The 6th of May a force of volunteers, commanded by Dimitrikarakos, landed in the eastern provinces, where up to that time hostilities had been very unimportant. A large body of insurgents quickly rallied round the volunteers, and, establishing their headquarters at Lasithe, they swept the country up to the walls of Candia. This compelled a new concentration of forces to meet the new emergency, and Omar set out, via Retimo, through Mylopotamo to Candia, sending word to Reschid Effendi to come to meet him _en route_. Coroneos, meanwhile, had not been idle, and while Zimbrakaki and Costa Veloudaki, with the Apokoroniotes, some volunteers, and most of the Sphakiotes, remained to keep Mehmet in check, and profit by an unguarded moment to attack him, Coroneos and his followers kept near the army of Omar Pasha, waiting until he should be entangled in the ravines of Mylopotamo to attack him, and when he had reached Margaritas, he was beset furiously by the whole body of the men of Agios Basilios and the Amariotes, with the volunteers who accompanied Coroneos. The Turks, shut into narrow ravines overlooked by bold heights, defended themselves with difficulty, and were soon entirely hemmed in, unable to advance or retreat. The fire of the Cretan rifles penetrated into every part of the Turkish encampment, Omar's tent being several times pierced. At a council of war, called on the emergency, the opinion was general that the position was critical, and some considered it as next to hopeless. There was nothing to do but take shelter and wait for Reschid and his irregulars, who, well acquainted with the mountains and the Cretan method of fighting, would be able to form an advance-guard, and, by skirmishing vigorously, protect the march of the regulars, utterly helpless in this kind of warfare. The passage of the troops through this section was described to me by several eye-witnesses as anything but military. They cowered at the first attack, and refused to move forward in the ravines except when preceded by a cloud of irregulars to drive back the Christians, every onslaught of whom produced a panic; but, as they were behind as well as before, retreat was impossible, and there was no alternative to the Turks but to take to such defences as the ground permitted and defend themselves as they best could. The Albanians and Circassians were not sufficiently acquainted with the country, cut up with interminable ravines, covered with olive groves, and defended by men who knew every inch of the ground. The wretched Turks lost all courage, even that of despair, and a European officer in the Egyptian service who was present said to me that most of his comrades entertained no hope of escape, and Coroneos has since assured me that if the other chiefs had responded to his call for help, the total destruction of the army, including the Serdar Ekrem and his staff, was practicable.