and when they dispersed to their ports in autumn, the Ottoman ships came out again from the Dardanelles, sailed round Peloponnesos into the Korinthian Gulf, and destroyed Galaxidhi.  A still greater catastrophe followed the reopening of naval operations next spring.  In March 1822 the Samians landed a force on Khios and besieged the Turkish garrison, which was relieved after three weeks by the arrival of the Ottoman fleet.  A month later the Greek fleet likewise appeared on the scene, and on June 18 a Psariot captain, Constantine Kanaris, actually destroyed the Ottoman flag-ship by a daring fire-ship attack.  Upon this the Ottoman fleet fled back as usual to the Dardanelles; yet the only consequence was the complete devastation, in revenge, of helpless Khios.  The long-shielded prosperity of the island was remorselessly destroyed, the people were either enslaved or massacred, and the victorious fleet had to stand by as passively this time as at the destruction of Kydhonies the season before.  In the following summer, again, the same fate befell Trikeri, a maritime community on the Gulf of Volo which had gained its freedom when the rest of Thessaly stirred in vain; and so in 1823 the revolution found itself confined on sea, as well as on land, to the focus where it had originated in April 1821.

[Footnote 1:  Turkish Aivali.]

This isolation was a practical triumph for Sultan Mahmud.  The maintenance of the Ottoman Empire on the basis of Moslem ascendancy was thereby assured; but it remained to be seen whether the isolated area could now be restored to the status quo in which the rest of his dominions had been retained.

During the whole season of 1821 the army of Khurshid had been held before Yannina.  But in February 1822 Yannina fell, Ali was slain, his treasure seized, and his troops disbanded.  The Ottoman forces were liberated for a counterattack on Peloponnesos.  Already in April Khurshid broke up his camp at Larissa, and his lieutenant Dramali was given command of the new expedition towards the south.  He crossed the Sperkheios at the beginning of July with an army of twenty thousand men.[1] Athens had capitulated to Odhyssevs ten days before; but it had kept open the road for Dramali, and north-eastern Greece fell without resistance into his hands.  The citadel of Korinth surrendered as tamely as the open country, and he was master of the isthmus before the end of the month.  Nauplia meanwhile had been treating with its besiegers for terms, and would have surrendered to the Greeks already if they had not driven their bargain so hard.  Dramali hurried on southward into the plain to the fortress’s relief, raised the siege, occupied the town of Argos, and scattered the Greek forces into the hills.  But the citadel of Argos held out against him, and the positions were rapidly reversed.  Under the experienced direction of Kolokotronis, the Greeks from their hill-fastnesses ringed round the plain of Argos and scaled up every issue.  Dramali’s