Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-20
Continuation of the Civil War in Syria
Horrible Murders aud Masacres.

A correspondent of the Boston Traveller,
dated Buirut, June l6, gives the following
account of the terrible civil war now going
on in Syria;
The plot thickens, and fear that the doom
of the people is sealed. About 100 OF the
Hasbeyans arrived here yesterday with blood
stained garments, and with bloody history
of their sufferings and the fate of their COM
panions. Concealed under the dead bodies
of more than l,200 of their friends and rela-
tives, they spent long and terrible night;
and, after the fiends who had accomplished
this awful tragedy left the spot supposing
that none had escaped to tell the tale, these
fugitfves reached the coast near Tyre, and
came to Beirut in boats.
1t was a sad story they told; and as they
counted over to our devoted missionaries the
names of the Protestants whom they saw
butchered in cold blood the hearts of these
| pious men sank within them. But two of
| the entire Protestant community were living
when the refugees left Hasbeiya, and these
were dreadfully wounded, perhaps fatally.
| The American Church, and all the mission
property, was consumed, and those benighted
natives who had been brought TO knowl-
| edge of the truth by the American missona-
ries, and so instructed by them as to be able
| to sustain their own pulpit and schools with
native preachers and teachers, were all cut
down, and the Protestant mission blotted out
| How mysterious are the ways of Providencel
Hasbeiya contained about six thousand in
habitants, and was governed by a family of
Moslem Princes of the Great Shehaab family
| Seventy Princes of this name were also muir
dered, together with the Moslem Judge, his
son, and about thirty other Moslems, who
had incurred the hatred of the Druses.
The large district of Merj Ayum, west OF
Hasbeiya, contains number of Christian
I.r;ll and 10 ,aA hNra ~
known as Mohommed Bey. The Metoualis
are followers of Ali, the grandson of Mo-
homet and are often at enmity with the
Moslems. They have all the cunning and
treachery of the latter, as may seen in his
treatment of the Christians. This Chic
promised to protect the Christians of his dis
trict from the Druses provided they would
pay him the sum of one hundred thousand
piasters which they collected and paid. He
then coolly informed them that he had re-
ceived orders from the Pasha not to resist the
Druses nor interfere with them, and they
must take care of themselves. 1t is feared
they have shared the fate of the Hasbeiyan
i | ere this. I'd .. r#...
! The converts that have heretofore afforde,
{ so much aid and comfort to weary pilgrim
and travellers, have been plundered AM
burned, and those comfortable looking oil
monks have been slaughtered without mercy
DEVIL Mekollis, or the Convent of Salvation
which stood upon peak of Lebanon nea
Sidon, was not only attacked and plundered
but literally pulled down, and forty-fve 0
its inmates murdered. The Priest Basilius
1 in his letter of appeal to the Consul, says
{ sour converts have been plundered an,
burned, and property that has rem aimed il
i the possession of our order for more thai
e one hundred and seventy-fve years, ha
!, been carried away, and our monks hav
i been slaughtered like lambs, and none hav
!, been saved but those whose life is destine
g to be long. These things are pleasin
e neither to God nor allowable by the justic
y of governments" .,t .. r.- .-s-.