On the 7th of September, Lord Cochrane was able to start on another warlike cruise. His force comprised the Hellas, the Karteria, the Sauveur, and nineteen or twenty other vessels. The Spetziots and the Hydriots, at the last moment, refused to aid him; but he was attended by Miaoulis, Kanaris, and Saktoures, the three best of the native admirals. After a brief visit to Candia, where he encouraged the garrison of Grabusa to hold out against the enemy, he again passed round the Morea, in which direction he desired to attain two important objects. The first was to injure as much as possible the Turkish and Egyptian vessels collected near Navarino. The second was to co-operate with the wretched force that, under General Church, had for three months past been making a show of resistance to the enemy at Corinth, and with its help to try and stir up the natives of Albania and Western Greece.

These objects, partly prevented in other ways, were nearly averted by a barbarous plot for Lord Cochrane's assassination. While halting off the southern coast of the Morea, on or near the 10th of September, a short, thick-built Greek, with an ugly countenance and determined eye, came on board the Hellas and asked for employment as a sailor. He was examined and rejected, on the ground of previous misconduct. Instead of going on shore again, however, he contrived to hide himself among the crew, and was not detected by Lord Cochrane for several hours, and when the frigate was in full sail. In the interval Lord Cochrane had received authentic information that this man had been commissioned by Ibrahim Pasha to attempt his life. There would have been justification for his immediate arrest, and, after a court martial, for his summary execution. But Lord Cochrane pursued a more generous policy. Walking up to his secretary, Mr. George Cochrane, he said: "Observe that man who is at the gangway on the larboard side. I have just had information that he has been sent by Ibrahim Pasha to assassinate me. Go quietly below, put on your sword, and watch him while he is on board." Mr. Cochrane obeyed his instructions. "In less than five minutes," he says, "I was again on deck with my sword. I took a few turns on the quarter-deck with his lordship, and then placed myself in a convenient position, about a dozen yards from the man. I did not lose sight of him for a couple of hours, keeping my eye steadily upon him. He soon observed that I was watching him, and I could perceive that he did not feel very comfortable in his mind. He did not attempt to come aft. Had he done so, I should have drawn my sword. After the men had had their dinner, one or two boats were got ready to convey seamen on board another vessel; and this fellow, seeing that his intentions were discovered, took advantage of the opportunity and got into one of the boats. I looked over the side of the Hellas, and saw him depart." Thus Lord Cochrane's life was saved.

Navarino was passed on the 11th of September. Lord Cochrane made no halt, as he saw that a British squadron, under Sir Edward Codrington, was there watching the Ottoman fleet and forbidding its egress. He accordingly at once proceeded northwards, and entered the Gulf of Patras on the 17th of September. On that day, in anticipation of the visit which he proposed to pay them, he forwarded proclamations to the inhabitants of the western coast. "People of Albania!" he wrote in one of them, "although you have so long suffered under the Mussulman yoke; although your love of liberty has been so long kept down by a dark and cruel despotism, the hour of your deliverance is not distant, and if you will you can hasten it. Europe takes a lively interest in your destiny; your fellow-countrymen are hastening to aid you. But all depends on the energy which you yourselves display: the support which we offer you, to be efficacious, requires on your part redoubled zeal and patriotism in the actual and decisive moment. Brave Albanians! your happy future, the security of your families, and the honour of your religion, are in your hands; your bold and steady co-operation will ensure your own salvation and our success!"

The intended expedition was prevented. It had been arranged that Lord Cochrane should wait near Cape Papas for the arrival of General Church's army and convey it to Western Greece, in the hope of putting it to better service in that region. But the land force was long in coming, and before its arrival Lord Cochrane had to write to the Government, explaining his recent movement and the reasons which compelled him to abandon the project of fighting in Albania. "Having proceeded to the Gulf of Patras," he said, "in order to co-operate with General Church in his intended expedition to Western Greece, I thought it would be conducive to the public service to invest the fort of Vasiladi, until, by the arrival of the forces of the general, more important operations could be undertaken; and accordingly that island was immediately blockaded by the boats of the squadron, and now continues surrounded by the vessels belonging to the Missolonghites, who have undertaken to maintain the blockade until it shall surrender. The Karteria, the Sauveur, and two of the gunboats, were immediately detached with orders to take or destroy all the enemy's vessels within the Gulf of Lepanto, whilst the Hellas went to the anchorage of Kalamos, in order to ascertain from the officers in arms what prospect there was of general co-operation; and I regret to say that the want of union among the chiefs and the prospect of some kind of accommodation with the enemy seemed to paralyse all their energies. I therefore detached all the squadron under Admiral Miaoulis to Syra and Naxos, to aid the Candiots and Chiots, should they continue inclined to assert their independence. I have to add that I received an indirect communication from the British Admiral, intimating his desire that no new or further operations should be undertaken in that quarter; for which reason I am about to proceed elsewhere, under the impression that nothing should be left undone to stir up the population of Greece to a sense of their duty to themselves and to their country."

The communication referred to was conveyed by Lord Ingestre, commander of the Philomel, who hailed the Hellas on the 27th of September, to deliver a message from Sir Edward Codrington. "Whereas I am informed by Sir Frederick Adam," wrote the English Admiral, "that Lord Cochrane, with the Greek fleet, is about to embark the army of General Church in the neighbourhood of Cape Papas, for the purpose of conveying them to the coast of Albania, you are hereby directed to make known to the commander of that expedition that I consider it my duty, in the present state of affairs, to prevent such a measure being carried into execution, and that I shall shortly present myself in that neighbourhood for that purpose." Lord Cochrane knew that, if it would be personally very distasteful to him to be in collision with the naval force of his own country, it would, on public grounds and in the interests of Greek independence, be wholly inexcusable for him to act in violation of Sir Edward Codrington's message. Therefore he complied with it and went back to the Archipelago, there to do other work, while England was serving Greece in her own way.

The service was to be rendered at last. After spending a year in diplomatic formalities, Great Britain and Russia had, in the spring of 1827, openly renewed their arguments with the Porte in favour of Greek independence. These arguments having been rejected, the two Christian powers were in consultation as to the next course to be pursued, when France, partly urged thereto by her schemes for the acquisition of Algiers, then a Turkish dependency, offered to take part in the defence of Greece. The result was a treaty signed in London, on behalf of the three states, on the 6th of July, having for its object the enforcement of the St. Petersburg protocol of the 4th of April, 1826. It insisted that Greece should have internal freedom, though under vassalage to Turkey; and provided that, if the contending parties did not agree to an armistice within a month, there should be a forcible intervention.

The Greeks welcomed the proposals made to them in consequence of this treaty; but they were rejected by the Turkish Government, notwithstanding the appearance of English, French, and Russian warships in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. Reshid Pasha and Ibrahim continued their efforts to bring the whole insurgent district into thorough subjection, and accordingly the patriotic Greeks and their foreign supporters continued to act on the defensive. Lord Cochrane and a few others, indeed, were eager to secure action bolder than ever, considering that, when the settling-time arrived, the limits of independent Greece would be augmented if a larger area was then the scene of zealous opposition to the Turkish power. This it was that chiefly induced the efforts to quicken the revolt in Albania, and when Lord Cochrane was prevented by Sir Edward Codrington from persevering in his work in that quarter, he lost no time in sailing round to the eastern side of Greece, there to do his utmost towards rousing the people of Candia and other islands into an assertion of their independence, in order that they too might have a claim to be included in the liberation of the Greeks.

The message from Sir Edward Codrington to Lord Cochrane, which has been quoted, was dated the 25th of September. It was written immediately after an interview of the English commander and Admiral de Rigny, who was in charge of the French squadron, with Ibrahim Pasha. To him they had formally announced that they were instructed to insist upon a cessation of hostilities, and that they should promptly act upon their instructions. Ibrahim answered that he had orders from the Sultan to continue the war, but he promised to communicate with his sovereign, and pledged himself to abstain from hostilities until the answer arrived and was reported to the allied fleets. Before that answer came a fortunate series of accidents, arising out of Lord Cochrane's expedition to the Albanian coast, turned the current of diplomacy and secured for Greece more freedom than had been anticipated.

Lord Cochrane, attended by his Greek vessels, had left the neighbourhood of Cape Papas on the 27th of September. But, though deeming himself bound in honour to that course, he was willing to allow a part of his force to remain in the neighbourhood and watch the progress of events, especially as that part was at the time separated from him and lying in the Gulf of Lepanto. It consisted of the Karteria, under Captain Abney Hastings, the Sauveur, under Captain Thomas, and two gunboats, each mounting a 32-pounder. For a week this little squadron, ignorant of the arrangement between the allied admirals and Ibrahim Pasha, watched a Turkish force that was moored in the Scala of Salona, and comprised one large Algerine schooner carrying twenty brass guns, a brig of fourteen guns, six smaller brigs and schooners, two gunboats, and two armed transports. These vessels were protected by batteries on the level shore and other batteries on overhanging rocks. On the 30th of September, Captains Hastings and Thomas proceeded to attack them, and did so with excellent effect. The solid shot of the Sauveur and the gunboats soon silenced the batteries; the red-hot shells of the Karteria made havoc of the enemy's vessels, four being defeated within half-an-hour. Soon the Sauveur and the gunboats joined in the attack on the shipping, and, in the end, seven vessels were destroyed and three captured.

The news of that victory, as soon as it was conveyed to Navarino, where nearly all the naval force of the Turks was lying, roused the anger of Ibrahim Pasha, who complained that the allied powers, while binding him to inaction, allowed the Greeks to carry on the war. On the 1st of October, he sent out thirty war-ships with orders to enter the Gulf of Lepanto and punish Hastings and Thomas for their recent exploits. Sir Edward Codrington, however, pursued them, and drove them back to Navarino. Ibrahim Pasha, not easily to be baffled, himself left Navarino, on the evening of the 3rd, with fourteen of his stoutest vessels. Again Sir Edward Codrington gave chase, and this second squadron also was compelled by him to return to port. Ibrahim Pasha, however, was not to be robbed of his revenge. He dared not leave Navarino by sea, but he sent thence a land force, which marched up to the northern side of the Morea, and did serious mischief to the wornout fragment of an army which General Church was slowly conducting from Corinth to Papas, there to be embarked for Albania. Only by the unlooked-for valour of young Kolokotrones and his section was the rout of the whole army averted. Nor was Ibrahim satisfied with this act of retaliation. His troops scoured all the adjoining country, burning villages and laying waste the olive-groves and fig-gardens which were the only source of subsistence to the luckless natives.