Chapter I: The Coast of Syria

The postal service of the coast of Syria and Karamania is discharged by no less than four lines of steamers, the French, Russian, Austrian, and Egyptian. The three former receive a subvention from the governments to which they respectively belong, for the commerce of these coasts is by no means sufficient to support so many steamers, and in the case of the Russian and French lines political considerations are chiefly regarded. The Egyptian line is worked at a loss; but so long as Europe is content to lend money to the Khedive, it will be of no moment whether the undertaking pays or not. There is a line of Egyptian steamers, in the Red Sea, which is supposed to be worked at a profit, but so great is the competition on the Mediterranean side—to say nothing of other disadvantages—that it is not possible for the Compagnie Khédiviale to succeed, although the ships are good and the commanders experienced Italian or Dalmatian seamen.

I left Alexandria on April 11th, 1875, for Mersina, by the Russian steamer ‘Alexander’; the ship was crowded, and the accommodation bad, but the captain was most polite, the ship’s steward attentive, and the cookery excellent. Dinner, according to Russian custom, is commenced by salted meats, caviar, pickles, sardines, &c., served with a small glass of vodki or raki. The wine is of two kinds, black and white, both the produce of the Crimea. At evening tea is served in tumblers with slices of lemon.

_April 12th._—Arrived at Port Said. The town seems much increased since my last visit, and I observe that the deposit of sand on the west side of the jetty is rapidly advancing.

The Duke of Mecklenburg came on board here on his way to Jaffa. His suite consisted of five or six young men, and with him came Count Levachoff, the Russian Governor of Tiflis, and his wife, an English lady. The Egyptian frigates in the harbour manned yards, fired salutes, and their bands played “God save the Queen.” The larger frigate gave a grand breakfast to the Duke.

_April 13th._—Arrived at Jaffa. The Duke and his suite went ashore at about 11, and at midday our steamer left for Acre. There is a fine view of the long projecting ridge of Mount Carmel as the steamer coasts along. We passed the Caipha light at about 11 P.M., and at midnight anchored off Acre. There had been a steady north breeze all day, which died out suddenly as we entered the bay of Acre. We left Acre at 1 A.M., and on

_April 14th_ reached Saida at daybreak. The town is built on a tongue of land under low undulating hills, covered with the fresh green of corn land and pasture; the harbour is formed by a small rocky island, and might easily be made a good port. A picturesque old castle rises close by the beach. The site of Saida hardly admits the existence of a large city, according to modern estimation. It is probable that the size and importance of ancient cities were overestimated; Sidon could hardly have been the rich and populous place which the language of Scripture would lead us to suppose, but the relatively restricted commerce and wealth of the Scriptural times would give importance to what we should now regard as inferior. Saida is famous for its fruit; and the delicious fragrance of its orange gardens was wafted far out to sea. Here I made the acquaintance of Mr. W., a British merchant of Beyrout. He is leaving the East, and is glad to escape from it, although he liked Beyrout, and felt much interest in the people of the country. He held the gloomiest views about Turkish finance, and said that great trouble was expected in the autumn (events have, unfortunately, only too well verified his fears! 1876-7). He mentioned his own experience of the utter corruption and hopeless confusion of Turkish provincial administration, an experience which I find universal and everywhere corroborated. Halet Pasha, the late Governor-General of Syria, was an intensely bigoted, corrupt, and indolent man. Under him the province was fast going to utter ruin; many parts were becoming depopulated owing to excessive taxation, the inroads of the Bedaween, and village warfare. At last he was recalled, and Essaad Pasha sent in his place (since dead, 1876). He was a man of energy and honesty, and being also a very able man, soon began to put things in order; but he did not govern Syria many months, for he was recalled to Stamboul to marry the Sultan’s niece. The lady, it seems, saw him at a review, fell in love with him (he was just then a widower), and asked that he might be married to her, and, as it was reported, much against his will, he was obliged to submit. Mr. W. also gave me an account of the stupid administration of the Beyrout Custom House.

Reached Beyrout at 8 A.M. Here by appointment I met my friend and fellow traveller, Mr. Seiff, of Dresden. The day was occupied in making various purchases for our intended journey, and in rambling about this very pretty and flourishing city.

_April 15th._—Reached the roadstead of Tripoli at 8 A.M. The town is at a distance of about two miles from the sea, situated in a hollow under the hills which form the first slopes of Lebanon.

Tripoli is separated from the sea by a small triangular plain, about one mile and a half broad. At the point of this plain, which projects into the sea, is the landing-place “el Mina,” a little town of itself. The site of the old town was on the promontory at the base of which the present city stands. The remains of a great wall some twenty feet in thickness, with the ruins of towers, may still be traced across the promontory from the mouth of the Kadisha to the seashore on the S.W. The ancient Phœnician city was formed by colonies from Sidon, Tyre, and Aradus, but the present city only dates from the time of the Crusades. Raymond, Count of Toulouse, built the castle in the twelfth century for the protection of pilgrims, and gradually the new town sprang up around it along the course of the river. The castle, of red and yellow limestone, stands on a ridge a little to the S.E. of the town. There is a noble background of mountains, culminating in Jebel Mukhmel, under which is the famous grove of cedars. On the left is Jebel Akkar; but none of these mountains, though apparently loftier, are so thickly covered with snow as Sunnin.

Here too, as at Saida, the scent of the orange groves was perceptible far off the shore (it was, indeed, almost too strong), and the short-lived spring verdure was exquisitely beautiful. The bay of Tripoli is deep and capacious, defended by a number of rocky islets extending northwards from the point of the promontory. But it is only a roadstead, and lies open to the gales from the N.W., which are frequent and violent along all this coast.

The waters of the bay are now deeply stained by the red deposit of the impetuous Kadisha, whose sources lie far up under the crests of Lebanon, and which when spring comes, and the snows begin to melt, “runs purple to the sea,” like the stream of the loved Adonis.

Between the sea and the town of Tripoli extends a tract of land of extreme fertility, resembling the district round Jaffa. It is cultivated with the utmost care, and from it comes the finest fruit in all Syria. The soil is a rich red earth, without a stone, and the gardens are carefully fenced or walled in. The people look healthy, especially the children, who are fine stout little creatures, with lustrous eyes, and deep peach-like tint; many with blonde hair, and I saw no ophthalmia amongst them. The town is remarkably clean, and the streets are well paved with squared stones, yet the place has a bad reputation for insalubrity. Outside the town a troop of Turkish cavalry was encamped; their horses looked poor, and the men, though stout and strong, were clumsy and ill set-up. We visited a fine mosque, which much resembled the mosques in Cairo, having high niches over its gateways, ornamented with stalactites. The upper lintel of the door was square and straight, the stones mortised one into the other, exactly as in the mosques of Cairo. The large courtyard of the mosque was surrounded by a fine arcade of pointed arches; the gateway into this courtyard was an arch in imitation of Greek work, with the abacus and egg ornament, but cut very shallow: the lower edge of the arch being of the wreathed cable pattern. The gateways of several other buildings near the great mosque are equal in point of execution to the mosques of Cairo; the material of which they are built is like that of the castle, a hard reddish limestone, but with alternate layers of black basalt. The inscriptions on these mosques are not in Cufic, but in the usual Arabic characters. A number of false antique coins were offered to me for sale, but no genuine antiques. I observed, however, in some of the shops, some fine Cufic copper vessels. Two large Corinthian capitals were lying at the gateway of the guard-house, towards the sea. For many centuries the site of ancient Tripoli has served as a quarry, and even yet the supply of marble and hewn stone is far from being exhausted.

We left Tripoli at 2 P.M. The coast-line is marked by long stripes of emerald green, showing the site of gardens and corn-fields. Between the end of the Lebanon range, and the beginning of the Nusairiyeh mountains, is a broad depression; and beyond this, low hills mark the beginning of the Nusairi country. Fortunately the sea was smooth, for our ship was most uncomfortably crowded; though we had happily escaped the “Cook” and “Stanger” tourist parties—but many Americans and English had joined us at Beyrout on their way to Constantinople. One band of “Stanger” tourists—an aristocratic German party from Berlin—has been very unfortunate. They had been miserably provided, had suffered much from bad weather, and some of their number when near Damascus, were assaulted and robbed by their own escort.

_April 16th._—Arrived early at the roadstead of Alexandretta. The town is close to the sea, and built along the shore upon a low ridge of sand, behind which, for about three miles, a low marshy plain, only a very little above sea-level, extends up to the foot of lofty hills, which are now beautifully green from the spring verdure. High above these hills rises the main chain of the Amanus, with here and there a snow mountain. No trees nor bushes break the dull uniformity of the plain. There is a certain amount of movement visible, long trains of camels come and go, the beach is heaped with bales and merchandise, a number of large lighters are drawn up along the shore. But it is a miserable place; there are but few stone-built houses, and the outskirts of the town consist of wretched wooden huts, many of them raised a few feet on posts, so as to be somewhat out of reach of the malaria, which here is especially deadly.

Landed to visit the English Vice-Consul, Mr. Francks, and his young wife, just arrived, (who I am sorry to say is since dead). He spoke of the constant changes of governors; within eight months there had been five new governors of Aleppo. One of them was Mohammed Rushdi Pasha, who was afterwards sent to the Hedjaz as governor, and died there. The last new governor came into the port, by the Russian steamer ‘Vladimir,’ whilst we were lying there. Mr. Francks told us that Alexandretta, though still very unhealthy, had less of virulent malignant fever than formerly, owing, he thought, to improved cultivation. There was much less game also than in earlier days, and this too he attributed to the same cause. Still the health of the place must always be bad. There is a fetid swamp at the back of the town, and the mountains which hem in the plain cut off the breeze, so that in summer the air is perfectly stagnant; and every little torrent from the heights forms a long line of marsh, as it slowly makes its way to the sea, through the rank, oozy soil. But in despite of these serious drawbacks, the position of Alexandretta, as the anchorage nearest to Beylan, the only pass through the mountains towards Aleppo and North Syria, will always make it an important _entrepôt_. Some of the cottages were actually surrounded by a green and fetid marsh! None but acclimatized residents could have existed a week in such a position. Even they are unable to endure it long, and generally the people of the place, as I heard, are short-lived.

Alexandretta seems a little improved since I saw it in 1865; a few new buildings have been erected, and a road constructed for a little distance towards Beylan. A man who had just ridden down from Aleppo, to come on by the steamer, told me that owing to heavy rain all the bridges had been washed away, and the road was well-nigh impassable. He said that the trade between Aleppo and Alexandretta was very considerable; he thought that some 30,000 to 40,000 camels would be employed in bringing down produce, between that time and October. About 10,000 bales of cotton, 30,000 of wool, and an immense quantity of valonea were exported every year from Alexandretta. The Government never gave the least help, by road-making or other improvements (the same complaint everywhere!), and at times camels could not advance at all. The Beylan pass once crossed, a railway to Aleppo would be easy, as nearly the whole country is level. The people of Aleppo are not at all fanatical, perhaps in consequence of the large proportion of Christians and Jews living in the place. The town is clean, but its water execrable. He mentioned the Aleppo boil, and said that it was not known what caused it; I think, however, that he gave a very exaggerated account of it. Polluted water has been assigned as its cause; another, and more probable account, is, that it arises from the puncture of a venomous mosquito. The scourge is not confined to Aleppo, it prevails in Mesopotamia, and on the coast of Arabia. The boil almost invariably appears in the face, especially on the nose, and strangely enough, it often appears long after the patient has left the country. It is always obstinate, lasting for months together, and causing the most disfiguring scars.

We entered the Greek churchyard at Alexandretta, and I copied some of the inscriptions.

“In memory of—Rev. Jackson Coffing, A.M., a citizen—of the
United States of America—and—Missionary of the American
Board—resident at Adana—died at Alexandretta—March 16,
1862—from wounds received near—this place at the hands
of—assassins—aged 37 years—fear not them which kill the—body.”

It seems he was riding from Adana to Alexandretta; but when about half an hour from Alexandretta, he and his attendant were stopped in a grove of myrtle,[1] by a party of mountaineers, who demanded their money. Mr. Coffing drew out a revolver, upon which the mountaineers fired on them; the attendant was badly wounded, Mr. Coffing mortally, and he died in the house of Mr. Levi, the then British Vice-Consul, at Alexandretta. It is supposed that robbery was not the real reason for the murder—but Mr. Coffing was a most zealous missionary—too zealous for his own safety! and had made many enemies at Adana, who had determined to be rid of him. Mr. Francks said that the United States Consul-General at Beyrout had used every effort to bring the murderers to justice, but in vain; as the Ottoman authorities either dared not, or would not, send troops to the village of the murderers in the Giaour Dagh. I have heard, however, another account, according to which, one assassin was caught and executed soon after the murder, and another several years after, owing to the unceasing exertions of the American Ambassador at Constantinople. An American frigate was sent to see that justice was done, and the man was accordingly hanged; but my informant, who knew all the facts of the case, declared that however much the culprit may have deserved his fate on other grounds, he had nothing to do with Mr. Coffing’s murder. According to Mr. Francks’ account, even those arrested on suspicion were suffered to escape.

On highly ornamented monuments of white marble, are the following inscriptions:—

“Martinus Loe, Londinensis, Anglorum, per tria fere lustra
accurate curans, Alexandriæ qui loco adeo insaluberrimo
tot sæcula audiant! cum officio et negotiis, si quis alius
nequaquam impar Spartam quam nactus est semper ornans immaturo
fato quadrigenarius licet 24 Novembris A.D. 1677 conterraneis
suis et externis, indigenis et advenis, universis equidem
miseris præsertim et pauperibus flebilis occidit, nulli
flebilior quam Luciæ viduæ afflictissimæ binisque infantibus
Martino et Mariæ—quæ optimo marito hoc monumentum sacravit.”

“Hic jacet D Lucia uxor Q.D. Martini Loe consulis pro S.M.
Britannica Scandarone. Vixit annos L, obiit die XII Julii MDCC.”

“H L Johannes Wilson Anglo Britannorum agro ... moniæ natus ex
domo satis honesta satis antiquâ, Anglorum mercatorum res hic
loci summâ cum laude per varios annos gessit, vir qui officio
suo et negotiis ne unquam quidem defuit—fato ahi nimis immaturo
in loco insaluberrimo cum triginta et octo annos summo cum
honore superasset—ipsissimo die—anno autem salutis Christianæ
MDCCXII abreptus fuit. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit—nulli
flebilior quam Mariæ viduæ mœstissimæ filia Martini Loe ex
eadem gente oriundi quæ optimo marito maximo dolore hoc
monumentum posuit. Felices ter et amplius per XVII annos nos
irrupta tenuit copula.”

“Depositum Edmundi Sawyer Armigeri Angli, claris parentibus
orti apud Kettering in Agro Northamptoniensi qui rei
mercatoriæ gratiâ in Aleppo aliquot annos vixisset donec tabe
correptus—et in patriam suam terrestrem patrimonio satis amplo
dilatam reversurus reperta prius magni pretii margarita fide
scilicet verâ cum pœnitentia ad cælestem morte translatus est.”

I could find no date upon the last monument.

The mountains round the bay of Alexandretta present many varieties of trachyte; the main range is limestone, but pierced, upheaved, and modified in its structure by volcanic action. The forms of the mountains here are very beautiful.

We left the roadstead of Alexandretta a little before midnight, and stood over to the coast of Karamania. After we had passed Cape Mallus, a slight S.W. breeze sprang up, and the ship began to roll considerably. The ports of North Syria and Karamania, though effectually sheltered on the north, offer but little protection against S. and S.W. winds; indeed, excepting Ayass, which is comparatively unknown, there is no good port along the whole coast of Karamania, before one reaches Marmorice.

_April 17th._—Soon after daybreak Mersina was in sight. This place, which in Captain Beaufort’s time (1812) consisted of a few wretched huts, raised on piles, as a means of escaping the malaria of the plain, owes its development to the active demand for cereals, consequent upon the Crimean war, and is now a large and flourishing “Scala,” at which most of the produce of Cilicia is exported. As at Alexandretta, vessels of large draught must anchor at a considerable distance from the shore, and sometimes in winter cannot approach at all. The sea-coast is here bordered by a line of light-brown sand-hills; the plain beyond them, which extends towards the east till lost to sight, is bounded on the north by the Taurus, at a distance of about two hours’ ride. The nearer mountain heights are of a light-grey colour, and covered with sparse brushwood and trees; the inner ranges stand thick with forest, and the highest chain rises to the limit of perpetual snow.

We landed at a ruinous-looking custom-house. The douaniers were civil, but we heard that this was not the case usually; indeed some of the European consular agents had been obliged to complain of their harshness and incivility. Mersina possesses no inn, so that unless the traveller bears letters of introduction, the only shelter to be had is in the khan, good in its way, but presenting a somewhat abrupt introduction to the discomforts of travel in Turkey.

Owing, however, to the kindness of the British Vice-Consul, a lodging in a private house was found for us.

Mersina seems a flourishing little place; its bazaars, thronged by the various races who have settled here, present a scene of great animation; some of its streets are paved with squared blocks of limestone, the work of Khalil Pasha, a former governor of the vilayet of Adana; and there are many really good stone houses. As usual in the ports of these regions, Greeks and Christians of Syria are the principal inhabitants—the Greeks being energetic, enterprising, and many of them rich. The purely European residents are very few in number; an unhealthy climate and the lax commercial morality of the place, render it almost impossible for a European to thrive, or even live there. A large proportion of the population consists of Christians from North Syria, or people of the Nusairiyeh mountains, who are here called “fellahhin,” and are not very orthodox Muslims. Excepting the officials, very few Turks reside in Mersina; but the floating Turkish population is large, as almost the entire transport of the province is by means of camels, and the camel men are invariably Turks. Their dress is most picturesque; and it was curious to observe their way of feeding their animals, by thrusting down their throats huge balls of well-kneaded meal, in the same way as poultry are fattened in Europe.

In the afternoon we walked out to see the environs of the town. For about half an hour’s distance extend gardens, thickly planted with fruit-trees. Brightly coloured cottages, or summer huts raised on piles, project from each mass of foliage; but all is neglected, and one can nowhere see the fine cultivation of the gardens around Tripoli. Although the soil is most fertile, the fruit and vegetables are insipid, the only exception being peaches, which are here of excellent quality, and grow to a large size.

Beyond the gardens, an undulating plain of rich red soil extends to the foot of the mountains; not a third of it is under cultivation, most is in brushwood, or scrubby pasture; the wheat, however, is well irrigated, and grows luxuriantly.

At about equal distances from Mersina, three mounds, evidently artificial, rise from the plain; one of them is still crowned by a small fortification, said to be of Genoese work—in this district all ancient buildings are attributed to the Genoese. These mounds were doubtless used in the olden time as fortified watch-towers, and large hewn stones are still dug from them, and carried to Mersina for building purposes. The approach of an enemy could be easily perceived from them, as they command a view of the whole plain east and west, far as the eye can reach.