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

260 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
ever, had to be abandoned, as the woods near the shore
were occupied by Albanian sharp-shooters, who prevented
any one from approaching the vessel. It was
thereupon bombarded from a distance; and the work
of destruction was complete.
This victory gave the Greeks once more the command
of the Gulf of Corinth, and opened up their
communications between the Morea and the mainland.
Its importance, however, lay not so much in its immediate
military as in its ultimate political effects; for
it
was the news of the career of Captain Hastings in
the Gulf of Corinth, and of the destruction of the Ottoman
squadron at
Salona, which brought to a head
the quarrel between Ibrahim and the admirals, and so
led directly to the catastrophe of Navarino.
In view of the destructive activity of the Greeks,
Ibrahim held himself to be no longer bound by the
verbal agreement entered into on the 25th of September;
and he determined to send a strong squadron
to the Gulf to avenge the defeat at Salona, and put a
stop to the proceedings of Hastings. On the 1st of
October the frigate Dartmouth, which had been left
to watch the Turkish fleet in Navarino, signalled the
departure of a Mussulman squadron;
and from the
heights of Zante thirty Turkish warships were presently
seen sailing, with a fair wind, in a north-westerly