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

THE GREEK LOANS 137
before it reached their hands. 1
The services of Lord
Cochrane, the celebrated sailor, who had made a great
name for himself in the naval wars of South America,
were engaged by a retaining fee of 37,000?.;
though
it was not till 1827 that he made his appearance in
Greece.
Four steamers were also ordered,
at a cost of
150,000/.; but of these only the Karteria arrived in
time to be of any service;
while, of the two frigates
which Captain Lallemande, a French cavalry officer,
had been sent to America to buy for the Greek navy,
only one, the Hellas, ever arrived in Greek waters, and
cost 160,000?. By far the greater part of the loans
was, however, scrambled for by the factions in Greece
itself; and, as one main result of the generosity of
Europe, the partisans of the victorious party swaggered
about the streets of Nauplia, their clothes glittering
with gold embroidery, and their belts lined with
English sovereigns. 2
It is certain that, whatever else
may have happened, the unfortunate creditors never
received one penny either of the principal or of the interest
that had been ' secured ' to them.
Byron himself was, from the moment of his land-
1 But according to Mendelssohn as much as 1,000,000?. was
absorbed by jobbery in London and New York. See also
Finlay, 2 Finlay,
ii. 44.
ii. 40.