Volume II Part 1 (1/2)
The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald.
Vol. II.
by Thomas Lord Cochrane and H. R. Fox Bourne.
CHAPTER XVII.
LORD COCHRANE'S ARRIVAL IN GREECE.--HIS ACCOUNT OF HYDRA AND POROS.--THE CONGRATULATIONS OFFERED TO HIM.--VISITS FROM TOMBAZES, MAVROCORDATOS, AND MIAOULIS.--LETTERS FROM THE NATIONAL a.s.sEMBLY AND OTHER PUBLIC BODIES AND LEADING MEN.--THE DIVISIONS IN GREECE.--THE FRENCH OR MOREOT, AND ENGLISH OR PHANARIOT FACTIONS.--LORD COCHRANE'S RELATIONS WITH THEM.--THE VISIT OF KOLOKOTRONES AND OTHER DEPUTIES FROM THE NATIONAL a.s.sEMBLY.--LORD COCHRANE'S EFFORTS TO PROCURE UNANIMITY.--SIR RICHARD CHURCH.--LORD COCHRANE'S COMMISSION AS FIRST ADMIRAL.--THE NATIONAL a.s.sEMBLY AT TROEZENE.--THE EJECTION OF CAPODISTRIAS AS PRESIDENT.--LORD COCHRANE'S OATH-TAKING.--HIS ADVICE TO THE NATIONAL a.s.sEMBLY AND PROCLAMATION TO THE GREEKS.
[1827.]
Lord Cochrane entered the Egean Sea with his little schooner _Unicorn_ and the French brig _Sauveur_ on the 17th of March, 1827. In the afternoon he halted off the island of Hydra, there to leave the Greek deputy Orlando, who had accompanied him from Ma.r.s.eilles. ”I was surprised,” he said, ”to observe that, except the open batteries near the town of Hydra, the whole coast of the island remained unprotected, although, in a smooth sea, a landing might be effected in almost every part of its circ.u.mference. The town of Hydra is built in an irregular manner on the fall of the mountain about the port, and presents a clean appearance, the houses being all whitewashed. There is not a tree on the island, though there are a few straggling bushes. There is scarcely any land capable of cultivation; but there are some vineyards on the south side and a few small gardens near the town. The port is small, the water deep, and the vessels made fast by hawsers to the sh.o.r.e. It is evident, that, if Greece obtains independence, this island, to which the inhabitants fled to enjoy that species of precarious liberty that depends on eluding the view of tyranny, must be abandoned. Even water is only to be had from tanks which are filled by the winter's rain.”
From Hydra Lord Cochrane proceeded to Egina, making a circuit in order that he might have a view of Athens. ”The Acropolis,” he wrote, ”with the whole scenery at sunset, was beautiful. Alas, what a change! what melancholy recollections crowd on the mind! There was the seat of science, of literature, and the arts. At this instant the barbarian Turk is actually demolis.h.i.+ng, by the sh.e.l.ls that now are flying through the air, the scanty remains of the once magnificent temples in the Acropolis.”
He called at Egina on the 18th, in order to despatch letters, announcing his arrival, to the Governing Commission, as it was called, then located in the island, before proceeding to Poros, where he anch.o.r.ed on the morning of the 19th. ”The main entrance,” we further read in his journal, ”is scarcely wide enough to work a s.h.i.+p in, if the wind is from the land. The water, however, is sufficiently deep close to the sh.o.r.e; and the port, when you have entered through this narrow channel, is one of the finest in the world. There is another entrance towards the south, but it is shallow and crooked, and consequently used only by small vessels. The town of Poros consists of a number of irregularly-built houses on the side of a hill, and merits the appellation of picturesque. There are remains of temples on the island, and the stone is yet to be seen on which Demosthenes is said to have been sitting when he was recalled by Antipater to Athens, and in consequence of which recall he took poison and died.”
No sooner was the joyful intelligence conveyed to the inhabitants that Lord Cochrane, the long-expected deliverer of Greece, had actually arrived, than all the leading men who happened to be in Poros at the time hurried on board the Unicorn to welcome their champion and to give personal a.s.surance of their devotion to him. The first to arrive was Jakomaki Tombazes, who was now acting with Dr. Gosse as superintendent of marine affairs, having surrendered the chief command of the fleet into the hands of Andreas Miaoulis. Miaoulis himself soon followed, and with him Alexander Mavrocordatos and many others.
”Prince Mavrocordatos,” wrote Lord Cochrane's secretary, Mr. George Cochrane, ”was a short, stout, well-built man, of very dark complexion, with black eyes, an oval face expressing great intelligence, and his hair very long, hanging upon his shoulders. He was dressed in the European style, and wore on his head a little cloth cap. He also habitually wore spectacles. His manners indicated a man perfectly accustomed to the society of persons of rank. He immediately entered into familiar conversation with Lord Cochrane in the French language. He carried his pipe with him, which he continually smoked.
Miaoulis was dressed in the Hydriot fas.h.i.+on; but, of course, as became a primate of the island, his attire was of a description much superior to that of his poorer fellow-countrymen.[1] His countenance was open and dignified, and so calm that it appeared like a rock which nothing could move. Not that it had any character of sternness in it; on the contrary, it possessed a placidity, blended with firmness, which was anything but forbidding. The moment Miaoulis came on deck, he cordially shook hands with Lord Cochrane, and a broken conversation commenced between them in Spanish, Miaoulis speaking that language but imperfectly. At the period in question he commanded the _h.e.l.las_ frigate. He knew perfectly well that Lord Cochrane's arrival would take the command out of his hands. Nevertheless, he evinced not the least jealousy, but was one of the first to offer his services under Lord Cochrane. 'I know my countrymen,' he said, 'and that I can be of service to your lords.h.i.+p on board the frigate. I will therefore sail under your command.' Such an offer was not to be refused, and he was requested to remain on board. Miaoulis informed Lord Cochrane that the hope of Greece rested in the _h.e.l.las_, and in the quondam merchant brigs belonging to private individuals in the islands of Hydra, Spetzas, Poros, and Egina, amounting to about two hundred and fifty.
These vessels had been armed as men-of-war; some had been turned into fires.h.i.+ps, and it was the latter that struck so much terror into the Turks, several Turkish vessels of the line and frigates having been destroyed under the guidance of the brave Kanaris, a native of the ill-fated island of Psara.”
[1] ”These men,” says the same authority, ”generally speaking, from their complexions, evinced that they had been mariners all their lives, the sun having well tanned them. They wore small red caps, from which their hair flowed wildly down their shoulders. On the upper lip they wore very long mustachios, which the older ones were continually curling, and bringing out the point. They wore trousers of blue cotton, and a jacket; and by the immense capacity of the former, I should suppose they must have contained at least twelve yards. This was gathered into plaits round the waist, and only descended to the knees, which were left open. The hinder part presented a most singular appearance. It hung down almost trailing upon the ground in a huge bag, which kept moving backwards and forwards in a ludicrous manner at every motion of the body. They wore shoes, but no stockings; and their legs were as dark as their countenances, and covered with hair. Round their waist they wore a large red sash in several folds. Their jacket was similar to a waistcoat, with sleeves, and ornamented with small b.u.t.tons from the wrist to the elbow, and the same on the bosom.”--”Wanderings in Greece.”
The compliments and congratulations offered in person to Lord Cochrane immediately after his anchoring off Poros were followed by compliments and congratulations yet more profuse conveyed to him in writing by all cla.s.ses and from all quarters. One of the first and most important communications was addressed to him on the 18th of March, in the name of the National a.s.sembly, as it styled itself, met at Kastri, by its president, Georgios Sissinis. ”Greece,” he said, ”rejoices at your appearance in her seas. The aspirations of the Greeks are realised.
Their hopes in the success of their sacred struggle revive. The Greek nation, a.s.sembled here in a third National a.s.sembly, desires to see you and invites you here, sending to you, with that object, the General-in-Chief of the armies of the Peloponnesus, Theodore Kolokotrones, Messrs. Kanaris, Botazes, and Bulgaris, General Zavella and Count Metaxas, who will tender to you the thanks of all for your zeal on behalf of their cause.” ”The Government is seized with unutterable joy at your auspicious arrival,” wrote the members of the rival a.s.sembly at Egina, on the same day: ”the Government wishes you happy success in all your enterprises, and hopes soon to find in you a triumphant conqueror.” ”For a long while past,” wrote the governors of Hydra, ”our brave mariners have centred all their hopes on your arrival. You can understand then the joy that we felt when we saw your brig and schooner, and when we knew that you had actually arrived. We hasten to tender to you the homage of our island, and to express to you our impatience to see our little navy placed under your orders, and guided by you to new victories, by which the safety and independence of Greece may be secured.” ”Your arrival in our beloved country,” wrote the primates of Spetzas, ”has filled the soul of every inhabitant of our island with joy, and every one presents his thanks to Heaven for having at last sent such an one to fight with us and to protect our fatherland.” ”You have come to Greece,” wrote Konduriottes, ”at a moment when this unfortunate country most needs all that it can hope from the wisdom and courage of so great a defender. The announcement of your arrival will form an epoch in the history of our Revolution, and, I dare to hope, in that of our moral regeneration.”
That moral regeneration was needed Lord Cochrane already well knew, and he had not been a day in Greece before the knowledge was forced upon him afresh. The unworthy disposition of most of the men in power had never been more plainly shown, nor threatened more imminent danger to the independence of Greece, than at the time of Lord Cochrane's arrival. With a few notable exceptions, of whom Miaoulis was perhaps the chief, the Greek leaders had forgotten all their national duty in personal ambition and jealousy. If they united in parties, it was only because each one hoped that, as soon as his own party was triumphant, he himself would be able to obtain the mastery over all his a.s.sociates.
Two factions, especially, prevailed in Greece at this time, which, partly from the circ.u.mstance that they were supported by unwise Philh.e.l.lenes of the two nations, partly because their native members looked for their chief support to those nations, were known as the French and English parties.
Among Philh.e.l.lenes the leading promoter of the French party was Colonel Fabvier, who was now, with some of the troops whom he commanded, defending the Acropolis from the siege of the Turks. He was an officer of considerable merit, with the interests of the Greeks at heart, but of surpa.s.sing vanity and ambition. His hope was to become the Napoleon of the East, to convert the whole male population of Greece into a huge army, with himself at its head. With him sympathized most of the military leaders, who, originally little better than brigands, found everything to gratify their present tastes and their future hopes in a scheme which would give them endless employment in lawless warfare and martial dominion. These, coming chiefly from the Morea, caused the faction also to be known as the Moreot party.
More formidable was the English party, with little that was English about it but the name. Its ambition was not military, but diplomatic, the possession of place and power in such ways as were then possible.
Its real, if not avowed, leader was Prince Mavrocordatos, with an able abettor in his brother-in-law, Mr. Spiridion Trikoupes. All through the previous year Mavrocordatos and his friends had sought zealously to win for Greece the protection of England. They had corresponded to that end with Mr. Stratford Canning, the British amba.s.sador at Constantinople, with Captain Hamilton, who was then stationed in Greek waters to watch the interests of English s.h.i.+pping, and with others.
They had sent an irregular deputation to treat with the British Government, and had used all the means in their power, so far as foreign intervention was concerned, for the establishment of a smaller but more organized Greek nation than that which their rivals desired.
Had that end been worthily sought, they would have deserved universal sympathy. But they showed by their conduct that they cared little for good government, or for the real interests of the community. They exercised their abilities and squandered their resources in schemes for selfish aggrandis.e.m.e.nt, and the possession of authority which was to benefit none but themselves. Many of their prominent members having studied statecraft, before the time of the Revolution, as Christian officials in the employment of Turkey, to whom the name Phanariot was given from the Christian quarter of Constantinople, the whole party acquired the name of Phanariot.
This latter party had all along hoped to make Lord Cochrane its tool.
It was Mavrocordatos who first invited him to enter the service of the Greeks; and when that service was agreed upon no effort was spared to attach him to the group of partizans among whom Mavrocordatos was chief. Lord Cochrane, steadily refusing this, soon incurred their opposition, and to this opposition is to be attributed some of the unreasonable blame which was afterwards brought upon him. Much further opposition to him, moreover, was soon aroused by his, in like manner, refusing to become the creature of the other leading faction. He wisely resolved, from the first--and he maintained his resolution throughout--to belong to no party, but having devoted himself to the cause of the Greek nation as a whole, to seek only those objects which were for the good of all.
That resolution was soon put to the test. Immediately after his arrival on the 19th of March, great efforts were made to implicate him in the schemes of the Governing Commission, as it was called, which, having outrun the time appointed for its duration, was continuing to a.s.sert its authority in Egina, and to use that authority in the interests of the Phanariot party. Two days after that his partizans.h.i.+p was sought for the Moreot faction, which had set up a rival government, styled the National a.s.sembly, at Hermione, under the joint leaders.h.i.+p of Kolokotrones, Konduriottes, and Kolettes. On the 20th he was waited upon by the deputation named in the congratulatory letter which has already been quoted from.
”With his whole party,” said Lord Cochrane's secretary, reporting this interview, ”Kolokotrones rode down to the beach opposite the s.h.i.+p, and sent off to say he would there wait until a boat should be sent for him and his followers, the whole being about a hundred men, armed, according to the custom of the country, with pistols or daggers stuck in the left side of a sash or belt. The two boats sent being insufficient, not more than twenty came on board with the general.
Kolokotrones was the spokesman, and there appeared to be great energy in his gesticulations, which did not correspond with the translation by Count Metaxas, who, from the smile on his countenance, seemed to hold in no great respect the mental acquirements of Kolokotrones.
'Greece,' said the latter, 'required a government to bring order out of chaos. The functions of the commission appointed by the last Legislative a.s.sembly ought to have ceased. Its continuance in power was not legal, and consequently the members of the National a.s.sembly had met at Hermione to name their successors; to which place it was requested that Lord Cochrane would proceed, in order to be present at their deliberations.' A letter to this effect, signed by the President of the a.s.sembly, was then put into Lord Cochrane's hands.
”Lord Cochrane made answer verbally through Count Metaxas to the deputies, that he held in due estimation the honour they had done him by personally delivering the communication as well as by the very flattering terms used towards him by the members a.s.sembled at Hermione. He regretted the decision that had taken place, and, recommending reconciliation, urged the necessity of prompt exertion and the little good that the wisest legislative enactments could effect, whilst the Turks overran their country, whilst they possessed three-fourths of its strongholds, and whilst the enemy besieged the capital of the state, which was in danger of falling into their power.