Bussa was about one mile from the Burge Msherify, and was a small village surrounded with olive grounds, in which it seemed to be particularly rich. The soil appeared lower than the sea-coast; so that, on my arrival at the village, the street was fairly flooded. I was directed to the menzel or khan, as strangers generally are: but I inquired for the shaykh’s house, and was, as it always happened, followed by three or four people to learn my business there.
The shaykh, in compliance with the buyurdy, desired me to choose what cottages I liked best: but, here the choice was truly puzzling. Each cottage had a courtyard, where dung and wet lay in the same manner as in the old-fashioned farmyards in England: each cottage likewise consisted of a single room, half of which contained a yoke of oxen, and the other half, somewhat raised, the tenant of it and his family. Finding that they were all alike, I caused three to be cleared out, and set the peasant women to work, to sweep and carry off the dung and other filth. Mrs. Fry, Werdy, and the black slave, soon afterwards arrived; and, by the aid of mats, carpets, and other contrivances, metamorphosed the sheds into something like a habitation.
But there had been a mistake, on the part of M. Beaudin, as to the meaning of the buyurdy; and he conducted Lady Hester, who departed late from Tyre, to Nakûra, where she was informed that I had gone on to Bussa. The night had already set in, when she arrived at Nakûra: but, she was obliged to continue, on account of the luggage: and, for her protection, the shaykh of Nakûra and two armed horsemen accompanied her. I waited anxiously for her, until, owing to the extreme darkness of the night, I became alarmed, and resolved to ride back in search of her. The road, which was no better than a slough, presented a most formidable obstacle in the dark, and my horse had already floundered half a mile through it, when the welcome sound of voices reached my ears. Nor was Lady Hester herself less glad to hear mine: for fatigue, wet, and apprehension, had agitated her more than I well remember to have seen on any other similar occasion.
Bussa is inhabited by Mahometans. The women had somewhat the appearance of Bedouins, in dress, more especially in the pointed shift sleeves reaching almost to the ground. We left this place next morning for Acre. As the road had now diverged a mile from the sea, we had an opportunity of observing the fertility of the plain. It must, however, be unwholesome, since the sea-shore is plainly higher than the soil inland, which prevents the rains from running off; so that there are many stagnant pools. The plain is semicircular, and the horns of the mountains which enclose it are, Mount Carmel to the south, and the Nakûra, over which we had just passed, to the north. We soon arrived at Acre. A small house had been provided for Lady Hester, where she lived with her female attendants only. M. Beaudin and myself had apartments in the corn khan.
In order to avoid all foul play on the part of those with whom she might have to do, her ladyship engaged Signor Catafago, at whose house she lived on her first visit to Acre, to go with her, as being a cunning man, and used to the intrigues of the country. We remained at Acre until the 17th of March. In the mean time, Mâlem Musa arrived from Damascus, having with him two men servants. Lady Hester saw from day to day Mâlem Haym, the Jew; and she paid a visit to the pasha, who received her with peculiar affability. Whenever she went out, she was followed by a crowd of spectators; and the curiosity and admiration which she had very generally excited throughout Syria were now increased by her supposed influence in the affairs of government, in having a Capugi Bashi at her command.
She was returning one day from the bath, in which she often indulged, muffled up to keep out the cold air, and mounted on her favourite black ass, with a groom on either side to support her, when the ass took fright, and, turning suddenly round, threw her. The man on whom the fault chiefly fell was named Harb, a Mussulman, who had been hired expressly for this journey, at Sayda, as a janissary, he having been janissary to the French Consul. Although Lady Hester was not hurt, the Jew Seráf caused him to be bastinadoed on the feet, that he might take more care of his mistress in future. No Turk now paid her a visit without wearing his benýsh, or mantle of ceremony: and every circumstance showed the ascendency she had gained in public opinion.
I have already described the caravansery in which I was living (called Khan el Kummah) on a former occasion. I was lodged in a room the window of which overlooked the harbour, which is no more than a small nook sheltered by a dilapidated mole. During this time there was a most violent storm, and I was witness to the stranding of a polacca, which, although moored by two cables through portholes in the mole, rode so uneasy that she broke the cables and drove on shore.
About this time, an order arrived from the Porte to the pashas of Syria, desiring them to enforce the wearing of kaûks, the cloth bonnet of Constantinopolitan Mahometans; and which, more especially, was affected in the Levant by government officers, or by Turks, in contradistinction to the natives, with whom the turban was the favourite covering of the head.
On our arrival, a request was made me to attend on Ali, pasha of Tripoli, whom we have before spoken of as residing with Sulymán Pasha in preference to residing on his own pashalik, and who was, at present, dangerously ill of a pulmonary complaint. He had been treated by eight doctors, all at variance with each other in their opinions: and, during three weeks previous to my arrival, the merits of bleeding had been discussed in consultations held before the pasha’s friends, whilst the patient’s malady was gaining ground. The casting vote was given to me, and I decided for it. One of the anti-phlebotomists, however, who performed the operation, made the orifice too small to give issue to the required quantity of blood: this was a medium anceps, which appeased both parties; the arm was bound up, and the trial was not repeated. I generally visited him twice a day; and never surely had I seen the path of death so smoothed to a dying man.
He was attended by a certain Shaykh Messaûd, spoken of heretofore as head of an ancient family and governor of Beled Hartha. Seeing this gentleman and one Hassan Effendi always with Ali Pasha, I inquired the reason of their close attendance; and I was answered—“They are two clever persons who are kept near the pasha to amuse him, to pacify him when his temper is ruffled, to give the tone in conversation, and to raise his spirits when depressed by melancholy forebodings.” The office of toady in Turkey at least requires some talent, where an unlucky observation may lead to a bastinading: but, when this talent is exerted in alleviating the sufferings of a sick bed, a toady ceases to be a despicable person.