After A Day’S Repose At The Caravanserai, The Camel-Man And Donkey-Boy
Clamouring For Money, And I Not Having More Than Tenpence Of Borrowed
Coin, It Was Necessary To Cash At The British Vice-Consulate A Draft
Given To Me By The Royal Geographical Society.
With some trouble I saw
Mr. Cole, who, suffering from fever, was declared to be “not at home.” His
dragoman did by no means admire my looks; in fact, the general voice of
the household was against me.
After some fruitless messages, I sent up
a scrawl to Mr. Cole, who decided upon admitting the importunate
Afghan. An exclamation of astonishment and a hospitable welcome
followed my self-introduction as an officer of the Indian army. Amongst
other things, the Vice-Consul informed me that, in divers discussions
with the Turks about the possibility of an Englishman finding his way
en cachette to Meccah,
[p.267] he had asserted that his compatriots could do everything, even
pilgrim to the Holy City. The Moslems politely assented to the first,
but denied the second part of the proposition. Mr. Cole promised
himself a laugh at the Turks’ beards; but since my departure, he wrote to
me that the subject made the owners look so serious, that he did not
like recurring to it.
Truly gratifying to the pride of an Englishman was our high official
position assumed and maintained at Jeddah. Mr. Cole had never, like his
colleague at Cairo, lowered himself in the estimation of the proud race
with which he has to deal, by private or mercantile transactions with
the authorities. He has steadily withstood the wrath of the Meccan
Sharif, and taught him to respect the British name. The Abbe Hamilton
ascribed the attentions of the Prince to “the infinite respect which the
Arabs entertain for Mr. Cole’s straightforward way of doing business,—it
was a delicate flattery addressed to him.” And the writer was right;
honesty of purpose is never thrown away amongst these people. The
general contrast between our Consular proceedings at Cairo and Jeddah
is another proof of the advisability of selecting Indian officials to
fill offices of trust at Oriental courts. They have lived amongst
Easterns, and they know one Asiatic language, with many Asiatic
customs; and, chief merit of all, they have learned to assume a tone of
command, without which, whatever may be thought of it in England, it is
impossible to take the lead in the East. The “home-bred” diplomate is not
only unconscious of the thousand traps everywhere laid for him, he even
plays into the hands of his crafty antagonists by a ceremonious
politeness, which they interpret—taking ample care that the
interpretation should spread—to be the effect of fear or of fraud.
Jeddah[FN#8] has been often described by modern pens.
[p.268] Burckhardt (in A.D. 18[14]) devoted a hundred pages of his two
volumes to the unhappy capital of the Tihamat al-Hijaz, the lowlands of
the mountain region.
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