struggle for Greek independence are grievously disappointing. The first leaders of the revolutionary committee which was working for this end, known as the Philiké Hetairia, were self-seeking men who deservedly lost the confidence of their followers. The movement did not make much headway till it was taken up by the peasants,[1] and then it was conducted in some places with savage ferocity. On the 5th of April, 1821, a thanksgiving service, at which twenty-four priests officiated while 5,000 fighting men gathered round, was held at Kalmata, in the open air, by the side of a rushing torrent, to celebrate the success of the Greeks in Messenia. Two days after this, Petrobey, the commander of the insurgent army, issued a proclamation in conjunction with a few primates—local Greek officials, corresponding to the Constantinople Phanariots—whom he designated the "Senate of Messenia." It was addressed to all the Christian nations, and its object was to seek their assistance in throwing off the Ottoman yoke. But the Greeks had to fight for their liberties. Dreadful scenes accompanied the popular risings which now ensued. Perhaps the worst case was that of the Morea, where the Greeks murdered the whole Mussulman population, amounting to ten or fifteen thousand peaceable men, women, and children, scattered over the peninsular, and quite helpless because overpowered by numbers. They first killed all they could lay hold of in the country parts. Some escaped to the towns. But one after another the towns were taken, and all the Turks who had sought refuge in them were also massacred. This was not a mere savage outburst; it was planned and instigated by the Hetairists. And it succeeded. The Morea was freed from the Turkish tyranny. The grim fact cannot be denied. The most damning evidence of the evil of despotism is seen in its destruction of natural human sympathies among the slaves it debases by its cruelty.
The savage method of seizing the prize of liberty had to be paid for at a heavy price. The sultan had already
- ↑ See Findlay, Greek Revolution, vol. i. p. 195.
