of its protectors; to manage its own affairs without the meddling of foreign ministers, who dictate who shall be its administrators; to protect even its own constitution against the violence and usurpation of an irresponsible and incapable head, without the secret but efficacious intervention of some foreign Power. A witness of every step of the late diplomatic intervention in Greek foreign affairs, I saw that in all the _corps diplomatique_ at Athens Greece had not one friend--every one helped to push her into the abyss; not one word of real sympathy or friendly counsel did she find from any foreign representative. The United States, which had, perhaps, more than any other nation a powerful moral influence, and could have helped her by wise words and calm and disinterested moral intervention, had chosen to send as the dispenser of that influence the most incapable, ignorant, and obsequious diplomat I have ever known in the service of our Government--a man who was an actual cipher in any political sense, and who, on arriving in Greece (our first representative there), hastened to mingle himself with the party intrigues of the country, ranging himself on the side of the king, against the people, in such a way that his advent was, to use the words of one of the leading statesmen of Greece spoken to me at the time, "like a wet blanket" to the hopes of liberalism in Greece. The Hellenes must learn that they have no friends, save in the unprejudiced and charitable individuals who know them well enough to be able to overlook their foibles and petty vices, in view of the solid and genuine claims which they have to our liking and the support of Christendom. As one of those, I await the day when Greece shall have been mistress of herself long enough to prove whether or not she can govern herself wisely, before I lend my voice to her blame for her failures or her offences. * * * * * The Publishers feel bound to inform the reader that during the delay which has attended the publication of this work, several of the personages mentioned in it, and some whose character or conduct is severely criticised, have died. This explanation will relieve the author of the appearance either of bad taste or of vindictiveness; while to the fact that he was unable to give his personal supervision to the work in passing through the press are due the errata which may be discovered, and an occasional want of uniformity in the spelling of proper names. NEW YORK, February 1, 1874. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY. PAGE Crete and the Cretans, 13 CHAPTER I. (APRIL, 1866.) Ismael Pasha, 38 CHAPTER II. (MAY, 1866.) Agitation, 42 CHAPTER III. (JULY, AUGUST, 1866.) Days of Terror, 50 CHAPTER IV. (SEPTEMBER, 1866.)