General Makrygiannis Memoirs, part 2
So, after a month or two of learning these letters that you see, I imagined writing my life, what I did in my youth and what I did in society when I came of age, and what I did for my homeland, where I entered the mystery of the Society for the struggle for our freedom and what I saw and know where they happened in the Struggle, and in what I participated to the best of my ability and did my duty, that which I could. I should not have entered into this work an illiterate, burdening honest readers and great men and wise men of society and putting them at a burden, arousing their curiosity and causing them to lose the precious values in them. But since I, as a human being, have also received this weakness, I ask your forgiveness for the burden that I will give you. If I am an honest man, I want to write the truth, as the writings took place, which I will note. All readers have a duty to first investigate through my conduct, how I behaved in the community and the Struggle, and if I behaved honorably, base it on my writings, if I behaved dishonorably, do not believe anything. And after you learn that I behaved honorably and see noted documents and proofs, beginning and end, from various, from governments and from authorities and from many others, from where I have served with my fellow competitors, where God has made me worthy to have in my direction, my best in the struggle and in services, from where I was ordered. With eighteen men I first set out in the struggle, until God deserved me to have under my direction a thousand and four hundred. The records of my homeland were never defiled, neither in the government, nor in the provinces, nor in individuals, where we fought in Roumeli, Peloponnese and the islands and Sparta, it is nowhere the slightest accusation for us. You will see from the gums the places marked here and there, and everywhere in the state and in the archives of the government these appear. And with as many men as God deserved me and I commanded, various disorders and seizures plagued the homeland, beginning and end, glorified be the all-good name of God, he did not allow us to be defiled. And these graces must be owed by the fatherland to the honorable and good and brave patriots, my fellow fighters, where I had my direction in the struggle, where we also contributed according to our strength to the needs of the fatherland. It is the virtue and patriotism that they showed, of these good patriots, not me. That I did not have this virtue, nor do I have it yet, as in the wars, and now in the service they are my best. They are also now in the service, under my direction, the brave and good officers of Missolonghi with their good and brave leader Mitro Deligiorgis, the garrison commander in the struggle of Missolonghi. There are many brave and honorable islanders and Peloponnesians, good fighters are Roumeliotes. They are the good and patriotic householders and officers of Athens, where we fight in the castle of Athens and elsewhere in the battles of the fatherland. And the virtue of all these good patriots - the goodness of God first - saved us from whatever harms the fatherland. Your lordship, good readers, I call upon you, although you want to know the truth, to investigate all this where you will see, whether it is true or false. I call upon you one thing, all honorable readers, you have no right to make any judgment either for or against, if you do not read it all - and then you are householders to make whatever judgment you want, either for or against. When you have read it all, beginning and end, then make a judgment for those who brought misfortunes to the homeland and civil wars for their individual interests and selfishness and from them the unhappy homeland and the honest fighters suffered and are suffering to this day. I will state the truth nakedly and without passion. But the truth is bitter and those of us who do evil are looked down upon, that we both want evil and self-interest to do it and we want to be called good patriots. And this cannot be done, nor will I hide it and let it remain hidden, that the homeland was damaged, devalued and all this amounts to a curse upon us all. And the causes of evil will be told, and stories and newspapers tell them every day. And they do not mean mine and they should be written by the advanced and not by simple illiterate people and should be licked by the younger and later generations to have more virtue and patriotism. The homeland of each person and religion is everything and he must sacrifice both patriotism and live he and his relatives as honest people in society. And then they are called nations, when they are adorned with patriotic sentiments on the contrary they are called the old scum of the nations and the burden of the earth. And for this reason as the general homeland of each and the work of the struggles of the smallest and weakest citizen, he also has his interests in that homeland, in that religion. Man should not be burdened and neglect these and the advanced The wise man must shout the truth as if he were a hero, the simple man as well. That the earth has no wheels for anyone to carry on his back, neither the strong nor the weak, and when everyone is weak in something and alone cannot carry the burden and takes on others and helps, then let him not imagine that the one who is responsible should say I or we. That we all carried our backs, not one. "Our lords, our leaders became "Most Brilliant", they became "Most Brave" and the locals and the brave, but nothing is resting on them. We were poor, we became rich. Kiamilbegis was here in the Peloponnese and the other Turks were very rich, Kolokotronis and the other relatives and friends became rich from lands, factories, mills, houses, raisins and other riches of the Turks. When Kolokotronis and his companions came from Zakynthos, they did not have even a plot of land, now it seems what they have. The same in Roumeli, Gouras and Mamouris, Kritzotis, Grivaigoi, Staikos and the others, Tzavelaigoi and many others. And what do they ask from the nation? Millions more for the great works. And in these they never develop all laws and factions for the good of the homeland, they are all busy. What the homeland suffered for the laws and the good of these people and how many young men were killed, the homeland did not suffer in the struggle of the Turks. We inhabited the inhabitants in caves and they live with wild animals and we devastated the places and became the paralysis of the world. All this gave me reason to learn letters in my old age, to note everything. I was one of them. Let someone else write for me what he knows. I will tell the truth naked. That I have my share of this homeland, I and my children will live. When I was young and I grew old from these sufferings of the homeland, I received five wounds on my body in various struggles of the homeland and I was restored half a man and most of the time I am naked in clothes. I praise God who did not take my life and I also thank my homeland who honored me by grading me according to rank, according to the circumstances, to the rank of general and I live as a man with what God blessed without my conscience troubling me, without depriving anyone or a single inch of land. My homeland of birth is from Lidoriki, a village of Lidoriki called Avoriti, three hours away from Lidoriki is the other village, five huts. My parents were very poor and this poverty came from the plundering of the local Turks and the Arvanites of Alipassa. My parents were polyphagous and poor and when I was still in my mother's womb, one day he went to the log for wood. Loading the wood for her cart, loaded on the road, in the wilderness, she was seized by pains and gave birth to me alone, the burnt and separated one, she then gave birth to me too. She got up alone and alone, loaded herself with some wood and put grass on top of the wood and on top of me and went to the village. In a short time, three murders took place in our house and my father also perished. The Turks of Alipassa wanted to enslave us. Then during the night, the whole family and our entire lineage got up and left and were freezing in Livadia to live there. They would cross a bridge of Lidoriki called Stenos, the river did not cross from any other place. There the Turks were watching to catch them, and for eighteen days they all hid in the forests and ate wild elms and I was suckling and ate this milk. No longer suffering hunger, they decided to pass through the bridge, and as a small infant, so that I would not cry and everyone would perish, they decided and threw me into the forest, to the one called Kokkinos, and they proceeded through the bridge. Then my mother moved and said to them, "The sin of the infant will destroy us," she said to them, "You pass and drag it to such and such a place and stand... I will take it and if I am lucky and it does not cry, we will pass through"... my mother and God saved us. My mother and the other relatives said all this. The whole family and relatives got up and went to Livadia and the philanthropic rulers there protected us for a while, as long as we were caught and we built houses and properties there. I was about seven years old. They put me to work in one year for a hundred paradas, the next year for five groscias. After I did a lot of work, they wanted me to do other humble household chores and take care of the children. Then that was my death. I did not want to do this work and both the masters and the relatives beat me. I got up and took other children and we went to Thebes. Bad luck and there the relatives came and caught us and brought me back to Livadia and to the same master. And I continued in the same service for a while. Then, in order to escape this service, because my pride would not leave me alone day or night, I began to beat, pierce the heads of the children and my own mother, and then I left. in the backs. And with this they got tired and freed me, because this service was leading me to ruin. I was about fourteen years old and I went to a countryman of mine in Desfina. He was his brother with Alipasia and he was a zapitis in Desfina. I stayed with him for a day. It was a festival and feast of Agias. We went to the feast and he gave me his rifle to carry. I wanted to throw it, I fired. Then he caught me in front of everyone and beat me to death. The beating did not hurt me so much, but the shame of the world did. Then everyone was eating and drinking and I was crying. I found no other judge to tell this complaint to justify me, I deemed it reasonable to resort to Aigiannis, because in his house alone this damage and dishonor was done. I enter his church at night and close the door and begin to cry with loud voices and repentance, "Is this what has happened to me, I am a donkey being beaten?" And I call upon him to give me good chariots and silver and fifteen bags of money and I will light a large silver lamp for him. With many voices we made the agreements with the saint. In a short time, my master's brother writes from Ioannina that he wants a child to make him a hosmet. They sent me, in 1811. He was married to Alipassas in Arta. He had been living in Arta for some time, Alipassas sought him out to come, because he loved him and had him in his secret letters. He was an honest man, his name was Thanasis Lidoriki. Then he asked me to let him stay in his house, I did not want to stay. He told me "You will stay with the stable too". I could not avoid this, because he had the power. I stayed with agreements that I, as a slave, would not stay. I do the service of your house, but I will also get to know the residents, to borrow money, to do trade, because I am naked, to get dressed. (He was a miser, he did not give me anything). First this agreement, I told him, and second the shopping for your house - that your wife should handle the money and the bill, she knows how to read, and let me shop for her, to weigh when I bring the shopping and everything she does to pay. The same with the other shopping, do not tell me that I stole from you, that now you see me naked and tomorrow dressed and you will say that I am a thief. " I was sitting with those agreements that I told him and we made ten years with him. He also gave me four hundred groschen as wages. I asked him for a loan and he gave it to me with interest of ten or twelve per year. I wrote him a note and I have it to this day. He also made me this tziraklik. There was a square in front of his house and the lords and merchants would gather there and sit until midnight in the summer. Then I would go in and they would clean that place, I would give them whatever they needed, I would treat them well. I met all of them and the village leaders. I asked these leaders and merchants for a loan and they lent me fifty-six thousand groschen. Up until then I had twenty-four groschen in capital, I lent them to the villagers and I harvested oats in the winter, to take to the threshing floor. I harvested it for four groschen a bushel, I gathered it to the threshing floor (and there was a shortage) and I sold it for sixteen. I get all this money. The following year, in the winter, I caught corn for eleven groszy, gathered it in the threshing floors, and sold it in Arta for thirty-three. There was a plague in Arta and there was a shortage of bread. Then I bought a silver rifle, pistols and chariots, and a good lamp. And well armed and dressed, I took it and went to my protector and benefactor and true friend, Aigiannis, and it is preserved to this day - I also have my name written on the lamp. And I worshipped him with tears from within my bowels, because I remembered all the sufferings I had experienced... Then I began trading and the inhabitants, Romans and Turks, had me as a treasurer and I recited God's words and I built a house there, real estate, and I had both cash and bonds in abundance and I have them to this day of about forty thousand groschen. And my chimer was plentiful. I obtained everything I wanted and had no need of anyone else. I lived in Arta for ten years, I made many friends. There I had a friend and a sack-bearer who later became a steward. I had him as a close friend, because my company was with my best friends. This steward had me better than his children, and I did not leave his house day or night. That was a wall with my countryman's house and nearby was the one where I bought mine from an unfortunate lord. A very accomplished steward, there was no one else like him in Arta and he had four children from Sernik. One of them was in Europe where he was studying, and he was a friend and beloved of Kapodistrias. The child saved his expenses and asked Kapodistrias to go and study medicine. Kapodistrias told him that we are doing something to liberate Greece, and if this is finished, you will not need medicine and if you stay, I will send you from Russia You go and study. And if that happens, I will write to you and we will make peace. The child came to Arta, told his father about this and fled back to Corfu. Some time passed, Kapodistrias writes to him, and he went and they met and he indoctrinated him for the sake of the homeland. And because Alipassas was very powerful and bought Parga and caused other disturbances, they piled up crimes against him to prevent him from fighting the Sultan. They did many of these things to him and the discord between the Sultan and him grew. The child came to Arta indoctrinated, swears at his father and runs away. His father wants to put me in the secret too. He starts to swear at me and then he changes his mind and he did this to me many times. Then I too became stubborn in front of him and said to him, “Have you ever suspected that I am dishonorable in your house and are you ashamed to tell me? And indeed I am dishonorable if I set foot on your doorstep!” And I got up and left. The priest shouted, I did not turn back. Two or three days passed, he came, he came again, I did not hesitate. After he came many times, with tears in my eyes I responded, “Why should I give you a bad idea, your child? He also cried and invited me to go with him and then not to set foot on it, as I felt like it. I went. He took down all the icons and made me swear and began to put me in the sacrament. After he had gone ahead, I swore to him that I would not testify to anyone, but that he would give me eight days to consider whether I was worthy of this mystery and whether I could benefit, receive it, or sit there as if I did not know it at all. I went and thought about it and put everything forward, and I would suffer death and danger and struggle - I will suffer it for the freedom of my country and my religion. I went and told him, "I am worthy." I kissed his hand, I swore. I begged him not to testify to me about the signs of catechism, that I was young and that I should not endure and regret my life and betray the mystery and danger to my country. We agreed on this too and he told me that from where I work, money... and I cannot do abuses, but to take from a proof, these riches to make. And the grace of the blessed priest and of my homeland and my religion, to this day God has not let me be ashamed. I have suffered pains, wounds and dangers, but I am well as God wills. I told him "Everything will go well, but Alipassas is very strong and he will endanger us, because the captains are with him". He told me the reasons, and in a short time God willed it and they locked him up everywhere, in 1820. I entered the secret and left my countryman and went to my house and worked for my country and my religion to serve it honestly, as I worked for it, so that it would not call me a thief and a robber, but that I would be called its child and I my mother. The Sultan appointed Khursit-Pasha as commander-in-chief with many Pashas to besiege Alipasia and they infested Ioannina and Arta with Turks and Arvanites and robbers and paralytics, they took many Roman women as slaves, they also took a slave girl of my countryman and they wanted to take his wife too. She was beautiful and was going to be taken by a pasha who was in Arta, he was called Hasanpasha, a bad man, he and one, he was called Babapasha, they destroyed the honor and wealth of the people. This Babapasha caught my countryman and me and imprisoned us and tried to ruin us, and with many tricks that my countryman and I did we were saved. And after we were saved, I told him to leave and go to our homeland, to Lidoriki, to save ourselves. He did not listen to me, he listened to the women and he suffered a lot. And because of that I left him. Then Hasanpasha also threatened him and secretly left and left his family in Arta and he was going to take her as his wife. And she was pregnant, ready to give birth, and he left her as soon as she gave birth, so he could take her. Since there were many Turks in Arta and Preveza and Souli and other parts of Epirus where Alipassas was holding them, as well as in Ioannina, there were large forces of the Sultan everywhere and they imposed a siege and were also gathering the chariots of the Romans and to block the coat of gunpowder, lead, and the sturgeons of Arta. And this coat was owned by a good man, a close friend of mine, we did trade together, his name was Giorgakis Korakis, a relative of the good and good patriots Zosimadas. Since I knew him to be an honest man, I asked the Steward and the late Gogos Bakolas and Scarmitzos, that they also entered into the mystery (brave men and good patriots) and after I asked them, they did not want to put Korakis into the mystery, because they were afraid that he would betray them. And we had absolutely no ammunition in those parts, and the whole place was occupied, and we would have made a revolution without ammunition and most of the rifles were tied with ropes. Then I decided alone, without asking the others, and I swear by the coat-bearer, the good patriot, and we emptied the whole coat and took the gunpowder, lead and sturgeons. And I had two hiding places in my house and he in his house and we carried them there and left a little inside the coat. And divine grace, glory be to Him, distracted the Turks and they did not see where we were carrying them. And the unforgotten Korakis - who later disappeared - and I put money in and we bought chariots in a way and hid them where we had the gunpowder and in the ceilings of our houses and we armed the Eftanisians and others and we gave them ammunition and... to the captains, so when there was a need we gave them to the captains themselves. After Hursit-Pashas left the Peloponnese, where he was there, and the commander for Alipassus, and took all the troops with him, and in the Peloponnese there were very few people left, the local Turks began to suspect from the Peloponnese that the Peloponneseans had started and were commanding for the revolution. They were also suspicious of Roumeli. We said, it is nothing, but the plague in Roumeli became fierce from so many Turks, that the whole place became infected because of Alipassus and the place was devastated by the hard labor and the nakedness of the people. And with this we put them to sleep. But the entire region of Roumeli was completely destroyed, especially Ioannina and Arta, and all those places were completely devastated. The local Turks of the Peloponnese wrote that they suspected the Romans of Hursit-Pasha and that Hursit-Pasha should take measures for this. At that time, we were closely besieged by the Turks everywhere, and we were not learning anything, it was found reasonable by the Steward of Arta and Gogos and Scarmitzos to send me as a merchant to go to Patras and from there to cross over to eastern Greece to first meet Diakos, to ask him about current affairs and to tell him to be busy in all these places, and to go and talk to Panourgias and other captains so that they and the Peloponnesians would be busy, to pull some Turkey, so that we too could be busy there at that time. In the month of March, 1821, I took some money and crossed over to Patras. The Turks, suspecting that they saw a Roumeliite, were in danger, the Romans began to openly harass me inside the Russian consulate where Vlassopoulos was consul. I was staying at the inn called Tatarakis. There were also people from Giannino, where they were staying, and people from Artena. I went to the consulate, I told them the current events of Roumeli and the evil that Alipassa had suffered. They had come out of the castle against the royalists in the city of Giannina and they killed a large number of Alipassa. All the glory that he had was lost. They did not believe anything I told them, but they wanted him to be victorious to liberate them, this tyrant to bring the Roman Empire and the freedom of the fatherland - and if he came out, he would not leave us even a nostril. When I told them a lot and they did not believe me, I left and went to a large merchant to buy things, to raise all suspicions as much as possible - to sort out the current affairs there, to find out. After I went to his shop, the merchant said to me "Buy what you want and what your soul can bear, buy it." After I bought what I wanted, he took me to go to his house to eat and sleep there. I went, he asked me. He started to give me the signs of the Company, then I started to swear at him and told him that I didn't learn them from the sackalario. Then I told him what I knew from Roumeli and he from the Peloponnese. I asked him if it was too late and if they had any preparations. He told me "The Turks started to get suspicious and it's not been ten days since they asked for a loan and I gave them one hundred and fifty thousand groschen as a loan to put them to sleep. However, he tells me, "the matter does not accept late". I say to him "If that's the case, what preparations do you have?" He told me "We sent some money to Kolokotronis in Zakynthos and he came with about thirty people and he is in Mani. And we have no other preparations". I said to him, “This money, where I see heaps of tallies (and five or six grammarians were writing), don’t you send it anywhere to be used for your speech and for the homeland?” He said to me, “What are you thinking, this Romaigiko will soon become a nation? We will sleep with the Turks and wake up with the Romaigiko.” I said too, “Great people, you know great things. I, a small one, know little, do whatever God has enlightened you.” I fell asleep. At dawn I went to buy what I needed. The zapitis found out where I went and looked for me everywhere. Instead of me, they caught one of Varnakiotis and took him away. He threw him away, saw that it wasn’t him. He said, “Not this one, another one. He is a Jassite brought here and if you catch him I will hang him, let him suffer what he came here for. " Varnakiotis's man said these things at the inn and the Arteni came and told me and I went to the consulate of Russikon and told the reasons and to stay there under guard. The consul could not stand me. He told me, at such times he is also in danger. With the tinfoil I stayed until the evening and I was struggling to get out. They put me in a room and locked me in without anyone checking me. I felt like urinating there was a small hole in the floor and I was helpless. A slave came and cursed me. I told him, I am a man and I could not bear it. The slave asked me where I was from. I told him from Roumeli. He told me, and he is from Vrachori. I called him to tell me if he knew Konstantinos Gerakaris (that he was there in the consulate, when the consul dismissed me), to tell him to come and meet him. The slave told me, “Yesterday Dysseas was here and he left. -Syre, tell Gerakaris, I told him. He went, he told him, and he came. I told him, “Take me tonight to where Dysseas is and a crowd of people will know that I came because of Dysseas.” He told me to tell him first. I told him, "I am sworn to secrecy and I will not tell anyone else." Gerakaris left. He went to bed. They were forcing me to leave the consulate. I drew my pistols, my scimitar, said my prayer, and told the boy, who brought me some raki and drank it, to strike a match and go out with the scimitar, even if I were a citizen. The guards, the consul's Turks and other Turks, were guarding the door outside, because they found out where I was inside and they wanted me to come out and catch me. And I said, "Don't get caught alive and be tortured and find yourself a slave and betray nothing - it's better to be killed." As I was getting ready to leave, a Kefalonian comes and says to me, “Are you where you were in here?” I tell him, “There are many people here, who are you looking for? Who sent you?” He tells me, “Gerakaris.” “It’s me,” I told him. He says, “Let’s go do our job.” I tell him, “There are Turks guarding the door and a tower from the courtyard. I’ll fall down the wall and you go outside and guard where I’ll fall, let’s get away, because I don’t know the alleys.” He went outside. I threw myself off the wall, it was tall, I was half crushed by my chariots. Fear was running through me like an old man. We went down towards the sea. I told him to go from the place of raisins, he heard me that there were Turks in Dogana and they would catch us. I told him to hide in the ditches to call for the boat. That Dysseos was inside - a whip. When I told him to hide, he said to me "What filthy asses you guys are... You're even afraid of your own shadow". I was ashamed, I went with him. He called for the felucca, the Turks see us and are trying to catch us. God willing, it was a felucca. I spoke to them and we jumped in and they sent their schooner after us. The Turks also got angry. They also took their tridents and resisted. Then they took me and I met with Dysseas and I told him everything that was going on and I told him where I was going and to Diakos and others and he told me that he had gone to the countryside and they would attack and he took ammunition to go to Xeromero in Zavitza. And he told me to go together. I told him “I will see the end here and also get my rifle, where it is in the inn. And I will go out and tell you everything I learn and what you told me”. And he left at night. In two days he hit Patras with a rifle. The Turks attacked the castle and the Romans the sea. Then I took about ten children from the ship with their chariots and we went out. People were being carried to Dogana and the sea was filled with women and children, up to their necks. Then I see my friend the merchant carrying his family in one hand and his children in the other and nothing else but the life he had - where he would wake up to find Romaiko. Great people, great mistakes, small ones will make small ones. I took them and took them into the ship and consoled them. I stayed there the next day and went to Missolonghi. I bought white candles, where a ship from Trieste had come, and rums and oil and tobacco to go as a merchant to Arta, so that the Turks would see and not suspect. I loaded the boat, I sailed from - outside - Vasiladi to a port near there, it is called Voukentro. At dawn on the Vagia, at night (since the weather was inclement) we see from afar Patras a lot of fire and regulation and gunfire. The next day Vlassopoulos and other boats with families arrive at the port there. I asked, they told me, Isuf-pasha entered Patras and ravaged it and wiped out the inhabitants. I left there on Good Friday. I went to Preveza, sold the candles and rum and tobacco at a high price. On Good Saturday night, at dawn on Lambri, I went to Arta, met our people, told them the current events. They also brought the heads of the Patras there, to be taken to Hursit-pasha. Then they catch me as a servant of the Sultan, where I was in Morea, they take me to the castle of Arta. They put irons on my feet and other prisoners, so that I would testify to the secret. Seventy-five days of prisoners. It takes twenty-six people to hang us and God spared only me. They were from Voronezh and other places and they hanged them all in the bazaar. In order to get me to testify to them about my life, they turned me over to the pasha after the sentence and he threw me out for my own life and that of my countryman. They took me back to the castle, another way to spoil me, and they put me in a dungeon. And there were a hundred of us There were forty people. And there was rotten bread inside and they were baking the bread because we had no place else. And that filth and the filth created a stench, which is worse than any other on earth. And through the keyhole of the door we would stick our noses in and get air. And they would throw sticks and a lot of sticks at me, and after they went to break me. And from the blows my body was bruised and burned and I was dying. I ordered enough money from an Arvanite to go out to see a doctor and get medicine and money. He gave me a Turk to take me to my house. As we went down the road, I was walking, limping a lot and moaning. The Turk, a godly ox, and he was going to take my soul - he didn't know how deep it was. I went home, lay down to die. The doctor came, I was thinking about the Turk, how to "get away from him. I go out and give him the money and I say to the Turk, "Take it (supposedly secretly). He told me to give it to him so that it's not someone else". I gave him a hundred groschen too. He took it, I said to him, "Take it (supposedly) to the" castle and come as soon as the doctor can give me the medicine, let's go together to "the castle, because I don't go out alone. I'm afraid of the local Turks". He took it. He went out the door, I got ready. I gave him a little break and went to the guest house of a cousin of his, Alipassa, they called him Smailbey-Konitza, may God bless his soul. After he saw me, he felt very sorry for me. I told him what I had tried and if he would keep me, he should not give me back. He said, I have a rifle with the Koniaros, I will not give you. He immediately gave me chariots and took me with his army and we went to Kompoti. The Turkish horde was there, it is three hours from Arta. After we had sat there for several days, this unfortunate man became seriously ill and as my benefactor I took better care of him than my parents. If I wanted to, I would have left there, our own alarga was a piece of cake. But I told my benefactor not to be unfaithful to him and leave him sick. He got up sick and I went with him and we went back to Arta - and to work him as much as I could - to save him and also the wife of my other benefactor, my countryman, where I had eaten his bread for so many years, and the Turks would take her to be Turkified. And for these two benefactors I went back to the city, inside Arta. After we went inside Arta, one day the pashas came to the beg's house and all the seraskeris, the Arvanites, to see him. I told the beg about my countryman's wife, where Hasanpasha would take her. He speaks of the pashas and others, the otzaks of Arvanitia, he tells them "-"Pashas and beys, we will perish. We will perish! their bey" says, that this war is neither with the Muscovite, nor with the English, nor with the French. We have wronged the rajah both in wealth and honor and we have destroyed him and they have blackened his eyes and he has raised a rifle against us. And the Sultan, the donkey, does not know what is happening to him, those who surround him laugh at him. And this is the beginning, where our kingdom will be lost. We are paying heavily to find a traitor and there is no way for anyone to testify to the secret, to learn on his own whether the rajah is fighting us or the Forces. That is why we are paying and impaling and we kill and "we never really learned." After the beg had told them many of these things, he then told them that the Sultan was sending pashas, the most powerful, who had stripped the people naked and taken their wives. “They will go to their own country and we will stay here.” Then he heard about my countryman’s wife, that the pasha was seeking to take her. And then they all said with one voice and went and took her from where he had her and took her to the English consulate to be kept. After I had secured the wife of my other benefactor, one day the unfortunate beg had a bad burn and I went to the doctor. The Turks were trying to catch me because I had fled from the castle, and the pasha learned that I had acted and they were trying to save me because of the wife. They were going to hang me. After I went to the doctor, the Turks threw themselves at me. I was free and I escaped. They chased me to the beg's house. There, our men came out, we were caught by chariots and I was saved. "After the beg came to my senses, I took his euk and told him, "I will leave." He did not let me go. I told him, "I would have left Kompoti if I wanted to, but I did not do it for my honor." After he saw where I would not sit," he gave me his euk and told me to tell the captains outside Peta and elsewhere to have justice in the world, to go forward. That "the Turks have done injustice in this way and will perish. "Let them have justice," let it end, and let us Turks also rest, that our kingdom has now been taken from us by God, that we have fled from "his" justice. I kissed his hand to leave, he gave me money, I said to him, "My Beg, I have it and I do not want it, because you have great expenses for your people." He gave me chariots and ordered me to
