VISIT TO THE CAPOUDAN PACHA. 411 



his duty at the Capoudan Pacha capuri, that is to say, the Captain 

 Pacha's gate, by which name the palace of that dignitary is known. 

 We descended to Topkhana quay, and getting into a yeutch-chiffdee 

 a wherry rowed by three pair of sculls directed the boatmen to the 

 tersana, the arsenal, in the neighbourhood of which is the residence 

 of the Captain Pasha. I was surprised to find the dock yard a scene 

 of considerable bustle and activity ; there were several magnificent 

 vessels on the stocks, and artificers busily employed about them. It 

 was a scene that accorded ill with all I had heard of Turkish apathy 

 and indolence. 



On our arrival at the divan, we found the Capovidan Pacha impa- 

 tient for the presence of his instructor. He was seated in a small 

 keschk,* overlooking an inner court of the palace, in which were 

 about two hundred lads in military uniform, that might be called 

 European, if we except the caouk and red morocco papouches, or 

 slippers. The Pacha was a little, round, fat, fiery-looking person- 

 age ; and his appearance would have been contemptible, but for his 

 very handsome jet-black curly beard. Altogether he looked not 

 very unlike a butcher which epithet was neither unfrequeritly nor 

 undeservedly applied to him. He wore on his head a crimson cash- 

 mere shawl ; and although the day was warm, he was wrapped up 

 in a superb caftan, lined throughout with sables. He looked hard 

 at me, but took not the slightest notice of S , till the latter pre- 

 sented me to him as an officer, late of the Greek service. I am free 

 to confess that I thought this was a piece of intelligence not at all 

 necessary to be communicated to his Excellency; and I felt that I 

 held my head by a very precarious tenure, being no other than the 

 will and pleasure of the Pacha, about whose humanity I had some 

 scruples. 



" He is welcome," said the Pacha ; bid him sit ; and say we are 

 glad he has left those infidel dogs, the Greeks. He is now in Is- 

 tambol, and when he goes home to his countrymen, he will be able 

 to tell them the difference between true Musslemen and those Rou- 

 melic pesivencklerri." 



Having made this speech, he ordered his Dragoman to be sum- 

 moned ; and while S put his Asiatics through their evolutions, 



the Pacha entered into a conversation with me the object of which 

 was to prove that one Turk was more than a match for ten infidels of 

 any denomination ; and that Sultan Mahmoud would inevitably make 

 those red-beards, the Russians, eat dirt. 



As I took good care to assent to all his propositions, he gradually 

 became familiar, and told me several tales of a former Vizir, re- 

 nowned alike for his gallantry, and his wonderful despatch of busi- 

 ness. I made the best comments I could; but the interpreter, who 

 was evidently a wag, took the business into his own hands, and so 

 diverted the Pacha with his interpolated translations of my replies, 

 that he almost laughed himself into convulsions. He made me sit 

 next him, and ordered me sweetmeats, pipes, and coffee swore I 



* Keschk, is a light, airy, summer apartment, generally very fancifully 

 painted in arabesque. 



