The richness of the land in the environs of Sayda is very great. There is a patch of soil near the city so fertile as to produce for every mid or modius of corn, two gararas, a proportion of seventy-two fold, or one quintal out of as much land as a pair of oxen can plough in one day. And the same may be asserted of nearly all the plains and valleys that receive the alluvial soil from the mountains.
Two miles north of Sayda is the river Ewely. This river is crossed by a bridge of Saracen construction, which is about four hundred yards from the seashore. Two hundred yards higher up are the remains of another bridge, now almost undistinguishable, but which, to judge from a few large stones lying about, similar in size to those of other bridges along the coast, was the work of Roman or Greek hands.
Scarcely had we arrived in Sayda, when the Emir of the Drûzes sent a courier with a letter to request Lady Hester to honour him with a visit at his residence. Her ladyship accepted the invitation, as it was her intention to go into the Drûze country, even had he not invited her. The day being fixed for our departure, the Emir sent down twelve camels, twenty-five mules, four horses, and seven foot soldiers, as an escort; but, as circumstances prevented our immediate departure, they were kept a couple of days waiting at Lady Hester’s expense. On the 27th July, the Salsette, Captain H. Hope, touched at Sayda, and nothing could equal the joy that was felt on again seeing a gentleman to whom we were so much indebted.
Our Mamelukes, Yusef and Selim, although good Mussulmans, had not so far forgotten the practices of their native country, as not to love wine when they could meet with it. In consequence of this, the French Consul, who entertained the whole of Lady Hester’s suite, complained that they exceeded too far the bounds of sobriety, which remark excited the choler of the two renegadoes, and a covert warfare was carried on between them and the consul.
Among other hints which he dropped respecting them, he insinuated that their services under the pasha of Egypt would make their journey into Syria be looked upon as pure spying, and that Lady Hester would be no where received without suspicion, whilst she had these men in her train. The consequence was that their dismissal was resolved upon. They received each one thousand piasters, and were furnished with a letter to the pasha of Egypt, thanking him for their services. They quitted us with regret. Before their departure, they, however, exhibited a little of their Mameluke horsemanship to Captain Hope on the sands close to the town.
Captain H. himself essayed their mode of riding, but found their saddles somewhat inconvenient in a European dress. For myself I had ridden constantly with an Egyptian saddle, since our first arrival in that country, and I had, from habit, conceived a favourable idea of its commodiousness: for, hitherto, we had but occasionally quitted the plains; and it is to them that this saddle is adapted. But, when afterwards we traversed Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, I abandoned it for the saddle of Syria.
We here began to learn the importance that was attached to the appearance of the pipe. I had already adopted the habit of smoking, and I was now persuaded to barter the only pistol I had saved from the shipwreck for an amber mouthpiece, which took my fancy, and which I could get on no other terms. Milky opaque amber is most esteemed, and indeed it looks very beautiful. Rhinoceros’ tooth, bone, coloured glass, agate, and an imitation of amber, are the materials most commonly used.
Syria is celebrated for producing the best tobacco of Turkey, and it was, therefore, thought worth while to note down the districts and villages most in repute: for, as it happens in the growth of grapes for making wine, there are often patches of soil of a few acres only which alone produce a particular quality. The information here given on the subject is the result of several questions put, and observations made, at different times in different journeys through the country.
In crossing Mount Lebanon, in a direction from west to east, the soil which is met with, for the first two leagues and a half, is white, which, under the most favourable circumstances, never produces good tobacco. To an extent of three leagues west and east from this point onwards, the soil is red; and here a species of tobacco grows, known throughout Turkey and the East by the epithet of Gebely (or mountain tobacco), and in England called by the various names of Cham, Sham, or Damascus, all which words have the same meaning, Sham being the Arabic for Damascus, which the French, having no sh, spell Cham. But not the whole tract with the red soil enjoys the same reputation; for the growth of only ten or twelve villages is known to possess the requisite qualities; which are, scintillation and self-burning, like touch-paper; ashes impalpable as hair-powder; fumes somewhat odoriferous; and a golden brown in the tint of the dried leaves.
Some more exact observations, which I made three years afterwards in a journey across Mount Lebanon due east from Sidon, may, without impropriety, be inserted here. Half a mile from Sidon is the foot of the mountain. The soil is scanty and white, leaving the rock bare in several places, which is partly limestone and partly sandstone and clay together. These appearances continue from the village of Helelíah, through Abra, Salhyah, Libbâa, as far as Aynàn before descending into the rich plain of Bisery, a distance of nine or ten miles. The soil becomes red at Isfarey, where also commence the good tobacco plantations, and continues as far as the last ridge but one of the mountain, which is a part of the highest chain, which chain runs north and south, whilst almost all those between it and the sea branch off perpendicularly from the main chain, and run east and west. About fifty or one hundred yards above Kharýby the rock is a carbonate of lime, and sometimes almost as white as chalk. At Baderán, which is on the highest part of the penultimate ridge east-north-east of Sidon, there are found, lying on the surface of the soil, numerous silicious pebbles, some as big in circumference as a tumbler, some as a wineglass, and resembling a flattened soap-ball. Their fracture presented a milky quartz.