M. Beaudin was now frequently going to Acre respecting M. Boutin’s murder, and for other schemes which were constantly floating in Lady Hester’s brain. He was also desired to put himself in readiness for a journey by land to Egypt; and, on Sunday, the 14th of January, departed for Acre on his road thither. He was accompanied by a little peasant boy, named Cabûr, who had been taken from tending sheep into Lady Hester’s service, and had become a great favourite with her from his bold and independent character; so that he was now permitted to go to Egypt to see a little of the world—seeing Egypt being, in the eyes of the Syrians, about what going to Paris is to an Englishman.
On the 29th of January, I was requested to give assistance to a man attacked with hydrophobia, who had been bitten some weeks before (I think five) by a dog running by the sea-shore; it was suspected that the dog was rabid, and he was pursued and killed; and the leg of Mohammed (that was the man’s name) was enclosed in his reeking skin, this being a supposed cure for the bite. The man died six days after the symptoms manifested themselves. He appeared to be about thirty-five years old. It was expected that I should have suggested some remedy for a cure; but I had none to offer. I sat in the room with him for about twenty minutes: a native doctor proposed administering onions. The man tried in vain to swallow a piece, and then some water, which he equally rejected; not being so much terrified at the sight of it, for he carried it to his mouth, as having a dread, apparently, of the painful effort which he was compelled to make in attempting to swallow anything. The season of the year is the most remarkable part of this case.
On the 14th of February, I made a very agreeable excursion to the village of Garýfy, situate between Abra and Dayr el Kamar, in a very romantic glen, through which runs a river that empties itself into the Ewely. The vineyards and olive plantations around Garýfy are not to be exceeded in beauty or extent by those of any other village of the mountain.[90]
On my arrival about sunset, I rode straight to the menzel, or room assigned for the reception of travellers, who are entertained at the expense of the shaykh of the village with a supper and night’s lodging. My horse was taken to the adjoining stable. On entering the menzel, I found it to be a large, square, paved room, with a fire in the centre, around which were seated some poor travellers. I lighted my pipe, and joined in conversation; when, after about ten minutes, I was told that the son of the shaykh was coming to welcome me; and I was shown into an adjoining room. A handsome young man soon afterwards entered, whose name was Shems-ed-Dyn. He very civilly gave me to understand that he had often heard my name mentioned, and, for my own sake, and for the sake of her ladyship, he was bound to make my stay agreeable. Supper was served up, which, after all his fine speeches, proved to be a dish of pilau only. We then smoked our pipes, and he left me to go to rest. I was here greatly tormented by fleas.
On the following day, almost at daylight, his father, an aged and venerable-looking Drûze, came down to see me, and we drank our coffee and smoked our pipes under some fir-trees in front of the house, where we overlooked the valley beneath. It appeared that the Honourable Frederick North[91] had once paid a visit here, with two other Englishmen, Mr. Gally Knight and Mr. Fazackerley. The object of my visit was to make a purchase of wine, for which Garýfy was in repute. I went into several peasants’ houses, where I found jars, some four or five in a row, each holding from eighteen to thirty-six gallons, full of wine, and merely covered with a piece of board, roughly cut to the shape of the mouth, and luted with clay. These they would break open, and lade out the wine in a calabash, cut longitudinally, so as to represent a ladle, for me to taste. There was both red and white; and, having purchased two ass-loads, each ass carrying two goat-skins full, I departed from Garýfy on the following morning.
I was much entertained with the conversation of Shaykh Shems[92] and his father Beshýr. But the greatest amusement was derived from a native of the village, who had when young quitted the country with a European priest, and spent twelve years at Rome; having brought away, as the sum total of the benefit derived from his travels, about as many words of Italian, and the love of drink, which his present employment of taster allowed him fully to gratify.
The wines of Mount Lebanon are rarely exported to Europe, with the exception, occasionally, of a cask of the golden wine, which is the growth of certain villages, and is now and then sent by merchants to their correspondents. Lady Hester shipped a few casks for England, as presents to two or three friends; but some of it soured on the voyage; and that which retained its taste had not flavour and body enough for the climate of England. Yet, with proper preparation, there are many wines which would suit the English market as well as the wines of Sicily.
It was impossible to mix in European society in Tripoli, Acre, or Sayda, without hearing continual lamentations on the low ebb to which the commerce of the Levant with Europe had sunk. We have only to look into the journals of travellers, who visited these countries a century ago, to find them at every town recording the hospitality of some English merchant. Aleppo had a flourishing factory, and even maintained a chaplain and physician; and several English houses of commerce existed at Laodicea, Tripoli, Beyrout, Sayda, and Acre. But, for some years before the French revolution, this state of prosperity had been manifestly declining, and the commodities formerly sought for in Turkey were brought at a less expence from our colonies and by other routes. The French, however, still maintained large establishments at all the above mentioned places, and Marseilles was enriched by the Levant. Even the coasting trade of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, was performed by French vessels, and called the caravan trade. A master of a merchant vessel would sail from Marseilles, Toulon, Cette, or some one of the ports of Provence or Languedoc, and would remain two or three or more years at a time in the Turkish seas, until he had made a considerable sum for his owners and himself, when he would return home for awhile, and again make another voyage with the same views.
When the French revolution broke out, and war was declared between England and France, the English cruizers in the Mediterranean rendered it impossible for the French merchant-ships to traverse that sea; and the factors of that nation at Acre, Sayda, and Aleppo, found themselves so utterly ruined, that many were obliged to descend to occupations for which they were never intended, to save themselves from want. To this might be added the vexations of Ahmed Pasha, el Gezzàr, of Acre, who indulged himself in a singular hatred and persecution of the French who dwelt in his pashalik.
Upon the restoration of Louis XVIII. to the throne of his ancestors and the pacification of Europe, many of the old captains resumed the Levant trade, but without any great success. Formerly, the exports consisted in raw silk, cotton, gall-nuts, scammony, drugs, wax, old copper, wool, &c.; but, in 1815, the few French houses which had attempted to revive the trade had hitherto shipped nothing but cotton, a little wheat, and some drugs. With regard to England, I think I may affirm that scarcely a single vessel had gone to that country direct, freighted from Cyprus or Syria. Several reasons were assigned for this. One was, as I have said above, that the articles derived heretofore from the Levant were now obtained from a different quarter of the globe; a second, that the restrictions of the Levant Company were oppressive; a third, that there was unusual risk incurred, in long quarantines, by exposure of goods to damp and rot in the quarantine houses; and that much inconvenience arose from the necessity of employing hireling interpreters,[93] by which ways were opened for cheating, and for collusion between the native merchants and the interpreter; whilst constant danger attended the vessels and crews from the insecurity of the ports and the frequency of the plague.