By this little history, it will be seen that the pride, which forbids an Englishman well-born to demand charity, however great his distress, is unknown to the Turks; but what we wondered at was that he could submit to beg from a Christian. Lady Hester gave him ten guineas, which sum enabled him to embark for Egypt, where he hoped, at the court of Mohammed Ali Pasha, to find some honourable employment. Throughout his story there was occasionally an appearance of falsehood. But, whether true or false, it serves as a picture of the measures of arbitrary governments; since no man who wishes to be believed invents occurrences that have not a similitude to truth, and to the usages of the people of whom he is speaking.
Lady Hester was much surprised one day to find that a man, who had sent in to say he wished to be admitted to her presence, should prove to be that same Ibrahim who went from Egypt to England with two horses as a present from her to H.R.H. the Duke of York. He had saved a considerable sum of money whilst there, arising from the generosity of the Duke and of several other distinguished persons. This money he had converted into cutlery previous to his return to Egypt; but, arriving at Malta when the plague was raging, he got into difficulties, was detained a long time in Sicily, where he lost his merchandize, and was reduced, by the time he reached Jaffa, to a penniless state. He related many amusing stories of what he had seen in England, by which it appeared that he had been much caressed by the great; but his astonishment at the novel and wonderful sight which a metropolis like London would be supposed to excite in the eyes of an untutored Mahometan did not appear to have been remarkable. Two things, however, had struck him as scarcely credible; he never saw a flea, and very few people told lies.
Whilst Lady Hester sojourned in the gardens of Jaffa, Mâlem Musa could not resist the temptation of performing the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, now that his vicinity to that place afforded him the opportunity. We do not in Europe feel the same ardour with those in the Levant to pay this meritorious debt. I believe that Mâlem Musa would have wept like a child, could he not have gone. As my servant, Giovanni, had never been there, he was allowed to accompany him.
There was another place mentioned in the MS. given to Lady Hester, where a second great treasure was said to be concealed, viz. in the ruins of Awgy, and it was resolved that I should go alone, and examine it. Upon the edge of a river, still known by the name of Awgy, and at the distance of an hour and a half from Jaffa, bearing north-east and by east, once stood this city. Its site is called El Khurby or The Ruins; and, when I visited it, a peasant was ploughing over it. Loose stones, thickly scattered on the surface, marked the spot: an indication the more certain, as the surrounding country was of a fine mould, and stoneless. To the right of the ruin was a hillock called Tel Abu Zytûn. The river Awgy empties itself into the sea three miles north of Jaffa. Its source is about a mile and a half from the foot of the mountains in ten or a dozen springs: these, uniting, form at once a river from twenty-five to thirty feet broad. It is augmented on the left side by the river Messalelah, (which is much swollen in the rainy season), and perhaps on the right bank by other streams. There was a village just above the Messalelah on the right bank, called Shaykh Gemás. Over the Awgy, distant one hour from Jaffa, were the remains of a long bridge with the centre arch broken down, which arch seemed to have been built subsequent to the two ends. At the extremity of the bridge were several ruined buildings that appeared either to have been water-mills, or portions of a castle, they being surrounded by a moat. Close by was a hamlet of wretched cottages. Ascending the stream, three quarters of an hour higher up, was the village of Mlebbes; and three quarters of an hour farther, Kalât Ras el ayn, (or the Fountain Head Castle) close to the sources of the river. The castle was in tolerable preservation, and worthy of being visited: it appeared to be of Saracen construction, from having a mosque in the centre: it was of a square form, with a tower at each angle, and had two rows of long narrow apertures for bow-shots and musketry: it was now used for folding cattle. The mosque was so full of fleas, that above a hundred leaped upon me the first step I set in it. I was consequently unable to look for inscriptions, commemorative of its date. The country, hereabouts, is of a red soil, and very rich. Near the Awgy, I saw abundance of colocynth plants, and of what I thought to be stramonium. The Messalelah had also the ruins of a bridge, making a line from the bridge of the Awgy to Jaffa. There were many proofs that this district was once highly populous; but, with respect to Lady Hester’s particular object, no one indication was left, and I ventured to assure her that her attempts at a search on these ruins would necessarily be fruitless.
Under these circumstances, she had nothing to do but to return to Acre. Before quitting Jaffa, the governor attempted to effect a reconciliation with her; but she always treated his advances with neglect. How justly Lady Hester appreciated this man’s character will be seen from what took place shortly after.
Sulymán Pasha and Mohammed Aga Abu Nabûd had been bred up together, and, no sooner was Sulymán raised to the pashalik of Acre, than he advanced his friend by degrees to power, until he made him governor of Jaffa, a post of considerable importance, and which at some former period had been designated as a separate pashalik, although latterly merged in that of Acre and Sayda. Sulymán Pasha was desirous that Abu Nabûd should attain yet greater honours, and it was thought by many, now that Ali Pasha was no more, that he looked to him as his successor. Accordingly, as a preparatory step, he wrote to the Porte to ask for him the dignity of Two Tails. At this very time Abu Nabûd had secretly written to the Grand Vizir, and, after pointing out the incapacity of Sulymán Pasha on account of his advanced age and bad health, had offered to raise a much more considerable revenue than Sulymán Pasha now remitted, if he were made pasha in his place. The Porte had known from many years’ experience the fidelity of the old pasha, and, feeling satisfied that a person so treacherous towards his benefactor was little to be relied on, enclosed Abu Nabûd’s communication under cover to him, with the simple observation of—“This is the man for whom you ask the title of pasha of two tails.”
Sulymán Pasha, enraged at such duplicity, despatched Abdallah Bey with a body of troops to Jaffa. Abu Nabûd happened just then to be absent on a circuit, and the news soon reached him that he was shut out from the city. Suspecting, probably, that his machinations were discovered, he had the sagacity not to trust himself to require an explanation or attempt to recover the place, and fled to Egypt. It was surmised that this traitor was the first who suggested to Mahomet Ali the feasibility of conquering Syria, afterwards effected through the intrigues of the Emir Beshýr, a greater Machiavelian than either.
It may be supposed that Lady Hester felt some disappointment in the unsuccessful results of her researches, which tended to vex her. The tone of one of her letters, written whilst here, sufficiently indicates a feeling of fallen greatness, and a sense of her loneliness, which fresh schemes from time to time made her forget.
Lady Hester Stanhope to ——.
Jaffa, April 25th, 1815.