How is it possible that a treasure could so long lie untouched, when the secret of its existence was known? The answer is, that digging and rummaging in ruins always excites dangerous suspicions in the Turks. Every traveller in the Levant has heard how certainly the discovery of a jar of money leads to the ruin of the finder, if known. In vain he immediately carries it to the governor: his greedy masters suppose that he has concealed a part for his own use; and the bastinado, nay, often torture, compels him to yield up the supposed remainder by sacrificing all he has in the world. His property is confiscated, and poverty and blows are his reward. So much do examples of this kind terrify, that some, who have fallen accidentally on jars of coins, have been known to cover the spot carefully up, and never to speak of it but on their death-bed; a disclosure more likely to do mischief than good to their heirs.
On the 28th of January, 1815, Derwish Mustafa Aga, the Zâym, arrived, as we have already seen, after a journey of many weeks, from Constantinople, deputed to invest Lady Hester with greater authority over the Turks than was, probably, ever granted even to any European ambassador; certainly, than to any unofficial Christian.
Derwish Aga was a short man, about 50 years old. As soon as he had supped, Lady Hester requested his presence in the saloon, to which he moved most slowly, moaning and whining on entering the door as though he had been ill. Giorgio acted as the interpreter: and the aga and her ladyship remained in private conversation until past midnight. He was the bearer of three firmans or imperial orders, empowering her to demand what assistance she might want for the prosecution of her purpose: one was addressed to the Pasha of Acre; another to the Pasha of Damascus; and a third to all governors in Syria generally. Derwish Aga was to put himself entirely under the direction of Lady Hester, and was to do nothing without consulting her.
On the 29th and 30th he had long conversations with her ladyship, and tried every device to wind about her, in order to judge what were her motives for offering to the Porte treasures which others would have appropriated to their own use: but he invariably found them to be such as she had professed. He next wanted to make the first excavation at the spot said to be near Sayda, but her ladyship insisted on Ascalon, and it was finally so arranged. Considering that an affair of this magnitude ought not to be trusted entirely to the Capugi Bashi, (and those enlisted into this service by him) she bethought herself of Mâlem Musa of Hamah, father of Selim, in whom she had perceived a vast capacity for business, and on whom she felt she could rely better than on any other native of her acquaintance. Accordingly a letter was sent off by express to Hamah nearly in these words: “You know I am a straitforward person. An affair has happened which demands your presence at Acre. Be not alarmed; there is nothing serious in it: but let nothing prevent your coming, short of illness. In such a case, send Selim, and with him some one who reads and speaks Turkish fluently. But it would be better that you came together; you to give counsels, and he to execute them.”
Lady Hester, just returned from a long and fatiguing journey, felt almost unequal to undertake another: but the Zâym of course urged the necessity of her presence, and she probably did not wish him to act without her; so it was arranged that he should precede her to Acre, to make the necessary preparations. He accordingly departed, accompanied by Giorgio, who was promoted to be dragoman, and was furnished with the following letter to the pasha:—“I send your Highness my dragoman, who will acquaint you with his business, according to the tenor of a paper which I have put in his hands. In a few days I shall be with you myself to explain the whole.” The paper was to this effect:—“A person had put into my hands certain indications of a treasure. His object was to get money from me: but, as the benefit was not to be mine, (since I never seek to appropriate to myself the property of others,) it was not for me to reward him. It would have been natural for me to have immediately acquainted your Highness with it: but I considered that there might arise a double mischief from this: first, that, if the treasure did not exist, the ridicule would fall on you; and secondly, that, if it did exist, and you had presented it to the Porte, you might have been suspected of having appropriated a portion to yourself, and would have been avanized.[37] I therefore addressed myself directly to the Sultan, assigning to him the same reasons for having kept you in ignorance that I now give you, and having spoken of you in such terms as, had you been present, you would have approved of.”
On Wednesday, February 1st, Derwish Aga and Giorgio departed, and it was fixed for us to follow in ten days.
Lady Hester had considered how she should be able to support the expense which this affair would bring upon her. Her limited income scarcely sufficed for her ordinary expenditure, and she had exceeded it greatly in her late tour to Bâlbec. She therefore came to the resolution of asking (or, as she expressed it, of obliging) the English government to pay her; considering that the reputation which she was giving to the English name was a sufficient warrant for expecting this remuneration. “I shall beg of you, doctor” (she said) “to keep a regular account of every article, and will then send in my bill to government by Mr. Liston; when, if they refuse to pay me, I shall put it in the newspapers and expose them. And this I shall let them know very plainly, as I consider it my right, and not a favour: for, if Sir A. Paget put down the cost of his servants’ liveries after his embassy to Vienna, and made Mr. Pitt pay him £70,000 for four years, I cannot see why I should not do the same.”
As both Lady Hester and myself were in want of many articles necessary on a long journey, she requested me to go to Damascus for them, as well as to pick up some horses for our riding. Two days before Derwish Aga departed for Acre, I left Abra, taking with me Mbárak, the lock-picking servant, and a muleteer. Our road lay to Bisra, already described, and from Bisra, ascending the mountain upon which I lost myself in October, 1814, we came to the cascade. Here we struck off to the north-east, and ascended another mountain, at the back of a village called Ayn Matûr, from the top of which there is a view of the plain of Bisra, of the glen through which the river Ewely winds, and of the mountains in which these romantic scenes are embosomed. We then turned to the east, continuing over a rocky but somewhat level ridge, and reached, about sunset, a village where Mbárak, the servant, had some respectable relations. I was taken to their house; a warm room was immediately provided, and in due time a hot supper made me forget the fatigues of the day.
This village was the highest to be seen hereabouts, before reaching the summit of the mountain. It had some good substantial stone dwellings, and the inhabitants, I was told, were all above want, or, in other words, in comfortable circumstances. The plague was raging at another village half a mile off, even at this unusual season of the year. I retired to rest, whilst, in the adjoining room, Mbárak’s relations sat the greater part of the night listening to the recital of his adventures in the journey to Bâlbec, to which he did not fail to add as many marvels as he could conveniently invent.
The next morning, having thanked my hospitable hosts, I proceeded on my journey. Half an hour brought us to the foot of the last and highest chain of mountains, where the snow now lay very thick. When almost at the top, we met two women on foot, one of whom had neither shoes nor stockings. I stopped her, and, having a pair of yellow shoes loose in a bag, I gave them to her, and received her thanks. We soon afterwards arrived at the summit, and, descending rapidly into the Bkâ, inclined to the left, until we fell into the same track which we had followed in 1812. The passage over the mountain by which I had now come lies two or three leagues to the south of that of Barûk. Passing Jub Genýn, we did not halt until we reached Aita; and on the third day, we arrived at Damascus.