Meanwhile the Wizard gunboat had been relieved by the Assurance,--a
larger vessel,--the commander of which (Pym) had an American wife, and
perhaps had been influenced by her, and certainly shared her sympathy
with the Cretans. I showed him Seward's dispatch and fired him with
the desire of distinguishing himself by taking the initiative in
the work of humanity. I then made the strongest possible appeal to
Dickson, who had by this time come through his own informants to
recognize the atrocity of Mustapha's plan of campaign, to order Pym to
obey his good impulse; and Pym at the same time informed me that he
intended to go, with Dickson's order if possible, but in any case to
go. Meanwhile he ran down to Candia to watch events there and protect
the Christians. Dickson in the end obtained the consent of Mustapha
to the deportation of the families, and sent the order to Candia, on
which the Assurance went to Selinos and took on board three hundred
and fifteen women and children and twenty-five wounded men, menaced
by the approach of Mustapha's army, and carried them to Peiraeus.
Mustapha Pasha had given his permission for the ship to take the
refugees, and Dickson had given the order, so that Pym's action was
regularized; but he was, nevertheless, punished by his government,
being ordered to the coast of Africa, and shortly after retired. I saw
him on his return from the trip, and there was not a man or officer
who would not have given a month's pay to repeat the expedition, but
it was peremptorily disapproved by the English government.

There were at Suda at the time two Italian corvettes, an Austrian
frigate and gunboat; the Russian General Admiral, and a French
gunboat; all of which, with the exception of the Frenchman, were
anxious to follow the example of Pym. But the prompt disapproval of
Pym's expedition by the English government, and the withdrawal of the