[p.336] seemed to be inclined to undertake the journey, except in the
company of an armed caravan.
June 28th.We left Tabaria two hours before sun-rise. There are two
direct roads to Nazareth; one by Kefer Sebt and El Khan, the other by
Louby. We took a third, that we might visit some spots recorded in the
New Testament. In one hour from Tabaria we passed a spring called Ain el
Rahham (Arabic). At two hours and a half, the road leads over a high
uncultivated plain, to Hedjar el Noszara (Arabic), the Stones of the
Christians, four or five blocks of black stone, upon which Christ is
said to have reclined while addressing the people who flocked around
him. The priests of Nazareth stopped to read some prayers over the
stones. Below this place, towards the N.E. extends a small plain, called
Sahel Hottein (Arabic). The country is intersected by Wadys. About one
hour distant from the stones, upon the same level, stands a hill of an
oblong shape, with two projecting summits on one of its extremities; the
natives call it Keroun Hottein (Arabic), the Horns of Hottein. The
Christians have given it the appellation of Mons Beatitudinis, and
pretend that the five thousand were there fed. We travelled over an
uneven, uncultivated ground, until we arrived at Kefer Kenna (Arabic),
four hours and a quarter from Tabaria, a neat village with a copious
spring surrounded by plantations of olive and other fruit trees, and
chiefly inhabited by Catholic Christians. This is the Cana celebrated in
the New Testament for the miracle at the marriage feast; and the house
is shewn in which Our Saviour performed it. We rested under an immense
fig-tree, which afforded shelter from the sun to a dozen men and as many
horses and mules. From hence the road ascends, and continues across
chalky hills, overgrown with low shrubs, as far as Naszera (Arabic) or
Nazareth, eight hours from Tabaria, by the road we travelled. I alighted
at the convent
[p.337] belonging to the missionaries of Terra Santa. Here Mr. Bruce
introduced me to Lady Hester Stanhope, who had arrived a few days before
from Jerusalem and Akka, and was preparing to visit the northern parts
of Syria, and among other places Palmyra. The manly spirit and
enlightened curiosity of this lady ought to make many modern travellers
ashamed of the indolent indifference with which they hurry over foreign
countries. She sees a great deal, and carefully examines what she sees;
but it is to be hoped that the polite and distinguished manner in which
she is every where received by the governors of the country, will not
impress her with too favourable an opinion of the Turks in general, and
of their disposition towards the nations of Europe.
Naszera is one of the principal towns of the Pashalik of Akka; its
inhabitants are industrious, because they are treated with less severity
than those of the country towns in general; two-thirds of them are
Turks, and one-third Christians; there are about ninety Latin families;
together with a congregation of Greek Catholics and another of
Maronites. The house of Joseph is shewn to pilgrims and travellers; but
the principal curiosity of Nazareth is the convent of the Latin friars,
a very spacious and commodious building, which was thoroughly repaired,
and considerably enlarged in 1730. Within it is the church of the
Annunciation, in which the spot is shewn where the angel stood, when he
announced to the Virgin Mary the tidings of the Messiah; behind the
altar is a subterraneous cavern divided into small grottos, where the
Virgin is said to have lived: her kitchen, parlour, and bedroom, are
shewn, and a narrow hole in the rock, in which the child Jesus once hid
himself from his persecutors; for the Syrian Christians have a plentiful
stock of such traditions, unfounded upon any authority of Scripture. The
pilgrims who visit these holy spots are in the habit of knocking off
small pieces of stone from the
[p.338] walls of the grottos, which are thus continually enlarging. In
the church a miracle is still exhibited to the faithful; a fine granite
column, the base and upper part of which remain, has lost the middle
part of its shaft. According to the tradition, it was destroyed by the
Saracens, ever since which time, the upper part has been miraculously
suspended from the roof, as if attracted by a load-stone. All the
Christians of Nazareth, with the friars of course at their head, affect
to believe in this miracle, although it is perfectly evident that the
upper part of the column is connected with the roof. The church is the
finest in Syria, next to that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and
contains two tolerably good organs. Within the walls of the convent are
two gardens, and a small burying ground; the walls are very thick, and
serve occasionally as a fortress to all the Christians of the town.
There are at present eleven friars in the convent.
The yearly expenses of the establishment amount to upwards of £900.
sterling, a small part of which is defrayed by the rent of a few houses
in the town, and by the produce of some acres of corn land; the rest is
remitted from Jerusalem. The whole annual expenses of the Terra Santa
convents are about £15,000. They have felt very sensibly the occupation
of Spain by the French, and little has been received from Europe for the
last four years; while the Turkish authorities exact the same yearly
tribute and extraordinary contributions, as formerly;[The Terra Santa
pays to the Pasha of Damascus about £12000. a year; the Greek convent of
Jerusalem pays much more, as well to maintain its own privileges, as
with a view to encroach upon those of the Latins.] so that if Spain be
not speedily liberated, it is to be feared that the whole establishment
of the Terra Santa must be abandoned. This would be a great calamity,
for it cannot be doubted that they have done honour to the European
[p.339] name in the Levant, and have been very beneficial to the cause
of Christianity under the actual circumstances of the East.
The friars are chiefly Spanjards; they are exasperated against France,
for pretending to protect them, without affording them the smallest
relief from the Pashas oppressions:[I understood from the Spanish
consul at Cairo, that when the news of the capture of Madrid, in August,
1812, reached Jerusalem, the Spanish priests celebrated a public
Te Deum, and took the oaths prescribed by the new constitution of the
Cortes.] but they are obliged to accept this protection, as the Spanish
ambassador at Constantinople is not yet acknowledged by the Porte. They
are well worth the attention of any ambassador at the Porte, whose
government is desirous of maintaining an influence in Syria, for they
command the consciences of upwards of eighty thousand souls.
When the French invaded Syria, Nazareth was occupied by six or eight
hundred men, whose advanced posts were at Tabaria and Szaffad. Two hours
from hence, General Kleber sustained with a corps not exceeding fifteen
hundred men, the attack of the whole Syrian army, amounting to at least
twenty-five thousand. He was posted in the plain of Esdrelon, near the
village of Foule, where he formed his battalion into a square, which
continued fighting from sun-rise to mid-day, until they had expended
almost all their ammunition. Bonaparte, informed of Klebers perilous
situation, advanced to his support with six hundred men. No sooner had
he come in sight of the enemy and fired a shot over the plain, than the
Turks, supposing that a large force was advancing, took precipitately to
flight, during which several thousands were killed, and many drowned in
the river Daboury, which then inundated a part of the plain. Bonaparte
dined at Nazareth, the most northern point that he reached in Syria, and
returned the same day to Akka.
[p.340] After the retreat of the French from Akka, Djezzar Pasha
resolved on causing all the Christians in his Pashalik to be massacred,
and had already sent orders to that effect to Jerusalem and Nazareth;
but Sir Sidney Smith being apprized of his intentions reproached him for
his cruelty in the severest terms, and threatened that if a single
Christian head should fall, he would bombard Akka and set it on fire.
Djezzar was thus obliged to send counter orders, but Sir Sidneys
interference is still remembered with heartfelt gratitude by all the
Christians, who look upon him as their deliverer. His word, I have
often heard both Turks and Christians exclaim, was like Gods word, it
never failed. The same cannot be said of his antagonist at Akka, who
maliciously impressed the Christians, certainly much inclined in his
favour, with the idea of his speedy return from Egypt. On retreating
from Akka he sent word to his partizans at Szaffad and Nazareth,
exhorting them to bear up resolutely against the Turks but for three
months, when, he assured them upon his honour, and with many oaths, that
he would return with a much stronger force, and deliver them from their
oppressors.
The inhabitants of Nazareth differ somewhat in features and colour from
the northern Syrians; their physiognomy approaches that of the
Egyptians, while their dialect and pronunciation differ widely from
those of Damascus. In western Palestine, especially on the coast, the
inhabitants, seem in general, to bear more resemblance to the natives of
Egypt, than to those of northern Syria. Towards the east of Palestine,
on the contrary, especially in the villages about Nablous, Jerusalem,
and Hebron, they are evidently of the true Syrian stock, in features,
though not in language. It would be an interesting subject for an artist
to pourtray accurately the different character of features of the Syrian
nations; the Aleppine, the Turkman, the native of Mount
[p.341] Libanus, the Damascene, the inhabitant of the sea-coast from
Beirout to Akka, and the Bedouin, although all inhabiting the same
country, have distict national physiognomies, and a slight acquaintance
with them enables one to determine the native district of a Syrian, with
almost as much certainty as an Englishman may be distinguished at first
sight from an Italian or an inhabitant of the south of France.
The Christians of Nazareth enjoy great liberty. The fathers go a
shooting alone in their monastic habits to several hours distance from
the convent, without ever being insulted by the Turks. I was told that
about thirty years ago the padre guardiano of the convent was also
Sheikh or chief justice of the town, an office for which he paid a
certain yearly sum to the Pasha of Akka; the police of the place was
consequently in his hands, and when any disturbance happened, the
reverend father used to take his stick, repair to the spot, and lay
about him freely, no matter whether upon Turks or Christians. The
guardian has still much influence in the town, because he is supposed,
as usual, to be on good terms with the Pasha, but at present the chief
man at Nazareth is M. Catafago, a merchant of Frank origin, born at
Aleppo. He has rented from the Pasha about twelve villages situated in
the neighbourhood of Nazareth and the plain of Esdrelon, for which he
pays yearly upwards of £3000.[The villages in the Pashalik of Akka are
all of the description which the Turkish law calls Melk. They are all
assessed at certain yearly sums, which each is obliged to pay, whatever
may be the number of its inhabitants. This is one of the chief causes of
the depopulation of many parts of Syria.] His profits are very
considerable, and as he meddles much in the politics and intrigues of
the country, he has become a person of great consequence. His influence
and recommendations may prove very useful to travellers in Palestine,
especially to those who visit the dangerous districts of Nablous.