JOURNEY TO DEIR EL KAMMAR.

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Beirout, and have created great sensation; many are prophesying a general insurrection, saying that the Druses are too spirited tamely to submit, and that the rest of Syria will rise, now that the troops are drawn off to the mountains. We are determined to go to the scene of action and see the Pasha.

Sept. 29th. Our party, with the exception of invalids and their attendants, left Beirout at sunrise, and the following is a sketch of the expedition.

We crossed the plain, and stopping under the shade of a tree to breakfast, were startled by a horseman, apparently Turkish, riding up, who asked in English to partake of our fare. It was an English engineer in the service of the Pasha, just returned from Bteddin.

We ascended the mountains by a succession of terraces, which formed quite a staircase; the scenery was very striking, and the secluded Druse villages among the mountains very romantic.

The mountains here are cut into terraces, to prevent the soil being washed away by the rains, and many parts are well and carefully cultivated.

We met strings of donkeys laden with the arms of the poor Druses being sent into Beirout; arms that had descended as heirlooms from father to son, and were almost as much cherished as life

itself. It was a beautiful evening, and at sunset a warm brilliant colouring was spread over the landscape. We slept at a miserable house among the mountains, and in the middle of the night about 1000 soldiers arrived, and by their noise deprived us of all rest.

Sept. 30th. We arrived at Deir el Kammar after a short journey through the mountains. The village, or town, is situated on a declivity at the top of the valley, and the country round about was covered with tents and soldiers bivouacking.

We sought out the quarters of Suleiman, Pacha of Beirout, and were presented to him by our friend, his aid-du-camp. He received us in the oriental fashion, placing his hand upon his breast, spoke to us in French, apologized for there being no chairs in the room, and manifested all the politeness and vivacity of a Frenchman. Pipes and coffee were brought in. He asked the latest news from Constantinople, spoke of the prospects of Syria, and remarked, that if the European nations would leave Ibrahim Pasha alone, he would remodel the whole Ottoman empire.

Our party afterwards proceeded to seek out Osman, or Omar Effendi, a young Arab who had been sent to Cambridge by Ibrahim Pasha, and had there formed an acquaintance with one of our friends.

He spoke English with perfect fluency, ordered in pipes and coffee, and said that the Pasha was then asleep, but that as soon as he awoke the object of our journey should be communicated to him.

After some time it being announced that the Pasha was ready to receive us, we walked to a small house and were ushered into a mean looking room, at one end of which, in a low chair, sat Ibrahim Pasha; by his side were Suleiman Pasha of Beirout, and Schereef Pasha of Damascus; several officers in the Nizam dress, and some slaves were standing around.

Ibrahim is a short man, inclined to corpulence, with a large head, scanty whiskers, grey moustachios, and he is pitted with the small-pox. Putting his hand on his breast he saluted us, and motioned us to be seated. There was a remarkable plainness and simplicity in every thing about him. His attendants were dressed in the usual military costume, and he himself was attired in Mamlouk trousers, with a closely buttoned vest and loose jacket, perfectly plain, without embroidery or jewels, and with a red tarbouche on his head. He appears about forty, and has a remarkably piercing eye, which he half closes, casting round the room a keen searching glance, which seems to read the

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very soul.

Coffee was handed round, and Omar

Effendi acted as interpreter.

The Pasha inquired the object of our travelling, commented on our arrival in a steamer, spoke in high terms of the mode of conveyance, but complained of the jarring sensation. He said he

should be happy to assist us in attaining the object of our travels; and on our expressing a wish for a Firman, he ordered one to be made out commanding all governors to protect and assist us, and to furnish us with an escort of soldiers in case of need. He said, if he arrived in Damascus before we quitted it, he would be happy to see us again, and would send us across to Palmyra with some troops whom he was going to despatch thither; advised us not to think of going to Djerash without taking an escort, as he could not answer for our safety any where on the other side of the Jordan.

Coffee being handed round, we understood it in the oriental sense as a permission to depart.

It was curious to see so great and powerful a person as Ibrahim Pasha, with the rulers of three great pashaliks trembling at his nod, living in mean quarters in a private house of the village, while the old Emir Beshir remained in his handsome Saracenic castle at Bteddin, surrounded by

EMIR BESHIR'S CASTLE.

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oriental pomp, too much neglected by Ibrahim Pasha, say the Syrians, who, instead of moving at the slow pompous march so agreeable to the inflated dignity of orientals, flies over the country with one or two attendants, now here and now there, sleeping in hovels with a carpet wrapped round his body, and appearing when he is least expected, so that he is called Lightning by the native Arabs.

We had expressed a wish before Ibrahim Pasha to see the Emir Beshir in order to sound him, fearing lest the visit might not be agreeable to him, but he immediately approved of it, and ordered his secretary to write out a small note, which we were to present.

Leaving Deir el Kammar, we perceived the whole country covered with tents and troops bivouacking. The situation of the Saracenic Castle of the Emir, on a bold eminence at the end of the valley, about half an hour's walk from Deir el Kammar, is most romantic. It is placed amid the solitude of the mountains, between two of which a lovely burst is obtained of the sea far below. The irregular buildings and domes, the courts, arcades, and pointed arches of the palace, suddenly broke upon the eye from their commanding situation with the greatest effect. We