duties of 8 per cent., export duties of 1 per cent.,
and a charge of 8 per cent. on all native produce and manufactures when
carried by sea from one part of the Turkish Empire to another. There are
also the duties on tobacco, liquors, salt, &c. In addition to these
Vice-Consul Jago, in his Commercial Report, dated Beyrout, July 11,
1876, gives a summary of seventeen agricultural burdens, which are
worthy of the consideration of all who feel disposed to embark in
agriculture in Syria under its present rulers.

IV. European emigrants, on landing in Syria, would find themselves in an
unhealthy climate. The whole of the first batch of German settlers, and
a very large number of the American emigrants who preceded them, fell
victims to the fevers of the country. Captain Conder, referring to the
difficulties of the German colonists, says:--

"There are other reasons which militate against the idea of the
final success of the Colony. The Syrian climate is not adapted to
Europeans, and year by year it must infallibly tell on the Germans,
exposed as they are to sun and miasma. It is true that Haifa is,
perhaps, the healthiest place in Palestine, yet even here they
suffer from fever and dysentery, and if they should attempt to
spread inland, they will find their difficulties from climate
increase tenfold."[66]

The privations and discomforts of Syrian peasant life would be
intolerable to European emigrants. The men would work by day under a
blistering sun, and sleep at night the centre of attraction for
sand-flies and mosquitoes, and all the other nameless tormentors that
leap and bite. Mr. Oliphant speaks feelingly of a night spent at Kefr
Assad:--

"No sooner had the sounds of day died away, and the family and our
servants gone to roost, than a pack of jackals set up that
plaintive and mournful wail by which they seem to announce to the
world that they are in a starving condition. They came so close to
the village that all the dogs in it set up a furious barking. This
woke the baby, of whose vocal powers we had been till then unaware.
Fleas and mosquitoes innumerable seemed to take advantage of the
disturbed state of things generally to make a combined onslaught.
Vainly did I thrust my hands into my socks, tie handkerchiefs round
my face and neck, and so arrange the rest of my night attire as to
leave no opening by which they co