GREECE. (REVOLUTION.) 



543 



the influence of foreigners in general. A great 

 number of them were sent out of the place. These, 

 under the guidance of a certain Karaiskaki, took 

 possession (April 12) of the fort Wassiladi. The 

 people took no part in this rebellion ; and a body of 

 troops, under the command of Botzaris, Sturnaris 

 and Trokas, defeated the insurgents, and recovered 

 VVassiladi ; upon which the traitors fled to Omer 

 Vrione. This insurrection frustrated the siege of 

 Lepanto, which had been undertaken. Lord Byroirs 

 health suffered from these events, and he died after 

 a sicknt-ss of ten days (April 19, 1824). Easter, 

 generally a season of festivity, was solemnized by a 

 general mourning for twenty-one days. The heart 

 of the poet remains in Missolonghi, and his child was 

 adopted as a daughter of Greece. The campaign 

 was now to begin. The Greeks were divided 

 among themselves. Their connexion with Britain 

 was broken oft", and the lord high commissioner of 

 the Ionian Islands did not permit the money loaned 

 to be deposited for any time in Zante. The Turkish 

 commander also met with great obstacles : the pacha 

 of Saloniki would not obey ; the pachas of Scodra 

 and Yanina, exhausted by their late losses, were 

 not able to join him immediately with fresh troops. 

 He remained, therefore, for more than a month, in- 

 active at Larissa. The capudan pacha attempted a 

 lauding on the island of Skiathos, in which he failed; 

 but he threw some thousand janizaries into the for- 

 tress of Negropont, where Ulysses and the distin- 

 guished Diamantis had defeated the Turks several 

 times in the winter. Dervish now first entered the 

 field. Pacha Bekir, who commanded under him, 

 was beaten (June 1) near Zeituni, by Ulysses and 

 Niketas. But another corps joined the Turks in 

 Negropont, and took possession of the province of 

 Attica. Gouras, an officer under the command of 

 Ulys<es, was obliged to return to the citadel of 

 Athens. At the same time. Ishmael Gibralter, ad- 

 miral of the Egyptian fleet, had subdued Candia. 

 The governor, Tumbasis, saved only a few of the 

 old men, women, and children, and sent them to 

 Hydra. Some bands of Candiots scattered them- 

 selves among the mountains. Ishmael Gibralter 

 then undertook the attack of the island of Kassos. 

 The brave inhabitants drove back the enemy, June 

 8 ; but on the 10th they were attacked by a greater 

 force, at a different point of the island, where they 

 had not expected it. Their obstinate resistance 

 ended in their destruction. The enemy carried 

 away immense booty. Whilst this was happening, 

 Khosru the capudan pacha, was making prepara- 

 tions, on the island of Mitylene, for an attack on 

 Ipsara, and Samos. 20,000 soldiers from Asia, 

 destined for the invasion, encamped on the coast of 

 Smyrna, where being unfurnished with supplies, they 

 committed the greatest ravages, and murdered the 

 defenceless Greeks. The small but strongly fortified 

 rocky island of Ipsara had made itself formidable to 

 the Porte by the number of its vessels and fire- 

 ships, in which the most daring of the islanders 

 carried terror and destruction into the Dardanelles. 

 Khosru possessed exact information of the fortifica- 

 tions of the island. Ishmael Pliassa, nephew of the 

 well known All Pacha of Yanina, commanded under 

 him 14,000 choice troops, mostly Albanians. But 

 before Khosru invaded the island, he offered pardon 

 and protection to the Ipsariots three times. They 

 rejected all his proposals. 5000 Greeks and Alba- 

 nians took possession of the most important points ; 

 even the women prepared themselves for the com- 

 bat. Khosru left the shores of Mitylene early on 

 July 3d, with two ships of the line, six frigates, ten 

 corvettes, several brigs and galliots, a great number 

 of newly-built gun-boats, and more than eighty 



European transport-ships. The fleet surrounded 

 the island. The men-of-war began to fire upon 

 the town and the forts. Whilst the principal 

 attack appeared to be made here, a landing was 

 effected on the opposite coast, upon a sandy 

 point of land, where an Albanese battalion, under 

 the traitor Goda, deserted the battery, after a short 

 resistance. The Turks took by storm the heights 

 back of the city. They were not able to maintain 

 themselves there. The primates and ephori had the 

 old men, women, and children, put on board the ves- 

 sels in the harbour. Some vessels sank, others were 

 taken by the Turks. Some fugitives were received 

 by two French frigates ; the rest escaped, under the 

 guidance of Apostolis, to Hydra. In the mean time, 

 the city was attacked on all sides ; the Greeks 

 fought from street to street, from house to house; the 

 work of destruction was kept up through the whole 

 night. On the morning of July 4, they held only 

 two small forts and the convent of St Nicholas. 

 After a hard struggle, these brave men resolved to 

 die all together in their last fort, Tabia. While the 

 Turks were storming the walls, they set fire to the 

 mine, which had been prepared ; the earth shook, 

 and Ipsara became the grave of its own heroes and 

 the conquerors. This blow opened the eyes of the 

 Greeks. The people and the authorities rose up for 

 united resistance. H ydra and Spezzia manned their 

 ships. Ipsara was retaken by the brave Miaulis 

 (July 15), and the ships there saved. The enemy 

 was repulsed by inferior forces at Samos, Cos, and 

 Chios; he suffered some loss at Candia, and the 

 Greeks opposed him at St Rumili, Trypiti, Mirabello 

 and Lassidi. Equal success attended the Greeks 

 upon the main land. Gouras conquered the barba- 

 rians at Marathon. The Turkish general-in-chief, 

 Dervish Pacha, beaten in July, August, and Septem- 

 ber, at Gravia, at Amplani, in the province of 

 Phocis, retreated, with the loss of his baggage, to 

 Larissa. His plan of joining Omer Vrione, at 

 Salona, was thus wholly defeated. In Western 

 Greece, Mavrocordato's vigorous measures frus- 

 trated all the plans of the bold and artful Omer 

 Vrione, who had invaded, for the third time, Acar- 

 nania and ^Etolia. The Greeks then undertook the 

 offensive, and pressed upon Arta. In the mean time, 

 the authorities at Nauplia made loud complaints 

 against the agents of some Christian powers in the 

 Archipelago, who kindled the flame of discord, and 

 checked the improvement of the internal administra- 

 tion. Nevertheless order was constantly increasing 

 in the Grecian government. The taxes were raised 

 according to a just distribution, and the public lands 

 regularly leased. The public credit was confirmed 

 by a loan. Trade again revived, and the Greek flag 

 was to be seen in Ancona, Leghorn, Marseilles, and 

 even on the banks of the Thames. The government 

 began again to organize an army according to the 

 rules of European discipline. The French military 

 code was introduced in Greece. The administration 

 of justice received a fixed character. A lower 

 court of justice and a court of appeals were held at 

 Missolonghi. The discussions before the courts were 

 public. Freedom of the press was every where allowed. 

 Four newspapers appeared twice a week : in Mis- 

 solonghi, the Grecian Chronicle and the Telegraph ; 

 at Hydra the Friend of Law (the official paper) ; and 

 at Athens, the Ephemerides. Education was also 

 provided for. In the mean time, the second part of 

 the bloody campaign began. The Egyptian fleet set 

 sail from Alexandria, July 19, comprising nine 

 frigates, fourteen corvettes, forty brigs and galliots, 

 and 240 transports, with 18,000 land forces. Ibrahim 

 Pacha was to bring reinforcements to Candia, and 

 then invade the Morea. The Greek government 



