The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-17 00:00:00

A CAPTIVITY WITH GREEK
BRIGANDS.

Mr. Sotereponlos, late Minister of Finance at
Athens, has written the following account of his de.
tention by Greek brigand. The candid simplicity
with which it reveals the morel feelings of the writer
and the political views of the brigands renders all
comment superfluous. It le dated October 21,1866 :

- -
Since Greece became independent I am the first person in
this or the neighbouring departments who has been carried
off by brigands. I hope 1 may iw the la.t. I was taken
sitting at the door of niy country house, and detained cap-
tive tirrty-stx days. During thin time I passed the nights
in the open air with no other covering than a woollen coat
to protect me from the cold and ram ; and I remained Ire
quently all day in irriga:ed fle!ds of maim, exposed to the
Beroe rays of the sun, deprived of necessary nonrishment,
and often of water to allay my thirst. I wes not released
until the brigands received 00,000 drachm.ue in gold u my
ransom and after I had expended 1000') drachmas more in
consequence of the high price of gola, the necessity of send-
ing meow' moongers Oa foot and on In orseliack to different
places, and the payment of 5,000 drachmas of which I WM
plunthred by men witrumt col...dance, while my relations
were running here and there with my ransom pursued at
times by the Government authorities and at times by bands
or criminals who followed them to murder them and get
possession of the ransom money, my relations being unable
to come In contact with the men charged to receive my
ransom, on account of the measures adopted by the Go-
vernment authorities.
. . . . .

In the obecmity of the night on which I was token prisoner
I was unable to Owen° the mustier of the brigands who en-
tered my storoperty, lint at the first halts" made, about twenty
minutes from Kyparlsia, before the building of the Parterre,-
?totes, I ohserverd that I was escorted by flee brigands, two
of whom, disgusting from the filth of their clothes, did not
coiestal themselves, telling me (and I think they did not
deceive me) that they belonged to the hand of Lingo., that
they had separated from it, and proposed to I tin the hand of
Kits's, in Attica, that the name of one was Miters Laid's-
winos anti of the other irthemloe. Thia last appeared from
his •ccettat to belong to the clan, of ehephertivlacke. The
other three, who always concealed themselves from me
during the day, were, as far as I could lodge from their
ore.. and accent, men of Alonistena, or else Izokonlana. I
have no doubt that my captivity was planned and arranged
by persons who desired to ruin me, and who, In order to
succeed in their scheme, bad represented falsely to the
brigands that I ponessed &colossal fortune, in order to make
them demand an enormoue ransom which I should be unable
to pay, and thus the brigands would be led to murder me.
Doling the first night my companions said—
"We are positively informed that yin hive 200,000 drach-
mae in the hank, •nd that your landed property Is worth
200,000 more. We intended, therefore, to demand a melons
of 300 000 drachmae, for we thought the remaining 100 00d
drachmas would suffice for you to live, particulorly as you
have no children lint on reflection we thought it would be
a crime in the eyes of God to deprive • political man of the
mean. of preserving Ms influence in order to serve the pur-
poses of hle enemies. We here, therefore, restricted our
demand In the letter we have sent to Madame Soteropoulos
to only 00,000 drachmae. We might have seized somehody
of no political importance belonging to the class called pro-
, piston and have obtained more money, for such people do
not require that we should allow them to retain anything
But we preferred taking • gentleman like yon, partly in
order to give • lesson to Ministers of State, national rept.
nentatives, deputes, and in general all politioal men who,
after they have made • revolution and Model otlvrs to
corninit, crimes, neglect to restore tranquillity by a general
amnesty ; but, on the contrary, every day out off the In,ads
of brave men on the scaffold, partly also because we desired
to make a capture that would create a sensation.”

_
My captivity would only have lasted fourteen days If the
Imprudent measures 4 the Goverment had not prolonged it
by the add Dion of twenty-two more The brigands consider
it as most dishonourable in a proleuionel light to allow a
prisoner to be recaptured alive, and accordingly If a hand
euiteued rich a Magi soeful violation of the law, of honour
it would forfeit all kind of respect among Its fellows, and
would be unable to exerctm its prof -salon. Consequently
there is no example of a prisoner baring been caved by the
pursuit of the Cloverornmt authorities, for the orfgawle,
keeping their prisoner close to them, and even hound, have
always time enongh to kill him when they nnd that they
can carry him cit no farther. Whenever anynody ha, been
taken, their relations have always urgently entreated the
Goverernent to stop all pursuit, and nearly alwam there
kmex been found functiooarin,nilPeriornr subordinate, who,
having a just way of appreciating the circumstances, or else
moved by philanthropy, have stopped every movement tend-
ing to put the life of the neptured man in danger or to
throw obstacles In the way of paying the ransom, the
British Minister himself, during the month of December
last, when three English travellers were taken In Acarnania,
asked nothing, but that the pursuit oi the brigrinds should
stop, for he knew that If the {pursuit Continued his relations
would be murdered.
During my ciaptivlty not only did the pursuit not cense,
but, on cite contrary, it was carried on with envious' activity,
and the offices of the mayora are filed with reiterated ordery
of the Government autnorities to continue the pursuit in
mine to find and capture the beig.todo, no of therm
order, make no mention ot the safety of the prisoner, and
others meek of it as a second ary object, and one which can I
only be taken into oonaideration in so far as it is reconcil-
able with the extermination of hfiesndlitie. indeed, I have
seen an order of I know not what prefect oy sob-prof ect, which,
coot rac jeting the report which it says weren't:rad by my rela-
tions, that the Government had ordered the pursuit to be
stopped, commands It to be actively continued without any
Interruption nneer the penalty of the severest punishment
for those who elan neglect their duty. But that which
particularly tilled me with honor is a semi official order,
signed. I believe, by the secretary of the sub prefecture of
Olympia, and which I saw in the hands of the demarch of
Heroes, the commune in which 1 wee released by the
brigands. Tote order 5a75:-
-410,103 &ohm= is. to be paid to the brigands by ea

_
-To',Mons of Soteropou'os, Lod 50,000-M•aohnsas Old offered.,
O reward to those who arrest or kill the. bandits. This
mates a total of 130 000 draehmu, which will belong to
those who can slay the brigands at the moment they metre
the ransom "

This order to excite the seal of the ettlisens In pursuit of
the brigands has this of immoral about it, that, not counting
either my life or the lives of my relation. for anything, It
exposed them to Imminent danger by an attack at the mo-
ment of paying the ransom. sod that It proposed to make my
own money, which I had paid to obtain my liberty, • recom-
pense for the destruction of the brigand.
Although matinees of this severity and so contrary to the
law, of humanity were taken in my case for the lest time,
I do not complain, became, the agents of the Government
did not consider that they were tinder any obligation to do
for • deputy belonging to the Opposition that which hal
always been done for • simple peasant Ent Ido complain
that the Government authorities watched and tracked my
reiations who were charged with the ransom, and by so doing
retarded the pat Meld, which ought to have been ma is on
the '3rd of August Until the luth if September, and thus
prolonged my captivity an I often exposed my life to danger,
besides inflicting on me an additinnal expenditure of 8,000
drachmae