all the afternoon we had the noble range of mt. lebanon in view, and towards five o'clock we saw the desert-like promontory upon which beyrout stands. this bold headland, however, changed its appearance when we had rounded it and came into the harbor; instead of sloping sand we had a rocky coast, and rising from the bay a couple of hundred feet, beyrout, first the shabby old city, and then the new portion higher, up, with its villas embowered in trees. to the right, upon the cliffs overlooking the sea, is the american college, an institution whose conspicuous position is only a fair indication of its pre-eminent importance in the east; and it is to be regretted that it does not make a better architectural show. behind beyrout, in a vast circular sweep, rise the lebanon mountains, clothed with trees and vineyards, terraced, and studded with villas and villages. the view is scarcely surpassed anywhere for luxuriance and variety. it seems to us that if we had an impulse to go on a mission anywhere it would be to the wicked of this fertile land.
at beyrout also passengers must land in small boats. we were at once boarded by the most ruffianly gang of boatmen we had yet seen, who poured through the gangways and climbed over the sides of the vessel, like privileged pirates, treading down people in their way. it was only after a severe struggle that we reached our boats and landed at the custom-house, and fell into the hands of the legalized plunderers, who made an attack upon our baggage and demanded our passports, simply to obtain backsheesh for themselves.
"not to show 'em passport," says abd-el-atti, who wastes no affection on the turks; "tiefs, all of dem; you he six months, not so? in him dominion, come now from jaffa; i tell him if the kin' of constantinople want us, he find us at the hotel."
the hotel bellevue, which looks upon the sea and hears always the waves dashing upon the worn and jagged rocks, was overflowed by one of those swarms, which are the nuisance of independent travellers, known as a "cook's party," excellent people individually no doubt, but monopolizing hotels and steamboats, and driving everybody else into obscurity by reason of their numbers and compact organization. we passed yesterday one of the places on the coast where jonah is said to have left the whale; it is suspected—though without any contemporary authority—that he was in a cook's party of his day, and left it in disgust for this private conveyance.
our first care in beyrout was to secure our passage to damascus. there is a carriage-road over the lebanons, constructed, owned, and managed by a french company; it is the only road in syria practicable for wheels, but it is one of the best in the world; i suppose we shall celebrate our second centennial before we have one to compare with it in the united states. the company has the monopoly of all the traffic over it, forwarding freight in its endless trains of wagons, and despatching a diligence each way daily, and a night mail. we went to the office to secure seats in the diligence.
"they are all taken," said the official.
"then we would like seats for the day after to-morrow."
"they are taken, and for the day after that—for a week."
"then we must go in a private carriage."
"at present we have none. the two belonging to the company are at damascus."
"then we will hire one in the city."
"that is not permitted; no private carriage is allowed to go over the road farther than five kilometres outside of beyrout."
"so you will neither take us yourselves nor let any one else?"
"pardon; when the carriage comes from damascus, you shall have the first chance."
fortunately one of the carriages arrived that night, and the next morning at nine o'clock we were en route. the diligence left at 4 a. m., and makes the trip in thirteen hours; we were to break the journey at stoura and diverge to ba'albek. the carriage was a short omnibus, with seats inside for four, a broad seat in front, and a deck for the baggage, painted a royal yellow; three horses were harnessed to it abreast,—one in the shafts and one on each side. as the horses were to be changed at short stages, we went forward at a swinging pace, rattling out of the city and commanding as much respect as if we had been the diligence itself with its six horses, three abreast, and all its haughty passengers.
we leave the promontory of beyrout, dip into a long depression, and then begin to ascend the lebanon. the road is hard, smooth, white; the soil on either side is red; the country is exceedingly rich; we pass villas, extensive plantations of figs, and great forests of the mulberry; for the silk culture is the chief industry, and small factories of the famous syrian silks are scattered here and there. as the road winds upward, we find the hillsides are terraced and luxuriant with fig-trees and grapevines,—the latter flourishing, in fact, to the very top of the mountains, say 5,200 feet above the blue mediterranean, which sparkles below us. into these hills the people of beyrout come to pass the heated months of summer, living in little villas which are embowered in foliage all along these lovely slopes. we encounter a new sort of house; it is one story high, built of limestone in square blocks and without mortar, having a flat roof covered with stones and soil,—a very primitive construction, but universal here. sometimes the building is in two parts, like a double log-cabin, but the opening between the two is always arched: so much for art; but otherwise the house, without windows, or with slits only, looks like a section of stone-wall.
as we rise, we begin to get glimpses of the snowy peaks which make a sharp contrast with the ravishing view behind us,—the terraced gorges, the profound ravines, the vineyards, gardens, and orchards, the blue sea, and the white road winding back through all like a ribbon. as we look down, the limestone walls of the terraces are concealed, and all the white cliffs are hidden by the ample verdure. entering farther into the mountains, and ascending through the grim wady hamm鈔a, we have the considerable village of that name below us on the left, lying at the bottom of a vast and ash-colored mountain basin, like a gray heap of cinders on the edge of a crater broken away at one side. we look at it with interest, for there lamartine once lived for some months in as sentimental a seclusion as one could wish. a little higher up we come to snow, great drifts of it by the roadside,—a phenomenon entirely beyond the comprehension of abdallah, who has never seen sand so cold as this, which, nevertheless, melts in his hands. after encountering the snow, we drive into a cold cloud, which seems much of the time to hang on the top of lebanon, and have a touch of real winter,—a disagreeable experience which we had hoped to eliminate from this year; snow is only tolerable when seen at a great distance, as the background in a summer landscape; near at hand it congeals the human spirits.
when we were over the summit and had emerged from the thick cloud, suddenly a surprise greeted us. opposite was the range of anti-lebanon; two thousand feet below us, the broad plain, which had not now the appearance of land, but of some painted scene,—a singularity which is partially explained by the red color of the soil. but, altogether, it presented the most bewildering mass of color; if the valley had been strewn with watered silts over a carpet of persian rugs, the effect might have been the same. there were patches and strips of green and of brown, dashes of red, blotches of burnt-umber and sienna, alternations of ploughed field and young grain, and the whole, under the passing clouds, took the sheen of the opal. the hard, shining road lay down the mountain-side in long loops, in ox-bows, in curves ever graceful, like a long piece of white tape flung by chance from the summit to the valley. we dashed down it at a great speed, winding backwards and forwards on the mountain-side, and continually shifting our point of view of the glowing picture.
at the little post-station of stoura we left the damascus road and struck north for an hour towards ba'albek, over a tolerable carriage-road. but the road ceased at mu'allakah; beyond that, a horseback journey of six or seven hours, there is a road-bed to ba'albek, stoned a part of the way, and intended to be passable some day. mu'allakah lies on the plain at the opening of the wild gorge of the berduny, a lively torrent which dances down to join the litany, through the verdure of fruit-trees and slender poplars. over a mile up the glen, in the bosom of the mountains, is the town of zahleh, the largest in the lebanon; and there we purposed to pass the night, having been commended to the hospitality of the missionaries there by dr. jessup of beyrout.
our halted establishment drew a crowd of curious spectators about it, mostly women and children, who had probably never seen a carriage before; they examined us and commented upon us with perfect freedom, but that was the extent of their hospitality, not one of them was willing to earn a para by carrying our baggage to zahleh; and we started up the hill, leaving the dragoman in an animated quarrel with the entire population, who, in turn, resented his comments upon their want of religion and good manners.
climbing up a stony hill, threading gullies and ravines, and finally rough streets, we came into the amphitheatre in the hills which enclose zahleh. the town is unique in its construction. imagine innumerable small whitewashed wooden houses, rising in concentric circles, one above the other, on the slopes of the basin, like the chairs on the terraces of a roman circus. the town is mostly new, for the druses captured it and burned it in 1860, and reminds one of a new england factory village. its situation is a stony, ragged basin, three thousand feet above the sea; the tops of the hills behind it were still covered with snow, and we could easily fancy that we were in switzerland. the ten or twelve thousand inhabitants are nearly all maroyites, a sect of christians whom we should call greeks, but who are in communion with the latin church; a people ignorant and superstitious, governed by their priests, occasionally turbulent, and always on the point of open rupture with the mysterious and subtle druses. having the name of christians and few of the qualities, they are most unpromising subjects of missionary labor. yet the mission here makes progress and converts, and we were glad to see that the american missionaries were universally respected.
fortunately the american name and christianity are exceedingly well represented in northern syria by gentlemen who unite a thorough and varied scholarship with christian simplicity, energy, and enthusiasm. at first it seems hard that so much talent and culture should be hidden away in such a place as zahleh, and we were inclined to lament a lot so far removed from the living sympathies of the world. it seems, indeed, almost hopeless to make any impression in this antique and conceited mass of superstition. but if syria is to be regenerated, and to be ever the home of an industrious, clean, and moral people, in sympathy with the enlightened world, the change is to be made by exhibiting to the people a higher type of christianity than they have known hitherto,—a christianity that reforms manners, and betters the social condition, and adds a new interest to life by lifting it to a higher plane; physical conditions must visibly improve under it. it is not enough in a village like this of zahleh, for instance, to set up a new form of christian worship, and let it drone on in a sleepy fashion, however devout and circumspect. it needs men of talent, scientific attainment, practical sagacity, who shall make the christian name respected by superior qualities, as well as by devout lives. they must show a better style of living, more thrift and comfort, than that which prevails here. the people will by and by see a logical connection between a well-ordered house and garden, a farm scientifically cultivated, a prosperous factory, and the profitableness of honesty and industry, with the superior civilization of our western christianity. you can already see the influence in syria of the accomplished scholars, skilful physicians and surgeons, men versed in the sciences, in botany and geology, who are able to understand the resources of the country, who are supported there, but not liberally enough supported, by the christians of america.