The Sun.
London, England, 1822-06-28 00:00:00

MASSACRE OF THE GREEKS AT CONSTANTI-

NOPLE AND SCIO.

The following affecting appeal from the Greeks
at Constantinople to their brethren and country-
men here, was received by the last mail from
Turkey :

" Constantinople, May 25, 11122.

" Dear and beloved Brethren and Countrymen,—We doubt
not that the news contained herein must have already reached
you, and fallen like a thunder-bolt on your hearts. What
more dreadful than the knowledge that our illustrious and in-
nocent countrymen—ten of them in prison here, and those in
the castle of Scio, 95 in all—universally esteemed and respect.
ed, chosen and held as hostages for more than a year past,
have at last, without a single motive, without even the shadow
of a personal accusation against them, been barbarously exe-
cuted ? 'We at first deeply lamented the unmerited restraint
put upon the persons of those now no more ; their death,
ignominious and cruel, in the first burst of grief nearly para.
lysed our faculties ; but these we look upon now as enjoying
eternal and immutable felicity ; our pity is no longer their due,
but it flows for those unfortunates who have survived, and who
henceforth are doomed to tyranny unexampled in history, and
privations of every kind. Who can, without shuddering, read
of the total ruin, the universal desolation, of our famed and once
happy isle (Scio) ; the destruction of all its inhabitants,
nearly one hundred thousand, who, except a very few who
almost miraculously escaped' from those ill-fated shores, have
fallen victims to the sword, to fire, hunger, and slavery—that
worst of all evils ? Who can, without feelings of indignation,
without execrating the perpetrators of these horrid acts, behold
a whole city, lately so flourishing, now one heap of ruins; whole
villages, innumerable country seats, a prey to the flames; our
celebrated school, library, hospital for the sick, hundreds of
churches richly adorned—all, all one confused mass of smok-
ing rubbish ! Our island, lately so much frequented by Euro.
peans, and more especially by English families of the first rank,
will now have only her ashes to shew the passing stranger.—
Nor is this, so dreadful in itself, the most dire of our calami-
ties. The slavery of so many respectable women, young people,
and children of both sexes, sent off to different parts of Asia—
the markets of this city and Smyrna filled with women and young
people of the first rank, and who have received the best educa-
tion ! What can be more dreadful than this ? Happy, thrice
happy those whom the steel of the assassin has snatched from
scenes so harrowing to the feelings ; how miserable those
still suffered to exist, who see the sufferings, hear the cries and
piteous accents of their wives, children, and relatives, and are
witnesses to the barbarotis treatment this devoted and innocent
people receive from the wretches who have them in their
power ! What can be laid to our charge ? We poor Sciots,
who, from the beginning, have remained faithful, are re-
warded with death and slavery. It is well known, as soon as
the Porte heard of the insurrection in the Mores, and sundry
islands of the Archipelago, it sent here a Pacha, having with
him about three thousand troops ; the whole of the expences of
this garrison was defrayed by our island, which, in the course of
about fourteen months, paid more than 2,700,000 piastres, each
according to his means. Besides that, the Sultan ordered a
choice to be made of sixty of the most considerable and re-
spectable from our. countrymen, beginning by our Arch-
bishop Plato, the elder, and other principal inhabitants. When
the news of the invasion of the imprudent Samiotes first spread
in Scio, the principal inhabitants waited on the Pacha to apprise
him of it. NVhat was his answer ?—to send into the castle, as
hostages, some more of these innocent men, and to transport
all the provisions out of the city into the citadel, not leaving
any whatever for the poor inhabitants of the city, who were so
numerous. A month after, when the Samiotes landed, the
Pacha sent some of the hostages, with several Turks, to pre-
vail on the Samiotes to evacuate the island; but they impru-
dently resolved to advance, and told these ministers of peace
that they would sooner put them to death than do so. The
Pacha then shut himself up in the castle with all the mili-
tary, taking with him all the hostages. It was understood
that a number of the peasantry had joined the Samiotes ;
they were in a manner forced to it, being apprehensive of
the Samiotes themselves, and they were only armed with sticks
and staves. Eleven days after, the Turkish fleet arrived at
the island, and landed fifteen thousand soldiers, who,
joined by the 3,000 in the castle, being unable to attack and
defeat the 3,000 Samiotes, used their weapons against the inno-
cent and disarmed inhabitants, and turned their fury against
women and children, killing, burning, and taking in slavery all
the inhabitants of the place ; the men they slaughtered, the
women and children they brutally treated and huddled toge-
ther in one of the large squares, which contained several hun-
dred of the most respectable families ; they have not left a stone
upon a stone—all destroyed, all ruined !It would fill volumes
to record the different scenes of horror which the ruffians were
guilty of—humanity shudders at it. But this universal desola-
tion had not yet satisfied the blood-thirsty followers of Mo-
hammed ; they had heaped upon their trembling and tender
victims all the bitterness of their fanaticism—ninety-five men,
the first of their nation, both as to character and property,
omen who had always followed the paths of rectitude in their
commercial transactions--whose relations were established in
almost every known commercial city in the known world—men
innocent of any.machination against the Turkish Government,
and who could not, if even they would, have been participa-
tors in the rising of the island, since they had been 14 months
under the grasp of the Turkish satrap. Ten of these were at
Constantinople, the remainder at Scio. Lord Strangford made
strenuous efforts to save them—neglected no remonstrance—
evinced the greatest ardour in the cause of suffering innocence,
and thought he had succeeded in sheltering them from their
impending fate, having obtained a promise from the Porte that
no harm should be done them, when it suddenly gave orders
for their execution. The ten in Constantinople were beheaded,
and the 83 in Scio were hung outside the castle, in that very
square where so many of the slaves were placed, in sight of
the Turkish fleet, who had their decks covered with Greek
slaves. Oh ! how the heart sickens at such refinement of
cruelty, and turns with horror from that malice that could
take delight in deriding the mental agony of the innocent
sufferers in this tragic scene. What a number of wives were
forced to be spectators of the cruel death of the husbands
of their affections —to see at the same time their suckling
babes, torn from their breasts, thus bereft at once of their
support and their hopes ! Many driven to despair by this bar-
barous usage threw themselves into the sea, others stabbed them.
selves to prevent the loss of honour, to them worse than death,
to which they were every moment exposed from the barbarians ;
but, alas ! let us draw a,,veil upon those who have thus sunk
untimely into the grave ; let us not harrow up your souls with
the recital of their atrocities ; their sufferings are over, and
their felicity, let us hope, begun !' It is now time to turn your
sympathy towards the unfortunate survivors of the general
wreck—to call, dear countiymen, your attention to the misera-
ble naked state of thousands of our Sciots, with which the
markets here, at Smyrna, and Scio, are glutted. Picture to
yourselves children of the tenderest age, till now nursed with the
most delicate attention, driven about with only a piece of cloth
round their infant limbs, without shoes or any other cover-
ing, having nothing to live upon but a piece of bread thrown
to them by their inhuman keepers—ill treated by them—sold
from one to the other, and all in this deplorable situation,
exposed to be brought up in the 3lahometan religion, and
lose sight of the precepts of our holy religion. We see all
this ; yet, alas ! what can we do tere, reduced to three or
four, who, if found out, would also be exterminated without
mercy ? What we could do, we have done ; but how little among
so many claimants to our charity. You, brothers, friends,
and countrymen, are in the capital of England, the centre of
philanthropy ; you live amongst a people always famed for
their generous feelings towards the unfortunate, for their dis-
like to tyranny, and their support of the oppressed. Beg, pray,
entreat, appeal, to their feelings, call upon them as Britons, as
men, as fellow beings it is in the cause of humanity and of
religion : they cannot, will not, be deaf to your prayers. They
will afford us, as far as lies in their power, the means of re-
deeming the captive, of aiding those families that are in a state
of nudity and starvation, who will soon arrive in almost every
port of the Mediterranean, when they have been enabled to fly
from a yoke worse than death. We rely upon your endeavours,
and still more upon the high character of the nation among
whom you inhabit: thousands of hands are raised towards you
to claim your interference in behalf of your oppressed country-
men : thousands of hearts will feel grateful for your assistance.
Brethren and countrymen, exert yourselves in behalf of huma-
nity.—With tearful eye we cordially salute you, and beg you
will pray to God for our safety,
" YOUR BROTHERS AND COUNTRYMEN."