Meanwhile, the agitation in the island, and the hostility between the Mussulman and Christian population, were rapidly increasing. One of the principal Cretan Mohammedans, notorious for his activity and cruelty in the war of 1821-30, and who served the troops at Vrysis as guide and interpreter, was killed under the following circumstances: Having entered a café in one of the Christian villages near Vrysis, he was boastingly narrating his former feats, amongst which was the murder of a white Christian family of eleven persons, whom he found at supper in their own house unarmed, and, after having been welcomed by them, he closed the doors, and killed the whole on the spot. He continued boasting of what he would do in the coming war in the same vein, and on leaving the café was waylaid by a relative of the murdered family, and shot dead. This was the first Mussulman blood, and the body was carried with great pomp to Canéa, and lay in state outside the gates, the remonstrances of the consuls preventing it from being carried through the city according to the intention of the relatives. The family of the new victim being large and influential, it gathered in numbers outside the gate, blocking it up temporarily, while the women of the connection went _en masse_ to the palace of the Pasha to demand vengeance on the murderers. The Mussulman population became intensely exasperated, and proposed retaliating on the Christians in general, beginning with the consuls. The whole consular body united in pressure on the Pasha to induce him to repress the agitation, and succeeded so far that no immediate outbreak occurred. The body was buried without worse demonstrations than insults and menaces to all Christians, whoever and wherever, and the crowd dispersed by order of the Pasha. But though no actual violence occurred, the state of excitement was intense, and it became evident that, in spite of all the influence of the consular body, the least untoward incident might precipitate a general massacre of the Christians in the cities. The exodus by sea continued, and the houses of the Russian, Italian, and Swedish consuls, and my own, at Khalepa, were besieged by terror-stricken crowds of Christians without the means of emigrating to Greece, and bringing their household goods to be stored under the protection of the flags. In the Italian consulate alone were over 150, and several cabins clustered round my door were filled with women and children, while hundreds more, abandoning everything, took to the mountains.