On the march forward through Mylopotamos the troops avenged themselves for their flight and losses in the most barbarous manner. Olive-trees were burned and cut down, every house burned, and every luckless Christian who fell into their hands sent with short shrift to his account. The European officer above alluded to declared to me that he was an eye-witness of the oft-repeated incident of burning the refugees in one of the caves, around the mouth of which a huge pile of green wood was piled, and fired while the troops hurried on, without waiting to see what the result might be; and so reached Damasta only slightly opposed, and debouched on the open country of Candia.

This occupied from the 18th to the 20th of May. The Turkish army then concentrated near the remains of Gnossus, and without entering into Candia moved on to Pediada, where Omar established his headquarters at Castale, near the foot of the Lasithe Mountains. He now announced his plan, which was to sweep round the insurgent forces, and push them all westward into Sphakia, where he would shut them up and finish the war. That he entertained no such expectation, however, was evident from the order of his attack on Lasithe, which he made at a single point, so as rather to disperse than gather in the insurgents. The 3d of June he sent Reschid to attack the northern pass of Lasithe, by Abdou. The column of irregulars entered the little plateau, which is as an ante-chamber to the great plain of Lasithe, without opposition, and his men at once camped, and began to cook their supper, or whatever else the desire of the bashi-bazouk might be. They were, in this state of confusion and security, suddenly attacked by the Cretans, and utterly routed and driven back to the plains below, leaving their dead and wounded on the ground. The news of the disaster followed the despatch announcing the entry so closely, that both became known in Candia that same night. Reinforcements were continually arriving, and the Pasha had now in the field for the attack 18,000 men. With these he renewed the attack on Lasithe in two directions, from Abdou on the north, and from the west by Mathea and the pass which was defended by the mountain called Lasithe Effendi—a very strong position, but in a state of defence in no ways equal to its natural advantages. The insurgent force gathered in the Lasithe at this time was the largest the insurrection had ever seen assembled, and is estimated by competent assistants at about 5,000, but with no head, though many commanders. The force was sufficiently well organized to have defeated Omar Pasha, but, after three days' cautious skirmishing, the Turks penetrated on several sides, the irregulars turning Abdou by a difficult and undefended approach at the east, and the insurgents retired in disorder and in every direction; some by Messara into the Ida district, but the larger portion into Rhizo Castron, south of Lasithe, and the higher ridges of the Lasithe range, which Omar did not attempt to penetrate.

On hearing that Omar had arrived at Candia, and was about attacking Lasithe, I ran down in the Kestrel to watch his movements from nearer, and get more reliable information than the consular agents there generally furnished, as well as to convey more promptly the news to Greece and Constantinople, the agents only reporting back to their superiors at CanÉa. On the arrival of the first news of the entry of Reschid into Abdou, Omar sent off an express with the news to Syra and Constantinople, but when the later report came, of the surprise and repulse, I was able, to the great annoyance of the authorities, to send by the Austrian post steamer, which left the next day, to correct the advices by the new information which I received from the son of Reschid Pasha, who was in great anxiety for the fate of his father, a raid of the Christians having temporarily cut his communications with headquarters. For two or three days the panic and confusion in Candia were extreme.

Orders were then issued for the bulk of the army to concentrate at Dibaki, and Omar moved across the plains of Pediada and Messara, Reschid taking a line further west by St. Thomas and the slopes of Ida, while the troops who had moved further into the Lasithe country attempted to pass directly to the coast. Two battalions of Egyptians in this movement were caught in the ravines of Sime, and almost annihilated, leaving baggage, arms, and mules, loaded with ammunition and provisions, in the hands of the Cretans, who hung on the rear of every detachment, harassing more successfully than they had opposed them.

At Dibaki the army was reorganized for the Sphakian campaign. It was the beginning of July when it began to move. The fleet had been waiting at Dibaki some time, and embarking the bulk of the regulars, still strengthened by fresh troops from Constantinople, they were landed at Franco Castelli, and took immediate possession of the heights commanding Kallikrati. The forces under Coroneos were on their way to oppose this movement, but, moving by land, were too late, and Zimbrakaki and his Sphakiotes made no opposition. Reschid, meanwhile, moved from Dibaki through Agios Basilios, his march being facilitated by the assassination of the chief of that district, which left the Christians without a head, and paralyzed their defence in great measure, though opposition enough was made to render his march slower than the plans of Omar had provided, and gave time to Coroneos to get to Kallikrati, where he immediately commenced operations by an attack on Omar's positions on the hills south of the plain. He began the combat with forty men, who were rapidly increased to 1,500, whom he divided into two bodies, of which the heavier, massing unperceived on the left flank of the Turkish position, after the defence had been concentrated against the feint made by Coroneos himself, charged energetically, and carried the two positions on the Turkish left. The ground was very favorable to irregular operations, rocky, with much small growth of trees, making artillery useless. The Cretans held the positions taken, and in them prepared an attack for the day after.

On this day the insurgent force had augmented to 2,000 men, and the plan of operation was a slight variation only of that of the day before, the feint being on the left, but, unfortunately for it, the order to the commander who should have made the real attack was kept in the pocket of the officer who carried it until an hour after the time at which the assault was ordered to be made, so that though the diversion of Coroneos was very well carried out, and the Sphakiotes under him penetrated to an abattis which had been constructed around the principal position of the Turkish army on a conical hill called Avgon (the egg), the expected flank attack was not delivered, and the troops who had held the positions on the right had time to concentrate against Coroneos, and he was driven back. Preparations were, however, made for the third day, with forces still increasing, when the news that Reschid had arrived at Gaiduropolis, and consequently menaced their rear, demoralized the Cretans, compelling Coroneos with his volunteers to fall back on AskyfÓ.

Mehmet Pasha, once more attacking AskyfÓ by Krapi, while Omar's troops and Reschid with his bashi-bazouks passed by the mountains from Kallikrati to Asfendu, and so into AskyfÓ, had been opposed by Zimbrakaki, Soliotis, and the Sphakiote chiefs for three days, when, finding the defence concentrated at the head of the gorge, he climbed the hills at his right, passed over into AskyfÓ, took possession of Kares, on the edge of the plain, barricading himself there without attempting to advance further. Coroneos, on his retreat to AskyfÓ, threw a force of several hundred Sphakiotes and volunteers behind him, and for several days his communications with CanÉa and his base at Vryses were cut off, when Reschid succeeded in getting into AskyfÓ and supplying him with provisions, of which he stood much in need, having left Vryses with six days' rations, and now been twelve days out without further supplies. Zimbrakaki had retired to the heights between AskyfÓ and Anopolis, followed by Omar's forces, while Reschid occupied the southeastern part of AskyfÓ, Mehmet being in the northeastern. The indefatigable Coroneos took position at Muri with about 800 men, and thence menaced the communications between the latter chiefs, and so effectually that Mehmet was obliged to evacuate AskyfÓ, and get back to Vryses, when, falling on the rear of Reschid, Coroneos compelled him to fall back to Kallikrati. The Greek chief then placed himself between Omar and his auxiliaries, and watched both, ready to attack either when the development of their plans should tell him what to do. Omar pushed on to Anopolis, and thence to Aradena, where he was gallantly opposed by a small force of Greek volunteers under Smolenski and NicolaÏdes. The Greeks, attacked in front and on both flanks, while Zimbrakaki, at an hour's journey, remained idle, and Petropoulaki, a league away, guarded an unattacked pass, were forced to fall back, and leave Aradena to the Turkish troops, after a display of courage which called forth the praises of their enemies. But here the defences of nature stopped the invaders. The great stronghold of Sphakia, Samaria, was impregnable from the side of Aradena, the mountains hardly giving place for undisputed passage to pedestrians. The troops were accordingly withdrawn to the sea-side, and as the shore gives no passage, a detachment was carried by ships to the entrance of the gorge of Agios Roumeli. An energetic assault penetrated as far as the village which gives name to this valley, a distance of half a mile, but here the Cretans, concentrating in numbers, and aided by the masses of rock and torrents, stopped all further advance, and the troops were withdrawn; and, their passage through Sphakia to CanÉa being barred, they were sent round by sea, leaving the country as hostile as they had found it, but desolated and ravaged as the "paese guasta" never had been before. The losses of the army in this campaign had been frightful. The sun of July, beating on those bare rocks with southern slopes, with rare and unhealthy wells, fatigues of climbing and battle, merciless driving and pushing to enable Omar to telegraph to the Sultan at Paris the conquest of Sphakia, had been a hundredfold more fatal to the Turks than Cretan bullets. Sunstrokes and dysenteries carried off hundreds. Amongst the deaths was that of Geissler, Omar's chief of artillery, in whose journal the writer read after his death these words: "Who could have believed that I could ever have assisted in the subjugation of these unhappy Christians!" He had done his utmost at the beginning of the campaign to check the barbarities by which it was sought to terrify the Cretans into submission, and having remonstrated with Omar for one case of peculiar and repulsive atrocity, a coolness arose between them, which continued until Geissler's death.

Omar reached CanÉa by ship August 30, not having even done as much towards the conquest of the island as Mustapha, no division of his troops having passed from sea to sea except by the plain of Pediada, etc. His losses since leaving CanÉa cannot be estimated at less than 20,000 to 25,000 men—the estimate made by the most competent persons of the total force employed in the Sphakian campaign being not less than 45,000, while, on leaving, he himself declared that he had not over 20,000 troops, all told, in the island, and European officers in the service declared to me that this was an overestimate.

Returning for a moment to follow Reschid in his retreat from Sphakia, we shall so conclude this campaign. Waiting a day or so at Kallikrati, he seemed undecided what course to take, and Coroneos watched him, fearing a raid on the undevastated district near Kallikrati, but, urgently summoned by the Assembly to Sphakia to resist Omar, he was on the way to obey, when he received news that Reschid had broken up his camp, and was in retreat on Dibaki. He instantly sent messengers to the men of Agios Basilios to hasten to stop the way at HalarÁ, a most difficult pass of their canton, while he followed him with all the forces he could muster. Flight and pursuit were rapid, but when at HalarÁ Coroneos overtook the Mussulmans, he found no force in Reschid's way, and that he had occupied the pass without resistance. Pursuit recommenced next day, and in passing by Amari, Reschid escaped an ambush of the Amariotes by taking an unused and difficult way in preference to the commonly travelled one at which they lay in wait for him, and, incessantly harassed, and losing men and baggage continually, was caught again by his Greek adversary near Melambos, in a parting fight, in which, it is said, he received a wound from which (or from some other cause) he died a few weeks later at Candia.

This was the general result of the great expedition which would end the insurrection in two weeks. Nothing had been gained, an army wasted; and when, on October 3, the remnant of Egyptian troops left, there was no Turkish force out of gunshot of the fortresses except a small garrison at Dibaki, under the guns of the fleet.

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.