Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-07-31
Correspondence of the Boston Traveler.l
HIGHLY IMPORTANT FROM SYRIA


Correspondence of the Boston Traveler.l
HIGHLY IMPORTANT FROM SYRIA.
Beirut, Syria, June 6, 1860.
Syria is now the scene Of one Of the
most sanguinary conflicts ever enacted
in this land, which has ever been the
battle field of the old world, and Mount
Lebanon is now one vast funeral pile.
Druses and Christians, numbering
hundreds of thousands, are now engaged
IN wholesale murder, arson and pillage,
in which fendish work they are aided by
Turks, Moslem, Arabs, and the people
as the Metawalies.
From my window last week l counted
from twenty to thirty burning villages
upon the mountain, few miles from
Beirut, from whence the flash of musk
etry may easily be seen, and the volleys
heard one after another in rapid success
sion, as they echo through the valleys
The dying and the dead are brought
daily into the town in large numbers,
and the widows and the orphans may be
seen in great crowds, weeping and wall
ing about the streets.
The barbarity of this war is truly
shocking. Men, women and children
are overtaken while fleeing for refuge
and without arms, and ruthlessly
slaughtered while praying for quarter.
The Christians have thus far suffered
most terribly. Their villages have been
burned, their crops destroyed, and great
numbers have been brutally murdered,
while the Druses, who are better warri-
ors and far more courageous, are assisted
by the Turks, Moslem and Metawalies,
and up TO this time have proved success
| ful.
The bloody war which is waged on
both sides as a war of determination, has
its origin in religious and political causes.
The Christians and Druses hate each
other with deadly hatred, ON account
of the difference in their religious faith
and the Christians hate the Druses
with special hatred, because the Dru-
ses are in a great many of the mountain
Christian districts, feudal chiefs and ru-
lers over the Christian or Maronite and
Greek Catholic villages. The more i'm
mediate causes of the war, may be traced
to the bloody feuds existing between
Druse and Christian tribes. Last sum
mer, at Bait Marri, a quarrel arose,
which threatened to precipitate a war,
in which the Maronite Christians were
victorious, having repulsed the Druses,
killing forty or more, while their own
loss was less than one third Of that num-
Der.
Although peace was then declared,
the Druses have since assassinated every
Christian who came in their way, with
an evident determination to make the
number of the Maronite loss equal to
that of the Druses. This aroused the
Christians, and so exasperated them that
they made an attack upon several Druse
villages.
At first they were successful, but re,
lying upon their numbers, they neglected
to appoint leaders or to form any plar
for the campaign; consequently, the Dru
ses rallied under their warrior chiefs
and burned every Maronite and Greek
Christian village within their reach
The provincial authorities pronounced
the invading party-the Christians-tc
be rebels, and the Governor General pro
ceeded with all available force to the
mountains, and brought his cannon te
bear upon the Christians, checking then
at every turn, while the Druses, aidec
by the soldiery, carried on their work o
pillage and murder in manner shame
full even to North American Indian
Denounced as traitors and rebels, thei
homes having been burned, their crop
destroyed, and in some cases their faml
lies butchered, the Christians are rally
ing for the forlorn hope; for they fee
that the Druses, thus aided, will en-
deavor to exterminate them. This
however, will not be an easy matter, a
the Maronite Greeks and Greek Catho
lies number about two hundred and fift,
thousand, and if, as they hope and dali.
expect, the European powers will com
to their aid, they may not only be saved
but greatly improve their condition, b,
being placed under the rule of Euro
pean prince who may be placed over tn
, government of Syria.
The American missionaries in Noun
Lebanon have been greatly exposed, bu
as yet have suffered only for the want 0
provisions.
Upon the breaking out of the war MI
Consul johnson sent guards for thei
protection, and in some cases provisions
Some of the families Of the Mission hav
come down to- Beirut under an escor
. furnished by the Consul, and others ar
daily expected.
No personal danger to the American
2 in Mount Lebanon is apprehended, a
they are well known and we'll protected
but their work is stopped by the wal
their houses become asylums for tn
wounded and the fearful; in fact, the
, are crowded out by the people who see
their protection; for wherever the Amer
lean flag is seen waving on the house-tor
the people flock in great numbers for ad
mission.
The humanity shown by the Ameri
4 cans in Beirut to the wounded, the home
less and the starving refugees from tn
mountains, will long be remembered b
the natives of the country.
The American Mission premises al
' crowded day and night by women an
/ children crying for bread, which they re
a ceive with comfort and consolation fro1
: the American missionaries.
t A Comical Accident:
| The following paragraph has bee