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

234 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
of Ibrahim to seize the monastery of Megaspilaion
was frustrated by the valour of the militant monks.
He then tried to penetrate into Karytsena; but the
forces of Gennaios and Paploutas held the passes, and
he was compelled to turn back. He retired baffled
into Messenia;
elated.
and the Greeks were correspondingly
Further triumphs awaited them in the north.
On
the 15th, and again on the 29th, of July Kolokotrones
defeated the combined forces of Xenekos and Achmet
Bey at St. Vlasi and the Cloister of Saint John. He
lacked the means, however, to take full advantage of
his victory and attack Patras.
In vain he urged the
Hellenic Government to send him supplies of food
and ammunition.
'
I cannot/ he wrote indignantly,
'
feed my soldiers with air, turn earth into powder,
'
or rocks into bread ! The Government paid no attention
to his urgent messages, either because they had
no supplies to send, or because they were too much occupied
with their own selfish ends to care about the
conduct of the war. The Greeks as well as the Turks
were, therefore, compelled to live upon the unhappy
peasants, who thus found themselves ground between
the upper and the nether millstone.
Ibrahim, hearing that Kolokotrones was about to
make an effort to reconquer the districts which had