SPORT AND SOCIETY.
I have mentioned, in what I have written above relating to sport, the
name of a somewhat celebrated spaniel of mine, whose name was 'Dick.'
The commencement of this bow-wow's career was as strange as the many
adventures he afterwards went through. When he was quite a young dog, he
once worked with me all day in ice and snow, and at last fell down
lifeless. A heavy snowstorm was raging, and as poor Dick seemed quite
dead, we made him a grave in the snow and covered him up with leaves and
bushes. We accomplished this with difficulty, on account of the blinding
snow and the streams that were much swollen by torrents from the
mountains. Dick's burial-place was about eight miles from where the
vessel was lying. We all got on board that night. I was deeply grieved
at the loss of the dog, who had already shown great promise as a
first-class sporting dog, a most difficult thing to procure in this
country. What was our astonishment the next morning at daylight to see
Dick on the beach, making piteous howls to draw attention to his
whereabouts. He was warmly welcomed, as may be supposed; he did not seem
a bit the worse for his brief sojourn in the grave, and went out
shooting again the same day as happy as ever. This enthusiastic little
spaniel was always doing strange things; he followed every fox and every
badger into their holes, and we have had, time after time, to dig him
out covered with blood and fearfully mauled, after having passed perhaps
twenty-four hours in the earth.
Mr. Dick generally hunted alone, occasionally coming near to see that I
was all right. Now this sounds bad for Dick's qualities as a sporting
dog, but such a dog is necessary in a thickly-wooded region such as I
shot in, when one wants to know what is in the country.
Dick, when he found anything, barked loudly; and this drew attention to
the fact that there was game in that quarter. Sometimes, of course, he
drove the game away; at others he drove it towards me. At all events he
went to places where I never could have gone. On one occasion I heard a
great noise among some long reeds near a lake were I was duck
shooting--Dick barking, some other animal making a strange noise. This
went on so long that at last I went to see what was the matter. After
much trouble I got into the reeds and approached the noise, which was
momentarily getting worse. On coming close I found an animal about
Dick's size standing on its hind legs and fighting with its fore paws,
Dick covered with blood, fighting hard and watching an opportunity to
close with his enemy. On my approach the animal dropped on to fore paws
and endeavoured to escape, on which Dick jumped on to him, thus making
it very difficult for me to use my gun. However, at last, by watching my
opportunity, I fired a shot which disposed of the fighting powers of the
beast, which turned out to be a very large badger. I never could
understand what he was doing so far away from his place of refuge. Was
he after ducks, or what? The animal was at least a quarter of a mile
away from dry land, being in the middle of a marsh, overgrown with
reeds. Another of Mr. Dick's adventures ended more unfortunately for
him, as I fear he never got over its effects. I again, as on the last
occasion, heard him evidently furiously engaged with something in a
thick wood. After crawling on my hands and knees for some time, I found
Dick and two other of my spaniels in furious combat with an enormous
wild cat, who when I came up was holding her own against the dogs. The
beast got her back against a tree, and was fighting all three dogs,
keeping them at a respectful distance. My man seized a piece of wood,
more like a little tree than a stick, and made a blow at the cat, which
blow unfortunately came down with great force on Dick's head. The poor
dog lay senseless for some time, and then crawled away, seeming to say,
'I'll have nothing more to do with you.' He never recovered that blow,
and became quite a different dog, dying some months afterwards.
The feathered game shooting is very good in the neighbourhood of
Constantinople. Pheasants, though rare, may be obtained five or six in a
day. I have killed fifteen to my own gun, and with a party of three we
bagged sixty-six in three days.
Snipe shooting is also very good. An idea of the bags that may be made
will be seen when I say that at Besika Bay, close to the Dardanelles, I
killed in three days three hundred and three snipe, an average of one
hundred and one a day. When there is snow lying on the hills there are
plenty of cock; myself and two friends having killed in three days two
hundred and ninety-eight long bills.
My best bag in cock has been sixty-three in one day's shooting alone. I
have lately taken to punting after ducks, and have been very successful.
One gets twenty to thirty a day, and occasionally a swan. I once killed
four of the latter with one shot from my punt gun (one of Holland &
Holland's). Hares are not very numerous; to get three or four in a day
is counted good luck; but one generally picks up one or two during a
day's shooting. Thus the sum of what you have in this country is red
deer, fallow deer, roe deer, pigs, wolves, and bears (as to the latter,
rare), hares, pheasants, cocks, snipe, quails, and ducks; so that a man
who lays himself out for sport and has a yacht can have plenty of
amusement between September and March.
The coast of Karamania, taking in all the coast from some distance below
Smyrna, passing Rhodes and so on to the Gulf of Ayas, affords all the
way along capital sport to yachting men. For example, in the large gulfs
of Boudroum and Marmorice, capital anchorage will be found, and a
country almost virgin as far as sport is concerned.
Some years since, while commanding an English ship-of-war, I had the
good fortune to be sent on a roving commission against pirates that were
supposed to infest that coast. Somehow I always _imagined_ that pirates
were more or less sportsmen, so I hunted for them in places that looked
gamey, and thus made the acquaintance of many almost unknown, or at all
events unfrequented, harbours and creeks, in which I had famous sport.
On the coast of Karamania the ibex is to be found in considerable
quantities; the red-legged partridge and the francolin are also very
abundant, and give capital sport.
There are also at the head of the gulf I have alluded to large marshes
for duck and snipe. The most celebrated, because the best known place in
the part I am alluding to, is the Gulf of Ayas, into which runs the
well-known (to all naval sportsmen) river called the Jihoon. A yacht
must anchor at some distance off the entrance of this river, but the
anchorage is quite safe in all weathers. Getting over the bar of the
river is a matter at times of considerable difficulty, but once inside
the bar you are in the paradise of shooting. A small steam launch is
necessary to stem the strong current, and to tow another boat up with
tents, provisions, &c. It is true that in my time we had no steam
launches, and I shall not forget the hard work we had to take two boats
sufficiently far up the river to get well into the shooting grounds, and
even after two days' struggling we did not arrive so far as I should
have wished (we, in fact, only got four miles up the stream). Still we
had some rare sport, the more especially with pigs and francolin. The
morning after we had pitched our tents some wandering Arabs came to us
and offered to beat the woods, which they declared to be full of wild
boar. They told us that the habit of these animals was, on being driven,
to take to the river and swim to the other side; so we placed our guns
along the banks and told the boat to guard the river from pigs swimming
across, and try to stop them as best they could. The guns available for
the shore work consisted of myself and two friends and my coxswain, who
was armed with a ship's rifle. The Arabs went into the bush on
horseback; the beat had hardly begun when a lot of pigs were started,
all making for the river; three of these were knocked over. As they
approached several others dashed into the river, and a most amusing hunt
was made after them by the sailors. Not being armed with rifles, their
weapons of offence against piggy were revolvers, ropes, and the
stretchers of the boats.
There was, as may be supposed, great excitement among the men when the
pigs took to the water; they at once went at them, firing revolvers,
pulling after them as they swam, using language not allowed in these
refined days in the navy; and, before we got to the scene of action
they had lassoed as it were two fine pigs, and tied them to trees on the
river-side, and when we arrived were firing their revolvers at them
apparently with very little effect; however, we soon gave the animals
the _coup de grâce_. Thus we killed five pigs in our first drive. We
took the liver, alias fry, out of the pigs to eat (it is most
excellent), cut off the heads of the tuskers, and hung the remaining
parts on a tree to wait our return, changing our camp further up the
river the same night. The next morning early I took a stroll into the
woods by myself; while looking about me I saw what I thought was a large
animal sleeping in the bushes. I began accordingly to stalk him. I got
within eighty yards, put my gun up to shoot, but as I could not pitch on
a vital part to aim at, only seeing a mass of what was evidently an
animal rolled up, I went nearer and nearer; in fact, little by little, I
got within ten yards of the quarry; then I fired a ball into what I now
saw was a huge pig. No move! What did it mean? I could not have killed
it sleeping. However, I took courage and went close and put my hand on
the beast; what should it be but an immense boar lying dead in his lair.
He must have died months before I found him, as the skin fell to pieces
on being touched, the hair into powder; his head was a splendid one,
but I could only save the jawbones, in which were a grand pair of tusks.
The moral of this was that pigs, like everything else, die--sometimes
quietly in their beds, be that retreat only a lair in the forest; but it
is a rare occurrence to find relics of wild animals in so perfect a
state. I fancy their friends and relations generally eat them. The bed
or lair he was lying in was a most snug spot, and he would have been
quite invisible had not some of the brushwood been burnt away, Arab
fashion, a short time before I found him.
I must warn any sportsman intending to shoot in the Jihoon river that
the wandering Arabs who are to be found there, though not brigands of a
high order, are petty thieves to the last degree. We were always obliged
to keep a watch in our tents, leaving a man behind in charge when we
went on shooting excursions. On one occasion we found on our return that
our watchman had captured an old woman whom he caught in the act of
creeping under the tent and stealing a spoon. I had myself a curious
adventure. An Arab told me that he knew where a boar was lying in the
long grass, and that he would take me to the spot if I would accompany
him. We started off together, and on getting well into the wood we went
on our hands and knees, crawling under the trees and brushwood, towards
the spot where the boar was supposed to be. We had to keep quite close
together. I carried round my neck a very pretty silver whistle, which I
prized exceedingly. Suddenly, when we were in a very thick part of the
bush, the Arab seized hold of my whistle and held it tight. I
immediately grasped the hand that held the whistle; this I did with my
right hand holding his left. He, with his right hand, tried to draw a
knife. I, with my left, tried to get my gun to bear on him, but there
was so little room to spare on account of the thick bush that both our
operations were difficult of performance. As soon as I saw him trying to
draw a knife, I dropped the hand with the whistle, and seized that with
which he tried to draw the knife. Thus the play went on for two or three
minutes; neither of us spoke, all our energies were directed on our
different games. At last, by turning round a little, I succeeded in
giving him a tremendous kick, which rolled him over on his back; then my
gun was free, and I held it to his head, upon which he took an attitude
of supplication on his knees, and prayed for quarter. I made him give me
his knife, go on all-fours again, and creep before me out of the wood.
This was a most audacious attempt at petty robbery. I should like to
have peppered him a little, but he was so penitent, I decided to let
him go. I don't think he meant to stab me; I think he merely wanted to
cut the string that held the whistle. These men were not generally
murderers. On this trip we killed twelve pigs, a hundred and seven
francolin, one lynx, and lots of cock and ducks. Coming back to the ship
I, and those with me in my boat, very nearly came to utter grief. There
was a good deal of sea on the bar of the river. The cutter that was with
me got over all safe, but my whale-boat being loaded heavily with pigs,
&c., refused to rise with the waves, and not doing so, the consequences
were that she filled and capsized. We had all to jump and make for the
shore, a distance of nearly a mile, being in the greatest danger while
doing so of getting into the current of the river. Any one who had done
this must have been washed away and drowned; however, thank goodness,
all hands were saved. The whale-boat was afterwards picked up, having
been washed out to sea, but we lost all tents, spare guns, &c.; the pigs
remained in the boat, as they were stowed under the thwarts, and hadn't
room to float out; so, friends, take warning of the bar of the Jihoon
river.
It was about this time that I received a report from some American
missionaries to the effect that one of their comrades had been robbed
and murdered by some Arabs who inhabited the mountains near
Alexandretta, people whose evil deeds had for some time past brought
them into notoriety. Although I was under orders to join the
commander-in-chief, I took it upon myself to remain and assist the
Americans in hunting down if possible the murderers of their comrade.
I confess I was made more zealous in the cause from hearing that there
were 'lots of big game on the hills.' I invited two or three of these
American missionaries to join my mess, and off we went to look for the
murderers. As this is a chapter on shooting, I will as briefly as
possible state what we did in the official way. In the first place we
anchored at the head of the Gulf of Ayas, near a large town where
resided the chief authority of the neighbourhood in which the murder had
been committed. I landed with the missionaries, several of my officers,
and some marines to act as an escort, and paid an official visit to this
gentleman, who was called the caimakam, or chief magistrate. This great
man told us that we should certainly with his assistance find the people
we were after. He suggested that we should accompany him with a small
body of our men, to which he could add some of his zeptiehs: that thus
accompanied he would go to a place on the hill where we should find
what we wanted. He said that a little 'backsheesh' was necessary. This
latter we found, and the next day we started.
We ascended amongst the most magnificent wooded hills I ever saw. 'Such
places for game!' thought I, till at last we halted at a clump of
splendid oak trees. Under one of these a grand luncheon was spread, of
which we were all invited to partake. During the luncheon a man rushed
up to our host and whispered in his ear something which seemed to give
him great satisfaction, for he at once smilingly said, 'Captain, I have
found the men you are after;' and sure enough we saw approaching two
ruffianly looking fellows, tied together, and being dragged along by men
on horseback. I hope they were the right men. I will presume that they
were, but they had been very quick in catching them. After my missionary
friend who spoke their language had interrogated the prisoners, he
requested that they might be kept apart, which was done, and they were
given in charge of separate sentinels, to whose horses they were tied.
We then returned to our lunch, our pipes, and our coffee. Suddenly we
heard a pistol shot, a rush, and a scream from the neighbourhood of the
prisoners. It seems that one of them had drawn the pistol from his
guardian's belt, shot him dead, jumped on to the horse, and galloped
off. Everybody, marines and all, tried to follow. Such a row never was
heard; but the man knew the country, and we saw him no more. I was
rather glad, for he must have been a plucky fellow.
The other prisoner was doubly secured and taken down to the village. He
was afterwards hanged, so justice was satisfied and my work finished. I
got a letter of thanks from the President of the United States, of which
I was and am still very proud, and meant to have used had
blockade-running brought me to grief.
This business being satisfactorily concluded, I asked my friend the
caimakam if there was any big game to be had. His answer was, 'Chok au
Va,' which meant there was plenty: and he undertook to beat the
neighbouring woods that very day with his men. We were told that there
were plenty of roe deer, foxes, jackals, &c., so we loaded our guns with
S.S.G. cartridges (which means, I may tell it to the uninitiated,
buck-shot). We were stationed on the outskirts of a splendid oak wood
that looked like holding any mortal thing in the way of game. Soon as
the beaters set to work cocks began to fly about in all directions, but
we had an instinct that something more important would turn up, so took
no notice of feathered game. I was watching close, trying to look
through almost impenetrable brushwood, when I heard a rustling sort of
noise near me, and suddenly I caught sight of something which almost
made my hair stand on end--a great tiger leopard, creeping, stealthily
as a cat, out of the wood, within twenty yards of where I was standing.
Fortunately he did not look my way. What was I to do? My gun, as I said,
was loaded with buck-shot; a miss or a wound would have been sure to
bring the brute on top of me. However, I did not hesitate more than a
couple of seconds; I pointed my gun at his heart just behind the
shoulder, and pulled the trigger. The whole charge went straight where I
pointed it, and the tiger rolled over on his back. I put a ball into my
gun and approached him very gingerly. When I got close to him I found he
hadn't a kick in him. His claws were crunched up as if grasping
something, his grand eyes were growing dim, and though, to make all
sure, I fired a ball into his head, it was not necessary, as I found
nine buckshot in the heart. He was a splendid beast, eleven feet from
tip of tail to end of nose. It was said that he had killed a shepherd
some days before, so he deserved his fate.
Before returning to the ship that evening, we arranged that the Arabs
should turn out the next day to drive the covers on the beach near the
ship, which were supposed to hold deer and pigs. I must mention that
these Arabs are very different to the wandering tribes we had lately
been amongst; they are warlike, unscrupulous, and dishonest. We made an
arrangement with them that _all_ game killed should belong to us, the
beaters being paid in gunpowder, which they prized very much. The Arabs
thought we should only find pig, and as Mussulmen won't touch it, the
bargain was considered satisfactory to both parties.
It so happened that at the first drive a very fine deer, of a species I
had never seen before, broke cover. I had the luck to shoot him, and as
the ship was lying very near, we hailed her for a boat in which to send
off our game. I saw a good deal of whispering among the Arabs, who,
after some discussion, informed us through one of the missionaries, who
kindly acted as interpreter, that the deer must belong to them, as they
only promised to give the pigs, and they openly declared we should not
take it on board. I wasn't going to stand this, for many reasons. In the
first place it was necessary to show these people that we were their
masters; secondly, by our agreement the deer was ours. When the boat (a
cutter with ten men unarmed) had come on shore, I gave orders for the
men to return and bring their arms and ten marines, also armed. The
Arabs, of whom there were about one hundred armed to the teeth, seemed
firm in their decision; so was I. When I pointed to my armed men, who
were by this time landing, they pointed with the same significant
gestures to their armed men. At this critical moment, my first
lieutenant, seeing that something was wrong, fired a shell right over
our heads to intimidate the Arabs, and the result showed that it had
that effect. The deer was lying on the beach. I ordered the marines to
form a cordon round him, and the sailors to bring up the boat stretchers
on which to lay the animal. When all was ready I gave the command to
carry it away and put it in the boat. The Arabs cocked their muskets and
made a move forward; the marines turned and faced them. I thought we
were in for a fight; however, the bearers carried off their charge and
placed it in the boat, when to my astonishment the Arab chief put down
his musket and came and made his salaam to me, asking if he might be
allowed to visit the ship. I, of course, was delighted. We took him and
several of his friends on board, and the visit ended in their all
getting roaring drunk, being hoisted over the ship's side and landed on
the beach. So passed off what might have been a serious affair. I might
have become involved in a long explanation to show that I was right in
protecting my game by armed force, but under all the circumstances I
feel that I was fully justified in doing so.
I should like before finishing these sketches to say something about the
society of Constantinople. As one cannot always be out shooting, it is
very important to our happiness to have something to fall back upon in
the social way. I was told once by a very great friend of mine, who saw
that I was inclined to fret, 'to take everything as a joke.' If one's
liver is in good order it is very easy to do so, but sometimes the
contrary is the case, and it makes one at times quite savage to see the
airs that are temporarily put on by those that form the so-called upper
or diplomatic society of Pera. Here are really amiable people so utterly
spoilt by the exalted idea of their own dignity that they become
absolute bores, especially to any one accustomed to good society. If you
go to a soirée you see grouped together, for fear of contamination with
the outsiders (without which a successful party cannot be formed), the
members of the so-called 'sacred circle,' talking to each other in
dignified (or undignified, as the case may be judged) whispers. While
all are cheerful and gay, you scarcely see a smile on the countenances
of these tremendous swells.
If you go in the street you will meet a creature dressed in most
gorgeous apparel, armed to the teeth with firearms that probably won't
go off, knives and daggers covered with precious stones, walking
solemnly along. If you look carefully among the crowd in his wake you
will discover some one, or ones, walking with an indignant swagger at
being hustled by the vulgar crowd. The man in gold, armed to the teeth,
is what is called a _cavass_, and these swells behind are the
representatives, male or female, of some foreign potentate, taking a
walk. It would be quite _infra dig._ to go without one of these useless
appendages. Again, if an individual not belonging to the 'sacred circle'
meets a foreign representative who condescends to speak to him, and
while he is doing so another member of an embassy 'heaves in sight,' the
first swell will immediately sheer off, looking ashamed at having so far
forgotten himself as to be seen speaking to any one outside 'his
circle.' You may occasionally be invited to the houses of these exalted
personages, but there is always an implied condescension in their
attitude which tends to negative the effect of their good intentions.
And all this is a great pity, because these people must be tired of
each other, and would find quite as much intelligence outside as inside
their circle. Besides, there are charming people among them who would
ornament any society, but their ill-acted airs of 'brief authority'
quite spoil them, and make them, as I said, bores to themselves and to
those who would be their friends.
I will, in proof of what I say, relate a short anecdote as to what
occurred in the house of a friend of mine.
This friend gave a very large fancy dress ball, at which two or three
hundred people were present. The ball was in every way a success, but as
the giver did not belong to the 'sacred circle,' the members of that
body only condescended to go for a short time. I have no doubt (for
there are lots of jolly people among them) that they would have liked to
have stopped much longer, but it was not thought 'dignified.' So, after
a short time, most of the 'sacred circle' sneaked away. One of them who
had two charming daughters, devoted to dancing, not having noticed the
departure of the great people till that moment, came hurriedly to my
friend and said, 'Goodnight, I _must go_, every one is gone.' 'Every
one?' said my friend, 'why, look at the rooms, there are at least two
hundred people dancing and amusing themselves.' 'Yes, I see,' said the
diplomat (he was rather a small one), 'but I mean the ambassadors and
their parties, are gone, so I _must_ go; but for once, to please you,
I'll leave my daughters.' I believe my friend answered, 'You may go to
the d----l.' This is a fact, and shows the unfortunate system that ruins
to a great extent the sociability of society in Pera.
Now it is true that all these people are called barons, counts,
viscounts, &c., but my friend belongs to a right good family, and would
have been more than the equal of many of them had they met in Paris,
London, St. Petersburg, Berlin, or Vienna. The title of baron, &c.,
seems to me to be always given to a diplomat _ex-officio_. However,
barons or no barons, the rule of exclusiveness laid down by the 'sacred
circle' at Constantinople is to be deplored as it injures society sadly.
Few large parties are given now except those got up by the great people.
When an outsider sends out invitations for a ball, or any other kind of
_réunion_, the negotiations that go on between the swells as to whether
they should patronise it or not are comical in the extreme. Should ever
so slight an omission in the form of these invitations, or a mere
accident in the delivery thereof, appear to them to touch their dignity,
they will probably all absent themselves in a body, even were it
question of the marriage or the funeral of one of their oldest and most
respectable acquaintances. Not being one of them, and not caring very
much for artificial society, I look on with great amusement. Some one
gave great offence on a late occasion, while describing society in Pera,
by suggesting that if there were a European court here things would be
very different; so they might. People would then find their level, as
they do in other capitals.
I feel very sorry for the members of the 'sacred circle.' Not only do
they lose much now, but it will be awkward for them when they go back
from whence they came. A short time ago I asked a very high and mighty
personage if she did not fear the change that must come when she left
Constantinople. She answered with great frankness: 'I feel that most of
what you say is correct, but before I came here I was very small fry;
now I know I am a swell, and mean to enjoy myself.' She was like those
reckless ones who cried: 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' I
have seen a stand made by one or two of these mighty ones, an attempt to
break down the system of pompous exclusiveness, but that attempt
unfortunately failed.
I must say that the foreign colonies in Pera are much to blame, for
they worship with all their minds and all their strength their different
chiefs and chieftainesses, and human nature being weak, &c. &c.
Apart from the 'sacred circle' there is a nice little society where
people go in for enjoying themselves, and succeed in doing so very
comfortably; but even there, with some few exceptions, there is that
secret longing for one or two of the swells--even a junior secretary of
an embassy is looked upon as a desideratum.
The Greeks keep very much to themselves; so do the Armenians. The Turks
are exceedingly fond of going into society, but their domestic
arrangements tend to prevent their entertaining.
His Majesty the Sultan frequently invites European ladies to his dinner
parties, and those who have had that honour must have thoroughly enjoyed
the delicious music and the pleasant entertainments after dinner at the
Palace of Yildiz. I don't see why His Imperial Majesty's example is not
followed by some of his subjects; perhaps we may yet come to that
by-and-by.
In what I have said about society in Pera I have not meant to be
personal or offensive in any way. My object has been to show up a rotten
system whereby everybody suffers. I have some remote hope that things
may change for the better, especially as one of the chief promoters of
the system has now left Constantinople.
If I bring these pages to a somewhat abrupt conclusion, it is because I
have had the bad luck to get a chill out shooting, and have been
somewhat seriously ill. However, I have hope that there is 'life in the
old dog yet,' and that I may before long have some other adventures of a
similar description to add to these 'unvarnished sketches' of my life.
_EXTRACT FROM THE 'DAILY TELEGRAPH,'
June 21, 1886._
'There will be some slight and melancholy satisfaction to his sorrowing
family, and his many friends, in the knowledge of the fact that Hobart
Pasha, a short time before his death, had prepared for publication a
memoir of his stirring life and adventures. The only fault, if fault
there be, in this record, may lie in the circumstance that its readers
may think it too brief. At all events, we shall be told what Hobart had
been about ever since the year 1836. It is certain that he never was
idle. Even before he had passed his examination for lieutenant, he had
distinguished himself while serving in the squadron told off to suppress
the slave trade in Brazilian waters: and in those days our naval
operations against the Portuguese traders in "blackbirds" involved
considerable peril to life and limb.
'Eighteen years, however, elapsed before Captain Augustus Hobart was
able to shot his guns in view of the broadside of a European foe. He had
previously enjoyed two years' half-holiday at home; that is to say, he
had been appointed, as a reward for his services in South America, to a
lieutenancy on board the Royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, then
commanded by the late Adolphus Fitz-Clarence. But in the historically
momentous year 1854 there was serious business to be done by
Lieutenant--now Commander--Hobart. A diplomatic squabble between France
and Russia about the Holy Places in Palestine developed into an angry
quarrel between the Emperor Nicholas, France, and England. We went to
war with Russia. A magnificent squadron of British first-rates was
despatched to the Black Sea with the avowed object of destroying the
Russian Fleet, which had characteristically annihilated the Turkish
Fleet in the harbour of Sinope. We did not do much in the Black Sea
beyond running the Tiger on shore, where her crew were captured by the
Muscovites. We bombarded Odessa perfunctorily, and precisely in that
portion of the city where our shot and shell could do the least harm. We
did not destroy the Russian Fleet, for the sufficing reason that the
Russian Commander-in-Chief sank all his three-deckers full fathom five
in the harbour of Sebastopol.
'In the Baltic, however, there was a little more fighting to show for
the many millions sterling wrung from the British taxpayer. To the
coasts of Finland was sent a splendid Armada, commanded by one of the
bravest seamen that ever adorned the glorious muster-roll of the Royal
Navy of England, Admiral Sir Charles Napier. Under his orders was
Captain Augustus Hobart, in command of Her Majesty's ship Driver. "Lads,
sharpen your cutlasses!" thus began the memorable manifesto addressed by
the hero of St. Jean d'Acre to the gallant tars. The Baltic fleet was to
do wonders. The lads, with their cutlasses very well sharpened, went
aboard the Russian war-ships before Cronstadt, stormed the seven forts
which guard the entrance to that harbour, and sailed up the Neva even to
St. Petersburg itself. It is true that ere the war was over a spy
informed Lord Augustus Loftus, then Her Majesty's Ambassador at Berlin,
that a certain channel or waterway existed unguarded by any fort at all,
by which a British flotilla with muffled oars could have got quietly
into the Neva without taking the trouble to destroy the Russian fleet or
to blow the seven forts of Cronstadt into the air. The revelations of
the spy went for nothing; and, after the cutlasses of the lads in
blue-jackets had been sharpened to a razor-like degree of keenness,
those blades, for some occult reason, were not allowed to cut deep
enough; the only cutting--and running into the bargain--being done by
the Russian fleet, which, safely ensconced in the harbour of Cronstadt,
defied us from behind the walls of fortresses which we did not care to
bombard. Still, the Baltic fleet was not wholly idle. There was some
fighting and some advantage gained over the Russians at Helsingfors, at
Arbo, and notably at Bomarsund. In all these engagements Commander
Hobart distinguished himself--so brilliantly, indeed, as to be named
with high approval in official despatches.
'Soldiers in peace, Bacon has remarked, are like chimneys in summer.
Hobart seemed resolved that the aphorism quoted by Francis of Verulam
should not be verified in the case of sailors. The fire of the Earl of
Buckinghamshire's son was always alight, and he became, during the great
Civil War in America the boldest of blockade-runners. When the
Confederacy collapsed Hobart, by this time a Post-Captain, received
overtures of employment from the Turkish Government, and in 1868 he was
appointed, as Admiral Slade had been before him, to a high command in
the Ottoman Navy. It was a curious illustration of the various turns of
fate here below to find in 1869 the Sultan, the Commander of the
Faithful, sending the Giaour Hobart Pasha, the erst Secesh
blockade-runner, to the island of Crete to put down blockade-running on
the part of the intensely patriotic but occasionally troublesome Greeks.
Hobart was entrusted with unlimited powers, and he accomplished his
mission with so much vigour and with so much skill as to insure the good
graces of the Porte, and he soon rose to be Inspector-General of the
Imperial Ottoman Navy. Although his name was necessarily erased from the
list of the Royal Navy when he definitely threw in his lot with the
Sultan on the breaking out of the Turko-Russian war, all English
admirers of pluck and daring were glad to learn at a comparatively
recent period that the Honourable Augustus Charles Hobart Hampden had
been reinstated by Royal command in his rank in the British Navy.
'It was the good fortune of the distinguished maritime commander just
deceased, to win golden opinions from all sorts of peoples, and his name
and prowess will be as cordially remembered in his native land, and in
the Southern States of America, as on the shores of the Bosphorus and
the Golden Horn.
'A thorough Englishman at heart, he was none the less a fervent
philo-Turk in politics and convictions, and latterly devoted his talents
and his life to the defence of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. As
ready with his pen as with his sword, he was a clear, trenchant,
vigorous writer, and could talk on paper as fluently and as cogently
about ironclads and torpedoes as about the wrongs of the natives of
Lazistan, the necessity of upholding the integrity of the Turkish
Empire, and of circumventing the dark and crooked wiles of Russian
diplomacy. Altogether Augustus Charles Hobart was a remarkable
man--bluff, bold, dashing, and somewhat dogged. There was in his
composition something of the mediæval "condottiere," and a good deal
more of that Dugald Dalgetty whom Scott drew. Gustavus Adolphus would
have made much of Hobart; the great Czarina, Catherine II., would have
appointed him Commander-in-Chief of her fleet, and covered him with
honours, even as she did her Scotch Admiral Gleig, and that other yet
more famous sea-dog, king of corsairs, Paul Jones. It would be unjust to
sneer at Hobart as a mercenary. His was no more a hired sword than were
the blades of Schomberg and Berwick, of Maurice de Saxe and Eugene of
Savoy. When there was fighting to be done Hobart liked to be in it--that
is all. Of the fearless, dashing, adventurous Englishman, ready to go
anywhere and do anything, Hobart was a brilliantly representative type.
Originally endowed with a most vigorous physique, his constitution
became sapped at last by long years of hardship and fatigue incident to
the vicissitudes of a daring, adventurous career. He left Constantinople
on leave of absence some months ago to recruit his shattered health, and
spent several weeks at the Riviera. But it would seem that he
experienced little relief from the delicious climate of the South of
France, and it was on his homeward journey to Constantinople that this
brave and upright British worthy breathed his last. The immediate cause
of his death was, it is stated, an affection of the heart, a term
covering a vast extent of unexplored ground. It would be nearer the
truth to say that the frame of Augustus Charles Hobart was literally
worn out by travel and exposure and hard work of every kind which had
been his lot, with but brief intervals of repose, ever since the day, in
the year 1836, when as a boy of thirteen he joined the Navy as a
midshipman.'
* * * * *
It will be gratifying to Englishmen to know that their distinguished
countryman received at his burial all the honours due to his high
station and noble qualities. Such a concourse of people of all ranks and
nations had never been seen at any public ceremony on the Bosphorus as
that which, on July 24, accompanied the remains of Hobart Pasha to their
last resting place in the English cemetery at Scutari, not far from the
spot where a tall granite obelisk records the brave deeds and glorious
death of those heroes who perished in the Crimean War.
[Footnote 1: It must be understood that both men and boats were
disguised so as to resemble the ordinary fishing coasters about those
parts.]
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