over the country, that Ibn Saoud, the chief of the Wahabi, had
left his head quarters at Derayeh at the head of an immense army,
with hostile intentions against Syria. Their arrival spread general
terror; the rich caravans which were expected from Bagdad at Aleppo
and Damascus were immediately countermanded; and although there was
no certain intelligence of the intended route of the Wahabi, it was
supposed that their first attempt would be upon Damascus. Others,
and perhaps better informed people, were of opinion, that Saoud came
to punish the Aenezy, who, divided into more than one hundred and
fifty different tribes, people the desert as far as ten journeys
to the east of Aleppo, Hamah, Homs, and Damascus. The Aenezy had
long ago been converted to the Wahabi faith, but had for the last
three years neglected to pay the fifth or tribute, which Saoud
exacts from all his followers.[4] At the same time, there were still
several tribes of Arabs, inhabiting the plains and mountains on both
sides of the Hadj route, as far as the eighth stage from Damascus,
who were not yet Wahabi, and their conversion might likewise enter
into Saoud’s plan. The Pasha of Damascus was glad to see fresh
obstacles arise to prevent the pilgrims from proceeding, and
have a new excuse to the Porte, for not transmitting the Miri,
which he might now be supposed to employ for his preparations
against the approaching enemy. The month of June passed away,
and nothing sure was yet known of the direction which Saoud had
taken. In the beginning of July, intelligence reached the town
from Mezerib, a castle on the third stage of the pilgrims route,
that the Aga commanding in the place had been attacked by swarms of
Wahabi. Yussef Pasha immediately left the town at the head of above
5000 men. Arrived at Mezerib he found that his officer had already
repulsed the attack, and that twelve of the enemy had been killed;
their heads were forthwith dispatched to Constantinople, and this
insignificant skirmish blazoned forth as an important victory. A
person who was at that time with the Pasha at Mezerib has assured me,
that the corps of Arabs which attacked the castle consisted of about
800 men, mounted upon camels and armed with lances. Saoud, it was
said, had fixed his head-quarters, with the great body of his army,
at about two days journey from Damascus, amongst the encampments of
a Wahabi tribe called Shammar. The Pasha of Acre was now required to
send troops in aid of Yussef Pasha; the Emir Beshir, or chief of the
Druses, was addressed to the same effect, and Yussef Pasha remained
from the 9th of July till the 26th at Mezerib without so much as
seeing an enemy; but he had the mortification to hear that Saoud’s
vanguard had plundered and entirely destroyed seventeen of the best
villages of the Haouran, and massacred all the inhabitants. Soleiman
Pasha of Acre had meanwhile encamped with about three thousand men
at Tabaria, and the Emir Beshir had joined him there with as many
more Druses. The town of Damascus was in perfect tranquillity,
the fear of the Wahabis having already subsided, when on the 25th
a civil officer came to town with a letter from Soleiman Pasha,
addressed to the Kadi, Ulemas, and Grandees of Damascus, including
the copy of a Firman from the Porte, by which Yussef Pasha was
deposed, and Soleiman Pasha named Pasha of Damascus. Soleiman had
obtained his Firman by transmitting considerable sums of money
to Constantinople, by promising to conduct the Hadj, or in case
it should be absolutely impossible, to remit the Miri, and at
all events to send Yussef’s accumulated treasures to the Grand
Signor. Nothing was done in his favour at Damascus but to deposit,
as usual, a copy of the Firman in the registers of the Mehkemeh,
or court of justice. Yussef Pasha, by forced marches, arrived
three days after with his army, and ordered several heads to be
struck off. Soleiman Pasha with the Emir Beshir likewise advanced,
and the town was in expectation of some great event. Luckily for
its inhabitants Yussef Pasha’s avarice prevented a civil war;
instead of liberally distributing his treasures amongst his troops,
he only paid them a part of their arrears, upon which the emissaries
of Soleiman fomented the dissatisfaction which began to break out,
the principal officers were bought over, and in a little skirmish
that happened on the 31st, the troops of Yussef loudly expressed
their disinclination to fight their master’s rival. By the
sacrifice of his treasures Yussef Pasha might perhaps have been able
to sustain his cause. Being informed that Soleiman was in possession
of a second Firman which demanded his head, he determined suddenly
to fly. He was preparing to leave his Seraglio in the night of the
1st of August, accompanied by about eight-hundred chosen horsemen,
with his treasure loaded upon seventy mules, when his Arnauts,
who were to have been left behind, fell upon the loaded mules,
part of which had already nearly gained the town-gates, forced
open the money chests and pillaged the whole. The guard of eight
hundred men, seeing there was now nothing more to be gained in the
Pasha’s service, deserted him, and the broken hearted Pasha, who
during four years had been the benefactor of Damascus, was lucky
in securing his retreat, with six or seven of his suite, amongst a
friendly tribe of Arabs in the neighbourhood of the city. Soleiman
made his solemn entrance into Damascus on the 5th of August, and is
now joint Pasha of three Pashaliks: Damascus, Acre, and Tripoli,
that is to say, he is in possession of almost the whole of Syria,
from Gaza to the vicinity of Aleppo and Antioch. Soleiman Pasha
is by birth a Georgian Christian; he was brought up by Djezzar as
a Turkish slave, and was much liked by his master, who elevated him
to the first situations, in his Pashalik of Acre. After the death of
Djezzar, Soleiman made himself master of Acre, by expelling Ismael
Pasha, who had succeeded Djezzar, and the Porte soon after recognised
him. He bears a good character, at least as good as any Pasha can
sustain without being made a fool of. His principal favourite and
counsellor is a rich Jew, named Haym, whose talents had already been
acknowledged by Djezzar. After having cut off his nose and ears,
and torn out one of his eyes, that monster kept him for ten years
a prisoner in his Seraglio, obliging him during the whole time to
conduct all his most important affairs. Under Soleiman Pasha, Haym
has governed Acre, and it is worthy of remark, that at the very same
time, the principal men of business of Soleiman’s rival Yussef,
were the two brothers and the cousin of Haym, who are supposed to
be the richest house in Damascus. Now that Soleiman is Pasha of
both places, the whole fraternity is here, and the Jews of Syria
may flatter themselves (as the Christians here say) that Israel
reigns again in his ancient limits.
Nothing farther has transpired of the Wahabi; but it is easy to
foresee that Soleiman Pasha will soon raise again the Wahabi war-cry.
Having had frequent occasions during my stay at Aleppo to observe
the deplorable state of the whole country round it, it has been
a very gratifying sight to me to witness the comparative ease
and I might even say wealth of the inhabitants of the territory
of Damascus. The neighbourhood of the city in particular is in a
very prosperous state, owing partly to the richness of the ground,
which is no where equalled in Syria, partly to the effect of Yussef
Pasha’s government, who during his whole reign never extorted
any extraordinary contributions from the peasant, and protected
him against the oppressions of minor tyrants. It is the misfortune
of the Turkish government, at least in its present decayed state,
that popular virtues in the persons of its governors are quite
incompatible with the Porte’s own views. The Porte demands
supplies, and nothing but supplies; and the Pasha, to satisfy
her, must press upon the industry of his subjects. He who is
the well-wisher of his people, who contents himself with the
ordinary revenue, and who lets justice preside in his councils,
will undoubtedly incur his sovereign’s displeasure, not because
he is just, but because his justice prevents him from plundering
and transmitting a portion of the acquired plunder to the Diwan. To
save his existence he has nothing left but silently to resign his
unhappy subjects to the rod of a succeeding despot, or to declare
himself a rebel and to contend with his rival until the Porte,
convinced of the difficulty of deposing him, patiently waits for
a more favourable opportunity of effecting her purposes. These
principles are applicable to all persons in office, from the Pasha
down to the Shikh of the smallest village; and it is to them that
the rapid decay of Turkey is chiefly to be ascribed. It requires but
one year’s reign of a man like Djezzar to destroy the benefits
of the four years government of a Yussef. The rapidity however,
with which ease and wealth are seen to reflow into the reopened
channels of industry, prove that Syria, on the downfall of the
Turkish empire, would soon regain its former lustre.
My last letter, of the 4th of July, from Aleppo, was accompanied
by an Arabic imitation of the well known novel of Robinson Crusoe,
arranged so as to suit the Arabian taste. I was desirous of giving
some proof of my application to the study of that language. I can
conscientiously say, that I have done, and still do, every thing
in my power to make myself master of it, but I must confess that
I find its difficulties out of proportion to the time which has
been allotted to me, to surmount them. I have no other motives in
this confession than the sincerest zeal to succeed in my travels
to the fullest expectations of the African Association. A two
years residence in Syria was thought sufficient to enable me to
speak with _fluency_. After one year’s stay, I think I may be
allowed to be able to calculate what remains yet to be done, and
I conclude that a twelve month more of study and practice is not
sufficient for the remaining task. I therefore take the liberty to
entreat the Committee to allow me six months more, over the already
granted two years, before I proceed to Egypt. If the Committee is
persuaded of the truth of what I advance, a delay of six months
and the expense accompanying it, will not be thought an object,
nor will it, I trust, be believed, that after the expiration of the
prolonged term, I shall again demand a farther delay. The additional
six months, however, is of the greatest importance to me, because
I know from experience that when once tolerably conversant with a
language, a short practice has a more rapid effect than triple the
time employed in getting over the first difficulties. In case no
distinct answer to this application should arrive before next July,
I shall look upon my proposition as rejected, and strictly follow
the tenour of my former instructions.
_Aleppo, January 6th,_ 1811.
I had the honour of writing to you from Damascus on the 15th of
August, 1810; soon after my arrival in that city from Palmyra. The
unsettled state of the government of Damascus obliged me to prolong
my stay there for upwards of six weeks. I again left it in the
middle of September to visit Baalbec and the Libanus. My route lay
through Zahle, a small but prosperous town on the western side of the
valley Bekaa, the ancient Coelosyria, and from thence to Baalbec,
where I remained three days; then to the top of the Libanus, the
Cedars and Kannobin, from whence following the highest summits of
the mountain, I returned to Zahle by the villages called Akoura
and Afka. Descending the Bekaa I proceeded to the Druse territory
of Hasbeya; this village is at the foot of Djebel el Shikh, or
Mount Hermon, and is famous for its wells of bitumen judaicum
and for the cinnabar found near it; from thence I went to Banias,
the ancient Cæsarea Philippi, where I saw some ruins, and copied
some inscriptions. At an hour’s distance from it is the source
of the river El Dhan (Jordan), in the plain of the Houle, or lake
Samachonitis. Three hours from it, upon the top of a mountain,
are the ruins of the ancient city of Boustra, mentioned in the holy
scriptures. I returned to Damascus over the chain of mountains called
Djebel Heish, which under the different names of Djebel Adjoulan and
Djebel Belkaa continues southerly along the eastern borders of the
Dead Sea. I remained this time only a fortnight at Damascus; it was
preparatory to an excursion into a region which till a few years ago
had never been visited by European travellers; I mean the country
called Haouran, the patrimony of Abraham, of which Dr. Seetzen,
the German traveller, had seen a part four years ago, previous to
his memorable tour round the Dead Sea. During a fatiguing journey
of twenty-six days I explored this country as far as a five days
journey to the south and south-east of Damascus; I went over the
whole of the Djebel Haouran, or mountain of the Druses, who have
in these parts a settlement of about twenty villages; I passed
Bosz ra (بُصره), a place likewise mentioned in the books
of Moses, and not to be confounded with Boustra, (بُستره);
I then entered the desert to the south-east of it, and returned
afterwards to Damascus through the rocky district on the foot of
the Djebel Haouran, called El Ledja. At every step I found vestiges
of ancient cities, saw the remains of many temples, public edifices,
and Greek churches, met at Shohbe with a well-preserved amphitheatre,
at other places with numbers of still standing columns, and had
opportunities of copying many Greek inscriptions which may serve
to throw some light upon the history of this almost forgotten
corner. The inscriptions are for the greater part of the Lower
Empire, but some of the most elegant ruins have their inscriptions
dated from the reigns of Trajan and M. Aurelius. The Haouran with
its adjacent districts is the spring and summer rendezvous of most
of the Arab tribes who inhabit in winter-time the great Syrian
desert called by them El Hammad (الحماد). They approach the
cultivated lands in search of grass, water, and corn, of which last
they buy up in the Haouran their yearly provision.
In my last letter from Damascus, I gave you some details concerning
the invasion of the Wahabi in July last, observing at the same
time that many people at Damascus were still in doubt whether it
was really a Wahabi corps, which had penetrated so near to the
principal seat of the Turkish power in Syria. My inquiries upon the
spots where they passed, place it beyond any doubt that Ibn Saoud
himself, the Wahabi chief, accompanied by the Sherif of Mekka,
headed the expedition, which consisted of about six thousand men,
mounted upon camels, together with about four hundred horsemen. The
camels were all females, whose milk afforded drink to men and horses
during their march from the Djof (an assemblage of Wahabi villages,
twelve days journey from Boszra) to the Haouran, at a time of the
year when no water is met with in the desert. Ibn Saoud executed
his plans in the true Arab style. He remained only two days and
a half in the cultivated districts of the Haouran, over-ran in
that short time a space of at least one hundred and twenty miles,
burnt and plundered near thirty villages, and returned flying,
loaded with booty, into the heart of his dominions. The terror
of his name was so great, that Yussef, the Pasha of Damascus,
did not dare to attack him while he defiled with his loaded camels
before the Pasha’s troops; but contented himself with aukwardly
firing off his field artillery. Many of the Wahabi were armed with
musquets. It is probable that Ibn Saoud will return next year; an
expedition conducted as the former was, will always be successful, if
no other means of defence are employed; the Haouran people entertain
great apprehensions of his return; a few successful attacks will
render the eastern borders of Syria deserted, and the great Desert,
which already daily gains ground upon the inhabited districts,
will soon swallow up the remaining parts of the eastern plain.
After a short excursion to the Djebel el Shikh to the west of
Damascus, I returned from thence by Homs and Hamah to Aleppo,
where I arrived on the new year’s day.
During this six months journey I have gained some experience in
acting as well as in speaking. This indeed was the motive which
principally induced me to it, and although disappointed on my first
outset, yet I have no reason to be dissatisfied with the remaining
part of the journey. I am now occupied in working up my journal,
of which I shall send you the first part by the next opportunity
for Malta. It will contain my observations among the Arabs, and the
classification of about one hundred and fifty of their tribes. The
journal of my Haouran tour shall follow as soon as possible.
I am at last under the disagreeable necessity of telling you
that notwithstanding every economy in expense I have spent my last
farthing. I performed my travels throughout in the garb of a pauper,
(the Haouran tour for instance only cost me four pounds sterling),
yet some expense in feeding myself and my horse, together with some
occasional presents were unavoidable. I should less regret the want
of remittances if it was not for the consideration that my stay in
Syria might have afforded me opportunities of laying out whatever
I might have spared of my appointments in manuscripts or objects
of antiquity, an opportunity which if lost now, may be lost for
ever. I have lived for nineteen months, since my leaving Malta, upon
£170. the remainder of my credit upon Mr. Lee, and I shall now be
obliged to accept Mr. Barker’s kind offers, gradually to advance
me the sums necessary for my livelihood, until I may be enabled to
reimburse him by the receipt of my salary from the Committee.
_Aleppo, May_ 3, 1811.
I am sincerely obliged to the Committee for having granted me a
six months prolongation of my stay in Syria.
I have the honour to transmit to you a parcel of papers containing:
1. A classification of the principal Arab tribes near the confines of
Syria. 2. A treatise on Bedouin customs and manners. 3. The journal
of my tour into the Haouran. 4. The journal of my tour over part
of the Syrian mountains. 5. Some geographical notices concerning
the Desert. The geographical part of my journey to Palmyra is too
insignificant to be laid before you, as I was deprived by the Arab
robbers of the aid of my watch and compass; my observations made
among the Bedouins on my way to and from Palmyra, you will find
dispersed in my treatise on their manners; and any researches at
Palmyra itself, must be superfluous after the excellent and most
correct work of Wood and Dawkins. My tour into the country of the
Haouran might have been interesting on account of its novelty, were
it not for the account which the indefatigable German traveller,
Dr. Seetzen, must ere now have published of his travels in these
parts.[5] As I have had opportunities of copying, in the Haouran
villages, many Greek inscriptions, it will be necessary to tell
the reader of my journal that the author’s knowledge of Greek is
very superficial. The excursion to Baalbec and over Mount Libanus
towards the lake Houle, was undertaken rather to gratify my own
curiosity, than in the hope of being able to gather new information
in a country so often travelled over by Europeans. The investigation
of Bedouin customs was a favourite object of mine, being convinced
that their civil institutions are still very imperfectly known in
Europe, although their social manners have often been described. In
my treatise on Bedouin customs I thought it necessary, frequently,
to subjoin the Arabic names, and sometimes, likewise the Bedouin
phraseology; because both greatly differ from the Syrian language. If
I had been in possession of some books descriptive of Arab manners
before Mohammed, such as Pococke, Schultens, &c. I might have
rendered my inquiries among the Arabs more useful, and might have
drawn some interesting parallels. Not having met with any such
works in Syria, I was contented faithfully to note down what I
myself saw or what I heard related by competent witnesses.
Since the late change in the government of Damascus, Syria enjoys
perfect tranquillity, the whole of the country, excepting only
the territory of Aleppo, being now in the hands of Soleiman Pasha
of Damascus. It is said, that he is determined to set out next
winter with the Hadj, but I very much doubt whether he will be
able to make good this promise to the Porte. The Wahabi chief has
been for some time past embarrassed by domestic dissensions. Three
of his sons have become rebels; in December last they plundered a
part of their father’s treasures at Derayeh, while the latter was
sacrificing upon Mount Arafat near Mekka, and they have now retired
to the city of El Hassa, near the Persian gulf, where Ibn Saoud
is preparing to besiege them. At Aleppo the power is still in the
hands of the rebellious Janissaries. A few hundred of them set out
last summer to join the grand Vizier’s army before Adrianople,
but they returned at the approach of winter; these are the only
troops which the Sultan has been able to draw from Syria.
_Aleppo, Sept. 7_, 1811.
The most untoward circumstances have prevented until now my long
projected excursion into the desert towards the Euphrates. Since
my last, I have been continually endeavouring to find means to
re-enter the desert, with some degree of security, but the state
of the country has always thrown insurmountable obstacles in my
way. The neighbourhood of Aleppo has been infested since spring,
until about a month ago, by great numbers of Aenezy Arabs, who had
declared war against the towns people as well as against the Manali
Arabs, who are looked upon as the hereditary friends of the Aleppo
government. The Aenezy have ruined about forty villages, have eaten
up the whole harvest of the open country, and have rendered the roads
so insecure that nobody dares travel but in the company of a large
caravan. I repeatedly tried to take some of the Aenezy for my guides,
and had chosen one from each of the principal tribes who surrounded
Aleppo, as the only means left to me to execute my design; but the
exorbitant demands of these people greatly exceeded my powers, and
I was moreover informed that the Aenezy had declared war upon the
Arabs of the Zor, or valley of Euphrates, which was exactly the
country I wished to visit; I was therefore obliged to wait till
the Aenezy should have retired from this neighbourhood. It is now
about a month since they returned into the interior of the desert,
to meet the autumnal rains; and I am now on the point of setting
out. A caravan arrived here a few days ago from Sokhne, a village in
the desert, five days journey from hence on the Bagdad route. The
people of that village, together with the inhabitants of Tedmor
or Palmyra, bring to Aleppo once or twice every year alcali, which
they collect in the desert. The day after tomorrow the caravan is to
return to Sokhne, and I intend to proceed with it in order to visit
from thence Deir, the ancient Thapsacus, and several ruined places
which I have heard much spoken of. I intend to return if possible
along the shores of the Euphrates, although I am afraid that the
eternal quarrels of the Arabs of the Zor may put many obstacles in
my stay. The Shikh of Sokhne, to whom I am strongly recommended,
and to whom I carry some small presents, is a powerful man in those
parts, and will certainly take care of my safe return to Aleppo;
I shall then only remain as long in Aleppo as will be necessary to
copy my Journal and put it in order, and proceed to Damascus, to
trace my way from thence into Egypt round the Dead Sea. My present
tour will take up about seven or eight weeks.[6]
My time at Aleppo has been exclusively taken up in endeavours to
enlarge my knowledge of Arabic. I have completed the perusal of
several of the best Arabic authors, prosaic writers as well as
poets; I have read over the Koran twice, and have got by heart
several of its chapters and many of its sentences; I am likewise
nearly finishing a thorough course of the precepts of the Mohammedan
religion, a learned Effendi having taken upon himself the task of
explaining to me the book of Ibrahim Halebi on the religious laws
of the Turks. This is the book upon which D’Ohsson has grounded
his excellent work.
There is no kind of political news in these parts. It is a long time
since we have heard of the Wahabi. Aleppo continues in the hands
of the Janissaries, but it is said that Gharib Pasha, whom the
Porte has lately named Pasha of Aleppo, is collecting in Anatolia
a considerable force to subdue these rebels. Damascus, Tripoli,
and Acre, are completely under the dominion of Soleiman Pasha,
but it is known that Mohammed Aly, Pasha of Egypt, spares neither
intrigues nor money to dispossess Soleiman at least of one of his
Pashaliks. The pilgrimage from Damascus to Mecca is again put off
for another year. There is a great scarcity all over Syria; wheat
has risen to an exorbitant price, and the two last years having
been remarkably dry, almost every kind of vegetable has failed. The
same quantity of wheat which at the time of my arrival at Aleppo
sold for six piastres and a half, is now worth twenty-seven. Such
scarcity makes travelling much less pleasant, and the natives much
less inclined to forward the stranger’s purposes.
_Damascus, May 30_, 1812.
The last, which I had the honour to address you, was from Aleppo. It
was accompanied by a large chest of Arabic manuscripts. Incessant
rains delayed my departure from Aleppo, until the 14th of
February. I arrived on the 3d of March at Tripoli, and on the 22d
at Damascus. Being very desirous of visiting the Haouran once more
before I should leave Syria, in order to examine those parts which I
had not been able to see during my first tour through that country,
I set out with this object, as soon as I was satisfied of the
tranquil state of the Pashalik. I left this city on the 21st April,
and returned to it on the 9th May. One of the packets of papers
herewith inclosed contains my notes on this journey through the
Haouran, and part of the ancient Decapolis; the second consists of my
observations during the previous journey from Aleppo to Damascus. The
third paper contains corrections and annotations to the description
of Bedouin manners, which I hope has long since reached you.
I intend to set out from hence in a few days. It is my wish to
proceed along the eastern borders of the Dead Sea into Arabia
Petræa, to visit there if possible, some unknown districts, and
to make my way from thence straight to Cairo.
Although my arrival in Egypt will thus be still further delayed, I
trust that the Committee will not be displeased at this delay. The
countries I have seen, and am now about to visit, are of difficult
access, and not without interest to literature; and without going
to great expense, or knowing the language and manners of the
country, European travellers cannot expect to be able to explore
them. Thinking myself in some measure qualified for the journey,
I perform it, as a general would take possession of any strong post
on his way, even without any express commands to that purpose. Such,
indeed, have been my only motives for undertaking these journies,
which are sufficiently laborious and hazardous, not to be mistaken
for tours of pleasure. That which I am now entering upon is certainly
subjected to almost as many difficulties as any African travels can
be. In performing it, I hope to complete my preliminary exercises,
and at the same time to obtain some information upon the geography of
an unknown region. The Committee will decide whether I do right or
wrong. Their disapproval indeed would far outweigh any satisfaction
I may derive from the success of the journey.
I cannot quit Syria without repeating that the kind services and
most friendly treatment of Mr. Barker, the British Consul at Aleppo,
have put me under everlasting obligations to him. He is a most
worthy man and of very superior talents. Being at present the only
Englishman established in these countries, the important care of the
English interests in Syria is exclusively confided to him; and the
reputation which he has acquired in every part of the country by his
prudent and generous conduct proves him fully equal to the charge.
Syria still enjoys perfect tranquillity, although the governors of
the country are continually changing. A new Pasha has been named
for Aleppo, who is at present intriguing there to get the better
of the Janissaries. The day before my arrival at this place, the
news had reached the town of the dismissal of Soleiman Pasha from
the Pashalik of Damascus; but he has been permitted to keep his
seat at Acre. There are some reports, of its being the intention
of Mohammed Aly Pasha to invade Syria. His ill success against the
Wahabi may have hitherto prevented him, but if he lives, and is
successful in Arabia, he may still execute his designs, for he is
a man of vast ambition, and great energy of character.
There is no news from the desert; the Wahabi, being fully occupied
in opposing the forces of Mohammed Aly, have been obliged to give
up for the present their plundering expeditions against Syria. The
hopes of re-establishing the pilgrim caravan to Mekka is entertained
only by those fanatic Turks, who, from the discontinuance of it,
prognosticate the fall of the empire. The important English coffee
trade, opened within the last twelve months, between Malta and the
Levant, considerably lessens the desire of the Hadj in the minds
of all those who were in the habit of performing the pilgrimage
merely in order to buy up Mocha coffee at Mekka, which they sold
with great profits at Damascus, Aleppo, and Constantinople. The
greater half of the pilgrims were merchants of coffee and India
goods. At present American coffee has entirely supplanted that of
Yemen all over Syria and the Syrian desert.
_7th of June._ I have tarried so long at Damascus principally in
order to get a letter of recommendation for Kerek, from a Damascene,
who was out of town. Kerek is a considerable village to the east
of the Dead Sea, where I shall probably stay a few days, for it is
from thence that I must look for a conveyance to Suez. I hope to
be at Cairo about the 20th of July.
_Cairo, Sept. 12th,_ 1812.
I hasten to announce to you my arrival at Cairo. The last letter
I had the honour of addressing to you was from Damascus, of the
30th of May; I did not leave that city until the 18th of June,
and arrived here on the 4th of September, in perfect health,
but considerably worn by the fatigues of the road and the intense
heat of the season. The following is a short sketch of my journey,
the further details of which I shall transmit to you in a short time.