acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

—
—
426 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
the echo of an old tale of the Levant heard in a
London tavern of the day
" That in Aleppo once,
"Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state."
A beating is still the Turkish process in such
quarrels where the opponent is a person of beatable
size and not under the protection of a Great Power.
It is still the favourite public expression of displeasure
in circumstances which do not call for the taking
of life. Many times you may hear some Turkish
anecdote closed with the statement " gave him a
beating."
The British Levant Company had a British Agent
in Aleppo in 1586, and a Factory and staff followed
in 1622. The great stone hhan, reputed the largest
old khan in the city, which the Company's staff occupied
as their Factory, stronghold, offices, and residence
all in one, may still be seen, and under other
tenants still does business in the old way. The
chief Agent was also British Consul, and under him,
in the service of "The Most Worshipful the British
Levant Company," as the corporation was described,
were Vice-Consuls, a British chaplain, and "other
gentlemen of the Agency." Some day a full history
of the Company and its operations and influence in
the Levant—a subject well worthy of attention
may see the light. It will be a book, in subject
and matter at least, containing as much interest and
romance as the story of any great Chartered Company
which has ever upheld the British name. The Levant
Company's history indeed goes back to the earliest
and most romantic period of English commerce,—that
period which spoke of the " Smyrna Voyage" and the
"Levant Voyage" ; when merchant ships went heavily
armed, and fought Sallee Rovers and Algerine and
Egyptian corsairs along the whole length of the
Mediterranean, and had adventures which inspired so
many of Hakluyt's Chronicles. The Company took