Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-07-26
THE CIVIL WAR IN SYRIA.

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The papers have furnished an outline of
the war carried on recently between the
Christians and the Druses. The details pre-
sent picture of horrors which is not to be
paralleled in an age of civilization, andre
quire the interposition of nations who have
the power to arrest such excesses cor,
respondent of the Boston Traveller writing
from Beirut, Syria, thus relates some ofthe
horrors of these civil conflicts.
Druses and Christians, numbering hun
dreds of thousands, are now engaged in
wholesale murder, arson and pillage, in
which fendish work they areaided by Turks,
Moslems, Arabs and the people known aa
the Metawalies.
From my window last week I counted from
twenty to thirty burning villages. upon the
mountain, a few miles from Beirut, from
whence the fash of musketry may easily be
seen, and the volleys heard one afterenoth-
er in rapid succession, as they echo through
the valleys, The dying and the dead are
daily brought into the town. In large num-
bers, and the widows and the orphans may,
be seen in large crowds weeping and wall
ing about the streets.
The barbarity of this war is truly shock
ing. Men, women and children are over
taken while fleeing for refuge and without
arms, and ruthlessly slaughtered while pray
ling for quarter. The Christians have thus
far suffered most terribly. Their villages
have been burned, their crops destroyed,
and great numbers have been brutally mur-
dered, while the Druses, who are better
warriors and far more courageous, areas.
sisted by the Turks, Moslems and MetaSa-
lies, and up to this time have proved success
full. .,..
The bloody war which is waged onsboth
sides as war of determination, has itsior-
igin in religious and political causes. The
Christians and Druses hate each other with
a deadly hatred on accent of the differences
in their religious faith, and the Christians
hate the Druses with a special hatred be-
cause the Druses, are in great many of
the Mountain Christian districts feudal
chiefs and rulers over the Christian or Mar.
ouite and Greek Cotholic villages. The
more immediate cause of the war may be
traced to the fact that last summer at Bait
Marri quarrel arose, in which the Mar
onite Christians were victorious, having re-
pulsed the Druses, killing forty or more,
while their own loss was less than oue.third
that number. Although peace was then
declared, the Druses have since assassinated
every christian who came in their way.
This aroused the Christians, and so ex-
asperated them, that they made an attack
upon several Druses villages. Atfrst they
we're successful, but the Druses rallied un-
der their warrier chiefs and burned every
Maronite and Greek Christian village with.
in their reach. The provincial authorities
pronounced the invading party-the Chris.
tians-to be rebels, and the Governor Gen.
eral proceeded with all his available force
to the mountains, and brought his cannon
to bear upon the Christians. The Christi
ans are rallying for the forlorn hope, for
they fear the Druses, thus aided, will en-
deavor to exterminate them. This, how
over, will not be an easy matter, as the Mar
onite Greek and Greek Catholic number
about two hundred and fifty thousand
1t has been estimated at the British con.
sulate that about sixty villages have been
burned. tits believed that the European
powers will now interfere in behalf of the
Christians of Syria and relieve them from
the Turkish yoke.
The American missionaries in Mount
Lebanon have been greatly exposed, but as
yet have suffered for the want of provisions.
Upon the breaking out of the war Mr..
Consul johnson sent guards for their pro-
lection, and in some cases provisions.
The absence of an American vessel of
war is deeply regretted at this time. The
U. s. steamer Iroquois' is somewhere in
the Mediterranean sea, but it is supposed
she is detained at Sicily.
RT About the age of thirty. six, the lean
man generally becomes fatter, and the fat
man leaner.