Greece, and entered Caritena, where he put a garrison of two hundred Mahometans to the sword. The Greeks of Calavrita followed this example, and the Turks who escaped their fury fled to the castle of Rhium, on the Peloponnesian side of the gulf of Corinth. Great agitation now begun to prevail in Patrass, where the news of these proceedings was industriously circulated. The Turks mounted cannon on the castle walls, the Albanian patrole was doubled, the European consuls sent off their families to the islands, the shops were all shut up, and the women and children fled from the town in all directions. A demand now made by the Vaivode, that the Greeks should deliver up their arms, was the signal for rebellion; about fifty Turks were instantly massacred, when the rest escaped into the fortress, where they were besieged by the Greeks, who had received a reinforcement of about twelve hundred men, and had procured a few guns from an Hydriot vessel in the harbour. They did not, however, continue long in possession of the city. Jussuff Pacha, being despatched from Joannina with a considerable body of troops, drove out the undisciplined Greeks, with great slaughter, and committed the most horrible excesses upon those who were unable to escape. About a week after this affray, Athens was attacked; but the Mahometans retired into the Acropolis, taking with them about fifty of the principal Greeks, whose heads they daily cut off and rolled down the walls of the citadel, which was bombarded by the Greeks, with a few iron guns, taken from an Hydriot vessel, and planted on the hill of the Museum. In this siege, some of the monuments of ancient art suffered considerable damage. The Erechtheum, which is the powder magazine of a Turkish garrison, was in imminent danger, but luckily escaped; that beautiful little choragic monument called the Lantern of Demosthenes, was particularly exposed to the fire of a Turkish mortar, and greatly mutilated. The English and

other travellers were conveyed away to places of safety by an English brig of war, whilst the native families of this interesting place assembled at the Piræus to embark, as they could, and fly for refuge to the neighbouring islands. In about three weeks, the city of Minerva was again in pos session of its infidel lords, assisted by a body of troops from Negropont, who took a terrible revenge for this temporary exclusion.

In the mean time, the insurrection spread like wild-fire among the southern provinces. Many cities, towns, and villages, were utterly abandoned by the Mussulmen, and the standard of the Cross again floated over the waning Crescent. The Turks of the Morea, to the number of about twenty-five thousand men, capable of bearing arms, shut themselves up, with their families, in the fortresses and walled towns, whilst the country was overrun by independent bands, under captains who had wealth and influence enough to collect associates. They were in general badly armed, in great want of provisions, and information; they had no maps or charts, or military chest, and were extremely averse from discipline. All wished to command, and the captains were particularly jealous of each other; one of the bravest of them, named Carraggià, was shot through the back in a wine-house at Patrass by a rival, who was envious of his fame. All shewed an aversion from the mixture of foreigners in their corps, for fear of their introducing modes of Euro pean discipline; they refused for a long time to take any oath of fidelity; they preserved no secrecy in their operations or their councils, which were held in the open air, where the despatches were read in the presence of all. The Greek primates, too, who ought to have exerted themselves in promoting the general good, too often sacrificed it to their private interests; and, being employed as commissaries of the troops, bribed the captains to connive at their irregu-›

larities. The best soldiers were the Mainotes, a savage people, who have in some degree preserved their freedom ever since the days of the ancient Lacedæmonians, whose territory they occupy. These, like their Spartan predecessors, always fight in a separate body: they were engaged at the pay of about fifty piastres per man, which subsequently fell to thirty. The Bey of this people, and his brother, have highly distinguished themselves in the present contest. His son also, named Illia, a fine youth, aged twenty years, fell in a manner worthy of the best times of Greece. Being out with his uncle on an expedition into Rumelia, and engaged in a skirmish with the Turks, he was cut off from the main body with seven of his followers, and closely pursued by the enemy, who loudly exhorted each other to take him alive. Illia, upon this, turning round as if about to render himself up to his pursuers, gave his friends an opportunity of escaping: then, firing his pistols into the midst of his foes, and declaring that he would never live to grace the triumph of a Pacha, he plunged his sword into his own heart, and fell dead before their feet.

The manners of these savage mountaineers resemble, in many instances, those of the most ancient Greeks; among them may be mentioned a sovereign contempt of their antagonists, expressed in those sarcastic indecorous terms and actions before a combat, which distinguish the Homeric chiefs. They have an aversion from the use of artillery, depending for their success upon the musket, and upon the sabre in close action.

Such was the nature of the Greek troops in the early part of the insurrection, before they became ameliorated by better discipline, and animated by better feelings. It cannot, therefore, be a matter of much surprise, that they made slow progress against an enemy, superior in all the materiel of war; accustomed to command; brave, both from moral

and religious feelings; and resolute in defending to the utmost extremity those fortresses and citadels into which they had retired, and which, unattacked by artillery, (wherein the Greeks are particularly deficient,) may be deemed almost impregnable.

The force, however, which has proved of greatest service to the cause of the Greeks, and to which, in all probability, they will owe the acquisition of liberty, arises from their naval armaments. From the little rocky isles of Hydra, Spezzia, Poros, and Ipsara, those thunderbolts of war have proceeded, which have almost annihilated the Ottoman navy, and formed the most powerful bulwarks of the champions of the Cross. During the glorious annals of Grecian history, these rocks were unnoticed, and almost unknown; it was only after the total subjugation of the country by the infidels, that they received inhabitants. Settlers then crossed over from the adjoining continent, to escape the horrors of persecution, and finding there convenient harbours, and coasts inaccessible to large vessels, they soon began to form a small marine, and gradually to acquire wealth by commercial speculations. Their protected situation, the barrenness of their soil, and their insignificant numbers, preserved them, during the infancy of their state, from those annual and disastrous visits which the other isles of the Archipelago received from the Capudan Pacha and the Turkish fleet; and when their increasing prosperity and strength began to attract the notice of the Divan, they had acquired sufficient means to ward off the enemy, by paying a small annual tribute, and supplying the Ottoman navy with a corps of seamen. Thus these brave and ardent islanders, eclipsing all their neighbours in nautical skill, as well as commercial enterprise, proceeded rapidly in their prosperous career, until they almost monopolized the carrying trade of the Levant; and, profiting by the English occu

pation of Malta, by the French invasion of Spain, and by that possession which each foreign power took of the Ionian islands, acquired a very large capital, as well as an extensive navy, which has rivalled even the ancient glory of Salamis and Mycale.

At the commencement of the present insurrection, the Hydriot merchants possessed one hundred and twenty vessels, built from the splendid pine forests of Olympia, the average burden of which was four hundred tons, the number of guns eighteen, and of hands fifty. The Spezziotes had sixty, similar to the above in burden and in complement; whilst the Ipsariots had an equal number, but of a larger construction.

The returns of commerce in these isles became so considerable, that the refinements of opulence soon made considerable progress. The houses are built in a mixed style of Greek and Italian architecture, and in many cases furnished with the finest articles of European manufacture, Both the apparel and the food of the inhabitants are much better than falls to the lot of their continental brethren: an efficient police is established in their towns; and the public govern. ment, intrusted to the Gerontes, or Elders, is distinguished by a high degree of energy and integrity. Public banks are also founded in their cities, and the great capitalists, who have themselves been engaged in commercial enterprise, lend out their money to adventurers, at the rate of ten, fifteen, or even twenty per cent. upon the proceeds of the voyage. The naval captains, who are at the same time principal ship-owners, are responsible in these transactions; but every member of the crew, down to the lowest cabin-boy, has a share in the speculation. Each sailor thus becomes more or less a merchant, whilst he learns the propriety, and reaps the benefit, of industry, activity, and good conduct. From such a beginning, and by such means, did these islander