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 Phœnician; 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.