THE ENGLISH MAY MAIL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 672, 19 July 1870, Page 3

THE ENGLISH MAY MAIL.

The following is from the Argus London correspondence : — Iff THE GREEK MASSACRE. The greatest horror and indignation have been excited throughout the country by the massacre of a party of English tourists in Greece. VI mentioned their capture by brigands in my last letter, but we had then no suspicion of the terrible tragedy that was to followrvThey 6 returning from a visit to the plains' of Marathon, when, within an easy distance of Athens, they were surrounded, and made prisoners. The party consisted of Lord and Lady Muncaster; Mr Herbert, secretary to the British Legation ; Mr Lloyd, barrister, with his wife and little daughter; Mr Vyner, a younger brother of the Countess de Grey and Ripon, who was travelling for pleasure in the East; and Count de Boyl, secretary to the Italian Legation. | The brigands were well informed as to the position of their captives, and at once sent down a note to the Greek Minister of War, saying, "We have taken the lords; stop pursuit everywhere, or we will at once shoot all the prisoners." They demanded an enormous ransom, and an amnesty, but at last, failing to eecure the latter, kept their cruel word, and murdered all who remained in their hands. The ladies they had k-t go, and Lord Muncaster had been allowed to return to Athenß to undertake the necessary negotiations, and so escaped. **L It now appears that application had been made through the British Legation for infor--1 mation as to the Bafety of visiting the plains of Marathon, and that the Minister of War had replied to the effect that the " road was safe, that there were no brigands in Attica, but that an escort would be provided." The party were accompanied by four mounted gendarmes, and a Suliote named Alexandras, who had the reputation of being the most experienced and intelligent dragoman in Greece, but whose good faith haa since been seriously impugned by more than one traveller. On traversing the plain they found a detachment «f six infantry soldiers, and afterwards a larger one of 25, patrolling the road. The most vivid account of the capture occurs in a letter written by Mrs Lloyd :— " We reached Marathon all right (Monday, April 11), breakfasted on the tumulus, and started for Athenß at half-past 2. At half -past

[4, when we were about a mile from the plac where we were to change-horses, two shots were fired, and the two gendarmes in front of our carriage fell ; the carriage' stopped, more shots were fired, we all crouched down to the bottom of the carriage, and in a moment were surrounded by brigands. We were made to get out, and hurried off into the bushes. Then there was a slight engagement between the soldiers and the brigands, and we were made to lie flat down, so as to avoid the bullets which whistled through • the trees over us. Then we were hurried on as fast a 9 possible. Ned (her husband) carrying my poor little Bunch (their child of five years old), who cried bitterly. As soon as they got out of reach of the soldiers' fire the brigands began to be uncivil. To me they had offered no personal violence, but struck Lady Muncaster with a stick, and dragged so violently at a velvet collar round her neck with a pearl cross attached, and at her watchchain, that they nearly choked her. After they had made us hurry over dreadful ground for about an hour they mounted Lady Muncaster and me on the horses of the gendarmes, and Ned on the other horse with Barbara, and then took us right to the top of the mountains There we were made to sit down, and a consultation was held between the brigands and ourselves, with the dragoman as interpreter. They ask £50,000 ransom ! They told us £32,000, and Lord Muncaster said he only saw one way of doing it, which was, if they let the ladies go, to telegraph to the head of a bank in London for £32,000 in sovereigns, to be sent directly by special messenger, and settle afterwards. At 7 o'clock they sent off Lady Muncaater and me, with the two gendarmes, and Bunch (on the same horse as Ned had ridden) in the servant's arms. The gendarmes did not know the way, and we wandered about for a long time up and down gorges where the horses could hardly obtain a footing. At last we found the road, and came to a village where, to my great joy, I saw a carriage, and was told it was one of ours. Poor little Barbara had been sobbing all the way, but was quiet directly I got her in my arms, and went to sleep on a bed I made for her on the front seat of the carriage. We reached Athens about 11 o'clock, and went Btraight to Mr Erskine's (the British Minister), where we found our news had preceded us, of course. We then begged Mr Erskine to go at once to the Minister of War and stop pursuit, as that .is what the brigands impressed upon us most 'strongly." After the ladies were gone, the brigands, who had hurried their prisoners up the slopes of Pentelicus, compelled them to walk up and down wooded ravines till the night was far spent, when they stopped in a dry watercourse to kill and roast three lambs, making their captives sit round the fire, and persuading them to eat, though appetite they bad none. The next day (April 12) it was settled that one of their number should go to Athens to arrange for the ransom, which was now fixed at • £26,000. In their discussion as to the means of raising this sum, Lord Muncaster said he would guarantee half, and Mr Vyner the remaining half, the details to be settled when they were at liberty; and the latter generously requested Lord Muncaster to go, that he might relieve the anxieties of his wife and her companion. Accordingly, he was allowed to proceed to Athens on parole, in a little waggon, in charge of a shepherd of the mountains, and with permission to bring back food and clothing for his companions; There was no difficulty in obtaining the money ; within a few hours the whole amount was placed at the disposal of Lord Muncaster and Mr Erskine, but then arose a more difficult question. The city of Athens was thrown into a state of great excitement, as the news spread through every rank. A troop of. cavalry was immediately despatched to the scene, but in proportion to the activity of the Government became the danger which, beset the captives. The brigands demanded not only a ransom, bat a free pardon, and loudly protested that if they were molested their prisoners must die. Then began a course of negotiation, which loaded the Greek Government with humiliations, and showed its utter impotence to suppress such outrages. Lord Muncaster came and went, and came again, but the second time was not allowed to return to the brigand camp. Every kind of rumour circulated freely, and it was even asserted that the robberß were in league with men in high authority. Facts which have since come to light show, not oaly that brigandage is almoßt part of the social system, but that in the popular mind it has too often been identified with the movements of political parties. Mr Erskine lost not a moment in telegraphing to Lord Clarendon, as the head of the Foreign Office, and waa warmly sustained by him in his urgent representations to the Greek Government to stay all pursuit, and aB a first duty secure the lives of our unfortunate countrymen. The Greek Ministry hesitated to grant an amnesty, which was declared unconstitutional, and their difficulty was further increased by the Opposition newspapers, who were supposed to speak for a party anxious, at any cost, to oust them from office. Lord Clarendon went the length of offering to transport the brigands and their spoil in a British ship to some place of safety out of Greece ; and it would appear that at the last hour the brigands themselves were prepared to accede to this proposal. But the compromise was rejected by the Greek Government, or at least not accepted. In one of his early despatches Mr Erskine says that at one time the brigands seemed disposed to accept a ransom of £22,000 on condition of being allowed to reach, the frontiers in safety, but that they were afterwards visited by persons from Athens, sent, it was believed, by some of the leading members of the Opposition, who, for political purposes, persuaded them to insist upon an unconditional amnesty. Emissaries from the Greek Government were again despatched to the brigands, but the latter said they had sent to Athens to consult three persons of position, and until their advice arrived would come to no decision. At

a later date they suggested that a judge sheuld be send up fj the mountains,, that there should be a formal trial and condemnation, and that afterwards a free pardon should be granted. The whole history of the negotiation, as it has come to us piece by piece, throws a strange light on the condition of Greece. Meanwhile, the Minister of War had promptly given a promise that all pursuit should be stopped; but es the days went on the Government were overborne in their first resolution. Their orders appeared contradictory. Even Mr Erskine began to think that some bolder steps must be taken. The troops advanced, and the brigands grew more desperate. r

On the night of the capture they moved round the southern and eastern slopes of Pentelicus, and thence proceeded to establish themselves at Keramioli, which is only 13 miles from Athens, and where they waited for two days to ascertain the result of Lord Muncaster's mission. It was while there that they received the answer that the sum of £25,000 would be paid ; and also a writing from Mr Erakine, " which they considered as a passport from the English Minister, to the effect that with the consent of the King and his Ministry they were at liberty to take up their quarters in houses so long ps they treated their prisoners well." From this point they moved to Oropos, which is near the sea coast, and convenient for negotiation. "On the road to Oropos they are said to have met a party of soldiers! The brigands called out to the troops, 'We know your orders; we are all brothers, and you must not molest us.' " Here they remained from Sunday. April 17, to Thursday, the 21st. "On Easter Sunday," says the Times correspondent, " which was this year Palm Sunday according to the Greek calendar, the brigand i took their prisoners with them to hear service at the Church of the Holy Apostles, and they P oi nted out to Mr Herbert, who Bpoke Greek, some antiquities in the church and its vicinity." Ou the Thursday, the brigands becoming more suspicious, crossed the swollen stream of the Asopos, with their captives on horseback, and proceeded over undulating ground towards Sykaminos. Then followed the catastrophe, for here they perceived that the troops, both infantry, and cavalry, were in considerable numbers before them. " They sent Alexandras," says the Times correspondent from Athens, who gives the most intelligble account of the transaction, "the courier who had accompanied the travellers from the Hotel d'Angleterre, with either a written or a verbal message to demand why the troops impeded their progress to Sykaminos, and repeating their threat to murder their prisoners if they were attacked. The courier Alexandros never returned, and no message came from the troops. They then made their arrangements for escape, and divided the band into two parties. The one, under Chrestos Arvanitaki, was to pass through the troops before them on the road to Sykaminos, guarding Mr Lloyd and Mr Herbert ; the other, under the chief brigand, Takos Arvanitaki, with Count de Boyl and Mr Vyner, was to move round the left of the troops, seeking to evade notice, and taking the direction of Skoimatari. The soldiers opposed the passage of the party under Chrestos ; an engagement commenced, and the brigands, seeing that each must provide for himself, and that they could not carry off their prisoners, murdered Herbert and Lloyd. Herbert fell by the yatagan of a brigand, and Mr Lloyd was shot. The soldiers did their duty well. The chief, Chrestos, and six of his followers were killed, and their heads were exposed at Athens on Sunday last with their names written above them, and the others were taken ; the party of Takos succeeded in getting round the troops and carrying off Count de Boyl and Mr Vyner for some; distance. They were soon pursued, and' Count de Boyl was shot; but Mr Vyner being of a vigorous frame, kept up with them a long way on the road to Skoimatari, where, either from fear that he might escape or in an attempt to escape, he was shot through the heart." Later despatches inform us that the Greek troops were not seat from Athens with instructions to attack the brigands, but to prevent their escape into Thessaly; and that the. latter were warned by Colonel The igenis, the envoy of the Greek Government, that if they attempted to leave the country " they might meet detachments which might not altogether respect the inviolability which they enjoyed at Orossos." They replied—" We see it very well ; snares are laid for us; but we will kill the prisoners." Mr Erskine say* be considers that the collision between the troops and the brigands was provoked, if not commenced, by the former attempting to prevent the escape of the latter to a part of the country where they " might have held out for any conditions they thought fit to impose." " From this statement, I infer," he adds, " that if Alexander (the dragoman) had been in,, earnest, and had hastened to rejoin the brigands, they might possibly have been induced to retrace their steps to Sykaminon, and to believe in the assurances of Colonel Theageois that the terms originally offered were still open to their acceptance." Colonel Theagenis states that had time permitted Cropos would have been completely invested, and that in that case the deliverance of the captives would not have been doubtful. The brigands, however, took to flight, and then, in compliance with the orders of the Government, the soldiers pursued them. Mr Herbert and Mr Lloyd were found lying dead about five or six miles from Oropos ; Count Boyl and Mr Vyner some distance beyond. The former gentleman had been repeatedly stabbed in the back, and Mr Herbert had also been cut with a sabre, besides receiving three gunshot wounds. Mr Lloyd, in addition to three wounds in the back, was shot in the neck, and must have died instantly. Mr Vyner ia supposed to have been shot while running. He had only one wound, and death would be instantaneous and painless. Count Boyl had two gunshot wounds, and was not disfigured. The bodies

were brought into Athens, and interred with the Protestant- rites, the King, who throughput had' shown the most, active sympathy* jhimself officiating . as chief mourner. They hare since been brought home jto England. Lord and Lady Muncaster jhaye also arrived in this country, and .have been" received at Windsor, -as \haa ■also Mrs Lloyd, for whose bereavement there js general sorrow. Several members of the Greek community in England have combined in a subscription on her behalf. King George i— who at the first had expressed his wish that he could place himself as a hostage in the hands of the brigands — gave her £1003 from his private purse ; but it will be the least of the duties of the Greek Government to; make full provision for her. The heads of the. slain brigands have been exposed in Athens ; they were photographed, and their hideous visages are now to be seen in our shopwindows, scanned by eager crowds. The pursuit has been continued, and thirteen of the band are now reported killed. The greatest agitation prevails in Athens. General Soutzo, the Minister of War, immediately resigned office. But the question now has passed beyond all personal considerations. The protecting powers are agreed that the condition of Greece is a disgrace. There are still circumstances that require a thorough investigation, and for this we wait. Sir Roundell Palmer will bring forward the subject in the House of Commons, after once postponing the debate in order to have the fullest information. In the House of Lords, Lord Clarendon .availed himself of the first opportunity to appeal to the compassion of their Lordsi.ips, in justification of his offer to carry away the brigands — a proposal which now is readily forgiven, but which, if. accepted, would have involved uncomfortable consequences. Lord Carnarvon also spoke with much emotion, as the cousin of Mr. Herbert, and entreated Parliament not to allow delay to dull in any degree the keenness of .their feeling, -or " induce them to abateone jot or tittle of the punishment: which must be exacted when the hpur of reckoning comes." There is one consolation in this sad business, and that is, the heroic bearing of the cap dyes, who acquitted themselves with unfaltering courage. Their letters and journals show a rare disinterestedness. Four days before the catastrophe, Mr Herbert wrote:— "Arvanataki desires me to tell you that unless he has bis money and his amnesty within two or three days he will not release Us, but will do the other thing ;" but in the same letter he says of this chief, " Except after letters come from Athens, he r. an amiable man, as are all the band." The. last entry in Mr Lloyd's note-book, written a few hours before his death, runs :— " Troops are in force ; danger impending; love to J. and Erskines in worst case; fine view of mountains in Eubooa."