Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 360, October 1845Various
Philosophy
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 360, October 1845
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
On this occasion, however, both the captain and the crew of the
Themistocles did Hastings ample justice. Though they had refused to
avail themselves of his skill, and neglected his advice, they now
showed no jealousy in acknowledging his gallant conduct, and he became
a permanent favourite with the crew ever after this exploit. Though he
treated all with great reserve and coldness, as a means of insuring
respect, there was not a man on board that was not always ready to do
him any service. Indeed the candid and hearty way in which they
acknowledged the courage of Hastings, and blamed their own conduct in
allowing a stranger to expose his life in so dangerous a manner to
save them, afforded unquestionable proof that so much real generosity
was inseparable from courage, and that, with proper discipline and
good officers, the sailors of the Greek fleet would have had few
superiors.
When the naval campaign was concluded, Hastings joined the troops
engaged in the siege of Nauplia. That force was exposed to the
greatest danger by the irruption of a large Turkish army into the
Morea, commanded by Dramali Pasha. While engaged in defending the
little fort of Bourdzi in the port of Nauplia, and under the guns of
that fortress, he became intimately acquainted with Mr Hane, a young
artillery officer, who subsequently served under his orders with great
distinction. At this time Hastings raised a company of fifty men, whom
he armed and equipped at his own expense. But as his actions on shore
are not immediately connected with the great results of his services
to Greece, we shall confine this sketch exclusively to the share he
took in the naval warfare. He served the campaign of 1823 in Crete, as
commander of the artillery; but a violent fever compelling him to quit
that island in autumn, he found, on his return to Hydra, that Lord
Byron had arrived at Cephalonia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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