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

156 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
past the dockyards and arsenal of Alexandria had
been the scene of extraordinary activity; and, by
the beginning of June, one of the most magnificent
fleets that had ever been seen in the Mediterranean
was assembled in the port; while, outside the town,
an army of 15,000 disciplined troops was encamped,
in readiness to sail for the suppression of the infidel
revolt.
Before the transports were ready to
troops, the impatience
embark the
of Mehemet caused him to fit
out a squadron for the purpose of striking a blow at
the Greek islanders.
Three frigates and ten corvettes,
commanded by Ismail Djebel Akhdar, and carrying
3,000 Albanian troops under Hussein Bey, were ordered
to sail against the island of Kasos,
a nest of
pirates, which had earned a peculiarly evil reputation
in the Archipelago. The ruthless cruelty of the Kasiots
was remarkable even among the barbarous corsairs
of the ^Egean, and to their sinister activity was ascribed
the disappearance of numberless merchantmen
on the high seas. 1
Believing themselves safe from all
attack on their seagirt fortress a barren rock some
three leagues in length, and surrounded on all
by
inaccessible cliffs
the Kasiots had made no adequate
preparations for defence;
sides
and had even carried
i Jurien de la Graviere, Station du Levant, i. 269.