GREECE. (REVOLUTION.) 



539 



through Livadia (where the Greeks, June 19, 1822, 

 had reduced the Acropolis by famine, after a siege 

 of four months) against the isthmus ; and then, after 

 forming a union with Jussuf and Omer Vrione, to 

 crush the insurgents in the Morea. His main body, 

 25,000 strong, composed principally of cavalry, had 

 already passed Thermopylas, which Ulysses had de- 

 fended so valiantly in May and June, without oppo- 

 sition. On his march through Livadia, he laid every 

 thing waste, proclaimed an amnesty, and occupied 

 Corinth, which a priest of the name of Achilles, who 

 afterwards killed himself, had basely surrendered on 

 July 19; but when Khurshid attempted to penetrate 

 the passes in person, he was three times repelled by 

 Ulysses, near Larissa, where he died, November 26, 

 just before the arrival of the capidgi bachi, who 

 brought his death warrant. That body of cavalry, 

 however, which had so rashly pushed forward with- 

 out infantry, and was unable to obtain food or pro- 

 vender, perished in the defiles of the Morea. When 

 it advanced against Argos (from which the central 

 government had fled), formed a junction with 5000 

 men of Jussuf s army, and sent reinforcements to 

 Napoli di Romania, the danger united all the capi- 

 tani. Nicholas Niketas, who was on the point of 

 taking Napoli di Romania by capitulation, Mavromi- 

 chalis and Ypsilanti retreated to the heights of Ar- 

 gos, laying waste the open country; Ypsilanti, in 

 the ruins of the castle of Argos, held the enemy in 

 check ; the Greek fleet prevented the relief of Nau- 

 plia, or Napoli di Romania, by the great Turkish 

 fleet, and took an Austrian store-ship, bound to Na- 

 poli di Romania ; Ulysses occupied the defiles of 

 Geranion ; Colocotroni hastened from Patras, which 

 ne was besieging, to the scene of danger, called the 

 people to the standard of the cross, assumed the chief 

 command, and, in the latter part of June, occupied 

 the defiles between Patras, Argos, and Corinth, by 

 which he cut off the connexion of the Turks in 

 Thessaly with Khurshid. The skirmishing began 

 on all sides, and continued day and night, from 

 August 1 to August 8. On the latter day, the 

 Turkish commander-in-chief, Dram Ali (or Tshar 

 Hadgi Ali Pacha), whose troops had nothing but 

 horse-flesh to eat, offered to evacuate the Morea ; 

 but Colocotroni refused the offer. The Pacha then 

 determined to break through to the isthmus of 

 Corinth ; but Niketas fell upon the separate corps of 

 the Turks, on the night of August 9, in the defile of 

 Tretes; so that hardly 2000, without artillery or 

 baggage, reached the isthmus, where Ypsilanti en- 

 tirely destroyed them.* Another corps, which fled 

 towards Patras, was destroyed by Colocotroni ; the 

 remaining corps was routed by the Mainots, August 

 26, near Napoli. Thus more than 20,000 Turks 

 disappeared, in four weeks, from the Greek soil. 

 Some thousands still held the isthmus and the Acro- 

 corinthus, but were soon obliged to evacuate the 

 isthmus, and were destroyed by Niketas, in the 

 defiles, in an attempt to break through to Patras. 

 500 Turks remained in the Acrocorinthus until 

 November, 1823. The conquerors and the Moreots 

 now perceived, that they must not seek safety behind 

 the isthmus, but must push the war under Olympus. 

 The Turkish fleet, which had lain at anchor for four 

 weeks in the gulf of Lepanto, and had attacked 

 Missolonghi without success, set sail, September 1, 

 with the plague on board. After an unsuccessful 

 attempt to break through the line of fifty-seven 

 Greek brigs, which blockaded Nauplia, it finally 

 came to anchor at the entrance of the Dardanelles, 

 off Tenedos. November 10, seventeen daring sailors, 



* Hence Niketas received the surname of Turkophagos, 



the Turk-eater. 



of the band of the 40 Ipsariots, dressed like Turks, 

 conducted two fireships under full sail, as if they were 

 flying from the Greeks, whilst two Ipsariot vessels 

 pursued them, firing on them with blank cartridges, 

 into the midst of the Turkish fleet, and fastened one 

 of them to the admiral's ship, the other to the ship 

 of the capitana-bey. Both were soon in flames ; the 

 former narrowly escaped ; the latter blew up with 

 1800 men ; the capudan pacha, Cara Mehmet, how- 

 ever, got on shore, before the explosion took place. 

 Three frigates were wrecked on the coast of Asia 

 Minor ; one vessel of thirty-six guns was captured ; 

 storms-and terror destroyed a part of the Ottoman 

 fleet, and of thirty-five vessels only eighteen returned, 

 much injured, into the Dardanelles. The seventeen 

 Ipsariots arrived safely at Ipsara, where the ephbri 

 rewarded their leaders, Constantine Kanaris and 

 George Mniauly, with naval crowns. The Greeks 

 were once more masters of the sea, and renewed the 

 blockade of the Turkish ports, which Great Britain 

 now formally acknowledged. The British govern- 

 ment seemed to have changed their policy towards 

 the Greeks, from the time of Canning's entrance into 

 the ministry, and Maitland, lord high commissioner of 

 the Ionian isles, displayed less hostility against them. 

 Even Austria and France, who had previously pro- 

 tected neutral vessels against " the arbitrary and un- 

 lawful measure of the blockade," now seemed to 

 acknowledge the right of the blockade by the Greeks. 

 Greek vessels delivered Missolonghi on the sea side, 

 November 20. The Suliots maintained themselves 

 hi the defiles of the Chimaera, and the remains of the 

 army of Mavrocordato on the coast of the gulf of 

 Lepanto. The amnesty, proclaimed by Omer Vrione, 

 met with no confidence among the mountaineers ; had 

 he not already betrayed two of his former masters ? 

 His expedition against ^Etolia entirely failed. Where- 

 ever his troops appeared, the peasants burned their 

 villages, collected in bands in the mountains, and con- 

 tinued the guerilla warfare.f Near Missolonghi, 

 finally, which, from Nov. 7, 1822, to the assault of 

 January 6, 1823, he had repeatedly attacked, Omer 

 Vrione was repulsed by Mavrocordato and Marco 

 Botzaris, with great loss ; he was obliged to raise 

 the siege, lost his ordnance, and retreated to Vonitza. 

 The most important consequence of this unsuccessful 

 campaign of the Turks, was the fall of Napoli di Ro- 

 mania, (q. v.) On the day of St Andrew, the patron 

 of the Morea (November 30, old style, December 12, 

 new style), a band of volunteers took the fort Pala- 

 midi by assault. This brought the city into the 

 power of the Greeks, who observed the terms of the 

 capitulation, and transported the Turkish garrison 

 to Scala Nuova. The seat of government was to 

 have been established in this bulwark of Peloponne- 

 sian independence, when the old discord among the 

 capitani broke out anew, and Colocotroni became, 

 suspected of the design of becoming prince of the 

 Morea under Turkish protection. 



Meanwhile, Constantinople was disturbed by the 

 riots of the janizaries. The unsuccessful campaign 

 in the Morea, the disasters in Asia, the scarcity hi 

 the capital (caused by the interruption of importa- 

 tions by the Greeks), the severe sumptuary orders of 

 the sultan, and the command to deliver up the gold 

 and silver to the mint, the debasing of the coin, and 



( The war, as we have already said, was not carried on 

 by regular battles, but consisted of skirmishes, surprises 

 &c., as every insurrection of an undisciplined people must ; 

 and, generally speaking, it is the way in which men rail 

 most effectually defend theirown soil against well appointed 

 invaders. The Greeks were well fitted for this sort of war 

 by their uncommon activity. Their swiftnens in running 

 is such, that many of them can overtake a well mounted 

 horseman in a long race. 



