An historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution

Front matter

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OP THE GREEK REVOLUTION. ET SAMUEL G. HOWE, M. U, UTE, SURGEON IK CHIEF TO THE GREEK FIX*: and mho That marks the fire still sparkling in each eye, Who but would deem their bosoms bum'd anew With thy unquenched beam, lust liberty ! And many dream withal the hour is nigh That gives them back their father's heritage. Childe Harold, Canto H. Slanm LXXt NEW-YORK : If HITE, GALLAHER & WHITE ISQS Southern District of New-York, is. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 2nd day of August, A. D. 1828, in the fifty-third year of the Independence of the United States of America, Samuel G. Howe, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit: " An Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution. By Samuel G. Howe, M. D., late Surgeon in Chief to the Greek Fleet. and who That marks the fire still sparkling in each eye, Who but would deem their bosoms bura'd anew With thy unquenched beam, lost liberty ' And many dream withal the hour is nigh That gives them back their father's heritage.

Childe Harold, Canto II. Stanza LXXV." In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled " An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors or such copies, dnring the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled " An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such co pies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." FRED. J. BETTS, Clerk of the Southern District ofNew-York. TO MATTHEW CAREY AND ED WARD E VERE TT, ESQ UIRES, THE GENEROUS AND UNTIRING PHILHELLENES. THIS SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE STRUGGLE FOR GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE, IS INSCRIBED AS A M.ARK OF FRIENDSHIP AND RESPECT BV THE AUTHOR.

Preface

. To the Author's friends, who know that he has been obliged to draw up this Sketch of the Greek Revolution, within the last live months, and amid other occupations, no apology is neces. sary for presenting it, in its present imperfect state ; or for the numerous faults and inelegancies in style and composition, which must necessarily have crept into a work, so hastily finished. But to the Public, such an apology is necessary. The Author had hoped leisurely to digest the mass of historical information concerning the Revolution, which he had col lected during three years' service in Greece ; to combine with it, statistical accounts, remarks on the soil, climate, productions, and geographical and commercial advantages of that country ; with observations on the religion, language, manners and customs, virtues and vices, of the Modern Greeks ; in such a way, as to form a volume that should contain both inte resting, and useful information.

But since his return to Ame rica, the Author has been called upon (unexpectedly) to devote the principal part of his time, to the advancement of the cause of Philhellenism here, and suddenly to return to Greece ; in whose service, it has been the height of his ambition, to perform a part useful to her, and honourable to himself. Necessity therefore, obliges him to throw his book before the American public, without claiming for it the name of a History ; it is what it professes to be, merely a Sketch. The information may be depended upon ; but it is not all that is want ing. He may appear to have dwelt much upon the characters of the principal Greeks ; but he flatters himself, that the au thenticity may apologise for this ; as he has not ventured to speak of any, whom he has not known personally. The names of ma ny distinguished Greeks, and the character and actions nf

PREFACE.

. VI some Philhellenes, have been omitted ; not from want of respect to them, but from the Author's not wishing to speak of any in dividual, particularly, whom he did not know, (with the exception of Lord Byron) but whose names must have a place in a complete History. As for dates, the Author has not deemed them of sufficient consequence in a work of this kind, to devote much time in searching them out ; he has never put them down therefore, but in those cases in which he could rely upon them. The influence which the policy of the European Powers have had upon the progress of the Revolution, has been great ; but the Author has not ventured to dwell much upon this subject, which requires more investigation, than his time will now allow him to make. The Author hesitates not to rank himself among the friends, and even among the admirers, of the Modern Greeks ; for he has been rather surprised at finding so much national spirit, and so much virtue among them, than that there was so little ; and he thinks he has seen enough of them, to justify him look.ng confi dently for the day, when they will shew themselves worthy of their glorious descent ; to the day, when it shall no longer be said with truth, that " Philopœmen was the last of the Greeks."

The arguments of those who reason upon the present degrad ed situation of the Greeks, and as. crtthat they are less deserv ing our notice than the Turks, are not worth the pains of a re futation. The feelings of that man, who regards with per fectly philosophical indifference, such a people, such a cause, and such a country, as that of Greece, are not to be con demned ; but, they are not to be envied. And surely a like allowance should be made for the opposite feeling ; for that enthusiasm which is pardonable in this cause, if in any ; for it springs from the best feelings of human nature. To admire Greece, and Greeks, for what they have been, may not be ra tional, but it is natural ; to hear the descendant of Demosthe nes speaking the same beautiful language, which flowed like a rill, or thundered like a torrent, from his lips ; — to hear the Mo dern Greek women saying, like the Spartan matron, to her son, as he goes out to battle — "With it, or upon it ;" — to see the descendant of Miltiades, fighting for liberty on the battle-ground of Maxathon ; are scenes which the scholar cannot ccmtem-

PREFACE.

. VII plate without some emotion ; and the feeling of indifference which philosophy tells him to substitute for it, is an artificial, and not a natural one. But the Author has never, for an instant, let his enthusiasm blind him to the faults of the Greeks, or influence him in record ing them ; nor has he ever ranked himself among those Philhel lenes, who have imagined that the cause Greece was to be ad vanced, by holding up to the world a false picture of the disinterested patriotism, or heroic courage of the Modern Greeks. He has endeavoured impartially, and faithfully, to give an historical Sketch of those events, which have for the last seven years so much interested the -American public ; it is as yet very imper fect ; but should it be indulgently received, he hopes that farther researches, and an investigation of Turkish, as well as Greek character and actions, may enable him to present something, that may merit the name of a complete History of the Revolution in Greece.

Introduction

Greece Proper, is that small section Of country situated be tween the thirty-sixth, and fortieth parallels of Northern Latitude ; and between the twentieth, and twenty-fourth degrees of East ern Longitude. It is bounded on the North, by Macedonia and Albania Pro per ; on the East, by the Ægean Sea ; on the South, by the Me diterranean ; and on the West, by the Ionian Sea. Its greatest length does not exceed 250 miles, and its mean breadth not 150; it contains no more than twenty-three thousand square miles, exclusive of Macedonia, Albania Proper, and the Islands. But this little spot of earth has attracted more attention than any other country, for the last thirty centuries : the inhabitants of that beautiful land have been regarded by the rest of mankind, with alternate feelings of surprise, of fear, of admiration, of pity, and of contempt ; till at last, they seemed lost and forgotten by all : — when suddenly, they burst from the slumber of ages — they rush upon the arena of their former glory, and loudly challenge the attention, if not the admiration of the world.

No age or nation has as yet refused the tribute of unqualified admiration of the enterprise, the genius, and the taste of the An cient Greeks ; nor this alone, because they were able many cen turies ago to eclipse the rest of the world, but, that they then car ried the mental powers to a degree of perfection, which has ne ver yet been equalled. And this admiration is the more unhesitatingly given, since there is not the shadow of a doubt, about the reality of what we admire ; it is not to legend, it is not even to history alone, that we trust ; the works of the Greek Poets, Orators, Sculptors, and Ar chitects, still exist, and speak for themselves, in language strong er than that of words. The " Blind old man of Scio's rocky isle," is still considered the first of poets ; and no modern oratory B X

INTRODUCTION.

. has excelled that which once swayed the Athenian multitude t the greatest modern artists take for their guides the still existing works of Grecian sculptors ; and the finest specimens of modern architecture, are but feeble approaches to the grace and symme try which abounded in Grecian buildings. The traveller who visits Greece, is at every step presented with some striking proof of the enterprise and genius, of the for mer inhabitants of the land : if he finds but a solitary column, standing erect among the ruins of a temple,* he sees in that column, such beauty and strength, lightness and stability, blended into such graceful proportion, as convinces him the building must have been the work of a master genius. But when he visits the Temple of Theseus, of which every column is still standing, and which is the finest specimen of architecture, perhaps in the world, there is no bound to his feelings of wonder and admiration.

And if those works which chance, or the durability of their materials, has handed down to our age, are so beautiful, and so perfect in their kind ; can we not infer, that in the more perish able arts, the Ancient Greeks were as great masters ? Could the paintings of Zeuxis and Parhasius be now exhibited, they would be as rich a treat to the artist, as the Rhodian has given them, in the ever-dying throes of Laocoon. But it is not alone to her poets and orators, to her painters and sculptors, that Greece owes her glory ; whether we con template her Philosophers, her Statesmen, her Patriots, or her Warriors, we shall find the same extraordinary development of the human faculties, the same brilliant example of greatness and worth. Greece, by the mental superiority of her inhabitants, over threw empires ; made herself mistress of all around her ; and raised herself to a pinnacle of glory, from which she was pre- * This fact is well exemplified in the remains of the Temple of Bacchus in the island of Naxos.

Of this Temple there is now only to be seen a gateway, eighteen feet high, and ten broad ; formed by tw.i erect slabs of marble, with a third laid across the top. It would seem the simplest thin" in the world, to place three slabs in this position, and form a sine gateway ; \et the traveller exclaims, that he never saw any thing equal to il ; " what beauty, what strength, what proportion, and yet, how simple ! well— those .Id Greeks were wonderful men !» Such are the exclamations, (often it would seem involuntary) of travellers who visit it.

INTRODUCTION.

. XI eipitated, rather by her own degeneracy, than by any other cause. But the story of her growth to greatness, and her fall to in significance, is familiar to every one, even to the schoolboy ; we shall merely attempt therefore, rapidly to trace the history of the Greeks, through those ages in which their name has been lost to the world, down to the time when it re-appeared with new splendour. The glories of Greece were not extinguished by the Macedo nian conquest, but the spirit of liberty was gone ; and though the revival of the Æchean league, seemed to promise a revival of freedom, the attempt proved abortive ; and before the Ro mans had triumphed in the East, we find the Greeks divided in to three parties, one favouring the Macedonians, a second the Romans, and a third, though the smallest, was in favour of in dependence.

But the arms and influence of Rome prevailed ; one hundred and fifty years before Christ, Greece had become virtually a dependant on Rome. The shadow indeed of liberty was preserved in some parts, particularly in Sparta, which had not been reduced by the Mace donians, and which had successfully resisted the arms of Pyr rhus. In the civil war between Pompey and Cesar, we find the Athenians ranging tnemselves on the side of the former, as be ing the party of liberty, while the Spartans espoused the cause of Cesar. The latter, with his characteristic magnanimity, refused to destroy Athens, saying he would spare the children, for their father's sakes. At the time of the birth of the Saviour, Greece had lost her li berties entirely, nor was she of any importance in the political world ; but she was still famous as the great school of philosophy, and the arts, and the resort of all the literary and scientific men of the world ; even the Roman scholar could not claim a finished education, until he had made his pilgrimage to Greece.

The first Roman invasion had been cruel, and the fate of the Greeks was sometimes severe ; (for the track of Mummius was not the only one marked with blood) ; but under the Emperors Trajan, Adrian, Constantine, and some others, the Greeks were not only well treated, but highly honoured. Cesar had rebuilt

INTRODUCTION.

. XII Corinth; and Adrian restored to splendor many of the neglecf ed temples of Athens. But the most important change which happened to the Greeks, was their national conversion to Christianity, during, and soon after the Apostolic days. Religion has ever since been to the nation like a band of iron, uniting particles which would have else fallen to pieces. It has been the principal means of preserving their language, since the priests were obliged to keep up a knowledge of the ancient Greeks, during all the changes which the nation has undergone. It has served also to draw much more distinctly the line of division between them, and the different nations who have had the mastery over them. Greece merits but little historical consideration during the second and third centuries, though she was still the literary em poriumofthe world; the removal of the seat of the Roman em pire to Constantinople, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and the peculiar regard shewn to Greece, by Constantine the Great, rendered her situation more interesting.

The division of the Empire into the Eastern and Western, gave stronger claims to the Patriarchs of Constantinople, and the distinction between Eastern and Western Churches, began to appear. In the beginning of the fifth century, Alaric, the plunderer of Italy, led his savage hordes into Greece, and spread murder and rapine over the country. Athens had been taken by the Goths in the middle of the third century, but they spared its beautiful structures ; unlike Alaric, who devastated what he could not carry off. From this time, Athens and Greece in general are almost entirely lost to the historian, for several centuries. He can indeed trace their story, by their connexion with the Western or Romish Church ; but politically, Greece was of no other consequence, than as a province of the Byzan tine Empire.

The sun of Rome had set in the West, and the empire existed only at Constantinople. But though Rome herself, had ceased to be the political mis tress of the world, her Prelates were already laying the foun dations of that power, which was destined to break the sceptres of Princes, and make crowns bow to the Mitre. There was an appearance of friendship kept up between the Church of Rome, and that of Constantinople, for seven centuries from the time of the spread of Christianity. The Apostolic

INTRODUCTION.

. XIII church was certainly founded in Greece before that of Rome ; but the Romish Prelates assumed the right of being considered the Great head of the Christian Church, which the Bishops at Constantinople as constantly denied them. Disputes had long ejdsted on various subjects, particularly on that of the use of images, which the Greek Patriarchs condemned as idolatrous. These disputes proceeded to such a length, that in the year 858, Pope Nicholas I. condemned the election which had been made by the emperor Michael, of Photius, to the post of Grand Patriarch of Constantinople ; and excommunicated Photius. But the latter, so far from conceding to Pope Nicholas the right of superiority, immediately assembled a council of Divines at Constantinople, and answered the Romish Bull by another, in which he thundered excommunications againt the Pope himself.

From this moment we may date that separation of the Chris tian world, into the Romish and Greek Churches ; a separation which has ever since been widening. The Romans or Catho lics condemn the Greeks as schismatics, and bear a feeling of hostility and hatred towards them ; while the Greeks with cer tainly more reason, claim to be the orthodox Church, and re turn the hatred of the Catholics with those bitter feelings, which religious bigotry so often gives rise to. .And here it may be well to notice the points in which the Greek Church differs from that of the Roman, or Catholic Church. " Many of the corruptions of the Church of Rome " arose before the final separation took place between it, and " the Greek Church; and as many of these had their origin in " the East, they continued in both churches, after the division; " so that in the Greek Church, may be found many, of what " are considered as errors in the Latin Church : but, though the " former departed widely from the faith which it once profess " ed, and is now sunk in deplorable ignorance and superstition, " it can scarcely be admitted, that it is so very corrupt as the " latter."* The Greeks deny the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope of Rome ; but substitute for him, their Patriarch, whose seat is Constantinople ; and who, they contend, is the head of the true Catholic Church. The Greek Church condemns as idolatrous, the use of ima- * Adam, Vol. I. p. 332.

INTRODUCTION.

. ges, as practised in the Romish Church. But for images, it substitutes pictures. It does not condemn its priests to celiba cy, though no priest can marry a second time ; nor can any married priest rise to the rank of Bishop. It rejects the Romish doctrine of purgatory ; but it directs masses for the souls of the dead. Unlike the Romish Church, it does not condemn the people to an ignorance of the Scrip tures. But the invocation of the Saints, and the adoration of the Virgin Mary, is carried by the people to a much greater ex tent, even than allowed by the canons of the Church. The Panagea or All holy Virgin, is to the Greeks, the Alpha and Omega of their religion ; more prayers are addressed to her, and more confidence is placed in her intercession with the Fa ther, than in that of the Son.

The walls of every house are covered with her pictures, and the meanest hut or the poorest fishing boat, is never found day or night without a lamp trim med and burning before the picture of the Virgin. The Scriptures are professedly the rule of faith to the Greek Church, but explained and modified by the decrees of the first Seven Councils. It would be ill-timed to enter now into an explanation of these ; suffice it to say, that except in the above-named points, the Greeks do not differ materially in their creed from the Ro man Catholics or the Latin Church. Like the latter they are bigotedly attached to their religion ; which however, exists so much in outward ceremony, and has so little of spirituality, that it must be an abomination in the sight of Him, who to be worshipped acceptably, must be worshipped in spirit and truth.

From the fifth to the thirteenth century, the history of Greece is little known, and probably of but little importance ; it was merely a Province of the Eastern Empire, which was feebly go verned by a race of monarchs, at last known by the name of the Greek Emperors. The first crusaders did not appear in Greece Proper ; but to wards the middle of the twelfth century, the Venetians, Sicilians, and some other adventurers, overrun the Peloponessus and Atti ca. Greece was then governed, or rather distracted, by different petty tyrants ; and the people were plunged in the grossest ig. norancc and superstition.

INTRODUCTION.

. XV There were never wanting however, pious and learned pre lates, whose writing serve as stars, to throw a, feeble light upon these dark and obscure ages ; — in fact, from the days of Cadmus, to those of Coray, the Greeks never have been wanting for any considerable length of time, in industrious and faithful writers on some subject or other. In the year 1204, the French underthe Marquis of Montferrat, with the Venetians, and Baldwin of Flanders, took Constantino ple from the Greek Emperor ; and soon Baldwin was placed on the throne of Constantine. The French, under the Marquis of Montferrat, pushed their conquests through Greece Proper, took Athens and Thebes, and penetrated into the Peloponessus. The Marquis bestowed the Government of Athens on Othon de la Roche ; hence the singular title of Duke of Athens, which we hear mentioned in the thirteenth century.

Some French Crusaders returning from the Holy Land, were accidently* driven upon the shores of the Peloponessus ; joined the Marquis of Montferrat, who was then besieging Napoli di Romania ; and the whole, accompanied by some Ve netians, subjugated all the Peloponessus, except Lacedemon, which was held by a petty native Prince. The Peloponessus, then called the Morea, was afterwards de livered by treaty to the Venetians ; though the possession was disputed by the Genoese. In all these different conquests, the Greeks were regarded in a light scarcely different from cattle belonging to the soil ; and of course, the property of its pos sessor. But the Europeans did not long hold Constantinople ; it was wrested from the family of Baldwin, about the middle of the thir teenth century, by the Greek Emperors of Nice.

From this time, till the middle of the fifteenth century, the pos session of Greece was the subject of dispute between the Em perors of Constantinople, the Venetians, Florentines, and other European powers ; who in those fluctuating times, were continu ally gaining, and losing possessions, in the Eastern part of Eu rope. By all these different lords of the soil, the Greeks were harsh ly treated ; since they were too ignorant and too degenerate to * Itiniraire de Chateaubriand. Introduction.

INTRODUCTION.

. defend their rights. The sufferings of the country had been such, that the population had materially decreased, and no spirit of improvement was visible. But still the Greeks preserved in a strange degree many of their national characteristics ; they mingled not with their masters, but kept distinct in manners, language, and feelings ; cruel treatment they often suffered, but not direct persecution ; and in the fluctuations which were year ly taking place, there was some chance the spirit of the people might revive, and take advantage of any circumstance favourable to their independence. But there were very few Greeks who then cared, or thought about the liberty of their country ; the scholar indeed wept over the present degeneracy of his native land, as he contemplated its past grandeur in the writings of its sages ; and the freebooter, who lived a life of rude independence in the mountains, paid the tribute of a passing sigh to the memory of his great ancestors, as he gazed on some decaying temple ; but of which he knew only that they had been the builders.

There was indeed a hope, that the light and knowledge which was then dawning in the West of Europe might extend its influ ence even to Greece ; but this hope was extinguished in the middle of the fifteenth century, by the torrent of Turkish invasion which poured forth from Asia, and spread itself not only over Greece, but over all the East of Europe. About the year 1200, the Turks began to appear advancing from the interior of Asia ; every day spreading their conquests, and increasing in power. Othman was the first of that enterprising and warlike race of Princes, who made such good use of the blind fanatacism, and headlong courage of their subjects ; that in a few years they ren dered the name of Turks terrible to the rest of the world, and increased the Ottoman power, "with a rapidity almost unparal leled in history.

Amurat I, led the Turks into Europe, and established the seat of their empire at Adrianople ; Constantinople still resist ed ; but the mighty Bajazet, son and successor to Amurat, stood ready with five hundred thousand men, to crush that great city, and then rush upon Europe ; when he was checked by- Tartar, Tamerlane ; to whom perhaps, Christendom owes her redemption from the scourge of a second Atilla. But Solvman rose superior to the misfortunes, which the fall

INTRODUCTION.

. XVII q{ his father had heaped upon him, and upon rising power of Turkey. His successor, Mahomet I, pushed still farther the Turkish arms. Amurat II. overran all Greece Proper, and captured Athens ; which, however, was soon again in the pow er of the Franks. It was reserved for Mahomet II. to put the finishing stroke to the destruction of Roman and Grecian power ; he took Con stantinople at the head of his Janizaries in 1453, and in a fe w years, Greece Proper yielded ingloriously to him. It is said, that like Julius Cesar, Mahomet respected Athens ; but his succes. sors were unlike him ; and though it seemed that Greece had been for ages drinking the bitterest portion of the cup of adver sity, she now found, that the still more bitter dregs remained. and she was obliged to drain them to the very bottom, at the dic tation of barbarian fanatics of another religion.

From the time of the Turkish conquest in the middle of the fifteenth century, Greece was considered of no other conse quence than the frequent seat of war between the Turks and Venetians, who had alternate possession of the country ; and who were the alternate tyrants and oppressors of the people, whom they treated like slaves. It was not until 1715 that the Turks got complete and undis turbed possession of the country ; and from that time, we lose sight of the Greeks, or only hear them spoken of, as dege nerated slaves, by those travellers, who were led by an admira tion of the genius of the Ancients, to take a pilgrimage to Athens, to contemplate the most sublime remnants of antiquity. In 1770 Catharine . II. planned and effected a revolt in Greece, in order to favour Russia in her war with Turkey.

She had previously sent emissaries into every part of the coun try, to prepare the Greeks for an insurrection ; and the people were excited by hopes of being freed by Russia, if they would rise. It wanted but little to effect this ; for the Greeks had then become somewhat enlightened, and thousands were flattering themselves, that any attempt of theirs at independence, would be encouraged and supported by the European Powers. A Russian fleet was sent round to the Mediterranean ; — twelve hundred soldiers were landed in the Morea, and the Greeks were summoned to arms. They rose, — but not to arms. -for irms had not been allowed them by the Turks ; but they r xviit

INTRODUCTION.

. rushed upon their oppressors with fury ; killed great numbers ; took the fortress of Navarino ; and drove the Turks from every part of the Morea, forcing them to shut themselves up in the fortresses. But they were miserably seconded by the Russians; — no means was given them to continue the war ; and the Turks calling in the Albanians, the Greeks were driven in their turn, to take refuge in the mountains, and under the walls of Navari no, where the Russian commander, Orloff, had shut himself up with his soldiers. He refused the Greeks admittance, and thou sands were cut up before his eyes. The enterprize was most shamefully abandoned by the Russians, who, after leading the Greeks into a rebellion, refused them support, evacuated the country, and left the victims of their guilty undertaking to suffer the terrible vengeance of the Turks, which would not be ap peased for years.