116 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



arrived ignorant of the language, methods of agricul- 

 ture, and habits and customs of the native population, 

 whose primitive and half-savage mode of life it was 

 impossible for the new-comers to adopt, the Turkish 

 Government, strongly averse to the establishment of 

 a foreign colony, set all its machinery in motion to 

 frustrate the attempt. It refused to sell Government 

 land except at exorbitant prices ; and in spite of the 

 treaties existing between Turkey and foreign Govern- 

 ments enabling foreigners to purchase land, secure 

 titles, &c., the negotiations for the land they now 

 occupy extended over a period of twelve years, before 

 the titles were satisfactorily and legally completed, 

 even in the case of purchases from private owners. 

 NOT were they allowed during this period to pay their 

 taxes direct to the Government, but were compelled 

 to pay them through the former Arab owners, in 

 whose names the titles still were, and who took this 

 opportunity of assessing them at an exorbitant rate, 

 and putting the balance in their pockets. Since they 

 have secured their own titles, they have discovered 

 that for all these years they had been paying four 

 times as much as they need have done. 



Notwithstanding the insecurity of their tenure, the 

 injustice to which they were subjected in the matter 

 of taxation, the permanent hostility of the Govern- 

 ment, and the local difficulties with regard to labour, 

 supplies, &c., by which they were surrounded, they 

 persevered, while paying dearly for their experience, 



