It was with such a pain as the waiting of my own sentence of exile would have given me that I went to meet the old captains on my return to Athens, and told them that there was no hope of their repatriation through my efforts at least. I never shall forget the silent despair in the face of old Costa Belondaki, tall and straight under his seventy-odd years, white-haired, and meagre, but alert as a man of forty, as he turned from me when he got his sentence. As with his elder compatriots, the mountain nostalgia fevered him and the idle exile broke his spirit, but I could give him no hope that in his day European civilization or Turkish administration would be wise enough to economize his devotion to his country, and make use of rather than crush the spirit which makes Crete rebellious while its government is criminal. APPENDIX. [Translation.] PETITION FROM THE LATE CRETAN GREEK ASSEMBLY TO THE SULTAN. TO HIS IMPERIAL AUGUST MAJESTY, OUR SOVEREIGN ABDUL AZIZ KHAN. MAJESTY: We, the humble undersigned, having been specially delegated by the whole Christian population of Crete to avail ourselves of the benevolent and philanthropic intentions which the Imperial Government have at all times evinced towards this island, now take the liberty to lay at the feet of your Imperial Majesty the following humble prayer, in the hope that the same may be favorably acceded to: 1. And in the first place, we humbly pray to be relieved from the exorbitant duties levied on all articles of food since the year 1858 up to this day. Contrary to the concessions made to us, verbally and in writing, not only have the duties in question been increased, but new ones have been added, namely, the duties on salt, tobacco, snuff, wine, and spirits, on land rents, porterage, on sales of real and personal property, on sales of animals in general, on weighing, on stamps (which last are particularly heavy), those on dyeing, on sales of fish and meat, etc., and, finally, various others which are onerous and unjust. We are, moreover, able to prove by statistical accounts that within the last two years we have paid what, with duties and taxes, would exceed the amount of our incomes. Above all things, then, the system of taxation requires imperial solicitude, like unto the care a father would bestow on his dutiful children. The mode of levying duties also requires reform. The system of farming in operation is not only vexatious and perplexing to the population, but is also baneful to the Imperial Government, inasmuch as the farmers, being bound in sureties, one for the other, at the time of the sale of the articles by public auction incur greater responsibility than they are able to meet when their obligations become due. Hence they oppress the taxpayer by fraudulently exacting more than they ought, while, on the other hand, they often quit the island secretly, thus both damaging their sureties and entailing loss on the public treasury.