DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0042
A POTENT OFFICIAL,
33
with my compliments to the governor, and the
modest request that he would keep the gates open
till I came.
A governor is a governor, all the world over.
Honour and respect attend him, whatever he may
be ; whether the almost regal governor-general of
India, the untitled chief magistrate of our own
democratic state, or the governor of a little for-
tress on the shores of the Red Sea. But there are
some governors one may take a liberty with,
and others not; and of the former class was my
friend of Akaba. His name was Suliman, his title
aga, and therefore he was called Suliman Aga.
He had his appointment by favour of the pacha,
and permission to retain it by favour of the Be-
douins around; he had under him nominally a
garrison of Mogrebbin soldiers, but they were as
restiff as some of our own unbroken militia ; and,
like many a worthy disciplinarian among us, he
could do just as he pleased with them, if he only
let them have their own way. He was, in short,
an excellent governor, and I gave him two dol-
lars and a recommendation at parting.
But I am going too fast. I arrived before dark,
and in such a state that I almost fell from my drome-
dary in dismounting at the gate of the fortress.
The first glance told me that this was not the place
of rest I had promised myself. Half a dozen Mo-
grebbins from the shores of Morocco, the most
tried and faithful of the hired troops of the pacha,
were sitting on a mat within the gate, smoking
VOL, II.-D
33
with my compliments to the governor, and the
modest request that he would keep the gates open
till I came.
A governor is a governor, all the world over.
Honour and respect attend him, whatever he may
be ; whether the almost regal governor-general of
India, the untitled chief magistrate of our own
democratic state, or the governor of a little for-
tress on the shores of the Red Sea. But there are
some governors one may take a liberty with,
and others not; and of the former class was my
friend of Akaba. His name was Suliman, his title
aga, and therefore he was called Suliman Aga.
He had his appointment by favour of the pacha,
and permission to retain it by favour of the Be-
douins around; he had under him nominally a
garrison of Mogrebbin soldiers, but they were as
restiff as some of our own unbroken militia ; and,
like many a worthy disciplinarian among us, he
could do just as he pleased with them, if he only
let them have their own way. He was, in short,
an excellent governor, and I gave him two dol-
lars and a recommendation at parting.
But I am going too fast. I arrived before dark,
and in such a state that I almost fell from my drome-
dary in dismounting at the gate of the fortress.
The first glance told me that this was not the place
of rest I had promised myself. Half a dozen Mo-
grebbins from the shores of Morocco, the most
tried and faithful of the hired troops of the pacha,
were sitting on a mat within the gate, smoking
VOL, II.-D