Amongst the other islands inhabited by Greeks, but belonging to Turkey, Thasos is that which lies nearest to the coast of Europe. The strait which separates it from Macedonia is hardly four miles across, and in its centre there is an island (Thasopulo), as well as several sand-banks, which interfere much with navigation. Though a natural dependency of Macedonia, this island is governed by a mudir of the Viceroy of Egypt, to whom the Porte made a present of it. When Mohammed II. put an end to the Byzantine empire, Thasos and the {95} neighbouring islands formed a principality, the property of the Italian family of the Gateluzzi.
Fig. 30.—THE ÆGEAN SEA.
According to Robiquet. Scale, 1 : 5,170,000.
The map is shaded to express the depth of the sea. The palest tint indicates a depth of less than 55 fathoms; the next tint a depth of 55 to 275 fathoms; the next a depth of 275 to 550 fathoms; and the darkest tint a depth of over 550 fathoms.
Thasos is one of those countries of the ancient world the present condition of which contrasts most unfavourably with former times. Thasos, an ancient Phœnician colony, was once the rival, and subsequently the wealthy and powerful ally, of Athens: its hundred thousand inhabitants worked the gold and iron mines of {96} the island; they quarried its beautiful white marble; cultivated vineyards yielding a famous wine; and extended their commercial expeditions to every part of the Ægean Sea. But now there are neither mines nor quarries, the vines yield only an inferior product, the agricultural produce hardly suffices for the six thousand inhabitants of the island, and the ancient haven of Thasos is frequented only by the tiniest of vessels. The island has recovered very slowly from the blow inflicted upon it by Mohammed II., who carried nearly the whole of its inhabitants to Constantinople. Thasos after this became a haunt of pirates, and its inhabitants sought shelter within the mountains of the interior. They are Hellenes, but their dialect is very much mixed with Turkish words. Unlike other Hellenes, they are not anxious to improve their minds. They are degenerate Greeks, and they know it. “We are sheep and beasts of burden,” they’ repeatedly told the French traveller, Perrot.
Thasos, however, is the only island of the Archipelago where wooded mountains and verdant landscapes survive. Rains are abundant, and its vegetation luxuriant. Running streams of water murmur in every valley; large trees throw their shade over the hill-sides; the villages near the foot of the mountain are hidden by cypresses, walnut, and olive-trees; the valleys which radiate in all directions from the centre of the island abound in planes, laurels, yoke-elms, and vigorous oaks; and dark pine forests cover the higher slopes of the hills, the glittering barren summits of Mount St. Elias and of other high mountains alone rising above them.
Samothrace, though smaller than Thasos, is much more elevated. Its mountains are composed of granite, schists, limestones, and trachyte, and form a sort of pendant to Mount Athos, on the other side of the Ægean Sea. If we approach Samothrace from the north or the south, it presents the appearance of a huge coffin floating upon the waters; from the east or west its profile resembles a pyramid rising from the waves. From its summit Neptune watched the fight of the Greeks before Troy. In the dark oak forests of the Black Mountains were carried on the mysteries of Cybele and her Corybantes, as well as the Cabiric worship, which was intimately connected with them, and Samothrace was to the ancient Greeks what Mount Athos is to the moderns—a sacred land. Numerous ruins and inscriptions remain to bear witness to the zeal of devout travellers from all parts of the world. But with the downfall of the heathen temples the pilgrims disappeared. There is only one village on the island now. Its inhabitants lead a secluded life, and the only strange faces they see are those of the sponge-fishers who frequent the island during summer. The entire absence of harbours, and the dangerous current which separates Samothrace from Imbro, keep off the mariner, and though the valleys are extremely fertile, they have not hitherto attracted a single immigrant from the neighbouring continent.
Imbro and Lemnos are separated from Samothrace by a deep sea, and appear to continue the range of the Thracian Chersonesus. Imbro, which is nearest to the continent, is the more elevated of the two islands, but its St. Elias does not attain half the height of the mountains of Samothrace. There are no forests {97} upon the slopes of this mountain, the valleys are covered with stones, and hardly an eighth of the surface of the island is capable of cultivation. Still, the position of Imbro, close to the mouth of the Dardanelles and upon an international ocean highway, will always secure to it a certain degree of importance. The majority of the inhabitants live in a small valley in the north-eastern portion of the island, and though the rivulet which flows through this valley regularly dries up in summer, it is nevertheless called emphatically the Megalos Potamos, or “big river.”
Lemnos, or Limni, is the largest island of Thracia, and at the same time the least elevated and the most barren. You may walk for hours there without seeing a tree. Even olive-trees are not met with in the fields, and the village gardens can boast but of few fruit trees. Timber has to be procured from Thasos or the continent. Lemnos, in spite of all this, is exceedingly fertile; it produces barley and other cereals in plenty, and the pastures amongst its hills sustain 40,000 sheep. The island consists of several distinct mountain groups of volcanic origin, 1,200 to 1,500 feet in height, and separated by low plains covered with scoriæ, or by gulfs penetrating far inland. In the time of the ancient Greeks the volcanoes of Lemnos had not yet quenched their fires, for it was in one of them that Vulcan, when hurled from heaven, established his smithy, and, with the assistance of the Cyclops, forged his thunderbolts for Jupiter. About the beginning of our era Mount Mosychlos and the promontory of Chryse were swallowed up by the sea, and the vast shoals which extend from the eastern part of the island in the direction of Imbro probably mark their site. Since the disappearance of Mount Mosychlos, Lemnos has not again suffered from volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. The majority of the inhabitants are Greeks, and the Turks who have settled amongst them are being evicted by the conquered race, which is superior to them in intelligence and industry. Commerce is entirely in the hands of the Greeks. Its principal seat is at Kastro—the ancient Myrhina—which occupies a headland between two roadsteads. Sealed earth is one of the articles exported, and is found in the mountains. In ancient times it was much prized as an astringent, and is so still throughout the East. It is not considered to possess its healing qualities unless it has been collected before sunrise on Corpus Christi day.