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

OPERATIONS IN WEST HELLAS 309
before at Troezene, and he was not careful to disguise
his opinion. When Church proposed to introduce the
officers of his force, the President refused.
'
I know
these gentlemen/ he said. '
You have fought the
Turks for nine years, you say
! You have stolen sheep
and goats
! That is all
you have done ' *
Yet one at
!
least of these officers, the Frenchman Manche, had
taken part in the heroic defence of Missolonghi.
Capodistrias was indeed distinguished for the possession
of a biting tongue, which he kept but imperfectly
under control; and it made him many enemies.
Church, however, was glad enough of the incentive
given by the President's visit to exchange the wearisome
inactivity of the last months for active operations.
In September the Greeks advanced to the Gulf
of Arta, and occupied Loutraki. An attempt of the
Corsican adventurer Pasano, who had been appointed
by Capodistrias to succeed Captain Hastings, to force
an entrance to the Gulf of Arta failed ;
but the Greek
officers, who believed this failure to have been due to
the admiral's cowardice, subsequently made another
attempt, without waiting for orders, and passed gallantly
under the batteries of Prevesa. This secured
to the Greeks the command of the Gulf of Arta.
Pasano was now recalled, and the courageous and capa-
1
Mendelssohn,
ii. 85.