The agreements, the secret pacts of the local chieftains of Roumeli with the Turks, were generally considered to be ethnically beneficial strategies. Whoever made an agreement or a fake agreement imposed a truce, saved populations from slaughter and looting, and at the same time gained valuable time.

Similar agreements were resorted to by Varnakiotis, Iskos, Gogos Bakolas, Rango, Baltinos, Stornaris, Safakas, KARAISKAKIS, and of course Androutsos. It was indeed a Greek mainland tactic - known to all and accepted.

However, the arrival of Alexandros Mavrokordatos and his dynamic involvement in the uprising of Western Greece turned the agreements into a scandalous issue and a powerful political argument; under the pretext of contacts with the enemy, the foreign Phanariot had the freedom to classify the captains as "patriots" and "traitors" depending on the turn of events and his individual ambitions.

The Alipasalides came into a serious rift with the postelnic. Thus, Varnakiotis was ousted, Bakolas joined the Turkish camp, Karaiskakis was tried as a traitor, while Androutsos met the tragic end we know.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]