THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AT BEYROUT.
After a residence of upwards of two years at Damascus, I was suddenly, in
the spring of the year, recalled to Beyrout, this latter town having, in
my absence, grown into considerable importance as a commercial sea-port.
The traffic with European countries daily augmenting, had given an
impetus to several enterprising young Syrians, who wished to acquire a
knowledge of European languages; and as precedents were not wanting of
this knowledge having led to preferment and subsequent opulence, my
friends conceived the idea of placing me under the care of some of the
excellent American Missionaries, for tuition in English and other
European languages. It was not without reluctance that I obeyed the
mandate of my friends, but as implicit obedience to their will was a
primary consideration, bidding adieu to my many kind acquaintances, I
retraced my steps, and in the course of a few days was once again in the
bosom of my own dear family. The Americans have always numbered amongst
their fraternity a medical officer; and it was mainly attributable to
this fact, that myself, as well as many other Syrian lads, were happily
blessed with the opportunity of receiving a good moral education. I was
just entering on my sixteenth year when I first joined the American
school; still too young to have any deeply rooted prejudices or ideas,
though luckily old enough to appreciate the value of the opportunity thus
afforded me, and consequently to endeavour to profit by it as much as lay
in my power; but I must here explain how it happened that a physician
was, through the blessing of Providence, the means of gaining for us so
priceless a boon. When the American Missionaries first arrived in Syria,
their advent gave rise to conjecture and suspicion among the natives.
Bishops and priests warned their congregations to be on the alert, and
guard against any efforts made by the Missionaries to convert the people;
these admonitions and warnings were strengthened by reports spread by the
crafty emissaries of the Pope, which were as false as they were
calumnious. It was no part of Roman Catholic policy to countenance the
good endeavours of these Missionaries to enlighten the natives of the
country, by the establishment of schools and circulation of the holy word
of God, as contained in Arabic Bibles, printed by the Church Missionary
Society in London. Heretofore, the Papists had to grapple only with the
superstitious but simple-minded followers of the Eastern Church. In
Aleppo and Beyrout, they had already Syrian Roman Catholics, whose
talents were employed to hinder the work of the Missionaries; but now
they had formidable opponents to combat with—men as infinitely their
superiors in wisdom and acquirements, as they were religiously steadfast,
and persevering with all humility and patience to carry out their ends,
for the accomplishment of which, they had left their distant country, and
sacrificed home and every comfort. What the Roman Catholics had most to
dread, was the establishment of Protestant schools, a measure which they
clearly foresaw would tend to their ultimate confusion and defeat, and to
overthrow which they left no means untried. Had not the Americans been
possessed of great Christian patience, and matured sound judgment, they
could not possibly have succeeded; but time proved their deeds and
actions to be the purest; their morals, precepts, and examples, above
praise; the blessing of God was with them, and they watched and prayed
continually. At length an opportunity presented itself; and they, like
careful sentries, availed themselves of it, and from that time up to the
present date their schools have gone on progressing, and though they have
not succeeded in making many converts, they have prevented much evil by
their watchful care over the natives. Sickness is a leveller of many
prejudices; and this is more particularly the case in Syria, where
physicians are scarce and must be selected without regard to creed. From
time immemorial the natives have placed implicit faith in the skill of
Frank _hakeems_. Of late years I am sorry to say the Turkish empire has
been inundated with numbers of soi-disant physicians, many of whom are
political refugees and renegades, uneducated, and totally ignorant of the
profession they have assumed, and have, by virtue of a piece of parchment
(forged or purchased) and a few drugs, foisted themselves upon the notice
of Syrians, as eminent practitioners; but their exorbitant charges and
unsuccessful practice soon opened the eyes of the people as to their real
position, yet not before these charlatans had worked out for their
medical brethren so foul a reputation, that the natives have become
suspicious of all new-comers, and would rather have recourse to the
simple remedies prescribed by the village herb doctor, than entrust their
lives to be experimentalised upon by foreign quacks.
Apropos of this I may mention an anecdote that was related to me by Mr.
Edward Zohrab, the respected Turkish Consul-General in London. This
gentleman, once travelling in the interior of Turkey, had the misfortune
to fall ill at a remote village where all hopes of succour were despaired
of; whilst debating with the Sheikh of the village on the feasibility of
despatching an express messenger to the nearest large town in search of
medical aid, there arrived, most opportunely, a European traveller who
had taken up his lodgings for the night at the public khan of the
village; this grandee’s servant soon spread the fame of his master in the
place.
“He is,” said he, “the only learned Frank physician in Turkey. He has
been _hakeem_ to all the great _pad-shahs_ of Europe, and is only
travelling here to find some rare drugs and medicinal stones for the
great emperor of Moscof.”
“Is he?” said the delighted Sheikh, who had rushed to seek aid from the
stranger. “Then for Allah’s sake bring him with all speed to my
residence; for there is a _miri liwa_ dying there of fever; and if
anything happens in my house what’s to become of me and my family?”
The learned physician accompanied the Sheikh to his house, and in him Mr.
Zohrab discovered, to his utter amazement and discomfort, the person of a
once respectable Italian ship-chandler who had carried on business some
years back at Constantinople, but who, subsequently failing, had donned
the cap and cloak of a mountebank, and went about quacking the natives.
It is needless to say that the discomfited doctor made a precipitate
retreat from the village. But to return to the subject after this
digression, the good done by the American physician was peculiarly
instanced in my own family.
A very near relative lay grievously ill at Beyrout—every effort of the
native _hakeem_ to give him sleep proved abortive. Native astrologers
came, and writing down the names and number of letters in each name of
the patient and of his mother, multiplied and divided the sum total, and
then tearing up the paper into fine shreds, swallowed the whole; but even
this magic failed. After much discussion, it was finally determined,
much to the disgust of my clerical uncle, to summon the American doctor,
with whom or with whose brethren my family had heretofore carefully
avoided intercourse.
The doctor came—his mild gentle demeanour—his soft sweet words of
consolation—his consummate skill—and his great talents as a man of
learning—all these gained for him the deepest respect and regard, whilst
his indefatigable attention to the invalid claimed our gratitude. We, in
common with our neighbours, had entertained a vulgar prejudice against
this good man, because it was generally asserted that wherever he could
introduce himself under the cloak of his profession, to the sick and
dying, he invariably profited by the opportunity to sow discord amongst
the members of the family, by propagating doctrines strangely at variance
with their creed. How false these accusations—how gross the calumnies
heaped upon him, and through whose agency they had originated, now became
clear to my family and their friends, and we now esteemed these kind
Americans the better from a sense of having unjustly injured them, though
it were only in thought. During my relative’s long and dangerous illness
the doctor’s kindness was above praise—he never intruded a single
question or made any reference to difference of creeds; but when the
patient was convalescent, and when he saw that his visits were no longer
necessary, on taking leave of us the doctor distributed a few tracts on
religious subjects, for perusal amongst ourselves and neighbours, begging
us at our leisure to do so. Had he done this before we had become
acquainted with his intrinsic worth and merits, the chances are that
these tracts would have been flung into the fire so soon as his back was
turned. Now, however, we all felt persuaded that so excellent a man
could never be guilty of propagating anything that was not good and
moral. The result was that his gifts were treasured up and perused with
attention, and whenever the doctor paid us a friendly visit he brought
with him more delightful little stories; the print was so clear, the
pictures and binding so pretty, that these tracts were much prized, and
very soon much sought after. The children of the native Christians and
those of the American missionaries became playmates; and the prejudices
that had barred the doors of the American school-room against the former
were gradually removed. It was at this period that I was sent for to
Beyrout; and a few weeks after my arrival I was duly installed as one
amongst other native students under the kind tuition of Messrs. Goodall
and Whiting of the mission.
I can never sufficiently express my deep sense of gratitude to these two
excellent gentlemen. Under them I acquired the rudiments of a good
general education; and as my knowledge of their language grew apace, I
was afforded free access to such books, both amusing and instructive, as
were well calculated to engraft a thirst after knowledge and develop the
understanding. Generally speaking, all the native scholars, sooner or
later, comprehended the wide difference existing between the Gospel
truths as expounded in the Roman churches, and the true sense and
comprehensive meaning of the Word of God as contained in the holy Bible,
such as it was our custom to peruse, morning, noon, and night. We
discovered that the Bible was a pleasant book, full of entertaining
history and adventure, and abounding with illustrations of the marvelous
mercy and love of the Creator for the creature; and that this book should
be forbidden by the Romish priests at first appeared to us singular; then
very wrong: and ultimately we felt convinced that in so doing they were
guilty of a heinous offence.
My education consisted in simple lessons, reading, writing, and
arithmetic. However I made no great progress in worldly knowledge; but
the precepts and examples of my kind instructors were, I trust, a good
seed sown in season; they took root in the tender soil of childish
simplicity; grew up with our growth and ripened with the years of
maturity; and I humbly hope that, with the blessing of the Almighty, they
may never hereafter be choked by those _tares_ sown by Satan—the sinful
vanities and pleasures of this world.
I remember, amongst the many anecdotes and incidents of those happy days,
one which made a deep impression upon myself and my fellow-students.
During the fruit season, as our school-house at Beyrout was situated
amongst the gardens, we boys made frequent excursions in the night to
pillage the neighbouring orchards of their superabundant loads of fruit;
this was a common practice amongst all the lads of the town of Beyrout;
and though doubtless very wrong, still fruit is so cheap and so plentiful
that, even when detected by the proprietors, our punishment rarely
exceeded a box or two on the ears, and many direful threats as to any
future offence. Notwithstanding these threats, however, the fruit was
too tempting to be so easily relinquished. {48} One night I sallied out
with several other of my schoolfellows, and amongst these a young chief
of the Druses, named Sheikh Ahmed,—a boy of undaunted courage, and who,
in after-years, as I will explain further on, was the means of saving the
life of one connected with the mission school. On this eventful night,
sentries had been set to watch our movements, and we were all taken in
the very act. The angry proprietor made us bear the brunt of all his
losses; and so, after being very roughly treated and deprived of all our
plunder, we were set free and permitted to run home again as best we
could, with rueful faces and aching limbs.
By some means a report of this transaction had reached the
school-master’s ears by times next morning, though we were ignorant of
this fact till breakfast-time arrived; then, with keen appetites, we
resorted to our usual place at the breakfast-table, when lo! there were
nothing but plates turned bottom upwards laid for such amongst us as had
been engaged in the orchard-rifling affair. The rest of the boys, who
were well supplied with dainties, were quite at a loss to account for
this deficiency; but our guilty consciences plainly whispered to us the
motives for this punishment; we therefore, sneaked out of the room,
inwardly determined never to expose ourselves to such well-merited
treatment again; and we firmly adhered to our resolution. This silent
and mild method of punishing an offence had far more effect with us than
rougher treatment; and the chances are that if we had been publicly
upbraided, whipped, and tasked, we should not so quickly have mended.
The Sheikh Ahmed, after having left school, whilst heading his own
people, the Druses, during the war in Lebanon, one day suddenly came upon
a group of angry villagers, who were about to wreak their vengeance upon
an unhappy traveller who had fallen into their hands. The young Sheikh
authoritatively interfered and swore by his beard no harm should be done
to him. In the traveller, to his astonishment and joy, Sheikh Ahmed
identified the Arabic professor of the mission school,—a simple, good
man, to whose care and tuition we were all much indebted, and who, having
been mistaken for a Maronite, was about falling a victim to mistaken
identity. The name of this intelligent and excellent man was Tannoos
Haddad, who had been converted to Christianity by the American
missionaries, and has since been ordained, and is now assisting in the
spread of the Gospel among his benighted countrymen. The head of the
school at that time was Mr. Hubbard, who a few years after died at Malta,
and many a young man now in Syria gratefully recalls his memory as having
been the means of their education and advancement both in temporal and
spiritual knowledge.
At present, the following is a list of the missionaries at Beyrout:—Rev.
Eli Smith, D.D.; Rev. B. Whiting; H. A. D. Forest, M.D.; Mr. Hurtes,
superintendent of the printing department; Buttros Bistani, and Elias
Fowas, native helpers. No one has ever replaced the late Mr. Winbolt,
the much esteemed and regretted chaplain of Beyrout; and the Americans
are about to remove to the mountains. Lord help the souls of the forty
thousand inhabitants now living there, and put it in the hearts of the
English people to establish schools and hospitals in this most promising
field for missionary labour.
Beyrout was, at the period of which I am now writing, under the Egyptian
government, and the whole place was overrun by fierce Albanian soldiers
and recruits, who were the terror of society. Many are the instances on
record of the outrages committed by these men; but their treatment of the
esteemed Mr. Bird, an American missionary, was perhaps the most glaring
instance of unprovoked atrocity.
Mr. Bird had a country-house in the environs of Beyrout, not far from
where some of the troops were encamped. This house was surrounded by a
large fruit-garden, and the produce was continually stolen and recklessly
wasted; for which, however, there appears to have been no remedy. On one
occasion, Mr. Bird’s native servant, seeing some soldiers pilfering from
a fig-tree, threw a stone, which unfortunately took effect and slightly
wounded one of them in the head. Hearing the uproar that ensued, and
learning the cause from his servant, Mr. B--- immediately ran out with a
few necessaries in his hands to examine and dress the wound. He was thus
charitably occupied when a number of the man’s comrades who had been
attracted by the noise, arrived upon the spot, and presuming it to be Mr.
Bird who had wounded the man, made a ruffianly assault on that
unoffending person, buffeted and bound him; and finally carried their
cruel vengeance to such an extent, that they actually crucified him on a
sycamore-tree, using cords in lieu of nails, but in every other respect
blasphemously imitating the position of the figure upon the cross, as
seen by them often in pictures and on crucifixes. Here, spit upon,
slapped, and derided, Mr. Bird was left for some time suffering intense
agony, both of mind and body, for the hot afternoon sun shone fiercely
upon him, and the sharp stings of the sand-flies drove him almost to
distraction; happily the servant had made his escape into the town, and
flown to the residence of the consul. So flagrant an offence naturally
excited the anger of all the Europeans in Beyrout; and consuls of every
nation, accompanied by their retinue, all armed to the teeth, rode forth
to the rescue. On seeing so large a cavalcade advance, the troops beat
to arms; and affairs now assumed a most menacing attitude on both sides.
A council was held among the Europeans; and it was speedily determined
that a deputation should dismount and proceed on foot to the tent of the
officer commanding the troops. This was according done; and the Pasha,
having listened to the complaint, summoned the offenders into his
presence, meanwhile issuing orders that Mr. Bird should be instantly
released and brought before him, that he might speak for himself. The
soldiers endeavoured to vindicate themselves, by asserting that the
Franks had murdered a true believer of the prophet; and in proof of what
they asserted, they had actually the audacity and folly to cause the
wounded man to be carried on a few planks, hastily knocked together, and
set down on the ground a few paces distant from the Pasha’s tent, where
the impudent fellow so well maintained the rigidity of limb and face,
that he really had much the appearance of a cold stiff corpse. The
Pasha’s doctor (a European), however, was close at hand; and this officer
was ordered to see whether the man was really dead or in a dying
condition. The doctor, who was an acute man, soon saw how matters stood;
and producing from his coat pocket a bottle of sal volatile, he
dexterously applied it to the nose of the prostrate soldier, and with
such good effect, that the man started up as though he had received an
electric shock, and was seized with such a violent fit of sneezing, that,
notwithstanding the serious position of both parties, it was found
impossible to resist a simultaneous burst of laughter. The Pasha was too
much enraged to join in this hilarity, which he speedily checked, by
thundering out to his attendants to seize upon the ringleaders in this
disgraceful riot, and have them hung on the same tree upon which Mr. Bird
had been exposed—a threat that would doubtless have been put into
immediate execution, but for the strenuous interference of good Mr. Bird,
who, though still smarting from the severity of his treatment, was far
too good a Christian to allow his enemies to be punished. He tried hard
to beg them off altogether; but this the Pasha would not listen to, so
the Europeans returned home to be out of hearing of the cries of the
wretches as they underwent the severest bastinadoing ever inflicted,
where flogging stops short of life.
This account will appear a perfect fable to those who only know Beyrout
in its present civilised state; and vast indeed must have been the change
for the better, when ladies and children can wander about the place,
singly and unprotected, at all hours of the day, and even, I may venture
to assert, throughout the night.
Since the expulsion of the Egyptians, in 1840–1, Beyrout has rapidly
risen into considerable importance; and it may now be considered the
chief entrepôt of Syrian commerce. At that period there were barely
three or four European families established; and an English vessel only
occasionally touched at the port; now, merchants, artizans, and
shopkeepers, from all parts of Europe have flocked into the town; and
scarcely a week passes by without three or more vessels arriving in the
roads from different ports of Europe. The roadstead presents a gay
appearance on Sunday, when all the different vessels display the ensigns
of their respective nations, and corresponding flags are hoisted from the
tops of the consulates on shore. English, French, Sardinian, Austrian,
American, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish
ships are daily arriving at, or sailing out of the port, bringing
manufactures from Manchester, colonial produce from London, sugar from
Hamburg, assorted cargoes from France and Italy, and numberless
requisites and necessaries from other parts of the world; whilst they
export from Beyrout, silk reeled in the many factories situated in the
immediate neighbourhood and on Lebanon, grain from the interior, raw
silk, of which some portion is contributed from my native village, and
lately an enterprising American has carried off ship-loads of our Beyrout
and Syrian olive oil, timber, nuts, and specimens of dried and preserved
fruits. The population is rapidly increasing, the wealth augmenting, new
firms are being established, fresh channels of commerce discovered,
houses being built, gardens enclosed, grounds purchased and planted, till
the once quiet, secluded, and almost desolate-looking Beyrout, many of
whose decayed and dilapidated ruins crumbled into dust under the severe
shocks of the great earthquake of 1821, has been rapidly metamorphosed
into a pleasant and flourishing town, replete with handsome buildings and
luxuriant gardens, presenting, as viewed from the sea, one of the
handsomest marine pictures possible for the pencil of the painter to
depict, or the lay of the poet to celebrate.
Please God, I hope yet to see the day when much loved Beyrout shall rival
and surpass in every sense Smyrna, and even Stamboul. I often hear
people in England talking about the beautiful azure skies of sunny Italy,
and sighing for her shores; but I doubt very much if any part of the
world can surpass some portions of Syria for climate or for beauty of
scenery of every description. Those who are fond of romantic and wild
scenery, have only to travel over the Lattakia mountains to gratify their
tastes and inclinations. The quiet woodbine, the pleasant myrtle-shade,
the jessamine and the rose, the murmuring stream and the lovely cot;
these are to be met with all over Lebanon and North Syria—nature, in all
her variety, collected, together—hills, valleys, rivers,
fountains—gardens, ocean—snow and sunshine; all these may be included in
one prospect surveyed from any of the many eminences in the immediate
neighbourhood of Beyrout. As for cloudless skies, all Syria possesses
this charm, and it has none of the drawbacks that Italy must lament—no
Popish thraldom—no revolutionary crisis always on the eve of exploding,
and always stained with innocent blood. The land, it is true, is the
land of the Moslem; but the present enlightened Sultan has made it a land
of perfect liberty to the stranger; and more than this, a land in which
he enjoys privileges that he cannot hope for in his own native country.
Beyrout is the spot for many reasons best adapted for missionary
purposes; and I have long wished for the day when I may be enabled to lay
before intelligent men a certain means of promoting the interests, both
spiritual and temporal, of their Eastern brethren with little
pains-taking or trouble to themselves, but with incalculable advantages
to those whom they would benefit. Of this, however, more anon, in a
chapter devoted expressly to the subject.
A great advantage derivable to Europeans settling at Beyrout is the
immediate proximity of the Lebanon range of mountains; for, though
reputed an excellent climate, Beyrout is subject to great heats during
the summer season, and it not unfrequently occurs that reckless strangers
unnecessarily expose themselves to the fierce rays of the sun with
nothing but a flimsy hat to protect their heads. The result is
brain-fever and sometimes death. The latter is very unfairly attributed
to the climate. One might as well say the same of London, where several
instances of _coup de soleil_ have occurred during a late year; but as
some constitutions cannot stand heat, however well sheltered indoors,
these have only to pitch their tents, or to repair to a neighbouring
village during the summer, a pleasant half-hour or hour’s ride from
Beyrout. Here they may choose their own temperature, and not only this,
but also gratify their own peculiar fancy with regard to scenery; and
those who love field-sports will find endless amusement and occupation
amongst the hares and partridges with which the neighbourhood is
literally overrun.
But the real fact of the case is, that the climate of Beyrout is
extremely healthy; in proof of which I quote the general health of the
natives and of those Europeans who have resided there long enough to
adapt themselves to the customs of the country, who eat but little meat
during the hot months, eschew spirits and inebriating liquors, avoid
violent exercise or exposure to draughts and the intense heat of the
mid-day sun; rise early, use frequent ablutions, take gentle horse
exercise, and only use fresh and ripe fruit, and vegetables which are
generally of the best. Even fish is considered by the natives as
tantamount to poison during the months of July and August; and surely
nature is bountiful enough in the supply of an endless variety of
delicious fruits and vegetables to enable one to subsist without much
heavy and unwholesome meat. Of the benefits arising from this diet and
regimen, the robust natives of the villages give ample proof; their
every-day meals consist principally of bread, fruit, vegetables, rice or
burghal, and cold water; with a little cup of coffee and a pipe of mild
tobacco after meals to promote digestion.