The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-23 00:00:00

THE MASSACRES IN SYRIA.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
BEYROUT, AUG. 8.
On Saturday afternoon, about 6 o'clock, the first
caravan of Christians who had escaped from the
massacres in Damascus arrived in Beyrout ; and a

more heartrending sight—one which made men weep
like women, filling them at the same time with an

almost irresistible craving for revenge—was pro-

bably never beheld. They had left Damascus on
Thursday at noon—a column composed chiefly of I
women and children, and variously estimated at
from 2,000 to 3,400 souls ; for the Turkish autho-
rities had provided cattle for the conveyance of 1,500
persons, but many travelled on foot or on beasts of
burden of their own or friends. Parched with thirst,
not half fed, unwashed, with clothes unchanged for
nearly a month, choked with dust, and covered with
lies, they fled hither, under heavens glowing like
brass, from the city, which, if it be the most ancient,
will henceforth be the most infamous in the world.
They were widows and orphans whose husbands,
fathers, and brethren had all been slain before their
eyes with every indignity and cruelty the most bar-
barous fanaticism could devise, and whose most

comely maidens had been sold to gratify the brutal
lust of filthy Arabs. Nearly all were afflicted with
ophthalmia ; five women had died on the journey,
and one was taken in labour. Babes might be seen
striving to suck food from breasts that were dried up.
Young children were so dirty, so disfigured by sores,
on which flies settled continually, as to be loathsome
to look upon. Old men and women tottered under
doorways and sank down exhausted, heedless of the
crowd that pressed upon them, looking like so many
bundles of dirty rags, and incapable of reaching out
their hands to take the water for which they
famished, or of crawling to the shelter provided for
them by the authorities at Beyrout in three khans.
The streets leading from the Damascus road were
thronged with mules, shambling horses, and asses,
all huddled together, and rendering the condition of
the fugitives all the more painful. The muleteers
rained down blows right and left upon the cattle ;
and from the statements made of their brutality
on the journey it required no great effort to believe
that they would have beaten the " infidel dogs" com-
mitted to their keeping even more lustily, while it
was difficult to say how far the curses and execra-
tions which filled the air were confined to the ani-
mals—how far they were intended to apply to those
of whom Moslem vengeance had been defrauded.
In the lulls between the cursings arose the piteous
cries of babes, and here and there the wailings of
women—Christian Rachels weeping for their chil-
dren, and " refusing to be comforted, because they
are not." But, generally speaking, the grief was too
deep-seated, too hopeless for lamentation. Those
who had wept the loss of their nearest and dearest
relatives had no tears left for their own sufferings,
and, although they had fled from the city of death,
they exhibited an apathy and indifference which
appeared to indicate that all which rendered life
valuable had been snatched from them, leaving
them to pursue their melancholy and dreary pil-
grimage ever accompanied by the memory of the
horrible scenes they had witnessed. The living may
be pardoned in this case for envying the peace and
oblivion of the tomb, bloody as may have been the
path to it.
Beneath the scorching sun of Syria, after a twelve
hours' journey during the hottest part of the day,
and amid the bustling confusion of the streets, the
fugitives remained—many with a child at the breast
and two others strapped in front upon the mule—
until they could be got one by one into the khan.
Now and then might be seen groups of young
children suspended in what looked very much like
orange chests slung across a horse. These were all
that remained of a family. They have no pro-
tection, no refuge save in public charity. At last
the fugitives were got into the khan, which may
be described as a square courtyard, surrounded on
all sides by a two-storied structure, a portion of
the upper floor being carried on arcades run-
ning round the courtyard. By this means a
single line of chambers is obtained on the
ground floor, and a double line on the upper
one. Between the two lines of chambers in this last
runs a passage, into which the doors and windows
open. The chambers are about 8 feet square and 10
feet high, with a number of inmates generally ave-
raging 10. The few things saved from pillage—a
carpet, quilted coverlet, leather water-bottle, and
nargbile, with, perhaps, a few articles of clothing,
are spread out, and, for the first time for weeks, the
fugitives sleep in complete security, and with a
sense of safety. But their destitution is complete.
Nothing but bread have they tasted since they fled
for safety to the castle of Damascus, now a month
ago, and even of bread they did not always get suf-
ficient to appease their hunger.
The fugitives are lodged in the three khans situ-
ated in the most crowded parts of Beyrout, which
I have visited, and in a Greek convent. One of the
khans, about 60 feet square, is beside the hotel
where I am staying. The windows of my room over-
look it, and I have only to lift my eyes from this
letter to behold the misery, destitution, and physi-
cal sufferings of upwards of 400 human beings.
Through the open windows come the cries of chil-
dren blinded by ophthalmia, teased by flies, mos-
quitoes, and vermin, and almost maddened by sun-
stroke. There come also occasionally, when food is
served out, the angry and menacing expostulations
of Turkish officials. I trust the noise has no other
cause or accompaniment.
From the statements of the fugitives, it would
appear that they numbered in the castle of Damas-
cus upwards of 12,000 persons whose relatives had
been foully murdered or whose lives were threat-
ened. Elsewhere in the city Christians were shel-
tered. The English consul—Mr. James Brant—had
his house full ; and here it may not be out of place
to set those ingenious writers in the French press
right who pretend to draw conclusions from the
English consulate not having been burnt or the
consul assaulted. In the first place, and contrary
to the assertions of the French press, neither the
Dutch nor any other European consul was mur-
dered or wounded, and if the British consulate
was not burnt it arose from the building being
the property of a wealthy Moslem, and from its
being situate in the Moslem quarter, whereas the
other consulates are in the Christian quarter, and
also from its being next door to the great mosque,
which would have been destroyed had the British
consulate been fired. M. Outrey, the French Con-
sul, was also untiring in his efforts to relieve the
Christians, and fed several of them at the cost of
his Government ; and several Moslems proved that
they did not share the cruel fanatical spirit of their
countrymen by secreting in their houses fugitives
and their famLies. A native Protestant teacher
who escaped massacre in the English mission by
disguising himself as a woman, and who, while
running away, received a sword cut over the head
from an officer of the Turkish army, was met by a
Moslem, who took him, hid and fed him in his own
house for three days, until arrangements could be
made for the teacher's escape from the city. The
young man is now here ; he speaks English re-
markably well, and is, I believe, employed by
Vice-Admiral Martin. Another Moslem, on the
evidence of a European, sent large supplies of food
daily to the Christians in the castle, and what
articles of clothing he could collect, for the Govern-
ment allowance of bread was barely sufficient to
keep life in them. Even now the arrival of the
fn.' •
°awes here will hardly have improved the condi-
tion
" their fellow victims left behind in the castle,
for dill it is r
-n crowded and so foul as to suffice for
et pestilence. Indeed, great appre-
hensiont he engesnare na
heavy La tertsained that an epidemic will in-
flict ad. desolating 0. retribution upon the
population of the eh •
Y ; for ophthalmia, fever, and
dysentery cannot fau
to follow
constant exposure
to the alternate heats and
chills of Syrian days and
nights, and the exposure mud last until the houses
destroyed . are rebuilt.
so wantonly Again, food is
growing scarce and dear; it will be scarcer and
va and when
dearer as the season colnces
the evils
army arrives, so that :n addition tothe French
which desolate the nand we have the Prospect of
famine to still furth .11* aggravate the sufferings of
I
the populations, unle. ni the charity of western Chris-
tians comes to our heulp. We have had a foretaste
of what may be expm ted from the want of proper
management and the concentration of so much