THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

MASSACRE OF CHIOS 93
too, indignant at the devastations committed in their
mastic gardens by the insurgents, clamoured for the
suppression of the revolt; and preparations for this
were pressed on with unwonted vigour. On the llth
of April, without any resistance on the part of the
Greeks, the Capitan Pasha, Kara Ali, landed 7,000
troops on the island. Lycourgos and his rabble had
proved their courage by murdering in cold blood the
crew of a Turkish felucca which had run ashore, and
in general by massacring all the Mussulman captives
who fell into their hands. They now, at the approach
of the Ottoman force, took to their boats and fled,
leaving the wretched Chiots to their fate. The ' blood
bath ' that followed is the most horrible episode in a
history of horrors. The Turkish commander, aided
by the local Mussulman authorities, made some effort
to curb the excesses of the troops, less, perhaps, in the
interests of humanity, than in those of the imperial
revenue. But the Ottoman soldiery had been reinforced
by hordes of fanatics, who had crowded over
from the mainland to share in the holy war; and these
it was impossible to control. A few of the islanders
succeeded in escaping in Greek vessels ;
and even these
poor wretches were usually robbed of everything they
had saved from the wreck of their homes by the boatmen,
who made the surrender of all they possessed the