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5
Transactions at Fochia from Sat. Nov. 5 to Tuesday Nov: 8 9
The little harbour of Fochia is bounded on the North by a point of
land in the shape of a pear, the connected with the mainland
by the stalk. On this peninsula stands the town:
it is walled round, and covers the town peninsula exactly, leaving no
room for gardens. the streets are in this little town, as in
all the others I have seen in the Levant, Smyrna not excluded, exceedingly narrow, and the houses small and of a
ruinous appearance. the little hovels that go by the name
of Shops, are here as elsewhere in the Levant collected together
in streets distinct from those which are occupied
by the somewhat bigger hovels that serve for dwelling-houses
Some of the latter are occupied by men, who if the report
of one of the townsmen may be credited may pass
for wealthy, by comparison with the general run of Turkish
fortune: he mentioned several who might be worth
from 2 to 3,000 piasters, that is from 200 to 300
£St. a year. As a proof that there was wealth in the
place, in spite of the total absence of every external
sign of it, the author of this intelligence, no less a personage
than a Greek Barber, asked our Interpreter
whether we had any watches to sell, offering himself as
a purchaser for his own use for any thing in that way not exceeding
100 piasters = 10£St. value. This however must have been
at last twice as much as his shop could be worth in
the estimation of any country, stock and furniture included.
whether all this wealth was amassed or pretended
to be amassed by the mere exercise of his profession, I
did not learn. Four paras about 2d 1/2 I found was the ordinary
fee: for this much was taken of our Interpreter who
was too poor in appearance to be expected to be generous, and
too well acquainted with the country to be imposed upon.
This pay, if a man had full business might afford some savings
in a country where I wants are so few, the state of living
so simple, and necessaries so cheap. Mutton we found
about 1d 1/2 a lb: bread, nearly as much as there is in a
twopenny loaf for a halfpenny.
We were eager to get on shore, all hands, in order
to make a comfortable dinner upright and in the fresh air
We thought we had found an excellent place for the
purpose in a half enclosed space with a large
oblong stone at the farther end, rough indeed and
of coarse materials, but in other respects not unlike
the marble slabs you have in England for side-tables.
A burying ground was near adjacent, but there was a
road between. we had spread out our provisions,
and already made some advance in our dinner, when
the appearance of a number of Turks who by this time
had collected together with visible marks of dissatisfaction
in their countenances, shew'd that by some means
or other we had given umbrage. They said something
to us, which of course we did not understand: all we
could do was to call to our old interpreter, who happen'd
to be at some distance, but hobbled up to us as soon as
he could. Through him we learnt that the slab had
something stored in it, which they apprehended would
be profaned by our repast. We immediately assured them
that pork formed no part of it: this we were enabled to
do
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Identifier: | JB/540/215/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540. |
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1785-11-05 |
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540 |
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215 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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