The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II

by Earl of Thomas Barnes Cochrane Dundonald; H. R. Fox Bourne

For the brief remainder of his service in Greece, indeed, Lord Cochrane made it his principal duty to do all in his power towards the suppression of piracy. The admirals of the allies having insisted that the Greek vessels should do nothing but watch their own coasts within a distance of twelve miles from the shore, he proceeded to the southern part of the Morea, making only a short tour, in order to meet the primates of Samos, Naxia, Paros, Candia, and other islands, and ascertain from them the condition of the people and their power of resistance to the Turks and to their piratical enemies of their own race. The information gained by him was not satisfactory. He found that here, as in the mainland and the nearer islands, patriotism was weak and misrule oppressive. Everywhere the people were the victims of their own want of patriotism and of the tyranny of foes, both Moslem and Christian.

He was off Cerigo on the 15th of November. There, having heard that the residue of the Turkish and Egyptian fleet was preparing to put to sea with all the available force, apparently to carry on the war in Candia, he at once sailed on to the south-eastern promontory of the Morea, and, during a fortnight, maintained the blockade on both sides of Navarino, between Coron and Prodana. There also he was able to carry on his war against pirates. "The Hellas being off the island of Prodana, a few miles to the north of Navarino," he reported to the Government, describing an important adventure of the 21st of November, "I sent two boats for the purpose of procuring wood from the island. The boats, being fired upon from persons near to some vessels in a cove, returned with a report that there were Turks upon the island. In consequence of this report, the corvette Hydra was directed to enter by the northern passage, whilst the Hellas entered to the southward of the island, and both vessels anchored opposite to the place where the supposed Turkish vessels were at anchor. It was immediately perceived, however, that the vessels were not Turkish, and, on examination, one proved to be a schooner under the Greek flag. It was soon discovered that a Dutch vessel at anchor in the same port had been seized, without the slightest pretence, by the schooner and plundered of almost everything that could be removed, and, moreover, that the captain and crew had been most barbarously flogged, for the purpose of ascertaining where the proceeds of the outward cargo were deposited."

Lord Cochrane wrote to the same effect to the Governor of Zante. "I have left the piratical vessel with a petty officer and sufficient crew to blockade Prodana, until you can send and seize the pirates, should you think proper, as they have been plundering and annoying the trade of the Ionian Islands. I send two of the pirates in irons, in order that, obtaining further information, you may deal with them and with the others according to the law of nations."

That instance of the policy adopted by Lord Cochrane will help to show how he set himself to put down piracy. The work was not easy, as the lawless conduct was secretly authorised by the Government, and practised with very little secresy by great numbers of the national vessels. It was in vain that he issued the proclamation of the 27th of October, that has been quoted; in vain, too, that he sent two gunboats to visit all the principal ports, with fresh injunctions against piracy and with authority to compel obedience to those injunctions, if necessary, by force. Good work, however, was done by these gunboats, in conjunction with two brigs detached for the purpose, in escorting neutral trading vessels through the waters most infested by the sea-robbers.

Slowly and painfully the conviction was forced upon Lord Cochrane that, after all his previous failures in attempting to turn the lawless Greeks into honest patriots and to convert their ill-manned ships into members of an efficient navy, his labours were now more useless than ever. After a fortnight's cruising about Navarino, he retraced his course and anchored, on the 3rd of December, off Egina, where the so-called Government was then located. To it he wrote on that day, asking for directions as to his mode of procedure. "The squadron under my command," he said, "has been in the blockade of Coron, Modon, and Navarino, and I have to inform your excellencies that there yet exists in the port of Navarino a naval force, under the Turkish flag, superior to the force under my command. I have, therefore, felt it my duty to repair to this port, in order that I may obtain instructions for my guidance, more especially as the Turkish squadron is ready for sea, and said to be destined for Candia, with ten thousand men, intending there to repeat the barbarities which the want of provisions in the Morea renders it impossible they can longer perpetrate in that quarter. There is also a great number of captive women and children about to be transported as slaves, and the only force of the allied powers off Navarino consists of a small brig, the Pelican, which is totally inadequate to impede the naval operations of the Turks. Under these circumstances, I beg to be explicitly informed whether I am to consider that 'the armistice de facto' continues, and if you have any doubt on the subject that you will be pleased candidly to inform me, that I may not be led into error and so increase the evils by doing anything in opposition to the intentions of the allied powers."

That letter was answered by a personal visit from the members of the Government, when Lord Cochrane was informed that the triumvirate was so embarrassed by the demands of the allied powers for restitution on account of piracies committed with its approval that it could neither do nor sanction anything at all. He was told that even the scanty means that he had had for supporting the fleet out of the revenues of the islands could no longer be allowed to him, as every dollar that could any how be collected would be required for other purposes.

Still, however, the Government expected him to continue his work, and he was even asked to do work from which, both for his own honour and in the interests of Greece, he felt bound to abstain. "I have received your letter," he wrote to the Secretary, about ten days afterwards, from Poros, "informing me that it is the desire of the Government that a national vessel shall be despatched to Chios, in the event of my being prevented from personally proceeding in the Hellas to that island. In reply to this intimation, I have to state to you that it is impossible for me, consistently with the duties which I owe to Greece, to place the national squadron, whilst it shall continue under my command, or any part thereof, under circumstances to be treated by the ships-of-war of the allied powers after the manner set forth in the letter of the 24th of October, addressed by the three admirals to the Legislative Assembly,—a determination which is even more painful to me than the grief I feel at finding myself involved, notwithstanding all my precautions, in the restrictions and penalties justly laid upon privateers and pirates. I cannot trust myself to say more on this subject, lest I should be led by my feelings to pass the bounds which I prescribe to myself as an officer when treating of the conduct of the Government which he serves. If Chios remains unprotected, if Candia is deprived of the aid it might receive from the national marine, and if the ships-of-war are incapacitated from extending the bounds of Greece, I have the consolation of knowing that I have used my utmost endeavours to prevent the evils I foresaw. One of these, however, I was far from anticipating,—namely, that the revenues which I was authorised to collect for the service of the marine would have been withdrawn from my control and expended for other purposes; more particularly that sums so diverted should be placed to the account of the marine, without the objects for which they were employed having received my sanction or even been known by me.

"I have struggled during eight months in the service of Greece against difficulties far greater than all I ever encountered before; and I would most willingly continue to contend with these, did I find the slightest co-operation in any quarter. But, as the Government has withdrawn de facto the resources decreed, and the seamen decline to embark without pay in advance, and the funds, arising from the philanthropy of other European nations, which supplied the navy with the means of subsistence, are wholly exhausted, I have no alternative but to lay the ships up in port, until means to defray the expenses of the navy shall be found. I have myself, during the last month, paid the Greeks in the naval service; but whilst I see that even the share of prizes claimed by Government is diverted from its proper use, I shall not continue to be answerable for future expenses, nor for the liquidation of the just claims of the foreign officers, which they have had the patience to leave in arrears for many months."

It had come to this. Lord Cochrane had been devoting all his energies to the service of Greece; and now he found himself deserted by his employers, or only retained in the hope that he would be an unpaid agent in piratical and lawless proceedings.

That last circumstance was to him the most painful of all. Having done his utmost to restrain the piracy that was rife, he was still regarded by the governing triumvirate as only the most powerful instrument for achievements that were little better than piratical; and the same cruel misrepresentation of his functions was common among his enemies in England and other parts of Europe. Colour for this misrepresentation appeared in the celebrated letter written by the three admirals on the 24th of October, which, describing the national fleet as a mere crowd of "Greek corsairs," by implication included Lord Cochrane and his English supporters in the same opprobrium. This had not at first been perceived by him. On his detecting the insult, he wrote to the representatives of the three powers three letters, which here need to be quoted in his justification.