Mr. G. B. Ravndal, until recently United States consul at Beirut, Syria, is an intelligent and sympathetic witness of the progress of events in that part of the Turkish empire. He writes, with special reference to the commercial aspects of missionary advance, that “the Syria of to-day cannot be compared with the Syria of twenty-five years ago. Education is working wonders, raising the standard of living, multiplying and diversifying the requirements of the people, developing the natural resources of the country, and increasing the purchasing capacity of the individual. Illiteracy is on the wane, independent thought is in the ascendant. We have printing-presses, railroads, carriage-roads, bridges, postal and telegraph routes. Trade is increasing in volume and variety, and the United States is getting a larger and larger share of it. Our country, owing primarily to the efforts of our missionaries, is near and dear to a large portion of the population, not only of this country, but of the entire Levant—nay, even of Persia and the Sudan. Through our college (at Beirut), with its School of Commerce and museums, through the mission press, the industrial academy, and the experimental farm, missionaries have become ambassadors of American trade, and as the foreign commerce of the Levant swells into larger proportions—it is yet in its infancy—the United States is getting a surer foothold in the near East.” He also speaks of his gratification in witnessing the increasing introduction of American machinery into Syria, such as reaping, threshing, and milling machines, and expresses his confidence that “Western Asia will before long become a market for our agricultural, irrigation, and other machinery, which no manufacturer at home will despise or ignore.” He refers to the School of Commerce recently established in connection with the American College at Beirut, with its students drawn from a widely extended region, reaching from Trebizond on the north to Khartum on the south, and from Albania in the west to Teheran in the east, as an enterprise which is destined to “play a leading part in the economics of the Levant.” There is a business ring to testimonies like these just quoted from men of official position in the East, which surely cannot be credited to missionary partiality or misjudgment, and as such we are glad to have the privilege of presenting them.

—James S. Dennis,
in “Christian Missions and Social Progress.”

[Pg 261]

The Albanians in Macedonia have been for more than a generation a source of terror and a tower of strength to the Turkish government. They number perhaps two million in the country and occupy a region remote from the capital, and difficult to control. They have never been fully loyal to the sultan or any other ruler, and, occupying as they do the fastnesses of the mountains along the western borders of Macedonia, they have enjoyed unusual liberty. They have been referred to as the least civilized of the European races. They are warlike by inheritance and profession, and cling with an intense devotion to their Albanian tongue.

They claim that they are direct descendants from the ancient Pelasgi and are proud of their lineage. An Albanian prince told the writer not long since that he was of the same race that gave Alexander the Great to the world. They call themselves Skipeter or “the Eagle People.” The majority of the race have outwardly accepted Mohammedanism but in most cases this is largely in form only. As the Koran is permitted to circulate in Turkey only in the Arabic tongue, and as few Albanians are acquainted with that language, they have little knowledge of Islam, and perhaps less love for it. Many of them are nominal members of the Greek Church.

On the other hand, the Turkish government, through the love of the Albanians for war, has brought many of them into direct service to the state. Some of the best and bravest officers in the Turkish army are [Pg 262] Albanians. Mohammed Ali Pasha, who reformed Egypt and founded the present khedival house, was an Albanian. They have risen to the highest positions of influence and power in the empire, not a few of them serving in the sultan’s cabinet. This reveals the native strength of this people, and the reason why the sultan jealously guards the race in his attempt to hold them true to Mohammedanism and loyal to himself. Their very strength of character makes them bold and fearless in the fastnesses of their remote mountain home, and hard to subdue; but when they declare allegiance to a cause or a person they cannot be diverted by fear or favor.

This sturdy people ............