The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9, 1860.

PUBLICATIONS.

CAPT. LANGLEY'S NARRATIVE.
Now ready, in 2 vols., Svo, with Illustrations, 30s. bound,
ARESIDENCE at the COURT of MEER
ALI MOORAD. with Wild Sports in the Valley of
the Indus. By Capt. LANGLEY, late Madras Cavalry.
Hurst and Blackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

(1 OVERNMENT upon FIRST PRINCIPLES.
\-A Illustrated Analogically, Statistically, and Morally.
By JOHN GROSSMITH.
This work embodies a wide field for information, not only
upon Social and Moral subjects, but upon a great variety of
questions which are essentially incorporated with the politi-
cal discussions of the day, in connection with the Commerce,
Trade, and Taxation of the country. Statesmen and lovers
of intelligent progress will find in it a compilation of facts
well worthy their attention.
London : Piper and Co., Paternoster-row.
Just published, price 25., free by post, 2s. 4d.,
-

SPERMATORRHMA.
By F. B. COURTENAY,
And formerly Surgeon to the Metropolitan Infirmary for the
. .

ON

Cure of Strictures of tile Urethra.

" The aim of the author is to present a common-sense view
of the Causes, Nature, Consequences, and Treatment of this
Disease, as also to free these questions from the Professional
Fallacies, the Popular Delusions, and the exaggtrations of
Quackery by which they have hitherto been surrounded, to the
destruction of the health and happiness of thousands. These
objects are discussed in a commou-sense and highly practical
manner."—Medical Circular.

THE MASSACRES IN SYRIA.

The following extracts from a private letter will
be found of great interest :

" Beyrout, July 19.
" We are favoured by yours of the 28th ult., and
in reply to your information that the Sublime
Porte had changed some governors, and ordered the
despatch of some soldiers to this country, and, in
consequence of those measures, hopes were enter-
tained of a speedy settlement of these dist urbances,
we beg to say that the fearful occurrences in the
mountains against the Christians are totally ab-
sorbed now in the last events and cruelties at Da-
mascus. On Monday, the 9th inst., a rising of the
Moslems took place against the Christians of that
capital, and about 6,000 men in three divisions
attacked their quarter, and at once commenced pil-
laging and murdering, and on the following day
Moslems, Bedouins, and Druses of the neighbour-
hood poured into the town and continued the
tragedy. Some Christians took refuge at the house
of Abd-el-Kader, others with some respectable Mos-
lems, and the women and children at the Castle,
and at the English and Prussian Consulates which,
being Moslem property and in the Moslem quarter,
were saved. All the Christian quarter, with. the
other Consulates, to the number of about 1,000
houses, were pillaged and burnt. On the 12th
inst., when they had done with the pillaging and
burning of every house, they went into the city,
and there ransacked all the warehouses and shops
belonging to the Christians, and, according to
the last news arrived from Damascus yesterday,
pillage and murder continued up to -the last
date, the 16th inst. The number of killed some
calculate at 6,000, and some at more. At the time
these horrible deeds began there were about 1,500
regular Turkish troops and as many Bashi-Bazouks,
but they never gave any protection to the Chris-
tians, but helped to throw them back into the
burning flames when they attempted to escape ;
those who are still alive are in danger 'of meeting
their death by starvation. In fine, if we were to
write all the details we should require a large
volume ; suffice it to say,—God save us ! At pre-
sent fears are entertained for the Christians in
every place,—at Horns, Hammah, Saida, Latakia,
Aleppo, Tripoli, Beyrout, Tyre, Acre, Jaffa,
Naplous, and Jerusalem,—lest the same fearful
crimes 'should be committed there, as, after these
events at Damascus, the Droes and Moslems killed
the Christians of Horan and Baalbec, pillaged their
property, and forced many to embrace Islamism.
About half the population of Beyrout have left for
Alexandria, Syra, and other parts of Greece, and
even for Russia. Two days ago his Excellency
Fuad Pasha, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and his
Excellency Halim Pasha, commander of the army
of Damascus, arrived, and before them, and in their
company, came regular soldiers, sent for the last
disturbances in the mountains, as when they left
they had not the news of the Damascene events ;
so we have about 5,000 in Beyrout, and with the
soldiers that went with Mahmer Pasha, the new
Governor of Damascus, there will be about 14,000
there ; but no one knows what will happen after-
wards."

The following is an extract of a letter dated

Piraeus of Athens, July 23 :
" A day or two after I wrote my last letter we
received such startling intelligence by telegraph
from Syria, that our captain, upon his own respon-
sibility, steamed off to Beyrout at once. We
arrived there about four days afterwards, and found
the Druses, a powerful tribe of Alahomedans,
massacreing Christians all over the country, and
threatening to attack Beyrout. The Turkish troops
were doing nothing towards preventing them,
hut rather encouraged them, and, in two or
three instances, actually took part in killing
the unfortunate Christians. The arrival of

ourselves, a French frigate, and a large Rus-
sian frigate, however, prevented them attacking
Beyrout, and about a week afterwards my old ship,
the Exmouth, 90, came in, which made the inhabi-

tants of Beyrout feel themselves quite safe. Two
or three days after that we were suddenly ordered
to get up our steam with all speed, and found we
were going to rescue some poor wretches who had
escaped a fearful massacre at a place called Deir-
el-Kamar, and had,...manged to fetch the seashore

about 15 miles off. When we got to the place
pointed out, we saw on some hills, about two miles
off the beach, crowds of women and children hud-
dled together, apparently in great distress, and we
could not make it out how it was they did not come
down to the beach to be taken off. So the captain
sent me ashore with all the boats to bring them off.
I made all the boats lay off the surf, and then
landed myself, with an interpreter. I met an
armed party of Druses on landing, and told them
I wished to see the chief, as it appeared it was he
that would not allow the people to depart. I went
about two miles to a village where the chief lived.
On my way up I met crowds of women and chil-
dren in a fearful state of distress, but no men ;
they had all been killed. If I had been an angel,
I could not have been more blessed ; for, poor
creatures, no sooner did they catch sight of my
uniform, than they fell down at my feet and kissed
my hands, and implored me to save them. Of
course I did not understand their language, but I
was told what they said by the interpreter.
" I was received in great state by the Druse
chief, he and I sitting down and drinking coffee,
while all the smaller chiefs stood round uncovered.
I then told him I had Come from my captain, to
request him to allow the unfortunate women and
children to embark on board of us without further
molestation ; that the English liked the Druses, and
admired their bravery, as long as they did not
hurt women and children, but if they injured them
they would make the English their enemies. The
old Druse chief told me they never warred with
women and children, and that he would be very
happy to allow them to embark, and that the armed
Druses with them were only for their protection. So
I told him to send them all down to the beach at
once. I was quite astonished to see the number of
them ; instead of 200 or 30, as we heard there
were, there were at least 1,500, and the most horri-
ble part was there was hardly a man to be seen, or
a boy over 12 years old ; they had all been massa-
cred—husbands, brothers, and fathers, every one.
Poor things, they seemed overjoyed to get away,
and when they got to the beach I had the greatest
difficulty in preventing them throwing themselves
into the sea, and had to drag one or two of them
out of the surf myself.
4, We only had about eight boats, but these wo
began to load with all despatch, every poor woman
and child having to be carried through a tremen-
dous surf to the boats. However, our blue jackets
worked well and cheerfully, only I must say that
they very unfairly gave preference to the pretty
girls, and when any old mother wanted to be car-
ried off I was obliged to order some man personally
to do it. Some of the women and children were
badly wounded- They had been wounded while
clinging to their husbands and fathers and were
killed. As soon as a boat was loaded she was sent
off to the ship, and the poor wretches stowed as
close as they would lie on board, and then the boat
was sent back. After two hours' hard work our
decks were packed as close as possible, and we had
room for no more. The gunboat, I must tell you,
was full of fugitives from Sidon, so that she could
not hold any. The sun had set ; the surf was in-
creasing fast, and two or three of our boats had
been pitched bottom up on the beach, and there
were still 700 unfortunate women and children on
the beach with hardly a stitch of canvas on, and that
little wet, all footsore, having travelled 30 miles the
previous day, and some of them had not touched
food for two or three days. I sent for the Druse
chief, and made him promise me to take care of them
until the morrow, when I said
we would come again
and bring off the rest of them, as the Gannet was
firing guns for my recall. I went off, leaving
them all horribly disappointed on the beach, poor
things ! When I went on board I found almost
every inch of deck covered. We had 700 women
and children on board, and only about a score
of men who had escaped. It was the most dis-
tressing sight I ever saw or hope to see again, for
now that the immediate fear of death was removed
they began to feel conscious of •the full extent of
their misfortunes—houses burnt down and all their
relations massacred ; they began to scream, tear
their hair off in handfullo, and beat their breasts in
a most horrible manner. We did all we could to
soothe them. Officers and men are all vieing with
each other in feeding them with biscuit and giving
them clothes,.
I could tell you hundreds of
84e
anecdotes about them, but must reserve then, for
another time, as we are off directly—suffice it to
say, we took them to Beyrut, and, after a miser-
able night for them, poo,r things, wet through as
they
were, landed them the next morning, and the
gun boat w is sent up
and brought down the remain-
ing 700 that night. We got great credit for the
affair, and my name figured in a despatch to the
Admiral. After stopping on the coast for about
a fortnight we were ordered back to Athens, and
when we got here found we joinhadto. the Admiral,
who was at Zante.
We picked him up at sea, and,
after cruising with the fleet between that place and

Corfu for a week, the Admiral left us to go with
his fleet to Beyrout, where things are getting worse,
and ordered us to Constantinople, where we are to
be stationed for the present."