In the circumstances, it is rather a wonder that our Ambassador had managed to “maintain all the Capitulations inviolable” so long. But it was not in the nature of things that he should maintain them much longer. All that Kara Mustafa waited for to let loose the forces of his “tempestuous Goverment” fully upon him was an occasion. It presented itself in the summer of 1680, and from that date on there was no more peace for our hapless pilot: nothing but the roar of rushing winds, the awful sight of foam-crested billows. We see him tossed about at the mercy of the elements, now defiant, now despairing, always anxious to do his very utmost for the ship confided to him, with or without hope, till the very end.
The trouble once again originated at Smyrna. A local Jew had pawned to a member of the English Factory some goods--part merchandise and part wearing apparel and jewels--which, as he was unable to redeem them, were in time eaten up by interest. By and by the Englishman went home, leaving his affairs in the hands of two other merchants, his Assigns; and the Jew, who in the interval had been reduced to the verge of starvation, thinking that if he made noise enough and put in a claim large enough, he would be sure to get something, lodged with the Cadi of Smyrna a complaint against them. An ill-founded complaint perhaps; but we, at this distance of time, have no means of judging. With whatever mental reservations, we must needs tell the story as it has come down to us.[251] Unsuccessful at Smyrna, the Jew carried his grievance up to Constantinople and threw himself at the Grand Vizir’s feet with horrid cries, praying to be rescued from the claws of those English harpies. Kara Mustafa was only too ready to believe any charge brought against a Frank, and never denied his sympathy to the oppressed if he saw a chance of turning compassion into current coin. So the two Englishmen were promptly summoned to appear before the Divan.
Sir John, who had consistently protested against these frequent summonings of English factors from their business,[252] could do no less than lend them such protection as the Capitulations afforded. The defendants, knowing that the Jew relied entirely upon witnesses, thought to cut the ground from under him by appealing to an Article in the Capitulations which provided that no evidence should be valid against a Frank unless supported by a _Hoggiet_, or written statement made in the presence of a Dragoman. This Article had on many occasions proved useful in inferior courts and even, several times, in the Grand Vizir’s tribunal itself, when the Grand Vizir happened to be favourably inclined to the defendants. But at other times even the best Vizirs had declared that the Article was intended only for inferior courts and that the Vizir looked upon himself as being above the Capitulations, were they never so precise.