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Title: Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope, Volume 1 (of 3)

Author: Lady Hester Stanhope

Editor: Charles Lewis Meryon

Release date: November 30, 2023 [eBook #72270]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Henry Colburn

Credits: Emmanuel Ackerman, Karin Spence and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, VOLUME 1 (OF 3) ***


  [Illustration:

    Day & Haghe, Lith^{rs} to the Queen

  SHIPWRECK NEAR THE ISLAND OF RHODES

  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. I.

                                LONDON:

                       HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
                       GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

                                 1846.




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




                                  TO

                        JOHN SCOTT, ESQ., M.D.

         OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, AND FELLOW OF THE ROYAL
                   COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON,

             A GENTLEMAN AT ONCE EMINENT FOR HIS EXTENSIVE
                 ACQUAINTANCE WITH ORIENTAL LANGUAGES,
                   AND FOR HIS CLASSICAL KNOWLEDGE,

                     THESE VOLUMES ARE INSCRIBED,

                        BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND,

                                                  THE AUTHOR.




                               PREFACE.


The TRAVELS now presented to the public are intended to complete
the MEMOIRS of Lady Hester Stanhope; and the author trusts that
the interest excited by his former work--shown by the rapid sale
of an extensive first edition, and the demand for a second--will
be manifested equally for this. Indeed, he cannot doubt that the
reader will be anxious to learn by what steps an unprotected woman
progressively gained so marked an ascendency in a strange land, the
language and the usages of which were altogether contrary to her own,
whereby the attempt became so much the more difficult. As, then, the
MEMOIRS embraced a period of about fifteen years, in which the author
endeavoured to trace the causes that led to the “decline and fall” of
her ladyship’s somewhat visionary empire in the East, the TRAVELS will
now take up her history from the time she quitted England, and, by a
faithful narrative of her extraordinary adventures, show the rise and
growth of her Oriental greatness.

A distinct line may at once be drawn between this and other books of
peregrinations in the East. The reader will here find no antiquarian
research, no new views of the political relations of sects and parties:
but these Travels exhibit what others do not--a heroine who marches at
the head of Arab tribes through the Syrian desert; who calls governors
of cities to her aid, whilst she excavates the earth in search of
hidden treasures; who sends generals with their troops to carry fire
and sword into the fearful passes of a mountainous country, to avenge
the death of a murdered traveller; and who then goes, defenceless and
unprotected, a sojourner amidst the people on whom these chastisements
had fallen.

This work embraces a period reaching from the thirty-sixth to the
forty-third year of Lady Hester’s life. It fills up an interval so
far important, as connecting her residence with Mr. Pitt and the
occurrences which marked the last fifteen years of her existence; and
enables those, who may be disposed to blame or applaud her conduct, to
speak at least upon certain grounds: and, though her enemies may find
eccentricities enough to satisfy their inclination to ridicule her, her
friends will dwell with pleasure on such of her actions as must, in the
eyes of unbiassed persons, excite praise; whilst the undoubted marks
of a superior mind, which, every now and then, show themselves, will
bring into evidence the talents and energy which she inherited from her
ancestor, the great Lord Chatham.

Some apology may seem necessary for the paucity of incidents in the
first six or eight chapters. Twice had the author to lament the loss
of what is most precious to a traveller, supposing him to have noted
down from day to day the occurrences of his route. Up to the early
part of the year 1812 the narrative is compiled from letters, written
to friends in England, and from notes fortunately preserved. All that
is subsequent to May, 1812, is copied from a journal kept unbroken
for four or five years, during an intercourse which afforded the same
facilities for observation as he enjoyed in preparing his former work.

On the criticisms which were passed on that work, the “Memoirs of Lady
Hester Stanhope,” he feels bound, in justification of himself, to make
a few observations. Unacquainted with the motives which actuated the
writers of them, the public will, perhaps, when these are explained,
entertain a different opinion from what, otherwise, it might be led to
do.

Mr. Pitt, during his long administration, was surrounded by many
coadjutors, who were raised by his patronage and favour to high places
in the government. His generous nature led him to tolerate in some of
them a line of conduct based on principles and motives less pure than
his own. These men, in becoming the channel of advancement to others
of an inferior class, created a host of followers, who thought it,
and, where they survive, may think it still, a party duty to support
the reputation of those persons to whom they owed their advancement.
Mr. Pitt’s niece and companion, Lady Hester, endowed with a finer
discrimination of character than her uncle, and enabled from her
position as a bystander to take a just measure of the abilities and
motives of those who seemed to be acting with him, could scarcely bear
with the stupidity of some, the duplicity of others, and the baseness
of almost all. Gifted by nature with a most retentive memory, so as to
be able to compare men’s actions and assertions from time to time, just
in her appreciation of their designs, fearless of their anger and a
match for their ridicule, disclaiming all compromise with insincerity
and vice, she aimed with an unerring hand the shafts of her disdain at
all those whose vices and perfidy called forth her execration.

What then must have been the rage of these persons, who, finding their
patrons unmasked in conversations related with strict fidelity, had
no resource left them, but, where the narration was unimpeachable, to
malign the narrator! All this is well understood by the higher classes
of society in England: they may read the critic’s vituperation, but
they know why he is enraged, and they leave out his observations in the
estimate which they form of the author’s claim to their attention: but
the mass of the public, who are less in the secret, pity the author, or
perhaps even join in the ridicule against him.

Let those, therefore, who are open to conviction, correct their
judgment and be undeceived. Let them be persuaded that, although the
adherents of a Heliogabalus, of a versatile, or an insincere minister,
a pompous Lord, or an intriguing Duchess, may for a time be successful
in their abuse, truth at length will prevail, and the indignation of a
noble-minded, upright, and virtuous woman, become matter of history.

Among a host of critics, the Memoirs have been pronounced by some of
another class as devoid of artistic excellence. The author’s total
abnegation of self, and his steady adherence to the rule he had laid
down of shadowing the background on which he stood, in order to throw
greater light on the more prominent figure in front, seems to have
availed him nothing! Surely these critics might have had the sense to
perceive that the author, if he had been so disposed, could have given
to himself a much more flattering costume, and have arrayed himself
in a garb of Eastern glitter as imposing as the most vivid fancy
could desire. What was to prevent him from describing his familiar
visits to the great people of the country, and the intercourse which
he enjoyed with many of them--from recounting his pleasant adventures
with lords and princes--from enumerating the ambassadorial gaieties of
Constantinople, the frivolities of Smyrna, Cairo, and other cities,
in which he bore his share--or from colouring incidents calculated to
impose on the reader, too far removed from the scene of action to be
able to decide what degree of credit was to be given to them? But it
was not the author’s purpose to divert attention from the heroine of
his story; and in all the adventures which the reader may peruse in the
following pages, he wishes his own share in them to be lost sight of,
excepting where his presence is necessary for making the description
complete.

One word more remains to be added as to the credit which is to be
attached to what Lady Hester Stanhope says of herself and others. The
author of this narrative can conscientiously affirm that, after an
intimate knowledge of her ladyship’s character for upwards of thirty
years, he was always impressed with the highest respect for her
veracity. Indeed, her courage was of too lofty a nature ever to allow
her to condescend to utter a falsehood.

   May 1, 1846.




                            ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                VOL. I.

    Shipwreck near the Island of Rhodes (see p. 99)     _Frontispiece_.

    Giorgio Dallegio, page to Lady Hester (see p. 131)               xx

    A Drùze Aakel                                                   334

    Drûze Women                                                     345


                                VOL. II

    Lady Hester Stanhope’s Arrival at Palmyra
      (see p. 130)                                      _Frontispiece_.

    Village of Yabrud                                                42

    Bridge over the Orontes                                          47

    Calat El Medyk                                                  236

    Convent of Mar Elias                                            309

    Interior of a Syrian Cottage                                    313

    A Greek Monk                                                    333

    Interior of a Greek Sepulchre                                   340

    Various Sarcophagi hewn out of rocks                            346

    Meshmushy                                                       375

    Costume of the Drûzes                                           377

    Geser Behannyn                                                  381


                               VOL. III.

    Portrait of the Author in his Bedouin Dress         _Frontispiece_.

    Ras el Ayn, Bâlbec                                               21

    Statue found at Gebayl, and presented to Lady Hester
    Stanhope by the Prince of the Drûzes, now in the
    possession of the Earl of Lonsdale                               73

    Princess of Wales’s Tent                                        127

    Statue found at Ascalon                                         162

    Palace of the Shayhh Beshýr at Muktara                          319

    English Consul’s House, at Larnaka                              363




                               CONTENTS

                                OF THE

                           THE FIRST VOLUME.


                              CHAPTER I.

    Departure from England--Danger of
    Shipwreck--Gibraltar--Malta--City of La Valetta--Public
    Edifices--General aspect of the Island--Commerce--Character
    of the Inhabitants--Island of Goza--Mansion of the Governor
    at San Antonio occupied by Lady Hester Stanhope--English
    Visitors--Lady Hester resolves on an Eastern Tour                 1


                              CHAPTER II.

    Zante--Earthquakes--Patras--The Marquis of Sligo joins Lady
    Hester’s party--Corinth--Visit of the Bey’s harým to Lady
    Hester--Indiscreet curiosity--Women of the East--Isthmus of
    Corinth--Kencri--The Piræus                                      22


                             CHAPTER III.

    Athens--Residence there--Accommodations--Researches of Lord
    Sligo--Embarkation for Constantinople--Sunium--Temple of
    Minerva--Zea--The Hellespont--Greek Sailors in a gale of
    wind--Erakli--Constantinople                                     38


                              CHAPTER IV.

    Procession of the Sultan to the Mosque--A Dinner
    party--Therapia--Visiters there--Lady Hester seeks
    permission to reside in France--Turbulence of the
    Janissaries--Pera--Visit to Hafez Aly--Captain
    Pasha--Mahometan patients attended by the Author--Princess
    Morousi--Disagreeable climate of Constantinople--Return
    Lord Sligo to Malta                                              50


                              CHAPTER V.

    The Author goes to Brusa--Situation of the
    city--Baths--Surrounding country--Residence at Brusa--Lady
    Hester mistaken for a youth--Women of Brusa--Return of the
    Author to Constantinople--Sudden death of Mr. Alexander,
    Lady Hester’s banker--Departure from Brusa--Residence
    at Bebec--Provisions--Excursion to the village of
    Belgrade--Throwing the Girýd--Fast of Ramadàn--Lady Hester
    resolves to winter in Egypt--Presents to the Author for
    professional attentions                                          73


                              CHAPTER VI.

    Departure from Constantinople--Prince’s
    Islands--Scio--Drunken Turk--Rhodes--Storm--The ship
    springs a leak--Servants dismayed--Land seen--The ship
    founders--Escape of the passengers to a rock--The sailors
    proceed to the Island of Rhodes--They return--The crew
    mutiny--The passengers gain the Island; and reach a
    hamlet--Our distressed situation--The Author departs for
    the town of Rhodes--Hassan Bey refuses assistance--The
    houses--Lady Hester ill of a fever--Lindo--Its port--The
    Archon Petraki--Reports that the party were lost--Lady
    Hester arrives at Rhodes--Town--Why Lady Hester chose the
    Turkish dress--Posting in Turkey--Mustafa                        95


                             CHAPTER VII.

    The Author sets out for Smyrna--Etienne--Port of
    Marmora--Arabkui--Oolah--Moolah--Aharkui--Ancient
    temple--Capu Rash--Sarcophagi--Chinny Su--River
    Meander--Ferry--Guzel Issar--Frank doctor--Ruins of
    Magnesia--Chapan Oglu’s officers--Baynder--Civility
    of the governor--Pressing a horse--Smyrna--Visit to
    the consul--Purchases--Renegado Welchman--Mustafa
    lays a plan to rob the Author--Departure for
    Rhodes--Eleusis--Scio--Stancho--Cavo Crio, the ancient
    Cidus--Ruins--Wall--Temple--Theatre--Stadium--Rhodes--New
    dresses--Servants cabal--Georgio Dallegio--Town of
    Rhodes--Embarkation in the Salsette frigate--Harbour of
    Marmora--Arrival at Alexandria                                  112


                             CHAPTER VIII.

    Reception at
    Alexandria--Inhabitants--Commerce--Fortifications--Battle
    of Abukír--Administration of
    Justice--Servants--Climate--Asses--Ruins of Old
    Alexandria--Lake Madiah--Passage boats--The boat with
    the Author and his party pursued and the passengers
    made prisoners--Their liberation--Bay of Abukír--Lake
    Edko--Porters--Rosetta--House of Signor Petrucci--Fleas and
    musquitoes--The town of Rosetta and environs--Sedentary
    habits of the Turks--Abu Mandur--Exportation of
    corn--Mashes, a kind of barge--Voyage up the Nile--Banks
    of the river--Rich soil--Villages--First sight of the
    Pyramids--Bulák--Cairo--Pasha and his suite--Lodgings--Lady
    Hester’s attire--Her visit to the Pasha--Mameluke
    riding--Horse-market--Opening of a mummy--French
    Mamelukes--Mr. Wynne--Dancing Women--The Pyramids--Narrow
    escape from drowning                                            135


                              CHAPTER IX.

    The Author returns to Alexandria, in company with Mr.
    Wynne and Mr. McNamara--Proceeds to Rosetta--Coast of
    the Delta--Deserted hamlet--Brackish water--Misery
    of the Peasantry--Mouth of Lake Brulos--Dews
    of Egypt pernicious--Brulos--Melons--Egyptian
    encampment--Quail-snares--Arrival at Damietta--Honours
    paid by the Pasha at Cairo to Lady Hester--Description
    of Damietta--Rice mills--Large oxen--Salt
    tanks--Papyrus--Literary Society--Abûna Saba--Lady Hester
    arrives at Damietta--Tents and baggage--Servants--Fleas,
    &c.--Departure from Damietta--El Usby--Sameness of
    scenery in Egypt--Naked children--Increase of the Delta
    denied--Martello towers--Iachimo hired--We sail for
    Syria--List of the party--French Mamelukes--Wages of
    servants in the Levant--Arrival at Jaffa--Customs in
    seaports--Costume of Egyptian women                             167


                              CHAPTER X.

    Loss of journals--Difficulties in learning
    Eastern languages--Signor Damiani; his
    simplicity--Porters--Residence at the Franciscan
    convent--Lady Hester’s dress--Not distinguishable from
    a Turk--Description of Jaffa--Buildings--Environs
    of Jaffa--Orchards--Mohammed Aga: his revenues: his
    expenditure--Pilgrims: their sufferings--Object of
    their pilgrimage--Departure for Jerusalem--Mr. Pearce
    leaves the party--Peasants reaping--Ramlah--Its
    monastery--Locusts--Lyd--Departure from Ramlah--Sober
    exhortation of a drunken priest--Mountains
    of Judæa--Abu Ghosh--Supper--Guards--Selim’s
    apprehensions--Cold--Brothers’s prophecy--Jerusalem--Lady
    Hester’s lodgings--Dragomans--Visit to the
    governor--Kengi Ahmed--Emir Bey; his history--Holy
    Sepulchre--Mount Calvary--Visit to the Jews’
    quarter--Bethlehem--Monastery--Bethlehemites reputed
    to be robbers--Horses--Accident to Mr. B.--Mufti’s
    dinner--Memorable places                                        188


                              CHAPTER XI.

    Departure from Jerusalem--Arabian characters of horses
    not to be trusted--Ramlah--Demand of the governor to
    inspect Lady Hester’s firmâns--Alarm of Selim, the
    Mameluke--Illness of Mr. Pearce at Jaffa--Janissary
    dismissed--Departure from Ramlah--Politic conduct
    of Dragomans--River Awgy--Harým--Inhabitants
    of Galilee--Scorpions, and other venomous
    reptiles--Um Khaled--Marble columns--Illness of
    Yusef the guide--Mountaineers of Gebel Khalýl and
    Nablûs--Cæsarea--Remains of the ancient city--Obstacles
    to exploring them--Ma el Zerky--Tontûra--Women
    carrying water--Beauty of the road--Aatlyt--Mount
    Carmel--Häifa--Carmelite convent--River Mkutta, the Kishon
    of Scripture--Arrival at Acre                                   221


                             CHAPTER XII.

    Increased illness of Yusef--Servants leave--Visit to Mâlem
    Haym, minister of the pasha--His history--Description
    of Acre--Visit to the pasha--Hospitality of
    M. Catafago--Disposal of time--Excursion to
    Nazareth--Franciscan convent--Residence and family of
    M. Catafago--Villages and lands farmed out by him--The
    Convent library--Arrival of Shaykh Ibrahim (Burckhardt),
    the celebrated traveller--Visit to the plain of
    Esdraëlon--Fûly--Battle of Fûly--Departure of Shaykh
    Ibrahim for Egypt--Excursion to Segery--Visit to the
    Shaykh--Bargain for a horse--Accident to Lady Hester            251

  [Illustration: GIORGIO DALLEGIO, PAGE TO LADY HESTER STANHOPE.]




                                TRAVELS

                                  OF

                         LADY HESTER STANHOPE.




                              CHAPTER I.

   Departure from England--Danger of
   Shipwreck--Gibraltar--Malta--City of La Valetta--Public
   Edifices--General aspect of the Island--Commerce--Character of
   the Inhabitants--Island of Goza--Mansion of the Governor at San
   Antonio occupied by Lady Hester Stanhope--English Visitors--Lady
   Hester resolves on an Eastern Tour.


The writer of this narrative had just completed his studies in
medicine, when he was engaged, through the recommendation of an eminent
anatomist and surgeon, to attend Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope, in the
capacity of her physician, on a voyage to Sicily; in which island it
was her intention to reside two or three years, for the benefit of her
health, that had suffered greatly from family afflictions.[1] Her
ladyship was accompanied by her half-brother, the Honourable James
Hamilton Stanhope, and his friend, Mr. Nassau Sutton.

On the 10th of February, 1810, we embarked at Portsmouth, on board the
Jason frigate, commanded by the Hon. James King, having under convoy
a fleet of transports and merchant vessels bound for Gibraltar. Our
voyage was an alternation of calms and gales. We were seven days in
reaching the Land’s End; then, having passed Cape Finisterre and Cape
St. Vincent, we were overtaken, on the 6th of March, by a violent gale
of wind, which dispersed the convoy, and drove us so far to leeward
that we found ourselves on the shoals of Trafalgar.

It was for some hours uncertain whether we should not have to encounter
the horrors of shipwreck, on that very shore where so many brave
sailors perished after the battle which derives its name from these
shoals: but, on the following morning, by dint of beating to windward,
under a pressure of sail, in a most tremendous sea, we weathered the
land, and gained the Straits of Gibraltar, through which we ran.

We anchored in the Bay of Tetuan, at the back of the promontory of
Ceuta, facing Gibraltar, on the African coast. Mount Atlas, the scene
of so many of the fables of antiquity, was visible from this point;
but its form was far from corresponding with the shape pictured by my
imagination, presenting rather the appearance of a chain of mountains
than of one single mount.

The wind abated the next day, when we weighed anchor, and entered the
Bay of Gibraltar. As we approached the rock, we were struck with the
grandeur and singularity of its appearance. Lady Hester and her brother
were received at the Convent, the residence of the lieutenant-governor,
Lieut. Gen. Campbell. Mr. Sutton and myself had apartments assigned to
us in a house adjoining the Convent, where we occasionally partook of
the hospitality of Colonel M’Coomb, of the Corsican Rangers, although
we dined and lived principally at the Governor’s palace.

I visited the fortifications in company with the Lieutenant-Governor
and Captain Stanhope.

As I had never before sailed to a latitude so southern as Gibraltar, I
was much struck with the difference of temperature into which we were
now transported. There were flowers in bloom, shrubs in leaf, and other
appearances of an early spring; and I hastened, the morning after our
arrival, to enjoy the luxury of bathing in the sea. These feelings of
pleasure at the change of climate were, however, greatly abated by the
attacks to which we were daily and nightly exposed from the musquitoes,
which entirely destroyed our rest. How impartial has Nature been in
all her dealings! Go where you will, if you sum up the amount of good
and evil, every country will be found to have about an equal portion
of both; and, in many cases, where Providence has seemed to be more
beneficent than was equitable, a little fly will strike the balance.

The French, about this time, had overrun almost the whole of Spain,
and parties of their cavalry had approached within three miles of the
fortifications of Gibraltar. Our excursions, therefore, beyond the
isthmus were exceedingly limited, and the only neighbouring places I
saw were St. Roque and Algeziras. Numbers of Spanish fugitives flocked
in every day. Those who bore arms were sent to Cadiz, and the rest
remained in security at Ceuta, a possession of the Spanish on the
African side of the Straits, ceded about this time to the English.

The Marquis of Sligo and Mr. Bruce,[2] both of whom afterwards joined
Lady Hester’s party, were also at Gibraltar. These gentlemen, with
several other Englishmen and many Spanish noblemen and officers, who,
with their families, had taken refuge here, constituted the society at
the Lieutenant-Governor’s house.

Gibraltar seemed to me to be a place where no one would live but
from necessity. Provisions and the necessaries of life of all kinds
were exceedingly dear. The meat was poor and lean; vegetables were
scarce; and servants, from the plenty of bad wine, were always drunk.
Out-door amusements on a rock, where half the accessible places are
to be reached by steps only, or where a start of a horse would plunge
his rider over a precipice, must be, of course, but few; although, to
horsemen, the neutral ground, which is an isthmus of sand joining the
rock to Spain, affords an agreeable level for equestrian exercise.

Soon after our arrival at Gibraltar, Captain Stanhope, Lady Hester’s
brother, received an order to join his regiment, the 1st Foot Guards,
at Cadiz; and Mr. Sutton departed for Minorca, whither his affairs led
him. Her ladyship, for whom a garrison town had no charms, was anxious
to pursue her voyage. Her state of health rendered the civilities, with
which she was overwhelmed, irksome to her; so that she readily availed
herself of an offer made by Captain Whitby,[3] of the Cerberus frigate,
to take her passage with him to Malta: and, on the 7th of April, we
sailed out of the bay, after a double risk, first of the boat’s being
swamped in getting on board, and then of the frigate’s falling on a
rock, by missing stays, in going out. We put into Port Mahon on our
way, and arrived at Malta on the 21st of April, after a passage of
fifteen days.

Few cities are more striking at first sight than La Valetta, the
capital of Malta. It happened to be Easter day; and the ringing of
bells and firing of crackers and guns, as we entered the harbour, about
ten in the morning, together with the varied appearance of English,
Moorish, and Greek ships, with their different flags mingled in a most
agreeable confusion, and reflected from a green water, transparent
to the bottom, at the foot of stupendous fortifications, altogether
rendered it one of the most cheerful and animating sights we had ever
beheld.

Lady Hester was expected at Malta, and the Governor and some other
persons of note invited her to take up her residence at their
houses. She accepted the invitation of Mr. Fernandez, the Deputy
Commissary-General. We landed in the afternoon. In walking through
the streets, I found myself surrounded by buildings, different in
style from any that I had yet seen, and jostled by a race of people,
sufficiently strange to attract my attention strongly. I now felt that
I was fairly out of England; which, while in Gibraltar, where the
population is so largely made up of English, and where the English
language is so generally spoken, I never could persuade myself to be
the case.

The residence of Mr. Fernandez was a large house, formerly the inn[4]
or hotel of the French knights: each nation, as it would appear,
having had a separate palace to lodge in. The sleeping rooms were
old-fashioned and gloomy, with windows like embrasures, almost twenty
feet apart.

Malta contains two principal cities and twenty-two villages, or
_casals_, as they are called. The old city, Civita Vecchia, was
the only one at the time the knights took possession of the island.
It is still called by the natives El Medina (the Arabic word for the
_city_.). It has no edifices worthy of notice but the palace of
the grand-master and the cathedral, in which are some paintings by
Matthias Preti. Its greatest curiosity is the catacombs. They are
very extensive, and contain what may be called excavated streets in
all directions. From these branch off corridors, wherein are formed
apartments containing tombs or sepulchres without number. These
catacombs have likewise served as asylums for individuals who fled from
religious persecution, and for the inhabitants generally, whenever
piratical descents were made on the island.

The modern city, Valetta, was founded in 1566; and, by the enthusiasm
of the islanders, who voluntarily aided in the works, it was finished
in 1571. It is entirely built of the calcareous stone of the rock on
which it stands. A piece of ground was given to each of the nations (or
_languages_, as it was usual to style them) for their respective
habitations or inns. The streets are built at right angles, and paved
with flat square stones, and the houses are spacious, lofty, and
with regular fronts, most of them having a balcony projecting over
the street. The object of the architect seems to have been, besides
beauty and strength, to gain shade and coolness. Hence the walls of
the houses are generally from six to twelve feet thick, and the floors
always of stone:[5] the doors are folding, and the windows down to the
ground. In every house of the principal inhabitants, in the summer,
there is a suite of rooms thrown open. Thus, by having five or six
rooms in a line, great coolness, and, if required, a current of air is
obtained, the value of which can be sufficiently appreciated by those
only who live in very hot countries. In most of the dwellings, the
ground floor is used for warehouses and shops; and the family resides
on the first floor, the bed-rooms and sitting-rooms being all on the
same level. Every house has a cistern, into which rain-water runs
from the roof. These roofs, formed of an excellent cement, are flat.
Besides the private cisterns, there are public reservoirs, and also a
fountain, the source of which is at the village of Diar Chandal, twelve
or thirteen miles from La Valetta whither the water is conveyed by a
subterranean aqueduct.

The public edifices most worthy of notice are the Palace of the
Grand Master, the Hotels or Inns of the different _languages_,
the Conservatory, the Treasury, the University, the Town Hall, the
Palace of Justice, the Hospital, and the Barracks, all built with
great simplicity. Indeed, La Valetta is much more striking from the
arrangement of the general mass of buildings than from the details of
any particular one.

The palace, once the residence of the Grand Master of the Knights of
St. John, is a magnificent edifice, in its general appearance somewhat
like Somerset House. It contains many splendid rooms and saloons, hung
with tapestry and damask; and there is a spacious hall, the walls of
which are curiously painted in commemoration of the naval victories
of the Christian knights over the Moslems. The grand staircase is of
remarkably easy ascent. In one part of the Conservatory is the Library:
in 1790, it had 60,000 volumes, although founded so lately as 1760:
its rapid increase was owing to a law, whereby the books of every
knight, at his decease, wherever he might be, were to be sent to Malta.
Adjoining to the library is a museum, which contains many interesting
objects.

The Hospital is a spacious edifice, open for the sick and wounded
of all countries. The knights were formerly bound to attend them,
and the utensils employed were almost all of silver, but of quite
plain workmanship; so that it might be seen that cleanliness, not
ostentation, was the purpose for which they were made.

The Church of St. John is a building, the imposing grandeur of which,
when I first saw it, made a strong impression upon me. It consists
of an immense nave, from which branch off, right and left, small
chapels, each adorned with richly sculptured altars, beautified with
everything that superstition can collect. The roof is arched, and
painted in fresco by Matthias Preti, the Calabrian. The walls are also
decorated with paintings by him and other masters: and the pavement
is one uninterrupted piece of mosaic of coloured marbles. Some idea
of its effect may be formed by imagining the pictures in the gallery
of the Louvre at Paris to be taken from their frames, sewed together,
and the spectator to be walking on them. The subjects are less lively,
certainly; because, in St. John’s church, each mosaic picture covers
the tomb of some Maltese knight, and consequently death and his emblems
form the principal features in it; but they are not the less beautiful.
The church of St. John was built by the Grand-Master, La Cassière: its
riches were, before their spoliation by the French, immense, from the
donations made every five years by the master and priors of the order,
and by the piety of individuals. The carved ornaments were all gilt
with sequin gold by the liberality of the Grand-Master, Coloner.

There is a pleasure garden, called the Boschetto, nearly south-west
of La Valetta, which is the only place in the island that has trees
of any size: they are arranged in symmetrical forms; and there are
several avenues and arbours of orange-trees, interspersed with cedars.
This garden is situate in a deep valley, where springs communicate a
refreshing coolness to the atmosphere.

The general appearance of the island of Malta is the most unpromising
for agriculture that can be conceived. Nowhere is the face of nature
so uninviting. A surface of stone has, however, by the effect of
industry, been powdered over with a soil, the general depth of which
is said to be from six inches to a foot: yet, on this scanty bed, grow
lemon, orange, pomegranate, fig, and other fruit-trees, besides corn,
cotton, lichen, kali, &c., in the greatest luxuriance. The vines spread
wherever they are trained, and the oranges acquire the richest flavour.

Cotton is much cultivated in Malta. That which I saw most frequently
was of a cinnamon colour when raw, and not like the white common
cotton. Corn is said to yield from 16 to 60 for 1. The fruits are of
exquisite flavour. Flowers are very fine, and I could not help fancying
the roses more fragrant than in my own country. Malta honey is highly
esteemed; but always remains in a liquid state.

The commerce of Malta consists in the exportation of oranges and
lemons, potash, lichen, orange-flower water, preserved apricots,
pomegranates, honey, seeds of vegetables, and Maltese stone. The
Maltese likewise export fillagree-work, in which the native artists
excel; also clocks and boilers. They import corn, cloth, fuel,
wine, brandy, &c. Ice brought from Sicily is likewise an article of
great consumption. The profits of their exports would not have been
sufficient to defray even the cost of the quantity of corn imported:
but, to meet this, they had, during the existence of the Order, the
prizes made at sea, whereas now they have the consumption of provisions
for victualling ships and a flourishing commerce.

The Maltese are very expert and daring seamen. In their speronaras,
which are boats without a deck, about thirty feet long, they are to be
seen in all parts of the Mediterranean; and, like the sailors of the
Kentish and Sussex coast, as their principal occupation is smuggling,
they cannot always wait to choose their weather to put to sea in.

Since the English had been in possession of the island, commerce had
flourished to a prodigious extent, as was demonstrated by the fleets of
merchantmen constantly floating in the spacious harbours, and by the
splendid equipages and sumptuous entertainments of the merchants, who
were living in a style of luxury suitable to princes.

Nor can I refrain from saying a few words on the almost regal
entertainments which the governor at this time gave. His palace,
well fitted for the display of a court, with its spacious halls and
vast saloons, was often the scene of banquets and festivities, which
I scarcely can hope to see again. The English, shut out from the
continent, resorted principally to the Mediterranean. Malta, when
we arrived there, was full of English and Neapolitan nobility, and
the officers of the fleet and of the garrison, vying in their showy
dresses with the foreign costumes intermixed with them, formed a
striking picture. Dinners of fifty or sixty covers were of every day’s
occurrence at the Governor’s palace, and the singular usage of a high
table, as in college-halls at the Universities, was not uncommon at
suppers after balls. On one occasion, it fell to my lot to hand a lady
of rank into the supper-room, and, taking a seat by her side, I found
myself directly opposite to the governor, separated by the breadth and
not the length of the table, with the Duchess of Pienne on his right
hand, Lady Hester on his left, and a string of Lords and Ladies and
Counts and Countesses on either hand. But Lady Hester had then recently
quitted England, and she had not yet begun her tirades against “doctors
and tutors,” nor possibly would have dared openly to intimate the
aristocratic superiority of rank over professional claims, as she did
afterwards: so she was delighted to see me enjoy myself, and pleased at
the attentions which the General showed me, in common with his other
guests.

The Maltese have never mixed with the nations which have held them in
subjection. Their original character, therefore, remains unchanged, and
their physiognomy indicates an African origin. Their hair is curly;
they have flattish noses, and turned-up lips, and their colour and
language are nearly the same as those of the people of the Barbary
States. It is a lingo of Italian grafted on Arabic. They are said to be
active, faithful, economical, courageous, and good sailors; but they
are Africans for passion, jealousy, vindictiveness, and thieving, being
likewise very mercenary. Their superstition in religious matters is
proverbial. By many English, however, who had resided among them for
some time, the Maltese were pronounced to be ferocious, ignorant, lazy,
passionate, revengeful, and, if married, jealous beyond conception.

Of their superstition an example occurred just before our arrival, in
the brutal manner in which they treated a British officer of the 14th
regiment of foot, who, whether purposely or unintentionally, offended
them by passing through the line of a procession on horseback, for
which supposed insult to their religion they dragged him from his
horse, and nearly tore him in pieces. I cannot, however, forbear to
observe that the lower orders did not appear to deserve the charge
of laziness; for the men were slim in their persons, quick in their
intellects, and of inconceivable activity. They are remarkably sober
in their diet: an onion or an anchovy, with dry bread, will serve
them for a meal. No people are more attached to their country than the
Maltese to their barren rock.

The upper classes of the inhabitants dress like the French: but the
common people wear a dress resembling that which is given to Figaro in
the opera, with this difference, that they have trousers instead of
tight breeches.

The women are small, and have beautiful hands and feet. When they go
out, they wear a black silk shawl, which covers their head and half the
face, and is very gracefully wrapped about their bodies; beneath this
is a coloured upper petticoat, and a corset or stomacher. They are fond
to excess of gold ornaments, which they estimate by value more than
taste: and their ears, necks, and arms are set off with rings, chains,
and bracelets. They wear shoe-buckles of gold or silver. Although very
brown, they are often handsome--I think generally so: and when I say
that they are in figure like English maid-servants, I do not mean to
disparage them by such a comparison, but rather to mark the plumpness
of their flesh and the roundness of their limbs. Children, until they
are six or seven years old, are seen rolling naked in the filth of the
streets.

The repasts of the Maltese are plentiful: they dine at twelve and
sup in the evening. When an entertainment is given, it is common to
have three complete courses, and from five to ten different sorts of
wine. They rise from table after dinner, taking coffee and liqueurs,
like the French. Both rich and poor indulge themselves with a siesta
after dinner, generally until half-past two or three o’clock. During
this time, the shops are shut; and, to judge by the stillness which
reigns in town and country from twelve to three o’clock, one would
suppose that the island was deserted. About half-past two the shops are
re-opened; as evening comes on, the population appears out of doors,
and all is gaiety and life.

There are some antient remains on the island, as the ruins of
Ghorghenti; of Hagior Khan; of a Greek house at Casal Zorrick; and of a
supposed temple of Hercules.

Goza, a smaller island, separated by a channel, four miles broad, from
Malta, has some tracts of pasture land on it, and supplies Malta with
cattle and fruit. There are some Cyclopean remains on this island
worthy of inspection. It has also an alabaster quarry near the village
of Zeberg, and a convent of Capuchin friars, about half a mile from
which is a grotto of neat workmanship hollowed out of the rock.

I was told that, in sailing round this small island, several remarkable
appearances are presented by its cliffs, which have some curious caves
in their sides. For two or three miles, they rise quite perpendicular
to the height of from 130 to 160 feet: yet so daring are the
inhabitants, that, for the sake of birds’ eggs or of fishing, they will
venture down their sides, stepping from crag to crag, where, to an
inexperienced eye, it would appear utterly impossible to find footing.

About five miles from La Valetta there was a country residence of the
Governor’s, called the palace of St. Antonio, in a village of the same
name. On our first arrival in the island, it was occupied by Lord and
Lady Bute: but, on their departure for England, on the 28th of May,
General Oakes,[6] who showed on all occasions great attention to Lady
Hester, politely offered it for her residence; we therefore quitted the
hospitable roof of Mr. Fernandez, and betook ourselves thither on the
1st of June.

This palace is a large irregular edifice, with a beggarly exterior,
rendered more ugly by a quadrangular steeple, which looks like a
belfry. It is constructed of the soft stone of the island, with stone
floors, and with ceilings and walls painted in fresco. The walls were
hung with some tolerable pictures. The entrance to it is by an avenue
of orange trees, the appearance of which, though richer, is much less
imposing than the lofty oaks and elms forming the avenues of our own
country. About half way down the avenue, which is two hundred and fifty
yards long, the road turns abruptly on the left into the courtyard of
the palace: this is spacious, and covered with vines to the right and
left. At the end of it two doors lead, one into the house and the other
into the garden.

The house contains some handsome and spacious rooms, but the absence of
carpeting and matting, rendered necessary by the heat of the climate,
gave an air of nakedness displeasing to the eye of an Englishman. I
always felt as if sitting in a stone kitchen. It was in the garden that
a proper estimate might be formed of the magnificence of the mansion,
which might vie, in horticultural beauties, with many of the first
gardens in Europe. In its plan it was not unlike the _orangerie_
at Versailles; but at Versailles, no care could ever give to the
orange, pomegranate, and lemon trees, half the vigour they showed here.
The walks were lined with myrtle hedges, ten feet high; and there was
a terrace with a colonnade, where the vines twined their branches in
wonderful profusion in every direction in which they were trained.
There were five hedges also of double oleander; and, as a proof of the
luxuriance of the growth of plants, the marshmallow, if left in the
soil, grew to the height of a filbert-tree.

The Governor, General Oakes, strove, in every way in his power, to
render Lady Hester’s stay at Malta agreeable to her. He visited her
daily at the palace of St. Antonio, and we were his constant guests at
the dinners and parties at his own residence.

At the beginning of July, in this year, an earthquake was felt by
several inhabitants of Malta. I should presume that habit renders
persons quicker at feeling these slight shocks; for, during many years
that I was up the Mediterranean, I was present when shocks were felt,
but never perceived them myself.

On the 29th of July, Mr. Adair and Mr. Hobhouse, returning from
Constantinople, landed at Malta, and, after performing a short
quarantine, were entertained at the Governor’s. Many British travellers
had visited Malta in the course of this year: for, besides those of
whom mention has already been made, there were several noblemen,
as also Mr. Thomas Sheridan, whose brilliant vivacity was not yet
diminished by the incipient malady under which he finally sunk, Mr.
Drummond, Mr. Fiott,[7] and Mr. B.; the last of whom, when he learned
that Lady Hester’s brother had been called away by his duties as a
soldier, undertook to escort her in the perilous journey which she had
resolved to make through European and Asiatic Turkey.

Lady H. Stanhope had begun to grow tired of Malta. The thermometer
generally stood as high as 85° Fahrenheit in the afternoon, and
the excessive heat had produced some disagreeable effects on her
constitution, so that she often complained of sickness of stomach,
feverish thirst, and loss of appetite; and was tormented with many
other painful sensations which the summer months commonly produce in
those, who, for the first time, visit hot countries.

Sicily was at that time threatened with a descent from the coast of
Calabria; where Murat, the new King of Naples, was in person urging on
the necessary preparations. Several English and Sicilian families had
hastily quitted the island to take refuge in Malta, and many fears were
entertained as to the probable issue of the enterprise. At all events,
the impending storm presented no temptations to Lady Hester to go
thither, and she accordingly changed her destination for the only part
of Europe which was now open to the English, namely, Turkey.

I have said that Mr. B. had undertaken to escort Lady Hester into
Greece. Her ladyship had brought out with her an English maid, named
Ann Fry, and a valet, named François, a native of Coblentz.

Lady Hester had been fortunate enough, on two former occasions, to
obtain a king’s ship to convey her from place to place: but it was vain
to hope that one could now be spared, when every vessel on the station
was so much needed to scour the Straits of Messina, and to prevent the
threatened landing in Sicily. Accordingly, she resolved on hiring a
merchant-vessel; and an American brig, bound for Smyrna, was almost
engaged, when it happened that the Belle Poule frigate of 38 guns,
commanded by Captain C. Brisbane, came into Malta from Corfu, to which
island she was to return; and the captain very politely offered to
convey her ladyship and her party to one of the Ionian Islands.

On the second of August, we embarked in the Belle Poule, and arrived
at the cruizing station, off Corfu, on the third day. We passed Corfu,
Little and Great Cephalonia, and Fano, and on the 8th anchored in the
bay of Zante.




                              CHAPTER II.

   Zante--Earthquakes--Patras--The Marquis of Sligo joins Lady
   Hester’s party--Corinth--Visit of the Bey’s harým to Lady
   Hester--Indiscreet curiosity--Women of the East--Isthmus of
   Corinth--Kencri--The Piræus.


A British ship of war is at all times a noble and interesting
spectacle, but, in the Mediterranean, she becomes a beautiful one
also. For a week together the sea was scarcely rougher than the bosom
of a lake; and the white dresses and straw hats of the sailors, the
cleanness of the decks, and the awning over our heads, combined with
the serenity of the weather, gave to our voyage the appearance of a
party of pleasure.

The view was truly enchanting, when, doubling the north-east point of
the island of Zante, we of a sudden discovered the bay and surrounding
country. At the foot of mountains which are seen on the right hand,
stand the white houses of the chief town, extending for a mile and
a half. Immediately behind, and elevated above them, olive-trees,
cypresses, and vineyards, meet the eye as it ascends: and the picture
is crowned by the castle which commands the town beneath it. From the
bottom of the bay a fertile plain extends four or five miles inland,
bounded in the distance by blue hills. On the left, a high mountain,
the ancient Etatus, corresponding with that on the opposite shore,
rises conically from its promontory, and, like the other, exhibits
at different heights white villas, olive woods, vineyards, and arid
patches of soil, left apparently neglected, or else inaccessible to the
plough of the husbandman.

Captain Brisbane went on shore the same evening; and the next morning
Mr. Foresti, the English consul, and an aide-de-camp from Major-General
Oswald, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Ionian Islands, came on
board: soon after which we landed, and residences were assigned to
us in the town. The civility and attention of Lady Hester’s host
may be judged of from the fact that, every morning, as soon as she
was visible, he waited on her, in full dress, to inquire if the
arrangements of the house, from day to day, were such as she approved.

When seen from the castle, from which almost the whole circuit of
the island can be taken in at one view, its features were not less
delightful than those I have before described. Hence it has obtained
the name of “the Golden Island,” “the Flower of the Levant,” &c. It
is composed of two chains of mountains to the north and south, with a
spacious vale between them. Looking down upon this vale, instead of
meadows of herbage and fields of corn, is beheld a luxuriant garden of
all the productions of warm climates. It is here that the currants grow
which are in such request in England. It was the vintage time at our
arrival, and I saw the process of drying them. The vines which produce
them grow no higher than gooseberry-bushes, and are not sticked. The
currants, when gathered, are spread in the open fields, on spots
smoothed for the purpose, near the vines, where they lie in square
layers about an inch thick, until they become shrivelled and blackened
by the sun, and assume the appearance which they have when they reach
us, a change which is effected in a few days. They are shovelled up
into sacks, and deposited in roomy places called seraglios, where
they are kept for about three years, and are then fit for exportation
and use. Undried, these grapes are about as large again as an English
currant, and in taste exceedingly luscious. They are exclusively the
production of this island, with the exception of those grown in the
Morea. Currants, with dried olives and olive oil, are the staple
commodities of Zante.

The fertility of this happy spot seemed inexhaustible, if a judgment
might be formed from the cheapness of its productions. Half a dozen
lemons cost only a halfpenny, and grapes, peaches, and other fruits
were to be had almost for plucking. Turkeys were sold at one shilling
each: geese, poultry, &c., in proportion. The wines of the island,
like those of Cephalonia, seemed to us to have little flavour: and it
is said that, to make them keep, the skins, jars, or casks in which
they are put, are smeared over with rosin. This is the case also up the
Archipelago; and custom alone can reconcile a stranger to the taste,
which at length becomes just tolerable.

Of the native Zanteots such as I saw may be described in a few words.
The women paint their faces excessively, particularly with white round
the mouth: they take great pride in long hair, and make the greatest
possible display of it. Among the higher classes, the unmarried females
are kept much shut up in rooms with blinds to the windows, and are
often betrothed without being seen by their future husbands. Among the
lower and middle orders there must be a greater freedom of conduct,
since many young creatures of considerable beauty were pointed out
to me as having attached themselves to English officers without the
sanction of the Church; whilst assassination, which formerly followed
almost inevitably an illicit connection, if discovered, from the hand
of some of the relatives of the female, was now rarely heard of.

Zante was, at this time, garrisoned by the 35th regiment of infantry:
it is a defensible place, owing to the strong castle above the town.
There was an Albanian regiment quartered in it, under the command
of Major (afterwards General) Church. Zante is proverbial for the
frequency of earthquakes. The Zanteots declare that they experience
them every week; we were there a fortnight and felt none. But the
fissures in the walls of almost every house bore sufficient testimony
to the severity of one which shook the island at the end of July; in
consequence of which some of the inhabitants were so much alarmed that
they slept for some time in tents, and many of the English officers
were among the number. It happened just after midnight. Those who spoke
of it to me described it as beginning somewhat like the trembling
that agitates a house in London when a carriage passes it rapidly.
The shocks lasted for half a minute, and were repeated several times.
Wine glasses danced off the table on which they were standing, and
the houses and walls seemed almost to reel: yet, when all was over,
nothing was to be seen but here and there a ceiling peeled off, and
irregular cracks through the stone walls. Many ludicrous situations
arose from the terror in which persons left their beds; as few had time
or inclination to stop to put on their clothes before they ran out into
the streets.

Captain Brisbane made no stay at Zante, but sailed to rejoin his
squadron. General Oswald displayed much courtesy in his attentions to
Lady Hester during the fortnight she was on the island; and, when she
thought proper to depart, he furnished her with a government transport,
in which we left Zante for Patras on the 23rd of August. A felucca
was hired to accompany us, into which it was proposed to disembark
at Patras, in case (which was probable) the Turkish governor of the
castle at the entrance of the Gulf of Lepanto should refuse admission
to an English vessel. We landed at Patras on the following evening. Mr.
Strani, the English consul, gave us a most hospitable reception in his
own house.

A valley, about a mile in width, runs from the shore of the Gulf of
Lepanto to a chain of mountains. The valley is covered with vineyards
and olive-trees: and, at the verge of it, near the foot of the hills,
stands Patras, the ancient Patra. The houses, built of mud, are
despicable without and comfortless within. Here and there I observed
a mosque. Melancholy indeed was the change from the fine streets of
La Valetta to the mud habitations of Patras! Still I felt that I was
in Greece, and the language and appearance of the inhabitants had
something magical in it. My bosom beat with emotion as I now trod, for
the first time, the soil of a people, in studying whose language and
habits the chief part of fifteen years of my early life had been--I
still think wisely--expended.

Mr. B. and myself, having some leisure here, resolved to try the hot
bath. We were exceedingly overpowered by the heat, and experienced the
feelings common I believe to all those who enter a _hamám_ for
the first time, namely, a sense of suffocation so great as to alarm
ourselves and the bather. But those who overcome this first impression
never fail to like the process better on each succeeding experiment.

We found at Patras an English woman married to a Greek sailor, and
through her means her husband recommended himself to Lady Hester’s
notice as a servant, and he was hired to accompany us to Athens.

Our two German servants had a quarrel when at this place, and sallied
forth to fight with sabres. François had served in the Austrian,
French, and English armies. As they were exceedingly vociferous, many
persons assembled as spectators, and prevented their coming to blows.

The Marquis of Sligo had been cruizing some months in the Mediterranean
Sea, in his yacht, a commodious vessel of considerable burden. He
was at this time on a visit to Veli, pasha of the Morea, who resided
at Tripolizza;[8] but no sooner did he hear of Lady Hester’s arrival
at Zante, than he remanded his vessel to Malta, and hastened towards
Patras to meet her. Mr. B. had written to him from Patras, and the
letter found him at Corinth; where he took a boat, and arrived on the
evening of the 27th, just as we were on the point of embarking in a
felucca for Corinth, and he immediately joined Lady Hester’s party. We
set sail by night; and, passing the spot where once stood a temple of
Neptune, we entered the Gulf of Lepanto or of Corinth. We proceeded up
the gulf, landing to take our meals; for here the delightful bowers,
formed by nature of myrtle, oleander, laurel, arbutus, and other
shrubs, invite one to live in the open air. By night we slept on deck;
the cabin, with a tilted awning toward the stem, being reserved for her
ladyship, who suffered much from the heat.

We arrived at Corinth on the 7th of September. It blew so fresh on our
reaching the landing-place, that we had much difficulty in getting
on shore. Corinth is at some little distance from the strand. Here
we made a stay of three days. The weather was so hot that Lord Sligo
and myself suspended our beds in an arbour formed by vines, and there
slept. Corinth is a miserable town, and has not much to interest the
traveller in actual remains of edifices, although its desolate and
altered state appeals very forcibly to his recollections. A fragment
only of one Doric temple remains, affording no specimen of that order
of architecture which derives its name from the city. One might
question the existence even of a city of such celebrity, if there were
not here and there some traces and fragments of buildings, which just
satisfy doubt but not curiosity. Corinth is surrounded by marshes,
which render it most unwholesome; and the plague was said to depopulate
it frequently. I paid a visit to the son of the bey, or governor: he
received me very civilly, gave me a pipe and coffee, and permitted me
to view his apartments: he begged some Peruvian bark of me, which he
seemed to hold in great estimation.

The bey himself, an elderly man, sent his harým, consisting of his wife
and about a dozen young females, her slaves, to visit Lady Hester. Lord
Sligo, Mr. B., and myself, were sitting with her ladyship at the time;
but it was intimated to us by the interpreter, that women could not
enter whilst men were present. On an occasion so tempting, none but
the over-fastidious will blame us for resolving to hide ourselves in
an adjoining room, and obtain, through the crevices of the wainscot, a
sight of these beauties of Corinth: for we naturally supposed that a
man whose will was law throughout the province would have selected only
beautiful females as the companions of his leisure hours.

As soon as we had retired, the ladies were introduced, and by the
engaging manner with which Lady Hester welcomed them, they became in a
few moments quite familiar with her. They unveiled their faces, threw
off their ferigees,[9] and placed themselves on the sofa, in attitudes
apparently negligent, although of studied grace, as best fitting
to display their figures, their jewels, and the long tresses that
contrasted with the dazzling clearness (for I will not say whiteness)
of their complexions. The conversation was carried on by signs and
gestures; and, naturally inquisitive as females in all countries are on
matters of dress, they began to examine Lady Hester’s, and to compare
it with their own. Unconscious that the eyes of men were watching
them, their naked feet, and sometimes their bosoms, Βαθυκολπαι, from
the nature of a Turkish dress, were exposed. At length we relieved
Lady Hester from the unpleasant situation in which she found herself
unintentionally placed, both on our part and hers, by a half smothered
laugh, which acted like an electric shock on the Moslem ladies; for,
resuming their veils and ferigees in dismay, they suppressed their
gaiety at once, and made earnest signs to know what the noise was.
Our position was critical: for so surely as we had been discovered
would the bey have endeavoured to do us some mischief. Her ladyship
saw by their seriousness how much they were offended; she persisted in
affirming it was nothing, and succeeded in pacifying them; but they
very soon afterwards went away, and no doubt agreed that it would be
best to hush up their suspicions, lest the bey’s jealousy might be
excited to their own detriment.

I will here anticipate the course of my narrative, and put down a
few observations about Turkish women, which are the result of seven
years’ residence among them; observations, too, made under advantageous
circumstances, from the frequent occasion I had to pay visits to
harýms, in my capacity of physician.

A female in the Levant generally arrives at puberty about the age
of twelve years, and is seldom married later than fifteen; often at
twelve or thirteen, or even earlier. It is a mistake to suppose that
Mahometans consider what the French call _embonpoint_ as an
essential quality of beauty: their taste I believe to be the same with
that of men of other nations, who have given the matter a thought; and
rounded limbs and a plumpness which conceals the bones, are with them,
and I conceive elsewhere, the requisites for a perfect form.

From the fortieth day after birth, when the mother makes her appearance
abroad, children in the East are carried to the bath, and continue,
weekly, to frequent it for the rest of their lives. This custom, it
is supposed, enervates their frames, renders the muscles flaccid, and
prematurely brings on old age: but I differ entirely from those who
assert this; convinced as I am that a woman of thirty-five in the East
is in as good preservation as a woman of the same period of life in
England or France. To say nothing of the antient Greeks and Romans,
from whom we have the finest models of female beauty, and who made as
frequent use of the bath as Turks now-a-days do, I would assert that
travellers have been deceived by appearances; and, forgetting for the
moment that no artificial means are used in the East to conceal the
wearing effects of child-bearing, and the natural decay of the female
frame, they have imagined that they saw no where the same graceful form
which distinguishes their own fair countrywomen, without considering
how far that form may be owing to artificial means and expedients. On
this point I will only make one other observation, namely, that I have
seen a native lady of Damascus, the mother of seven children, whom I
had considered in her own country as already shapeless, display, on her
arrival in London, by the aid of a mantuamaker, a shape which was the
envy of one sex and the admiration of the other.

It is for softness of skin and inodorous sweetness that the women of
the East are without rivals. Depilation is used to its utmost extent;
and the strigil and frequent ablutions give their bodies as much purity
as is consistent with human nature. Does it not imply a commendable
cleanliness of person, when an eastern coquette would think no more of
winding off a skein of silk on her toes than on her hands, and has no
idea that it is possible for the latter to be less agreeable to the
touch or any other sense than the former?

The Turkish women stain their hair (if not naturally black or dark
brown) with henna powder, made by pulverising the dried leaf of a
shrub[10] which imparts a golden brown or auburn colour. But the
unprejudiced eye will see nothing more unnatural in this than in the
white powder formerly so much used in England and France for the same
purpose. One cannot say so much for the straitness which they give to
their hair, studiously shunning ringlets and curls; and there seem to
be no examples of it in antiquity. Of the custom which they have of
giving a black rim to the eyelids I speak confidently in commendation;
for no eyes are so brilliant as those which Nature has so set; examples
of which, though rare, are not wanting among us.

The Turks, in their notions of grace, exclude all angular lines. Hence
their women seldom walk or sit stiffly upright. The sofa is their
throne, and the drooping-headed flower,[11] not the straight reed, is
their model.

I now return to the course of my narrative. On the Isthmus of Corinth,
towards the Ægean Sea, there is a small port, called Kenkri; there,
a two-masted vessel, rigged like a bombard, was hired to convey
us to Athens; and, on the evening of the fourth day, we embarked.
Kenkri is eight miles from Corinth; and, as we crossed the Isthmus on
post-horses, I shall describe the nature of our cavalcade. Persons of
consideration, when travelling in Turkey, procure from the Pasha of
the province, or the nearest governor, an order, by which post-horses
are to be furnished to them--I believe gratis, if the order were
complied with to the letter. Such an order as this the Marquis of
Sligo had obtained at Tripolizza. The horses are used indifferently
for riding or for luggage, and each person is provided with his own
saddle. Lord Sligo had with him a Tartar, two Albanians (presented to
him by Veli Pasha) superbly dressed in the costume of their country,
with silver-stocked pistols and silver-hilted yatagans; a dragoman, or
interpreter; a Turkish cook; an artist, to paint views and costumes;
besides three English servants in livery, and one out of livery. These,
with himself, made up eleven persons. Lady Hester and Mr. B., with
their retinue, made up eleven more; forming a cavalcade with myself and
servant, of twenty-five persons, all the males of which were armed with
a sabre and pistols.

In this manner we crossed the Isthmus, and, embarking, lay all night
in the harbour. Kenkri (the ancient Cenchræa) has little left of its
pristine splendour. There were a few broken columns lying about, and
part of the pier of the harbour still remained. At daybreak on the 12th
of September, we weighed anchor. The wind was fair, the day delightful,
and by twelve o’clock we were at the entrance of the Piræus.

The master of the vessel was a man of fine stature, of noble mien, and
of a prepossessing countenance. From beneath his red skull-cap, his
curling hair behind formed a bush, somewhat like a bishop’s wig; for
the Greeks of certain districts shave the forehead and crown, and leave
the hair behind of its natural length. He had with him a son, about
twelve years old, whom Lady Hester would have taken to attend upon her,
could the captain have been induced to part with him.

The fame of Lord Byron’s exploit in swimming across the Hellespont,
from Sestos to Abydos, in imitation of Leander, had already reached us,
and, just as we were passing the molehead, we saw a man jump from it
into the sea, whom Lord Sligo recognized to be Lord Byron himself, and,
haling him, bade him hasten to dress and to come and join us.

Just before arriving at the Piræus is Caluri, formerly the island of
Salamis, close to which the fleet of Xerxes was beaten by the Greeks.
It seemed that in the strait between Salamis and another island called
Psyttalia, where the battle raged the fiercest, there would be scarcely
room for a seventy-four gun ship to wear; hence we may infer the small
size of the ships of those days, and the Piræus, which contained the
whole Athenian fleet, is hardly more spacious than the two harbours of
Ramsgate. Its entrance is exceedingly narrow, but having, I was told, a
depth of six or seven fathoms.

We sailed in, and anchored before a mean building at the bottom of
the port, which served as a custom-house. There happened to be on the
strand about a dozen horses, which had brought down part of the freight
of a polacca lying at the quay to load. These were forcibly seized by
our Tartar, and, laden with our baggage, sent off to the town, which is
six miles inland. Lord Sligo himself set off on one of the horses of
Lord Byron, who had now joined us, to send down conveyances for Lady
Hester and the rest of us.

While we were waiting on the shore, we had leisure to survey what was
around us. The country immediately adjoining the port seemed bare and
without verdure. Some remains of the quays, which once bordered the
Piræus, lay scattered at the water’s edge, and a few ill-constructed
boats, made fast by rush hawsers, showed how low the navy of Athens had
declined. There were some Turkish women sitting on the bank, covered
in every part excepting their eyes, who immediately walked away when
we attempted to approach them. We were ignorant of the customs of the
country, and Mr. B. made signs to them to stop, which excited greatly
the anger of some Turks who were standing near us.

The horses arrived in about two hours. As we quitted the Piræus, the
aspect of the country became more pleasing. Gentle slopes and hills,
rising and sinking with a pleasing wavy line, gave a tranquillity and
repose to the scenery which few can understand who have not felt it in
those countries.

While musing on the goodly prospect around me, on temples and
demi-gods, on the Parthenon and Socrates, the cool Ilyssus and the
shades of Academus, my reflections were interrupted by the loud smack
of a whip, applied by Aly the Tartar to the back of a poor Greek,
accompanied by a louder oath, which at once dissipated my vision, and
brought me back to the reality of things around me.




                             CHAPTER III.

   Athens--Residence there--Accommodations--Researches of Lord
   Sligo--Embarkation for Constantinople--Sunium--Temple of
   Minerva--Zea--The Hellespont--Greek Sailors in a gale of
   wind--Erakli--Constantinople.


It was evening before we entered Athens. Preparations had been made
for our coming, and a house was cleared of its tenants expressly for
Lady Hester. Mr. B. and myself were lodged in a house which Lord Sligo
had occupied some time previous to our reaching Greece. It had been
tenanted by other English travellers, and the owners, who let it, were
so far acquainted with Englishmen’s wants, as to have procured some
chairs and a table, furniture then seldom found in a room in Turkey.

I employed the first day in making my apartment tidy. I found my
bed-room to be a whitewashed chamber, having an unglazed window, with
a shutter, which excluded light and let in the wind. There were large
crevices in the floor, through which the dust and rubbish were swept,
not by a long-handled broom, for I never saw one throughout Turkey, but
by a hand-broom. Upon these materials my servant had to go to work
to make me a chamber. A mat was spread upon the floor, as being the
coolest covering to the gaping chinks; my camp-bed was laid on boards,
supported by two trestles; a piece of white linen formed a curtain to
the window, and, my musquito net being suspended upon cross pieces of
twine, I found myself almost as comfortable as if I had been lying
upon an English fourpost bedstead. Lord Sligo and Mr. B., who seemed
to despise luxuries in proportion as they had the means of enjoying
them, made their beds on the floor, and all the servants slept in the
open air. But, in this climate, to sleep under the cope of heaven is
no cause of complaint; for, during the voyage from Patras to Corinth,
all of us, as said above, excepting Lady Hester, lay on deck. It was
now six months since I had seen a drop of rain, and, I might almost
say a cloud; indeed, the serenity and dryness of the weather had been
such, that prayers (we were told) had been offered up at Athens by the
Christians for rain, accompanied by the novel expedient of penning a
flock of sheep in the porch of the church, whose plaintive bleatings,
it was supposed, would give greater effect to the petitions of the
people, and move the pity of Heaven.

The house occupied by Lady Hester was spacious and handsome, having a
courtyard, a bath, and other requisites for comfort and quiet. None of
the windows of the house had casements, and, to ensure greater warmth,
it was necessary to nail up some of them with old carpets, mats, &c.
Her ladyship was a great contriver of comfort, and I have often
known her transform a naked room, with holes in the walls, floors,
and doors, into a snug apartment. The janissary sat at her gate, on a
raised wooden couch, something like a kitchen table with a railed back
to it, which is generally to be seen at the doorways of most great
persons in European Turkey, and upon which the master of the house will
often place himself, to smoke his pipe, and to breathe the morning and
evening air. The janissary acted as porter and guard.

I observed one morning that Aly, this janissary, had his feet swathed
in old rags: on inquiring what was the matter, he pretended that they
were covered on account of the cold; but I learned in the course of the
day that he had been bastinadoed on the soles at the governor’s, for
riotous behaviour at a tavern.

It was many days before we were settled, and very many more before
we had surveyed the numerous beauties of architecture and statuary
which are yet left in this celebrated city. Our time passed most
delightfully. The mornings were spent in examining the remains of
ancient edifices, in rides, and in excursions into the environs;
the evenings in the society of a few clever artists, who, enamoured
of the spot, seemed wedded to it for the rest of their days. Of
these, M. Lusieri and M. Fauvel are very generally known by their
drawings. Fauvel was living in a small house on the site of the
ancient _agora_. There were likewise many English and some other
foreigners at this time at Athens. Among the English I may name Lord
Plymouth, Messieurs Gordon, Hunt, and Haygarth. Two British merchants,
Mr. John Galt,[12] and Mr. Struthers, passed through the place on their
way to Constantinople. Of foreigners, there were gentlemen who have
since distinguished themselves in their respective careers.

I had not been a day in Athens before I was beset with the sick,
maimed, halt, and blind, importuning me for advice and medicine. St.
Paul had not more patients than I, but how different our means of cure!
I, however, did what I could for all, and obtained admission to several
Turkish and Greek houses in my professional capacity.

Lord Sligo had, on a previous visit to Athens, carried on several
excavations among the ruins, and he renewed them on his return thither.
One of those was on the Theban road, about two hundred yards from the
city wall, where he employed a dozen men; another was on the side
of the Acropolis; others were in other parts, and all were attended
with some success. His researches brought to light several tombs.
He found, at different times, some beautiful vases, gold ornaments,
lacrymatories, lamps, and other objects, generally buried with the
ancient Greeks. He bought, likewise, many bas-reliefs, coins, and other
antiquities, all of which now compose part of his valuable cabinet at
Westport Place, in Ireland.

An English gentleman named Watson, coming from Janina, fell ill on his
way, and died just as he reached Athens. He was buried in the Temple
of Theseus; and, as there was no memorial to testify where his body
lay and his death was yet recent and the circumstances known, Lord
Sligo, to whom they were told, with that sympathy for the misfortunes
of others which was so natural to him, immediately took the necessary
steps for placing a marble slab with an epitaph over his grave. But no
slab could be found fitting for the purpose, and there were no workmen
in all Athens capable of cutting the inscription.

Lord Sligo and Mr. B. made an excursion to Delphos, but, on account of
my professional avocations, I could not accompany them any farther than
Thebes, whence I returned the following day, with a guide only, over
unfrequented mountains.

Lord Byron made one of the small society which collected every evening
at Lady Hester’s: he had been the college friend of Lord Sligo and
Mr. B. It was strange enough, however, that on the third or fourth
day after our arrival, he alleged pressing business at Patras, in the
Morea, and left us, but returned some days before our departure from
Athens, when I saw him frequently. Lady Hester’s opinion of him has
appeared in another publication. What struck me as singular in his
behaviour was his mode of entering a room; he would wheel round from
chair to chair, until he reached the one where he proposed sitting, as
if anxious to conceal his lameness as much as possible. He consulted
me for the indisposition of a young Greek, about whom he seemed much
interested.

After having remained at Athens one month and four days, we were
informed that a Greek polacca, a ship of nearly two hundred tons
burden, was about to sail from the Piræus to Constantinople, with a
cargo of wheat, part of the revenue of the Kislar Aga, to whom Athens
belongs as a fief. As an opportunity like this might not very speedily
offer again, it was resolved, now that we had seen whatever the place
contained worthy of curiosity, to take our passage in her, which was
agreed for at five hundred piasters, a sum equal to £25. The cabin,
after having been whitewashed to kill the vermin, was set apart for
Lady Hester; the servants occupied the hold, which was full of wheat,
to within two feet and a half of the deck; and Lord S., Mr. B., and
myself, slept in the open air, although the nights were beginning to be
cold.

We embarked on the 16th of October, and, on the first day, sailed down
the gulf of Ægina. The wind freshened so much as to induce the captain
to cast anchor under the promontory of Sunium, where Theseus dedicated
a temple to Minerva. The promontory is called by European mariners
Capo de’ Colonni. We lay here the whole of the 17th, the storm still
continuing, and we landed to see the ruins of the temple, the columns
of which still attract the admiration of the traveller.

In a little nook at the foot of the promontory lay a small Greek boat,
bound from Athens to Zea. She was hauled up on the shore, and the crew,
with a passenger or two, were sitting round a fire in a cave in the
rock. One was a female, and I recognized in her a very pretty-faced
woman, whom I had seen in the cell of a holy friar in Athens, when, on
one occasion, I had paid him a visit in the evening, somewhat after
the accustomed hour. Around the temple, and covering the adjacent
mountains, was a forest of stunted firs; and, in the wantonness of
idlers, which sometimes leads to a great deal of mischief, we threw
some firebrands among the brushwood, with the intention of setting
fire to the forest, and of scaring the wolves, which were said to be
very numerous hereabouts; but, fortunately, the rain that had fallen
prevented the conflagration.

We quitted the promontory on the 18th, and in a few hours reached
Zea, and entered the port to pass the night. The servants, from some
trifling cause, had quarrelled with the crew; and matters had become so
serious, that we slept on our arms, we being only sixteen in number,
and they twenty. There are no bounds to the restlessness and cupidity
of Greeks. In the present instance, whilst, on the one hand, the crew
were cheating and robbing the servants, the captain, on the other, was
scheming and contriving how he could obtain more passengers, in spite
of the agreement he had made with us.

On the 19th, in the morning, no fewer than twenty persons came
alongside, whom he wished to take on board; but we threatened to quit
the vessel, and not to pay him anything--which menace had the desired
effect, and they returned to the shore.

Those islands of the Cyclades which we saw had a barren appearance,
exhibiting neither verdure nor trees. Zea is of the number. The town
stands on the top of a conical mountain, which occupies the centre of
the island. I landed, and procured a mule, which carried me up to it. I
was entertained with coffee, preserves, and a pipe, at the house of Mr.
Pangolo, the British agent, and I procured a few coins from some of the
inhabitants.

On the 22nd we quitted Zea, and passed Negropont and Mytelene. The
weather was unusually fine. Dolphins gambolled round our prow, and
light airs filled our cotton sails. On the 24th we were abreast of the
Troad, and entered the Hellespont at twelve o’clock.

When we had passed the two castles which guard the entrance, lovely
indeed were the prospects that opened upon us, in each of the two
quarters of the world! On the side of Europe the scenery was bolder
than on the opposite; but the softness of the Asiatic shore was too
attractive to lose by the comparison, and its warm and languishing
features accorded with the enervating character which we imagine to
be so fatal to the energies of its natives. As we advanced, every spot
on each side of us revived the recollections of some classic story. It
was here that Xerxes lashed the waves--it was there that Leander braved
them: now we looked for the corpse of the too adventurous lover; and
now we thought we saw the eddies writhing under the scourge of the vain
and baffled despot. We saw, also, where the battle of Ægos Potamos was
fought.

On the 24th, in the evening, passing Gallipoli, we entered the sea of
Marmora. On the 25th, we were becalmed within three miles of the island
that gives its name to the sea.

At night the wind blew strongly, and our situation by degrees became
extremely perilous. My cot was slung athwart the deck from the
mizen-mast to the quarter-railing, which, landsman-like, (in spite of
the representation of the Greek captain) I had fancied to be the best
way; when, after having been a short time in bed, the heeling of the
vessel became so great that I was constantly thrown to the foot of
my cot, and was, at last, compelled to get out and dress myself, as
the sailors wanted all the facility which could be afforded them for
working the ship.

As the wind increased, the utmost noise and confusion prevailed among
the crew. Instead of doing their duty, they set about collecting
money from us, which they tied in a handkerchief, and fastened to
the tiller, making a vow to St. George that they would dedicate it
to his shrine if we reached some port in safety. The wind was south,
and we ran before it towards Erakli, a port on the N.W. shore of the
Gulf of Rhodosto. We reached it in safety; but the specimen we had had
of the incapacity of the captain and his crew induced Lady Hester to
disembark. A house was provided for us on shore, and we, and all the
baggage, were transferred to it.

There are many things revolting to a European when he first travels
in the East, and nothing more so than the filth of the natives. This,
perhaps, is more manifest in the Christians than in the Turks; for the
former are not compelled, as the Mahometans are, by their religion,
to wash themselves frequently; and one observes in them habits of
uncleanliness which are quite disgusting. Thus, our captain, besides
appearing to us to be no mariner, had the itch in its worst stage; and
his men daily assisted each other, on the deck in the sunshine, in
keeping under the stock of vermin attached to each. They were observed
never to have shifted themselves during the whole voyage; and, to
protect ourselves from the results of their filthiness, we were obliged
peremptorily to forbid any one coming on the quarter-deck, except to
steer and haul.

Erakli, the ancient Heraclea, is now a ruined village, but exceedingly
pretty in its situation on a promontory that projects into the bay. We
were lodged in a Greek monastery. The same evening Lord Sligo and Mr.
B. set off, on post-horses, for Constantinople. During the five days
we remained there, I had excellent shooting at divers and teal, which
abounded in the port.

On the 2nd of November, Lord Sligo and Mr. B. returned, accompanied
by a Turkish officer, who was sent to conduct Lady Hester to
Constantinople: he bore a firmán or mandate, that all proper facilities
were to be afforded her for the completion of her voyage. As the roads
were said to be infested with deserters from the army, who plundered
and murdered travellers, it was thought best to continue our course
by sea, more especially as we were now so near its termination. We
therefore embarked in two open boats, which had come for that purpose
from Constantinople. These galleys are as clean, as trim, and as richly
gilded, as a nobleman’s barge on the Thames: they are elevated at the
stern and the stem, and sharp at both ends.

On the 3rd of November, at eleven in the morning, we landed at Ponte
Grande, where we dined, and arrived, at about eleven at night, at
Topkhana, one of the principal stairs of the harbour of Constantinople,
on the side towards Pera. A sedan-chair was sent down for Lady Hester,
and the rest of the party walked up; whilst the luggage was carried on
the backs of porters, who seemed to be very powerful men. We ascended
a very steep street, where scores of dogs, like so many Cerberuses,
poked their ugly heads out of dark corners, and stunned us with their
incessant barking. A huge lantern was carried before us, there being no
lamps in use; and in this manner we reached Pera.

A house had been hastily prepared for Lady Hester, and Lord Sligo
gave me a room in his lodgings at one Madam Onophrio’s, who kept an
apothecary’s shop. Everything appeared to us inconvenient and dirty;
and, what was most uncomfortable of all, the principal part of our
luggage, from the frequent changes in our plans, had been sent to
Smyrna.




                              CHAPTER IV.

   Procession of the Sultan to the Mosque--A Dinner
   party--Therapia--Visiters there--Lady Hester seeks permission
   to reside in France--Turbulence of the Janissaries--Pera--Visit
   to Hafez Aly--Captain Pasha--Mahometan patients attended
   by the Author--Princess Morousi--Disagreeable climate of
   Constantinople--Return of Lord Sligo to Malta.


We were busied, during the first days, in making ourselves somewhat
like the beings among whom we were come. Tailors, hatters, and such
persons, are not wanting at Constantinople. We let our mustachios grow,
bought ourselves horses, and went through the ceremony of paying and
receiving visits. I was fortunate in procuring for myself a Persian
horse, which, I was told, had brought Mr. Morier from Persia: it was
very handsome, and proved capable of enduring great fatigue.

The first person generally resorted to, on arriving in a strange city,
is the banker. I was commissioned to call on Lady Hester’s; and I found
in Mr. Alexander a man of rare merit. He was dragoman of the Prussian
mission, as well as a merchant, and to him I was subsequently indebted
for whatever information I needed on any point. His conversation
abounded in anecdotes, which were highly useful and instructive to a
traveller.

The house in which Lady Hester lived was too small, and in a narrow
street (as indeed are all the streets in Pera but the two main ones);
she therefore hastened to get into the country, after having seen the
sights that are usually shown to strangers. By means of a firmán, we
entered four of the principal mosques. I forbear giving descriptions of
them, as they are to be found at length in several works.

In Constantinople all that one sees is odd and strange, but it is
difficult to make another person understand in what that strangeness
consists. The mere act of walking in the streets has something in it
incompatible with recreation. There are no carriages or vehicles of any
kind, and consequently the streets are so silent that people’s voices
are heard as in a room. All the shops are entirely open to the air; you
are therefore subjected to the gaze of the shopkeepers; so that the
effect is similar to what is felt in walking through a hall, with a row
of servants on each side.

All persons of the same trade here have their shops in the same place.
Thus, there will be a row of tailors, a row of furriers, and a row
of shoemakers; and such a street is called the tailors’ bazar, the
furriers’ bazar, the shoemakers’ bazar. But, if the commodities are of
a precious nature, or susceptible of injury when exposed to the air or
wet, as jewelry, drugs, and the like, then the street is covered in,
the shops are fitted up in a somewhat more ornamented manner, and the
place is called bezestan.

There was no audience of an English ambassador while we were at
Constantinople, so that I had not an opportunity of seeing his
highness, the Sultan, excepting on Fridays, when it was his custom to
perform his public devotions at a mosque. The sight was magnificent and
striking, but it is impossible to convey an adequate impression of it
in a description: and I can only give the reader a general idea of it.
The origin of it, as we were told, was this--that subsequent to some
insurrection among the janissaries, in the reign of one of the early
Sultans, a sort of charter of rights was obtained from their monarch;
one of which was, that, instead of keeping himself shut up in his
seraglio, as his predecessors had done, he should show himself once a
week to his faithful subjects; since which time it has become a custom
for him to go publicly to mosque every Friday, which is the Moslem’s
sabbath.

On these occasions, when the Sultan issues from the harým, the
janissary-aga holds his stirrup whilst he mounts his horse, and
(as I was informed) draws on his legs a pair of new yellow boots,
a ceremony always repeated. To secure a good view, I had taken a
convenient situation in a street through which the Sultan was to pass;
and, presently, the procession approached in the following order.
First came some dozens of water-carriers, who bore skins of water
across their backs, with which they laid the dust as they advanced.
On the right and left of the street was a double file of janissaries.
Bostangis, with knotted whips, kept the crowd from pressing on the
procession. Next to the water-carriers came a group of nondescript
persons; grooms to hold horses, servants to unrobe their effendis
or masters, and other hangers-on or attendants of great men. After
these, upon a finely caparisoned horse, surrounded by a dozen valets
on foot, followed a fierce-looking Turk, with a black beard; and I
and my companion exclaimed, “Here comes the Sultan:”--it was only his
coffee-bearer. We made the like remark at a second, and a third; but
they were his stool, sword, and pipe-bearers, who, with the emblems of
office in their hands, passed in succession.

The surprise which the splendour of these inferior officers of the
palace excites is increased, when the Captain Pasha, the Reis Effendi,
the Kakhya Bey, and the Grand Vizir, pass by, muffled in pelisses
worth £200 each, wearing in their girdles hangers or daggers studded
with diamonds, and mounted on horses almost sinking under the weight
of gold housings. Our ideas were confused by the magnificence which we
saw displayed. And now, on a sudden, the crowd, which had been noisy
and making their remarks on the scene before them, was hushed. A
solemn and really an awful silence prevailed, whilst only low whispers
were heard that the commander of the faithful was near. Every Turk
immediately folded his long robe over his breast, crossed his hands
before him, dropped his head on his bosom, and, in a tone of voice
just audible, prayed Allah and Mahomet to preserve the perpetuity of
the royal race. Our object was curiosity, and we looked eagerly for
the Sultan, but could hardly obtain a glimpse of him. His person,
too sacred to be gazed on, was almost hidden by the lofty plumes of
feathers of the attendants who surrounded him, each of whom wore a
vest of glittering stuff representing resplendent armour, and on his
head a crested helmet. Fancy must assist the reader in imagining the
gorgeous housings, studded with rubies, emeralds, and other precious
stones, on a ground of gold, that covered the Sultan’s horse, which was
a milk-white stallion.

He passed, and lo! an ugly blackamore, the minister of his pleasures,
entitled the Kislar Aga, followed him. His deformity rendered him
hideous, yet was he rivalled in it by fifty other black eunuchs, and
as many white ones, who filled up his train. These were succeeded by
a dwarf. Three hundred chokhadars, or pages, closed the procession,
all clad in white, and all extremely beautiful in person. There were
several men appointed, according to custom, to throw money to the mob;
and several others whose duty it was to beat them unmercifully if they
thronged too riotously to pick it up; so that, between the sixpences
and the blows, which seemed to be dealt out in about equal shares,
there was much diversion for a bystander.

The procession arrived at the mosque. Prayers were said. But within
those sacred walls, on such an occasion, no infidel dared cast even a
glance, and we retired to our homes delighted with what we had seen,
but mortified by our exclusion from the termination of the ceremony.

It was on one of these occasions that Lady Hester rode on horseback on
a side-saddle to witness the procession. There is probably no other
example of a European female having ridden through the streets of
Constantinople in this manner on that day; and it may be reckoned as a
proof of her courage that she did so, and of her conduct that she did
so without insult.

The Mahometans are the most temperate men on earth: they are practical
philosophers, unostentatiously sober in the use of everything. I
dined, on two several occasions, with a Turk, named Azýz Effendy. The
restrictions which their religion imposes on them make their meals so
simple as to be not very grateful to a European stomach. The time was
about one in the day, which is their first meal. Our party consisted
of the chief clerks of the Admiralty; as Azýz Effendy, being physician
to the Captain Pasha, or Lord High Admiral, had invited me to the
arsenal. A table, not so large as an English claw tea-table, inlaid
with mother-of-pearl and ebony, was covered with an embroidered satin
cloth, round which, facing the place where each guest was to sit, were
laid, not knives and forks, and plates, but mahogany spoons tipped
with coral. A basin and ewer having been carried round by a black
slave, each person washed his hands, and then took his place. A napkin
was put over his knees, and another, much finer and embroidered, was
thrown over his shoulders. I doubled my knees under me like a tailor,
in imitation of the rest. Immediately, a single dish was placed in the
middle of us, which, being of rice, was eaten with our spoons, each
person scooping it up from the side next to him; and, after four or
five mouthfuls, the dish was lifted off to be replaced by another.
This was a stew, and, as fingers were to be used here, each person,
helping himself with his right hand, had time for about five mouthfuls
more, when other dishes were served up in succession, which, according
as they were more or less liquid or solid, were eaten by means of the
fingers or the spoon, always, however, to be spirited away immediately
after the first relish. The cookery I liked very much. During the
repast, those who wanted it called for water, which was the only
beverage, and was handed in a cut glass mug; this being almost the only
article of glass used among them. The last dish was a preparation of
rice called pilau, which always concludes a Turkish dinner. Every body
then rose from table; the hand-washing was again performed, and coffee
and pipes were handed round.

This description may serve for a general idea of the dinners of both
the rich and poor; for I dined with a son of the celebrated Ibrahim
Bey, one of the first people in the empire, and I saw no great
difference, excepting in the number of dishes, and in several sweet
things, as _entremets_ and _hors-d’œuvres_, which stood constantly on
the table, and of which, every now and then, a morsel or a spoonful was
taken. A supper, in every respect similar, takes place about sunset.

Those Turks, who are not very rigid in the observance of the laws
of Mahomet, and who wish to drink wine or spirits, do it I believe
secretly, or go to the French coffee-houses at Pera, where their
intemperance is not observed: but I entirely differ from many
travellers, who tell us that the major part of the Turks drink
fermented liquors. I aver that no people in the world adhere more
rigidly to the injunctions of their religion in that and other
respects. Those who take forbidden drinks are generally soldiers,
Tartars and persons of the lowest class. The effects of spirituous
liquors on the Turks are remarkable. Naturally sedate, composed, and
amicable, they become, when intoxicated, downright madmen; and the
inhabitants of Pera, who are accustomed to see them in this state,
know so well the danger of getting in their way at such a moment, that
they avoid them as they would a mad bull.

A house was hired for six months at five hundred piasters per
month, in the village of Therapia, on the Bosphorus, ten miles from
Constantinople. Lady Hester had scarcely removed thither, when she was
attacked with a severe indisposition, which confined her to her bed.

The house was at the bottom of a small creek, which formed a harbour
to the village; it was three stories high. The ceilings and walls
were painted in fresco ornaments on a white ground, and there were
little jets d’eau in some of the rooms. Each story consisted of a
grand saloon, with four rooms opening into it, most of which had broad
sofas fixed to the walls all round, with furniture either of flowered
velveteen or of printed cotton. The highest story in the house is the
story of honour:--a custom remaining from the time when the Genoese
possessed this quarter of Constantinople.

Lady Hester writes from this place to a friend thus:--

                    _Lady Hester Stanhope to ----._

                                        Therapia, upon the Bosphorus,
                                             December 21, 1810.

    My dear ----,

   Since the fire at Pera good houses are so scarce that I have
   taken up my abode at this place, where I have a fine view of
   the coast of Asia, and mouth of the Black Sea. Lord S---- and
   B---- are about to set off upon a tour; the latter returns here
   in a few weeks, but my lord means to take his passage to Malta
   by the first opportunity, and to return to us in the early
   spring. I flatter myself that you will take my word for his
   having the best of hearts, and being a most friendly creature,
   till you can judge yourself of his good qualities. B---- desires
   to be most kindly remembered to you.

   Canning[13] has behaved to me in the civilest, kindest manner
   possible, but has never once mentioned his cousin’s name.

Our circle at Therapia was often enlivened by visitors, who came
to dinner from Constantinople. Mr. Stratford Canning, at that time
his Majesty’s Minister to the Sublime Porte, was not unfrequent in
his visits. Among our most distinguished travellers, were Mr. Gally
Knight, Mr. Henry Pearce, Mr. Fazakerly, and Mr. Taylor, who had
recently traversed Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. Mr. Pearce, being the
particular friend of Mr. B., afterwards joined Lady Hester’s party, and
accompanied us to Egypt and Syria. Lord Plymouth, whom we had seen at
Athens, was at this time at Constantinople, and did me the honour of
presenting me with a handsome Damascus sabre, in a silver scabbard, in
consequence of some professional assistance which I had rendered him.

Lady Hester always showed a strong partiality for the French nation,
and it was long a favourite scheme with her to endeavour to obtain
permission from the Emperor Napoleon to reside in France, thinking
that the climate in the southern parts would be more beneficial to her
than any other: an opinion in which I entirely agreed. Party spirit
was at this time carried to a height unknown in former wars, so that
individuals of belligerent nations were strictly forbidden to hold any
intercourse. This prohibition, however, held good only with those who
were immediately under the eye of the ambassadors and ministers: for,
as well at Athens as at Brusa, we made no sort of difficulty, and found
none, in visiting French families. But Lady Hester was a long time at
Constantinople before she could contrive to communicate with M. de
Maubourg, chargé d’affaires of France, who, however, no sooner learned
what she desired from his court, than he offered to endeavour to obtain
passports for her.

On the 21st December, the Marquis of Sligo and Mr. B. set off on their
excursion to Smyrna: they bought fourteen horses for the journey.

We were constantly hearing of tumults among the janissaries, who seemed
to be a very turbulent set of men. They feared that measures were
planning for their suppression, and subsequent events have proved that
their apprehensions were well founded.

The original institution of the janissaries was a species of militia,
by which an army might always be collected in an emergency without
being kept on foot. In the metropolis, however, a certain number of
regiments were maintained as a body-guard to the Sultan, and as a means
of awing the population into obedience to the acts of an arbitrary
government. In time, these very instruments of tyranny, finding out
their own importance, began themselves to exercise authority over
their nominal masters; and the annals of the empire present numerous
instances of their dethroning sultans, and putting them to death. The
last act of this kind was that in which, beholding with jealousy the
attempt made by Sultan Selim to new organize the army, they cut in
pieces the troops disciplined after the European manner, together with
the vizir, Mustapha Biractar, who favoured the change. Since that time
the tumult had never completely subsided; and occasional quarrels were
constantly taking place between the innovators and the janissaries.

It is most likely that, if the Turkish government had been at peace
with the neighbouring powers, these turbulent and disaffected bands
would soon have been reduced to order: but, unfortunately for Turkey,
in addition to the Russian war, she was at this epoch torn in pieces
by rebels, who were infesting, in one shape or another, almost all
the provinces of the empire. Bagdad and Egypt, extensive but distant
pashaliks, were both disturbed by intestine commotions, in which the
public treasury was always the loser. The Wahabys, a sect of fanatics,
had possessed themselves of the holy sepulchre of Mahomet, and were
gaining ground on the Turks every day. Not thirty miles from the
metropolis a petty war was waging between two provincial governors.
The State, convulsed within, and threatened by formidable enemies from
without, might be said to be in a tottering condition.

The janissaries, therefore, knowing that the government was too weak
to control them, became every day more seditious. We were often told
that tumults had taken place in Constantinople; but as Pera, where the
Franks reside, is separated by the harbour from Constantinople proper,
which is not often visited by the Franks, we were never eye-witnesses
of them.

There was abundance of wild fowl on the Bosphorus during the cold
weather; and I used sometimes to cross into Asia in a wherry to
shoot. On two different occasions, I brought home two pelicans. They
swam towards the boat, and suffered the gun to be levelled at them
without showing the least symptom of alarm. Those who are desirous
of shooting on the canal, or indeed anywhere in the neighbourhood of
Constantinople, must obtain a teskery, or permission to that effect.
I was stopped more than once by the keepers, who resorted to various
stratagems to get money. One keeper, when I showed him my license,
told me it was very true I had a teskery; but that an order had come
down that no guns were to be fired on the canal, because two of the
Sultan’s ladies were lying-in--at a distance of eight or ten miles! A
piaster, however, would always set matters right, and cause me to be
left undisturbed.

Pera was very gay during the winter. There were many dinner parties,
evening parties constantly, and not unfrequently balls. In these
meetings, the only thing that reminded me of being in Turkey was the
presence of the several dragomans, interpreters of the different
missions, who, from the necessity they are under of being as much at
the Porte as with their ambassadors, are habited in a Turkish dress
peculiar to that office. The Turks rarely, if ever, mix with the
Franks: for they would not thank them for the most splendid banquet,
if smoking were not allowed: and they dislike, worse than the French,
the tiresomeness of sitting long at table. Besides, the use of
wine effectually banishes a respectable Moslem from the repasts of
Europeans, who, on their side, are too strongly attached to it to give
it up for the sake of a Turkish guest.

On one occasion, Lady Hester invited the brother-in-law of the Captain
Pasha and another person of distinction to dinner. Although entirely
unaccustomed to the use of knives and forks, to sitting in chairs,
to remaining more than half an hour at table, and to solid food like
joints dressed in the English manner, they complied with the hospitable
intentions of their hostess with so much courtesy that everything
seemed to give them pleasure. They tasted of different wines, and each
drank three or four glasses.

Lady Hester alludes to this visit in a letter to one of her
correspondents, as follows:--

   I have made my own way with the Turks, and I have contrived
   to get upon so intimate a footing, that the Pasha’s brother,
   brother-in-law, and captain of the fleet, dined with us,
   accompanied by the confidential physician. This may not sound
   like a compliment; but see the Captain Pasha’s brother sitting
   under a tree in a public walk:--he neither notices Greek,
   Armenian, or Frank women of any kind, but looks at them all
   as if they were sheep in a field: and they dare not come near
   him, as his attendants form a circle which they never pass, but
   stand and look at him for an hour together. I must likewise
   tell you that ---- has been much shocked at my having gone on
   board the fleet in men’s clothes; a pair of overalls, a military
   great-coat, and cocked hat, is so much less decent a dress than
   that of a real fine lady in her shift and gown, and half naked
   besides! The Captain Pasha said I was welcome to go, but that I
   must change my dress, and I certainly thought it worth while. I
   closely examined everything, and as I understand a little about
   a ship, it was not quite a useless visit.

   When the answer arrives from Paris, I will communicate to you
   the nature of it; and, at all events, as soon as it comes, and
   Mr. Liston is arrived, we shall leave this place. I find he is a
   sensible, liberal man. By the by, though I have made it a rule
   never to repeat any conversation with Monsieur de M.,[14] I will
   tell you in confidence one thing I said to him. He seldom talks
   politics, but one day asked questions about L. Bonaparte, ‘How
   was he, how would he be treated in England, how considered,’
   &c., &c., &c. I answered, I knew not, but were I a public man I
   should have put him at once and kept him in close confinement.
   If he was his brother’s spy, he deserved it; if a traitor to his
   country, the same; for it is neither to the honour or interest
   of a great nation to encourage either the one or the other.
   These are my true feelings, and I am not ashamed to confess them
   to any one; and I fancy, although I can do justice to the French
   as a nation full of talent and resource, no one can better
   _faire valoir_ their own country.

   The long-promised bridle accompanies this letter. I fear you
   will not like it much, but it is of the newest fashion. There
   are two sorts of bridles here, such as I send, of various
   descriptions and colours, and those made for very great men of
   solid silver, weighing some of them twelve or fifteen pounds,
   which their own stallions can just bear the weight of during
   some grand procession. In the hand, these bridles are the most
   magnificent things you can imagine, but they are so confused
   with chains and ornaments that they bury a horse’s head, and
   have little effect. I have sent a red one to my brother, but I
   thought that a dark one would more become your white horse. All
   those with tassels are made with a little silk mixed with silver
   or gold twist: it looks pretty for a day, but the heat of the
   horse spoils it directly, and it cannot be cleaned! This bridle
   must be cleaned with lemon-juice.

Hafiz Aly was at this time Captain Pasha. Lady Hester became acquainted
with him through me, and I was honoured with his notice in consequence
of a cure performed on the Danish minister, Baron H., which had gained
me much celebrity at Pera and Constantinople, so that I found myself
on a sudden called to an extensive practice in my profession. He sent
his physician, Azýz Effendy, to me one day, begging I would go and see
him at the arsenal, a handsome edifice overlooking the harbour in the
Galata quarter. A boat came about ten in the morning of the next day to
Therapia to fetch me; and, on arriving at the arsenal, I was conducted
to Azýz Effendy, who showed me the buildings, and, as it appeared he
had been commanded to do, endeavoured to amuse me during the day. I
breakfasted with him and several other Turkish gentlemen, and at sunset
dined, after which a slave came to say the Pasha would receive us.

I was led by Azýz Effendy to the entrance of the saloon in which he
was sitting, and, it being winter, a curtain was drawn aside, and
Azýz Effendy, without speaking, made a sign to me and my interpreter
to enter. The pasha was seated at the farther end of the room: we
approached him, and he desired me to sit down by him on the sofa,
whilst the interpreter and his own doctor, at a sign made to them,
placed themselves on the floor with their knees doubled under them,
and their garments so smoothed that neither their hands nor their feet
could be seen; for both are studiously hidden by the people of the East
when respect is intended to be shown. Ten or twelve chokhadars, or
servants, stood before him with their arms folded; his brother-in-law,
a young man of interesting appearance, sat on the sofa with his face
turned towards him, and his legs and clothes arranged with the same
precision as those of the doctor: and, at the distance of three or four
yards, stood his little son upon the sofa, with his arms folded in the
same respectful attitude as those of the servants. Every time that the
brother-in-law replied to anything which the Pasha had said to him, he
carried his hand to his mouth and forehead, and made a low inclination
of his head, so as almost to touch the sofa with it. When the pasha did
not speak, no one attempted to say a word, and the greatest silence
prevailed.

Coffee was served to me, and the pipe presented, after which the pasha
made a sign with his hand, and the servants left the room. Several
questions were then asked me about my country, about anatomy, and about
the opening of dead bodies, as practised in Europe, for the purpose
of investigating the seat and nature of diseases. In conversation, in
the course of the morning, I had inquired of the pasha’s physician
where malefactors’ heads were cut off, and had said, that as I supposed
such executions were frequent, I should be obliged to him if he would
apprize me of one that I might be present. It seemed that all this and
all my observations in the day had been reported to the pasha, for,
among other questions, he asked me what made me think executions were
frequent at the Arsenal. I told him plainly that we had an idea in
England that cutting off heads was very common in the East, and that
little account was taken of human life where the power of disposing of
it was delegated to so many pashas and beys, whose will was law. He
asked me how many executions took place in London during the year,
and when I said they might amount to forty or fifty, he smiled, and
assured me we were not less bloody than he and the Grand Vizir both
together, and perhaps more so. He then explained his own case to me,
which was connected with a plethoric habit arising from a sedentary
mode of living, and, on my taking leave, he presented me with a crimson
Cashmere shawl. I saw him afterwards frequently, both there and at his
house at Buyukdery, a village on the Bosphorus, where he resided in
order to be near the fleet, which lay at the mouth of the Black Sea.

He had married a woman from the Sultan’s harým, whose influence had
procured him the situation he held. She was consumptive, and I was
called in to attend her. I found her lying in a bed, placed on the
floor in the middle of the room, without curtains, tester, or any
furniture but the coverlet and the sheets. She was addressed in
the tenderest manner by the pasha, who desired me to bestow all my
attention on her case. As we entered the harým, a slave had preceded
us, who cried out “_Testûr, testûr_,” (which means by your leave),
upon which all the female slaves disappeared, excepting two who were
in attendance on the lady. I saw nothing in the behaviour of the pasha
that marked any undue assumption of superiority over the female sex; on
the contrary, it was all kindness. Azýz Effendy, who was with us, stood
in the same attitude of respect as before the pasha, and when speaking
to the lady, or spoken to by her, preserved the same demeanour. I
prescribed for her, and she grew for a while better, as it sometimes
happens in such cases. I was desirous that she should be removed, when
the weather would permit, to a pavilion on the banks of the canal,
that she might breathe the air more freely than she could in the warm
apartments of Buyukdery: this was done.

One day I had seen her, and signified that I should repeat my visit
the next day, as she was much worse. The next day I went about noon,
and, on entering the house, I found no appearance of the lady, or of
her sick chamber, or of anything as it had been the day before. In
fact, she had died in the night; was immediately washed, laid out,
and buried; and, as the Mahometans make little outward show of grief,
and never put on mourning garments that I could observe, no one could
tell that a funeral had taken place, nor did the pasha, whom I saw,
say anything more than that she was gone, and that it became us to be
resigned to the decrees of the Almighty.

Not long afterwards, Azýz Effendy requested me to accompany him to
the pasha, who wished to see me about a white slave or concubine whom
he had bought since the death of his wife. He was still at Buyukdery,
and I was ushered into his presence, nobody being with him but Azýz
Effendy. He told me that a _seryr_, or concubine, whom he had
taken to his bed, was pregnant, and, as her beauty was considerable,
he was fearful that child-bearing would destroy the symmetry of her
person; he wished me, therefore, he added, to administer something to
cause abortion. I was not surprised at such a proposal from him; for,
in my conversation with medical men at Constantinople, I had learned,
to my astonishment, that the Mahometans make no scruple of resorting to
a variety of methods for attaining that end; and, without listening to
what the pasha had further to say, I told him plainly that, by the laws
of my country, I should be considered a criminal, if I were, in any
shape whatever, consenting to such a deed. He said no more about it,
and the subject was never introduced before me again.

Of my other patients, I will enumerate those only whose rank may
entitle them to notice. The Princess Morousi, wife of the ex-Hospodar
of Wallachia, was one. Her husband had been driven from his
principality by the Russians. She was a woman of a highly amiable
character, and the misfortunes which her family has since met with may
serve to show at once how great was their power, and perhaps their
guilt. Her palace was at Kurugesmy, a village on the European side of
the Bosphorus. When I paid her a visit, everything was done with a view
to inspire me with a notion of her greatness. Vanity is the failing of
the Greeks. It was usual for me to be conducted up a flight of steps
to the first or second floor, between two ranks of servants, then led
through a suite of apartments, and, when arrived at the door of the
room where she was sitting, a page would draw aside a crimson curtain,
and there I found the Princess, seated on a crimson sofa edged with
gold. On a cushion on the floor, but at a distance of some yards,
(for here respect is measured by the distance at which inferiors keep
from the great) sat the physician; and, if her sons were in the room,
although young men with their beards grown, they stood before her.
Behind her would be her young daughter on the sofa. Sweetmeats, coffee,
and the pipe were first handed to me; and then her doctor, a Greek,
explained her case in Latin, in which language I always found the Greek
physicians exceedingly ready, although their Latinity was not
classical.

On these occasions, the little princess would plant herself at the
door, and, as I was taking leave, would give me an embroidered scarf,
an antique ring, or some such present, with a little speech of her own
in French, calculated, by its amiability, to render the present more
acceptable.

The princess had a daughter, lively, and of great wit, who was married
to the Prince Mavrocordato. This prince was affected with spitting of
blood; and I went to his villa, on the Prinkipi islands, to see him,
and remained there two days. These islands, which are close to the
mouth of the Bosphorus, in the sea of Marmora, are inhabited entirely
by Greeks; and their archons here live in great pomp, unrestrained by
the presence of the Turks.

Lady Hester, who always suffered more from variable weather than from
periods of steady heat, rain, or drought, was grievously disappointed
in the climate of Constantinople: for we had experienced, during the
winter, a degree of cold equal to what is sometimes felt in Paris, and
had been subject to vicissitudes quite as marked as those in England.
The months of December and January were mild as our spring, and we
naturally supposed that, these over, the winter was past; but it proved
far otherwise. On the 28th of February there was a fall of snow a foot
deep, which was again succeeded by some days more genial and mild than
can ever be seen in England. March was a series of snowstorms and
tempests, exceeding almost what I had ever witnessed elsewhere. Such
weather, in a country where there are no fireplaces, and the houses
are hardly weather-proof, made Lady Hester feel much regret at having
quitted Athens, where we might have sat, as we were told, with our
windows open all through the year.

At the end of this month, Lord Sligo, who, with Mr. B., had returned
from Smyrna, was obliged to depart for Malta, for the purpose of being
invested with the Order of St. Patrick, sent out to him by the king.
It was with much regret that Lady Hester saw Lord Sligo depart: she
always spoke of the qualities of his heart with commendation, and her
friendship for him ever continued unaltered.




                              CHAPTER V.

   The Author goes to Brusa--Situation of the
   city--Baths--Surrounding country--Residence at Brusa--Lady
   Hester mistaken for a youth--Women of Brusa--Return of the
   Author to Constantinople--Sudden death of Mr. Alexander,
   Lady Hester’s banker--Departure from Brusa--Residence
   at Bebec--Provisions--Excursion to the village of
   Belgrade--Throwing the Girýd--Fast of Ramadàn--Lady Hester
   resolves to winter in Egypt--Presents to the Author for
   professional attentions.


It was represented to Lady Hester that the sulphureous baths of
Brusa, a city of Asia Minor, might be serviceable to her; and, the
testimony of several persons whom I consulted on the subject being in
their favour, she resolved on going thither. But the reports we heard
concerning the nature of the accommodations to be met with made it
expedient that I should precede her a day or two, in order to provide
a place for her reception. To avoid the heat, I set off at midnight,
on the first of May, in an open four-oared barge with an awning,
accompanied by Aly, a janissary, and my servant: and, although the
distance to Mudania, the landing-place nearest Brusa, is sixty or
eighty miles, the watermen rowed it within twelve hours, including the
time for allowing me to go on shore to breakfast, at a point of land at
the entrance of the bay of Mudania.

A Turkish row-barge is an object more striking and picturesque than
those on the Thames, and the watermen wear a costume more uniform and
much more becoming. Their shirts, of a texture like Chinese crape, are
open at the bosom; so that their muscular forms and brawny arms are
seen to great advantage. They wear a red cloth skull-cap and white
balloon trousers; the feet and legs are naked.

I landed at Mudania, a village nearly at the bottom of a gulf of the
same name, about mid-day; and, as I had a firmán, or order, to be
civilly treated by all persons whom it might concern, I escaped the
exactions of the custom-house officer, who sat cross-legged on a bench
near the beach to examine the baggage of persons landing.

Taking post-horses and a guide, I arrived in the dusk of the evening at
Brusa. The distance might be about eighteen miles, through a country
so fertile and so rich that I at once felt what was meant by the
luxuriance of Asiatic scenery.

I had a letter of introduction to M. Arles, a French merchant
established at Brusa, whose traffic consisted in raw silk for France,
in skins for furriers at Constantinople, and in embroidered silks; and
he received me in a very hospitable manner.

On the following morning I hired three cottages just out of the
city; one, which was new, belonging to a priest, and two others, in
themselves somewhat humble dwellings, but advantageously situated on
the sloping foot of Olympus, commanding a view of the vale of Brusa and
the adjoining baths. The snowy summit of Olympus overhung them, and
from their doors began the groves which covered the vale stretched out
before them. To the right, the lengthened city displayed its hundred
mosques, intermingled with cypresses and lofty planes. There are
several baths: the principal of them is a large building, consisting
of three spacious rooms with vaulted roofs, in which are bell-glasses
to admit a dim light, and to confine the heat. These baths in their
structure resemble the hot baths common throughout the Turkish empire.
The water which supplies them is derived from several sulphureous
springs, of different degrees of temperature, which rise near each
other within a square place of a few acres. The spring belonging to the
principal bath issued in a volume of water a foot in diameter, and of
such a heat that the hand cannot bear it. A strong smell of sulphur,
which filled the sudatory, was emitted by it as it ran, and to this
quality its medicinal virtues are ascribed. The same water, which in
the first room yields a vapour hot enough to steam the body, in a
second is received into proper cisterns, where the bather may immerse
himself. These baths were not used by invalids only, but frequented
generally by the inhabitants. I occasionally resorted to them, and
should have done so oftener, but for the vermin with which the Turks
filled the carpets and cloths.

The city of Brusa stands at the foot of Mount Olympus, one of the
highest mountains in Asia Minor. Were we to speak of it in the language
which we should use respecting a European town, we might say that it
contains a hundred parishes, there being so many mosques. But places
of worship in Mahometan countries are much more numerous than in
Christian, and with such a number Brusa is perhaps not so populous
as Bristol. It is divided into the old and new town: the former is
inhabited by Turks alone, Armenians, Greeks, and Franks being excluded,
and compelled to occupy the new town or suburbs. There is also a suburb
for the Jews, who are here rather numerous, and have less of the
degraded appearance so observable in their nation elsewhere in Turkey.
Many of them are tall, well-made, and comely; and some of their women,
whom I saw at M. Arles’s, were very handsome. Brusa, like all Turkish
cities, is made up of mean streets, although it contains several
splendid houses; and, seen from the mountain which overlooks it,
presents a striking appearance, owing to the minarets of the mosques,
and to the lofty trees which are interspersed among the houses.

I was now in a part of the empire where the Turks are seen in their
true colours, their natural dislike to Christians not being softened
down by any intercourse with civilized foreigners, as is the case in
Constantinople: for there were no more than three Frank families of
the middling rank of life in all Brusa, and the resort of European
travellers was but rare. The epithet of Christian dog was frequently to
be heard in the streets, not indeed applied to ourselves, but to the
poor _rayah_ Christians.

The vale of Brusa is almost as much renowned for its beauty as that
of Tempe: its fertility is past conception. One may ride for miles
in a continued shade of walnut, chestnut, fig, cherry, and mulberry
trees. These are the trees by the road-side; but, within the hedges, as
being less handy to be gathered, grow peach, apricot, pear, and apple
trees.[15] In every hedge flowering shrubs grew spontaneously; at every
step springs gushed from the side of the mountain. Through the centre
of the vale flow two rapid streams, fed by the melting of the snow;
and, surrounding the vale on every side, sloping hills, covered with
villages and diversified by cornfields and vineyards, bound the horizon.

That Lady Hester’s opinion was in accordance with my own, may be
gathered from a letter she wrote to a friend, from which the following
passages are extracted:--

   “How I wish you were here to enjoy this delicious climate, and
   the finest country I ever beheld! Italy is nothing to it in
   point of magnificence. The town of Brusa is situated at the foot
   of the Mount Olympus; it is one of the largest towns, and may
   be considered the capital of Asia Minor: the houses are like
   all Turkish houses, bad in themselves, but so interspersed with
   trees and mosques that the whole has a fine effect; the view
   quite delightful over an immense plain more rich and beautiful
   than anything I ever saw, covered with trees, shrubs, and
   flowers of all descriptions; the rides are charming, and the
   horses better than any of those I have met with out of England.

   “How beautiful are these Asiatic women! they go to the bath from
   fifty to five hundred together; and when I was bathing, the
   other day, the wife of a deposed pasha begged I would finish
   my bathing at a bath half a mile off, that she might have the
   pleasure of my society, but this I declined; they bathe with
   all their ornaments on--trinkets I mean--and, when they have
   finished, they bind up their hair with flowers, and eat and talk
   for hours; then fumble up their faces all but their eyes, and
   sit under trees till the evening.”

Brusa, nevertheless, was full of beggars; and the city gates used to be
thronged with miserable objects, exciting compassion by the exhibition
of distorted limbs, offensive sores, and filthy tatters. Add to this
that, from the want of gutters in the streets, the pedestrian has to
pick his way through mud and puddle every step he takes; and that the
splendid supply of water, afforded them by the Almighty, is, by their
neglect, rendered an absolute nuisance. As the summit of Mount Olympus
is so high as to be covered with snow all the year round, a portion of
it melts annually, and pours, in numerous rivulets, down the sides into
the plain.

Three days after my arrival, Lady Hester, accompanied by Mr. B.,
reached Brusa; and they were as much enchanted with the beauty of the
country as I had been. We used to ride out every day in the environs of
the city. One day we came to a large piece of ground, sown with barley,
which was now just in ear; and on it, tied by the leg, were grazing
twenty horses belonging to a banished pasha, who lived at Brusa. Lady
Hester, who was a great admirer, as well as a great judge, of horses,
thought one of them so beautiful that she fancied she should like to
purchase it as a present to some friend in England. It was an Arabian,
and she begged the groom, an Egyptian, who was tending them, to mount
and show her its action; but he declined, alleging that he had no
saddle.

We were witnesses, during our stay at Brusa, to the miseries consequent
on war. Several hundreds of Bulgarians, who had been driven from their
homes, and whose houses and property had been burned and destroyed in
the war between the Russians and the Turks, passed through Brusa, in
search of a spot on which to build themselves fresh habitations. They
drove before them their flocks, their mares, and their cows; whilst
their wives rode in covered carts drawn by buffaloes, of which animals
great use is made in this part of the world. These Bulgarians wore,
for clothing, sheep-skins, with the wool turned inward in winter and
outward in summer: their look was fierce and independent.

There was always a drawback on my pleasure, which there seemed to
be little hope of surmounting. This was my ignorance of the Turkish
language. I had now been in Turkey six months, and yet I hardly knew
how to ask for water to drink. This was not owing to my aversion to
the language, or to my indolence, but to the difficulty there is to a
free intercourse with the people. Travelling here, I found, was not
like travelling in Christendom, where a stranger goes into the society
of the natives, is received with politeness by them, and can, if he
chooses, take up his abode in the family of some one of the country.
With Moslems this is not practised. A Turk would as soon receive a
viper as an infidel into his house. The women, as they pass, cover
themselves to the very tips of their fingers, lest the poisonous
eyes of a Christian should bring evil upon them. The shopkeepers and
artificers will, it is true, supply you with their commodities, if
you pay for them; but with so ungracious an air, that one’s self-love
is sorely wounded. This unwillingness to have any intercourse with
Christians is a partial barrier to the quick attainment of their
language, and an almost effectual one to the knowledge of their
domestic customs.

I was accompanied, in all the professional visits I made, by my servant
Lorenzo, who acted as interpreter. Lady Hester found in Mademoiselle
Arles, the daughter of the French merchant, a young lady whose perfect
knowledge of the Turkish language made her an excellent means of
communication between the Turkish ladies and herself, whenever she paid
visits.

Soon after we were settled, I was solicited by the Governor of the
city to visit his son, an infant, who was dangerously ill. I had him
under my care for some time, and my constant attendance at the palace
led to an acquaintance between the Governor’s wife and Lady Hester.
Mademoiselle Arles would, on these occasions, perform the office of
interpreter. In the course of a few days, Lady Hester had received and
accepted invitations from some of the persons of distinction of whom
Brusa is so full; it being the city to which the Sultan is accustomed
to send vizirs and pashas, who suffer under his displeasure. At first,
Mademoiselle Arles said, doubts had been raised whether Lady Hester was
really a woman: for, as she rode about in an English riding-habit, a
dress (if the skirts were shorter) not altogether unlike that of the
pages of the Seraglio, it was whispered about that she was a boy; more
especially as she rode on a side-saddle, somewhat in the manner in
which the dromedaries are ridden, instead of astride, like the women
in the East. Besides, she went with her face uncovered. And so serious
were these doubts, that, when she went to the public baths frequented
by the women of the place, they all hid and covered themselves in a
great bustle, and were not convinced of their error for some time.

The female dress at Brusa pleased me exceedingly: but my fair
countrywomen will not admire my taste, when I tell them that here, and
elsewhere throughout Turkey, women wear no stays. The sex seemed to
have but few amusements. They were allowed to gad about the streets
as much as they pleased, and go to the baths when they liked; and,
although their faces and bodies on such occasions were so completely
covered that their very husbands could not know them, yet the customs
of the country, that do not admit of a woman’s walking out alone, are
a barrier to intrigue. At home, even a married woman must not see any
persons of the other sex but her husband and her nearest relations;
while the unmarried are seen by no one out of the family. Mademoiselle
Arles told us, likewise, that husbands here were very tyrannical, and
that corporeal chastisement was by no means uncommon. The wife, who is
on the very best terms with her husband, can be said, after all, to be
but his slave. When he enters the harým, or women’s apartment, he claps
his hands at the outer door as a signal, and the wife must immediately
hasten to receive him. As he walks, with an air of grandeur, into the
inner room, she humbly follows. He seats himself on the sofa, but does
not permit her to sit down until she has served him with a pipe and a
cup of coffee: then, with a sign of submissive reverence to her lord
and master, she takes her place at a distance; and, when he has smoked
his pipe, he perhaps relaxes his heavy visage into a smile, and permits
her to caress him. This is the way among the better sort of persons.
Among the lower orders the husbands are said to be quite brutal: and
the poor wife’s only protection is the occasional threat that she will
have a separation; for divorce, by the Mahometan law, is an affair
easily effected, and often practised.

As the time for occupying the house at Therapia had expired during
our stay at Brusa, we had no longer any residence at Constantinople;
Lady Hester, therefore, wished me to return thither for the purpose
of hiring one. Accordingly, on the 1st of June, I set off; and, on
my arrival, I hastened to the house of Mr. Alexander, her ladyship’s
banker. I was shocked to learn that the worthy man had died of fright a
few days before. It appeared that, in the street in which Lady Hester
had lodged on her first arrival at Constantinople, a fire had broken
out, which had raged so fiercely as to have consumed fifty houses,
among which were those of the Russian and Austrian ambassadors. The
conflagration would have extended farther, had not a copious fall of
rain soaked the wooden houses, and put a stop to it. But this of
itself became a calamity: for, one of the street sewers having been
stopped up, the street overflowed, and much damage was done by the
water.

The frequency of these accidents is assigned as a reason why the
inhabitants of Constantinople sleep in their clothes, that they may
be ready to make their escape. When the fire broke out, Mr. Alexander
had been suddenly awakened with the cry in the streets; and, hastily
rising, had rushed to the street, where he fell dead in an apoplectic
fit. He was a man who spoke fluently six languages. I visited the spot
where the fire had raged; but, as the buildings in this city are almost
always of wood and very slight, not a wall remained standing.

Having heard that the Austrian Internuncio, Baron Sturmer, had a roomy
house in a village near Constantinople, where no Europeans lived (which
I knew to be a particular recommendation to Lady Hester,) I went to
him, procured the key, and looked it over: after which I hired it
furnished for a thousand piasters, for six months.

It is said that there was a time when the ministers of two hostile
courts residing at Constantinople would remain in friendly intercourse
with each other: but an opposite principle had been adopted since
the reign of the First Consul and Emperor of the French, who, both
in regard to his own minister and to those ministers over whom he
had influence, interdicted all communication with the English. An
interview therefore with the Austrian Internuncio was not a light
matter; and, for the better prevention of any ill construction being
put upon it, I received intimation that the place of meeting must be in
his garden.

I remained to dine on the fourth of June at the English palace, in
celebration of his Britannic Majesty’s birthday, and then returned to
Brusa. Among the guests at the palace were the Hon. Frederick North
(late Earl of Guilford,) and Mr. Frederick Douglas, his nephew, both of
whom very shortly afterwards came to Brusa on a visit to Lady Hester.

On the 1st of July, 1811, we quitted Brusa, after passing two most
agreeable months there. The same evening we embarked at Mudania, and on
the close of the second day reached Bebec.

Bebec is a village on the Bosphorus, chiefly inhabited by Turks and
Armenians: it is three or four miles from Constantinople. On the edge
of the canal there was a very elegant kiosk, or summer residence of
the Grand Signor, but which was not often visited by him. The house I
had taken had once belonged to a Turk, from whom it passed into the
hands of the Austrian Internuncio in lieu of a debt. It was built of
weather-boarding, and painted of a tarry red, like some barracks built
in England during the late war. This red is the privileged colour of
Mahometans: for a Greek or an Armenian dares not paint his house with
it, and can use only a lead colour.

The interior of all Turkish houses is divided into two parts; the
largest and best furnished of them is occupied by the women, and is
called the harým; the other part, named the _selamlik_, consists
seldom of more than two or three rooms, where the master of the house
receives male visitors, and transacts business. Into the harým female
visitors enter, but no other man than the husband, his and his wives’
nearest relations, and now and then her physician. All the windows are
barred and latticed, so that it is not only not possible to look in,
but hardly possible for those inside to look out.

Attached to the harým of the house at Bebec there were a superb marble
bath, a garden, and other comforts for the amusement of the imprisoned
inmates. Provisions are taken in by means of a turn-about, such as
is used in convents. All these contrivances are, in some measure,
securities for the chastity of the women; but the greatest of all is
included in the feeling, impressed upon them from their infancy, of the
positive criminality of showing their faces to strangers.

Another fire broke out during this month in the south-east part
of Constantinople, called the Fanál, the quarter where the Greeks
reside, and consumed (as it was said) a thousand houses. Fires will be
ever frequent in a metropolis where so much anarchy prevails, where
the plunderers are more numerous than the sufferers, the gainers
than the losers. It was rumoured that the janissaries were the
wilful incendiaries in this case. That corps still continued very
disaffected, and always suspicious lest the Turkish government should
effect their abolition. As a body they were too powerful to be punished
openly; yet every day some of those known to be the most dangerous were
secretly conveyed away, and were heard of no more.

Northerly winds were so prevalent at this time, that, for six weeks,
they blew invariably from that quarter. Although the season was thus
far advanced, the Turkish fleet had not yet begun its annual summer
cruise. It is not difficult for two hostile fleets to find each other,
if so disposed; but the Black Sea was roomy enough for the Russians and
Turks to cruise without meeting.

The heat of the climate is by no means oppressive, tempered as it is
by breezes from the two seas. The thermometer generally during this
month stood at 80° Fahrenheit, at noon. Grapes were now at a penny per
pound, melons three pence a piece, fresh figs almost for nothing; so
that a handsome and plentiful dessert cost but a trifle. But the supply
for the table was in many respects deficient; and it was seldom that a
good dinner, according to the English fashion, could be served up. The
mutton was not good, and beef and veal were rarely to be found in the
market, although there are numerous droves of horned cattle to be seen
on the mountains. The butter had a disagreeable taste. Potatoes and
cabbages were scarcely to be met with; turnips not at all. Few of the
kinds of fish which were caught were well tasted: the best to my palate
was the sword-fish, which is in season in August, and in appearance and
taste, when served up, might be mistaken for delicate veal.

My long residence in Constantinople had given me time to form an
extensive acquaintance, and, from some successful cures, I was much
solicited to settle there. It would indeed have been a desirable
situation as far as money was concerned; but I was under engagements
with Lady Hester which precluded such a thought. The Turks, and also
the Armenians, were exceedingly liberal in their fees; the Greeks were
not so.

Lady Hester spent a few days, about this time, at Belgrade, a village
rendered celebrated by the praises bestowed upon it by Lady M. W.
Montague. With the exception of this one village, all the inhabitants
of Constantinople who have villas prefer living in the villages on
the banks of the Bosphorus. The wherries, with two or three pair of
oars, transport them from door to door. Soft mattresses are spread,
with cushions to recline on, there being no seats as in our wherries,
and they indulge in an agreeable indolence, fanned by the zephyrs,
and rocked by the scarcely undulating waves. It must not be imagined,
however superior we may generally be to the Turks, that we are their
inferiors in nothing; and I have been often vexed to hear persons,
little acquainted with that people, pronounce their entire inferiority
with as little ceremony as if they had passed years in investigating
the subject. Few of the travellers who visit Constantinople take the
pains of learning the language, and most of the residents are equally
negligent. There was one lady, an Englishwoman, who had lived three
years at Pera, and yet had never had the curiosity to cross the harbour.

During the summer I learned to throw the _girýd_, or blunt
javelin; and, as I conceive it to be thrown by the Turks in the same
manner as practised by the ancients during the time of the Trojan war,
I shall endeavour to make the reader understand it. When a javelin
is put into the hand of a person unused to handle such a weapon, and
he is desired to throw it, he invariably elevates his hand and arm;
and, holding the javelin on a level with his head, or still higher,
throws it overhanded. But this I conceive is not the mode employed
by the ancients; nor is the same degree of power acquired as in the
underhanded manner, which is as follows. The javelin, being from
three and a half to five feet long, and of equal weight at both ends,
is taken in the palm of the hand, resting in a position out of the
horizontal one by a trifling elevation of the point, and is pressed
almost entirely by the finger and thumb alone. The arm is straightened,
the bend of the arm faces outwards, and the elbow is turned inwards, so
that it points to the hipbone. Then a position is assumed, exactly such
as a man would take who should fence left-handed, and, in this way,
the javelin is discharged as if slung from the whole arm, without any
effort at the wrist, and little at the elbow. On horseback, the impulse
is greater, because the horse is brought to a sudden halt and a wheel
about to the left, just at the moment of throwing the javelin. Girýd is
an Arabic word, meaning _a branch of the palm-tree_; such a branch
being generally used for a sham javelin, as being firm, heavy, and
elastic, and having a slight tapering from one extremity to the other.

About the 20th of April, the Captain Pasha was sent with troops and
gun-boats to reduce a place called Heracli, on the Asiatic coast of
the Black Sea, the governor of which was in rebellion. Up to the
time of our departure it was not known what success had attended
this expedition; but a Greek one day answered to my inquiries how
the pasha got on--“Oh! we shall shortly have some information: for,
according to his success or failure, there will be an exhibition at the
Seraglio-gate, of the head of the rebel governor or of his own.”

The Ramadán, or fast of the Mahometans, began this year on the 27th
of September. It is known to the reader that this fast continues for
a whole moon, during which time no person, whatever his rank may be,
takes nourishment of any sort from sunrise to sunset. When it falls,
as it did this year, during the hot weather, so long an abstinence
is intolerable; and the boatman, who is rowing almost continually
for twelve or fourteen hours, or the bathman, who remains for a whole
day in an atmosphere fifteen degrees hotter than the hottest day in
England, each without daring to cool his thirst with one drop of water,
may be considered as enduring a species of penance, which shows the
devoutest submission to the laws of his Prophet.

Lady Hester’s application to the French court was unsuccessful. It had
given rise to a characteristic letter, which is inserted.

           _Lady Hester Stanhope to the Marquis Wellesley._

    My Lord,

   You are aware, my lord, that I left England on account of my
   health, which, though mended, is by no means re-established:
   and I always suffer extremely from cold. In the course of last
   winter I had often expressed a wish that it were possible I
   could visit either Italy or the South of France: which coming
   to the ears of Mr. Latour Maubourg, the French _chargé
   d’affaires_ at this place, he was so good as to hint, through
   a third person, that he should be most happy to give me every
   assistance in his power to accomplish this object. I ought,
   perhaps, in the first instance, to have communicated this
   circumstance to Mr. Canning, and to have fairly told him it was
   my intention to take advantage of the opportunity which now
   presented itself of making the acquaintance of Mr. Maubourg,
   and of requesting him to forward my views in the manner which
   he thought most honourable and respectable to both parties.
   But respecting, as I do, his many virtues, I did not wish to
   quarrel with him, or appear openly to disregard his authority,
   or publicly to ridicule the very idea of any person presuming to
   doubt my patriotism.

   The above reasons decided me to see Mr. M. privately; who is
   also very young for his situation, but which his talents fully
   qualify him to fill. Nothing can have been more candid, more
   honourable, than his conduct upon this occasion. He lost no
   time in writing to Paris for passports, and his answer may be
   expected every day.

                                            HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

   August, 1811.

So, having grown fearful of spending another winter at Constantinople,
preparations were made for quitting that city. At first she thought
of returning to Athens, and of trying a winter there; for the air of
Athens is salubrious and mild; the antiquities would always afford
amusement, and subjects for study; whilst they constantly attract
strangers of different countries who compose a small society. Lastly,
its situation would be a step on the route which it was proposed
to continue towards Syria and Egypt; but this plan was afterwards
abandoned, and it was resolved to sail for Egypt, and pass the winter
there.

A Greek vessel with a Greek crew was accordingly hired, for which the
sum of £65 was to be paid for the whole voyage. In the mean time, I
sold my horses, dismissed my Albanian groom, forwarded some books and
other articles to England, in order to lighten my baggage, and bade
adieu to my Constantinople friends; and, whether Turks, Armenians,
Greeks, or Franks, I saw the moment approach of quitting them with
sincere regret. I received from the fair hands of several ladies
various embroidered articles in which were wrapped their pecuniary
acknowledgments of my professional attentions. One was from the wife
of Ibrahim Effendy, son of the Ibrahim Kekhyah, who lost his head
with Sultan Selim. She herself was daughter of the grand almoner of
the Sultan; and she told the Countess of Ludolf, wife of the late
ambassador from the court of Naples to England, but at that time
residing at Constantinople, and in intimacy with her, that she began to
think, since she had known me, there might be some good sort of people
among the infidel barbarians of the West and North. An embroidered
purse was presented to me from the wife of a gentleman named Mikitar,
who was master of the mint, and an opulent banker, and the sister of
Mr. Ayda, an Armenian gentleman, whom the charms of an English lady
had nearly fixed in this country. This purse contained new specimens
of every coin that had issued from the Mint during his administration.
These and a variety of other curiosities, together with all my luggage
of every kind, my journals, &c., were lost by shipwreck in our passage
to Egypt, as will be narrated in its proper place.

Eastern countries became every day more agreeable to me. Whatever
shocked at first, became by degrees familiar, and at last appeared
almost necessary to my comfort. The dignified gravity of the men
pleased me, and I admired the domestic virtues of the women. The placid
mien and the extraordinary sobriety of all persons (excepting the
soldiery), the decorous, but condescending demeanour of superiors, and
the humility of inferiors, were all marks of minds rightly organized;
and I am not ashamed to say that I more than once applauded the
principle which confined music and dancing to professors only, or to
such as were born with a natural genius to excel in those arts, and
banished from society that anomaly--a woman, half lady, half artist,
half courtezan, who passes her time in displaying her attractions
to gain the admiration of men to whom she ought to be perfectly
indifferent, except on the score of worth, good conduct, and religion.




                              CHAPTER VI.

   Departure from Constantinople--Prince’s Islands--Scio--Drunken
   Turk--Rhodes--Storm--The ship springs a leak--Servants
   dismayed--Land seen--The ship founders--Escape of the passengers
   to a rock--The sailors proceed to the Island of Rhodes--They
   return--The crew mutiny--The passengers gain the Island; and
   reach a hamlet--Our distressed situation--The Author departs
   for the town of Rhodes--Hassan Bey refuses assistance--The
   houses--Lady Hester ill of a fever--Lindo--Its port--The
   Archon Petraki--Reports that the party were lost--Lady Hester
   arrives at Rhodes--Town--Why Lady Hester chose the Turkish
   dress--Posting in Turkey--Mustafa.


We sailed from Constantinople on the 23rd of October, 1811. The party
consisted of Lady Hester Stanhope, Mr. B., Mr. Henry Pearce, myself,
an English maid servant, Mrs. Fry, a _maître d’hôtel_, four men
servants, a cook, and a scullion, all Greeks. The master of the ship
and his crew were likewise of that nation. Live sheep, poultry, wine,
everything that could make the voyage comfortable, had been provided;
and the hold of the ship had been partitioned into small cabins, so as
to lodge every individual separately.

On quitting the Bosphorus, we encountered a contrary wind, which
compelled us to take refuge among the Prince’s Islands, where we
remained weatherbound five or six days. At last a north wind set in,
and carried us, in a short time, through the Dardanelles, to the Island
of Scio, where strong gales again detained us, but not unpleasantly,
for ten days; since the vivacity of the inhabitants and the novelty
and beauty of the country offered us much diversion. Our pleasure,
however, was likely to have been damped by an accident not uncommon
in Turkey. A Turkish soldier, who was passenger in a ship moored next
to ours, having drunk too freely of wine, took umbrage at something
that was said by one of our sailors, who was on the quarter-deck, and
drew his pistol from his girdle and fired at him; but, not taking a
just aim, the ball entered the ship’s quarter, and passed through
the musquito-net suspended over Lady Hester’s bed. Fortunately, it
so happened that Lady Hester had gone on shore to take a ride in the
country; otherwise some mischief might have been done. On her return,
the man was apprehended, and the governor of the town politely sent
word that he should be punished in any way she might desire; but she
said she required no other chastisement for him than such as he merited
by the laws of his own country.

The wind now becoming fair, we unmoored, and were carried, without any
accident, as far as Rhodes, where we stopped but a few hours to take
in water and fresh bread; we then sailed, little imagining we should
so soon return thither. It was on Saturday night, the 23rd November,
that we quitted the island. We ran for two days under a press of sail,
and must have made half our way to Alexandria, when the sky became
lowering, and a southerly wind obliged us to beat to windward the whole
of the 25th of November. In the evening, the gale having increased,
we wore ship. On the 27th, the ship sprang a leak, and the cry of all
hands to the pump immediately showed that some danger impended.

It is seldom that the Levantine ships have pumps, or, when they have,
they are so little used as generally to be found unserviceable when
wanted: and such was the case with ours. The water increased rapidly,
and every exertion was necessary to check its progress. Mr. B., Mr.
Pearce, myself, and all the servants, were unremittingly employed in
raising and lowering the buckets, which were plied at the hatchways,
as well as at the wells; whilst the pilot directed the ship’s course
towards Rhodes.

In the mean time, Lady Hester, who had been informed of the leak,
became aware, from the confusion which prevailed, that great danger
was apprehended. She dressed herself, and quietly directed her maid to
furnish a small box with a few articles of the first necessity, to be
prepared against the worst. There was a cask of wine in the cabin,
which had been brought to drink on the voyage. This her ladyship, with
her own hands, drew and distributed among the sailors, to cheer them
under the labour, which became very severe.

The wind had now risen to a complete gale, and, about twelve o’clock,
the ship heeled gunwale down, and was so waterlogged that she never
recovered an upright position afterwards. As our situation became more
alarming, two or three of the Greek servants began to lose courage,
and, throwing themselves flat on the deck, vented the most womanish
lamentations, nor could they be induced by either threats or promises
to work any more. One shook as if he had an ague fit; and another
invoked the Virgin Mary, with continued exclamations of, “_Panagia
mou! panagia mou!_”

Things wore this unpromising appearance when, about three o’clock, the
south-west point of the island of Rhodes was discovered on our weather
bow. The pilot immediately put the ship’s head as direct to it as the
wind would permit. Every person took fresh courage, and our exertions
became greater than ever. But the ship was no longer obedient to the
helm, and we lost, in lee-way, what we gained in progress. We were
perhaps not more than two miles from the island, and it was resolved to
let go an anchor. The anchor, however, proved of no use, and the ship
still drove.

The leak had now gained so much upon us that there was every
probability the ship could not long keep afloat, and it was resolved
that the long-boat should be hoisted out as our only resource. This was
made known to Lady Hester, and, the order having been given that no
one should burden the boat with luggage, it was with much difficulty
lowered into the sea. Whilst this was doing, I went down into the
cabin, and took from my trunk a bag of dollars, which, with my sabre
and a pistol, was all that I saved.

I hastened upon deck, and, jumping into the boat, where already
twenty-four persons had got before me, we let go the rope, and placed
all our hopes on reaching a rock, which was about half a mile to
leeward of us. No sooner were we free from the lee of the ship than
the danger to which we were exposed became still more formidable than
before. Almost every wave beat over us. Providence, however, watched
over our safety; and we at last got to the leeward side of the rock,
where a little creek, just large enough to shelter the boat, received
us, and we landed. But, when we came to reflect on our position, it
seemed still very deplorable. There was only one place, a sort of
cavity in the rock, which afforded shelter from the spray. There was
no fresh water, and, in the hurry of quitting the ship, that, as well
as provisions, had been forgotten. Fatigue, however, was at present
the most urgent sensation; and we all composed ourselves, in our wet
clothes, to sleep; the cave in the rock being assigned to Lady Hester
and her maid.

About midnight the wind abated a little, and the master proposed
attempting to reach the land; averring it was as well to perish at
once as to be starved to death. He suggested that, if the crew only
was taken with him, there would be a much better chance of effecting
his purpose; and that, once arrived, he could provide boats for our
deliverance: whereas, if all went, the boat would in all probability
sink. These arguments were deemed valid, and, accompanied by our
prayers, they launched off. It was agreed that, when they reached the
shore, they should make a fire as a signal of their safety; and, in the
course of two hours, we saw the wished-for blaze.

Daylight came, and we remained without food or drink, anxiously looking
out for the return of the crew. Our reflections were by no means
comfortable: for, knowing the character of the Greeks, we could not
be sure that, once safe themselves, they would not abandon us to our
fate. We watched all day, and it was not until about a quarter of an
hour before sunset, that a black speck was seen on the sea, which we at
length distinguished to be a boat. It contained the crew, but without
the captain, who had declined the danger of coming off again. They
brought us bread, cheese, water, and arrack; and thus, after thirty
hours’ fasting, we satisfied our hunger and thirst.

But another danger now stared us in the face. The sailors had found
liquor on shore, and had made themselves drunk. They grew riotous and
insolent, and, in the course of the night, declared their resolution of
rowing back again. In vain we requested they would wait till daylight,
till the wind abated, and till the rain was over. They were determined;
and, as those who remained behind could have no chance but to perish,
we were compelled to go with them. The sea was high; and, as they were
pulling almost in the face of it, the labour of the sailors was very
severe. But, for the same reason, the nearer we approached the shore
the smoother the water became. At last the stern touched, and a wave,
that filled her from head to stern, at once overwhelmed us. Lady Hester
was hoisted out of the boat, and each made his way on shore as he
could. The boat, soon after, was swamped and staved.

Close to where we landed there was a small windmill, where we
accommodated Lady Hester and her maid in the best manner we could,
whilst a blazing fire was made on the outside, round which we all
collected. But we were soon joined by Mrs. Fry, who was so terrified
by the rats, which ran up and down the ropes in the mill, that nothing
could induce her to remain with her mistress. The rain all this time
fell in torrents. The miller was despatched to his village, which was
near at hand, to bring down conveyances to carry us to a place of
shelter. At daylight he returned, and with him several peasants with
mules and asses, which we mounted, and reached in a short time a
hamlet, the most miserable that can be conceived as the habitation of
human beings. Among all the cottages, there was not one into which the
rain did not penetrate, whilst the filth within and about them was to
the last degree disgusting: add to which they all swarmed with fleas.
Yet, in other parts of the island of Rhodes, we had reason to admire
the neatness and comfort of the peasants’ habitations.

The weather now became beautifully fine, as if to mock our misfortunes.
Nothing had been saved from our ship: no one had linen to change: and
some speedy means were to be contrived, to remedy these inconveniences.
Accordingly, it was settled that I should set off for the town of
Rhodes, and, by means of the English agent, whom we had already seen,
provide a few necessaries for Lady Hester, and, at the same time,
try to procure money; since what I had saved was only enough for our
immediate wants.

On the following morning, mounted on a mule and with a peasant for my
guide, I set off for the town, which I reached on the second day in
the evening. Not having ink or paper with me, I was unable to write
down what I saw; but I have a perfect recollection of the beauty
of the country, of the groves of myrtle and oleander, of the clean
houses of the peasants, of their dresses of white cotton, and of their
hospitality. For, having slept the first night at a cottage where I
was entertained with a plentiful supper and accommodated with a clean
bed, on asking my guide what recompense I should make, he told me that
twenty paras was quite enough, which were about equal to an English
sixpence.

The news of our shipwreck had already reached the town by the captain,
who had made the best of his way thither the moment he had landed. A
large bundle of linen was immediately packed up, and sent back by the
mule which brought me. The next day I paid a visit to the governor,
Hassan Bey, to whom I represented the situation of Lady Hester and
her party, and asked him to advance some money, until measures could
be taken for obtaining some from Smyrna: but, ignorant who we were,
he refused to lend assistance in any way. I found him seated on the
landing-place of the staircase of his palace, and of so mean an
appearance, that I had fairly passed him unnoticed, until Mr. Illarick
called me back, and whispered, “There’s the bey.” On approaching him,
one of his people roughly drove me back, and desired me to pull my
shoes off. The reason for this probably was that my dress, spoiled by
sea-water, was not such as to inspire much respect, and no one but a
privileged person is allowed to dispense with this ceremony, according
to Turkish usages.

As nothing was to be done with the bey, and as there was no time to be
lost, Mr. Illarick’s assistance was put in requisition to the utmost.
A house was prepared for Lady Hester, and another for the rest of her
party.

The houses in the town of Rhodes are incapable of lodging more than
one or two persons, if fixed bedsteads are used; for they consist,
generally at least in the Frank quarter, of no more than two rooms,
or three or four at the utmost. In those that I saw, the room on the
ground floor was paved with pebbles of different colours, of the size
of a hen’s egg, artificially and prettily arranged in stars, lozenges,
and other devices. At one end there was a gallery, raised five or six
feet, with a railing of unpainted fir. This served as a sitting-room by
day and a sleeping-room by night, for the principal part of the family.
On the first floor was a single room, floored, and ornamented with a
few open cupboards, painted red or some glaring colour, with birds or
trees upon them. Sometimes it had a recess in the wall for containing
beds and coverlets, which are placed there the moment they are done
with. The display of a store of these articles is a strong evidence of
good circumstances, not only at Rhodes, but, as I have since observed,
in other parts of Turkey.

In the midst of my preparations for Lady Hester’s reception, I was
alarmed by the arrival of a peasant in the night with a letter, by
which my immediate attendance was required at Lindo, on the east side
of the island, where Lady Hester, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, had
fallen ill of a fever. It appeared that, after my departure from the
hamlet, the party had set off, and the route by the above-named town
had been suggested to them as least fatiguing. In it there lived a
Greek of rank, who had retired from Constantinople to this, his native
place. He had afforded them hospitality, and had offered to provide for
their wants, until they should receive succour from the city: and it
was at his house that Lady Hester was taken ill. A long day’s journey
through a country still more beautiful than that which I had passed on
the western side brought me to Lindo. Her Ladyship grew better after a
few days’ repose, and I then found leisure to perambulate the environs
of the town. I will leave Lady Hester herself to describe her situation.

                    _Lady Hester Stanhope to ----._

                                                 Rhodes, Dec. 1811.

    My dear ----,

   I write one line by a ship which came in here for a few hours,
   just to tell you we are all safe and well. Starving thirty hours
   on a bare rock, even without fresh water, being half-naked and
   drenched with wet, having traversed an almost trackless country,
   over dreadful rocks and mountains, partly on foot and partly on
   a mule for eight hours, laid me up at a village for a few days:
   but I have since crossed the island on an ass, going for six
   hours a day, which proves I am pretty well now at least.

   The Consul here is a dear old fellow of seventy-five, who thinks
   he cannot do too much for us; but the bey pretends to be so
   poor, that he cannot give us more than thirty pounds, which
   will neither clothe nor feed eleven naked people for long;
   so we must send an express to Smyrna to get what we want. My
   locket, and the valuable snuff-box Lord Sligo gave me, and two
   pelisses, are all I have saved;--all the travelling equipage for
   Syria, &c., all gone;--the servants naked and unarmed: but the
   great loss of all is the medicine-chest, which saved the lives
   of so many travellers in Greece. How to repair it, I know not.
   I expected more medicine out by Mr. Liston; but whether he has
   forwarded it, or kept it, I know not: if you could assist me in
   this once more, I should thank you much. I may be able to get
   a little at Smyrna, but I am told all the medicine-shops were
   burnt by the late fire. The moment I can get a few necessaries
   from Smyrna, I shall depart to Tripoli, in Syria; therefore if
   you can assist me about medicine, pray forward it to Mr. Werry,
   and he will send it by the first opportunity.

   B----, Mr. Pearce, and the doctor, are quite well. They have
   saved nothing; but do not fancy us dull, for we (myself
   included) danced the Pyrrhic dance with the peasants in the
   villages in our way hither.

   We have lost a poor dog, which was quite a treasure; it was
   so frighted and so sick, we could not get it into the boat.
   I lament this every day, and little else, except the most
   beautiful collection of conserves for you and two other people,
   violets, roses, orange-flowers, and almost every sort of fruit.

   Wynne is here, and is very kind to me. You will receive a longer
   letter through Mr. Werry. I enclose a line to Coutts and to my
   brother, whom I heard from at Scio. By accident, the young man
   you intrusted with my letters came there for a day. Remember
   me most kindly to Mr. Taylor: tell him I make conquests of
   Turks everywhere. Here they are ten times more strict than in
   Constantinople; yet a Turk has lent me a house and bath in the
   middle of an orange-grove, where I go to-morrow. The houses on
   the outsides of the walls where Franks live are only fit for
   poultry.

    Adieu, my dear General,
                    Believe me, ever yours, most sincerely,
                                                    H. L. STANHOPE.

There is something curious in the situation of Lindo. It stands on
a tongue of land cut off from the island by a rocky mountain, which
can be crossed only at a foot pace, by a mule path, and which in some
places is so steep as to have made it necessary to hew out rough steps.
Looking down from the summit of this mountain, you behold a neat town
of about 200 houses, commanded by a castle, built on an elevation
at the extremity of the tongue of land. There is an indentation in
the line of coast to the left of the town which forms a small bay;
whilst, on the right, a roomy basin, scooped by the hand of Nature
out of the solid rock, with an entrance half as narrow as its breadth
within, seems to want nothing but a little squadron to give a maritime
importance to the place. There was no vessel in either port.

The only spot of ground which the inhabitants seemed to have for
cultivation, was on the strand to the north. This strand went
traditionally by the name of the Arena, and seemed well adapted for
such games as the ancients gave in places of that denomination. To
the south-west of the town, but overhanging it, were to be seen the
remains of an ancient temple excavated in the rock, of which so much
still was left, as to show that it had Ionic pilasters. In the front
was an altar also hewn out of the rock.

The house in which Lady Hester was belonged to a person named
Philippaki. He was nearly allied to a prince, and consequently was an
archon himself. Mrs. Fry, however, Lady Hester’s maid, who had a great
aversion to learning languages, and a strong predilection to her native
one, as well as a habit of anglicising foreign words, used to call
the archon Philip Parker; just as Mustapha, who was at one time our
janissary, was metamorphosed into Muster Farr.

As soon as Lady Hester was well enough to resume her journey, we left
Lindo for the town of Rhodes. We slept one night at a village called
Archangelo, and arrived at Rhodes on the second evening.

Hassan Bey was not so polite to the party as most Turks would have been
in his situation. The master of the ship, besides being suspected of
having checked the bey’s civilities by not speaking of his passengers
in proper terms, was supposed to have had some interest in destroying
the vessel. It was accordingly determined not to make him any
recompense for the losses he pretended to have suffered. The sailors,
on the contrary, were rewarded liberally--more, perhaps, than their
exertions merited. Lady Hester wrote from this place the following
letter to a friend:--

                    _Lady Hester Stanhope to ----_

                                          Rhodes, Dec. 19, 1811.

    My dear ----,

   I wrote to you by a vessel going to Malta, but must write again
   through Mr. Werry. We are all safe and well at this place.
   My health has suffered less than I expected; but I was sadly
   fatigued one day’s journey from where we landed at the extremity
   of this island. The wet, the starvation for thirty hours on a
   bare rock in the middle of the sea, eight hours’ scrambling over
   rocks and mountains, laid me up for a day or two at the house of
   a most hospitable Greek.

   We can get nothing here, and have sent to Smyrna for clothes and
   money. We all mean to dress in future as Turks. I can assure you
   that if I ever looked well in anything, it is in the Asiatic
   dress, quite different from the European Turks.

   When I went on shore at Scio, I slept two nights at a Turkish
   house, and they would not admit even a dragoman; but I contrived
   to make myself understood, got an excellent breakfast, and set
   it all out in my own way, which amused them of all things; and
   one of their friends lent me a horse and a black slave to attend
   me. I do not know how it is, but I always feel at home with
   these people, and can get out of them just what I like; but
   it is a very different thing with the Greeks, who shuffle and
   shuffle, and you never can depend upon them for one moment.

   The late Grand-Vizier was exiled here, and is forbid to see
   people; but I mean to introduce myself into his society. I paid
   a visit to one at Scio, who was deposed when Turkey made peace
   with us, and a very gentlemanlike deep sort of a person he
   seemed to be.

   Adieu; remember me kindly to Mr. Taylor, if he is with you, and
   pray write to me soon.

                                    Yours most sincerely,
                                                 H. L. STANHOPE.

As many things that were necessary for us in our destitute situation
could not be procured at Rhodes, arrangements were made for my
immediate departure for Smyrna, in order to purchase a refit for the
whole party. It will be thought by many persons, that Lady Hester
Stanhope violated too far the regard due to her sex in the resolution
she now adopted of equipping herself as a man, and as a Turk. But let
it be recollected that she had lost everything in the shipwreck, and
that even the cities of the Levant, had she been in one, had neither
milliners nor mantua-makers, who understand how to make European female
dresses, nor materials for them, could she have made them herself. The
impossibility of getting what she wanted was therefore so evident,
that she unavoidably made choice of the Turkish costume, in which the
long robes, the turban, the yellow slippers, and pelisses, have really
nothing incompatible with female attire. Thus she was enabled to travel
unveiled, which, in woman’s clothes, would have been contrary to the
usages of the country: and, as Lady Hester decided on abandoning the
English costume, the rest of the party did the same.

My journey to Smyrna was to be made post, which, in Turkey, signifies
riding postillion fashion one’s self, and, instead of changing chaises,
changing horses only, and galloping from stage to stage, as fast as
mountains and forests will permit.

As I had never made an essay in this sort of travelling, it was
necessary that I should be provided, if not with a Tartar, (Tartars
being the proper couriers), at least with a person furnished with his
powers. Application was therefore made to Hassan Bey, to select such
a man from his people, and to regulate the price that should be paid
him for going and returning. He fixed on a robust fellow, of a dark
stern countenance and of rough manners, with a yatagan full three feet
in length, and a large brace of pistols in his girdle. He settled this
man’s recompense at 100 piasters, and his maintenance: and furnished me
with an order to have post-horses on the road.




                             CHAPTER VII.

   The Author sets out for Smyrna--Etienne--Port of
   Marmora--Arabkui--Oolah--Moolah--Aharkui--Ancient temple--Capu
   Rash--Sarcophagi--Chinny Su--River Meander--Ferry--Guzel
   Issar--Frank doctor--Ruins of Magnesia--Chapan Oglu’s
   officers--Baynder--Civility of the governor--Pressing a
   horse--Smyrna--Visit to the consul--Purchases--Renegado
   Welchman--Mustafa lays a plan to rob the Author--Departure
   for Rhodes--Eleusis--Scio--Stancho--Cavo Crio, the ancient
   Cnidus--Ruins--Wall--Temple--Theatre--Stadium--Rhodes--New
   dresses--Servants cabal--Georgio Dallegio--Town of
   Rhodes--Embarkation in the Salsette frigate--Harbour of
   Marmora--Arrival at Alexandria.


On the 22nd of December, 1811, I crossed from Rhodes in an open boat
for the coast of Caramania, accompanied by Mustafa, the chaûsh, and
Etienne, servant to Mr. Pearce, whose capacity as a linguist induced
Lady Hester to request his master to spare him to serve me as dragoman
on the road.

We entered the bay of Marmora about midnight, and soon afterwards
landed at a small town of the same name. Mustafa conducted me strait
to the aga of the place; whom he knocked up, and then made known to
him our business. The aga read the order with which I was furnished,
and immediately procured horses for us. Whilst these were getting ready
he treated us with coffee and pipes. On settling for the horses, it
appeared that all I was expected to pay for them was two piasters to
the servants of the aga, and two and a half to the postmaster, which
for about fifteen leagues (the distance we were to ride them before
changing), must be called cheap travelling. It will be seen hereafter
how trifling were the expenses of this journey.

The horses were most miserable jades, and five in number; it being
customary to have a spare one in case of accidents. Our saddles were
put on them; pieces of felt being previously laid on their backs here
and there to save rubbing the old sores. We departed a quarter of an
hour before the dawn. The road lay by the side of a little brook, which
was almost hidden by a vast number of oleander bushes. We soon came
to the foot of a mountain, which we ascended by a path that would not
admit two horses abreast. The mountain was well wooded with pines,
being one of a chain which seemed to extend in every direction. After
toiling for two or three hours to the summit, which we reached about
three in the afternoon, Mustafa’s horse knocked up, and he was obliged
to shift from him to the spare one, and to leave the poor fatigued
animal there to perish (so at least I supposed) by cold and wild
beasts: for through the whole day we had seen no hamlet or village.
There was, however, at the top of the mountain, where the horse was
left, a small caravansera containing a cistern supplied with rain
water where a traveller might shelter himself from the inclemencies of
the weather, and where perhaps the horse found (to him) a comfortable
stable.

A succession of ascents and descents, always over mountains covered
with firs, brought us at night to a village called Arabkui, which we
dared not enter on account of the huge dogs that guarded it; and,
turning somewhat to the left, our guide led us to a shed about two
hundred yards from the village, where we passed an uncomfortable night.

Etienne made a fire, expecting that somebody would come out from the
village of whom we might purchase provisions. At length, a tall,
dark-complexioned, ill-dressed fellow made his appearance, and we
begged him to get us something to eat. He gave us little hope; but
disappeared, and soon afterwards returned with bread, milk, and a
chicken, for which he was contented with one piaster and three paras.

As soon as day broke, we pursued our journey. In the course of about
three hours, the face of the country began to change. We quitted
the mountains for beautiful plains covered with verdure, watered
by rivulets, and adorned with natural groves of trees. We passed a
caravansera, like that of the preceding day, having nothing but bare
walls and a roof, and not a person in it.

Soon after noon we saw the minarets of mosques at a distance, and in
a short time arrived at Oolah, a large village, but with mean houses.
We stopped at the posthouse, where we found a fire, and an old carpet
spread before it. Here we dried our clothes and ate some bread and
honey whilst the horses were getting ready; in three hours, we reached
the town of Moolah, and at sunset the village of Aharkui, where we were
to stop for the night. We were shown into a cottage, where a dish of
eggs fried in butter and a dish of milk were served up to me; and for
this supper and the night’s lodging I was called upon to pay ten paras
only.

During this morning’s journey, after descending a mountain which
brought us into a most beautiful valley, terminated on the left by a
deep bay of the sea, we came, on a sudden, at a turn that led us from
the valley to the ascent of the mountain on the opposite side of it, to
a small ancient temple hewn out of the rock. It was a single chamber,
a few feet in depth, and from twenty to thirty broad. An architrave
formed the front, supported by six Ionic pillars, two in the centre and
two at each extremity.

At a place called Capu Tash, or stone gate, (where I remarked a great
number of stone sarcophagi, which lay scattered about, and which might
have given rise to the name,) we took horses for Guzel Issar, and, as
night overtook us, came to the banks of a broad river, which we forded
with much risk; for the continuance of the rains had swollen it greatly.

At length, through the obscurity of the night, we saw innumerable
lights; and Mustafa told me, with much exultation, that they marked
the site of Guzel Issar. These lights were the lamps which the Turks
suspend at the top of their mosques during the Ramazàn; and, as this
was the last day, which is called with them the feast of the Beyràm,
they were more than usually brilliant. We hurried on until we found
ourselves on the edge of a sedgy marsh, where we proceeded with great
caution upon narrow causeways, made to prevent animals from sinking
into the mire. To the right and left of us was a flooded marsh, and
in some places the causeway was so much covered that our guide could
scarcely find his road. In half an hour we came to the bank of a broad
and rapid river, the Meander: and our guide and Mustafa tired their
lungs in bawling for the ferryman. At length, a boat, of triangular
shape, was hauled across the stream, by means of a rope from bank to
bank, upon which traversed a pulley. The barge would hardly contain
us and our horses, and the apprehension of danger blinded me to the
beauties of the river, so celebrated by poets.

Proceeding again along other causeways similar to those we had passed,
we at last reached dry ground. Every thing now marked our approach to
a city-- gardens, extensive cemeteries, and a wide and beaten road;
until at last we entered it, amidst the light of thousands of lamps,
which illuminated the coffee-houses, the mosques, and the streets. Our
guide conducted us to a miserable room, from whence I hastened to the
bath, which, during Ramazàn, and particularly on the last day of it, is
open by night as well as by day. This served better than any thing else
could have done to refresh me after the fatigues of the journey; and,
returning from it to my bed on the floor at the posthouse, I slept as
comfortably and profoundly as I had ever done in my life.

I rose early in the morning, wishing to get a sight of whatever
antiquities the place might contain, and for this purpose I accosted an
apothecary’s boy; whom I saw standing in a small shop just out of the
caravansera door, dressed in Frank clothes; considering that he most
likely had a Frank master, who would be more or less informed on these
points. I was not mistaken, and he immediately sent a man to show me
the house of his master. On going up stairs, and telling him in Italian
what I wanted, he professed to be able to satisfy my curiosity. He
introduced me to his wife, a pretty woman, and made me go through the
usual civilities of a spoonful of preserve and coffee. He then took me
to an eminence, a little way in the suburbs, where I saw the remains
of several buildings. These were the ruins of Magnesia: but I had no
time to examine them in detail. The face of the country was extremely
beautiful: but the beauties of the Meander and its banks must not be
insisted on by one who passed it in a shower of rain in the winter.

On resuming our journey, we again entered among the mountains; and,
continuing to ascend, stopped about noon at a hovel by the road-side,
where a dirty-looking Greek sold coffee, bread and cheese, and other
provisions for the accommodation of travellers. Whilst we were
refreshing ourselves, three horsemen, exceedingly well mounted,
arrived, and, by their commanding air, showed themselves to be people
in authority. Mustafa told me they were officers of Chapan Oglu,
carrying treasure from some governor to their master, and made me
observe a pair of saddle-bags on a led horse, which he said were full
of specie; and indeed, though nothing in bulk, the horse seemed much
oppressed with the weight.

For many succeeding hours, the route lay over mountains, and always on
the ascent; until at last, from the summit of one that had caused us
more fatigue than the rest, the view of the city of Teery broke upon
us, situate in a fine plain, but seemingly so immediately under our
feet that it was difficult to conjecture how we should descend to it.
A winding and zigzag path brought us rapidly down, and we entered the
streets, proceeding, as usual, to the posthouse.

Teery struck me as a city with well built houses, and of much neatness.
We quitted it early, and proceeded on our way to Baynder, where we
slept. Baynder is a place of about the same class as Teery.

In the morning, when the horses were brought to the door, Mustafa
objected to them as sorry beasts that would not take us to Smyrna by
nightfall, and he insisted, as there was no intermediate stage, that
they should be changed. He might have insisted in vain, however, unless
backed by some authority; he therefore advised me to go to the governor
of the place, where, he said, he would show our order, make known who
I was, and see what that would do: we accordingly went. His palace was
a large wooden building, painted on the outside, and the room we were
ushered into was a long saloon, with sofas on the three sides, rich
and handsome. The governor, a fine-looking man, sat in the right-hand
corner, and invited me to come and seat myself beside him. He very
civilly desired to know who I was, and ordered some refreshment to be
set before me, treating me with so much politeness, that, instead of
coming to the point about better horses, to which Mustafa urged me by
winks and signs, I felt ashamed to trouble him; and, after satisfying
his curiosity about Lady Hester, concerning whom he asked many
questions, I rose and took my leave, putting Mustafa greatly out of
sorts for losing so favourable an occasion of getting what we wanted,
and, above all, for increasing the exultation of the postmaster over
him.

At last we mounted and rode off. The rain had not ceased from the
morning we left Marmora. The road lay for the most part of this day
through a level country, and we proceeded slowly and with little
prospect of reaching Smyrna by night, when, about three o’clock, as
we were passing over a widely extended down, we saw coming towards us
a solitary traveller. By his motions it was evident that he wished to
avoid us, for he struck out of the road: but Mustafa had marked him
for his prey; and, quitting the straight road likewise, he soon came
up with the traveller, who proved to be a Christian with a pair of
saddle-bags under him, mounted on a young horse. “Dismount, infidel,”
were Mustafa’s first words to him; “I must have your horse.” The man
remonstrated, saying he was going a long journey; that his horse was
his property and would be lost in Smyrna, and alleged several other
good reasons for refusing compliance: but Mustafa made no other reply
than that he would have the horse, and, raising his whip, used such
threatening gestures that the Christian dismounted, and prepared to
ungirth the saddle. Whatever I could say to Mustafa of the injustice
of what he was doing was in vain; my servant told me that such was the
practice of Turkish Tartars, and I desisted. The traveller then named a
particular caravansera in Smyrna, where he begged me to see his horse
stabled, and mounting the posthorse rode off, somewhat relieved of his
sorrow by a small present which I made him, and by my assurances that I
would see his beast taken care of.

Mustafa was now contented, and we galloped on more rapidly than ever.
Night soon overtook us, and about half an hour after sunset the barking
of dogs gave us notice that we were near the suburbs of Smyrna. We
reached the city gate, now shut, which was opened for a trifling
consideration. We entered on the land side, and, as the Frank quarter
is by the quays, we had nearly the whole town to traverse, under a
deluge from all the waterspouts, which in Turkish towns are generally
made to carry the rain from the roofs of the houses into the middle of
the street. I inquired for a Frank inn, where I was accommodated with
a very good chamber; and, having consigned the horses to the guide and
desired Mustafa to lodge himself where he thought proper, after a good
supper, I enjoyed a night’s refreshing sleep, which I had not been able
to do since leaving Rhodes.

I may here observe that the country through which I had just passed,
though at a season of the year when most naked in appearance, presents
richer scenery than I had ever beheld, excepting perhaps in the
environs of Brusa. There are magnificent mountains, vast forests,
fertile plains, rivers with their banks overhung with myrtle, oleander,
and willow, roaring cascades, rivulets--in fine, whatever Nature has to
boast of may be seen in the space between Marmora and Smyrna.

How often, as we traversed the country, with timber, limestone, and all
the facilities for colonizing, did I not regret the obstacles arising
from religion and prejudices, which must ever prevent the amalgamation
of Western and Eastern nations!--that our superabundant population
should be compelled to go in search of settlements to distant islands
and continents, instead of recovering from their neglected state these
once flourishing regions! Asia Minor is the field for emigrant labour;
a country where the bounties of Nature are so happily distributed, in
a climate so genial and so favourable to pleasurable life. Look at the
bays, the gulfs, the havens, the harbours, that gird its shore; examine
its mineral productions, its forests, its mountains, valleys, plains,
and rivers: and description would fail in the imperfect attempt to
paint such a noble region.

Baynder is twelve hours from Smyrna.

I did not forget, on awaking in the morning, to inquire, by means of
Etienne, after the Christian’s horse, and I found that Mustafa had,
according to my orders, consigned him over-night to the keeper of the
caravansera which had been indicated by his owner.

I now turned my thoughts to the business on which I was come. Dressing
myself in my still damp clothes, I inquired for the English consul’s
house, and was shown up into a very handsome breakfast-room, quite
in the English style, where a lady was preparing breakfast for two
gentlemen, one of whom was Mr. Werry, the consul, the other Captain
Beaufort.[16] My shabby clothes and somewhat equivocal appearance
procured me no great civility from any of them, until I presented my
letters to Mr. Werry, who, immediately on reading them, invited me
to breakfast, condoled with me on the misfortunes we had suffered,
and offered me every assistance in his power. Under his guidance, I
employed my time in buying all sorts of articles, so that the merchants
and shopkeepers could not imagine who I was, or why I could be laying
in such a stock of goods.

I was one morning visited by a man in Turkish clothes, who addressed me
in English. He told me he was a Welchman, and had come with a secretary
to the English embassy, in the quality of servant, to Constantinople,
where he had been induced to turn Mussulman. He said that he was poor
and miserable, and was desirous, through my assistance, of escaping
on board the Frederickstein, a British frigate, lying in the harbour,
in order to quit the country. I professed my inclination to aid him,
and addressed myself to Mr. Barthold, a gentleman connected with the
consulship, to whom I told the story, and engaged him in the man’s
interests. The means of his escape were all contrived; and, under the
pretence of buying himself some necessaries, he obtained from us a few
shillings, and left us under promise to come to the waterside at the
time we appointed: but he never came, and, apparently, his object was
no other than to get a little money from us.

Mustafa paid me regular visits every morning, being on board-wages of
sixty paras a day. When the time drew near for our departure, Etienne
told me many stories of the plots that Mustafa had laid in conjunction
with a gang of thieves to rob and assassinate us on our return, and
prayed me on no account to go back by land; I resolved to profit by his
advice, but pretended not to take it. Foreseeing that my only chance
of thwarting Mustafa, if he really were so disposed, was to mislead
him, I desired Etienne to agree with the postmaster for what horses
would carry the luggage, and continued my preparations as if going by
land until the 17th of January, when, having everything in readiness,
I found out a captain of a Greek saccolava or sloop, bound for Egypt,
took him, for greater security, to Mr. Werry’s, and having agreed, in
the presence of the consul, for my passage and my private accommodation
in the small cabin, at the price of one hundred piasters, I, to the
great astonishment of Mustafa, embarked the effects and ourselves the
same day, and by evening we were on our passage to Rhodes.

We anchored that night under Yenghy Kalés, the castle that defends the
entrance of Smyrna Bay. I had now time to examine my fellow-passengers,
of whom there was a great number, but the only one with whom I could
converse was a Catholic priest, who had studied at Rome, and spoke good
Italian. Mustafa, disliking his berth in the hold, had made a bold
attempt to obtrude himself into my little cabin, which I absolutely
opposed, as the medicine-chest, containing four or five hundred pounds
in money, was there.

At noon the next day we weighed anchor, and, at sunset, reached a
chiflik, or village, nearly opposite to Karabornu, where we cast anchor
for the night. In the morning we proceeded for Scio, which we reached
two hours after sunset, passing, in our way, the island of Eleusis.
The wind and weather had been variable all day, and we had scarcely
anchored in the harbour of Scio when a tremendous storm of wind,
thunder, and rain, came on, and lasted all night: so we remained here,
weatherbound, for three days.

On the 24th, a strong north wind having set in, we quitted Scio, and
on the following morning found ourselves in sight of Stancho, which we
were abreast of at sunset.

In the morning of the 26th, we weighed before daylight. Our course,
owing to the nature of the coast, was very winding, and the wind that
carried us from our anchorage would serve us no farther than to a port
on the main land, called by the sailors Cavo Crio, which we entered.

Perceiving on the shore, and around the port, the ruins of a city,
which I could distinguish by the columns and the size of the stones to
be of no modern date, my impatience would scarcely allow me to wait
until the vessel was moored, when I was put on shore; and the fruits
of my observations during this and the following day were as follows:
premising that I discovered afterwards that these were the ruins of the
city of Cnidus.

The ground is strewed with hewn stones, chiefly of the same materials
as the rock on which they lie, but here and there of marble: the former
seeming to be of a date more recent than the latter. In general, time
and other circumstances have so entirely demolished the structures
that it is impossible to trace out many of them with exactness. What I
clearly ascertained were these:--

1. A portion of the city wall, passing at the back of the ruins to the
south, parallel with the mole of the harbour: it had towers at certain
distances, and bears marks of being the work of later ages.

2. A temple of the Doric order, the columns fluted and about three feet
in diameter: of these none were standing. I could not make out the
outline of the foundations of this temple sufficiently to ascertain its
dimensions: neither could I discover any inscription that might throw
light upon it.

3. A theatre in tolerable preservation, the benches being nearly all
perfect, and only here and there overgrown with bushes. I counted
thirty-six rows from the bottom to the top: there were two entrances,
one at each wing, arched, and opening into the theatre about half the
height of the benches. Within, close to the entrance on the right side
(looking from the proscenium), there is a broad pedestal of marble
somewhat mutilated, but for what purpose designed I know not. Four
alleys, about two feet broad, facilitated the passage of the spectators
to the several benches. The whole is of an indifferently white marble.
There were two doors in front, with a few steps, the traces of which
are yet visible.

4. Adjoining to the theatre, the outline of a stadium may likewise (I
think) be traced: but, as it was not very evident, I give this as a
conjecture only.

5. At some distance from the theatre, and about halfway up the
mountain, (for the site of the city is on a rocky soil, which comes
down with a gradual slope to the harbour,) in prying among some bushes
almost so thick as to be impenetrable, I discovered the ruins of
another temple, the columns of which were much smaller than those above
mentioned, and fragments of the capitals showed that they were of the
Corinthian order. Portions of the entablature lay on the ground in the
same disposition that they had occupied when upright.

A person versed in antiquities would have been able to distinguish
many other interesting things. For instance, near the last mentioned
temple is a structure which I knew not what to call. Its dimensions are
too small to constitute it a theatre: it represented the segment of a
circle, less than a semicircle: it had benches, beneath which ran a
vaulted passage which served as an entrance.

After having finished my examination of the ruins, I climbed up the
rock at the back of the city wall; but it was barren, and I found
nothing to repay the fatigue.

The 26th, during the night, we had a tremendous storm, which continued
until the noon of the 27th. On the 28th the weather set in fine.
We weighed anchor, and, quitting our snug little port with a fine
and favourable breeze, we were not long before we saw Rhodes, which
we entered at sunset. It being too late to land, I deferred my
disembarkation until the following morning, when the cases were all
safely conveyed to the Frank quarter.

I found Lady Hester established in a small cottage by the sea-side,
about a league from the town, in a straggling village, named Trianda,
whither Christian inhabitants are accustomed to retire in the summer
season: and from this spot she addressed a letter which may find a
place here without impropriety.

                    _Lady Hester Stanhope to ----._

    From a little habitation three miles from the town of Rhodes.

                                           January 13th, 1812.

    My dear ----,

   Captain Beaufort will tell you in what sort of situation he and
   Captain Hope found us here, and that the latter is so good as to
   give us a passage to Egypt. I cannot say how much I feel obliged
   to both of them for the kindness they have shown us. Probably we
   shall see something more of Captain B. when he returns to this
   part of the world, and then I shall have the pleasure of hearing
   again about you.

   I know no news of any kind, as our Firmans are not yet come from
   Constantinople; when they do, I suppose I shall hear from his
   Excellency.

   I hear a party of fine gentlemen are come out to fish up
   curiosities, and that Mr. Gell is amongst the number. If I
   see anything of them, I will send you an account of all their
   learned airs, and the wise faces they will probably make over
   every crooked stick and worn-out stone which may meet their eye.

   I find poor Mr. Taylor has been ill. Pray mention how he was
   when he got to Malta; he is such an amiable man I cannot but
   feel interested about him; and, if he is still with you,
   remember me very kindly, and say I beg another time he will
   travel with plenty of medicine and a few more comforts, in case
   of illness. Poor François must have been half out of his mind
   when he saw his master so ill, and without assistance, though I
   am sure he would do all he could for him, and he is an admirable
   nurse.

   Captain Barrie, I find, has lost his fine ship. He had on board
   a most magnificent dress B. had sent home, and some beautiful
   Dresden china I picked up in a Jew’s shop, for which I paid
   about the tenth part of its value: also a very fine pelisse for
   old Mr. B.---- and all these things are lost. I am so sorry,
   too, for Captain B.; but as for the quiz of an ambassador, his
   losses concern me not at all.

   If Captain Whitby should come into Malta, pray tell him that I
   bore in mind how much cold affected him, and had got him a very
   good pelisse, but that it is gone to the bottom with everything
   else. I think I have little more to add than my constant good
   wishes for your health and comfort. Do forgive this sad scrawl,
   but I write upon my knee, having no table in the house. B.
   desires to be most kindly remembered to you, and believe me,

                                Ever yours, most sincerely,
                                             HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

Much anxiety had been caused by my long absence. The cases were opened,
and the party assumed their new dresses. Ignorant at that time of the
distinctions of dress which prevail in Turkey as in all countries,
every one flattered himself that he was habited becomingly. Lady Hester
and Mr. B. little suspect what proved to be the case--that their
exterior was that of small gentry; and Mr. Pearce and myself thought
we were far from looking like chaôoshes with our yatagans stuck in our
girdles. For each, in the choice he had made, had been guided by fancy:
not considering that in all countries particular costumes are affected
by particular ranks and professions: and that, excepting in the case of
public functionaries, simplicity combined with the intrinsic value of
the materials is, more than show, the mark of the private gentleman.

All the servants had been dismissed. As a recompense for their losses
in the shipwreck, they had been promised each a new suit of clothes,
and Lady Hester, not finding cloth to make them in Rhodes, had deferred
giving them until we should get to Alexandria. This was construed by
them into an evasion; and they thought, by threatening in a body to
give up their service, that they should compel her into a compliance:
but she immediately turned them off. Etienne, who was absent, though
not involved in the cabal, having been detected in administering
remedies as a doctor, was likewise dismissed. One servant only was now
left--Georgaki Dallegio, a native of Syra, in the Archipelago, who had
offered himself as a footboy to me, whilst I was at Constantinople. He
served me in this capacity for some weeks: and, being then somewhat
under the eye of Lady Hester, who observed his attention and activity,
he was taken into her service. He was a dark-complexioned boy,
extremely alert, intelligent, and speaking three or four languages.

The island of Rhodes is no doubt more picturesque and fertile than any
other in the Archipelago. The town of Rhodes must have once been very
handsome and regularly constructed, since those parts of it, built
by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, which still remain, attest
its former respectability. There is still one street nearly perfect,
where, according to tradition, the Knights resided. Escutcheons are
sculptured over several doors. The fortifications, if kept in repair,
might still be formidable. In several streets are to be seen those
large stone balls which were thrown from the cannon during the siege of
the place by the Turks; and one of these enormous guns still exhibits
its immense, but, I believe, harmless mouth from the castle. It is well
known that the Jews, for having betrayed the place to the Ottomans,
obtained the privilege of residing within the city walls, which is
generally denied them in other parts of the Turkish dominions.

The town has baths, several mosques, and derives much wealth from the
passage of shipping to and from Egypt, which generally touch here. Of
the ancient colossus I can say nothing. There are two harbours, and it
is even disputed across the entrance of which the giant strode. The
harbour where vessels enter is more properly a basin, with hardly water
enough to float a small ship; although, not many years back, it is said
a frigate could enter. There is a small dockyard here, and the bey
builds annually, I was told, a sloop of war, which he presents to the
Porte, as part probably of his tribute.

The inhabitants often mention the vast sums of money which were spent
by the English here, when, on the Egyptian expedition, the fleet
rendezvoused in Marmora harbour. Oranges, usually sold forty for a
piaster, rose to a piaster apiece; and so of other provisions. The fact
is, that the English, go where they will, raise the price of articles
unnecessarily to the most exorbitant pitch.

The city stands on the north-east extremity of the island, on a sandy
tongue of land, which exposes it in the winter to the storms prevalent
in that season, but gives it an agreeable freshness in the summer.
There are several windmills on the point. The Frank quarter is removed
from the town a few hundred yards: it is composed of a mixture of
Greeks and Franks; which latter give themselves, by wearing a Frank
dress, the only title they have to the name. The wife of the Imperial
agent, or, as he styled himself, consul, was my washerwoman.[17] The
women of Rhodes weave good silk shirts, which are esteemed in the
Levant. I bought a few that lasted me in very constant wear for three
years.

Captain Henry Hope, of the Salsette frigate, having heard of Lady
Hester’s shipwreck, sailed to Rhodes from Smyrna, and offered her
and her party a passage to Alexandria. A ship, riding at anchor off
the island, was by no means safe at this season of the year, and he
became very urgent for us to embark, which we did about a week after
my arrival. Nothing contributed so much to banish the recollection of
the past shipwreck as the security we now enjoyed. The wind began to
blow strongly the night we embarked, and compelled us to seek refuge
the following morning in the harbour of Marmora. I had entered it on
a former occasion by night, but I now had a complete view of it. Its
mouth is between two mountains, wooded with firs down to the water’s
edge, and affords a zigzag channel deep enough for the largest ships.
After running some considerable distance, until the sea is lost
sight of, the harbour then opens, landlocked on all sides. Around it
considerable mountains rise from its strand, excepting where the little
valley shuts in the town of Marmora. It is said that the bottom is
excellent for anchorage, and that a more secure haven cannot be found.

The storm lasted throughout the following day; but on the 11th we
sailed again with a fair wind for Alexandria. On the 13th, before
sunset, we made Pompey’s Pillar, which serves as a landmark to
mariners; and, standing off for the night, we entered the west harbour
of Alexandria about nine on the following morning.

Alexandria strikes the spectator, when seen from the sea, as a handsome
town; and it is the same with all Turkish towns up the Levant, which
have much beauty in the exterior of the buildings; but, unlike many
others, Alexandria does not belie its external appearance: it was then
spacious, and adorned with handsome and lofty buildings, and I have no
doubt is now much more so.

Colonel Misset, the British resident, immediately sent Mr. Thurburn,
his secretary, to compliment Lady Hester on her arrival.




                             CHAPTER VIII.

   Reception at
   Alexandria--Inhabitants--Commerce--Fortifications--Battle
   of Abukír--Administration of
   Justice--Servants--Climate--Asses--Ruins of Old Alexandria--Lake
   Madiah--Passage boats--The boat with the Author and his party
   pursued and the passengers made prisoners--Their liberation--Bay
   of Abukír--Lake Edko--Porters--Rosetta--House of Signor
   Petrucci--Fleas and musquitoes--The town of Rosetta and
   environs--Sedentary habits of the Turks--Abu Mandur--Exportation
   of corn--Mashes, a kind of barge--Voyage up the Nile--Banks
   of the river--Rich soil--Villages--First sight of the
   Pyramids--Bulák--Cairo--Pasha and his suite--Lodgings--Lady
   Hester’s attire--Her visit to the Pasha--Mameluke
   riding--Horse-market--Opening of a mummy--French Mamelukes--Mr.
   Wynne--Dancing Women--The Pyramids--Narrow escape from drowning.


We were conducted to the Frank quarter, where Lady Hester was provided
with a small house; whilst Mr. B., Mr. Pearce, and myself, were
accommodated with rooms in different families. I took up my abode with
Mr. Maltass, the English consul, who was anxious to have my advice on
a chronic complaint to which he was subject; and I have found, in my
intercourse with people in the Levant, that, although disinterested
hospitality is a virtue which they both know and practise, still my
professional services were no small recommendation in securing me a
more hearty welcome. The Turkish houses are in rows as in English
towns: but the Franks, for security from plague, riots, and the
domiciliary visits of marching troops, inhabit quadrangular buildings,
which have one strong gateway as an entrance, within which a staircase
leads to the corridor on the first story, and around it each family
occupies its separate apartments, the basement story being reserved for
stables and warehouses.

The impression left by the short reign of the French in Egypt was
still observable. The Franks assumed here more license than would be
tolerated in any other place in the Turkish dominions; though still
less than they did, before the failure of the last expedition of
the English, which convinced the natives that the Franks were not
irresistible.

Alexandria is a large maritime port, and the vast number of vessels in
the harbour gave sure evidence of its commerce. At the time to which
this narrative refers, the sale of corn by the Egyptian government
to the English brought in an immense profit to the Pasha of Egypt,
who monopolized that branch of commerce entirely; as he had done,
by degrees, every branch that was lucrative. Thus the rice mills,
formerly held by industrious individuals, whose separate interest
excited a competition in the trade, were in 1814–15–16 all taken into
the hands of the pasha. It was said that the Armenians, who were at
this time much employed about the person of the pasha, in the capacity
of scribes, bankers, tax-gatherers, and the like, were the persons
who prompted him to these measures, which in Europe would have been
considered beneath the dignity of governors and viceroys, but are
countenanced in Turkey by the general conduct of all persons, however
exalted their rank, only excepting the sultan.

To house the grain that is brought to Alexandria, the pasha, in 1815,
constructed on the strand of the western harbour a vast magazine, the
dimensions of which make it an object worthy of curiosity. It is a
single room, one hundred and twenty paces long by fifteen broad, and
the roof is supported by one hundred and twenty shafts, surmounted by
blocks of wood roughly worked into something in the shape of a capital,
but with no resemblance to any of the orders of architecture, and
probably not intended to imitate them.

As the pasha holds Alexandria to be the key of his dominions, he has
fortified it with ramparts, which his courtiers may tell him are
impregnable. In 1813, he demolished the old Saracen walls, which took
in the circuit of what is called the old city, comprehending to the
south-west a heap of ruins and rubbish greater in extent than the
modern town itself; and, on the site of them and from their fragments,
he erected a high but feeble wall, which, as it extends over a space
so considerable as to require a large garrison to defend it, is,
from its thinness, thought not to be capable of opposing a besieging
army. It was reported that he likewise intended levelling all the
inequalities around the city which could afford a cover for troops,
so as to make a glacis down to the bed of the lake. Pompey’s Pillar
and Cleopatra’s Needle have been too often mentioned to require any
description.

A morning or two after our arrival, we accompanied Mr. Thurburn over
the field of battle of the 21st of March, 1801, when the English made
good their footing in Egypt. The plain where the battle was fought has
neither ditch nor wall, nor indeed anything to impede the movements of
horse or foot; and the trial between the contending armies must have
been that of courage more than skill. The entrenchments, which the
French threw up after the battle, and where they made a stand of some
weeks, were still visible.

But the achievements of the French in Egypt, to be candid, seem to have
been a series of brilliant victories, not the least of which was the
last defeat of the Turks, when, under the conduct of the grand vizir,
they were routed on the same ground where the English afterwards beat
them.

The native Christians of Egypt (I am disposed to believe) did not like
the French as masters so well as the Turks. In one respect, they made a
comparison between the two nations, which, from the proverbial venality
of a Turkish cadi, was truly laughable. They contrasted the promptitude
and celerity in the administration of justice by the Turks with the
dilatoriness and endless forms of the French courts. For example,
they said, a Turkish governor sends for a man accused of a crime, and
puts him face to face with his accusers. Both parties are heard, and
either the accused man is acquitted, or forthwith he is bastinadoed or
beheaded, and there is an end of the matter; or he is imprisoned, and
told that ten, fifteen, a hundred, or one thousand purses are required
of him. The prisoner sets his friends to work, who contrive a secret
interview with those who are supposed to have most influence with the
governor. To one they will say, “There are a thousand piasters for you;
speak a good word for our friend.” If there be some lady who is thought
to have captivated the governor, she receives from an unknown hand a
diamond ring, and is required to have pity on a distressed family. In
this way the governor is worried right and left: he relents: half the
fine, or perhaps all of it, is remitted, and the prisoner is set at
liberty. But with the Europeans, they say, a suit is never ended: and
how should it, when it is the interest of so many persons, notaries,
procureurs, and advocates, to perpetuate it?

Our time, owing to the kindness and hospitality of Colonel Misset,
passed very agreeably. The colonel, whose long residence in these parts
had made him a connoisseur in the Turkish dress, was much amused with
our costumes: and he might be with reason, for, as I have said above,
they were very ill assorted.

What Lady Hester’s opinion of Alexandria was may be shown from a letter
she wrote about this time to one of her correspondents:--

                    _Lady Hester Stanhope to ----_

                                Alexandria, February 12, 1812.

    My dear ----,

   I have not time to write a long letter, as we leave this place
   to-morrow for Cairo.

   Colonel Misset has been very kind to us, but the person to whom
   we owe the most obligations is Captain Hope: nothing can have
   equalled his attention and good nature. What we should have
   done without him I know not; perhaps he will be the bearer of
   this, and he will then give you a full account of us and of our
   intentions.

   This place I think quite hideous, and if all Egypt is like it I
   shall wish to quit it as soon as possible. When I have seen the
   pasha, I trust my letter will contain a little amusing if not
   interesting matter: it would be affected in me to retail (even
   had I time) the news of Alexandria, as you must receive it all
   from higher authority. I have little more to add, at present,
   than my constant best wishes, and to trouble you to forward the
   enclosed letters; the packet to Lady Bute have the goodness to
   send by the first opportunity. I wish you could see the letter I
   received from her not long ago. She is a woman of ten thousand;
   so amiable herself, yet so indulgent to others, and so sincere a
   friend.

              Adieu, my dear ----,
                          And believe me ever sincerely yours,
                                                         H. L. S.

   Captain Hope (_Chivalry_ Hope he is to be called, for the
   old knights of Malta and Rhodes could not have deserved more
   praise from Burke)--Chivalry Hope then has taken under his
   protection a box of conserves for you. Alas, they are by no
   means so good as those I lost, or of the various sorts chance
   then put me in possession of; but accept them, dear ----, as
   they are. Colonel Misset has allowed me to take one of his iron
   beds; if it could be replaced from Malta I should be very glad,
   as I fear he will feel the loss of it. B---- desires to be most
   kindly remembered to you.

Some time was necessary to replace the servants who had been dismissed
at Rhodes; and our stay was also prolonged at Alexandria in order to
purchase such articles as we had been unable to obtain at Smyrna: but,
at the end of a fortnight, preparations were made for our departure to
Cairo.

I cannot take leave of Alexandria without adverting to the common
belief of the little rain and great heat that is to be met with there.
I was lodged in a house which overlooked the East harbour; and it was
rarely that I had to complain of the heat. There were some houses,
built with lofty saloons on the same side, which did not require even
the windows to be opened to keep them cool. It is true that, to any
one caught in some spot where the rays of the sun have full play, and
where the wind has not, the heat is intolerable: but not so to those,
however, who will so far exert themselves by riding or walking as to
excite a copious perspiration.

The common beasts of burden in Egypt are asses, whose easy and quick
pace renders them agreeable as well as serviceable. As the Turkish
soldiers pay or do not pay for riding, according to their fancy, the
ass-drivers teach their animals to distinguish those unwelcome guests
from better paymasters; and no sooner does a soldier, whose exterior
denotes the bad state of his purse, lay hold of one of them, and mount
him, than the ass feigns himself ill, and neither kicks nor blows can
make him move a step. Some of these asses were hired to carry the
luggage down to the edge of Lake Edko, which it is necessary to cross
in going to Rosetta.

Mr. Pearce and myself, accompanied by an old janissary, whom Lady
Hester had brought with her from Rhodes, set off early in the morning
of the 28th of February. We passed through the ruins of the old city,
where a few granite columns, the brick subterraneous cisterns, and
that mass of stone and bricks which covers the surface for so many
feet in depth, could not fail, though so often seen, of arresting our
attention. Nor does the mind want objects to dwell upon out of the
walls, where the remains of foundations, fragments of marble, and a
soil composed of the remnants of art, forcibly strike the beholder,
and give rise to the melancholy reflection, how vast a city has fallen
to decay! At the end of two leagues, we came to lake Madiah. Here a
number of small barges, or flat-bottomed boats, ply for passengers;
and, before embarking, much time is to be spent in bargaining for
the passage, or much imposition must be submitted to. Woe to him who
manifests too great an anxiety to depart! he is sure to pay for it.
Nay, the mere exclamation of “How hot it is!”--“I wish we could get
to a place where we could find something to eat”--or any like marks of
impatience, cost some piasters more: and, as the boats are all subject
to one master, there is no flying from the extortion of one to another.
We at last settled the price; and, about twelve or one o’clock, got the
luggage and ourselves on board.

Our crew consisted of an old man and a boy. There was no wind, and we
were pushed along, as the lakes are seldom so deep that a pole cannot
reach the bottom. We had proceeded about two miles on our way towards
the mouth of the lake, where it enters into the bay of Abukír, when
we heard a halloo; but, not supposing it to be intended for us, we
paid no attention. Soon afterwards it was repeated, and we saw some
persons running along the shore and hailing us. Our old helmsman then
said there was something the matter, and that we must turn back. We
strongly objected to this, and as fast as he pushed the boat round we
altered the rudder to bring her back again. However, as he persisted,
we suffered him to do as he pleased. Presently, when we were within
half a mile of the shore, a boat was observed coming off to us, and
a musket-shot whistled over our heads. We could distinguish that the
people were armed soldiers, as well those on shore as in the boat.
Mr. Pearce and myself could do nothing but wait patiently to know
what was meant. The boat came alongside, the steersman directed our
boatman to quicken his speed, and kept close to us as we neared the
strand. When within a stone’s throw, I cried out in Turkish--“What do
you want?”--upon which we saw an Albanian, who appeared to command the
rest, kneel down to take aim at us. Our old janissary no sooner beheld
the muzzle of the gun than he dropped down in the boat: he expected the
Albanian officer (for such he proved to be) would have fired; but the
people with him were evidently urging him not to do so. We reached the
shore, and were immediately seized, disarmed, and a volley of oaths and
imprecations was vented upon us. In vain our trembling old janissary
said that we were Englishmen, belonging to a great English person, and
that those who did us harm would rue it: he was not heeded.

We were marched along the dam that separates Lake Mœris from Lake
Madiah, upon which there is a block-house, built, I believe, by the
French: we were led into it, and told that we were prisoners. It was
with difficulty that we could learn why we had been stopped, until,
at last, we comprehended that there was an existing order that the
passports of all persons were to be examined before embarking, for some
reasons of government, and that we were accused of having endeavoured
to evade the order. The soldiers treated us very roughly. At last, a
circumstantial conversation having convinced the officer that he was
detaining persons who might get him into trouble, he began by ordering
us coffee, and softened his expressions. But we had been too much
insulted (as we thought) to be reconciled so easily; and we threatened
him with punishment.

It was now about eight o’clock at night; and I proposed to the Albanian
captain to let me go up to Alexandria, leaving Mr. Pearce as a hostage,
to which, either from fear, or else because he thought people might
advise us to give him a present and let the matter drop, he consented.
Taking the janissary with me, I set off, and arrived, about eleven
o’clock, at Alexandria, where my return created no small surprise.
Colonel Misset, being made acquainted with our detention, immediately
sent his dragoman to the Governor; and, although he had retired to his
harým, a place where great Turks are never interrupted, the dragoman,
by the Colonel’s order, insisted on his being called up. When the
business was heard, a proper officer was sent back with me, with orders
to the Albanian to set us at liberty immediately. I returned to the
dam, and there I found Mr. Pearce asleep in the boat, exposed to the
dew, which in Egypt falls profusely, and passing a supperless night.
No sooner was the Albanian taken to task for what he had done, by
the officer who had accompanied me, than he became very humble; but
we accepted none of his apologies or proffers of service, and waited
impatiently for morning, to be gone.

This is one of three or four disagreeable adventures that happened to
me from contemptuous behaviour towards government officers in Turkey.
Had we quietly returned to the shore, when first hailed, there could
have been no plea whatever for detaining us; but our apparent wish to
get away naturally irritated the guard, and brought on us the treatment
we experienced, and which, perhaps, we deserved.

When it was day, we quitted the block-house and re-embarked; and, the
wind blowing fresh, we soon came to an outlet, which was once the
Canopic branch of the Nile, by which we got into Abukir bay; and,
after coasting the shore a mile or two, entered Lake Edko, the mouth
of which is, like that of Lake Madiah, a narrow opening into the sea,
with little or no current. The bars of these bogàzes are not free from
danger, though less so than the mouths of the Nile, where a large
stream of water makes, with the opposing wind and sea, most dangerous
breakers. We sailed up the lake, until we came to the village of Edko.
As the water grows quite shallow near the shore, the boats generally
ground as far off as one hundred yards, when immediately the porters
come and take the luggage and the passengers on their shoulders, and
carry them to dry ground. There cannot be a more robust race of people
than those who work on the lakes of Egypt; they are often very tall and
muscular: they have no other clothing than a blue smock frock, which is
generally tucked up with little regard to decency.

At Edko a second bargain was to be made for the hire of our asses to
Rosetta; which being effected without entering the dirty village, where
all these boatmen and porters resided, we proceeded towards Rosetta.
The mirage, which we saw on the sands between Edko and Rosetta, was
indeed a deception most striking: for nothing but the conviction, which
arose from going over the ground where the mirage appeared, could have
convinced us that it was not a sheet of water. About half way, the road
passed through a forest of palm-trees, where the sands were exceedingly
heavy, and might be supposed to be very moveable, since numbers of
these palms were buried up to their very branches.

As we entered between the brick walls of the city of Rosetta, their
appearance was not calculated to excuse the defeat which the English
arms met with, before that place, in 1805. We wound through several
narrow but well-built streets, and arrived at last at the Frank quarter
on the banks of the Nile, where our mule-driver brought us to the
house allotted for us: it faced the river, commanding a prospect of
the country on the opposite side, which, being entirely flat, is very
little diversified. But the Nile itself is a never-ceasing source
of amusement; being at all times covered with barges, crowded with
men, cattle, and goods, and with pleasure-boats, not much inferior to
those on the Thames. The house which we were to occupy belonged to M.
Petrucci, a gentleman who had been long in the service of the English:
it had not been inhabited for some time, and was so full of fleas that
all the pains which were taken could not effect a clearance.

And it may not be out of place to observe, that, to a European, or
at least to an Englishman, neither deliciousness of climate, nor the
fertility of soil, nor the brilliancy of costumes, nor, finally,
even the splendid remains of antiquity, which present themselves in
that country, can counterbalance the distressing sensations which
the fleas and musquitoes give rise to. Whatever pains he may take to
keep his body free from fleas he tries in vain; in vain he repeatedly
changes his linen, has his room swept, and resorts to all the measures
he can think of to rid himself of these troublesome creatures. The
first native who pays him a visit undoes all his labour, and he finds
himself and his room filled anew. No remedy is then left him but to
forego all society; which, if he resolves on, he necessarily foregoes,
likewise, part of the advantages he must have proposed to himself in
his travels--the study of the manners and customs of the people he
is among. With respect to musquitoes, a net will certainly save a
person from their sting during the night; but, in the evenings, when
he would be anxious to pass an hour in reading or writing, he has the
mortification to find himself assailed by a score of almost invisible
enemies, whose bite does not fail to be the poison of his comfort,
and obliges him to leave his studies in despair. It may seem to some
persons that all this is unworthy of the consideration of a traveller;
but let them know that many a one has gone from Europe to Egypt to
visit its antiquities, and has perhaps never, when at Cairo, summoned
courage to finish the few remaining miles to the Pyramids, _because
the sun was too hot_: such is the effect of trifles on the success
of all enterprises.

Lady Hester arrived the next day, accompanied by Mr. B. and Captain
Hope. The few days we spent at Rosetta were agreeably occupied in
visiting the town and its environs. Rosetta is well built, and, in the
private streets, has several fine, lofty houses. It is spacious, and
not to be judged of by a mere superficial view of the street facing the
Nile and of the markets. The Mahometan inhabitants were not courteous
to Franks; nor are they generally so, wherever I have been, excepting
when, from some motive of interest, they affect a civility which is
not real. Rosetta, being the thoroughfare for trade from Alexandria
to Cairo, is a place of great business, as the crowded warehouses
and barges loading and unloading testified; for barges alone, owing
to the shallow water over the bar at the mouth of the river, enter
the port. The environs of Rosetta are celebrated for their beautiful
gardens, which we should rather call orchards, as containing chiefly
fruit trees, with ploughed ground beneath them, which is intersected
with trenches made for irrigation. Parterres of flowers, green turf,
winding or strait walks, are unknown there, and the so-called gardens
present to an Englishman an appearance totally foreign to what the name
imports in his own language. But the native of Egypt asks for nothing
but shade and running water; where, spreading his carpet, he lights
his pipe, and reclines at his ease. If you sit down and converse with
him, and contrast his indolence with the pleasure of strolling through
serpentine walks with an agreeable female companion, or of straying
through woods with a philosophical friend, he replies that conversation
can never be so pleasurable as when held without fatigue, and that the
beauties of nature are as striking to the tranquil spectator as to him
who hurries hastily over them. He styles the restlessness and bustle of
the Franks but a fever of the mind, from which he thanks God he is free.

We visited the town of Abu Mandûr, to the south of the town, where
were the head-quarters of the English army in 1805. The facility with
which Rosetta was taken, and the neglect by which it was immediately
lost again, were talked of very frequently by the natives, who knew not
how to reconcile the failure of the latter invasion with the complete
success of the former, when the successful one was against the French,
the conquerors of Egypt, and the latter against the Turks, so often
beaten by them.

We visited the public bath, near the Frank quarter, which exceeds in
elegance the baths of Alexandria and the greater part of those of
Cairo. The fertility of Egypt was well exemplified by the vast heaps
of corn of all kinds that were lying on the wharfs, ready to be shipped
for Alexandria, but particularly of wheat, the exportation of which, by
English transports, formed, at this time, no small part of the revenue
of the viceroy: and there is no better proof of it, than the vast
fortunes that were amassed by individuals from agency and brokerage
only.

Lady Hester’s stay at Rosetta was no longer than was sufficient to
prepare the boats necessary for conveying us up to Cairo. The Nile was
at this time at its lowest ebb. Two barges of a large size were hired,
one for Lady Hester and her maids, and one for Mr. B., Mr. Pearce,
and myself. They are called, in Arabic, _mashes_, and are very
commodious; they have sometimes a single lateen sail, sometimes two
or three. The portion of the vessel towards the stern is covered in,
like a London pleasure-barge, and the mouldings and doors are neatly
carved and gilded. They have two cabins of about eight feet square;
small indeed, but sufficiently large to contain a bed, to eat in, and
for whatever purposes a cabin can be wanted. The sail is used when the
wind is fair, and, from the windings of the river, it happens that no
one wind is always unfair: if the sail will not serve, then towing
is resorted to; and the sailors show no little skill in keeping the
head of the barge to the stream, and in forcing her onwards. There is
a fireplace in the forecastle, and every village on the banks of the
river supplies eggs, milk, and poultry: so that nothing can exceed the
convenience of such a conveyance.

Having taken leave of Captain Hope, who returned to Alexandria, we left
Rosetta, on the 9th of March: and, proceeding up the Nile, we sailed in
company for two days, generally landing once or twice a day to walk by
the river-side, keeping pace with the boats, which often ran aground,
owing to the sand-banks that abound, when the water is low. Not far
up the river, in conformity with a promise I had made the Mufti of
Rosetta to visit his brother, shaykh of a place named Debby, abreast
of which we now were, and which is about a mile from the waterside, I
landed; and, accompanied by Mr. B. and Mr. Pearce, was conducted to
the house of the shaykh, who was labouring under ophthalmia: I gave
him a collyrium, and we took our leave. As a mark of his gratitude
for this little service, he sent on board three live lambs, one
hundred eggs, and a gallon of milk, having previously overwhelmed us
with thanks. We re-embarked: the stream was gentle, and the motion
scarcely perceptible. Celebrated as the Nile has been in all ages, it
has nothing to recommend it in point of beauty, and the water is the
most turbid that can be seen. The third day, our barge ran aground so
firmly, that, during the time that was spent in getting her off, Lady
Hester’s barge got so much the start of us as to reach Cairo one day
before us: and when we arrived, on the 14th of March, the sixth day
from our departure, she was already settled in the house prepared for
her.

During the season of the ebb of the river, the banks are so high that
nothing whatever can be seen from the boat; it is necessary, therefore,
to land to get a view of the country. When landed, the eye roves
over an endless plain, the sameness of which is broken by groves of
date-trees, and, in the midst of them, on low eminences, generally
stand villages and towns. The spectator feels a kind of loneliness, and
is forced to recall to his mind the productiveneness of the land--to
balance the useful with the agreeable--before he can bring himself to
admit that Egypt in reality equals its renown. When, however, he walks
inland a few furlongs, when he beholds the richness of vegetation, the
variety of grain, the indescribable fatness of the soil--the whole
together, if he reflects, must forcibly strike him as an example of
fertility, well worthy of all the praises that poets and historians
have bestowed upon it. The miserable villages of the peasants were an
assemblage of hovels, made of mud, or of mud bricks baked in the sun.
As they are fearful of Bedouins, or robbers of other kinds, the village
is generally shut in by a mud wall, more often rudely quadrangular than
otherwise, of a height sufficient to prevent a man’s getting over. To
this there is one gate. On entering, a street somewhat wide generally
leads from it, and here will be found the villagers squatted on their
haunches, eyeing with suspicious looks every stranger that enters,
lest he should be some government officer, some soldier, or one of
those from whom they are accustomed to experience harm or loss. If the
stranger, led by the curiosity natural to a European, should endeavour
to penetrate farther into the village, he finds himself, at every
instant, opposed by a blind alley; or he winds through a lane which,
perhaps, brings him out just where he entered: and, in some villages,
we found mazes more intricate than the Cretan labyrinth is reported to
have been. Then the alarm of the women running to hide themselves, and
of the children scampering after them, the jealousy of the husbands,
and sometimes the barking of dogs, make it altogether difficult for a
European to do more than to seat himself in some open space, and limit
his curiosity to the sight of what comes before him.

As a strong wind generally prevails during the heat of the day, the
dust raised by it is sometimes borne in such volumes as almost to
blind a person: and it is this that serves (not to generate, but once
generated) to keep up the ophthalmia so common in Egypt. Eyes that have
once become sore are seldom entirely cured in this country; and the
soreness either terminates in blear eyes or blindness.

We were within ten or fifteen miles of Cairo, and at dinner, when we
were informed that the Pyramids were in sight; we naturally rose from
table, and hastened to behold these wonderful monuments: but at this
distance they excited no astonishment, for the size of their bases is
so large as to render their height much less striking than it otherwise
would be.

In the night of the fifth day from our departure, we arrived at Bulák,
where are the warehouses and quays of Cairo. We had retired to rest,
and, on waking in the morning, the crowd and bustle on the shore marked
the vicinity of a metropolis. The mode of conveyance all through Egypt
is on asses for short distances, and on camels for longer ones. The
asses are trained to go at an amble so expeditiously and pleasantly
that Indolence could not invent anything more agreeable. Their saddles
were not made of leather, but of a sort of web, and stuffed, with a
high pummel and low croup, to a considerable thickness. The stirrups
were of bronze, and of the shape of those worn by the hussar cavalry.
The bridle reins were made of silk and worsted, with gay tassels. The
whole furniture of a gentleman’s ass would cost not less than from
five to ten pounds. Each ass had its driver, who ran behind with a
small goad, and warned the passengers to clear the road; and, as the
passengers were many, and the roads generally narrow, his lungs were
never at rest for a moment.

Being all mounted, and the luggage-asses loaded, we set off about nine
o’clock in the morning for Cairo, which is (as far as I recollect)
about a mile from the river. In entering the city from this quarter,
the road passed through a large meadow in the suburbs, called the
Usbekéah, on one side of which was the palace of the pasha. He
happened to be returning from a ride at the moment we were passing;
and, just in the centre of the meadow, where the two main roads cut
each other at right angles, he came up one as we came up the other. He
was on a mule, accompanied by a numerous suite, more splendidly mounted
and dressed than any retinue I had ever seen in Turkey, except in the
imperial procession at Constantinople. Our ass-drivers immediately told
us to get down until the pasha had passed by, which, being unaccustomed
to such orders, we did not comply with. The pasha cast his eyes upon
us, and naturally concluded we were strangers. His suite looked
indignantly upon us, as if they waited for the word to make us dismount
by force; for the liberties which the Franks think themselves entitled
to in Turkish countries are always beheld with an eye of jealousy. The
pasha passed on to his palace, and we entered the streets of Cairo.

As the Frank quarter is close to the Usbekéah, we soon came to it, and
were shown to Lady Hester’s house through some streets hardly ten feet
broad, and where the bow windows on the first floor almost touched:
it was insufficient to contain all the party, and Mr. Pearce and
myself had to look out lodgings for ourselves. He chose the Franciscan
monastery, and I the house of a merchant, built in the flourishing
times of Egypt. In some respects, it exceeded any house I afterwards
saw. Every room, for the sake of coolness, was floored with marbles,
variegated in mosaic work, and wooden blinds, of curious workmanship
not unlike the backs of old-fashioned cane chairs, admitted a dim light
into the room, and excluded the glaring rays of the sun. The inmates of
the house were the merchant himself and a black slave, his mistress--a
gentleman who was said to be an apostate Jew, and who had at different
times been commissary in the English army, a merchant, and I know not
what--an Italian merchant who had become bankrupt, and who was in
lodgings until he had retrieved his affairs; and a young clerk. In
Turkish towns, where Franks are established, it is not uncommon to meet
with adventurers of every kind; and those quiet persons who live by
honest and plain dealing would fall into poverty in this country, where
chicanery is considered as admissible in all transactions.

Lady Hester’s first care was to equip herself with proper clothes
to appear in before the pasha. She chose (among the costumes of
Mahometans) that of the people of Barbary, I believe of the Tunisians,
and purchased a sumptuous dress, beautifully embroidered, of purple
velvet and gold.[18] I dressed myself in the common costume of a
gentleman or an effendi.

In four or five days everything was ready for this important visit,
no doubt very interesting to the pasha, as he had never seen an
Englishwoman of rank before. Indeed her Ladyship’s arrival in Cairo
had created a wonderful curiosity in all ranks both of Turks and
Christians, and everybody was ambitious of her acquaintance. The pasha
sent five horses, richly caparisoned after the Mameluke fashion, on
which we mounted, and were conducted to the Usbekéah palace. Much
honour was shown her on the occasion: as in the number of silver sticks
that walked before her; in the privilege of dismounting at the inner
gate; and in other such trifles, which are, however, the scale by which
the spectators measure the consequence of a person.

The pasha, rising at her entrance, received Lady Hester in a small
kiosk, or pavilion, being a detached room in the garden of his harým,
painted and gilded so beautifully within and without that it looked
like a fairy palace. The room had a divan or sofa of scarlet velvet
gorgeously embroidered with gold, on three sides, and a fountain in the
centre. A delicious sherbet of a green colour was first presented in
cut glass cups: the pipe was presented, but declined by her ladyship,
who had not yet learned to smoke. Coffee was then served in china cups,
supported in gold zerfs, ornamented with precious stones. The pasha
smoked a rich pipe, and drank his coffee out of a cup equally costly:
he is a small man, and was plainly though richly dressed. I do not
now recollect what the conversation turned on. The visit lasted about
an hour. The person who acted as interpreter on the occasion was Mr.
Boghoz, a gentleman of the most courtier-like manners, and who, to a
great fidelity of interpretation, of which, from his knowledge of many
languages, he was perfectly capable, added an amiability that seemed to
embellish the phrases he had to repeat. On taking leave, we were shown
through the apartments of the harým, at that time under repair. They
were in too confused a state for us to judge what they finally would
be; but the ceilings which were finished had not half the taste that I
afterwards observed in the arabesque gilding in some of the old houses
of Cairo and Damascus.

One of our first employments in Cairo was to see the best riders of
the old Mamelukes, whose reputation for horsemanship in Turkey is
unrivalled. For this purpose we rose every morning with the sun; and,
mounting asses, went to the open space in front of the castle, where
the parades and drills are held, and where the officers of the court
amuse themselves in throwing the girýd. The result of what we saw
during ten or fifteen days was that a Mameluke will, in the _bas
airs_ of horsemanship, do as much as a European, but that his
practice is founded on no rules, and is derived from a cruel exercise
of the power that an irresistible bit gives him over the animal, who is
otherwise so overweighted with a heavy saddle and accoutrements that
he cannot resist if he would.[19] The rapidity of his charge for a
short distance, and the suddenness of his halt, are likewise matters of
admiration. We were, however, present at Cairo at a time when the most
famous of the Mamelukes no longer existed. The massacre of 1811 had
destroyed or dispersed the whole of that body, and their very name and
attire were enough to expose a person to suspicion.

The Place, or square before the castle, was likewise used for buying
and selling horses. A common riding horse fetched about ten or twelve
pounds, and a very good one about double that money. Franks, however,
always seemed to have some disadvantage in purchasing, from their
ignorance of the language, and their general custom of being more
liberal of their money than the Turks and Christians of the country,
and hence they always paid dearer.

Soon after our arrival, Monsieur Drovetti, the French consul, a
Piedmontese, invited Lady Hester to be present at the opening of
a mummy. I went with her, and there we found also Mr. Milner and
Mr. Calthorpe, English gentlemen on their travels. A French surgeon
performed the dissecting part, which consisted in dividing a vast
number of folds of fine linen or cotton which bandaged the body tight
round from head to foot. When these were removed, the right hand was
found to hold a papyrus. The features were not in good preservation.
But M. Drovetti had in his possession the head of one so little changed
that the spectator could with difficulty persuade himself of its great
antiquity, as the features, hair, and teeth, still existed in good
preservation. The surgeon drew a tooth from the mummy before us, which
broke in the extraction, as a recent one would do.

Frequent opportunities occurred of seeing the troop of French
Mamelukes, which remained in Egypt in the service of the beys after the
evacuation of that country by the French army. Their complexion and
look rendered them distinguishable from the other cavalry of the pasha.
They were (by guess) from thirty to sixty in number; and, when the
remnant of the Mamelukes fled to Nubia, they joined Mohammed Aly Pasha.
As renegadoes and deserters, they would not seem to deserve our esteem;
but the circumstances of the times in which they changed their religion
and their masters must serve as their excuse. Certain it is that those
whose sentiments we had an opportunity of knowing did not repent the
change. He that was a soldier in the French army, and subject to the
hardships of a soldier’s life, found himself enabled, as a Mameluke, to
keep his horse, his groom, and, what most accords with a Frenchman’s
ideas, to take a wife and repudiate her as often as he liked, without
scandal too. And he that worshipped the Goddess of Reason, or had no
religion at all, had adopted a creed at least of some sort, although
the creed of an impostor. As their characters accorded but very little
with those of the Egyptians, so did their manners; which, with the
exception of sitting and dressing like a Turk, were as much French
as ever they were. They played at billiards, drank, and gamed as
heretofore, and were always to be found in the Frank quarter.

Some days after us, Mr. Henry Wynne, brother of Sir W. W. Wynne,
arrived at Cairo, with a dragoman and servant, having crossed the
Desert from Gaza in Syria, on camels. That servant was the means of
saving the life of Lady Hester Stanhope, and two or three persons who
were with her, when returning from the Pyramids. This excursion, though
the Pyramids are so near to Cairo, was not then altogether free from
danger, or at least strangers who were desirous of visiting them were
led to believe so. Lady Hester, therefore, engaged the French Mamelukes
with their captain to accompany her, and she invited Monsieur Aslyn,
a French savant and linguist, residing at Cairo, to be of the party.
Mounted and armed, we left Cairo in the afternoon. Four camels carried
a tent, provisions, and water. We proceeded to Old Cairo, on the east
bank of the Nile, once the capital of Egypt, and now in complete
ruins, where it was settled that we should sleep. Mr. Pearce and Mr.
Wynne were also of the party. Lady Hester had apartments provided for
her in a separate house, and, being fatigued, retired to rest almost
immediately.

Not knowing how to pass the evening, we resolved to send for the
dancing women. As it was late, they were not found without difficulty;
at last three came, attended by their keeper, who was likewise the
tabor player. Just awaked from sleep, their motions at first were
sluggish; but it was suggested that liquor would animate them: the
experiment was tried, and succeeded admirably: they became gay, and
accompanied their dancing with such gestures as are supposed to
constitute its chief excellence; but, as they were devoid of grace,
not being first-rate performers, they excited disgust rather than
admiration.[20] They had castanets on their fingers, with which they
made good music. A blouse, with a girdle round the waist, was their
only covering.

And here it may not be amiss to contrast with this light dress the
usages of Europe with regard to the stays, bandages, collars, and other
means, by which it is endeavoured to give uprightness and justness
to the female shape. No race of people can be better formed than the
Egyptians, who, from their infancy, scarcely wear any covering but a
blue cotton shift with a girdle. They know not what stays are; yet, to
see the women as they walk along, one is tempted to call them all tawny
Venuses.

The next morning we ferried over the Nile; and, riding across the
country for about six miles, through fields where reapers were now
harvesting, we came to the edge of the Desert, about half a mile
from the Pyramids. On the top of the highest we perceived a man, who,
the Mamelukes said, was planted there to give notice of the approach
of Bedouins from the side of the Desert. On any alarm the peasants
immediately retired with their cattle to a place of safety. The moment
we could suppose he had made out what kind of persons we were, he
scampered down the outside, just as if it had been a staircase; and,
having met us, offered himself as a guide to conduct such as wished to
mount to the top. The height is nearly 500 feet, and it was necessary
to clamber, taking advantage of the receding layers of the stones that
compose the vast mass, and making use of them as steps. From the summit
we enjoyed a prospect, which is singular in its character, presenting
on one hand a line of verdure intersected by the Nile, and of a
cheerful aspect, with flocks, herds, and villages; and on the other a
sandy desert, so dreary that it makes the beholder shudder merely to
look across it. An English traveller, who had preceded us a short time,
had acquired a temporary celebrity, by passing a night on the top of
the Great Pyramid. We descended, and prepared to enter these stupendous
monuments of antiquity: this was done by stripping off as much clothes
as decency will permit, to save being too much oppressed by the heat
within. Lady Hester, not choosing to venture in, awaited our coming out
under a tent.

The first suggestions of common sense are often founded on better
grounds than the parade of reasoning will allow them to be. Every
person who enters the chamber of the Great Pyramid would immediately
and naturally say, when he saw the granite cist in the centre--this was
a sarcophagus; and to enclose that in security from sacrilege, or for
the purpose of veneration, has been the object of the builder of this
vast pile.

Having carved our names over the door, and breakfasted near it, we left
the spot to return, and arrived at the Nile before sunset. Here it was
necessary to divide into separate parties, as the ferry-boats were of
unequal sizes. Lady Hester Stanhope, Mr. B., Mr. Wynne, his servant,
and myself, entered one which was both rickety and dirty, and rowed
by a single man. The river at this place was broad, and the stream
rapid. We had reached the middle; when, either from the strain which
the old man made with his foot against the ribs of the boat, or from
pure rottenness, a plank sprung in the bottom, and the water gushed in
in a stream. In a moment we should have been overwhelmed. George, Mr.
W.’s servant, whilst others were staring at their danger, pulled off
his turban, and stuffed it into the leak; then, doubling his fist in
the boatman’s face, he declared with vehemence that, if he did not pull
with all his might, he would kill him. Urged by his fright, the man
laboured hard, and we reached the shore. George there pulled his turban
out of the hole, and the boat sunk immediately. We got to Cairo without
any further danger; our horses having been ferried over in barges at
the same time with ourselves.




                              CHAPTER IX.

   The Author returns to Alexandria, in company with Mr. Wynne and
   Mr. McNamara--Proceeds to Rosetta--Coast of the Delta--Deserted
   hamlet--Brackish water--Misery of the Peasantry--Mouth of Lake
   Brulos--Dews of Egypt pernicious--Brulos--Melons--Egyptian
   encampment--Quail-snares--Arrival at Damietta--Honours
   paid by the Pasha at Cairo to Lady Hester--Description of
   Damietta--Rice mills--Large oxen--Salt tanks--Papyrus--Literary
   Society--Abûna Saba--Lady Hester arrives at Damietta--Tents
   and baggage--Servants--Fleas, &c.--Departure from Damietta--El
   Usby--Sameness of scenery in Egypt--Naked children--Increase of
   the Delta denied--Martello towers--Iachimo hired--We sail for
   Syria--List of the party--French Mamelukes--Wages of servants in
   the Levant--Arrival at Jaffa--Customs in seaports--Costume of
   Egyptian women.


I had not been long at Cairo when the alarming indisposition of an
English lady at Alexandria was the cause of my returning thither. She
was a bride, and on the day of her marriage had fallen so ill as to
induce her husband to send off to Cairo for a physician. Of those who
were applied to, none chose to go without an exorbitant remuneration:
and Lady Hester, feeling for the situation of the patient, asked me
to take the journey. Mr. Wynne was on the point of his departure for
Alexandria on his way to England; and the next morning I embarked with
him on the Nile in his _kanje_, which is a pleasure barge, covered
in with a pent roof like the others, but of a more light and elegant
construction, and calculated for expedition. Mr. Wynne had likewise
invited to be of his party Mr. McNamara, an English gentleman who had
made a short excursion into Egypt from Malta to satisfy a rambling
disposition. The passage down the Nile was very rapid; and the time
passed agreeably. It was on the third day that we reached Rosetta,
where we found lodgings with an Italian, named Dannese, whose house had
been converted into an inn for the accommodation of travellers: but in
a few hours we departed for Alexandria by the same route that I have
described on a former occasion.

On arriving there, I had the happiness to place the sick lady out of
all immediate danger: and having, by the end of the month, restored her
to convalescence, and learning from Cairo that Lady Hester was on the
point of quitting that city for Damietta to be there by the beginning
of May, I lost no time, but quitted Alexandria for Rosetta, where I
hired beasts of burden to proceed to Damietta, by land, across the foot
of the Delta.

I had with me a Turkish servant named Mohammed, by birth an Egyptian,
who had quitted his country with the French army, in which he had
served several years as a drummer. He was deformed, drunken, and of
a bad character. Accompanied by Mohammed and a guide, I prepared to
depart the following day for Damietta, when, early in the morning, I
was informed that the pasha had passed through Rosetta in the night,
and that one of my horses had been pressed for his service, although,
as he was expected, they had been by precaution ferried over to the
opposite bank of the Nile the preceding night. This created some delay;
for Mr. Lenzi, the English agent, was some time before he could find
another to replace it, as almost all the cattle of the town had gone
off with the suite of the pasha. It was, therefore, about ten o’clock
before I left Rosetta.

Having crossed the Nile, we gained the sea-side immediately, and
continued along the sands until about four in the afternoon, having
on our right, between us and the interior of the Delta, a slip of
waste ground in sand hillocks, within which I could figure to myself
the fertile fields and meads of the Delta, although I could not see
them. The date-trees grew down to the seashore. About four o’clock in
the afternoon, we took a path that inclined inland, and passed for an
hour through sand hillocks, barren and unsightly, among which grew
scattered date-trees. It was evident, after a time, that my guide had
lost his way. At last we beheld some cabins, of a sugar-loaf shape,
to the number of ten or twelve, built of sunbaked bricks. We naturally
expected to find in them inhabitants, and with them water, of which
we and our animals were much in want: but, on coming up close, we
discovered that they had been recently deserted.

It was now sunset, and there was no prospect of bettering ourselves:
so my servant spread my mat, and arranged my bed as well as he could
on the sand; for I objected to sleeping inside the huts through fear
of vermin. In the mean time, I observed the guide scraping with both
his hands, like a rabbit in the sand; and in a few minutes he called to
Mohammed to bring him a cup, or whatever he had, to lade out water. On
approaching the place, I found that he had made a hole of not more than
five feet in depth, at the bottom of which water oozed out plentifully
enough for us to water the horses with it, and to drink ourselves;
but so brackish was it, that nothing but great thirst could induce a
person to swallow it, and not even that could render it palatable.
Thinking that its nauseous taste might be disguised by coffee, I boiled
some; but, so far from benefiting by the change, it seemed as if all
the saline particles were set afloat in it, and it was not possible
to drink it. With bread, therefore, and such few provisions as we had
brought in our knapsacks, I made a poor supper, and slept through the
night. The dew was heavy, and by morning our coverings were as if
dipped in water.

This hamlet (as the guide told me) had been deserted to avoid the
extortions of the proprietor of the land: for it is not uncommon in
Turkey to fly from the oppression of a master as the only means left
of resisting his encroachments; since, if he does not wish his fields
to lie waste, he is necessitated to lower his demands and recall the
peasantry. These emigrations from spot to spot are easy in such a
climate; and a very little provocation drives them to it, where the
whole household furniture of a family is only the load of a camel or an
ass.

We proceeded early next morning on our journey; and my guide, as if
apprehensive of losing his road a second time, regained the seashore
as soon as possible. The sameness of the prospect rendered it a very
dull day; and, after twelve hours’ continued march, we arrived, after
sunset, at the mouth of Lake Brulos, on the opposite side of which we
observed many lights as of a village or a town. But the ferrymen, who
are accustomed to ply there, were already retired to their homes; and
we were obliged, after bawling a long time in vain, to look about for a
place where we might pass the night. On the edge of the lake we found
a fisherman’s hut, large enough to hold one or two persons: this was
given up to me. There was, fortunately, in it a large jar of water,
which was looked on as a treasure. The provisions were dried up by
the sun, and I again made as bad a meal as I had done the preceding
evening: for then, if the provisions were good, the water was
brackish, and now the change in the water was counterbalanced by the
bad state of the provisions.

However hot the days may be in Egypt, the nights never fail to be
cool; and the dews are exceedingly pernicious, whenever the body,
heated by the sun or by exercise, is too suddenly exposed to a check
of perspiration. In the morning, when I awoke, I was surprised to
see myself near the foot of a fortress built of brick; it served, or
perhaps its time was gone by and it had served, to defend the entrance
of the lake, which is narrow and deep. Some ferrymen came soon to carry
us over, which, from the smallness of their boat, was a work of some
time and difficulty.

Brulos stands close to the sea and the mouth of the lake: it shows
marks of having been a much larger town than at present; it has a
pretty look at a distance, from two or three white cupolas of mosques,
and as many minarets. The old town, or what remained of it, was brick;
the bricks of Egypt are of a deep red cast approaching to black. The
modern houses were sugarloaf-shaped, of sun-dried bricks. Brulos is
celebrated for its melons.

We made no stay there, having a long day’s journey to accomplish.
Although the soil was mostly sandy, uncultivated, and barren, still
the road was more pleasing than that by the seashore. We saw, soon
afterwards, the ruins of a large village. Towards noon, at a turning in
the road, a most agreeable and novel sight presented itself; which was
no other than a small encampment, probably of some lord of a village
come to levy contributions. These lords were formerly the Mameluke
beys, and, under the present pasha, some of his officers. The chief’s
tent was conspicuous from its treble compartments, connected with each
other by small corridors: it was of green, ornamented with stars and
flowers. The other tents, though smaller, were coloured. In front of
the encampment were tethered the horses, all stallions, whose neighings
very pleasingly broke the stillness of mid-day, sometimes as profound
in hot climates as that of midnight. None of the horsemen were out;
but some were seen lying at full length in the tents, taking their
afternoon’s nap.

We proceeded onward; and nothing occurred, excepting that we passed
occasionally among ploughed fields. Towards evening, we came upon a
large sandy plain, two or three leagues over, where we observed strait
rows of reeds, planted on a broad circular base, and narrowing to a
point where they were tied. Some of these rows seemed to run for a mile
or two, each bundle at ten or fifteen yards’ distance, I was informed
that within them there were snares; and that, whenever a cloud passed
over the sun, the quails, which at certain seasons of the year frequent
the plain, immediately run to hide themselves in these places, where
they are caught. I had no time to examine them, that I might ascertain
the truth of this story. At sunset we reached the banks of the
Damietta branch of the Nile, and were immediately ferried over. I was
received very courteously by a native gentleman named Airût, who was
already apprized of Lady Hester’s intention of coming to Damietta, and
had vacated his house for her reception.

During my absence from Cairo, it appeared that the pasha, anxious to
do honour to Lady Hester Stanhope, had reviewed his troops before her,
and had presented her with a charger magnificently caparisoned. This
horse was afterwards sent to his R.H. the D. of York. Abdhu Bey, who
was the flower of the pasha’s court, and was said to be a very aspiring
nobleman, likewise gave her a fine horse, which was, at the same time
with the other, sent to the Viscount Ebrington. Mr. B. received a
handsome sabre from the Pasha, and a fine cashmere shawl from Abdhu Bey.

Damietta is a large town, on an elbow of the Nile, on the eastern bank,
about seven or eight miles from the sea. The houses are principally of
brick: those upon the river enjoy an agreeable coolness, and command
the most amusing prospect of any city in Lower Egypt; since the passage
of large vessels over the bar of the river up to the wharfs affords
a change of scene not observable elsewhere. The Christian quarter is
at the south end of the city, and has the peculiarity, observable at
Alexandria, of okels or quadrangular buildings for the Franks. The
Franks, however, were few in number at Damietta at the time I speak
of; consisting only of a medical practitioner and a dragoman attached
to the English consul; although there were several other persons who
were denominated agents for different European nations, and, as such,
were entitled to many of the privileges of Franks.

Rice mills are the main source of wealth to this city as well as
to Rosetta. These mills were formerly the property, and under the
direction, of individuals, who enriched themselves greatly by them;
but, as the pasha of Egypt meddled with everything whereby money was to
be gained, he had also recently monopolized the mills, allowing none
but his own to work, by which means he sold the rice at what price
he pleased. We must except that of Mr. Surur, the English agent at
Damietta, who obtained a licence for one year (as I had heard) by a
present of fifteen purses, equal to nearly £400 sterling.

A rice-mill is generally a spacious brick building, divided into a
stable for the oxen, granaries for the rice, a room for the mill-wheel,
and, lastly, rooms where the hammers beat the husk off the rice. Rice,
when brought from the fields, somewhat resembles barley; but the grain
is pale and smaller: it may be called an aquatic plant; since, from the
moment it is sown until it is harvested, it remains almost continually
under water, every irrigation covering the soil to the depth of six
inches.

The whole machinery of the rice-mill seemed rough and simple. A pair
of oxen turn a wheel, the beam or axis of which passed through a hole
in the wall into another room, where it had, at two, three, or four
intervals, strong wooden cogs projecting from it, but not in the same
line. These cogs, as the beam went round, pressed, one after the other,
upon the ends of wooden levers, which were from ten to fifteen feet
long, and suspended, not in the middle, but at a third part of their
length from where the pressure was made; so that, when that pressure
was taken off, they, by their own weight, fell down with great force.
To this heavy end, in the manner a hammer is fixed to its handle,
were fixed the rice-huskers, which were hollow cylinders of iron with
sharpened edges, two and a half or three inches in diameter, much the
same in form as a saddler’s punch. Where the hammers fell there were
small bins, holding about a bushel of rice; and with the rice was
mixed a proportion of salt. Every two hammers, with their bins, were
generally so near that a man could sit between them, and, with either
hand, reach one and the other.

The cogs then, pressing alternately on the ends of the hammer handles,
bore them down, and consequently raised into the air the end to which
the cylindrical pestle was attached. At this moment, the man seated by
the bin gave the rice a rake with his hand, so as to heap it up just
where the pestle would strike, which, losing its pressure at the short
end, fell down with great violence on the rice. The second hammer was
now up, and the man’s second hand performed the same office for the
second bin; and so, alternately, for one and the other. No one, on
entering a rice dairy (for so the mills are called in Arabic), could
view the situation of the man who plied at the bins without horror. A
moment’s forgetfulness, either to remove his hand in time or to hold
himself in an upright posture, subjected him to have his arm crushed
to atoms; and the noise of the pestles was worse than the din of any
engine I ever heard.

But there were mills where the pestles were raised by men’s feet; one
man pressing alternately, with his two feet, first on one lever and
then on the other.[21]

Some of the oxen employed in the rice-mills were of a prodigious size.
I measured the largest of Mr. Surur’s, and found it to be eight feet
long from between the horns to the edge of the os ischyi, near the
tail, and six feet one inch high from the ground to the withers: but
they were not so fat as in England.

The environs of Damietta were, like those of Rosetta, covered with
orchards, rice grounds, and corn fields. Towards the sea were some
extensive salt tanks, from which Egypt and Syria are supplied with that
useful condiment, and salt consequently formed an important article
of export: they were about a league and a half from the town, in a
north-east direction. On arriving at the spot, a vast number of shallow
pits were observable, with a trench leading to each. At a certain time
the sea water is let into them; and, when of a proper depth, they
are left to evaporate for a sufficient number of months, until the
evaporation is completed, when the salt is scraped up, and carried to
the quays of the river on asses.

Close to these salt-pits, we were told, grew the papyrus. M. Basil
Fackhr, the French agent, was obliging enough to send a man, with
another gentleman and myself, who were curious to see this plant, to
the pool of water where it grew. I found it to resemble the bulrush,
with a cylindrical velvety head on a long stalk, and thought it to be
such a rush as I had frequently seen in England. I brought away with me
two or three.[22]

There were some literary men in Damietta. Travellers are too hasty
in forming their opinions of Levantines and the other subjects of
the Turkish empire, when they fancy them to be grossly ignorant of
book-learning. It will surprise many persons to know that, at Damietta,
there was a small society of Christian merchants, at the head of
which was M. Basilius Fakhr, who met for the purpose of reading and
translating into Arabic such European works as they judged to be wanted
in that language. They had already made versions of fifteen volumes
upon different subjects; among which I recollect Lalande’s work on
Astronomy, Tissot’s Avis au peuple, Volney’s Ruines de l’ancien monde;
but the others have escaped my memory. Their meetings were held at each
other’s houses in the evening. One of the members was a learned monk,
named Saba, whom a ten years’ residence in the Società de Propaganda
Fide, at Rome, had made perfect master of the Italian language. He had
been called by his clerical duties into Syria, where he was chosen
superior-general of the monasteries of the schismatic Greeks, to whom
he belonged. It was to his scientific acquirements that the little
society was chiefly indebted for the treatise on Astronomy by Lalande:
and his loss was severely felt by it.

The day after my arrival, Lady Hester, Mr. B. and Mr. Pearce, reached
Damietta. Great additions had been made to the retinue and baggage.
There were six green marquees, ornamented with flowers. Several light
coffers had been purchased, for the purpose of mule carriage, of
the peculiar manufacture of Egypt; being made of a slender frame
of date-tree laths, as tough almost as metal, and yet light and
spongy.[23] Nothing that could serve to render travelling in Syria
agreeable had been neglected.

My servant, Mohammed, had been guilty of some trifling peculations,
and I was under the necessity of dismissing him. The other servants,
who had been hired at Alexandria, gave little satisfaction; but the
country afforded no better. It will be seen hereafter that they were
only making a convenience of their mistress, in order to get a passage
to Syria and a sight of Jerusalem.

The first and most urgent business after Lady Hester’s arrival was to
visit two or three vessels on the river, and to examine how far they
were fit for our passage to Syria. Our misfortune at Rhodes had made
us timorous; and, although the gales of wind, customary in the winter
season, had ceased to blow, our fears were yet awake to the risk of
embarking in Levantine ships. A three-masted polacca was at last hired.

Our stay at Damietta was not long: for the fleas, musquitoes, and
flies, engendered by the neighbourhood of the rice-marshes, rendered
the place, during the spring of the year, insupportable as a residence.
Some altercation had likewise taken place with our host, Maalem Ayrût,
and this rather served to hasten our departure. On the 11th of May,
therefore, we embarked on board the polacca, and sailed down as far
as the bar of the river. Here all our luggage was transferred from
the ship to flat-bottomed barges, and, the tents being pitched on the
sands, we passed the night in them.

In descending from Damietta to the mouth of the river there are several
villages, hamlets, and single cottages to be seen on its banks. The
last place is El Usby, on the east bank, where the Christian merchants
often go to recover their health when labouring under chronic maladies.
It has the benefit of being near the sea; otherwise, it is a town just
like the other towns of Egypt. Variety from hill or valley, wood or
lawn, is looked for in vain in a country where the soil is one uniform
level, subject to one uniform culture, and with productions which
differ very little from province to province.

Naked children, both girls and boys, were seen running along the edge
of the river, begging for biscuit from the ships that were entering
and going out; but they generally know that ships from long voyages
have little to give away, and they rather follow those which, coming
from Syria, may have laid in provisions for five days, and perhaps have
run their passage with a fair wind in two. El Usby had a fortress with
large cannon upon it, and, we were told, barracks for a great number of
men.

The river, when it has reached the sea, turns suddenly to the east,
so that vessels were obliged to keep close to the shore for nearly a
mile before they were properly clear of the bar. Just at this turn are
the foundations of a fortress at a small distance in the sea, which
once guarded the entrance. I know not of what age this fortress may
be, but certainly its present position is no proof of the inroads that
the land is said to make on the sea, for I question whether it would
be possible, at the present day, to lay the foundations of a structure
farther in the water than where this one stood, and hence we may
presume that the sea has rather gained on the land, since the architect
would not have exposed his work to the effects of water when he could
have lost no advantage of defence by placing it a few yards more inland.

When crossing the Delta, I was remarkably struck by the nature of the
sea-coast about Brulos, and likewise both before arriving at it and
after having passed it. Immediately at the back of Brulos there was a
sand hill of a conical shape close to the sea: it was, if I rightly
recollect, bare not only of trees, but of shrubs also. To the east of
it were others, and they continued to some distance. Similar eminences
existed elsewhere along the coast of the Delta. Such were Mutro, a high
land between Rosetta and Brulos, and Ras el Kebryt, between the latter
place and Damietta. Now if the soil of the Delta is to be considered
as a gradual deposition, from the earliest times, of the alluvions of
the Nile, the phenomena would, most likely, every year, or every score
of years, or every century, be the same; we therefore should expect
to see that these lofty sand hills would be but one of many other
similar chains that had succeeded each other in the course of ages.
But, although I have never seen the interior of the Delta, yet, as far
as I learned by general inquiries, its surface is a perfect level. It
would therefore be more reasonable to suppose that the elevations were
once the sites of buildings, and (if we do not allow them a more solid
basis, in giving a natural instead of an adventitious one) that they
are heaps of ancient ruins, which, forming a nucleus for the sand, have
since swollen to their present magnitude. If, then, they are heaps of
ruins, and of an unknown date, it is evident that the soil has not
gained on the sea, for the sea touches the foot of them; and if the
soil has made no advance in twenty years, allowing its encroachments to
be gradual, why should it in a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand?

At the mouth of the Damietta branch of the Nile the French constructed
two martello towers, or circular fortresses of brick, which command
it entirely, one on either side. We passed a very agreeable afternoon
in our little encampment. The arrangement of the tents, which now
were pitched on service for the first time, was an amusement of an
hour or two. To this succeeded the games of some Greek sailors, whose
vessels lay near ours, and who danced, played at hop-step-and-jump,
and wrestled in front of the tents, in expectation of a present from
Lady Hester. Their games brought to our notice a young Ragusan, named
Iachimo, who was about to sail in one of the Greek vessels for I know
not where, but, hearing that we wanted a servant, came and offered
himself. He was the voucher for his own character, and was immediately
engaged at twenty-five piasters per month, and, as he had been a sailor
the greatest part of his life, we were certain in him of a helper that
would not be sick on board, a matter not always sure when all the
servants are landsmen.[24]

The next morning, the ship, now light, crossed the bar, and the moment
she was well over and anchored, we followed her in sailing barges,
together with our luggage. The land wind, opposed to the current of
the river, caused some roughness in the sea, and much reciprocal
bumping was exchanged between the ship and the lighters. We sailed that
evening.[25] We were accompanied by two of the corps of the French
Mamelukes, of whom mention was made in the last chapter, who, with
the approbation of the viceroy and of the French consul, had engaged
themselves to Lady Hester as guards.[26] Their names were Selim and
Yusuf; such, at least, were their Turkish appellations, and each had
with him his groom, or, as they are called in Arabic, _säys_. We
were in all thirteen persons, of which six were men servants.

In England, where servants work well, and one pair of hands does a
great deal, six men servants would be considered a numerous retinue,
and their cost would be considerable; but in Turkey it is not so,
for wages were generally not more than ten shillings and sixpence a
month for grown persons, and for boys or lads a meal a day and a few
rags to clothe them in was as ample a recompense for their services
as they could claim. Hence, in the house of a common merchant, it is
not unusual to see six or seven men and boys who are his servants, or
porters, or errand boys; and his wife will have as many maids to her
share.

Our voyage to Syria lasted five days, and was not disturbed by any
accident. The captain and his crew were obliging and civil, which was
all that was to be expected from them. The ship had no pump, but only
a well, from which the water, in case of a leak, was drawn up by a
bucket; and this is generally the practice throughout the Levant.

It was about four in the afternoon that we approached Jaffa, and in an
hour’s time we anchored close to the port. Boats immediately came off.

Before we dismiss the subject of Egypt, a few words may be said on the
costume of the common people. The poorer sort of women in Egypt were
dressed in a blue shift made something like a smock frock, the sleeves
being very large. These shifts have at the sides two slits in the place
of pocket-holes, so long that it not unfrequently happened in bending
themselves forward that their naked skin was seen. Over their faces was
a slip of black cotton or silk (according to the means of the wearer)
tied round the head by a fillet or tape. From the centre of this, in
a perpendicular line, pieces of silver or gold, or sometimes pearls,
were hung. Over the head passed a long blue or black veil, one end of
which had its two corners stitched together for about three inches,
and, the corner so stitched being put under the chin, the face came
out as through an oval opening in it. The sleeves of the shift, which
tapered down to a point, were often, when the women were employed,
tied by the points behind the back. The arms, thus left bare up to the
shoulders, showed sometimes as much symmetry of form as would enchant
a statuary or a painter. Their feet were very well formed: their skins
were of a deep brown, and sometimes of a light polish: their eyes were
universally of a dark colour.




                              CHAPTER X.

   Loss of journals--Difficulties in learning Eastern
   languages--Signor Damiani; his simplicity--Porters--Residence at
   the Franciscan convent--Lady Hester’s dress--Not distinguishable
   from a Turk--Description of Jaffa--Buildings--Environs
   of Jaffa--Orchards--Mohammed Aga: his revenues: his
   expenditure--Pilgrims: their sufferings--Object of
   their pilgrimage--Departure for Jerusalem--Mr. Pearce
   leaves the party--Peasants reaping--Ramlah--Its
   monastery--Locusts--Lyd--Departure from Ramlah--Sober
   exhortation of a drunken priest--Mountains of Judæa--Abu
   Ghosh--Supper--Guards--Selim’s apprehensions--Cold--Brothers’s
   prophecy--Jerusalem--Lady Hester’s lodgings--Dragomans--Visit
   to the governor--Kengi Ahmed--Emir Bey; his history--Holy
   Sepulchre--Mount Calvary--Visit to the Jews’
   quarter--Bethlehem--Monastery--Bethlehemites reputed to be
   robbers--Horses--Accident to Mr. B.--Mufti’s dinner--Memorable
   places.


It was my misfortune, in the year 1813, to ship from Latakia for
England two cases of effects, in which were my memorandums and journals
from the time of quitting Rhodes until our landing in Syria. The
plague at that time was making great ravages in Malta; and these
cases, having been landed there to be reshipped on another vessel, were
lost; and to this cause it is owing that my narrative, up to the period
of our arrival at Jaffa, is for the most part written from letters,
scattered notes, and memory, and must, consequently, be liable to
numerous errors. The foregoing pages may therefore be considered in the
light of an introduction to our future course of proceeding, and the
peculiar mode of life which Lady Hester will hereafter be seen to lead
on Mount Lebanon.

It was now two years and three months since her ladyship had quitted
England. We had become accustomed to the manners and costumes
of the Turks; and our ears, which at first were offended by the
undistinguishable mixture of so many languages, had now learned to
admire the sonorous tones of the Turkish, and to relish the nasal and
guttural ones of the Arabic; nay, we had made that great step towards
speaking them which consists in having a perception of the articulation
of words. From this perception the progress to articulating one’s self
is rapid.

I had likewise surmounted another difficulty, which is apt to stand
in the way of a young traveller’s improvement, and which is said to
accompany the English more than the people of any other nation;--that
of fancying the inhabitants of other countries their inferiors in
breeding, dress, mode of living, and intellectual acquirements. I could
already see that a Turk, however perfidious he might be, was certainly
well bred; and that an Arab, even though he were a liar, had still his
glow of imagination and his eloquence. I had learned too by what scale
to measure the expressions of such a people; and, having once obtained
the customary variation from truth, I found no difficulty in most
instances in arriving at the same degree of correctness as in other
countries. I had discovered that, to view things with a just eye, a
traveller must have neither self-love nor national prejudice: although
it was long before I could conquer a feeling of anger which would
arise when a Turk treated me with disrespect, merely because I was a
Christian. But to return to my narrative.

There was an English agent at Jaffa named Antonio Damiani, born in the
country, but of Frank parentage, his father having been in the service
of the English at the same port before him. Our räis (or captain) had
hoisted an English flag, which anticipated the news of Lady Hester
Stanhope’s arrival: for the intelligence of her ladyship’s intended
visit to Syria had reached Signor Damiani from Egypt long before our
departure. His house, an old roomy building, was immediately prepared
for her reception. The baggage was then landed, and conveyed by porters
from the wharf.[27]

Her ladyship disembarked in the evening, and was received by the
venerable agent with that patriarchal simplicity noticed by a
celebrated traveller (Dr. Clarke), and which Mr. D. no doubt eminently
possessed; since it was confirmed to us by his own assurance: nor
did he fail to tell us that he was actuated in all he did by a
disinterested love for the British nation in general, positively
declaring that his agency was no source of emolument to him but rather
a loss. No credit therefore should be given to those malicious persons
who afterwards informed us that his father and he had made a vast
fortune under the protection of the English. Besides, he assured us
that the honour of having Lady Hester in his house was a sufficient
recompense for any trouble or expense he might be at, and he hoped (as
he told us three or four times) that she would not think of making
him too large a present. Damiani was nearly sixty, and dressed in the
Turkish costume, or, as it is designated among the Levantine Franks,
the long dress, except that, instead of the turban, he wore an old
cocked-hat, with his hair tied in a thick _pig-tail_, so as to
give him the look of a boatswain in Greenwich Hospital. This was the
dress of most of the Franks previous to the French Revolution: and
whilst English commerce flourished in the Levant. He was a widower,
and had a married son about twenty years of age, or somewhat more.

Lady Hester being accommodated as above mentioned, we took up our
residence at the Franciscan monastery, or, as it is called in the
Levant, the Convent of the Holy Land. No time was lost in making the
necessary preparations for our departure to Jerusalem. Eleven camels
were hired for the luggage at seven piasters twenty paras each, and
thirteen horses for the party, at six piasters each. The governor of
Jaffa, Mohammed Aga, at her ladyship’s request, sent two horsemen to
accompany us.

In addition to her more splendid habiliments, Lady Hester had, whilst
at Cairo, procured a travelling Mameluke dress. It consisted of a satin
vest, with long sleeves, open to the bend of the arm, which reached
to the hips only, and folding over at the chest was attached with a
single button at the throat and waist; over this again she wore a red
cloth jacket, in shape like a scanty spencer, with short sleeves, and
trimmed with gold lace. The trowsers were of the same cloth, gorgeously
embroidered with gold at the pockets, as well before as behind. They
were large and loose, as is the fashion in Turkey, and, when worn,
formed, by their numerous folds, a very beautiful drapery. Over the
whole, when on horseback, she wore the burnooz or white-hooded cloak,
the pendent tassels and silky look of which gave great elegance to her
figure. The turban was a Cashmere shawl, put on with the peculiar
fulness which the Mamelukes affect in their head-dress, and which is
very becoming. This dress, as far as regards the sherwals (or trowsers)
which were of the same colour as the jacket, is peculiar to Egypt: for
throughout Syria the sherwals are almost always blue, and generally
dark. But this Egyptian costume was more proper for her ladyship,
because her saddle and bridle were Egyptian; being of crimson velvet
embroidered in gold.

She was generally mistaken for some young bey with his mustachios not
yet grown; and this assumption of the male dress was a subject of
severe criticism among the English who came to the Levant. Strangers,
however, would frequently pass her without any notice at all; a
strong proof that she felt no awkwardness in wearing a dress which
would otherwise have attracted general attention. The fairness of her
complexion was sometimes mistaken for the effect of paint. I have
already described the superb velvet dress in which she visited the
pasha of Egypt, and afterwards the pashas of Acre and Damascus. It
was as rich as anything of the kind possibly could be. But, after a
longer residence in the country, the distinctions of rank were better
understood, together with the costume affected by each, whether men of
letters, merchants, military or naval officers, or men of independent
fortune: it was then easy to see that she had adopted a dress not
appropriate to her station. It was therefore laid aside some time
afterwards, and long robes were substituted. The riding dress, used by
people of consequence throughout the empire, was nevertheless worn when
requisite.

Jaffa does not rank as a city from its size; for many villages in
Syria are as large: it is, however, the residence of the governor of
an extensive district. This district comprehends four towns, Ramlah,
Gaza, Lydd and Jaffa; besides several large villages. It formerly
composed a part of the pashalik of Damascus, was some time a pashalik
by itself, but had now for many years been ceded to the pasha of Acre,
under whose jurisdiction its natural situation seems to place it. It
embraces the sea-coast of the southern part of Palestine, and is one
of the most beautiful tracts of country in all Syria. Jaffa stands
upon a small rocky eminence close to the sea; and may be a mile or a
mile and a half in circumference. It might, perhaps, contain three
thousand inhabitants. It had an agent for the English, but for no other
nation. It was walled on all sides, excepting on that towards the sea;
and had bastions at the angles where cannon were mounted. The cannon
had painted muzzles, and were pointed through whitewashed embrasures,
in order that they might be distinguished at a distance. The wall
was encompassed by a dry ditch, of no great breadth or depth. The
fortifications were, for the greater part, new, and were the work of
the then governor, who kept them in good repair, and, as it was said,
conceived himself master of a place that was impregnable: but walls not
eight feet thick, and a ditch not as many yards broad, were not likely
to realize his expectations. To the S. W. and S. there are several
eminences which overlook the principal works within musket-shot. The
houses are in terraces, one above another, and crowded together.
The streets are most irregular; and, owing to the inequalities of
the ground, and the steep descent from the land to the sea, the
communication between them is either very circuitous, or by a flight of
fifty or sixty steps.

It must be allowed that the governor had done much toward beautifying
the city. He had built a small but neat mosque; a caravansery; a
bazar; and a town gate (the only entrance to the city), which is much
ornamented, and has a very showy appearance: but all these buildings,
the gate excepted, are on so diminutive a scale, that the whole do
not occupy so much ground as many single edifices in a spacious
metropolis. These structures are of stone, as are the houses. The
Governor had enriched his masonry from the ruins of Cæsarea, Ascalon,
and other cities along the coast, whence he had drawn abundant supplies
of granite, marble, and stone, ready shaped to the hand. There is a
convent of Franciscans, where, at the time of our arrival, resided not
more than six or seven monks: there is also a Greek and an Armenian
monastery. The former is pleasantly situated on the quays that run
along the edge of the harbour, not far from the warehouses of the
merchants, and is the most agreeable residence in the place. The other,
converted into an hospital, is said to have been the grave of many
Frenchmen, poisoned by order of Buonaparte, when he raised the siege of
St. Jean D’Acre.

The environs of the city are planted with fine orchards; and, although
the soil seems to be nothing but sand, yet, wherever it is watered,
all the productions of the earth thrive. Fine water-melons grow here,
and are sent in smacks to every port in Syria. The soil is irrigated
from wells, by means of wheels of the rudest construction, round which
earthenware pots, fastened to a withy rope, are made to revolve in
the manner of a chain pump. These pots, dipping at the bottom, empty
themselves at the top into a wooden shoot, which conducts the water
to canals of mortarwork, from which it is distributed by trenches to
every part of the orchard. In each of the orchards is generally a stone
cottage, in which resides the gardener with his family. The gardener
does the work either in consideration of a certain proportion of the
profits, or else he hires the garden at an annual rent.[28]

Large flights of storks are to be seen in the fields round Jaffa.

The governor was named Mohammed Aga Abu Nabût, rather a handsome man,
of middling stature, with a florid complexion, and a well-shaped and
becoming beard. He had been a Mameluke of Gezzàr Pasha’s.[29] He
exercised rigorously the administration of justice, and was the terror
of thieves and robbers: his mildest punishment was amputation of the
hand. His retinue was very splendid for his rank, and he already seemed
to act the pasha, which indeed he afterwards became. He was very
religious, either from conviction or policy.

Like other motsellems, or governors of towns, he had no pension;
but, after having transmitted the revenue with which his government
was charged in taxes, customs, and the like, he was then allowed to
make as much as he could of his place. The public officers of the
pasha were sent annually to examine his accounts about April, which
is the commencement of the Mahometan year. These accounts were kept
by Christians, who are everywhere the bankers and secretaries of the
Turkish governors, the highest employments to which a Christian can
rise.

Easter was just over. Jaffa being, as we have seen, a small place,
with little commerce and few buildings, what was our surprise to find
it transformed from a dull fishing-town into a populous mart, by the
arrival of the pilgrims from Jerusalem? The number of those who visit
the holy sepulchre every Easter varies. This year they amounted, we
were told, to about four thousand. As travelling by land subjects the
Christians to some danger and much oppression, those, whose destination
permits, take shipping at Jaffa for their respective homes. The
shipowners of the Levant know the season, and there were vessels of all
sizes daily entering the roads to wait for passengers.

The grotesque figures of these poor wearied pilgrims, as they came into
the town from Jerusalem, were truly ludicrous. Wheel carriages being
unknown in this country, the women are compelled to ride on mules,
asses, camels, or horses; and, from timidity or economy, they generally
put themselves into a kind of panier. Fear of the Bedouins and
mountaineers makes them apprehensive of stopping excepting at Ramlah,
the only large village between Jaffa and Jerusalem; and they sometimes
travel for fourteen hours without rest.

The pilgrims, in the dresses and with the languages of their different
nations, produce a confusion of tongues and costumes that could hardly
be exceeded by the Crusaders themselves. Nor is religion the only
object they have in view. The great fairs at Leipsic and Frankfort are
not more essential to the commercial interests of the Continental Jews
than is this pilgrimage to the trade of the Eastern Christians. It is
here that they procure their precious gums, valuable medicinal drugs,
herbs, &c., for which they barter pearls, precious stones, stuffs, and
the like. There is also a great exchange of Damascus silks, Angora
stuffs, Barbary shawls, against the productions of European Turkey.
In fact, every pilgrim can dispose of what he wants to sell, and can
furnish himself with that of which he stands in need.

The pilgrims this year from the western world were but few. There were
three from Spain, one from Germany, none from France, and, excepting
ourselves, no English.

It will, no doubt, be imagined that, sanctified by the performance of
so holy a vow, and filled with religious sentiments arising from the
contemplation of the scenes of our Saviour’s sufferings, the pilgrim
returns home pure in heart, and with the good resolution of amending
his life. But we were credibly informed that this was not always the
case; and that the promiscuous assemblage of so many persons gave
rise to much depravity of conduct. There is an Arabian proverb which
says--“Beware of pilgrims, of Jerusalemites, and of Bethlehemites.”

Jaffa still boasts of a manufacture of glass. The bottles that are
blown are as fine as Florence flasks. It was on the second day after
our arrival that we quitted Jaffa, accompanied by two horsemen. We
had ten camels for our baggage, and fourteen horses and mules for
the party. Mr. Pearce had declined accompanying Lady Hester any
farther than Jaffa, having planned for himself a different route
from that which she intended to pursue; we therefore left him in the
monastery.[30] The road lies due east, at first through gardens, and
is broad, commodious, and picturesque. After quitting the gardens,
we entered the open country. A mile or two farther we discovered a
number of peasants reaping barley to the tune of a pipe and tabor and
the noise of a great drum. Near them were several tents pitched; and
a number of young Turks, with small sticks in their hands, not used
merely as emblems of authority, were urging them on in their work.
These were labourers working for the Aga or governor at the barley
harvest. One of the peasants ran towards us with a wisp of barley in
his hand, and offered it to her ladyship, asking a present. No nation
understands better the art of extorting presents than the Arabs; and
small and great are alike shameless in that respect.

After a march of four hours we arrived at Ramlah, and were received at
the Holy Land monastery by an old monk, who happened on that day to
have made plentiful libations to the rosy god. As the monastery has a
vast number of cells, we were all conveniently accommodated. It is said
to have been founded by Philip the Good.[31] It is a strong building,
having on the ground floor vaulted rooms, serving for the refectory,
kitchen, offices, &c., above which are the cells; and the outer wall is
strong and high enough to secure its inmates from popular tumults, or
the equally unpleasant visits of marching troops.

The country between Jaffa and Ramlah is undulating, and of a rich soil,
as might be judged from the fine crops of barley. We were witnesses,
on approaching Ramlah, to a sight so extraordinary, that the image of
it will never be effaced from my recollection. We had proceeded about
half way, when every now and then we observed, as we thought, a vast
number of grasshoppers: presently they became more numerous. One of the
guides informed us they were called _geràd_, (Arabic,) which
at last we understood to mean locusts. Our attention was immediately
roused at the name of this destructive insect. As we advanced, they
became so thick that they covered the fields to the right and left of
us, and were seen marching in a strait line, not to be stopped by any
impediment. At one place, there was a house and a tree in their way;
they covered both so completely, that neither stone nor trunk could be
descried, and both objects appeared as if cased in bright green. The
young wheat had disappeared before them, and dreadful was the havoc
they had made. To look at them must have filled with despair all who
had aught to lose by these ravages, since their numbers seemed to
bid defiance to human powers of destruction. The observations that
we had an opportunity of making at this time were few; but we shall
have occasion hereafter to speak more largely on the subject. Ramlah,
according to Abulfeda, was founded by Soliman, the son of Abdel Malek,
of the race of the Ommiades, and was the largest city of Judea in the
time of this author.

As we were to rest one day at Ramlah, we took that opportunity of
riding over to the adjoining village of Lyd, the Diospolis of the
Romans. The road was pretty and picturesque, lying between hedges of
the prickly pear shrub, with here and there fields of grain that would
have enriched the prospect, but for the havoc which the locusts had
made. Lyd is a village much smaller than Ramlah; it has a very fine
church, said to have been built by Justinian. Having satisfied our
curiosity, we returned to Ramlah.

We set off the following morning, having handsomely rewarded our
host for the lodging he had afforded us. As I was taking my leave of
him, he, being now sober, addressed me in the following terms: “I
participate in the pleasure you must feel at the prospect of your visit
to the Holy Sepulchre. You have already, young man, travelled a great
deal. To have seen the noblest works of antiquity, to have passed over
the spots distinguished by the exploits of famous men of old, will
perhaps afford you many amusing and instructive reflections, and will
serve to enliven an idle hour with your friends in England. But, in
the decline of life, when worldly objects and pursuits begin to lose
their interest, to be succeeded by others more serious and important,
the remembrance of your pilgrimage will be as a balm to your mind, and
will serve to maintain that wholesome meditation, which, though proper
at all periods of our life, is more peculiarly so when we are about to
quit it. Englishmen, whose country is so remote from the Holy Land,
cannot, in the common course of events, hope to have opportunities
of performing this sacred duty, and they are apt to assign to it no
particular importance; but, in these Eastern countries, where the
enemies of the Christian religion keep alive, by their persecutions,
the ardour of its followers, it is esteemed the principal action of a
man’s life. He acquires the proud title of pilgrim; his manners assume
a sanctity which he is bound to keep up by the strictest morality
and by every religious observance; every honourable distinction is
paid him. I rejoice, therefore, with you in your undertaking; and, in
time to come, whenever, from the weakness of human nature, you swerve
from the line of conduct which a Christian ought to follow, let the
recollection of it lead you back to the path of virtue.” I thanked the
holy father for his good wishes. He then asked me whether I would not
take a little brandy before starting, to keep out the heat; and, on my
refusal, wished me a pleasant journey.

For the first half hour we had a continuation of the same beautiful
country that we had passed between Jaffa and Ramlah; after which we
began to ascend the mountain. We were not yet accustomed to the rugged
and winding paths of the mountains of Syria; otherwise we should not
have been so much surprised as we were at those we encountered. The
French Mamelukes, habituated for so many years to the plains of Egypt,
expressed more astonishment than ourselves, and seemingly felt more
alarmed: yet the road to Jerusalem, as we afterwards found, is much
more practicable than many in Mount Lebanon.

We reached a large village, encompassed by vineyards and fig and
olive-trees, where we were to encamp for the night. The soil was
stoney, and hardly afforded us a smooth place whereon to lay our beds.
We were received very courteously by the chieftain, or shaykh, who may
be said to have the keys of Jerusalem; since no pilgrims can pass from
Jaffa, unless by his permission, as the road lies through his village,
and is at once narrow, difficult, and lonely. Hence it is that he
stands in little awe of the pashas who threaten or would intimidate
him; for, with his mountaineers, though few in number, he can brave
almost any force they can send against him; and the trial has been
made often enough not to leave it doubtful. He exacts a severe toll
from all pilgrims that are Christians, and levies contributions on the
monasteries of Jerusalem almost at his will. His name was Abu Ghosh,
and he had three brothers, shaykhs, nearly of equal rank with himself,
since they participated, to a certain degree, in his power and plunder.

Abu Ghosh, then, received us very courteously, killed a sheep for
us, gave us corn for our animals, and supplied all our wants. He was
naturally curious to see and converse with a lady, who was travelling
so splendidly, and who, he soon observed, was not to be numbered with
the pilgrims in the habit of traversing his territory. For these, even
if Europeans, are ill mounted and accoutred, and are rendered timorous
by the exaggerated accounts that are given them by the monks of this
chieftain’s cruelty. Finding the talents and conversation of her
ladyship, and the dignity of her manners, to exceed anything he had
ever seen in Europeans, his delight was unbounded.

The supper sent from his kitchen was prepared, as he told us, by the
hands of his four wives, who vied with each other in cooking some
delicacy. The reader may be curious to know what these delicacies
were. From one it was a dish of rolled vine leaves, containing minced
meat. From another, kusas (known in England as the vegetable-marrow)
stuffed with rice and minced meat. From the third, a lamb roasted
whole. From the fourth, an immense dish of boiled rice, surrounding and
covering four boiled chickens. Besides these, there was the pilaw of
the country, with morsels of meat stirred up among it. All this made
but a homely supper, yet it is the best that the culinary art of the
temperate Arabs is capable of furnishing.

At nightfall, Selim, one of the Mamelukes, suggested the necessity
of having guards planted round our encampment to prevent any attempt
of thieves. Selim, it was to be conjectured, in the number of years
that he had lived with the Turks and Egyptians, had experienced
nothing but treachery from them; for he beheld every action of a Turk
with distrust. The civility of Abu Ghosh he considered as extremely
questionable; and he asserted that we had everything to apprehend from
men generally robbers and always extortioners, and who must have
filled their imagination with notions of the vast wealth contained
in our trunks. Her ladyship accordingly thought the best plan would
be to ask Abu Ghosh himself for guards; and the old shaykh not only
complied immediately with her request, placing five around the tents,
but said that he should keep watch himself; and, ordering a large fire
to be made, occasionally sleeping, occasionally sitting up smoking, he
kept his post all night. The temperature of the atmosphere was very
different from what we had found it in the plains, and the night was
chilling and misty.

The following morning, on quitting Abu Ghosh, a handsome present was
made him, and his guards were likewise well paid. Her ladyship and he
parted great friends, and it will be seen hereafter that he invariably
entertained a great respect for her. He had known Sir Sydney Smith,
and the prowess of that gallant officer not a little contributed
to heighten his admiration of the bravery of the English. We were
escorted by one of the brothers of Abu Ghosh, and continued our journey
through mountains less wild than on the preceding day, as we were now
apparently on a more level surface, and in a less woody district. But
the view was always rocky, the road stoney, and the soil barren and
unfriendly to cultivation.

At some period of her life, when such an event appeared very
improbable, Lady Hester Stanhope had been told by Brothers, the
fortune-teller, that she was to make the pilgrimage of Jerusalem,
to pass seven years in the Desert, to become the queen of the Jews,
and to lead forth a chosen people. She now saw the first part of the
prophecy verified; and she often openly, but laughingly, avowed that
she had so much faith in the prediction as to expect to see its final
accomplishment. We approached Jerusalem, all more or less awed by the
recollection of the scenes which had been acted on this memorable spot,
a feeling which the appearance of it is well calculated to inspire.
For several miles around it, the mountains are bare, rugged, and
rocky, presenting a uniformly deserted appearance. The city is seen
standing as if cut off from the rest of the world, and its high walls,
on the outside of which no object meets the eye but here and there an
insulated church, add to the gloominess of the prospect. We entered by
the gate of Bethlehem.

The monastery of the Franciscans generally receives all European
travellers, excepting women, who, by a rule of the order, are not
allowed to lodge within its walls: and Lady Hester Stanhope was
conducted to a house that adjoined it.

This consisted of a few rooms, bare of everything but fleas, which,
in Syria, always abound in places where the inmates are so often
changing, and which hours of sweeping could not destroy. Mr. B. and
myself were accommodated with two chambers in the monastery. These,
adjoining each other, seemed to have been long appropriated to this
purpose, as on the doors, especially of one, were carved the names of
different Europeans who had visited the Holy Land. The oldest name on
the oak door is as early as 1690. It showed no great consideration in
the superior of the monastery to consign his guests to rooms, which, we
learned, are at other times the hospital of the sick, and consequently
may abound in malignant effluvia.

The first day was devoted to repose, and to such arrangements as were
necessary to make our stay comfortable. We were very soon surrounded by
the dragomans of the monastery, the greatest harpies that Jerusalem can
boast of, and, as we had reason to think, equally devoid of principle
and of morality. But Lady Hester, with her accustomed promptitude and
decision, immediately ordered the house to be cleared of them, as a
set of hangers-on that would be very troublesome; and so indeed they
afterwards proved; for it was impossible to stir out of doors without
being immediately followed by them, and their company was a sufficient
indication to the Turks that we were fair game for plunder, which, had
we been alone, would have been less evident; since it only depended on
ourselves to remain silent, and then our dresses disguised us very well.

On the second day Lady Hester Stanhope sent word to the motsellem, or
governor, that she was desirous of paying him a visit. We mounted hack
horses, which were hired at fifty paras per diem. These horses are
plentiful in Jerusalem, and the cavalcade, amounting to nearly twenty
persons, wore a very respectable appearance. I may venture to assert,
that no European travellers had then ever made so splendid a show. The
governor, whose name was Kengi Ahmed, father-in-law of the governor of
Jaffa, received us very formally, in a saloon at the top of his palace,
where a window opened on the court of the Great Mosque, the supposed
Temple of Solomon. On coming away about two guineas were distributed
among the servants, whose cupidity was so unceremonious, that we ran
some risk of being knocked down from the eagerness with which they
pressed forwards to get a share of the vails.

There was residing at Jerusalem a Bey of the Mamelukes, who had escaped
from the massacre of his brethren by Mohammed Ali Pasha at the castle
of Cairo. He was living in a small house, in a very retired way, and
chiefly upon the alms of benevolent Turks. Lady Hester had informed
him, by a servant, that she should visit him; and from the governor’s
house we accordingly passed to his. The entrance announced his poverty.
We found him in a small room, which was matted, and had a carpet with
two or three cushions at one end. His horse’s bridle and a pair of
pistols hung on a peg.

He received his visitors without any embarrassment, and, in the course
of conversation, related a part of his extraordinary history. He was
a purchased slave of Elfy Bey’s, whom he accompanied to England, and
he still recollected several words of English. On his return from
that country, he was created a Bey by Elfy, his master. On the bloody
day in which so many Mamelukes were cut off by Mohammed Ali, he was,
like the rest, advancing through the avenues to the castle, when he
perceived that they were fired on by Albanian soldiers from the walls.
His presence of mind was sufficient to tell him that to remain was
certain death, and that any risk, however great, was to be run for the
chance of escape. The avenue, leading from the great entrance of the
castle, goes upon an ascent until it terminates in a platform. Round
the platform, breast high, runs a wall that looks down on the open
space before the castle gates. Its height from the ground must be very
considerable. He drove his horse at it, and leaped over.

By what chance he was not killed on the spot is unimaginable. He
secreted himself some days in Cairo; and then, in disguise, he
attempted to fly into Syria across the Desert. His guides waited for
a favourable opportunity, and attempted to murder him. Supposing him
dead, they plundered and stripped the body, threw it into a cemetery
which was near at hand, and then fled. When he recovered his senses
sufficiently to know where and in what state he was, he crept under
the shade of a tomb from the scorching rays of the sun, and was found
in this lamentable situation by a Bedouin, who had compassion on
him, carried him to his tent, and concealed him until his wounds were
healed. The bey then continued his flight across the Desert: and,
arriving at Jerusalem, there sought the protection of the pasha of
Acre. He still complained of great pain in his loins from the wounds he
had received, and his wrist was yet bound up.

Lady Hester Stanhope administered to his pecuniary wants, and desired
me to afford him whatever assistance lay in my power. He gratefully
received her present with less scruple than an Englishman in distress
would have done, because the acceptance of alms by Mahometans has
nothing degrading in it. Emin Bey, for that was his name, was a man
with an expressive but not a handsome countenance; and the loss of
two or three front teeth, which were beaten out by his assailants,
contributed greatly to disfigure him. He expressed much admiration
of the English as a people, and of their arts and manufactures: he
professed a great regard for all of us. His servants, who were two
only, one of whom seemed to be hired for the occasion, partook, as well
as their master, of Lady Hester’s bounty.

The same day was destined for visiting the Holy Sepulchre. The monks,
as also the Turks who are stationed there to take the accustomed fees,
were apprized of our coming. To make the ceremony more pompous, they
shut the church doors, which on the moment of our arrival flew open,
and the monks appeared with candles in their hands, and preceded her
ladyship to the sepulchre, as in a procession. Curiosity had likewise
attracted a vast concourse of people; and the Turks, using their whips
and sticks to keep them from pressing on, not less dishonoured the
sacredness of the place than did the monks by their garrulity and
mummery: whilst the tumultuous behaviour of the native Christians
deserved all the chastisement it received. As the sanctuary or chapel
that is built over the Holy Sepulchre is but small, her ladyship, Mr.
B., myself, Giorgio, and one priest only entered, after we had first
observed that it was decorated externally with tapestry, sculptures,
and pictures. It consisted of an outer and inner chamber or cell, each
of which might have been four feet by six, with no other light than
that given by the silver lamps suspended from the ceiling. These lamps
are presents from divers potentates of Europe, and generally of elegant
shape. Vases of flowers fill up the intervals. The effect of the whole
was solemn and beautiful. The grave itself of Jesus Christ is not seen:
an oblong marble slab covers it. I placed several strings of beads
with crosses on this lid or cover, as thereby I had been informed they
acquired a degree of sanctity which would make them more acceptable to
devout Catholics in Europe.

Disturbed as one’s thoughts were by the tumult without, still the
solemnity of the place, coupled with the reflections to which it gave
rise, was inconceivably imposing, far exceeding anything I had ever
felt before. We all kissed the sepulchre. The Greek dragoman, Giorgio,
giving way to the impulse of his devotion, took off his turban,[32]
and, with several prostrations with his forehead touching the ground,
showed how profoundly he was impressed with what he beheld. The priest,
like one too much accustomed to it, and in whom the feeling had worn
off, was indecorously deficient in gravity.

From the Holy Sepulchre we were conducted up about forty steps to the
top of Mount Calvary, where the different spots made memorable by
Christ’s sufferings are shown; where he was scourged, where he was
crucified, and some others; all which events, as being here said to
have happened within the compass of a few yards, carry such an air of
improbability with them, that the spectator is led to believe that
distant places have been approximated for the greater convenience
of worship; in the first instance, perhaps as emblematical of the
real ones, which, because covered by Mahometan houses, it might be
impossible to see or get at; but afterwards, by priestcraft, held
forth to the pilgrims as the very places that had been sanctified by
the sufferings of the Redeemer.

In the year 1809 or 1810 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was burned to
the ground, having been, as was said by many, maliciously set on fire
by the Turks, in order to extort money for the permission of rebuilding
it; but different professions of Christians charge each other with the
act; by the Catholics it is imputed to the Greeks, and by the Greeks to
the Catholics. Be this as it may, the Greeks have been at the expense
of rebuilding it, in a style of architecture that no doubt appears more
beautiful to the Oriental pilgrims than that of the pristine church. It
has now white walls, with blue and red mouldings, and unmeaning flowers
and gilding in abundance.

Lady Hester was not forgetful of whatever might be curious in
Jerusalem. Supposing that the Jewish nation could no where be seen to
so great an advantage as in the city which they reverence as their holy
place, she inquired who were the principal families, and sent a message
expressing a wish to see them at their own houses in their own fashion.
From the house of Emin Bey we proceeded to the quarter of the Jews;
and, so disgraceful is the commerce with that people held by the Turks
and even Christians, that our janissary, Mohammed, and the dragoman of
the convent, made as many wry faces as if they were going to prison,
and frequently looked behind them to see who observed us. It is not
unknown to our readers that the Jews, in the Turkish dominions, live in
a particular quarter assigned to them, which in many places is without
the walls of the town; but, whether within the walls or without, it
is always remarkable for the narrowness of its streets, and the dirty
exterior and ruined state of its houses. It was thus it proved in
Jerusalem, the metropolis of the nation, where we were conducted into
a small, mean, dilapidated house, and found no less a person than a
Venetian Jewess dressed in much Italian finery, who had been selected
in preference to others to receive Lady Hester, because she spoke bad
Italian. They had prepared a tray of sweetmeats, which, with coffee,
and some desultory conversation, finished the amusements of this day;
to be numbered as one of the most busy that will be described in these
pages.

The following day horses were hired, at two piasters a piece, to go
to Bethlehem. Our guide was a Christian shaykh, an inhabitant of that
place. The road was, similar to that which we had passed in coming from
Abu Ghosh’s village, stoney and rocky. After three or four hours’ ride,
we arrived at the monastery. We were much struck with the beauty of
the portico or stoa, which, though disfigured and blocked up in front,
forms an imposing colonnade of lofty granite pillars. Having reposed
a little, and listened to the conversation of a monk, who, during
Buonaparte’s stay in Egypt, had thrown aside the cowl and fought under
the French, we were conducted down some dark steps to the manger in
which our Saviour was born. Like his tomb, it is so much disguised with
silks and velvets, crucifixes and lamps, as to be hardly recognized
for, what it seemed really to be, a trough hewn out of the solid rock.
Such mangers are not uncommon in Syria at this day. The altars round
the manger were more splendid than that at the sepulchre, as his birth
was a more joyful event than his death. We here likewise saw the tomb
of Nicodemus.

We were much pestered by the inhabitants of the village to induce
us to buy their crosses and beads; but, as we had come just after
Easter, we found that every good article had been carried off. This
did not prevent us from purchasing as many rosaries as would suffice
for a host of friends: for a trifle, however ordinary on the spot,
has an inconceivable value a hundred leagues off. The inhabitants of
Bethlehem have the mien and appearance of robbers; and their broad
stilettoes stuck in the girdle, which they make use of very readily,
contribute much to the impression, that, we were told, is by no means
unfounded. After taking refreshment, we prepared to return; and,
although the steward of the convent received a present of one guinea
for the few hours we were there, he was very discontented; and our
dislike seemed to be mutual, since we had no reason to be pleased with
the difficulties which had been opposed to every arrangement for our
gratification.

Her ladyship caused several horses to be brought her to look at; but
a numerous retinue and the reputation of being rich made it extremely
difficult to buy, unless at an exorbitant rate. Nevertheless, from
observations made since, on going through Syria, there is no place
where better horses are to be obtained than at Jerusalem, Jaffa, and
their environs. This is owing to the annual resort of the pilgrims,
which induces the Arabs of the interior, from the neighbourhood of
the Dead Sea, to bring their spare horses and mares to a market where
they are sure to find a ready sale. In like manner, the shaykhs of the
villages round Jerusalem are glad to dispose of their horses as soon
as Easter is over, as they cannot expect to let them out to advantage
until the ensuing year.

An unpleasant accident had nearly happened in our way back. Giorgio,
the dragoman, who was but a lad not more than sixteen years old, was
amusing himself with a gallop; and the horse, having a great deal of
mettle, ran away with him. The saddle was one from Cairo, with stirrups
like an iron shovel, sharpened at the ends. The horse, not obeying the
rein, went furiously on, and passed Mr. B., who was not aware of his
approach, so close, that the stirrup would have cut the calf of his
leg in two, had not the cloth brogues performed the use they were, no
doubt, in some degree intended for, of turning the edge of the stirrup
and deadening the blow. The shock, however, threw Giorgio from his seat
to the ground, with no other consequences than a fright and a severe
reprimand.

Mr. B. and myself were invited to dinner, on the following day, by the
mufti of the place; and at about noon we betook ourselves to his house.
The dragoman of the convent accompanied us as interpreter. Omar Effendi
received us with civility. Emin Bey was likewise present. The dinner
was served, as is the custom of the Mahometans, on a large copper tray
tinned over; and we placed ourselves around it on the floor. The dishes
were savoury, but what in England would be esteemed very homely. A
boiled chicken was taken up by one of the servants, who was waiting,
and torn with his hands joint from joint; it was then replaced on the
dish; and this was instead of carving. The dinner went off with much
merriment, and when we rose from table it was removed a little to one
side, and several dervises or beggars (for in dress and in asking
alms they are quite the same, glossing over their trade of mendicants
with the knowledge of a few scraps of the Coran) took our places;
and, between each mouthful, extolled the liberality of Omar Effendi.
Indeed the mufti was reputed to be a very benevolent man: he kept open
table for rich and poor. We left him, extremely well pleased with his
entertainment.

There now remained nothing more to be seen in Jerusalem than those
particular spots which had been rendered famous by some miracle,
action, or saying, of Jesus Christ, or of his disciples. But disgust
succeeds to curiosity, when, instead of being led from place to place
with the satisfaction of fancying that, however uncertain traditions
may be when handed down through so many generations, there is still
nothing impossible in them, we are conducted to view the print of the
Virgin Mary’s foot, the impression of Elijah’s body where he slept,
and a hundred such sights, which shock common sense and do no service
to true religion. But the dragomans and showmen find, no doubt, such
tales best suited to the majority of their visitors, or they would not
persist in telling them.

I procured at Jerusalem a specimen of the fetid carbonate of lime
brought from the Dead Sea. It is remarkable, in its fracture, for a
degree of blackness and evenness greater than in most other fetid
carbonates.




                              CHAPTER XI.

   Departure from Jerusalem--Arabian characters of horses not to be
   trusted--Ramlah--Demand of the governor to inspect Lady Hester’s
   firmâns--Alarm of Selim, the Mameluke--Illness of Mr. Pearce
   at Jaffa--Janissary dismissed--Departure from Ramlah--Politic
   conduct of Dragomans--River Awgy--Harým--Inhabitants
   of Galilee--Scorpions, and other venemous reptiles--Um
   Khaled--Marble columns--Illness of Yusef the guide--Mountaineers
   of Gebel Khalýl and Nablûs--Cæsarea--Remains of the ancient
   city--Obstacles to exploring them--Ma el Zerky--Tontûra--Women
   carrying water--Beauty of the road--Aatlyt--Mount
   Carmel--Häifa--Carmelite convent--River Mkutta, the Kishon of
   Scripture--Arrival at Acre.


On the 30th of May, having hired ten camels to Ramlah at six piasters
each, and four horses at eight, we sent off the baggage early in
the morning, escorted by one of the Mamelukes and one of the Jaffa
janissaries, as guards, and arrived there sufficiently early for the
tents to be pitched before sunset. Abu Ghosh renewed all the honours
he had shown before, and was as handsomely rewarded for them. The
guards were again placed; and, having passed the night very securely,
we pursued our journey the following morning, accompanied by Abu Ghosh
in person. I was mounted on a hired bay mare, that seemed to have been
worked hard, but was nevertheless handsome and light in hand. The
conversation ran much upon Arabian horses. Abu Ghosh boasted the blood
and powers of his own, a large mare, gray and flea-bitten. On arriving
in the plain, the road being extremely favourable for galloping, he
was desirous of racing against the mare I rode; and, to his vexation,
I beat him considerably. An Arab is perhaps to be believed implicitly
on no occasion, but certainly not when speaking of his mare. He then
launches out into exaggerated histories of the number of Shaykhs
who have bid money for her, and of the prices he has refused; when,
perhaps, all her merits lie in her master’s praise, and not in her
intrinsic worth, and £15 or £20 would probably be a sufficient price
for her. We reached Ramlah at night, took up our abode, as before, at
the monastery, and Abu Ghosh made haste back to his four wives.

Lady Hester received next morning a message from the motsellem of
Ramlah, saying that his master, Mohammed Aga of Jaffa, had ordered him
to transmit her firmâns for his inspection: a duty he had neglected
on her landing, having first thought it proper to write to Acre for
instructions. It is likely that at first Mohammed Aga had considered
her some devout lady who had come to fulfil her vows at Jerusalem:
but, having learned afterwards in what a distinguished manner Mohammed
Ali Pasha had received her, he probably wished that his own neglect
might be attributed to his ignorance of her rank and consequence, to
be inferred from his not having seen her firmâns. Much parleying took
place between Lady Hester Stanhope and the motsellem of Ramlah on the
necessity there was for complying with his master’s orders; and he soon
found that he had to deal with a person who was as good a judge of
business as himself.

No sooner had the Mameluke Selim, who served in part as dragoman,
observed the anxiety of the Ramlah motsellem to inspect the firmâns,
than, considering that his own name could not be there, since he
came into her service after the firmâns had been sent to Rhodes, and
apprehensive that he had been recognized as one of those who were with
Buonaparte in Syria, his fears got so far the mastery of him that, at
every knock at the door, he thought some one was sent to seize him,
and every loitering person round the monastery gates was a spy. He
double charged his pistols, and declared his determination to sell his
life dearly: whilst his unfounded suspicions, so valiantly acted upon,
almost made us believe that there might be some reason for them.

As the repeated messages, that passed and repassed, seemed to have
established a sort of acquaintance between the motsellem and Lady
Hester, he sent to ask her what the Europeans did to rid their fields
of locusts. We may suppose that her ladyship had not studied this
subject so profoundly as she had politics; and the advice she gave was
not adopted.

The following day we endeavoured to hire horses and camels to pursue
our journey to Acre, as it was not Lady Hester Stanhope’s intention
to re-enter Jaffa: but the people becoming every hour more and more
persuaded of her importance, and, according to their mode of reasoning,
consequently of her wealth, were quite unreasonable in their demands.
There was, therefore, no immediate prospect of our departure. We heard
likewise that Mr. Pearce, who had quitted us at Jaffa in good health,
was ill in bed at the monastery there; and her ladyship immediately
requested me to ride over and see him. Mr. B. took his janissary, Hadj
Mohammed, and accompanied me, anxious as he was about the health of Mr.
Pearce, and more especially as he knew him to be in a manner alone, not
considering that he could derive any assistance from the monks of the
monastery.

The road, as I have before said, is level, spacious, and through a
fertile country, and Ramlah is little more than two leagues and a
half from Jaffa; so we could travel in the English fashion, galloping
or trotting, and therefore were not long in reaching the monastery.
We found Mr. Pearce convalescent. He had laboured under a remittent
fever, which continued some days: he had been bled, and some doses of
Peruvian bark completed the cure.

We had not been in the monastery long when there came a kowàss,[33] one
of those officials who wait about the palaces of governors to go on
messages, and are known by a cane with a long silver head, which they
carry in their hand, as the emblem of their office. He brought with
him an elegant Cashmere shawl, which he presented to Mr. B. from his
master, the governor. Mr. B. declined accepting presents from a man who
was a stranger to him; which refusal, we heard afterwards, irritated
him exceedingly. We took our final leave of Mr. Pearce, and reached
Ramlah before night.

The following day I called on the aga of Ramlah, to try what could be
done with the horse and camel-owners by means of his influence, in
order to reduce their price to something reasonable. His dwelling was
an old dilapidated stone house, which appeared as if it had been once
large and handsome; but, as the place of governor of small towns is
generally for a term, no one cares to expend his money on repairs which
he shall not profit by. The motsellem received me with much civility;
and the result of our conversation was that he promised to do all
that lay in his power to assist us in procuring means of conveyance
at a reasonable rate. As yet, new to the Turks, we were ignorant that
promises with them mean nothing, if their own interest is not concerned
in the performance of them.

In the course of the afternoon, it was necessary to send to Jaffa
upon some business, and one of the two janissaries who had hitherto
accompanied us since our leaving Jaffa was desired to make himself
ready. He had beheld the preference that was deservedly given to
Mohammed, his companion, and perhaps sought for an occasion to get
dismissed. He said that he was fatigued; that he was a guard, and not a
messenger; in a word he refused to go: upon which Lady Hester desired
him to be paid, and he left her service. Hadj Mohammed was sent to
Jaffa, and returned the following morning.

It was on the 7th of June that we departed from Ramlah. There were ten
camels, eight mules, and six horses, for luggage and mounting. Relying
on the promises of the motsellem, we supposed the _makayris_ (so
muleteers are called) and the camel-drivers were already come to a
reasonable agreement, and we questioned them no more on the subject.
The baggage was loaded, when their spokesman told us that we knew,
he supposed, that the prices were as had been originally demanded.
Provoked beyond measure at the conduct of the aga, we declared that we
would remain a month in the place sooner than be so imposed upon, and
ordered the baggage to be unloaded immediately. When they found that
we were determined, they softened their language.

Nothing is more amusing to a bystander than to observe a European
quarrelling with an Arab. He raves and sputters, heaps abuse and
threats in a language unknown to the object of his passion, and then
desires his dragoman to repeat it, word for word. The dragoman knows
the revengeful nature of the Arabs, even between Mahometans among
themselves, and more especially against Christians from whom they will
not brook a hard word of any kind; he considers that when his present
employers have quitted the country he shall be left at their mercy
without protectors in it; nay, perhaps he is in league with these very
men whom he is employed to vituperate; and lastly, he is generally
aware of this great truth that he who bawls is seldom on the right
side; the dragoman, therefore, repeats, in a moderate tone, about half
of what he has been desired to interpret, and, omitting the harsh
language, substitutes, instead of it, some clever reasoning of his own,
which brings the whole by measure to about the quantity of words that
the enraged man has uttered, and leaves him in the idea that he has
terribly frightened the Arab, when no such effect has been produced. In
a word, no person need flatter himself that what he says is, or ever
can be, faithfully repeated by a dragoman of the country.

The price was then settled; for ten camels, 150 piasters, six horses,
120, and eight mules, 136: and we set off for the first stage, which
was to be at a village on the seashore, where there is the sepulchre
of a certain Mahometan shaykh, in great repute, called Aly Ebn Aâlym,
who gives the name to the village, which is likewise called Mharrem
(the consecrated spot). Our march was slow, but the beauty of the
country prevented it from seeming tedious. We crossed the river El
Awjy, a considerable stream, which rises at no great distance inland,
and must therefore be supplied by other streams, unless we suppose its
source to be very copious. The soil appeared sandy but very fertile,
and was highly cultivated. It had a rural aspect, spreading in gentle
undulations to the East for four or five leagues.[34]

We reached Mharrem before sunset, and pitched the tents on the downs
close to the village, to the West, and upon the edge of the cliff which
overhangs the sea. Whilst they were planting, we went with a janissary
to look at the village. We found it to consist of about twenty or
thirty huts of mud, with a patch of ground enclosed in the front
of each by a small hedge of prickly acacia. To our application for
chickens, eggs, honey, milk, and wood for firing, the general answer
was by an interrogation: “And, pray, how are we to come by them?” for
the sight of the janissary was sufficient to intimidate the peasants,
and make them suspect that, if they produced what they had, it would
be taken at half price, or for nothing. We were therefore likely to go
without our supper. But, when they learned soon afterwards from the
servants that we were Franks, and paid liberally for what we bought,
they were no longer shy of dealing with us. The shaykh, a dark handsome
man of about twenty-five years, lent us, however, no assistance; for he
found that we had no _buyûrdy_ upon him.

We were scarcely settled, when there came a stranger on horseback,
bearing a letter from a gentleman of Acre, of the name of Catafago,
inviting Lady Hester to take up her abode at his house during her stay
in that city. We made the stranger welcome. He was the brother-in-law
of Mr. Catafago, and was charged to conduct us to Acre.

I have said that the cliff near the village of Mharrem overhung the
sea. A fissure in it, abreast of the village, afforded a small path
down to the shore, where, in the sand, was the well from which came
the fresh water for the supply of the inhabitants. The building over
the tomb enclosed within its walls a mosque, four or five rooms for
lodging pilgrims, and commodious vaults for stabling, besides a well of
tolerable water, where two blind shaykhs sat and wound up the bucket
by turns. The situation is wonderfully pretty, exceedingly cool, and
must be very healthy. The coast, for about two miles to the north of
Jaffa, is flat; it then rises in a bold but not very high cliff, which
continues, with little interruption, as far as the eye can see, from
the village of Mharrem to the north.

The inhabitants of Galilee, as far as we had opportunities of observing
them, both male and female, were not handsome. In the colour of their
skin they differed very little from the Egyptians. The dress of the
men was a cotton shirt, buckled round the waist with a leathern belt;
over which they threw a long woollen cloak, called an abah or meshlah,
without sleeves. The dress of the women consists likewise of a coarse
shift and of the same kind of cloak, with a white veil of coarse
cotton. Both sexes go for the most part barefooted; and, as their
village lanes and the courtyards of their cottages are covered with
dung, their persons become filthy in the extreme.

The village of Mharrem is not of very ancient date. Formerly the shrine
stood by itself, until the government, desirous of affording some
protection to travellers on the road as well as accommodation, caused
a certain number of peasants to establish themselves here, giving
them exemptions from all taxes upon the consideration of supplying
travellers and their horses (if furnished with a buyûrdy) with food and
lodging. These peasants were all Moslems. Probably this was the site
of Erbuf, a place mentioned by Abulfeda as being six miles from Jaffa,
twelve from Ramlah, and eighteen from Cæsarea, a distance which seems
to agree likewise with the site of Apollonius (See Abulfeda, p. 81).

We obliged the shaykh to place guards round the tents during the night,
at the suggestion of Selim, whose prudence often seemed overdone, but
who might know whether there was danger better than we did. His object
was not so much to prevent robbers from coming as to make the shaykh
of the village responsible for our losses if they did come. In the
morning, the guards were well paid for their pains. Just before going
to sleep, when sitting on my bed, I found a scorpion under my pillow.
Having killed it, I put it into a bottle of sweet oil, in order to have
by me a supposed antidote for its bite: for although I felt somewhat
incredulous as to its efficacy, I had had experience enough of the
natives to know that, when they apply to a doctor for a remedy, it is
not for the remedy which he considers adapted to their case, but for
that which is in repute among them. I had likewise the misfortune, in
entering a cave, to be bitten by a species of vermin, which in Syria
is so venemous as by its bite to cause severe indisposition. It is a
bug, called in Arabic _dellem_, resembling to my eye a common
sheep-tick, and which infests all places occasionally frequented
by men and cattle, when left uncleansed of their filth. Yusef, the
Mameluke, alarmed me, but I afterwards found without foundation, by his
asseverations that many persons had died of the venemous bite of these
dellems. A kind of black beetle was to be seen everywhere on the road,
rolling before him round pieces of dung:--the scarabæus pillularius.

In quitting Mharrem the following morning, we went along the edge of
the cliff; and, about a furlong or two from the village, our guide
pointed out to us several fragments of spar, lying scattered about, of
the colour of emeralds; which renders it probable that spars of this
kind are abundant near the spot. The face of the country resembled
for some distance that through which we had passed on the preceding
day, until we came to a pool of stagnant water, about a quarter of a
mile long, covered with the nymphæa palustris, and at the farthest
extremity of which is a building like a mill. At the other end, where
we passed, its waters ran off by a shallow stream of a yard or two
broad. Here began a tract of country, composed of sand hills; which,
together with the stream, was named by the guides Abu Zaburra.[35]
This sandy tract lasted for about half an hour, when we entered upon a
scattered forest of oaks (Strabo, xvi. 758), of a very stunted kind,
none being larger than a full grown codling-tree, and so distant from
each other that the soil was everywhere cultivated between them. We
traversed this forest for an hour and a half; and, at its termination,
we found ourselves near a village, called Um Khaled;[36] where, at the
foot of a large sycamore, and within about one hundred yards of the
cottages, our little encampment was placed. Our conductor, Mâlem Yusef,
charged himself with procuring provisions and corn for the cattle: and,
whether by his eloquence or by other means, he soon returned, followed
by several men and women, bearing a supply of everything we wanted,
besides that they were satisfied at a less cost than those of Mharrem.

The village of Um Khaled is the site of some ancient place, as shafts
of white marble pillars are to be seen lying about. Its present state
is miserable. Cattle and human beings lie in the same stall. The ways
are obstructed with ordure and rubbish, and no man seems to care for
anything outside his own walls. Much inconvenience is experienced by
travellers in these villages in the day-time from the dust which flies
about. Hence, soreness of the eyes is a reigning malady; for those who
have once the misfortune to be attacked with it stand little chance
of ever recovering entirely, since the dust keeps the organ of vision
in a constant state of irritation. But the plain around is in high
cultivation, and seemingly very fertile. Um Khaled is about a mile from
the sea. Guards were planted, and the order of this night was the same
as that of the preceding.

Our conductor, Yusef, fell sick of a fever, and was so ill that he
could no longer sit up; but, as there was not a possibility of leaving
him behind, or of stopping so many persons on his account, he was put
on his horse, and we proceeded the next morning on our journey. The
road being considered somewhat insecure, we marched all in a body; for
the mountaineers of Gebel Khalýl and Gebel Nablûs, (the chain which
runs parallel to the sea-coast from abreast of Jaffa northward, to a
distance short of Mount Carmel,) have been known, when in dispute with
the pasha of Acre, to cut off all communication between that city and
Jaffa, or at least to render the intercourse between the two places
very difficult. Our road lay this day by the seashore, which, upon
quitting Um Khaled, soon becomes flat: and, thereabouts, we met with
a party of these mountaineers. They were decently mounted, and their
dress was the same as that of the people of Mharrem, already described.
They had broad tongue-shaped daggers in their girdles, called khanjars,
and spears in their hands. They naturally stared at us, but quietly
rode on. After four hours’ march, we arrived at the ruins of Cæsarea,
and encamped near to one of the gateways on the outside, to the south,
close to the seashore. At a short distance from Cæsarea is a stream
called Nahr Kudâra.

Cæsarea is a city of Roman origin, since its Arabic name, Kysaréah,
is evidently a corruption of its Latin one; whereas Jaffa, Sidon, and
most of the others along the coast, are corruptions of the Arabic or
of languages anterior to the Arabic. The great mass of ruins, which was
to be seen here at the beginning of the last century, exists no longer.
The celebrated pasha, El Gezzàr, carried off whatever was removeable
to beautify his favourite fortress of Acre. Many of the granite and
marble columns that adorn the edifices which he built were taken from
this place. The city was of an oblong form, with its outer sides, from
north to south, surrounded with walls thicker at their base than their
summit, and defended at equal distances by square bastions. These walls
were built by the crusaders under Louis the Ninth, of France.[37]

To the south-east angle, towards the sea, are the remains of a castle
that defended the port, a small and shallow harbour, since it never
could have been broader than the distance which separates the two
jetties that formed it, and which distance corresponds with the base of
the city.[38]

Within the walls two or three indistinct fragments of buildings are
still upright, and the vaults which abound throughout serve by turns
to shelter travellers or robbers, according as the vigilance of the
reigning pasha represses crime with a vigorous hand, or is remiss in
the punishment of it.

There is still a well of good water, from which travellers draw their
supply, and there seem to have been many others that are now choked up:
but the ancient city was supplied from a shallow river that empties
itself into the sea, a mile and a-half north of the ruins. This river
goes at present by the name of Ma el Zerka,[39] or the Blue waters,
and flows winter and summer. The arcades that supported the aqueduct
are still standing, but are almost covered by the sand, which shelves
against them from the sea-side; they run parallel with the shore and
with the road that travellers generally take going or coming from
Cæsarea. Owing to the shelving sand, the traveller is not aware, unless
at intervals, of the nature of the mound which he observes by the
side of him, and fancies it to be a sand-bank. Hence, those who take
pleasure in examining similar antiquities ought (the moment they arrive
at Ma el Zerka, if coming from the north, or else on quitting the gates
of Cæsarea in coming from the south) to follow the track that turns
somewhat inward, and they will find themselves close to the aqueduct
through its whole length.

To the east of the ruined city, which is walled in, are other ruins
said to be still more extensive, and to have formed a part of the
Roman Cæsarea. Being in a great measure ignorant of the existence of
these several heaps of stones, which were now so overgrown with grass
and weeds as not to be visible, we did not chance to hit upon them;
but there exist, among other vestiges of ancient edifices, those of
an amphitheatre which are perfectly distinct. The dreariness of the
place, the fear of robbers and of wandering Arabs, are the causes that
have deterred many from going far out of their path to examine them.
Here and there may be seen a Bedouin shepherd tending a flock of sheep;
and, if properly questioned, such a person is more capable of giving
information where fallen pillars, sculpture, or inscriptions are to be
found than he would at first be supposed to be; for his habits of life
lead him from spot to spot in search of pasture, and he knows every
foot of ground for miles, and perhaps leagues, around.[40]

Our conductor, Yusef, in the mean time, continued very ill. He had
taken several remedies with very little benefit. He was placed on
his horse; and, had not his situation, coupled with ours, called for
great exertions on his part, he would not have been able to support
himself. We, however, pursued our journey, and followed the line of
the sea-coast, having close to our right what (as has been before said)
seemed to be a sand-bank, but which was no other than the ancient
aqueduct, covered by drifted sand. After an hour and a half, we arrived
at Ma el Zerka. Lady Hester here rested under a small tent, which was
carried with her generally for that purpose, and where she proposed
remaining until the evening. This river, of which a few words have been
said above, has the remains of a bridge over it, about a furlong from
the sea; and, at the very mouth, on a rocky eminence, there appears to
have been a tower. Somewhat east of this ends Gebel Nablûs, the ancient
Samaria.

We continued our road with the camels, and in two hours and a half
more, reached Tontûra, which was in sight at quitting Ma el Zerka. As
water was the main object to be secured in making our encampment, it
was the thing always first inquired for; and we were directed to a spot
about half a-mile north of the village, close to the sea. We there
found a circular basin, hewn out of the rock within about twelve feet
of the water’s edge, from the bottom of which bubbled up a crystal
spring. The spray of the sea (as there was a fresh breeze) occasionally
broke into it; but the villagers told us that, at sunset, when the wind
had sunk, we should find it to be limpid and sweet, which proved to
be the case. Close to this spring the tents were pitched upon a crisp
turf; whilst a delicious breeze from the sea recruited our spirits,
and prevented the lassitude which great heat so generally produces.

Tontûra is the ancient Dora. Here the flat land, extending from the
coast east to the mountains, narrows to the width of half or three
quarters of a mile. The foot of the mountain is quarried considerably,
which evidently demonstrates the greater extent of the ancient than
of the modern town. Tontûra, in its present state, is a village of
stone cottages, no better than cow-lodges, as in fact they are. The
inhabitants are Mahometans. It has a building, constructed of stone,
which goes by the name of a castle; a very rude and modern edifice.
The environs of the village are totally bare, neither beautified by
trees nor gardens, the want of which gives them a desolate and forlorn
appearance. There is a large pool of water not far from the back of the
town. The ancient city stood a few hundred yards to the north of the
present village, if we may judge from a wall yet standing, seemingly
the portion of an old castle, and from a column or two lying about.
The port, if it deserves that name, is formed by two or three islets,
between which and the main land a masted boat of twenty tons could
barely float, inasmuch as I observed fishermen wading across it with
ease, not having the water above their waists.

The bucket and lever, a mode by which the land is irrigated from Egypt
up to Tontûra, are used no farther; in their stead, the peasants
substitute a rude kind of wheel, which we shall find, on reaching the
Orontes, to be in its turn replaced by the true Persian wheel. Lady
Hester arrived in the cool of the evening. Guards were placed round the
encampment; supper was served, and the season of the year rendered the
tents much more agreeable than houses.

Towards the close of the day, the women, taking advantage of the
coolness of the evening and the stillness of the sea,[41] came down,
with their jars borne on their heads, to fetch water. As our people
had nothing particular to do, they very naturally amused themselves in
observing the women pass; but still in that discreet manner which is
peculiar to the Levant when other persons are within hearing; and, at
the utmost, hazarding an ogle, or a question respecting the goodness of
the water. However, a young girl, of about fourteen, loitered behind
at the spring, and showed herself to be, although not very pretty, yet
very frolicsome. Her light behaviour made her pass, in the eyes of all
those who observed her, for a girl of bad morals, and yet the utmost
she said and did would not amount to half what an English or French
maid-servant considers herself permitted to do every hour of her life.

Nothing contributes so much to the uprightness and elegance of figure
so remarkable in the peasant-women of Syria and Egypt as the common
practice of carrying water on their heads. So far from giving a curve
to the spine, depressing the neck, or in any wise shortening the
growth of the body, the resistance of the muscles seems to increase
in proportion to the pressure, and much elasticity of action is the
result. In some places, the springs are often a quarter of a mile
from the villages, and much below them, so as to render the ascent
very toilsome: yet every day in the week may be seen girls and women
carrying these jars, containing not less than fifteen quarts of water,
on their heads, with a natural grace not exceeded by the studied walk
of a stage dancer. A favourite manner with them, when seen by men and
when wishing to be coquettish, is to place both thumbs through the jar
handles, which has a very statue-like appearance. When unobserved, they
generally tuck up their gowns all round, showing their pantaloons. If
in their best clothes, they are seen with silver bracelets instead of
glass ones, and with similar rings round their ancles; with a silver
relic case hanging at their bosom; with long sleeves to their gown; and
over it, if in winter, a cloth vest, if in summer, one of bombazeen;
with earrings; and with a species of ornament not known in England or
France, silver rims of mail or of coins which take in the oval of the
face from the temples to the chin, and have a very pretty effect. The
girdles are fastened by two silver bosses as large as the bottom of a
tumbler, and they wear on their feet a pair of yellow slippers.

We passed the following day at Tontûra. I amused myself in walking over
the rubbish of the ancient Dora. There is a part of it which seems to
have been built on a rocky projection into the sea. Much industry is
exhibited in the levelling of the surface of the rock for foundations
to some superstructures that once stood there. To the east of the
spring, near the burying-ground of the village, I likewise discovered
a sepulchral vault with cells on either side for the sarcophagi; and
these sepulchral chambers will be found to exist, wherever the soil in
a large neighbourhood is rocky, throughout Syria.

A very fine chestnut stallion was brought to me for sale by one of the
inhabitants. The horse was made to exhibit his different paces before
me, and I was willing to purchase him at the price at which he was
offered, which was 315 piasters, or about £15: but Hadj Mohammed, the
janissary, considered it too much, and I therefore declined the offer.

We were now approaching fast to Acre, and it seemed that Lady Hester’s
coming had excited much curiosity there. The shaykh of Tontûra,
accompanied by six horsemen, solicited permission to escort her to the
next town; for the pasha, his master, he said, would surely reprimand
him if he were wanting in respect to so illustrious a person, whom they
were charged to receive with all the honours their means allowed of.
Accordingly, on the following morning, well armed and mounted, they
took the lead in the van of the cavalcade, along a smooth road.

The slip of land between the mountains and the coast still continued to
narrow. There is a chain of rocky hills which is seen from the road,
and which at first seems to be the foot of the lofty mountains in the
background; but behind it will be found another valley, running from
Tontûra up as far as Mount Carmel. Our path wound between low shrubs,
which gave it sometimes the appearance of a serpentine walk in a
garden. After about one hour’s riding, the shaykh and myself hurried on
in order to mark out a proper spot for our encampment.

Aatlýt, the place to which we were going, had been in sight from the
time we quitted Tontûra. When we were within about a mile of it, the
road became still more picturesque. On our left was a vast pool of
water, about which were flocks of storks: before us, on a promontory
jutting into the sea, were the ruins of the castle of Aatlýt (the
Castel Pellegrino of the Venetians); and, on the right, lofty mountains
which crowned the whole view with their majestic appearance. We arrived
at the walls of the place; and, entering by the south gate, crossed a
bare space, the site of the ancient city, but now entirely covered with
turf and mould; then, passing to the north-west angle, we ascended for
a few yards a road both rough and uneven, and strewed with hewn stones
of a vast size. Here we entered the gateway of the ancient castle,
within the ruins of which is built the modern village. The shaykh,
having regaled me with a cup of coffee and a pipe, and satisfied
himself as to who we were, whither we were going, and about such
matters as concerned him, gave me to understand that we could encamp in
security anywhere within the confines of the walls below; accordingly,
on the arrival of the camels, Lady Hester having stopped, as usual, on
the road, the tents were pitched, and everything was made comfortable
for the night.

Thus far, the sea-coast of Syria (wherever we had seen it) has,
generally speaking, a sandy strand; but from Aatlýt northward to
Latakia it is rocky, with the exception of the deep bays, such as that
of Acre.

Aatlýt was once a considerable city.[42] The ancient walls are still
standing, and are built of rustic stones of a vast size. They have no
battlements or embrasures.[43] Facing the site of the city is a small
inlet of the sea, enclosed to the south by the city wall, and to the
north by the small promontory on which the modern village stands.
Close to the strand is a well, from which the present inhabitants
drink. Round the walls was anciently a ditch, probably filled from the
lake which has been mentioned as existing to the south of the place.
Within the walls of the present village are many fragments of columns
scattered about. There is likewise part of a beautiful church still
standing, attributed to the Venetians. The mud cottages in the midst of
the ruins demonstrate forcibly the decline of the arts under the Turks;
for the walls are composed of such rubbish as lies scattered on the
ground, cemented with common mould.

The shaykh of Aatlýt at this time was brother to the shaykh of Hartha,
a district of which I shall speak presently. Nothing happened to
disturb the tranquillity of the night, excepting the molestation caused
by musquitoes, which, as the weather was become exceedingly hot,
rendered it impossible to sleep without a musquito net.

Our road was now no longer considered insecure. On the following
morning we departed for Häyfa.[44] As we advanced along the seashore,
the mountain on our right drew nearer and nearer. The plain was
well cultivated. About two leagues from Aatlýt, on this mountain,
we perceived a village, distinguished by a white building near to
it, which was the _jamâ_ or mosque of the inhabitants, who are
Mahometans. On inquiry, the camel-driver gave it the name of Tooty.[45]

In about four hours’ time we arrived at the promontory of Mount Carmel,
where the flat land, which had hitherto continued along the seashore,
comes to a point, leaving just room enough at the foot of the precipice
to pass round. Beyond it the spacious bay of Acre opened upon our view,
and the mountains again receded some leagues inland: for Mount Carmel
runs E. and W., and the mountains which we had observed on our right,
extending N. and S. parallel to the seashore, seem as if they issued
from its side. What is called Mount Carmel by Europeans is a part
of a district which goes by the name of Beled Hartha, comprehending
the mountain and plain from Häyfa down to Mharrem. This district was
commanded by Shaykh Messâd, a man of ancient family in these parts, and
who resided at Yethem, his principal burgh.

The road, after passing the foot of the promontory, turns to the right
or E. over a level and well cultivated soil of a fine black mould.
One hour more brought us to the gate of Häyfa. Our conductor, Yusef,
accompanied me to the governor, who, when he learned our business,
immediately gave orders to his people to see that we were provided with
what we wanted. The tents were pitched close to the W. gate, on a plot
of sand by the sea-side beneath the shade of some fig-trees. The heat
was excessive. There were two or three of the poor inhabitants who
spoke Italian, and who, for a trifle, made themselves useful in what we
wanted.

Häyfa is a walled town; but the mountain rises at the back of it so
steep and rapidly as to enable a person, at half pistol-shot distance,
to look down into the courtyards of the houses. It consists of one
long street, with a few shops, and derives its principal traffic
from vessels that anchor in the bay. The bay, although open to the
W., is considered one of the most secure in all Syria, and, as Acre
has but a small and very shallow port, all European vessels bound
thither ride at Häyfa. It is of a semicircular form. Acre is plainly
distinguishable across it. There was a monastery, if a house of two or
three rooms can be so named. One Carmelite priest was residing there:
but the monastery, where that order of cenobites flourished, is on
the promontory itself. It was much damaged by the French during their
invasion of Syria, and has since been rebuilt on a very extensive
plan. In the summer months, several European and other families resort
thither for the benefit of the air, which, as in other elevated
situations, is preferred to the low, hot, and contaminated atmosphere
of Acre. Half down the promontory is a large grotto or cave, hewn out
of the rock, and said to have been a hiding-place of St. Elias. Häyfa
has a mosque, and a building called a castle. The town walls are thin,
and only sufficient to secure the inhabitants from Bedouin Arabs, or
other enemies who have no artillery. At nightfall guards were placed
around our encampment.

On the following day Mr. B. and myself, accompanied by one of the
Mamelukes, set off early to announce Lady Hester’s approach to Mr.
Catafago, to whose house, as we have mentioned above, she had been
invited. Her ladyship and the luggage were to follow us later. We
traversed the town of Häyfa, and, going out at the eastern gate,
crossed a Turkish burying-ground: then, following the sands of the
seashore, we pursued an E. and by N. and then a Northerly direction.
In about an hour we came to a river, which we forded. It is called in
Arabic _Mkutta_ (the Kishon[46] of the Bible); in the summer an
inconsiderable stream, but in the winter a dangerous torrent, as is the
case with most of the rivers of Syria. To the right of us were sand
hillocks which obstructed the view, and prevented us from observing
the face of the country in the interior, but which, we were informed,
consisted of fertile plains. The mountains seemed to be four or five
leagues off.

We had not proceeded a great way farther when we met two young
gentlemen mounted on beautiful Arabian mares and followed by a groom,
who made themselves known to us as the son[47] and nephew of Mr.
Catafago, come to meet us. As they were lively boys and good riders,
they continually exhibited their skill, in the Eastern way, by starting
forth from the party on a sudden at a full gallop, and then by pulling
up as suddenly. From the violence of this exercise, their horses’
mouths were besmeared with a mixture of blood and foam, whilst their
sides were gashed with the cuts of the stirrups. This seemingly cruel
practice is common, and passes unnoticed.

We soon beheld the palm-trees of Acre, rising above the walls. A
quarter of an hour before reaching Acre, we forded a second river,
called in Arabic El Naâmány,[48] whose source is from a lake some miles
inland, called in d’Anville’s map Cenderia Palus. Our direction had
been N. W.; and, after fording the river, became W. A burying-ground,
with its white grave-stones, was, as is usual, the first thing we
encountered in the suburbs; then skeletons of horses and asses and
camels, whose carcases had been dragged a small distance from the
town to be devoured by the dogs.[49] These animals would not let us
pass peaceably, as if apprehensive that we should rob them of their
carrion. The road seemed much frequented, as loaded camels and asses
in numbers were going out and in; which appearance of bustle was
afterwards accounted for by the circumstance that Acre has but one
gate. We entered it before noon. Many well dressed Turks, seated under
the gateway, demonstrated the presence of a Pasha. About two hundred
yards farther on we passed through a second gateway; and, entering
into some narrow and badly paved streets, where our heads were every
moment in danger of striking against the frames of the matting, which
is suspended over the shops for the sake of shade, we arrived at a
quadrangular court, in which was Mr. Catafago’s house, considered, as
we afterwards learned, one of the best in Acre.

The friendly and hospitable reception which that gentleman and his lady
gave us was highly pleasing. When Lady Hester arrived in the evening,
it was repeated to her with increased warmth, and was succeeded by
offers of service, which, however dependent on received usages of
civility and good breeding, set the courteousness of the Syrian
Christians in a most favourable light.




                             CHAPTER XII.

   Increased illness of Yusef--Servants leave--Visit to Mâlem
   Haym, minister of the pasha--His history--Description of
   Acre--Visit to the pasha--Hospitality of M. Catafago--Disposal
   of time--Excursion to Nazareth--Franciscan convent--Residence
   and family of M. Catafago--Villages and lands farmed out
   by him--The Convent library--Arrival of Shaykh Ibrahim
   (Burckhardt), the celebrated traveller--Visit to the plain of
   Esdraëlon--Fûly--Battle of Fûly--Departure of Shaykh Ibrahim for
   Egypt--Excursion to Segery--Visit to the Shaykh--Bargain for a
   horse--Accident to Lady Hester.


It was on the 15th of June that we reached St. Jean d’Acre, after
having been nine days on the road. We sat down to dinner in a large
saloon, and after a cheerful evening retired to our chambers. The
following day was given up to rest and domestic arrangements. The two
Egyptian sayses, or grooms, who had walked by the side of the horses
every day through the whole journey, were, beside their wages, rewarded
with a present. Yusef, the sick man, received one hundred piasters for
his trouble, and the tent-man and janissary were also recompensed,
after their wages were paid, in proportion to their services. Yusef
was put to bed in the house of his sister, wife of one of the clerks
of the public secretary; and the fatigue which he had undergone brought
on such an increase of his fever that, on the next day, he was in a
strong delirium.

It is the custom in the Levant, whenever a person is ill, and more
especially when it is thought he will die, for all those who are
relations or acquaintances of the family to visit him, and offer their
condolence on the occasion. Accordingly, Yusef’s room was crowded; and,
as I judged his case to be dangerous, and apprehended that the presence
of so many people would disorder his brain still more, I resolved to
break through so troublesome a custom, and to exclude every one but the
necessary attendants. This was done forthwith; and, placing a servant
at the chamber-door, where he remained sentry, I gave orders to admit
nobody.

No sooner had our Cypriote servants gratified their curiosity at
Jerusalem, than they had sought excuses to quit, and would have left
us even at Ramlah to shift as we could in a country where it is not
easy to supply one’s wants immediately, had it not been resolutely
insisted on that they should remain as far as St. Jean d’Acre. We were
now there, and one of the very first things done was to dismiss them.
This was one of many other examples, showing how little reliance can be
placed on the servants of the country, who know not what fidelity or
attachment to Europeans is, whom they serve for gain only, and quit
for convenience.[50]

Lady Hester on the second day signified her intention of paying a visit
to the rich Jew, Mâlem Haym Shâady,[51] the banker and the minister
of the pasha, and the same evening was fixed on for their meeting. We
went after dinner, and were received at the street entrance by Mâlem
Haym himself, a man without a nose, with one eye, and with one ear,
who conducted us into a small room with a raised divàn at one end, and
on either side chairs, in the European fashion. Mr. Catafago acted as
interpreter, and, with the nephew of the minister, named Solomon, was
the only person present besides ourselves. The conversation was lively,
and probably laid the ground for that friendly correspondence which
afterwards existed between Lady Hester and Mâlem Haym until his death.
This man’s history has something too curious to be passed over in
silence.

He was the son of an eminent Jew, who filled the post of katib or yazgy
to several pashas of Damascus, to which post Haym and his brothers,
Rafael, Yusef, and Manasseh, succeeded him. Katib in Arabic, and yazgy
in Turkish, mean no more than writer, or scribe;[52] but the office
confers more power than the name conveys. The katib is often at once
government secretary and treasurer; and, as he is generally stationary
in the pashalik for life, whilst the pashas, by removal or death, are
often changed, it necessarily happens that he is a perfect master of
the business of the pashalik, and of its revenues and resources; whilst
the pashas, coming from distant provinces, enter upon a government of
which the key is in the katibs’ hands, and are necessitated to keep
them in their service, and to be guided by them.

But the pashalik of Damascus has this singularity, that its pasha and
chief persons are absent annually on the pilgrimage to Mecca, and
consequently are more especially bound to confide their affairs to the
hands of their servants. Moreover, the order of march, the ordinances
and regulations for the pilgrims, the quantity of provisions required,
the pasha’s disbursements, and various other things essential to be
known on this important occasion, have somehow become secrets in
the hands of these Jews, who it was told to us keep them registered
in their own tongue. They thus become hieroglyphics to the Turks and
Christians, who seek in vain to wrest the knowledge from the hands of
the Jews, and so to stand in no farther need of them.

Haym was destined by his father to the priesthood, and we may suppose
its holy functions do not incapacitate any one from filling secular
offices, since he was both priest and minister. In the early part of
his life the machinations of his enemies prevailed so far against
him that he was summoned to Constantinople, to answer to certain
accusations made against him; and, being condemned to a fine which he
was unable to pay, he was thrown into prison. Haym had a sister, a
woman of somewhat masculine appearance, but reputed to possess great
qualities. Determined to release her brother, she undertook the journey
from Syria to Constantinople; and, waiting for a convenient moment
for her purpose, when the Grand Signor should be on his way to the
mosque, where he goes publicly every Friday, she burst into the middle
of the cavalcade, and threw herself at his feet, to petition for her
brother’s release. Those who have witnessed the sultan’s procession to
the mosque, the free use that is made of whips and cudgels to keep the
populace in order, and the awe in which all stand of a monarch in whom
a moment’s caprice or anger may beget a sentence of death, will admire
the courage of her who could brave it all. She succeeded, as she
merited, and brought her brother back triumphantly to his home. And it
is a proof of Haym’s prudence, that although he owed his freedom to his
sister, and loved her exceedingly, he would not the more suffer her to
meddle in the affairs of the pashalik.

When Ahmed Pasha, el Gezzàr, governed St. Jean d’Acre, Haym became his
principal katib. The cruelties which that singular tyrant exercised on
those in his service extended to Haym. He was accustomed to write down
on a bit of paper, which he kept under his cushion, the names of those
whom he intended to put to death or to mutilate by the loss of some
member of the body; and this scrap he would produce, when the number
became considerable enough to satisfy his bloodthirsty disposition. In
this way he one day summoned Haym, among others, into his presence, and
ordered his head to be cut off; but, immediately recalling the order,
he desired that he should be deprived of his nose, one eye, and one
ear. This was accordingly done. Haym was afterwards confined to the
palace of the pasha, where he attended to the duties of his office by
day, and by night was remanded to his apartment, and locked up. It was
said that one of Haym’s great merits in the eyes of El Gezzàr was that,
in writing despatches to the Porte, he mixed up respect and defiance
in such a way that they breathed submission and yet showed the sword.
Haym’s sufferings were not confined to these only. At one time he was
condemned to be baked in an oven; or, as others say, he was actually
put into a heated oven, and there made to suffer unutterable torments.

El Gezzàr died, and was succeeded by Suliman, the reigning pasha, whose
mild administration has not been charged with any of the horrors of
which his predecessor was guilty. Haym now enjoyed power and affluence,
and universally bore the character of a sage minister.

We were regaled with sweetmeats and confectionary, which Haym’s wife
had prepared with her own hands, as she herself informed us. I had
observed, nailed to the post of one or two doors, as we entered,
what seemed to be from its perforations a small tin nutmeg-grater,
and I was curious to know the purpose of it. I was informed that
each one contained a copy of the ten commandments, which are nailed
to the doorways as charms. The visit was prolonged to a late hour
of the night. On taking leave, ten pounds were left to be divided
as vails among the servants. On the following morning the visit was
returned, and Mâlem Haym gave in his turn the same sum to Lady Hester’s
domestics. He likewise presented her ladyship with a cashmere shawl
worth fifty pounds.

Arrangements had been made to give Lady Hester every facility for
seeing the city. Escorted by several persons, sent for that purpose,
she visited the ramparts and the mosque, the two principal objects of
curiosity in it. After the ineffectual siege of the French, Ahmed el
Gezzàr had sense enough to see that, but for the assistance afforded
him by Sir W. Sydney Smith, Acre must inevitably have fallen into
Buonaparte’s hands, and he resolved on fortifying the city in a way
that would leave him less to apprehend in future.

Acre has two sides towards the sea, and two towards the land; so that
its site is not a peninsula, as is said by some travellers, but rather
a tongue of land, breaking the line of the crescent of the bay. The
whole circumference of the walls does not exceed a mile and a half, but
few persons have an opportunity of obtaining a correct measure. From
whatever road you approach there is but one gate whereby to enter. To
the left of it is the port, a small and shallow harbour, formed by a
mole, which projects so as to make, with the curve which the strand
takes, the form of an oblong with rounded corners. But this part is not
more than a cable’s length across, and no vessel of more than 150 tons
could lie in safety in it. The mouth lies direct west, and the gales of
wind from that quarter set in with such violence, that, in March 1815,
I saw a polacca wrecked in this harbour. That vessel, moored by two
cables and a hawser, which passed through certain openings in the wall
above the mole, broke and dragged them all, and swamped close to the
city gate, where she would have gone to pieces, had not the wind abated
in the afternoon, and given time to take out her cargo. The only
landing-place to the port is a flight of stairs, which has no outlet
excepting by a passage that leads to the custom-house.

The Custom House is a single room, where the collector sits in a window
seat, and, never putting pen to paper himself (perhaps not knowing how
to write), transacts all the business of the chief part of the pashalik
by means of one clerk. The then collector, Ayûb Selámy, was once a
Christian; and, to save himself from the effects of a Turk’s anger,
with whom he was in deadly dispute, he changed his religion. His wife
and daughter still occupied his original dwelling at Jôon, a village
about one league and a half from Sayda; and he secretly afforded them
assistance, whilst he had espoused another woman, a Mahometan, by whom
he had two or three children. As far as his worldly interest went,
this man had no reason to regret his apostacy. From a farmer, he found
himself exalted to one of the principal offices of the pashalik. But
his air had always something that argued a man self-convicted of crime;
and his demeanour had not, and perhaps could not have, that haughty
look which characterizes the Mahometan-born, and which, from the
authority they are accustomed to assume over Christians from their very
infancy, becomes natural, and sits well upon them.

Adjoining the Custom House is the corn khan, or corn market, a
quadrangular building about as large again as the corn market of
London; with this difference, however, in the uses they are put to,
that in the one the corn to be sold is exposed in bulk, in the other
in sample. The ground fronts of each side of the quadrangle are in
arcades, from which open doors to vaulted magazines. The magazines
are hired for a small sum per month, and the merchant is in perfect
security from fire or robbery. A single staircase leads up to the
first, which is likewise the upper, story (as the Levant buildings
generally rise but to one, and in a few instances to two stories.) A
corridor in arcades goes round it, and doors open from the corridor
into the chambers, which are let by the week or month to travellers, or
merchants, or whoever chooses to hire them. At the khan gate is a lodge
answering to our porters’ lodges. Here sits and sleeps the khanatty, or
master of the khan; and the form observed by those who desire to take
an apartment is to call the khanatty, ask him to show what apartments
are vacant; then, paying for a week or a month in advance, to take the
key of that which pleases them. These apartments are double, having a
room fronting the corridor and another towards the outer wall, both
vaulted. In the outer one is a fireplace. They have nothing but bare
walls, are generally full of fleas, and disgust a European, accustomed
to the comforts of a well regulated inn. But reflection and habit will
at last reconcile him to them, and even make him prefer them to better
places; for, provided he complies with the custom of the country to
carry about with him his carpet, bed, and quilt, his servant buys
a broom and a rush mat for sixpence or a shilling, and in half an
hour converts his room into a furnished apartment, without fear of
interruption from any one. The site of this khan is on the harbour, for
el Gezzàr wisely covered with useful edifices that part of it which
was shallow enough to be fordable, thus shutting up the passage of an
enemy along the skirts of the city towards the south-west. The corn
is brought in the morning in sacks on camels’ backs, two sacks making
a load. The buyers attend, and purchase and remove it before evening;
so that there may often be seen in the court eight or ten heaps, which
disappear in the course of the day.

Passing from the north door of the khan, you come to an open space,
where likewise the sea once flowed. On the right hand is a mosque
displaying much neatness, but neither large nor otherwise remarkable.
Upon the square the pedlars sell their wares, greengrocers their garden
stuff, and who pleases spreads his mat, which, in the Levant, is
equivalent to a stall with us, by bestowing a trifling gratuity on the
person who rents the ground from the governor.

Quitting the open place at the north side, you come to a short
street, which leads, at about a hundred yards’ distance, to the khan
or caravansery, inhabited by the Franks. It is a spacious quadrangle
of stone buildings on the four sides, which were probably uniform
in their original structure, although since deformed by changes and
repairs. The ground-floor serves for magazines, stabling, &c. The
first and second stories have wooden galleries that go round them, and
afford space for exercise during the heat of the day, and allow of
communication from dwelling to dwelling without being exposed to the
weather. How much of all these edifices has been ruined by the late
bombardment I have no opportunity of knowing.

But the object most worthy of a stranger’s curiosity in St. Jean d’Acre
is the mosque built by El Gezzàr, and which is called Jamâ el Gedýd.
It is rich in granite, porphyry, and the finest marbles. The ruins of
Cæsarea and Ascalon were ransacked for its embellishment. It has a
liberal endowment, and professors of theology have their share in it.
It has, besides, a most splendid library, collected by El Gezzàr.

Not less magnificent is the bath constructed by the same pasha. It
yields to few, if to any, of the baths of either Damascus or of Aleppo
in splendour; and is far superior to anything of the kind in Egypt. In
the centre of the building, a dome, that covers the principal vapour
or hot room, is supported by a circular colonnade, almost every pillar
of which is either porphyry, fine granite, or precious marble. The
floors, of variegated marbles, far exceed in beauty what the eyes of
Europeans are accustomed to behold.[53]

The insufficiency of the old walls of Acre to protect the city from
a bombardment induced El Gezzàr Pasha to obtain plans from European
engineers for the building of others of more strength. The construction
of these, which he thought to render impregnable, was, to him, the
occupation of some years, and a work of oppression and terror to his
subjects. Gangs, led to forced labour, succeeded each other; and when,
towards the afternoon, the heat of the day was become oppressive, and
lassitude, the consequence of eating and labour, began to overpower
them, El Gezzàr would then issue forth among them; and, with a look
rendered terrible from the ideas of stripes, imprisonment, torture,
and death, that were associated with it, and, with a voice whose tones
sunk to the very bottom of the heart, he would make the most sluggish
active. In this way, Acre became the strongest fortress of Syria, and
resisted for many years all assailants, until bombarded by the English
fleet. The town is commanded from an eminence at the distance of half
a mile from the walls. It was from this eminence that Buonaparte
directed his chief batteries in his unsuccessful attack against the
place.

Lady Hester next paid a visit to the pasha. Her reception was
splendid, and very complimentary. Every possible offer of service was
made towards the prosecution of her journey through his pashalik. A
beautiful gray horse awaited her on her return from the palace, as a
present, which, being a stallion, she gave to me.

It has been made a cause of reproach towards Lady Hester, that she
received presents from the Turks. We do not pretend to defend this
usage; but a person of any consequence must comply with it in Turkey,
or be exposed to continual altercations, and have all to give with
nothing to receive.[54]

Mr. Catafago’s hospitality was unremitting. As the hours of eating,
customary with the English, vary widely from those of the Levantines,
much embarrassment must have been experienced by that gentleman in his
endeavours to suit our convenience. By questions (apparently of mere
curiosity) he found out how, and at what hours, the English breakfasted
and dined, and he studiously endeavoured to establish at his own table
the same usages.[55]

The Turks almost invariably quit their beds before sunrise, on account
of the early prayer; and native Christians very generally do likewise.
They wash themselves, and take a cup of coffee, in quantity about as
much as a small wine glass: this is accompanied by a pipe of tobacco.
They then proceed to exercise or business, for both of which they are
peculiarly fitted from the lightness of the body and clearness of the
intellects consequent on an empty stomach. At noon, rich and poor all
dine or breakfast; and, after a temperate repast, succeeded by a pipe
and coffee, they retire to their harým to take a nap. About three, they
rise again, and pursue their various occupations until sunset, when
they sup. The evening is spent in visits, music, conversation, dancing,
and the like, prolonged till a late hour. In this arrangement of their
time, they approach the custom of the ancients.

Our host had a country residence at Nazareth, the dwelling-place of
Joseph and Mary. He invited Lady Hester to go thither; and, as this
spot is considered as one of the great objects of curiosity among
Christians, she accepted his invitation. We left Acre on the 22nd of
June, at sunset. The night was dark and somewhat chilly. Our party was
numerous: Mr. Catafago was our conductor. The road was as familiar
to him as an English cross-road to any country gentleman in his own
neighbourhood: yet, from some neglect on the part of Mr. Catafago’s
groom, who led the cavalcade, we lost the way, and, to regain it, were
compelled to ride through fields of Indian corn, and a wide tract of
wild artichokes, which here are very abundant, but not pleasant as
riding ground, from their prickly nature. Owing to this mistake, our
journey proved very tedious, and it was nearly daylight before we
arrived at Nazareth.

Nazareth is on Gebel Khalýl, which our translations call Galilee
(Khalyly), and is about six leagues from Acre. The Franciscan friars
are bound, by the rules of their order, not to admit women into
their monasteries; but they have a salvo for their consciences in an
imaginary wall of separation between their own cells and a part of
the building which generally lies nearest to the entrance; and as
Mr. C.’s house was too small to accommodate Lady Hester, this part
of the monastery was fitted up for her reception, whilst a lodging
was assigned for Mr. B. and myself adjoining the cells of the monks.
All this had been previously arranged, and we found ourselves, on
our arrival, quartered in a few moments. The community consisted of
thirteen monks, nine of whom were Spaniards. But there was the same
querulous abuse of the Turks, the same spiteful feeling towards the
schismatic Christians, the same prying curiosity into our concerns,
and, with the exception of two, the same cunning and the same
ignorance, that I have observed in every religious community in the
East, with which it has been my lot to associate. The monastery is
a strong and spacious stone building, accessible only by the great
entrance, and having few windows or openings externally: for jealousy
and fear have tended to convert every place of this kind into a
fortress.

Nazareth is a large village, half Christian half Mahometan. Ali Bey
gives it 2,000 inhabitants. It is subject to two bailiffs, each
superintending his respective sect. The inhabitants, as mountaineers,
have the character peculiar to that race of people. They are brave,
hospitable, and ceremonious, but vindictive, cunning, and interested.
The only trees to be seen about Nazareth are fig and olive, and
verdure is as scanty as foliage. The soil is either rocky or stoney,
and so stoney that, in the neighbourhood of the village, there was
not a single spot to be found where I could gallop my horse for daily
exercise.

It was here that Mr. C. dwelt, like an ancient patriarch, in a house
opposite to the monastery. He had round him his own family, which
was numerous; also his brother and his wife’s sisters, one of whom
was married and had children, making, with the servants, not fewer
than thirty or thirty-five persons. He farmed under the pasha as many
as five villages, the rents, taxes, and _miri_ of which became
his for a certain consideration, paid either annually or during some
term agreed upon. He might take cognizance of petty delinquencies,
and deliver the culprit over to the tribunal of the pasha; but in
civil affairs his decision was to a certain extent law, provided it
was connected with agricultural economy. Two of his villages, called
Fûly, lay in the centre of the plain of Esdräelon, and the greatest
part of the plain was farmed out by him. This spot, beautiful from its
extent, its fertility, and its position, is of a fine rich black soil,
and produces abundant crops; but its exposed situation, subjecting it
to the inroads of the Bedouin Arabs, had rendered the land there of
low price. Mr. C. had contrived, by yielding sometimes, by sometimes
threatening, and especially by presents, liberally and judiciously
dealt out among the shaykhs or chiefs of these Bedouins, to ensure
the safety of the peasantry; and to him it was owing that villages
before destitute of inhabitants were then the dwellings of industrious
labourers.

There are in Nazareth many places which the traveller is taken to as
objects of veneration or curiosity. The chapel built on the site of the
Virgin Mary’s house, the room even that she inhabited, is shown, though
the belief in these traditions calls forth a wonderful exertion of
faith. Indeed, the holy fathers yet bear in mind the scandal brought
on their body in the eyes of the Mahometans and the Greek Christians,
when Napoleon Buonaparte was led into the chapel of the monastery, and,
on being shown the suspended pillar with other miraculous appearances,
beheld them with indifference, and kept his hat on even to the very
foot of the altar!

The apartment assigned to me was the library, where about fifty shelves
of books, dusty from neglect, and worm-eaten for want of use, bore
doubtful evidence to the studious propensities of the fathers. As a
couple of days were sufficient to see what Nazareth contained, and as
circumstances led me to imagine we might remain here for a time, I
turned over the volumes to see whether I could find some book to assist
me in learning Arabic. I was fortunate enough to light on Erpenius’s
grammar and a dictionary, and I here commenced that study.

Thus the time passed pleasantly away. In the neighbourhood of Nazareth
we visited Mount Tabor, and Cana, and rode to other places in the
environs. Mr. B., accompanied by his Mameluke, Joseph, departed for
the sea of Galilee. On his return, after an absence of two or three
days, he informed us of a singular meeting with a person who called
himself Shaykh Ibrahim. At Tabariah[56] he had been lodged at the
house of a priest to which Europeans were generally conducted. The
weather was sultry, and Mr. B., confined within doors, heard some one
in altercation with his Mameluke at the entry of the house. Joseph was
endeavouring to turn out a meanly dressed man with a long beard, who
insisted, in his turn, on speaking with the Englishman within. Upon
advancing to the door, Mr. B. was surprised to hear himself addressed
in good English. Shaykh Ibrahim made himself known, and they spent the
day together. The succeeding day Mr. B. returned to Nazareth, having
invited Shaykh Ibrahim to visit us. It is unnecessary to say he was the
celebrated Burckhardt.

On the morrow he arrived, and his appearance was calculated to interest
those who beheld him, from the singularity of his dress, so different
from that of a European. As there will be occasion to speak of him
again more than once, it is necessary to introduce him particularly
to the notice of the reader. He was a robust and rather an athletic
man, of about five feet nine, with blue eyes, a broad German face,
and a pleasing look. His teeth were very unevenly set. I did not, at
that time, know that he was travelling for the African Society, as he
affected to pass for an Arab, and did not care to betray his secret to
those from whom he could reap no advantage by the disclosure, and might
derive some inconvenience. There was something in his speech that did
not amount to a foreign accent, and yet it was at times enough to make
a listener suppose he might be Irish, so well had he learned to speak a
language not vernacular. He remained, if I recollect rightly, two whole
days at Nazareth. Lady Hester’s opinion of him was not a favourable
one, and she never altered it. He took occasion, in conversation,
to point out to Lady Hester the practicability of procuring certain
objects of antiquity, which he supposed to come within the reach of
her purse and influence, although not of his own. He was dressed as a
peasant of Palestine, with a turban of about the length and fineness
of a round towel. His shirt was coarse, long, and with pointed sleeves
reaching considerably beyond his fingers’ ends. His legs were bare, and
his feet were thrust into an old pair of shoes, somewhat resembling inn
slippers. He had loose drawers, and a tunic or frock of white coarse
cotton, reaching down to his feet, open in front, over which was a
woollen cloak or abah, the favourite mantle of every person throughout
Syria when travelling.

One day Mr. Catafago engaged Mr. B. and myself to accompany him to
Fûly. Shaykh Ibrahim was of the party. We left Nazareth early. Lady
Hester did not choose to go, not conceiving there could be anything
interesting in a village. After riding over the flat space which lies
to the west of Nazareth, we descended into the ravine that opens at
its termination into the plain of Esdraelon, called by the natives
Merge Ebn Omar. Mr. Catafago was on a bay Arabian mare, the costly
gift of a chieftain of one of the districts of Nablûs. She was small
but beautiful, and swift as the antelope. His son Lewis was mounted
on another, her very counterpart. Nothing certainly could exist in
creation more showy, to an uninformed eye, than these two mares; but we
were told afterwards that they were by no means of the purest breed;
and, although then incredulous, we afterwards saw mares and horses as
greatly superior to these as they were to the small breed of Malta,
from which many a horse has been selected to impose on people in
England as of untainted blood of Arabia.

We had never seen any soil so rich as the plain of Esdraelon then
appeared; its extent fully sufficed to impress the mind with ideas
of the immense produce to be obtained; and its fertility was evident
from the rich mould under our feet. Its boundaries are of a kind to
awaken feelings at once sublime and sacred. At one end is Mount Tabor,
a truncated cone, wooded and verdant to the summit; and at the other
extremity, as it appeared from the distance where we stood, is a narrow
defile leading to the desert or to some unexplored district; on one
side we were hemmed in by hills and low mountains, through which,
towards the north, we had entered the plain; and towards the east lay
the great and terrible wilderness, with Mount Gilboa between.

We had scarcely reached the skirts of the plain, when we started off
in a gallop. Shaykh Ibrahim was mounted on a roan mare, that had cost
him two hundred piasters (ten pounds), and which had all the requisites
of leanness and poor equipment to escape the avidity of the Bedouin
Arabs. The evenness of the plain was delightful after the rugged paths
we had just quitted. Some idea may be given of the complete level
that prevails in this and other plains about Nazareth and Acre, from
the fact that in a distance of some miles neither stone nor hillock
is to be found. Fûly is a poor hamlet, consisting of houses of one
story, with flat roofs, built with stones cemented with mud only, and
apparently gathered (without any regard to symmetry) from several heaps
of decayed stone-work, covering a considerable space near the hamlet;
whence it is to be inferred that an ancient place of some size must
formerly have occupied the same spot.

Mr. Catafago, who knew what slender accommodation Fûly afforded, had
ordered a tent to be brought with us, which was immediately pitched.
Coffee was made; the chief peasantry soon collected; and, whilst Mr.
Catafago was arranging his farming concerns with some of them, we
listened to the history of the battle of Fûly, given us by several of
the natives who had witnessed it, and whose story, where not quite
true, was corrected by Joseph and Selim, the latter having accompanied
General Buonaparte’s army on that expedition.

It will be recollected that Buonaparte, having made himself master of
Egypt, invaded Syria. A rapid march brought him, by uninterrupted
successes, under the walls of Acre, to which he laid siege, and was
vigorously opposed by the Turkish garrison, assisted by Sir W. Sydney
Smith, who threw reinforcements into the place, and continually found
means of annoying the French from the sea. Upon the alarm which
pervaded Syria at Buonaparte’s progress, a body of troops had been
raised at Damascus, from different corps, principally of cavalry,
collected from all the garrison towns of that country. This army,
consisting of ten thousand men, was defeated at the village of Fûly by
General Junot with a corps of only six thousand.

Some anecdotes were related of the French which are too trifling to
be introduced here. The following, however, is illustrative of the
character of Junot, who commanded the division at Nazareth. A French
officer, mortally wounded, expressed a desire to confess, and sent
for a priest from the monastery. A certain Père Hilarion went to him:
he administered his ghostly consolation, and the officer breathed his
last. On the following morning Junot heard of this. He went over to the
monastery, called for Père Hilarion, and, seizing him by the beard,
swore, with a tremendous oath, that he would cut his throat for having
dared to introduce priestcraft among his soldiers, in order to make
cowards of them. Having frightened him greatly, he let him go; but
afterwards, wherever he met him, he drew his sabre and pretended to
sharpen it, as if going to put his threats into execution.

After spending a delightful day, we mounted to return home, and
lengthened the way by a circuitous route through another of Mr.
Catafago’s villages. We arrived late at Nazareth. It was at this time
that Mr. Pearce, whom we left at Jaffa ill, joined our party again. He
had been to Jerusalem, and had passed through the district and burgh of
Nablûs (the ancient Samaria) to Nazareth. This addition to the party,
which was now numerous, rendered the stay there very agreeable.

After two or three days, Shaykh Ibrahim took his departure for Egypt,
to which country he intended to make his way at the back of the Dead
Sea, which design he afterwards executed, and crossed the desert el
Ty to Cairo. Mr. Pearce likewise left us, and directed his steps to
another part of the country.

We had regretted much not having purchased horses in or about
Jerusalem. Nazareth, however, and its environs, boast a very fine
race of what in England would be called half-bred. It happened that
a Jew, on his way from Acre to Suffad, passed a night at Nazareth,
and, hearing of my wish to buy a horse, invited me to accompany him as
far as Segery, a village halfway from Nazareth to Tabariah, where he
assured me I should easily suit myself.

The first village we saw proved to be Cana. A spring, or conduit,
attracted my attention, and recalled the miracle that has rendered the
name of Cana sacred. Arrived at Segery, I was taken to the house of the
bailiff, or shaykh of the village, who was known to have a young horse
for sale. The shaykh, as it happened, was ill in bed. He entertained
us with coffee and pipes; and, having touched slightly on the merits
of his colt, which was led out for me to look at, he talked at large
of his malady, and earnestly solicited my advice respecting it. He had
already discovered that I was eager to purchase, and he now perceived
that the colt had met my fancy. He asked me, with a seeming air of
friendly consideration, a price, which, by the kind interference of the
Jew, whose regard for me would not allow me to be imposed upon, was
diminished to one half, and I was pleased to think what an excellent
bargain I had made. The Jew pursued his journey, and I bent my way
back, with my new purchase ridden by the shaykh’s servant, who was
commissioned to receive the money. I had read much of the pedigrees of
Arab horses, and the shaykh (who saw my foible) supplied me with one
sufficiently long to gratify my utmost ambition.

On my arrival at Nazareth, I went to the cadi, and stated to him the
nature of the purchase I had made, with my desire that his name should
be affixed to the pedigree, together with the seals of two witnesses,
as the proof of its authenticity. He read the pedigree, put his name to
it, and, instead of two, procured the signature of five witnesses. The
servant received the money (£13), and I thought I had made a bargain
at once advantageous and complete in every single circumstance. At this
distance of time, I laugh to think how much I was duped in the whole
proceeding; for, putting out of the question the price which I paid,
much more than the value of the horse, I subsequently knew that a cadi,
and more especially a cadi of a country burgh, would not scruple to
put his hand to a document of much more importance than this without
believing one word of its contents.[57]

Lady Hester, having now seen what was worthy of notice in and about
Nazareth, prepared to quit it. On the 5th of July, when the necessary
number of camels had been provided and loaded, they were sent off about
four in the afternoon for Acre. About an hour or two after sunset we
followed. The evening was dark, and the priests, both to do honour to
their departing guests, and because the street is tortuous and the road
uneven, accompanied us two or three hundred yards with lanterns, and
then left us. It would appear that the horses experienced the effect
common on the sudden disappearance of light, and for a moment could not
see. Lady Hester’s horse trod on a large stone lying in the road, and
slipped upon his side. The thing was instantaneous, and her ladyship
was thrown with her horse partly upon her. We all dismounted, and
extricated her; dismay seized every one, when it was found that one leg
was severely hurt. She was carried back to the monastery and put to
bed. A messenger was immediately despatched to bring back the baggage;
and, as we were in a manner in want of many most essential articles
until its return, the delay was very distressing. To the merriment and
bustle of a departure had now succeeded solicitude and anxiety. Each
person again took up his old quarters, but with very different feelings
from those with which he had left them.

Lady Hester’s leg, however, was only bruised, and not fractured; and,
at the end of a week, she was so far recovered, that we again departed:
but it was thought better to avail ourselves of daylight; and on the
13th, in the evening, we arrived at Acre a second time, having been
obliged, on account of her ladyship’s weakness, to make the journey in
two days.

At the place where we reposed the first night, Selim, the Mameluke,
met with a misfortune. We were scarcely arrived, and had tethered our
horses, when his showed symptoms of colic. To cure him, he resorted to
the means used in Syria and in Egypt, which, in my opinion, hastened
his death. He mounted him and rode him in furious and short gallops
backward and forward until the poor steed was covered with lather.
His sufferings were evidently increased by this violent exercise. A
decoction of cummin and aniseed, a remedy of the country, was then
administered. He lingered in great pain until morning, and then died.




                             CHAPTER XIII.

   Preparations for leaving Acre--Anecdotes of Gezzàr
   Pasha--Intrigues of his Women in his absence with the
   Mamelukes--Suspicions and plans of Gezzàr--Slaughter of the
   Women--Alarm and Rebellion of the Mamelukes--They take refuge in
   a tower and threaten to blow up the powder magazine--They escape
   in the night--General defection of the troops, who storm Tyre,
   but are routed before Acre--Further vengeance of Gezzàr.


Active preparations were now made for continuing our journey along the
coast. Horses were purchased for the servants,[58] and camels hired for
the baggage. But, before dismissing the subject of Acre altogether,
it will not be amiss to relate one or two anecdotes touching that
extraordinary man, Hadj Ahmed el Gezzàr, a pasha, whose ferocious
character seems to partake more of the brute than of human nature,
but whose vices have in some measure been redeemed by his patronage
of literary men and by the many useful buildings which he erected
and establishments which he founded. Still, amongst the tyrants whom
we read of in the history of the Turks, whose annals are fruitful
in such monsters, few appear to have been more sanguinary than El
Gezzàr. Although he had at this time been dead some years, yet his
name was perpetually the theme of conversation; and traits of great
vice and great virtue were everywhere recorded of him in a way to
leave an impression on the mind that he was a man of no common stamp.
The following is an imperfect narrative of the Mameluke sedition,
an important event in his government, and which, arising from the
suspicious jealousy of a lustful disposition, had nearly brought his
career to an early termination.

El Gezzàr was, from causes which it is not necessary here to detail,
appointed Pasha both of Damascus and Acre. His power was at this time
at its height, and his cruelties were supposed to have reached their
_acmè_ also. It would seem, however, that the hitherto known
scale of human tyranny was deficient with respect to him. As Pasha of
Damascus, he was obliged to conduct the pilgrims to Mecca: he left
behind him a harým full of white beauties; it was said nearly one
hundred. Of his Mamelukes, the whole number of whom was four hundred,
half was thought unnecessary on the long journey on which he was gone,
and therefore remained at Acre.

No sooner had El Gezzàr departed on the pilgrimage, than the eunuchs
of the harým relaxed somewhat in their accustomed severity. At certain
hours of the day, when the officers and attendants of the palace were
moving about in the court below, the ladies would coax their black
Arguses for permission to repair to the blinds of the windows to look
at them. As they disputed on the respective merits of the gentlemen
who passed, each would be led to select her favourite, and, by an easy
transition, would feel desirous of informing him of her preference.
Writing was dangerous, and a message still more so; but the language of
flowers is understood in the East; and the present of a budding rose, a
pink, or a carnation, is the billet-doux of the country.

Thus several intimations were given from those within to those without;
and the agas and Mamelukes no doubt communicated their good fortune,
each to his friend. Four or five of them entered into a secret
resolution to attempt an entrance to the harým. One was the khasnadár,
or treasurer of the Pasha, and brother of Selim, newly appointed
pasha of two tails, the seraskier of El Gezzàr, and who had been left
kekhyah, or vicegerent, in his absence.

The black eunuchs, who are the keepers of the harým, have each a key of
the outer door. Whether by bribes or otherwise, the paramours contrived
to obtain admission. After midnight, when all was quiet, the khasnadár
and his companions opened the door; and, we may suppose, previously
apprized where they were to go, found their expecting mistresses.

In the mean time the arduous and painful track of the Desert was traced
and retraced, and El Gezzàr re-entered Acre. On his first visit to the
harým, his keen eye soon told him that all was not as it used to be. To
their submissive and servile manners was added something which showed
him that other thoughts reigned in their bosoms besides dress and
ornaments. He asked himself what it could be, and soon found a clue to
guide his suspicions.

Sitting, one day, at a window that looked on the outer door of the
harým, he observed a Christian, named Nummum, with a nosegay in his
hand, knock at the door and deliver it to a slave. At night, when
he retired to his harým, he thought he saw the same nosegay stuck
carelessly under the tarbûsh[59] of one of his Sereahs, the lovely
Zulyka, with the flowers hanging down and the stalks upwards according
to the Eastern manner. “Come hither, girl: where did you get that
nosegay?” said the Pasha. She readily answered, “Out of the garden.”
He put on a smiling look--“Come, come, I know better than that: I saw
Nummum, the Nazareen, with it. Tell me, my girl, who your admirer is,
and I’ll see if I cannot give you to him in marriage. I have intended
to find you a husband for some time.” The foolish Zulyka believed him
to be in earnest, and told him she thought it came from the khasnadàr.

Previous to this accident, whilst a prey to secret jealousy, his
suspicions had fallen on the Mamelukes, and he had resolved within
himself that he would make such an example of some of those who had
been left behind, as should deter any one in future from similar
attempts on his honour. His scheme was deep-laid, and not the gust of
sudden passion. One day he told Selim Pasha, his seraskier, that he
was resolved on an incursion into the province of the Drûzes, against
the Emir Yusef. Disputes between El Gezzàr and his neighbours were too
common to cause this order to excite any great surprise. Letters were
accordingly written to the neighbouring governors secretly to hold
themselves and their troops in readiness, and the place of meeting was
to be at Khan Hasbéyah.

Selim Pasha assembled the Hawáry, the Arnaûts, and the Dellati troops;
whilst El Gezzàr was employed in mustering his Mamelukes, giving some
leave to go, ordering some to stay behind, according to the selection
he had made in his own mind of the guilty from the innocent: and the
khasnadár was among those who remained at Acre. Selim marched with
his men, and arrived at Hasbéyah, where he encamped, as was agreed,
to give time to the other chiefs to join him. Thus El Gezzàr had
contrived, under pretext of a war, to get rid of all such as he thought
likely to be troublesome to him in the execution of his bloody plan.
For his Mamelukes, if together, formed a body of 400 youths, and were
also much connected, by ties of intimacy and friendship, with most
of the officers of the pasha’s troops: so that to attempt a signal
revenge, when thus united, he considered too hazardous, and accordingly
separated them by the above stratagem.

It was close upon the march of Selim that the accident of Zulyka’s
nosegay occurred, and gave him a clue to begin his inquiries. No sooner
had she, as above related, confessed to him her partiality for the
khasnadár than, pretending to be satisfied, he rose from his seat, took
his balta[60] with him, and walked into his garden. When there, he
ordered Zulyka to be sent to him. She came; and the Pasha, no longer
concealing his rage, furiously seized her by the hair and threw her on
the ground: then placing his foot on her neck, and holding his balta as
if he would strike her: “Wretch! tell me the truth,” he cried: “thou
hast already confessed thyself guilty, and nothing but the denunciation
of thy accomplices can save thee.” In vain she protested that she had
no accomplices, was conscious of no guilt: he drew his sabre, and,
with his own hand, severed her head from that bosom which in happier
moments she had made the tyrant’s pillow! He commanded the corpse to be
thrown into a well. It is related that three others, whose fidelity he
most doubted, met with a similar fate at his hands: when fatigued, and
aware how much more yet remained to be done, he sent for four Hawára
soldiers, men naturally of a ferocious character, and, ordering fresh
victims into his presence, bade them continue the work of death.

Quite unusual as it is for men even of a grave character, more
especially soldiers, to enter the harým of a pasha, their summons
caused much wonder among the Mamelukes in attendance in the seraglio.
The cries of the women who had perished had already been heard: but
the frequent use of the bastinado within made them at first pay little
attention to such sounds. As they were busied in conjectures on what
this proceeding could mean, a repetition of the cries was heard.
These, uttered with all the vehemence of distress, suddenly ceased.
They remained mute and listening:--again the piercing scream was heard,
and again as suddenly was hushed: but the voice was different from the
former.

Assembling round the harým door, they contrived to speak to one of
the harým agasis. They induced him to come out, and then asked him
what those cries meant. He pretended that there was nothing unusual
going forward; but they were not to be deceived; and, by threats and
promises, at last extracted the truth from him that the pasha was
murdering his women. The Mamelukes heard no more. Conscious of a
participation in their guilt, they looked at each other with appalled
countenances, and the stoutest heart trembled for a moment. At last
they took courage; and some of the most resolute, and perhaps the
most culpable, spoke. They asked, “What is to be expected for us from
a cruel and jealous disposition like El Gezzàr’s? we shall be the
next victims; let us be true to each other, and either die together
or save ourselves.” They immediately flew to their apartments, armed
themselves, and prepared for resistance. We have seen that the
khasnadár was one most implicated in this affair. As master of the
treasury, he had his apartment in a tower, which formed part of the
palace. This tower, for the sake of security, was more than commonly
strong, with an iron door and iron grated windows, and it looked on
the harým. To this building they betook themselves: they barred and
blockaded the doors, and waited the event.

In the mean time, El Gezzàr, with his four executioners, was carrying
on the horrid massacre, and fifteen young and beautiful creatures
were murdered that night. When the slaughter was over, and the terror
that prevailed within a little abated, some of his harým-agasis[61]
took courage to tell him of the defection of his Mamelukes. He was
furious: he sent to them immediately, and commanded them to quit the
tower. Their reply was firm--“It is true we are your property; but you
have imbrued your hands so deeply in human blood, and are so thirsty
for ours, that our measures are irrevocably taken.” It so happened
that the powder-magazine adjoined the treasury, and was a part of the
tower. They added--“If you attempt to dislodge us from this place,
we will fight as long as we can defend ourselves, and then will set
fire to the powder-magazine, and signalize our end with the fall of
El Gezzàr and the destruction of Acre; but if you will suffer us to
depart unmolested, we will bid adieu to you and Acre for ever.” Frantic
with rage, he fired on them with his own hand from the windows of his
apartment; but was compelled to shelter himself, as they fired on him
in return.

The news soon spread through the city: the extraordinary event of
slaves in rebellion to their master, and the noise of musketry heard
from within, with the various reports of a general extermination of the
women in the harým: all was so full of horror, that the inhabitants
retired trembling to their homes, and, shutting their doors, looked
forward to the end with a mixture of curiosity and consternation. The
segmàn bashi, or commander of the infantry, was the only military
officer in the place: he thought it prudent to remain quiet, and the
pasha did not call on him to act.

In the mean time, no one dared approach the pasha; he foamed and raged,
and, in his fury, would listen to no reasoning. At length, the mufti
and some others of the principal inhabitants resolved to enter his
presence, cost what it might. “We will bring him to reason if we can,
and if we cannot,” they said, “he must kill us.” They approached him,
and began to intercede for the lives of the Mamelukes: they then spoke
a little plainer, and told him he only endangered his own life and
that of all the citizens by persisting in confining the Mamelukes to a
place where one desperate act might blow them all to atoms. Finally,
they begged him, for the honour of a pasha’s name and the odium it
would bring upon him, to give the culprits a free passage. El Gezzàr
seemed to yield: he said “He would not hinder their departure, provided
they would only appear in his presence that he might reproach them
with their ingratitude.” But the Mamelukes declined this dangerous
proposition, and adhered to their resolution: so that the good counsel
of the elders profited nothing, and probably left a rancour against
themselves in the heart of the tyrant.

For three days, matters remained in this uncertain state. On the
fourth, it was known that the Mamelukes, to the number of fifteen, had
found means to escape, being those arrived at manhood, whilst the boys
were left behind to their fate. Those who had got away bent their steps
towards Khan Hasbéya, and, on the fifth day, in the morning, arrived
at Selim Pasha’s tent. Great was the surprise that their appearance
excited: the Mamelukes of the pasha, with their horses fatigued, with
no corn, no customary pomp--all announced that something was not right.
When the khasnadár reached his brother’s tent, he related to him what
had happened; and, when he had brought his story to the period of their
taking refuge in the tower, he continued--“Thus shut up, and seeing no
movement among the soldiers or inhabitants in our favour, we thought
it better to contrive some plan of escape. You know that window of
the tower which opens on the ditch: you are aware, likewise, that the
money chests deposited in the treasury are all bound with large cords:
having, therefore, with our baltas and battleaxes worked out some of
the iron bars, we made use of the ropes to let ourselves down. But
first we ransacked the chests, and each loaded his pockets and girdle
with as much money as he could take; then, one by one, we descended
through the window: by the care of some well-wishers in the city,
horses were waiting for us, and we found ourselves to be fifteen in
number and outside of the walls. Here we sent defiance to the pasha,
and told him he might now take us if he could.

Selim Pasha did not deliberate long on which side he should range
himself. He was a Mameluke, and his brother was a leader of the
fugitives: he therefore assembled all the principal officers of the
camp, and addressed them thus--“You see here a body of men whom the
jealousy of a cruel pasha would have sacrificed; but who is that pasha?
A rebel to the Porte, driven out of Damascus, and a usurper of the
government he holds. For myself,” said he, “you know the sultan some
time since made me _waly_[62] of Sayda and its dependencies:
to him I owe allegiance, and not to one who is denounced by him
as a rebel. Let us then, in avenging the wrongs of these injured
men, be faithful to our sovereign: let us--instead of wantonly
attacking a prince, against whom we were not sent on the grounds of
real aggression, but to remove us out of the way, in order that a
tyrant might with more facility execute his bloody ends against our
brethren--let us unite ourselves with this prince, and, marching
against the monster, offer his head as a just tribute to the Porte.”
His advice was received with acclamations. A horseman was despatched to
Emir Yusef, who, when acquainted with the defection of the Mamelukes,
immediately joined the league and aided it with money and troops. After
some days, the allied forces marched to Sayda, and there they remained
for a time to mature their plans.

El Gezzàr was quite deserted: his soldiers had abandoned him, and
he was loved by no one; yet was he not dismayed. He sent for his
counsellors, one by one, and asked them what they would advise him to
do: almost all told him his case was desperate, and that he would do
well to fly. “Take what you will with you,” said they, “but leave us,
and save the town from the sufferings of a siege.” He scorned their
advice. “Go, my friends: God will manage it; and I shall some day have
the pleasure of thanking you for your prudent counsels.”

Hadj Ali, the author of this narrative, was a soldier under Yahya
Aga, who commanded a few troops, and was, when these events happened,
encamped about three hours’ march from Acre. When Yahya heard what was
going forward, he hesitated whose cause he should espouse, whether
that of the pasha at Acre or of the pasha at Sayda. Ali signified that
he was ready to follow him wherever he chose to go; but added that,
if he thought obedience to an unjust master was a less sacred duty
than fidelity to his comrades, with whom he had been bred up and had
fought, then it was with those comrades he must connect his fortunes
and conquer or perish with them. “And such is my resolve,” replied the
Aga: “their fate and mine shall be one!” He accordingly struck his
tents, and joined Selim Pasha, who had quitted Sayda, and was lying
before Tyre.

Tyre had remained faithful to El Gezzàr, and shut its gates against
Selim. Although the town had no garrison, and the whole population
did not amount to more than 2,000, they were willing to try the issue
of a contest. But, on the following day, Selim stormed and sacked
it, finding a very considerable booty. The women were violated; the
houses plundered; and what could not be carried off was sold to camp
followers, or thrown away in waste. Property of all kinds lay scattered
in the streets, and all the excesses of Turkish warfare were here
committed.

On the next day but one, Selim Pasha reached the environs of Acre,
and encamped at Abu Ataby, where were provisions in abundance. What
was el Gezzàr now to do? Soldiers he had none, and but few friends.
His fate seemed certain, and every body foretold his ruin. Still,
however, he remained firm. By means of emissaries, he contrived to
disseminate a spirit of defection among the troops of his enemy, in
holding forth the immense rewards that would attend those who should
show themselves faithful to him. He insinuated that the lot of a brave
soldier could only be prosperous under a warlike leader like himself,
whose contentions with his neighbours, however they might distress the
labouring and manufacturing classes, filled the purses of the troops.
These, with many other arguments adapted to the occasion, had the
desired effect.

El Gezzàr then armed a number of labourers, who happened to be in Acre
employed in buildings which he was erecting, and joined them to a few
regular soldiers. They were instructed that, at midnight, when the
enemy might be supposed asleep, they were to steal forth secretly until
they came within the precincts of the camp. Their watchword was to be
_Balta_, the instrument that El Gezzàr always carried about him,
and the very name of which, from the fatal purposes to which he had so
often turned it, inspired terror. On arriving at the camp, they were to
set up a cry of Balta, balta, and to fire their muskets with as much
noise as possible. It was supposed by him that the enemy, believing
themselves attacked by a larger force than they really were, would be
panic-struck, and might take to flight: and his anticipations were
verified.

The precautions used to prevent surprise in European camps are unknown
or seldom practised in those of Orientals. Fear magnified the number
of the assailants, and the rebels fled in disorder. Selim Pasha and
Suliman Aga (afterwards pasha of Acre) hovered for some time round the
scene of action; until, finding that all was lost, they bent their
way to Damascus; and, the stragglers on the road joining them here
and there, they made up a body of 300 or 400 men. The Delatis and
Arnaûts retired to Nazareth, and soon afterwards, on professing their
penitence, were received again into the service of El Gezzàr.

From Damascus Selim Pasha took the road to Aleppo, and from Aleppo
went to Constantinople, plundering the villages in his route for
subsistence. On arriving in Constantinople, he was seen by the Sultan,
on a day of royal diversion, and had the honour of exhibiting together
with his Mamelukes in some martial exercises before him. The Sultan
took notice of them, and they were sent to the army, at that time in
the field against the Russians, with a promise that, when the campaign
was over, Selim Pasha should return to Syria with firmans to remove El
Gezzàr from his government. But Selim Pasha was killed in the storming
of Ismael, and El Gezzàr thus lost a troublesome enemy.

Of the Mamelukes left behind in the tower some were pardoned, some
were mutilated by the loss of their noses, eyes, or ears; and some
were punished still more severely. The rage of El Gezzàr was not yet
appeased. He embarked the remainder of his women for Cairo, where he
caused them to be sold. He vented his impotent fury against the trees
that had afforded shade to their guilty loves, and against every object
that could remind him of his dishonour. Will it be credited? The very
cats of the harým were destroyed, that nothing might exist that had
witnessed his shame.[63]




                             CHAPTER XIV.

   Departure from Acre--Hadj Ali--Night journey--Encampment
   at El Guffer--Roman road--Dangerous pass--Distant view of
   Tyre--Ras-el-ayn--Aqueduct--Slave-dealer--Egyptian grooms--Women
   washing linen--River Kasmia--Blind travellers--Ancient
   sepulchral grottoes and other remains--Sarfent--Signor
   Damiani--The Khudder, used as a coffee-house--The hostess--Grave
   of Sayd el Abd--Village of Gazzeah--District of the
   Metoualis--Arrival at Sayda--Beautiful country.


On the 18th of July, the baggage being all loaded on camels, about
three in the afternoon, the caravan, for such, from the number of
people and animals, it now was, left Acre. To Hadj Ali, a janissary,
who has already been mentioned in this narrative, was committed the
conduct of the baggage. It has just now been seen how, in the revolt
against El Gezzàr, he had fled with the rebels to Constantinople,
under Selim Pasha; after whose death, Ali returned to Syria, and
offered his services to Nasif, at that time pasha of Damascus. He
remained with him some years; and when, in consequence of suspicions
attached to his government by the Porte, Nasif was obliged to quit his
country, and exile himself in Europe, Ali was one of three or four who
accompanied him, and, with him, visited Naples, Genoa, Leghorn, and
Marseilles. Nasif Pasha being permitted to return, Ali was restored to
his native country, and went and served Suliman, pasha of Acre. But
Ali had likewise made a campaign in the vizir’s army in Egypt, and,
on the reverses of the Turks in that country, had quietly remained at
Cairo, where, by his activity and adaptation to Frank manners, he was
employed by the French, at a pay (as he often said with exultation) of
a dollar a day. He would sometimes likewise display his knowledge of
the French language acquired when in their service; and no one would do
him the injustice to infer anything from the expressions _prison_,
_garde_, and _sacre_, which seemed to form almost the extent
of his acquirements.

It was at Acre that we found him. He was past fifty; but active,
intelligent, and a good Mussulman; which means that he strictly
observed the rites and ceremonies of his religion. He was very
diminutive in stature. This was the man who afterwards, in 1816, filled
with the Princess of Wales the same situation which we shall now find
him occupying in Lady Hester’s suite. Length of service, and more
especially fidelity in the execution of his duties, had procured him
advancement, and he now styled himself Khial el Khazny--a name implying
treasury horse messenger. With him was associated Mohammed el Ladkány,
who, it will be recollected, was assigned to her ladyship as a guard
at Jaffa. He was a man of not less activity and intelligence than his
companion, and of noble physiognomy.

We left the city gates, and, as our people were somewhat heterogeneous,
some confusion ensued the moment we were on the high road. Few of
the Christian servants had probably ever mounted a horse before,
since Christians, unless in the service of great Turks or Franks, are
forbidden to ride on horseback. We were therefore entertained with a
display of horsemanship that would not have disgraced a gentleman on
the Easter hunt. Mrs. Fry, her ladyship’s maid, had been accoutred
in man’s clothes; and, from her timidity in this new garb, and thus
mounted, was often exposed to the danger of falling from her ass, on
which she persisted in sitting in the decorous posture customary with
women in England: although in a country where women invariably ride
astride, and where there are no side saddles, she might have imitated
them with less singularity and without indecency. Order was at length
obtained, and we proceeded along the plain to the north of Acre.
We passed on our left the village of Zyb,[64] where is the tomb of
Saad-ed-dyn. We then reached the foot of a promontory jutting into the
sea, called Gebel Msherify. At its first rise is a tower or πυργος,
named in Arabic (by a corruption of the word) _Bûrge_; one of
many others which are seen at unequal distances all along the Syrian
coast. The road here is steep and rugged, and very unfit for camels,
which, however safely they travel on level ground, lose their footing
where there are inequalities.

It was now dark. Sometimes I kept in front of the caravan with Hadj
Ali; and sometimes, when the delay of the camels induced me to ride
back towards them, in my anxiety for the medicine-chest, which was
more particularly an object of care to me, I rode by the side of
the camel which bore it, balanced on the opposite side by a large
clothes’-trunk, and both surmounted by my camp bed. As we were
ascending Gebel Msherify, what was my alarm when I saw, or rather heard
(for the darkness of the night prevented my seeing clearly) the camel
fall over what appeared to be a precipice. The caravan stopped, and we
alighted to see what mischief was done. Instead of falling over the
precipice into the sea, the camel had rolled down about nine feet,
and was found rid of his load, which in his struggle had quitted him.
By the aid of the camel-drivers, who are sturdy fellows, and probably
used to such mishaps, the luggage was replaced on the same beast, who
had experienced no serious injury. But to the chest, filled with glass
bottles, much damage was to be apprehended. However, this was no place
to examine it, both from the darkness that enveloped us, and from the
apprehension of robbers--a fear that possessed me more powerfully at
this time than when I performed the same journey some years afterwards,
when I knew how well the government of Suliman Pasha protected the
traveller in his peregrinations.

When the caravan proceeded, a winding path seemed to carry us higher
and higher, whilst the roaring of the sea, heard distinctly, indicated
how near we were to the edge of the precipice. Underwood covered the
soil. On a sudden, we descended rapidly by the side of a watercourse,
which brought us to another bûrge on the seashore, and elevated but
a few yards above it. Close to it was a cottage, or what we should
in England designate as a lodge for cattle; for it seemed no better,
although it was inhabited by a man who levied a toll on passengers and
loaded animals, without the assistance of a gate or barrier. This place
is called the Guffer. It was here that Hadj Ali, who had been desired
to divide the distance between Acre and Tyre into two equal parts,
caused us to halt; and, although the very stoney soil hereabouts left
not a smooth spot for our encampment, yet, by beating the surface of
the ground, a level was effected for Lady Hester’s tent, and, in an
adjoining field, nearer to the seashore, the other tents were pitched
with some regularity.

The following morning was hot, and the low spot of ground on which we
were encamped seemed to confine the heat so as to make it additionally
oppressive. Behind us was a steep ascent covered with stunted oaks,
and at the summit of it was the village of Nakûra, of about forty
or fifty houses, from which were procured milk, eggs, and fowls. We
walked down to the ruined tower by the edge of the sea, and found it
in the last stage of dilapidation: it is, like the others, round, of
common materials, and of ordinary construction. The pilgrims, who, with
the exception of a few merchants, are the only Christians who travel
along the coast, are contented with the current story respecting these
towers; namely, that they were built by order of the Empress Helena,
when, zealous in the search she was about to make at Jerusalem for the
lost cross, she resolved to establish by beacons a speedy means of
communication with Constantinople, to announce the important event; but
they were probably built as watch-towers against maritime descents on
the coast.

Soon after breakfast, all the tents were struck. Our next station
was fixed near Tyre; it not being considered necessary to enter
that city, inasmuch as it afforded no accommodation better than our
tents. Proceeding from El Guffer[65] (the toll-house), we rode by
the sea-side, along a stoney ridge elevated but a few feet above the
sea, upon which were visible the remains of a Roman paved road: this
ridge continued, with now and then a few undulations, until we reached
a promontory, which, similar to that passed over on the preceding
evening, forms to the north the natural division of the plains of Acca
and Tyre. We began to ascend it, and, at a small distance from its
foot, passed a bûrge more ruinous than that of El Nakûra. At the top,
we were obliged to traverse a road said to be the work of Alexander
the Great, the side of which next to the sea overhangs a tremendous
precipice: this road had no wall, either natural or artificial, to
prevent the sudden start of a horse from precipitating himself and his
rider to certain destruction.[66] Hadj Ali did not fail to tell me a
story, always probably repeated at this place, of a beautiful bride,
who, on her way to the bridegroom’s house, was, by her horse’s taking
fright, thrown from the top to the bottom, and dashed to pieces.

When we arrived at the summit of the promontory, the town of Tyre came
into view: its peculiar situation on a tongue of land, with the ruins
of some towers, which, afar off, have still a picturesque appearance,
has much to interest the traveller, exclusive of the sacred and pagan
recollections which its name excites. In a climate almost always pure,
a tree or a bush seen through the haze of noonday, along a coast in
some places presenting nothing but an even strand, becomes an object
of attention. Much more beautiful was the sight of the town which now
burst upon us; and of the plain, which, bounded by hills at first
retreating and again at a distance of several miles bending towards the
seashore, showed on its varied surface the ripened corn, the maize, the
water-melon fields, and other grains and fruits which the inhabitant
of the western world never sees growing. On entering the plain, some
inconsiderable ruins were observable; and, whatever they might have
formerly been, exhibiting at present nothing more than dispersed
stones, and very small fragments of columns, once parts of buildings,
the foundations of which no longer existed. Four hours’ march brought
us to the skirt of a village, the direct road to which diverged
somewhat to the right, through plantations of mulberry-trees, whilst
we proceeded along the seashore. In a quarter of an hour, we came to
a small rivulet, running over a gravelly bottom with a limpid stream.
Here we were to halt for the night. The camels were unloaded, the tents
pitched, and every disposition made for dinner, and for passing the
night. The spot was truly romantic, and, when visited on subsequent
occasions, although it had lost its novelty, it never lost its charms.
The soil from Acre to Tyre we observed to be generally a rich black
mould.

Ras-el-âyn (or the fountain head) is a village which occupies the
ground where perhaps once stood a part of Tyre. The rivulet, on the
banks of which we were now encamped, is the almost neglected stream
of two or three rich springs, which were carried by noble aqueducts
to the old city, and inland, in another direction, for agricultural
purposes. These springs now served to turn three water-mills: as they
issued out of the ground, they were confined in spacious cisterns,[67]
until they had reached a considerable height, and were then poured off
by different spouts, and afterwards carried by trenches to irrigate
the surrounding gardens, or were lost in the sea through two or three
rivulets like those near which we were. The village, consisting of
about thirty or forty houses, is inhabited by Metoualis (or Shyites), a
sect of Mahometans held as heretics by the Turks. It owes its fertility
to the springs, and its beauty to the verdure which they nourish. A
portion of the ancient aqueduct crossed a watercourse, that traversed
the village, and assumed the appearance of a bridge. It is still used
for the purpose of carrying water to the neighbouring orchards, is
beautifully covered with _capillus Veneris_ and other aquatic
plants. Farther on, in another direction, stalactitic incrustations
had in some places coated the whole pier of an arch, or blocked up an
arch itself. There was a tree in the centre of the village, which I
shall ever recollect, as having at different periods passed four nights
of my life under it. I saw it now with the satisfaction that spreading
trees give in hot climates, where their umbrageous covering is so
delicious. It was an ilex, as large as an English elm, and is called
sindean in Arabic.

In our walk through the village, coming into the fields from the
south, we saw another party, that, like our own, was encamped.
Curiosity induced us to advance close to them. At the foot of a
spreading figtree, now in full foliage, a middle-aged, robust Turk was
employed in boiling a saucepan over a fire made between some rough
stones temporarily raised for the purpose. At a short distance, two
pack-horses and an ass were grazing. A carpet was spread on the ground,
on which was sitting a beautiful bronze-faced girl, about thirteen
or fourteen, whom we guessed to be an Abyssinian. Beside her was a
black girl, still younger, employed in washing rice to be prepared for
dinner. The man showed no symptoms of displeasure at our approach, nor
did the eldest girl attempt to conceal her face, which is generally the
first action of Mahometan females, even of children, on the appearance
of a stranger. The Turk invited us to join his party; and, on our
thanking him, asked us if we belonged to the tents by the waterside,
and whether it was true that an English princess was travelling
through the country. He then told us that he was a slave merchant, and
had these two girls on sale; that if either of them would suit the
English lady he should be happy to dispose of her. It was thus that, to
induce us to recommend the Abyssinian from a sight of her extraordinary
beauty, he had left her uncovered. An ignorance of the usages of the
country, and an abhorrence of such traffic, induced us at that time to
look with feelings of the sincerest pity on those poor creatures; but a
more thorough knowledge of the institutions of the Turks has taught me
to behold slavery among them as a means of advancement to situations,
which otherwise Circassian women and negresses could never hope to
obtain. It is the mother of a child thus stolen who is most to be
pitied: she loses her offspring for ever; but the child will sometimes
rise to extreme affluence, and seldom fails to meet with the same kind
treatment as the children of the family in which she lives. We however
quitted him, impressed with admiration of this young Abyssinian, whose
symmetry of form and regularity of features gave us the idea of as
perfect beauty as can be found, without any admixture of red and white.

We returned to our encampment through a lane with hedges on either
side, and reached the turfy bank upon which some of the tents were
pitched: whilst below the bank the tents for the servants and the
Mamelukes, ranged by the side of the rivulet, with just space enough
between them to tether the neighing horses, formed one of those groups
of picturesque objects which we so often had occasion to admire in our
course through this charming country.

On the morrow, we proceeded on our route in the same order as before;
Lady Hester, with her two grooms walking on either side of her horse’s
head. There cannot be a class of persons more active than these
Egyptian grooms, and, on this account, every gentleman throughout
Turkey who pretends to make any figure has one or more of them in
his stables. They are accustomed to run or walk by the side of their
masters; and, as was the case with those who accompanied us, will
do this for entire days without yielding to fatigue. Their dress is
generally composed of a close waistcoat, embroidered at the bosom, and
of a blue smockfrock, with very full sleeves and full body, which they
tastily brace up by a silk cord that crosses behind, and passes round
the shoulders, giving a form to the drapery which may be observed in
the folds of the _peplum_ on ancient statues. A red turban, a pair
of linen drawers, and red shoes, complete the suit; and, thus lightly
equipped, they show a degree of activity which makes them invaluable.
Their skill as grooms in the stable is equally great.

Mr. B. did not pass by a place so celebrated as Tyre without entering
it. Early in the morning, he had taken his janissary, and proceeded
thither; and, after examining the few antiquities which are yet left
in it, he rejoined us on the road soon after our departure.

As we were riding along the high road, we were much surprised to
observe, about a hundred and fifty yards from it, in a place where
there was a running stream, several naked women, who were washing and
spreading linen on the ground and hanging it on trees to dry. They paid
little attention to us, excepting that they turned their backs on us.
There was a low stone wall between them and the road. We afterwards
found that it was customary, almost throughout Syria, for the female
peasantry to resort to some spring close to their village, carrying
with them boilers and earthenware pans, and there, stripping themselves
naked, to wash even to the shifts from their backs, after which they
comb their hair and wash themselves, or frolic away their time until
their linen is dry. The hill that overhung the rivulet where they were
washing was a part of the ruins of old Tyre, or the very mound which
Nebuchadnezzar raised in order to take the city.

Our road this day was more diversified than on the preceding. We
traversed the rich plain of Tyre, which is remarkable for its
fertility. About two hours’ march brought us to the point at which
the hills again advance to the sea-side. Through them, by a narrow
valley, the river Kasmia[68] pours its clear waters into the sea. It
was, at this season of the year, fordable, not being deeper than up to
the stirrups. A bridge of one arch, of modern date, but not devoid of
beauty, leads over it, and its verdant banks are hedged in by oleander
trees, a shrub which, whether in or out of flower, is highly beautiful.
Close to the bridge, on the south side, and on the first rise of
the hills, stand the venerable ruins of a khan or caravansery, now
incapable of affording shelter to the traveller. In earlier times, it
probably had been a castle for the defence of the passage of the river.

At about twenty minutes’ march from the bridge, we met with five
blind men, led by a sixth, who, with their staves and wallets, were
journeying towards Acre. Each held by the skirt of the one who preceded
him. They had the appearance of dervises, or calenders, and their
adventures would probably have furnished as much amusement as their
one-eyed predecessors in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. They
appeared cheerful.

We next passed the dry bed of a river, called Abu-el-Aswad, over which
is the ruin of an ancient bridge of one arch, and leading from it are
seen the remains of an ancient road. In times of great security (as
when El Gezzàr Pasha was alive), a guard was stationed at this bridge,
in an old structure of masonry now going to decay. Abundance of tansy
grows hereabouts. Patches of the ancient Roman road occasionally
reappear.

Abreast of this road, upon the hills, is a sanctuary called the tomb of
the Nebby (prophet) Sury; and on the left are some upright stones by
the sea-side, fragments of a ruined building; but which the mule-driver
told me were so many men petrified for having blasphemed the prophet.
The regularity in which the stones stand no doubt gave rise to the
popular tradition.

In the rocks which overhung the coast hereabouts we observed
excavations with small entrances, which were ancient sepulchral
grottoes. There were also appearances of quarries; and on the seashore
were old foundations of edifices. Just before reaching this spot we
passed a small creek, where were indistinct ruins and cisterns among
some fig-trees. It is therefore probable that a town or city[69] once
stood here, the antiquity of which may be inferred from the grottoes.
A little farther on we came to a row of pedestals of pillars, and some
indistinct foundations, and in three minutes more to a well-spring
neatly cased in stone, with steps down to the water. It is called Ayn
Bab el Feteh. In a quarter of an hour after quitting the spring there
is a rocky promontory called Kysarrâa, which scarcely leaves a passage
round it: it was the boundary of ancient Phœnicia. A small stream runs
close by. At the distance of two hours and a quarter, reckoning from
the bridge of the Kasmia, we halted for the night at a place called
the Khudder (or green), where is a small sanctuary dedicated to a
santon, or some Mahometan of renowned sanctity. It stands close to the
waterside, directly west from the burgh of Sarfent, which is built on
the foot of the neighbouring mountains, one mile off.

This burgh has a very picturesque appearance when viewed at a distance.
It is the general but loose assertion of travellers that its name
is a corruption of Sarpentum, a Greek city, which once stood on the
seashore, and the ruins of which are still visible, scattered about
on the north of the Khudder. But it is known to every one from holy
writ that there was a town hereabouts called Sarpent. The Arabic name,
therefore, is prior to the Greek one, with the slight alteration
necessary for affiliating it to the Greek language. It was adopted on
the founding of a new city, in the same way as Acre is evidently a
corruption of Acca, which name is to be found in the Bible, Although
the perpetual plunder, for centuries, of the materials which once
composed the edifices of the town, has almost cleared the spot of
every moveable stone above ground, still old Sarpentum continues to be
the quarry whence stones are supplied for Sayda, and excavations for
foundations have now succeeded the demolition of the superstructures.

We marked out a green plot of ground, close by the place, for our
encampment, and, overpowered by the heat, I removed a little way off to
bathe. I had not been in the water long when I observed a horseman in
scarlet, with a cocked hat, arrive at the Khudder, and, dismounting,
fix his attention on me. I hastened to dress myself, and joined him. He
spoke to me in Italian, and declared himself to be Signor Damiani,[70]
formerly dragoman to Sir W. Sydney Smith, and now established at Sayda
as a self-created English agent. The object of his journey was to
invite Lady Hester to take up her abode at his house during her stay
there. With considerable energy he likewise vilified the character of
the French consul of that place, stating his unjustifiable severities
towards himself, and his dislike to the English name. New to the world,
and to the sort of character I had to deal with in this man, I thought
that he was an aggrieved and deserving person, and as such introduced
him to her ladyship, who, however, dismissed him with a refusal.

The Khudder[71] was kept by a man, whose wife was a sprightly
middle-aged woman. The building upon the consecrated spot was a square
small chamber, surmounted by a cupola, and around it were three small
rooms, little better than sheds, for the accommodation of travellers
and their horses. For, as the Khudder lies in the high-road from Sayda
to Tyre, the passage of travellers is frequent and the resort to the
house considerable, owing to its equidistant situation from the one
and the other place; by which persons departing late from either, and
under fear of being benighted or shut out from the city, where the
invariable rule is to close the gates soon after sunset, can enter
it early enough for business on the following morning. The Khudder,
in fact, was no more than a coffee-hut, similar to many which exist
throughout the country: and the entertainment to be found will serve as
a sample of what the others produce. Provender for horses, mules, and
asses, consisting of barley and chopped straw, is the chief article of
sale: for the traveller himself are kept dried figs, bad bread, dibs
(a kind of treacle,) coffee of the most common quality, tombac for the
narkeely, and perhaps a few raisins. Leben or sour milk is generally
to be procured from the neighbouring village. Our hostess had much
the air of having departed somewhat from the strict rules of female
reserve prescribed by the Mahometan faith: although her husband and
she were Metoualys, whose notions regarding the privacy of the female
sex are still more rigid than those of any other Mahometan sect. Her
gallantries did not seem to be unknown to the camel-drivers, whose
occupations often led them along that road; and her coquettish air, and
the studied affectation of hiding her face in her veil in a way that
constantly showed it, were indubitable signs of a wanton. In speaking
of her thus, the reader will observe how much similar situations tend
to form similar characters in all countries. This woman subsequently
ran away with a muleteer, and her husband married a young girl of 18
or 20: but, finding her, although more comely, less capable of serving
him in the way of getting money, he recalled the first wife, and kept
them both. During five years that we were in the habit of seeing her
as we passed that road, we had often occasion to admire her activity
and her complaisant attentions to her guests; whilst it was curious
to see the divided empire which the one held by the precarious tenure
of her personal charms, but which the other built on the more lasting
foundation of her utility.

It should be observed that the portion of Mount Lebanon, that runs
parallel with the coast, from Gebel el Msherify to Sayda, is inhabited
entirely by Metoualys. Of this race of people we shall have to speak
more at large hereafter. We have already seen the remarkable neglect of
decency shown by them in the display of the naked persons of the women
at Ras-el-ayn.

The following day, soon after sunrise, the march was resumed. From
the Khudder, Sayda bore E.N.E. Sarfend was on the right, and the
ruins of Sarpentum were scattered around us. In twenty minutes we
passed a spring called Ayn-el-Kantara,[72] overhung by a gemaizy or
sycamore tree. There were some naked women bathing in the sea, at
a small distance from the road. In twenty minutes we came to Burge
el Akbeia (the tower of Akbeia) a ruined watch-tower close to the
water’s edge. There is an appearance of a small port which, even now,
occasionally serves as a nook for fishing-boats. Shallow tanks likewise
have been here and there for the evaporation of sea-water to obtain
salt. Portions of foundations on two sides of the gully, which here
carries off rains running in winter from the neighbouring mountains,
but was now dry, showed that it once had a bridge. In a few minutes
more we crossed a small stream, scarcely up to the horse’s fetlocks,
called, however, a river, the name of which was not noted down. Close
beyond it there is a most plentiful and clear spring, issuing from the
crevices of a large angular cistern in masonry, of antique date, and
now crumbling away. It is called Berkyt-et-tel,[73] or the reservoir
of the hill, there being a hill or mound facing the reservoir, which
bears the name of Tel Yea. At the distance of a quarter of an hour from
the reservoir are some portions of columns lying on the ground, and by
them a river called El Zahràny,[74] over which is a modern stone bridge
of tolerable neatness. Beyond the Zahràny we observed, in the middle of
the road, a loose conical heap of bowlders. To account for their lying
so piled up, our muleteers related a long story, of a certain black,
named Sayd el Abd, and his wife Luky, one or both of whom were murdered
on the highway; and, to perpetuate the memory of their untimely end,
every passer-by is expected to throw a stone on the grave. The gradual
accumulation has now formed a very considerable heap.[75] In fourteen
minutes more we observed some rubbish and stone masonry as of an old
caravansery, and six minutes beyond it a dry watercourse. Fourteen
minutes farther, the road being still by the sea-side, we passed
another dry bed of a river, on the banks of which are some wells, that
serve for shepherds to water their flocks.

We were now abreast of a considerable Metoualy village, half a mile
off, at the foot of the neighbouring hills, and distant from Sayda two
leagues or thereabouts. Guzzeah is partly in ruins, otherwise it would
be a pretty place, commanding a fine view of the plain and of the sea.
It seems to have been populous, and to have had mosques. Guzzeah may be
said to be the Northern boundary of the Metoualys; for their district
is comprehended in two strait lines drawn from W. to E. through Gezýn
to the N. and through Gebel el Msherify and Bussa to the South,
including a length of about twelve leagues. Their principal burghs are
Gebâa and Tibenyn, at which latter resided at this time the motsellem
deputed by the Pasha of Acre, who was called Ibrahim Aga el Kûrdy, and
his soldiers were, for the most part, Kûrds also.[76]

Before reaching Sayda, we crossed the beds of three other rivers, or
more properly, watercourses, the first Nahr Kutýshy; the second Nahr
Essýn, or Nahr Derb es syn; and the last, immediately before entering
the town, and over which there is a bridge, Nahr Burgût. Derb es syn
lies on the right within a nook of the mountain, through which the
river runs: its inhabitants are Christians. Another Christian village,
Mëah-wy-mëah, overlooks the other valley, out of which runs the Burgût
river.[77] Winding round the foot of the castle, through orchards
now in full leaf, we turned by a short angle to the left, traversed a
cemetery, and, continuing for four or five hundred yards close to the
outside of the city wall, which appeared no stronger than gaol-walls in
England, entered the city gate by the water side. As our file of camels
and horses was of more than ordinary length, we attracted some notice
as we traversed the narrow streets, and the arrival of the English
Princess was already noised through the city.

Thus far the face of the country through which we had passed had seemed
delightful. Palestine presents all the different varieties of plain
and mountain, hill and valley, river and lake; and has likewise an
exceedingly fine climate. The luxuriance of vegetation is not to be
described. Fruits of all sorts, from the banana down to the blackberry,
are abundant. The banks of the rivers are clothed naturally with
oleander, myrtle, arbutus, and other flowering shrubs.

Mount Lebanon, through the whole of the distance from Acre to Sayda,
seldom recedes from the sea more than a mile, and generally not so
much, excepting immediately behind Acre, where there is a plain bounded
by Mount Carmel, nine miles south of the city, and on the north by
the promontory of Msherify.[78] The inhabitants there are Mussulmans,
Christians, and Drûzes. The vestiges of ancient cities, bridges, and
roads, denote the vast population that once dwelt on the coast.




                              CHAPTER XV.

   Governor’s visit--Mons. Taitbout--Streets--Shops--City
   gate--Castles--Ports--Ancient Sidon--Population of Modern
   Sidon--Revenue--Fertility of the soil--Bridges--Invitation from
   the Emir of the Drûzes--Salsette frigate--Mamelukes, considered
   as spies, are dismissed--Departure for Gebel ed Drûz--Stefano,
   Messieurs Bertrand--Masbûd--Difficulty of obtaining
   money--River Hamàm--Dayr el Kamar--The Emir’s character--The
   Drûze country--The Drûzes--Their supposed tenets--Akel and
   Jahel--Customs and real tenets of the Drûzes--Their resemblance
   to Quakers--Their hypocrisy.


Monsieur Taitbout, the French Consul, had made arrangements in the
French caravansery for the lodging of us all. This caravansery is a
quadrangular building, with few windows looking outward, and having
but one gate. It was originally built for the residence of the French
factors, but contained at this time only two or three families of
that nation, being those who had returned to live there after the
expulsion of the factory by El Gezzàr Pasha, and who were now starving
for want of commerce. A visit to and from the governor were the only
occurrences, in which Lady Hester took a part, that are worth notice.
The governor received a watch as a present, in return for the sheep,
rice, coffee, sugar, &c., which he had sent on our arrival.

The town appeared dull, having nothing to boast of but its gardens,
which are indeed fruitful, and its water, which is excellent, but not
yet a temptation to us, who, new to the East, had not learned to relish
that wholesome beverage.

Turkish towns are very much alike. A large building, with an open
place before it, generally denotes the palace of the governor; a few
streets called the sûk or bazar, from eight to fourteen or twenty feet
broad, contain rows of shops; and other streets, equally narrow, are
occupied by the Mahometan inhabitants, who live in retired and jealous
stillness; whilst a second quarter contains the Christians; and, in
a few dirty lanes, inaccessible from the stench and filth to any but
their tenants, live the Jews.

A Turkish shop is commonly no more than from six to nine feet square,
in the shape of an alcove, the floor of which is raised waist high,
and before which the customer stands in the open street, whilst the
shopkeeper sits cross-legged on the shop-board, and has only to reach
his hand to what his customer applies for. A single shutter falls down
and shuts in the whole, and a few shelves contain the goods of every
day’s demand. But, often, a small door leads to a warehouse behind,
where articles of more value and bulk are to be found. Merchants
upon a larger scale have warehouses by the waterside, where rice,
tobacco, silk, and the like, are deposited. In the same room with the
merchandize sits the merchant, upon a mat of a few feet square, on
boards raised to a convenient height from the ground, where an inkstand
and two or three half-bound account-books are the whole apparatus of
sometimes very extensive dealings. There are no desks. Shopkeepers
of the same trade generally live in a row. The artisans carry on
their trades in the same sort of niches; and shoemakers, tailors,
silversmiths, &c. may be seen in their shops, sitting cross-legged and
working, so that passengers may almost learn a trade as they walk along.

The gate of the town is the general rendezvous of the chief people of
the place, and the governors are accustomed to go and sit there on
benches in the open air every day. The sentence that occurs so often in
the Scriptures, “And the king sat at the gate,” shows how ancient this
custom is. The name of the Sublime Porte is derived from this usage.
Suliman Pasha of Acre might be seen every day sitting to administer
justice at the city gate.

Sayda is supplied with water from the river Ewely, (pronounced Ouwely)
a portion of which is conveyed by an aqueduct into the heart of the
town, where the altitude of the water is found by pyramidal levels,
and is then distributed by earthenware pipes to the houses of the
inhabitants.

Sayda has two castles, which the firing of their own guns shakes to
the foundation. It has likewise two ports; but its inner port can
admit fishing-smacks only. The haven is dangerous, and vessels can with
difficulty ride out a storm.

It would appear that the extent of ancient Sidon was not so great as
some travellers have imagined. At the foot of the mountain, east and
north-east, I have myself traced the remains of several sepulchres,
which, as having been on the outside of the city walls, prove that
the city could not have extended so far. Thus, just above the modern
village of Helliléah, east and by south of Sayda, is a sarcophagus,
with some tombs, distant from the seashore one mile and a half. Due
north, in a garden, is a sepulchre not half a mile from the town; so
that, if the ancient city did not extend far to the north or east,
and if there are no ruins to the south, as in fact I saw none, its
boundaries are reduced to a very small space. Modern Sidon may be two
miles in circumference.

Sayda,[79] according to some authors, is distant from Damascus
sixty-six miles, west south west. Its population is carried by some
persons as high as 15,000 souls, of whom 150 are Maronites, 300
Greek Catholics, from 100 to 150 Jews, and the remainder Turks: but,
considering the size of the place, I should not be disposed to allow
even half that number. A native merchant, named Dubani, limited it to
4,500 or 5,000 souls, among whom were 100 Christian families. There
are eight mosques, the largest of which was once a church of St. John.
Here is also a palace, which formerly was the residence of the Emir of
the Drûzes. It is now in ruins, but is still called Dar el Emir (the
Emir’s place.). Close by the seashore stands likewise a large building,
where are the sepulchres of several of the Emirs of that nation. As it
was much neglected by the people of Sayda, and made the receptacle of
filth of every kind, the Emir Beshýr, the reigning prince, obtained
permission to block up the doors and windows.

Sayda pays annually to the pasha 200 purses, (each of 500 piasters),
of which the customs and harbour dues (as they were farmed in 1818,)
produced 100. Duties on imports were for Europeans 3 per cent., for
Mahometan subjects of the Porte 4, and for Christians 4½. These latter,
however, seldom pay more than the Turks.

The richness of the land in the environs of Sayda is very great. There
is a patch of soil near the city so fertile as to produce for every
mid or modius of corn, two gararas, a proportion of seventy-two fold,
or one quintal out of as much land as a pair of oxen can plough in one
day. And the same may be asserted of nearly all the plains and valleys
that receive the alluvial soil from the mountains.

Two miles north of Sayda is the river Ewely. This river is crossed by a
bridge of Saracen construction, which is about four hundred yards from
the seashore. Two hundred yards higher up are the remains of another
bridge, now almost undistinguishable, but which, to judge from a few
large stones lying about, similar in size to those of other bridges
along the coast, was the work of Roman or Greek hands.

Scarcely had we arrived in Sayda, when the Emir of the Drûzes sent
a courier with a letter to request Lady Hester to honour him with a
visit at his residence. Her ladyship accepted the invitation, as it was
her intention to go into the Drûze country, even had he not invited
her. The day being fixed for our departure, the Emir sent down twelve
camels, twenty-five mules, four horses, and seven foot soldiers, as an
escort; but, as circumstances prevented our immediate departure, they
were kept a couple of days waiting at Lady Hester’s expense. On the
27th July, the Salsette, Captain H. Hope, touched at Sayda, and nothing
could equal the joy that was felt on again seeing a gentleman to whom
we were so much indebted.

Our Mamelukes, Yusef and Selim, although good Mussulmans, had not so
far forgotten the practices of their native country, as not to love
wine when they could meet with it. In consequence of this, the French
Consul, who entertained the whole of Lady Hester’s suite, complained
that they exceeded too far the bounds of sobriety, which remark excited
the choler of the two renegadoes, and a covert warfare was carried on
between them and the consul.

Among other hints which he dropped respecting them, he insinuated that
their services under the pasha of Egypt would make their journey into
Syria be looked upon as pure spying, and that Lady Hester would be
no where received without suspicion, whilst she had these men in her
train. The consequence was that their dismissal was resolved upon. They
received each one thousand piasters, and were furnished with a letter
to the pasha of Egypt, thanking him for their services. They quitted us
with regret. Before their departure, they, however, exhibited a little
of their Mameluke horsemanship to Captain Hope on the sands close to
the town.

Captain H. himself essayed their mode of riding, but found their
saddles somewhat inconvenient in a European dress. For myself I had
ridden constantly with an Egyptian saddle, since our first arrival in
that country, and I had, from habit, conceived a favourable idea of
its commodiousness: for, hitherto, we had but occasionally quitted
the plains; and it is to them that this saddle is adapted. But, when
afterwards we traversed Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, I abandoned it for
the saddle of Syria.

We here began to learn the importance that was attached to the
appearance of the pipe. I had already adopted the habit of smoking,
and I was now persuaded to barter the only pistol I had saved from
the shipwreck for an amber mouthpiece, which took my fancy, and which
I could get on no other terms. Milky opaque amber is most esteemed,
and indeed it looks very beautiful. Rhinoceros’ tooth, bone, coloured
glass, agate, and an imitation of amber, are the materials most
commonly used.

Syria is celebrated for producing the best tobacco of Turkey, and it
was, therefore, thought worth while to note down the districts and
villages most in repute: for, as it happens in the growth of grapes for
making wine, there are often patches of soil of a few acres only which
alone produce a particular quality. The information here given on the
subject is the result of several questions put, and observations made,
at different times in different journeys through the country.

In crossing Mount Lebanon, in a direction from west to east, the soil
which is met with, for the first two leagues and a half, is white,
which, under the most favourable circumstances, never produces good
tobacco. To an extent of three leagues west and east from this point
onwards, the soil is red; and here a species of tobacco grows, known
throughout Turkey and the East by the epithet of Gebely (or mountain
tobacco), and in England called by the various names of Cham, Sham,
or Damascus, all which words have the same meaning, Sham being the
Arabic for Damascus, which the French, having no sh, spell Cham. But
not the whole tract with the red soil enjoys the same reputation;
for the growth of only ten or twelve villages is known to possess
the requisite qualities; which are, scintillation and self-burning,
like touch-paper; ashes impalpable as hair-powder; fumes somewhat
odoriferous; and a golden brown in the tint of the dried leaves.

Some more exact observations, which I made three years afterwards
in a journey across Mount Lebanon due east from Sidon, may, without
impropriety, be inserted here. Half a mile from Sidon is the foot of
the mountain. The soil is scanty and white, leaving the rock bare in
several places, which is partly limestone and partly sandstone and clay
together. These appearances continue from the village of Helelíah,
through Abra, Salhyah, Libbâa, as far as Aynàn before descending
into the rich plain of Bisery, a distance of nine or ten miles. The
soil becomes red at Isfarey, where also commence the good tobacco
plantations, and continues as far as the last ridge but one of the
mountain, which is a part of the highest chain, which chain runs north
and south, whilst almost all those between it and the sea branch off
perpendicularly from the main chain, and run east and west. About fifty
or one hundred yards above Kharýby the rock is a carbonate of lime, and
sometimes almost as white as chalk. At Baderán, which is on the highest
part of the penultimate ridge east-north-east of Sidon, there are
found, lying on the surface of the soil, numerous silicious pebbles,
some as big in circumference as a tumbler, some as a wineglass, and
resembling a flattened soap-ball. Their fracture presented a milky
quartz.

Tobacco, when exported to Egypt, is always carried in open boats, for
fear of heating. May not this be one of the reasons why the tobacco
brought to England resembles so little the same plant when smoked in
Syria?

Tobacco must be gathered in the decline of the moon, say the Syrian
planters.

It was on the 29th of July that we departed for Dayr el Kamar, the
residence of the Emir Beshýr. About one mile and a half from Sayda,
the delightful gardens which surround it terminated at a river, before
mentioned, of some size called Nahr el Ewely. Here we began to ascend
Mount Lebanon, its foot touching the seashore; at Sayda it is only
half a mile distant from it; and we were now on the territory of the
Drûzes. To our party were added two dragomans, by name Bertrand, and
both medical men, but who resigned the advantage of their practice
for a consideration which they judged paramount to it.[80] There was
likewise a cook of the name of Stefano, a Georgian; who, being carried
from his own country as a slave to Constantinople, had somehow obtained
his liberty, and resumed the religion of his parents.

To look at the soil, as we ascended the narrow paths of the mountain,
one would have thought that no culture could have made it productive:
yet industry had surmounted every obstacle; for vines, olive,
mulberry, and fig-trees, tobacco, and some other productions, bore
evidence of its richness.

We proceeded for three hours, having passed the village of Jûn,[81]
and encamped for the night at Masbûd. The Shaykh (for so the bailiff
or chief of a village is called) had received orders to supply us
with provisions, and we wanted for nothing. An unpleasant occurrence,
however, retarded us some hours the next morning. We had always found
difficulty in obtaining money, owing to the want of respectable
European merchants in the southern part of Syria, and to the distrust
excited by the frequent visits which adventurers from Christendom
pay to those countries. Lady Hester had drawn a bill on the English
vice-consul at Beyrout, Mâlem Messâad, which was refused, on account,
as he alleged, of his inability to raise the sum drawn for. The Syrian
Christian, who had cashed it at Sayda, came riding post after us; and,
as we were on the point of quitting Masbûd, demanded back his money,
which was forthwith counted out to him.

From Masbûd, a march of five hours brought us to Dayr el Kamar, having
halted by the way at a river, Nahr el Hamam, to refresh ourselves and
our horses. It was quite dark when we arrived. We were received in
a residence or palace of the Emir’s, which had been prepared for our
reception. The constant repetition of the terms prince and minister,
which were used by the new interpreters when speaking of the Emir and
his principal secretary, had raised ideas of the grandeur of these
people and their state, which the sight of our new residence first
weakened, and subsequent knowledge of them entirely overthrew.

The next morning we viewed, from the terrace of the house, the whole
of the burgh of Dayr el Kamar. It may contain four thousand souls. The
houses are none of them more than two stories high, built of rough hewn
stones, oftener cemented with mud than mortar. The only good residence
in the place was that destined for us, which had been built by a person
named Girius Baz, who had figured a great deal in the politics of the
mountain not long before. He had been strangled by the order of the
Emir, and his property confiscated. The palace of the Emir, and which
from its size deserves the name, is at a distance of one mile from Dayr
el Kamar, nearly on the summit of a small mountain, like every part of
Mount Lebanon, not accessible but by the most rugged paths, such as
would be considered impassable in England. The general character of the
Emir, as described to us by persons at Sayda, was comprehended in a few
prominent features. He was born of Mussulman parents, but was supposed
to have apostatized to Christianity. He had mounted his throne in
blood; had put out the eyes of his three nephews, fearing they would
aspire to it, and had reigned a tyrant and a hypocrite.

The people, of whom this Emir is the head, as was said above, are
called Drûzes, and the territory which he rules obtains the name of
Beled el Drûz, or the Drûze country. This territory lies chiefly on
Mount Lebanon, and is comprehended between 33° 20´ and 30° 10´ north
latitude, including a breadth of not more than twenty-five or thirty
miles.

The religion of the Drûzes is a mystery among historians and
travellers, and their tenets are so cautiously concealed from all
but certain persons of their own sect that little credit is to be
given to the relation of any author on the subject.[82] Some general
facts, however, are known; as that they owe their origin to Hakym be
Omrhu, Caliph, or Sultan of Egypt, in an early year of the Hegira,
and that they are divided into two bodies, called the Initiated and
Non-initiated, or Jahel and Aâkel. The Jahel are those who follow the
common pursuits of mankind, and acknowledge, as the rules of society,
the received customs of the country, putting no more restraints on
their conduct than what these and the laws impose. Their sabbath is on
Friday. The Drûzes have, at times, been totally independent, as during
the reign of Fakr ed dyn; and are, in a certain degree, always so,
from the nature of their mountains. To become an Âakel, it is necessary
for a Jahel to go through a probation of some years; when, if thought
worthy, he is admitted to a participation in the rights of the adepts.
The deportment of these is grave, and they are tied down to a plainness
of dress and a sanctity of manners which give them a look that
necessarily imposes somewhat on the beholder. One unvarying part of it
is the white turban, made of a long band of linen or cotton, repeatedly
folded around the tarbûsh (or red skull cap.). They likewise affect the
black abah or cloak. An Âakel holds himself bound to the performance of
all moral duties, so that the institution is in itself meritorious.

  [Illustration: A DRUZE ÂAKEL.]

Their enemies, however, say that their sanctity consists in observing
certain days of prayer, in letting their beard grow, in seldom or never
being seen to smoke or to drink coffee; in studiously concealing from
vulgar eyes their peccadilloes, and in withdrawing from public view to
perform their devotions; which, add they, are most impure abominations,
for they are grounded on a belief in the transmigration of souls,
in non-entity after death, and in the lawfulness of incestuous
cohabitation between daughters and fathers, or brothers and sisters.
Neither do their revilers scruple to aver that they are idolaters, and
worship the image of a calf. My subsequent knowledge of them leads
me to subscribe to no such opinion, but to conceive that religious
feelings, or pretended ones, lead some of them to a real or apparent
sanctity, as in other sectaries and in all religions. And, although no
deity is too gross for ignorance and superstition, no mode of worship
so absurd that sophistry cannot find arguments to accredit it, and no
avenging power so imbecile that priestcraft will not erect a tribunal
upon its terrors, still there is, in general, such a positive and
indignant denial of idolatry from all respectable Drûzes, that we do
not think travellers are warranted in propagating the report. In a
visit to Shaykh Daher, at the village of Rûm, one of the most venerable
of the Drûze shaykhs, and one most in repute for his learning, the
conversation turned on religious subjects, and I requested him to solve
me certain points, upon which, like other Europeans, I had hitherto
been able to obtain no correct information.

“I know,” he interrupted me, “what you are going to ask. Like most new
comers, you have been probably entertained with a number of strange
stories respecting us, by the consuls and European merchants of the
seaports, who treasure up these anecdotes as the best food for such
travellers, as come prepared to listen only to the marvellous. These
Franks are no more acquainted with our domestic habits or religious
tenets than I am with what is transacted in the privy council of
England. They will tell you we are an incestuous nation, idolaters,
and I know not what: but let me ask you whether there have been, among
such as have apostatized from us, any who have made authenticated
disclosures of this nature. Rather regard our simple habits of life as
proofs to the contrary. We seek no proselytes: we wear no garments of
gold or silver, and affect the colours of blue, white, and black, as
being the least showy. Our tarbûshes (skullcaps) and turbans differ
from those of the jahel or uninitiated of our people, and of people in
general, as a distinctive mark by which we may be known. We are mild
and peaceable in our habits, but can go to war to defend ourselves.
We accommodate ourselves to the prejudices and customs of those among
whom we live; hence you see us oftentimes praying in mosques, and
enduring the privations of Ramazàn. We are said to have two doors to
our houses, because we will not allow our women to go out by the same
way that a stranger enters; and that a woman, in case of violence from
a man, may more readily escape: but these are reports too absurd to
require refutation. Retired and modest behaviour in our wives is their
brightest ornament; and we wish them not to meet the gaze of visitors:
hence we afford them every facility for escaping observation.

“Continence we hold as a virtue, and we endeavour to resist the
blandishments of women. On this account there are certain of us who
marry, but cohabit not with their wives. In such a case, previous to
wedlock, the wife is made to understand that she will be in the light
of a housekeeper only: and, as she is generally an aâkely,[83] her aim
is consonant with that of the man whom she espouses. We smoke not,
nor drink coffee, because they are indulgences without any advantage.
We eat no meats but what are cooked by the initiated: for our object
is to avoid intercourse with those with whom we must labour under
restraint. Money received in the shape of a tax or an impost we hold to
be unlawful: and this prohibition defends us at least from some vices
which originate in money-getting.”

In fine, from what I could learn from the conversation of another
shaykh, named Kalyb, the tenets of the Drûzes are as follow. The books
held sacred by them are four: the Old and New Testament; the Koran;
and their own, which is the essence, say they, of the other three.
They have two questions, which I believe to be a sort of countersign
of their religion. Which was created first, the egg or the hen? Which
was made first, the hammer or the anvil? and which seem to be puzzles,
to bring man to a sense of his own incapacity to scan the works of the
Creator. According to them, one is not prior to the other, and hence
they believe the world was created, peopled, and stocked at once with
rational and brute animals; which to Omnipotence is just as easy as any
other way. Their paradise is eternal, and so is their hell; and the
bliss of the one or the pains of the other are inconceivably great, but
of what kind they were I could not learn. They do not believe in the
transmigration of the soul: for they say the soul is of too divine a
nature to take up its habitation in the body of a beast.

A Drûze, who is an âakel, if he make a promise, is bound to perform it,
even at the hazard of his life. A Drûze may become an âakel, and wear
the turban peculiar to an âakel, at any age, provided his conversation
and actions are such as render him worthy of being so. Fornication,
adultery, and murder, are insuperable obstacles. He that has divorced
a woman must never see her again; and, if he should chance to enter a
room where she is, she must retire immediately.

There is a very prevalent notion among them that there are Drûzes in
England, or else that the tenets of some sect (they mean the Quakers)
are very much like their own. When familiarity had in some degree
emboldened me, I said to Shaykh Kalyb that, as I had so often been
told that the Drûzes worshipped a calf as a divinity, I supposed their
religion was something like that of the Hindoos, who worshipped the
same animal. But he assured me positively that, if that animal were
sacred in their eyes, they could not eat of it, which I very well knew
they did; and that those who had said they had seen images of a calf
among them must have been mistaken.

I thanked the shaykh for his information, which I thought was as likely
to be true as that of those who averred the contrary. But that I may
not be accused of favouring the Drûzes, for whom I confess I felt a
partiality, it becomes me not to conceal what was related to me by a
Christian in great estimation for his learning, on Mount Lebanon.

He said that, during the incursions made by El Gezzàr Pasha into the
Drûze country, in which their temples and houses were ransacked, books
relating to their religion had been found and carried to Acre. In one
of these is the following passage:--“The Ansáry are fools, because they
allow crimes to be venial that are not secret:” from which it is to
be inferred that the Drûzes hold what is done in secret to be lawful
and just, even if it be what is generally considered as criminal. “And
this, moreover,” (added the reverend gentleman, my informant,) “is
conformable to their practice, in which incest, murder, and other
crimes, have been committed very commonly where the proof of the
commission was not easily to be made out.”

It is certain, however, that, when assembled at their khalweh or megesy
on a Thursday evening, the vigil of their Sabbath, after a time the
jahel quit the place, and the âakel remain alone: upon which occasions
some of them walk round the building, and take great care that no
curious person be lurking near. Besides the Drûzes of Mount Lebanon,
there are several villages of them in Gebel Aâly near Aleppo, at
Hasbeyah, in the Horàn, and at Wadytain, where they first settled, all
which districts are to the south and south-west of Damascus.




                             CHAPTER XVI.

   Dayr el Kamar--Palace of Btedýn--The Shaykh
   Beshýr--Mukhtâra--The Shaykh Beshýr’s wife--His palace---
   Rivalship of the Shaykh Beshýr and Emir Beshýr--Horns worn
   by the Women--Mercenary hospitality of the Emir--Drûzes
   eat raw meat--Butrus or Pierre--Mr. B. attempts to see
   a Khalwa or place of worship of the Drûzes--Shaykh el
   Okal--Cure for rabid animals--Libertinism punished with the
   bastinado--Mr. B. goes to Aleppo--Aleppo bouton--Departure for
   Damascus--Presents distributed--The Cury Marûn--Sedition at
   Damascus--Siege of the Citadel--Disdar Aga strangled--River
   Ewely--Village of El Barûk--Ayûn el Bered--Chokadar sent
   to escort Lady Hester--Turkish harým travelling--View
   from the summit of Mount Lebanon--River Letanus and
   plain of the Bkâ--Palma Christi oil--Jub Genýn--Gebel es
   Shaykh--Anti-Lebanon--Springs--Sepulchres--Vultures--Village
   of Demâs--Chalky soil--Rocky plain--Distant view of
   Damascus--Garden walls--Salhéah--Damascus--Courtyard
   of the palace--Haym’s brothers--Simple manner of doing
   business--Ejectment of a family from their house--European dress
   not seen at Damascus--Danger for a woman to go unveiled--Lady
   Hester’s entry into Damascus.


We remained at Dayr el Kamar until the 26th of August. During this time
Lady Hester paid a visit to the Emir at his palace at Btedýn. Great
preparations were made for her reception. When there, the whole day
was taken up in viewing the apartments, drinking sherbet, smoking, and
eating. The palace is destitute of beauty. It is new, but irregular,
having no two parts alike, and built by additions made as fancy or
convenience suggested, and money and leisure permitted. The Emir
presented Lady Hester with a handsome horse, richly caparisoned.

A visit was next projected to the Shaykh Beshýr, a Drûze by birth,
and in consideration not inferior, among his own sect, to the Emir
himself.[84] He dwelt at Makhtâra, a considerable village, distant
three or four hours from Dayr el Kamar, in a district abounding in
vines, olive, fig, and mulberry trees, tobacco, &c. He possessed the
power of life and death, emanating nominally from the Emir, but in
truth totally independent of him.

He was married to a beautiful woman, and had by her some very pretty
children. It would naturally be supposed that the chief of the Drûzes
must be enrolled among the âakel, seeing that they claim a superiority
over the jahel. But it was not so; nay, he was even excluded from
their body by the duties of his situation, which obliged him to drink
coffee, smoke tobacco, use money raised by taxation, (which in the code
of the âakels is not permitted) and to partake in many more worldly
indulgences than they allow. His wife, not called to the exercise of
public duties, was a rigid âakely: but, although there was so wide a
difference between the supposed piety of these two, still I did not
find that the family harmony was interrupted by it. His palace, like
that of the Emir, was new, and of his own building. It stood in a
very conspicuous situation, and may be seen some miles off in several
directions. It was particularly celebrated for its fountains, and
streams of crystal water, which traversed every apartment, giving a
most agreeable freshness in the hot months of the year. This water
was brought from the river Ewely, almost close to its source, by an
aqueduct of the Shaykh’s construction.

He generally ate and drank, even at his own table, of such things only
as he knew to be prepared particularly for him. Poisoning is often in
the thoughts of Eastern chieftains, no doubt; for they cannot but be
an object of jealousy to their rivals, who are scarcely their superiors
in power and influence.[85]

The Drûze women affect a singular ornament, worn on the head, and
called by travellers the horn, though not made of that substance. The
Arabic name of kern is sometimes used for it, as also that of tontûra
and of tassy. I endeavoured to learn the origin of this ornament,
but was obliged at last to satisfy myself with an etymological
signification drawn from my own conjectures. Tassy signifies a
drinking-cup, and a drinking-cup in the East (for water, at least)
is generally shaped like an English decanter-stand, and is made of
silver or tinned copper. A cup inverted, of precisely this shape, is
worn in some places (as in Sayda, Beyroût, &c.,) on the women’s heads,
and is possibly the original and old-fashioned form, which the fancy
of some might have changed for a deeper cup, when we should have the
resemblance of a large tumbler or the tontûra. In process of time,
this, by continued elongations, would be brought to its present shape;
or an intermediate generation might effect the change to a bell form,
as worn still by the women of Botrûn. I have said the tassy is made
either of silver or tinned copper, and by the very poor of pasteboard.
When of the long sort, it is fastened on by a handkerchief, that goes
under the chin, and by another round the forehead. The women sleep
with it on, and only pull it off when in the bath or when combing
their hair, which is but rarely. In some villages the horn is worn
perpendicularly, in some horizontally, in others at an angle between
the two. But this is not done indifferently; for the Catholics, it is
said, affect one way; the Maronites, another; and the Drûzes, whose
distinguishing emblem it more properly is, another. No traveller, who
passes hastily through the mountain, can get a woman to show her horn
to him: as it is a greater breach of decorum to unveil the horn than it
is the face. Nothing can look more ugly than it does without the veil;
but, with it on, the appearance becomes graceful.

  [Illustration: DRUZE WOMEN.]

The dress of the Drûze women generally consists of a blue gown, open in
front (excepting where it is buttoned at the waist) and ill-concealing
the neck and bosom, which, so industriously covered by European women,
are here shown with the utmost indifference. The horn, if of silver,
is more or less chased, or even studded with precious stones. It seems
contrived to hang the veil upon, which is, in some districts, white, in
some black, and of linen or silk according to the wearer’s means. It
gives great beauty to the folds of the veil, and adds much majesty to
the figure. From the hair behind fall down three silken cords, to which
are suspended three silk tassels, about ten inches or a foot long, red
or black or blue or green according to the custom of the district. A
pair of embroidered trowsers, a shift hanging out of the trowsers, and
a pair of yellow shoes, make up the costume, which is both graceful and
(saving the horn) convenient. A woman of respectability, instead of a
blue gown, wears satin and over it a cloth vest.

Our table was entirely supplied by the Emir, one of whose cooks was
established in a house adjoining our residence; and nothing necessary
to housekeeping was allowed to be bought. It was hinted, however, by
one of his emissaries, that he expected at Lady Hester’s departure
a present equivalent to all the expenses he had been at. This
insinuation, according to the usages of the country, was neither to
be considered unreasonable nor indecorous. Hospitality on so large a
scale has something princely in it: but it loses all its merit in an
Englishman’s eyes from the dishonourable sentiment which is rooted in
every inhabitant of Turkey, from the Grand Signor down to his lowest
subject, that they may look for a return of the same or of greater
value than any favour which they confer: and, shameless on this point,
where it is not given, they fail not to demand it. We have been
somewhat circumstantial on this subject, because Eastern hospitality
has become proverbial, and is, by most persons, supposed to be
gratuitous; we shall often have occasion to show that it is not always
so.

There was nothing which engaged Lady Hester’s attention more than
the peculiarities of the Drûzes: and, among other things, she was
desirous of verifying what she had heard of their feeding on raw flesh.
Accordingly, on an appointed day, a sheep was bought, and notice given
that such Drûzes as chose to partake of it would be welcome. A spot
was fixed on for this extraordinary feast about half a mile from the
burgh, and the time appointed was at the close of the day, when the
inhabitants of Eastern countries generally make their fullest meal. I
accompanied her ladyship. The sheep was killed, blown, skinned, and cut
up: and, whilst yet reeking, was placed before the people assembled.
As they knew wherefore they were invited, they probably added a few
grimaces of pretended voraciousness to their customary manner: but the
fact was well established before us that they eat mutton raw as we do
when roasted. It may be observed that the sheep was of the large-tailed
breed; and the tail itself, although a mass of fat, was cut into
mouthfuls, and swallowed with the same avidity as the fleshy parts.[86]

My servant Jachimo, bearing in recollection the flesh-pots of Egypt,
had been induced by the Mamelukes to accompany them back. On my arrival
at Dayr-el-Kamar, a thin, lively, dirty-looking man had offered himself
to replace him. He was named Butrus Abu Ayûb. In the early part of his
life he had made a voyage to Marseilles, where he had learned Provençal
and cooking: and he now presented himself as a person equal to the
multifarious functions of a cook, valet, and interpreter, and dubbed
himself Pierre. As this man was more or less a servant in the party for
seven years afterwards, it is necessary to premise thus much concerning
him. Among the various scenes of his motley life, he had been an
under-interpreter, and then a subaltern officer, in Buonaparte’s Syrian
army, and knew more anecdotes, he said, of that great man than he
chose to tell me--enhancing the value of his communications that they
might attract the notice of Lady Hester, who was so much amused with
him that she soon afterwards took him for her cook.

Mr. B. had resolved in his own mind to obtain a sight of the secret
worship of the Drûzes: and, one day, in riding out, he contrived
to approach very near to a khalweh. There was some danger in the
experiment, and he had been warned of the jealous seclusion of
that people when in prayer. The event justified the caution. The
Drûzes, who, as it is customary, were hanging about the precincts
of the building to keep watch, immediately drove him off, with many
expressions of dissatisfaction at his intrusion.

I went one evening to the only bath there was in the place. During my
ablutions, the Shaykh El Aâkal arrived for the purpose of bathing also.
He is the chief of the initiated Drûzes, and is held in much veneration
by his sect, as his learning and exemplary life alone procure him his
elevation, which is founded on no positive titular rank, but solely
on consideration. He would not enter the vapour chamber until I had
quitted it, for he would have been defiled by so doing.

The Mountain occasionally produces men and women who acquire
considerable celebrity for the cure of diseases. At this time, there
was a woman at Kilfair, near Hasbeyah, who had an antidote for the
bite of rabid animals. The Emir in conversation had said that on
the Mountain grew a plant, called Abu Mensheh, which was entirely
efficacious as a cure for the bite of a mad dog. A Turk in 1815 died of
hydrophobia at Sayda: I saw him just before his death; but the virtues
of the plant, Abu Mensheh, were not relied on in his case.

I was one day entreated by a Christian in the service of the Emir to
go and look at his favourite mare, dying, as he said, of the cholic. I
found her lying down, and occasionally, by violent kicks, groans, and
pitiable looks towards her belly, denoting the severity and place of
her sufferings. The remedies usual among the Syrians, and mentioned in
the case of Selim’s horse, which died on the road from Nazareth, had
been ineffectually tried: I bled her in the neck, and ordered repeated
clysters (both these remedies being not in use in farriery, among the
Syrians), and I succeeded in curing her.

Once, when at dinner, soon after our arrival, we were alarmed on
hearing the loud cries of a man beneath the window of the room where
we were sitting. It overlooked the market-place; and a culprit was
undergoing the chastisement of the bastinado. He made frequent appeals
to her ladyship’s pity, whom he knew to be within hearing, by the
epithet of _meleky_ or queen, a title she now generally went
by. The dragoman, M. Bertrand, strongly solicited her interference
to suspend the punishment, and to obtain his pardon, which, by the
received usage of Eastern nations, could not be denied to a guest. But
Lady Hester immediately told him to desist from asking such a thing:
for, she said, she saw no merit in interrupting the course of justice
anywhere, and least of all where she was not acquainted with the nature
and degree of the man’s crimes. We afterwards found that he had been
detected in visiting too frequently, and at unseasonable hours, a woman
whose character was stigmatized as disreputable: and it appeared that
the Emir exerted unusual severity in guarding the morals of the women.

Mr. B. resolved, about this time, to make a journey to Aleppo. It was
not unlikely that the fear of the Aleppo bouton[87] deterred Lady
Hester from going also: the more especially as she rejected a second
and more favourable opportunity for visiting this beautiful city. Her
avowed reason was her dislike to Levantine Franks, a race of people
neither Turks nor Europeans, and against whom she always inveighed
with much acrimony. But my own conviction as to the real motive of Lady
Hester Stanhope’s route to Damascus at this time was, that she had
already formed a scheme of visiting, by herself, the Bedouin Arabs,
and which she afterwards put into execution. It will be seen that, at
Damascus, she contrived a plan for keeping me away also, and threw
herself on the protection of the robbers of the Desert, alone and
unescorted.

Mr. B., accompanied by his dragoman, M. Bertrand, set off by the direct
road for Aleppo; and, a day or two afterwards, being the 27th of
August, we departed for Damascus. Her ladyship previously distributed
presents to the different persons who had been employed in her service
during her stay at Dayr-el-Kamar. Of these presents, it may be well
to enumerate a few, to exemplify the manner of paying for one’s
entertainment in a gentleman’s house in Syria. To the Emir himself were
sent 2,000 piasters in money, equal to £100, half of which he kept
and returned half; to his chief secretary, the efficient director of
the detail of most of his measures, a piece of Aleppo brocade, worth
about 200 piasters; to his deputy, a stuff of less value. The maître
d’hôtel, cook, and other servants, had their vails, each according to
his station. There was one person, whom I have omitted to mention, who
yet was a chief actor in all transactions during our stay here. On the
day of our arrival, this gentleman was deputed to receive us at the
mansion-gate, and signified that he should be always in attendance
to execute Lady Hester’s commands. He was a respectable-looking
Maronite priest, who had been educated at Rome, and spoke Italian with
considerable purity and fluency. As he was often at a loss how to
dispose of his time, I was indebted probably to his ennui for frequent
conversations in my room, to which he came to loiter away the day. The
information which he gave me chiefly regarded the people and country
around us, and is already embodied in this journal.

We were four days on the road to Damascus, a journey generally of two:
for, besides the advantage of seeing more leisurely the country as we
proceeded, we were anxious to assure ourselves of the tranquillity of
the city before we entered; news having reached us that civil warfare
was raging between a newly-arrived pasha and a rebel disdar aga, or
commandant of the garrison. Sayd Sulimàn, formerly Selictár Aga or
sword-bearer to Sultan Selim, had been appointed pasha of Damascus,
and had recently arrived to take possession of his new dignity. The
military commander, I know not upon what grounds, refused submission to
his new master, and, throwing himself into the castle with the troops
under his command, assumed a posture of defiance.

So weak was the citadel, as scarcely to deserve to bear the name. Its
chief protection was a ditch, and the want of cannon on the part of the
assailants. We were told that three six-pounders were the artillery
planted to batter in breach. Persons accustomed to the scale of warfare
in European countries will laugh at these pigmy sieges; but it is of
use to detail them, as illustrative of the politics of the country, and
to show, when heretofore Buonaparte advanced with such rapid strides
through Syria, what were the castles that retarded his progress.

As little resistance was made on the part of the besieged, who were
picked off as fast as they appeared on the battlements, the citadel was
taken, and on the following morning the aga was put to death. It was
said that, from some fear of resistance on his part, he was strangled
by throwing a noosed cord over his head, conveyed unperceived behind
him through the gratings of his prison window; the end being drawn
tight by two soldiers placed ready on the outside for that purpose.

It will not be out of place to mention here that the notions
entertained in Europe, of the manner of putting to death by the
bowstring, are extremely erroneous. It is supposed that a condemned
person submits to his fate without a murmur, and kisses the sentence
that announces to him his doom. But repeated inquiries lead me
to affirm that it is otherwise, and that Mahometans seldom die
magnanimously by the hand of an executioner: they often utter piercing
cries, or else, a prey to despair, become insensible: the executioner
generally stabs or shoots them first, and then, if not quite dead,
strangles them with the shawl snatched from his head, or with the
girdle from his waist, or with the first rope at hand.

We left Dayr el Kamar on the 27th of August, and, uncertain of the
tranquillity of Damascus, our journey was far from a hurried one. The
road lay along the sides of the mountains, sometimes approaching to
the tops, sometimes descending towards the valleys. After an hour’s
march we came to the edge of a precipice, at the bottom of which is
a deep valley, well planted with mulberry-trees, through which runs,
with considerable rapidity, the river Ewely, of which mention has
been already made as emptying itself at Sayda. Farther on we passed a
village, beyond which our course, hitherto north-east, took a northerly
direction, and we kept along the edge of a valley until we reached El
Barûk.

El Barûk is a populous village, situated about 300 yards from the
sources of the river Ewely, which, rising in four or five springs,
form immediately a stream capable of turning a mill. This stream runs
through a small valley, entirely embosomed among the mountains, so
that, on every side, the view is bounded, at the distance of two or
three hundred yards, by precipitous rocks. This valley, unlike the
other parts of the mountain we had passed through, is of a fine soil,
and not stony: numerous rivulets, sometimes directed for the culture of
the ground, sometimes running neglected along, increase the fertility
and beauty of the place: melon plants were crawling across the very
road on which our horses trod, and fruits of all the sorts that were in
season at the time were hanging luxuriantly around: but, as this spot
is much elevated above the level of the sea, we found few of them as
yet ripe. The village, built a few yards up the mountain, overlooks the
plantations. Its inhabitants are chiefly Drûzes, with a few Christians
and some Moslems. Vineyards surround the village. Colonel Boughton, an
Englishman, had left some recollections of his passage through this
place, and the villagers spoke much of him.

The cold and crystal sources of the river Ewely have obtained a name
for themselves independent of that of the river, being always spoken of
as Ayûn el Bered, or the _cold springs_. The evening air was very
chill: our tents were pitched close to the springs on a green plot of
ground which the dampness of the spot and the fogs of the mountain keep
in perpetual verdure--the situation was altogether picturesque.

In a general view of that part of Mount Lebanon over which we had
passed, it appeared to me, that the summits and sides of the different
chains of which it is composed were for the most part arid, rocky,
and thinly studded with trees; whilst in the valleys, and more
especially in those which had a river running through them, there was
much fertility and verdure. But the mountaineers seemed not to choose
these valleys, however fertile, for the sites of their villages,
but to prefer the slope or summit of a mountain; the reason for
which I conceive is, that the great heats of summer are tempered by
the constant breezes from the sea; besides, that their commanding
situations, sometimes very difficult of access, serve them as a means
of defence in troublesome times.

Scanty as the soil was on the heights, the mountaineers had, by their
industry, turned it to great advantage. The population of a given
number of square miles, taken anywhere on it, was not exceeded by the
number of inhabitants, on an equal space, in the plains; the cause of
which was owing, in a great measure, to the protection which Christians
enjoyed from the Emir Beshýr, who, if not himself a Christian, which
some dared openly to affirm, made no distinction between them and his
Drûze or Mahometan subjects.

I had forgotten to mention that, previous to quitting Dayr-el-Kamar,
Lady Hester had written to apprize the pasha of Damascus of her
purposed visit to his capital. In answer, she had received a courteous
invitation; and a chokadàr, or page, the bearer of it, was commissioned
to be our conductor to Damascus. He was shivering with cold at this
place, as he sat smoking his pipe, cross-legged on his carpet, in
front of his tent. He nevertheless wore two pair of thick cloth
breeches, two pelisses, and other clothes in proportion. He was however
good-humoured, and amused us.

On the following day, we mounted by a very zigzag path to the summit
of Lebanon. For three hours the ascent continued with different degrees
of acclivity over a stony and rocky soil. Nearly at the top, we met
with a Turkish harým, or, in other words, the female part of a Turkish
family. The order of their march, and the manner of their equipage,
will give a general idea of the mode that women adopt in travelling in
this country. First of all, upon two mules, covered with saddle-bags or
wallets and small carpets, sat astride two female black slaves, veiled.
A leathern bottle of water hung down by the side of each of their
pack-saddles: two muleteers walked by the side of them. Next followed a
stout mule; on each side of which was suspended an oblong box, tilted,
large enough to hold one person seated with his legs doubled under
him. In one of these sat the lady, and in the other her two children,
squatting on their hams, and whose weight seemed to balance hers. Each
step of the mule gave a vibrating or swinging motion to the boxes, and
the sensation must have been that of a rickety boat on a short sea.
Behind came several mules with luggage; and the whole was closed by a
chokadàr, or confidential servant, who generally accompanies the women,
and is most times an elderly man.

We gained the summit of the mountain; and, after traversing a somewhat
level surface for a couple of furlongs, with little patches of snow
lying here and there wherever they were sheltered from the southern
sun, we began to descend. At this part, the mountain was thinly
covered with low firs. Suddenly we came upon a glade, where the
extensive view of the plain of the Bkâ broke upon us, bounded to the
east by the Anti-Lebanon, whose bare and craggy sides ran parallel
to the mountain on which we were. Before us was the lofty summit of
Gebel el Shaykh, covered with everlasting snow. The fertile plain
beneath our feet presented a surface variegated with yellow and green;
having low hamlets scattered about, and now and then a considerable
village. Throughout its whole length, but nearer the Lebanon than the
Anti-Lebanon, ran the river Casmia (the ancient Leontes, or Letanus),
which takes its rise beyond Baâlbec; towards whose ruined temples we
turned our eager eyes, and indistinctly beheld them, although at thirty
miles’ distance, as they reflected the rays of the luminary in whose
honour they had been erected.

Having halted at noon, after a rest of four hours, we renewed our
journey, descending by a rapid zigzag path. The cook, with his horse,
fell over a small precipice, but without sustaining any injury. When we
had reached the plain, we came to the village of Keferea. We conceived
ourselves to be still on very high land, as we had descended from the
summit in so short a time in comparison with that which it required to
ascend it. We quickened our pace to reach the village of Jûb Genýn,
where we were to encamp that night. Here for the first time I beheld
the Palma Christi, or castor-oil plant, cultivated in fields as we sow
beans in England, and now about two or three feet high. The berries
were nearly ripe, and, as I learned, would soon be harvested for the
purpose of extracting the oil; which is done by roasting them in the
same manner as coffee, and afterwards boiling them. The oil floats on
the surface of the water, and is skimmed off. This oil is used for
lamps only, its medicinal properties being, nevertheless, not unknown
to the natives; but when called into use it is customary to administer
one berry in substance, which acts as a most violent and uncertain
purgative.

After one hour’s march from the foot of the mountain, we reached the
village of Jûb Genýn, and encamped on a spacious greensward, close to
a bridge which crosses the river. On the opposite bank is a piece of
ruinous masonry, which is called a caravansery. The village itself is
beautifully situate at the distance of half a mile or more from the
bridge, and on a rising ground, at the foot of Gebel el Shaykh. The
village looked somewhat large and respectable, and excited my curiosity
so much as to induce me to go and examine it. It proved to be half in
ruins, from the effect of pillage and desertion, to which it had been
subjected more than once in the contentions between the Emir of the
Drûzes and the pasha of Damascus. The greatest part of the plain of
the Bkâ belongs to the Emir of the Drûzes; so that we were yet within
his territory, and consequently his officers caused provisions of all
sorts to be brought to us.

We departed next day in the usual manner; and, in the afternoon,
reached the foot of Anti-Lebanon, into which we entered, by a winding
path and by a very gentle ascent, through valleys surrounded by low
mountains: and, in two hours and a half from the time of our departure,
we encamped at the village of Ayta, noted for its pottery. The village
might contain about fifty families, who wore the appearance of squalid
poverty.

On the 30th of August, early in the morning, I quitted the party,
accompanied by one of the chokadàr’s soldiers and my groom, Ibrahim,
in order to precede Lady Hester by a day and prepare a house. For two
hours I continued still winding through the mountains, which by degrees
became lofty, totally uncultivated, and very abrupt. At the distance
of one hour from Ayta there is a small spring of water, and three
hours farther there are two or three springs, which unite and form a
rivulet. Close by the rivulet are the ruins of a caravansery, and, on
the adjoining mountain, some patches of a wall that once, apparently,
belonged to a castle. Excavations in the rocks mark out, likewise, the
mansions of the dead of earlier times. A flock of vultures, perched on
the pinnacles of the rocks, testified who were the present tenants of
this wild spot. Caravans sometimes, as we could see by the traces they
had left, had been tempted to make this place a station, and might have
enlivened the scene with momentary bustle: but now a mournful silence
reigned around.

A little further on, we passed close by the village of Demás, on our
left. The small stream, which took its rise near the caravansary, had
continued its course to Demás, where it was diverted into trenches to
irrigate several gardens. The mountains now changed their appearance,
and the soil, from a sandstone, became chalky. Demás looked like
a miserable village. Some women, who were coming out of it, were
remarkably tall.

At a quick foot-pace, we pursued our way, and, in fifteen minutes,
entered a plain, which proved to be about six miles across, totally
rocky and barren. At the extremity of it was a rivulet, and here
commenced the orchards and gardens of Damascus. Throughout the whole
plain the rock had been of a gray stone: the soil became again chalky,
and the gardens, with the stream running between them down the valley,
formed by their verdure a singular contrast with the whiteness of the
hills. Following the course of the stream, we came soon afterwards to
a river, where the adjoining grounds were in a still higher state of
cultivation. Upon its banks stood a small village, called Dymmásh. Here
we crossed a rickety bridge about a dozen feet over, close to which was
a water-mill, and now began to ascend a mountain, whence my guide told
me I should see the city of Sham.[88] At the summit stands a sanctuary,
built in memory of some holy Mahometan, and by it is a spring of water,
which is said never to fail. I was somewhat amazed at this my guide’s
assertion, when I saw that we were some hundred feet above the plain,
and on the ridge of a mountain: but I was less surprised, when, on
looking around, I beheld another mountain top, still higher, at no
great distance, communicating by a sloping ridge with that on which I
was.

It was on the 30th of August, in the afternoon, that, as we came upon
the brow of the mountain which overlooks Damascus, the view of that
beautiful city and its environs broke upon me. I was much struck at
the sight. The plain of Brusa had hitherto dwelt upon my memory as
the richest scenery I had ever beheld: but I now did not hesitate to
consider this far beyond it. Descriptions, when best painted, although
they may come home to the imagination, must necessarily be fallacious:
I shall therefore forbear enlarging upon it.

Having indulged a short time in the pleasure which the view afforded,
I descended the mountain, and soon arrived among the orchards and
gardens. These are all enclosed by mud walls, of considerable thickness
and durability, which would have made the road somewhat monotonous,
but for the overshadowing branches of the fig, mulberry, apricot, and
other fruit-trees, with here and there rich festoons of vine-branches
clustered with grapes, which most agreeably diversified it.

In a large suburb, called Salhiah, were the first houses we approached.
A broad paved road, evidently Roman remains, gave an impression of
grandeur to the entrance of the city, which the streets, upon advancing
farther, were not calculated to maintain. They were narrow, mean, and
unpaved, obstructed with filthy puddles and unseemly ordure.

I came to the quarter of the city where the Christians live, and
alighted at the house of a gentleman to whom I was recommended. He
told me I must go in person to the serai, or governor’s palace, where
I should immediately be furnished with an order for a house. But his
tribulation was excessive when he heard that I intended to present
myself to the governor without a benýsh, or coat of ceremony.[89] He
begged me to wear one of his, and dwelt much on the necessity of not
appearing before him in a dusty riding-dress: but, as I was not then
acquainted with the extreme punctiliousness of the Turks, I declined
his offer.

Accompanied by my guard, I rode strait to the palace, and entered a
spacious courtyard. Neighing steeds were picketed in a row on one side
of it: and gaily dressed officers and attendants were smoking in the
corridors above them. Busy faces were seen crossing and re-crossing the
area of the court, whilst everything argued the presence of a viceroy.

I dismounted at the door of the seráfs, to whom the letter I bore
was addressed. These seráfs, or bankers, were Jews, the brothers of
that Mâlem Haÿm Shäaty, of whom so much has been said, under the head
of Acre. I was shown into a little room, about twelve or fourteen
feet square, where I found Mâlem Rafaël, squatting, cross-legged,
with an inkstand only before him, transacting the affairs of a large
province. The apparatus of desks, tables, records, journals, and all
the necessaries of a public office in England, is here almost unknown;
nor are books and papers lying in confusion round an official person a
necessary mark of business. Mâlem Rafael despatched some other matters,
and then took my letter and read it. He said some civil things, and
told me to follow him. We went into an adjoining office, a larger room,
where sate the kakhyah, Ibrahim Pasha, the pasha’s prime minister. We
stood before him for a while, when the Jew desired me to be seated,
and remained standing himself. Some discourse, in a low tone, passed
between him and the kakhyah, after which the Jew beckoned me to follow
him out. We returned to his own room, and he desired a servant to lead
me to a house in the Christian quarter, which was destined fur us.
I here left my guide, the soldier, telling him to come in a day or
two, and claim his reward for his trouble. The house was a very good
one: indeed one of the best in the Christian quarter. Being very much
fatigued, and it being now late, I dined, and retired to rest.

As I was furnished with an order for turning out the inhabitants of the
house, they saved me the pain that such a proceeding must necessarily
cause, by removing themselves and such little articles as they wished
to take with them to an adjoining street, not without expressing much
discontent.

September 1.--I rode out of Damascus to meet Lady Hester.

The reader is aware that, throughout the East, women, above the level
of peasantry, dare not go unveiled. It is therefore always with
sentiments of contempt that European ladies, who may chance to visit
or to reside at the seaports of the Ottoman Empire, are beheld by the
natives when they are seen unveiled out of doors. But the protection
afforded by consuls, on the one hand, and the necessity of being on a
good understanding with the Frank merchants, from whom they gain so
much, on the other, together with other causes, induce them to tolerate
the custom. It is not so in the interior, where the intercourse is
less; and it was an opinion then current in the Levant that no man even
could venture to appear at Damascus, the inhabitants of which place
were considered as most bigoted, in European clothes. Lady Hester,
therefore, needed no little courage to undergo the trial that awaited
her. A woman, unveiled, and in man’s attire, she entered in broad
daylight one of the most fanatic towns in Turkey.

From the moment of quitting Dayr el Kamar, the Turkish chokadàr had
once or twice hinted to Mr. Bertrand, the interpreter, that it would
be necessary for her ladyship to veil herself on entering Damascus,
otherwise the populace might insult her. Mr. Bertrand, moved by his own
terrors, did not fail to back the chokadàr’s opinion, and was utterly
dismayed when he understood, from her own mouth, that she should brave
public opinion, dressed as she was, and by day. I think it was at this
time that she began to wear a fine Bagdad abah, or mantle, which Mrs.
Rich[90] had sent her. About four in the afternoon the cavalcade which
consisted of fifteen or eighteen horsemen and as many loaded mules,
reached the suburbs, where I met it as it advanced. The people gazed at
us, and all eyes were turned towards her ladyship. Her feminine looks
passed with many, without doubt, for those of a beardless youth. More
saw at once that it must be a woman; but, before they could recover
from their astonishment, we had passed on. Thus we arrived, followed by
a few boys only, at the Christian quarter of the city, and went to the
house which had been prepared, as above mentioned, for her reception.




                           ADDITIONAL NOTE.


                       “Reached Bebec.”--p. 85.

As soon as Lady Hester was comfortably established in her suburban
villa, which placed her in the same relation to Constantinople that
a house at Putney would to London, Mr. B. projected an excursion to
Adrianople, in company with Mr. Frederick Douglas. When they had
reached that city, Mr. B. wrote the following lively description of it.


                           _Mr. B. to ----._

                                  Adrianople, July 23rd, 1811.

    My dear ----,

   You will no doubt be surprised to receive a letter from me
   dated from this place, but I cannot let slip an opportunity
   of a ship which takes its departure in a few days from Onos
   without returning you my most sincere thanks for your very noble
   and generous conduct to my friend Lord Sligo, and for which, I
   assure you, he feels most grateful.

   I left Constantinople about eight days ago, in company with Mr.
   Douglas, a nephew of Mr. North’s, and whom you have no doubt
   seen at Malta. We performed the journey in four days and a half,
   and passed through the towns of Selebrya, Chomlon, and Brurgos,
   and over a country which bears every appearance of having been
   desolated by the merciless troops which go and return from the
   war; very different indeed from the description which is given
   by Lady Wortley Montague--of fields enamelled with flowers and
   smiling with plenty. I by no means, however, wish to impeach the
   veracity of that lady, as a century produces a great change, not
   only in the manners and customs of a nation, but likewise in the
   face of a country.

   The town of Adrianople is beautifully situated in a rich and
   cultivated plain, which is watered by three rivers. The Marepa
   (the ancient Hebrus), which takes its rise in the mountains
   near Philipopoli; the Toungi, whose source is near the Black
   Sea; and the Lardi. These three rivers join a little below
   the town, and lose themselves in the sea at Onos. The city
   is eight miles in circumference, and its population eighty
   thousand souls--consisting of forty thousand Turks, twenty
   thousand Greeks, six thousand Armenians, and the same number
   of Jews. Since the province of Bulgaria has been ravaged by
   the Turks, many of the poor inhabitants have taken refuge in
   this place, which has very much increased the number. Like all
   other Turkish towns, (Turkey in Europe) the houses are built
   of wood, and the streets are excessively narrow and very badly
   paved. From a distance, the irregularity of the houses, with
   the interspersion of trees, and the mosques, with their lofty
   minarets, produce a very picturesque and fantastic appearance.
   Adrianople boasts, however, of many magnificent buildings--the
   mosque built by Selim the Second is a noble structure, and, in
   my opinion, far surpasses Sophia, Sultan Achmet, or any of the
   others which I have [seen] at Constantinople. It is, I am told,
   one of the truest specimens of Turkish architecture. It consists
   of two courts, surrounded by porticoes, which are supported by
   large and massive columns of porphyry and verd-antique. The
   roof is composed of several cupolas--the interior appeared to
   be spacious and magnificent, and has one prodigious dome. I am
   unable, however, to give you a minute description, as I was
   only allowed to have a hasty glance. The Turks do not wish it
   to be profaned by the eyes of an infidel. Not very distant from
   Sultan Selim is another mosque, which was formerly the church
   of the Trinity, and is now called by the Turks “Utchirif,”
   which, I believe, is nothing more than a translation of the word
   “Trinity.” It is a very handsome building, but very inferior
   to the other. There is likewise another mosque, which is near
   the Hospital for Idiots. We found there many noble columns of
   porphyry and verd-antique, and likewise a statue of the European
   Adrian; at least they say so. It is very much trunculated, as
   it has lost its head and arm. The dress, however, is certainly
   Roman, and is the one which was generally worn by the Emperor.

   The English consul, who was my guide, and who is a very worthy
   and hospitable man, told me a very ridiculous, but, in my
   opinion, not an untrue story relating to this statue, which at
   once proves the ignorance and superstition of the Turks. The
   statue is very near the hospital for idiots. The master of the
   hospital had a great number of chickens, but, unfortunately, one
   night, the greater number were stolen. The poor Turk thought
   that Adrian had devoured them; so, in revenge, he cut off his
   head, and threw [it] into the river Marepa.

   Formerly there were many valuable remains of antiquity to be
   found in this city, but they have been almost all destroyed by
   the merciless and unrelenting Turks. Many of the columns have
   been employed in building their houses, but the greater part, I
   am told, have been buried under the foundation of Sultan Selim.
   The Turks respect neither the sanctity of religion, nor the
   genius of man. There are in the town two very fine Besisteens.
   The largest was built by Ali Pasha, and is of a prodigious
   length. It consists of three hundred and sixty-five shops, in
   which every sort of merchandize is exposed for sale. The other,
   which is called “Arasta,” is smaller, and is more particularly
   appropriated to the sale of shoes. They are both built of solid
   masonry, and have a beautiful appearance.

   Adrianople, as you well know, is celebrated as being the first
   capital of the Turks in Europe. Mahomet the fourth and Mustapha
   the first lived here entirely, which occasioned so much jealousy
   among the Janissaries of Constantinople that they rebelled and
   deposed those two monarchs. Achmet the third, not dismayed by
   the fate of his two predecessors, was very partial to this
   city, and continued [to] live here a considerable time. It was
   here that he received Mr. Wortley Montague, the husband of Lady
   Mary. There is here an Imperial Palace, which is agreeably
   situated on an island formed by the river Toungi. It is of
   considerable extent; but, like all other Turkish buildings, very
   straggling and irregular. The greater part is going rapidly to
   decay. The audience-chamber and the throne, under which the
   Sultan sat when he received the ambassadors of foreign nations,
   are in a tolerable state of preservation. I have now, my dear
   general, finished a very long and, no doubt, very tedious
   description of the city of Adrianople, but you may always make
   it as short as you please by throwing it into the fire.

   You have no doubt already heard of the retreat of the Russians
   and the capture of Ruschuk. The Turks, led on by the new Grand
   Vizir, attacked the town in seven divisions. They were at first
   repulsed with considerable slaughter. The Russians, however,
   finding themselves too weak to defend their position any longer,
   demolished the works, set fire to the town, and crossed the
   Danube. Ibrail, Sistof, Sylistria, Necropolis, and the other
   fortresses which were in their possession, have met with the
   same fate. Nothing can exceed the cruelties which they have
   committed. Desolation has marked their footsteps.

   I must beg pardon for this very long and tedious letter. Mr.
   Douglas, who is with me, begs me to present you his compliments,
   and believe me,

                                  My dear ----,
                                     Your most sincere friend,
                                                           M.B.


                            END OF VOL. I.


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


FOOTNOTES:

[1] These were principally the death of Mr. Pitt, her uncle, with whom
she had resided for several years, and of her half-brother, the Hon.
Charles Stanhope, who was killed at the battle of Corunna.

[2] Mr. Michael Bruce will be known to most readers as the gentleman,
who, conjointly with Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Wilson and the Hon.
Mr. Hutchinson, effected the escape of Lavallette from prison on the
eve of his execution.

[3] Captain Whitby was distinguished by his active service in the war
of America, and, subsequently, by his gallant conduct in a severe naval
engagement up the Adriatic.

[4] As we say Furnival’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, &c.

[5] The advantage of these stone walls and floors was exemplified in an
accident which occurred whilst I was at La Valetta. I was attending,
professionally, on Viscount Ebrington, the present Earl Fortescue, who
was indisposed in bed, when his servant, in holding the candle, set
fire to the musquito net. His lordship jumped out of bed, and the net
blazed and was consumed, without any other apprehension for the result
than the personal inconvenience and danger caused to a sick man by
sudden exposure to cold.

[6] Afterwards Sir Hildebrand Oakes.

[7] Now Dr. Fiott Lee, of Hartwell.

[8] Lord Sligo spent two days with his Highness, who manifested the
pleasure he experienced in the visit, as well by splendid presents, as
by the manner in which he treated his lordship. At one dinner eighty
dishes were served up for his Highness and the marquis only. He sent a
polite message to Lady Hester to express his regret that he should not
see her, as he had been called by the Porte to the army, then marching
against Russia.

[9] A long mantle used to hide the person out of doors.

[10] The Lawsonia, Lin.

[11] Lasso papavera collo.

[12] Mr. Galt, the novelist.

[13] Now Sir Stratford Canning.

[14] M. de Maubourg, chargé d’affaires at Constantinople.

[15] Cherries sold at a farthing per pound, and walnuts in the season,
I was told, at ninepence per bushel.

[16] Now Hydrographer to the Admiralty.

[17] Things are much changed since that time.

[18] For her turban and girdle she bought two handsome cashmere shawls,
each at £50. Her pantaloons, most richly embroidered in gold, cost £40;
her waistcoat and her pelisse £50; her sabre £20; her saddle £35. Other
articles necessary for the completion of the costume amounted to £100
more. Mr. B.’s dress was equally expensive; his sword more so, as he
purchased it at 1000 piasters, at the exchange of 21, making about £50.

[19] A Mameluke saddle and bridle alone, without the rider, pistol,
gun, or sword, weigh 17 rotolos, 3 oz., equal to 43½ lbs. English. A
Turkish saddle and bridle, with the rider’s carbine, pistols, sabre,
cartouch-box, brogues, and cloak, weigh about 53 lbs. English. A common
Turkish saddle weighs 34 lbs. English.

[20] That the learned reader, however, may not be deprived of a
description of this kind of dancing, which was so much talked about
during the trial of Caroline, the queen of George IV., we will
insert that which is given by Emanuel Martin to his friend J. A. Not
recollecting whence this extract was made, I am unable to say precisely
who Martin and his friend were, but will vouch for the correctness
of the delineation, which is quite graphic. “Nôsti saltationem illam
Gaditanam, obscenitate suâ per omne œvum famosam: atqui ipsammet hodii
per omnia hujus urbis compita, per omnia cubicula, cum incredibili
astantium plausu, saltari videas. Nec inter Æthiopos tantem et obscuros
homines, sed inter honestissimas fæminas ac nobili loco natas.
Saltationis modus hoc ritu peragitur. Saltant vir et fæmina, vel bini
vel plures. Corpora ad musicos modos per omnia libidinorum irritimenta
versantur. Membrorum mollissimi flexus, clunium motationes, micationes
fæmorum, salacium insultuum imagines, omnia denique turgentis lasciviæ
solertissimo studio expressa simulacra. Videas cevere virum et cum
quodam gannitu crissare feminam eo lepore et venustate ut ineptæ
profecto ac rusticæ tibi viderentur tremulæ nates Photidos Appuleianæ.
Interim omnia constrepunt cachinnis: quin spectatores ipsi, satyricæ
Atellanæque ορχκεσεως furore correpti, in ipso simulatæ libidinis campo
leni quodam gestu nutuque vellicantur et fluctuant.”

[21] I was likewise shown a more complicated machine, invented by one
of the workmen at the English Consul’s dairy. A perpendicular axis,
passing through the floor of the ceiling, and set in motion by a
wheel in an upper room or underneath, had a certain number of stout
cogs projecting from it horizontally, but wedge-shaped, so that the
edge which takes the end of the hammer handle is sharp at first, and
grows broader; consequently, as it passes round, will press down the
short end of the hammer: and, as the idea was ingenious for such poor
machinists as the Egyptians, I made a sketch of it. Thus one yoke of
oxen might set to work eight or ten pestles, and much room be saved.

[22] These rushes were shown to Sir Joseph Banks, who pronounced them
to be not the papyrus.

[23] These coffers are covered with web-cloth, girted with cords: they
are extremely useful in travelling; and, speaking from six years’
experience, it may be averred that, though apparently so rickety and
fragile, they resist longer than any other species of travelling-trunk
of Turkish manufacture, and have the advantage of peculiar lightness.
They will not certainly bear a comparison with English leather trunks:
but I would still recommend every one who visits Turkey to leave behind
him as much as possible what is not in the fashion of the country,
for fear of exciting the cupidity of the natives, who are too apt to
imagine everything strange to be valuable.

[24] I afterwards saw this same Iachimo, in the year 1819, in the
service of some English travellers in Syria. He was by this time
exalted to the rank of dragoman.

[25] Our party was made up of the following persons: Lady Hester
Stanhope, Mr. B., Mr. Pearce, and myself; Mrs. Fry, Lady Hester’s
maid; a cook, two valets, both Cypriots, and Iachimo, the Ragusan, my
servant. There was likewise an akkam, or tent-pitcher.

[26] As these men had now been in the country twelve or fourteen years,
they spoke the language, and were acquainted with the character of the
people, so that they could serve in the double capacity of guards and
interpreters.

[27] These porters, who carry burdens under which an English porter
would sink, are provided with a cushion made of old sacking stuffed
with rushes. This hangs a little below the shoulder-blades, and on
it their burden rests; it is kept steady by a long cord which goes
round the forehead. As they walk under their load, they bend the
body forward, the trunk forming almost a right angle with the lower
extremities.

[28] The two which Mr. Damiani owned were let at 4000 piasters per
annum, as he said. It is true, they were very large, and well stocked
with lemon, orange, almond, peach, pear, apple, pomegranate, and other
trees. But these trees were yet young; for, in the invasion of the
French, the orchards were destroyed for fire-wood. This was now a
period of fifteen or sixteen years before; and there can be no greater
proof of the fertility of the soil, and of the quickness of vegetation,
than the rapid growth of these orchards.

[29] Of the Mamelukes of the Pasha el Gezzàr there were yet alive
six--Solyman, Pasha of Acre; Mohammed, Governor of Jaffa; Musa,
motsellem of Gebâa; Khalyl, motsellem of Nabatéa; Solyman Effendy,
motsellem of Sayda; and Hossayn Aga, collector of the customs at
Latakia.

[30] I would apologize for inserting routes so often described, if
it were not that I feel I may be able to rectify some errors both in
distances and in the names of places, which are found in the books of
many travellers, owing to their ignorance of the Arabic language, and
the consequent difficulty of acquiring correct information. Routes
are, no doubt, uninteresting to most readers; as much, therefore, as
possible has been thrown into the appendix.

[31] Pococke.

[32] It is not to be imagined that pulling off the turban is like
pulling off the hat: it is more than that, as those who wear turbans
have the head close shaved, and consequently expose a bald pate when
they take it off: a Turk never would do it. We took off our shoes also.

[33] Kowass means an archer; the name being still preserved, although
the weapons are laid aside.

[34] The Augey or Awjey was the boundary of the country of the
Philistines, which extended north and south from below Gaza to this
river.

[35] This name has since struck me as fictitious, as it signifies
merely “The Sands.”

[36] Probably the site of Antipatris--“Then the soldiers, as
it was commanded them, took Paul and brought him by night to
Antipatris.”--Acts xxiii. 31.

[37] Abulfeda speaks of Cæsarea as having been a flourishing city, and
marks it in his time as in a ruinous state. It is sixty-two miles from
Jerusalem, thirty from Joppa, thirty-six from Acre. For the frequent
mention made in Scripture of Cæsarea, consult the Acts of the Apostles,
x. 24; xxi. 8; xxvi; xxi. 10; ix. 30; xviii. 22.

[38] Yet Josephus (Antiq. Jud. xv. c. 13., and de Bell. Jud. 1, xxi.)
describes an extraordinary port made by Herod.

[39] The Crocodilon of Pliny.

[40] “The persons to whom I applied the most for information were the
shepherds, who lead their flocks into all parts of the country, and see
more of it than other men.”--Morier’s Second Journey through Persia,
&c. p. 73.

[41] They also fetch water at sunset on account of the coolness which
the water acquires by standing all night. In ch. xxiv. Genesis, v. 11,
we read, “And he made his camels to kneel down by a well of water, at
the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.”

[42] Probably the ancient Sycaminos, as the distance will be found
between it and the promontory of Mount Carmel to be four leagues; and
so it is laid down in d’Anville’s map of Palestine.

[43] Pococke says, that this castle was built by the Greek emperors to
repel the attacks of the Saracens.

[44] Erroneously, on most maps and by most travellers, spelt Caifa, on
account of the deep aspiration of the Arabic h, which Europeans seldom
are able to pronounce. In some authors it is called Hepha or Kepha. It
would seem to be the ancient Porphyrion.

[45] Perhaps the ancient Calamon. It seemed to abound in olive and fig
trees.

[46] The Kishon was the boundary of the tribe of Issachar, to within
three or four leagues of the sea.

[47] This son, Mr. Louis Catafago, was the gentleman who afterwards
accompanied H. R. H. the Princess of Wales to Jerusalem. The father of
the nephew, named Fathallah Carali, had been beheaded at Aleppo for
mixing in government intrigues, he being a merchant.

[48] The antient Belus.

[49] Jer: c. xxii. v. 15. He shall be buried with the burial of an
ass--drawn and cast forth beyond the gates.

[50] Many years afterwards, I saw one of these, named Andréa, at
Larnaka in Cyprus, where, with the money he had scraped together in
Syria, he had established himself as a small shopkeeper.

[51] Mr. Burckhardt calls him Haÿm Farkhy, p. 327.

[52] A katib is generally known by his inkstand, which he wears in the
girdle of his vest. The form of the inkstand seems designed to answer
this purpose. A great man or katib like Mâlem Haym has his of silver:
for common persons they are made of brass. In Ezechiel we read, ix.,
2--“And one man with a writer’s inkhorn by his side;” alluding to this
custom; but the translators have substituted the word horn. Horn,
however, is never used for this purpose; indeed, the shape of the
instrument would render it impossible.

[53] It might be asked how this bath is supplied with water. There is
an aqueduct raised on arches, which conveys water from the foot of the
adjoining mountains. Abulfeda speaks of a fountain, for which Acre, in
his time, was celebrated, and calls it _Ayn el bakr_: perhaps its
spring was now converted to the use of the New Bath.

[54] See Bruce’s opinion on this subject in the sixth volume of his
Travels, 8vo. edition. See also the first book of Samuel, x. 27:--“and
they despised him, and brought him no presents.” Maundrell says, “It is
counted uncivil to visit in this country without an offering in hand.
All great men expect it as a kind of tribute due to their character and
authority, and look upon themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded
when this compliment is omitted. Even in familiar visits amongst
inferior people, a flower, an orange, or some such token of respect to
the person visited is offered: the Turks in this point keeping up the
ancient Oriental custom frequently mentioned in Sacred History.”

[55] The Levantine custom of dining at noon and supping at sunset gave
way to coffee and tea breakfasts, and dinner at three or four, for the
sake of walking in the cool of the evening.

[56] The baths of Tabariah are called [Arabic], Hamam el damakyr
(which is the largest), and [Arabic], Hamam el lulu.

[57] The conclusion of this affair will be related hereafter at
Damascus. Mr. B. likewise purchased a horse of Mr. C.’s brother-in-law
for £35.

[58] One for 200 piasters, or £10; one for £4, a serviceable beast that
I afterwards left in Syria, still well and hard working. Lady Hester’s
retinue consisted now of the following persons: Giorgio filled the
place of interpreter; Mr. Catafago made over to her his own cook, a
Cypriot, marked with all the characteristic filth of his island. Mr. B.
hired a good-natured Akáwi, or native of Acre, a barber by trade, named
Hanah, or John, whose recommendation consisted principally in knowing a
little Italian. My Ragusan sailor still remained with me.

[59] The _tarbûsh_ is a red skull cap worn by females: round it
the handkerchief which forms the turban is attached. _Sereah_ is a
white slave or concubine.

[60] This bulta or balta, a kind of battle-axe, was the emblem of
authority which El Gezzàr generally bore about with him. It is said
that upon the retreat of the French from before Acre, El Gezzàr, to
show his sense of Sir W. S. Smith’s success, gave this balta into the
hands of the gallant commodore, and said to him--“You now represent
myself: exercise for twenty-four hours the power with which you are
invested, in what acts you please.” Sir Sydney ordered the prison doors
to be thrown open, and gave the prisoners their liberty.

[61] Squires of the bed-chamber.

[62] Governor.

[63] II. Samuel, c. xx. v. 3. And David took the ten women, his
concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them inward,
and fed them, but went not in unto them: so they were shut up unto the
day of their death.

[64] Zyb is the ancient Ecdippa.--Poc.

[65] There is reason to believe that pay-gates and toll-bars were of
frequent occurrence in Judea and Palestine. Capernaum, in the New
Testament, is no other than a compound of Guffer and nâam.

[66] Since that time, I have traversed this same road five times, and
on every occasion I have observed some persons so alarmed at the danger
to which they were exposed as to choose to lead their horses over
rather than to remain mounted.

[67] I measured the largest of these basins or reservoirs on the top,
and found its circumference to be eighty paces. It was much damaged by
time and use, but seemed, when perfect, to have been of a heptagonal
or hexagonal form. This reservoir alone supplied water to four pair of
mill-stones, which were rented at the rate of 2500 piasters (£75) a
year each pair.

[68] The Kasmia would seem to be the ancient Leontes, as marked on
d’Anville’s map of Palestine.

[69] Upon the hills above these grottoes is the village of Adlûn, which
Pococke calls Adnou.

[70] Cousin to Damiani of Jaffa.

[71] Khudder is an appellative of St. George, but why he is considered
a holy man by the Mahometans I am ignorant.

[72] This spring is named by Pococke Sakat Elourby. Saka is a
watercourse, and Elourby is mistaken by him for El Kharby, a ruin. His
muleteers, ignorant of the real name, probably answered him, when he
asked what do you call this? This? why, this is the watercourse of the
ruin, and so it was entered in his note-book. We shall have occasion to
remark several errors of this sort, regarding names of more consequence
than of a spring, and the more dangerous in such a man, inasmuch as he
has always been considered a good Arabic scholar.

[73] This reservoir Pococke calls Elborok, meaning to say El Burky,
the reservoir, which he should designate as such, otherwise the name
obtains a place in a map as that of a village or town.

[74] This river Pococke calls the Torrent Ezuron.

[75] This custom exists in the north of Scotland. In Galloway, for
example, in 1798, on the estate of Kironchtree was found, under a cairn
of stones which was removed to build a dyke, a sepulchre, within which
was an urn. The cairn had been heaped up precisely in the same way as
that of Sayd el Abd.

[76] The Kûrds are a ferocious people inhabiting a part of Mesopotamia.
They pass into Syria as mercenaries, and are often selected as
executioners.

[77] Nahr Burgût is mis-named by Pococke Barout.

[78] Beled Suffad, of which Suffad is the capital, extends from Calâat
Sâas to Geser Benàt Yacûb and to Khan el Minny between Tabariah and
Suffad. Calâat Sâsa lies in a strait line from Suffad to Acre.

[79] For Sayda, see likewise Nub Geogr. A. iii. S. v. p. 135. Prin.
ed. Ar. Also Gen. x. 15.; xlix. 13. Joshua, xi. 8; xix. 28; Judges, i.
xxxi.; Strabo, xvi. p. 757; Plin. Nat. Hist. v. 17; Il. Hom. xxiii.
744, _et passim_, Σιδονες πολυδαιδαλοι.

[80] Their father, a Frenchman, had been a doctor at Sayda, but
had educated these his children as merchants, until the overthrow
of the French trade in the Levant necessitated them to convert the
counting-house into an apothecary’s shop.

[81] Pronounced Joon; afterwards for many years the residence of Lady
Hester, and where also she died.

[82] The reader is referred to a recent work, called “The Modern
Syrians,” for a learned dissertation upon them.

[83] Âakel, masculine; âakely, feminine.

[84] To prevent confusion, it may be as well to explain the difference
of two names sometimes confounded from the supposed resemblance in
the term Beshýr. The appellation Beshýr is what we should call the
Christian name. Thus we will suppose two persons bearing the same name,
George--the one will be emir George--the other shaykh George. So we
have here two persons called Beshýr, and one is the Emir Beshýr--the
other the Shaykh Beshýr. In this instance, the Emir and the Shaykh are
of two different families. The Shaykh is of the house Jumbalat. At the
time this work goes to the press, the Emir Beshýr must be 86 years of
age. He is of venerable appearance, has met with many adversities, and
has yet so often extricated himself from them that it would not be
surprising if he again recovered his principality.

[85] There were three families among the Drûzes, which were more
especially remarkable for their influence and antiquity: these were the
house of Jambalat (Beyt Jambalat), the house of Amád (Beyt-el-Amád),
and the house of Neked (Beyt Neked.)

[86] Hadj Aly assured me that his wife, who was a Metoualy woman, made
no scruple of eating raw meat; and that, when mincing mutton to make a
_farce_ called _cubby_, she often ate so much as to spoil her
dinner. It is plain that the Israelites did the same. Exodus ix. 12.;
“Eat not of it raw.”

[87] The Aleppo _bouton_ (in Arabic the one-year tetter) is a
solitary, sanious, scabby ulcer, about the size of a sixpence, which
breaks out once, and once only, on almost all persons indiscriminately
who reside at, or visit, Aleppo. No part of the body is exempt from
it; and perhaps the face is oftener attacked than any. Its duration
is about twelve months, and hence its name. No remedy has yet been
discovered for it; and it generally gives least trouble when let alone.
The cicatrix, which it always leaves, resembles that of a vaccine pock,
or of an issue dried up: and, when, for example, it has chosen the tip
of the nose for its seat, it much disfigures the face.

[88] The Arabic name of Damascus.

[89] This benýsh is of cloth in winter, and of thin woollen stuff in
the summer. It is made to envelop the whole body, excepting the face.

[90] The wife of our consul there.


Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.

2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.

3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.

4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.

5. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r. or
X^{xx}.







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