Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-05-27
Translation from French papers.l
SIEGE AND FALL OF MISSOLONGHl.
(Priuate Correspondence.
ZANTE, 8 MARCH.


ZANTE, MARCH.
Heayen profect the Greeks!-Since the 5th OF
las. month such series of events have taken
place, that must content myself to give you
very succint detail, for it would require an en-
tire volume to make known the bravery and
the feats of arms which have immortalized the
defenders Of the cross.
Missolonghi, besieged since the 18th OF
March, 1925, date which it is apropos TO re-
call 10 mind, has seen melted away before lis
walls of mud, Turkish army offuil forty-eight
| thousand combatants, commanded by Roumili
Van.Cv Rechid Pacha Of Kontave. At the
| commencement Of Autumn, the Seraskier ha-
wing reinforced his army with 10000 lireeks,
Bosniacs, and Onlaks, renewed the siege with
| uncommon activity. Ibrahim Pacha arrived on
the 10Th of last November at Patras. His first
care. after having secured the castle OF that
Mace. and of Lepanto, and the fortress OF the
Little Dardanelles, was the speedy establish
ment of an intrenched camp at the mouth OF
the Achelous, where he arrived in person on the
9th of December. A few days after he took
the command in chief Of the army, and ap-
preached, at length, to the head oil the cause
WAYS On the 10th Of the same month. Ills
camp was established in the mountain OF Ara
cynth, and extended into the plain OF Lelante.
The engineers in his pay proceeded to finish
the works formerly sketched by the Austrians,
and the combat commenced between the De-
sieped and the besiegers. The Greeks con-
stan.ly detained advantages in their skirmlsh-
ins sorties, and the establishment Of the Egyp.
tians was great indeed, when they saw ON the
lst of January, sixteen hundred Palicarians,
Dryopeans and Thermopylians, coming from
| I, ,ba;, al
and traverse their ranks, with convoy Of pro-
visions and hscks, with which they entered
Missolohghi.
| Ibrabim Pacha, who is subject to frequent
attacks Of epilepsy, experienced great chagrin
al this event, the consequence Of which would
be to retard his operations. But encouraged
| by Corsican named Morris, who had become
Turk, and who was called Bekir-Aga,-and
| having ordered his last reserves at Patras TO
advance, he resolved to carry Missolonghi or
+, bury himself at the bottom of its trenches. II
| appeared, above all other causes for this reso-
luton, that two commissaries dispatched from
| Constan tinople had declared to him that the
Sultan absolutely demanded at any price the
posses sion of MissoIonghi, as well as the heads
of thirteen thousand christians which that
town contained. The Sultan sent as present
to Ibrahim one hundred and twenty horses, and
thirty female slaves, which the commissaries
had deposited at Smyrna, whence.they were to
be transported to Modon, under the inviolable
flag.
On the 9th of January, Ibrahim and the COM
missa-ies addressed menaclng summons to
the inhabitants Of Missolonghi, the close OF
which was tempered with caresses. 1t was Of
ftred to guarantee 10 them for the future, the
government of hospodar, name which II
was only sufficient to pronounce, TO put all
Greece in a fury. The propositions Of the chief
of the Egyptians having been rejected, he un-
masked his batteries, and up to the oath Janua-
nv. a hail storm Of bombs, howitzers, and bull
lets, fell day and night upon Missolonghi. In
such quantities had the projectiIes accumula-
ted, that they formed masses nearly as conslde-
rable as the ruins which they made, and the
bombs of the enemy scarcely found any thing to
p,lyerize but the heaps of bombs already dis
charged.
The Christians, meanwhile, did not fail to
make frequent sorties, and although in three
men there were scarcely two who did not carry
the mark or the cicatrice Of wound, they sus-
tanned themselves with advantage against the
Barbarians, whose band Of music they destroy
ed, who thus,lost the chance OF being tempted
to give them serenades, or cause them false a.
larms. The enemy, however, made progress.
The Captain Pacha with his fleet held the sea-
His friga,es, manned with Sclavonlans, and
some Infamous deserters from the Christians,
bIockaded the low grounds, by laying at anchor
near Vaslades. But an enemy against whom
resistance is vain famine, menaced those whom
the weapons of the enemy could not reduce
The hearts Of the Christians were torn win an
guish al hearing the cries OF the women and
children for bread, which they could not give
them, but with the strictest economy. TRY TO