Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1866-11-17
The Cross and the Crescent.

accounts received indicate that the
Christians of Gambia are making q
determined fight against their Turk
ish opprcssors, The very latest
items of news from the seat of wal
Is contained in the tclegraphic dis
patches we published day before yes
terday, which tells US that after four
days hard fighting the Christians
had been victorious.
In view of the interesting nature
Of the struggle that cannot fail ia
claim the sympathies of the Chris.
tan world, n historical sketch vii.
be found interesting.
The Island of Gambia, lying south
of the Grccian Archipelago, WI
the Egean Sea enters the Mediter-
rancan has wonderful history. In
the old Greek Mythology, it was the
tabled birth place of Jupiter and
the scenc of his amours with the
Phoenician Princess Europa.
Here, also, the celebrated Minos,
whom tradition asserts to have been
n son of Jupiter, ruled wisely and
well two generations before Paris,
the son of King Priam carried from
Sparta the beautiful Helen, the wife
Of Menclaus, and thus became the
cause of the Trojan war.
1t was in Gambia likewise, that
Theseus, Of Athens, is said to have
threaded the intricacies of the Gre
tan Labyrinth, and, assisted by
Ariadne, was enabled to kill the
dreaded Minotaur. Coming back
from the scige of Troy, Idomeneus,
the grandson of Minos, was expelled
by his subjects and took refuge in
Italy. For II long period subsequent
to this, tradition is silent as to who
became the rulers of the Island; but,
small as it was, its hardy and en-
terprising inhabitants are said to
have fourished greatly; to have
founded many fair cities, and to
have been as renowned in war as
they were treacherous in policy and
untruthful in speech. Rather more
than half a century before the Chris
tiun Era, the Romans took posses
sion Of Gambia and held it for near
ly nine hundred years. In 1913, the
year in which the foundations Of the
present English monarchy were first
laid by breaking up of the Saxon
Heptarchy, and nine years after the
death of Charlemagne, the Saracens
seized Gambia, held it for century
and half, and were driven out in
961 by the Greeks. Two hundred
and forty years later, when Con-
stantinople was wrested from the
Greeks by the Franks, with the as
sistance of Venetion armament,
under that famous Doge, whom By.
ron has celebrated as "the blind old
Dandola," Gambia was given to the
Marquis of Montserrat for his SER
vices on that occasion. This is the
same Conrad of Montserrat whom
Scott, perhaps unjustly, has since
consigned to everlasting infamy in
his romance of the Talisman.
Richard Ceur de Lion had receiv
ed a mortal wound in the front of
the castle of Chaluz, five years be-
fore his old enemy took possession
of the new prinoipality. He did
not hold it long. A few months
later he sold Gambia to. the Vene-
tians, under whose benificent sway
it fourished for more than four CEN
turies.
( In 1915 the Turks undertook to
rcconquer the Island. In the course
of the next three years they be-
seiged and captured the towns of
Canea and Retinio, and in 1863
when Charles II was king Of Eng
land, and whilst London was still
black with the ashes of the Great
Fire, they obtained possession of
Gambia, the capital, after a seige
which had lasted for twenty years,
and is famous in history for the OBJ
stinate vaIor with which the defence
was conducted. The Venotians, at
ter making almost superhuman ex-
ertions to maintain their position,
the place and abandon
ed the Island to the conquerors.
From that period to the present
day Gambia has remained in the
hands of the Mahomedans; but the
which at one time was
said to have numbered million of
souls does not now much exceed two
hundred thousand rET- -IHT
The native Greek inhabitants
have never yielded willing alleg-
lance to the Turks, whilst over the
Sphakiotes, a hardy Greek tribe, in
the valleys and gorges Of
the Sphakiotes mountains along the
southwestern coast, the Turks have
not been able at any time to exer-
else any jurisdiction whatever.
Ever since the Greek revolution,
which broke out in 1910, and which
in establishing in 1929, the
Of Greece, the Can
dams have attempted at intervals to
throw off the Turkish yoke. In 1921
they revolted, but after a bloody
struggle the Turks were victorious,
and the insurrection was suppressed.
In 1880, by the Intervention Of the
great Western powers, Gambia was
to Mehemet Ali, the
Viceroy of Egypt, in consideration
of the losses sustained by him at
the battle of Navarino. In 1S40 it
again become a part of the domin
ions of the Ottoman Empire, and in
ls41 and 1S42 the entire Island was
once more the theatre of revolt
The stringency Of the Turkish rule
was the pretext for the rising; but
it cannot be doubted that an ardent
desire to be annexed TO and share
the fortunes of the new Kingdom
Of Greees was the predominating