1768. quired instant circulation, the promises of the A.D. cogia bachi being implicitly received by his people, and the proceedings of Pappas Oglou reported with equal punctuality at St. Petersburgh. Benaki assembled the primates of his district at Calamata, along with a few of the Mainotes, and some of his own relations. An agreement was prepared, which was signed by those present, and to which the names of the absent leaders were fraudulently attached,* by which they bound themselves to bring into the field one hundred thousand men, as soon as the Russian squadron should appear off their shores, with a sufficient quantity of arms, and a proportionate body of troops. Furnished with this precious document, Pappas Oglou repaired to Venice towards the close of 1768, to meet Alexis and Feodor Orloff, who had already arrived in Italy, relying on the statements of their energetic agent. They were accompanied by a young Ukranian, named Tamara, who, whilst travelling through Greece, had perceived the general excitement existing in favour of Russia, and, being ignorant of its real origin, had hastened to communicate his singular discovery to the Empress. This spontaneous disclosure served still more to confirm • Villemain, p. 213. Hope, Anastasius, vol. i. c. ii. p. 26. Rulhiere, v. iii. p. 334. A.D. the delusion of Catharine and Orloff. 1768. Tamara himself, now aware that a grand project was on foot, encouraged by every means the designs of the latter, through a hope of sharing in the enterprise; and having at length succeeded to his wish, he embarked enthusiastically in the expedition, and hasted to meet the Grecian deputies in Italy. The Orloffs were burning with eagerness and ambition; Feodor in particular, the youngest of the five brothers, and the most refined and accomplished of his family, reached the shores of Greece, glowing with enthusiasm, and associating with every action and sentence the remembrance and the names of Miltiades and Leonidas. Their arrival gave a fresh impulse to the exertions of their agents; messengers were dispatched into every province to announce the approach of the "Envoys of God and the Empress ;" they were entrusted with proclamations and military instructions for the people, with letters for the chieftains, with decorations for the churches, and golden medals of the Czarina, for distribution amongst the influential proestoi. A crowd of Russian and Italian officers were quickly attracted to their residence, and a singular commotion was excited amongst the numerous Greeks and Sclavonians, whom commerce had brought to Italy. Funds were sup 1768. plied in abundance by Catharine; and Ma- A.D. ruzzi, a native of Joannina,* and proprietor of a banking-house at Venice, was induced, by the title of a Marquis and the decoration of St. Anne, to become the Russian agent in the Adriatic ports. These proceedings, however, did not escape the notice of the Senate; and Orloff received an intimation that his presence was no longer agreeable at Venice. His avowed object in visiting Italy, had been merely curiosity, and the pretext which covered his arrival served likewise to account for his departure. He obeyed without delay, and removed for the prosecution of his plans to other quarters. In the mean time, preparations were proceeding with equal activity at St. Petersburgh. The position of the army in the South was such as to conquer in some degree the opposition of the Russian ministry to the Grecian expedition. The division under Romanzoff had been driven from Moldavia and obliged to fall back upon Poland, where it was encamped upon the banks of the Dneister, surrounded by 60,000 Turks, and in a position of the most imminent danger. A diversion in Greece * Pouqueville, Regénération de la Grèce, v. i. c. ii. p. 41. + Castera, Histoire de Catharine II. v. ii. p. 61. Life of Catharine II. v. ii. p. 32. Rulhiere, vol. iii. p. 340. Rulhiere, vol. iii. p. 345. 1768. A.D. seemed the only measure to draw off the attention and forces of the Turks, and secure the success of the war. But whilst they consented to the attempt, they did not fail to point out to Catharine, that an expedition, on a scale such as she meditated, was totally beyond the means of Russia; that the expenses of supporting the army in the South, in the midst of a barren and devastated country, had already embarrassed the finances of the nation; that she had neither arms, stores, nor troops sufficient for such an enterprise, and that the inevitable result of her measures, if not conducted with greater moderation, would be the destruction of the Russian marine, the futile expenditure of enormous sums, the ridicule of Europe, the total destruction of Greece, and the malediction of its deluded and immolated inhabitants. A squadron, consisting of seven ships of the line, four frigates, and a few transports, and carrying twelve hundred men, was fitted out with all expedition, and dispatched precipitately from Cronstadt, in the month of September Sept. 1769. Its departure was expedited by the ap1769. proach of winter, and the dread of the ports being closed by the frost, as well as by a rumour that the Greeks were absolutely so frantic for freedom, that their leaders feared they could not be restrained longer from revolt, A.D. 1769. and that any attempt, unless supported by the A.D. presence and co-operation of the Russians, would involve them in inevitable massacre. The equipment of the expedition could not, in consequence, be completed before its arrival in England, which it reached after many difficulties and some loss. Here its appearance was by no means calculated to excite favourable anticipations of its success. The Russian navy, which had been comparatively neglected since the days of Peter the Great, had made no advance in improvement during the eighteenth century. Their vessels still retained the enormous sterns and lumbering tackle which had been in use when the Czar conceived the first project of founding a marine; their sailors had but little expertness or practice in working them; and their filth engendered a contagion which had already swept away large numbers of the troops. In the haste of their departure, the antiquated stores of the old arsenals had been hurried on board, and their armouries were stocked with weapons of so ponderous and primitive a construction, as to be of little use in modern warfare. The squadron was under the direction of Spiritoff, a rude, uneducated sailor, who had risen from before the mast to the rank of admiral; but its real conduct was confided to an Englishman, the Commodore Gregg. Alexis |