My last letter, of the 4th of July, from Aleppo, was accompanied by an Arabic imitation of the well known novel of Robinson Crusoe, arranged so as to suit the Arabian taste. I was desirous of giving some proof of my application to the study of that language. I can conscientiously say, that I have done, and still do, every thing in my power to make myself master of it, but I must confess that I find its difficulties out of proportion to the time which has been allotted to me, to surmount them. I have no other motives in this confession than the sincerest zeal to succeed in my travels to the fullest expectations of the African Association. A two years residence in Syria was thought sufficient to enable me to speak with fluency. After one year’s stay, I think I may be allowed to be able to calculate what remains yet to be done, and I conclude that a twelve month more of study and practice is not sufficient for the remaining task. I therefore take the liberty to entreat the Committee to allow me six months more, over the already granted two years, before I proceed to Egypt. If the Committee is persuaded of the truth of what I advance, a delay of six months and the expense accompanying it, will not be thought an object, nor will it, I trust, be believed, that after the expiration of the prolonged term, I shall again demand a farther delay. The additional six months, however, is of the greatest importance to me, because I know from experience that when once tolerably conversant with a language, a short practice has a more rapid effect than triple the time employed in getting over the first difficulties. In case no distinct answer to this application should arrive before next July, I shall look upon my proposition as rejected, and strictly follow the tenour of my former instructions.
Aleppo, January 6th, 1811.
I had the honour of writing to you from Damascus on the 15th of August, 1810; soon after my arrival in that city from Palmyra. The unsettled state of the government of Damascus obliged me to prolong my stay there for upwards of six weeks. I again left it in the middle of September to visit Baalbec and the Libanus. My route lay through Zahle, a small but prosperous town on the western side of the valley Bekaa, the ancient Coelosyria, and from thence to Baalbec, where I remained three days; then to the top of the Libanus, the Cedars and Kannobin, from whence following the highest summits of the mountain, I returned to Zahle by the villages called Akoura and Afka. Descending the Bekaa I proceeded to the Druse territory of Hasbeya; this village is at the foot of Djebel el Shikh, or Mount Hermon, and is famous for its wells of bitumen judaicum and for the cinnabar found near it; from thence I went to Banias, the ancient Cæsarea Philippi, where I saw some ruins, and copied some inscriptions. At an hour’s distance from it is the source of the river El Dhan (Jordan), in the plain of the Houle, or lake Samachonitis. Three hours from it, upon the top of a mountain, are the ruins of the ancient city of Boustra, mentioned in the holy scriptures. I returned to Damascus over the chain of mountains called Djebel Heish, which under the different names of Djebel Adjoulan and Djebel Belkaa continues southerly along the eastern borders of the Dead Sea. I remained this time only a fortnight at Damascus; it was preparatory to an excursion into a region which till a few years ago had never been visited by European travellers; I mean the country called Haouran, the patrimony of Abraham, of which Dr. Seetzen, the German traveller, had seen a part four years ago, previous to his memorable tour round the Dead Sea. During a fatiguing journey of twenty-six days I explored this country as far as a five days journey to the south and south-east of Damascus; I went over the whole of the Djebel Haouran, or mountain of the Druses, who have in these parts a settlement of about twenty villages; I passed Bosz ra (بُصره), a place likewise mentioned in the books of Moses, and not to be confounded with Boustra, (بُستره); I then entered the desert to the south-east of it, and returned afterwards to Damascus through the rocky district on the foot of the Djebel Haouran, called El Ledja. At every step I found vestiges of ancient cities, saw the remains of many temples, public edifices, and Greek churches, met at Shohbe with a well-preserved amphitheatre, at other places with numbers of still standing columns, and had opportunities of copying many Greek inscriptions which may serve to throw some light upon the history of this almost forgotten corner. The inscriptions are for the greater part of the Lower Empire, but some of the most elegant ruins have their inscriptions dated from the reigns of Trajan and M. Aurelius. The Haouran with its adjacent districts is the spring and summer rendezvous of most of the Arab tribes who inhabit in winter-time the great Syrian desert called by them El Hammad (الحماد). They approach the cultivated lands in search of grass, water, and corn, of which last they buy up in the Haouran their yearly provision.
In my last letter from Damascus, I gave you some details concerning the invasion of the Wahabi in July last, observing at the same time that many people at Damascus were still in doubt whether it was really a Wahabi corps, which had penetrated so near to the principal seat of the Turkish power in Syria. My inquiries upon the spots where they passed, place it beyond any doubt that Ibn Saoud himself, the Wahabi chief, accompanied by the Sherif of Mekka, headed the expedition, which consisted of about six thousand men, mounted upon camels, together with about four hundred horsemen. The camels were all females, whose milk afforded drink to men and horses during their march from the Djof (an assemblage of Wahabi villages, twelve days journey from Boszra) to the Haouran, at a time of the year when no water is met with in the desert. Ibn Saoud executed his plans in the true Arab style. He remained only two days and a half in the cultivated districts of the Haouran, over-ran in that short time a space of at least one hundred and twenty miles, burnt and plundered near thirty villages, and returned flying, loaded with booty, into the heart of his dominions. The terror of his name was so great, that Yussef, the Pasha of Damascus, did not dare to attack him while he defiled with his loaded camels before the Pasha’s troops; but contented himself with aukwardly firing off his field artillery. Many of the Wahabi were armed with musquets. It is probable that Ibn Saoud will return next year; an expedition conducted as the former was, will always be successful, if no other means of defence are employed; the Haouran people entertain great apprehensions of his return; a few successful attacks will render the eastern borders of Syria deserted, and the great Desert, which already daily gains ground upon the inhabited districts, will soon swallow up the remaining parts of the eastern plain.
After a short excursion to the Djebel el Shikh to the west of Damascus, I returned from thence by Homs and Hamah to Aleppo, where I arrived on the new year’s day.
During this six months journey I have gained some experience in acting as well as in speaking. This indeed was the motive which principally induced me to it, and although disappointed on my first outset, yet I have no reason to be dissatisfied with the remaining part of the journey. I am now occupied in working up my journal, of which I shall send you the first part by the next opportunity for Malta. It will contain my observations among the Arabs, and the classification of about one hundred and fifty of their tribes. The journal of my Haouran tour shall follow as soon as possible.
I am at last under the disagreeable necessity of telling you that notwithstanding every economy in expense I have spent my last farthing. I performed my travels throughout in the garb of a pauper, (the Haouran tour for instance only cost me four pounds sterling), yet some expense in feeding myself and my horse, together with some occasional presents were unavoidable. I should less regret the want of remittances if it was not for the consideration that my stay in Syria might have afforded me opportunities of laying out whatever I might have spared of my appointments in manuscripts or objects of antiquity, an opportunity which if lost now, may be lost for ever. I have lived for nineteen months, since my leaving Malta, upon £170. the remainder of my credit upon Mr. Lee, and I shall now be obliged to accept Mr. Barker’s kind offers, gradually to advance me the sums necessary for my livelihood, until I may be enabled to reimburse him by the receipt of my salary from the Committee.
Aleppo, May 3, 1811.
I am sincerely obliged to the Committee for having granted me a six months prolongation of my stay in Syria.
I have the honour to transmit to you a parcel of papers containing: 1. A classification of the principal Arab tribes near the confines of Syria. 2. A treatise on Bedouin customs and manners. 3. The journal of my tour into the Haouran. 4. The journal of my tour over part of the Syrian mountains. 5. Some geographical notices concerning the Desert. The geographical part of my journey to Palmyra is too insignificant to be laid before you, as I was deprived by the Arab robbers of the aid of my watch and compass; my observations made among the Bedouins on my way to and from Palmyra, you will find dispersed in my treatise on their manners; and any researches at Palmyra itself, must be superfluous after the excellent and most correct work of Wood and Dawkins. My tour into the country of the Haouran might have been interesting on account of its novelty, were it not for the account which the indefatigable German traveller, Dr. Seetzen, must ere now have published of his travels in these parts.i[5] As I have had opportunities of copying, in the Haouran villages, many Greek inscriptions, it will be necessary to tell the reader of my journal that the author’s knowledge of Greek is very superficial. The excursion to Baalbec and over Mount Libanus towards the lake Houle, was undertaken rather to gratify my own curiosity, than in the hope of being able to gather new information in a country so often travelled over by Europeans. The investigation of Bedouin customs was a favourite object of mine, being convinced that their civil institutions are still very imperfectly known in Europe, although their social manners have often been described. In my treatise on Bedouin customs I thought it necessary, frequently, to subjoin the Arabic names, and sometimes, likewise the Bedouin phraseology; because both greatly differ from the Syrian language. If I had been in possession of some books descriptive of Arab manners before Mohammed, such as Pococke, Schultens, &c. I might have rendered my inquiries among the Arabs more useful, and might have drawn some interesting parallels. Not having met with any such works in Syria, I was contented faithfully to note down what I myself saw or what I heard related by competent witnesses.