No
More Hope, No More Change For Him - No More Relays - He Must Go On
Vetturini-Wise To The Appointed End Of His Journey!
Smyrna, I think, may be called the chief town and capital of the
Grecian race, against which you will be cautioned so carefully as
soon as you touch the Levant.
You will say that I ought not to
confound as one people the Greeks living under a constitutional
government with the unfortunate Rayahs who "groan under the Turkish
yoke," but I can't see that political events have hitherto produced
any strongly marked difference of character. If I could venture to
rely (which I feel that I cannot at all do) upon my own
observation, I should tell you that there was more heartiness and
strength in the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire than in those of the
new kingdom. The truth is, that there is a greater field for
commercial enterprise, and even for Greek ambition, under the
Ottoman sceptre, than is to be found in the dominions of Otho.
Indeed the people, by their frequent migrations from the limits of
the constitutional kingdom to the territories of the Porte, seem to
show that, on the whole, they prefer "groaning under the Turkish
yoke" to the honour of "being the only true source of legitimate
power" in their own land.
For myself, I love the race; in spite of all their vices, and even
in spite of all their meannesses, I remember the blood that is in
them, and still love the Greeks. The Osmanlees are, of course, by
nature, by religion, and by politics, the strong foes of the
Hellenic people, and as the Greeks, poor fellows! happen to be a
little deficient in some of the virtues which facilitate the
transaction of commercial business (such as veracity, fidelity,
&c.), it naturally follows that they are highly unpopular with the
European merchants. Now these are the persons through whom, either
directly or indirectly, is derived the greater part of the
information which you gather in the Levant, and therefore you must
make up your mind to hear an almost universal and unbroken
testimony against the character of the people whose ancestors
invented virtue. And strange to say, the Greeks themselves do not
attempt to disturb this general unanimity of opinion by an dissent
on their part. Question a Greek on the subject, and he will tell
you at once that the people are traditori, and will then, perhaps,
endeavour to shake off his fair share of the imputation by
asserting that his father had been dragoman to some foreign
embassy, and that he (the son), therefore, by the law of nations,
had ceased to be Greek.
"E dunque no siete traditore?"
"Possibile, signor, ma almeno Io no sono Greco."
Not even the diplomatic representatives of the Hellenic kingdom are
free from the habit of depreciating their brethren. I recollect
that at one of the ports in Syria a Greek vessel was rather
unfairly kept in quarantine by order of the Board of Health, which
consisted entirely of Europeans.
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