Beyroot, May 29th, 1837.

On the first day of the new year, (the orientals follow the old style, which is twelve days later,) about four o'clock P.M., while we were assembled at the Mission-house, and engaged in celebrating the Lord's Supper, there was a very severe earthquake; at first a sudden shock, then a momentary pause, then a rocking motion, so that the arms of nearly every person were involuntarily extended to preserve their balance. It was preceded by a dull murmuring sound. The sound and motion seemed to proceed from the north. There had been for several days a haziness of the atmosphere which is unusual; no rain had fallen since the first of December, and the ground had become dry for this season of the year. The haziness increased considerably about the time of the first shock, and part of the sky was covered with a fleecy cloud, in some places of a dark appearance. This was very unusual in the region. There were several slight shocks during the night. It did not do much injury in Beyroot, excepting cracking some of the houses; but Safet, Tiberias, and many other villages were almost entirely destroyed, and many lives lost. A meeting of the Franks was held, to see what could be done for these suffering villages; a collection was made, and Messrs. Thomson and Calman appointed as a committee to visit and aid them. I would gladly have accompanied them, and made observations for myself, but the circumstances of the mission rendered it inexpedient for Mr. T. and myself to be absent at the same time. Slight shocks of earthquakes were frequent for ten or twelve days, and the people were much alarmed. Many have feared to sleep in their houses. A Jew at Damascus prophesied that the whole coast from Sidon to Antioch would be destroyed. The governor, believing, very properly, that he was an impostor, had him confined, and threatened to punish him if his predictions were not fulfilled. Most of the Jews left their houses, and encamped without the city.

The attention of the English government has, for several years past, been much turned to the opening and maintaining a passage from some port in Syria, through the valley of the Euphrates to the East Indies. Two steam-boats, the Euphrates and Tigris, were taken across from the Mediterranean Sea, near Scanderoon, to the Euphrates, at Beer. They were carried in pieces on camels, and put together at Beer, and the expedition, under the command of Colonel Chesney, proceeded, on their exploring tour down the river. The Tigris, which was the smaller boat, was lost in a tornado; the Euphrates continued on her route, and the river was explored. The matter did not succeed quite as well as some of its more ardent advocates expected, but well enough to prove that it was practicable. Large quantities of bitumen are found in that region, and the experiment was tried of substituting this for coal, as there is not much wood in the vicinity. It would not answer; it melted too rapidly. A person is now engaged in examining whether coal may not exist there. In the meantime Mr. Farren, the Consul-General at Damascus, using the great influence he has gained over some of the Arabs, opened a direct communication with Bagdad through the wilderness. He made use of dromedaries, and the mail passed in six or eight days. Since Mr. Farren's recal, the post is continued under the present consul. There is thus a regular communication from Beyroot to India, vi Damascus and Bagdad. In a few years, I doubt not that steamboats will run regularly on the Euphrates, and that a great travelling route will thus cross the most interesting part of the great valley of the Euphrates, the ancient seat of early cities, kingdoms, and civilisation. This will, as it may be hoped, prepare the way for the spread of the gospel in the interior of Asia.

I have attended, by special request, an Arab wedding, the parties being members of the Greek church. The men and women were in separate apartments. In both rooms there was music from a rude drum, and the women kept up a singular hallooing, or kind of shrill cry. I was taken into the female apartment, and introduced to the bride. She was much adorned with gold and gold foil, her face and hands painted in the most fantastic manner; she kept her eyes closed, or nearly so, which she must do for several days. They made her put on cob-cobs, a kind of sandal nearly a foot high, and dance before us, or rather walk very slowly backwards and forwards, keeping time with the music; her hands were held up by an attendant, to be seen and admired. They then took her into another room to eat, after which the marriage ceremony commenced. The priest read the marriage service, during which he put a ring on the finger of each, with many crossings, and touching the head and breast, and afterwards he changed the rings; he then put a chaplet made of an olive branch with its leaves on the head of each, and after a similar crossing and touching the head and breast, the chaplets were changed; he then took a cup of wine, and made them both drink of it: this, with the priest's blessing, closed the marriage. The bride was then made to follow her husband to the place where the horses were fastened. Her attendants led her, and her walk was as slow as you can well conceive,—a step, then a pause, then a very slow moving of the foot forward; she must show great reluctance, and be forced after her "well beloved." He seemed to give himself no trouble about her, but mounted his horse, and waited with his back towards her, until the signal should be given for starting. At last, by half carrying and half pushing her, the bride reached the horse brought to take her to her new home, and was mounted astride, as is the custom for females to ride here. The signal was given, and the bridegroom moved forward, accompanied by most of the male guests, while the females surrounded the bride, some on animals, others on foot. The music and screaming were kept up, and "the friend of the bridegroom" danced and played all sorts of odd tricks before him. It was his business to make sport for them. A pomegranate was given to the bride, which she breaks as she enters her husband's door, thus showing that she promises to be an obedient and dutiful wife. About dark, a few weeks ago, we were somewhat startled by a discharge of artillery from the castles about the town, one of which stands very near us. We were, however, soon told that it was meant to signify the commencement of the fast of the Rammedan, a fast of the Mohammedans. During the continuance of this fast they are not to eat, drink, or smoke, from sunrise to sunset. They may, however, eat and drink during the night, and they make amends for their abstinence during the day. Many of them turn day into night, night into day, eating at sundown, midnight, and just before sunrise, and after making it a time of great revelry and wickedness. This fast is a moveable one, and passes round to all seasons of the year. When it falls in midsummer it must be a sore trial to abstain from water in these thirsty countries; they have, however, various ways of getting round the law of the fast, and in some degree modifying the deprivations it would cost them. All the systems of religion in the eastern world lay much stress on fasting, and with many it is carried to an idolatrous extent. They make a saviour of them. That this should be the case with systems that do not take God's Word for the rule of their faith and practice, would not surprise us; but that those who call themselves Christians, and profess to found their faith on God's Word, and appeal to it as their rule, should do so, may well grieve us. It is true, that while the Bible is in a general way acknowledged as the Word of God, they do not appeal to it, but to the authority of the church; they have left the word of God,—have rendered it void, that they may "follow their own devices,"—that they may "keep their own traditions." The fasts of the Christian sects are rather a distinction of meats, an abstinence from animal food, than fasts properly so called. The Greeks, in accordance with all the Oriental churches, observe Wednesday and Friday of each week. The Papists, Friday and Saturday. In addition to these weekly fasts, they have others of many days in succession. During one of forty days' continuance, they are not allowed to eat until after twelve o'clock at noon. It is astonishing with what rigidity even small children observe these seasons.

A few days since, some dervishes, or Mohammedan priests, who have been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, returned. They came back as holy men, and great crowds went out to see their wonders. I was assured by several persons who witnessed its performance, that boys threw themselves on the ground, in a row as close together as they could lie, with their faces to the earth, making a row of forty or fifty yards, and one of the priests paced his horse over them, the horse literally stepping on their backs. The boys jumped up very briskly, though some of them showed what they were unwilling to acknowledge, that they were slightly hurt. The fact may seem strange, but Christians have tried the experiment, and succeeded as well as the Moslems. Some of the priests thrust spears and swords through their cheeks—a most unnatural thing. The people consider such things in the light of a miracle.

I had a very pleasant interview not long since with Dr. Wilson, of Scotland, who has just returned from a tour through Palestine, and who went south as far as Petra. At Hebron he made a special contract with a Sheik, who for about one hundred and fifty dollars took him and his party to Petra and back, and left his own brother as a hostage with the governor, until they returned. Petra is in a very rough district. The El-Ghor is a wide valley, but much more elevated than I had supposed, much more so than the Dead Sea, possibly a thousand feet at the highest part. It is very destitute of vegetation, and this is especially the case with the country about Mount Hor, and Petra. There is a district more to the south that is more fertile, and has a good many inhabitants on it. The antiquities at Petra are most wonderful; a town hewn out in a sandstone rock, only one house of any size built above ground, and that a church. This building has been slightly injured by the late earthquake. There are most extensive excavations—a considerable town under ground; the tomb of Aaron on Mount Hor is an excavation. The mount is a round sugar-loaf hill, with a small level on the top.

We have had fearful accounts of the prevalence of cholera at Jerusalem, Aleppo, Malta, and some other places; much fear is felt that it will visit us; may the Lord preserve us from its ravages!

A few days ago, a moolah, a Mohammedan priest, died at this place. He was one of those who last spring made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and on his return rode over the boys in the plain outside the town. After his death, the other priests pretended that his body would fly off to heaven, if they did not prevent it. They, therefore, had ropes tied to his body, and fastened them to other things, that the body might not get away. They held on to the ropes as they took the body to the grave-yard. On their way the bearers stopped several times, and would pull this way and that way, as if some invisible power would not let them go forward, and the pretence was, that the dead man was not willing to go that way, or to be buried. They at length, however, got him to the grave, put him in, and made great lamentation over him. This is a sample of the tricks they play to delude the people.

I spent an hour on the 17th of last month, very pleasantly, with Lord Lindsay, who has travelled extensively in these countries. From Egypt he passed Mount Sinai and the Elanetic Gulf—visited Petra, Bosrah, Gerash, and most of Palestine and Palmyra. He says there are many ruins about Bosrah; a Roman road thirty feet wide runs from that place towards Bagdad. It is in a good state of preservation, but not used. Lord Lindsay had the affliction to lose a brother, who travelled with him; if I mistake not, he died from what is called a stroke of the sun. Means were used to preserve the body, and he took the corpse with him in the same vessel to England.