DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0264
248
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
tice done him, if he could communicate with them.
I was afterward struck with a display of delicacy
and a sense of propriety that I had not expected
from him ; for, although he charged me with many
messages to Commodore Patterson, he requested me
not to mention his difficulties in the matter of the
agency, as he had already made representations to
the consul at Beyroot, who had laid them before
Commodore Porter at Constantinople; and an ap-
plication in another quarter would look like dis-
trusting their ability, or their willingness to resent
what he called an indignity offered to the American
flag. Annoyed at seeing the women dodging by,
with their faces covered, and alwa}rs avoiding me,
I told him that, being a Christian, and holding an
appointment under our government, he ought to
conform to our customs, and treat his women more
as companions ; or, at least, to let them come into
the same room, and sit at the same table with him.
He listened, but could not see any reason in my
proposition. He said it might do for us ; for with
us the wives always brought their husbands mon-
ey (the ignorant, uninformed barbarian), but in
Syria (he sighed as he said it) they never added a
para to the riches of their lords.
The next morning I set out again for Jaffa. The
road lies through a rich plain ; and in three hours,
passing a large detachment of Turkish soldiers,
encamped outside, and waiting a transport to
carry them to Alexandria, I was entering the
gate of the ancient city of Joppa, believed to have
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
tice done him, if he could communicate with them.
I was afterward struck with a display of delicacy
and a sense of propriety that I had not expected
from him ; for, although he charged me with many
messages to Commodore Patterson, he requested me
not to mention his difficulties in the matter of the
agency, as he had already made representations to
the consul at Beyroot, who had laid them before
Commodore Porter at Constantinople; and an ap-
plication in another quarter would look like dis-
trusting their ability, or their willingness to resent
what he called an indignity offered to the American
flag. Annoyed at seeing the women dodging by,
with their faces covered, and alwa}rs avoiding me,
I told him that, being a Christian, and holding an
appointment under our government, he ought to
conform to our customs, and treat his women more
as companions ; or, at least, to let them come into
the same room, and sit at the same table with him.
He listened, but could not see any reason in my
proposition. He said it might do for us ; for with
us the wives always brought their husbands mon-
ey (the ignorant, uninformed barbarian), but in
Syria (he sighed as he said it) they never added a
para to the riches of their lords.
The next morning I set out again for Jaffa. The
road lies through a rich plain ; and in three hours,
passing a large detachment of Turkish soldiers,
encamped outside, and waiting a transport to
carry them to Alexandria, I was entering the
gate of the ancient city of Joppa, believed to have