The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane - Earl of Dundonald Thomas Barnes Cochrane (guided reading books TXT) 📗

new arrangements necessitated by this change of plans the last two or three weeks of April and the first of May were occupied. Lord Cochrane put to sea on the 8th of May. "As a Greek citizen," one of the deputies in London, Andreas Luriottis, had written on the 17th of April, "I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere gratitude towards your lordship for the resolution which you have taken to depart almost immediately for Greece. This generous determination, at a moment when my country is really in want of every assistance, cannot be regarded with indifference by my countrymen, who already look upon your lordship as a Messiah. Your talents and intrepidity cannot allow us for a moment to doubt of success. My countrymen will afford you every assistance, and confer on you all the powers necessary for your undertaking; although your lordship must be aware that Greece, after five years' struggle, cannot be expected to present a very favourable aspect to a stranger. Your lordship will, however, find men full of devotion and courage—men who have founded, their best hopes on you, and from whom, under such a leader, everything may be expected. Your lordship's previous exploits encourage me to hope that Greece will not be less successful than the Brazils, since the materials she offers for cultivation are superior. With patience and perseverance in the outset, all difficulties will soon vanish, and the course will be direct and unimpeded. The resources of Greece are not to be despised, and, if successful, she will find ample means to reward those who will have devoted themselves to her service and to the cause of liberty." CHAPTER XV. LORD COCHRANE'S DEPARTURE FOR GREECE.—HIS VISIT TO LONDON AND VOYAGE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN.—HIS STAY AT MESSINA, AND AFTERWARDS AT MARSEILLES.—THE DELAYS IN COMPLETING THE STEAMSHIPS, AND THE CONSEQUENT INJURY TO THE GREEK CAUSE, AND SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT TO LORD COCHRANE.—HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MESSRS. J. AND S. RICARDO.—HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK GOVERNMENT.—CHEVALIER EYNARD, AND THE CONTINENTAL PHILHELLENES.—LORD COCHRANE'S FINAL DEPARTURE, AND ARRIVAL IN GREECE.

[1826-1827.]

Lord Cochrane, having passed from Brussels to Flushing, sailed thence in the Unicorn on the 8th of May, 1826. Before proceeding to the Mediterranean, he determined, in spite of the personal risk he would thus be subjected to through the Foreign Enlistment Act, to see for himself in what state were the preparations for his enterprise in Greece. He accordingly landed at Weymouth, and hurrying up to London, spent the greater part of Sunday, the 16th of May, in Mr. Galloway's building yard at Greenwich.

He found that the Perseverance was apparently completed, though waiting for some finishing touches to be put to her boilers. "The two other vessels," he said, "were filled with pieces of the high-pressure engines, all unfixed, and scattered about in the engine-room and on deck. The boilers were in the small boats, and occupied nearly one half of their length, Mr. Galloway having, through inattention or otherwise, caused them to be made of the same dimensions as the boilers for the great vessels, which, by the by, had been improperly increased from sixteen feet, the length determined on, to twenty-three feet." The inspection was unsatisfactory; but Mr. Galloway pledged himself on his honour that the Perseverance should start in a day or two, that the Enterprise and the Irresistible should be completed and sent to sea within a fortnight, and that the other three vessels should be out of hand in less than a month.

Trusting to that promise, or at any rate hoping that it might be fulfilled, and after a parting interview with Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Ellice, and other friends, Lord Cochrane left London on Monday, and joined the Unicorn, at Dartford, on the 20th of May. It had been arranged that he should wait in British waters for the first instalment of his little fleet, at any rate. With that object he called at Falmouth, and, receiving no satisfactory information there, went to make a longer halt in Bantry Bay. At length, hearing that the Perseverance had actually started, with Captain Hastings for its commander, and that the other two large vessels were on the point of leaving the Thames, he left the coast of Ireland on the 12th of June.

He vainly hoped that the vessels would promptly join him in the Mediterranean, and that within four or five weeks' time he should be at work in Greek waters. The journey, however, was to last nine months. The mismanagement and the wilful delays of Mr. Galloway and the other contractors and agents continued as before. The urgent need of Greece was unsatisfied; the funds collected for promoting her deliverance were wantonly perverted; and the looked-for deliverer was doomed to nearly a year of further inactivity—hateful to him at all times, but now a special source of annoyance, as it involved not only idleness to himself, but also serious injury to the cause he had espoused.

He passed Oporto on the 18th, Lisbon on the 20th, and Gibraltar on the 26th of June. He was off Algiers on the 3rd of July, and on the 12th he anchored in the harbour of Messina. There, and in the adjoining waters, he waited nearly three months, in daily expectation of the arrival of his vessels, Messina having been the appointed meeting-place. No vessels came, but instead only dismal and procrastinating letters. "We deeply lament," wrote Messrs. J. and S. Ricardo, the contractors for the Greek loan, in one of them, dated the 9th of September, "that, after all the exertions which have been used, we have not yet been able to despatch the two large steam-vessels. Everything has been ready for some time; but Mr. Galloway's failure in the engines will now occasion a much longer detention. We leave to your brother, who writes by the same opportunity, to explain fully to your lordship how all this has arisen, and what measures it has been considered expedient to adopt. In the whole of this unfortunate affair we have endeavoured to follow your wishes; and our conduct towards Mr. Galloway, who has much to answer for, has been chiefly directed by his representations." "Galloway is the evil genius that pursues us everywhere," wrote the same correspondents on the 25th of September; "his presumption is only equalled by his incompetency. Whatever he has to do with is miserably deficient. We do not think his misconduct has been intentional; but it has proved most fatal to the interests of Greece, and of those engaged in her behalf. On your lordship it has pressed peculiarly hard; and most sincerely do we lament that an undertaking, which promised so fairly in the commencement should hitherto have proved unavailing, and that your power of assisting this unhappy country should have been rendered nugatory by the want of means to put it in effect."

Those letters, and others written before and after, did not reach Lord Cochrane till the end of October. In the meanwhile, finding that the expected vessels did not arrive at Messina, and that in that place it was impossible even for him to receive accurate information as to the progress of affairs in London, he called at Malta about the middle of September, and thence proceeded to Marseilles, as a convenient halting-place, in which he had better chance of hearing how matters were proceeding, and from which he could easily go to meet the vessels when, if ever, they were ready to join him. He reached Marseilles on the 12th of October, and on the same day he forwarded a letter to Messrs. Ricardo. "I wrote to you a few days ago," he said, "from Malta, and, as the packet sailed with a fair wind, you will receive that letter very shortly. You will thereby perceive the distressing suspense in which I have been held, and the inconvenience to which I have been exposed, by remaining on board this small vessel for a period of five months, during all the heat of a Mediterranean summer, without exercise or recreation. This situation has been rendered the more unpleasant, as I have had no means to inform myself, except through the public papers, relative to the concern in which we are now engaged. My patience, however, is now worn out, and I have come here to learn whether I am to expect the steam-vessels or not,—whether the scandalous blunders of Mr. Galloway are to be remedied by those concerned, or if an ill-timed parsimony is to doom Greece to inevitable destruction; for such will be the consequence, if Ibrahim's resources are not cut up before the period at which it is usual for him to commence operations. You know my opinions so well, that it is unnecessary to repeat them to you. I shall, however, add, that the intelligence and plans I have obtained since my arrival in the Mediterranean confirm these opinions, and enable me to predict, with as much certainty as I ever could do on any enterprise, that if the vessels and the means to pay six months' expenses are forwarded, there shall not be a Turkish or Egyptian ship in the Archipelago at the termination of the winter. It may have been expected that I should immediately proceed to Greece in this vessel. I might have done so at an earlier period of my life, before I had proved by experience that advice is thrown away upon persons in the situation and circumstances in which the Greek rulers and their people are unfortunately placed. Having made up my mind on this subject, I must entreat you to let me know by the earliest possible means what I am to expect in regard to the steamships. I see by the 'Globe' of the 2nd of last month that the holders of Greek stock were to have a meeting. I conclude they came to some resolution, and this resolution I want to know. I wish I could give them my eyes to see with—they would then pursue a course which would secure their interests. This, however, is impossible; therefore they must, like the Greeks, be left to follow their own notions. I have, however, no objections to your stating to these gentlemen, either publicly or privately, that I pledge my reputation to free Greece if they will, by the smallest additional sacrifice that may be required, put the stipulated force at my disposal."[A]

[Footnote A: This letter, like some others of this nature, is partly written in cypher, the key to which is lost. Its concluding sentences, therefore, are not given.]

At Marseilles, Lord Cochrane received information, disheartening enough, though more encouraging than was justified by the real state of affairs, with reference to his intended fleet. On the 14th of October he wrote to explain his position, as he himself understood it, to the Greek Government. "By the most fortunate accident," he said, "I have met Mr. Hobhouse here, who, from his correspondence with Messrs. Ricardo and others in London, enables me to state to you that the two large steamboats will be completed on the 28th day of this month, and that they will proceed on the following day for the rendezvous which I had assigned to them previous to my departure. You may, therefore, count on their being in Greece about the 14th of next month. The American frigate is said to be completed and on her way, and I feel a confident hope that I shall be able here to add a very efficient ship of war to the before-mentioned vessels.[A] It is probable," he added, "that many idle reports will be circulated here and through the public prints, because, under existing circumstances, I find it necessary to appear now as a person travelling about for private amusement. I can assure you, however, that the hundred and sixty days which I have already spent in this small vessel, without ever having my foot on shore till the day before yesterday, has been a sacrifice which I should not have made for any other cause than that in which I am engaged; but I considered it essential to conceal the real insignificance of my situation and allow rumours to circulate of squadrons collecting in various parts, judging that the effect would be to embarrass the operations of the enemy."

[Footnote A: It should here be explained that the building and fitting out of the two frigates contracted for in New York, at a cost of 150,000_l._, having been assigned to persons whose mismanagement was as scandalous as that which perplexed the Greek cause in London, one of them had been sold, and with the proceeds and some other funds the other had been completed and fitted out, more than 200,000_l._ having been spent upon her. She reached Greece at the end of 1826, there to be known as the Hellas.]

That concealment had to be maintained, and the wearisome delays continued, for three months more. All the promises of Mr. Galloway and all the efforts, real or