The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-20 00:00:00

Metawalis from Baalbek, all joining with the hope of plun-
der and of butchering the Christians.
" The moment the news of this movement reached Bey-
rout the Consuls-General of the five great Powers did all in
their power to prevent further bloodshed. They went to
the Pasha, asked him if he was going to do anything, pro-
tested loudly against his inactivity—for he had never moved
since the first outbreak, when he pitched his encampment
half an hour from the town—and insisted on his doing
something to keep off the danger impending on Zahleh. He
said, Well, I will send some troops to protect the place.'
He did so ; but this was only the signal for its destruction.
No sooner did the Druses on this side of Lebanon, who
since the affair of Deir-el-Kammar had been comparatively
idle, see the movement of the Turkish. troops than they
raised their war cry, and headed by one of their principal
Sheiks (who has the rank of Bek in the Turkish service)
rushed onwards to Zahleh.
"From the easternmost ridge of the Lebanon several
deep ravines run into the plain of Ceelesyria ; in one of
these, and half-way down it, Zahleh is situated. It was the
largest and most rising town in all Lebanon, the chief sta-
tion of the French Lazarists, and contained public build-
ings, a very handsome cathedral and schools, and very
good houses. The people of Zahleh had already sent to the
Druses in the Bokaa to ask for peace, but the conditions
were so humiliating, so utterly preposterous, that they could
not possibly accept them. Their very nature showed at
once that they did not originate with the Druses, but with
the Moslems of Damascus.
" On the 19th of June the Ottoman troops and the Druses
of Lebanon appeared above Zahleh, which was no sooner
perceived by those in the Bokaa than a simultaneous move-
ment took place towards the town. The Christians evacu-
ated it at once, climed up the steep mountain side, and ex-
pected to get round the Lebanon Druses, and then fall
upon them in the ravine. They were much too slow ; be-
fore they had well reached the summit of the mountain
they saw that the two forces had met, and were beginning
to burn the town from either end. After firing some vol-
leys tkey took to flight, as they saw that, in addition to all,
the Turkish troops had turned against them ; only the
aged and infirm, and some women and children were left
in the town—they were slaughtered. Two of the French
Lazarists were killed and another wounded. Europeans
were no longer safe.
"In the attack on Zahleh the troops under command of
one Muribek took a more open part than they had done be-
fore; they even made use of a fieldpiece they had brought
with them to fire upon the town' and one shot from this is
said to have brought down the tell of the cathedral. So
much for Kurschid Pasha's promises
" The Druses, now elated with success and plunder,
turned again upon Deir-el-Kammar ; the wretched people
hearing of their approach prepared to make the best of the
fight, but the Governor, who had 400 troops in the Serai,
while at Bleddin, half a mile off, there were 300 more, told
them they had nothing to fear if they would give him up
their arms, and he insisted on their doing so. They applied
for an escort to come to Beyrout. This he would in nowise
permit, so they could only do as they were bid. Their valu-
ables he made them place in the Semi, an then ordered a
great part of the population there. So men, women, and
children were all crowded together in the Serai under his
orotection on the night of the 20th. On the morning of the
21st of June the Druses collected round the town. One of
their leaders came to the Serai, and desired to speak with
the Governor. A conversation was carried on in a low
voice by means of an interpreter (for the Turk did not know
Arabic) ; at last a question was asked, to which they heard
the Governor give the answer, " Hepsi " (" Ab," in
Turkish). Thereupon the Drase disappeared, but in a few
moments the gate was thrown open, and in rushed the
fiends, cutting down and slaughtering every male, the sol-
diers co-operating. In short, a second tragedy like that at
Hasboya was enacted, only in this case the slaughter was
more dreadful. Those who had not entered the Serai
fared no better : all were to be killed, and these who had
crossed the stream and reached Bleddin in safety were
shot down by the troops quartered there. Those who
escaped had managed to hide themselves in drains, and
some of the wounded crawled away. I have had a vivid
description of the whole scene from some dozens of women
who were there. They have told me how, before their
very face, they have seen husband, father, brothers, and
children cut to pieces ; how in trying to save the life of
a child they have been knocked down and the child torn
from them and cut to pieces, and the pieces thrown in their
face ; how they have been insulted by the Turkish soldiery;
and how in their way down to the sea the Druses had
robbed them of everything they possessed. And it must
be remembered that there were people at Deir-el-Kammar
who were very wealthy and lived in well-built and com-
fortable houses, people who had been well educated and
used to luxury, and now have to beg their bread.
" The number of killed in this horrible massacre has been
variously estimated ; some say that 900, some that 1,800,
persons were killed. I have good reason to believe, after a
careful comparison of all the accounts, that from 1,100 to
1,200 males actually perished in that one day. The Druses
then set fire to the town; the smoke came over Beyrout as
a column of cloud, and warned us of the calamity. I my-
self can testify that the accounts are not much exaggerated ; '
I travelled over most of the open country before the war
was over, and came to Deir-el-Kammar a few days after
the massacre. Almost every house was burnt, and the
streets crowded with dead bodies, most of them stripped
and mutilated in every possible way. My road led through
the town, and through some of the streets my horse could
not even pass, for the bodies were literally piled up. Most
of those I examined had many wounds, and in each case
was the right hand either entirely or nearly cut off; the
poor wretch, in default of weapons, having instinctively
raised his arm to parry the blow aimed at him. I saw little
children, of not more than three or four years old, stretched
on the ground, and old men with grey beards.
In some places you could see the expression of agony ; in
others, of last despair. One poor creature, on his knees,
had been cut down as ho appealed to the mercy of his
murderers.
"I saw bodies without heads, and heads lying alone
about the place—all lying unburied, to be devoured by the
hyaenas and wild beasts. While in the midst of this scene
of death—a scene which would have forced any one, I should
have supposed, to be sober—some Druses, who had come to
carry off what remaining bits of timber there might be in
the houses, laughing and joking at the appearance of the
wretched victims.
" I expressed my horror of such brutal behaviour to the
great Chief of the Druses, and urged him to have the dead
buried. He laughed, and asked me why. I have some
hope that this has been done, as he promised to give an
order for it, although he said it would be difficult to induce
the Druses to bury Christian carcases.
" When the account reached Beyrout the horror and in-
dignation were indiscribable. Used as we had become to
such horrors, yet this surpassed all, and revealed a degree
of treachery on the part of the Pasha which it would be
almost impossible to persuade a sober European statesmen
could be practised by an official in the high position of a
governor of a great province.
"The Pasha reached Deir-el-Kammar the day after the
slaughter; a fact ' which he will ever lament and deplore
as long as he lives ;' that is what he says, so, of course, it is
true. The details had barely reached us, when, on Sunday
afternoon, the 26th of June, the French brig-of-war Senti-
nelle, brought us alarming reports from Sidon. The Druses
were again threatening the place, and the Mufti had been
preaching in the mosque, and even in the streets ' Death
to the Christians and calling upon the faithful to behold
how the cause of the righteous triumphed. ' Now is the
time,' he was heard to proclaim, ' God has given the infidel
into our hands.' On the preceding night, September 25,
armed Druses had been allowed to sleep in the town, and
Moslems, with weapons of different kinds, had passed the
night in the mosque, ready at any moment, should the
Druses begin the carnage, to aid them to the best of their
power. And on the following night it was believed the
slaughter would take place. Two English and two French
men-of• war immediately steamed off and anchored at Sidon
before sunset, and this intimidated the fanatics, and, in all
probability, prevented an outbreak.
"It was found on inquiry that a trap had indeed been
laid here also, for the Governor of Sidon had disarmed all
the Christians, on the plea that in the then disturbed state
of the country it was necessary for people to be disarmed,
while, at the same time, he permitted Druses and Moslems
to enter and remain in the town without taking from them
any of their arms. Nothing could be more unjust than
this; nothing could more clearly show the bad end he had
in view. On being officially asked if it was true, he did not
deny it, but said that in future he would have all parties to
give up their arms ; but on being desired to give this pro-
mise in writing he refused, saying that after all it was not
in his power to prevent the Druses bringing their arms into
Sidon, although he had a garrison of 300 troops there, and
cannon, and he was in a walled town.
" After the butchery at Deir-el-Kammar, and while the
panic was going on at Sidon, Beyrout itself was menaced,
and, but for the presence of several European mentof-war,
this place would have shared the fate of other towns. Al-
most all the native merchants have escaped to Alexandria ;
and, to improve matters, a Moslem was found murdered.
This created a great sensation ; the Moslems insisted on the
execution of a Christian, and some poor fellow was seized,
tried, and executed in a few hours, who had probably as
much to do with the murder as the Emperor of China.
" The Consuls-General could now no longer have any
confidehce in the Pacha, and they determined upon sending
a joint letter to the great chiefs of the Druses themselves
demanding that they should cease from further hostilities.
" Murders were daily going on, Beyrout and Sidon were
in danger, and thousands of persons who had congregated
in the Kesrouan (as the distinct north of the Dog River is
called) were in hourly expectation of an attack.
" The Druse chiefs clearly showed that they had not
been the chief agents in the mountain war. They had sold
themselves to the Pashas, and they evaded giving any
direct answer.
" But this attempt on the part of the Consuls-General
of the Five Powers was successful for the moment. The
Pasha heard of the letter ; he saw that he had been detected,
and then his only hope was to insist on peace.
" We have since found, as indeed we suspected oily too
well at the time, that a repetition of the massacres of Has-
beya and Deir-el-Kammar had been projected in the Kes-
rouan. The Druses were to have marched to the borders of
this district, the Pasha was to have sent a large force of
Ottoman troops ' topreserve order, and toprotect the Chris-
tians from the Druses,' and then the carnage would have
begun, and probably never would have ended until the
Druses and Moslems had slaughtered the greater part of
the Christian population in Lebanon. Thousands must
have perished had this admirable policy been carried out.
" The result, then, has been the official deolaration of
peace in Lebanon, on one condition only ; that the Chris-
tians are to look upon bygones as bygones.
" The Pasha went through the farce of summoning an
equal number of representatives from both races, but those
who came on the part of the Christians were traitors who
had been bribed ; nor, indeed, had they been altogether
honest men they would have dared, to do otherwise, than
the Pasha chose to dictate. Poor wretched people By-
gones to be bygones I' How many thousands aro ruined
and destitute; how many women are altogether unpro-
tected, and all their homes and goods gone I Sixty towns
and villagesln Lebanon are burnt, and this goodly moun-
tain has become a black desert.
" it is said that 75,000 persons are dostitute. This seems
a great number ; but some idea may be formed of the depo-
pulation when I state that the English man-of-war alone
brought to Beyrout, from Sidon and the Damur river, 2,400
children. Most of the boys who had reached this had
escaped in women's clothes. All wish to leave the country.
The poor people are panic-stricken, and if they could get
away scarcely any of the Christians would remain an hour
longer under the Turkish rule. But here again has been
another atrocious tyranny and premeditated extermination
of the Christian race. These poor creatures, who have bees