1803. A.D. surrender of Suli seemed to its enemies still doubtful and distant, when an unexpected incident served to brighten the hopes of the Pacha, and to expedite the ruin of the unfortunate patriots. Hitherto the Porte had regarded with a jealous eye the attempts of Ali to exterminate the Suliots, since they could not esteem as rebels those who never failed to pay their stipulated tribute, and acknowledge the supremacy of the Sultan. A French corvette, the Arabe, sent, as it was said, by Napoleon, then First Consul, but more likely fitted out by some private speculator, touched about this time at Athens, Maina, and Parga, and exchanged ammunition with the Greeks for oil, and the other productions of their country. From this vessel the Suliots had obtained 3000 lbs. of gunpowder, and 6000 lbs. of lead. This incident was without delay reported by Ali at Constantinople, in such terms as to rouse the indignation of the Divan against those who thus presumed to furnish military stores to a people who were in arms against the constituted authorities of the Porte; they instantly issued a firhman approving, in the strongest terms, of the previous proceedings of Ali, and urging him to forego no exertion which could expedite the destruction of the devoted tribe Armed with this powerful document he made fresh levies of troops, replaced and strengthened the blockading cordon round Suli, and marching all his forces to the banks of the Acheron, prepared by one resistless effort to terminate the disgracefully protracted war.* The Suliots met his first onset with equally augmented vigour; they assaulted and blew up one of the forts erected by the Turks at Villa, and destroyed in the ruins 200 of the garrison; they made nightly attacks upon their encampments, and intercepted and carried to the hills their supplies of ammunition and provisions. By the advice of Samuel the caloyer, however, they soon ceased to act on the offensive, and resolved to hold themselves quietly within their entrenchments, and await the miraculous dispersion of their enemies, over whose camp he assured them the destroying angel was about to pass. Notwithstanding these fanatic orders of the gloomy visionary, Suli, provided as it was against any immediate attacks, might have continued to resist and have wearied out the fresh forces of the Pacha, as it had already done his previous levies; but the gold of Ali had at last succeeded in producing treachery amongst them, * Bartholdy, v. ii. p. 279. Hughes, v. ii. p. 159. Fauriel, v. i. p. 265. Life of Ali Pacha, p. 183. Pouqueville, v. i. p. 178. Perevos, v. ii. p. 12. Dufey, v. i. p. 133. A.D. 1803. A.D. and the crime of one individual involved the 1803. destruction of his race. The traitor was Pilio Gusi, who consented, for a reward of ten purses and the liberation of his son, who was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, to conduct 200 Turks under the command of Kitzo Botzaris to Suli, and quarter them during the night in his own house; on the following morning Veli Pacha was to make a simultaneous attack on the outposts of the Suliots, and whilst they hurried to protect them, the party concealed in the dwelling of Gusi were to take possession of the village thus left without defenders. The plan was but too successfully executed. On the mornSept. ing of the 26th of September, 1803, o.s. Veli set out for Suli about day-break, and encompassed the position on all sides; it contained at the moment but fifty individuals fit to bear arms, the remainder being enclosed with Samuel at the fort of Agia-Paraskevi; a brief but decisive struggle ensued; the Greeks were driven from every point, and after a desperate conflict maintained with determined bravery, they were at last compelled to retreat towards the position occupied by the monk. All was not yet, however, lost, and the village might still have been preserved had the besotted caloyer permitted the garrison under his command to sally forth and attack the enemy; this, however, he sternly forbade; Veli entered Suli in triumph, garrisoned it with his ablest forces, and took possession at the same time of the adjoining villages of Avarico, and Samoniva, the inhabitants on his approach having retreated to Gkiaffa.* This latter, together with the fortress occupied by Samuel, was all that now remained to them, and these they prepared to defend with the desperate determination of bereavement and despair. A.D. 1803. Tzavellas, in the mean time, had been released from his dungeon by the vizir, on the terms of his inducing all his family and clan to depart from Suli and settle in some distant province; and having left his wife and children at Joannina as hostages for his fidelity, he once more returned to his home. Here his Nov. intention was to send off all the women, the old men, and children of the republic, who were to be placed under the protection of the Parguinots; and thus disencumbered of those whose presence in the midst of danger was a perpetual source of anxiety, and whose support was a heavy tax upon their scanty stores, he proposed to renew the war with fresh energy and vigour. In pursuance of this design he * Fauriel, v. i. p. 268. Perevos, v. i. p. 22. Hughes, v. ii. p. 167. Pouqueville, v. i. p. 188. Dufey, v. i. p. 143. 1803. A.D. solicited permission from Veli Pacha to repair to Parga, under the pretence of preparing an asylum for his friends; he obtained the necessary passport and set out without delay, but his negociation with the primates was tedious and difficult, in consequence of the necessity of communicating with the Ionian islands, whither they wished him to dispatch the refugees. A fortnight was thus permitted to elapse ere his arrangements were concluded; and when he again hurried back to Gkiaffa, he discovered that in the interval all had been lost. Botzaris and Kutzonikas had availed themselves of his absence to effect fresh treasons; the tribe of the Tzervati had fled at their suggestion from Gkiaffa, those who remained were wavering and discontented, his own proceedings had been disclosed to Veli, and no other resource remained for him than to fly from the village and shut himself up with the caloyer at AgiaParaskevi.* Here Ali, enraged at his frequent disappointments, appeared a few days after with an imposing force, and summoned him to surrender. Tzavellas returned a refusal, and issuing from the fortress, accompanied by his sister Chaïdo and about 150 of his clan, they sustained an action with the Turks, of seven Bartholdy, v. ii. p. 286. Pouqueville, v. i. p. 193. Carrel, p. 223. Fauriel, v. i. p. 271. Dufey, v. i. p. 147. |