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Updated: June 8, 2025
"There have been," says he, "thirty battles fought and won by the late Marco Botzaris, and his gallant tribe of Suliotes, who are shut up in Missolonghi. If it fall, Athens will be in danger, and thousands of throats cut: a few thousand dollars would provide ships to relieve it; a portion of this sum is raised, and I would coin my heart to save this key of Greece."
It matters little how; whether by Reform which will produce national bankruptcy, or by a starving population which will produce rebellion and civil war. Reform certainly means No taxes and cheap bread. Have been reading Moore's Byron. Poor Byron, quite what I believe him to be in many things and more than I believe him to be in others. I saw him at Missolonghi. 'June 6.
Only thirteen hundred men and two hundred women and children lived to reach Salona after more than a week of wandering and hiding among the mountains. The long siege of Missolonghi illustrates all the best and some of the worst features of the Greek Revolution.
After sunset four bridges of planks were secretly laid over the outer ditch of Missolonghi, and the inhabitants were ordered to prepare to leave in two hours.
Had he lived, this young man would have been sure to win a fair name in the annals of Italian patriotism; he should not, as it is, be quite forgotten, as it was chiefly due to him that Byron's life took the redeeming direction which led to Missolonghi. In February 1831, Romagna and the Marches of Ancona threw off the Papal Government with an ease which must have surprised the most sanguine.
They have destroyed many large ships, and, in the month of February last, with twenty-three brigs, they out-manoeuvred the Turkish fleet of sixty sail, and threw provisions into Missolonghi. This, though done by seamanship, and not fighting, was called a great battle and a great victory.
In the year 1824, Lord Byron, a rich young Englishman who wrote the poetry over which all Europe wept, hoisted the sails of his yacht and started south to help the Greeks. Three months later the news spread through Europe that their hero lay dead in Missolonghi, the last of the Greek strongholds. His lonely death caught the imagination of the people.
"He burns with military ardour and chivalry," says Colonel Stanhope, "and will proceed with the expedition to Lepanto." But the expedition was delayed by causes which ought to have been foreseen. The Suliotes, conceiving that in his Lordship they had found a patron whose wealth and generosity were equally boundless, refused to quit Missolonghi till their arrears were paid.
It was at this time, when the Greek cause was imperilled by the dissensions of the leading chieftains; when Greece indeed was threatened by civil war, in addition to its contest with the Turks; when the whole country was impoverished and devastated; when the population was melting away, and no revenue could be raised to pay the half-starved and half-naked troops, that Lord Byron arrived at Missolonghi to share his fortune with the defenders of an uncertain cause.
He had lately come to Missolonghi with a ship-load of ammunition and other material, procured and brought at his own expense, and soon attained considerable influence.
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