A manuscript was put into her hands, said to have been surreptitiously copied by a monk, from the records of a Frank monastery in Syria, and found among his papers after his decease. It was written in Italian, and disclosed the repositories of immense hoards of money, buried in the cities of Ascalon, Awgy, and Sidon, in certain spots therein mentioned.
Persons, whom a residence in the East has made acquainted with the usages of Eastern nations, consider such events as very probable and worthy of examination: for there are causes among them which induce the concealment of riches, not operating in other countries. To make this clearer, it may not be amiss to enumerate the reasons: firstly, the want of paper currency, or the bulkiness and weight of specie; secondly, the non-existence of banks, wherein money may be deposited in safety; thirdly, the insecurity of private property; fourthly, the frequency of wars and tumults; lastly, the particular circumstances of the times in which the treasures in question are supposed to have been buried, combining all these beforementioned difficulties.
Firstly, it is only in Europe and America, that the public confidence in the government and in rich individuals has been sufficient to give general currency to pieces of paper bearing the value of specie: in the East, no such paper money exists, unless it be in China. Governors of towns send their tribute to their pasha in bags, on mules and other beasts of burden, guarded by soldiers: whilst private persons generally pay their debts where they can in goods and by barter, rather than send specie, which would be too declaratory of their wealth. A rich man, who has not the means of investing his money in the purchase of jewels, houses, lands, &c., feels the hazard of laying up specie in a trunk or closet, especially as the locks and keys in the East afford little security, and as iron chests are no where seen excepting in the counting-houses of European merchants, established among them. Banks and public funds are, generally speaking, unknown. He is, therefore, reduced to concealment, either in a hole, or in some subterranean place constructed for the purpose: more especially if, leaving his house on a journey, he holds his wife so little worthy of trust that he dares not make even her acquainted with the secret of his treasures; a case by no means rare in Turkey, and not uncommon elsewhere.
Not a year passes that a pasha or governor does not lay violent hands on some rich man, whether Turk or Nazarene. Excuses are never wanting, either from the frequent peculations which persons employed under government habitually practise, or from alleged treasonable correspondence with Franks, or from any other motive which arbitrary injustice holds good enough for its purposes. To such as have imprudently made a display of their riches the ransom will be proportionally high. They have, therefore, no other means of avoiding similar difficulties than by carefully hiding what they possess, even from their nearest connections, among whom instances of treachery have put them on their guard. It is obvious to every traveller in Turkey, how much the extreme of indigence is affected in the dress and houses of rich individuals. The receiving apartment of a Christian, more especially when visited by a Turk, is generally the hall of his house, sometimes a bench at his door, where everything intentionally indicates poverty: whilst a Turk pursues the same course towards everybody. Relatives and intimate friends alone see the interior of each other’s houses, and it is before these only that a person displays his smart pipes, his pelisses, his shawls, and his rich silks; so that, in the most tranquil state of such a government, every possible caution is necessary to escape the invidious eyes of oppressive masters.
But, when we add to all this the extreme frequency of popular tumults; of plunder by troops, who own no control; of rebellion, and, its consequences, sieges, pillages, and precipitate flights; we shall not wonder if a prudent man never thinks his wealth safe until it is under ground. Let us take Tripoli for an example. Within the last twenty years it had undergone five sieges, and every siege had terminated by sacking the city. The peaceable inhabitant, if he flies, cannot take his money with him because it is too heavy, if to any amount, even for a mule to carry (considering that Turkish coins are very bulky, as are Spanish dollars, the coin chiefly hoarded); and, if he shuts it up in the strongest chest, he knows that it will inevitably be rifled. He therefore, if obliged to flee, either throws it into the well, the cistern, or the water-closet; or, if he has had prudence and foresight enough to be prepared for such a calamity, he deposits it in some hole made with a view to this particular purpose.
From such like reasoning as this Lady Hester had no doubt of the possibility of the existence of hidden treasures. She next examined the manuscript; and, on observing that it had no signs of antiquity about it, she was told this was a copy of the original paper, which, through fear of losing it, had never been taken out of the house. Keeping the copy, therefore, Lady Hester insisted on seeing the original, and pretended to treat the matter lightly unless she should be convinced by the sight of a more authentic document than that before her.
The inhabitants are strongly possessed with the idea that the Franks who come among them have no other object than to seek treasures concealed in ancient ruins. They look with indifference themselves on the works of the ancients as specimens of architecture, and do not understand how others can be so eager in researches after what they despise. The admeasurement of an edifice, the copying of an ancient inscription, is, in their eyes, nothing better than taking the marks of a golden hoard. Nor can this opinion have originated in anything else but the certainty, from their own experience, that treasures are often discovered.[36] Can it be wondered at, therefore, that they should often have asked me these questions?—“If my lady is not come to seek for treasures, what is she come for? Is she banished? No: Is she on mercantile affairs? No: Well, but if she is come, as you say, for her health, surely in Syria there are more pleasurable spots to be found than the barren sides of Mount Lebanon.”
With this opinion, therefore, so strongly impressed upon their minds, she considered that the document might be no more than a forgery fabricated on purpose by some of the emissaries of the Porte, to make a trial of her eagerness about it, and thereby assure themselves whether she were travelling for such an object, or (which is another very flattering opinion they sometimes have of travellers) as a spy. To accept the paper, then, was a less dangerous course than to refuse it: for it is better to be considered as a treasure-hunter than as a secret agent of a government.
The original copy was produced, and considered by Lady Hester as genuine. The donor had, most probably, looked to the certainty of an immediate present for his disclosure, as he had often experienced Lady Hester’s liberality: but there were many reasons for not immediately rewarding him; and, knowing the impracticability of a similar attempt without exposing herself to some risk and to more expense than she could afford, she determined on making an application to the Porte, offering them all the pecuniary benefit that might accrue, and reserving for herself the honour only. She accordingly submitted a succinct statement to His Excellency Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Liston, to be presented by him to the Reis Effendi. Whether any correspondence took place on the subject, or whether the business was primâ facie considered so well worth a trial as to demand no farther inquiries into it, I do not know: because, as was said before, the whole affair was matured for execution before I became acquainted with it.
It may not be improper to add that much reliance must have been placed on Lady Hester’s judgment, since the manuscript wanted the very essential confirmation of a date. Therefore, as no clue could be obtained, after the priest’s death, to the records from which it was copied, it was not clear at what period the treasures were hidden. That they were so, when the mosque, mentioned in the manuscript, was still standing, we gathered from the allusions made to pillars, walls, &c. We might go farther back, and conclude the deposit to have been made before the edifice was appropriated to the Mahometan worship—because Christians are not allowed to enter a mosque, much less to remain long enough to dig a hole, or take the precautions necessary for such a concealment. This therefore carries us back to a period of seven or eight centuries.