Hafiz Aly was at this time Captain Pasha. Lady Hester became acquainted with him through me, and I was honoured with his notice in consequence of a cure performed on the Danish minister, Baron H., which had gained me much celebrity at Pera and Constantinople, so that I found myself on a sudden called to an extensive practice in my profession. He sent his physician, Azýz Effendy, to me one day, begging I would go and see him at the arsenal, a handsome edifice overlooking the harbour in the Galata quarter. A boat came about ten in the morning of the next day to Therapia to fetch me; and, on arriving at the arsenal, I was conducted to Azýz Effendy, who showed me the buildings, and, as it appeared he had been commanded to do, endeavoured to amuse me during the day. I breakfasted with him and several other Turkish gentlemen, and at sunset dined, after which a slave came to say the Pasha would receive us.
I was led by Azýz Effendy to the entrance of the saloon in which he was sitting, and, it being winter, a curtain was drawn aside, and Azýz Effendy, without speaking, made a sign to me and my interpreter to enter. The pasha was seated at the farther end of the room: we approached him, and he desired me to sit down by him on the sofa, whilst the interpreter and his own doctor, at a sign made to them, placed themselves on the floor with their knees doubled under them, and their garments so smoothed that neither their hands nor their feet could be seen; for both are studiously hidden by the people of the East when respect is intended to be shown. Ten or twelve chokhadars, or servants, stood before him with their arms folded; his brother-in-law, a young man of interesting appearance, sat on the sofa with his face turned towards him, and his legs and clothes arranged with the same precision as those of the doctor: and, at the distance of three or four yards, stood his little son upon the sofa, with his arms folded in the same respectful attitude as those of the servants. Every time that the brother-in-law replied to anything which the Pasha had said to him, he carried his hand to his mouth and forehead, and made a low inclination of his head, so as almost to touch the sofa with it. When the pasha did not speak, no one attempted to say a word, and the greatest silence prevailed.
Coffee was served to me, and the pipe presented, after which the pasha made a sign with his hand, and the servants left the room. Several questions were then asked me about my country, about anatomy, and about the opening of dead bodies, as practised in Europe, for the purpose of investigating the seat and nature of diseases. In conversation, in the course of the morning, I had inquired of the pasha’s physician where malefactors’ heads were cut off, and had said, that as I supposed such executions were frequent, I should be obliged to him if he would apprize me of one that I might be present. It seemed that all this and all my observations in the day had been reported to the pasha, for, among other questions, he asked me what made me think executions were frequent at the Arsenal. I told him plainly that we had an idea in England that cutting off heads was very common in the East, and that little account was taken of human life where the power of disposing of it was delegated to so many pashas and beys, whose will was law. He asked me how many executions took place in London during the year, and when I said they might amount to forty or fifty, he smiled, and assured me we were not less bloody than he and the Grand Vizir both together, and perhaps more so. He then explained his own case to me, which was connected with a plethoric habit arising from a sedentary mode of living, and, on my taking leave, he presented me with a crimson Cashmere shawl. I saw him afterwards frequently, both there and at his house at Buyukdery, a village on the Bosphorus, where he resided in order to be near the fleet, which lay at the mouth of the Black Sea.
He had married a woman from the Sultan’s harým, whose influence had procured him the situation he held. She was consumptive, and I was called in to attend her. I found her lying in a bed, placed on the floor in the middle of the room, without curtains, tester, or any furniture but the coverlet and the sheets. She was addressed in the tenderest manner by the pasha, who desired me to bestow all my attention on her case. As we entered the harým, a slave had preceded us, who cried out “Testûr, testûr,” (which means by your leave), upon which all the female slaves disappeared, excepting two who were in attendance on the lady. I saw nothing in the behaviour of the pasha that marked any undue assumption of superiority over the female sex; on the contrary, it was all kindness. Azýz Effendy, who was with us, stood in the same attitude of respect as before the pasha, and when speaking to the lady, or spoken to by her, preserved the same demeanour. I prescribed for her, and she grew for a while better, as it sometimes happens in such cases. I was desirous that she should be removed, when the weather would permit, to a pavilion on the banks of the canal, that she might breathe the air more freely than she could in the warm apartments of Buyukdery: this was done.
One day I had seen her, and signified that I should repeat my visit the next day, as she was much worse. The next day I went about noon, and, on entering the house, I found no appearance of the lady, or of her sick chamber, or of anything as it had been the day before. In fact, she had died in the night; was immediately washed, laid out, and buried; and, as the Mahometans make little outward show of grief, and never put on mourning garments that I could observe, no one could tell that a funeral had taken place, nor did the pasha, whom I saw, say anything more than that she was gone, and that it became us to be resigned to the decrees of the Almighty.
Not long afterwards, Azýz Effendy requested me to accompany him to the pasha, who wished to see me about a white slave or concubine whom he had bought since the death of his wife. He was still at Buyukdery, and I was ushered into his presence, nobody being with him but Azýz Effendy. He told me that a seryr, or concubine, whom he had taken to his bed, was pregnant, and, as her beauty was considerable, he was fearful that child-bearing would destroy the symmetry of her person; he wished me, therefore, he added, to administer something to cause abortion. I was not surprised at such a proposal from him; for, in my conversation with medical men at Constantinople, I had learned, to my astonishment, that the Mahometans make no scruple of resorting to a variety of methods for attaining that end; and, without listening to what the pasha had further to say, I told him plainly that, by the laws of my country, I should be considered a criminal, if I were, in any shape whatever, consenting to such a deed. He said no more about it, and the subject was never introduced before me again.
Of my other patients, I will enumerate those only whose rank may entitle them to notice. The Princess Morousi, wife of the ex-Hospodar of Wallachia, was one. Her husband had been driven from his principality by the Russians. She was a woman of a highly amiable character, and the misfortunes which her family has since met with may serve to show at once how great was their power, and perhaps their guilt. Her palace was at Kurugesmy, a village on the European side of the Bosphorus. When I paid her a visit, everything was done with a view to inspire me with a notion of her greatness. Vanity is the failing of the Greeks. It was usual for me to be conducted up a flight of steps to the first or second floor, between two ranks of servants, then led through a suite of apartments, and, when arrived at the door of the room where she was sitting, a page would draw aside a crimson curtain, and there I found the Princess, seated on a crimson sofa edged with gold. On a cushion on the floor, but at a distance of some yards, (for here respect is measured by the distance at which inferiors keep from the great) sat the physician; and, if her sons were in the room, although young men with their beards grown, they stood before her. Behind her would be her young daughter on the sofa. Sweetmeats, coffee, and the pipe were first handed to me; and then her doctor, a Greek, explained her case in Latin, in which language I always found the Greek physicians exceedingly ready, although their Latinity was not classical.
On these occasions, the little princess would plant herself at the door, and, as I was taking leave, would give me an embroidered scarf, an antique ring, or some such present, with a little speech of her own in French, calculated, by its amiability, to render the present more acceptable.
The princess had a daughter, lively, and of great wit, who was married to the Prince Mavrocordato. This prince was affected with spitting of blood; and I went to his villa, on the Prinkipi islands, to see him, and remained there two days. These islands, which are close to the mouth of the Bosphorus, in the sea of Marmora, are inhabited entirely by Greeks; and their archons here live in great pomp, unrestrained by the presence of the Turks.
Lady Hester, who always suffered more from variable weather than from periods of steady heat, rain, or drought, was grievously disappointed in the climate of Constantinople: for we had experienced, during the winter, a degree of cold equal to what is sometimes felt in Paris, and had been subject to vicissitudes quite as marked as those in England. The months of December and January were mild as our spring, and we naturally supposed that, these over, the winter was past; but it proved far otherwise. On the 28th of February there was a fall of snow a foot deep, which was again succeeded by some days more genial and mild than can ever be seen in England. March was a series of snowstorms and tempests, exceeding almost what I had ever witnessed elsewhere. Such weather, in a country where there are no fireplaces, and the houses are hardly weather-proof, made Lady Hester feel much regret at having quitted Athens, where we might have sat, as we were told, with our windows open all through the year.