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Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. — a Memoir

by Baroness Elizabeth Philippa Biddulph · English · Gutenberg #7192 · 465,332 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. — a Memoir

Author: Baroness Elizabeth Philippa Biddulph


        
Release date: December 1, 2004 [eBook #7192]
                Most recently updated: November 1, 2014

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES PHILIP YORKE, FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE, VICE-ADMIRAL R.N. — A MEMOIR ***




Produced by Tonya Allen, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo,
Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team











CHARLES PHILIP YORKE

FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE

VICE-ADMIRAL R.N.

A MEMOIR



BY HIS DAUGHTER

THE LADY BIDDULPH OF LEDBURY



WITH PORTRAITS



DEDICATED

TO HIS GRANDCHILDREN




PREFACE


It is with great diffidence that I lay this memoir before the public;
it is my first experience in such work, but my reasons for so doing
appear to me unanswerable. It was to my care and judgment that my
father, by his will, committed his letters and journals, and my heart
confirms the judgment of my mind, that his active and interesting life,
so varied in the many different positions he was called upon to fill,
and the considerable part he played in the affairs of his time, deserve
a fuller record than the accounts to be found in biographical works of
reference.

It has been a labour of love to me to supply these omissions in the
following pages, and to present in outline the life of a capable,
energetic Englishman, for whom I can at least claim that he was a loyal
and devoted servant of his Sovereign and his country.

In fulfilling what I hold to be a filial obligation I have made no
attempt to give literary form to a work which, so far as possible, is
based upon my father's own words. Primarily it is addressed to his
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to whom, I trust, it may serve
as an inspiration; but I have also some hope that a story which touches
the national life at so many points may prove of interest to the
general public. I am greatly indebted to my son, Mr. Adeane, and to my
son-in-law, Mr. Bernard Mallet, for the help and encouragement they
have given me; and I have also to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. W.
B. Boulton in editing and preparing these papers for publication.

ELIZABETH PHILIPPA BIDDULPH.

LEDBURY: January 1910.




CONTENTS


I. THE YORKE FAMILY

II. ALGIERS. 1815-1816

III. THE NORTH AMERICAN STATION. 1817-1822

IV. GREEK PIRACY. 1823-1826

V. A HOLIDAY IN NORTHERN REGIONS. 1828

VI. GREEK INDEPENDENCE. 1829-1831

VII. COURT DUTIES AND POLITICS. 1831-1847

VIII. GENOA. 1849

IX. POLITICS AND LAST YEARS. 1850-1873

INDEX




LIST OF PORTRAITS


CHARLES PHILIP, FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE From a painting by E. U. Eddis


THE HONBLE. CHARLES YORKE SOLICITOR-GENERAL From a painting by Allan
Ramsay (?)

SIR JOSEPH SYDNEY YORKE As A MIDSHIPMAN, R.N. From a painting by George
Romney

SIR JOSEPH SYDNEY YORKE As A LIEUTENANT, R.N. from a painting by George
Romney

CHARLES PHILIP, FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE From a chalk drawing by E. U.
Eddis

SUSAN, COUNTESS OF HARDWICKE From a chalk drawing by E. U. Eddis




CHARLES PHILIP YORKE

FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE




CHAPTER I

THE YORKE FAMILY


The family of Yorke first came into prominence with the great
Chancellor Philip Yorke, first Earl of Hardwicke. This remarkable man,
who was the son of an attorney at Dover, descended, it is claimed, from
the Yorkes of Hannington in North Wiltshire, a family of some
consequence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was born in that
town in the year 1690, and rose from a comparatively humble station to
the commanding position he held so long in English public life.

My object in this chapter is to recall some of the incidents of his
career and of those of his immediate successors and descendants.

Philip Yorke was called to the bar in 1715, became Solicitor-General
only five years later, and was promoted to be Attorney-General in 1723.
In 1733 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, and received
the Great Seal as Lord Chancellor in 1737, and when his life closed his
political career had extended over a period of fifty years.

Lord Campbell, the author of the 'Lives of the Chancellors,' 'that
extraordinary work which was held to have added a new terror to death,
and a fear of which was said to have kept at least one Lord Chancellor
alive,' claimed to lay bare the shortcomings of the subjects of his
memoirs with the same impartiality with which he pointed out their
excellences. He mentions only two failings of Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke: one, that he was fond of acquiring wealth, the other, that
he was of an overweening pride to those whom he considered beneath him.
Neither of these is a very serious charge, and as both are
insufficiently corroborated, one may let them pass. He acquired immense
wealth in the course of his professional career, but in an age of
corruption he was remarked for his integrity, and was never suspected
or accused of prostituting his public position for private ends. In his
capacity of Attorney-General Lord Campbell remarks of him:

'This situation he held above thirteen years, exhibiting a model of
perfection to other law officers of the Crown. He was punctual and
conscientious in the discharge of his public duty, never neglecting it
that he might undertake private causes, although fees were supposed to
be particularly sweet to him.'

But it was as a judge that he won imperishable fame, and one of his
biographers observes: [Footnote: See Dictionary of National Biography.]
'It is hardly too much to say that during his prolonged tenure of the
Great Seal (from 1737 to 1755) he transformed equity from a chaos of
precedents into a scientific system.' Lord Campbell states that 'his
decisions have been, and ever will continue to be, appealed to as
fixing the limits and establishing the principles of that great
juridical system called Equity, which now, not only in this country and
in our colonies, but over the whole extent of the United States of
America, regulates property and personal rights more than ancient
Common Law.'

He had a 'passion to do justice, and displayed the strictest
impartiality; and his chancellorship' is 'looked back upon as the
golden age of equity.' The Chancellor is said to have been one of the
handsomest men of his day, and 'his personal advantages, which included
a musical voice, enhanced the effect of his eloquence, which by its
stately character was peculiarly adapted to the House of Lords.'
[Footnote: Ibid.]

This is not the place for an estimate of Lord Hardwicke's political
career, which extended over the whole period from the reign of Queen
Anne to that of George III, and brought him into intimate association
with all the statesmen of his age. It was more especially as the
supporter of the Pelham interest and the confidant and mentor of the
Duke of Newcastle that he exercised for many years a predominant
influence on the course of national affairs both at home and abroad.
During the absence of George II from the realm in 1740 and subsequently
he was a member, and by no means the least important member, of the
Council of Regency. 'He was,' writes Campbell, 'mainly instrumental in
keeping the reigning dynasty of the Brunswicks on the throne'; he was
the adviser of the measures for suppressing the Jacobite rebellion in
1745, he presided as Lord High Steward with judicial impartiality at
the famous trial of the rebel Lords, and was chiefly responsible for
the means taken in the pacification of Scotland, the most questionable
of which was the suppression of the tartan! Good fortune, as is usually
the case when a man rises to great eminence, played its part in his
career. He had friends who early recognised his ability and gave him
the opportunities of which he was quick to avail himself. He took the
tide at its flood and was led on to fortune; but, as Campbell justly
observes, 'along with that good luck such results required lofty
aspirations, great ability, consummate prudence, rigid self-denial, and
unwearied industry.' His rise in his profession had undoubtedly been
facilitated by his marriage to Margaret Cocks, a favourite niece of
Lord Chancellor Somers, himself one of the greatest of England's
lawyer-statesmen. There is a story that when asked by Lord Somers what
settlement he could make on his wife, he answered proudly, 'Nothing but
the foot of ground I stand on in Westminster Hall.' Never was the
self-confidence of genius more signally justified than in his case. Not
only was his own rise to fame and fortune unprecedently rapid, but he
became the founder of a family many of whose members have since played
a distinguished part in the public and social life of the country. By
Margaret Cocks he had, with two daughters, five sons, the eldest of
whom enhanced the fortunes of the family by his marriage with Jemima,
daughter of the Earl of Breadalbane, heiress of Wrest and the other
possessions of the extinct Dukedom of Kent, and afterwards Marchioness
Grey and Baroness Lucas of Grudwell in her own right. Of his next son
Charles, the second Chancellor, something will presently be said.
Another son, Joseph, was a soldier and diplomatist. He was aide-de-camp
to the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy; and afterwards, as Sir Joseph
Yorke, Ambassador at the Hague. He died Lord Dover. A fourth son, John,
married Miss Elizabeth Lygon, of Madresfield. The fifth son, James,
entered the Church, became Bishop of Ely, and was the ancestor of the
Yorkes of Forthampton. I had the luck many years ago to have a talk
with an old verger in Ely Cathedral who remembered Bishop Yorke, and
who told me that he used to draw such congregations by the power of his
oratory and the breadth of his teaching, that when he preached, all the
dissenting chapels in the neighbourhood were closed!

It was in 1770, only six years after Lord Hardwicke's death which
occurred in London on March 6, 1764, that his second son Charles (born
in 1722) was sworn in as Lord Chancellor. His brilliant career ended in
a tragedy which makes it one of the most pathetic in our political
history. Although unlike his father in person he was intellectually his
equal, and might have rivalled his renown had he possessed his firmness
and resolution of character. He was educated at Cambridge, and before
the age of twenty had given evidence of his precocity as the principal
author (after his brother Philip) of the 'Athenian Letters,' a supposed
correspondence between Cleander, an agent of the King of Persia
resident in Athens, and his brother and friends in Persia. Destined to
the law from his childhood, Charles Yorke was called to the bar in
1743, and rapidly advanced in his profession. Entering the House of
Commons as member for Reigate in 1747, he later succeeded his brother
as member for Cambridge, and one of his best speeches in the House was
made in defence of his father against an onslaught by Henry Fox. But in
spite of his brilliant prospects and great reputation he always envied
those who were able to lead a quiet life, and he thus wrote to his
friend Warburton, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester:

'I endeavour to convince myself it is dangerous to converse with you,
for you show me so much more happiness in the quiet pursuits of
knowledge and enjoyments of friendship than is to be found in lucre or
ambition, that I go back into the world with regret, where few things
are to be obtained without more agitation both of reason and the
passions, than either moderate parts or a benevolent mind can support.'

Charles Yorke was an intimate friend of Montesquieu, the famous author
of the 'Esprit des Lois' and the most far-seeing of those whose
writings preceded and presaged the French Revolution, who wrote, '_Mes
sentiments pour vous sont gravés dans mon cœur et dans mon esprit d'une
manière à ne s'effacer jamais_.'

On the formation of a government by the Duke of Devonshire in 1756,
Charles Yorke was sworn in, at the early age of thirty-three, as
Solicitor-General, and retained that office through the elder Pitt's
glorious administration. In 1762 he accepted from Lord Bute the
Attorney-Generalship, in which position he had to deal with the
difficult questions of constitutional law raised by the publication of
John Wilkes's _North Briton_. In November of that year, however, he
resigned office in consequence of the strong pressure put upon him by
Pitt, and took leave of the King in tears. Pitt failed in his object of
enlisting Yorke's services on behalf of Wilkes in the coming
parliamentary campaign, and the crisis ended in an estrangement between
the two, which drove Yorke into a loose alliance with the Rockingham
Whigs, a group of statesmen who were determined to free English
politics from the trammels of court influence and the baser traditions
of the party system. When, however, this party came into power in 1765,
Yorke was disappointed of the anticipated offer of the Great Seal, and
only reluctantly accepted the Attorney-Generalship. The ministry fell
in the following year, partly in consequence of Pitt's reappearance in
the House of Commons and his disastrous refusal of Rockingham's
invitation to join his Government, though they were agreed on most of
the important questions of the day, including that of American taxation
and the repeal of the Stamp Act; and Pitt, who then (August 1766)
became Lord Chatham, was commissioned to form a new government in
which, to Yorke's mortification, he offered the Lord Chancellorship to
Camden. Yorke thereupon resigned the Attorney-Generalship, and during
the devious course of the ill-starred combination under Chatham's
nominal leadership--for during the next two years Chatham was
absolutely incapacitated from all attention to business, his policy was
reversed by his colleagues, and America taxed by Charles Townshend--he
maintained an 'attitude of saturnine reserve,' amusing himself with
landscape gardening at his villa at Highgate, doing its honours to
Warburton, Hurd, Garrick and other friends, and corresponding among
others with Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland, to whom he had been
introduced by his brother Sir Joseph. Gradually, however, Chatham made
a recovery from the mental disease under which he had been labouring,
and in January 1770 he returned to the political arena with two
vigorous speeches in the House of Lords. His first speech spread
consternation among the members of the Government and the King's party,
led by the Duke of Grafton, who had assumed the duties of Prime
Minister; and one of the first effects of his intervention was the
resignation of Lord Camden, who had adhered to Chatham, and openly
denounced the Duke of Grafton's arbitrary measures. This event placed
the Court party in the utmost difficulty, and no lawyer of sufficient
eminence was available for the post but Charles Yorke, who thus
suddenly found within his reach the high office which had been the
ambition of his life. The crisis was his undoing, and the whole story
is of such interest from a family point of view, that, although it is
well known from the brilliant pages of Sir George Trevelyan's 'Life of
Fox,' I may be excused for telling it again, mainly in the words of two
important memoranda preserved at the British Museum.

One of these was written by Charles Yorke's brother, the second Lord
Hardwicke, and dated nearly a year later, December 30, 1770; the other,
dated October 20, 1772, by his widow Agneta Yorke; and the effect of
them, to my mind, is not only to discredit the widely believed story of
Charles Yorke's suicide, which is not even alluded to, but also to
place his action from a public and political point of view in a more
favourable light than that in which it is sometimes presented.

Both the 'Memorials' to which I have alluded give a most vivid and
painful account of the struggle between ambition and political
consistency which followed upon the offer of the Chancellorship by the
Duke of Grafton to one who was pledged by his previous action to the
Rockingham party. Lord Hardwicke wrote:

'I shall set down on this paper the extraordinary and melancholy
circumstances which attended the offer of the Great Seal to my brother
in January last. On the 12th of that month he received on his return
from Tittenhanger a note from the Duke of Grafton desiring to see him.
He sent it immediately to me and I went to Bloomsbury Square where I
met my brother John and we had a long consultation with Mr. Yorke. He
saw the Duke of Grafton by appointment in the evening and his grace
made him in form and without personal cordiality an offer of the Great
Seal, complaining heavily of Lord Camden's conduct, particularly his
hostile speech in the House of Lords the first day of the Session. My
brother desired a little time to consider of so momentous an affair and
stated to the Duke the difficulties it laid him under, his grace gave
him till Sunday in the forenoon. He, Mr. Y., called on me that morning,
the 14th, and seemed in great perplexity and agitation. I asked him if
he saw his way through the clamorous and difficult points upon which it
would be immediately expected he should give his opinion, viz. the
Middlesex Election, America and the state of Ireland, where the
parliament had just been prorogued on a popular point. He seriously
declared that he did not, and that he might be called upon to advise
measures of a higher and more dangerous nature than he should choose to
be responsible for. He was clearly of opinion that he was not sent for
at the present juncture from predilection, but necessity, and how much
soever the Great Seal had been justly the object of his ambition, he
was now afraid of accepting it.

'Seeing him in so low and fluttered a state of spirits and knowing how
much the times called for a higher, I did not venture to push him on,
and gave in to the idea he himself started, of advising to put the
Great Seal in commission, by which time would be gained. He went from
me to the Duke of Grafton, repeated his declining answer, and proposed
a commission for the present, for which precedents of various times
were not wanting. The Duke of Grafton expressed a more earnest desire
that my brother should accept than he did at the first interview, and
pressed his seeing the King before he took a final resolution. I saw
him again in Montague House garden, on Monday the 15th, and he then
seemed determined to decline, said a particular friend of his in the
law, Mr. W. had rather discouraged him, and that nothing affected him
with concern but the uneasiness which it might give to Mrs. Yorke.

'On Tuesday forenoon the 16th, he called upon me in great agitation and
talked of accepting. He changed his mind again by the evening when he
saw the King at the Queen's Palace, and finally declined. He told me
just after the audience that the King had not pressed him so strongly
as he had expected, that he had not held forth much prospect of
stability in administration, and that he had not talked so well to him
as he did when he accepted the office of Attorney-General in 1765; his
Majesty however ended the conversation very humanely and prettily, that
"after what he had said to excuse himself, it would be cruelty to press
his acceptance." I must here solemnly declare that my brother was all
along in such agitation of mind that he never told me all the
particulars which passed in the different conversations, and many
material things may have been said to him which I am ignorant of. He
left me soon after to call on Mr. Anson and Lord Rockingham,
authorising me to acquaint everybody that he had absolutely declined,
adding discontentedly that "It was the confusion of the times which
occasioned his having taken that resolution." He appeared to me very
much ruffled and disturbed, but I made myself easy on being informed
that he would be quiet next day and take physic. He wanted both that
and bleeding, for his spirits were in a fever.'

Up to this point Mrs. Yorke's account, written apparently to explain
and vindicate her own share in the transaction, tallies with that of
her brother-in-law, except that she states that Lord Hardwicke had been
much more favourable to the idea of Charles Yorke's acceptance than the
above narrative leads one to suppose; according to her the family felt
'it was too great a thing to refuse.' Lord Hardwicke's wife, the
Marchioness Grey, indeed, had called upon Mrs. Yorke to urge it, saying
among other things that 'the great office to which Mr. Yorke was
invited was in the line of his profession, that though it was
intimately connected with state affairs, yet it had not that absolute
and servile dependance on the Court which the other ministerial offices
had; that Mr. Yorke had already seen how vain it was to depend on the
friendship of Lord Rockingham and his party; that the part he had acted
had always been separate and uninfluenced, and therefore she thought he
was quite at liberty to make choice for himself, and by taking the
seals he would perhaps have it in his power to reconcile the different
views of people and form an administration which might be permanent and
lasting; that if he now refused the seals they would probably never be
offered a second time ... and that these were Lord Hardwicke's
sentiments as well as her own.'

Lord Mansfield's advice had been more emphatic still. 'He had no doubt
of the propriety of his accepting the Great Seal, indeed was so
positive that Mr. Yorke told me he would hear no reason against it.'
Mrs. Yorke herself was at first opposed to the idea; but influenced by
such opinions and by her husband's extreme dejection after refusing the
offer, she ended by strongly urging him to accept, and was afterwards
blamed for having encouraged his fatal ambition. Lord Rockingham alone,
who had been greatly dependent upon the advice and assistance of Mr.
Yorke, 'to whom,' as Mrs. Yorke remarks, 'he could apply every moment,'
and 'without whom he would have made no figure at all in his
administration,' put the strongest pressure on him to decline, for
selfish reasons as appears from Mrs. Yorke's story. It was therefore
against the advice of his own family and 'the generality of his
friends,' including Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, that Charles Yorke, in
obedience to his own high sense of political honour, at first refused
the dazzling promotion, and this fact must be recorded to his credit.

The decision, however, brought no peace to his mind, and ambition
immediately began to resume its sway. He passed a restless night, and
said in the morning to his wife 'that he would not think of it, for he
found whenever he was inclined to consent he could get no rest, and
want of rest would kill him.' But after another day, Tuesday, spent in
conference 'I believe with Lords Rockingham and Hardwicke,' he was
persuaded, by what means does not appear, to go again to Court. Lord
Hardwicke, who, as Sir George Trevelyan observes, played a true
brother's part throughout the wretched business, thus continues:

'Instead of taking his physic, he left it on the table after a broken
night's rest, and went to the _levée_, was called into the closet, and
in a manner compelled by the King to accept the Great Seal with
expressions like these: "My sleep has been disturbed by your declining;
do you mean to declare yourself unfit for it?" and still stronger
afterwards, "If you will not comply, it must make an eternal break
betwixt us." At his return from Court about three o'clock, he broke in
unexpectedly on me, who was talking with Lord Rockingham, and gave us
this account.

We were both astounded, to use an obsolete but strong word, at so
sudden an event, and I was particularly shocked at his being so
overborne in a manner I had never heard of, nor could imagine possible
between Prince and subject. I was hurt personally at the figure I had
been making for a day before, telling everybody by his authority that
he was determined to decline, and I was vexed at his taking no notice
of me or the rest of the family when he accepted. All these
considerations working on my mind at this distracting moment induced
me, Lord Rockingham joining in it, to press him to return forthwith to
the King, and entreat his Majesty either to allow him time till next
morning to recollect himself, or to put the Great Seal in commission,
as had been resolved upon. We could not prevail; he said he could not
in honour do it, he had given his word, had been wished joy, &c. Mr.
John Yorke came in during this conversation, and did not take much part
in it, but seemed quite astounded. After a long altercating
conversation, Mr. Yorke, unhappily then Lord Chancellor, departed, and
I went to dinner.

'In the evening, about eight o'clock, he called on me again, and
acquainted me with his having been sworn in at the Queen's house, and
that he had then the Great Seal in the coach. He talked to me of the
title he intended to take, that of Morden, which is part of the Wimple
estate, asked my forgiveness if he had acted improperly. We kissed and
parted friends. A warm word did not escape either of us. When he took
leave he seemed more composed, but unhappy. Had I been quite cool when
he entered my room so abruptly at three o'clock I should have said
little--wished him joy, and reserved expostulation for a calmer moment.'

Mrs. Yorke's account of these 'altercating conversations' between the
brothers, at the second of which, on the evening of the 17th, she was
herself present, is naturally much more highly coloured. Charles Yorke
was evidently terribly discomposed by it, speaking of Lord Hardwicke's
language as 'exceeding all bounds of temper, reason, and even common
civility.' 'I hope,' he said to his wife, 'he will in cooler moments
think better of it, and my brother John also, for if I lose the support
of my family, I shall be undone.'

I need not pursue the subject of this distressing difference between
the brothers, which no doubt assumed an altogether exaggerated
importance in the sensitive and affectionate, but self-centred, mind of
poor Charles Yorke, shaken as he was by the strain and struggle of
these days, but which was probably the immediate cause of his fatal
illness.

'We returned home' (from St. James's Square), writes Mrs. Yorke, 'and
Mr. Woodcock followed in the chariot with the Great Seal. The King had
given it in his closet, and at the same time Mr. Yorke kissed his
Majesty's hand on being made Baron of Morden in the county of
Cambridge. Not once did Mr. Yorke close his eyes, though at my entreaty
he took composing medicines.... Before morning he was determined to
return the Great Seal, for he said if he kept it he could not live. I
know not what I said, for I was terrified almost to death. At six
o'clock I found him so ill that I sent for Dr. Watson, who ought
immediately to have bled him, instead of which he contented himself
with talking to him. He ordered him some medicine and was to see him
again in the evening. In the meantime Mr. Yorke was obliged to rise to
receive the different people who would crowd to him on this occasion,
but before he left me, he assured me that when the Duke of Grafton came
to him at night, he would resign the seals. When his company had left
him, he came up to me, and even then, death was upon his face. He said
he had settled all his affairs, that he should retire absolutely from
business, and would go to Highgate the next day, and that he was
resolved to meddle no more with public affairs. I was myself so ill
with fatigue and anxiety that I was not able to dine with him, but Dr.
Plumptre did; when I went to them after dinner I found Mr. Yorke in a
state of fixed melancholy. He neither spoke to me nor to Dr. Plumptre;
I tried every method to wake and amuse him, but in vain. I could
support it no longer, I fell upon my knees before him and begged of him
not to affect himself so much--that he would resume his fortitude and
trust to his own judgment--in short, I said a great deal which I
remember now no more; my sensations were little short of distraction at
that time. In an hour or two after he grew much worse, and Dr. Watson
coming in persuaded him to go to bed, and giving him a strong opiate,
he fell asleep.

But his rest was no refreshment; about the middle of the night he
awaked in a delirium, when I again sent for Dr. Watson; towards the
morning he was more composed, and at noon got up. In about an hour
after he was up, he was seized with a vomiting of blood. I was not with
him at the instant, but was soon called to him. He was almost
speechless, but on my taking his hand in an agony of silent grief he
looked tenderly on me, and said, "How can I repay your kindness, my
dear love; God will reward you, I cannot; be comforted." These were the
last words I heard him speak, for my nerves were too weak to support
such affliction. I was therefore prevented from being in his room, and
indeed I was incapable of giving him assistance. He lived till the next
day, when at five o'clock in the afternoon, he changed this life for a
better.'

Lord Hardwicke meanwhile had decided to follow the very friendly and
right opinion of Dr. Jeffreys, 'that he would do his best to support
the part which his brother had taken,' and came to town with that
resolution on 'Friday in the forenoon' but he found that Charles Yorke
had been taken very ill that morning.

'When I saw him on the evening of the 19th he was in bed and too much
disordered to be talked with. There was a glimmering of hope on the
20th in the morning, but he died that day about five in the evening.
The patent of peerage had passed all the forms except the Great Seal,
and when my poor brother was asked if the seal should be put to it, he
waived it, and said "he hoped it was no longer in his custody." I can
solemnly declare that except what passed at my house on the Wednesday
forenoon, I had not the least difference with him throughout the whole
transaction, not a sharp or even a warm expression passed, but we
reasoned over the subject like friends and brothers.... In short, the
usage he met with in 1766 when faith was broke with him, had greatly
impaired his judgment, dejected his spirits, and made him act below his
superior knowledge and abilities. He would seldom explain himself, or
let his opinion be known in time to those who were ready to have acted
with him in the utmost confidence. After the menacing language used in
the closet to compel Mr. Yorke's acceptance and the loss which the King
sustained by his death at that critical juncture, the most unprejudiced
and dispassionate were surprised at the little, or rather no notice
which was taken of his family; the not making an offer to complete the
peerage was neither to be palliated nor justified in their opinion. It
was due to the _Manes_ of the departed from every motive of humanity
and decorum. Lord Hillsborough told a friend of mine, indeed, that the
King had soon after his death spoke of him with tears in his eyes and
enquired after the family, but it would surely not have misbecome his
Majesty conscious of the whole of his behaviour to an able, faithful,
and despairing subject, to have expressed that concern in a more
particular manner, and to those who were so deeply affected by the
melancholy event.

'A worthier and better man there never was, no more learned and
accomplished in his own profession, as well as out of it. What he
wanted was the calm, firm judgment of his father, and he had the
misfortune to live in times which required a double portion of it.
Every precaution was taken by me to prepare him for the offer, and to
persuade him to form some previous plan of conduct, but all in vain. He
would never explain himself clearly, and left everything to chance,
till we were all overborne, perplexed and confounded in that fatal
interval which opened and closed the negotiation with my brother. With
him the Somers line of the law seems to be at an end, I mean of that
set in the profession who, mixing principles of liberty with those
proper to monarchy, have conducted and guided that great body of men
ever since the Revolution.'

Fever, complicated by colic and the rupture of a blood-vessel, caused
Charles Yorke's death, the consequence of the extreme nervous tension
which he had undergone, of which his widow has left a most touching and
graphic description. I wish I could have found room for the whole of
her account of those days. The circumstances of his physical
constitution and the mental struggle he had suffered are quite
sufficient to account for his death without the gratuitous assumption
of suicide, which there is nothing in the family papers to support.
There is no doubt that this idea was prevalent at the time, and
allusions to it are to be found in many subsequent accounts, down to
that in Sir George Trevelyan's 'Life of Fox.' Perhaps it is not too
much to hope that this allegation may be at last disposed of in the
light of the papers by his brother and his wife. We have two clear and
positive declarations in these papers: first, that in the beginning of
his illness he declined his physic, and afterwards took an opiate;
second, that there followed the rupture of a blood-vessel. When Lord
Hardwicke saw him for the last time on the 19th he was 'extremely ill';
'there was a glimmering of hope on the 20th in the morning, but he died
that day about five in the evening.'

This is the summary of the evidence, which to my mind is conclusive.
Unless one assumes a conspiracy of silence between Lord Hardwicke and
Mrs. Yorke, I do not see that I can reasonably admit any other
hypothesis. I therefore claim that phrase of his brother's as a
solution of the supposed mystery of Charles Yorke's death.

If hereafter the vague rumours which have so long been current should
be supported by any real evidence, my judgment will be disputed, but I
am glad to have this opportunity of asserting my own firm conviction
that the version of the unhappy affair given in the family papers is
correct, and that Charles Yorke's death was due to natural causes.

Charles Yorke was twice married. His first wife was a daughter of
Williams Freeman, Esq., of Aspeden, Hertfordshire, by whom he had a son
Philip. This son succeeded his uncle as third Earl of Hardwicke, he
inherited the Tittenhanger and other estates (which passed away to his
daughters on his death in 1834) from his mother, and he is still
remembered for his wise and liberal administration as the first
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland after the Union (from 1801 to 1806), the
irritation and unrest caused by which measure he did much to allay.
[Footnote: A recent publication, _The Viceroy's Post Bag_, by Mr.
MacDonagh, gives some curious details of his correspondence from the
Hardwicke Papers at the British Museum.] As a Whig he had always been
in favour of Catholic Emancipation in Ireland, and though he agreed to
postpone it on joining Addington's Administration, he adhered to the
cause till its triumph in 1829; and he gave a qualified support to the
Parliamentary Reform Bill in 1831. He was created a Knight of the
Garter in 1803, [Footnote: Lord Hardwicke married in 1782 Elizabeth,
daughter of James, fifth Earl of Balcarres, the sister of Lady Anne
Barnard, the authoress of _Auld Robin Gray_.] and had the misfortune to
lose the only son who survived infancy in a storm at sea off Lübeck in
1808 at the age of twenty-four. The succession to the peerage was thus
opened up to his half-brothers, the sons of Charles Yorke's second
wife, Agneta, daughter of Henry Johnston of Great Berkhampsted: Charles
Philip (1764-1834) who left no heir, and Joseph Sydney (1768-1831),
father of the subject of this memoir. I have already alluded to the
public career of their half-brother, the third Lord Hardwicke; and it
is interesting to see how the tradition of political and public work
was maintained by the two younger brothers, who both, and especially
the younger of the two, added fresh laurels to the distinguished record
held by so many of the descendants of the great Chancellor. The Right
Honourable Charles Yorke represented the county of Cambridge in
Parliament from 1790 to 1810, and joined Addington's Government at the
same time as Lord Hardwicke, first as Secretary at War in 1801, and
then as Secretary of State for the Home Department, till the return to
office of William Pitt (to whom he was politically opposed) in 1804. In
1810 he became first Lord of the Admiralty under Spencer Perceval, with
his younger brother Joseph as one of the Sea Lords, and retained office
till Perceval's assassination broke up the ministry; and when in 1812
Lord Liverpool became Prime Minister he left the Admiralty and never
afterwards returned to office, retiring from public life in 1818. The
splendid breakwater at Plymouth was decided on and commenced while he
was at the Admiralty, and a slab of its marble marks his tomb in
Wimpole Church.

With Joseph Sydney Yorke, afterwards Admiral and a K.C.B., opens a
chapter of family history with which this volume will be mainly
concerned; and the navy rather than the law or politics henceforth
becomes the chief interest of the story in its public aspect. Sir
Joseph, indeed, may be looked upon as a sort of second founder of the
family. Although Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, which the Chancellor
purchased from the Harleys, Earls of Oxford, was for many generations
the principal seat of the family, Sydney Lodge, on Southampton Water,
[Footnote: Attached to Sydney Lodge on the shore of Southampton Water
is a white battery containing guns taken from a French frigate and
bearing an inscription, written by my father, commemorating his last
parting with my grandfather, Sir Joseph. The battery encloses a well,
known as 'Agneta's Well,' which has refreshed many a thirsty fisherman.
The inscription is as follows:--

IN MEMORIAM

THESE GUNS WERE THE FORECASTLE ARMAMENT OF THE DUTCH FRIGATE 'ALLIANCE'

OF 36 GUNS

CAPTURED ON THE COAST OF NORWAY IN 1795

AFTER A CLOSE ACTION WITH H.M.S. 'STAG' OF 32 GUNS

COMMANDED BY CAPTAIN YORKE

OF SYDNEY LODGE

THE FATHER OF THE FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE WHO ON THIS SPOT IN 1829

PARTED FROM HIS BELOVED PARENT FOR THE LAST TIME

AND SAILED IN COMMAND OF H.M.S. 'ALLIGATOR'

FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN.

HE PLACES THIS STONE TO HIS FATHER'S MEMORY

September 4th, 1871] the charming house which Sir Joseph built out of
prize-money earned during the French wars, has all the associations of
a home for our branch of the family, and the love of the sea is an
inheritance which we all derive from him. His professional ability is
shown by the position he won in the service. Entering the navy in 1780
when he was fourteen, he had plenty of opportunity of active service in
those stirring times. After serving on board one or two other vessels,
Joseph Yorke joined the _Duke_ commanded by Sir Charles Douglas, whom
he followed to the _Formidable_. That vessel was one of Rodney's fleet
in the West Indies, and the boy fought in her at the famous action of
April 12, 1782 in which that admiral completely defeated the French
under De Grasse. He remained in the _Formidable_ until she paid off in
1783, and spent the years 1784-1789 on the Halifax station. In the
latter year he was promoted Lieutenant in the _Thisbe_ under Captain
Sir Samuel Hood and returned in her to England. Promotion followed
rapidly. Yorke became a Commander in 1790 and Captain in 1793, in which
capacity he served continuously on the home station, taking part in the
blockade of Brest, until the Peace of Amiens.

During this time he had the good fortune to capture several large
privateers from the enemy; he also took the _Espiégle_, a French
corvette, close to Brest harbour and in sight of a very superior French
squadron. In 1794 Captain Yorke was given command of the _Stag_, 32,
and cruised in the Channel later off the coast of Ireland, and later
still, with the North Sea Fleet under Lord Duncan.

'On the 22nd of August 1795, Captain Yorke being in company with a
light squadron under the orders of Captain James Alms, gave chase to
two large ships and a cutter. At 4.15 P.M. the _Stag_ brought the
sternmost ship to close action, which continued with much spirit for
about half an hour, when the enemy struck, and proved to be the
_Alliance_, Batavian frigate of 36 guns and 240 men. Her consorts the
_Argo_ 36, and _Nelly_ cutter, 16, effected their escape after
sustaining a running fight with the other ships of the British
squadron. In this spirited action, the _Stag_ had 4 men slain and 13
wounded, and the enemy between 40 and 50 killed and wounded.'

He was at the Nore during the dangerous mutiny of 1798, and he left
among his papers a very stirring address made to his crew on the day
that the mutineers were hung at the yard-arm. When the war broke out
again in 1803 he was again employed in the Channel, and after
commanding the _Barfleur_ and the _Christian VII_ he was appointed a
junior Sea Lord in May 1810, when his brother was First Lord. In this
year he was knighted when acting as proxy for Lord Hardwicke at his
installation as a Knight of the Garter; on July 31 he was promoted to
the rank of Rear-Admiral; and in the following January, with his flag
in the _Vengeur_, he was sent out with reinforcements for Wellington to
Lisbon. These were landed on March 4, 1811, and on the news being
received, Massena broke up his camp in front of the lines of Torres
Vedras and began his retreat. This was Sir Joseph's last service
afloat. In 1814, while still a member of the Board, he was appointed
First Sea Lord under Lord Melville as First Lord, and held that high
post till 1818, a period of office which covered Lord Exmouth's
expedition against Algiers in 1816. He became Vice-Admiral and Knight
Commander of the Bath on January 2, 1815, when he also received the
freedom of the borough of Plymouth, and he was made a full Admiral on
July 22, 1830. He had been member for Reigate since 1790, with an
interval as member for Sandwich, from 1812 to 1818.

Sir Joseph married in 1798 Elizabeth Weake Rattray and had a family of
four sons and one daughter, afterwards Lady Agneta Bevan. Lady Yorke
died in 1812, and in 1815 he married Urania, Dowager Marchioness of
Clanricarde and daughter of the twelfth Lord Winchester, who survived
him. During his later years he lived mostly at Sydney Lodge, occupied
with family interests, and in the administration of various charities,
naval and other. My grandfather was a fine type of English sailor, very
handsome in his youth, as Romney's portraits show, affectionate and
high-spirited; altogether one of the most attractive figures in our
family history. Some following chapters will show him in his relations
with his son, and mention the peculiar circumstances attending his
accidental death by drowning.




CHAPTER II

ALGIERS. 1815-1816


Charles Philip Yorke was born on April 2, 1799, at Sydney Lodge,
Hamble, and like his father, was destined from the first for a naval
career. He must have been quite a small boy when Sir Joseph presented
him to Lord Nelson, and the family tradition is that the hero accosted
him with a kind smile and said, 'Give me a shake of your daddle, my
boy, for I've only one to shake _you_ with.'

The boy was sent to Harrow, and after a few years at that school was
entered, in his fourteenth year, at the Royal Naval College at
Portsmouth, where he formed a friendship with John Christian Schetky,
then drawing master at the college, and later Marine Painter to Queen
Victoria, and a man of note in his profession. What little is known of
young Yorke's career at Portsmouth points to diligence and capacity,
for he gained the gold medal in his second year after little more than
eighteen months at the college, a distinction which ensured his
immediate entry into the service. On May 15, 1815, he was appointed
midshipman on board the _Prince Regent_, 98 guns, the flagship at
Spithead, and a training which stood him in good stead in after life
was begun under the commander of this vessel, Captain Fowke. A month
later he was transferred to the _Sparrowhawk_, a brig of 18 guns
commanded by Captain Baines, then under sailing orders for the
Mediterranean.

There was no coddling in the navy in those days, and those who survived
its rigorous life were probably the fittest. I have heard my father say
that at this period the middies' soup was served in the tin boxes which
held their cocked hats, and that one of their amusements was provided
by races round the mess table of the weevils knocked out of the biscuit
which was a part of their daily fare. Young Yorke, however, accepted
this life and its hardships with all cheerfulness; and the spirit with
which he entered the service and the interest he took in his profession
from the first are, I think, abundantly clear from a letter he wrote
home to his father on July 15, 1815 from the Mediterranean, off
Celebrina, after he had been a little more than a month at sea.

       *       *       *       *       *

'I am afraid you will be surprised at my not writing to you oftener but
I have had no opportunity of sending letters home, as we have spoken no
ships bound for England. I am happy to say that I am in perfect health
and have been so ever since I left you, and the hot country does not at
all oppress me, or make me uncomfortable, as I expected it would at
first, and I have not had a moment's sickness since I have been out. I
can only say that I am in every way so comfortable on the _Sparrowhawk_
that I have no desire to quit her at all. Perhaps you may think I am
comfortable in her through idleness and not having much duty put upon
me; but I am one of the three Mids in the ship and the duty is heavy,
there being only one Mid in each watch, and he has the duty of Mate of
the watch, there being none; but I like my messmates, and we have a
capital berth. Captain Baines is also a kind friend to me in every way;
whatever may be said of him is nothing to me, his advice and friendship
to me is good and kind; he keeps me in practice with my navigation, for
I work all the observations for the ship and take them also. It is, as
you may perceive by my writing, my wish to remain in her, but to the
will of my Father I submit; and I am also certain that seamanship and
my profession I shall learn by being six months in a brig. When we get
to Genoa I shall see Lord Exmouth, but I will not give your letter
until I hear from you again, but I shall tell him I have written to you
concerning the _Sparrowhawk_, and beg to remain in her till I hear from
you.

'I shall now give you some short description of our voyage. We sailed
from England on the Tuesday after I left you and tided it down channel,
at Yarmouth we went ashore with the Captain and Officers to play
cricket and had an excellent match, _Sparrowhawks_ against Rosarios. In
general we have had calms and fine weather, now and then a few puffs.
Cape St. Vincent was the first land we made, that was on the 9th July,
we anchored off the rock of Gibraltar on the 12th. Captain B. took me
ashore with him to see the place, it is a most extraordinary thing. It
is dreadfully hot, the reflection of the sun being so great; from
thence we sailed the following day and are now off Celebrina in a dead
calm. I think I shall see much of the Mediterranean in this ship, for
she will be always kept cruising and likely to stay out some time.
Yesterday we cleared for action for a large brig that was bearing down
upon us, but to our great disappointment, it proved to be an English
brig from Santa Maria to London with fruit. There is on board the
_Sparrowhawk_ a carpenter by the name of Beach who sailed with you on
the _Stag_, and he wishes to be shifted into a larger ship; if you
could at any time have a thing of that sort in your power, you will be
doing him the greatest kindness. He did not apply to you, because when
he was with you he refused a warrant, not thinking himself fit to hold
that situation. If you could do this, let me know, for I should like to
see him get a larger ship, for he is a most excellent man.

'17th.--Here we are still in the same place off Celebrina detained by
calms and light breezes, just now a breeze has sprung up which is
likely to last. Last night we all went overboard and had a delightful
bath.

'29th.--We have just arrived at Genoa after a tedious and unpleasant
voyage, the last six days squalls and heavy gales of wind and
lightning. Genoa is a most beautiful city, and situated most
delightfully. Last night I was at the Opera, and it is exactly the same
as our own in England, it is much larger and a most magnificent
theatre. The houses are mostly of marble and beautifully ornamented,
they are immensely high but the streets very narrow. There are no ships
here and we sail for Marseilles as soon as we have watered. Pray give
my best love to Lady C. and all hands on board.'

        *       *       *       *       *

It is of interest to note the mention in this letter of Charles Yorke's
first visit to Genoa, and the impression that beautiful city, 'Genova
la superba,' made upon his youthful imagination. As will appear further
on in this memoir, he visited it again some thirty-five years later in
very different circumstances, and that Genoa exists to-day, with much
of its beauty unimpaired, is mainly owing to the part played by Charles
Yorke when, as Lord Hardwicke, he again appeared in a British
man-of-war off that port.

The boy's wish to stay on the _Sparrowhawk_ expressed in this letter to
his father was not fulfilled, for a month after his arrival in the
Mediterranean he was transferred to the _Leviathan_, of 74 guns,
commanded successively by Captains F. W. Burgoyne and Thomas Briggs. In
her he remained a little less than a year, during which he had a
serious attack of scarlet fever followed by rheumatism, which left him
very weak, and raised a question as to whether he should be invalided
home. He was, however, exceedingly popular with his superiors, who were
most kind and attentive to him through his illness, and he was lucky
enough to recover without having to return to England. In August of
1816 he was again transferred, to the _Queen Charlotte_, Captain
Brisbane, a ship of the line of 120 guns, and the flagship of Admiral
Lord Exmouth, commanding in the Mediterranean.

The young midshipman was most fortunate in being stationed under that
command, for it was the one place in the world at that moment where
there was any probability of seeing active service. The supremacy of
the British navy which had been established over the fleets of France
and Spain at Trafalgar, and the recent peace which had followed the
defeat and surrender of Buonaparte, had removed any possibility of
collision with a European State. But, as a matter of fact, the naval
Powers, England in particular, had long been waiting an opportunity to
settle a long-standing account in the Mediterranean with a set of
potentates established on the north coast of Africa, who had for years
availed themselves of the dissensions between the Great Powers to carry
on a system of piracy and rapine of the most insolent and atrocious
character. During the naval wars which had lasted with short intervals
for half a century, the fleets of England, France, Spain, and Holland
had been so much occupied in fighting each other that they had been
unable to bestow much attention on the doings of these petty rulers,
who were known collectively as the Barbary States, individually as the
Deys of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. All of these owned nominal
allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey at Constantinople when it suited
them, but in reality claimed and exercised complete independence when
such was convenient to any purpose they had in hand.

For half a century at least, the depredations of these barbarians had
made the Mediterranean a sea of great peril for the merchant vessels of
all nations, and even for the fighting ships of the smaller
Mediterranean powers like Naples and Sardinia, whose weakly manned
vessels were often no match for the galleys and feluccas of the Barbary
corsairs. The ruffianly Deys made little attempt to conceal the
piratical nature of their proceedings, and became a perfect scourge not
only to the mariners of all nations in the Mediterranean, but also to
the unfortunate inhabitants of its shores. They ravaged the islands and
coastline of the mainland wherever there was plunder to be gained or an
unprotected town to be raided, impudently hoisted the flags of one or
other of the great naval powers then at war, and preyed upon the
commerce of the rest, plundered and burned their shipping, and, worst
of all, consigned the crews of the vessels they captured or destroyed
to all the horrors of slavery in a Mohammedan country.

Among these Barbary Powers the Deys of Algiers had long been the most
powerful and the most truculent. During a lull in the fighting between
France and England in the middle years of the eighteenth century,
Admiral Keppel, [Footnote: Admiral Keppel, second son of the second
Earl of Albemarle, created Viscount Keppel for his gallant services;
died unmarried in 1786. He was the eponymous hero of so many public
houses.] then a very youthful-looking captain, had been sent with a
squadron to curb the insolence of the Dey of that period, which he
effected without the firing of a shot. Keppel demanded an interview
with the Dey, and went ashore to the palace without a guard, and stated
his business in very plain terms. The Dey wondered at the presumption
of King George in sending a beardless boy as his ambassador. 'The King
my master,' replied Keppel, with a glance at the Dey's hairy
countenance, 'does not measure wisdom by the length of the beard, or he
would have sent a he-goat to confer with your Highness.' The Dey raged
at this bold repartee, and began to speak of bowstrings and the
ministers of death. 'Kill me, if you will,' replied Keppel, pointing
through the open window to his squadron riding in the roadstead, 'and
there are ships enough to burn your city and provide me with a glorious
funeral pile.' Keppel's firmness had the result of checking the
Algerian piracies for a time, but during the long wars between the
Powers which were shortly resumed, these were overlooked in the press
of matters of more urgency, and it was only with the return of a
permanent and general peace, as already noted, that the Powers had
leisure to turn their attention to a state of things in the
Mediterranean which had long been intolerable.

In view of her established supremacy at sea, England was generally
regarded as the police-constable of Europe in naval affairs, and upon
her fell the chief duty of chastening the Dey of Algiers, though on
this occasion the Dutch Government also lent its assistance. Quite
early in the spring of 1816, Lord Exmouth placed himself in
communication with the Dey, and stated the terms of the British
demands. These were that the Ionian Islands, long a hunting-ground for
the Barbary pirates, should be henceforth treated as British territory;
that the British Government should be accepted as arbitrator between
the Barbary Powers and Naples and Sardinia, who had a long list of
claims and grievances against them; and that the Barbary Powers should
enter into a definite undertaking to abolish all slavery of Christians
within their dominions, and to treat all prisoners of war, of whatever
nation, in accordance with the customs of civilised nations. The Dey
agreed to the first two demands and released the Ionian slaves as
British subjects, but declined all promises as to the abolition of
slavery. Leaving that matter in abeyance, Exmouth sailed on to Tripoli
and Tunis, whose Deys he found more amenable to reason, and who
consented to make declarations in the form demanded by the British
Admiral upon all three points.

Exmouth then returned to Gibraltar, where his squadron was assembled,
and at once resumed negotiations with the Dey with the intention of
procuring his adhesion to the all-important undertaking to abolish
Christian slavery. The Dey, after many evasions, at length repeated his
refusal on the ground that he was a subject or vassal of the Sultan,
and could not consent to so important a stipulation without his
authority. Exmouth granted a delay of three months accordingly, and
himself lent a frigate, the _Tagus_, to convey the Dey's envoy to
Constantinople.

Meanwhile, however, the Dey committed an unpardonable atrocity. A coral
fishery at Bona worked under the British flag was suddenly and
treacherously destroyed by an attack of the Algerines. The fishermen
engaged at their work were, without warning of any kind, almost
annihilated by artillery fire from the fort and by the musketry of 2000
Algerian infantry, their houses and goods were given over to the
looting of the soldiery, the company's stores and magazines were
rifled, and their boats either seized or sunk. This atrocity, of
course, put an end to all negotiation, and the Admiral, who had sailed
for England, was at once directed by the British Government to complete
the work which he had initiated, and to exact the most ample
satisfaction and security for the future. He was offered any force that
might be necessary, and surprised the naval authorities by his opinion,
which was the result of observation upon the spot, that five
line-of-battle ships, with frigates, bomb vessels and gun brigs, would
be sufficient for a successful attack on the formidable defences of
Algiers. In less than two months Lord Exmouth commissioned, fitted,
manned and trained his fleet, and on August 14, 1816, the expedition,
including his own flagship the _Queen Charlotte_ of 120 guns, the
_Impregnable_ of 98, three vessels of 70 guns, the _Leander_ of 50,
four smaller frigates and several armed vessels of lesser tonnage,
sailed from Gibraltar. One of these, a gunboat, towed by the _Queen
Charlotte_ from that port, was placed under the command of Charles
Yorke, who had just completed his seventeenth year. The English
admiral's force was joined at Gibraltar by a Dutch squadron of five
frigates and a sloop under Admiral Baron von de Capellan.

On the very eve of the sailing of this powerful force, young Yorke
wrote home a letter to his father which shows the spirit of the young
sailor and the enthusiasm which animated the fleet.

        *       *       *       *       *

'MY DEAR FATHER,

'We are hove to for a Packet, and she is coming up fast, so my stave
will be short, with a strong breeze, which is to say I am quite well.
We have a great deal to do, shall be at Gibraltar to-morrow if the wind
holds. We clear for action there, and leave all our chests, bulkheads,
and everything we have except guns, powder, shot, &c. &c. of which we
have not a little.

'I have the honour to command one of H.M.S. _Queen Charlotte's_ boats
on service, and if there is any work, expect to cut no small caper. I
have seen the plan of attack; all our fire is to be on the mole head.
Us, the _Leander_, _Superb_ and _Impregnable_ are to be lashed together
and as near the walls as possible. _Minden_ engages a battery called
the Emperor's Fort, and _Albion_ stands off and on to relieve any
damaged ship. As soon as the Mole is cleared, we are to land; glorious
enterprise for the boats.

'Give my love to dearest Uranie and Lady C. [Footnote:
Dowager-Marchioness of Clanricarde, his stepmother.] &c. &c.

'Your affecte.

'C. YORKE.'

        *       *       *       *       *

The British fleet with its allied Dutch squadron arrived off Algiers on
August 21. Lord Exmouth had sent in advance a corvette with orders to
endeavour to rescue the British Consul, a humane effort which, however,
succeeded only in rescuing that gentleman's wife and child, and
resulted, on the other hand, in the capture of the boat's crew of
eighteen men. The captain of the corvette reported that the Dey refused
altogether to give up that official, or to be responsible for his
safety, and also that there were 40,000 troops in the town, in addition
to the Janissaries who had been summoned from distant garrisons. The
Algerine fleet, he said, consisted of between forty and fifty gun and
mortar vessels, as well as a numerous flotilla of galleys. Works had
been thrown up on the mole which protected the harbour, and the forts
were known to be armed with a numerous artillery and to be of excellent
masonry with walls fourteen to sixteen feet thick. The Dey, thinking
himself fairly secure behind such defences, was prepared with a
determined resistance.

On August 27, Lord Exmouth sent a flag of truce restating his demands
and giving a period of three hours for a reply. Upon the expiration of
that term and on the return of the flag of truce without an answer, he
anchored his flagship just half a cable's length from the mole head at
the entrance of the harbour, so that her starboard broadside flanked
all the batteries from the mole-head to the lighthouse. The mole itself
was covered with troops and spectators, whom Lord Exmouth vainly tried
to disperse before the firing began by waving his hat and shouting from
his own quarter-deck as the flagship came to an anchor at half-past two
in the afternoon.

'As soon as the ship was fairly placed,' writes Lord Exmouth's
biographer, 'the sound of the cheer given by the crew was answered by a
gun from the Eastern Battery; a second and a third opened in quick
succession. One of the shots struck the _Superb_. At the first flash
Lord Exmouth gave the order "Stand by," at the second "Fire." The
report of the third gun was drowned by the thunder of the _Queen
Charlotte's_ broadside.'

Thus opened an engagement which is memorable among the attacks of
fleets upon land fortifications, and which fully justified Lord
Exmouth's opinion that 'nothing can resist a line-of-battle ship's
fire.' The Algerine tactics were to allow the British squadron to come
to an anchor without molestation, and to board the vessels from their
galleys while the British crews were aloft furling sails, for which
purpose they had thirty-seven galleys fully manned waiting inside the
mole. To the surprise of the enemy, however, the British admiral had
given orders for the sails to be clewed from the deck, instead of
sending men aloft for the purpose, and the British ships were thus able
to open fire the moment they came to an anchor. The result of this
smart seamanship was an instant disaster for the Algerines; their
galleys were all sunk before they could make the few strokes of the oar
which would have brought them alongside, and tremendous broadsides of
grapeshot from the _Queen Charlotte_ and the _Leander_ shattered the
entire flotilla, and in a moment covered the surface of the harbour
with the bodies of their crews and with a few survivors attempting to
swim from destruction.

On the molehead the effect of the British fire was terrible; the people
with whom it was crowded were swept away by the fire of the _Queen
Charlotte_, which had ruined the fortifications there before the
engagement became general, and then crumbled and brought down the
Lighthouse Tower and its batteries. The _Leander's_ guns, which
commanded the principal gate of the city opening on the mole, prevented
the escape of any survivors.

The batteries defending the mole were three times cleared by the
British fire, and three times manned again.

'The Dey,' wrote a British officer on the _Leander_, 'was everywhere
offering pecuniary rewards for those who would stand against us; eight
sequins were to be given to every man who would endeavour to extinguish
the fire. At length a horde of Arabs were driven into the batteries
under the direction of the most devoted of the Janissaries and the
gates closed upon them.'

Soon after the battle began, the enemy's flotilla of gunboats advanced,
with a daring which deserved a better fate, to board the _Queen
Charlotte_, and a few guns from the latter vessel sent thirty-three out
of thirty-seven to the bottom. Then followed the destruction of the
Algerine frigates and other shipping in the port, which were set on
fire by bombs and shells and burned together with the storehouses and
the arsenal.

The Algerines, none the less, made a most determined resistance, and
maintained a fire upon the squadron for no less than eleven hours.
Young Charles Yorke was in command of a tender of the flagship which
was moored near to his parent ship, and was consequently in the midst
of the hottest fire, within sixty yards of the mouths of the enemy's
guns, throughout the engagement. Long before that period had elapsed,
however, he found himself running short of ammunition, and taking one
marine in his dinghy, pulled in her to the _Queen Charlotte_, climbed
her side and made his way to the quarter-deck, where, saluting Lord
Exmouth, he said, 'Sir, I am short of ammunition.' 'Well, my lad,'
replied the admiral, 'I cannot help you, but if you choose to go below,
and fetch what you want yourself, you are very welcome.' Charles Yorke,
wishing for nothing better, again saluted and withdrew. He then
descended into the flagship's magazine, and single-handed brought up
1368 lbs. of ammunition, which he lowered over her side to his single
marine in the dinghy, and in her returned to his gunboat to resume his
firing until the close of the action, when, by the aid of a land
breeze, which turned about half-past eleven into a tremendous storm of
thunder and lightning, the fleet was able to draw out from the
batteries. Nothing had been able to resist the concentrated and
well-directed fire, and the sea defences of Algiers, with a great part
of the town itself, had by this time been shattered and reduced to ruin.

This success was only purchased at heavy cost, for the British
casualties, considering the size of the squadron, were enormous, the
_Impregnable_ being the chief sufferer. One hundred and twenty-eight
men were killed and 690 wounded, while the Dutch lost thirteen and
fifty-two respectively. The _Leander_ had every spar injured and her
rigging cut to pieces, and when her cables were at last shot away, was
unable to set a single sail, and so was drifting helplessly ashore,
when a fortunate change of wind allowed her boats to bring her to a
second anchorage. On the flagship the enemy's fire was so hot that Lord
Exmouth himself escaped most narrowly, being slightly wounded in three
places, and the skirts of his coat were shot away by a cannon-ball.

When the morning broke, the admiral found that he had brought the Dey
to reason. Having first beheaded his prime minister, that potentate
released the British Consul and the boat's crew he had detained before
the action, handed over the ransom money he had extorted from captured
subjects of Naples and Sardinia in exchange for their freedom,
amounting to no less than 382,000 dollars, and undertook, 'in the
presence of Almighty God,' to release all Christian slaves in his
dominions, to abandon the enslavement of Christians for the future, and
to treat all prisoners of war with humanity until regularly exchanged,
according to European practice in like cases. About 1200 slaves, the
bulk of them Neapolitans and Sicilians, were embarked on the 31st,
making, with those liberated a few weeks before, more than 3000 persons
whom Lord Exmouth thus had the satisfaction of delivering from slavery.
He sailed away from the city without leaving a single Christian slave,
so far as could be gathered, in either of the Barbary States.

Charles Yorke's conduct at this engagement was fully recognised by
Captain Brisbane, who, when the young midshipman came to leave the
_Queen Charlotte_ a few months later, wrote his certificate in the
following terms:

        *       *       *       *       *

'These are to certify the principal officers and commissioners of His
Majesty's navy that Mr. Charles Philip Yorke served as midshipman on
board H.M.S. _Queen Charlotte_ from the 11th day of July to the 16th
October 1816, during which time he behaved with diligence and sobriety,
and was always obedient to command. His conduct at the battle of
Algiers was active, spirited, and highly meritorious.

'(Signed) JAMES BRISBANE,

'_Captain._'

        *       *       *       *       *

Charles Yorke's share in this action, together with his later services,
is recorded on a tablet, next to a similar one to Lord Exmouth, in the
English chapel at Algiers, by his daughter, the writer of the present
memoir.

It may be added that he always cherished the memory of the
distinguished admiral under whom he served on this occasion, and that
in later years he purchased from Sir William Beechy's studio a portrait
of Lord Exmouth on his quarter-deck at Algiers, in full dress and
orders as the naval fashion then was, which hung on the great staircase
at Wimpole.

Still in his seventeenth year, Charles Yorke had not yet served long
enough for promotion, and was transferred on October 17 of the same
year, 1816, to the _Leander_, commanded by Sir David Milne, who had
been second in command at Algiers, and was then under orders for the
North American station at Halifax, where the _Leander_ shortly sailed.




CHAPTER III

THE NORTH AMERICAN STATION. 1817-1822


A few letters which my father wrote home from the Halifax station,
covering a period of about twelve months from July 1817, I set out here
as giving better than any comment of my own an account of his life and
experiences in Nova Scotia at that time. They present a self-reliant
character, and the young midshipman who was so early recognised by his
superior officers as efficient and capable was found worthy of a small,
but most important, command soon after joining this station. His
father, Sir Joseph Yorke, who lost no opportunity of watching his son's
progress in his profession, was a little nervous at his undertaking a
responsibility of the kind, but how well his superiors' confidence was
justified will be evident from his letters. Young Yorke was full of
pride in his little sloop the _Jane_, and there is no hint in his
letters of the risk and danger of this service. As a fact, she was an
exceedingly difficult craft to handle, and if not unseaworthy, was, to
say the least, an unpleasant vessel in a sea, with decks constantly
awash, and the character she bore in the service appears in her
nickname the _Crazy Jane_. I have often heard my father describe this
as a most arduous and dangerous service, and say that life upon the
_Jane_ was 'like living on a fish's back.' In her he made voyages to
Bermuda from Halifax and back with despatches and ships' mails in very
heavy weather, and I find the following note referring to this service
in my mother's handwriting:

'C. commanded the _Jane_ at the age of nineteen, carrying mails from
Bermuda to Halifax during winter months when ordinary mail was struck
off, during which perilous service he had not a man on board who could
write or take an observation. This _crazy Jane_ was hardly seaworthy,
and he finished her career and nearly his own by running her into
Halifax Harbour in the dark, all hands at the pump.'

His certificate from Sir David Milne contains the following passage:

'Mr. Charles Philip Yorke, Midshipman of H.M.S. _Leander_, commanded
the _Jane_, Sloop, tender to the said ship bearing my flag, from the
23rd of December 1817 to the date hereof, during which time he took her
twice in safety from Halifax to Bermuda, and from Bermuda to Halifax,
and was at sea in her at different other periods, and conducted himself
at all times so as to merit my entire approbation.' Dated 28th December.

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M.S. 'LEANDER,' HALIFAX:

July 10, 1817.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'I almost fear my letters have not reached you, for the May packet has
arrived, and no letters. But silence I always take in a favourable
light, so I conclude you are all well and happy; indeed I had a letter
from Lady St. Germans which informed me so.

'I am, thank God, very well and like my station very much; it is really
a very pleasant place, and the inhabitants attentive and hospitable. I
am now very well acquainted all over Halifax thanks to Captain Lumley's
kindness; pray tell him so, for the family he introduced me to is very
pleasant and kind, so that it is a great comfort to go on shore, and to
be able to spend your evenings among friends instead of being obliged
to go to a dirty tavern.

'I have been on several very delightful fishing parties, and have never
returned with less than three or four dozen fine trout. This will make
the English sportsmen stare, but the fishing here is beyond everything
I could have imagined. The shooting has not come in as yet, and does
not until August, and then it will be very fine.

'The way I go fishing is this. I have got an Indian canoe, and I just
jump into it with my gear, paddle on shore, shoulder it, and carry it
to the lakes. I am become quite an Indian in the management of this
canoe, and with the expense of only one ducking. I was upset in the
harbour, but swam on shore and towed the canoe and all with me quite
safe. I can paddle this canoe much faster than any gig in the fleet.

'We are now just on the point of sailing for Shelburne with Ld. and
Lady Dalhousie, and I fancy shall be absent about ten days. The _Jane_
has not yet arrived, so I am still a mid, not a captain, but expect her
hourly. Last Monday we mids of the _Leander_ gave a grand entertainment
to the inhabitants of Halifax and officers of the fleet; a play, ball,
and supper, which went off remarkably well. _The Iron Chest_ was the
play; the _Wags of Windsor_ the farce. I did not perform being steward
of the supper, but merely spoke the prologue. Our stage was very large
and scenery very good, and on the whole, nothing could go off with more
_éclat_ than it did.

'The girls of Halifax are pretty, generally speaking, and certainly
rather ladylike in their manners, but not very accomplished, but there
is one thing very formidable in their structure, which is tremendous
hoofs, so that a kick from one of them would make you keep your bed for
a week. But they certainly are 50 degrees better than the Bermudians,
they are very affable and agreeable, which is the great point to an
indifferent person.

'Now I have tired your patience with lots of nonsense, which in fact is
all the news I have to tell, so you must excuse it. Give my kindest
love to Lady Clanricarde, Urania, and all the boys, not forgetting
little Agneta, who by this time must be grown and improved much.

'I remain, my dear Father,

'Your most affectionate son,

'C. P. YORKE.'

SIR J. S. YORKE,

_Admiralty._

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M.S. 'LEANDER,' HALIFAX HARBOUR:

Aug. 8, 1817.

'MY DEAR FATHER,

'I have received your letter by this packet, and am very sorry to find
you disapprove of my commanding the Admiral's tender, and am also
astonished to find that you can imagine I have so little command of
myself that I cannot keep from what you term "low company." This is a
thing which since I have been at sea I have never kept, and especially
at a time when I had charge of a vessel and the safety of men's lives.
I am happy to say I took care of myself and of the vessel, and pleased
the Admiral as much as I could wish. I have not got the large tender,
as I expected, on account of a prior application having been made,
which I am now glad of, as you disapprove of the sort of thing, and it
certainly will deter me from accepting any offer of the kind made to
me, though at the same time I consider myself perfectly capable in
every sense of the word.

'I am very glad to hear Grantham has so well got over the measles.

'We have had a very pleasant trip along shore to Shelburne, Liverpool
and Mirligash(?), all of which ports you knew well in their former
state. Shelburne now is miserably fallen off, not above 200 inhabitants
in that once populous town, and more than half the houses falling to
the ground, having no owners. I asked the price of a good house and
about 40 acres of land, and they said the most they could ask for it
would be £30, a cheap place to settle, for provisions also are cheaper
than anywhere I have been. Liverpool is a very flourishing little town,
and on the contrary with Shelburne, a rising place with a vast deal of
commerce and trade which keep the place quite alive. At these two
places I had capital fishing both salmon and trout. I caught one day at
Liverpool three very fine salmon and two or three dozen trout. In this
country they take most with the fly, and it does not matter of what
description. I am now become a very expert fly fisherman, make my own
flies, &c. Pray next season send me out a good assortment of fly gear
which is rather difficult to get here and not good.

'I am going to-morrow to Salmon River, a very fine river about seven
miles inland on the Dartmouth side. I was there last week with two of
our officers, and between the three of us we caught eleven dozen salmon
trout. Fine sport, and all with the fly. Do not forget to send me a
flute as soon as possible and some music; let it be new. Give my
kindest love to Lady C., Urania, and all hands. How delightful the
Lodge must look. I suppose the Urania is by this time ready for sea,
and Henry fighting captain. I must say I envy your circle, but Adieu!

'I remain, my dear Father,

'Your most affectionate son,

'C. P. YORKE.'

        *       *       *       *       *

Aug. 14.

'I imagined that the packet was just going to sail, but I am happy to
say I am disappointed because I have a little news to tell you. I am
just returned from a cruise of rather a curious sort. I have been sent
along the coast with a party of armed men to take some smugglers who
ran from the _Leander_. I landed at Chester, and marched and rode just
as I could to Lunenburg, but without success, and then back, and so
about twenty miles to the eastward. It gave me a good opportunity of
seeing the country, and made it very pleasant, from the kindness and
hospitality of the inhabitants. I have no doubt I shall have many of
these trips from being in the admiral's and captain's notice. This
letter I send by Moorsom, whom you may recollect when I was at college.
Now I shall conclude with love and best wishes to all.'

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M.S. 'LEANDER,' HALIFAX: Novr. 12, 1817.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'I received both your most kind letters by the _Forth_ and packet,
which as you may suppose, gave me great pleasure and satisfaction. I
return you my most grateful thanks for your great kindness in attending
to my little wishes, and hope the things will arrive quite safe. I have
written as you wished to Lady St. G. and told her all the news I could
think of, which I shall now relate to you.

'We have not been out of harbour since the cruise to the east, so I got
leave of absence and accepted the invitation of Judge Wilkins (Lumley's
friend) to go and spend some time with him at Windsor, a small town
about forty-five miles N.E. of Halifax, where I assure you, I passed my
time very pleasantly in shooting, fishing, &c. In that part of Nova
Scotia the country is beautiful, completely cleared of wood, very well
cultivated, and yields to its owners immense crops of grain. I am now
returned to the ship, and we sail for Bermuda in about a fortnight or
three weeks. This I am rather sorry for, for Halifax is very pleasant
during the winter, and Bermuda always very much otherwise. But Sir
David Milne dreads the cold, so we go.

'I am remarkably well in every point, and find the climate agrees with
me very well indeed. I am glad to hear Urania made her _début_ with so
much _éclat_ in the _beau monde_ at Winchester, pray let me also hear
of her in town. I am glad to hear all the boys are well and getting on
so fast in their respective schools. Agneta [Footnote: Agneta,
afterwards Lady _Agneta Bevan_.] by this time must be a very fine
little girl; does she ever talk of me? I really have no news to tell
you worth mention, but the service is very stale for want of war, every
day the same story. Adieu, my dear Father.

'Your most affectionate son,

'C. P. YORKE.

'Tell my uncle Mr. Yorke I will write to thank him for his present as
soon as I have it in my possession.'

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M.S. SLOOP 'JANE,' BERMUDA:

Jan. 23, 1818.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'I sit down to write to you after rather a long silence, but I have
been quite well and by no means ill employed. I did not hear from you
by the last packet, so by your silence I consider all is well and right
in England.

'I have the satisfaction to communicate to you I am honoured by the
command of the _Jane_ Sloop on this station, which command I shall in
all probability keep till my return to England. The young man who
commanded her before and whom I superseded, was obliged to invalid from
her after he brought her from Halifax. She sailed in company with us
and we experienced a heavy gale of wind, and the poor _Jane_ was nearly
lost, but escaped with the loss of her bulwarks. She really is a
beautiful vessel; was a Yankee clipper in the war; 80 tons and 12 men.
I am remarkably happy in her, as you may suppose. I anticipate much
pleasure going up the St. Lawrence in her next summer. I am sure you
will be happy to hear of my good luck, but pray do not have any more
dreads of my inability to command. I positively would not accept it if
I thought myself in the least inadequate to undertake it. I have now
again fitted her at the dockyard at Ireland where I saw much of your
friend Commissioner Lewis, who really is to me a very kind and
affectionate friend; I like him exceedingly.

'The packet is just arrived, and I have received your letter of the
26th ult, and likewise one from Lady St. G. You may believe your letter
gave me sincere gratification to find that I am giving you all
satisfaction; it is the first wish of my heart to be a credit to my
friends and an honour to my country. It is not my wish to be expensive
in the least beyond what it is necessary for a gentleman to be, to pay
my debts, have a good coat on my back, and sufficient in my pocket
never to be made look foolish. Now that I keep house for myself I
shall, I fear, be a little more expensive, for reasons which you must
well know, and the first fit out is the worst and greatest, after that
all is regular, and I am sure you do not wish me to live on His
Majesty's own altogether. Bermuda is a terrible dear place.

'This vessel you may know something of by hearsay, Mr. Brett, the 1st
Lieut. of the _Wye_ had her up the Bay of Fundy.

'You may rely on it I will express your gratitude to Lord Dalhousie for
his attentions to me the very first time I have an opportunity. I need
not express to you how much I regret the loss of your departed friend
Mrs. Rattray, but her great sufferings in this world made it rather a
blessing than otherwise, especially to one I believe to have been so
truly good. Your advice of the prudence of keeping a ship's head off
shore when near the land at night is a point of my profession I have
long seen the absolute necessity of, especially on the coast of Nova
Scotia where the fogs are so intense, and the shore so dangerous. But
if ever there was in my humble opinion a lubberly series of accidents
from the time she got on shore to the time she was on her beam ends
alongside the wharf, it was on board H.M.S. _Faith_. The first thing
she did after getting on shore was to anchor in Halifax harbour with
her B.B. anchor without a buoy on it, slipped her cable and never
buoyed it, took in moorings, unshipped her rudder and let it go to the
bottom; slipped her anchors without a buoy on them, and to cap the
whole, let three of her guns fall overboard in getting them out
alongside the wharf. Sir D. Milne was furious, no wonder. I am sure I
can with pleasure meet you halfway in your wishes to establish a free
intercourse of sentiment between us, for I am perfectly sure, my
dearest Father, I can nowhere find a better friend and adviser.

'I am exceedingly happy to hear so favourable accounts of the
youngsters, and of Lady Clanricarde and her fair daughter.

'Bermuda is a dull place. I am perfectly at my ease and my own master,
and the only things which annoy me are the tremendous gales of wind
which blow here, and which I, of course, feel much in the _Jane._ The
admiral did think of sending me to the West Indies for a cruise, but I
believe that is dropped, as he now and then uses me to sail him about
for his health. I am a very good pilot for Bermuda, what with the
schooner and sloop _Jane_.

'Remember me most kindly to all; I shall answer Lady St. G. immediately.

'Adieu, my dear Father,

'Your affectionate son,

'C. P. YORKE.'

        *       *       *       *       *

'JANE,' HALIFAX: June 16, 1818.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'... I am still in the _Jane,_ and continue in every way to give
satisfaction. I brought her from Bermuda, parted company from the
squadron in a fog, and got in before the admiral; you may suppose I was
not a little pleased with my navigation. I have pretty often the honour
of presiding at my own table, as Sir David often takes trips with me
along shore, on fishing excursions, &c. &c., which makes it exceedingly
pleasant.

'... I have been somewhat uneasy about some drafts upon you--heavier
than usual--and I fear you will be led to think I am getting into an
extravagant turn, but it is not so, I assure you. In this vessel I am
obliged to find everything, and Bermuda charges are so extravagant that
nothing can equal them. At any time you please to call for my bills and
receipts they are at your service, but mark, I have no debts. I never
leave a port that I do not pay every shilling. Pray let me know what
you wish; if Sir D. Milne goes home, shall I return with him or not? I
have not quite a year more to serve; or shall I remain with Ld. --- who
I understand will supersede him?...

'C. P. YORKE'

        *       *       *       *       *

'JANE,' HALIFAX:

Aug. 19, 1818.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'It is with the greatest pleasure I received your most kind and
affectionate letter from St. James's St. I am delighted to see by your
letter you are recovering your spirits and that you have been elected
for Reigate, for I should have been very sorry for both you and my
uncle to give up.

'I am happy to inform you that I am in perfect health and enjoying all
the happiness that that invaluable blessing brings, and all the little
comforts which your bounty affords me, together with the happiness
which the perfect approbation of my superiors and respect of my
inferiors can alone give a man. I feel your great kindness and
generosity more than I can express; by the way you speak on money
matters I hope to God I never may offend you by an absurd extravagance.

'I am excessively delighted with all you say of my kind family,
particularly Lady St. G. who I am truly rejoiced to hear is so much
better. Say everything that is kind from me to her, and my apology for
not writing is that my right hand is very weak, as you may see from my
writing, from an inflammation I have had in it occasioned entirely by a
slight scratch on the knuckle of the fore finger; but it is now quite
well, but still weak.

'You are now enjoying the sweets of Sydney Lodge and its appendages,
the _Urania_ by no means the smallest of the inanimate sort, on board
of which ship I hope your 1st Lieut. that gallant officer Mr. H. Yorke
continues to give perfect satisfaction, and also the mate of the decks,
Mr. E. Y. mid. continues to improve his mind in those studies which a
young gentleman of his abilities should attend to. I am very happy to
hear Urania is grown up so fine a young woman; I most sincerely hope
that all the wishes of her fond and amiable mother may be perfectly
fulfilled. Pray give my love to her, if I may say so much now, if not,
my esteem and regard. Pray give my love to Lady C. and tell her that I
look forward with extreme pleasure to the time when I shall see her and
all the family. Among my remembrances do not forget Nurse Jordan.

'Now I will tell you the little or nothing I have been doing since I
arrived. I sailed on the [ ] of June on a cruise of pleasure having the
honour of the company of Sir D. Milne and Col. Duke. We sailed up the
Muscadobit, or Bank's Inlet, to fish, in which river the pilot ran us
ashore three times; each time obliged to shore up, being left almost
dry at low water, and on one night about eleven, all in bed, down she
came bumpus on her bilge; in consequence of our shores being made of
trees with the bark on, the bark and lashings went together. We
returned to Halifax where I refitted, and have not been out since, but
sail on Monday on a cruise to the eastward in company with _Leander_
and _Dee_, which will be very pleasant, as we touch at every harbour
where there is lots of sport. Oh, I quite forgot to thank my uncle and
yourself for the books that are coming....

'C. P. YORKE.'

        *       *       *       *       *

'JANE,' HALIFAX:

Octr. 19, 1818.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'... We had a very agreeable cruise of six weeks and on my return I am
now fitting for Bermuda, to which place we sail next Sunday in company
with _Leander_ and _Belette_. I have not time to give you an account of
our cruise, so I must defer it to my next; suffice it to say I have
enjoyed most perfect health and my little command now in high order and
beauty....

'C. P. YORKE'

        *       *       *       *       *

My father got his first promotion as acting lieutenant on the
_Grasshopper_ early in 1819 at the age of twenty, and was confirmed in
that rank by commission bearing date of August of the same year. In the
following October he joined the _Phaeton_ frigate, on which vessel he
served during the rest of his service on the North American station
until 1822, when he got a second step.

There is no doubt he learned his profession very thoroughly during
those years in the North Atlantic; he deplores the absence of the
excitement of war in one of his letters, but he had ample opportunity
of graduating in the details of seamanship, which, like other
professions, can be best learned at an early age, and by those whose
hearts are in their work and are diligent in their business. In those
qualities my father was certainly not lacking, though he managed to
procure a share of enjoyment, which is the privilege of youth and high
spirits. There are many anecdotes told of him at this time. On one
occasion he swam across the harbour at Halifax, a feat which, in the
circumstances, I have heard described with great admiration. On
another, a lady giving a ball and wishing to prolong the pleasures of
the evening, consulted Lieutenant Yorke as to the best way. She
suggested putting back the clocks, but he advanced a step or two on
that proposal, and while dancing was going on vigorously, stepped away
and hung all the ladies' cloaks on a large tree not far from the front
door. Imagine the confusion and merriment! I have often heard him tell
the story.

His next appointment, in 1822, was to the command of the brig
_Alacrity_, where I shall be able to follow him in some interesting and
important service on the Mediterranean station.




CHAPTER IV

GREEK PIRACY. 1823-1826


Charles Yorke, having attained the rank of commander in May of 1822,
was in August of the same year appointed to the command of the sloop
_Alacrity_, and in her sailed to the Mediterranean in the autumn,
anchoring at Gibraltar on November 29. He was dispatched to that
station to take up some important duties in the Greek Archipelago,
which arose out of the Greek War of Independence, then in full progress.

Until the year 1821, the Greeks, though often ready to rebel against
the Turkish government at the instigation of the agents of foreign
Powers like Russia or France, had shown little capacity for any really
national movement. But the gradual spread of liberal ideas which
followed the French Revolution; the bravery which distinguished the
resistance of certain sections of the Hellenic peoples, such as the
Suliotes, and Spakiots of Crete; the aspirations of Ali Pacha, who
conceived the idea of severing his connection with the Sultan and
assuming the independent government of Albania; the impunity with which
the Klephts or pirates pursued their calling in the Levant, all
combined to demonstrate the real weakness of the Turkish rule, and at
last brought about a national rising.

This is not the place to enter into any detailed account of the War of
Independence which followed, but its main events must be mentioned in
order to make clear the letters which my father wrote from the scenes
of the disturbance. The insurrection was begun in 1821 by Prince
Alexander Hypsilantes, who crossed the Pruth in March of that year, but
his efforts failed and he fled to Austria three months later; and other
movements in the northern provinces had a similar fate. But the rising
in the Peloponnesus under Germanos, the Archbishop of Patros, was more
successful; his forces drove the Turks before them, and the
independence of the country was proclaimed in January of 1823. The
Greeks, however, displayed little power of combination, and their
partial success was followed by internal dissensions which greatly
weakened their cause. Mavrocordato was elected president, but the
aspirants for honours and leadership were numberless, the various
factions were continually quarrelling with each other, and there was at
length open civil war inspired by Colcotronis.

Meanwhile the aspirations of Greece had excited great sympathy
throughout Europe; a Greek Committee was formed in London; the
Philhellenes became very powerful in most countries on the continent,
as well as in America, and many volunteers, of whom Lord Byron was a
notable example, enlisted in the cause of Greek liberty.

The Greek fleet, led by Miaoulis from 1823 onward, was exceedingly
active; the Greek seamen inspired the Turks with great terror, and did
immense damage to their fleets. The Turks retaliated by taking
vengeance on the unprotected islands of the archipelago, and committed
unspeakable atrocities on the inhabitants of Chios in 1822, and two
years later upon those of Kasos and Psara. In 1824 the Sultan invoked
the aid of Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt, whose stepson, Ibrahim, landed
in the Peloponnesus and with his Arab troops carried all before him,
when the Greeks lost most of what they had acquired. The war, however,
was continued for many years; Lord Cochrane became admiral of the Greek
fleet and Sir Robert Church took command of the land forces. The action
of Navarino, which occurred in 1827 almost by accident, had a great
effect upon the fortunes of the struggle. The fleets of England,
France, and Russia were cruising about the coasts of the Peloponnesus
to prevent the ravages of the Turkish fleet on the islands and
mainland, and selected a winter anchorage at Navarino, where the
Turkish and Egyptian fleets lay. The Turks thinking they were menaced
opened fire upon the combined fleets, and were annihilated in the
engagement which followed. In the following year the Greeks had the aid
of the French, who cleared the Morea of Turkish troops, and by the end
of the year Greece was practically independent. Some anarchy followed
the assassination of the President Capodostrias in 1831, but at length
Otho of Bavaria was crowned king, and in 1832 a convention was signed
by which the protecting Powers of Europe recognised the new kingdom and
assigned its limits; and Greece attained an independence which she has
since maintained.

Among the results of this long period of anarchy and insurrection was
an outbreak of piracy among both Greeks and Turks. Individual
chieftains called their followers together, established their
head-quarters in out-of-the-way creeks, and preyed upon the commerce of
the Levant without any interference from their Government. As in the
case of the Barbary Powers, the depredations of these pirates became at
length so intolerable that the Governments of Europe were obliged to
interfere for the protection of their subjects.

Commander Yorke's part as representing his country in the mission he
undertook, to put down this state of things, appears fully in the
letters written to his father at intervals, which follow, and we there
see the important position he had to fill. He was, as he says, in those
eastern waters in the double capacity of warrior and diplomatist, or in
other words to command a neutral armed vessel, act impartially between
Greek and Turk, and protect trade from the piracies of both nations.
This was no easy task, and it appears that though his sympathies were
with the Greek cause, of the two he preferred the Turk as by far the
best to deal with.

It will be seen that he had to go round visiting the chief islands,
Corfu, Cephalonia and Zante, and ascertain from the governors if they
had any grievances to be remedied. He had no positive orders for his
guidance, but only 'act as you think most fit.' Often he found himself
in difficulties without even an interpreter, and so obliged to make
himself understood, if he could, in French. His short but graphic
description of Lord Byron at Missolonghi and his rencontre with Colonel
Leicester Stanhope will interest many readers.

From a journal kept by Commander Yorke during this service, which he
heads 'A few Miscellaneous Remarks. H.M. Sloop _Alacrity_,' beginning
in 1823, and now with the Hardwicke MSS. at the British Museum, I find
a few facts which supplement those of the letters. He records receiving
much civility from Lord Chatham at Gibraltar, and sailed from that port
on December 2 in company with the _Sybella_ for Malta, a passage which
occupied about fourteen days. After ten days at Malta refitting, he was
ordered to proceed to the Ionian station. He describes with great
admiration the beauty of the scene at sunrise on New Year's Day of 1824
as the _Alacrity_ made the coast of Epirus, the snow-covered mountains
of Albania contrasting with the green and fertile shore of Corfu with
its olive gardens reaching down to the water's edge. At Corfu he dined
with commissioners, generals, and at messes; and records meeting Lord
Byron's 'Maid of Athens,' 'who is now rather _passée_, but certainly
has remains of a fine face and a bad figure; large feet, of course,
that all the Greeks have,' he writes. There are accounts of other
diversions, including a week's shooting with a Mr. P. Steven and the
officers of the 90th Regiment, which he describes as 'a marvellous
slaughter of woodcocks,' after which he sailed to Missolonghi, where he
arrived on January 23. The letters describe his further experiences.

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M.S. 'Alacrity,' Gibraltar:

Nov. 29, 1823.

'My dearest Father,

'I this morning at six o'clock anchored under the cloud-cap't top of
this extraordinary rock, and found that _Alacrity_ had made a better
passage by some hours than either _Ganges_ or _Sybella_ who are all
here. I paid my devoirs to Lord Chatham who asked after you, also your
old Teetotum G--- who I found in the very act of entertaining the
ladies of Gib with breakfast, music and a trip to Algeciras in the
_Tribune's_ boats to spend the day. He seems in great force and sorry
to leave this part of the world, indeed, they say that love has much to
do in the case. I afterwards paid my devoirs to the American Commodore,
Jones, who is here in the _Constitution_, and went over his ship; I
felt proud to see the ship that had captured our frigate--she is
enormous. Her cable and rigging in inches the same as the _Ganges_ by
level measurement, for they have taken the pains to examine, but she is
now in what I should call a state of nature as bad as I could wish to
see a Yankee in, with 450 men on board who look as if they were tired
of their work, and the officers say so.

'I have met a very intelligent man just left Cadiz, and have seen and
conversed with some of the Spanish Constitutionalists. Spain is in a
dreadful state; anarchy, confusion, highway robbery and assassination
daily take place. The game is up, if France has got and will keep
military possession of Cadiz. The French are disgusted with the whole
thing--the country and the people.... Officers and nobles are on the
highway.

'I shall sail for Malta on Monday. I am engaged in taking big guns up.
_Alacrity_ is the most comfortable vessel I have ever been in.

'Adieu. Love to all.

'Your affectionate and dutiful son,

'C. YORKE.

'I sailed without my Government chronometers, they were so bad I would
not take them, but the one C--- has on board is capital and we made the
rock to a mile.'

        *       *       *       *       *

GIBRALTAR:

March 9, 1824.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'It is a long while since I have had an opportunity of putting pen to
paper to address you, not having been in any Christian Port for some
time, nor have I received a single line from any one since I left you.

'I am just arrived at this port having brought Convoy from Malta, and
now I am here I think I had better begin at the other end of my story,
and so come down to the present time, instead of going back; relating
all the little matters just as they are and how H.M. sloop and her crew
have been employ'd since I last address'd you from the same place.

'I sailed from Gibraltar to Malta in company with my friend Capt.
Pechel, and after remaining at that Island for ten days to put a little
to rights I proceeded to the Ionian Islands and there, as I believe I
before told you, to act in the capacity of warrior and diplomatist, or
in other words, as an arm'd neutral vessel between the Turks and
Greeks, to protect our trade from the piracies of both Nations, I
assure you no very easy task, but certainly of the two the Turk is the
best by far to deal with. I visited the Islands of Corfu, Cefalonia and
Zante, inquiring of the Governors and if they had any abuses to be
remedied, and I soon had over ten Petitions from Merchants whose boats
had been plundered and pillaged by both parties.

'Now we are on this station placed in rather awkward circumstances,
having no positive orders how to act in cases of refusal and obstinacy
on the part of these People, but only, _to act as you think most fit_;
how the Government would bear us out in any act of violence such as
taking by force that which they will not give up I know not; even with
justice on your side, I question much whether they would support you.

'I ask'd and consulted Sir T. Maitland on the mode I should adopt, but
he seem'd to advise that where they had captured a vessel, or property,
and refused to give it up on a fair review of the case, to take "vi et
armis" an equivalent or the vessel that committed the act. Thus armed
with his opinion it was not long before an opportunity offered, and
one, take it all in all, which was to me most interesting. A vessel of
the Greek fleet had captured an Ionian vessel coming from Patras to
Zante with a cargo "_as the Petition stated_" worth 400 Dollars, and
having plundered her and ill used the crew, permitted the vessel
herself to depart. This petition is put into my hands by Col. Sir F.
Steven the resident of Zante, for here a Capt. of a man of war is a
species of Penang Lawyer, and whenever a petition comes to any of these
gentlemen they always say "Oh! give it the Capt. of the Brig or
Frigate, &c. he will soon settle it, and do it by _Club Law_." However
away I went to Missolonghi, and anchored off the Town on the 23rd of
Jany. observing ten sail of Turkish men of war to leeward, went on
shore, and with much difficulty we poked our way through the narrow
channels of this extraordinary place, there being a low flat of sand
turning out from the land about seven miles; it seems to be the only
defence the town has. Had an interview with Mavrocordato who received
me of course, with civility, on Divan, supposing that I came to do him
no good, having with me two or three officers and an arm'd boats crew.
When I landed I met with a face that put me in mind of Hyde Park,
Balls, Parties, Almacks, &c. This was no one more or less than Col.
Leicester Stanhope come out with Jeremy Bentham under his arm to give
the Greeks a constitution.

'Powerful in strength must he be who can manage this; long in pocket,
with a head filled up with every talent that man is capable of
possessing and a pair of loaded pistols in his belt, with no more words
than are absolutely necessary to warn people, if they do not do this,
that they will have a chance of being sent to sleep with their Fathers.

'St. James's Street and English notions must be abolish'd, so must all
Romance of Liberty and the children of the antient Greeks struggling to
shake off the yoke of the bloody Turk; Lord Byron knows all this, and
is in fact the only man that has ever come out to them who understands
the people. He was at Missolonghi, living in every way like a great
Chief; and in fact he is so, arm'd to the teeth with 500 Suliotes, the
bravest and best troops the Greeks have, and twenty German Veterans,
besides a certain Count Gamba, a beautiful Albanian Page, an Italian
Chasseur, and an old Scotch butler, making in all about 530 well arm'd
men, besides the Suliotes from all parts of Greece flocking to him
daily, he could if he liked set up a Govt. in Missolonghi, but as he
hates governments, and likes this sort of life where his nod and beck
are a law, he will have nothing to do with their legislation altho'
they come and offer to place him at the head of the Government
victorious. He however has pay'd their fleet for them, who immediately
landed their Admiral and sailed away the Lord knows where. 'The first
interview I had with this Prince Mavrocordato I could do nothing, as I
plainly saw they were detaining me while they made out a case and that
Stanhope's wits were put in requisition. In addition to which I had no
interpreter, and so I was obliged to speak French, the only other
language Mavrocordato understood besides Greek. So I broke up the
interview by saying it was late and that I should wait on him again
to-morrow. This however I did not effect, as it blew a gale on the
following day, but the next I again saw him, and having previously put
a few questions to the purpose on paper I defeated his quibbles, and
made him refund in hard dollars the value of the cargo, threatening
that if he did not I should burn, sink and destroy immediately. I gave
him four hours to consider of it, and stay'd with Ld. Byron until the
time elapsed, much amused by all his sayings and anecdotes, firing
pistols at a mark, eating, &c. &c.

'The time pass'd and the money came; thus ended my diplomatic Mission
at Missolonghi. I have just seen some English papers, they talk of
Missolonghi having sixty pieces of Cannon and a large garrison.

'I can only say from personal knowledge that if it has sixty pieces of
Cannon they are all on the wrong side, or where the Dutchman had his
anchor. The garrison consisted of about 1000 arm'd men 500 of whom were
Lord Byron's Suliotes. The only defence towards the sea is what
bountiful Nature has given it, and a small fort on an island with two
guns, one dismounted, much more like a pig stye than a fort. In short
there seem'd to me to be nothing to prevent the Turkish Admiral from
landing men and destroying every soul in the place, but their style of
warfare is very harmless (except now and then, when they catch some
poor devil alone, then they murder him). The Greeks talked much of a
fine ship, and Ld. Byron recommended Mavrocordato to take boat with him
in the evening and "smoke a cigar against the Turkish fleet" which
however he declined. I was obliged soon to return to Zante for water,
intending to go up to Lepanto and be present at the storming of that
place by the Greeks. Ld. Byron and myself had agreed, he was to lead
the attack and indeed had undertaken the Enterprise entirely, and as he
jocosely observed to me a very fit man he was as he could not run if he
wished, alluding to his club foot; but it was otherwise ordained, for
to my great grief news one evening was suddenly brought me as I was
dining at the Mess of the 90th Regt. of the loss of H.M. sloop
_Columbine_ at Sapienza, my friend Abbot's ship. I lost no time in
being at sea and was with him on Saturday the 31st of Jany. having put
to sea from Zante with a gale from the N.W. and had much ado to keep
clear of the Coast of the Morea. On my arrival in Porto Longue, I found
my friend and his crew all well having only lost two people; the brig's
tops just above water; she was lost by parting her S.B. cable, and had
not room to bring up; she soon bilged on the rocks, and the people had
much ado to save themselves; little or no property was saved, they had
tents on shore and miserable enough, as the rain was almost constant.
The Pasha of Modon é Aron supplied them with provisions and was most
attentive to them. Abbot and myself pay'd our respects to the old boy,
he regaled us with Pipes and Coffee: and acknowledgement was made him
for his attentions to the shipwreck'd crew by a salute of twenty guns
from H.M. sloop, four of my cut glass tumblers as sherbet glasses, and
1 lb. of Mr. Fribourg's and Palets' best snuff. I think you will laugh
at our presents to him, but I assure you it was thought much of, and
highly valued. I think the Turks, tho' they speak seldom, yet when they
do are more profuse in their compliments and fine speeches and
questions than any people I have ever seen.

'I am obliged to close my discourse as I am ordered to take another
convoy, and a ship is this moment weighing for England.

'So with affte. Love to Lady C.: and all haste,

'Believe me most sincerely,

'Your affte. Son,

'C. YORKE.'

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M.S. 'ALACRITY,' MALTA:

May 24, 1824.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'I am once more in this part after divers peregrinations and events
which in due time I shall narrate. But first of all I am in despair at
hearing from no single soul in the land of Roast Beef. One solitary
letter from yourself is all I have received since I sailed from
England. You last heard from me from Gibraltar where I was waiting to
take Convoy to Cape St. Vincent having brought four sail to that place.
Made short work of the Cape St. Vincent trip having a gale of wind
through the Gut of Gib. And not able to show a stitch of canvas, so
next day I was able to haul my wind again having made the Cape. The
letter which I hope you received was sent by one of the ships. On my
return to Gib. I again three days afterwards took convoy to Malta where
I did not remain more than six hours being called on to perform a
service of some delicacy; different are the opinions of the way in
which I acquitted myself but I feel conscious of having strictly done
my duty, and if I have done wrong, all that I have to say is that the
laws of nations were not the groundwork or capital of my education, but
it has made me take books up a little in that way. The fact was a
vessel under English colours received on board at Rhodes 250 Algerians
to take passage to their native city (among whom was the brother-in-law
of the Dey) with all their money and effects; on this passage they hear
of the war between their country and our own, the master of the vessel
wishes to bear up for Malta but the Turks will not allow it, and he is
obliged to use the stratagem of cutting his main topmast rigging and so
let the mast go overboard for his excuse. He cannot reach Malta, but he
gets into Messina, the Consul for our Government there was applied to
in this matter by the Sicilian Authorities, & as by the salutary laws
of that country no barbarians can perform quarantine in any of their
ports, it became their desire to get her away. The master of the
_Crown_ refuses to go, stating that his life was in absolute danger
from the people. I arrived in Malta from Gib with Convoy and in six
hours after I sailed for Messina with orders and that caused his
untimely end.

'Give my kindest love to Lady Clanricarde and if she wants Turkey
carpets, shawls, &c. &c. now is the time. Affectionate love to all. I
wish Hy. was with me, I think if he would read as he travelled he would
make good use of his time.

'Your affectionate son,

'C.Y.'

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M.S. 'TRIBUNE,'

In the Channel off Corfu, on the coast of Epirus:

July 16, 1824.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'I am here with G--- under sail and about to eat the gouty old
Commodore's dinner, _Alacrity_ in company. We start together for Zante,
Cephalonia, Cerigo, &c. though I leave him to take command in the
Archipelago.

'He is, as you well know, all that a kind and affectionate friend can
be. I wrote you a few days ago a very short letter and one that I know
you will abuse much when you receive it, but I promise a long one when
I am in for the Station and business that will naturally occur
therefrom. I have already one affair in hand with a Greek corvette for
plunder which will be acted on by me in a burning manner, for these
fellows require it.

'All the Algerian business is settled and the Admiral has expressed
himself well pleased with my conduct. Hamilton of the _Cambria_
promised me to see you and acquaint you with all particulars of the
affair.

'Love to all.

'Your affectionate son,

'C. Y.'

        *       *       *       *       *

H.M. SLOOP 'ALACRITY,' SMYRNA:

Sept. 17, 1824.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'I received your kind letter of the 1st of May a few days ago at
Spezzia on the Gulf of Napoli di Romania (Nauplia) by H.M.S. _Martin_
which arrived from Malta. Capt. Eden commands our little squad (for
squadron I will not call it as there are only 46 guns among three of
us) and being my senior officer has of course taken possession of the
Green Bag, & my command in these seas has expired after having held it
nine weeks. 'I believe before I go further it will be wise of me to
explain to you what this "Green Bag," as I call it, is, and when you
hear I rather think you will be a little amused.

'From the present state of Greece and the islands in the Archipelago
some Greek, some Turk, some both, and some neither, much piracy and
murder goes on against all the flags of Europe; and of course we fall
in for our share, and hardly a week passes but some appeal to humanity
or justice is brought to the Senior Officer, or any cruizing ship in
the Archipelago, indeed of late owing to the small force up this
country these papers have so accumulated that a large bag became
necessary to hold them, and when I gave up my command to Eden of the
_Martin_, up the side after me came the "awful Green Bag." The Senior
Officer here is in himself an Admiralty Court for all the Archipelago,
and a most difficult and delicate service it is, for _"truth is never
to be got at"_ and the Ionian who is always the person aggrieved is as
bad as the Greek. I foresee myself getting into a discussion, but I
must say a little of my opinions to you, faulty as they most likely
are, yet such has been the impression made on my mind by what I have
seen and heard; but I shall not break out here as I wish to give you an
outline of what I have been about since I left Malta.

'I had a passage of five weeks to Smyrna touching at Corfu and Milo and
delivering at the former 120,000 Dollars for the Government, found our
friend Guion there as much the ladies man as ever. I gave you a line
from _Tribune_ myself, I parted from her two days afterwards. After
remaining a few days at Smyrna I sailed on a cruizer leaving the _Rose_
there for the protection of the Trade. But before I weigh and make sail
I shall say something of John Turk, who has always stood rather well
with me until you take him into the field, and there he is bloody,
cruel, ferocious and desperate but _not brave_. In the drawing room he
is polish'd, well bred, and from the pomp and magnificence of style in
which he lives he cannot fail at first to impose on the stranger a good
opinion of at least his gentlemanly manners, and courtlike behaviour.
On my arrival at Smyrna I did not fail as soon as I was able to gain an
interview with Hussan Pacha, the Governor. This man gain'd his
Government by some merit of his own; marching thro' Smyrna on his way
to take possession of his Pachalick with his troops, he was called on
by the Authorities and Consuls of foreign powers to exercise his
military authority in restoring order to the town which was at this
time (1821) in a state of anarchy, massacre and cruelty, against the
Greeks; he undertook the task and succeeded in restoring order and
stopping the slaughter in twenty-four hours, after which service, in
consequence of a representation from the Consuls, the Porte confirm'd
him to the Government.

'My party on the visit consisted of Capt. Dundas, Mr. Whitehead (the
Admiral's son who has been with me from Malta) Lt. Trescott and Mr.
Forester Wyson, with the Dragoman; we were received with all due
respect and pomp and after many compliments, pipes, coffee, sherbet,
&c. &c. we took our leave. The conversation that took place is not
worth relating, as it was of that nature which such a visit might be
supposed to produce.

'I afterwards went a round of visits to the Turkish nobles and
principal officers of the Town, Delibash Beys, Beys, Agas, &c. &c.
Smyrna is a large town, and like all other Turkish towns has narrow
streets, low dirty houses, and long Bazaars; the people from their
costume and arms forming the most amusing and picturesque objects of
the whole. Here and there you saw strong symptoms of firing in the
dominions of the Porte, doors full of shot-holes, and now and then a
random ball whizzing over your head. Above the town on an eminence is a
very picturesque old castle built by the Genoese, now in ruins and
nothing more than a very beautiful object, and one of the finest
roadsteads in the Mediterranean. The country at the back of Smyrna is
rich and beautifully wooded.

'I rode out one evening with Capt. Dundas to the Consul's, the roads
infamous and my horse stumbling exceedingly I did not quite enjoy the
beauties of Asia, and the romance of the ride thro' the burying-place
of the Turk, studded with the Turban [Footnote: The Turks at the top of
the tombstone have the turban of their rank] or stone and Cypress, as
much as I ought.

'On the 4th of July, I sailed from Voorla, a watering place on the
south side of the Gulf of Smyrna, for Psara and arrived there on the
5th. The Turks having attacked the place on the 3rd, which they carried
in about twelve hours, excepting a strong work on the west end of the
Island which did not fall till the following day. I thought at first
that this had been a decided and bloody blow struck at the root of the
Greek revolution, but the Turk has gone to sleep since, or nearly. I
have myself little doubt that the French had much to do with the
capture of this island, for I learnt from many that a Frigate had been
at Psara on the 22nd of June, and for four successive days had sounded
round and round the Island and then sailed for Mytilene where the Capt.
Pacha was. Moreover when I was on board the Pacha's ship he show'd me a
Chart or plan of the Island, which the moment I saw it, I exclaimed
"This is done by a Frank," and he said, yes that it had been done for
him. The attack was made on the north side, the only place in this
Island that Turkish troops could land on with safety, and even here the
pass was so narrow up the mountain that only one man could pass at a
time. To shew the difficulty of gaining ground, and how easily this
place might have been defended, one Greek who was near the spot asleep
on hearing a noise jumped up, and with his single arm killed seven
Turks, one after the other as they came up; and then fled.

'As soon as I anchored on the roadstead, I sent to say I wished to pay
my respects to the Captain Pacha, who returned a very civil answer, and
I went _en grande tenue_, to see this mighty conqueror and Royal
Prince. Our interview was truly amusing. I began with saying that
having anchored in the road, and finding his fleet there (which
consisted of one 80 gun ship, seven frigates and about eighty
Corvettes, Brigs and Transports) I had come to pay my respects to him
and to congratulate him on his successes over his enemies; he whimpered
and simpered, like an old woman, thank'd me, but pretended to be
excessively sorry for the loss of life on the part of the Psariotes,
_he_ having taken very good care that not a _man_ on the Island should
have his head left on his shoulders; but the women would not give him a
chance, they did that which would do honor to the Antient Hist: of
Greece! throwing their children from the precipices into the sea, and
then following themselves. The Pacha told me he had not taken a single
woman, and only a few children, that some of the boats pick'd up
floating. We conversed on different topics, but more particularly on
the politics of Turkey and Greece. I ask'd him if he meant to strike
the iron while it was hot, and get on to Hydra, and strike a blow
there, telling him at the same time that I was going to the Naval
Islands on business and should tell all I had seen. He replied, "No, I
love the Hydriotes." The crafty old dog loves them like a cannibal
"well enough to eat them." After having sat above an hour (for I was
determined to see all I could) he was called out by the Admiral who
whispered in his ear; out he went, I was curious, and walked to the
front part of the cabin opening a little of the Door; I saw him on the
deck surrounded with Turkish soldiers who were each producing their
day's work, in the process of extermination. Each head got the
possessor a few Liqueurs. After he came into the cabin again, I tax'd
him with what he had been at. He smiled and ask'd me should I like to
see it. I told him I had read of these things among Eastern nations,
but was not quite sure before that it was true, upon which he not
knowing that I had seen a great deal, ordered the head of a Greek
Priest just taken off, and still reeking with gore, to be brought in to
me, which was accordingly done. After this I took my leave of the Old
Turk, who pressed my hand cordially; I ask'd his permission to go on
shore, but he would not give it, saying that it was a horrid sight and
that most likely I should be shot myself. The Turks here killed about
8000 Greeks and lost themselves by their own account about 3000, but
the fact is they cannot tell, for they never know the number of people
they have on board.

'Ismail Pacha had one of his Captains wounded, and he ask'd me to allow
my surgeon to visit him, which I did. This Ismail Pacha is an Albanian
and served under the old lion Ali for a long while and was by him
raised to a Pachalick which was confirm'd to him by the Porte after the
death of Ali; he commanded the 12,000 men that landed at Psara. Another
desperate act of heroism took place in the strong fort situated on an
eminence at the West End of the Island, it held out till the last and
was not destroy'd until everything was lost. The Turks had made a
forlorn hope to storm it, the Greeks allowed them easy access, then
fired the magazine. Thus perish'd 1000 Greek men, women and children
and 400 Turks. I sailed in the evening after saluting the Pacha with
twenty guns, and saw them fire the Town, the Plunder being finish'd.

'From Psara to Hydra where I had a grievance to try to redress, but
from its being a year old, I had much fear that with my small force I
should not be able to effect that which a larger ship would have
immediately succeeded in, with nothing more than threats. I intended to
try _those_ first and ultimately to do more and take my chance of what
the Govt. might think.

'But the _Martin's_ arrival has taken the "Green Bag" away from me. I
will now relate that on my arrival off Hydra, I found Miaoulis the
Greek Admiral on his way to assist Psara. I hailed his vessel and
invited him on board, he came and I made him acquainted with the
capture and massacre at the place, (since I left Psara I found that
about twenty-five sail of vessels had escaped, with some women and
children). He seem'd much distressed, but said he would push on and see
what was to be done. I afterwards heard that he kept aloof until the
Captain Pacha quitted, he then attack'd the gun boats in which about
2000 [Footnote: The garrison left at Psara] Turks were attempting to
escape and destroyed nearly the whole of them. Now the Island is
desolate and _neutral_ having neither Greek nor Turk on it; but I hear
that the Captain Pacha is going to adopt the miserable and contemptible
policy of destroying its harbour, and then taking no more regard of the
Island. I must say the want of unanimity in the Greek against the
common enemy is here too perceptible. The Hydriotes well knew that
Psara was soon to be attack'd and it was in their power to have saved
it, but its having been in former days a rival island in commerce, and
was now a rival island in achievements in war, they delay'd sending
their ships until it was too late. There were also traitors among their
own people, no doubt of it!

'My business at Hydra was a case of piracy, against a British merchant
of Alexandria, and all the property was stolen and the vessel burnt,
&c. &c. I called off the island and as _they_ wish'd to refer back to
the affair before they would give an answer, I passed on to Napoli di
Romania (Nauplia) where the Greeks have set up an attempt at a
government, for a government I cannot call it that has neither laws or
courts, not even a national assembly is yet instituted; but anarchy
seems to reign among them, and until something like a strict union
among the chiefs of this people takes place I fear their cause is not
likely to be progressive, or their means effective.

'The people who are now at the head of what they style the Provisional
Government of Greece are men who under the Turks were merchants, or
masters of merchant ships. The Chief or Primate of this Government
(Condenotti by name) is an Hydriote (his Brother is now Primate of
Hydra) who during his life has amassed a fortune of Five million of
dollars, having had for twenty-three years the Trade, I may say, of the
whole of the northern part of the Archipelago; himself a ship owner,
having no less than eighteen or twenty fine Brigs and ships from 180 to
300 tons burthen. This man has never given a Para to the cause of his
country; what can you expect with such a beginning? The Govt. have in
their pay about 10,000 men, ragamuffins of all sorts. This is that part
of the population of Greece that our Committee in London send money to.

'Are the Greek Committee such fools as to suppose that they are
honourably dealt with, and that this money is all put to the uses they
would wish to see it put to, or that the money sent from England will
ever do any good to the Greek cause, unless they appoint proper
Commissioners to receive it, and to dole it out, in such a way as to be
of service to those who merit it? Is the Provisional Govt. of Greece
such a Committee? Or are they who have been tricking and trafficking to
make money all their lives fit people to be entrusted with such a
Commission? _There is not one Patriot among them!_ And they are
accountable to no one by law, for there are no laws in the land.

'Money has arrived lately from the Greek Committee and it was put into
the hands of the Provisional Govt. What they have done with the _whole_
of it I do not know; some they have given to Odysseus. When he heard
that money was coming from England to Napoli he left his stronghold in
Parnassus and came down with the small retinue of 300 men to demand of
the Govt. some remuneration for his services, he had expelled the Turks
from Livadia, and he now required that they would pay 5000 men for him.
This Odysseus is the only man whom I should call a Patriot among them.
So different in style is the free Mountain Chief from the Lowland long
enslaved Greek, that you would hardly believe them to belong to the
same nation. Odysseus ever called and thought himself free, and his
family before him never own'd the dominion of the Turk, living in
inaccessible holds no Turkish turbaned head was ever near them. This
man tho' wild and untaught is patriotic, brave, devoid of superstition,
and last and most rare among the Greeks, has an utter contempt for
money. He has talents for war or peace, and the most moderate in his
principles of any of them. If there is a man in Greece who is to be
depended on _he_ is the man. He maintains that one of the greatest
steps towards the well-being of Greece is the putting down the
ascendancy of the Priests, with that you will put down intolerant
avarice and much crime. At first the Govt. would not give much ear to
his demands, but he goes to them in person, stripped of his arms,
telling them he is no longer a soldier, that he would turn barber for
he could shave; he said he would get an honest livelihood as a poor man
but not pilfer &c. _as some of his friends did_ who had neither
patriotism or virtue, and who thought of nothing but aggrandizing and
enriching themselves. Such was his opinion of this Govt., and he
assured me himself that not one of their heads should be on their
shoulders in ten days if they did not distribute this money in such a
way as to ensure something like a successful campaign against the
Turks. They have however given what I suppose they could not keep from
him and what he _had before_; the command in _Livadia_, and pay 5000
men for him.

'I had some very amusing excursions with this Chief and we became great
friends, he is in person one of the handsomest and finest men I ever
saw, and had Maria seen him manage his horse she would never have
forgotten it. I could give very interesting accounts of our picnics and
rides, when his Albanians roasted the sheep whole stuffed with almonds
and raisins, &c. &c. but it will take more time than I can spare, and I
fear by this time you will be nearly tired, but you must bear with me
up to the date I write from before I give up. The other Chiefs of Note,
Mavrocordato and Colcotronis, are men of perfectly different characters
but both by their different means attempting to aggrandize themselves.
The former's weapons are his talents and his tongue, the latter's his
courage and his sword. Colcotronis rebelled and try'd to overthrow the
provisional Government, he blockaded Napoli and was for some weeks
fighting with the Govt. Corps in the Plains of Argos, but Odysseus
appearing on the mountain, neither knowing which side he would take,
they suspended their arms and a reconciliation was brought about. I
think of late there has been a little more apparent conduct in the
Chiefs than before. I see in our papers great puffs about the fighting
in Greece. The warfare, in fact, is desultory and next to ridiculous
excepting in the passes of the Mountains, and when Turkish cavalry are
caught there the Greeks always kill them all. As yet the campaign is
rather against the Greek by the loss of Psara, their chief Naval
Island, which from its situation much annoy'd the Turk.

'But to the Greek Committee! Great as the respect is which I feel for a
set of men who have wished to give assistance to that cause so dear to
every Englishman, yet I regret much the material and money that has
been wasted and frittered away to no purpose. Had the Greek Committee
fully understood the business they were about to take in hand they
would not have sent out the quantities of valuable yet useless stores
which are now I believe in the possession of the people of Missolonghi.
If instead of sending out surveying instruments, sextants, telescopes
and numberless instruments used by our artillery and engineers, they
had caused to be manufactured musquets, yataghans and pistols in the
fashion of the country together with powder and ball, and had taken
care that a proper commission was there ready to receive it and take
care that they were properly distributed, I would have given them some
credit; but as yet I think what they have sent has created bad blood
among the people and rivalry among the Chiefs who should possess the
whole. When Odysseus heard that supplies of stores had arrived from
England at Missolonghi he sent 300 men and a captain to get some, he
demanded a share and it was refused; he then forcibly took away four
field guns and forty barrels of powder on mules and carried them safe
to Parnassus. The man who did this was Mr. Trelawney from whom I had
the circumstance. Of the money the Committee have just sent out, a
little comes back to us, for the Greeks always allege they cannot pay
for the piracies committed on our Flag until the money arrives from
England! This is too great a farce! I have actually been once to Napoli
for money, which has been owing for this year pass'd and which they
never would pay until they were able to pay it in English sovereigns.

'Greece has the name of fighting but with the present sort of warfare
that goes on, unless some interference is made or the one party or the
other gets weary, it may continue without progression towards the grand
end, peace, until doomsday.

'After leaving Napoli I went to Hydra where I had some piratical
business to settle. On pulling into the port in my boat I saw a vessel
there under British colors that informed me they had that morning been
captured by an Hydriote corsair, I desired that she should be instantly
given up to me which they refused doing; I that evening cut her out
with the _Alacrity's_ Boats; I put half my crew and all my marines into
the three boats going myself in my gig, making Trescott in the brig
stand slap into the port with her guns loaded with round shot and
grape. The shores of the harbour (which is not more than two cables
lengthward) lined with about 12,000 men, her guns would have made
dreadful havoc. In three minutes from the time we got on board, the
Greeks had jumped overboard and her cables were cut, and out she came
without the loss of a single man. They have protested against me to the
Govt. at Napoli but _it's all right_, and I did what was perfectly
proper in all points. These rascals must not be allowed to capture
British vessels on any pretence whatever; if they are allowed to do so,
even on pretences of assisting their enemies, no vessel but a man of
war will be able to sail in these seas.

'From Hydra hearing that Samos was about to be attacked by the Turks I
sailed thither, and on the first day of their attack (in which they
were repulsed) I took off 106 women and children with their property,
_being British subjects_, and carried them to Smyrna. From there on my
way to Napoli I fell in with the _Martin_ and returned to Smyrna, where
I found _Euryalus_. He went to sea and has left me Gardo here. Finding
that for a time my sea trips were suspended I set off for Magnesia and
much delighted I have been with my trip, suffice it to say that nothing
can be kinder than the great Turks are to me, and in a few days I
return to Magnesia to hunt with Ali Bey the Governor of that Town. But
I must reserve a description of these trips until another letter, as I
am sure you will be heartily tired by the time you have got through my
_griffonage_.

'I have enjoy'd all this summer most excellent health, and the climate
has completely left off its baneful influence upon me, thank God.

'Tell Lady C. I have collected for her a quantity of antient Greek,
Roman and Egyptian pottery, the greater part of which is most
exceedingly valuable, and some that I dug myself at Samos.

'I have also collected a quantity of very fine Coins (Greek) which _if_
I get a safe conveyance, I shall send Uncle Charles. Tell him so! This
letter I know he will see, so if he will, take it as written as much to
himself as you and indeed all the family, To whom individually &
collectively give my afftn. love.

'Don't show my letters to any but the family Pray!

'You will be amused to hear I wear the Turkish dress on these
excursions.

'Your most afftn. Son

'C. YORKE.

'PS.--Affectionate Love to U. K. and Agneta an affectionate Embrace to
H. Y., E. Y. and G. Y.'

        *       *       *       *       *

ALEXANDRIA:

Dec. 27, 1825.

'MY DEAREST FATHER,

'Although I cannot write as long a letter as I intended and wish, for
lack of time, yet, as there are several vessels in this harbour on the
point of sailing for England, I must, after so long an interval, put
pen to paper in your behalf.

'By the finish of my last letter to you which I trust was prolix enough
I was at Smyrna, and had informed you of my visiting in this country
its nobles and princes: and I think mentioned something of a visit I
paid to Ali Bey, the Governor of Idun a country to the Nd. of Smyrna,
whose capital is Magnesia, where the residence of the Governor is. I
twice visited this Prince, and, so much was he pleased the first time,
that he invited me to come a second when there was to be a hunt of
birds and beasts. On the 13th of September, Forrester the Surgeon,
Weatley my 2nd Lieutenant, and myself with a young Armenian as an
interpreter and a Janissary for a "Garde du corps," started "au point
du jour" from Smyrna, and arrived in the afternoon at Magnesia, one of
the prettiest Turkish towns I have seen. Our journey slow, over bad
roads, did not afford any circumstances much worth relating. We found
our new acquaintances Turk and Christian, both in their way agreeable;
the Armenian, young, sensible, and an extraordinary linguist, speaking
nine languages though not twenty years of age. The Old Turk, funny, fat
and good-natured. The latter part of our journey lay thro' a pass in
the mountains from the summit of which the Valley of Magnesia suddenly
burst on our view, with the town on the eastern side at the foot of a
perpendicular rocky mountain very like the rock of Gibraltar, but if
anything higher, more craggy, and bold: the valley that lay before us,
bounded on the W. by a ridge of regular round topped hills, and to the
Nd. the eye could not reach the extent of this immense plain, which is
covered with vines, and fig trees, corn, and tobacco, the best in
Natolia. On my arrival, I sent my Janissary from the Kane I put up at
to say I was arrived, when an officer from the Bey came, and marched us
thro' the street till we stopped at one of the best looking houses I
had seen; we were ushered in, and I was then informed we were to live
here and that if I did not like it and was not comfortable that I
should have another. But I soon found out we could not be better off;
the Bey having sent us to the house of the Primate of the Greeks, who
was obliged to receive us whether he liked it or not, it being
sufficient that a Turk orders it. But in truth, I believe the old
Patriarch was very proud of the honor for no hospitality could outdo
his: the fatted calf was killed and we feasted sumptuously. Fingers
were now called into requisition as knives and forks are no part of the
necessaries of these Oriental nations. Such tearing of fowls and
tucking up of sleeves! After dinner the water, and then the Alpha and
Omega of all oriental visitings, mornings, noons, and nights, "Coffee
and Pipes." During the evening some pretty girls, the daughters of the
Old Man, danced before us, those dances which the women of the country
are so famous for: tho' none of the most decent yet very curious, some
young men playing the guitar and singing, for the song always
accompanies the dance. My Janissary was so delighted, that, he swore if
he had only had two glasses of wine he would fire his pistols right and
left. I felt rather satisfied he had not had the wine he spoke of. We
were all fagged enough to find our beds on the floor capital; and the
next day we visited the Bey.

'January 16, 1825.--I am now at sea and had intended this letter from
Alexandria, and, as I said before, it was to be short; but now I shall
send it from Malta, and it is to be long.

'But to resume my story. When we arrived at the palace he was dining in
the Kiosk with some of his friends, and we had to wait a little while
until the repast was ended when we were ushered in. He received us very
haughtily, and in a manner not at all consistent with the kind messages
he had sent us. Pipes and Coffee were served, and the conversation was
rather slack. At his feet sat one of the most extraordinary figures I
ever saw in my life; a countenance more devilish was never given to
Dervish before. After we had been seated some time, this man, who had
never opened his lips but had eyed us with the greatest attention and
ferocity, at length began to mutter, "Kenkalis, Kenkalis, taib ben"
("English, English, I hope you are well"). This was one of those
privileged people which in these countries are called Dervishes, who
are dreaded and respected by the superstitious, and who afford
amusement by their extraordinary antics to others. They have the
_entrée_ of all houses great or small, rich or poor, and are never
refused food or raiment: it being in itself a crime, to insult or
offend all who are in any way extraordinary: the more mad, the more
sacred the person. Madness in Turkey is an excellent trade.

'At length I soon discovered how it was that my new friend the Bey was
thus: his friends (Turks) rose to depart, so did I but he desired me to
sit down again. The moment the Turks had departed he was a new man. I
have never been so pleased with any Turk in my life as with Ali Bey.
His affability and kindness were European, which, when blended with the
handsomest form and face the costume of a Turk and pomp of a prince,
made a most agreeable acquisition to my Eastern acquaintance.

'He now began to make his attendants play all sorts of tricks with the
Dervish to draw him out; who seemed to be a perfect prince in the art
of buffoonery. We were amazingly amused. He now told me he had a grand
_chasse_ in twenty-five days' time, and desired that I would come to
him on that day, bring my gun, and stay with him a week; nothing could
have pleased me more than this offer. And as I lay Gardo in Smyrna,
twenty-five days afterwards I again found myself in Magnesia, housed
with the old Greek Patriarch a second time. He now sent us down to the
village of Graviousken (?) (Infidel Village) where we were well lodged:
his cook and household chief accompanied us, and the following day he
came himself. Our hunt, tho' not much sport to English taste, yet was
most amusing. The magnificence of the horses and riders; their equipage
and management of the animal; riding at speed, as tho' they were on the
point of being dashed to pieces, against a wall or down a precipice, at
once coming to a dead stop. Riding at each other, delivering the
jareed, firing their pistols and wheeling short round in an instant,
and at speed in the opposite direction. We had greyhounds and killed a
few hares. The following days were unfortunately wet; we returned to
Magnesia.

'The first visit I paid the Bey this time, I honored him with my full
dress for reasons very good, he was not quite sure who I was. It was
also necessary that his people should have outward shew, to satisfy
them: this I was nearly paying dear for. There is a horrid custom in
this country, of paying a certain sum to the attendants of these great
people every visit you make. A few piastres had heretofore satisfied,
but on leaving, after this Golden Visit, they seized my interpreter the
moment he took his purse out, tore it away from him took all he had
saying, "they should never see such a man again" and returned him the
empty purse. He fortunately had been prepared for such an attack and
had a proper sum and no more in his purse, but had it not been for this
sagacity, I might have lost all the money I had with me. Our dinner at
Graviousken was capital, he had wine for us; fingers were again in
requisition, and we were obliged to eat of twenty-six dishes, each
brought separately on the table, one after the other, which you had no
sooner begun to think good, than it was immediately snatched away and
disappeared. After having given to my old Greek some presents of silks
for his wife, and caps for his daughters, we returned to Smyrna, where
I found H.M.S. _Cyrene_, Captn. Grace, and soon after arrived Clifford
in the _Euryalus_, who most kindly gave me an opportunity of seeing a
great deal of other countries by an order to visit the coast of Syria,
&c. &c.

'Oct. 24, 1825.--We passed thro' the Straits of Scio, and on the 25th
anchored at Scala Nova. I shall not trouble you with nautical details,
as all my remarks, bearings, soundings, &c., which I have carefully
taken in this voyage I keep in a distinct remark-book. It is a small
town, governed by an Aga, situated on an elevated promontory, with a
small island and fort off the point, bad shelter for a winter
anchorage. Scala Nova had much interest to me, as I was completely able
to appreciate the conduct of the Captain Pacha with regard to his
pitiful attempt on the island of Samos, which is distant about twenty
miles. This Pacha had 100,000 men at Scala Nova, with a sufficient
number of boats and transports to convey them, and about eighty sail of
men of war to protect them. Yet he made the attempt to land 3000 men,
which I myself was a witness, and they nearly all perished by the
musketry of the Greeks. No further attempt was made on the island, the
fleet remains to the Northward of Samos, under sail for fourteen days,
(fine weather) the Greeks thirty-five sail of small vessels and
fireships in the little Bogaz, which separates the island from the
main. At length the fleet sail for Mytilene. The troops at Scala Nova
know not what to think, no provisions, no water, 25,000 die of famine,
the rest in a most pitiable condition, receive orders to return to
their homes, massacre, pillage, and plunder the whole way back.
Nevertheless, the Turks contrived to lose two small frigates by the
fireships of the Greeks. The conduct of the Pacha, and his disgraceful
mode of entering Constantinople with about fifty sail of small Greek
Boats for the occasion, with a Greek hanging at each mast head, you
might have seen from the public prints. My business with the Governor
of Scala Nova being settled (having obliged him to release an Ionian
Vessel one of his cruizers had captured), Ephesus three hours distant
became the next object. Little is now left of this once celebrated
city, and the site of Diana's huge temple I think is not to be found.
One splendid relic still remains. A part of a fluted Corinthian column,
of Parian marble, about 111 feet long, broken; the remainder is gone;
but from the diameter, the block forming that part could not have been
less than fifty feet; a part also of a huge cornice which was
immediately over this column remains, of marble also, weighing about 15
tons. The carved work on the capital and cornice is as fresh as the day
the artist finished it, tho' most likely above 2000 yrs. old. Ephesus
is thought by many to have been latterly destroyed by an earthquake,
and this small relic certainly tends to prove the assertion. On
examining this column carefully, I found that the fluting, about half
way down, was finished and polished, and a part in the rough. The
ancients always finished and polished, after the column was erect.
Certainly, some sudden accident must have occurred to have prevented
the artist from completing so fine a piece of work, and the manner in
which it is broken leads me to suppose an earthquake, without doubt, to
have been the cause of the abrupt departure of the chisel from its
occupation.

'Leaving Scala Nova, we sailed thro' the little Bogaz, by Patmos when
we fell in with some Greek cruizers, on the look out for the Egyptian
fleet under Ibrahim Pacha, whom we found at Bodrum (?) where we next
anchored. Nothing whatever of antient Halicarnassus, or the wonder of
the world, here remains! Not a trace, not a vestige! One tower more
modern, the base of which appears Roman with a Turkish superstructure,
and one block of granite on which is an inscription stating that Caesar
mounted his horse from this stone: I would have carried this relic
away, but Mr. Arbro, Premier Interprète et Lieutenant à son Altesse
Ibrahim Pacha, informed me that he had laid hands on it. Here I no
sooner anchored than a number of Maltese captains of merchant vessels,
in the employ of the Viceroy of Egypt, came on board to beg my
interference with the Pacha as to some grievance they had suffered. I
was quite determined I would have nothing to do with these blackguards
in the Turkish service; but, on going on shore I could not help feeling
immensely enraged at seeing upwards of twenty large Red Ensigns
(English), flying on his fleet of Transports, loaded with Turkish
soldiers going to carry them to the Morea! I presume the British
subject is free to trade as he pleases but, at the same time, that he
must take the consequence of his speculations. Whether this large
national flag was to be displayed at sea, in a rencontre with the Greek
fleet, became a question with me? Whether our ensign was to be borne by
vessels actually engaging Greek ships, was also a question I asked
myself. And the reply instantly was, "_No_, it cannot be neutrality." I
determined to take the ensigns from them which was done, and having cut
the Unions out I gave them back, which I have since been sorry for. In
short, I should have taken all the vessels as they were all sailing
under false papers, or have taken the flags away altogether and have
considered them as they really were, Turkish transports. But I felt it
a very delicate affair as Ibrahim Pacha, when I waited on him,
declared, that I should be the means of his losing his expedition, and
that he trembled for the consequences. He had previously sent his
Secretary on board me, to try and talk me over to give back the flags.
But it would not do, I saw thro' the whole thing. The fact was, these
mercenaries employed in the Egyptian service had refused to proceed any
further, their contract having expired. He having exhausted five months
in reaching Bodrum (?) from Alexandria wished to throw the whole of the
revolt of the Maltese on me, as having taken their colors; they
declaring that they could not go to sea in safety under any other flag.
He wished to be able to use this pretext to his father, the Viceroy.
After about four hours' conversation we parted as we begun, I would not
return the colors. We parted however the following day better friends,
the revolted vessels were moored in a line before the loyal ones so
that those who were willing could not go to sea. He sent for me, and
begged me to speak to the Maltese which I did, and desired them to move
their ships to let the other Transports pass out. What he said to the
Viceroy of Egypt I know not, but be that as it may the old man was very
civil afterwards to me in Egypt. I daresay you will think me a great
fool for having troubled my head in this affair at all; but really,
whether I am right or wrong, I could not bear to see the flag under the
Turk, and the vessels bearing it conveying troops to the conquest of
the Morea. Much as I dislike the Greek character, yet I love the cause.

'I was not sorry to get clear of Ibrahim and his expedition, as I
inevitably saw difficulties would increase and that from the situation
of the British subjects violence might be resorted to by the Turk, and
that my presence only added fuel to the fire. For while I was there the
Maltese grew more and more impudent. However, all since has ended well.
The Maltese have been honorably paid off by the Viceroy of Egypt.

'Passing between Stanco(?) and the main on the 2nd of Novr. we anchored
in the Harbour of Marmorico (?), certainly the finest in the
Mediterranean. Here we remained in consequence of bad weather, but we
managed to wood and water. After leaving this port I visited Rhodes, so
famous an island requires me to give some description. Keeping the Brig
boxing about between the island and the main, I made my visits leaving
her early in the morning, she standing in the evening to pick me up.
The Port here I by no means considered safe for the _Alacrity_. Small
merchant vessels do go into the Port, and often pay for their temerity
by being totally wrecked. Here you see the remains of what the island
was, with some of the Knights, but nothing more ancient except the
remains of a temple to Apollo. The works and fortifications are very
like Malta on a diminished scale, and the great Street of the Knights
with their arms and devices over each door. To see a turban'd head
sticking out of the window is a provoking proof of the triumph of the
Mussulman over these deserted Christian Knights.

'January 28th, 1826.--I am just anchored in the Quarantine Harbour at
Malta; I find the packet for England on the point of sailing so I
cannot finish my letter, but I think it already too long. In my next I
shall take up my proceedings from Rhodes, going into Cyprus,
Scandaroon, Beirut, Tyre, Sidon, St. Jean D'Arc, Deir-il-Kamr in the
Mountains of Lebanon, Lady Hester Stanhope with whom I stayed one week,
Alexandria, Cairo, &c. and back to Malta after a cruize of eight Months.

'I must now finish with a little Turkish politics. The whole
arrangement of the Greek War is put into the hands of the Viceroy of
Egypt. The Captain Pacha does not go afloat this year but is I fancy in
great disgrace. The Constantinople and Egyptian fleets are to be
combined under Ibrahim Pacha, who is now at Marmorico, waiting for
reinforcements to go to the Morea. I fancy the divided Councils of the
Greeks now gives a fine opportunity of success. Colcotronis has
secretly sided with Mehemet Ali, and it is supposed that Albania is
bought with Turkish gold. The Greeks are quite capable of this. The
only way in which the Turk will do anything in the Morea is by
corrupting the Greeks: if it is to be a contest, I prophesy the
Egyptian army _will never return_. The conduct of the French to the
Turks has been most decided. The King of France wrote to the Viceroy of
Egypt, complimenting him on his genius, and wishing him all possible
success. The bearer of this letter was General Boyer who has come out
to discipline the Turkish army, has assumed the Turkish dress, being
installed in his command with the title and allowance of a Bey and a
salary of 10,000 Dollars per annum. He brought out also two most
beautifully manufactured carpets, and 500 stand of arms and
accoutrements complete, as a present from the King to the Viceroy. The
Turks of the country do not know what to make of this gracious like
conduct, but they say he has formed an alliance with France either to
stop, at any time they wish, our overland intercourse with India, or to
strengthen himself so that he may be better able to shake off the
Turkish yoke of Istamboul. His views are certainly most ambitious; but
as yet have not sufficiently developed themselves for anyone, I think,
decidedly to form an opinion.

'Dr. Father, Adieu!'

        *       *       *       *       *

The letter from Vourla which follows is that promised to his father in
the preceding letter from Alexandria, and is strictly of an earlier
date as it takes up the story of his experiences in the later months of
1824. The narrative requires no comment, as it speaks for itself, and
the description of Captain Yorke's visit to Lady Hester Stanhope at
Djoun will be read with interest. He attained the rank of Captain on
June 6, 1825.

        *       *       *       *       *

'... After a tedious passage from Larnica we anchored at Beirut, once
the capital of the Druses but conquered in the time of Daher Prince of
Acre by the Turks. The place is supposed to be the ancient Baal Berith.
Here we stay a week. Beirut is a curious town. The architecture is
substantial, perfectly different from any seen in other parts of Asia
until you arrive in Syria; quite Saracenic, arches in abundance and
curious tesselated pavements of coloured stones. But this is not
Turkish, though now in possession of the Turks, but the architecture of
its former inhabitants remains. I made short excursions into the
country with some English and Armenian missionaries who have resided
some years in the country, but except the beauties of nature little
else remarkable is to be seen. For the best information in a small
compass of this part of Syria Mr. Hope's "Anastasius" will give it. But
within the compass of a letter I cannot enter into very great detail
unless I were to write it on the spot and take more time and pains than
my disposition inclines to. As far as professional remarks go, I have
as much as a boat and lead line and bearings will give.

'Here I was in some distress, for the pilot, a Greek, that I got at
Rhodes declared he knew nothing of the coast, so I discharged him. A
Turk now undertook to pilot us to Seyden, though on our arrival there I
determined to have no more pilots, as they rather confused the
navigation, not being able to give positive information at any time.

'After leaving Beirut we next let go anchor at Saida (Sidon) once so
famed, and now a very tolerable Turkish town. Here no relic of
antiquity is visible except a large block of marble about a mile to
southward of the town with a Greek inscription (which _I_ did not see;
Mandiel gives a sufficient account of it, and my friends who visited it
say it appears to be in precisely the same state that he saw it in)
with some remains of a galley mole, which the Turks in their profound
policy have blocked up so that it is with difficulty that a small boat
can get in. Here my attention was greatly diverted from examining much
of the town and its contents by the circumstance of my dispatching a
civil line "with Captain Y's compts to Lady H. Stanhope" offering my
services in any way to take letters &c. to Malta or elsewhere that I
might be going. Lady Hester for some years has refused to see English
people, therefore I had not a hope that she would give me an interview;
but to my surprise, on the evening of my writing, her Armenian
interpreter came on board with a kind note by which I found that a
horse and escort were at Saida waiting to conduct me when I might
please to Djoun her residence in Libanus, about three hours from Saida.
Accordingly on the following morning, with Luca my Armenian interpreter
whom I have mentioned in company, we started for the residence of her
ladyship. The ride, uninteresting from any circumstance but that of
actually being on Mount Libanus, deserves no remark, sterile, and but
little cultivated in this part. Her residence is on an eminence about
ten miles from the sea which it overlooks; on the other side it does
not look into the bosom of the Valley of Bernica, yet it is high enough
to enjoy the beautiful verdure of the mountain rising on the opposite
side, whose tops are the most lofty of Libanus. The air is pure and the
scenery bold. On a hill about a mile to the southward of her habitation
is a village which flourishes in the sunshine of her favour and
protection. Her house is a neat building, a mixture of Oriental and
English. From the entrance gate a passage (on either side of which is a
guard room and some apartments for soldiers and servants) leads to a
square yard, half way across which is a terrace with three steps, round
which terrace are the different apartments of servants, interpreters,
as also spare rooms for visitors. On the left side of the terrace under
a lattice work of wood woven with rose and jessamine I was ushered, and
shewn into a small apartment furnished in the Eastern style. The
chiboque and coffee were instantly brought me by a French youth in the
costume of a Mameluke, with compliments from my lady begging I would
refresh myself after my fatigue. On my ablutions being finished I was
sent for. Passing through several passages I was shewn into a room
rather dark with a curtain drawn across, which being withdrawn I found
myself in the presence of a Bedouin Arab chief who soon turned out to
be Lady Hester. She expressed great joy at seeing the son of one of the
most honest families in England, so she was pleased to express herself.
She received me as an English lady of fashion would have done. I at
once became delighted with her, with her knowledge, and I must say her
beauty, for she is still one of the finest specimens of a woman I ever
saw. She spoke much of Uncle Charles; her conversation beyond any
person's I ever met; she was in fine spirits. Her dress, which well
became her gigantic person, very rich. I shall pass over our
conversation which was full of liveliness, of marvels and wonders,
manners and customs of the people, plagues, troubles, and famines &c.
&c. I went back to the brig the following day and returned in the
afternoon to Djoun, taking with me Mr. Forrester, my surgeon, who she
requested I would allow to arrange her medicines which were in
confusion and disorder.

'In the evening she sent for me; she smoked the chiboque, her mind was
wrought to a high pitch of enthusiasm, she talked wildly and was much
distressed in mind, in short her intellects were much disordered and it
was very distressing.

'However, she arranged that I should next morning start for
Deir-el-Kamr, the capital of the Druses, with a letter to the Emir
Bashire, the prince of that nation. I perceive that, were I to begin a
description, I should waste much good paper without stating any thing
that is new. The Druses are a most extraordinary people; the Palace of
the Emir superb, the country richly cultivated by the greatest labour
being all in ridges on the sides of the mountains, but I shall refer
you to Mr. Hope's "Anastasius" for a good description and for all that
is supposed, for nothing is known of their religion. The Emir treated
us with much kindness and I stayed two days in his palace where we had
apartments, visited him in the forenoon after which he did not
interfere with our pleasure; excellent living, about fifty dishes
served to about four people for dinner.

'On a visit to the Emir was a son of the Pacha of Damascus, who offered
me to accompany him back to that city where, he said, I should reside
in the palace of his father and see all that was to be seen. Such an
offer almost tempted me to cut the _Alacrity_. I suppose a Christian
hardly ever had such an opportunity which he was obliged to lose. Lady
Hester said it was my djinn or star which got me into such favour. On
the third morning we breakfasted at Deir-el-Kamr, the town about one
mile distant from Petedeen the palace, and returned to Djoun arriving
late that night. She made me several presents, the most valuable of
which I sent home to your charge by _Euryalus_. She has written to me
once since.

'I wrote a letter to Lord Chatham about her as I know her family knew
little or nothing about her; in a manner I found myself called on.

'Much more could I write, but really just now my attention is so much
called off by continual calling from Capt. Hamilton, who sends for me
on every occasion, that this despatch will be curtailed, but I trust
that more particulars will come _viva voce_.

'Tyre was the next place where we anchored; no vessel of war with
English colours had visited this port in the memory of any inhabitant
living at the place, which to be sure is not many; it is little better
than the prophecy states it should be "a rock for fishers to dry their
nets upon." There are here some superb remains of antiquity,
Alexander's isthmus and Solomon's cisterns. Alexander's famous siege of
this place is too well known and it is quite out of my power to say
anything new of it, but his work will remain for ever; the isthmus he
made to connect the island on which Tyre stood with the mainland is
perfect to this day and has no appearance of being a work of art, but
of nature. It is 200 fathoms wide in its narrowest part. The most
ancient relic in the town of Tyre is the east end of a Christian church
which is mentioned by Mandiel; this stands nearly as he left it. Tyre
itself is a wretched place; any little attempt that the people have
lately made to improve themselves has been thwarted by the Pacha of St.
Jean d'Acre, who squeezes them so for money that they never have a para
in their pockets. Filth, misery and starvation are the legacy of a
Tyrian. The country around is rich and superb, its produce might be
enormous, but so it is with all Syria that I have seen.

'Solomon's cisterns, which are situated about three miles from Tyre to
the south east, are of an octagonal form built of gravel and cement
that form a solid stone. The elevation of the largest above the level
is twenty-seven feet on the south side, and eighteen on the north; a
walk round on the top eight feet wide, a step below twenty-one feet
broad, a stream leaves it turning four mills. There are two smaller
ones turning two mills at a small distance to the northward of the
large one. Their original shape appears to have been square, but now
much disfigured. The large one is thirty-three yards deep, the people
believe it has no bottom and that the water is brought there by genii.
Where it comes from no one knows, but it is always full. I think these
cisterns originally supplied Tyre with water; I traced the remains of
an aqueduct from them nearly to the walls but better than half way
across the isthmus, so that I think they are of a later date than the
time of Solomon because the aqueduct could not be built over the
isthmus before the isthmus was made. They are on the whole the most
curious relics of antiquity I have seen, they must at least be 2300
years old and they are in no way injured, but the supply of water is
constant even in the wannest weather. The country for seven miles round
is a perfect level: I think the water must be brought by some
underground drain from the mountains in the distance to the eastward.
The story is that Solomon among the presents made to King Hiram for his
assistance in building the Temple built for him these cisterns, but
they are not mentioned in the Bible, and I think the story improbable
for reasons before mentioned, and that Solomon certainly had not such
good artificers as King Hiram himself.

'By the bye there are considerable remains of the old port, a mote, by
the ruins of which you can easily trace its extent.

'Haipha and St. Jean d'Acre, Mt. Carmel and the river Kishon "that
ancient river" became next the objects of my amusement. I bivouacked
one night on the banks of the river at Mt. Tabor and Carmel in sight.
At this time an alteration in the weather took place, the gales of wind
began to blow here and the coast consequently became exceedingly
dangerous. I thought it prudent to quit it and arrived in Alexandria in
fourteen days after leaving Haifa, having had a contrary gale nearly
the whole time.

'During my stay in Egypt I was four days in Cairo, eight days on the
Nile, two days at Sakkara and one day at Gizeh. Salt lent me his house
and his boat with twenty men, and I saw all that was to be seen.
Mehemet Ali gave me a Turk to attend me and I play the traveller here
for a few days; time for description I have none. You will be sorry I
have hurried over the latter part of this despatch but I assure you it
is unavoidable. The vessel that takes our letters to Malta I expect
will put herself in quarantine every hour.

'I have returned to Malta, refitted, and am again up the Archipelago
with Captain Hamilton who has just joined company. We have been the
last forty-eight hours rather harassingly employed routing out a nest
of pirates which we have done nearly to a man. Our boats have been away
all night and the brig under way. My marines took the men under Lieut.
Weately, and my men took two Greek boats with nine men each on board
one of which was the Captain of the Pirates; the _Fury's_ boats took
the vessels and their prizes, eleven in number. There was no fighting.
Captain Lethaby in the _Vengeance_ and _Alacrity_ brought the Bey of
Rhodes to his senses the other day; the Consul had been insulted, he
would give no satisfaction, so we took the old way and began at him,
when he came to terms. One 18 lb. shot through his palace made him know
that we did not always bark and never bite. _Alacrity_ was near enough
the battery to receive a heavy fire of stones from the Turks which,
with a few muskets discharged at us, was all the return made by the
Turks before the thing was amicably arranged....

'Love to all; I wish Lady Elizabeth Stuart (de Rothesay) would write to
me, I do sincerely love that cousin of mine; Grantham's letter I will
answer next opportunity, I am delighted with it.

'Adieu,

'C. YORKE'

VOURLA, GULPH Of SMYRNA:

June 10, 1825.




CHAPTER V

A HOLIDAY IN NORTHERN REGIONS. 1828


My father appears to have had a long leave between the two commands, in
the _Alacrity_ (1826) and the _Alligator_ (1829), during which commands
he was employed in the Mediterranean, with a roving commission--a free
lance, in short--to put down piracy and watch the War of Independence
between the Greeks and the Turks. He never let the grass grow under his
feet, so off he started with his friend Walrond on a roving tour
through the greater part of Scandinavia, and his journals contain a
daily record, extending over nearly six months. He crossed the
Dovrefeld Range between Norway and Sweden (a journey seldom undertaken
to-day), and in 1828 the lack of travelling facilities was exceptional.

The energy and resource of my father's character and his great powers
of observation appear to great advantage in these journals, and there
are many facts which I shall endeavour to relate as far as possible in
his own graphic words.

He was greatly impressed by the kindness and hospitality he received
from all classes in both countries with the exception of one district
near Gottenborg, where he met with some outrageous conduct on the part
of a postmaster, who either thought he was robbed, or else fully
intended to rob his guest.

He was honoured by interviews with King Charles John IV, better known
as Bernadotte, Napoleon's Field-Marshal and founder of the present
royal dynasty of Sweden, and it is worthy of note that as far back as
1828, Norway was chafing under the Union with Sweden which was brought
about by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814 and has so lately been dissolved.

On the 10th of May 1828, Captain Yorke started from the Customs House
Wharf on the Thames, in a small steamer of 300 tons. Steam navigation
being then in its infancy the vessel was of great interest to the
traveller, who notes that she had 'two very fine engines of 40 horse
power!'

The passage to Hamburg took exactly fifty-five hours. It is curious in
the light of eighty years' commercial progress to read that 'The
commerce on the Elbe has no comparison with that of the Thames.' Then
follows a difficulty with the Customs officer, who, unaware of the
habits of British sportsmen, was horrified to find gunpowder among the
captain's baggage, a discovery which necessitated an appeal to the
British Consul and entailed a delay of several days.

Kiel was reached on 14th of May, and after exploring the pretty little
town the two friends took the Caledonian steam packet for Copenhagen.
This little steamer was built as a pleasure boat for James Watt, and
had run nine years making much money for her owner though a very 'bad
boat.'

At Copenhagen Captain Yorke was much impressed by the royal palace of
Frederiksborg, with its chapel where are crowned the Kings of Denmark,
and its pane of glass on which Caroline Matilda [Footnote: Sister of
George III, Queen of Christian VII. She was entrapped into a confession
of criminality to save the life of her supposed lover Struensee, who
was afterwards beheaded. She was condemned to imprisonment for life in
the Castle of Zell, and died there aged twenty-four in 1775.] had
scratched, 'O keep me innocent; make others great.' His professional
interest was kindled by the Trekroner Battery which he visited in a
boat, and of which he noticed both the strong and the weak points. He
failed to get into the dockyard, though here again he was careful to
note the number of ships of the line, frigates, and launches afloat;
but the royal stud of 700 horses and the riding school struck him most.
On the 20th of May our travellers reached Elsinore, and crossing over
in an open boat to the Swedish coast they landed at Helsingborg.

My father was a good sportsman, and fishing was his favourite sport. It
was combined with that love of scenery which was one of his
characteristics, and his first fly was thrown in a beautiful river at
Falkenborg, rented by two Englishmen who paid £300 a year for it. Here
he remarks that the Swedes 'are poor, honest, and exceedingly good
natured.'

'I believe,' he wrote, 'that much of the great civility we received
arose from our travelling as we did, without speaking or understanding
the language, with no servant and no carriage, taking the common
conveyances of the country. Our fare, chiefly fish, black bread, and
brandy. The country round Falkenborg is barren, with cultivated spots
here and there.

'After leaving Falkenborg we experienced a great change in the
character of the people. Kindness and honesty were changed for
ill-looks and petty extortions. On a bridge between Moruss and Asa, the
woman who kept it and our drivers charged a double toll, and drank the
overplus in schnapps before our faces! Our vehicle is changed from four
wheels to two, so we now travel in little wooden gigs and four horses,
forming a pretty cavalcade.

'We arrived at Gottenborg about 1 P.M., dined _table d'hôte_ and left
at four. We passed along the banks of the Wener, a superb river. The
vessels that trade from Gottenborg to the Wener See pass up this river.
To pass the falls a canal is cut through the solid rock, with two
locks. I saw a vessel of 80 tons go through. Considerable saw mills are
erected here, the timber cut up, the lumber is just marked, launched
down and the owners look out for themselves.

'The Wener shows one of the finest works of art perhaps in the world!
To navigate this river at the falls it has been necessary to cut a
canal for one English mile at least through mountains of solid rock,
and has eight locks. The mountains are granite and basalt. There is a
cut through the rock also parallel with the river. This cut is useless,
for there is in it a fall of sixty feet perpendicular, so that what it
was made for it is difficult to conceive.'

Between Trolhätta and Gottenborg our travellers were detained four
hours on the road. The reason for this detention is fully explained in
a letter my father wrote to Sir Joseph Yorke a month or two later, from
which I make the following extract:

'While the servants were shifting our luggage at Gottenborg I went into
the house to get change for a three dollar Banco Note. On receiving the
change I found it was only two Dollar Rix Geld, a depreciated currency,
after which I offered, with a remonstrance, a two dollar 'Banco' note.
The woman took it, and was then possessed of five dollar Banco, for
which I could get no further exchange than the two Rix Geld before
mentioned, neither would she return my money. I took the first
opportunity of snatching it from her, first the two dollar note and
then the three, and pushing the small change lying on the table towards
her, walked out of the house. Having managed to pay the horses we
wished to proceed but the driver refused to go, under the plea that I
had taken three dollars from the woman of the house, and they would not
move till I returned it. Neither threats nor entreaties prevailed, and
we remained about two hours till the Postmaster arrived in person. I
appealed to him, it was useless, and I saw no alternative but to offer
him the three dollars, making him understand as well as I could, that
he being Postmaster was responsible, and that I should acquaint the
authorities at Gottenborg of his conduct in taking from me three
dollars which neither belonged to him nor the woman of the house. He
looked at the note and threw it on the table, then left the inn, and in
a minute returned with a pair of screw irons to which was attached a
chain, himself and another laid hold of me, and attempted to force my
hands into them.

'By this time we had all come out of the house. I struck right and left
and effectually released myself. We were set on by the seven or eight
men standing by, and though successful in repelling their attack,
seeing my servant badly wounded and that iron instruments were
beginning to be used, I thought it better to suffer myself to be
secured, which was done by screwing my hands into the irons and making
me fast by padlocking the chain to a part of the room. In this
situation I remained for about half an hour, the Postmaster preparing
to accompany us, which he did taking me with him in his car as a
prisoner. On a remonstrance from Walrond on the tightness of the screws
from which I suffered dreadfully, he took off the irons before getting
into the car, but he was armed.

'On arriving at Lilla Edet, we were taken before a magistrate, showed
our passports and were dismissed, after refusing to compromise the
affair for five dollars. This is the story and a very strange one it
is. The King has ordered a process to be begun against the men. I can
make no comment upon it. The reason for such treatment it is impossible
to conceive.'

But on arriving at Gottenborg, I find my father called on the Governor,
and found him justly very indignant, and he declared the Postmaster
should go to prison for three years with hard labour, exclaiming at the
same time, '_Nous ne sommes pas des Barbares, monsieur._'

Changing vessels of passage twice, my father arrived at Christiania.

'Xtiania fiord is deep and the town is situated at the head of it. Part
of the passage of the fiord is very narrow among the small islands, and
the water very deep. Though Christiania is but a poor town compared
with other northern towns, yet its environs may boast of more beauty
than perhaps any capital in the universe.'

My father finds the politeness of the inhabitants expensive, and says,
'in walking the streets of northern towns, you can wear out a good hat
in three days.'

In return they received the greatest civility from two
fellow-passengers who took them to call on Count Plater, the
Stadt-Holder or Governor of Xtiania, who was an admiral in their navy
and spoke excellent English; also on Count Rosen.

'Went to see the Storthing in the morning. Strangers were admitted to
the Gallery on requesting a ticket from the Police!'

My father writes:

'The origin of this Constitution, (now such a thorn in the side of the
King,) was in the reign of the Danish Prince Christian, who himself
assembled a body of the people to consult on the affairs of State at
the moment previous to Norway and Sweden falling under the power of
France. The body thus met, constituted themselves into a perpetual
assembly for the government of the country, and by their prudence and
independence, it is now permanently established (1828) and never were a
people more attached to their constitution.' Dining with Count Plater
the Viceroy of Norway, at 3 P.M., he met forty people, all the
Ministers of State and great officers in full dress with their 'orders'
on; also three peasant Labour Candidates in the costume of their
country, being Members of the Storthing. He also met Count Videll, a
'most fascinating person' who, being asked as to the purchase of a
carriage, replied politely, 'I will give you one'; and he sent it,
saying, 'It is nothing, I have plenty.' The valley of the Drammen he
beheld from the mountain of their descent, 'charm and awe' by turns are
the sensations of the travellers, and this led them on to Kongsberg, at
one time famous for its silver mines, but the mines not being worked
and the timber trade also decreasing, the population went with it and
was then only 4000. The travellers went down the only silver mine then
worked, in the dress of a miner, walked through a horizontal gallery a
mile long till they came to the shaft, and descended two storeys but
could not proceed, the fire being just lit below.

'This mine returns about £1250 sterling of silver per ann. Sixty miners
are employed at £14 a year each! Bears, wolves and reindeer abound in
this vicinity. There is plenty of iron, not worked, and gold has also
been found in Kongsberg. From thence to Topam(?) we were surprised to
find ourselves driven up to the door of a gentleman's place, out came
Jack Butler, and the master of the house, pressing us to walk in; after
excuses and proper hesitation we accepted, and found ourselves in a
room with people at supper, ladies pretty ones too, who spoke English!

'The fact is that Topam, of which we had heard so much, is a
gentleman's place; after dinner we were shown to our room (one only was
vacant). Walrond had a bed and I slept in my cloak.'

Next day they engaged a well-organised _chasse_. My father pronounces
Topam (?) the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. 'Mr. Benker of
Berlin, their host, purchased it from the King of Sweden for £150,000.
It is the only thing on this scale in Europe.'

The travellers now returned to Christiania, apparently to be received
by the King. They intended dining with their old friend Count Plater,
but the King commanded them to dine with him. After waiting some time
they were ushered in by Baron Lamterberg, the head Chamberlain, and
after a few minutes the King entered--(here follows the interview in
Captain Yorke's own words):

'I apologised for being in plain clothes instead of uniform or court
dress; he replied, "I do not want to see the dress but the man, I am
glad to see you both." He then addressed his conversation in different
topics, viz.: policy of Sweden, change of ministry in England, the
navy, the country, and the mines of Sweden; all of which he enlarged
much on.

'He remarked, speaking of England, "That she must have a strong
government or things would not go right in a turn of affairs which he
seemed to think must soon come. A strong government is absolutely
necessary for England." He asked me if _I_ thought that much order or
signals could be attended to after a naval fight had once begun? I
answered, "I thought it depended much on the weather, and which fleet
had the weather gage. With a strong wind and the weather gage I thought
a well-conducted fleet could keep in good order, as long as spars
stood." We stayed with the King for an hour before dinner which was
served at half-past five, after taking schnapps and anchovies, &c. (at
which preparation the King did not appear, they being served at side
tables). The company, about thirty generals, Colonels and Officers of
State, were scattered about in different rooms; the King suddenly
entered and took his seat; everyone did the same, nothing was said; he
fell to work, a very good dinner. I sat opposite the King who never
spoke, or even changed his countenance, or his knife and fork, which
were of gold, and wiped them himself on bread.

'He ate of many dishes, and drank claret and Seltzer water. The plate
was silver except what he had, the glass plain except his, and the
knives and forks were wiped and given to us again. Dinner over, coffee
was served and he talked to me, hoped to see me at Stockholm, bowed to
the company and retired. The King is a perfect gentleman and man of the
world, elegant in his manners and dress, the most intelligent
countenance, and very upright, and good looking in feature.'

I have before noted that my father had really no evening dress or
uniform and was sorely put to it what to do, when he remembered he had
given his servant Jack Butler an old black coat, so he borrowed it for
the occasion, Butler remarking 'that it looked as good as new, as he
had blacked the seams with ink.' This was told to the Chamberlain, who
repeated it to the King, who went into a paroxysm of laughter.

June 13.--We now come to the parting with Walrond, faithful friend and
companion, and sad was the leave-taking. Both were sorry to part, my
father with a long and dreary journey before him alone in a strange
land. As before, he seems to have been most hospitably treated wherever
he halted. Excellent rooms and good food were provided. Between this
and Brejden (? Trondhjem) he passed by the wooden monument erected to
Sinclair, who was there shot. The Norwegians say that silver bullets
were cast on purpose to kill him. Here also they murdered forty Scots,
prisoners, in cold blood. Between Brejden (?) and Langan Pass, the spot
where the action was fought, 700 Scots fell. The pass is, even with a
good road, very narrow, and the mountain above and below nearly
perpendicular; at the foot runs the Langan, a rapid stream. The
Norwegians held the heights, and with them a handful of men might
defeat the enemy.

In crossing the summit and then the descent of the Dovrefeld Range, he
suffered much fatigue both to the eye and limb, 'for never did my eye
wander over so desolate a waste as the summit of these mountains, the
peaks covered with snow, and spots of deep snow in the valleys.' Not a
vestige of herbage or tree to be seen on the northern summit, nor for
one Swedish mile of the descent; then begins the stunted birch, next
the Scotch fir, and 'towards the end of the day our eyes were cheered
by the sight of pines.'

'The inhabitants of the Post-houses are the cleanest people I have
seen, and one is surprised by meeting clocks, carved, painted and
gilded, and walls covered with inscriptions or rudely painted figures.
All their utensils are well scrubbed, and as white as wood can be made.
They wear plaid and recall in their delivery the people of the Scotch
Highlands.'

Here comes another description of meals, the table at the latter being
covered with 'glass, flowers and sweets,' _Diner à la Russe_, now so
completely our own fashion. 'A general welcome to the board is first
given, and on rising from table we shake hands all round and the words,
"much good may it do you" often accompanies this greeting.' This again
reminds one of the German _gesegnete Mahlzeit_.

Captain Yorke continues his inquiries by visiting the Arsenal at
Trondhjem which he finds in good order with stores and gunpowder in
small quantities. Twenty gunboats are here laid up in houses built for
the purpose, everything connected with them in good repair. They have a
large lug sail with a mast that falls down. How quaint all these
descriptions must appear to sailors of modern times!

'Besides the Arsenal, the King's Regalia was inspected with laudable
curiosity. It distinctly belonged to Norway, but was made at Stockholm
for the coronation of the present King in the old Church. A very
gorgeous affair, the jewels (pearls) no diamonds, and the other stones
in the crown chiefly amethysts. The Bernadotte family, on the whole, is
not popular in Norway. Sport is always mingled with hospitality and
entertainments; a vast quantity of eider duck is everywhere on the
water, and to take a boat and go out on the Fiord with a gun, is one of
the delights of this most delightful tour. It is curious to see the
affection of the old ones for the brood, which they never will forsake
and so fall an easy prey to the fowler.'

Trondhjem was left with much regret. The pictures, the old town with
its hospitality, the fishing for trout and shooting of eider duck with
the gorgeous scenery left an indelible impression, but night beginning
to darken at twelve put the traveller in mind that time was passing
with rapidity and that to effect the journey before him he must depart.

The next point of general interest is a visit to a family of Laplanders
a mile up the mountains. Herick Anderson, the head or chief of his
family, received the whole party, consisting of Captain Yorke, a friend
(Mr. Charter), and their servants, with 'great delight.'

They were milking the deer, so the travellers could not have arrived at
a more fortunate moment. Five hundred of these animals were enclosed in
a circular space with birch trees cut down and made into a temporary
fence, so giving a good opportunity for looking at the animal. It is
about the height of our common fallow deer, but much stronger and
larger in make, large necks and feet, large-boned legs, with immense
antlers covered with flesh and skin, a dark mouse colour, coat thick,
most even and beautiful to look at. The milk is rich beyond any ever
tasted. They dined with the Laps on reindeer soup and bouillie, scalded
milk and cheese--a characteristic meal. The scalded milk was delicious,
but so rich they could hardly eat it.

They also had a fine sight of Lapland deer dogs, and bought one for
10s.; I suppose that quarantine was not invented then!

After a good deal of brandy drinking the travellers departed with some
difficulty, for the Finns got so riotous that it was with force they
got them from the horses' heads, holding on to the bridles to prevent
their departure.

The Diet at Stockholm (November 1828) was opened with great pomp and
ceremony. My father was present and went in the suite of Lord
Bloomfield, our Minister at the Swedish Court. The ceremony began at 10
A.M., the King and Crown Prince going in state to the church where
divine service was performed. From there a procession to the palace.

The nobles, Ministers of State, &c., with bands of music met them, the
King and Crown Prince walking under a canopy with their crowns on their
heads. Then followed Foreign Ministers with their suites, then twelve
men in armour with large helmets (a bodyguard established by Charles
XII), and more burghers, clergy, and peasants; guards on one side,
artillery on the other, and on entering the square of the palace, the
Horse Guards lined the way. The King took his seat on the throne at the
upper end of the Riks Salon, the Crown Prince on his right a little
below him; the Ministers of State at the foot of the throne, behind
officers of the household, below in a semicircle the guards in armour.
At each side on seats the members of the Diet, in a gallery on the left
sat the Queen and Princess Royal with their ladies. In another gallery
opposite the throne sat the Foreign Minister and strangers of
distinction. The King then delivered his speech to the Crown Prince,
who read it, silence being obtained by the chief minister striking his
baton three times on the ground (which reminds one of a beadle in a
Roman Catholic ceremony!).

The marshal of the ceremony also struck his baton three times on the
ground--the signal for the speakers from the Diet to deliver their
respective addresses, after which the whole procession left the Riks
Salon as it came.

'Carl Johan did the King to admiration, though he looked weary and
distressed.

'The Prince was more at his ease, he put one in mind of the pictures we
see of our old Saxon Kings, the crown being made to that shape.'

On November 17 my father received a summons from the King at 7 P.M.,
and was most kindly received.

'He first conversed on Norway, and asked about the new road between
Norway and Sweden. "You, I think, have been in Egypt," said he, "the
Pasha is a most extraordinary man?" I replied, "One of the most
extraordinary men in the world." "Egypt is well governed, is it not?"
"Perhaps so, sire, to answer the Pasha's own ends, but horridly
tyrannised over, and the people dreadfully oppressed." "But they are a
barbarous people, and must be ruled with severity, are they not?"
"True, sire, barbarous, yet his system of Government must militate
against his own wishes; for example, he would fain contend with your
manufactures in the market, yet he will not allow the manufacturer to
work for himself, and do his best to get the best price, but will have
the article made for his own sale, paying only so much a day for his
labour." "Perhaps," said the King, "in Egypt the people are slaves, but
in Europe, Kings are the only slaves. In England and Sweden, your King
and I myself are the only slaves. Eh? is it not so?"

'"If your Majesty will use any other word than slave, I shall be happy
to agree."

'"What word can I use?" he said. "It is true, I am the only slave in
Sweden. Now, Captain Yorke, do you suppose that Egypt could be governed
by a representative government?"

'My answer was immediate, "Impossible, sire."

'"There, Count Welterdick, do you hear that?" Turning to the courtiers
and Lord Bloomfield, he ejaculated with considerable force, "There,
there, you are right, sir--you are right!" During all this conversation
the King seemed considerably excited. The Diet had just met and things
had not gone there so as to please him. After a few more commonplace
observations he said, "Good evening. The Queen wishes to see you below,
go to her, and dine with me before you leave us."'




CHAPTER VI

GREEK INDEPENDENCE. 1829-1831


In letters written from Stockholm to his father and brother in the
autumn of 1828, Captain Yorke expresses very urgently his desire to
find himself again on active service. 'I see the Lord High Admiral is
out,' he wrote to Sir Joseph in September of that year, 'and whoever
comes in, pray try and get me to the Mediterranean if it is possible.'
A month later his brother, the Rev. Henry Yorke, is reminded of the
same wish. 'Since the Russians have blockaded the Dardanelles and old
Melville has again taken up the cudgels, I do not know what to think,
and I anxiously await a line from England. Employment is what I most
wish, and now more than ever, for England will be at war ere long. I
trust in God my friends will stir for me.'

Captain Yorke's anticipation of a war in which England should be
involved was not fulfilled, but the chafing at a life of inaction by
the ardent sailor which appears so clearly in his letters was soon
relieved by his appointment to the command of the brig _Alligator_ in
November or December of 1828.

After some short service in home waters, during which he visited the
Orkneys, Captain Yorke was ordered to take the _Alligator_ to the
Mediterranean station, where it doubtless occurred to the authorities
that the energy and ability he had shown when in command of the
_Alacrity_ in Greek waters a few years earlier would be of service in
the new circumstances which had arisen in that part of the world. The
Greek War of Independence, which was in full progress when Captain
Yorke was engaged in suppressing the piracy of which it was a chief
cause in 1823-26, was now drawing to a close. In 1827 Great Britain,
France, and Russia were all united in securing the independence of the
country, which was recognised by a treaty between the three Powers in
that year, and in January following Count Capo d'Istria was elected
President of the new republic. There remained, however, the difficulty
of extracting the same acknowledgment from the Sultan, and from his
powerful and practically independent vassal, Mehemet Ali Pacha of
Egypt, whose aid he had invoked, and whose son Ibrahim held much of the
revolted country. But in 1828 the Allies at last came to an arrangement
with Mehemet, and by a convention concluded by Sir Edward Codrington,
that potentate agreed to evacuate the Morea and to deliver all
captives. There then remained the difficult work of fixing boundaries,
of taking over such parts of the country as were occupied by the
Turkish and Egyptian forces, and of reconciling the inhabitants of
those portions of the Hellenic territory which had not been allowed by
the Powers to attain their independence to a continuance of the Turkish
rule. Of these the island of Crete with its heroic Spakiotes, who had
never acknowledged the Sultan as their sovereign, was perhaps the most
troublesome and difficult. There remained also the incidental
suppression of the piracy which still continued. This duty, as before,
fell mainly to the share of Captain Yorke in the _Alligator_.

From a journal among the Hardwicke MSS. at the British Museum, I am
able to trace my father in that service from September 1, 1830,
onwards. He was then ordered to visit Volo, Salonica, and the
neighbourhood, 'owing to the reports of piracies lately committed, and
to express all manner of good will to all parties excepting such
pirates, whom I am ordered to destroy should I fall in with them.' On
his arrival at Napoli at the end of August he found the admirals of
France and Russia and the Commissioners for settling the boundaries of
the new republic. 'The work goes slowly on,' he records; 'Russia makes
difficulties and throws obstacles in the way.' He reports that Capo
d'Istria was generally unpopular, an opinion which was confirmed by his
assassination only a year later. He found the islands of the
Archipelago much dissatisfied with the result of their rebellion, many
of them apparently preferring to remain under the Turk; others with a
grievance because they had not been included in the transfer; all of
them intensely jealous of each other. 'The islands are particularly
dissatisfied,' he says. 'Their situation is much changed. Under the
Turk the islander was freer and was rich and had great trade; now,
ruined by the war, he has lost his ships and his commerce.' On
September 3 he sails along the coast of Negropont, about to be
evacuated by the Turks, and hears of piracies committed by them in
leaving that country. 'It is not to be supposed,' he says, 'that these
reckless ruffians would desist from insulting Greek boats and vessels
when they fall in with them.' Going on to Volo, the Aga of that town
assured him that no piracies had taken place recently in the district,
and 'that a small boat might now go in safety to Constantinople,' but
of this the captain evidently had his doubts. On the 6th he fell in
with the _Meteor_, Captain Copeland, and anchored with her near Zituni,
between Negropont and the coast of Thessaly. His impression of this
part of the world is of interest.

'In this part of Thessaly,' he says, 'an English ship had never been
before seen to anchor. I was greeted by the natives. The Greek
population are armed, and the number of Turks in the surrounding
district does not exceed fifteen. Opposite to us is the pass of
Thermopylae, of which pass there is now no remains, the sea having
receded and a considerable plain of alluvial soil now exists where the
Pass must have been. The part of Thessaly opposite the Negropont is the
ancient Myseria and the first scene of the memorable Argonautic
Expedition. Volo was Iolcos, from which Jason embarked his band of
adventurers. Pelion is seen from the gulf.'

While lying near Zituni, Captain Yorke received news of a pirate named
Macri Georgio, who two days before had plundered a schooner, and was
apparently at large in two boats with sixty armed ruffians in the Gulf
of Salonica. He immediately set sail for Cape Palliouri, anchored his
brig by lantern light just round that point on September 11, and at
moonrise led an expedition of five boats with sixty men and three days'
provisions in search of the pirate. There followed many interviews with
the Agas of different districts, who gave him much conflicting evidence
about the doings of Macri Georgio, but with no result, and the
_Alligator_ was finally brought to

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