“The reason is that Athens, twenty years ago (i.e. around 1830), was nothing more than an Albanian village. Albanians constituted, and still constitute, almost the entire population of Attica. In fact, a few leagues (i.e. the league is an older unit of measurement of length, with different values ​​from country to country) outside the capital you find villages that barely understand Greek.”

Source

Dokumenti nr 129 / Document no. 129. (Edmond Francois Valentin
About, 1828 – 1885). Otto’s Greece