In Greek Waters Part 37

"We fought most valiantly," the Greek said, "and it was a drawn battle."

"But what was done?" Horace asked. "How many vessels were sunk on each side?"

"Oh, there were no vessels sunk. They fired at us, and we fired at them."

"Were there many killed and wounded?"

"No; I don't think there were any killed and wounded. You see we manuvred round the Turks. We could not go near, because their guns were much heavier than ours. We sent down a fire-s.h.i.+p among them; but unfortunately they evaded it, and some of our most daring captains ventured so close that their s.h.i.+ps were struck by the Turkish shot.

Yesterday the combat was renewed again. The cannonading was like thunder, and this morning we again fought. Then we needed rest, and to get fresh meat we sailed back."

Horace had difficulty in restraining his expressions of disgust at the conduct of the fleet that had, after two months' delay, at last sailed to annihilate the Turks; and as they walked back to their boat Marco poured out, in an undertone, volumes of execrations in choice Greek.

As they reached the schooner the doctor looked over the side. "We are not too late, Horace; there's the Greek fleet rounding the point. As we can't make out with our gla.s.s a shot-hole in their sails or a splinter on their bulwarks, it is evident that I was right, and that we are in plenty of time to see the engagement."

"You are mistaken, doctor," Horace said as he reached the deck. "There has been a great naval battle, lasting three days. There are no killed or wounded; but one or two s.h.i.+ps, commanded by daring captains, ventured within gun-shot of the Turks, and were struck. That is the exact history of the affair, as I learned it from one of the heroes."

"Is that really the story you have heard, Horace?" Mr. Beveridge asked.

"It is, father; almost in the words that it was told to me."

"I really think," Martyn said, seeing how depressed Mr. Beveridge looked at the news, "that much more could hardly be expected from the Greeks. Their s.h.i.+ps are for the most part small, and their metal very light. They have not the slightest idea of discipline or of working in concert. A Turkish broadside would sink half a dozen of them if they ventured to close quarters; and of course their superior seamans.h.i.+p is not of the slightest avail as long as they fight at a distance."

"It would avail if they had pluck," Horace said bitterly. "The English s.h.i.+ps that went out to engage the great galleons of the Spanish Armada were as inferior in tonnage and in weight of metal as the Greeks are; but for all that they gave a good account of them."

"Yes, Horace; but you must remember that the English sailors had been fighting and thras.h.i.+ng the Spaniards for years before, and had come almost to despise them; while the Greeks have never fought before, have no confidence in themselves, and hold the Turks in high respect."

"You can't expect," the doctor put in, "that bulldogs are going to be manufactured out of mongrels in one generation, Horace. A fighting race grows up little by little. The Greeks fought just as pluckily in the old days, against big odds, as we ever did, and may do it again in time; but they have got to be built up to it."

"Thank you, doctor," Mr. Beveridge said. "We keep on forgetting that the Greeks have been slaves, and that slaves lose all their military virtues. It was just the same thing with the Britons. Their valour excited the admiration of Caesar; but after being under the domination of the Romans for generations, they completely lost all their manhood, and fell easy victims to the Saxons. We must not be too hard on the Greeks, Horace, or expect them to behave as men whose fathers have been free and independent."

In the evening Miller went ash.o.r.e with Mr. Beveridge and had a talk with some Philh.e.l.lenes who had joined the expedition. They all agreed that Miaoulis had manuvred his s.h.i.+ps well, always keeping the weather-gauge of the Turks; but there was no shadow of discipline among the s.h.i.+ps, and their fire was as wild and inefficient as that of the Turks, the men loading and firing as quickly as they could, quite regardless of the direction or distance of their shot, the great part of which entered the sea half-way between the combatants.

"Kanaris is here," they said, "and you will see that he at least will attempt something against the Turks before he is done."

It was not, however, until fifteen days later that any move was made.

Kanaris had paid a visit to the _Misericordia_, and was greatly struck by the order and discipline that prevailed.

"Our men will not submit to it, Mr. Beveridge. It is in vain to a.s.sure them that nothing can be done unless we can introduce discipline such as prevails on s.h.i.+ps of war of other nations. Unfortunately they have been accustomed to another state of things. The sailors are always paid by a share in the profits of our voyages, and everyone has a say as to the ports to be visited and the course to be steered. Before any change is made there is always a general council of all on board, and the matter is decided by vote. Such being the habit, you can understand the difficulty of getting these men to submit to anything like discipline. Another thing is, that the s.h.i.+ps belong to private persons, and not to the state, although they may receive pay from government. They are therefore very chary of exposing their vessels to the risk of loss, for which, more likely than not, they would never receive a penny from the central government, which has plenty of objects of much greater interest to its members to spend its money upon. Until some total change takes place in the organization and manning of our fleet, I can see no hope of any improvement."

On the 18th of June two s.h.i.+ps got up anchor and sailed. On board the schooner their progress was watched with interest. Kanaris had confided to Mr. Beveridge that the s.h.i.+ps were loaded with combustibles, and that he was going to attempt to set fire to the Turkish fleet. The wind was contrary, and the two craft tacked backwards and forwards off the north of Chios as if intending to beat up the Gulf of Smyrna. Four hours after they had started the schooner also got under way, as all were anxious to see what would take place, and Mr. Beveridge had told Kanaris that he would go within a short distance of the Turkish fleet and burn a blue light, so that the boats on leaving the fire-s.h.i.+ps could row off to him and be taken back to Psara.

It was the last day of the Ramazan, and a number of the princ.i.p.al officers of the Turkish fleet had been invited by the Capitan Pasha to dine with him on board his flag-s.h.i.+p to celebrate the feast of Bairam.

The night was a dark one, but the whole of the Turkish vessels were illuminated in honour of the festival, and their outlines were clearly visible. The _Misericordia_ had entered the northern pa.s.sage an hour after nightfall; the two Greek s.h.i.+ps being, when last seen, about three miles ahead. The schooner lay to a couple of miles distant from the anchorage. They had scarcely done so when they made out the sails of two vessels between them and the lines of light on the Turkish war-s.h.i.+ps.

"There they go," Martyn said, "steering straight in. One of them is making straight for the Capitan Pasha's own s.h.i.+p. No doubt that is Kanaris himself. The other is making for that seventy-four that carries the flag of the Reala Bey. You can tell them by the variegated lamps along their yards. The Turks evidently have not caught sight of them yet or they would open fire. On such a dark night as this I don't suppose they will make them out till they are close alongside."

Kanaris, a man of the greatest calmness and courage, was himself at the helm of his craft. Running straight before the wind, he steered down upon the eighty-gun s.h.i.+p of the Capitan Pasha. Not until he was within a s.h.i.+p's length was he observed, when a startled hail sounded from the deck of the Turkish s.h.i.+p. Steering straight on he ran his bowsprit through one of her port-holes. The sailors instantly threw some grapnels to retain her in her position, and then jumped into their boat lying alongside. As soon as they did so Kanaris fired his pistol into the train. The fire flashed along the deck, there were a series of sharp explosions, and then the flames ran aloft, the riggings and sails being soaked with turpentine; and Kanaris had scarcely stepped into his boat before the s.h.i.+p was in a ma.s.s of flames.

Lying to windward of the Turk the flames were blown on to her, and pouring in at the open port-holes at once set fire to a quant.i.ty of tents stowed on the lower deck, rushed up the hatches, and, mingling with the flames from the sails which had ignited the awning extending over the deck, ran up the rigging and spars of the man-of-war. The most terrible confusion instantly prevailed throughout the s.h.i.+p. The few boats alongside were sunk by the crowds who leapt into them. The crews of the s.h.i.+ps lying round at once began to haul them farther away from the blazing vessel, and the boats that were lowered feared to approach it because of the falling spars and the flames that poured from the lower port-holes.

In addition to her crew, the soldiers on board, and the Pasha's guests, were a great number of prisoners who had been brought off from the island to be taken to Constantinople, and the shrieks and cries as they were caught by the flames, or sprang overboard to evade them, were terrible. Kara Ali himself sprang from the s.h.i.+p into a boat that approached near enough for the purpose of saving him; but before it could put off a blazing spar fell on it, and the Capitan Pasha was so severely wounded that he died shortly after being carried on sh.o.r.e.

His loss was a severe one for the Turks, for he was their most skilful naval officer. A few of those who leapt overboard were picked up by boats, or swam to the other s.h.i.+ps; but with these exceptions the whole of those on board the vessel perished. The other fire-s.h.i.+p had been less calmly and skilfully managed. In his haste and excitement the commander, after running her alongside the s.h.i.+p of the Reala Bey, fired the train and made off without attaching her to it, consequently the fire-s.h.i.+p drifted away without the flames communicating to the Turk, and burned out harmlessly.

As soon as it was seen that Kanaris had succeeded, a blue light was burned on board the schooner, and in twenty minutes the two boats rowed alongside. Not a shot had been fired at either, the Turks being too much occupied with the danger of fire to pay any attention to them. Kanaris was heartily congratulated on his success when he reached the schooner, which at once set sail and was back at Psara in the morning, where the news of the destruction of the Turkish man-of-war was received with the wildest enthusiasm.

The Turkish vessels, leaving a strong garrison on the island, sailed north a few days later. They were pursued by the Greek fleet, which, however, did not venture to interfere with them, although they stopped at two ports on the way, and finally anch.o.r.ed under the guns of the forts of the Dardanelles. The _Misericordia_ took no part in hara.s.sing the Turkish fleet. Martyn had asked Mr. Beveridge's opinion upon the subject, he himself being in favour of doing so.

"I think we could give the Greeks a lesson or two in this sort of thing, sir, and show them what can be done, even against a fleet, by a craft that means business."

"I am sure you could do all that, Martyn, but I do not think we should be justified in running the slightest risk of loss of life among the men merely for that purpose. We could do no more than the Greeks do unless we were willing to expose ourselves more. You could not hope either to capture or sink one of the Turkish s.h.i.+ps in the face of their whole fleet. I know you would give them a great deal of trouble, but more than that you could not do. When the Greeks show themselves willing to fight we will fight by their side, but not before."

They were indeed glad that they so decided, for on the evening before the Greeks set sail a boat arrived at Psara with six fugitives from Chios. They reported that the destruction of the Capitan Pasha's s.h.i.+p with all on board had brought fresh misfortunes upon the Christians, for that the Mussulmans, infuriated by the details of the disaster, had fallen upon the Christians all over the island, even in the villages where hitherto there had been no trouble.

The second ma.s.sacre was indeed far more fatal than the first, the women and children being, as before, spared as slaves, many thousands being carried away. Small craft from Psara hovered round the island and succeeded in taking off numbers of fugitives, while the schooner returned to her cruising grounds between the island and the mainland, or up the Gulf of Smyrna, where she captured and burnt large numbers of small craft laden with slaves. They had to make four trips to the islands to clear her crowded decks of the hapless Chiots.

The news of the ma.s.sacres of Chios, which, unlike those committed by themselves, the Greeks spread sedulously over Europe, excited deep and general horror and indignation. The numbers of those killed or sold into slavery were never known. The estimates varied considerably, some putting them down at twenty thousand while others maintained that those figures could be doubled without exaggeration. It is probable, however, that they really exceeded thirty thousand.

The details of the terrible ma.s.sacres, which they learnt from the women they rescued, aroused among the officers and crew of the _Misericordia_ a far deeper feeling of enthusiasm for the cause of Greece than they had hitherto felt. Since they came out their interest in the cause had been steadily waning. The tales of wholesale and brutal ma.s.sacre, the constant violation of the terms of surrender, the cowardice of the Greeks in action and their eagerness for plunder, the incessant disputes between the various parties, and the absence of any general attempt to concert measures for defence, had completely damped their sympathy for them; but the sight of these hundreds of women and children widowed and orphaned, and torn away from their native land and sold into slavery, set their blood boiling with indignation. The two Greeks took care to translate the narratives of the weeping women to the sailors, and these excited among them a pa.s.sionate desire to punish the authors of these outrages; and had any of the craft they overhauled made an active resistance little mercy would have been shown to the Turks. As it was they were bundled headlong into their boats with many a hearty kick and cuff from the sailors, and the destruction of their vessels was effected with the alacrity and satisfaction of men performing an act of righteous retribution.

"The poor creatures seemed terribly cast down," Martyn said one day at dinner as they sailed with the last batch of Chiots for Corfu. They had transported the three previous cargoes to the Ionian Islands, as the former ones had been most unwillingly received in the Greek ports, the authorities saying that they had no means of affording subsistence to the fugitives who were daily arriving. In the Ionian Islands committees had been formed, and these distributed money sent out from England for their support, while rations were issued to them by the British authorities of the islands.

"One can't wonder at that," Miller said. "Still, I must say that the women even at first don't seem as delighted as one would expect at getting out of the hands of the Turks."

"I am not so very sure, Miller, that they are delighted at all,"

Macfarlane said quietly. "You think you are doing them the greatest service possible, but in my opinion it is more than doubtful whether they see it in the same light."

"What! not thankful at being rescued from being sold as slaves to the Turks?"

"That sounds very terrible, and no doubt it would not be a pleasant lot for you, seeing that they would set you to work, and your life would be worse than a dog's. But you have got to put yourself in the position of these unfortunate women and girls, and then you would see that you might think differently about it. To begin with, till now there has been no animosity between them and the Turks. It is admitted that the Turks have been gentle masters to Chios, and the people have been happy, contented, and prosperous. Their misfortunes have been brought upon them, not by the Turks, but by the Greeks, who came to the island contrary to their entreaties, plundered and ill used them, and then left them to the vengeance of the Turks. So if they have any preference for either, it will certainly not be for the Greeks.

"As to their being sold as slaves, I do not suppose they view it at all in the same way we do. They are not going to be sold to work in the fields, or anything of that sort, and the Turks treat their domestic slaves kindly. To one of these Chiot girls there is nothing very terrible in being a slave in the household of a rich Turk. You know that the Georgian and Circa.s.sian girls look forward to being sold to the Turks. They know that the life at Constantinople is vastly easier and more luxurious than that at home. I do not say for a moment that these women would not prefer a life of ease among their own people and friends. But what is the life before them now?--to have to work for their own living in the fields, or to go as servants among Greek and Italian families. A dark and uncertain future. I tell you, man, we think we are doing them a mighty service, but I doubt whether there is one of them that thinks so. The Chiots are celebrated for their docility and intelligence, and these women and children would fetch high prices in the market, and be purchased by wealthy Turks, and their lot would be an enviable one in comparison to that which awaits most of them.

"The word slavery is hateful to us, but it is not so many years since we were sending people out in hundreds to work as slaves in the plantations of Virginia. The word slavery in the East has not the same terror as it has with us, and I doubt if the feelings of a Chiot peasant girl on her way to be sold are not a good deal like those of a girl who goes up from a Scotch or English village to Edinburgh or London, to go into service in a grand family. She thinks she is going to better herself, to have fine clothes, and to live among fine people; and, as it turns out, maybe she is better off than she was before, maybe she is worse."

"You are a most disagreeable man, Macfarlane," Martyn said after a pause. "Here have we been thinking that we have been doing a good action, and you put us altogether out of conceit with ourselves."

"We have been doing a good action," the doctor said. "We have been acting according to our lights. To us it is an abominable thing that a Greek woman or child should be sold as a slave to the heathen Turk. I am only pointing out to you that from their point of view there is nothing so terrible in their lot, and that we have no reason to expect any very lively grat.i.tude from them; and that, looking at the matter only from a material point of view, they are not likely to be benefited by the change. I know that, if I were a Greek woman, I would rather be a slave in the family of a rich Turk than working as a drudge, say, in the family of a Maltese shopkeeper, though, if I were a Scotch girl, I should certainly choose the other way."

They all sat silent for a minute or two. The idea was a wholly new one to them, and they could not deny that, according to the point of view of these Chiot captives, it was a reasonable one. Mr. Beveridge was the first to speak.

"What you say has certainly given me a shock, doctor, but I cannot deny that there is some truth in it. Still, you know there is something beyond mere material advantages."

"I do not deny it, sir, and, as I say, we, as Britons and Christians, feel that we are doing a good work. Still, we can hardly be surprised that these Chiots naturally view it differently. Their Christianity is, like that of all Eastern Christians, of a very debased form; and living so long among the Turks, they have no very great horror of Mohammedanism. You know, on the mainland, tens of thousands of the Albanians have become Mohammedans. We think that we are justified in inflicting what one cannot but see is, from the material point of view, a distinct injury to these people, because, as Christians, we feel it is for their moral advantage; but then, that is just the same feeling that caused the Spaniards to exterminate the natives of the West Indian Islands who declined to become Christians."

"Oh, I say, doctor, that is too strong altogether," Miller exclaimed indignantly.

"Well, prove it by argument," the doctor replied calmly. "I am not saying that from our point of view we are not more than justified. I am simply explaining why these Chiots do not feel any extraordinary grat.i.tude to us. We are benefiting them, if they did but know it. We are saving them, body and soul; but that is not the light in which they see it."