In Greek Waters Part 18

"That is a very good programme, Martyn. We are not likely, as you say, to find any Greek craft cruising about between Cyprus and Alexandria.

Turkish vessels going up towards the Dardanelles, or coming down from there, are prizes worth taking, for they may have pashas and rich officials on board; but down there they would be less likely to have anything that would repay the Greeks for the risks of a fight. As for risking anything to save their countrymen, Mr. Beveridge was saying he heard that at the ma.s.sacre of the Greeks at Kydonia, although the Greek fleet, under Tombazes, was close at hand, and their launches went on sh.o.r.e and rescued four thousand of their countrymen, they compelled them all to purchase their pa.s.sage to the nearest Greek island by giving up the greater part of the property they had saved."

"Brutes!" Martyn exclaimed with great emphasis. "How these fellows can be descendants of the old Greeks beats me altogether."

"The old Greeks were pretty cruel," Horace, who had just joined them, said. "They used to slaughter their captives wholesale, and mercy wasn't among their virtues. Besides, my father says that except in the Morea very few indeed are descendants of the Greeks; the rest are Bulgarian or Albanian, neither of whom the Greeks of old would have recognized as kinsmen."

"It is a case of distance lending enchantment to the view," Miller laughed; "our illusions are gone."

"Never mind, we must make the best of them, Miller; they are not Greeks, but at any rate they are all that is left of the Greeks. Their actions show that their Christianity is a sham, but at the same time they are an intelligent race capable of some day becoming a great people again, and they are struggling to throw off the yoke of a race intellectually their inferiors and incapable of progress in any sort of way. That is what my father said to me as we were walking up and down the deck this morning. That is the light I mean to look at it in the future. It is a capable people struggling with an incapable one, and if they are savage and vindictive and debased it is the faults not of themselves but of those who have so long been their masters."

"Good," Martyn said; "that is the most satisfactory view of the thing, and we will stick to it and shut our ears as much as possible in future against all stories to the Greeks' disadvantage."

In the afternoon a fleet of vessels were seen standing out from the land.

"There is one of the Greek fleets," Captain Martyn said. "Now we will try her rate of sailing with them. Stand on for a little bit longer and then haul her wind on the same tack they are sailing."

The trial was perfectly satisfactory. By nightfall the Greek fleet were far behind, and the _Misericordia_ again shaped her course for Cyprus. For a week they cruised backwards and forwards under easy sail about midway between Cyprus and Alexandria, without meeting with a single craft flying the Turkish flag. Half a dozen vessels were overhauled, but these were all Austrian, Italian, or British. The appearance of the schooner evidently excited profound distrust in the minds of the masters of all these vessels, for they all hoisted every rag of sail they could set and did their best to escape from her, but Captain Martyn had no difficulty in overhauling them and satisfying himself of their nationality. The astonishment of the masters when the smart gig manned by six English sailors rowed alongside was unbounded, and was only equalled by their satisfaction.

"You have given us a nice fright," the master of one of the English ships said to Miller, who, accompanied by Horace, had boarded him.

"What on earth are you flying that Greek flag for? We took you for a pirate, for half these fellows are no better when they get the chance."

"We are a Greek privateer." Miller said, "and carry letters of marque issued by the Greek government. We only wanted to a.s.sure ourselves that you were not Turks."

"Turks be jiggered!" the master said angrily. "I should have thought anyone with half an eye could have seen that we weren't one of those lubberly Turks."

"Quite so, captain, we made that out some time ago, and we have only overhauled you to ask whether you know of a Turkish ship likely to be sailing from any of the Eastern ports. Our object is to rescue Greek women and children on their way to the slave-markets."

"Then give us your flipper," the master said; "that is a business an English sailor needn't be ashamed of, though, as for sailing under a Greek flag, I would almost as lief sail under the skull and cross-bones, for nine cases out of ten it means pretty nearly the same thing. I have known many a ship sail in among those Greek islands and never be heard of again when there had been no storm to account for her disappearance. I would as lief anchor a ship near land in the Malay Archipelago as among the Greek islands. Still the women and children ain't to blame for that. I was at Broussa two months ago and the slave-market was chock-full of Greek girls and children, and I thought then what a burning shame it was that Europe didn't interfere to put down such villainous doings. Well now, as to Turkish ships, I don't think you are likely to meet with any hereabouts. The Greeks have given them a bad scare, and I fancy that all the ships from Cyprus and from Aleppo and the other Syrian ports will run down due south till they sight land, and will hug that as near as they dare go till they get within shelter of the batteries of Alexandria. If you are after Turkish vessels you must stand south and anchor as close inland as the water will let you. Get down those lofty spars of yours.

You don't want them. That craft of yours sails like a witch. We think the _Scarborough_ is a fast brig. You went through the water three feet to our two, so you can do without your topsails. I can tell you the look of your craft is enough to frighten one fifteen miles away; a more rascally-looking vessel I never saw, she looks like a pirate all over."

"She was a slaver at one time," Miller said.

"Ah! that accounts for it. I thought that long low hull and those lofty spars were never put together for an honest purpose. You seem to carry mighty heavy metal," he went on, looking at the _Misericordia_, which lay with her head sails aback a few hundred yards away. "Four each side and a pivot; they look like eighteens."

"They are eighteens," Miller said. "You see we have got to keep a sharp eye on friends as well as foes."

"I should think so. Well, I have just come out from Larnaca. I heard from our consul that there were bad doings in the north of the island, and that the Christians were having a very rough time of it all through Cyprus. I have no doubt there are a lot of Christians hiding there who would give every stiver they have got in the world to be on board this craft."

"And you say there were some ma.s.sacres going on when you were there?"

"Yes, and I heard that the Turks were attacking one of the Christian villages on the north-western corner of the island. It was some way up on Mount Olympus, a few miles from the coast. Morphou Bay is the nearest point to it. I hear it is naturally a strong place, and Christians from other villages round have gone in there. The people attacking it are not troops, who I fancy have nothing to do with these ma.s.sacres, but the natives of the Mussulman villages. Some of the poor devils may have got down to the coast, and you might pick some up if you were to cruise along there."

"Perhaps we might," Horace said; "at any rate it would be worth a try.

We will go on board again at once."

"Will you have a gla.s.s of wine first? I got hold of some good stuff at Larnaca. Good wine is cheap there now."

"No, thank you, we will be off at once," Miller said.

"Well, good-bye, gentlemen, and good luck to you! There is nothing I would like better than to be going for a cruise with you for a few months, for no vessel can do better work than that which you are engaged on."

Miller and Horace dropped down into their boat, and were rowed back to the schooner.

CHAPTER VIII

A BESIEGED VILLAGE

As soon as they gained the deck of the _Misericordia_ Miller reported the advice the skipper of the English brig had given as to their taking their station near the southern coast, to pick up vessels hugging the sh.o.r.e on their way to Alexandria and the west.

"I have no doubt he is right," Will Martyn said; "that accounts for our not having seen a single craft flying the Turkish flag. Well, Mr.

Beveridge, I think we can't do better than take his advice."

"There is something else though," Horace broke in; and he then told them what the captain had said about the fighting among the villagers on Mount Olympus.

"Don't you think, father, we might go there first? With this wind we should not be much more than twenty-four hours getting there, and we might pick up a lot of fugitives in hiding and possibly bring off the people from that village. It would not be a great loss of time anyhow."

"I think we might, Horace; hearing of it in the way you did, it seems almost like a call to help them. What do you say, Captain Martyn?"

"Just as you like, sir. As Horace says, it is no great loss of time anyhow, and we certainly may do some good."

The order was given and the schooner was headed for Cyprus with a brisk wind on her beam that heeled her well over and sent her through the water at nine and a half knots an hour. The news was soon known through the vessel that there were ma.s.sacres going on in Cyprus, and that there might be some work to be done, so there was an air of increased activity and animation among the crew. The wind held steadily, and next morning the mountains of Cyprus could be seen lying like a cloud in the distance, and by eleven o'clock the north-westerly point of the island was but five or six miles away.

Rounding the point they entered the great indentation known as Morphou Bay. Martyn now ordered the topsails to be lowered.

"We will run along about a mile off sh.o.r.e," he said; "they can make out the flag then. We will go along as far as the other end of the bay and then come back again. If there are any people in hiding in the woods they will keep an eye on us, and as we come back will come off in boats if they have got them, or will come down to the sh.o.r.e and signal. We can send our boats in for them."

As they were still going through the water faster than they wished the foresail was also lowered, and they then went quietly along the coast, keeping a sharp look-out with their gla.s.ses on the sh.o.r.e. They pa.s.sed several villages and could see that their appearance created much excitement, and that the population at once deserted their houses and made off.

"They are evidently all Mussulman villages," Mr. Beveridge said.

"They are Mussulman villages at present, Mr. Beveridge," Martyn agreed, "but the chances are they were Christian a short time ago. You see they have all got fishing boats either riding at anchor or hauled up, and I fancy that most of the fishing is done by the Greek inhabitants. I expect the Turks have cleared them out. What do you say, Mr. Beveridge, to our firing a shot or two at each of the villages as we pa.s.s? That will act as a warning to the Turks to keep out of range. If there are any Christians left they may take the opportunity of seizing the boats and coming off. We might lie-to for half an hour opposite each village to give them a chance of doing so."

"That would be a very good plan, I think, Captain Martyn."

As they were pa.s.sing a village at the moment the _Misericordia_ was at once brought round. Two of the broadside guns were loaded, and two shots were sent over the village. Then the craft was hove-to, and waited for half an hour. As there were no signs of life, she again proceeded on her way. Three more villages were fired at with the same result. Half a mile beyond the furthest Tarleton exclaimed: "There is someone swimming off, Captain Martyn; he has just put off from that point! There, do you see that black spot a little way off the point?"

Martyn turned his gla.s.s in that direction. "I see him," he said.

"Lower the small gig, Mr. Tarleton; take four hands, row off, and pick him up. You had better go too, Horace. The chances are he won't speak anything but Greek."

In a couple of minutes the boat left the side of the schooner and rowed in the direction of the swimmer, the vessel being again thrown up into the wind. Horace stood up while Tarleton took the tiller lines.

"Can you see him, Horace?" he asked.

"No, not yet. There is too much ripple on; but if you keep her head as it is now I shall make him out before long." Three or four minutes later he exclaimed: "I see him, he is dead ahead!"