I remained off Syra with two ships, one being a despatch boat, watching the movements of the three blockade-runners, to whom I notified that I would sink them if they attempted to leave the port.
I often wonder they didn't make a rush for it on the first night of my arrival, when I was almost alone.

The Greeks never want pluck.

If they had done so, one vessel out of the three would certainly have escaped, taken food to the insurgents, and capsized all my calculations.
It merely corroborated my view of blockade-running peoples, namely, that they go for gain (some perhaps for love of enterprise); don't fight unless very hard pressed, and not always then if they are wise; that is what it should be.

It is outrageous that adventurous persons not engaged in war should become belligerents, as well as carriers of arms and provisions to an enemy.
The first night I passed off Syra was one of great anxiety, as I had promised the Governor of Crete that no blockade-runner should go to the island.
In the morning a small steamer arrived from Athens with a Turkish official on board.

He came to me pale as a sheet, and told me that as he left the Piraeus a Greek frigate was on the point of leaving for Syra, whose captain, officers, and crew had sworn to bring back Hobart Pasha dead or alive.