To Recount All
His Reynardisms Would Weary The Reader; Suffice It To Say That By
Proper Management Of The Subalterns In The Consulate, He Succeeded
Without Ruining Himself.
Armed with this new defence, he started boldly
for Jeddah on the Arabian coast.
Having entered into partnership with
Haji Wali, whose confidence he had won by prayers, fastings, and
pilgrimages, he openly trafficked in slaves, sending them to Alexandria
for sale, and writing with matchless impudence to his correspondent
that he would dispose of them in person, but for fear of losing his
British passport and protection.
Presently an unlucky adventure embroiled this worthy British subject
with Faraj Yusuf, the principal merchant of Jeddah, and also an English
protege. Fearing so powerful an adversary, Mohammed Shafi'a packed up
his spoils and departed for Egypt. Presently he quarrels with his
former partner, thinking him a soft man, and claims from him a debt of
L165. He supports his pretensions by a document and four witnesses, who
are ready to swear that the receipt in question was "signed, sealed,
and delivered" by Haji Wali. The latter adduces his books to show that
accounts have been settled, and can prove that the witnesses in
question are paupers, therefore, not legal; moreover, that each has
received from the plaintiff two dollars, the price of perjury.
[p.48]Now had such a suit been carried into a Turkish court of justice,
it would very sensibly have been settled by the bastinado, for Haji
Wali was a respectable merchant, and Mohammed Shafi'a a notorious
swindler. But the latter was a British subject, which notably
influenced the question. The more to annoy his adversary, he went up to
Cairo, and began proceedings there, hoping by this acute step to
receive part payment of his demand.
Arrived at Cairo, Mohammed Shafi'a applied himself stoutly to the task
of bribing all who could be useful to him, distributing shawls and
piastres with great generosity. He secured the services of an efficient
lawyer; and, determining to enlist heaven itself in his cause, he
passed the Ramazan ostentatiously; he fasted, and he slaughtered sheep
to feed the poor.
Meanwhile Haji Wali, a simple truth-telling man, who could never master
the rudiments of that art which teaches man to blow hot and to blow
cold with the same breath, had been persuaded to visit Cairo by
Khudabakhsh, the wily Indian, who promised to introduce him to
influential persons, and to receive him in his house till he could
provide himself with a lodging at the Wakalah. But Mohammed Shafi'a,
who had once been in partnership with the Indian, and who possibly knew
more than was fit to meet the public ear, found this out; and, partly
by begging, partly by bullying, persuaded Khudabakhsh to transfer the
influential introductions to himself. Then the Hakim[FN#6]
Abdullah-your humble servant-appears upon the scene: he has travelled
in Feringistan, he has seen many men and their cities, he becomes an
intimate and an adviser of the Haji, and he finds out evil passages in
Mohammed Shafi'a's life.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 37 of 302
Words from 19313 to 19826
of 157964
