CHAPTER V. The rescue happily concluded, the Pasha organized a movement against Lakus, Theriso, Keramia, strong points where the Christians had assembled in considerable numbers and from whence they might harry the plains of Canéa, carrying off flocks and occasionally prisoners. This expedition consisted of twelve thousand men. While the organization was going on, the Christians came down to the number of several hundred, and took possession of the direct road to Theriso, and attacked the block-house on the hill of Malaxa overlooking the plain, and three miles from Canéa. The attack on the block-house necessarily failed from the want of artillery, and the Commissioner succeeded in reinforcing the garrison strongly after a sharp repulse in which the reinforcements were driven back nearly to the plain country, as I myself was able to perceive, watching the skirmish through a telescope. The day after, two battalions were ordered to clear the road to Theriso, held by the insurgents, and were assisted by a battery of artillery, taking the Cretans in flank from the block-house of Malaxa, firing across an impassable ravine. The attack lasted the whole afternoon, and, watching the affair through my glass, I could perceive that neither the direct nor the flank movement produced the least impression on the insurgents, who maintained their position till nightfall, when the troops were withdrawn to the plain. The next day the attack was renewed with five thousand men and a considerable force of irregulars. The Cretans fell back from their position of the day before to the ridges and ravines which cut up the plateau of Keramia, where they received the attack of the troops, and, always retreating but contesting every inequality of ground, they fell back to the precipitous spurs of the White or Sphakian Mountains on the further side of the plain, where they made good their position during the remainder of the day. The losses on either side we were never able to ascertain, though the Cretans admitted a loss of seven killed and thirty or forty wounded, among the former being a son of Manosouyanaki, the chief captain of the district, who commanded the defence. The troops returned at night, having occupied the whole day in making an advance of about three miles, but the official report the next day declared that the movement had been perfectly successful, without the loss of a man killed or wounded. The expedition against Lakus, proceeding westward, turned that position, which the Cretans abandoned without contest, and retreated across the almost impassable ravine which separates the hill of Lakus from the central chain of mountains, to Zurba, a village situated on a bold bastion, which could only be attacked successfully from the higher mountains, and which they had fortified in a rude manner as depot and hospital. The number of Cretans at Zurba amounted to six hundred, the attacking force as many thousand, with two batteries of artillery; but