According to Gamba's journal, on the day following the seizure to which we
have referred, Byron followed up his former efforts to inculcate the
principles and practice of humanity into both the nations engaged in the
war. There were twenty-four Turks, including women and children, who had
suffered all the rigours of captivity at Missolonghi since the beginning
of the revolution. Byron caused them to be released, and sent at his own
cost to Prevesa. The following letter, which he addressed to the English
Consul at that port, deserves a place in this record:
'SIR,
'Coming to Greece, one of my principal objects was to alleviate as
much as possible the miseries incident to a warfare so cruel as the
present. When the dictates of humanity are in question, I know no
difference between Turks and Greeks. It is enough that those who want
assistance are men, in order to claim the pity and protection of the
meanest pretender to humane feelings. I have found here twenty-four
Turks, including women and children, who have long pined in distress,
far from the means of support and the consolations of their home. The
Government has consigned them to me: I transmit them to Prevesa,
whither they desire to be sent. I hope you will not object to take
care that they may be restored to a place of safety, and that the
Governor of your town may accept of my present. The best recompense I
can hope for would be to find that I had inspired the Ottoman
commanders with the same sentiments towards those unhappy Greeks who
may hereafter fall into their hands.
'I beg you to believe me, etc.,
'NOEL BYRON.'
The details of this incident have hitherto passed almost unnoticed. The
whole story is full of pathos, and affords a view of Byron's real
character.
In June, 1821, when Missolonghi and Anatolico proclaimed themselves parts
of independent Greece, all Turkish residents were arrested. The males were
cruelly put to death, and their wives and families were handed over to the
Greek householders as slaves. The miseries these defenceless people
endured while Death stared them daily in the face are indescribable.
Millingen says:
'One day, as I entered the dispensary, I found the wife of one of the
Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi who had fled to Patras. The poor
woman came to implore my pity, and begged me to allow her to take
shelter under my roof from the brutality and cruelty of the Greeks.
They had murdered all her relations, and two of her boys; and the
marks remained on the angle of the wall against which, a few weeks
previously, they had dashed the brains of the youngest, only five
years of age. A little girl, nine years old, remained to be the only
companion of her misery. Like a timid lamb, she stood by her mother,
naked and shivering, drawing closer and closer to her side. Her little
hands were folded like a suppliant's, and her large, beautiful
eyes--so accustomed to see acts of horror and cruelty--looked at me
now and then, hardly daring to implore pity. "Take us," said the
mother; "we will serve you and be your slaves; or you will be
responsible before God for whatever may happen to us."
'I could not see so eloquent a picture of distress unmoved, and from
that day I treated them as relatives. Some weeks after, I happened to
mention before Lord Byron some circumstances relative to these
individuals, and spoke with so much admiration of the noble fortitude
displayed by the mother in the midst of her calamities; of the courage
with which maternal love inspired her on several occasions; of the
dignified manner in which she replied to the insults of her
persecutors, that he expressed a wish to see the mother and child. On
doing so, he became so struck by Hatajè's beauty, the naïveté of her
answers, and the spiritedness of her observations on the murderers of
her brethren, that he decided on adopting her. "Banish fear for ever
from your mind," said he to the mother; "your child shall henceforth
be mine. I have a daughter in England. To her I will send the child.
They are both of the same age; and as she is alone, she will, no
doubt, like a companion who may, at times, talk to her of her father.
Do not shudder at the idea of changing your religion, for I insist on
your professing none other but the Musulman."
'She seized his hand, kissed it with energy, and raising her eyes to
heaven, eyes now filled with tears, she repeated the familiar words:
"Allah is great!" Byron ordered costly dresses to be made for them,
and sent to Hatajè a necklace of sequins. He desired me to send them
twice a week to his house. He would then take the little child on his
knees, and caress her with all the fondness of a father.
'From the moment I received the mother and child into my house, the
other unfortunate Turkish women, who had miraculously escaped the
general slaughter, seeing how different were the feelings and
treatment of the English towards their nation and sex from those of
the Greeks, began to feel more hopeful of their lot in life. They
daily called at my lodgings, and by means of my servant, a Suliote who
spoke Turkish fluently, narrated their misfortunes, and the numberless
horrors of which they had been spectators. One woman said: "Our fears
are not yet over; we are kept as victims for future sacrifices, hourly
expecting our doom. An unpleasant piece of news, a drunken party, a
fit of ill-humour or of caprice, may decide our fate. We are then
hunted down the streets like wild beasts, till some one of us, or of
our children, is immolated to their insatiable cruelty. Our only hope
centres in you. One word of yours to Lord Byron can save many lives.
Can you refuse to speak for us. Let Lord Byron send us to any part of
Turkey. We are women and children; can the Greeks fear us?"
'I hastened to give Lord Byron a faithful picture of the position of
these wretched people. Knowing and relieving the distressed were, with
him, simultaneous actions. A few days later notice was given to every
Turkish woman to prepare for departure. All, a few excepted, embarked
and were conveyed at Byron's expense to Prevesa. They amounted to
twenty-two. A few days previously four Turkish prisoners had been sent
by him to Patras. Repeated examples of humanity like these were for
the Greeks more useful and appropriate lessons than the finest
compositions which all the printing-presses could have spread amongst
them.'
Hatajè! and what became of little Hatajè? On February 23 Byron wrote to
his sister:
'I have been obtaining the release of about nine-and-twenty Turkish
prisoners--men, women, and children--and have sent them home to their
friends; but one, a pretty little girl of nine years of age named Hato
or Hatagèe, has expressed a strong wish to remain with me, or under my
care, and I have nearly determined to adopt her. If I thought that
Lady B. would let her come to England as a companion to Ada (they are
about the same age), and we could easily provide for her; if not, I
can send her to Italy for education. She is very lively and quick, and
with great black Oriental eyes and Asiatic features. All her brothers
were killed in the Revolution; her mother wishes to return to her
husband, but says that she would rather entrust the child to me, in
the present state of the country. Her extreme youth and sex have
hitherto saved her life, but there is no saying what might occur in
the course of the war (and of _such_ a war), and I shall probably
commit her to the charge of some English lady in the islands for the
present. The child herself has the same wish, and seems to have a
decided character for her age. You can mention this matter if you
think it worth while. I merely wish her to be respectably educated and
treated, and, if my years and all things be considered, I presume it
would be difficult to conceive me to have any other views.'
Meanwhile, Byron, wishing to remove the child from Missolonghi, seems to
have proposed to Dr. Kennedy at Cephalonia that Mrs. Kennedy should take
temporary charge of her. Writing to Kennedy on March 4, 1824, Byron says:
'Your future convert Hato, or Hatagèe, appears to me lively,
intelligent, and promising; she possesses an interesting countenance.
With regard to her disposition I can say little, but Millingen speaks
well of both mother and daughter, and he is to be relied on. As far as
I know, I have only seen the child a few times with her mother, and
what I have seen is favourable, or I should not take so much interest
in her behalf. If she turns out well, my idea would be to send her to
my daughter in England (if not to respectable persons in Italy), and
so to provide for her as to enable her to live with reputation either
singly or in marriage, if she arrive at maturity. I will make proper
arrangements about her expenses through Messrs. Barff and Hancock, and
the rest I leave to your discretion, and to Mrs. K.'s, with a great
sense of obligation for your kindness in undertaking her temporary
superintendence.'
This arrangement fell through, and was never carried out. The child
remained at Missolonghi with her mother until Byron's death. Then, by the
irony of fate, they departed in the _Florida_--the vessel that bore the
dead body of their protector to the inhospitable lazaretto at Zante. With
wonderful prophetic instinct, Byron, long before his voyage to Greece,
gave to the world the vision of another Hatajè, rescued from death on the
field of battle:
'The Moslem orphan went with her protector,
For she was homeless, houseless, helpless; all
Her friends, like the sad family of Hector,
Had perished in the field or by the wall:
Her very place of birth was but a spectre
Of what it had been: there the Muezzin's call
To prayer was heard no more--and Juan wept,
And made a vow to shield her, which he kept.'
Blaquière, who was at Zante when the _Florida_ was placed in quarantine,
says:
'The child, whom I have frequently seen in the lazaretto, is extremely
interesting, and about eight years of age. She came over with Byron's
body, under her mother's care. They had not been here many days,
before an application came from Usouff Pacha, to give them up. It
being customary, whenever claims of this kind are made, to consult the
parties themselves, both the mother and her child were questioned as
to their wishes on the subject. The latter, with tears in her eyes,
said that, had his lordship lived, she would always have considered
him as a father; but as he was no more, she preferred going back to
her own country. The mother having expressed the same wish, they were
sent to Patras.'
According to Millingen, when Hatajè and her mother arrived at Patras, the
child's father received them in a transport of joy. 'I thought you
slaves,' said the father in embracing them, 'and, lo! you return to me
decked like brides.'
And that is all that we know--all, we suppose, that _can_ be known--of
little Hatajè! She may still be alive, the last survivor of those who had
spoken to Byron! If, in her ninety-third year, she still recalls the
events of 1824, she will hold up the torch with modest pride, while the
present writer commemorates one, out of many, of the noble actions
performed by the poet Byron.
'This special honour was conferred, because
He had behaved with courage and humanity--
Which _last_ men like, when they have time to pause
From their ferocities produced by vanity.
His little captive gained him some applause
For saving her amidst the wild insanity
Of carnage--and I think he was more glad in her
Safety, than his new order of St. Vladimir.'
_Don Juan_, Canto VIII., CXL.