That Lady Hester had no thoughts at this time of going to Europe, much less of returning to England, is pretty evident. It might be supposed that she had almost now resolved to spend the remainder of her days in the East. I therefore, with much reluctance, had communicated to her my wish, as soon as some one could be procured to supply my place, of returning to my native country, from which I had now been absent nearly six years; and it was resolved that Giorgio, the Greek, should be sent to England both for the purpose of bringing out my successor, and also to execute a variety of commissions for his mistress, which could not be accurately made known by letter. On the 30th of June, he sailed from Beyrout to Cyprus, where he found a vessel to Malta, and thence took his passage to England. He was charged with several presents, in sabres, wines of Mount Lebanon, brocades, and other productions of the manufactures and soil of the Levant.
It was about this period that a malicious paragraph found its way into the English newspapers, copied from the French, stating that Lady Hester was surrounded by children whom she educated. The fact was, that she had three servant boys of from ten to twelve years old, sons of peasants of Abra, who were useful to run on messages, where the different parts of the family were scattered in different cottages, and who took it by turns to walk by the side of her ass when she rode out, to hold it when she alighted, and to perform the duties of groom-boys in the stable.
When not animated in the pursuit of some interesting affair, Lady Hester now sunk into an extraordinary lassitude and inactivity of body, but never of mind. She had been accustomed ever since her illness at Latakia to be carried up stairs by two men-servants, and could, on no occasion, support the slightest exertion of an unusual nature.
Time passed on in this way. Her ladyship was in constant correspondence with Mâlem Haym Shâdy at Acre, to which end M. Beaudin was continually going backward and forward. The project of my journey to Egypt, so often put off, was now definitively arranged; and on the 1st of August I left Meshmûshy for Abra, in order to embark.
Signor Volpi, an Italian, professing medicine at Tripoli, was sent for, and engaged by Lady Hester to attend on her until my return.
As there was a constant resort of vessels from Egypt to Tyre, for the purpose of loading with wood, I resolved not to wait at Sayda for an occasion, which was at best very uncertain, but to go to Tyre. Accordingly, on the 6th, accompanied by my man Giovanni, I departed, and arrived at Tyre in the evening. I took up my abode at the house of the Greek bishop, and, sending Giovanni to the captain of the port, desired him to inform me as to the Egyptian craft I saw lying at anchor. He soon afterwards brought to me the räis of a shekýf, burden 250 ardeps of rice, not decked, and with a crew of twelve men—the master named Mohammed el Ketàb. As he was not to sail until the 8th, I employed the whole of the 7th in examining the town, about the miraculous decadence of which so much has been said, and continues to be repeated by travellers. Yet, to an unbiassed observer, it appeared to share only in the general fate of all the cities of the coast, and could indeed claim a more prosperous fortune than Gaza, Ascalon, or Cæsarea, all famous cities in their time.
Tyre therefore, described as so ruinous by some travellers, was now a flourishing town, to which additions were daily making in houses and inhabitants. Its population might be estimated at 2,000 souls, consisting of Metoualys, Greek Catholics, and Greeks. The quarter of the Metoualys was on the isthmus near the gate; that of the Christians to the north-west side of the town. The Greek families amounted to no more than a dozen: they had, however, a monastery, in which there was but one secular priest, who had now resided twenty years in Tyre; and there I was lodged. I had before heard of this man, who was remarkable, as I was told, for the retired life he led, and for his spare diet. On observing him, I remarked that he ate everything but fruit, sweets, and pastry, which he refrained from, not because he did not like them, but because he was a martyr to flatulence, for which he consulted me. I found him to be a complete valetudinarian, to which state he had brought himself by gross feeding, wine-drinking, and absolute inactivity. So much for worldly reputation!
The walls of Tyre, in the state in which I saw them, were a very recent and insignificant work; but in parts might be discerned the remains of a wall of older date. There was also a dilapidated palace, in a corner of which the governor still contrived to reside: this might be considered as the castle. The houses were of stone, and some of them had very handsome upper apartments, commanding an extensive prospect. At this time houses and warehouses were building on the strand to the north, facing the basin. The isthmus was, in appearance, a heap of sand; beneath the surface, however, according to the report of the inhabitants, were hidden masses of ruins. So lately as fifty years before, this part was covered with gardens; now it was built upon. To the south and to the west, on the sea-shore, the rock, which forms the peninsula, was bared by the continued action of the sea, impelled by the western gales; but to the north, wherever workmen dug for the purpose of laying foundations, the rock was never met with.[61]
Tyre has two ports. The inner seemed to have been formed by two moles, enclosing a basin perhaps 250 yards across. The moles were now partly washed away by the sea, and the towers which flanked them were tumbling down. The basin contained at most half a fathom of water. On the outside of the mole, running West and East, were to be seen, under the surface of the sea, on a fine day, about a dozen fallen pillars, which probably formed a colonnade to some ancient edifice. To the West, likewise, were various fragments. There were men whose occupation it was to dive to the bottom of the basin, or to rake the strand for whatever they could find. They came to me, at the instigation of the harbour-master, and produced, out of their findings, about a hundred and fifty copper coins, some agates and cornelians, pieces of lead, like the heads of arrows, or the balls of slings or of the balistæ, &c. The coins were so corroded by the salt water as to be totally defaced. Among the stones was the fragment of an intaglio of a horse, the head only and the end of the warrior’s spear remaining: but this portion was so beautifully cut, that, had it been entire, it would have been invaluable.
The outer port or road is considered as one of the best along the coast of Syria. It is formed by a broken ledge of rocks running North from the peninsula. Were the intervals between the rocks filled up, so as to make a continued breakwater, a capacious and nearly a safe port might be formed. The depth of water between the rocks varies from a fathom and a half to three fathoms. In this road the bottom is sand as far out as the ledge runs. To the South of Tyre, there is a bay which is very deep and dangerous, having at places sixty fathoms of water. The trade of Tyre was, in 1815, in corn, tobacco, wood, and charcoal, all exported to Egypt.