It Was
Arranged That The Two Principal Men Of The Party Should Speak For
The Rest, And These Were Accordingly Admitted Into My Tent.
One of
the two called himself the British vice-consul, and he had with him
his consular cap, but
He frankly said that he could not have dared
to assume this emblem of his dignity in the daytime, and that
nothing but the extreme darkness of the night rendered it safe for
him to put it on upon this occasion. The other of the spokesmen
was a Jew of Gibraltar, a tolerably well-bred person, who spoke
English very fluently.
These men informed me that the Jews of the place, who were
exceedingly wealthy, had lived peaceably in their retirement until
the insurrection which took place in 1834, but about the beginning
of that year a highly religious Mussulman called Mohammed Damoor
went forth into the market-place, crying with a loud voice, and
prophesying that on the fifteenth of the following June the true
Believers would rise up in just wrath against the Jews, and despoil
them of their gold and their silver and their jewels. The
earnestness of the prophet produced some impression at the time,
but all went on as usual, until at last the fifteenth of June
arrived. When that day dawned the whole Mussulman population of
the place assembled in the streets that they might see the result
of the prophecy. Suddenly Mohammed Damoor rushed furious into the
crowd, and the fierce shout of the prophet soon ensured the
fulfilment of his prophecy. Some of the Jews fled and some
remained, but they who fled and they who remained, alike, and
unresistingly, left their property to the hands of the spoilers.
The most odious of all outrages, that of searching the women for
the base purpose of discovering such things as gold and silver
concealed about their persons, was perpetrated without shame. The
poor Jews were so stricken with terror, that they submitted to
their fate even where resistance would have been easy. In several
instances a young Mussulman boy, not more than ten or twelve years
of age, walked straight into the house of a Jew and stripped him of
his property before his face, and in the presence of his whole
family. {43} When the insurrection was put down some of the
Mussulmans (most probably those who had got no spoil wherewith they
might buy immunity) were punished, but the greater part of them
escaped. None of the booty was restored, and the pecuniary redress
which the Pasha had undertaken to enforce for them had been
hitherto so carefully delayed, that the hope of ever obtaining it
had grown very faint. A new Governor had been appointed to the
command of the place, with stringent orders to ascertain the real
extent of the losses, and to discover the spoilers, with a view of
compelling them to make restitution. It was found that,
notwithstanding the urgency of the instructions which the Governor
had received, he did not push on the affair with the vigour that
had been expected. The Jews complained, and either by the
protection of the British consul at Damascus, or by some other
means, had influence enough to induce the appointment of a special
commissioner - they called him "the Modeer" - whose duty it was to
watch for and prevent anything like connivance on the part of the
Governor, and to push on the investigation with vigour and
impartiality.
Such were the instructions with which some few weeks since the
Modeer came charged. The result was that the investigation had
made no practical advance, and that the Modeer as well as the
Governor was living upon terms of affectionate friendship with
Mohammed Damoor and the rest of the principal spoilers.
Thus stood the chance of redress for the past, but the cause of the
agonising excitement under which the Jews of the place now laboured
was recent and justly alarming. Mohammed Damoor had again gone
forth into the market-place, and lifted up his voice and prophesied
a second spoliation of the Israelites. This was grave matter; the
words of such a practical man as Mohammed Damoor were not to be
despised. I fear I must have smiled visibly, for I was greatly
amused and even, I think, gratified at the account of this second
prophecy. Nevertheless, my heart warmed towards the poor oppressed
Israelites, and I was flattered, too, in the point of my national
vanity at the notion of the far-reaching link by which a Jew in
Syria, who had been born on the rock of Gibraltar, was able to
claim me as his fellow-countryman. If I hesitated at all between
the "impropriety" of interfering in a matter which was no business
of mine and the "infernal shame" of refusing my aid at such a
conjecture, I soon came to a very ungentlemanly decision, namely,
that I would be guilty of the "impropriety," and not of the
"infernal shame." It seemed to me that the immediate arrest of
Mohammed Damoor was the one thing needful to the safety of the
Jews, and I felt confident (for reasons which I have already
mentioned in speaking of the Nablus affair) that I should be able
to obtain this result by making a formal application to the
Governor. I told my applicants that I would take this step on the
following morning. They were very grateful, and were, for a
moment, much pleased at the prospect of safety which might thus be
opened to them, but the deliberation of a minute entirely altered
their views, and filled them with new terror. They declared that
any attempt, or pretended attempt, on the part of the Governor to
arrest Mohammed Damoor would certainly produce an immediate
movement of the whole Mussulman population, and a consequent
massacre and robbery of the Israelites. My visitors went out, and
remained I know not how long consulting with their brethren, but
all at last agreed that their present perilous and painful position
was better than a certain and immediate attack, and that if
Mohammed Damoor was seized, their second estate would be worse than
their first.
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