e prime of life when, in January, 1821, he returned to his early
home, to revive his old brigand life under the name of legitimate
warfare. His thorough knowledge of the country, its passes and its
strongholds, and his familiarity with the modes of fighting proper to
them, his handsome person and agreeable deportment, his shrewd wit and
persuasive oratory, made him one of the most influential agents of
the Revolution at its commencement, and his influence grew during the
ensuing years.

The flame of rebellion, having spread through the Morea during the
early weeks of April, extended rapidly over the adjoining districts of
the mainland. By the end of June the insurgents were masters of
nearly all the country now possessed by modern Greece. Their cause
was heartily espoused by the Suliots of Albania and other
fellow-Christians in the various Turkish provinces, and their kinsmen
of the outlying islands were eager to join in the work of national
regeneration, and to contribute largely to the completion of that work
by their naval prowess.

It was naval prowess, as our later pages will abundantly show, of
a very barbarous and undeveloped sort. Besides the two principal
seaports on the mainland, Tricheri on Mount Pelion and Galaxidhi on
the Gulf of Corinth, there were famous colonies of Greek seamen in the
islands of Psara and Kasos, and similar colonies of Albanians in Hydra
and Spetzas. These and the other islands had long practised irregular
commerce, and protected that commerce by irregular fighting with the
Turks. At the first sound of revolution they threw in their lot with
the insurgents of the mainland, and thus a nondescript navy of some
four hundred brigs and schooners, of from sixty to four hundred tons'
burthen, and manned by about twelve thousand sailors, adepts alike
in trade and piracy, but very unskilled in orderly warfare, and very
feebly inspired by anything like disinterested patriotism, was ready
to use and abuse its powers during the ensuing seven years' fight for
Greek independence.

During the summer of 1821, while the continental Greeks were rushing
to arms, murdering the Turkish residents among them by thousands, and
thus bringing down upon themselves, or upon those of their own race
who, as peasants and burghers, took no important share in actual
fighting, the murderous vengeance of the Turkish troops sent to
attempt the suppression of the revolt, these sailors were pursuing an
easier and more pr