1893] Sabunji, the Sultan's Secretary 105 



exhibited. He had also painted his dining-room walls not badly with 

 representations of orange and lemon trees in tubs. 



" On my return I found that Munir had called, but I shall not put off 

 my departure unless I have an audience fixed for a special day and 

 hour. Mohammed is to find this out definitely and bring me word to- 

 morrow. 



" 1st May. — A dull morning, with a Black Sea fog and cold. Hear- 

 ing nothing from the Palace, we have taken our places by to-night's 

 Orient express. Called on Ford to say good-bye, also on Woods 

 Pasha. Yesterday I saw Jemal ed Din at Nishantash. He was urgent 

 I should stay on to see the Sultan, and said he would go at once to the 

 Chief Chamberlain to get a definite answer. But no answer has come. 

 I called also on Abdullah Pasha Nejdi (Ibn Thennayan Ibn Saoud) at 

 his house in Yildiz. He lamented being kept a prisoner here and 

 longed to be back in Nejd. But the Sultan is kind to him. I went with 

 Serrur the Soudani. 



" To-day Sabunji called. He came here two years ago with some 

 Englishmen to get a railway concession, which came to nothing, but he 

 stayed on till the Sultan, hearing of him through Munif Pasha, sent 

 for him and made him translator. He now has to read and digest all 

 the newspapers of England, France, and Italy, and to write precis of 

 their contents in Turkish for the Sultan. He sees the Sultan from 

 time to time and sometimes talks to him about European politics or his- 

 tory or archaeology, of which Abdul Hamid is fond. He gets £40 a 

 month and a house at Prinkipo, and so is in clover. He says the Sultan 

 in afraid to employ good men in high positions for fear they should 

 become too popular. Thus Said Pasha was dismissed a year and a 

 half ago because he had become popular with the army by paying the 

 soldiers regularly. Lately, Vincent went to the Sultan with proofs 

 of the roguery of the Minister of Marine. The Sultan gave him in 

 return another paper wherein the same and many more robberies were 

 recorded. He had long known all about it. 



" At two Ibrahim Moelhy came to beseech me to stay on a few days 

 till next Thursday, only another twenty-four hours, but I was ob- 

 durate. ' I am not a fakir' I said, ' to sit at the Palace door waiting. 

 I am not the Sultan's servant, nor will I dance attendance on any king 

 in the world. If the Sultan wants to see me he must send and say 

 so and I will come, but to-night I go home.' So he went back to 

 Nishantash. 



" At five came the Sultan of Johore with Mohammed Moelhi, who 

 has just received the second class of the Mejidieh from Abdul Hamid. 

 So they are all happy. At six Ibrahim and Mohammed returned to see 

 us to the train. All now is satisfactorily settled. We are to go as 

 arranged to England, but Jemal ed Din is so to manage matters that the 



