But though no actual violence occurred, the state of excitement was intense, and it became evident that, in spite of all the influence of the consular body, the least untoward incident might precipitate a general massacre of the Christians in the cities. The exodus by sea continued, and the houses of the Russian, Italian, and Swedish consuls, and my own, at Khalepa, were besieged by terror-stricken crowds of Christians without the means of emigrating to Greece, and bringing their household goods to be stored under the protection of the flags. In the Italian consulate alone were over 150, and several cabins clustered round my door were filled with women and children, while hundreds more, abandoning everything, took to the mountains.
The Mussulmans were anxious for the fighting to begin. The Governor had distributed rifles and ammunition ad libitum to his Cretan co-religionaries. The Russian and Italian consuls and myself urged at Constantinople concessions and the removal of the Governor, and all except the English and French begged for the despatch of a man-of-war for the protection of European residents. M. Derché and Mr. Dickson, considering that the presence of any European flag would be an encouragement to the insurrection, refused to unite in this request.
Several times the gates of the city had been closed to prevent a sortie of the Mussulmans in the city to attack the consulates. We doubled the number of our cavasses, got revolvers and rifles in order, prepared mattresses for barricading the houses, and organized a strong patrol from the Cretans who had taken refuge in the consulates, to watch the roads by which the Turks would come from Canéa.
At this juncture news arrived of the appointment of the former Governor-General of the island, Mustapha Kiritli Pasha, to supersede Ismael. The Imperial Commissioner, for this was the title by which he was to be known, had great personal influence over the Cretans of both religions, and, if he had come immediately on his appointment, would probably have succeeded in averting the insurrection. I find in my correspondence of this date, August 28, 1866: "As to the insurrection itself, it waits to draw first blood. The Greeks to the number of thirty to thirty-five thousand [an enormously exaggerated estimate, I afterward found] are concentrated in the mountains, and determined to fight it out to the bitter end. The delays of diplomacy to right a wrong that was too patent even for your [English] consul to blind himself to, have permitted a trouble to grow that might have been rooted up with reasonable concessions on the part of the government, and now nothing but death and desolation will bring back Crete to Turkish rule. They will now insist on independence where they only demanded common justice. We shall doubtless have another sanguinary, desperate struggle, and a depopulated island, unless Europe intervenes to right the wrong it did in 1830."
The troops in the Apokorona were face to face with the Cretans armed to protect the committee, and that step forward would make a collision certain. The irregulars, proud of their new rifles, were firing in every direction all over the country. One heard rifle-balls whistling past, falling on the roofs and everywhere continually. Still no European ships. By every post we pleaded with our ministers at Constantinople for protection. The anxiety and excitement became almost unendurable. The whole community seemed to be in a state of tension and apprehension that approached madness. I found myself going continually and unconsciously to my balcony, telescope in hand, although ten minutes before I failed to discover an object in the range of vision. I grew, like the genius of the Arabian tale in his vase of lead, ready to curse the tardy deliverer that he tarried so long. The sight of a steamer on the horizon produced a loathing, as one after another we had watched them approach only to see the accursed crescent increase on our vision. One night a party of Mussulmans, passing through the suburb in which we resided, in frolic fired several pistol-shots, yelling "Death to the Christians!" In a few minutes, all that remained of Christianity in the quarter outside the gates of the consulates were rushing in a state of uncontrollable panic to beg admission. My cavasses were obdurate and indifferent, being Mussulmans, and refused to open, and, while I lay listening for indications of further and serious disturbance, my wife had descended, thrown the doors open, admitting the crowd of women and children, who passed the rest of the night seated on the floor of the consulate. None of us left our walls needlessly, and then only with an armed guard. My children for weeks did not pass the threshold, and, when business called either of us, whom the Cretans called the friendly consuls, to the palace of the Governor-General, we were greeted passing through the streets with unmistakable scowls and menaces. The sentinel at the city-gate as I passed one day, instead of presenting arms, as etiquette requires to a consular officer, saluted me as an infidel dog, accompanying the epithet with a menace and grimace comprehensible even to one who understood not a word of Turkish. I begged my wife at last to take the children and go to Syra, where they would be in security, but she resolutely refused, believing that her departure would be the signal for the last panic among the Christian women, who depended on our protection. Only they who know the extent and bitterness of Mussulman fanaticism can estimate the danger or anxiety of those few weeks.
[CHAPTER IV.]
The first relief was the flying visit of Admiral Lord Clarence Paget, in the Psyche despatch-boat, direct from Constantinople en route for Malta, to inform us that the Arethusa had been ordered to Crete. This was a reprieve of a few days, and was followed by complete freedom from anxiety on the arrival of the Arethusa, the sound of whose saluting guns at Suda Bay (the port of Canéa for large ships) produced an emotion which was like waking from a long nightmare. We all went to Suda to pay our official and personal visits, which the officers returned, and bluejackets swarming in the town, and racing over the plain of Canéa like mad fox-hunters, hilarious, indifferent to yataghan or bullet, as if they were anything but Giaours, assured both Turk and Christian that at least the Europeans must be respected. We took down our barricades, and again moved about freely; yet the feeling was so strong amongst the Mussulmans that the English were on their side that the native Christians experienced no benefit from the cause which brought us comparative relief. We attended service the Sunday subsequent to the arrival of the Arethusa on board, and, lunching with Captain McDonald, were called from the table to see the stars and stripes rounding the point and entering the bay. They floated from the gaff of the corvette Ticonderoga, whose commandant, being at Trieste, came for old friendship's sake to look after us on getting the first news of the insurrection. Her stay for a few days was a demonstration of force which, so far as I was concerned, left a most healthy impression as to my being supported by the United States Government, the more that the Ticonderoga sailed from Suda direct for Constantinople (according to her commander's original intention), a course which produced a general impression in Crete that she had gone to support my view on the question. Nothing could exceed in friendliness and cordiality the manner in which the commander, Commodore Steedman, and his officers supported me in my difficult position, and identified the national dignity with the respect due to the humblest of its representatives. The Arethusa, a few days after her arrival, was succeeded by H. B. M.'s gunboat Wizard, which during several subsequent months was our only and sufficient protector. Her humane and gallant young commander, Murray, will ever be remembered with gratitude and honor by every European resident in Crete during the insurrection. He placed us all under obligations of many kinds which a passing notice can only faintly recognize.