ompelled the steamer to quit the Piraeus. Five guns
directed their fire against her, and though three were either
dismounted by her fire, or rendered useless by their carriages
breaking, still two elongated five-inch howitzers being placed between
the monastery and an adjoining tower, which covered them from the fire
of the Karteria, contrived to keep up a well-supported fire. The
effect produced by the shells from the Turkish guns was soon
considerable, though several of those which struck the Karteria did
not explode. One, however, fixed in the carriage of a long sixty-eight
pounder, and exploded there, though fortunately without injuring
either Captain Hane, the artillery-officer engaged in pointing the
gun, or any of the men who were working it. Another exploded in the
Karteria's counter, and tore out the planking of two streaks for a
length of six feet, and started out the planking from the two adjacent
streaks. As this shell struck the vessel on the water's edge, a ship
built in the ordinary manner would have been sunk by this explosion of
about nine ounces of powder; but the Karteria was in no danger, as she
was built with her timbers close and caulked together. She was also
constructed with two solid bulkheads enclosing the engine-room,
caulked and lined, so as to be water-tight; consequently, any one of
her compartments might have filled with water from a shot-hole without
her sinking. The attack of the Turks on the Greek camp having been
repulsed, nothing remained for Hastings but to retreat from his
dangerous position in the Piraeus as speedily as possible. This,
however, he did not effect without loss; all his boats were shot
through, and he had to encounter a severe fire of musketry from the
Turks stationed on each side, as he moved through the pillars at the
entrance of the port.

In the month of March an expedition was planned by General Heideck,
who was afterwards one of the members of the unhappy regency which
misgoverned Greece during the minority of King Otho. The object of
this expedition was to destroy the magazines of provisions and stores
which the Turks possessed at Oropos, and, by occupying their lines of
communication with Negropont, to compel them to raise the siege of
Athens. This was the only feasible method by which the Greeks could
ever have hoped to defeat the Turks; but when the execution of it was
proposed, it always met with some opposition. When it was at last
undertaken by a foreign