I think that the first shadow on our happy life came in July of this
year, 1870, when I was at Bludan. An amateur missionary came to
Damascus and attempted to proselytize. Damascus was in a very bad
temper just then, and it was necessary to put a stop to these
proceedings, because they endangered the safety of the Christian
population. Richard was obliged to give him a caution, with the result
that he made the missionary an enemy, and gave him a grievance, which
was reported home in due course.
Another way in which we made enemies was because Richard found it
necessary to inform the Jews that he would not aid and abet them in their
endeavours to extort unfair usury from the Syrians. Some of the village
Shaykhs and peasantry, ignorant people as they were, were in the habit
of making ruinous terms with the Jews, and the extortion was something
dreadful. Moreover, certain Jewish usurers were suspected of exciting
massacres between the Christians and the Moslems, because, their lives
being perfectly safe, they would profit by the horrors to buy property
at a nominal price. It was brought to the notice of Richard about this
time that two Jewish boys, servants to Jewish masters who were British-
protected subjects, had given the well-understood signal by drawing
crosses on the walls. It was the signal of the massacre of 1860. He
promptly investigated the matter, and took away the British protection
of the masters temporarily.
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