inform you of
the continued state of misery in which our brethren, inhabitants of
Damascus, still remain, as communicated to you in my letter of the
17th of Adar (February), forwarded to you by the steam-packet. We had
hoped to advise you in this letter that the circumstances of the
murder, respecting which the Jewish community were calumniated, had
been ascertained, but in this hope we have been sadly disappointed. We
will now, therefore, repeat everything in detail, and it is this:--

"On Wednesday, the 1st day of the month of Adar (February) there
disappeared from Damascus a priest, who with his servant had dwelt for
forty years in the city. He exercised the profession of physician, and
visited the houses of Catholics, Jews, and Armenians, for the purpose
of vaccination.

"The day following, viz., Thursday, there came people into the Jewish
quarter to look for him, saying they had seen both him and his servant
in that quarter on the previous day. In order to put into execution
their conspiracy they seized a Jewish barber, telling him that he must
know all about the matter, and took him to the Governor, who on
hearing the accusation, immediately ordered him to receive five
hundred stripes. He was also subjected to other cruelties. During the
intervals between these inflictions he was urged to accuse all the
Jews as accomplices, and he, thinking by this means to relieve
himself, accused Messrs David, Isaac, and Aaron Harari, Joseph
Legnado, Moses Abulafia, Moses Becar Juda, and Joseph Harari, as
accomplices, who had offered him three hundred piastres to murder the
above mentioned priest, inasmuch as the Passover holidays were
approaching, and they required blood for their cakes. He said that he
did not, however, give ear to their instigations, and did not know
what had happened to the priest and his servant. Upon this the Pasha
caused the persons named to be arrested as instigators, and punished
with blows and other torments of the most cruel nature; but as they
were innocent they could not confirm as true that which was a calumny,
and therefore, in contradiction, they asserted their innocence,
appealing to the sacred writings, which strictly prohibit the Jews
from feeding upon _any_ blood, much less that of a fellow-creature, a
thing totally repugnant to nature. Nevertheless they were imprisoned
with chains round their necks, and had daily inflicted on them the
most severe beatings and cruelties, and were compelled