Now, there may be some good reason for the very singular contrast which our hospital presents; but I cannot help thinking that, if the British Government were really aware what a miserable place it is, they would take some more active steps to provide a better. It is no excuse to say that the English hospital at Constantinople is worse; and that there the bugs drop down from the ceiling on the patients' faces. In the course of this war we may want a good hospital for our merchant sailors at Smyrna, and so we may as well get it ready at once. At present the establishment is much more like a Turkish khan than the hospital of a civilized people, and yet we profess to exhibit to the Turks a model to be followed in all things.127
XXVI.
Calymnos, November 11, 1854.
After duly presenting my firman to the Pasha at Rhodes, and receiving in exchange for it a mandate addressed to the Turkish Governor and the Primates of Calymnos, enjoining them to facilitate my operations in every way, I set sail in a caique for that island, accompanied by an Italian artist, Signer Panni, who was staying at Rhodes, and by my cavass, a smart young Albanian, whom I have recently engaged in my service, securing his affections for the next six months by a present of a gold-laced jacket, with a promise of a pair of
