Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/146

118 Malimoud Paslia Jamessy, after the grand vizier of Maliomet II. This seems to have been an ancient Byzantine chapel converted into a mosque. The castle is garrisoned by a small force of native militia, commanded by a binbashi or colonel.

Ali Nehad Effendi invited me to Smyrna to see a recently-discovered amphitheatre outside the town. "I must give you a guard of cavasses," he said, "otherwise the brigands will assuredly lay hold of you." The condition of the environs of Smyrna is something quite incredible. The merchants can hardly walk a yard out of the town without being robbed. This state of things has been brought about partly, by the imbecility of the Turkish government, partly, I grieve to say, by the complicity of certain Europeans with the brigands; the result of which is a conspiracy against property, ramifying through all classes of society. Nobody in Smyrna knows whether his servant, or even his friends or acquaintances, are not in secret communication with the terrible Janni Katerji, the head of this band of robbers.

A short time since three Smyrna gentlemen, one of them son of a rich Greek merchant, went out shooting near a village where many Europeans have houses, but which has long been the resort of brigands. They had not gone far before they met Janni Katerji, who constantly visits Smyrna in open day in disguise. He accosted the three unhappy sportsmen very courteously, and asked them to have some coffee, according to the usual Eastern fashion. When they had drunk their coffee, he informed them,