[249] The French military expedition to the Lebanon, undertaken in 1860, was caused by the massacre of over 12,000 Maronites by the Druzes in that year. [250] This group comprises about 90,000 souls in Syria and 40,000 in Mesopotamia. [251] E. Aubin: La Perse d’aujourd’hui, Paris, 1908, p. 418. [252] The Elephantine papyri discovered on the island of Elephantine in southern Egypt between 1903 and 1906 contain Aramaic texts of great historical value. [253] O. Procksch: Die Völker Altpalästinas, Leipzig, 1914, p. 30. [254] At the end of the pre-Islamic period the region west of the Euphrates to the eastern slopes of the Lebanon mountains was known to the Arabs as “Beit Aramyeh,” or the land of the Arameans. [255] H. Lammens: Le Massif du Gebal et les Yezidis de Syrie, _Mélanges Faculté Orient. Univ. Beyrouth_, 1907, pp. 366-407. [256] W. B. Heard: Notes on Yezidis, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, Vol. 41, pp. 200-219. [257] A. P. Stanley: Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, New York, 1909, p. 58. [258] H. Trotter: _Geogr. Journ._, Vol. 35, No. 4, 1910, p. 378. [259] F. J. Bliss: The Religions of Modern Syria and Palestine, New York, 1912. [260] The figures for Armenians and Greeks require revision in view of the systematic efforts of the Turks to extirpate these two peoples. The massacres of the entire Greek population of villages of the Ægean coasts and atrocities of a most inhuman character perpetrated on the Armenians of inland communities have largely depleted the ranks of these two Christian subject groups. [261] Hellenes, or subjects of the King of Greece, number about 20,000. [262] Figures supplied by Dr. W. W. Rockwell, Editor of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. See Rockwell: Pitiful Plight, second ed., pp. 66. [263] Abbreviations; R. C.: Roman Catholic Uniats, “Chaldeans.” R. C. s.: Roman Catholic Uniats, “Syrian Catholics.” J.: Jacobites. N.: Nestorians, “Assyrian Christians.” P.: Protestants. CHAPTER XIII SUMMARY AND APPLICATIONS The science of geography attains its highest usefulness when called into the service of man. Having in mind the influence of regional environment upon human societies and particularly upon language and nationality as shown in the foregoing chapters, let us next look at the bearing of our conclusions on the determination of international frontiers. The problem consists in ascertaining the logical or natural limit of the spread of language and nationality. Growing at first in listless response to environment, natural frontiers eventually attain a stage where intelligent conformity to the same environment becomes necessary. Here the linguistic factor based on a sound geographical foundation acquires practical value though it is not necessarily the only determining element.