Missolonghi

“ The command of the army that was to operate in west Hellas had been given to Reshid “Kutahia,” pasha of Iannina, an able general and a man of determined Reshid “Kutahia” besieges Missolonghi. character. On the 6th of April, after bribing the Albanian clansmen to neutrality, he passed the defile of Makrynoros, which the Greeks had left undefended, and on the 7th of May opened the second siege of Missolonghi. For twelve months the population held out, repulsing the attacks of the enemy, refusing every offer of honourable capitulation. ”

“ At this time Missolonghi was in a critical state, being blockaded both by land and sea; and the report of Trelawney to Lord Byron concerning it, was calculated to rouse his Lordship to activity. “There have been,” says he, “thirty battles fought and won by the late Marco Botzaris, and his gallant tribe of Suliotes, who are shut up in Missolonghi. If it fall, Athens will be in danger, and thousands of throats cut: a few thousand dollars would provide ships to relieve it; a portion of this sum is raised, and I would coin my heart to save this key of Greece.” ”

“ Missolonghi.
It was in 1823, when he was living in Genoa—whither he had gone from Pisa (and before this, Ravenna) —that his sympathies were awakened in behalf of the Greeks, who since 1820 had been in revolt against their Turkish taskmasters. He had been already enrolled with those Carbonari—the forerunners of the Mazzinis and the Garibaldis—who had labored in vain for the independence and unity of Italy; and in many a burst of his impassioned song he had showered welcoming praises [242] upon a Greece that should be free, and with equal passion attuned his verse to the lament—that ”

“ He received a summons from Prince Alexander Mavrocordato, a man of birth and education, urging him to come at once to Missolonghi, and enclosing a request from the legislative body "to co-operate with Mavrocordato in the organization of western Greece." Byron felt that he could act with a "clear conscience" in putting himself at the disposal of a man whom he regarded as the authorized leader and champion of the Greeks. He sailed from Argostoli on the 29th of December 1823, and after an adventurous voyage landed at Missolonghi on the 5th of January 1824. ”

“ Although Western Greece was for the moment tranquil, life in Missolonghi was not worth an hour’s purchase; and there was a serious split between the so-called Odysseans and the party of Mavrocordato, skilfully fostered by both Colonel Stanhope and Odysseus. Though Candia was subdued, the peasantry threatened a rising in the mountains ”

“ I embark for Missolonghi to join Mavrocordato in four-and-twenty hours. The state of parties (but it were a long story) has kept me here till now; but now that Mavrocordato (their Washington, or their Kosciusko) is employed again, I can act with a safe conscience. I carry money to pay the squadron, &c., and I have influence with the Suliotes, supposed sufficient to keep them in harmony with some of the dissentients;—for there are plenty of differences, but trifling. ”

“ He replied he considered him an honest man and a man of talent. He had shown his devotion to his country’s service by expending his private fortune in its cause, and was probably the most capable and trustworthy of all the Greek chieftains. Lord Byron said that he agreed with Mavrocordato, that Missolonghi and its dependencies were of the greatest importance to Greece ”

“ 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. ”

“ TRICOUPIS, SPYRIDION (1788-1873) , Greek author and statesman, son of the primate of Missolonghi, was born on the 20th of April 1788. After studying in Paris and London he became private secretary to the fifth earl of Guilford, who resided in the Ionian Islands. He was a friend of Lord Byron, and pronounced his funeral oration in the cathedral of Missolonghi (1824) . ”

“ Finlay, announcing to your lordship that if the whole squadron was to come round here, I am satisfied that Missolonghi, Patras, Lepanto, and the Castles might be taken. They are much straitened for provisions at all, but particularly at Missolonghi and Lepanto, and the Castles could be taken by force. Patras is now provisioned daily by one of Church's generals, Neneka, from Zante, viâ Clarenza. Dr. Gosse informs me how much you are in want of money. ”

“ He stays here only at risk to himself. Yet he will listen to no proposal of removal.”
“What does he say?” asked Gamba.
“That Missolonghi is the center of Western Greece, the focus-point of European observation. And he ends all discussion by the question: ‘If I abandoned this castle to the Turks, what would the partizans of Ulysses say?’”
Gamba was silent. Mavrocordato knit his bushy brows. He knew the answer only too well. And yet the safety of this single individual had come to mean everything. Without him Greece’s organization would be chaos, its armies, rabbles. ”

“ In 1814 he joined the Greek patriotic society known as the Hetairia Philike, and in 1820, with other Suliots, made common cause with Ali of Iannina against the Ottomans. On the outbreak of the Greek revolt, he distinguished himself by his courage, tenacity and skill as a partisan leader in the fighting in western Hellas, and was conspicuous in the defence of Missolonghi during the first siege (1822–1823) . ”

“ There had been also considerable pains taken by some of his friends at Argostoli to prevent his fixing upon a place of residence so unhealthy as Missolonghi; and Mr. Muir, a very able medical officer, on whose talents he had much dependence, endeavoured most earnestly to dissuade him from such an imprudent 107 step. His mind, however, was made up,—the proximity of that port, in some degree, tempting him,—and having hired, for himself and suite, a light, fast-sailing vessel, called the Mistico, with a boat for part of his baggage, and a larger vessel for the remainder, the horses, &c. ”

“ However away I went to Missolonghi, and anchored off the Town on the 23rd of Jany. observing ten sail of Turkish men of war to leeward, went on shore, and with much difficulty we poked our way through the narrow channels of this extraordinary place, there being a low flat of sand turning out from the land about seven miles; it seems to be the only defence the town has. Had an interview with Mavrocordato who received me of course, with civility, on Divan, supposing that I came to do him no good, having with me two or three officers and an arm'd boats crew. ”

“ Of the fourteen brigs of war which had come to the succour of Missolonghi, and which had for some time actually protected it against a Turkish fleet double its number, nine had already, hopeless of pay, returned to Hydra, while the sailors of the remaining five, from the same cause of complaint, had just quitted their ships, and were murmuring idly on shore. The inhabitants, seeing themselves thus deserted or preyed upon by their defenders, with a scarcity of provisions threatening them, and the Turkish fleet before their eyes, were no less ready to break forth into riot and revolt ”

“ On his way he succeeded in dissuading the Greek committees in Germany and Switzerland from withdrawing their help, and in Italy interviewed many persons acquainted with the condition of Greece. In November he met Byron in Cefalonia. On 12 Dec. he had a conference with Mavrocordato at Missolonghi, representing to him the fatal effects of disunion among the Greeks. At Missolonghi Stanhope set on foot a Greek newspaper, and, by means of the funds that he at once raised, prevented the Greek fleet from dispersing, formed an artillery corps, and purchased a house and grounds for a laboratory. ”

“ In the year 1826 Nicholas succeeded; and matters were at that period, by the fall of Missolonghi, and Ibrahim Pasha’s occupation of the Morea, brought to such a pass that the bloody five years’ struggle, with all its heroism, must have gone for nothing, had not the tide of popular sympathy begun to move so strongly in favour of intervention among the great European nations, that the governments were forced to take the matter up. ”

“ It is more like play-acting than fighting. Why, if you was to arm a couple of gals’ schools and put ’em to fire at each other they would do ever so much better than that. And to think them Greeks calls themselves Christians and don’t know how to aim a musket no better than that; they might just as well be heathen.”
While Missolonghi had been resisting successfully, the Turkish garrison of Nauplia had at last surrendered. After Dramali’s army had abandoned it the only hope that remained to them was that the fleet might return. ”

“ I should like to know where our life is safe, either here or anywhere else? With regard to a place of safety, at least such hermetically sealed safety as these persons appeared to desiderate, it is not to be found in Greece, [Pg 143] at any rate; but Missolonghi was supposed to be the place where they would be useful, and their risk was no greater than that of others.’
In a letter to Barff, some days later, Byron once more alludes to these artificers, whose absence began to be seriously felt at the arsenal ”

“ No persons, perhaps, after his domestics and personal friends, felt his loss more acutely than the poor citizens of Missolonghi. His residence among them procured them food, and insured their protection. But for him they would have been first plundered by the unpaid Suliotes, and then left a prey to the Turks. Not only were the Primates and Mavrocordato affected on the occasion, but the poorest citizen felt that he had lost a friend. Mavrocordato spoke of Lord Byron as the best friend of Greece, and said that his conduct was admirable. ”

“ They were quarrelling while the power that each one coveted for himself was, step by step, being wrested from them all; and when they tried to do well their want of discipline often rendered their efforts of small avail. No adequate attempt was made to relieve Missolonghi by land, and the brave conduct of Miaoulis on the sea was almost neutralized by the disorganization of his crews and the selfish policy of the islanders who sent him out. ”

“ As usual the Greeks resorted to their fire-ships, not being able openly to contend with superior forces, and drove the fleet back again to the Dardanelles. When the sea was clear, they were able to reinforce Missolonghi with three thousand men and a large supply of provisions; for it was foreseen that the siege would be renewed.
It was at this time, when the Greek cause was imperilled by the dissensions of the leading chieftains; when Greece indeed was threatened by civil war, in addition to its contest with the Turks; when the whole country was impoverished and devastated ”

“ Reshid Pasha, the ablest of the Turkish generals, having advanced into the neighbourhood of Missolonghi towards the end of April, began to besiege it in good earnest, at the head of an army of some seven or eight thousand picked followers, on the 7th of May. While he was forming his entrenchments and erecting his batteries, the townsmen, augmented by a number of fierce Suliots and others, were strengthening their defences. They increased their ramparts, and organised a garrison of four thousand soldiers and armed peasants, with a thousand citizens and boatmen as auxiliaries. ”

“ When about twenty years of age, being in possession of a handsome fortune, he proceeded to Greece for the purpose of engaging in the war of independence. In February 1824 he became acquainted with Lord Byron and Prince Mavrocordatos, both then at Missolonghi, who entrusted him with conciliatory messages for Odysseus and other refractory chiefs. At Byron's request, Finlay with two comrades set out in March in charge of powder and other military stores, forwarded from Missolonghi to Odysseus for his war in Negropont. ”

“ From the shores of the beautiful Etruria he set sail for Greece, in the month of August, 1823. He visited at first the seven Ionian Isles, where he sojourned some time, busied in concluding the first Greek loan. The death of Marco Botzaris redoubled the enthusiasm of Byron, and perhaps determined him to prefer the town of Missolonghi, which already showed for its glory the tombs of Normann, Kyriakoulis, and Botzaris. ”

“ He helped the struggling little country with contributions of money; and, in 1823, sailed from Geneva to take a personal share in the war of liberation. He died, however, of fever, at Missolonghi, on the 19th of April 1824, at the age of thirty-six. ”

“ He battled bravely with the cumulating difficulties—sometimes maddened to regret—other times lifted to enthusiasm by the cordial greeting of such a chieftain as Mavrocordatos, or the street [244] cheers of a band of Suliotes. So months passed, until he embarked again, in equipage of his own, with his own fittings, for Missolonghi, where final measures were to be taken. Meantime he is paying for his ships, paying for his Suliotes, paying for delays, and beset by rival chieftains for his interest, or his stimulating presence, or his more stimulating moneys. ”