of the soil and
the insecurity OF life.
Continuing onward, one or two we'll
watered and cultivated spots are passed
on the way to the junction OF the dis
charge Of the lake of JRnina with the
Kalamas. From this point TO Veltsista
the road is the worst on the journey,
being cut out Of the face of an almost
perpendicular cliff. presenting. I'm some
parts, turns almost at right angle At
intervals passing places have been cut
out Of the cliff, from which the rerad-
jies, or muleteers, shout warning be-
fore starting, TO avoid meetings I'm the
intervals, where passing or turning back
is alike impossible.
a short distance above Veltsista the
gorge Of the stream suddenly ends in
the plateau, and looking over the edge
one can see, some 800 feet below, the
discharge Of the lake Of Janina gushing
out a great volume Oh water from the
Katavothea, as the Greeks call il. or
| underground channel that passes under
the plateau for several miles. From here
can be seen the mountain Of the Soui-
otes, who were only subdued by a ruse
during the revolt Of the great Pasha Of
Janina- All of Tepedelen. the old Tosk
chieftain, the hero to-day OF Mussul-
mans and Greeks, alike for his resistance
TO the Turk in the years before the
Greek revolution.
Arrived on the northeastern edge Of
the plateau, another view meets the eye.
Down in the hollow of the plain below
is the blue, clear water Of the Lake Of
Janina. at the foot of Mount Tomaros.
with the picturesque city Of Janina, its
minarets and church-towers standing
out among the trees, and its waterfront
defended by the Notifications In whose
dungeons were enacted horrors unsur-
passed by any recorded in history, Janina
was the centre Of the stirring events
Of the sanguinary struggle for supre-
macy that lasted so many years between
the Old Pasha Of Janlna and his suze-
rian, at Constantinople, graphically de-
scribed in the writings of De Pougue-
vile, who spent several years there as
French Consul. II was from Janina that
Ali Pasha set out on the fatal journey
to Constantinople TO make his submits
sion in person 10 his sovel eign but all
of him that ever arrived there was his
head, transported in a basket to satisfy
the Sultan that his dreaded vassal was
no more. Janlna Is a distinctly Greek
town, that under a progressive and en-
lightened government might become the
prosperous centre Of an intelligent and
enterprisng people, but under Turkish
domination IS condemned TO stagnation.
or late years the road leading across
the Pindus Mountains by Metzovo to
Monastr i'm Macedonia, has been made
practicable for artillery and wheeled We
hcles; but up to twenty years ago and
less wheeled vehicles were unknown in
Epirus. There is no record Of any period
at which, under Turkish rule, the people
of Epirus enjoyed prosperity or were con-
tented. From the Pindus Range TO the
Adriatic and from the Voyussa to the
Gulf of Arta the last centuries have only
witnessed a series of rising, repressed by
slaughter, with the people, Greeks. and
Turks, kept down by n government OF
rapine and plumber, destroying every yes
tive of the ancient prosperity OF the
country. The once cultivated fields in
the valleys are now covered with yards
deep of gravel and debris washed down
from the mountain sizes denuded OF
trees, that no shelter might be afforded to
brigands or insurgents; old irrigation
channels have long since been filled up
and the population is dwindling down to
the vanishing point.
France and Russia maintain Consuls
and England a Vice-Consul at Janina,
while Italy has kept Consul-General for
political motives. During the Russo
Turkish war and the years following, an
active Italian propaQanda was kent up