The Express.
London, England, 1860-07-09 00:00:00

leek •

SYRIA.

CAPTURE OP Milan AND GREAT
. MASSACRE OF CHRISTIANS.

BEYROUT, JUNI 21.

Would that I had better news wherewith to open
my letter; but the last intelligence we have here
is of the fall of Zahleh, a large Christian town of
ten thousand inhabitants, into the hands of those
bloodthirsty hordes of Druses who have invested
the town for six days. The Christians fought
bravely, but were out-numbered ; and of the
Turkish troops sent to assist them, half halted
some miles short of the place, and the remainder
took part against them. But full details are not
known yet, although I may be able to supply them
ere I close this. . . . . .

As the Austrian steamer to Trieste was leaving
this on the 16th instant, a boatload of men wearing,
not blood-stained, but blood-saturated garments
arrived from Tyre. These individuhls, only thirty-
four in number, were all that remain of the Chris-
tian male population of Hasbeiya, a village at the
foot of Mount Harmon, which a week before, could
muster nearly two thousand fighting men. These
poor creatures were the first to bring to Beyrout
detailed and true accounts of the bloodthirsty
ruffianism of their Druse enemies, and of the fearful
treachery of the local Turkish authorities. The
tale 1 give you is taken from the very words of the
men themselves, examined separately by a first-rate
Arabic scholar.

Hasbeiya is a beautiful village at the foot of
Hermon, and close to the source of the Jordan. It
contains, or did before the massacre, a population
of s,oooChristian souls, chiefly of the Greek " ortho-
dox " church. To protestant Christendom Hasbeiya
should be a place of the utmost possible interest, for
it was here that the preaching of evangelical truth
had borne more fruit than anywhere else in Syria.
The protestants numbered in this village upwards of ,
two -hundred ; they had a native pastor and a re-
gular church of their own—the latter having been
built chiefly by their own contributions. Of that
protestant community which a fortnight ago was
full of spiritual as well as material life, two men
now live to tell the tale of their butchery, whilst of
their 4,000 Greek fellow-Christians but 33 men
have survived, and the fate of their wives and chil-
dren is worse than uncertain. _ _ .

The village was attacked by an overwhelming
body of Drums on Saturday, the 2nd instant. The
Christians armed to repel them, and for two days
held their own, on the third driving back the
enemy. Hitherto the commander of the Turkish
troops had stood aloof, although—as was the case at
Sidon, at Deir-el-Kamar, and at Rasheiya—lie had
troops enough at his command to repel and defeat
the Drums, had he so wished. When he saw that
the Christians were gaining the day, he called them
back, and in the name of the Sultan ordered them to
retire within the seraglio (a large building covering
nearly an acre of ground, and containing the resi-
dence of the commander, as well as the barrack),
and to give up their arms, as he, the local repre-
sentative of the government, would conduct them
all safe to Damascus, where they would be better
than in Haabeiya whilst the civil war lasted. The
Christiana obeyed him, returned, gave up their
arms, which were immediately packed up, and sent
towards Damascus, but with so absurdly
small au mood, that the Drums took pos-
session of both the muskets and the mules that
carried them within an hour of their leaving the
place. The Christians asked again and again to be
sent with their families, as promised, to Damascus.
For nearly a week they were put off with some pre-
text or other, until, on the sixth day after their
being disarmed (during which time the Turkish
soldiers had prevented any of them from leaving
the precincts of the seraglio), two Drum sheiks of
great influence arrived, and had a conference of
several hours with the Turkish commander of the
troops. No sooner was this conference ended than
the Christians observed that the hareem (wives,
women, and children), as well as the property of
the commander, was removed from the seraglio,
and that the Turkish soldiers also removed their

baggage outside. Suspecting treachery many of
the Christians tried to escape from the place,
but were prevented by the bayonets of the
troops, whilst their women and children
were ordered, and compelled to remove to the large
upper chambers of the buildings, the men being
forced to remain below. By this time it was known
that many hundreds of armed Druses were close to
the town. The troops had hardly made the afore-
said arrangements when the Druses were admitted
into the seraglio, and rushed like hungry tigers
upon the unarmed mob in the court-yard. No man
was spared. In ten minutes the very stones were
inch deep in human blood. No butchery ever
known in history equalled this in ferocity and
oowardioe. In half an hour upwards of a thousand
strong men were hacked to death. Some few tried
again to escape, but wore driven back by the bayo-
net& of the Turkish sokliers (regular troops, not Bashi
Bazouks), and the Drums had their revel of blood
undisturbed ; mothers, wives, daughters, and young
children witnessing from above the massacre of their
relatives. I could enter into more details, but
sicken at the task. Would to heaven that it were a
fable or a dream ! In the slaughter some few hid in
out-of-the-way chambers ; others escaped notioe from
being heaped over by the dead, and these by God's
mercy managed in the night to escape, wandered
down to the ooast, where one Ali Bey, a Metaali
chief, protected them, and so to Tyre, where they
took ship to Beyrout, and arrived here on Satur-
day evening, the 16th instant. Of the fate of the
women and children nothing is yet certain, but
from what is known of Turkish soldiers it is feared
that the fate of the former will be one worse than
death. Of the protestant community not a man
escaped, but more than one of the Greek Christian
refugees bears witness how they met their fate, ex-
horting others to turn to the Saviour and to pray
to Him in their last hour,

Comment on the above would be useless, but I
may ask, as every Englishman, Frenchman, Rus-
sian, or American—merchant, missionary, priest,
or private individual—throughout Syria does, and
as thousands of native Christians do, can such
things be allowed to continue ? Here are the fruits
of the twenty years' reign of Turkey over this pro-
vince, the promised laud of God's people in olden
days, the finest and most fruitful country perhaps
in the whole world, if the curse of Islam rule was
removed from her shores. Can Christian
Europe, can protestant England, stand by and
see such deeds in order to support any
system of policy 1 May we do evil that
good may come of it ? Are we allowed by
the laws of God or man to uphold a government
which crushes out a whole people rather than that
the balance of European power should be destroyed?
Caa we leave a whole Christian population at the
mercy of Drum tigers and Turkish wolves, who
only ask for opportunity to commence again their
shedding of Christian blood ? We have blamed
and allowed others to punish the misrule of
Austria, the Pope, and the King of Naples—must
we uphold the government of the crescent in these
lands which it has done its very utmost to
destroy ? Let the evidence of every English mer-
chant, of every American missionary, of every
French or Italian priest who has lived more than
ten years in Syria be taken, and if one such
bears witness in favour of the Turkish rule, from
the day it was established over this province in
1840 to the present time, or be in favour of preserving
that government in Syria, then am I no true pro-
phet. If the moral and divine law of blood call-
ing aloud for vengeance be not a fable, what should
be the fate of a government—foreigners and aliens,
remember, iu country, creed, and language—which
has directly and indisputably connive(' at, not one,
but fifty such deeds of blood within Cm last few
weeks 1 But I have not yet done ; let me now re-
late the fall of Rasheiya, another village situated
near the foot of Hermon, and containing a popula-
tion of 2,000 Christians. Iu this place the Chris-
tians were unable to repel the Druses,who at'acked
them. They tried to take refuge w ithiu the enclosure of
the barracks, but were driven back by the bayonets of
the Turkish troops, who even fired upon them.
About a third escaped towards the coast during the
night ; of the rest, neither man, woman, uor child
now lives. Between Sidon, Hasbeiya, Rasheiya,
and the Christians murdered in trying to escape
from Dabeiya to Beyrout along the vomit, Turkish