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

70 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
on shore, without his having the power to stop them.
On complaint being made to him, he deplored that he
was powerless to prevent the outrages, but asked at
how much the damage was reckoned. The reply was:
'
Six hundred piastres/ and Miaoulis thereupon paid
the money out of his own pocket. Amid the sordid
chicanery and lurid horrors of the war, it
may perhaps
be excusable to have lingered
awhile over this
brighter picture.
The squadron under Tombazes had fallen in with
the Ottoman fleet;
but though superior in numbers,
the Greeks were very inferior in size and in weight of
ordnance, and they
quarters.
did not venture to come to close
Taking advantage of their more easily managed
craft, they manoeuvred just outside the range of
the Ottoman guns, waiting for an opportunity to
strike. This soon presented itself. In the early morning
of the 5th of June, one of the Turkish battle-ships,
which had been separated from its
companions during
the night, was observed to the north of Chios, making
all sail in the direction of Samos. The Greeks immediately
gave chase; and it did not take long for their
light vessels to overhaul the slow-sailing Ottoman.
The Turkish captain, seeing that he had no chance
of regaining the squadron, now changed his course,
and made for the Bay of Eresos on the North-West