affairs of Europe when Greece was the famous empire of the world.

It has another claim for celebrity. It was the supposed birthplace of the
heathen god Jupiter. Jupiter was a fabulous person, of course, but the
Greeks believed in him, and declared that he was born on Mount Ida in the
island of Crete. When you grow older and read your classics, you will
learn a great deal about the heathen gods and goddesses whom the Greeks
worshipped in the days before Christianity had come to enlighten the
world.

Crete, in the days of Grecian glory, was one of the most famous parts of
that wonderful empire. From its favorable geographical position, it was at
one time the place through which all the arts and wonders of Asia and the
East were made known to the then rough and uncultivated Europeans.

People from the East, and from the West, would meet on the island of
Crete, and it became one of the most important points in Europe.

After many ups and downs--you should read all about them in your Grecian
history--Crete fell, with the rest of Greece, into the hands of the Turks.

When the Greeks fought for and gained their freedom from the Turks in
1827, Crete struggled bravely for liberty too, but she was not as
fortunate as her sister land, and had to submit to the hated rule of the
Turk.

The Cretans are Greeks and Christians, and long to be under the rule of a
Christian monarch.

In 1869 they made another struggle for freedom, and appealed to the powers
of Europe to free them.

They asked to be allowed to join themselves to Greece, or else to be given
liberty, under the protection of some Christian country.

But they got no help, and the Turks still ruled in Crete.

The present outbreak is but a renewal of the old feud. The recent murders
of Christians in Armenia have made the Christians in Crete restless, and
they are determined to make one more effort for freedom.

The Greeks are anxious to aid the Cretans, and at the first word of the
revolt in Crete sent war-ships to Canea, the port at which the fighting
has taken place.

The revolt appears to have been well planned, for the main cities of the
island were soon in the possession of the Cretans, who only waited a
signal from Greece to declare a union with that country, and to overthrow
the rule of Turkey.

The signal seems not to have been long in coming, for, if the news can be
believed, the union of Crete and Greece has already been proclaimed.

This will probably