A few years later Greek nationalist groups started to form. Although their energy in the early years was directed to supporting the Greeks in the revolution against the Turks, it soon started to turn towards the British. By 1848, calls for "enosis" with Greece were gaining strength and there were skirmishes with the British Army in Argostoli and Lixouri, which led to some relaxation in the laws and to freedom of the press. Union with Greece was now a declared aim, and by 1849, a growing restlessness resulted in even more skirmishes with the British, which were suppressed by the island's governor, Sir Henry George Ward.