“Igen!” “Yes.”
“Your vessel is at Constantinople?”
Remembering that there was an Italian emigrant named Christopher Columbus of naval renown, I reply: “Si, signore.”
“You will bring your vessel to Prinkipo?”
Ah! here was my opportunity. It is the modern Greek in which I reply: “Nae vevayos.”
He is thunderstruck. It is evidently his mother-tongue. Likely he has a Polish father; who knows? When he asks me in French—
“Will your vessel touch at Athens?”
I respond in Polish, “Tak!” “No.” And then, with some hesitation, I add the French word, “peut-être.” “Perhaps.”
“You will visit Egypt?”
“Sim, senhor.” This is Portuguese for “Yes, sir.”