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.