At last the Great Powers began to think it would not be a bad thing to have a Christian race ruling the classic peninsula. And England, France, and Russia decided to help to put the little kingdom on its feet, and appointed its ruler.
They first selected Prince Alfred, Victoria's second son. But this did not give satisfaction. Finally, Otho, son of the King of Bavaria, was chosen, and then elected by the people, first king of Greece.
That was in 1835. In 1863, Otho was deposed, and a new king had to be found. The selection has proved to be a very wise one. King George was the son of Christian IX. of Denmark, and is therefore the brother of the Princess of Wales. During his reign of thirty-four years, Greece has steadily improved.
But all of the Greek Christians were not freed by this heroic struggle. There still remained several millions of their race in Macedonia and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. These people have looked on enviously at the prosperity and freedom of their kinsmen in Greece, and are always planning and hoping for the time when they, too, may break the Turkish yoke.
Twenty thousand of these Greeks live on the island of _Crete_, where they suffer unspeakably; not alone from the cruel oppression of Ottoman rule, but from the persecutions and daily conflicts with the Mohammedans who live with them on the island.
If you will examine a map of Europe, you will see the Greek peninsula, looking as if it had been broken into fragments and half devoured by the sea. Just south of its ragged edge lies this little island of _Crete_, of which all the world is talking to-day.
It looks as if one of the fragments of Greece had broken off and floated away a short distance, and was waiting for the tide to come some day and carry it back to its old home.
And that is just what happened long, long ago; and it seems now as if the tide had set in, which is going to float it back to its old moorings by its motherland.
The island of Crete originally belonged to Greece. It is one of the most classic spots in the world. For there, on and about Mount Ida, Jupiter, the great god of Greek mythology, is supposed to have spent his boy-hood. And Homer sung about this island, too. And he has described its _ninety cities_--which surprises us very much when we reflect that the island is a narrow strip of land only one hundred and fifty miles long; so that the ninety cities must have been set close together, like a string of beads!