Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/319

Rh mishap took place. After dinner we walked about on the shore, listening to barbarous Greek music. The Pasha of Rhodes took my arm, and being very drun, rolled about, so that I had great difficulty in keeping him steady.

Mr. Campbell being obliged to return before completing his tour, requested me to accompany Ishmael Pasha to Tenedos, and Lemnos. We proceeded to Tenedos in the Pasha's steamer; the weather was fine, the Pasha in excellent spirits and very well disposed to talk. As he speaks Greek, we could dispense with the restraint imposed by the intervention of a dragoman, and I had the opportunity of discussing many topics much more freely than would have been possible in a formal visit to his konak, where a pasha is seldom alone.

Ishmael Pasha, whom I have already described to you in my Rhodian letters, is rather a remarkable man. If he could only speak French, he might be ambassador at London or Paris, or hold even a higher position in his own country. He is a very smart little man, dressed like a petit maître, with very shiny boots, trousers studiously strapped down, his beard and hair trimmed with the most scrupulous care. He is in every way a trimmer. He has one set of fair speeches for the English consul, another for the Turkish magnates, another for the Greeks. He tries to be all things to all men. He professes to delight in European society, and stays till day-break at such profane entertainments as European balls. He respects the Prophet's prohibition in the matter of wine; but, finding no mention of spirituous