With the practical and complete failure of Omar Pasha to subdue the island, all hope of military success seemed to fail the Turkish authorities. Omar returned from Sphakia with his army by sea, save a body left in Selinos, who made an expedition on Omalos, and, after penetrating with slight resistance to the plain, found themselves unable to keep up their communications with the coast, and abruptly evacuated it again, suffering considerable loss in forcing the passes outwardly. The elastic system of resistance adopted by the Cretans, and finally acceded to by the Greek chiefs, wore out the Turkish forces without giving them the prestige of tangible victory. There were no fortresses to capture, no accumulation of stores to destroy, and the very poverty and want of military coherence made a strength for the insurgents in face of the wretched strategy of the Turks.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
Another step of the moral intervention which the Russian Government had been so long and so skilfully engineering came at this juncture to make the cause of the Porte more hopeless. The negotiations with France had resulted in a kind of entente on the Eastern question, by which the French emperor had agreed, under certain contingencies, to unite with the Russians in deporting the families of the Christian combatants. The new French agent, Tricou, had from the beginning shown a tendency to criticise Omar Pasha unfavorably, which the latter had increased by his contemptuous treatment of the new consul. Tricou had, consequently, set his agents to find out all the instances of Turkish barbarity obtainable—a ghastly roll, obtained from easily read records. It happened during the operations against Sphakia, which Omar nominally directed from on board the flag-ship of the squadron off the coast, that news came in of his having blockaded a number of families in a cave on the sea-side and having attempted unsuccessfully to stifle them out (or in), and the active Murray went at once to make his Highness a visit, and ascertain if the catastrophe were avertible. He obtained from the Generalissimo a promise that the prisoners should not be attacked by any inhuman appliances, and should be guaranteed honorable treatment on surrendering.[J] In the course of the conversation, Omar animadverted on Tricou in terms which Murray, in narrating his visit to me, declined to repeat, and which, in all their vagueness and possible malignity, I at once applied as a caustic to Tricou's already wounded pride, in accordance with a systematic policy to make all the bad blood possible between the Pasha and my colleagues. The ruse succeeded to my best hopes, and thenceforward the irritated Frenchman sought every opportunity to punish the illustrious renegade, and his activity resulted in the following despatch, sent while Omar was still engaged in the Sphakian raid:
(Translation.)
Canea, July 21, 1867.
M. le Chargé d'Affaires:
The situation grows daily worse. I have had the honor of notifying to you the deplorable excesses which have been committed in the district of Kissamos; to-day I learn that massacres have broken out in the eastern part of the country.
For the last month, isolated murders took place daily in the neighborhood of the town of Candia; the native Mussulmans overran the country and abandoned themselves to the saddest iniquities in the Christian villages. These barbarous expeditions over, they would return to the town, and the gates opened before them to give passage to their bloody trophies. I had made strong complaints to the local authorities, but all my representations had remained without effect. Emboldened by impunity, the bashi-bazouks on the 12th and 13th of this month spread themselves over the district of Rhizo and massacred women and children. To revenge themselves, the insurgents carried off a young Turkish girl and killed her father. The Canadian Government, which has for a long time forbidden Christians to enter the town, doubtless counted upon these atrocities remaining buried in silence. They let them go on, and the irregulars could glut their ferocity entirely as they pleased.
On the 17th, they invaded the villages of Huméri, Alcolohuri, Aghias Paraskevi, Shilus, and a great number of the villages of the district of Pediada, murdering the peaceable and defenceless villagers, old men, women, and children. The consular agents of Candia unite, and wish to send their dragomans to the places; but the Governor opposes this, and the carnage continues.
These sad tidings have deeply moved the consular body. As soon as I had been informed of them I went to the Imperial Commissioner, whom I found, I must say, deeply afflicted, but overwhelmed with the feeling of his impotence. He no longer attempts to deny the evil, but he feels himself incapable of staying its progress. From all parts of the island the most sinister reports reach us. Women and children wander along the shore, dying of hunger and exposed to the most horrible treatment. I am in a position to inform you, M. le Chargé d'Affaires, that three young Turkish officers, witnesses of the barbarities which have taken place at Kissamos, have given in their resignation, to avoid presiding over such butcheries.
In so serious a situation, my English colleague and I thought it our duty to inform our respective governments in the promptest manner. We consequently drew up the following telegraphic despatch, which we sent this day to the Peiræus to be transmitted to Constantinople, as well as to the Cabinets of London and Paris:
"Massacres of women and children have broken out in the interior of the island. The authorities can neither put down the insurrection nor stay the course of these atrocities. Humanity would imperatively demand the immediate suspension of hostilities, or the transportation to Greece of the women and children."
The Russian and Italian consuls address an identical telegram to St. Petersburg and Florence.
We cannot, M. le Chargé d'Affaires, remain blind to the fact that from impotence the Turks passed to fury, and from fury to extermination. I do not hesitate to say that, if this useless struggle were to be prolonged, the women and children would have no refuge but exile or death.
Omar Pasha continues his expedition of Sphakia. It is asserted that he has effected his junction with the corps of Mehmet Pasha, which is said to be entirely free. It would be very desirable that the Serdar should make himself master of this position as soon as possible; it is true that the insurrection would be scarcely weakened by it, but this success might perhaps induce the Porte to order a suspension of hostilities.
The aviso of the Imperial navy, the Prometheus, which has come to relieve the Salamander, anchored on the 17th in the harbor of Canéa.—Accept, etc.
(Signed) Tricou.
The consequence of the Russo-Frankish accord was that, on the receipt of the above despatch at Constantinople, the French and Russian squadrons at Peiræus proceeded to Crete, and there commenced to embark the families gathered along the coast. This undertaking, which had probably as little as possible to do with humanity in its secret springs, was evidently concerted, and waited only the arrival of some signal like Tricou's telegram, followed accordingly by this preconcerted rejoinder from the French representative at Constantinople:
M. Outrey to A'ali Pasha.
"Therapia, July 26, 1867.
"Highness: The consul of France at Canéa sends me the following telegram [given above].
"In view of such acts, which the Porte can but reprove, and in virtue of orders which I have received from my Government, I hasten to inform your highness that I have ordered Admiral Simon to repair to the Cretan coast with the ships under his orders, to receive and transport to Greece all the women and children who wander on the shores, dying of hunger, and exposed to frightful treatment. The mission of Admiral Simon, having no political character, cannot, I imagine, meet any difficulty from the Ottoman authorities, and I beg your highness to have the goodness to instruct his Highness Omar Pasha to lend all his sympathy to a work of humanity."
Which is made clearer by the extract from the despatch of the English chargé to Lord Stanley: