The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-26
Old Greek HerOism Revived In Gambia.
From the Herald.

From the Herald
Our Athens correspondent has given, in a
letter recently published, the details Of the
fighting and indiscriminate slaughter of Turks
and Greek Christians at the convent of Area.
dion This convent, which is situated in a
strong position in the department of Rethym.
nos, was occupied by five hundred and forty
persons, three hundred and forty-three of whom
were women and children, leaving one hundred
and ninety-seven men capable of bearing arms.
On the goth Of November Mustapha Pacha left
his headquarters at Episcopi, with twelve thou
sand men, and advanced upon the convent, de-
manding the surrender of the garrison. The
refusal OF the Cretans was followed by
tremendous fire from the Turkish artillery, and
the bombardment was kept up for two days and
nights. ....
AT iepgth, a breach having been effected, the
Turks, who mad suffered heavy losses, poured
into the court of the convent Barricading
themselves in the surrounding cells, the Chris
tians bravely resisted for SIX hours, and then
desperately resolved to fire the powder maya
zine. A monk applied the match, and tre-
mendOus explosion killed two thousand Turks
on the spot wounding large numbers besides,
and destroying all the Christians except thirty
nine men, and about sixty women and children.
The latter were taken prisoners and carried off
TO Rethymnos. Among upwards of a thousand
wounded Turks vas brotherin-law of Mustapha
Pacha. The Turkish army is reported to have
been sorely disprlted by the disaster.
This incident IN the Canadian revolution
should on the other hand, encourage the Gre
tans aud enlist in their behalf the sympathies of
the whole CHRISTIAN world, 1t reveals the fact
that the old heroic spirit still survives, to
which, according TO Hcrodctus, the Greek Dema
Tatus bore testimony when asked by XerXes,
after the latter had surveyed the immense hosts
wheIewith he was about to invade Greece by
land and sea, whether the Greeks would presume
TO resist his power "You may depend upon it,"
replied Demaratus, "Chat your propositions
which threaten Greece with serVitude will be
rejected and il all the other Greeks side with
YOU seainst them, the Lacedemonians viii
engage you in battle. Make no inquiries as to
their number; for If they shall have but a thou.
sand men, or even fewer, they will fight you."
The same spirit animated LeoDidas, of whom
Plutarch relates that when asked how he dared
to encounter so prodigious multitude as COM
posed the army of Xerxes with so few men, he
replied: "If you reckon by numbers, all Greece
is not able to oppose a small part of that army;
but il by courage, the number / have with me
is sufficient" This was the spirit which fired Leo
midas and hsthree hundred Spartans when they
defended the pass OF Thermopyl@ and immor-
talized its name. All are familiar with the
numerous instances In which this spirit again
broke forth glOriously during the seven years
struggle of modern Greece against Turkish
oppression. From 1921 until the battle Of
Nayarino in 1927, when the Turco.E Egyptian
fleet annihilated by the combined squad
rons was OF ENGLAND, France, and Russia, this re
markable contest was carried on by the Turks
with such atrocious barbarity, and by the
Greeks with such heroic bravery as to engage
the sympathy and the active interference Of ali
Christian nations. 1t is shame that sym.
pathy and interference should be withheld from
the Cretans who are now displaying the same
A remonstrance at least should be made IA
once by the United States Goyernment-now
far more emphatically than In 1921, one of tht
great powers Of the earth-against Turkish
cruelties and ravages in Gambia, which pain
fully remind us of the blood shed at Constan
tirOple, the execution of the patriarch thl
massacres CT ScIo, and the other horrible scene
OF the Greek revolution. The universal feelint
awaked in America at that time was eloquentl