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

110 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
all hope of forming a strong central government under
his leadership.
It inspired, too, the wild Greek warriors
with an intense conviction of the superiority of
their own irregular methods of warfare over those
of European discipline,
a conviction all the more
fatal as, just at this time, Sultan Mahmoud was planning
the reorganisation of his army on Western
models.
The defeat of the Greeks at Peta, and another
at Splanga, rendered the position of the Suliots hopeless.
Even in these straits, however, their reputation
for dauntless courage made the Ottoman commander
unwilling to drive them to desperation, and obtained
them favourable terms. Once more they evacuated
their impregnable mountain fastnesses, and, receiving
in compensation a sum of 200,000 piastres, crossed
over into the Ionian Islands.
Henceforward they cast
in their lot with the Greeks, and became, for better or
for worse, a conspicuous element in the War of Liberation.
Meanwhile the Greeks had spent the short period
of respite, due to the Suliot defence, as usual, in internecine
feuds. The difficult pass of Makrynoros,
through which any force advancing into West Hellas
from Epirus would have to make its
way, they left
undefended; and when Omer Vrioni, Khurshid's