through a country naturally fertile. The inhabitants are industrious;
but the oppression of the peasants is so great, they are forced to
abandon their houses, and neglect their tillage, all they have being a
prey to janissaries whenever they please to seize upon it. We had a
guard of five hundred of them, and I was almost in fears every day to
see their insolencies in the poor villages through which we passed.... I
was assured that the quantity of wine last vintage was so prodigious
that they were forced to dig holes in the earth to put it in. The
happiness of this plenty is scarcely perceived by the oppressed people.
I saw here [Nissa] a new occasion for my compassion. The wretches that
had provided twenty waggons for our baggage from Belgrade hither for a
certain hire being all sent back without payment, some of their horses
lamed, and others killed, without any satisfaction made for them. The
poor fellows came round the house weeping and tearing their hair and
beards in a most pitiable manner, without getting anything but drubs
from the insolent soldiers. I would have paid them the money out of my
own pocket with all my heart, but it would only have been giving so much
to the aga, who would have taken it from them without any remorse....
The villagers are so poor that only force would extort from them
necessary provisions. Indeed the janissaries had no mercy on their
poverty, killing all the poultry and sheep they could find, without
asking to whom they belonged, while the wretched owners durst not put in
their claim for fear of being beaten. When the pashas travel it is yet
worse. These oppressors are not content with eating all that is to be
eaten belonging to the peasants; after they have crammed themselves and
their numerous retinue, they have the impudence to exact what they call
_teeth-money_, a contribution for the use of their teeth, worn with
doing them the honour of devouring their meat."

This is a lively picture of Turkish rule a century and a half ago; it