SCIO, an island of the Mediterranean, not far from the coast of Smyrna, and one of those classed as the Sporades. It was known to the ancients by the name of Chios, and by the Turks is now called Sakez-Adassi. It is situated between the parallels of 38° 8' and 38° 30', and between the meridians 25° 50' and 26° 11', thus being in length twenty-two and in breadth twenty-one geographical miles. It is separated from the shore of Anatolia by a strait, called sometimes the Strait of Bianca, and sometimes that of Scio, which is seven leagues long, and has a depth of water of twenty fathoms. The road, or, as it is called, the Great Port, has depth for ships of the greatest draught of water; and near to it is the harbour of Fin or Delfyn. To the south of this last port, at about two leagues distance, is the capital of the island, the city of Scio, which, in spite of the dreadful disasters which it has endured, still exists. It was built by the Genoese when they possessed the island. It is wholly constructed of stone or brick, and was till recently much cleaner in its appearance than most towns in this part of the world. Mr Galt, who visited it in 1810, says, that “the houses are built in the Italian style, with lofty pyramidal roofs. Except in the particular of dress, and with the exception of the streets where the shops are situated, every thing about Scio has the appearance of a town in Christendom. The shops are well filled, many of them with those gorgeous stuffs of woven gold and silver which are but rarely to be seen even in London. This was one of the principal manufacturing seats of the Turkish empire; and silks, which rival in beauty and elegance the richest of France and ltaly, are produced in the looms of Scio. In the town are about ninety places of worship belonging to the Greek and Roman persuasions. There is a cathedral, a respectable building, adorned with modern paintings. Almost the whole of the lower class are silk weavers and embroiderers. Many of the villas in the neighbourhood of the town are large buildings, with attached pleasure-grounds and beautiful gardens.”

At a later period the city contained about 5000 houses, and the inhabitants were estimated at 25,000 persons. Besides the city, there were on the island seventy-six large villages, containing Armenians, Turks, and Greeks. The latter were calculated by none below eighty, but by some at a hundred thousand.

A traveller, Mr Laurent, who visited the island in 1818, says, “All the ideas which fancy can form of an earthly paradise seem realized here; the face of the country, itself most fruitful, is cultivated with the greatest assiduity, and every part presents rich vineyards intermingled with fruitful trees. The valleys are intersected with paths shaded by trees, spreading over the traveller’s head their luxuriant branches, bending in the seasons under the weight of lemons, oranges, and pomegranates. The inhabitants seem willing to join their efforts to add to the charms of their island; by all the foreigner is welcomed, and the traveller hears the salute of the peasant, kale emera, kalé espera, good day, or good evening, as he passes along.”

Among the productions of the island, wine is one of much celebrity when drank on the spot; but, from the delicacy of its flavour, it suffers by removal. The corn produced is not equal to more than two months’consumption; the fruits, which are the chief means of subsistence, are the finest in the Levant; the figs are of an incredible size, and the lemons and oranges exported are said to have risen to the value of L.25,000. Mastic gum is an article of great importance, and the shrub from which it exudes was very extensively cultivated. The other articles of export were cotton wool, silk, terebinth, wrought silks, and tanned hides.

Literature was more cultivated in Scio than in any other of the Greek islands; and no priest officiated there who had not been a member of the college.

The richest of the inhabitants were merchants at the head of considerable houses, with commercial establishments under the management of partners in Odessa, Venice, Fiume, Trieste, Leghorn, Genoa, Marseilles, Vienna, and London. They lived here in elegantly-furnished houses, were hospitable to strangers, and in the enjoyment of a degree of ease and freedom which was nowhere else to be witnessed within the other territories under the dominion of the Turks.

The favourable circumstances in which the people lived was in a great part owing to the power over the island having been granted to a sultana, a sister of the sultan, who, satisfied with a sum of money annually collected by the people among themselves, left them almost to their own religion, laws, manners, and occupations; but she is said to have prided herself on the superiority of those under her sway to any other Turkish subjects.[7:19:692] It was owing to this state of things that, when the revolutionary movements among the other Greeks in the Turkish dominions were commenced, no disposition was felt in Scio to embark in the same course. There was a small Turkish garrison in a fortress under an aga, to whom the people gave assurance that no disposition to revolt existed among them; and some of the most respectable heads of families gave themselves as hostages for the pacific and tranquil conduct of their countrymen. The Turkish fleets never molested them, but passed by to subdue the other islands then in a state of insurrection. One of the insurgent Greek leaders, however, with a fleet entered the harbour, and landed a body of troops to attack the arsenal, in which the small garrison of the Turks was collected. In the attack on the fort, the Sciotes of the lowest classes, in spite of the remonstrances of their primates, joined their fellow-Christians. The fort was taken, and the garrison, as well as all the Turks in the city, were put to the sword.

Soon afterwards, in 1822, whilst the island was under the dominion of the rabble and the small body of insurgent Greeks, the Turkish fleet entered the harbour, upon which the invaders escaped from the superior force. As the populace had joined them in spite of the remonstrances of the principal inhabitants, the latter, in number above two hundred, repaired on board the ship of the Capitan Pasha, with the most solemn assurance of their innocence, and the most unqualified submission to the Porte. The admiral received them with great civility, expressed himself willing to forget all that had passed, and ordered coffee and a variety of refreshments. He soon landed, taking with him a force of 10,000 men, a few of whom were regular troops, but the far greater number were volunteers, under no control, who had been induced to embark from the capital by the promise of plunder. Then consequently began a general massacre of the men, with the plunder of the houses, and the capture of the women, girls, and boys, as slaves, to be sold by the captors to the harems for the gratification of the natural and the unnatural vices of the Turks. The details given by eye-witnesses who escaped were such as to harrow up the soul. Every house and every garden were strewed with corpses; beneath the orange-trees, on the sides of the fountains, on the rich carpet, and on the marble pavement, lay the young, the beautiful, and the aged, in the midst of their loved and luxurious retreats. Day after day passed, and, lying as they fell, alone or in groups, no hand bore them to their graves, while survivors yet remained to perish. At last, when all was over, they were thrown in promiscuous heaps into large pits.

Twenty thousand persons are computed to have thus perished during the few days the massacre lasted. A few were happy enough to escape and pass the barrier of rocky mountains, and thus for a time were secure; and a few were received into boats or vessels on the coast, and thus were rescued from immediate destruction. The greater number, especially the younger women and boys, were made objects of plunder by the volunteers; they were mingled together as indiscriminately as a flock of sheep, were driven into the ships, and were thus transported to the capital, where they were exposed to sale like cattle, and a very few were redeemed by their friends, who, privately, it being unlawful for a Greek to buy a Greek, purchased them through Turkish agents.

Those who had delivered themselves up to the Capitan Pasha were removed to a solitary prison, and there, in spite of Lord Strangford’s intercession, were, after he had thought their lives secure, all decapitated. Even the Sciotes in Constantinople were not spared, but in a short time were plundered and put to death. The English ambassador exerted himself in the cause of humanity, but no diplomatic personage of the other states of Europe interfered in behalf of these wretched sufferers.