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to Miashoufka. Here
Here the difficulty of getting horses recommenced:
nor could it be overcome till the mid morning (Fri 12 Jan,)
about 3 or 4 o'clock when I set out with 6 horses
for Chechelnik. The 5 or if you please the 40
miles between Miashoufka and that town
took me till near the same hour in the afternoon.
Here as at Yassi, Religion intervened and put a
spell upon me. From one side of the Polish Ukraine
to the other not a Christian horse ever
stirs without a Jew-Broker to him give him motion.
Before such an animal could be ferreted out, tho'
no time was lost in hunting him, the Sabbath
had begun: and it was not till the afternoon of the
next day (Sat: 13th) that Ludwig after tugging all
night long, tore a leaf out of the book of Mortimer,
and held up to the view of the astonished
inhabitants of Chechelnik the doctrine of "Every
"man his own Horse-broker." I arrived at Sauran,
a stage of equal length, travelling as usual in the
night, by 2 o'clock the next morning (Sun. 15 Jan.)
There by good fortune, though not without Jew assistance,
I in the compass of 2 hours I got horses
for this place. — From Chekanofka even until
Bohopol, not a space of not less than 144 miles
not an Inn have I enterd that has been
in any other hands than those of the race of
Israel: a people by inbred filthiness the worst
qualified, and by religious scruples, one should
think the least disposed, to engage in such a
business. — Would that our good friend, his late Lordship,
were sitting beside me (he knows what I mean)
I would relate to him at full length and in
sort, my entertainment among these levves. He and
I, on reading of the scrapes they used to get into in Hollingshead
have often joined in lamenting their hare
: enlighten'd by experience familiar
with vicarious punishment, I am now satisfied
that the sufferings of the forefathers were
no more than a just retribution for those which
the children have inflicted on me. — Que fit allocenas,
that in all Poland, ( for it is the same in
other provinces as in this) a man can not get
a rag to cover him, nor a piece of black bread
to eat, nor a beast to carry him nor a hog-stie to lay his head in, but
he must have a Jew to help him to it? — Oh
but and (cried an old Polish Latin-talking Gentleman-traveller
to whom I gave a supper at
Miashoufka) they have a head! — Yes, replied
I, "but it is a lousy one.". — If such is the superiority
of Jewish heads, what are native Polish
ones. I have a theory less disgraceful to the body of
the nation. These interlopers form the etat standing
in the gap between a people of Slave holders Lords and a
of
of slaves, in a country not inviting enough to allure better
capitalists.
Before I take leave of Chechelnik it would be ingratitude
not to commemorate a Russian Major, of
the name of Bibicoff, who redeemed me out of Jewish
Purgatory, and entertained me with the politeness of
a gentleman and the cordiality of a friend. He has
been stationed there these two years by the Admiralty
at Cherson, purveying wood from the demesnes of
Prince Lubomirski; (who by the bye who has not
an a not inelegant palace built within these 4 or 5 years
in the middle of the town, but locked up the family being absent and invisible
in the inside.) Over night, as an article
of news, Ludwig had apprised me of his existence:
it struck me immediately, in spite of Ludwig's controuling
judgment that a Russian Officer serving in
an inferior rank within the sphere on my Brother's
connections might be willing as well as able to be
of use to me. Having station in the
ample enough to receive my narrow bed, except the
State bedstead, a kind of portable trough, litter'd with
chopt straw, which the Landlady I have supposed empty of
two children to receive me. I abandoned this luxury
to my faithful attendant, leaving him to bask in the
stove inhaling the fumes of Judeism and in spite
of his remonstrance retired to a chamber place
Stable. There, climbing up into my
wrapping me in my around me
as perfect a night's sleep as ever I enjoyed
Lincolns Inn. He objected a frosty night
imperfect roof at least fifty feet high, in
the company of cattle: but I had already
more time one night's sleep in colder-night's without
any other roof than that of the Waggon,
and I am Gulliver enough to prefer Houkynms
to Yakvos. In the morning having taken
a breakfast of Yafrie bread and Yassi Coffee with
some rich Chich by a Jewish
pipkin, I dragged Ludwig with me to the
Major: he was not yet stirring but reckoning a
while after to the charge, I found him visible.
He detained me to dinner while he bestirred himself
with great zeal to find out horses for me, though
eventually without effect. The company consisted of
his wife, a Clerk called in Russian stile his
Cancillier, and I know not what Russian visitor:
a little Italian, of which our stick was equally
slender, enabled him and me to maintain some
sort of conversation. At parting, he gave me of his
own notion a letter to a person in authority at Sauran
to find me horses, and another of general recommendation
to a dependant of his here one Lictka, a
Jew, with whom having a room to myself I am much better lodged than
I could have been at any other house either here
or at Olviopol.
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Identifier: | JB/540/243/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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1786-01-16 |
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540 |
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243 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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