The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II

CHAPTER XX

THE ACTION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA ON BEHALF OF HELLENIC INDEPENDENCE. – THE DEGRADATION OF GREECE. – LORD COCHRANE'S RENEWED EFFORTS TO ORGANISE A FLEET. – PRINCE PAUL BUONAPARTE, AND HIS DEATH. – AN ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE LORD COCHRANE. – HIS INTENDED EXPEDITION TO WESTERN GREECE. – ITS PREVENTION BY SIR EDWARD CODRINGTON. – LORD COCHRANE'S RETURN TO THE ARCHIPELAGO. – THE INTERFERENCE OF GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA. – THE CAUSES OF THE BATTLE OF NAVARINO. – THE BATTLE.

[1827.]

The Duke of Wellington's mission to St. Petersburg in the spring of 1826, which has been already referred to, was part of a policy by which the British Government materially contributed to the ultimate independence of Greece. Its first result was the protocol of the 4th of April, in which England and Russia recognized the right of the Greeks to claim from the Porte a recognition of their freedom. At about the same time our Government had sent Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, as ambassador to Constantinople, with special instructions to use every endeavour to bring about a cessation of the war which should be favourable to Greece; and on the 24th of April the National Assembly at Epidaurus had authorized him to treat with Turkey on its behalf, agreeing, if no more favourable terms could be obtained, to a recognition of the Sultan's supremacy and the payment of tribute to him, on condition that Greece should be independent in all its internal government. Those terms, however, were rejected by the Porte; and after a delay of a year and a half it was forced by the Great Powers, slowly awakening from their long lethargy, to accede to arrangements far more favourable to Greece.

These negotiations, however, proceeded very slowly, and before the dawn of Greek independence there was a time of almost utter darkness, the darkest time of all being the few months following Lord Cochrane's arrival. "Vanquished Greece," says her historian, "lay writhing in convulsive throes. In herself there was neither hope nor help, and the question to be solved was merely whether the Mahometans would have time to subdue her before the mediating powers made up their minds to use force. That the former, if not checked from abroad, must speedily overrun the country did not admit of the least doubt. But it was equally certain that they could not pacify it; for, while the rich and timid prepared to emigrate, the poorer and hardier portion of the insurgents formed themselves into bands of robbers and pirates, which would have long infested the mountains and the Levant seas, deriding the efforts of the Porte to suppress them. The only branch of the Hellenic confederacy that still presented a menacing aspect was the navy under Lord Cochrane. Every other department was a heap of confusion. No government existed, since it would be idle to dignify with that name the three puppets set up by the Congress of Damala. None ever thought of obeying them, and they sealed their own degradation by carrying on an infamous traffic in selling letters of marque to freebooters. There was no army, because there was no revenue. After the fall of Athens, Roumelia was entirely lost, and the captains either renewed their act of submission to Reshid Pasha or fled to the Morea. It was not, however, with an intention of defending the peninsula that they retreated into it. Their purpose was to seize the fortresses, and thereby be enabled to make a good bargain with the Turks, or any other party that should remain in final possession. Nauplia and the Acrocorinthus were already garrisoned by Roumeliotes. Monemvasia, the third Peloponnesian stronghold yet held by the Greeks, was in the hands of Petro-Bey's brother, John Mavromikales, who, fitting out from thence predatory craft, converted it into a den of thieves."¹¹

It is not strange that, amid all this confusion, cowardice, and treachery, Lord Cochrane should have found it almost impossible to achieve anything worthy of his abilities or of the cause which he desired so earnestly to serve. Yet he continued, in spite of all obstacles, to do all that lay in his power, in fulfilment of his duty, and even in excess of that duty. He had engaged to act as First Admiral of the Greek Fleet. Finding that there was no fleet for him to direct, he laboured with unwearied zeal not only to construct one and to turn his unmannerly subordinates into disciplined sailors and brave warriors, but also to persuade the landsmen to co-operate with him in trying to withstand, if not to drive back, the advancing force of the enemy. One day when he was at Poros, Dr. Gosse came on board the Hellas to visit him. "See, my friend," said Lord Cochrane, taking a loaded pistol from the inner pocket of his waistcoat, "see what it is to be a Greek admiral." He found it necessary to be always provided with a weapon with which he could defend himself from his indolent, unpatriotic seamen.

Having returned to Poros with his prizes on the 14th of August, he was obliged to wait there for twelve days. There were no funds to be had for the requisite repairs and other expenses in paying and feeding his crews. All he could do was to repeat his former arguments and entreaties for assistance from the miserable Government at Nauplia, and the more active, but still half-hearted primates of the islands. He also made all the other arrangements in his power for improving his fleet and for carrying on some sort of naval warfare among the southern isles, especially on the coast of Candia, and for fomenting an insurrection of the inhabitants of Western Greece, who, held in awe by the Turks ever since the fall of Missolonghi, had hitherto done little in aid of the national strife, but to whose support he now looked with some hope.

On the 24th he obtained a little further assistance. Mr. George Cochrane, whom he had sent to Marseilles in the Unicorn, to ask for fresh supplies of money and stores from the Philhellenes of Western Europe, but whose return had been long delayed, now arrived with a cargo of provisions, and with a sum of 5000l., which, though altogether inadequate to the work to be done, made possible some work at any rate.

In the Unicorn also came a new volunteer on behalf of Greek independence. The schooner having called at Zante on her way back, Mr. Cochrane there met Prince Paul Buonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon who asked to be taken on board in order that he might serve under Lord Cochrane. This was agreed to, and the Prince, a youth about eighteen years old, and six feet high, became, immediately after his arrival at Poros, a favourite with Lord Cochrane and all his staff and crew. He was remarkable, said Dr. Grosse, for "his good-will, his amiability of character, his solidity of judgment, his intelligence, and the moderation of his principles."

His stay in Greece, however, was very brief. On the morning of the 6th of September, all on board the Hellas were startled by a shriek and the exclamation, "Ah, mon Dieu! je suis mort!" Lord Cochrane and several officers rushed to the Prince's cabin, there to find him lying in a pool of blood, and writhing in agony. His servant had been cleaning his pistols, and he had just loaded one of them to hang it on a nail, when, the trigger being accidentally struck, the weapon discharged and a ball entered his body and settled in the groin. Dr. Howe, an American surgeon, famous for his services to Greece and for later philanthropic labours, being at hand, came to his relief until Dr. Gosse could be sent for. All that could be done, however, was to lessen the pain, which he bore with great heroism through two-and-twenty hours. Lord Cochrane had him placed in his own cabin, and carefully tended him with his own hands. At seven o'clock in the following morning he cried out, "Ah, quel douleur!" and died immediately.

That melancholy accident had a sequel which must be told in illustration of the greed of the Greeks. The Prince's body was placed in a hogshead of spirits and conveyed to Spetzas, there to be deposited in a convent until the wishes of the father, Prince Lucien Buonaparte, could be ascertained as to its interment. A few months afterwards, some natives entering the convent and smelling the spirits, but apparently in ignorance of the use to which they had been applied, could not resist the temptation of tapping the hogshead and drinking a part of its contents.

Prince Paul Buonaparte died while Lord Cochrane was again making a tour of the islands, vainly trying to induce the inhabitants to provide him with adequate means for a formidable attack on the enemy. "In the port of Spetzas," wrote one of his officers, on the 29th of August, "there are now nearly forty vessels – none of them ready, not a man on board. All the men are out in cruisers, notwithstanding his excellency's order to fit out their vessels to meet the enemy's fleet. But such are the Greeks; they have no foresight, and until they see the enemy they will make no preparations, nor will they, unless the money is in their hands, expend a dollar to prepare a single fireship to defend their country. It is now twenty-eight days since Lord Cochrane ordered the vessels from Hydra, Spetzas, and Egina to be prepared, and they are not yet ready."

At length, on the 5th of September, Lord Cochrane was able, though still with difficulty, to resign the irksome and extra-official duties of a tax-gatherer that had been forced upon him. "Since my return from Zante, and, indeed, since my return from Alexandria," he wrote on that day to the Government, now lodged at Egina, "I have been using my utmost endeavours to procure the equipment of a dozen brigs and as many fireships. The delays occasioned, however, by the want of pecuniary means have hitherto prevented the realization of my wishes, and the services of this frigate have been lost to the State during the fore-mentioned period, owing to the impossibility of procuring the necessary funds without my personal presence at Syra and elsewhere. The equipment of the brigs and part of the fireships is now completed, in spite of all difficulties, and I shall not delay one moment the endeavour to effect something useful to the interests of the State. I think it proper, however, to intimate to your excellencies that, everything being paid relative to the expense of the present expedition, I know of no means whereby a single vessel can be maintained during the ensuing month."

On the 7th of September, Lord Cochrane was able to start on another warlike cruise. His force comprised the Hellas, the Karteria, the Sauveur, and nineteen or twenty other vessels. The Spetziots and the Hydriots, at the last moment, refused to aid him; but he was attended by Miaoulis, Kanaris, and Saktoures, the three best of the native admirals. After a brief visit to Candia, where he encouraged the garrison of Grabusa to hold out against the enemy, he again passed round the Morea, in which direction he desired to attain two important objects. The first was to injure as much as possible the Turkish and Egyptian vessels collected near Navarino. The second was to co-operate with the wretched force that, under General Church, had for three months past been making a show of resistance to the enemy at Corinth, and with its help to try and stir up the natives of Albania and Western Greece.

These objects, partly prevented in other ways, were nearly averted by a barbarous plot for Lord Cochrane's assassination. While halting off the southern coast of the Morea, on or near the 10th of September, a short, thick-built Greek, with an ugly countenance and determined eye, came on board the Hellas and asked for employment as a sailor. He was examined and rejected, on the ground of previous misconduct. Instead of going on shore again, however, he contrived to hide himself among the crew, and was not detected by Lord Cochrane for several hours, and when the frigate was in full sail. In the interval Lord Cochrane had received authentic information that this man had been commissioned by Ibrahim Pasha to attempt his life. There would have been justification for his immediate arrest, and, after a court martial, for his summary execution. But Lord Cochrane pursued a more generous policy. Walking up to his secretary, Mr. George Cochrane, he said: "Observe that man who is at the gangway on the larboard side. I have just had information that he has been sent by Ibrahim Pasha to assassinate me. Go quietly below, put on your sword, and watch him while he is on board." Mr. Cochrane obeyed his instructions. "In less than five minutes," he says, "I was again on deck with my sword. I took a few turns on the quarter-deck with his lordship, and then placed myself in a convenient position, about a dozen yards from the man. I did not lose sight of him for a couple of hours, keeping my eye steadily upon him. He soon observed that I was watching him, and I could perceive that he did not feel very comfortable in his mind. He did not attempt to come aft. Had he done so, I should have drawn my sword. After the men had had their dinner, one or two boats were got ready to convey seamen on board another vessel; and this fellow, seeing that his intentions were discovered, took advantage of the opportunity and got into one of the boats. I looked over the side of the Hellas, and saw him depart." Thus Lord Cochrane's life was saved.

Navarino was passed on the 11th of September. Lord Cochrane made no halt, as he saw that a British squadron, under Sir Edward Codrington, was there watching the Ottoman fleet and forbidding its egress. He accordingly at once proceeded northwards, and entered the Gulf of Patras on the 17th of September. On that day, in anticipation of the visit which he proposed to pay them, he forwarded proclamations to the inhabitants of the western coast. "People of Albania!" he wrote in one of them, "although you have so long suffered under the Mussulman yoke; although your love of liberty has been so long kept down by a dark and cruel despotism, the hour of your deliverance is not distant, and if you will you can hasten it. Europe takes a lively interest in your destiny; your fellow-countrymen are hastening to aid you. But all depends on the energy which you yourselves display: the support which we offer you, to be efficacious, requires on your part redoubled zeal and patriotism in the actual and decisive moment. Brave Albanians! your happy future, the security of your families, and the honour of your religion, are in your hands; your bold and steady co-operation will ensure your own salvation and our success!"

The intended expedition was prevented. It had been arranged that Lord Cochrane should wait near Cape Papas for the arrival of General Church's army and convey it to Western Greece, in the hope of putting it to better service in that region. But the land force was long in coming, and before its arrival Lord Cochrane had to write to the Government, explaining his recent movement and the reasons which compelled him to abandon the project of fighting in Albania. "Having proceeded to the Gulf of Patras," he said, "in order to co-operate with General Church in his intended expedition to Western Greece, I thought it would be conducive to the public service to invest the fort of Vasiladi, until, by the arrival of the forces of the general, more important operations could be undertaken; and accordingly that island was immediately blockaded by the boats of the squadron, and now continues surrounded by the vessels belonging to the Missolonghites, who have undertaken to maintain the blockade until it shall surrender. The Karteria, the Sauveur, and two of the gunboats, were immediately detached with orders to take or destroy all the enemy's vessels within the Gulf of Lepanto, whilst the Hellas went to the anchorage of Kalamos, in order to ascertain from the officers in arms what prospect there was of general co-operation; and I regret to say that the want of union among the chiefs and the prospect of some kind of accommodation with the enemy seemed to paralyse all their energies. I therefore detached all the squadron under Admiral Miaoulis to Syra and Naxos, to aid the Candiots and Chiots, should they continue inclined to assert their independence. I have to add that I received an indirect communication from the British Admiral, intimating his desire that no new or further operations should be undertaken in that quarter; for which reason I am about to proceed elsewhere, under the impression that nothing should be left undone to stir up the population of Greece to a sense of their duty to themselves and to their country."

The communication referred to was conveyed by Lord Ingestre, commander of the Philomel, who hailed the Hellas on the 27th of September, to deliver a message from Sir Edward Codrington. "Whereas I am informed by Sir Frederick Adam," wrote the English Admiral, "that Lord Cochrane, with the Greek fleet, is about to embark the army of General Church in the neighbourhood of Cape Papas, for the purpose of conveying them to the coast of Albania, you are hereby directed to make known to the commander of that expedition that I consider it my duty, in the present state of affairs, to prevent such a measure being carried into execution, and that I shall shortly present myself in that neighbourhood for that purpose." Lord Cochrane knew that, if it would be personally very distasteful to him to be in collision with the naval force of his own country, it would, on public grounds and in the interests of Greek independence, be wholly inexcusable for him to act in violation of Sir Edward Codrington's message. Therefore he complied with it and went back to the Archipelago, there to do other work, while England was serving Greece in her own way.

The service was to be rendered at last. After spending a year in diplomatic formalities, Great Britain and Russia had, in the spring of 1827, openly renewed their arguments with the Porte in favour of Greek independence. These arguments having been rejected, the two Christian powers were in consultation as to the next course to be pursued, when France, partly urged thereto by her schemes for the acquisition of Algiers, then a Turkish dependency, offered to take part in the defence of Greece. The result was a treaty signed in London, on behalf of the three states, on the 6th of July, having for its object the enforcement of the St. Petersburg protocol of the 4th of April, 1826. It insisted that Greece should have internal freedom, though under vassalage to Turkey; and provided that, if the contending parties did not agree to an armistice within a month, there should be a forcible intervention.

The Greeks welcomed the proposals made to them in consequence of this treaty; but they were rejected by the Turkish Government, notwithstanding the appearance of English, French, and Russian warships in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim continued their efforts to bring the whole insurgent district into thorough subjection, and accordingly the patriotic Greeks and their foreign supporters continued to act on the defensive. Lord Cochrane and a few others, indeed, were eager to secure action bolder than ever, considering that, when the settling-time arrived, the limits of independent Greece would be augmented if a larger area was then the scene of zealous opposition to the Turkish power. This it was that chiefly induced the efforts to quicken the revolt in Albania, and when Lord Cochrane was prevented by Sir Edward Codrington from persevering in his work in that quarter, he lost no time in sailing round to the eastern side of Greece, there to do his utmost towards rousing the people of Candia and other islands into an assertion of their independence, in order that they too might have a claim to be included in the liberation of the Greeks.

The message from Sir Edward Codrington to Lord Cochrane, which has been quoted, was dated the 25th of September. It was written immediately after an interview of the English commander and Admiral de Rigny, who was in charge of the French squadron, with Ibrahim Pasha. To him they had formally announced that they were instructed to insist upon a cessation of hostilities, and that they should promptly act upon their instructions. Ibrahim answered that he had orders from the Sultan to continue the war, but he promised to communicate with his sovereign, and pledged himself to abstain from hostilities until the answer arrived and was reported to the allied fleets. Before that answer came a fortunate series of accidents, arising out of Lord Cochrane's expedition to the Albanian coast, turned the current of diplomacy and secured for Greece more freedom than had been anticipated.

Lord Cochrane, attended by his Greek vessels, had left the neighbourhood of Cape Papas on the 27th of September. But, though deeming himself bound in honour to that course, he was willing to allow a part of his force to remain in the neighbourhood and watch the progress of events, especially as that part was at the time separated from him and lying in the Gulf of Lepanto. It consisted of the Karteria, under Captain Abney Hastings, the Sauveur, under Captain Thomas, and two gunboats, each mounting a 32-pounder. For a week this little squadron, ignorant of the arrangement between the allied admirals and Ibrahim Pasha, watched a Turkish force that was moored in the Scala of Salona, and comprised one large Algerine schooner carrying twenty brass guns, a brig of fourteen guns, six smaller brigs and schooners, two gunboats, and two armed transports. These vessels were protected by batteries on the level shore and other batteries on overhanging rocks. On the 30th of September, Captains Hastings and Thomas proceeded to attack them, and did so with excellent effect. The solid shot of the Sauveur and the gunboats soon silenced the batteries; the red-hot shells of the Karteria made havoc of the enemy's vessels, four being defeated within half-an-hour. Soon the Sauveur and the gunboats joined in the attack on the shipping, and, in the end, seven vessels were destroyed and three captured.

The news of that victory, as soon as it was conveyed to Navarino, where nearly all the naval force of the Turks was lying, roused the anger of Ibrahim Pasha, who complained that the allied powers, while binding him to inaction, allowed the Greeks to carry on the war. On the 1st of October, he sent out thirty war-ships with orders to enter the Gulf of Lepanto and punish Hastings and Thomas for their recent exploits. Sir Edward Codrington, however, pursued them, and drove them back to Navarino. Ibrahim Pasha, not easily to be baffled, himself left Navarino, on the evening of the 3rd, with fourteen of his stoutest vessels. Again Sir Edward Codrington gave chase, and this second squadron also was compelled by him to return to port. Ibrahim Pasha, however, was not to be robbed of his revenge. He dared not leave Navarino by sea, but he sent thence a land force, which marched up to the northern side of the Morea, and did serious mischief to the wornout fragment of an army which General Church was slowly conducting from Corinth to Papas, there to be embarked for Albania. Only by the unlooked-for valour of young Kolokotrones and his section was the rout of the whole army averted. Nor was Ibrahim satisfied with this act of retaliation. His troops scoured all the adjoining country, burning villages and laying waste the olive-groves and fig-gardens which were the only source of subsistence to the luckless natives.

Thereby Sir Edward Codrington and his allies were in turn incensed. They decided that the time had come for direct interference in the struggle, and for the expulsion of the Ottoman forces from the Morea. In the afternoon of the 20th of October, five and twenty line-of-battle ships, frigates, and sloops entered the Bay of Navarino. Ten of them were English, seven were French, and eight were Russian, and they carried in all 1172 guns. Twenty thousand Ottoman troops watched them from the fortresses of Navarino and Sphakteria, and, as they entered the harbour, they saw some eighty Turkish and Egyptian vessels, mounting about 2000 guns, drawn up in the shape of a horseshoe to receive them. They had come only to threaten; but accident, or design on the part of the enemy, brought about a most momentous battle.

A volley from the Ottomans began the fight, which was continued for four hours with stolid energy on both sides. The English and French vessels, being foremost, carried on the chief contest with the enemy's shipping; the Russians had to silence the batteries before they could enter the harbour, but then their Admiral, Count Heyden, did his full share of the deadly work. The fighting lasted till sunset; but by that time many of the enemy's hulks were in flames, and all through the night these flames spread from one vessel to another till nearly all were destroyed. At daybreak, only twenty-nine out of the eighty were afloat, and six thousand or more Moslems had been slain, burnt, or drowned. Many of the vessels of the allies were seriously damaged, and of their crews a hundred and seventy-five men were killed, and four hundred and fifty wounded.

That was the battle of Navarino. "I have the honour to inform you," wrote Sir Edward Codrington to the Greek Government, "that, according to the decision of my colleagues, Count Heyden and Rear-Admiral de Rigny, and myself, the combined fleet entered this port at two o'clock on the 20th, that some of the ships of the Turko-Egyptian fleet first began a fire of musketry, and then fired cannon-shot, which led very shortly to a general battle, which lasted till dark, and that the consequence of this has been the destruction of the whole of the Turkish fleet, except a few corvettes and brigs. Most of the ships of the allied fleets have received so much injury that they must go into port; but if the Greek vessels of war are employed against their enemy instead of destroying the commerce of the allies, they may henceforth easily obstruct the movements of any Turkish force by sea."