Kasim was at length apprehended by the governor of Beirt, beaten to make him confess that he was a Moslem, and cast into prison. Mr.
Smith visited him, and urged him to make the profession he intended to abide by, that the mission might know what to do. In the presence of a dozen Moslems, he professed himself a Christian, and declared that he would die a Christian, if they burned him at the stake. The governor, on hearing this, ordered him to be thrust into the inner prison, and loaded with chains. Here his persecutors renewed their promises and threats, but his firmness remained unshaken, and they left him in prison. Such a confession had never been made in Beirt before, and it attracted much attention. The poor man in his dungeon, aware of the danger of his situation, spent much of his time in prayer, and was often heard by his fellow-prisoners, in the watches of the night, calling upon Jesus Christ to help him. He even sent directions to a friend respecting the disposal of a few effects, in case he should be martyred, thereby showing his expectation of persevering unto death.
As the best thing that could be done, the American Consul at Beirt, who took a deep interest in the case, addressed a letter to Soleiman Pasha, next in power to Ibrahim, who was then at Sidon on his way to Beirt. This was favorably received, and the Pasha expressed his wish that the family would send a pet.i.tion to him, that he might be ready to judge the case when he should arrive at Beirt. This was accordingly done, and the requisite evidence was made ready. The poor man received his food daily from his missionary friend, with messages of cheer, and he never wavered.
On the arrival of the Pasha, the prisoner"s wife immediately sought access to him, and this she did day after day; but the governor of Beirt threw every obstacle in her way. The Pasha wished to set him free, without seeming to yield to Frank dictation, or stirring up Moslem fanaticism. At length the governor, threatened by the agent of the European consuls with deposition, presented himself in person at the door of the prison, and told Kasim to go free.
Thus terminated, after an imprisonment of seventeen days, the first case of a converted Druze called to confess Jesus Christ before a Moslem tribunal. This was in the early part of the year 1836.
Kasim was kept by the mission two years on probation, but on the first Sabbath in 1838 he and his wife were admitted to the church, and were baptized, with their six children, receiving Christian names at their own request. Mr. Thomson took occasion to preach on the subject of baptism, explaining the true meaning and intention of the ordinance. The congregation was larger than usual, and there was more solemn attention than had ever been witnessed in the chapel.
Much anxiety was felt for Kasim, but he was not molested. His brother and his brother"s wife also made a very importunate request for baptism, and the mission not long after complied with it.
As these converts were not molested after their baptism, the Druzes resorted more and more to the mission for instruction. Mr. Thomson was invited to visit their villages, and open among them schools and places of worship. They applied for the admission of their sons to the seminary, and a young sheik was received, his friends paying the expense. Some of them corresponded with Mr. Thomson by letter, and some came to reside at Beirt. The Papists a.s.sailed them with promises, flatteries, and threats of vengeance from the Emir Beshir; but the Druzes declared they would never join the Church of Rome.
While the mission was aware that in all this the Druzes were greatly influenced by political changes, past and expected, they could not avoid the hope that an increasing number were really desirous of knowing and obeying the truth. Indeed it was impossible to avoid this conclusion with the facts before them, some of which Mr.
Thomson embodied thus in his journal:--
"_August_ 13, 1838. This morning Kasim brought a leading Druze to see me. He is from Shweifat, and desires to become an English Christian. His conversation was very satisfactory, so far as sensible and even pious remarks are concerned. He makes the most solemn appeals to the Searcher of Hearts to bear witness to his sincerity; asks neither for protection, employment, or money; but says, that his only object is to secure the salvation of his soul.
He asks for nothing but Christian instruction, which I of course was most happy to afford to the extent of my abilities. Alas! that long experience with people here, and especially with the Druzes, compels me to receive with hesitation their most solemn protestations.
"_Sept_. 5. M., the ruling sheik of A., came down from the mountains to request Christian instruction and baptism for himself and family.
He is very earnest and rational, for a Druze, and thinks that nearly all his villages will unite with him. In a conversation, protracted to more than half a day, I endeavored to place before him, with all possible plainness, our views of what true religion is. He is not so ignorant on this subject as most Druzes, having been acquainted with us for many years, and frequently present at our Arabic worship.
"_Sept_. 6. Sheik S., from the heart of Lebanon, came to-day with the same request for Christian instruction, not only for himself, but for his father and four brothers, leading sheiks of the mountains. He asks not for protection, money, or temporal advantage in any way, but solely for religious instruction; and declares, with apparent sincerity, that his only desire is to secure the salvation of his soul. He says concerning their own superst.i.tion, that he knows it is utterly false and pernicious; and that, having for three years read the Bible, and compared the various sects with it, he is persuaded that they have forsaken the word of G.o.d, and imposed upon men many human inventions, designed not for the good of the people, but to augment the power and wealth of the priesthood. He mentioned with special abhorrence auricular confession, and forgiveness of sin by the priest; also, their long fasts, their prayers to saints, and their worship of images and pictures; showing that he was well acquainted with the leading differences between us and them; and proving, by his pertinent quotations from the Bible, that he had read it with attention and understanding.
"Sheik S. intends to remain several days for the purpose of receiving more instruction. He appears to have no fears of persecution, but to be resolved to persevere whatever may happen.
"_Sept_. 12. Went to B."T., and spent the day in conversing with the large family of sheiks there. These sheiks govern, under the Emir, all this part of Lebanon. The greater part of them appear resolved to become Christians at all hazards. Alas! how little do they know of that religion, which they profess to be so anxious to embrace.
The mother of the sheiks in A. is married to the most powerful sheik in B."T., and she sent word to her children, encouraging them to become Christians, and approving also of their plan to place the youngest boys in our seminary.
"I had no time to converse with the common people in B."T., but one of our Christian Druzes who accompanied me, spent the day with them, and tells me, that a great many of the villagers wished to join us.
Here also the Papists are busy as bees, both with arguments and terrors. What the end will be, is known only to G.o.d."
Two days later, several sheiks camp down from the mountains, with an apparent determination to take houses, and receive religious instruction; declaring their wish not to return to the mountains until they had been both instructed and baptized. The same day, two Druzes came as agents from a large clan of their people residing in Anti-Lebanon, three days from Beirt, professing to treat in behalf of their whole community. In the evening, several leading Druzes came from Andara, the highest habitable part of Lebanon, professing to act in the name of their whole village, and earnestly requesting the mission to open schools, build a church, and baptize them all forthwith. The missionary preached to them till a late hour, and they promised to come again after a few days. They kept their promise, and stated that they had made arrangements with the people of several villages to unite together, and all declare themselves Christians at the same time; hoping that the Emir, when he saw so many of them of one mind, would not venture to execute the plans of cruel persecution, with which they were threatened. Mr. Thomson now found it necessary to call in the aid of Mr. Hebard and Mr. Lanneau.
The Emir Beshir, urged on by the Papal priests, now sent for the young Druze sheiks, and threatened them with the full measure of his wrath. This occasioned a division among them, some through fear siding with the Emir. The father of several young sheiks,--a venerable old man, with rank and talents to give him extensive influence,--being at Beirt, declared in oriental style his attachment to the Gospel, and his intended adherence to it.
The excitement among the Druzes continued, and visitors from all parts of Lebanon thronged the house of the missionary, till winter rendered communication with the mountains difficult.
Near the close of November, a number of Druzes, who had become Greek Papists, were seized by order of the Pasha, and cast into prison, whence five of them were drafted into the army. The rest were allowed to return to their homes. It was understood that the Pasha would not disturb the Protestant converts; but he had shown that he was not disposed to tolerate the conversion of the Druzes to Christianity. Kasim and his a.s.sociates appeared resolved to go not only to prison, but to death, rather than deny Christ.
At the close of the year, the severity of the Emir, in connection with the snows of winter, greatly diminished the attendance of Druzes at the meetings. The knowledge, also, that they could not be baptized till they had given evidence of being truly converted, helped to repress the movement. Still, some of the more hopeful persons continued to show their interest in the Gospel.
Syria was now within the jurisdiction of Egypt, and hence the mission was not affected by the persecutions, for which the year 1839 was so distinguished in Turkey. But the missionary force was much reduced, Messrs. Bird, Smith, and Whiting being in the United States. The Rev. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman arrived as missionaries, with their wives, in the autumn of that year; and Messrs. Samuel Wolcott, Nathaniel A. Keyes, and Leander Thompson, with their wives, and Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, in April 1840. They had the language to learn, and the press lay idle during the year, for want of a printer and funds. Mrs. Hebard died in February.
Yet there was progress. A large and convenient chapel had been obtained, where were held two stated Arabic services on the Sabbath; and on the evening of the Sabbath, the natives had a prayer meeting by themselves. In the free schools there were eighty scholars; the seminary for boys had twenty boarders; and the distribution of books and tracts continued. In this work a blind old man of the Greek Church named Aboo Yusoof was an efficient helper. Though stooping with age, he went about the country with a donkey loaded with books, and a little boy to lead him, doing what he could. In a district northeast of Tripoli, he was encouraged in his work by the approbation of the Greek bishop Zacharias.
The political and religious events then occurring were intimately connected. The conquest of Syria by Mohammed Ali, was the apparent cause of the religious movement among the Druzes already described.
The defeat of the Sultan"s army at Nisib, in 1839, and the feelings of jealousy towards France and Egypt, then intimately allied, led to the determination of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria to restore Syria and the Turkish fleet to the Porte. The consequent armed intervention made Beirt the seat of war. An English fleet bombarded the city, and the English officers, by a singular miscalculation, treated the Papal Maronites as their friends, and the Druzes as their enemies. Missionary operations were suspended.
Mr. Lanneau, whose eyes had failed him, left on a visit to the United States. Messrs. Beadle, Keyes, and Leander Thompson spent the summer and autumn at Jerusalem, and Dr. Van Dyck joined them there.
Messrs. W. M. Thomson and Wolcott remained at Beirt until the bombardment, when Captain Latimer, of the United States corvette _Cyane_, who had come to Beirt to look after their welfare, kindly took them and their families to Cyprus.
In the presence of such mighty forces, the mission could only wait the course of events. The brethren, before leaving Beirt, had done all they could for the protection of their houses, furniture, the Arabic press, and the library and philosophical apparatus. They did this by hoisting over their houses the American flag and placing guards in them, and by an understanding with the admiral. The pupils in the boarding-school were sent to their friends. Mr. Wolcott visited Beirt during the contest, and found the Egyptian forces evacuating the town, and the British troops taking possession. He met the American consul there surveying the ruins of his house, which had been battered by the great guns and plundered by the pasha"s soldiers; but the magazine beneath it, which contained most of the property of Messrs. Beadle and Keyes, had not been opened.
Making his way through the ruins of the city to the mission houses, he saw the American flags still floating over them, and the guards on the ground. Soldiers had encamped in his garden, but had abstained from pillage. A few bombs had burst in the yard, and several cannon b.a.l.l.s had penetrated the walls. The furniture, the library, the philosophical apparatus were uninjured. The native chapel in Mr. Thomson"s house had been filled with goods, brought thither for safety by the natives, and these had not been molested.
The field around Mr. Smith"s house had been plowed by cannon b.a.l.l.s, and he expected to find the new Arabic types converted into bullets, but not a type had been touched. Even the orange and lemon trees, within his inclosure, were bending with their load of fruit. All this was remarkable; and the goodness of Providence was gratefully acknowledged at the time, by the missionaries and by their patrons at home.
The persecuting Emir Beshir surrendered, and was sent to Malta, and a relative of the same name, but with small capacity for governing, was appointed Prince of the Mountains. The mission families returned from Cyprus before the end of the year, and the seminary was resumed; but those students who had been taught enough of English to make themselves intelligible as interpreters, had all been drawn away by the high wages which British officers paid for such services. The place of Tanns, Arabic teacher in the seminary, who was sick, was supplied by Butrus el-Bistany, from the Maronite College at Ain Warka. He had written a treatise against the corruptions of Popery and the supremacy of the Pope, and the enraged Patriarch had tried to get him into his power, but without success.
The brethren all rea.s.sembled at Beirt early in the year 1841, and Mr. Beadle, with a native a.s.sistant, commenced a station at Aleppo, but it was not long continued. The press resumed its operations with the new type, under the management of Mr. George Hurter, a printer just arrived from America. The declining health of Mr. Hebard compelled him to suspend missionary labors, and he died at Malta, June 30, on his way to the United States, greatly and deservedly lamented. About the same time, Mr. Smith arrived at Beirt, on his return to Syria, with his wife. Four months later, Mrs. Wolcott was called away, after a distressing illness of three days, but in sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality.
The allied powers had settled the affairs of the East in a manner not agreeable to France, and that government seems to have sought redress through the Jesuits. In the first month of 1841, three French Jesuits arrived at Beirt, with an ample supply of money; and, at the same time, the Maronite Patriarch received large sums from France and Austria, ostensibly for the relief of sufferers in the late war, but never expended for such a purpose. The Maronites had been the chief movers in favor of the Sultan and the English, and the English agent in negotiating with them was a Roman Catholic.
On account of their services in that war, the Maronites stood high in favor with the English officers and with the Turkish government; and the Patriarch received important additions to his power, till he thought himself strong enough to expel the American missionaries and crush the Druzes. The local authorities having no power to drive the missionaries away, he pet.i.tioned the Sultan to do this. The Sultan laid the subject before Commodore Porter, then American Minister at the Porte, who said he was not authorized by his government to protect men thus employed. This fact coming in some way to the knowledge of the Patriarch, he made proclamation through the mountains, that the American missionaries were denounced by their own government as troublesome, mischief-making proselyters, and would not be protected.1
1 This mistaken opinion of the Minister was made the subject of correspondence with the United States Government, and the favorable response by Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, is quoted in chapter xviii.
Meanwhile, the English officers had obtained a more correct understanding of the relations of parties in Lebanon; and they saw at once that it was for the interest of England that the Druzes should be encouraged to become Protestants. They therefore held consultations with the Druze sheiks, and the results were communicated to the British government. As a natural consequence, the Druze sheiks expected support from England, and some at least of the British officers were in favor of such support, should the Druzes put themselves under the instruction of the American missionaries. It is certain, at any rate, that the Druze sheiks confidently expected this. With such expectations, they made a definite agreement with the mission, that a school for the sons of the ruling cla.s.s should be established at Deir el-Kamr, and other schools as fast as practicable in their villages, and that the missionaries should be welcomed as religious teachers among all their people.
A school was at once opened at Deir el-Kamr by Messrs. Wolcott and Van Dyck, and Mr. Thomson removed to "Ain Anab to superintend the schools for the common people, of which there were three opened in the vicinity. Mr. Smith, on arriving at Beirt, was so much interested that he did not stop to open his house, but went up at once to Deir el-Kamr.
In this same month, the Rev. Mr. Gobat, a German in the service of the Church Missionary Society, arrived from Malta. He had long been known as a missionary in Egypt and Abyssinia, and was a personal friend of the older members of the mission. His object was to see if he could make arrangements by which evangelical missionaries of the English Church could advantageously share in the labors for converting the Druzes.
In September, despatches arrived from Lord Palmerston, which were reported to contain an order for taking the Druzes under British protection; and with them came from England the Rev. Mr.
Nicholayson,--originally a Baptist, and at this time an Episcopalian and zealous high-churchman--with instructions, it was said, to a.s.sist in carrying out that arrangement. He did not agree with Mr.
Gobat in respect to the treatment due to the American missionaries; and when the Druzes inquired of him what support they might expect from England, the answers they received led them to the conclusion, that England would not protect them unless they renounced the American missionaries, and put themselves under the exclusive instruction of clergymen from the English Church. This they were not ready to do. Mr. Gobat retired, in a spirit of catholicity. Neither did Mr. Nicholayson prosecute his mission, being disheartened, it may be, by the civil war which shortly arose between the Maronites and Druzes. His intervention was unfortunate, and I find it referred to, thirty years afterwards, by a venerable member of the mission, as a warning against similar intrusions.
The Patriarch now deemed himself strong enough to enter upon his project of crushing the Druzes. His power in the mountains being in the ascendant, he ordered the Druze sheiks to a.s.semble at Deir el-Kamr. They came armed, and, as they approached Deir el-Kamr, were required to send away their followers and lay aside their arms. They refused. A battle ensued, and the Maronites were defeated. The Patriarch then proclaimed a crusade against them, ordered his bishops to take arms, and marched his forces towards the Druze territory. But the Druzes seized the mountain pa.s.ses, and defeated every attempt to enter. Though greatly inferior in numbers, they went desperately to work to exterminate or expel every Maronite from their part of the mountains. Not a convent, and scarce a village or hamlet belonging to the Maronites, was left standing. They then descended and dispersed the main army of the Maronites; and were ready to march northward into Kesrawan, and attack the Patriarch in his stronghold, but were persuaded by British officers to suspend their march. The Turkish army, which might have prevented the conflict, now took the field, and separated the combatants.1
1 Tracy"s _History_, pp. 417, 440. Report for 1842, pp. 117-124.
_Missionary Herald_, 1842, pp. 196, 229, 362.
This was very properly regarded as a providential deliverance for the mission, which had never been threatened with so formidable an opposition as at the beginning of the year. It now entered into a correspondence with nearly all the princ.i.p.al Druze sheiks, who felt that they had, by their swords, won the right to schools. The prospects were at that time very hopeful. The country never seemed more open to evangelical labors. For a year there had been no opposition to the schools, except two or three among the Druzes. The press was in operation without censorship, sending forth thousands of copies each year, and there was an increasing demand for books.
The mission bookstore, in the centre of the town, was visited by all cla.s.ses, including very many high officers of government, and even by the Seraskier himself, and there was no complaint against it. No one had been persecuted for a long time for professing the religion of the Bible, and Protestantism seemed to have gained a tacit toleration.
In reply to the objection, that the mission had been long established, and yet the conversions had been very few, Mr. Smith wrote thus: "I ask, what labor? Has it, after all, been so disproportioned to the results? The instrumentality highest on the scale of efficiency for the conversion of souls in every country, is oral instruction, especially formal preaching. Now how much of this has there been in Syria? Before Mr. Bird could engage in it, Mr.
Fisk was called away by death. I had hardly been preaching in Arabic a year, when Mr. Bird left for America. Mr. Thomson had but just preached his first sermon when my family was broken up, and I became a wanderer. Since then, we have both been here together but a few months at a time, until the last year. And these are all the Arabic preachers we have had at our station. In the mean time we have all been away, once for nearly two years at Malta, and again for a while at Cyprus. And when here, so many other cares have we had, that a single sermon on the Sabbath has been, for most of the time, all the formal preaching that has been done. Add to this a weekly prayermeeting for six or seven months in the year."
Again he says: "The labor of years has been accomplished in gaining experience, forming favorable acquaintances, doing away with prejudice, disseminating evangelical truth, the successful commencement of printing operations, etc. All this labor is in the language of a vast nation of Mohammedans, the sacred language of the whole sect, the language of their prophet. And when their power falls, it will be so much done towards their conversion. Instead of being alarmed and discouraged by the revolutions that are occurring around me, I am interested in them as forerunners of that great event."
The political changes have generally been very sudden in Syria. In April, 1842, Omar Pasha imprisoned the leading Druze sheiks, and Albanian soldiers were arriving daily, as if to disarm the Druzes.
And so it proved. The Turks decided to take the matter into their own hands. An army was marched into Lebanon, accompanied by Moslem sheiks and teachers, and the whole Druze nation was compelled to appear, outwardly at least, as Moslem.1 The motives of the government in this were chiefly political, but partly religious.
They wished to be able to draw recruits from this brave people for the army, which could not be done should they become Protestant Christians; and also, to retain a strong party in Lebanon, to be used, as they afterwards were used, against the large nominally Christian majority of its inhabitants. They expected thus to control the mountains, and keep down the influence of foreign Christian powers.
1 These statements are made on the authority of a doc.u.ment received from the mission in the year 1869.
In this manner were the operations for educating and Christianizing the Druzes suddenly arrested. In working out their policy, the Turks necessarily resorted to measures intended to place the Druzes in bitter antagonism to all the native Christians. In the atrocious ma.s.sacre of 1860, which, for the time, threw the Druzes far from all Christian sympathy, that unfortunate people were used as tools by the Turks to work out their own policy. Events such as these, are among the deep mysteries of Providence. Nor is this mystery yet solved; though, from facts that will appear in the sequel, we shall see enough to authorize the hope of a renewal at some time, of the former pleasing relations between the Druzes and Christian missionaries.