Unable to provoke a direct collision with the committee, the Pasha
had recourse to another expedient: he called in the entire Mussulman
population of the island to the walled cities. Totally unprepared for
this unnecessary step, the unfortunate Mohammedans broke up their
establishments of all kinds, and repaired to the fortresses in a state
of the greatest irritation at the sacrifice they had made and the
privations they had had to endure.
One complained that he had left his harvest uncut, and another had left
his after it had been garnered; one told how he had been obliged, at a
ruinous sacrifice, to dissolve partnership with a Christian neighbor
with whom he had been engaged in silk-growing, the chief industry of
the island, the Christian having no money to pay him for his share; and
another had thrown all his silk-worms to the fowls. The consuls, on
becoming aware of this movement, protested to the Pasha against a step
so likely to produce collisions between the two religions; on which the
Pasha sent counter-orders to his co-religionists to remain at home. The
bearers of these orders met the Mussulmans on the roads, and succeeded
in halting several bodies of them, while others, without provisions
or protection from the weather, insisted on entering the cities. This
confusion and vacillation increased the suffering and irritation of the
people, and finally brought about the effect desired by the Pasha--a
feeling of hostility against the Christians. A large body of these
refugees encamped before the gates of Canéa, and menaced the Pasha with
insurrection if they were not permitted to enter. The Pasha yielded,
threw open the gates, and again sent secret messengers to invite the
fugitives _en route_ to come into the city.
Candia, Canéa, and Retimo were speedily filled to overflowing by an
exasperated mob of fanatics, whose menaces against the Christian
population were neither measured nor secret. The Christians remembered
past insurrections, and most of them had been witnesses of the
scenes of 1858, when the armed Mussulmans had dragged the body of a
Christian they had killed through the streets of Canéa, and before the
consulates, firing their pistols at the doors of the most obnoxious,
and were only prevented from wholesale massacre by European men-of-war
in the port. The entry of the Mohammedans was the signal for a panic
with the Christians, and a frantic exodus commenced. The Lloyd steamers
were overcrowded every trip; several Greek steamers came over, and
caïques, and sailing-boats even, were freighted full, and sailed for
Milos, Cerigotto, and other islands. In Candia, unrestrained by the
presence of European representatives, the Mussulmans entered the
houses of the Christians by force, and obliged the latter to make room
for them; the same took place in Retimo; while in Selinos the whole
Christian population took to the mountains. Meanwhile, the Pasha had
informed his government that insurrection was imminent, and demanded
reinforcements of troops. These, beginning to arrive, exhilarated the
Mussulman population, who now began to prepare for hostilities, and
their priests began openly to preach a crusade against Christianity. A
Dervish, who arrived with a battalion in which he served as chaplain,
landed with a green banner, spread his carpet on the marina in front
of the custom-house, and, after his prayer, began to preach the holy
war and the extermination of Christianity, declaring that "the cross
must no longer stand, but be put in the dust." The rabble of porters
and boatmen, mainly Arabs, Syrians, and other foreign Mussulmans, and
intensely fanatical, were roused to the highest enthusiasm, and shouted
"Amin! amin!" to his exhortations, when he continued his itineracy
of the city. Information of the fact being brought to me, I took a
witness of the Dervish's conduct, and remonstrated at once with the
general-in-chief, Osman Pasha, who ordered the Dervish on board a
frigate and sent him to Candia, where was no European to report his
proceedings.
The emigration of Christians to Greece continued until about 12,000
souls left the island, and at all points of contact mutual irritation
of Christian and Mohammedan increased. The hostility of the Mussulmans
to the consuls who opposed the Pasha became especially virulent, and we
were openly and continually threatened with being the first victims of
the new crusade.
By this time it became evident to all in the island that the Pasha was
laboring to provoke a collision, and that M. Derché was doing his best
to assist him, but neither side seemed inclined to take the first step
in open hostilities--the committee because they did not desire them,
and the Pasha because he desired to avoid the responsibility of them.
The first blood shed was of Christian by Christian, and furnishes so
good an illustration of Cretan manners that it seems worth detailing.
During the exchange of words which had taken place between the Pasha
and the Assembly, a messenger of the former, a Cretan Christian,
was insulted by one of the committee's people, spit on, and bitterly
reproached for his unpatriotic subserviency. His son shortly after
assassinated the insulter. Both were Sphakiotes, a race with whom
blood-vengeance is a religious obligation. It was supposed that the
assassination was instigated by the Pasha as the means of bringing
on hostilities; and, when the relatives of the murdered man went to
execute justice on the murderer, they found the house fortified, and
after a short skirmish, during which a child of the murderer was killed
by a ball fired through the door, the attacking party retired to wait a
more convenient opportunity, and the Pasha sent a battalion of troops
to the locality to protect the murderer's house, making no pretence
whatever of bringing him to judgment. The move very nearly succeeded in
bringing on hostilities, a captain of one of the adjoining villages,
with his men, going at once to drive out the intruding Turks. The
committee sent a body of picked men to disarm the villagers, in which
they succeeded by stratagem, and so averted a collision.
Amongst the troops which arrived were 8,000 Egyptians, and with
them the general-in-chief of the Egyptian army, Schahin Pasha, an
accomplished diplomat and administrator of the Eastern type, munificent
in gifts and promises, and magnificent in ceremonies and negotiations.
He came in pursuance of a grand plan, concocted at Constantinople
between the Marquis de Moustier, the Turkish and Egyptian governments,
which was to coax or hire the Cretan chiefs into appealing to the
Viceroy for protection, when, on the application of the plébiscite, the
island was to be transferred to Egypt, on the payment by the Viceroy to
the Sultan of a certain consideration, said to be £400,000 down, and
£80,000 per annum tribute. De Moustier was to have received £100,000
as payment for his services in managing the affair, and in due course
of time, it was whispered, the Bay of Suda, having been duly fortified
by the Egyptians and made a naval station, was to have been transferred
_tale quale_ to France. Schahin, on arriving, placed himself in
relations with the French consul, and under his advice concocted the
plan of operations. It was a fatal mistake, and led to the ruin of the
whole intrigue. Derché could comprehend but two kinds of men--those who
are bought and those who buy them. He himself was of the former class;
Schahin was a prince in the latter. Derché's opinion of the Cretans was
that any could be bought or frightened into their project, and Schahin,
accepting Derché's estimate, bid munificently for the votes of the
Cretan chiefs, made presents to the churches, startling professions of
liberality towards the Christians, and comported himself in the most
approved style of Eastern potentates towards the consuls and all other
influential personages.
Having prepared, as he supposed, a favorable reputation with the
Cretan committee-men, he set out for the Apokorona, the rocky region
which contains the passes to Sphakia, where the committee had moved
its headquarters. There he commenced direct operations by distributing
large sums of money amongst the influential Cretans, who, nothing
loath, accepted the money, making no promises. At this juncture,
the Governor-General, getting wind of Schahin's plans, insisted on
attending him during his interviews with the committee, and joined him
in the Apokorona. He had a plan of his own, with which that of Schahin
militated, and for which he had been for several years preparing.
This was, having prepared and precipitated the insurrection, and
crushed it, as he confidently anticipated doing between bribery and
force, to draw up a petition for signature by the Cretans, praying
that the island might be made a principality, with Ismael as prince.
He therefore did all in his power to prevent an understanding between
Schahin and the committee. Many days passed thus in intrigues and
counter-intrigues, until Ismael was struck down by a dangerous fever,
and was brought back to Canéa scarcely alive, leaving the field open
to Schahin, who thereupon made a rendezvous with the committee, but,
with Egyptian faith, arranged a battalion of troops so as to catch them
as they came to keep it. The wily mountaineers detected the trap, and
broke off all communications, so that Schahin was obliged to return to
Canéa, having gained nothing, and cursing the Cretans as a hard-headed,
impracticable set of villains. He left, however, 4,000 troops at
Vrysis, an important strategical point in the Apokorona, menacing
the approaches to Sphakia and the headquarters of the committee, and
holding the most direct communication between the eastern and western
parts of the island.
Having learned the worthlessness of M. Derché as a means of influencing
the Cretans, he had begun to enquire amongst the islanders whose
influence would best be employed to serve his purposes, and was
referred to the Russian consul and myself; I presume primarily to
myself, from the fact that all the new proposals and negotiations were
directed at me, and, after many idle compliments and some magnificent
entertainments, his Excellency condescended to open his plans with
apparent frankness to me, and proposed to me in so many words to pay me
any sum I should name if I could bring to bear the influence necessary
to secure the success of the Egyptian scheme. I took his propositions
into consideration, and immediately communicated them to our minister
at Constantinople, by whom they were, I believe, laid before Lord
Lyons, who, I presume, quashed the matter, as it never was heard of
more in the island.
Meanwhile, the agitation in the island, and the hostility between the
Mussulman and Christian population, were rapidly increasing. One of the
principal Cretan Mohammedans, notorious for his activity and cruelty
in the war of 1821-30, and who served the troops at Vrysis as guide
and interpreter, was killed under the following circumstances: Having
entered a café in one of the Christian villages near Vrysis, he was
boastingly narrating his former feats, amongst which was the murder of
a white Christian family of eleven persons, whom he found at supper
in their own house unarmed, and, after having been welcomed by them,
he closed the doors, and killed the whole on the spot. He continued
boasting of what he would do in the coming war in the same vein, and on
leaving the café was waylaid by a relative of the murdered family, and
shot dead.
This was the first Mussulman blood, and the body was carried with great
pomp to Canéa, and lay in state outside the gates, the remonstrances of
the consuls preventing it from being carried through the city according
to the intention of the relatives. The family of the new victim being
large and influential, it gathered in numbers outside the gate,
blocking it up temporarily, while the women of the connection went _en
masse_ to the palace of the Pasha to demand vengeance on the murderers.
The Mussulman population became intensely exasperated, and proposed
retaliating on the Christians in general, beginning with the consuls.
The whole consular body united in pressure on the Pasha to induce
him to repress the agitation, and succeeded so far that no immediate
outbreak occurred. The body was buried without worse demonstrations
than insults and menaces to all Christians, whoever and wherever, and
the crowd dispersed by order of the Pasha.
But though no actual violence occurred, the state of excitement was
intense, and it became evident that, in spite of all the influence of
the consular body, the least untoward incident might precipitate a
general massacre of the Christians in the cities. The exodus by sea
continued, and the houses of the Russian, Italian, and Swedish consuls,
and my own, at Khalepa, were besieged by terror-stricken crowds of
Christians without the means of emigrating to Greece, and bringing
their household goods to be stored under the protection of the flags.
In the Italian consulate alone were over 150, and several cabins
clustered round my door were filled with women and children, while
hundreds more, abandoning everything, took to the mountains.
The Mussulmans were anxious for the fighting to begin. The Governor
had distributed rifles and ammunition _ad libitum_ to his Cretan
co-religionaries. The Russian and Italian consuls and myself urged at
Constantinople concessions and the removal of the Governor, and all
except the English and French begged for the despatch of a man-of-war
for the protection of European residents. M. Derché and Mr. Dickson,
considering that the presence of any European flag would be an
encouragement to the insurrection, refused to unite in this request.
Several times the gates of the city had been closed to prevent a sortie
of the Mussulmans in the city to attack the consulates. We doubled the
number of our cavasses, got revolvers and rifles in order, prepared
mattresses for barricading the houses, and organized a strong patrol
from the Cretans who had taken refuge in the consulates, to watch the
roads by which the Turks would come from Canéa.
At this juncture news arrived of the appointment of the former
Governor-General of the island, Mustapha Kiritli Pasha, to supersede
Ismael. The Imperial Commissioner, for this was the title by which he
was to be known, had great personal influence over the Cretans of both
religions, and, if he had come immediately on his appointment, would
probably have succeeded in averting the insurrection. I find in my
correspondence of this date, August 28, 1866: "As to the insurrection
itself, it waits to draw first blood. The Greeks to the number of
thirty to thirty-five thousand [an enormously exaggerated estimate,
I afterward found] are concentrated in the mountains, and determined
to fight it out to the bitter end. The delays of diplomacy to right
a wrong that was too patent even for your [English] consul to blind
himself to, have permitted a trouble to grow that might have been
rooted up with reasonable concessions on the part of the government,
and now nothing but death and desolation will bring back Crete to
Turkish rule. They will now insist on independence where they only
demanded common justice. We shall doubtless have another sanguinary,
desperate struggle, and a depopulated island, unless Europe intervenes
to right the wrong it did in 1830."
The troops in the Apokorona were face to face with the Cretans
armed to protect the committee, and that step forward would make a
collision certain. The irregulars, proud of their new rifles, were
firing in every direction all over the country. One heard rifle-balls
whistling past, falling on the roofs and everywhere continually. Still
no European ships. By every post we pleaded with our ministers at
Constantinople for protection. The anxiety and excitement became almost
unendurable. The whole community seemed to be in a state of tension and
apprehension that approached madness. I found myself going continually
and unconsciously to my balcony, telescope in hand, although ten
minutes before I failed to discover an object in the range of vision.
I grew, like the genius of the Arabian tale in his vase of lead, ready
to curse the tardy deliverer that he tarried so long. The sight of a
steamer on the horizon produced a loathing, as one after another we
had watched them approach only to see the accursed crescent increase
on our vision. One night a party of Mussulmans, passing through the
suburb in which we resided, in frolic fired several pistol-shots,
yelling "Death to the Christians!" In a few minutes, all that remained
of Christianity in the quarter outside the gates of the consulates
were rushing in a state of uncontrollable panic to beg admission. My
cavasses were obdurate and indifferent, being Mussulmans, and refused
to open, and, while I lay listening for indications of further and
serious disturbance, my wife had descended, thrown the doors open,
admitting the crowd of women and children, who passed the rest of the
night seated on the floor of the consulate. None of us left our walls
needlessly, and then only with an armed guard. My children for weeks
did not pass the threshold, and, when business called either of us,
whom the Cretans called the friendly consuls, to the palace of the
Governor-General, we were greeted passing through the streets with
unmistakable scowls and menaces. The sentinel at the city-gate as I
passed one day, instead of presenting arms, as etiquette requires
to a consular officer, saluted me as an infidel dog, accompanying
the epithet with a menace and grimace comprehensible even to one who
understood not a word of Turkish. I begged my wife at last to take
the children and go to Syra, where they would be in security, but she
resolutely refused, believing that her departure would be the signal
for the last panic among the Christian women, who depended on our
protection. Only they who know the extent and bitterness of Mussulman
fanaticism can estimate the danger or anxiety of those few weeks.