CHAPTER XXI.

RELIGION.

"Men don't believe in a devil now, as their fathers used to do;

They've forced the door of the broadest creed to let his Majesty through.

There isn't a print of his cloven foot, or a fiery dart from his bow,

To be found in earth or air to-day, for the world has voted it so.

"But who is mixing the fatal draught that palsies heart and brain,

And loads the bier of each passing year with ten hundred thousand slain?

Who blights the bloom of the land to-day with the fiery breath of hell?

If the devil isn't, and never was, won't somebody rise and tell?

"Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint, and digs the pits for his feet?

Who sows the tares on the fields of time, wherever God sows His wheat?

The devil is voted not to be, and of course the thing is true;

But who is doing the kind of work that the devil alone should do?

"We are told that he does not go about as a roaring lion now;

But whom shall we hold responsible for the everlasting row

To be heard in home, in Church and State, to the earth's remotest bound,

If the devil, by a unanimous vote, is nowhere to be found?

"Won't somebody step to the front forthwith, and make his bow and show

How the frauds and crimes of a single day spring up? We want to know.

The devil was fairly voted out, and of course the devil's gone;

But simple people would like to know who carries his business on."

----ALFRED J. HOUGH, _in the Jamestown (N.Y.) Journal_.

It must not be supposed that Richard was the least insincere, because

he tried religions all round. He wanted to get at the highest, the

nearest to God, the nearest to other worlds, and in that respect he

was like Cardinal Newman. He always spoke the truth, and if he changed

every other day, he would have said so. Every time he was disappointed

with a religion he fell back on mysticism. It was the soul wandering

through space, like the dove out of the ark, and seeking a place

whereupon to rest. In each religion he found something good, and much

that disappointed him; then he took the good out of that religion,

and went away. He was sincere with the Mohammedans, and found more

in that religion than in _most_. He hoped much from spiritualism,

and studied it well; but he could make nothing of it as a religion.

It never seemed to bring him any nearer; but he believed in it as in

the light of a future frontier of science. _His_ Agnosticism, which

in his case is a misapplied word, was of a much higher cast; it was

the mysticism of the East. It was the tired soul or brain that said,

"Oh, my God, I have studied all things, and I am still no nearer the

point of closer connection with Thee, whom my soul longs for and aims

at. I know nothing; I can touch nothing. Faith is a gift from Thee;

give it to me!" He became impressed with one fact here in Syria, as

he had done at Baroda in his youth, and that is that Catholicism is

the highest order of Spiritualism, having no connection with jugglery,

or table-turning, or spirit-rapping; that we cannot call it up at our

pleasure, nor pay for it; but that, when something _does_ happen, it

is absolutely _real_, only we are not allowed to speak of it, except

amongst ourselves, and then with bated breath. Richard, however,

had opportunity enough of seeing all this for himself in Syria, in

Damascus, where some very extraordinary things were going on, that

were, without a doubt, genuine.

"Demand of lilies wherefore they are white,

Extort her crimson secret from the rose."

----WILLIAM WATSON.

"Brave as a lion, gentle as a maid,

He never evil word to any said;

Never for self, but always strong for right,

He was a very perfect gentle knight."

[Sidenote: _Shádilis--Sufis becoming Catholics._]

During the time we were at Damascus, there was a "mystery" going on

in the lower quarter, called the Maydán--the tail of Damascus, which

runs out towards the desert--amongst a certain sect of the Mohammedans,

called the Shádilis, or Sházlis. They used to assemble at nights

together at the house of one of them for Moslem prayer and reading and

discussion, when they became conscious of a presence amongst them that

was not theirs. They used to hear things and see things which they did

not understand, and this went on for two or three months before they

came to an understanding. I let my husband tell the story in his own

words, and you will all understand later on how it found its way into

my "Inner Life of Syria."

Fray Emanuel Förner, who figures largely in this history, was a

friend Richard used to study with. He confided his troubles relative

to these people to us. He asked us whether, as Richard had more

influence with the Moslems than any one else, he could be induced to

protect them. Richard felt that it was going beyond the boundary of

his Consular prerogative to interfere in a matter which concerned the

national religion; he therefore answered him that his position obliged

him to abstain from interfering in so interesting a matter, although

he could do so in cases where the _Protestant_ schools or missions

formally claimed protection against the violation of the treaties and

concessions of the Hatti-Sheríf. He added that the Spanish Consul was

the proper person for him to apply to, being _his_ Consul, and that it

was his duty likewise to restrict me from any active part which might

compromise the Consulate.

But this interested him enormously. He thought he saw his way in it to

the highest kind of religion, and he followed it up _unofficially_.

Disguised as a Sházli, and unknown to any mortal except me, he used to

mix with them, and pass much of his time in the Maydán of Damascus with

them; and _he saw what he saw_; and when, as in reading this account

you will see, Fray Förner was the guide who was pointed out to them by

that spiritual Presence, Richard stuck to him, and with him used to

study the Sházlis and their history. This gave him an enormous interest

in Damascus, but it was his ruin; and the curious Spiritualism, _if you

like to term it so_, that was developing there was almost like a "new

advent," and though he did not then _mean_ it, he ended by sacrificing

his worldly career entirely to it.

It was not for a whole year after the event of my disagreement with

the Shaykh's son at Zebedáni (which missionaries of the British Syrian

schools have since reported as the cause of my husband's recall, after

which the same Shaykh had become one of my most faithful followers, but

which had nothing to do with my husband's misfortunes), that twelve

of the most favoured of these Sházlis had been seized, transported in

chains, and partially martyred. Fray Förner died curiously, and Richard

came and told me all this, with a great deal more than I had known, or

than _has_, or _ever will be_ published, about the Sházlis, and he was

filled with remorse that he had not taken up their case and protected

them.

He had written up their case. He said, "If I should write to Lord

Granville, and tell him that there are at least twenty-five thousand of

secret Christians longing for baptism, and if I were to say, as I know

I can, that I can arrange it with the Moslems to _give them to me_, and

not to touch them because they are _mine_; supposing I were to buy a

tract of land and give it to them, and build a village, and that I took

no taxes from them in repayment, they could settle there unmolested,

and supposing that I should request the Patriarch Valerga of Jerusalem

to come and baptize them, would _you_ be afraid to stand godmother for

them with _me_ on guard?" and I replied that "I would be only too proud

to do it." It was then settled that these letters should be written and

sent.

Lord Granville communicated with the Patriarch Valerga, who at once

sent _openly_ and _clumsily_ to the Turkish _Authorities_ at Damascus

to know the truth, thereby _starting an evil_; and, _even so_, four

hundred were found who were willing for martyrdom, but the Patriarch

was evidently in _no_ hurry for martyrdom. The affair, instead of being

confided to Richard, was hopelessly mismanaged, and his recall followed

within the month; and Richard said, "This is suffering persecution

for justice' sake; _no more of this, till I am clear of a just and

enlightened Government_." It broke his career, it shattered his life,

it embittered him on religion; he got neither Teheran, nor Marocco,

nor Constantinople. I may be wrong, but I have always imagined that

he thought that Christ would stand by him, and see him through his

troubles, but he did not like to speak of it. Richard never asked a

single word at the Foreign Office--he was too proud; and he let me do

it in a Blue Book of our own. My friends in the Foreign Office, of

whom I had about thirteen, gave me _each_ a _different_ reason for

the recall; but when I got an audience with Lord Granville, I got the

true one. Syria and Christianity lost one of England's greatest men,

who was ruined, and her descent in prosperity and happiness commenced;

and I never heard that the Government, or the Foreign Office, or the

Service, or the British name in the East, was any better for it. I

humbly venture to think the contrary. He wrote himself the history of

the "Revival of Christianity in Syria."

When I brought out my "Inner Life of Syria," Richard brought me the

following account, blushing like a schoolboy, and asked me if I would

insert it in my own name--if I would mind, as I could not be godmother

to the Sházlis, being godmother to _it_.

"THE CHRISTIAN REVIVAL IN SYRIA.

"'Men are four. He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, he

is a fool--shun him; he who knows not, and knows he knows not, he

is simple--teach him; he who knows, and knows not he knows, he is

asleep--wake him; he who knows, and knows he knows, he is wise--follow

him.'--_Arab Proverb_.

"'What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what

ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear

not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;

but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in

hell.'--MATT. x. 27, 28.

"'Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because

the hand of the Lord hath touched me.'--JOB xix. 21.

"Christianity was born and grew in Syria. She gave the light of the

Gospel to the world. The grace of God has returned to Syria. Shall she

struggle single-handed with Moslem cruelty and oppression, unaided by

the Christian Powers who owe to her the Light of Faith?

"The heading of these pages will not a little surprise many, but

not all of my readers, who will be divided into two classes--those

familiar with old prophecies, and those who are not. The first

will expect, the others will not expect, to hear that Christianity

has revived spontaneously, unaided by Missionaries, Catechists, or

Consuls, in this fanatical Moslem land, especially in Damascus, the

'Gate of the Holy City,' the ancient capital of the Caliphs, where,

even at present, Christian representatives of Great Powers are not

allowed to fly their flags. But the movement has taken place; it

grows every year; its consequences are difficult to see, impossible

to calculate. The conversion of the Mohammedans has begun at last,

without England's sending out, as is her custom, shiploads of Bibles,

or spending one fraction upon it; and in this great work, so glorious

to Christianity, England, if old traditions are about to be verified,

is to have a large share. She must now decide whether the Revival of

Christianity, in the land which gave it birth, shall spread its goodly

growth far and wide, or whether it shall be cut down by the hand of

the destroyer.

"The first step in this movement, taken as far back as 1868, was

heralded by signs and tokens and graces, which partake of the miracle

and of the revelation. And here, at the beginning, I may remind my

readers, especially Protestant readers, that the Lord has a mighty

arm--'_brachium Domini non est abbreviatum_'--and that in this same

City of Damascus, the terrible persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, became

St. Paul, not by reading, nor by conversations with Christians,

but by the direct interposition of Jesus Christ. The visions and

revelations which I am about to record rest upon the same solid basis

as Christianity itself--that is to say, upon the unanimous testimony

borne to them by sincere and devout men, who have no purpose to serve,

and who have risked their all in this world without any possible

object but to testify to mankind the truths revealed to them. We need

not delay to consider whether the graces and tokens which have been

vouchsafed are natural, preternatural, or supernatural; objective or

subjective. Suffice it for us that they have been submitted to crucial

tests, and that even this philosophic and incredulous age cannot deny

that they have taken place.

"About four years ago a small body of Moslems who inhabit the Maydán,

or southern suburb of Damascus, had been initiated into the Shádili

Order of Moslems by one Abd el Karim Matar, of Darayya, whose touching

end will presently be recounted. This man, a mere peasant, left

his wife, his family, and his relations in his native village, in

order to become Shaykh of the Dervishes, and he hired a house in the

Sukhkháneh quarter of the Maydán. It is bisected by the long street

through which the annual Hajj Caravan passes out _en route_ to Mecca,

and its inhabitants, with those of the Shaghur quarter, are held to be

the most bigoted and fanatical of their kind. Through the influence of

the Shádilis, however, not a Christian life was lost in their quarter

during the dreadful massacre of 1860; many, indeed, were hidden by the

people in their houses, and were sent privily away without the walls

after the three days of bloodshed had passed. Our Lord, who promises

to remember even the cup of cold water given in His name, did not, as

will presently appear, forget these acts of mercy to the terrified

Christians.

"I am going to assume that all my readers are not perfectly _au

courant_ of the many subdivisions of the influential and widespread

religion--El Islam.

"The Order of Shádili Dervishes was founded by Abd el Husayn Shádili,

who died at Mecca in A.H. 656 (A.D. 1258). They are not, therefore,

one of the twelve originally instituted, and for that reason they are

rarely noticed by writers upon Eastern Spiritualism (for instance,

'The Dervishes,' by John P. Brown. London: Trübner, 1868). They

obtained fame, however, by introducing to the world coffee, so called

from the Abyssinian province of Kafa. The use of coffee in Yemen,

its origin and first introduction into that country, are due to the

learned Ali Shádili Abu Omar, one of the disciples of the learned

doctor Nasr Ood Deen, who is regarded as one of the Chiefs, and whose

worth attests the high degree of spirituality to which they had

attained ('First Footsteps in East Africa,' p. 78. London: 1856).

"The Shádili are Sufis or Mystics, esoterics from El Islam, who have

attempted to spiritualize its material portions. This order, like all

others, admits of two main divisions, the Sharai or orthodox, and the

Ghayr-Sharai, who have greatly departed from the doctrines of El Islam.

"The vital tenets of the heterodox are--

"1. God alone exists. He is in all things and all things are in

Him--evidently mere pantheism.

"2. All things visible and invisible are an emanation from Him, and

are not really distinct from Him--this is the Eastern origin of the

classical European '_divinæ particula auræ_.'

"3. Heaven and hell and all the dogmas of positive faiths are

allegories, whose esoteric meaning is known only to the Sufi.

"4. Religions are a matter of indifference; that, however, is the best

which serves as a means of reaching true knowledge, such as El Islam,

whose philosophy is Tasawwuf (Sufi-ism).

"5. There is no real distinction between good and evil, for all things

are one, and God fixes the will of man, whose actions therefore are

not free.

"6. The soul existed before the body, and is confined in it as a bird

in a cage. Death therefore is desirable to the Sufi, whose spirit

returns to the Deity whence it emanated. Evidently the 'Anupadishesha

Nirvana' of the Hindu, absolute individual annihilation.

"7. The principal duty of the Sufi is meditation on the unity which

advances him progressively to spiritual perfection, and which enables

him to 'die in God.'

"8. Without 'Fayz Ullah' (Grace of God) this spiritual unity cannot be

attained; but God favours those who fervently desire such unification.

"The general belief in these tenets has given the Shádili Order a

doubtful name amongst the multitude, who consider it to profess, like

the 'Babis' of Persia, opinions of a subversive and anti-Islamitic

nature. The orthodox portion, however, is not blamed, and at Damascus

one of its members is a conscientiously religious Moslem, the Sayyid

Abd el Kadir of Algerian fame, whose name is still so well known in

Europe, and who is beloved and respected by all. The Syrian Shádilis

are distinguished by white robes and white skull-caps and turbans, of

which they allow the inner flap to protrude a little from the folds

behind the ears.

"Abd el Karim Matar and his Shádili acolytes used to meet for private

worship at his house in the Maydán suburb, and they spent nights and

days in praying for enlightenment before the throne of Grace. Their

numbers varied from sixty to seventy, and even more. Presently, after

persevering in this new path, some of them began to be agitated

by doubts and disbelief; the religion did not satisfy them, they

anxiously sought for a better. They became uncertain, disquieted,

undetermined, yet unable, for fear of being betrayed, to declare even

one to another the thought which tormented them. Two years had been

spent in this anxious, unhappy state, each thinking himself the only

one thus subject to the tortures of conscience.

"At length they were assured by a vision that it was the religion of

Christ which they were seeking. Yet such was their dread of treachery

that none could trust his secret with his neighbour till they had

sounded one another, and had found that the same idea was uppermost

in every mind. Presently about forty of them, headed by Abd el Karim

Matar, met for their usual night-prayers; after prolonged devotional

acts, all fell asleep, and our Lord was pleased to appear to all of

them separately. They awoke simultaneously, and one, taking courage,

recounted his vision to the others, when each responded, 'I also saw

Him!' Christ had so consoled, comforted, and exhorted them to follow

His faith, and they were so filled with a joy they had never known,

that they were hardly dissuaded from running about the streets to

proclaim that Christ is God; but they were admonished that they would

only be slaughtered, and rob the City of all hope of entering the same

fold.

"They wanted a guide, director, and friend who could assist their

tottering steps in the new way which they were now treading, and they

heartily prayed that God would be pleased mercifully to provide them

with the object of their desire. One night, after again meeting,

as before, for acts of devotion, sleep overcame them, and they saw

themselves in a Christian church, where an old man with a long white

beard, dressed in a coarse brown serge garment, and holding a lighted

taper, glided before them, and smiling benignantly never ceased to

cry, 'Let those who want the truth follow me.'

"On awaking each told his dream to the other, and they agreed to

occupy themselves in seeking the person who had appeared to them.

They searched in vain through the City and its environs for a

period of three months, during which they continued to pray. One

day it so happened that one of the new converts, H--- K----, now

at J----, entered by chance the monastery of the R.R. Fathers of

the Terra Santa, near Bab Tuma, the north-eastern gate of Damascus.

This is an establishment of Spanish Franciscans, who enjoy French

protection by virtue of a Papal Bull and of immemorial usage. What

was his astonishment to see in the Superior, Fray Emanuel Förner, the

personage who had appeared to him in his dream. This saintly man,

Latin Curé and Franciscan of the Terra Santa, approached and asked the

Moslem what he was seeking. The Neophyte replied by simply telling

his tale and that of his comrades, and then ran speedily to inform

the others, who flocked next day to the monastery. The poor padre was

greatly perplexed. He reflected that visions do not happen every day.

He feared some political intrigue, of which Damascus is a focus; he

doubted their sincerity, and he dreaded to endanger the City, and to

cause for the sake of the forty another massacre like that of 1860.

On the other hand, he still more dreaded to lose forty sincere souls

by refusing to them baptism. However, concealing his agitation, he

received them with touching kindness; he gave them books which taught

them all the Christian doctrine, and he instructed them how to meet in

prayer for mutual comfort and support. Lastly, he distributed to each

a crucifix, the symbol of their new faith. This event took place in

the early spring of 1870. Fray Emanuel remained for about four months

in this state of dilemma, praying to know the will of God, and he

was admonished as to what he should do. Having performed his task on

earth, he fell asleep quietly one day about three months afterwards.

Some said the death was caused by climate, but many of his most

intimate friends, living a few hours from the convent, did not hear

of it till late in November, 1870, and then they had cause to suspect

treachery.

"The converts, now numbering some two hundred and fifty, held regular

prayer-meetings in one another's houses, and these could not fail to

attract the notice of the neighbouring Moslems. Later still a crucifix

or two was seen, and suspicions ripened into certainties. The local

authorities were at once informed of what had happened. The Ulemá, or

learned men, who in El Islam represent the Christian priesthood, were

in consternation. They held several sessions at the house of Shakyh

Dabyan, a noted fanatic living in the Maydán suburb. At length a

general meeting took place in the town-house of the Algerine Amir Abd

el Kadir, who has ever been held one of the 'Defenders of the Faith'

at Damascus.

"The assembly consisted of the following Ulemá:--

"1. Shaykh Riza Effendi el Ghazzi.

"2. Abdullah el Hálabi.

"3. Shaykh el Tantáwi.

"4. Shaykh el Kháni.

"5. Shaykh Abdu Razzak (el Baytar) and his brother.

"6. Shaykh Mohammed el Baytar.

"7. Shaykh Salím Samára.

"8. Shaykh Abd el Gháni el Maydáni.

"9. Shaykh Ali ibn Sa'ati.

"10. Said Effendi Ustuwáneh (the Naib el Kazi, or assistant judge in

the Criminal Court of the Department at Damascus), and other intimates

of the Amir.

"Riza Effendi, now dead, was a determined persecutor of the Nazarene,

and Abdullah el Hálabi, also deceased, had pronounced in 1860 the

Fatwa or religious decree for the massacre of the Christian Community,

and had been temporarily banished instead of being hanged as high

as Haman. These specimens will suffice. Still let us be just to

the President of this assembly, Abd el Kadir. He was carrying out

a religious duty in sitting in judgment upon renegades from his

faith, and he was acting in accordance with his conscience; but

during the massacre of 1860 he not only extended his protection to

the Christians, but he slept across his own threshold on a mat, lest

any terrified and supplicating wretch might be turned adrift by his

Algerine followers.

"The assembly, after a long discussion, pronounced the sentence of

death upon the converts. The only exceptions were the Amir Abd el

Kadir and the Shaykh Abd el Gháni el Maydáni, who declared 'that a

live man is always better than a dead man.' The Shaykhs Tantáwi and El

Kháni declared 'that to kill such perverts was an act more acceptable

to Allah than the Friday prayer.'

"If there be one idea more strongly fixed than any other in Moslem

brain it is this--the renegade from El Islam shall surely die. His

death must be compassed by any means, fair or foul: perjury and

assassination are good deeds when devoted to such an end. The Firman

of February 12th, 1856, guaranteed, it is true, life and liberty

to _all_ converts; it was, in fact, a perfect system of religious

toleration on paper. But it was never intended to be carried out, and

the local Turkish authorities throughout the Empire have, doubtless

acting under superior instruction, ignored it as much as possible.

"The usual practice in the Turkish dominions when a convert is to be

convicted, opens with a preliminary imprisonment, either on pretence

of 'counselling' him, or upon some false charge. The criminal tribunal

then meets; witnesses are suborned; the defence is not listened to;

a _mázbatah_, or sentence, is drawn out, and the victim is either

drafted off with the Nizam (regular troops), or sent to the galleys,

or transported to some distant spot. The assembly, however, not daring

to carry out the sentence of death, determined that the perverts must

be exiled, and that their houses and their goods must be destroyed

or confiscated. A secret _Majlis_ was convened without the knowledge

of the Christian members of the tribunal, and this illegal junto

despatched, during the night, a squadron of cavalry and a regiment of

infantry, supported by a strong force of police, to occupy the streets

of the Maydán. Some fifty Shádilis were known to have met for prayer

at the house of one Abu Abbas. At four o'clock Turkish time (10 p.m.)

they rose to return home. Many of them passed amongst the soldiery

without being alarmed, and whilst so doing fourteen were separately

arrested and carried to the _karakuns_ (guard-houses) known as El

Ka'ah, and the Sinnaníyyeh. Here they were searched by the soldiery

and made to give up their crucifixes. They were then transferred,

some to the so-called great prison in the Serai, or Government house,

others to the _karakun_ jail in the Government square, and others to

the debtors' jail, then at the Maristán, or Mad-house, now transferred

to Sidr Amud, near Bab el Baríd.

"I hasten to record the names of the fourteen chosen for the honour

of martyrdom. All were sincere and inoffensive men, whose only crime

was that of being Christians and martyrs; the rulers, however, had

resolved upon crushing a movement which, unless arrested by violence,

would spread far and wide throughout the land.

"1. Abu Abbas (the man in whose house the prayer-meeting was held).

"2. Sáid Isháni.

"3. Abu Abduh Bustati.

"4. Abd el Ghani Nassás and his son.

"5. Mohammed Nassás.

"6. Ghanaym Dabbás.

"7. Salih el Zoh.

"8. Abdullah Mubayyad.

"9. Ramazan el Sahhár.

"10. Salih Kachkul.

"11. Mohammad Nammúreh.

"12. Bekr Audaj.

"13. Mohammad el Dib.

"14. Marjan min el Kisweh.

[Sidenote: _They are tried and condemned._]

"After some days they were brought to the great secret _Majlis_

(tribunal), at which presided in person his Excellency the _Wali_,

or Governor-General, of Syria, Mohammed Rashíd Pasha. This officer,

a _protégé_ of the late Aali Pasha, Grand Vizier at Constantinople,

has been allowed to rule the province of Syria for the unusual term

of more than five years, and the violence and rapacity displayed by

him and his creatures have doubtless added an impulse to the Revival

of Christianity--it was evil working for good. With a smattering

of Parisian education, utterly without religion, but determined to

crush conversion because it would add to that European influence

which he has ever laboured to oppose, Rashíd Pasha never conceals his

conviction that treaties and firmans upon such a subject as Moslem

conversion are so much waste paper, and he threatens all who change

their faith with death, either by law or by secret murder--a threat

which, as the cold cruelty of his nature suggests, is not spoken in

vain. And he uses persecution with the more readiness as it tends to

conciliate the pious of his own creed, who are greatly scandalized by

his openly neglecting the duties of his religion, such as prayer and

fasting, and by other practices which may not be mentioned here.

"The Governor-General opened the sessions by thus addressing the

accused--

"Are you Shádili?

"Answer: We once were, we now are not.

"Gov.-Gen.: Why do you meet in secret, and what is done at those

meetings?

"Answer: We read, we converse, we pray, and we pass our time like

other Damascus people.

"Gov.-Gen.: Why do you visit the Convent of the Faranj (Franks or

Europeans)?

"Abu Abbas: Is it not written in our law that when a Moslem passes

before a Christian church or convent, and finds himself hurried by the

hour for prayer, he is permitted to enter and even pray there?

"Gov.-Gen.: You are Giaours (infidels)!

"Abu Abbas (addressing one of the Ulemá): What says our law of one who

calls a faithful man Giaour?

"Answer: That he is himself a Giaour.

"The Governor-General was confounded by this decision, which is

strictly correct. He remanded the fourteen to their respective

prisons. Here they spent three months awaiting in vain the efforts

of some intercessor. But they had been secretly tried, or their

number might have attracted public attention; the affair was kept in

darkness, and even two years afterwards not a few of the Europeans

resident at Damascus had ever heard of it. The report reached the

Consular corps in a very modified form--persecution had been made to

assume the semblance of political punishment. The Russian Consul, M.

Macceef, succeeded in procuring their temporary release, but this

active and intelligent officer was unable to do more. The British

Consul could hardly enter into a matter which was not brought

officially before his notice. The Consul of France and the Spanish

Vice-Consul took scant notice of the Shádili movement, perhaps being

unwilling to engage in open warfare with the Governor-General,

possibly deeming the matter one of the usual tricks to escape

recruitment or to obtain a foreign passport. The Neophytes, however,

found an advocate in Fray Emanuel Förner, before mentioned. This

venerable man addressed (March 29, 1870) a touching appeal to the

General of his Order, and his letter appeared in the _Correspondance

de Rome_ (June 11, 1870). The Franco-Prussian War, however, absorbed

all thoughts in Europe, and the publication fell still-born from the

Press.

"Fray Emanuel relates in his letter that one day, when visiting the

Neophytes before their imprisonment--he modestly passes over the

important part which he had taken in receiving them--he asked them if

they could answer for their constancy. The reply was: 'We believe not

simply through your teachings of the Word, and through our reading the

religious books which you gave us, but because the Lord Jesus Christ

has vouchsafed to visit us and to enlighten us Himself, whilst the

Blessed Virgin has done likewise!' adding, 'How could we without such

a miracle have so easily become Christians?' The good priest would

not express his doubts, for fear of 'offending one of these little

ones.' He felt an ardent desire to inquire into the visions and the

revelations to which they alluded. But he did not neglect to take

the necessary precautions. Assembling his brethren, and presiding

himself, he began with the unfortunate Salih, and he examined and

cross-questioned the converts separately. He found them unanimous in

declaring that on the first night when they witnessed an apparition,

they had prayed for many hours, and that slumber had overcome them,

when the Saviour Jesus Christ appeared to them one by one. Being

dazzled by the light, they were very much afraid; but one of them,

taking courage, said, 'Lord, may I speak?' He answered, 'Speak.' They

asked, 'Who art Thou, Lord?' The apparition replied, 'I am the Truth

Whom thou seekest. I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God.' Awakening

agitated and frightened, they looked one at the other, and one took

courage and spoke, the rest responding simply, 'I also saw Him.'

Christ had once more so consoled, comforted, and exhorted them to

follow His path, and they were filled with such ineffable joy, love,

faith, and gratitude, that, but for His admonishing them (as He used

to admonish the disciples), they could hardly restrain themselves from

rushing into the streets and from openly preaching the Gospel to the

Infidel City. On another occasion the Blessed Virgin stood before them

with the Child Jesus in her arms, and, pointing to Him, said three

times in a clear and distinct voice, 'My Son Jesus Christ, Whom you

see, is the Truth.' There are many other wonderful revelations whose

truth I can vouch for, but I feel a delicacy of thrusting them before

unbelievers. Indeed, I have kept back half of what I know, and I am

only giving the necessary matter.

[Sidenote: _And persecuted._]

"Of the fourteen Christian converts remanded to prison, two were

suffered to escape. The relations of Mohammad Dib and Marjan bribed

the authorities and succeeded in proving an alibi. Abd el Karim Matar,

the Chief of the Shádilis, who had been placed in confinement under

the suspicion of being a Christian, fell ill, and his relations, by

giving bribes and by offering bail, carried him off to his native

village, Darayya. There, as he was now bedridden, the family gathered

around him, crying, 'Istash'had!' That is to say, 'Renew the faith

(by bearing witness to Allah and his prophet Mohammad).' The invalid

refused, turning his face towards the wall whilst his cruel relations

struck and maltreated him. The cry was incessantly repeated and so was

the refusal. At last such violence was used that the unfortunate Abd

el Karim expired, the protomartyr of the Revival.

"On the night of Ramazan 1, A.H. 1286 (December, A.D. 1869), the

'twelve' (a curious coincidence that it was the number of the first

Apostles in this very land) who remained in prison were secretly

sent ironed, _viâ_ Beyrout, to the dungeons of Chanak Kalessi (the

Dardanelles fortress). Thence they were shipped off in a craft so

cranky and dangerous that they were wrecked twice, at Rhodes and at

Malta. At last they were landed at Tripoli in Barbary, and they were

finally exiled to the distant interior settlement of Murzuk. Their

wives and children, then numbering sixty-two, and now fifty-three,

were left at Damascus to starve in the streets, but for the assistance

of their fellow-converts and of the Terra Santa Convent. It is a

touching fact that if one of these poor converts has anything, he

will quickly go and sell it, and use the profit in common, that all

the brethren may have a little to eat. The Porte is inexorable; even

H.I.M. of Austria was, it is reported, unable to procure the return of

the exiles. Yet probably the 'Commander of the Faithful,' Sultan Abdul

Aziz, will ere long expect Austria, as well as England and the rest of

Western Europe, to fight his battles.

"I call upon the world that worships Christ to punish this high-handed

violation of treaty, this wicked banishment of innocent men. Catholic

and Protestant are in this case both equally interested. The question

at once concerns not only the twelve unfortunate exiles and their

starving families. It involves the grand principle of religious

toleration, which interests even the atheist and the infidel

throughout the Turkish Empire, throughout the Eastern world.

"Upon the answer depends whether Christianity shall be allowed free

growth and absolute development. Let England demand of the Porte the

removal of this Governor-General. Deliver us from this modern Herod!

Let Abdul Aziz call off his dog from worrying the followers of Christ

for the sake of the bones thrown to him by Aali Pasha, his Grand

Vizier. Send us an honest man, unlike Rashíd Pasha, who will not dare

to rend asunder the most solemn ties that can bind nations, who will

have the courage to do his duty.

"Amongst the Shádili converts was a private soldier of the Nizam or

Regulars, aged twenty-three, and bearing the highest character. About

five months after the movement commenced, the soldier Ahmed el Sahhár

being in barracks retired to a corner for prayer and meditation, when

suddenly our Saviour stood before him, and said, 'Dost thou believe

in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? I am He.' The youth at once replied,

like the man blind from his birth, 'Lord, I believe.' Jesus said to

him, 'Thou shalt not always be a soldier; thou shalt return free to

thy home;' upon which Ahmed inquired, 'How can I set myself free?'

Jesus again said, 'I will deliver thee,' and with these words the

beatific vision disappeared.

"The young soldier had fallen into a state of ecstasy. Presently he

arose and passed through the barracks, exclaiming, 'Jesus Christ is my

God! Jesus Christ is my God!' His comrades were scandalized. A crowd

rushed up; some covered his mouth with their hands; others filled it

with dirt, and all dealt out freely blows and blasphemies. At last it

was decided that Ahmed had become possessed of a devil, and, whilst he

preserved perfect tranquillity, heavy chains were bound upon his neck,

his arms, and his legs. At that moment Jesus Christ again appeared to

him, and said, 'Break that chain!' He said, 'How can I break it, it

being of iron?' and again the voice spoke louder, 'Break that chain!'

He tore it asunder as though it had v been of wax. A heavier chain was

brought, and the same miracle happened once more. This was reported to

the officers, and by them to their Bey or commandant; the latter sent

for the private, and, after heaping reproaches, abuse, and threats

upon him, ordered him to be imprisoned without food or water, and to

be carefully fettered. Still for a third and a fourth time the bonds

fell off, and supernatural graces and strength were renewed to the

prisoner, who made no attempt to move or to escape from his gaolers.

"The soldiers fled in fear, and the commandant no longer dared to

molest the convert. The case was represented to Constantinople,

and orders were sent that Ahmed must appear at the capital. He was

despatched accordingly under an escort, and with his wrists in a block

of wood acting as handcuffs. Reaching Diurat, a village three hours

from Damascus, he saw at night the door of his room fly open, and the

Blessed Virgin entering, broke with her own hands the block of wood

and his other bonds. By her orders he walked back alone to Damascus

and reported himself to his regiment. It was determined this time to

forward him with a party of soldiers, but without chains or 'wood.'

"Arrived at Constantinople, the accused was brought before a

court-martial; a medical man was consulted as to his sanity, and the

prisoner was not a little surprised to find himself set at liberty,

and free to go where he pleased. Thus the promise of Jesus Christ was

fulfilled. The neophyte took the name of 'Isa,' which is Jesus, and

returned to Damascus, where his history became generally known. The

Turks pointed him out as the 'soldier who broke four chains.' Some

term him the 'Majnún,' the madman, though there is nothing about him

to indicate the slightest insanity; but most of the people held him in

the highest respect, calling him Shaykh Ahmed, and thus raising him to

the rank of 'Santon,' or saintly man.

"The terrible example of the Shádili families has not arrested the

movement--persecution never does. The blood of the martyrs is still

the seed of the Church. But the converts now conduct their proceedings

with more secrecy. They abstain from public gatherings, although

they occasionally visit Fray Dominic d'Avila, Padre Guardiano,

or Superior of the Terra Santa. The society has now assumed a

socialistic character, with private meetings for prayers, and with

the other precautions of a secret order. The number of converts

has greatly increased. At the end of 1869 the males in the City of

Damascus amounted to 500; in 1870 it had risen to 4100; and in 1871

it represents 4900, of whom some 700 have been secretly baptized.

Moreover, I have been assured by the converts with whom I associate

and converse frequently, some of them being men highly connected

and better educated than their persecutors, that a small tribe of

freebooters living in and about the Druze mountain (Jebel Druze

Haurán), having been troubled and threatened by the local Government,

has split into two parties--Moslem and Christian, the latter known by

crosses hoisted upon their tent roofs. The converts described to me

the Bukâa (Cœlesyria) as a field in which the gospel has lately borne

fruit, and this was unexpectedly confirmed. The peasantry of B----, a

little village on the eastern slope of the Lebanon, and near Shtora,

the central station of the French road, lately became the property of

a certain M. A---- T----. He owned two-thirds of the village, but by

working the authorities he managed to get into his hands the whole of

the houses and fields, the crops and cattle--in fact, all the village

property. The wretches, after being nearly starved for months, lately

came up to Damascus, and begged to be received as Christians. In early

July it was whispered that the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mgr.

Valerga, is expected to meet, at his summer residence in Beyrout,

Mgr. Franchi, the Papal Envoy; that both these prelates will visit

Damascus, and that then these poor souls will ask for baptism.

[Sidenote: _The Protestant Converts._]

"Protestantism has also had its triumphs. About ten months ago a

certain Hanifi Moslem, named Abd el Razzak, having some misgivings

about his faith, left his native city Baghdad in order to visit

the Bab or head of the Babi sect, who lies in the galleys of S.

Jean d'Acre--what a place for such a purpose! The interview not

being satisfactory, he travelled to Damascus, where he came under

Protestant influence. Thence he was removed to Shtora on the French

road, and finally to Suk el Gharb in the Maronite mountains. There

he was enabled to study, and he was publicly baptized under the name

of Abdallah. The Turkish authorities had no power over him; but the

second case did not end so well.

"A certain Hajj Hassan, a coachman in the service of a Christian

family at Beyrout, M. Joachim Najjar, began about 1869 to attend the

Protestant service, and for two months before his incarceration he

professed himself a Christian, although he had not been baptized. He

is described by all who know him as a simple and sincere man, gifted

with great strength of will. He was waylaid, beaten, and finally cast

with exceeding harshness into prison at Beyrout by the Governor,

Rauf Pasha, who replied to all representations that he was unable to

release him; he acted, in fact, under superior authority. The convert

was not allowed to see his family, and on Thursday, June 29, he was

sent in charge of a policeman to the Capital: this, too, despite the

remonstrances of the Consuls-General for the United States and Prussia.

"The superintendent of the British Syrian school, where the convert

has a child, took the precaution of despatching to head-quarters one

of the employés, the Rev. Mr. Waldmeier, so that energetic action

began even before the arrival of Hajj Hassan. Rashíd Pasha commenced

by treating with contempt her Majesty's Consul's strong appeals to

his justice; he openly ignored the Treaty, blaming me for not having

quoted the actual article, and he declined to permit the interference

of strangers in the case of a subject of H.I.M. the Sultan. He

maintained that he had a right to send for the Neophyte in order that

the latter might be 'counselled;' and for that purpose he placed

him under arrest in the house of the most bigoted Moslem in Syria,

the chief of police, Mir Alai (Colonel) Mustafa Bey. He complained

strongly of the conduct of Protestant missionaries in Syria, accusing

them of secretly proselytizing, though he admitted in the same

sentence that the convert Hassan had openly attended a Christian

church for some time. On the next day he ungraciously refused my

request that the Presbyterian missionaries (Rev. Messrs. Wright,

Crawford, and Scott) might be allowed access to the Neophyte. About

midday on Friday, June 30, Rashíd Pasha sent for Hajj Hassan, who had

been duly disciplined by the police, and locking the door, he began

to ask whether the convert was not in fear of being strangled--words

which, in his mouth, had a peculiar significancy. He then proceeded to

offer a price for apostasy, which rose to thirty thousand piastres.

This was stoutly refused by the Neophyte, who was returned to arrest.

Presently the Governor-General heard that I had telegraphed for

permission to proceed to Constantinople to represent to my Ambassador

the state of things in Syria within my district, and Hajj Hassan was

ordered to return under the charge of a policeman to Beyrout. The new

Christian, however, was warned that he must quit that port together

with his family within twenty days, under pain of being sent to

Constantinople handcuffed, or, as the native phrase is, 'in wood.'

"The case of Hajj Hassan came to a lame and impotent conclusion. He

had been delivered out of the Moslem stronghold, Damascus, to the

safe side of the Lebanon. The Protestant Christians of Beyrout, with

their schools, missions, and Consuls-General to back them up, should

have kept him at Beyrout, and Rashíd Pasha should have been compelled

either to eat his own words or to carry out his threat. In the latter

case the convert should have been accompanied to Constantinople by a

delegate from the Missions, and the Sublime Porte should have been

compelled to decide whether she would or would not abide by her

Treaties and Firmans. The plea that exile was necessary to defend the

convert from his own co-religionists, that banishment was for his own

benefit, is simply absurd. Either the Porte can or she cannot protect

her Christian converts. In the latter case they must be protected for

her. Never probably has there been so good an opportunity for testing

Turkey's profession of liberalism, and the Turks are too feeble and

too cunning to let another present itself.

"In their first fright the Beyrout European Christians withdrew their

protection from Hajj Hassan. On the diligence arriving at the 'Pines,'

a forest about an hour before reaching Beyrout from Damascus, the

convert was ordered to dismount, and his wife and five children (one

at the breast) were turned adrift from the house which had protected

them for some days, at nine o'clock at night, to wander whither they

could. Hajj Hassan was subsequently removed from Beyrout to Abeigh,

an Anglo-American (U.S.) Mission station in the Lebanon, probably by

the exertions of Dr. Thomson, author of 'The Land and the Book,' who

distinguishes himself in Beyrout by daring to have an opinion and to

express it, though unfortunately he stood alone and unsupported. On

July 20th, Hajj Hassan was to be shipped off by night to Alexandria,

where he was expected to 'find good employ.' Suddenly his passport was

refused by the local authorities, and he was hidden in the house of

a Consular Dragoman. The Porte had sent a secret despatch, ordering

him to be transported to Crete, Cyprus, or one of the islands in

the Archipelago, where his fate may easily be divined. At length a

telegram arrived from Constantinople, and the result was that, after

a fortnight's detention by sickness, Hajj Hassan was sent off by the

French mail of Friday, August 11th. Verily, the Beyroutines are a

feeble folk. They allowed themselves to be shamefully defeated by

Rashíd Pasha when he was grossly in the wrong.

"When the depositions of Hajj Hassan were taken at the Consulate,

Damascus, he declared that a Moslem friend of his, named Hammud ibn

Osman Bey, originally from Latakia (Laodicea), but domiciled at

Beyrout, had suddenly disappeared, and had not been heard of for

twelve days. Presently it became known that Hammud, about two years

ago, when in the employ of Mr. Grierson, then Vice-Consul of Latakia,

was drawn for the Army, but had not been called upon to serve. He was

in the habit of hearing the missionaries preach, and on more than one

occasion he declared that he would profess Christianity--a course from

which his friends dissuaded him.

"Hammud determined, in the beginning of 1871, to visit Beyrout, and

Mr. Grierson gave him letters of introduction to the missionaries and

to the superintendent of the British Syrian schools, requesting that

he might be taken into the service of some European family. Here he

again openly committed himself by declaring that he was a Christian.

His former master, knowing that the eyes of the police were upon him,

made immediate arrangements for his leaving by the steamer to Latakia,

where he had been recruited, giving him at the same time a note for

the colonel commanding the regiment. Hammud, however, on the evening

before his journey, imprudently walked out in the direction of the

barracks: he was seized and put in irons--probably to be 'counselled.'

"Mr. Grierson, when informed of this arrest, at once addressed Toufan

Bey. This officer is a Pole commanding one of the regiments of the

'Cossacks of the Sultan,' the other being quartered at Adrianople.

Visiting the Military Pasha of Beyrout, he begged that as Hammud's

passage had been taken for Latakia, where his name had been drawn, the

convert might be allowed to proceed there. The two officers sent for

the man and gave the required directions respecting him. But Hammud

was already in the enemies' hands; and the normal charge of desertion

was of course trumped up against him. He was sent with a number of

other conscripts to the capital, with tied hands, and carrying the

rations of his fellow-soldiers; and presently a report was spread that

he had been put to death.

"Hajj Hassan on returning to Beyrout informed Mr. Johnson,

Consul-General for the United States, that during his arrest at

Damascus the soldiers had threatened to 'serve him as they had served

Hammudeh.' He went at once to Rauf Pasha, who replied that the man

had been arrested and sent to head-quarters because he had been

conscripted two years before at Latakia and had deserted. This was

directly opposed to the statement made by Mr. Grierson, namely, that

the man had never been called upon to serve. Mr. Johnson could do no

more, as Hammud had made himself amenable to the law of the land,

and he seems not to have taken any steps to decide whether it was a

_bonâ-fide_ desertion. He inquired, however, what the punishment would

be, and was told that it would depend upon circumstances.

"Several people at Beyrout wrote to me at Damascus, begging of me to

institute a search for the missing man. Shortly afterwards letters

were despatched from Beyrout, stating that Hammud had been found in

the barracks alive and well, and contented with his condition as a

soldier. What process he has been through to effect such a wonderful

change we are not informed, nor where he has been hidden during its

operation. The 'counselling' has probably compelled the convert by

brute force to conceal his convictions.

[Sidenote: _The Shádilis._]

"Another story in the mouths of men is that a young man, the son of

a _kázi_ or judge, had lately suffered martyrdom at Damascus for the

crime of becoming a Christian. This may possibly be a certain Said el

Hamawi, who disappeared three or four years ago. Said was a man of

education, and a Shaykh, who acted _khatíb_ (or scribe and chaplain)

to one of the regiments. He was convicted of having professed

Christianity, and was sent for confinement to the Capital. When let

out of prison he repeated his offence, and he has never been heard of

since.

"On the morning of the Saturday (July 1) which witnessed the unjust

sentence of exile pronounced upon Hajj Hassan, a certain Arif Effendi

ibn Abd el Ghani el Nablusi was found hanging in a retired room of

the Great Amáwi Mosque at Damascus, where he had been imprisoned. No

inquest was held upon the body, which may or may not have shown signs

of violence; it was hastily buried. Some three years before this time,

Arif Effendi, a man of high family, and of excellent education, had

become a Greek Christian at Athens, under the name of Eustathius.

Presently he reappeared in Syria as a convert, a criminal whom every

good--that is to say, bigoted--Moslem deems worthy of instant and

violent death. He came to the Capital, and he introduced himself

as a Christian to the Irish-American Presbyterian missionaries; to

Monseigneur Yakub, the Syrian Catholic Bishop, and to others; nor

did he conceal from them his personal fears. He expected momentary

destruction, and presently he found it, being accused, truthfully or

not I am unable to say, of stealing fourteen silver lamp-chains, and

a silver padlock. The wildest rumours flew about the City. The few

declared that the man had hanged himself. The Nablusi family asserted

that, repenting his apostasy, he had allowed himself to be hanged,

and the vulgar were taught to think that he was hanged by order of

Sayyidna Yahya, our Lord John (the Baptist), whose head is supposed

to be buried in the Great Mosque. It was currently reported that the

renegade had been sent to the Algerine Amir, the Sayyid Abd el Kadir,

who, finding him guilty of theft, had ordered him to receive forty

stripes and to be arrested in the Mosque, at the same time positively

refusing to sanction his execution as his accusers demanded. This

proceeding, though irregular, is not contrary to Moslem law; the Ulemá

claim and are allowed such jurisdiction in matters concerning the

Mosque.

"I, suspecting foul play, applied on the 3rd of July for information

upon this subject to the _Wali_, who rudely refused to 'justify

himself.' Eight days afterwards the Governor-General thought proper to

lay the case before the Tribunal. The result may easily be imagined.

That honourable body cast the blame of the illegal imprisonment

upon the Amir Abd el Kadir, whom they hate because he saved so many

Christian lives in 1860. They delivered a verdict that the convert

had been found hanged by his own hand, they antedated a medical

certificate that the body bore no marks of violence, and they asserted

contrary to fact and truth that the deceased was decently washed and

buried, whereas he was thrust into a hole like a dog.

"And now I will answer the question prominent in every reader's mind:

'These men are Turks; are we bound to protect them?'

"I simply reply we are.

[Sidenote: _Richard quotes Mr. Gladstone._]

"It is obviously our national duty to take serious action in arresting

such displays of Moslem fanaticism as those that have lately taken

place in Syria. Mr. Gladstone cannot forget his own words: 'We would

be sorry not to treat Turkey with the respect due to a Power which

is responsible for the government of an extended territory, but

with reference to many of her provinces and their general concerns,

circumstances place her in such a position that we are entitled and,

indeed, in many cases, bound to entertain questions affecting her

internal relations to her people, such as it would be impertinent to

entertain in respect to most foreign countries.... All that we can

expect is that when she has contracted legal or moral engagements

she should fulfil them, and that when she is under no engagements

she should lend a willing ear to counsels which may be in themselves

judicious, and which aim solely at the promotion of her interests....

As regards the justice of the case, we must remember that as far as

regards the stipulations of the Hatti-i-Humaioun, we are not only

entitled to advise Turkey in her own interest, in her regard to

humanity, in her sense of justice, in her desire to be a civilized

European Power, to fulfil those engagements, but we are also entitled

to say to her that the fulfilment of those stipulations is a matter

of moral faith, an obligation to which she is absolutely bound, and

the disregard of which will entail upon her disgrace in the eyes of

Europe.... We are entitled to require from Turkey the execution of her

literal engagements' (Debate on Crete and Servia. Mr. Gregory's motion

for correspondence and Consular Reports on the Cretan Insurrection,

etc., as reported in the _Evening Mail_ of Feb. 15-18, 1867).

"These memorable words deserve quotation the more, as throughout the

nearer East, especially among the Christian communities, England

still suffers under the imputation of not allowing the interests

of Christendom to weigh against her politics and her sympathy with

the integrity of the Turkish Empire. Even if we care little for the

propagation of Christianity, or for the regeneration of Asia, we are

bound to see that treaties do not become waste paper.

"The first step to be taken in North Syria, and to be taken without

delay, would be to procure the recall and the pardon of the twelve

unfortunates who were banished in 1870 to Tripoli of Barbary, and

to Murzuk in Inner Africa. This will be a delicate proceeding;

imprudently carried out, it will inevitably cost the lives of men

whose only offence has been that of becoming Christians, and it will

only serve to sink their families into still deeper misery. But there

should be no difficulty of success. Our Consul-General at Tripoli

could easily defend the lives if not the liberties of the Neophytes.

Her Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at

Constantinople should be directed firmly to demand that an officer of

high rank be sent from Head-quarters, and that he should be made duly

responsible for landing the exiles in safety at Beyrout. Thence they

should be transferred to Damascus; their pretended offences should be

submitted to a regular tribunal, whose action would be watched by me

or my successor, and when publicly proved to be innocent these men

should be restored to the bosoms of their families, whilst the police

should be especially charged with their safety.

"This step taken, the next will naturally be to urge the instant

recall of the unjust _Wali_, or Governor-General, of Syria, Mohammed

Rashíd Pasha, together with those members of the Secret Tribunal, more

especially the Mufattish Effendi, Mahommad Izzat, who made themselves

his instruments in carrying out illegal and tyrannical measures

against a body of twelve innocent men. And when the head and front of

the evil shall have been removed and the limbs formally impeached,

a consummation devoutly to be desired, unless due prudence be

exercised much evil may be the result. Rashíd Pasha has filled every

important post with his familiars and creatures; he will doubtless

leave directions after his departure for all manner of troubles to be

excited, especially between Christians and Moslems, Greeks and Latins,

in order to stifle the outcry which will rise from the length and

breadth of the land. The remedy will be a High Commissioner, and a

Firman from Constantinople couched in the strongest terms, and holding

all Governors and Judges (_muftis_ and _kázis_) personally responsible

for any disorderly proceedings. And should they not be able to keep

the peace, should any threat of repeating the horrors of 1860 be

heard, the nations of Europe must prepare to keep it for them.

"Thus will the unhappy province--a land once flowing with milk and

honey, now steeped to the lips in poverty and crime--recover from

the misery and the semi-starvation under which it has groaned during

the last five years. Thus also Christianity may again raise her

head in her birthplace and in the land of her early increase. Thus

shall England become to Syria, and through Syria to Western Asia,

the blessing which Syria in the days of the early Church was to

England, to Europe, and to the civilized world. Let her discharge her

obligations before her God.

"RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON."

* * * * *

[Sidenote: _Letters approving his Conduct._]

I saw at the Mission in Damascus, and obtained leave to copy, the

following testimonial addressed to Richard, and his reply.--I. B.

"Damascus, July 12, 1871.

"To Captain Burton, H.B.M.'s Consul at Damascus.

"Sir,--We beg to tender to you our heartiest thanks for your prompt

decisive action in the case of Hassan the converted Moslem, and also

to congratulate you on the result of your determination and firmness.

"For some time past we had heard that a Moslem converted to

Protestantism at Beyrout had become subject to considerable

persecution. A convert more obscure than himself has been put out

of the way and has not since been heard of, and Hassan had been

subjected to a series of arrests and imprisonments, and had several

times narrowly escaped assassination. The chief Consulates, however,

had become publicly interested in him, so that his safety from

legal execution seemed ensured; and as he was always accompanied by

some one to protect him from assassins, he seemed for the time to

be safe. But on the 29th of June we were surprised to find that he

was being transported to Damascus, having been arrested and bound

in chains. The English colony in Beyrout became alarmed, as they

declared that none so transported to Damascus ever returned again.

Two agents of the Mission were despatched from Beyrout, one preceding

the prisoner to give us information as to what had taken place, and

the other accompanying the prisoner to watch what became of him. On

receiving intelligence of the convert's transportation to this City,

the missionaries of the three Missions at Damascus resolved to lay

the case before you, but on doing so found that you had with your

usual energy already taken up the case, and categorically demanded

the release of the prisoners. And though the authorities ignored the

Firman granting civil and religious liberty to the people of this

Empire, and denied your right to interfere on behalf of the prisoner,

the unflinching stand you took by the concessions of the Hatti-Sheríf

secured the release of the prisoner: you have thus vindicated the

cause of humanity, for on the day on which the prisoner escaped

through your intervention, the Moslem authorities strangled in the

Great Mosque of Damascus a Moslem convert to Christianity. The man

had made application to the Irish American Mission for protection,

and declared that he lived in daily fear of strangulation. He was

imprisoned in the Great Mosque, and strangled as they say by St. John

the Baptist, and then carried away by one man and thrown into a hole

like a dog.

"This accident proves that your uncompromising firmness with

the authorities was an act of pure mercy, and that the worst

apprehensions of the Beyrout missionaries were not unfounded. But

more important still, you have asserted the binding character of the

spiritual privileges of the Christian subjects of the Porte, contained

in the Firman of 1856, and which, according to Fuad Pasha's letters to

Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, comprises 'absolutely all proselytes.'

"We are sure, Sir, that your conduct in this affair will receive the

unqualified approbation of the best public opinion in Christendom, and

we have no doubt it will receive, as it merits, the warm approval of

your own Government.

"We who were near and anxious spectators of the proceedings in this

affair cannot too warmly express our sense of the satisfaction with

which we witnessed the fearless, firm, and efficient manner in which

you conducted this important case until the convert was permitted to

leave this city.

"(Signed) E. B. FRANKEL, Missionary of the London Jews'

Society.

"JAMES ORR SCOTT, M.A., Missionary of the Irish Presbyterian

Church.

"FANNY JAMES, Lady Superintendent of the British Syrian

Schools, Damascus.

"WILLIAM WRIGHT, A.B., Missionary of the Irish Presbyterian

Church, Damascus.

"JOHN CRAWFORD, Missionary of the United Presbyterian Church

of North America at Damascus.

"ELLEN WILSON, Lady Superintendent of the British Syrian

Schools, Zableh."

[Sidenote: _Richard's Answer and Remarks._]

Captain Burton's reply to the Rev. E. B. Frankel, Rev. J. Orr Scott,

Miss James, Rev. W. Wright, Rev. John Crawford, Miss Wilson.

"Beludan, July 19, 1871.

"I have the pleasure to return my warmest thanks for your letter this

day received, in which you have formed so flattering an estimate

of my services as H.M.'s Consul for Damascus. Nor must I forget to

express my gratitude to you for the cordial support and approval of

my proceedings connected with your Missions which you have always

extended to me. This friendly feeling has greatly helped to lighten

the difficulties of the task that lay before me in 1869. You all know,

and none can better know, what was to be done when I assumed charge

of this Consulate; you are acquainted with the several measures taken

by me, honourably I hope to our national name, and you are familiar

with the obstacles thrown in my way, and with the manner in which I

met them. My task will encounter difficulties for some time. Still the

prospect does not deter me. I shall continue to maintain the honest

independence of H.M.'s Consulate, to defend our rights as foreigners

in Syria, and to claim all our privileges to the letter of the law.

Should I meet--and there is no fear of its being otherwise--the

approval of my Chiefs, who know that an official life of twenty-nine

years in the four quarters of the world is a title to some confidence,

I feel assured that we may look forward to happier times at Damascus,

when peace and security shall take the place of anxiety and depression.

"Meanwhile I recommend to your prudent consideration the present state

of affairs in Syria. A movement which I cannot but characterize as

a Revival of Christianity, seems to have resulted from the peculiar

action of the authorities, and from the spirit of inquiry awakened

in the hearts of the people. It numbers its converts by thousands,

including men of high rank, and it is progressing even amongst the

soldiery.

"I need hardly observe that it is the duty of one and all of us to

labour in the grand cause of religious toleration, and to be watchful

lest local and personal interpretations are allowed to misrepresent

the absolute rights of all converts to life and liberty. And I trust

that you will find me, at the end as in the beginning, always ready

to serve your interests, to protect your Missions and Schools, and to

lend my most energetic aid to your converts.

"I am, with truth and regard, yours faithfully,

"(Signed) RICHARD BURTON,

"H.M.'s Consul, Damascus."

This was the time that Richard was nearest making a public declaration

of Catholicity, but it was his "recall." I cannot tell it better than

in his own words:--

"I took the part, and espoused the cause of these forty martyrs, and

wrote home offering to be security for them if the Latin Patriarch

Valerga might be sent down to baptize them. I promised to stand guard,

and my wife would be godmother to them all. I asked her if she were

afraid, and she said, 'Afraid! No, indeed, only too proud.' Lord

Granville wrote to inquire into the matter, and the reply was, 'that

Valerga would not come, that the matter was very much exaggerated,

that there were only four hundred.' I have copies of the letter now.

Then my seven enemies clubbed together, and represented most falsely

that my life was in danger, that I was very unpopular with the

Moslems, which only meant the corrupt Rashíd Pasha."

Lord Granville, like many another easy-going, pleasant diplomat (to

please God knows who), ruined the life of the best man under his rule

with the stroke of his pen. That _did_ put the whole of Syria in a

blaze of revolt and indignation, and it required the utmost prudence

not to put a match to it. It is a pitiful tale, and was a revolting

sight to see seven jackals trying to rend an insulted and martyred lion.

One fine day a bombshell fell in the midst of our happy life. It was

not _only_ the insult of the whole thing, it was the ungentlemanly way

in which it was carried out from Beyrout. This was our position and the

way it was done:--

We were surrounded by hundreds who seemed to be dependent upon us; by

villages which, under our care, consular or maternal, seemed to be

thriving, prosperous, peaceful, and secure; by friends we had made

everywhere. Our lives, plans, and interests were arranged for years;

we were settled down and established as securely, we thought, as

any of you in your own houses at home. Our _entourage_ was a large

one--dragomans, _kawwáses_, servants; our stud, various pets, and

flowers; our home, and our "household gods;" our poor for thirty miles

around us. And so surrounded, our only wish was to stay, perhaps for

life, and do our duty both to God and our neighbour; and we were

succeeding, as I mean to prove. You, through whose evil working the

blow struck us on this day, examine your hearts, and ask yourselves why

you did this thing, because God, who protects those who serve Him, will

allow this cruel deed to follow you, and recoil upon you some day, when

you least expect it. It was useless to mislead the Authorities and the

public at home, by laying the blame upon the Moslems. Richard always

has been a very good friend to the Moslems, and the Moslems have always

liked him; but in this instance, local and individual weakness, spite

and jealousy, overthrew him.

The horses were saddled at the door, in the Anti-Lebanon, and we

were going for a ride, when a ragged messenger on foot stopped to

drink at the spring, and advanced towards me with a note. I saw it

was for Richard, and took it into the house for him. It was from the

Vice-Consul of Beyrout, informing him that, by the orders of his

Consul-General, he had arrived the previous day (15th of August), and

had taken charge of the Damascus Consulate. The Vice-Consul was in no

way to blame.[1]

Richard's journal says--

"_August_ 16_th._--All ready to start--rode in.

"_August_ 18_th._--Left Damascus for ever; started at three a.m. in

the dark, with a big lantern; all my men crying; alone in _coupé_ of

diligence, thanks to the pigs. Excitement of seeing all for the last

time. All seemed sorry; a few groans. The sight of Bludán mountains in

the distance at sunrise, where I have left my wife. _Ever again?_ Felt

soft. Dismissal ignominious, at the age of fifty, without a month's

notice, or wages, or character.

"The Turkish Government has boasted that it would choose its own time,

when Moslems may become Christians if they wish. The time has now

come."

[Sidenote: _He leaves._]

Richard and Charley Tyrwhitt-Drake were in the saddle in five minutes,

and galloped into town without drawing rein. He would not let me

accompany him. A mounted messenger returned on the 19th with these few

written words, "Don't be frightened; I am recalled. Pay, pack, and

follow at convenience." I was not frightened, but I do not like to

remember what I thought or felt.

[Sidenote: _I take a Night Ride across Country._]

I could not rest on the night of the 19th; I thought I heard some

one call me three successive times. I jumped up in the middle of a

dark night, saddled my horse, and, though everybody said I was mad,

and wanted to put me to bed, I rode a journey of nine hours across

country, by the compass, as if I were riding for a doctor, over rocks

and through swamps, making for the diligence halfway house. Three or

four of my people were frightened, and followed me. At last I came in

sight of Shtora, the diligence-station. The half-hour had expired; the

travellers had eaten and taken their places, and it was just about to

start; but God was good to me. Just as the coachman was about to raise

his whip, he turned his head to the part of the country from whence I

was coming, hot, torn, and covered with dust and mud from head to foot;

but he knew me. I held up both my arms, as they do to stop a train. He

saw the signal, waited, and took me in, and told the ostler to lead my

dead-beat horse to the stables.[2]

I reached Beyrout twenty-four hours before the steamer sailed. When

Richard had once received his recall, he never looked behind him, nor

packed up anything, but went straight away. It is his rule to be ready

in ten minutes to go anywhere. He was now a private individual in

misfortune. I passed him in the diligence, walking alone in the town,

and looking so sad and serious. Not even a _kawwás_ was sent to attend

on him, to see him out with a show of honour and respect. It was a real

emblem of the sick lion. But _I_ was there (thank God) in my place, and

he was so surprised and glad when he saw me! I was well rewarded for my

hard ride, for when he saw me his whole face was illuminated, and he

said, "Thank you, _bon sang ne peut mentir_." We had twenty-four hours

to take counsel and comfort together.

Everybody called upon us, and everybody regretted. The French

Consul-General made us almost take up our abode with him for those

twenty-four hours--our own Consul-General cut us. At four o'clock I

went on board with my husband, and on return I found his faithful

servant Habíb, who had also followed him, and arrived just ten minutes

too late--only in time to see him steam out; he had flung himself down

on the quay in a passionate flood of tears.

Any Consul, in any part of the Eastern world, with one drop of

gentlemanly feeling, would have gone to meet his comrade in distress,

and sent a couple of _kawwáses_ to walk before and behind him. Mr.

Eldridge's action was as big a thing as if he had posted handbills all

over Beyrout to announce to the world that no notice was to be taken of

him. The disgrace was to himself, not to Richard.[3]

The only notice Richard took of _this_ tragedy in his life is one

sentence in his journal: "After all my service, ignominiously

dismissed, at fifty years of age"--and at whose instance, do you think?

(1) A Pasha so corrupt that his own Government was obliged to recall

him a month later, threaten him with chains, and throw him into a

fortress, and his brains were blown out a short while after by a man

he had oppressed. (2) His own Consul-General, whose memory is only

known to his once immediate acquaintances by the careful registering

of his barometers, and the amount of beer which helped that arduous

task, and who exactly suited the Foreign Office by confining himself

to so narrow a circle. He was fearfully jealous of his superior

subordinate, and asked for his removal through Mr. Kennedy, who was

not commissioned for that business. Mr. Eldridge said afterwards, "If

Burton had only have walked in _my_ way, he would have lived and died

here." Thirdly, an aggressive schoolmistress, who altered, or _allowed

to be altered_, some words in a letter he wrote her, changing "mining"

into "missionary," to be shown at Exeter Hall. Fourthly, fifthly, and

sixthly, three unscrupulous Jewish usurers. Seventhly, an elastic Greek

Bishop, who began a crusade against the Protestants of Nazareth, and

prevented them from cultivating their land, and who had snatched away a

synagogue and cemetery from British-protected Jews.

[Sidenote: _We were stoned at Nazareth._]

When we were in camp there, he caused his people, who were about a

hundred and fifty against six, to pick a quarrel with our people, and

they stoned us. "Stoning" in the East means a hailstorm the size of

melons, which positively seems to darken the air. As an old soldier

accustomed to fire, Richard stood perfectly calm, collected, and

self-contained, though the stones hit him right and left, and almost

broke his sword-arm; he never lost his temper, and never fired, but

was simply marking the ringleaders to take them. I ran out to give

him his two six-shot revolvers, but when I got within stones' reach,

he made a sign to me not to embarrass his movements; so I kept near

enough to drag him out if he were wounded, putting his revolvers in

my belt. When three of his servants were badly hurt, and one lay for

dead on the ground, he drew a pistol from a man's belt, and fired a

shot in the air. That was my signal. I flew round to the other camps,

and called all the English and Americans with their guns. When they

saw a reinforcement of ten armed English and Americans running down

upon them, the cowardly crew turned and fled. This was followed by a

_procès-verbal_ between Richard and the Bishop, which Richard won.

I was left to pack, pay, and follow; so I took the night diligence

back, and had, in spite of the August weather, a cold, hard seven hours

over the Lebanon, for I had brought nothing with me; my clothes were

dry and stiff, and I was very tired. On the road I passed our honorary

dragoman, Hanna Misk. I called out to him, but I had no official

position now, so he turned his head the other way, and passed me by. I

sent a peasant after him, but he shook his head and rode on. "There,"

I said, "goes the man who has lived with us, travelled with us, and

shared everything we had, and for whose rights concerning a village my

husband has always contended, because his claims were just." The law

of "Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!" extends, I suppose, everywhere; but

probably the king's widow always feels it.[4] I wonder how old one has

to grow before learning the common rules of life, instead of allowing

every shock the world gives one to disturb one, as if one were newly

born? It is innate in cool natures, and never learnt by the others,

who take useless "headers" against the dead wall of circumstances,

until they grow old and cold and selfish. Disraeli told us that "no

affections and a great brain form the men that command the world; that

no affections and a little brain make petty villains;" but a great

brain and a great heart he has no description for. Here he stops short;

but I can tell him those are the men for whom there is no place. The

nineteenth century will have none of them.

Richard was a general favourite, but he was too powerful to suit the

Turkish _Wali_, or Governor-General, who for once found a man he could

not corrupt. To give some idea of _how_ incorruptible, he was once

offered £10,000 on the table, which the man in question brought with

him, to give an opinion which would have swayed a public transaction,

which would have been no very great harm, but yet it would not have

been quite "square" for such a man as Richard, and a promise of £10,000

when the thing was done--"for," said the man, "I can get plenty of

money when I like, and this will pay me well." My husband let him

finish, and then he said, "If you were a gentleman of my own standing,

and an Englishman, I would just pitch you out of the window; but as

you are not, you may pick up your £10,000 and you may walk down the

stairs. But don't come here again, because if the thing is right, I

shall do it without your paying me; and if it is not, there is not

enough money in the world to buy me." He then called me, and he told me

about it, and said, "This man's harem will be offering you diamonds;

mind you don't take them." "There is not the slightest chance," I said;

"I don't want them." Now, it is a perfect fact that, although I am a

woman, jewellery is no temptation to me; I therefore take no credit to

myself that I have refused enough to enable me to wear as many as any

woman in London; but when they brought me horses, it was quite another

sensation, and I had to screw up my courage hard--and bolt.

It is perfectly true that Richard is the only man not born a Moslem and

an Oriental who, having performed the Hajj to Mecca and Medinah, could

live with the Moslems in perfect friendship after. They considered

him a _personâ grata_--something more civilized than the common run

of Franks; they called him Haji Abdullah, and treated him as one of

themselves. During Richard's time in Syria he raised the English name,

which was going down rapidly, to its old prestige in the time of Sir

Richard Wood and Lord Strathnairn, and the old days of Lord Stratford

de Redcliffe. He explored all the unknown parts of Syria, Palestine,

Holy Land, Haurán, the 'Aláh and Nejd; he stood between the poor

peasantry and the usurers; he advanced and protected the just claims

of British subjects. When a massacre appeared imminent he kept the

peace. The fanatical persecution of the Christians was stopped; he

stood between them and his friends the Mohammedans; he said, "They are

mine, and you must not touch them;" he saved innumerable villages from

slavery. In fact, he was just the man whom Rashíd Pasha, the corrupt

Turkish Governor-General, could not stand; he was an avenging angel

in his way. His own Consul-General was jealous of him. The Beyrout

missionaries, or _rather_ the British Syrian schools missionaries--for

we were friends with several Beyrout missionaries, notably Dr. Thomson

and Dr. Bliss--poisoned Exeter Hall against him, although they got

more help from him than from any one, simply because neither he nor I

were, what I believe the technical term is, "practical Protestants."

The three foremost Jews set Sir Moses Montefiore and the illustrious

Jewish families of London against him, because he could not stand by

and see the poor plundered twice and thrice over, never getting a

receipt for their money, never being allowed a paper to show what they

had paid, till (when England is paying millions to suppress Slave-trade

in various parts of the world) she was unconsciously abetting it, and

aiding it, and protecting it, all over the Syrian villages, by the

power of complaisant Consuls. The Greek Bishop abetted our being stoned

at Nazareth, because he had advanced and protected the Protestant

missionaries' just claim in his jurisdiction. These seven hornets were

sufficient to kill and break the heart of St. Michael the archangel.

They say three hornets kill a man, and six will kill a horse.

[Sidenote: _General Information._[5]]

I am now going to suppose that _all_ my readers are not familiar

with Syria and its Cities, its native and foreign officials, or its

various Religions and Races. As a wanderer in that land, now free

and independent of all employments and Governments, an impartial

looker-on and a student of its politics, religions, and peculiar mode

of Government, I will diverge for a moment from my subject to explain a

few facts.

On arriving in Syria, one lands at Beyrout, a pretty town of no

very great importance to the world. It is the concentration of

all that Syria knows of comfort, luxury, and pleasure. Christian

and semi-civilized, it has its soldiers and policemen, its ships

and sailors under the windows, its semi-European mode of living

and manners, and its free communication with Europe by telegraphs

and regular mails. Steamers anchor in the open roadstead (there

is no harbour, pier, or landing-place, save a few broken unclean

steps leading to a small, dirty custom-house quay), an occasional

merchant-ship appears, and at times some wandering man-of-war. It is

ruled by a Governor subject to the _Wali_, who rules Syria, being in

fact Viceroy to the Sultan. This great official lives at Damascus,

and visits Beyrout for sea-bathing and to make holiday. It is also

the residence of the Consuls-General, who represent foreign Powers

and European influence, and are very great people in their way; and

also of a large European society of the middle classes. Beyrout is

backed by the high range of the Lebanon, which is inhabited by Druzes

and Maronites, and ruled by a separate Governor, Franco Pasha, an

able officer, independent of the _Wali_. After crossing the Lebanon

and descending into the plain of the Bukâa (Cœle-Syria) Civilization,

Christianity, and all free communication with the outer world, are left

behind; as are comforts, luxuries, and Society, whilst the traveller

is completely at the mercy of Beyrout as to how much or how little

he may receive of the necessary help such as man should give to his

fellow-man. For safety he is self-dependent on his own personal courage

and his knowledge of the East, and woe betide the hapless one who has

no friend at Beyrout, or whose Consul-General may be a little sick, or

selfish, or ill-tempered, or otherwise ill-disposed. He steps forth

into the solemnity of Orientalism, which increases upon him during

the sometimes dreary and barren seventy-two miles journey, and he

finds himself in the heart of Oriental life in the City of Damascus.

This Orientalism is the great charm of "the Pearl of the East." She

is still pure and innocent of anything like Europeanism. However much

the wanderer may dislike it at first, the life so grows upon him that,

after a time, to quit it would be a wrench. But this is what makes

the demi-semi-fashionable of Beyrout hate Damascus, with a spice of

fear, knowing nothing of her attractions; whilst she, on her side,

lazily despises the effeminate and, to her, luxurious and feeble

Beyroutine. Damascus, I have said, is the heart and capital of Syria,

the residence of the _Wali_ and his _entourage_, who rule Syria, who

fear the strong and who oppress the weak, who persecute Christians, who

starve the people, and who fill their own pockets. If his Excellency

died to-morrow the voice of Syria would go up to heaven in one loud cry

of execration, embodying the popular curse upon a departed tyrant's

soul, "May the Lord have no mercy upon your resting-place!" Here also

are the head-quarters of the Army and Police, the chief _Majlises_ or

Tribunals, which represent our Courts of Law; business institutions

and transactions have also their place in Damascus, and, being a "Holy

City," I need not say that it is the religious _chef lieu_.

Syria has always been cursed with races, tribes, and faiths enough

to split up the country, and to cause all manner of confusion. For

instance, the Moslem is the national religion. There are the Moslem

Sunnites, or orthodox of four schools, viz. the Hanifi, Shafí, Hanbeli,

Maliki; the Shí'ah heresy, locally called Metáwali (of these most

are Kurds); the Nusayri (also Shiites), but their faith is little

understood. The Nowar, or Gypsies, are self-styled Mohammedans. Besides

these there are Shádilis or Sházlis (Dervishes and Sufis), Persian

"Babis," Chaldean Yezidis, Ismailiyehs (Shí'ahs) from different parts

of the East, and Wáhhabis, who keep themselves in the background. The

Bedawi, who are as the sands of the desert they inhabit, are also

Moslems.

After the Moslems, but conforming with them, come the Druzes, who are

divided into Akkal and Juhhal; which simply means "the wise men" and

"the foolish (young) men," as the former lead a more rigid life than

the latter. Their belief is more or less a mystery; for policy's sake

they affect the national religion, and they will lean towards the faith

of whatever person they may happen to address.

The Jews are divided into Sephardim, Askenazim, Samaritan, and Karaite.