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

158 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
Mediterranean.
Two hundred ships of war and transports,
carrying 18,000 men, followed the flagship of
Ibrahim to sea. The whole sea between Alexandria
and Rhodes was now covered with scattered ships ;
for
the prevailing north winds compelled the Egyptians
to beat up the coast in detached squadrons; and had
the Greeks been animated with the spirit of our own
Drakes and Frobishers, their light sailing cruisers
among
might have done, under these conditions, endless havoc
the hostile fleet. As long, however, as the danger
was not actually at their doors, they were too busy
with their own quarrels to pay much attention to the
proceedings of the enemy; and Ibrahim had no difficulty
in uniting his scattered fleet at Rhodes.
The Egyptian commander-in-chief cast anchor in
the Bay of Makry, where he proceeded
the great Mohammedan festival
to celebrate
of Bairam with exceptional
solemnity, so as to impress upon the soldiers
the religious character of the enterprise on which
they were about to embark. The whole army was
drawn up along the shore of the bay; and, as the red
rim of the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, coloured
lanterns were hoisted at
every masthead, and
the guns of the fleet thundered out a salute, while
volley after volley of musketry
re-echoed from the
hills. Then there fell a sudden silence, and, as the