his mysterious palace, inhabited by his women, or, to use the Oriental mode of expression, the Charem of his seraglio, is accessible only to himself. Early in every evening he regularly retired to this place, through three massive doors, every one of which he closed and barred with his own hands. To have knocked at the outer door after he had retired, or even to enter the seraglio, was an offence that would have been punished with death. No person in Acre knew the number of his women, but from the circumstance of a certain number of covers being daily placed in a kind of wheel or turning cylinder, so contrived as to convey dishes to the interior, without any possibility of observing the person who received them. He had from time to time received presents of female slaves; these had been sent into his charem, but afterwards, whether they were alive or dead, no one knew except himself. They entered never to go out again; and, thus immured, were cut off from all knowledge of

CHAP.

III.

(2) He possessed eighteen white women in 1784; and the luxury allowed them, according to Volney, was most enormous. Ibid. p. 269. This may be doubted; extravagance of any kind, except in cruelty, being inconsistent with Djezzar's character.

CHAP. the world, except what he thought proper to

III.

communicate. If any of them were ill, he brought a physician to a hole in the wall of the charem, through which the sick person was allowed to thrust her arm; the Pasha himself holding the hand of the physician during the time her pulse was examined. If any of them died, the event was kept as secret as when he massacred them with his own hands. When he retired to his charem, he carried with him a number of watch-papers, which he had amused himself by cutting with scissars during the day, as toys to distribute among them. He was above sixty years old at the time of our arrival, but vain of the vigour he still retained at that advanced age. He frequently boasted of his extraordinary strength; and used to bare his arm, in order to exhibit his brawny muscles. Sometimes, in conversation with strangers, he would suddenly leap upright from his seat, to shew his activity. He has been improperly considered as Pasha of Acre. His real Pashalic was that of Seide, antiently called Sidon; but, at the time of our arrival, he was also Lord of Damascus, of Berytus, Tyre, and Sidon; and, with the exception of a revolt among the Druses, might be considered master of all Syria. The seat of government was removed to Acre, owing to its port, which has been at all times the

up

key to Palæstine. The port of Acre is bad; but it is better than any other along the coast. That of Seïde is very insecure; and the harbour of Jaffa worse than any of the others. The possession of Acre extended his influence even to Jerusalem. It enables its possessor to shut the country, and keep its inhabitants in subjection. All the rice, which is the staple food of the people, enters by this avenue: the Lord of Acre may, if it so please him, cause a famine to be felt even over all Syria. Here then we have a clue to the operations of the French, in this, as well as in every other part of the world. They directed every effort towards the possession of Acre, because it placed the food of all the inhabitants of this country in their power, and, consequently, its entire dominion. It is a principle of policy, which even Djezzar Pasha, with his propensity for truisms, would have deemed it superfluous to insist upon, that the key of a public granary is the mightiest engine of military operation. Hence we find Acre to have been the last place from which the Christians were expelled in the Holy Land; and hence its tranquil possession, notwithstanding the insignificant figure it makes in the map this great continent, is of more importance than the greatest armies, under the most victorious leader ever sent for the invasion of the country.

of

CHAP.

III.

Import-
ance of the

Port of
Acre.

This it was that gave to an old man pent up in a small tower by the sea-side the extraordinary. empire he possessed. Djezzar had with him, in a state of constant imprisonment, many of the most powerful Chieftains of the country. The sons of the Princes of Libanus remained with him always as hostages; for the Druses', inhabiting all the mountainous district to the north and east of Seide, were constantly liable to revolt. Sir Sidney Smith, by cultivating an alliance with this people, when the French were endeavouring to march through Syria, prevented their affording assistance to our enemies. He undertook to gauranty their safety from all attacks, whether of the French or of Djezzar: and when the latter, most unjustifiably, violated his treaties with them, he enabled them to protect their territory. It was this circumstance which, ever honourable on the part of Sir

(1) A sect of Arabs inhabiting the environs of Mount Libanus; so called from their founder, surnamed El Durzi, who came from Persia into Egypt in the year 1020. (See Egmont and Heyman's Trav. vol. I. p. 293.) Niebuhr and Volney have given a full account of their history. It has been ignorantly supposed that they are the offspring of a colony of French Crusaders; but their name occurs in the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, written anterior to the Crusades: in their language, moreover, although speaking Arabic, they have a dialect of their own. Pococke fell into the error of their Christian origin. If any account," says he, can be given of the original of the Druses, it is, that they are the remains of the Christian armies in the Holy War." Descript. of the East, p. 94. Lond. 1745.

III.

Sidney Smith, gave rise to a misunderstanding CHAP. between him and Djezzar. Matters had not been adjusted between them at the time of our arrival. With due intimation, therefore, of his prejudice against the Hero of Acre, as well as the knowledge we had obtained of his private character and disposition, we were ushered to presence.

his

with Djez

We found him seated on a mat, in a little Interview chamber destitute even of the meanest article zar. of furniture, excepting a coarse, porous, earthenware vessel, for cooling the water he occasionally drank. He was surrounded by persons maimed and disfigured in the manner before described. He scarcely looked up to notice our entrance, but continued his employment of drawing upon the floor, for one of his engineers,

plan of some works he was then constructing 2. His form was athletic, and his long white beard entirely covered his breast. His habit was that of a common Arab, plain but clean, consisting of a white camlet over a cotton

(2) Djezzar kept up his character as the Herod of his day, in the magnificence of his public works: he built the Mosque, the Bazar, and a most elegant public fountain, in Acre. In all these works he was himself both the engineer and the architect. "He formed the plans," says Volney, "drew the designs, and superintended the execution." Trav. in Egypt and Syria, vol. II. p. 226.