the excellent man burst
into tears as I bade him adieu, and my grief was as great as his own. He
told me that, by not accepting the offer of his daughter's hand, I had so
strongly captivated his esteem that his feelings for me could not have
been warmer if I had become his son. When I went on board ship with the
Bailo Jean Dona, I found another case given to me by him, containing two
quintals of the best Mocha coffee, one hundred pounds of tobacco leaves,
two large flagons filled, one with Zabandi tobacco, the other with
camussa, and a magnificent pipe tube of jessamine wood, covered with gold
filigrane, which I sold in Corfu for one hundred sequins. I had not it in
my power to give my generous Turk any mark of my gratitude until I
reached Corfu, but there I did not fail to do so. I sold all his
beautiful presents, which made me the possessor of a small fortune.
Ismail gave me a letter for the Chevalier de Lezze, but I could not
forward it to him because I unfortunately lost it; he presented me with a
barrel of hydromel, which I turned likewise into money. M. de Bonneval
gave me a letter for Cardinal Acquaviva, which I sent to Rome with an
account of my journey, but his eminence did not think fit to acknowledge
the receipt of either. Bonneval made me a present of twelve bottles of
malmsey from Ragusa, and of twelve bottles of genuine scopolo--a great
rarity, with which I made a present in Corfu which proved very useful to
me, as the reader will discover.
The only foreign minister I saw much in Constantinople was the lord
marshal of Scotland, the celebrated Keith, who represented the King of
Prussia, and who, six years later was of great service to me in Paris.
We sailed from Constantinople in the beginning of September in the same
man-of-war which had brought us, and we reached Corfu in fourteen days.
The Bailo Dona did not land. He had with him eight splendid Turkish
horses; I saw two of them still alive in Gorizia in the year 1773.
As soon as I had landed with my luggage, and had engaged a rather mean
lodging, I presented myself to M. Andre Dolfin, the proveditore-generale,
who promised me again that I should soon be promoted to a lieutenancy.
After my visit to him, I called upon M. Camporese, my captain, and was
well received by him. My third visit was to the commander of galleases,
M. D---- R-----, to whom M. Antonio Dolfin, with whom I had travelled from
Venice to Corfu, had kindly recommended me. After a sh
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