GREECE. (REVOLUTION.) 



535 



Hydrhte), long before gained over to the cause of 

 liberty by Bambas* and other patriots, erected an 

 independent government in Hydra. They fitted out 

 their vessels for war, and the blue and red flag of 

 the Hetaireia soon waved on 180 vessels, mostly of 

 ten or twelve guns.^ It must be. remembered that 

 the inhabitants of the islands, particularly those just 

 mentioned, and the heroic population of Suli, are 

 very different from the people of the Morea and 

 Livadia, if we wish to form a correct understanding 

 of the Greek struggle. While the conduct of the 

 Moreots has but too often drawn on them the just 

 reproach of their compatriots, the former have 

 gained a name in history, whicli will be honoured as 

 long as an invincible love of liberty and bold and in- 

 flexible courage in an unequal struggle are prized. 

 Even women, among the islanders, took arms for 

 liberty, and, among them, Lascarina Bobolina, of 

 Spezzia, was distinguished. The Hydriots cruised in 

 the Turkish waters, and blockaded the ports. In 

 some islands, the Turks were massacred in revenge 

 for the murder of the Greeks at Patras, and, in re- 

 taliation, the Greeks were put to death at Smyrna, 

 in Asia Minor, and in those islands which had not yet 

 shaken off the Turkish yoke. The exasperation was 

 raised to its highest pitch by the cruelties committed 

 against the Greeks in Constantinople, after the end 

 of March. On mere suspicion, and often merely to 

 get possession of their property, the divan caused 

 the richest Greek merchants and bankers to be put 

 to death. The rage of the Mussulmans was particu- 

 larly directed against the Greek clergy. April 22, 

 Gregory (q. v.) the patriarch of Constantinople, was 

 murdered, with his bishops, in the metropolis. In 

 Adrianople, May 3, the venerable patriarch Cyrillus, 

 who had retired to solitude, and Proesos, archbishop 

 of Adrianople, and others, met the same fate. Sev- 

 eral hundred Greek churches were torn down, with- 

 out the divan paying any attention to the remon- 

 strances of the Christian ambassadors. The savage 

 grand-vizier, indeed, lost his place, May 1, and soon 

 after his life ; but Mahmud (q. v.), and his favourite 

 Halet effendi, persisted in the plan of extermination. 

 The courageous Stroganoff (q. v.) was yet less able 

 to make his remonstrances heard, after the grand 

 seignior, in order to save his favourite, who was hat- 

 ed by the janizaries, on account of his plan of re- 

 form in the military department, gave a seat, in the 

 divan, to three members of those riotous troops. 

 The commerce of Russia, on the- Black sea, was total- 

 ly ruined by the blockade of the Bosphorus, and 

 the ultimatum of the ambassador was not answer- 

 ed. Baron Stroganoff, therefore, broke off all diplo- 

 matic relations with the reis effendi, July 18, and, July 

 31, embarked for Odessa. He had declared to the 

 divan, that if the Porte did not change its system, Rus- 

 sia would feel herself obliged to give " the Greeks re- 

 fuge, protection, and assistance." The answer of the 

 reis effendi to this declaration, given too late, was sent 

 to Petersburg ; but it was only after the most atrocious 

 excesses committed by the janizaries, and the troops 

 from Asia (for instance, in Constantinople, June 27 

 and July 2), that the foreign ministers, particularly 

 the British minister, lord Strangford, succeeded in 

 inducing the grand seignior to recall the command 

 for the arming of all Mussulmans, and to restore 

 order. The Porte even promised an amnesty, on 



* Neophytos Bambas, teacher of natural philosophy and 

 mathematics in the school of Scio, published, in 1810, in 

 Venice, a manual of mural philosophy, which is one of the 

 most valuable productions of modern Greek, literature. He 

 has since been professor in the Ionian university, in Corfu, 

 established by the influence of lord Guildford. 



t According to Pouqueville, the mercantile marine of the 

 Greek islands consisted of 013 vessels, with 17,500 men and 

 873 guns. 



condition of the submission of the Greeks : but what 

 guarantee was there for the fulfilment of it ? Indi- 

 vidual executions still continued. Prince Calimachi, 

 hospodar of Walachia, was sent, with his family, to 

 Asia Minor, where he suddenly died on hearing of 

 the execution of his brother. The old families of the 

 Fanariots (q. v.) no longer existed in Constantinople, 

 and, after all the cruelties they had suffered, the 

 (5 reeks could not trust the amnesty of the sultan. 

 They remembered, too, the 300,000 Moreots, who 

 had been murdered by the orders of a former sultan, 

 though their pardon had been stipulated with Ca- 

 tharine II. Their hopes were also strengthened by 

 the war whicli broke out between Turkey and Persia, 

 and they never gave up the confidence that the 

 Moscoviti " would at last arm for their protection, 

 which Russia had taken upon herself in the three last 

 treaties with the Porte. Meanwhile the Turkish 

 general in Epirus, Khurshid Pacha, who was be- 

 sieging the rebel Ali (q. v.), in Yanina, had sent 

 troops against the Suliots, into the Morea and to 

 Thessaly. But the ^Etolians under Rhangos, and 

 the Acarnanians under the brothers Hyscus, obliged 

 the Turks to shut themselves up in Arta, and made 

 themselves masters of Salona. Ulysses put himself 

 at the head of some Armatolics (q. v.), in Thessaly, 

 and the archimandrite, Anthymos Gazis, called the 

 peasants to arms. In Euboea (Negropont), all the 

 peasants took up arms, and obliged the Turks to shut 

 themselves up in the fortified cities ; but these move- 

 ments were not decisive, because they took place 

 without co-operation ; and, in fact, nothing was 

 effected, but the driving the Turks from the country 

 into the cities. The pacha of Saloniki delivered the 

 pacha who was besieged in Larissa. Omer Vrione, 

 the lieutenant of Khurshid Pacha, entered Livadia; 

 the inhabitants of Athens fled to the islands ; the 

 Acropolis was garrisoned by Turks. The Greeks 

 afterwards retook Athens, and attempted to reduce 

 the Acropolis by famine ; but it was relieved by Omer 

 Vrione, July 30, 1821, and the inhabitants of Athens 

 again fled to Salamis. On the Achaian sea, Greek 

 and other pirates frustrated the plans of the navarchs 

 (admirals) in Hydra, and the European powers were 

 obliged to protect their vessels by cruisers. In the 

 general confusion, the islanders distinguished them- 

 selves by their valour in battle, and their greater 

 order in the organization of government; and if 

 much complaint has been made against their piracies, 

 it must be remembered, that the convulsed state of 

 things offered great temptations to piracy; that the 

 government was too weak to repress it ; and that, 

 privateering being lawful against the Turks, it wiis. 

 not strange that a people, so much removed from the 

 influence of European civilization, exceeded the legi- 

 timate limits of private warfare. The Greek sailors 

 were bolder and much more expert than the Turkish, 

 their vessels much swifter. In fact, we can hardly 

 imagine a navy in a more wretched state of discipline 

 than the Turkish. When, therefore, the first Turkish 

 squadron left the Dardanelles, May 19, the Greeks 

 constantly pursued it with their fire ships, avoiding, 

 at the same time, a general engagement ; and, June 

 8, they attacked a vessel of the line, which had got 

 ashore at Tenedos, burned it, and compelled the rest 

 of the squadron to put back to the Dardanelles. 

 June 15, the Ipsariots landed 011 the coast of Asia 

 Minor, and took possession of the ancient Cydonia, 

 now the Greek city of Aivali ; but, after they had 

 retired, the Turks burned the city, and 35,000 inha- 

 bitants either perished or were driven from their 

 homes. The ill success of their expedition added 

 fresh fuel to the rage of the Turks. The Greeks in 

 the island of Candia, who had avoided all participa- 

 tion in the insurrection, were disarmed, and their arch- 



