the Porte, in the hope, probably, that he would tire me out; but as
I had nothing to do, and the affair amused me, I stuck to him as
tenaciously as he to his denials, and he had to give in. It was a very
small affair, but the antagonism so inaugurated had a strong effect on
the Cretans, who found in me an enemy of their tyrant.

Ismael was cruel and dishonorable; he violated his given word and
pledges without the slightest regard for his influence with
the population. I have since seen a good deal of Turkish
maladministration, and I am of the opinion that more of the oppression
of the subject populations is due to the bad and thieving instincts of
the local officials than directly to the Sublime Porte, and that the
simplest way of bringing about reforms (after the drastic one of
abolishing the Turkish government) is in the Powers asserting a right
of approbation of all nominations to the governorships throughout the
whole empire. When, as at certain moments in the long struggle of
which I am now beginning the history, I came in contact with the
superior officers of the Sultan, I found a better sense of the policy
of justice than obtained with the provincial functionaries.

Ismael Pasha had only one object,--to do anything that would advance
his promotion and wealth. He regarded a foreign consul, with the right
of exterritoriality, as a hostile force in the way of his ambitions,
and, therefore, until he found that one was not to be bought or
worried into indifference to the injustice perpetrated around him, he
treated him as an enemy. I always liked a good fight in a good cause,
and I had no hesitation in taking up the glove that Ismael threw down,
and my defiance of all his petty hostile manoeuvres was immediately
observed by the acute islanders and put down to my credit and
exaltation in the popular opinion. The discontent against his measures