siege of the two neighbouring fortresses of Anatolica and Missolunghi. Those best acquainted with the circumstances, considered such an attempt as very desperate; for the Greeks, aware of the importance of these places, had been for a year assiduously employed in strengthening the works, planting cannon, and increasing, by inundations, the strength of their natural position. The advanced guard of Mustapha, moreover, was, at Carpanissi, surprised, and nearly cut off by Marc Bozzaris, the brave Acarnanian chief, who, however, in the course of the action received a wound which proved mortal; a loss which was considered as more than balancing that of the enemy. Mustapha now advanced to Urachori, where he was joined by Omer Urione with 4000 men, which, notwithstanding all his losses, raised his force to 15,000. With this he easily compelled the Greeks to shut themselves up in the fortresses, which were blockaded on the maritime side by the Algerine squadron. Constantine Bozzaris, the brother of the fallen chief, made a brave defence; and as frost and snow set in early in November, the besieging army laboured under great difficulties. Meantime Prince Maurocordato prevailed upon the Hydriotes, to place under his command a squadron of their best ships, with which he made the circuit of the Morea, attacked the blockading Algerine fleet, totally dispersed it, and destroy. ed a considerable number. In pursuing three of these vessels into Theaki, an uninhabited island belonging to the Ionian state, he violated the British neutrality, which was resented, perhaps rather too warmly, by Sir Thomas Maitland. After this disaster of the fleet, the Pachas no longer attempted to keep their ground in front of Missolunghi. They raised the siege, after continuing it for fifty-nine days, and withdrew into the interior of Albania.

This unfortunate campaign caused dissensions both among the chiefs and the Albanian tribes, which afforded the promise of future favourable results for the Greeks.

It might have been expected that the Turks, with the superiority which they at one time possessed, would have succeeded at least in revictualling Corinth. Accordingly, in August, a small squadron came to the head of the gulf, and landed a convoy, to second which a detachment came down from the castle. A corps of 2000 Greeks, however, who were in ambuscade, suddenly rushed upon them. The convoy betook themselves to the ships, and the troops to the castle; and the provisions were left on the shore, the prey of the victors. In the course of the autumn, Corinth, hopeless of relief, and worn out by long blockade, surrendered; a most important acquisition, not likely to be so easily lost as formerly, and which finally closed the Morea against Turkish inroad.

We have already observed, that the Greeks had landed a strong body of troops, and raised a serious insurrection, in the Gulf of Volo. The Turks, who had near this the main rendezvous of their force, poured in 12,000 men, who carried all before them, and obliged the Greeks to seek refuge in the large town of Trikeri, or Tricheri, of which they always continued to retain possession. The large island of Negropont, the ancient Euboea, was, at the beginning of the campaign, almost wholly Greek; and the Turks were entirely shut up in the two fortresses of Negropont and Carysto. The Captain Pacha, however, on his way from Constantinople, landed a large body of troops, which, joined to the garrisons, made the Turkish force amount to about 8000 men. The

tide of success was turned; Eubœa was soon wrapt in the smoke of its burning villages, and the Greeks were

forced to seek refuge in the most inaccessible mountains. Thence the Turks crossed over to Attica, and advanced to Athens, which, as before observed, had been left by the Greek chiefs, with instructions not to attempt a defence. On the approach then of the Turkish army, all the inhabitants of the city who could not find refuge in the Acropolis, removed to Salamis, and Athens was for some time in the indisputed possession of the enemy. The rest of the campaign is very indistinctly recorded; but it appears, that through the operation probably of similar causes as in other quarters, the Otto man force was insensibly worn down, and the Greeks regained the ascendency. Before the end of October, the former were obliged to abandon Athens; and even in Euboea, they were again forced to abandon the open country, and to confine themselves within the fortified towns of Negropont and Carystos.

An expedition, as already noticed, had been early projected against the coast of Asia Minor; but the serious state of affairs on the continent compelled the Greeks to devolve upon Samos the entire burden of that undertaking. The Samians, indeed, could not easily be persuaded to act a combined, or at least a subordinate part with the other states. When the general government appointed one of the chiefs of Hydra to the command of the island, they openly rejected him, and declared their determination to act only in their own manner and upon their own impulse. They accordingly effected a landing in considerable force in the Gulf of Sandarli, and pushed on as far as Pergamo, whence they returned laden with considerable booty. This inroad roused the most infuriate resentment on the part of the Turks, who, as usual, displayed it by the most dreadful outrages on the inhabitants of

VOL. XVI. PART I.

Pergamo. The Turkish government sent orders to repress and punish these excesses, but it was already too late. The Samians, however, made repeated inroads of this nature upon various parts of the coast, especially near Scala Nova, where they had obtained a fortified point, from which they could not be dislodged. The European consuls endeavoured to dissuade them from these expeditions; but the Samians declared that they used nothing beyond the common rights of war, and that the consequences lamented were to be imputed solely to the atrocity of their enemies.

Candia, or Crete, formed also an entirely distinct theatre of war. The Greeks, at the commencement of the campaign, were almost complete masters of it, and held the Turks shut up in Canea, the capital, and two or three other fortresses. Early in spring, however, the Pacha of Egypt, who, though otherwise an intelligent and meritorious prince, has adhered on this occasion to the Turkish cause with unaccountable obstinacy, landed 6000 troops, which enabled the Turks again to take the field.

They soon suffered severely, however, in their contests with the brave mountaineers of the interior; and when in June a large force from Hydra landed under Tombasi, whom the congress had appointed governor of Candia, the Turks were again obliged to betake themselves to their fortresses. Two of these, Chisamo and Seripon, were reduced by Tombasi; so that the Greeks here, as elsewhere, closed the campaign in a triumphant attitude.

Constantinople, meantime, was a scene of constant and busy negotiation; but though all the ambassadors of the great powers were in perpetual movement, they never made any progress. The Porte shuffled and shifted; and seeing that Alexander was closely

watched by the great powers, and was himself inly determined against war,

resolved to avail herself to the utmost of these dispositions. She was particularly careful not to quit her hold of the provinces on the Danube; always indeed, when hard pressed, professing her intention to do so, but speedily contriving some ground of delay. About the middle of the year, the disgrace of Dschanib Essendi, the Janissary chief, was expected to mark a change of policy; and during the interview of the emperors, Lord Strangford contrived to draw from her a consent to almost all the demands of Russia; but she soon began to shift her ground, and at the close of the year matters wore nearly the same aspect as at the beginning.

The Porte succeeded in arranging its distant concerns in a satisfactory

manner. The Persians were still carrying on the war, though in a languid manner. They had abandoned Armenia, and were directing their operations against Bagdad; but a pestilence, which, more formidable even than war, desolated the whole of this tract, rendered operations on both sides very languid. At length, in the autumn, a treaty was concluded between the two empires, by which everything was left nearly in the same state as when they began the contest. The Pacha of Acre, who had been for some time refractory, also gave in at this period his submission to the Porte.

Among these ephemeral rulers, the most conspicuous was Iturbide, who had seated himself on the throne of Montezuma, and sought to reign the Napoleon of the west. Conceiving himself secure in the affection of the troops who had raised him to power, he dissolved the congress, imprisoned thirty of the refractory members, and erased the qualifying term of constitutional from the title of emperor. He obtained even an outward sanction, by the arrival of commissioners from Spain, to treat upon a certain basis of final independence. In the meantime, however, the ground was sinking beneath his feet. The largest collected body of the Mexican army was that which occupied Vera Cruz, and straitened the castle of Juan d'Ulloa, the only remaining hold of the mother country. Its chiefs, Santona, Echavarri, and Lobato, indignant at the conduct of Iturbide, disowned his self-erected empire, and put their troops in motion to subvert it. Iturbide, who was then at Xalapa, presently fell back on the capital, where he made every exertion to collect men and resources; he endeavoured even to conciliate the nation, by liberating the senators whom he held imprisoned. He soon learned, however, that the troops at Tampico, and in the northern provinces, had joined in declaring against him. Troops were thus marching in all directions to attack him; and among those immediately around his person, there were none in whom he could confide. In this desperate extremity, he judged it wisest to agree to the terms propounded by his adversaries, which were exceedingly lenient. Not only was life and liberty granted to him, but, upon quitting the territories of the republic, he was allowed a pension of 25,000 dollars a-year. In pursuance of this treaty, he embarked on the 11th May at Vera Cruz for Genoa.

The people of Mexico, on being restored to the plenitude of their rights, manifested a decided propensity in favour of a federal government on the model of North America, with provincial states, but a supreme congress and supreme executive at Mexico. An executive was immediately named, consisting of three persons, Bravo and Negretto, both Creoles, and Victoria, a general, who had acquired some reputation in Old Spain. The congress was accordingly assembled on the above basis, and had just begun their operations when the year closed.

We have seen a declaration by Guatimala, the most southern province of Mexico, comprehending that chain of territory which forms the connecting link between North and South America. A determination was here expressed to form a state entirely independent, and connected with Mexico by no other ties than those of alliance. We have not yet ascertained how far this resolution has been adhered to.

The new state of Colombia, at the commencement of this year, suffered under a species of reverse, in consequence of the inroad of Morales. That chief, whose cause appeared to be entirely vanquished and suppressed, had suddenly appeared on the coast of Terra Firma, and finding nothing prepared to resist him, had overrun a great part of the country, and made himself master of Maracaybo and Puerto Cabello. Having a maritime force superior to the infant navy of Colombia, he carried on a very extensive system of piracy, both against the subjects of that state, and all those European nations who endeavoured to trade on the coast. As the forces of Morales, however, did not much exceed 1000 men, it was impossible they could make any impression on the vast state of Colombia. As soon as the Colombians had leisure to collect their