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

154 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
While the Cretans were wasting their time in
quarrelling and oratory, Mehemet Ah* was making
vigorous preparations for taking possession of his new
province. In June 1823, his son-in-law, Hussein Bey
Djeritli, landed at Suda; and forthwith the ' pacification
' of the island began. Against the disciplined
Egyptian troops the guerilla
powerless.
warriors of Crete were
Step by step, the island was reduced, with
admirable method, and barbarous cruelty;
Cretans, defeated in the open
and the
and driven from their
villages, sought refuge in their mountain caves. But
even here they were not safe. In the cave of Melato
2,000 souls had sought refuge; and of these thirty
men capable of bearing arms and all the old women
were slain ;
the rest were sold into slavery. Still more
ghastly was the tragedy of the Grotto of Melidoni,
whither some 370 souls had fled for safety. The narrow
entrance of the cave was held by armed men, and
all the efforts of the Arabs to storm it failed.
At last
the discovery of a hole in the roof of the grotto inspired
the latter with a brilliant idea for reducing the
garrison. They now proceeded to block up
the entrance
to the cave, and, when this was accomplished,
thrust masses of burning material through the hole
in the roof. The wretched defenders fled from point
to point of their place of refuge, now become a dread-