Accident on our return. Visit to St. Jean D’Acre. Also to Tyre. Prophecies respecting Tyre fulfilled. Visit to Sidon. Lady Hester Stanhope. Her letter of invitation to us. Visit to her residence at D’joun Beirout. Missionary families at Beirout. Striking feature in the Protestant Missionary operations. Their schools and printing presses.

An accident, by which one of our party was seriously hurt, on our way back, damped the gratification of our visit and retarded our progress; but having left the invalid officer and Dr. B. at Ramla, we were able to reach the ship in good season the same evening. Some seamen were despatched during the night with a litter; and having thus got our companions on board, we weighed anchor on the afternoon of the 26th, and with a light breeze stood northwardly along the coast.

As we passed CÆsarea, about thirty-five miles distant from Jaffa, our glasses enabled us to distinguish a few masses of masonry, which is all that remains of that once large and magnificent city. A few hours after this we came opposite to the northern termination of Mount Carmel, on the summit of which the monastery of Elijah[73] was a very conspicuous object. The French ensign was flying on the top of it, probably in answer to our colors. The mountain was green, and had an agreeable appearance; it thrusts itself some distance into the sea, and forms the southern extremity of a large bay, at the northern end of which is St. Jean D’Acre, the ancient Ptolemais.

We dropped our anchor a few miles from this latter city on the evening of the 27th, and some boats, with parties, were despatched to the shore. I have seen no place exhibit so strikingly the ruthless and destructive character of war as did this city at the time of our visit. It was at this place that Mohammed Ali first began to put in execution his ambitious designs upon Syria. Under pretence of assisting the Sultan in putting down a refractory Pasha, he brought his army and navy against the place; but met what Bonaparte had here met before him, a fierce and determined resistance. It was subjected to a long bombardment, and at length, on the last of May, 1832, was taken by assault, when his soldiers are said to have been guilty of the greatest excesses.

The city is built upon a point of land running into the sea, and is surrounded by strong walls; those on the land side being assisted by ditches and by other lines of defence.

Scarcely a house was any where to be seen that had not suffered from the shot. We were particularly struck with a very high wall, the remains of some important edifice, that was completely riddled, and now stood between us and the setting sun, which was pouring a stream of light through every crevice, and making the ruin look still more desolate. We made the circuit of the walls, and walked through the city, but did not see more than thirty inhabitants in the whole place.

Leaving our anchorage early the next morning, we glided up towards Tyre, which lies about thirty miles distant from St. Jean D’Acre, being separated from it by a strip of low but sufficiently fertile land, beyond which the mountains of Samaria commence. Our visit to this country had put our Bibles in more than usual requisition; and I had been pointing out to some friends the prophecies concerning Tyre, and comparing these with the accounts given by travellers of the utter desolation of the place, had endeavored to strengthen the argument for the Scriptures. The spot is spoken of by Shaw as utterly abandoned, except “by a few poor wretches, harboring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing, who seem to be preserved in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument how God hath fulfilled his word concerning Tyre.” Volney speaks of it as reduced to a miserable village, consisting of “fifty or sixty wretched huts, ready to crumble into ruins;” and Joliffe, a more recent traveller, says, that “some miserable cabins, ranged in irregular lines, dignified with the name of streets, and a few buildings of a rather better description, occupied by the officers of government, compose nearly the whole of the town.”

Approaching it with these impressions, I was surprised to see a walled town of tolerable dimensions, and with houses no worse looking than is ordinary in these countries, above which, in answer to our ensign, were waving the flags of most of the European nations, together with our own star-spangled banner. The ship was hove to, and we were thus enabled to make a hasty visit to the place. Our boats passed some ruins, probably remains of the times of the Crusaders, which help to guard the harbor from the wind and the sands. This looks as if it had once been spacious, but it was now so choked up with ruins of various kinds and with sand, as scarcely to admit even our boats.

Our consul, accompanied by some of the representatives of other nations, met us at the landing, and conducted us to his house, where we were welcomed with the usual forms of eastern hospitality. The present population of Tyre, or Tsour as it is called by the natives, I should judge to be about 3,000 persons; it occupies about half of the ancient island, which since the time of Alexander has been a peninsula. It is surrounded by a wall of no great strength, nor at present of any great utility, as the sands on the eastern side, after covering over the isthmus to a considerable depth, have reached the city and have been filled up nearly to the height of its battlements. The sand is the only enemy, therefore, from which the fortifications are protecting them, for any other would only have to walk up this inclined plane and let themselves down into the city.

In a corner of the wall, about the centre of the island, they showed us a large ruin, probably of a church belonging to the times of the Crusaders, who had possession of the place from the year 1124 to 1289. Near these ruins were some very large columns of Egyptian granite, which looked as if they might have been taken from some of the ancient temples.

I passed out of the gate, and made the circuit of the peninsula. The shore on the southern side is formed of masses of bare rock, much eaten by the waves, and in some places undermined. The foundations of buildings are to be traced all over the ground, and also extending out some distance into the sea. The isthmus has become very wide, and now presents nothing but hills of loose sand, driven about by every wind, and destined perhaps to cover the entire peninsula. The shore opposite, for an extent of miles, is now also nothing but a bed of sand, amid which, any traces of the ancient city that may have been left by Alexander, have entirely disappeared. It was of this old city, of sixteen miles in circumference, and whose walls were 120 feet in height, that the prophecy was uttered: “I will make thee a terror and thou shalt be no more; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God. All they that feared thee among the people shall be astonished at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more;” and in vain amid that plain of yellow drifting sand should we seek for any memorial of it, or expect to see it rise again. Of this great mistress of the sea, the mother of many colonies, some, as for instance Carthage, of prodigious wealth; of the city that distributed crowns, “whose merchants were princes, and whose traffickers were the honorable of the earth,” nought now remains, and its site would probably be unknown but for this island and the village that stands here, as if in mockery of the greatness of ancient Tyre. “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?”

After walking about a short time among the dull streets, we were glad to escape and get back to the ship. The commerce of Tyre now consists of tobacco, charcoal, and fagots;—what a contrast to former times!

A gentle breeze wafted us on towards Sidon, which being only fifteen miles distant, was soon distinctly in view; the bold and towering chain of Mount Lebanon forming a striking background to the picture. This mountain commences just above Tyre, and the greatness of that city in ancient times, was probably owing, in some measure, to the outlet afforded between the southern end of Lebanon and the mountains of Samaria, to the trade from the great plain of Damascus and the cities east of it. Sidon, called by the natives Seyd, is also a walled town, and is larger than Tyre, containing a population of about 8,000 persons; but its harbor is most wretched, and our boats were near being swamped in endeavoring to get in. A boat from the shore hastened out to assist us, as soon as they found we desired to land; and placing itself before the Commodore’s barge, guided us along the shallow and tortuous channel, alongside of which a heavy surf was rolling and breaking, and covering the water with foam.

After all we were poorly rewarded for our pains, unless it may be something to say that we have been at Sidon; for it is a poor miserable place. We desired, on entering the city, to be taken to whatever objects there might be of interest; and they immediately started off with us for “the gardens;” the concourse gathering fresh numbers as we advanced. So we proceeded out of the town, and up a hill, and then down; and there were the gardens, naked earth planted with mulberry trees and vegetables; a spot that would have delighted B——, our steward, had he been with us, but was not exactly to our present taste. I ought to do the place justice, however; for it appeared to be extremely fertile, and as far as our eye could reach down the side of the eminence, there was the deepest verdure, and a refreshing luxuriance of foliage. We returned to the town as soon as possible, as the sun was getting low, and walked around and through it, but without finding a single object worthy of note. The houses are generally low and mean looking, and it appears to be a place of few manufactures, and of little trade. Its rich and beautiful back country, however, gives it a decided preference over Tsour; and its population, I thought, looked as if they might be more comfortable. We have a consular agent here, also, whose kind offers of hospitality the shortness of our time compelled us to decline. On returning to the ship we filled away and stood for the city of Beirout, which lies about twenty miles to the northward of Sidon.

It had been our intention to call upon the celebrated Lady Hester Stanhope, who we were informed was living at Manlius, about four miles back of Sidon; but learning that she had changed her residence to D’joun, three miles further in the interior, we were forced by the lateness of the hour to relinquish our purpose. We met, however, at the consul’s, a person who had been connected with her household, and the Commodore requested him to inform her ladyship that we had landed with the wish to pay our respects to her, but had been prevented by the distance and want of time. Soon after our arrival at Beirout we received a very handsome and polite invitation to make her a visit; and as I find that she has excited considerable interest in our country, I will give the letter as the best mode of presenting her to the reader.

Accordingly, after our return from Damascus, a party was formed and spent four or five hours with her at her residence at D’joun. The house is tolerably capacious, and is situated in a large garden, laid out after the English style, but the premises are somewhat out of repair. I fear she finds ungrateful subjects among the natives whom she has patronized, and among whom she has spent a large part of her fortune. A few years since she sent for our excellent consul at Beirout, Mr. Chassaud, a gentleman of great integrity of character and of business tact, and entreated him to save her from the rapacity of the people around her, who, by exorbitant demands, and by various kinds of roguery, were rapidly reducing her finances. He went and saved her fortune from a complete wreck, and I believe, has now a high place in her confidence.

She is a very extraordinary woman. Her person is tall and commanding, and is shown by her costume, the Turkish trowsers and vest and turban, to the best advantage; she is still handsome, and appears to take pleasure in showing her arm, which is remarkably well turned and beautiful. Coffee, pipes, &c. were brought in, and while she encircled herself with the aromatic fumes, she conversed on various topics—politics, literature, manners, and religion. She appeared to have a good knowledge of our country, and the intelligence she displayed about the politics of Europe was extraordinary for a person shut out as she is from society, and seldom getting even a newspaper. On most subjects she showed excellent sense, and a strength of judgment seldom witnessed in either of the sexes; but when religion was broached she became instantly changed, and was as wild as a maniac, both in language and to some degree also in manner. She believes in magic and astrology, and also that the Messiah will shortly appear, and has in her stables a horse, with a natural sinking or indentation in the back like a saddle, on which she says he is to ascend up into heaven. She formerly allowed visitors to see this animal, but has for some years kept it more secluded; and though the party on this occasion threw out hints as far as politeness would allow them, they were not successful.

She was, it is said, a great favorite with her uncle William Pitt, for whose society the acute and masculine character of her mind well qualified her. Soon after his death she suddenly resolved upon withdrawing to this country, and sailed in a short time, taking a large part of her fortune with her in the vessel. She was wrecked near the island of Rhodes, and her treasures were lost; but she was not to be driven from her purpose; she returned immediately to England, gathered together some more funds, and again set sail for the east, where she has ever since resided. At first she led a somewhat wandering life; and at one time had unbounded influence over the Arabs of the desert; but for some years she has been residing at Manlius and D’joun; and with the diminution of her funds has been also a decrease of her power. I understand that lately, even her life has sometimes been in danger.

It is probable that her mind, originally strong though given to eccentric flights, in these wild retreats where she has been shut out from intelligent society, has turned and preyed upon itself, and that a species of derangement has been the consequence. With her commanding form, her intelligent and somewhat masculine face, her fanciful costume, and the bright unearthly sparkling of her eye, she would make a fine subject for a picture of an ancient Sibyl.

On the 29th we dropped our anchor at Beirout, not opposite to the city, but in a large bay some miles to the northward, where were afforded conveniences for procuring water, of which our ship was in need. Opposite to our anchorage are some rocks at the foot of Lebanon, with a bold perpendicular front, on which are cut some inscriptions in ancient characters, probably Phoenician; and near this is a cave, said to be the one where St. George of merry England met and killed the dragon. The fancy of the reader is fired at the mention of this; and he is now most truly in the region of poetry; for more poetical objects than this mountain of Lebanon, with its wild glens, its rich valleys, its precipices, and even its inhabitants also, are very seldom to be seen.

Beirout is situated on the outer edge of a strip of comparatively flat land about four miles across, which commences at this place, and goes tapering off to the southward, until it terminates somewhere not far from Sidon. A large part of this plain, and every accessible spot on the mountain, is under cultivation; and as Beirout is also at present the seaport of Damascus, it is a city of some consequence, and, for this country, of considerable trade. It contains about eight thousand inhabitants, and on the land side is walled; the harbor will admit only small vessels, but a seventy-four may find safe anchorage in the road-stead, as near almost to the shore as it may choose to come. The country produces great quantities of silk which is worked up in the city; and here, particularly, are manufactured the fanciful variegated scarfs used all over this region for sashes, and sometimes for turbans.

In addition to the pleasures we received in the family of our excellent consul, Mr. Chassaud, another gratification awaited us here, in the society of three of our countrymen, and their ladies, the Rev. Messrs. Bird, Smith, and Whiting, missionaries, who have been several years in the east, and during the last five or six at Beirout. They speak the languages of the natives with great fluency; and are men of intelligence and talents sufficient to give them a high standing in any society, no matter where. They came on board immediately to welcome us, and readily proffered such hospitality as their circumstances would allow; their residence at that time being on the mountain, for the sake of the superior salubrity of its atmosphere in summer. Strangers residing below in the hot season are subject to fevers, and in the summer following that of our visit, they had to lament the death of Dr. Dodge, a physician connected with this mission and that at Jerusalem. They have schools in the villages of the mountains, and in Beirout; and at the time of our visit, were making arrangements for a printing press which has since arrived, and with which they are commencing operations.

It must strike every one, even those opposed to missions, as a pleasing circumstance, that in all such establishments belonging to our country, the communication of knowledge, not only in religious matters, but on all topics, is one of the earliest and is ever a constant object. Religion that comes thus associated cannot wish to hood-wink or lead the people blindfolded. It enlarges the mind, it teaches the people to think, and gives them useful objects of history and science to think about; it strengthens the judgment; and to this judgment, thus strengthened and thus rendered acute, it now appeals and asks for admission to the heart. No man need be afraid of a religion that comes in such companionship. It gives us the very best proof possible that it considers itself based on reason, and that it will bear the test of scrutiny from enlightened and intelligent minds—which scrutiny it ever invites. There is no jargon of the schools here, no throwing of dust into men’s eyes, no trying to blunt the intellect that nonsense may be forced upon it. The missionaries come with geographies, and arithmetics, and apparatus for easy and simple lectures, and compendious histories; or where such books are not to be had in the language, they go to work immediately and translate them; and they circulate them; and they gather the children from the streets, and seek for the adults, and they teach them knowledge, not religious knowledge only but knowledge of all kinds. Their object, if is granted, is to introduce religion into the heart, their religion, if the reader may choose to like the phrase; but then it comes preceded by and associated with knowledge; it loves the light; light is created, diffused, and in this light it comes, and in it addresses and appeals to us; and let him who opposes these efforts, look and see if he does not oppose them because he himself loves darkness rather than light, and that because his own deeds are evil.

I visited a missionary house at Malta, belonging to the English [Church?] Missionary Society, but under the care of some gentlemen from Switzerland. I found them striking off maps for an atlas in modern Greek, and making Arabic globes to be sent to Egypt, where, if I mistake not, it will astonish the natives when they are told that the world is round, and that they have been such prodigious travellers on its surface, when they were thinking themselves all the while sitting still. The shelves of this house were also filled with a great variety of books, translations of the most approved modern works for schools; and these they were scattering around the Mediterranean as fast as they were able. And when I went to the dwelling house of one of them, (the only one married,) I found his lady in a school with a room full of children, many of whom had been common beggars in the streets, and had been taken in here and clothed; she was teaching them to read and sew, and had a small cabinet filled with their work, each article with the maker’s name—the money for which, when sold, was to be delivered to the child itself. Though their garments were often “of many colors,” owing to the strange mixture of patches, yet there was not one ragged child, and all were clean, and they looked cheerful and happy.

And all this is only an example of the Protestant missionary operations at Syra, and Athens, and Constantinople, and Smyrna, and since they have got the press, at Beirout, and in the islands of the Pacific, and in India, and every where, wherever our missionaries are to be found.