The remaining auxiliaries, paralyzed by want of organization, the usual dissensions of the chiefs, and their mutual jealousies, even more than by their want of supplies, retreated before Mustapha, who, after some weeks of indecision, resumed his campaign; but, instead of following up his advantages by land, and getting possession of Omalos as a better base of operations, and preventing the Cretans from reoccupying it, he embarked his troops at Suia, and attempted to land at St. RumsÉli, the entrance of the ravine of SamariÁ, the stronghold and place of refuge par excellence of Sphakia, and where, at this time, were gathered thousands of women and children. This movement menaced too closely the mountaineers, who opposed the landing, and finally repelled the attack, as well as a subsequent one at Tripiti, nearer to Suia, when Mustapha returned to his camp in Selmos, and passed another period of inaction, during which the insurrectionary committees in Greece, admonished by the imminent danger the movement seemed to have evaded for the moment, renewed their efforts to send relief, and threw over other bodies of volunteers, mainly Mainotes, a hardy, courageous race, regarded as better irregulars even than the Albanians, who, landing in the eastern provinces, revived the insurrection where the government was ill able to meet it. The best of the volunteers, under Coroneos and Yennissarli, recovering from their demoralization by rest and the removal of the more disorderly elements, moved eastward to join the new bodies, leaving the Sphakiotes to guard their own country. If Mustapha, after the affair of Krustogherako, had followed the attack up with vigor, two weeks would have finished the insurrection. Even as it was, Sphakia being strongly disposed to purchase freedom from conquest by neutrality, and several of the captains having openly embraced the Turkish cause, there seemed very little hope for the prolongation of the insurrection, when another of those wanton acts of barbarity, which had on more than one occasion strengthened the insurgents instead of weakening their courage, gave it another jog.

The Russian minister at Constantinople had, as soon as the news reached that place that an English ship had rescued a number of non-combatants from Crete, obtained from the Grand Vizier a reluctant consent that other ships might intervene, and despatched a steamer at once to Crete, with orders to the Grand Admiral to commence deportation. A violent storm favored the Turks by delaying the avviso for several days, and, when finally the order came, we had the news that the English Government had disapproved Pym's acts, and the Commissioner (who had plenary powers in all matters connected with Crete) had withdrawn the permission given to Dickson, and both Dendrino and Boutakoff hesitated to execute the order, anticipating its revocation. The former, a timid, irresolute man, master of the arts of intrigue, but lost as soon as he had an open part to play in which he must bear the responsibility of decision, was more concerned for his own security than for the fate of the Christians, and hesitated to give a requisition to the captain to move, while the latter, indifferent to the consequences to himself, as weighed against the relief of the Christian sufferers, hesitated to move before getting renewed orders after the long delay, lest he might compromise his Government in the event of a change of its momentary policy, which was to avoid all appearance of ultra-advocacy of the insurgent cause. It lacked but two or three days of our regular weekly courier when the avviso had arrived, and both the Russian officials had decided to wait the courier before moving.

As for myself, since the affair of Arkadi I had thrown aside all reserve, and, while never going beyond the limits of moral intervention, I had used all my influence with my colleagues, and with our minister at Constantinople as well as our Government, to provoke acts of positive intervention. I made no secret of it, nor did the Turkish Government of its hostility to me. A patrol of zapties watched my front door, and another my back door, and no Cretan dared enter my house. I was regarded as the postman of the insurgents, and so complete was the delusion that the authorities entirely neglected to watch my colleagues, two of whom daily received and sent letters to the mountains. All the little persecutions which a petty local government could inflict were laid on me, and I reciprocated, as I best could, by disseminating news of the true condition of the insurrection, and stimulating the activity of my colleagues. Mr. Morris, our minister at Constantinople, at first strongly under the influence of the English ambassador, the just and liberal Lord Lyons, became convinced that nothing was to be expected in the way of humane intervention from England, and passed entirely over to the Russian policy, and lent me his whole prestige and influence, made himself my defender at the Porte, and gave me instructions after my own drawing up. I made common cause, therefore, with my Russian colleague, on whose irresolution I managed, in most cases, to impose my resolutions, and, little by little, gained all the control over him which I desired for critical emergencies, while I flattered his amour propre by giving him the credit of making up his own mind. I had also organized a sort of news agency, by which I was able to get the earliest and most reliable news of all movements in the island, so that gradually not only the consuls but the naval officers came to expect from me the most reliable information.

During the few days of suspense between the arrival of Boutakoff's orders and the arrival of the courier which should confirm or revoke them, the act of brutality to which I have alluded came to quicken decision. I had received news that a Turkish frigate, hoisting English colors, had run in near the coast of Sphakia, and when the unfortunate refugees, expecting aid, came down to the shore, the Turks opened on them with shot and shell. A Turkish cannonade is generally a pretty harmless affair, except for accidental casualties, but the affair gave me all the justification I needed to put a pressure on Dendrino to issue a requisition for the Grand Admiral to go at once to the south coast of the island. That night the post steamer was due, and, from the absence of any despatches to the Italian commander similar to those to the Russian, I anticipated that the movement had failed, and that counter-orders would come to Boutakoff by the post. I went at once, therefore, to Dendrino, and, putting the most energetic pressure on him, dictated a letter to Boutakoff, who was on board the frigate at Suda, requesting him to get up steam and go to the Sphakian coast without delay, and did not leave till I saw the messenger on the way and beyond recall, knowing that if I left Dendrino it would stop there. Boutakoff, nothing loth, fired up at once, and at nine P.M. was on his way. At midnight the post arrived, as anticipated, with counter orders, but too late. Except myself, no one was so glad that the countermand failed as General Ignatieff, the Russian minister.

The Grand Admiral went to Tripiti, where were thousands of non-combatants hiding in caves and living amongst the rocks, waiting the relieving European ships, but when the Russian boats ran in they were fired on by the Cretan guards, made suspicious by the Turkish frauds. Once assured of their friends, however, the people swarmed out of their holes like ants, and, as Boutakoff told me, in a few minutes the whole coast was lined with them, more than he could possibly stow. He took about 1,200, and sailed for PeirÆus.

This deportation had a triple effect: first, in strengthening the Russian party in the island by assuring the Cretans of the good faith of the Russian Government, that party having been hitherto very inconsiderable; second, in relieving a large body of men of the care of their families; and, third, in deciding doubtful and uninvaded districts to take up arms, and breaking off the negotiations between the Commissioner and the Sphakiote chiefs, by which the former had hoped to have Sphakia given up without combat. The most tempting offers were refused, and the people of Eastern Sphakia, under the command of old Costa Veloudaki, entered on the war-path again, and, surprising a Turkish post at EpiskopÍ, drove the garrison, with serious losses, back to Retimo; and, near the same time, Coroneos and Korakas on one slope of Ida, and Petropoulaki, the chief of the Mainote volunteers, on the other, harassed and drove back all the outposts in the open country, and shut up the Turks of the central district in the fortress of Retimo; while some battles, better worth the name than the desultory skirmishes which most of the combats had been, were fought in the open country around Candia, where Reschid Effendi proved himself a shrewd and capable strategist, and drove the insurgents back to the western slopes of Ida after sharp fighting, in which the dissensions of the Greek and Cretan chiefs were more conspicuous than their wisdom; but everywhere the insurrection showed new vigor.