ieth year, was too old
for any difficult seamanship or daring warfare that came in his way
he certainly was not inclined to admit; but he was not quite as
enthusiastic as Sir Francis Burdett and many of his other friends
regarding the immediate purposes and the ultimate issue of the Greek
Revolution. He was now as hearty a lover of liberty, and as willing
to employ all his great experience and his excellent ability in its
service, as he had been eight years before when he went to aid the
cause of South American independence. But both in Chili and in Brazil
he had suffered much himself, and, what was yet more galling to one
of his generous disposition, had seen how grievously his disinterested
efforts for the benefit of others had been stultified, by the
selfishness and imprudence, the meanness and treachery of those whom
he had done his utmost to direct in a sure and rapid way of freedom.
He feared, and had good reason for fearing, like disappointments in
any relations into which he might enter with Greece. Therefore, though
he readily consented to work for the Hellenic revolutionists, as he
had worked for the Chilians and Brazilians, he did so with
something of a forlorn hope, with a fear--which in the end was fully
justified--that thereby his own troubles might only be augmented, and
that his philanthropic plans might in great measure be frustrated.
Coming newly to England, where the real state of affairs in Greece,
the selfishness of the leaders, the want of discipline among
the masses, and the consequent weakness and embarrassment to the
revolutionary cause, were not thoroughly understood, and where this
understanding was especially difficult for him without previous
acquaintance even with all the details that were known and apprehended
by his friends, he yet saw enough to lead him to the belief that
the work they wished him to do in Greece would be harder and more
thankless than they supposed.

This must be remembered as an answer to the first of the
misstatements--misstatements that will have to be controverted
at every stage of the ensuing narrative--which were carefully
disseminated, and have been persistently recorded by political
opponents and jealous rivals of Lord Cochrane. It has been alleged
that he was induced by mercenary motives, and by them alone, to enter
the service of the Greeks. His sole inducements were a desire to do
his best on all occasions towards the punishment of oppressors and
the relief