The Syrians Went
Further, And Seemed Inclined To Treat Every Stranger As Though He
Might One Day Become Their Pasha.
Such was the state of
circumstances and of feeling which now for the first time had
thoroughly opened the mind of Western Asia for the reception of
Europeans and European ideas.
The credit of the English especially
was so great, that a good Mussulman flying from the conscription,
or any other persecution, would come to seek from the formerly
despised hat that protection which the turban could no longer
afford; and a man high in authority (as, for instance, the Governor
in command of Gaza) would think that he had won a prize, or at all
events, a valuable lottery ticket, if he obtained a written
approval of his conduct from a simple traveller.
Still, in order that any immediate result should follow from all
this unwonted readiness in the Asiatic to succumb to the European,
it was necessary that some one should be at hand who could see and
would push the advantage. I myself had neither the inclination nor
the power to do so, but it happened that Dthemetri, who as my
dragoman represented me on all occasions, was the very person of
all others best fitted to avail himself with success of this
yielding tendency in the Oriental mind. If the chance of birth and
fortune had made poor Dthemetri a tailor during some part of his
life, yet religion and the literature of the Church which he served
had made him a man, and a brave man too.
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