Mustapha immediately returned to Canea, but having sworn not to enter
the city till he had conquered the island, he camped outside. He
called a council to devise some means of subduing the insurrection
before the effect of the siege of Arkadi should provoke intervention,
for he saw that that had been a mistake. The enthusiasm of the
insurgents rose, and for the first time it seemed to me that there was
a chance of the Powers taking their proper position as to Crete, and I
began to hope that the bloodshed would not have been entirely wasted.
But no effect was produced on the Powers by the horrible event, except
that Russia made some effort to provoke intervention; England and
France, who held the solution in their hands, showing the most stolid
indifference, and Russia, as afterwards became clear, only looking at
the occasion as creating more trouble for the Sultan. Greek influence
took entire control of affairs, and the Cretan committee at Athens
began to pour in volunteers, rifles, and ammunition, without any
attempt at organization or intelligent direction.

The pasha saw that the situation was critical and demanded his
greatest energy, and, with one hand offering bribes to the Sphakiot
chiefs, with the other he hurried his military preparations. Leaving
his second in command, Mehmet Pasha, at Krapi, the ravine which
approached Sphakia from the east, he marched all his remaining forces
round to the west, hoping, as he said, to sweep all the rebels and
their Greek allies into the mountains and either starve or otherwise
compel them to submission. The chiefs of the Greek bands refused to
submit to a common plan or authority, and wasted their strength in a
series of little combats, Coroneos and Zimbrakaki alone, and only for
a very brief period, coöperating for the defense of Omalos, which
was the depot and refuge of the families, and where the cold of the
approaching autumn and the want of supplies would act as Mustapha's