MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 41 



disturbances caused by the Wahabis, who for several 

 years had interrupted the annual pilgrimages to 

 Mecca, and occasioned a change in the government 

 of Damascus, where Yussef Pasha, who had been 

 appointed in 1806, was deposed for appropriating 

 the greater part of the miri, or land tax, to himself, 

 instead of transmitting it to the Porte. His suc- 

 cessor was Soliman, Pasha of Acre, who obtained 

 his firman by remitting considerable sums of money 

 to Constantinople, and promising to escort the pil- 

 grim caravans ; or should that be found impossible, 

 to make regular payment of the miri, and at all 

 events to send Yussef s accumulated treasures to 

 the Grand Seignior. The new governor made his 

 solemn entrance into Damascus on the 5th of 

 August 1810 (only a few days before the arrival of 

 Burckhardt), having then under his command three 

 pashaliks, Tripoli, Acre, and Damascus, which 

 gave him the possession of nearly all Syria, from 

 Gaza to Antioch. The sudden changes and revolu- 

 tions for which the policy of the Ottoman empire 

 is so remarkable, suggested to the intelligent mind 

 of Burckhardt the following very appropriate re- 

 flections as to their cause and consequences. 



" It is the misfortune of the Turkish government, 

 at least in its present decayed state, that popular 

 virtues in the person of its governors are quite in- 

 compatible with the Porte's own views. The Sultan 

 demands supplies, and nothing but supplies ; and the 

 Pasha, to satisfy him, must press upon the industry of 

 his subjects. He who is the well-wisher of his people, 



