For that cause, they are half-ashamed of taking gifts.

But no one in this country thinks it wrong of them to do so, nor to oblige the giver, if they can, in little ways.

It would be wrong if they betrayed the trust reposed in them by their superiors, or were seduced into some act against their loyalty or their religion.

But that, praise be to God, you will not find.

It is only in small matters such as acts of commerce or politeness, which hardly come within the sphere of a man's conscience, that they are procurable, and no one in this country thinks the worse of them, whatever people say to you, a foreigner, by way of flattery.