Precautions against riots--Emir Nasar visits Lady Hester--He
dissuades her from going to Palmyra with an escort--Description
of Nasar--How entertained--Lady Hester quits Damascus--Reports
of her wealth--She takes Monsieur and Madame Lascaris with
her--Her interview with the Emir Mahannah--She arrives at
Hamah--Departure of Mr. B. and Mr. Barker from Damascus--The
Messieurs Bertrand dismissed--Bills of exchange--The Author
sets out for Hamah--Mode of travelling--A Caravansery--Gabriel,
the poet--Kosair--Kelyfy--Nebk--Turkish adventurer--Khan of
Nebk--Mode of washing in the East--Carah--Hassiah--Hamah--The
Author lodges with Monsieur and Madame Lascaris--Opportunity
for entering the Desert--M. Lascaris resolves to accompany the
Author--Bedouin costume--First departure from Hamah.
Mr. Barker had been seized with a bilious remittent fever:--the danger
was over, but he was very weak and exhausted. He and Mr. B. were lodged
in the Christian quarter, in the house which Lady Hester had rejected.
As I was necessarily obliged to go frequently from one house to the
other, and sometimes late at night, I had occasion to observe the
precautions taken in Turkish cities after sunset to prevent nocturnal
disturbances. The end of every street has a gate, which is shut at the
prayer (called namàz el ashy) two hours after sunset, and a patrol is
in attendance at each. To pass these gates, I was obliged sometimes to
knock and wait from five to fifteen minutes; when a lazy soldier of the
police, rising from his mustaby[23] and putting down his pipe with the
utmost slowness and indifference, would let me through, taking care to
question me whence I came and whither I was going, and to arrest me if
without a lantern. To a medical man, no other impediment is given; but
to persons without ostensible business--to an artisan or mechanic--the
passage from street to street at an advanced hour in the night would
be difficult. After ten o’clock, I seldom have seen a living creature
out of doors, excepting dogs, whose night haunts are not disturbed with
impunity, as they follow the intruder snarling and barking from one
extremity of the street to the other.
Towards the middle of October, Lady Hester had in part made the
necessary arrangements for her journey to Palmyra; but, during my
absence, Nasar, the son of Mahamah, emir of the Anizys[24], had, in
consequence of the letter sent to his father, been to see her ladyship.
When he was introduced to her presence, he said that “he had heard of
her intention of going, under the protection of a body of troops, to
Tadmûr; and that he came from his father to warn her against such a
step; for, if she attempted to force her way thither, he considered
himself at liberty to treat her and her escort as he did all those
who presumed to cross the desert without his permission--namely, as
enemies.” He declared to her that “if so distinguished a person as
she was would place herself under the protection of the Bedouins, and
rely upon their honour, they would pledge themselves for conducting
her in safety thither and back; but that, if she chose any other
way, she would learn to her cost who was sultan in those wilds.” He
added--“soldiers of the cities know not the tracks and landmarks of
the desert;--where the wells are--what parts are infested with hostile
tribes--who is friendly and who is not; and, when they have led you
into difficulties, they will be the first to desert you.”
Many other reasons he no doubt gave, which, joined to his natural
eloquence, could not fail to convince. For he was a young man of very
fine talents, as we had afterwards many opportunities of observing;
and, when bidding Lady Hester to repose confidence in him and his
father, he knew how to inspire it. He was now about twenty-five years
of age, plain in his person, but dignified, eloquent, and of the most
engaging manners. A description of his dress will not much bespeak the
admiration of a European reader. He was clad in a sheepskin pelisse,
much in the shape of a sailor’s long sea-jacket; under this he wore a
ragged satin robe that reached to his ancles, with a sort of green and
orange silk handkerchief thrown over his head, and tied with a cord
for a fillet. He was without stockings. His attendants were in a worse
plight than himself, and stood around him.
Nasar was entertained by her ladyship with an appropriate repast
prepared for him and his people, in which there was a mixture of
Turkish and English cookery under the direction of Pierre, now become
a man of great use in Lady Hester’s establishment. The plum-puddings
excited much laughter and astonishment among them;--but they could not
be induced to eat of them.
Lady Hester presented him with a complete suit of clothes, which he
immediately distributed among his people, telling her that a Bedouin
prince was the father of his subjects, and that what he got was for his
children.
The result of Nasar’s visit was that her ladyship declined the offer of
troops from the pasha to protect her, dismissed all those whom she had
partly engaged for the journey, and, availing herself of Mr. Barker’s
illness, on whom I remained to attend, and with whom civility required
Mr. B.’s stay, she departed alone, as she said, for Hamah, on the 15th
of November.
The following letter, written by Lady Hester herself the day before her
departure, explains her own feelings at this time:--
_Lady Hester Stanhope to ----._
Damascus, November 14, 1812.
My dear ----,
B. and Mr. Barker arrived here about the first; the latter has
been laid up with a fever ever since, and I have given up my
journey to the desert for the present, as the Pasha insists upon
sending 800 or 1,000 men with me, and the expense would be ruin;
but I am going off to Homs to-morrow, and in the course of the
winter shall contrive to go in some way or other.
It seems very cross to be angry at people being anxious about
you; but had B. and Mr. B. made less fuss about my safety,
and let me have had perfectly my own way, I should have been
returned by this time from Palmyra. Yet I cannot but regret
it; (for I had leave to dig and do every thing I pleased at
Palmyra): chance having put such extraordinary power in my
hands, it has been lost by mismanagement. It is not here as in
other parts of the world; if you only go a mile to the right
instead of the left, which you have not previously bargained to
do, your camels leave you, your guards won’t stir out of their
district, you must pay them four times their price to induce
them to go on, &c. Therefore, it was very fine and very natural
to write, every three days from Aleppo, “we will meet here,
then there,” and to make fifty changes, and to express fifty
fears:--from people who did not know the country it might be
expected, but those who did ought to have been aware it would
have been taken advantage of, which has been the case.
We have no plague here at present, but I suppose it will come
when goods arrive from Constantinople. I, for one, have little
apprehensions of the plague; all in this world rests with
Providence, and over-caution ever exposes persons more to danger
than remaining quiet.
I have just sent to Sayda for the things Captain Hope forwarded
me from Smyrna; I trust I shall find all my packets of letters
with them. I have sought in vain for some good thing to send
you from hence, but can find nothing; but I have ordered some
wild-boar hams to be made, which you will receive in the course
of the winter. I should feel so ungrateful were I not to think
of you constantly, even in little matters. B. ordered some of
the famous Vino d’Oro, of Mount Lebanon; when the casks are
well seasoned, and an opportunity offers, it shall be sent to
Malta. B. desires to be most kindly remembered to you; he hates
this place, as I thought he would, but must remain here till
Mr. Barker is well enough to set off. Aleppo he also thought
abominable. I knew I should dislike Aleppo if I went there,
because it is full of vulgar people: but here there are chiefly
great Turks, and, as I get on very well with them, I rather like
the place than otherwise, but think it very unwholesome from
the quantity of water and trees in and about the town; however,
it is very beautiful in its way, but it is not the way I like.
Brusa and the banks of the Bosphorus for me!--enchanting scenes
which I think upon with delight. But I must not write on for
ever, I forget all the business you have upon your hands: may
your health not suffer from it is all I pray.
Yours ever, most sincerely,
H. L. S.
I scribble sadly, but my ink is so bad, and I have no table; the
Turks always write upon their hand, and so slow--it is quite
amusing!
Previous to her going, I gave her an account of my visit to M. and
Madame Lascaris, and excited in her a great desire to see them. In the
mean time the report had spread in the Desert that an English princess,
who rode on a mare worth forty purses, with housings and stirrups of
gold, and for whom the treasurer of the English sultan told out every
day 1000 sequins, was about to pay a visit to Tadmûr; that she had in
her possession a book which instructed her where treasures were to be
found (this book was the plates of Wood and Dawkins); and that she had
a small bag of leaves of a certain herb which could transmute antique
stones into gold.
Lady Hester did certainly take the road to Hamah, but, unknown to us
all, she had arranged a meeting with Nasar’s father, and was determined
to enter the Desert alone, and thus give the Emir Mahannah a proof of
her reliance on his honour. So, as she told us afterwards, going as
far as Nebk, she there induced M. Lascaris and his wife immediately
to dispose of their goods and whatever incumbrances they had, and to
accompany her in the capacity of interpreters. She then turned off
from the high road, at Tel Bysy, a hamlet near Hems, plunged into the
Desert, under the guidance of a single Bedouin sent for that purpose,
and trusted herself, a solitary and unprotected woman, to hordes
of robbers, whose livelihood is the plunder they make, and whose
exploits are numbered by the travellers they have despoiled. Arrived
at Mahannah’s tent, her courage and demeanour struck that prince with
astonishment. “I know you are a robber,” she said, on their first
interview, “and that I am now in your power; but I fear you not; and I
have left all those behind who were offered to me as a safeguard, and
all my countrymen who could be considered as my protectors, to show you
that it is you and your people whom I have chosen as such.” Mutually
pleased with each other, after a short interview Mahannah escorted her
ladyship to within a few miles of Hamah, and, commissioning his son to
conduct her safe to the residence prepared for her in that city, they
then parted.
In the mean time, Mr. B. and Mr. Barker, who had recovered from his
indisposition, about the 24th of November, followed Lady Hester to
Hamah. I remained behind, anxious to receive some boxes and packets of
letters said to be arrived at Acre from England, and for which I had
despatched an express messenger to that place. I hired a small house
belonging to Mâlem Hanah Takhal, and divided my time between Ahmed
Bey, M. Chaboceau and the Greek archbishop, taking the opportunity of
visiting whatever I had neglected to see before in this beautiful city.
On the departure of Lady Hester from Damascus, the two Messieurs
Bertrand were dismissed. As one of them had to return to Sayda, he rode
a horse of Lady Hester’s, which was sent back by the messenger, who
brought with him the boxes and letters that were expected. Having now
nothing to detain me at Damascus, I took leave of my friends there as
of persons I might never see again.
I had received from Hamah a bill of exchange on Ibrahim Aga, a
creditable Damascus merchant, dealer in red caps, for one thousand
piasters, in order to make some purchases; but the extreme caution of
the old man, and the time he took to collect the money, delayed me yet
longer: for the Mahometan merchants are not used to negotiate bills as
persons do in England, and trade is generally carried on by barter or
by hard cash.
I made a contract with one Hossayn Shakády to carry all my luggage to
Hamah, for forty _ikliks_, or one hundred piasters. On the 7th
of December I left the city of Damascus. I was now equipped in a very
different manner from what I had been when I entered it. I had altered
my dress entirely, and had assumed that of the Syrian Mahometans, one
principal feature of which is the abah, or long cloak, made of woollen
stuff, which hangs, without sleeves, from the shoulders. Instead of my
bed, I provided myself with a small carpet of the size of a hearth-rug,
on which I proposed to sleep without undressing. I discharged my
servant Yusef, a hypocritical fellow, who, from having lived as cook in
the Franciscan convent of Damascus, was as demure, and at the same time
as great a cheat, as such an education could possibly make him.[25]
I departed in company with a caravan of about sixty mules and
camels, most of them destined for Aleppo. I was furnished with a
_buyurdy_, or government order, for my supply on my journey
with food and provender for myself, horses, and servant. I was now
therefore no longer an English traveller, but, both in garb and usages,
endeavoured to conform to the customs of the natives; and, whilst in
the East, I never afterwards quitted them. I will therefore describe
this method of travelling, that the reader may understand how wide the
difference is between Turkey and his own country.
My equipment consisted of the clothes on my back; a halter and a
corn-bag for my horse, tied behind my groom; a pair of common woollen
saddle-bags under me; my sabre by my side, and my pipe carried by
my servant. The mode of journeying was this: we mounted at sunrise,
and, proceeding always at a footpace, halted somewhere at noon, and
generally, if possible, near a spring. There the horses drank, and a
little chopped straw was put into their bags: often for myself bread
and dried figs were all that was served for a breakfast; and a little
dried dung (for in this part of the country there is not a bit of
wood), scraped together, made fire enough to boil a cup of coffee.
Remounted, we generally contrived to arrive before or soon after sunset
at a caravansery; and for the last half hour there would be some
contention between the fastest walking horses to get beforehand, in
order to secure the best corner of the stable, or to obtain the best
lodging.
Caravanseries are buildings of a quadrangular form, with no windows
outwards, and no outlet but the gate, which is made strong enough to
resist any nocturnal attack from Arabs and other robbers. The interior
presents generally a very filthy court, with perhaps a well or basin
in the middle, and around it an arcade, with the arches open, or
walled up half way. The floor is the ground, not often bare, as being
most usually covered with the dung of cattle. In a caravansery the
traveller is not certain of finding anything. The peasants, perhaps,
of some adjoining village, expose to sale barley-bread, figs, raisins,
a species of wheat-meal to make gruel, straw, and sometimes, but not
always, coffee, with tobacco and tombàk for smoking. About ninepence
buys provisions for rider and horse. He ties up his animal, gives him
his barley in the corn-bag; then, supping on fresh bread and a dish
of rice, a few dried raisins, a cup of coffee and a pipe, he lies
down, with his carpet for his bed, and his saddle-bags for a pillow.
His horse sleeps with his saddle on, as in Turkey it is never thought
safe to take it off when travelling in the winter season, excepting
at sunrise for five minutes, just to air the horse’s back, and afford
an opportunity of currying him a little. At sunrise, or before, the
caravan renews the journey as on the preceding day; the traveller has
nothing to pay for his lodging, goes through the same routine, and
finds at night another caravansery to rest in.
The reader will consider all this as very uncomfortable; but let him
recollect the difference which climate makes, and he will find that for
nine months in the year the weather invites to sleep in the open air in
preference to enclosed rooms. In the latitude I now was in, December is
often milder than the June of England.
The road which the caravan took was not the same by which I had gone
the first time, but inclined more to the eastward. As we departed late
from Damascus, a halt was made at Kosayr, where we slept, within a
very short distance of Damascus, for the purpose of awaiting and of
collecting together the different merchants and travellers who were to
make up the caravan. On the morrow we left Kosayr, and proceeded to
Ketayfy. Not choosing to avail myself of the _buyurdy_, I had caused
Ibrahim to purchase such things as were necessary for myself and the
horses; but the head _muker_, or _makairy_ (such is the name muleteers
bear in Arabic), had been on business to the shaykh of the village,
and the bare mention that I was physician to the meleky, or queen,
as he called Lady Hester, who had passed so recently, brought down a
peremptory invitation that I must go up and sup with him. Accordingly,
I went, and found a Turk (not a Syrian Mahometan, for there is a
wide distinction between them) of great breeding and civility, who
seemed highly impressed with Lady Hester’s importance; nor did he
interrupt his questions about her except to eat. His servant, a
respectable-looking young man, of about twenty-two, who stood waiting
submissively before him to serve our pipes, and who put the supper on
the table, after all were seated, sat down with us. This is one of the
patriarchal customs of the East.
On the 9th we reached Nebk. During the day, a military-looking
gentleman belonging to our caravan, well mounted and armed, who
had probably heard something of the shaykh’s civility to me on
the preceding night, showed himself very adroit in courting my
acquaintance, and constantly rode by my side, pointing out the objects
of curiosity that presented themselves. As we approached Nebk, he asked
me where I should lodge; and I told him in the caravansery. “Well, but
have you no buyurdy?” I told him I had. “Then why not use it?” he said,
“and let me accompany you to see to your lodgings: you need only say
I am your guard. You have authority to demand good entertainment, and
I will take care it shall be provided.” To this I objected, and was
unwilling to let him go with me to the shaykh’s; but, when we arrived
at Nebk, he clung to me with such an air of assurance that I did not
know how to get rid of him. On presenting myself to the shaykh, he
immediately ordered rations of barley for the horses to be given to us,
and desired one of his people to conduct us to the bishop’s, where he
said we were to lodge. He did not ask me if the Turkish officer was of
my party; but, concluding him to be so, bade him accompany me.
I was angry with my own forbearance, when, on presenting myself to the
venerable Syrian bishop, whom I had known on my former visit to Nebk,
I saw, mixed with the hearty welcome he gave me, many a side glance
of timidity and distress at my companion, who, the moment he entered,
began to put himself at his ease, like officers on a march, by throwing
off his accoutrements, asking for coffee, &c. My groom had warned me
on the road that I should not suffer this man, who, he said, looked
like an adventurer, to be too familiar with me: and I fully saw the
propriety of his warning now that it was too late. The bishop gave me
a good supper. He told me that the English princess had stopped at the
village a whole day, and that she had taken away with her Abu Hanah
and his wife: by whom he meant M. and Madame Lascaris, who having had
a son named John or Hanah, were hence called, according to the custom
of the East, he Abu Hanah or John’s father, and she Um Hanah, or John’s
mother: for the pride of parents, in the East, is their first-born,
more especially if a boy.
The khan or caravansery of Nebk is one of the most spacious and best
built between Damascus and Hamah, but of the same plain form as that
already described. Ibrahim woke me early. I had slept on the sofa in
one of the bishop’s rooms in my clothes, and to rise from bed and shake
myself was all the preparation necessary except washing. The night had
been very cold, and the maid brought me warm water. The mode of washing
in the East is quite different from that in use among us: the servant
pours water from a ewer, like an old-fashioned coffee-pot, upon the
hands, which is carried in splashes to the face and neck, and a basin
held beneath, or on the ground, receives it, as it falls.
On the 10th in the morning we resumed our journey. The air was
piercingly cold, for it now swept across the Desert. We arrived in
the afternoon at Carah, where I was known, but I did not go to my old
habitation, preferring the caravansery. On the 11th we reached Hassyah.
There was a woman in the caravan, rather pretty, whose object on the
journey appeared to be somewhat mysterious. She seemed to be a native
of some of the Arab villages, as her face and arms were tatooed. She
attached herself to the muleteer who had the care of my luggage, and
who was very officious in attending to her wants, as in spreading out
sacks and other things to render her rest during the night comfortable,
&c.
When the business of the day was over, the muleteer made up a fire on
the ground; and, seated at it with this woman, would carouse until a
late hour in the night. Coffee, however, was their only liquor, and
seldom could they afford more than two cups each. The intervals were
filled up in smoking the narkýly, which passed from mouth to mouth
between the muleteer and his dulcinea.
Prudence obliged me to sleep as near to my luggage as possible, and I
was often, when not better lodged, compelled to lie down close to where
they were. So, drawing my cloak over my face, I peeped out from time to
time to see that my goods and chattels were safe, and thus undesignedly
had occasion to observe their conduct, which was always conformable
with that reserve of character for which Mahometan women are proverbial
in the presence of strangers.
December the 12th we slept at Hems; and on the 14th in the evening I
arrived at Hamah. There I found Lady Hester settled in a small but good
house; and in another, also assigned to her, were M. Lascaris and his
wife, with whom I took up my abode.
Lady Hester told me that a Bedouin Arab, a mulatto, named Hassan el
Drymàn, had been sent to her by the Emir Mahannah, to beg the favour of
a visit from her physician, as he was very infirm and much indisposed.
This opportunity of sojourning with the Bedouins was eagerly caught at.
My departure was immediately concluded on as a matter that would ensure
a double purpose: for it would farther strengthen the friendship of
the Emir, by whose permission alone Lady Hester could get to Palmyra;
and would afford me an opportunity of judging how far there was a
possibility for her to perform a journey through wastes, which, we were
told, are without water and without vegetation. Hassan was therefore
desired to wait a few days, until I could get ready to accompany him.
Lady Hester was already grown tired of M. Lascaris, whose recollections
of the past were but little calculated to inspire him with feelings
consonant to his present situation. Misfortune had affected his mind:
and, one night, being suddenly called up by Madame Lascaris, I was
witness to an attack of phrenzy that at once terrified me and excited
my commiseration. I advised him, therefore, as a means of diverting his
mind from his sorrow, to travel again; so, having received a handsome
gratification from Lady Hester for his trouble, he was requested to
make his present lodging his home, until he had decided whither to go.
During the few days I passed at Hamah previous to my departure, the
secrecy with which the Turkish government is accustomed to execute
its measures was exemplified in the removal and imprisonment of the
motsellem. On the morning of the 19th of December, several soldiers, by
twos and threes, had entered the place unobserved; and, being dispersed
about, no notice was taken of them. On a sudden, they appeared in a
body at the front of the motsellem’s house, and, entering it, seized
his person. They then plundered his house and his stables, carrying off
everything excepting his women; and the governor was in chains, and on
his road to Damascus, almost before his disgrace was known.
M. Lascaris had long had an inclination to visit Palmyra, but never
had been able to accomplish his purpose. He determined, therefore, on
accompanying me, and relied for his security on the acquaintance he had
made with the Emir Mahannah, when with Lady Hester Stanhope. He gave me
to understand that he had formed the chimerical scheme of abandoning
the world, to plant potatoes at Palmyra, and M. de Lamartine, in his
Souvenirs du Levant, (Appendix) insists that, under these frivolous
pretences, M. Lascaris was fulfilling a mission entrusted to him by the
Emperor Napoleon to fraternize with the tribes of the Desert, and pave
the way for conquests in the East, long meditated by that victorious
monarch. I could not be otherwise than pleased that he should go
with me, because I supposed that his knowledge of the Arabic language
would be useful to me, and his society agreeable. Besides, in cases of
danger, (and I did not think this expedition altogether free from it)
it is pleasant to have a companion whose courage and experience may be
useful. As Lady Hester herself has compressed most of these details of
my narrative in a letter, I shall here annex it.
_Lady Hester Stanhope to Lieut. General Oakes._
Hamah upon the Orontes,
January 25th, 1813.
My dear General,
You will hardly believe that your kind letters of April the
5th, May the 26th, and September the 24th, 1812, only reached
me about a month ago at this place, together with the excellent
medicine-chest you were so good as to send me. All had been
detained at Smyrna, with other letters sent by Mr. Liston, till
the plague had subsided a little. I must now return you my
grateful thanks for the interest you were so good as to take
about my misfortunes, and for having done as much as you have
done to promote my comfort and convenience. If I was not afraid
of boring you, I should say fifty times as much upon the subject
of your goodness to me in every way.
I have written you three letters from Damascus--I think, indeed,
whenever I had an opportunity; knowing that merchant-vessels
went backwards and forwards from this coast to Malta, I thought
it possible that if the captains could _speak_--for they
are great newsmongers--all the reports in this country would be
taken there, and alarm you for my safety. I am now referring to
the one about the approach of the Wahabees upon Damascus, which
obliged me to write you a hasty letter, which perhaps you never
received. I wrote another after it to say the Wahabees had not
been heard of in that quarter, as was expected. Previous to both
these letters, I sent you a bag containing letters for England.
I have been obliged to give up my long intended journey to
Palmyra for the present: for the pasha _would_ send me,
and the Arabs _would_ take me, and there was such a fuss
about it altogether, that it would not have been prudent to have
undertaken it from Damascus. I _now_ can account why the
pasha’s man, into whose hands I was to be consigned, would take
1000 men, because the Arab chief had threatened to cut off his
beard, and strip all his people naked, if he took me at all; the
honour, the Arab said, should be his, as the desert was his.
In the spring, however, we mean to try it again, and hope to
succeed.
When B. was nursing Mr. Barker, who had a fever, I made an
experiment upon the good faith of the Arabs; I went with the
great chief, Mahanna El Fadel (who commands 40,000 men) into the
desert for a week, and marched three days with their encampment.
I was treated with the greatest respect and hospitality, and
it was, perhaps, altogether, the most curious sight I ever
saw: horses and mares fed upon camels’ milk, Arabs living upon
little else, except a little rice, and sometimes a sort of
bread; the space around me covered with living things, 1,000
camels coming to water from one tribe only; the old poets from
the banks of the Euphrates, singing the praises and the feats
of ancient heroes; children quite naked; women with lips dyed
light-blue, and their nails red, and hands all over flowers and
designs of different kinds; a chief who is obeyed like a great
king--starvation and pride so mixed, that I really could not
have had an idea of it: even the clothes I presented the sons
of Mahanna they could not carry, or indeed hold, but called a
black slave to take them. However, I have every reason to be
perfectly contented with their conduct towards me, and I am the
_queen_ with them all.
The Wahabees, I find, are at least 40,000 strong, and many more
when joined by other Arabs, enough to overthrow the Ottoman
empire. If Mahomet Ali drives them from Mecca, they will come
down upon Syria, and then take refuge again in the desert; and
what troops are to follow them? I thought my horse did great
things to come a long three days’ journey without water; and to
carry water for cavalry would be impossible, I should imagine.
In short, I fear we shall hear much of these Wahabees hereafter.
So you wish to be once more in a field of battle?--this is like
a true soldier, who, I believe, is never happy out of it.
We came to this place to be near the desert, and to learn a
little of what is going on there from good authority;--the
Arabs being still at war, it is necessary to be aware of their
proceedings. Last month the weather was delightful, but of late
it has snowed; and so much rain has fallen, that not a house
in the place is habitable. Every room is a pond, and there is
no communication betwixt one part of the town and the other,
from the Orontes having overflowed:--firing very scarce, and
everybody very miserable. A village a mile off has been half
destroyed, and fifty persons killed, either by the falling-in of
the houses, or drowned.
Not long ago, a body of Albanians, by order of the pasha,
entered this town, took the governor out of his bed, put him
into chains, carried him off, and seized all his property, and
also every fine horse they could lay their hands upon. A very
showy horse Suliman Pasha of Acre had given me, I had given to
the doctor, and it was waiting for him before the door of a
public bath; the Albanians were marching off with that also,
although told it belonged to a Frank, not a Turk. One, however,
asked, is the _Frank_ one of the queen’s people? Upon being
answered in the affirmative, he said, “Take the horse to the
stable, I shall not touch it, but some of our people may, not
knowing to whom it belongs.” What I have before told you about
myself, I know, my dear General, looks like _conceit_, but
it is true; and it is something to have one’s people and things
respected at a moment when no legislative power exists in a
place, and every one is in fear and trembling.
As soon as the weather mends, Mulla Ismael, the powerful
Delibash, will return from Damascus; the pasha sent him to
collect the _miri_ in Palestine, for he was afraid to go
himself. Mulla Ismael is a great friend of mine, and I shall
go out to meet him in the Turkish way: it will be a compliment
to him, and besides make me personally known to those of his
troops who have not seen me before. He is a very jolly Turk, and
has four wives here, and I believe fifty women--so many that I
cannot count them: they are all very good to me, and less shut
up than any women I ever saw in this country. No Pasha has ever
yet succeeded in cutting off this man’s head, though many have
tried; but he is too powerful, and the Arabs are too fond of
him. He has taken refuge amongst them twice, and he now feeds
every Arab who comes into Hamah, as a mark of his gratitude.
B. is in very good health, and means to write to you; the
doctor is curing Arab chiefs somewhere about Palmyra. After the
experiment I made in going alone amongst these people, I thought
I might safely send him, which I did with a single Arab, who
was to put him into the hands of my powerful friend, Mahanna El
Fadel. He went very safe, and was extremely well treated the
last time I heard: but Mahanna told him that if B. attempted to
come into the desert, unless with me, he would cut off the heads
of those who brought him before his eyes.
Adieu, my dear General, and believe me,
Ever yours most sincerely,
H. L. S.
Your Vino d’Oro is now waiting near the coast, and, as soon as
a good opportunity offers, it shall be sent. Hope was to have
taken it, but he is gone; but I trust I may hear of other good
captains upon the coast in the spring: in a Greek ship it would
be all drunk. I am trying to get some wild boar hams prepared
for you, but I am yet uncertain how I shall succeed. We want
strong dogs here very much, for the boars are very savage. I
must not forget to tell you that the Chevalier Lascaris is
become deranged. He goes about, however, but is, nor never will
be, fit for anything; but as being employed and having money
from Malta is always uppermost in his thoughts, it would be a
charity to put him out of suspense by some formal letter--that
is to say, if you think it quite proper.
It was necessary to make a total alteration in my dress previous
to setting off; for anything that could excite the cupidity of the
Bedouins was to be considered as unnecessarily smart. I therefore
purchased two very coarse cotton shirts, with long sleeves tapering
to a point; a white cotton kombaz; a pair of cotton drawers, which
were to serve as breeches; worsted socks; uncouth red boots; two
tanned sheepskin pelisses, one long and one short; a red skull cap,
to be covered with a silk handkerchief, called a keffýah, green and
orange-coloured, the corners of which, drawn across the lower part of
the face, leave only the eyes visible. As Bedouins have little to do
with the washtub, these different articles were thought abundantly
sufficient for an entire wardrobe. The cost of them was about two
pounds sterling. A second-hand abah, striped blue and white, was the
ragged covering of the whole. (See engraving.) M. Lascaris was attired
nearly in the same manner. It was on the 2nd of January, 1813, that we
left Hamah, and this accounts for the anticipation of some details in
the latter part of Lady Hester’s letter, which is dated the 25th.
The curious reader is requested to compare these dates with the
history of this same M. Lascaris, as related by M. de Lamartine in his
“Souvenirs du Levant.”