Day & Haghe, Lith^rs to the Queen

PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR IN HIS BEDOUIN DRESS.

London, Henry Colburn, G^t Marlborough S^t, 1846

TRAVELS
OF
LADY HESTER STANHOPE;

FORMING THE COMPLETION

OF

HER MEMOIRS.

NARRATED BY

HER PHYSICIAN.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1846.

Frederick Shoberl, Junior, Printer to His Royal Highness Prince Albert,
51, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.

CONTENTS
OF
THE THIRD VOLUME.

TRAVELS
OF
LADY HESTER STANHOPE.

CHAPTER I.

Preparations for a journey to Bâlbec—Precautions against the plague—Departure from Meshmûshy—Heavy attire—The author loses his road—Cheerless night—Drûze hospitality—Barûk—Bur Elias—Village of Malaka—Cottages in the Bkâ—Hard dumplings—Grumbling servants—Misery of villages in the territory of Bâlbec—Mode of encampment—Arrival at Bâlbec.

A journey to Bâlbec had been projected for this autumn; but obstacles of one kind or another had caused it to be delayed until the season was very far advanced. At length, however, every preparation being made, we set out on the 18th of October. During the whole of the year, the plague had not entirely ceased at Damascus, and in several villages of the Bkâ, a plain which we should have to traverse from one extremity to the other. Lady Hester was strongly impressed with the dread of exposure to its contagion[1] from the carelessness of some of the people; to prevent which the strictest precautions were taken, and the observance of these considerably diminished the pleasure which such a tour would otherwise have afforded. We travelled with tents to prevent the necessity of sleeping in villages; and no fire was ever to be lighted unless where the country supplied fuel without having recourse to the inhabitants for it, which was equivalent to a total interdict; as, with the exception of a few orchards, there was not a tree through the whole plain. To supersede the necessity of cooking or buying provisions, a kind of minced meat dumplings was made, enough for the consumption of a week. These, and bread-cakes baked for the same purpose, were to be eaten indifferently by all. We carried with us kitchen utensils, tents, beds, coffee, rice, bûrgol or malted wheat, soap, candles, oil, wine, vinegar, vermicelli, macaroni, cheese, tea and sugar, syrups for sherbet, and fuel for Lady Hester, whose sex and delicate health necessarily prevented her from submitting to the privations to which men could willingly subject themselves. It was necessary likewise to be provided with cords, nails, hammers, axes, hoes, and some other things of this sort; so that we had wherewithal to colonize as well as to travel. For if, as it was reported, the plague still raged at Bâlbec, the impossibility of obtaining anything from the town would expose us, if not thus furnished, to great inconveniences. All this baggage loaded fifteen mules. The party consisted of Lady Hester, the dragoman, myself, eight men-servants, four women and a black female slave, making altogether fifteen; and we all rode on asses.

The extraordinary resolution of performing a long and difficult journey on asses was not a mere fancy in Lady Hester: it arose from a deep feeling of indignation at the neglected state in which she found herself left by her friends and her relations, more especially by the then Marquis of B*********; and she thought, by assuming the mode of travelling common only to the poorest pilgrims who traverse Syria on their way to Jerusalem, to direct the attention of the consuls and merchants of the towns through which she passed to her deserted condition, imagining, no doubt, that a report of it would reach England, and call down animadversions on those from whom she had a right to claim support and attention to her comforts.

Lady Hester descended the mountain, and I was preparing to accompany her, when I was detained by a dispute among the muleteers, who declared that the fifteen mules could not carry the baggage. Intending to compel them to it, I desired my servant to lead my ass down the mountain, saying I would follow; but, after some time, I found that another mule was indeed required, and that there was not one to be had. Impatient of the delay, I mounted a horse belonging to the owner of the house, and rode to the monastery to get one. The monks refused to lend or hire out their mules; and, seeing no alternative, I desired the luggage thus left should be taken care of, and hastened on foot to overtake the party; but more than an hour had elapsed, and they were far before me. Descending into the plain on the north-east side, I continued along the banks of the Ewely, passing the granite columns, of which mention has already been made, over the bridge called Geser Behannýn. The road continued for a small distance farther in the ravine, through which the river runs north and south, when it turned to the right up an almost precipitous mountain, which overhangs the river, and the indentations and strata of which correspond exactly with those on the opposite side. I here became much fatigued with walking and with the exertions I had made during the morning, and I sat down to rest myself; for I had on me a riding dress, with which, in Turkey, it is scarcely possible to walk; as the breeches are very large. I had likewise a brace of pistols in my girdle, the weight of which was annoying. Whilst sitting by the road-side, some Drûzes, coming in an opposite direction, passed me, and I questioned them whether the English lady had been seen by them, and they pointed out the road by which she had gone. I then offered them an unusual price if they would let me have one of their mules to convey me to where she was; but they averred it to be impossible, on account of their business, which took them another way.

Renewing my journey, and ascending in a zigzag direction, I reached the head of a deep ravine, into which fell a cascade from the mountain above: I then resumed a northerly course, and made as much haste as my heavy attire would allow me. On the left, but low down and out of hearing, was the river Ewely, and on my right very high mountains, whilst my path was, although stony and rugged, along level ground. In this way I walked till the sun was declining behind the mountains, when I saw the lights of a village, but at some distance before me, which I guessed to be Makhtàrah, the residence of the Shaykh Beshýr, as I knew I had been tending towards it. The path soon became somewhat intricate, in consequence of olive, fig, and mulberry-tree plantations, which were numerous hereabout. It now grew dark, and I overtook a man driving an ass, who, as far as I could discern, seemed somewhat afraid of me and my pistols, whilst I felt equally so of him; I therefore turned out of the path, apprehensive, if I asked the way, that he might guess my situation, and find means to rob me; for, in the hurry of the moment, I had not loaded my pistols, and my cartridges were with my servant.

The lights were still before me. I knew that the place of our encampment would be marked by blazing meshals (formed by fixing an iron-hooped cylinder on a pole, and supplying it continually with tarred canvas), and I thought that, at some distance on the left and beyond the village, I observed this very blaze: I therefore left Makhtàrah on my right, and inclined towards them. After I had walked about half an hour, the blaze suddenly disappeared; by degrees, the path, which, from the darkness of the night was now no longer perceptible, became so uncertain, that I was almost fearful to advance, when, on a sudden, I found myself on a descent and within hearing of the sound of a torrent. Stepping with caution and difficulty, I came to a bridge over a rushing water, which I judged to be the river Ewely. I crossed it, but was no sooner over than I lost all traces of the path, and found my farther advance opposed by a precipice.

Here my courage and my strength failed me. I judged it to be three hours after sunset, and the darkness was not relieved in the abyss into which I had descended by even the glimmering of a star. The jackalls howled around me; and whoever has heard their night-cry, so like what we may suppose would be the screams of a child whom robbers are in the act of murdering, will not wonder if I disliked the necessity of sleeping in this wild place. I was not sure that there were not leopards near the spot where I was; and the jackalls alone, although they seldom or never attack a man who is awake and moving, might yet fall on me when asleep, and do me great injury before I could rise and defend myself. However, all these reflections were of no avail against extreme weariness. I lay down on the ground, fell asleep, and in the morning, soon after daylight and not before, awoke refreshed and unhurt.

I looked round me, and perceived that I was in a deep ravine; and, as I observed the path by which I had descended to the river, I blessed Providence that had guided my steps; for it was dangerous even in open day. About two hundred yards up the stream was a water-mill. I went to it, and, knocking at the door, found an old Drûze who invited me in; but my apprehensions of the plague caused me to refuse; and I asked him where I was, told him how I had passed the night, and inquired if he had seen a large caravan go by on the preceding day. The bridge, I learned, was called Geser Gedayda.

Having satisfied myself on these points, he directed me up the mountain to a village, where, on my arrival, I met another Drûze, who was just driving his oxen to plough. I asked him for something to eat, and he immediately turned back, and led me to his own door. His wife was yet in bed. He roused her, and said he had brought a foreigner for a visitor, desiring her to set out the table. But, on expressing my apprehensions of the plague, and on refusing to cross the threshold, she put out her homely fare on a straw tray.[2] It consisted of cheese soaked in oil, a bunch of hung grapes, and some bad bread-cakes. I had now fasted for twenty-two hours, and was not disposed to quarrel about trifles; so she placed it on a stone, and on her retiring I advanced, and ate with my fingers. My looks, dress, &c., were all examined by the woman and a neighbour; but they both scrupulously kept their faces covered.

Having satisfied my hunger, the man desired his son and daughter, children of six or seven years old, to show me on my way; but when I produced all the money I happened to have about me, which was seven paras (about twopence), and offered it in payment for my breakfast, his civility relaxed, and he suffered me to set off alone. In the village of Gedaydy, for so this was called, the inhabitants are Drûzes.

As soon as I was out of the village, I came on a country barren and stony; hardly was there a tree to be seen. An hour’s walk brought me to a Drûze village, called Ayn-wy-Zayn. Here, as there was no plague, I hired an ass and guide to carry me onward. Soon after we entered among very extensive vineyards, which continued as far as Barûk, where it will be recollected we halted for a night two years before.

Lady Hester had pitched the tents on the very same spot where she had encamped at that time. She had been, during the night, apprehensive that some accident had happened to detain me, and my absence had been productive likewise of still worse consequences. For as, in the necessity there was that our provisions should last us until we reached Bâlbec, the keys could not be entrusted to the servants, I had them in my pocket. Upon the arrival, therefore, of the party to the resting-place, which they did not reach until eleven at night, no provisions could be had; and after so long a day’s journey (the dragoman, who had turned off the road to go to Makhtárah to bear Lady Hester’s compliments to the Shaykh Beshýr, not being present), the mule-drivers and servants broke open the provision hampers, and unnecessary waste ensued, and caused us to be afterwards reduced to great straits.

My pedestrian exertion brought on an intolerable erysipelatous heat and itching in both my feet, which nothing could appease but sitting with my naked feet in the stream, just where it issued quite cold from the rock,—a dangerous mode of cure, only to be justified by the necessity I was under of pursuing our journey on the morrow. We passed the whole of the 19th at this spot, while Pierre went back to recover the luggage which had been left at Meshmûshy.

On the 20th, we ascended the last ridge of Lebanon, and, when at the summit, enjoyed that fine prospect which has been described in a former place. We descended into the Bkâ, and passed the hamlet of Aâney, a few miserable cottages, whither the husband-men of Barûk go in the summer to plough and sow, and, having finished these operations, quit them for their homes until harvest time.

One mile farther we planted our tents. Here we remained two nights, waiting for the return of M. Beaudin; but, not being come back on the 22d of October, in the morning, the tents were struck. We took a northerly direction, along the plain close to the foot of Mount Lebanon, and passed some small villages part on our left in the mountain, and part on our right in the plain.

After a march of about three leagues we came to Bur Elias, a small village with a castle of modern construction overhanging it. It was watered by a rivulet, which ran with a smart stream through it. This stream was made to irrigate several well cultivated gardens and orchards, which so much embellished the spot, that, until our arrival at Bâlbec, we saw no place to compare with it. There were also the remains of an old mosque, with other evidences that the village was once more populous than at present. In a rock on the south-west side are several ancient caverns, which served as tombs, with sarcophagi hewn in the stone; and, at one part, on the face of a small precipice, chiselled smooth for the purpose, was a square portion of ten or fifteen feet, cut deep enough to admit of a layer of stucco or marble with which it seemed to have been coated, having in its centre, towards the bottom, three recesses, which had probably been filled up with votive tablets, or basso-relievos, there not being depth enough for statues.

Leaving Bur Elias, we came next to Malaka, a large village of two hundred houses, where terminates what is called the district of Bkâ,[3] and begins the Bâlbec territory, which is, however, but a continuation of the same plain. This village, although so large, is but of two years’ date, and was transferred from about three hundred yards off to its present situation, by the emir of the Drûzes, who, having taken, by force of arms, from the Emir Jahjáh, the governor of Bâlbec, the village of Khurby, which was just beyond the line of demarcation of his domain, destroyed it, and made the inhabitants build Malaka.

The houses in the Bkâ were not of stone, as on the mountain, but of mud bricks dried in the sun. They were low, and had the appearance of much misery on the outside, although, as we were told, very comfortable within. This we had no opportunity of ascertaining, as the plague reigned about us, and it was by no means prudent to approach, much less to enter, any habitations. The dress of the people was different from that of the mountaineers. No horns were now to be seen on the heads of the women, who likewise wore red aprons, which were universally seen towards the Desert, but never near the sea-coast. The Palma Christi was cultivated very generally for the sake of the oil, which is used for lamps. As harvest was now over, we could not see what were the particular productions of the plain; it seemed, however, highly fertile, being of that fine snuff-coloured mould which, at Hamah and elsewhere, had been pointed out to us as most useful to the husbandman for agricultural purposes.

We encamped near Khurby, which yet had some cottages among its ruined walls. Our water was drawn from a spring which, from its vicinity to an ancient sepulchre assigned by tradition to the patriarch Noah, is called Ayn Nûah. His body is said to occupy a length of forty cubits, and his feet, for want of room, to hang down in the well.

Our appearance here and elsewhere in the Bkâ excited much curiosity. Without guards from the emir or pasha, demanding provisions nowhere, and boldly encamping in the open plain away from every habitation, we perhaps awed the very people who would have attacked others marching with more caution. For the Bkâ is entirely open to the incursions of the Arabs, who overrun the tract of country between Bâlbec and Hems, where no mountain interposes to obstruct them, although many maps falsely lay one down.

The cûby (or dumplings), which have been mentioned in setting out on this journey, were now become so dry and hard that the servants and muleteers refused to eat them. I felt that they were justified in their refusal; for I, who, for the sake of example, was obliged to enforce the order for their consumption by eating them myself, never suffered more from bad food than on this occasion: but no representations could make Lady Hester abate one tittle of her resolution. The maids cried, the men grumbled and rebelled, and the fatigue of keeping order among Christians, Drûzes, and Mahometans, was more than I had hitherto experienced: yet no one fell ill. This day Pierre joined us here, and brought with him the luggage which had been left behind.

On the 23d we continued our route. The villages in the territory of Bâlbec were much less numerous, and much more miserable, than those in the Bkâ. Such as were on the side of the mountain were built higher up than they had been, as if the inhabitants feared to be exposed to depredations from the plain. No gardens or orchards were to be seen. After five hours’ march we arrived at a Tel, where was a fine rivulet, which, running from the mountain, turned a mill wheel, and then flowed towards the river in the centre of the plain, the ancient Leontes or Litanus, called the Bâlbec river by our muleteers, and which becomes the Casmia before it empties itself into the sea. Here we encamped, in a still more dangerous situation than hitherto.

I had established a fixed plan of encampment, with regular distances assigned for each tent, which was adhered to every night; but here the tents were brought closer than usual. I was not at ease in my bed, and, awaking M. Beaudin, the interpreter, he and myself patrolled the ground alternately through the night. The moon shone bright, and the scene wore a lonely appearance. Fortunately we had to deal with a woman whose composure of mind was never ruffled by real danger, and whose sleep was never broken by the apprehension of false.

The Letanus passed very near the Tel, from which circumstance it is evident that the slope of Anti-Lebanon extends across two-thirds of the plain. At this season of the year, and in this spot, a man might leap over the river. Higher up, one day’s journey west of Bâlbec, there is, according to Abulfeda, (p. 155) a pool or lake, reedy and stagnant, where this river takes its source, and the bed of the stream had many reeds in it where we saw it.

On the 24th we crossed it, and at noon reached Bâlbec. The luxuriant scenery which the imagination readily lent to the city and ruins as seen at a distance, intermixed with the deep green foliage of trees, vanished on a nearer approach. The gardens near the ruins were no more than orchards, sown, in the intervals between the trees, with maize, turnips, and other vegetables: nor did the Temple of the Sun impress us with all its grandeur until close to it. The inequalities of the soil in a manner buried the ruins, and their magnificence, at the first glance, seemed, like that of Palmyra, to be less than, on a farther examination, it proved to be.

CHAPTER II.

Residence at Bâlbec—Visit to the governor, the Emir Jahjáh—Wretchedness of Bâlbec—Bath Scene—Encampment of Lady Hester at Ras el Ayn—Sepulchral caverns—Greek bishop of Bâlbec—Catholic priest—Climate—Departure from Bâlbec—Ayn Ayty—Hurricane—Bsharry—Mineral springs—Dress of women—Village of Ehden, conjectured by some to be the site of Paradise—Resort of native Christians—Arrival of Selim, son of Mâlem Musa Koblan, of Hamah—The Cedars of Lebanon—Maronite monastery of Mar Antaniûs—Lady Hester enters it in spite of the monks—Arrival at Tripoli.

We encamped under the south-west angle of the temple, in an open field, through which ran the rivulet that traverses the town; but, considering that the water we thus drank was no better than the washings of the houses, and fearing also, from the concourse of women and children who were constantly surrounding our encampment, that the plague might be introduced among us, it was resolved to remove to a spot of ground near the spring where the rivulet takes its rise, called Ras el Ayn, the fountain head, about a mile from the town to the south-east. Here, in the ruins of an old mosque, her ladyship’s tent was screened from the wind; for tempests were now expected; whilst the rest of the party encamped in the open fields.

The day after our arrival I paid a visit to the governor, Emir Jahjáh, of the family of Harfûsh, whose exactions from travellers passing through this place have been recorded by more than one sufferer. He was a needy prince, who ruled, indeed, the district, but was surrounded by too many chieftains as powerful as himself ever to feel secure. For, on the one hand, the Pasha of Damascus, to whom he was tributary, was said to take annually from him sixty purses: on the other, the Emir of the Drûzes, towards the west, was watching, upon every occasion, to make encroachments upon him; and the Emir of Derny, a neighbouring district of Mount Lebanon, was his enemy whenever it served his turn to be so. Jahjáh had been on one occasion displaced by his brother, the Emir Sultan, backed by the Pasha of Damascus: but he afterwards restored the usurped province to Jahjáh, and they were now living in amicable relations with each other.

I found the emir in a house with little appearance of splendour about it. The room in which he received me had no more than four whitewashed walls, with a mud floor covered with a common rush mat. What his harým was I had no opportunity of judging: but the harým of one of his relations, to which I went to see a maid servant who was ill of a tertian ague, was very much of a piece with this. His brother, Emir Sultan, to whom I next paid a visit, seemed somewhat better lodged: for his sofa was covered with yellow satin, with a cushion of the same stuff to lean on, but his guests were obliged to sit on the floor on a common mat. An earthenware jug to drink out of, a towel to wipe his face and hands, a pipe and tobacco-bag, a sword, a pair of pistols, and a gun—these formed the furniture of his, as they do that of the rooms of many other chieftains in the East.

I dined with Emir Sultan, a compliment from him which I did not expect, as the rules of the Metoualy religion prohibit eating and drinking from vessels defiled by Christians. Wanting to drink during the repast, I called for some water, which to the other guests was handed in a silver cup. To me it was given in an earthenware jug: and, when we had risen from table, this jug was broken by the servant close by the door of the room, that no one of the house might make use of it afterwards. I felt my choler rise at this unjust distinction made between man and man, but I pretended not to observe it. Why it was done in sight of us all I do not know, unless it were to remove the imputation which might lie at his door if it could be surmised that an impure drinking-cup still remained in his house.

Twice, when I was on a morning visit to Emir Sultan, the butcher came, weighed his meat at the door of the room, and minced it in the window-seat before him, in order, as I guessed, to avoid all suspicion of poison, the constant dread of eastern potentates, or else to fulfil to the letter some precept of his religion touching meats.

The plague was occasionally making its appearance in different families, so that I could visit no one without some degree of apprehension. Respecting the modern town, this is the information I collected. It contained now no more than from 120 to 150 families, about thirty of which were Catholics.[4] The Mahometan inhabitants were Metoualys or Shyas.[5] Nothing could present a more miserable appearance than the streets. Five sixths of the old town were now covered with rubbish. Wretchedness was depicted in the rags and looks of the inhabitants, and poverty in the palace of the emir. It is said that the emir himself, rendered desperate by the little quiet which the pasha of Damascus allowed him, had, of his own accord, destroyed whole streets, that his town might be no longer an object of covetousness to him. Bâlbec is situated in 33° 50 N. I observed two mosques, Jamâ el Malak and Baekret el Cadi. There were four gates to the town, which was divided into seven parishes. The district of Bâlbec contained twenty-five villages.

South and by east of the temple, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, is an elevation which commands the town, and affords a beautiful view of the ruins and of the surrounding country. On the top of this eminence was a well, hewn out of the rock, of a square form, but now filled up with rubbish. The quarries, which supplied the stone for building the temple, are to the south-west of it. Viewed from this spot, the plain of the Bkâ seems to run north-east and south-west. The last visible point of Anti-Lebanon, seen from hence, lies north-east and by north half east, and the snowy summit of Mount Lebanon bore north-north-west.

I forbear to give any description of the Temple of the Sun. It was in the same state in which Volney saw it in 1784. The immense stones which form the escarpment of the south-west corner, and which are always mentioned by travellers with so much wonder, somewhat disfigure the edifice;[6] for their monstrous magnitude is so little in correspondence with the stones which form the upper part of the wall that they destroy all symmetry, and impress an idea of a building less in size than its component parts were intended for.

Lady Hester’s first inquiry was generally for a bath; and, when she had ascertained that there was one, having reposed herself for two or three days, she was desirous of going to it: so it was to be cleaned out for her reception. It was the afternoon, and, as is customary, the women, who always bathe from noon to sunset, were in it. The bathmaster, eager for the bakshysh, which he already anticipated he should get from a person reputed so rich as Lady Hester, requested me to wait a little, and said he would order the women out in a moment, and show it to me. Accordingly, he went into the centre room, vociferating as he entered, and then, driving them, undressed as they were, into a side chamber, he called me in. A few naked children continued to run about; whilst the women, curious to see a Frank, peeped out of their hiding-place, and cared very little what part of their person was exposed to view. Had I been anything but a medical man, neither the bathman nor I could have risked such an adventure on such an occasion. Thus the women of the east, veiled from head to foot, and shut up with bars and bolts, still find means, under the excuse of doctors, dervises, and relations, to admit men into places from which their jealous husbands in vain would exclude them.

RAS EL AYN, BÂLBEC.

The spot at which we were encamped was one of the most beautiful that it is possible to behold. It was at the extremity of a valley, on the first rise of the Anti-Lebanon, where several copious springs, bubbling up in a circular basin of antique masonry, formed a considerable rivulet, which watered the whole valley down to Bâlbec, one mile off. The valley was covered with the dense foliage of fruit-trees, cypresses, weeping-willows, plane, and fruit-trees of all kinds, through which a shady path led to the town. Close to the spring were the ruins of an old mosque, and the remains of a gateway, the lintel and posts of which were single blocks of stone. It probably had belonged to the temple; and the circular basins, which confined the springs, were once, to appearance, surmounted by domes. Many large loose stones lay round about. In looking from the bank, just above the spring, a variety of objects filled up the landscape. In the farthest distance were the two most elevated peaks of Mount Lebanon, covered with snow, contrasted with a lower chain of the mountain, wooded and dark-looking. Over the tops of the gardens rose, in magnificent grandeur, the six columns, which were still standing, of the inner temple. Dispersed in the field to the left of the mosque were the green tents, with asses and mules tied up among them. It was but to turn one’s back on these cheerful objects, when the barren declivities of Anti-Lebanon presented themselves, heightening the beauty of the mixed scenery at their foot by the contrast which they presented.

By an arrangement made previous to Lady Hester’s departure from Meshmûshy, Selim, the son of Mâlem Musa Koblán of Hamah, of whom mention has been made during our stay at that place, was to meet her here; but, as he had not come, my servant was despatched on a mule with a letter to him. This necessarily detained us at Bâlbec; and, when the ruins had been seen, the governor visited, and the prospects round about admired, a stay here became somewhat irksome: as the plague was so much increased that it was necessary to abstain from entering people’s houses.

The death of a Sayd or Sherýf of the plague alarmed the governor so much, that he removed soon afterwards with his household to a castle at a small distance. But the motive he assigned was not considered by us as the real one: for we thought that he was either afraid of Selim’s coming, of which he had heard, considering that he might be an emissary of the Pasha of Damascus, who had long endeavoured to lay hold of his person: or else, apprehensive that in our exposed encampment we might be plundered, he supposed, by removing himself from the town, he should not be considered as responsible, or charged by the Porte with reparation.

In the mean time, as it happened everywhere, Lady Hester never rode through the streets, or approached the town, but she was immediately followed by several persons. Ali, Emir of Derny,[7] was so far attracted by curiosity as to depart from his dignity and ride round our encampment, in the wish of getting a sight of her. Affairs with Emir Jahjáh had brought him from his principality, which is on the north extremity of Mount Lebanon, down to Bâlbec, and his martial air, as he rode along with a dozen attendants, struck me very forcibly; but Lady Hester did not see him.

At the beginning of November it came on to rain most violently, and successive storms of thunder and wet confined us much under our tents. In the intervals of fine weather, I rode out in every direction round the town; but my researches were unsuccessful in discovering any remains of antiquity that had not been before seen by other travellers. About one hundred yards from the north-east wall of the city there are several caverns, the appearance of which demonstrated that stone was quarried there for building, and that, at the same time, or subsequently, these caverns had been converted into sepulchres for the dead. They are very numerous, and some were very spacious: but, in all, the shape was nearly alike, being that of an arch of six feet from the apex to the floor, and five and a half or six feet long. They contained from three to ten pits or sarcophagi, and generally they were just deep enough for the breadth of a human corpse. Some had two abreast. Some sepulchres were flat-roofed, and one had a centre embossment which might originally have been sculptured in relief. Many had in them small niches as if for a lamp; and in one was an upright sarcophagus.

We found here some peasants filling sacks with saltpetre, which they collected from these and other caverns, in and about the place: they had amassed four ass loads. On the talus of one of the shafts of the quarry there were, although with difficulty to be discovered, some old Grecian characters.

I was sitting one day under a clump of trees, by the side of a rivulet, smoking, when a Greek caloyer or priest approached, and saluted me. It proved to be the bishop of Bâlbec, whom I had known, in the autumn of 1812, at Yabrûd, the ordinary place of his residence; for the fanaticism of the Metoualys, and the oppression of Jahjáh’s government, obliged him to reside in a more tranquil spot. His diocese extended from Hems to Malûla. He was a dark, ugly, squinting man, but very loquacious, and seemingly a very good theologian. His name, which, as a layman, had been Wakyn, was now Cyrillus: and this assumption of an episcopal name is a common practice among Eastern divines.[8]

Giovanni was not yet returned from Hamah, and apprehensions were entertained that he had been plundered by the Bedouin Arabs: yet, as he was furnished with a paper saying by whom he was sent, and as he was moreover known as having accompanied us to Palmyra, it was thought that he would not be molested. During the whole of this time, the muleteers and their mules were at a fixed pay per diem, which made the delay very expensive.

I occasionally visited the Catholic priest, a European. His house contained the only oven for baking loaves in the place, and our bread was baked there every two or three days. I was sitting with him one day on a stone by the way side, in conversation, when a sayd or green turbaned Mahometan passed us on an ass, carrying before him a dish of lentils, which he apparently had bought for his dinner. “El mejd lillah—(Glory be to God)”—was his salutation to us; to which the priest immediately replied, “däyman—(for ever)”—and the sayd went on, and the priest continued the conversation, both quite unconscious how strange their puritanical language appeared.[9]

Bâlbec is an extremely cold and exposed place in the winter, but must, from the dry air of the neighbouring downs, enjoy a very salubrious climate.

The weather still continuing tempestuous, there was some hazard, should our departure be delayed much longer, that the route over Mount Lebanon to Tripoli would become impassable from the snow. Accordingly, we left Bâlbec on the 7th or 8th of November at 11 o’clock, after having remained there a fortnight. We crossed the plain in a north-west direction. When we were half over it, we saw on our left, half a mile out of the road, a single pillar: but, whether one of many others now thrown down, or a votive column, I had not time to examine.[10] About four we reached the foot of Lebanon, and passed the village of Dayr Ahmar. We ascended, and, about half past five, arrived at the narrow valley where stood the village of Ayn Aty; so named from a source of water which springs from the rock just above: and there is, as we were told, a small lake near the spot.[11]

The wind was north, and blew very cold, with rain and sleet. Pierre, who had undertaken to be our guide, had promised that we should arrive before sunset at our station: but it was already dark, and Lady Hester, who suffered much from the inclemency of the weather, grew impatient and angry with him. We continued to ascend through a scattered forest of stunted oaks, with which the whole of the lowest chain is wooded. Some were of a good circumference in the stem, but none were high. Whilst it was yet light, I picked up two specimens of the rock, which seemed to be a sort of marble in a bed of argil.

We arrived, at length, at the spring-head, Ayn Aty;[12] but such a hurricane of wind and rain came on, just as the muleteers were unloading, that they, one and all, threw down tents, trunks, and beds, in confusion, and betook themselves for shelter to caverns in the rocks, so that we saw no more of them all night. In vain did I call and threaten; they heeded me not. The tent-men were desired to plant Lady Hester’s tent, and leave the others for the moment to shift as they could: but, so strong did the wind blow, that, as fast as they reared it, it was blown down again. The maids could keep no candle alight: even in a lantern it was extinguished, and the darkness was intense. With some difficulty, Lady Hester’s tent was at last secured, then that for the women. Her ladyship, who had meanwhile taken shelter under a precipice, was at length comfortably placed under cover.

This was one of the most distressing nights we ever passed. When the other tents were fixed, and, by means of fires, we had somewhat dried ourselves, a laughable accident occurred from the terrors of Pierre, who, having gone a short distance from the camp, could not from the darkness find his way back again, and was heard amidst the fury of the tempest bellowing lustily for help. Neither the dragoman nor myself slept the whole of the night; as, on several occasions, the tent-ropes flew, and it required all our authority to induce the akàms or tent-men to brave the weather and repair them.

November the 9th, as soon as it was light, the muleteers re-appeared, confessing that they had hidden themselves for fear of being employed through the night. We departed from Ayn Aty, clambering up the steep paths to surmount the second chain; and, in about two hours, we came to the summit, from which the valley of the Bkâ, as we looked down behind us, seemed like a slip of fallow land, so much were its dimensions narrowed by distance. In ascending Mount Lebanon, from the plain between Dayr Ahmar and the spring Ayn Aty, the rock is of a compact limestone, with a portion of iron intermixed: at least, so I judged from its colour, which was, where exposed to the air, red, and within flesh-coloured. On the very summit of the mountain, above the Cedars and behind the village of Bsharry, I broke off a fragment of rock, which was limestone also. Descending on the other side, we saw the far-famed clump of Cedars on our right; and, leaving them, arrived at sunset at Bsharry. The shaykh, named Ragel, received Lady Hester into his house, although he had made some difficulty at first, owing to his dread of the plague, which we might have brought with us from Bâlbec. I was lodged in a house on the opposite side of the street, and the rest were dispersed about as the shaykh chose to billet them.

Bsharry is in itself a picturesque spot, and commands views of other spots equally so. It was a burgh of two hundred houses, furnishing when necessary five hundred muskets. From the martial character of the inhabitants, who were hardy mountaineers, and accustomed from their infancy to carry fire-arms; as also from its elevated situation, difficult on all sides of access; it had, at different periods, asserted its independence by force, although surrounded by Drûzes and Metoualys, Turks, and Ansárys. They spoke of the present government of the Emir Beshýr with disgust, and pretended that, if the love of liberty, which was so strong in their forefathers, had still existed, they should yet have been free.

In the environs of Bsharry, potatoes were cultivated and eaten by the peasants as an article of daily food. Their introduction was of a few years’ date only. Some Franks at Tripoli, I afterwards learned, were accustomed to eat them occasionally; but elsewhere than at Bsharry I did not observe them to be cultivated. Lady Hester caused some to be planted at Abra, but the peasants prognosticated that they would die; and indeed they came up very well, but the soil was too much burnt up, and they could not find moisture enough to come to maturity.

The inhabitants of Bsharry were of the Maronite persuasion. They were said to be all good sportsmen. I found few sick in the place, and was told that persons lived to an advanced age. Among those who applied to me there were cases of colic, sore eyes, and old sores, and one of a venereal nature; but there were no goitres, and yet snow-water is the only water drunk. I collected here a few ancient coins, which was generally the payment I exacted from the sick. The river Kadýshy takes its source above this village, out of a rocky amphitheatre, and is precipitated by small cascades into a deep ravine, where it runs until lost among the windings of the mountains.

To the north-east another spring, from the mountains that overhang the environs of the village, fell in a pretty cascade, and, running close to the east point of the village, contributed to increase the stream of the Kadýsha. The water, where it formed the cascade, and before it mixed with other rivulets, was said to affect goats, drinking of it, with looseness; whilst men were exempt from this effect. The roads around were stony and difficult, rendered wet and muddy by the constant intersection of rivulets, which, at this season, were very numerous. To the east of Bsharry there is a convent dedicated to Mar Serkýz.

The women here, instead of veils of silk crape, wore over their heads coloured handkerchiefs, principally red. The tassy on the head was of the shape of a truncated bell of silver, to which were appended by the better sort of females jingling gold and silver coins, to divert (as a lively young woman told me) their tiresome husbands. Their pantaloons were red; and, from the frequent resort of Tripoline ladies to these heights for change of air, they had adopted from them the high-heeled slipper with red soles, affected by the Christian women of that city, and by them borrowed from the Cypriotes.

In the same house with the shaykh lodged another shaykh of the same family, named Girius, a man of better appearance than his colleague. Seeing that I inquired for antiques, he produced an intaglio, representing an owl, for which I offered him a considerable price; but he was quite exorbitant in his demands. I had every reason to believe, from what I afterwards heard at Tripoli, that this ring had once been the property of an Englishman, Mr. Davison, who, on visiting the Cedars of Mount Lebanon, lost it in the snow. It was picked up by a man sent by the shaykh to look for it, after Mr. Davison had employed a peasant in (as he said) a fruitless search for it and had departed.

We staid here the whole of the 10th, but Lady Hester did not show herself out of doors, nor admit the females of the house into her room; and from this circumstance originated a report, which was circulated at Tripoli before our arrival, that she had guards to prevent people from gazing on her as she passed along the road.

From Bsharry[13] we proceeded to Ehden. The rainy season was now set in, and the weather was exceedingly cold in these high regions. Eden, or, as it is more properly written, Ehden, has been fancifully supposed by some travellers to be the ancient Paradise; but it has no claim whatever to such a pre-eminence, excepting in name, as there are many villages in the mountain equally, or even more, romantic. Its elevated situation renders it a pleasant summer residence, and the Franks of Tripoli resort to it annually in the hot months. In their eyes and those of the native Christians, it is no small recommendation to these almost inaccessible spots, that they live here quite away from the Turks, whose gravity and sobriety in the cities greatly repress their conviviality. Ehden abounds in lofty and spreading walnut-trees and mulberry plantations. Meandering rivulets purl through it in every direction. The cottages are substantially and neatly built, and we were nowhere more pleasantly lodged during the journey than here. The curate’s widow gave up her best room for me. It was a stone-walled house, with a flat roof and a floor of compact cement. The windows were without casements. The whole village was much more neatly built than any of those that we had hitherto seen.

There was a man in this village named Yusef Kawàm, who afforded much amusement. He might be said to officiate in the capacity of parasite to anybody who visited Ehden, and who would pay him for playing the character.

It was resolved to wait here for Selim, whose departure from home had been announced to Lady Hester by letter. She was lodged in a small convent, which had once belonged to the Jesuits; and every arrangement for the comfort of so numerous a party had been made by the shaykh of the village, named Latûf el Ashy, who, having passed his youth at Tripoli, as a clerk in a mercantile house, spoke a little French. Two days afterwards Selim arrived, accompanied by a boy fourteen years old, Sulymán, the son of Mâlem Skender, of Hems, of whom mention was made in a preceding part. Selim had two servants with him, and Sulymán one. Selim alighted at the shaykh’s door, where an apartment was provided for him, and where I waited to receive him. On hearing the noise of his horse’s feet, I ran to welcome him as an old acquaintance, and conducted him up the steps into his room. A few minutes afterwards I was surprised to find Sulymán did not follow, and desired one of the servants to see if he had gone into a wrong room. He returned and whispered to me that Sulymán was at the foot of the steps, and would not come in, unless I went and fetched him in the same form as I had done Selim. Surprised at this boy’s ridiculous ceremoniousness, I would have laughed at him, but I found that he was in good earnest. This circumstance is mentioned as illustrative of the pride of Christians in the Levant, which swells where their demands on people’s civility are likely to be complied with, and shrinks into nothing before Turks, or where they expect a repulse.

The mornings were spent by Selim and myself in sitting and smoking by the side of the stream on a carpet spread for the purpose, or in riding. He had with him a very beautiful horse, which he backed with much elegance. Conducted by the shaykh, we went to view the Cedars; but they have been too often described to render it necessary to say anything about them. The neighbouring convent keeps so far a guard over these sacred trees, that no native peasant dares injure and cut them. Travellers, however, did not scruple to take away as large a branch or piece as suited their wants; but latterly some restraint has been put upon them, and it is now necessary to obtain an order for that purpose. These Cedars have a very dubious reputation, and no great beauty to recommend them. Those which grow in the grounds of Warwick Castle are (the traditions attached to the others excepted) almost equally worth seeing.

We remained at Eden a week, and went thence to the monastery of Mar Antaniûs, (St. Anthony) situate about half a league to the south of the village, on one of the most romantic sites that can be found in any country, half way down a deep and precipitous ravine: and, although we could look down upon it from Ehden, yet, to get there, it was necessary for persons on horseback to make a circuit of two leagues. At the bottom of the ravine, which is well wooded, is a river, the Kadýshy; and the summits of the mountains quite overhang the monastery, which stands on a ledge of the rock scarcely broad enough for its base, and which is only accessible by a path, so narrow that habit alone could make persons pass it with indifference. From the rock, in the very centre of the monastery, issues a stream of water, that, in summer, must give a delicious coolness to the cloister, but now produced a cold and comfortless chill.

The friars are Maronites, fifty or sixty in number, including residents and mendicants. Many miracles are attributed, by the inhabitants of the surrounding country, to the tutelary saint of the place: such as the cure of lunacy, epilepsy, and fits; the incorruptibility of corpses buried in the monastery; and, more especially, the certain manifestation of his anger towards anything of the female sex that presumes to cross the threshold of this holy place. I believe this to have been the chief reason that induced Lady Hester to turn out of her road to visit it. So tenacious of violation is Saint Anthony in this respect, that the hen-fowls are cooped up, lest they should stray into the sacred precincts, whilst the cocks run at large.

On our arrival, Lady Hester was accordingly lodged in a house about fifty yards distant, built for visitors; whilst we were received into the monastery. As soon as she had rested a little, she sent a message to the superior, announcing her intention of trying the Saint’s gallantry, and, saying that she would, on the following day, give a dinner to him and to the shaykhs, who had escorted her from Eden, in a room of the monastery itself. She hinted at the authority with which she was furnished from the Sultan to visit what places she chose; and that, consequently, any opposition on their part would be opposition to him. But there were not wanting some priests who openly avowed their abhorrence of such impiety, whilst the greater number secretly murmured at this sacrilege on the part of a heretic, and that heretic a woman. Selim, who was a man of great discernment and knowledge of the world, which he concealed under a mock frivolity and gaiety, which made many persons imagine him to be half mad, pretended that, on such a grand occasion, nothing less than a Cashmere shawl must cover the sofa whereon Lady Hester was to sit, and that no common carpet would serve to rest her feet on.[14] For he was much afraid that some trick would be practised by the monks, either on the sofa or carpet, in order to preserve the miraculous consistency of their saint. My own foresight went no farther than to desire that the ass should be carefully watched previous to her riding from the adjoining house to the monastery: for the path was on the edge of a low precipice, and a bramble under its tail, or a pin in the crupper, would have been sufficient to endanger the rider’s life. When the dinner hour arrived, Lady Hester mounted; and, being determined that the monks should have no subterfuge, she would not dismount until she had ridden on her she-ass into the very hall of the building; and I verily believe, if the wiser sort did not, that at least the servants of the monastery, and her ladyship’s own, expected to see the pavement gape beneath her feet and swallow her up. She visited the refectory and every place where she could put her head; but at one door there was a momentary altercation between the two parties of monks, who were for and against her entering. We then sat down to dinner, and, at the expiration of four hours, Lady Hester retired. The news of her courage, as it was construed by some, and her sacrilege, as it was called by others, soon spread through the mountain, and was long the topic of general conversation.

This monastery had a printing-press, which lay useless, owing to the recent death of an old monk called Seraphim, who was the founder and worker of it, having himself made the font of the types. I was presented with a specimen of his labours, being a single sheet containing a notice of the miracles that had been wrought by the tutelary saint.

The glebe of Mar Antaniûs produces, as I was informed, to the amount of fifteen purses in silk.

Canubin and other convents in this district, although well worthy of the traveller’s attention, were not visited by us on account of the weather. We left the friars, who were greatly satisfied with her ladyship’s generosity, and proceeded, with the rain upon us, to a village called Keffer-zayny, on our road to Tripoli. Lady Hester fell from her ass in the way, but received no hurt, for two lads always walked by her, one on either side, who supported her knees and back in craggy and difficult places. The ass was without a bridle, and was left, with the sagacity for which that animal is known, to pick his own way. We were escorted by a guard of armed men. The difficulties of the road were more than commonly great. A man, dressed in a splendid scarlet robe, presented himself to Lady Hester in the evening, and created a great deal of merriment by his assumed airs of importance.

On the following day we arrived at Tripoli, amidst a tremendous storm of thunder and rain. The report of Lady Hester’s approach had spread through the city, and the streets through which she had to pass were lined with spectators, whose curiosity must have been great to induce them to stand the pelting of such a storm.

CHAPTER III.

Residence at Tripoli—The governor Mustafa Aga—Lady Hester’s visit to him—Extraordinary civilities paid by her to Selim—Town and port of Tripoli—Greek bishop—Library—Paintings in the church—Unwholesome climate—The author’s journey to the convent of Dayr Hamýra—Illness of Mûly Ismael’s Khasnadár—Miraculous cures performed at the convent—The Khasnadár’s wife—The monks—Castle of El Hussn—Extensive view—Arrival of Selim at the monastery—His character—Return of the author to Tripoli—Lady Hester’s plan of an association of literary men and artists—Departure for Mar Elias.

The Capuchin convent, an uninhabited building, was hired for Lady Hester; and for Selim, the dragoman, and myself, a spacious house, belonging to the widow of the katib of the governor. The muleteers were dismissed, and arrangements were made for a residence of some weeks. As a clue to many circumstances which occurred during the time of our stay in this city, it will be necessary to say something respecting Mustafa Aga (nicknamed Berber), the then governor, a man raised by his conduct and valour from the very dregs of the people.

Mustafa was the son of a muleteer, whose employment consisted in transporting goods for hire from place to place; and he himself, in his youth, followed the same occupation. He afterwards entered the service of Hassan, emir of the Drûzes, as an under-servant of the household. Here he caught the eye of the emir, and was advanced by him; but, probably, not liking to derogate from the character of a true Mussulman by associating with schismatics, he quitted his place and returned to Tripoli. Tripoli, at this time, was divided into two opposite factions, that of the janissaries and of the townspeople. Mustafa sided with the latter; and, having shown himself a man of talent and courage by his language and demeanour, ten or a dozen others formed themselves into a sort of gang under his direction. His followers by degrees increased; and at length a plan was formed among them to strike at the very root of the power of the janissaries by seizing the castle. This, according to the nature of the Turkish government, is the stronghold of the military power, and is bestowed generally on some confidential servant of the Porte as a check on the civil governor, who is chosen by the pasha of the department.

The aga of the janissaries, or governor of the castle, was so little suspicious of the possibility even of so bold an attack, that he resided in the city, and left only a few soldiers on guard in the citadel. Some of these were gained over by the artful Mustafa; and, at an appointed signal, ropes were let down at night, by which he and about twenty others were drawn up, and admitted unperceived through a window.

The few soldiers who attempted to oppose them were despatched or bound, and in the morning the news was spread that Berber had obtained possession of the castle. The townspeople declared for him immediately; and his first care was to send to Mohammed, pasha of Egypt, to request him to write to the Porte to express his allegiance to his sovereign, and to obtain for him the post of Janissary Aga, or, in other words, a confirmation of the power he had usurped. After a lapse of some weeks, during which he maintained himself in the citadel, a firman arrived, proclaiming him military governor; but so powerful was the opposite faction, that he dared never venture through the streets of Tripoli without a guard of fifty or sixty persons.

It was said that, as he rode through the streets, his piercing eyes, which were turned in every direction, watched the looks of those he met; and wo to him whose guilt was supposed to be betrayed in his countenance—that moment was his last.

Next to the governor, a very important person in every Turkish town is the katib, or government secretary. Mustafa Aga had several;[15] the two chief were Wahby Sadeka and Mamy Garyb, his son-inlaw, a young man who had already acquired in his situation much deserved reputation. M. Guys, grandson of the author of a Comparison between Ancient and Modern Greece, was French consul; Mr. Catsiflitz, English agent. These are the public authorities with whom travellers, generally speaking, have to do.

A day or two after our arrival, Lady Hester received Malem Wahby, the public secretary, sent by Mustafa Aga to compliment her and to offer her his services.

The visit was returned to the governor a few days afterwards. He received her ladyship in the most polite manner to which his rough character could adapt itself; for his frank and hearty welcome was strongly contrasted with the generally formal courtesy of the Turks. Selim sat on the floor at the governor’s feet; for native Christians seldom obtain the privilege of a seat on the sofa in a great Turk’s presence, and are well content not to be kept standing. Lady Hester found means, in a short conversation, to impress Mustafa Aga with a favourable opinion of her talents and character; and ever afterwards he showed a strong disposition to serve her on all occasions. Everything about the Aga wore a martial appearance; and his black slave, who stood at a little distance from him, armed with pistols in his girdle, seemed, by his attitude and air, to be the faithful guardian of his master’s safety.

Mustafa Aga had several Christians among his soldiers, destined for the service of the police. This is uncommon in Asiatic Turkey, for examples of it occurred nowhere else, that I saw.

In coming away, I had an opportunity of judging of the extreme simplicity of the Aga’s mode of living. His dinner was laid out on a mat, on the floor of a room which we passed, and consisted of six or eight messes of pilau and yakhny, which are boiled rice and a stew of small bits of meat and vegetables, and these in dishes of common queen’s-ware. There were no knives or forks, and the spoons were wooden. A man in England, living like a temperate Mahometan, would pass for a prodigy with some, and with others, for one who took not enough to support life; by all, he would be considered as a most sober liver: for the food of Mustafa Aga, like that of most of the followers of Mahomet, was generally confined to rice, boiled mutton, vegetables, honey, and fruit. Water was his only drink; and, on the very afternoon of this visit, being requested to call on him that he might consult me respecting some indisposition, when I advised him to use a tincture, which he understood from me was compounded of spirit, he totally rejected it, upon the plea that, in whatever state he might be, his abhorrence of vinous liquors was settled.

In the mean time, Mâlem Selim was treated with the most marked civility by Lady Hester. The public bath was hired for him an evening or two after our arrival. Two sumptuous repasts were prepared for him every day, and people saw with wonder the deference that was paid him by her ladyship. But she had her ends to answer; and on such occasions it might be observed, by those in the habit of living near her, that she often would raise very humble individuals to an elevation to which they had not been accustomed, by which they were the more easily led to forget their natural prudence, and communicate more readily the information she wanted. She knew that, when these artificial props were taken away, folks could very easily be made to drop to their own level again.

In the middle ages, Tripoli was the scene of much warfare. It was taken by the crusaders after a siege of seven years, and retaken by the Saracens in 1229 by sap.

Modern Tripoli is the head of a pashalik, extending north and south from Nahr Ibrahim to Bylán, and bounded on the east by the highest chain of the mountains which run parallel to the coast. Ali, a pasha of two tails, held it, but resided at St. Jean d’Acre as kekhyah of Sulimán Pasha, whilst Mustafa Aga governed in his stead. It is the best built and cleanest town along the coast of Syria; perhaps, too, the largest, certainly, at the time we are speaking of, the most commercial; although now superseded by Beyrout. The castle is at the south-east part of the city, and is of Saracen or Frank construction. There are five or six mosques. The Greeks and Maronites have their churches, and the Franciscans and Capuchins their monasteries. A river runs by the city, which serves to irrigate the gardens. As it is built at some distance from the sea, (about one mile) there is a small town, called the Myna, close to the harbour, if the insecure anchorage formed by two or three rocks deserves that name. Between the city and the Myna are the orchards and gardens, which are the boast of the place, both for their productions and beauty. Oranges were now in season, which have been before mentioned as very juicy at this place. One of the chief sources of wealth to the city was the manufacture of silk turbans, sashes, bath waist-cloths, and saddle-covers, which are in request throughout Syria. The Christians here were of the Greek church; and so violent were they against schismatics, that it was dangerous for a Greek Catholic to tarry in the place for a few hours. The bishop of Tripoli was an agreeable man, who spoke often in praise of the English: for he had known many of that nation, when our army invaded Egypt the second time under General Fraser, at which period he was residing as a priest at the Greek convent of Alexandria.

I had an opportunity of seeing, in the bishop’s house, the library belonging to the see. The books had been thrown into a lumber room, and left there to be devoured by the rats, or more slowly consumed by moths and damp. There were some Greek manuscripts. The church was undergoing a thorough repair, and, to embellish the altar screen, a Candiote painter had been sent for, whose skill in his art seemed to me far from despicable. He showed me some copies from Italian engravings, which were very well executed: and, when I asked him if he did not prefer them to the gilded daubs of Virgins and Saints of his own church, he showed himself perfectly aware of the faults of his countrymen’s manner, but said he must paint to please, or he could not live.

The climate of Tripoli is reputed to be the worst in Syria, and the cadaverous looks of the inhabitants bore evidence to the truth of the assertion; for, although the season was far advanced, it was grievous to behold and hear of the number of the sick. The prevailing disease was a bilious remittent fever: this, if not fatal, generally left an ague, which, ending in obstructions, brought on dropsy and death. I was witness here to a fatal mortification from the application of leeches by a French doctor to the foot; to the only case of gout that came under my observation in Syria; to the worst case of epilepsy I ever saw; and to hysterical fits, with lunar recurrences, from seven to fifteen times in the twenty-four hours, which had now lasted two years. These latter I cured, and may cite that cure as having led to one of those ingenious subterfuges, which were not rare in the Levant, to avoid the weight of an obligation. When the young lady, who had been thus afflicted, was found to be relieved by my treatment of her, she was hurried off to the convent of Mar Antaniûs Kuziyah (famed, as I have already mentioned, for miraculous cures) from which, in a few days, she returned, and her parents and friends were loud in their admiration of the Saint, who took no fees, and dumb on the merits of the doctor, who they were afraid would.

We had not been long at Tripoli,[16] when a letter reached Lady Hester from her old friend Mûly Ismael of Hamah, requesting she would allow me to go to a monastery, eight or ten leagues from Tripoli, where his khasnadár or treasurer, a man whom he greatly esteemed, was lying grievously afflicted with a stroke of the palsy. Accordingly, I set off a day or two afterwards, on the 20th of December, and was fortunate enough to hire one of the muleteers, who had accompanied us on the Bâlbec journey, to carry my luggage. I was mounted on a mule, and placed my man, Giovanni, with a few necessaries on another, whilst the muleteer, named Michael, walked.

As we went out of Tripoli, about noon, the rain fell in torrents, and we were soon wet through. Our route lay about east-north-east; and, after passing a stony and rugged road, we came upon an extensive plain, named el Accàr. The day closed in very early, and, from the continued rain and darkness, the beaten track was by no means clearly visible. We reached a river, which appeared so swollen that we dared not ford it, and were puzzled what to do. A light on our right attracted us, and, after following the course of the stream for about two miles, it disappeared, and we resolved to return down again. We accordingly arrived at the point whence we had turned off, but still hesitated to ride into the stream, as we could discern no appearances of a path or of footsteps down the bank, as of a ford. A light on our left was now seen: we rode towards it, and after a little time came to some tents. Huge mastiff dogs rushed out upon us, and the muleteer had much ado to keep them at bay with a club stick, until two or three ill-looking men issued from the tents to discover the reason of their barking. They were Turkmans, who were pasturing their flocks and herds on these plains, and, when they saw we were benighted travellers, they very strongly pressed me to go no farther, and to spend the night with them: but I hesitated to do so on account of my ignorance of their habits of life, and resolved, on hearing that the river was fordable, to pursue my journey. One of the Turkmans accordingly led us back to the same place where we had been twice before, and bade us ride through boldly. When we were safe over he wished us good night. As he had previously told us that we could reach a caravansery a few miles farther on, we took fresh courage, and for a time I forgot the rain in musing on the Turkman dogs and the shepherd’s civility; but, at last, cold and weariness made me anxious to get housed. There was no light before us, and the plain was every where covered with large pools of water which embarrassed us exceedingly. The mules were fatigued, and could with difficulty be driven on. The muleteer finally declared that the servant’s mule could go no further, and that we must sleep in the plain.

Although the rain fell in torrents, as there was no alternative, I got off; and the best arrangement that circumstances would admit of was made for the night. I found a knoll of ground, somewhat drier than the rest of the soil; and a small rug, which I carried with me in travelling, was opened on it, upon which I seated myself with my legs doubled under me: and, with my hood[17] drawn over my head, I leaned against my-medicine-chest, and went supperless to sleep. The muleteer and Giovanni made the best of their situation.

In the morning, when daylight came, we found, to our surprise, that a quarter of a mile more would have brought us to the caravansery which we had been told of. The mules were re-loaded, and, just at this moment, a caravan, on its road to Tripoli, passed us. A dozen tongues addressed us at once to inquire why we had stopped short of the caravansery, and many jokes were cracked upon our miserable appearance. In twenty minutes we reached Nahr el Kebýr, a river, on the banks of which was a large, but dilapidated caravansery, where we found a man, who, for a small recompense, stripped and walked before us through the ford. The stream was rapid and deep, so that for a moment I feared we should have been carried away by it: which, encumbered with dress as we were, would have been to our inevitable destruction.

We now advanced with as much expedition as possible, and at last came to the end of the plain. A gentle ascent brought us among some low hills, covered with stunted shrubs, and shortly afterwards we came to the monastery. The building was of stone, and seemed of great solidity. I dismounted, and was made to enter by a door, the lowest, bearing that name, I had ever seen in my life. For, as this monastery stands quite away from any town, and is in the high road from Tripoli to Hems and Hamah, by which road troops are frequently passing, a difficult entrance is a necessary precaution to prevent the refectory from being converted into a stable: which troopers, not liking to lose sight of their horses, would often unceremoniously do.

I was put into a neat room, and immediately presented with a pipe and coffee, followed by a breakfast; whilst two garrulous priests told me why I was come, which they seemed to know better than myself, and questioned me on the news of Tripoli. With respect to the khasnadár, my patient, I gathered some particulars of his life. It appeared that he had been, as a youth, a favourite of Mûly Ismael, who, when he arrived at manhood, created him his khasnadár, and gave him in marriage to one of his concubines, of whom he himself was tired. Soon after their union, the khasnadár had a stroke of the palsy, which deprived him of the use of his limbs and utterance. Every known means had been tried for his recovery; and, as a last resource, it was resolved to send him to Dayr Hamýra, this monastery, which was dedicated to Saint George, and renowned far and wide for miraculous cures, effected in the following manner. The afflicted person was made to sleep in the chapel, his bed being placed there for that purpose, and round his neck was put an iron collar, jointed behind, and shutting over a staple before, in which sometimes a pin was inserted. He slept; and, if the cure was within the reach or the will of the Saint, the collar was found open in the morning; if otherwise, shut. Offerings, or vows in case of success, were made to propitiate the Dragon-killer, and it was said that from a rich man a trifle would not content him. The khasnadár had made the trial two or three times without success: when his wife, who accompanied him, having heard of our arrival at Tripoli, thought that the request of Mûly Ismaël would be sufficient to bring me over to the monastery to see him: and a horse soldier, as has been said, was accordingly despatched with a letter to that effect.

After my breakfast I went to see my patient, whom I found with his wife in an adjoining room. A best carpet was spread for me; coffee and pipes were served. The khasnadár was a plethoric young man about twenty-five; and, but for sickness, must have been very handsome. His wife was veiled at first by a shawl over her head, and pinched together by her hand so as to show one eye only; but by degrees she let it fall open, and I beheld a masculine woman of thirty or thereabouts. She was a Georgian, and had been a slave. I immediately took my patient in hand, and, as it is always necessary in the East, enacted, in the course of an hour, the parts of physician, surgeon, and apothecary. I then left him, and went to look over the monastery.

It was inhabited by three caloyers only, who, according to the rules of this Greek monastic order, are permitted, except on fast-days, to indulge in coffee, smoking, drinking, and eating, to what extent they please, with the exception of meat, which is allowed only twice a year. Hence I was requested to administer medicines for the corpulence of the one, the indigestion of the other, the pimples of a third. There were three or four good rooms on the story which they inhabited, and beneath were storehouses well stocked with wine, oil, wheat, and eatables. There were two or three servants, and a mule or two; and thus this small community lived. As the extreme lowness of the entrance was still strongly present to my thoughts, I asked them concerning it. They assigned the reason I have above given, and added that the mule of the convent had been taught to crawl through on his knees, of which I was afterwards an eyewitness, in consequence of my previous incredulity.

There was an annual festival celebrated at this place, upon which occasion persons come from Hamah, Hems, Tripoli, and other towns in great numbers. At midnight, the image of St. George on horseback is seen against the wall of the convent, at which vision the people set up a shout, and rejoicings continue until morning.

As this road is much frequented, not a night passed in which travellers or caravans did not stop. A sort of shed sheltered the horses and mules, and the people, if respectable, were received into the interior. The monks supplied them with food, which was good or bad in proportion to the recompence expected, and this employment was so lucrative that the monastery was supported by it. Their funds had been enough at one period to enable them to build a caravansery, which they had begun, but were prevented from proceeding in by an order from the government. This happened during the rule of Yusef Pasha: and the half-built caravansery adjoined the monastery.

I expressed my wonder how a strict Mahometan could have resorted to the shrine of a Christian saint; but the caloyers told me that this was by no means a rare occurrence, and that, if I stopped a few days among them, I should see many Ansárys, who had recourse to them in all their difficulties, and especially when their wives wished for children; and, in fact, there did afterwards come a party of ten or twelve on account of sickness.

The evening was passed with the khasnadár’s wife in talking over the news of Hamah. On the following day I had a visit from the katib of the district (if so he may be called), the person who was the accredited agent[18] in all transactions between government and the people. He too was in want of a doctor; for it is to be observed, that, although in the East no traveller has such advantages as a medical man, because he is well received everywhere, yet no one is so much harassed: and I sometimes thought the people pretended to have maladies either to get English medicines given to them, which they prized greatly; or to learn what mode of cure was to be pursued in case such a disease really affected them; for at no place was I secure from interruption from morning to night.

On the 15th I rode up to a castle, which stands on the highest part of the hills through which the road passes from the sea-coast to Cæle-Syria. From its position it commands the passage, in a certain degree; it is distant from the monastery about one mile and a half, as the crow flies. The road was of no difficult steepness, and lay through small brushwood. A long, dark, covered way, filthy with cow-dung and mire, led to the gate, which appeared to have had a portcullis and all the apparatus of early fortifications. I entered through it into a spacious court, in which were living several Turkish families. The castle was composed of a keep and outer works, flanked with round towers; but the whole was in a dilapidated state.

I was taken to a smoky stone room under the gateway, where a man, in a tawdry yellow silk pelisse, the shaykh of the village, received me with an air which brought to my recollection Juvenal’s description of the magistrate of Cumæ. It may be observed of the Turks and Christians, that the former are often more gaily dressed than their means warrant; whilst the latter, in spite of the humility of garb to which they are condemned, swell sometimes with the pride which a full purse gives, and excite the envy of their better-dressed masters. The name of the castle was El Hussn, which signifies a walled fortification.[19]

From the top of the keep I enjoyed a most extensive view, which is to be recommended to travellers as favourable for obtaining a correct notion of the natural geographical divisions of this part of Syria. This keep bears from Tripoli north-east and by east-half-north. I saw from it the wide plains towards Hamah and Hems narrowing into the vale of the Bkâ, the Cæle-Syria Proper of the ancients; whilst the whole tract of level country to the north and east of the Bkâ was called Cæle-Syria in general. As I was now on the highest spot within the pass, I saw the error into which the generality of maps lead, when they mark a continuous chain of mountains from one end of Syria to the other; for, from the castle, I could behold the north extremity of Mount Lebanon reach its greatest height, and descend suddenly into low hills down to the foot of the castle, upon which I stood; whilst, from the monastery, a new chain may be said to begin, extending, if my information be just, as far as the river Syr, and forming the ancient Mount Bargylus, mentioned by Pliny.—(Hist, v., 17.) I cannot express my sensations as I looked from the place on which I stood over the Desert. A haze, raised by the heat of the sun over the surface of the country, dimmed the sight of objects so as to give the distant plains a look more boundless and desolate than usual. I obtained here a few copper coins of no value. The shaykh spoke with pleasure of an Englishman, who had passed a night there some years before, and who was dressed in scarlet, and slept under a tent. These Mahometans were in an exposed position, in case of warfare, as they were surrounded by Ansárys and Christians.

I returned to the monastery much pleased with my excursion. Selim and Sulimán had now judged their visit to Lady Hester to have been long enough, and left her during my absence. Their road lay past the monastery, and they made it their station on their way home, arriving here on the 17th at night. Sulimán showed a pretty watch-chain, with other presents which Lady Hester made him. The khasnadár and his wife were well known to Selim; and Selim’s wife was a native of a village in this neighbourhood; so that the monastery was a scene of festivity on his arrival, and several cavaliers, whom I had not before suspected to be in the neighbourhood, came from different directions to visit him.

But my patient, amidst all this, grew no better, and I could do no more than draw out a line of cure, and beg the wife to adhere strictly to it, which she promised to do; for Lady Hester had written to me to request me to return; and on the 19th, in the morning, I departed, leaving Selim still there; and in him I bade adieu to a man, the strangest compound of talent, frivolity, liberality, and libertinism, that I ever met with. He was the most wayward of mortals. He was ever writing sonnets to his mistress’s eyebrow, and carried about with him small bags of silk, stuffed with ribbon-ends, locks of hair, and scraps of love-letters. Often would he cut up portions of a lock of hair, and deliberately eat them, which, I found from him, is a favourite way in the East of marking a lover’s devotion. It was told me, upon creditable authority, that he lay a whole night on the grave of one of his mistresses who had died. He would recite amatory poetry stanza after stanza, and his own compositions were admired by such as pretended to be judges. Upon one occasion, at the commencement of our acquaintance, dining with Mr. B. and myself, he tried a little while to make use of a knife and fork, but, not managing them well, he threw them away with vehemence, and declared, if he must not eat but with them, he would even go without his dinner. He was an excellent horseman;[20] and one of his feats on horseback was to throw a stick, of the thickness of a broom-handle and half its length, on the ground in a full gallop, and to make it rebound so as to catch it in his hand again. This is certainly difficult, as any horseman may prove by experiment, and requires much force and expertness, but has no use that I know of, excepting to teach how to exercise the arm with violence without losing one’s seat. Of his cleverness there was ample testimony from all quarters; and of his intriguing disposition there could be no doubt; for he was ever toiling to exalt himself, and pull down somebody.[21]

My journey back to Tripoli was more fortunate than the one out had been. Near the city I observed a pretty spot by the road side, the name of which I forget, where I saw certain fish in a pond which were as tame as gold fish kept in a vase, and would eat out of one’s hand.

One day (January 12) Lady Hester spoke to me of a plan, which she had been turning over in her mind, of forming an association of literary men and artists, whom she proposed inviting from Europe, for the purpose of prosecuting discoveries in every branch of knowledge, and of journeying over different parts of the Ottoman empire. In fact, she aimed at creating another Institute, like that which Buonaparte led with him to Egypt, and of which she was to be the head. Chimerical as such an undertaking would be for an individual, unless of great wealth, it must be allowed that a society so made up can alone combine all the requisites for thoroughly investigating the arts, sciences, statistics, geography, and antiquities of a country imperfectly known, like Syria.

For a time her mind was entirely engrossed in this new scheme; and she even drew up memorials to be presented to different persons whom she wished to enlist and engage in the undertaking. Wonderful was the facility with which she would square every word to the different tempers and situations of different persons, anticipate their different objections, and (which was no immaterial part,) show how contributions were to be levied on the rich; for she proposed to do it by subscription. The experiments, likewise, which she intended to prosecute on the plague, and on the bites of venemous animals, by means of the bezoar and serpent stones, were now a favourite hobby with her; and she particularly charged me to write about them to certain persons only, lest some one should get hints enough to anticipate her discoveries, and thus rob her of a part of her renown!

As there was nothing to detain us longer at Tripoli, our departure for Mar Elias was resolved on; and, on the 16th of January, fresh muleteers having been hired at three piasters and a half per day, we proceeded on our journey. We were accompanied, during the first stage, by Mâlem Yanny, the brother-in-law of Mr. Catsiflitz, a gentleman who, on several occasions, had been very attentive to us during our residence at Tripoli, officiating for Mr. Catsiflitz, the consul, who was too old to be any longer active.

CHAPTER IV.

Journey from Tripoli to Abra—Monastery of Dayr Natûr—Grave of Mr. Cotter—Ruins of Enfeh—Batrûn—Renegado priest—Remarks on apostates—Gebayl, the ancient Byblus—Mulberry plantations—Castle—Public-houses—Nahr Ibrahim, the river Adonis—Taberjeh—Ejectment of cottagers in rain and cold—Nahr el Kelb, the ancient river Lycus—Inscriptions—Shuifád—Visit of Lady Hester to the Syt Habùs—Capugi Bashi sent to Lady Hester—Mbârak, the groom—His dexterity—Nebby Yunez, the tomb of Jonah—Arrival at Mar Elias—Precautions adopted against the Capugi Bashi.

Instead of taking the direct road, we proceeded along the sea-shore. About two hours’ march from Tripoli we passed the village of Calamûn, the ancient Calamos: inhabited entirely by sherýfs, or descendants of the Prophet, Mahomet. This was the birthplace of Berber: and he was said to have paid but one visit to it since his elevation to his present greatness, although he often spoke of his humble birth and former occupations: how far he would have liked to hear the same remarks from other people’s mouths is not clear. At Calamûn we turned towards the west, and arrived at Dayr Natûr, where it was proposed to halt.

Dayr Natûr was a monastery of plain and rude construction, with a few small vaulted cells: the one wherein my bed was placed would but just contain it. There was a well of rain water in the middle of the yard, and stabling for horses and mules. The church had a few pictures of very ordinary merit: two monks and a räys (or superior)[22] served it. The monastery stood on a point of land projecting into the sea, and forming one of the horns of the bay of Tripoli. It was at this place that Mr. Cotter, an Englishman, in the month of July, 1813, fell a victim to the climate, having, with his companion, Mr. Davison, and their servant, been seized with a bilious fever, which carried him off, but spared the other two. I visited his grave; and, although I knew him not, dropped over it a tear of sympathy for his fate; which, in the name of fellow-countryman and from our common perils in a foreign land, my melancholy feelings made me readily deplore.

As Lady Hester was somewhat indisposed, we remained here during the 17th, and I took this opportunity of accompanying Mâlem Girius Yanny, who was still with us, to a place called Enfeh, one hour’s ride from the monastery, due south-west. The path was by the sea-side, through a rugged rocky soil admitting of no cultivation, except on one or two patches which were manured for tobacco.

Enfeh[23] was now but a hamlet: formerly the same site had been covered by a large city, probably the ancient Trieris. There was a church still standing, which had been lately repaired, seemingly of Venetian construction: and, on a tongue of land about a quarter of a mile long, at the very extreme point, were to be distinctly made out the ruins of a castle. This tongue of land was cut across, at its root, by a ditch made through the solid rock: the place of the drawbridge was yet visible, and two small chambers likewise hewn out of the rock were yet perfect. One we found with the door blocked up by stones. On pushing them down, it proved to be a storeroom for salt, collected from tanks and hollows close by. The neighbouring rocks were full of excavations, presenting the same appearances as those at Latakia and at other parts of the coast of Syria, having been no doubt sarcophagi.

Mâlem Girius Yanny told me that at the back of Enfeh there was a village called Amyûn, with other similar chambers. All these, most probably, were anterior in date to the castle. We returned to Dayr Natûr, where he finally took his leave of us, and returned to Tripoli.

The next day we left Dayr Natûr, and, keeping by the sea-side, passed, at the distance of three quarters of an hour, Enfeh, seen yesterday, and a spring called Muggr. The soil, thus far, had been rude and rocky, and, where there was mould, had been red: but hereabouts it changed to black, and the mountain on our left receded, so as to leave a small level, as far as the hamlet of Herry, an hour and a half further. Here finished the district of Cûrah, which is a low mountain south of Tripoli, and celebrated for its tobacco, which has the properties of scintillating, like the Gebely tobacco (or tobacco of Mount Lebanon). At Herry began mulberry-tree plantations, for the nourishment of silkworms.

Having rested an hour at Herry, we ascended the Mesàlah, which terminates toward the sea in a promontory, mentioned above under the name of Ras el Shakâ. This promontory, the Theoprosopon, is considered by Strabo as the termination of Mount Lebanon: and so it is, inasmuch as it is but a western branch at the end of that chain, which, however, appears more properly to finish at that part, where, having attained its greatest height, and being covered with perpetual snow, it abruptly sinks into low hills a few leagues to the north of the Cedars, near Calât Hussn. The soil on the Mesàlah is argillaceous, and, as there had been rain lately, was very slippery; so that the mules and asses were continually falling. In wet weather, this hill, as we were told, was considered by the carriers the most difficult road along the country. The ascent and descent took up about an hour and a half: after which we traversed a narrow valley in which stood a castle, perched on a pointed rock in the centre, and at the foot of which ran a river, called Nahr el Joze, a stream of some depth, but narrow. We arrived in one hour more at Botrûn, the ancient Botrus.

Botrûn is a seaport town, used only by small fishing-boats, as it does not afford a safe anchorage for large vessels. It was in the hands of the emir of the Drûzes, and was governed by a bailiff deputed by him. There were few Turkish families in it: the Christians were Maronites and Greeks. There are several excavated tombs; and close to the town the rock shows the marks of the chisel in every direction. Botrûn is a town of the highest antiquity, said to have been built by a king of Tyre.[24]

I was visited in the evening by two persons, both of whom had apostatized to the Mahometan religion, and afterwards recanted. One was a Greek priest, who became a follower of Mahomet for the sake of a sum of money, subscribed by the Turks of Antioch upon his pretended conversion. Having undergone the requisite ceremony necessary on induction to the Mahometan faith, he pocketed the money, fled with it, and recanted. He was now living despised and in wretchedness: nor could he quit the emir’s territory lest he should be seized and impaled. The other, a native of Leghorn, had a more pardonable weakness to excuse his conduct. His name was Ducci, and he gave me the outline of his history as follows. He became acquainted, early in life, with Colonel Capper, an Englishman, who had been sent on some mission to Suez, and whom he accompanied to England: where he remained more than a twelvemonth, and learned the language. By the colonel’s interest he was employed to go overland to India with despatches for the East India Company. There he entered into the Company’s service, in a regiment called “the Europeans,” when Sir T. Rumbold was governor of Bombay, succeeded afterwards by Sir Eyre Coote. He fought in seven engagements against Hyder Ali, when he obtained leave to return to England. In his way overland he stopped at Aleppo, where he married Miss Hayes, the English consul’s daughter: in consequence of which connexion he was made English agent at Latakia, to forward government and other despatches to and from India.

After a lapse of some years, he formed a connexion with one of his maid servants, who became pregnant by him: when, to avoid the reproaches of his wife, he turned Mahometan, obliged his maid servant to do the same, and then married her[25] according to the Turkish law. Afterwards, feeling remorse for what he had done, he recanted: but, dreading lest the Turks should lay hands on him, he fled to the mountain of the Drûzes, the asylum of many others who seek to hide their shame, or dread the retributive hand of justice. His first wife’s relations made many attempts to induce him to quit his illicit commerce with his maid servant, but in vain.

When I saw him, he was in great distress, and was keeping a small shop to maintain his family, now increased by the addition of three children: yet Signor Ducci had once been the owner of the fine house which we occupied at Latakia. Lady Hester gave him such consolation as she could, and twenty rubías.[26] We passed the evening together. His manners were gentlemanlike; he spoke English remarkably well, and I had reason to think that, for two or three hours at least, in conversation about India and England, he forgot his misfortunes, and was comparatively happy.

The history of Signor Ducci and that of the other apostate prove that the lot of such persons is not enviable. Indeed, the Turks, as far as I could learn, never overlook a recantation: but, as a set-off to this, they are never very severe with their new converts, if they will only preserve the external forms of their religion; but such as are really sincere in their conversion they will assist on every occasion. Thus, at Jaffa, as will be mentioned hereafter, I saw a venerable shaykh, who, from a Christian wallet-maker, had become a reverend ulemá among the Mahometans. The Scotch private soldier, who, under the name of Yahyah, became physician to the son of Mohammed Ali, certainly gained by the change; and, for the general indulgence which converts to Mahometanism are allowed, the whole troop of French Mamelukes in Egypt were standing examples; for they had nothing of Turks about them but the name. To say how far a man may be excused for changing his religion, and whether, upon any grounds, he can be excused at all, is a matter upon which we do not pretend to speak. Pearce, who resided in Abyssinia, seems to have acted on motives of expediency. The groom of Captain H., who purchased horses for the English army, was probably a man of no religion: he became a Mahometan for the sake of gain, and would have made himself pagan for the same reason. Burckhardt had a nobler object in view in his simulation—the advancement of knowledge: yet even his motives have not escaped censure.

We quitted Botrûn on the 19th; and, still keeping the sea-coast, arrived, after five hours’ travelling, at Gebayl. Through the whole of this distance Mount Lebanon came down to the water’s edge, scarcely leaving a mule-path between its foot and the surf of the sea. About two hours before reaching Gebayl, the soil is rocky beyond any part of the coast we had yet passed; but still it was covered with mulberry grounds. The cultivation of these grounds is lucrative, no doubt, but they are disagreeable objects to the eye, as the trees look like so many tall posts; being every year stripped entirely of their branches.

Gebayl was anciently called Byblus.[27] It is now a walled town, containing within its circuit perhaps 300 houses, half of which were at this time in ruins. It has a castle, apparently the work of the Saracens or Crusaders, for Gebayl was taken by them. Over one of the gates was an heraldic shield, with a motto or inscription beneath, but too disfigured and too high up to be legible. The castle is square, with ramparts, and a citadel with double walls. It was repaired by the Emir Abd-el-dyn. Hassan, the last emir but one, resided here, and the two sons of Emir Yusef, successor to Hassan, had their eyes put out here by order of their uncle, the Emir Beshýr, who dispossessed them of the sovereignty. It had one piece of ordnance broken in half. There were also two standards preserved here—white, with a green band in the middle. The walls of the town consist of curtains and bastions. The port is very small, capable of sheltering coasting boats only. By means of a mole it might, as could almost all the ports of Syria, be made fit for large vessels. There is also a church, which I went to see, but found nothing remarkable in it. At a subsequent period, the emir of the Drûzes presented Lady Hester with a figure of Isis on her knees, holding before her, and between her hands, an altar, on which was a scarabæus. This perfect piece of sculpture was presented to the late Lord Lonsdale, and is now in England. It was found at Gebayl, by some workmen whilst turning up the soil. Adonis had temples in the city, but I know not of any Egyptian worship having existed here.

STATUE FOUND AT GEBAYL.

Gebayl had a motsellem, but his power hardly exceeded that of an English constable. He was a Turk, which, considering that the place belonged to the emir of the Drûzes, and that almost all the inhabitants were Christians, was somewhat extraordinary; but the presence of a Turkish governor was in some degree necessary, as many Capugi Bashis and emissaries of the Porte were continually passing this road. The rocks round the town were every where full of excavated sepulchres; and, in Abulfeda’s time, Gebayl had a port, a bazar, and a mosque.

We remained here the 20th and 21st of January, on account of the weather, which was exceedingly tempestuous: on the 22nd we again moved, although the rain fell in torrents. The road was still uneven and stony. From Tripoli, Lady Hester had adopted the plan of breaking the day’s journey by an hour’s rest at some spot halfway; and, for this purpose, it was generally necessary to cause a peasant’s cabin to be emptied and swept: but the fleas sometimes swarmed to such a degree, that it was impossible to get rid of them. On these occasions the practice of the servant employed on this duty was to go into the middle of the room, bare his leg, and watch how many fleas jumped on him from the floor. Sometimes they might be seen like iron filings drawn to a magnet, blackening the skin. This day the resting-place was on the banks of Nahr Ibrahim, the ancient river Adonis, in a small public-house, close by the bridge. These public-houses, for no more precise name can be given them, generally consisted of small sheds, the walls of which were bare rough stones or mud, no better materials being used in their construction. Adjoining was another large shed, to afford shelter for beasts of burden. Corn, straw, coffee, and tobacco, were sold in them as well as wine and brandy, this being in the territory of the emir of the Drûzes, where Christians might do with impunity what they dared not do in other provinces of the Ottoman Empire; nor is there any road, that I recollect, where these places of entertainment are so numerous as on the coast road from Tripoli to Beyrout.

Nahr Ibrahim is two hours’ distance from Gebayl. Its stream was, at this time, about as large and as deep as the river Cherwell, where it empties itself into the Isis at Oxford; but we were now in the very height of the rainy season; the stream, therefore, would probably be very much less in summer. It had over it a light elegant bridge of three arches.

One mile and a half more brought us to Taberjeh,[28] where it was intended to pass the night. Whilst Lady Hester was resting at the bridge, I rode forward, and was told by the servant that the cottagers, with tears in their eyes, begged that they might not be turned out of doors in the wet and cold. This hamlet consisted of a few cottages, and, as usual, we were furnished with an order to select the most convenient for our lodging. Upon these occasions the tenants were sent for the night to the houses of their friends and relations. But we were so many in number, and the cottages so few, that, the rain falling in torrents, a removal seemed an act of cruelty; this, however, I was reluctantly obliged to enforce. In one cottage a young woman had lain-in five days only, but was up, and, though she did not seem to consider her case peculiarly hard, an exemption was made in her favour: thus, by degrees, and from the hope of a handsome recompense, the cottages were vacated, and contentment was restored. So incessant was the rain, that, for this night, it was fortunate we were not sleeping under tents instead of mud roofs.

Taberjeh is a fishing hamlet by the sea-side, close to a small creek, in which were anchored two or three fishing-boats.

On the 23d we loaded our mules, and continued our journey over a rocky soil, and along a most difficult road. In three quarters of an hour we came to Nahr Mahameltayn, over which was a bridge, the work of the ancients. The river was scarcely knee-deep, and, like many others which obtain that name in sultry countries, was, properly speaking, no more than a watercourse. After Mahameltayn, the soil became sandy. Here began the district of Keserwàn (falsely spelt by many authors Castervan), the most populous, it is said, of all Lebanon. The villages certainly stood very thick, with hamlets and cottages at small intervals between them. The monasteries, also, with their belfries, denoted the liberty which the Christians here enjoyed, a bell being in Turkey a distinctive emblem of their religion, which (as prohibited by the Mahometans) they take more pride in erecting than they would an hospital.

Gûnyh (pronounced Jewny), an hour and a half from Taberjeh, is a hamlet by the sea-side, with a small pavilion or pleasure-house to which the emir sometimes resorted. Half an hour farther is a small rocky cape. Passing this, the strand is again sandy, during one hour, as far as Nahr el Kelb, the ancient Lycus, a river somewhat larger than Nahr Ibrahim, and with a bridge over it the precise counterpart of the other, but of a later date. Here commenced the district of Metten. Ascending a rocky cape, which is close to the river on the south side, several inscriptions were seen on the faces of the rock, which had been smoothed for the purpose; but, as it was nearly dark when we passed, I had no time to read or try to read them, and they are very fully described in other books of travel. They are said to relate to the road,[29] which bears marks of having been anciently cut, with great labour, in the solid rock; for in the middle are still seen steps, eight or ten feet broad, each step jagged, to prevent beasts of burden from slipping. There seemed also to have been a causeway on each side, and a parapet on the side next the sea.

After crossing the promontory we again found ourselves on the sandy strand; and, at the distance of one hour and a half from the river Kelb, diverging from the sea-side somewhat into the mountain, we stopped at a village called Kunet Elias, in a small Maronite monastery. The shafts of two granite pillars lay at the entrance; but I am not aware what ancient edifice occupied this spot.

On the 24th, we quitted Kunet Elias, and, in one hour and three quarters, crossed the bridge of Beyrout,[30] distant from the city more than a league. The river, which runs beneath it, is the ancient Magoras.[31] Numerous mulberry plantations in every direction denoted the principal product of the district. To cross the bridge we had been led considerably to the W. of our direct road; and, when over it, we inclined to the S.E., and, leaving Beyrout on our right, in three hours, reached Shuifád, a large burgh on the first rise of Mount Lebanon.

Lady Hester’s purpose in going thither was to visit the Syt Habûs,[32] a celebrated Drûze lady, sprung from a noble family, who had in her own hands the administration of several villages, which she farmed from the Shaykh Beshýr;—a singular thing in this country, where the women seldom take upon themselves or have any other duties but such as are domestic. Shuifád, where she resided, was a populous burgh, consisting of three large parishes, separated from each other by deep water ravines, worn by the mountain torrents descending through the burgh. It is distant from Beyrout one league, and commands a fine view both of the forest of olive trees which covered the plains of Beyrout, and of the sea beyond.

If the Syt Habûs was an object of curiosity to Lady Hester, the latter was not less so to the Syt. But their meeting did not take place until the 26th, as her ladyship was much fatigued, and wished to enjoy a little repose. The habitation assigned to her in the first instance was so indifferent that her health would have suffered unless a better could be provided: accordingly we were desired to choose one wherever we liked.

It was at this place that Sir S. Smith gave the meeting to the Emir Beshýr (in the year in which the French retreated from Acre), upon occasion of some festivities which the emir made in his honour. With Sir S. landed a corps of marines, who performed the military exercise of the musket, to the great amusement of the spectators, some of whom spoke to me of that event as a very remarkable one; for at that period disciplined troops had not been seen on Mount Lebanon.

In the evening I paid a visit to the Emir Yunez, brother-in-law to Syt Habûs, a talkative old man, but apparently well read in Arabic literature. He showed me some common English pocket-handkerchiefs, whereon battles and figures were printed, which he seemed highly to value. There were present the Emirs Hyder, Emin, and Ali, who were all dressed in gaudy silks.

On the 26th of January, M. Beaudin rode down to Beyrout; and, in the afternoon, returned with the news that a Capugi Bashi was at that town on his road to Sayda, who, it was reported, was going to arrest Lady Hester, and carry her prisoner to Constantinople.

My servant, Giovanni, who had been sent with M. B., coming back late, I questioned him on the reason of his delay, when, to excuse himself, he said, as he was riding through the streets, his mule was pressed by a Tartar, to carry the luggage of a Capugi Bashi, going to Sayda from Constantinople. It is usual for all persons travelling on the service of government to have a Tartar with them, who presses horses and mules for the service of his masters as they go along. The muleteer, with Giovanni, deplored the lot of his poor animal, and entreated him to liberate it: for the Tartars have no compassion, and greatly maltreat the animals furnished them. With tears in his eyes, he begged him to go to the governor’s, where, he assured him, the bare mention of my lady’s name would be sufficient. Giovanni accordingly went, and, on mentioning Lady Hester’s name, was immediately questioned by the great Turk himself (who was sitting with the governor), as to where the English lady could be found, for he had urgent business with her.

As this story agreed with the report which M. B. had brought, I lost no time in telling Lady Hester; but she knew perfectly well what his coming meant; and, having long expected him, was not disturbed by the report. Immediately, although the evening was far advanced, a dragoman was sent for, to write a letter to the Capugi Bashi, appointing a meeting at Abrah; for letter-writing is made a craft in the East, and few are competent to it. Hence comes the name of katib, or scribe, as an office in the suite of all governors and great Turks, which is generally filled by Christians. Such a one, indeed, is expected to make himself acquainted with all the forms, official and ceremonial, used in writing letters, petitions, &c.

This event abridged Lady Hester’s stay at Shuifád. She had seen Syt Habûs in the morning, and found her to be a money-getting woman, with her keys by her side; clever, perhaps, but with nothing very lady-like about her. The interview took place in the presence of the Shaykh Beshýr, and I acted as interpreter: for, by this time, I understood Arabic, and could express myself tolerably on ordinary subjects.

On the 27th we left Shuifád, and proceeded towards Abrah. I rode forward with a servant, to find a resting-place for her ladyship, half way on the day’s journey. This man, one of the walking grooms, was named Mbàrak, a native of Bisra, the son of the curate, of which circumstance he was exceedingly proud. As he knew this part of the country perfectly, he pointed out to me a retired cottage, in the midst of a mulberry plantation, very proper for our purpose. It was found to be empty, and the door locked with one of the wooden locks used very generally[33] throughout Syria. But he gave me a proof of his cleverness, by cutting a twig of a particular shape, by means of which he picked the lock, and we entered. Suspecting that this invasion of private property would not escape notice, I waited in the orchard, smoking my pipe, to see the issue of it; when a man came running from a village on the slope of the mountain, whence he had seen us enter his grounds. A promise, however, of half a crown for the use of his cottage pacified him; the more particularly as I told him we had an order from the emir for free quarters. I then rode on to Nebby Yunez,[34] a mosque built over the tomb of Jonas, him of Nineveh, said by the Moslems to have been vomited up, and also, after his death, to have been buried here. At this place the arrangements for the night were somewhat difficult; for the rooms, though good, were not sufficient to hold the whole party; and there were, besides, a few pilgrims seeking lodging, many of whom, for the sake of devotion, occasionally resorted thither. The water from the well of the mosque was brackish and unpalatable: but we caused a supply to be brought from Berdja, a village close by, from which likewise fuel was sent to us.

Lady Hester did not arrive; and, somewhat alarmed, I rode back to meet her. She had been delayed by the river Damûr, the ancient Tamyras, which was to be forded; and, not then having a bridge, this was no easy matter on asses. There is, also, great danger from giddiness to those who, in crossing a rapid stream, look down on it. Nevertheless, Werdy, one of the maid servants, a native of Acre, was so intrepid in dangers of this sort, that she often put the very men to shame. I forded the river seven times on this occasion, in assisting Lady Hester and the maids.

On the 28th, we resumed our journey. As the mountain rises close to the sea-shore, the road is on the sands. We arrived in four hours at Mar Elias. I hastened to my cottage, which I now looked on as my home. The peasantry came, and crowded round my door. Their felicitations, though unpolished, seemed to have too much sincerity not to please me: and if, as I have grown older, I have since thought that interest might have had some part in them, I still recollect with pleasure their expressions of welcome at my return.

We were scarcely settled, when a messenger came to inform Lady Hester that the Zâym[35] or Capugi Bashi was arrived at Sayda, and wished to see her at the governor’s; meaning that a Moslem of such consideration as a Capugi Bashi never could demean himself so far as to go to a Christian’s house. But Lady Hester sent such an answer, that the Capugi Bashi, who best knew his own affairs, suddenly ordered horses; and our dinner was just over, when a great bustle was heard in the courtyard, with the trampling of horses’ feet and the voices of the servants. The Capugi Bashi was soon afterwards announced. Not yet apprized of the precise nature of his mission, I must confess I felt some inclination to believe, with the people, that his arrival portended no good. M. Beaudin, the secretary, was of the same opinion; and when, to my inquiry of Lady Hester whether she apprehended any mischief from his presence, her answer was intentionally equivocal, I communicated my suspicions to M. Beaudin, and we agreed to put our pistols in our girdles, fresh primed, determined that, if we saw the bow-string dangling from under the Capugi’s robe, at least no use should be made of it whilst we were there.

To account for these seemingly unnecessary precautions, I ought to premise that, in Turkey, a Capugi Bashi never comes into the provinces, unless for some affair of strangling, beheading, confiscation, or imprisonment. These are the missions upon which the emissaries of a secret court are sent; and their presence is always dreaded, as it is seldom known where the blow will fall, and as their presence rarely portends any good. Various were the whispers which went about: some thought that he was sent to arrest Lady Hester, others to order her out of the country; some to give her money for secret service to the Porte. But his real object will be known in the succeeding chapter.

CHAPTER V.

Probability of the existence of Hidden Treasures in the East—Manuscript pretending to reveal such Treasures, brought to Lady Hester—She obtains firmáns from the Porte authorizing her to make researches—She sends to Hamah for Mâlem Musa—Her letter to the Pasha of Acre—Her plans for raising money—Journey of the Author to Damascus—His Visit to Ahmed Bey—Ambergris—Damascus sabres—Horse Bazar—Horse Dealing and Horse Stealing—M. Beaudin’s night journey to Tyre—His horse stolen—Detection and punishment of the thieves—Return of the Author to Mar Elias—His dangerous situation in a snow-storm—Interior of a Drûze Cottage.

I will now endeavour to explain the business upon which the Capugi Bashi (or Zâym, as he was more frequently called) had been sent by the Sublime Porte to Lady Hester. In the preceding year, her ladyship, during her illness, had upon several occasions hinted at the existence of hidden treasures, a clue to which she had by some means become possessed of; but, finding me incredulous on the subject, she dropped it, and never more spoke of it until the day after the Zâym’s arrival; when, as I was to assist in the management of the business, she gave me a history of it, as follows:—

A manuscript was put into her hands, said to have been surreptitiously copied by a monk, from the records of a Frank monastery in Syria, and found among his papers after his decease. It was written in Italian, and disclosed the repositories of immense hoards of money, buried in the cities of Ascalon, Awgy, and Sidon, in certain spots therein mentioned.

Persons, whom a residence in the East has made acquainted with the usages of Eastern nations, consider such events as very probable and worthy of examination: for there are causes among them which induce the concealment of riches, not operating in other countries. To make this clearer, it may not be amiss to enumerate the reasons: firstly, the want of paper currency, or the bulkiness and weight of specie; secondly, the non-existence of banks, wherein money may be deposited in safety; thirdly, the insecurity of private property; fourthly, the frequency of wars and tumults; lastly, the particular circumstances of the times in which the treasures in question are supposed to have been buried, combining all these beforementioned difficulties.

Firstly, it is only in Europe and America, that the public confidence in the government and in rich individuals has been sufficient to give general currency to pieces of paper bearing the value of specie: in the East, no such paper money exists, unless it be in China. Governors of towns send their tribute to their pasha in bags, on mules and other beasts of burden, guarded by soldiers: whilst private persons generally pay their debts where they can in goods and by barter, rather than send specie, which would be too declaratory of their wealth. A rich man, who has not the means of investing his money in the purchase of jewels, houses, lands, &c., feels the hazard of laying up specie in a trunk or closet, especially as the locks and keys in the East afford little security, and as iron chests are no where seen excepting in the counting-houses of European merchants, established among them. Banks and public funds are, generally speaking, unknown. He is, therefore, reduced to concealment, either in a hole, or in some subterranean place constructed for the purpose: more especially if, leaving his house on a journey, he holds his wife so little worthy of trust that he dares not make even her acquainted with the secret of his treasures; a case by no means rare in Turkey, and not uncommon elsewhere.

Not a year passes that a pasha or governor does not lay violent hands on some rich man, whether Turk or Nazarene. Excuses are never wanting, either from the frequent peculations which persons employed under government habitually practise, or from alleged treasonable correspondence with Franks, or from any other motive which arbitrary injustice holds good enough for its purposes. To such as have imprudently made a display of their riches the ransom will be proportionally high. They have, therefore, no other means of avoiding similar difficulties than by carefully hiding what they possess, even from their nearest connections, among whom instances of treachery have put them on their guard. It is obvious to every traveller in Turkey, how much the extreme of indigence is affected in the dress and houses of rich individuals. The receiving apartment of a Christian, more especially when visited by a Turk, is generally the hall of his house, sometimes a bench at his door, where everything intentionally indicates poverty: whilst a Turk pursues the same course towards everybody. Relatives and intimate friends alone see the interior of each other’s houses, and it is before these only that a person displays his smart pipes, his pelisses, his shawls, and his rich silks; so that, in the most tranquil state of such a government, every possible caution is necessary to escape the invidious eyes of oppressive masters.

But, when we add to all this the extreme frequency of popular tumults; of plunder by troops, who own no control; of rebellion, and, its consequences, sieges, pillages, and precipitate flights; we shall not wonder if a prudent man never thinks his wealth safe until it is under ground. Let us take Tripoli for an example. Within the last twenty years it had undergone five sieges, and every siege had terminated by sacking the city. The peaceable inhabitant, if he flies, cannot take his money with him because it is too heavy, if to any amount, even for a mule to carry (considering that Turkish coins are very bulky, as are Spanish dollars, the coin chiefly hoarded); and, if he shuts it up in the strongest chest, he knows that it will inevitably be rifled. He therefore, if obliged to flee, either throws it into the well, the cistern, or the water-closet; or, if he has had prudence and foresight enough to be prepared for such a calamity, he deposits it in some hole made with a view to this particular purpose.

From such like reasoning as this Lady Hester had no doubt of the possibility of the existence of hidden treasures. She next examined the manuscript; and, on observing that it had no signs of antiquity about it, she was told this was a copy of the original paper, which, through fear of losing it, had never been taken out of the house. Keeping the copy, therefore, Lady Hester insisted on seeing the original, and pretended to treat the matter lightly unless she should be convinced by the sight of a more authentic document than that before her.

The inhabitants are strongly possessed with the idea that the Franks who come among them have no other object than to seek treasures concealed in ancient ruins. They look with indifference themselves on the works of the ancients as specimens of architecture, and do not understand how others can be so eager in researches after what they despise. The admeasurement of an edifice, the copying of an ancient inscription, is, in their eyes, nothing better than taking the marks of a golden hoard. Nor can this opinion have originated in anything else but the certainty, from their own experience, that treasures are often discovered.[36] Can it be wondered at, therefore, that they should often have asked me these questions?—“If my lady is not come to seek for treasures, what is she come for? Is she banished? No: Is she on mercantile affairs? No: Well, but if she is come, as you say, for her health, surely in Syria there are more pleasurable spots to be found than the barren sides of Mount Lebanon.”

With this opinion, therefore, so strongly impressed upon their minds, she considered that the document might be no more than a forgery fabricated on purpose by some of the emissaries of the Porte, to make a trial of her eagerness about it, and thereby assure themselves whether she were travelling for such an object, or (which is another very flattering opinion they sometimes have of travellers) as a spy. To accept the paper, then, was a less dangerous course than to refuse it: for it is better to be considered as a treasure-hunter than as a secret agent of a government.

The original copy was produced, and considered by Lady Hester as genuine. The donor had, most probably, looked to the certainty of an immediate present for his disclosure, as he had often experienced Lady Hester’s liberality: but there were many reasons for not immediately rewarding him; and, knowing the impracticability of a similar attempt without exposing herself to some risk and to more expense than she could afford, she determined on making an application to the Porte, offering them all the pecuniary benefit that might accrue, and reserving for herself the honour only. She accordingly submitted a succinct statement to His Excellency Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Liston, to be presented by him to the Reis Effendi. Whether any correspondence took place on the subject, or whether the business was primâ facie considered so well worth a trial as to demand no farther inquiries into it, I do not know: because, as was said before, the whole affair was matured for execution before I became acquainted with it.

It may not be improper to add that much reliance must have been placed on Lady Hester’s judgment, since the manuscript wanted the very essential confirmation of a date. Therefore, as no clue could be obtained, after the priest’s death, to the records from which it was copied, it was not clear at what period the treasures were hidden. That they were so, when the mosque, mentioned in the manuscript, was still standing, we gathered from the allusions made to pillars, walls, &c. We might go farther back, and conclude the deposit to have been made before the edifice was appropriated to the Mahometan worship—because Christians are not allowed to enter a mosque, much less to remain long enough to dig a hole, or take the precautions necessary for such a concealment. This therefore carries us back to a period of seven or eight centuries.

How is it possible that a treasure could so long lie untouched, when the secret of its existence was known? The answer is, that digging and rummaging in ruins always excites dangerous suspicions in the Turks. Every traveller in the Levant has heard how certainly the discovery of a jar of money leads to the ruin of the finder, if known. In vain he immediately carries it to the governor: his greedy masters suppose that he has concealed a part for his own use; and the bastinado, nay, often torture, compels him to yield up the supposed remainder by sacrificing all he has in the world. His property is confiscated, and poverty and blows are his reward. So much do examples of this kind terrify, that some, who have fallen accidentally on jars of coins, have been known to cover the spot carefully up, and never to speak of it but on their death-bed; a disclosure more likely to do mischief than good to their heirs.

On the 28th of January, 1815, Derwish Mustafa Aga, the Zâym, arrived, as we have already seen, after a journey of many weeks, from Constantinople, deputed to invest Lady Hester with greater authority over the Turks than was, probably, ever granted even to any European ambassador; certainly, than to any unofficial Christian.

Derwish Aga was a short man, about 50 years old. As soon as he had supped, Lady Hester requested his presence in the saloon, to which he moved most slowly, moaning and whining on entering the door as though he had been ill. Giorgio acted as the interpreter: and the aga and her ladyship remained in private conversation until past midnight. He was the bearer of three firmans or imperial orders, empowering her to demand what assistance she might want for the prosecution of her purpose: one was addressed to the Pasha of Acre; another to the Pasha of Damascus; and a third to all governors in Syria generally. Derwish Aga was to put himself entirely under the direction of Lady Hester, and was to do nothing without consulting her.

On the 29th and 30th he had long conversations with her ladyship, and tried every device to wind about her, in order to judge what were her motives for offering to the Porte treasures which others would have appropriated to their own use: but he invariably found them to be such as she had professed. He next wanted to make the first excavation at the spot said to be near Sayda, but her ladyship insisted on Ascalon, and it was finally so arranged. Considering that an affair of this magnitude ought not to be trusted entirely to the Capugi Bashi, (and those enlisted into this service by him) she bethought herself of Mâlem Musa of Hamah, father of Selim, in whom she had perceived a vast capacity for business, and on whom she felt she could rely better than on any other native of her acquaintance. Accordingly a letter was sent off by express to Hamah nearly in these words: “You know I am a straitforward person. An affair has happened which demands your presence at Acre. Be not alarmed; there is nothing serious in it: but let nothing prevent your coming, short of illness. In such a case, send Selim, and with him some one who reads and speaks Turkish fluently. But it would be better that you came together; you to give counsels, and he to execute them.”

Lady Hester, just returned from a long and fatiguing journey, felt almost unequal to undertake another: but the Zâym of course urged the necessity of her presence, and she probably did not wish him to act without her; so it was arranged that he should precede her to Acre, to make the necessary preparations. He accordingly departed, accompanied by Giorgio, who was promoted to be dragoman, and was furnished with the following letter to the pasha:—“I send your Highness my dragoman, who will acquaint you with his business, according to the tenor of a paper which I have put in his hands. In a few days I shall be with you myself to explain the whole.” The paper was to this effect:—“A person had put into my hands certain indications of a treasure. His object was to get money from me: but, as the benefit was not to be mine, (since I never seek to appropriate to myself the property of others,) it was not for me to reward him. It would have been natural for me to have immediately acquainted your Highness with it: but I considered that there might arise a double mischief from this: first, that, if the treasure did not exist, the ridicule would fall on you; and secondly, that, if it did exist, and you had presented it to the Porte, you might have been suspected of having appropriated a portion to yourself, and would have been avanized.[37] I therefore addressed myself directly to the Sultan, assigning to him the same reasons for having kept you in ignorance that I now give you, and having spoken of you in such terms as, had you been present, you would have approved of.”

On Wednesday, February 1st, Derwish Aga and Giorgio departed, and it was fixed for us to follow in ten days.

Lady Hester had considered how she should be able to support the expense which this affair would bring upon her. Her limited income scarcely sufficed for her ordinary expenditure, and she had exceeded it greatly in her late tour to Bâlbec. She therefore came to the resolution of asking (or, as she expressed it, of obliging) the English government to pay her; considering that the reputation which she was giving to the English name was a sufficient warrant for expecting this remuneration. “I shall beg of you, doctor” (she said) “to keep a regular account of every article, and will then send in my bill to government by Mr. Liston; when, if they refuse to pay me, I shall put it in the newspapers and expose them. And this I shall let them know very plainly, as I consider it my right, and not a favour: for, if Sir A. Paget put down the cost of his servants’ liveries after his embassy to Vienna, and made Mr. Pitt pay him £70,000 for four years, I cannot see why I should not do the same.”

As both Lady Hester and myself were in want of many articles necessary on a long journey, she requested me to go to Damascus for them, as well as to pick up some horses for our riding. Two days before Derwish Aga departed for Acre, I left Abra, taking with me Mbárak, the lock-picking servant, and a muleteer. Our road lay to Bisra, already described, and from Bisra, ascending the mountain upon which I lost myself in October, 1814, we came to the cascade. Here we struck off to the north-east, and ascended another mountain, at the back of a village called Ayn Matûr, from the top of which there is a view of the plain of Bisra, of the glen through which the river Ewely winds, and of the mountains in which these romantic scenes are embosomed. We then turned to the east, continuing over a rocky but somewhat level ridge, and reached, about sunset, a village where Mbárak, the servant, had some respectable relations. I was taken to their house; a warm room was immediately provided, and in due time a hot supper made me forget the fatigues of the day.

This village was the highest to be seen hereabouts, before reaching the summit of the mountain. It had some good substantial stone dwellings, and the inhabitants, I was told, were all above want, or, in other words, in comfortable circumstances. The plague was raging at another village half a mile off, even at this unusual season of the year. I retired to rest, whilst, in the adjoining room, Mbárak’s relations sat the greater part of the night listening to the recital of his adventures in the journey to Bâlbec, to which he did not fail to add as many marvels as he could conveniently invent.

The next morning, having thanked my hospitable hosts, I proceeded on my journey. Half an hour brought us to the foot of the last and highest chain of mountains, where the snow now lay very thick. When almost at the top, we met two women on foot, one of whom had neither shoes nor stockings. I stopped her, and, having a pair of yellow shoes loose in a bag, I gave them to her, and received her thanks. We soon afterwards arrived at the summit, and, descending rapidly into the Bkâ, inclined to the left, until we fell into the same track which we had followed in 1812. The passage over the mountain by which I had now come lies two or three leagues to the south of that of Barûk. Passing Jub Genýn, we did not halt until we reached Aita; and on the third day, we arrived at Damascus.

We had scarcely reached the precincts of the orchard grounds, when we were stopped by an officer of the excise, who, with a follower or two, was lurking about the road for the purpose of preventing smuggling. He was attracted by the sight of my camp-bed, which, in the manner it was rolled up in its case, looked like a bale of raw silk. Nothing short of opening the case would satisfy him that it was not silk, and, after giving me much trouble, he grumbled at his disappointment, and allowed us to proceed. I rode straight to the house of M. Chaboceau, the French doctor, of whom I have spoken in a former part of my journal, where I had reason to suppose I should be hospitably welcomed—nor was I mistaken.

One of my first visits was to Ahmed Bey. His son, Sulymán, of whom mention is made so largely at my first visit to Damascus, was no more. Some months before, in looking too eagerly over the edge of the housetop, he fell forward, and, unable to save himself, was dashed to pieces. Yet he had survived the plague in 1813; although Ahmed Bey at that time lost twenty-one persons of his family, among whom was his amiable wife. But how was I gratified, yet afflicted, by the visit of the lovely Fatima! whose exceeding beauty and amiable character, known to me during the protracted illness of her mother, whom I attended when at Damascus before, had almost made me forswear the faith I was born in, and become, for her sake, a convert to Islamism. Informed of my arrival, she hastened, with the aged Hadjy Murt Mohammed Aga, to see me. I was shocked to find her blooming youth poisoned with a sickly yellow hue, and her large and once brilliant eyes now deprived of their lustre. She had had the plague, and was yet, though so many months had elapsed, labouring under its terrible effects.

I took Shukhr Aga, one of the bey’s people, with me, and went from bazar to bazar making purchases. I was shown the largest piece of ambergris I ever saw. It was of the size and nearly in the shape of a human skull, which it resembled also in being hollow, this form being given by the calabashes in which it is collected. It is much used by the wealthy and luxurious to perfume coffee, which is done by fixing a piece the size of a pea at the bottom of the coffee-cup. Each time the boiling coffee is poured upon it, it imparts an agreeable flavour to the beverage. Ambergris enters frequently into the composition of aphrodisiacal stimulants, much used by Mahometans.

I purchased a Damascus sabre for 172 piasters. It was of that kind called in Arabic tabane, which means tempered. It will not be amiss here to advert to the sabres known in Europe by the general name of Damascus blades, but which are more accurately distinguished in Turkey, either from their temper, their metal, their form, or their age. Their temper is known by the clearness of the waves which cover the surface and indeed penetrate the metal; and the more dense these are, the better is the metal: to such is applied the term of tabane. If the blades are very black, then the Turks name them kara Khorasàn (black steel of Khorasàn): if they are of a lighter hue, tabane Hindy or Indian-tempered, in which case the waves are farther apart, and their outline is sometimes broken.

In looking along the blade, the back more especially, a flaw or crack may sometimes be discovered. This is caused by hammering out the blade from two eggs, or balls, of metal instead of one, or from thickening, or from piecing, the blade where defective. Gilt letters engraved on them are often placed to conceal some such defect, and, in Turkey generally, detract somewhat from their value, unless the legend happens to mark great antiquity or the name of a celebrated possessor.

The form most admired, and which peculiarly belongs to those blades called Damascene, is the narrow blade, curved with an equal bend. The broad one is called the Stambûl or Constantinople blade, and is double-edged from the point up to one-third of its length. There is a blade of a more silvery gray and of a broader wave than the Indian tabane, which is called nerýz, as I conjecture from the name of some place where a celebrated manufactory was. All the above mentioned blades are, in a certain degree, ancient; for the modern Damascus blades, of which I possess one, are inferior in every respect, and are known by looking somewhat like blades made wavy with aquafortis.

I was desirous of buying a shawl for a turban; and, from the inquiries I was led to make on that occasion, compared with what I have observed since my return to England, I have no doubt cashmere shawls are cheaper here than in Turkey, as are, at this moment, Damascus sabres, since the peace has thrown a great many of both into our market.

The horse bazar was held every morning about half an hour after sunrise, in an open space in the middle of the town. I resorted thither, and looked about for such horses as I was in search of. I found that horse-dealing was a system of cheating as extensive in Damascus as in London; but the public regulations to prevent the ignorant from becoming the dupes of knaves were good, and, as I was told, generally speaking, rigidly enforced. I saw, among many ordinary horses which were sold, a Bedouin filly of two years fetch 500 piasters, or £25. She was iron-gray, which is rather the prevailing colour of Arab horses; and, although not of the finest breed, still it was evident that she was eagerly caught up. On coming into the bazar, you are surrounded by several delàls (brokers). These men endeavour to find out what your wants are, and busily set about satisfying them. Horses are ridden at a walk, trot, and gallop, backward and forward between the double rows of spectators, whilst the delàls, mounted on their backs, cry aloud what has been bidden, and thus sell them by auction.

Shukhr Aga, always with me, sought out the delàl generally employed by Ahmed Bey, and told him what I was in search of. Forthwith he brought before me several steady mares, among which I selected one, stout, bony, and in good condition; and, having seen her tried, after much altercation with the owner, the bargain was struck, and the mare paid for. The delàl was paid at the regular market agency about one and a half per cent; and there was besides a fee to the bazar. Horses thus bought are subject to three days’ trial, within which time they may be returned, and the money reclaimed. But the best illustration of horse-dealing in Damascus will be in relating the adventures of M. Beaudin’s horse, stolen from him, and sold in that very market.

M. Beaudin had left Mar Elias for St. Jean d’Acre on business for Lady Hester. He rode a brown bay mare, and carried under him his saddle-bags. His heavy luggage was on an ass conducted by a driver. Night overtook him near old Tyre, at Ras-el-ayn, a village in which are the celebrated waters, called by Pococke and other travellers Solomon’s springs. They turn several water-mills; and one of these he entered, with a determination to sleep out the night, and pursue his journey when day broke. He tied up his mare, hung the corn-bag to her nose; and, putting the saddle-bags under his head as a pillow, covered himself with his abah, and attempted to sleep. The miller was attending to his business at the hopper. M. Beaudin had scarcely made himself comfortable when he heard the footsteps of persons entering the mill; and, lifting the abah off his face, he saw two ill-looking men, who had come in, as they said, to escape the rain which was falling very fast. M. Beaudin thought their appearance suspicious; but he argued with himself thus: “My saddle-bags are under my head, my mare’s bridle is almost in my hand; they cannot do me much mischief, and let the miller look to himself;” so he covered up his face, and went to sleep; the ass-driver probably had better secured his own animal, and went to sleep also.

An hour or two afterwards M. Beaudin awoke, and, looking from under his cloak, saw, to his utter astonishment, that his mare was gone. He sprang up, and accused the miller, who was still at work, of connivance in the theft. The poor man seemed as much astonished as M. Beaudin at the audacity of the thieves, and ran out immediately in pursuit of them; but they were already far away: and, although Beaudin strongly suspected the miller of being a party in the crime, it was afterwards proved that he was altogether innocent.

The night was dark and stormy: M. Beaudin resolved, nevertheless, to gain the town of Tyre, and hire a horse to pursue his journey. Accordingly, desiring the muleteer, as soon as it should be daylight, to go forward on the Acre road, he set off on foot by himself for Tyre, distant about three miles from Ras-el-ayn. He knew that the way by the sea-shore was the surest in the dark; but he had not proceeded far, when he found himself embarrassed among several rivulets; and, inclining inland to avoid walking through them, he lost his way. He had a brace of pistols at his girdle, heavy Turkish trousers, and an abah or cloak. The weight of his clothing was increased by the rain, which continued to fall, while its pattering drowned the roaring of the surf, and prevented him from regaining the sea-shore. He wandered about for some time, until at last he came to a sugar-loaf hill, well known to such persons as have passed near Tyre, which stands in the middle of the plain, and has on it a mosque crowned with a double dome, called, from the similarity of the two, El Ashûk w’el Mashûk (the lover and the beloved). This mound formerly was the site of some ancient edifice, as there are portions of an aqueduct still remaining which led from old Tyre to it, whilst vast stones which lie scattered about its foot bear evidence of masonry of no modern date.

From El Ashûk a road leads to Tyre. M. Beaudin followed it, and arrived at the gates of the town before they were opened. He seated himself on the outside, and waited patiently until daylight, when he obtained admittance. He then proceeded to the motsellem or governor, and informed him of what had happened. The motsellem despatched people in search of the horse and robbers, while M. Beaudin hired a mule and continued his journey to Acre. On arriving there, Mâlem Häym, the pasha’s minister, was informed of his loss. M. Beaudin (after he had executed his commission at Acre), was about to depart for Mar Elias when he was furnished with a buyurdy or government order to the motsellem of Tyre, enjoining that officer to give him his own horse until the stolen one should be found. The particular horse so assigned was twice as valuable as M. Beaudin’s, who, therefore, politely told the motsellem that he did not require the pasha’s order to be executed to the letter, and accordingly received a common horse for present use, until his own could be recovered. Whilst delayed at Tyre in these arrangements, he received a small scrap of paper from Lady Hester, whom he had informed by a letter from Acre of his loss. Upon this scrap of paper was written, “Si vous avez perdu votre jument trouvez-la.” The motsellem promised, and was bound, to make every exertion to bring the robbery to light. M. Beaudin then proceeded to Mar Elias, and had a severe reprimand from her ladyship for his negligence!

Some months elapsed, and M. Beaudin still rode the motsellem’s horse, when it happened that he was despatched by Lady Hester on business to Damascus; and, on his way back, was stopped by the snow, which had blocked up the roads. He formed part of a caravan; and, as he was sitting in the caravansery, during the evening, conversing with a horseman who was one of the number, to pass the time he related the story of the loss of his mare. A muleteer, who was listening, asked him to describe her, and then said he thought he knew where she was.

It appeared that the robbers had immediately taken her from Tyre to Damascus, where, in the public bazàr, they sold her to a Persian for 600 piasters (about £30). The laws of the bazàr are, that every horse sold there must be warranted as known not to have been stolen; and responsibility, to its full value, falls on the company of delàls. So the stealers, unable to produce a security, had her returned on their hands. In selecting a Persian, who might be setting off immediately for his own country, they thought to have evaded this requisition: but the dealers, who have their eyes on everybody and everything that passes, felt that they might be called upon for the money, and so prevented the sale. The stealers tried a second and a third time, but without success. At last an aga or gentleman, who had seen the mare more than once in the bazàr, and who suspected something wrong in the business, pretended to bid for her, and inquired where she was brought from. The stealers mentioned a village in the Metoualy country: but, as some persons were known to the aga in that very village, he put some questions respecting them; and, when he found that the stealers could not give correct answers, he seized the mare’s bridle, and said—“My friends, I take this mare home to my stable. When you can prove to me that you came by her fairly, I will then restore her.” Guilt, we may suppose, made the men fearful: for, after some words, the aga led the mare away without any resistance.

M. Beaudin was informed by the muleteer of the residence of the aga; but, on account of the inclemency of the weather, deferred going thither at that moment. He returned to Mar Elias; and, in a few days, went after the mare. The aga, on hearing his story, delivered her to him; and information was laid against the pretended owners. They were apprehended, convicted of being the stealers, and one of them was hanged, without any law expenses whatever. The peculiar variations, from beginning to end, in the suspicions, discovery, and punishment of the theft, compared with a similar event in England, are too obvious to make it necessary to point them out to the reader.

To return to my narrative, I was much surprised to find Mâlem Musa at Damascus; and, knowing that an express messenger had, as I have before mentioned, been sent off to him to Hamah, I told him of it, and repeated from memory the letter, the contents of which I knew, as having been privy to the writing of it. The conduct of Musa on this occasion will show how wary Levantines are in incurring the suspicion of being in secret correspondence with Europeans. Although the business concerned nobody but himself, and was known to nobody else, he immediately communicated it to the Jew seràfs, Mâlem Yusef and Rafáel, pretending that he was all astonishment at what Lady Hester could mean by wanting him. I, however, judged it proper to send off a letter to her ladyship, informing her that he was here, and begging a corroboration, under her hand, of the communication I had made him. The muleteer was, on the 10th of February, despatched with this letter, and with another from Mâlem Musa. During his absence, which was six or seven days, I completed the purchases I had to make. When Sulymán (that was the muleteer’s name) returned, Mâlem Musa received permission from the pasha to go to Acre, where he was to meet Lady Hester; and, having finished my business, I set off for Mar Elias.

Much snow had fallen in the interim. There were two mule loads of baggage, and I was mounted on my newly-purchased mare. The highest part of the Antilebanon is very elevated ground; and we suffered greatly from the wet and cold, when, on the first night, we arrived at Halwell, where I slept almost under my horse’s legs, in a place no better than a shed. The second night we reached Jûb Genýn, where we were informed that the pass of Mount Lebanon was impracticable, owing to the snow. However, as my return, I knew, was waited for impatiently by Lady Hester, I resolved to attempt it on the following day.

From Jûb Genýn we arrived at the foot of the mountain early in the day, when we began to ascend; and at noon we had reached the part where the snow lay. There was no fresh track, by which we plainly understood that none but ourselves had made the trial that day. We had nearly reached the summit, when, as we were advancing, a storm of snow, or what is called on the Alps a tourmente, came on, and in a moment the view around us was bounded to fifteen or twenty paces. Sulymán was a daring and resolute Drûze, and promised yet to carry me through it. We had advanced about a hundred yards, when one of the mules slipped into a hole, which the snow had covered, fell, and could not, from the weight of his load, rise again. We unloaded him; and, when extricated, replaced his burden on his back. We had not advanced much farther when my mare sunk in up to her belly; and, in plunging about, caught the end of my cloak in her fore-foot, and pulled me off. The mule, that had fallen before, at the same time swerved from the path, and rolled over. Being unable to rise, the girths were cut to relieve her.

It has been mentioned more than once, that stockings and gloves are not worn in Syria. Mbárak, from the exertion he had used in assisting the muleteer, became afterwards very cold, and now complained that his feet and hands felt almost frozen. We made many ineffectual attempts to reload the mule, but the snow and wind were so rigorously sharp, that we began to think, if we delayed any longer, we should be lost altogether. I therefore resolved on abandoning the luggage, which was accordingly put together in a heap on the snow; and on the heap was a species of otter, alive in a box, which I had brought from Damascus as a curiosity. As we had evidently lost the track, we took the direction which we thought would bring us to it; when, after wandering about for half an hour, every moment tumbling into holes and over stumps of trees, we found ourselves, to our dismay, close to the luggage again. Sulymán’s courage now became desperation, and, drawing his yatagán, he was going to stab his mules, saying it was better to kill them outright than leave them to be frozen to death. This design I prevented, insisting that we must now try to retrace our steps to the plain of the Bkâ as the only chance we had of saving our lives. Mbárak, by this time, had begun to complain most bitterly, and could scarcely be persuaded to advance. We were unable any longer to discern the footsteps we had ourselves made in coming; for the snow had already effaced them. Fortunately, the bend of the trees, caused by the prevalence of a constant wind, suggested to Sulymán the direction we ought to take, and, guided by this, we slowly returned. Providence assisted us. We had gone on for about half an hour, when the tourmente ceased, and a comparative serenity in the atmosphere enabled us to regain the path by which we had ascended: but Mbárak was now helpless, and we had much ado in keeping him from sitting down, for I opposed his riding, as the only chance of preventing the fatal effects of the cold on his extremities.

It was dark before we reached the foot of the mountain, and some lights directed us to a few wretched cottages, which Sulymán knew to be the hamlet of Khurby,[38] and where, when at Jûb Genýn, we had been informed the plague was raging; but, I believe, if worse than the plague had then faced us, we should have thought it preferable to what we had just left: so we knocked at the first door we came to, and requested that some empty stable or outhouse might be given us, where, having made a fire, we sheltered ourselves. We had scarcely entered when Mbàrak fainted away. Sulymán was much astonished when I insisted on his being laid in the corner farthest from the fire, where we rubbed his limbs and his feet, until he came to himself, when, from pain and fear, he kept up a grievous moaning. Sulymán next procured some barley for the animals, and I endeavoured to find a dry spot to lie down on, but it was impossible. The villagers at first refused to give us anything to eat: but there is a law which subjects any place wherein a person dies from want to a considerable fine; and the apprehension of Mbarak’s perishing during the night, which, as he lay, seemed likely, frightened them, and they brought us some bread and porridge.

What a miserable night did I pass! Morning at length came; and then the person calling himself the bailiff of the hamlet offered, for a reasonable reward, four men to assist us in recovering the baggage. These people are well acquainted with the mountain. They guided us up, and we were fortunate enough to find every thing as we had left it. The otter was alive, nor did he die until some time afterwards. The luggage was carried on the backs of the peasants and of Sulymán, until we reached the descent to the west; when, having re-loaded, I rewarded the peasants, and in a short time we reached Barûk, where the snow disappeared. In order to make up for the loss of time on the preceding day, Sulymán was told to hurry on. We left Dayr el Kamar on the right of us, and arrived at sunset at Ayn-bayl, a Drûze village, inhabited chiefly by muleteers, among whom was one who had served Lady Hester in the journey to Bâlbec. To his house Sulymán led me to pass the night. The wife gave me the best entertainment in her power; and to convey some idea of the interior of a Drûze cottage, I will relate how I passed the evening.

A narrow carpet, kept doubled up, excepting on days of ceremony, was spread on one side of the clay floor, which, from being well rubbed with a smooth round boulder, shone like a mirror. The cottage was of stone, one story high, and flat-roofed, with a shed close by which served for a stable, and no other out-houses whatever. The cottage was divided in two, by a partition not reaching to the ceiling, which was of beams and rafters, trimmed with an adze only. Round the room were several sun-baked clay barrels, about three feet high, but of small circumference: these were filled with wheat-flour, figs, borgûl, lentils, rice, &c. The muleteer’s wife busied herself in preparing my supper at a fireplace, made of a few rude stones outside of the door. As she came in and out to fetch the different articles which she wanted, she carefully concealed her face by pinching together her veil, which was of long white crape, falling gracefully from the point of her horn, so that only one eye was seen. In the same room with me sat Sulymán and Mbárak, with six or eight Drûzes, who dropped in one by one on the news of our arrival, and to whom Sulymán was earnestly relating the adventures of the preceding night. They invariably, as they entered, civilly saluted everybody, and there was much decorum in their manners, which is, however, not peculiar to the Drûzes, but is universal among the different classes of society throughout Turkey. Whenever the husband spoke to his wife she answered in low feminine accents, for it would have been discreditable to her, had she, whilst strangers were by, laughed or vociferated.

When supper was ready, which consisted of a dish of boiled rice, some dibs and leben, and a few figs and raisins for the dessert, it was served up on a wooden table about two feet in diameter, and six inches from the ground, with box-wood spoons alone to eat with. After supper, my own travelling stock afforded coffee, with which the whole party was regaled, smoking their pipes, and appearing as soberly merry as pious Christians round a winter fire; for nowhere will you see so much cheerfulness without loud laughter, and sedateness without gloom, as among this people.

CHAPTER VI.

Journey of Lady Hester from Mar Elias to Ascalon—Bussa—Acre—She prevails on Mr. Catafago to accompany her to Ascalon—Illness of Ali Pasha—Professional visits of the Author—Abdallah Bey, the Pasha’s son—Extraordinary honours paid to Lady Hester—Her departure from Acre—Tremendous storm—M. Loustaunau; his prophecies—His history—Don Tomaso Coschich arrives with despatches from Sir Sydney Smith to Lady Hester—Substance of them—Presents sent to the care of Lady Hester by Sir Sydney—His character in the East—Cæsarea—Um Khaled—Village of Menzel—Jaffa—Mohammed Aga, the governor ordered to accompany Lady Hester—His character—Arrival at Ascalon.

The next morning we resumed our journey, and arrived at noon at Mar Elias. I found Lady Hester busily occupied in preparing for our departure for Acre, which, now that I was arrived, was fixed for the next day. In my absence she had purchased a gray mare from Mr. Taitbout, the French consul of Sayda. The next morning she departed with nearly the same attendants, as she had taken with her to Bâlbec: not being quite ready, I followed her the next day, which was the 16th of February, 1815.

I shall pass over the names of places on the road to Tyre, as having already described them when coming this way before. The weather was still tempestuous and wet; and, a very few hours after her ladyship’s departure, there was a hail-storm, which, had glass been in use for windows, would have broken every pane. She slept at El Khudder. About noon, I overtook her there, and found the tents just struck for marching: so, without dismounting, I joined company.

There are two roads from Sayda to Tyre, as also from Tyre to Acre, from which circumstance, as being not generally known to travellers themselves, there is often an apparent discrepancy in the names of places and their relative distance. In the winter season, it is customary to follow the windings of the strand of the sea-shore, where the sand always affords a firm footing for the animals: in the summer, a strait road, sometimes close to the sea, and sometimes, from the bends of the coast, two, or three hundred yards, or a quarter of a mile distant from it, is preferred: but it is too full of holes and too deep in mire to be passed in the wet season.

We slept that night at Tyre. The rains still continued. I departed next morning earlier than Lady Hester, to provide the evening station. Passing Ras-el-ayn, I came to the promontory called Ras el Nakûra. Ascending this, and riding through a level beyond it covered with underwood, I came to the Guffer or toll-house, on the left hand of which, as mentioned in a former place, is the village of Nakúra. This I thought a convenient distance for a halfway station between Tyre and Acre. Accordingly, inquiring for the shaykh’s house, I produced the buyurdy, by which we were to be furnished with lodging and entertainment on the road. The shaykh very civilly professed his willingness to do so, but said that the station was specified in the order for the village of Bussa, which was farther on. I thanked him, perceived my error, and, remounting my horse, descended the hill by the Burge Msherify into the plain of Acre. At the foot of the hill, the road to Bussa turned short to the left. The incessant rains, for some weeks past, had so soaked the ground that my horse could with difficulty get along.

Bussa was about one mile from the Burge Msherify, and was a small village surrounded with olive grounds, in which it seemed to be particularly rich. The soil appeared lower than the sea-coast; so that, on my arrival at the village, the street was fairly flooded. I was directed to the menzel or khan, as strangers generally are: but I inquired for the shaykh’s house, and was, as it always happened, followed by three or four people to learn my business there.

The shaykh, in compliance with the buyurdy, desired me to choose what cottages I liked best: but, here the choice was truly puzzling. Each cottage had a courtyard, where dung and wet lay in the same manner as in the old-fashioned farmyards in England: each cottage likewise consisted of a single room, half of which contained a yoke of oxen, and the other half, somewhat raised, the tenant of it and his family. Finding that they were all alike, I caused three to be cleared out, and set the peasant women to work, to sweep and carry off the dung and other filth. Mrs. Fry, Werdy, and the black slave, soon afterwards arrived; and, by the aid of mats, carpets, and other contrivances, metamorphosed the sheds into something like a habitation.

But there had been a mistake, on the part of M. Beaudin, as to the meaning of the buyurdy; and he conducted Lady Hester, who departed late from Tyre, to Nakûra, where she was informed that I had gone on to Bussa. The night had already set in, when she arrived at Nakûra: but, she was obliged to continue, on account of the luggage: and, for her protection, the shaykh of Nakûra and two armed horsemen accompanied her. I waited anxiously for her, until, owing to the extreme darkness of the night, I became alarmed, and resolved to ride back in search of her. The road, which was no better than a slough, presented a most formidable obstacle in the dark, and my horse had already floundered half a mile through it, when the welcome sound of voices reached my ears. Nor was Lady Hester herself less glad to hear mine: for fatigue, wet, and apprehension, had agitated her more than I well remember to have seen on any other similar occasion.

Bussa is inhabited by Mahometans. The women had somewhat the appearance of Bedouins, in dress, more especially in the pointed shift sleeves reaching almost to the ground. We left this place next morning for Acre. As the road had now diverged a mile from the sea, we had an opportunity of observing the fertility of the plain. It must, however, be unwholesome, since the sea-shore is plainly higher than the soil inland, which prevents the rains from running off; so that there are many stagnant pools. The plain is semicircular, and the horns of the mountains which enclose it are, Mount Carmel to the south, and the Nakûra, over which we had just passed, to the north. We soon arrived at Acre. A small house had been provided for Lady Hester, where she lived with her female attendants only. M. Beaudin and myself had apartments in the corn khan.

In order to avoid all foul play on the part of those with whom she might have to do, her ladyship engaged Signor Catafago, at whose house she lived on her first visit to Acre, to go with her, as being a cunning man, and used to the intrigues of the country. We remained at Acre until the 17th of March. In the mean time, Mâlem Musa arrived from Damascus, having with him two men servants. Lady Hester saw from day to day Mâlem Haym, the Jew; and she paid a visit to the pasha, who received her with peculiar affability. Whenever she went out, she was followed by a crowd of spectators; and the curiosity and admiration which she had very generally excited throughout Syria were now increased by her supposed influence in the affairs of government, in having a Capugi Bashi at her command.

She was returning one day from the bath, in which she often indulged, muffled up to keep out the cold air, and mounted on her favourite black ass, with a groom on either side to support her, when the ass took fright, and, turning suddenly round, threw her. The man on whom the fault chiefly fell was named Harb, a Mussulman, who had been hired expressly for this journey, at Sayda, as a janissary, he having been janissary to the French Consul. Although Lady Hester was not hurt, the Jew Seráf caused him to be bastinadoed on the feet, that he might take more care of his mistress in future. No Turk now paid her a visit without wearing his benýsh, or mantle of ceremony: and every circumstance showed the ascendency she had gained in public opinion.

I have already described the caravansery in which I was living (called Khan el Kummah) on a former occasion. I was lodged in a room the window of which overlooked the harbour, which is no more than a small nook sheltered by a dilapidated mole. During this time there was a most violent storm, and I was witness to the stranding of a polacca, which, although moored by two cables through portholes in the mole, rode so uneasy that she broke the cables and drove on shore.

About this time, an order arrived from the Porte to the pashas of Syria, desiring them to enforce the wearing of kaûks, the cloth bonnet of Constantinopolitan Mahometans; and which, more especially, was affected in the Levant by government officers, or by Turks, in contradistinction to the natives, with whom the turban was the favourite covering of the head.

On our arrival, a request was made me to attend on Ali, pasha of Tripoli, whom we have before spoken of as residing with Sulymán Pasha in preference to residing on his own pashalik, and who was, at present, dangerously ill of a pulmonary complaint. He had been treated by eight doctors, all at variance with each other in their opinions: and, during three weeks previous to my arrival, the merits of bleeding had been discussed in consultations held before the pasha’s friends, whilst the patient’s malady was gaining ground. The casting vote was given to me, and I decided for it. One of the anti-phlebotomists, however, who performed the operation, made the orifice too small to give issue to the required quantity of blood: this was a medium anceps, which appeased both parties; the arm was bound up, and the trial was not repeated. I generally visited him twice a day; and never surely had I seen the path of death so smoothed to a dying man.

He was attended by a certain Shaykh Messaûd, spoken of heretofore as head of an ancient family and governor of Beled Hartha. Seeing this gentleman and one Hassan Effendi always with Ali Pasha, I inquired the reason of their close attendance; and I was answered—“They are two clever persons who are kept near the pasha to amuse him, to pacify him when his temper is ruffled, to give the tone in conversation, and to raise his spirits when depressed by melancholy forebodings.” The office of toady in Turkey at least requires some talent, where an unlucky observation may lead to a bastinading: but, when this talent is exerted in alleviating the sufferings of a sick bed, a toady ceases to be a despicable person.

His complaint was pulmonary, and his intervals of ease were few. When I paid my evening visits, an attendant, in waiting in the antechamber, would lead me to the door of the room where he was sitting, and, drawing aside the red cloth curtain embroidered in gold, would in a low whisper tell me to enter. The salute to a great personage in the East, on entering his presence, is by walking up to him, and kissing the hem of his garment or his hand, when he makes a sign to him who enters to sit down. All this was dispensed with from me, as a foreigner; but I saw it done by every one else. When seated, I was asked how I did, and how her Presence, or her Felicity, the dame, the emiry[39] did, which civility I acknowledged by a προσκύνησις.[40] I might then look round the room, and, in dumb show, by carrying my hand to my mouth and forehead, recognize those whom I knew. There were generally present the chief men of the place; such as the mufti, the divan effendi, some ulemas, and always Mâlem Haym, the Jew seràf, the minister, that wonderful man who was present everywhere, and directed everything. The pasha was seated in an arm-chair (a very uncommon thing unless in illness) and on each side of him stood a page, one holding a pocket-handkerchief, and the other a small vase to spit in. The rest of the party were seated on the floor: for who would dare sit on the sofas when the pasha himself did not? who, so to say, would presume to sit higher than the pasha!

Awful indeed was the moment of feeling the pulse, when it was necessary to render an account of every pulsation: and how is it possible not to dissimulate on such occasions? At every favourable turn which manifested itself, happiness and complacency seemed to illumine every countenance, and a bystander would have said, “The pasha will be well to-morrow.” When the visit was over, I was generally taken into another room by Haym, to confer with Abdallah Bey, the pasha’s son.[41] Here I found the young lord, sitting between two venerable shaykhs, who were expounding to him the Koran, or commenting on some abstruse points of faith. When with the bey, pipes and coffee were served to me, the latter of which alone was given me in the pasha’s presence. The state of his father’s health was then inquired into, plans for the next day were devised, and so the cure was conducted.

On one occasion, when ushered into Abdallah Bey’s room, I observed an unusual degree of gaiety in the conversation. Inquiring the reason of this from one sitting by me, I was told that the bey had, in the course of that day, made a very clever throw with his girýd or javelin, on horseback, and that nothing had since been talked of but his great skill as a perfect cavalier.

Soon after our arrival at Acre, the weather became fine for a few days, and it was resolved to remove Ali Pasha to a pavilion which he had built a few miles from the city. I rode over to see him, accompanied by the kumrûkgi or collector of the customs, Ayûb Aga, who was very attentive to me during my stay at Acre. There was an extensive garden round the pavilion; a thing of easy creation in Syria, where, as was the case here, copious springs and running streams were found. It was from this spot that the aqueduct, destroyed by the French in their invasion of Syria, conveyed water to Acre. But Ali Pasha received no benefit from his removal, and was soon conveyed back again.

In relating the case of the pasha, I am forgetting Lady Hester, who was now ready to depart for Ascalon. In compliance with the orders contained in the firmans of the Sublime Porte, she was honoured with distinctions usually paid to princes only. In addition to her own six tents, about twenty more were furnished, one of which was of vast magnitude, and under which Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales slept, on her journey to and from Jerusalem. As a part of the alleged misconduct of that princess was said to have taken place beneath it, and as its particular shape excited some discussion in the House of Lords, a sketch of it is annexed.

PRINCESS OF WALES’S TENT.

This tent was double, like the calix and corolla of a flower inverted, the same post supporting both; and, when planted, the distance between the two at the bottom was about twelve feet. It was of a green colour on the outside, studded with yellow flowers and stars. In the centre of the inner tent was placed a sofa, behind which, and bisecting the tent, was suspended a curtain made of broad bands of satin of the most vivid colours. Nothing could be more showy or more elegant. There were twenty-two akáms or tent-pitchers to accompany us, headed by one Mohammed, a person whose activity, as I afterwards heard, made him conspicuous in the suite of Her Royal Highness not less than in that of Lady Hester. There was a meshalgy to bear the night-torch, being the iron skeleton of a tub fixed on a long pole, in which pieces of tarpaulin are thrown from time to time to burn. A sakka, with two mules at his disposal carrying vast leather skins, was to supply water. Twelve mules carried the luggage; twelve camels the tents. The attendants were on mules: Mr. Catafago, Mâlem Musa, the two dragomans, and myself, on horseback. Last of all, to Lady Hester was appropriated what, in Arabic, is called a takhterwàn, or tukht, a tilted palanquin, covered with crimson cloth, and having in front six large gilded balls, glittering in the sun. The palanquin was carried by two mules, which were changed every two hours. In front of the palanquin were led her ladyship’s mare and her favourite ass, in case she preferred riding. One hundred of the Hawàry cavalry[42] escorted us, and three treasury messengers preceded, as couriers to arrange stations and to make provision for so many persons. I had almost forgotten the Zäym and the persons composing his suite, who added considerably to our numbers.

On the 18th of March, the cavalcade left Acre, and, to the astonishment but admiration of every one, Lady Hester rode her ass; nor did she, on any future day, make use of the palanquin. I remained behind one day to attend to the effect of certain remedies which I had prescribed for the pasha, who, on my taking leave of him, ordered his khasnadàr or treasurer to send me a purse of money.[43]

On the 19th it blew a strong equinoctial gale: but, as Lady Hester had said she should wait my coming at the first station, I resolved to depart in spite of the weather. It was afternoon before I had finished my affairs, when I set off, taking with me an Hawáry horseman for my escort. As I rode along the sea-shore, the wind swept the dust in clouds, and the waves, contending with the swollen streams of the two rivers which I had to pass, formed quicksands in their beds, with a counter-current, which made the fords very dangerous: whilst the hail cut our horses’ faces, so that with difficulty they could be forced on. The horseman who accompanied me vented his spleen in muttering complaints against the English, who always would travel at such extraordinary seasons, when every sensible person remained in-doors.[44]

I did not arrive until after sunset, when I found the encampment, in consequence of the tempest, in the greatest confusion, which continued to augment as the night advanced.

The station was at the western gate of Häyfa, on the outside, being that which we had occupied on our previous passage. On entering the dinner-tent, I observed a stranger, in a long threadbare Spanish cloak, whom, by his salutation, I guessed to be a Frenchman. He seemed to be nearly sixty years of age, his hair grizzly and uncombed, and his whole person apparently very dirty. He held under his left arm a book, which he never seemed to let go or lay down. We took our dinners in great haste, as the storm increased so much that the lights could not be kept in, and it was necessary, in the sailor’s phrase, to make all snug, and prepare for a busy night. The stranger soon went away; and I then learned that he was a Frenchman, who had now, for two years, lived in a shed in the orchards of Häyfa, where the alms of the inhabitants maintained him. The book he carried constantly under his arm was a Bible, which he read incessantly, and, whenever questioned by any one who knew his failings, he would interpret texts from it as applicable to the existing state of the world. But Buonaparte was the chief subject of his prophecies.

No sooner had Lady Hester made her appearance at Acre, and the town-talk of Häyfa had informed him of the preparations that were making for her escort, than, ignorant of her real destination to Ascalon, he fancied, like many others, that she could be going nowhere else than to perform the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He accordingly searched out a number of texts wherein he pretended that her coming was announced, and was prepared to greet her with them on her passage through Häyfa. Her ladyship had admitted him just before my arrival, and had treated him with that kindness which the unfortunate ever obtained from her. His history has already been related in a recent publication.[45]

The storm continued, and the wind was so powerful that it blew up the tents like so many umbrellas. Mâlem Musa’s, which was twelve or fourteen feet in diameter, was thrown down on him, and he lay buried under it for some minutes, roaring for assistance, until extricated by the tent-men. Lady Hester, for better security, had betaken herself to her own tent, and had quitted the large one. In spite of the additional precautions which were used, by fixing stays on the windward side of it, and by placing large stones on the pickets, she was twice half smothered. Anxious for her safety, I remained on foot the whole of that night, and was exposed to the fury of the contending elements. Early in the evening, Signor Catafago had taken refuge in the town at the Carmelite monastery: Derwish Aga, the Zäym, had done the same; and not a soldier was left. The mesalgy’s beacon could not be kept alight, and the akàms or tent-men were worn out by so often setting up the blown down tents.

About midnight, Werdy, one of the women, came in haste to inform me that there was a Frank in the dinner tent, just arrived from Acre: I repaired to him immediately, and I found a young man in the act of putting on a British naval uniform coat. I saluted him in Italian, without reflecting that I was addressing him in a language foreign to his dress: but I was right. He told me in the same breath that he was a Dalmatian, in the English service, who had accompanied the Princess of Wales in the capacity of dragoman from Palermo to Constantinople, in her voyage of 1813, and that he was now come to conduct Lady Hester and all of us to England. I was rather surprised at his embassy; more especially when I learned from whom he came: but, having given orders for providing him a supper, which was no easy matter in such a storm, I took his despatches, and carried them to Lady Hester. In the midst of the hurricane, she immediately read them. They were from Sir Sydney Smith, and were most voluminous, relating to matters very different from Lady Hester’s return: but, as they are foreign to this narrative, I shall not enter into particulars.

Sir Sydney, however, had taken this opportunity of sending various presents to persons whom he had known in Syria. These were a pair of pistols to Abu Ghosh, the chieftain who lived on the mountains of Judea, in the road to Jerusalem from Jaffa; a dressing-box for the Emir Beshýr’s wife; an English bible to the public library of Jerusalem (there being no such institution); and a picture of the pope for the Holy Sepulchre. He likewise displayed his indignation at cruelty, but not his prudence, in telling the Emir Beshýr, in a letter which he wrote to him, how much he regretted that the sons of his brother had been deprived of their eyesight by his order. The picture of the pope which he gave was to be in the keeping of the Copt, Greek, Syrian, and Catholic bishops; but, in so doing, he showed little knowledge of the state of things at Jerusalem. These different sects have nothing in common among them but their quarrels.

The following memorandums of the correspondence contained in the despatches which passed between Sir Sydney Smith and Lady Hester Stanhope, by the hands of M. Thomaso Coschich, were written down at the time. They contain the substance of all the letters.

Sir Sydney Smith to Lady Hester Stanhope, Latakia.

Vienna, Dec. 8, 1814.

My dear Cousin,

I received yours from Latakia. In my way to England I spoke to Fremantle, whom I saw at Gibraltar, to send you a frigate; for I am at present no longer in command. My nephew, Thurlow Smith, has got the Undaunted (the ship which carried B. to Elba), and he will contrive, if possible, to come to you, as I say all I can of the necessity of guarding our trade in that quarter.

I send you Don Thomaso Coschich, with despatches, &c. I have paid his passage, and agreed with him for one dollar a day, having left forty dollars unpaid (as he is a man of whose character I am ignorant in a moral point of view), to leave him something to look to. I shall leave Vienna after the Congress, for Florence and Leghorn, where I hope to meet you in the month of April.

I remain, &c.

A second communication begged to charge Lady Hester with delivering certain despatches to the Emir Beshýr. They were, to ask him to send the 1,500 soldiers which had been promised him through Mr. Fiott, who vouched for the prince’s having said so in word and in writing, and to inform him that these troops were to be employed in attacking the Algerine pirates. For the purpose of rallying them, he sent flags of different descriptions, with plans for encamping. His plan (he added) had been submitted to the emperors of Austria and Russia, to the kings of Prussia and (through Talleyrand) of France; who all approved highly of it. He had also held conferences with the crowned heads in ball-rooms and assemblies as well as he could have done in their closets; but nobody would advance money.

He went on to say that, finding his debts pretty large, he had given up his goods and chattels to his creditors in England, and had brought his all to Vienna on eight wheels: that he was so far reduced as to be obliged to beg a loan from his Syrian friends; and he charged Lady Hester with the commission.

He advised Lady Hester not to go to Naples, which was not orthodox, owing to the presence of a certain person (the Princess of Wales), whose follies she recollected at Plymouth. He observed that his nephew had seen the King of Rome, who was at Schoenbrun, wearing a wooden sword, and that he was a pert lad.

To confirm the feasibility of his scheme, he said he was in correspondence with the Emperor of Morocco, who would second these views, being, par force, just then no pirate. The dey of Tunis had also been consulted on the business; but, as he was since dead, Sir Sydney recommended it to Lady Hester to visit the coast of Barbary, and see what sort of a man his successor was. The deceased dey was too liberal-minded for his subjects, and had been poisoned.

There was a letter to the Emir Beshýr, which was in French, nearly as follows:—

Au tres puissant et grand prince Beshýr. I have heard with much pleasure from certain Englishmen (Mr. Forbes, Mr. Gell, who were never there, and Mr. Fiott, now Dr. Lee, were the names mentioned), of the continuance of your health and prosperity. It grieves me to learn that the sons of the Emir Yusef labour under your displeasure, and that they have lost their eyesight. (N.B. It was the Emir himself who had blinded them). I hope you will not suffer them to want your protection. You are answerable to them, and more particularly to me, for their safety.

The letter then went on in a style which will show that Sir Sydney’s vanity sometimes made him fall into hyperbole.

I have dismantled my ships, having no farther occasion for them, owing to the pacification of Europe. I have written to the Prince Regent of Portugal, whom I had induced to take refuge in America, that he may now return to his capital: and, after having paid a visit to the son of the king of England, I am come to Vienna to assist at the Congress. Mr. Fiott, an English gentleman, has informed me that you are ready to furnish me with fifteen hundred men: I have just now occasion for them, to subjugate the Barbaresque pirates, who impede the transmission of corn from Egypt to Christendom; so Captain Ismael, Mahomet Ali’s envoy to Malta, has told me.

I send your highness a dressing-box, containing a few trifles for your ladies (N.B. This dressing-box was in ebony, studded in steel, furnished with pins and needles, thread, &c.); also a black cloak for yourself, or for the officer you may choose to appoint commander of your troops. To these things I have joined a pair of pistols, with an Arabic inscription partly defaced.

Lady Hester disapproved of the whole plan, from beginning to end, and answered Sir Sydney’s letters as follows:—She told him, that to send for troops from the Emir Beshýr was endangering that prince’s life; as he was employing the force of one province against another, both being parts of the same empire. Such a thing could only be done by a direct application to the sultan, enforcing the request by saying that, if he would not lend his aid to stop the piracy of his subjects, then other measures would be resorted to. Alluding to the flags which he had sent, and which were no more than so many German stuff shawls, she asked him, who was the king of pocket-handkerchiefs? She said, the mountaineers would fight very well on their own dunghill, when they had their mountain to retreat upon; but that they would never quit their firesides.

Lady Hester might have added likewise, that the Emir had too many enemies of his own to dare to send his troops away; nor could he, as he wanted a seaport in his own territory, have embarked them without permission from the pasha of Acre.

Of her own and Sir Sydney’s letters she sent copies to Mr. Liston, English ambassador at Constantinople; and to Mr. Barker, English consul at Aleppo; desiring the latter to stop all letters passing through his hands, which he supposed to come from Sir Sydney to the Emir Beshýr.

She then wrote to the Emir himself, to say, when her journey to Ascalon was over, she would see him on business of importance.

There was great indelicacy in Sir Sydney’s conduct in sending such a man, giving out wherever he went that he was to take charge of Lady Hester, and conduct her back to Europe.

The perusal of these papers and the necessary deliberation upon them lasted until morning. In the mean time, Signor Thomaso Coschich (for so the Dalmatian was called) had made but a poor supper, and could not conceal his discontent, when the servants told him no wine was ever served up at Lady Hester’s table when she was travelling with Turks.

When daylight came, I gathered, by reports already in circulation among the people, that Signor Coschich had arrived at Acre after my departure; that he had addressed himself to Mâlem Haym with an exaggerated story of the importance of his mission, alleging that he bore despatches declaratory of war between Turkey and Russia, in which England would take a part, and that he was, therefore, come to convey Lady Hester to a place of safety; with many other strange inventions of a hardy cast: upon which Mâlem Haym had caused the town gates to be opened after the usual hour, and a treasury messenger had been ordered to conduct him to Häyfa. The imprudence of such conversation induced Lady Hester to get rid of him forthwith. She accordingly ordered a halt at Häyfa; and, stopping there three days, she wrote answers to Sir Sydney Smith’s despatches, laying open the whole transaction to Derwish Mustafa Aga, in order to set his mind at ease on a subject which must otherwise have excited a multitude of suspicions. When the answers were prepared, Signor Coschich was ordered to depart; and instructions were given him to ship himself for Cyprus as speedily as possible. The courage of this man on the sea, nevertheless, was wonderful. He had crossed the Mediterranean, in the most perilous part of the year, in a boat no bigger than a nutshell; so that, on entering Larnarka roads, in Cyprus, seafaring men would scarcely credit their eyes. He had quarrelled with his guides on the road from Tripoli, exposing himself more than once to be assassinated.

Upon examining the different articles which Sir Sydney Smith had sent as presents, farther incongruities were discovered. The pistols were of Persian make: this was sending coals to Newcastle; for, when Turks ask for pistols from England, it is English pistols they want. There was an abah made of black satin, with Sir Sydney’s arms emblazoned on the shoulders on a white ground. He seems to have known as little of the dress of the country as he did of its politics or religion. A satin abah could no more be worn by a man in Syria, than a pair of chintz breeches by a man in England.

To have done with this subject altogether, it may be as well to say here how it terminated. Lady Hester, on her return to Mar Elias, sent her secretary to the emir Beshýr, who translated to him as well Sir Sydney’s letters intended for him as her ladyship’s answers, and then gave him the presents. The emir, as might be supposed, did not like to be lectured about his nephews, whom he had barbarously mutilated. But this was of little note in comparison with the mischief which a supposed league with European nations would do him in the eyes of the Porte; and, had it not been for Lady Hester’s prudence, he felt that his head would soon have been no longer on his shoulders. The presents he received; but, contrary to his usual custom of showing everything that he had, which was curious or foreign, to people who went to see him, these he never exhibited to a soul.

Lady Hester thought that the ebony dressing-box would best befit the Shaykh Beshýr’s wife, who was young and coquettish: but the shaykh, fearful of being mixed up in such a business, returned it immediately, and never mentioned the giver’s name.

Sir S. Smith never passed in Syria for a man of talent. He spent a good deal of money, and always carried his point by bakshyshes, or presents. Yet, with a squadron to back him, he failed in raising himself a reputation; and, as for a politician, he was considered a miserable one; for, when he interfered in Gezzàr’s war with the Emir Beshýr, and took that prince on board his ship, to save him from the hands of Gezzàr, he knew not that he was lending protection to a man who afterwards showed himself to be one of the most sanguinary tyrants of modern times. Gezzàr Pasha said, “Here is a man who comes and attempts to destroy in a day what I have been labouring to effect for fifteen years,” and he was right; for, now that the plan was consolidated, the expediency was manifest, and the emir and shaykh Beshýr were as completely under the thumb of the pasha as two servants; which, however abject a situation in the abstract, is what, by the nature of their tenure from the Porte, they were required to be.

Some persons will blame Lady Hester for disclosing a private correspondence to the Zäym; but, when Sir Sydney had said that he had written to Constantinople and to the emir, she knew it must soon be blown. Besides, from the strange rhodomontades of Signor Coschich, it was necessary to tell the truth, or to incur the suspicion of being an emissary and a spy.

On the 23rd of March, in the morning, we left Häyfa. The weather was cloudy, and a misty rain now and then fell. In four hours we arrived at Aatlyt, but here an accident happened which damped our joy for the evening. Turkish cavalry are accustomed, on all occasions of festivity, to show their feats of horsemanship, one of which is to fire off their carbines at each other in a full gallop. Just before reaching the encampment at Aatlyt, a soldier, among others who were merrily disposed, galloped up close to his comrade, when, firing his carbine, the wadding lodged in the shoulders of a handsome youth of fifteen, the son of the bin bashi, or colonel. I was immediately called to him, and found an ill-looking wound in the deltoid muscle, but it was superficial, and there was nothing serious to be apprehended. I bound up the wound, and the young man went the following morning to his mother at Nazareth, where, as I afterwards heard, he speedily recovered.[46]

Lady Hester was lodged in a cottage, to avoid the repetition of the inconveniences suffered at Häyfa. Whilst supper was cooking by Um Risk, a serpent, unperceived by her, entwined itself round her naked leg. I had seen other proofs of courage in this withered old woman, but was astonished most at this. She felt the serpent, and, looking down, calmly seized it by the neck, held it so until she had unwound the tail, and then killed it.

On the 24th we departed for Tontura, where we arrived in two hours. We observed several Arabs under tents pasturing their flocks. Here we experienced much civility from the shaykh. As our encampment, next day, was to be among the ruins of Cæsarea, camels laden with rice, bread, fuel, and other necessaries, were sent forward; for Cæsarea, a ruined place, could furnish nothing but water. From Tontura to Cæsarea proved a distance of two hours’ march.[47] We reached it on the afternoon of the 25th. As the night threatened to be very tempestuous, Lady Hester’s tent was planted under the vault of a ruin, our horses were stabled in caves, and every preparation was made to guarantee us from the inclemency of the weather. We experienced, in fact, a storm not less dreadful than that at Häyfa; and those who had not ventured to brave it on the former occasion, now, having no town to flee to, were much worse off. Our squadron of horse soldiers lay exposed to the wind and rain, without any covering but broken walls, and Signor Catafago was so terrified, that he wished himself safe back at his house in Acre. Ruins are very uncomfortable places to encamp in, under the most favourable circumstances, owing to the reptiles which are continually crawling about.[48]

The 25th continued too rainy to allow of resuming the journey, or even of examining the ruins among which we were encamped. One of the Hawàry soldiers took this favourable moment for being bled, having, as he told me, neglected to undergo his annual spring venesection before quitting Acre. Accordingly, he seated himself on a stone in the air; and, as is generally pretended to be done by the barbers of the country when they bleed a person, begged me to let the blood spout until I saw it change to a good colour.

On the 26th, we had fine weather, and struck our tents. We arrived at Um Khaled. The shaykh called to mind our passage three years before, and complimented me on my beard. The peasants were turned out of their cottages, compelled to remove every article of furniture, and moreover to sweep the cottages for our reception. I got my breakfast early, and, accompanied by a courier, proceeded on before to Mharrem. We passed the sandy tract called Abu Zabûrrah, which, to a traveller in an unprotected state, is not a place devoid of danger. A pasha named Ismael was stripped and robbed by the Arabs at this spot; and, in Gezzàr pasha’s time, a patrole was kept here. It was no slight proof of the good government of the reigning pasha, that the greatest security prevailed in every part of his pashalik.

At Mharrem, the shaykh immediately pointed out the sanctuary of the saint as the best place for lodging us; and indeed the building was more respectable than those which usually cover the sepulchres of the santons of Islamism. Lady Hester arrived soon afterwards. I renewed my acquaintance with such of the peasants as recollected us in our former journey. We now had an opportunity of judging of the moroseness of men, and of their disposition to inflict pain where they can. On the former occasion we paid largely for every thing, but were served reluctantly, and were by no means well treated: whereas now, when every article was furnished by requisition, the utmost alacrity and apparent good-will was demonstrated, although they received nothing but blows in payment.

It seemed an act of oppression, on first thoughts, thus to oblige a small village to furnish nearly 200 persons and their animals with food and lodging, for one or more nights; yet, in reality, it was less so than it appeared to be. The reason is this. Every village shaykh has remitted to him so much of the imposts falling on it, in consideration of the number of persons who may be likely to be guests, from government orders, or otherwise, during the year; and, in consideration of this, he is bound to receive and entertain them for the space of three days. In this way, that noble institution of the menzel or alighting-house is maintained throughout Syria, (where I have often profited by it,) and elsewhere in Turkey, as I have been informed: in consequence of which a traveller, who is a stranger, rides boldly up to the house of the shaykh, and, in nine cases out of ten, is entertained for the night, and sent off next morning with a prayer for his safety, without the cost of a farthing.

The next day we reached Jaffa in three hours. One hour from El Mharrem is the river Awgy. The news of our approach had reached Jaffa already, and curiosity was awake, as I could perceive, among the inhabitants. The town-gate was thronged with spectators. This gate, if I recollect rightly, the only one, was handsome, and highly ornamented with a diversity of colours fantastically painted in arabesque. The governor had a small kiosk, or pavilion, near it: and, seeing me pass from his window, requested my presence the moment of my arrival. He received me with a very distant air, recalling to mind, in all probability, the refusal of his present, which refusal he recollected to have occurred through me in Mr. B.’s name, three years before.

When I told him I wished immediately to have quarters assigned for us, he gave me one of his archers, with a command to turn out any family at my pleasure. Knowing, however, the delay and distress that always attended these measures of force, I preferred going to the Latin monastery, but found it too small for all of us. The Greek monastery (where I had lodged before) was more spacious, and I here took six rooms opening on the terrace that overlooks the port. The English consul’s house had been previously prepared for Lady Hester, and was at once airy and agreeable. She arrived in due time (on her gray mare), and rode strait to Signor Damiani’s, who received her in the same gold-laced cocked hat which afterwards so much excited the ridicule of her royal highness the Princess of Wales and of Signor Bergami.

Jaffa was at this season very dull, as the pilgrims had already passed to Jerusalem. Their influx and return from that place, I have already said, are the chief support of the inhabitants; for the trade is little without them.

Much bustle occurred a day or two afterwards, in consequence of the arrival of a courier from Egypt on his way to Constantinople, to announce the defeat of the Wahabys and the imprisonment of Abu Nukta, their chief. It was reported that there was among these Wahabys a valiant maiden, named Gâly, who performed prodigies of valour.

Mohammed Aga, the governor, was ordered by the firman of the pasha to accompany Lady Hester to Ascalon; a mission he would willingly have avoided, as it cannot be supposed he liked her ladyship, who had before treated him with such contempt: nor did she now pursue more conciliatory measures; for never was she known to bend to any man, neither had Mohammed aught in him to secure her esteem.

He was astute, false, and insinuating. Bought, as a Mameluke, by the tyrant Gezzàr, he had, like those who had survived of that number, been elevated to considerable situations, in which the present pasha had continued him; but, like them, without relations or domestic connections to chain him to the soil, he lived but to enrich himself. Hence he was often guilty of rapine and oppression; and the energy of his administration, for which he was sometimes praised, was nevertheless founded in cruelty. The thief was punished with the loss of the offending hand, the libertine with the severest castigations; yet he was not disposed to set bounds to the indulgence of his own depraved tastes and propensities. He was married, nevertheless, to the daughter of that Kengi Ahmed, whom formerly we saw as governor of Jerusalem, which post he still filled. With all this, Mohammed Aga was reputed a warlike chieftain, and was thought by some as likely to succeed the present pasha.

Signor Damiani, the English vice-consul, had a budget full of anecdotes tending to prove how perfidious and how base the governor was. I noted down two; one as serving to show how much the simplicity of the Mahometan worship had been perverted; such perversions being common in the course of time to all institutions. He happened to be greatly taken with a handsome horse belonging to a chorister in one of the mosques. The chorister liked his horse, and would not sell it, which refusal Mohammed Aga pretended not to resent, and seemed to have forgotten the matter. On the first day of Ramazán, the new moon was not visible, upon which the chorister deferred the commencement of his fast until the morrow. Mohammed Aga wanted nothing more than a pretext to ruin him, and this seemed a good one. He sent for the singer, reproached him loudly for his relaxed principles and his breach of public and divine ordinances, inasmuch as the new moon had been seen by several persons on the prescribed day; fined him in a large sum of money; and confiscated his goods and possessions, among which, of course, was the horse.

On another occasion, a man offended him grievously. He pretended to have forgiven him; and a few days afterwards, as the offending Turk was sitting under a tree, a servant of the governor’s drew his pistol and shot him. The servant made a pretence of hiding himself for three or four days, and then resumed his situation in his master’s family as if nothing had happened.

We remained at Jaffa until the 30th of the month; and, on the last day of March, set off for Ascalon, our party being now increased by the addition of Mohammed Aga, Abu Nabût, and suite, and by Signor Damiani, together with a host of cooks, and loads of shovels, pickaxes, baskets, and whatever was necessary for excavating the soil. The country from Jaffa assumed a rural appearance, resembling the cultivated parts of England; the undulating soil, covered with wheat in leaf, barley in ear, and high grass, gave proofs of its fertility. No part of Syria is so beautiful; which manifests how erroneous is the argument of Gibbon, who founds on the supposed barrenness of Palestine, compared with its former population, a doubt of the authenticity of the bible.

In four hours’ time we arrived at Ebna, a village not less miserable than those to the north of Jaffa. Three hours’ farther was a hamlet, El Lubben or Lubden. Leaving this, with the village of Haremy on our right, we arrived, in one hour and a half, at Mejdel, a populous burgh,[49] whose shaykh bore the name of Shubashy, which is a Turkish word, indicating a degree higher than simple shaykh. Ascalon was no more than a league off, and we proceeded thither on the morrow. Arrived at our destination, our tents were fixed in the midst of the ruins, whilst a cottage was fitted up for Lady Hester at the village of El Jura, just without the walls of Ascalon. Orders were immediately sent to the surrounding villages to furnish workmen, in gangs, at the rate of 150 per day, for the excavations. But, before I narrate the proceedings which took place, it will be necessary to say a few words on the history of this once celebrated city, and on the revolutions to which it has been subject; now, last of all, to be the scene of operations of a singular and surprising nature, if it be considered that Mahometan governors were to act under the commands of a helpless Christian woman, in a barbarous and fanatic country.

CHAPTER VII.

History of Ascalon—Ruins—Encampments—Forced labour of peasants—Excavations—Fragments of Columns—Discovery of a mutilated statue—Apprehensions of Signor Damiani—Lady Hester orders the statue to be destroyed—Excavations abandoned—Lady Hester’s narrative of the motives and results of the researches—Auditing accounts—Mohammed Aga a fatalist—Return to Jaffa—Derwish Mustafa Aga and Lady Hester’s black female slave—Patients—Mohammed Bey; his story—Return of Lady Hester’s servant Ibrahim from England—Khurby, or the Ruins—Remains near that spot—Return to Acre—Altercation with muleteers—Excavations at Sayda—Reflexions on researches for hidden treasures.

The antiquity of the city of Ascalon is clear from the sacred writings; for we read of it in the book of Joshua,[50] the book of Kings,[51] and elsewhere; so that as early as nineteen hundred years before Christ it was known as one of the chief places of Palestine. It became afterwards a part of the Assyrian, then of the Persian, monarchy; and was subdued, together with all Syria, by Alexander the Great. After his death, it fell to the lot of Ptolemy Lagus, king of Egypt; and by Antiochus the Great it was incorporated with the empire of Syria. In Strabo[52] it is said that “Ascalon is a city not spacious, and built in such a sunk situation as to seem to be in a hole.” William of Tyre informs us that “it resisted our arms for fifty years and more, after Jerusalem had fallen; until, in the year of our Lord 1194, on the 12th of August, after a bloody siege, it was surrendered to king Baldwin by its Saracen inhabitants.”

Herod, king of the Jews, respected Ascalon as the native place of his family; and, from this circumstance, and from the splendid baths and peristyles which he built there, he obtained the appellation of Herod the Ascalonite. William of Tyre informs us that “this city, from the inaptitude of the sea-coast, neither has nor ever had a harbour or safe anchorage for shipping.”[53] Abulfeda, quoting from El Azýz, and speaking from his own knowledge, says: “Ascalon is a city on the sea-shore, in which there are vestiges of antiquity:” and again,—“It adjoins the sea on a bank; it is one of the most illustrious places of the plain on the sea-shore, and has no port.” What was the fate of the city from this time I have no documents to show, excepting that it is probable it fell gradually to decay, until the time when it was visited by d’Arvieux, a Frenchman, who gives us the following account of these ruins in 1659. “We departed from Gaza, about eight in the morning. We kept the shore as far as the ancient city of Ascalon. It is situated on the sea, in a country level and very fertile. The prodigious thickness of the walls and towers, which are all fallen, and which have filled the ditches, show it to have been formerly one of the strongest places in Palestine. It is at present as ruinous as Cæsarea or St. Jean d’Acre. There are only a few spaces of wall still existing towards the sea, in which are embedded (endossés) several columns of granite, or, as the vulgar fancy, cast stone. This city has no port, nor any houses sufficiently entire to be habitable, so that it is wholly abandoned.... We found nothing remarkable in it but an old well half filled up, and constructed in the style of Joseph’s well in the castle at Cairo: and, towards the middle of the city, seven or eight pillars of marble still standing upon their pedestals, which appeared to be the remains of a temple. We quitted the sea-shore, in leaving this desolated city, and took the road to Rama, over a most beautiful and highly cultivated country.” I may add that, so late as thirty years ago, there was enough of the great mosque standing to afford a dwelling to a shaykh of Barbary.

The city of Ascalon, as we found it, differed little from the account of d’Arvieux, excepting that no marble columns, or portions of an edifice, were now standing; and those which formerly strewed the ground had, for the most part, been carried away.

Palmyra is an instance how long structures will remain when left to the slow effects of time and natural decay. It is to the hand of man that they generally owe their greatest dismemberment: and, thus Ascalon was stripped of all that was useful in it to rebuild Jaffa and Acre. Its neighbourhood to the sea-shore afforded great facilities of conveyance: and blocks ready cut, columns ready shaped, and slabs of marble that required but to be laid, would not be spared when so near at hand. Hence rose the seraglio of Gezzàr, the mosque, and the public baths; where granite, prophyry, and marble, are huddled together in rich but bungling confusion. When that which lay on the surface had been carried off, they proceeded to dig, and their labour was rewarded by the discovery of materials equally useful, although less easy to come at.

According to a rough calculation, from the time required to make the circuit of the walls of Ascalon on horseback, its circumference is two miles. The shape is somewhat triangular, and the side towards the sea is a little longer than the others. The assertion of Strabo, that the city is built as if in a hole, and Abulfeda’s account that it stands on a bank, may be reconciled on an actual view of the spot. For, when approaching it from the east, hillocks of drifted sand, accumulated round the walls, have obtained an elevation almost equal to them, so that the ground within the walls is lower than that without. But, towards the sea, the plain closes abruptly in a precipice of some height; so that, viewed from that quarter, Ascalon may even be said to stand high. The coast runs nearly north-east and south-west. The wall on the sea-side rises almost from the water’s edge, and is intended to prop the crumbling precipice. It was probably raised on an emergency; for it is composed of rude masonry, where shafts of granite columns are stuck in, so as to represent at a distance the cannon of a ship or the artillery of a fortress. At certain distances on the walls were towers, which, by the parts that still remain, appear to have been of good masonry. The walls themselves are five or six feet thick.[54]

Ascalon is mentioned by Strabo as famous for its onions, and it enjoys at this day a reputation for the same root, which is considered by the neighbouring peasants as a delicious article of food.

Within the ruins, all was desolation. Fragments of pillars lay scattered about, and elevations here and there showed how many more might lie concealed beneath the surface of the soil.