The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1896-05-09
r. under diff

rretense Of distributing books
ss4extending education Finally about
that time there was a rupture between
Ali Pasha, satrap of Turkey, known
as the Albanian tyrant and the Sublime
Porte Armed uprisings took place in
several countries, and at last an army
of revolutionists was led to the field by
one Alexander Ipsilanti. The soldiers
were dressed in black in token of mourn
ing for the dead liberties of Greece, but
upon their banners they bore as a symbol
of hope phenix rising from it's ashes.
This movement was checked by the
action of the Russian emperor, who de-
nounced it and sent confusion into the
ranks of the Greek patriots. The leader
of the revolt at last found that he had
only one body of reliable troops. This
was small corps known as the Sacred
band and composed of Greek youth who
had been brought up in European cities.
A signal instance of their valor was
given in the campaign around Bucha-
rest. The city of Bucharest was carried
by the Turks and the revolutionary army
dispersed in a panic. The Sacred band
was left all alone to face the enemy.
Fired with the spirit of their ancestors
at Thermopyl@, the 400 Greek youths,
preferring a glorious death to flight or
disgrace, persisted, but not until they
had piled the bodies of their enemies in
heaps around them. The deeds of the
Sacred band at Bucharest stirred up the
valor of the Greek in the whole penin-
sula A battle was fought upon the an
Gent field of Thermopyl3. Greek indie
pendence was declared January, 1892.
In the same year occurred the terrible
massacre at Scio. where the Turks butch
cred 1000 men, women and children
and carried off 80, 600 to captivity.
The war lasted, with varying for.
tunes, for six years. At the end of four
years, or in 1926, the affairs of the
Greeks began to wear most discour-
aging aspect. Missolonghi, a priced
stronghold, was at last taken and sacked
by the Turks, and nearly all the chief
towns were in their hands. The hopes
of Greece depended almost wholly upon
outside sympathy and aid. Athens fell
into the hands of the enemy in 1897,
and finally the national government
was driven from central Greece off to
one corner of the country. That was the
situation when the ambassadors of the
three powers England, France and Rus
STA presented to the pUrttg Il petition for
the paciication of Greece Greece"
they said, shall govern herself, but
pay tribute to the porte. :"
The sultan was astounded. He de-
clared that he could subdue the Greeks.
Fleets of the allied powers were in the
Mediterranean, and their admirals mott
fed the Turkish leader, Ibrahim Pasha,
that he must stop the horrible barbara
ties which marked his warfare at that
stage. As a last resort a commission was
sent to meet the pasha. He could not be
seem Upon that the English admiral
mustered the combined fleets in the bay
of Navarino. They numbered 80 YES
sells, mounting 1924 guns. The Turk
ish and Egyptian fleets mounted 2,240
guns, and the batteries ON shore were
manned by Turks.
The naval battle lased four hours
and at the end of that time every armed
Ottoman ship was i'll flames or disabled
or sunk. The loss to the Turks was
about 1000 men. The sultan of Turkey
demanded compensation for the destruc-
ton of his fleet and satisfaction for the
insult but the firm attitude of the pow
ers brought him to terms and secured
the independence of Greece.
The man whom the Greeks yenerate
above all others as the hero OF their war
of independence is Marco Bozzaris,
whom they call "the Leonidas of modern
Greece. Next TO his name stands that
of Byron, who fell amartyr in the strug-
gle, representative of the European
sympathizers Bozzaris was born at Suli
and grew up amid the din Of arms. His
ancestors had all distinguished them
selves as patriots and warriors in the
battles waged against Turkey by the
Suliotes When the Greeks arose against
the Turks in 1890, Bozzaris lived in ex-
lie i'll Ionia. but he Immediately placed
himself at the head of band Of his
conntrymen. refugees like himself llum