The War of Greek Independence, 1821 to 1833, etc

Introduction

AND NOTES. LONDON : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W. l82I TO 1833 BY W. ALISON PHILLIPS, M.A. LATE SCHOLAR OF MERTON COLLEGE AND SENIOR SCHOLAR OP ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD WITH MAP LONDON SMITH, ELDEE, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1897 [All rights reserved]

Preface

This little book makes no pretence to be the result of original research, nor does it aspire to compete with the more elaborate works which have already appeared on the same subject. In offering it to the public, my aim has been to make more generally accessible a chapter of modern history which recent events have invested with a new interest ; and I am not without hope that the following pages may be of some use hi helping those, who have no time or opportunity for an extended study of the Greek question, to form a clearer judgment upon the matters at issue. For the materials on which this volume is based I am mainly indebted to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's ' Geschichte Griechenlands,' &c. (vols. xv. and xx. of C. Biedermann's ' Staatengeschichte der neuesten VI THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE Zeit '), Finlay's ' History of the Greek Revolution ' (2 vols. 1861), Gordon's 'History of the Greek Revolution ' (2 vols. 1832), and Prokesch-Osten's ' Geschichte des Abfalls der Griechen vom Tiirk ischen Reich.' Baron von Prokesch-Osten's work is interesting as an elaborate and able apology for Prince Metternich' s Eastern policy.

It is especially valuable for its detailed account of the diplomatic developments of the Eastern Question during the ten years of the War of Independence ; and, of its six volumes, four are devoted to the publication of the full texts of the treaties, protocols, and diplomatic correspondence on which the work is based. The more important of the treaties and protocols will also be found in full in Professor Holland's ' The European Concert and the Eastern Question.' Of the other books which I have used, I will only refer here to M. Alfred Lemaitre's ' Musulmans et Chretiens : Notes sur la Guerre de l'lndependance Grecque ' (Paris, 1895), from which I have occasion ally quoted. This little book was issued by its author as a counterblast to the Armenian agitation, and is in tended as an apology for the Turk, and an indictment

PREFACE.

of the Oriental Christian. M. Lemaitre, however, damages a strong case by his extreme partisanship. The facts he gives are true enough ; but he carefully omits all those that would tell against his case. This is perhaps only repaying the more fanatical Philhellenes in their own coin ; but it is a method of controversy for which it is impossible to feel much sympathy. My hope is that, whatever fault may be justly found with the following pages, the charge of partisanship at least may not be proved against their author. W. Alison Phillips. September 1897. PAGE CONTENTS *o*

Chapter I

Continuity of the Hellenic race — Effect of the Ottoman conquest — Function of the Orthodox Church in preserving Greek nationality — The Patriarch of Constantinople — Condition of the Greeks under the Ottoman rule— Comparative prosperity of the peasants — The Armatoli and Klephts — Sea power of the Greeks — The naval islands — Treaty of Kainardji — Local liberties preserved by the Turks — The Phanariots — The literary movement — Revival of antique letters — Influence of Korais 1

Chapter II

The preparation — Hope of Russian support — Catherine II. — The Hetairia Philike — Count John Capodistrias offered the leadership of the Greeks — His refusal — Prince Alexander Hypsilanti chosen — Ali Pasha of Janina — His origin — He conquers Tepeleni — His cruelties — He aims at creating an Albanian kingdom — His fall 19

Chapter III

The rising in the Principalities — Prince Alexander Hypsilanti crosses the Pruth — Cold reception by the Roumanian peasants — Massacres at Galatz and Yassy — Incapacity of X THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE PAGE Hypsilanti — He marches to Bucharest — Heterogeneous con stitution of the insurgent force — The Patriarch of Constan tinople anathematises the revolt — It is denounced by the Czar — Treachery of Savas — Murder of Vladimireseo — Battle of Dragashan — Collapse of the revolt — Death of Georgaki — Last stand of the Greeks at Skuleni ..... 30

Chapter IV

The rising in the Morea — Neglect of precautions by the Mussulmans — Activity of Greek agitators — Pappa Phlesas — Archbishop Germanos — The beginning of hostilities — A war of extermination — Leaders of the revolt — Kolokotrones — Petrobey Mavromichales — First successes and cruelties of the Greeks — Siege of Monemvasia — Arrival of Prince Demetrius Hypsilanti — Greek atrocities at Monemvasia, Vrachori, and Navarino — Siege and massacre of Tripolitza — Revolt of the ' naval ' islands Spezzia, Psara, and Hydra — Greek successes and atrocities at sea — Admiral Miaoulis — First employment of fireships by the Greeks — Destruction of Galaxidi by the Turks 44

Chapter V

Turkish reprisals — Execution of the Patriarch of Constantinople — Effect of the news on European opinion — Protest of Russia — Suppression of the revolt to the north of Thermopylæ — Anarchy in Greece — Attempts to form governments — First Congress of Argos — The Constitution of Epidaurus — Mavrocordatos elected President ... 75

Chapter VI

Death of Elias Mavromichales — Odysseus of Ithaka — His treachery before Karystos — The massacre of Chios — The vengeance of Kanaris — Mahmoud's plan for the reeonquest of Greece — Odysseus in East Hellas — Fall of the Acropolis — Massacre of the Turks — Invasion of Dramali — The Turks CONTENTS XI PAGF. at Argos — Defeat of Dramali in the pass of Devernaki, and at Agionori — Destruction of the Turkish army — Expedi tion of Mavrocordatos for the relief of the Suliots — Defeat of Peta — Advance of Omer Vrioni in West Hellas — First siege of Missolonghi 88

Chapter VII

Attitude of the Powers — Policy of Canning — Russo-Turkish war postponed — Threatened break-up of the Holy Alliance — Dissensions among the Greeks — Odysseus in East Hellas — Kolokotrones — Second National Assembly at Astros — Feud between the civil and military elements — Petrobey elected President — Kolokotrones defies the Assembly — Campaign of Yussuf Pasha in East Hellas — Cruise of Khosrew Pasha — Invasion of Western Hellas by Mustai Pasha — Exploit of Marko Botzares at Karpenisi — Successful defence of Anatoliko — Renewal of civil strife — Government flies to Kranidi — First Civil War — Submission of Kolokotrones ......... 113

Chapter VIII

Arrival of Lord Byron in Greece — Effect on European opinion — The first Greek loans — Byron's opinion of the Greeks — He goes to Missolonghi — His death — Presidency of Konduriottes — Renewed dissensions — The second Civil War — Complete victory of the Government — Imprisonment of Kolokotrones 135

Chapter IX

Sultan Mahmoud appeals to Mehemet Ali of Egypt for aid — Insurrection in Crete — Hussein Bey pacifies Crete — Preparations of Mehemet Ali for the invasion of the Morea — Destruction of Kasos — Ibrahim sails to Rhodes — He celebrates the feast of Bairam in the Bay of Makry — Destruction of THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE PAGE Psara by Khosrew Pasha — Turkish attack on Samos repulsed — Naval engagements of Budrun — Victory of Miaoulis off Crete — Mutinous conduct of the Hydriot seamen — Ibrahim reaches Suda 151

Chapter X

Ibrahim lands in the Morea — Neglect of the Greeks — Defeat of the Greeks at Krommydi — Siege of Navarino — Hussein Bey captures Sphakteria — Surrender of Pylos and Navarino — Kolokotrones released and made commander-in-chief — Heroic stand of Dikaios at Maniaki — Ibrahim advances on Tripolitza — His cheek at the Mills of Lerna — He devastates the Morea — Desperate condition of the Greeks . . . 170

Chapter XI The Siege Of Missolonghi

Reshid ' Kiutayeh ' invades West Hellas — He opens the siege of Missolonghi — State of the defences — Arrival of Khosrew with the Ottoman fleet — Turkish assaults repulsed — Desperate straits of the Garrison — Greek fleet under Miaoulis defeats Khosrew, and relieves the Town — Critical position of Reshid — Ibrahim arrives before Missolonghi — Miaoulis again relieves the town — Assault of Arab guards repulsed — Fall of Fort Vasiladi — Capitulation of Anatoliko — Repulse of Turks and Arabs from the islet of Klissova — Attempt of Miaoulis to revictual the town defeated — Sortie of the Garrison — Sack of the town, and massacre of the inhabitants — Effect on Europe 182

Chapter XII

Reshid reduces West Hellas — He advances into Attica — Rule of Gouras at Athens — Capture of Athens by the Turks — Siege of the Acropolis — Karaiskakis appointed commander-in-chief in East Hellas — His character — Defeat at Chaidari — Death of Gouras — Victories of Karaiskakis at Arachova and CONTENTS XIII PAGE 223 Distomo — General Gordon at Munychia — Attack of Reshid repulsed — Arrival of Church and Cochrane — Siege and sur render of the monastery of St. Spiridion — Massacre of the defenders — Death of Karaiskakis — Defeat of the Greeks before Athens — Fall of the Acropolis 204

Chapter XIII

Fall of the Government of Konduriottes — Zaimis elected President — Renewal of party strife — League of Kolokotrones and Konduriottes against Zaimis — Sissinis elected as a rival President — Rival assemblies at Damala and Ægina —Arrival of Lord Cochrane and Sir Richard Church — They reconcile the factions — Assembly at Damala — Capodistrias elected President — Constitution of Troezene — Provisional administration formed — Misery of the country — Tyranny of the Klephts and Armatoli — Piracy in the Ægean — Photomaras and Grivas in Nauplia — Operations of Ibrahim in the Morea — Treason of Nenekos — Campaign of Kolokotrones — Successes of the Greeks — Ibrahim devastates Messenia

Chapter XIV

Greece and the Powers — Russian proposals — Attitude of Canning and Metternich — Conferences at St. Petersburg — Changed relations of the Powers — Break up of the Holy Alliance — Attitude of Alexander I. — His death — Crisis in Russia — Uncertainty of the succession — Military revolt — Accession of Nicholas — Russian ultimatum to Turkey — Protocol of St. Petersburg — Military reforms in Turkey — Massacre of the Janissaries — Alliance of Russia, France, and England — Treaty of London 237

Chapter XV

111 success of the Greeks at sea — Junction of the Egyptian and Turkish fleets at Navarino — Abortive expedition of Cochrane to Alexandria — Increase of piracy — Victory of Cochrane off THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE PAGE 251 268 281 Cape Papas — Intervention of the allied Admirals — Armistice accepted by the Greeks and rejected by the Turks — Cod rington at Navarino — Convention with Ibrahim — Renewed activity of the Greeks — Captain Hastings in the Gulf of Corinth — Destruction of a Turkish flotilla at Salona — Ibra him sails from Navarino — Action of Codrington — The allied fleets enter the Bay of Navarino — The battle of Navarino .

Chapter XVI

The consequences of the battle of Navarino — The allied fleets retire to refit — Ibrahim remains firm — Effect of the battle on the Powers — Russia proposes a joint ultimatum to the Porte — Weak and vacillating policy of England — Lord Dudley's note to the Porte — Policy of Wellington — Effect of the battle at Constantinople — Porte demands compensation — Withdrawal of the ambassadors — The Sultan proclaims a Holy War — Treaty of Akkerman declared void — Russia declares war, and occupies the Principalities

Chapter XVII

The arrival of Capodistrias in Greece — Enthusiastic reception by the Greeks — Misery of the country — Condition of the Government — Principles of Capodistrias — He aims at establishing a bureaucracy on the Russian model — Military reforms — Piracy in the Ægean — The Powers intervene — Destruction of Grabusa by the Anglo-French fleet — Pirates destroyed by Miaoulis at Skopelos and Skiathos — Attempts of Capodistrias to improve the finances — His nepotism

Chapter XVIII

The effects of the Russian Campaign on the Concert — Unexpected vitality of Turkey — The French commissioned by the Concert to drive Ibrahim from the Morea — Codrington at Alexandria — He arranges with Mehemet Ali for the evacua- CONTENTS XV PAGE 297 311 324 tion of the Morea — Landing of the French at Modon — Ibra him evacuates the Peloponnese — The French occupy the fortresses — Protocol of November 16 — Withdrawal of the French army — Capodistrias presses the war — Renewed in surrection in Crete — Greek naval operations — Hypsilanti advances into Attica — Operations in West Hellas

Chapter XIX

Joint report of the ambassadors at Poros — The Protocol of March 22 — Indignation of the Greeks — Capodistrias protests against the Protocol — He refuses to cease hostilities — Arbitrary rule of the President — Financial support of Europe — A National Assembly summoned — Measures taken by Capodistrias to secure satisfactory elections — Congress opened at Argos — Proceedings of the Congress — Beginnings of organ ised opposition

Chapter XX

Operations in East and West Hellas — Last engagement of the War — End of the Russo-Turkish War — The Peace of Adrianople — Reception of the news in Greece — Its effect on the Powers — Anglo-Austrian entente — Protocol of February 3, 1830 — Leopold of Coburg accepts the crown — Capodistrias rejects the Protocol — Agitation in Greece — Leopold resigns — Concession by the Porte of reforms in Crete — They are rejected by the Cretans — Boundaries of Greece fixed by Protocol of July 1 — Evacuation of Hellas by the Turks

Chapter XXI

Effect on the Greek question of the July Revolution — Growing opposition to the arbitrary rule of Capodistrias — Activity of the press — The ' Apollo ' suppressed at Nauplia — It is transferred to Hydra — Hydra becomes the centre of the Opposition — Divisions in the Concert of the Powers — Hydra de- THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE TAGE 374 clares against the President — Miaoulis seizes the Greek fleet at Poros — Intervention of the Russian Admiral — Miaoulis blows up the Hellas — Sack of Poros — Rival assemblies summoned at Argos and Hydra 343

Chapter XXII

The approach of the crisis — Position of Petrobey — His discontent with the Government — Character of the Mainotes — Attempts of Capodistrias to reduce them to order — Imprisonment of the Mavromichales — Rising in the Maina — Escape of Petrobey — He is recaptured and tried — Admiral Ricord ntercedes — Humiliation of Petrobey — Murder of Capodistrias by George and Constantine Mavromichales — Character of Capodistrias 360

Chapter XXIII

Provisional Government — Agostino Capodistrias — Congress of Argos — Agostino elected President — Feud between Moreots and Rumeliots — Fighting in Argos — Rumeliots withdraw — Kolettes follows — Opposition Government established at Megara — Civil War — Kolettes invades the Morea — Impotence of the Government — Intervention of the Powers — Resignation of Agostino — Kolettes supreme — Continued anarchy — The French occupy Nauplia — Insurrection of Kolokotrones — Treaty of May 7 — Otho of Bavaria declared King of Greece — Close of the Conference at London .

Chapter XXIV

Continued civil strife — Success of Kolokotrones — Impotence of the Government — Misery of the country — Fight between Armatoli and the French at Argos — Arrival of King Otho — Conclusion 393 INDEX 407 MAP . to face page THE WAE OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE

Chapter I

Continuity of the Hellenic race — Effect of the Ottoman conquest — Function of the Orthodox Church in preserving Greek nationality — The Patriarch of Constantinople — Condition of the Greeks under the Ottoman rule — Comparative prosperity of the peasants — The Armatoli and Klephts — Sea power of the Greeks — The naval islands — Treaty of Kainardji — Local liberties preserved by the Turks — The Phanariots — The literary movement — Revival of antique letters — Influence of Korais Once more the Greek has measured his strength with the Turk, and once more the passionate cry of the Hellenes for the fulfilment of their national aspirations has, in spite of the unfriendly attitude of the Govern ments and of the warnings of experienced statesmen, awakened sympathetic echoes throughout Europe. This Philhellenic enthusiasm is an instinct rather than a deliberate conviction.

Europe, educated for centuries B in an almost religious reverence for antique culture, cannot forget the debt which she owes to the land which was the birthplace of her sciences and the cradle of her arts. In vain it is pointed out that, after the changes and chances of twenty centuries, the modern Greeks have little in common with the race of Pericles and Plato. In vain has grievous dis illusion followed the high hopes which greeted the foundation of the Hellenic kingdom. The mountains look on Marathon And Marathon looks on the sea, and the imagination of Europe is still fired with Byron's dream of a Hellas on whose soil, freed from the blighting rule of the barbarian, the arts and sciences shall once more flourish in their ancient glory. An idle dream, perhaps, which should have no place in serious politics.

Yet a wide-spread senti ment, however empty, is not a factor which the states man can neglect with impunity. Metternich did so, and the whole fabric of his policy, laboriously built up on the most approved lines of Machiavellian state craft, collapsed at the first strong breath of the ' pathos ' he affected to despise. The question of the historical continuity of the Hellenic race is, then, of more than mere academic interest, and enters to no slight degree into the domain THE GREEK RACE 3 of practical politics. It played an important, even an exaggerated, part in the history of the first Greek revolt, and even now, when the Hellenic cause is more commonly associated in the public mind with that of the oppressed oriental Christian races in general, it has no small influence upon opinion. What then is the truth ?

On the one hand it is urged that the conquest and reeonquest of Greece, the manifold migrations of the northern nations during the middle ages, must have completely obliterated the pure Hellenic race, and that the so-called Hellenes of to-day are, in fact, a mixed breed of Albanian, Slavonic, and Latin origin, with but a slight tincture of Greek blood. On the other hand it is urged that no nation, if we except the Jews, has ever been so tenacious of its individuality. Conquered again and again, Hellenism, vanquished in arms, ever retaliated by a bloodless victory over its conquerors. Macedonians and Romans in turn, while placing Greece under their political yoke, them selves submitted to the empire of Hellenic culture ; and though, with the decay of the ancient civilisation, this culture gradually faded away, all the evidence tends to prove that the Greeks, more than any other nation of modern Europe, have succeeded in as similating those numerous foreign elements which B must, in the confusion of troubled centuries, have become intermingled with them.

The capture of Constantinople, in 1453, by Mahomed the Second, would indeed seem to have crushed the last remnant of Greek nationality. Already the barbarian invasions had, for centuries, been gradually driving what survived of Hellenic culture within the walls of the capital. But now the collapse of the last bulwark of the ancient civilisation pro duced a result far other than had been expected ; for it was the dispersal of the Greek scholars, which followed the fall of Constantinople, that led directly to the great revival of Hellenism which is known to us as the Renaissance : a movement itself destined, in modern times, to react, through their literary leaders, on the Hellenes. For the time indeed, among the Greek themselves, the last frayed cord that bound them to the classical tradition was snapped.

They survived as a people : but the tie which united them was not the memory of their ancient greatness, but that of their common reli gion, an influence all the stronger and more effective because their conquerors were of an alien faith. In most of the other parts of Europe the barbarian invaders had been converted to the faith of the nations they conquered, and had gradually inter- THE TIE OF RELIGION 5 mingled with the subject populations to produce nation alities of an entirely new type. The Mohammedan conquerors, disdaining to mix with the rayahs, the subject races, have by their very exclusiveness served to maintain the national characteristics of the Christian peoples they subdued, except, of course, in those instances where they succeeded in imposing their own faith upon the conquered.

The tie then which, after 1453, bound together the scattered Greek communities was the organisation of the Orthodox Church. The sultans were indeed glad to employ an instrument of government which they found ready made to their hand, and it was by their authority that the Patriarch of Constantinople displaced the Byzantine Cæsars as official head of the Greek Christian subjects of the Porte. Himself, by the very exigencies of his position, the mere crea ture of the Sultan, dependent as he was on the whims and caprices of court favourites, and bound to acquire and maintain his position by lavish bribes, he never theless exercised over the Christian subjects of the Porte an immense influence, and was invested by the policy of the sultans with great temporal as well as spiritual powers. As the Patriarch over the whole Greek world, so, in each diocese, the bishop became the embodiment at once of spiritual and temporal authority.

To him were brought suits between Chris tians for settlement ; and even Mussulmans would occa sionally, in disputes with Christians, prefer episcopal arbitration to the dilatory processes of the cadi's court. It was, however, through the lower clergy that the organisation of the Orthodox Church was most intimately bound up with the life of the people ; for, as married men, the parish priests shared to the full in the feelings and aspirations of their flocks, from whom, though set apart by the sanctity of their office, they were hardly distinguished by culture or attainments. Just then as, in the West, the idea of imperial unity had been preserved, all through the troubled period of the barbarian invasions, by the Church of Rome, so, throughout the Ottoman dominions, the theocratic basis of Greek unity had been deliberately maintained by the policy of the Ottoman conquerors.

The creation or toleration of such an imperium in imperio might from the first have seemed of doubtful wisdom. As a matter of fact it worked, from the point of view of the Sultan, well enough, as long as the Patriarch remained completely at his mercy. The danger of the system became apparent only when, with the decay of the Ottoman Empire, the Christian subjects of the sultans began to look abroad for sup- THE OTTOMAN RULE 7 port, and the Patriarch of Constantinople could reckon upon the assistance of a foreign power. The Greek then became attached to his religion by a double tie of faith and national sentiment. To his religion and to the head of his religion alone does he owe allegiance ; and no element of loyalty has ever entered into his relations to the Sultan, who ruled him, and rules him, by force alone.

As soon then as the rigour of the Turkish tyranny relaxed, no obligation lay upon the ' rayah ' to obey a government which could no longer enforce its claims. It is a mistake to suppose that it was the intolerable tyranny of the Turk which forced the Greeks into rebellion. All history and experience indeed prove that a people will bear without murmuring the most crushing burdens ; and it is only when the cords have been relaxed, and the load lightened, that the oppressed will feel the energy to turn upon the oppressor. It was the conscientious efforts at reform of the government of Louis XVI. which directly produced the French Revolution. It was the lessening pressure of Turkish rule, and the growing prosperity of the Greek population, that rendered the Hellenic revolt possible and inevitable.1 1 Cf. De Tocqueville, L^incien Regime et La Revolution, p. 2-59 : ' L'experience apprend que le moment le plus dangereux pour un mauvais gouvernement est d'ordinaire celui ou il commence a se The rule of the Ottoman is indeed harmful rather for what it leaves undone than for what it does ; it is intolerable rather for what it implies than for what it is.

The Christian subject of the Sultan, even before modern capitulations, was free to exercise his religion, to accumulate wealth, to educate himself as he pleased ; he could even rise to high office in Church or State, become Dragoman to the Porte, or governor of a province. The status of the peasantry under Ottoman rule was, in the eighteenth century, far more tolerable than in most parts of Europe. Serfdom, still almost universal throughout Christen dom, had disappeared ; and, in many parts of the Turkish dominions, the cultivators of the soil enjoyed a prosperity unknown to the peasantry of some nations accounted more civilised. It was the cap ricious and uncertain character of the Ottoman Government, rather than any conscious oppression, that provoked misery and discontent. The custom of farming the taxes and of taking these in kind, though in theory workable enough, became, in fact, too often an engine of ruinous exactions ; for, where the crops could not be cut until the tax-assessor reformer. ...

Le mal qu'on souffrait patiemment eomme inevitable semble insupportable des qu'on concoit l'idee de s'y soustraire . . . . le mal est devenu moindre, il est vrai, mais la sensibilite est plus vive.' STATUS OF THE CHRISTIAN RACES 9 had made his rounds, there were obviously endless openings for bribery and extortion. The evils of this system fell indeed on Christian and Moslem alike. Far more intolerable was that pride of religion and of race which gave to the Christian, in relation to his Mohammedan conqueror, the status of a slave, whom any good Mussulman might insult or outrage with impunity, and who, for the mere right to exist, was compelled to pay an annual poll-tax. All men will more readily forgive an injury than a slight ; and the ' most intolerable of all tyrannies is that which expresses itself, not in isolated acts of violence, but in a consistently applied system of contemptuous toleration.

In dealing with a conquered people, Machiavelli had said, one must either crush or conciliate. The Turks had done neither. They had made their rule as galling as possible to the pride of the subject race, while they had neither destroyed its organisation nor even, in some cases, deprived it of its weapons. Under the Byzantine Cæsars, certain of the wild hills men of the Thessalian border country had been enrolled in a sort of irregular militia, called Armatoli, for the defence of the passes and the protection of the roads. This system was continued and extended by the sultans ; and the Greek mountaineers were thus, by the deliberate policy of the Porte, accustomed for generations to the use of arms, and trained in all the arts of mountain warfare. From Armatole to brigand was but a short step ; and when, toward the end of the last century, the sultans began to diminish the numbers of the Christian militia, and to curtail the power of the captains, these became the enemies of the order they were no longer paid to defend ; and, from this time, the brigands, or Klephts, grew into social and political im portance as a permanent class.1 Where the govern ment shows no respect for justice, lawless men are often supported by the lower orders as a means for securing revenge, or for redressing intolerable social evils.

There was as yet no organised effort to throw off the Ottoman yoke; but the bolder and more reck less spirits among the peasantry, weary of a galling subservience, hurried to the mountains, and turned brigand. To be a Klepht was, in the popular view, a glory rather than a disgrace ; and for whole decades before the war of independence the Klephts were, in the eyes of their countrymen, the defenders of faith and fatherland against the Turk ; though, to tell the truth, they plundered Christian and Mussulman with a commendable impartiality. Owning ' no pasha save 1 Finlay, i. 27. Fyffe, Modern Europe, i. 246. THE KLEPHTS 11 the naked sword, no vizier save the gun,' they looked down upon the Ottomans and their ' slaves ' with equal contempt. A thousand tales were current of their reckless courage, their cruelty, or their generosity ; their deeds of valour against the Turk were sung in countless ballads, and the names of their celebrated leaders repeated from mouth to mouth in awe-struck tones.

And indeed, though of schooling they knew nothing beyond their wild war-chaunts, in courage and physical endurance they in no wise fell short of the heroes of antiquity. One thing alone they seared : to fall alive into the hands of the Turks ; and their accustomed toast was ' koAKov fioXvfit, ' — the welcome bullet which should save them from this fate. Yet, if it should befall them, it was easier to crush their body than their spirit. The following story is characteristic. The chief Katsantonis and his brother George had been betrayed into the hands of their mortal enemy Ali Pasha, and were by him condemned to have their limbs broken piecemeal with heavy hammers. Katsantonis was operated on first. Weakened by illness, he was unable to bear the agony, and, when the hammer fell upon his knee, uttered a sigh.