Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

warmest affection and gratitude, and we know of no country in the world where the relative situation of master and slave is accompanied with fewer galling conditions on the part of the latter than in Turkey.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Drogoman of the Porte-Salaries of Officers-Drogomen of Foreign Powers -Bickerings between them and the Frank Residents-Greek SchoolMalta Press-Anecdote of the Seraiskier-Hail-storm-Presents to the Turkish Government.

FURNISHED with an introduction, we called upon the drogoman of the Porte, and found him in a low room on the ground-floor, without a single article of furniture except the divan. His office is held in a large public building near the great gate of the seraglio, from whence it has probably derived its name. It is here that the councils of ministers (commonly called the divan) are held, and the reis effendi, or minister of foreign affairs, has also his office in this building. Hence it is the place where the ambassadors of foreign powers transact their business, and the term Porte has in consequence become synonymous with the government of the country, in the same way that we speak of the closet or cabinet of St. James's or the Thuilleries. The word Porte is also expressive of an oriental metaphor, meaning strength, durability, and majesty, and hence we have the grandiloquent phrase "The Sublime Porte." The drogoman of the Porte is one of the most important and confidential officers of the government. Through him all foreign affairs are transacted with the reis effendi, and the importance of having a man of capacity and integrity in such a station is sufficiently obvious. It was formerly held

00

by the Greeks of the Fanar, and was the usual steppingstone to the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. As we cast our eyes round the low, dark room, we felt assured that we stood in the identical apartment described by the author of Anastasius as the office of Prince Mavroyeni.

The present incumbent is a native Turk, a son-in-law of the principal of the College of Engineers. He received us with great affability, and while smoking the customary pipe, he entered readily into general conversation. Near the corner of the divan where he sat, and within reach, was a small japan tray, containing a few narrow strips of paper, a couple of reed pens, an inkstand, sand-box, and his official seal. With these simple implements, unaided by clerks, and independent of an organized bureau, he daily transacts all the complicated business connected with his department. He seemed to be well acquainted with the situation, political condition, character, and manners of our country; at least rather better informed than we are on the subject of Turkey. He informed us that not only his, but all the public offices throughout the empire, were open soon after sunrise, and last until sunset, without intermission. They even take their meals, and, if there is no urgent business, indulge in a nap in their office. His salary, we were afterward informed, does not exceed $1000, and yet with a station scarcely inferior to any in the empire, he is satisfied to labour on, day after day, for a length of time far beyond what a merchant's clerk in our country would condescend to do for twice the amount. During our interview several persons entered on business, which was transacted in a low tone of voice approaching a whisper, and this we learned was the established official etiquette. Several drogomen of the foreign powers also dropped in, apparently to lounge away their time and relieve the ennui of their situation. They have a room in this building allotted for their use, and are expected to be within call in case their

services are required. They are each provided with a pair of yellow shoes, which they slip on over their boots when they visit the drogoman of the Porte, or are summoned by him.

We have elsewhere observed that in consequence of the general ignorance among the Turks of any other language than their own, the ministers of foreign powers are compelled to treat with them through the medium of an interpreter or drogoman, a term corrupted from the Turkish word tergiman. They are usually selected from the European families who have resided in the country for several generations, and are perfectly conversant with the Turkish language. In many of these families the office has become almost hereditary, and the consequence has been the establishment of a sort of local nobility. Several have acquired large fortunes by their office, and this, it is said here, could only have been done by betraying the interests of their employers.

As they affect to look down with contempt upon the merchants of Galata, these, in their turn, return the contempt with interest. A common proverb at Constantinople is "Dio mi guardi dai dragomani, io mi guardero dai cani." As there are no laws against defamation, and duelling is not in vogue, this petty warfare is kept up by squibs, mots, pasquinades, and sometimes atrocious libels. The merchants of Galata repeat the distich,—

In Pera sono tre malanni

Peste, fuoco, dragomani,—

while the drogomen retort by asserting that the merchants of Galata are so ignorant, that when a missionary distributed copies of the New Testament among them, they actually believed that St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians was addressed to themselves.* Although among our own ac

This joke is to be found in a very grave history. "Le peuple ignorant et stupide croyoit que l'epitre de St. Paul ad Galatas, avoit été adressée aux

quaintances here we have found as much refinement and general information as in any part of Europe, yet it must be confessed that the schoolmaster has not been abroad in Galata. One of these mercantile worthies, although he knew us to be Americans, actually congratulated us upon the fall of Warsaw.

Drogomen are, however, important aids to those powers which have political relations with Turkey. From the peculiarities of the Turkish character it is extremely difficult to treat with them, except through persons thoroughly acquainted with their language, and their manner of transacting business. We have, however, satisfied ourselves that they would be great gainers in their transactions with foreign powers, if their chief officers of state at least were acquainted with any one European language. The transaction of business through the intervention of a third party is always a tedious process; is liable to frequent misconceptions; and the interpreters may consult their own private interest by misrepresenting or by giving a false colouring to what has been said by either party. We are otherwise at a loss how to explain the fact that the drogoman of Russia is now one of the richest individuals of Pera.

There is another disadvantage connected with it which one would suppose to have been long ere this sufficiently obvious. Ambassadors have been termed, and with justice, privileged spies, and the necessity for a large drogomanic retinue of course increases the number of these spies. The Russian diplomatic corps at Pera, for example, including its various drogomen, aspirants, jeunes de langues, counsellors, &c. &c., comprises at the present moment ninety individuals. If these people faithfully attend to the business for which they are paid, the consequences are sufficiently ob

habitans de ce faubourg."-Histoire du Bas Empire depuis Constantin jusqu'à la prise de Constantinople en 1453. Par Jacques Corentin Royou. Tom. iii. Paris, 1803.

vious. The Turkish government can enter into no negotiation, nor mature any public measure, without its becoming public among the diplomatic runners of Pera.

A drogoman is not, however, what his name implies, a mere interpreter. He is, or at least ought to be, the confidential friend and adviser of his minister. Occasions may and often do arise, when the imperious or abrupt demands of the chief are softened in passing through the drogoman, and hasty or inconsiderate expressions are modified and sometimes suppressed. In conducting a negotiation, their personal acquaintance with the individual characters of the chief officers of state, and their knowledge of the "tempora mollia fandi," render their services highly important.

It may, however, well be questioned, whether their em ployment is not attended with more inconvenience than benefit. Ruphy has given a lively picture of the evils connected with this system. "Ils etoient obligés de livrer leurs personnes et leurs intérêts à la discretion de quelque trucheman renegat dont ils payoient chèrement les services. et quelquefois les infidélités-Ils etoient presque toujours trompés dans leurs transactions," &c. He advises to abandon the old routine, to study the language, and then, to use the expressive terms of Volney, "L'industrie s'éveille, les esprits s'électrisent, les idées se repandent, et bientot par ce contact general s'etablit entre l'Asie et l'Europe, une affinité morale, une communication d'usages, de besoins, d'opinions, des mœurs, et enfin des lois."

Our minister here, Commodore Porter, has attempted the novel experiment of dispensing with the services of a drogoman, and transacts his business directly in French through the drogoman of the Porte. This is a direct appeal to the candour and good faith of the Turkish government, which cannot fail to make a favourable impression. Of course, this unheard-of innovation has occasioned universal scandal among the diplomatists of Pera, and they pour upon his head the same wrathful and bitter denunciations with which

« AnteriorContinuar »