sufficiently wealthy to maintain so many slaves.

Fate soon provided him with a second opportunity for amassing wealth.
Arta, a wealthy town with a Christian population, was ravaged by the
plague, and out of eight thousand inhabitants, seven thousand were swept
away. Hearing this, Ali hastened to send commissioners to prepare an
account of furniture and lands which the pacha claimed as being heir to
his subjects. A few livid and emaciated spectres were yet to be found in
the streets of Arta. In order that the inventory might be more complete,
these unhappy beings were compelled to wash in the Inachus blankets,
sheets, and clothes steeped in bubonic infection, while the collectors
were hunting everywhere for imaginary hidden treasure. Hollow trees were
sounded, walls pulled down, the most unlikely corners examined, and a
skeleton which was discovered still girt with a belt containing Venetian
sequins was gathered up with the utmost care. The archons of the town
were arrested and tortured in the hope of discovering buried treasure,
the clue to which had disappeared along with the owners. One of these
magistrates, accused of having hidden some valuable objects, was plunged
up to his shoulders in a boiler full of melted lead and boiling oil. Old
men, women, children, rich and poor alike, were interrogated, beaten,
and compelled to abandon the last remains of their property in order to
save their lives.

Having thus decimated the few inhabitants remaining to the town,
it became necessary to repeople it. With this object in view, Ali's
emissaries overran the villages of Thessaly, driving before them all the
people they met in flocks, and compelling them to settle in Arta. These
unfortunate colonists were also obliged to find money to pay the pacha
for the houses they were forced to occupy.