Prof. Piro P. Tase: History and Landscape of Albania in the memoirs of William Martin Leake (1804)


Abstract - William Martin Leake is perhaps the most important foreign dignitary to have visited Southern Albania in the first half of XIX Century. This Academic Paper encompasses a detailed description, assessment of Albania’s geographic landscape, terrain and cultural heritage. It delves into the geopolitics of the Balkans and brings forth, promotes one of the least known European Countries. This paper includes excerpts from Leake’s book: "Travels in Northern Greece," (London 1835, reprinted in Amsterdam in 1967) chapters 1, 2, 7 and 8 that are specifically focused on present day Albania. Furthermore, modern cities’ names have been included in this text within square parenthesis.

Keywords - William Martin Leake, Albania, Vlora, Johann Erich Thunmann, Saranda, Gjirokastra, Ottoman Empire, Constantinople.

Introduction

William Martin Leake (1777-1860) is an accomplished British diplomat and writer who traveled through Albania and the Balkans in the early XIX century and depicted some of the salient characteristics of Albanian society, history and cultural anthropology. Leake’s passion for Albanian culture and ethnographic heritage is heavily reflected on his multiple volume travel journal which is perhaps the most valuable literature in Albanian Studies that is carefully written and ever published by an influential western diplomat. Furthermore, as a topographer, William Martin Leake has undoubtedly provided a significant contribution through his passionate study of military fortifications and revealing fascinating details of prominent archaeological sites in Albania, setting forth new discoveries in this field; with his meticulous studies he attracted a new generation of foreign historians and archaeologists that acquired a special interest to further expand research on Albania and its people. The scholarly work and well archived voyages through Albania of W. M. Leake are a valuable contribution that emphasizes the historical research led by Swedish theologian and historian Johann Erich Thunmann (1746-1778) whose contributions on ancient Illyrian history of Albania are fundamental and are regarded as a milestone by his contemporaries including the aforementioned British diplomat. [1]
Trained at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich (London), William Martin Leake was sent in 1799 to Constantinople and served as a military fortification expert in the Ottoman army in Egypt. In September 1804, Leake returned to the Ottoman Empire to assist the provinces of European Turkey in defending themselves against French attacks coming from Italy. In this task, Leake was instructed to survey the coasts of Albania and that of Morea (Peleponnese).

In December 1804, William Martin Leake took his first expedition to Albania and he traveled through Vlora, Kanina, Saranda, Delvina, Gjirokastra, Tepelena, Kardhiq, Finiq, Himara and Ksamil; during the second visit to Albania (June, 1805) his itinerary encompassed the provinces of Devoll, Korça, Voskopoja, Berat, Apollonia, Këlcyra and Përmet. W. M. Leake continued visiting Albania and Greece until February 1807.

First encounter with Vlora


Johann Thunmann argued that “Albanians and the country they inhabit are the descendents of the ancient Illyrians. They lived in mountainous terrain, maintaining themselves and their name despite all the revolutions which swept through neighboring peoples.” Thunmann historical deductions reaffirm that: “In 1273, Albania stretched to Durazzo [Durrës], in 1340 to Kanina and Beligrad [Berat], and from 1340 through Acarnania down to the Achelous.[1] All of these historical facts are meticulously illustrated and complemented by the journal entries and travel impressions of William Martin Leake, beginning with his arrival in the Coastal city of Vlora on December 9th, 1804. On his first chapter Leake notes:

Aulon [Vlora]which preserves its ancient name in the usual Romaic[2] form of Avlóna, converted by the Italians into Valona, is about a mile and a half distant from the sea-beach, and has eight or ten minarets. On the sea side there is a tolerable wharf, with an apology for a fort, in the shape of a square enclosure of ruinous walls, with towers and a few cannon. The town occupies a hollow thickly grown with olive trees, among which are some gardens of herbs mixed with cypresses, poplars, and fruit trees. Beyond, are rugged hills entirely covered with olives, and to the northward a woody plain extending for a considerable distance, and forming a low shore except just at the northern entrance of the gulf, opposite to the island Sázona [Sazan], where are some white cliffs of small elevation separated from the plain by a lagoon, containing salt works and a fishery.
Two miles southward of the town rises a steep hill, on the summit of which is the ruinous castle of Kanína [Kanina], and on a ridge branching from it to the southward the scattered houses of a Turkish village of the same name overtopped by two small minarets. Kanína is a name which occurs in the Byzantine history. It was built upon a Hellenic site, as appears by some remains of masonry of that age among the walls. Not far to the southward of the height of Kanína, begins a range of steep mountains separated only by a narrow valley from the Acroceraunia, which mountain presents the same forbidding aspect on this side as towards the sea, and forms a narrow steep ridge, woody, rocky, and terminating in a sharp summit which closes the valley about ten miles from the extremity of the gulf. This valley is a part of the district of Khimára [Himara], and contains a large village named Dukái [Dukat], in Greek Dukádhes, below which at the southern extremity of the gulf is the harbour named Pashalimán by the natives, and Porto Raguséo by the Italians, near the mouth of a river which flows from the peak of the Acroceraunia through the valley of Dukat. Eastward of the mouth of the river is a succession of lagoons, in the midst of which are the ruins of Oricum, on a desert site now called Erikhó — the last syllable accented as in the ancient word, and E substituted for O, which was not an uncommon dialectic change among the ancients. The river of Dukat [Dukádhes] would seem from Ptolemy to have been the Celydnus, although its position does not exactly agree with his order of names, which places the Celydnus between Aulon and Oricum. Porto Raguséo I take to be the Panormus which Strabo describes as the port of Oricum.
The gulf of Avlóna [Vlora] being surrounded, for the most part, by high mountains, is subject to sudden and violent squalls. When the wind blows strong from the westward, the road of Avlóna is not considered safe, and the usual anchorage is under Sázona, the ancient Sason, notorious among the Romans as a station of pirates. This island is most conveniently placed to shelter this great bay just at the mouth of the Adriatic, and affords a safe entrance on either side into the bay; for the cliffs in front of the lagoons of Avlóna, the island itself, and the cape which forms the extreme point of the Acroceraunian ridge are all equally bold. The latter remarkable promontory is now called Glossa (perhaps its ancient name), and by the Italians Linguetta. The depth of the gulf between Sázona and Avlóna is from 10 to 15 fathoms and towards the southern extremity much greater, except near Oricum, where, as well as near Avlóna, the depth is from 2 to 4 fathoms. Every where the bottom is a tough mud, deposited from the surrounding mountains.
Among a few ships now lying in the road of Avlóna, is a Ragusan vessel loading fossil pitch from the mine mentioned by Strabo. The mountain, at the foot of which this mineral is found, is about three hours to the eastward of Avlóna, and being conspicuous from off the coast, is marked in the Italian charts under the name of Montagna della Pegola. Its real name is Kúdhesi [Kudhës]. Another ship is from Constantinople, bound to Palermo with corn; a third, which has been three months from Venice, is of the species of Adriatic vessels called a Pielago, which differs not much from the Manzera and Trabaccolo. It has a main-mast of a single stick from Fiume, almost as large as the main-mast of our ship, and twice as long. These vessels make quick passages with a fair wind, but are very unfit to contend with the Etesian breezes of summer, and still less with the equally obstinate and much more violent southerly gales in the autumn and winter. In the month of October, 1802, I made a passage of ten days in one of these vessels, from Corfú to Trieste, through the Dalmatian islands, touching at several of them in the way. In the present season it is not uncommon for them to be four months in making the passage in the opposite direction between the two ports. During the Etesian winds in summer, instances often occur of these vessels putting into the Rhizonic Gulf, or Bocche di Cattaro, with a contrary wind, when the masters proceed to Venice by land, make an agreement for the disposal of their cargo, and return to the Bocche before the ship has sailed. In the winter the Bocchesi seldom pass their gulf, but leaving a man and boy aboard, join their families on shore, and there remain till the spring.”
On December 10th, having sailed out of the gulf in the night with a light breeze at the north, Leake speaks to a vessel from Alexandria bound direct to Tunis, with pilgrims returning from Mecca.
On December 11th, W. M. Leake continues with his voyage in Southern Albania: “At noon at the foot of the Acroceraunian peak, on the slope below which stands the village Palása [Palasa], a name resembling that of the place where, according to Lucan, Caesar landed from Brundusium previously to his operations against Pompey in Illyria, but which Caesar names Pharsalus. There can be little doubt that, in this instance, the poet is more correct than the great captain, who was so negligent of geography, (in Greece at least), that he has not named the place in Thessaly, where he gained the greatest of all his victories: so that this is the only passage in the commentaries where the word Pharsalus occurs. Caesar's chief consideration in selecting his place of debarkation on this coast, was to avoid the harbours likely to be in the hands of the enemy, and to make himself master of Oricum, Apollonia, and Dyrrhachium [Durrës], before Pompey could arrive from Macedonia. Trusting, therefore, to his protecting fortune to carry him through the perils both of the enemy and the season, he embarked seven legions and six hundred cavalry at Brundusium, in ships of burthen, for want of any others, arrived on the day after his departure at the Ceraunia, where he found a quiet station for the ships in the midst of rocks and dangerous places; and having immediately landed his troops, sent back the ships to Italy the same night. By this promptitude, Pompey arrived from Candavia in time only to save Dyrrhachium. Appian, though he does not specify in what part of the Ceraunian mountains the landing was made, shows that it was very near to Oricum, for he agrees with Caesar representing Oricum to have been taken within a day from the time of the landing: he adds that Caesar marched by night; that on account of the rugged and difficult country, he divided his forces into several bodies, which were reunited at daybreak, and that the Oricii having declared their unwillingness to resist the Roman Consul, the commander of the garrison delivered up the keys to Caesar. The distance of the site of Oricum from the shore below Palása, seems perfectly to agree with these circumstances; and there is in fact a small harbour below Palása, though it seems rather diminutive for the force which Caesar disembarked.
The Strada Bianca, so called in the Italian charts, and known to the Greeks by the synonym Aspri Ruga, is a broad torrent-bed very conspicuous at sea, which, originating in the summit of the mountain of Palása, descends directly to the sea to the northward of that village. To the southward of Palása is a succession of villages on the side of the mountain, as far as the entrance of the Channel of Corfú, all formerly belonging to the Khimariote league; but these, from Port Palérimo [Palermo] southward, are now in the hands of Alý Pashá. Khimára, which now gives name to the Acroceraunian range, is a town, a little to the northward of Port Palérimo, the ancient Panormus, described by Strabo as a harbour in the midst of the Ceraunian mountains.
The great summit at the northern end of Corfú, named Pandokrátora, and by the Italians Salvator, is now a conspicuous object to the south by east, and a little to the eastward of it the northern Cape of Corfú, named St. Catherine. Masléra and Salmastráki are in a line off the north west Cape of Corfú, and farther eastward Ὀθωνοὺς (Ital. Fanu), forming an equilateral triangle with the two former. Othonus, or Othronus, is an ancient name, and appears from Procopius to have been applied in the plural number to all the three islands.”
On December13 through the 20th, William Martin Leake was in quarantine in the island of Corfu, as a result of the fever at Gibraltar.
On December 20th, William Martin Leake, writes: “From the quarantine at eleven A.M. I cross over to the Forty Saints [Saranda], a harbour on the Epirote coast, in an open boat, which carries a cargo of oranges and lemons; these fruits, with figs, rice, and oil, form the export trade of Corfú with the Skala of the Forty Saints, from whence are brought in return, grain, fish, botargo, cattle, and wood. We row over in six hours, against a light adverse air.
Kyr G. Z., to whom I have a letter of recommendation from our minister, is collector of the customs of the Forty Saints, which is the chief port of Délvino [Delvina] and its district. Having a share also in the fishery of Buthrotum [Butrint]he sells fish, both fresh and salted, and retails wine and other commodities imported from Corfú. All these affairs are transacted in a small stone building: three-fourths of the space within the walls are destined to the shop and store which are on the bare ground, the remaining fourth, in which he dwells, is separated from the rest by a floor half way up the wall, and a wooden partition in front, having two windows looking down into the store. Around the apartment are ranged trunks and shelves containing the collector's property and domestic utensils. Among them are some boxes full of salted κεφαλοὶ or grey mullets, making a powerful addition to the various odours, none of them very agreeable, which are diffused through the apartment. At one end is a hearth, but no chimney, the smoke serving, as it effects its escape through the tiles, to cure the botargo, or roes of the mullet, which, enclosed in the natural membrane as extracted from the fish, are suspended to the rafters, and after the smoking will be dipped in melted wax. The kefalós is produced in abundance in all the lagoons and lakes of Greece, which like that of Buthrotum have a communication with the sea; and the botargo is a great resource to the Greeks during the severer fasts, when only a bloodless fish diet is allowed.
Dec. 21. — On the north-western side of the harbour of the Forty Saints are some extensive ruins, situated on a gentle slope by the sea side, at the foot of the bare rocky hills of which all this part of the Epirote coast consists. The ruins are those of a town of the better times of the Lower Empire. The walls forming an exact semicircle, the diameter of which is the sea beach, are flanked by about twenty towers; and contain within them the remains of churches, cisterns, and houses. At present the inclosure serves as a fold for the flocks of some Albanians, who have left their native mountains, now covered with snow, in search of pasture, and who are accompanied by their families; some living in tents, others in καλύβια or huts of light materials. This is the common practice of the mountaineers of northern Greece, the far larger proportion of whom are Christians, either of Albanian or Vlakhiote rate, but the present party are Musulman Liape [Lab], from the mountains near Tepeléni [Tepelena].
Between the walls of the ancient town and the modern houses of the Liméni, Skala, or Skáloma, are the remains of a suburb of the ruined town, and close to the houses of the Skala those of a large church, which has long been in ruins, but still retains the name of its saint, St. Basil. On its southern side are the ruins of a smaller church of the same date, sacred to St. Nicolas.
The summit of the hill which rises at the back of the Skala is crowned by the ruins of the church of the Forty Saints, which gives to this place the name of στοὺς Ἁγίους Σαράντα. A village on a height, separated only from that of the church by a hollow, through which leads the road to Délvino, bears the same name, as well as a small square white-washed fort to which there is a paved zig-zag path leading up the mountain from the Skala. The village was built three years ago by Alý Pashá, and is peopled by the cultivators and pastors of the neighbouring plain, from the former of whom, Alý having lately made the land his own, receives a third of its produce. The fortress was added this summer: it has two round towers at two of the opposite angles, and within the walls a dwelling for the bulu-báshi. The church of the Forty Saints is said to have been part of a monastery, but nothing more remains at present than the ruined church, of the annexed form, which was covered with three domes and seven semi-domes.
It was evidently coeval with the town below; though part of the materials of the church; particularly in the round arches of the windows, are Roman tiles, derived probably from some town of an earlier age, which stood on the site of the existing ruins on the shore of the harbour. At Kassópo in Corfú, nearly opposite to the Forty Saints, are similar ruins of a town not so large as that of the Forty Saints, with those of a castle, irregular in shape, and having no ruined buildings within its inclosure, and which stands on the summit of a hill rising from the shore of the harbour of Kassópo.
The heights of the Forty Saints are rugged, sharp, honey-combed rocks of brown marble, with a little soil in the intervals, which bear squills and other plants usual on similar sites in Greece. At the Skala, a rough mole incloses a little cothon or basin sufficient for the use of the small boats which alone frequent the harbour, though it would be both secure and convenient for large vessels, were the commerce of this part of Epirus sufficient to require them, as the bay has good anchorage and is well protected both from south-easterly and north-westerly gales; in the latter direction, by a remarkable cape called Kefalí, which with Cape St. Catherine, or the northern extremity of Corfú, forms the entrance of the channel from the northward; in the opposite direction the harbour is protected by the projecting coasts both of the continent and island. To-day, though it blows a gale of wind from the southward, there is no sea in the port.
As there is nothing between the Forty Saints and Port Palérimo deserving the name of a harbour, though there are creeks under the villages of Nívitza [Nivica], Lúkovo [Lukova] and Pikérnes [Piqeras], where small vessels take shelter and are drawn up on the beach, the Forty Saints can alone correspond to the ancient Port Onchesmus, which was the next to the southward of Panormus, according to Ptolemy as well as Strabo. It would seem from Cicero that Onchesmus, in his time, was a place of some importance, and that it was the ordinary point of departure from Epirus to Italy, the south-easterly breeze which was favourable for making the passage, having been called an Onchesmites. Under the Constantinopolitan emperors the name Onchesmus assumed the form of Anchiasmus, which probably obtained the preference over Onchesmus in consequence of a tradition noticed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that the town was named after Anchises, father of Aeneias. Anchiasmus was a city of the government of Old Epirus, together with Phoenice and Buthrotum; the signature of the bishops of Anchiasmus is found to the acts of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon in the fifth century. The other bishops of Epirus whose names are annexed to the acts are those of Dodona, Nicopolis, Eurhoea, Phoenice, Hadrianopolis and Corcyra.
Dec. 22. — A Scirocco, which detained me yesterday, still continues, but though the gale has abated and the rain ceased, the Agoiátes, (Italicè vetturini,) are unwilling to go, and my host will not take upon himself to oblige them, until some person arrives from Délvino, who will report the rivers practicable. The consequence is, that I am not only detained this day, but the 23d Dec. likewise; for although some horsemen arrived yesterday, about 3 P.M., who had crossed the river, it was then too late to depart, and at night the rain set in again in torrents with thunder and lightning, penetrating the bare tiles of the collector's roof, and pouring down all night a black stream from the smoky tiles. The tempest continues the greater part of the day, but the wind having come to the north promises a change of weather.
The feasts, the fasts, and the fears of the Greeks, are a great impediment to the traveller. During their feasts they will not work; the fasts, when prolonged and rigidly observed, render them unequal to any great exertion, while timidity is the necessary consequence of the Turkish yoke following long ages of the debasing tyranny and superstition of the Byzantine empire. But through this unamiable covering the ancient national character continually breaks forth; to which, in this mountainous part of the country, is added a considerable portion of the industry and activity of a northern race. Every traveller will occasionally be disgusted with the meanness, lying, and cowardice of the people, in the towns and in the parts of the country most frequented by travellers; but it should be remembered that their vices arise from their condition, that deceit is the only defence which their tyrants have left them, and that such defects are greater in proportion to that natural genius which is indisputably inherent in the race. They have a proverb, that the sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar, which is well exemplified in their own character by means of a most corrupt despotic government acting upon a fine natural genius. (...)

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[1] In 1357, John Cantacuzene wrote that the Albanians were neighbours of Thessaly and they inhabited that mountainous area in 1332.
[2] Archaic version of Roman language.