The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-24 00:00:00

FRENCI I OPERATIONS IN SYRIA.

( From yesterday's Monitour.)
! The arrant ;.ements which General de Beaufort
d'Hautpoul, c, 3mmander of the Syrian expeditionary
corps, made, i n concert with Fuad Pacha, for pene-
trating the L, abanon and there re-establishing the
Christians wt io had fled to the coast, have already
borne their fr) ait. The action of Europe, vigorously
represented b. 7 our troops, is progressively causing
all the obstacles opposed to it by open or covert
resistance to iisappear.

It had bee n agreed that General de Beaufort
d'Hautpoul sl iould start from Beyrout and Fuad
Pacha from S ;aids, and that they should simulta-
neously converge in the direction of Deir el Kamar.
General de Beaufort d'Hautpoul left Beyrout on
the 25th ot BF ptember at 7 a.m., with 2,500 infan-
try, one mou stain battery, and a cavalry escort
consisting of h ussars and spahis. Colonel d'Arricau
left at the same time for Ain Sefer, along the
Damascus route, with the 12 companies of the
centre of the I 3th Regiment of the line.
The Beyrout; route to Deir el Kamar, formed by
the care of the. Emir Beshir, is everywhere exceed-
ingly difficult,, and at many parts impracticable.
Bristling with rocks, very narrow and presenting
abrupt precipices, the convoy could only advance
with much toil; and therefore, although the stages
were very short, the place of bivouac could not be
reached each day before nightfall.
Three or four• thousand Christians--men, women,
and children—left Beyrout at the same time as the
French troops ; others in great numbers followed
them, covering the roads. The Druses appeared in
the distance on the hill tops, but without venturing
to approach. Accordingly the march of our troops
was attended with no serious incident as far as Deir
el Kamer, where they arrived on the evening of
the 26th.

Instead of going to Deir el Kamar, Fuad Paeha
was obliged to go to Djezzina, having received
intelligence of gatherings of Druses at Niha and
Badrana. He reached Djezzina on the 25th. The
Druses dispersed as soon as they learned the move-
ment of the French and Turkish forces, and the
Druses of Djezzina and Shouff endeavoured to escape
by themselves towards Merdj Ayoun or Gibel
Sheikh, in order to gain their customary refuge of
Sheba, where Ibrahim Pacha was able to pursue
them. On the 26th Fuad Pacha, leaving his in-
fantry at Djezzina, advanced with his cavalry as
far as Macnara on the eastern slope of the Lebanon;
he sent some troops to Moktara, under the orders
of Ismal Pacha, there to put himself in communica-
tion with the French and protect the Christians now
returning to their villages; Ismael Pacha was also
ordered to watch all the outlets by which the
Druses might pass from Gibel Sheikh into the
Hauran.

On his side, General de Beaufort d'Hautpoul
gave orders to Colonel d'Arricau to leave Ain Sefer
with his two battalions and proceed to Deir-el-
Kamar, where he arrived on the 29th September,
in-order to establish himself at Beth-ed-din, in the
old vast:palace of the Emir Beshir. Thus this French
detachment, admirably posted in a military point
of view, with the Turkish forces of Moktara and
Djezzina, protected the district extending from the
ridges of the Lebanon down to the sea, whilst
connecting us with Beyrout, whenever the French
column should advance.

The cava:ry left at Beyrout receiv©d orders to
march on Tab Elias, where it arrived on the 29th
September in the morning, in order to act in the
plain of the Bequaa, or turn the Gibel Sheikh, ac-
cording to circumstances.

It is difficult to form an idea of the state in which
our troops found Deir-el-Kamar ; all the houses are
destroyed; heaps of dead bodies were encumbering
the streets ; it was a sight that cannot be described
to see these thousands of Christians, almost exclu-
sively women and children, returning without any
resources to these ruins, where their fathers,
husbands, and brothers are still lying. The
General de Beaufort d'Hautpoul organised a sort
of municipality, consisting of five of the chief
persons, whose mission it will be to provide for the
most pressing wants of the Christians, and to main-
tain order amidst a population delivered up to so
many afflictions and so much misery.
The Turkish soldiers have been required to bury
so many corpses, which Mussulman indifference
and contempt had left unburied for four months, to
burn the human remains scattered about the ruins,
to clear the streets, and thus give access to the
few houses still capable of offering to the Christians
an indispensable but dangerous refuge. The in-
fection was so, great that General de Beaufort
d'Hautpoul was obliged to remove his camp as far
as possible ; he took prudential measures for pre-
venting contagious disease. The battalions of the
13th Regiment of the Line, stationed at Beth-ed-
din, sent men to assist in restoring and roofing the
houses sacked by the Druses.
All these measures, which on the first day of his
arrival at Deir-el-Kamar had been organised by the
French military commandant, were actively carried
out under the superintendence of Colonel d'ArricAu.
Fluid Paella perceived their importance, and in-
tended adopting them for the villages which it ishis
mission to restore.

General do Beaufort d'Hautpoul left Deir el
Lamar on the 28th of September, to encamp at the
solace of the Barouk, near the village of Neba
Barouk, a position regarded as impregnable in the
Lebanon, and called in the country " The Citadel
of the I)ruses."

A tolerably large gathering of Muses was
formed in the morning at Refer Nabrak, a small
village situated at 200 metres from the route to be
taken by the French column, and they appeared
inclined to dispute its passage. At the sight of our
troops they took to flight, after killing a poor
Christian who was in too great haste to return to
his village.
On the 28th the column crossed the Lebanon by
a route nearly perpendicular, when it debouched
into the plain of the Bequaa, passing first through
Ain Lcdji and the village of Keferaia. The camp
was pitched on the right bank of the Lietani, near
the bridge, and facing the mixed Tillage of Jeb-
Jennin.

During that time Fuad Paella, was taking mea-
sures for keeping off the Druses and reinstalling
the Christians, who were returning to the Shouff
and the Djezzina. He was rejoined by General de
Beaufort d'Hautpoul on the 30th Sept. at the village
of Soghebias, at a short distanco from the French
camp, and the two generals were able to concert the
measures called for by the situation. At this in-
terview Fund Pacha confirmed the intelligence
already received by General de Beaufort d'Haut-
poul ; the Druses, assembled at first at Niha and
Badrana, had dispersed in presence of thesOthttroomugahn
troops, had been able to pass in small
groups through
the midst of the Turkish camps
in the Bequaa,,gbhyeikhin
order finally toatnadkehraedfu
refuge
in
nlaced at Katana, Sassa,
prevent The
cross-
ing the second Turkish lineePsult, unfortunately too
HpGaouisbr ae In
and Nouneytera. gainedtahtfileide
easy to foresee, is This
schr to. be regretted ; Fuad
Druses from penal pursuit, allowed
Pasha Turks,
succession the two lines of posts placed
theth e escape
moefntahnedrithose most compromised to escape,
to
ino
thecrossthe Gibel Sheikh,
thethineagdueqesutaiocyo
of
These e
events,
in
vll
eanatsa:adntdo tehspeeeeaiastllyof
and to gain the Hauran.
iman action, have displaced
be solved in the
Hauran. Without speaking of
direct repression ; it can new only
the fresh sacrifices
imposed on our soldiers by these delays, we can
3lussu
only deplore the moral effect they produce on the
Maronite populations, who regard the future with
almost as much terror as they do the past.
Nevertheless, the presence of the French column
in the Bequaa has not been unattended with results ;
the effect of it has been felt as far as Damascus
where the bad feelings of the Mussuhnans had been
showing
themselves again after the departure of
Fuad Pacha for Beyrout. The fear of seeing us
appear at the least complication keeps down all
idea of making any serious disturbance.
On the 2d of October, General de Beaufort
d'linutpoul, having lost the hope of finding the
])ruses in the Gibel Sheikh, came and encamped at
Kab Elias, situated near the opening of the route
, from Beyrout to Damascus in the Begins, an excel'