of the character of the people. Courage they had, but discipline they
never would submit to, nor will they now.

Server Effendi got his deputies, some by compulsion, some by bribery,
and some with good-will, and most of them he succeeded in getting to
Constantinople. One escaped and came to my house for asylum, and
there he remained six weeks, and then was smuggled on board a Russian
corvette, in sailor's costume, and carried to Greece; the rest of the
Christians when they got to Constantinople took refuge at the Russian
Embassy, declaring that they came against their own free will and that
of the Cretans. At this time a change for the better took place at
Athens, the incompetent ministry which had neither known how to do nor
how not to do giving place to that in which Comoundouros was prime
minister and Tricoupi minister of foreign affairs; and, while the
paralysis of utter failure rested on the Turkish administration
in Crete, the policy in Greece became comparatively energetic and
intelligent. Comoundouros was a demagogue, without any scruples as to
the means of success, but he was intelligent enough to understand the
position and that a positive policy was necessary. He had opposed any
encouragement to the insurrection in the beginning, seeing no hope for
its success; but public opinion all over Europe and in America had
by this time become so pronounced, and committees were beginning so
widely to form to aid the Cretans, that there seemed a chance of
intervention and a certainty of large assistance in money and moral
encouragement. He took the responsibility of openly giving aid to the
insurrection, but he still had not the clear understanding of the want
of a concentrated direction in Crete. The bands refused to coöperate,
and while Coroneos in the central districts carried on a brilliant
system of harrying and raiding the Turkish detachments, the chiefs in
the eastern and western sections remained inert, getting the principal