On the 10th of August, soon after my arrival at
Damascus, accompanied by Mr Marshall, I went to the
Jewish quarter of that city, and proceeded in the first
instance to the house of David Arari, one of the accused
persons, who was then in confinement, and at whose house
the Father Tommaso is said to have been murdered. We
were shown into an apartment where the atrocious deed is
said to have been committed. It is a small room to the
left of the Divan, with windows in front looking into
the interior court, and high windows behind looking into
the street. The latter circumstance is important as
tending to throw doubts on the credibility of the
accusation, as it is scarcely possible to conceive that
any person could submit quietly to the pains of death
without uttering cries for assistance, and that, if
those cries had been uttered, they should not have been
heard in the street outside.

In the corresponding apartment on the other side of the
Divan, we were shown a stain of dirt upon the wall,
which the zeal of the accusers branded with the
imputation of being blood. This room was in a dismantled
state, all the furniture having been removed, and the
marble flooring torn up in order to search for bones or
other remains of the supposed crime.

We afterwards visited the house of Mourad Farki, Mayer
Farki, and Solomon Farki. The two former, being accused
of participating in the murder, were in confinement. We
were shown the room where the murder of Tommaso's
servant is said to have been perpetrated, and saw the
privy and the sewer in the street where the remains of
the two are alleged to have been thrown.

We also went to the house of Halil Said Naivi, one of
the accusers, and saw that individual. He is the keeper
of a low grog-shop of disreputable character. It must be
admitted that the nature of the man's calling does not
afford any guarantee for the credibility of his
testimony.

On the following day, August 11, we went to visit the
Latin Convent of the Capuchins, of which Father Tommaso
was an inmate. In the chapel is a tomb with an
inscription to the following effect:--

"Qui reposano le ossa de Pre. Tommaso da Sardegna
Missionano Cappuccino assassinato dagli Ebrei il giorno
5 di Febrajo 1840."

I will not be exactly certain whether the above is a
literal copy of the inscription, having written it down
from memor