by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER VII
A CHANGE OF NAME
The next two days Mr. Beveridge and Horace spent entirely on shore.Speaking modern Greek fluently, they were able to converse with peopleof all classes from the mainland, and they learned from their reportsthat Captain O'Grady's account of the utter confusion existing fromend to end of the country was in no way exaggerated. As soon as theGreeks perceived that Mr. Beveridge was a well-wisher to their cause,and judging him from his possession of a large yacht to be a wealthyman, innumerable schemes were proposed to him, all involving hisplacing himself in the hands of the proposer and advancing him aconsiderable sum of money. These projects Mr. Beveridge resolutelyturned a deaf ear to, his resolution being greatly strengthened byHorace, who distrusted all these plausible adventurers profoundly.
"We must wait, father," he said, "until we see something like astable government in power. When it has been at work a bit, and youfind that it makes its authority respected, restores order, and unitesthe people in a common effort, it will be time enough for you to letthem have money. To give it now would simply be to waste it, and,indeed, worse than waste it, for it would only add to the struggle forpower on which the Greeks are wasting their strength. From all welearn the sailors of Hydra, Spetzas, and Psara are the only men who atpresent are acting with any common object. As everything depends uponcrippling the Turks at sea, I should think we could not do better thanget rid of some of our guns and ammunition by giving them to them. Ifwe could get rid of twenty or thirty tons of our cargo it would put usin first-rate sailing trim, and at any rate get something off ourminds. Then from there we could sail to Athens and get the papers werequire authorizing us to act as a Greek privateer. Of course thatwould be no protection to us if we fell into the hands of the Turks;but we could do nothing until we get them without acting as piratesand rendering ourselves liable to be hung by any European man-of-warthat might overhaul us."
This course was determined upon, to the great satisfaction of WilliamMartyn; and after a stay of three days at Zante sail was again set,and the _Creole_ left the anchorage. It was well that she did so, forthe next day all their Greek sympathies would have been insufficientto prevent their fighting on the other side. An Algerine barque thathad separated from the Turkish fleet, which had just capturedGalaxidhi and had taken possession of thirty-four Greek brigs, wasattacked by eighteen Hydriot ships. She refused to surrender, and madesuch a gallant resistance that the Hydriots did not venture to runalongside and carry her by boarding. The Algerines, knowing that iftheir spars were shot away they would all be killed, ran her ashorenear the southern cape of Zante.
The fight had been witnessed by thousands of refugee Moreots andZanteot peasants, who opened fire upon the Algerines when theylanded. Two English officers with twenty men had gone down from thetown to enforce obedience to the quarantine regulations, which werevery strict. They ordered the Greeks to retire, but these refused, andcontinued to attack the Turks. The officer commanded his men to fireover the heads of the crowd, when the Zanteots at once turned theirmuskets against them. One soldier was killed, and the rest retiredinto a house with the Turks and defended themselves until a strongerbody of English troops came down from the town and rescued them. Forfiring upon the troops and killing one of them five Zanteots wereafterwards tried and executed, and the lord high-commissioner issued aproclamation forbidding the entry of any Turk or Greek men-of-war intoany Ionian port.
The Greek commercial navy, before the outbreak of the revolution,consisted to a large extent of the shipping of the four little islandsHydra, Spetzas, Psara, and Cazos. These islands, which were small andbarren, had sprung into importance by the wise policy of the sultansat the beginning of the eighteenth century. Seeing that the exactionsof their own officials rendered it impossible for the Greek andMussulman sailors to compete with those of other nations, they hadexempted from all taxes and other burdens persons settling on theseislands, and had allowed to them perfect self-government. The resulthad answered their expectations. Colonies of Albanian sailors hadestablished themselves at Hydra and Spetzas, while Greek seamen hadsettled in Psara and Cazos, and all four islands became populous andflourishing, owning among them nearly three hundred craft of fromsixty to four hundred tons.
The contrast between the population and manners of the four islandswas very marked. The two Albanian islands were governed by twelveprimates, elected by the wealthy, while in the Greek islands thegovernment was purely democratic. The Albanians were by far the moresincere and honest, while the people of the two Greek islands were themore courteous. All had early thrown in their lot with therevolution. The Peace of 1815 had caused a great reduction in theprice of grain on the Continent and a fall of freights. Consequentlymany ships remained unemployed, the prosperity of the islandsdiminished, and the sailors became discontented and clamorous foremployment. Spetzas had been the first to declare for the revolution,and had at once sent off some ships, which had captured a Turkishcorvette of twenty-six guns and a brig of sixteen, which, with smallcrews, were waiting at Milos to receive the contingent of sailors fromthe Albanian islands. The Turks, expecting no attack, were taken bysurprise; but the first Greek naval success was dimmed by theMussulman prisoners being all carried to Spetzas, where some were atonce murdered and the rest put to death with horrible tortures.
Psara quickly followed the example of Spetzas, but Hydra was some timebefore it raised the Greek flag. The people were in favour of therevolution, but the wealthy ship-owners, who possessed all the power,were averse to fitting out their vessels for unprofitable service, andopposed the revolution until a popular insurrection broke out andtheir authority was set aside. The united fleet of the three islands,instead of attacking the Turkish fleet, which was occupied inconveying store-ships to the besieged garrisons, swept the seas ofmerchantmen, and attacked and plundered an Austrian vessel. TwoHydriot brigs captured a Turkish ship, with a very valuable cargo,carrying, among other passengers, a recently-deposed sheikh El-Islam,or Patriarch of the Mussulmans, and all his family. These and all onboard were murdered by their captors; but the affair in the endbenefited the Turks, for the captors refused to conform to theregulation that had been laid down, that all booty should be thecommon property of the fleet. Quarrels began between the sailors ofthe different islands, so that the fleet broke up, and was for a longtime useless for any concerted action against the Turks.
The _Creole_ visited the three islands in succession, handing over tothe authorities in each ten guns, with a considerable amount ofpowder and shot, a thousand muskets, and ten thousand rounds ofammunition. There was a large amount of shipping in each of theharbours, and Will Martyn had the _Creole's_ guns all loaded anddouble shotted before entering.
"There is no saying what these fellows may be up to," he remarked toHorace. "Seeing us giving away so large a quantity of valuables, theymay think that we have got a gold mine on board. I don't mean to closean eye while we are in harbour, I can tell you."
Mr. Beveridge, personally, was received with much honour at theseislands, and the guns, which Will Martyn had taken care should be thelargest of those in the hold, were dragged up by the people and placedin the batteries.
The _Creole_ then crossed to the Piraeus. The Acropolis of Athens wasstill held by the Turks, who were closely besieged there. Will Martynlanded with Mr. Beveridge. Horace told his father that he would rathernot accompany him.
"You will be going about and seeing people, father," he said, "and, asyou say, you may have to go to other places to find some of thenominal authorities to sign documents, and so on, authorizing us tohoist the Greek flag, and giving us the usual papers carried byprivateers. This may take time, for you and Martyn think that as theGreeks themselves have no such formalities, but fight the Turks justas they find them, it may be difficult for you to persuade them thatletters of marque are really required authorizing the vessel, as aGreek ship, to capture, burn, and destroy all Turkish vessels she maymeet."
"It is a mere formality, Horace."
"Well, father, I don't think that Martyn or the others look at it atall in that light, and I know they consider it absolutely necessarythat we should have papers of that sort. Even with such papers theysay they expect there will be a lot of difficulty, if they take anyprizes, in disposing of them, and that, unless they have papers signedby the central government, the chances are that the moment a Turkishprize is brought into port, the Greeks will seize it as publicproperty, and want to cut the throats of any Turks prisoners.Certainly we should not stand that, and we should be in the positionof having to fight the Turks at sea and the Greeks in port. So Ishould not be surprised at all if you are ten days, or a fortnight,before you can get all the papers you want. Of course Martyn'ssignature will be necessary to all sorts of things, and as there is nohumbugging him he will be wonderfully useful to you in all sorts ofways."
"But why should you not go with us too, Horace?"
"I would very much rather not, father. Of course I am quite with youin wishing to see Greece independent, but I am so disgusted with allthese stories of the horrible atrocities they have been guilty of, andat the way in which, instead of joining together to fight the Turks,they are all bent only on getting power or spoil, and of behaving morelike a collection of bands of brigands than a united people, that Iwould rather not see any more of them at present, or I shall getregularly to hate them. In a short time, I have no doubt, we shallhear of a lot of things done by the other side. We may be sure thatthe Turks will avenge the eight thousand Mussulmans who were murderedat Tripolitza. We heard at Zante that they had begun it, and then onething will balance the other and I may get enthusiastic about theGreeks again; but at present, father, what I should like to see isthis, that the _Creole_ should be employed as a rescue ship."
"How do you mean, Horace?"
"I mean, father, that we should try to save as many of these wretchedTurks, and their women and children, from massacre as we can; and onthe other hand, that we should try to save as many Greeks as possiblefrom the vengeance of the Turks. There ought to be lots ofopportunities both ways. If we are with the Greeks when they capture aTurkish vessel we can buy off the prisoners. The Greeks are fonder ofmoney than even of blood, and the money will be a deal better spentthat way than if wasted among the politicians, the captains ofbrigands, or primates, and would do good to the cause of Greece bysaving it from dishonour. When the Greeks make a descent upon aTurkish island we could send our boats ashore and take off a lot ofthe inhabitants, and we could do the same thing when the Turks attacka Greek place or island; and if either Greeks or Turks interfere withus at the work, I should say let us thrash them whoever they are. Iconsider that would be a glorious mission, and would be a credit tothe flag we fly whether it is Greek or English; and if I were you Ishould speak out to Kolokotronis, or any other leader you may meet,and tell him frankly that you have come out to help the Greeks witharms and money, but that these massacres will turn all Europe againstthem; and that unless you are provided with an authority to take andhold all Turkish prisoners, and to protect them both from the populaceand the sailors, you will withdraw altogether, and will do your bestto prevent such atrocities, even if it comes to firing upon Greekvessels engaged in them."
"I will do so, Horace," his father said in a tone of decision. "We area match, I fancy, for half a dozen of the Greek ships. They will findus a very different vessel to deal with than those slow-sailing Turks.I quite approve of what you say. For the first outburst of vengeancewhen they rose I am willing to make every allowance; but the revengetaken by the Turks at Kydonia should have reminded them that there areat least a million of their fellow-countrymen in Asia Minor whoselives have been endangered by their atrocities. Henceforth I will, asyou propose, devote myself to saving life, and part of the money thatI had intended for the Greeks shall go to make up to the crew for anyloss they may sustain by missing the chance of taking prizes. I willhoist the Greek flag as I intended, and we, at least, will keep itunsullied."
Horace repeated the substance of the conversation to Will Martyn andthe other two officers, who cordially agreed; for although they had,of course, heard less at Zante of the details of the massacres thantheir employer and his son had done, they had heard enough to fillthem with indignation, and to disgust them with the cause that theyhad come out to defend.
"That will be first-rate," Martyn said, "and I can foresee we shallhave lots of fun, and are likely to end by fighting both parties.There will be plenty for us to do. We will see if we can't cut offsome of the Turkish vessels laden with Greek captives for sale asslaves in the markets of Alexandria; while, as for the Greeks, if weslip in and save their captives they will be like a pack of wolvesafter their prey. If I am to go with your father, Horace, you may besure I will take any opportunity I may get of speaking out, and Ireckon I will open the eyes of some of these Greek swells by the way Iwill give it them. I tell you what, Miller: While I am away do you getup eight of those eighteen-pounders from the hold and mount theminstead of the twelves. Now that she has got so much of her weight outof her she can carry them well enough, and I fancy we are likely towant as heavy metal as we can mount before we have done."
At dinner that day Horace said: "Are you thinking of changing hername, father, when you change your nationality?"
"I wasn't thinking of changing her name at all, Horace," Mr. Beveridgesaid in surprise.
"Well, I thought, father, the Greeks wouldn't understand the name ofthe _Creole_ at all. It was a good name for a slaver and did wellenough for a yacht, and if we ever take her back to England I shouldlike her to be the _Creole_; but I think it would be better to havesome name that the Greeks will understand."
"What name would you propose, Horace?"
"Well, father, I have been thinking of it, and if you have noobjection I should like to call her the _Misericordia_, 'the Pity.' Wecame out here because we pitied the Greeks, and now we pity theunfortunate people, both Turks and Greeks, and you have agreed thatour mission shall be to save both of them from slaughter."
"I think it would be a very good name, Horace. The _Misericordia_ itshall be. What do you say, Captain Martyn?"
"I think it would be a capital name, Mr. Beveridge," Martyn said, "andthe crew will fight all the better when they know what the name meansand what we intend to do. Sailors have no particular love for theGreeks--they always regard them as treacherous beggars; and they haveno particular hostility against the Turks, who fought pluckily enoughon our side in Egypt, and have always been friendly with us. I am surethat when our fellows understand that what we are going in for is tosave women and children from being murdered, whether they happen to beGreeks or Turks, you will find them ready to do anything."
The next day Mr. Beveridge and Will Martyn landed, and Miller set thecrew at work to mount eighteen-pounders in place of the twelves, andto get the ammunition for them into the fighting magazines in place ofthat of lighter calibre. Zaimes had accompanied Mr. Beveridge. Marcoremained on board, but had leave every morning to go on shore thefirst thing after breakfast, and to remain there until late in theafternoon, when he came off in time for dinner. He brought news thatit was believed the Turks in the Acropolis could not hold out muchlonger, as their provisions were running very short. After an absenceof ten days the party on shore returned, and an hour after they did sothe English flag was lowered and that of Greece was hoisted, while aflag with the word _Misericordia_ replaced that of _Creole_ at themasthead. Captain Martyn called the crew together.
"My lads," he said, "you all knew that when we arrived here we weregoing to hoist the Greek flag instead of our own, and that we weregoing to act as a Greek privateer against the Turks. That, you see, isdone, and we are authorized by the Greek government to capture ordestroy any Turkish vessels we may meet. You see we have changed hername, and I will tell you why Mr. Beveridge has done this. We aregoing to fight for Greece, but at the same time, as British sailors,we are not going to stand by and see men, women, and children murderedin cold blood, whether they are Turks or anyone else.
There has beena great deal too much of this sort of thing done on both sides, and wemean to stop it as much as we can. We are going to prevent themassacre of Greeks by Turks, and I hope we shall manage to lay handson some of the Turkish vessels carrying Greek women and childrencaptive to sell them as slaves; but on the other hand we intend tosave as many Turks as we can from being massacred by the Greeks, andthat is the reason why Mr. Beveridge has renamed his craft the_Misericordia_, which means 'the Pity.' I am sure, my lads, that thereis not a British sailor who would not risk his life to save those ofwomen and children, and that is what we mean to make our first object,although we hope to lower some Turkish flags before we have done withthem; but in any case we mean to save life whether it is Greek or Turkwe have to fight in doing so. It is a work, my lads, in which we mayall be proud to take part, and in which, whether we fight under theEnglish flag or the Greek, we shall be doing a duty dear to everyBritish sailor. Now, my lads, we will give three cheers for the_Misericordia_."
Three hearty cheers rang out from the sailors. They had all been onshore at Zante, and had heard enough from the soldiers theyfraternized with there to fill them with disgust and indignation atthe conduct of the Greeks, and this announcement that they wouldhenceforth put a stop to such cruelty, even if they had to fight forit, filled them with satisfaction.
"We had hard work of it," Martyn said to Horace, talking over hisvisit ashore. "In the first place they wanted us to hand over allprisoners we took, and half the plunder and value of the prizes, totheir miserable government. We told them that we would see them at thebottom of the sea first. I was with your father at a meeting with thefellows they call Kolokotronis and Odysseus, and half a dozen other oftheir leaders, and you should have seen how your father spoke out. Hegot upon his legs and he just poured it out. I did not know, ofcourse, what he was saying, but he told me a little about itafterwards, and I could see by their faces that it was hot and strong.
"He told them that their countrymen had disgraced their cause byconduct worthy only of the lowest savages, and that if they did notgive him the authority he demanded, to interpose to save Turks frommassacre, he would sail on to Constantinople, hoist the Turkish flag,and fight against the ships that behaved like bloodthirsty piratesrather than Greek patriots, and that they would find his ship a verydifferent opponent to the Turks. I did not think your father had it inhim. It was splendid, I can tell you, and the faces of those fellowswere worth seeing. I don't expect they ever had such a straighttalking to before. I believe altogether he spent about a thousandpounds in bribing a dozen of them; anyhow he got what he wanted. Inthe first place we are authorized to hoist the Greek flag, and tocapture and destroy Turkish vessels; and in the second, to dispose aswe please of all prisoners. We may take on board Turkish fugitives anddispose of them at our pleasure, free from all interference from anyGreek authorities or Greek ships. We are to pay a quarter of the valueof all prizes and booty into the treasury of the central government,and are to send ashore to-morrow five thousand muskets and twentyrounds of ammunition for each.
"Your father has had a hard time of it. I don't believe there has beena single Greek politician or leader who hasn't called upon himprivately, to what they call borrow money from him. At last I had toregularly mount guard over him and set Zaimes at his door to tell allcomers that he was too unwell to see anyone, which was not far fromthe truth, for he was regularly upset at the meanness and trickery ofthe people he had come to spend his fortune to assist. However, thankgoodness it is all over. I am precious glad that I am back, I can tellyou, for I believe if I had stayed there much longer I should not havebeen able to have prevented myself from walking into some of them.Your father has been trying to find out whether they have got anygeneral plan of defence; but they have no more plan than a lot ofchildren would have if they got up a rebellion. Everyone wants to be aleader; everyone complains of everyone else. They scarcely seem togive the Turks a thought. All their energies are occupied by their ownmiserable squabbles and rivalry. Well, I don't want to set foot onshore again as long as we are out here, unless it is on some realexpedition."
"What about the Turks in the Acropolis, Martyn?"
"They are negotiating, but the poor beggars know there is no faith tobe placed in the Greeks, and that so far there is not a singleinstance in which they have kept their promises for the safety ofgarrisons who have surrendered. They want the guarantee of theEuropean consuls for their safety, but they can't give it, as theyhave no force here to protect them. I told our consul that we wouldlend him the whole of our crew if he liked, and that I thought wecould pretty well clear out the town; but he said that that would bewell enough if there was no one to protect. But that as there aresomething like two thousand men, women, and children up in thecitadel, fifty men could never protect them against the mob. However,I hope the Turks will be able to hold out for some time yet. TheGreeks only guess that their provisions are running short, and if aman-of-war, French, or English, or Austrian, comes into the harbourthe consuls will ask its commander to protect the Turks, and will thenguarantee their safety."
"When are we going to sail?" Horace asked.
"To-morrow. The two Greeks will go ashore the first thing in themorning to lay in a fresh stock of meat and vegetables. As soon as allare on board we will get up anchor. I have heard lots of shockingstories on shore from Greeks who have escaped from Asia Minor and theTurkish islands. There have been massacres in almost every city wherethere were Greeks; at Smyrna, Adrianople, Salonika, Cos, Rhodes, inCrete and Cyprus, and as far as I can hear the Turks have altogethermassacred nearly as many men, women, and children as the Greeks havedone. I saw General Gordon, who is a warm friend of the Greeks, andhe said that it was impossible to justify the ferocity of the Greeks,or to deny that a comparison between them and the Turks would give thelatter the palm of humanity; that is, if the term humanity could beemployed to either.
"We went up and saw some of the troops, as they call them, active,hardy-looking fellows. They seem in earnest enough, and are ready, asa French officer said to me, to submit to anything but discipline. Hesaid that the Klephts and armatoli are as fine material for mountainwarfare as one could wish to see; one day honest, hard-workingpeasants, the next engaged in partisan war, or in raids on theirneighbours; frugal, hardy, active, and in their way brave; men whowould never storm a position or stand against the attack of Turkishinfantry or cavalry, as the war has everywhere shown so far; but whowould defend a hillside or hold a ravine against good troops, and whendriven out, make another stand at the first position they came to.Anyhow they are worth a lot more than the townspeople, who brag andvapour and go about armed to the teeth, but who take precious goodcare never to get within range of a Turkish musket."
Early the next morning some large boats came off, and the muskets andammunition were transferred to them, and at noon the two Greeksbrought off a boat-load of fresh meat, vegetables, fowls, eggs, fruit,and other stores. As soon as these were slung on board, the anchor wasgot up, and the _Misericordia_, under a gentle breeze, stole out tosea.
"That is better, Miller," Will Martyn said as he looked over the side."She has not gone like that since we shook out our sails for the firsttime. I should say she is just about in her right trim now, and isready to fight or sail anything of her size afloat. How easily shegoes through the water. There is scarcely a ripple in her wake. She isa beauty."
"Which port now, Martyn?"
"I was talking it over last night with Mr. Beveridge, and as soon aswe get well off land I am going to shape a course that will take usdown between Cyprus and Alexandria. It is of no use cruising abouthere. The Turks only move about under a convoy of their men-of-war,and it would not be much better across on the other side, for theGreek vessels are everywhere on the look-out. But they don't likegoing far from home, and if we cruise well to the south we shall havea good chance of falling in with craft bound for Alexandria fromCyprus, Crete, and Syria, and any or all of them will be likely to becarrying Greeks captives to the slave-ma
rkets at Alexandria, Tunis, orTripoli."
"Those are the sort of craft to meet with," Miller said. "I supposethey are sure to be armed. Of course one would be glad to rescuecaptives and save them from their horrible fate. But there will bemuch more satisfaction in doing it if we have a bit of a fight first."
"Yes, I should say they were certain to be armed. No Turk wouldventure to sea at present unless he thought himself strong enough tobeat off the attack of at least two or three of these Greek vessels.After cruising about for a bit we intend to dodge about Cyprus and theother Turkish islands, keeping near the coast so as to give Greekfugitives a chance of coming on board. We know that there have beenmassacres at all these islands, and may be again, and there must bethousands of unfortunate creatures who would give anything for such achance of getting away. We can anchor in quiet bays, for we need haveno fear of any boat attack; and if the Turks come out in force we havealways the option of running away or fighting."
"That is a very good programme, Martyn. We are not likely, as you say,to find any Greek craft cruising about between Cyprus and Alexandria.Turkish vessels going up towards the Dardanelles, or coming down fromthere, are prizes worth taking, for they may have pashas and richofficials on board; but down there they would be less likely to haveanything that would repay the Greeks for the risks of a fight. As forrisking anything to save their countrymen, Mr. Beveridge was sayinghe heard that at the massacre of the Greeks at Kydonia, although theGreek fleet, under Tombazes, was close at hand, and their launcheswent on shore and rescued four thousand of their countrymen, theycompelled them all to purchase their passage to the nearest Greekisland by giving up the greater part of the property they had saved."
"Brutes!" Martyn exclaimed with great emphasis. "How these fellows canbe descendants of the old Greeks beats me altogether."
"The old Greeks were pretty cruel," Horace, who had just joined them,said. "They used to slaughter their captives wholesale, and mercywasn't among their virtues. Besides, my father says that except in theMorea very few indeed are descendants of the Greeks; the rest areBulgarian or Albanian, neither of whom the Greeks of old would haverecognized as kinsmen."
"It is a case of distance lending enchantment to the view," Millerlaughed; "our illusions are gone."
"Never mind, we must make the best of them, Miller; they are notGreeks, but at any rate they are all that is left of the Greeks. Theiractions show that their Christianity is a sham, but at the same timethey are an intelligent race capable of some day becoming a greatpeople again, and they are struggling to throw off the yoke of a raceintellectually their inferiors and incapable of progress in any sortof way. That is what my father said to me as we were walking up anddown the deck this morning. That is the light I mean to look at it inthe future. It is a capable people struggling with an incapable one,and if they are savage and vindictive and debased it is the faults notof themselves but of those who have so long been their masters."
"Good," Martyn said; "that is the most satisfactory view of the thing,and we will stick to it and shut our ears as much as possible infuture against all stories to the Greeks' disadvantage."
In the afternoon a fleet of vessels were seen standing out from theland.
"There is one of the Greek fleets," Captain Martyn said. "Now we willtry her rate of sailing with them. Stand on for a little bit longerand then haul her wind on the same tack they are sailing."
The trial was perfectly satisfactory. By nightfall the Greek fleetwere far behind, and the _Misericordia_ again shaped her course forCyprus. For a week they cruised backwards and forwards under easy sailabout midway between Cyprus and Alexandria, without meeting with asingle craft flying the Turkish flag. Half a dozen vessels wereoverhauled, but these were all Austrian, Italian, or British. Theappearance of the schooner evidently excited profound distrust in theminds of the masters of all these vessels, for they all hoisted everyrag of sail they could set and did their best to escape from her, butCaptain Martyn had no difficulty in overhauling them and satisfyinghimself of their nationality. The astonishment of the masters when thesmart gig manned by six English sailors rowed alongside was unbounded,and was only equalled by their satisfaction.
"You have given us a nice fright," the master of one of the Englishships said to Miller, who, accompanied by Horace, had boarded him."What on earth are you flying that Greek flag for? We took you for apirate, for half these fellows are no better when they get thechance."
"We are a Greek privateer." Miller said, "and carry letters of marqueissued by the Greek government. We only wanted to assure ourselvesthat you were not Turks."
"Turks be jiggered!" the master said angrily. "I should have thoughtanyone with half an eye could have seen that we weren't one of thoselubberly Turks."
"Quite so, captain, we made that out some time ago, and we have onlyoverhauled you to ask whether you know of a Turkish ship likely to besailing from any of the Eastern ports. Our object is to rescue Greekwomen and children on their way to the slave-markets."
"Then give us your flipper," the master said; "that is a business anEnglish sailor needn't be ashamed of, though, as for sailing under aGreek flag, I would almost as lief sail under the skull andcross-bones, for nine cases out of ten it means pretty nearly the samething. I have known many a ship sail in among those Greek islands andnever be heard of again when there had been no storm to account forher disappearance. I would as lief anchor a ship near land in theMalay Archipelago as among the Greek islands. Still the women andchildren ain't to blame for that. I was at Broussa two months ago andthe slave-market was chock-full of Greek girls and children, and Ithought then what a burning shame it was that Europe didn't interfereto put down such villainous doings. Well now, as to Turkish ships, Idon't think you are likely to meet with any hereabouts. The Greekshave given them a bad scare, and I fancy that all the ships fromCyprus and from Aleppo and the other Syrian ports will run down duesouth till they sight land, and will hug that as near as they dare gotill they get within shelter of the batteries of Alexandria. If youare after Turkish vessels you must stand south and anchor as closeinland as the water will let you. Get down those lofty spars of yours.You don't want them. That craft of yours sails like a witch. We thinkthe _Scarborough_ is a fast brig. You went through the water threefeet to our two, so you can do without your topsails. I can tell youthe look of your craft is enough to frighten one fifteen miles away; amore rascally-looking vessel I never saw, she looks like a pirate allover."
"She was a slaver at one time," Miller said.
"Ah! that accounts for it. I thought that long low hull and thoselofty spars were never put together for an honest purpose. You seem tocarry mighty heavy metal," he went on, looking at the _Misericordia_,which lay with her head sails aback a few hundred yards away. "Foureach side and a pivot; they look like eighteens."
"They are eighteens," Miller said. "You see we have got to keep asharp eye on friends as well as foes."
"I should think so. Well, I have just come out from Larnaca. I heardfrom our consul that there were bad doings in the north of the island,and that the Christians were having a very rough time of it allthrough Cyprus. I have no doubt there are a lot of Christians hidingthere who would give every stiver they have got in the world to be onboard this craft."
"And you say there were some massacres going on when you were there?"
"Yes, and I heard that the Turks were attacking one of the Christianvillages on the north-western corner of the island. It was some way upon Mount Olympus, a few miles from the coast. Morphou Bay is thenearest point to it. I hear it is naturally a strong place, andChristians from other villages round have gone in there. The peopleattacking it are not troops, who I fancy have nothing to do with thesemassacres, but the natives of the Mussulman villages. Some of the poordevils may have got down to the coast, and you might pick some up ifyou were to cruise along there."
"Perhaps we might," Horace said; "at any rate it would be worth a try.We will go on board again at once."
"Will you have
a glass of wine first? I got hold of some good stuff atLarnaca. Good wine is cheap there now."
"No, thank you, we will be off at once," Miller said.
"Well, good-bye, gentlemen, and good luck to you! There is nothing Iwould like better than to be going for a cruise with you for a fewmonths, for no vessel can do better work than that which you areengaged on."
Miller and Horace dropped down into their boat, and were rowed back tothe schooner.