THE
Cretan Insurrection
OF
1866-7-8.
BY
WILLIAM J. STILLMAN,
Late U. S. Consul in Crete.
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1874
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
HENRY HOLT,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
TO THE MEMORY OF
LE GRAND LOCKWOOD,
OF NEW YORK,
This Volume
IS DEDICATED, IN RECOGNITION OF THE UNOSTENTATIOUS,
UNPROMISED, AND UNRESERVED LIBERALITY WHICH
RENDERED IT POSSIBLE FOR THE AUTHOR
TO REMAIN IN CRETE DURING THE
INSURRECTION.
PREFACE.
In committing to print the subjoined record of the Cretanrevolt of 1866-7-8, I am fulfilling a duty in regard toa series of events quæque ipse vidi et quorum pars magna fui,and which, if not in themselves of importance, are so asa revelation of the manner in which political influenceswork in the East, and perhaps still more as a curiousexemplification of the weight which personal accidents,private intrigue and pique, and the capacity or incapacityof obscure officials, may have in determining the affairs ofgreat empires.
In taking the position I did with reference to the insurrection,I was actuated only by a love of justice, and in nowise by sentimental or religious prejudices; but I hope itmay be permitted me to say that, if I learned how fatalare the defects of the Greek race, its bitterness in personalrivalry, want of patriotic subordination, and the extravaganceof its political hostilities, I saw also that it possessesadmirable qualities, which the interests of civilization demandthe development of; high capacity for political organization,for patriotic effort and self-sacrifice; and enduranceand equanimity under misfortunes, which few racescould endure and retain any character or coherence.Their amiable and refined personal qualities, and theirprivate and domestic morality, have justified in me a feelingtowards them for which I was utterly unprepared on goingto the Levant, and give me a hope that the manifest lesson[Pg iv]of the Cretan revolt may not be lost in their future, eitherto them or to the friends of the better civilization. I feelthat the Hellenes are less responsible for the vices of theirbody politic than their guardian Powers, who interfere tomisguide, control to pervert, and protect to enfeeble, everygood impulse and quality of the race, while they foster thisspirit of intrigue, themselves enter into the domestic politicsof Greece in order to be able to control her foreign, andeach in turn, lest Greece should some day be an aid to someother of the contestants about the bed of the sick man, doesall it can to prevent her from being able to help herself.No just and right-thinking man can make responsible forits sins or misfortunes, a people which is denied the rightto shape its own institutions without a studied reference tothe prejudices of its protectors; to manage its own affairswithout the meddling of foreign ministers, who dictate whoshall be its administrators; to protect even its own constitution