DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0525
chap, xix.]
GREECE.
2fl
sabred ; and an officer told me that long afterwards he had gone
to see the spot, and found the bleached skeletons of that gallant
band still bound together by each silken sash.
I only mention these anecdotes as illustrative of the spirit of
that war : similar instances of self-devotion frequently took place ;
and the daring of the Greek sailor was no less conspicuous than
that of the Kleft and Palikar.*
It is to be remembered that Greece, with a male population
amounting scarcely to the number of the Sultan's army, dis-
united, ignorant of the art of war, without money, resources, or
assistance, defeated the forces of the Ottoman and Egyptian
army, and wrested freedom from their powerful oppressor. This
is all that History will remember: she will cast away the petty
details of treason, jealousy,"and peculation, that probably darken-
ed the day of Marathon as well as that of Missolonghi; and only
tell that Greece, after the lapse of three and twenty centuries,
vindicated the glorious fame and freedom of the past.
Until September 23rd, 1843, Greece exhibited a tyranny as
despotic as any in the East: patiently and perseveringly she had
striven to obtain from her Bavarian king the freedom so hardly
wrung from a Moslem oppressor. Otho turned a deaf ear to such
meek remonstrance. The Great Powers declined to interfere be-
tween the Grecian people and the Prince who had been their lib-
* Palikar (or hero) was the appellation of the members of the Armatoli.
This was a militia of mountaineers, established by the Byzantine emperors,
and self-constituted and continued under the Ottoman empire. Greece, exclu-
sive of the Morea, was divided into seventeen Armatoliks: the leaders of each
band were called Protopalikari. Kleft (or robber) was considered a proud title:
it was assumed by those who preferred open rebellion and a marauding life to
a peaceable subjection under their Turkish invaders : they had no home, ex-
cept some place of rendezvous ; they were active, hardy, enduring, and pious,
after their fashion. It was feared that these wild mountaineers would prove
very difficult and dangerous to control, when their lawless habits were forced
to give way to civilization and order: they have proved, however, to be far
better materials for a people than was expected ; and as in war they displayed
a firmness, so in peace they display an energy and industry, far superior to
that of the people of the plains.
GREECE.
2fl
sabred ; and an officer told me that long afterwards he had gone
to see the spot, and found the bleached skeletons of that gallant
band still bound together by each silken sash.
I only mention these anecdotes as illustrative of the spirit of
that war : similar instances of self-devotion frequently took place ;
and the daring of the Greek sailor was no less conspicuous than
that of the Kleft and Palikar.*
It is to be remembered that Greece, with a male population
amounting scarcely to the number of the Sultan's army, dis-
united, ignorant of the art of war, without money, resources, or
assistance, defeated the forces of the Ottoman and Egyptian
army, and wrested freedom from their powerful oppressor. This
is all that History will remember: she will cast away the petty
details of treason, jealousy,"and peculation, that probably darken-
ed the day of Marathon as well as that of Missolonghi; and only
tell that Greece, after the lapse of three and twenty centuries,
vindicated the glorious fame and freedom of the past.
Until September 23rd, 1843, Greece exhibited a tyranny as
despotic as any in the East: patiently and perseveringly she had
striven to obtain from her Bavarian king the freedom so hardly
wrung from a Moslem oppressor. Otho turned a deaf ear to such
meek remonstrance. The Great Powers declined to interfere be-
tween the Grecian people and the Prince who had been their lib-
* Palikar (or hero) was the appellation of the members of the Armatoli.
This was a militia of mountaineers, established by the Byzantine emperors,
and self-constituted and continued under the Ottoman empire. Greece, exclu-
sive of the Morea, was divided into seventeen Armatoliks: the leaders of each
band were called Protopalikari. Kleft (or robber) was considered a proud title:
it was assumed by those who preferred open rebellion and a marauding life to
a peaceable subjection under their Turkish invaders : they had no home, ex-
cept some place of rendezvous ; they were active, hardy, enduring, and pious,
after their fashion. It was feared that these wild mountaineers would prove
very difficult and dangerous to control, when their lawless habits were forced
to give way to civilization and order: they have proved, however, to be far
better materials for a people than was expected ; and as in war they displayed
a firmness, so in peace they display an energy and industry, far superior to
that of the people of the plains.