CHAPTER II.
The Author’s departure from England to join Lady Stanhope—Voyage from Leghorn to Syria—The vessel plundered by a Greek pirate—Return to Leghorn—Signor Girolamo—Letter from Lady Stanhope to Mr. Webb, merchant at Leghorn—Lady Stanhope persecuted by the Emir Beshýr—Letter from Lady Stanhope to the Author, describing her position in 1827—Her reliance on Providence—Second Letter to Mr. Webb—Her opinion of the Turks and Christians in Syria, and of the wild Arabs—Terror of the Franks in Syria, on occasion of the battle of Navarino—They take refuge in Lady Stanhope’s house—The Franks in Syria—Her letter to the Author, urging him to rejoin her—Her advice—Her ladyship’s illness—The Author sails for Syria.
On the 23rd of January, 1827, I crossed over to Calais with my family. Here the severity of the weather and the sale of some landed property in England detained us until the 9th of May, when we prosecuted our journey to Paris, Lausanne, and Pisa, where we arrived on the 14th of June, with the intention of embarking from Leghorn by the first vessel that sailed for the Levant. It must be borne in mind by the reader that there were no steamboats in those days, and that, moreover, the navigation of the Mediterranean sea was rendered dangerous by the predatory warfare carried on by the Greeks.
At Leghorn I received another letter from Lady Hester Stanhope, wherein, as if in despair about her affairs, and knowing, from a letter of mine, that I was leaving England to join her, she winds up the X. intrigue in a summary way, and gives me instructions how I am to conduct myself on my arrival in Syria.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Dr. ——.
Djoun, May 29, 1827.
Dear Doctor,
You will hear from Mr. Webb the situation I am in. I sent three letters to you, by way of France, at the beginning of the year. To cut the matter short, it is better to say you never received them. If any one asks after X., say you don’t know him, or otherwise you will be so teazed with questions. Mind these instructions. Say to everybody, when you land, that you know nothing of my affairs, not having seen any of my family since my brother’s death;[14] that, hearing I had a complaint in my eyes, you set off, without consulting any one, and that it was your intention to remain some time with me, as you had brought Mrs. —— and the children.
Land, if possible, at Sayda, and, on reaching the harbour, leave your family in the ship, take an ass at my farrier’s, and come here to Djoun. This is all, I believe, that is necessary for me to say, should you not have received my letters, written at the beginning of the year. If you have received them, and things do well, the case is rather altered.
I cannot express my gratitude. May God reward you hereafter!
I hope Mrs. ——- has plenty of rings on her fingers, as that is very necessary in this country, and the greatest of possible ornaments in the eyes of women.
[Not signed.]
No eligible opportunity offered for sailing until the end of August, when, having concluded an agreement with the owners of a merchant brig, we betook ourselves to Leghorn, and set sail in the Fortuna, Lupi master, for Cyprus, on the 7th of September, 1827. There were four Franciscan friars passengers besides ourselves, bound to the Holy Land, with money annually sent from some of the Italian states for the maintenance of the sacred places.
On the 15th of September, being about thirty leagues from the island of Candia, a tall-masted schooner was seen bearing down upon us, and was soon recognized as a Greek. On nearing us, she hoisted Greek colours, and ran under our stern, presenting a formidable battery of twelve guns, with the heads of sixty or eighty fierce-featured fellows eyeing us over the gunwale. A scaramouch-looking mate hailed us in good Italian, and ordered our captain to hoist out his boat and come on board. Whilst the boat was getting ready, our captain told us to do the best we could for ourselves, for that he had no doubt we should be plundered. “As for you,” he added, addressing himself to me, “make yourself as smart as you can, assume an air of authority, and pass yourself off as a consul.” We were all greatly alarmed. I hastened to follow the captain’s advice, whilst the friars were busy in stuffing their gold, their watches, and their small valuables, into their under-garments and other hiding-places.
The Greeks, however, gave us little time; for, in a quarter of an hour, fifteen or twenty were on board, headed by their lieutenant. On getting over the side, he advanced towards me, and, in a very civil way, told me that, as Cyprus was blockaded, and as our vessel was bound to that place, no doubt with succours to the Turks in some shape or other, his captain found himself under the disagreeable necessity of taking possession of the cargo. “You,” he added, “being an Englishman, will meet with no molestation; the English are our friends, and we are not incapable of gratitude.”
In an instant the hatches were forced open; and, as quick as stout shoulders and tackles could do it, the Greeks hoisted upon deck, and cut or broke open every bale, cask, or case that was in the hold, whilst the lieutenant, holding the bill of lading in his hand, noted off every one according to its mark. I had various articles of luggage, and as each was hoisted up, I had to say it was mine, when it was put aside on the quarter-deck. The same was done with the effects of the friars. Each launch-load of goods that was sent off to the schooner brought back a launch-load of stout Greeks, who, with hammers and hatchets, broke down the wainscoting, cut through the ceiling, searched the berths, and left not a single cranny of the vessel unransacked.
When the cargo was out, the lieutenant summoned the four, as I supposed, poor friars to the quarter-deck, and told them their trunks must next undergo an examination. Each trunk had a cross on its lid. What was my surprise when, on opening them, the Greeks found fifty or sixty pounds of chocolate, bottles of rum and rosolio, hams, tongues, Bologna sausages, sugar, and a large box of sugared almonds; also seven or eight veils, (such as are worn in the Levant) for women, fine flannel waistcoats and drawers, good calico shirts, &c.; 200 Venetian ducats, three or four rouleaus of doubloons, and 5,000 Spanish dollars. The way in which the Greek sailors scrambled for the sugared almonds was really quite laughable, making a strange contrast to the ruin they were perpetrating at the moment on these inoffensive individuals; but, when they discovered the money, amounting in all, with what was taken from the friars’ persons, to no less than 14,000 dollars, they set up a shout, which so effectually frightened the poor friars, that they fell down on their knees, and invoked all the saints in the calendar to their aid. But the cupidity of the Greeks was excited rather than satisfied by the sight of so much gold and silver, and they immediately proceeded to strip their victims, an office which they performed with greater agility than could have been exhibited by the most expert valet. This humiliating operation disclosed fresh booty; the capacious sleeves, drawers, and hoods, all afforded something. One had a repeater-watch, and all had money.
Unfortunately, there were a few casks of wine in the hold, which the Greeks tapped; and thus, becoming intoxicated in the midst of their pillage, a few of the most ferocious proposed beating the captain to make him confess if there was more money concealed. They accordingly gave him some very hard blows with a rope’s end; then they served the cabin-boy in the same manner (as being generally privy to the captain’s hiding-places), and then two sailors. Lastly came the mate’s turn. Him they bound with a cord, and beat severely; and, finding blows made them confess nothing, they dragged him to the gunwale, held his head over the side of the ship, and, one putting a knife across his throat, swore he would kill them instantly, if he did not disclose where the captain’s money was hid, as well as Turkish letters, which were conveyed in the brig. The poor man, with loud cries, appealed to me to save his life; and, whilst I addressed myself to the lieutenant, Mrs. ——, who was sitting on the quarter-deck with our little girl, an infant, in her arms, rushed forward, undismayed by the ferocious looks of the Greeks, and, with more than a woman’s courage, arrested the pirate’s arm, and implored him to spare his victim. Whether it was their intention to murder the mate it is impossible to say; but the man who held the knife let him go, and threw the key of the mate’s chest at Mrs. ——’s feet.
This scene being over, the lieutenant informed me that he was bound to examine my luggage, whispering to me, at the same time, that, as his men had become very riotous, it would be prudent to propitiate them by a present of a few dollars. I gladly took his advice, and presented them with twenty dollars, which they accepted thanklessly enough. My luggage was then overhauled; but they took nothing, although, amongst other things, they were grievously tempted by discovering a bag of dollars. In the confusion which ensued I lost only a few trifles. The lieutenant begged a pair of pantaloons, which I gave him, and other things, which I assured him I could not spare, and which he very obligingly allowed me to retain. Considering that we were wholly in his power, I had reason to be grateful for his forbearance.
But let me, as an act of justice, bear witness to the wrongs which this nation, in the regeneration of its liberties, had to endure, and none of which were greater than those inflicted by the Austrian and Sardinian navies, whose flag our vessel bore. Whenever the merchant-ships of these two powers appeared in the Levant, it was, under the cloak of trade, to transport materials of war to their mortal enemies the Turks; and whenever the injured Greeks, availing themselves of the rights of nations, molested these pretended neutrals in their unjust traffic, the Austrian ships of war made cruel reprisals on them. In the German war, about the middle of the last century, when the Dutch, calling themselves neutrals, became carriers for the enemies of England, we were accused of committing piratical enormities on the Dutch, equal to any that the Greeks are charged with, and we sought our justification in the same rights: so that we may ask if the laws of blockade are to be held good only when exercised by the hands of the strong? In excuse for beating the master and mate, it may be alleged, that the Genoese crews, when they had the mastery, were not backward in using the same violence. As for the money which was transferred on this occasion, all that need be said is, that, setting aside the question of piracy, it passed from the hands of those who had made a vow of poverty into the pockets of an oppressed people, whose families had been driven from their homes, and perhaps were starving, until some son or husband could bring them the fruits of their dangerous enterprises.
Piracy on the high seas, in the open day, has something very awful and formidable in it. You seem to be utterly defenceless in the midst of the wide ocean, with the arbitrators of your destiny standing there to hurl you, if you utter a murmur, into the fathomless deep. They demand your money, your goods, or whatever else may chance to excite their cupidity, and you give up everything with as smiling a face as you can. You offer them refreshments, as if they were welcome guests, who have honoured and delighted you by their presence; and, until they burst out into the frantic delirium of drunkenness or butchery, the whole scene wears the appearance of the visit of an obliging consignee, who has come to take possession of his property.
At seven at night the schooner’s crew left us to pursue our voyage. The beds and blankets that lay scattered on the cabin-floor were replaced in the berths, a little order was restored, and a wretched supper was made on hard biscuit and cold water; for everything good to eat, from the chickens down to the lemons, walnuts, figs, raisins, &c., had either been taken away or devoured. It was calm through the night; and, when the morning of Sunday broke, the schooner was still in view. Our fears were revived, when we saw the enemy’s boat manned, and soon afterwards coming towards us. But it was only a complimentary visit from the lieutenant, who, with smiles and an amiability that only a Greek can put on towards those whom he has plundered, expressed his hopes that we had passed the night comfortably, and begged of the master to have the goodness to look for a box of jewels that was marked on the ship’s bill of lading, but which had been overlooked the day before; for the lieutenant spoke and read Italian perfectly, and was supposed to be a native of the Ionian isles: so that, having examined the manifest during the night, he was enabled to discover what valuables there were on board which had escaped personal scrutiny. The master reluctantly gave up the casket; and the lieutenant, having requested him to prick down on the chart the longitude and latitude, to see if they corresponded with his own reckoning, politely took his leave, squeezing my hand on parting, just as if we had been old acquaintances bidding each other adieu. A breeze sprang up; the schooner put her head towards Candia, and we soon lost sight of her.
A council was then called as to what was to be done. The friars, who had lost their all, were for putting back: but I objected to that course, seeing we were now two-thirds of our way to our destination. The friars, however, having, as I afterwards learned, agreed, in writing, to give the captain 250 Spanish dollars if he would return, carried their point; and all that remained to be done was to bear the disappointment with patience.
In returning to Leghorn, it was necessary to put into the first port we could reach for provisions; and, accordingly, on the 19th of September, we cast anchor at Zante. Here I made known our misfortune to the government secretary, Colonel Maclean, who very obligingly came down to the health-office to see me, our vessel being in quarantine: and I had reason, from what he told me, to be well satisfied with having escaped as we did; for I learned from him that it was quite a miracle that any respect had been paid to the English name, since many piracies, accompanied with violence and outrage, had been lately committed on English vessels. At Zante I saw in the quarantine ground hundreds of wretched Greeks, in rags and misery, driven from their country, and not knowing where to find a place to lay their heads.
On the 27th of September we weighed anchor, and, when off Sicily, nearly lost our masts in a gale of wind. The next day we were alarmed by the kitchen’s catching fire, and by a passenger falling ill of fever; after which, we ran on the island of Elba in a fog, and finally arrived at Leghorn on the 12th of October, 1827.
The passenger I have named was an Italian, one Signor Girolamo ——, a young man, who, after very successful studies at Padua, thought to turn his talents to account in Mahomet Ali’s service; but, on his arrival in Egypt, he was nearly starved. He was a clever mathematician, and of great literary attainments; but he forgot that, to teach, one must be enabled to explain, which, from his ignorance of Arabic, was impossible, and that Mahomet Ali wanted officers, mechanics, and engineers—practical men—but not schoolmen. Having in vain essayed to find an employment, he was at last told he might take service, if he would pronounce himself competent for the situation of hospital-mate and apothecary to an infantry regiment. In this his medical employment, according to what he told me, he saw so much peculation going forward, that, being ordered to Navarino, with his regiment, in disgust, he made his escape to Zante, determined to have done with Pashas and Eastern civilization for ever. Anxiety, fatigue, and blasted prospects, threw him into a malignant fever; and his deplorable situation, in the empty hold of a vessel, without bed or blanket to sleep on, could not but excite our sympathy.
There was one of the friars, named Fra’ Buonaventura, who, after the plunder of the vessel, when we were on our passage back, was guilty of a breach of confidence so base, that I hardly know how to designate it. He was the one to whom the bag of letters from Europe for the monks of the different monasteries in the Holy Land had been entrusted. These letters, being of no use to the Greeks, were left; and Fra’ Buonaventura used to lie on his back in his berth, and, breaking the seals, read them one by one, and then destroy them. His conduct appeared to me so culpable, that I wrote to the Neapolitan ambassador (he belonging to a monastery at Naples), and requested his Excellency to make this violation of trust known to his superiors.
We remained in quarantine until the 17th of November, during which time the news of the battle of Navarino reached Leghorn. From the Lazaretto I took my family to Pisa and Rome; and, the bad weather being now set in, I resolved to await the return of spring, and the arrival of fresh letters from Lady Hester Stanhope, before venturing again on so dangerous a voyage. Besides, the shock had been very great, and Mrs. ——’s health was seriously impaired by continued sea-sickness and the horrors of the scenes she had witnessed, which for many months often recurred in her dreams, so as to bring on a nervous affection, which did not entirely leave her for two years.
What Lady Hester Stanhope’s situation was at this particular date may be gathered from a letter which she wrote to the late Mr. John Webb, her banker, at Leghorn, and of which I annex a copy.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. John Webb.
Djoun, Mount Lebanon, May 30, 1827.
Sir,
A Firmanlee,[15] having taken refuge in the mountain, under the protection of the Emir Beshýr, contrived to pick a quarrel with my water-carrier, who was quietly going about his business, and, having bribed some of the Emir’s Jack Ketches, they beat him most unmercifully. The Emir Beshýr and his chief people have likewise been bribed by this man, who has plenty of money at his disposal. They have all, therefore, taken the Firmanlee’s part, and acted in the most atrocious way towards me. A short time since, the Emir thought proper to publish in the villages that all my servants were instantly to return to their homes, upon pain of losing their property and lives. I gave them all their option. Most of them have remained firm, being aware that this order is the most unjust, as well as the most ridiculous, that ever was issued. Since that, he has threatened to seize and murder them here, which he shall not do without taking away my life too. Besides this, he has given orders in all the villages that men, women, and children, shall be cut in a thousand pieces, who render me the smallest service. My servants, of course, as you must imagine, cannot go out, and the peasants of the village cannot approach the house. Therefore, I am in no very pleasant situation, being deprived of the necessary supplies of food, and, what is worse, of water; for all the water here is brought upon mules’ backs up a great steep.
I should not be a thorough-bred Pitt, if fear were known to me, or if I could bow to a monster who could chain together the neck and feet of a venerable, white-bearded, respectable man, who has burnt out eyes, cut out tongues, chopped off the breasts of women by shutting down heavy box-lids upon them, put them upon red-hot irons, hung them up by their hair, mutilated men alive, and, if a father has escaped from his clutches, has loaded his infant son with his chains! For the space of three years, I have refused to have the smallest communication with the Emir. He sent me one of his grand envoys the other day—one of those who are charged with the budget of lies sent to Mahomet Ali. I refused to see him, or to read the letter of which he was the bearer.
My kind friend and former physician, Dr. ——, having heard that for some years my situation has not been a pleasant one, and that my health is very indifferent, has given a proof of attachment and disinterestedness very rare in these times. He has blasted his own prospects in life by giving up every thing in Europe to join me in this country, without consulting any one. He wrote to me from France that, if he did not hear from me by the 25th of April, he should proceed to Leghorn, and there embark for this country. The state of my sight has prevented me from keeping up a correspondence with him as formerly; but, if letters I wrote to him in the beginning of the year have been forwarded to him from England, perhaps he may have changed his determination. But, in the case of his being at Leghorn, you would confer a great obligation upon me, if you would advance him £100 for his expenses, and deliver him the enclosed letter.
I must particularly request that neither you nor any of your people will communicate anything respecting my affairs to Mr. ——, for he publishes everything in the most disadvantageous way to every blackguard in the town of Beyrout.
I hope you will have received the wine I sent you safe. It is needless to tell you I cannot at this moment execute your commission, but I hope to do it to your satisfaction at some future period.
Ten thousand thanks for your kind recipe for my eyes. I have not had a moment’s time to bestow a thought upon myself since I received it.
Dear Lord Frederick![16] what changes have taken place in my situation since I saw him last! but I am too much of a Turk to complain of the decrees of Heaven.
I forgot to mention that there is a plague at Sayda. Most of the people are shut up; and, although I must have suffered cruelly from the malady formerly, I am in no apprehension concerning it, as I am a perfect predestinarian. Happy for me that I have inspired the same feelings into all those who surround me.
If it please God that I, like Joseph, should come safe out of the well, I hope it will be needless to assure you that, whatever part of your family might fall in my way, my greatest pleasure would be to endeavour to make them, by every service and attention, the evidence of the respect and regard which I bear you.
H. L. Stanhope.
PS. Long before you can receive this letter, this business must be settled. Depend upon it, I shall be a match for them. I shall trouble you to give Dr. —— the information contained in this letter, begging him to guard complete silence on everything that relates to this country or elsewhere; for things are in an unpleasant state both here and at Cyprus.
Some time in the spring, but the exact day is not noted, I received the following letter from Lady Hester Stanhope:—
Djoun, Nov. 9, 1827.
I have not heard from or written to you for eight months. My three letters, composing one, must have reached you. I have not made my intended journey, for I have been, during three months of this summer, absolutely as if in prison. The representatives of the John Bulls in this country having impressed the Emir Beshýr with the assurance that I had not a friend in the world, he proceeded upon unheard-of outrages towards me; and, if he did not actually put my life in danger, he had it publicly cried,[17] that whoever served me should be bastinadoed and amerced.
This unheard-of stretch of insolence was set to rights by our old acquaintance[18] at Constantinople, who acted very well towards me. The Emir Beshýr, with all the art and meanness well known to him, has now become abjectly humble. One of his people told me that it was not his doings, but the work of ——, who had put it into his head; and, finding he had made a false calculation, and displeased great and small in the country by his vile conduct, he is humble enough, and repents having given me an opportunity of showing what I am. I am thus become more popular than ever, having shown an example of firmness and courage no one could calculate upon:—it was poor little David and the giant. But the God who defended David defended me from all the assassins by whom I was surrounded. Even water from the spring the beast would not let me have. The expense to get provisions brought in the night by people was enormous. Some risked their lives to serve me, and bring me food. One person only came openly, and that was a woman, saying she would die sooner than obey such atrocious orders, and called down curses on the Emir, the consuls, and all of them. This conduct was well worthy a follower of Ali.
The plague this year has carried off thousands of inhabitants at Damascus and Aleppo; it is now in the Mountain. There are all sorts of fevers, too, besides plague, and my medicine is nearly all gone; for all the world come to me for what they want. I have written to Mr. Allen, to beg he will give me a year’s credit for a little common medicine, and he sends you this letter. If there is war, how am I to get it? but I will run the chance.
A young seyd, a friend of mine, when riding one day in a solitary part of the mountain, heard the echo of a strange noise in the rocks. He listened, and, hearing it again, got off his horse to see what it was. To his surprise, in a hollow in the rock, he saw an old eagle, quite blind and unfledged by age. Perched by the eagle, he saw a carrion-crow feeding him. If the Almighty thus provides for the blind eagle, he will not forsake me: and the carrion-crow may look down with contempt on your countrymen.
I say this, because I have seen two doctors—they were English—and they tell me that, though my eyes are good, my nerves are destroyed, and that causes my blindness. Writing these few lines will be some days’ illness to me: but I make an effort, in order to assure you of the grief I have felt at being, I fear, the cause of your affairs being worse than if you had not known me. All I can say is, if God helps me, I shall not forget you. You can do nothing for me now; trust in God and think of the eagle. Remember! all is written: we can change nothing of our fate by lamenting and grumbling. Therefore, it is better to be like a true Turk, and do our duty to the last, and then beg of the believers in one God a bit of daily bread, and, if it comes not, die of want, which perhaps is as good a death as any other, and less painful. But never act contrary to the dictates of conscience, of honour, of nature, or of humanity.
What I shall do, or not do, is the business of no one; so on that head I shall say nothing. God is the disposer of all events. Do not write to me. First, I shall not get your letters; and, besides, I do not wish to hear a thousand lies: for you dare not write otherwise, I know, unless left to yourself. Leave everything to a great and all-powerful Being, who will empower me to act under all circumstances. I have had, as things are, reason to bless His mercy every day. No one else could get out of such difficulties of every kind unprotected by an Almighty’s hand. I have written these few lines with the hope of comforting you a little, and to let you see I have a soul, though my body is wasted to nothing, with anxiety, want of food, rest, &c. Don’t expect any more letters. If you wish to do me harm, you will talk of me and my affairs to fools, and strangers, and curious people: but it is now come to such a pass, that it little signifies what any one does or says. God bless you!
[Not signed.]
If Dr. Madden should call on Dr. Scott,[19] to talk Arabic and philosophy, it is I who sent him. Strange opinions are not for ignorant, vulgar people. Perhaps you may see Dr. Madden. Of private affairs, I only said to him that I was in debt.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. Webb, banker, at Leghorn.
[Supposed date] October, 1827.
I thank you a thousand times, my dear sir, for the anxiety you express on my account; and, although surrounded by a hundred difficulties, I am cheerful, and, as I said before, the Turks behave very well to me. That old monster, the Emir Beshýr, is pretty quiet at this moment, at least as far as regards me: but he is reducing to beggary and to misery all who surround him. A real Turk is a manly, though rather violent, kind-hearted being, and, if he has confidence in you, very easy to deal with. I have often wondered at their gentlemanlike patience with low, blustering, vulgar men, who give themselves more airs than an ambassador, because chance has placed them as consul or agent in some dirty town not equal to a village in France; men who, in fact, in Europe, would scarcely have their bow returned in the street by a man of condition. It is the general conduct of these sort of people that has given the Orientals such a false idea of Europeans. The race of Christians here is of the vilest people in the world: not all totally without talent, but all born without principle, or one single good quality. Out of the great number of children, both boys and girls, which I have taken before they have changed their teeth, not one has turned out passable, and most of them have become vagabonds. If a poor man falls ill, and gives his wife a little trouble to wait upon him, she soon ends the business with a little poison; and, if a woman marries again, the husband casts off all her children by the former marriage, and she, without remorse, leaves them to die in a hovel, or abandons them under a tree to beg for subsistence. It was only last night that one of these wretched beings came to me, skin and bone, having been for thirty days ill of a fever. The very girls I have brought up with the greatest care have, when married, beaten their children of two years old so violently as to stun them; and one, from the blow she gave her child upon the back, caused the bowels to protrude more than a span. A man thinks nothing of taking up a stone as large as his head, and throwing it at his wife when she is with child. These are the beastly people that create the compassion of Europeans—a horrid race, that deserves to be exterminated from the face of the earth. What a contrast between these wretches and the wild Arabs, who will traverse burning sands barefooted, to receive the last breath of some kind relation or friend, who teach their children at the earliest period resignation and fortitude, and who always keep alive a spirit of emulation amongst them! They are the boldest people in the world, yet are endued with a tenderness quite poetic, and their kindness extends to all the brute creation by which they are surrounded. For myself, I have the greatest affection and confidence in these people: besides, I admire their diamond eyes, their fine teeth, and the grace and agility (without capers), which is peculiar to them alone. When one sees these people, one’s thoughts naturally revert to the time of Abraham, when man had not his head filled with all the false systems of the present day.
I must now thank you for a most admirable cheese, and the case of liqueurs which accompanied it. You tell me not to send any more wine; but I shall not attend to it. I only regret that I cannot forward more by this conveyance; for it is excessively scarce, which will account for the small quantity; but I shall always continue to ship some, whenever I can procure it; and I only wish this country produced anything that would be agreeable to you or Mrs. Webb.
I have heard that at Geneva there are very fine flowers. If you will procure me a few seeds, I should be very much obliged to you, as my stock of flowers this year has become very low, owing to my having had a very careless gardener, who neglected to water the seeds, so that they never came up. My fine steed is gone long ago, and my garden remains my only amusement. I have made a little note; but, if there should be any other showy flowers or shrubs, pray include them. Very small flowers are considered here as weeds, however pretty they may be.
I have received my account from your house, and I have drawn for another thousand dollars. They tell me, besides, that the doctor is gone to England. If so, I fear some trick will be played me, and he will not be allowed to return. It does not signify—I am an Arab.[20] I have, however, written to him, desiring him, in case of his return, to beg you to attend most particularly to the state of your health and that of Mrs. Webb, and that he will leave with you a volume of medical advice. The other letter you will please to forward to his friend, Mr. N. S.
It was immediately after the date of this letter that the news of the battle of Navarino must have reached Sayda and Beyrout. On that occasion, all the Franks at Sayda, in a single hour, fled precipitately from their homes, the greater part of them taking refuge with Lady Hester Stanhope. In the narrative of her subsequent conversations, some account of the expense she was put to by this unforeseen event will be found; for, in her correspondence with me, she was particularly careful not to make any allusion to the universal alarm which prevailed amongst the Europeans, lest it might possibly have some influence upon the fears of my family, and deter us from prosecuting our journey.
Some private business requiring my presence in England, I left Italy in June, 1828, for London, and returned to Pisa in the following October. Up to this time (now nearly a year), I had had no answer from Lady Hester to my letters (one from Zante, and one from Leghorn), in which I had given an account of the piracy. At that time there were no steamboats on those waters, and correspondence was necessarily carried on, at great risk and uncertainty, by merchant-vessels, many of which were plundered by the Greeks, while others frequently consumed two or three months, returning from the Levant to Marseilles or Leghorn. At last, a letter reached me, in the handwriting of Miss Williams, dictated by Lady Hester Stanhope.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Dr. ——.
Djoun, Mount Lebanon, March 23, 1828.
I have received the account of your disasters by sea, and latterly the books you were so good as to send me. The books I cannot read, and I have nobody to read them to me: however, I thank you for your kind attention. I am much afflicted at the trouble and vexation you have had, and at the situation in which you find yourself. I must say, it would be very imprudent to bring women or children into this country at this moment, and a great source of fatigue and vexation to me; for they could not be comfortable under the present circumstances of the times. What I should propose is, that, when you have settled your business, you immediately set off alone with a Dutch passport,[21] in case things should turn out ill before you arrive. Leave Mrs. —— at Pisa, where she could remain very comfortably until you return. Write to X. these few words—“She has ordered me to forbid you evermore to interfere with her affairs, or even to write to her.”
The plague will be over before you get here. The Turks behave extremely well to me, the Christians and Franks as ill. I shall say nothing about the state of my affairs—(you may guess what it may be in these times) nor of the state of my health, without a person of any kind to assist me in anything. If I outlive the storm, I may help you:—if not, you can take poor Williams away.
Let Mr. Webb know how much I prize his kind attentions. I hope some wine will go with this ship for him:—if not, it is not my fault. Salute Mrs. —— and say I hope no childish feeling will prevent her allowing you to be absent a little while. I feel for her—but I cannot write. She may rely upon me: only obey me strictly. Had you done so before, things might have been otherwise for all: but simpletons will be wise men, and that is what has turned the world upside down, as well as caused much unhappiness to individuals. I promise to keep you only a few months, but I want to see you: only come in as silent and quiet a way as you can.
I will not receive any letter from X., so do not take charge of any: all must be lies. Return them, should he send any, and say not a word that you mean to come here.
[Not signed.]
On the 15th of November of the same year I received another letter, which was also in Miss Williams’s handwriting.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Dr. ——.
Djoun, August 25, 1828.
I have heard from Mr. Webb’s house that you are gone to England. My heart misgives me: I fear some trick, and that they will prevent your coming. At all events, do not let your head be crammed with ideas that you cannot land; for, notwithstanding the departure of consuls and Franks from this part of the world, I firmly believe that, any one coming to me either in a man-of-war or in an open boat, his landing would not be opposed, even if things were more decidedly bad than they are at present. Sulyman Effendi, whom you recollect at Sayda, is governor of Beyrout, and Ali Aga has succeeded him at Sayda; Laurella, as Austrian consul, still remains at Beyrout, though but little friendly to me, as does old Gerardin at Sayda; being considered as an Arab. Never write to me but through Mr. Webb’s house, whether you come or do not come. I want no reasons and no long stories. I hope your head will not be turned, because I am sure you will repent it hereafter, if it is.
Arabize yourself before you get here, if you are ever such a quiz. I have common Turkish clothes ready for you, that you may not cut up and gobble good cloth in a hurry.[22] You must not think of bringing any Frank servant with you. I have a room ready for you, and I hope you will be very comfortable. The difficulty about Mrs. —— was want of room; and a house in the village in these sort of times is not exactly the thing, though I had a pretty little house, two stories high, picked out for you, had you come sooner. Cut short impertinent questions here, by saying everybody was out of town, that you saw none of my family or friends, and only stopped a few days in London to transact your own private business.
[Signed] H. L. S.
Ah! why did you not come directly, and bring Lucy? what a comfort to me!
In compliance with Lady Hester Stanhope’s wishes, I resolved to await the coming of spring, in order to conduct my family to England, and, leaving them there, to set off alone for Syria. But new difficulties had arisen, and Lady Hester’s situation had become more painful by a severe loss which she unexpectedly sustained in the death of her long-tried and affectionate companion, Miss Williams. It was some time in December that Mr. Webb, of Leghorn, communicated to me a letter from Lady Hester Stanhope, giving him the melancholy news of this sad event. The letter was in French, dictated to some secretary whom she had found to carry on her correspondence, and it is here translated for the convenience of the general reader.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. John Webb, merchant,
at Leghorn.
Djoun, 24th of October, 1828.
Sir,
When I received your letter of the 17th of July, I was very ill, confined to my room, and occasionally delirious: nevertheless, in a moment of reason, I desired Mr. Gerardin to acquaint you with the great loss I had sustained in the faithful Miss Williams.
After two years of plague, there broke out, over almost all Mount Lebanon, a kind of fever, which I do not know precisely how to name. Whether it was a sort of yellow or malignant fever, poor Miss Williams fell a victim to it, as well as a servant, named Môosa, the only one in whom I had any confidence; and I but just escaped death from it myself. I am, as it were, come to life again by a miracle, owing to the attentions of a rich peasant, who came from a considerable distance to assist me. He found me entirely abandoned, delirious, and at the point of death; and left in that state by whom?—by wicked maids, who had cost Miss W. and me such pains in endeavouring to make something of them. You may easily imagine that I did not keep such ungrateful sluts an instant after I came to myself. Even in the weak state in which I was, I felt in a rage at the deplorable accounts which were given me of the detestable indifference which they showed when Miss W. was dying, occupying themselves in pilfering what they could lay their hands on: but I have already told you what the Christians of this country are. At the present moment, I have nobody to assist me but some old women of the village, the most stupid and ignorant creatures in the world. My greatest resource is a girl of eight years old, whom I have brought up, who appears attached to me, and who is less stupid than the others.[23] However, one cannot get well very fast, attended by such people, to whom it is impossible to trust a key. I am moved from my bed to the sofa, and from the sofa to the bed, and I am not yet able to walk unsupported; but, if I was better waited on, and had more quiet and proper things to eat, I know very well what an effort my iron constitution would make, which has brought me through this illness without doctor or doctor’s-stuff. I have a good appetite; but my weakness of stomach does not enable me to digest the coarse and badly-cooked food which they give me to eat, seeing that my stomach has been very much disordered for want of nourishment during fifteen days, having subsisted all that time on barley-water and plain water.
My ignorance of what passed around me was not, properly speaking, the delirium of fever; it was a stupor, caused by the neglect with which I was treated. The peasant says that, when he entered my bed-room,[24] he found me stiff and cold, in the state of one dying of hunger: he gave me food immediately. After some days I came to myself, and am now gaining strength. But, in the midst of all this, I am not melancholy. What has happened has happened, and whatever is is best. To-day I was telling Mr. Beaudin[25] some anecdotes of the celebrated Duke of Dorset, which were of no very mournful turn. Mr. Beaudin’s coming has been of the greatest service to me in every way. He has raised for me, with a great deal of difficulty, some money, for which I have given him my bill of exchange for 1000 dollars, dated October the 15th. I have given him another bill for 500 dollars, dated the 24th of October. I endeavour to scrape together as much as I can, because the aspect of the times is dark. I must lay in provisions of all kinds; for in a short time it will not be so easy to do it, as some imagine, and prices will rise to something incredible.
It seems to me that, if Dr. —— had decided on coming, he would have been here before now. Well! I have got over this illness without his assistance, or that of any other doctor, and one feels much more elevated when God has been one’s physician. It is the Supreme Being alone who has saved me in all my difficulties for these last twenty years, and who has given me strength to support what others would have sunk under.
With the bills, drawn through Mr. Bell and Mr. Beaudin, there are life-certificates. You know my weakness of sight, and that, consequently, I cannot write the bills myself; but, thank God! I can still, though with great pain, read a letter, although I cannot extend the effort to books and newspapers. This is the reason why I have had the bills of exchange, to the order of Mr. Beaudin, written by old General Loustaunau, and those, to Mr. Bell, written by Mr. Beaudin; nor must you wonder, if, another time, Mr. Beaudin should himself write bills to his own order.
The mercantile house of ——, at ——, has asked me for a letter of introduction to you, because they say you are a man of high respectability: but I should be very sorry to render a service to such rogues.
[Signed] H. L. S.
The distressed situation in which Lady Hester Stanhope found herself by such a severe calamity as the loss of Miss Williams, who, in sickness and in health, had been all in all to her, induced me to set aside every other consideration, and to resolve on making the voyage to Syria without loss of time, even in the depth of winter, although the navigation of the Mediterranean is exceedingly boisterous in the months of January, February, and March. I accordingly went over to Leghorn, and entered into an agreement with the master of a merchant-vessel, who was to sail in a few days for Beyrout. Nothing remained but to sign it; but, previously to so doing, I had to overcome the repugnance which Mrs. —— felt to being left behind, if she remained, and the apprehension of fresh piracies, if she accompanied me. Between the two she hesitated and wavered until the opportunity was lost, and, being unable to make up her mind one way or the other, spring came, and then summer, until it was finally settled that I should take her back to England, and, leaving her there, return and perform the voyage alone.
We accordingly set off for Marseilles in August, 1829, and traversed France as far as Paris. But there her womanish fears, and the dread of losing me in a foreign country by plague, and a thousand ills, which persons, who have not visited the East, fancy to be more common in distant countries than at home, still preyed on her mind, and a fresh resolution was formed to accompany me. We therefore returned to Marseilles: but not until November, 1830, could I prevail upon her to set her foot in a vessel.
On the 3rd of November, we set sail from Marseilles, in the Belle Sophie, Coulonne master, a brig of 220 tons or thereabouts. We had secured the state-room, and one berth out of four which the cabin contained. Two others were occupied by two English ladies, and the fourth by the captain. Temporary berths were fitted up for three Englishmen adjoining the companion-ladder, who, in society with these pious ladies, had embarked on the wide world in the holy mission of making proselytes among Jews and Mahometans.[26] On the floor and lockers of the cabin was an Arab woman with three daughters and a son, whilst her husband, with a Cypriot Greek, were tenants of the hold. Thus we were twelve cabin-passengers, where six only could have been comfortably accommodated: but no scruples of this kind would appear to have ever crossed the conscience of the master of the vessel or the owners.