annual tribute, and after its payment the inhabitants were left to themselves. This was particularly the case with Hydra, Ipsara, and Scio, the two former with thirty thousand inhabitants each, and the latter having eighty thousand. But their prosperity and happiness only served to make plain to the people of the mainland how much they were suffering at the hands of their Turkish masters, and how vastly superior to their own was the condition of the islanders.
In laying their plans for independence the Greeks resorted to the formation of secret societies, and so well was the scheme conducted that every thing was ripe for insurrection before the Turkish rulers had any suspicion of the state of affairs. A great association was formed which included Greeks everywhere, not only in Greece and its islands, but in Constantinople, Austria, Germany, England, and other countries, wherever a Greek could be found. Men of other nationalities were occasionally admitted, but only when their loyalty to the Greek cause was beyond question, and their official positions gave them a chance to aid in the work. Several distinguished Russians were members, among them Count Capo D'Istria, a Greek by birth, who held the office of private secretary to the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia. The society was known as the Hetaira, or Hetairist, and consisted of several degrees or grades. The highest contained only sixteen persons, whose names were not all known, and it was impossible for any member of the lower classes to ascertain them. Count Capo D'Istria was one of the exalted sixteen, and it was whispered that the Czar Alexander was another of the highest members of the order, together with the Crown Prince of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, the Hospodar of Wallachia, and other important men of the day. In this matter of glorious uncertainty regarding its highest members, the Hetaira was not unlike secret societies of more modern times.
