534 



GREECE. (REVOLUTION.) 



was the origin of infinite mischief, because the cause 

 cf liberty was not yet ripe. February 1, 1821, 

 prince Charles Cnliiuachi was appointed, by the 

 Porte, hospodar of Walachia, in the place of the 

 deceased Alexander Suzzo. The fear of new ex- 

 actions (which take place, in that country, with 

 every new governor), produced commotions among 

 the people of Walachia ; and this excitement seemed 

 to the members of the Hetaireia in St Petersburg, 

 to afford a favourable moment for taking up arms 

 against the Turks, in which they expected to be 

 supported by the Russian cabinet. Without knowing 

 any thing of this plan, a Walachian, Theodore Wladi- 

 miresko, left Bucharest, January 30, with sixty 

 pandoors, and instigated the peasants to revolt, 

 promising them the protection of Russia and the 

 restoration of their old rights. The Arnaouts, who 

 were sent against him, joined him, and he soon 

 became master of Little Walachia, at the head of 

 5000 men. The Greeks in Moldavia likewise rose, 

 under prince Alexander Ypsilanti (q. v.), a major- 

 general in the Russian service. This insurrection 

 was connected with the Hetaireia. (q. v.) Perhaps 

 the object was to hasten the threatened breach 

 between Russia and Turkey. Besides the Greeks 

 always relied much on the (so called) Greek project 

 of Catharine II. March 7, 1821 (Feb. 23, old style), 

 a proclamation of Ypsilanti was placarded in Jassy, 

 under the eyes of the hospodar Michael Suzzo, which 

 declared, that all the Greeks had, on that day thrown 

 off the Turkish yoke ; that he would put himself at 

 their head with his countrymen ; that prince Suzzo 

 wished the happiness of the Greeks ; and that 

 nothing was to be feared, as a great power was 

 going to march against Turkey. Several officers and 

 members of the Hetaireia had accompanied Ypsilanti 

 from Bessarabia and Jassy. Some Turks were 

 murdered, but Ypsilanti did all in his power to pre- 

 vent excesses, and was generally successful. He 

 wrote to the emperor of Russia, Alexander, who was 

 then at Laybach (q. v.), asking his protection for the 

 Greek cause, and the two principalities, Walachia 

 and Moldavia ; but the revolutions in Spain and 

 Piedmont had then just broke out, and that monarch 

 considered the Greek insurrection to be nothing but a 

 political fever, caught from Spain and Italy, which 

 could not be checked too soon (besides, Ypsilanti was 

 actually in the service of Russia, and therefore had 

 undertaken this step against the rules of military dis- 

 cipline). Alexander publicly disavowed the measure, 

 Ypsilanti's name was struck from the army rolls, and 

 he was declared to be no longer a subject of 

 Russia. The Russian minister, and the Austrian 

 internuncio at Constantinople, also declared that 

 their cabinets would not take advantage of the 

 internal troubles of Turkey in any shape what- 

 ever, but would remain strictly neutral. Yet the 

 Porte continued suspicious, particularly after the 

 information of an Englishman had led to a detection 

 of some supposed traces of the Greek conspiracy 

 at Constantinople. It therefore ordered the Russian 

 vessels to be searched, contrary to treaty. The com- 

 merce of Odessa suffered from this measure, which 

 occasioned a serious correspondence between baron 

 Stroganoff, the Russian ambassador, and the reis 

 effendi. The most rigorous measures were taken 

 against all Greeks : their schools were suppressed ; 

 their arms seized ; suspicion was a sentence of death ; 

 the flight of some rendered all guilty ; it was prohi- 

 bited under penalty of death ; in the divan, the total 

 extinction of the Greek name was proposed ; Turkish 

 troops marched into the principalities ; the hospodar 

 Suzzo was outlawed ; the patriarchs of Constantino- 

 ple and Jerusalem excommunicated all insurgents 

 (March 21); and a hatti-sheriff of March 31, called 



upon all Mussulmans to arm against the rebels Cot 

 the protection of the Islam ; no Greek was, for some 

 time, safe in the streets of Constantinople ; women 

 and children were thrown into the sea ; the noblest 

 females openly violated, and murdered or sold; the 

 populace broke into the house of Fonton, the Rus- 

 sian counsellor of legation; and prince Murusi was 

 beheaded in the seraglio. After the arrival of the 

 new grand-visier, Benderli Ali Pacha (appointed, 

 April 10), who conducted a disorderly army from 

 Asia to the Bosphorus, the wildest fanaticism raged 

 in Constantinople. In Walachia and Moldavia, the 

 bloody struggle (not the devastation of the country, 

 however,) was brought to a close through the treach- 

 ery, discord, and cowardice of the pandoors and 

 Arnaouts, with the annihilation of the valiant " sa- 

 cred band ' of the Hetaireia, in the battle of Dragash- 

 an (June 19, 1821), and with Jordaki's heroic death 

 in the monastery of Seek. (See Ypsilanti.) In 

 Greece Proper, no cruelty could quench the fire ol' 

 liberty; the beys of the Morea invited all bishops 

 and the noblest Greeks (proedroi) to Tripolizza, under 

 pretence of consulting with them on the deliverance of 

 the people from their cruel oppression. Several fell 

 into the snare : when they arrived, they were thrown 

 into prison. Germanos, archbishop of Patras, alone 

 penetrated the intended treachery, and took measures 

 with the others for frustrating the designs of their 

 oppressors. The beys of the Morea then endeavour- 

 ed to disarm the separate tribes ; but it was too late ; 

 the Mainotes, always free, descended from mount 

 Taygetos, in obedience to Ypsilanti's proclamation, 

 and the heart of all Greece beat for liberty. 



The revolution in the Morea began, March 23, 

 1821, at Calavrita, a small place in Achaia, where 

 eighty Turks were made prisoners. On the same 

 day, the Turkish garrison of Patras fell upon the 

 Greek inhabitants ; but they were soon relieved. 

 In the ancient Laconia, Colocotroni and Peter Mav- 

 romichalis roused the people to arms. The arch- 

 bishop Germanos collected the peasants of Achaia. In 

 Patras and the other places, the Turks retreated into 

 the fortresses. As early as April 6, a Messenian 

 senate assembled in Calamata, and the bey of Maina, 

 Peter Mavromichalis, as commander-in-chief, pro- 

 claimed that the Morea had shaken off the yoke of 

 Turkey to save the Christian faith, and to restore 

 the ancient character of their country. "From 

 Europe, nothing is wanted but money, arms, and 

 counsels." From that time, the suffering Greeks 

 found friends in Germany, France, Switzerland, Bri- 

 tain and the United States, who sympathized with 

 them, and did all in their power to assist them in 

 their struggle. The cabinets of Europe, on the con- 

 trary, threw every impediment in the way of the Hel- 

 lenists, until they were finally obliged, against their 

 inclination, to interfere in their favour. Jussuf Seliin 

 pacha of Lepanto, having received information of 

 these events from the diplomatic agent of a Euro- 

 pean power, hastened to relieve the citadel of Patras, 

 and the town was changed into a heap of ruins. 

 The massacre of the inhabitants, April 15, was the 

 signal for a struggle of life and death. Almost the 

 whole war was thenceforward a succession of atroci- 

 ties. It was not a war prosecuted on any fixed plan, 

 but merely a series of devastations and murders. 

 The law of nations could not exist between the Turks 

 and Greeks, as they were then situated. The monk 

 Gregoras, soon after, occupied Corinth, at the head 

 of a body of Greeks. The revolution spread over 

 Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, ^Etolia and Acamania. The 

 ancient names were revived. At the same time, 

 the islands declared themselves free. In the begin- 

 ning of April, the wealthy merchants and ship-owners, 

 the bold mariners of Hydra, Spezzia and Ipsara (see 



