DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0198
xxxiv.]
ONE OF LAMBKO's CAPTAINS.
179
a young woman, drest in the garb of mourning, who lost
her father during the war, and whose brother was one of
the victims thus recently sacrificed. His orphan, a child
of four years old, is standing by her. The Sfakians
doubt whether they did not do wrong, in thus remaining
quiet, and think that their best course41 would have
been to have taken their arms, and once more occupying
the most inaccessible of their mountains, thence to have
waged and suffered a war of extermination with their
foe.
I inquire whether any Askyfidte remembers the events
of the Russian invasion of the Morea in 1769? when nearly
a thousand Sfakians left their homes to fight against the
Turks, and when the Cretan Turks, taking advantage of
their absence, exacted a heavy penalty from those whom
they had left behind them, for the part they took. I am
told that, among the five men seized and massacred here,
there was an old man, Andhrulios Papadhakes, who was
one of Lambro's Capitanei, and still possessed, at the
time of his death, Lambro's pistols and some of his
clothes. He was mentioned in the Greek song which
celebrated Lambro's exploits42. The poor old man,
whose extreme age, for he had lived nearly a whole
century, might alone have protected him, even if he
had taken some part in an assembly where thousands
met together, had never been present at Murnies. But
he was distinguished from olden times, and even among
the inhabitants of these mountains, for his hatred of the
Turkish rulers of his country ; and the reputation which
he thus acquired was probably the cause of his death,
and certainly entitles him to be regarded as one of the
patriots, who were celebrated by our poet before the
outbreaking of the Greek revolution.
41 To KaWito-repov: the common modern Greek form is raXXrreooi/ :
examples of both forms are given in Du Cange : on icaWioaTepov see
Phhynichcs, p. 136. and Lobeck.
To oTroloif ei'^ao-i f2ya\p.cvo 6id tov 'Pa/nrpo.
ONE OF LAMBKO's CAPTAINS.
179
a young woman, drest in the garb of mourning, who lost
her father during the war, and whose brother was one of
the victims thus recently sacrificed. His orphan, a child
of four years old, is standing by her. The Sfakians
doubt whether they did not do wrong, in thus remaining
quiet, and think that their best course41 would have
been to have taken their arms, and once more occupying
the most inaccessible of their mountains, thence to have
waged and suffered a war of extermination with their
foe.
I inquire whether any Askyfidte remembers the events
of the Russian invasion of the Morea in 1769? when nearly
a thousand Sfakians left their homes to fight against the
Turks, and when the Cretan Turks, taking advantage of
their absence, exacted a heavy penalty from those whom
they had left behind them, for the part they took. I am
told that, among the five men seized and massacred here,
there was an old man, Andhrulios Papadhakes, who was
one of Lambro's Capitanei, and still possessed, at the
time of his death, Lambro's pistols and some of his
clothes. He was mentioned in the Greek song which
celebrated Lambro's exploits42. The poor old man,
whose extreme age, for he had lived nearly a whole
century, might alone have protected him, even if he
had taken some part in an assembly where thousands
met together, had never been present at Murnies. But
he was distinguished from olden times, and even among
the inhabitants of these mountains, for his hatred of the
Turkish rulers of his country ; and the reputation which
he thus acquired was probably the cause of his death,
and certainly entitles him to be regarded as one of the
patriots, who were celebrated by our poet before the
outbreaking of the Greek revolution.
41 To KaWito-repov: the common modern Greek form is raXXrreooi/ :
examples of both forms are given in Du Cange : on icaWioaTepov see
Phhynichcs, p. 136. and Lobeck.
To oTroloif ei'^ao-i f2ya\p.cvo 6id tov 'Pa/nrpo.