From this halting-place, also, he sent a noteworthy letter to Mahomet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, a supplement to one which he had addressed to him nearly a year before, when he was on his way to enter the service of the Greeks.
"Your employing foreigners in your military and naval service," he had said in the former letter, which will be best quoted in this place, "the privilege which you claim and exercise of building and equipping ships-of-war in neutral states, and of purchasing steam-vessels and hiring transports under neutral flags, for hostile purposes, and to transport to slavery a people whom the Ottoman arms have never yet been able wholly to subdue, warrant a belief, whatever your sentiments may be, that the civilized, educated, and liberal portion of mankind will be gratified that succours similar to those which you, unfortunately, have hitherto obtained from these states are now about to be afforded to the brave, the oppressed, and suffering Greeks. Nor will the advantage derived be wholly theirs; for, until you shall cease or be forced to abandon your inhuman traffic in Christian slaves and the commission of cruelties which stain the character of man, your subjects must inevitably continue barbarians,—a state from which it would be a source of great gratification to contribute to release them. It is true that the Christian world has not of late contended in arms with those of your faith on points of religion. It has, however, not fallen into a state of apathy so great as to see unheeded the perpetration of those enormities which you are daily committing on Christians,—a sentiment with which no feeling of animosity towards you or towards your people is combined. On the contrary, it desires to render you every good service consistent with that duty paramount to all others, namely, to wipe out the stain from the civilized world of unfeelingly and inhumanly co-operating to exterminate, enslave, and transport to bondage a whole Christian people—and such a people—the descendants of those Greeks whose genius laid the chief foundation of literature, the sciences, and the arts; who reared those noble monuments and edifices which time and the more destructive barbarian hand have yet failed to destroy, and which, compared with the wretched hovels of your hordes, may better point out to you the elevation they attained, and the prostrate state in which your people are—owing, alas! to the baneful effects of bigotry and despotic sway. Surely, surely there is ample field for the exercise of your energies at home, in encouraging industry, the arts and sciences, in promoting the civilization of your people, and in enacting equitable laws for the security of persons and property—on which bases the national prosperity of all countries must rest. But should your ambition, not content with bestowing blessings like these on your native land, lead you to soar almost above mortal acts, distant oceans would unite, and the extremities of the globe approach at your command.[9] Thus might your name be rendered immortal, and Egypt become again the emporium of commerce, and one of the richest and happiest nations upon earth. How infinitely great the glory from such acts! How despicable the fame of a tyrant conqueror, the ruler of slaves! It would be pleasing to support you as the author of great and good works, but it is shameful to permit your present proceedings, and dastardly to leave the unfeeling apostate sons of neutral and Christian nations unopposed, aiding to perpetuate barbarism for horrid gain, drawn from the price of Christians torn from their homes and sold as slaves in foreign lands. Against these atrocious men, my companions and myself, casting the gauntlet down, will contend, in the hope that they and you may perceive your true interests and your great error, and pursue a different course before it shall be too late. Quit the classic sacred soil of Greece, let the flayings, and burnings, and impalings of that people cease, and oh! shocking to humanity, the ripping up of pregnant women, and the hewing up of their infant babes, and other acts yet worse than these—too horrid to relate. Release the Christian slaves; pursue an honourable and enlightened path, and we become friends to aid you in your pursuits—but should the present course be continued, let the bands of cruel assassins in your employ count on our opposition; count, too, on our neutralizing the effects of every vessel procured or bought from Christian states. 'Hear the voice of the Lord, ye rulers,' in the prophecy now to be fulfilled. 'Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay.' 'When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they shall all fall together.' Instead of filling brim full the cup of bitterness, of which you yourself must ultimately drink, how admirably might you not employ your people, and your treasure—the waste whereof is rearing to you a barbarian successor to prolong the bondage of Egypt. The Christian prayer of those called to rescue their suffering brethren is that, conforming yourself to the dictates of reason and humanity, you may live long to benefit mankind; and as you are more enlightened than your predecessors, so may you become more humane and just."
The second letter was more brief. "The discrimination of your Highness," Lord Cochrane now wrote, "enables you to judge between those who offer advice to promote personal objects and those who disinterestedly desire the welfare of mankind. Egypt may become great by the attention of her rulers to her internal concerns, but not by war and foreign conquest, and assuredly not by the conquest of that people with whom your Highness is now engaged in hostilities, not only on account of the impossibility of reducing them to subjection but because the whole of Europe is directly or indirectly engaged in their support. I beg your Highness to be assured that, if I present myself to your consideration in a more conspicuous point of view than others, it is only because the habits of my life have enabled me to be openly instrumental in the protection of a Christian people whom you attack, and not because I feel animosity against your Highness, nor because I desire the overthrow of the lawful power of your Highness. Should your Highness, however, listen to interested counsellors, or to those who hope to gain by adulation, and continue the present unjust and sanguinary contest, I take leave once more to warn you that the first visit I have had the honour of paying you shall not be the last, and that it is not in the power of your Highness to prevent the destruction of your ships destined for the invasion of Greece, nor to defeat my intention to block up the port of Alexandria. I had the honour to address your Highness twelve months ago; but have thought proper to repeat once more the honest advice I then expressed, in order that your Highness may acquit me when, in the hour of adversity, you have to regret that you have not listened to the voice of truth."
Lord Cochrane's threats could not be enforced. Off the coast of Asia Minor and among the southern islands of the Archipelago he waited for more than a week. But no adequate reinforcements or supplies of provisions arrived. The disorganised fleet became more and more unmanageable. One vessel after another deserted, and those that remained in nominal attendance on the flag-ship could not be brought under control. Lord Cochrane, who had made skilful sailors and brave warriors of enervated Chilians and Brazilians, found the Greeks utterly unmanageable. Up to the 2nd of July he tried vainly to bring them into order, and only succeeded in pursuing them from island to island until, on that day, they had drawn him back to the neighbourhood of Hydra. There they all dispersed, and with a heavy heart he anchored at Poros on the 4th. The Hellas was immediately deserted by her crew. Another month had been wasted and another bold project for the assistance of Greece had been spoiled by the want of patriotism which, exhibited first and most flagrantly by the leaders, was now rapidly pervading all classes of the Greeks.
An amusing instance of the worthlessness of the Greek sailors, whom, from first to last, he tried to make useful, may here be given. On one occasion, following his invariable habit of taking every possible occasion of trying to win the confidence and friendship of those under him, he was exhibiting a magic lantern to the crew of the Hellas. At many of the dissolving views they manifested a childish delight, but at length one unfortunate picture was brought before them. It depicted a Greek running from the pursuit of a Turk, and then melted into a view of the Turk cutting off his captive's head. At that sight every Greek on board took fright. Some ran into the hold of the ship, others jumped overboard, and many hours had to be spent in bringing them together again and dispelling their frivolous and superstitious fears.
Lord Cochrane, however, though disheartened, still sought, with unabated zeal, to render to Greece such help as became his name and character. But he saw that this could not be done without a thorough reform in naval affairs; and this, often urged by him before, he lost no time in urging again. "The crew of the Hellas," he wrote to the effete Government on the very day of his return, "having, according to their usual practice, abandoned the vessel on her arrival in port, it is essential that others should be enlisted to serve in the frigate without delay. It is further essential that the individuals so enlisted shall engage to serve during a period of not less than six months, and that they shall be young men who will conform to the rules and regulations by which the ships-of-war of other states are governed. It is quite impossible to conduct a large ship-of-war amidst the noise and confusion which I have witnessed during the two months that have elapsed since my flag was hoisted on board this ship, and equally impossible to induce monthly crews to conform to habits of order and regularity. Under these circumstances, I enclose you a proclamation, stating the pay and advantages which will accrue to such individuals. I should prefer that the enlistment should take place under such respectable young men as propose to obtain rank in the national marine, and who can be in some degree responsible for the good conduct of the individuals who accompany them, each individual qualified for, and aspiring to, the rank of lieutenant being accompanied by sixty young seamen, the second lieutenants to be each accompanied by thirty. For this ship five of the first class and eight of the second are required." The proclamation which Lord Cochrane submitted to the Government detailed his plan for ensuring, or at any rate making possible, honest and hearty service in seafaring.
"I wish I could inform your excellencies," he said in another letter written two days later, "that the obstacles, however great, which presented themselves in the course of the naval service were all I had to contend with. The jealousies among the islanders, even the most enlightened, embarrassed me exceedingly; and these, I regret to say, cannot be alleviated by having recourse to your advice or authority, at the distance at which you are placed, without a correspondence so voluminous that I should occupy too much of your attention. I must, therefore, act according to my own responsibility; and in so doing I am aware that some may be displeased, and probably no one will be satisfied."
Nearly all the month of July, indeed, was spent by Lord Cochrane in zealous efforts to render the Greek navy more efficient. For this two things were needed—that the officers and crews should be honest and intelligent, and that there should be money enough in hand for paying their wages, for fitting out proper vessels, and for supplying the requisite stores and provisions. For the first object proclamations were issued, letters were written, and agents were sent into various parts of Greece and her islands. For the second, Lord Cochrane went personally to the assistance of Dr. Gosse, who, as Commissary-General of the Fleet, had been attempting to collect the revenues of the islands which, by order of the Government, had been assigned to naval uses. He succeeded to some extent in this, and also in quickening the latent patriotism of the people whom he visited.
His most important visit was to Syra, where, as will be seen from the letter which he addressed to the Government on the 13th of July, he was obliged to resort to strong measures for securing the good end he had in view. "I have the honour to inform your excellencies," he wrote, "that, a new crew having been procured for the Hellas with less delay than I anticipated, by reason of the pay having been increased one-third in amount, I proceeded to Syra, taking with me several of the principal inhabitants of the three maritime islands, who expressed to me, by letter, their anxiety to have an opportunity of promoting a loan on the credit of the revenues of the islands, which your excellencies had authorised me, jointly with others, to collect. I have now the pleasure to inform you that when I left Syra yesterday everything seemed to promise a favourable result; but in order to attain this important object it became necessary that I should take upon myself the responsibility of intimating to the prefect of police, who had assumed despotic authority, that it was essential to the public good that the magistrates should resume the functions that they exercised previous to his arrival. I am convinced that your excellencies will perceive as clearly as I do, that it will be impossible to preserve harmony amongst the islanders, if strangers are sent to exercise over the natives an authority that is not acceptable to them. Indeed, the character of these natives demands at all times prudence and circumspection on the part of the Government."
Unfortunately, the miserable triumvirate to which the direction of Greek affairs had been assigned until the arrival of Count Capodistrias was wholly wanting in prudence and circumspection. After vainly trying to maintain a show of authority, and to use it to their own aggrandisement at Damala and at Poros, they had, on the 4th of July, removed to Nauplia. There, however, they only found themselves more embarrassed than ever. While the last hopes of Greek independence, to be secured and maintained by Greeks themselves, were rapidly dying out, the leaders were amusing themselves and gratifying their petty jealousies and ambitions by conduct more despicable than ever. Nauplia was the seat of civil war between two military factions, whose joint contempt of the worthless Government would have been, at any rate, excusable, had not the interests of the whole nation been thereby injured. The triumvirate was driven from the town, and taking refuge in a little island in the Bay of Nauplia, wrote in despair to Lord Cochrane, asking him to come to its aid and devise some means of preserving, or rather of constructing, its authority.