"Sept. 12. Went to B.'T., and spent the day in conversing with the large family of sheiks there. These sheiks govern, under the Emir, all this part of Lebanon. The greater part of them appear resolved to become Christians at all hazards. Alas! how little do they know of that religion, which they profess to be so anxious to embrace. The mother of the sheiks in A. is married to the most powerful sheik in B.'T., and she sent word to her children, encouraging them to become Christians, and approving also of their plan to place the youngest boys in our seminary.
"I had no time to converse with the common people in B.'T., but one of our Christian Druzes who accompanied me, spent the day with them, and tells me, that a great many of the villagers wished to join us. Here also the Papists are busy as bees, both with arguments and terrors. What the end will be, is known only to God."
Two days later, several sheiks camp down from the mountains, with an apparent determination to take houses, and receive religious instruction; declaring their wish not to return to the mountains until they had been both instructed and baptized. The same day, two Druzes came as agents from a large clan of their people residing in Anti-Lebanon, three days from Beirût, professing to treat in behalf of their whole community. In the evening, several leading Druzes came from Andara, the highest habitable part of Lebanon, professing to act in the name of their whole village, and earnestly requesting the mission to open schools, build a church, and baptize them all forthwith. The missionary preached to them till a late hour, and they promised to come again after a few days. They kept their promise, and stated that they had made arrangements with the people of several villages to unite together, and all declare themselves Christians at the same time; hoping that the Emir, when he saw so many of them of one mind, would not venture to execute the plans of cruel persecution, with which they were threatened. Mr. Thomson now found it necessary to call in the aid of Mr. Hebard and Mr. Lanneau.
The Emir Beshir, urged on by the Papal priests, now sent for the young Druze sheiks, and threatened them with the full measure of his wrath. This occasioned a division among them, some through fear siding with the Emir. The father of several young sheiks,—a venerable old man, with rank and talents to give him extensive influence,—being at Beirût, declared in oriental style his attachment to the Gospel, and his intended adherence to it.
The excitement among the Druzes continued, and visitors from all parts of Lebanon thronged the house of the missionary, till winter rendered communication with the mountains difficult.
Near the close of November, a number of Druzes, who had become Greek Papists, were seized by order of the Pasha, and cast into prison, whence five of them were drafted into the army. The rest were allowed to return to their homes. It was understood that the Pasha would not disturb the Protestant converts; but he had shown that he was not disposed to tolerate the conversion of the Druzes to Christianity. Kasim and his associates appeared resolved to go not only to prison, but to death, rather than deny Christ.
At the close of the year, the severity of the Emir, in connection with the snows of winter, greatly diminished the attendance of Druzes at the meetings. The knowledge, also, that they could not be baptized till they had given evidence of being truly converted, helped to repress the movement. Still, some of the more hopeful persons continued to show their interest in the Gospel.
Syria was now within the jurisdiction of Egypt, and hence the mission was not affected by the persecutions, for which the year 1839 was so distinguished in Turkey. But the missionary force was much reduced, Messrs. Bird, Smith, and Whiting being in the United States. The Rev. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman arrived as missionaries, with their wives, in the autumn of that year; and Messrs. Samuel Wolcott, Nathaniel A. Keyes, and Leander Thompson, with their wives, and Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, in April 1840. They had the language to learn, and the press lay idle during the year, for want of a printer and funds. Mrs. Hebard died in February.
Yet there was progress. A large and convenient chapel had been obtained, where were held two stated Arabic services on the Sabbath; and on the evening of the Sabbath, the natives had a prayer meeting by themselves. In the free schools there were eighty scholars; the seminary for boys had twenty boarders; and the distribution of books and tracts continued. In this work a blind old man of the Greek Church named Aboo Yusoof was an efficient helper. Though stooping with age, he went about the country with a donkey loaded with books, and a little boy to lead him, doing what he could. In a district northeast of Tripoli, he was encouraged in his work by the approbation of the Greek bishop Zacharias.
The political and religious events then occurring were intimately connected. The conquest of Syria by Mohammed Ali, was the apparent cause of the religious movement among the Druzes already described. The defeat of the Sultan's army at Nisib, in 1839, and the feelings of jealousy towards France and Egypt, then intimately allied, led to the determination of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria to restore Syria and the Turkish fleet to the Porte. The consequent armed intervention made Beirût the seat of war. An English fleet bombarded the city, and the English officers, by a singular miscalculation, treated the Papal Maronites as their friends, and the Druzes as their enemies. Missionary operations were suspended. Mr. Lanneau, whose eyes had failed him, left on a visit to the United States. Messrs. Beadle, Keyes, and Leander Thompson spent the summer and autumn at Jerusalem, and Dr. Van Dyck joined them there. Messrs. W. M. Thomson and Wolcott remained at Beirût until the bombardment, when Captain Latimer, of the United States corvette Cyane, who had come to Beirût to look after their welfare, kindly took them and their families to Cyprus.