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

68 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
Before leaving, however
was a pity all
the Greeks
thinking, doubtless, that it
the spoil should fall into the hands of
they plundered the Turks, and forced the
Jews to give up to them all the money and jewellery
in their possession. With the wealth of which they
were thus deprived these poor wretches had hoped to
of the Arma-
purchase the protection of the captains
toli; and as soon as they could do so, they informed the
Greeks of Nourka's treachery, and laid down their
arms on promise of personal safety. That promise was
immediately violated. The massacre commenced with
the Jews.
Men, women, and children were murdered
without mercy, after being
reveal their supposed
tortured to make them
hidden treasures. The
Mussulmans shared the same fate;
poorer
and only a few of
the wealthier families were spared by the Greek leaders,
who hoped to hold them to ransom.
The horrors that followed the surrender of Navarino
on August 19, 1821, were only less revolting because
they were perpetrated against the will
of the
leaders, who had made preparations for transporting the
Turkish prisoners to Egypt. 1
While the confiscated
* Cf., however, Gordon, i. 231. He adds, In a footnote,
that one of the negotiators of the capitulation boasted to
him that he had succeeded in purloining and destroying
the copy given to the Turks, that no proof might remain
of any such transaction having been concluded.