Selections From the Literature of the Period. The ninety years between the massacre of Chios in 1822 to its liberation by Greek forces in 1912, are arguably the most intense in the history of the island. Between those two great events, while the lives of the inhabitants were returning to normal, the great earthquake of 1881 shuttered those lives killing over 3,500 people and leaving the island once again in ruins. During this period many American and European travelers visited Chios and wrote extensively about the history, culture and the rise from the ashes of the island which was described as the "Flor de Levante" (Flower of the East).