1 22
2 him a great deal of good, and I afterwards effected the cure of
3 his original complaint.
4 The aforesaid Father Tomaso (a Piedmontese, I believe) is
5 the same individual who created a great sensation in Europe,
6 some years ago, by his sudden disappearance from his monastery,
7 where it was supposed he was murdered by the Jews, on which
8 occasion some hundreds were massacred at Damascus.
9 According to the annual custom, there came from Constanti-
10 nople, the Surra-Emini (leader of the pilgrims), with thousands
11 of Musselmans, who united themselves at Damascus with the
12 pilgrims coming from Bagdad and Persia. At the expiration
13 of the Ramazan (Lent), the Pasha of Damascus set off for the
14 desert, where a great fair is held at an insignificant fortress
15 (Muzerib), at which a large quantity of articles are sold and
16 purchased, and whither also the Arab chiefs, of different tribes,
17 from the desert, bring their goods, principally horses, for sale.
18 At that time, the Pasha and the Surra-Emini pay them money,
19 and distribute state dresses among them, for which they under-
20 take to provide the pilgrims, going to and coming from Mecca,
21 with the required number of camels, without which the road
22 through the desert would be impracticable.
23 I accompanied the Pasha both going and returning. On my
24 arrival in Damascus, I found a medical man, Mr. H. I. De
25 Turck, now at Ghent, who was come from Paris, where he had
26 studied medicine, and the Arabic language. Shortly after,
27 I received a letter from Bagdad, from Mr. Anton Swoboda,
28 a native of Hungary, who had a warehouse there for Bohemian
29 glass, under the firm of Ign. Zahn and Company, of Pesth
30 and Aleppo; it was in the latter place that I made his ac-
31 quaintance.
32 He informed me in that letter, that Dohud-Pasha wished to
33 engage a European physician and surgeon, and advised me to
34 accept his offers. I communicated the contents of this letter to
35 Mr. Henri De Turck, proposing to him to undertake the
36 journey with me, to which he agreed. At that time there were