LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO POROS.--HIS ATTEMPTS TO ORGANIZE AN
EFFICIENT GREEK NAVY.--THE WANT OF FUNDS AND THE APATHY OF THE
GREEKS.--HIS LETTER TO THE PSARIANS, AND HIS VISITS TO HYDRA AND
SPETZAS.--HIS CRUISE ROUND THE MOREA.--HIS FIRST ENGAGEMENT WITH THE
TURKS.--THE DISORGANIZATION OF HIS GREEK SAILORS.--HIS CAPTURE OF A
VESSEL BEARING THE BRITISH FLAG, LADEN WITH GREEK PRISONERS.--SEIZURE
OF PART OF RESHID PASHA'S HAREM.--IBRAHIM PASHA'S NARROW ESCAPE.--LORD
COCHRANE'S FURTHER DIFFICULTIES.--HIS EXPEDITION TO ALEXANDRIA.--ITS
FAILURE THROUGH THE COWARDICE OF HIS SEAMEN.--HIS TWO LETTERS TO THE
PASHA OF EGYPT.--HIS RETURN TO POROS.--FURTHER EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE
NAVY.--HIS VISIT TO SYRA.--THE TROUBLES OF THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.--LORD
COCHRANE'S VISIT TO NAVARINO.--HIS DEFEAT OF A TURKISH SQUADRON.
[1827.]
Before arriving in Greece, Lord Cochrane bad been informed by Captain
Abney Hastings and other experienced Philhellenes of the inefficiency
of the navy, and a very short stay at Poros served to convince him of
the truth of the information. On the 17th of April he obtained from
the National Assembly a decree authorizing the organization of a
better national fleet, and, before proceeding to join in the efforts
for the relief of the Acropolis, he did all that was possible towards
the achievement of this object, making such arrangements as would
prevent any hindrance thereto arising from his temporary absence on
the most pressing work that devolved upon him. Having sent Captain
Hastings with all the available ships on the expedition to the
Negropont which has already been described, he established at Poros
the centre of the administration of the fleet, entrusting its
direction to Dr. Gosse, as Commissary-General. He then visited Hydra,
Spetzas, and other islands, and left in each directions for the
inspection of all the ships there stationed, in order that, according
to the national decrees, the best of them might be bought up by the
Government, on equitable terms, and converted into vessels of war at
Poros. During his stay near the PirÊus he was in almost daily
correspondence with Dr. Grosse and Emanuel Tombazes respecting the
purchase of stores, the construction of gunboats, and every other
essential to the fulfilment of his purpose. He sent Jakomaki Tombazes,
the elder of the two brothers, to look out near Candia for a new
corvette which had just been built at Leghorn for the Pasha of Egypt.
All other means in his power were adopted by him for augmenting the
naval strength of Greece, and fitting it to oppose the force of her
enemies so soon as he was able to devote himself exclusively to that
work.
This he did promptly and zealously immediately after the failure of
the expedition in favour of the garrison of the Acropolis. "Brave
officers and soldiers and seamen of the military and naval services,"
he wrote in a proclamation issued on the 7th of May, "a defeat of the
enemy's naval force will tenfold repay the check which was sustained
in yesterday's attempt to relieve the Acropolis. Let every man
maintain his post as duty to his country demands, and in a few days I
trust you will find your affairs not only retrieved but secured on a
permanent base."
That trust was not fulfilled. The Greeks proved themselves on sea as
well as on land unable to fight worthily, and with enough real
patriotism, for the liberty of their country. But honour must not on
that account be withheld from the man who used all his large
experience and larger philanthropy in trying to put them in the way of
victory.
Lord Cochrane returned to Poros on the 10th of May, after an absence
of just three weeks. He lost no time in rendering to the Government,
then located in that island, a personal account of his recent
proceedings, and in doing his utmost to persuade the Greeks to aid him
in the new exploits on which he hoped to enter with better prospect of
success. An address to the Psarians, dated the 11th of May, will serve
as a specimen of many documents of the same nature. "It was my
intention yesterday," he said, "to have paid my respects to you, in
order personally to have made known to you the circumstances in which
the naval service is placed and the state and preparations of the
enemy, and to have called on you to show an example to the other
islanders, on whose exertions now depend the liberties and fate of
their country. The abandonment of the schooner, in which I have
hitherto been embarked by all her seamen, prevented me from fulfilling
my intention, and the certain intelligence received this morning that
the Turkish fleet from Constantinople passed Syra the day before
yesterday, to join the Egyptian fleet, compels me now to recommend you
by writing, instead of by word of mouth, to save your country and
yourselves by prompt and energetic exertions. The money I brought here
with me, being the proceeds of subscriptions made throughout Europe
for your cause, has unfortunately been nearly consumed in fruitless
endeavours to save the capital of Greece by means of an irregular and
unmanageable body of men, who will neither receive instruction nor
listen to advice. I hope that the brave seamen who understand their
duty will listen to my recommendation through you that they should at
once step forward to save their families from oppression and slavery,
and the name of their country from being struck out of the list of
independent nations. By one glorious effort Greece may be free; but if
she remain in her present state of apathy all hope must be abandoned.
I call upon you now to stand forward in defence of your religion and
all that is valuable to man. I send you a thousand dollars, which is
all that I can spare. Those who will equip their ships may depend on
repayment out of the first money that shall be remitted to me for the
public service of Greece."
As that letter implies, Lord Cochrane had to begin his reconstruction
of the Greek navy--now the only remaining resource of the nation in
its hope of working out and assuring its independence by effort of its
own--almost without funds. The small sum of 8000l. which he had
brought with him, as well as the money collected by the European
committees and transmitted to the Philhellenic Committee in Greece,
composed of Colonel Heydeck, Dr. Bailli, and Dr. Gosse, was nearly
exhausted, and the bankrupt Government was unable to provide him with
any adequate resources for carrying on his work. It had authorized him
to buy ships and stores and to employ labourers and seamen, and
expected him to do all without stint, but gave him no money for the
purpose. In lieu it authorized him to borrow upon the security of all
the future revenue to be derived from the islands; and every effort to
utilize this mortgage was made by his agent Dr. Gosse, but with very
poor success. The credit of the Greek Government was so low that the
prospects of any considerable revenue in the depressed state of
commerce--likely to be yet more depressed by the steady advances made
by the Turks in regaining their dominion over the insurgents--deterred
capitalists from staking their money thereupon. Lord Cochrane, as we
shall see, had to apply half his energies in performing the work of a
financier, never anticipated by him, and certainly not proper to his
functions as First Admiral; and, the result of all being feeble, his
legitimate duties were grievously crippled.
Money being absolutely needed, however, he did his best to procure it,
and with this view, as well as in order to make personal acquaintance
with the principal ports, and the ships and sailors contained in them,
he left Poros, three days after returning to it, on a tour among the
other important islands.
Starting on Sunday, the 13th of May, he reached Hydra on the following
morning. There, in the house of the brothers Konduriottes, its richest
and most influential inhabitants, he met several other leading
primates, and prevailed on them to take upon themselves the outfit of
several brigs and brulottes, the cost of which he had at present no
means of paying. Having, on the 15th, passed on to Spetzas, Lord
Cochrane had a similar interview with its chief residents. "I have
been highly gratified," he wrote on the 16th to the elder
Konduriottes, "by the spirit here manifested in following the noble
example which you have set, and I have no doubt but a sufficient force
will be immediately equipped to cut off all the resources by which the
army of Reshid Pasha is maintained, and so destroy that army even more
effectually than by the sword. The utmost promptitude, however, is
necessary. One day's delay may permit several weeks' provisions and
stores to enter the Negropont."
Promptitude was not easy, in spite of the favourable promises of the
primates. "Strange as it may appear to you," said Lord Cochrane, in a
letter to his friend, M. Eynard, "it is yet a fact that, out of the
thousands of seamen idle and starving at Hydra, Spetzas, and Egina,
not a man will enter the service of his country without being paid in
advance; nor will they engage to prolong their service beyond a month,
so that the labour of disciplining a crew is interminable. Were there
funds to increase the pay for each month, the sailors would remain,
and there might be some hope of getting a ship in order. At the
present moment there are no individuals in Greece who are instructed
in their duties as officers in ships of war." "I see no termination to
the obstacles," he wrote to Dr. Gosse on the 17th, "which present
themselves at every step I advance. Neither the Hydriots nor the
Psarians, nor the Spetziots, nor the Poriots, will embark in this
frigate, which is thus useless to Greece, if not prejudicial, because
her maintenance is an expense without benefit. I wish I could do a
thousand things which I am compelled to neglect, by reason of the
difficulties and want of assistance of all kinds. You, my good friend,
are my only aid."
At Spetzas, and in its neighbourhood, Lord Cochrane remained four
days, directing the arrangements to be made in organizing a fleet
strong enough to go against the enemy's shipping, and, while waiting
for that, in appointing two minor expeditions upon services that were
urgent. On the 18th of May, he sent Admiral Saktoures with ten brigs
and four fireships to cruise about the Negropont and capture as much
as he could of the stores sent through that channel from
Constantinople for the use of the Turkish army in Attica. On the
following day he went himself in the _Hellas_, attended by the
_Karteria_, under Captain Abney Hastings, in the direction of Cape
Clarenza, the north-westernmost point of the Morea, opposite to
Zante.[8]
[8] "The admiral," says Gordon, "weighed with the _Hellas_ and
_Karteria_ alone, leaving the rest of his squadron to draw pay and
rations at Porto Kheli" (vol. ii., p. 415). The fact was that all the
rest of his squadron that was fit for service was sent to the
Negropont; and Lord Cochrane left directions that the other vessels,
as soon as there were men to be rationed and funds for paying them,
should follow him to Clarenza. But they only came to run away.
Castle Tornese, there situated, was being besieged by the Turks, and
Lord Cochrane hoped to be in time to avert its capture. In this he
failed. Arriving on the 22nd of May, he found that the castle had
capitulated a few hours before. All he could do was to chase two
Turkish frigates which he found on the coast. "We fired into them," he
said, "but our guns were ill-directed, and the noise and confusion on
board this ship was excessive, which prevented my choosing to attack
them again, though they did us not the slightest injury, because I am
desirous that the _Hellas_ shall be in somewhat better order before I
voluntarily attack an enemy who may take advantage of the
impossibility of causing my orders to be obeyed, and so leave the fate
of the ship to the conduct of a rabble."
One capture, however, the _Hellas_ was able to make on the following
day. She fell in with a vessel, manned by Turks and Ionian Islanders,
bearing the British flag, loaded with captives, chiefly women and
children, just taken in the Castle Tornese. Lord Cochrane seized her,
and sent her, with a reasonably indignant letter, to the Lord High
Commissioner at Corfu. "If I do not attempt to express my feelings in
addressing you," he said, "it is because I am aware that the terms I
should employ would fall far short of the sensations that will arise
in the breast of every honourable man throughout the civilized world,
and the degradation which every Englishman will experience, on
learning that the flag of England, first prostituted by supplying the
traffickers in Christian slaves with all the necessaries for their
horrid purposes, is now further debased by a traffic in the slaves
themselves. I send you an Ionian vessel, full of women violated in
their persons, and who, with their children, had been reduced to
slavery, in order that the British public and the world may ascertain
whether these unfortunate people will be protected by the decision of
an Ionian tribunal. If there were any hope that the people in the
Ionian Islands would abandon their infamous dealings otherwise than by
force, I should ask your excellency to issue an order upon the
subject. I beg, however, to signify that I am ready to co-operate with
the admiral and officers of the British naval service in the
Mediterranean in enforcing obedience to the laws of justice and
humanity, and putting down the Ionian trade in slaves, as well as the
piracies which have originated chiefly in the total contempt shown by
the Ionian people and others for the laws of nations and the
principles of justice during the contest between Greeks and Turks. I
also put at your disposal the Turks found on board the Ionian boat,
not considering them as prisoners of war, but as men apprehended in
violating the laws of civilized nations and insulting the feelings of
Christendom." "Since writing the above," it was added in a postscript,
"I have experienced considerable difficulty in restraining the fury of
the Greeks from bursting forth upon the violators of their
countrywomen. From what I foresee, I also feel it my duty to warn you
that, should the transportation of Christian captives by neutrals be
continued, I cannot answer for the safety of Ionians found so employed
by the other vessels of the Greek squadron."
A formal acknowledgment of that letter was all the answer received by
Lord Cochrane.
On the 24th of May, when near Missolonghi, he made another capture--a
Turkish brig, with eight guns, bearing Austrian colours, which was
proceeding from Previsa to Navarino. In her, besides a good store of
flour and gunpowder, were found some Turkish officials and several
members of Reshid Pasha's harem. The alarm of these prisoners was very
great at first; but they were treated with courtesy, and landed, with
all their personal properties, at the first convenient halting-place,
the brig and its cargo being retained as prizes. Reshid Pasha, in
return for the generous treatment shown to his attendants, afterwards
released a hundred Greek prisoners without ransom.
Another curious incident occurred at this time. Several small Turkish
merchant-vessels passed Lord Cochrane's ship during his stay near
Missolonghi, but he abstained from capturing them, deeming it unworthy
to interfere with such small crafts, devoted, as it was supposed, only
to trading purposes. He was afterwards informed that in one of them
Ibrahim Pasha himself had been concealed. Had the Egyptian leader been
thus made prisoner, the future course of the war might have been
altogether changed.
Lord Cochrane had gone into the Gulf of Patras in hope of meeting with
Captain Hastings, from whom he had parted soon after leaving Spetzas;
but the _Karteria_ had been disabled by a squall, which took away both
her masts, and so had to return to Poros; and with the ill-manned
_Hellas_ alone Lord Cochrane did not deem it prudent, as he had
wished, to attack Navarino, whither the besiegers of the Castle
Tornese had gone, and where twelve Egyptian frigates, twenty
corvettes, and forty or fifty smaller vessels were for some time
lying. Several of these came out to take on board the Ottoman troops
who had done their work at Cape Clarenza, and Lord Cochrane, on the
1st of June, remained for several hours within sight of them, ready
and hoping to be attacked. No fight being offered, however, he did not
choose to run the risk of going single-handed into their midst. He
accordingly contented himself with surveying the coast, and forming
his own judgment as to the relative value of its ports and harbours,
as he sailed back in the direction of Poros.
To Poros itself Lord Cochrane did not venture to proceed. "I have
written for all the Greek vessels that are ready, including the
fireships and explosion-vessels, to join me," he said in a letter to
Dr. Gosse, written on the 7th of June, off Cerigo; "I remain at sea
with this frigate, lest the whole of her crew should desert, according
to custom, were I to pay a visit to Poros." The want of zeal which he
thus perceived in his seamen was shared by nearly all their
countrymen. All wished him to serve them, but very few made any
patriotic effort to aid him in the service. His most active supporter
was Captain Abney Hastings; and Captain Abney Hastings complained yet
more loudly than did his superior of the indolence and bad conduct of
the Greeks. "I had the honour to receive your order of the 7th,
enjoining me to repair to your lordship without delay, if ready for
sea," he wrote on the 9th, from Spetzas; "a variety of circumstances,
unavoidable in a country deprived of even the shadow of organization,
has prevented me from being yet ready to sail. The majority and best
of my crew have left me, and I must look for others."
Hastings and all his other officers wrote over and over again to Lord
Cochrane, asking for stores of all sorts, and for money with which to
pay the wages of their crews. But Lord Cochrane was still almost
without funds. Only from Konduriottes, and the other island primates,
could he procure scanty supplies with which to carry on his work--or
rather, to prevent that work from being altogether abandoned. "I have
the honour," he wrote to the Government, "to represent to your
excellencies that I find it impossible to realise the credit which you
assigned to me on the revenues of the islands, and that insurmountable
obstacles prevent my acting as affairs require. The _Hellas_ even is
idle for want of supplies. Each day, each event, increases my
conviction that, without strong and special efforts, without a prompt
and disinterested co-operation of all its citizens, Greece must of
necessity be overcome. Isolated as I am, I am useless to them.
Supported by their patriotism and zeal, I could fight for their
independence. The islands of the Archipelago are willing to aid our
efforts, but they claim from me in return a guarantee for the safety
of their goods and for the regular administration of their imposts. I
await your excellencies' instructions for promptly answering their
demand; for the resources of the western nations are drained; European
charity is wearied. The islands alone offer us the means of
maintaining the naval forces, and of resisting, if it be possible--if
it be not too late--the vigorous preparations of our enemy. We must
act promptly or abandon everything." The Government only answered by
urging its chief admiral to lose no time in securing the independence
of Greece.
This, in spite of the difficulties thrown in his way, he set himself
heartily to attempt. Two courses were now open to him. Reshid Pasha,
having taken possession of the Acropolis, and thus completed the
capture of Athens, had laid siege to Corinth; and Sir Richard Church,
with a weak and vacillating body which went by the name of an
army--the remnants of that which had proved so useless in the
neighbourhood of the PirÊus--was vainly trying to raise the siege. By
him and by the Government Lord Cochrane was urged to muster as large a
fleet as possible in the Bay of Corinth, and to co-operate with the
land forces by blockading the besiegers, after the method that had
failed at Athens. Experience convinced him that such action would be
useless; whereas from modification of the plan which he had in the
former instance been induced to abandon he hoped much. He knew that a
large Egyptian force was being prepared at Alexandria, to be employed
first in aiding the siege of Corinth, and afterwards in completing the
conquest of all Greece. If only he could train the Greeks to act under
his bold leadership, as he had trained the Chilians and Brazilians, he
trusted that, by one daring movement, he could seize Alexandria as he
had seized Valdivia and Maranham. And to this project he zealously
addressed himself, deeming it sufficient to send a small force to
blockade the gulfs of Patras and Corinth, and leaving Dr. Gosse as his
agent in command of naval affairs at home, with special orders to
visit the various islands, and, in accordance with authority received
from the Government, to collect the revenues of each, in order that
the necessary expenses of the fleet might be met.
He collected all the vessels he could muster in the neighbourhood of
Cape Saint Angelo. His force consisted, besides the _Hellas_, of one
corvette, the _Sauveur_, which he had brought from Marseilles,
commanded by Captain Thomas, of fourteen Greek brigs and of eight
brulÙts or fireships. With these he started for Alexandria on the 11th
of June, the _Hellas_ having often to slacken speed in order that the
slower Greek vessels might be kept in attendance. Candia was passed on
the 13th, and Alexandria was sighted at five o'clock in the morning of
the 15th. Lord Cochrane stood out to sea so that he might not be
discovered, and spent the day in putting his fleet in order, preparing
an explosion-vessel, and arranging for the work of the morrow. "Brave
officers and seamen," he said, in an address to his followers, "one
decisive blow, and Greece is free. The port of Alexandria, the centre
of all the evil that has befallen you, now contains within its narrow
bounds numerous ships of war and a multitude of vessels laden with
provisions, stores, and troops, intended to effect your total ruin.
The wind is fair for us, and our enterprise unsuspected. Brave
brulotteers, resolve by one moment of active exertion to annihilate
the power of the satrap. Then shall the siege of Athens be raised in
Egypt; then shall the armies of Ibrahim and Reshid be deprived of
subsistence, and their garrisons perish of hunger, whilst the brave
inhabitants of continental Greece and the islanders, freed from
impending danger, will fly to arms, and, by one simultaneous movement,
throw off the barbarian yoke. Date the return of happy days and the
liberty and security of Greece from your present exhibition of valour.
The emancipation of Egypt and the downfall of the satrap are also
inevitable consequences; for the war is concentrated in one point of
action and of time."
That spirited address was ineffectual, and Lord Cochrane's bold plan
for seizing Alexandria was prevented by the cowardice and
disorganization of the Greeks whom he was labouring to serve. They
could hardly be persuaded on the 16th to follow the _Hellas_ and the
_Sauveur_, all bearing Austrian colours, as far as the entrance to
Alexandria, and when twenty large Egyptian vessels were found to be
there lying at harbour, they lost heart altogether. Lord Cochrane knew
from past experience that, with proper support from his subordinates,
he could easily capture or disperse the enemy's shipping. He had made
arrangements for attacking them with the fireships and his
explosion-vessel. But nearly all the crews refused to serve. Kanaris
alone among the Greeks was brave. Having command of the fireships, he
induced the sailors of two of them to bear down upon the enemy, and at
about eight o'clock in the evening one man-of-war was burnt. So great
was the effect of this small success that the other ships of the enemy
prepared to escape, and great numbers of the inhabitants of Alexandria
hurried out of the town and sought a hiding in the adjoining villages.
Seeing the Egyptian ships making ready for flight, however, the Greeks
supposed that they were coming out to attack them, and themselves
immediately turned sail, heedless alike of their own honour and of
Lord Cochrane's assurances that a splendid victory was easy to them.
All the night was vainly spent by the _Hellas_ and the _Sauveur_ in
futile efforts to collect them, and on the morning of the 18th they
were found to be dispersed far out at sea over an area of more than
twenty miles.
In despite of his feeble allies, Lord Cochrane would have gone boldly
into port and attacked the enemy. But his own Greek sailors were as
timid as their comrades; and after a whole day spent in reconnoitring
the enemy, whose force of twenty-five sail dared not offer battle, but
had gained courage enough to abstain from actual flight, he was
compelled, on the 19th, also to put out to sea and to spend two other
days in signalling the brigs and fireships to join him. Not till the
afternoon of the 20th, by which time he had pursued his allies to a
distance eighty miles from Alexandria, was he able to bring them into
any sort of order, and then the bitter conviction was forced upon him
that further prosecution of his plan, for the present at any rate, was
useless.
The scanty store of provisions that had been sent with the fleet,
moreover, was nearly exhausted, and thus a new difficulty arose. Lord
Cochrane sent the most useless of his vessels back to Poros for a
fresh supply, and with an earnest entreaty that some efficient
reinforcements might also be forwarded to him, announcing his
intention of waiting in the neighbourhood in hopes of achieving some
better success. "Your excellencies may rest assured," he said in his
letter to the Government, "that our visit to Alexandria will have a
powerful effect in paralysing the equipment of an expedition, and I
have every reason to conclude that the example made before their eyes
of the brig-of-war will deter any of the numerous neutral vessels from
engaging as transports in the expedition equipping by the Pasha. The
sensation created must indeed have been powerful as two neutral
vessels of war made the signal for pilots before we weighed anchor on
the morning of the 17th, under the impression, no doubt, that a more
effectual attack would shortly be attempted. I am going to make a
short tour, with a view, as far as I am enabled with the inadequate
means at my disposal, to distract and paralyse the enemy."
In accordance with that purpose, being already near Cyprus, Lord
Cochrane conducted his fleet a little further north, and anchored, on
the 23rd of June, off Phineka, in Asia Minor, where, after a brief
fight with the Turks, he effected a landing, and received some
much-needed food and water. Thence he addressed letters, urging the
prompt despatch of the necessary stores and vessels, to the
Government, to the primates of Hydra, and to Dr. Gosse.
From this halting-place, also, he sent a noteworthy letter to Mahomet
Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, a supplement to one which he had addressed to
him nearly a year before, when he was on his way to enter the service
of the Greeks.
"Your employing foreigners in your military and naval service," he had
said in the former letter, which will be best quoted in this place,
"the privilege which you claim and exercise of building and equipping
ships-of-war in neutral states, and of purchasing steam-vessels and
hiring transports under neutral flags, for hostile purposes, and to
transport to slavery a people whom the Ottoman arms have never yet
been able wholly to subdue, warrant a belief, whatever your sentiments
may be, that the civilized, educated, and liberal portion of mankind
will be gratified that succours similar to those which you,
unfortunately, have hitherto obtained from these states are now about
to be afforded to the brave, the oppressed, and suffering Greeks. Nor
will the advantage derived be wholly theirs; for, until you shall
cease or be forced to abandon your inhuman traffic in Christian slaves
and the commission of cruelties which stain the character of man, your
subjects must inevitably continue barbarians,--a state from which it
would be a source of great gratification to contribute to release
them. It is true that the Christian world has not of late contended in
arms with those of your faith on points of religion. It has, however,
not fallen into a state of apathy so great as to see unheeded the
perpetration of those enormities which you are daily committing on
Christians,--a sentiment with which no feeling of animosity towards
you or towards your people is combined. On the contrary, it desires to
render you every good service consistent with that duty paramount to
all others, namely, to wipe out the stain from the civilized world of
unfeelingly and inhumanly co-operating to exterminate, enslave, and
transport to bondage a whole Christian people--and such a people--the
descendants of those Greeks whose genius laid the chief foundation of
literature, the sciences, and the arts; who reared those noble
monuments and edifices which time and the more destructive barbarian
hand have yet failed to destroy, and which, compared with the wretched
hovels of your hordes, may better point out to you the elevation they
attained, and the prostrate state in which your people are--owing,
alas! to the baneful effects of bigotry and despotic sway. Surely,
surely there is ample field for the exercise of your energies at home,
in encouraging industry, the arts and sciences, in promoting the
civilization of your people, and in enacting equitable laws for the
security of persons and property--on which bases the national
prosperity of all countries must rest. But should your ambition, not
content with bestowing blessings like these on your native land, lead
you to soar almost above mortal acts, distant oceans would unite, and
the extremities of the globe approach at your command.[9] Thus might
your name be rendered immortal, and Egypt become again the emporium of
commerce, and one of the richest and happiest nations upon earth. How
infinitely great the glory from such acts! How despicable the fame of
a tyrant conqueror, the ruler of slaves! It would be pleasing to
support you as the author of great and good works, but it is shameful
to permit your present proceedings, and dastardly to leave the
unfeeling apostate sons of neutral and Christian nations unopposed,
aiding to perpetuate barbarism for horrid gain, drawn from the price
of Christians torn from their homes and sold as slaves in foreign
lands. Against these atrocious men, my companions and myself, casting
the gauntlet down, will contend, in the hope that they and you may
perceive your true interests and your great error, and pursue a
different course before it shall be too late. Quit the classic sacred
soil of Greece, let the flayings, and burnings, and impalings of that
people cease, and oh! shocking to humanity, the ripping up of pregnant
women, and the hewing up of their infant babes, and other acts yet
worse than these--too horrid to relate. Release the Christian slaves;
pursue an honourable and enlightened path, and we become friends to
aid you in your pursuits--but should the present course be continued,
let the bands of cruel assassins in your employ count on our
opposition; count, too, on our neutralizing the effects of every
vessel procured or bought from Christian states. 'Hear the voice of
the Lord, ye rulers,' in the prophecy now to be fulfilled. 'Woe to
them that go down to Egypt for help and stay.' 'When the Lord shall
stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is
holpen shall fall down, and they shall all fall together.' Instead of
filling brim full the cup of bitterness, of which you yourself must
ultimately drink, how admirably might you not employ your people, and
your treasure--the waste whereof is rearing to you a barbarian
successor to prolong the bondage of Egypt. The Christian prayer of
those called to rescue their suffering brethren is that, conforming
yourself to the dictates of reason and humanity, you may live long to
benefit mankind; and as you are more enlightened than your
predecessors, so may you become more humane and just."
[9] It is singular that at this early date Lord Cochrane should thus
have advised and prognosticated the construction of the Suez Canal.
The second letter was more brief. "The discrimination of your
Highness," Lord Cochrane now wrote, "enables you to judge between
those who offer advice to promote personal objects and those who
disinterestedly desire the welfare of mankind. Egypt may become great
by the attention of her rulers to her internal concerns, but not by
war and foreign conquest, and assuredly not by the conquest of that
people with whom your Highness is now engaged in hostilities, not only
on account of the impossibility of reducing them to subjection but
because the whole of Europe is directly or indirectly engaged in their
support. I beg your Highness to be assured that, if I present myself
to your consideration in a more conspicuous point of view than others,
it is only because the habits of my life have enabled me to be openly
instrumental in the protection of a Christian people whom you attack,
and not because I feel animosity against your Highness, nor because I
desire the overthrow of the lawful power of your Highness. Should your
Highness, however, listen to interested counsellors, or to those who
hope to gain by adulation, and continue the present unjust and
sanguinary contest, I take leave once more to warn you that the first
visit I have had the honour of paying you shall not be the last, and
that it is not in the power of your Highness to prevent the
destruction of your ships destined for the invasion of Greece, nor to
defeat my intention to block up the port of Alexandria. I had the
honour to address your Highness twelve months ago; but have thought
proper to repeat once more the honest advice I then expressed, in
order that your Highness may acquit me when, in the hour of adversity,
you have to regret that you have not listened to the voice of truth."
Lord Cochrane's threats could not be enforced. Off the coast of Asia
Minor and among the southern islands of the Archipelago he waited for
more than a week. But no adequate reinforcements or supplies of
provisions arrived. The disorganised fleet became more and more
unmanageable. One vessel after another deserted, and those that
remained in nominal attendance on the flag-ship could not be brought
under control. Lord Cochrane, who had made skilful sailors and brave
warriors of enervated Chilians and Brazilians, found the Greeks
utterly unmanageable. Up to the 2nd of July he tried vainly to bring
them into order, and only succeeded in pursuing them from island to
island until, on that day, they had drawn him back to the
neighbourhood of Hydra. There they all dispersed, and with a heavy
heart he anchored at Poros on the 4th. The _Hellas_ was immediately
deserted by her crew. Another month had been wasted and another bold
project for the assistance of Greece had been spoiled by the want of
patriotism which, exhibited first and most flagrantly by the leaders,
was now rapidly pervading all classes of the Greeks.
An amusing instance of the worthlessness of the Greek sailors, whom,
from first to last, he tried to make useful, may here be given. On one
occasion, following his invariable habit of taking every possible
occasion of trying to win the confidence and friendship of those under
him, he was exhibiting a magic lantern to the crew of the _Hellas_. At
many of the dissolving views they manifested a childish delight, but
at length one unfortunate picture was brought before them. It depicted
a Greek running from the pursuit of a Turk, and then melted into a
view of the Turk cutting off his captive's head. At that sight every
Greek on board took fright. Some ran into the hold of the ship, others
jumped overboard, and many hours had to be spent in bringing them
together again and dispelling their frivolous and superstitious fears.
Lord Cochrane, however, though disheartened, still sought, with
unabated zeal, to render to Greece such help as became his name and
character. But he saw that this could not be done without a thorough
reform in naval affairs; and this, often urged by him before, he lost
no time in urging again. "The crew of the _Hellas_," he wrote to the
effete Government on the very day of his return, "having, according to
their usual practice, abandoned the vessel on her arrival in port, it
is essential that others should be enlisted to serve in the frigate
without delay. It is further essential that the individuals so
enlisted shall engage to serve during a period of not less than six
months, and that they shall be young men who will conform to the rules
and regulations by which the ships-of-war of other states are
governed. It is quite impossible to conduct a large ship-of-war amidst
the noise and confusion which I have witnessed during the two months
that have elapsed since my flag was hoisted on board this ship, and
equally impossible to induce monthly crews to conform to habits of
order and regularity. Under these circumstances, I enclose you a
proclamation, stating the pay and advantages which will accrue to such
individuals. I should prefer that the enlistment should take place
under such respectable young men as propose to obtain rank in the
national marine, and who can be in some degree responsible for the
good conduct of the individuals who accompany them, each individual
qualified for, and aspiring to, the rank of lieutenant being
accompanied by sixty young seamen, the second lieutenants to be each
accompanied by thirty. For this ship five of the first class and eight
of the second are required." The proclamation which Lord Cochrane
submitted to the Government detailed his plan for ensuring, or at any
rate making possible, honest and hearty service in seafaring.
"I wish I could inform your excellencies," he said in another letter
written two days later, "that the obstacles, however great, which
presented themselves in the course of the naval service were all I had
to contend with. The jealousies among the islanders, even the most
enlightened, embarrassed me exceedingly; and these, I regret to say,
cannot be alleviated by having recourse to your advice or authority,
at the distance at which you are placed, without a correspondence so
voluminous that I should occupy too much of your attention. I must,
therefore, act according to my own responsibility; and in so doing I
am aware that some may be displeased, and probably no one will be
satisfied."
Nearly all the month of July, indeed, was spent by Lord Cochrane in
zealous efforts to render the Greek navy more efficient. For this two
things were needed--that the officers and crews should be honest and
intelligent, and that there should be money enough in hand for paying
their wages, for fitting out proper vessels, and for supplying the
requisite stores and provisions. For the first object proclamations
were issued, letters were written, and agents were sent into various
parts of Greece and her islands. For the second, Lord Cochrane went
personally to the assistance of Dr. Gosse, who, as Commissary-General
of the Fleet, had been attempting to collect the revenues of the
islands which, by order of the Government, had been assigned to naval
uses. He succeeded to some extent in this, and also in quickening the
latent patriotism of the people whom he visited.
His most important visit was to Syra, where, as will be seen from the
letter which he addressed to the Government on the 13th of July, he
was obliged to resort to strong measures for securing the good end he
had in view. "I have the honour to inform your excellencies," he
wrote, "that, a new crew having been procured for the _Hellas_ with
less delay than I anticipated, by reason of the pay having been
increased one-third in amount, I proceeded to Syra, taking with me
several of the principal inhabitants of the three maritime islands,
who expressed to me, by letter, their anxiety to have an opportunity
of promoting a loan on the credit of the revenues of the islands,
which your excellencies had authorised me, jointly with others, to
collect. I have now the pleasure to inform you that when I left Syra
yesterday everything seemed to promise a favourable result; but in
order to attain this important object it became necessary that I
should take upon myself the responsibility of intimating to the
prefect of police, who had assumed despotic authority, that it was
essential to the public good that the magistrates should resume the
functions that they exercised previous to his arrival. I am convinced
that your excellencies will perceive as clearly as I do, that it will
be impossible to preserve harmony amongst the islanders, if strangers
are sent to exercise over the natives an authority that is not
acceptable to them. Indeed, the character of these natives demands at
all times prudence and circumspection on the part of the Government."
Unfortunately, the miserable triumvirate to which the direction of
Greek affairs had been assigned until the arrival of Count
Capodistrias was wholly wanting in prudence and circumspection. After
vainly trying to maintain a show of authority, and to use it to their
own aggrandisement at Damala and at Poros, they had, on the 4th of
July, removed to Nauplia. There, however, they only found themselves
more embarrassed than ever. While the last hopes of Greek
independence, to be secured and maintained by Greeks themselves, were
rapidly dying out, the leaders were amusing themselves and gratifying
their petty jealousies and ambitions by conduct more despicable than
ever. Nauplia was the seat of civil war between two military factions,
whose joint contempt of the worthless Government would have been, at
any rate, excusable, had not the interests of the whole nation been
thereby injured. The triumvirate was driven from the town, and taking
refuge in a little island in the Bay of Nauplia, wrote in despair to
Lord Cochrane, asking him to come to its aid and devise some means of
preserving, or rather of constructing, its authority.
To Nauplia he accordingly went on the 19th of July. "I am now at the
anchorage of this place," he wrote thence to Dr. Gosse on the 22nd.
"The town is evacuated by the inhabitants and abandoned by the
Government. The latter are in the little island in the bay in the most
deplorable condition, trembling like Sancho when invaded in his
dominions of Barataria, and not knowing which way to turn, whether to
avoid or meet the enemy. No words can depict the state of things. I
have had correspondence with the Government and all the chiefs, but
have waited on none, because I am determined to keep myself clear of
faction, and go straightforward in what I consider to be my duty." "We
are now weighing anchor," he added, in a postscript written in the
evening of the same day, "and the Austrian commodore is coming into
the bay--an evil omen. He is watching, like a vulture, the agonies of
the expiring authorities of Greece."
"As you have done me the honour," said Lord Cochrane, in a letter to
the Government, "to request my opinion regarding the manner of
settling the disputes between the contending chiefs who hold the
higher and lower fortresses of Nauplia, it becomes a sacred duty to
give that opinion without the slightest reserve, because the
consequences of any half measure will be entirely destructive of the
influence of your excellencies throughout Greece, and eventually may
frustrate the endeavours of the European powers to promote a
settlement with the Porte. Your excellencies, then, must at once
remove from the situation in which you are now placed, or, more
properly speaking, to which you have fled, and where you are still
under the cannon of the disputing chiefs, or both these chiefs must be
caused to abandon the fortresses they hold. To suffer one to remain
and to expel the other would be voluntarily to surrender your
authority, and through Greece and throughout the world you would be
considered in no other light than as instruments for giving the
semblance of legality to the dictates of a military chief."
Lord Cochrane did not wait to see the end of this dispute between the
mock Government and its nominal subjects. He left Nauplia on the 22nd
of July to complete the arrangements he had made for another attempt
in defence of Greece. He had already sent Admiral Saktoures and a
small force to maintain a show of blockading Alexandria, in order that
thereby neutral vessels, at any rate, might be deterred from giving
aid to the Turkish cause. He had sent vessels to blockade the Gulf of
Patras in the same way. He had also issued a vigorous proclamation to
the inhabitants of Western Greece, urging them to rise against their
oppressors, and he was eager to go thither himself and encourage the
work, for which he hoped that his fleet and his naval arrangements
were now better fitted. One important auxiliary to this work he hoped
to have in a corps of marines, to the number of a thousand, which
Colonel Gordon Urquhart was now trying, under his directions, to
organise. "I have several things in view which even this small force
could accomplish," he wrote to Dr. Gosse, "and amongst the rest will
be the rooting out of the pirates from the islands."
More important, however, than the restraint of piracy, was the
resistance, if possible, of the Turkish forces. Several of the
Egyptian ships which Lord Cochrane had hoped to destroy in the harbour
of Alexandria had now come out and joined the Ottoman fleet, which had
Navarino for its head-quarters. He determined, without loss of time,
to go and see what injury could be done to them; and accordingly,
after a brief visit to Poros, where he took on board some stores and
provisions, and where he left Dr. Gosse to use the scanty supply of
money which he had collected in completing the equipment of the other
vessels, he started in the _Hellas_, on the 28th of July, for the
western side of the Morea.
On the 29th, when near Cape St. Angelo, he fell in with the _Sauveur_,
returning from a cruise in the Gulf of Patras, and the two vessels
proceeded with all haste to Navarino. They reached that port, and had
sight of the Turkish fleet on the evening of the 30th. With French
colours flying, Lord Cochrane reconnoitred its position, and then
watched for an opportunity of attacking some part of it.
The opportunity occurred on the 1st of August. A corvette, carrying
twenty-eight fine guns, and a crew of three hundred and forty, with
two brigs and two schooners, had passed out on the previous day,
apparently with the intention of conveying reinforcements to the Gulf
of Patras. Lord Cochrane immediately gave them chase, and drove them
backwards and forwards between Zante and the shore north of Navarino
all through the night and till nearly noon on the 1st. Then suddenly
tacking, he closed upon the corvette, and there was hard fighting--the
first in which he had been able to persuade his Greeks to
join--between the two vessels, for fifty minutes. At about one
o'clock, after fifty of their number had been killed and thirty
wounded, the Turks surrendered.[10] Lord Cochrane found on board
twenty Greek women and several children, who had been subjected to the
vilest treatment. In the meanwhile, Captain Thomas, of the _Sauveur_,
had engaged with one of the brigs, carrying twelve guns, and captured
her with a loss of fifteen killed and wounded to the Turks, but none
to the Greeks. The other vessels escaped, but an Ionian vessel, laden
with provisions for the Ottoman army at Patras, was seized in the
afternoon, and her cargo put to good use.
[10] "The admiral," says Gordon (vol. ii., pp. 421, 422), "was less
gratified at his victory than mortified that so inferior a vessel
should have fought the _Hellas_ for three-quarters of an hour, and
disgusted at the backwardness of his crew. In his first cruise he
carried with him four hundred men recruited in the Cyclades; but as
they ran below in his engagement with the two Egyptian corvettes, he
discharged them and took Hydriots alone. These last, though better
mariners, and really more courageous, were disconcerted by his system
of reserving fire till within pistol-shot--so different from their own
plan of cannonading at a mile's distance. 'The boys,' said Cochrane,
'behaved pretty well; but the oldest, and ugliest, and fiercest-looking
bravoes of Hydra ran to the other side of the deck, roaring like
market-bulls.' His lordship took summary satisfaction by knocking them
down with his fists, right and left."
Lord Cochrane waited off Navarino for two days, hoping that some of
the enemy's fleet would come out to attack him. They, however, locked
themselves carefully in the harbour until he had set sail for the
south, when they feebly attempted to pursue him. He thereupon, after
releasing the Turkish prisoners at Candia, returned to Poros, there to
leave his prizes and endeavour to take back a larger force with which
worthily to supplement his recent successes.