When it had become quite dark (for there was no moon that night) I
was informed that several Jews had secretly come from the city in
the hope of obtaining some assistance from me in circumstances of
imminent danger; I was also informed that they claimed my aid upon
the ground that some of their number were British subjects. It was
arranged that the two principal men of the party should speak for
the rest, and these were accordingly admitted into my tent. One of
the two called himself the British vice-consul, and he had with him
his consular cap, but he frankly said that he could not have dared
to assume this emblem of his dignity in the daytime, and that
nothing but the extreme darkness of the night rendered it safe for
him to put it on upon this occasion. The other of the spokesmen
was a Jew of Gibraltar, a tolerably well-bred person, who spoke
English very fluently.
These men informed me that the Jews of the place, who were
exceedingly wealthy, had lived peaceably in their retirement until
the insurrection which took place in 1834, but about the beginning
of that year a highly religious Mussulman called Mohammed Damoor
went forth into the market-place, crying with a loud voice, and
prophesying that on the fifteenth of the following June the true
Believers would rise up in just wrath against the Jews, and despoil
them of their gold and their silver and their jewels.
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