THE REVOLT OF 1834.
The following is a translation of a letter, unsigned, which I happened to light upon when turning the
pages of an old Welsh magazine (Y Gwyliedydd, Vol. XII [1835], p. 27). It describes the experiences
of some Welsh traveller who found himself in Jerusalem at the time of the revolt of the Arabs under
Ibrahim Pasha; and, as a first-hand record of experiences during that exciting episode, I thought
it might be worth rescuing from its obscurity. There is nothing to show who was the writer or the
recipient of the letter ; it was probably not written for publication, but sent to the magazine by
the writer's friends.
R A. S. Macalister
Jerusalem, 16th July, 1834.
I hope you have received the letter which I wrote you from Grand Cairo three or four months ago.
In that letter I told you of my intention of returning in the month of June ; and no doubt I
should have fulfilled my promise had it not been that totally unexpected occurrences, against
which no one could have made preparations, have detained me here. When in Cairo, I thought that
it would be foolish for me to return to Europe without seeing the places which are so celebrated
in the Scriptures, and in other historians, and which were so near me. Accordingly, with an Arab,
I crossed the Isthmus of Suez and the shores of the Red Sea, and on camel-back I reached Mount
Sinai in Arabia. Thence I crossed the desert, and after many dangers I reached Jerusalem.
Ibrahim Pasha, who was in
Jerusalem, treated me in a kind and friendly manner; I dined with him, and I
enjoyed his friendship for some time after.
As I was continually making excursions among the Arabs, they conversed with me freely, and I
understood that they were very discontented with the rule of the Pasha, especially for his
practice of taking their young men for soldiers. They told me that there was a widespread
conspiracy to break out in revolt, and that I would do well to leave Palestine. Accordingly
I made preparations to leave the place, but, notwithstanding all my diligence, I was too late.
So soon as the Pasha had left for Jaffa, the revolution began. The strongholds of Herek and
Solth [sic. presumably Kerak and es-Salt] were ruined, and the Arabs from Samaria and Hebron made
their way to Jerusalem. The Pasha had not left more than 600 men, and the enemy was more than
40,000. But as the wall was fortified with a few cannon, and the Arabs were armed with javelins
and guns only, we could have held out for ever had they not found a subterranean entrance.
They came in at midnight and obliged the soldiers, after a brave resistance, to retreat to
the castle. All the Christians fled to the different monasteries, and thus they saved their
lives. For five or six days the city was given up to pillage and plunder, and I never witnessed
a scene so heartrending. The Jews, who had no safe place wherein to flee, suffered greatly.
Their houses were spoiled so completely that there was not a bed to lie down upon; many of
them were slain, their wives and daughters outraged, etc. In short, things were done too barbarous
to relate. In the hope of receiving good pay, or for some other end, this cruelty was spared the monasteries.
To increase our misery,
an earthquake, one of the strongest ever felt in Palestine, destroyed many houses,
and levelled to the earth that part of the city wall which passes the temple of the Muhammadans.
The monastery of Bethlehem was rendered uninhabitable, and many of the inhabitants were killed
in the ruin of their houses. For ten days earthquakes continued to rock the city, though none
of them was by any means so severe as the first.
When the Pasha heard of our condition, he hurried from Jaffa with 5,000 men. It was a journey of only
twelve hours from Jaffa to Jerusalem, but the Pasha was three and a-half days before he could bring
us help. There were more than 30,000 of the country Arabs holding the mountain roads, and as the
soldiers were following their way along the water-courses below them, the rebels profited thereby
to stone them — at times rolling ugly masses of rock down upon them, and thus they were flattening
down their enemies and rendering the pathways quite impassable for horsemen and gunners. However,
the energy and bravery of Ibrahim Pasha conquered every obstacle, and at last he came in triumph to
Jerusalem.
You cannot imagine how anxious, I am to return, but as the Pasha is still waging a bloody war with the
Arabs, it is impossible for me to leave the city. If God permits me to return to Europe I shall not
regret my journey. The first opportunity that I shall have obtained I shall mount on my camel's back,
and, swift as the wind, I shall hasten across the desert to Cairo and Alexandria, and thence to Europe;
If I should leave Jerusalem now, there is not the least doubt that I should be killed by the Arabs
