1ANARIS FIRES TURKISH FLEET



into his hands to avenge his countrymen. The Turks were
celebrating their sacred month of Ramazan. On the night
of June 18 the festival of Biram, the Turkish fleet, under
command of Kara Ali, was illuminated with colored lanterns.
Into the midst of it Constantine Kanaris, a sea-captain from
Psara, drove a fire-ship. Sailing close up to the admiral's
flagship, he thrust his bowsprit into one of the portholes.
Then setting fire to the pitch and rosin on board his ship, he
dropped into his small boat and pulled away. A breeze
fanned the flames, and in a moment the big Turkish man-of-
war was afire. The powder magazine blew up and the life-
boats went up in flames. The burning rigging fell down
upon the doomed crew, and the admiral was struck down on
his poop-deck. The ship was burned to the water's edge.
The Turkish fleet scattered before the shower of blazing
sparks, and was only brought together under the guns of the
Dardanelles. This exploit made Kanaris the hero of Greece.
Within the same year he repeated the feat.
    The Sultan had thrown his whole land force into the
Greek mainland. Khurshid, after his defeat of Ali Pasha,
marched to Larissa, in Thessaly. Thence two armies, 50,000
strong, under Bramali and Homer Brionis, converged upon
the Morea. In the face of so formidable an invasion, ifau-
rokordatos took the field himself. He mismanaged things
badly. At Arta he sacrificed his choicest regiment, the fa-
mous crops of Philhellenes, composed of foreign officers and
commanded by men who had won distinction in Napo-
leon's campaign.  They were cut down almost to a nman.
Maurokordatos fell back to AMlissolonghi. In the meanwhile
Dramalis, the Turkish general, with 25,000 foot and 6,000
horse, penetrated into the -Morea. The Greek Government at
Argos dispersed. All would have been lost for the Greeks
had Dramalis not neglected to cover the mountain passes
behind him. While he marched on to XYauplia, the Greek
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1822