286 IBRAHIM PACHA'S SYRIAN CAMPAIGN. 



head of a bull with a blow of his scimitar to execute, like Peter the 

 Great, with his own hand his victims to fall, dead drunk, amid the 

 broken wrecks of champagne bottles, are three acts of his life. But 

 latterly his manners, from his intercourse with Europeans, have been 

 somewhat polished ; and, in deference to them, he has displayed both 

 clemency and dignity in fact, Ibrahim is excessively anxious to ac- 

 quire the good opinion of Europe. He possesses all that strong com- 

 mon sense that so distinguishes the Turks, rather than an elevated 

 intelligence of mind. Soliman Bey, a renegade Frenchman, formerly 

 an officer on the staff of Marshall Grouchy, was associated with him ; 

 and it is to him that the success of the Egyptian army may be chiefly 

 attributed. 



Syria, with her various productions, was the first country which 

 offered itself to the conquest of the Egyptians. Closed entirely on the 

 side of Asia by Mount Amanus, which belongs to the chain of Taurus, 

 and extends from the gulf of Scanderoun to the Euphrates, she is 

 bounded on one side by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the 

 desert. Her length, from Aintab to Gaza, is 150 leagues, and the 

 mean breadth about 30. By a single glance at the map we perceive 

 the most important military points for the defence of Syria, are the 

 fortress of Saint Jean d' Acre Tyre, which ought to be fortified 

 Balbeck, as the key to several vallies Antakea the passage of the 

 Beilan Alesandretta, situated upon a tongue of land between the 

 marshes and the sea, and, lastly, Aentab and Zeuyma, which com- 

 mand the two passages on the right side of Mount Amanus. We 

 have entered into these details in order to show how destitute the 

 whole plan of campaign in Syria was of all stratagitical combinations. 

 Malte Brun estimates the population of the district of Sham at two 

 millions, but we are inclined to question the accuracy of this calcula- 

 tion, since no two travellers are agreed as to the numbers of the 

 Druses, some estimating them at 120,000, others at a million. The 

 Turks form two-fifths of the population they inhabit the large towns 

 with the Greeks; the remainder of the population is composed of 

 Arab fellahs, of Curdes, and of Turcomans, who wander in the valley 

 of the Orontes; of Bedouin Arabs, who pitch their tents on the banks 

 of the Jordan and along the edge of the desert of Ansarich, worship- 

 pers of the sun, the descendants of the servants of the Old Man of 

 the Mountain, of Maronetes who profess the catholic ritual, of Druses 

 whose creed is doubtful, all the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon, of 

 Melualis, Musulmen of the sect of Ali, of Naplonsins and other tribes 

 who have preserved a state of independence. We shall not be 

 astonished, that amidst this prodigious diversity of races, that Syria 

 is more easy to conquer than to keep possession of. With the ex- 

 ception of the Ansarich, who inhabit the north of Syria, all of them 

 obeyed, at the moment when the war broke out, the Emir Bechir, a 

 Druses prince of the family of the celebrated Fakr el Din, who re- 

 volted against Amurath the Fourth. The Emir Bechir, when Ab- 

 dallah raised the standard of revolt in 1822, sought the protection of 

 Mehemet Ali, who re-established him in his government. 



Let us now follow Ibrahim in his march. At the head of 32,000 

 regular troops, and 4 or 5000 Bedouin Arabs and Hassouras, he took 



