Their great object was to enjoy equal rights with the Christians, and especially to escape the military conscription.
A levy had been demanded of the Druzes before this visit of the brethren to the mountains, and had been refused, with an urgent request to Mohammed Ali that he would not impose upon them so odious a burden.

Nothing was heard in reply until the fourth day after Mr.
Smith's return to Beirut, when Ibrahim Pasha presented himself at Deir el-Kamr, at the head of eighteen thousand men.

Taken by surprise, no opposition was made.

Both Druzes and Christians were at once disarmed, and officers were left to collect recruits.
With the dreaded evil thus strongly upon them, there was a more general disposition to throw off the Druze religion.

Applications came from individuals and from families in different and distant villages.