s over, for the government of Turkey is so
utterly without principle, that by a well timed application of money,
all difficulties may be surmounted with the Porte, and as the Pasha
seems now disposed to meet this desire, it may, especially in the
present difficulties of the Sultan with Russia, lead, after all, to an
amicable termination of one year's anxiety and suspense. We are now
especially anxious for the pacification of these countries, that our
dear friends may be able to pass over the desert, as our dear and kind
brother Pfander left us last evening for Ispahan. It was a great
rending to us all, and has left a vacuum we cannot easily hope to have
filled up in all its parts; and till our dear brothers and sisters
come, we shall be very solitary, and very much pressed; but our
strength will be as our day. Had he seen it right to remain I might
have crossed the desert to our dear friends; but this not being the
case, it is impossible for me to leave this, and perhaps in the
present state of things here, from apprehensions of plague and war, it
would have been impracticable even if he had remained.

Caravans pass much more frequently between this place and Damascus
than between this and Aleppo, and it appears to me the shorter and
better way of communication to Bayrout and Damascus to Bagdad than by
Aleppo. Three caravans have passed over the desert from hence to
Damascus within these few months. With one of these an Armenian with
his wife and children went, and with another several Mohammedan
families; thereby hoping to avoid the troubles they expected here. So
at least we may venture for our Lord what men venture for their own
various interests. In fact, it does not appear that any further danger
is incurred than that of being plundered, or perhaps only a heavy
exaction from the Arab tribes through whom the caravan passes, whose
interest it is not to press so hard upon caravans as that they shall
be stopped coming, but to levy a tax upon them sufficiently
considerable to help to support the tribe.

An English merchant and a Consul are about settling, if not
already settled, at Damascus, which will still further facilitate
communications; and besides the road from Beyraut to Damascus is much
better than that from Latakeea to Aleppo. This arrangement, as well as
that at Trebisand, shows that these countries are becoming the objects
of public, or rather mercantile, interest.

A Jew came to borrow an Arabic bible fr