546 



GREECE. (REVOLUTION.) 



capudan pacha (January 27) summoned the authori- 

 ties of the town to surrender, if they did not wish the 

 place to be taken by storm. They refused the offer. 

 Soon after, there was an engagement between the 

 fleets, in the gulf of Patras, on the 27th and 28th of 

 January, when the Greek fire-ships, under Kanaris, 

 destroyed a frigate and many small vessels. The 

 cnpmlan pacha soon gave up his command, after a 

 disagreement with Ibrahim 1'acha (who had desired 

 his recall by the divan), and went by land from 

 Vanina to Constantinople. In consequence of that 

 battle, the Greeks succeeded in furnishing Misso- 

 longhi with provisions and ammunition, sufficient for 

 a few weeks. A later attempt (February 12) was 

 frustrated by the Turkish-Egyptian fleet. Commis- 

 sioners were sent, at the end of the year 1825, from 

 the divan to Greece. Hussni Bey and Nedschib 

 Kffendi (the agent of the viceroy of Egypt) entered 

 the camp at Missolonghi, to await the fall of this 

 place, and to take their measures according to cir- 

 cumstances. Soon after, Rescind Pacha left Acar- 

 nania, and wont to Livadia, in order to occupy Gouras 

 and colonel Fabvier, who had trained a body of 1000 

 Greeks in the European discipline. Ibrahim then 

 conducted the siege alone. He had 25,000 men, 

 among them about 9000 regular troops, forty-eight 

 cannon, bought in France, with which Pierre Boyer 

 (a former Bonapartist, and a general well known by 

 his cruelties committed in Egypt, St Domingo, and 

 Spain) bombarded Missolonghi, from February 24. 

 After the bombardment had continued several clays, 

 Ibrahim repeatedly offered the commander of the 

 fortress large sums if he would surrender the place. 

 He was willing even to permit the garrison to take 

 the cannon and all the movable property with them. 

 His proposals were rejected, and the garrison pre- 

 pared themselves for death or victory. Ibrahim 

 assaulted the works of Missolonghi from February 

 28 to March 2. On this day he attacked the place 

 by sea and land, but was wholly repulsed, with the 

 loss of 4000 men ; so that Missolonghi was, for the 

 fifth time, freed by Greek valour, when it had but a 

 few days' provisions. Ibrahim now directed his 

 attacks against the outworks of Missolonghi on the 

 sea side. He forced his way, with gun-boats and 

 floating-batteries, into the lagoons. March 9, 1826, 

 he stormed the little island of Wassiladi, important 

 as a fishing place, where 1 10 men met the death of 

 heroes. A bomb, which fell into the powder-room 

 of the fort, and kindled the ammunition, decided the 

 fate of this place. Then Ibrahim took, by capitula- 

 tion (March 13, 1826), the fortified island of Anato- 

 lico, near Missolonghi, after he had stormed a forti- 

 fied monastery, called Kundro, which protected the 

 island, where a garrison of 400 men were cut to 

 pieces. After these misfortunes, Missolonghi, the 

 bulwark of the Peloponnesus, fell gloriously, April 

 22, 1826. The foundation of an Egyptian-African 

 military state now seemed to be laid in Europe. 

 Ibrahim had removed the capudan pacha, Jussuf 

 Pacha and Reschid Pacha. He was in possession of 

 Modon, Coron, Navarino, and Patras. If he should 

 succeed in gaining Napoli di Romania, he would be 

 master of the islands of the Archipelago. The Porte 

 would then be wholly unable to keep its mighty 

 satrap in subjection ; and the viceroy of Egypt owed 

 ail this to French artillery officers. This danger 

 roused the attention of the governments and people 

 of Europe. The fate of Missolonghi, of whose gar- 

 rison 1800 men, under Noto Botzaris and Kitzos 

 Isavellas, cut their way to Salona and Athens, while 

 the rest buried themselves voluntarily under the 

 ruins of the place, excited every where the liveliest 

 interest. In France, this interest was loudly and 

 actively excressed. The Philanthropic Society to 



aid the Cause of the Greeks, comprised among its 

 members Chateaubriand, Choiseul, Dalberg, Matth. 

 Dumas, Fitz-James, Lafitte, Laine, Alex, de Lameth, 

 Larorhefoucault-Liancourt, Cas. Perrier, Sebastiani, 

 Ternaux, Villemain, and many others. They had 

 contributed, in February, 60,000 francs, to furnish 

 supplies to Missolonghi. They obtained at Amster- 

 dam, for the same object, 30,000 francs. The Ger- 

 man Eynard contributed 12,000. The duke of 

 Orleans subscribed, several times, considerable sums. 

 Forty ladies of high rank made contributions indivi- 

 dually, and it was soon the custom, in all the draw- 

 ing-rooms in Paris, for the lady of the house to make 

 a collection for the Greeks. Then followed Germany. 

 King Louis of Bavaria signed the Greek subscription, 

 and permitted his soldiers, with colonel Heidegger 

 at their head, to fight for the cause of Greece. 

 Poetry, too, lent her aid. New societies for assisting 

 the Greeks were formed ; for example, in Saxony. 

 All co-operated with the noble Eynard. The Greek 

 orphans were educated in Germany, Switzerland, and 

 France. Thus, at last, when the voice of lamenta- 

 tion was loudest in the land, deliverance was slowly 

 approaching the Greeks. Wellington had, by Can- 

 ning's order, subscribed at Petersburg (April 4, 1826) 

 the protocol which provided for the interference of 

 the three great powers in favour of the Greeks. 

 The emperor of Russia (q. v.) wished first to arrange 

 his own difficulties with the Porte. This was done 

 by the treaty of Ackerman (Oct. 6, 1826), and Bri- 

 tain concluded with him and France, at London 

 (July 6, 1827), the treaty for the pacification of 

 Greece. Canning wished to decide the question be- 

 tween Greece and Turkey without involving Russia 

 in a quarrel with the Porte, and thereby endangering 

 the peace of Europe. H is death frustrated, in part, his 

 noble design. In the mean time, the Egyptian army 

 overran almost all parts of the Morea, and changed 

 it to a desert, without obtaining submission from a 

 single village. Families from all parts of Greece 

 pressed forward together under the walls of Napoli 

 di Romania, and suffered all the horrors of poverty 

 and hunger, rather than enter into a treaty with their 

 Mussulman oppressors. Despair drove many of 

 these unhappy people to piracy ; but most of the 

 corsairs, in the Greek seas, were composed of crimi- 

 nals and persons banished from the Ionian Islands, 

 Dalmatia, and Italy, who did not even spare the 

 G reek flag. New bands of warriors came forth from 

 the mountains, and Colocotroni several times attacked 

 Tripolizza, which was defended by 3000 Egyptians, 

 under Soliman Bey (La Seve, the French renegade). 

 The influence of the climate and disease had weak- 

 ened the Egyptian army, yet Tripolizza could not be 

 taken. In the mean time, an assembly of the people, 

 convoked at Megara, in January, 1826, proposed 

 several measures for the improvement of the internal 

 administration, particularly in regard to the adminis- 

 tration of justice and the public revenue. At the 

 same time, an expedition was fitted out for Negro- 

 pont, and support was rendered to the insurrection of 

 the Greeks, which had again broken out in Candia 

 (1825), where Carabusa was taken by them. Want 

 of money and provisions, and the dissensions between 

 the commanders ; the mistrust of the palikaris, who 

 had been deceived by their officers ; and the ingra- 

 titude of the Greeks towards the Philhellenes, or 

 foreign officers in their service, were the causes that 

 nothing important was accomplished. Owing to 

 these circumstances, Athens, after the army which 

 should have relieved it had fled in a dastardly man- 

 ner, capitulated to Reschid Pacha (June 7, 1827). In 

 vain did lord Cochrane (who had long been detain- 

 ed in Britain by the defective construction of the 

 steam vessels, for which the Greeks had paid so dear) 



