Note 221 — Chapter XI

And often abusing the ignorance of the Turks. “It is very sad,” writes Louis XIV. to Ferriol, February 15, 1707, “that the French bring themselves into discredit by their failures, and that the Turks set them the example of that good faith which they ought to observe in commerce.”—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 44. “There are no people in the world so easily deceived and who have been more deceived than the Turks. They are naturally simple and dull, and ready in believing. Thus it is customary for the Christians to impose upon them in a variety of ways and to play them many scandalous tricks.”—Chardin, Voyage en Perse et autres lieux de l’Orient, vol. i p. 17, Langlès’ edition.