The Church Is The
Finest In Syria, Next To That Of The Holy Sepulchre At Jerusalem, And
Contains Two Tolerably Good Organs.
Within the walls of the convent are
two gardens, and a small burying ground; the walls are very thick, and
serve occasionally as a fortress to all the Christians of the town.
There are at present eleven friars in the convent.
The yearly expenses of the establishment amount to upwards of £900.
sterling, a small part of which is defrayed by the rent of a few houses
in the town, and by the produce of some acres of corn land; the rest is
remitted from Jerusalem. The whole annual expenses of the Terra Santa
convents are about £15,000. They have felt very sensibly the occupation
of Spain by the French, and little has been received from Europe for the
last four years; while the Turkish authorities exact the same yearly
tribute and extraordinary contributions, as formerly;[The Terra Santa
pays to the Pasha of Damascus about £12000. a year; the Greek convent of
Jerusalem pays much more, as well to maintain its own privileges, as
with a view to encroach upon those of the Latins.] so that if Spain be
not speedily liberated, it is to be feared that the whole establishment
of the Terra Santa must be abandoned. This would be a great calamity,
for it cannot be doubted that they have done honour to the European
[p.339] name in the Levant, and have been very beneficial to the cause
of Christianity under the actual circumstances of the East.
The friars are chiefly Spanjards; they are exasperated against France,
for pretending to protect them, without affording them the smallest
relief from the Pasha’s oppressions:[I understood from the Spanish
consul at Cairo, that when the news of the capture of Madrid, in August,
1812, reached Jerusalem, the Spanish priests celebrated a public
Te Deum, and took the oaths prescribed by the new constitution of the
Cortes.] but they are obliged to accept this protection, as the Spanish
ambassador at Constantinople is not yet acknowledged by the Porte. They
are well worth the attention of any ambassador at the Porte, whose
government is desirous of maintaining an influence in Syria, for they
command the consciences of upwards of eighty thousand souls.
When the French invaded Syria, Nazareth was occupied by six or eight
hundred men, whose advanced posts were at Tabaria and Szaffad. Two hours
from hence, General Kleber sustained with a corps not exceeding fifteen
hundred men, the attack of the whole Syrian army, amounting to at least
twenty-five thousand. He was posted in the plain of Esdrelon, near the
village of Foule, where he formed his battalion into a square, which
continued fighting from sun-rise to mid-day, until they had expended
almost all their ammunition. Bonaparte, informed of Kleber’s perilous
situation, advanced to his support with six hundred men. No sooner had
he come in sight of the enemy and fired a shot over the plain, than the
Turks, supposing that a large force was advancing, took precipitately to
flight, during which several thousands were killed, and many drowned in
the river Daboury, which then inundated a part of the plain.
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