The promises made in 1858 were never fulfilled--if there is honor amongst thieves, there is none amongst Turks; and when, at the death of Abdul Medjid, his successor, Abdul Aziz, was reminded of the promises made to the Cretans, he replied that he was not bound by the engagements of his predecessors, and Cretan reforms lapsed into the abyss of good (and bad) intentions. From that time the island was moved by discontent. The next governor, Ismail, a clever, cunning Greek renegade, charlatan in everything but intrigue, of the worst possible faith and honesty, avaricious, mendacious, and cruel, but plausible and persuasive, succeeded in delaying agitation by promises and bribes, by dividing the chiefs one against the other, till 1864, when another assembly was held, and another petition drawn up and delivered to the governor to be forwarded to Constantinople, when the assembly dispersed. Ismail immediately convoked an assemblage of his adherents, and had a counter-petition forwarded, assuring the Porte of the perfect content of the Cretans with their governor and their state. The true petition was never heard of again, but the bearers of the false one received the Medjidieh, and Ismail the thanks of the Sultan, with presents which he valued much more. The ensuing winter was one of great distress, and the spring passed without renewal of the disturbances or petitions, but in the autumn of that year, after my arrival in the island, I heard that there would be an assembly the following spring, 1866. The discontent was very great. New taxes on straw, on the sale of wine, on all beasts of burden, oppressive collection of the tithes, together with short crops for two years in succession, had produced very great distress, and the Governor added to these grievances his own extortions, with the most shameful venality in the distribution of justice, and disregard of such laws of procedure and punishment as existed. The councils were absolute mockeries, and the councillors his most servile tools. The summer of my arrival, I was told by the surgeon of the civil hospital of a death that had just occurred under his care, in prison, of an old man, arrested for an offence which his son had committed, and because the son could not be found. Men accused of offences by Ismael's partisans were thrown into prison, and kept indefinite periods without trial until some friend went to bribe his accuser. Ismael never went out into the island for fear of assassination, so well did he know the hatred borne him. This was the state of the island when I arrived in 1865. CHAPTER I.