Imatges de pàgina
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WITTMAN'S TRAVELS. (E. REVIEW, 1803.)

ceptions of national policy. The hap-| Dr. Wittman, too, was passing over piness of a nation would have been the same ground trodden by Bonaparte proclaimed by the fulness of its garners, in his Syrian expedition, and had an and the multitudes of its sheep and ample opportunity of inquiring its prooxen; and rulers might sometimes bable object, and the probable success have sacrificed their schemes of am- which (but for the heroic defence of bition, or their unfeeling splendour, at Acre) might have attended it; he was the detail of silent fields, empty har- on the theatre of Bonaparte's imputed bours, and famished peasants. crimes, as well as his notorious defeat; and might have brought us back, not anile conjecture, but sound evidence of events which must determine his character, who may determine our fate. We should have been happy also to have found in the Travels of Dr. Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, &c. Wittman a full account of the tactics and into Egypt. By William Wittman, and manoeuvres of the Turkish army; M.D. 1803. London. Phillips. and this it would not have been difficult DR. WITTMAN was sent abroad with to have obtained through the medium the military mission to Turkey, towards of his military companions. Such the spring of 1799, and remained appear to us to be the subjects, from attached to it during its residence in an able discussion of which, Dr. the neighbourhood of Constantinople, its march through the Desert, and its short operations in Egypt. The military mission, consisting of General Koehler, and some officers and privates of the artillery and engineers, amounting Upon opening Dr. Wittman's book, on the whole to seventy, were assembled we turned, with a considerable degree at Constantinople, June, 1799, which of interest, to the subject of Jaffa; and, they left in the same month of the fol- to do justice to the Doctor, we shall lowing year, joined the Grand Vizier quote all that he has said upon the at Jaffa in July, and entered Egypt subject of Bonaparte's conduct at this with the Turks in April, 1801. After place. the military operations were concluded there, Dr. Wittman returned home by Constantinople, Vienna, &c.

The travels are written in the shape of a journal, which begins and concludes with the events which we just mentioned. It is obvious that the route described by Dr. Wittman is not new: he could make no cursory and superficial observations upon the people whom he saw, or the countries through which he passed, with which the public are not already familiar. If his travels were to possess any merit at all, they were to derive that merit from accurate physical researches, from copious information on the state of medicine, surgery, and disease in Turkey; and above all, perhaps, from gratifying the rational curiosity which all inquiring minds must feel upon the nature of the plague, and the indications of cure.

Wittman might have derived considerable reputation, by gratifying the ardour of temporary curiosity, and adding to the stock of permanent knowledge.

"After a breach had been effected, the French troops stormed and carried the

place. It was probably owing to the obstiFrench commander-in-chief was induced to give orders for the horrid massacre which succeeded. Four thousand of the wretched inhabitants who had surrendered, and who had in vain implored the mercy of their conquerors, were, together with a part of the late Turkish garrison of El-Arish (amounting, it has been said, to five or six hundred) dragged out in cold blood, four days after the French had obtained possession of Jaffa, to the sand hills, about a league distant, in the way to Gaza, and there most inhumanly put to death. I have seen the skeletons of these unfortu nate victims which lie scattered over the hills; a modern Golgotha, which remains a lasting disgrace to a nation calling itself civilised. It would give pleasure to the author of this work, as well as to every liberal mind, to hear these facts contradicted

nate defence made by the Turks, that the

on substantial evidence. Indeed, I am sorry to add, that the charge of cruelty against the French generally does not rest here. It having been reported, that, previously to the retreat of the French army from Syria, their commander-in-chief had ordered all the French sick at Jaffa to be poisoned, I was led to make the inquiry to which every one who should have visited the spot would naturally have been directed, respecting an act of such singular, and, it should seem, wanton inhumanity. It concerns me to have to state, not only that such a circumstance was positively asserted to have happened, but that, while in Egypt, an individual was pointed out to us, as having been the executioner of these diabolical commands."-(p. 128.)

much more the appearance of a battle and pursuit than of a massacre. After all, this gentleman lay eight months under the walls of Jafla; whence comes it he has given us no better evidence? Were 5000 men murdered in cold blood by a division of the French army a year before, and did no man remain in Jaffa, who said, I saw it done - I was present when they were marched out - - I went the next

day, and saw the scarcely dead bodies of the victims? If Dr. Wittman received any such evidence, why did he not bring it forward? If he never inquired for such evidence, how is he qualified to write upon the subject? If he inquired for it and could not find it, how is the fact credible?

This author cannot make the same

suppression of his evidence; as there could be no probability that Bonaparte would wreak his vengeance upon Soliman Aga, Mustapha Cawn, Sidi Mahomet, or any given Turks, upon whose positive evidence Dr. Wittman might have rested his accusation. Two such wicked acts as the poisoning and the massacre have not been committed within the memory of man; -within the same memory, no such extraordinary person has appeared, as he who is said to have committed them; and yet, though their commission must have been public, no one has yet said, Vidi ego. The accusation still rests upon hearsay.

Now, in this passage, Dr. Wittman offers no other evidence whatever of the massacre, than that he had seen the skeletons scattered over the hills, and that the fact was universally be-excuse as Sir Robert Wilson, for the lieved. But how does Dr. Wittman know what skeletons those were which he saw? An oriental camp, affected by the plague, leaves as many skeletons behind it as a massacre. And though the Turks bury their dead, the Doctor complains of the very little depth at which they are interred; so that jackals, high winds, and a sandy soil, might, with great facility, undo the work of Turkish sextons. Let any one read Dr. Wittman's account of the camp near Jaffa, where the Turks remained so long in company with the military mission, and he will immediately perceive that, a year after their departure, it might have been mistaken, with great ease, for the scene of At the same time, widely dissemia massacre. The spot which Dr. Witt-nated as this accusation has been over man saw might have been the spot Europe, it is extraordinary that it has where a battle had been fought. In not been contradicted in print; and, the turbulent state of Syria, and amidst though Sir Robert Wilson's book must the variety of its barbarous inhabitants, have been read in France, that no can it be imagined that every bloody officer of the division of Bon has come battle, with its precise limits and cir- forward in vindication of a criminal eumscription, is accurately committed who could repay incredulity so well. to tradition, and faithfully reported to General Andreossi, who was with the inquirers? Besides, why scattered First Consul in Syria, treats the accuamong hills? If 5000 men were sations as contemptible falsehoods. But marched out to a convenient spot and though we are convinced he is a man massacred, their remains would be of character, his evidence has certainly heaped up in a small space, a mountain less weight, as he may have been of the murdered, a vast ridge of bones speaking in the mask of diplomacy. and rottenness. As the Doctor has As to the general circulation of the described the bones scenery, it has report, he must think much higher of

VOL. I.

F

after this discipline was administered.

the sagacity of multitudes than we do, I throw the person rubbed into a very who would convert this into a reason copious perspiration. A patient in of belief. Whoever thinks it so easy typhus, who was given over, recovered to get at truth in the midst of passion, should read the various histories of the recent rebellion in Ireland; or he may, if he chooses, believe, with thousands of worthy Frenchmen, that the infernale was planned by Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville. As for us, we will state what appears to us to be the truth, should it even chance to justify a man in whose lifetime Europe can know neither happiness nor peace.

The boldness and enterprise of medical men is quite as striking as the courage displayed in battle, and evinces how much the power of encountering danger depends upon habit. Many a military veteran would tremble to feed upon pus; to sleep in sheets running with water; or to draw up the breath of feverish patients. Dr. White might not, perhaps, have marched up to a The story of the poisoning is given battery with great alacrity; but Dr. by Dr. Wittman precisely in the same White, in the year 1801, inoculated desultory manner as that of the mas- himself in the arms, with recent matter sacre. "An individual was pointed out taken from the bubo of a pestiferous to us as the executioner of these diaboli-patient, and rubbed the same matter cal commands." By how many persons upon different parts of his body. was he pointed out as the executioner? With somewhat less of courage, and by persons of what authority? and of what credibility? Was it asserted from personal knowledge, or merely from rumour? Whence comes it that such an agent, after the flight of his employer, was not driven away by the general indignation of the army? If Dr. Wittman had combined this species of information with his stories, his conduct would have been more just, and his accusations would have carried greater weight. At present, when he, who had the opportunity of telling us so much, has told us so little, we are rather less inclined to believe than we were before. We do not say, these accusations are not true, but that Dr. Wittman has not proved them to be

true.

more of injustice, he wrapt his Arab servant in the bed of a person just dead of the plague. The Doctor died; and the Doctor's man (perhaps to prove his master's theory, that the plague was not contagious) ran away. -The bravery of our naval officers never produced anything superior to this therapeutic heroism of the Doctor's.

Dr. Wittman has a chapter which he calls An Historical Journal of the Plague; but the information which it contains amounts to nothing at all. He confesses that he has had no experience in the complaint; that he has no remedy to offer for its cure, and no theory for its cause.* The treatment of the minor plague of Egypt, Ophthalmia, was precisely the method common in this country; and was generally attended with success, where the remedies were applied in time.

Dr. Wittman did not see more than two cases of plague: he has given them both at full length. The symptoms were thirst, headache, vertigo, pains in Nothing can be conceived more the limbs, bilious vomitings, and pain- dreadful than was the situation of the ful tumours in the groins. The means military mission in the Turkish camp; of cure adopted were, to evacuate the exposed to a mutinous Turkish soldiery, primæ viæ; to give diluting and re-to infection, famine, and a scene of the freshing drinks; to expel the redundant most abominable filth and putrefaction; bile by emetics; and to assuage the and this they endured for a year and pain in the groin by fomentations and a half, with the patience of apostles of anodynes; both cases proved fatal. In one of the cases, the friction with warm oil was tried in vain; but it was thought useful in the prevention of plague: the immediate effect produced was, to

One fact mentioned by Dr. Wittman appears to be curious;-that Constantinople was nearly free from plague during the interruption of its communication with Egypt.

peace, rather than war. Their occupa- tent, and admonishes him, by these tion was to teach diseased barbarians, messengers, to a more pleasant exercise who despised them, and thought it no of his authority. That such severe small favour that they should be per-punishments should not confer a more mitted to exist in their neighbourhood. powerful authority, and give birth to a They had to witness the cruelties of better discipline, is less extraordinary, despotism, and the passions of armed if we reflect, that we hear only that the and ignorant multitudes; and all this punishments are severe, not that they embellished with the fair probability of are steady, and that they are just; for being swept off, in some grand en- if the Turkish soldiers were always gagement, by the superior tactics and punished with the same severity when activity of the enemy to whom the they were in fault, and never but then, Tarks were opposed. To the filth, it is not in human nature to suppose irregularity, and tumult of a Turkish that the Turkish army would long camp, as it appeared to the British remain in as contemptible a state as it officers in 1800, it is curious to oppose now is. But the governed soon learn the picture of one drawn by Busbequius to distinguish between systematic in the middle of the sixteenth century: energy and the excesses of casual and "Turcæ in proximis campis tendebant; capricious cruelty; the one awes them cum vero in eo loco tribus mensibus into submission, the other rouses them vixerim, fuit mihi facultas videndorum to revenge. ipsorum castrorum, et cognoscendæ Dr. Wittman, in his chapter on the aliqua ex parte disciplinæ; qua de re Turkish army, attributes much of its nisi pauca attingam, habeas fortasse degradation to the altered state of the quod me accuses. Sumpto habitu corps of Janissaries; the original conChristianis hominibus in illis locis stitution of which corps was certainly usitato, cum uno aut altero comite qua- both curious and wise. The children cunque vagabar ignotus: primum of Christians made prisoners in the videbam summo ordine cujusque cor- predatory incursions of the Turks, or poris milites suis locis distributos, et, procured in any other manner, were quod vix credat, qui nostratis militiæ exposed in the public markets at Conconsuetudinem novit, summum erat stantinople. Any farmer or artificer abique silentium, summa quies, rixa was at liberty to take one into his sernulla, nullum cujusquam insolens fac-vice, contracting with government to tum: sed ne nox quidem aut vitulatio per lasciviam aut ebrietatem emissa. Ad hæc summa mundities, nulla sterquilinia, nulla purgamenta, nihil quod oculos aut nares offenderet. Quicquid est hujusmodi, aut defodiunt Turcæ, aut procul à conspectu submovent. Sed nec ullas compotationes aut convivia, nullum alese genus, magnum nostratis militiæ flagitium, videre erat: nulla lusoriarium chartarum, neque tesserarum damna norunt Turcæ.". Augeri Busbequii, Epist. 3. p. 187. Hanovic. 1622. There is at present, in the Turkish army, a curious mixture of the severest despotism in the commander, and the most rebellious insolence in the soldier. When the soldier misbehaves, the Vizier cuts his head off, and places it under his arm. When the soldier is dissatisfied with the Vizier, he fires his ball through his

produce him again when he should be wanted; and in the meantime to feed and clothe him, and to educate him to such works of labour as are calculated to strengthen the body. As the Janissaries were killed off, the government drew upon this stock of hardy orphans for its levies; who, instead of hanging upon weeping parents at their departure, came eagerly to the camp, as the situation which they had always been taught to look upon as the theatre of their future glory, and towards which all their passions and affections had been bent, from their earliest years. Arrived at the camp, they received at first low pay, and performed menial offices for the little division of Janissaries to which they were attached: "Ad Gianizaros rescriptus primo meret menstruo stipendio, paulo plus minus, unius ducati cum dimidio. Id enim militi

novitio, et rudi satis esse censent. Sed and regiments in the European fashion,

tamen ne quid victus necessitati desit, cum ea decuria, in cujus contubernium adscitus est, gratis cibum capit, eâ conditione, ut in culinâ reliquoque ministerio ei decuriæ serviat; usum armorum adeptus tyro, necdum tamen suis contubernalibus honore neque stipendio par, unam in solâ virtute, se illis æquandi, spem habet: utpote si militiæ quæ prima se obtulerit, tale specimen sui dederit, ut dignus judicetur, qui tyrocinio exemptus, honoris gradu et stipendii magnitudine, reliquis Gianizaris par habeatur. Quâ quidem spe plerique tyrones impulsi, multa præclare audent, et fortitudine cum veteranis certant." — Busbequius, De Re Mil. cont. Turc. Instit. Consilium.* The same author observes, that there was no rank or dignity in the Turkish army to which a common Janissary might not arrive cess. They are not to be taught; and by his courage or his capacity. This last is a most powerful motive to exertion, and is perhaps one leading cause of the superiority of the French arms. Ancient governments promote, from numberless causes, which ought to have no concern with promotion: revolutionary governments, and military despotisms, can make generals of persons who are fit for generals: to enable them to be unjust in all other instances, they are forced to be just in this. What, in fact, are the sultans and pachas of Paris, but Janissaries raised from the ranks? At present, the Janissaries are procured from the lowest of the people, and the spirit of the corps is evaporated. The low state of their armies is in some degree imputable to this: but the principle reason why the Turks are no longer as powerful as they were is, that they are no longer enthusiasts, and that war is now become more a business of science than of personal courage.

and would, if he were well seconded, bring about some important reforms in the Turkish empire. But what has become of all the reforms of the famous Gazi Hassan? The blaze of partial talents is soon extinguished. Never was there so great a prospect of improvement as that afforded by the exertions of this celebrated man, who, in spite of the ridicule thrown upon him by Baron de Tott, was such a man as the Turks cannot expect to see again once in a century. He had the whole power of the Turkish empire at his disposal for fifteen years; and, after repeated efforts to improve the army, abandoned the scheme as totally impracticable. The celebrated Bonneval, in his time, and De Tott since, made the same attempt with the same suc

The person of the greatest abilities in the Turkish empire is the Capitan Pacha. He has disciplined some ships

This is a very spirited appeal to his countrymen on the tremendous power of the Turks; and, with the substitution of France for Turkey, is so applicable to the present times, that it might be spoken in parliament with great effect.

six months after his death, everything the present Capitan Pacha has done will be immediately pulled to pieces. The present Grand Vizier is a man of no ability. There are some very entertaining instances of his gross ignorance cited in the 133d page of the Travels. Upon the news being communicated to him that the earth was round, he observed that this could not be the case; for the people and the objects on the other side would in that case fall off; and that the earth could not move round the sun; for if so, a ship bound from Jaffa to Constantinople, instead of proceeding to the capital would be carried to London, or elsewhere. We cannot end this article without confessing with great pleasure the entertainment we have received from the work which occasions it. It is an excellent lounging-book, full of pleasant details, never wearying by prolixity, or offending by presumption, and is apparently the production of a respectable, worthy man. So far we can conscientiously recommend it to the public; for anything else,

Non cuivis homini contingit adire, &c. &c. &c.

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