The factory have great hopes that the generous Philanthrope, who lately visited Asia, will interest himself in their favour. This amiable patriot knows that
the navy is the bulwark of Britain, and that whatever tends to decrease the number of our seamen, tends to diminish the strength of our country; a truth so interesting to an Englishman, that I hope to God the accounts I hear of a most alarming decrease in our Greenlandmen are much exaggerated. A proper Lazaretto in England, by increasing our shipping in the Levant, would afford a sustenance to many of those invaluable subjects, whom a perhaps too rigid public œconomy has bereft of bread.
There are many inconveniencies attending a correspondence between this country and Europe. The post sets out and arrives but twice a month. It goes through Constantinople and Vienna, and unless letters to and from England are taken up, and paid for at each of those places, they will never reach their destination. The want of a more regular communication must be sensibly felt in a place of so much trade.
We found near one hundred sail of merchantmen in the bay, every one of whom saluted us; for, to raise the European Powers in the eyes of the Turks, it is the custom at Smyrna to salute every man of war that enters the port. The same ceremony was performed on our going on shore the next day; and, as soon as we landed at Mr. Hayes', we were waited upon by the Consuls and Factories of the different nations, who have given us the most flattering reception. Scarce an evening passes without a ball or a concert, or some other party, for our amusement: but I am much surprised at the excessive dread in which the Christians live of their fellow subjects, the Mahometans. They dwell in separate districts, and are as fearful of going promiscuously among them, as into a den of wild beasts. The Turks have, indeed, a lordly, imperious air, which I suppose they acquire from the abject manner of the Greeks, who, being a conquered people, are always suspected of rebellious intentions, and almost extirpated on the least appearance of an insurrection; which obliges them to crouch so much to the conquerors, that they imagine all other Christians equally dastardly, and hold us in the same light as we do the Jews--a mean, money-making, unbelieving sect: but I am convinced, that if we went more among them, we should hear of fewer insults. I was so confident of this, that, without mentioning my intentions, I set out, and, after walking round the Turkish town, struck down through its very center, without meeting any interruption, except from one man, who, pointing at me, called out Bah! and two or three boys, who threw stones, but who were immediately called in by their father. I doubt whether a foreigner, in a strange dress, would pass through London with so little molestation.
Nevertheless, like the Jews in England, there have been instances here of the Christians being most inhumanly massacred; but this has never happened but after some signal disaster to the Turks, to which they supposed they had contributed; such as the destruction of their fleet in the Chisemé, which they knew the Russians could not have effected without the assistance of other powers; and the rabble make very little distinction of nations, confounding all Europeans together, under the appellation of Franks.
The poor Greeks complain much of their cruelty and oppression; but, in points of honour, our merchants tell me no people are stricter than the Turks. In other respects, the reports they give of their laws and customs, vary so much, that it is impossible for a stranger, as I am, and ignorant of the language of the country, to send you a more perfect account.
LETTER. XVI.
TO CAPTAIN SMITH.
Smyrna, December 31st.