CHAPTER XXII.
Party to Damascus. Ascent of Mount Lebanon. The roads. English carriage. Scenery of the mountain. Its inhabitants. Maronites. The Druses. Aaleih. Horns worn by the women. Princesses of the mountain. Beautiful night scene. Bhamdoon. Plain of Coelo-Syria. Anti-Lebanon. Characteristic of Americans. A dilemma. First view of Damascus. The great plain. Gardens. The city. “Street that is called Straight.” St. Paul.
About noon on the first of September, a party of us might have been seen winding along the streets of Beirout, and then starting off in high spirits for Damascus. That city is the present capital, and residence of the Governor of Syria, and the Commodore had determined, while the ship was taking in water, to make it a visit.
Our company consisted of Commodore Patterson and two daughters, nine officers, and about twelve attendants and muleteers, and was headed by an Armenian gentleman, Mr. Farrah, whom Mr. Chassaud had just appointed American agent for Damascus. Mr. Farrah was accompanied also by a relative of his, so that we numbered altogether twenty-six persons; a large cavalcade for visiting a city where, only a year previously, it was extremely hazardous for any one to be seen in the Frank dress, so savage and bitter was the hatred of the inhabitants towards all the Gaiours, or Christians. Mr. Smith and his lady were also with us, intending to accompany us as far as his house on the mountain, where we were to stop for the night.
Our road, on leaving the city, laid across a small plot of open ground bordered with trees, and immediately after this entered a region of gardens and vineyards, which appeared to be very productive. Among them, on the right, is a substantial stone house, recently erected by the missionaries for their press and books. It had, in some respects, an American look, and was an unexpected and welcome sight. We kept ascending gently for about two miles, when we came, at the summit of the eminence, to a fine grove of large venerable looking pines. The Pasha of Egypt is disposed to cultivate this tree for the use of his navy, and not far off has planted a little forest, which seems to be in a thriving condition.
This spot commands a fine view of the mountain, and plain, and sea, and is the one to which De La Martine has given a pathetic interest. About three miles beyond it we commenced the ascent of Mount Lebanon, at first by a gently inclined plane, which, however, did not continue long; soon we came to steeper ascents, and then to yet steeper; and then commenced a series of experiments in vaulting, flying, and tumbling, which lasted quite across the mountain, and were sometimes near costing us life or limb. I believe there was but one person in the party who had not at least one fall, many of us could count three or four; and one of the ladies was saved from sliding down a precipice only by our springing to her help, and holding rider and donkey against the side of the bank till they had recovered foot-hold. I had thought that in Indiana, a few years previously, I had seen the very worst roads in the world; but they are equalled by those over Mount Lebanon, that is, if the reader can be made to understand clearly a comparison between mud-holes and rocks, which I confess I cannot exactly do myself. There is no mistake, however, about this road, which is certainly the most toilsome and dangerous one that I have ever met with. And yet it is the great thoroughfare between Damascus and its seaport, Beirout, and is every day traversed by camels with heavy loads of merchandise. The British Consul General for Syria, residing at Damascus, a few years ago had a carriage transported across this mountain from Beirout. He first had it taken to pieces, and then had the body slung between two camels; but the swinging motion, in consequence of the roughness of the roads, soon put the poor animals on beam ends; and they said, as plainly as camels could say, that they had no inclination for such work. He then put the vehicle together again, and employed sixty men to pull it up and lower it down the precipices, and at last got it safe home at Damascus, where now he may go an airing over a plain 500 miles in length. He offered the ladies of our party to carry them in it to Palmyra. A ride in an English coach to Palmyra! it would have been something new under the sun, and we should all have made that interesting journey, if our time would have permitted. But back again—we have not arrived at Damascus yet, nor even at the summit of Lebanon, and many a weary mile is before us. Up, up we went, sometimes almost perpendicularly, wondering, when we could catch a breathing spell, at the power and wonderful surefootedness of our animals. After a while the scenery around us became truly grand. It is a mountain with more poetry than any other that I have ever seen. Grander I have met with, and richer, and more beautiful; but I have seen none that contains so much of all of these combined. The reader is perhaps aware that it is inhabited by a race of people that from time immemorial have kept themselves free and unsubdued; they form an enigma and a wonder in this land of sloth and imbecility. Hardy, industrious, and healthful, they have spread over the mountain till it is teeming with inhabitants, and have been compelled, wherever, by terrace or otherwise, it can be cultivated, to erect their dwellings, and break up or make a soil. They retain also their peculiar institutions; and this is the only place in all Turkey where Christians are allowed for their churches the use of bells.
The inhabitants of Mount Lebanon branch off into three religions: Mahomedans, Druses, and Maronite Christians. The last of these had their origin in the seventh century, and take their name from Maro, their first bishop, who, at this time, came from the banks of the Orontes and taught here the heretical doctrines of the Monothelites, which he had adopted. In the year 1182 they gave up these doctrines, and were united to the Romish church; at least they have ever since acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope, but as they never allow him to interfere with their doctrines or forms of worship, and have their own distinct class of ecclesiastical rulers, their subjection to the Roman Catholic jurisdiction is little better than nominal. They have a patriarch whom they elect themselves, and who takes uniformly the name of Peter; but his appointment, to be valid, must be confirmed by the Pope. Their number at present is about 120,000.
The Druses, who amount to about 70,000, are a strange and mysterious people. Their religion seems to be a compound of Paganism, Mahomedanism, and Christianity; but it is kept a profound secret, and we have few means of forming a judgment respecting it. They are divided into two classes, the Djakils, or ignorant, about 60,000 in number, and the Aakils, or intelligent, who amount to about 10,000; the latter alone are acquainted with the mysteries of their religion; but from the vague answers that are given to all queries by strangers respecting it, I am inclined to think that it is itself vague and undefined, and that except a few leading principles, they themselves scarcely know what they believe.