DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0265
HOLY LASD, AND CYPRUS. 231
state, that the object of my visit was merely of ceremony and
respect to the emir, whose name was familiar to most Eng-
lishmen ; that having travelled through Syria for information,
I could not lose the opportunity of presenting myself to the
sovereign of so rich and industrious a part of the East; who,
I understood, was not averse from receiving the visits of
travellers. In reply, I was welcomed to Deir-el-Kamr, and
offered a palace and subsistence, as long as I chose to remain
there. Having after this endeavoured, in vain, to draw him.
into conversation about past events, I found it time to take
my leave.
On quitting the presence of the emir, I was joined by a
priest, who wore the European dress, who was confessor to
the emir; an intelligent man, who had been bred up in
Italy, and seemed biassed in favour of all the changes that
had taken place under the dominion of Buonaparte: from
this priest I was confirmed in the reports relative to the de-
signs of the former on Acri, and of the consequences that
would have ensued to the Turks from the capture of that
town; and I could plainly perceive the French interest pre-
vailed at Eddin.
The actual strength of the emir's troops was not calcu-
lated at more than five hundred men, though he could, as I
have before observed, raise a large force; which, supposing
the whole male population capable of bearing arms to obey
state, that the object of my visit was merely of ceremony and
respect to the emir, whose name was familiar to most Eng-
lishmen ; that having travelled through Syria for information,
I could not lose the opportunity of presenting myself to the
sovereign of so rich and industrious a part of the East; who,
I understood, was not averse from receiving the visits of
travellers. In reply, I was welcomed to Deir-el-Kamr, and
offered a palace and subsistence, as long as I chose to remain
there. Having after this endeavoured, in vain, to draw him.
into conversation about past events, I found it time to take
my leave.
On quitting the presence of the emir, I was joined by a
priest, who wore the European dress, who was confessor to
the emir; an intelligent man, who had been bred up in
Italy, and seemed biassed in favour of all the changes that
had taken place under the dominion of Buonaparte: from
this priest I was confirmed in the reports relative to the de-
signs of the former on Acri, and of the consequences that
would have ensued to the Turks from the capture of that
town; and I could plainly perceive the French interest pre-
vailed at Eddin.
The actual strength of the emir's troops was not calcu-
lated at more than five hundred men, though he could, as I
have before observed, raise a large force; which, supposing
the whole male population capable of bearing arms to obey