The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1868-09-16

As to the Provisional Government, 1t soon
became, after the war was begun, Con-
stitutional fiction but it must be admitted
that Bouboulaki gave proof of great power
of resistance He was continually writing
and printing his proclamations, always on
the alert, and having his printing press
carried off on mule-back, as soon as the
Turks approached. He was the publisher
of small newspaper, The Crete, with
the ambitious motto Freedom or Death. y
The real centre of this pertinacious OPP
position, in which Turkey lost two of her
most prominent generals and two fine
armies, was not, as it had been in former
wars, the city of Sfakia, but Selino, and
above all what is called the Khiza, root,
uated on the northern side Of Mt. Blanc. sit
1t was therefore in that direction that the
Imperial Commissioner resolved to attack
the insurgents, believing that they would
die of starvation in the mountains. But
the Turks themselves were the victims of
the evils to which they had condemtred
the Cretans by the plundering and burning
of the villages of the Rhiza. They were
obliged to camp in the open air, undergo
ing the Inconvenience of a bitterly cold
climate, to which they were not accus-
toned.
1t was at this time that an officer of the
British Navy followed course in which
he was not approved by his Government.
Yielding to his personal feelings of sym
patty, Captain Pieem, of II. Ms ship
Assurance, took on board his vessel a
number of women and children whom he
had found wandering on the beach at Sc
limo, half dead with cold and starvation
and exposed to the shots of the Turkish
cruisers. He landed these wretched peo-
pie, on the 18th of December, in the har-
received an enthusiastic ovation. The
King of Greece, himself. in accordance
with the public feelings of his subjects,
transmitted his thanks to Mr. Erskine, the
British Minister Resident, through his
Minister of Foreign Affairs. 1t may be
imagined how embarrassing must have
been the position of Mr.. Erskine, seeing
that Lord Stanley persistently refused his
concurrence to any measure which might
lead to partial breaking up of the Turk
ish Empire.
No.greater service could have been rem
dered to the insurgents. They had got
rid of all the people who could not afford
them help, and whom they were obliged to
support. How much more confident of
success did they become when, knowing
that their wives and children were far
from the seat of war, they were more at
liberty to devote their lives 20 the indie
pendence of their country!
The example given by the English
Navy was soon initiated by the Russian
Navy, and, Notwithstanding the protests
of the Pasha, man-of-war-the Great
admiral took on board more than 200
people from the southern side of the
Island
A few days afterwards, Moustafa Pasha
having been informed that the insurgents
were concentrating their forces at Sfakia,
determined to strike the decisive blow
which he ought to have struck after Vafe.
He landed with several thousand men at
Haghia Roumili, small village situated
at the entrance of the valley of Samaria.
Soon after his arrival, several hundred vol
unteers-Greeks, Italians and Hungarians
surrendered themselves. Most of these
chance-soldiers, dissatisfied and disappoint-
ed, were glad to profit by the opportunity
offered them by the Pasba to leave the
Island. A Turkish man-of-war and a
French steamer-Ld Sdldmdndre-took |
them to Athens, where they were very
badly received. A threatening crowd |
gathered around them when they landed, |
assailed them with clubs, and pelted them
with stones, without having any pity on
their attenuated forms, their ragged clothes
or starved appearance. The police officers
and soldiers came to their rescue, but it was
too late three of them had been killed,
and some thirty wounded! The Athen-
ians sincerely believed that the return of
these poor volunteers was a sure sign of
the victory of Moustafa Pasha in Crete,
but it was a great mistake. Among the
volunteers, those who were men of strong
will and unfinching energy, remained on
Island those who had left, were not equal
to the task they had foolishly undertaken,
and were but useless burdens to the chiefs.
From that time the struggle was mostly
carried on by the Cretans, the majority of
whom being farmers and peasants, could
themselves by attending to their
fields in the intervals of battles. Under
these new circumstances, they were able
to carry out their plan of wearying out
their enemies by constantly keeping them
on the alert night and day.
On his return to Canea, Moustafa Pasha,
at the bad turn of his mission,
met an envoy extraordinary sent purposely
from Constantinople, with the view of
no vim, ranrasantativas of the naonla NOM