The Duke of Wellington's mission to St. Petersburg in the spring of 1826, which has been already referred to, was part of a policy by which the British Government materially contributed to the ultimate independence of Greece. Its first result was the protocol of the 4th of April, in which England and Russia recognized the right of the Greeks to claim from the Porte a recognition of their freedom. At about the same time our Government had sent Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, as ambassador to Constantinople, with special instructions to use every endeavour to bring about a cessation of the war which should be favourable to Greece; and on the 24th of April the National Assembly at Epidaurus had authorized him to treat with Turkey on its behalf, agreeing, if no more favourable terms could be obtained, to a recognition of the Sultan's supremacy and the payment of tribute to him, on condition that Greece should be independent in all its internal government. Those terms, however, were rejected by the Porte; and after a delay of a year and a half it was forced by the Great Powers, slowly awakening from their long lethargy, to accede to arrangements far more favourable to Greece.
These negotiations, however, proceeded very slowly, and before the dawn of Greek independence there was a time of almost utter darkness, the darkest time of all being the few months following Lord Cochrane's arrival. "Vanquished Greece," says her historian, "lay writhing in convulsive throes. In herself there was neither hope nor help, and the question to be solved was merely whether the Mahometans would have time to subdue her before the mediating powers made up their minds to use force. That the former, if not checked from abroad, must speedily overrun the country did not admit of the least doubt. But it was equally certain that they could not pacify it; for, while the rich and timid prepared to emigrate, the poorer and hardier portion of the insurgents formed themselves into bands of robbers and pirates, which would have long infested the mountains and the Levant seas, deriding the efforts of the Porte to suppress them. The only branch of the Hellenic confederacy that still presented a menacing aspect was the navy under Lord Cochrane. Every other department was a heap of confusion. No government existed, since it would be idle to dignify with that name the three puppets set up by the Congress of Damala. None ever thought of obeying them, and they sealed their own degradation by carrying on an infamous traffic in selling letters of marque to freebooters. There was no army, because there was no revenue. After the fall of Athens, Roumelia was entirely lost, and the captains either renewed their act of submission to Reshid Pasha or fled to the Morea. It was not, however, with an intention of defending the peninsula that they retreated into it. Their purpose was to seize the fortresses, and thereby be enabled to make a good bargain with the Turks, or any other party that should remain in final possession. Nauplia and the Acrocorinthus were already garrisoned by Roumeliotes. Monemvasia, the third Peloponnesian stronghold yet held by the Greeks, was in the hands of Petro-Bey's brother, John Mavromikales, who, fitting out from thence predatory craft, converted it into a den of thieves."[11]
It is not strange that, amid all this confusion, cowardice, and treachery, Lord Cochrane should have found it almost impossible to achieve anything worthy of his abilities or of the cause which he desired so earnestly to serve. Yet he continued, in spite of all obstacles, to do all that lay in his power, in fulfilment of his duty, and even in excess of that duty. He had engaged to act as First Admiral of the Greek Fleet. Finding that there was no fleet for him to direct, he laboured with unwearied zeal not only to construct one and to turn his unmannerly subordinates into disciplined sailors and brave warriors, but also to persuade the landsmen to co-operate with him in trying to withstand, if not to drive back, the advancing force of the enemy. One day when he was at Poros, Dr. Gosse came on board the Hellas to visit him. "See, my friend," said Lord Cochrane, taking a loaded pistol from the inner pocket of his waistcoat, "see what it is to be a Greek admiral." He found it necessary to be always provided with a weapon with which he could defend himself from his indolent, unpatriotic seamen.
Having returned to Poros with his prizes on the 14th of August, he was obliged to wait there for twelve days. There were no funds to be had for the requisite repairs and other expenses in paying and feeding his crews. All he could do was to repeat his former arguments and entreaties for assistance from the miserable Government at Nauplia, and the more active, but still half-hearted primates of the islands. He also made all the other arrangements in his power for improving his fleet and for carrying on some sort of naval warfare among the southern isles, especially on the coast of Candia, and for fomenting an insurrection of the inhabitants of Western Greece, who, held in awe by the Turks ever since the fall of Missolonghi, had hitherto done little in aid of the national strife, but to whose support he now looked with some hope.
On the 24th he obtained a little further assistance. Mr. George Cochrane, whom he had sent to Marseilles in the Unicorn, to ask for fresh supplies of money and stores from the Philhellenes of Western Europe, but whose return had been long delayed, now arrived with a cargo of provisions, and with a sum of 5000l., which, though altogether inadequate to the work to be done, made possible some work at any rate.
In the Unicorn also came a new volunteer on behalf of Greek independence. The schooner having called at Zante on her way back, Mr. Cochrane there met Prince Paul Buonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon who asked to be taken on board in order that he might serve under Lord Cochrane. This was agreed to, and the Prince, a youth about eighteen years old, and six feet high, became, immediately after his arrival at Poros, a favourite with Lord Cochrane and all his staff and crew. He was remarkable, said Dr. Grosse, for "his good-will, his amiability of character, his solidity of judgment, his intelligence, and the moderation of his principles."
His stay in Greece, however, was very brief. On the morning of the 6th of September, all on board the Hellas were startled by a shriek and the exclamation, "Ah, mon Dieu! je suis mort!" Lord Cochrane and several officers rushed to the Prince's cabin, there to find him lying in a pool of blood, and writhing in agony. His servant had been cleaning his pistols, and he had just loaded one of them to hang it on a nail, when, the trigger being accidentally struck, the weapon discharged and a ball entered his body and settled in the groin. Dr. Howe, an American surgeon, famous for his services to Greece and for later philanthropic labours, being at hand, came to his relief until Dr. Gosse could be sent for. All that could be done, however, was to lessen the pain, which he bore with great heroism through two-and-twenty hours. Lord Cochrane had him placed in his own cabin, and carefully tended him with his own hands. At seven o'clock in the following morning he cried out, "Ah, quel douleur!" and died immediately.
That melancholy accident had a sequel which must be told in illustration of the greed of the Greeks. The Prince's body was placed in a hogshead of spirits and conveyed to Spetzas, there to be deposited in a convent until the wishes of the father, Prince Lucien Buonaparte, could be ascertained as to its interment. A few months afterwards, some natives entering the convent and smelling the spirits, but apparently in ignorance of the use to which they had been applied, could not resist the temptation of tapping the hogshead and drinking a part of its contents.
Prince Paul Buonaparte died while Lord Cochrane was again making a tour of the islands, vainly trying to induce the inhabitants to provide him with adequate means for a formidable attack on the enemy. "In the port of Spetzas," wrote one of his officers, on the 29th of August, "there are now nearly forty vessels—none of them ready, not a man on board. All the men are out in cruisers, notwithstanding his excellency's order to fit out their vessels to meet the enemy's fleet. But such are the Greeks; they have no foresight, and until they see the enemy they will make no preparations, nor will they, unless the money is in their hands, expend a dollar to prepare a single fireship to defend their country. It is now twenty-eight days since Lord Cochrane ordered the vessels from Hydra, Spetzas, and Egina to be prepared, and they are not yet ready."
At length, on the 5th of September, Lord Cochrane was able, though still with difficulty, to resign the irksome and extra-official duties of a tax-gatherer that had been forced upon him. "Since my return from Zante, and, indeed, since my return from Alexandria," he wrote on that day to the Government, now lodged at Egina, "I have been using my utmost endeavours to procure the equipment of a dozen brigs and as many fireships. The delays occasioned, however, by the want of pecuniary means have hitherto prevented the realization of my wishes, and the services of this frigate have been lost to the State during the fore-mentioned period, owing to the impossibility of procuring the necessary funds without my personal presence at Syra and elsewhere. The equipment of the brigs and part of the fireships is now completed, in spite of all difficulties, and I shall not delay one moment the endeavour to effect something useful to the interests of the State. I think it proper, however, to intimate to your excellencies that, everything being paid relative to the expense of the present expedition, I know of no means whereby a single vessel can be maintained during the ensuing month."