MASSACRE OF TURKS IN THE MOREA



the same spirit which had produced the revolution of Italy
and Spain. Turkish troops crossed the Danube. The Rou-
manian peasants, seeing no help from Russia, held aloof.
Vladimiresco plotted against the Greeks. It was in vain that
brave Georgakis captured the traitor at his own headquarters
and carried him to his death in the Greek camp. Ypsilanti
was defeated in his first encounter with the Turks. He re-
tired before them toward the Austrian frontier. In the end
he fled across the border and was promptly made a prisoner
in Austria. His followers dearly sold their lives. At Sku-
leni, 400 of them under Georgakis made a last stand on the
Pruth. They were surrounded by ten times their number.
Georgakis refused to surrender. Bidding his followers flee,
at the moment when the Turks broke in the doors, he blew
himself up in the monastery of Skuleni.
   At the news of Ypsilanti's uprising in Moldavia the en-
tire Greek population of the Morea rose against the Turk.
From the outset the Moreotes waged a war of extermina-
tion. They massacred all Turks, men, women, and children.
Within a few weeks the open country was swept clear of
its Mohammedan population. The fugitive Turks were in-
vested within the walls of Tripolitza, Patras, and other
strong towns. Sultan Mahmud took prompt vengeance. A
number of innocent Greeks at Constantinople were stran-
gled by his executioners. The fury of the Moslem was let
loose on the Infidel. All Greek settlements along the Bos-
phorus were burned. But the crowning stroke came on
Easter Sunday, the most sacred day of the Greek Church.
The Patriarch of Constantinople, while he was celebrating
service, was summoned away by the dragoman of the Porte.
At the order of the Sultan he was haled before a hastily as-
sembled synod and there degraded from his office as a traitor.
The synod was commanded to elect his successor. While the
trembling prelates did their bidding, Patriarch Gregorios
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1821