"February 21.
"I am a good deal better, though of course weakly; the leeches took
too much blood from my temples the day after, and there was some
difficulty in stopping it, but I have since been up daily, and out in
boats of on horseback. To-day I have taken a warm bath, and live as
temperately as can well be, without any liquid but water, and without
animal food.
"Besides the four Turks sent to Patras, I have obtained the release
of four-and-twenty women and children, and sent them at my own
expense to Prevesa, that the English Consul-General may consign them
to their relations. I did this by their own desire. Matters here are
a little embroiled with the Suliotes and foreigners, &c., but I still
hope better things, and will stand by the cause as long as my health
and circumstances will permit me to be supposed useful.[1]
[Footnote 1: In a letter to the same gentleman, dated January 27., he
had already said, "I hope that things here will go on well some time
or other. I will stick by the cause as long as a cause exists--first
or second."]
"I am obliged to support the Government here for the present."
The prisoners mentioned in this letter as having been released by him
and sent to Prevesa, had been held in captivity at Missolonghi since
the beginning of the Revolution. The following was the letter which
he forwarded with them to the English Consul at Prevesa.