RELIC OF PAST TERROR.

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CHAPTER X.

ROUTE TO SAFED.

As we wind down the hill and near the base, we lose sight of the castle, a cloud setting around it; and we ride on, meditating upon the contrast between the present and the past. The liberties permitted us and the apparent welcome given us by this sheik in his mountain-fortress are the more interesting to us when we remember the records of the terror once excited in many hearts throughout Europe by the very name of the Turk. There is a simple entry in a churchwarden's accounts of the parish of St. Helen's, in Berkshire, which, under the date of 1565, reads thus:

Two Common Prayer Books against invading of the Turke. . . 6d.

It was considered the common cause of all the Christian states of Europe to oppose the progress of the Turkish army by every method, both civil and religious. The Turks had sustained a defeat this year (1565) and considerable loss in retreating from the siege of the town and castle of St. Michael's, at Malta. But the war was continued between them and the Emperor Maximilian in Hungary; and these prayer-books were purchased each

230

THE PAST AND PRESENT.

year till 1565, inclusive. "Cruel as a Turk" is a phrase which has had more than one illustration to sustain its

2

right to be numbered among the proverbs. And the accounts of pride on the part of former Sultans are in strange contrast with the present instances of condescension. Yet there still remains with many a large

3

1 The accounts were kept from the first year of the reign of Philip and Mary to the thirty-fourth year of Queen Elizabeth, and were in the possession of Rev. G. Benson. See Archæology, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquities, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, vol. i. p. 24, London, 1804. Flight of the Turks, recorded in Thuanus, lib. xxxviii.

2 As an instance of the exercise of power by a Turk, Mr. Eton, in 1809, speaking of the naval force, says, "From their slightness they are soon liable to become hogged; to prevent which, they build them with their decks curved up, so that when the two ends settle the vessel becomes straight. Such ships do not last long, and are subject to be leaky. In 1778, the finest ship in the fleet foundered in the Black Sea. Being too weak, she worked her caulking out and leaked between all her planks. The famous captainpasha Hassan attributed it to the bad caulking; and, when the fleet came back into the port of Constantinople, he ordered all the captains of the shipsof-war to attend in person the caulking of their own ships, on pain of death. One of them, being one day tired of sitting by his ship, went home to his house, not above a quarter of a mile off. The captain-pasha happened to go himself to the arsenal to see the work, examined the caulking, found fault, and asked for the captain. The truth was obliged to be told. He sat down on a small carpet, sent one man for his blunderbuss and another to call the captain. As soon as the unfortunate man came near him, he took up his blunderbuss and shot him dead, without speaking a word to him. Take and bury him,' he said, 'and let the other captains attend him to the grave and the caulking be suspended till they return.'"-Survey of the Turkish Empire, p. 77, by W. Eton, Esq., many years resident in Turkey and Russia, London, 1809.

3 Mr. Eton said that, in his time, "The minister who is to obtain an audience of the Sultan must present himself at the Porte by four o'clock in the morning, where, after three or four tedious hours occupied in unmeaning ceremonies, he is informed that he may be permitted to see the resplendent face of the emperor of the world, (Gehan Padisha,) who among his other pompous titles bears that of Alemum, (pennati,) refuge of the world; after which he is seated in a solitary corner of the divan, on the left, near the

NICOLO'S BATH.

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proportion of that inveterate hatred and contempt for the Christian which is never so apparent as when religious differences are made prominent; and hence it is a great error to suppose that forbearance on the part of a Mohammedan, when no offence is given to his religious ideas, is indicative of any change in his moral feelings.

In three-quarters of an hour after leaving the gate we arrive at a reservoir about twelve feet square, supplied by a spring. Nicolo, with immense saddle-bags containing a variety of articles, approaches the crumbling edge of the pool, and, the wall giving way, he slides with his horse and his load completely into the water. D. narrowly escapes the same accident. This gives us an idea of the depth of the water, as poor Nicolo has to swim for the shore and the horse after him. The baggage having been first removed, three or four are required to help the horse out; after which Hanna

.

door; and the vizier sends to the Sultan a short note, called talkish, which is in substance that the infidel [ghiaur] of such a court, after having been sufficiently fed and decently clothed, by the special grace of his sublime majesty, humbly supplicates leave to come and lick the dust beneath his illustrious throne.' The talkishgee (or billet-bearer) having returned with the answer of the emperor, the vizier and all his assistants rise with respect at the sight of the sacred writing, and the ambassador is conducted to the audience. . . . The minister and his suite who go into the audience-chamber are invested with a kaftan or Turkish garment, which covers entirely their own dress and reaches to the ground. Some writers have absurdly represented this robe as a mark of honor shown them: the truth is that the Turks, wishing them to appear in every thing as vassals of their empire, obliged them formerly to be habited entirely in the Turkish dress, except the head, which was covered with a hat, and to let their beards grow previously to admission into the Sultan's presence, as their tributaries the Ragusans do at the present day."-Idem, p. 107.

232

INTERESTING PERFORMANCE.

raises his hands to heaven and shrieks till the hills echo with his cries. Picking up a stone weighing

about five pounds, which I thought he would cast at Nicolo, he strikes his own head with violence sufficient to have killed a child. He then adds a few additional howls, which increase the interesting echoes, and declares that the baggage is spoiled, the sugar dissolved, and our prospects utterly ruined. This was admirably "performed;" and it reminded us of a phrase we had

UNITED STATES UNKNOWN.

233

heard of in London as used in reference to ready-written sermons sold in a certain little street.-" warranted orthodox, never preached, and twenty minutes." Hanna's performance occupied five minutes, which was duly entered in our time-table, and a new scene opens upon us. The clouds are dissipated around us, while the castle still remains hidden.

Our visit to this fortress has been altogether interesting and novel, though the memory of some inconveniences experienced while there may remain with us, and some new ideas of our country may perhaps remain with the sheik. His want of information with regard to America is not surprising when we recollect that the United States as a nation was unknown in Turkey up to 1800. At that time Commodore William Bainbridge, then simply commander of the frigate George Washington, was sent to Algiers. He left that place for Constantinople, and, having arrived, communicated to the boarding-officers his object and the fact that the frigate was from the United States. Some further explanation was needed; for the Turkish officer who reported his arrival returned to tell Captain Bainbridge that such a nation as the United States had never been heard of, and he wished to know whether it was the sane as the "New World." After a satisfactory reply, he was received with every mark of attention; and the me ssenger further said that he was commanded to state to the captain that "the Grand Seignior had particularly noticed the stars in the flag of the United States, which he considered as a good omen of the