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Updated: May 23, 2025
"A strong man was our Master the Sultan, and he listened carefully to all your Bashador said, still knowing in his heart that this country is not as the land of the Nazarenes, and could not be made like it in haste. His wazeers feared change, the Ulema opposed it so far as they dared, and that you know is very far, and nothing could be done rapidly after the fashion of the West.
Crouched at the foreigner's feet lay what appeared but a bundle of rags, in reality a suppliant Moor, once a man of wealth and position. Hugging a pot of butter brought as an offering, clutching convulsively at the leg of the chair, his furrowed face bespoke past suffering and present earnestness. "God bless thee, Bashador, and all the Christians, and give me grace in thy sight!"
It is related of one Sultan that when a "Bashador" remonstrated with him for not fulfilling a contract, he replied, "Am I then a Nazarene, that I should be bound by my word?" Is it Pan's breath, fierce in the tremulous maiden-hair, That bids fear creep as a snake through the woodlands, felt In the leaves that it stirs not yet, in the mute bright air, In the stress of the sun? A Nympholept.
He would give me his miserable money. And then in very great anger he drove me from his presence and bade me never come near him again bearing a gift. What shall be said of a man like that, to whom Allah had given the wisdom to become a Bashador and the foolishness to reject a present? Two mules, remember, and each one with as many bags of Spanish dollars as it could carry.
"Oh, indeed, so you like the Christians?" "Yes, Bashador, I must love the Christians; they have justice, we have none. I wish they had rule over the country." "Then you are not a good Muslim!" They forget God and worship money; their delight is in plunder and oppression." "You appear to have known better days. What is your trouble?" "Trouble enough," replies the Moor, with a sigh.
It was a fine present, was it not, Bashador? "Well, on arrival at Si Mohammed's place, we slaughtered two bullocks at his door, and humbly begged his gracious acceptance of our offering, which we told him we regretted was not greater, but that as we were his brethren, we trusted to find favour in his sight.
There were thirteen of us under an older slave who clothed and fed us. "When the bashador came to the house the agent shut all but five or six of us in a room, the others waiting on him. I used to have to cook for the bashador, for whom they had great receptions with music and dancing-women.
This man sold me to my present master, who has ill-treated me as I told thee. Oh, Bashador, when I fled from him, I came to the English consul because I was told that the agent had had no right to hold or sell me, since he had English protection. Thou knowest what has happened since. Here I am, at thy feet, imploring assistance. I beseech thee, turn me not away. I speak truth before God."
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