About the beginning of August 1894 I left England, stopping for two weeks on my journey in Paris, and a few days in Buda-Pesth, the capital of the people between whom and the Turks there is a community of origin, and whom we fought and subjugated for generations. On arriving at Constantinople the police officials sternly asked my name, whence I came, and where I was going to put up. I told them I was going direct to the imperial palace, whereupon they saluted me and I got out of the station with some feeling of relief. It was a foolhardy game I was attempting to play. I was now at the mercy of an autocrat who deals with his Osmanli subjects in his own well known fashion, and I was one of the few who was enlightened enough to see his true characteristics, and in consequence to detest his rule at heart In the Yildiz Palace I was really shivering with anxiety, knowing that here thousands of people who were denounced as 'Young-Turks' were imprisoned, examined, and tortured, and then sent into exile. While awaiting my fate in the palace, a certain Faik Bey, one of the Sultan's trusted courtiers, a man of no good repute, came to me with a very kind message from his Majesty. He was glad that I had obeyed him, and come back from the country which "is nursing hostility to Turkey, and plotting against the cause of the Caliphate." I am not certain whether these were the words of the Sultan, or whether his courtier made them up. The Sultan sent me twenty pounds as pocket-money and wished me to go home and rest. Well, this apparently kind treatment was consoling, but, however foolhardy, I had sense enough to see that it was not a good omen for the future. Just as I was leaving the palace I was ordered by the courtier not to mix with people much, and to live as quietly as possible. He also asked me to come and see him after two days. From the palace I went to Pera and engaged apartments. I was now afraid of going to see my relations and friends. I met some of them later on while going about in Constantinople, and we had to pass each other with a mere salute, as they were also afraid of being reported by the spies for talking to me, since they knew all about my escaping to England It is a very depressing and lonely condition to be in, to have to avoid one's friends and relations because a tyrant has issued a warning to that effect.
In compliance with the order, I went to the Palace again and saw the same chamberlain. He handed me over another twenty pounds as a mark of imperial benevolence, and said he would pay me the same amount every month as 'private salary.' And then he said in a low voice, coming nearer to me, "His Majesty, our benevolent master, commands me to ask you to write a report if you hear anything important on the political situation." My heart froze on hearing this contemptible proposal. By a monthly salary of twenty pounds the Sultan wanted to make me a Palace spy! A downright refusal would bring ruin on me, so I told the courtier that as I had been ordered not to come into intimate contact with other people, I could not hear anything of importance. He said there would be no harm in my meeting Europeans. I did not understand the significance of this last remark at the moment Proceeding in his talk, the courtier said that as I had graduated in law, the Minister of Justice would be ordered to make me a deputy prosecutor-general in the central criminal courts of Constantinople. I carefully avoided alluding to the promise of the Sultan made to me by his representative in London, that the income of my property would be given to me, and that I should be allowed to go to Europe. Nor did I express any desire to go to Europe again. I was made a deputy prosecutor-general in a few days by a special iradé. Before I went to England they would never have given me a post even inferior to this had I applied for it again and again for months. There are about a dozen deputy or assistant prosecutors like myself in these central courts, and each of them gets a salary of nearly £180 a year. As a rule, they are not very busy people. As my superiors could not urge me to attend the office, imagining I was highly in favour at the Sultan's palace, I did not care much about going to the court, and making one of the idle scamps there. I was hard at work devising a new plan of escaping once more from the hands of the Sultan.
At this time, when his Majesty appeared to be going to honour me so magnanimously with a Government appointment, as well as with that attractive 'private salary' in order to tempt me to acts of espionage, his spies kept an eye on my movements constantly. Every day I was watched, talked to, and even entertained by two or three of these creatures. I informed my old English friend of all that had happened to me of late. He reproached me for being so imprudent as to return to Turkey, and not going to Egypt if I had to leave England. However, what was done was done, and it was no good regretting it What I wanted now was to escape out of the country again as soon as I could get an opportunity. My friend seemed very sceptical as to my chances of success in running away a second time, as he thought, and rightly too, that the watch on my movements would be far stricter now than it was before.
While things were in this condition, I was one morning hurriedly summoned to the palace by a mounted messenger. Of course I had to go at once and saw the same courtier who had so suavely informed me of the imperial benevolence on the two former occasions. This time his manner seemed grave and cool, and so soon as I was seated he said that he was surprised that I should abuse the generous kindness of our august benefactor. On my anxiously asking him the nature of my fault, he said he had received a report (an espionage report, of course) that I was revealing confidential matters of State among the Europeans of Pera. He showed me the report, carefully hiding, however, the signature beneath it with his thumb. I at once discovered the author of the shameless document from the handwriting. The man, who never perhaps supposed that the report would have been shown to me, had hospitably invited me to dinner two days previously. The courtier gave me a sharp warning to avoid spreading the confidential matters of the Sultan's Government among foreigners. Although my safety seemed to be hanging on a thread at that time, I nevertheless collected my faculties and ventured on a bold stroke. I said that as he was the only court official I had had the honour of seeing, I asked him whether he would be good enough to tell me what were those secret matters which he had confided to me, and which I was accused of spreading among the Europeans. He appeared somewhat embarrassed by this, and his evident perplexity was a relief to me. We parted in a friendly manner, and as I was leaving he said, "Remember your private salary will be due in ten days." This was the monthly twenty pounds which he was going to pay me privately if I stained my honour by doing the dirty work of espionage.
On returning home in a great state of worry I had a tiny cup of Turkish coffee, which I used to find a great relief in times of trouble, and counted my fortune, which amounted to less than fifty pounds. This was, however, amply sufficient to carry me to England. The first difficulty before me was to find another English captain to take me, and then to succeed in getting on board his ship. All the boatmen in the harbour had been threatened with punishment if they carried suspicious persons to any foreign ships other than those passenger boats which are watched by the police. As a prelude to my plan of escaping, I thought it would be wise to take a boat and go for a row on the sea every day. I told everyone I met, including those Palace detectives who were always at my heels, that I had been advised by my doctor to get as much sea air as possible, and therefore was going for a row every day. On the next day after deciding to begin boating I went down to one of the many landing-places of the Golden Horn, where several boatmen are always in waiting to pick up passengers. I hailed one of these boatmen, and told him to take me for a row up the Bosphorus. After some time the boatman wanted to know where I wished to go. I told him curtly to go straight ahead, and he did so. When he stopped to light a cigarette I asked him how much he earned in a day, and he said that his profits fluctuated between seven and ten piastres. If a Turkish boatman gains ten piastres (about 1s. 8d.) a day he may consider himself lucky. I told him the same story of my medical prescription of sea air, and offered him fifteen piastres a day if he would take no other customers, but place himself at my disposal every day. As I expected, he readily agreed to this arrangement. My boating trips lasted a week. I went on the sea sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Sometimes I occupied myself with fishing, and sometimes with reading in the boat; occasionally, too, I approached and boarded the sailing crafts in the harbour, and watched them lading and unlading their cargoes. Besides his wages I used to give the boatman tobacco, which pleased him well. He did whatever I wanted him to do, and went wherever I ordered. I do not know if I was ever followed by the spies on the sea; anyhow, nothing occurred to rouse my suspicions.
After thus arranging the first part of my plan of flight, which was to find a boatman who would, consciously or unconsciously, take me to the prohibited foreign ships, I now came to the arrangement of the more important part, namely, finding a ship bound at once for England. By myself I could not have done this, so I took the liberty of again approaching that Englishman who was interested in shipping traffic, and who had helped me on my first voyage to this country. The excellent fellow said a steamer was due from Batoum on the Black Sea that very day, but she was to start on the same afternoon. I said I was quite ready to start; but he could only send me away on two conditions. One was, that this time I must see about conveying my luggage myself to the boat, because the Government supervision over the movements of English ships had become stricter, and so he would not compromise himself. I did not mind this at all But the second condition he laid down was alarming. He said that as the captain of this ship was not allowed to take any passengers, I must go to the British Consulate and sign my name in the captain's book as a seaman. Of course there was no harm in my doing this, as in reality I should not be expected to do a sailor's work; but an Ottoman subject, who has just become known to the Palace authorities, is not well advised to go to the British Consulate, for it is known to be watched by the spies, and he is certain to be seen. However, I ran the risk, went to the Consulate, and put down my name as a seaman. The captain directed me to the exact spot where his boat was anchored, and told me that in about three hours' time she was to start I did not go to my rooms where I had left all my belongings. The house in which I was living belonged to some Germans, who afterwards, without the slightest justification, refused to deliver up my property to the people who applied on my behalf for it until I had paid a considerable sum of money. Well, it is perhaps the policy of the Teutonic invaders of Turkey to rob the Turks as much as possible, as the price of their friendship to the precious person of the Sultan.
Immediately after getting out of the British Consulate I called a cab, and ordered the cabman to proceed to the palace of Yildiz as fast as he could. My object in going to the Palace in this critical moment was that I thought that if my entrance to the Consulate had been seen, the spies would imagine that I was in charge of an official message, and moreover they would not follow a man whose destination was the Palace, and who might in all probability turn out to be one of the Sultan's creatures like themselves. I reached the Yildiz Kiosk, and went up to the office of my friend the courtier. He was out, and his absence at that moment suited my purpose capitally, as the excuse which I should have had to concoct for this uncalled for visit would have been but weak. From Yildiz I took another cab and went down to the shore. My boatman was yawning, being tired of waiting inactive. I jumped into the boat and told him the direction in which he was to row, which was of course towards the steamer, though he did not know that I had determined to sail for England in it When we got near the steamer I observed to my boatman it seemed a peculiar vessel, having its funnel rather far back, and not in the middle of the deck as is usual. The boatman knew that it was an oil boat and that its engine was therefore constructed at the back. I pretended to be curious to see the ship, and the simple-minded boatman readily rowed to its side. I got on board with great relief.
I was now practically on British territory.[11] After seeing the captain I went to the side and shouted down to the boatman that as I talked the language of the people of the ship they had asked me to stay a little while on board and have tea with them. I told him he need not wait in the strong current of water, as I could hail any passing boatman when I wanted to go ashore, and I threw him down his day's wage. He went away, and we started not long after. I should not have played all these tricks if the Sultan had kept his promise and treated me honourably.
This second departure from Constantinople took place on the 8th of November 1894, and the oil ship reached Liverpool eighteen days after, without stopping anywhere on the way. As I had not been able to take any extra clothes I suffered much from cold, and also from the rough sea all the way. The men on board the ship were rough sailors, and the captain himself was an extremely stingy person. He supplied us with abominably bad food. However, I arrived in England safely, and ever since that time have made this country my home, and during my periodical trips abroad I have never entered the territories of my own country, over which the tyranny of Abd-ul-Hamid still prevails.