avail myself of the delusion, as far as my own position was concerned, and conform to what was really public opinion in America, confident that the Government cared nothing about the matter _pro_ or _con_. The Porte threatened to revoke my exequatur. Nothing would have pleased me better, for I knew that this would compel my Government to do something, and Ali Pasha seemed to have the same opinion, for the threat was dropped. A strong pressure was then applied at Washington to have me recalled, and Mr. Seward had consented, and decided to call me home, I was informed, under pretext of consultation on some public affairs; but General Ignatieff, getting wind of it, telegraphed to St. Petersburg that I must be retained, and a telegram from there to Washington settled the matter, I conjecture, as nothing more was heard of it. This I believe was the extent of the part performed by the American Government, and, trivial as it was, it seems to me the least creditable played by any government concerned. Hussein Avni was only the _locum tenens_ of the Serdar Ekrem, Omar Pasha, whom the Porte had decided on sending to Crete as a final and reliable agent, his name being, as was supposed, so formidable as to discourage any protraction of the resistance. In the interregnum, Hussein undertook no measures against the insurrection. Ali Riza Pasha, being beaten at Topolia in an attempt to penetrate into Selinos, where a new gathering of volunteers and insurgents had been made, contented himself with ravaging the plain districts of Kissamos which had hitherto escaped. Whole villages, which had submitted without any resistance, were plundered, the women violated by order of the officers, until in some cases death ensued; and of the men, some were killed, others beaten and tortured in many ways, all who could escape taking refuge in the caves and hiding-places along the shore, where they escaped by small boats to Cerigotto. I ran over later in the _Kestrel_, and saw several hundred of these miserable wretches, women and children mainly, and saw two row-boats arrive with their lading, so crowded that it was a marvel how they could have made the passage of twenty miles or more of open sea, in any weather. I saw one old blind man of ninety who had been wrapped by the soldiers in cloths on which they poured oil, and then, setting them on fire, left him to his fate. His friends came back in time to save his life, but I saw the broad scar of the burning, covering nearly his whole chest.