The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1841-01-14
PRESERVATION OF PROPERTY
IH TILE RnmRARpMrNr or BEYRour.

The missisn property, the houses of five mis-
sionary families, their furniture, an invaluable
library, philosophical apparatus for the schools,
printing presses, sc. were, It appears the annex
| ed letter remarkably preserved during the late
bombardment of the city Of Beyrout (Syra,) by
| the British fleet. Three of the mission families
fed to Jerusalem, in anticipation OF the attack,
but Messrs. Thompson and Wolcott remained
until the British fleet arrived In the harbor, when
they took refuge board the u. S. ship Cyane,
! (here for the protection ofour countrymen,) and
proceeded to Cyprus early in September .SOn the
10th of October Mr.. Wolcott returned to Bey
rout, and he gives the following particulars of
the unexpected and most providential preserva-
ton of the mission property, in a letter which
we find in the New York Observer this morn
ing"
We received from our consul, who remained
in one of the English ships, information of the
destruction of his property. His house was on
the wharf and contiguous TO one of the castles,
and from its exposed position had received sew
eral shots before we left; but greater injury
had since been inflicted by the Pasha's soldiers,
who had pillaged it. Every thing valuable and
portable they had carried off; end what they
could not take away, they had wantonly ruined.
His chairs, tables, mirrors, SC. were broken to
pieces Hitherto we had indulged hspe, faint
indeed, that our property would be respected; but
we entertained it no longer. If the house of our
consul was thus entered and plundered, almost
beneath the guns of the enemy, what was to- pro-
tect our private dwellings, distant i'll the
burbs, and surrounded by prohigate and unre-
strained soldiery. 1t was an additional argu-
ment for one of us TO be on the spot, ready to
embrace the first opportunity of looking after
our affairs and saving what was possible from
the wreck.
AS drew near the mission house, | was en-
couraged by seeing the American flag, which
had hoisted, still floating over it, and soon
met my janissary, who informed me that he had
remained through the whole, placing as many
thicknesses of stone wall as he could find be-
tween himself and the range of the ships when
they fired. He assured me, TO my unspeaka-
BILE relief, that although the soldiers had en-
camped in my garden, and the pasta had with
drawn his guards Immediately upon our leaving,
it had not been pillaged. After showing me
pile of cannon balls which he had picked up
on the premises, he proceeded to point out the
avenues which some ofthem had opened through
the house. Two, one a sixty-eight FOUNDER,
had entered the bedroom, and after piercing
the outer wall of solid stone, one had rebound
ed from the opposite wall into the apartment,
and the other had passed through into the
court of the house. A third had gone through
the kitchen and an adjoining store room into
the garden. A fourth, also sixty eight poun-
der, had penetrated the basement, which is ap-
proprated TO the boys seminary, and lodged
in one of the rooms, after forcing passage
through four stone walls, each twelve inches
in thickness. Two or three other balls had
grazed the house, and two bombs had burst in
the yard, carrying away the stone gate posts;
and the trees and fences around all bore marks
of the storm. The furniture in the house was
uniniured; not an article belonging to the mis-
sion has sustained the least harm.
We had trembled for the library, on account
of the delicate and costly apparatus of the SEM
mary which it contained, and on account of its
valuable manuscripts and books, especially the
writings of the Christian fathers, in eighty folio
volumes, from which Mr. Bind drew such con-
vincing arguments, and the loss of which to
the mission would have been irreparable. But
when l entered the room, it wore the same
quiet air as when l left it,
With a grateful heart now proceeded to
Mr.. Thompson's house. The wall in front of it
had been raised to double its height, and used
as breast work by the soldiers. The consul
lar janissary had fled, but another native guard
whom Mr.. Thompson paced in the house had
remained. Though much exposed, it had who'll
ly escaped, nor had the ''smell of fire passed
on it, Its basement, which has been conve-
rted into native chapel, was filled with goods
which the natives had brought thither for safe
ty, and these and all which it had sheltered
had lain undisturbed. The situation of this
house is perhaps the finest on the cape, and the
view from its open court never seemed more
delightful.
My tour was not yet completed, and accer.
dinghy fastened to Mr. Smiths house, recently
occupied by Mr.. L. Thompson and Dr. Van
Dyck. The field around it had been ploughed
up by cannon balls, but on entering the incIo-
sure, all traces of war vanished. The beauti-
full expresses were still standing there, and the
orange and lemon trees were bending beneath
their rich load. The janissary had remained,
and the house was untouched, The basement
and the press together with the types, which
with no small reason, we had feared would be
transmitted into bullets, were unframed, and
all, above and below, had been free from mo-
lestation.'
LATER FROM FRANCE.-By the packet ship
Burgundy, Capt Line, we have received Havre
papers TO the day sailing, 21st December. No
news of importance.-.M Z. ErpTeSs