“You have requested me to tell you all that I heard at Athens about the affair of that girl who was so near being put an end to while you were there; you have asked me to mention every circumstance, in the remotest degree relating to it, which I heard. In compliance with your wishes, I write to you all I heard, and I cannot imagine it to be very far from the fact, as the circumstance happened only a day or two before I arrived at Athens, and consequently was a matter of common conversation at the time.
“The new governor, unaccustomed to have the same intercourse
with the Christians as his predecessor, had of course the barbarous Turkish ideas with
regard to women. In consequence, and in compliance with the strict letter of the
Mahommedan law, he ordered this girl to be sewed up in a sack, and thrown into the
sea;—as is, indeed, quite customary at Constantinople. As you were returning from
bathing in the Piræus, you met the procession going down to execute the sentence of the
Waywode on this unfortunate girl. Report continues to say, that on finding out what the
object of their journey was, and who was the miserable sufferer, you immediately
interfered; and on some delay in obeying your orders, you were obliged to inform the
leader of the escort,
| 390 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1813. |
“I am afraid you will hardly be able to read this scrawl; but I am so hurried with the preparations for my journey, that you must excuse it.”
