(BEING A FEW PAGES FROM MY EASTERN DIARY).
----At half-past seven in the evening, we left Smyrna by the Scamandre,
a French government steamer, and were soon gliding over a sea smooth as
glass. The soft tints of the twilight spread gradually around us, and to
a beautiful day there succeeded one of those marvellous nights, during
which one cannot bring one's-self to the determination of retiring to
rest.
The dawn of day surprised me on deck. In the morning we neared the land,
which presented to our view a desert plain, covered with dwarf oak. This
was the site of ancient Troy; we were coasting near those famous fields,
_ubi Troja fuit_; that stream which was throwing itself before our eyes
into the sea, was formerly called the "Simois;" those two hillocks which
we saw upon the coast, were the tombs of Hector and Patroclus; that huge
blue mountain which in the distance raised towards the sky its three
peaks covered with snow, was Ida; and behind us, from the midst of the
sparkling waves, rose the island of Tenedos. All conversation between
the passengers from many nations had long since ceased, and I
contemplated in silence that grim desert, which, at Eton, I had dreamed
of as full of movement and sound, and that calm sea which I had so often
figured to myself as covered with the ships of Agamemnon, of Ulysses,
and of Achilles the
"Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer."
At mid-day we entered the Dardanelles, and several hours afterwards, we
cast anchor between Sestos and Abydos, before a small white town,
containing no remarkable objects. Sestos and Abydos, which it must be
owned would not be by any means celebrated, were it not for the
enterprises which cost Leander his life and Lord Byron an ague, are two
hamlets, which, like the greater portion of Turkish villages, offer in
no shape whatever what it is the fashion to term the Oriental type. They
are composed of an assemblage of rose-coloured houses, whose large red
roofs, seen through the verdure and flowers, call to one's mind the
description of a Chinese village.
Upon its arrival, the Scamandre was immediately surrounded by a
multitude of caicks filled with bearded Turks, veiled women, and various
coloured bales. Upon deck rose a deafening Babel of voices,--the sailors
swore, the women screamed, and the porters fought, until at length quiet
was restored, and one hundred and eighty-six new Mussulman passengers
came on board the steamer. Amid the caicks ranged along the sides of the
vessel, was one much more richly freighted than the rest; the traveller
to whom it belonged was a young Arab, who, standing on a pile of bales,
domineered over his boatmen by several feet. His white garments set off
to advantage his dark complexion; and a cloak of black wool, profusely
embroidered with gold lace, drew upon him the eyes of all. I had seldom,
if ever, beheld a head more beautiful or more expressive than that of
the young man. His large black eyes were full of intelligence, and in
his bearing was a natural nobility and pride. As long as the confusion,
described above, continued, he directed his boatmen to keep at a
distance, but when all were embarked, and the Scamandre was ready to
start, he hailed the vessel, and having mounted the side-ladders, gave
his hand to six veiled women in succession, whose long white dominos
prevented the spectators from even guessing at their age or beauty. The
young man, once on board, conducted his odalisques to a fore-cabin,
placed a hideous negro at the door as sentinel, and returned immediately
to the deck, where another negro presented him with a narguileh (Turkish
water-pipe).
Nothing can less resemble our regular fortifications than the fort of
Gallipoli, (before which we soon after passed,) and the other castles of
the Dardanelles, which ought to render Constantinople the most
impregnable place in the world (from the sea.) The forts are large
buildings of a dazzling white colour, perforated with port-holes,
similar to those belonging to a ship of war, and mounted with old guns,
the greater portion of which are without carriages, and served,
ordinarily, by a single artillery-man, assisted in time of war by three
or four peasants. In the present century, however, these batteries have
shown their prowess, and against our own countrymen too. During the
month of February 1807, the British government, justly irritated at the
increasing influence that the French ambassador, Count Sebastiani, was
obtaining at the Ottoman court, despatched Admiral Sir John Duckworth,
in command of a squadron, with orders to bombard, if necessary, the
Seraglio itself. Unfortunately, Sir John Duckworth's plan of acting was
exactly contrary to what would have been our gallant Nelson's in the
same position. After having passed without difficulty before the then
disarmed castles of the Dardanelles, after having burned the Ottoman
fleet off Gallipoli, while the crews were peaceably celebrating on shore
the feast of Courban-Beiram, Sir John presented himself off
Constantinople, and threatened to bombard that city, should the Sultan
refuse to accept the conditions he offered, at the same time he allowed
his Imperial Highness two days to consider the terms; Nelson would have
allowed as many hours only. The folly of Admiral Duckworth's conduct
fully shown in the sequel, for, at the conclusion of the forty-eight
hours, the approaches to Stamboul and Galata were bristling--thanks to
the delay accorded, and to the exertions of the French ambassador--with
twelve hundred pieces of cannon; while, at the same time, orders having
been sent to the castles of the Dardanelles to mount their batteries,
the British squadron was hemmed in on all sides, as if by enchantment.
The besieged now became the aggressors, and there soon remained to
Admiral Duckworth no other resource than to weigh anchor and get away as
fast as possible, which he accordingly did. The batteries of the
Dardanelles were now, however, prepared for him. A most destructive fire
was opened upon the ill-fated fleet: two corvettes were sunk off
Gallipoli; the Admiral's flag-ship, the Royal George, lost her mainmast;
a huge marble ball, weighing eight hundred pounds, swept away a quantity
of hands from the lower deck of the Standard, while many officers and
seamen wore severely wounded. It must be here observed, that the
batteries of the Dardanelles owed much of the murderous effect of their
cannonading to the skill of eight French engineer officers, whom Count
Sebastiani, profiting by the delay accorded by Admiral Duckworth to the
Sultan, had despatched to the castles.
These historical reminiscences did not prevent my thoughts occasionally
reverting to the six odalisques, who formed the suite of the young Arab
on board. Ever since their arrival, I had been reflecting that in all
probability never would so excellent an opportunity offer itself of
penetrating the secrets of a Mussulman harem, and of assuring myself of
the vaunted beauty of the mysterious women of Asia. As soon as we were
again in motion, I began to watch the black Argus to whose guard the
fair houris were intrusted. For more than an hour I lurked without
success about the fore-hatchway, for, faithful to his trust, the slave
was lying at the threshold of the door that closed upon his young
mistresses; and I was on the point of losing all patience, when I beheld
him suddenly rise and mount rapidly on deck. He had no sooner
disappeared than I glided into his place, and, having applied my eye to
a large chink in the door, cast a most indiscreet glance into the cabin.
In front of me two women were seated upon their heels, one of them had
thrown aside her veil; and I was gazing in admiration upon a pale but
beautiful face, set off by two immense black and brilliant eyes, when
suddenly I heard behind me the sound of hurried steps. It was the negro
returning to his post, who, on perceiving me, began to cry out most
lustily. Having no desire to commence a contest with him, I proceeded
to mount the hatchway and gain the deck.
The exasperated slave, however, followed me, and hurrying to his master,
proceeded to inform him of my escapade, pointing at the same time to me.
Two old Turks leaped immediately to their feet with fury depicted on
their features; and one of them placed his hand upon the hilt of his
cangiar, and pronounced in a voice half-choked with passion the word
"Ghiaour," (infidel): in answer to which, I politely told him, (as I was
a good Turkish scholar,) to mind his own business, and that I was rather
inclined to consider him the greater infidel of the two. He looked both
surprised and vexed at this, but did not attempt to retort. As to the
young Arab, he proved himself to be a man of sense; for, contenting
himself with smiling at his infuriated attendant, he descended to the
cabin of his odalisques, from whence he did not emerge during the
remainder of our voyage. I did not again see him, and never knew who was
the Mussulman, so handsome and at the same time so little fanatical.
The strait through which we had navigated all day, gradually widened as
we advanced; the shores as they receded were covered with opal tints;
the vessel began to roll, and we entered the sea of Marmora. At sunset
the Mussulmans with whom the deck was crowded collected in groups, and
devoutly said their evening prayer. Their countenances were wrapped in
deep devotion, and they appeared to take no notice of the satirical
smiles, which the strangeness of their attitudes called forth from
several unreflecting travellers, who, by wanting in respect for the
usages of the countries through which they were passing, lowered
themselves immensely in the estimation of the inhabitants. The
irritation excited by the ill-timed railleries of such foolish persons,
is no doubt one of the chief causes of the hatred in which Christians
are held in Turkey. Surely nothing could be less calculated to excite
mockery, than the sight of the Mussulman travellers at their evening
devotions; besides, be it had in mind, that upon this Christian vessel,
scarcely a Christian perhaps was thinking of his God, while not a single
Mahometan was to be seen unengaged in prayer, as the sun sunk below the
horizon.
The following morning I was early upon deck. The sun had not yet risen,
and the air was fresh and invigorating; while upon the white, heavy,
oily sea, was a slight fog, which the breeze was dispersing in flakes.
Around us a quantity of porpoises were either splashing in the midst of
the waves or floating like buoys upon the surface. The most profound
silence reigned upon the deck of the steamer. Wet with the night-dews,
the half-slumbering seamen of the watch were seated in a circle near the
funnel; while numberless Turks, rolled up in their yellow coverlets
striped with red, were sleeping forward beneath the netting: the
steersman at the wheel and the man on the look-out were alone really
wide awake. Suddenly, I perceived dawning in the east a greenish light,
which became yellow as it ascended in the heavens; the low and flat
shore appeared like a black line upon this luminous background, and by
degrees the sea resumed its azure tint. An hour afterwards we were
within cannon-shot of the Seraglio; but, alas! a thick fog covered the
city. Constantinople was invisible--and I was deploring the mischance,
which was depriving me of a long-anticipated pleasure, when suddenly the
sun shone forth brightly, and the fog acquired as if by enchantment a
wonderful transparency. The curtain was, as it were, torn to bits, and
from all quarters at once there appeared to my dazzled eyes forests of
minarets with gilded peaks, thousands of cupolas blazing in the light,
hills covered with many-coloured houses, surrounded by verdure; an
immense succession of palaces with grotesque windows, blue-roofed
mosques, groves of cypress-trees and sycamores, gardens full of flowers,
a port filled as far as the eye could discern with ships, masts, and
flags; in a word, the whole of that enchanted city, which resembles less
an immense capital than an endless succession of lovely kiosks, built in
a boundless park, having lakes for docks, mountains for background,
forests for thickets, fleets for boats,--in fine, an incomparable spot,
and at the same time so grand and elegant, that it seems to have been
designed by fairies, and executed by giants.
Several writers have compared the view of Constantinople to that of
Naples. I cannot, however, agree with them. Any one can figure the
latter capital, whilst, on the contrary, the City of the Sultan
surpasses all that imagination can picture. Our enchantment, however,
was of short duration: the vapours again became condensed, the view was
gradually covered with a rosy haze, then became dim, and Constantinople
disappeared from before us like a dream. The Scamandre, which had
stopped for a few minutes, was again put in motion, and having rounded
the Seraglio, cast anchor in the midst of the strait which separates
Stamboul (the Turkish quarter) from Galata, (the European faubourg.) In
a moment the deck of our vessel was one scene of confusion: the sailors
were running to and fro, while the passengers were rushing one against
another, vociferating after their baggage. Around the vessel there kept
gliding two or three hundred black caicks, rowed by half-naked boatmen;
and notwithstanding the orders to the contrary, a quantity of Maltese
sailors, Turkish porters, and Levantine ciceroni came on board, and
literally took us by storm, bawling out their offers of service, in
almost every known language. Clouds of blue pigeons, and whitewinged
albatros, flew about over our heads, uttering plaintive cries; add to
these the stentorian voice of our French commander, the curiosity and
impatience of the travellers demonstrated by their noisy exclamations,
and one will have an idea of the spectacle offered by the deck of a
steamer on its arrival at a Turkish port.
During the hauling of the vessel to the quay, I scarcely knew upon what
to fix my eyes, attracted as they simultaneously were by a thousand
different objects. Here was the Golden Horn with its numberless ships,
the cypress-trees of Galata, and the seven hills of ancient Byzantium
covered with mosques; there, the blue waves of the Propontis, and the
glittering banks of Scutari. Giddy with enthusiasm, and intoxicated with
admiration, I attempted, as our caick approached the landing-place, to
be the first to leap upon the quay, when, just as I was in the act of
springing, my foot slipped, and I fell headlong into a miry stream. Such
was my entrance into Constantinople.
As soon as I gained footing, splashed with mud from head to foot, I
remained a moment motionless, and almost petrified with astonishment.
All was changed around me: the enchanted panorama had disappeared, and I
found myself in a small filthy crossway, at the entrance of a labyrinth
of narrow, damp, dark, muddy streets. The houses which surrounded me,
built as they were of disjointed planks, had a miserable aspect; time
and rain had diluted their primitive red colour into numberless nameless
tints. One of those minarets which from afar appeared so slender and so
beautiful, now that it was close to me proved to be merely a small
column devoid of symmetry, while its covering of cracked plaster seemed
on the point of falling to pieces. The Turkish promenaders whom from a
distance I had taken for richly attired merchants, proved to be a set of
miserable tatterdemalions with ragged turbans. Behind the porters who
crowded to the landing-place, were butchers embowelling sheep in the
open street; while the pavement was covered with bloody mire and smoking
entrails, around which several score of hideous dogs, of a fallow
colour, were growling and fighting. A fetid stench arose from the damp
gutters, where neither air nor light have ever penetrated, where
corruptions of all sorts amass, and where one is continually in danger
of stepping upon a dead dog or rat. Such is without exaggeration the
aspect of the greater part of the streets of Constantinople, and in
particular those of Galata. This contrast between the misery of what
surrounds you, and the incomparable beauty of the same spot when seen
from a distance, has never yet been sufficiently remarked upon by
travellers who seek to describe Constantinople. Perhaps they have been
unwilling to cool the enthusiasm of their readers in dirtying with these
hideous, but true details, their gold and silver-plated descriptions.
Perfectly disenchanted by this sudden change of scene, I followed the
bearer of my baggage up a street, which was steep, badly paved, and so
narrow that three men could scarcely have walked along it abreast. On
the right and left hand were disgusting little shops, or rather booths,
filled with green fruit and vegetables. Having proceeded onwards, we
rounded the tower of Galata, which, from a near view resembles a
handsome dove-cote, and shortly afterwards arrived at Pera, and
proceeded to take up our quarters at a kind of hotel, kept by one
Giusepine Vitali, where I immediately went to bed and was soon
afterwards fast asleep.
At ten o'clock, A.M., I was awakened by my fellow-travellers, and
accompanied them to the caravanserai of the Turning Dervishes. A
somewhat lengthened residence in the northern provinces of Persia, where
a Turkish idiom is spoken, had given me a tolerable fluency in that
language, and I was thus enabled to act as interpreter to my friends.
The cicerone of the hotel conducted us to a circular building situated
in the midst of a small garden, whither was hurrying a crowd composed of
Greeks, Armenians, and Turks. Having arrived at the vestibule, we took
off our boots and confided them to the care of a man who kept a sort of
depot for slippers, of which he hired out to each of us a pair. We then
entered a large circular hall, lighted from above, in the centre of
which was an oaken floor, waxed and polished with the greatest care, and
protected by a balustrade. Around this arena were seated a number of
spectators of all ages, country, and costumes, and exhaling a strong
odour of garlic. The ceremony was commenced: for to the music of a
barbarous orchestra, composed of small timbals and squeaking fifes,
accompanying some nasal voices, about twenty tall, bearded young men,
clad in long white robes, were waltzing gravely round an old man in a
blue pelisse. These men carried on their heads a thick beaver cap,
similar in form to a flower-pot turned upside down. Their white robes,
made of a heavy kind of woollen stuff, were so constantly bulged out
with the air that they seemed made of wood. With their arms extended in
the form of a cross, the left hand being somewhat more elevated than the
right, and their looks fixed upon the ceiling with a stupid stare, these
Dervishes continued to turn rapidly round upon their naked feet with
such regularity and impassibility that they seemed like automatons put
into motion by machinery.
Suddenly the music ceased, upon which the Dervishes threw themselves
simultaneously upon their knees, inclining their heads at the same time
to the ground. For several minutes they remained motionless in this
position, while some attendants threw a large black cloak over each,
upon which they again stood up and ranged themselves in a line. Upon
this the old man in the blue pelisse, who had hitherto sat motionless
upon his heels, began a plaintive nasal chant, to which his subordinates
responded in a roaring chorus; this finished, the crowd began to
disperse, and we returned to our hotel.
Besides the Turning Dervishes, there are also at Constantinople the
Howling Dervishes, who, instead of waltzing until they fall from
giddiness, continue to utter the most frightful shrieks, until they fall
upon the ground exhausted and foaming at the mouth. Historians have
accorded different origins to these singular and absurd exercises; for
my part, I am inclined to consider them as remnants of the furious
dances taught by the ancient people of Asia to the Corybantes.
The day after my arrival I embarked for Stamboul, the Turkish quarter,
in one of those long caicks which are as it were the hackney coaches of
Constantinople. The least oscillation is sufficient to upset these light
barks, which are impelled with inconceivable rapidity by two or three
fine light-looking Arnaouts, dressed in silken shirts. In two minutes,
having traversed the Golden Horn, passing through an immense crowd of
boats of every form, and ships of every nation, we disembarked upon a
landing-place even more dangerous than the caick, on account of its
slipperiness and the chances thereby of falling headlong into a
receptacle of filth and mud. The streets of Stamboul are still more
narrow, filthy, and fetid than those of Galata and Pera. Wooden hovels,
badly constructed, and worse painted; a species of cages pierced with an
infinite number of trellised windows, with one story projecting over the
ground floor, flank on the right and on the left hand these passages,
through which hurry a motley crowd with noiseless tread. The pavement,
made of little stones placed in the dust, slip from under one's feet and
expose one to continual falls. Upon the boards of the first shops one
passes are piled heaps of large fish, whose scales glitter in the sun,
in spite of the dust. Fawn-coloured dogs, in much greater numbers than
at Galata, run between your legs--and wo to whosoever should disengage
himself too energetically from these hideous brutes, which are protected
by Mussulman bigotry! The habits of these animals, whose number amounts
to above a hundred thousand, are exceedingly singular. They belong to no
one, and have no habitation; they are born, they live and they die, in
the open street; at every turn one may see a litter of puppies suckled
by their mother. Upon what these quadrupeds feed it would be difficult
to state. The Turkish government abandons to them the clearing of the
streets, and the offal and every sort of filth, together with the dead
bodies of their fellows, compose their apparently ordinary nourishment.
At night they wander about in the burying grounds, howling in the most
frightful manner. Whatever may be their means of existence, they
multiply their species with the most surprising rapidity. Some years
ago, the canine race had increased to such a degree at Constantinople
that it became dangerous, when, to the pious horror of the Old
Mussulmans, the Sultan Mahmood, among other reforms, caused twenty
thousand of these animals to be, not poisoned, he would not have dared
to so greatly offend against the prejudices of the inhabitants, but
transported to the isles of Marmora. In a few days they had devoured
every thing in the place of exile, after which, tormented by hunger,
they made such a hideous row, and uttered such plaintive howls, that
pity was taken upon them, and they were brought back in triumph to
Constantinople. Fortunately hydrophobia is unknown in the Levant.
The bazars of Constantinople have been so often described that it would
be useless to describe them at any length. I will merely observe,
therefore, that though infinitely more considerable, they do not
respond, any more than those of Smyrna, to the ideas of luxury and
grandeur which untravelled Europeans are apt to conceive of them. The
Turkish bazars have a miserable aspect; they are nothing more than an
immense labyrinth of large vaulted galleries, clumsily built, and at all
times damp in the extreme. Magnificent carpets, stuffs embroidered in
gold and silver, and other objects, the richness of which contrasts most
singularly with the nakedness of the walls, are hung out for display on
cords stretched transversely. The counter is a flat board of wood, very
slightly elevated above the ground, and which serves as a divan to the
seller and a seat to the buyer. From this place, which is usually
covered with a mat, the Mussulman gazes in silence upon the passing
foreigner, whom he rarely deigns to address by the name of Effendi;
while, on the contrary, the active and loquacious Armenian even leaves
his shop to run after him with some tempting object in his hand, at the
same time indiscriminately giving him the title of "Signore Capitan." In
the bazars are an astonishing number of articles which are often very
cheap, such as tissues of silk, dressing gowns, gold embroidery, and
Persian carpets, perfumery, precious stones, pieces of amber, furs,
sweetmeats, pipes, morocco leather, velvet slippers, silken scarfs and
Cachemire shawls cover a space extending over several leagues. In the
"_Besestein_," a large building separated from the other bazars, one
meets with in quantities those old arms, so sought after by antiquaries,
carbines ornamented with coral, magnificent yataghans worn by the
Janissaries before their destruction, and the famous blades of Khorasan.
The commerce of Constantinople is closely allied with that of Smyrna;
and many branches of trade, such as silk and opium, being required to
pay duties at the customhouse of the capital, the merchants buy them at
Constantinople merely in order to pass them over to Smyrna, where they
find a more advantageous market for them. In consequence, these goods
are twice borne upon the registers of the Turkish customhouses, which,
be it observed, are exceedingly badly kept. Wool forms the principal
branch of trade at the Porte, which is abundantly furnished with that
article from her nearest provinces, Roumelia, Thessaly, and Bulgaria,
which, containing about five million inhabitants, feed about eight
million sheep, the value of which may be estimated at about two hundred
million piastres, (the Turkish piastre, is worth about 2-1/4d.) It would
have been impossible for such an important object to have failed
exciting the cupidity of a government constituted like that of the
Ottoman empire; in consequence, in 1829, they attempted to make a
monopoly of the wool-trade. Fortunately, the clamorous despair of the
owners of the flocks, and some good advice, caused the Divan to recall
the measure, which would in all probability not only have given a fatal
blow to the wool-trade, but have entirely put an end to the feeding of
flocks throughout Turkey. Instead, therefore, of monopolising this
branch of commerce, the government saddled it with such an exorbitant
duty, that the provinces definitively gained little by the change. The
price of wool was more than quadrupled, and in 1833 there was sold for
above 170 piastres the hundredweight what in 1816 cost but forty
piastres. The abolition of the monopolies and the modification of the
duties have given, since the last six or seven years, some facilities to
this trade, without, however, entirely restoring it to its former state
of prosperity. Partly destroyed by the severe blow it had received, and
shackled by the avarice of the Pashas, it languishes, as indeed does
every other branch of trade and industry in the empire.
Of Turkey, which men have rendered a country of misery and of famine,
the Almighty seems to have intended to have made a land of promise. For
agriculture, He has created immense plains, unequalled in fertility
throughout the globe, and in the bowels of the mountains He has hidden
incalculable treasures; and in return for all these gifts, these
glorious gifts, what have the inhabitants done? they have left the land
uncultivated, and the mountains unsearched. Mines of all sorts abound.
Copper, (which is sold in secret only, and is a contraband article,)
were its mines worked on a grand scale, would alone furnish a new
element of commerce to Constantinople, and might help to draw it from
its present state of torpor. But will the Turks ever dream of such a
thing? Never! For like the dog in the fable, the Ottomans will neither
profit themselves nor let others profit by what is in the territory. Too
indolent to work out the natural riches of their soil, they are too
jealous to permit others to do it for them. Besides, Europeans, by an
ancient law which we have recently seen confirmed, having no right to
possess land in Turkey, cannot undertake any agricultural or commercial
speculation of any importance. In addition to this, the Turkish
government itself is ignorant of most of the natural riches of its
territory; for the inhabitants, well knowing the character of the men
who have the management of affairs, take every possible precaution to
conceal the existence of the mines, for fear they should be forced to
work them without remuneration.
The provinces of the Danube have now yielded to Thrace and to Macedon
the furnishing of the capital with corn. This important trade has been
ruined, like every thing else, by the barbarous measures of a stupid
ministry. In reserving to itself the supplying of the capital, the
government does not allow the exportation of corn without special
permission. Without doubt, the liberty of this trade would have given a
new impulse to agriculture, and would have restored prosperity to
several provinces; but that would not have been for the interest of
those personages who had the power of giving permits, and who
consequently made a traffic of the firmans. In 1828, a circumstance
occurred which ought to have enlightened the government on this point.
The Russians had intercepted all communication with the capital, and in
consequence a want of provisions occurred; for the ill-furnished public
magazines afforded such damaged wheat only, that it could with great
difficulty be baked into bad and unhealthy bread. To remedy this evil,
an employe ventured to suggest that any one who could procure corn
should be permitted to supply the capital. The situation of affairs was
critical, for the people were beginning to murmur; and the suggestion
was carried into effect. No sooner was the permission accorded, than a
multitude of farmers and merchants hastened to pour grain into the
market, and plenty soon reappeared. This was an excellent lesson to the
government, but how did it profit thereby? First of all it reinstated
the monopoly, and four years afterwards, in 1832, happening to require a
million measures for its magazines, in order to make more sure of
speedily procuring that quantity, it forbade the _exportation_ of corn,
inasmuch that to collect the required million of measures, it destroyed,
in all probability, a hundred millions, and ruined about ten thousand
cultivators. This barbarous system partly ended in 1838, but it will be
long before its withering effects are effaced.
It is in the long corridors of the bazars that the commercial business
of the country is carried on. An immense multitude, more curious to view
than even the exposition of the different wares, congregates thither
daily. Constantinople, notwithstanding its state of decline, is always
the point of intersection between the eastern and western world. At this
general rendezvous, whither Europe and Asia send their representatives,
one may study the human species in almost every possible variety of
type. English, Americans, Russians, Greeks, Italians, Germans, Persians,
Circassians, Arabs, Koords, Austrians, Hungarians, Abyssinians, Tartars,
French, &c. &c., hurry to and fro around the Turk, who smokes and
dreams, calm and immovable amidst the active throng, which presents an
inconceivable medley of silk pelisses, white bornous and black robes,
surmounted by green turbans, red fezs, and beaver hats. Numbers of
women, covered with white dominos, advance slowly and spectre-like
through the crowd, which every now and then opens its ranks to give
passage to some mounted Pasha, followed by his attendants on foot. Here
and there may be seen asses loaded with bales, and at the further end of
the galleries are caravans of camels. One's ears are deafened with the
piercing cries of the sherbet-sellers, and the howling of the dogs;
while quantities of pigeons coo over the heads of the motley crowd.
Although, on taking a general view of this spectacle, there is little to
admire, still one may select from it an infinite number of original
scenes and pictures full of character. Here, for instance, an ambulating
musician sings, or rather chants to an attentive audience one of those
interminable ballads of which the Turks never tire; there, are half a
dozen Greeks quarrelling and vociferating so energetically, that one
would expect nothing less than that from words they would come to
bloodshed; while, further on, a circle of friends are regaling
themselves over a basket of green cucumbers. Talking of cucumbers, they
almost entirely compose, in summer, the nourishment of the Turks. The
Sultan Mahmood II. was excessively fond of this fruit, or rather
vegetable, and cultivated it with his own hands in the Seraglio gardens.
Having one day perceived that some of his cucumbers were missing, he
sent for his head gardener, and informed him that, should such a
circumstance occur again, he would order his head to be cut off. The
next day three more cucumbers had been stolen, upon which the gardener,
to save his own head, accused the pages of his highness of having
committed the theft. These unhappy youths were immediately sent for, and
having all declared themselves innocent, the enraged Sultan, in order to
discover the culprit, commanded them one after another to be
disembowelled. Nothing was found in the stomach or entrails of the first
six victims, but the autopsy of the seventh proved him to have been the
guilty one.
In the midst of the crowds in the Turkish capital, the women present a
curious spectacle, wandering about as they do covered with white
dominos, or rather winding-sheets. The lot of this portion of the
Mussulman population is much less unhappy than one would be led to
expect. They certainly hold a secondary station in society, but,
brought-up as they are in the most complete ignorance, they are
unconscious of their degraded position, and know not that there is a
better. They are, in general, treated very kindly by their husbands and
masters, and do not undergo, as it is supposed, either capricious or
brutal treatment. Although in Europe they still believe a Turk to be
constantly surrounded by a multitude of odalisques, to whom, as it suits
his fancy, he throws in turn his handkerchief, at Constantinople there
are very few Osmanlees who have three or even two wives, and even these
they lodge in separate mansions, in general far distant from each other.
Almost all the Turks, with the exception of the very few above mentioned
individuals, possess in general but one wife, to whom they are most
faithful. The grand seignior alone is a Sultan in the full and
voluptuous acceptation of the term. He is possessor of a magnificent
palace, where no noise from without ever penetrates, and where immense
riches have collected together all the wonders of luxury. Marble baths,
lovely gardens bounded by a sparkling sea, and vaulted by an indigo sky,
legions of slaves, who have no will but his, no law but his caprices;
and in this Eden three or four hundred women chosen from out of the most
beautiful in the universe; this is the world, this is the life of that
man: and yet, although he be so young, all who know him say that the
present Sultan is morose, sad, and splenetic.
On mounting, at sixteen, upon the throne of Turkey, Abdul Medjid
announced it to be his intention to change nothing that his father
Mahmood had established, and declared himself a partisan of the system
of reform commenced by that sovereign. Notwithstanding the custom,
rendered almost sacred by tradition, he renounced the turban and was
_crowned_ with the fez. Contrary to the usage of former Sultans, who on
their accession put to death or closely imprisoned all their brothers,
he allowed his brother Abdul Haziz not only his life, but full liberty.
The Hatti-sherif of Gulhanch, published on the 19th of November 1839,
and which has been viewed in so many and different lights, proved at
least the good intentions of this sovereign, called so young to support
so weighty a burden. At various times he has manifested a desire for
instruction, and has taken lessons in geography and in Italian; he has
also travelled over a part of his empire.
It is usual at Constantinople for the Sultan to proceed every Friday
(the Mussulman Sabbath) to pray in one of the mosques. The one chosen is
named in the morning, and he proceeds thither on horseback or in his
caick, according to the quarter in which it is situated. This weekly
ceremony is almost the sole occasion on which foreigners can see his
highness. During my stay at Constantinople, I had several opportunities
of gazing upon the descendant of the Prophet. He is a young man, of
slender frame, of grave physiognomy, and a most _distingue_ appearance.
A crowd of officers and eunuchs formed his suite, and all heads bowed
low at his approach. Abdul Medjid, who was the twentieth-born child of
his father Mahmood, was born at Constantinople on the 19th of April
1823. His black and stiff beard cause him to appear older than he is in
reality. His eye is very brilliant, and his features regular. His face
is somewhat marked with the smallpox; but this is not very apparent, as
the young sultan, according to the custom of the harem, has an
artificial complexion for days of ceremony. Naturally of a delicate
frame, excesses have much enfeebled his constitution; his continual
ill-health, his pallor, and his teeth already decayed, announce, that
though so young in years, he is expiating the pleasures of a Sultan by a
premature decrepitude. Abdul Medjid has several children, who are weak
and sickly like their father, and the state of their health inspires
constant anxiety.
Few sovereigns have been more diversely judged than Mahmood, the father
of the present Sultan. Lauded to the skies by some, lowered to the dust
by others, he died before Europe was properly enlightened as to his
intentions. Now that his work has undergone the ordeal of time, one can
appreciate it at its real value. Ascending the throne at an epoch of
anarchy and disorder, having at one and the same time to oppose the
invasion of Russia, and to put down the rebellion of the Pashas, who
were raising their pashalicks into sovereignties, Mahmood gave proofs,
during several years, of a force of character almost inconceivable in a
man enervated from his childhood by the pleasures of the harem.
Unfortunately his intellect was unequal to his obstinacy: every abuse he
put down gave rise to or made way for new abuses, which he could not
foresee, and was unable to destroy. The established order of affairs,
which he fought against, was a hydra, from which, for one head cut off,
twenty sprang up. Far from augmenting his power, his greatest
enterprises merely tended to enfeeble it. The repression of Ali the
Pasha of Janina, cost Mahmood the kingdom of Greece; and had not the
powers of Europe intervened, the war against Mehemet Ali would have cost
him his throne. Even the destruction of the Janissaries, which was
considered so great a cause of triumph by the Sultan, was it in reality
so? It is surely permitted to doubt the circumstance. That powerful
militia, scattered through the empire, was in some sort the focus of
that spirit of fatalism, which had till then been the principal prop of
the imperfect work of the Arabian impostor; to destroy it was to strike
a death-blow to that society which breathed as it were in war alone. In
overthrowing an obstacle which paralysed his power, Mahmood dug an abyss
into which the Turkish empire must sooner or later fall; for the spirit
of religious enthusiasm which he destroyed has been replaced by no other
incentive.
The chief fault of Mahmood was the cutting down without thinking of
sowing; for without properly understanding the extent of what he was
doing, he too hastily cast from its old course, without placing it in a
better, a dull stupid nation, to transform which required both time and
patience. Above all, Mahmood was guided solely by the impulses of an
indomitable pride, and seems to have much less considered the interests
of his empire, than the satisfying of his own vanity. He hastened to
change the aspect and surface of things, deluding himself into the idea
that he had metamorphosed an Asiatic people into a European state.
Hurried away by the desire of innovation, and at the same time cramped
by the effects of a religion which resists all progress, striving in
vain to make the precepts of the Koran compatible with civilisation,
Mahmood moved during the whole of his reign within a fatal circle, and,
dying of an ignoble malady, he left his empire tottering to its fall.