On his return to Glasgow, MacIver foregathered with an old friend,
Bennett Burleigh, whom he had known when Burleigh was a
lieutenant in the navy of the Confederate States. Although today
known as a distinguished war correspondent, in those days
Burleigh was something of a soldier of fortune himself, and was
organizing an expedition to assist the Cretan insurgents against the
Turks. Between the two men it was arranged that MacIver should
precede the expedition to Crete and prepare for its arrival. The
Cretans received him gladly, and from the provisional government
he received a commission in which he was given "full power to
make war on land and sea against the enemies of Crete, and
particularly against the Sultan of Turkey and the Turkish forces,
and to burn, destroy, or capture any vessel bearing the Turkish
flag."
This permission to destroy the Turkish navy single-handed strikes
one as more than generous, for the Cretans had no navy, and
before one could begin the destruction of a Turkish gun-boat it was
first necessary to catch it and tie it to a wharf.
At the close of the Cretan insurrection MacIver crossed to Athens
and served against the brigands in Kisissia on the borders of
Albania and Thessaly as volunteer aide to Colonel Corroneus, who
had been commander-in-chief of the Cretans against the Turks.
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