of the insect in Syria. With an official
_boyouroulton_ (passport) in my pocket, I was able to travel all over
the country without being interfered with by the military authorities. I
had an excellent opportunity to see what was going on everywhere. The
locusts had destroyed everything from as far south as the Egyptian
desert to the Lebanon Mountains on the north; but the locust was not the
only, nor the worst, plague that the people had to complain of. The
plundering under the name of "military requisitions," the despotic rule
of the army officers, and the general insecurity were even more
desolating.

As I proceeded on my journey northward, I hoped to find consolation and
brighter prospects in the independent province of the Lebanon. Few
Americans know just what the Lebanon is. From the repeated allusions in
the Bible most people imagine it to be nothing but a mountain. The truth
is that a beautiful province of about four thousand square miles bears
that name. The population of the Lebanon consists of a Christian sect
called Maronites and the Druses, the latter a people with a secret
religion the esoteric teachings of which are known only to the
initiated, and never divulged to outsiders. Both these peoples are
sturdy, handsome folk. Through the machinations of the Turks, whose
policy is always to "divide and rule," the Maronites were continually
fighting against the Druses. In 1860 Turkish troops joined with the
Druses and fell upon the Maronites with wholesale massacres that spread
as far south as Damascus, where ten thousand Christians were killed in
two days.

[ILLUSTRATION: THE CHRISTIAN TOWN OF ZAHLEH IN THE LEBANON]

The European powers were moved at last. Fifty warships were sent to
Beirut, and ten thousand French troops were landed in the Lebanon, to
create order. Under the pressure of the European powers the Sublime
Porte was forced to grant an autonomy for the province of the Lebanon.
The French, English, German, Russian, Austrian, and, a year later, the
Italian, Governments were signing the guaranty of this autonomy.

Since then the Lebanon has had peace. The Governor of the province must
always be a Christian, but the General Council of the Lebanon includes
representatives of all the different races and religions of the
population. A wonderful development began with the liberation from
Turkish oppression. Macadamized roads were built all over the province,
agriculture was improved, and there was compl