THE GREEKS
The annexed letter by Dr. Howe was received by a late arrival. Though it gives no late or encouraging information, it will be read with some interest by the friends of Greece.
Napoli April 30, 1826
Dear Sir— I write you with an almost breaking heart. Missolonghi has fallen! Her brave warriors have thrown themselves in desperation upon the bayonets of their enemies— her women and children have perished in the flames of their own dwellings, kindled by their own hands, and their scorched and mangled carcasses lie a damning proof of the selfish indifference of Christian world. Christian do I say? Alas! I fear Christianity has fled from the world. You send missionaries to the east and to the west and from pole to pole, millions are annually paid … of over endowed institutions, while the poor Greeks are left to worse than slavery and death. For ten months have the eyes of Christian Europe been turning upon Missolonghi; they have seen her inhabitants struggling at enormous odds against the Horrors of war and famine; her men worn out, bleeding and dying; her women gnawing the bones of dead horses and mules; her walls surrounded … yelling for the blood of her warriors, and to glut their hellish lusts upon her women and children. All this they have seen and not raised a finger for her defence, and at last they have seen the catastrophe. You may talk to me of national policy and the necessity of neutrality but l say a curse upon such policy… it is contrary to Christianity and humanity; it is a disgrace to our age, that two millions of Christians should be left to the Sabre and yoke of the Turk— Pardon me, Perhaps my language is too strong— but when I think of Missolonghi, when I think of the protracted sufferings of her inhabitants, many of whom I Knew, I cannot restrain my feelings……………………….. Greece is in imminent danger but I do not yet despair; if she falls be assured it will not be without a struggle, I shall have an opportunity of writing you again in a few days and then can give you a more correct opinion on the probability or improbability of her success.
Till then adieu
S.G. Howe
|