122 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
ness; not a step can you venture out without a guide and a 
lantern ; and even then it is problematical whether you will 
return without broken ankles in crossing the grave-yards, or the 
loss of a coat-tail in a battle with the dogs. In the register 
of the Hotel de Byzant there is a melancholy statement of 
an English traveler who complains of having been seized by 
some Turkish soldiers for throwing stones at what he sup¬ 
posed, in the darkness of night, to he dogs, but which turned 
out to be the soldiers themselves, who immediately seized him 
and put him in prison ; and it was not until next day that he 
was liberated. The insecurity of life in the suburbs, and the 
total absence of every thing like law, are sufficient in them¬ 
selves to keep the stranger within narrow limits; and, 
although there is more security now than there was some 
years past, it is still quite bad enough. Cases of assassina¬ 
tion are frequent, and robbery is so common an occurrence as 
to excite but little attention. The police regulations are so in¬ 
efficient, if any exist at all, that they have no influence what¬ 
ever in the prevention of crime. There is no public press, 
except one or two small papers published in the Frank quar¬ 
ter, and of course very little is known of these occurrences, 
except what finds its way into other countries through private 
correspondence. It is but just, however, to state that most 
of these crimes are committed by persons residing in the 
Frank quarters—either Greeks, Italians, or the refuse popu¬ 
lation of other countries. The Turks themselves are too in¬ 
dolent to engage in any thing requiring energy and personal 
activity, and would sooner smoke the pipe of content on five 
piasters a day, than run any great risk to gain money or ex¬ 
pend their time in useless exertion. They find it much easier 
to cheat in a quiet way, and enjoy the profits of others, than 
to incur the labor and inconvenience of open robbery ; and 
for the shedding of blood in a small way they have no taste. 
It is only when thoroughly aroused by some great cause, as 
in the war with the Greeks, that they cast off their habitual 
lethargy, and go earnestly into the business of general massacre, 
and then there are few nations that can surpass them in deeds 
of cruelty and wholesale bloodshed. 
