In this way, Hadji Georgaki’s measures were generally uncontrolled, and he proceeded to the length of oppressing Turks and Christians indiscriminately, which was ill borne by the Turks, who submit reluctantly to authority exercised over them by an infidel; but not unwillingly by the Greeks themselves, who cared not to lose a portion of their substance, if their oppressors were to be fellow-sufferers. At length, however, the complaint of the Turks found its way to Constantinople, and Hadji Georgaki thought fit to go in person to the capital to counteract the machinations of his enemies; which, by force of bribes, he succeeded in doing, and returned triumphantly to Cyprus.
The hatred of the Turks against the dragoman now knew no bounds; and, finding they could not obtain justice from the Porte, they resolved to take the cause into their own hands. They accordingly laid a plot to seize the person of Hadji Georgaki, and to take away his life, but he was apprized of it in time to escape to Larnaka, where (after concealing himself some days in a consular house) he embarked for the Archipelago, and betook himself again to Constantinople. The Turks, having lost their victim, and committed themselves too far to recede, hoisted the standard of rebellion, and were headed by the governor. The Greeks were oppressed without appeal, and complaints poured into Constantinople, demanding relief.
The Porte now saw that energetic measures must be resorted to, and looked about for a proper man to execute its commands. Cara Pasha, a subtile chieftain, versed in intrigue, and who would stick at no means to effect his ends, was selected for the purpose. He embarked from the opposite coast of Asia with a large body of troops, and, landing, marched strait for Leucosia: but Leucosia, a fortified place, was so well defended by the rebels, that he found himself unable to carry it by assault. He accordingly sat down before the city, having seized on the flour-mills at Cytherea as the best means of straitening the besieged, who had no means, except by hand and mule-mills, of grinding corn within the walls. The archbishop and the chief Greeks found themselves shut in with the rebels. The former, fearing for his personal safety, and pretending to be alarmed only for that of his flock, wrote letters to the different consuls at Larnaka, begging them to intercede with the pasha for a truce, and to endeavour to settle the affair any how so that he might escape; signifying that, if hostilities commenced, he and the Greeks should be massacred. For it was the artifice of the rebels to hold out the threat, knowing how much could be done by the archbishop, if made a party in the affair.
The consuls, pleased with the importance they were likely to acquire in becoming mediators, set off, to the number of five, for Leucosia. They made known their business to the pasha, who eagerly availed himself of an opportunity which he thought was thus afforded him of getting within the walls. He accordingly treated them with great distinction, and expressed himself disposed to accede to any thing which their negociations might effect. A correspondence was immediately entered upon, and thirty days passed in messages to and fro; the rebels endeavouring to obtain permission to leave Leucosia with their property, and the pasha, on his side, offering them their lives and property, but with the condition that they should remain where they were. The rebels were at last brought to consent to these terms, on a solemn promise being made to the consuls by the pasha that their lives should be saved.
On an appointed day the gates were thrown open, and the pasha and the consuls marched in together in procession. The day was spent in merriment, and most persons thought the pasha honourable in his intentions. Night came, and the consuls retired to their respective houses, where they were to sleep. It was then that the pasha began to play his treacherous game. Despatching soldiers in different directions, he secretly caused to be seized, at the same moment, thirteen rebels, who were brought to the palace and beheaded immediately. Their relations flew to the consuls, whilst these executions were yet going on, and told them that the pasha had not respected the compact made between them. Monsieur Regnault, the French consul, as first in rank among them, despatched his dragoman to the pasha, and bade him hold his hand and respect the treaty. The dragoman, a timid Levantine, arrived whilst the bow-string was yet at work. Fainting and trembling, his tongue faltered, and his representations were unheeded by a man, who, in having made the consuls the tools of his perfidy, could well ask them why they meddled between the Porte and its subjects.
The next morning, when the day dawned, the pasha sent for the consuls. Monsieur Regnault at first refused to attend on him, but his timid associates advised him not to offend so sanguinary a man, and he accompanied them. The pasha received them not like one convicted of treachery, but as a magistrate vested with an authority in which they had no part. He read to them the firman of the Porte, commanding him to exterminate the rebels; and excused the mode in which he had effected it, by saying that no faith could be kept with them. He then invested each consul with a pelisse of one thousand piasters value, and, when they had suffered this, they went away, held their peace, and returned humbled to Larnaka.
To add to the disgrace which this whole transaction brought on the consuls, when the pasha afterwards came to Larnaka, previous to his embarkation for Latakia, they invited him alternately to their houses, where he made himself drunk with brandy, which he asked for incessantly; and, retiring to vomit, returned to drink again. These scenes were renewed from house to house, and often lasted through the night. And here Monsieur Regnault was destined to betray a second time the folly of meddling in affairs that did not concern him, however good and honourable the motive; for when, on the evening of the massacre, he had favoured the escape of certain rebels, and had caused them to be secreted in his house at Larnaka, the pasha sent a detachment of troops, and compelled him to give them up. Two, however, of the leaders, named Hadj Mustafa and Delli Omàr, escaped. The latter was for some time secreted at Signor Vondiziano’s, until an opportunity offered for stealing on board a ship and sailing for Syria. The whole affair cost a vast deal of money to the island, which was obliged to maintain so many troops; and the pasha enriched himself individually by presents extorted by terror, and by avanies levied on each rich person who could in any manner be implicated in the rebellion. The troops themselves departed with their arms covered with gold.
Will it then be said, after this, by writers and travellers, that the Turks are a nation devoid of animation, activity, or enterprise? Rather let us look on them as unmoved by the tranquil occupations of virtuous minds, and by the ordinary pursuits which agitate a Christian’s bosom, because they play a deeper game, and are to be excited to energy only where the stakes are fortune and life: but we must not charge them with dullness or inactivity.
The information acquired respecting Hadji Georgaki induced the pasha to denounce him to the Porte. On his arrival at Constantinople, after his flight, he had concealed himself at the village of Arnaûtkui on the Bosphorus, until by fresh bribes he could judge himself sufficiently protected at court; after which he appeared in public. But, his work not having been well done, one day he was seized and beheaded. His house was despoiled at Leucosia, and in the floor of one room was found a trap-door leading by steps to a stone vault, where immense treasures were discovered. When at Leucosia, I descended into this place, and was satisfied more than ever that such means of concealment were often resorted to by the natives of these countries.
The archbishop, in this conflict, saw himself deprived of half the authority which before, by peculiar privileges, had belonged to the see of Cyprus. For, up to this time, no judicial proceedings could be enforced against a Greek subject without his presence, personally or by deputy: now the motsellems of Leucosia, Larnaka, and Famagusta, were vested with the same authority as the governors of other cities of the empire.