Hobhouse, refused any compensation but a written paper
stating that I was well received; and when I pressed him to accept a
few sequins, 'No,' he replied; 'I wish you to love me, not to pay me.'
These are his words.
"It is astonishing how far money goes in this country. While I was in
the capital I had nothing to pay by the vizier's order; but since,
though I have generally had sixteen horses, and generally six or
seven men, the expense has not been _half_ as much as staying only
three weeks in Malta, though Sir A. Ball, the governor, gave me a
house for nothing, and I had only _one servant_. By the by, I expect
H---- to remit regularly; for I am not about to stay in this province
for ever. Let him write to me at Mr. Strane's, English consul, Patras.
The fact is, the fertility of the plains is wonderful, and specie is
scarce, which makes this remarkable cheapness. I am going to Athens to
study modern Greek, which differs much from the ancient, though
radically similar. I have no desire to return to England, nor shall
_I_, unless compelled by absolute want, and H----'s neglect; but I
shall not enter into Asia for a year or two, as I have much to see in
Greece, and I may perhaps cross into Africa, at least the Egyptian
part. Fletcher, like all Englishmen, is very much dissatisfied, though
a little reconciled to the Turks by a present of eighty piastres from
the vizier, which, if you consider every thing, and the value of
specie here, is nearly worth ten guineas English.
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