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 THE GREEKS UNDER TURKISH BONDAGE. 163 with this improvement began the aspiration after a higher position. The Greeks are more indus- trious than any other southern people, and under equal taxation' and justice they would by their industry alone have starved out their Turkish masters. By carrying on commerce and naviga- tion on a grand scale during the first period of their awakening, they proved themselves so much superior that the observing Englishmen, full of admiration for their talent, their perspi- cacity, their experience, diligence, economy, and honesty, predicted with the most absolute cer- tainty their success. Their merchant ships were indeed now beginning, in ever-increasing num- ber, to bear to their homes the wealth which was destined later on to keep alive the war of inde- pendence. The improvement was soon to be seen in landward Hellas also, wherever the ab- sence of Turks permitted some security and free- dom. The existence of such oases in the midst of the desert of Osmanli savagery startled the few travellers. The German Bartholdy, who was by no means favorably inclined toward the Greeks, was astonished to find at Ampelania, in Thessaly, several persons who were capable of addressing him in his mother tongue, and he was still more astonished when he found that, as