The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
About this time my master started on his third pilgrimage to Mecca, leaving
a friend in charge of his store, and taking me with him. We went by sail
from Tripoli to Alexandria, touching at Bengazi. From Alexandria we went by
cars to Ben Hadad, thence to Saida and Cairo, the capital of Egypt. From
Cairo we travelled to Kartoom, at the forks of the Nile, and thence to
Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, where we stayed only twenty-four hours,
my master being in continual fear of his life from the natives, who
differed from him in belief, and then started for Zela, a port on the Red
Sea. From Zela we sailed to Muscat, and thence proceeded to Mecca. I had
not come of my own free will and for the express purpose of a pilgrimage,
and therefore I was not permitted to go with Daoud to the grave of the
Prophet, and was obliged to content myself without the title of Hadji,
which is one much respected among the Mohammedans. We had returned as far
as Alexandria on our way home, when my master was informed that his store
and a great deal of property, in fact, all his goods and money, had been
destroyed by fire. This made the good man almost crazy. He did not hesitate
to tell me that he should have to sell me; but said that he would take care
that I should have a rich and good master, a promise which he kept. The
next day, with the present of a good suit of clothes, I was put on board a
vessel bound for Smyrna and Constantinople. I was to be landed at the
former city. On this vessel was a young man of eighteen, one of the crew,
who spoke my own language. I have heard it only twice, I think, since that
time.
At Smyrna I was sold to a Turkish officer, Yousouf Effendi, a very wealthy
man, and brother-in-law to the celebrated Reschid Pacha, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs. He had a great many houses in Smyrna, as well as
Constantinople. We sailed the next day for the latter city in a man-of-war
steamer, the Abdul Medjid. My duty was that of a Tchidboudji, which
consists in filling and cleaning the pipes and narghiles. This was all that
I had to do, while I was well dressed in cloths and silks, and had plenty
of leisure time. After a service of eighteen months with Yousouf Effendi,
he gave me to his younger brother, Yousouf Kavass, less wealthy than
himself. This brother was, however, a very kind-hearted man, and treated
his slaves, a Nubian, a native of Sennar, and myself, very kindly. While in
this service I became known to Prince Mentchikoff, the Envoy Extraordinary
of Russia at Constantinople, and was finally sold to him by my master. At
the declaration of the Crimean war, after sending his things on board the
Russian steamer Vladimir, the Prince started with despatches for his august
master, via Corfu, Athens, Zara, Trieste, Vienna, Cracow, and Warsaw, to
St. Petersburg. I accompanied him on the journey, and, as the despatches
were of the utmost importance, we travelled with the greatest speed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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