I Knew No
One In The Place, And Had No Letters Of Introduction, But I Carried
Letters Of Credit, And
It often happens in places remote from
England that those "advices" operate as a sort of introduction, and
obtain for
The bearer (if disposed to receive them) such ordinary
civilities as it may be in the power of the banker to offer.
Very soon after my arrival I went to the house of the Levantine to
whom my credentials were addressed. At his door several persons
(all Arabs) were hanging about and keeping guard. It was not till
after some delay, and the passing of some communications with those
in the interior of the citadel, that I was admitted. At length,
however, I was conducted through the court, and up a flight of
stairs, and finally into the apartment where business was
transacted. The room was divided by an excellent, substantial
fence of iron bars, and behind this grille the banker had his
station. The truth was, that from fear of the plague he had
adopted the course usually taken by European residents, and had
shut himself up "in strict quarantine" - that is to say, that he
had, as he hoped, cut himself off from all communication with
infecting substances. The Europeans long resident in the East,
without any, or with scarcely any, exception are firmly convinced
that the plague is propagated by contact, and by contact only; that
if they can but avoid the touch of an infecting substance they are
safe, and that if they cannot, they die.
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