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

ATTACK ON KLISSOVA REPULSED 193
A last gleam
darkening fortunes of the Greeks. In
of brilliant success illuminated the
all the lagoons,
only the little island of Klissova, garrisoned by about
two hundred men, under the brave Djavellas, remained
now in their hands. On the 6th of April this was attacked
by some two thousand of Kiutayeh's Albanians.
Even the flat-bottomed boats of the enemy were, however,
unable to come close in land; and the soldiers
were compelled to leap into the water and wade ashore
through the mud, while,
from behind their low entrenchments,
the Greeks met them with a deadly fire.
The water was soon cumbered with the bodies of those
who fell. The rest scrambled back into the boats, and
made off.
Ibrahim now thought he would like to prove the
superiority of his disciplined troops, and, in his turn,
made an attack on the island. But the Arabs met
with no better success than the Albanians. Three
times they advanced to the assault, and three times
the volleys of the Greeks threw them into confusion
pitulation that of the surrender of the monastery of Seko
by Pharmakidi (see Chap. III.), when the promise given
by the Ottoman officers was held to be overruled by the
special orders of the Sultan, which arrived subsequently.
The Greeks, of course, did so frequently; and, possibly,
they judged others by themselves. I prefer, however, to
believe that in this case their motive was a higher one.
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