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CORNELL UNIVERSITY UBRARY 
 
 3 1924 103 698 217 
 
=€1 
 
 XI 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924103698217 
 
Missing Page 
 
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TRAVELS 
 
 AMONG 
 
 THE ARAB TRIBES 
 
 • ;.. ■ INHABITING THE COUNTRIES 
 
 EAST OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE, 
 
 INCLUDING A JOURNEY 
 
 FROM NAZARETH TO THE MOUNTAINS BEYOND THE DEAD SEA, 
 
 ^ AND FROM THENCE THROUGH THE 
 
 PLAINS OF THE HAURAN 
 
 •• TO 
 
 BVZRA, DAMASCUS, TRIPOLY, LEBANON, BAALBECK, 
 
 AND BY THE VALLEY OF THE ORONTES 
 
 TO SELEUCIA, ANTIOCH, AND ALEPPO. 
 
 VriTH AN APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINING A REFUTATION OF CERTAIN UNFOUNDED CALUMNIES 
 INDUSTRfOUSLY CIRCULATED AGAINST THE AUTHOR OF THIS WORK, BY MR. LEWIS BURCKHARDT 
 MR. WILLIAM JOHN BANKES, AND THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. 
 
 By Jr S. BUCKINGHAM, 
 
 AUTHOR OF TRAVELS IN PALESTINE AND THE COUNTRIES EAST OF THE JORDAN 
 
 MEMBER OF THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF BOMBAY AND MADRAS, 
 
 AND OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR 
 
 LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 
 
 (7 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1825. 
 
 Ji 
 
LoMDON : 
 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiawoode, 
 
 New-Street-Sq«are. 
 
TO 
 
 BENJAMIN BABINGTON, Esq. 
 
 THIS 
 
 VOLUME OF TRAVELS 
 
 GRATEFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 A TOKEN OF THE SINCERE ESTEEM AND REGARD 
 
 HIS AFFECTIONATE AND FAITHFUL FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 A 2 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is now three years since I had the pleasure of laying before the 
 public a volume of Travels in Palestine, through the countries of 
 Bashan and Gilead, and the region of the Decapolis, East of the 
 River Jordan. The flattering reception given to that work by the 
 literary world in general, and the uniform testimony of the prin- 
 cipal critics of the day to its merits, occasioned it to pass rapidly 
 into a second edition ; when the Quarterly Review, which had 
 been convicted, by certain passages in these Travels, of glaring 
 errors in its criticisms on the works of others, put forth one of 
 the most slanderous articles that ever appeared even in its pre- 
 eminently slanderous pages, with a view to condemn and destroy 
 (as far as its malignant influence could effect such destruction,) 
 what almost every periodical publication in England had before 
 commended, with the most unequivocal appearance of sincerity 
 and good faith. 
 
 Being then in India, I was unable to do more than publish a 
 Reply there to the aspersions of this Review, for criticisms they 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 could not be called ; and this was done without a moment's delay. 
 Circumstances, over which I had no control, prevented the repub- 
 lication of this Reply in England, from which, no doubt, many 
 must have inferred that nothing had appeared elsewhere. Having 
 myself, however, been compelled to leave India, and return to 
 this country, from causes sufficiently well known to the public to 
 render any detail of them in this place quite unnecessary, I have 
 embraced the earliest opportunity, which a suspension of rtiy. 
 struggles to obtain redress for the injuries I have received from 
 the East India government, now fortunately admits, to bring 
 before the public the present volume of Travels among the Arab 
 Tribes inhabiting the countries East of Syria and Palestine, in 
 the hope of its being found still more worthy their approbation 
 than the former one, already named. 
 
 The calumnies of the Quarterly Review, with the complete 
 refutation by which I was enabled to repel them as soon as they 
 appeared in India ; the unfounded aspersions of the late Mr. 
 Burckhardt, with an exposition of their falsehood by the very 
 individual cited by him as an authority for his facts ; and the 
 unparalleled conduct of Mr. William John Bankes, Member of Par- 
 liament for the University of Cambridge, and son of Mr. Henry 
 Bankes, the Member for Corfe Castle ; with a complete exposure 
 of the unwarrantable proceedings of the father and son, in an 
 attempt to suppress my work, in which they succeeded for nearly 
 two years, by deterring Mr. Murray, the bookseller, from fulfilling 
 his engagement, after it had been finally made binding on his 
 part ; are all included in an Appendix at the end of the present 
 volume. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 The reader is, therefore, earnestly requested not to close the 
 book without glancing through the Appendix in question, where 
 he will find, among other attractive pieces, the following choice 
 tmrceaux to repay his attention : — Some fragments of letters from 
 the late Mr. Burckhardt to myself, sent to me from Egypt and 
 Arabia, full of the most friendly professions and assurances. — Por- 
 tions of a paper shortly afterwards circulated among others, and 
 without my knowledge, by the same Mr. Burckhardt, full of the 
 most infamous aspersions on my character ; citing as his authority 
 for many of the facts, a gentleman who positively denies, in writing, 
 having ever made many of the assertions imputed to him ! — Let- 
 ters of Mr. William John Bankes, addressed to me in Syria, after 
 we had travelled together for a considerable time, acknowledging 
 the superiority of my activity in writing, and the greater accuracy 
 of my judgment in observing, as compared with his own ; admit- 
 ting his having read my notes, and expressing a hope that I should 
 not be ashamed to see my name associated with his in any joint 
 literary undertaking. — A Letter from the same individual, sent 
 from Thebes at a subsequent period, insinuating that I had never 
 written any notes of my own at all ; and stating my ignorance to 
 be such that I could not even copy a Greek inscription, and did 
 not know a Turkish building from a Roman one ! — A Letter 
 from Mr. Henry Bankes, senior, to Mr. Murray the bookseller, 
 cautioning him against publishing any thing of mine on Syria, 
 as his son was soon expected in England ; and desiring that my 
 work should be suppressed, until his son could get his materials 
 on the same country published before me! — A Letter from 
 Mr. William GifFord, the editor of the Quarterly Review, to Mr. 
 Murray, acknowledging that my manuscript was interesting and 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 important in some degree, but recommending him to retrench 
 forty or fifty pages of my volume, under the pretence of its con- 
 taining blaspliemy of so powerful and influential a nature, that it 
 would not be safe to. put it even into the hands of the printers, as 
 ■they, he supposed, had souls to be saved as well as other men, and 
 could not read it without being inevitably corrupted, and thus be- 
 coming subject to everlasting damnation ! adding, however, that with 
 all this, he rather wished the work to be published. — A Letter from 
 the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, acknowledging the perusal of several 
 portions of the* work, (the whole of the manuscript being placed 
 in his hands for revision,) without objecting to the use of any 
 expressions, except that of the word " supernatural" instead of 
 " miraculous," in alluding to some scriptural event. — A Letter 
 from the Rev. Dr. Burder, a celebrated author and Christian 
 Divine, characterising the very same volume, which Mr. William 
 GiflPord declared to be too full of blasphemy to be trusted even 
 in the hands of the printers, as the very best book of Travels 
 he had ever met with on the country of which it treated, and one 
 that could not fail to stand hicjh in that class of literature to which 
 it belonged. — The article from the Quarterly Review itself, in 
 which not a single proof of blasphemy is fairly established against 
 this alleged magazine of " infidelity and obscenity," though the 
 forty or fifty pages that Mr. GifFord had advised to be blotted out, 
 to prevent the eternal perdition of the printers, had neither been 
 obliterated nor retrenched. — And lastly, a Reply to the calum- 
 nies of Mr. Burckhardt, Mr. Bankes, and the Quarterly Review, 
 as well as to various writers in India who followed in their steps, 
 and whose continued aspersions were no doubt greatly in- 
 strumental in provoking that hostile feeling on the part of the 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 government of India, by which I was so unjustly, without a trial 
 or a hearing, banished from that country, while I was proceeding 
 in an action for damages against those slanderers, in the Supreme 
 Court of Justice at Calcutta ; when, no justification being in the 
 slightest degree proved, damages were awarded against them 
 accordingly. 
 
 These remarkable documents, placed as they are in illustra- 
 tive juxtaposition, will, it is hoped, reward the attention of even 
 the most indolent and indifferent ; and it is, therefore, with a view 
 to lessen the chances of their escaping the reader's attention, that 
 I advert to them so pointedly in the Preface ; again repeating my 
 urgent request, that he will examine the evidence therein deve- 
 loped, for himself, and let it have its due weight on his mind, in 
 estimating the real merits of the question. 
 
 I pass from this subject, to advert to a few of the more pro- 
 minent circumstances connected with the preparation of the 
 present volume, and on which I desire to found my claim to some 
 degree of indulgence for any imperfections which it may be sup- 
 posed to display. 
 
 The notes of the journey, copious as they were in their ori- 
 gin aL form, were taken under all the disadvantages of Asiatic 
 travelling, which are now so well known as to require little 
 more than a bare mention to be immediately understood. 
 They continued in this state, from the period of their being first 
 made in 1816,. up to the moment of my quitting India in 1823. 
 The same may be said of the sketches, which were rude and 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 imperfect even at first, as I never pretended to greater skill in this, 
 than the capacity to preserve a general idea, in outline, o£ remarkable 
 buildings and striking views, and never intended these for any thing 
 more than to assist my memory in preserving more accurate recol- 
 lections of the scenes to which they related. It must be evident, how- 
 ever, that after a lapse of seven years, (my mind, during that period, 
 being wholly engrossed with pursuits of so different a nature, that 
 these had never any share whatever in my thoughts,) the difficulty 
 of retouching, enlarging, and filling up, either the one or the 
 other class of such materials, must be extremely great. With this 
 conviction, I preferred not attempting it to any extensive degree ; 
 and though I feel that this will be considered a defect in the estim- 
 ation of those who desire to see all works sent from the hands of 
 their authors in the most polished state ; yet, to those who value 
 Books of Travels chiefly for the vivid freshness and reality of the 
 descriptions, and the rigorous fidelity with which impressions 
 received on the spot are preserved, I am also persuaded that this 
 roughness and boldness of the original picture will be far more 
 acceptable than a more highly polished tablet, in which the spirit 
 might have been refined away by too much care in the subsequent 
 retouching. 
 
 The original notes were put into form for publication^ with 
 such slight emendations only as the connection of the narrative 
 required, on my late voyage from India to England ; and, as I 
 was then altogether without books of reference connected with the 
 countries to which these notes relate, there are much fewer illus- 
 trations and quotations from older writers in the present volume 
 than in the former one. The abundance of these was urged by 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 some, indeed, as giving the Travels in Palestine too learned and 
 heavy a character for a volume aiming at popularity. Such a 
 defect (if indeed it be one), will not at least be observable in the 
 present ; though I have not wholly overlooked the interest which 
 such illustrations, when sparingly and appropriately given, possess 
 even for the general reader, and have accordingly introduced them 
 where they appeared to me most required. 
 
 The map of Syria, with the route pursued by me through it, 
 has been constructed by Mr. Sydney Hall, from the manuscript ■ 
 journals of my track, and from the numerous sets of bearings and 
 distances taken by me at almost every station of note on the way. It 
 will be found to include a considerable number of places, the names 
 of which are entirely new, and the positions of which occupy 
 points that were hitherto blank in our best maps of the countiy 
 in which they are situated. 
 
 The Vignettes at the head of the Chapters were drawn partly 
 from rude sketches made on the spot by myself; partly from 
 written descriptions of particular scenes, carefully noted in sight 
 of them, and afterwards embodied into form ; and in a very few 
 instances from portions only of the beautiful views of Casas, in 
 the western parts of Syria ; which will still be new to the greatest 
 number of English readers. These last, however, do not amount 
 to more than six out of the twenty-eight which the present 
 volume contains.* They are all appropriately illustrative of the 
 
 * They are those at Chapters 1. 20. 21. 23. 26. 27.; — and are thus purposely 
 indicated to prevent misrepresentation. 
 
 a 2 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 costume, architecture, manners, and natural scenery of the several 
 portions of country described in the chapters to which they are 
 prefixed, and as such it is hoped that they will be approved. 
 
 The whole of these have been drawn on the wood, by W. 
 H. Brooke, Esq., of Percy Street, an artist of the most distin- 
 guished and justly deserved celebrity in this particular branch of 
 his profession, and of exquisite taste and great power in every 
 other department of the labours of the pencil. They have been 
 engraved by different hands, and vary, therefore, in the merit of 
 their execution ; but even in this respect they are generally so 
 well executed that they cannot fail to be acceptable. 
 
 The greatest attraction of the present volume, will, however, 
 undoubtedly be its containing the fullest and most accurate des- 
 criptions of numerous ruined towns and cities in the Great Plain 
 of the Hauran, the ancient Auranites, the very names of many of 
 which have not before been made public ; as well as faithful pic- 
 tures of the state of manners in these highly interesting and 
 almost untrodden regions, which are likely to afford matter 
 of agreeable consideration to readers of all classes. 
 
 In the hope that this portion of my labours will be found 
 still more worthy than preceding ones of the approbation of the 
 world, I consign it to the tribunal of public opinion, to receive 
 its just sentence of neglect, of censure, or of praise. 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 Cornwall Terrace, Regents Park, 
 London, December 1. 1824. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 /■ 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 From Nazareth, through the Valley of the Jordan, to Assalt 1 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Stay at the Town of Assalt, on the East of the Dead Sea 21 
 
 CHAP. HI. 
 
 Further Detention at Assalt, and free Intercourse with its Inhabitants 40 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Journey from Assalt to the Ruins of Amman, the ancient Philadelphia 60 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 From Amman to an Encampment of Arabs near Delilat in the Land of Moab . 82 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 From the Encampment to Oom-el-Russas, and return to Assalt 97 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Further Detention at Assalt, and a Third Visit to Jerash, the ancient Geraza . 112 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 From Jerash to the Valley and Castle of Adjeloon 133 
 
Xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 From the Castle of Adjeloon to Gherbee in the Hauran 154 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 From Gherbee to Bozra, with a Description of the Roman Ruins there .... 174 
 
 CHAP. XL 
 
 Fi'om Bozra to the Castle of Salghud, a celebrated Saracen Fortress 194 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 From Gheryeh to Gunnawat in the Mountains of the Eastern Druses 224 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 From Gimnawat to Ezra on the Plain, with an Account of the ancient ruined 
 
 Cities there 248 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Stay at Ezra, and Journey from thence to Damascus 269 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 Stay at Damascus, and Description of its Inhabitants, &c 298 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Examination of the Interior of Damascus 318 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Visit to the Governor of Damascus 339 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Excursions in the Neighbourhood of Damascus 358 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Journey from Damascus, across the Mountains, to Sidon, on the Sea Coast . . 385 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Stay at the Residence of Lady Hester Stanhope in the Convent of Mar Ellas, 
 
 near Sidon 410 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 From Seyda to Bairoot, Tripoly, and the Cedars of Lebanon 434 
 
 CHAP. xxn. 
 
 Stay at Tripoly, and Journey from thence across the Mountains of Lebanon to 
 
 Balbeck 461 
 
 CHAP. XXIIL 
 
 Stay at Balbeck, and Journey from thence to Hhoms, the ancient Emessa ... 480 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 From Hhoms, by the Castle of El-Hhussan and the Monuments of the Aradii, 
 
 to Tartoose, the ancient Orthosia 501 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Description of Orthosia and Aradus, and Journey, through Gabala, to Laodicea 519 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Journey from Laodicea, through the Mountains, to Antioch 538 
 
 CHAP. XXVIL 
 
 Description of the City of Antioch, and Journey from thence to Aleppo .... 556 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 Stay at Aleppo, and Record of Transactions there 578 
 
 APPENDIX 599 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS AT THE HEADS OF CHAPTERS. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 1 View of Mount Tabor and the Plain of Esdraelon.M 1 
 
 2 Castle and Town of Assalt, near the Mountain of Pisgah 21 
 
 3 Interior of an Arab dwelling at Assalt , 40 
 
 4 Horsemen and Females at a Fountain 60 
 
 5 Encampment of Arabs, East of the Dead Sea 82 
 
 6 Tower and Ruins in the Land of Moab 97 
 
 7 Passage of the River Zerkah, in Bashan, 112 
 
 8 Mosque between Geraza and Adjeloon 133 
 
 9 Village in the Valley of Adjeloon 154 
 
 10 Interior of a Caravanserai in the Hauran 174 
 
 11 Castle and Ruins of Salghud , 194 
 
 12 Scene in the Mountains East of the Hauran , 224 
 
 13 Roman Ruins at Gunnawat , 248 
 
 14 Caravan on the Plains of the Hauran ,.,..^ 269 
 
 15 Street View, in the Interior of Damascus 298 
 
 16 Turkish Females at the Tombs of their Husbands 318 
 
 17 Mosque, Buildings, and Costume of Damascus ,.... 339 
 
 18 Turkish Pasha and Suite of Attendants 358 
 
 19 Scene, near the River Barrady, on leaving Dapiascus 385 
 
 20 Castle and Port of Seyda, the ancient Sidon 410 
 
 21 Roman Road and ancient Sculptures on the Coast of Syria 434 
 
 22 Mountain Scene, near the Cedars of Lebanon 461 
 
 23 Ruined Temple of the Sun at Baalbeck 480 
 
 24 Castle and Plain of Hhoms, or Emessa 501 
 
 25 Fortifications and Harbour of the ancient Oithosia 519 
 
 26 Mosque and Valley near Laodicea 538 
 
 27 Modern aspect of the City of Antioch 555 
 
 g8 General Character of the Entrances to Saracen Cities 573 
 
'-•"■'■■M 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM NAZARETH, THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE JORDAN, TO ASSALT. 
 
 Nazareth, Tuesday, February 20. 1816. — My previous ex- 
 cursions in Syria had so impressed me with the difficulty of getting 
 to Damascus or Aleppo from hence, in the present state of the 
 country, and the consequent delay I should experience in the 
 prosecution of my intended journey to India (by the route of the 
 caravans from the latter city), that I thought it best to ascertain 
 if there were any hopes of my being able to proceed from hence 
 to Assalt, a town on the east of the Jordan ; from thence to Karak, 
 on the east of the Dead Sea; and so on through the 5edouin tribes 
 that encamp on the Desert from the borders of Palestine to the 
 banks of the Euphrates, and from that stream to the Tigris and the 
 neighbourhood of Baghdad. 
 
2 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 As the town of Nazareth is constantly frequented by persons 
 from Assalt, who come here to purchase many of their suppKes, 
 there happened to be a party just now on the point of setting out 
 on their return to that place ; which furnished an excellent oppor- 
 tunity of journeying thus far in their company. To render myself 
 as secure of accomplishing this as possible, I sought after a guide, 
 and succeeded in procuring a Christian Arab of Nazareth, named 
 Georgis, who had often been at Assalt, and knew most of the 
 residents there, and who consented to accompany me on very easy 
 conditions : I therefore closed with him, as my enquiries had been 
 answered in a manner that strengthened my hopes of being able 
 to accomplish the ultimate object of my wishes in getting to 
 Baghdad by the route proposed. As, however, caution and secrecy 
 are necessary to be observed by those who study their safety on 
 journies in the East, I abstained from communicating to any one, 
 in direct terms, the full extent of my intended progress in this 
 direction, leaving this until I should be able to ascertain at Assalt 
 or Karak how far it was certain of being successfully attained. 
 
 Mr. Bankes, my former companion in our journey from Jeru- 
 salem to Jerash, had a great desire to accompany me as far as Assalt ; 
 but an excursion to Nablous, for which he had made some engage- 
 ments that could not well be put off, rendered this impracticable, 
 without involving a further delay on my part, which my desire to 
 get to my destination as speedily as possible would not permit. I 
 accordingly began to prepare for this new and hazardous journey, 
 among the people of a country hitherto untravelled by Europeans. 
 My Turkish clothes were laid aside, and their place supplied by a 
 Bedouin Arab dress of the meanest kind ; as it was thought safest 
 and best to assume the appearance of extreme poverty, in order to 
 lessen, as much as possible, the temptation to robbery or molest- 
 ation on the way. The few papers that I possessed were rolled up 
 in a small and dirty sack, or purse, of coarse cloth, and the little 
 money that I intended to take with me on my way was concealed 
 in the heffeah, or Arab handkerchief, which covered my head. My 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 3 
 
 only arms were an old crooked yembeah, or dagger, and a common 
 musket, with a few ball cartridges and a leathern bottle of priming 
 powder. My letter of credit, being on Aleppo, had not yet been 
 made use of for the defraying my expences ; but as the wants of 
 my intended route across the Desert were likely to be supplied 
 without either frequent or large demands for money, I had still 
 enough with me to meet all probable charges that might occur 
 before I reached my journey's end. The horse on which I rode, 
 with all its furniture, was my own ; of clothes, I considered that I 
 should require little or none ; and a scanty supply of provisions 
 was all that could be needed : so that, under all the circumstances 
 of the case, I felt myself as well prepared for the journey as the 
 occasion demanded, or as prudence would permit. It was right, 
 however, in undertaking a route of such uncertainty and risk, that 
 I should calculate on the possibility of a failure at least ; and to 
 provide against this, I entrusted all that I was obliged to leave 
 behind me at Nazareth, in the form of baggage, to the care of 
 Mr. Bankes, who undertook to have it conveyed to Damascus ; to 
 which city, if I should be unable to penetrate across the desert 
 beyond Karak, it was my intention to return by the shortest route, 
 which would be through the Hauran, and from thence proceed as 
 circumstances might direct : this, however, for the reason before 
 mentioned, I refrained from communicating to others, as the 
 knowledge of my intentions might impede their accomplishment, 
 while it could answer no beneficial purpose, either to myself or 
 others. 
 
 When I retired to repose, it was not without many reflections 
 and apprehensions, suggested by the unknown state of the road 
 on which I was about to enter, with a conjectural estimate of 
 obstacles, which, as they could not be clearly foreseen, could not 
 be fitly provided against. My determination, however, was fixed • 
 and having already well weighed and considered the subject in all 
 its bearings, it would have been weakness to suflPer any consider- 
 ations of apprehended danger to shake my resolution. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 Wednesday i February 21. — My guide, Georgis, who was a petty 
 trader in every description of goods, had determined to make this 
 journey to Assalt a source of profit to himself, by taking a small 
 supply of portable articles with him ; and, with a view to buy them 
 at a cheaper rate (as I afterwards learnt), had suffered the Assalt 
 party of traders to set out without us, that he might remain behind 
 to take advantage of the dull morning's market, a,nd get his articles 
 at a less price than could have been done while they were here ; 
 hoping, at the same time, by quickening his speed, to overtake 
 them at their halting place for the night. The first intelligence 
 that reached me in the morning was, that the party returning to 
 Assalt had set out soon after sun-set on the preceding evening. 
 I sent off immediately for my guide, who, keeping himself 
 purposely out of the way till the end of his detention should be 
 fully answered, was no where to be found. About ten o'clock, 
 however, he made his appearance at the convent, out of breath 
 from hiirry, and hardly able to tell his excuses, so many were they, 
 and so little breath had he to utter them. When he became more 
 composed, he expressed his belief that we should not be able to 
 overtake our intended companions, an apprehension that was but 
 too well founded, as they had already gained upon us by a long 
 night and the better part of a day. It was an ominous commence- 
 ment of a journey, but there was no remedy. It only called for 
 an exercise of greater patience, and created a necessity for greater 
 perseverance, both virtues of which we stood eminently in need, 
 and which it was doubly incumbent on me to exercise on this 
 occasion. 
 
 It was a little after ten o'clock when we mounted our horses 
 at the convent-gate, and receiving the benedictions of the friars, 
 we quitted Nazareth and proceeded on our way. 
 
 Our course was directed to the south-east, over the hills which 
 environ the valley of Nazareth, or the hollow of the mountain in 
 which that town is seated ; and descending over these hills on the 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 5 
 
 outer face, we came out at the foot of Mount Tabor, rising from 
 the plain below. * 
 
 At noon we passed over a portion of the great plain of Es- 
 draelon, having Daborah on our left, and Nain and Endor on our 
 right ; the two last being seated on the slope of Hermon, at a 
 distance of about three miles from our path. The plain was in a 
 great measure waste, and the aspect of the scenery forbidding ; but 
 this was counterbalanced by the agreeable associations necessarily 
 created by the sight of so many places celebrated in holy writ as 
 could be Seen from this spot. • 
 
 At half-past one we passed a ruined building, of very rude 
 construction, resembling an old fort. The" name given to it by the 
 people of the country is Dabboh ; but I could learn no further 
 particulars regarding its history or former condition. 
 
 At two o'clock we reached the village of Tayeby, consisting 
 of twenty or thirty houses only, and inhabited wholly by peasants 
 or cultivators. There were in this village the remains of a large 
 edifice, apparently of Roman construction ; the blocks of mould- 
 ings, cornices, and friezes, that lay scattered about, were of a large 
 size, some smoothly hewn and others sculptured ; but no tradition 
 had been preserved respecting the building to which these be- 
 longed. We halted here at the house of the Sheikh, and were 
 served with coffee by his youngest daughter. During our con- 
 versation, the Sheikh could not contain his surprise at finding we 
 we were going alone to Assalt through the dangerous valley of the 
 Jordan, and among the thieves of Jericho. The heavy rain that 
 fell detained us here for about half an hour, during which time the 
 good old man said every thing he could think of to dissuade us 
 from our purpose, and after exhausting all his arguments, appeared 
 sorrowful, as well as disappointed, to find that all his friendly 
 admonitions were in vain. 
 
 We quitted Tayeby at half-past two, and going still towards the 
 south-east, passed, at about three o'clock, near to a ruined site of a 
 
 * See the Vignette at the head of this Chapter. 
 
6 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 town called Yubba. In this place were vestiges of walls and build- 
 ings apparently of an ancient date, but the peasants of the neigh- 
 bourhood knew nothing of its history. 
 
 Soon after this we passed under a small village seated on the 
 summit of a hill on the left of our road. It was called Ooom-el- 
 Russas, or " The Mother of Lead," but we could learn no assign- 
 able cause for this appellation. The village was full of inhabita,nts, 
 and the rugged and stoney plain at the base of the hill on which it 
 stood abounded with more cattle than there appeared pasture to 
 feei on the spot. This place was under the government of the 
 good and benevolent Hadjee Ahmet Jerar, of Sanhoor, of whom I 
 had before occasion to speak* ; and the blessing of whose paternal 
 care seemed to extend over all the villages subject to his power. 
 
 We travelled on in a direction seldom varying from south- 
 east, and going, on an average, about four miles an hour, when, at five 
 o'clock, we came to a torrent called Waadi-el-Hhesh. On the left 
 of this stream, at a short distance to the northward, stood Kafera 
 and Jabool, two Mahommedan villages, which my guide assured 
 me were once Christian towns of note, and were acknowledged by 
 all to be very old. We saw, encamped on the banks of this 
 torrent, several parties of Bedouin Arabs, who fed their flocks on 
 the neighbouring hills, and brought them to water and to shelter 
 near their tents at night. The source of the stream is at a short 
 distance from hence, to the north-west, and it winds down in an 
 easterly direction till it discharges itself into the Jordan. 
 
 At five o'clock we reached a narrow pass, between two ap- 
 proaching hills, and entered from tiience into the valley of the 
 Jordan. On the left of the pass were the ruins of a fortress which 
 had once probably guarded the passage, and formed an important 
 military post. 
 
 We continued our course about south-east across the plain, 
 which was well cultivated on the west side of the Jordan, and 
 looked beautifully verdant on the east ; when, in about an hour 
 after our first entering the valley, we came to the banks of the 
 
 * See Travels in Palestine, 4to edition, p. 498. 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT, 7 
 
 river. We found here a number of Arab tents scattered along its 
 edge, and from the dwellers in them we received the accustomed 
 salutation of peace as we passed through the encampment. We 
 had some difficulty, indeed, in resisting their entreaties to halt at 
 their tents for the night ; but as we were informed that the Sheikh 
 of this tribe was encamped with another portion of his people on 
 the east bank of the river, and were equally sure of a welcome 
 reception there, we passed on, returning thanks to those whose 
 solicitations we found it so difficult to refuse. 
 
 In fording the Jordan at this spot, which was at a distance of 
 two hours, or about four miles to the southward of its outlet from 
 the lake of Tiberias, we found it so deep near the banks of the 
 stream as to throw our horses off their legs for a few minutes, and 
 oblige them to swim ; but they soon regained their footing as they 
 approached the middle of the stream, and in the very centre We 
 found it quite shallow. It still appeared rather as a brook or 
 torrent, than a river, being no where more than one hundred feet 
 wide, as far as we could observe it from hence ; and the water, 
 which was clear and sweet, winding slowly over a sandy and 
 pebbly bed at about the rate of a mile and a half per hour. 
 
 After going up on the eastern bank of the river, and proceed- 
 ing for a league onward, we came to the principal encampment of 
 the Arab tribe whom we had first met with on the opposite bank of 
 the Jordan. The name of the tribe we learnt to be Beni-Ameer-el- 
 Ghazowee, and that of the place of their encampment, Zubbah. 
 Their tents were very numerous, and larger than usual ; and there 
 were an abundance of fine horses, camels, and flocks, betokening 
 great wealth among them in property of this description. 
 
 We alighted at the tent of the Sheikh or Chief, by whom we 
 were well received, and invited to take shelter with him for the nisht. 
 Immediately after our halting a meal was prepared for us, the prin- 
 cipal dish of which was a young kid seethed in milk. Many of the 
 Arabs encamped around us came to pay their visits to the strangers, 
 and some few ate with us as they came, and then retired ; but the 
 
8 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 greater number of the visitors made their suppers of bread and oil 
 alone. I had already had occasion to perceive that my Nazarene 
 guide, Georgis, was one of the most loquacious of his race that I 
 had ever before met with ; and mingling, as he did, a large portion 
 of good humour with his talkativeness, he was often highly enter- 
 taming. The present was an occasion well calculated to draw him 
 out, and, accordingly, his long and well-told stories contributed 
 greatly to the amusement of the chief, and all who came to share 
 his hospitality with us. 
 
 Midnight approached before our visitors retired, and, as we 
 proposed starting early in the morning, it was very desirable that we 
 should enjoy some rest ; but this was a blessing not destined for 
 us. The first and most powerful cause that prevented it, was a 
 dreadful tempest, which gathered up in pitchy darkness, and de- 
 scended in a torrent of thunder, lightning, and rain. The tents 
 were thus beaten down, and the affrighted flocks and herds flying 
 to them for shelter, increased the general confusion ; while, amid 
 the awful darkness which succeeded to the lightning's glare, and 
 the deluge of rain that swept every thing before it, the mingled 
 cries of terror uttered by the women, the children, and the cattle, 
 added only to the horror of the scene. 
 
 Thursday, February 22. — We continued in this situation until 
 the day broke upon us, and displayed a perfect wreck, as not a tent 
 throughout the whole endampment was left standing. And many 
 of the young infants, as well as the tender kids and lambs which 
 had been exposed to the storm without shelter, were dead and 
 dying around us : in short, the devastation was more marked and 
 more extensive than I should have thought it possible for such a 
 storm to have occasioned on shore. 
 
 When the sun rose, the rain abated, and the sky cleared up ; 
 but" being unable to render any assistance to those with whom we 
 had shared the common evils of the tempest, we mounted our horses 
 without a dry thread in our garments, and entered on our journey 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 9 
 
 before we had broke our fast, so that we were wet, weary, and 
 hungry, even at the beginning of the day. 
 
 We now directed our course nearly S. S.E., keeping along the 
 foot of the hills that border the valley of Jordan on the east ; and 
 about seven o'clock, or within an hour after setting out, we passed 
 under the village of Arbagheen or " Forty," but could learn no 
 reason for its numerical name. On the opposite side of the river, 
 in a direction of nearly west from this, we could perceive the town 
 of Beisan, the ancient Scythopolis, where there is a large popu- 
 lation, and a general mart for the supply of the Bedouin Arabs of 
 these parts. There are several remains of antiquity at this 
 place, particularly the vestiges of a theatre, and many marble 
 columns erect and fallen ; but as we did not visit the spot in our 
 way, I had no opportunity of ascertaining minutely what else it 
 might have contained. 
 
 Continuing our course albout S. S.E. parallel to the stream of 
 the Jordan, and near the foot of the hills on the east of it, we 
 came at eight o'clock to a station called Maka, where we found an 
 encampment of Arabs of the tribe of Beni Sheikh Hussein, who, 
 though they had pitched their tents so near to those of Beni 
 Ameer Ghazowee, were on terms of deadly hostility with them. 
 We were called upon to pay a tribute to this chief as we passed ; 
 which, as it was a small sura, we did not dispute, though it is con- 
 trary to the Arab custom to demand money as tribute from single 
 travellers, as they content themselves in genei'al, when at peace, 
 with exacting a fixed duty on goods carried as merchandize or 
 traffic, and let the mere journeyer pass free. We found an exten- 
 sive burying-ground at this place, the most conspicuous object of 
 which was the tomb of Sheikh Hussein, from whom the tribe 
 derived its name. There were a few palm trees near this, and pits 
 in the earth for preserving corn ; the Arabs of this tribe being 
 partly cultivators and partly shepherds, and consequently of that 
 mixed character which partook equally of the manners of the 
 
10 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 Fellahs or agricultural peasantry, and the Bedouins or wanderers 
 of the Desert. 
 
 We quitted Merkah soon after nine o'clock, and about ten 
 passed under a spot on the hills on our left, which by some was 
 called Tabakat Fehhil, and by others Jerim Mooz. As it was on 
 an eminence difficult of access, we did not go up to it; but my guide, 
 who had been frequently there in his journeying through these 
 mountains, described it as containing tombs with massy stone 
 doors, like those at 0am Kais or Gamala, and other remains of 
 ancient works, in columns and large blocks of hewn stone. 
 
 Soon after leaving this spot, we passed two ruined and deserted 
 villages in the hills on our left, called Hejeja and Soolikhat, both 
 of which, like the former, were thought to be ancient stations ; 
 and, indeed, from the number of old fortresses that were seated 
 among the hills on each side of the Jordan, nothing is more 
 probable than that each of these marked the position of some 
 ancient place. 
 
 At noon we were opposite to Jebel Adjeloon, a lofty mountain 
 on our left, covered with snow. At its base, on the western side, 
 we saw a number of ruined buildings, with appearances of aque- 
 ducts leading along the uneven parts of the hill. This place was 
 called Fakaris, and was thought to be the site of an ancient town. 
 Its position is marked by a stream of water, descending from hence 
 into the Jordan- 
 
 We had been anxiously on the look-out ever since our leaving 
 the Arab camp, as this valley is so notoriously infested with rob- 
 bers, that persons scarcely ever pass through it even in large 
 parties without being attacked, and it was thought madness for 
 single travellers like ourselves to attempt it. Our expectations 
 were soon realised, as we met here a party of eight men, two of 
 whom were on horseback and six on foot ; the former armed with 
 lances and sabres, the latter with large bludgeons ; but not one 
 among them having fire-arms. 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. U 
 
 As they approached toward us on the high road, we turned off 
 from it a few yards on our left, in order to watch their motions ; 
 and, as they drew nearer, they turned off also to meet us. Knowing 
 their intentions to be hostile, we called a halt ; and having our 
 muskets cocked, threatened with instant death whoever among 
 thenj should advance a step farlher. They assailed us with every 
 species of abuse, demanded to know who we were, and asked what 
 business we had to be journeying through territories which they 
 called exclusively their own, without paying tribute to them as 
 the lords and masters of it. We replied that when they wanted 
 tribute, they should send larger parties to collect it ; and we bade 
 them defiance. They advanced in a sudden rush to surround us ; 
 I discharged my musket at random, and the sound was as that of 
 a cannon, rolling and reverberating through the hollows of the 
 hills near us, like the echoing of peals of thunder. The constern- 
 ation which this occasioned was such, that the Arab horses started 
 and reared, and the men on foot ran with precipitation in opposite 
 directions. The scene was rather ludicrous than otherwise, and 
 proved to us how contemptible were the enemies we had been 
 taught to dread as irresistible, and how much their numbers should 
 preponderate to make them at all formidable. 
 
 When we had dispersed these robbers by such a simple efforc, 
 we continued our way along the valley as before, having the Arabs 
 to hang about our rear for half an hour, when they quitted us, 
 probably in the hope of meeting with some more defenceless 
 objects of plunder. 
 
 About one o'clock we came to the site of considerable ruins, 
 where we saw foundations of buildings, outlines of streets, blocks 
 of hewn stone, and other fragments, evidently marking the position 
 of some considerable town. This place still bears the name of 
 Amatha, and from its name, as well as situation near the banks of 
 the Jordan, may with great reason be taken for the site of Ama- 
 thus, to which in these particulars it so exactly corresponds. The 
 extent of space covered by the ruins here, is much greater than 
 
 c 2 
 
12 FROM NAZARETH TO ASS ALT. 
 
 that which is seen of ancient Jericho ; and on the hills above it, 
 where another city of the name of Raajib is said to have stood, we 
 could see from hence remains of aqueducts and other works of 
 building ; while my guide, wha had himself been on the spot, 
 described it as containing fallen columns and other marks of archi- 
 tectural grandeur, now in dilapidation and decay. 
 
 At this place we crossed a torrent of water descending from the 
 hills, and running westward into the Jordan, under the name of 
 Waadi Raajib, from its passing close by the ruins of that ancient 
 town. 
 
 At two o'clock we reached a place called Abu-el-Beady, 
 where we determined to turn in and enquire the news of the road, 
 as well as to obtain shelter and repose for an hour, as the rain had 
 scarcely ceased for a moment since our first setting out ; and we 
 were wet, weary, and half famished with hunger. 
 
 Abu-el-Beady is a name given to a small village of huts, col- 
 lected round a mosque, built over the tomb of some distinguished 
 personage, who had given his name to the place. This Abu-el- 
 Beady was said, according to the traditions preserved of him here, 
 to have been a powerful sultan of Yemen, who died on this spot 
 on his way from Arabia Felix to Damascus ; but of whom no 
 other particulars ai'e known. The tomb and mosque appeared 
 to be very ancient, and both were ornamented with a number of 
 Arabic inscriptions in a square formed character. A large piece 
 of green glass, weighing probably from three to four pounds, was 
 placed in the wall near the door of entrance ; and as it passed for 
 a real emerald, it was highly valued and even venerated by the 
 people here. My guide, Georgis, who was a Greek Christian, 
 preserved his decorum throughout, and was as unwilling to defile 
 himself by entering a mosque as the keepers of it would be to 
 suffer the mosque to be defiled by letting him enter it. As I had 
 no such scruples, however, and was considered by the attendant to 
 be a good Mussulman, I paid a small donation of forty paras to 
 support the lamps kept constantly burning around the tomb ; 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASS ALT. I3 
 
 when, throwing off my slippers at the threshold, and kissing the 
 reputed emerald in the wall, I entered the mosque. 
 
 The interior of this building offered little to repay the curio- 
 sity of a visitor ; its walls were plain, and from the ceiling hung 
 numerous paltry lamps, ostrich eggs, shells, &c. The tomb of 
 Abu-el-Beady is an elevated mass, rising from the floor, spread 
 over with a covering of cloth, ornamented with Arabic inscriptions 
 worked into it. The ceremony enjoined on the visitor is simply 
 to circumambulate the tomb barefooted ; to salute the ashes of 
 the saint by kissing the cloth, and placing the forehead on the 
 corners of it, exclaiming at each salutation — " Ya, Allah ! Ya, 
 Abu-el-Beady !" Though tradition calls this departed being a 
 king of Yemen, and states that he died here on his way to Da- 
 mascus, the present guardians of his remains were ignorant of any 
 further details of his history. The tomb has the appearance of 
 considerable antiquity ; and the Arabic inscriptions seen around 
 it, were too intricately written for me to make out any date, or 
 decypher more than the name of God, and of the saint who lies 
 interred there. 
 
 The family residing here in charge of this sanctuary, were 
 remarkable for having (with the single exception of the father 
 only) negro features, a deep black colour, and crisped hair. My 
 own opinion was, that this must have been occasioned by their 
 being born of a negress mother, as such persons are sometimes 
 found among the Arabs, in the relation of wives and concubines ; 
 but, while I could entertain no doubt from my own observation, 
 that the present head of the family was a pure Arab of unmixed 
 blood, I was also, assured that both the males and females of the 
 present and former generations were all pure Arabs by descent and 
 marriage, and that a negress had never been known, either as a 
 wife or a slave, in the history of the family. It is certainly a very 
 marked peculiarity of the Arabs that inhabit this valley of the 
 Jordan, that they have flatter features, darker skin, and coarser 
 hair than any other tribes ; a peculiarity rather attributable, I con- 
 
14 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 ceive, to the constant and intense heat of that deep region than to 
 any other cause. 
 
 We remained here the whole of the day, and at night slept on 
 the outside of the building, there being no accommodation within, 
 from the females and cattle occupying every inch of the room. As 
 our clothes were still wet, and we had no changes with us, we 
 suffered much from exposure to the cold wind that blew, and 
 passed altogether a most uncomfortable night. 
 
 Friday, Feb. 23. — We prepared to depart from Abu-el-Beady 
 before day-light, without even the common enjoyment of a pipe 
 and coffee, which few among the Arabs forego on such occasions. 
 We started with the earliest dawn, and still pursued a course of 
 S. S. E. along the foot of the eastern hills. We had not proceeded 
 far before we met a party of robbers driving home the cattle and 
 the camels that they had stolen during the night. There were 
 others still further on, who called out to those to arrest us, so that 
 we were once more obliged to assume an attitude of defence. As 
 we were yet within reach of assistance, we returned to Abu-el- 
 Beady to see if we could procure from the neighbourhood a horse- 
 man or two to strengthen our party. Being under the walls of 
 the venerated tomb, by the time the robbers passed it, they did not 
 venture to molest us there, though they were loud and lavish in 
 their abuse of us for daring to travel alone without seeking their 
 protection and paying them for the same, consoling us with the 
 assurance that unless we did so, we should be certain of being 
 plundered before we reached Assalt. 
 
 We could procure no assistance or additional escort at Abu-el- 
 Beady, and were consequently in great doubt as to what course we 
 should pursue. As we sat smoking and conferring together under 
 the walls, a third party of Arabs passed by on foot, and these sent 
 two of their number to us to examine and report. From these 
 we learnt that the two first parties which had gone by were out- 
 laws or outcasts of the tribe of Beni-Szakker, who occupy the 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASS ALT. 15 
 
 Desert to the east of the Dead Sea ; and that those who now 
 addressed us were of the tribe of Beni Abad, who were on friendly 
 terms with the people of Assalt, and derived their chief supplies 
 from the market of that town. Even these, however, had been 
 on a plundering excursion, and had carried off some goats and 
 kids from the camps through which we had passed on the pre- 
 ceding day. We succeeded, after some negotiation, in obtaining 
 two of these Arabs to accompany us as guides, and as a security 
 also against our being molested by any of their own tribe in our 
 way, while we counted on their forming some addition to our 
 strength in the event of our meeting with any of the Beni Szakker, 
 who were likely to plunder us if we crossed their way. The pledge 
 of fidelity was mutually exchanged between us by our eating and 
 drinking together ; and the sum agreed to be paid to each of the 
 men that accompanied us was three piastres only. Their com- 
 panions continued their way in charge of their plunder of the 
 night, and we set out from Abu-el-Beady a second time, about 
 nine o'clock, with our new companions, going now about south- 
 east inclining easterly. 
 
 In the cour e of our way we noticed several artificial mounds, 
 which had the appearance of ancient tumuli, and many hewn 
 grottos in the rocky cliffs on our left ; these were originally per- 
 haps excavated tombs, and may have been subsequently used as 
 retreats for anchorites, of whom these solitudes are known to have 
 been once the favourite region. 
 
 In about an hour after quitting Abu-el-Beady, we turned up to 
 the eastward to ascend the hills, passing at the same time by the 
 remains of a double aqueduct, with many vestiges of former build- 
 ings strewed around, and a small square chamber in the cliff" above. 
 There was also a singularly formed passage through a rock here, 
 resembling a natural arch, under which we passed ; the name given 
 to this was Makhrook. 
 
 About a league further on, going now in an easterly direction, 
 we came to the stream of the Zerkah, which I had crossed before, 
 
16 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 much further to the eastward, on my journey from Jerusalem to 
 Jerash ; from which I could discover that it discharged itself into 
 the Jordan much farther to the southward than is represented in 
 the maps. We observed at this place an artificial canal of nearly 
 a mile in length, for carrying the waters of the Zerkah to the 
 ruined aqueduct described. The main stream itself was narrower 
 here than we had found it farther to the east ; but, on the other 
 hand, it was deeper and more rapid in its course. At the spot 
 where we forded it, there were appearances of walls and buildings 
 on its banks, now half-hidden by tall reeds from twelve to fifteen 
 feet in height, oleanders, and other trees and shrubs. On both 
 sides of the stream were seen patches of partial cultivation ; the 
 corn on its banks being now green. 
 
 From this ford of Zerkah we went up a steep ascent on the 
 south, over a hill called Arkoob Massaloobeah ; this hill forming 
 the southern, and Jebel Adjeloon the northern boundary of the 
 stream. 
 
 While we were ascending the hill, our>new Arab guides disco- 
 vered a fray in the plain, between their companions, whom they 
 had left in charge of their spoils, and the owners of the stolen 
 cattle, who had pursued the robbers and overtaken them. Nothing 
 could surpass the ardour and animation with which these men 
 rushed instantly down to the assistance of their fellows. Both 
 Georgis and myself were off our guard at this moment, so that the 
 Arabs, taking advantage of this circumstance, rushed on us, seized 
 our muskets, and ran violently down the hill. I alighted from my 
 horse to pursue the man who had taken mine, and after a hard 
 struggle recovered it, though Georgis, making no effort, suffered 
 his to be carried off without resistance. The Arabs had thrown 
 aside their upper garments to be light for the chase, and my com- 
 panion taking possession of these as some compensation for the 
 loss of his musket, we pursued our way, not even staying to see 
 the result of the contest, as we were anxious to reach Assalt before 
 the night closed in. 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. J 7 
 
 We were nearly two hours in getting up this steep hill, though 
 it was of inconsiderable height. When we reached its summit, we 
 could perceive from thence the mountains of Jerash to the N.N.E. 
 of us, with two ruined villages to the eastward, called Hharatein ; 
 and a little further on were pointed out, to the northward of east, 
 the positions of Sihhan and Ullan, two ruined buildings that I 
 had before passed on my way from Jerusalem to Jerash. 
 
 On the summit of Jebel Arkoob Massaloobeeah, we found a 
 level plain extending to the southward and eastward, having a fine 
 light red soil, with turf and thistles, besides a number of oak trees 
 scattered over its surface. The unexpected appearance of such a 
 plain on this high level was an agreeable contrast to the low and 
 barren ground that we had just left, particularly as this elevated tract 
 bore every mark of having once enjoyed, and being still capable of 
 maintaining, the highest degree of fertility. 
 
 We found on this fine plain the remains of some apparently 
 very ancient place, the traces of which were but barely visible. 
 They were unquestionably, however, the remains of a town of 
 some consequence ; for, besides the vestiges of walls, marks of 
 foundations, and lines of enclosures in the land, there were seve- 
 ral fragments of stone columns scattered around. The shafts of 
 these were perfectly plain, and composed of circular pieces placed 
 one above the other ; the capitals were rude square masses, in 
 some instances detached from, and in others formed out of, the 
 same block as the upper part of the shaft ; there were no traces of 
 sculpture on any of the blocks, either as mouldings or flutings : all 
 was plain and rude, and bore the marks of the highest antiquity* 
 
 The spot is called by the Arabs, Massaera, and Mashaera; and 
 as its position corresponds with that assigned to the ancient city 
 of Machaerus, there can be little doubt but that the remains are 
 those of the city of that name. 
 
 After passing over this plain about a mile to the south-east, we 
 began to ascend another range of hills, the base of which lay on this 
 high level tract, and which was called Jebel Assalt. On the brow of 
 
 D 
 
18 FROM NAZARETH TO ASS ALT. 
 
 the ascent, we observed several small encampments of Bedouin 
 Arabs, and in one of the hollow valleys which lay on the left of 
 our road, were seen the tents of the Beni Abad, the tribe to which 
 our robber-guides belonged. My companion, Georgis, who had 
 lost his musket, was impatient to go down to them, and demand 
 redress from the sheikh for the loss he had sustained at the hands 
 of some of his people ; but as the road was rocky and bad, the 
 night drawing on, and we had but an hour of sunshine, of which 
 we stood in need to keep us warm and dry, I was determined 
 to push on rather than risk being obliged to pass another night 
 without shelter. 
 
 In ascending Jebel Assalt we soon came to the snow, which lay 
 thicker and deeper the higher we ascended. We had, indeed, 
 almost despaired of getting over the summit of the hill before 
 dark, which gave rise to a warm dispute ; my companion wishing 
 to go down to the Arab tents to pass the night, and I being deter- 
 mined to persevere. In the midst of this hot and angry debate, 
 and just as we were turning the angle of a rocky pass, two men on 
 foot, who must have lain concealed waiting for our approach, 
 sprung upon us from behind an opening, and seized the bridles of 
 our horses. They were armed with sabres only, which they idly 
 flourished in the air ; and had their faces covered with the keffeah, 
 or kerchief, worn beneath the turban, after the manner of the Arabs 
 when they attack, leaving nothing but the eyes to be seen, which 
 renders it impossible to recognize a murderer if he escapes, or 
 trace on whose head the blood of the victim lies. With these 
 men, as it has already been with those who had interrupted us in 
 the valley of the Jordan, the sight of a musket was sufficient ; I 
 presented my piece cocked, and ready to discharge, when they 
 instantly abandoned their hold, and sued for mercy. Had they 
 been determined, they might have cut us both down from our 
 horses before we could have been prepared for our defence, so 
 suddenly did they spring upon us from their hiding place ; but 
 their resolution failing, they were glad to sneak off in safety ; and 
 
FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 19 
 
 when they had got at some distance from us they set up a shout 
 of defiance and triumph at their escape. 
 
 We found the summit of Jebel Assalt to be like that of 
 Arkoob Massaloobeeah below it ; a fine fertile plain, with undula- 
 tions here and there, a rich green turf, abundance of wood, and 
 pines nodding on the surrounding eminences. From hence we 
 enjoyed a magnificent view, as beautiful in many of its features as 
 it was grand in the whole ; and extending in every direction almost 
 as far as the range of vision. 
 
 Among other objects within sight from the summit of this 
 mountain was a small portion of the Bahr-el-Loot, or the Sea of 
 Loot, the name given by all the Arabs of these parts to the Dead 
 Sea, The north-west extremity of this sea was the portion seen 
 from hence ; and the nearest part of it appeared to be distant from 
 us about twelve or fifteen miles. The picture which the Valley of 
 the Jordan presented to us from this spot was highly interesting. 
 From the southern edge of the Lake of Tiberias to the mosque of 
 Abu^el-Beady, the plain appeared to be partially cultivated on 
 each side; and the clusters of black Arab tents seen scattered 
 over the bare yellow patches of the uncultivated parts, formed a 
 fine contrast to the rich green of the young corn growing all 
 around them. To the southward of Abu-el-Beady the valley 
 presented a white, parched, and barren aspect ; while the sterility 
 of the hills that bordered the Sea of Death, increased as the eye 
 traced them in the distance. 
 
 We had still a slight ascent to make, and reached the extreme 
 summit of the mountain soon after four o'clock. The cold here 
 was excessive ; and the snow, presenting one unbroken mass, was 
 hardened into solid frost. We had no means of determining 
 accurately the height of the mountain on which we stood ; but 
 from a rough estimate of our progressive ascent, and the extreme 
 depth of the Jordan and the Dead Sea at our feet, as contrasted 
 with other mountain views of which I retained a perfect recollec- 
 
 D 2 
 
20 FROM NAZARETH TO ASSALT. 
 
 tion, I should consider the height to be about 5,000 feet from the 
 level of the ocean. 
 
 Tradition confirms the Arabs of the country in the belief, that 
 this is the summit of Mount Nebo. On the very peak of the 
 highest eminence stands a tomb, with other common graves around 
 it. This is called the tomb of Nebbe Osha, or the prophet Joshua ; 
 and the belief is general, that the successor of Moses was burled 
 here. The humbler graves around it are said to be those of Jews 
 who had chosen this as the place of their sepulchre. The tomb 
 appeared to me to be a Mohammedan structure, differing little in 
 exterior appearance from the reputed tomb of Rachel, between 
 Jerusalem and Bethlehem; but we did not go near enough to 
 examine it closely. 
 
 Leaving these graves on our right, we began to descend to the 
 eastward over a terraced slope, deeply covered with snow ; but 
 neither so hardly frozen, nor its mass so unbroken as we had 
 found it on the other side of the mountain. At five o'clock, while 
 descending the hill, we passed a small place called Cafr-el-Ya- 
 hoodi, or the village of the Jews, probably an old settlement of 
 that people residing near the reputed tomb of their prophet 
 Joshua ; and a few minutes after passing this we came in sight of 
 Assalt. 
 
 Approaching this town from the west, we passed through a 
 narrow valley, terraced all around with little corn plots, and beds 
 of vines, though the soil was now covered with snow. The most 
 prominent object of the view was a large castle standing on the 
 edge of a rock, which, from its steep site and elevation, as seen 
 through a long valley, had an imposing aspect. 
 
CHAR 11. 
 
 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 It was sunset when we entered Assalt, which lies on the eastern 
 brow of the hill whereon the castle stands, and which is therefore not 
 seen when approaching from the west, until the traveller turns 
 suddenly round to the right, and finds himself among the houses. 
 The scene was new and interesting ; and the pleasure which I felt 
 at having attained this first point in my journey, made me view 
 every thing through the most favourable medium. The whole of 
 the town was filled with snow, the streets being in some places 
 almost impassable ; and the terraces of the houses, which, from 
 the steepness of the hill, rose one above the other like steps, pre- 
 sented a number of square and snow-white masses, like sheets 
 exposed on the ground to dry. The inhabitants, including men. 
 
22 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 women, and children, were clothed in sheep-skin jackets, with the 
 skin, looking like red leather, turned outside, and the wool within ; 
 while the florid complexions and the light-brown hair of the peo- 
 ple gave to the whole an appearance of a scene in the north of 
 Europe, rather than one in the southern part of so hot a region as 
 Syria, and bordering, too, upon the parched deserts of Arabia 
 Petraea. 
 
 We were conducted to the house of one of the most wealthy 
 inhabitants, a Christian, named Aioobe or Job, who was reputed 
 to be one of the greatest traders in the country. Like Job of old, 
 this man was rich in abundance of flocks and cattle, was blessed 
 with sons and daughters, and was as renowned for his piety, as he 
 was celebrated for his wealth. 
 
 Our reception at his house was warm and hospitable ; and we 
 were offered every accommodation that it afforded. When supper 
 was served up to us, almost all the heads of families in the town 
 came to visit us, as strangers : the arrival of new persons among 
 them exciting a sensation of curiosity which extended itself through 
 all classes. There being no Mohammedans present, my guide and 
 companion, Georgis, took care to inform the whole company that 
 I was an Englishman. As to the fact of my being a Christian, he 
 said it was difficult for him to decide, as some persons imagined 
 the English to have no religion at all, and others contended, that 
 though Christianity was nominally the prevailing faith of the coun- 
 try, it was altogether so remote from that of the Greek church, to 
 which they belonged, that it did not deserve the name. This sub- 
 ject became one of lively interest to the party, and was discussed 
 with great earnestness by most of those who were present ; but 
 having at length come to the determination that the English were 
 neither Moslems, Jews, nor Catholics, the three great sects which 
 they consider inimical to their own, I was received by all as a friend, 
 and welcomed accordingly. 
 
 In the course of the evening, the conversation turned on the 
 visits of Dr. Seetzen and Mr. Burckhardt to this town. The former 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 23 
 
 was known by the name of Hakim Moosa, and the latter by the 
 name of Sheikh Ibrahim. Both of these travellers were habited in 
 the same manner as I had found it necessary to be, namely, in the 
 dress of a Bedouin Arab ; each of them wore a beard, and spoke 
 the Arabic language ; the former very imperfectly, the latter tole- 
 rably well. In the company of Mohammedans, these travellers 
 preserved the appearance and profession of the Moslem faith ; but 
 with the Greek and Catholic Christians, who abound on the east of 
 the Jordan, they passed invariably as Englishmen, and were well 
 treated on that account ; although Dr. Seetzen was a German, and 
 Mr. Btirckhardt a Swiss. The former of these travelled always on 
 foot, accompanied by an Arab guide, to whom he gave a Spanish 
 dollar per day, which was considered a munificent reward ; and it is 
 said, that the chief objects of his enquiry were the mineral and 
 vegetable productions of the country, with such curiosities in 
 natural history as fell in his way, to the collection and examination 
 of which his mode of journeying was particularly favourable. Mr. 
 Burckhardt usually rode, either on a camel, a mare, or an ass ; and 
 the chief objects of his pursuit were thought to be antiquities, 
 geography, and the manners of the people. These were the impres- 
 sions that I gathered from the conversation of the party regarding 
 these distinguished travellers, who were well known to most of 
 the persons present, as each of them had made a stay of many 
 days at this place. 
 
 Our supper was followed by card-parties, which assembled in 
 different quarters of the room, all sitting on the ground, and having 
 stools of about a foot in height to serve for card-tables. The 
 games played were various ; one of them, however, resembled 
 Quadrille, and another Loo. The cards were dealt and played 
 backward, or from right to left, and the names of the suits were 
 Italian, though not all correctly applied; spades being called bas- 
 toni; clubs, spadi ; diamonds, argenti ; and hearts, cuori. The 
 parties played for money; but though the sums staked were 
 
24 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 small, It was sufficient to agitate very warm disputes among the 
 players. 
 
 We broke up early, dispersing before nine o'clock, when we 
 were taken to another house to sleep. The mistress of it, who was 
 a widow, and related to my guide, received us kindly, and insisted 
 on going through the ceremony of washing my feet, observed, as I 
 understood, among the Christians of Assalt to all strangers who 
 come among them as guests or visitors. The house in which we 
 were now lodged, consisting of two rooms only, one above the 
 other, I naturally concluded that the widow and her children would 
 have slept in one of these, and that Georgis and myself would have 
 occupied the other. It was otherwise arranged, however ; the 
 lower room was used in the daytime for all the purposes of cook- 
 ing, and other household labour, and at night was converted into a 
 bedroom ; while the upper story was made entirely a storehouse 
 for the secure keeping of provisions, clothes, and other articles, put 
 under lock and key. Mats were therefore spread for us all on the 
 lower floor ; and what struck me as a remarkable feature of the 
 arrangement was this, that while the widow, who was not more 
 than 30 years of age, lay in the middle of the room, Georgis and 
 I were directed to lie on each side of her, and the young children 
 were placed beyond us respectively ; leaving scarcely two feet 
 space between each person, as the room was not more than twelve 
 or fifteen feet square. It did not appear to be the custom of the 
 place to undress for sleep, as each lay down in the garments worn 
 during the day. Our rest was, however, occasionally disturbed 
 during the night ; and as neither of the parties had any specific 
 bounds assigned, I found the widow rolling alternately toward 
 Georgis or myself, as she turned sides for relief; so that we often 
 pressed closer on each other than was at first intended, and might 
 be literally said to have slept all in one bed. 
 
 Assalt, Saturday, February 24. — The day broke in tempests, 
 accompanied by thunder, lightning, and hail. The storm was 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 25 
 
 indeed awful, and the aspect of the weather throughout the day 
 was such as to forbid all hope of our moving on our journey. The 
 high wind was productive of terrible consequences to some of the 
 inhabitants, as we witnessed, indeed, from the door of our dwelling. 
 Before the galecommenced thegroundwas already covered with snow; 
 and the thunder and hail of the morning being followed by violent 
 gusts of whirlwind and torrents of rain, some of the cliffy parts of 
 the mountain broke away, and the lower parts of the town which 
 filled the valley beneath these cliffs became buried under the fallen 
 masses of rock, earth, and snow, by which many of the inhabitants 
 were severely hurt, and such of their cattle as were not crushed by 
 the fall of these masses very narrowly escaped drowning in the 
 accumulated floods and pools which filled the obstructed hollows of 
 the vale throughout. 
 
 Notwithstanding the tempestuous weather, which continued 
 with little intermission during the day, we had a number of curious 
 visitors, who came to enquire of us the news of other parts, and 
 from whom I was equally glad to gather some local information in 
 return. 
 
 In the course of the day the two Arabs of the tribe of Beni 
 Abad, who had been our guides from the mosque of Abu-el-Beady 
 to the passage of the Zerkah, came all the way from thence to 
 Assalt to demand the restitution of their garments, thrown off by 
 them when they quitted us on the mountain to go to the assistance 
 of their fellow-robbers in the plain below. My guide, Georgis, 
 who had retained these garments as a security for their return of his 
 musket, carried off by them at the same time, expressed his wil- 
 lingness to restore them the moment the musket was produced. 
 They replied that this was impossible ; as it had been taken from 
 them by the owners of the stolen cattle, who had rescued their 
 property, disarmed the robbers, and succeeded in bearing back the 
 spoil in triumph to their own camp. They contended, therefore, 
 that the musket was lost by the will of God ; and that it was both 
 irreligious and unjust to demand its restoration ; a demand, indeed, 
 
 E 
 
26 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 impossible now to satisfy. " With regard to the garments," said 
 they, " the case is quite different. It is evident, from their being 
 safe in your keeping, that it was the will of God to have them 
 restored to their proper owners : why, therefore, should you, by 
 withholding them, oppose the destinies of heaven? Give us back 
 our robes," said they, " and let us again break bread together in 
 friendship." Absurd as this distinction may appear, there was an 
 eailnestness of natural eloquence in the pleadings of these Arabs 
 which made them all-powerful ; and though they were avowed 
 robbers, as well as men of a different faith, the Greek Christians 
 unanimously agreed, that though the musket could not be recovered, 
 the garments should be restored, exclaiming, " Allah kereem /" or 
 " God is bountiful !" and inferring from thence that his creatures 
 should follow the dictates of liberality and benevolence, rather 
 than those of retaliation and revenge. 
 
 Assalt, Sunday, February 25. — The weather had not yet become 
 settled, though there were short intervals which admitted of our 
 going out of doors, and this was of itself a great relief, as my con- 
 finement of the preceding day had been very irksome and painful 
 to me. I had not suffered it to pass, however, more unprofitably 
 than I could help ; and as the observations which occurred to my 
 notice or experience were committed to writing at broken periods, 
 as I could find time between the almost incessant coming and 
 going of visitors, I shall follow them in the order in which they 
 were noted down, and if deficient in arrangen:;ient and connection, 
 they may at least be relied on for their accuracy. 
 
 The town of Assalt * is seated on the slope of so steep a hill 
 
 * In writing this name I have followed the exact pronunciation of the present inha- 
 bitants, although if the word were written " Salt" they would pronounce it in exactly 
 the same manner, from their almost constantly placing an aspirate before the s in words 
 beginning with that letter. There is reason to believe that this is the city of " Salt" 
 mentioned in the book of Joshua, chap. xv. ver. 60., and enumerated among the towns 
 and villages which formed the portion of the tribe of Judah in the southernmost part 
 of their possessions towards Edom, — Salt being classed with the cities in the moun- 
 tains and the vnlderness, or near the Desert, where it may be said to lie. It is men- 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 27 
 
 that the houses rise one above another like a succession of steps or 
 terraces, the buildings themselves facing chiefly towards the east 
 and the south. On the summit of the hill is a large castle, which 
 looks down upon the houses, and completely commands the town. * 
 At the foot of the hill is a narrow ravine, in which stands a small 
 square tower, not unlike some of the country church steeples in 
 England, and probably once belonging to a Christian place of wor- 
 ship, but no traditions of its history are preserved. There appeared 
 to be on the whole about a hundred separate dwellings in this small 
 town of Assalt ; and the computation, by taking an average of 
 twenty ordinary houses, made the population from five to six hun- 
 dred souls only. 
 
 The Sheikh el Belled, or chief of the town, is a Mohammedan ; 
 but holds himself independent of all the Syrian pashas. He does 
 not receive tax or tribute, however, from any of the inhabitants, 
 either in money or in produce ; and differs only from the rest of 
 the community in the influence he possesses, from having more 
 houses, lands, and property than any of his fellow-townsmen. He 
 lives in the castle, of which he occupies the largest portion ; but 
 several other families reside in other apartments of this large 
 building ; and the only source of his power is his superior wealth, 
 as he is not vested, either hereditarily or by election, with any 
 
 tioned as this city in Adrichomius, Theatrum Sanctae, folio ed. p. 54., and was a place 
 well known to the historians of the Crusades. In an article published in the " Mines 
 de rOrient, torn. v. p. 145., it is mentioned among the " Extraits historiques relatifs 
 au Temps des Croisades du Livre, Insol. djelil fit tarikhi Khods el Khaleel," thus ; 
 " In 626 (A. H.) Jerusalem was delivered up to the Franks, in consequence, as the 
 Mohammedan writers say, of the divisions among the reigning princes, who, though all 
 of one family, made as many parties as they were brothers in number. Some of the 
 conditions were, that the walls should not be repaired fi-om their present ruined state ; 
 that the domes of the mosques of Sakhi-a and Aksa should not be touched, and these 
 temples be equally open to Christians and Moslems, while those villages only which 
 lay on the road between Acre and Jerusalem should belong to the Franks. Kamel 
 having made these conditions, and having still his troops at his own disposition, pursued 
 his original plan of marching against Damascus; when Nassir, the governor of that 
 city, made it over to his brother, Eshrif Moise, and received in exchange for it the 
 castles of Karak, Shaubeck, Belkah, and Salt." 
 * See the Vignette at the head of this chapter. 
 
 E 2 
 
28 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 direct authority, either from the governments around him, or the 
 people, over whom he nevertheless exercises an influence nearly 
 equal to that of a regularly appointed governor in any of the pro- 
 vincial towns of the Syrian territory. 
 
 There are conceived to be about a hundred male Christians in 
 Assalt, most of whom came here to seek refuge from the persecu- 
 tions of Jezzar, or the " Butcher," the late Pasha of Acre, during 
 the expedition of the French against Egypt and Syria ; and these 
 refugees were chiefly Nazarenes : they continue to be related to 
 or acquainted with the people of Nazareth, with whom they gene- 
 rally live on friendly terms. 
 
 On their first flight to this place for protection against the per- 
 secutions of Jezzar, they found only Mohammedan inhabitants ; 
 but these were independent of the Syrian pashas, and seldom 
 visited the larger cities, while the Arabs of the Desert mixed with 
 them on friendly terms, for the sake of securing their supplies. 
 There was, therefore, little or no bigotry among these isolated 
 Moslems, so that the Christians, who came to them for protection, 
 were permitted freely to reside among them and enjoy all the 
 privileges and immunities common to themselves, without an 
 enforcement of those odious distinctions of dress, tribute, and 
 name, observed in the more civilized parts of Syria, where the 
 power of the pashas extends. From these circumstances, coupled 
 with their greater activity in matters of trade, the Christians have 
 gradually increased in numbers and in wealth ; and they may be 
 said at present to enjoy at least an equal degree of influence with 
 the Mohammedans, though these are still superior to them in 
 numbers. 
 
 Among other confined notions entertained here on geographi- 
 cal points, is the singular one of there being but four seas in the 
 world, which they thus enumerate : — 
 
 Bahr-el-Tabareeah — The Sea of Tiberias. 
 
 Bahr-el-Loot — The Sea of Lot. 
 ■ Bahr-el-Melhhe— The Salt Sea. 
 
 Bahr-el-Hheloo— The Fresh Sea. 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 29 
 
 They ask, too, if there are houses in Europe, like those of 
 Assalt ; and think there is no single building in the whole world 
 so large as the castle that overlooks their town. 
 
 Karak, which is three days' journey in an E.N.E. direction from 
 this, is said to be about as large as Assalt ; and the Christians are 
 reported to be more numerous there than the Mohammedans. 
 The duties of the Greek church at Karak are performed by two 
 Arab priests from Jerusalem. It is asserted, in the most positive 
 manner, that between Karak and the convent of Santa Catharina on 
 Mount Sinai there are Bedouin Arabs dwelling in tents, who are 
 Greek Christians, and live in the regular exercise of their religion. 
 This fact was attested by many persons in the party in which I 
 first heard it mentioned ; but no one could say any thing about 
 their history, or tell whether they were originally Christians from 
 a long Christian descent, or whether they had been converted from 
 Mohammedanism to Christianity at any recent period. * 
 
 • In the article from the Mines de I'Orient, before mentioned, there are the following 
 passages alluding to Karak, which may be worth inserting in a note here : " After the 
 death of Salah-ed-din, his brother, Melek-el-Aadel, or the Just Prince, possessed Karak^ 
 Shaubeck, and the eastern countries beyond the Dead Sea. He posted himself at Tal- 
 el-Adjoul, or the Hill of Adjoul, near to Gaza, and received succours from Egypt, under 
 the protection of Sancor, governor of Jerusalem, and Main-oun-el-Kasri, governor of 
 Balbeis. He afterwards took Yafa by the sword, this being the third conquest of that 
 place. Aziz, one of the sons of Salah-ed-din, was his nephew, and reigned in Egypt 
 at the same time, afterwards joining him in his Syrian war, which led him as far as 
 Maredin on the north-east, and into Nubia, the country of the Blacks, on the south-west. 
 He pillaged all the country between Beisan and Balbeis, and kUled and made many 
 prisoners. He first possessed the country of Karak, Shaubeck, &c. about the year of 
 the Hejira 590; and died at the village of Aalkain near Damascus in 615, aged 75 
 years. He is described as a prudent and circumspect prince ; a man of extensive 
 knowledge, sound judgment, mild temper, patient, and favoured by fortune. He was 
 succeeded in his government of Egypt by his son Melek-el-Kamel Abou-el-Mali 
 Mohammed ; and in Syria by the brother of Kamel, Melek-el-Maazem Jesus, who 
 possessed all the country from Homs to El-Arish, with the sea-coast, Coelo-Syria, 
 Palestine, Jerusalem, Karak, Shaubeck, Sackhad or Salkhad, and the countries east of 
 the Jordan and the Dead Sea. In 618 the Franks were in possession of Damietta, and 
 contemplated the conquest of Egypt, which they began with the capture of Mansoura. 
 Kamel engaged six princes of his family, who governed at Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, 
 Balbeck, Homs, &c., to join him in an expedition against these Christians, and 
 
30 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 The church of Assalt being open to-day, as it was the Sabbath, 
 I accompanied a party there at an early hour. We found it situ- 
 ated among the dwellings of the town, about half way between the 
 foot and the summit of the hill. The entrance was through a 
 small court, which led to a vaulted room about thirty feet by 
 fifteen, and from twelve to fifteen feet high, resembling in 
 form and size the " House of Peter," at Tiberias. It differed 
 from it only in one particular, by having a part cut off from the 
 body of the room for the altar. This stands at the east end of the 
 building, and is separated by a screen with two arched doorways ; 
 from these are suspended two sliding curtains, which are drawn 
 when the mysterious parts of the service are performing, and are 
 again withdrawn when it is permitted to the congregation to be- 
 hold what is passing. The only furniture of the church consisted 
 in a large wooden cross, and two wooden birds carved in the act of 
 flying : these were placed on the top of the screen that divided the 
 altar from the body of the church. Empty ostrich eggs suspended 
 from the roof by cords, and a few common glass tumblers hung as 
 lamps, were also counted among the ornaments ; while three small 
 pictures, containing more gilding than painting, and presenting the 
 most grotesque figures of certain Greek saints, were as much ob- 
 jects of devotion as of admiration. 
 
 At our first entrance, we found the room so crowded that it was 
 difficult for us to make our way in. There were assembled at least 
 a hundred persons, which was a large congregation for so small a 
 church : the men were placed in front, with the women behind 
 
 marched to Mansoura, where they attacked them. At the same time they proposed to 
 them to deliver up Jerusalem, Ascalon, Tiberias, Laodicea, Gebela, and all the con- 
 quests that Salah-ed-din had made upon the coasts of Syria, reserving to themselves 
 only Karak and Shaubeck, which were fortresses of the interior, east of the Dead Sea, 
 on condition only of the Franks evacuating Damietta. These offers, the Christian 
 warriors, however, refiised, and demanded in their turn three hundred thousand ducats 
 as an indemnity for the demolition of the walls of Jerusalem, and insisted upon the 
 restitution of Karak and Shaubeck." — Extraits Historiques, relatifs au Temps des Croisades 
 du Livre Insol. djelil-fit-tarikhi KJiods-el-Khaleel. — Mines de VOrient, torn. v. p. 145. 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASS ALT. gl 
 
 them ; and every individual, whether old or young, was seen 
 standing. When we got near the altar we were presented with 
 crutches ; and as the service is extremely long, and all are required 
 to stand during its performance, we found them very acceptable. 
 Being a stranger, and this being my first visit to the church, all 
 eyes were directed towards me, to see how I crossed myself, so as 
 to determine, by the mode of my making that sign, whether I was 
 Greek, Catholic, or Infidel. The service appeared to me nearly 
 the same as I had before witnessed in the Greek churches of Asia 
 Minor ; and differed only in being performed in the Arabic in- 
 stead of the Greek language. The priest wore a coat of many 
 colours, a garment apparently as much esteemed throughout these 
 parts in the present day, as it was in the days of the patriarch 
 Jacob, who had one made for his favourite son Joseph ; or in the 
 time of Sisera, when a coat of divers colours was enumerated 
 among the rich trophies and spoils of the battle of Tabor or 
 Kishon. In the exercise of his functions, the priest remained 
 mostly at the altar, while young boys, bearing censors of incense, 
 were constantly waving them around his sacred person. 
 
 On the outside of the screen were two side-altars, at each of 
 which a person repeated certain passages of the Psalms to another 
 near him, who sung them. The individuals of the congregation 
 criticised the faults of these singers as they proceeded, without 
 scruple or reserve, sufficiently loud to be heard by every one in 
 the room ; and the noise and confusion arising from this general 
 conversation was such as to take away from the scene all appearance 
 of an assembly met to worship. When the priest came to the door 
 of the screen to read aloud some portion of the service, a number 
 of men, who had bared their heads and shoulders, pressed around 
 him, and bowed down their necks to make of them a resting place 
 for the large book from which he read the service of the day. When 
 this ceremony was ended, the priest walked through the body of 
 the church with the sacramental cup elevated, and a silk covering 
 on his head : those of the congregation who were nearest to him 
 
32 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 falling on the earth, and kissing his feet and the hem of his 
 garment ; while those who were not near enough to pay him this 
 mark of homage, stretched forth their hands to touch some part of 
 his robes, kissing their own fingers afterwards with great reverence, 
 and even communicating the benefit of this holy touch to those 
 who were behind them, and could not come in direct contact with 
 the priest's person. 
 
 On our quitting the church, all the men of the congregation 
 saluted each other by kissing on the cheek and forehead ; and I 
 came in for a large share of this, being saluted by upwards of 
 twenty of my guide's friends, some of whom were smooth-faced 
 boys, and others bearded elders. 
 
 Though the snow was still so deep upon the earth, as to render 
 many of the narrow streets of the town impassable, yet the two 
 hours following the church service were given up to visiting, and 
 going from house to house, often by the most circuitous routes, 
 to get at some dwellings that were otherwise inaccessible. As 
 we ate. something at each, we may be said to have dined at several 
 houses in succession : but the mode of feeding was so offensive to 
 an European taste, and the nature of the messes prepared was so 
 contrary to our notions, that it required a great effort to overcome 
 the disgust excited even by their appearance, and to preserve a show 
 of being satisfied. Among other novelties, I observed that large 
 lumps of solid butter were eaten by the people of this place, with- 
 out the addition of bread, vegetables, or flesh meat ; and this is 
 accounted so wholesome that it is frequently given to infants in 
 arms, by ounces at a time, as nurses in England would give bread 
 only. At all the dinners there was an abundance of boiled rice, 
 and generally a goat or kid served up with it, though often so 
 tough as to require to be literally torn in pieces before it could be 
 eaten. Raisins and olive oil, both produced from the surrounding 
 country, were also in abundance, with bowls of butter and sugar 
 melted and mixed together, and a kind of pudding about the shape 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 33 
 
 and size of a large lemon, made of barley paste stuffed with onions 
 and pepper. 
 
 In the course of the conversation that passed over our meals, I 
 learnt that during the present year, all the necessaries of life had 
 experienced an unusual advance in price. Corn, which during the 
 last year had been sold at six gallons for a piastre, was now at a 
 piastre and a half per gallon. Butter is first melted, and then sold 
 while it is liquid, by a measure called a mudd. This article was 
 now selling at twelve piastres, or about two Spanish dollars the 
 gallon. The wages of a labourer, if hired for a day, would be now 
 about two piastres : but wages are seldom paid in money, the 
 people undertaking their labours jointly, and dividing the profits 
 of it in shares. Rich individuals who have lands, maintain the 
 husbandmen in their own houses on the farm, and in addition to 
 their food, give them one-fourth of the produce of the soil to be 
 divided equally among them, reserving the other three-fourths 
 for the landlord or occupier. This ratio of division is always 
 observed, whether the produce of the farm consist of corn, fruit, 
 and oil, raised from the land, or cattle born on the soil since the 
 commencement of the husbandmen's servitude. The same regu- 
 lation prevails also between shopkeepers and mechanics and their 
 servants, who are all fed by their respective masters, and in addi- 
 tion to this, receive from them one-fourth of the profits on all 
 works produced by their labour, in lieu of fixed wages. By 
 this arrangement, the servants and labourers become in a manner 
 incorporated with the family, and seldom or never change their 
 masters, both parties being interested in the long continuance of 
 their servitude. 
 
 The houses of Assalt are very small ; each dwelling, with few 
 exceptions, consisting of only one floor, and this having only one 
 room, subdivided into recesses, rather than separate apartments. 
 They are mostly built of stone ; and, where necessary, a few pointed 
 arches are thrown up on the inside, to support a flat roof of 
 branches of trees and reeds plastered over with clay. The interior 
 
34 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 of the dwelling is generally divided into a lower portion for the 
 cattle and poultry, and an upper part raised as a terrace, about two 
 feet above the ground floor, for the use of the family. In this 
 raised part the fire-place for cooking is generally placed, but in no 
 instance that I observed was there a chimney for carrying off the 
 smoke; and as wood and turf are the fuel generally used, it becomes 
 painful to those not accustomed to it, to sit in any house for more 
 than an hour^ where a fire is burning. In the upper division are 
 the beds, clothes-chests, and provisions ; and for the better 
 security of these, there are again other subdivisions made in the 
 upper part of the house by walls, shelves, and recesses, all formed 
 of dry mud or sun-baked clay, without being white-washed or 
 ornamented in any manner. There is seldom any aperture for light, 
 except the door, which must be shut when storms of rain or snow 
 occur, and are always closed at night, so that those within are then 
 enveloped in darkness and smoke. I remarked that all the modern 
 wooden doors of these houses, were hung in the same manner as 
 the ancient stone doors seen in the tombs of the kings at Jerusalem 
 and in the sepulchres at Gamala, a wooden post forming the inner 
 edge of the door itself, and terminating in a pivot at each end, the 
 upper pivot traversing in a hole in the beam above, and the lower 
 pivot traversing in the sill or threshold of the door below. 
 
 The house of the merchant Aioobe, which was the best and 
 most comfortable dwelling in the town, consisted in this manner of 
 one room only, about twenty feet square, divided into a lower portion 
 for the cattle, and an upper part or terrace, about two feet above 
 the former, for the family. In the first of these was contained also 
 a large supply of fire-wood and provisions for the winter ; and in 
 the last his whole stock of merchandise, consisting of cotton cloths 
 from Nablous, Bedouin garments, and various articles, chiefly for 
 sale among the tribes of Arabs, that come to the market of Assalt 
 from the surrounding country. This chief of the merchants of 
 Assalt was estimated to be worth about 5000 piastres, or 250/. 
 sterling; and by most of his fellow-townsmen he was considered to 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 35 
 
 be as rich as any merchant could hope or desire to be. In com- 
 parison with his neighbours he might be called wealthy indeed; 
 for many of those who were considered traders, had never more 
 than 10/. sterling invested in stock, and the average of the town 
 might be safely taken at 20/., as rather beyond than below the 
 state of their trading property. 
 
 After a day passed in visits to all the principal Christian inha- 
 bitants of the place, and eating, contrary to my inclination, at almost 
 every house, we assembled in a large evening party at the dwelling 
 of the widow in which Georgis and myself had taken up our tem- 
 porary abode. Though the dimensions of this building were vei'y 
 small, not exceeding fifteen feet by twelve, it had a chimney in 
 the wall, and an apartment of the same size above, the ascent to 
 which was by a flight of narrow steps made of dried clay, with a 
 carved wooden balustrade; the only instance I had met with in all 
 the town, of so much convenience and ornament. 
 
 Although this was the evening of Sunday, cards were intro- 
 duced, and I was pressed to take a part in the game against my will. 
 Fortune was adverse to me : and in playing for garments, I lost my 
 booza, a sort of thick woollen cloak, which I had bought at Naza- 
 reth for four piastres. There was no remedy : and though all ex- 
 claimed Allah kereem! " God is bountiful!" yet I felt that this was 
 neither the season nor the country in which to gamble away warm 
 garments, particularly as it would have been imprudent, at the pre- 
 sent moment, to show that my finances were so good as to admit 
 of my purchasing it back again from the winner. 
 
 The conversation of the evening was such as I should gladly 
 have retained, had it been practicable to have stored my memory 
 with all the geographical and topographical facts mentioned 
 respecting the positions of ancient and modern places in the 
 neighbourhood, the very names of which are unknown in England, 
 as the whole of this tract is little better than a blank in our best 
 maps. But amidst so many loud and discordant voices, and the 
 innumerable questions that were incessantly asked me on every 
 
 F 2 
 
36 STAY AT THE, TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 side, the names of places that I heard in one moment escaped me 
 in the next. 
 
 Among the many ridiculous questions that were seriously pro- 
 posed to me, when talking of the different countries that I had 
 visited, I was asked, whether I had ever been to the Belled- el- Kelb, 
 where the men had dogs' heads? and, whether I had seen the 
 Geziret-el-Waak, or the island in which women grow on trees, 
 budding at sunrise, and becoming mature at sunset, when they fall 
 from the branches, and exclaim, in the language of the country, 
 Waak ! Waak ! " Come and embrace me !" 
 
 The opinions entertained by the peopleof Assalt on all matters 
 beyond their own immediate sphere of observation, are like those 
 which prevailed among the most ignorant of the ancients ; and 
 there is no fable of antiquity, however preposterous, that would not 
 find believers here. Even now, places not a league distant from 
 the town are made the scene of miracle ; and the people seem not 
 only to believe, but to delight in the marvellous. My guide, 
 Mallim Georgis, who was a consequential old man, of diminutive 
 stature, with a scanty beard confined to the extremity of his chin, 
 small grey eyes, an aquiline nose, thin lips, high arched forehead, 
 and a round back, might have passed for a true descendant of 
 ^sop, for he talked incessantly, and almost constantly in fables 
 and parables. I have no doubt, from the reputation he seemed to 
 enjoy with every one, that he was a man of integrity, and, in 
 matters of common intercourse in life, a person of general credit 
 and good faith ; yet even he made no hesitation to swear by the 
 few hairs of the scanty beard he possessed, that he had seen a 
 Muggrebin at Oom Kais, by the art of magic, transport one of the 
 columns of the ruins from that place to his own country ; that he 
 had distinctly heard him order it to rise and begone ; and that he 
 himself, with his own eyes, had seen it take its flight through the 
 air ! Others said, that at a place called Oom-el-Russas, in the way 
 to Karak, several Muggrebins had, by the aid of perfumes and 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 37 
 
 prayers, raised up out of the earth copper cases full of gold, and 
 carried them off to their own countries ! 
 
 Amidst these absurd stories, there were now and then mingled 
 some useful facts that were more worthy of remembering. I 
 learnt, for instance, from the conversation of the evening, that 
 Mallim Moosa, or Doctor Seetzen, had gone round the Bahr-el- 
 Loot, or Dead Sea, from the outlet of the Jordan to the same point 
 on his return, passing round from east to west, and that he had 
 found the remains of many Greek monasteries and churches among 
 the barren rocks that border it. Sheikh Ibrahim, or Mr. Burck- 
 hardt, had gone from hence, it was said, to Karak, and from that 
 town round the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, by the ancient 
 Zoar, to Egypt, with a party of Bedouins, about three years since. 
 When I mentioned to them that I had, at Mr. Burckhardt's 
 request, made minute enquiries into the particulars of Dr. Seetzen 's 
 death at Mokha, in my way from Egypt to India through the Red 
 Sea, it excited a deep interest, and apparently a sincere regret ; * 
 both these enterprising individuals being well known to most of 
 the persons present, and being, indeed, the only Europeans that 
 had ever, till this period, penetrated much to the east of the 
 Jordan, as far, at least, as was known to us by any trace of such a 
 visit. 
 
 The general topics of conversation were, however, relating to 
 theMuggrebins, and their exploits whenever they came into this part 
 of the country. These Muggrebins — the name being common to all 
 the Arabs that come from any part of Africa between the Nile and 
 the Atlantic — have the character of being profound magicians ; and 
 as the country east of the Jordan abounds with ruins, the people 
 think that in all of them treasures are buried, and that the chief, 
 if not the only object of all strangers coming among them, is to 
 
 * The particulars here alluded to were sent by me to Mr. Burckhardt from Mokha, 
 and by him transmitted to the Baron Von Hammer at Vienna : by whom they were 
 published, in a letter bearing my name, in one of the numbers of a large work 
 published at that capital under the title of " Les Mines de V Orient." 
 
38 STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 
 
 discover these hidden treasures, and carry them off for their own 
 use. On the summit of Jebel-el-Belkah, or Bilgah, as it is equally 
 often pronounced, the Pisgah of the Hebrews, from which Moses 
 saw the promised land and died, and which is only three hours 
 south of the reputed tomb of Joshua, on the mountain of Assalt, 
 there grew, according to the testimony of all present, a species of 
 grass, which changed the teeth of every animal that ate of it to 
 silver ! And in a party of twenty persons then assembled, there 
 were not less than five witnesses who declared most solemnly that 
 they had seen this transmutation take place with their own eyes ! ! 
 
 This conversation led to a debate on the history of Moses, his 
 birth, and rescue by one of the daughters of Pharaoh, his wonderful 
 works in Egypt, and his leading the Jews through the Desert to 
 Canaan. Mallim Georgis, who shone in all matters of recitation and 
 narrative, took so large a share in the debate, that he was unani- 
 mously requested to give it in detail, when he accordingly cleared 
 his throat, and began with a loud voice, as if he were addressing a 
 larger audience. To hear this history related in the Arabic languages 
 and in a party of Arabs, so near as we were to the principal scenes 
 described, was like the pleasure of hearing a tale from the Arabian 
 Nights recited near one of the old Saracen buildings of Grand 
 Cairo, the associations in each case making the hearer almost a 
 spectator of the scene, and giving him a personal share in the 
 events detailed. Every one present- listened to the discourse of 
 Georgis with evident pleasure; and during the pauses which were 
 allowed for the guests to take coffee, and the narrator to take 
 breath, various entertaining comments were made by the hearers 
 on the several parts of the story that struck them most forcibly, or 
 interested them particularly from the events or places to which 
 they principally related. 
 
 In the course of the evening I observed, as peculiarities of con- 
 versation, that when one person wanted to arrest the attention of 
 another, or to interrupt him in his discourse, he first called him by 
 name, and then said, " A good evening to you, my friend;" to 
 
STAY AT THE TOWN OF ASSALT. 39 
 
 which the other rephed, '^ Good evening." This was considered as 
 an assent to hsten, when the orator proceeded with his discourse. 
 Again, when the narrator of a story wished to obtain the par- 
 ticular attention of any individual in the company to what he was 
 about to say, he first called that individual by name, and then bid 
 him pray, as thus, " Job ! pray to the Prophet !" to which the 
 person addressed replied, " I pray ;" and then the discourse pro- 
 ceeded as before. These interruptions were of very frequent oc- 
 currence, and were equally in use among the Mohammedan and 
 Christian Arabs of these parts, to whom they appeared to me 
 peculiar, as I had not observed them in any other society of Arabs 
 before. 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASS ALT. 
 
 AssALT, Monday, February 26th. — The frost had been so se- 
 vere during the night, that, in the room where we slept, the water 
 in vessels for drinking was coated over in the morning, although all 
 the external air had been excluded and the apartment had been 
 heated throughout the night by the breath of eleven individuals ; 
 and the snow outside the door was hardened into a solid mass of 
 ice.- The morning was, however, clear and fine, the sun beaming 
 out in full splendour without a cloud ; but when I talked of pro- 
 ceeding on our journey, every one opposed it as precipitate and 
 ill-judged. My guide, indeed, refused to stir until he saw how the 
 weather would settle, which, he said, could not be ascertained till 
 twenty-four hours of clear sky had passed over us ; and this, he 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT, 4 1 
 
 contended, was the more necessary, as we should meet with no 
 houses in our way, and, from the severity of the season, even the 
 Bedouins might have removed their tents to the low countries and 
 the plains. All my efforts to persuade him that by perseverance 
 we might overcome every obstacle were useless, and as I could not 
 prevail, there was nothing for me to do but to appear content. 
 
 After suffering a tedious morning of idle visits from men who 
 had communicated all they knew before, I caught a spare hour to 
 go up and see the castle of Assalt, the pride and wonder of all its 
 inhabitants. This edifice is seated on the sumniit of a round- 
 topped hill, composed of white lime-stone, out of which a deep 
 and wide ditch has been excavated all around its base, so that 
 it is literally founded on a rock. The building consists of an 
 outer wall of enclosure, about one hundred yards square, with 
 towers at each corner, and in the centre of each of its sides. 
 Within this enclosure is a square citadel, and from twenty to 
 thirty private dwellings, inhabited by Mohammedans connected 
 directly or indirectly with the sheikh of the town. The general 
 aspect of the castle is that of a work of considerable antiquity, but 
 there were no particular features decisive of its age or date of ori- 
 ginal construction. The masonry is good, and the stones are large : 
 many of them six feet by three ; and these smoothly hewn and 
 neatly joined at the edges, but rough in the centre of the outer 
 front, or what is called the rustic masonry of the Romans, like the 
 work in the lower part of the castle of the Pisans, or palace of David 
 at Jerusalem, which, indeed, this citadel of Assalt very strongly 
 resembles. Much of the original pile was in ruins, but a portion 
 of one of the square towers remained : the eastern face of this was 
 about fifty feet high from the bottom of the ditch, even in its pre- 
 sent state. At the foot of this was a sloping mole, faced with 
 smooth stones, forming a casing to the living rock on which 
 the castle stood ; and this casing of masonry presented appear- 
 ances of the marks of water, with which the ditch had no doubt 
 formerly been filled. Within the castle is a fine spring of water, 
 
 G 
 
42 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 and from the well in which it is contained nearly the whole of the 
 town is supplied. The original wall and tower have evidently 
 been built upon by more modern hands, and of smaller and inferior 
 materials ; and the present gate of entrance into the castle has a 
 pointed arch, well built, but doubtlessly constructed since the 
 original erection of the edifice, being formed of smooth stones, 
 unlike the rustic masonry of the castle generally, and of a smaller 
 size as well as inferior workmanship. In different parts of this motley 
 building, the Roman and the Saracen arch are seen together ; but 
 both of these appear to be modern additions, much posterior to the 
 original building, the large rough stones, and the general aspect of 
 which, give it the air of a place of higher antiquity than either 
 Roman or Saracen times : the several portions are, however, now 
 so confusedly mixed together that it would require great skill and 
 patience to separate the one from the other. 
 
 At one corner of the citadel is a small mosque, frequented by 
 the Mohammedan inhabitants of Assalt. Near this place we 
 were shown two small European swivels, apparently two-pounders; 
 they were each marked with a P., and the weights rudely cut on 
 them were respectively 2cwt. Iqr. 18lbs., and 2cwt. Iqr. 16lbs. There 
 was no device or emblem on them by which it could be determined 
 from what nation they originally came : their appearance, however, 
 was that of English ship-swivels, and the same circumstance in- 
 duced me to think they could not be more than fifty years old. 
 So rapidly, however, are things and events forgotten in countries 
 where no written or printed records of them are kept, that no per- 
 son at Assalt knew any thing of the history of these guns ; although, 
 from the difficulty of bringing such articles to an isolated spot like 
 this, and from their being, probably, the only cannon that were 
 ever known here, the circumstance of their first arrival at the town 
 must have been an event of great importance at the time, and 
 have been talked of for months and years afterwards. Here, too, 
 within the castle, we saw the marble capital of a Corinthian column, 
 small in size, and of inferior workmanship : but no one knew from 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 43 
 
 whence it came, or to what building it originally belonged, nor did 
 I observe, throughout all the town of Assalt, any other vestige of 
 Roman architecture, except this single capital. 
 
 At the bottom of the south-western valley, below and almost in 
 the centre of the town, — for there are houses on both sides of the 
 hill, — I observed a small square tower, which was said to have 
 belonged to a mosque in that quarter long since destroyed, and the 
 remaining portion of the work has nothing about it to lead to a 
 contrary impression. 
 
 From the walls of the castle of Assalt the view of the surround- 
 ing objects is highly interesting. The north-western hills appeared 
 covered with an unbroken sheet of snow, and the south-eastern 
 hills had their hoary summits capped with the same wintry em- 
 blem : while the cultivated valley, that half environed the hill on 
 which the castle stood, presented a surface broken by green 
 patches of garden land, terraced vine beds, corn fields, and olive 
 grounds ; and the town below rose like a series of steps or stages, 
 the roof of one house serving as a platform on a level with the 
 door of the one immediately above it. 
 
 On returning from my visit to the castle, I found, as usual, a 
 number of visitors and enquirers assembled, both within the house 
 and around the door. In the course of my conversation with them, 
 I was glad to find one who had been a great traveller in the coun- 
 try round about these parts; and having drawn him into a commu- 
 nicative humour, and filled his pipe from my own tobacco-bag, he 
 readily furnished me with the following information as to the bear- 
 ings and distances of several of the principal places in the neigh- 
 bourhood, computed from this town of Assalt. I had a small 
 pocket compass with me, brought from Bombay, about the size of a 
 watch, which had a traversing card, and was contained in a morocco 
 case. In order to obtain the bearings, I placed this on the ground 
 before the door, and bade my informant point with his hand, as 
 nearly as he could, to the quarter in which particular places lay. 
 The distance was computed by the only method known here, 
 
 G 2 
 
44 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 namely, by days and hours, at a quick walking pace on horseback. 
 Both the bearings and distances are thus, no doubt, imperfect, the 
 former particularly ; but, in a country so entirely unknown, and 
 the whole of which is a blank in our best maps, even an approxi- 
 mation to the truth is valuable, and as such I readily availed myself 
 of the opportunity to set down the names and relative positions of 
 the several places named, as follows : — 
 
 Bearings and Distances of Towns from Assalt. 
 
 Jerusalem W. S. W. . . 2 days. 
 
 Nablous W 2 days. 
 
 Nazareth N. W. ... 3 days. 
 
 Amman or Ammon . . . . S. E 6 hours. 
 
 Gerash or Geraza N. E 1 day. 
 
 Fahaez E. S. E. . . . 2 hours. 
 
 Huzbahan or Heshbon . . . S. S. E. ... 9 hours. 
 
 Chahaf S. E 8 hours. 
 
 Karak S. S. E. . . . 3 days. 
 
 Oom-el-Russas S. E 2 days. 
 
 Bearings and Distances of several Places lying in the Road to 
 
 Oom-el-Russds from Assalt. 
 
 Fahaez and Mahus E. S. E. , . 2 hours. 
 
 Arrack-el- Ameer S. E 6 hours. 
 
 Huzbhan S. S. E. . . . 9 hours. 
 
 El-Hhaal S.E 12 hours. 
 
 Emshucker S. S. E. ... 14 hours. 
 
 El-Ekferaat S. S. E. ... 16 hours. 
 
 Massooeh S. E. by S. ..18 hours. 
 
 El-Burrazene S. E. byE. . . 19 hours. 
 
 Mahhine or Yussera . . . . E. S. E. . . . 21 hours. 
 
 Gerrayne E. S. E. . . . 23 hours. 
 
 Madaba E. S. E. . . . 25 hours. 
 
 Etuheame E. S. E. . . . 26 hours. 
 
 Suthehah E. S. E. . . . 28- hours. 
 
 Lib E. S. E. . . . 32 hours. 
 
 Dellilat E. S. E. . . . 35 hours. 
 
 Jelool E. S. E. . . . 36 hours. 
 
 Oom-el-Russas S. E 40 hours. 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 45 
 
 There are many places of inferior note, which my informant 
 thought too inconsiderable to name. For greater accuracy, the list 
 was read over to him a second time after being written, and con- 
 firmed by his assent to the positions assigned. 
 
 Road back from Oom-el-Russds by another Routes through Amman 
 
 to Assalt. 
 
 1 Oom-el-Russas (l) 
 
 33 Deir-el-Nussara 
 
 65 Surroot 
 
 2 Oom-el-Hamed 
 
 34 Deir-el-Seir 
 
 66 Beerein 
 
 3 Ghobfeyg^h 
 
 35 El-Jehannah 
 
 67 Reijemeshook 
 
 4 Oom-el-Burrak 
 
 36 Tehhein 
 
 68 Malegha 
 
 5 Beit Zeirahh 
 
 37 Abdoon 
 
 69 Saffoat 
 
 6 Oom-el-Kundool 
 
 38 Amman 
 
 70 Ezzhah 
 
 7 Oom-el-Anafish 
 
 39 El-Gherrenein 
 
 71 El-Bekkah 
 
 8 Jowah ' ■ 
 
 40 El-Hhurjaan 
 
 72 Oom-el-Dennaneer 
 
 9 Yadoodi -'* 
 
 41 El-Newekees 
 
 73 Jellait (Elia Ghioor) 
 
 10 El-Kissaire 'i 
 
 42 Oom-el-Thebah 
 
 74 Jelhood 
 
 1 1 Korbtho-el-Hopieiry 
 
 43 GheiTa Nurrhish 
 
 75 El-Musheijee 
 
 12 Mussulmaak r^ 
 
 44 Oom Mahaleleefy 
 
 76 Oom-el-Hamed 
 
 13 Griet-es-Sookiil 
 
 45 Gholdaak 
 
 77 Sehhoof 
 
 14) Oom Ghaezathy 
 
 46 Oom-el-Theimy 
 
 78 Zey 
 
 15 El-Theaeby 
 
 47 Oom Jozy 
 
 79 Sumia 
 
 16 El-Humman 
 
 48 El-Jebeiah 
 
 80 El-Elaghoone 
 
 17 Oom-el-Hhairan 
 
 49 Gherbt-el-Beitha(l) 
 
 81 Seehaal 
 
 18 El-Chahaf 
 
 SO Yajoos 
 
 82 Allaan 
 
 19 Oom-el-Soweweny 
 
 51 Tabikirah 
 
 83 Gherbt-el-Beitha (2) 
 
 20 El-Ghb^semy -' 
 
 52 Merhel 
 
 84 Cufr Elma 
 
 21 Oom'-el-Russas (2) 
 
 53 Beddnan 
 
 85 CufrOada 
 
 22 Fokharah 
 
 54 Abu Nesseer 
 
 86 Aira 
 
 23 Nahhoor 
 
 55 Moobus 
 
 87 Yergah 
 
 2t Oom-el-Kenafit 
 
 56 El-Khermshay 
 
 88 Gherbt Aioobe-el-Nebbe 
 
 25 Beddeagh 
 
 57 Merah 
 
 89 Haramulla 
 
 2« Gherbt-el-Saadi 
 
 58 Ethelehhey 
 
 90 El-Beggbeah 
 
 27 GherbitSaa(l) 
 
 59 Erraman 
 
 91 El-Bugghan 
 
 28 Gherbt-el-Seiry 
 
 60 El-Mustabah 
 
 92 Lezzedeeah 
 
 29 El-Koursee 
 
 61 Joobba 
 
 93 Gherbit Tobbalah 
 
 30 Gherbit Saa (2) 
 
 62 Aith 
 
 94 Shoogahor 
 
 31 Oom-el-Summaah 
 
 63 El-Alook 
 
 95 El-Megibbely 
 
 32 Dabook 
 
 64 El-Owalake 
 
 96 Mellikaruk 
 
46 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 97 Er Rohawah 100 Gherbit Sennit 103 Gherbt-el-Sookh 
 
 98 Gherbt-el-AUaly 101 El-Annab 104 El-Robbaheehat. 
 
 99 Gherbt-Aboyey 102 El-Maezy 
 
 Here my informant grew tired of his task, and exclaimed, " By 
 the beard of the Prophet ! there are three hundred and sixty-six 
 ruined towns and villages about Assalt, and I know the names of 
 all ; but who could have patience to sit down and recite them to 
 another, while he writes them in a book ?" 1 said all I could to 
 explain the utility of this ; and added, that my chief object in tak- 
 ing this trouble was for the purpose of ascertaining what scriptural 
 names were still retained and extant among the ruined cities here : 
 but all my efforts were of no avail ; the patience of my companion 
 was exhausted, and there was no prevailing on him to resume his 
 task. I had ascertained, however, by this means, at least one 
 highly interesting fact, namely, that the whole of this region was, 
 in a manner, studded with the ruins of ancient towns, and must 
 have been once highly fertile and thickly peopled. On a reference to 
 the division of the places given to the tribe of Judah, there ap- 
 pear only three names of places in this modern list corresponding 
 with those of the cities mentioned there : — Assalt, for the city of 
 Salt (Joshua, xv. 62.) ; El-Anab, for Anab (verse 50.) ; and El- 
 Jehennah, probably for Janum (verse 53.). I have no doubt, how- 
 ever, but a visit to the places themselves, and the comparison of 
 names on the spot, might lead to the most interesting discoveries 
 towards the elucidation of scriptural topography, and restore the 
 lost knowledge of this interesting region, which appears, both from 
 ancient testimony, and the existence of innumerable ruins up to the 
 present time, to have been one of the most fertile and thickly 
 peopled countries on the face of the earth, though it still remains 
 a blank in our maps, and is considered by all who treat of these 
 countries as a desert or a wilderness. 
 
 In the evening we were visited by one of the Arab priests of 
 Assalt; a fat, coarse, ignorant, vulgar, and haughty man, who made 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 47 
 
 himself a sort of temporary deity among the party by which he was 
 surrounded. In his endeavour to flatter me, by paying a compli- 
 ment to the English nation generally, he said that the Christians 
 of the East must be as glad to see any one from England as if the 
 Madonna herself (the Virgin Mary) were to appear among them ! 
 Theological distinctions, and reprobation of heretical sects, formed 
 the chief topics of conversation ; and in the course of this it was 
 admitted, that the Russians were the only truly orthodox people in 
 matters of faith among the whole of the nations of Europe : 
 although the English, it was allowed, were a much superior race, 
 notwithstanding the general conviction that they had no religion 
 whatever, and, consequently, none of its appendages -— neither 
 churches nor priests; — a belief, in which they were so firmly rooted, 
 that my most solemn asseverations to the contrary, accompanied 
 by a long detail of our form of church government and worship, 
 had no effect whatever in changing their preconceived notions. 
 
 This Greek divine officiated, by leading the prayer of the even- 
 ing, as the party was about to break up. In doing this he stood 
 before the rest, who followed his motions, after the same manner 
 as the Mohammedans follow those of the Imams ; and, indeed, the 
 ceremony itself very nearly resembled the Mussulman manner of 
 prayer, except that there were not so many prostrations to the 
 earth, and that the hands, instead of being elevated towards heaven, 
 were almost constantly employed in marking the form of the cross 
 on the head and breast. There was the same indecorous hurrying 
 through the prayer, as among the Mohammedans ; and, as with 
 them also, the chief aim of the Greek priest seemed to be to say as 
 many words as possible, by the most rapid utterance, without taking 
 breath, making the last word louder than all the preceding ones, 
 and hurrying forward again with all speed after drawing breath, 
 without any regard to pause or emphasis, so that the whole re- 
 sembled a barbarous mode of singing, rather than solemn breath- 
 ings of the soul poured forth before the throne of the Supreme 
 Being. To add to this revolting picture, there was neither solem- 
 
48 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 nity in the manner of the speaker, nor respect in that of the audi- 
 ence ; for some talked, others laughed, and the mistress of the 
 house, to save time, took this occasion to spread out the mats for 
 our beds, at the same time muttering her prayers in an under tone 
 with the rest. The priest, when his hurried service was at an end, 
 determined to sleep at the house, instead of going to his home 
 in another part of the town as he had intended, and by this step 
 most disagreeably added to the number of our already crowded 
 party. 
 
 Assalt, Tuesday, Feb. 27. — The heavy snow and intense frost 
 which commenced soon after sunset on the preceding night, had 
 continued until sunrise, and in the course of the forenoon we 
 learnt that great destruction had been committed among the flocks 
 and herds of the surrounding country ; two persons indeed were said 
 to have died from exposure to the cold, at a short distance from the 
 town. This return of tempestuous and snowy weather created a new 
 obstacle, or rather revived and strengthened the original hindrance 
 to my prosecuting my intended journey from hence. I felt my 
 stay here indescribably tedious, and would willingly have shortened 
 it, had it depended on any exertions of my own : but we could not 
 command the elements. It is true that there was no want of good 
 and wholesome food, nor of shelter from the inclemency of the 
 weather ; but the first was disgusting, from the mode in which it 
 was prepared, and the last was little better than the open air, from 
 the myriads of vermin of every description which tormented me 
 during the night. Had I been granted the enjoyment of a single 
 day alone, I should not have regretted my detention so much ; 
 but during the daytime the house was filled with visitors and 
 enquirers ; and in the night, the crowded state of the room, in 
 which we were all shut up together, rendered it difficult to enjoy 
 even one hour's quiet and unbroken repose. It was only in the in- 
 tervals between sleep that I could find time at night to commit any 
 facts, or remarks on them, to paper, by the light of a dull lamp. 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT*. 49 
 
 which burnt while all but myself lay asleep on the ground. This, 
 of itself, will sufficiently account for the unconnected and imperfect 
 nature of many of the observations that appear ; some in mere 
 outline, others only half expressed; and others again, probably, un- 
 important and uninteresting, but still thought worthy of preserving, 
 at the time they were first made. 
 
 In the course of the conversation that passed among our visitors 
 to-day, I learnt that the young men of Assalt invariably marry soon 
 after their arriving at the age of puberty ; and early marriages and 
 a numerous offspring are accounted blessings to both sexes. 
 Children, indeed, are sources of wealth in such a country; for the 
 young sons are sent out to labour at an early age, and soon become 
 capable of maintaining themselves, and even of bringing home a 
 portion of their wages to the father, until they are twenty, when they 
 are considered independent, and receive the whole. Young girls are 
 also given in marriage for certain sums of money, varying from 500 
 to 1000 piastres, according to their connections or beauty ; which 
 sum being paid by the bridegroom to the bride's father, adds to his 
 wealth, and makes girls as profitable as boys to their parents, par- 
 ticularly when they are handsome. 
 
 Many of the inhabitants of Assalt have light-coloured eyes, and 
 fine soft auburn hair, with fair complexions, like the inhabitants of 
 northern climates. The women would be agreeable in their 
 persons, if they did not so strangely disfigure themselves, after the 
 manner of the Arabs, by staining their lips with the most repulsive 
 of all colours for the flesh, a deep indigo blue, as well as marking 
 spots and lines of the same colour on the chin, forehead, and 
 cheeks. The dress of the men resembles that of Syrian Arabs on 
 the coast, with the exception only of their wearing over their 
 ordinary dress a short sheep-skin jacket, the woolly part on the 
 inside, and the skin, of a reddish colour, and tanned, as well as it 
 can be while the wOol is on, outside. The women dress also like 
 the Syrians, but are rather more profuse in their display of strings 
 
 H 
 
50 FURTHER DETENTION, AT ASSALT. 
 
 of gold and silver coin, with which they decorate their heads, 
 arms, and necks. * The manners of both sexes resemble those 
 of the Bedouins more than of the citizens of Syria, although 
 they are originally descended from the latter, and mix more fre- 
 quently with them than with the people of the Desert. The 
 language, though Arabic, differs in many respects so widely from 
 the language of Egypt and the Yemen, that I had often much 
 difficulty in following a person whose utterance was more thick or 
 more rapid than usual ; and I felt this inconvenience the more, as 
 I was without an interpreter ; for my guide Georgis spoke more 
 after the manner of the people of Assalt than of Nazareth, — and 
 there is a striking difference even in places so near to each other. 
 
 The Bedouins of the neighbouring country are tall, well-made 
 men, and have a prepossessing aspect and commanding exterior. 
 They live on good terms with the inhabitants of Assalt, although 
 their credit is so bad, that no trader of the town will trust them 
 with any supplies, without having the purchase-money paid at the 
 time. Assalt is the bazar or market for the supply of all the 
 country as far as Karak, and this last place for the country east of 
 it, which is said to extend a long way in that direction, before the 
 sands of the Desert are met with. The Bedouins of these parts, 
 however, though living in peace with the people of the town, on 
 whom they chiefly depend for all supplies not raised within their 
 own camps, are not in general esteemed by them ; the common 
 impression being that they are a barbarous and unjust race, and 
 that no one, unless accompanied by an armed escort, or furnished 
 with security, as well as pledges, from the sheikhs of the tribes, 
 could with safety trust himself among them. From their character 
 at present, as compared with the earliest accounts of them, it 
 
 * Rows of these coins, sometimes mixed with precious stones, bound round the 
 temples and hanging over the cheeks, remind the scriptural reader of the verse, 
 " Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold." — Song 
 of Solomon, i. 10. 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 51 
 
 appears indeed that they have undergone little alteration for many 
 centuries past. * 
 
 One of the consequences of the nearly equal mixture of 
 Christians and Mohammedans in this community is a proportionate 
 diminution of the force of bigotry and religious intolerance. It is 
 well known that throughout the whole of the Turkish empire, and 
 wherever the authority of Arab or Turkish governors extends, the 
 Jews and Christians are not permitted to wear the gay colours 
 worn by the Mohammedans ; neither are they permitted to use the 
 salutation of peace, or to swear by the oaths or ejaculations peculiar 
 to the faith of Islam. At Assalt, however, no such distinctions 
 exist. The Christians wear freely, and without molestation, the 
 same garments and the same gay colours that are worn by their Mo- 
 hammedan townsmen : they use the same mode of salutation ; and 
 there is no diiFerence of exterior appearance, or even of manners, 
 between the one and the other : so perfectly are they on a footing 
 of equality. In return for this absence of intolerance on the part 
 of the Mohammedans, there is a corresponding abstinence from 
 what so particularly offends them in the Syrian towns among the 
 Christians, namely, pork and spirituous liquors. In all the sea- 
 ports particularly, there are pigs, spirit-shops, and wine-cellars 
 
 * The Arabians, called the Nabateans, inhabit a tract partly desert, and in other 
 parts without water; and very little of this tract bears any fruit ; therefore the inhabit- 
 ants live by robbing and stealing, and for that end roving up and down the countries 
 far and near, they vex the inhabitants with their continual incursions and robberies, it 
 being a very difficult matter to subdue them. P or in the dry country, they have wells 
 digged in convenient places, unknown to strangers, whither they fly for refuge and are 
 safe. For knowing where the waters lie hid and private, upon opening of the wells 
 they are largely supplied : but strangers who pursue them, (unacquainted with those 
 fountains,) either perish for thirst, or falling into many other disasters, and quite tired 
 out, scarcely ever return home. And therefore these Arabians (being that they are not 
 to be conquered) are never enslaved, nor ever admit any foreign prince over them, but 
 preserve themselves continually in perfect liberty ; and therefore neither the Assyrians 
 anciently, nor the Medes and Persians, nor the very Macedonians themselves, were 
 ever able to conquer them ; who, though they often marched with great forces against 
 them, yet they ever failed in their designs. — Diodorus Siculus. Booth's Translation, 
 fol. 1700. Bookii. c. 4. p. 78. 
 
 H 2 
 
52 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 ill abundance, all of which are used and frequented solely by the 
 Christians. At Assalt none of these are to be seen ; and although 
 the country about the immediate precincts of the town produces 
 an abundance of grapes, no wine is made from them ; but such as 
 are not eaten in their fresh state are dried as raisins, and stored 
 up for winter use. They make also of these raisins a sweet, thick 
 syrup, which is eaten by dipping bread in it, and is in great esteem 
 among all classes, old and young. It is called Dipse, and is in 
 general use in all parts of Syria where grapes are produced. * 
 
 The Bedouins take a quantity of this last article away with them 
 into the Desert for their women and children, and to present it to 
 guests to whom they may extend their hospitality. They also 
 take from Assalt the manufactures of Egypt and Syria, including 
 Sechem and Tyre, in return for which they bring camels, horses, 
 and goats, as they did in the earliest times, f Indeed, in all 
 respects they appear to have stood still, while every other part of 
 the world has been either receding or advancing, and they are 
 probably the only people now on the globe, to whom the most 
 ancient description would apply with equal fidelity in the present 
 day. J 
 
 * The learned Dr. Vincent, in his Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, says, that this article, 
 under the same name, Dipse, formed one of the exports of the ancients, fi-om Diospolis 
 in Egypt to Arabia and India. It is mentioned as frequently by early writers as by 
 modern travellers. Ebn Haukal calls it Doushab, and says that it was made also at 
 Argham in Susiana. — Vincent, Appendix, vol. ii. page 68. 
 
 f Arabia and the princes of Kedar purchased the fabrics of Tyre, and brought in 
 return lambs, rams, and goats. By the princes of Kedar may be understood the sheikhs 
 of the tribes of the Desert, who lived in tents which were black. * Kedar signifies 
 black; and Bochart concludes from this, that they were Arabs burnt by the sun; but that 
 it refers to the tents is evident from Canticles, i. 5., " I am black but comely, O ye 
 daughters of Jerusalem : as the te7its of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon." See the 
 Song of Maisuna, wife of Moawiah, in Abulfeda, Reiska, p. 1 16., which presents a true 
 picture of the Arabs of the Desert. — Vincent's Periplus, vol. ii. page 548. 
 
 \ " It is worth our pains here," says Diodorus Siculus, '• to relate the manners and 
 customs of these Arabians, for the information of them that are ignorant; by the use 
 
 * All the tents of Bedouins, that I have ever seen, are made of sheep's wool and goat's and camel's hair 
 and are mostly black, with sometimes, but rarely, stripes of white, grey, or brown ; but this is so small a 
 proportion, that even these striped tents all look black at a distance. 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. ^3 
 
 At the return of evening, we all met together as before, at the 
 house of Aioobe the merchant, where a large party was collected 
 before our arrival. We had not been seated long, however, before 
 my companion, Mallim Georgis, gave the company a specimen of his 
 powers as an Improvisatore, in Arabic, reciting, as he told me, ex- 
 tempore verses in that language, which, as far as I could discover, 
 were generally thought successful efforts of skilful arrangement and 
 correct rhyme. This was followed by one of the company repeat- 
 ing a set of lines on the letters of the Arabic alphabet, similar to 
 those known to all nurses in England. 
 
 A — was an archer, and shot at a frog, 
 B — was a butcher, and kept a great dog. 
 
 Tales from the Arabian Nights were recited by some of the younger 
 members of the party ; and after this, the priest who was present 
 closed the evening's entertainment by narrating, in set phrase and 
 pompous manner, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, by 
 their being engulphed in the Dead Sea. The peculiarities of this 
 Sea, though within a day's journey of the spot on which we stood, 
 were not accurately known to any one of the party, so indifferent had 
 
 of which customs they have hitherto secured themselves, and preserved their liberty. 
 They live in the plain and open fields, calling that Desert their country, wherein are 
 neither inhabitants, rivers, or springs, whereby an enemy's army can be reheved. It is 
 a law amongst them neither to sow, plant, build houses, or drink any wine ; and he 
 that is discovered to do any of these is sure to die for it. And the reason of this law is, 
 because they conceive that those who are possessed of such things are easily (for fear 
 of losing what they have, or in hopes of gaining more,) forced to comply with the will 
 and humour of those that are more powerful. Some of them breed up camels, others 
 employ themselves in feeding of sheep, roving to and fro in the wilderness for that 
 purpose. There are no few indeed of the Arabians, that though they give themselves 
 to the pasturage of cattle in the Desert, yet are far richer than the rest, but exceed in 
 numBer above 10,000. For many of them use to carry frankincense, myrrh, and other 
 rich perfumes down to the sea-side, which they traffick for, and receive from them that 
 bring them from Arabia the Happy. They highly prize and value their liberty, and 
 when any strong armies invade them, they presently fly into the wilderness, as into a 
 strong fortress and casde for refuge ; for, no water being there to be had, none can 
 follow them through those Deserts." — Diodorus Siculus, book xix. c. 6. 
 
54 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 they all been to an object of so much natural curiosity, and doubly 
 interesting from its association with the history of their religious 
 faith. No two persons were agreed as to all that was said respecting 
 it : some of their assertions indeed were so extravagant, that no 
 reflecting person could give them credit; but most of the individuals 
 present concurred in these facts; namely, that the sea was seldom or 
 ever agitated by storms; that its waters were heavier than any other 
 known ; that though the river Jordan, which comes through the 
 fine fresh lake of Tiberias, and continues sweet to the end, dis- 
 charges itself into the Dead Sea, its smell is offensive, and its taste 
 salt, bitter, and highly disagreeable ; that neither are birds seen to 
 fly over it, nor fishes found in its waters ; that the heaviest bodies 
 float on its surface; and that it is constantly throwing up from its 
 bottom large masses of black bitumen, which is secured, as it drifts 
 on the shore, by the Arabs, who take it up to Jerusalem for sale. 
 These facts appeared to be well authenticated, and even these cor- 
 respond in a striking degree with many of the descriptions given of 
 this sea by ancient writers. As one of the wonders of these parts, 
 the Dead Sea engrossed a large share of the attention of all who 
 wrote on Syria and Palestine ; but their accounts of it, differing 
 as they do in many particulars, are not half so discordant as the 
 verbal description which I heard with my own ears at Assalt in a 
 company of twenty persons, not twenty leagues from the spot, and 
 each of whom had seen the sea for himself, an advantage enjoyed 
 by few or none of the ancients who wrote of it* 
 
 * Having collected, in a little book set apart for the purpose of extracts, several 
 passages from different works, as accident threw them in my way, relating to the Lake 
 Asphaltes, I shall, perhaps, save others the trouble of reference, by subjoining a few of 
 them in a note. 
 
 " There is a lake also in that country (the valley of Jericho), which, by reason of 
 its greatness and immoveableness of the water, is called the Dead Sea ; for it is neither 
 stirred with the winds, (the glutinous substance with which all the water is covered 
 resisting their violence,) neither is it patient of navigation, for all things wanting life do 
 presently sink into the bottom, neither doth it sustain any matter unless it be washed 
 over with rock alum." — The Histoiy' of Justin. Codrington's Translation. London, 
 1688. 12mo. 5th edit. Book xxxvi. p. 253. 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. ^^ 
 
 The mode of living at Assalt, and the conveniences and com- 
 forts of the people, as well as their manners, are much ruder than 
 in Egypt, low even as the people of that country must be ranked in 
 
 " The Lake (Asphaltites) breedeth no living creature. Nothing will go down or 
 sink into it. It exceeds 100 miles in length, is 25 miles over at the broadest part, 
 and six miles at the narrowest. On the east are the Arabian Nomades, on the south 
 Mach^rus, a fortress next in importance to Jerusalem. * On the same coast there is a 
 fountain of hot waters, called Callirrhoe, esteemed wholesome and medicinable. Along 
 the west coast lived the Esseni, a people living without women or money, having com- 
 munity of property, and aiming at an extraordinary degree of purity in their lives and 
 manners." — Plin. Nat. Hist., book v. c. 16, 17. 
 
 " The Lake Asphaltes lies in the midst of the province of Edom, and stretches 
 forth in length five hundred furlongs, but in breadth it is but three-score. The water 
 is very bitter and stinking, so that neither fish, nor any other thing used to the water, 
 can live in it. And though many remarkable rivers of very sweet water empty them- 
 selves into it, yet it remains as corrupt and unsavoury, both to the taste and the smell, 
 as ever it did before. Every year rises out of the middle of it great massy pieces of 
 bitumen and pitch, sometimes bigger than three plethras (of one hundred feet each,) 
 and sometimes little less than one. And upon that account the barbarous inhabitants 
 call the larger pieces bulls, and the lesser calves. These pieces of pitch and brimstone, 
 floating upon the water, seem, at a distance, to be as so many islands. There are evident 
 signs that forego and give notice of the casting up of this bituminous matter at least twenty 
 days before ; for a horrid smell of brimstone and pitch infects the air round about the 
 lake at many furlongs distance ; and aU metals, whether of gold, silver, or copper, near 
 the place, change their natural colour, which presently returns again, as soon as the 
 brimstone is exhaled. The places bordering on it are so burning hot (by reason of the 
 sulphur and brimstone under ground), and cast forth such an horrible stench, that the 
 inhabitants are very unhealthy and short-lived. Yet the country thereabouts, being 
 •watered with many pleasant rivers and refreshing springs, bears abundance of palm- 
 trees ; and in a certain vale near to this place grows that they call balm, from which 
 they raise a great revenue, inasmuch as this plant grows in no part of the world beside, 
 and is of excellent use among physicians, for the healing and curing of wounds and 
 other distempers. The inhabitants on both sides this lake are so eager to carry away 
 this brimstone that they fight one with another, and they bring it off in a strange manner 
 without shipping. For they cast in huge bundles of bulrushes fastened close together, , 
 upon which three or more of them place themselves; two of which ply the oars, which are 
 fastened to the bulrushes, and the third carries a bow and arrows to defend themselves 
 against such as attempt to make up upon them from the other side, or that offer them 
 any violence. As soon as they come to the brimstone they get upon it and hew it in 
 
 * This does not correspond with the position of the ruins now so called. 
 
56 FURTHER DETENTION AT A.SSALT. 
 
 the scale of happiness and ease. They have here, as on the banks 
 of the Nile, a very fertile and productive country ; and though the 
 one is a flat plain of alluvial soil, and the other is mountain and 
 valley interspersed, yet each would, with proper cultivation, pro- 
 duce abundantly all the fruits of the earth, for which the climate is 
 favourable. In Egypt, however, they are most severely taxed, 
 which might account for their general poverty ; but at Assalt they 
 are free of all burdens, and the slow progress made by them in the 
 acquisition of wealth and improvement must be attributed mainly 
 to their ignorance, and their excessive love of idleness and gossip- 
 ing from house to house, to hear the news and acquaint themselves 
 witli every man's business, at the same time that they neglect their 
 own. This is indeed more or less the case among all the Turks 
 and Arabs that I have ever yet seen, and materially assists, con- 
 jointly with the destroying influence of despotic governments, to 
 keep them in the low state of civilization in which they remain. 
 The Christians in Syria, who are really oppressed by heavy burdens 
 and odious distinctions, however much they may be inclined to in- 
 dolence, do not generally indulge it, but lead a very active and 
 busy life. The Christians of Assalt, however, being free of all such 
 hardships, instead of profiting by that freedom to increase their 
 strength, wealth, and respectability, waste more than half their time 
 in idleness, and instead of advancing beyond, seem really to recede 
 behind, their Christian brethren on the coast. 
 
 pieces with axes, as pieces of stone out of a soft rock ; and so, loading the bulrush boat 
 they row back. If any fall into the water through the deficiency of the boat, yet he 
 never sinks as in other waters, though he knows not how to swim, but lies upon the 
 water as if he were the best swimmer in the world. For the lake naturally bears any 
 thing that has either a vegetative or an animal life, except such things as are solid, and 
 seem to be without pores, as silver, gold, lead, or the like ; and even these are much 
 longer and slower in sinking than when they are cast into other waters. And this profit 
 and advantage the barbarians reap from it : they transport this pitch into Eo-ypt, and 
 there sell it for the use of embalming of the dead ; for if they do not mix this with other 
 aromatic spices, the bodies cannot be preserved long from putrefaction. — Diodoj-us 
 Siculus, Book xix. c. 6. 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 57 
 
 The people here rise early, and after prayers at home sally 
 forth as if in quest of society, often halting at the door of the first 
 house before which they may happen to find others assembled. 
 Here they remain to smoke and drink coflPee sometimes till eleven 
 or twelve o'clock, when perhaps they go home to dinner. After 
 this they must have tobacco and coffee again ; and then an hour's 
 sleep, or even two, is a common indulgence. By the time they 
 awake they feel disposed to take another stroll from home to hear 
 the news ; and this ramble from house to house continues until 
 sunset, when they return home to supper, and even after that often 
 go out to join some assembly, at whatever house they may have 
 met to pass away the evening. Except the mere cultivators of the 
 soil, and men who live by the work of their own hands, no one 
 seems to labour ; and with the small traders and shopkeepers, as 
 well as those who are proprietors of land or animals, however in- 
 considerable the amount of their rent or produce, they scarcely 
 apply an hour a day to the transaction of business : all the rest is 
 given up to going about from house to house, or indulging in 
 the most unprofitable indolence, leaving the females of the family 
 at home to do all the drudgery of the household work, while 
 they either sleep or smoke away their lazy existence. Not a 
 single interval is filled up by reading, either on religious or any 
 other subjects ; and of writing they do as little as possible, it being 
 thought troublesome to pen even a common letter of business 
 when really necessary. Their information on all subjects of general 
 knowledge is extremely confined, and their enquiries, when 
 prompted by curiosity to make any, are so ill-directed, that it will 
 be long before these alone extend their knowledge to any good or 
 useful purpose. 
 
 The Ghristians of this place being all of the Greek church, are 
 great admirers of the Russians, who are the only people of any 
 great nation that are of the same faith. They constantly speak of 
 their prowess, and consider them the first people in the world. 
 The sovereigns of Europe they consider bound to unite together 
 
58 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 
 
 for the purpose of rescuing the Holy Land from the infidel grasp 
 of the Turks ; and they understand the Holy Alliance to have no 
 other aim in view. Buonaparte is their favourite hero ; and not 
 even by his warmest admirers in Europe was he ever so extrava- 
 gantly eulogized as he is here. They all believe that Ms only 
 object was to rescue the holy sepulchre from infidel hands, and 
 give to the Christians of the East a complete deliverance. The 
 French army, and the battles fought by them in Syria, are therefore 
 frequent themes of conversation, and are never spoken of without 
 the greatest exaggeration ; though it must be admitted that a mere 
 handful of the French often defeated and dispersed thousands of 
 Turks and Arabs combined. Facts, indeed, and those too noto- 
 rious to be controverted, would furnish them sufficient food for 
 admiration ; but not satisfied with this, they relate events which 
 none but those who believed in the existence of modern miracles 
 could for a moment credit. 
 
 Assalt, Wednesday, February 28. — My Nazarene guide, Mal- 
 lim Georgis, not being so well acquainted with the road from hence 
 to Karak as with the first part of our journey, it became advisable 
 to procure a person who not only knew the way, but was acquainted 
 with the Bedouins of the country through which we had to pass. 
 The man who was deemed best qualified for this journey was soon 
 brought to me ; and Abu Farah, for that was his name, pleased 
 me much at our first interview. From his general appearance and 
 manner I had taken him for a Mohammedan ; but I had occasion 
 to learn soon afterwards that he was quite as much a Christian as 
 a Moslem ; his faith and practice being so equally balanced, that he 
 might be taken for a connecting link between the two. He had 
 all the manners of a Mohammedan, though his profession was that 
 of a Christian ; but he was by nature so constituted, that his feel- 
 ings would be always on the side of whichever religion afforded 
 him the greatest privileges ; as, in the present instance, he regard- 
 ed his confinement to one wife as a very painful sacrifice, though 
 
FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT. 59 
 
 enjoined by his faith, and consoled himself, as well as he could, for 
 this restriction, by rejoicing that he was at least permitted to eat 
 pork and drink wine whenever he could obtain them, a pleasure 
 denied to those who could exceed him in the number of the females 
 of his harem. 
 
 As the morning appeared to promise us a favourable day, I 
 was determined to set out in prosecution of my journey ; but, as 
 usual, new diJ0Eiculties were started, and new objections moved. So 
 common is it, however, to be interrupted in the most reasonable 
 designs and ordinary occupations of life, by the busy idlers who 
 throng round every one setting out on a journey of any distance, 
 that I conceived their objections less worthy of attention than 
 perhaps they deserved. Some were of opinion, that, if we should 
 get to Karak in safety, it would be difficult at any time, but quite 
 impossible at the present, to make a journey from thence to Bagh- 
 dad, from the hostile operations of the Wahabi Arabs extending over 
 the intervening country. A still greater number thought we should 
 not even reach Karak, in consequence of the Beni- Szakher Arabs 
 often coming in upon the borders of that town, and making the 
 road dangerous to all passengers, but particularly to strangers. 
 Abu Farah, my new companion, was well known, however, to all 
 the Bedouins, whose small encampments lay between the places on 
 the road, and we hoped by this means to make our journey good. 
 An objection was next raised by my guide himself, as to our setting 
 out to-day, he insisting on it that Youm-el-Arbaah, or the fourth 
 day, was the most inauspicious day of the week on which to com- 
 mence a journey. It was a long while before he would be prevailed 
 on to start until to-morrow ; but the threat of procuring another 
 guide, if he declined, removed his scruples, and our departure was 
 accordingly determined. 
 
 I 2 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 
 
 TVednesday, Feb. 28. — It was about ten o'clock in the morn- 
 ing when we mounted our horses to set out on our journey. On 
 leaving Assalt, we passed down by the foot of the hill, on the side 
 of which the town stands, and watered our horses there at a large 
 trough and well, at which the women of the place were washing 
 garments. From hence we passed on through a narrow valley, 
 which runs eastward of the town ; and, after continuing about a 
 quarter of a mile in that direction, turns off to the south-east, and 
 grows wider and wider till its termination. Near the town, on this 
 its eastern side, the hills that enclose the valley are laid out in 
 vine-beds. In the rocks are grottoes, which particularly abound 
 on the northern side of the valley, and many of these are, even 
 
JOURNEY FROM ASS ALT. 61 
 
 now, inhabited by shepherds, who feed their flocks on the neigh- 
 bouring hills, and retire to these caves for shelter at night. 
 
 On turning to the south, in which direction we soon pro- 
 ceeded, the valley became more fertile, and appeared to be well 
 wooded and watered throughout its extent, being capable of a 
 much higher degree of cultivation than it is likely to enjoy for a 
 long time to come, and of sustaining five times the population 
 that now inhabit the town and neighbourhood. From the 
 eastern extremity of this valley we ascended a steep hill, from 
 the summit of which we enjoyed a fine view of the castle and 
 town of Assalt to the westward. Our course from this lay 
 south-east for the first hour, on a rugged and stony road. In 
 our way over this we saw the Dead Sea, about five leagues 
 distant to the south-west, and the town of Bethlehem in the 
 mountains of Judea, bearing by compass W. S.W., distant, per- 
 haps, in a straight line, about thirty miles. 
 
 On reaching the end of this elevated and stony plain, we 
 descended over the brow of the hill in which it terminated, and 
 alighted at a place called Anab — no doubt the same as that enu- 
 merated among the various cities and towns in Joshua (chap. xv. 
 V. 20.). The word itself signifies " grapes," a fruit with which the 
 whole of this region abounds, and which it appears to have pos- 
 sessed in the earliest ages ; for this is the part of the country into 
 which the spies were sent by Moses, when encamped in the wilder- 
 ness of Paran, to spy out the land, and from whence they brought 
 back a branch with a cluster of grapes, as a proof of the fertility of 
 the soil, or, in the figurative language of those days, of its " flow- 
 ing with milk and honey." (Numbers, xiii. 23. 27.) 
 
 Anab is still inhabited by about one hundred persons, but 
 these all live in grottoes or caves excavated in the rock, which were 
 probably more ancient than any buildings now existing. Their 
 preservation, however, offers the strongest proof that the very 
 earliest of their occupiers must have been men of the ordinary size 
 of the present generation, and not giants, as described by these 
 
62 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 emissaries from the camp. Their exaggeration of the size of the 
 cities, which were said to be " walled and very great," might be 
 pardoned in those who were born during the forty years' wander- 
 ing in the wilderness, in which they had never seen any towns ; 
 though such a description could not have been given of any of the 
 places of the Amorites, by those who had seen Memphis, and others 
 of the many really " great" cities in Egypt. But their exagger- 
 ation with respect to the men is not so easily accounted for, as 
 they must have seen men of as good stature among their own race 
 as any that inhabited the land of Canaan. As the men who re- 
 lated these extraordinary facts respecting the country they had 
 been sent to examine were condemned to die of the plague because 
 of the " evil report" which they brought up of the land, it is fair 
 to infer, that this evil report was a false one, as death would be an 
 inappropriate reward for fidelity of description ; and there is, there- 
 fore, reason to believe that there was no truth whatever in their 
 assertion, that the people of the country were giants, in whose pre- 
 sence they themselves (the spies) appeared but as grasshoppers. 
 (Numbers, xiii. 33.) 
 
 The size of the caves now inhabited here, and which are un- 
 doubtedly of very high antiquity, confirm the opinion that their 
 original occupiers were of the same size as their present possessors. 
 These are chiefly shepherds, whose flocks browse on the steep 
 sides of the hills near them? and who, in the severe nights of win- 
 ter, take shelter in the caves, with their attendants. Some of the 
 inhabitants of the caves are, however, cultivators of the earth, and 
 till and plant such detached plots and patches of the soil, among the 
 least steep parts of the ascent, as may be most favourable for the 
 fruits or grain. The grottoes themselves are all hewn out by the 
 hand of man, and are not natural caverns ; but, from their great 
 antiquity, and the manner in which they were originally executed, 
 they have a very rude appearance. Nevertheless, the persons who 
 occupy them fortunately deem them far superior to buildings of 
 masonry, and consider themselves better off than those who live in 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. gg 
 
 tents or houses, so that they envy not the dwellers in camps or 
 cities. They are certainly more durable and less likely to need 
 repair than either ; and, with the exception of a chimney, or some 
 aperture to give an outlet to the smoke (a defect existing in all the 
 buildings of these parts), they are very comfortable retreats, being 
 drier and more completely sheltered from wind and rain than 
 either house or tent, besides being warmer in winter and cooler in 
 summer than any other kind of dwelling-place that could be 
 adopted. 
 
 We found none of the milk and honey with which this land is 
 said to have flowed ; and were, accordingly, regaled with less agree- 
 able food, the dish from which we made our dinner being composed 
 of boiled wheat, mixed up with sour milk and oil, a mess to which 
 nothing but excessive hunger could reconcile an English appetite, 
 and of which I made a show of eating, though it was impossible to 
 do more. 
 
 We set out from Anab about noon, and descended into 
 the valley below it, called Wadi Lizerack ; passing over the bed 
 of a torrent, now dry. On the banks of this bed were sloping 
 moles of masonry, and vestiges of ancient work, similar to those 
 seen on the banks of the Zerkah, and described in the journey from 
 Jerusalem to Jerash. Both are considered to be remains of ancient 
 works existing in the earliest ages of the Jews ; but whether the 
 brook that ran here was the Eshcol of the Scriptures, from whence 
 the grapes were taken by the spies of Moses, and these buildings 
 were meant to commemorate that event, or not, we could not learn- 
 nor could we, indeed, from the vagueness of the historical account, 
 easily fix on any features by which to identify it. 
 
 The hill that rises above -this, to the eastward, is so steep, that 
 we were obliged to dismount and lead our houses up its side. 
 The dress of mounted Arabs is so unfavourable, to freedom of 
 motion in the limbs, that walking a very short distance in it is 
 fatiguing. I was extremely tired, therefore, on reaching the sum- 
 mit of this hill, but was amply repaid by the fine wooded scenery, 
 
64 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 with large masses of rock, and spots of grass and turf, through 
 which we passed. 
 
 In about an hour after leaving Anab we arrived at Fahaez, a 
 ruined town, said to have been formerly peopled by Christians. 
 In this place we observed the remains of at least a hundred dwell- 
 ings, all built of stone. In their construction the Roman arch 
 was very prevalent, which induced a conjecture that it might have 
 been a settlement of Roman colonists, or of original Greek Chris- 
 tians of the Lower Empire, who lived separate and apart from the 
 native Syrians, or the Arabs of the country. It must, however, 
 have been merely a private and obscure station, as there were no 
 traces of any public buildings remaining ; and neither columns, 
 sculpture, nor any other mark of architectural care, were to be seen 
 among the ruins. 
 
 From Fahaez we proceeded in a more easterly direction than 
 before, and again ascended a rising ground, which was covered 
 with a fine red soil, and exhibited every where traces of former 
 cultivation and great fertility. On the summit of this hill the wood 
 scenery was beautiful ; and the fresh and full foliage of evergreen 
 trees, contrasted with the snowy beds out of which their trunks 
 sprung, was at once new and striking. In the open grounds below 
 we had seen several herds of gazelles ; and here, from among the 
 woody thickets by which we were surrounded, rushed forth two 
 large boars, nearly black, and seemingly ferocious. Their appear- 
 ance was as wild as I ever remember to have seen any before, so 
 that we were pleased at their dashing across our path without at- 
 tempting a stand; particularly as our horses, untrained to the sport 
 of hunting the mountain boar, were evidently much terrified at the 
 sudden and unexpected sight of these animals. 
 
 In our way from this place onward we passed four ruined 
 villages, the names of which were mentioned to me at the time, but 
 soon forgotten ; and about two o'clock we reached a place called 
 Deer-el-Nassai'a, or the Convent of the Christians. This is a ruined 
 town of greater extent than Fahaez, and apparently of greater 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. Qg 
 
 antiquity. I should infer this from the larger size of the stones of 
 which the buildings were constructed, and the general appearance 
 and deeper hue of age spread over every part ; but even still more 
 from the circumstance of its earlier and more complete destruction. 
 No one edifice among the whole remains perfect ; and in some the 
 dilapidation is so complete, that soil has collected over and between 
 the fallen heaps of stones, in which large trees have taken root, 
 and nearly the whole of the site is now covered with wood. There 
 were no fragments of columns among the fallen heaps, but the 
 stones were smoothly hewn, the masonry of the best kind, and the 
 work bearing all the usual appearance of being Roman in its con- 
 struction. 
 
 From Deer-el-Nassara we soon entered a thick forest of large 
 trees, the greatest number of which were evergreens : one of these, 
 the most immerous of the whole, was as tall as an English elm, of 
 equal girth to full grown trees of that kind, with crooked branches 
 and small leaves ; it was called, by Abu Farah, my guide, Sedjer- 
 el-Finjan, or the Finjan tree. Among those which had cast their 
 leaves, there was one whose branches were covered with thick 
 brown moss ; this he called Sedjer-el-Fush, or the Fush tree. 
 Another kind, of a smaller sized trunk and branches, with a beau- 
 tifully large and light-green glossy leaf, and the bark of a red colour, 
 he called Gaegob. All of these were in great abundance, besides 
 which, were a variety of smaller trees and shrubs, presenting every 
 shade of colour and hue, from the palest yellow to the deepest 
 green. 
 
 We proceeded through this forest in an easterly direction for 
 about a mile ; this being its breadth in the part in which we crossed 
 it, though its length from north to south was evidently much 
 greater. On clearing it, we came out on a fine plain covered with 
 rich green turf, and passed by a ruined town on our right. The 
 name of this place was Daboak ; but as we did not halt to examine 
 it, I had no opportunity of judging whether it was ancient or 
 
 K 
 
66 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 modern : all that I could learn was, that it had long since been 
 abandoned and in ruins. 
 
 The country that lay before us in our route, though now be- 
 come bare of wood, presented a great extent of fertile soil lying 
 entirely waste, though it was equal to any of the very best portions 
 of Galilee and Samaria, and capable of producing sustenance for a 
 large population. 
 
 In our way we passed another ruined town, called Oom-el- 
 Semak, where there were foundations of a circular wall of enclo- 
 sure still visible ; and around us in every direction were remains of 
 more than fifty towns and villages, which were once maintained by 
 the productive soil over which they were so thickly studded. As 
 their names were mentioned to me by Abu Farah, my companion, 
 I recognized many of those contained in the list drawn up by me 
 at Assalt ; but when I suggested to my guide a halt for a few 
 minutes to take their respective names and bearings, his surprise 
 was extreme ; and I could plainly see, by his impatient manner, 
 that, if I pressed this point, I should lose his good-humour, and 
 good-will too, for the rest of the day, so that I relinquished the 
 attempt, strongly as I desired to bring away with me some clue to 
 the positions of places, the names and existence of which are un- 
 known in Europe. 
 
 It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when we came in 
 sight of Khallet- Amman, which then appeared about four or five 
 miles to the eastward of us, standing on a round hill below the 
 level of the plain, across which our route lay. This pl^in was 
 covered with fine green turf, daisies, and a large scarlet flower, in 
 great abundance ; and the soil was extremely rich, with a slight 
 intermixture of small silicious stones. On our left, soon after, ap- 
 peared the mountains of the Druses, near Lebanon, with the hills 
 that border the Hauran on the north. So elevated, however, was 
 the level on which we now stood, that the plains of the Hauran 
 seemed sunk in an abyss, while the mountains I have mentioned, 
 including Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, whose summits were sheeted 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 67 
 
 over with unbroken snow, appeared rather below than above our 
 present elevation, though they must have been somewhat higher, 
 at least, as no snow rested on the high plain from which this view 
 was taken. This accounted for the continuance of winter in these 
 high regions, and the severity of the cold which accompanied the 
 winds from the northern and eastern quarters. In the open air the 
 thermometer was at 26° ; but the dress of a Bedouin, in which I 
 was clad, is so ill calculated to protect the wearer from cold, that I 
 suffered from the weather more than I had anticipated. 
 
 Continuing eastward over the plain, and gradually descending, 
 we passed, on our right, a circular building of a large size, called 
 Khallet-Melfoof, leaving it at a distance of a mile at least. Al- 
 though we were still two miles from Amman, pieces of broken 
 pottery began to appear, strewed over the ground, and the quantity 
 increased as we went on, indicating an approach to the ruins of a 
 great city, of which these fragments of domestic vessels and utensils 
 are almost always the first vestiges seen ; because, from their very 
 use and nature, they were liable to be so much more widely scattered 
 about, than larger masses of more ponderous materials. As we 
 drew nearer to the immediate precincts of the city, the soil still re- 
 tained the same appearance of a light red earth ; but it was deeper 
 and more abundant the nearer we approached the town, and bore 
 more evidently the appearance of former cultivation, the smooth 
 turf having now given place to a rougher surface, with the marks 
 of having been loosened and furrowed by the plough. 
 
 Approaching Amman from the westward, we entered on a 
 broad road, bounded on each side by stone enclosures, and soon 
 after came to the remains of a large building of excellent masonry, 
 with sculptured blocks scattered near it on the ground. It was, 
 pi'obably, an outer gate of the city, or a triumphal entrance ; for, 
 like the outer gate or arch at Gerash, it had no appearance of 
 haying ever been connected with walls on either side, but stood 
 isolated and alone. On the left of this, on a rocky patch of ground, 
 I observed the cover of a sarcophagus, differing from those of 
 
 K 2 
 
68 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 Gerash and Oom-Kais, being convex at the top, instead of angular, 
 or pent-roofed, and the ornaments at the corners being repeated at 
 the sides also. On passing down over the brow of this hill we saw 
 several grottoes, which were, no doubt, ancient tombs, and this the 
 place of interment without the city, there being near the grottoes 
 one sarcophagus, of the usual size and form, complete. 
 
 We had now before us the large enclosed ruin called Khallet^ 
 Amman, or the Castle of Amman, which appeared, indeed, more 
 like a fortress than a city, and occupied entirely the summit of a 
 small steep hill. The exterior walls of this fortress had their 
 foundation laid considerably below the level of the dwellings 
 within the enclosure, and on the side within view ; the western 
 face, where the wail ascended like a sloping mole, formed a kind 
 of case-work to the hill itself The masonry of this was of the best 
 kind, the stones being squarely hewn and nicely adjusted at the 
 edges, with the centre left to form a rough projecting surface, like 
 those in the castle of Assalt, and the tower of the Pisans at Jeru- 
 salem, after the manner of the rustic masonry of the Romans. 
 
 We went up over the steep ascent to this ruined mass of 
 buildings, passing large heaps of fallen stones in the way, and 
 at length reached the eastern gateway, by which we entered. Near 
 to this, on our left, stood a building, the masonry of which was not 
 only much inferior to what we had observed on the outside, but it 
 was evidently constructed of materials gathered from the ruins of 
 other and older buildings on the spot. On entering it at the south 
 end, we came to an open square court with arched recesses on each 
 side, the sides nearly facing the cardinal points. The recesses in 
 the northern and southern walls were originally open passages, 
 and had arched doorways facing each other ; but the first of these 
 we found wholly closed, and the last was partially filled up, leaving 
 only a narrow passage just sufficient for the entrance of one man, 
 and of the goats which their Arab keepers drive in here occasion- 
 ally for shelter during the night. 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 69 
 
 The central square open court appeared to be not more than 
 twenty feet across, but on each side of it was a range of covered 
 buildings equally divided into three portions, the central one being 
 a covered recess, and on each side of it a vaulted room. There is 
 no appearance of the central square court having ever been roofed, 
 as all around the top of the walls on each side is a bed of grassy 
 turf, forming a walk on a level with the upper part of the building. 
 The arches of the covered recesses, as well as of the vaulted rooms 
 and passages of entrance, are all of the pointed form ; yet at the 
 same time there are lines of small niches in the walls all around 
 the inside of the building, which are entirely formed of the Roman 
 arch, supported at each spring by a small Doric column. The 
 ornaments of these small recesses, which are all very shallow, were 
 of various kinds. In some of the largest of them I noticed bunches 
 of grapes and vine-leaves well sculptured, and in others that inde- 
 finite kind of pattern called Arabesque. There were no traces of 
 an inscription in any language, as far at least as my hasty search 
 could discover, by which the age of this building might have been 
 determined. The form of a Greek cross, which the divisions of 
 the interior may be said to retain, induced me at first to think it 
 might have been a Greek church ; but on the other hand, its being 
 originally open at the top, and at the north and south ends, while 
 closed at the east and west, with the style of its ornaments within, 
 and the entire absence of all Christian emblems, either of painting 
 or sculpture, rendered it very doubtful to what purpose it was 
 originally applied. The masonry of the interior is of a much better 
 kind than that of the exterior ; but the whole is evidently of a 
 more modern date than the fortress itself, as it is built from the 
 fragments of some older buildings, which probably occupied its 
 present site, or were at least within the walls of the fortification. 
 
 On the east of this building, and at the distance of a few paces 
 only, was a large circular reservoir for water, well built, and origi- 
 nally surrounded by a moulding or cornice at the top. The de- 
 scent into it was by a flight of stone steps : its depth was ^bout 
 
70 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 twenty feet, and its circumference fifty-two paces. This reservoir 
 stands between the square building first described and the eastern 
 wall of the fortress, which at this place presses close upon it. 
 
 To the north of this, and still within the enclosed space on 
 the summit of the hill, is a wall, running across the fort in an east 
 and west direction. In the southern face of this wall are concave 
 niches of the Roman arched form, and on the north front of the 
 same wall are continued recesses, of the same kind as those de- 
 scribed in the open court first mentioned. In the concave part of 
 these, however, are cut short spears, the triangular heads of which 
 are shaped like the Greek A, and these are so deeply hollowed 
 out that they appear to have served for lamps, resembling exactly 
 the niches for lamps seen in the sepulchres of the kings at Jeru- 
 salem, and in the tombs at Oom-Kais. 
 
 Not far from this, to the south, is part of a building, the un- 
 destroyed portion of which contains Saracen or pointed arches, 
 though the fragments of the destroyed portion, which are scattered 
 round in every direction, are all of Roman work, as may be gathered 
 from the style of the sculpture and ornaments seen on the blocks 
 that lie on the ground. 
 
 At the eastern end of the wall already described as having 
 Corinthian doorways in its southern face, and smaller recesses on its 
 northern side, there are considerable remains of some large edifice, 
 of which this wall, probably, once formed a part ; and among these 
 remains are seen Corinthian pediments, cornices, capitals, pilasters, 
 and fan-topped niches like those in the temples and theatres at 
 Gerash. 
 
 From this spot we returned to the reservoir for water, before 
 described ; and passing again through the square open court, we 
 descended over the southern brow of the hill on which the fortress 
 stood. Here, among other ill-defined remains, we found the ruins 
 of a magnificent edifice, too much destroyed for any plan of it to 
 be taken, but showing, by its broken fragments, evident marks of 
 its former grandeur. The pedestals of the pillars that formed a 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 71 
 
 colonnade along its eastern front, were still standing in their original 
 positions, and many fine Corinthian capitals were scattered near 
 them. The shafts were of a greater diameter than the length of 
 my musket, or at least five feet : they were composed of several 
 pieces raised one above the other, having a square hole in the 
 centre of each piece for the reception of a central iron rod, 
 by which the whole were kept together. Some of these blocks 
 seem to have been marked with Greek characters, but whether for 
 the guidance of the workmen in uniting them, or for any other 
 reason, it was not easy to determine, though the former is the most 
 probable, from the marks becoming hidden as soon as the column 
 was complete. On one of these blocks, which was half buried 
 in the earth, the letters in the margin could be distinctly 
 seen. The characters were deeply cut, and not at all worn 
 by exposure to the atmosphere or any other cause. There might, 
 perhaps, have been other characters on the side of the stone that 
 was buried in the earth ; but as it was already sunset I could not 
 stay to examine it. 
 
 As my guide stopped for a minute or two, farther on, to light 
 his pipe, I copied from a fine Corinthian architrave of a doorway, 
 apparently belonging to the ruined temple last described, but now 
 partly buried in the earth, the following fragment of an in- 
 scription : — 
 
 leeuuNG XAi cAm 
 
 L. . . N 
 
 the second line having only these two letters distinct. 
 
 We continued to descend over the brow of the hill for a short 
 distance beyond this, and passed out of the southern gate of the 
 fortress, when the valley beneath it suddenly opened on our view, 
 and displayed at once a profusion of magnificent ruins. The most 
 striking of all these objects were a splendid theatre, fronting 
 our view, with a Corinthian colonnade, a temple, and other build- 
 ings, on each side a clear stream which flowed from the eastward, 
 and ran westerly through the centre of the valley occupied by 
 these interesting remains. 
 
72 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 As we had before dismounted to descend on foot the steep 
 southern brow of the hill, I now suffered my horse to find his own 
 way down, as I remained stationary, to enjoy, in stillness and silence, 
 the •prospect which had burst so suddenly and so agreeably on my 
 view. The night was now set in, and the young moon scarcely 
 aflforded sufficient light to guide us on our way. I proposed, there- 
 fore, to my guide, that we should lie down amidst these ruins and 
 take our rest there for the night, in order that I might enjoy a 
 more distinct and perfect view of the whole at sunrise on the fol- 
 lowing morning. Abu Farah could not comprehend, however, 
 the nature of the pleasure I proposed to myself by such a step, and 
 accordingly made no hesitation in expressing his fears that the 
 search for treasure (which he supposed to be my only object in 
 examining these ruins) had already made me mad ; and that he 
 ought not to indulge it any longer. Absurd as this objection was, 
 I was obliged to yield to it, or risk the loss of those cordial services 
 which a future occasion might, perhaps, render still more important 
 to possess than at present. 
 
 We accordingly crossed the stream of the valley and ascended 
 the opposite hill, where we found, encamped in a hollow behind 
 the top of the theatre, a tribe of Bedouins ; and with these we made 
 our halt for the night. Our horses were taken care of by one of 
 the Arabs, our arms received for the same purpose by another, 
 and the khordj or bag, in which whatever may be wanted on the 
 journey is contained, was received by a third. We were then 
 received into the tent of the principal Arab of the camp, a young 
 kid was prepared for our supper, our horses fed, and coffee 
 burnt and pounded for immediate use. We supped, indeed, sump- 
 tuously, as far as excellent appetites, plain wholesome food, and a 
 hospitable welcome could constitute a sumptuous meal ; and the 
 evening was passed agreeably to all parties^ in smoking and recount- 
 ing the news of the day ; when about midnight we lay down with 
 the young goats and sheep around the embers of the evening 
 fire. 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 73 
 
 Amman, Thursday, March 1. — During the night, I was 
 almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the bleating of the 
 flocks, the neighing of mares, the barking of dogs, and the hourly 
 interruption of some one rising to feed the fire, another to smoke 
 a pipe, and a third to answer some question proposed, which often 
 led to their rising and talking of matters as loudly as if no one was 
 near them. I therefore watched the rising of the morning star 
 with impatience, and when the day began to dawn I stole from the 
 tent unperceived, and hastened down to the ruins in the valley, 
 under the hope of being able to catch a momentary view of the 
 remains there, and return again before my absence should have 
 excited any enquiry. 
 
 Before I descended into the valley, however, I sketched out, 
 from the brow of the hill, a rough ground-plan of the whole of the 
 ruins in sight from hence, filling up the space within the fort on 
 the opposite hill from the recollections of the preceding evening. 
 It can be regarded only as a bird's eye topographical map of the 
 relative situation of the principal objects, and has no claim to 
 accuracy in the details, which is not indeed to be attained in the 
 mere view of a moment. It served, however, to assist the order 
 and arrangement necessary in giving an account of the buildings 
 themselves, and to correct errors that might otherwise escape in 
 regard to their bearings and distances from each other. 
 
 On a reference to this plan it appeared that the principal 
 edifices among these ruins stood in the valley now called Waadi 
 Amman. This valley is extremely. narrow, apparently not more 
 than 200 yards across, being bounded on the north by the hill on 
 which the for-t stands, and on the south by the hill on which the 
 theatre is built. The valley runs nearly east and west, and is 
 traversed by a fine clear brook of excellent water, in which are, to 
 this day, abundance of fish, some of them of a silvery appearance, 
 and upwards of a foot in length. On each side of this winding 
 stream are remains of noble edifices, of which I could only obtain 
 a hasty view; but I set down the remarks that occurred to me at the 
 
 L 
 
74 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 time, on following the separate edifices in regular order, beginning 
 from the eastward and going west. 
 
 The first of these is a square building, the northern front of 
 which, towards the stream, was ornamented with a Corinthian 
 colonnade ; while the southern part was a plain solid wall of rustic 
 masonry. The eastern side I could not examine, but the western 
 side had, I think, three doors and four concave niches, one between 
 and one behind each doorway. The interior of this building pre- 
 sented the appearance of an amphitheatre, but whether it was origi- 
 nally open at the top, or covered in with a roof, it was difficult to 
 determine, as the upper part of the building was entirely destroyed, 
 excepting only a high piece of solid wall at the south-west angle. 
 In the centre of this square building was a circular space of about 
 fifty feet in diameter, now full of ruined blocks. At the southern 
 end of this was an arched opening, as if for a passage or outlet for 
 beasts. It could not have been intended as a passage for men ; for, 
 though of a convenient breadth, it was too low to admit of the 
 passage of the human form erect. Around this circular space, com- 
 mencing from the top of the arch, and leaving below it a portion 
 of solid masonry about six feet high, ran circular rows of stone 
 benches, with cunii or flights of smaller steps intersecting them, 
 exactly as in the theatres. There are two distinct divisions of 
 these benches still remaining on the south side, over the arched 
 passage supposed to form an outlet for the beasts, each intersected 
 by cunii, the upper one having only five steps left. On the east 
 and west sides the circle can be traced completely; but on the 
 north it is less distinct, from that part being more covered with the 
 fragments of fallen masonry than any other. The blocks there 
 heaped together, appear, however, to be those of the destroyed 
 benches themselves ; and it can be clearly seen, that the lower 
 blocks rested on the arches of a covered piazza running round the 
 whole of the building. I could not well understand how the en- 
 trance of the spectators was effected, unless it was by flights of 
 steps leading up from the exterior of one of the fronts of the 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 75 
 
 square building, and now perhaps destroyed. From the bottom 
 of the circle within, or the arena in which the beasts must have 
 fought, up to the lowest range of benches, which was a height of 
 about six feet, I could see no steps by which an ascent could be 
 made from thence. It is, therefore, probable, that the spectators 
 ascended on the outside of the building, and entered the amphi- 
 theatre from above, descending by the smaller flights, of steps to 
 such parts of the benches as might be accessible or agreeable. The 
 arched piazza, or covered way, that ran around the arena, was pro- 
 bably appropriated to the beasts selected for the games or fights. 
 This arrangement of the several parts of the building would account 
 satisfactorily for the doors of entrance at the west front, the closed 
 wall of the northern one where the colonnade stood, and for the 
 high solid wall at the back on the south, where the dens for the 
 wild beasts probably were, as the low-arched outlet into the arena 
 leads from thence, and the height from it to the commence- 
 ment of the seats for the spectators, about six feet, would be a 
 sufficient security to the audience from the fury of the wild ani- 
 mals engaged below. The order of the architecture observed in 
 this building is Corinthian ; the execution of the work is of the- 
 best kind ; and its whole appearance excited in me a very lively 
 regret that I could not command time to make an accurate plan 
 of it upon the spot : but, anxious as I was to effect this, other and 
 higher considerations rendered it impossible. 
 
 Next to this in order, to the westward, and on the same side 
 of the stream, but a few paces only to the south-west of it, is a 
 grand theatre, superior in size and beauty to either of those at 
 Gerash. It is built in the natural hollow presented by the side of 
 the hill, against which it may be said to rest. It faces towards the 
 north, and thus has the cool stream that winds through the valley 
 running before it, being sheltered, also, by the same happy position, 
 from the heat of the southern sun. The front of this fine theatre 
 was originally open ; the pavement of the stage still remained 
 perfect ; and before it, instead of a wall, ran a fine Corinthian 
 
 L 2 
 
76 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 colonnade, supporting a double-beaded architrave and cornice. 
 Eight of the westernmost pillars of this colonnade, including the 
 double pillar which terminated the row, were still standing, and 
 from this ran off a range of smaller columns, leading northward to. 
 the stream. The pillars of this colonnade in front of the theatre 
 were about five feet in diameter, and stood five paces apart from 
 centre to centre; the whole length of the front measuring one 
 hundred and eighteen paces. 
 
 The theatre itself has three distinct divisions or classes of 
 seats, as if intended for persons of different orders, each separated 
 from the other by a wide space for the passage of the spectators 
 from one part of the theatre to another. The first division of these 
 benches, or those nearest the stage, contains thirteen rows of seats, 
 intersected by five flights of smaller steps for ascending and de- 
 scending, going up like rays from the centre of a circle. In the 
 interval of separation between the first and second division of 
 benches are doors and deep recesses, at regular distances from each 
 other. The second division contains fifteen ranges of seats, inter- 
 sected by seven flights of steps similar to those below ; and in the 
 interval of separation between this division of benches and the one 
 above it are seven doors at equal distances. In the last, or upper 
 division of all, are seventeen ranges of seats, intersected by five 
 flights ofcunii; and in the broad pathway that runs round the 
 whole at the top is a deep square recess, entered into by a fine 
 Corinthian doorway with an architrave and pediment, having con- 
 cave niches on each side, as if for the reception of statues. 
 
 The Arabs call this building Serait-el-Sultan, or the King's 
 Palace, and think the only use of the range of seats around was to 
 serve as flights of steps for the ascent of persons of much' greater 
 stature than the present race to the recess above, for the sake of 
 enjoying the cool shade of the summer, and the pleasure of the 
 view, which, it must be confessed, is from hence at once beautiful 
 and interesting. As the benches or seats are about two feet in 
 breadth and depth, and the intervals between each great division 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 77 
 
 are at least six feet, the perpendicular height from the stage to 
 the central recess at the top must be upwards of 120 feet, and the 
 distance from the stage to the upper range of seats nearly 200. 
 The circuit of this upper range was 200 paces, and the diameter of 
 the semicircle below, or the distance from the stage to the first 
 row of seats, was 52 paces, as measured on the spot. There are 
 two arched stage doors, facing each other, at the ends of the semi- 
 circle, communicating with a vaulted passage from below the seats. 
 Some of the benches are broken, and the colonnade in front is 
 partly destroyed : yet on the whole it may be considered as an 
 unusually perfect monument of Roman luxury, — for a very slight 
 repair would make it available for its original purpose. 
 
 While literally running over this theatre, scrawling the few 
 notes I could make of it, in secret, beneath my outer garment, and 
 looking behind me at every step, in the apprehension of being per- 
 ceived and interrupted, anxiety for my own safety did not prevent 
 my being forcibly struck with the passion of the Romans for public 
 amusements and for architectural grandeur. At this place, Am- 
 man, as well as at Geraza and Gamala, three colonial settlements, 
 within the compass of a day's journey from each other, (not to 
 mention Scythopolis, Tiberias, Sebasta, the two Cesareas, and 
 other cities, all within a short distance,) and each much inferior in 
 importance to Baalbec and Palmyra, there were five magnificent 
 theatres and one amphitheatre, besides temples, baths, aqueducts, 
 naumachia, triumphal arches, &c. ; while, throughout all India, an 
 empire in itself, and far richer than any colony of Rome in the days 
 of her greatest splendour, we have not a public monument, even 
 in the capitals of the several presidencies, equal to the least of these: 
 the theatres at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, being inferior even 
 to many of the provincial houses in England. 
 
 Following the course of the valley westerly, the next object seen 
 beyond the theatre is on the opposite side of the stream, consisting 
 of the remains of a colonnade, and the front of some large edifice, 
 with steps descending from it to the water. On the side of the 
 
78 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 hill on which the fort is built, and just above this edifice, a number 
 of arches are seen, probably belonging to private dwellings of 
 different dates, for some were of the Roman and others apparently 
 of the Saracen form ; unless this last was occasioned by the falling 
 together of the sides of the arches, a point I could not determine, 
 from not being near enough to decide. To the westward of these, 
 but still on the north of the stream, and at the foot of the hill, is 
 the portion of a very large edifice which looked like a temple. 
 I could not cross the stream to examine it, but saw several columns 
 standing, many others fallen, and a part of the northern wall, with 
 a doorway, pediments, cornice, and other ornaments, still perfect. 
 
 Continuing westerly, the valley widens to the north; and on the 
 north, the hill on the side of which the theatre is built, presses 
 close on the stream, which runs, in this place, beneath a lofty cliff 
 of yellowish stone. A broad arch is here thrown over the brook, 
 the concave or under part of which is smooth, but the upper part 
 of it rough and broken ; as if some building had originally been 
 built on the arch, the brook itself being not more than 15 or 20 
 feet wide. 
 
 After crossing over this arch, I came to a large edifice, present- 
 ing a semicircular front towards the stream, built of rustic masonry, 
 with large solid stones of an oblong form, closely joined without 
 cement. In the exterior of the southern front, there are appear- 
 ances which would seem to indicate that water-works of some 
 description had been used here, probably for some purpose con- 
 nected with the fortification of the hill. On the interior are 
 columns that once stood around the concave part of the semicircle, 
 some still standing and others fallen, with broken fragments of the 
 building, extending for many yards in a northerly direction. The 
 pediments of the recesses, the cornices, and other ornaments around 
 this interior face of the southern wall, do not appear to have been 
 finished ; as many parts exhibit only the preparatory stages of the 
 work, in which the larger parts required to be removed are first 
 roughly hollowed out, and the remainder left for the finishing 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 79 
 
 chisel of the sculptor. The capitals of the columns were, however, 
 finished, and some even seemed in a state of great decay ; one of 
 the shafts still standing had also been cleft down the middle, appa- 
 rently by lightning. The general form of this edifice was oblong, 
 presenting a semicircular end towards the stream on the south, and 
 the order of the architecture was Corinthian. 
 
 To the south-west of this is a larger and more perfect building, 
 with Roman arches, and a square tower arising from it. I dared 
 not go over to examine this, however, as I had already been absent 
 more than an hour, and in the vicinity of the building itself I saw 
 Arabs with their flocks, so that I could not have passed among 
 them without observation. I therefore ascended the hill from 
 hence to the S.E., and on reaching its top observed other buildings 
 and columns on the side of the opposite hill to the N. W., with 
 arches over the stream to the westward, at the distance of about 
 half a mile. The stream is said to run from this westerly, inclining 
 sometimes northerly in its course, winding frequently until it joins 
 the Zerkah, when it falls with it into the Jordan, and is ultimately 
 lost in the Dead Sea. 
 
 On returning to the tent from which I had stolen away to make 
 this unperceived visit to the ruins of Amman, I was surprised to 
 find Abu Farah and my horse departed : I enquired whither, and 
 it was answered, in search of me. The fact was, that the nature of 
 my occupation had rendered me insensible to the progress of time, 
 and the sun was now three hours high, while no one knew where 
 I had wandered. The sheikh, Abu Suliman, coming into the tent, 
 accosted me with a very angry look, and accused me of being a 
 Muggrebin magician, come here to raise the treasures which 
 belonged to him as lord of the place. He insisted on my pro- 
 ducing my instruments and writings. I declared that I had none. 
 He laid hold of me by the arm, and said he would search me. I 
 resisted; though there was no one near on whom I could rely for 
 assistance, and even my musket and dirk had been taken away by 
 
80 JOURNEY FROM ASSALT 
 
 Abu Farah, along with my horse, in the hope that he might discover 
 me, and render it unnecessary to return again to the camp. I was 
 determined, however, though quite alone, to resist any violence 
 offered to my person, and in the struggle I fortunately prevailed. 
 I was then questioned as to where I had been ? I replied, to wash 
 myself in the stream. It was asked, why ? I answered, because 
 I had been defiled by unholy dreams. Where was my country ? 
 Stamboul. Was I Muslim ? « Ul humd al Illah — La Illah ul 
 Ullah" was my reply ; but the rest of the sentence was cut off 
 by quick demands of where I was going ? what was the object of 
 my journey ? &c. &c. At length, finding all his questions readily 
 answered, the sheikh tried softer means, and endeavoured to 
 persuade me, that as lord of the palace of Solomon the son of 
 David the prophet, he had a right to at least half the treasures found 
 within the ruins; and then by entreaty strove to extort from me 
 the confession of my having really raised such treasures, by the 
 aid of incantations and charms. 
 
 While this controversy was carrying on betwixt us, two women 
 entered the tent. These were the sheikh's wives, both of whom 
 had gone in search of me, without gaining any trace of my steps ; 
 which the sheikh insisted could not have happened, had I not 
 been a magician, and possessed the power of concealing myself 
 from the sight of others. 
 
 In the midst of this unpleasant discussion, which I could only 
 maintain by opposing denials to accusations, my old guide, Abu 
 Farah, returned to the tent, exclaiming, as he entered it, " Ya, 
 Hadjee Abdallah," and upbraiding me with all the real anger of 
 one grossly offended at my indiscretion. I said not a word, but 
 remained silent till his rage had spent itself in imprecations, angry 
 questions, and self-suggested replies, when I found it necessary to 
 set up the same excuse as Ihad given the sheikh, for washing in 
 the stream. This, however, did not satisfy him- for he continued 
 to believe that I really went to the ruins for the purpose of raising 
 
TO THE RUINS OF AMMAN. 81 
 
 treasures, and accused me of ingratitude, as well as injustice, in 
 withholding from him his due portion, as the guide of my way 
 and the companion of my fate. This conviction was too deeply 
 rooted to be easily removed. I therefore submitted to it as an 
 evil which I had not the power to remedy, and consented to an 
 immediate departure on our journey. 
 
 M 
 
CHAR V. 
 
 FROM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT OF AEABS NEAR DELILAT. 
 
 In leaving Amman, we ascended the hill to the S. E. of it, 
 and passed several excavated tombs in the way. The entrance to 
 one of these had a richly ornamented doorway, but I dared not halt 
 for a moment to enter it. Sarcophagi were also scattered about 
 in different spots, so that there must have been a necropolis or 
 burial place, both on the north and on the south of the city, one 
 on each of the respective hills that bounded it in these quarters. 
 
 Our course from hence was nearly S. S.E., and we went for an 
 hour and a half over a wide public road, limited on each side by 
 large stones still remaining, and similar to the great road by which 
 Amman was approached from the west. The plain over which 
 
FROM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT, &c. QS 
 
 this road extended, was covered with a fine green turf, and the 
 soil was deep, light, and fertile. We turned off for a few minutes 
 to the left of our path, to see the ruined village of Khahaf, on a 
 small hill, and returning to our original track, continued by the 
 public road before mentioned^ all the way to Gherbt-el-Sookh, at 
 least ten miles from Amman. 
 
 At this place was a low and square building, measuring about 
 twenty feet on each face, and the walls not more than ten feet high. 
 The work was evidently Roman, and the masonry smooth and 
 good. A plain cornice ran around the top, but there were no 
 appearances of the building having ever been roofed ; and there 
 was only one entrance, by an arched doorway on the western face. 
 The passage within this entrance appeared to descend ; and with- 
 out alighting from my horse, I could perceive that the space on 
 the inside was covered with large blocks of stone. On the outside 
 of the building, and near the western doorway, were two sarco- 
 phagi, which must have been taken from the enclosed space within. 
 No doubt remained, therefore, that this was a mausoleum; perhaps 
 of some distinguished family, or appropriated to the governors of 
 the adjacent town. 
 
 This town stood on our right hand as we proceeded to the 
 S.E., and was not more than a furlong from our path. It was not 
 without much regret, therefore, that I passed it unexamined ; 
 but, besides the anger of my guide, who was not yet sufficiently 
 appeased to hear of any deviation from the beaten track, there were 
 Arabs sheltering their flocks amidst the ruins, which would have 
 made a visit of mere curiosity dangerous, and perhaps fatal to our 
 future progress. At this distance I could perceive, however, 
 that the ruins were very extensive, that many Roman arches 
 were still remaining perfect, and that several large columns were 
 standing erect ; so that some considerable edifice must have existed 
 there, and the town itself must consequently have been an im- 
 portant station. It was connected with Amman by a broad public 
 
 M 2 
 
84 F^OM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT 
 
 road, leading all the way across a fine plain of fertile land; and had 
 many smaller settlements around- it. 
 
 In about an hour from hence, still going to the S. S. E., we 
 came to Yedoody, where we saw tombs excavated in the rock, and 
 many sarcophagi near them. It would seem that a portion of the 
 rock in which these sepulchres were hewn, must have been broken 
 away; or else, which is not so probable, the tombs must have been 
 originally open. At present they stand in the side of a low quarry, 
 facing to the eastward, and present a series of arched recesses, 
 about three feet high, six feet broad, and one foot and a half deep. 
 Underneath each arch is a sarcophagus, cut out of the rock, which 
 is exactly as long as the arch is broad (six feet), as broad as the 
 recess is deep (one foot and a half), and as deep as the recess is 
 high (three feet.) The grave is thus within the surface of the 
 perpendicular wall, with the arched recess over it ; and was perhaps 
 originally covered so as to appear like a bench or seat in the wall 
 itself. The large detached sarcophagi of stone, are at the dis- 
 tance of about 100 yards east of these sepulchres, on the edge of a 
 small lake of water : but these could not have belonged to the 
 same burying-place, unless, as before suggested, it was originally a 
 cave with these recesses within it, and the outer part of the cave 
 had been so broken away as to leave them now open. I saw no 
 vestiges of a separation near, but the portion broken off might have 
 been used for building, as this place presents all the appearance of 
 a stone quarry, from which materials for that purpose had been more 
 largely drawn. Such an explanation, if correct, would give a very 
 high antiquity to these sepulchres of the dead ; as no town has 
 been built from the stones here since the time of the Romans, and 
 that people would hardly appropriate the tombs of their own dead 
 to such a purpose. The style of the recess, with its excavated 
 grave beneath, resembles those seen in the sepulchres of the kings 
 at Jerusalem. There were in all about five that I observed ; but 
 my view of the place was so hasty and imperfectj that there might 
 be many others which escaped my notice. Close by these tombs 
 
OF ARABS NEAR DELILAT. 35 
 
 are the remains of a large town, the buildings in which are all 
 constructed of large stones, and the style of architecture Roman. 
 
 We still continued in the direction of S. S. E., and pushed our 
 way over a continued tract of fertile soil capable of the highest cul- 
 tivation. In about an hour after leaving Yedoody, we came to a 
 place called Mehanafish. On entering this, we passed a large square 
 excavation, sunk down in the rock beneath the level of the soil. 
 Through an opening, occasioned by the breaking in of part of the 
 roof of the excavation itself, I observed that it led into a cave ; but 
 how far this extended I could not learn. I could see, however, 
 through the same aperture, a large column supporting the super- 
 incumbent rock, exactly after the manner of the Hindoo caverned 
 temple at Elephanta, near Bombay; the column here resembling 
 those at that place, in its size, characters, and proportions ; a coin- 
 cidence that struck me forcibly on the spot. At Mehanafish are 
 the remains of a still larger town than at Yedoody, with arches, 
 columns, and sarcophagi, all of Roman work, though none of the 
 buildings remain quite perfect. 
 
 We had now arrived at a very elevated part of the plain, 
 which had continued fertile throughout the whole of the distance 
 that we had yet come from Amman to this place, and were still 
 gradually rising as we proceeded on, when we came to an elevation 
 from which a new view opened before us to the south-east, in the 
 direction in which we were travelling. This view presented to us, 
 on a little lower level, a still more extensive tract of continued 
 plain, than that over which we had already passed. Throughout 
 its whole extent were seen ruined towns in every direction, both 
 before, behind, and on each side of us ; generally seated on small 
 eminences ; all at a short distance from each other ; and all, as far 
 as we had yet seen, bearing evident marks of former opulence and 
 consideration. There was not a tree in sight as far as the eye could 
 reach ; but my guide, who had been over every part of it, assured 
 me that the whole of the plain was covered with the finest soil, 
 and capable of being made the most productive corn land in the 
 
86 FROM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT 
 
 world. It is true, that for a space of more than thirty miles there 
 did not appear to me a single interruption of hill, rock, or wood, 
 to impede immediate tillage ; and it is certain, that the great plain 
 of Esdraelon, so justly celebrated for its extent and fertility, is 
 inferior in both to this plain of Belkah, for so the whole country is 
 called, from the mountain of that name, the Pisgah of the Scriptures. 
 Like Esdraelon, it appears also to have been once the seat of an 
 active and numerous population ; but, on the former, the monu- 
 ments of the dead only remain, while here the habitations of the 
 living are equally mingled with the tombs of the departed, both 
 thickly strewn over every part of the soil from which they drew 
 their sustenance. 
 
 From hence we began to descend slightly, though the many 
 undulation? were still too inconsiderable to deprive it of the con- 
 tinued character of a plain, and soon after arrived at Burrazein, 
 where we halted to refresh our horses and ourselves at noon. 
 
 We found the ruins of Burrazein inhabited by several Arab 
 families, who said they belonged to the tribe of Beni Hassan, which 
 was encamped to the southward. These were, indeed, a detachment 
 of them, sent here to avail themselves of the shelter which the ruins 
 afforded to the young kids and lambs during the cold nights of this 
 excessively severe season. They had come here on the first com- 
 mencement of the heavy falls of snow, and intended to remain, 
 with the tender portion of their flocks, until the severe weather 
 should abate, and the early signs of spring appear ; but as the 
 commencement of the winter had been unusually tardy, the past 
 year continuing warm and dry up to December, they apprehended 
 that its continuance would be late, and that the rains and snows, 
 which usually fell in the first month, January, might now be ex- 
 pected to fall in the third ; though, in ordinary years, the severity 
 of the winter generally begins to relax in March. 
 
 A party of Arab horsemen, to the number, as it appeared to 
 us, of from fifty to sixty, were suddenly observed coming down the 
 gentle slope of the plain to the eastward of us. A cry of alarm was 
 
OF ARABS NEAR DELILAT. 
 
 87 
 
 immediately raised, and it was re-echoed from one part of the ruins 
 to another, that the Khyale Beni Sakker were coming. This is the 
 name of a very powerful tribe ranging the eastern Desert, generally 
 mounted on fine blood-horses, but rarely on foot ; and as their own 
 districts afford them but scanty fare, they come down in large 
 bodies, and covering the plains of the Hauran, and the heights of 
 Belkahi carry off the large cattle of the former, and the smaller 
 flocks of the latter, as their spoil. The horses of this tribe are 
 praised as beyond all price ; and for mares of the same breed, the 
 large sum of a thousand Spanish dollars has been refused in the 
 country itself. Although the Beni Sakker are generally mounted, 
 there are- now and then small parties of the tribe that go down on 
 foot into the valley of the Jordan, and steal off with such of the 
 flocks and herds as they can seize ; while the horsemen make their 
 depredations in larger bodies, and in a more open manner, as legal 
 and honourable warfare. I observed that these horsemen rode 
 -generally in a line, and, even in their ordinary march, approached 
 with a broadly-extended front, like a troop of cavalry advancing to 
 the charge. My guide remarked, in answer to some enquiries of 
 mine on this subject, that the Arabs invariably rode side by side, 
 with their cloaks wrapped closely round them, and their arms 
 always ready for an attack ; and that there was nothing of which 
 they more frequently expressed their contempt than of the practice 
 of those who were not of Bedouin blood, who rode one after 
 another with their cloaks open, and their arms often not loaded, 
 and scarcely ever primed, so as to be ready even to make a defence. 
 The mounted Arabs are called Khydli; those who move on foot are 
 called Zellemi; and the peasants, or cultivators of the earth, are 
 known by the term Fellaheen. The mixed race, between those who 
 live in the uncultivated Desert, and those who inhabit the cul- 
 tivated parts of the country, partaking also of the occupations of 
 both, in tending flocks and tilling the soil, while they have neither 
 houses or tents, but chiefly inhabit grottos, ruins, and caves, are 
 called Bedowee : but it is those only who dwell in the Desert, and 
 
gg FROM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT 
 
 live perpetually in tents, that are called, by way of distinction, Arabs. 
 In all cases of enquiry I had uniformly heard it used to designate this 
 class only; as thus,my guide would ask,"Whean el Arab?" — "Where 
 are the Arabs?" The reply was, "Fee Arab und el Waadi Themed." — 
 " The Arabs are encamped in the valley of Themed." Then followed 
 the expression, " Be howul und el Arab." — " We will alight and 
 halt with the Arabs :" in all cases meaning only a camp of Bedouin 
 Arabs (as they are called by us), and never using the term Arab, 
 except to those who live always in tents. In no instance, that I 
 could discover, was this name ever applied to any other class of 
 people ; though, as a proof that the term is thus meant to dis- 
 tinguish the Bedouins as the original Arabs, in contradistinction 
 to the various branches and mixed races into which they have 
 ramified, the Arabic language is still called " Ulsaan Arabi," or 
 the tongue of the Arabs ; the whole country of Arabia, from 
 the Desert of Palmyra to the south coast of Yemen, is called 
 " Belled Arabi," or the country of the Arabs ; and a man born in 
 that counti'y, of pure blood and unmixed descent, is always called 
 " Arab ibn Arab," an Arab and the son of an Arab. Tents are 
 only distinguished from houses by an epithet expressive of the 
 materials of which each is composed ; " Beeout Hadjar," or dwel- 
 lings of stone, being the name given to all buildings, large or small ; 
 and " Beeout Shaar," or dwellings of hair, being the name given to 
 all the tents of the Bedouins, which are almost universally made of 
 a black or brown cloth of hair, made in the camp, from sheep's, 
 goats', and camels' hair, in various proportions. 
 
 To avoid the risk of falling in with this large party of the 
 Beni Sakker horsemen, we quitted Burrazene in haste, and 
 gradually ascended a gently rising ground on our way to Menjah, 
 at which place we arrived in about an hour after our last halt. 
 This had been the site of some large town, of which the ruins 
 still remained, and among which were seen arches, columns, 
 large cisterns or reservoirs, and deep wells, with an abundance of 
 broken pottery, scattered around in all directions. The still more 
 extensive ruins of Hhezban (the ancient Heshbon of the Scrip- 
 
OF ARABS NEAR DELILAT. gg 
 
 tures) were only a little to the westward of our route. To the east, 
 at a distance of about five miles, we saw a large castle, apparently 
 still perfect, the name of which was Geezah ; and, a little to the 
 south of this castle, the ruins of another town, called Gustul, were 
 plainly visible. 
 
 The view of the country to the north and east of our present 
 position was very extensive ; and we could now see, for the first 
 time, that the plain (for it still preserved that general character 
 throughout) was bounded toward the east by a range of bare hills, 
 running nearly north and south. Beyond these hills the country 
 is said to be quite desert, and to be very thinly peopled by Arabs, 
 excepting only at the few stations which are planted at convenient 
 intervals on the " Derb-el-Hadj-el-Nebbe," or the road of the 
 pilgrimage of the prophet, this road lying beyond, or to the eastward 
 of the hills. This name of " Derb-el-Hadj" is exclusively applied 
 to the road leading from Damascus to Mecca : all other public and 
 well-frequented roads from any one place to another, are called 
 " Derb-el-Sultani," or, literally, the king's highway. 
 
 From Menjah we continued our way, going in a S.S.E. direc- 
 tion, and gradually descending to a lower level. As we proceeded, 
 I remarked that the soil became more mixed with clay and si- 
 licious stones, and grew less fertile as we advanced. In about an 
 hour after quitting Menjah we came to Jelool. At this place we 
 found the ruins of a larger town than any we had yet passed, with 
 the exception only of Amman. The position is a favourable and 
 commanding one, occupying the brow of an elevated ridge of the 
 land, and looking over an extensive space to the southward of it, of 
 a lower level than the great plain by which we had approached this 
 spot from the northward. The ruins of Jelool, at present, form 
 two divisions, an eastern and a western portion ; between which is 
 a bare space that does not appear to have been ever built upon. 
 In passing over this bare space, and through the respective masses 
 of ruins, neither of which I could afford time to examine, I thought 
 I observed in one of the dwellings a solid stone door, similar to 
 
 N 
 
90 FROM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT 
 
 those used in the tombs at Oom Kais, and which, I learnt from 
 my guide, were frequently met with in almost all the ruined cities 
 of the Hauran. Amid these ruins there were several columns and 
 heaps of large hewn stones, belonging to the edifices of the town, 
 with a number of cisterns, grottos, tombs, and sarcophagi, all now 
 entirely deserted, and exhibiting a melancholy example of the 
 wreck of former opulence and power. 
 
 As we proceeded onward, I remarked, that the surface of the 
 soil was covered with small patches of a yellowish white substance, 
 like powder of brimstone, or sulphur ; a fact remarked also in the 
 valley of the Jordan, near the head of , the Dead Sea, and almost in 
 a line with this to the westward, at the distance of about thirty 
 miles. The taste and smell of this powder were highly sulphure- 
 ous ; and my guide observed, that the same substance was seen in 
 abundance all around the shores of the Dead Sea. It is beyond a 
 doubt that these regions, from the Lake of Tiberias southward, to 
 the termination of the Lake Asphaltes, have, at some very remote 
 period, been subject to volcanic convulsions ; and it is probable 
 that the hot springs of Tiberias, the bitumen of the Sea of Lot, and 
 the sulphuric powder on the plains near it, all owe their exist- 
 ence to one common origin. The swallowing up of the cities of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, whether rightly attributed to Divine 
 vengeance or not, may well be an historical fact, and accomplished 
 by means of some great volcanic operation, of which the whole 
 course of the Lake of Tiberias, the River Jordan, and the Dead 
 Sea, bears so many indications. It would be an investigation well 
 worthy the attention of some mineralogical traveller ; and it is to 
 be regretted extremely, that the lamented Dr. Seetzen, who made 
 a complete tour of the borders of this sea, and was considered to 
 be eminently qualified for such a task, should not have lived to 
 give to the world the result of his observations on this interesting 
 excursion. 
 
 Proceeding onward, without even alighting to examine the 
 ruins of Jelool, we started a strange animal from his retreat ; and a 
 
OF ARABS NEAR DELILAT. 91 
 
 cry of pursuit being set up by Abu Farah, we loosened our reins, 
 and spurred our horses for the chace. It ran with such speed, 
 however, that it gained upon us considerably at first, but we soon 
 came up with it, and, coming near, each discharged his musket, 
 but without success. At the sound of this, the animal turned sharp 
 round, and ran towards my horse, uttering, with open jaws, a sound 
 like the hissing of a goose, excepting only that it was rougher 
 and much louder. The horse was frightened at this attack, and 
 became almost unmanageable : but on loading and discharging a 
 second piece with ball the animal fell. It was called in Arabic, 
 according to the information of my guide, " El Simta" and was 
 said, by him, to live chiefly by preying on the bodies of the dead, 
 while it was naturally so ferocious, that it always turned on the 
 living when attacked, and seldom even took flight at first as it had 
 done with us. The whole length of this animal did not exceed 
 five feet, including a short head and neck, and a bushy tail of 
 about a foot long ; its legs were short, its belly fat, and its whole 
 height from the ground not more than eighteen inches ; its nose 
 was rounded, its head small, and its mouth wide ; the colour of all 
 the lower part of its body was black, but over the back and tail it 
 had a broad grey patch, which, at a little distance, resembled a 
 dirty white cloth, tied over the animal to shelter it from wet or 
 cold ; its hair was long and coarse, its back slightly arched, like 
 that of the hyaena, and its general resemblance nearer to the 
 badger than to any other animal to which I could compare it. 
 
 About an hour and a half after our quitting Jelool we came 
 to another ruined town called Oom-el-Keseer. It was nearly equal 
 in size to the one we had last quitted, and of the same style and 
 character, the architecture in each being evidently Roman. Be- 
 tween these towns the soil had continued fertile and highly capa- 
 ble of cultivation, though the quality of it differs, from having a 
 larger proportion of clay. Beyond Oom-el-Keseer it appeared to 
 grow progressively inferior, though still capable of cultivation. The 
 
 N 2 
 
92 FROM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT 
 
 face of the country became also more unequal, and the level de- 
 scended. 
 
 In half an hour after passing through Oom-el-Keseer we 
 crossed over a torrent in a ravine called Wadi-el-Keseer, over 
 which there appeared to have once been a bridge, the ruins of 
 which 1 thought I could perceive about a mile to the eastward of 
 the spot at which we crossed the stream. The water was shallow, 
 and consequently everywhere fordable, even on foot. The course 
 of the stream is generally west, with occasional windings to the 
 southward, until it joins the stream of the Wadi-el-Themed to the 
 south-west, when both run together into the Dead Sea. 
 
 Ascending from hence to a higher level by a gradual rise, we 
 came in half an hour to another ruined town, called Oom-el-We- 
 leed. It stands on the top of one of those ridges of land so com- 
 mon in these parts, not deserving the name of hills, though break- 
 ing the general smoothness of the surface ; rising like a very high 
 swell of the sea arrested in its progress, and running for miles in 
 the same direction : the course of the present being east and west, 
 with a small vale on each side to the north and south. The. re- 
 mains of buildings here at Oom-el-Weleed appeared to me to be 
 more extensive than even those at Jelool. The blocks of stone, of 
 which the buildings were constructed, were also much larger. Ro- 
 man arches were still remaining perfect at many of the entrances 
 to private dwellings ; but throughout the whole, neither columns 
 nor fragments of sculptured work any where met my view. 
 
 To the south-west of this, at a short distance, Abu Farah 
 pointed out to me four ruined villages, called collectively Delilat, 
 the plural of Deleily, which is the name given individually to each. 
 There was a large encampment of Arabs, probably the Beni Sak- 
 ker, near to these villages, which was one powerful reason for our 
 not visiting them ; but besides this, the lateness of the day ren- 
 dered it imprudent, as it was already near sunset. We accordingly 
 descended into the valley on the south, where we found half a 
 dozen tents belonging to a friendly party of the Bedowee, or half 
 
OF ARABS NEAR DELILAT. 93 
 
 shepherds and half cultivators, pitched in a hollow between two 
 closing eminences, with an opening to the eastward, where we 
 determined on halting for the night.* 
 
 Riding up to the back of these tents, and passing through 
 them, we were received in the most friendly manner by the oldest 
 man of the party, our horses were taken from us by one of the 
 young lads, who took as much care of them as if they had belonged 
 to their own parents, and we found a hearty welcome in the tent 
 of the sheikh, in which all the rest were soon assembled to greet 
 us. While the flocks were driving in, after sunset, I noticed 
 among them some fine fat sheep, resembling the African breed 
 that I had seen at Mokha, where they are brought across from 
 Zeyla, near the entrance of the Red Sea. They had the same 
 short, fat, broad tail, with a little excrescence at its extremity about 
 an inch long, like a short pig's tail, growing out of the larger one 
 above it. They differed from the African sheep in this particular, 
 that while the Zeyla breed were covered with hair, these of Belkah 
 had a thick coat of wool. Both, however, had the head and neck 
 invariably of a different colour from the body itself, the latter being 
 quite white, while the former were either black or brown. One 
 of the lambs of this breed was killed for our supper ; and though 
 it could not have been improved for an European palate by the 
 mess of sour milk and corn with which it was stewed, yet it fur- 
 nished an acceptable meal, of which we all heartily partook. 
 
 The conversation of the evening turned on the motives of our 
 journey, as well as the events of the road, and the place of our 
 destination ; to which I listened attentively, though I was disposed, 
 for strong reasons, to take as little part as possible in the discus- 
 sions to which they gave rise. As there were many evils to be 
 apprehended from a detection of my being a European, and as there 
 would be a great risk of this in a long interview with Arabs, had I 
 assumed to be one of their countrymen, my cautious guide, Abu Fa- 
 
 * See the Vignette at the head of this Chapter. 
 
94 FROM AMMAN TO AN ENCAMPMENT 
 
 rah, represented me as a Turk going from Accha or Acre to Karak, 
 to see a relation there, but wearing the Bedouin dress, as better 
 adapted to long journeys than the Turkish, and equally proper 
 with the other for all true Mohammedans. From my previous 
 excursions in Egypt, and during my subsequent experience in 
 Syria, I had surmounted the chief difficulties in the way of travel- 
 ling as a native of these parts, in having acquired the language 
 sufficiently well for all ordinary purposes ; and a practical ease 
 and correctness in conforming to the manners, the attitudes, and 
 the way of feeding common to all, which last is certainly the most 
 inveterate of all obstacles to an Englishman ; but my beard was 
 yet short, and the parts of my body usually covered with clothes, 
 but now exposed to the sun, were whiter than those of the people 
 among whom I journeyed ; my eyes had not that fiery blackness 
 of the genuine Arab ; and, indeed, the whole cast of my coun- 
 tenance and complexion was more like that of a Moor from Bar- 
 bary, or a Turk from Asia Minor, (of which there are many that 
 could not be distinguished from Europeans except by their dress 
 only,) than a son of the Desert. Accordingly, whenever we 
 halted among Arabs, there never failed to be some questions put, 
 arising from these differences of appearance. Those who had seen 
 me at Assalt, and who remembered Mr. Burckhardt's person, con- 
 ceived, from that common resemblance which persons of nearly 
 the same stature, with the difference of the hair, eyes, and com- 
 plexion, which distinguish the European from the Asiatic race, 
 bear to each other, that we must have been brothers ; and here 
 the Arabs of the party received without scruple the assertion of 
 Abu Farah, as to my being a Turk, since they had seen many Turks 
 of the same colour, features, and general appearance as myself; 
 while all approved the judicious measure of travelling in a Be- 
 douin dress on a journey of this nature. 
 
 I was asked whether I had seen Jerash ? I replied, " Yes." 
 " And Amman ?" continued my host. I answered, that they were 
 both in our road. " Ah !" said the sheikh, " these were both 
 
OF ARABS NEAR DELILAT. 95 
 
 princely cities once ; but as the times are always growing worse, 
 so these have come to nothing at last ; as indeed was prophesied 
 concerning them of old." I asked him when and where their 
 destruction was foretold ? He replied, " These, O Abdallah, (that 
 being the name by which my guide always addressed me,) were both 
 the works of Solomon, the son of David the Prophet, who lived at 
 El-Khoddes, the Holy (the Arab name of Jerusalem). One day, 
 (he continued,) when Solomon, the son of David, paid a visit to 
 the prince of Amman, the king of Jerash was also present: and 
 as they ascended together the steps of the great palace (meaning 
 the benches of the theatre at Amman), to the summer seat of the 
 sovereign of that city, Solomon, the son of David, exclaimed, ' O ! 
 Princes ! our empires are on the decline ; our cities must soon 
 decay, and our realms be deserted and depopulated.' They ex- 
 pressed a hope that, under the blessing of God, that period was 
 still far distant ; when the King replied, ' Be not deceived, the sign 
 of destruction already approaches, for, behold ! even oil hath risen 
 to the price of three paras a skin !' " I had listened with all be- 
 coming attention to this pompous tale, and had great difficulty in 
 commanding my countenance at the close of it ; but remembering 
 that there are many men even among the most learned of our own 
 covmtry, who really believe mankind to be degenerating with each 
 succeeding age, though they might adduce graver reasons to sup- 
 port their opinions, I did not attempt to combat a position which 
 might be so easily illustrated on the spot, by a mere comparison 
 of the splendid cities of which they spoke, with the miserable 
 habitations of those who now possess the same country. 
 
 After this conversation, some of the party ventured on corre- 
 sponding calculations. " If oil were then at such a low price (about 
 two-pence for a hundred pounds weight), how little labour," said 
 one, " must have been sufficient to obtain a good living ; and how 
 fat men might get even upon slender gains." Stories were told 
 by others of the Spanish dollar (Aboo Tope), of the pillared pat- 
 
 / 
 
96 FROM AMMAN, &c. 
 
 tern*, passing in the days of Moses, and among the Jews in Egypt 
 in the time of Pharaoh (a shght anachronism it must be admitted), 
 for half a piastre of Turkey ; and various causes were assigned for 
 its having gradually risen from that time onward to its present ex-, 
 orbitant value (as they considered it) of six piastres and a half; at 
 which rate, they calculated, that it would rise to be twenty piastres^ 
 at least before the world came to an end. 
 
 We continued up until a late hour ; and I was much amused, 
 as indeed I have always been in parties of this kind, by the earnest- 
 ness of conviction with which the most extravagant stories were 
 related, and the easy credulity with which they were received. I 
 had also occasion to regret the impossibility of remembering and 
 noting much that passed respecting the positions and names of 
 places, which are far more difficult to retain in the memory than a 
 connected story ; and though more desirable to possess, from their 
 utility to geography, become, if numerous, so confounded together, 
 as to be soon forgotten altogether. 
 
 * Aboo Tope, literally the Father of the Cannon, — the pillars of the dollar being 
 considered by the Arabs to represent two great guns. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, AND RETURN TO ASSALT. 
 
 Friday, March. 2. — We left the camp at daylight, while the 
 ground was covered with a thick hoar frost, and although we put 
 ourselves at once into brisk exercise I suffered much from the 
 cold. As we advanced to the southward the soil became more 
 mixed with clay, and the face of the country more unequal and 
 broken by greater elevations and depressions than it had hitherto 
 been ; silicious stones became also more abundant, though there 
 was still a green turf covering the surface of the earth. 
 
 In about an hour after we set out, we passed a ruined town 
 called El Hherry, of the general size and character of those already 
 described ; and in two hours more, after going over steep but low 
 hills, gradually becoming more and more stony and barren, we came 
 
98 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, 
 
 to the valley called Wadi-el-Themed. This is one of the principal 
 places of resort for the Arabs of Belkah, as the stream which comes 
 from the eastward and runs through this valley westerly is never dry 
 throughout the year. It has worn its bed here through a chalky rock, 
 and continues through a similar channel, by the report of the Arabs, 
 till it empties its stream into the Dead Sea. Along its banks are 
 many wells of a moderate depth, with hewn cisterns and drinking 
 troughs for cattle, which in the present day, as they did in the patri- 
 archal ages, form the principal strength as well as the wealth of a 
 tribe, the possession of these securing the necessary supplies, with- 
 out which no Arab camp, with their numerous flocks and herds, 
 could long exist. On many of the wells and cisterns I observed the 
 following characters, -f-_£vl/'44^,|i- , which are said to be the work of 
 Arabs, but whether for mere pastime, or with a view to mark the pro- 
 perty of particular tribes, or of individuals belonging to such tribes, 
 I could not learn. The first of these characters is one very com- 
 monly seen among the hieroglyphic signs of Egypt, and generally 
 thought to mean the key of the waters of the Nile, being generally 
 held in the right hand by Isis ; the second and last are similar to 
 some of the old and unknown characters found in the caves of 
 India, both at Salsette and in the southern part of the Peninsula. 
 It would be worth an enquiiy to ascertain whether any of the sculp- 
 tures on the Jebel Mokattub, or Written Mountain, near Mounts 
 Horeb and Sinai, supposed at one time to have been the work of 
 the Israelites during their forty years of wandering in the Desert, 
 and to be in the lost Hebrew character, resemble in any manner 
 the marks scattered about on the wells and cisterns of these parts ; 
 as they might then be considered the work of the same people and 
 the same age. The wells here must have been nearly coeval with 
 the earliest occupation of this tract of country by the several tribes 
 among which it was divided, and may have formed the portion of 
 several successive races, as well as the bone of contention between 
 opposing tribes, from the days of Abraham and Lot up to the pre- 
 sent period ; and the characters on them, which belong to no 
 
AND RETURN TO ASSALT. 99 
 
 known language, may be nearly as ancient as the wells themselves ; 
 since there is nothing in their appearance that would indicate a 
 more recent date. 
 
 .We ascended the hill to the southward of this stream, and 
 passing for half an hour over a chalky and barren soil, we obtained 
 a distant view of Oom-el-Russas, about eight or ten miles off, to 
 the southward of us. The only conspicuous object which pre- 
 sented itself to our view at this distance was a high tower, looking 
 like a monumental column standing alone. We continued our 
 way towards it in nearly a straight line, over a gently rising ground, 
 with an improving soil, and reached it about noon. 
 
 On entering the site of this ruined town we came first to some 
 smoothly hewn cisterns in the rock, with marks of a large quarry 
 from which abundance of stone Jiad been taken away for building. 
 Beyond these, and on a higher level, we found a portion of a square 
 building, resembling the remains of a small fort, the walls of which 
 were pierced with long and narrow loop-holes for arrows or mus- 
 ketry. A few paces south of this stood the tower which had 
 shown itself so conspicuously at a distance. * This tower was not 
 more than ten feet square at its base, and from thirty to forty 
 feet high ; the masonry in it not being remarkable either for its 
 strength or elegance. On the shaft of this square pillar, for so it 
 might well be called, was a sort of square capital, cut off from the 
 body of the tower by a shelving moulding, raised at the corners 
 like the covers of the Roman sarcophagi scattered so abundantly 
 over the country. At each corner of this square capital was a 
 plain Doric column, small size, supporting a florid cornice, sculp- 
 tured with an arabesque pattern, and curved outwards at the cor- 
 ners in the most fanciful manner. On the north, the east, and the 
 west sides of this tower, and about midway between its base and 
 summit, a Greek cross was sculptured in relief, and contained 
 within a circle ; but on the south side this emblem was not to be 
 
 * See the Vignette at the head of this Chapter, 
 
 o 2 
 
100 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, 
 
 found. In various parts of it were many marks like those already 
 described on the wells and cisterns of El Themed ; and as this tower 
 is unquestionably of a date much posterior to the days of the 
 Israelites sojourning in these parts, and of Greek or Roman work, 
 in the decline of these empires, the marks are most probably those 
 of the Arabs. The enquiry suggested would still be useful, how- 
 ever, inasmuch as if the characters on the Written Mountain were 
 found generally resembling these, it might be concluded that they 
 also were the work of Arabs, and not of the Jews during their 
 wandering in the Desert of Sin. 
 
 To the eastward of this tower, a few paces only, are remains 
 of ruined buildings, and to the southward are seen foundations, 
 with broken pottery, and other vestiges of former population, ex- 
 tending for more than half a mile to the first division of enclosed 
 dwellings belonging to the town. This is about 200 yards square ; 
 the walls are low, but are constructed of large stones, and the inte- 
 rior of this space is filled with ruined buildings, the arched door- 
 ways of which are the only parts remaining perfect. These arches 
 are all of the Roman shape ; and I observed amongst the ruins, in 
 several places, appearances of stone beams having been laid on the 
 walls, so as to reach from side to side and support entirely the 
 roof of the dwelling. 
 
 Close to this first division of enclosed dwellings, and on the 
 south of it, is the second division, the wall of enclosure remaining 
 quite perfect all around. Its shape is nearly an oblong, and the 
 space occupied by it not more than half a mile. Like the former, 
 the interior of this is filled with ruined buildings, all, however, oF 
 a small size, and unadorned by architectural ornament of any kind, 
 though constructed of very large stones. In many instances, 
 where all the rest of the building is quite destroyed, the Roman 
 arch of the door of entrance continues quite perfect ; and here the 
 stone beams that extended from wall to wall, and sometimes wholly 
 formed the roof of the dwelling, are distinctly seen. The streets, 
 though at right angles with each othei*, were extremely narrow, and 
 the whole appearance of the buildings was small and unimportant. 
 
AND RETURN TO ASSALT. JQI 
 
 though the masonry was unusually solid for such works,, and cal- 
 culated for great duration. 
 
 We found some Arabs of the same tribe as those we had seen 
 in the Wadi-el-Themed encamped near this spot, the sheikh of 
 which party was here amid these ruins alone, for the purpose of 
 looking out, and warning his companions of the approach of 
 strangers ; the tents being generally pitched in hollow valleys or at 
 the foot of hills for shelter, while the eminences above form 
 posts from which the whole of the surrounding country may be 
 surveyed. As our party was small, consisting only of Abu Farah 
 and myself, we were kindly welcomed, and alighted here. We 
 had not been seated long, and had scarcely got into the train of the 
 enquiries I desired to make, (and these, whatever their nature, and 
 particularly when betraying anxiety, must be introduced in a most 
 circumlocutory manner, and quite incidentally, to avoid suspicion 
 and all its train of consequences,) when a small party from Karak 
 arrived from the southward, and alighted here for the same pur- 
 pose as ourselves, to learn the state of the road, as far as it could, 
 be gathered from the sheikh who was on the look out at this spot. 
 Our conversation was very general and desultory, as neither party 
 were willing to tell the other frankly what was their immediate 
 object or pursuit. Amidst much that was irrelevant, however, I 
 learnt to my extreme regret and disappointment, not only that the 
 road from hence to Karak was so unsafe as to afford little chance 
 of escape from plunder, (for as our informants had braved this 
 successfully, I might hope to do so too,) but that it was perfectly 
 impossible to proceed from that town across the eastern Desert 
 to Bagdad, as I had been led to hope. From all that I could 
 learn, the intercourse between these places, if it had ever existed, 
 which seemed at least doubtful, had been suspended for many 
 years ; but even should the nature of the country admit of such a 
 journey, in which there could be no more difficulty than in the way 
 between Damascus and Bussora across the Great Desert, as often 
 practised, the whole of the upper part of Arabia, from Medina 
 
102 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, 
 
 and Derryiah up to the eastern borders of the Hauran, and even 
 to Palmyra, was covered with the Wahabee, to which sect nearly 
 the whole of the Arabs in the heart of the Desert had become 
 converts, and were increasing and spreading themselves in every 
 direction, so as to interrupt, if not altogether suspend, the inter- 
 course between friendly tribes and towns, without the escort of a 
 larger force than Karak could furnish or my limited means admit of 
 my paying for. A single individual, or a party of four or five on 
 dromedaries, each carrying his own supplies, might perhaps have 
 effected the journey with ease, as the distance from Karak to Bagdad 
 cannot be much farther than from Damascus or Aleppo, from which 
 cities messengers go on dromedaries in eight or ten days ; but it 
 would be nearly impossible to perform such a journey alone with- 
 out a previous knowledge of the several passes, if the country be 
 hilly, or watering places, if a plain ; such as is possessed by all 
 the Arabs employed in carrying dispatches; and therefore for me, 
 however much disposed to risk the dangers of the way, it would 
 be indispensable to have one person at least as a guide, or I should 
 be nearly certain of losing myself in the trackless Desert that inter- 
 vened between this and the place of my destination. To all my 
 enquiries on this head, I received the most unequivocal assurances 
 that no single individual in Karak would, in the present state of 
 things more particularly, accompany me as escort or guide on such 
 a journey ; though they might at any other time venture a small 
 caravan, if the object promised them an adequate reward. Thus 
 circumstanced, proceeding farther would be encountering a need- 
 less risk without even a hope of benefit resulting from the attempt,; 
 and painful and vexatious as such a retracing of my steps would 
 prove, I was compelled to submit, consoling myself with the assur- 
 ance that I had done my best to accomplish the end in view, and 
 that the disappointment arose from causes beyond my power to 
 controul. 
 
 In the course of the conversation held with our new compa- 
 nions, I learnt that Karak, which is considered to be the ancient 
 
AND RETURN TO ASS ALT, IQS 
 
 Pella, is about twelve hours south of Oom-el-Russas, and that the 
 eastern shore of the Dead Sea was, both from thence and from our 
 present position, about eight hours or thirty-two miles to the west. 
 
 Karak Shaubak is another place, about two days' journey to 
 the southward of Karak, and inferior to the former in size and 
 importance. 
 
 Wadi Moosa, or the Valley of Moses, is a resort of Bedouin 
 Arabs, similar to Wadi-el-Themed, and is about a day's journey to 
 the southward of Karak Shaubak. 
 
 Between Wadi Moosa and Mount Sinai there is no water, so 
 that the route from Karak to Mount Sinai is a circuitous one, and 
 made by passing first from Karak to Gaza, on the sea-shore of the 
 Mediterranean, and from thence, going round the southern edge of 
 the Dead Sea, to Tor, on the shores of the Red Sea, from whence 
 the ascent to Horeb and Sinai is short and easy. 
 
 At Gaza, there are extensive ruins, with towers, walls, and 
 cannon hewn out of granite, projecting from them. 
 
 At Ascalon are innumerable red granite pillars and long streets, 
 the pillars mostly fallen. Lady Hester Stanhope is said to have 
 dug up at Ascalon a fine statue without a head, probably of Greek 
 or Roman workmanship ; but it was broken up by the Turks and 
 Arabs, to whom graven images are as objectionable as they were to 
 the Jews of old. 
 
 At El Arish there is a monolith inverted from its original 
 position, and now used as a watering trough ; it is of granite, and 
 had a pyramidal top. It is said to be covered with hieroglyphics 
 within and without, the crocodile being a very prominent object 
 among the figures. It is represented as quite perfect, and from 
 its small size might easily be removed from its present place by 
 any traveller desirous of taking it to Europe. The origin of this 
 is clearly Egyptian, and from the traces of the manner in which a 
 door was formerly hung to it, there can be no doubt but that it was 
 used as a cage or temple for the sacred animal the crocodile. Its 
 description corresponds almost exactly with that of a similar mo- 
 
104 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, 
 
 nolith which I had myself seen at Gau Kebeer or Antaeopolis, in 
 Upper Egypt, excepting only that this last was of marble, and the 
 one at El Arish is said to be of granite, which makes it Egyptian 
 in material as well as in purpose and design. 
 
 At Pelusium are ruins of great extent, but not remarkable for 
 any object of grandeur or beauty. Among these are some temples, 
 but they are plain and without sculpture, either in hieroglyphics 
 or other kind of ornament. Pelusium is approached by marshy 
 ground, extending for several miles ; and amidst the ruins them- 
 selves are seen some of the earliest and rudest kind of iron cannon, 
 made from a number of iron bars heatedi and beaten and forged 
 together with iron hoops. 
 
 In the route to Egypt, not far from Pelusium, is a valley of 
 salt, extending nearly a day's journey in length, the quality of the 
 salt being equal in fineness and purity to any known. 
 
 These facts, many of which I had heard before, were con- 
 firmed to me by the testimony of some of the Karak party, whom 
 we met here, several of them having, in the course of their pere- 
 grinations on business, visited the places mentioned. 
 
 Oom-el-Russas, the place of our halt, was considered by all 
 present to have derived its name (which, in Arabic, is literally 
 " the Mother of Lead,") from the circumstance of there having 
 been dug up here, at some former period, leaden cases containing 
 treasure. This, however, is so prevalent a notion, and is applied 
 so indiscriminately to all places in which ruins of former days 
 exist, that it deserves little attention. At one time, I thought it 
 probable that the vicinity of this town might have furnished lead 
 ore, and that some traces of this might be found to account for the 
 name, but I could learn no facts which tended to confirm this con- 
 jecture. 
 
 The party from Karak were going down to Jericho from hence, 
 and ultimately to Jerusalem. They determined to halt here, how- 
 ever, for the day, and pressed us to remain with them, to which 
 my old companion, Abu Farah, was strongly inclined, and, as usual, 
 
AND RETURN TO ASSALT. 
 
 105 
 
 complained bitterly of my foolish and, to him, unaccountable haste 
 and impatience in pressing our departure from a spot where we had 
 shelter and food, and where we might, therefore, repose ourselves 
 in safety. As we could not proceed, however, it was useless to 
 waste the remainder of the day here ; and I accordingly insisted 
 on our resuming our route of return. 
 
 It was about an hour after noon when we quitted Oom-el- 
 Russas ; and in our way back we went over an old Roman road, 
 nearly perfect all the way from this place to Wadi-el-Themed, and 
 from thence again northward to the ruins of Zeineiba, a place not 
 inferior in size to Oom-el-Russas. In our way we saw an abund- 
 ance of hares and wild pigeons, with numbers of large birds like 
 the grouse of Scotland. We left the ruined heap of El-Heurry on 
 a hill to the west of us, and at sunset reached a small encampment 
 of Arabs near Oom-el-Weleed, about a mile distant from the camp 
 at which we had slept on the preceding night. We halted here to 
 repose, and on alighting were received with as much cordial hos- 
 pitality as ever. 
 
 Saturday, March 3. — We left Oom-el-Weleed before the day 
 broke, and on ascending the hill to the north of it, we could see, 
 as the sun rose, the position of Oom-el-Russas, to the southward, 
 its tower rendering it conspicuous at the distance of from fifteen 
 to twenty miles. In two hours after setting out we passed Oom- 
 el-Keseine ; the face of the country over which we rode being now 
 unequal, and the soil much mixed with clay and covered with a 
 short heath. In about two hours more, going in the direction 
 generally of N. N. W., we came to Jelool, in riding over which I 
 remarked an abundance of broken pottery of a fine red kind, dif- 
 fering, in this respect, from that in more ordinary use. 
 
 Proceeding onward in the same direction, we approached the 
 ruins of Hhuzbhan or Heshbon, which are about two hours 
 distant from Jelool. As we drew near to these, and at least a mile 
 before entering the ruins themselves, we came on a ground strewed 
 
 p 
 
106 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, 
 
 over with broken pottery of the ribbed kind, and of an excellent 
 quality ; most probably a manufacture of the ancient town from 
 the clay of the neighbouring plains. The soil here, in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of the site, was a fine red earth, on which young corn 
 was now growing; but even over the tilled portions of the surface 
 the broken pottery was seen, though not strewed so thickly as 
 on other parts of the soil that had long lain undisturbed by the 
 plough. 
 
 This town or city of Heshbon is seated on so commanding a 
 position that the view from it extends at least thirty miles in every 
 direction ; and to the southward, where the prospect is most ex- 
 tensive, the eye ranges, probably, a distance of sixty miles in a 
 straight line. The space occupied by the buildings of this town is 
 about a mile in circuit, and this is now covered with heaps of ruins. 
 At the west end of this space the portion of a very singular 
 building still remains. It appears, in many parts, to be extremely 
 old ; and yet there must have been still older works here, as this 
 very building is formed out of the fragments of some earlier one that 
 must have been in ruins before this was begun, as among the stones 
 used in its construction is seen a sculptured block, apparently a 
 piece of the cornice of some old edifice then in ruins ; and yet, 
 in contrast to this proof of high antiquity in the materials, a mo- 
 dern addition has been made to the building by the insertion of a 
 a Saracen or pointed arch into the work. There were several 
 columns originally belonging to this edifice ; but they have all 
 fallen on the ground. The diameter of these was about three feet; 
 but the mode in which the pieces of the shafts were united offered 
 a peculiarity that I had never before observed in any other pillars. 
 These pieces, instead of being united by means of iron or lead in 
 the centre, after the usual manner, were locked together by the 
 upper part overlapping the lower, as the cover of a snuff-box 
 without hinges overlaps the bottom part ; there being a corres- 
 pondent elevation in the upper centre of the lower piece to fill up 
 
AND RETURN TO ASSALT. JQ? 
 
 the space hollowed out in the lower part of the upper piece, the 
 one fitted nicely over the other j and the joints were so fine as to 
 warrant the belief that, when new, they were almost imperceptible. 
 The capitals of these pillars were also of a very unusual kind, and 
 such as I had never seen elsewhere. They were nearly square in 
 shape, with a large leaf at each corner, the central stem of the leaf 
 running up exactly on the sharp angle of the square, and the broad 
 edges of the leaf folded back so as to meet in the centre of each 
 face. There were many sculptured blocks of stone scattered about, 
 near this edifice ; and the masonry of the remains bespoke them to 
 be of a higher order than most of those seen in the neighbouring 
 towns through \yhich we had passed. 
 
 On the summit of the hill on which Heshbon stood, and nearly 
 in its centre, are seen the remains of an edifice, the pavement of 
 which is still perfect, as well as four pedestals of columns occupy- 
 ing their original positions in the plan : these last are square below, 
 with the usual circular mouldings above, and appear to mark the 
 site of a portico to the building which fronted to the south. 
 
 The view from this commanding position is fine and extensive. 
 On the north are seen many grottoes in the side of a hill near the 
 town, perhaps the ancient tombs of the original inhabitants of this 
 old settlement. On the west is a deep hollow ; and beyond it, in 
 the same direction, but much deeper still, is the valley of the 
 Jordan, distant, apparently, from six to ten miles only, in a straight 
 line. The city of Jerusalem is just perceptible from this elevated 
 point, bearing due west ; and Bethlehem, more distinctly visible, 
 bears W. ^ S. by compass, distant, perhaps, from twenty- five to 
 thirty miles in a straight line, though the inequality of the roads 
 between would make it four good days' journeys of twenty-five to 
 thirty miles each. The western shore of the Dead Sea is also seen, 
 bearing south-west, about fifteen miles off; and to the east and 
 south the view is almost boundless. The tower of Oom-el-Russas 
 is visible from hence, bearing S. S. E., distant from thirty to forty 
 
 p 2 
 
108 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, 
 
 miles ; and the castle of Assalt is also seen, bearing north-west, 
 about fifteen miles in a straight line, and from five to six hours of 
 brisk walking pace on horseback. 
 
 On the low ground to the south of the town, and about half 
 a mile from the foot of the hill on which it stands, is a large reser- 
 voir for water, constructed of good masonry, and not unlike the 
 cisterns of Solomon, near Jerusalem, to which this is also nearly 
 equal in size. If Hhuzbhan be the Heshbon of the Scriptures, 
 of which there can be little doubt, as it agrees so well, both in 
 name and local position, these reservoirs may probably be the very 
 fish-pools of Solomon, to which that monarch compares the eyes 
 of his love, in the Canticles, ch. vii. v. 4. 
 
 Descending from the summit of this hill to the north-east, we 
 saw a sculptured cornice among a heap of ruins, from which I 
 copied the following fragment of an inscription : — 
 
 TEKEXCOEI AI. 
 
 It was about an hour after noon when we quitted Hhuzbhan, 
 from whence we gradually descended to a lower level, and went in 
 a north-west direction. In an hour after setting out we rode 
 through a narrow pass in the rocks, called Bab-Hhuzbhan, or the 
 Gate of Heshbon, which led to a deep valley called Wadi-Hhuz- 
 bhan ; the town being of sufficient importance to give its name to 
 these two spots in its vicinity. In the descent beyond the pass we 
 saw the remains of what appeared to me to have been a fort or an 
 elevated mound ; and reaching the foot of the hill over a steep 
 declivity, we came to a fine stream of water, which has its source 
 to the eastward of this, and runs westerly into the Dead Sea. On 
 the banks of the stream were several pieces of sloping walls, as at 
 Zerkah, and portions of aqueducts encrusted with petrifactions, 
 as at Tyre ; with the remains of a small stone bridge, and broken 
 pottery extending along its edges for upwards of a mile ; so that 
 there appeared good reason to regard this as the site of some 
 ancient town. 
 
AND RETURN TO ASS ALT. 109 
 
 As we ascended on the opposite bank of this stream, we had 
 on our right a ruined village, called Khallet-el-Sumia, and on our 
 left an apparently new building, called Shufammer, resembling 
 exactly the central enclosed building of Shufammer seen in the 
 road froiTi Acre to Nazareth; this on the east of the Jordan being, 
 however, uninhabited. 
 
 After ascending for about two hours, and enjoying, through 
 the whole of our way, the most romantic scenery that mountain, 
 wood, water, rock, and glen could furnish, we came to the summit 
 of the hill up which we had directed our course, and from thence 
 again descended into a valley called Wadi Esseer. Over the 
 rocky cliffs to the north of us, and close to our path, was a water- 
 fall, the only one I had ever seen in these parts. Its stream was 
 small, and the whole descent, which was repeatedly broken, about 
 thirty feet. It fell into the stream now before us, and ultimately 
 discharged itself into the Dead Sea. As the view that opened upon 
 us here presented several new positions, we halted for a moment, 
 while I alighted to take the following bearings by compass, and 
 the distances, in a straight line, as well as the eye could estimate 
 them : — 
 
 Head of the Dead Sea W. by S. 9 miles. 
 
 Rama (under a hill) - W. S.W. 5 miles. 
 
 Cufferein _ - - West, 7 miles. 
 
 Rihhah or Jericho - W. by N. 8 miles. 
 
 Burdj-e-Hadjela - W. by N. 4 miles. 
 
 Nemereen - - W. N. W. 7 miles. 
 
 Continuing to descend from hence, we reached the foot of the 
 hill, over an extremely abrupt declivity, after an hour's ride, and 
 then halted to wash and refresh. From hence we again went up, 
 over a steep hill; and after passing through some of the finest 
 woods that could be seen, we came to a deep glen, in which some 
 
110 FROM THE ENCAMPMENT TO OOM-EL-RUSSAS, 
 
 ancient caves were pointed out to me as we rode along. The 
 entrances to these caves were by large square apertures, un- 
 questionably hewn out with great care ; and the interior of each 
 was said to contain stone sarcophagi and inscriptions. I had the 
 strongest desire to visit these, if only for a hasty glance; but as 
 this fertile glen is a scene of constant contention among the 
 shepherds who feed their flocks here, and each encroach on the 
 other's supposed prior right, nothing that I could say would induce 
 my guide, Abu Farah, to consent to my turning a foot out of our 
 path, and accordingly, to my great regret and vexation, I was com- 
 pelled to relinquish my desires, and submit to forego their gratifi- 
 cation. 
 
 From the summit of the hill we again saw the castle and town 
 of Assalt, as well as the head of the Dead Sea ; and descending for 
 about an hour over corn land, now cultivated, we came to the 
 modern tomb of Mar Georgis, or St. George, the tutelar saint of 
 the neighbouring town of Fahaez : — the structure has nothing re- 
 markable in it, being like the ordinary tombs of Mohammedan 
 saints, so plentifully seen over every part of the East. 
 
 In a quarter of an hour after this we came to Mahuss, a large 
 ruined village, and in half an hour more, passing over cultivated 
 grounds, we reached Fahaez ; the valley of the Jordan, and the head 
 of the Dead Sea, being always in sight on our left as we rode. 
 From hence we descended by the steep hill over which we came 
 on our way out, crossed the Wadi Lizerack, where we observed 
 grottoes in the rock, and remains of walls of stone ; and, lastly, 
 ascended again to Anab, where we alighted to take some food. 
 
 Our route of return from hence to Assalt was the same as that by 
 which we had first come from that town to Anab ; and, proceeding 
 briskly on, we reached it about sunset. On approaching it from 
 the eastward, the huge castle looking doubly large through the 
 haze of the smoke ascending from the town, the small dwellings 
 barely seen by the glimmer of the lights burning in them, and the 
 aid of a faint moonlight, the hum of population, the barking of 
 
AND RETURN TO ASS ALT, 1_11 
 
 dogs, and the general effect of the surrounding scenery, all com- 
 bined, was powerfully impressive. 
 
 We were well received by our friends at Assalt; and, as the 
 adventures of our excursion formed an object of general interest, 
 we were kept up by visitors till a late hour in recounting them. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT, AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. 
 
 JissALT, Sunday, March 4. — It was necessary to remain at 
 least a day at Assalt, for the purpose of giving my horse some 
 repose, as well as to think of what steps it would be most advisable 
 to pursue under existing circumstances, and how I could best 
 further the ultimate object of my journey. 
 
 It being a day of freedom from business, (though to me, at least, 
 far from a day of rest,) as soon as the morning service of the 
 church was over, which was at an early hour, the house in which I 
 lodged was filled with visitors; some professedly to know the 
 reason of our return ; others probably out of a desire to see us, and 
 ascertain that we were well; and some, certainly, because they had 
 nothing else to do, and thought it the least tedious method of 
 passing away a tiresome day of idleness and gossiping. 
 
FURTHER STAY AT ASS ALT, &c. HQ 
 
 The adventures of our way were recounted twenty times in 
 succession to every fresh visitor by ray guide, Abu Farah~el- 
 Semaan-ibn-Semaan-ibn-Daood (for so he called himself) ; and 
 although he interlarded his narrative with the most solemn ex- 
 clamations, such as, " Salat el Nebbe ! Ya towal Oomruck !" &c. 
 « Pray to the Prophet ! May your life be lengthened!" and similar 
 expressions, yet he was a perfect FalstafF in progressive exaggera- 
 tion, and every time that he repeated the same incident, it became 
 magnified in importance by the additional embellishments which 
 it was certain of receiving as it passed through his hands. 
 
 It may be remarked here, that nothing is more fallacious, or 
 less worthy of being implicitly received, than the information of 
 the people of the country, either with regard to the inhabited 
 places near them, their distance and direction of bearing from each 
 other, or as to the site of ancient ruins in the neighbourhood, with 
 their extent, position, or present state. In illustration of this un- 
 certainty on topics like these, we had a long dispute among our 
 morning visitors on the question whether Karak, and Karak Shau- 
 bak, were one and the same place, or whether they were distinct 
 and separate from each other. One would have imagined, that in 
 a town so near to these as Assalt, and inhabited, too, by a people 
 frequently making journies in the country around them, as well as 
 being occasionally visited by persons from Karak, such ignorance 
 as this could not well happen ; yet some among our party contended 
 warmly, that to the south of Karak there were neither towns nor 
 villages of any kind, the people all living in tents ; while others 
 maintained as stoutly, that two days' journey to the south of Karak 
 was a place called Karak Shaubak ; and a day further on, in the 
 same direction, was a spot called Wadi Moosa, in which were 
 several other smaller villages. 
 
 Of the remains of ancient cities in this district of Belkah, 
 many of the inhabitants of Assalt did not even know the existence ; 
 others confounded names and descriptions in such a manner as to 
 render both unintelhgible, from the details given as descriptive of 
 
 Q 
 
U4 FURTHER STAY AT ASSALT, 
 
 one place proving much more applicable to some other. Many of 
 the party went so far as to say, that Deer el Nassara, at which there 
 is not a vestige of architectural grandeur or beauty, was a far more 
 interesting spot, and morfe worthy of a stranger's visit, than either 
 Amman or Jerash, two of the finest groups of ruins on the east 
 of the Jordan. Some of our visitors asserted, that at Irak-el- 
 Emir, which we had passed without entering, were stone doors, 
 sarcophagi, subterranean chambers, galleries of undetermined ex- 
 tent, and inscriptions in unknown characters graven on the doors 
 and walls, a description that would lead one to expect Egyptian 
 tombs like those of the kings at Thebes. Others contended that 
 there were neither stone doors nor large chambers, but sarcophagi 
 only, and these sunk deep into the earth ; and others again insisted 
 that there was neither writing over the doors nor sculpture of any 
 kind; though all admitted the existence of the stone boxes, or sar- 
 cophagi, which were large and numerous. 
 
 The unaccountable part of these discrepancies and total want 
 of agreement is, that each of the speakers swore he had seen the 
 place spoken of at least twenty times, and knew every part of it as 
 well as his own dwelling, yet all were equally positive in maintain- 
 ing the accuracy of their statements, and no one person would 
 submit to acknowledge himself as even probably in error. 
 
 The fine remains at Jerash and Amman, which my guide had 
 often seen, were scarcely at all esteemed by him ; while, in de- 
 scribing the shapeless masses at Jelool, Hhuzbhan, and Oom-el- 
 Russas, which he had only seen at a distance before, and had never 
 entered or examined until during our late excursion, in which we 
 took them in our way, he exclaimed, " Never were cities in the 
 world like these three ; — there is no counting the number of the 
 houses, and every house is as big as the castle of Assalt ! the 
 pillars are larger round than the circle of the whole company ; the 
 writings are so numerous that no one could copy them ; and the 
 tower of Oom-el-Russas is as high as a mountain !" 
 
 After every allowance that I was disposed to make for oriental 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. 115 
 
 exaggeration, this style was so extravagantly hyperbolic, and ap- 
 peared so ridiculous to me, who had but so recently viewed the 
 objects described, that I could not refrain from laughter. I have 
 recorded these facts, however, because they not only illustrate the 
 character of the people here, and of human nature generally, 
 among all people in a similar state of civilization, but they will also 
 serve to show how little dependance can be placed by travellers on 
 the relations and descriptions of the native inhabitants of these coun- 
 tries, and how much more frequently they are liable to be tempted 
 to visit an uninteresting spot, than to pass by any considerable one. 
 Mr. Burckhardt, who had been unable to visit Oora-el-Russas, but 
 had collected such information as he could obtain from the Arabs 
 respecting it, had been assured that there were green columns at that 
 place ; which induced a supposition that these might be columns of 
 verd antique, and that the ruins existing there might correspond in 
 magnificence to the costliness of such a material ; but the remains 
 seen at Oom-el-Russas, are so far from the description given of 
 them in the instance mentioned, that there was not a single 
 column, nor even the fragment of one, visible to us in our late 
 visit to that spot. 
 
 In the evening we repaired to the house of Aioobe, where a 
 new pack of German picquet cards were introduced for the amuse- 
 ment of the company ; and the noise and confusion to which this 
 Sunday evening's diversion gave rise, was almost distracting. In 
 the course of our stay there an incident occurred which was 
 quite new to me, and curious enough to deserve mention. The 
 salutations usual in many ancient and modern nations, offered to 
 persons after sneezing, are well known * ; but salutations after an 
 act by which nature relieves a person oppressed with flatulencies, 
 are certainly uncommon. On this occasion, the infant child of 
 Aioobe being in its mother's arms, and alarming the company by 
 a sound unusually loud and distinct for an infant of its tender age, 
 
 * Hobhouse's Travels, page 512. 
 q2 
 
116 FURTHER STAY AT ASSALT, 
 
 the father exclaimed, with great gravity and evident satisfaction, 
 " B'ism-Illah, el Rakhman, el Rakheem, ya towal oomruck, ya 
 Ibraheem." " In the name of God, the mighty, and the merciful, 
 may your life be lengthened, O Abraham !" and not a smile was 
 excited throughout the company by this extraordinary introduction 
 of salutation and prayer on so unusual an occasion. Niebuhr has a 
 very extraordinary story respecting an Arab who encouraged a com- 
 petition for excellence in this respect in a bath at Senna ; and others 
 are told by him, to show the extreme abhorrence which Arabs in 
 general have for even the inadvertent escape of what had here 
 excited the solemn exclamations adverted to. Niebuhr also men- 
 tions, that the former part of this exclamation is used by all pious 
 Arabs before the consummation of connubial rites ; so that the 
 name of God is invoked on the most opposite occasions, and 
 associated, in the most unseemly manner, with the gravest as well 
 as the most frivolous events. 
 
 The conversation of the evening took a political turn, and the 
 general belief and opinion was, that all the sovereigns of Europe 
 would soon unite to re-possess the sanctuaries of the Holy Land. 
 They even ventured to mark out the divisions that would certainly 
 take place when the apportionment of the territories to the re- 
 spective sovereigns should be determined on. In this division, 
 Russia, they conceived, would have possession of Constantinople ; 
 Austria would receive Asia Minor ; England the whole of Syria ; 
 and the French, Egypt. In reasoning on the probable conse- 
 quences to which such an occupation of the Turkish territories 
 might lead, nothing could surpass the absurdity of their specula- 
 tions, arising from their utter ignorance of geography, as well as 
 of the resources and character of the several nations thus enriched 
 by their donations. In this I took but little part, and avoided con- 
 tradiction as tending to protract a conversation already tedious 
 from its length and inutility ; and by thus remaining passive, an 
 interval occurred which enabled me to change the topic to one of 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. 117 
 
 more immediate personal interest to myself, as well as one on which 
 their opinions might really be of some value. 
 
 In considering the steps most advantageous for me to pursue, 
 under the circumstances of the moment, it was the unanimous 
 opinion of those present, that as I could not effect a journey across 
 the Desert to Bagdad or Bussora without a change of affairs among 
 the Wahabee Arabs, which there was no ground at present to hope 
 or expect, I should best effect my object by going from hence 
 straight to Damascus through the Hauran ; and on my arrival at 
 that city, I might more easily determine on the best mode of fur- 
 ther prosecuting my journey to Aleppo, and from thence, by the 
 ordinary caravan route, to India. In every point of view in which 
 this subject was debated, it appeared to me not only the most 
 eligible, but really the only mode left for me to pursue ; I accord- 
 ingly consented to this arrangement, and our kind entertainer, 
 Aioobe, undertook to write letters of recommendation to several 
 of his friends and correspondents on the road, to facilitate my 
 progress as much as it might be in their power to do so. My 
 Nazarene guide, Maalim Georgis, and my Assalt guide, Abu Farah, 
 each solicited also to accompany me thus far on my way. They 
 declared that, in offering their services, they were influenced by no 
 motives of gain, but wished, out of pure regard, to be my com- 
 panions as far as Damascus at least : and though I could hardly give 
 full credit to this profession of unusual freedom from .selfishness, yet 
 I readily yielded to their wishes, as guides of some description or 
 other were indispensable, and more trustworthy ones than these I 
 could hardly hope to find. The arrangement was therefore con- 
 cluded ; and thougli I doubted their entire disinterestedness, and 
 knew moreover that they were too poor to be able, even if willing, 
 to serve me without reward, yet I was reluctant to show any distrust 
 of their zeal or attachment, and therefore suffered all mention of 
 such reward to be suspended for the present, till a fitting time 
 and opportunity should render it more acceptable to all parties. 
 
118 FURTHER STAY AT ASSALT, 
 
 My clothes having been washed for me during the afternoon, 
 I remained up till past midnight, after my companions were 
 asleep, to dry them in the smoke of the embers that still remained 
 from the blazing fire, around which we had all passed the evening. 
 
 Assalt, Monday, March 5. — The morning broke with a heavy 
 gale of wind from the S. W., accompanied by torrents of rain, so 
 that it was impossible to set out on our journey. Independently 
 of the vexation caused by this unexpected delay, the manner in 
 which I was compelled to pass my time was both tedious and un- 
 profitable. All those whose occupations were carried on within 
 the house were as idle as ever, and those whose business was in 
 the open air were driven to their several dwellings for shelter. By 
 this means our house was crowded with visitors during the whole 
 of the day ; and however thankful I might have felt towards par- 
 ticular individuals of the place for their advice and hospitality, I 
 could not but feel impatient to quit a scene where nothing new 
 or useful remained to learn ; while indolence, ignorance, and bigotry 
 were perpetually presenting the most revolting pictures to my 
 view. 
 
 Assalt, Tuesday, March 6. — The rain of the preceding day 
 had ceased with the S.W. wind during the night; but after a short 
 interval of moderate weather, this was succeeded by as strong a 
 gale from the northward, bringing with it snow and sleet, which 
 rendered it equally impracticable to proceed on our intended route; 
 I had therefore the prospect of another tedious day before me, and 
 was already weary with the anticipation of the tiresome task of 
 passing it. 
 
 Besides the usual circle by which our abode was certain of 
 being visited during the day, and who were also certain of entering 
 on the threadbare topic of the Christian sovereigns dividing the 
 Turkish empire and giving the Greeks the pre-eminence, there 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JER ASH. J 19 
 
 came a party of Mohammedans to see me, as the stranger of whom 
 they had heard much to excite their curiosity. The head of the 
 party was a green-turbanned descendant of the Prophet, originally 
 from Egypt ; but having, after the pilgrimage to Mecca, taken a 
 wife of this part of the country, he had settled here as a trader. 
 Another of the party was an Arab doctor from Damascus, who 
 had been at Cyprus, at Alexandria, and at Tunis. Being them- 
 selves great travellers, they had come, as they expressed it to me, 
 to see one who had the courage to leave his mother's home, and 
 come so far away from it as this to see the world. Each of these 
 having performed the journey to Mecca as pilgrims, were called 
 Hadjee, and as this title is sometimes conceded to Christians who 
 have visited their holy city, Jerusalem, they flattered me by this 
 compliment, affixing the address of Hadjee to the name of Ab- 
 dallah, by which I was usually known. The Christians, here, were 
 not pleased with one of their own faith bearing a name so purely 
 Mohammedan as they considered this to be; though in other parts 
 there are even Arab Christians not unfrequently bearing this least 
 objectionable of all appellations, " the Slave of God," and which, 
 one would think, all sects and religions might be equally proud to 
 adopt. 
 
 If I had before been disgusted with the religious hatred and 
 contempt existing between Mohammedans and Christians gene- 
 rally, (though it is less offensive in its appearance at this place than 
 I had before seen it elsewhere,) I saw enough in the morning's 
 history to revive that feeling with redoubled force. I was asked 
 innumerable questions by each party, and requested to relate what 
 I had most admired among all the various wonders I had seen 
 through life ; but when I recounted an incident which tended to 
 portray in strong colours the great advantages of universal phi- 
 lanthropy and toleration, or spoke of some deed which taught or 
 illustrated the value of religious charity and mutual forbearance 
 among persons of opposite opinions in matters of faith, no one 
 assented ; on the contrary, the Mussulman proudly exclaimed. 
 
120 FURTHER STAY AT ASSALT, 
 
 " La lUah ul UUah, wa Muhammed el Russool Ullah," and the 
 Christian as haughtily crossed himself, counted his beads, and 
 muttered his profession of faith, each seeming most heartily to 
 despise the other. When I was asked, why I travelled, the Egyptian 
 trader said, before I made any reply, that it must no doubt be to' 
 increase my stock of knowledge ; the Arab doctor from Damascus 
 said, that being wise enough already, it was more probable that 
 my object was to collect information in the country of the Turks 
 to transmit to my sovereign, to be serviceable in some meditated 
 conquests ; while the Christian contended, that it must be also 
 with a view to enquire into the state of Christianity in these parts, 
 with a view to the ultimate purification of the faith of the Church. 
 The Christian visitors at length dropped off one by one, and 
 I was left alone with the Mohammedans, who, though more proud, 
 from a consciousness of superiority, were neither so ignorant nor 
 so bigotted as their Christian neighbours, and were therefore much 
 more agreeable companions. Not long after this, they again came in 
 one by one as they had left, and general conversation was resumed, 
 in which political subjects were most prominent. The Egyptian 
 affected to despise Napoleon for having abjured his faith and made 
 a public profession of Mohammedanism at Cairo, which he thought 
 was as unwise as it was contemptible, since it could have deceived 
 no man of sound judgment or orthodox Mussulman. The Chris- 
 tians admitted that this was at least a doubtful virtue ; but they 
 thought him entitled to the highest praise for his attempt to rescue 
 the Holy Land from infidel dominion. Both parties agreed only 
 in one thing, that of extolling the English ; yet the Mohammedans 
 considered them unjustifiable in their attempts to restore the old 
 King of France, whom they understood to be an ideot ; and the 
 latter thought they had done wickedly in dethroning the Emperor 
 to make room for the Boui-bons, since the eyes of all the Christian 
 world had in their estimation been directed to Buonaparte, as the 
 only hope left for the redemption of Jerusalem. 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. 121 
 
 The weather began to abate in severity towards the evening, 
 and promised a fair morrow. After our party broke up, therefore, 
 I made arrangements for our rising early, in the hope that the next 
 sun would see us on our way. 
 
 Wednesday, March 7. — We arose early, as the weather was now 
 fine, but from the delay always inseparable from the first starting on 
 a new journey, it was eight o'clock before we had mounted our 
 horses to set out. I was accompanied on this occasion by Mal- 
 lim Georgis, my former guide from Nazareth, and Abu Farah, my 
 late escort towards Karak ; and as we moved from the door of our 
 dwelling we received the good wishes and parting benedictions of 
 all the people of the town, both Christians and Mohammedans. 
 
 On leaving Assalt, we went up to the northward, through a 
 beautifully wooded country, passing in our way an armed troop of 
 thirteen Arabs on foot, just going out on a plundering excursion, 
 and in half an hour we gained the summit of the hill that we had 
 been ascending. From this point we had a fine view of the Valley 
 of Jordan, which is called by the Arabs of this part, Ghore, and 
 Wadi Steziban, and the river is still called El Shereeah. 
 
 Descending from this eminence, but still going in a northerly 
 direction, we passed the reputed tomb of Osha-el-Nebbe, or Joshua 
 the Prophet, leaving it a little on our left. Seven ruined villages, 
 a hewn cistern or reservoir for water, and other marks of former 
 populousness were seen by us also in the early part of this route. 
 In half an hour from the commencement of our journey we came 
 to Zey, a ruined town, in which were some few pillars, many pri- 
 vate buildings originally constructed of large stones, but now com- 
 pletely demolished and grown over with trees, with a very perfect 
 sarcophagus, ornamented with sculpture and of the usual size. 
 Near to this spot are an abundance of pines growing in a clayey 
 soil ; and I was assured that this was a favourite haunt of wild 
 boars, which I could easily credit, ias there were a number of places 
 
122 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASS ALT, 
 
 then visible in which they had but very recently muzzled up the 
 fresh earth in search of roots as food. 
 
 In the course of our descent, the position of a small building 
 called the tomb of Ooda-el-Nebbe was pointed out to me on the 
 top of a hill which hangs over the valley of Jerash, and bore from us 
 N.E. by E. by compass, distant probably about fifteen miles in a 
 straight line. 
 
 An hour's ride from Zey brought us to Ullan, a Christian 
 town, very recently deserted ; as it was the town in which Aioobe 
 the merchant of Assalt was born and brought up to manhood: — it 
 is now, however, entirely in ruins. Near it are some old caves of 
 burial, as well as hewn quarries, which probably furnished the stone 
 used in the dwellings, all of which are built of that material. On 
 the west of this, and at the apparent distance of two miles, we saw 
 Kufr Ulm, another town also recently deserted and fallen into 
 ruins. The whole of this tract is called Belkah, until it reaches 
 the river or brook of Zerkah, when the district ends, and to the 
 north of it commences the district of Jebel Adjeloon. Ullan 
 appears to have been an ancient site, from the abundance of fine 
 broken pottery scattered around it, of a quality far superior to any 
 in modern use in these countries, and one of the most frequent 
 and unerring indications of an early and populous settlement. 
 The spot is now used as a place of burial for the Arabs of the sur- 
 rounding country, who live in tents, and who are half cultivators 
 and half Bedouins. 
 
 Below this site of Ullan, we passed over a light red soil and 
 a reddish sand stone, with green turf and an abundance of scarlet 
 flowers, similar to those we had seen in such plenty in our way 
 over the plains near Amman and towards Oom-el-Russas. These 
 I now learnt were called by the Arabs, Berrakoot ; they are con- 
 sidered to yield an excellent remedy for asthma and coughs; to 
 effect which the flowers are boiled in a small quantity of water, and 
 the decoction sweetened with sugar, and drank by the patient, to 
 whom it is said to afford speedy and effectual relief 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. jgS 
 
 In half an hour after passing through Ullan, we came to a 
 sister town called Sihhan. This is larger than the former one ; 
 and besides being distinguished, like the other, by an abundance of 
 broken pottery scattered around its site, we noticed some grottos 
 in the neighbourhood, with fragments of the rustic masonry of the 
 Romans, arid the pedestal of a column, which indicated the former 
 existence of some architectural works of a public nature. This 
 spot is also now used as a place of burial by the tented Arabs of 
 the surrounding country, and on the graves are observed numer- 
 ous propitiatory offerings and tokens in memory of the tenants of 
 the graves. 
 
 Our road still continued in a direction of north-east, and de- 
 scended to a lower level as we proceeded, when, after a ride of 
 about three-quarters of an hour over a light red soil, we passed 
 suddenly down into a deep valley or glen, between UUakoom and 
 Sumia, two ruined villages on the hills on each side of us, about a 
 mile apart from each other. From hence the position of Boor- 
 mah was pointed out to me, in a northern direction, on the side 
 of Jebel Adjeloon. I believe this to be a different pronunciation 
 of the same name, which on my former way from Jerusalem to 
 Jerash was called Boorzah, as they were beyond doubt one and 
 the same place. 
 
 In an hour and a half from this, still descending, we went 
 down over a steep slope to the passage of the Zerkah. It had 
 been for some time gathering, and now began to rain heavily, with 
 thunder and lightning, so that we had the prospect of a most 
 uncomfortable ride before us ; it was now, however, too late to 
 seek shelter or retreat, of which I was rather glad, for had the rain 
 fallen within the first hour of our leaving Assalt, my companions 
 would no doubt have retraced their steps, and I should have been 
 detained another day or two, if not more. The stream of the 
 Zerkah was in this place deep and rapid, and it was not without 
 difficulty that we swam our horses across, although the breadth 
 was inconsiderable. We saw here several encampments of Arabs 
 
 R 2 
 
124 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT, 
 
 in their black hair tents, and noticed some caves and grottos exca- 
 vated by the earher inhabitants of these parts in the caves above. 
 On the hill to the east of Zerkah were also pointed out to me 
 more than fifty ruined villages, the names of which were repeated 
 to me, but being unable to write them on the spot they were soon 
 forgotten. 
 
 We ascended from hence northerly over steep hills and a 
 clayey soil, in which wild olives and numerous other trees were 
 growing ; and in about an hour after passing the Zerkah, we came 
 to a ruined village called Alamoom, about an hour's distance to 
 the east of Boor ma or Boorza. The rain here ceased, and after 
 the brilliance and freshness that it had thrown over all the vegeta- 
 ble creation, the view on its clearing up was at once sublime and 
 beautiful. The features of the country were such as I have already 
 described there in my former visit to Jerash ; but on this occasion 
 they derived a new charm from the state of the atmosphere, and 
 looked like the most lively part of creation in a new dress. 
 
 Directing our course more easterly, we came in half an hour 
 to the ruined town of Hamsa, where we observed many modern 
 graves, and a large building with a pointed arch. We passed on 
 the side of these ruins, without going through them, leaving them 
 a little on the right of our path, and had then on our left the ruined 
 towns of Jejazy on the side of a hill, and Ghiddery above it. Jebel 
 Asswete was pointed out to the eastward, that being the name 
 given to a district like those of Belkah and Adjeloon. In this 
 district of Jebel Asswete were said to be 366 ruined towns and 
 villages, now entirely deserted, and not even occasionally visited 
 by Bedouin Arabs in the course of their wanderings. This form 
 of expression is, I believe, often used merely to signify a great 
 number ; but even supposing the towns to have been only as 
 numerous in the district of Asswete as we have evidence of their 
 having been in Belkah and Adjeloon, there is scarcely any portion 
 of the country that could have been more peopled than these three 
 provinces in the time of their greatest prosperity. 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. J 25 
 
 Jejazy on the hill is small and of a modern date, though now 
 in ruins : the only things noticed there, besides the remains of the 
 dwellings, were a number of mill-stones used in the grinding of 
 corn. Ghiddery, which stands above it, is, however, larger and of 
 older date, its site being now almost grown over with trees. We 
 saw here several beautiful crested hoopoes, and a number of large 
 partridges, as well as numerous flocks of the pigeons before seen 
 and described in a former journey to Jerash, on passing through 
 the village of Soof These pigeons are nearly double the size 
 of the common pigeon of Europe, and are nearly all distin- 
 guished by a fine rich blue plumage. They are held in such 
 esteem as food, that at Soof, where I had first seen them, they 
 blind one of them as a decoy-bird by thrusting a needle into its 
 eyes, and drawing a thread from one eye to the other, after which 
 they are put into trap-cages to allure and entice others into the 
 snare. It was said also, that they were birds of passage, being 
 known to go to Abyssinia in the end of the spring, to stay there 
 during the rainy season of that country, and return again to these 
 mountains to enjoy the winter rains here. 
 
 Ascending the hill over a clayey soil, we soon reached the 
 summit, and found that the firs which clothed these elevated spots 
 grew larger and larger as we approached the pinnacle, and then 
 again dwindled in size as we descended. It was within an hour 
 after our passing the summit and going over the north-eastern side 
 of the hill that we came to Dibbeen, a modern town, the buildings 
 of which were distinguished by their Saracen or pointed arches. We 
 found it entirely deserted, its inhabitants having taken refuge from 
 the extortions of Syrian governors and the incursions of plunderino- 
 Arabs, in Assalt and other strong and independent towns of the 
 Hauran. There were originally not more than 100 separate habi- 
 tations in this place, and these were small and of inferior con- 
 struction, but there are now few remaining perfect even of that 
 small number. 
 
126 FURTHER DETENTION AT A.SSALT, 
 
 From this spot the reputed tomb of Ooda-el-Nebbe was 
 again seen, over the Valley of Jerash, bearing nearly east of us, 
 and a small party of Arabs were encamped below. We still con- 
 tinued to descend over the slope of the hill to the northward, our 
 way being through pines and other trees, and we passed on our 
 left the ruined villages of Nahaly, Reymoon, and Witkitty. I was 
 here called out of my path by one of my companions to see what 
 he called the Hadjar Nufook, a stone that was said to cover an 
 opening in the rock close by us, from which a large quantity 
 of gold had been taken out some time ago by Muggrebin magi- 
 cians from the west. This was a tale so common, and applied to 
 such various and distant spots, that I had become too much accus- 
 tomed to hear it to pay the least attention to such a narrative. 
 
 In an hour afterwards, we came to a valley in which ran a 
 small stream said to discharge itself into the Zerkah. This valley 
 and stream collectively is called Wadi Nahaly. It must once 
 have been deemed of some importance, as there are still seen here 
 the ruins of two aqueducts, called Towaheen ; they are evidently 
 both ancient works : one of them has a single arched passage 
 beneath it, about 30 feet high, and is now covered with leaves and 
 creeping plants on both sides ; the other has its surface encrusted 
 with large masses of petrifactions exactly like the cisterns at 
 Ras-el-Ain, the aqueduct of Tyre, and the northern baths of Ti- 
 berias. There had been a modern settlement also near the spot, 
 which is now, however, quite deserted, and only a few of the dwell- 
 ings remain. 
 
 From hence we ascended in an easterly direction over a stony 
 ground, and noticed a number of olive trees, not growing wildly 
 and spontaneously, as we had seen them before, but planted here, 
 and said to have belonged to the dwellings below. On the left we 
 passed the ruined village of Deer, and the villages of Merj, and 
 Megibbely to the north of it ; and in an hour from the aqueduct 
 of Towaheen, which most probably conveyed water to Jerash, we 
 reached that city, this being the third time of my visiting it, having 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. 127 
 
 travelled from Assalt for about eight hours, or not more than 
 thirty-two miles, in a north-east direction. 
 
 As it was now sunset, my companions were as much disposed 
 as myself to halt ; and we fixed on the ruins of Jerash for the place 
 of our repose. In entering the city from the west, by the outer 
 gate, we observed several sarcophagi, and I inferred from thence 
 that in this quarter there was also a necropolis, though in my 
 former visit we had met with a large assemblage of tombs in an- 
 other and opposite quarter, and more remote from the city walls. 
 On the south-west of the outer entrance to the city, and on the 
 south-east side, we observed several tombs excavated in the rock, 
 to the number of twenty at least, resembling in general appearance 
 those seen at Oom Kais : some of which, like the tombs at that 
 nlace also, had apparently been used, and that very recently, as 
 places of shelter and. habitation ; near one of them was the frag- 
 ment of a stone door, but neither of them were closed. 
 
 We passed up through the centre of the city, and made our 
 halt at the large square building conjectured to be a bath, which 
 stands on the east of the northernmost theatre, and west of the 
 stream in the valley. The part covered with a circular dome gave 
 us and our horses shelter, although three of its sides were open ; 
 we had firewood, provisions, and water with us, so that we were 
 well off; making a hearty supper, and smoking our pipes in an 
 arched recess, which we called the Horse-shoe Arch fi:om its shape, 
 at the south-west angle of the interior. 
 
 After supper I enjoyed a fine moonlight walk alone through 
 these magnificent ruins, and only regretted the want of a com- 
 panion to share with me the feelings which so impressive a scene 
 inspired. In the two former visits, we were so hurried that there 
 was scarcely time to note any thing, and still less to examine, to re- 
 flect, and to compare. Circumstances having, however, most unex- 
 pectedly brought me to this interesting spot for a third time, I was 
 determined to make the most of so favourable an opportunity for 
 bringing away a fuller and more accurate account of its remains 
 
128 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASS ALT, 
 
 than it had been possible to do on the former occasions already 
 alluded to ; as very few persons were likely, for some time to come 
 at least, to possess so good an opportunity, even in a projected 
 visit to this place, as would be afforded me by merely halting a 
 night at it, in a direct journey from Assalt to Damascus, as a spot 
 just one day's distance from our place of starting, and in the com- 
 mon route between these two places. 
 
 I did not return to the spot fixed on for our repose, until near 
 midnight, having gone over and examined alone, nearly every part 
 of the principal edifices by moonlight, and seen much that had 
 escaped me before ; and when I returned, I found that my guides, 
 who were still awake, had given me up as lost, or robbed, or mur- 
 dered : though, as might well be expected, I had met with no 
 living being in my ramble, not even the guardian bird to whose 
 care the people of Soof assured us on a former visit that the 
 preservation of the buried treasures was confided. 
 
 As there was a large fire still blazing in the Horse-shoe Arch 
 in which we had taken up our quarters for the night, 1 scrawled 
 my name, with the date, on the inner wall near where we sat ; and 
 the inference drawn by my credulous and suspicious companions, 
 from this simple act, was, that I had actually found the place in 
 which the hidden treasures of Jerash were concealed, and that this 
 discovery was made during my moonlight ramble alone, which 
 fully accounted to them for my absence, as well as for my going out 
 without them ; and that this writing on the wall was but the com- 
 mencement of the incantations which I was about to perform, for 
 the purpose of raising the buried gems and gold, and enriching 
 myself for ever ! 
 
 Jerash, Thursday, March 8.— After midnight we divided 
 ourselves into three watches, as our situation was thought to be 
 one exposed to danger; and, as we decided the order of our suc- 
 cession by drawing lots, it fell to my chance to keep the third, or 
 morning guard, Mallim Georgis the second or middle watch, and 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. 129 
 
 Abu Farah the first, or from twelve till two o'clock. During these 
 first two hours, the old sentry, then at his post, kept me awake by 
 his songs ; for, having a blazing fire before him, a coffee pot near, 
 and a full purse of tobacco for his pipe, he cheered the solitude of 
 the moment, and gave vent at the same time to the satisfaction of 
 his heart, by chanting the legendary songs of his youth. When 
 Georgis was aroused from his slumbers, for he slept most soundly 
 notwithstanding every obstacle, the old Abu Farah lay down to 
 take his repose. It must have been about three o'clock, for it was 
 full three hours before the day broke, when - we were suddenly 
 awakened by our temporary guardian, who crossed liimself twenty 
 times in the midst of his recital, and told us, with shortened breath, 
 a tale of robbers, and horses, and muskets, and lances, which he 
 uttered in so interrupted a manner, that Farah and myself, thus 
 suddenly roused from our sleep, could scarcely understand what 
 Vas meant. We were only aware that some imminent danger, or, 
 at least, the apprehension of it, must have been the cause of our 
 being disturbed ; and we, therefore, seized our muskets to prepare 
 for defence. While thus on our guard, we learnt from our 
 affrighted companion that, during the middle watch of the night, 
 one of our horses had been stolen ; and that this had occasioned 
 him to awake us. We at first accused him of sleeping on his post, 
 which he stoutly denied, with many appeals to the Virgin and St. 
 George for the truth of his story ; and, as if to convince us beyond 
 all doubt of his not having even slumbered on his guard, he con- 
 fessed that he had been a silent spectator of the whole transaction 
 from beginning to end. He said, that soon after his taking th& 
 look out, he saw a party of five men approaching the ruined build- 
 ing in which we had taken shelter, two of them leading their 
 horses, and the other three without horses, but all on foot. The 
 horsemen, he said, walked up and down, to and fro, like Franks 
 who are always restless and in motion, while the three men on 
 foot approached the place of our halt, each having a musket in his 
 hand. One of these, he added, then came close to the building. 
 
130 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASS ALT, 
 
 and removing the bushes with which we had blocked up the en- 
 trance to one of the arches, took out from thence with great cau- 
 tion and silence the horse that stood nearest to the aperture. 
 During all this time the prudent Georgis pretended to be asleep : 
 but thinking it might have some effect upon the robbers, whom he 
 was afraid to encounter openly, to show symptoms of being dis- 
 turbed, he turned round upon his side, as if half awakened by the 
 noise ; and the robbers themselves being quite as desirous of avoid- 
 ing a contest, provided they could secure any thing without the 
 risk of personal danger, walked silently off with their prize ; nor 
 was it until the party were quite out of sight and hearing that we 
 were apprized of our loss ! 
 
 I saw in this instance, a very striking picture of the Arab cha- 
 racter. The robbers themselves, though nearly twice our number, 
 and we too asleep, were afraid to attack us openly ; while our 
 companion, who then held the post of looking out, witnessed all 
 in silence, being equally afraid of rousing his smaller party for 
 defence. The plunderers were satisfied to gain a small booty with- 
 out injury, while the plundered was ready to make a sacrifice of 
 part of his property, for the sake of securing the same desirable 
 blessing, a whole skin. Had the one pushed his attempts further, 
 a skirmish at least might have ensued ; and if the other had given 
 a timely alarm, our little force might have been exerted to repel 
 the attack; so that, in either case, death or wounds might probably 
 have followed an encounter. As it luckily happened, the horse 
 that was stolen belonged to Mallim Georgis himself, and was worth 
 between 3 and 400 piastres ; but instead of blaming his own weak- 
 ness for suffering it to be taken away, without an effort even of 
 resistance, he expressed great contrition for his sins, and believed 
 this loss to be a judgment from heaven for some neglect of re- 
 ligious duty of which he had been guilty, some breaking of a fast, 
 or some indulgence of his evil passions. 
 
 We did not sleep, of course, during the remainder of the 
 morning, but continued debating the affair, and putting ourselves 
 
AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH. I3I 
 
 in a better state of preparation, for the possible return of these 
 successful plunderers, whom we determined to meet at their next 
 visit, if they should venture to make another, with arms in our 
 hands. The ruined building in which we slept being open on 
 three sides, we conceived it highly probable that the light of the 
 fire had attracted the robbers from afar ; and although it was now 
 but of little use to remove the cause, after its effect had been pro- 
 duced, the fire was put out, which left us to suffer considerably 
 from the piercing cold of the morning, with a hoar frost whitening 
 the whole of the surrounding country. 
 
 As we could not well pursue our journey so expeditiously, with 
 one of our party on foot, as if we were all mounted, it was 
 agreed that we should go down to one of the villages in the valley 
 of Adjeloon, where Geoi'gis had some friends and relations residing, 
 under the hope of procuring from some of these, the loan of a mare 
 for his use during the remainder of our way, or an advance of 
 money for the purchase of one, if none could be otherwise obtained. 
 I would willingly have dispensed with the services of these men 
 altogether, had it been possible ; but every day we met with small 
 parties of two, four, and half a dozen, who would have been ready 
 to insult and even plunder an unprotected stranger, but who gave 
 us always friendly salutes when they saw my guides, as these were 
 personally known to some persons or other in almost every town 
 and village of the country, and were therefore able at once to enter 
 on a friendly conversation with half the people we met. The ad- 
 vantage of having such guides as these, was therefore considerable, 
 as in their company I could pass in safety, where arms alone, 
 unless in great force, would never have secured my way: and while 
 they were with me, I was as certain of a kind and hospitable re- 
 ception among Mohammedans as among Christians, each of these 
 being apparently glad to profit by the Mallim's learning, and to 
 consult him as a sort of oracle on the signs of the times, as well as 
 to learn from Abu Farah the state of the roads, the encampments 
 of Arabs, the removal of fairs or markets, and all the local news of 
 
 s 2 
 
132 FURTHER DETENTION AT ASS ALT, &c. 
 
 the district which no one was more competent to give : the first of 
 these men being the most celebrated Seer, and the last, perhaps, 
 the most complete and experienced Itinerant in the whole country. 
 While our morning coffee was preparing, I ventured out with 
 my compass and note-book, to take sets of bearings for the 
 correction of the plan of the city, which I could now enjoy an 
 opportunity of doing, without any interruption and with but little 
 delay. Starting at daylight I had hoped to have done all I wishd 
 by eight or nine o'clock, but one object led to another, so that it 
 was nearly noon before I completed the peregrination of the prin- 
 cipal quarters of the city. By incessant and unwearied assiduity 
 during this period, I was enabled to sketch the ground plans of four 
 new edifices, take seven separate sets of bearings from different 
 buildings by compass, and copy some Greek inscriptions from an 
 altar, a column, and the frieze of a temple, making besides upwards 
 of ten closely written pages of notes, on the several portions that 
 struck me as worthy of remarking on as I went along. * 
 
 * The whole of this, which formed a far greater body of materials respecting Jerash, 
 than Mr. Bankes and myself had been able to collect during our first hasty and inter- 
 rupted visits, I thought it advisable to incorporate in the account given of the ruins of 
 that city, in the Travels in Palestine, already before the public, in order to make it as 
 complete as possible, and to gratify, as well'«,s I could, without delay, the curiosity of 
 all who desired to know whatever could be communicated respecting these recently 
 discovered and highly interesting remains. Instead, therefore, of repeating in this 
 place, the portion of information collected on this third visit to Jerash, I must refer the 
 reader to the more comprehensive general account of its ruins, contained in the Travels 
 in Palestine already referred to ; where it occupies about sixty pages, accompanied by 
 a ground plan of the city, and many of its separate edifices, drawn entii-ely from the 
 notes, bearings, and measurements taken by myself on this last occasion.' 
 
i^ m ^m 
 
 CHAR VIII. 
 
 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. 
 
 It was about noon when we left Jerash, quitting it now by the 
 western wall. Proceeding westerly for about an hour, and going 
 over rocky ground, we came to the village of Kittey, which is a 
 modern station, entirely occupied by Mohammedans. It has good 
 water, an excellent soil, and an abundance of olive trees near it, 
 with about fifty separate dwelling houses. 
 
 Proceeding more northerly, but over the same kind of rocky 
 ground, we came, in another hour, to Eremoon. At this place we 
 found a well-built Mohammedan tomb, with a reservoir for water 
 and a large spreading tree near it, on which, as well as at the door 
 of the tomb itself, were suspended tokens of devotion in various 
 shapes. Near it, was also a deserted mosque, with pillars on the 
 
134 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 inside, and a tolerably good exterior, with a small inscribed tablet 
 half way up the wall, on the northern face of the building. There 
 were many trees in the surrounding soil, and a population that 
 appeared to be in as comfortable circumstances as peasants and 
 labourers ever are in these ill-governed and improvident countries, 
 where it is literally the custom to take no heed for the morrow, 
 but to let the day provide for itself. 
 
 We ascended a steep hill on leaving this spot, and in half 
 an hour after quitting it, passed by a place called Ahheatherah, 
 which, from the large size of the stones of which its buildings were 
 constructed, and the great abundance of fragments of fine pottery 
 scattered around it, indicated an ancient site, whose very ruin must 
 have been at some remote period, as it was quite grown over 
 with trees. 
 
 Being now near the summit of Jebel Adjeloon, we could see, 
 from this elevation, the deep valley of the Zerkah, with its stream 
 winding from the S. E. to the N. W. The head of this stream is 
 said to rise near Amman, and to form the brook that runs through 
 the ruins of that city. From our present position we could also 
 observe, that on the summit of Jebel Asswete, there was an ele- 
 vated plain like that of Belkah, which we had passed over on our 
 way from Assalt to Oom-el-Russas. Beyond this again, to the 
 eastward, is the lower plain of the Hauran, which is said to be even 
 more thickly covered with ruined cities and towns than either of 
 the districts already traversed in this once abundantly peopled, 
 and now comparatively desolate, region. 
 
 On turning our way round the top of this elevated point of 
 Jebel Adjeloon, we shaped our course more northerly ; the soil 
 being still clay, with sand and limestone intermixed, and the whole 
 covered with firs and other trees. From what I observed here, it 
 would seem, that in these high regions, and remote from the sea- 
 coast, the wind blew most frequently, and with greater strength, 
 from the northward than from any other quarter, as the largest trees 
 were all much bent to the southward, and in a manner so uniform 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. J 35 
 
 that could have only been effected by long prevailing winds ; yet 
 it is remarkable, that all along the Syrian shore, southerly winds 
 prevail throughout the largest portion of the year. On the left of 
 our present route was a western branch of the same chain of hills, 
 stretching out from that on which we rode, and thickly covered 
 with wood ; and in the valley below, a few ruins of some old place, 
 which my guides named Huzzar. 
 
 Proceeding now in nearly a N. W. direction, we came, in half 
 an hour, upon the site of old ruins, which bore the name of Oom- 
 el-Jelood, the remains of which were now grown over with trees. 
 In its neighbourhood were fine corn-fields, in which the yoting 
 corn had begun to appear ; and near to the site of the town there 
 still remained a fine fountain of water, and the portion of an ancient 
 paved road. We continued to ascend over a hill covered with the 
 same kind of trees as those abounding near Assalt, which were 
 there called Finjan, but were here pronounced Sinjan trees ; they 
 were covered on the bark by a rich and beautiful moss. 
 
 Fr<)m the summit of the hill we could see Mounts Tabor and 
 Hermon, with the hill in the hollow of which Nazareth is seated, 
 bearing N.W. over the Valley of the Jordan. Here, too, we first 
 obtained a sight of the castle and valley of Adjeloon. From hence 
 we descended to the westward, and came, in half an hour, to the 
 village of Anjerah. There was a Roman arched well, which stood 
 near the entrance of this village, and fine corn-fields and olive- 
 grounds close to the houses, which pleasingly relieved the picture. 
 We alighted here to take coffee and enquire the news of the road ; 
 but learnt nothing worthy of notice. The village itself was a 
 flourishing one, and the people apparently industrious and happy : 
 the population was estimated at about 500 Moslems, and twenty 
 Christian families. The castle of, Adjeloon, in its general appear- 
 ance, resembled that of Assalt ; and below it, at the foot of the hill 
 on whose summit it stood, was pointed out to us the village of 
 Arrhubbudth, now deserted and in ruins, while in the valley near 
 this, stood the villages of Adjeloon and Ain Jerrah. 
 
136 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 We descended, after leaving Anjerah, and passed through a 
 rich and beautiful wood scenery, with grottos in the cliffs, large 
 masses of fallen rock, moss-covered stones and old trees, that pre- 
 sented the most picturesque assemblage of objects ; and, after 
 going in a westerly direction for half an hour, we came to Cufr 
 Injey, a village approached through corn-fields and olive grounds. 
 The scenery of our ride over the mountain of Adjeloon, and more 
 particularly down its western side, when we first obtained a sight 
 of the castle on the opposite hill, and the whole aspect of the fine 
 valley below, was equal in beauty to any portion of this richly 
 varied country that I had yet beheld. 
 
 We halted at Cufr Injey, and alighted at the house of a 
 Nazarene, named Maalim Yakoube, who had settled here as a 
 Schoolmaster, doctor, and worker in metals, and who was thought 
 to be the most clever man to be found in all the country, for many 
 miles round. We met with a very kind reception from this 
 worthy person, and between himself and my companions, as well 
 as between them and various visitors of the village, who had 
 collected around us almost before we alighted, there were exchanged 
 all those cordial salutations, kissings, and greetings, for which the 
 Arabs are so remarkable. Maalim Yakoube, who was a young 
 man of rather a handsome person, was unusually well dressed, 
 with two fine cloth pelisses, of bright red and blue colours, and 
 wore a rich shawl turban, while his wife and infant child were 
 literally laden with gold and silver ornaments, so that his triple 
 profession must have been a profitable one. The dwelling of this 
 family was like all the abodes that I had yet seen, for persons in 
 moderate condition ; namely, a raised portion for the members of 
 the family, and a lower part for the household stock and cattle. 
 The workshop in which the silver and gold of the peasants were 
 worked up into rudely fashioned ornaments for their women and 
 children, as well as the school in which the latter were flogged 
 into a knowledge of reading and writing, stood near the house, so 
 that the establishment was all under the eye of the master and 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. J 37 
 
 conveniently seated also for his domestic comfort. There were 
 only two Christians in the place besides our host, and as these 
 were not present among the groupe that surrounded us on our 
 arrival, they were sent for, when the kissing and greeting of our 
 first meeting was again repeated. 
 
 After we had satisfied the curiosity of our Mohammedan 
 visitors, they gradually dispersed ; and being now left alone, or 
 with Christian companions only, the conversation became more 
 free and unconstrained than while they were present. The subjects 
 touched on were chiefly religious and political, and the beaten 
 ground of the partition of the Turkish empire among the sove- 
 reigns of Christendom, was trodden again with renewed zeal, the 
 Maalim Yakoube taking a warm and lively interest in the prospects 
 of future emolument and advancement which such a scene opened 
 to his aspiring hopes. Our supper consisted of a dish of rice, peas, 
 and onions, all stewed together in oil; and ungrateful as such a mess 
 must naturally be to an English palate, my appetite was rendered 
 so keen by hunger, that I literally and truly enjoyed it, and made 
 a hearty meal. By way of dessert, some walnuts and dried figs 
 were afterwards served to us, besides a very curious article, pro- 
 bably resembling the dried wine of the ancients, which they are 
 said to have preserved in cakes. Those of which we now partook 
 might also be called wine-cakes : they were of the shape of a 
 cucumber, and were made out of the fermented juice of the grape 
 formed into a jelly, and in this state wound round a central thread 
 of the kernel of walnuts ; the pieces of the nuts thus forming a sup- 
 port for the outer coat of jelly, which became harder as it dried, and 
 would keep, it was said, fresh and good for many months, forming a 
 welcome treat at all times, and being particularly well adapted for 
 sick or delicate persons, who might require some grateful provisions 
 capable of being carried in a small compass, and without risk of 
 injury on a journey. 
 
 During the conversation of the evening, I learnt that the 
 population of this village was about 400, all of whom were Mo- 
 
138 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 hammedans, except our small party ; and though governed by a 
 Mohammedan sheikh, the consideration and comfort enjoyed by 
 the very few Christians residing here, evinced a degree of toler- 
 ation that was far from usual, and would hardly anywhere be found 
 except in places like this and Assalt, remote from the immediate 
 influence of the authorities of larger towns. All the villages in 
 this district of Adjeloon were, however, tributary to the Pasha of 
 Damascus, though lightly taxed, and Assalt was the first town, 
 going to the southward, that was entirely independent of his do- 
 minion. Even the Bedouins, who come in to encamp on this 
 fertile country, and of which there were now many who had pitched 
 their tents on the hills, the vallies, and the streams, pay a yearly 
 tribute, from their flocks and herds, to the same authority. Some 
 few, indeed, dispute its payment, as I remember to have seen on 
 the banks of the Jordan, when soldiers from Tiberias had been 
 sent to collect the tribute due; but this is seldom attempted 
 except by large and powerful tribes, or branches of them, who can 
 enforce their refusal by effectual resistance. 
 
 The castle of Adjeloon, in size, situation, and construction, 
 resembles that at Assalt, and was said here to be like that at 
 Karak also. They appear to be all old Roman works, with Sara- 
 cen additions and repairs at subsequent periods. It has a fine 
 commanding situation, with a deep well for water within, and a 
 broad ditch for defence without. It is, however, but poorly 
 garrisoned, as there were, at this moment, only ten soldiers in it 
 from Damascus, these leading so idle a life, that, as far as protection 
 or utility was concerned, it was thought they might as well have 
 been absent as present; and there are neither cannon, ammunition, 
 or provisions, kept within the walls. 
 
 I learnt also during our evening's conference, that about nine 
 hours' journey to the N. W. of this, was a place, called by some. 
 Tub kut Fehhel, and by others Jerim Moaz or Mooze, where there 
 were ruins of an ancient city, with a few fragments of broken pillars 
 and five or six tombs, like those of Oom Kais, with stone doore 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. ] 39 
 
 still standing, and sarcophagi within them. These ruins are about 
 two hours to the eastward of Beisan, the ancient Scythopolis, but 
 on the east side of the Jordan ; after crossing which, in a straight 
 line from Beisan, the way up is by ascending the eastern hills, 
 when the tombs are met with about half an hour after beginning to 
 ascend. I was assured that no European had ever yet been there, 
 and that the place was well worth a traveller's visit ; but I had 
 other objects to pursue, and was compelled to content myself with 
 seeing only such places as actually lay in my way, or through which 
 the route I was now pursuing necessarily led. 
 
 Cufr Injey, at which we made our halt for the night, lies 
 nearly west from Jerash, about five hours' journey, or twenty miles; 
 and from the nearest part of the Jordan it is about the same dis- 
 tance east. It is about fifteen hours' journey from Nazareth, which 
 bears N. N. W. from hence, and is considered a good day's journey 
 for a horseman, being perhaps from forty to forty-five miles by 
 the road, and from thirty to thirty-five in a straight line. Oom 
 Kais lies north of this about twelve hours' journey, and El Hhussan, 
 the first point of entrance into the Hauran, is in a N.E. direction, 
 distant about eight hours or thirty-two miles. 
 
 Cufr Injey, Friday, March 9. — The object of our visit to this 
 place being to procure a horse for one of my guides, Mallim 
 Georgis, in lieu of the one stolen from him at Jerash, some time 
 was spent in the morning and much difficulty experienced in the 
 search after one, in which we were even at last unsuccessful ; but 
 the kindness of our entertainer, Yakoube, soon relieved us from 
 our disappointment, by his granting to Georgis the use of his own 
 mare, and the loan of a small sum of money for the way, to 
 replace what he had lost, and serve his purpose as far as Damascus. 
 I engaged to remunerate him for this, on our arrival at that city ; 
 but the act itself was nevertheless one of great kindness, and 
 evinced a confidence which would not be reposed in a perfect 
 stranger in more civilised countries. 
 
 T 2 
 
140 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 We breakfasted with the family on a variety of excellent 
 dishes, among which were included walnuts, figs, and a dried jelly 
 of wine, about the consistence of a cake of portable soup, which 
 we found both agreeable and exhilarating. After breakfast, the 
 several members of the family repaired to their respective duties. 
 The elder brother of Yakoube, a young lad of about fifteen years 
 of age, went out into the school, where he heard the boys read 
 and repeat their lessons, and at the same time occupied himself in 
 the manufacture of some metal bracelets, at a bench fitted with 
 an anvil, vice, and all the conveniences of a regular workshop. 
 The second brother, a lad of about twelve years old, drove out the 
 cattle to graze, and attended at the same time to the feeding of the 
 mare and the poultry. The wife repaired to the kneading trough, 
 to make the usual portion of daily bread for the consumption of 
 the family ; and the husband sat down to copy a manuscript book 
 of Arabic prayers used in the service of the Greek church of 
 Syria ; while two infant children perpetually quarrelled with each 
 other, and ran alternately to the father and the mother for en- 
 couragement and protection. 
 
 During our morning stay here, I learnt that there was a con- 
 stant communication between the towns seated on the east and 
 the west of the Jordan, from Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Nablous, to 
 Assalt, Adjeloon, and the villages in their respective districts. 
 These journies were said also to be in general safe and easy, when 
 performed in company with the inhabitants of the country, in 
 parties from ten to twenty in number. From some of the towns 
 named, the communication is both regular and frequent, and from 
 others the parties are larger and the journies performed at more 
 distant periods : a caravan generally came from Nablous once a 
 month, when all who had business in these parts profited by the 
 protection it afforded ; and this, like all the others in this part of 
 the country, was composed chiefly of horses, mules, and asses; the 
 mountainous and rugged nature of the road rendering it disadvan- 
 tageous to employ camels, which are used chiefly in the plains. 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. I4I 
 
 The whole of the country that we had yet traversed on the 
 east of the Jordan, from the lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea, and 
 from Oom Kais to Heshbon, is fertile in the extreme ; and the 
 woody scenery of the mountain districts of Belkah and Adjeloon 
 scarcely to be surpassed in beauty. The soil is so generally fertile 
 as to be capable of producing almost any thing that is required ; 
 and while the vallies abound with corn-fields and olive-grounds, 
 the upland slopes of the hills are planted with vines, and the sum- 
 mits of the mountains are clothed with the trees of the coldest 
 regions. The climate is really delightful : a clear, deep blue sky, 
 a pure air, a warm summer in the vallies and plains, a snowy winter 
 on the mountain-tops, with all the finest shades of gradation 
 between these two extremes, furnish every variety of temperature 
 and atmosphere that can be desired by man. The strongest proof 
 that could be given of its salubrity, is the remarkable fact that not 
 one maimed, deformed, or sickly-looking person anywhere met 
 our sight, during the whole period of my being in this part of the 
 country, though we saw new faces, and came in contact with great 
 numbers of persons every day. Indeed this portion of the country 
 included in the districts of Belkah and Adjeloon, on the east of the 
 Jordan, is as superior to the Promised Land on the west of that 
 stream, as the most romantic and beautiful parts of Devonshire 
 are to the bleak hills and barren heaths of the adjoining county of 
 Cornwall. 
 
 We were about to depart from Cufr Injey, when as singular 
 an accident as that which brought us here occurred to detain us. 
 A Greek priest, belonging to Nazareth, had walked up this 
 morning from a village called Rajib, seated on the site of an 
 ancient town about two hours to the S.W. among the hills, to 
 claim the use of Yakoube's mare for the day, our worthy host 
 having before assured him that the animal would be at his service 
 whenever he wished it. It was in vain that we pleaded the urgency 
 of our want of the animal in question, as the length of our journey 
 would not admit of any one of our party proceeding on foot. The 
 
142 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 same plea was set up on the part of the priest, who had a number 
 of visits to make at the different villages in the district, and who 
 professed to be equally unable to perform them by walking. The 
 question was at last put to the vote, by my desire, but I stood 
 quite alone, in a solitary minority; for all the rest of the company, 
 myself excepted, thought that a day's detention could be of no 
 material consequence to us, as the mare would certainly return to- 
 night, and be ready for our journey to-morrow : whereas, if I per- 
 sisted in my claim on the animal, and proceeded to set out at once, 
 the priest, as they considered, would be interrupted in the per- 
 formance of his more important duties, and the guilt of this they 
 conceived would lie on their heads, if they were, in any manner, 
 accessaries to his detention. I was therefore obliged to yield, how- 
 ever reluctantly, and consent to await the priest's return, before 
 we could continue on our way. 
 
 At noon we were visited by the wife of the Sheikh-el-Belled, a 
 Moslem woman, who came into the house with her face unveiled, 
 dressed in rich robes, with a fur cloak, a profusion of silver ornaments, 
 and a costly pipe which she smoked as she walked. She had come to 
 consult our host Yakoube, whose fame as a physician had spread 
 through the neighbouring country, and who she therefore addressed 
 by the title of Hakeem, entreating his professional advice on a 
 complaint, which air and exercise would have been sufficient, 
 without the aid of medicine, to remove. Her visit, though short, 
 was extremely ceremonious : she was accompanied by a female 
 slave, and all rose at her entrance and departure, well knowing that 
 any mark of disrespect to her would be likely to be amply returned 
 by the power of her husband. 
 
 After the departure of this lady, dinner was brought, but 
 instead of eating together as before, we now formed four distinct 
 parties. A grilled fowl was served up to me on a separate stool ; 
 then followed. my guides and their two Christian visitors, over a 
 large bowl of boiled wheat and oil ; after these had finished, the 
 master of the house, his brothers, and their children, partook of 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. J 43 
 
 the same dish ; and last of all came the young wife of Yakoube, 
 quite alone, who retired into a corner of the room with the dishes 
 out of which we had all eaten, and literally gathered up the frag- 
 ments that nothing might be lost, feeding, as it were, on the crumbs 
 that had fallen from her husband's table. 
 
 The degraded state of the women in this country cannot be 
 viewed without feelings of pity, mixed with indignation, by the 
 native of a freer and a happier land, where females are assigned 
 their proper rank in society, and by their education, manners, and 
 amiable qualities of the mind and heart, add so many charms to man's 
 existence. In England, the better part of the passion of love is 
 intellectual : in this country it is wholly formed of animal desire, 
 which alone renders women necessary, or even acceptable, either 
 to Mohammedans or Christians, for in this respect there is no 
 difference whatever between the followers of these religions. They 
 are therefore purchased by both, as any other animal would be, 
 to promote their domestic convenience. The prices of wives, 
 who are literally bought for money, vary from 500 to 1000 piastres, 
 among the better order of the inhabitants living in villages, and 
 scattered through the country, but descends as low as 100 and even 
 50 among the labouring classes. The wife of the merchant Aioobe, 
 at Assalt, had cost him 800 piastres, and the wife of the Hakeem 
 Yakoube, at this place, had cost him 550, which had been paid to 
 the parents of each. These facts were easily learnt, as no feeling 
 of delicacy forbids such disclosures ; on the contrary, so far from 
 scrupling to name the amount of the money paid for their wives, 
 they frequently mention it without solicitation, and very frequently 
 exaggerate the price for the purpose of enhancing their estimated 
 worth in the mind of a stranger. It should be added, however, that 
 on this subject it is only the Christians that are so communicative, 
 their Mohammedan neighbours being in general averse to any men- 
 tion of the female part of their families, and resenting as an insult 
 enquiries even after their health. No servants are kept, except by fa- 
 milies of great wealth and consideration, so that even in the middling 
 
] 44 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 classes of life, nearly all the domestic labour is performed by the wife, 
 who, it must be confessed, is, after all, only a higher order of slave, 
 being doomed to confinement, degradation, and perpetual labour, 
 from the day of her marriage to the day of her death. 
 
 In the afternoon I proposed a walk down into the valley, under 
 the pretence of desiring to bathe in the stream which flows through 
 it. It was my wish to have gone alone, but our kind entertainer 
 Yakoube offering to accompany me, I could not with propriety 
 decline, and we accordingly set out together. The stream that 
 runs along this valley comes from the eastward through the Wadi 
 Adjeloon, and ultimately discharges itself into the river Jordan to 
 the west. The nearest part of the brook itself is about a quarter 
 of an hour's walk only from the village of Cufr Injey, and about an 
 hour's walk from the castle of Adjeloon, which stands on the 
 summit of the opposite hill. To the south, the land is sufficiently 
 sloped to admit of corn-fields and olive-grounds, but to the north 
 it is more steep and woody, presenting, in many places, steep per- 
 pendicular cliffs, in which are natural hollows and artificial excava- 
 tions, formerly perhaps the abodes of the living and the sepulchres 
 of the dead. The distance from hence, to the spot where the 
 stream first enters on the plain of the Jordan, or El Ghore, as it is 
 called here, is estimated at four hours, or about sixteen miles, in a 
 W. S. W. direction, and from thence to the river itself is reckoned 
 at three quarters of an hour more, the valley being narrow and 
 winding about that part of it. 
 
 In a close retreat of this beautiful valley, just beneath some 
 large caves in a high cliff, called Irak el Wehhesh, we surprised 
 some Moslem females from the village washing their own garments, 
 and at the same time bathing themselves in the stream, while their 
 clothes were drying in the sun. As they could not have conceived 
 themselves liable to interruption, (for what man of the country 
 would ever think of walking to such a spot for pleasure ?) so they 
 apparently gave loose to their fancies, and four of the party were 
 seen by us in the state of Eve before the fall, with exquisitely fine 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. 245 
 
 forms, and long hair hanging luxuriantly to the water, with some 
 of the tresses floating on the stream, playing all the antics and 
 tricks of sport on each other that might be witnessed in a bathing 
 party of boys just released from the confinement of school. The 
 alarm that was occasioned among them by our unexpected approach, 
 was as great as our own surprise at such a scene; but having no 
 wish to disturb their enjoyment, we retired instantly to leave them 
 in quiet possession of their delightful retreat. 
 
 On our return to the village, I was enabled to view it more 
 perfectly than on the preceding evening, as we first entered it; and 
 perceived many proofs of its being on the site of some more ancient 
 settlement. The first of these was the presence of scattered frag- 
 ments of pottery, of a deep red colour and finely ribbed surface, 
 such as is no where used in the country at the present day ; and 
 which, in almost all cases that I remember, has proved one of the 
 surest indications of other remains near, to establish the certainty 
 of its being the wreck of earlier ages, and a more refined and 
 civilised population. Next to this were several excavated caves 
 facing the north, hewn out of the bed of rock on which the village 
 stands, with recesses for the reception of dead bodies within them : 
 other smaller excavations, just adapted to the size of the human 
 body, standing separately ; and others again of a still smaller kind, 
 nearly square in form, and probably meant for the interment of 
 young children, though the inhabitants of the village, in common 
 with all the natives of the country, constantly regard all excavations, 
 whether large or small, as the ancient receptacles of treasure. We 
 saw also the portion of a well-built wall on the edge of the cliff above 
 us, the workmanship of which was in the Roman rustic style and 
 manner, the stones large, well hewn, and generally oblong and 
 square ; smooth at the edges of union, with a rough projection in 
 the centre of the exterior surface, and the joints still close and 
 compact, though no cement had ever been used in the masonry. 
 To the north-east of this, and a little lower doWn the hill, I was 
 shown a fine sarcophagus of stone, not long since discovered by 
 
 u 
 
146 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 some labourers who were digging on that spot for earth. It was 
 now within an excavation of the rock, and both its contents and its 
 cover had been removed before the labourers found it, so that it 
 did not occupy its original place, and must have been buried in the 
 rubbish that enveloped it since the period of its being originally 
 violated. The clear space of the inside of this sarcophagus was 
 nine spans long and three broad : the stone out of which it was 
 hewn was about three inches in thickness, grooved along the upper 
 edges to receive the cover, and the ends and sides neatly sculptured 
 with two oblong compartments divided by a pillar, and in the 
 centre of each compartment a large full-blown flower, with mould- 
 ings enclosing it as a border, and smaller flowers studding the 
 angles of the square. The central flowers in each panel were in 
 a very high relief, of nearly three inches from the surface of the 
 sides which they ornamented, thus differing from all the sarcophagi 
 I had yet seen : but if the execution of the sculpture was ever 
 remarkable for its skill or elegance, it was now too much injured 
 by time and decay to be perceived. The work was, however, 
 undoubtedly Roman, and, connected with the other features of 
 the place already described, established beyond dispute the fact of 
 this being the site of some early settlement, of much greater im- 
 portance than the village now standing on its ruins. Not far 
 distant from this was the shaft of a small pillar ; higher up, the 
 pedestal of a larger one ; and hewn stones of a considerable size 
 scattered about in great numbers, which, if confirmation were 
 needed, would strengthen the opinion already expressed. 
 
 In the village itself, and not far from the dwelling of our host, 
 I was taken into the house of a Mohammedan family to be shown 
 what was justly considered to be the greatest curiosity in the place. 
 The lower part of the room into which we were introduced was 
 appropriated to the cattle of the family. It was about fifteen feet 
 square, and was surrounded by a bench of solid rock, about two 
 feet broad, and two feet high. In the upper surface of this bench or 
 raised seat were hewn, close to each other, separate troughs or cis- 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. X47 
 
 terns of about eighteen inches square, and nearly two feet deep. 
 At one corner of this singular apartment was a trough or cistern, 
 with an outlet for conveying the water through the building; 
 and beyond the walls of it, in the same direction, were seen the 
 remains of a small subterranean chamber, hewn out of the rock, 
 and ornamented with stucco on its walls. The most curious part 
 of all was the pavement of the first room, which was a sort of 
 Mosaic work, formed of very small stones united together on abed 
 of cement below them ; the persons who showed us this apartment 
 asserted that the stones were of various colours, naming white, 
 green, red, yellow, and blue ; but if this were really the case, the 
 surface was now too dirty to enable us to perceive the variety of 
 colours described. It appeared to me, at first sight, to be a thin 
 layer of natural stone liable to break in squares, as I had before 
 seen a layer of that kind only a few inches below the surface of 
 the earth, near the spot where the Roman sarcophagus had lately 
 been dug out of the rubbish; but on a closer examination of the 
 whole I thought it to be really an artificial work, as the joints were 
 in many instances too ill-shapen to be natural. The separate 
 pieces were, in general, less than an inch square : and, though 
 dark at the upper surface as if stained, were white at the bottom. 
 The stone itself was a coarse marble, and the cement on which the 
 whole reposed was a fine lime. I had no doubt, indeed, after a 
 close examination, that the work was entirely artificial, and as such 
 it might be considered, perhaps, as ancient a specimen of that kind 
 of pavement as any in existence. Were it not for this display of 
 labour and expence, I should have thought the apartment origi- 
 nally meant for a stable, with the square pits hewn in the raised 
 bench nmning round it for grain, and the large trough in the corner 
 for watering the cattle ; but, with a Mosaic pavement in the centre, 
 and the square excavations serving as rude cisterns for water all 
 around, it appeared more probable that it had been a very ancient 
 bath. On the outside of this building, to the eastward, and above 
 the stuccoed subterranean chamber, we were shown another pave- 
 
 u 2 
 
148 MOM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 merit, of a similar kind, the stones being only larger in size, or 
 nearly two inches square; like the former one, this was a coarse 
 white marble imbedded in lime, and resembling, at first sight, a 
 layer of stone naturally fractured into squares, as in the vein of 
 this kind near the sarcophagus already described. It is not impro- 
 bable but that the hint of this rude Mosaic might have first been 
 taken from nature; consisting originally of a simple imitation of 
 such broken layers, and the idea subsequently improved by all the 
 successive varieties of colour and form through which it must have 
 passed before the art attained its present high state of perfection. 
 
 It was sunset before we returned to the house ; and though I 
 was vexed at my unexpected detention, yet I saw in this instance, 
 as in many others, how many interesting objects might be seen by 
 more fortunate travellers than myself, who should come to tra- 
 verse this unexplored country, with leisure and means to examine, 
 and opportunity and ability to record what they might see and 
 hear at almost every step of their way. 
 
 In the course of the afternoon, during our ramble over the 
 village, two parties had been dispatched to make provision for our 
 supper ; one of young boys to catch some fish in the stream of 
 Adjeloon, another of elder lads, with a man at their head, to rouse 
 a wild boar from his- lair in the mountains, and hunt him to the 
 death. Both of these foraging parties were successful, and re- 
 turned before sunset with their game, so that our supper was both 
 abundant and excellent ; the fish were small, but of very delicate 
 flavour, and the boar's flesh equal to any that I had ever eaten. 
 The manner of dressing the latter was by placing about twenty 
 pieces of half an inch square on a long skewer, and turning it over 
 the fire as on a spit, so that a few minutes were sufficient to roast 
 it, and even in this rude way of preparing it, nothing could be 
 more palatable. The only regret that was uttered, but this was 
 deep and general, was, that in so Christian an assembly, and with 
 such excellent viands, there should be neither wine nor spirits to 
 complete the feast. 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. 249 
 
 Our host, in his capacity of silversmith and working jeweller, 
 being also a great buyer of strange and foreign coins, both ancient 
 and modern, exhibited to me several very common ones of the 
 Lower Empire, which he had bought at an extravagant price, under 
 an idea that they were really rare and valuable, and would, at a 
 proper opportunity, afford him a handsome profit. His ideas of 
 chronology were so confused, that he thought the early Christians 
 far more ancient than the Greeks or Romans, and considered Alex- 
 ander of Macedon, and the twelve Caesars, quite modern person- 
 ages compared with the Christian emperors of Constantinople. 
 In all his purchases of what he considered ancient coins he, there- 
 fore, made the cross the chief standard of antiquity, and paid a 
 much higher price for pieces on which that emblem was found, 
 than for any others. Among his present collection there were 
 several Christian coins, such as Venetian, Spanish, and Portuguese, 
 now current in their respective countries, though he considered 
 them to be of great antiquity ; but I did not observe one that was 
 worth more that its weight in the metal of which it was formed. 
 He mentioned, however, having lately possessed a fine white semi- 
 transparent stone (which I took to be an agate from his descrip- 
 tion), brought to him by a peasant from the ruins of Jerash, having 
 a male figure on one side, and a long Greek inscription on the 
 other. This would, perhaps, have proved an interesting frag- 
 ment, if it could have been traced ; but he knew not to whom it 
 had been sold, all his information being confined to the more in- 
 teresting fact, as far as he was concerned, of his having purchased 
 it for one Spanish dollar, and sold it soon after for five. He had, 
 at present, in his possession, a coarse agate stone about an inch 
 long, by half an inch broad, of an oval shape, flat on one side and 
 convex on the other, which he said was also found at Jerash ; he 
 had set it for the owner into a ring of silver, the outer or convex 
 part containing, in large and rudely cut characters, the inscription 
 here given : — 
 
 norn 
 
 TOIA 
 
150 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 In the conversation of the evening, I learnt that the village 
 of Cufr Injey was considered to be one long day's journey of fif- 
 teen hours from Assalt ; the same distance from Nazareth ; twelve 
 hours from Nablous ; and twenty-four hours from Jerusalem, with 
 all of which places there is only occasional communication, and to 
 neither of which it would be considered safe to journey from hence 
 without companions, and these well armed. 
 
 Saturday i March 10. — The mare of Yakoube having returned 
 during the night as promised, she was saddled for my guide, Geor- 
 gis, at daylight this morning ; and taking leave of our kind enter- 
 tainers, we left the village of Cufr Injey at about seven o'clock. 
 In our way out, we saw more remains of ancient buildings, and 
 proceeded down to the valley, in order to cross the stream along 
 which we took our ramble on the afternoon of the preceding day. 
 At the stream itself we observed the remains of an aqueduct and 
 sloping moles of masonry, as I had before remarked when crossing 
 the ford over the Zerkah in a former journey from Jerusalem to 
 .Terash, both of these, probably, marking the boundaries of ancient 
 divisions apportioned to neighbouring tribes. 
 
 In about three-quarters of an hour from hence, we came to 
 the caves of Irak-el- Wehheir, the largest of which faced to the 
 westward, and seemed to have a deep descent. It was about 100 
 feet long, and 30 high, but appeared to be a natural cavern, al- 
 though it had been used for a place of dwelling or retirement, as 
 there were niches for lamps in the cliffs near it. 
 
 In ascending to the castle of Adjeloon, we saw some cisterns, 
 many hewn stones, and part of a paved road leading up to the fort- 
 ress. The castle has a general resemblance to that of Assalt, being, 
 like it, seated on the summit of a high hill. It is nearly square 
 in form, and about 400 paces in circuit, with a central buttress on 
 each face. It is built on a mass of lime-stone, and surrounded by 
 a broad and deep ditch hewn out of the solid rock, and originally 
 faced with masonry in those parts where the broken surface of the 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. 251 
 
 took required it, on both sides of the ditch and at the foot of the 
 fortress itself, where it slopes off near its foundations. The archi- 
 tecture of this castle appeared to me to be Roman, the stones being 
 large in size, well squared, and the smooth edges united without 
 cement, with the rough projection of the rustic masonry in the 
 centre of the surface of each separate block. There are also loop- 
 holes for arrows in several parts of the walls, and shell-niches of 
 the form of the Roman arch, i-esembling those seen in the ruins of 
 Jerash. Within this building, however, the round, the flat, and 
 the pointed arch, are all seen in the same apartment, and though 
 the appearances of Roman work are found in every part,' yet the 
 pointed arches of the interior are of the most solid kind, and look 
 as if they were coeval with the building. The loop-holes for 
 awows resemble the modern embrasures for cannon in every thing 
 but the contracted space of the outer part, and they are so numer- 
 ous as to prove that the building was erected with a view to hot 
 and desperate defence. The castle may be almost said to be in 
 ruins, though many parts of it are still habitable, for it would 
 require great labour and great expense to restore it to a state of 
 complete repair. It was with some difficulty that we mounted to 
 the top of the walls, but when we succeeded, we were well re- 
 warded by the fine view obtained from thence of all the surround- 
 ing country. 
 
 The mixture of Roman and Saracen work which appeared in 
 different parts of the same building, rendered it difficult to decide 
 to which it originally belonged ; the opinion I formed on the spot, 
 however, was, that it was originally a Roman edifice, but subse- 
 quently enlarged and repaired in different parts by Saracen hands, 
 into which it must have afterwards fallen. This opinion was much 
 strengthened by the discovery of an Arabic inscription, which was 
 evidently not coeval with the building, but placed there after its 
 erection, for which purpose the rough projecting parts of the surface 
 were smoothed down, and a sort of tablet formed underneath two 
 
152 
 
 FROM JERASH TO THE VALLEY 
 
 fan-topped or shell-niches of Roman work on the eastern face of 
 the castle. The only part of the inscription that I could make out 
 was the name of Salah-ed-din-el-Mullela-ibn-Yusef, but no date 
 could be traced. The castle faces nearly towards the four cardinal 
 points, and must have been originally considered one of the 
 strongest positions in the country, though in the hands of its pre- 
 sent possessors it is of very little strength or utility. The following 
 is a list of the bearings and estimated distances of places seen from 
 the top of the castle ; the former taken by a compass on the spot, 
 and the latter from the authority of the guides and soldiers who 
 were present : — 
 
 Village of Anjerah S.E. i S. 1 hour. 
 
 Village of Cufr Injey . . . .S.W.iW. U hour. 
 
 Openingto the Valley of the Jordan W.S.W. 4 hours. 
 
 Town of Nablous West . . 14 hours. 
 
 TownofBeisan N.W. 4N. 9 hours. 
 
 North extreme of Mount Carmel N. W. 
 
 Mount Hermon N.W. 4 N. 18 hours. 
 
 Mount Tabor N.N.W.|W.16 hours. 
 
 Town and Lake of Tiberias . . N. byW. 12 hours. 
 
 Gebel-el-Telj, or Snowy Mountain N. by E. 40 hours. 
 
 Osha-el-Nebbe, over Assalt . . S. 4 W. . 12 hours. 
 
 Bahr-el-Loot, or Dead Sea . . S.S.W. 4 W. 10 hours. 
 
 Village of Adjeloon E. by N. . 1 hour. 
 
 Village of Ain Jerrah . . . . E. 4 N. . . 14 hour. 
 
 Beida Hubbar — in ruins . . . N.E. . . 4 hours. 
 
 All around the eastern side of the hill are the ruins of a town 
 called Errubbedth, with a square reservoir for water hewn out of 
 the hill, and stuccoed on the inside with a flight of steps descend- 
 ing into it ; and from this town, though now in ruins, the castle of 
 Adjeloon is frequently called Khallet-Errubbedth. 
 
AND CASTLE OF ADJELOON. 153 
 
 Before we departed from hence we remained to smoke a nar- 
 geel and take a cup of coffee with the soldiers, of whom there were, 
 at present, only two stationed at the castle, some of their comrades, 
 as they told us, having been called to Damascus. While taking 
 this refreshment, I observed on a stone now standing like a divid- 
 ing post between two small doors, a long inscription in Arabic, 
 which neither of our party was sufficiently versed in the language 
 of the olden time to read, though in the characters still used by 
 themselves in all their writings. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. 
 
 On leaving the castle, we descended the hill on which it 
 stands, and passed over the ruins of Errubbedth, which we found 
 nearly covered with trees. In our way to the village of Adjeloon, 
 we passed a large mass of rock, in which we observed an arched 
 recess, and several niches and portions of the surface hewn out, 
 but for what purpose was not very apparent. In half an hour after 
 leaving the castle we entered the village of Adjeloon, the situation 
 of which in the valley is extremely agreeable. It had, however, 
 been once much more populous than at present, there being now 
 but few inhabitants, and the greater number of the buildings in 
 the place in ruins. Among others there was an old mosque, with 
 a central court and pillars, lighted by circular windows from a 
 
FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON, &c. I55 
 
 dome above, and containing several Arabic inscriptions, none of 
 which, however, we had time to copy. In the court were a 
 number of broken pillars that lay half buried in the earth ; on one 
 of which was a long Greek inscription of about twenty lines, now 
 nearly obliterated; and Arabic inscriptions in great number. 
 There was the same strange mixture of architecture as of languages, 
 the Roman and Saracen being both united, as at the castle, trian- 
 gular pediments marking the one, and pointed arches the other. 
 Attached to this mosque, which might once have been a Christian 
 place of worship also, was a slender but lofty tower of a square 
 form, and about fifteen or twenty feet in breadth on each side. The 
 tower could be ascended on the inside by a winding staircase of 
 sixty-one steps, formed of coarse marble, above which was a small 
 gallery, and above that again two octagonal stages, the whole being 
 crowned by a small dome, with apertures for lighting the stairs 
 from the bottom to the top. On the east of this tower, and on a 
 little lower level, I observed a large well, now used for washing 
 clothes, with the ruins of a large building once erected over it, and 
 apparently of Roman architecture, with Saracen additions and 
 repairs. 
 
 From the village of Adjeloon we ascended a steep hill to the 
 E.N.E. over vine grounds, and in a quarter of an hour came to a 
 place called Deer Mar Elias, or the convent of St. Elias, where 
 there were the remains of some former building, probably a Greek 
 monastery, as the name would import. No portion of the build- 
 ing was standing, but a number of hewn stones were scattered 
 about in all directions, and broken pottery, of the red and ribbed 
 kind before described, strewed all the way between the mosque of 
 Adjeloon and this spot. 
 
 We remarked at this place that the stones of the original 
 building had been carefully collected by some hand, and heaped 
 up in a circular pile of seven or eight feet high, and about twenty 
 feet in diameter, and on the top of this a smaller circle of about 
 
 X 2 
 
]56 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 four feet high. On a loose stone which lay broken among others, 
 the following Greek letters were observed : — 
 
 H eYAHX 
 EPCNTP 
 
 the characters being deeply cut, about three inches in length, 
 and standing at some distance from each other. One of my guides 
 remembered to have seen another stone with Greek characters on 
 it near this spot, but it was not now to be found. There are seve- 
 ral large natural caverns in the neighbourhood of t-his place, and 
 many smaller excavated tombs in the rocks, with small benches 
 near them as if for seats, so that this spot was also likely to have 
 been the site of some larger settlement. 
 
 We halted at the house of a Christian Arab at Adjeloon ; and 
 as our host, Yakoobe, had come with us from Cufr Injey thus far, 
 the priest of the village called together all the Christians who were 
 in the neighbourhood to meet us. It appeared that at Cufr Injey 
 there were only four Christians among all its inhabitants, at An- 
 jerah ten, at Ain-Jerrah fifteen, and at this place, Adjeloon, 
 twenty. They have a small room here which is appropriated to 
 worship, and on Sundays and feast days they have the occasional 
 visits of the other villagers to add to their congregation. There 
 are about 400 inhabitants in each of the three former villages, and 
 200 in this; which, however, must have been once the largest place 
 of the whole, judging from the extent of the ruined dwellings 
 around it, and particularly on its northern side. 
 
 We left Adjeloon about ten o'clock, and after ascending a 
 narrow valley to the northward, inclining easterly, entered into a fine 
 forest of Sinjan trees, where, after an hour's journeying, we passed 
 over a spot covered with the vestiges of former buildings, walls, 
 and streets, though now entirely overgrown with shrubs and trees. 
 This spot is called by the people of the country, Belled-el- Yosh, 
 or the country or place of Joshua, probably referring to that leader's 
 bidding the sun to stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the 
 valley of Ajalon, (Joshua x. 12.) ; this valley of" Adjeloon," as it 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. I57 
 
 is now pronounced, through which we had come, and on the skirts 
 of which the ruins spoken of are placed, being undoubtedly the 
 same with the valley of Ajalon named in the Scriptures. 
 
 Continuing in a northerly direction from the spot, we entered 
 on a red soil with silicious stones, and rock of perforated lime ; 
 and in half an hour passed on our right, at the distance of half a 
 mile, the ruined towns of Hhubbeen and Sakkara. The village of 
 Soof, at which we halted in a former journey from Jerusalem to 
 Jerash, was also on our right; and from the high level of the tract over 
 which we now rode, we had a fine view of the plain of the Hauran, 
 bounded by a range of snow-capped hills on the east, by the snowy 
 mountains of the Druse on the north, and by the great Gebel-el- 
 Telj, or Mountain of Snow on the west ; in which direction, or on 
 our left, inclining to the south-west, the Sea of Tiberias and the 
 valley of the Jordan extended far to the south. On the road over 
 which we now rode, there was a considerable quantity of unmelted 
 snow, so that the air was sharp and biting ; but this track being 
 considered dangerous, we were all on the alert, and rode the greater 
 part of the way with our muskets cocked and ready in our hands. 
 
 In another half hour we passed the ruined village of Sampta, 
 about a quarter of a mile on our right, and from thence began to 
 descend over stony ground. Our course still continued to be 
 northerly, inclining to the east a point or two occasionally, and 
 going on in this direction we passed, in half an hour more, a large 
 heap of stones in the road, which was said to mark the grave of a 
 celebrated Bedouin chief, named Abd-el-Azeez, the Slave of the 
 Mighty, on which every Arab of his tribe that passed, and many 
 others following their example, threw a stone to do him honour, 
 and keep the place of his entombment in remembrance. 
 
 In half an hour from this, passing still through a thickly 
 wooded tract, we came to a large tomb, excavated out of the solid 
 rock, and lying on the right-hand side of our path. In front of 
 the tomb itself, and forming the approach to its entrance, was a 
 quadrangular court or platform, cut down from the rock, descended 
 
158 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 into by three steps, and about fifteen feet square, with a deep 
 cistern for containing water within the same space. From this, 
 the first entrance into the tomb was by a Roman arched aperture, 
 about five feet in height ; after this, and further in, was a small 
 square doorway, about two feet and a half wide, which had evidently 
 been fastened with a stone door, as in the tombs at Jerusalem and 
 Oom Kais ; the marks of the pivot, hinges, and the cavity for re- 
 ceiving the bolt or lock in the side of the doorway, being still 
 visible. The inner chamber of this tomb had three arched recesses 
 for the reception of the dead. In that on the right hand were 
 seen two sarcophagi lying side by side; in that on the left was only 
 one sarcophagus ; and in that at the end of the chamber was 
 another, each larger than the present human form ; all of them 
 being fixtures, and, like every part of the tomb itself, hewn out of 
 the solid rock. The inner chamber appeared to be about ten feet 
 square, and was probably the same in height originally ; but the 
 bottom being now covered with accumulated rubbish, it was too 
 low to admit of standing quite upright on the inside. The general 
 aspect of the whole of this remarkable place strongly resembled 
 that of many of the smaller caves of Kenneri, in the island of 
 Salsette, near Bombay ; so much so indeed, that but from the great 
 distance of the respective countries, one would be prompted to 
 consider them as the work of one and the same race of people. 
 
 From hence our course went north-east, and, in half an hour 
 after quitting the tomb, we left the woody sides of Adjeloon, and 
 came out on a stony tract, forming the northern point of the range 
 of hills over which we had passed, and marking its termination 
 on the plain, at which place the stony tract alluded to, is called 
 Benahh Beida. On the left of our road we saw the village of 
 Summud, about a mile distant and seated on a hill. This village 
 is inhabited, but many others near it are deserted, and among 
 these were four pointed out to us on our right, under the names of 
 Naimry, Shuttemah, Otteadthy, and Hadeijey. The hill on which 
 Oom Kais is seated, was in view to the west, and the white town 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. 159 
 
 of Rumza seen stretching north and south, in the very centre of 
 the brown plain of the Hauran to the east. This extensive district 
 was now entirely open to our view ; and we could perceive that 
 though lower than the district of Belkah, it was still on a high 
 level, measuring from the surface of the lake of Tiberias ; as the 
 tops of the lofty hills which form the eastern boundary of that 
 lake, were but on a level with the surface of this plain, so that the 
 lake itself must have been much lower. The eastern range of hills 
 that now bounded our view, and are said to be inhabited by the 
 eastern Druses, were of unbroken outline, and not much elevated 
 from the plain, although their summits were covered with snow. 
 To the north-east the land gradually rose, and became lost in an 
 even horizon of high plain. To the north, another range of snow- 
 clad mountains, called also the mountains of the Druse, bounded 
 the view in that direction. On the north-west, the still higher 
 range of the Jebel-el-Telj, sheeted over with snow, extended from 
 north-east to south-west ; and in this last direction the northern 
 points of Jebel Asswete and Jebel Adjeloon, showed patches of 
 snow amidst their thick forests of evergreen wood. 
 
 Our way now turned easterly, for the purpose of entering on 
 the plain, and descending.gradually for about two hours through a 
 stony, woodless, and uninteresting tract of land, we arrived about 
 sunset at the village of El Hhussen, which is the first point of 
 entrance from the mountains into this great plain, and is seated 
 close under the eastern foot of the hills. We alighted here at the 
 house of a Christian Arab, to take shelter for the night ; and as I was 
 mentioned to the host as an Englishman on my way to Damascus, 
 the conveirsation turned on the number of persons that had passed 
 this way within his recollection. Dr. Seetzen and Mr. Burckhardt 
 were familiarly known to him as Hakeem Moosa and Sheikh 
 Ibrahim ; and mention was made of an English gentleman who 
 had been at Bosra about a year since, whose name they said was 
 Mr. Wynn, and whom they considered to be a near relation of 
 Lady Hester Stanhope. 
 
160 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 The village of El Hhussen contains about 200 inhabitants, 
 among which are 14 or 15 Christians, the greater number of whom 
 came to visit us during the evening. There are appearances, how- 
 ever, of its having been at one time much larger than at present ; 
 and as we passed through it at our entrance, I remarked one plain 
 sarcophagus of stone, several large cisterns, and some large sculp- 
 tured blocks, belonging to former buildings. The town is divided 
 into two portions, the sheikh's house being in the northernmost of 
 these, seated on a hill, and surrounded by many smaller dwellings. 
 
 Sunday, March 11. — We quitted El Hhussen at sunrise, and 
 going in a north-east direction for about half an hour, over a soil 
 covered with grass turf, we came to the village of Sareeagh, 
 inferior in size to the former, and in a more ruined state, standing 
 on a slight elevation. Among the ruins of this place I remarked 
 the angle of a large building still perfect, with one column standing 
 erect before it, its base being now surrounded with rubbish. The 
 stones used in the construction of this building were of a larger 
 size, but though the masonry was strong, it wanted that regularity 
 which I had hitherto seen in the ancient edifices of the country. 
 In the western front of the building spoken of, there were two of 
 the largest stones scarfed or fitted to each other in a manner 
 that I had never before remarked, and which induced me to think 
 that the architecture was neither Roman nor Saracen, but pro- 
 bably of an earlier date than either. 
 
 In about two hours after leaving Sareeagh, we descended into 
 a valley or ravine, bordered on each side with cliffs and hills of soft 
 white stone, with a torrent running along through the middle of it. 
 The valley is called Wadi Shellaly, and divides the Hauran from 
 the tract over which we had entered it. 
 
 In an hour afterwards we passed through Howarah, a ruined 
 village, the dwellings of which are built from large blocks of black 
 porous stone, of basaltic or volcanic origin, like that at Oom Kais. 
 There were also several large wells here, most of which were 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. igj 
 
 stuccoed : and over one of them I observed a large stone, like the 
 cover of a sarcophagus, with a central square hole in it. The 
 village stood on the site of some larger place which was now de- 
 stroyed, and its ruins scattered widely round. 
 
 In an hour and half after crossing the stream in the Wadi 
 Shellaly we passed close to the town of Rimzah, leaving it on our 
 right ; and in half an hour afterwards we passed by Torrah, leaving 
 it on our left, with the bed of a stream goingwestward between them. 
 The last-named towns are both inhabited by Mohammedans, the 
 former having about 800 and the latter about 300 dwellings ; they 
 both lie in the Derb-el-Hadj, or the high road of the pilgrims 
 from Damascus to Mecca. 
 
 In half an hour after passing Torrah, we came to a stream 
 called Wadi Zeidy, which comes from near Bosra, and discharges 
 itself into the Jordan, to the southward of Tiberias. It was about 
 seventy or eighty feet wide, but very shallow ; over it was a bridge 
 of three Roman arches, built chiefly of the black porous stone 
 before described, and paved with the same in the road over the 
 top. It appeared to me, however, to be a modern Turkish or 
 Arabic work, formed perhaps from the/uins of some more ancient 
 and better built bridge occupying nearly the same position, as 
 many of the stones are large and well hewn, though other parts of 
 the materials are very inferior. On the Avest front of this bridge 
 were three tablets of white stone, of about two feet square ; the 
 central one of these is plain ; and in each of the others is rudely 
 sculptured the figure of an animal apparently intended for a lion, 
 though more nearly resembling a cat, with a human head under 
 one of its fore paws ; the head is without a beard, but has musta- 
 chios on the upper lip, and the animal itself is certainly without 
 " a likeness to any thing in the heavens above, or in the earth 
 beneath, or in the waters under the earth," at least as far as they 
 have yet been explored ; so that it might be the work either of 
 Jews or Mohammedans, without their breaking any commandment 
 by its execution. 
 
162 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 ■• Beyond this, on our left, we saw the town of SufFed, which is 
 now in ruins. From this spot to the Lake of Tiberias, the district 
 is called Joolan, and, like the districts of Belkah, Adjeloon, and 
 Asswete, this was also said to contain 366 ruined cities, by which 
 it is only meant to express indefinitely some great number, as it is 
 usual among the country people in England to talk of mansions 
 with as many windows in them as there are days in the year. 
 
 At an hour's distance from thence is a smaller stream, the bed 
 of which was, however, now dry, with a bridge similar to the last 
 described, and with three arches also, leading over it. The stones 
 of which this bridge is constructed are good, and the paved road 
 on the top excellent ; but the masonry in the lower part is very 
 inferior ; the black porous stone and a cement of lime are used 
 in each. 
 
 In half an hour from this last bridge, we came to the castle of 
 Mezereebe, a large square building about 100 feet on each of its 
 sides, with square towers at the angles and in the centre of each 
 face, the walls being about forty feet in height. This is evidently, , 
 from its appearance, an old Mohammedan work, and was once, 
 no doubt, strongly occupied ; though it is now inhabited only by a 
 few Arab cultivators with their respective families. * 
 
 About 200 yards to the west of the castle of Mezereebe, is a 
 lake called Ras-el-Bezhy. It is the source from whence issues the 
 
 * In Murray's Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia, recently 
 published, is the following passage respecting Mezereebe, which is worth transcrib- 
 ing : — " LuDOVico Barthema, ' spurred by the desire to see the diversity of worldly 
 " kingdoms,' undertook (about the end of the 15th century) and effected a long pere- 
 " grination over almost all India. ***** After staying some time at Damascus, 
 " Barthema ' being desirous of seeing various things, and not knowing how,' con- 
 " trived to insinuate himself into the favour of a Mameluke, who was going as chief 
 " of a caravan to Mecca. On their way they touched at Mezaribe, (capital of the 
 " Houari Arabs,) governed by a prince called Zambei, who set at defiance the govern- 
 " ments both of Cairo and Damascus, and made constant incursions into the fertile 
 " territories of Syria. These Arabs (he says) do not run, but fly like hawks : they 
 " ride on horses without a saddle, wearing merely a shirt ; they are little men, of a 
 " dark leonine colour, with feminine voices and long black hair." — Vol. ii. p. 26. 28. 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. IQg 
 
 ancient stream of the Hieromax, or, as it is now called by the Arabs, 
 Shereeaht Mandoor, from the latter being the name, as I was 
 assured, of a celebrated chief who once governed the whole of the 
 tract through which that stream runs, from its source at Mezereebe, 
 to its outlet into the Jordan, near the southern extremity of the 
 Sea of Tiberias. The lake is about a mile in circumference ; it 
 has a small grass>-covered islet in the centre, and an abundance 
 of fish in its waters, equal in size and not inferior in beauty to 
 the gold and silver fishes which are kept suspended in glass 
 globes in England. The water is sweet and transparent, and the 
 lake never dries. All around its margin are*seen large round 
 masses of the black porous stone before described, which are in 
 equal abundance also at the outlet of the stream that issues from 
 it, near the hot springs of the Hami. These black masses are all 
 separate and unconnected with each other, each being rounded 
 like the large stones on a sea beach ; and masses of the same size 
 and form were seen by us scattered over every part of the plain 
 that we had yet traversed since our entering the Hauran. The 
 stream that issues from the lake flows in nearly a westerly direc- 
 tion, with few windings, till it empties itself, at the spot already 
 indicated, into the Jordan, which is considered to be about fifteen 
 hours' journey from hence, in a W.S.W. direction. 
 
 We remained no longer at Mezereebe than to water our horses, 
 and proceeded onward without delay. In half an hour after 
 resuming our route, we passed a ruined town called Summahh, 
 which had been entirely constructed of the black porous stone ; 
 among the scattered fragments of former buildings here, I saw a 
 fine Corinthian capital, cut out of the same material, but less 
 porous than the general quality ; and near this was a small altar 
 of a yellow stone, in shape exactly the same as one seen at Jerash, 
 which is described in a former journey from Jerusalem to that 
 city, already published. This yellow altar had also an inscription 
 on it of three or four lines in Greek ; but as we met trains of 
 camels, and a number of passengers traversing the road, we could 
 
 Y 2 
 
164 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 not dare to excite curiosity by halting to copy it. The town of 
 Summahh must have been originally of a respectable size ; but it 
 is now completely in ruins, and besides the fragments already de- 
 scribed, other sculptured blocks were seen, indicating the remains 
 of former edifices. 
 
 The direction of our route from El Hhussan to Mezereebe 
 had been about north-east, and the whole distance just six hours, 
 as we had left the former place at sunrise and reached the latter 
 at noon. From Mezereebe, however, we proceeded easterly, and 
 after an hour and half's riding, came to a large ruined town, called 
 Tuffus. The mo^ remarkable object that I observed here was a 
 lofty quadrangular tower, sloping upwards, and becoming gradually 
 narrower from the base to the summit, with a kind of dome on 
 the top, and a large aperture in the centre. 
 
 This building might have been some ancient temple of idolatry, 
 for it resembled a Hindoo pagoda more than any other kind of 
 structure that I remember ; or it might have been an ancient tomb : 
 the whole aspect of it seemed to denote antiquity, but we learnt 
 nothing on the spot that could explain its nature, nor did we halt 
 to examine its interior. The town had been once much larger 
 than at present, as its ruins were widely scattered ; and in most 
 of the buildings that were standing the lower parts near the foun- 
 dations were of solid workmanship and good materials, but the 
 upper parts were evidently modern repairs of the original edifice, 
 the whole being constructed out of the black porous stones so 
 common to this part of the country ; and many of the dwellings 
 being without inhabitants, the only persons now residing in all the 
 town being about a dozen Mohammedan families. 
 
 We continued our route still easterly, the level of the plain 
 descending gently, and in an hour and half after passing TufFus, we 
 came to a much larger town called Dahhil, but like the former also 
 in ruins. On entering this town I observed a small stone door, 
 hung and closed, as at the tombs of Oom Kais, standing in the 
 lower part of a building evidently of ancient work, and once partly 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. 155 
 
 demolished, the upper part of the structure being completed by 
 more modern hands. At a little distance from this in our way 
 through the town, I remarked another portion of a ruined build- 
 ing, the stones of which were of a large size, and smoothly hewn, 
 but instead of depending on the close union of the parts for 
 strength, as in the ancient masonry of the Greeks, Romans, and 
 even Saracens, or using the cement so common in modern works 
 to unite the materials in one mass, the stones here were let into 
 eiach other, as if the work had been of wood rather than stone. 
 
 There were also circular apertures as windows, half being cut 
 out from the upper and half from the under stone, and both these 
 hooked together by pieces of the stone above locking into sockets 
 made to receive them in the stone below ; there were also other 
 windows of a square form, supported on the ends of stone beams, 
 giving altogether a new character to this style of architecture, of 
 which I could remember nothing that it resembled. Near to this 
 spot was a still more remarkable building than any yet described : 
 the base of it formed a square of about twenty-five feet, and from 
 thence it rose in a pyramidal form, by regular stages or steps of 
 small but well hewn stones, each layer retiring within the one next 
 below it, as in the great pyramids of Egypt. At the height of 
 about twenty feet this pyramidal form ceased, and was terminated 
 by a platform, on which again was raised a smaller square tower, 
 rising from thirty to forty feet above the pyramid, making the whole 
 height about fifty or sixty feet from the ground. In the western 
 face of this building, but not exactly in the centre of it, was a 
 common-sized doorway, flat at the top, and ornamented by a 
 sculptured frieza At the south-west angle of the tower, above 
 the pyramid, was also a square pilaster, with a capital resembling 
 the Ionic of the Greeks ; but the ornament between the volutes 
 appeared to represent a branch, with leaves extending on each 
 side, as if to represent a wreath bound round its head ; the sculp- 
 ture was, however, too much worn to trace this distinctly. 
 
1(36 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 The passage of entrance being open, we could see that 
 the interior of this pyramidal edifice was square ; and I learnt 
 from my guides that it was now used as a mosque by the few 
 Mohammedans residing here. I had so strong a desire to enter 
 this that I would willingly have encountered any risk to effect it 
 if alone ; but, with my present companions, I could not even stay 
 to examine the exterior sufficiently, although every thing I saw 
 around me tended to awaken my curiosity. The buildings in this 
 place seemed to indicate a style of architecture neither Greek, 
 Roman, nor Saracen, and, therefore, probably aboriginal and of 
 very high antiquity. The pyramidal tower resembled in some of 
 its features the works of Egypt ; in others it was not unlike the 
 pagodas of Hindoostan ; and in others it might be considered as 
 of the same age with the supposed tombs of Zacharias and Absa- 
 lom, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, near Jerusalem ; and, therefore, 
 of Chaldean or Jewish origin. 1 halted to drink for the purpose 
 of prolonging our stay for a moment, and on every side on which 
 I cast my view, blocks of ancient masonry and fragments of ruined 
 buildings caught my eye. 
 
 From the large masses of the black porous stone found among 
 the ruins here, the people of the country make circular millstones, 
 and carry them from hence to the large towns on the west of the 
 Jordan for sale. We saw here two camels employed in the trans- 
 port of these stones, each of them now loaded and on their way. 
 The weight is so great that it requires a strong animal to carry 
 even one of them ; those that we saw were laid flat on the animal's 
 back, on the very centre of the hump, thus resting on the high 
 part of the camel's saddle, and secured by cords passing under 
 its belly. The diameter being nearly six feet, the stone completely 
 shaded the body of the camel from the sun, though it must have 
 been a painful burthen to carry, the stone being about six inches 
 thick in the centre and diminishing to about four at the edges. 
 The price of these millstones at the places where they are made, 
 which must be for the labour only, as the material costs nothing. 
 
TO GHEEBEE IN THE HAURAN. iq^ 
 
 we learnt to be from 100 to 500 piastres per pair, according to their 
 size and quality. 
 
 Our course from Mezereebe to Dahhil had been east, and the 
 distance three hours ; from hence, however, we proceeded in a 
 south-east direction, making this circuit in order to keep on the 
 highway, as there is in general no making sure progress but by 
 following the beaten track, every other part being liable to obstruc- 
 tions that are sometimes impassable, and oblige those who make 
 a digression from the high road to return to it again. In about 
 an hour after quitting Dahhil, the level still gently descending, we 
 came to the remains of a fine Roman aqueduct, going across a 
 hollow in the plain. It is called Canater Pharaoun, by the Arabs, 
 who generally attribute all great works of which they know not 
 the origin, either to Pharaoh, to Solomon, or to Genii. From my 
 guides, who were well acquainted with its course, I learnt that this 
 aqueduct began at a place called Idilly, one hour to the north- 
 west of Ismiskeen, a town about two hours' journey to the north 
 of this ; and after traversing the Hauran thus far, it turned off to 
 the town of Rimzah, which we had passed, and from thence went 
 westward to the ruined city seated on the hill of Oom Kais, which 
 it anciently supplied with water, as the Hieromax, which flows at 
 the foot of that mountain, ran too low to be available for domestic 
 purposes. This was only another proof, added to the many I had 
 already witnessed, of the vast labour and expense bestowed by the 
 Romans on the towns of their distant colonies, to promote the 
 comfort and even luxury of their citizens ; an example that would 
 be worthy the imitation of our own country, and as yet, certainly, 
 unattempted ; for neither in the East nor in the West Indies, at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, nor any other of the 
 many colonial possessions of Great Britain, are there any works, even 
 at their respective capitals (fortresses alone excepted), which can 
 be compared, for magnificence or utility, with the numerous public 
 works scattered over the region of the Decapolis, ^^nd attached to 
 colonial towns of the Romans, of so little importance even in their 
 
168 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 estimation, that not even their names have descended to us in the 
 annals of their empire. 
 
 At the spot where we first came in contact with the remains 
 of this aqueduct, there were two separate and detached portions 
 of it still standing; each of these contained seven arches perfect, 
 and about the same number destroyed; the arches being about 
 fifteen feet in the span, and twenty feet in height from the ground. 
 The masonry was of the rustic kind in constant use among the 
 Romans for all works of strength ; the blocks of stone large, and 
 admirably united without cement, and each stone marked with a 
 separate character, as if for the guidance of the workmen in plac- 
 ing them, the marks having among others the following forms : — 
 
 From hence, in half an hour after passing the aqueduct, we 
 saw the town of Ikketeeby on our left, at the distance of a quarter 
 of a mile. Rising from among its dwellings was seen a square 
 tower with the appearance of a pyramidal base, like tlie one before 
 described at Dahhil, but we were not sufficiently near to it to 
 speak with certainty on this subject. A few minutes after this, we 
 entered a place named Gherba, which is also called the town of 
 Job, from a tradition that the prophet Job was born and resided 
 here, and that this was the scene of his history as detailed in the 
 sacred volume. 
 
 On our way from Mezereebe to this place, we had passed in 
 sight of several towns, to the southward of our route, among which 
 were El-Draah, or Idderahh,* a large town with a high square 
 tower, appearing at the distance of four or five miles off like the 
 tower at Oom-el-Russas, or that in the valley of Adjeloon. Idder- 
 
 * This is thought to be the city of Edrei, so frequently mentioned in the Jewish 
 writings as one of the most important places in the territory of Baslian, the king of 
 which, in the time of Moses, lived at Ashtaroth, which by some is considered to be 
 the same with Bosra. 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. 169 
 
 ahh is, however, now entirely deserted, and the inhabitants have 
 taken refuge at Gherbee. This migration of persons from one 
 town to another is said to be frequent throughout the whole of the 
 Hauran, in consequence of the incursions of the Arabs belonging 
 to the tribes of Beni Hassan, Beni Ibn Saood, Beni Saiide, and 
 others, who come down from the eastern mountains in large bodies, 
 and scour the plains below from one end to the other. We were 
 assured that, only a week since, a party of 300 Arabs had come 
 down from the hills, and taken off from Rimzah, one of the largest 
 towns here, and in the sacred way of the Derb-el-Hadj, or road of 
 the pilgrims from Damascus to Mecca, upwards of 100 head of 
 cattle, in horses, oxen, and sheep ; and this was said to be no un- 
 frequent occurrence : in so unprotected a state are the lives and 
 property of individuals residing in these parts, and so insecure also 
 is the whole of the country for travellers, whether journeying on 
 business or for pleasure. 
 
 On entering the town of Gherbee, I noticed small enclo- 
 sures, like' meadows, for the flocks, with a sort of watch-house 
 built in the centre of each for the shepherds, who remain in 
 them night and day, relieving each other by watches, for the pur- 
 pose of guarding their herds from secret depredation, as well as to 
 give the alarm in case of open attack. 
 
 In passing by a heap of ruins, among which were some sculp- 
 tured blocks, I remarked one with an inscription on it, almost 
 obliterated. The characters were certainly neither Arabic, Greek, 
 nor the Hebrew now in use, but rather resembled some of the old 
 inscriptions in unknown characters found in India, and particularly 
 like some of those on the caves of Kenneri, in Salsette, near Bom- 
 bay. As I remembered the great interest excited by the written 
 characters at Mount Mokatteb, near the Desert of Sinai, from 
 which the learned in Europe hoped to obtain some light as to the 
 lost character of the original Hebrew, for which the Chaldaic is 
 now used, I was particularly desirous of alighting to copy this 
 inscription, four or five lines of which, at least, were tolerably dis- 
 
 z 
 
170 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 tinct, and with some patience might have been accurately trans- 
 cribed ; but my guides resisted this most strenuously, as we were 
 now in a town of 400 Mohammedans, with only four Christians in 
 the whole place, at the house of one of which we were to alight ; 
 and this being known, we should be sure by such a step to attract 
 a crowd around us, and be ill treated as infidels and sorcerers. I 
 was obliged, therefore, to yield to their refusal, and descending 
 into a lower part of the town, with ruined dwellings on each side 
 of our road, we alighted at the house of my old guide Abu Farah's 
 friend. 
 
 Our horses were taken care of, and we were conducted into a 
 large room of about forty feet long by fifteen broad, and twelve 
 feet high, with a raised space at one end about fifteen feet square, 
 as if for the accommodation of beds, and the lower part of the 
 room set apart for animals, as there were troughs for food and - 
 water on each side. The whole of the masonry of this edifice was 
 extremely solid, the stones being in general five and six feet in 
 length, squarely hewn, and closely united, and the posterns and 
 architraves of the doorways were each of one solid stone hewn 
 into a square form. It was evident, too, that the door itself 
 had once been of stone, as the marks of the pivots for hinges, 
 and the aperture for receiving the bolt, exactly as in those at the 
 tombs of Oom Kais, still remained ; the original door had been 
 removed, however, and its place was now supplied by a wooden 
 one. The whole of the roof or ceiling was constructed of stone, 
 the largest of the beams being of one solid piece, stretching 
 across from wall to wall, and of corresponding thickness, as in the 
 colossal temples of Egypt, and the intervals filled up by shorter 
 stones like rafters and planking, making the whole one solid mass 
 of stone. It appears to have been the same cause that led to this 
 mode of building both in Egypt and the Hauran, namely, the total 
 absence of good building timber in both these countries ; for in all 
 our route of to-day we had not seen in any point of direction a 
 single tree, nor even a bush of any size upon the ground. In its 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN. 17X 
 
 general character, the Plain of the Hauran resembles those of 
 Belkah to the south-east of Assalt, and Esdraelon in Galilee, in 
 having gentle elevations, the same level being nowhere of long 
 continuation, though still not so much above or below each other 
 as to destroy its general character of an irregular and undulating 
 plain, in which there is nothing that deserves to be called a hill 
 on its whole surface. The eminences that here and there break 
 its continuity are mostly small veins of rock projecting above the 
 surface, and these appear to have been selected in all cases for the 
 sites of towns, for the sake of securing a commanding position, a 
 freer air, a dryer soil, and convenient access to the materials of 
 building, which, indeed, were thus close at hand. Of towns on 
 eminences like these we saw at least thirty, in different points of 
 bearing, on our way from El-Hhussen to El-Gherbee, and particu- 
 larly to the eastward of the latter. 
 
 When our fire was lighted, the want of wood was supplied by 
 using the dried dung of animals, which, with a small portion of 
 charcoal, was the only kind of fuel procurable here. At sunset 
 the camels of our host entered the room in which we were seated, 
 and ranged themselves along, to the number of eight on each side, 
 at the stone troughs before described. The height of the door of 
 entrance, which was about seven feet, had struck me at first as 
 something unusual, since, in most of the towns to the westward, 
 the height of the door is rather below than above the human 
 stature, and passengers are generally obliged to stoop before they 
 can enter it. Here, however, the motive for increasing the height 
 became evident, as in its present state it just admitted the entrance 
 of the camels, and was no doubt originally constructed for that 
 purpose, so as to admit them under shelter at night, and secure 
 them from the incursions of the neighbouring Arabs. This flat 
 country must always have been a country of camels, from the ear- 
 liest ages : and these rooms for their reception might have been 
 of very high antiquity, for the nature of the materials of which 
 they were built (there being no wood whatever, and nothing else 
 
 z 2 
 
172 FROM THE CASTLE OF ADJELOON 
 
 of a perishable nature used in their construction) made them in 
 a manner indestructible. 
 
 During our journey through the hills, we had seen only 
 horses, mules, and asses, used as beasts of burden ; but since we 
 had entered the Plain of the Hauran, we had met only camels, and 
 these to the number of several hundreds in the course of one day. 
 If this were really the land of Uz, and the town in which we now 
 halted the place of Job's residence, as tradition maintained, there 
 could be no portion of all Syria or Palestine, that I had yet seen, 
 more suited to the production and maintenance of the 7000 sheep, 
 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she asses, which are enu- 
 merated as forming the substance of this greatest of all the men 
 of the East. (Job, i. 3.) At the present day, there is no man, 
 probably, with such herds and flocks for his portion ; but these are 
 still, as they were in the earliest times, the great wealth of the men 
 of substance in the country ; and it is as common now as it 
 appears to have been when the history of Job was written, to 
 describe a man of consideration in these plains by the number of 
 his flocks and herds rather than by any other less tangible indi- 
 cation of wealth. 
 
 At the period of our stay here we learnt that the late drought 
 with which the plains had been afflicted, had nearly caused a 
 famine in particular parts of the country, and this was one in 
 which it was severely felt. Corn, for instance, in this plain, which 
 in seasons of abundance formed the granary for the whole of Syria, 
 and was, consequently, cheaper than elsewhere, was now selling at 
 three piastres, or more than half a crown sterling per gallon, a 
 price that was almost without precedent or example. From the 
 entire absence of rain, all the pasture for cattle had also dried up, 
 and the usual supplies of milk and butter were, therefore, equally 
 deficient. Under this pressure of want and distress, innumerable 
 families had migrated into the eastern hills among the Druses, and 
 into the mountains near the Jordan, in both of which districts rain 
 and snow had occasionally fallen ; while in the great Plain of the 
 
TO GHERBEE IN THE HAURAN- J 73 
 
 Hauran, which separates these ranges of hills, there had been a 
 continued drought for four months past, without the means of 
 watering by irrigation ; and, consequently, the soil, though na- 
 turally fruitful, was by this calamity rendered, for the present at 
 least, quite unproductive. 
 
 In the parties we had met on the road, and among all the in- 
 habitants of the towns, I had noticed an appearance of freshness 
 and health, with much greater cleanliness than is common to Arabs 
 in general. In the towns at which we now halted the same thing 
 was observable : the women and children were quite ruddy in their 
 complexions, the men were well dressed and clean ; and as the 
 ancient town had been originally paved with large blocks of black 
 stone, with a raised causeway on each side for foot passengers, both 
 the streets and the interior of the houses were remarkably free 
 from dirt. It was distressing, however, to hear from all classes the 
 universal cry of want, and to witness, as we did, extensive tracts 
 of corn land, where wheat had been already sown, and the blade 
 appearing above the surface, prematurely withered away while yet 
 green, from want of moisture. The conversation of the evening 
 was wholly engrossed by this painful and distressing topic, and in 
 gloomy apprehensions of the miseries which must result from a 
 continuation of the present weather ; though some indulged a 
 hope that a seasonable supply of grain might be brought by cara- 
 vans from Egypt, as of old, or that the latter rains would admit of 
 a second crop, before a famine should be confirmed. 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 Monday, March 12. — After partaking of an early breakfast 
 of bread and oil, the only food which the rigid rules of the Greek 
 Lent would admit, and which were as rigidly observed by the four 
 Christians here as if there had been a much larger community, 
 we departed from Gherbee about an hour after sunrise. Our 
 course from hence lay nearly east, and proceeding in that direction 
 for about an hour the road turned to the north for a quarter of a 
 mile to the town of Elmey. At this place were many vestiges of 
 ancient buildings, among which I noticed some stones sculptured 
 with a cable moulding, and two curious pillars with square shafts 
 and rude capitals ; their outlines perfect, but no ornament of any 
 kind apparent, either on their summit or at their base : they were 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 175 
 
 of a small size, not more than a foot in diameter, and both had 
 fallen on the ground. From the walls of one of the buildings I 
 remarked also a flight of stone steps projecting from its front, 
 without any other support than that derived from the insertion 
 of their inner ends in the wall, as in the flight of steps seen in 
 the south end of the Temple of Isis, at Tentyra, in Egypt. The 
 windows, instead of being circular, as we had seen them at Dahhil, 
 were in diagonal squares, cut partly out of the upper and partly out 
 of the lower stone, in nearly the same manner as the circular ones 
 before described. 
 
 Having drank at this place, we pursued our way, continuing 
 again along the high road to the eastward, and in less than an hour 
 after quitting Elmey we arrived at the town of Suwarrow. We 
 had been informed by some peasants, with whom we had exchanged 
 salutations just as we entered this place, that there were forty 
 horsemen of the tribe of Beni Hassan, from the eastern hills, 
 stationed in the road only an hour beyond the town, and that they 
 intercepted all travellers who passed that way. It was thought 
 prudent, therefore, to halt at Suwarrow, and learn the real state of 
 the case before we proceeded further, when we accordingly turned 
 in, and, enquiring for the house of the sheikh, alighted there 
 about ten o'clock. 
 
 All the inhabitants of this place were Mohammedans, and 
 bore the character of being bigoted and intolerant in an unusual 
 degree : great caution was, therefore, necessary to be observed in 
 our intercourse with them, to avoid insult, and, perhaps, aggression. 
 Abu Farah, the eldest of my guides, was so well known through- 
 out every part of the country, that it was vain for him to attempt 
 disguise, for he was almost certain of meeting some old acquaint- 
 ance in every assembly. But it was not so with Mallim Georgis, 
 who had less extensive connections in these parts : accordingly, 
 Abu Farah maintained his own character as a Greek Christian, but 
 represented Georgis as an Arab Moslem, from the west, under the 
 name of Abu Shumr, and myself as a Turk, from Roum, under the 
 
176 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 name of Abdallah. We were received in our new characters with 
 great hospitality; and, after coffee, an ample meal of bread, camel's 
 milk, and honey was served to us. On directing our enquiry into 
 the truth of the news we had heard respecting the horsemen who 
 intercepted the road beyond us, we found it confirmed, and all 
 parties advised us to halt here a day, in the assurance of perfect 
 safety under the roof of the sheikh, during which interval we might 
 be able to learn the movements of these plunderers, from such 
 as might chance to escape them, and drop in or pass through 
 this on their way from the eastward. My situation was, now, 
 a very painful one. I understood sufficiently of ^Arabic to join in 
 the general conversation without exciting suspicions of my being 
 a stranger, using only the precaution of never speaking but when 
 absolutely necessary ; but I scarcely understood ten words of 
 Turkish, and I trembled at the entrance of every new visitor, from 
 the apprehension of ray being addressed in that language, and 
 being unable to reply. Fortunately for my wishes at the present 
 moment, I had during the last two days suffered severely from a 
 violent head-ache, which being known to my companions, they 
 advised me to lie down for an hour and repose myself I was but 
 too happy to follow this advice, and as it was given publicly, the 
 motive was generally understood, so that no apology was necessary 
 for such a step. I therefore rolled myself up in my cloak ; and though 
 I did not sleep a moment, from the anxious state of my mind, I 
 was glad to prolong this state of security from detection, and en- 
 croached on the limits of the hour at least fourfold. 
 
 Arising towards the close of the afternoon, I walked around 
 the court of the dwelling in which we had reposed, and saw also 
 from the outer walls some other portions of the town. Though 
 there were said to be about 400 inhabitants, the town was almost 
 entirely in ruins; and it was clear, from such parts of the edifices as 
 still remained perfect, that the whole of the buildings now seen 
 were of great antiquity, though many of their repairs were modern. 
 In front of the house in which we remained was a large quadran- 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 177 
 
 gular court, on the outside of which were several raised semicircular 
 benches of masonry, capable of containing a party of twenty indi- 
 viduals, and constructed apparently for the accommodation of per- 
 sons desirous of enjoying there the freshness of the morning and 
 evening air. Within this court was a large building nearly 100 feet 
 long, the west end of which was used as the room of entertain- 
 ment for strangers. It was not more than twenty feet square. 
 The roof of this edifice was formed of beams of stone, but the 
 pieces not being long enough to reach quite across the building 
 from wall to wall, there was a central arcade for the ends of the 
 short beams to unite upon for support. The arches of this were 
 extremely rude, being neither round nor pointed, and so irregu- 
 larly formed that no two stones in the sweep of the arch were of 
 the same length, their ends thus overlaping each other in a most 
 unfinished manner. Though the beams were of stone, the smaller 
 parts, representing the rafters and planking, were supplied by wood, 
 which formed a singular mixture, and gave the whole a new ap- 
 pearance ; the first was probably the more ancient portion of the 
 work, and the latter a modern labour. The entrance to this build- 
 ing had once been closed by a double or folding door of stone, 
 but the place of this was now supplied by a single door of wood, 
 which is lighter and more convenient for use, but far less secure. 
 It was hung, however, exactly like the massy stone doors in the 
 sepulchres of Oom Kais, as, indeed, were all the doors of every 
 description that I had yet seen in the Hauran ; that is, without 
 hinges of any kind ; but in lieu of them a pivot at the top and one 
 at the bottom, formed from elongations of the material of the door 
 itself, and traversing in sockets to which they are nicely fitted both 
 above and below. The door was flat at the top, and the frame 
 composed of three large pieces of stone; and over it was a small 
 square window, which we regarded as an improvement worthy the 
 adoption of the Arab villagers in their dwellings, in which, from 
 the want of such apertures, when the door is shut, there is no place 
 whatever for the admission of air or light, or for the outlet of the 
 
 A A 
 
178 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 smoke, by which persons unaccustomed to its effects are sometimes 
 nearly suffocated. 
 
 At the east end of this building rose a high tower, now partly 
 ruined; but the angle of it, which remained most perfect, had 
 an inclined slope, like the pyramidal moles which stand before 
 the principal temples of Egypt. Between this and the eastern 
 end, or in the centre of the south front, was a door that led into 
 an interior court, which I was prevented entering from its contain- 
 ing the females of the sheikh's family. This outer door had a flat 
 and deep architrave, in the centre of which was the circle formed by 
 a serpent with its tail in its mouth, supposed to be an emblem of 
 eternity, and frequently seen among the sculptured hieroglyphics of 
 Egyptian temples. On one side of this was visible the fragment of a 
 figure, which, had I seen it in any other place. I should have pro- 
 nounced to be an Egyptian priest, so much of it as was visible exactly 
 resembling the lower part of those personages as they are repre- 
 sented in the multiplied sculptures along the banks of the Nile: and 
 the corners of this block of stone were marked by circles like wheels 
 of fire, probably intended to represent planets in motion. Within this 
 door of entrance, and at a short distance only beyond it, was seen a 
 Roman arched passage of masonry, leading to the inner court, which 
 was paved; the outer court, over which stood the sculptured archi- 
 trave already described, was closed by a double door, or, as it is more 
 generally called, a pair of folding doors, formed each of one large 
 and solid stone. I had an opportunity of seeing both these doors 
 opened and shut, by which I perceived that they were hung in exactly 
 the same manner as the stone doors in the sepulchres of Oom Kais, 
 and that like them also, these were secured by a bar of stone on the 
 inside. The whole of this edifice appeared to me, both from its style 
 of building, its divisions, and its ornaments, to have been originally a 
 Pagan temple, whether of the ancient Chaldeans, or of more recent 
 times, it was not so easy to determine, from the mixture of seem- 
 ingly incongruous parts : but it might have been converted to va- 
 rious uses, and have undergone corresponding additions and repairs 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. I79 
 
 since its original construction, which was decidedly of an age very 
 remote from the present. I would gladly have bestowed an hour 
 on the examinatibn of its interior, but this was rendered impossible, 
 from its being the apartment of the sheikh's female establishment, 
 into which even their male relatives are not permitted to enter. 
 
 During the latter part of the day, which was spent in a circle 
 round the fire, with a party of at least twenty persons, though 
 these were constantly changing, by some rising up and going away, 
 giving place to others who had newly come, I saw before' me a 
 complete picture of Arab life, and heard many curious particulars, 
 which, as usual, I had occasion to regret my want of opportunity 
 to record. It appeared that the forty horsemen in the neighbour- 
 hood, though they intercepted strangers and travellers coming 
 from this town of Suwarrow, derived all their supplies from this 
 place and another to the eastward of them, on condition that the 
 towns themselves should be safe from their depredations, and that 
 no strangers even should be molested as long as they were sheltered 
 beneath their roofs. Their privileges were to extend thus far, and no 
 farther ; for they could not protect a man even a mile beyond their 
 dwellings ; so that the unwary traveller passing by either of these 
 neutral or privileged posts, was almost sure of being stripped of all 
 his property, though his life would be in no danger as long as he 
 made no resistance. 
 
 The towns of the Hauran are so frequently visited by parties 
 of plunderers of this description, that the present state of things was 
 viewed here with comparative indifference, and was indeed expected 
 by all to have existed to a much more extensive degree ; for at the 
 present moment the affairs of Damascus were in such confusion, that 
 no one yet knew who was to succeed the late Pasha in his govern- 
 ment, and accordingly, disorder and danger increased with every 
 succeeding day. It is in periods of misrule like these, that one 
 town becomes suddenly deserted and another repeopled at short 
 intervals of time ; so that from the edifices in each being of the 
 most durable kind, they remain uninjured, and thus serve for the 
 
 AA 2 
 
180 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 habitations of race after race, descending through many generations. 
 For the same reason, the houses may be said to be without perma- 
 nent owners, the first occupier holding his right iildisputable, until 
 he is forced by some sudden emergency to quit it ; when the next 
 occupier enters and retains it on the same condition, no rent or taxes 
 being paid in either case, any more than would be if a man lived 
 in his own tents, or in a natural cavern which he might find suited 
 to his purpose, and adopt for his abode. As there are in general 
 more houses in these everlasting and indestructible towns, than 
 there are persons at any one time requiring to occupy them, an 
 ample choice is afforded to all parties, but particularly to the 
 earliest comers : and as no one has a permanent interest in the 
 security of any one particular dwelling, very little attention is paid 
 to improving them. The buildings are in themselves so strong, 
 being wholly composed of stone, including roofs and even doors, 
 that they never need repairs. In times of great danger, when a 
 visit from Arabs of the Desert is apprehended, the inhabitants 
 either retire to some other town, or barricade themselves in their 
 houses by heaping up loose stones to oppose the approach of horse- 
 men to the most defenceless parts of their dwellings, while they 
 can assail them with the same material as missiles from the ter- 
 races above. It is only by walls of loose stones heaped up 
 without cement, that the enclosures for the cattle are formed, unless, 
 as is sometimes the case, they are driven into tlie dwelling itself 
 at night, where they remain perfectly secure from depredation. 
 
 All tlje towns of the Hauran are considered as subject to the 
 government of Damascus, but it is a mere nominal subjection ; for 
 when the military make their annual tour for the collection of the 
 miri, or land revenue, it is as frequently evaded as it is paid, by 
 the parties from whom it is due retiring for a short period with 
 their families and flocks into the eastern hills, and leaving the bare 
 land and empty dwellings only for the tax-gatherers, which, how- 
 ever, being both immoveable, the farmers find exactly in the same 
 state on their return. The people are in general tall, stout, and 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. Igl 
 
 muscular men, with full and dark beards, resembling in stature 
 and person the finest race of the Fellahs of Lower Egypt, particu- 
 larly those of Sharkieh, on the eastern branch of the Nile, who 
 are superior to those on the west. They are, however, much 
 cleaner than the Egyptians, and generally better dressed, their 
 ordinary apparel being a long white shirt and trowsers, with a 
 broad leathern girdle, a red cloth cap forming the centre of their 
 turban, and this completed by a white muslin cloth rolled round 
 the brow, encircling the head. All the men, of whatever class or 
 condition, wear arms, consisting generally of a musket and a dirk, 
 or a pistol and a sword, it being thought unsafe to travel even an 
 hour's distance, without being thus prepared for self-defence. 
 
 During our stay at Suwarrow, there were continual arrivals 
 of persons from all quarters, most of whom halted here without 
 intending to proceed farther, until the road was clear : and by a 
 small party of the townsmen themselves who came from the east- 
 ward, we learnt that the horsemen now intercepting the road in that 
 quarter were preparing for movement, and intended making a tour 
 northward, in the course of the night. Many of the incidents of 
 our present situation reminded me forcibly of being at sea in an 
 unprotected merchant ship in time of war, when every distant sail 
 is magnified into an enemy, and all eyes are on the stretch for 
 discovery. Look-outs were stationed on the terraces of the houses, 
 and on the heaps of rubbish formed in diiferent parts of the town ; 
 and messengers were repeatedly sent by them to the sheikh's house 
 to report what they saw: one man, for instance, arrived to say that 
 three horsemen were in sight to the southward, going westerly ; 
 another followed soon after, to say that five men on foot were seen 
 in the western quarter, apparently bound this way ; then came 
 another announcement stating, that two horsemen, strangers, who 
 had passed through Suwarrow without halting, about an hour 
 before, were seen stopped by the plunderers to the eastward, by 
 whom they were stripped, and were now returning on foot to the 
 town, the whole of this affair being distinctly seen from the terrace 
 
182 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 of the sheikh's house, and without a glass, so acute has nature and 
 habit together rendered the vision of these people ; the transaction, 
 though on a plain, taking place at the distance of at least three 
 miles from the spot in which it was observed. 
 
 We had a constant succession of reports like these, some true, 
 and some perhaps exaggerated by alarm ; but soonafter su nset, the 
 two horsemen who had been stripped, returned back to the town, 
 and entered the room in which we were sitting, each having only 
 a shirt and a skull cap remaining. These men had not halted in 
 their way through the town, being well-mounted and proceeding 
 onward in confidence, not knowing anytliing of the state of the 
 road beyond us, from not stopping to make enquiries ; they were 
 therefore taken by surprise, when they found themselves surround- 
 ed by hostile men mounted and armed as themselves. They con- 
 sidered their case the more unfortunate, as, if they had been but half 
 an hour later, they would have escaped injury, the whole troop being 
 then mounted, in order to commence their march to the north- 
 ward as the sun set. As it was, they were plundered of their 
 horses, arms, money, clothes, and all that they possessed, excepting 
 only the shirt and cap left to cover their nakedness ; and they had 
 the additional mortification to see their plunderers set out with 
 all their train, and to know that there was no hope of their having 
 their property restored. I observed, with pleasure, that every in- 
 dividual of our party sympathised in the condition of these unfor- 
 tunate men, and that there was not one in the room who did not 
 contribute to re-clothe them, and also to form a small purse of money 
 to meet their immediate wants. They had thus more garments 
 given them than they could possibly wear, or could conveniently 
 carry, and about ten piastres in money, which was more than their 
 expenses back to their own town would require, deprived as they 
 now were of their horses, the only article requiring to be purchased 
 with money in this part of the Hauran being corn for these 
 animals, which was now unusually scarce and dear. A foot pas- 
 senger could therefore make his way at little or no expense, as 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. J 83 
 
 travellers and wayfarers of every description halt at the sheikh's 
 dwelling, where, whatever may be the rank or condition of the 
 stranger, before any questions are asked him as to where he comes 
 from, or whither he is going, coffee is served to him from a large 
 pot always on the fire, and a meal of bread, milk, oil, honey, or 
 butter is set before him, for which no payment is ever demanded 
 or even expected by the host, who, in this manner, feeds at least 
 twenty persons on an average, every day in the year, from his own 
 purse : at least I could not learn that he was remunerated in any 
 manner for this expenditure, though it is considered as a necessary 
 consequence of his situation as Chief of the community, that he 
 should maintain this ancient practice of hospitality to strangers. 
 
 Our evening supper consisted of boiled rice and stewed meat, 
 with onions, and some milk poured on the whole; and as it was the 
 Greek Lent, which my two Christian guides observed rigidly, 
 though Abu Farah's fasting was much against his inclination, the 
 Mallim Georgis was obliged to decline eating of the dish set before 
 us, there being flesh and butter in its composition. From this 
 simple circumstance it was immediately known that he was not a 
 Moslem, as at first pretended : but fortunately the company were 
 in such good humour, that no evil consequences resulted from this 
 discovery, which at any other time of the day, and in any other 
 frame of mind, would not have been regarded by our Mohammedan 
 entertainei's with so much indifference or complacency. I performed 
 my part, however, without scruple, and if the purity of my faith 
 were estimated by the quantity of flesh meat eaten at my evening 
 meal, I must have appeared in all eyes as one of the most orthodox 
 of the party. 
 
 The Mallim Georgis and Abu Farah, who ate a supper of 
 bread and olive oil by themselves, rejoined the circle soon after- 
 wards, and made effectual amends for their temporary separation, 
 by their united exertions to please: the first reciting with appropriate 
 action and gesture a long Arabian tale of the Khalifs of Baghdad, 
 and the latter following this up by a sort of dramatic rehearsal. 
 
184 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 consisting of declamation, recitative, dialogue, action, and singing, 
 which lasted fully two hours, and which, like an Oriental personifi- 
 cation of English Matthews, he sustained, unaided and alone, 
 with great humour and spirit, from its opening to its close. 
 
 It was past midnight before our cheerful and entertaining 
 party broke up, when we all lay down, to the number of twenty- 
 three persons, on the same floor, each measuring his lengthon the 
 earth on which he sat, rolling himself in his cloak to serve for 
 matrass and coverlid, and using whatever was nearest at hand for 
 a pillow. 
 
 Tuesday, March 13. — We remained to take a light breakfast 
 before starting from Suwarrow, and left the town about an hour 
 after sun-rise, the sheikh and his son holding our horses, attending 
 us to the outer gate of their dwelling, and giving us the " Maat 
 Salaami," or benediction of peace as we departed. As the Arab 
 horsemen were now gone to the northward, the only route left 
 open for us was to go from hence to Bosra, arid join some safe 
 party from that place to Damascus, or else go through the country 
 of the eastern Druses, which from being well peopled and less 
 visited by the Arabs, was less dangerous to travellers. We accord- 
 ingly proceeded eastward, and in about an hour after our leaving 
 Suwarrow, we passed Haraak and Haryik, the two ruined and 
 deserted towns on which the predatory horsemen had quartered 
 themselves, and which, they having now abandoned, was without 
 a single living being as an inhabitant. We did not enter these 
 towns, but passed a little to the southward of them ; from whence 
 however we could observe, that in size, manner of construction, 
 and the general aspect and nature of their edifices, they resembled 
 most of the other towns that we had yet seen in our way through 
 the extensive plain of the Hauran. 
 
 Our road was now over a more" rugged and stony soil, as we 
 followed the vein of rock by the side of which the highway ran, and 
 on the edge or ridge of which most of the towns had been originally 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. jg^ 
 
 built. Our course from the two last-named towns made a bend in a 
 south-east direction, until we came to Rukhum, a ruined and 
 deserted town, distant about three hours from Suwarrow ; after 
 this, the road went again over a fertile soil, and the course bent to 
 the S.S.E.J in pursuing which we passed, in the short space of an 
 hour, not less than fifteen dead animals, principally cows and 
 calves, which were said to have died for want of pasture, as we 
 could well believe, for the surface of the earth was every where 
 parched and bare. 
 
 From Rukhum we came in less than an hour to Tchatchy, 
 another ruined and deserted town, possessing no remarkable fea- 
 tures by which to distinguish it from others of the same size. A 
 sudden turn of the ridge of rock near which our road lay, obliged 
 us to turn southward, the ridge running north and south along the 
 plain, and the road repeatedly changing its direction in conse- 
 quence of this obstacle. 
 
 One of the peculiar characteristics of difference between the 
 ruined towns in the Hauran and those of the countries to the 
 westward, is this, that in the former no fragments of broken pottery 
 are seen, while near the ruins of ancient cities in Syria and Egypt, 
 considerable quantities of such fragments are invariably found, 
 either collected in heaps or scattered about on the surface of the 
 earth. From this, one would infer, that abundant as was the use 
 of earthen vessels in the two former countries, and particularly 
 along the banks of the Nile, they were not much used in the 
 Hauran, where, as stone had been so universally applied to all 
 parts of their buildings from the want of wood, the same material, 
 or perhaps metal, might have served for all their domestic utensils, 
 and supplied the place of clay. Even at the present day, indeed, 
 the want of this is so general that there are no potters or potteries 
 in the country, and scarcely a vessel of earthenware is anywhere 
 to be seen. The large jars used in their houses for containing 
 corn and other provisions are made of mud and, chopped straw, 
 simply dried in the sun ; their small drinking cups for coffee 
 
 B B 
 
186 
 
 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 are of chinaware brought from Damascus ; their cooking utensils 
 are all of iron or copper tinned on the inside ; and water, where- 
 ever we had yet had occasion to ask for it, was handed to us in 
 round wooden vessels, about the size of an English gallon, such as 
 is used in measuring corn, about the same size, shape, and material, 
 and not round like a bowl ; in every part of Syria and Egypt, 
 however, the jars and water-pots are of red and yellow pottery of 
 burnt clay. 
 
 In the course of to-day's journey, we met some Christians 
 from the eastern mountains, all armed, as were indeed all the in- 
 habitants of the country that we had yet seen ; and as we advanced 
 in this direction, we observed the people to be in general cleaner, 
 handsomer, and better clad, than those subject to the government 
 of the Turkish pashas in the west. After passing for half an hour 
 along the side of the low range of hills described, we halted for a 
 moment for the convenience of Georgis, who had occasion to claim 
 a short delay, and taking Abu Farah with me to the summit of the 
 nearest point, which was quite close, I profited by this delay to take 
 from thence a set of bearings and distances of the several towns 
 and positions within sight from thence : the former were taken by 
 compass on the spot, and the latter either computed by the eye, or 
 set down from the information of my guides ; my desire being to 
 attain as much and as accurate materials of this description as I 
 could, to construct a map of this part of the country, which at pre- 
 sent is quite unknown, and a blank in the best maps of Europe. 
 
 Mesefeny S. W. . 
 
 Faqueer Zeahby S. W. i W. 
 
 Seyda S. W. i W. 
 
 Nayme .... 
 Idderagh .... 
 Altaman and Arran 
 Gherbee .... 
 Ghumman . . . 
 Karak .... 
 Rukhuni .... 
 
 W. by S. i S. 
 W. by S. . 
 
 "West . . . 
 W. iN. . . 
 W. by N. . 
 W. i N. . . 
 N. W. by N. 
 
 li hours. 
 
 2 hours. 
 6 hours. 
 6 hours. 
 6 hours. 
 1 hour. 
 
 3 hours. 
 6 hours. 
 ^ hour. 
 2- hours. 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. jg^j 
 
 Centre of Jebel-el-Telj . . , N. by W. 
 
 Do. of Jebel-el-Druse , . . N. toN. N.E. 
 
 Iddoor N. N. E 4 hours. 
 
 El Melehah N. E. by N 4 hours. 
 
 Iddarah N. E. i N ^ hour. 
 
 Sidjin N. E. J E 3 hours. 
 
 El Mizzerah N. E. by E 4 hours. 
 
 Reemy E. N. E 4 hours. 
 
 Walgah E. by N 1 hour, 
 
 Essaly E. :J N 3 hours. 
 
 Lussuhhah E. by S 3 hours. 
 
 Jeada E. by S 2 hours. 
 
 Soeda E. by S 6 hours. 
 
 El Gheleab Hauran, a round hill, E. S. E 10 hours. 
 
 Castle of Salghud S. E 12 hours. 
 
 Oom Welled S. E. J S 2 hours. 
 
 Rghotha S. E. ^ S 3 hours. 
 
 Bosra, (hid by a rising ground) S. E. i S 8 h ours. 
 
 Deer S. E. by S i hour. 
 
 Mukkraba S. by E 3 hours. 
 
 The spot from whence these bearings were taken, was to the 
 north of Sheikh Hussein, about a quarter of a mile; and on a rocky 
 eminence, similar to that on which is seated the deserted tomb of 
 the Saint giving name to that place, which may be known by the 
 distinguishing mark of two small domes, surrounded by a wall, 
 though now in ruins, I have set down only the principal towns 
 and places in view from the eminence on which we stood, omitting 
 many smaller ones, but the enumeration is sufficient to show how 
 populous a country must have been, wherein so many towns and 
 villages could be seen from a slight elevation above its surface. 
 Excepting in the immediate environs of large cities, or on the 
 borders of rivers, I should doubt whether any country on earth, 
 not even excepting China, was ever more thickly peopled than 
 these plains of the Hauran must have been when in their most 
 flourishing state, with all their numerous towns fully inhabited. 
 
 BB 2 
 
188 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 On descending from this eminence, and continuing our route 
 in a south-east direction, we came in half an hour to the town of 
 Deer, which I learnt was also called Ibn Eklaf. It was an ancient 
 place of considerable size, but it was now mostly ruined and en- 
 tirely deserted. There were some few buildings remaining, por- 
 tions of which were tolerably perfect, and in these the original 
 masonry appeared to be of the best kind, the stones being large, 
 and the work both smooth and solid : in one of these I remarked 
 a plain cornice projecting from the wall about half way up its 
 height, without any apparent cause for its insertion there ; and in 
 another I remarked the square and circular window used alter- 
 nately. On the left we passed a singular kind of pyramid, formed 
 of a large collection of loose stones, heaped up in a pyramidal form 
 upon a platform elevated from the ground, supported by four 
 pillars of about three feet high, and the pyramid above this rising 
 to the height of fifteen feet at least from the ground, the termin- 
 ation or apex of the whole being crowned by a rudely cut stone, of 
 the shape of a sugar loaf, on the top. We could gain no accurate 
 information as to this singular monument, which, however, I should 
 be inclined to conjecture was an ancient tomb, though its rudeness 
 might perhaps induce a belief of its more modern date. 
 
 In half an hour from Deer, we came to Wadi Thalith, where 
 we found a considerable stream descending from the snows of the 
 eastern mountains above Soeda. Here we watered our horses, 
 and drank of the stream, which we found to be sweet and 
 refreshing. During the rainy season, this brook must be of a con- 
 siderable size, as at the present time, notwithstanding the lono- 
 continued drought, which had parched up the face of the whole 
 country below, the stream was about ten feet across and a foot 
 deep in the centre, 
 
 The next place by which we passed was Oom Welled, a ruined 
 but still inhabited village, containing about thirty Mohammedan 
 families : and from thence our course continued south-east, until 
 we came to Rghotha, another village, in which there were no per- 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 189 
 
 sons inhabiting the houses, but where a few of the Desert Arabs had 
 encamped in tents. I noticed here the semicircular end of an old 
 building, probably a Christian church, and many sculptured stones ; 
 but as we passed a short distance to the eastward of the town, I 
 had no opportunity of seeing its interior. 
 
 From Rghotha our course turned east, and in half an hour 
 from thence we passed by a rude tomb, formed out of a large 
 quantity of loose stones collected together in a heap, and this again 
 surrounded by an oval wall of other loose stones. It is called the 
 tomb of Aziz Ibn Sultan Hassani, who is said to have been a 
 powerful chief of a tribe of Eastern Arabs, and to have met his 
 death here in a warlike encounter, when very far advanced in years. 
 From hence, in another hour, and proceeding nearly in the 
 same direction, we came to the town of Aehhrah, the station of 
 Sheikh Shibley, the chief of the Eastern Druses, and peopled 
 entirely by his followers and Christians, there being no Mohamme- 
 dans amons its inhabitants. We reached this town soon after 
 four o'clock, and alighted at the house of a kinsman of Abu 
 Farah, who appeared to have relations, friends, and acquaintances 
 over every part of the country. We had a large evening party 
 assembled to greet our welcome, and here, for the first time in the 
 Hauran, I saw chimneys and fire-places, as in the farm-houses in 
 England, well filled with excellent fuel, and a blazing fire kept up 
 during the night. The men of our party were all stout, handsome, 
 clean, and well dressed ; and the children were among the best- 
 looking that I had ever seen in any part of Syria. The govern- 
 ment being in the hands of the Druse chief, and the people of that 
 sect never attempting to make proselytes, but exercising great 
 toleration towards all other persons of opposite religions, there 
 appeared to be greater harmony and good understanding between 
 all parties here, than could have been the case if Mohammedans 
 had possessed the sovereign rule. There were several of the Druses 
 in our company, who were hardly to be distinguished in their 
 manners or appearance from their Christian neighbours, and though 
 
190 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 the conversation sometimes took a political and sometimes a re- 
 ligious turh, they readily joined in it, and expressed their opinions 
 with great freedom ; neither party, however, seeming to be offended 
 at the remarks of the other. In this agreeable manner, the time 
 passed away so rapidly, that it was midnight before we were aware 
 of it, and still later before our party broke up. 
 
 Wednesday, March 14. — One of the first duties of the morning 
 was to pay a visit to Sheikh Shibley, whom we found, as early 
 as sunrise, surrounded by a party of his followers, in a large 
 room in which he generally received strangers, and heard such 
 complaints as it fell within his power to attend to and remedy. 
 On being presented to him, I was invited to come and seat myself 
 by his side, and we soon entered into a familiar conversation on 
 general matters, which afterwards turned to those of a more local 
 and particular nature. He was in person of the middle stature, and 
 of an open countenance and agreeable manners ; his age could not 
 have exceeded forty-five ; his dress was plain, and his whole de- 
 meanour entirely free from ostentation. He asked me many 
 questions respecting Mr. Burckhardt, whom he had known under 
 the name of Ibrahim, in a short stay which he had made here : 
 and in the course of this conversation, having once or twice inti- 
 mated to me, that from the number of persons present our inter- 
 course could not be so free as he desired, he asked me for a small 
 scrap of paper, which I fortunately possessed, and on this he wrote 
 an Arabic line, which he handed to me without showing it to any 
 one else, the purport of which was, " It may be, between us, another 
 time, as it was with Ibrahim." I inferred from this, that though a 
 chief of the Druses, the sheikh might be disposed to communicate 
 much when alone that he felt it due to his station to repress when 
 others were present, and regretted that circumstances would not 
 admit of my staying a day or two with him, for the purpose of a 
 more confidential and familiar intercourse. Under existing cir- 
 cumstances our conversation was confined to topics of the most 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. jgj 
 
 general nature, in which every one could join. Before we took 
 leave, an excellent breakfast was brought in, consisting of the 
 usual dishes of the Turks, who live much more expensively and 
 luxuriously than the Arabs, to which were added walnuts and dipse 
 or the sweet syrup made from dry raisins ; and after a hearty meal 
 we arose to depart. 
 
 In passing through the town, on our way to the house of Abu 
 Farah's friend, at which we had slept, I observed the fragments 
 of old buildings, wrought up into more modern ones, shewing that 
 this had been the site of some ancient town now destroyed, and 
 that many of the present edifices had been constructed out of the 
 ruins of earlier ones. One of these fragments was the sculptured 
 architrave of a doorway, the upper compartment containing a 
 device of pointed leaves overlapping each other, and going from 
 the left end to the right and the right to the left till they met in the 
 centre; the under compartment was a series of more rounded leaves 
 or scales, the inner one deeply cut, and the outer in slight relief 
 There were also several plain columns seen in different parts of 
 the town, and some buildings with pointed arches in them, which 
 seemed to be original works, and not repairs, though having the 
 appearance of considerable antiquity. 
 
 Being determined not to delay my progress, whenever it was 
 in my power to prevent it, I resisted all solicitations to halt for a 
 day or two at this place, and left Aehrrah, much against the inclin- 
 ation of my guides, as early as nine o'clock. Our road now went 
 nearly south, that being the direction of Bosra, from which we 
 hoped to find a small caravan for Damascus ; and near the town 
 we passed a small stream called Wadi-Darah. In half an hour 
 beyond this, we passed on our left the village of El-Mej earner, on 
 the side of a hill. This village was inhabited principally by Druses ; 
 and in the short space between it and the town we had quitted, 
 the industry of these people was apparent, in the superior order 
 and neatness every where conspicuous, as well as in the more 
 cultivated state of the land. In this instance, as in a thousand 
 
192 
 
 FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 
 
 others I had witnessed, it was easy to be perceived how much the 
 whole country might be benefited by a change of government. 
 Wherever the despotism of the Turk extends, every motive to im- 
 provement is taken away, and every exertion paralysed ; but where 
 the influence of his tyranny is not felt, human industry makes the 
 gifts of nature subservient to the happiness of man. 
 
 In half an hour after passing the Druse village of El-Mejeamer, 
 we came to a ruined town called Walter, seated on the top of a 
 hill, from which, as it afforded a commanding view of the surround- 
 ing country, I took the following bearings : — 
 
 Aehhrah .... 
 El-Mejeamer . . 
 El-Gheleab Hauran 
 El-Ghussan (on a hill) 
 Castle of Salghud . 
 Thel Zeghagh (on a hill) 
 Buend (ditto) . . 
 Thebeen (ditto) . . 
 Smaad (ditto) . . 
 Muthahack (ditto) . 
 Krigt (ditto) . . 
 Bosra or Bussra 
 Deer Abu Salamy . 
 El-Kenyel . . . 
 Jemereen .... 
 Oom-el-Semak . . 
 Deer-el- Zebear . . 
 Maharraby . . . 
 Ghussiim .... 
 Gharraba .... 
 El-Jizey oua Sherkh 
 Jebel-el-Telj . . . 
 Jebel-el-Druse . . 
 
 N. by E. ^ E. . . . 2 miles. 
 
 N. E. i N 1 mile. 
 
 E.N.E 7nules. 
 
 E. by S 1 mile. 
 
 S. E. i E 9 miles. 
 
 S. E. J S S miles. 
 
 S.byE. JE. . . . 10 miles. 
 
 S. i E 8 miles. 
 
 S. i W 9 mQes. 
 
 S.;J W 10 miles. 
 
 S. by W. .... 3 miles. 
 
 S.W.JS 4 miles. 
 
 S.W.IS 10 miles. 
 
 S.W.JW 6 miles. 
 
 S.W.iW 2 miles. 
 
 S. W.byW. . . . 12 miles. 
 
 S.W.byW.iW. . ImUe. 
 
 W. by S 6 miles. 
 
 West 9 miles. 
 
 W. by N. i N. . . , 4 miles. 
 
 W.byN. iN. . . . 12 miles. 
 N. N. W. in the distance. 
 From N. to N. by E. 
 
 At Walter, the place from which the foregoing bearings were 
 taken by compass, and the distances computed by the eye, there 
 are remains of Roman masonry in rustic work, particularly in a 
 
FROM GHERBEE TO BOSRA. 193 
 
 large reservoir for water and cistern there ; but the place is now 
 entirely in ruins, and has not, probably been inhabited for many 
 years past. 
 
 In half an hour from leaving this, we passed on our right the 
 ruined town called Deer-el-Zebear, and soon afterwards, on our left, 
 the town of Krift, on a hill, both now deserted. In a quarter of 
 an hour more we passed through the bed of the Wadi-Zeady, 
 which in the rainy season is filled by a brook, the stones now left 
 bare by the absence of the stream being of a deep jet or coal black ; 
 and in another quarter of an hour passed on our right, the deserted 
 town of Jemereen, much larger in size than the two preceding it. 
 At the northern extremity of this town I observed a square tower, 
 with five successive cornices or mouldings, at different distances 
 from each other, resembling the stages of a Chinese pagoda, and 
 in the centre of the town, appeared the southern front of a large 
 building, seeming to be in the ancient stile of the principal edi- 
 fices of this country. In the second story were two broad project- 
 ing cornices, not extending the whole length of the front, but a little 
 way only beyond the centre, and between these were three win- 
 dows, two of a square form and a circular one between them ; the 
 lower part of the building was hidden by what appeared to me at 
 this distance to be the wall of an inclosed court. On the whole 
 there was more to excite curiosity than to gratify it, and I passed, 
 this place, as I had done many others, with a regret that the nature 
 of my circumstances did not admit of my devoting a day or two 
 to their examination. 
 
 We pursued our way without interruption, being impatient to 
 ascertain the state of things at Bosra, and in half an hour from 
 our last position, passed a stream called Abu Hamagha, and in 
 another half hour entered Bosra in safety. 
 
 c c 
 
CHAP. XL 
 
 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 Having alighted at the house of a person well known to both 
 my guides, our first enquiry was as to the state of the roads, and 
 the probable safety of a journey from thence to Damascus. In an- 
 swer to our questions we received only vague assertions of what 
 was already known to us, namely, that there was no assurance of 
 safety in any part of the Hauran, without being well armed and in 
 a party. The communication between this place and Damascus 
 had not been so frequent of late as formerly, though there were 
 occasionally parties of fifteen or twenty persons on horseback who 
 assembled for the purpose of mutual protection on the road. We 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. ] 95 
 
 conferred together on the best mode of proceeding under existing 
 circumstances ; and, urging on my companions the importance 
 of decision and expedition, which they were on all occasions more 
 disposed to hinder than promote, it was agreed that Abu Farah, 
 who had the most extensive acquaintance here as everywhere else, 
 should devote the day to enquiry among the trading people of the 
 town, to ascertain when a party for Damascus might be likely to 
 be made up, and whether it would not be possible to effect such 
 a union in the course of a day, or otherwise multiply our own 
 force by the addition of half a dozen others, if we could obtain no 
 more, so that we might proceed without further delay. Leaving 
 this task to the negotiation of Abu Farah, who, besides being the 
 best qualified for its performance, was in some degree jealous of 
 interference in what he deemed his own peculiar province, I took 
 Georgis with me, for the purpose of employing the remainder of 
 the afternoon, which was now too far spent to admit of our doing 
 any thing else, in making an excursion on foot through the town, 
 which, having never before been visited or described, was an object 
 of peculiar interest. The shortness of the time to which I had 
 limited my stay here, whether additional companions could be 
 found or not, and the hopelessness of my being able to collect in 
 that short period of a few hours, sufficient materials for a full and 
 accurate account of so interesting a spot, caused me to relinquish 
 the idea which I should otherwise have entertained of making a 
 plan of the ruins, and bringing away some description of the prin- 
 cipal edifices there. I knew also that whatever I could commit to 
 paper at all must be done in secrecy and stealth, as the Moham- 
 medans here are as bigotted as in every other part of Syria, and 
 would be likely to insult any one found making notes openly in 
 their town. I, therefore, took with me one of the small note-books 
 of about four inches square, that I had had purposely made in 
 Alexandria for occasions like these, and a pen and ink in a little 
 brass case suited to the pocket, by which I could write my memo- 
 randa, with the book almost concealed in my hand, while standing 
 
 c c 2 
 
196 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 to look at an inscription, or describe any general object while 
 walking along; and, when likely to be interrupted or watched, 
 could even pen such notes as I feared to commit to memory, by 
 writing under the ample outer shirt of the Arab dress without 
 beiijg perceived, particularly while sitting on the ground^ that atti- 
 tude being more favourable than any other to the concealment of 
 the hands when writing. These restraints were, however, ex- 
 tremely unfavourable to fullness, accuracy, or method in arrange- 
 ment ; but as every thing that could be gleaned from a field in 
 which there had been hitherto none to gather in the ample harvest, 
 was likely to be interesting and acceptable, I committed to writing 
 as much as I could, and in the order in which the subjects pre- 
 sented themselves to me, which must plead my apology for the 
 confused manner in which they may appear to be detailed. 
 
 The first remarkable building that I saw, after leaving the 
 house at which we halted, was a large ruined edifice, which was 
 originally an oblong square, with one semicircular end : the ma- 
 sonry of the exterior was smooth, well executed, and apparently 
 old, the stones being let in or dove-tailed into each other, like 
 those of former buildings already described as seen on our enter- 
 ing the Hauran, and thus united without cement. The part of the 
 semicircular end now standing exhibited large and small doors and 
 windows with the Roman arch, and other smaller windows of a 
 square and circular form, most irregularly placed, and giving the 
 whole an appearance of great disorder and barbarous taste. The 
 following Greek inscription stood in a tablet over a door in the 
 west or semicular front : — 
 
 +eniTOT0eONNeCTNOYKNOCIirTNTOYIOYN . . OYAPXI 
 emCKRU)KOAOMH0HKAieTeNIlU0HOAriOCAPAOCCeiPriOV 
 BAXXOYPMA . eONriOYTlUNA0NO0OPlDNKMKAM 
 NIKtUNMAPTYPtUNeNPTI . . . Y . . .TNAH ... S ... K. 
 
 The interior of the building presents a miserable work of the 
 Greek Christians, by whom it was no doubt used as a place of 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 197 
 
 worship up to the period of its destruction. The walls have been 
 stuccoed on the inside, and portions of this remain, showing that 
 it had once been ornamented with portraits and figures of the prin- 
 cipal Greek saints; the pillars have also been marked with the 
 cross, but this would seem to be subsequent to its original con- 
 struction ; among these pillars I saw some of the Ionic order rudely 
 cut, and the portion of a stone door that had once been used in 
 this building, but all was in so confused a state as to render it 
 difficult to separate the antient from the modern. Over one of 
 the doors on the inside of the building appeared an inscription in 
 characters resembling those in use among the Armenians, but not 
 sufficiently distinct to admit of their being copied with accuracy. 
 Throughout the building, the semicircular or Roman arch had been 
 most frequently used, but at the eastern end was a large pointed 
 or Saracen arch, ornamented with sculpture, and this was not the 
 only instance in which we had seen these characteristics of two 
 very different orders of architecture united in the same edifice. 
 
 Near to this, I saw an old building, with a high square tower 
 attached to it, in which was a double-arched window near the top, 
 the arches being divided by a spirally fluted column, and an open- 
 work battlement on the top. This must have been a Mohamme- 
 dan work, as we noticed many Arabic inscriptions in different parts 
 of it ; some originally sculptured and coeval with the building 
 itself, and others let into the masonry at some subsequent period. 
 In the court of this edifice we saw an old plain sarcophagus of 
 stone, originally no doubt of Roman execution, but dug up from 
 some place of sepulchre and since appropriated to a cistern for 
 water; and on a large and flat black stone near it was an inscrip- 
 tion of thirteen lines in Arabic, of the flat character nearly resem- 
 bling Cufic, and near to this were pillars with spirally fluted shafts, 
 and capitals of a sugar-loaf form reversed, such as I had never 
 before seen. 
 
 The next building to which I was taken was a large plain edi- 
 fice, with an arched window at the eastern end, and square aper- 
 
198 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 tures of a small size in other parts ; apparently once pent-roofed,* 
 but now quite open, with crosses sculptured in the doors and walls, 
 and the whole appearance that of an early place of Christian wor- 
 ship. From this building the following inscription was ob- 
 tained : — 
 
 AHAVRELIHIONnEO 
 AVGGPRPR . . . GOSDESIG 
 ORTIONES 77LEG III KMR 
 VNERIANAE6/CLCIANAERARISI 
 MOETPEROHNATVSnSS . HOCOSIIC 
 
 At a building called El-Hamam, or the Bath, there are in the 
 interior four pointed arches facing each other, with what would 
 be called Gothic concave recesses, the arches of these recesses 
 being also pointed, and formed by alternate layers or rays of black 
 and white stone. Between them is a sculptured tablet, like the 
 architrave of the door in the small pyramid at Dahhil, already de- 
 scribed. The upper dome of this bath was of brick work, the 
 bricks of the flat kind called Roman tiles, of a bright red colour 
 and cemented together with a layer of lime equal in thickness to 
 the brick itself, very strongly and neatly done, and resembling thp 
 brick work dug up from the ruins of the old Greek city of Alex- 
 andria. 
 
 Opposite to this was a large building entirely constructed out 
 of the ruins of more ancient edifices. In some parts of this were 
 seen columns of white marble in one solid shaft ; in others, pillars 
 of black basalt, formed out of several distinct pieces, and curious 
 capitals of different ages, orders, and materials. The last use to 
 which it had been appropriated was no doubt that of a place of 
 Christian worship, but it was difficult even to conjecture to what 
 age its origin should be ascribed, as there was a mixture of em-» 
 blems and ornaments, which it would require much time and great, 
 difficulty to separate from each other and assign with any accuracy 
 to their respective authors. Of inscriptions alone, there were 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. I99 
 
 Cufic, Arabic, and Greek : of sculpture there were some portions 
 that might be as old as the Chaldean times, others worthy of any 
 of the five Greek orders : and others again of a much later date 
 and much inferior execution. Some of the stucco work on the 
 wall was extremely rich, while the paintings on the same surface 
 were the most miserable performances. The pavement was formed 
 of large flat stones laid in diagonal squares, and other parts were 
 entirely neglected ; so that throughout the whole there was a mix- 
 ture of antiquity and freshness, of wealth and poverty, of skill and 
 ignorance, of care and neglect, which rendered it more puzzling to 
 decide on its original purpose and intention, than any other build- 
 ing I had yet seen. 
 
 From hence we ascended on the inside of a square tower by 
 sixteen several stages of steps, each containing four in number, 
 making sixty-four steps in all. The door which closed the en- 
 trance to this tower below was one solid slab of stone, and similar 
 but smaller doors of stone served to close the apertures for light in 
 different stages of the building, as we ascended it, all of them 
 being hung by pivots traversing in sockets above and below, as 
 before described. At the top of this tower was an open space, 
 with a high wall enclosing it, each side of which had a double 
 arched window in its centre, divided by a column ; that in the 
 western front spirally fluted, and all the rest plain. The roof of 
 this open space, and the ceiling of it also, was of solid stone, and 
 every part of the tower strong and perfect ; but whether con- 
 structed by Romans, Saracens, or Christian Greeks it was not easy 
 to determine. 
 
 From the summit of this tower we enjoyed a commanding view 
 of the ruins of Bosra, and from this spot, any one possessing suf- 
 ficient time for the task, might make a very accurate bird's-eye view 
 of the whole, and even construct a ground plan sufficiently correct to 
 indicate the line of streets and the positions of the principal build- 
 ings at least. The compass of the town appeared from hence to 
 have been about three miles around the walls, the form of these 
 
200 VROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 being an irregular square, facing E. by S. and W. by N. At the 
 western end are seen the remains of a Roman arched gateway, 
 not unlike that of Jerash, standing, like it, alone, or unconnected 
 with walls, as far, at least, as could be perceived from our present 
 point of observation. In the street running east and west, to which 
 this arched entrance originally led, were seen the remains of two 
 fine Roman edifices, the Corinthian columns of which are still 
 erect, standing near the centre of the town. A long street inter- 
 sected this at right angles, going north and south, passing directly 
 through the columns of the southernmost of these two Roman 
 buildings, which is called Serait-el-Bint-el-Yahoodi, or the Palace 
 of the Jew's daughter ; but I could not learn the origin of this 
 name, or obtain an account of any tradition connected with it. 
 The western gate before described, is called Bab-el-Howa, or the 
 Gate of the Wind, from the wind generally blowing from that quar- 
 ter across the plains of the Hauran. The only points of which the 
 bearings were taken from hence were the Castle of Salghud, which 
 was E. S. E., four hours distance ; Oom-el-Jemal, S. W., six hours; 
 and the spring of Moiya Jeheer, which supplies the town with 
 water, bearing N. N. W. from the foot of the tower, distant about 
 eight hundred yards, and surrounded by the ruins of the city. 
 
 After we descended from the tower, I observed near its en- 
 trance a large fragment of a stone door, which was finely sculp- 
 tured with the kind of wreath so frequently observed on the sarco- 
 phagi of the Romans, in the centre of a perfect pannel, with a 
 border of leaves and Maltese crosses around it, the latter of which 
 might, however, have been a modern addition. 
 
 On the outside of the tower, and in the street near it, were 
 many sculptured stones, and one of fifteen spans long, of a pattern 
 something like the one before described in two previous instances 
 at Dahhil and at the bath in this city, with the additional ornament 
 of a sculptured chain bordering the whole. 
 
 After leaving the town, we went next to the ruined building 
 called Serait-el-Bint-el-Yahoodi. The street which led to this was 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. gQl 
 
 the street going in a north and south direction, and leading south- 
 erly from the spot we had left. It was narrow, but paved with 
 stone, and in its general character resembled the covered streets 
 used as bazars in large Turkish cities, with little arched recesses, as 
 shops, on each side. At the point of intersection, where this street 
 is crossed by the other principal one of the city at right angles 
 with each other, we could see the whole length of the latter, from 
 Bab-el-Howa up to the ruins of this central edifice. On this spot 
 stood four fine Corinthian columns, each about four feet in diameter, 
 and resembling in size and style those of the temple of Jupiter, atf 
 Jerash. They do not follow the line of either of the intersecting 
 streets, but lie in a direction of N. E. and S. W., obliquely to the 
 great avenues of the town, and appear to have belonged to the 
 portico of some splendid temple once occupying that spot. The 
 principal edifice must, however, long since have been destroyed, as 
 the pillars now standing are surrounded by ruins of smaller buildings 
 than they could possibly have formed a portion of A few paces 
 only to the east of this are other pillars, forming, however, part of 
 a building of a different age, if one might judge from the difference 
 of style and proportion between these and the pillars before alluded 
 to. The former are in excellent taste and just proportions ; but 
 the latter, tliough of the same order, Corinthian, are in as bad 
 taste as the others are in good ; their shafts are not more than 
 three feet in diameter, yet they are much higher than the other 
 columns, whose diameter is one foot greater ; they are also addi- 
 tionally elevated on high and narrow pedestals, as if placed on 
 stilts, and cannot be less, on the whole, than fifty feet in height, 
 making, at the least, fifteen or sixteen diameters, a scale that gives 
 them an appearance of weakness and insignificance quite unworthy 
 of comparison with the strength and majesty which belong to the 
 chaste proportions of good architecture : there are only two of 
 these columns standing, and these support an entablature richly 
 sculptured in the most florid style, but appearing too heavy for the 
 pillars to support. 
 
 D D 
 
202 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 From hence we went to the castle of Bosra, which lies to the 
 south of the ruins just described : and, from a large stone near the 
 entrance, I copied the following inscription : — 
 
 + En0eAeK<J>l7;OTIHIA IOP0AOS . . . 
 
 IxeUJNIOYCTINIANOYKAieeOAtUPACUJKOA . . . 
 HPIOCOIKVCTOYATIOYKAIA0xO*UPOYIlDBIKA 
 eniTO YnOCItUTIKAIATIlUTATO Y AOXI. 
 
 The exterior of the castle is in the rustic masonry of the Ro- 
 mans, which might, however, have been adopted and used by the 
 Saracens : but here, as in most of the other large castles that I had 
 seen in this country, there was a mixture of styles which rendered 
 it exceedingly difficult to say in what age or by what people they 
 were constructed. Just before the entrance to this was a small 
 guard-house, with a fan or shell-topped niche, of good sculpture, 
 with a column on each side, such as is frequently seen in Roman 
 ruins generally, and is often met with in the remains at Jerash ; 
 while on the walls of the castle itself is a long Arabic inscription, 
 dated in the year of the Hejira, 722, which is, of course, Moham- 
 medan. A faithful copy and translations of the numerous inscrip- 
 tions found here might, perhaps, remove all doubt on this subject, 
 by comparison with each other ; and it was this impression which 
 chiefly induced me to copy so many of these memorials of past 
 ages in every part of my route, in the hope that more learned aid 
 might serve to throw some light, through them, on many interest- 
 ing particulars connected with this thickly peopled, though compa- 
 ratively unknown tract of country. Those in Greek, from the cha- 
 racters standing each separated from the other, are far more easily 
 copied than the Arabic, which, particularly in old inscriptions, is so 
 intricate, from the characters running one into the other, that even 
 the learned Arabs of the country have often great difficulty in de- 
 cyphering them, and for a foreigner to attempt it would be hope- 
 less ; merely to copy them accurately, as a painter might do, without 
 understanding a single character, would be of itself a work of great 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 203 
 
 labour, and it is not too much to say, that one hundred characters 
 of a Greek inscription might be copied in the same space of time 
 that it would take to disentangle from their maze, and write down 
 legibly and distinctly, any ten characters of an Arabic inscription ; 
 and the older they are the more difficult are they faithfully to tran- 
 scribe. It was for this reason that I confined myself to what was 
 most practicable, and what I could collect with greater certainty 
 and effect in my peculiar circumstances, rather than commence 
 that in which I might be interrupted before I could finish it, and 
 thus lose even the opportunity of doing what might have been 
 made, at least, intelligible, if not quite complete- 
 Reverting to the singular mixture of styles and ages in the 
 same building, after I had copied the Greek inscription, observed 
 the Roman niched guard-house, and remarked the Arabic lines on 
 the castle walls, we came, on the inside of the gate of entrance, to 
 a piece of decidedly Roman sculpture, in the architrave of a door- 
 way, with a circular wreath in the centre of it, and near this an- 
 other Greek inscription as follows : — 
 
 eKHPONOIACKxienOYAHCMO 
 TH0IOYT0PMANOYBKAIXHAU) 
 NOrMAAXItUNOCAlXONrONTO 
 
 TeMeNoceKoeiDEAUuNeKTceH. 
 
 While copying this inscription I learnt indirectly, from a con- 
 versation that passed between two Arabs, in my hearing, one of 
 whom had himself seen the place he described, that the town of 
 Oom-el-Jemal was six hours' journey from Bosra, in a south-west 
 direction, and that the place was large and full of ruins ; among 
 others, that of a Christian church, with many niches, was named, 
 but it was added, that among all the ruins there were no columns 
 of any kind. The place is uninhabited by permanent residents, 
 and at the moment in which this description was given, a party of 
 the tribe of Beni Sakker Arabs made it the head-quarters of their 
 plundering expeditions. 
 
 DD 2 
 
204 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 Proceeding further into the interior- of the castle, the follow- 
 ing inscriptions were met with, the first on a stone altar, and . the 
 second over a dopr-way : — 
 
 4>AMAN 
 MOCCHP 
 
 AerrK 
 
 YPCrPA 
 eNOCET 
 
 HKrAno 
 
 A U) N. 
 
 eKnpoNoiACi. . . . pnerpoYTOYAi 
 HreMeKTiC0HroTeixoc : cnpoeo 
 
 lOYAKYPIAAOY. 
 
 In the very centre of the castle I was at once surprised and 
 delighted by our coming suddenly upon a fine Roman theatre, ap- 
 parently of great extent and beauty in its original state, though 
 now so confounded with other ruins that it was difficult to say 
 whether the castle was originally a Roman work, with this theatre 
 in its centre for the entertainment of the garrison and such other 
 guests as might be admitted from without, or whether it was a 
 Saracen work built upon the ruins of a Roman theatre previously 
 standing on this spot. It was an interesting problem, but it would 
 require a more careful examination than my hurried moments 
 would admit to secure its solution, so that I content myself with 
 merely stating that this subject of enquiry was one that instantly 
 presented itself to my mind, on first seeing these undoubted re- 
 mains of Roman luxury, art, and pleasure, enveloped, as they might 
 now be said to be, with ruins of a less determinate description. 
 The theatre faces exactly towards the N. N. E., where it had a 
 closed front, with Doric wings, fan or shell-topped niches, and 
 Doric door-ways, and a range of pilasters above these, marking 
 a second story. There was only one flight or rather division of 
 seats, consisting of seven or eight ranges of benches gradually 
 rising, and receding as they rose, in the manner of all the theatres 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 205 
 
 of antiquity. The upper range was terminated by a fine Doric 
 colonnade running all round the semi-circle, the pillars being about 
 three feet in diameter, supporting a plain entablature. The circuit 
 of the upper range of seats was 230 paces, measured as I walked 
 over it. There were nine flights of cunii or smaller steps inter- 
 secting the ranges of seats, like rays from the centre to the cir- 
 cumference of a circle, and these were carefully wrought, the edge 
 of each being finished by a nicely rounded moulding, as well as the 
 edges of the benches intended for the accommodation of the audi- 
 ence. The only entrances for the visitors of this theatre, as far as 
 I could discover, were through arched passages in the semi-circular 
 parts, passing under the benches, and landing at the foot of the 
 I'ange of seats now in sight, corresponding with the ancient vomi- 
 tories, and about thirty in number. The whole of this noble 
 monument of Roman splendour appeared to me to be in the 
 chastest and best taste, and I never more strongly regretted the 
 necessity which obliged me to content myself with a hasty glance 
 of an interesting subject, than while hurrying almost breathless 
 over its ruins. 
 
 Among the fragments observed in the ruined heaps, spread 
 every where around, I noticed an Ionic capital with a female bust 
 between the volutes ; and a Greek inscription which I was pre- 
 vented from copying, just without the theatre, to the eastward 
 of it. 
 
 The stone doors, so abundantly seen throughout the Hauran, 
 and which had excited our admiration so strongly on first seeing 
 them among the ruined tombs of Oom-Kais, were here very nu- 
 merous. I omitted to state, in its proper place, that the square 
 tower which we had ascended, and from which we commanded so 
 distinct a view of the town, was of a sloping pyramidal shape 
 growing narrower progressively from its base to its summit, after 
 the manner of the Egyptian temples and the pagodas of India, to 
 which there is nothing similar, that I remember, in either Greek, 
 Roman, or Saracen architecture, all their square buildings carrying 
 
206 FROM BOSEA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 the same dimensions throughout their height, and only circular 
 towers, such as minarets (and these not always), diminishing their 
 diameter as they ascend. The door of entrance to the tower here 
 spoken of, was a double or folding one, pannelled and sculptured 
 with various ornamental devices. Besides this, many other stone 
 doors were seen in different parts of the town, some fastened by 
 horizontal bars of stone, and others by perpendicular ones placed 
 on the inside of them, and lodging each end in the massy frame- 
 work of the door, on either side, or above and below, as the posi- 
 tion of the bar required. Some of these doors were highly orna- 
 mented, others plain ; and while on one of them we saw the cross 
 frequently repeated, as an emblem of Christianity, the prevailing 
 faith, no doubt, at the period of its execution, we saw also, in other 
 instances, the Mohammedan profession of faith — " La Illah ul 
 Ullah, oua Mohammed el Russool UUah" — sculptured deeply in 
 the Arabic character on others, as if in triumph at the overthrow 
 of Pagan and Christian monuments in one common ruin, and the 
 appropriation of the materials of these to proclaim the unity of God 
 and the sacred mission of him whom they regarded as his prophet. 
 From a large loose stone, not used in any part of the masonry, 
 but lying on the ground without the theatre, I copied the follow- 
 ing inscription : — 
 
 tnANTAX0HN*YEIKAIEMnA 
 
 7.INAM*IKAAYniEI 
 
 TOYNEKAMHETONAXOITIEAnO 
 X0ONOCeiEX0ONAAYNHN 
 OTANKAMHETOYTOTEAOE. 
 
 The castle of Bosra appears to be nearly of a circular shape, 
 and is much larger than the castle of Assalt, or that of Adjeloon, 
 both of which, however, in the masonry and appearance of its ex- 
 terior, it may be said to resemble, the rustic style being used in all. 
 Whatever determination might be made, therefore, as to the age 
 and origin of one, would equally apply to all the others. If this 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHIJD. 207 
 
 of Bosra be originally Roman, and all the Saracenic parts can be 
 accounted for as subsequent additions or repairs, so also might all 
 the peculiarities of the castles of Assalt and Adjeloon be explain- 
 ed in the same manner. It is a question highly worthy the close 
 investigation, not only of the antiquary but the historian, and as 
 such may well deserve the attention of any future traveller, who 
 may bring to the task more ample means of observation, and more 
 leisure to record them, than it has been my fate to command. I 
 should not omit to mention, in addition to the striking facts of the 
 Roman theatre in the centre of this fortress, and the guard-house 
 with all the peculiarities of Roman style about it at its entrance, 
 that the bridge leading across the broad and deep ditch by which 
 it is surrounded is constructed over Roman arches, which ought to 
 be decisive, till better evidence be shown of the building, to which 
 this bridge leads, being Roman also; unless it shall appear that the 
 semicircular arch was not confined to Roman architecture, but 
 that the Saracens made as frequent use of that as of their own 
 pointed form, which, to say the least of it, is at present extremely 
 doubtful. 
 
 About three hundred yards from the castle, in a direction of 
 S. E. by E., is a large reservoir, nearly three hundred feet square, 
 and in a very perfect condition ; which, as a receptacle for rain, add- 
 ed to the spring near the centre of the town, must have furnished 
 an abundant supply of water for the use of the town. In one part 
 of the ruins I observed the fragment of a pillar of red granite, 
 which must have been a very costly material here, as no such stone 
 is known, as far as I am aware of, in any part of Syria, and this 
 was probably brought from Egypt, in the obelisks and other monu- 
 ments of which country it is alone frequently used. 
 
 Beyond the Corinthian portico, in a court, I noticed, on what 
 was formerly the cornice of some building, now used as part of a 
 a door frame, the two following lines in Greek, in rudely cut cha- 
 racters : — 
 
 + ETHEEEARINONTONAOIAIMONHTEMONHA 
 AN0EYEPTBE . . . HEHnOAIEHE*ETETEPH. 
 
208 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 There is another stone used in the wall near this, also, behind the 
 portico and nearer to the columns composing it, on which is a Greek 
 inscription turned upside down, evidently proving that both this 
 and the former were among the remains of some older edifices, 
 and had been applied by more modern hands to their present 
 purposes, either when the building was first constructed, or subse- 
 quently in the way of repairs. This inscription, from its being 
 reversed, was difficult to read or transcribe, but I surmounted the 
 obstacle, and obtained the following copy of it : — 
 
 MONHCAYTONPAIOPOCKAICAPOCP . . . 
 TYXOYKnnHKOAlDNIACniMAPK 
 PeCBCeBANTICTPATHIOY 
 IAieKATOCTOYTAKOVOY0ATOY. 
 
 Having already committed more to paper during this rapid 
 and hasty view than I had anticipated, or thought possible, and the 
 day drawing to a close, we left the castle to proceed homeward to 
 the house in which we had taken up our shelter, there to ascertain 
 the result of Abu Farah's enquiries. On passing the little Roman 
 guard-house a second time, near the entrance of the castle, I learnt 
 that the niche there, originally designed for the warden or sentinel, 
 was now used by the Mohammedans as a place of prayer, for which 
 it might well suit, as it pointed to the S. by W., and near enough 
 to the direction in which they face towards the Kaba at Mecca, to 
 answer that purpose. The castle itself is inhabited at present en- 
 tirely by Mohammedans, to the number of about forty families, no 
 Christians living within its walls, though there are many in the 
 town, where they are intermingled with Moslems ; but there are no 
 Druse families, either in the castle or in the town. 
 
 On our reaching home we found Abu Farah returned from his 
 tour of enquiry, but without having succeeded in obtaining addi- 
 tional companions for our journey onward, so that the prospect for 
 the remainder of our way was no brighter than before ; and it 
 seemed probable that we should be obliged to rely for the future, 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 209 
 
 as we had done during the past, on our own prudence, vigilance, 
 and strength, for protection. 
 
 Our evening party was pretty numerous, consisting of at least 
 thirty male Christians, no females joining them in public, so exten- 
 sive has been the influence of Mohammedan manners with regard 
 to the seclusion of women, over all classes of people subject to. 
 their rule. Among the topics of discourse was that of the miracle 
 of feeding the multitude with five loaves and two small fishes, which 
 gave rise to a warm dispute, as to the localities of the scene, be- 
 tween the Mallim Georgis and the Greek priest. The debate was in 
 Arabic, the only tongue spoken here, in which the former appeared 
 to me to have the best of the argument, and I was glad to see such 
 an unusual symptom of religious freedom as this evinced, for I had 
 hardly before believed that any person in this country would dare 
 to dispute any thing of a religious nature with a priest of his own 
 sect. 
 
 It was in vain that I directed my enquiries as to any traditions 
 respecting this celebrated city ; not one among our whole party 
 remembered the poetic passage in Isaiah, " Who is he that 
 cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that 
 is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his 
 strength?" (chap. liii. ver. 1.) Not one of them remembered any 
 thing of even the name of Judas Maccabeus, by whom this city 
 was taken * ; nor were they at all aware that it had been a post 
 contested by the Romans, Parthians, Saracens, or any other people, 
 as a fortified and border possession ; but imagined that it must 
 have been originally one of the principal cities of Solomon, and 
 from the decline of the Jewish power have passed at once into 
 the possession of the Christian Greeks, to whom they attributed 
 all the principal remains now seen in the city, f 
 
 * See Ancient Universal History, 8vo. edition, vol. x. book 2. chap. xi. p. 288. 
 
 f The learned Dr. Vincent, in his interesting work on the Commerce and Navi- 
 gation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean, has the following passage applied to Basra 
 or Bussorah, in the Persian Gulf, which may be appropriately introduced here : — 
 
 E E 
 
210 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 Thursday, March 15. — On arising in the morning I found that 
 I had been bitten all over, during my sleep, by an insect, whose 
 bite seemed to combihe the venom of the bug and musquito in 
 one, and to be more painful than either. I was informed, on en- 
 quiry, that this insect was peculiar to Bosra, and failed not to 
 select strangers for its feast in preference to those who were old 
 residents of the place, which was the reason, probably, of so little 
 pains being takeA to use precautions against it. Our morning de- 
 bate naturally turned on the subject of our" future route, and as 
 there appeared to me that nothing was likely to be gained by 
 further delay, I was content to run the risks, which could only be 
 avoided either by great loss of time or increase of expense, and try 
 the road alone, or with our own party only, as we had hitherto done. 
 I resolved, therefore, to proceed at once by a road leading through 
 several of the Druse towns on the eastern border of the Hauran, 
 and less liable to interruption, as I understood, than the roads on 
 the plain to the west, from being better peopled, and the inhabit- 
 ants in general being more prepared for self-defence, whether sta- 
 tionary or journeying from town to town. This route would also 
 
 " Basra, Bozra, and Bosara, is a name applicable to any town in the Desert r 
 it signifies rough or stony ground : and thus we have a Bosara in Ptolemy, near 
 Muskat; and a Bozra, familiar in Scripture, denoting an Arabian town in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Judea, taken by the Maccabees. — Gal. adAlpag,, p. 120. ; Terra crassa 
 et lapidosa. But see riT^T^ under "llfi. Bosrath, desertum, a Batzar clatisit, 
 quia clauduntur aqua. Bozrah is mentioned as early as the age of Abraham ; Genesis, 
 c. xxxvi. V. 33 ; and in Isaiah, c. Ixiii. v. 1. From hence, hazar for an emporium, and 
 urhs munita quia circumclauditur : to which the Bursa of Ptolemy is allied." — Vol. i. 
 p. 436.; note. 4to. 1807. 
 
 In Richardson's Arabic Dictionary i^i, Busret, is called — " 1. Whitish 
 stones ; 2. A kind of gross earth, out of which they dig stones ; and 3. The city of 
 Basra or Bussorah, in the Persian Gulf, as seated on such ground." Besides this 
 meaning of 'whitish stones, which is the most general, but which will not apply either 
 to the Bozrah of the Hauran, or the Bussora of Arabia, -^u, hussr, means also 
 " the side, the border, the margin," a sense that would apply with equal truth to the 
 positions of both these towns, as being each on the borders of the Desert. jllL, 
 bazar, a market or emporium, is differently spelt, and comes from a different root ; 
 but the names of Bozrah in the Hauran, and Bussorah on the Euphrates, are each 
 pronounced in the same manner (Bussra) by their respective inhabitants. 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 211 
 
 give me an opportunity of seeing the castle of Salghud, at a little 
 distance east of Bosra, without more than an hour br two's der 
 viation ; and my guides being well acquainted, as they assured me, 
 with the road from thence to Damascus, we determined on setting 
 out. 
 
 Before we started we were kindly detained to take a parting 
 breakfast, at which almost every individual of our evening party 
 was present ; these including nearly all the male Christians in the 
 town ; the present population consisting of about 100 Mohamme- 
 dan families, with thirty Christians, and only a few Druses, as occa- 
 sional visitors rather than permanent residents, drawn here from 
 time to time for the purposes of trade. Besides the Christians, 
 there were a few Mohammedans of our breakfast pftrty, attracted 
 chiefly, I believe, to see the strangers ; their curiosity, probably, 
 having been excited by what they might have heard on the previous 
 evening of my peregrinations and close enquiries respecting parti- 
 cular objects of research in the town. Between one of these 
 and a Christian of the party a stout debate was maintained on the 
 subject of religious fasts ; the scanty fare of our breakfast^ bread, 
 onions, and oil, having been imposed by the Greek Lent now cele- 
 brating, naturally giving rise to the subject. The Mohamme- 
 dan contrasted the long and continued privation of the Greek fast 
 with the more agreeable intervals of the Ramazan, in which the 
 orthodox Mussulman is enjoined to fast daily from sunrise to sun- 
 set, but is rewarded for his virtue by being permitted to feast 
 nightly as luxuriously as he pleases, provided he eats and drinks 
 only while the sun is below the horizon. To most persons, this 
 would certainly be far more agreeable than living in the miser-; 
 able manner of the Greeks during their rigid abstinence of 
 forty days, in which scarcely any thing but bread, oil, vegetables, 
 and salt are eaten ; even butter, eggs, honey, and all that can be 
 warped into the interpretation of animal food is strictly prohibited. 
 I had a difficult task to perform when appealed to for my opinion, 
 as it was necessary that I should conciliate the one without ofFend- 
 
 E E 2 
 
212 FROM BOSRA to THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 ing the other, in which, happily, by a little management, and by 
 the aid of plain sense and moderation, of which even the most 
 bigotted are sometimes sensible, I succeeded, so that the harmony 
 of our circle was preserved unbroken. 
 
 Leaving Bosra at nine o'clock, we went out by the reservoir for 
 water near the castle, which I had an opportunity of ascertaining 
 to be 150 horse-paces square, and the walls of which were at least 
 ten feet thick, being an interior casing to the rocky bed out of 
 which it had been excavated. Our course lay to the eastward, in 
 pursuing which we passed over a stony ground, and in an hour 
 after setting out we halted for a moment on the south bank of the 
 Wadi Zeady to water our horses. The stream was here twenty 
 feet wide, and ran over a bed of rock, the surface of which was 
 naturally black wherever it could be seen fresh, as in recent frac- 
 tures, but which acquired a yellow and sometimes a whitish hue by 
 decomposition from exposure to the atmosphere. After crossing 
 this stream we proceeded in the same direction through a more 
 stony tract, and in another hour we arrived at the town of El- 
 Gheryeh. 
 
 This place appears to have been, in its flourishing state, quite 
 as large as Bosra, judging from the extent of space now covered 
 with its ruins ; but it struck me as remarkable, that in all that 
 portion of them which I could see in passing through the town, 
 there were no columns nor other indications of Roman luxury, as 
 in the theatre and temples of the place we had left. There were, 
 however, many of the large massy doors of stone, which must be 
 considered as a peculiarity of the aboriginal or earliest style of 
 architecture known in this country, and continued down through 
 all its successive occupiers from the same cause, namely, the entire 
 absence of" wood throughout the whole of these extensive plains : 
 one of these stone doors was much more profusely ornamented 
 with panels and bars sculptured in relief than any that I had yet 
 seen. In a mass of rock near the town I thought I could perceive 
 the basaltic division of columns : and throughout the buildings I 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 213 
 
 remarked that, wherever the stone was recently broken, the fracture 
 showed a deep black surface, while the older stones were almost 
 invariably coated over with a decomposed substance of a brownish 
 yellow, resembling the rust of iron. 
 
 As the visit to Salghud, which is entirely deserted, required to 
 be made from this place, to enable us to return here and sleep at 
 night, the castle being about three hours' journey from hence, we 
 Raited at Gheryeh to take coffee only, and arrange for a place of 
 shelter at our return, after effecting which, we mounted our horses, 
 and set out on our visit at noon, accompanied by a Christian from 
 Gheryeh, named Eesa or Jesus, a common name among the Chris- 
 tians of the East. Keeping on the east side of the stream of 
 Wadi Zeady, we came in an hour to the ruined town of Diffin, in 
 which nothing remarkable attracted my attention. In half an hour 
 from thence we came to a very pretty and interesting spot, com- 
 pared with the solitude by which it was surrounded, called Ain, 
 being, as its name imports, according to its Arabic meaning, 
 a spring or fountain, and the source from which issued the 
 Zeady, the stream mentioned before. The value of this spring 
 had been sufficiently estimated by the Romans, and probably, ac-. 
 cording to their usual custom, it had been dedicated to some 
 nymph or river-god, as around the fountain-head of this source of 
 the Zeady were scattered fragments of some ancient building 
 erected over it, with Roman sculpture on many of the blocks, 
 though not sufficient for us to trace any particular design ; neither 
 was there any inscription met with, in the cursory view we took of 
 this place, by which we could learn any thing of its founder or the 
 date of the work in question. From the passage of the water 
 being obstructed in several places by the scattered fragments of the 
 ruins near it, a small lake was formed, the banks of which were 
 now surrounded with sedgy grass, and a flock of wild ducks were 
 sailing on its surface, apparently unintimidated by the approach of 
 man. 
 
 Leaving this fountain we proceeded onward over a stony road. 
 
214 FROM ROSEA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 and in half an hour came to a place called El-Karis : this is seated 
 on a hill, and near it is k stream with a small bridge across it. We 
 were roughly accosted here by some men who belonged to this 
 place, who insisted on knowing the object of our journey ; but we 
 were in no mood to communicate this to any one, and still less dis- 
 posed to lose the time which a parley would necessarily have oc- 
 casioned, so that we gave them evasive answers and passed on. In 
 another half hour we came abreast of the town of Aioon, which 
 we did not enter, but passed on the right of it at a short distance : 
 we were near enough, however, to observe, that the town, which 
 was now completely ruined and deserted, was nearly as large as 
 Bosra, and had, among other buildings, a square tower, not un- 
 like the one described among the ruins of that city. From hence 
 we ascended on the north side of a hill, through continual ruins 
 and among rude wells, in many of which water was still to be 
 found ; and at three o'clock we reached the castle of Salghud. 
 
 As it was indispensable to our safety that we should return 
 to Gheryeh by sunset at the latest, there was but little time left 
 to examine the many objects of interest worthy of notice here ; 
 but as every particular respecting a place so entirely unknown 
 and undescribed as this would be acceptable, I employed the brief 
 hour of our stay there as advantageously as I could. 
 
 The castle of Salghud, which has a general resemblance to 
 those of Assalt, Adjeloon, and Bosra, is nearly circular in form: 
 and is surrounded by a broad and deep ditch, hewn out of the 
 rock, and cased with masonry where necessary, the area on which 
 it stands being eight hundred paces in circuit. The castle occupies 
 a fine elevation, and is founded on a rock, which rock is itself 
 cased with masonry in such parts of its surface as are presented to 
 the ditch, where additional strength is required. There is through- 
 out every part of it the same mixture of styles observed In all the 
 other fortresses of these parts, so as to render it difficult to say 
 whether it be Roman or Saracen ; my conviction, however, was 
 rather confirmed than shaken by all I saw here, which led me to 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 215 
 
 believe that all these castles were of Roman origin, and that the 
 pointed arches and other marks of Saracenic* and Mohammedan 
 work, were of more recent date either as additions or repairs. f 
 Around the environs of this castle, for the first time since leaving 
 the higher lands of Syria, scattered fragments of pottery were seen. 
 The rustic masonry of the Roman days was used almost through- 
 out the building ; while on the south front were two figures of 
 animals badly executed, apparently intended for lions, and cer- 
 tainly of Mohammedan execution, though it is contrary to the 
 religious precepts and also to the general practice of the followers 
 of that faith, to " make to themselves any graven image, or any 
 likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth be- 
 neath, or in the waters under the earth ;" a prohibition which 
 Mohammed has repeated from Moses, and which the more ortho- 
 dox of his followers observe as scrupulously as the Jews. The 
 entrance to the castle was now much obstructed, but we remarked 
 a mean and badly built bridge, near which was a stone door, then 
 hung, and a passage leading downward from it. We could not spare 
 the time which an examination of the interior of this castle would 
 have required, and therefore did not risk the delay which would 
 have been occasioned by entering it; but we observed on one part 
 of the building an Arabic inscription of four lines, well cut, the 
 
 * In the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, the Scenite Arabians, or Bedouins of 
 the Desert were called Saracens, 1. 22. c. 15. and Saraceni was said to have been given 
 to the Arabs as a name from Suhhara, a Desert. — Vincent. Periplus, v. ii. p. 548. 
 
 f In confirmation of the opinion that the principal positions indicated were very 
 anciently chosen for the site of castles and fortresses, I may be permitted to quote a 
 passage of the same author, Ammianus Marcellinus, from a French translation, pub- 
 lished at Lyons, in 12mo, 1778, not having access to the original. He says, 
 " L' Arable, qui d'un cote touche a la Palestine, et de I'autre au pays des Nabateens, 
 est puissante par la variete de son commerce ; elle est rempli de forts et de chateaux, 
 que la prudence attentive des anciens y a construits dans des defiles surs et com- 
 modes, pour arreter les courses qu'y faisoient leurs voisins. Elle a encore des villes 
 considerables et revetues de bonnes murailles, telles que Bostra, Gerasa, Philadelphia, 
 (or Ammaan). L'Empereur Trajan qui poussa avec tant de succes la guerre centre 
 les Parthes et les Medes, apres avoir humilie I'orgueil de ses habitans, en fit une 
 province, et la soumit a nos loix Romains." Liv. 14. c. 8. vol. 1. p. 58. 
 
216 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 characters in high relief, and broad enough to occupy two layers of 
 the stones of which the walls were built. There were also pointed 
 arches and rustic masonry seen together in one place, and Roman 
 arches and sculptured stones in others, the whole presenting a 
 confused mixture of orders, styles, and ages, which it would require 
 great labour to separate, and great ingenuity as well as application 
 to assign each to their proper origin and date. I should not omit 
 the remarkable circumstance, that the last assault upon this for- 
 tress, and that which probably caused its final abandonment by 
 those who last occupied it, appears to have been accompanied by 
 a destructive fire, as there are marks of the ravages of this element 
 on various parts of the building : and all around it are traces of 
 cinders and ashes, in such quantity as could only have been pro- 
 duced by a fire of great intensity and some duration. 
 
 On halting at one of the highest parts of the ground without 
 the walls and ditch of the castle, I was struck with the extensive 
 view which its position commanded, and could not but admire the 
 choice which had been made of this for the site of a city and 
 fortress, in so early an age as that in which we first find its name 
 mentioned in Scripture, when the warfare of mankind was con- 
 fined to weapons which against such a place as this could produce 
 scarcely any effect. The city or town, which is now entirely in 
 ruins, and without a single inhabitant, is spread out at the foot 
 of the hill on which the castle stands, and extends from S.E. to 
 West. We could not spare a moment to look at this town, and 
 could only remark from hence an octagonal tower rising from 
 among its ruins, resembling the minaret of a Mohammedan 
 mosque. The town of Oom-el-Jemal, which bore S.W. six hours 
 from Bosra, was pointed out by one of my guides as visible from 
 this, bearing W.S. W, about eight hours in a straight line. This was 
 no doubt its bearing, but though my guide declared he saw the town 
 clearly, my sight, which was then perfectly unimpaired, was so far 
 inferior to the sharp vision of an Arab, that I could only make 
 out the smoke which ascended from it. The following bearings, 
 
W. iS. . . 
 
 4 miles. 
 
 W. by N. . 
 
 12 ditto. 
 
 W. by N. . 
 
 8 ditto. 
 
 W. by N. . 
 
 16 ditto. 
 
 W. by N. i N. 
 
 . 10 ditto. 
 
 N. N. W. i W. 
 
 
 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 217 
 
 however, taken by myself, from the western face of the castle of 
 Salghud may be safely relied on for their accuracy : — 
 
 ElAllehgah 
 
 Bosra 
 
 Thebeen 
 
 Ghode 
 
 Butcha 
 
 Jebel-el-Telj 
 
 The bearings of all these places were taken by compass on the spot, 
 but the distances are computed in miles only by their appearance 
 to the eye ; all the places indicated being, however, on the plain, 
 which rendered the estimate less liable to error than if seated 
 amid an uneven country. 
 
 From our present position on the west face of the castle, I 
 could perceive that there were traces of a broad public road, visi- 
 ble all the way between this spot and Bosra, in a direction of W. 
 by N., from which it may be inferred that there was a constant 
 communication between these two important posts. The plains 
 of Belkah, to the southward, in which the city of Amman or Phi- 
 ladelphia is seated, were also visible from hence, presenting a flat 
 surface almost as unbroken as the sea, but still on an elevated level ; 
 while the plains of the Hauran, to the west, were extensively 
 commanded and surveyed from hence, being apparently as flat as 
 those of Belkah to the south, but on a much lower level. 
 
 Proceeding round to the eastern face of the castle, the view 
 in that direction was calculated to excite surprise, and to awake an 
 intense curiosity or desire to traverse the scene which it opened, and 
 which desire, as I felt it in the strongest degree, I would have en- 
 countered any risk to gratify, were I not restrained by the peculiar 
 circumstances of my duty. In the best maps which we possess of 
 this country, the region beyond Jordan to the east is very imperfectly 
 delineated and described : but Bosra and Salghud form the ex- 
 treme border of all that is known, and beyond this the country 
 
 F F 
 
218 
 
 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 has hitherto been supposed to be entirely a desert. How was I 
 surprised, therefore, to see, as far as my sight could extend to the 
 eastward, ruined towns without number, and a country which pro- 
 mised a still richer harvest to the scholar, the antiquarian, and the 
 traveller, than even the interesting region behind us to the west. 
 My guides knew but little of the parts beyond Salghud, Abu Farah 
 having only once passed this boundary with some of the Arabs 
 occasionally visiting this tract of country ; but from him I was 
 glad to obtain the names of such few places as he knew, for the 
 purpose of noting their bearings and distance, and filling up as 
 much of the blank of our maps as this opportunity furnished me 
 the means of doing, leaving to others who might come thus far, 
 unfettered by any other claims than the ardour of research, to push 
 their enterprise and enquiry beyond this limit with a success which 
 other considerations peremptorily denied to me. The following 
 are the bearings that were taken of those few places, of which the 
 names were known, as seen from the eastern face of the castle of 
 Salghud: — 
 
 3 miles. 
 
 6 miles. 
 S miles. 
 8 miles. 
 
 7 miles. 
 1 mile. 
 3 miles. 
 5 miles. 
 5 miles. 
 
 7 miles. 
 
 8 miles. 
 
 The bearings, as in the former case, were taken by compass, and 
 the distances computed or estimated by the ' eye, as they appeared 
 from hence. 
 
 I learnt that there was not a single town of all the many to the 
 eastward of us (of which those named were but a small portion) 
 which was now peopled, the only inhabitants of this deserted region 
 
 Orroman 
 
 E. by N. . . 
 
 Hubbehtcha 
 
 . E. by N. . 
 
 El Khuzzir, a large town 
 
 E i S. . 
 
 Talliloze, ditto 
 
 . E.S.E. 
 
 Ghirbt el Bozereak 
 
 S.E. by E. f E. 
 
 Deer ul Nassarani 
 
 . S.E. byE. iE. . 
 
 Shaaf .... 
 
 S.E. by E. . 
 
 Public Road, extending 
 Mellah, seated on a hill 
 
 . S.E. . 
 S.E. 
 
 El Mejeadel . 
 Agrebba . 
 
 S.S.E. 
 . S. IE. . 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 219 
 
 being the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field ; among which 
 lizards, partridges, vultures, and ravens were all that I saw, but the 
 wolf, the hyena, and the jackall are said to abound. Some of the 
 Great Desert tribes of the Arabs occasionally visit this country to the 
 eastward, for the sake of the water and verdure which they occa- 
 sionally find for their camels and flocks after the rains ; and then, 
 as I was assured, it often happens that a person might, in peace- 
 able times, go right across the whole country from west to east, 
 passing from tribe to tribe without danger, provided he were well 
 assured of protection from the first tribe, from whom he might 
 obtain his safe conveyance to the next beyond it, and so on ; a 
 journey that would well reward the enterprise of any European 
 traveller who, might have the inclination, the means, and the 
 power to accomplish it. At present, however, the great body of 
 the Wahabees of Nejed had so spread themselves from the borders 
 of the Hedjaz up to the highest parts of the desert beyond 
 Palmyra, and close to the cultivated country on the edge of Asia 
 Minor, that there was no security for any one ; the whole Desert, 
 as it might be called, being in a state of war. It is to be hoped, 
 however, that on the first favourable occasion, some intelligent 
 traveller will be induced to make the attempt, in the course of 
 which he would be able to explore every part of the celebrated 
 dominions of Og the King of Bashan, of which this place of Sal- 
 ghud was one of the principal, and do much to elucidate the early 
 books of Scripture, by an examination of the ruins of the " three- 
 score cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Ba- 
 shan," which cities " were fenced with high v/alls, gates, and bars, 
 beside unwalled towns a great many." (Deuteronongiy, c. iii. v. 1. 
 to 10.)* 
 
 * Selcha, quae quoque Salecha, — Hebraeis Salcha, aliis vero Selchar, ac postea 
 Salchata quibusdam dicta est, vetus civitas est, quondam Og Regi Basan parens, atque 
 una et sexaginta munitionibus ac validioribus urbibus regni ejus, sita autem est juxta 
 urbem Gessur, montem quae Hermon : et Basanitides regionis versus Boream claus- 
 trum est. Haec etiam civitas olim a gigantibus inhabitata, ac diu possessa fuisse 
 
 F F 2 
 
220 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 As this has been named in Scripture as the land of the giants, 
 and even the dimensions of the iron bedstead of their king have 
 been given, which was kept in Rabbath of the children of Am- 
 mon, as a memorial, and was there referred to by the writer of 
 Deuteronomy (c. iii. v. II.), there is no part of the country wherein 
 this enquiry as to the probable stature of man in the early ages 
 of which the Scripture speaks, could be carried on with greater 
 probability of success than here* ; where the proverbial expres- 
 sion of there being " three hundred and sixty-six ruined towns," 
 now commonly used by the natives of these parts when speaking 
 of many other districts of the country beyond Jordan, may be 
 uttered with less exaggeration than in any other quarter to which I 
 had yet heard it applied ; so thickly strewed is every part of this 
 interesting region with the vestiges of former strength and abundant 
 population. 
 
 We had been now upwards of an hour on the ruins of Sal- 
 ghud, and it appeared to me that I had done nothing ; so ardent 
 were my desires, and so insignificant appeared to me the few 
 notes that I had taken, compared with what I should have done 
 if my power to record facts and observations on paper had kept 
 pace with my eagerness to collect them. I had done my best, 
 however, and strove to be content ; but when we remounted our 
 horses to return to Gheryeh, I confess that I experienced a feel- 
 ing of regret at my being unable to go farther, which one must 
 travel in untrodden countries, and have an enthusiastic love of 
 research, to understand, and which it requires the strongest sense 
 of duty and the most determined resolution to conquer. 
 
 videtur. Porro anno Christianse salutis millesimo centesimo quadragesimo tertio 
 nobilis quidam Turcorum Satrapa hanc et Bostrensum urbem, quibus prffierat. Hie- 
 rosolymam profectus, Christianorum regi Baldwino tertii tradero molitus fuit. Sed 
 uxor ejus, dum ipsa haec agebat, hostibus civitates aperuit, ac adverste paitis prjBsidi- 
 arios in arces admisit, et Christianis adventantibus bolum e faucibus eripuit. Adri- 
 chomius Theatnim, Terra Sanctce, p. 94. 
 
 * See, for further mention of Salchah, (or Salghud as it is now pronounced,) 
 Deut. c. iii. v. 10. Joshua c. xii. v. 5. c. xiii, v. 11., and 1 Chron. c. v. v. 11. 
 
FROM BOSRA TO TH& CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 221 
 
 Returning by the same route along which we had come to the 
 castle, nothing worthy of note occurred in our way ; and we 
 reached Gheryeh in safety about an hour aftejr sunset. We had 
 a welcome reception, and passed our evening in a pretty large 
 party, in which I learnt that the population of the place did not 
 exceed fifty families, of which twenty were Christians, who had all 
 come here to settle from Debeen, a village near to Jerash, from 
 which they said they had been driven out by the Arabs, and fled 
 to this place for greater security from their depredations, though 
 here they had been subsequently almost as liable to pillage as in 
 the place they had abandoned. In our party were both Moham- 
 medans and Christians, who appeared to be unusually tolerant 
 towards each other, the former rising up and performing their 
 prayers in the middle of the room without seeming to offend any 
 of the latter, and afterwards entering with greater freedom into 
 the religious conversation that principally engrossed the attention 
 of the company ; the Greek Christians being much more given to 
 controversy on disputed points of history and faith, than any other 
 sect of Eastern Christians that I had yet seen. Abu Farah, one 
 of my guides, relished any other subject better, however, and was 
 perpetually breaking in upon the solemnity and gravity of a debate 
 by some rude joke, at which no one could refuse to laugh, so 
 natural and so striking was his humour, while his companion, 
 Georgis, as frequently indulged in his peculiar vein of predicting 
 events, which gave an agreeable variety to the subjects of our 
 mirth. 
 
 In the course of the evening we removed from the house in 
 which our party was first assembled to the one adjoining it, which 
 was larger, and without an occupant. This gave me an oppor- 
 tunity of observing that the folding stone door of the first house, 
 which was of the same description as those seen in the most ancient 
 buildings, and at the entrance of Roman tombs, was fifteen inches 
 thick, from which some idea may be formed of these ponderous 
 masses, how unwieldy they must be to open and shut, and with 
 
222 FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 
 
 what propriety they might be enumerated under the terms of 
 " gates and bars," when speaking of the strength of the three- 
 score cities of Og the king of Bashan ; as these ponderous doors of 
 stone were all closed on the inside with bars going horizontally 
 or perpendicularly across them, and the whole edifice even to the 
 beams and roof being of stone also, must have rendered them almost 
 inaccessible to any but the battering-ram or cannon. This also 
 appeared to me as another proof of the very high antiquity of 
 most of the towns and buildings as we now saw them (notwith- 
 standing the peculiar marks of Roman and Saracenic work about 
 them which might well be subsequently added), from their accu- 
 rate correspondence with the descriptions in the earliest books of 
 the Scriptures : for such buildings must have been impossible to 
 be destroyed and swept away entirely to give place to others, with- 
 out infinitely more labour and cost than it would take to make 
 them the abodes of all future successors ; while each race of their 
 occupiers might make such additions, improvements, and orna- 
 ments, as suited their own style of taste, leaving the more solid 
 parts of the structure just as they found them, and as they are 
 likely to endure, as memorials of the highest antiquity for ages yet 
 to come. In the house adjoining us, to which our party retired, 
 I remarked a central fire-place, with massy stone beams forming 
 the roof, pointed arches, and extremely solid masonry throughout. 
 
 Among other matters related during the evening, I learnt 
 that the seven largest towns of the Hauran were appropriated to 
 the seven days of the week, and that each bore the name of the 
 day on which it held a market or fair ; the round of the week 
 being completed by each town holding a mai'ket once in seven 
 days ; so that during every day of the week there was a market or 
 fair in some one or other of the seven, which being regularly 
 observed was accurately known and attended as occasion required. 
 
 Just before we were breaking up to retire, a stranger 
 joined our party, who communicated as iiis portion of news, that 
 an English fleet had arrived ofi' Alexandria, and that Toussoun 
 
FROM BOSRA TO THE CASTLE OF SALGHUD. 223 
 
 Pasha, the eldest son of Mohammed Ali in Egypt, was coming 
 from Constantinople, where he had been sent on a mission after 
 defeating the Wahabees, to assume the government of Damascus ; 
 but as the latter part of this intelligence was one that most nearly 
 affected the interests of all present, it entirely absorbed the atten- 
 tion of the company, and the English fleet were forgotten almost 
 as soon as the rumour of their destiny and purpose had been men- 
 tioned ; so much do events rise and fall in human estimation, in 
 proportion as they more nearly or more remotely bear on the 
 interests of the individuals by whom they are considered. 
 
CHAP. XII. 
 
 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Friday, March 16. — I rose with the earliest dawn of day, 
 and while morning coffee was preparing, I took an opportunity to 
 steal out unobserved, for the purpose of taking a hasty glance 
 around the town, well knowing that our party would not be ready 
 to mount before they had taken their breakfast and enjoyed their 
 pipes, which would be nine o'clock at the earliest. During this 
 hurried excursion I observed that the town of Gheryeh resembled, 
 in all its general features, the many places of a similar size that I 
 had already passed through in the Hauran, with very few local pe- 
 culiarities to distinguish it. In the centre of the town is a reser- 
 voir for water, sixty-five paces long, forty paces broad at the east 
 end, and thirty broad at the west, the descent into it being by 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 225 
 
 flights of steps at each corner, about fifteen feet in depth. At the 
 east end of this reservoir, or tank, as it would be called in India, 
 stood a portico formed of eighteen pillars, in three several rows of 
 six each. A remarkable feature of this building was, that instead 
 of the portico being on a level, and above the ascending flight of 
 steps, to the number of seven, by which it was entered, the pillars 
 stood on the steps themselves, the front row being the longest, 
 the second row shorter, and the last or inner row the least in alti- 
 tude of the whole, a peculiarity that I had never before observed 
 anywhere. The pillars were about two feet in diameter, but of 
 rude workmanship. There was a water-work on arches near to this, 
 and a sloping tower rising from amid the whole, the general aspect 
 of the scene being more like the combinations of an Indian pagoda, 
 tank, ghaut, &c., than either a Roman temple or a Christian church. 
 The walls here were at least seven feet thick, and were constructed 
 of large blocks of stone in the rustic style. On the upper range 
 of steps leading to this remarkable building, I observed a large 
 block of stone, apparently black basalt, six spans long and two 
 deep, now used as a mortar, with a wooden pestle in a hollow ex- 
 cavated in the top of it, and lying there to be used by any one who 
 may need it for pounding burnt coffee, on the face of which stone 
 is the following inscription : — 
 
 ArA0HTYXH 
 eKTieeHHAIMNHGTOYCP 
 
 eKOINlUNANAAlUMATlUN 
 THCKlDMHCXieeKnPONOIAC 
 
 «I>AKOPNHAIANOTnn. 
 
 In the town, the reservoir before mentioned is known by the name 
 of El-Birket, or the Lake. On a loose block of stone, near an old 
 square tower to the west of this lake, is the following inscription, 
 rudely cut : — 
 
 G G 
 
226 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 AMAQAATHeZ 
 
 IAIU3NeKTICe 
 
 KITOMNIHMe 
 
 ONANABITeKA 
 
 ITCKNOICOTIO 
 
 OYCOAPeAABeN. 
 
 Stone doors were seen in several parts of the town, and one of 
 these was barred, studded, and sculptured in each pannel, with 
 great care. In the upper part of the same building to which this 
 belonged, which was a tower, the blocks of stone were dove-tailed 
 into each other for security of union, after the manner already de- 
 scribed as prevalent in the earliest buildings of the Hauran. 
 
 At the west end of the tovvn is a large edifice, called by the 
 Christians here, El-Kaneese or the church ; near to this is an arched 
 subterranean work, with large beams of stone ; and close by it a 
 modern sepulchre, or a tomb of a Mohammedan Santon. In dif- 
 ferent quarters of the town there are springs of water, from which 
 it is more abundantly supplied with that necessary of life than any 
 town we had passed through ; and in addition to these are reser- 
 voirs for containing rain, so that it is probable this place was once 
 the seat of some manufactory, in which the agency of water was 
 perpetually required. I noticed, also, in two separate instances, 
 the act of ploughing up small patches of ground amidst the ruins, 
 for the purpose of sowing corn ; and both the ploughmen followed 
 their labours with their swords by their sides ; the object of pre- 
 ferring this enclosed ground to larger portions without the limits 
 of the town being, as they told me, for greater security, as, at a 
 very short distance from the dwellings of the husbandman, no one 
 could be sure of reaping what he himself had sown. I learnt also 
 that these patches of cultivated ground were like the houses among 
 which they 'were seated, the permanent property of no particular 
 individual, passing from hand to hand as events arose to change 
 the motive for tilling them ; the only property, therefore, in them 
 being the right of reaping the produce that might be sown ; and 
 even this required generally to be defended by vigilance, and some- 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 227 
 
 times even by the sword.* There are about one hundred and 
 fifty families at Gheryeh, mostly Christians, then Druses, and lastly 
 Mohammedans. 
 
 Being now determined to pursue our way to Damascus with- 
 out waiting for more favourable opportunities, or the protection of 
 an increased number to our party, and to risk all the dangers of the 
 route, we left Gheryeh about nine o'clock, and proceeded in a direc- 
 tion of N. N. W., over a rocky ground, diversified with occasional 
 enclosures and large heaps of stones collected by the way side ; 
 and in half an hour after setting out we passed the large ruined 
 town of Hebran, which was seated on a hill about two miles to 
 the eastward of our path. Here we crossed the stream of the 
 Zeidy, already mentioned more than once, and observed at this 
 place two or three smaller rivulets augmenting this brook by their 
 waters. Half an hour further on from this we passed the ruined 
 town of Ghussun, seated on a hill about a mile to the westward of 
 our path, and like the town of Hebran, to the east, deserted and 
 in ruins. 
 
 From the great plain of the Hauran, on the west, to this its 
 eastern border, the elevation is very slight, but gradually continued 
 for a space of about five miles. The hills seen by us from hence on 
 our right forming this eastern border, were now covered with snow; 
 and beyond these again, was another great plain, on a higher level, to 
 
 * This is so striking a confirmation of one of the early stages of society alluded 
 to by the learned and philosophic historian of British India, Mr. MUl, in his chapter 
 on -land tenures and taxes, that I shall take the liberty to transcribe the passages from 
 his valuable work ; which, however, I had not read until long after the fact noted above 
 had been remarked by me, my journey being in 1816, and Mr. Mill's history being 
 published in 1820. The passages are as follow : — 
 
 " At different times, very different rights and advantages are included under the 
 idea of property. At very early periods of society it included very few : originally, 
 nothing more, perhaps, than right during occupancy, the commodity being likely to be 
 taken by another the moment it was relinquished by the hand that held it. » * * » * 
 It is worthy of remark, that property in moveables was established, and that it conr 
 veyed most of the powers which are at any time assigned to it, while as yet property in 
 land had no existence, So long as men continue to derive their subsistence from hunting, 
 
 G G 2 
 
228 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 the eastward, said to be in all respects equal to that of the Hauran 
 in the fertility of its soil and the abundant remains of a numerous 
 population. It is really humiliating to see so fine a country in the 
 possession of so barbarous a government as that of the Turks, and 
 abandoned as it were to sterility and desolation. On the moun- 
 tains and plains of these districts of Belkah, Adjeloon, and Hauran, 
 extending from the Dead Sea to the sources of the Jordan north, 
 and from the banks of that river to the extreme limits of the cul- 
 tivable land on the east, there would be room for a million of 
 human beings to form a new colony ; and so far from doing injury 
 to their surrounding neighbours, they would enrich every country 
 that was on their borders, and form a centre from which industry, 
 arts, science, and morals might extend their influence, and irradiate 
 regions now the prey of ignorance, rapine, and devastation. If 
 the ruler of Turkey knew his interest well, he would imitate the 
 conduct of Shah Abbas the Great, of Persia, who brought a co- 
 lony of Armenians from Julfa, and planted them near Ispahan, 
 where they enriched themselves, and did incalculable benefit to the 
 Persians also, until they were persecuted by a succeeding govern- 
 ment, who pursued a different policy. No part of the Turkish 
 dominions could probably be selected with less risk of interfering 
 with the property and rights of others, or with more certainty of 
 success, than these districts which I have enumerated ; where the 
 colonists would find a fertile soil and springs of water capable of 
 being led in any direction for irrigation ; towns and houses built 
 ready for their occupation ; a delicious climate, and a wide extent 
 of country on all sides, for the consumption of their cattle, grain, 
 and even manufactures. These impressions were forcibly obtruded 
 on my mind at different periods of our journey, but never more 
 
 so long, indeed, as they continue to derive it from their flocks and herds, the land is en- 
 joyed in common. Even when they begin to derive it partly from the ground, though 
 the man who has cultivated a field is regarded as possessing in it a property till he has 
 reaped his crop, he has no better title to it than another for the succeeding year." — 
 Mill's History of British India, vol. i. b. ii. c. v. p. 257 , second edition, 8vo. 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 229 
 
 strongly than here, upon the border of the Great Eastern and 
 Western Plains ; but however ardently I might indulge the desire 
 to see a step so favourable to progressive improvement suggested, 
 I had seen too much of Turkish apathy and ignorance to hope for 
 the period in which such a dream of happiness would ever be 
 realized, in my day, at least. 
 
 In an hour after quitting Ghussun we passed the town of 
 Mejeamer, which was seated on a hill about half a mile to the left, 
 containing, as I was informed, about fifty Mohammedan families, but 
 neither Druses nor Christians ; and in half an hour more, proceed- 
 ing uniformly on the same course, we reached Aehrrah. 
 
 Here we halted, and falling into a party consisting of six 
 Christians, one of whom was a Greek priest, we were soon joined 
 by some others, and assembled to the number of fifteen in all, for 
 the performance of prayers. Our place of worship was on a raised 
 platform of mud, before the door of the house at which we alighted, 
 and in the open air, which rendered it peculiarly impressive in my 
 estimation, from its apparently primitive simplicity. This charm 
 was soon dispelled, however, when the service commenced, by the 
 total want of all devotional spirit, or even a manner that assumed 
 or resembled it, in the officiating minister. Our little congregation 
 all stood up, and the priest, as if desirous of shortening the dura- 
 tion of an attitude painful to all Asiatics, hurried through his task 
 with inconceivable haste and indecorum. At the commencement 
 of his recitations he was indeed slow and solemn, but this was only 
 for a moment, as he soon accelerated his pace, and thus increasing 
 in speed as he advanced, became at last so rapid as to be quite 
 unintelligible, and to lead the inexperienced hearer to expect that he 
 would fall down, breathless and exhausted, before he could possibly 
 reach the end of his task. I could compare it to nothing at the 
 moment but the manner in which young drummer boys are 
 initiated into their art, when they practise their lessons after 
 the same manner, beginning their beat slowly, and gradually 
 quickening their succession, till they attain the rapidity which 
 
230 FROM GHIERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 forms the roll of their drum, and is considered the perfection of 
 their - labours. I remember also to have seen a Mohammedan 
 Faqueer from India on his way to Mecca, being a fellow passenger 
 with me in a voyage from Mocha to Jedda, who in nearly the same 
 manner began to repeat his profession of faith, " La Illah ul 
 Ullah, oua Mohammed ul Russool Ullah," first slowly and 
 solemnly, then moderately quick, and so on, increasing in rapidity 
 with every repetition, till he literally foamed at the mouth, and 
 with his eyes staring as in a frenzy, fell exhausted to the ground. 
 I had hardly expected to have met with anything similar to this, 
 however, in a Christian priest ; but fanaticism and superstition are 
 nearly alike in all religions, and where the spirit is neglected for 
 the letter, and the substance abandoned for the form, there is no 
 security against the absurdities into which all are equally liable to 
 degenerate. In the service in question all the individuals stood 
 with their faces* to the east, and while the priest read in the man- 
 ner described, the audience at short intervals bent their knees, and 
 having their fists closed, touched the ground with their knuckles 
 only, while they prostrated their faces near to the earth without 
 actually touching it. After each prostration they rose and crossed 
 themselves; and this being frequently repeated, with exclamations 
 of" Halleluia," and" Kelia Eleeson, ya Rub!" filled up the service; 
 the genuflections and the responses not being uniformly made, 
 but following in the most irregular manner. This ridiculous and 
 unmeaning service, in which the hearts of the worshippers seemed 
 to have no share whatever, lasted for at least an hour, during which 
 period I had to stand still in one position, and was more tired by 
 it, than I should have been by walking for a whole day : but 
 because I could not join in the prostrations and repetitions of 
 the others, from my entire ignorance of the ritual, I could gather 
 from the countenances as well as the whispers of the rest, that 1 
 was regarded as a heretic, by persons who are certainly not at all 
 more tolerant of religious differences, whether of opinion or prac- 
 tice, than their Mohammedan neighbours, though their faith en- 
 joins charity as the greatest of virtues. 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 231 
 
 When prayers were ended we took coffee together : and in 
 the conversation that passed I learnt that within the last month 
 five hundred head of cattle had been seized and driven off 
 from the surrounding pasturage of this town only, by the plunder- 
 ing parties of horse Arabs from the southward : a piece of intelli- 
 gence that gave us but little satisfaction, when we knew that we 
 were liable to meet those marauders at every step of our progress : 
 but we had embarked on the journey, and I felt myself bound to 
 proceed. 
 
 We accordingly left Aehrrah at noon, and pursuing our course 
 to the northward, still over stony and rugged ground, we came in 
 half an hour to a small stream called Cantara. About two miles 
 to the eastward of this, on the hills, stands the ruined town of 
 Sihawah, with five or six mills near it, now used for grinding corn, 
 and all turned by this stream. In half an hour from thence we 
 crossed the stream called Canat El Zeiny, and observed from the 
 ford the town of Ilsass, about a mile to the eastward of our position ; 
 and two miles distant, in the same direction, the castle of Zeiny, 
 both in the hills; to the westward were many other places the names 
 of which I did not ascertain. In half an hour more we crossed the 
 bed of a stream, which flows to the westward, now dry ;, in another 
 half hour we passed through the small deserted village of Mejead- 
 thil; in half an hour from thence we crossed a second dry bed of a 
 small stream, and gradually ascending to a higher level during the 
 next half hour, we entered the town of Soeda about three o'clock. 
 This place, which is the capital of the eastern Druses, and the 
 residence of their Emir or Prince, is seated on very elevated ground, 
 about two miles to the westward of the summit of that range of 
 hills, which forms the eastern boundary of the plains of the 
 Hauran. It thus commands the whole of the low country to the 
 westward, though the ascent to it from thence is long and gradual. 
 It is well supplied with water ; for, besides the many streams in 
 its neighbourhood, a fine spring gushes from the solid rock, and 
 winding down between two stony hills in which are many grottos. 
 
232 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 it goes westerly through the plains, and forms the stream of Wadi 
 Zeidy, which we crossed more than once on our way. On the 
 north-west of the town is also a lake about six hundred paces in 
 circumference, and in the centre of the town is a circular reservoir 
 for rain water, well lined with masonry, descended to by several 
 flights of steps, and at least fifty feet in depth. 
 
 Soeeda contains about 200 families, of whom 30 are Christians, 
 and all the rest Druses, there being no Mohammedans settled here. 
 This town was apparently once as large as Bosra, being nearly 
 three miles in circumference, judging from the extent of the ruins 
 scattered about the foot of the hill on which it stands. It was 
 surrounded with towns and villages in every direction, and the 
 communication between it and Bosra was over a large public 
 road, like that between this last named city and Salghud. It is 
 now, however, in almost as ruined a state as either of the cities 
 near which it stood ; even those dwellings which are inhabited by 
 the 200 families settled here, being in a most dilapidated state, and 
 some of them half destroyed. 
 
 The few patches of the ground near the town that are suffi- 
 ciently clear of stones to admit of cultivation, are ploughed and 
 sowed with corn ; and as the Druse peasantry have had industry 
 enough to turn branches of the several streams near them 
 through their fields, irrigating them by small canals, they have 
 avoided the calamity occasioned by the general drought in the 
 plain. It was here, indeed, for the first time since our leaving the 
 district of Adjeloon, that we saw any continued verdure, which 
 was a most agreeable relief, after the dry, parched, and brown 
 surface of the Hauran below. The country, however, continues 
 still bare of wood, as far to the eastward as this, there being only 
 one tree to be seen, which stands in the centre of the town, and is 
 the more remarkable from its standing thus alone. In consequence 
 of this general absence of wood, the same peculiarities of building 
 prevailed in the hills as in the plain. The houses are all of stone, 
 with stone beams and doors, no wood whatever being used in them; 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 233 
 
 and only in such as have been recently repaired for the accommo- 
 dation of some Druse family is there any wood to be seen, this 
 being supplied, as I was informed, from very small trees felled in 
 the hills above, and to the eastward. 
 
 In the lower part of the town, towards its southern end, is a 
 large ruined building, about 100 paces long by 50 paces broad, 
 fronting the west, and having a semicircular end towards the east. 
 On each side of the nave of this building, which was no doubt at 
 at one period a Christian Church, there are eight arched windows. 
 The northern wall of this building is about 40 feet high, and still 
 perfect, but the masonry is far inferior to that of the ancient works 
 generally in these ruined towns. There is a broad doorway in the 
 centre of this, and the sculptured device which runs round it as an 
 ornament, represents a waving stem, with bunches of grapes and 
 flowers. There were originally folding doors, most probably of 
 stone, which closed this entrance, the sockets for their pivot-hinges 
 still remaining. The interior of the building is covered with the 
 ruined fragments of the edifice here accumulated in heaps. Among 
 these are several columns, the shafts of which are three spans 
 and a half in diameter, and the capitals of a fanciful kind, being of 
 neither of the five Greek orders, though uniting the ornaments of 
 the Corinthian and Ionic, without being equal in beauty to either. 
 Opposite to the northern door is a similar one in the southern 
 wall, the sculptured device of the vine-leaf and bunches of grapes 
 being also used, and over the whole is the Christian emblem of the 
 Cross in the centre. 
 
 About 300 yards to the eastward of this building, and on 
 higher ground, are the remains of a curious edifice, apparently 
 once encompassed by a square of twenty columns, five on each 
 face. There are still ten of these columns standing, four on the 
 north, supporting a perfect entablature, and forming the principal 
 front ; three on the west, the capital of one of them fallen ; and 
 three on the south, with the entablature of the angle remaining 
 perfect. The pillars are three feet and a half in diameter, and of 
 
 H H 
 
234 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 a well-proportioned height ; but contrary to the practice which 
 prevailed at one period, of making the shafts appear to swell 
 towards the centre and diminish near the extremities,, these were 
 absolutely of less diameter in the centre than at the ends of the 
 shafts, which appeared to me as very bad taste. These capitals 
 were totally unlike any others that I had before seen, and the 
 deep entablature of the front reminded me of the massive archi- 
 tecture of the Egyptians, which this in many respects resembled. 
 
 The central building, enclosed by the square, had one large 
 door of entrance with pillars to the north, and two smaller ones 
 on each side of it. The pediments of the side entrances are 
 sharply pointed, and the sculpture with which some parts of the 
 building is ornamented, resembles that of the supposed church in 
 the lower part of the town, with vine-leaves and clusters of grapes; 
 which are seen also on two disjointed blocks of stone near the 
 door, where they are executed in a bold relief, fully six inches 
 raised from the surface, and very finely carved. The whole of the 
 interior of this square building, is covered by fallen shafts and 
 capitals of columns, with other blocks of stone richly sculptured ; 
 and I remarked that the capitals were not uniformly alike through- 
 out the same building, but apparently varied in pairs, which is also 
 a feature peculiar to Egyptian architecture. They stood, when 
 erect, on low circular pedestals, and seemed like a poor and taste- 
 less attempt to unite the Ionic and Corinthian in one. The whole 
 appearance of this place resembled that of an Egyptian temple 
 with its central sanctuary, the inner apartment not being more 
 than twenty feet square. The stones were large, the sculpture 
 profuse, and the strange mixture of orders and styles barbarous, 
 but at the same time curious, and leaving great doubt as to 
 whether it had been originally a Pagan or a Christian place of 
 worship. 
 
 In some parts of the town I remarked heaps of broken 
 pottery, of a coarse quality ; in others, I saw spirally fluted 
 columns, none however now standing ; and in almost every part 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 235 
 
 weve to be seen blocks of sculptured stone, with massy stone 
 doors, some large and small, some single and others double or fold- 
 ing, now in use. Near the centre of the town, about 200 yards to 
 the north-west of the columns of the square before mentioned, is 
 a long stone now used as the architrave of a doorway, with a Greek 
 inscription of five lines, very rudely cut, and not legible without 
 the aid of a ladder. 
 
 Going out of the town to the northward, we passed over a 
 small bridge supported on one Roman arch, and paved across : 
 the stream winding by here, and in its progress being used to move 
 a mill for grinding corn. Turning from this, suddenly to the west- 
 ward, we came, after five minutes' walk over a green turf, to a 
 beautiful and highly interesting monument, being apparently the 
 tomb of some Roman warrior. It is a closed building, of a square 
 form, about fifteen paces in length on each front, and nearly 
 twenty-five feet high from the base to the terminating cornice. 
 Its respective sides face N.N. E., S.S.W., E.S.E., and W.N.W., 
 and on each of these are six Doric pilasters, or rather semi-columns 
 projecting from the surface, being three spans and a half in diameter, 
 and having five spans of interval between each. The frieze and 
 cornice of this building are also purely Doric, and among the most 
 chaste of any work I had yet seen in this part of the country. In 
 the intervals between these semi-columns, and only a little above 
 the centre of the building in height, the following insignia are well 
 sculptured, in high relief: in the central interval is first a Roman 
 helmet, with two oval shields beneath it, and next a coat of Roman 
 armour suited to the body only, with a broad girdle round the 
 waist, and other belts crossing over the front of the body diago- 
 nally. In another interval is an oval shield, with a broken spear 
 on it, the point turned downwards, and in the two intervals towards 
 the angle of the building are two globes, about the same diameter 
 as the pillars. The same devices are repeated on each face of the 
 building, and all are executed with great propriety and care. The 
 southern and western fronts are partly destroyed, moa 
 at the top, the tomb having been evidently uncovered by the hands 
 
 II H 2 
 
236 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 of some persons violating it in the hope of their enterprise being 
 rewarded by a valuable discovery. I went up over the fallen blocks 
 on this side, and could perceive that the interior was one solid 
 mass of masonry, the outer faces being neatly built, and the centre 
 filled up with large rough stones, without any appearance of a 
 hollow space remaining. On the north front some of the stones 
 have been taken out, leaving a sort of blocked-up entrance where 
 these stones were imperfectly replaced beneath the device of the 
 helmet in the centre, which had been originally done, no doubt, 
 in search of treasure. The east front was quite perfect, and on a 
 stone in the centre of it, just below the device of the helmet, which 
 is the same on all sides, is the following line in this character : 
 
 but whether read from left to right or right to left, there was no 
 particular mark by which to discover. On the north front, and 
 near the north-east angle, but on an original stone of the building 
 is the following inscription, very distinctly cut. 
 
 OAAINATOS 
 ANNHAOYaiKO 
 AOMHSENTHN 
 STHAHNXAMPATH 
 THI ATTOYTYN AIKI 
 
 This inscription is in the fifth layer of stones from below, and 
 the sixth from above ; and goes nearly the whole length between 
 the pilaster at the angle and that next to it, and stands in the 
 third layer of stones under the sculptured globe, being just four 
 spans long and two spans high, so that the characters are large 
 and distinct. The stone immediately beneath it has been forcibly 
 taken out, from a belief, probably, that this inscription marked the 
 place of the body's being deposited, and with it its armour and 
 treasure : for, though the Mohammedans are constantly disap- 
 pointed in the search after these among the ruins of ancient build- 
 ings, their credulity on this head seems incurable; and they return 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAIN& 237 
 
 after every successive disappointment, only with renewed eagerness 
 of hope. On the cornice of the eastern front, I thought at one 
 moment that I could perceive the traces of Greek characters, of a 
 larger size than those I had copied : but if any might be found 
 there with the aid of great scrutiny and a particular light beaming 
 on that part, they were not sufficiently distinct to be legible with- 
 out those aids. This tomb is on the whole not unlike some of the 
 sepulchres in the valley of Jehoshaphat near Jerusalem, except 
 that it is flat at the top, and is altogether in purer taste and more 
 harmonious proportions. 
 
 I remarked from hence that the columns and entablature in 
 the town before described, looked extremely like the colonnade 
 of Luxor, among the ruins of Thebes, when viewed from the 
 opposite banks of the Nile at Gournou, and also like the celebrated 
 Portico at Hermopolis, though not to be compared to either of them 
 in magnitude, but being in its general effect strikingly Egyptian. 
 
 I returned to the town but a little before sunset ; and, desirous 
 of taking another ramble round it before I retired for the night, I 
 found occasion to indulge my wish without much interruption, 
 though not with the same freedom as might be done in any other 
 country ; so extensively have the prejudices of Mohammedan 
 bigotry and intolerance infused themselves into all classes of people 
 living within their reach. 
 
 Nearly in the centre of the town, and on a lower level than 
 the buildings generally, is a large edifice, with an arched piazza 
 and pillars before it ; and in the east front of this, over a flat door- 
 way with an arched window above it, is the following inscription, 
 which I copied with great difficulty. 
 
 ETOYEE . . PrOTKTOTATTOKPATOPOC 
 
 I^IPAX VnATETONYOC . . OYMOT 
 
 EATOPNHNOYHIOAIETOKTlEMAEYMEPEACTHPIOnKAinA 
 NTIKOCMUUKO . . P . . . E 
 
 EniEKOnOYNTU)NKOYAEYTU}N*YAHEAITAIHNU]N 
 nPONOIAKYPIAYKTICTOYAlONYCOY . . 
 
238 Fft&M GHERYEtt TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 On the inside is an open building without a roof, distinguished 
 from most of the others in the town by arcades running across it, 
 the pillars of which have capitals of different orders, and the 
 masonry is in general so bad as to induce a belief that it is mostly 
 a modern Mohammedan work, constructed out of the remains of 
 some earlier Christian edifices. It is called El Jama, or the 
 Mosque, and at the southern end of the wall is an arched recess 
 for prayer, pointing towards the Caaba at Meccia, with a flight of 
 steps ascending to the kind of pulpit used by the Turks and Arabs 
 for the delivery of their sermons by their Imams and Mollahs, 
 though the original foundation of the building was most probably 
 Christian. 
 
 On a broken stone, within this open space, was still legible 
 the fragment of an inscription, the characters of which were longer 
 and more slender than usual, and rudely cut, though still perfectly 
 legible, as follows, 
 
 TnPNEIN □ YYnANKoY 
 
 Near the west front of the great church in another part of the 
 town, T remarked some Ionic capitals ; and to the south of this, 
 another large building with Doric columns. To the west of the 
 town is a ruin called El-Kassr-el-Nejjemy, or the Astronomer's 
 Tower ; and 200 yards to the east of it is a large building, the 
 western door of which is richly sculptured, with the vine-leaf and 
 clusters of grapes so often repeated in this place, as if the worship 
 of Bacchus had once prevailed here, among the diversity of i-eli- 
 gions to which the place had evidently borne witness. 
 
 There is a Roman theatre also at Soeda, but it is in a very 
 ruined state. It is near the great church before described ; and, 
 like all the others yet seen in this country, had its opening towards 
 the north, so as to enjoy the cool breezes from that quarter, and 
 avoid exposure to the heat of the southern sun. It is the least 
 perfect and interesting of any that I had hitherto met with ; and 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 239 
 
 appears to have been originally got up with less atteation to orna- 
 ment than usual, though it was exactly of the same form as the 
 others, and possessed all the requisite divisions for the accomnao* 
 dation of an audience and performers. 
 
 The town of Soeda must have been planned with an attenr 
 tion to regularity not always seen in places of the same size ; as 
 it was, from its original construction, apparently, intersected with 
 streets passing at right angles through each other, most of which are 
 narrow, as is the custom still throughout the eaet, and were paved 
 with black stones, so firmly imbedded in the soil that most of 
 them still remain. 
 
 In "the evening-conversation which followed our supper, I 
 learnt that the name of the Druse Prince residing here was Hussein 
 Amadan; and I heard mention made of a place a little to the north 
 of Salghud, called Belled Sheal, in which it was asserted that 
 there were subterraneous works that we had not seen : but whe- 
 ther the authority for this information was unexceptionable I had 
 no means of deciding with accuracy. 
 
 Saturday, March 17. — We left Soeda at nine o'clock, being 
 detained to breakfast before we set out, and ascended the stony 
 tract of country before us, our course being generally in a N.E. 
 direction. In our way we overtook some Druse families going up 
 to Gunnawat, a place in the hills, with their furniture and chil- 
 dren to settle, in conformity with the general custom of the people 
 of those parts to change their place of abode on the slightest cause, 
 rather than remain to defend their property from spoliation. 
 
 In an hour and a half after setting out, having had all the way 
 stony ground, with thorny shrubs and bushes, we passed a round 
 tower, called Cassr Assouan, leaving it on our left. In the plain 
 below, and about five miles to the N.W. of this, was a large ruined 
 town called Atheel, thinly peopled, having only ten or twelve 
 Druse families residing there. 
 
240 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 In half an hour after this, our course being still about N.E. and 
 still ascending to a higher level, we came in sight of Gunnawat ; 
 the first aspect of which presented only a few tall columns rising 
 up from among the bushes by which they were surrounded. We 
 passed here a small rude building, leaving it on the left, with a 
 spring called Ain-el-Lutka ; and on our right we saw a square 
 tower of smooth and good masonry. Soon after this we came to 
 another spring, called Ain-el-Hhor, with cisterns and masonry, 
 now a shapeless mass of ruins, leaving only a few traces, at least, 
 of its former design. These are just sufficient to enable the ob- 
 server to perceive that the columns here belonged to a square 
 building 25 paces in length and breadth. This was surrounded 
 by a colonnade, of eight Corinthian pillars on each face, and its 
 principal front was to the east. The shafts of the pillars were 
 four spans in diameter, and they stood on lofty square pedestals, 
 with circular ones about two feet high, above these again, the latter 
 being richly sculptured. The shafts were plain, and each com- 
 posed of several pieces ; and the pillars were placed so close to 
 each other that they have not even an interval equal to their own 
 dimensions between each, the pedestals being six spans square, 
 and the intervals between each being only five spans. Three paces 
 within the east front, was another range of four similar pillars, 
 differing only from the outer range, in having their pedestals 
 octagonal instead of square. Within this was a square platform, 
 on arches of rustic masonry, with an open square aperture in the 
 centre for descending into this vaulted space. On the west, two 
 pillars still remained erect, and two pedestals in their places ; on 
 the south were two pillars only ; on the north, all the columns 
 had fallen down ; and on the east, two of the front pillars, and an 
 inner one with the octagonal pedestal remained. On the pedestal 
 of the pillar at the south-west angle, and on its eastern side was a 
 sculptured tablet of the common form used for inscriptions ; but 
 the inscription for which it was evidently intended had never been 
 engraved. Around the upper part of the pedestals of the western 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 241 
 
 front, and on their eastern side, were to be seen traces of inscrip- 
 tions, but they were too much broken and mutilated to be copied ; 
 on the southern one the following letters were seen : — 
 
 0OYAM....AtU: 
 
 on the second, in two lines, 
 
 1 I4>IAO 
 lUPAB : 
 
 and on the third, the following lines : — 
 
 Ao . . . . xexxecoYA 
 
 lAIU) Nexce© . . TXA 
 
 On the pillar at the S.E. angle, and at the foot of the pedestal 
 on the eastern front, are the following lines : — 
 
 .... eBANHCCiePOYTO . . . . lAI lOY. . . . 
 
 . . IDNIAIlUNeYCeBUJNANeeHKeN 
 
 All these are deeply cut, but those on the western pillars are the 
 best formed characters. 
 
 This remarkable building, of which there are only these in- 
 distinct remains, stood on a very elevated position, and com- 
 manded a view of all the Hauran ; behind it, to the east, it has a 
 gentle rising ground ; but the west affords the most extensive 
 view ; and, from the west front I took the following bearings : — 
 
 Ateel, a large ruined town . . W.N.W. . . 2 miles. 
 
 El Migdel N.W. ... 6 miles. 
 
 El Mezzarah N.W. by W. . 7 miles. 
 
 Jebel-el-Telj N.N.W. i W. . 
 
 Abu Terneis N.E. by E. . . 3 mites. 
 
 Tal Mighaley N.E. by. E. . . 1 mile. 
 
 Deer-el-Juze E.N.E. ... 3 miles. 
 
 Town of Gunnawat .... E.N.E. tx) E.S.E. J mile. 
 
 I I 
 
242 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 There were steps ascending to the eastern front of this building, 
 and a considerable quantity of broken pottery scattered about it, 
 as if it had once been a place where sacrifices or ablutions had been 
 much performed and the vessels subsequently broken up. 
 
 On entering the town of Gunnawat, we remarked that the 
 streets had been all originally paved with black stone; and I learnt 
 that there were only five or six Druse families now residing in it, 
 and even these but recently settled here. 
 
 As we did riot propose halting for the day at Gunnawat, but 
 intended to proceed, after refreshing here, I took the opportunity 
 of our short stay to glean a few particulars respecting the place. 
 The first inscription that I observed was over the north door of a 
 large building called the church ; it was mutilated in several parts, 
 but the following lines and fragments of lines were still legible 
 enough to be traced : — 
 
 ICICOTlDMCAYrCKNTPAIANOY 
 
 AANAN . . . YKNCCerXOYKNlOYAIA 
 POYAOPOXAlDMeOYCAMC . . OTAYTOY 
 
 . . . OAOAIO C . . . CHC 
 
 NIOC OYNIOY . . . NI . . .KOY 
 
 On the inside is seen a building, fifty paces long by twenty- 
 five paces broad ; with six pillars on each, the capitals of which 
 are quite plain, and the arches of the nave are remarkable for their 
 flatness, like the Norman and Saxon arches in some of our old 
 English castles. On each side of this building is a piazza, with a 
 gallery above it, and at the east end is the recess usually seen in 
 Christian places of worship. The columns at the west front are 
 of the Doric order ; and the arches of the Roman semicircular 
 shape and well formed. The sculptured ornaments of the vine- 
 leaf and clusters of grapes are seen here also : and the entrance 
 was closed by stone doors. The emblem of the cross is visible in 
 every part of the building, the whole appearance of which proves 
 it to have been a Greek church. 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 243 
 
 From this edifice we went up to the eastward, and came to 
 the high bank of a fine stream, running in a deep bed through two 
 rocky -hills. From this we again ascended, but in a southern 
 direction, leaving the stream on our left, and saw many vestiges 
 of Roman building, with water-works, stone doors, and fallen co- 
 lumns. On the hill we observed a large Corinthian edifice, called 
 Deer Aioobe : it faces east and west, and at the western front are 
 sculptured doorways, the vine-leaf and grape being in high relief, 
 and the cross placed in the centre of the device, though this might 
 perhaps have been subsequently added ; the masonry is particu- 
 larly good ; but I observed here a peculiarity that I had never 
 before remarked, some of the blocks used in the building being 
 sculptured with a pattern of diagonal cross lines. 
 
 To the southward of this, is another fine Corinthian temple, 
 like the peripteral temple of Jupiter at Geraza in its general 
 design. It fronts the north, is seventy paces long by thirty-five 
 paces broad, and had a fine portico in front. The walls of this 
 building, both on the inside and the outside were quite plain ; 
 the western wall is still standing in perfect order, being from thirty 
 to forty feet high, and about six feet in thickness. The pillars of 
 this edifice were four spans in diameter, and the style is more 
 chaste than that of the buildings generally seen in this part of the 
 country. It is surrounded by other Roman buildings on both 
 sides, but among all these I saw no inscription, though it must be 
 admitted that the very hasty glance which I was forced to take of 
 the whole rendered it probable that many might have existed, 
 although they did not meet my observation. The buildings here 
 spoken of stood on so elevated a position as to command the 
 whole extent of the Hauran in one view to the westward ; and 
 from the mixture of wood and water, with the fine mountain air 
 which it enjoyed in great purity, must have formed a delightful 
 place of residence. 
 
 Descending from hence northerly, we found on the east of 
 the church an extensive building, with colonnades, arches, doors, 
 
 II 2 
 
244 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 passages, and galleries, so numerous that it would take a whole 
 day at least to give an outline plan of them. One of the doors 
 that fronted the north was richly sculptured in the most beautiful 
 style, with devices of leaves, wreaths, flowers, bound around the 
 stem by ribbands, and cut in a full relief of at least six inches 
 above the surface. On each side of this doorway were sculptured 
 blocks projecting about two feet from the wall ; and in the centre 
 of the architrave above the door was sculptured a small Grecian 
 helmet. The space of entrance was nearly square, being about 
 ten feet high and ten feet wide, as far as the eye could estimate 
 these dimensions: and it was once closed with stone doors : the 
 whole eiFect was rich in the extreme. The access to this building 
 was through an open court, with a double colonnade, and in front 
 of this a Corinthian portico, on two pillars of which, to the right 
 on entering, were two brackets for the reception of small statues, 
 as seen projecting from the columns in many of the avenues at 
 Palmyra. 
 
 On the east of the stream which descends here from the 
 mountains in small cataracts, and is now broad and rapid from the 
 melting of the snows, is a small building like a Roman temple ; 
 and a few paces to the north of this is a little theatre, facing to 
 the west, and having the stream which winds here to the north-^ 
 ward, running along in front of the spectators as they sat, as is the 
 case also with the large theatre at Amman. The water after 
 passing by this edifice turns to the west, and goes down to Ned- 
 jeraun in the plain. The rock rises steeply behind this theatre of 
 Gunnawat, which appears to have rested on it for support, another 
 striking feature of resemblance with the theatre to which it has 
 been already compared, and from which probably it may have 
 been copied. This theatre is smaller than either of those at 
 Geraza, but its situation is much more pleasing, as the valley 
 below it must have been always cool and shady, and the noise of 
 the water running by it peculiarly soothing and agreeable. 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 245 
 
 Although the principal edifices at Gunnawat are much 
 destroyed, and the whole of them in a state of ruin, it is remark- 
 able that there are no appearances of Mohammedan works erected 
 over these, or out of their fragments, as is the case in almost all 
 the other cities and towns in this eastern region. The presence of 
 the theatre indicates with certainty that this was once a settlement 
 of the Romans, when the whole of this country was annexed to 
 the empire as one of its colonies : and many of the principal edi- 
 fices were certainly Roman temples for the worship of their par- 
 ticular deities. In the course of events, these came to be con- 
 verted into Christian places of worship by the Greeks of the 
 Lower Empire, who probably engrafted the emblem of the cross 
 on what were originally Pagan edifices, and also affixed many of 
 their inscriptions on such buildings at the period of their being 
 dedicated to the service of their new faith. But no Arabic or 
 Saracen works were seen amidst all the numerous and varied as- 
 semblage of ruins here : so that it is probable, at least, that it might 
 have escaped them in the fury of their conquests. I know of no 
 place that would furnish a richer harvest to a traveller possessed of 
 leisure and the means of research than this ; and I had again to 
 feel deep and poignant regret at the circumstances which made it 
 impossible for me to prosecute my enquiries with that minuteness 
 which I had ardour enough to desire, and should have had perse- 
 verance enough to accomplish, had but time and fortune, with a 
 freedom from other engagements, justified the pursuit. 
 
 By the time that I had made this hurried visit to the places 
 described, the refreshments preparing for us at the house of the 
 principal Druse resident were ready, and we returned to partake 
 of them with increased zest. As we sat on the terrace of the 
 Druse's house to partake of our morning meal, and were at once 
 admiring and enjoying the extensive view of the Hauran which we 
 commanded from hence, extending from this eastern range of hills 
 to the mountains west of the Jordan, our Druse entertainer ob- 
 served, that there was another Hauran behind us to the eastward, 
 
246 FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 (by which he meant a plain in all other respects similar to this,) 
 which he afterwards added was even more extensive and more 
 fertile than the western one. He assured us also that it was full 
 of ruined cities and towns, larger and better built than Gunnawat, 
 with churches, palaces, theatres, and other edifices. There were at 
 present no permanent residents in any of these towns, though 
 they are all occasionally occupied by parties of the Desert Arabs, 
 who find pasture for their camels and flocks in their neighbourhood. 
 For this reason it would be difficult for any traveller to range 
 over the eastern plain without a strong escort ; but for one who 
 had the liberty and the means, there could be no more promising 
 field to reward his enterprise. Tlie names of these ruined towns 
 are known only to the Arabs of the Desert, though several of our 
 party in their occasional intercourse with the eastern tribes, had 
 seen and passed through many of them ; but as these were un- 
 peopled, and they had no particular motive for enquiring their 
 names, they took no pains to learn them. 
 
 The few Druses that we saw here were handsome, well-dressed, 
 clean, and polite in their manners. We ate our food out of 
 earthenware vessels, and drank out of brass bowls lined with tin ; 
 and the Druses and myself made an excellent repast, though my 
 guides, being rigid Christians of the Greek faith, still kept their 
 fast by abstaining from all kinds of animal food, even eggs, butter, 
 and milk, and confining themselves to bread, vegetables, and oil. 
 This gave occasion for another discussion respecting fasting, which 
 the Druses approved as to the matter, but disapproved as to 
 the manner, saying that satisfying the appetite at any hour of the 
 day, whatever the description of food might be, was not fasting at 
 all ; and that the only true fasting was a total abstinence from all 
 kinds of food for some specific period, such as the Kamadan of 
 the Mohammedans, from sunrise to sunset. I was surprised to 
 learn during this debate, that though the Druses dislike the Mo- 
 hammedans generally, and entertain no tenet in common with 
 their faith, yet that many of them have been so infected with 
 
FROM GHERYEH TO GUNNAWAT IN THE MOUNTAINS. 247 
 
 their customs, as to keep the fast of Ramadan with as much rigour 
 as the most orthodox follower of the Arabian prophet ; in the 
 same manner that the Mussulmans of India, though they profess 
 to hate and despise the Hindoos, have nevertheless adopted so 
 many of their superstitions and ceremonies, as to be regarded by 
 their western brethren as little better than infidels and idolaters. 
 
 The passion of all classes of people in these countries for 
 arms, has frequently been remarked ; and, as usual, we had a long 
 dispute about the relative value of diflferent weapons from different 
 countries, in which the sabres of Ispahaun and Damascus were 
 unanimously preferred, and the muskets and pistols of England 
 praised above all others. I did not much wonder at this opinion, 
 as it is justly and universally prevalent in the East ; but I was 
 both surprised and pleased to see one of the Druses produce, at 
 this remote and unfrequented spot, an excellent fowling-piece, with 
 the name of " Webb, London" on the lock, as evincing the manner 
 in which our manufactures are sure, sooner or later, to spread them- 
 selves everywhere. 
 
CHAP. XIII. 
 
 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 We quitted the interesting ruins of Gunnawat at noon : and 
 descending to the westward through a stony country covered with 
 thorny shrubs and bushes, we came in an hour to the large ruined 
 town of Ateel. 
 
 At the south end of this is a small but beautiful Corinthian 
 temple, facing the north, the sculptured ornaments of which are 
 richly designed, and executed in a bold relief; concave niches were 
 remarked in several parts of it, and square pedestals, projecting 
 from the front columns halfway up their height, as if for support- 
 ing small statues. 
 
 At the south end are the remains also of a small temple, and 
 from the south front of this, near the eastern corner, I copied the 
 following inscription, deeply cut. 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 249 
 
 .... I UNIONNAONEYNHAN 
 
 IIKOEMUUEYEEBITN 
 ESIAIITNUIKOAOMHEEN 
 
 From a stone near this, and beneath a fragment of sculpture, 
 apparently belonging to a statue, the following was taken. 
 
 ©AIMOnAV 
 
 OVTtUNOE 
 
 ITNAYPANEK 
 
 TONEAEIUIN 
 
 nOBEEN 
 
 And from two other fragments of shapeless stone, each of 
 them broken in pieces, the following portions were obtained. 
 
 KnEPEtUIHI AEToY 
 
 KYPIOY HN IIDN 
 
 TOKPATOPO EKAIEAPOE 
 
 The small temple from which these fragments were separated, 
 and near to which they were found, was in the most chaste style of 
 the Corinthian order, and must have been built before the decline 
 of architecture in this countrj^ The arch and pediment were in the 
 best proportions ; and the building was adorned with fan-topped 
 or shell niches, and beautifully rich sculpture, of the same style, but 
 better executed than that at Gunnawat. 
 
 In the centre of the town was seen a square tower, sloping up- 
 ward from the base, and growing narrower gradually as it approached 
 the summit, with curiously sculptured mouldings, giving it an Egyp- 
 tian or Indian appearance. There was a large reservoir for water, 
 and many houses now unoccupied, there being only a few Druse 
 families residing amid these ruins. One of these had taken up 
 its abode in the first little Corinthian temple, which rendered it 
 
 K K 
 
250 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 difficult for us to enter it. I regretted this the more, as its exter- 
 nal appearance led me to believe that it would be found, on 
 examination, to be the most beautiful of the two. 
 
 From Atheel we descended over stony ground ; in an hour 
 after which we crossed the stream that flows down from Gun- 
 nawat in the hills ; and in two hours more we reached Mijdel, on 
 entering which I took the following bearings of a few surrounding 
 places. 
 
 Soeda S. by W 7 miles. 
 
 Gunnawat S. E 7 miles. 
 
 Reemy N. E. by N. ... 3 miles. 
 
 Cufr Illah N. E. by N. 
 
 Nedjeraun N. W. by N. . . . 8 miles. 
 
 The town of Mijdel contains many buildings, all in the old 
 style of those before observed in the Hauran, being originally con- 
 structed entirely of black stone, but having the probably subsequent 
 addition of Roman wreaths sculptured over the doorways and 
 stone doors. There were two square towers in this town, with 
 Roman arches, and a series of mouldings projecting like plain 
 cornices at stated and equal distances, between the base and the 
 summit of the building on each of its sides. We learnt that there 
 were 50 Druse families residing here, who lived principally by their 
 flocks and herds. As we made no stay in this place, I could obtain 
 only the two following inscriptions, which I copied without delay- 
 ing my guides, who were never prepared to pass through any 
 place without spending half an hour, at least, in enquiries and 
 conversation with its inhabitants, in which I sometimes joined, and 
 at others took that opportunity of looking around for interesting 
 objects. 
 
 The following inscription was copied from a small square 
 building at Mijdel, on the left hand side of the arch of entrance, 
 the letters long and thin, but deeply cut. 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 251 
 
 HEOPOEHNEEATHAEXOEANEPOTANTIOXOU 
 
 OEnOTENIETPATIHKAEOEHAEIOTAEAEKATEPAE 
 
 MAZINOEEYAAIHlDNKAITA«I>ANOrAYOnAIAEI 
 
 EKTIEANANTIOXOIEKAIAnATHNAEninAAEAIE 
 
 IETAEANO<J>PAnEAOINTOa>IAOinAPAnPTPIEA 
 
 On the right of the same arch of entrance, was the fragment 
 of another inscription. The first was cut by a deep incision into 
 the stone, but the last, on the contrary, had its letters in high relief, 
 above the surface of the stone. The following only were legible. 
 
 nAPAEEKAI 
 4-<i>0ONE 
 
 We left Mijdel about three o'clock, and going still in a north- 
 west direction we passed, in an hour, a small town called Mibn-el- 
 Beit, which we learnt was uninhabited, and which we left on our 
 right. In another hour we passed a second town called Oom-el- 
 Allak, which was also deserted, and which we left like the former 
 on the right hand of our path. In half an hour more we came to 
 the stream that descends from the mountains near Gunnawat; 
 and after crossing this, and proceeding onward, we arrived about 
 sunset at the town of Nedjeraun. 
 
 Our road from the foot of the hills at Atheel to this place, 
 had been over an elevated plain, from which the Hauran seemed 
 deep below us. It was thickly interspersed with beds and veins of 
 rock, with stones gathered up in heaps, as if in some general 
 attempt to clear more of the soil for cultivation, and many walls 
 or enclosures of loose stones, apparently marking the boundaries 
 of ancient fields, now no longer in a state of culture. The soil of 
 of this tract, where not intercepted by rock in the way described, 
 is a dark brown loam ; and where it was not recently turned up 
 by the plough for the reception of seed, it was covered with a fine 
 green turf, and a profusion of the scarlet flowers so abundantly 
 
 K K 2 
 
252 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 seen on the southern plains of Belkah and in the mountains of 
 Adjeloon. From the abundance of water obtainable here, and the 
 industrious habits of the Druses, the greater part of the good soil 
 had been brought into cultivation, and we had the gratification to 
 see young corn sprung up here already a foot in height, and of a 
 beautifully fresh green colour, while the whole of the Hauran below 
 us was a dull brown, and from the prevalence of the late drought 
 and want of rain, was, at the present moment, a parched desert. 
 
 Our entrance into Nedjeraun was over beds of rock of a sin- 
 gular kind, having the appearance of volcanic lava, suddenly cooled 
 while in the act of boiling in a liquid heat ; there being globular 
 masses in some parts like the bubbles on boiling pitch, and in others 
 a kind of spiral furrows like the impressions often seen in a semi- 
 liquid when put into violent motion ; and, on striking it with any 
 hard substance, it gave forth a ringing sound, like metal. Out of this 
 hard material, there have been, howevei*, several tanks or reservoirs 
 for water excavated, and the stores from rain preserved in these, 
 with the aid of the several streamlets running by the town from 
 the hills, enable the Christian and Druse inhabitants of this place, 
 to continue their cultivation even in the most unfavourable seasons. 
 
 We were kindly received by a Christian family, these being 
 more numerous than the Druses, though it is always considered a 
 Druse town ; and a number of each sect being collected together 
 at our evening repast, we had a great deal of conversation, some- 
 times grave, and at others witty ; sometimes on useful, and at others 
 on trifling subjects ; from which I endeavoured to glean as much 
 as appeared to me worth recording, and particulai'ly the topogra- 
 phical notices which follow. 
 
 The principal stream that passes by the town of Nedjeraun, 
 descends from the eastern mountains near Gunnawat, with a bend 
 to the northward ; it then turns southerly, and runs in a south- 
 west direction where we first crossed it. It then makes a wide 
 circuit, and comes again to the northward, running in that direc- 
 tion, where we next crossed it close to Nedjeraun. Its course is 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 253 
 
 thus from Gunnawat, (or Konawat, as it was pronounced here,) to 
 Isseleem, Cufr Illah, Mibn-el-Beit, Deer-el-Ism, Nedjerauii, Tarah, 
 Busr, Ezra, Etheneiby, and Addely, and from thence to the south- 
 west, till it discharges itself at the hot springs, near the foot of 
 Oom Kais. It has been already seen that the lake at Mezereebe 
 was assigned as the source of a stream which goes from that place to 
 the hot springs in question, and from thence into the Jordan, at 
 the southern extremity of the lake of Tiberias. But if this, which 
 extends through a much longer course, be correctly described as 
 terminating there also, it would follow that there are two branches 
 meeting there, of which this, as the longest, may perhaps be con- 
 sidered to be the ancient Hieromax. Its source is at Issyer, a 
 ruined town, two hours to the eastward of Gunnawat, on the 
 elevated plain above it, in which plain are said to be many other 
 springs, particularly one at Mishaly, called Shellal-el-Mishaly, 
 Shellal being the term used in Egypt and Nubia to signify a 
 cataract or fall of water ; but whether implying the same local 
 feature here, no one could assert. 
 
 The stream of Wadi Soeda is said to come first from Jewel- 
 leen, which is the name of the place at its source where it first 
 springs up, three hours to the east of Soeda on the hills above. 
 From thence it comes first to Gooramata, half an hour west of 
 its source, and then passes through Meij Daood, Ain-el-Merj, 
 Oom Thad, Ain Oom Thad, Soeda, (from whence it derives its 
 name, that being the principal place through which it passes, 
 though not its source,) Hadeed, Lithulheh, Ithaly, Gherb Ithaly, 
 El-Karak, El-Ghereeah Sherkeeah (or the eastern), El-Ghereeah 
 Gherbeeah (or the western), Meheserat, Tal Errar, and Mezereebe; 
 and from thence to the Shereeat Mandour, or Hieromax, near 
 Oom Kais. 
 
 The stream of Gunnawat divides itself into two branches, to 
 the north-west of Atheel, at a place called Ain Thellem, from 
 whence the second branch (the course of the first being already 
 described,) goes to Reemy, Walgah, Themmah, Teery, Meleheh 
 
254 FROiVr GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 Sherkeeah, MelehehGherbeeah, Hharaak, Hharyeek,Deer-el-Thult, 
 Thowarrah, Aehl.meh, Kiteiby, Elmely, Dahhil, Tuffus, and from 
 thence north of Mezereebe to the westward, where it also joins 
 the Shereeat-el-Mandour, by making a bend to the southward. 
 
 In the course of the evening, I learnt also that the population 
 of Nedjeraun included about 50 Druse families and 150 Christians, 
 the latter of whom have a church and two priests. The Druses 
 have a great veneration for this town, and for a certain place of 
 the same name in Yemen, the southern district of Yemen, which 
 they believe to be peopled by Jews, but which has been recently 
 discovered to be in ruins. When I communicated this fact, as I 
 had had a previous opportunity of doing, the principal Druse of the 
 company exclaimed, " Alas! There are but two Nedjerauns in the 
 whole world, and these are both in decline." 
 
 We had, as usual, in our evening parties, some warm theo- 
 logical discussions, in which one of my guides, the Mallim Georgis 
 and the priests took the chief part ; and one of the topics debated 
 was, whether the flames, in which Shadrach, Meshek, and Abed- 
 nego were seen to walk unhurt, were red like earthly fire, or blue 
 like the flames of hell. The Mallim was always grave and serious; 
 but Abu Farah, as if from envy at the respect paid to his com- 
 panion by those who listened to his dogmatic decisions, took 
 occasion to interrupt him perpetually by some witty remark, which 
 was sure to set the circle of hearers in a roar. And this evening 
 more particularly, Georgis was shocked to such a degree by his 
 profane incredulity, that he stopped short in the midst of a de- 
 clamatory harangue, and was so mortified by the interruption, 
 that he remained silent during the whole of the evening afterwards. 
 
 The elders of the Druse sect and the priests of the Christian 
 community mix here with their respective laymen and with each 
 other on terms of great equality; indeed it surprised me to see the 
 little respect paid to their opinions, and the freedom with which 
 they were occasionally bantered by their own communicants. All 
 parties, however, seemed to entertain a belief, that Syria and Pa- 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 255 
 
 lestine would ere long be conquered by the Franks, an event which 
 they made no scruple to say they would cordially unite to promote; 
 for though the Druses imitate the Mohammedans in many particu- 
 lars as regards their manner of living, yet they dislike them as 
 thoroughly as the Christians do, and live with the latter on a foot- 
 ing of friendly equality and good understanding. 
 
 Sunday, March 18. — There was a Mohammedan journey er 
 who had taken up his quarters here, and slept in the same room 
 with us, around the common fire, in the centre of the apartment ; 
 so that at daylight, when all our party began to stir, there were 
 Christian and Mohammedan prayers heard at the same moment, 
 and both proceeded without any interruption. It being the Greek 
 Lent, and some particular service being to be performed in the 
 Greek church here to-day, my guides declined proceeding on their 
 journey until to-morrow, as they wished to attend the worship in 
 common with all those of their own religion. Desirous as I was of 
 reaching Damascus soon, I urged all I could say against this deten- 
 tion, but without avail, as my companions persisted in their deter- 
 mination ; and ray reward was, to be considered as little better than 
 an infidel by all who knew the cause and subject of our dispute. 
 I attended the morning service with them, however, at an early 
 hour, the ceremonies being exactly similar to those described in 
 the Greek church at Assalt ; but finding, on our return, that I 
 should be likely to pass a tedious and uncomfortable day, from 
 the impossibility of being alone, even for an hour, I proposed 
 making an excursion on foot to the ruins of Shuhubah, in the 
 neighbourhood of this town ; and leaving my two Christian guides 
 with their friends, I procured a Druse of the village to accompany 
 me in my visit as proposed. 
 
 We left Nedjeraun immediately after breakfast, or about eight 
 o'clock ; and going E. S. E. over the plain, in which we crossed the 
 stream forded by us on the preceding day, we came in an hour 
 and a half to the town of Reemy. In this place were many 
 
256 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 ruined buildings ; among which I noticed a square tower, built of 
 large stones, with a small square apartment within it, as if it had 
 been intended for a place of honourable sepulchre ; and on the 
 south front of this was seen the following inscription. 
 
 KexecxeiNocniNY . . ouieeAiMAiBiujAeNixuiPM 
 AYTU)KAnAKeecci«j>rAHTnAAoxuuenoiHceN 
 NHONHAO Y niiiNeneNH4>epce<E>ON0iH 
 
 eC0AHCeKCTPATIHCNYNAOYAeNYCeNOTA*O 
 
 OYTinKNMemeMnnOAOYNXPONONIAAPAKe.AI 
 
 AeSAIMHNTHPACKONrACeYAAIMONACTeKNtUCANTIAC 
 
 The characters were rudely formed, but deeply cut, and the 
 lines irregular in length, the third line being shortest, and the 
 fourth and sixth lines extending beyond the frame or pannel, in 
 which the whole inscription was originally intended to be included. 
 There were ruins of a Christian church near to this, but we did not 
 stay to examine them closely, nor did we learn any other particulars 
 respecting this town. 
 
 Proceeding eastward from hence, we came, after an hour's 
 walking, opposite to the town of Deer-el-Lebben, which was on our 
 right, and the town of Burreatchy, which was on our left, both in 
 ruins, and both now without inhabitants. In half an hour more 
 we came to the foot of the hills, and noticed there a ruin resembling 
 the remains of an old fort, with a spring of water near, and called 
 Oothubba. We ascended the hill, which was in many parts stony, 
 but in others covered with a fine green turf and scarlet flowers ; 
 and in half an hour from its foot we came opposite to Murdook, a 
 large ruined town, which lay in heaps on a hill to the right of our 
 path. From hence we continued to ascend to a still higher level, 
 and in a north-east direction, over a bare surface, with beds and 
 masses of rocks, artificial heaps, and small enclosures of loose 
 stones, and entered about noon upon the ruins of Shuhubah, which 
 formed the object of our excursion. 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 257 
 
 On approaching these ruins from the south-west, we passed a 
 small building of good masonry, which stood on our right ; and 
 noticed many hewn and sculptured blocks of stone, evidently the 
 fragments of former edifices now scattered along the road. We 
 could perceive too on looking more attentively at the mass of high 
 and rugged rock to the left of our path, that an artificial wall of 
 stone had been built along its summit. We entered the town at 
 its south-east quarter, through a plain arched gate-way, of very 
 inferior masonry; and over this, on its southern front, was a tablet 
 of the ordinary kind, evidently intended for the reception of an in- 
 scription, which, however, had never been cut, as no traces what- 
 ever could be seen of any characters imprinted there. 
 
 On passing this gateway we could perceive that the city had 
 been walled, and was nearly square in form, the southern wall 
 running easterly from hence for a quarter of a mile, when it turned 
 sharply at a right angle to the north, and formed the eastern one. 
 From the small gateway by which we entered, at one of the angles 
 of the square, over the rugged mass of rock bounding the city in 
 that quartei", and going northerly with several windings, ran the 
 western wall : the northern one I did not see. The principal 
 entrance to the city appeared to be from the southward ; as in the 
 centre of the southern wall was seen a large gate, with three arches, 
 the central one broken. The principal edifices were at the west end 
 of the town and the private dwellings at the east, with a large bath 
 nearly in the centre, resembling in alf these particulars the divisions 
 marked in the ruins of Geraza. As at that city the theatre was 
 one of the first objects to which we came ; so, here also, the first 
 edifice that presented itself, after our entrance at the small angular 
 gate, was a theatre. We did not stay to examine anything mi- 
 nutely, before we had taken shelter somewhere ; but, proceeding 
 through the ruins, we halted at the house of the only brother of 
 the Druse who accompanied me as my guide. 
 
 After mutual salutations, by kissing the cheeks and shoulders, 
 and butting the foreheads against each other like young goats, we 
 
 L L 
 
258 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 partook of sortie sour milk and oil, offered as a great delicacy ; and 
 after a pipe and a cup of coffee, we left the house to snatch a hasty 
 view of the ruins of the town. 
 
 The town of Shuhubah occupied a square of about a mile, 
 and was walled on each side : on the west it was bounded by a 
 vidge of rock ; on the east by a valley with a stream running 
 through it ; on the south by a rising ground ; and on the north by 
 a continuation of the Great Plain of the Hauran, which, with the 
 range of hills beyond it, is distinctly seen from hence. The fol- 
 lowing are a set of bearings and estimated distances taken from 
 the terrace of the house in which we had refreshed : — 
 
 Ammra, Mohammedan town . . N.N.E. i E. . . 3 miles. 
 
 Ayalt, uninhabited N.N.E. f E. . . 6 miles. 
 
 Hilheet, Christian town .... N.E. J N. . . . 6 miles. 
 
 Seleea, uninhabited E.N.E 3 miles. 
 
 Shukkah, Druse town .... E. by N. J N. . 6 miles. 
 
 TufFah, uninhabited S.E 4 miles. 
 
 Mejern, ditto S.E. by S. . . . 3 miles. 
 
 Abu Temeis, a snowy peaked mountain S.E. by S. ... 3 miles. 
 
 While taking these bearings by compass, the Druse who gave me the 
 names of the objects, said that there was a place called El Kuff, a day's 
 journey to the S.E., containing more ruins, and those of a larger 
 kind than at this place, but he could furnish me with no specific 
 details of it that could be relied on for their general fidelity or 
 accuracy. 
 
 The flat stone pavement of this town still continues perfect, 
 though the edifices forming the streets are mostly ruined. Among 
 those that are least demolished, is a large bath, and an aqueduct, 
 with a Corinthian temple, of which five columns, each three and a 
 ha^f feet diameter in their shafts, are still standing, without 
 pedestals ; the stone is throughout the black basaltic stone so 
 common in the Hauran, which is used in the larger and smaller 
 buildings indiscriminately, as well as in the massy stone doors, of 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 259 
 
 which there are several here still hung in their original positions. 
 The private dwellings, like those at Geraza, were mean and incon- 
 venient, notwithstanding the expensive structures which towered 
 over them ; and, indeed, this proof of the inequality of wealth and 
 condition among the people is met with at every step. 
 
 The first inscription that I saw was over an arched doorway, 
 of which I took the following copy : — 
 
 YnEPElDTHPIACKAINIKHCTlDNKYPIlDNAY 
 nKPAnOPlDNMAYPHAIOYANTUUNEINOY 
 
 KAIAAYPHAIOY YIOYAYTOYEEBAE 
 
 IDNEniMAPTIOYOYHPOYnPEEBEEBANTIET . . 
 E<>EETU3TOEHETOYEIOYEYAHMOYoAiriS«^Y . . 
 eni AI A AM OY A ABAND YCTPATHPO Y. 
 
 Near the centre of the town is a reservoir for the reception 
 of rain water, about a hundred paces round and thirty feet deep, 
 lined with masonry on the inside : and near to this is a Roman 
 theatre. The first peculiarity which 1 remarked in this, was that 
 it faced to the southward, in which respect it differed from all the 
 other theatres I had yet seen in this country, as they have their 
 fronts opening invariably, with this one exception, to the north. 
 The cause of this difference may be easily traced in the difference 
 of climate at the respective cities which these theatres once 
 adorned. In all those to the southward of our present position, 
 the heat was much greater ; and there it was desirable to avoid 
 the rays of the sun, for which reason the spectators sat on benches 
 facing to the north. Here, however, from the greater elevation, 
 the rays of the sun would be rather agreeable than otherwise, and 
 would be courted instead of avoided ; so that it was judicious to 
 turn its front to the south, where they might enjoy a comfortable 
 temperature, while the sun shone on them, its beams being tem- 
 pered by the presence of snow on the summit of Abu Teraeis, 
 whose whitened peak stands right before the theatre at a distance 
 of four or five miles only. 
 
 L L 2 
 
260 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 The theatre at Shuhubah had only two compartments of 
 benches for the audience : in the upper one were six separate 
 ranges of seats going all around the semicircle of the building, and 
 in the lower one about nine similar ranges as far as they could be 
 traced. The upper range is 120 paces in circuit, from its edges, 
 and the central range 90 paces : the compartments or divisions 
 were separated from each other by a platform on which any of the 
 auditors might walk from one end of the theatre to the other with- 
 out disturbing those who were seated. The front of this theatre 
 was double, the outer front having arched doorways for entering 
 from without, and these leading off by wings to enter also at the 
 sides ; and the inner front three open arched doorways, with con- 
 cave arched niches and square windows, but the architecture not of 
 the best description. The lower ranges of seats had five several 
 flights of radiated steps or cunii intersecting them ; and the upper 
 ranges, or second division, had seven such flights of steps inter- 
 secting them. For the support of these stone benches for the au- 
 dience, as well, probably, as for the accommodation of other parties 
 connected with dramatic exhibitions, there was an arched passage 
 running under these benches, and passing all round the back or 
 semicircle of the theatre. Such of the audience as took their seats 
 on the lower division of benches must have made their entrance 
 to the theatre by the passage that ran between the outer and inner 
 front, towards the stage, where side stage doors intersected it in 
 their usual places ; and such of the audience as took their seats in 
 the upper compartment or division of benches entered by arched 
 passages, of which there were seven in number, leading in from 
 the north or back of the theatre ; and from these three square 
 doorways led into the platform which sepai'ated these divisions, 
 going all around the centre of the ranges of seats like a belt, from 
 whence the auditor might ascend by the flights of radiated steps to 
 any part of the upper division of the seats that he wished. This 
 theatre is called, by the people residing here, Khan-i-Dibbs, or the 
 Caravanserai or Hotel of a kind of sweetmeats made of raisins, 
 and called Dibbs, before described : in the belief that this article 
 
FROM GUNNAVVAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 261 
 
 was formerly sold here, in which thej are confirmed by a tradi- 
 tion to that effect. It differs from all the other theatres that I 
 had seen in this country, not only from its facing a different quar- 
 ter of the heavens, but in being also entirely destitute of sculpture 
 or ornament, which induced me at one time to think it was aban- 
 doned and ruined before it had ever been completed. The blocks 
 are in many instances marked with single Greek characters, as if 
 for the guidance of the workmen, but the masonry is not so good 
 as that seen in Roman edifices generally, more particularly those 
 of a public nature ; and, indeed, on the whole it must be pro- 
 nounced as inferior both in execution and preservation to any of 
 the numerous theatres, the work of the same people, the Roman 
 colonists, met with in this once thickly peopled country to the east 
 of Lebanon and the Jordan. 
 
 The inhabitants of Shuhubah consist of about 100 families, 
 who are all Druses; besides these, there are one Christian and 
 two Mohammedan families settled here ; and all parties are said 
 to live in great harmony with each other. 
 
 Among the many fragments of sculpture observed in different 
 parts of the town, I noticed the capital of a Corinthian pillar of 
 white marble ; and, in the north-east front of a square tower, on a 
 stone used in the building of the wall, I remarked four small 
 human figures in theatrical attitudes, and apparently well executed. 
 The following inscriptions from brackets intended for the support 
 of statues were copied from the broken fragments of them still 
 remaining near a large building at the west end of the town : — 
 
 OYnpeiA 
 
 OYEfOXtUTA . . OYE|0 . . . .ATOV 
 
 . . . enAPxoYHeco enAPXMecono 
 
 . . . TAHIACVIONA TAHIACYIONKACO 
 
 . . poNHnoAic oereiMoeeocAn 
 
 AiAroYAiovHAA op<i»neTeiroPTO 
 
 XOVB«l>YA NO . . AIDPONMX. 
 CYNAIKOYKAI 
 
 ernMAHlTOA. (The letters of each deeply cut.) 
 
262 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 The beds of rock in the neighbourhood of Shuhubali are of the 
 black kind found in the western Plains below ; but, although the 
 small rounded pieces of this substance seen scattered over the sur- 
 face are porous, like pumice stone, arid would seem to be of vol- 
 canic origin, yet the quarries found here, from which the stones 
 for building have evidently been taken, exhibit a firm close- 
 grained basalt. The great Plain to the eastward of this is as 
 bare of wood as that to the west, so that the same style of building 
 no doubt prevailed in the towns now lying in ruins there ; but the 
 eastern Plain is said to have the deepest and the most fertile soil, 
 from which as populous a state of the country in past times may be 
 also inferred. My informant here said that still farther to the 
 jeast again than we could see, was a third Plain, on a higher level, 
 and more fertile than either of the other two : but as this stood on 
 the bare assertion of one individual only, it may well be doubted, 
 until corroborated by better evidence, though it might be worthy 
 the enterprise of some future traveller to penetrate as far in that 
 direction as any trace of former population extended. To the 
 westward of Shuhubah, there are many isolated round hills, covered 
 with a smooth green turf; and these, with a mass of rugged rock 
 that look at a distance like the castle of Salghud, intercept the 
 view of the town in that quarter, so that it cannot be seen from 
 the Plain below. 
 
 We left this place about three o'clock, and returned to Ned- 
 jeraun by a route a little to the northward of that by which we 
 came out, but still in sight of the same villages, and crossing the 
 stream close to Mibn-el-Beit. At Reemy, we noticed a large 
 reservoir full of water, the tank being excavated out of a bed of 
 rock, which had evidently served also as a quarry to furnish the 
 materials of building; and near to this was a small but solid 
 square mass of masonry, probably an ancient tomb. I had often 
 wondered at not seeing the sarcophagi of stone, so common 
 among other ruins of Roman cities, in any of the large towns of 
 the Hauran, and those to the east of it ; but at Reemy we were 
 assured that there were two ; at Shuhubah there were said to be 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 263 
 
 many in private houses ; and at Mijdel three highly ornamented 
 with sculpture ; enough, at least, to prove that where the Romans 
 carried their baths and their theatres, which we have seen they 
 extended even thus far on the extreme border of their Syrian 
 colony, they carried also their mode of sepulchre and entomb- 
 ment after death. 
 
 Monday, March 19. — We were to set out after breakfast 
 on our journey : but as this would not probably be ready for. an 
 hour after we had arisen, I employed the interval in taking a second 
 glance at the remains of Nedjeraun, in which all the gleanings 
 that I obtained were a few Greek inscriptions. 
 
 The following was taken from the architrave of a square door- 
 way, leading into a small but well built house, apparently always 
 used as a private dwelling : — 
 
 OIAnO*VAHCMANIHN 
 
 tUNeVTVXICONTeceNAO 
 
 lONOIKOAOMHNexeMlUCAN 
 
 nPONVAANAPONIKOVAPin 
 
 nOYKAIKAPOVMOCAMAl OYniCTlTN. 
 
 In the course of this ramble, I was shown into a building with 
 two sloping towers, the one at the east, and the other at the west 
 end. Within this building were three longitudinal arcades, sup- 
 ported by mean and slender pillars, with stucco and painting, and 
 over the central arch, beginning at the east end, is the follow- 
 ing inscription : — 
 
 I Be I ..A I FA I TT I NA I KH I NP I OH I AT I PC I OT I MO I en I AK I ACS | POIC | ■ . O | MA | AlA | PIT | HAI | XH | NA | TOT 
 
 The 24 separate divisions in this represent the joints of the 
 stones, which appear like the ends of beams close together ; though 
 this renders it a very uncommon place for affixing an inscription. 
 The building has evidently been used at different periods for a 
 Christian and a Mohammedan place of worship ; the vestiges of 
 
264 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 both being apparent in the paintings of the former, and the niches 
 toward the Kaaba of Mecca, with a flight of steps and place of ora- 
 tory of the latter. 
 
 The Druse who accompanied me in this morning excursion, 
 seeing me copy the inscriptions I had met with, pressed me very 
 urgently to go with him into a private house, where, in the apart- 
 ments of the women, I should see what he called written stones of 
 much more importance in his estimation than any that were ex- 
 posed to vulgar view. I readily complied with his solicitations, 
 and we were admitted among the females without scruple ; but 
 the written stones turned out to be a sculptured door with pannels 
 and knobbed bars in imitation of iron, and a Corinthian capital 
 which had been built into the wall, but without a single character 
 in any language. The women were exceedingly amused with our 
 visit, though evidently incredulous as to its cause, which they 
 thought to be curiosity of another kind : but in either case we 
 should have been equally disappointed. 
 
 There were many stone doors still hanging in their original 
 positions in diiFerent parts of the town ; and, on a single block in 
 one of the buildings, I observed the following characters rudely 
 shaped, but large and deeply cut : — 
 
 VAX0M 
 
 I was shown also a square building, now the tomb of some 
 Mohammedan saint, over which lamps are kept continually burn- 
 ing : near the grave is a niche pointing to the Kaaba at Mecca, 
 for the prayers of devout visitors to this sepulchre ; and on the 
 north face of this, over the door of entrance, I saw the following 
 inscription : — 
 
 TONAeNeONOITYHBONA . . NHPlDACTOCGAeilue 
 TPlDNOCAPTienHCYItUNO. .4>IA . . COABICCTG . . . 
 
 ocno0HreMONOCBeNe . . <i>ikiapi4>ockaitac0noc 
 enAeTO<I>OINIKON • aaamatiocantaaohqio 
 AYAHCTenPonAPOi0ee . . eYAeiNOi*AnAMiuN 
 onnurANAieAeAHciNOHonoY0ANAroio 
 
 Oa>PANeKYCTANATeCCINAICIXlU*OICINeNeiH. 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. QQ^ 
 
 On our return we breakfasted at the house of our entertainer; 
 after which, before we could take leave, it was deemed right that 
 we should pay a visit to the Druse Sheik, Ahmed ibn Harouf. We 
 were politely received there, and, after taking coffee and inter- 
 changing a few common place compliments, retired. 
 
 We quitted Nedjeraun at ten o'clock in the forenoon, and pro- 
 ceeding over a broken road for an hour to the westward, we came 
 on some old ruins of a town once standing on a rocky eminence, 
 but scarcely any single edifice now remaining perfect. Near to 
 this is a spring and stream of water called Moya Karatta ; and two 
 miles to the south is the large town of Iddoor. 
 
 In half an hour after passing the ruins above mentioned, we 
 came to Sahara, a small village, built on a raised mound, but now 
 entirely without inhabitants ; and in an hour from hence we passed 
 the town of Bussr, leaving it At a little distance on our right. 
 
 Our course from Nedjeraun thus far had been about west ; 
 and from hence the rugged mass of rock, near which the town of 
 Shuhubah is seated, on the mountains, bore east, apparently distant 
 about thirty miles. The town of Bussr is peopled entirely by 
 Mohammedans, and contains about 100 families. The Druses ex- 
 tend no farther west in the Hauran than Nedjeraun (though there 
 are many farther to the westward, in the mountains of Lebanon 
 and Anti- Lebanon) ; and the Christians from thence westerly 
 gradually diminish in numbers. Wherever a settlement contains 
 a few of each of these sects, a balance of interests is preserved, and 
 they live together in tolerable harmony ; at least they do not mo- 
 lest each other : but where Mussulmans principally inhabit, nei- 
 ther Druses nor Christians are borne with as when they live by 
 themselves; the Druses being the most tolerant, and the Moham- 
 medans the most bigotted of the three. Bussr appears to have 
 extensive ruins, but these are mostly of private dwellings, if we 
 except an old building with two square towers, similar to one at 
 Nedjeraun, which is now used for a mosque ; the towers of this at 
 Bussr have sharply-pointed domes built on them, and being 
 
 M M 
 
266 fl^^M GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 whitewashed on the outside, so as to be seen from a great distance, 
 resemble the towers usually applied as light-houses, with their lan- 
 terns at the summit. S.E. of Bussr, about a mile distant, is the 
 ruined village of Dooery, on an elevated mound, now quite 
 deserted. 
 
 From Bussr, our course went W.N.W., and the road improved 
 as we proceeded. . From Nedjeraim thus far it had been stony in 
 the extreme, and only partial spots of it were capable of cultiva- 
 tion ; but from hence westerly we had before us a wide expanse of 
 light red soil, equal to the plains of Esdraelon, or Zabulon, in 
 Palestine, and like them, now bearing an abundance of thistles, 
 which are now admitted to indicate a fertile soil, though often 
 considered as a symbol and characteristic of sterility. The ab- 
 sence of water began, however, to be visible ; as every where 
 the brown soil was parched and cracked, and not an acre of it had 
 yet been ploughed for seed. 
 
 On the right of our road, running along east and west to the 
 north of us, we had the southern edge of a rocky district, called 
 Ledjah, which extends all the way from Bussr to Ezra westerly, 
 and spreads itself for many leagues to the northward. All along 
 its southern boundary are seen small towers, and stone walls of 
 enclosures, both now in ruins. This district was once covered 
 with vineyards, and the towers were no doubt used as watch- 
 houses, in the same manner as they were anciently in the vine- 
 yards about Jerusalem. It is probable, also, that the stone walls 
 seen on the hills at Salghud, at Gunnawat, and at Shuhubah, were 
 to mark the precincts of vineyards, in the same manner as seen on 
 this district. 
 
 In about two hours from Bussr, going all the way W.N.W. 
 over a clear and rich soil, and gradually descending by a gentle 
 slope towards a lower level, we approached the town of Ezra. 
 This is built on the S.W. projecting tongue of the rocky district 
 of Ledjah ; and Nedjeraun is built on a similarly projecting tongue 
 of the same district, at the S.E. angle : there being a slight concave 
 
FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 261 
 
 indentation, like a bay, curving to the northward between them. 
 The road of entrance into Ezra, over this bed, from the eastward, 
 was exactly like the road of outlet froin Nedjeraun to the west- 
 ward ; and at each of these, from the sharp and rugged nature of the 
 rocks, we thought it prudent to dismount and lead our horses over 
 it : even this, however, was required to be done with great care, 
 to prevent the horse from falling. It would be difficult to assign 
 any one reason for the choice of such apparently inconvenient 
 positions for these towns, that would not be liable to some objec- 
 tion ; but the probability is, that many more considerations than 
 one united to recommend it. The want of wood for building ren- 
 dered it necessary to use very large stones for some parts of the 
 edifices, such as beams for the roofs and doors ; and the conve- 
 nience of saving the carriage of these heavy masses, by constructing 
 the building as near the quarries as possible, is evident. This was, 
 no doubt, a leading consideration ; and security might have been 
 another ; as the unobstructed surface of the Plain would afford an 
 easy approach to robbers and marauders, who would have the 
 greatest difficulty, particularly if horsemen, in traversing this rocky 
 bed, over which alone the town can be entered. 
 
 We alighted at the house of a Christian in Ezra, near the west- 
 ern edge of the town, and immediately opposite to one of the best 
 preserved buildings, in the original style of the country, that I had 
 yet seen. We were extremely well received, as our host was one 
 of Abu Farah's relatives : almost all the Christians of the Hauran 
 being from the provinces of Belkah and Adjeloon, from whence 
 they have been driven out, as they say, at different periods, by the 
 southern Arabs, who are constantly plundering those who settle 
 near them. The eastern tribes of Bedouins, though all acknow- 
 ledge them to be bad enough, are admitted, however, not to be 
 so daring as the Beni Hassan, and the Beni Sakker, near the Dead 
 Sea ; besides which, their being here somewhat nearer to the seat 
 of government at Damascus, gives them, in their opinion, greater 
 
 M M 2 
 
268 FROM GUNNAWAT TO EZRA ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 protection than can be enjoyed in more remote parts, where no 
 fear of a superior power exists. 
 
 After taking a meal of Dourra bread, and a sweet paste made 
 from grapes in the neighbourhood of Damascus, from which it is 
 brought, as all the vineyards have long since declined here, we 
 went out to see the town. 
 
CHAP. XIV. 
 
 STAY AT EZRA, AND JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 
 
 In the examination which I desired to make of the ruins at 
 Ezra, during our short stay there, I was assisted by a person well 
 acquainted with the town, who accompanied me in my ramble, 
 merely to direct me through the streets, and point out such large 
 buildings as the place contained. The first edifice to which I was 
 taken by my guide was what at first seemed to be a very old work, 
 from the style of its architecture, but which proved to be the 
 southern front of a Greek church, now called Mar Elias. The 
 principal face of this building was towards the west ; but the place 
 for the altar was no doubt on the east, where the end of the build- 
 ing was of a semi-circular form. The masonry of the southern 
 face had its stones singularly inlaid and locked together, no cement 
 
270 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 being used. The interior was divided into a central nave, with 
 two side aisles, separated by arches ; and the roof, with its massy 
 beams, were of solid stone ; but there were no pillars in any part of 
 it. Over the large door in the southern front, in which were cir- 
 cular and square windows, with stones curiously interlocked with 
 each other, was the following inscription : — 
 
 tOIAnOZOPeilAIB . . MAOHAIOUnPO* 
 CnOAHIlUAMOYEMLOUAIAKENETIYIZ 
 
 eKicANemo u APoueeo^semcKonoY 
 
 ITEnirAKOGCnOTYONRONBlDNACSMAAH 
 
 On a low door way to the right of this was a singular mixture 
 of emblems, exhibiting the cross and the vine^ as if the worship of 
 Bacchus and Christ had been at one time united, or the latter en- 
 grafted on the ruins of the former. The cross appeared in the 
 centre, with vine leaves and clusters of grapes suspended from its 
 arms ; and on each side of the circle enclosing the cross, a stem of 
 the vine extended, in a wavy form, with the fruit on it. 
 
 On a side door on the left the following appeared on the 
 architrave : — 
 
 OAHOC -f HAIAC 
 
 One of the inner divisions of this building is now used as the 
 Greek church of Ezra. It has a few paltry pictures, and a rude 
 altar formed of several stones piled together, which stands in the 
 centre of the whole. The other parts of the building have been 
 partitioned off into small dwellings, by heaping up the fallen 
 stones, and forming out of them loose and miserable walls. 
 
 From a stone over a square window, exactly in the centre of 
 the eastern or semi-circular end, I copied the following inscription, 
 by climbing on the wall of an arch since built from it across the 
 street, and sitting in a space left vacant by some of the stones 
 having fallen away ; — 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 271 
 
 tniETI AIEAPAMEN + 060 AOMOEnPOTE 
 
 EnoUAHKEPTOIEINElEArA0lUINANAnOAOEK 
 
 nP04>HIOUnAIAEYNAnEAOIEEOUPANOIEIt 
 
 And from a broken block of stone now used in a causeway, 
 on the north side of a street to the north of the church, I copied 
 the following : — 
 
 ATAHPEHONIKONn AFSOXIAnPALIE 
 
 AYENIElTNTEEEAPtUNeHKlDNTOICKAHA 
 
 AENAeOYANINAFOETIEOITIHCEAHAOI 
 
 PEENTlI)YnEP0YPl]UTHEANAT<I>AlAMA 
 
 T*TEPAE0HKMEM AEAIA*EPO 
 
 HPEIAXAN*KALEIANOYSEMEPO 
 
 IAIAAOXOIEAYrXE|ANMOrOY*T 
 
 In the end of the wall, a few paces to the west of this, on the 
 north side of the street, is a large sarcophagus built in with the 
 ordinary masonry. In its cover, which is flat and plain, is a circu- 
 lar hole, about a span in diameter, and above this is an arch cut 
 in the stone, evidently for the purpose of leaving access to this 
 hole, as if it were intended to admit of tlie dropping alms, or any 
 other thing, into the sarcophagus below. On the side of the sar- 
 cophagus is a central ornament, something like a sheaf of wheat, 
 but much injured, and on each side of this is an inscription, as 
 follows : — 
 
 KAKAAYAi enoiHceN 
 
 ANocorex thkicthahn 
 
 0n04>AN0r lAIAICAYEOy 
 
 LEGIPeXEEGIII AAnANAIC . . 
 
 The pannels are raised from the surface of the stone, and the 
 letters are cut deep into the black porous material, with a line 
 drawn between each separate line of the characters. 
 
272 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 Close by this sarcophagus is a curious old mosque, with a 
 large open centre and colonnades, or wings of three arcades each, 
 on each side. Some of the arches rest on square pillars of ma- 
 sonry, and others on small circular columns of basalt. One 
 of these pillars is formed wholly of one piece of stone, including 
 pedestal, shaft, and capital ; and near it is a curious double column, 
 the pedestals of which are in one piece, the shafts each composed 
 of two pieces, and the two capitals with their plinths all formed 
 out of one block. These pillars are not large, and are only distant 
 from each other, as they stand, about a human span. They are 
 right opposite to the door of entrance into the mosque, and we 
 were assured that it was a general belief among the Mohamme- 
 dans here, that whoever could pass through these pillars unhurt, 
 was destined for heaven, and whoever could not, might prepare 
 either to reduce his bulk, or expect a worse fate in hell *; the 
 pieces forming the shafts ai-e united by a layer of melted lead used 
 as a cement, and now visible. There are two niches for prayer in 
 the southern wall of this mosque, facing towards the Kaaba at 
 Mecca ; one of these might be taken for a Roman arch, as it has 
 the semicircular form, and is built of bricks, of a flat kind and 
 bright red colour, of the description commonly called Roman tiles, 
 and united by a cement of fine lime almost as thick as the bricks 
 themselves ; the other is as characteristic of Saracen work and 
 taste, being composed of alternate layers of black and white stone, 
 like the niches in the bath at Bozra, and many other specimens of 
 Saracen work still seen in the great Mohammedan cities of the 
 east. 
 
 * This is another instance to add to the several others ah'cady enumerated in tlie 
 " Travels in Palestine," of the prevalence of a notion, probably founded on a literal 
 interpretation of what must have been meant in a figurative sense by Christ, who says, 
 " Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be 
 " that find it." Matt. vii. 14. But the notion is not exclusively Christian : it appears 
 to be common to all religions. 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 273 
 
 Over the west door of entrance to the south wing of this 
 mosque is a curious block, with a star cut in relief, and several 
 holes made at stated intervals through the stone. Above this 
 is sculptured the Greek cross, and below it is an inscription 
 deeply cut in Arabic. On the outer western front, which 
 is ascended to by a wide flight of four steps, are three square 
 doors, and above and on each side of the central one are three 
 blocks of stone, with pannels raised on them in high relief, and 
 each containing a long Greek inscription, now illegible. These 
 blocks do not appear to me, however, to have been sculptured since 
 they were used in the building, but being found when this mosque 
 was constructed out of the ruins of former edifices, were selected 
 because of their containing such inscriptions, to be placed in their 
 present positions as ornaments, or, possibly, for the purpose of 
 thus recording the fact that Mohammedan places of worship had 
 been raised on the ruins of Christian temples. This, at least, was 
 my impression on the spot, though it might have been a conclusion 
 too hastily drawn. 
 
 At the north-west angle of the mosque is a high sloping 
 square tower, near the top of which are seen two Roman arched 
 windows in each face of the building ; and below is a bastard Ionic 
 column. I had long entertained a belief, from the various instances 
 in which I had seen the Roman and the Saracen, or the round and 
 the pointed arch united in the same building, that there must have 
 been a period when these distinctive marks of two opposite orders 
 of architecture were confounded together, and often used by the 
 same builder as well as in the same edifice. I was here confirmed 
 in this belief by seeing, in the interior of this tower, the round 
 and the pointed form of arch used in the same arcade, and ne- 
 cessarily contemporary with each other ; so that the same may have 
 been the case in the larger edifices, as at the castles before describ- 
 ed, where this mixture of styles has been already observed, and 
 accounted for by supposing the one to have been occasioned by 
 
 N N 
 
274 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 additions and repairs subsequent to the first building of the other : 
 the subject, however, still remains a difficult one, and the solution 
 of that difficulty is not much advanced even by this admission. 
 
 BetW^een the tower and the opposite wing, in front of the open 
 part of the mosque, are pure Ionic capitals in good taste, with 
 shafts, pedestals, and blocks of stone, from fifteen to twenty feet 
 long, evidently the remains of some former and more splendid 
 work of Roman times, from the ruins of which the present edifice 
 has been constructed. In the wall of the building, only a few 
 paces west of the tower, are two Arabic inscriptions nearly illegi- 
 ble. Greek inscriptions are seen in the same place, so that the 
 mixture of languages is as complete as the mixture of styles. It 
 was with some difficulty that I made copies of the following. 
 
 The first of these is near the two Arabic inscriptions over a 
 door in the wall of the building to the west of the tower : 
 
 Yn ArAQHTYXH 
 
 YTiePClDTHPIACKAINCIKHCTOYKYPIUYHMlDNAYTO 
 
 AYPHAIOYeeOYHPOY GYCeBOYCeYTYX 
 
 IDMrACZOPAYHNlJUNeKnCeANTOBAAANeiONI 
 
 The next was over a small doorway, within an open court, on 
 a broken architrave, and at a short distance to the northward of 
 the former : 
 
 HAOCKIZOBAIAOCY 
 
 . . MOYQOYKAIAAOCeirOCKA 
 
 AIACYIOK .. OCBAPAXOYKAIKOC . . . 
 
 OCrABAP«I>YKAIIABNHAOCABrA 
 
 CANeNTUUNIAllUN. 
 
 The next was on a stone in the north wall of a street, to 
 the north-east of the preceding one, close by the side of a small 
 window. The letters were large, but very lightly traced on the 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 275 
 
 Stone and rudely formed ; they are now indeed scarcely legible 
 without pain : 
 
 nATMKIE 
 XIIDPIM^Y 
 ETIA<I>NKIO 
 ELNnA 
 
 To the east of this is a building called the northern church, 
 now in ruins, and no trace of an inscription remaining, as far as I 
 could discover. Over the southern door of this, however, are 
 sculptured ornaments, formed of the vine leaf with clusters of 
 grapes ; with a vase, as if meant to be emblematic of the sacra- 
 mental wine ; and before the door is a plain sarcophagus of the 
 old Roman kind, and of the usual size. 
 
 West of this, and due north of the square tower before de- 
 scribed, is a building surmounted with a high dome ; and over 
 the west door of entrance to this building is the following in- 
 scription : — 
 
 eOYrErONENOIKOCrortUNAAlMONlTNKATAOlUriON 
 
 *U}EEirTHPIONEAAM*ENOnOYEKOTOCEKAAYnTEN 
 
 OnOY0YElAlEIAU3Al]UNNYNXOPOlArrEAU3NS 
 
 OnOY0EOEnAPlt)PriZETONVN0OIEE|EYMENIZETAI 
 
 AHNPTlE^IAOXPIETOEOnPlDTEYtUNIlTANNHEAIOMHAIOMHAEUJEYIOE 
 
 E|IAItUNAlUPON0EirnPOEHNErKENA|IO0EATONKTIEMA 
 
 lAPYEAEENTOYFtUTOYKAAAINIKOYAriOYMAPrYPOEFEtUPriOX 
 
 TONIMIONNI*ANONTOY4>ANENTOEAYTlI)IU}ANNHS 
 
 OYKA0YnNONAAAA4»ANEPlUEENETI0ErOYE. 
 
 The stone on which this inscription is cut is underneath a round or 
 Roman arch, and on each side of it is the emblem of the cross, 
 with clusters of grapes accompanying it. Beneath this, again, is a 
 small doorway with a pair of small folding-doors of stone, still 
 hanging, their dimensions being about four feet by three each, and 
 eight inches in thickness ; and above it is a small square window, 
 with folding window- shutters of stone in the same style. 
 
 N N 2 
 
276 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 Within, the building is seen to be a Christian church, covered 
 by a dome of about sixty feet in height, supported by eight square 
 pillars of good masonry, thus forming a circular arcade. The 
 arches between these square pillars are of the Roman shape, and 
 above each of them, at the foot of the dome, is a semicircular vi^in- 
 dow. At the east end is the usual recess and altar of the Greek 
 church, cut oflP from the outer space by a screen, with three doors 
 and two small windows, and having another low partition between 
 this and the rotunda, with a rude altar and some broken fragments 
 of marble. The interior was stuccoed, and painted with the em- 
 blem of the cross and figures of saints ; and though the building 
 is now in a ruined state it is still visited as a place of worship by 
 the Greeks, being dedicated to Mar Georgis, or St. George, the 
 principal saint in their calendar. 
 
 There is a paved court in front of this church, and the stone 
 doors which lead to it are still hanging in their original position. 
 The east end of the church is not exactly semicircular, as is usual, 
 but demi-sexagonal, at the place where the altar is fixed. 
 
 To the north-east of this large church is a smaller one ; it con- 
 tains, however, nothing remarkable, if we except the faint traces of 
 a Greek inscription which is still to be seen over the western door 
 of entrance, but too much obliterated to be accurately transcribed. 
 E. S.E, of the domed church, and E.N.E. of the mosque with 
 the square tower, equidistant from each about 300 yards, is the 
 fragment of a building which appears like the semicircular end of 
 a church long since destroyed, as walls and buildings of a subse- 
 quent date are now attached to it. On the central or key-stone of 
 the hiorh round arch which separated the altar from the nave, on 
 the under part of the stone, is the following ; — 
 
 +epnpoL«i>orA 
 
 IIUANNOYAI 
 
 AAAErENETO 
 
 HAHIEAYTH. 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 277 
 
 The characters are of the rudest form, and the most imperfectly 
 traced of any that I had yet seen ; they were probably cut after the 
 arch was constructed, as ceilings are done by a person lying on 
 a stage with his face upward. On coming out of the arch we 
 found this to be at the east end of the building, at the door of 
 which the plain sarcophagus is before described as standing. 
 
 In this town of Ezra are to be found the most perfect speci- 
 mens of ancient houses probably throughout the whole of the 
 Hauran : at least I had npt before met with any so good. In the 
 course of my ramble I was taken into one that was unoccupied, 
 though no part of it was destroyed or even materially injured. 
 The front of this exhibited the singular kind of masonry before 
 described as seen in the church of Mar Elias, the stones being in- 
 terlocked within each other by a kind of dovetailing, and thus very 
 strongly united without cement ; with small windows, both of the 
 square and circular form, in the same range. The central room of 
 this house was large and lofty, and on each side of it was a wing, 
 separated from the central room by open arcades at equal distances 
 from the sides and from each other. The east wing appeared to 
 have been the kitchen, as in it were seen two large fire-places in 
 the stone wall, with hearths, as in the farm-houses in England, and 
 a large earthen vase, half buried in the centre of the floor, and ca- 
 pable of containing at least a hogshead of water ; with small 
 recesses, like cupboards, around the walls. This room was low, 
 being not more than a foot above a tall man's height : but the 
 stone ceiling was as smooth as planks of wood, as well as the ends 
 of the stones on which the massy beams that formed this roof and 
 ceiling rested. In the centre of it was sculptured a wreath, the 
 ends fastened with ribband, and a fanciful design within it, all exe- 
 cuted in a style that proved it to be beyond question Roman. In 
 the opposite, or western wing, were other low rooms ; and before 
 the house was a flight of stone steps projecting from the wall, and 
 unsupported, except by the end imbedded in the original masonry 
 leading up to the terrace of the dwelling. In front of the whole 
 
278 ST'AY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 was an open paved court, and beyond this, stables with stalls and 
 troughs, all hewn out of stone, for camels, oxen, mules, &c. 
 
 This edifice was exceedingly perfect, and would be an object 
 of great interest to any future enquirer ; but the evening was 
 closing in so fast that we had not time to take a plan or elevation 
 of it, though few buildings would be more worthy of an accurate 
 delineation. I was convinced from this and some other proofs, 
 which I remarked in our hasty ramble, that Mar Elias was itself 
 an ancient building, as I had at first conceived it to be, and that it 
 was at some period subsequent to its first erection that it became 
 a Christian church, and received the Greek inscriptions now seen 
 upon it in different parts. It is worthy of remark, that the stones 
 of all these buildings are originally black, but from long exposure 
 to the atmosphere they decompose at the surface, and this decom- 
 position assumes a yellow colour, giving them an appearance 
 of newness and freshness equal to the sandstone of the Egyptian 
 temples, which, in many places on the banks of the Nile, looks as 
 if it had been taken from the quarry only a few days instead of 
 hundreds of years ago. The most ancient of these buildings as- 
 sume therefore the freshest appearance : so that the style of the 
 architecture becomes the only safe criterion by which to judge of 
 the age of their first construction. From their extreme durability, 
 being wholly constructed of large masses of stone closely and 
 strongly united, this age may be carried up even to the earliest 
 times of which history makes any mention ; they may be as ancient 
 as the pyramids of Egypt, and are certainly likely to endure as 
 long. The style and character of the buildings in question is low, 
 square, and massive, like that of Egypt. The doors and windows 
 are small, and their frames, though composed of four sides, are 
 often cut out of one stone. The doors themselves, from their 
 great weight and thickness, are in general immoveable by one per- 
 son, though they are often nicely fitted and highly ornamented ; 
 and the roofs or ceilings are formed of beams and planks of stone, 
 laid as closely and as smoothly together as the planked ceiling or 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 379 
 
 floor of an English house; so that the whole seems fitted to en- 
 dure for ever. These peculiarities must have belonged to a very 
 early state of society, when this taste for the solid and indestruct- 
 ible in architecture seems to have been so universally prevalent as 
 it was in Babylon, Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Greece, and India in the 
 old world, and among the Mexicans and Peruvians in the new ; 
 but which necessarily yields to the more useful, convenient, and 
 agreeable accommodations studied in buildings of a later period, 
 among all people at least who can devote so much time, wealth, 
 and labour as these massive houses of stone must have cost, to 
 furnish themselves more pleasurable abodes. They might have 
 been the work of the mOst ancient inhabitants of these plains ; and 
 the Romans who colonised here might have followed the taste of 
 the country, and ornamented some and built others, during the 
 period they occupied the country ; but no later date than this can 
 be assigned them, as they were most assuredly not constructed by 
 the Greek Christians, nor by the Saracen followers of Mohammed. 
 At sunset I obtained the following bearings and distances of 
 objects as seen from the terrace of our entertainer's dwelling ; — 
 
 High peaked hill, called El-Hauran .... S. E. ... 50 miles. 
 
 Ragged rock before Shuhubah E. byS. . . 40 ditto. 
 
 Town of Meleehah, Christian and Mohammedan S. E. by S. i S. 7 ditto. 
 
 Theneiby, a Mohammedan town W. S. W. . . 3 ditto. 
 
 Shukaru, ditto N. by W. . . 3 ditto. 
 
 Zubbayne, in Ledjah, deserted N. N. E. J E. . 6 ditto. 
 
 Jeddil, ditto, ditto N. E. J E. . . 6 ditto. 
 
 Harran, ditto, ditto E.byN. JN. . 6 ditto. 
 
 Bussr, not in Ledjah, Mohammedan . . . S. E. by E= ^ E. 8 ditto. 
 
 Neamir, ditto, deserted S. W. by S. . . 8 ditto. 
 
 The bearings of the surrounding country from the same point 
 of view were as follows : — To the north, were the mountains of 
 the Druse, an extension of the eastern chain, and very distant. To 
 the north-east was the flat stony tract of Ledjah. From east to 
 south-east were the eastern mountains bounding the Hauran. To 
 
280 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 the south lay the plains of Belkah and a level horizon. To the 
 south-west the high range of the mountains of Adjeloon, visible, 
 but distant. To the west, a level horizon as far as the Jordan, 
 gradually rising in broken hills as it goes to the northward, till it 
 reaches the snowy Jebel-el-Telj, from N. W. by N. to N. by W. 
 
 In the stony district of Ledjah, which begins about here, and 
 extends from hence to the northward and eastward, are said to be 
 366 ruined towns, and a sea (bahr) of inscriptions. These expres- 
 sions, which are quite suited to the exaggerating taste of an Arab, 
 only mean, however, that there are a great number of each. In 
 the same manner I was assured by one of our party, who had been 
 in Egypt, that in Belled Massr were 366 districts, and in each dis- 
 trict 366 peopled towns ; to which he added, that having seen 
 Englishmen there he learnt that they had always 366 suits of 
 clothes, or one for every day in the. year : an impression, no doubt, 
 occasioned by the frequent changes of garments among the Eng- 
 lish, a practice almost wholly unknown among the Arabs, who 
 after they put on a new garment rarely leave it off till it is worn 
 out and finally done with. The people of the Hauran, generally, 
 and those residing on its eastern border more particularly, never 
 having seen the sea, are struck with wonder and admiration at de- 
 scriptions of large ships and the details of a sea life. Even here, 
 however, they are not satisfied with bare facts, however surprising 
 these may be, but constantly endeavour to engraft on these, some- 
 thing of a more exaggerated nature, so powerful is their passion 
 for the marvellous. As an illustration of this, when asked by one 
 of our party what was the greatest number of cannon I had ever 
 seen mounted in one ship, and replying 120, my guide, the Mal- 
 lim Georgis, insisted that I was far below the mark, declaring most 
 solemnly that he had, with his own eyes, seen 200 pieces of can- 
 non discharged from one side only of Sir Sydney Smith's ship at 
 Acre, and 200 from the other side within the same instant of time! 
 He also asserted that Mohammed Ali, the pasha of Egypt, had 
 latelv sent from that country to the Hedjaz, in Arabia, 100 karat 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. ggl 
 
 of soldiers, each karat being 100,000 ! supporting his assertions 
 with the most solemn declarations of their truth. This feature of 
 exaggeration, an inseparable companion of ignorance, is prevalent 
 among all classes, and can only be cured by increased information 
 diffused among the community generally, to enable them to dis- 
 tinguish truth from falsehood. 
 
 During our evening party I was intreated, by several of the 
 individuals composing it, for written charms against poverty, sick- 
 ness, danger, &c. At first I endeavoured to persuade the appli- 
 cants that no human being possessed the power to compose such 
 charms, however impostors might pretend, from interested motives, 
 to propagate a belief in their efficacy ; and that a very strong proof 
 in support of their being false and delusive was to be gathered 
 from the fact, that the venders of such charms, to save others from 
 misfortune, were not able to protect themselves from the evils in- 
 separable from humanity, but were equally liable, with all other 
 men, to sickness, misfortune, and death. This argument, however, 
 convincing as it would have been to most minds, had no effect 
 whatever on theirs, and I was somewhat surprised to find it com- 
 bated by an example from sacred history : one of the parties ob- 
 serving that the same objection had been raised, but without found- 
 ation, against the divinity of Christ, when those who mocked him 
 exclaimed, " He saved others : himself he cannot save." It was 
 in vain to attempt conviction on minds entrenched behind such a 
 position ; and, therefore, to satisfy the increasing importunity of 
 those who now believed, from my very scruples and reluctance, 
 that I really had the power, but was indisposed to exercise it for 
 their benefit, I wrote on slips of paper various unmeaning charac- 
 ters, which were taken as favours, and construed into talismans of 
 a general rather than a particular nature, from my declining to 
 assign to them any specific virtue. The occurrence of such a scene 
 as this among the Mohammedans of the Nile, or the barbarians of 
 Nubia, or the savages of Africa, would not have been surprising ; 
 but here, as I had been forced, by what I had seen, to estimate the 
 
 o 
 
282 STAY AT EZRA» AND 
 
 state of civilisation among the Arab Christians of these parts, 1 
 had not before supposed it to be so low as this incident evidently 
 showed it to be. 
 
 After supper we had some sage political speculations among 
 the members of our partj, who agreed only in one particular, that 
 whenever the Christian Powers should repossess themselves of the 
 Holy Land, their vengeance on the Mohammedan spoilers of the 
 holy places would be without bounds. It may not be unworthy of 
 remark, that in Ezra all the dwellings of the Christians are marked 
 with the emblem of their faith on the portals of their doors, as if 
 for the guidance of some destroying angel that they expected to 
 pass through their town, and spare those whose dwellings were so 
 distinguished, as among the children of Israel of old, 
 
 Tuesday, March 20. — We were detained at Ezra for the pur- 
 pose of attending the morning service of the Greek church, and 
 returned from thence to breakfast. After this, our future progress 
 to Damascus became a subject of debate ; and the oldest of 
 my guides, Abu Farah, who had already come further from home 
 than he had at first intended, and who began to be alarmed at the 
 difficulty of his returning thence all the way alone, solicited his 
 release, that he might remain at Ezra, till a convenient opportunity 
 should occur for his setting out in company with some one, on his 
 way back to Assalt. The old man's request was so reasonable 
 that it could not justly be refused ; and he had already been of so 
 much service to me on the journey, that I only regretted my inca- 
 pacity to reward him more liberally than my means then admitted. 
 It was stipulated, however, that he should procure a guide to fill 
 his place for the remainder of the way to Damascus, which was 
 readily effected from among those who had formed our party on 
 the preceding evening, and I drew up for Abu Farah, such a written 
 character as it appeared to me his many excellent qualities as a 
 guide justly merited. 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 283 
 
 These transactions delayed our departure until noon, when 
 taking leave of Abu Farah, who left me with tears and benedic- 
 tions, and the fervently expressed hope that we might one day 
 meet again, and receiving also the good wishes of our entertainers 
 for a safe entry into Damascus, we mounted our horses to depart. 
 
 After traversing the rocky bed on which the town of Ezra 
 stands, we went northerly across a fine, fertile, light red soil, having 
 on our left, or to the westward, an extensive plain of the same de- 
 scription, and on our right, or to the east, the western edge of the 
 stony district of Ledjah, extending itself farther to the north-east. 
 
 In little more than an hour after quitting Ezra, we passed 
 through the town of Shukharah, which, like the place we had left, 
 is built on a projecting tongue of the stony tract of Ledjah, the 
 patches of soil intervening between these towns being like the 
 curvature of small bays gently indenting a line of rocky coast. I 
 noticed nothing remarkable in this town, except an old square 
 tower in its western quarter, with an open arch of the Roman form 
 in the wall below, and three separate projecting cornices going 
 round the buildings at regular intervals above. The population 
 of this place being entirely Mohammedan, and on bad terms with 
 their Christian neighbours, we did not alight even to take coffee, 
 a great act of self-denial to an Arab, and much regretted by Georgis. 
 
 On the bed of rock near this place, our Ezra guide pointed 
 out to us the quarries, from whence the large mill-stones before de- 
 scribed are cut, of which we saw several in a progressive state of 
 preparation. The unskilfulness of the Arabs, and their want of 
 proper implements adapted to their labour, with the expence of 
 carriage from the quarry to the place of sale, each stone requiring 
 a single camel, wheel carriages and good roads being entirely 
 unknown, occasion an advance above the prime cost, at which they 
 might be hewn in England, of at least 500 per cent, each pair of 
 stones costing from ten to fifteen and sometimes twenty pounds 
 sterling. This is the only produce that the stony tract of Ledjah 
 now yields, almost all its towns being deserted, except those on 
 
 o o 2 
 
284 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 its very edge; but as the ruins scattered over it are very numerous, 
 there must have been a period when some other sources of wealth 
 existed for their maintenance. 
 
 Our horses drank from large stone troughs, near a quarry, at 
 the bottom of which excellent fresh water was found, about twenty 
 feet below the surface ; and proceeding northerly, we ascended 
 from thence over a very gentle slope for nearly an hour at a walk- 
 ing pace, when the whole of the stony tract of Ledjah became 
 exposed to ouv view, and presented a most forbidding aspect. 
 From this slight elevation, we went gradually down over a gentle 
 declivity for another hour, until we lost sight both of Ezra and 
 Shukharah, by the intervening hill ; and about three o'clock we 
 reached the town of Mahadjee, built like the others through which 
 we had lately passed on a tongue of rock projecting from the main 
 body of it to the northward and eastward. 
 
 We had been directed here to the house of one Eesa, or Jesus, 
 — a very common name among the Arabs, whether of the Greek or 
 Catholic faith, — the only Christian residing in the place; and 
 as our guide from Ezra informed us that all the towns between this 
 and Damascus were inhabited by Mohammedans, and that we 
 need not halt at any of them if we slept here, as the journey might 
 be performed in one whole day, we determined on taking up our 
 shelter with him as proposed. Our horses were taken into the court- 
 yard of the house, and unburthened of their saddles, without a 
 single question being asked on either side ; and it was not until 
 we had all seated ourselves that our intention to remain here for 
 the night was communicated to the master of the house; so much 
 is it regarded as a matter of course, that those who have a house 
 to shelter themselves in, and food to partake of, should share those 
 comforts with wayfarers, whenever they may halt at their door to 
 partake of them ; a state of things that could not exist but in a 
 country where tfie communication is un frequent, and where 
 from such infrequency of communication and general insecurity, 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 285 
 
 there are neither good roads nor houses of entertainment for pas- 
 sengers, the sure indication of civilisation and commerce. 
 
 We were kindly received by our Christian host, and a meal 
 of bread and oil, which I had seen so often as to make it become 
 most unwelcome to me, was placed before us, there being neither 
 vegetable nor animal food, neither eggs, butter, milk, or fruits with 
 which to vary it, so that nothing but extreme hunger could support 
 the constant repetition of the same insipid and unsatisfactory food. 
 We ate of it, however, from necessity, as choice was not permitted 
 to the rigid observers of the Greek fast, still continued; and I could 
 not without offence have even asked for any thing forbidden to 
 themselves. When the wayfarers and guests had finished, the re- 
 mainder of the meal was eaten up by the persons resident in the 
 town, who had already collected to enquire who and what were the 
 strangers on their way to Sham, this being the only name by which 
 Damascus is known here. 
 
 The party alluded to consisted of about ten persons, Moslem 
 and Christians, including our host and my guides, and our first 
 conversation turned on some points connected with market prices 
 of different articles, and quotations of purchase and sale, a subject 
 in which most of those present were likely to feel personally inte- 
 rested. The Mallim Georgis, however, had not been long among 
 them, before his peculiar genius gave the conversation quite a differ- 
 ent turn ; and from speculations on the price of corn and oil, it soon 
 passed to speculations on political and religious subjects, and the 
 awful import of the signs of the times. During the last evening 
 of our stay at Nedjeraun, while a strong north wind blew, and 
 the sky was overcast with clouds, a red light appeared in the 
 west, which was no doubt the reflected light of some large fire 
 that might have taken place in a field or a village near the spot 
 over which it appeared ; but this easy and natural solution of the 
 matter was not acceptable to those who love the wonderful, and 
 despise the plainness and simplicity of unexaggerated truth : so 
 that this red light in the west, coupled with the long drought that 
 
286 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 had afflicted the Hauran, and the confusion which still reigned in 
 the political affairs of Damascus, was construed into a portentous 
 omen of approaching plague, pestilence, and famine, with battle, 
 murder and sudden death. Like children, who on winter nights 
 gather round a fire and relate stories of ghosts and goblins, till 
 they start at the sound of the wind, and are almost frightened at 
 their own shadow, the party by whom I was now surrounded 
 were so in love with their subject, and the eloquence of Georgia 
 was poured out with such eiFect, interspersed with passages of 
 scripture and verses of modern seers, that they literally talked 
 themselves into a panic of alarm, and many seemed impressed 
 with a belief that the world was really near its end. On 
 occasions like these I generally remained a patient listener to 
 what was said by others, as I had long since discovered that any 
 attempt to oppose supei'stition was always regarded as a~ profession 
 of open infidelity. The intolerance of the human mind is in all 
 countries just in proportion to the ignorance in which it may be 
 enveloped : and on this occasion I saw no hope of benefit by 
 departing from my system, as the evil can only be cured by in- 
 creasing knowledge. 
 
 About sunset, when the conversation began to cease, I took our 
 host, Jesus, on the terrace of his dwelling, and obtained from him 
 the names of such places as were visible from his house-top, took 
 their bearings by compass, and their estimated distances as accu- 
 rately as I could by the eye, as follows. 
 
 Toaf, a few houses on a hill S. W. i S. . . . 3 miles. 
 
 Miggadad, a saint's tomb on a hill .... W. by S. i S. . . I mile. 
 
 Kiteiby, deserted N. W. by W. . . 5 miles. 
 
 Inkhel, a Mohammedan town N. W. by N. . . 5 miles. 
 
 El Gheneyey, do N. by W. ... 6 miles 
 
 Ghussawa, deserted N. N. E i mile. 
 
 Tubbiny, Mohammedan N. by E. f E. . . 2 miles. 
 
 Busseer, do. large N. E. | N. . . . 10 miles. 
 
 Iddoeer, two towns in one, deserted, in Ledjah, N. E 8 miles. 
 
 Zebyre, deserted, in Ledjah, E. by S S miles. 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 287 
 
 Jeddil, deserted, in Ledjah S. E. by E. i E. . 12 miles. 
 
 Ghiratata, Do. . . Do S. E. by E. . . . 2 miles. 
 
 Lobare, Do. . . Do S. E. i S. ... 3 miles. 
 
 Meseetchy, Do. . . Do S. E. J S. ... 4 miles. 
 
 Nadjee, Do. . . Do S. S. E. i E. . . 3 mUes. 
 
 Bussr, with two white towers S. by E. | E. . . 15 miles. 
 
 Square tower and dome of Ezra S. | W 10 miles. 
 
 Shukhara, not visible S. f W 6 miles. 
 
 All the places indicated above, with the exception of the last 
 only, which is hidden by being in the low ground between this 
 town and Ezra, were distinctly seen ; and the bearings noted care- 
 fully, for the purpose of filling up the blank that now exists in our 
 best maps of this almost untrodden country. Although so many 
 objects were seen, however, in this extensive panoranra, the view 
 was, on the whole, tame and uninteresting, from the bareness and 
 flatness of the country over which it is extended. 
 
 On enquiring whether there were many ancient inscriptions 
 in the town, I was assured there were several, but no one appeared 
 disposed to take the trouble of pointing them out to me. On 
 the very door, however, of the house in which we had taken 
 shelter, was the fragment of an inscription still remaining, with 
 a Greek cross in the centre of it, and I copied this, chiefly for 
 the purpose of showing, (if, after the many already copied, further 
 proof could be needed,) that even in the smallest and most incon- 
 siderable of the towns in the Hauran, abundant proofs of a former 
 Christian population are to be met with. The fragment alluded 
 to was as follows : — 
 
 M . . . ItUVONVAIIANO . . . Aie\ OA . . . 
 
 MNITYHCANIGTIOII 
 
 KAI4>IPMlNIANOYre. 
 
 The town of Mahadjee resembles those of the Hauran through 
 which we had lately passed, in the general character of its style and 
 mode of construction, but it is smaller than most of the towns to 
 
288 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 the southward, and is at least as much in a state of ruin as any of 
 them. In the S.W. quarter of the town is the lower part of a 
 square tower still remaining, the masonry of which is in the oldest 
 style used here, with the stones let into each other, and united 
 without cement. It is now used as a stone-cutter's workshop for 
 the purpose of finishing the circular mill-stones before spoken of 
 as manufactured from the rocky beds of the neighbouring district. 
 There are not more than thirty families residing at this place, and 
 the whole of them are Mohammedans, with the exception of our 
 host, Eesa. The occupation of all is agriculture and the pasturage of 
 cattle. I saw here the mode practised in this country for churning 
 milk into butter : the milk is placed in a goat's skin, which is filled 
 as full as possible and then tied at the mouth, after which it is 
 rolled or shaken on the ground by a woman who sits before it, this 
 operation continuing for several hours on each skin, till the butter 
 is formed from the milk, when the bag or skin is untied, and the 
 two parts separated from each other. The mode is simple enough, 
 it must be admitted, but not so effectual as that pursued in Eng- 
 land ; and from the bad taste given by the skin, as well as from 
 the butter not being sufficiently washed after the first separation, 
 so as to rid it of all the milky particles that remain, it is often 
 bitter and sour at the same time, and becomes rancid in a very 
 few days after being made. So inveterate, however, are the pre- 
 judices of all ignorant people, both abroad and at home, that when 
 I described the method used in England, and pointed out its ad- 
 vantages, they contended that their own was far superior. 
 
 In our evening circle round the fire of dried dung, which still 
 continued to be used for want of wood, we had a Moosa or Moses, 
 an Ibrahim or Abraham, a Daood or David, a Suliman or Solo- 
 mon, an Eesa or Jesus, with several Mohammeds or Mahomets : 
 and, to complete the remarkable association of names, the two 
 women who waited on us were called Miriam, or Mary, and 
 Martha, the well remembered favorites of Christ. * There is no 
 
 • St. John, c. xi. v. 1 to 5. 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. ggP 
 
 country on earth, perhaps, where the names of distinguished 
 prophets are more frequently given to their respective followers 
 than in this. Among the Mohammedans, the name of Mo- 
 hammed is more common than any other. Among the Christians, 
 Eesa or Jesus, and Abd-el-Messeeah, or the Slave of the Messiah, 
 are also frequently found : and other sects follow the same ex- 
 ample ; though, among the many scriptural names used by all the 
 various sects in England, I never remember to have heard of that of 
 Jesus, which is perhaps thought too sacred. In India too, it is a com- 
 mon practice for the respective worshippers of the Indian gods to 
 bear the names of their favourite deities ; and even in England, as 
 well as all other parts of the world, the Jews adhere to the names 
 of their principal prophets and leaders, and are proud of being 
 thus distinguished from other sects. Christians however too fre- 
 quently, and with great inconsistency, call them by their great pro- 
 phet's name, " Moses," as a term of obloquy and reproach ; as if 
 the authenticity of his divine mission and holy inspiration were 
 not as essential a part of the religion of Christianity, as the authen- 
 ticity of the divine mission of Christ ; as if it were possible to cast 
 reflections of ridicule on the name of any one of the prophets 
 whose mission Christ came to confirm, without, at the same time, 
 reflecting on the authority from which all inspiration equally 
 emanated, and by undermining the respect due to the earliest, 
 abate much of that paid to the latest of the messengers of heaven ; 
 since no doctrine of Scripture is more clear than this, that each 
 succeeding prophet came to support and confirm the predictions 
 and precepts of his predecessor. There would be no inconsistency, 
 indeed, in the Jews reflecting odium on the name of Jesus, since 
 their very existence as Jews is founded on their believing Christ 
 to be an impostor : but there is the greatest possible inconsistency 
 in Christians using the names of the Jewish prophets for the pur- 
 pose of ridicule, inasmuch as they themselves believe them to be 
 as truly commissioned from heaven as the most devout and ortho- 
 dox among the Jews can do. If this practice were confined to the 
 lower orders of people, with whom the names of the Father, the 
 
 p p 
 
290 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost, are treated with much less respect in 
 their ordinary oaths, than that of Beelzebub, the prince of devils, 
 it would not be worth an observation ; since, in the sweeping and 
 indiscriminate habit of swearing, which distinguishes the English 
 from most other nations of the globe, no sacredness of any name 
 or epithet could secure it from profanation. But, as the practice 
 of ridiculing the Jews, by the strange method of associating a feel- 
 ing of contempt and odium with the names of their most distin- 
 guished prophets, prevails in better informed circles, and is to be 
 found in our Plays, Songs, Novels, and other branches of litera- 
 ture, it is, perhaps, worth adverting to. At all events, as one 
 great object to be attained by noting the manners of other nations 
 is to condemn what is faulty, and recommend to the imitation of 
 our countrymen what is praiseworthy, it is not wholly out of 
 place to note, for the purpose of contrasting our absurd practice 
 with the more sensible and tolerant behaviour of men of opposite 
 religions in the East, who, whether Christians or Mohammedans, 
 respect the Jewish names, and honour them by their adoption, 
 as belonging to a religion on which each of their own is built ; 
 and despise the Jews for that only for which they can with any 
 consistency be despised, namely, not for being of the faith of 
 Moses or the seed of Abraham, but, for not being also of the num- 
 ber of those who yield equal faith to the missions of Jesus and 
 Mohammed. 
 
 To return to the narrative after this digression : I was glad to 
 profit, on this as on all other occasions, by the opportunity which 
 a varied party generally presents for gleaning some useful inform- 
 ation out of the vast mass of useless and uninteresting convers- 
 ation that too frequently prevailed. From one of our party, 1 learnt 
 that he had been to the eastward of the Hauran, as far as Lezhoof, 
 or Lejhoof, a country of the Wahabees, bordering on the district 
 of Nedjed. He described it as about fifteen days' journey to the 
 eastward of Assalt. The road leading to it was through a coun- 
 try peopled by different tribes of Arabs, who are sometimes at 
 peace but more frequently at war with each other. It was thirty 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 291 
 
 years ^ince he had made this journey, and the occasion of it was a 
 trading expedition, accompanying a caravan of cheap merchandize 
 for sale into the desert, bringing back principally Arab horses 
 and camels in return. The sect of the Wahabees were but then 
 beginning to spread themselves ; and at that time communication 
 was practicable from Belkah all the way to Nedjed, and from 
 thence to Baghdad ; but at this moment, when the Wahabees 
 were so powerful, and the whole desert in commotion, he thought 
 such a journey would be imminently dangerous if not quite im- 
 practicable, so that I had reason to congratulate myself in not 
 having persevered in my attempt to the eastward from Assalt, 
 from which I might never have returned in safety if I had pro- 
 ceeded much farther. The old man, who informed me of his 
 having made the journey alluded to, about thirty years ago, 
 described the country generally from recollection, as being in 
 many places highly fertile, and containing an abundance of water 
 in small streams, with corn fields and date groves, as in the land 
 of Egypt, which he had also seen. I should consider this picture 
 highly charged : though to be peopled at all it must possess some 
 of the means of existence in water and soil : but my companions 
 considered Daood (for that was his name) a man of veracity and 
 good character, and had often heard from him the same account 
 as he had now given me, so that the general features of his de- 
 scription might with some slight allowances be taken to be correct. 
 It would be certainly worthy the attempt of some enterprising 
 traveller to explore that part of Arabia, and fill up the blank which 
 it now presents in our maps. 
 
 The adjoining district of Ledjah was familiarly known to all 
 our party, and all confirmed the previous accounts that I had 
 heard of its being full of ruined towns and cities, containing the 
 remains of large edifices and innumerable inscriptions, like those 
 at Bozra, Soeda, and Gunnawat. Missema was the name of a 
 town on the N.E. edge of the district, lying in the road from Da- 
 mascus to Shukkah, Shuhubah, Hilheet, and Aiat, on the eastern 
 
 pp 2 
 
292 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 hills ; and other names were mentioned, which from their number 
 and variety I could not retain with sufficient accuracy to enter 
 among my notes at the time. 
 
 Towards the close of the evening, we had another scriptural 
 name added to our party in the person of an old sheikh named 
 Aioobe, or Job, who, hearing of ouf assembly, came to join it ; and, 
 being a communicative old man, added to the pleasure as well as 
 to the number of our party. 
 
 Wednesday/, March 21. — We left Mahadjee at day-light, 
 going to the N.N.E., and at sun-rise passed the bed of a stream 
 called Wadi-el-Harram, which was now dry: and close by it on 
 the right, observed a ruined heap, called Gussawah. In half an 
 hour from hence we passed the small village of Toobbery, leaving 
 it on our right about a quarter of a mile ; and at the same time 
 saw the large town of Ikteeby, about four miles on our left. In 
 half an hour more we came in a line with Gheryeh, a town with 
 two castles, which lay about half a mile on our left ; and at the 
 same time we had on our right the town of Gherbt-el-Wali, three 
 miles off, and Busseer and El Ghoffy, about one mile distant, all 
 within the stony district of Ledjah ; all large, and all deserted, 
 and without inhabitants. 
 
 Half an hour beyond this, we crossed the bed of Wadi Ram- 
 man, which we found dry, and the channel bending to the north- 
 ward. Continuing to ride along its bank for half an hour more, 
 we reached the town of Sunnymein. This place contains a bridge 
 of seven arches, a large building with columns, a manufacture of 
 mill-stones from the rocky bed of the neighbourhood, a consider- 
 able number of houses, and six towers seen on passing. As we 
 neither alighted nor even halted at the place, but pursued our way 
 without delay, I obtained no further particulars of this town be- 
 yond those here noted. 
 
 In a quarter of an hour after passing Sunnymein, going now 
 about N.E., we came to Deedy, a small place which we left on our 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 293 
 
 right ; and about a furlong beyond this, we had on our left the 
 town of Ghebt el Ghazaly. There was a paved road here; and 
 an hour beyond this, we had the town of Deer el Bukt one mile 
 on our left, and Mothebein two miles on our right. In an 
 hour from Deer el Bukt we reached what is considered the 
 boundary of the Hauran, and entered on a stony tract of coun- 
 try not unlike that of Ledjah, so often spoken of before. 
 On a hill to the left was a tower, called Kassr-ibn-Gowash, with 
 a tank or reservoir of water near, for the ablutions of pilgrims, 
 and a niche facing the Kaba at Mecca, for prayers ; this place 
 lying in the Derb-el-Hadj, or high road of the caravans that take 
 the pilgrims to Arabia. To the south of this station, the inha- 
 bitants are called Haurani ; to the west of this, they are called 
 Jeddoori ; to the east of this, they are called Druzi, and Lejahi ; 
 and to the north of this, Shami, from Sham, the only name by 
 which Damascus is known here. To the east of the reservoir, 
 about 200 yards, is a small town called Gai'hib, and from thence 
 the district of Ledjah extends itself away to the eastward. 
 
 The range of hills near to this is called Sub-et-Pharaoon, but 
 they were no longer of the black porous stone before described, of 
 which we had gradually lost sight as we approached the northern 
 boundary of the Hauran. In an hour after leaving the tower and 
 tank at that boundary, and proceeding in a northerly direction, we 
 passed a place called Shukhub, which lay on a hill to the left, and 
 appeared to be a station enclosed for defence. Near this, we 
 passed through a pretty large party of Bedouin Arabs, which we 
 learnt were the greater portion of a tribe coming from the east- 
 ward, and proceeding farther on, to take up an encampment for a 
 season in the western plains. 
 
 From hence we proceeded in a N.W. direction for about 
 three hours, over a stony ground with patched of light soil, when 
 we came to a large caravanserai, built of black stone, and called 
 Khan Denoon, near to which on the east was a small village, built 
 of sun-dried bricks formed of a light-coloured earth, and present- 
 
294 STAY AT EZRA, AND 
 
 ing a remarkable contrast to each other. In an hour from thence 
 we came to a place called Kissawee, seated in a valley named Wadi- 
 el-Ajam, and crossed the stream there. The town, though built 
 of sun-dried bricks of a light colour, presented, chiefly from its 
 situation, an interesting appearance, particularly after many of 
 those we had lately seen. We passed over a bridge paved with 
 stone and through a small bazar, both at this place ; and after 
 going for another hour up earthy hills, in a N.W. direction, we 
 came suddenly in sight of Damascus, seated on a beautifully 
 wooded and extremely fertile plain, the prospect of which delighted 
 me so much, that I rode for a full hour unconscious of any thing 
 but the beauty of the scene. 
 
 On entering Damascus from the S.E. quarter, I was charmed 
 beyond expression with the verdant and delightful appearance of 
 the olive grounds, fruitful gardens, and running streams through 
 which this city is approached. A remarkable peculiarity of the 
 buildings in this quarter is that almost every separate edifice ap- 
 pears to have a high and pointed dome of brick-work, which 
 being of the same light-coloured earth used in the bricks of the 
 buildings, resembles at a distance a number of large straw bee- 
 hives. We entered the city through the Bab-el-Ullah, or the Gate 
 of God, so called from its leading to Jerusalem and Mecca — both 
 holy cities, and both places of pilgrimage, the last only to the 
 Mohammedans, but the first to all the several classes of Jews, 
 Christians, and Moslems, by each of whom it is held in high estim- 
 ation, and called by all, El-Khods-el-Shereef, the Holy and the 
 Noble. 
 
 We passed up through the city in a N.W. direction, by a 
 street leading from the Bab-el-Ullah, at least a mile in length, and 
 equal in breadth to any of the great thoroughfares in London. 
 To avoid notice, and prevent too narrow a scrutiny into our faces, 
 which the inhabitants of bigotted towns and. cities like this are too 
 much disposed to exercise on strangers coming among them, we 
 drew over our faces the keffeah of the Bedouins, after the fashion 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 295 
 
 used by the Desert Arabs when they advance to the attack in battle 
 to conceal their features, or in cold weather for warmth, or among 
 strangers to whom they do not wish to be known, so that nothing 
 remained visible except the eyes — while we scarcely turned our 
 regards on either side, but contented ourselves with returning the 
 salutations of the faith with which all passengers are greeted on 
 their entry into a town or city, whatever be the object of their 
 journey. 
 
 The street through which we passed was paved in the centre, 
 upon a raised level, forming an excellent road for beasts of burden, 
 camels, and horses, and would easily admit the passage of six or 
 eight abreast. Below this raised road, was an unpaved space on 
 each side, and within this again a pavement of smaller stones, 
 nearly as broad as the central raised way, for foot passengers, along 
 the fronts of the dwellings, shops, and other edifices that lined the 
 street. Had the buildings been at all correspondent to the length 
 and breadth of this fine road, the effect of the whole would have 
 been excellent ; but these were, in general, poor and mean, and 
 totally destitute of uniformity, whether in size, style, or material. 
 Among the principal edifices I noticed several mosques, some of 
 modern, and others apparently of a pretty old date. The shops 
 were all open, and many manufactories of cotton, silk, stuff', and 
 leather, were carried on at each side of the street in the open air. 
 Notwithstanding my disappointment at the general inferiority of the 
 buildings of this fine street to the expectation I had formed of them, 
 I was nevertheless much pleased at the cleanliness of every thing 
 we saw, and the apparent health and beauty of the people of all 
 classes that we met in our way, as well as the richness and gaiety of 
 apparel, among the young and old, the rich and poor, in proportion 
 to their several ages and ranks ; the oldest and the poorest among 
 them, however, being much better dressed than the ordinary class 
 of people in any Arab or Turkish town that I had yet seen. There 
 was a degree of order and tranquillity also visible in every part of 
 the street, even that most thickly crowded with people, which was 
 
296 STAY A.T EZRA, AND 
 
 pleasing to witness, and gave a very favourable impression as to 
 the sober and orderly habits of the inhabitants. 
 
 After more than half an hour's continued ride through this 
 single street, which led us nearly into the centre of the city, we 
 turned off" to the westward, and went for upwards of half an hour 
 more through narrow passages and covered bazars, forming a 
 perfect labyrinth, until we reached the convent of the Catholic 
 Christians, at which we arrived about sun-set. Notwithstanding 
 the poverty of my dress, being still habited as a Bedouin Arab, 
 and though unfurnished with any letter of introduction, from not 
 anticipating the necessity which had forced me into this route, I 
 received a very kind and hospitable reception. The president, a 
 native of Spain, and one of the fattest and in every respect most 
 jolly-looking friars that I had ever seen, had received letters, how- 
 ever, from his brethren at the convents of Jerusalem and Nazareth, 
 in which the names of Mr. Bankes and myself, as English travellers, 
 who had been there, were mentioned with great respect, and in 
 consequence of which it was probable that either of us passing this 
 way would be treated with more than usual attention. 
 
 While a supper of fresh fish was preparing, a suit of clean 
 garments was brought to me from one of the Christian merchants 
 residing near the convent, and I enjoyed a pleasure not to be 
 described in throwing oflp clothes that had never been changed for 
 thirty days, though sleeping almost constantly on the bare ground. 
 Neither was my pleasure less in devouring with a zest almost 
 unknown before, the fresh fish, soft bread, and excellent wine of 
 Lebanon set before me for my evening repast. An excellent 
 apartment was given up to my exclusive use, containing a good 
 bed, a sofa, table, chairs, and drawers, with a dressing-room and 
 closet adjoining, and a window opening into a paved court below, 
 in which was a fine clear fountain and several orange trees, besides 
 a passage leading to an open terrace, whereon I might uninter- 
 ruptedly enjoy the morning and evening air. I had scarcely ever 
 before enjoyed so sudden and complete a transition from all the 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO DAMASCUS. 297 
 
 sufferings and privations of a barbarous and almost savage mode 
 of life to the pleasures and abundance of a civilized and social 
 state of existence. I was, indeed, so. deeply impressed with the 
 feeling of enjoyment, that it absorbed all other considerations, ex- 
 cept the wish that I could surround myself with those friends who 
 were dearest to me in the world, and live with them in peace and 
 retirement at Damascus for ever. 
 
 QQ 
 
CHAP. XV. 
 
 STAY AT DAMASCUS, 
 
 Damascus, Thursday, March 22. — At daylight I was accom- 
 panied to an excellent bath by one of the servants of the convent, 
 and remained there in the delightful enjoyment which it afforded 
 until nearly noon. This bath is called the Bath of Musk, and 
 belong* to the family of Ahmed Bey, a family that has furnished 
 more Pashas to different provinces of the state than any other 
 throughout all Turkey, whether in Europe or Asia. As that 
 family is now much poorer than formerly, notwithstanding the 
 lucrative employment of so many of its members, while at the 
 same time they endeavour to maintain such a show of grandeur as 
 they think necessary for the maintenance of their dignity, great 
 funds are still required for their disbursements as before, and to 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. 299 
 
 raise these, a number of the palaces, gardens, and baths, belonging 
 to the family, and once appropriated solely to their use, are now 
 opened (as I learnt) to the public, of which the bath alluded to is an 
 instance, and from this source a considerable annual sum is raised. 
 From the great expense and care bestowed on its first construc- 
 tion, it is justly deemed one of the finest baths of the city ; and 
 though those of Cairo are renowned for their costliness and con- 
 venience, I thought this much superior to any that I had seen in 
 the capital of Egypt. 
 
 On my return to the convent, I was visited by several Chris- 
 tian merchants, all Syrians by birth, and mostly natives of Damas- 
 cus ; accompanied by Doctor Chaboyeau, an old French gentleman 
 nearly eighty years of age, now quite deaf, with his interpreter, 
 Ibrahim, equally as old and as deaf as his master. The venerable 
 physician had been more than fifty years in the East, or the Le- 
 vant as it is generally called, including Constantinople, Cairo, 
 Aleppo, and Damascus, yet during all this time he had acquired 
 no one language of the country, speaking only French, and un- 
 derstanding Italian but imperfectly. This indifference, incapacity, 
 or aversion of the French to the acquisition of foreign languages, 
 is every where remarked, and wherever they are placed in foreign 
 countries, they are of all Europeans the slowest in acquiring either 
 the language, the manners, or the habits of feeling prevalent 
 among those by whom they are surrounded, retaining their nation- 
 alities, unaltered, after even years of exile and seclusion. 
 
 M. Chaboyeau's behaviour to me was full of urbanity and 
 kindness, and during this our first interview he entertained me 
 with many anecdotes of the several European travellers who had 
 passed this way during his long residence in Syria, particularly of 
 Mr. Browne, the Darfour discoverer ; Pedro Nuiies, or Ali Bey- 
 el- Abassy, the Spaniard who had traversed Barbary ; Doctor 
 Seetzen, and Mr. Burckhardt ; all of whom he had known person- 
 ally. He had seen the celebrated Abyssinian Bruce at Cairo, and 
 passed some days with Mr. Volney, at Acre ; and, though he 
 
 Q Q 2 
 
300 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 praised the work of the latter on Egypt (as all must be constrained 
 to do who read it), he added, that he had seen but little of Syria 
 for himself, but that all he had written respecting this country was 
 acquired by correspondence, or the visits of persons acquainted 
 with its localities, whom he met with from time to time during his 
 stay at a Maronite convent in Lebanon, where he remained almost 
 all the time that he resided in Syria, and where, indeed, his volume 
 on Syria and Egypt was written. 
 
 On enquiring if any news had been received of Mr. Bankes, I 
 learnt that he had been, for the last twenty days, with Lady Hester 
 Stanhope, at the convent of Mar Eleeas, near Seyda, the ancient 
 Sidon, and that it was thought he would visit Balbeck and Palmyra 
 from thence, and take Damascus in his route of return to the sea- 
 coast. The portion of my effects which I had thought it imprudent 
 to take with me in my attempt to force a passage to the eastward 
 from Karak, such as a watch, a sword, the notes of my voyage from 
 Egypt to Syria and journey in Palestine, with my letter of credit on 
 Mr. Barker, and other papers, were left with Mr. Bankes at Naza- 
 reth, to be taken by him to Damascus or Aleppo, as circumstances 
 might direct ; because, in the event of my being forced back, which 
 had really happened, all those things would still be of use to me. 
 Finding myself thus, in a large city, without money or credit, and 
 therefore fettered in all my movements, for there was no proceed- 
 ing further in any direction without a supply, I despatched a 
 messenger on foot to Seyda, with a letter to Mr. Bankes, informing 
 him of my being here, and desiring my baggage, papers, and effects, 
 to be sent over to me without delay ; directing the letter on the 
 outside to be opened by Lady Hester Stanhope, in the event of 
 Mr. Bankes having left her residence before it reached. The mes- 
 senger departed soon after noon, under a promise of returning in 
 five days ; and the sum stipulated to be paid him for this was 
 twenty piastres, or little more than three Spanish dollars. 
 
 My evening was passed in company with the friars of the 
 convent, who had a small room for assembling in at night, in the 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. QQl 
 
 same manner as at Jerusalem. The conversation was almost wholly 
 engrossed by a recapitulation of the miseries which they conceived 
 themselves doomed to suffer in this exile from their country and 
 their home ; as well as in recounting the various acts of cruelty 
 and ill-treatment to which they were constantly exposed from the 
 brutality and infidelity of the Turks. All these evils, however, 
 were greatly exaggerated, for the purpose, apparently, of impress- 
 ing me with a belief that their life was one of great suffering and 
 mortification ; but in their estimate, as is too often the case with 
 the great mass of mankind, they had entirely overlooked the com- 
 forts and even luxuries which they enjoyed, and which rendered 
 their condition superior to that of millions, even among the intel- 
 ligent, the industrious, and the deserving of their fellow creatures. 
 They had, without rent or taxes, except such as were paid by their 
 flock, a large and commodious house, with excellent apartments, 
 gardens, courts, terraces, and fountains ; a heavenly climate, an 
 abundance of the necessaries of life, undisturbed tranquillity, and 
 great respect and veneration from all those with whom they held 
 communion, who were persons of their own faith, and both nume- 
 rous and respectable. The friars were all Spaniards, and were fully 
 as uninformed on all general subjects as their brethren at Jeru- 
 salem. This, indeed, appeared to me the true cause of their un- 
 happiness ; for, had they possessed only sufficient knowledge to 
 inspire a taste for acquiring more, it is difficult to imagine a 
 situation in which a man's happiness might be more complete 
 than in an establishment of this description. It is necessary, how- 
 ever, to suppose that his religious duties are performed with the 
 heart as well as the tongue ; for if these are regarded as a task, 
 rather than a voluntary offering, their frequent repetition must be 
 irksome in the extreme ; and it is not impossible but that this may 
 have its share in the formation of the mass of suffering, by which 
 they delight to picture to others that they are borne down and 
 oppressed. Like the people of Assalt and the Hauran, they dwelt 
 with great delight on the anticipated partition of the Turkish 
 
302 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 empire, and thought it a reproach to the princes of Christendom, 
 that the sanctuaries of the Holy Land should remain so long in 
 the hands of these unbelieving monsters. 
 
 It was some time after sun-set when strangers were announced 
 at the convent door ; and, much to my surprise and satisfaction, 
 it was my former companion, Mr. Bankes, with his servant and 
 Albanian dragoman, a second interpreter for Arabic from Lady 
 Hester Stanhope, a muleteer and four mules, just arrived from her 
 ladyship's residence at Mar Eleeas. Our meeting was really a happy 
 one, and we continued up very late, in recounting to each other 
 what had befallen each, since our separation at Nazareth. Not 
 having any means of being informed as to my movements (the 
 communication between the country I had lately traversed and that 
 on the coast being but rarely practicable), and not expecting to 
 find me here, Mr. Bankes had not brought over my effects con- 
 signed to his care, but had left them with Lady Hester Stanhope, 
 who had kindly taken charge of them, to be retained or sent 
 forward as circumstances and events might subsequently require. 
 Mr. Bankes's excursions since we separated had been interesting. 
 From Nazareth he went to Nablous; and on his way between these, 
 visited the ruins of Sebasta, which Dr. Clarke had unaccountably 
 overlooked, and taken another place (Sanhoor) for its remains.* 
 
 * Mr. Bankes had with him the seventeenth number of the Quarterly Review, which 
 contained a critique on that portion of Dr. Clarke's Travels in the Holy Land. It had, 
 I believe, been sent to him, or was brought by him from Egypt ; and I remember our 
 both reading it at Jerusalem, and again at Nazareth. It was from this copy of the 
 Quarterly Review that I gained my knowledge of its criticisms on Dr. Clarke and 
 D'Anville, the inaccuracy of which I had occasion to point out more than once in the 
 course of the Travels in Palestine already published. On the present occasion, 
 however, I remember Mr. Bankes to have been severe in his strictures on what he 
 called the " stupidity" of Dr. Clarke, in supposing the remains of Sebasta to be at 
 Sanhoor (which the Reviewers, with still greater stupidity, call " the town and Norman 
 fortress of Santoni," and "which," they say, "our author, xmth great probability, iden- 
 tifies with the ancient Sebaste"f), while such considerable remains still exist, and 
 where even the ancient name is still retained in the Subusta of the Arabs. Mr. Bankes, 
 
 f Quarterly Review, vol.ix. p. 197. 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. gQS 
 
 From Sanhoor Mr. Bankes went down to Beisan, on the western 
 bank of the Jordan, and saw there many columns of marble, and 
 the remains of a small and ordinary theatre much ruined. His 
 stay with Lady Hester Stanhope had been agreeable, and he had 
 visited many curious places in the neighbourhood of her residence, 
 under the guidance of her physician, Dr.Meryon. Though we were 
 both extremely fatigued, and needed, as much as we desired, 
 repose, this mutual interest, in which we seemed equally to par- 
 ticipate, kept us up until past midnight, and even then we parted 
 reluctantly to rest. 
 
 Damascus, Friday, March 23. — We remained within the con- 
 vent the whole of the day to repose ; and it was passed in my reading 
 to Mr. Bankes the rough notes of my journeys since our separation, 
 and in comparing the inscriptions which I had copied in the 
 Hauran with those which had been copied by Mr. Burckhardt, 
 and of which he had given some copies to Mr. Bankes. We found 
 that I possessed several which he did not, and vice versa, as well 
 as that in those of which we both had copies there were some that 
 agreed in every letter, and others which differed but slightly in a 
 few characters only. 
 
 After reading my notes on the journey I had made through 
 Belkah, Adjeloon, and the Hauran, Mr. Bankes was so much 
 pleased with the account I had there given of the several objects 
 met with in the way, that he formed a resolution to go from hence 
 to Bozrah, and, if possible, to proceed from thence to Assalt and 
 Amman, and then to return a second time to Jerusalem to pass the 
 holy week. I was pleased at this determination of Mr. Bankes, and 
 
 at the same time, concurred with me in the opinion, that nothing could be more pre- 
 posterous than the idea of Reviewers setting themselves up as judges, to decide, in 
 their closets at home, upon questions of local position, which could only be deter- 
 mined by evidence on the spot; and condemned, most heartily, the arrogance of 
 professed critics in general, and the assumed infallibility of the Quarterly Reviewers in 
 particular. I had no idea then, however, that this same Mr. Bankes would ever join 
 the very persons, and pursue the very practice, which he here so justly condemned. 
 
304 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 said all I could to encourage him to its accomplishment, as no good 
 drawings had yet been taken of many interesting monuments 
 there ; and no one was more capable of executing them with ac- 
 curacy, if he would devote the time necessary for such a task, than 
 Mr. Bankes would be. Through many parts of the country that he 
 had traversed, he had done nothing more than make a few sketches 
 for drawings, as he had found it impossible to make these and 
 write notes too, without a greater sacrifice of time than he was 
 willing to make in these countries ; so that his written materials 
 were very scanty indeed, and he trusted much to his memory to 
 connect together the links which he conceived every sketch of a 
 particular place would form in the chain of his progressive journey. 
 He lamented this, however, as a defect, which it would be very 
 desirable to remove ; and, as he professed himself to have no higher 
 object in view than that of laying before the world a good account 
 of the countries east of the Jordan, which up to the present period 
 remained almost a blank, admitting, at the same time, the many 
 obstacles which operated against his collecting accurate information 
 from the natives of the country, from his ignorance of the Arabic 
 language, he made to me the following proposition : — That we 
 should cordially unite our efforts during our respective journies 
 through the country, to collect as many materials for publication 
 as might be safely practicable, each in his own way ; and as he had 
 already read and approved of my notes, he consented to give all 
 his drawings to be united with them, and to add such other illus- 
 trations as he might subsequently be able to offer, to render the 
 work more complete. To this I readily assented ; and here the 
 first idea of publication, as far as I was concerned, certainly ori- 
 ginated ; for up to this period I had no thought beyond the collec- 
 tion of such remarks as occurred to me in passing through the 
 country, for my own information, and the committing them to 
 paper for preservation, that they might contribute, in an equal de- 
 gree, to the pleasure of those few who were dear enough to me to 
 make their happiness an object of equal importance with my own. 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. 205 
 
 I had kept very full and copious journals of my voyages and travels 
 for years before this, for no other purpose than that described, so 
 that the long-continued practice had rendered it familiar to me, 
 and made the habit so agreeable, that I should have followed it up 
 with as much zeal for the private ends alluded to, as I could have 
 done in the hope of popular distinction ; my desire to increase the 
 happiness of the individuals on whom my dearest and most frequent 
 thoughts were bent, being a more powerful stimulant than even 
 the applause of the world, without their gratitude being included 
 in it. When the idea of publication, and the putting forth my 
 name to the censure or approbation of professed critics, was thus 
 presented to me for the first time, I shrunk from the notion of it, 
 even while I assented, as if in dread of a power that I naturally 
 magnified, because then entirely unacquainted with its utter inef- 
 ficiency to inflict permanent pain, unless founded on just views and 
 equitable decisions. With a desire, however, to ensure the greatest 
 possible accuracy and completeness in any work to which I should 
 be a contributor, I suggested the great advantages which it would 
 bring to the work itself, to invite others to co-operate with us 
 also, so that no department of enquiry might be left unexplored ; 
 and that all who possessed any information on the subjects which 
 ought to be noticed in a Book on the countries east of the Jordan, 
 might contribute their share to its completion. The name of Mr. 
 Burckhardt, then in Egypt, and then the joint friend of both, imme- 
 diately suggested itself as one of the most probable and most 
 efficient aids that could be gained to this undertaking ; and accord- 
 ingly a letter was addressed to him by Mr. Bankes, making the 
 proposition to him in our joint names. As, however, my desire to 
 be assured of success in this joint labour, and my wish to lessen 
 and divide, as much as possible, the responsibility which would 
 attach to the written materials of the Book, became the stronger 
 the more I considered the subject, I distinctly intimated to 
 Mr. Bankes, that my co-operation in such a joint publication must 
 depend on the assent of Mr. Burckhardt to the scheme. In his 
 
 R E 
 
306 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 own department, that of the drawings, he was secure enough, as 
 every indulgence would be granted in case of any alleged imper- 
 fection in these, whether as to their fidelity, numbers, or excellence 
 of execution, each being complete within itself, and drawings being 
 always acceptable, whether few or many. With regard to the written 
 materials of any publication, however, the same degree of indulgence 
 is rarely if ever exercised ; — where there is one critic to analyse a 
 drawing, there are twenty to scrutinize a description in words ; and 
 imperfections in narrative, erroneous quotations of authorities, or 
 inconclusive reasonings, are handled with far less mercy than false 
 proportions in perspective, or an undue predominance of light or 
 shade in a picture. It appeared to me, therefore, as in the highest 
 degree essential, to obtain Mr. Burckhardt's assistance in this de- 
 partment, for which we both knew he had abundant matei'ials, and 
 1 made it a condition with Mr. Bankes, that the final ratification of 
 this proposed union should depend on the consent of all the par- 
 ties ; or, in other words, that if Mr. Burckhardt, from any cause, 
 declined to enter into the scheme, I could not, alone, pledge my- 
 self to carry it through. When I urged to Mr. Bankes the neces- 
 sary imperfection of my notes, and the time as well as care it 
 would require to put them in a fit state for publication, he as- 
 sured me that I estimated too highly the importance of perfection 
 in a Book of Travels, and rated at too low a standard the state of 
 my own materials, which he said he had read with considerable 
 pleasure even in their present form, and added that his advice 
 would be to publish them in nearly the same state in which they 
 now stood in my note books. 
 
 The writing the letter to Mr. Burckhardt, and these friendly 
 altercations, in which I had i*eason to be much flattered by the vo- 
 luntary and unsought testimony paid to the value of what I had 
 hitherto regarded as materials for my family correspondence only, 
 kept us up till long past midnight, though we had been nearly the 
 whole of the day engaged as described. * 
 
 * A note on this subject will be found among the papers at the end of this volume. 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. 307 
 
 Damascus, Saturday, March 24. — We were waited on this 
 morning by a soldier of Aleppo, called Abu Adoor, who brought 
 with him a written recommendation from Mr. Rikhter, a Russian 
 traveller, who had recently gone into Nubia, and visited Egypt, 
 Palestine, and Syria, from whence this soldier had accompanied 
 him to Palmyra. As he professed to be perfectly acquainted with 
 all the localities of Damascus and its environs, and offered to attend 
 us in our excursions, we engaged him for this service, and deter- 
 mined to profit by this occasion to see some part of the city at 
 least to-day. 
 
 After an early breakfast, we left the convent on foot, and as 
 our faces were not yet known to any of the Moslems of Damascus, 
 we directed our course first to the Great Mosque, where, when we 
 had arrived, we shook off our slippers and walked boldly through. 
 By the aid of our beards, white turbans, and a certain conformity 
 to Turkish or Arabic movements only to be acquired by habit, we 
 passed undiscovered, and without even being regarded, as mere 
 strangers generally are, though known to be of the same faith. This 
 mosque is situated to the north of the Catholic convent, and 
 stands on an elevated position, nearly in the centre of the city. 
 On approaching its entrance we ascended a flight of steps leading 
 up to the door, at the foot of which is a fountain that sends forth a 
 column of clear water to the height of from ten to fifteen feet. 
 The square court in front of this building is magnificent from its 
 extent; and the interior of the mosque itself, from its vast dimen- 
 sions, produces a most imposing effect. Its form is that of an oblong 
 square, composed of three long aisles running parallel to each other, 
 and divided by rows of fine Corinthian columns. On the outside, 
 it is seen that these three aisles have each a separate pent roof, 
 that the large dome rises from the centre of the central roof, and 
 that at the end of each of these is a minareh or minaret. The 
 outer court has, on three of its sides, a portico or colonnade of Syrian 
 granite pillars, mostly of a fine grain and reddish colour, but we 
 did not observe the columns of verd-antique which are said to be 
 
 RR 2 
 
308 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 in that front of the mosque which faces towards the court, though 
 it was very possible for them to exist, and yet to have escaped our 
 observation as we passed. 
 
 It appears from the best authorities that this mosque was a 
 Christian cathedral ; and this opinion is supported by the style of 
 the architecture, which is of the Corinthian order throughout every 
 part of the edifice. It is thought by some writers to have been 
 built by the Emperor Heraclius, and dedicated to Zachariah ; by 
 others it is considered to have been the work of the bishops of this 
 see, and by them dedicated to St. John of Damascus ; while the 
 Turks call it the Mosque of St. John the Baptist, and think it was 
 built by the Khalif Valid, in the 86th year of the Hejira, from some 
 of the Arabic historians mentioning that he embellished it about 
 that period. The mosque, at the time of our passing through it, 
 was full of people, though these were not worshippers, nor was it 
 at either of the usual hours of public prayer.* Some of the par- 
 ties were assembled to smoke, others to play at chess, and some 
 apparently to drive bargains of trade, but certainly none to pray. 
 It was indeed a living picture of what we might believe the temple 
 at Jerusalem to have been, when those " who sold oxen, and sheep. 
 
 * Benjamin of Tudela visited Damascus in the 9th century, and at that time it 
 appears that infidels were strictly prohibited, as now, from entering the mosques. It 
 was, perhaps, from his being unable to enter these buildings and inspect them for him- 
 self, that he gives such extravagant accounts of them in his book. The Great Mosque 
 was considered in his day to have been anciently the Royal Palace of Ben Hadad, and 
 its magnificence was highly extolled. Damascus was then called the commencement 
 of the kingdom of Noraldin (probably Noor-ed-deen), King of the Togarman (the 
 Togarmah of Ezekiel), commonly called Turks, f 
 
 t Togarmah traded in horsemen, horses, and mules, with Tyre, on the coast. (Ezekiel, xxvii. 14.) 
 These were no doubt the race at present called Turcomans, who still carry on the same occupation of 
 breeding and selling horses, and hiring themselves out as horsemen, and are scattered over all the country 
 north of Syria, along the fertile plains at the feet of Mount Taurus, ranging to the eastward into the heart 
 of Asia. I have noticed this, because the most learned commentators appear to be at a loss where to fix. 
 the country of the Togarmah . Bochart thinks it is Cappadocia ; Michaelis, Armenia and Media, where 
 the kings of Persia bred their horses, and where the tribute was paid in them. See Newcombe, who cites 
 the Greek scholiast in Ezekiel, xxxviii. 6. The Chaldee renders it by Germania. The objection to Ar- 
 menia is, that in every other passage this is rendered by Ararat, (a Kings, xix, 37. — Isaiah, xxxvii. 38. — 
 Jeremiah, li. 27.) — Vincent. 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. 309 
 
 and doves, and the changers of money sitting there," were driven 
 out by Jesus with a scourge of cords, and their tables overturned. 
 It was, in short, a place of public resort and thoroughfare, a 
 " house of merchandise," as the temple of the Jews had become 
 in the days of the Messiah.* 
 
 On leaving the mosque, we came out into a crowded bazar, 
 which accounted for the building itself being used as a convenient 
 resort for those who wished to converse apart on the subject of 
 business, thus answering the convenient purpose of a promenade and 
 an exchange. In order to show that this may also exist in Christian 
 countries, without implying any extraordinary irreverence to reli- 
 gion, it may be sufficient to advert to the assignations which take 
 place in the Catholic cathedrals of the continent of Europe, and 
 the sauntering gossip of idle visitors to Westminster Abbey, in our 
 own country ; to say nothing of the appropriation of the Holy 
 Sepulchre at Jerusalem to worse purposes than either, at the time 
 of its most solemn celebrations, for which we have the most un- 
 exceptionable authority. t They all tend to prove, that in every 
 country there is a strange mixture of profit and pleasure with re- 
 ligion, and that edifices set apart for the solemn worship of the 
 Deity, into which no one should enter but with feelings of the 
 purest devotion, are frequently the scenes of indulgence, to some, of 
 the worst passions of human nature — hypocrisy, fraud, and men- 
 tal and physical prostitution. 
 
 Among the minarehs of the city we noticed one of consider- 
 able height and grandeur, covered on the outside with a rich green 
 
 * Luke, ii. 13—16. 
 
 f We went to take our last leave of the Holy Sepulchre, this being the last time 
 that it was to be opened this festival. Upon this finishing day, and the night following, 
 the Turks allow free -admittance for all people, without demanding any fee of entrance, 
 as at other times, calling it a day of charity. By this promiscuous licence they let in, 
 not only the poor, but, as I was told, the lewd and vicious also, who come hither to get 
 convenient opportunity for prostitutions, profaning the holy places in such a manner 
 (as it is said) that they were not worse defiled when the heathens here celebrated their 
 Aphrodisia. — MaundfeWs Travels. 
 
310 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 colour, which looked like enamel, or the foil that is sometimes 
 worn on theatrical dresses ; and from its reflecting the rays of the 
 sun, which shone in full blaze upon it at the moment of its attract- 
 ing our notice, it produced a splendid effect. 
 
 We went after this to the mosque of the dervishes, which is 
 at the extremity of the city, and were shown at this place a plea- 
 sant garden, in which these religious fanatics dance themselves into 
 a temporary intoxication or madness, for which they select the most 
 holy of the days of the week, Friday. The veneration in which these 
 double impostors are held, who first delude themselves and then 
 their followers, is of itself sufficient to stamp the character of the 
 present race of Mohammedans, if no other proof of their extreme 
 ignorance and barbarism existed. It remains only because of that 
 ignorance being general, and it can only be eradicated by making 
 knowledge take its place : so that those who cry out against the 
 too general diffusion of information among the lower orders of our 
 countrymen at home, and deplore the growing intelligence of the 
 age, may see to what an odious state of debasement and degrada- 
 tion man may descend, when knowledge is withheld from him, and 
 to what a mass of misery and crime their pretended regard for 
 " social order" necessarily tends. The mosque of the dervishes 
 is a large, regular, and handsome edifice. It has two of the loftiest 
 and finest minarehs, or towers, anywhere to be seen in Damascus. 
 Besides the principal dome, which is very large, a line of smaller 
 ones is carried round three sides of the open court in front of the 
 building, after the same manner as those in the great mosque at 
 Mecca, of which it appears to be a close imitation. The domes 
 are all of the low or flattened kind, and, as well as the pointed 
 summits of the minarehs, all covered with lead. The architecture 
 is not Saracen, or Arabic, as seen in the principal mosques of 
 Cairo, but Turkish, as seen in most of the principal buildings at 
 Smyrna and Constantinople. The execution is, however, in a 
 pleasing style and good proportions, and the whole kept in a per- 
 fect state of repair. From its agreeable situation, and being sur- 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. gn 
 
 rounded by gardens, trees, and water, it forms one of the most 
 charming spots among the many that Damascus furnishes ; but it 
 was impossible to admire its beauties, and think of the worse than 
 useless, the pernicious, institution to which it was originally ap- 
 plied, without a sigh of regret for the blindness and ignorance 
 which could alone have so perverted the best gifts of bountiful 
 nature. It was some consolation to learn, that now and then a clear 
 head and a benevolent heart sprung up even among the Turks, to 
 do some good amidst the mass of evil which characterises the laws, 
 institutions, and manners of that race. An instance of this, which 
 we now beheld, struck us with more force from its proximity to the 
 seat of folly and superstition just described, for the mosque being 
 shut, we were taken by our attendant to the court adjoining it, where 
 we were shown a large manufactory of silk, carried on within the 
 precincts of the buildings, and constituting, as we were informed, a 
 purely charitable institution, founded by Sultan Suliman. We 
 could not gather from our guide, who was both uninformed, and 
 backward to communicate freely even the little that he did know, 
 what was the supposed amount of the funds, nor the mode in which 
 they were applied for the relief of charitable objects attached to or 
 dependant on this foundation ; but we learnt this at least, that the 
 productive labour of making silk goods for charitable purposes was 
 carried on during six days of the week with little intermission, and 
 that the seventh only was occupied by the dancing or whirling 
 dervishes for the exhibition of their frenzied freaks of folly. It 
 would be a great relief to suffering humanity, if the same propor- 
 tion between the useful and the useless occupation of time pre- 
 vailed over the whole earth ; we might then hope to see a more 
 equal distribution of the bounties of nature, which are more than 
 sufficient for all, and would give every nation abundance, if its po- 
 pulation were usefully employed for six days in the week, giving 
 the seventh only to recreation and repose. 
 
 Our next excursion, after leaving the mosque of the dervishes, 
 was to a small suburb, named Salheyah, lying at the foot of the 
 
322 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 mountains which bound Damascus on the W. and W.N.W. This 
 suburb, or town, is situated at a distance of about two miles from the 
 limits of the city, to which, however, it may be said to be connected 
 by a pubHc road, with a broad paved way in the centre for horses, 
 and a raised causeway on each side for the accommodation of foot 
 passengers. This road leads through one continued succession of gar- 
 dens on each side, with clean and limpid streams, forming altogether 
 one of the most interesting walks that could be desired. This place 
 becomes one of general resort for pleasure on the last day of every 
 week, when it is crowded with visitors on their way to and from 
 Salheyah, where it is usual for persons of every age and condition 
 to repair in holiday trim whenever their health and circumstances 
 admit. 
 
 Numbers of Turkish females, enveloped in white muslin robes, 
 with large head-dresses, covered by the ample folds of their outer 
 garment, sat in parties by the way side, some smoking, others en- 
 gaged in loud and merry conversation, with satirical remarks on 
 the odd or curious among the passengers who crowded by, and 
 others amusing themselves and their children, who surrounded 
 them in groupes, and evidently enjoyed the scene as heartily as 
 their mothers. Among the women, I noticed only two who wore 
 the upper garment of yellowish white silk with broad red border, 
 so common to the female dress of Nablous, at which place it is 
 manufactured. With these exceptions, the dress here was univer- 
 sally an ample robe of snow-white muslin, with veils of a dark 
 gauze, of striped and flowered patterns, the colours chiefly brown 
 and yellow. Most of the females wore their veils down ; some, 
 however, had their faces wholly uncovered, and others partially so: 
 the chief pleasure of all appeared to consist in seeing and being 
 seen. From the prevailing practice, throughout almost every part 
 of Turkey and Arabia, and particularly in large towns, of the re- 
 spectable females going into public always veiled, and none but 
 women of loose character showing their faces to the world, I had 
 conceived that those who sat unveiled by the way side were of the 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. 3I3 
 
 latter description * ; but we were informed that such was the seve- 
 rity of the government against this class, that spies and informers 
 were paid by the state for their detection ; and when any were 
 found, they were generally put to death without a hearing or a trial. 
 This last, indeed, is a part of justice almost unknown in Turkey, 
 where accusation is too often considered proof, and men and women 
 are deprived of existence on the slightest pretexts, whenever their 
 death may be desired to gratify the caprice or revenge of some 
 remorseless tyrant. It is impossible to imagine, much less 
 detail, all the horrid evils to which this abominable system, of 
 government by will, exposes mankind ; or sufficiently to express 
 one's astonishment at the ignorance and stupidity of men (for 
 courage is rarely wanting) who patiently submit to any govern- 
 ment but that which is established and regulated by fixed and 
 Equitable laws. One-tenth part of the exertions made by the 
 ■*^eople to depose one tyrant and set up another, in times of tumult 
 and commotion, which occur almost every year in some part or 
 other of the Turkish dominions, would accomplish an entire revo- 
 lution in their favour. Ignorance is the true cause, and its removal 
 the only effectual remedy. 
 
 The men of the city were mounted, some on horses richly 
 caparisoned, others on fine mules and asses that trotted with a vigour 
 and activity which these animals never exhibit in the West ; some 
 were sauntering on foot as if to prolong the distance of their way, 
 and others reposing on the banks that skirted the road, either 
 smoking, playing at chess, touching the Arnaout guitar to their 
 songs, or employed in some diversion that proved how generally 
 and effectually all parties had abandoned themselves to the sense of 
 luxury and pleasure, in all the various modes in which they had 
 the means of enjoying it. Nothing was wanting to render this one 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that, in the early ages of the world, honest women ex- 
 posed themselves openly to the gaze of mankind, and harlots only covered themselves. 
 See Genesis, xxxviii. 1 5. in the story of Judah and Tamar. 
 
 S S 
 
314 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 of the happiest scenes that human beings could witness, except the 
 removal of that sense of insecurity which must necessarily be felt 
 by all who live under a confirmed despotism, where no man can be' 
 assured that his wife, his children, his possessions, or even his ex- 
 istence, shall be exempt from violation for even an hour beyond the 
 present ; as the rising sun may behold him in full possession of 
 "happiness, and the setting sun go down upon his misery, and see 
 him stripped of all that rendered life desirable or worth pre- 
 serving. 
 
 It was about noon when we reached the town of Salheyah, 
 and ascending the hill above it towards a Sheikh's tomb, or some 
 similar monument, called Kubt-el-Nasr, we enjoyed from thence a 
 prospect that was truly enchanting. Having, unfortunately, neg- 
 lected to take with us either a compass, a pencil, or even paper, 
 no sketch was made of the view, which would have so well re- 
 warded the trouble. The inhabitants of Damascus believe thalf 
 the Garden of Eden, or the Paradise of our first parents, was in 
 the plain below ; and they still show to strangers, at a place called 
 El-Roobby, four streams, which they consider to be the four rivers 
 described by Moses as issuing from thence. Tradition preserves 
 an anecdote, which is assigned to Mohammed, the Arabian prophet, 
 though probably belonging to some later personage, but sufficiently 
 indicative of the high estimation in which the local beauty of the 
 country around Damascus is held. It is said that the Prophet, 
 arriving at a spot called El-Koddem, about two miles south of the 
 city, was so impressed with the luxuriant and enchanting view 
 before him, that he turned back from entering it, declaring that 
 there was only one pai'adise for man, and leaving the print of his 
 foot on the spot where he resolved to leave this earthly paradise in 
 pursuit of the heavenly one, over which spot a mosque is. said to 
 be built to commemorate this event. Others mention a similar 
 sentiment expressed by a certain saint as he caught the first view 
 of Damascus from the summit of this hill on the west, from which 
 the view is more commanding and magnificent. But whether both. 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. 31 5 
 
 or either of these anecdotes be true or not, their existence, as tra- 
 ditionary stories, proves at least how appropriately they are consi- 
 dered by the people of the spot to express the super-eminent 
 beauty of their place of abode ; and in this all strangers who have 
 a relish for the charms of landscape must cordially concur. 
 
 From this point of view the city of Damascus appeared to ex- 
 tend its greatest length from north to south, being broader at the 
 northern, and tapering gradually away towards the southern end. 
 Its extreme length appeared to be about three miles, and its extreme 
 breadth about two. It stands on the western edge of a fine plain, 
 and a level site, having a chain of hills pressing close upon it on 
 the noKth-west, and the plain extending away beyond the range of 
 vision to the east. The buildings of the city being constructed 
 chiefly of stone below and light yellow bricks above, while the 
 principal public edifices are painted in the gayest colours, the 
 aspect of the whole is light and airy in the extreme. The castle, 
 with its outer court and massive walls, and the great mosque 
 already described, both of which are nearly in the centre of the 
 city, look imposing by their magnitude, as seen from hence ; and 
 the light and tapering minarets that rise in every quarter of the 
 town, give a peculiar character of elegance to the whole. The gar- 
 dens that surround the city on the north ; the fine olive grounds 
 and long avenues of trees to the south ; the numerous villages 
 pressing the skirts of the town on the east, and the great suburb of 
 Salheyah, with the thronged public way that leads to it on the 
 west ; added to the sombre but rich and thickly-planted cypresses, 
 the slender poplars, the corn grounds, and the rivers and streams 
 which so abundantly water the whole, give to this charming spot 
 a character becoming a scene in fairy-land, and render it a fit object 
 for the descriptive powers of an Arabian tale. * 
 
 * Pliny says, that the S3Tians were excellent gardeners, and took such pains and 
 were so ingenious in the laying out of their grounds, as to give rise to a Greek proverb 
 to that effect. — Nat. Hist. b. xx. c. 51. 
 
 ss 2 
 
316 STAY AT DAMASCUS. 
 
 Not far from the spot at which we halted to enjoy this en- 
 chanting view, was an extensive cemetery, at which we noticed the 
 custom so prevalent among eastern nations of visiting the tombs 
 of their deceased friends. These were formed with great care, 
 and finished with extraordinary neatness : and at the foot of each 
 grave, was enclosed a small earthen vessel, in which was planted 
 a sprig of myrtle, regularly watered every day by the mourning 
 friend who visited it. Throughout the whole of this extensive 
 place of burial, we did not observe a single grave to which this 
 token of respect and sorrow was not attached ; and, scattered 
 among the tombs in different quarters of the cemetery, we saw 
 from twenty to thirty parties of females, sitting near the honoured 
 remains of some recently lost and deeply regretted relative or 
 friend, and either watering their myrtle plants, or strewing flowers 
 over the green turf that closed upon their heads.* This interest- 
 ing office of friends or lovers sorrowing for the dead, is consigned 
 entirely to females ; as if from a conviction that their hearts are 
 more susceptible of those tender feelings which the duties of such 
 an office necessarily implies, and their breasts fitter abodes for that 
 
 * The custom of decorating graves was once universally prevalent in England, 
 as vi^ell as among nations of the highest antiquity. There is an admirable paper on 
 this subject, under the head of " Rural Funerals," in the Sketch Book of Geoffrey 
 Crayon, from which the following passage may be here appropriately introduced : — 
 " The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind ; and 
 we have a proof of it in the purity of sentiment and the unaffected elegance of thought 
 which pervaded the whole of these funeral observances. Thus it was an especial 
 precaution, that none but sweet-scented evergreens and flowers should be employed. 
 The intention seems to have been to soften the horrors of the tomb, to beguile the 
 mind from brooding over the disgraces of perishing mortality, and to associate the 
 memory of the deceased with the most delicate and beautiful objects in nature. There 
 is a dismal process going on in the grave, ere dust can return to its kindred dust, 
 which the imagination shrinks from contemplating ; and we seek still to think of the 
 form we have loved, with those refined associations which it awakened when blooming 
 before us in youth and beauty. ' Lay her i' the earth,' says Laertes of his virgin 
 sister ; 
 
 " ' And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
 May violets spring !' " 
 
STAY AT DAMASCUS. 317 
 
 pure and affectionate sorrow which is indulged for the loss of 
 those who are dear to us, than the sterner bosoms of men. It is 
 a great advance from savage life to know and to acknowledge this j 
 and where such an admission of the superior purity and fidelity of 
 the female heart and character exists, their ultimate advancement 
 to that rank which their sex should hold in social life cannot be 
 altogether hopeless. For this, as for most other blessings, in- 
 creased knowledge is the most effectual security ; when this shall 
 take the place of ignorance, the domestic slavery of women, which 
 now disgraces the East, will disappear as certainly as that abomi- 
 nable slavery of men which for so many years disgraced the name 
 of Qj?ristians in the West. 
 
 We prolonged our stay at Salheyah, and in its neighbourhood, 
 until near sunset, and in our return home saw near the gate of oipe 
 of the pasha's palaces a large oriental plane-tree, of at least fifteen 
 feet in diameter, and about one hundred feet in height, with ricf 
 and exuberant foliage, forming altogether the noblest object of the 
 vegetable world that I had ever beheld. In our way we halted at 
 a coffee house in the horse-bazar, where we saw some of the most 
 beautiful Arab horses, mares, and colts exhibiting to purchasers, 
 smoked a nargeel, and chatted with some of the Bedouins who had 
 brought them in from the Desert for sale. We reached the con- 
 vent in time for the evening meal, and sat up late, recapitulating 
 the agreeable objects we had seen, and the pleasing impressions 
 we had mutually experiericed during our excursion of the day. 
 

 CHAR XVI. 
 
 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 Damascus, Sunday, March 25. — Desirous of resuming or 
 continuing the task of visiting the principal parts of the city, and 
 making the best use of my short stay here until I could receive 
 my baggage and papers from Seyda, where they had been left by 
 Mr.Bankes, we quitted the convent, after an early breakfast, and, 
 under the guidance of the person who attended us in our ramble 
 of yesterday, proceeded in search of other objects deemed equally 
 deserving a stranger's attention. 
 
 Our first visit was to the office of a celebrated Jew, named 
 Mallim Yusef, the brother of Mallim Haim, the great Jew at Acre ; 
 each of these men directing all the financial operations of the re- 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 31 9 
 
 spective governments under which they lived.* We found the Jew 
 sitting in a small and mean apartment, in the court of the palace, 
 surrounded by a number of writers, all apparently of his own reli- 
 gion. Mr. Bankes had brought letters to him from Lady Hester 
 Stanhope, which procured us a good reception. After a few mi- 
 nutes' conversation, and the serving of coffee, we expressed a wish 
 to be permitted to see the palace of the pasha, the castle, the 
 armoury, and any other public building that might be deemed 
 worthy of a stranger's attention, which, after some hesitation, arising 
 from the peculiar circumstances of the government at the present 
 moment, was at last acceded to. 
 
 As no regularly appointed pasha had yet replaced the late 
 governor of Damascus, who had recently died on his route of 
 return from the pilgrimage of Mecca, the administration of affairs 
 was vested in the hands of his kihyah bey, or prime minister. A 
 message was therefore sent in to an inner apartment of the palace, 
 stating the nature of our visit, and the request we had preferred ; 
 when the bearer of it soon returned, and invited us in the name 
 of his master, to " the presence." We readily followed him, and 
 found the venerable Turk seated in a small but richly furnished 
 apartment, guarded and attended by at least fi fty handsome offi- 
 cers, all armed with sabres and dirks, and all superbly dressed. 
 We were desired to seat ourselves on the sofa beside these 
 chiefs, before whom stood in groups an equal number of armed 
 attendants, and were treated with great respect and attention. 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that Damascus was considered by some of the older 
 writers as the original city of the Jews ; and, indeed, we have it mentioned as the 
 birth-place of Eliezer, the steward of the household of Abram, before he was promised 
 to be the father of the whole race, and of Israel, whose children they were to be called. 
 The author, who describes it as the original city of the Jews, calls it also " the 
 most noble of the cities of Syria," which it still continues to be. He adds, that the 
 Syrian kings boasted their descent in a right line from Queen Semiramis ; and says, 
 that the name of Damascus was given to the city by one of its earliest kings, who was 
 himself so called, and in honour of whom the Syrians afterwards worshipped the 
 sepulchre of his wife Arathes (probably Aradus on the coast), as a temple, and es- 
 teemed her agoddess in the height of their most religious devotions. 
 
320 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 The rich Jew, Mallim Yusef, who conducted us to the presence of 
 the kihyah bey, seated himself with the greatest possible humi- 
 lity on the floor beneath us, at the feet of his superiors who occu- 
 pied the sofa, first kneeling, and then sitting back while kneeling, 
 on the heels and soles of his feet, with these and his hands com- 
 pletely covered, in an attitude and with an air of the most abject 
 and unqualified humiliation. Mr. Bankes was dressed as a Turkish 
 effendi, or private and unmilitary person : I still continued to wear 
 the less showy garments of the Christian merchant, with which I 
 had replaced my Bedouin garb. The rich Jew was dressed in the 
 most costly garments, including Cashmere shawls, Russian furs, 
 Indian silks, and English broad-cloth : all, however, being of dark 
 colours, since none but the orthodox Mohammedans are allowed 
 to wear either green, red, yellow, azure, or white, in any of their 
 garments, which are therefore, however costly in material, almost 
 restricted to dark browns, blacks, and blues. Among the party 
 was also a Moslem dervish, with a patchwork and party-coloured 
 bonnet of a sugar loaf shape, and his body scarcely half covered 
 with rags and tattered garments ; his naked limbs obtruding them- 
 selves most offensively, and his general appearance being indecent 
 and disgusting. It was impossible not to be struck forcibly with 
 the different modes of reception and treatment adopted towards 
 us, more particularly as contrasted with our real and apparent con- 
 ditions. The Jew, who was by far the wealthiest and the most 
 powerful of all present, who lived in the most splendid house in 
 Damascus, and fed from his table more than a hundred poor fami- 
 lies every day, who literally managed the great machine of govern- 
 ment, and had influence enough, both here and at Constantinople, 
 to procure the removal of the present bey from his post if he 
 desired it, was obliged to kneel in the presence of those who could ■ 
 not have carried on the affairs of government without his aid, 
 while the dervish, contemptible alike for his ignorance and 
 arrogant assumption of superiority, was admitted to the seat of 
 honour, and, with ourselves, who were of a faith as far removed 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 32 1 
 
 from their own as the Jew's, was served with coffee, sherbet, and 
 perfumes, and treated by the attendants with all the marks of sub- 
 mission and respect. 
 
 After a short conversation on general subjects, in which poli- 
 tical news and exchange of compliments had the largest share, 
 two cawasses, or soldiers, with silver sticks, were ordered to attend 
 us around the palace, and we accordingly withdrew. On the in- 
 telligence of the late pasha's death first reaching Damascus, the 
 treasury, and all the apartments of his residence which were 
 thought to contain any valuable articles, were instantly secured 
 with bolts and bars, and placed under lock and seal, in which 
 state of security they still remained, this being assigned to us as 
 a reason why the apartments best worth seeing were not at pre- 
 sent accessible. We were, therefore, shown only a few of the 
 rooms of the palace, and all of these fell far short of our expect- 
 ations, having nothing of magnificence in their appearance. Many 
 of them, indeed, were so mean as to force comparisons of a ludi- 
 crous nature, and present the image of a barber's shop, a tailor's 
 board, &c. This was particularly the case with one small apart- 
 ment which was said to be a favourite one of the late pasha, in 
 which he generally took his evening coffee, though such a place 
 would be appropriated to no higher use than a scullery in any 
 decent house in England. The choice of such a place was pro- 
 bably, however, not in conformity with the natural taste of this 
 Turkish chief, but from an affectation of simplicity in public, which 
 is by no means uncommon with those who indulge in the greatest 
 luxuries and sensualities in private, and who are withal the most 
 inexorable of tyrants, as evinced, among others, in the character 
 of the late pasha of Acre, surnamed Jezzar, or the butcher, from 
 his bloody cruelty, who nevertheless assumed in public the sim- 
 plicity of a patriarch or a hermit. 
 
 From seeing the lower apartments of the palace, we were 
 taken to a flight of wooden stairs, which we ascended, and came 
 to a long gallery at the top, from which we were shown through 
 
 T T 
 
322 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 the windows the interior of a fine room, the embelhshments of 
 which were really handsome. The marble pavement, the gilded 
 and enamelled friezes, cornices, and ceilings, the pointed arched 
 recesses, the curious and costly mosaic of the inlaid doors, were 
 all extremely beautiful ; and this splendour of the pasha's retire- 
 ment might well compensate for his public appearance of humility. 
 We learnt that this was the principal apartment in which he 
 received and passed his leisure hours with the ladies of his harem ; 
 a word which to an English ear conveys an idea of indulgence in 
 voluptuous pleasures, and is calculated to give the most errone- 
 ous notions of Turkish life, the harem being no doubt as often the 
 scene of cruel and ferocious violence as of consenting love. We 
 learnt that there were now in the palace a number of the pasha's 
 wives and concubines, under charge of a bearded old man, who 
 was pointed out to us, and not in the keeping of eunuchs, as is 
 almost universally the case. They would remain here, we were 
 told, closely immured and jealously guarded in their confinement, 
 until a person deputed from Constantinople should arrive to take 
 them to the Grand Signer, or Sultan of Stamboui, who has alone 
 the power of adding them to the innumerable victims of his own 
 imperial harem, or disposing of them as may suit his pleasure in 
 marriage to his favourite officers. The reflections suggested by 
 this communication, formed a powerful drawback from the plea- 
 sure we derived from the gay and happy scene of yesterday, while 
 it confirmed my impression of the dreadful insecurity of life and 
 liberty under a despotism so unlimited as this. 
 
 Our next visit was to the armoury, in the great court before 
 the palace. We saw here thirty brass field-pieces, six-pounders, 
 of Turkish foundry and well mounted, being ranged in front of 
 the armoury, and ready for immediate service. Within these were 
 some few heaps of shot and shells, and a number of large jars 
 filled with tar ; several closed palanquins or tachterevans, which 
 are borne between two camels, and used for the conveyance of the 
 pasha's ladies, whenever he may need their attendance in any 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 323 
 
 journey or excursion, and particularly for the pilgrimage to Mecca. 
 There were also about fifty large and very old blunderbusses, 
 capable of carrying a ball of about a pound weight, and furnished 
 with a swivel just before the match-lock, so as to admit of its being 
 fastened to a saddle and fired from a dromedary's back, or from 
 the ground, as occasion might require. This place might be called 
 the magazine of the Hadj, rather than the general armoury, as all 
 these articles, we were told, were kept exclusively for the pilgrim- 
 age to Mecca, and put in requisition on the departure of the 
 annual caravan. 
 
 From hence we went to the castle, which is not far distant 
 from the magazine described. It is a large edifice, constructed 
 in nearly the same style as the great castle at Bozrah, and sur- 
 rounded with a broad and deep ditch of rustic masonry. It 
 appears to be a work of great antiquity, and to have undergone 
 many alterations, additions, and repairs, at different periods. The 
 stones of the oldest parts of this building, near its foundation, are 
 of an extraordinarily large size. The rustic masonry is the only 
 feature of Roman architecture that it possesses, as the arches of 
 the interior are chiefly of the pointed form, like those of Adje- 
 loon and Assalt. These castles, instead of elucidating the history 
 of the pointed arch, and defining the line which separates the 
 eastern from the western style of architecture, or serving to mark 
 the distinction between the Roman, the Saracen, and the Gothic 
 orders of building, offer perpetual contradictions, and make the 
 subject more difficult and obscure. In the same edifice we had 
 seen the round, the flattened, and the pointed arch, rustic masonry 
 on the exterior front, and fine smooth masonry in the interior 
 walls ; yet all apparently of the same age, and, in many instances, 
 certainly all coeval with the original construction of the work in 
 which they appeared. 
 
 At the castle of Athlete, on the sea-coast of Palestine, Mr. 
 Bankes acknowledged to me that he had seen sufficient of these 
 mixed features to create strong doubts in his mind as to the accu- 
 
 T T 2 
 
324 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 racy of the system he had hitherto adopted, for his guidance in 
 distinguishing the Roman from the Saracenic works of the country. 
 At Assalt, my own opinions were in the same manner shaken. At 
 Adjeloon, where I saw the fan or shell niche of Roman shape and 
 design united with the pointed arch of the Saracen form, my pre- 
 vious notions were quite unsettled. At Bozrah, the fine Doric 
 theatre and the sharp vaulted passages seen in the same building, 
 gave my opinions on this subject an entirely different turn from 
 that which they had at first taken. And, lastly, this castle of 
 Damascus had again raised fresh doubts as to the accuracy of 
 either of the systems successively adopted. There appeared, at 
 last, to be a choice between two hypotheses only ; first, that the 
 pointed arch was as frequently used by the Romans in their build- 
 ings in this country, as the semicircular one, and that the castles 
 enumerated were all of Roman origin ; or, secondly, that the 
 rounded arch, the rustic masonry, and the shell or fan-topped 
 niche, the most peculiar features of Roman work, were used by 
 the Saracens who succeeded them in their possessions, and that 
 these were all Mohammedan castles, erected after the expulsion of 
 the Romans and Greeks of the Lower Empire from the country. 
 The first of these alternatives seemed to me, however, the most 
 probably accurate of the two ; and as the pointed arch is found in 
 some of the oldest of the buildings in the Hauran, constructed 
 wholly of stone, it may have been found existing in these works 
 of the country when the Romans first came into it, and have been 
 subsequently used by them in other and larger works of ornament 
 or defence. 
 
 That the early Greeks were unacquainted with the principle 
 of constructing the arch, though they had carried architecture to 
 a higher pitch of excellence than any other nation that preceded 
 them, seems to be generally maintained and admitted. It is also 
 asserted and believed, that neither the Indians nor the Egyptians 
 were acquainted with this refinement in building. In Egypt, 
 however, the monuments of which country are more ancient pro- 
 bably than that of any other on the face of the globe, the form of 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 325 
 
 the Roman arch was well known ; and at the remains of Abydos, 
 or El Araba Medfoun, on the western bank of the Nile, are seve- 
 ral arched passages cut out in stone, and sculptured with hiero- 
 glyphics executed with infinite labour and care. Among the 
 ruins of Thebes, also, on the western side of the Nile, sun-dried 
 brick buildings have been found to contain constructed arches, (I 
 think of the pointed form,) the antiquity of which is very uncer- 
 tain. They may, indeed, be referred to an age coeval with Thebes 
 itself, as well as to any later period ; since a pyramid of the same 
 material (sun-dried brick) exists near Dashour and Sakkara*; a 
 boundary wall of the same material near the cataracts of the Nile 
 at Assouam ; city walls at Babylon in Mesopotamia, at Eliethas 
 in Upper Egypt, and at Tanis in Lower Egypt ; besides private 
 dwellings at Abu-ke-sheid in the desert of Suez ; at Bubastis in 
 the Sharkieh, and other places decidedly Egyptian,'^ and unques- 
 tionably of the earliest ages. The sun-dried brick buildings at 
 Thebes may be as old as any of these, and the arches still remain- 
 ing in them be therefore of very high antiquity ; so also the round 
 
 * The buildings of brick were not only as ancient as those of stone, but would seem, 
 from the expressions attributed to an Egyptian king on erecting a pyramid of this 
 material, to have been in higher estimation. The following is the passage of Herodotus 
 in which this may be seen : — 
 
 " After Mycerinus, as the priests informed me, Asychis reigned in Egypt,- he erect- 
 ed the east entrance to the temple of Vulcan, which is far the greatest and most mag- 
 nificent. Each of the above-mentioned vestibules, is elegantly adorned with figures 
 well carved and other ornaments of buildings, but this is superior to them aU. In 
 this reign, when commerce was checked and injured firom the extreme want of money, 
 an ordinance passed, that any one might borrow money, giving the body of his father 
 as a pledge : by this law, the sepulchre of the debtor became in the power of the 
 creditor; for if the debt was not discharged, he could neither be buried with his 
 family, nor in any other vault, nor was he suffered to inter one of his descendants, f 
 This prince, desirous of surpassing all his predecessors, left, as a monument of his 
 fame, a pyramid of brick, with this inscription on a piece of marble : ' Do not dis- 
 parage my worth by comparing me to those pyramids composed of stone ; I am as 
 much superior to them, as Jove is to the rest of the deities : I am formed of bricks, 
 
 which were made of mud adhering to poles drawn from the bottom of the lake.' 
 
 This was the most memorable of this king's actions." — Euterpe, cxxxvi. 
 
 t The laws of England allow the arrest of a person's dead body till his debts are paid; this mentioned 
 by Herodotus is the first example perhaps on record of such a custom. 
 
326 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 and pointed arches found in the oldest buildings of the Hauran, 
 supporting' the roofs of stone, may be of an antiquity long anterior 
 to the first conquests of the Romans in the East. In these build- 
 ings are seen arched windows, the arch scooped out of one solid 
 stone, with square, circular, and diagonal apertures cut out of the 
 masses used in the masonry of the front, at the same time that 
 constructed arches built of several separate stones are found on the 
 inside of the same edifice. All these are certainly coeval with the 
 stone ceilings and stone doors of the same buildings, and are to 
 be found in the most ancient structures now existing in the Hau- 
 ran. The arch, whether of the rounded or pointed form, as found 
 existing in these buildings, may, therefore, be carried back to the 
 earliest period at which these fertile plains were first peopled by 
 a race dwelling in houses ; and this we know to have been as early 
 as the time of Job, or even before, as, in his day, his sons and 
 daughters feasted luxuriously in houses ; while the Chaldeans and 
 Sabeans, who, like the present inhabitants Of the neighbouring 
 desert, the Bedouin Arabs, fell upon the inhabitants of the plains, 
 and carried off their camels and flocks, smiting those who resisted 
 with the edge of the sword *, probably lived as their successors at 
 this moment do, in tents. Wherever, indeed, the cultivators of 
 the soil were fixed, as in these towns of the Hauran, and led a 
 settled life, as distinguished from the wanderers of the desert, their 
 habitations must always have been of stone, from the great abun- 
 dance of that material, and the total want of wood ; and buildings 
 so constructed, of low and massive proportions, with large and 
 solid blocks, united with careful and excellent workmanship, would 
 endure as long as the pyramids of Memphis, or the most ancient 
 structures now existing in any part of the globe. 
 
 It is not, however, to be necessarily inferred from this, that 
 the Romans borrowed their form of the arch, or the principle of its 
 
 * See the first chapter of the book of Job, which is generally considered to be 
 the most ancient of all the books of Scripture ; where many coincidences will strike 
 the reader, between the present state of the Hauran, and the ancient picture of the 
 « Land of Uz." 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 327 
 
 construction, from the East, since these might both have existed 
 in this quarter at an early period, and yet have been discovered in 
 Italy also at a much later date, without any knowledge of its ex- 
 istence elsewhere : and it will readily be admitted, that while such 
 discoveries as those of the polar attraction, mariner's compass, 
 gunpowder, and the art of printing, were made by the Chinese in 
 the East, and European nations in the West, without interchange 
 or communication between these countries, the more simple dis- 
 covery of the principle of the arch in building might have been 
 made by two separate nations, and used by each without the one 
 having necessarily borrowed it from the other. 
 
 To return from this digression to the description of the castle 
 of Damascus, the mixed architecture of which suggested the ob- 
 servations by which the narrative has been interrupted ; we saw 
 within the gate of entrance some large brass guns dismounted, and 
 on the walls above nearly twenty pieces of different calibre, in a 
 most neglected state ; but we could learn nothing of the ancient 
 balista, which has been reported to be here, though we made many 
 enquiries after it. The interior of the castle presented a confused 
 heap, in which were mingled together, strong works of defence, 
 ruined palaces retaining marks of ancient splendour and rich 
 ornaments of the most florid Arabesque, with remains of 
 fountains, aqueducts, and gardens attached; besides dark pas- 
 sages, gloomy dungeons, secret stairs, and a labyrinth of various 
 objects through which it would be impossible to penetrate 
 without a guide who was intimately acquainted with all the 
 localities of the place. 
 
 From the summit of this extensive edifice, we commanded a 
 fine panorama of all the central parts of the city, including the 
 pasha's residence, the principal mosques, and many of the large 
 streets which were laid open to our view. The gardens to the 
 north of the town, and Salheyah to the west, gave an additional 
 charm to the picture, and would alone have rewarded the trouble 
 of our ascent thus far, even had we met with no other objects of 
 interest in our way. On descending to leave the castle, we were 
 
328 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 followed by a number of the officers and dependants attached to the 
 fortress, who were all importunate for their expected fees, and 
 though we did not give to any one the full amount of his demand, 
 it required several Spanish dollars to pay them all. 
 
 From the castle we went through the city towards its eastern 
 gate, and in our way were shown some of the few remaining por- 
 tions of the old wall of enclosure, when Damascus was one of the 
 strong walled cities of the patriarchal age. The buildings have so 
 increased, however, since that period, that the number of houses 
 beyond these walls is certainly double the number of those within 
 their precincts. It will be remembered that Damascus is one of the 
 very earliest cities of which the Scriptures make mention, being 
 coeval with Babel, Nineveh, Sodom, Gomorrah, Haran, and Ur of 
 the Chaldees, the first cities that existed after the flood; it is named 
 also as the birth place of Eliezer, the steward of Abram's house, 
 before the covenant, by which God is represented to have given him 
 the whole of this country, from the river of Egypt to the Great 
 Kiver, the river Euphrates. * History makes no mention of any sub- 
 sequent destruction of this city, as it does of Babylon, Nineveh, 
 Tyre, and Sidon, which were denounced by the prophets; so that it 
 is likely to contain some remains of the very highest antiquity, and 
 no where more probably than in these broken portions of its original 
 walls. We were not surprised, therefore, to find these fragments 
 presenting, at the lowest base, a masonry apparently more ancient 
 than either Roman or Saracen. The blocks of stone, of which 
 the foundations were composed, are often of a square form, which is 
 unusual in any but the most ancient structures, and sometimes the 
 height of the blocks exceeds their length, which is still more rarely 
 seen : they are also of a large size, frequently measuring ten feet 
 in length, or breadth, or height, as the greatest dimension may 
 happen to be; they have all a smooth surface, and are closely 
 united without the aid of cement. Above this portion of the most 
 ancient masonry which forms the foundation, and ascends but a 
 
 * See Genesis, xv. 18. 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 329 
 
 little way from the base, is seen a continuation of, or rather an 
 addition to, the old work, by a portion of wall raised upon the 
 original base, and executed in the rustic masonry of Roman times; 
 while this again is repaired and raised upon by patches of Moham- 
 medan masonry, which is easily seen to be of modern date, from the 
 inferiority in the size of the materials, as well as in their strength 
 of union, and neatness of execution, in all of which they are not to 
 be compared to the earlier portions of the structure. 
 
 The eastern gateway appeared to be entirely of Roman archi- 
 tecture, having pilasters of the Doric order on each side. Beyond 
 this gate we visited some beautiful gardens, and near them several 
 extensive cemeteries, in which the graves were formed and pre- 
 served with a degree of neatness and care, that evinced how 
 universal was the respect and attention shown to these mansions 
 of the dead. Every separate tomb that we remarked, had a sprig 
 of myrtle planted at its foot, where the earthen vase that contained 
 the plant was built in with the enclosure ; and this was watered 
 daily by some female relative of the deceased, who visited the 
 grave every day, and of whom there were not less than fifty now 
 scattered singly, and in groups, over different parts of this moving 
 yet agreeable scene. 
 
 This formed the last portion of our excursion to-day ; and 
 returning through the city by a different route from any we had 
 yet followed, we paid a short visit to Monsieur Chabo9eau, dined 
 together at the convent, and passed a most agreeable evening in 
 recapitulating and comparing the various impressions produced on 
 our minds by the different objects we had seen during the day. 
 
 Damascus, Monday, March 26. — We went out this morning 
 to see the bazars of the city, and were occupied during the whole 
 of the day in traversing them in every direction, occasionally re- 
 posing on the bench of some coffee-house, in the streets through 
 which we passed, on our way from one bazar to another. 
 
 u u 
 
330 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 The narrowest streets of Damascus are wider than the gene- 
 rality of those at Cairo, and will conveniently admit of a laden 
 camel marching in the centre, with room for a foot passenger to 
 move in safety on each side. The greater number of the streets, 
 indeed, would allow two laden camels to pass each other without 
 incommoding those on foot ; and many are as wide as the great 
 street by which we first traversed Damascus, on entering it from 
 the southward, as before described. 
 
 The bazars are appropriated each to the sale of its separate 
 class of articles, which is usual, indeed, throughout the Turkish 
 dominions. Those in which the more valuable commodities are 
 vended, are generally roofed in, with apertures left to admit light 
 and air, by which means they are kept warm and dry in winter, 
 and shady and cool in summer, considerations of importance to 
 places so constantly thronged, as are these resorts of purchase and 
 sale. The bazars appeared to us to be all well furnished with the 
 articles of commerce in general requisition here, and the traders 
 seemed to be more wealthy and respectable than the same class of 
 persons in Egypt. 
 
 The shops are seldom opened before ten o'clock in the fore- 
 noon, and rarely continue open longer than two o'clock in the 
 afternoon, making their period of business, therefore, only four 
 hours in the day. The persons who attend in them to serve the 
 customers, under the eye of the master, are well dressed, obliging, 
 and polite ; and generally succeed, by their complimentary mode 
 of address and agreeable manners, in inducing their visitors to pur- 
 chase more of them than they at first intended. On the whole, 
 there is perhaps no part of a modern Turkish or Arabian city, 
 where the pictures of the Arabian tales pass so frequently and 
 completely before the view as in a crowded bazar ; and to an 
 observant spectator, it is one of the most agreeable and entertaining- 
 rambles that he can take. 
 
 In Damascus, all kinds of Indian commodities, but particularly 
 spices, cotton manufactures, coarse and fine muslins, chintzes, and 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 33 J 
 
 gold stuffs, are in great demand, and considerable quantities of 
 them are sold at high prices. These come from India by the 
 Persian Gulf, Bussora, Baghdad, and Aleppo, and are conse- 
 quently burthened with all the heavy expences of land carriage 
 through such a circuitous route. It is here, among other great 
 cities of the Levant, including Constantinople, Smyrna, and the 
 whole of Asia Minor, that a vast field would be found for the con- 
 sumption of Indian commodities, if they could be brought to their 
 respective markets at a less cost, and rendered available to all 
 classes, instead of being confined, as they now are by their heavy 
 prices, to the opulent only. It is certain that every article, the 
 produce of China, India, and the Eastern seas, would be supplied 
 at a much easier rate by the way of the Red Sea and Egypt to all 
 the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, than by any other 
 route ; they could be even brought round the Cape of Good Hope 
 to the coast of Syria, at much less cost than by the tedious carriage 
 of the overland journey, when risk, delay, and other considerations, 
 all acting as so much additional charge, are taken into the estimate. 
 The Red Sea, however, would be more expeditious and less ex- 
 pensive than any other channel ; and all that is wanting for this to 
 be chosen, is the assurance of easy transit-duties in Egypt, and 
 certainty of protection. The Pasha of that fertile province, by this 
 simple guarantee, secured on such pledges as should induce a perfect 
 reliance thereon, might do more in ten years to enrich his country, 
 and to make it the resort of merchants from every part of Asia 
 and Africa at least, as well as the eastern parts of Europe, than 
 all the Soudans or Beys that ever reigned on the banks of the 
 Nile have yet been able to effect for that admirably situated and 
 highly interesting region. In the hands of the English, as a con- 
 necting link between India and Great Britain, we should soon find 
 Egypt a magazine for all the productions of the East and the 
 West ; from which the cheap manufactures of our own country, 
 and the rich natural productions of our Oriental possessions, would 
 be distributed over every part of the globe now subject to Turkish 
 
 u u 2 
 
332 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 dominion, and all those that border on its extensive limits ; while 
 a new stimulus would be given to industry throughout these pro- 
 vinces, where many new articles would be produced as commodities 
 of barter and return. Under a despotism so liable to perpetual 
 change as the government of Turkey, in every part of that dis- 
 jointed empire, such a state of things could never be realised ; 
 though in Egypt, if the reign of Mohammed Ali be continued in 
 the spirit by wliich that chief professes to be actuated at present, 
 and his independence be established and declared, the progressive 
 introduction of Europeans into his councils may do much towards 
 the accomplishment of so important an object, and Egypt become 
 again as celebrated for its commerce with surrounding countries 
 as it was in the days of its ancient prosperity. 
 
 The few manufactures of England that have yet found their 
 way into the bazars of Damascus, are much sought after, and held 
 in very high esteem, particularly light woollen cloths of gay 
 colours, printed cottons and chintzes, and silk and cotton shawls 
 made in imitation of those of Cashmere. As these are not im- 
 ported direct from England to Syria, but come through the markets 
 of Malta, Smyrna, the Greek Islands, and Alexandria, at each of 
 which places the prices become enhanced by new charges, they 
 sell here at exorbitantly high rates, and would very handsomely 
 repay the adventurer of a small ship freighted with such a 
 cargo, to be landed at some port on the coast. To these, how- 
 ever, might be added a considerable number of other articles, 
 which, from the cheap rate at which they could be furnished from 
 England, would only need be known, to be in great demand. 
 
 The greater supply of wearing apparel for the fashionable 
 persons of both sexes at Damascus, is brought from Constantinople, 
 ready made. These are mostly new, but a large quantity of clothes 
 that have been previously worn, are also brought from the Turkish 
 capital for the bazars of this city, and distributed indeed over the 
 greater part of the empire. It is this practice of selling the apparel 
 of those who have died of various diseases, and transporting them 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. ggjj 
 
 from one city to another in boxes and bales, without their under- 
 going any cleansing or even airing, after they are taken from the 
 chambers of the dead, which facilitates so much the rapid spread 
 of plague and pestilence from one quarter of the Turkish domi- 
 nions to the other. The garments of those who are known to have 
 died of the plague, are no more exempt from such sale and trans- 
 port than the garments of one who may have died of mere old age ; 
 and no restrictions whatever exist in any town of Turkey, as to the 
 free ingress and egress of all persons and commodities from one 
 town to another. Such restrictions, of the nature of the quaran- 
 tine laws of Europe, are held by them as opposed to the principal 
 tenet of their religion, a blind confidence in predestination ; and 
 they are almost the only professors of that belief, who conform in 
 practice to the natural dictates of such a creed, by suffering the 
 destined course of events to flow on, without daring to offer their 
 feeble opposition to what they believe Omnipotence itself to have 
 decreed. Hence it is that that dreadful scourge of humanity, the 
 plague, no sooner appears in Constantinople or Cairo, where the 
 matter of infection always exists, being simply checked or rendered 
 dormant by extreme heat at the latter, and extreme cold at the 
 former of these capitals, and is restored to activity and vigour by the 
 temperate seasons in each place, than it spreads itself over every 
 part of the country with which these cities carry on a commerce ; 
 and by the wearing apparel of those dying of the disease in the 
 capitals being constantly conveyed into the provinces for sale, 
 thousands fall victims to this malady, whose lives might no doubt 
 be saved under the common precautions which would be taken, if 
 these cities were in the hands of Europeans. 
 
 Among other various manufactures to be found in the bazars 
 of Damascus are very superb caparisons for horses, of which the 
 Turks, and indeed all the Eastern nations, are extremely fond. The 
 best of these are considered to be made in Roomeleea, by which 
 the people here generally understand European Turkey ; a num- 
 ber of fine bridles, martingales, and silver and embossed breast- 
 
334 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 pieces,come also fromPersia. The fire-arms are chiefly of French and 
 German manufacture, but got up in a more highly ornamented style 
 than would be pleasing to European taste, being expressly prepared 
 for this market. Those who are the most choice, however, in the 
 selection of their arms, prefer to have the barrels of their muskets 
 and pistols made of the old wavy iron found in the ancient sword 
 blades of the country, with French or German ornaments, but with 
 English locks. The sabre blades are almost all of the old Persian 
 or Damascus manufacture, the art of making them being no longer 
 known or practised in this city ; so that they continue to enhance in 
 price as they grow older and scarcer,for there is no modern sword that 
 can compare with them in temper and quality. They are mounted 
 in various ways, according to the taste of the wearer, but generally 
 in what is called the Mamlouk style ; and this is done at Damascus 
 in a better manner than even at Cairo, where they pride them- 
 selves on their superiority in this kind of workmanship. 
 
 The silk seen in the bazars of Damascus is principally of 
 Chinese and Indian manufacture ; the furs come from Russia, 
 Georgia, Circassia, and Armenia ; the velvet from Italy ; copper 
 from Asia Minor ; lead, tin, and iron from England, through 
 Smyrna ; and various other articles of an inferior kind from Ger- 
 many and France. 
 
 The domestic manufactures of Damascus are very few, and 
 consist chiefly in silk stuffs, plain, coloured, and embroidered with 
 gold ; fabrics of plain cotton, and cotton and silk mixed, all for 
 home consumption, and mostly of broad striped or wavy patterns for 
 the caftans of the Turkish dress. They are as well made as they could 
 be of the same materials in any part of Europe, England and France, 
 perhaps, excepted ; and, as far as I could learn, the manufactory was 
 neither slow, intricate, nor expensive. They are worn by persons 
 of the highest rank in the city, while their moderate price and great 
 durability render them also in great request among the middle 
 ranks of society. 
 
 Besides the roofed bazars, in which the articles enumerated 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 335 
 
 are generally found, there are also open bazars in which house- 
 hold furniture and wearing apparel, both old and new, are sold by 
 public auction. On each side of these bazars are always a num- 
 ber of brokers and other purchasers seated on benches that range 
 along the street, who smoke their pipes and take their coffee as if 
 their only object in assembling was ease and pleasure. The auc- 
 tioneer, who is also the crier, takes the article to be sold, and ele- 
 vating it in his arms, when portable, walks along the whole of the 
 range, repeating the last offer in a loud voice ; and as he goes only 
 once the length of the bazar with each article, the highest 
 price offered during his walk is the one at which it must be sold. 
 The sale is not so expeditious as by the method pursued in Europe ; 
 but it is more advantageous to the owner of the goods, from the 
 increased probability of obtaining good prices ; and this, indeed, is 
 evinced by the fact that articles are seldom or ever sold for half 
 their market price, as is the case in many of the hurried auctions 
 in England. 
 
 Some of the finest buildings in Damascus are the khans or 
 caravanserais, appropriated to the reception of goods brought in 
 caravans from various quarters by wholesale merchants, who sup- 
 ply them to the retail dealers. , In the course of our ramble to-day 
 we visited several of these, and were much pleased with them all, 
 but were particularly struck with the bea,uty of one that was supe- 
 rior to every other. The architecture of this was in the finest 
 style of the Saracen order, and might be considered as a specimen 
 of one of the best works of that age in Damascus. It consisted of 
 a spacious court, the entrance to which, from the street, was by a 
 superb gateway of the pointed arch, vaulted and highly ornamented 
 with sculpture. The court was paved throughout with broad flat 
 stones, smoothly polished and admirably joined together ; and in 
 the centre of this stood a large fountain sending forth cooling and 
 agreeable streams ; the whole being crowned with a cluster of lofty 
 domes. The masonry of this pile was formed o£alternate layers of 
 black and white stone, one of the peculiar features of Saracenic and 
 
336 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 Turkish taste ; the ornaments were profusely rich ; and the distri- 
 bution of Hght through the domes so well managed that no corner 
 throughout the whole of the building appeared obscure. We were 
 so charmed with this fine specimen of the best days of Saracen 
 architecture that we remained in it for a considerable time, and 
 closed there our excursion for the day. 
 
 On our return to the convent at sunset, we found the messen- 
 ger, despatched on the 22d instant, returned from Seyda, with a 
 letter from Lady Hester Stanhope, addressed to me. On the face 
 of the letter despatched by me to Mr. Bank^s, relating to my bag- 
 gage, I had written on the outside requesting that it might be 
 opened at Seyda, in the event of Mr. Bankes having left that place 
 before its arrival, which was accordingly done ; and this letter of 
 Lady Hester Stanhope was in reply to that. The substance of 
 this was to state that my baggage still remained at Seyda, from 
 which there was no safe opportunity of forwarding it immediately, 
 and adding, as a further reason, if that were needed, that it was, in 
 its present state, so badly secured as to endanger the loss of half 
 of it if sent. It was accompanied with a repetition or confirmation 
 of her ladyship's verbal assurance, through Mr. Bankes, founded 
 apparently on his favourable representation of my character, that 
 I should find a welcome reception as her ladyship's guest, in the 
 event of my desiring to avail myself of her hospitality or friendly 
 advice. With that prompt benevolence which has won for her a 
 name that is honoured and revered throughout every part of the 
 country in which she resides, her ladyship adverted to the incon- 
 venience I was likely to suffer from the want of my papers and 
 baggage, and not knowing whether Mr. Bankes would be at Damas- 
 cus when this reached me, as he had left Seyda with the intention 
 of proceeding in another direction, but had been obliged to change 
 his route, the letter contained a note of credit for a sum sufficient 
 to meet my present wants, addressed with a letter of explanation 
 to Mallim YusefF, the rich Jew here, informing me at the same 
 time that Mr. Barker would leave Aleppo in May, and offering me 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS. 337 
 
 every assistance I could need to facilitate my communications with 
 that gentleman. This act of unasked kindness from a lady of 
 distinction to a perfect stranger, under circumstances of this pe- 
 culiar nature, and in the heart not only of a foreign, but almost a 
 hostile country, made a deep impression on my mind, and made 
 me rejoice that I could consider such a being my countrywoman. 
 
 To-day, however, before going out to see the bazar, I had 
 conversed with Mr. Chabo9eau on the subject of supplying me 
 with money ; and assuring him that, though meeting with many 
 interruptions and disasters in my route, I had still with me, among 
 my baggage at Seyda, a letter of credit on Mr. Barker, the British 
 consul at Aleppo, for whatever sum might be necessary to defray 
 the expences of my journey to India, which I expected to arrive 
 from thence, in the course of a few days at furthest : he furnished 
 me with one thousand piastres, or about 40/. sterling, for a bill drawn 
 by me on Mr. Barker, which I hoped would be sufficient for the 
 remainder of my journey to Aleppo. This was, therefore, sent off 
 to Mr. Barker with a letter of advice from me, and a copy of the 
 letter of credit, which was deemed all that was necessary ; as the 
 original would be better kept to present him when we met. Mr. 
 Bankes had also oifered me the use of his credit, if I needed money 
 at Damascus, but I had accepted from him only about a hundred 
 piastres, sufficient to discharge my guide without incurring further 
 expence by delaying him. This was repaid to Mr. Bankes imme- 
 diately on my thus procuring funds of my own, as I was desirous 
 of not intruding on his resources, being aware that we were each 
 equally liable to suffer the same inconveniencies, from failure of 
 supplies, in a country where no precaution is sufficient to exempt 
 even the richest from sometimes wanting accommodation in this 
 respect. 
 
 Mr. Bankes having made up his mind, as to the plan which he 
 had formed, and which, for the reasons before stated, I had encou- 
 raged, of his going into the Hauran, we could not hope to proceed 
 from hence to Aleppo in company, as he desired. Added to this, 
 
 X x 
 
338 EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIOR OF DAMASCUS; 
 
 we learnt that the route from hence to Aleppo direct was far less 
 safe than that by the coast, and was therefore seldom followed but 
 by caravans, which were slow in their progress, and set out only about 
 once a month. My baggage being still at Seyda, where I could 
 join it with less delay than it could be sent to me, was also a con- 
 sideration, which, added to those already enumerated, induced me 
 to determine on proceeding to that place, and from thence along 
 the coast to Latakeea and Aleppo. These resolutions being mu- 
 tually debated on and approved, we proposed waiting together on 
 Mallim Yuseff, the Jew, in the morning, for our respective pass- 
 ports, or firmans, and leaving Damascus on the following day, Mr. 
 Bankes for the Hauran, and myself for the Syrian coast. 
 
CHAP. XVII. 
 
 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 Damascus, Tuesday, March 27. — The duties of the govern- 
 ment being now more pressing than usual, from the powers of the 
 late pasha being exercised by his kihya bey, or lieutenant; and more 
 deliberation being used by a locum tenens than would be thought 
 necessary in one holding the full powers of a pasha by appoint- 
 ment from the sultan ; the chief financier, and secret director of 
 most of the affairs of the pashalic, Mallim Yuseff, was required to 
 attend at the palace from sunrise to sunset. It had been inti- 
 mated to us, therefore, that if we desired to see him in private at 
 his own residence, our visit must be before the sun was up ; 
 we had accordingly arranged for a very early visit, in which 
 Dr. Chabo9eau had kindly offered to, accompany us, and came 
 
 X X 2 
 
340 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 himself, old as he was, to rouse us from our beds even before the 
 day had dawned. 
 
 On arriving at the minister's house, which stood in the midst 
 of the quarter exclusively inhabited by the Jews of Damascus, and 
 not far from that of the Christians in which the convent was situ- 
 ated, we were struck with the extreme poverty and meanness of its 
 exterior, although we were aware that this could be only an affec- 
 tation of humility, to conceal the wealth of the interior, and render 
 it less liable to excite envy in times of tranquillity, so as to escape 
 pillage in times of commotion. We entered the outer enclosure 
 through a small door, which led to a mean and narrow passage, 
 carried along the side of a dead wall, built of earth-dried brick, 
 and without a single aperture to admit either air or light. At the 
 end of this passage was an humble seat, with a dirty carpet and four 
 old cushions that indicated nothing but rags and poverty within. 
 Here we were obliged to wait until the ill-dressed porter, who sat 
 on the seat described, went in and announced our names, con- 
 dition, and the purport of our visit to the Jew, when a servant of 
 the house was sent out to conduct us to his presence. 
 
 Although we had prepared ourselves for the sight of a spa- 
 cious and commodious house, well furnished with whatever could 
 contribute to the comfort of its inmates, we were greatly surprised 
 at finding not merely this, but a gorgeous display of wealth and 
 luxury, which, concealed as it was from the Vulgar gaze by the cir- 
 cumvaJlation of mud through which we had entered it, seemed to us 
 still too hazardous for any man to possess, even in private, consider- 
 ing that his office, his religion, and the character of the people among 
 whom he lived, all contributed to make him an object of envy and 
 jealousy ; while his wealth would be sure to inflame the cupidity of 
 those who might select him as their victim merely to possess it among 
 themselves. At the opening of the inner door leading from the 
 mean passage and waiting-place before spoken of, we found ourselves 
 transported in a moment into a spacious open court, paved with 
 coloured marbles, arranged in various devices of mosaic work. 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 341 
 
 cooled by refreshing fountains, and shadowed by citron and orange 
 trees, producing altogether a most luxurious, soothing, and plea- 
 surable impression. 
 
 We were received with great politeness by the master of the 
 house, and took our seats beside him in a rich divan, formed be- 
 neath- an arched recess of this splendid court ; and presently after 
 our being seated ^ we were surrounded by a crowd of servants, to the 
 number of twelve or fifteen at least, each preparing and presenting 
 something for our pleasure or accommodation. We were served 
 with long pipes made of the. stem of the jasmin steeped in rose 
 water, and mounted with the richest amber, globe nargeels, with 
 gold embossings on their surface, exquisite candies and preserves 
 from silver dishes, and coffee from beautifully coloured china cups 
 with enamelled stands. 
 
 After some general conversation, and a few remarks on the 
 subject of our visit, which were lost amidst the admiration that the 
 sight of this magnificent house had inspired, we were conducted 
 over the whole of the building, the master himself preceding us as 
 our guide, and the servants following. We noticed that as they 
 passed through the doors, they touched with apparent reverence, 
 sometimes a piece of wood, and sometimes a hollow case of tin, 
 which were alternately suspended at that postern of the door which 
 received the lock, and not at that which held the hinges ; and as 
 the master apologized to us for the unfurnished state of some of 
 the rooms, by saying that they had been stripped of their orna- 
 ments during the late passover, and had not been refitted since, it 
 struck me as highly probable that this ceremony of touching the 
 mark suspended at the lintels or posterns of the doors might have 
 some reference to the mark by which the Israelites were to be dis- 
 tinguished from the Egyptians, in the smiting of their first born ; 
 particularly as it is said in the record of this event, that this should 
 be observed as an ordinance among the children of Israel and their 
 descendants for ever.* A fear of being thought to exercise an 
 
 * See Exodus, xii. 21 — 28. 
 
342 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 intrusive or ill-timed curiosity prevented me from making direct 
 inquiries on this subject, and I hoped also for another opportunity, 
 in which it might be done with less risk of being misconstrued. 
 
 After wandering for nearly an hour through a number of spa- 
 cious and splendid apartments, courts, terraces, and galleries, we 
 descended again to the divan to take coffee and refreshments. In 
 the course of our conversation here, we learnt that this house had 
 been built by the father of our present entertainer ; and we were 
 assured that during the latter half of his life, or about twenty-five 
 years, there were employed at least fifty workmen of different 
 descriptions, every day excepting holidays, in its construction and 
 embellishment. Long as this period of time may seem for fifty 
 men to be employed on any one building, we were disposed to 
 think it probable, from the multiplicity of minute ornament dis- 
 played in every part of it. The pavements were all of variously 
 coloured marbles, ingeniously and carefully arranged ; the surbase- 
 ments of the walls were in mosaic work of the same materials ; 
 the friezes, which were from three to six feet in depth, were 
 formed of a series of pointed arch and concave niches, radiated at 
 the top, and gilded, painted, and adorned in such a manner as to 
 appear imposing from a little distance, though not bearing a close 
 examination, being evidently intended for effect from below. The 
 ceilings were as so many broad canopies of gold and brilliant co- 
 lours, to which were rich additions of sculpture and enamel in 
 fanciful designs. From these hung in many parts the dropping 
 ornament so peculiar to Turkish architecture, which Mr. Bankes 
 considered to resemble the stalactites of caverns, and thought they 
 were meant to represent them ; an opinion which appeared to me 
 quite as well founded as many others that assign particular objects 
 of nature as the models for architectural ornament, in which they 
 no doubt had their origin. In the walls were deep niches or re- 
 cesses, the backs of which were inlaid with mosaic work in mar- 
 ble ; and in the centre of almost every apartment was a small but 
 beautiful fountain, so constructed as that by varying some of the 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 343 
 
 works about it, the form of its streams might be varied every day. 
 The whole of this princely mansion was, indeed, as suited to the 
 abode of pleasure as the most luxurious sensualist could desire, 
 and as gorgeous in its decorations as the most ambitious lover of 
 display could wish. 
 
 Our necessary passports being promised to us during the day, 
 we took our leave of Mallim YusefF at an early hour, and having 
 nothing more important to engage our attention till these should 
 be ready, we were led by the venerable companion of our visit, 
 Mons. Chabofeau, to call at some of the dwellings of the principal 
 Christian merchants in Damascus, for the purpose of seeing the 
 style and manner in which their abodes were fitted up. The first 
 on whom we waited was a person who had entertained successively 
 various English travellers, during their stay here, among whom 
 Lady Hester Stanhope and Mr. Bruce were named ; but whether 
 he felt hurt at our not having come to his residence instead of 
 putting up at the convent, or from whatever other cause a jealousy 
 might have been excited, we could not imagine ; yet, certain it was, 
 that he received us both in the coldest possible manner, and with 
 a sullenness that could have arisen from no other cause than a 
 most unfavourable impression, or some supposed offence, of which, 
 however, we were each equally unconscious. His residence ap- 
 peared to be extremely beautiful and well furnished : but we saw 
 only the room in which he received us, from his not pressing us, 
 and our not asking, to see any other part of it. Notwithstanding 
 the evident ill-humour of our receiver, he yet condescended, 
 though one of the wealthiest merchants in the place, to fill and 
 light our pipes himself, in conformity with the affected humility of 
 Asiatic manners, and when coffee was prepared, to present it to us 
 with his own hands. Even Mr. Bankes's Albanian servant, who 
 was seated at the foot of the sofa on which we reclined, was 
 equally honoured with the merchant's attentions, while he stood 
 before us to receive the cups after we had emptied them. We 
 thought this a very remarkable trait of manners, as belonging 
 
344 VISIT Xg THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 to what is considered hospitality and humility in the East, 
 where a combination of these qualities seems to be taken for 
 the perfection of good-breeding : though in the present instance 
 it was performed with a mortification that was but slightly con- 
 cealed. 
 
 Mr. Bankes had had an opportunity of seeing the palace of 
 Ahmed Bey, to which he had paid a visit alone, without my know- 
 ing it until now, when he communicated it to me, in order to say 
 that he thought its interior to be richer and more highly finished 
 than even that of the rich Jew, though the courts he thought were 
 very inferior. He added, that this bey had lately lost a beautiful 
 Georgian wife whom he fondly loved, and soon afterwards a 
 favourite son, who was killed by a fall from the terrace of his dwell- 
 ing. He was, therefore, now confined to his house and scarcely 
 saw any but his most intimate friends, indulging his sorrows, and 
 rather feeding than endeavouring to overcome his grief; disrobing 
 himself of all ornaments, and wearing also the plainest robes of deep 
 blue, which betokens mourning among the Turks. This amiable 
 trait of domestic affection in a Turkish bey deserves to be recoi:ded, 
 from its being rarely in the power of a faithful narrator to dwell 
 upon the private or the public virtues of this class, though their 
 vices meet him in every direction and at every step. 
 
 In all the principal buildings that we had yet seen in Damas- 
 cus, whether mosques, palaces, or private dwellings, the zigzag 
 or saw-edged intersection of the stones used in the architraves of 
 doorways and other parts of the edifice, formed a very striking 
 and constantly repeated peculiarity of this style of Arabian archi- 
 tecture. The pointed arch niches were sometimes crowned with 
 single, at others with double, and at others again with treble tops, 
 the radiations ascending from a point at the bottom of the arch 
 to the top in sopie instances, and in other descending from a point 
 at the top of the arch to the bottom. Inlaid work of coloured 
 marble was also seen in various patterns of the Arabesque ; and 
 the dropping ornaments thought to represent the stalactites of 
 caverns was also seen in almost every niche. 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAM-ASCUS. 345 
 
 In the afternoon we went to a very favorite spot of the Da- 
 mascenes, called, I believe, El Mezey, or more generally known by 
 the name of the place of separation of the waters. It is situated at a 
 short distance to the west of the city, and not far from the suburb 
 of Salheyah. Part of our way to this place lay through a road with 
 tombs on each side of it, which was compared by Mr. Bantes to 
 the entry into Rome by the Appian way, where tombs are similarly 
 placed on each side, at short distances from each other. We found 
 at the spot we had come to visit, many parties of Turks enjoying 
 the delicious freshness of the air in this delightful retr(ea,t, and 
 certainly nothing could be more romantically beautiful than the 
 picture which the whole scene presented. The waters of the rivers 
 Fege and Barrady, which join near the source of the former, come 
 here from the north-west united in one stream, when, arriving at 
 this deep bed between two lofty and close-approaching hills, they 
 divide into four separate streams, and diverge off to the eastward 
 and southward, for the supply of the numerous fountains in the 
 city. The natural tendency of men to enhance, by every artificial 
 charm, the value of that which nature has bestowed on the place 
 of their birth or residence, causes the people of Damascus to 
 believe implicitly that this was the place in which stood the garden 
 of Eden, or the Paradise of our first parents ; and in conformity 
 with this belief, they consider these four streams to be the four 
 heads into which the river that went out of Eden to water the garden 
 was parted, namely, Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates. * 
 
 There is an inextricable confusion in this part of the sacred to- 
 pography, not to be reconciled by our most learned men ; as these 
 rivers, from the description given of the lands through which they 
 flowed, as well as their names, would seem to imply the Niger and 
 the Nile, if Africa be meant by Ethiopia and the land of gold; or 
 the Ganges and the Indus, if Ethiopia meant, as it sometimes did, 
 the country of the Indians, though the geographical knowledge of 
 the Hebrews of that day hardly extended so far ; and the two last 
 
 * See Genesis, ii. 8 — 14. 
 Y Y 
 
346 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 were undoubtedly the Tigris and Euphrates of the present day, all of 
 which rivers, or indeed any four of them, could not have a common 
 origin or source, according to the present conformation of the earth's 
 sui'face at least, though this description, it must be admitted, 
 applies to antediluvian times. The object of this remark, is, how- 
 ever, merely to show that on a subject so difficult of explanation, 
 the Damascenes may be forgiven for entertaining so harmless a 
 belief, as that their four branches diverging from one. stream, are 
 the four heads into which the one river of Eden was said to be 
 parted, in order to water the garden, more particularly as these 
 four streams actually perform that office, and flow over a plain 
 which is not perhaps ,to be exceeded in beauty by any now on the 
 surface of the globe. As these are the principal waters near Damas- 
 cus, and are in universal esteem for their sweetness and purity, it is 
 highly probable at least that they are those spoken of by Naaman the 
 Syrian, who when desired by Elisha to go and wash himself seven 
 times in the Jordan, in order to cleanse himself of a leprosy, ex- 
 claimed, " Are not Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, 
 better than all the waters in Israel ? may I not wash in them and 
 be clean ?" * And indeed so superior are these waters in every 
 estimable quality of that element to the Jordan or any other river 
 of Israel, that the rage in which the Syrian is said to have turned 
 away at the proposition of washing in the latter to purify himself, 
 when he could do this so much more readily and effectually in the 
 former, was natural to one in his situation, and thus easily ac- 
 counted for. 
 
 It is in the neighbourhood of this spot also, that the hill is 
 situated on which Cain is said to have slain his brother Abel, as 
 alluded to by Shakespeare *, and forming a consistent part of the 
 tradition, which considers this to have been the Paradise of our 
 first parents. 
 
 * See 2 Kings, v, 8—12. 
 
 f See first part of Henry the Sixth, Act i. Scene 3. in a speech of the Duke of 
 Gloster's. 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 347 
 
 At this place we noticed some artificial grottoes in the cliffs 
 above, one of which had a square entrance hewn out with apparent 
 care, and said to be painted on the inside. It is called Dikan el 
 Sheikh, or the Hermit's shop, from its having niches within it re- 
 sembling the shelves of a shop in a modern bazar. We did not 
 ascend to examine it closely. On the side of the rock was a long 
 inscription, in old Arabic characters, of the square form, but not 
 Kufic ; it was comprised within a square tablet, containing about 
 twelve lines, and not at all mutilated. We had no opportunity 
 of seeing it close enough to be copied, even had we proposed to do 
 so ; but Mr. Burckhardt, who remained some time at Damascus, is 
 said to have procured an accurate copy, so as to render this of the 
 less importance. 
 
 In so charming a spot, parties of Turks were always sure to 
 be found ; and at the present moment we saw many of them, some 
 sleeping on their gay carpets spread out on the turf, others smoking 
 and drinking coffee on the borders of the stream, and others en- 
 gaged in a game which was carried on by throwing stones from 
 one party to another on opposite cliffs, by certain rules, and others 
 again devoutly engaged in prayer. There were about twenty 
 horses, richly caparisoned, halting on the green bank, waiting for 
 their riders, which gave great life and animation to the picture. 
 
 We returned from hence by a new route through the city, 
 and passed a happy evening at the convent, recapitulating and re- 
 enjoying the pleasures of the day. 
 
 Damascus, Wednesday, March 20. — The day of our separation 
 again arrived, and we both expressed regret at the circumstances, 
 which impelled us todepartin differentdirections; though, hadlbeen 
 at liberty, I should have liked nothing better than making another 
 visit to the Hauran, and seeing more of it in company with my 
 friend. I did my utmost, however, to furnish Mr. Bankes with the 
 best instructions that I could give him for his excursion there 
 
 Y Y 2 
 
348 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 alone, and supplied him also with such articles of my Bedouin 
 dress and travelling apparatus as he needed, it being necessary to 
 adopt that costume, and worn garments being less likely to excite 
 particular observation than a cotnplete outfit of new. Mr. Bankes 
 had a soldier from the troops of Damascus, who was to accompany 
 him in quality of guide as far as the residence of Sheikh Shibley of 
 the eastern Druses, where he would receive guides and protection 
 from that chief. His Albanian interpreter, Mohammed, was also 
 to attend him in the dress of an Arab, making his party three in 
 number. The time fixed for his departure was noon of the present 
 day : all my morning, therefore, was passed entirely in assisting 
 my friend ; and when he mounted at the convent door, I certainly 
 felt a sincere regret at parting again so soon from one who possessed 
 and deserved my esteem, more particularly as from the fortunate 
 accident of our unexpected meeting here, I had indulged the hope 
 of our being able to prosecute the remainder of the journey from 
 hence to Aleppo, in company with each other ; such a union pro- 
 mising increased protection, increased information, and increased 
 pleasure to each, without in any manner obstructing the views, or 
 impeding the progress of either. * 
 
 • Notwithstanding the events which have occurred, and the changes of sentiment 
 which have taken place since the notes of this journey were written, I think it due to 
 the fidelity which I have endeavoured to preserve throughput my narrative, and a just 
 tribute to the superior claims of truth, to retaia the exact expression of my original 
 memoranda or diary in the instance just given above, vouching, as I do, for the entire 
 sincerity of the feelings then and there expressed. 1 ventured to pursue the same line 
 of conduct when speaking of my first interview and subsequent correspondence with 
 Mr. Burckhardt, because it appeared to me that no subsequent change of his opinion or 
 conduct, could justify my speaking of him at any particular period, with any other 
 sentiments than those entertained and recorded by me at that moment. It would have 
 been, at least in my opinion, a falsification of the narrative, to have substituted other 
 opinions for those really entertained, when such opinions had no existence, and nothing 
 had then occurred to occasion them. As my motives in that instance have been grossly 
 misrepresented, I think it prudent to avoid the same imputation here, by explicitly 
 avowing the reasons which induce me to think and act in the same manner on this 
 occasion. Had I then possessed the experience that I now do, of the violence to which 
 political hatred will drive the adversaries of one who values a conscientious discharge of 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 349 
 
 Being now left alone, I began to prepare for my own departure 
 for the coast. The Bedouin dress in which I had arrived here, and 
 which was as unfit for the city and the villages and towns of the 
 west, as a good citizen's dress would have been for the plains and 
 deserts of the East, were already appropriated to the use of my 
 friend in the way described. The clothes which I now wore had 
 been furnished to me by the kindness of a Christian merchant, as 
 before mentioned; so that it became necessary for me»to purchase 
 others for my journey, and restore those I now possessed to their 
 p"roper owner. 
 
 It was on this errand that I set out alone to range the few re- 
 maining hours of the afternoon through the bazars of the city, 
 and effect this task for myself. My purchases were all made at a 
 cheap rate ; the whole outfit of a. good and respectable suit of 
 Turkish clothes, with two changes of linen, a corresponding set of 
 horse-furniture, carpet, cooking utensils, khordj or saddle-bags, and 
 
 his duty to his fellow countrymen and fellow beings before all homage to worldly great- 
 ness or deference to arbitrary power, I should then have taken the precaution that I 
 now do, of bidding the reader to be aware that I could speak more evil of the individual 
 I had named, than would be sufficient to counterbalance all the good it had been my 
 pleasure to describe. But I remembered the common propensity of our nature to 
 magnify the vices and diminish the virtues of others ; that, 
 
 " The evil that men do lives after them ; 
 
 " The good is oft interred with their bones :" 
 
 and that to comiteract this disposition was a duty worthy of my regard. I had 
 forgiven all, as I myself humbly hoped for forgiveness ; and I was willing that the 
 injuries of those who had striven to cover my name with obloquy, but had not suc- 
 ceeded because they had not truth on their side, should be " written in water," 
 and their redeeming qualities " engraved in monumental brass." The ill judged zeal 
 of others forced me at length to disclose, what nothing but a defence of my own repu- 
 tation from unmerited infamy, which neither morality nor honour command us to bear 
 in silence, could ever have wrung from me ; and to the disappointed rage and un- 
 governable rancour of The Quarterly Reviewers, may those whose names are stained by 
 such disclosures as I have felt it my duty to make, look for reparation ; since their 
 unmanly and dishonourable aspersions of me have alone brought to light, what else 
 would have been still covered with the robe of charity and peace. 
 
350 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS, 
 
 other little necessaries for the way, amounting to no more than five 
 hundred piastres, or about 201. sterling. 
 
 During my ramble I observed a man of large stature, but de- 
 formed proportions, walking through the public street without a 
 single article of apparel ; his head had been recently shaved, and 
 he appeared wet all over as if just come out from a fountain or 
 bath : he had a short thick neck, large head and projecting eyes, 
 and his whole appearance was that of an idiot. I expressed my 
 surprise at this, though aware that such scenes are not uncommon 
 in Cairo and the towns of Upper Egypt ; but it was so little a sub- 
 ject of wonder here, that scarcely any person regarded the naked 
 wanderer, except to make way for him, and sometimes to salute 
 him with respect as he passed. Several of the residents of the 
 city afterwards assured me that the same outrages to decency were 
 committed by these privileged saints (for so all idiots are consider- 
 ed) in Syria as in Egypt, and that acts which the most savage na- 
 tions generally conceal under the garb of night, were performed 
 by these men in the public streets, and in the open day ; while the 
 passers by, instead of expressing their indignation at such a wanton 
 insult to decorum and propriety, frequently offered up their prayers 
 to Heaven for a blessing on the parties submitted to this violation ; 
 and from a superstitious veneration for all idiots, as persons under 
 the peculiar care and guidance of the Divine hand, regarded those 
 who were chosen for their pleasures as pre-eminently favoured by 
 Divine Providence ! Such a horrid and revolting remnant of 
 savage manners, rendered more depraved than they even could have 
 become in a state of nature alone, and reducing mankind to the 
 level of the beasts of the field, painful as it must be to know that 
 it exists and is tolerated in any part of the globe, ought to be re- 
 corded as a trait of eastern manners generally (for it extends over 
 the greater part of the African and Asiatic world), and as an illus- 
 tration of the depth of depravity to which the dignity of man may 
 be reduced, by the influence of despotism and superstition com- 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 35] 
 
 bined. Were men free to express their sentiments through the 
 medium of public assemblies or the press, either on civil or religi- 
 ous topics, such an abomination would not exist in a city like Da- 
 mascus, not even for a month. But where the tongue and the pen 
 are equally restrained by the strong hand of arbitrary power, all 
 parties sit down inactive and content with things as they are; while, 
 from the mer^ habit of never venturing to express freely what they 
 think, they gradually learn to lull every faculty with opiates, till at 
 length they cease either to think or to feel at all. In this, as in 
 almost every instance of depraved manners that exists, it may be 
 received as certain, that increased information diffused among all 
 ranks is the only effectual remedy that can be applied ; therefore, 
 the enemies to the spread of education among the lower orders 
 are the enemies of improvement or reform ; and the enemies of 
 reform are at once the enemies of God and man : since the bene- 
 volent purposes of the former, and the virtuous happiness of the 
 latter, can only be promoted and maintained by the progressive 
 advancement of the world in knowledge and in truth. 
 
 Among other particulars that I learnt from my enquiries of 
 the dealers in the bazar, I was told the fine cotton-thread, needles, 
 pins, knives, scissors, and fine hardware of every kind of English 
 manufacture, were in constant demand, as well as china and earth- 
 enware, whether of English or Indian origin ; and that large quan- 
 tities- of cochineal and indigo were consumed in colouring the 
 fabrics of silk and cotton in this city, already described. 
 
 I halted at several of the best coffee-houses in my way, to re- 
 pose, and had an opportunity of seeing a great variety of persons 
 in each. These houses are all large, and conveniently suited to the 
 manners of the people who frequent them. In these there are a 
 great number of attendants, and as the only purpose for which 
 passengers stop at them is to smoke and drink coffee, every visitor 
 who enters is presented with a fresh nargeel, a pipe smoked through 
 water contained in the polished shell of a cocoa-nut, from whence 
 it derives its name, and a cup of coffee, whether he orders it or 
 
352 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 not, the price of both seldom exceeding five paras of Turkish 
 money, or about an English penny. Many of these coffee-houses 
 are so spacious as to have benches on each side the street, extend- 
 ing for fifty yards in length, and large rooms of the same dimen- 
 sions within them, with a large boiler of coffee always on the fire, 
 and men constantly employed in roasting and pounding the berry, 
 so as to have the beverage always fresh ; it being found that the 
 only certain mode of retaining the pure flavour of the coffee is to 
 roast, pound, and boil it all in quick succession, the roasted berries 
 soon loosing their flavour if laid by for a day, and the pounded 
 coffee becoming insipid, even in a few hours. , The Arabs of the 
 desert, who are from necessity economical in their use of this 
 article, follow the same process, even if they require only two cups 
 of the liquid, roasting a handful of berries on an iron plate, 
 pounding them in a pestle and mortar while warm, and the in- 
 stant the water boils, which it will generally do by the time the 
 other preparations are completed, so that no time is lost, putting 
 the pounded powder into it, and suffering it to boil, stirring it at 
 the same time for about a minute or two, when it is poured out to 
 drink. As this beverage is taken without sugar or milk, the 
 slightest difference in the flavour is perceptible ; and long experi- 
 ence having shown this to be the best way of preserving it in 
 perfection, it is perhaps worth mentioning in detail, particularly as 
 the use of this article has become so general even in England. 
 Nargeels for smoking are sometimes carried through the less fre- 
 quented streets, and places where coffee-houses do not abound, and 
 the bearers of them carrying their tobacco in a leathern bag, with 
 a tin vessel of water, the tobacco being always wetted to cool it 
 before the pipe is filled, and lighted charcoal in an iron pan, pre- 
 pare it in a few seconds for the momentary use of a passenger, 
 who takes half a dozen whiffs as he walks along, giving a para or 
 a farthing for the pleasure, which their habit of incessant smoking 
 renders a great luxury, after the privation of even half ap hour. 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 353 
 
 In Damascus there are also many houses at which sher- 
 bets and other sweet drinks are prepared, cooled with the ice and 
 snow brought down to the city from the summit of Jebel-el-TelJ, 
 or the snowy mountain, to the south-west of the town, and on the 
 north of the lake of Tiberias. In these shops are a number of 
 large vessels of brass and other mixed metals, with Arabic inscrip- 
 tions, and various devices cut on them in high relief, and in a beau- 
 tiful style of workmanship. These are appropriated to contain the 
 iced drinks in large bodies ; and smaller ones of metal also are used 
 to drink out of Skins of iced water, sweetened and perfumed, are 
 also carried through the streets on men's backs, and served to pas- 
 sengers in the street at a para for, each draught, which forms an 
 agreeable and a cheap refreshment, of which all classes but the most 
 needy can partake. 
 
 In the course of this afternoon, indeed, I saw more than I 
 could command time to record or describe, particularly as when I 
 returned to the convent late and fatigued, I felt so much indisposed 
 as to be obliged to retire to bed immediately. 
 
 Damascus, Thursday, March 29. — I was so ill in the morning 
 as to be unable to rise from my bed, having passed a restless and 
 painful night. Medical assistance being thought necessary. Doctor 
 Chabo9eau was sent for, who attended without delay, and finding 
 me in a high fever ordered immediate recourse to medicine. I was 
 visited during the day by the president of the convent and other 
 kind enquirers, but was no better at night than in the morning. 
 
 Friday, March 30. — In addition to the ordinary effects of 
 violent fever, my mouth had become insufferably sore, as if under 
 a strong course of calomel, though none had been administered ; 
 and by noon it had grown much worse, covering the roof of the 
 mouth, tongue, gums, and lips, with small and smarting blisters, so 
 that I could scarcely speak, from excessive pain. Bleeding was pre- 
 scribed, and an Arab barber- surgeon was sent for (these arts being 
 
 z z 
 
354 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 here still united, as in the early state of civilization in most coun- 
 tries), who performed the -operation with great address, taking from 
 me about fourteen ounces of blood, which was thick and almost of 
 an inky colour. Towards night I felt extrernely weak, but was 
 much relieved from the violence of all the feverish symptoms, and 
 more cheerful and composed both in mind and body. 
 
 Saturday, March 31. — In the morning I felt refreshed, 
 from a good night's rest, and was enabled to leave ray bed be- 
 fore noon ; my head-ach being now but very slight, I ventured to 
 write for a short time in the course of the day. 
 
 Sunday, April 1. — Though still too weak to leave the convent, 
 I attended the service of the church attached to it, which was not 
 far from my room. The church was small, and but meanly fur- 
 nished, compared with the gorgeous decorations of Catholic places 
 of worship in general. After the mass, a sermon was delivered in 
 the Arabic language by a young Spaniard, whose appearance and 
 complexion indicated an ardent, melancholy, and enthusiastic tem- 
 perament. The subject of his discourse was the history and pur- 
 pose of the crucifixion, in treating of which he used an eloquence 
 that was' peculiarly impressive. In dilating on the barbarities of 
 those who committed this indignity on the Son of God, he wrought 
 his hearers up to a pitch of the highest indignation ; and when the 
 fervour or the frenzy of his audience was at its acme, he strength- 
 ened the effect of his climax by producing suddenly from beneath 
 his robe a large crucifix, which he summoned all to behold, while 
 he pointed to the bleeding wounds still streaming with the warm 
 and crimson blood that Christ had shed for their salvation. Every 
 eye was fixed, every feature was motionless, and every heart seem- 
 ed dissolving away in tears. As a stroke of impassioned and 
 effective oratory, it was one of the most impressive things that I 
 had ever witnessed, and its reality and close connexion with time 
 and place gave it a force that no words can describe. It reminded 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 355 
 
 me of the funeral oration of Mark Antony over the bleeding body 
 of the murdered Csesar ; and the celebrated dagger scene of Burke 
 in the English House of Commons ; but as the subject was loftier, 
 the speaker regarded as clothed with more sacred authority, and the 
 auditors more unanimous in their feelings than could have been 
 the case on either of these two occasions to which it bore a resem- 
 blance, the whole scene was more solemn and imposing. The 
 church was at the same time suddenly filled with a corresponding 
 gloom, by the closing up of some of the principal avenues through 
 which it received the sun's rays from above ; and a " dim religious 
 light," which is so favourable to the indulgence of the kind of de- 
 votional ardour that it was the object of this combination to pro- 
 duce, reigned over all, and shut out the intrusive brilliance of the 
 " gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day." This powerful appeal to 
 the passions of love, pity, sorrow, and revenge (for the detestation 
 inculcated toward the murderers of Jesus and the unbelievers who 
 still resisted the Catholic interpretation of his faith, was not in the 
 spirit of him who exclaimed, even on the cross, " Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do,") was one of the most skil- 
 ful efforts towards the union of fervid eloquence with theatric effect ; 
 and such as in the early ages no doubt stimulated the enterprise of 
 the crusaders to take vengeance on those infidels who insulted the 
 religion of Christ in the very cradle of its birth, and violated the 
 sanctuaries which they deemed it their highest glory to rescue and 
 defend. It was followed up by fine peals of music from the organ, 
 and the hymns of choristers, who were chiefly children, of both 
 sexes, and who sang in response to each other in the Arabic tongue 
 also, in a manner resembling the songs sung in response by the 
 boatmen on the Nile. 
 
 The service being at an end, I had soon an opportunity of 
 discovering that the preacher had a sharp eye, as well as an elo- 
 quent tongue ; and that the devotion among the audience was not 
 so universal, as the sobs and tears of many at least that I myself 
 heard and saw had led me to believe* In eastern churches the 
 
 z z 2 
 
356 VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 women are generally separated from the men, and sit in a gallery 
 enclosed with lattice work, to prevent the attention of the sexes 
 being diverted from religious feelings to less holy passions ; and 
 this separation was observed here. It has often been remarked, 
 and is no doubt true, that females are generally more ardent and 
 more superstitious than males ; and consequently their sex fur- 
 nishes more frequent instances of exemplary piety and devotion 
 than are to be found among our own. Notwithstanding this 
 general truth, however, while all those who sat below exposed to 
 public view had behaved during worship with the greatest deco- 
 rum, a knot of merry and talkative women in the gallery above, 
 whom the lattice work and " dim religious light" had concealed 
 from all observation but that of the lynx-eyed preacher, had ex- 
 cited his extreme displeasure ; and before they could disperse, he 
 had quitted the pulpit, and was up among them, reproaching them 
 in terms of unchristian bitterness for their levity and inattention. 
 It was an illustration of the truth too frequently overlooked, that 
 the best safeguard of decorum is publicity, and that nothing will 
 so effectually secure an attention to propriety of action as the 
 conviction that the eyes of the world are fixed on the actor to 
 observe the minutest peculiarities. The decorum of our own 
 public assemblies is chiefly preserved by this feeling ; and the 
 better half of the morality of mankind is maintained by no other 
 cause. If any portion of an English congregation were rendered 
 by any means invisible to the rest, their behaviour would be far 
 less scrupulous than at present ; and if any portion of mankind at 
 large could effectually screen themselves from the prying eye of 
 the world, and become invulnerable to the power of public opinion 
 on their conduct, such portion could not fail in a short time to 
 become more dissolute and abandoned than others. To increase 
 the means, therefore, of securing such publicity, and to enforce on 
 all classes the necessity of such responsibility, is to promote the 
 cause of virtue by one of the most powerful of all human agents, 
 the desire to live in the esteem of others. 
 
VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS. 357 
 
 When the president and the friars of the convent met together 
 after service in the small room in which they generally assembled 
 around their chief, their conversation was just as frivolous, and 
 unconnected with the impressions by which they had been endea- 
 vouring to make others believe themselves affected during their 
 hours of devotion, as is the conversation of our English clergy and 
 the higher orders among their congregation when they meet to 
 talk of news, fashions, and parties, in the church portico, and while 
 waiting for their carriages indulge in satirical strictures on the 
 dress, equipage, dinners, and even characters of those very persons 
 whom they intend to visit, dine with, and flatter during the week. 
 
CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 Monday, April 2. — Although my mules and guide for the 
 journey to Seyda had been engaged for several days, and I was 
 impatient to proceed, I was still unable to do so, being to-day 
 worse than yesterday, probably from my leaving my room too 
 soon. The fever under which I suffered so severely, was consi- 
 dered by Doctor Chabofeau as the effect of my fatigue, and expo- 
 sure to the sun by day and cold by night, in my late journey ; and 
 the black colour of my blood was by him attributed to the wretched 
 food on which I had subsisted for so many days in succession. 
 It is said, also, that the water in the city of Damascus very gene- 
 rally affects the health of strangers who drink freely of it, in an 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 359 
 
 unmixed state, of which I had done, as water was almost my only 
 beverage. The water of the river Barrady is considered to be 
 unwholesome, and that of the river Feejy pure and excellent. 
 Those who are choice in their drink, send servants, therefore, to 
 fetch water from the last-named stream, at some distance from the 
 town, before it unites with the former ; the water that supplies the 
 gardens and most of the houses in town coming from these rivers 
 after they have joined their streams in one. There are, however, 
 several springs in the heart of the city which produce excellent 
 water, but these are only accessible to a few. From one of the 
 principal of these, appropriately called " The Fountain of Health," 
 Dr. Chabo9eau was supplied with the only water that he drank, 
 and sent me sufficient for my use ; it was very superior to that in 
 common use, and in its pure taste, dark hue, and crystalline trans- 
 parency, resembled the fine water of Madras. 
 
 From some of the best informed residents here, I learnt to- 
 day that Damascus is thought to contain about 100,000 Moham- 
 medan inhabitants, of whom all are native Syrian Arabs, excepting 
 about 10,000 Turks, who are continually replaced by new families 
 and settlers from Constantinople and the towns of Asiatic Turkey. 
 Out of these, about 1,000 are soldiers, horse and foot, but princi- 
 pally the former, and these, with little more than 100 Albanians 
 or Arnaoots, form the military force of the city ; the remaining 
 9,000 are persons in the various offices of government, and mer- 
 chants and traders in the bazars. Besides these, which include 
 the Mohammedan part of the population only, there are consi- 
 dered to be about 15,000 Jews, and 25,000 Christians, of whom 
 there are estimated to be 10,000 of the Roman Catholic faith ; 
 3,000 of the Schismatic Greek communion ; and the rest are of 
 the Syrian, Maronite, and Armenian churches. The mosques of 
 the Mohammedans are exceedingly numerous, certainly not less 
 than 100 at least, including large and small ; the Jews have six 
 synagogues ; the Catholic Christians one convent, with a church 
 included in it ; the Greeks one place of worship, larger and richer 
 
360 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 than the Catholics ; the Armenians a convent and a church ; the 
 Syrians and the Maronites one each, the latter the largest of the 
 two. 
 
 To all these there can hardly be less than 1,000 persons at- 
 tached, including the ulema of the Mohammedans, the rabbis of 
 the Jews, and the priests of all the Christian sects : whose sole 
 business is professedly to promote the spread of their several 
 religions; for, with the exception of the Jews, all endeavour, with 
 varied earnestness and varied success, to increase the number of 
 their converts and proselytes. But though these priests are the 
 most useless and unproductive of all the civil classes of society 
 here, (for if they do not promote the increase of virtue and mo- 
 rality, which it is certain they do not, they are even worse than 
 useless, and become a burthen on the people which cannot be too 
 soon shaken off;) they receive probably a larger share of the wealth 
 of the community, as the wages of consecrated idleness, than any 
 similar number of persons in the whole city. 
 
 It would be worth the consideration of the people of this and 
 of every other country, to enquire whether it would not be prac- 
 ticable to make every man, who receives a handsome allowance 
 for inculcating the various modes of faith, by an implicit confidence, 
 in which he pretends that his supporters can alone hope for hap- 
 piness in the world to come, contribute also to fit men for the 
 better performance of their duties to each other in this. If their 
 sabbaths, for instance, were given to expounding the essential 
 tenets and injunctions of their several religions, which in all cases 
 are so few and simple as that " he who runs may read," instead 
 of vexing the hearts and confounding the understandings of men 
 with subtleties that no effort of reason can comprehend or explain, 
 and which it is, therefore, a waste of time to go about to illustrate, 
 they might then have six days of the week to give to the educa- 
 tion of youth in matters of positive utility, and leave the miracles 
 and mysteries on which they now delight to found all their claim 
 to reverence, where they ought to remain, in that humility which 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 361 
 
 a sense of limited or finite capacity would always enjoin when we 
 venture to approach what is confessedly incomprehensible. 
 
 If the other classes of society are commanded to use six days 
 of labour, and enjoy the seventh as one of rest, there can be no 
 good reason for the exemption of the priesthood from a rule 
 which they themselves enjoin on others ; still less for reversing it, 
 as they do in this case, by having one day of labour and six of 
 rest. If it be said that the nature of their studies requires all the 
 time they can apply to them, to understand the several systems 
 that they teach, it may be safely answered that such an argument 
 would apply only to the Jewish and Hindoo religions, or similarly 
 constituted ones, in which all devotion consists in a strict observ- 
 ance of an intricate ritual and innumerable ceremonies. It will 
 not apply, however, to the Mohammedan, and indeed the priests 
 of this religion do actually include within their duties, those of 
 lawyers, judges, and instructors of youth : it would apply still less, 
 however,- to the Christian faith, which has its foundations so deeply 
 laid in justice and equity, the doctrines of which are so simple, 
 the ceremonies so few, and the precepts so intelligible to every 
 capacity, that a bare repetition of them at fit times and seasons, 
 illustrated by a life of corresponding purity, to give the weight of 
 example to its beautiful injunctions, ought to be, and would be 
 indeed sufficient, were the only object of its ministers to inculcate 
 a firm belief of its truth, and induce men to conform their lives to 
 its doctrines. 
 
 Were not an inspired religion made thus plain to the meanest 
 capacity, it would be the height of injustice to punish those who 
 could not comprehend it ; and the idea that the Creator could be 
 the author of subtleties which it required a large portion of the 
 most learned men in all nations to expound to others, who, after 
 all, without the same portion of learning and talent could never 
 comprehend even the explanations offered ; and that a belief in 
 such difficult doctrines should be made the standard of happiness 
 or misery in a fixture state of existence, is altogether so contrary 
 
 3 A 
 
362 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 tQ the marks of wisdom and benevolence that every where sur- 
 round us in his works, as to make every honest mind revolt from 
 the consideration. 
 
 The Christian religion being, therefore, the most rational and 
 simple of all the varied faiths that distract mankind, its teachers 
 have less need of employing the greater portion of their time to 
 its study than the teachers of any other system of belief; and as 
 this religion is pre-eminently distinguished above all others by its 
 encojiragement to the progressive increase of useful knowledge, 
 it is still more particularly incumbent on its professors to see that 
 the priesthood assist in this, by applying such portion of their 
 time as may not be required for the performance of their reli- 
 gious duties, in superintending the education of youth, for which 
 their superior knowledge and the superior purity of their lives 
 ought more especially to fit them. The whole body of the youth 
 of both sexes, even of the most indigent classes, might be thus 
 well-educated without expense to their parents, and it would be 
 a wise law that should enforce this duty on all fathers, if the 
 means of doing it without cost were open to them, for they would 
 then be without excuse for neglecting it. 
 
 The priesthood of every country, whether maintained by the 
 state or by the community, are expressly engaged and paid for 
 the purpose of promoting the true interests of religion ; the true 
 interests of religion are best promoted by the increase of mo- 
 rality, and the strengthening the securities of virtue and happi- 
 ness ; the increase of useful knowledge, inculcated both by precept 
 and example, is the only effectual mode of promoting those desii'- 
 able ends ; therefore, the priesthood of every country would be 
 more usefully employed in diffusing instruction through every 
 class of society, than by the most intense study of doctrines that 
 are confessedly beyond their grasp, and can neither be compre- 
 hended nor explained, without that light which it has never yet 
 been granted to them to bestow on others. 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. gQg 
 
 That popes, cardinals, bishops, and other dignitaries, who ob- 
 tain thousands and tens of thousands from the public purse, for 
 promoting the growth of true piety by leadirig idle and useless 
 lives in foreign countries, or corrupt and mischievous ones in op- 
 posing every attempt at the spread of knowledge and improve- 
 ment in their own, should be hostile to such an innovation as this, 
 may be readily believed ; but, if the interests of mankind at large 
 are of more importance than the interests of any one particular 
 portion of them, such a use of the priesthood would be generally 
 regarded as most consistent with the dignity of their profession, 
 acceptable to their Creator, and of incalculable benefit to their 
 fellow-creatures. 
 
 There are many of the most learned and respectable of the Pro- 
 testant clergy most usefully employed in the many public and 
 private seminaries of our own country ; and what a contrast do 
 they offer to the unprincipled public lives of some, the debauched 
 private lives of others, and the pernicious indolence and apathy 
 of many more, in their own extensive body ! Still further, what a 
 contrast do they exhibit to the ambitious, arrogant, and lazy priest- 
 hood of the church of Rome, and all the various sects of profes- 
 sing Christians throughout the East ! Inasmuch, however, as the 
 small portion of the English clergy so employed are labouring 
 more effectually in their vocation than those who are not, and are 
 therefore more faithful servants of Him whose will they profess 
 to study and obey : so it would be far more to the honour of their 
 whole body, and infinitely more beneficial to the interests of the 
 community, from whom they derive their subsistence, if all were 
 so employed, from the highest dignitary of the church to the 
 humblest parish curate. 
 
 If the sums now consumed by their body were divided, on 
 some equitable scale of proportion, among the several ranks which 
 it might still be necessary to maintain ; and the promotion to such 
 ranks were regulated by the claims of superior length of service, 
 public virtue, distinguished talents, or private worth; such funds 
 
 3 A 2 
 
364 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 would be fully adequate to maintain the whole church establishment 
 of England in ease and respectability, elevating the most useful of 
 them from the indigence in which many are now compelled to pass 
 their days, and rear even a numerous family ; and yet leave a large 
 surplus to be applied to the maintenance of public schools in every 
 part of Great Britain, for the gratuitous education of all children 
 whose parents had not the means of defraying the expense ; and 
 still leaving a wide field open for the superior education, in more 
 select establishments, or by private tutors, of such children as were 
 destined for the higher walks of life. 
 
 To those who were truly and honestly disciples of Christ, and 
 set his life before them as the pattern most worthy of their imitation, 
 no objection could possibly be made to the increased labour, or 
 the seeming humility, of such an occupation, for those who had 
 heretofore wallowed in luxury, and while they helped to drain 
 the wealth, assisted also to rule the councils of the nation. Such 
 was not the pattern set them by their Divine Master, whose whole 
 life was spent in teaching others and in doing good. Nor is it 
 enough that his disciples should merely enjoin from their pulpits 
 the observance of precepts which they exact from others, without 
 making them the guide of their own lives and occupations : as 
 Jesus himself has pronounced, that whosoever shall break the com- 
 mandments that he is appointed to preach unto men, shall be the 
 least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever shall obey such 
 commandments, and teach them also, shall be great indeed. * 
 Since the servants, therefore, ought not to aspire to be above the 
 master, every member of the Christian church who should object 
 to assist in this great work of the public education of all the youth 
 of the kingdom, and the consequent advancement of the rising 
 generation in virtuous habits as well as principles, might conscien- 
 tiously be considered as unworthy of his sacred trust, and be re- 
 moved from that body to give place to some successor who should 
 
 * See the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew v. 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 355 
 
 be better qualified, by Christian piety and humility, to aid in this 
 philanthropic work. 
 
 The arguments against the spread of information, and the 
 education of the " lower orders" generally, are founded :on such 
 a mixture of blindness and wickedness, that they could never 
 succeed in overturning an institution of this nature, if once com- 
 menced. No one would be hardy enough to declare that God 
 created men of different ranks in society, making one a master 
 and the other a slave from its birth ; all must adrhit that such 
 distinctions are purely human, and have arisen frbrri the multi- 
 plicity of events that are continually changing the condition of 
 society in almost every quarter of the globe. Sometimes priority 
 of birth, at others greater courage and strength, but more fre- 
 quently than all, superior virtue and wisdom, have elevated some 
 individuals so far above others among whom they lived, as to give 
 them, by general consent, the character of leaders ; and from the 
 earliest stages of civilization up to the advanced state of refine- 
 ment in which we may be now said to live, in comparison with 
 preceding ages, it is education that is the principal agent in con- 
 stituting the superiority of one man above another. The pro- 
 verbs, adages, and maxims of every age and country, founded on 
 this belief, are too trite and numerous to be adduced, nor need 
 they be referred to except to show the universality of such an 
 impression. If one man is better than another because of his 
 superior education, the natural propensities in each being consi- 
 dered the same ; then, one nation must be also better than another 
 for the same reason : and if the same rule were extended to the 
 world at large, it might be safely asserted, that the nearer a people 
 can approach to the state in which every individual of every nation 
 should be, that is, deeply impressed with moral principles and 
 trained to moral habits, the more widely diffused would be the 
 reign of justice, peace, and happiness throughout the earth, till 
 the supposed " millenium of righteousness" might be almost 
 realized. 
 
S66 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 That innumerable and perhaps insuperable obstacles exist to 
 oppose a consummation so devoutly to be wished, no man could 
 doubt. But this should quicken our zeal, instead of operating as 
 a reason for despair ; and if every man would put the case to his 
 own bosom, as regarding his immediate offspring, none but the 
 most besotted would deny them the benefit of education if within 
 their reach, from a fear of its pernicous tendency ; the practice of 
 the whole world indeed, wherever education is known, proves 
 that every father would wish his children to be well instructed, 
 from a conviction that such instruction is calculated to make them 
 more useful and honourable members of society. 
 
 If it be said that such a general diffusion of information tends 
 to produce too great an equality among mankind, and to make the 
 inferior ranks ambitious, insolent, and disorderly, such a tendency 
 can be disproved by reason, and shown to be the very reverse of 
 truth, by an appeal to the safest of all guides — experience. The 
 untutored or natural disposition of the human heart is admitted to 
 be evil, and one of its most constant propensities is to envy and 
 to covet the superior possessions of others : it is therefore per- 
 petually ambitious of acquiring more than it can command. Ano- 
 ther striking feature of the natural state, is abject submission to 
 the strong, and intolerable oppression of the weak : it is therefore 
 insolent. And, lastly, the savage state, from its very precarious- 
 ness of subsistence, and the constant successions of abundance and 
 want, becomes improvident, sensual, and devoted to the enjoy- 
 ment of the moment, in utter disregard of the future : it is there- 
 fore disorderly. In proportion as men and nations recede from 
 this state of barbarism, they learn to be contented, mild, and pru- 
 dent ; though unprincipled individuals continually form excep- 
 tions to this general rule. It is ignorance, however, which is the 
 great bane of all, and the more effectually this is eradicated, the 
 more orderly all ranks will necessarily become. 
 
 In Scotland, where the lower orders are generally instructed, 
 they are more honest, industrious, and orderly than the same class 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 367 
 
 in any other country, America, perhaps, excepted, where the 
 same cause produces the same effect. In Ireland, where the 
 lower orders are grossly ignorant, there is a constant tendency t6 
 crimes and disorders of the most violent nature. In England, the 
 well-educated atnong the lower orders bear with exemplary pa- 
 tience the constant pressure of an overpowering and disheartening 
 demand on the produce of their labour for the support of extra- 
 vagance in the state, and yield a ready obedience even to laws 
 and mandates that they pronounce in public and in private to be 
 pernicious and iniquitous ; yet, though thus justly dissatisfied, the 
 moderation of their conduct is such as to k«ep the more turbulent 
 in order by the mere force of good example ; while the manly 
 fortitude with which they suffer, the forbearance which keeps them 
 from violent measures, and the patient perseverance with which 
 they try all methods before they resort to violent modes of redress 
 for grievances that almost grind the poor to the dust, presents a 
 triumphant proof of the commanding powers of education over the 
 human mind, which should make every lover of his country 
 rejoice in its superiority to almost all others on this account. 
 
 In Turkey, where education is almost unknown, an unpopu- 
 lar sultan is secretly dispatched by the Janissaries ; an unpopular 
 vizier is strangled by the bow-string ; and an unpopular pasha in 
 the provinces is cut off by poison or the dagger, without even 
 asking him to change his ministers or reform his administration. 
 In this country, too, the lowest individuals in the community may 
 aspire, and often indeed succeed, to the principal posts of honour, 
 when they act the part of the very tyrant they have succeeded in 
 deposing, till their turn comes to give place to another.* The 
 whole history of the country is, indeed, a series of plots, assassin- 
 
 * " Despotic princes delight to show their power by raising a man from the 
 lowest ranks of a community to a station which commands the most extensive obe- 
 tiience. A sultan of Constantinople is said to have at once exalted a waterman who 
 rowed him across the Hellespont to the rank of grand vizier." — Macdiarinid on Sub- 
 ordination, p. 70. 8vo. 1806. 
 
368 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 ations, and disorders of the most turbulent and ungovernable 
 nature ; the only law by which they are guided being that of 
 force ; and the only mode by which they seek redress being by 
 the exercise of the same agent. 
 
 Such are the blessed effects of ignorance in the lower orders ! 
 and such the state to which those who oppose education among 
 the poor would reduce all their fellow-creatures below that class 
 to which they happen to belong, for the furtherance of their own 
 selfish and abominable ends ! 
 
 To return to the subject which gave rise to this digression : 
 I venture to offer it as my opinion, that the thousand priests of all 
 the several religions existing in Damascus, who draw their sub- 
 sistence from the people, give them nothing of any real value in 
 return, being employed for the greater portion of their time in 
 consulting their own idle gratifications ; and in the few hours 
 allotted to the service of the public, substituting incomprehen- 
 sible mysteries, and unprofitable ceremonies, for simple and useful 
 precepts, and plain illustrations of valuable truths. I consider 
 also, that if these thousand priests were employed in superin- 
 tending each one school for the education of the rising generation, 
 on the six days of the week, such thousand schools, if only demon- 
 strative knowledge suited to all religions were taught in them, 
 would give the inhabitants of Damascus a vast stride in civilization 
 in the course of one generation only, which v/ould go on with 
 increasing force in every succeeding age. I would further add, 
 that the argument applied to Damascus would apply equally to 
 every other city on the face of the globe ; and its force would 
 never be diminished, except a nation could be found that had 
 arrived at the perfection of knowledge in every branch, and where 
 nothing more remained to learn ; which, for some centuries at 
 least, if ever, is not likely to be the case. 
 
 I am far from supposing that a system of perfect equality 
 ever could exist, or that such a state would be desirable even if it 
 could be attained. Gradations in rank appear to be as indis- 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. QQQ 
 
 pensable to good government, as division of labour is essential to 
 perfection in the arts of life. But as a very large portion of the 
 misery existing in every country arises from the imperfection of its 
 institutions, and the ignorance which prevails on the subjects 
 of legislation, politics, law, population, and political economy in 
 general ; so the more extensively sound opinions on these subjects 
 could be disseminated through all classes, combined with every 
 other species of useful information, in the physical and natural 
 sciences, and the arts of human industry in every branch, the 
 more difficult it would be for any one to maintain such gross delu- 
 sions as are now practised by those in power, and the more 
 impossible it would become for bad governors, either through 
 ignorance or fraud, to pursue measures favorable to their own in- 
 dividual interests, but at the same time destructive of the interests 
 and happiness of the community. 
 
 The chances of ignorant or bad men rising to the possession 
 of power being thus lessened, the chances of sudden revolutions to 
 displace them would be lessened also. The lower orders, being 
 better informed, would see, as the really well-informed in all 
 countries already perceive, that place and power are far less envi- 
 able than they always appear through the magnifying mists of 
 ignorance: they would also see the hopelessness of success without 
 certain combinations, which they would have penetration enough 
 to perceive that they could never command. The objects of 
 ambition, and the motives to its indulgence, would be therefore 
 greatly lessened; and it may be safely asserted, that in all countries, 
 the security of a good government from sudden change by any 
 revolution of the people is great in proportion to the general dif- 
 fusion of information ; and that where ignorance is most prevalent, 
 there every man's possessions from the throne to the cottage are in 
 the greatest danger of forcible violation and destruction ; because, 
 in truth, in such countries, all men are nearly equal in point of 
 qualifications, and the barber of the vizier is often quite as well 
 fitted to guide the helm of affairs as his master, and the eunuch of 
 
 3b 
 
370 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 the harem frequently wields all the energies, or rather all the im- 
 potence of the state : so that the lowest individual may aspire to 
 be prime minister, and the highest officer of the realm is not secure 
 of his place for a day. 
 
 In the divisions of labour, from the simplest process of agri- 
 culture up to the most intricate operation of art, the fitness of the 
 individual for the task assigned him to perform, is the only rule 
 that is or ought to be observed. It would be thought absurd, for 
 instance, to let the ploughman abandon his field and perform the 
 labour of the miller, or for either to quit their several branches and 
 assume the duties of the baker, without being quite as well qualified 
 to do the one as the other: and in the more intricate operations of 
 art, the absurdity would be still more apparent, from the entire inca- 
 pacity of the workmen in one branch to perform what is required 
 from those in another. In government, whether legislative or 
 executive, confessedly the most important of all the duties that 
 men can undertake, this simple and obvious consideration of 
 fitness is wholly overlooked, and particularly in countries where 
 ignorance is general. In proportion, however, as the happiness or 
 misery of mankind is more dependant on the nature of the insti- 
 tutions under which they live, than on any other single cause : so 
 the science of government must be considered one in which it is, 
 of all others, the most important to secure for its professors the 
 requisite qualifications of wisdom and virtue. 
 
 Where universal ignorance exists, this truth is seldom or ever 
 discovered ; and where general ignoi-ance only prevails, the few by 
 whom it may be acknowledged, are unable to overcome the mass 
 of prejudices and passions, which combine to resist its adoption as 
 a rule of choice. If, however, only the majority of a nation were 
 sufficiently well informed to see that such a rule would be the 
 most effectual security for their liberties and enjoyments, it would 
 be first openly, and freely proclaimed, and then gradually adhered 
 to in practice ; while in a really well-educated community, where 
 political knowledge should be as generally diffused as arithmetical 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 37 1 
 
 knowledge now is, it would be as rare to hear a man dispute this 
 maxim of superior qualifications being the only fit standard by 
 which to regulate appointments to offices of state, as to hear a man 
 deny that twice eight and four times four were the same number, 
 or any other simple proposition in arithmetic- 
 It has never been asserted, as far as I am aware, that any man 
 can be too good a mathematician, be his condition in life what it 
 may, nor indeed is it thought dangerous for superior information 
 to be made the standard for appointments to professorships in every 
 other science, excepting only that of government. In all other 
 departments of human knowledge, men must acquire by study and 
 application a due stock of information, and exhibit their superiority 
 to others in its practical application, before they can be permitted 
 by the common consent of mankind to take the lead in their 
 particular department, whether it be the higher branches of mental 
 exertion in moral and natural philosophy, or the lowest exhibitions 
 .of muscular flexibility and strength, in juggling, rope-dancing, and 
 pugilism ; while, in government, the most difficult of all the 
 sciences to know and practise well, men are considered sufficiently 
 qualified by birth or wealth ; as if it were considered that nature, 
 and not study, furnished the necessary qualifications to the privi- 
 leged class ; or as if money could purchase wisdom for those to 
 whom nature had denied, or from whom indolence had withheld, it. 
 The Turks are now in possession of some of the fairest portions 
 of the earth : but by the general prevalence of ignorance, and 
 consequent misgovernment, there is probably no portion of the 
 earth in which the productive powers of nature are turned to so 
 unprofitable an account ; none in which the inducements to ex- 
 ertion are less ; and none in which life, liberty, and property, are so 
 generally insecure. The cause being known, the remedy is simple; 
 the gradual diffusion of such information, as shall tend to make 
 the people, as well as their rulers, moral, wise, and free : for while 
 the latter are debased and ignorant, the former are sure to be 
 corrupt and oppressive. And if the application of this remedy 
 
 3b 2 
 
372 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 would advance the civilisation of Turkey, so it would, in a greater 
 or less degree, improve every country on the globe, unless it could 
 be shown that vice is superior to virtue, and ignorance to wisdom ; 
 or unless it could be proved that some nations should be exempt 
 from its influence, as having already reached perfection. 
 
 Damascus, Tuesday, April 3. — Though I had felt much better 
 yesterday, and remained out of bed for the greater part of the day, 
 I found that I had considered myself well too soon, falling to-day 
 into a relapse of fever, which was considered more dangerous than 
 the first attack. I was accordingly obliged to keep my bed, and 
 undergo a strong course of medicine. The weather was extremely 
 severe, with a violent storm from the south-west, accompanied by 
 hail, snow, rain, thunder, and lightning, which made a gloomy 
 day. * My kind physician. Dr. Chabogeau, as well as the president 
 of the convent, were exceedingly attentive to me, the first paying 
 me three, and the last more than a dozen visits in the course of the 
 day. Both of them were evidently alarmed for my safety, and 
 considered me as likely to be so too ; as they were continually 
 desiring me to compose myself, to have courage, and to hope for 
 the best. Fortunately for my peace of mind, as well as for the 
 tranquillity requisite to the state of my body, such injunctions were 
 unnecessary, as my composure at the prospect of death was only 
 
 * This climate, though generally temperate, and seldom disturbed by violent storms 
 in any season, is nevertheless occasionally visited by them, -when they are sevei-e in 
 proportion to their rarity. During the extended empire of the Persians under Darius, 
 Damascus was one of their strong fortified cities towards their western frontier. While 
 Alexander was in Syria, the governor of this place sent him letters, treacherously 
 oflPering to deliver up the city to him. The messenger was interrupted by Parmenio, 
 who went himself afterwards, with an officer and some soldiers sent to him by Alex- 
 ander, to the city. In conveying away from thence the wives and children of Darius, 
 with the rich spoils thus treacherously obtained, there was so severe a frost, accompanied 
 with a storm of wind and a heavy fall of snow, that the followers of this train made no 
 scruple of opening the treasures, and clothing themselves in the royal robes of gold 
 which were found there, without any one daring to prevent them. — Rooke's Arrian^ 
 vol. i. b. 3. c. 13. p. 395. 8vo. 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 373 
 
 occasionally disturbed by an anticipation of the pang that I should 
 feel, if my existence terminated before I could secure the means of 
 leaving some provision for those who would most severely suffer from 
 my loss. In all other respects, such a prospect was wholly devoid 
 of terrors ; although there are few circumstances that could render 
 death more painful, (divested of the hopes or fears of another state 
 of existence, in which the immediate scene or place of expiration 
 could have no influence, since these must depend on the state of 
 the mind and heart at that serious and impressive'' moment,) than 
 that of its sudden visitation in a strange country, without one 
 beloved object near to receive the last breathings of the departing 
 spirit. 
 
 Wednesday, April 4. — I passed a quiet and refreshing night, 
 and was so much better in the morning, as to give cheerful coun- 
 tenances to my attendants, by the visible improvement which they 
 perceived. I was allowed to leave my bed about noon for a little 
 while, and to partake of a very light food called Mash, a kind of 
 gruel made of a dark red seed grown in Egypt, and usually given 
 to sick persons as one of the lightest and simplest kinds of diet. 
 
 In the course of the day, the president of the convent had 
 been endeavouring to persuade me that the age of miracles was 
 not past, and that these divine agents of conversion were as neces- 
 sary to be exhibited to mankind in the present day, as at any 
 former period. In illustration of his position, he brought to me 
 a small modern engraving, representing the present reigning Pope, 
 Pius the Seventh, lifted up from the earth, in divine ecstasy, and 
 there suspended in the air by divine power, while officiating at a 
 high mass in his pontifical robes before the altar on the day of 
 Pentecost, in the year 1811. It is not stated in the inscription at 
 the foot of the engraving, at what particular place this pretended 
 event took place; but Rome is to be inferred, as the Pope seldom, 
 if ever, officiates in his sacred functions, except in that city. 
 
374 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 Much as I had seen of religious imposture and rehgious cre- 
 dulity in Palestine, I had seen nothing so bare-faced and palpable 
 as this. The act of engraving and publishing such a print in 
 Europe at the present day, sufficiently evinces how far priestly 
 impudence will go in attempting to pass off the grossest delusions 
 on mankind, for it is impossible that the originators of such a pub- 
 lication could have been ignorant of the fraud : and the veneration 
 with which it is received and preserved among those for whose 
 edification it is professedly intended, is a strong proof of the cre- 
 dulity of ignorance, and establishes beyond a doubt, (if further pjoof 
 were required,) that under the sanction of religion, it is as easy to 
 make the larger portion of mankind believe in miracles now, as it 
 ever was in any preceding age of the world; as the modern legends 
 of nearly all the African and Asiatic world, from the straits of 
 Gibraltar to the extreme limits of Chinese Tartary, abundantly 
 testify. 
 
 The cause is in all cases the same — a state of general igno- 
 rance, and a slavish subjection of the mind to fetters that forbid 
 the exercise of its reasoning and inquisitive faculties. In propor- 
 tion as men are restrained from the free exercise of their reason, 
 and the free expression of their opinions on any one particular 
 subject, so they are liable to fall into the grossest absurdities by 
 making authority their blind guide : while, in proportion as the 
 laws and institutions of nations admit of that freedom of thought 
 and expression, so will their inhabitants rise above the superstitious 
 prejudices, and gross absurdities, still tenaciously adhered to in less 
 free and less intelligent communities. The greater part of the 
 eastern world is in the former state, and the greater part of the 
 western in the latter ; and so truly does experience confirm the 
 accuracy of theory in this respect, that it may be seen, even among 
 the nations of the western world, that those in which the greatest 
 religious and political freedom exist, as England and America, are 
 proportionately superior in all that can enlighten and elevate man- 
 kind, to more enslaved countries, as Greece, Austria, and Italy. 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 375 
 
 If restrictions on the freedom of thought and expression in 
 matters of science, such as condemned GaHleo for the heresy of 
 his astronomical discoveries, had been continued in full force from 
 the earliest ages to the present time, either Newton would never 
 have made his sublime discoveries, or would have pined in a dun- 
 geon for promulgating them ; and every other branch of science 
 would have been stationary, or, perhaps, retrograding. They have 
 advanced only because it has been permitted to all men freely to 
 expose their errors, and to use the most unlimited scrutiny in pur- 
 suing their researches, and freedom in discussing their most difficult 
 points. Were this rational process also allowed with regard to re- 
 ligion, law, and politics, the world would see more rapid advances 
 towards purity and perfection in each than it has ever yet beheld 
 in the same space of time. Political economy, a science scarcely 
 known a century ago, has, by the mere force of unrestrained inves- 
 tigation, become already so well and so generally understood, in 
 England and America particularly, that no gross delusion in that 
 branch of knowledge could long maintain its ground if submitted 
 to the true test of its merit — free and full discussion. 
 
 If religion, law, and politics were exposed to the same fiery 
 ordeal, we should soon see the pure gold of each separated from 
 the dross ; and it would be as difficult to practise delusions in these 
 as in any other science. But while persecution, imprisonment, and 
 death, are the rewards bestowed on those who venture with more 
 zeal than others to scrutinise the dogmas of the one and the max- 
 ims of the other, it is not to be wondered at that the progress 
 toward improvement should be so slow ; or that the three great 
 subjects which must have engaged the earliest attention of mankind, 
 and almost the only ones of which we have any very ancient re- 
 cords, should be far less advanced, and less generally understood, 
 than a science which may be said to have been brought into notice 
 but yesterday. If equal freedom of investigation and discussion 
 were admitted in all, we should see them all advance with nearly equal 
 steps, proportioned to their comprehensibility and their relative 
 
376 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 importance to the interests and happiness of mankind ; but while 
 profit and honour are the rewards offered to those who unite to 
 maintain existing errors as they are, whether among the Brahmins 
 of India, tiie legislators of Turkey, or the politicians of Rome ; 
 and degradation, imprisonment, or death, await those who Would 
 either gradually deracinate, or lay at once " the axe to the root of 
 the tree," which they conceive should be " hewn down and cast into 
 the fire," it is in vain to hope for the same ardour in exposing, as 
 will be exerted in defending, corrupt institutions, and the fruit they 
 produce. 
 
 This, however, may at least be safely said, that every man who 
 stretches forth his hand to interrupt, by any means, the free inves- 
 tigation of truth, must be hostile to the improvement of mankind, 
 and should be regarded as an enemy of his species ; while, if no 
 honours be reserved for those who exert themselves in that great 
 cause, they should at least be shielded from those barbarous pu- 
 nishments now legally inflicted for daring to speak that truth, 
 which religion, morals, and every dictate of justice and humanity 
 alike command them to proclaim ; the very existence of such 
 punishments, for the exercise of one of the highest virtues of our 
 nature, being a blot and a stain upon the reputation of the nations 
 in which they are sanctioned and inflicted. 
 
 Among the communications made to me by visitors during 
 my confinement, I learnt from Mr. Chabofeau the following curi- 
 ous and illustrative fact, regarding the naked saint whom I had seen 
 wandering in the bazar a few days since. Some persons in the 
 confidence of the pasha having spoken to him on the subject of the 
 violations of female chastity and of public decency committed by 
 this venerated vagrant in the most sacred places and in open day, 
 and pointed out the risk of having even his own females or their 
 domestics seized for this man's pleasures if he should accidentally 
 meet them when under the influence of such a disposition, he was 
 induced to send some of his officers to bring the idiot to the 
 palace; when, being persuaded, from his behaviour during examin- 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 377 
 
 ation, that there was as much of depravity as of imbecility in his 
 character, he caused him to be whipped in his presence, and then 
 banished him from the city. 
 
 This occurred just before the departure of the annual caravan 
 of pilgrims for Mecca, which sets out from Damascus, as one of 
 the gates to that holy city. The pasha of Damascus, for the time 
 being, is always allowed the honour and the privilege of conduct- 
 ing this caravan in person, and from thence derives the title of 
 Emir-el-Hadj, or the Prince of the Pilgrims ; an honour which is 
 seldom declined, for, besides the great reputation for sanctity which 
 the holder of such a title ever after enjoys, he is considered by law 
 as heir to the personal property of all those who die on their way 
 to Mecca, during their residence in that city, or on their return 
 home, a privilege that produces more wealth {from the great num- 
 ber of those who die, and the merchandise and beasts of burden 
 taken with them on this double errand of devotion and gain) than 
 the surplus revenues of his government at home. 
 
 As this privilege, however, confers no exemption from the 
 common lot of humanity, the pasha himself fell a victim to the 
 fatigues, bad climate, bad provisions, bad water, and other com- 
 bined evils that often sweep oft' the youngest, the richest, and the 
 most healthy in the way. The people of Damascus, on hearing 
 this intelligence, accounted for- his death in various modes ; though, 
 as unconditional predestinarians, it would seem idle to seek for any 
 causes whatever beyond the limit of his days by superior destiny. 
 Some of the more ignorant and superstitious among the devout 
 dervishes and faqueers of the city contrived, however, to spread a 
 very general impression, that the pasha lost his life as a punishment 
 for having flogged and banished one of their sacred and privileged 
 body, for so they considered the idiot in question ; and this im- 
 pression was so sedulously and so successfully cultivated, that by 
 far the larger majority of the citizens adopted it as a religious 
 truth ; and, accordingly, the naked saint was called back to the 
 city, where he was permitted to indulge his depraved propensities 
 
 3 c 
 
378 EXCUESIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 without limit or restriction as to time, place, or condition; violating, 
 it is even said, the sanctity of the Great Mosque, when women 
 passed through it as a thoroughfare, and sometimes even when men 
 were engaged there in prayer ! 
 
 I cannot imagine a more effectual cure for those who labour 
 under the malady of attachment to things as they are, and regard 
 with jealousy, if not with horror, the very mention of innovations 
 tending to root out all that is ancient and venerable in their cus- 
 toms and institutions, than that of a short residence among a peo- 
 ple in which the blessed effects of such a disease (for so it may be 
 truly called) are seen in full and constant operation ; — where a 
 reverence for ancient customs permits men to wander naked through 
 the streets, and commit the most revolting acts of violence and in- 
 decency ; and where a horror of innovation induced the priests 
 and leaders of the array to murder their sovereign (Selira, at Con- 
 stantinople), because he desired to give strength to his empire by 
 the introduction of European discipline among his forces, and to 
 diffuse information among his people by means of a printing press 
 established in his capital. These are the necessary results of the 
 principle of hostility to improvement among the lower orders, when 
 pushed to its limits ; and for evils not much inferior in wickedness 
 and atrocity to these, are the enemies of reform justly responsible, 
 in every country in which they exert their influence to oppose its 
 progress. 
 
 In conversation with the friars of the convent, I learnt that 
 they had a small tea tree in their garden, which had once produced 
 excellent tea, proving, that, with proper cultivation, the soil and 
 climate of Damascus were suited to the cultivation of that valuable 
 plant. It had been lately neglected, however, and was now too 
 old to produce leaves fit for use : I was desirous of learning how, 
 by whom, and when it had been first brought here ; but no one 
 was able to answer any enquiries on these heads. The tobacco 
 plant is also cultivated in the same garden, and furnishes all the 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 379 
 
 members of the convent with snufF, which they make for them- 
 selves, and consume in abundant quantities. 
 
 The oldest friar among them has been in Damascus, and at- 
 tached to the convent, upwards of twenty-five years. There are 
 only eight in number at present, and these are all Spaniards : the 
 president, a fat, jolly, bon-vivant, being a native of Alicant, and 
 the rest chiefly from other large cities of Spain. All of them 
 study Arabic under teachers of the country, and most of them 
 speak it tolerably, though their pronunciation is defective, from 
 commencing the study late in life, and rarely using it as a language 
 of ordinary conversation. They complain of the frequent and 
 arbitrary exactions of the Turks, and say, that in consequence of 
 this, they have been compelled to draw largely from the convent 
 of Jerusalem, to which they are therefore much in debt. What 
 they cannot otherwise raise for the payment of these exactions they 
 sometimes succeed in borrowing from the most wealthy among 
 their Christian communicants, to whom they pay from 13 to 15 
 per cent, per annum interest ; though they can never raise more 
 on a loan than the amount of houses, church plate, and other pro- 
 perty bequeathed or given to the convent will cover as a security ; 
 and which are therefore mortgaged, or otherwise placed at the dis- 
 posal of the lenders, as circumstances may require. 
 
 We heard to-day that the soldiers of the city, though few in 
 number, had begun to be troublesome to the government and im- 
 pertinent to the people, as there was yet no certain information as 
 to the person who would be appointed from Constantinople to suc- 
 ceed to the vacant pashalick ; and public affairs were, therefore, in 
 a most unsettled state. It was said that there had already been 
 several instances of their entering the houses of Christians and 
 demanding aqua vitse ; that they had also grossly insulted the 
 Christian women whom they met with in their dwellings ; and 
 committed many other irregularities. The friars thought of shut- 
 ting up the convent to secure themselves from such intrusive 
 
 3c 2 
 
380 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 visitors ; and, fortunately, every avenue to the establishment is 
 well provided with strong doors, iron bolts, and locks in abund- 
 ance. 
 
 In conversation with some of the resident merchants of the 
 town, I learnt it was a common opinion here, that the Jews pos- 
 sessed the greatest secret influence at Damascus, from their wealth ; 
 that the Christians were the leading movers of the secret springs 
 of government at Aleppo ; and that the Turks enjoyed the fullest 
 authority at Jerusalem, from their having mostly sojourners and 
 foreigners in the city, who submitted more quietly to their despot- 
 ism, knowing that it would be only for a season. 
 
 As a specimen of the tendency to exaggeration, so common 
 to all classes of people in the East, I may mention that several 
 Arab Christians of respectability affirmed to me, as a truth which 
 they themselves believed, that at a village called Sydoniaia, or Sy- 
 donya, about a short day's journey to the northward of Damascus, 
 there were " thallatha meeah oua sitte oua sitteen Deere, koolloo 
 " kharaab," or " 366 convents, all ruined and destroyed." The in- 
 stances are innumerable in which this spirit of exaggeration, — the 
 necessary consequence of general ignorance, — deceives^even those 
 who thus unintentionally mislead others. A little reflection would 
 persuade any man, who thought on what he was about to utter, 
 that such a number of convents in one village was highly impro- 
 bable, and this, repeated or prolonged, would satisfy him that it 
 could not be true ; but, among a people who are as indolent as 
 they are ignorant, and have neither the requisite knowledge to 
 judge of probabilities, nor the requisite regard to truth to exercise 
 any care in ascertaining the accuracy of what they say, more than 
 half of what escapes, without intention to deceive, is positively 
 false, and the slightest motive to misrepresentation is indulged 
 without scruple. 
 
 In the course of the day, some medals and coins were brought 
 to me for inspection by a Christian priest, a Syrian Arab by birth, 
 but educated for the priesthood at Rome, where he had acquired a 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 381 
 
 taste for antiques. Among them were several good silver coins 
 of the Ptolemies, many silver and copper ones of little value, and 
 an English seal with a lion crest cut on cornelian *, which the 
 possessor fondly imagined to be a genuine piece of antiquity ! The 
 best of the collection was a gold coin, weighing an ounce and a 
 drachm, the metal of great fineness, and the coin as thick as 
 an English copper penny-piece, of the year 1810. On one side 
 was a fine female head of Arsinoe, with the tiara, and a cloth de- 
 scending behind, uniting the costume of Greece and Egypt, and 
 therefore highly appropriate to the subject. On the reverse, was 
 a double cornucopia, with ears of wheat rising out of the horns, 
 and clusters of grapes hanging over the sides of them. Around 
 this side of it was the inscription, in fair characters, — 
 
 APSINOHS 4>IAAAEA<I>0Y 
 
 with this device T at the foot, between the points of the horns of 
 plenty. Two hundred piastres, or about 10/. sterling, was the price 
 demanded for this, and it would have been well worth that sum to 
 a collector, being in a very high state of preservation, the relief 
 bold, and every line of the impression perfect; the appearance of 
 the coin being more like one fresh from the mint than one of such 
 undoubted antiquity. Having, however, predetermined to resist, 
 as far as possible, every temptation of this or any other nature 
 that might be attended with subsequent inconvenience or regret, 
 I did not yield to the pressing importunities of the cognoscenti, 
 who were astonished at my permitting such an opportunity of an 
 excellent bargain to escape. 
 
 At the distance of a day's journey from Damascus, in a north- 
 east direction, is a place called Mullool, inhabited by Syrian 
 Christians, where there are said to be innumerable grottoes of 
 
 * The cassidonie, or alabaster, is said to have been found about Thebes in Egypt, 
 and Damascus in Syria. {Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. 36. c. 8.) This would have been a fine 
 material for statues and engraved stones; but none of these are now known here. 
 
382 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 various sizes, hewn out of the rocks, and many of them orna- 
 mented. 
 
 At Ain-el-Feejy, which is six hours' journey to the north-west 
 of Damascus, are the remains of some ancient buildings, and the 
 commencement of an aqueduct, which is said to leave traces of 
 continued fragments all the way from thence to Palmyra, or Tad- 
 mor, in the desert. These communications were made to me by 
 persons professing to be well acquainted with the truth of them ; 
 but such authorities must always be considered as inferior to ocular 
 inspection. 
 
 The inhabitants of Damascus, of all ranks and classes, are 
 exceedingly polite in their outward behaviour towards each other ; 
 and where religious distinctions do not interfere, may be said to be 
 civil, and even hospitable, to strangers ; though there is no part of 
 the Turkish dominions, probably, where an European, in the cos- 
 tume of his country, would be more liable to insult and interrup- 
 tion. The language, which is Arabic, with some local peculiarities 
 of expression and pronunciation, abounds with lofty epithets and 
 extravagant metaphor ; and the most hyperbolical compliments are 
 passed between persons even of inferior rank, and on the most 
 ordinary occasions. Whether the habit of hearing it spoken, and 
 endeavouring to acquire its peculiarities, had made these appear 
 less harsh to me than at first, I know not ; but it appeared to me 
 to be much softer and more freed from the deep guttural sounds 
 which characterise this tongue, than the same language spoken 
 after the manner in use at Cairo ; though here the Arabic of Egypt 
 is considered to be much purer than that of Syria. Besides the 
 more intricate differences in idiom and phraseology, the pronunci- 
 ation of the same word is very different in Damascus and Cairo ; 
 and many of the names of the commonest articles in daily use are 
 totally different, as, for instance, bread, which in Egypt is called 
 eash, and in Syria khobs, with a hundred equally striking differences 
 that might be collected by one taking the pains to observe and 
 compare them. 
 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. ggS 
 
 In making enquiries, even into the present state of Damascus, 
 a traveller must expect to find great obstacles to the acquisition of 
 accurate information. Under so uncertain and irregular a govern- 
 ment there are few records of any description preserved, and such 
 few as may be kept, extend over a brief period only, and even then 
 are not accessible, except to persons in office. A Turk would be 
 unable to comprehend the motive of an enquirer who should de- 
 sire to see an account of the exports and imports of the city, the 
 amount of the revenue or disbursements of the state, or an esti- 
 mate of the several classes of the population. He could form no 
 idea of the utility of any branch of statistical information for the 
 purposes of general science ; and to talk to him of the value of 
 these facts, as illustrations of political economy, would be to speak 
 of a study quite unknown to him, and one that would no doubt 
 appear more worthless, even if explained to him, than alchymy, 
 astrology, or magic. The only purpose that he would think it 
 probable such enquiries were designed to answer would be that of 
 informing an enemy, whose cupidity might be excited by an ac- 
 quaintance with the wealth of the country, and his means of inva- 
 sion regulated by a knowledge of its strength. No registers of 
 births, circumcisions, marriages, or deaths, are kept, and no data 
 can, therefore, be acquired forjudging of the state of the popula- 
 tion. Every successive governor seems wholly engrossed by the 
 desire of enriching his coffers, and securing a large fortune before 
 he is compelled to give place to another, which he does by tempo- 
 rary expedients, utterly regardless of the future ; and this feeling 
 of living for the present only necessarily leads to that of living for 
 self alone, so that the result is a general diffusion of improvidence 
 and selfishness combined, which manifests itself in the conduct of 
 all classes, from the highest to the lowest, produces the most be- 
 numbing effect on all the best feelings of the heart, and forms one 
 the greatest obstacles that could be created to social happiness and 
 progressive improvement. 
 
 This city of Damascus was built, peopled, and numbered among 
 
384 EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF DAMASCUS. 
 
 the first civilized settlements of the world, soon after the epoch of 
 the deluge, the earliest period of which we possess any history, 
 and at least 3000 years before London existed as a city, or even 
 England was known but as an island inhabited by barbarians. The 
 distance between these cities is now, however, immense ; London 
 being as much above Damascus in whatever can indicate superior 
 knowledge, superior comfort, and all that can endear and embellish 
 life, as Damascus is to the meanest kraal or village of the African 
 Hottentots. Yet the natural situation of the latter has greater 
 advantages than that of the former ; its climate, soil, and water 
 are favourable to the richest productions of the earth ; and even 
 in a commercial point of view, its central situation in the heart of 
 Syria, with India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and 
 Arabia, all accessible by land, and the whole range of the Medi- 
 terranean open to any of the ports within less than a hundred 
 miles on the coast, would be a source of great wealth to an active 
 and enterprising people. What, then, has been the leading causes 
 of the immense difference between the wealth and intelHgence of 
 London and those of Damascus ? is a question that naturally 
 forces itself on an enquiring mind : and the answer necessarily 
 is — ^^" Education and Freedom," the two main springs of good go- 
 vernment, of which it may be truly said, as Pope has done of self- 
 love and social happiness ; — 
 
 Man but for this no knowledge could attain, 
 And but for that all knowledge would be vain ; 
 Instruction points the way to true renown, 
 But Liberty must win and wear the crown. 
 The untutored savage may be just and brave, 
 The deeply learn'd, a despot or a slave ; 
 But Freedom and Instruction, both combined 
 At once to nerve the heart and raise the mind, 
 Will teach the Tyrant, trembling on his throne. 
 This world was made for many, not for one, 
 And purge the earth, till all be wise and free. 
 As man still pants, and fondly hopes, to be. 
 
CHAP. XIX. 
 
 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON, 
 
 ON THE SEA COAST. 
 
 Thursday, April 6, 1816. — I was still so weak, that it required 
 some exertion for me to leave my bed, and dress. As Dr. Cha- 
 boyeau was of opinion that my getting to the sea air upon the 
 coast would contribute more to my recovery than any thing else, 
 I was determined to lose no time in accomplishing it by easy 
 journies, and accordingly prepared for departure. A mule driver 
 had been engaged at five piastres per day, and a servant to accom- 
 pany me as far as Seyda, at two piastres per day. The clothes 
 which had been lent me were returned to their owner, and others 
 purchased for the journey, and my horse had been well fed, re- 
 posed, and newly caparisoned. I paid to my medical friend, a 
 Spanish doubloon in gold, to the convent ten Spanish dollars, and 
 to the servants five, so that all our arrangements being completed, 
 we mounted about 10 o'clock. 
 
 3 D 
 
386 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 In quitting Damascus we came out westerly by the paved 
 road which leads to Salheyah, and had as much reason as before 
 to admire the gaiety and cheerful appearance of every thing we 
 saw. The gardens were even more beautiful, as the verdure of 
 the ground was fresher ; the fruit trees were full in blossom, and 
 every shrub had begun to send forth its young buds of green. 
 
 From Salheyah we ascended the hill which presses close on 
 its western edge, by a well-frequented but steep road. The pass of 
 Roboeh and the village of Meze near it, where the waters of the 
 Barrady are thought to form the four rivers of Paradise, were 
 below us on our left ; while, from the summit of the hill itself, the 
 view of all before us, on turning towards the plain of Damascus, 
 was enchantingly beautiful. We halted in the narrow pass, which 
 appears to have been cut through the rock near an open tomb of 
 some Mohammedan saint on the top, to enjoy the extensive and 
 delightful prospect ; and, even after a full hour's stay there, we 
 turned from it with regret. 
 
 From hence we went down over the N'.W. side of the hill, 
 going on a rugged road of limestone rock ; and as a striking con- 
 trast to the verdant spring which we had just quitted in the plain 
 below, all the mountains that intercepted the horizon like an 
 amphitheatre, on every side were covered from the summit to 
 the base with snow. It was nearly noon when we reached the 
 small village of Dummar, peopled by Mohammedans, and seated on 
 the N.E. of the Barrady, at a short distance only from its banks. 
 The view of the valley through which this stream runs from hence, 
 south-easterly to Roboeh, presents a romantic picture, in its high 
 cliffs on either side, and narrow green vale between, filled with 
 verdure, trees, and water. 
 
 From Dummar we ascended gradually for nearly three hours 
 in a N.W. direction, passing over a bare tract of land, in which 
 were only a few spots cultivated with corn ; and throughout all our 
 way across it, we met not a single passenger. About three o'clock 
 we turned down to the S.W., through a valley of considerable 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 337 
 
 depth, but narrow. On our right we had lofty and rugged hills 
 of lime rock, and on our left perpendicular cliffs of puddingstone, 
 with many detached masses of the same scattered at their feet. 
 The whole of the space between the enclosing hills, about a mile 
 in breadth, was thickly covered with vines. 
 
 At four we reached Beseemia, a small village in a most ro- 
 mantic situation, hemmed in by overhanging cliffs and rugged 
 hills, with grottoes and large masses of severed rock all around ; 
 while the stream of the Barrady, as broad and rapid as the Jordan 
 at its fall, rushes through a thick and winding grove of poplars, 
 watering fields, and meadows, and gardens in its way. 
 
 We followed from hence the course of the stream towards its 
 source, going north-westerly for about an hour along its eastern 
 bank, and 1 do not remember ever to have passed over a more 
 delightful road, or one which presented so continued a series of 
 romantic views as this. 
 
 It was about five o'clock when we reached the village of 
 Feejy, so called from the river of that name which rises near it. 
 We were furnished with a beurdee, or a passport, from the gover- 
 nor of Damascus to the sheikh, and hoped to have lodged at his 
 village for the night. He professed his willingness to receive and 
 entertain us, but declared that in all the village suflflcient corn 
 for our two animals could not be purchased at any price. We 
 remonstrated and disputed for some time, but in vain, and were at 
 last compelled to push on for another village a short distance off. 
 
 The inhabitants of Feejy, to-the number perhaps of 500, are 
 all Mohammedan. We found the men well dressed, and appa- 
 rently much at their ease, and the females, both old and young, 
 were all employed in spinning cotton at a wheel before their 
 doors. 
 
 In about five minutes after our quitting the village, and going 
 in a westerly direction, we came to the source of the waters called 
 Ain-el- Feejy, and alighted there for a moment to observe it. The 
 spring appears to issue from beneath an old arch, the roof or 
 
 3 D 2 
 
388 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 highest part of which is but a few inches clear of the surface of 
 the stream. The quantity discharged from this is considerable, 
 and the water is of the purest transparency notwithstanding its 
 being extremely agitated, as well as of the most excellent taste. 
 
 Immediately over the arch from out of which this large body 
 of water springs, are the remains of an ancient building ; and below 
 by the side of the stream, the walls of another very similar one, 
 both thought to have been temples. The lower one is about fifteen 
 paces square within, consisting only of one apartment. It was 
 entered by a gateway extending all the breadth of its front, except- 
 ing only the portals, which rise about two-thirds the height of the 
 whole, and there terminate in a cornice exactly like the gates of the 
 Egyptian temples. The stones of the building are very large, and 
 the masonry solid and well executed, though certainly unlike 
 Roman work. The gateway opens toward the south, and imme- 
 diately opposite to it on entering, or in the centre of the interior 
 face of the northern wall, is an oblong upright niche, as if for the 
 reception of a statue. The spring of an arch is begun from the 
 inner moulding, which runs round the whole of the interior on a 
 level with the top of the portals of the gateway, and three layers 
 of large stones still remain above it ; but it appears from what 
 remains never to have been wholly arched over. 
 
 The upper building, which is right above the arch from 
 whence the water issues, is somewhat less than the lower one, 
 being perhaps about twenty feet square, and of one apartment 
 only. Here the portals of the gateway are carried up the whole 
 of the'height of the building ; and on each side of the gateway, on 
 the outer front, is a shallow square pilaster without a capital of 
 any kind. It fronts the south, like the lower one, and has a still 
 broader recess in the inner face of its northern wall, over which 
 the rocky cliff above literally hangs. The base of the upper build- 
 ing is just on a level with the top of the lower one, which is 
 distant from it about fifteen paces on the west. Between them 
 both, and in the cliff beside the arch from whence the spring issues. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 339 
 
 is a concave recess of excellent masonry, about fifteen feet high, 
 and a proportionate breadth and depth, as if intended for a colos- 
 sal statue of the river god. The stones are all large and of a 
 coarse yellowish marble, and the workmanship is solid and good 
 thx'oughout ; but the style is unlike Roman, and the general appear- 
 ance very ancient. 
 
 The river Barrady runs close by here to the eastward, between 
 high and rocky hills, the strata of which lie in every direction, from 
 nearly horizontal to quite perpendicular. The waters of the Ain- 
 el-Feejy, which are thought to be of purer quality, rush down 
 here to the southward and join those of the Barrady at a few paces 
 only from its own source, when they both run together through the 
 romantic bed we had seen at intervals on our way, until they 
 reach the pass at Roboeh, where they divide into what are called 
 the four rivers of Paradise. We had seen nothing of the aque- 
 duct supposed to have conveyed these waters to Palmyra, nor had 
 received any information which might help us to understand whe- 
 ther these were the Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, which 
 Naaman the Syrian thought better than all the waters of Israel, or 
 not. (2 Kings v. 12.) On leaving Ain-el-Feejy, we followed 
 the northern bank of the Barrady to the westward, through an 
 agreeable valley, and came in about an hour to Deer-el-Mukarrin, 
 a small Muslim village, where all the people were set in uproar 
 by our demand of corn, of which they possessed none. We con- 
 tinued our way, therefore, on the same course, and in half an 
 hour reached El-Ekfaire-el-Feite, a similar village, and, like all 
 those we had yet passed, on the northern bank of the stream, at a 
 little distance from the water. We alighted here, as it was now 
 past sunset, and though we had still to contend about our corn, 
 we obtained at last shelter and food in a house better built and 
 cleaner than usual, with a chimney in the corner and other con- 
 veniences. The females here were all fair, ruddy, and handsome, 
 wearing a white cloth over the head and shoulders, with a black 
 border and tassels hanging from the temples. They were un- 
 
390 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 veiled, and wore each an open blue gown, with a scarlet apron 
 descending from the waist to the feet in front, narrow and tightly 
 girt with broad figured tape, looking altogether more interesting 
 than the women of the country generally do. 
 
 Friday i April 1, 1816. — I felt almost unable to rise from my 
 carpet, from weakness and fever : there was no alternative, how- 
 ever, but to proceed. We therefore took a breakfast of sour milk 
 or lebben, and left El Ekfaire an hour after sunrise. Crossing 
 the Barrady just below this, we went up the hill to the southwai-d, 
 and came in half an hour to a ruined town called Deer Kanoon, 
 where we observed some small pedestals and variegated marble 
 shafts, large hewn stones, and broken pottery, probably the 
 remains of some Christian settlement and church. From hence 
 we saw to the N.W., about a mile distant, a large village called 
 El Husseneey, on the southern bank of the stream, and standing 
 on the side of a steep rocky mountain. An opening in the hills 
 presented itself to the north of this, through which the Barrady 
 came, and its source was said to be near a village called Zebedery, 
 three hours north of this. 
 
 Our road now became uninteresting in the extreme, con- 
 stantly ascending over bare limestone mountains in a W.S.W. 
 direction till we came to the snow. The weather was still cold, 
 and the wind high. We then turned down S.W. for near two 
 hours through a broad and irregular valley, in which were the 
 ruins of a town called Demess. This brought us to Wadi Mese- 
 noon, a narrow valley between two bare ranges of limestone and 
 puddingstone rock, which we ascended in a westerly direction for 
 about an hour, and then alighted at the spring of Mesenoon, 
 which forms the stream of the valley. It goes only as far as De- 
 mess, and then loses itself in the earth. Near this are the remains 
 of a large building, perhaps fifty feet square, with a doorway at 
 the eastern, and the foundations of a wall before the western end. 
 The stones are large and well hewn, but the whole is so destroyed 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 391 
 
 that nothing but a few feet of the base of the walls remain. 
 There are no fragments by which its order can be determined, 
 nor any sculpture visible ; though it might have been, like those 
 at Ain-el-Feejy, a temple to the god of the spring near which it 
 stands. It is about thirty paces east of the spring. We had 
 opened to our view from hence in a S.S.W. direction, distant less 
 than a mile, a high and rugged mountain, now entirely covered 
 with snow, called Jebel Annter. The ruin is called Khan-el- 
 Mesenoon, from its being, perhaps, in the public road ; it has no 
 resemblance, however, to such a building. 
 
 We quitted this spot about eleven, and ascended in a W.S.W. 
 direction, over deep snow, the hills which pressed on each side of 
 us being sheeted over with unbroken snow, as if it had lain there 
 for ages. In our way we met a small caravan of mules from 
 Seyda, bearing chiefly the baggage of some Muggrebins, who 
 accompanied it on their way to Damascus for the ensuing pil- 
 grimage. Three or four female slaves of a jet black, but pretty 
 features, rode on asses, and each had a large piece of snow in her 
 hand, apparently to eat it, as if a delicacy. The male servants 
 were on foot without shoes, and seemed to suffer dreadfully. We 
 continually ascended for more than three hours, our progress being 
 very slow, from the state of the road, our course from W. to 
 W.S.W., when we gained the summit of the range of mountains 
 we were now crossing, and opened a view of the Jebel-el-Druse 
 to the N.W. of us. This range commences with the Jebel-el- 
 Sheikh to the S.W., and ends in the Jebel Zebedeiny to the N.E., 
 including a distance of from thirty to forty miles. It is called 
 collectively Jebel-el-Wast by the Arabs, and is, apparently, the 
 Anti-Libanus of the ancients. It is of limestone, generally, 
 throughout. 
 
 About an hour after our leaving the spring at Mesenoon, we 
 saw a small portion of deep red soil, with some scattered frag- 
 ments of the black porous stone found in the Hauran and near 
 Tiberias. It was near a pass with cliffs on each side, as if the 
 mountain had been forcibly torn asunder. 
 
392 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 From the summit of Jebel-el-Wast we turned down a gentle 
 slope to the S.W., having the high Jebel-el- Sheikh, a pure sheet of 
 white, in sight to the southward. In an hour we reached a circu- 
 lar lake, full of clear unfrozen water, about 150 yards in diameter, 
 and apparently once banked round with masonry. Just above it 
 to the N.W. is a ruined village, said to be very old, and called 
 Keneisy, which name the lake also bears. We halted here to 
 give our animals a moment's repose after their fatiguing passage 
 over the mountain, and took ourselves some hasty refreshment. 
 While here, I was somewhat surprised by the voice of the cuckoo, 
 loud, distinct, and near, at the time that the ground was every 
 where covered with deep snow. The Arabs called it Teer-el- 
 Yaccoub, or the bird of Jacob, from supposing him to utter that 
 name, the Arabic pronunciation of which the sound indeed closely 
 resembles. 
 
 We left this spot about three, and descended in nearly a 
 southerly direction over a barren and rocky tract, till we came in 
 about an hour to the foot of the hill, into a plain cultivated with 
 olives, corn, and vines, and called Wadi Ityne. We went through 
 this in a S.W. direction, and came in another hour to the town of 
 Kufr-el-Kook, built on the summit and sides of a round and gentle 
 eminence, and inhabited by about 3000 Druses and Christians, 
 under the government of a chief of the former, called Emir Man- 
 soor. At the entrance of this town is a circular reservoir for 
 water, banked round by a quay of masonry, and descended to by 
 steps ; and at the southern end of it, a few feet from the side, is a 
 doric column still erect, with the capital and about a foot of the 
 shaft above water. It seems as if originally placed there for a 
 standard of measure. In the town itself are seen some vestiges of 
 columns ; and from the architrave of an ancient doorway, now 
 used as the postern of a court-gate, on the left of the public 
 road, and having sockets for the reception of the pivots of a 
 folding-door, as if of stone, I copied the following: — 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 393 
 
 ePOYC/T 
 
 BGAIABOCCX 
 
 XIDMOYSYISA . . . 
 
 MBN . . ocenoHceN. 
 
 From hence we ascended very gently in the same direction, 
 through fine corn and vine lands, and in half an hour passed on 
 the left, about a mile off, the town of Aihah. It is seated on the 
 side of the mountain, and is perhaps a mile in length' from north 
 to south. Nearly in the centre of it rises a tall column apparently 
 fifty feet in height, and of proportionate diameter. It is said to be 
 the only one now left of a large edifice, which from the description 
 given of it, I should conceive to be an ancient temple. It is said 
 to be of nearly a square form, and built of immense stones, in the 
 jointures of which not a needle could be made to enter ; and that 
 within the walls, now much ruined, are a considerable number of 
 fallen columns, in size and design similar to the one now standing. 
 We continued our way, as night was approaching, and at sunset 
 came to the foot of the hill on which the town of Rasheyah is built. 
 
 The approach to this place resembles that to the town of 
 Assalt, from the east, as it is seated on the side of a steep round 
 hill, the houses rising in stages one above another, and above the 
 whole is a large castle nearly on the brow of the hill. The town is 
 thought to contain about 800 houses and from 4 to 5,000 inhabit- 
 ants, one half of whom are Druses and the other half Christians, 
 and the appearance of the numbers in the streets justified such an 
 estimate. We ascended to the very summit, over steep and wind- 
 ing streets, and were lodged in the house of our mule driver, a 
 Christian of the Greek communion, where we were accommodated 
 to the best of their means. 
 
 Saturday, April 8, 1816. — As it was a festival of the Greeks, 
 there was no moving to day before the morning service was ended, 
 and weak and ill as I was, no excuse could save me from attend- 
 ing it in person. My servant, who was of the Catholic communion, 
 
 3 E 
 
394 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 professed for the time being that of the Greek, to be on better 
 terms with our guide ; while at the same time that he piqued him- 
 self on his cunning and success, he sought every opportunity, when 
 he addressed me, to abuse both the faith itself and the votaries of 
 it. In this small place were two. Greek churches and one Syrian 
 one, but no mosques, as the Druses perform their service in great 
 secrecy at home. The Greek church we visited was near the 
 centre of the town, tolerably large and well built, and furnished 
 with a number of gaudy pictures and lamps. There were not less, 
 I should conceive, than 500 persons of both sexes attending the 
 service, which was performed as usual with much ceremony, per- 
 fumes, and noise : and some parts of it in a way that seemed any 
 thing but solemn and devout. From the fatigue of standing, and 
 the faint heat of the crowd, I was obliged to quit the church in about 
 half an hour, and return to the house. In passing the tower I had 
 an opportunity of perceiving that it was very large, but altogether 
 of Mohammedan structure. It is founded on a rock which has 
 been hewn into wall in several places, and from its elevation com- 
 pletely commands every part of the town. It is the present resi- 
 dence of the Druse governor, Emir Effendi, and his immediate 
 dependants. 
 
 The Druses here are said not to fast, though those in the 
 mountains and plains of the Hauran rigidly observe the Ramadan. 
 The women, Christian as well as Druse, all wear the horn upon 
 the forehead. The young females generally put it on at the age 
 of puberty, made of stiff paper or other cheap materials, and on 
 the day of marriage one of silver is usually presented by the hus- 
 band to the wife. It is a popular belief, among both Mohammedans, 
 Christians, and all the other sects here, that the Druses pay ador- 
 ation to the emblems of generation, which are enclosed in a small 
 portable sanctuary, like the lingam and yoni of the Hindoos. It 
 has been thought by some that this horn was originally worn in 
 honor of the deity that presides over the secrets of the marriage 
 bed ; and as the history and tenets of the Druse religion are altoge- 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 395 
 
 ther so mysterious and obscure, it is by no means improbable. 
 The shape of this emblem beneath the muslin veil with which it is 
 always covered, might even suggest the origin here popularly as- 
 cribed to the usage of wearing it. 
 
 The town of Rasheyah, though standing itself on the point of 
 a round hill, is seated at the foot of the great snowy mountain 
 called Jebel-el-Telj and Jebel-el-Sheikh, the highest part of the 
 mountain bearing from S.E. to S.W. and the base not a mile off. 
 This mountain may be said to have its base on a range of high 
 hills, and rising itself to a considerable height above them, its ele- 
 vation from the sea is perhaps from 12,000 to 15,000 feet ; its 
 summit is all the year covered with snow, and at this moment it 
 was sheeted over from top to bottom, the snow extending itself even 
 to the town. Pococke has considered this mountain to be the 
 Hermon most frequently referred to in the Scriptures, as the boun- 
 dary of the promised land to the northward. His reasons are most 
 satisfactory, and his explanation of the allusion to the dew of Her- 
 mon in the Psalms of DaVid ingenious. It is frequently coupled 
 with Lebanon, and spoken of in a way that can scarcely apply to 
 the inferior Hermon near Mount Tabor. Solomon sinffs to his mis- 
 tress, " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from 
 Lebanon : look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir 
 and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the 
 leopards." Cant. iv. 8. I could not find the names still remaining, 
 but wolves and other wild beasts are said to exist here, and 
 leopards are reported to be common. 
 
 All the women and children that we saw here were pretty, and 
 some even beautiful, their complexions fair, lips red, eyes black and 
 penetrating, and none of their faces disfigured either with stains or 
 uncouth ornaments of any kind. 
 
 About nine o'clock we quitted Rasheyah in a thick mist that 
 enveloped all the hill, and went down to the westward into a 
 deep valley called Wadi Ityne. This has for its eastern boundary 
 the range of hills which still run southward, growing lower and 
 
 3 E 2 
 
396 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 lower, like an extended point, from the great Jebel-el-Sheikh, and 
 all called Jebel-el-Wast as far as Banias. Its western boundary is 
 a range of lower hills called Jebel Arbel, going from about a day's 
 journey south of this to near Balbeck. The valley between these 
 appears here to be about two miles wide, of unequal level, and 
 well cultivated throughout. To the westward of Jebel Arbel we 
 saw the lofty range of Libanus extending nearly north and south 
 along the coast, and now covered with snow. It is generally 
 called Jebel-el-Druse, from being inhabited chiefly by that people, 
 but its old name of Lebanon is still familiar among the peasants. 
 Between the range of Jebel Arbel on the east, and Jebel-el-Druse 
 on the west, is the valley called the Bukhaah, and thought by 
 Maundrel to be the plain of Aven mentioned with Damascus by the 
 prophet Amos ; c. i. v. 5. It varies in breadth from five to ten miles, 
 growing wider as it goes to the northward, from the angle formed 
 between the direction of the ranges of hills which enclose it ; Li- 
 banus following the coast nearly north and south, and Arbel and 
 Anti-Libanus taking a more easterly turn. In length it extends 
 from a day's journey south of this to Balbeck, till it loses itself in 
 the plain of Homs and Hamah, mentioned also by Amos, c. vi. v. 2., 
 and called Hamath the Great. 
 
 In half an hour after leaving Rasheyah, we passed a small 
 village on our right called Akeby, peopled by Druses and Chris- 
 tians in equal numbers ; in another half hour, we passed on the 
 left the village of Beit Caefy ; and in about the same space of time, 
 another on our right called Beit Lyah, all small, and all peopled 
 by Druses and Christians, who appear to live together here in great 
 harmony. 
 
 Our course had been nearly S. W., which direction we con- 
 tinued to follow, with some trifling variations, and a little before 
 noon we came to a stream, where we halted for a moment to water 
 our horses. The rain was violent, and sometimes mixed with hail, 
 which fell with great force, as the wind blew a perfect tempest. The 
 stream comes down here from the westward through a narrow pass, 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 397 
 
 by high steep cliiFs; and its spring, which is just above a small 
 village called Kanaby, about an hour distant, on the side of the hill 
 to the west, is called Nubbe SufFa. At the spring itself are said to 
 be columns, and other vestiges, of a large ruined building ; — pro- 
 bably a temple to the river god, as that custom seems to have pre- 
 vailed much in Syria. It was at this stream that we first noticed 
 the black porous stone which is found at the Lake of Tiberias, all 
 through the valley of Jordan, and in the plains of the Hauran. It 
 was here seen only sparingly, scattered among masses of lime-stone 
 rock, and small siliceous stones, but it increased in quantity as we 
 advanced to the southward. 
 
 It was about noon when we quitted this stream, and continuing 
 our way in the direction of the valley to the S. W., in less than an 
 hour we came opposite to a large village called Siffeeny, which we 
 passed about two miles on our left. It is seated on a hill, enjoys a 
 fine situation, is apparently well built, and is peopled by Druses and 
 Christians. In half an hour from hence we passed hy Eckfaire, a 
 smaller village ; and in less than that time, beyond it, were oppo- 
 site to Mimiss, a much larger one ; both about a mile or two on 
 our left, and both peopled by Druses and Christians. 
 
 It was, perhaps, an hour from this, when we reached the source 
 of a river called Nahr-el-Hheazbey. It rises in the bottom of the 
 valley, and forms at once a large bason of beautifully clear water. 
 Being confined by a dam or wall, rising in receding stages, like a 
 flight of very steep and narrow steps, it overflows, and falls in a 
 wide sheet over this sloping and unequal surface, so as to form a 
 pretty cascade. At the distance of a few yards only below the 
 source, it has a two arched bridge thrown over it, and is there 
 rapid in its course. The town of Hheazbey, which gives name to 
 this stream, is just above it on a hill to the east. It is of a con- 
 siderable size, and in it is seen the minaret of a mosque, built by 
 the Mohammedans when there were a portion of Moslems among 
 the population. It is now, however, deserted, as the inhabitants are 
 wholly Druses and Christians. 
 
398 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 In half an hour from hence, following nearly the course of the 
 stream, we passed close to a ruined khan, called Khan-el-Hheazbey, 
 at which there is a public bazar, held every Tuesday, and visited 
 by people of the surrounding country, from Damascus to Nazareth. 
 
 A few minutes beyond this, or, as my guide measured the 
 distance, in about the tirrie that one might smoke a half-filled pipe 
 of tobacco, we saw on the left a small village, called Abu Kummhe, 
 or the Father of Corn, though not having either the reputation 
 or the appearance of producing more grain than the neighbouring 
 towns. In half an hour from this, while riding on the brow of the 
 western range of hills which hemmed in this valley, we saw, at the 
 foot of the eastern range, the small village of Ferdeese, about three 
 miles distant, seated in the most beautiful hollow that could be 
 seen, and surrounded by waving fields of green, and thickly planted 
 vines and olives. It was somewhat less than an hour from hence, 
 that we saw, on the right of our road, the large village of Kou 
 Kubba, standing high on the brow of the western hills ; and just 
 before sun-set we came to a round isolated hill, in form resembling 
 the Mount of Tabor, in the Plain of Esdraelon, but inferior in size 
 to that mountain. It was exceedingly steep, and its sides were 
 covered with Sindian trees, of which we saw none in any other part 
 of the road. 
 
 The valley of Wadi Ityne, through which we had come from 
 Rasheyah to this place, has a general direction of N. N. E. and 
 S. S. W., and varies in its breadth from two to three miles. Its 
 level is often interrupted by small hillocks ; but it is well cultivated 
 throughout with corn, vines, and olives, and is full of villages 
 peopled wholly by Druses and Christians in nearly equal numbers. 
 The valley ends here by the meeting of the two ranges of hills 
 together. 
 
 We ascended on the west side of this round mount, covered 
 with trees, and soon after sun-set reached the town of Hibl, where 
 we halted at the khan appropriated to public use. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 399 
 
 As I passed for a Turk from Damascus, a good supper, fire- 
 wood, and corn for our animals, were all brought at my command, 
 and the most respectful attentions were paid us by the sheikh who 
 furnished all these. I thought it singular that this was the first place 
 at which we had seen coffee since leaving Damascus, an article so 
 universally in use among the Arabs of all classes, that I hardly 
 ever remember to have made two halts in succession without 
 drinking it, or having it prepared and offered to me at least. The 
 night was really dreadful, and our situation being an elevated one, 
 the storms of wind and rain and hail that blew shook the house, 
 and sometimes threatened to unroof it. 
 
 Sunday, April 9th, 1816. — The storm still reigned at day-light, 
 and the thermometer in the open air stood at 36°. We were de- 
 tained for nearly three hours by our guide's attendance on the 
 moi-ning service of the church, and left the town about nine o'clock. 
 In size it is scarcely inferior to Rasheyah, and it is seated, like it, 
 on the summit of a high round hill. From the door of the khan 
 in which we lodged, we saw to the southward the extensive valley 
 of the Jordan, which begins from here under the name of Wadi 
 Seziban, or Steziban, and continues all the way to be so called, 
 evea to the Dead Sea, though the part south of the Lake of Tibe^ 
 rias is more frequently called El Ghore. We could see from 
 hence, distinctly, the Lake Samochinites, now called Bahr-el-Houly, 
 bearing about S. S.W., and distant, perhaps, 15 miles, seeming 
 but little inferior to the Bahr-el-Tabareehah, Lake of Tiberias, in 
 extent. 
 
 We descended from Hibl on the west side of the hill, and 
 entered the Wadi Steziban. We continued on a southerly course, 
 passing, in about an hour, the village of Gheryeby, and in half an 
 hour more, that of Meary, both on the left of the road. They are 
 small, and peopled only by Christians, the Druses ending at Hibl, 
 or extending no further southward than that town. 
 
 We came now into an uninteresting country ; the soil was very 
 
400 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 scanty, and cultivation scarcely seen. The black porous stone be- 
 came now the basis of the plain, and lay scattered in detached 
 masses and short ridges on its surface. A few trees, like the 
 English ash, were also seen, but neither vines, olives, nor corn ; 
 and the tract seemed to be possessed by Arabs, as we passed several 
 clusters of tents pitched without that regard to order usually seen, 
 and apparently very mean and poor. They were said to belong to 
 the Turconians, a race of people who come from the northern parts 
 of Syria, about Aleppo, and elsewhere ; who speak Turkish and 
 Arabic equally well, as they live on the frontiers of the two lan- 
 guages ; and who come down into the south of Syria to profit by 
 the early spring. They have here a worse character than the true 
 Arab Bedouins, though that may be from their being thought in- 
 truders, or strangers, among them. 
 
 We descended gradually over this inclined sloping plane, and 
 about noon passed a small village called El Ghadjar, which we left 
 at least a mile on our right. It is seen at a great distance off, from 
 its standing on a rising mound ; and from its having, amidst its 
 humble dwellings, a large sheikh's tomb, which is white-washed in 
 the usual way, and makes a conspicuous figure. This village is 
 inhabited solely by a people called Nesseary, whose religion seems 
 very little understood by their neighbours, as they are said, by 
 some, to worship the sun, and by others, to adore the pudenda mu- 
 liebris. The same stories are related of them as of the Ismaylees, 
 namely, that at their yearly feast they all meet together, persons of 
 both sexes, old and young, and that the room being darkened, pro- 
 miscuous intercourse takes place, without regard to age or kindred. 
 They have, however, the reputation of being honest and friendly to 
 both Christians and Moslems. 
 
 We now crossed the river Hheazbey, which we had kept in sight 
 almost from its source to this place, where it is as broad, as deep, 
 and as rapid as the Jordan near Jericho ; and going easterly for 
 about an hour, we came in sight of a large ruined castle on a hill 
 to the eastward of us, called Khallet-el-Banias. We met here a 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 40I 
 
 caravan of at least fifty mules, all laden with myrtle for the supply 
 of families who consume it in strewing with this plant the graves 
 of their deceased friends in the cemeteries of Damascus ; and it was 
 said, that one so charged generally left this neighbourhood for that 
 city every month; besides which, many others went from different 
 parts of the country in which myrtle grew. The lading of each 
 mule was estimated to be worth fifty piastres, so that those affec- 
 tionate duties to the dead must be expensive to the poorer classes. 
 
 Crossing a small stream which descended from the N. E., 
 called Nahr-el-Banias, and going up over a rising ground in nearly 
 that direction on the eastern side of the stream, we soon came to 
 the entrance of the town itself 
 
 The name of Jebelrcl-Wast, which is applied to the Anti- 
 Libanus of the ancients, extends even to the southward of Jebel-el- 
 Sheikh as far as Banias. From thence, southerly, to the eastern 
 shore of the Lake of Tiberias, is an even range of hill, called Jebel- 
 Jowalan, which, with the portion of Jebel-el-Wast from Hibl 
 thus far, forms the eastern boundary of the Wadi Steziban. The 
 western boundary, which is also a range of hills of no considerable 
 height or marked form, is called Jebel Jowaleen. The valley 
 itself extends, perhaps, 30 miles, from its commencement at Hibl 
 to its interruption at the north end of the Lake of Tiberias, where 
 the water occupies all the breadth of the plain. To the north- 
 ward of the Bahr-el-Houly it varies in breadth from five to ten 
 miles, and to the southward of Banias it seems well cultivated 
 throughout. 
 
 On entering Banias we saw two grey granite shafts, each in 
 one piece, with several scattered pedestals, and large blocks of 
 stone ; and soon afterwards we passed over a bridge, the lower part 
 of which seemed of Roman work ; but the upper part of the arch 
 and the pavement were modern repairs. A full and rapid stream ran 
 beneath it among tall rushes and other weeds. There were por- 
 tions of a large building of rustic masonry close by this on the 
 right, most decidedly Roman ; but whether a temple, as has been 
 
 3f 
 
402 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 conjectured, I should think extremely doubtful. The rustic ma- 
 sonry was chiefly used by them in castles, baths, and works of 
 strength and utility, while their religious buildings were chiefly of 
 smooth work, both within and without ; and no columns, altars, or 
 other decisive features, remain among the ruins of this building, 
 to induce a belief of its being a temple, while several portions of 
 aqueducts, strong walls, &c. near, lead rather to abelief of its being 
 some other kind of edifice. Beyond it, to the east, in the modern 
 town, the remains of another rustic building, called El Bourge, 
 were pointed out, but we did not examine this near enough to 
 decide whether it was a temple or not. Sheikh Ibrahim had men- 
 tioned to me the existence of two temples at Banias ; but whether 
 these were they or not, I could not learn. 
 
 We turned aside from the bridge, and went up on the left to 
 see the source of the stream. In our way we passed a perpendicular 
 cliff, where the facing of the rock was very curiously and carefully 
 carved over with diagonal lines, for the length of a hundred, and 
 the depth of about six feet. It was executed witli so much regu- 
 larity and care, and the lines were so deep and well cut, that it was 
 evidently intended as an ornament ; but as there was no building 
 near, nor excavation in the cliff itself, we were quite at a loss to 
 conceive its meaning. 
 
 Beyond this, to the eastward, we came, in a few minutes, to 
 the source of the stream, which here issues copiously out of the 
 living rock in many places, and, in others, forces its way up through 
 a bed of loose stones, forming altogether an ample basin of beau- 
 tifully transparent water, and of excellent taste. 
 
 Just over the spring, in the northern cliff which overhangs 
 it, is a large cavern in the rock ; and high above that, an open 
 building with pillars, and a dome like the sepulchre of some Mo- 
 hammedan saint. Under this belief, the Moslems forbid Christians 
 to visit it, though these assert it to be the tomb of a Mar Georgis, 
 or St. George, though not the famous one who slew the dragon. 
 We noted, from below, the capital of a Corinthian pillar used on 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 403 
 
 one of the columns, and this coupled with the remains of a large 
 smooth work building, and the fountain of the waters below, of 
 which a portion of the wall containing a hollow niche on the inside 
 is still perfect, gives reason to believe that there might have been a 
 temple here immediately over the spring. A little to the right, or 
 on the east of the large cavern spoken of in the cliff, are several 
 fan-topped niches cut in the solid rock, with inscriptions near them. 
 The first of these, which is, perhaps, five feet high by two and a 
 half wide, is over an arched recess, excavated also in the rock about 
 six feet deep, ten wide, and twelve high, with a plain concave niche 
 at its end. The pilasters which support the arch of the fan-topped 
 niche above are fluted, but are without capitals ; and underneath the 
 niche itself is this inscription : 
 
 r NAeeeANANGMHKe 
 
 *IAeY ... XlJUAIOnANIO 
 
 OYIKTtUPA PHTHeAYCI 
 
 MAXOIOTONOIO. 
 
 The second of these niches has fluted pilasters supporting the arch, 
 with a large space beneath it cut like the square pedestal of a co- 
 lumn ; and within the niche itself a small pedestal, as if for a statue. 
 The top commences with the scroll of the fan, or shell, but is 
 then continued upwards in diagonal cross lines, like the facing of 
 the rocky cliff before described. The third of the niches has fluted 
 pilasters supporting its arch, with the regular fan-top within, and 
 on each side of it is a tablet for inscriptions, though letters appear 
 to have been cut only on one, and these are almost illegible. It was 
 with considerable difficulty that I could make out the following : 
 
 HANr IM4>AIC 
 
 AlHCrONlJUN . . . NOA IGOH 
 
 K . . . N . . . *XN . . . 100 . . . II«I>N. 
 
 There are three lines more, of which I could make out still less, as 
 they seemed purposely defaced. Beyond this is a large plain recess, 
 
 3f 2 
 
404 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 now nearly buried in the earth ; and all these are progressively 
 lower than each other in the order they are described. 
 
 While occupied in copying the inscriptions, we were visited by 
 some Mohammedans from the town, who insisted on my being a 
 Muggrebin magician, come to raise treasures, and threatened to 
 take us all by force to the Sheikh, for having come here without 
 his permission. These men prevented our going into the town to 
 examine it more minutely. 
 
 Banias, as is well known, was anciently called Paneade, which 
 name it nearly now retains. The outline of its history is given by 
 Pococke. It was afterwards called Caesarea, in honour of Caesar ; 
 and Philippi, in honour of Philip the tetrarch, who chiefly embel- 
 lished it, as well as to distinguish it from the Cassarea Palestina, on 
 the coast between Accho, or Ptolemais, and Joppa. In the time of 
 its flourishing state it seems to have given name to all the district 
 about it, as it is said in the Gospel: " And Jesus went out, and 
 his disciples, into the towns of Csesarea Philippi : and by the way 
 he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say 
 that I am ?" Mark viii. 27. 
 
 The present town is small, and meanly built, having no place 
 of worship in it ; and the inhabitants, who are about 500 in number, 
 are Mohammedans and Metouali, governed by a Moslem Sheikh, 
 The Metouali, as far as I could yet learn, are themselves a sect of 
 Mohammedans, who admit the Koran, and perform the same pray- 
 ers and ablutions as the rest ; but pay some marks of respect to 
 Hussein and Ali, and have particular opinions on the succession 
 of the caliphs, like the Mohammedans of Persia. 
 
 The situation is agreeable and healthy, being on the western 
 side of the range of hills which bound the Wadi Steziban on the 
 east. The ruined castle on the summit of the hill above is said 
 to be Saracen, but we did not go up to it. The Bahr-el-Houly, or 
 Lake of Samochonites, cannot be seen from hence, owing to the 
 intervention of a point of land. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 495 
 
 We quitted Banias about three o'clock, and going west for a 
 little more than a mile, came to a small elevation in the plain, 
 with a flat space on the top, like an artificial mound. It is called 
 Tel-el-Cadi ; and in the centre of it the springs of the Jordan rise, 
 rushing out of five or six places, rendered difficult of access froni 
 rushes, trees, &c. These springs are called by the. Arabs Nubb-el- 
 Etheari. They form, even here, a pretty large basin, and go in a 
 single stream to the southward, passing by a place where there is 
 a white tomb, called Seedy Yooda Ibn Yacoob, and keeping near 
 the foot of the eastern range of hills. This tomb is, perhaps, a mile 
 to the south of the springs here described ; and two miles to the 
 southward of that, the water of Banias, which keeps always east of 
 the Jordan thus far, here joins it, and they both go together into 
 the Bahr-el-Houly, which is said to be six hours, though it looks 
 not more than ten miles from hence. * 
 
 In the course of our way we neither saw nor heard of any 
 villages under the names of Ghor or Dan, though these are said 
 to exist ; the former giving its name to the whole of the valley 
 between Judea and. the eastern mountains, and the latter being the 
 
 * Banias is described by Benjamin of Tudela, under the name of Belinos, anciently 
 called Dan. Close to this city, he says, the sources of the Jordan gush out of a cave, 
 and after running three miles, the stream joins another current, which descends to the 
 extremity of Moab. (This is the stream which springs up from Tal Cadi, and which 
 the people of the country call the Shereeah or Jordan, from Ghor, the name of the 
 valley, and Dan, the old name of the city near.) They show, he continues, before this 
 cave, the altar of an idol, erected by a certain Michee, and which was adored in these 
 days by the inhabitants of Dan. This is exactly the description of Banias, and its 
 river springing from the hollow of the rock, with niches for statues, &c. Not far 
 from thence, he says, is a place where Jeroboam, the son of Naban, erected an altar 
 and set up again the golden calf. 
 
 Mr. Seetzen says, in a letter from Acre, June 16, 1606, inserted in L'Ambigu, 
 No. 253. " Les anciens avoient donn^ le nom de Source du Jordain a la source de la 
 riviere de Baniass, et elle parait meriter ce nom sous le rapport de sa beaute ; mais dans 
 le fait, il parait que cette prtference est due a la source de la riviere de Hasbeny, qui 
 prend son origine a une demi-lieue a I'ouest de Hasb^a, et qui forme la branche la 
 plus longue du Jordain. La source de Tal Kady, que les habitans du pays prennent 
 pour celle du Jordain, est celle qui merite le moins de porter ce nom." 
 
406 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 place principally inhabited by the Jewish tribe of that name ; both 
 together, Ghor-Dan, giving the name of Jordan to the river. The 
 black porous stone, coated like onions, and appearing in detached 
 and rounded masses, still continued to fill the plain ; and the 
 thorny tree seen on the banks of the Jordan near Jericho, and 
 supposed to have furnished the crown with which the Jews 
 wounded and mocked the Messiah, are also prevalent here: though 
 there are also small irrigated spots, in which a species of reddish rice 
 is cultivated by the Arabs encamping near the stream. 
 
 We went up in a N. W. direction from hence, and in an hour 
 crossed the river Hheazbhani, over a bridge of three arches, the 
 stream being there both broad and deep, with steep rocky banks 
 on each side. The river goes from hence southerly into a small 
 lake, called Birket Jehouly, about five miles to the south of this ; 
 and from thence it continues on to the Bahr-el-Houly, a much larger 
 lake, not mixing its waters with those of the Jordan until then. 
 
 Ascending from hence for about an hour more, in nearly the 
 same direction, we reached a large village, called MetuUy, altogether 
 inhabited by Druses. I was so exhausted and ill on my arrival 
 here, that I was unable to take food, or to do any thing but lie 
 down on a carpet hastily spread for me near the hearth, round which 
 the family that received us were seated ; and my sufferings, which 
 were extreme, from fever and fatigue combined, were soon lost 
 in sleep. 
 
 Monday, April 10. — I was still weak and ill, when morning- 
 came : but it was necessary to make a last eflfort in order to get to 
 Seyda, where medical aid, as well as shelter and proper sustenance, 
 could alone be obtained. The only facts that I learnt here which 
 I subsequently remembered, were the positions of the two lakes 
 before named. Birket Jehouly, bearing from hence S. ^ W. distant 
 from eight to ten miles, and Birket-el-Houly bearing south about 
 fifteen miles. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 407 
 
 We left Metully at sun-rise, going rather more slowly than 
 usual, proceeding in a N.W. direction, and in half an hour after 
 setting out, we passed a place called Merj Aioon, seated on a hill 
 to the right of our path. In half an hour more we passed a small 
 village called Kufr Kully, and half an hour beyond that, a place 
 called Houra. 
 
 Being now on a higher level than that from which we had 
 come up, we commenced our descent from hence, the course of 
 our track being changed from N. W. to N., and proceeding in that 
 direction for about an hour, we came to Nahi'-el-Thany. This is 
 a stream which comes from Balbeck, through the valley called 
 the Bekah ; we crossed it by a bridge of two arches, the stream 
 being here about 100 feet wide, and the water deep and rapid in 
 its course. Near this, on the hill above, was a ruined castle, called 
 Khallet-el-Belled-el-ShakifF, and at the bridge was a caphar, or place 
 of collecting tolls, though no application whatever is made of these 
 to the repair of the roads. All these places were inhabited by a 
 distinct class of Syrian Arabs, called Metouali. 
 
 In going along the bank of this stream we ascended in a N.W. 
 direction, having the southern extremities of the mountainous ridge 
 called Jebel Libanein, or Mount Lebanon, in view to the north, 
 and in appearance much resembling the mountains of Adjeloon. 
 In an hour from the bridge last passed, we crossed another stream 
 called Nahr-el-Jermak, which joins that of El-Thany, and both go 
 together into the sea, one hour's journey to the north of Soor. In 
 half an hour from hence, we passed the village of Jermak, on our 
 right ; and met a small caravan of traders from the plains of the 
 Hauran, their camels laden with rice, and black porous millstones 
 for grinding, before described as cut and prepared for use by the 
 people of that district. 
 
 We remarked that about this spot we first began to lojse all 
 traces of the black porous store. We learnt also, from those best 
 acquainted with the country, that the chain of mountains called 
 Jebel-el-Wast reaches as far as Banias. From thence a branch of 
 
408 JOURNEY FROM DAMASCUS, 
 
 the same chain extends southerly to Tiberias, and is there called 
 Jebel Jowellan. This is the eastern boundary of Wadi Steziban ; 
 the western one is called Jebel-el-Belled Bushara. The Wadi or 
 valley, is perhaps about thirty miles long, and seven or eight miles 
 broad. 
 
 We halted near the stream of El Jermak, near the village of 
 the same name, to refresh ; I was now however so weak as to be 
 almost unable to dismount, and was with great difficulty taken off 
 my horse, and again replaced on my seat. 
 
 After a hasty refreshment from the stock of provisions in our 
 possession, we again ascended over a stony tract, and then went 
 on upon a level plain, going now in a westerly direction, and in 
 half an hour we came to a place called Haboash, famous among 
 the people of the country for the excellence of its figs. In half an 
 hour more we came to Deer-el-Zaharany, and in an hour beyond 
 this, to a place called Zifteeah, seated on a hill to the left of our 
 route. 
 
 From hence we descended again to a lower level, going in a 
 N. W. direction, and crossing the stream of Nahr Zaharany in 
 about an hour afterwards. Its current was narrow, but extremely 
 rapid. It comes from Lebanon, and goes to the coast, where it 
 discharges itself into the sea, about three hours to the south of 
 Seyda. 
 
 Our course now changed to N. N. W. and in an hour after 
 passing the last named stream we came to another, called Nahr 
 Derb-el-Seen, from a village of that name, situated a little to the 
 eastward of it. The stream was small and shallow ; though it was 
 crossed by a bridge. In an hour afterwards, we came to a place 
 called Ghazee, where we halted and fed our horses, while the 
 Metoualis of the village were most of them at prayer. 
 
 My weakness and illness continued to increase as the night 
 advanced ; but there were no remedies to be had until we reached 
 our journey's end. I accordingly continued, at a great sacrifice of 
 personal ease, to proceed, leaving this village about eight o'clock. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS, TO SIDON. 409 
 
 In an hour after quitting it, we came again to the stream called 
 Nahr Derb-el-Seen ; and at ten o'clock we reached the convent of 
 Mar Elias in safety. 
 
 The lateness of the hour had induced me to suppose that I 
 should only find the servants of the convent up ; and it was my wish 
 to have entered its hospitable doors with as little noise and trouble 
 as possible ; but at the instant of our arrival, the servants were 
 ready to receive me, and almost before I was quite certain of this 
 painful journey being at an end, I was hurried by them into the 
 presence of their amiable and excellent mistress. The weak state 
 of my health, the shattered condition of my frame, my disordered 
 dress and appearance, and the suddenness of this unexpected 
 interview, all contributed to increase my embarrassment, which 
 was indeed extreme. 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope received me, however, with an affability 
 peculiarly her own ; bade me be seated on the sofa which surrounded 
 the room after the Turkish fashion ; and in an instant, an abundant 
 and delicious supper was placed on the table by the attendants, of 
 which, though I had no natural appetite left, I readily partook, 
 not having for a long period seen or tasted food in such perfection 
 of cleanliness, as well as quality and flavour. A bed had been 
 prepared for me ; accompanied with the highest luxury that a 
 traveller in the East can possibly enjoy, a bath and clean linen 
 before he sinks to sleep ; and my kind and princely entertainer 
 perceiving my exhausted state, permitted me to suit my owij 
 inclination entirely by retiring at once to repose. 
 
 3cx 
 
CHAP. XX. 
 
 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, IN THE CONVENT 
 
 OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 
 
 I HAD the good fortune and happiness to remain under the 
 hospitable roof of this distinguished lady for a period of nine days, 
 during which I received the greatest possible kindness from every 
 one in her service, as well as from her ladyship's own hands. I 
 arrived at the convent in a state of extreme illness and exhaustion ; 
 in such a debilitated condition, indeed, as would have afforded 
 little hope of recovery, had I continued in that state to be exposed 
 to the privations which are almost inseparable from travelling in 
 such a country as Syria. By tlie agreeable and invaluable relief 
 which I found here, in the combinations of medical skill, nutritious 
 diet, quiet shelter, and intelligent society, I recovered more rapidly 
 than my most sanguine hopes had ventured to anticipate : and 
 
STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 4II 
 
 when I quitted the convent to pursue my journey, I was as fresh 
 and vigorous as on the day of my first setting out from Egypt. 
 During the period of my stay there, I preserved no notes of what 
 passed. The exertions of my mind having been already as much 
 overstrained as those of my body, and contributing their full share 
 to my illness, it was indispensable to my restoration to relax in 
 the efforts of both ; and I was surrounded by so many objects of 
 welcome delight, that I very readily abandoned myself, during this 
 period of my gradual recovery, to the mere enjoyment of exist- 
 ence, to breathing the pure and bracing morning air of the hills, 
 basking in the sunny noon of the vales, inhaling the evening 
 breeze, and enjoying the breakers of the sea on the borders of the 
 coast till sun-set : all these being within the range of two or three 
 miles at most from the convent itself Books, conversation, and 
 repose, filled up the remainder of the time : so that during the 
 nine days of my stay here, with the exception of one visit to 
 the town of Sidon, and one to the examination of some curious 
 subterranean chambers in the vicinity, I literally did nothing but 
 enjoy, and that intensely, the pleasures by which I was surrounded, 
 and the rapidly progressive improvement of my health and strength. 
 Some letters, addressed to friends in England from this distant 
 spot, and now in my possession, with the several preparatory 
 extracts from ancient writers, made for the purpose of guiding 
 my enquiries before I set out on my journey, and these connected 
 chiefly by the aid of recollection, have formed the only materials 
 from which I have been able to draw up an account of what par- 
 ticularly attracted my attention during this short interval. 
 
 The town of Sidon, which is not more than five or six miles 
 distant from the convent of Mar Elias, where Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope resides, was the first object of my examination as soon as I 
 had acquired strength enough to venture out : and being accom- 
 panied in my visit to this place by her ladyship's physician. Dr. 
 Meryon, whose intelligence and urbanity rendered him a valuable 
 and agreeable companion, it was an excursion of pleasure rather 
 
 3g 2 
 
412 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 than of research. The very name of Sidon is so perpetually 
 associated with that of Tyre, that they are always regarded as 
 sister cities ; and the traveller must enter each with nearly the 
 same feelings of admiration for their former grandeur, and regret 
 for their subsequent decay.* Renowned, however, as the Tyrians 
 were, the Sidonians were regarded as their superiors, as well from 
 the greater antiquity of their cityf, as from its being especially 
 distinguished by the epithet of " the great." if Among the extracts 
 made to direct my enquiries in those parts of the East which it might 
 fall to my lot to visit, and to which I had, for years past, directed 
 my attention ; there is one so interesting, as well as so much to the 
 purpose, in proof of the ancient strength and splendour of Sidon, 
 that it may be appropriately introduced into the body of the text. 
 In the history of the war of Artaxerxes Ochus, with the 
 Phoenicians, Sidon is mentioned as one of the most powerful cities 
 of that country : and at this place, indeed, the first flames of the 
 war were kindled. The historian, after describing the importance 
 of Tripolis, and its share in this affair, says, 
 
 " The kings, lords, lieutenants, and generals, then in Sidon, 
 carrying themselves by their severe edicts rigorously and haughtily 
 towards the Sidonians ; the citizens being so abused and not being 
 able longer to brook it, studied how to revolt from the Persians. 
 Upon which, the rest of the Phoenicians, being wrought upon by 
 the other to vindicate their liberty, sent messengers to Nectanetus, 
 the king of Egypt, then at war with the Persians, to receive them 
 as confederates, and so the whole nation prepared for war. And 
 being that Sidon then exceeded all the rest of the cities of Phoenicia 
 
 * Quintus Curtius, in recording Alexander's passage through Sidon, on his way 
 from the Issus to Tyre, calls it a city famous for its antiquity and for the renown of its 
 founder. Vol. i. b. 4. c. 1. 
 
 -(■ By the Jewish Prophets, Tyre is sometimes called the daughter of Sidon : and 
 in the very earliest of the books of Moses, it is said, perhaps figuratively, that Canaan 
 begat Sidon, his first born (Gen. x. 15.), as if Sidon were one of the very first towns 
 built in the land of Canaan, as well as called after Canaan's first born. 
 
 X Joshua xix. 28. 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAE ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 413 
 
 in wealth, and even private men, by the advantage of trade, were 
 grown very rich, they built a great number of ships and raised a 
 potent army of mercenaries, and both arms, darts, and provisions, 
 and all other things necessary for war, were prepared ; and that 
 they might appear first in the war they spoiled and ruined the 
 king's garden, cutting down all the trees where the Persian kings 
 used to recreate and divert themselves. Then they burnt all the 
 hay which the lord lieutenants had laid up for the horses. At last 
 they seized upon the Persians who had so insulted them, and 
 haled them to punishment. And in this manner began the war of 
 the Persians with the Phoenicians. 
 
 " Mentor, the general of the Sidonians, having despatched 
 Thessalion, a servant of his own, to Artaxerxes, offering to betray 
 the city into his hands, the Persian monarch sent into Greece for 
 auxiliaries, and was furnished by the Thebans with 1000 heavy 
 armed men, and by the Argives with 3000. His own alacrity 
 was so gx'eat, that before these had come up to their appointed 
 stations, he had himself marched from Babylon, through Syria 
 and Phoenicia, and was already encamped before Sidon. In the 
 mean time, (says the historian) while the king spent a consider- 
 able time in making preparations, the Sidonians had been very 
 active and diligent in providing themselves with arms and provi- 
 sions ; and, besides, had drawn a treble deep and broad trench, 
 and a high wall round the city. They had likewise a brave body 
 of tall, handsome, and stout men of the citizens, well exercised 
 and trained up in a martial discipline out of the schools. And 
 this city went far beyond all the cities of Phoenicia for wealth and 
 all other sumptuous ornaments, both for state and grandeur. And 
 that which was not the least, among the rest, they were furnished 
 with 100 galleys of three and four oars on a bank. 
 
 " Mentor, their general, and Tennes, another commander, suc- 
 ceeded, however, in their treason ; and after the entrapping of 
 100 of the first people of the city who went out as senators, and 
 were all put to death by Artaxerxes, 500 other of the chief in- 
 
414 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 habitants who had corne out with olive branches in their hands as 
 emblems of their mission of peace, were also treacherously mur- 
 dered with darts. Even after this, the traitor Tennes persuaded 
 the Egyptian mercenaries, who were commanded by Mentor, to 
 let him and Artaxerxes within the walls, when, by this success- 
 ful treachery, Sidon came again into the hands of the Persians. 
 In the mean time (adds the historian) the Sidonians had burnt all 
 their shipping before the king came, lest any of the inhabitants, 
 consulting their own particular safety, should get away by sea. 
 At length, when the Sidonians saw that the army was entered, 
 and many thousands of men ranging here and there and dispersed 
 all over the city, they shut themselves up with their wives and chil- 
 dren in their houses, and set them on fire, and so all were consumed 
 together. It is said, that there were above 40,000 (with household 
 servants) that perished in these flames. 
 
 " After this destruction of the Sidonians, bv which the whole 
 city and inhabitants were consumed to ashes, the king sold the 
 rubbish and relics of the fire for many talents. For, being that the 
 city was very rich, there was sold a vast quantity of gold and 
 silver melted down by the flames. Thus sad was the calamity 
 under which the Sidonians suffered; the. rest of the cities, being 
 terrified with the destruction, presently surrendered themselves to 
 the Persians."* 
 
 This description of Sidon, in its most flourishing days, and 
 the recital of the sad calamity which effected its destruction then, 
 was read by me with a deep and powerful interest on the spot. 
 It had revived again at a subsequent period f : but so great are 
 
 * Diodorus Siculus, b. 8. c. 8. 
 
 f About the time when Demetrius returned from Greece into Syria, after his 
 initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries while at Athens, (A. C. 300) Ptolemy led a 
 well-appointed army out of Egypt, and reduced all the cities of Coelosyria to his 
 obedience; but when he lay before Sidon there came a false rumour to his ear, that 
 a battle had been fought, wherein Lysimachus and Seleuchus were routed and fled to 
 Heraclea, and that Antigonus thereupon was hastening into Syria with his victorious 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAR ELI AS, NEAR SIDON. 41 5 
 
 the mutations occasioned by time, that but for the identity of 
 name and position, there would be scarcely any marks left by 
 which to recognise even the site of the proud emporium here 
 alluded to. The stranger who visits it in its present state, will look 
 around in vain for any of those vestiges of its former grandeur, 
 which the description of the ancient historians would lead him to 
 expect ; and which, indeed, are still to be seen in most of the 
 other celebrated cities of the East; whether in Greece, Egypt, 
 Syria, or Asia Minor : all wears now a modern aspect, and that 
 too of the most ordinary kind. 
 
 The present town of Seyda extends along the sea-shore for a 
 space of less than a mile in length, and is not more than half 
 a mile in its general breadth from the water to its inner border ; 
 standing on a gradually ascending slope, from the sea to the more 
 elevated ground behind, its appearance from without is more 
 pleasing than many other towns of a better description in their 
 interior. Towards the sea-side an old castle, said to have been 
 built by the crusaders of France, and the ruins of another running 
 out at the extremity of a ledge of rocks, with arches, tend to give 
 the harbour a picturesque appearance, particularly when a few of 
 the native vessels of the coast are seen behind this ledge, where 
 they usually anchor, for shelter if bound to some other port, or for 
 convenience while discharging and taking in their cargoes here. 
 
 The buildings of Seyda are not at all superior to the com- 
 mon order of Mohammedan edifices in the modern towns of 
 Syria : the streets are extremely narrow, the mosques mean, the 
 caravanserais small and incommodious, and the bazars few and 
 badly furnished with even the necessaries in general request. 
 
 The inhabitants are variously estimated, at from 5,000 to 
 10,000; perhaps the true number would be found to be be- 
 tween 7,000 and 8,000. The great majority of these are Mo- 
 army. Ptolemy, giving over light credit to this report, made a truce with the 
 Sidonians for five months ; and putting garrisons into other cities vchich he had taken 
 in those parts, returned into Egypt. Diod. Sic. b. 20. c. 5, 
 
416 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 hammedans, the Christians not exceeding 1000, and the Jews 
 less than 500. These sects appear to hve in tolerable harmony 
 with each other ; more so, at least, than in the interior of the 
 country generally : and, indeed, throughout the East, the sea ports 
 are remarkable for their more tolerant spirit than the inland 
 towns; arising, most probably, from the perpetual intermixture 
 with foreigners and strangers, and the more powerful influence of 
 commercial transactions in bringing self-interest to soften down 
 the conflicting passions of opposing faiths. 
 
 The climate all around Seyda is peculiarly mild and healthy, 
 as well as agreeable* ; and the inhabitants are considered to be 
 more exempt from the common maladies of the country than 
 those of the neighbouring towns, including even the sea-ports on 
 the same line of coast. The environs of the town furnish, also, 
 some agreeably diversified rides and views, so as to make it an 
 attractive place of residence for those whose business may confine 
 them to some part of Syria, or a pleasing abode for those whom 
 health or pleasure may detain within its precincts for a ternporary 
 period. 
 
 The occupations of the inhabitants are various. The greatest 
 numbers of the peasantiy are engaged in the cultivation^ of the 
 mulberry tree, for the sake of the silk, which is here produced in 
 great abundance, and of a tolerably good quality. Some portion 
 of the raw material is exported ; a much larger portion is, however, 
 worked up into various articles of wearing apparel, principally 
 gai'ments suited to the dress and habits of the middle classes in 
 the neighbouring districts. The manufacture of glass appears to 
 be unknown here : though this part of the country was once 
 
 * Ammianus Marcellinus, in describing Syria and Phoenicia, mentions Sidon 
 amongst its most agreeable and healthy towns. " Apres la Syrie vient ensuite la 
 Phenice, appuy^e au Mont Liban, pays cliarmant et gracieux, qui decorent de grandes 
 et belles citds, parmi lesquels, on remarque, pour son agr^ment et sa salubrite, Tyr, 
 Sidon, Beryte, qu' egalepent Emesse et Damas anciennement baties." French 
 Translation. Lyons 1778. Tom. i. b. 14. c. 8. 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 417 
 
 famous for the discovery of, as well as production of articles in, 
 that material.* Dyeing, however, is still practised, though not with 
 the same success as among the ancient Tyrians ; and all the usual 
 manufactures of small Mohammedan towns are carried on with 
 about the same skill as in other parts of Syria, but certainly not 
 more ; the standard of this being every where much below that of 
 the most backward nation in Europe. 
 
 The supplies of food are principally drawn from their own 
 surrounding territory. Corn is raised in the fertile plains of Es- 
 draelon and Zabulon, In Galilee and Samaria, as well as on the 
 narrow slips of land between the foot of the mountains and the 
 coasts nearer to Seyda itself Rice is imported from Damietta in 
 Egypt, and at a sufficiently cheap rate to admit of the poorest hav- 
 ing a tolerable supply. Fish is still abundant in its waters, as of 
 old f , and this forms a much larger proportion of the food of its 
 inhabitants than flesh-meat ; beef being but rarely seen, except 
 among the richer order of merchants and the governor's depend- 
 ants ; and the sheep and goats which are slaughtered for daily use 
 being limited, perhaps, to less than one fourth of the whole popu- 
 lation. The usual fruits of the country are more abundant, and on 
 these and bread many of the lower classes may be almost said to 
 subsist. 
 
 In speaking of the spot which had been chosen by my kind and 
 hospitable entertainer. Lady Hester Stanhope, for her residence 
 near Seyda, and of the nature of the establishment maintained by 
 
 * The story of the discovery of glass by Phoenician mariners at Belus, near 
 Sidon, and the rising of this river in a lake called Cendevia, at the foot of Mount Carmel, 
 only five miles from the sea, is mentioned by Pliny. Nat. Hist. b. xxxvi. c. 26. 
 
 t The nation of the Tyrians, descended from the Phoenicians, vfho, being shaken 
 with an earthquake, and having abandoned their country, did first inhabit the Assyrian 
 marsh, and not long afterwards the shore next unto the sea, where they built a city, 
 and called it Sidon, from the abundance of fishes that were there ; for the Phoenicians 
 call a fish, Sidon. After the process of many years, being overcome by king Ascalon, 
 they took shipping again, and did build the city of Tyre in the year before the destruc- 
 tion of Troy. Justin, b. xviii. 
 
 3h 
 
418 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 her in Syria, I feel all the embarrassment inseparable from a desire 
 to communicate as much as may be considered of great public 
 interest respecting the life and habits of this distinguished lady, 
 and yet, to keep strictly within the limits prescribed by delicacy 
 and gratitude towards one whom I shall never cease to remember 
 with the strongest feelings of admiration and respect. I cannot be 
 ignorant of the intense curiosity which the bare mention of her lady- 
 ship's name has repeatedly awakened, and that more especially in 
 the bosoms of the most amiable among her own sex. In contrast- 
 ing the motives and conduct of the most elevated women of 
 England, whose ambition seems to be confined to the enjoyment 
 of pleasures contained within the circle of fashionable life, with the 
 more daring and romantic feelings that appear to actuate the lady 
 who is the subject of these remarks ; or in comparing the danger 
 and enterprise of a life passed amid deserts and mountains, sur- 
 rounded by wandering tribes, and fierce and hostile nations, with 
 the quiet and seclusion of a domestic circle at home, all parties 
 appear anxious to unriddle — what to them seems inexplicable — 
 the motive which could have led to such a choice as the former, by 
 one who might have commanded all the pleasures that the latter is 
 capable of affording. I have been questioned, in society, upon this 
 point, by those who knew of my having remained under Lady 
 Hester's roof for a short period *, to very weariness ; for, after as- 
 signing what I have always understood and believed to be the true 
 
 * In the preface to the Travels in Palestme, the following passage occurs, which 
 may be repeated here. " This journey of twelve long months was protracted by 
 dangers and obstacles which no one had foreseen, and rendered tedious by repeated 
 illness arising from sufferings and privations in the way. My recovery from these I 
 owed, in one instance, to the hospitable attentions I received in the convent of Mar 
 Elias, from the hands of the amiable Lady Hester Stanhope, a name that deserves to 
 be immortalized, if talents and virtues of the highest order can give claim to immorta- 
 lity ; and in another to the friendly offices of Mr. and Mrs. Rich, in the bosom of 
 whose society at Baghdad, I found all the consolations which benevolence and sympathy 
 could bestow; and all the pleasures that learning, accomplishments, and refined taste 
 could yield." 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAR ELI AS, NEAR SIDON. 419 
 
 motive of this self-exile from her native land, the enquiring parties 
 being unable to understand what they themselves, perhaps, have 
 never felt, have evidently remained in all their former incredulity, 
 and given up the riddle (for so it appeared to them) in despair. 
 When the causes of incredulity are so deep-rooted as these, they 
 are too difficult to be removed by a brief narrative ; but, observing 
 as well as I am able, the limits which a sense of gratitude, as well 
 as honor, prescribe to me, I will endeavour to communicate what I 
 have myself heard, and have long been accustomed to consider as 
 correct upon this subject, though without being able to vouch for 
 its entire accuracy. 
 
 It is known to most Englishmen, that Lady Hester Stanhope 
 was a near relative of the late Mr. Pitt ; and, that during the latter 
 part of his administration especially, she enjoyed his friendship 
 and confidence in a very high degree. This circumstance neces- 
 sarily brought her more frequently into the society of the several 
 members of the Royal family, of the many distinguished foreigners 
 who then sought an asylum in England, and of the ministerial cir- 
 cles generally, than even her distinguished birth and connections 
 would, without such associations, alone have effected. Her supe- 
 rior understanding and fascinating manners could not fail, under 
 any circumstances, to command a large share of the respect and 
 esteem of those who were brought within their sphere of influence ; 
 but, added to the high confidence which she was known to enjoy 
 with the minister of the day, from personal regard as well as near 
 relationship, the influence of these amiable and attractive qualities 
 were, of course, additionally powerful. The necessary consequence 
 of this was the receipt of a large portion of homage from an ex- 
 tended circle, and abundant means of gratifying all the benevolent 
 wishes, which it must form one of the most delightful prerogatives 
 of power to indulge, that of assisting merit to obtain what its un- 
 aided claims would never procure, the distinction and reward it 
 deserved. 
 
 3h 2 
 
420 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 The death of Mr. Pitt, in addition to the sorrow which the 
 loss of any near and beloved relative must inflict, was attended 
 with a great, if not a total, change in all the circumstances that had 
 hitherto yielded her great and continued delight. The health of her 
 ladyship was, about the same time, seriously affected ; and the de- 
 pression of her spirits naturally retarded her recovery. Change of 
 climate, scene, and circumstances, was recommended and adopted. 
 Lady Hester accordingly quitted England for France, and remained 
 there until the second war with Napoleon ; in whose estimation 
 she held so high a place, that every possible facility was granted to 
 her passage through the country, at a period when unusual difficul- 
 ties impeded the way of almost every foreigner, and of English 
 subjects more especially. Italy became next the sojourn of the 
 illustrious traveller, then Greece, and at last Constantinople. The 
 good effects of these changes of scene and climate, which had been 
 professionally recommended, were every day more visible. Her 
 ladyship's health and spirits rapidly improved, and the agreeable 
 associations of passing over classic ground, the fine skies of Greece, 
 the glowing beauties of the Turkish capital, or its immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, from the Dardanelles to the Euxine, including the Hel- 
 lespont and Bosphorus, the occasional society of many English 
 travellers of distinction then at Constantinople, and the profound 
 respect paid by the Turks to all her wishes, which were as much 
 regarded, indeed, as if they were commands, induced a very natural 
 desire to see more of the country under their dominion before 
 she returned home. 
 
 In the course of these further excursions, if hazardous and 
 difficult voyages and travels may be so called. Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope visited Egypt, staid some time at Cairo, and was the first, 
 and up to this time, I believe, the only English lady that ever 
 entered the great Pyramids of Gizeh, near the ruins of Memphis. 
 She was also wrecked on the Island of Cyprus, from whence her- 
 self and attendant were taken off by Captain Hope, then in the 
 Salsette frigate on the Smyrna station. She subsequently made a 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 42 J 
 
 journey to Palmyra, in company with several English gentlemen, 
 among whom was Mr. Bruce, the heroic deliverer of Lavalette. 
 She visited also Jerusalem, Damascus, Balbeck, and all the princi- 
 pal places of interest in Syria, and at length became so much 
 pleased with the climate, scenery, and character of the people of 
 the country, that she determined to take up her abode in Mount 
 Lebanon for the summer, and on the coast near Sidon for the 
 winter months, as long as she might feel disposed to remain in the 
 East. 
 
 Not having visited the summer residence in the mountains, I 
 am unable to speak of it with any degree of accuracy. I have un- 
 derstood, however, that it was on an elevated part of Lebanon, 
 about midway between the summit and the more woody belt of the 
 middle region, combining a proximity to the snowy parts of the 
 hollows excluded from the sun, and enjoying, at the same time, 
 fresh air, abundant water, and agreeable shade. The winter re- 
 sidence, near the sea, was originally a Greek convent, dedicated to 
 Saint Elias, from whence its name. It being no longer required 
 for its original purpose, it was let at a fixed yearly rent for a re- 
 sidence, and occupied by Lady Hester Stanhope accordingly. In 
 speaking even of this, as it is entirely from recollection, not having 
 made a single note during my stay there, I cannot attempt minute 
 details, but will endeavour to give a general idea as accurately as I 
 am able. The convent stands on the brow of a hill, looking towards 
 the sea, the whole of the way from it to the town of Seyda being 
 on a descent, for a distance of about five or six miles. It consists 
 of a number of separate rooms in a quadrangular building that sur- 
 rounds an inner court, made into a flower garden, into which 
 the doors of all these rooms open. The rooms are neither spacious 
 nor elegant, but most of them being furnished after the English 
 manner, with carpets, tables, chairs, &c. offered an agreeable con- 
 trast to the rooms generally seen in the East, the whole furniture 
 of which consists of a low range of cushions and pillows surround- 
 ing the skirting, and, as it were, fringing the junction between the 
 
422 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 wall and the floor. Nothing in the house appeared unnecessary 
 or expensive ; but all that could conduce to comfort, and that was 
 procurable in the country, was seen in clean and unostentatious 
 simplicity. The proper number of out-offices, kitchen, stables, &c. 
 were attached to the edifice, and there were spare rooms and beds 
 enough to accommodate any small party of travellers that might 
 have occasion to remain here for a short period in the course of their 
 journey. 
 
 The domestic establishment of her ladyship consisted, at this 
 period, of an English physician. Dr. Meryon, who lived in a sepa- 
 rate house at a distance of less than a mile ; an English attendant, 
 Miss Williams ; and an English house-keeper, Mrs. Fry : a Levan- 
 tine secretary, of French descent, from Aleppo ; and a small num- 
 ber of male and female servants of the country, for the ordinary 
 purposes of labour. The fondness for beautiful horses, which this 
 lady passionately entertained, was judiciously, but not ostenta- 
 tiously enjoyed by the possession of a small stud of Arabs, of the 
 purest and most celebrated races ; and on these she occasionally 
 took such exercise only as her health required. 
 
 The mode of life passed by Lady Hester Stanhope at this 
 convent had nothing peculiar in it, except, perhaps, that it was 
 more rational than the mode observed by the more fashionable, of 
 her own sex in particular, at home. She rose generally about eight; 
 walked in the flower-garden, or read, until ten; breakfasted on tea 
 and coffee in the English manner, so much so indeed that there 
 was no distinction between her breakfast table and one in England, 
 except that finer and fresher fruits were often produced there than 
 it is usual to see in London. An extensive correspondence, which 
 her ladyship appeared to maintain with persons of distinction in all 
 parts of Europe, and even in India, generally occupied her pen, or 
 that of her secretary, who wrote from dictation, for several hours in 
 the middle of the day. This correspondence was, however, not con- 
 fined to mere interchange of sentiments with distant friends, agree- 
 able as such an occupation undoubtedly is, but had often some object 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 423 
 
 of great utility in the country itself to promote ; and frequently led, 
 as I had myself occasion to tinow, in more instances than one, to the 
 most happy results. The maintenance of this correspondence, 
 carried on in four or five different languages, including the reading 
 as well as writing of several letters in each day, was quite enough 
 to occupy the largest portion of the writer's time ; but with all this, 
 a want of leisure was never pleaded in excuse for attending to any 
 applications for relief that were perpetually made, from whatever 
 quarter they might have come. A walk, or a ride on horseback, 
 was generally indulged in before dinner, which was always served 
 soon after sunset, and was a happy medium between frugality and 
 abundance, such as a prince might partake, and yet such as the 
 most temperate could not complain of. The evening was almost 
 invariably passed in conversation ; and so powerful is my recollec- 
 tion, even at this distant period, of the pleasure this afforded me, 
 that I could use no terms which would be too extravagant in its 
 praise. The early association with men eminent for their talents, 
 as well as their power ; the habit of intense observation on all pas- 
 sing events; the abundant opportunities, afforded by years of travel, 
 to apply these habits to the utmost advantage ; all these, added to 
 a remarkable union of frankness and dignity, gave a pecuUar charm 
 to the conversation of this highly accomplished and amiable woman : 
 such, indeed, as to render it a matter of deep regret that it should 
 be so lost, by seclusion from the world, to many whom it would 
 instruct as well as delight. But it is, perhaps, to this love of solitude 
 that much of the dignity of her feelings may be attributed ; for it 
 would be almost impossible to preserve, uncontaminated, a true 
 greatness of mind, amidst the continual round of frivolities which 
 dissipate the thoughts of half the fashionable world in England. 
 We seldom retired before midnight; and these intellectual evenings 
 never closed without affording me matter of congratulation at the 
 information and pleasure afforded me, and regret at the impossibi- 
 lity of their being more frequently enjoyed. 
 
 In person, Lady Hester Stanhope is rather above the usual 
 
424 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 standard of female height, with regular and delicately formed fea- 
 tures, a soft blue eye, fair and pale complexion, an expression of 
 habitual pensiveness and tranquil resignation, which was rarely dis- 
 turbed except when her countenance now and then lighted up with 
 the indignant feelings that always followed the recital of some deed 
 of cruelty or oppression. Her early political associations had not 
 overcome those fine sensations which almost instinctively impel 
 the heart to resist the inroads of tyranny; but which are never 
 more powerful than when emanating from a female breast. The 
 names of those who rank among the benefactors of mankind were 
 such as enjoyed her highest veneration and esteem ; and she never 
 mentioned those of tyrants and oppressors but with undisguised ab- 
 horrence. 
 
 It has been made a subject of wonder, that an English lady 
 of distinction should not only choose so remote and retired a spot 
 for her residence, but that she should adopt the costume of the 
 country, and that too of the male sex ; it being already univer- 
 sally known that Lady Hester Stanhope wears the dress of a Turk- 
 ish EfFendi, or private gentleman. The wonder will cease, how- 
 ever, when the reasons which influenced this choice are explained. 
 Had she retained the dress of an English lady she could never have 
 ventured into the open air, even for the purpose of exercise, with- 
 out attracting a crowd of the peasantry, and others, to witness such 
 a curiosity as any one so apparelled could not fail to be considered 
 in that country, and this would be a perpetual impediment to all 
 her movements abroad. Had she adopted the dress of a Turkish 
 lady, she could never have ventured out except enveloped in the 
 ample garments worn by these, which render it difficult to walk 
 freely, and quite impossible to take any active exercise, besides 
 being veiled in such a manner as to impede free breathing in this 
 warm climate, and to interrupt the pleasure of seeing clearly the sur- 
 rounding objects of interest in the way. The dress of an English 
 gentleman would be liable to still stronger objections, though of 
 another nature; so that the Turkish male dress appeared the only 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 425 
 
 one that could be adopted with delicacy and advantage combined. 
 Those who have ever seen the garment of a Turkish gentleman 
 must be aware that it conceals the whole figure and person of the 
 wearer, much more effectually than even the English female dress; 
 and that nothing can be more consistent with the most feminine 
 delicacy, than the ample and flowing robes of this costume.* This 
 is literally the only costume in which any person of respectability 
 could go out in Syria, without attracting a crowd, and suffering 
 perpetual interruption; so that the choice was wise and prudent, 
 and in every other respect quite unexceptionable. 
 
 If to be sincerely and generally beloved by those among whom 
 we reside, to possess power and influence with those who govern, 
 and to have abundant opportunities of exercising these for the be- 
 nefit of the weak and helpless, be sources of delight, (and that they 
 are so, the universal sentiment of mankind seems to bear testi- 
 mony), it may be safely concluded that Lady Hester Stanhope is 
 one of the happiest of human beings. The veneration in which 
 she is held, the affectionate terms in which she is continually 
 spoken of by those who live near and surround her habitation, 
 surpasses any thing I remember to have met with in the course of 
 a tolerably extensive peregrination through various countries of 
 the globe. Coupled, indeed, with the humble gratitude, confined 
 information, and general enthusiasm of feeling, which characterise 
 the inhabitants of that country, it amounts almost to adoration : so 
 that the real good which this lady does, and the undoubted respect 
 paid to her by all classes, have been magnified by every successive 
 
 * In the very admirable picture of Mr. Pickersgill, exhibited at Somerset- 
 house during the last year's exhibition, under the title of " The Oriental Love Letter," 
 the dress of the Turkish lady in the harem conveys an excellent idea of that worn by 
 Turkish private gentlemen also ; the variation between the male and female dress, when 
 within doors, being very slight; but differing in toto when they go out; as the gen- 
 tleman goes forth uncovered, and in the same manner as he sits at home ; but the 
 lady, over her in-door dress, is obliged (o fold large outer garments, veils, &c. so as 
 almost to conceal entirely her person from sight. 
 
 3i 
 
426 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 narrator through whom the recital has passed, till it has at last as- 
 sumed the shape of the miraculous, and surpassed even the extra- 
 vagance of the Arabian Tales. I remember some few instances of 
 this, which I heard on my way over from Damascus to Seyda, 
 which I was then too ill to enter in my notes, but which may per- 
 haps be mentioned here. 
 
 It was said that when the king's daughter, for by this name 
 ( Bint-el-Mel ek, and Bint-el-Sultan)Lady Hester is generally spoken 
 of here, paid her first visit to Damascus, all the people of the town 
 rushed to the gates to welcome her approach; the men to pay homage 
 to one whom they considered inspired or insane, and therefore under 
 the especial protection of God (this being the universal opinion as 
 to the holy keeping of those who are deranged), and the women to 
 look on her with an evil eye, and avert from their husbands the 
 fascination which they believed would otherwise be exercised on 
 them by the unveiled beauties of the fair infidel. The narrator 
 (herself a Druse female in the mountains of Lebanon, who re- 
 counted the tale to my muleteer as I lay ill on my carpet before the 
 hearth), proceeded to say, that when she entered, all voices ex- 
 claimed " The city of Damascus, the great gate of pilgrimage, and 
 the key to the tomb of the prophet, is taken from us; her glory is 
 fallen, her might cast down, and her people for ever subdued. An 
 infidel has entered her gates on horseback, and rebellion has been 
 subdued by her beauty."* The people at Constantinople have a 
 proverb, that their city will fall when a yellow infidel, meaning a 
 Russian, enters at a particular gate of the city; so that especial 
 pains are taken to prevent such an occurrence. At Jerusalem a 
 
 * The reader should understand, that Damascus is considered one of the gates of 
 pilgrimage, because the great caravan of pilgrims assembles here, and sets out from 
 this place for Mecca. In consequence of this, no Fi-ank or Christian is allowed to enter 
 Damascus on horseback, if he be known ; and no person can even walk with safety in 
 its streets if dressed as an European. It is the most bigotted and intolerant of all 
 Mohammedan cities, Mecca alone excepted, and no European female was ever, per- 
 haps, known to visit it thus openly before. 
 
IN THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 427 
 
 similar tradition exists as to the recovery of that place by the 
 Jews : and at Jedda this conviction is so strong, that a Christian 
 discovered in attempting to pass through a certain gate of that 
 place leading to Mecca, would undoubtedly be slain on the spot. 
 The feeling here described by the Druse female was, perhaps, 
 founded on some similar notion ; and the fact undoubtedly was, that 
 when Lady Hester had once entered Damascus, every thing seemed 
 to be granted to her as a privileged being, though it would be 
 death for any other Christian, perhaps, even to ask it. She visited, 
 among other places, the great mosque, not only with the permis- 
 sion, but even under the protection of an escort from the govern- 
 ment; and her intercourse with all the families of distinction of the 
 city gave her such opportunities of observation, as were certainly 
 never enjoyed by any English female before, not even including 
 Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and such as are, perhaps, not likely 
 to be ever enjoyed again. But to return to the narration of the tale. 
 The Druse female continued to say — " When the king's daughter 
 visited the Pasha in his divan, and was shown the seat of honor on 
 his right hand, every one except the Pasha stood up to receive 
 her; and there went before her a messenger bearing presents of 
 the most costly description, from all the distant countries of the 
 Ind and the Sind*, with perfumes of the most delightful odour. 
 But when these had been laid at the Pasha's feet, the fair infidel 
 herself drew from beneath her robes a massive goblet of pure gold, 
 sparkling with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, and filled to over- 
 flowing with the richest pearls, which were, however, rivalled in 
 beauty by the snowy whiteness of her hand." The truth was, as 
 I had afterwards reason to believe, that, in accordance with the 
 universal practice of the country, which renders it imperative on 
 all who visit men in power to evince their respect by accompany- 
 ing it with some present. Lady Hester had presented the Pasha with 
 
 * India within and India beyond the Ganges. 
 3l 2 
 
428 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 some small article of European manufacture, probably some piece 
 of jewellery, and this simple fact, before it had got half across the 
 mountains of Lebanon to the sea-coast, had been wrought up to a 
 tale that might have better suited the most splendid romances in 
 the days of the caliphs. 
 
 Another instance of similar exaggeration, which I heard from 
 an Arab of the Desert, who had come in with some flocks to the 
 sea-coast, and who attended them while he was gradually effecting 
 their sale in the neighbourhood of Seyda, will suffice. He told 
 me, that there was one event which he regretted more than any 
 that he remembered, which was, that he had not accompanied the 
 princess (Lady Hester Stanhope) in her journey to Palmyra, as he 
 understood that every one who had gone with her, as indeed every 
 one who ever had any thing to do with her, had been abundantly 
 prosperous since. In describing this event, he said, " As soon as 
 it was known in the desert that the princess intended to journey to 
 Tadmor, all the tribes were in motion, war was changed to univer- 
 sal peace, and every sheikh (or chief) was eager to have the honour 
 of leading the escort. Councils and assemblies were held at 
 Homs and at Hamah, at Sham and at Hhaleb (Damascus and 
 Aleppo), messengers were sent in every direction, and nothing 
 was neglected that might serve to make the way full of pleasure; 
 When money was talked of, every one rejected it with indignation, 
 and exclaimed, 'Shall we not serve the princess for honour?' Every 
 thing being settled, the party set out, preceded by horsemen in 
 front,with hedjeen (dromedaries) of observation on the right and the 
 left, and camels laden with provisions in the rear. As they passed 
 along, the parched sands of the desert became verdant plains, the 
 burning rocks became crystal streams, rich carpets of grass wel- 
 comed them at every place at which they halted for repose, and the 
 trees under which they pitched their -tents expanded twice their 
 usual size to cover them with shade. When they reached the 
 broken city (the ruins), the princess was taken to the greatest of 
 all the palaces (the Temple of the Sun), and there gold and jewels 
 
AT THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 429 
 
 were bound round her temples, and all the people did homage to 
 her as queen, by bowing their heads to the dust. On that day 
 Tadmor was richer than Sham (Damascus), and more peopled than 
 Stamboul (Constantinople); and if the princess had only remained 
 it would soon have become the greatest of all the cities of the 
 earth, for men were pouring into it from all quarters, horsemen 
 and chiefs, merchants and munujemein (astrologers and learned 
 men who consult the stars), the fame of her beauty and benevolence 
 having reached to Baghdad and Ispahaun, to Bokhara and Samar- 
 cand, and the greatest men of the East being desirous of beholding 
 it for themselves." The Arab, who firmly believed all this, nar- 
 rated the return from Palmyra to the coast in the same romantic 
 strains, and ended by repeating his regret at the misfortune of not 
 having been one of the happy multitude assembled on that occa- 
 sion, he having been then on some business with another tribe to 
 the south of the Dead Sea. 
 
 Recitals, such as these, founded as they were on facts popu- 
 larly and universally known, were sure to receive implicit credence, 
 and to gain in exaggeration by every successive individual who re- 
 lated them ; so that the extraordinary degree of veneration in which 
 this lady is held throughout the country, and the corresponding 
 pleasure which she must feel in residing there, are easily explained. 
 To shew that this is turned to the very best account, for the pur- 
 pose of promoting the ends of public justice, as well as of doing 
 private good, I will mention a fact, which I derived from unex- 
 ceptionable authority, and which I shall relate without the slightest 
 addition, that it may stand in contact with, as well as in illustra- 
 tion of, all that has been said before. 
 
 A French colonel of engineers, whose name I think was 
 Boudain, having left France at the period of the restoration of the 
 Bourbons, resolved to pass a few years in travelling, and com- 
 menced with Africa. I remember meeting him at Cairo, at the 
 house of Colonel Missett, on his return from the Oasis of Siwah, 
 which he had been induced to visit, from reading Mr. Browne, the 
 
430 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 Darfour traveller's description of the remains which he considered 
 to be those of the temple of Jupiter Ammon. From Egypt he 
 passed into Syria ; and, stopping for a few days at Seyda,he was ad- 
 mitted to an interview with Lady Hester Stanhope. In detailing 
 to her the plan of his future route, he mentioned his intention of 
 going into the mountains of the Ansarie, a tribe of idolators who 
 occupy the hills between the sea-coast and Aleppo, and who live in 
 such perpetual hostility with both Mohammedans and Christians 
 that they are rarely visited, and are consequently very imperfectly 
 known by either. Colonel Boudain, it seems, was aware of the 
 dangerous nature of the enterprise, but, like many others, he flat- 
 tered himself with the hope that his fate would form an exception 
 to the general calamity that had hitherto befallen almost all who 
 had. attempted to sojourn among these barbarians. Lady Hester 
 used all her powers of persuasion to divert him from his pur- 
 pose; and succeeded so far as to obtain from him a promise that he 
 would not make the attempt, unless he should find, on arriving near 
 their territory, assurances of perfect safety in going among them. 
 Under this impression, the colonel pursued his journey; and either 
 his enthusiasm growing stronger, or his discretion weaker, as he 
 approached the district, he ventured to depart from his prudent 
 determination, went into the mountains, and was first robbed 
 and then murdered, as had been predicted by the kind but 
 imavailing advice of his best friend and protectress. The sale 
 of his watch, and some other articles of value, in the bazar of 
 Damascus, soon after excited suspicion ; enquiry was instituted by 
 some Christians of the country, and the fact was placed beyond a 
 doubt. When the intelligence of this melancholy catastrophe was 
 first brought to Lady Hester Stanhope, she is said to have urged 
 the French consuls, at the several towns on the coast, to write to 
 Constantinople, and have orders sent from thence to trace out and 
 punish the murderers. Her intreaties had not the desired effect, 
 from what cause, whether an unwillingness to avenge the death of 
 a Frenchman more attached to Napoleon than to the Bourbons, or 
 
AT THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 43 J 
 
 for any other reason, I am not aware. In treaties addressed to 
 Aleppo, and even remonstrances forwarded to several of the Eu- 
 ropean ambassadors at Constantinople, produced no greater effect: 
 when this heroic and benevolent woman determined on avenging 
 the death of the stranger, on whom her excellent advice had been 
 so unhappily thrown away, but whose remains she nevertheless 
 thought still entitled to her protection. She accordingly caused let- 
 ters to be addressed, in Turkish and Arabic, by her secretary, to the 
 pashas of Aleppo, Damascus, Tripoli, and Acre, requesting from 
 each a supply of a certain number of troops to range the moun- 
 tains of the Ansarie, to trace the mangled remains of the murdered 
 stranger whereverthey might be found, to recover all his papers 
 and other property not sold or destroyed, to find out the perpe- 
 trators of the murder, and to bring them to the ignominious pu- 
 nishment which their crimes so richly deserved. Her appeals were 
 successful, and accomplished what all the influence of all the am- 
 bassadors could hot have effected, what even the commands of the 
 Grand Signor himself could not have carried into execution — a 
 union and co-operation of elements the most discordant, whose 
 combined force brought the b6dy of the murdered victim to light, 
 discovered and collected most of the property, and brought the 
 murdesers to their deserved end. Many other instances of the be- 
 nevolent and beneficial exercise of the influence which this excel- 
 lent woman so deservedly enjoys, might be collected in the coun- 
 try itself; her whole life, indeed, abounds with them : but I have, 
 perhaps, already said more than will be agreeable to her on this 
 head, as I know how purely she does good for its own sake, and 
 how unwelcome to her ears would be any thing that even bordered 
 on adulation. There is a duty, however, which all men owe to so- 
 ciety, as well as to individuals; and although my gratitude to Lady 
 Hester Stanhope would make me shrink from doing any thing that 
 I should conceive likely to wound the refined delicacy of her feel- 
 ings, yet I should despise myself as a man, if I could pass over in 
 silence a period which I shall ever regard as one of the most inte- 
 
432 STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 resting and happy of my existence; or if I omitted to offer my 
 humble tribute of admiration to her distinguished virtues, or failed 
 to hold up the general tenor of her useful and honourable life, as 
 an example worthy of imitation by those whose birth and fortune 
 furnish them with equal opportunities to use their influence for 
 the benefit of mankind at large. 
 
 During the few days of my being sufficiently strong for the 
 purpose, while I remained here, I made some excursions on foot in 
 the immediate neighbourhood, with Dr. Meryon, Lady Hester's 
 physician ; and as both of us wore the dress of the country, with 
 beards, and spoke the Arabic tongue, we were never molested. 
 Dr. Meryon's residence was in a separate house, within five or ten 
 minutes' walk of the convent at which her ladyship resided, and 
 we generally, on returning from our rambles, passed an hour toge- 
 ther there before dinner. One of these excursions was to some 
 extremely interesting tombs recently excavated, and exhibiting 
 stuccoed painted chambers, not unlike those of Eliethis and 
 Thebes in Egypt, and in an excellent state of preservation. For 
 the reasons before given, I preserved no notes of them, and can 
 therefore only speak of them in general terms. 
 
 When the period approached for my quitting Mar Elias, I felt 
 extreme regret; for I had scarcely ever before concentrated so 
 much of highly intellectual pleasure within so short a space of 
 time; and I had then little prospect of meeting any similar asylum 
 till I should reach India. The stay had, however, been productive 
 of the highest advantages to me in every point of view. I had 
 regained much of my former health and strength in a surprising 
 manner, considering the shortness of the time, partly by the skilful 
 medical treatment of Dr. Meryon, and partly by the change of 
 air, improved diet, and delightful repose of the mind as well as 
 body, which I enjoyed in perfection here. I had also had an op- 
 portunity of writing to many of my friends in England; and, 
 above all, I was now better prepared for my future journey than I 
 had ever been before. I was comfortably furnished with clothes. 
 
AT THE CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS, NEAR SIDON. 433 
 
 an excellent horse, a trusty servant from Lady Hester's own suite, 
 transferred to me by her request, and charged by her with a thousand 
 injunctions as to care and attention to my wishes and safety on 
 the road. I was accommodated with sufficient means to defray 
 my expences, till I should reach Aleppo, and draw my authorized 
 supplies from the consul, Mr. Barker, to whom my letter of 
 credit from Alexandria was addressed. I was intrusted with vari- 
 ous presents from her ladyship to the several pashas and governors 
 in my way, accompanied with letters of introduction to them, that I 
 might offer these gifts in her name, and thus secure their protec- 
 tion and aid: and I was furnished with letters to Sir Evan Nepean 
 at Bombay, and General Murray at Madras ; so as to render my 
 reception in India more advantageous than it would be likely to 
 be without such recommendations. 
 
 This chapter includes the whole time of my stay at the con- 
 vent of Mar Elias, from the 11th to the 18th of April, both in- 
 clusive, a period of eight days, during which no written notes were 
 made by me for preservation; but the events, which I have here 
 endeavoured faithfully to record, have been stated from memory, 
 assisted by letters to friends in England, written from that spot 
 and now in my possession, by which almost every thing has been 
 restored to my recollection as freshly as if it were but of yester- 
 day's date. In resuming the narrative of my journey in the suc- 
 ceeding chapter, I shall preserve the language of my note-book 
 exactly as I find it, though at the hazard of a slight repetition; but 
 this will be compensated for by the greater assurance of fidelity. 
 
 3 K 
 
CHAP. XXI. 
 
 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, AND THE CEDARS OP LEBANON. 
 
 Friday, Apnl\9, 1816. — All our preparations for the journey 
 being completed, and my strength in some degree restored, I 
 parted from my warm-hearted and amiable friend. Lady Hester 
 Stanhope, with considerable regret. By her kindness my stay at 
 Mar Elias had been rendered most agreeable, and she had furnished 
 me with letters to every body of note on the road to make my 
 progress equally so. I had now two mares of my own, one for ray 
 own use, and another for the baggage and the green-turbanned 
 Hadjee Ahmed, who accompanied me as my guide and servant, so 
 that we now needed no other escort. 
 
 We left the convent a little before noon, and descending into 
 the valley gradually approached the sea-shore, coming in about an 
 
FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, &g. 435 
 
 hour to a river called Nahr el Owely, or river the First, having per- 
 haps some relation with, or allusion to, Nahr el Thany, or river 
 the Second, which we had crossed not far to the southward on the 
 day of our arrival at Abra. The stream of the river was perhaps 
 fifty feet wide, where we passed it, over a high bridge of one 
 arch, the foundation of which seemed to have been formed of the 
 large stones from the ruins of an old Roman bridge, a short dis- 
 tance above it. The current, though shallow, was rapid, and the 
 discharge of its waters discoloured the sea for the distance of nearly 
 a mile from its immediate embouchure. On the north side of the 
 bridge is a khan and coffee shed, where we drank of the water of 
 the river, which was excellent. The whole of the valley through 
 which it flows down from the eastward was, as far as we could trace 
 it, beautifully fertile, and interspersed with gardens, corn plats, 
 fruit trees, &c. It is from this river that the town of Seyda is sup- 
 plied with water, it being conducted from hence to that place 
 through a canal, running sometimes above and sometimes under 
 ground to preserve its level, but no where raised on arches. In 
 many places the subterranean part has been laid open for the con- 
 venience of drawing water from thence, and for distributing it 
 through the gardens on each side of its course. 
 
 Our road now lay along the coast, sometimes upon the sandy 
 beach of the sea-shore, and at others over rocky paths at a little dis- 
 tance from it; but was always agreeable from the delightful state 
 of the weather, and the reviving freshness of the strong sea 
 breeze. 
 
 In about half an hour we passed over a small projecting point 
 of land, called Ras el Jeddra, having no remarkable features, and 
 scarcely to be distinguished as a headland from the sea. 
 
 In an hour from hence, continuing our road always along the 
 edge of the shore, we came to a similar tongue of land, called Ras- 
 el-Nebbionis, where there were some ruins of former buildings, 
 at the distance of about half a mile from the extreme point. 
 Among others we noted here the walls of an apartment finely 
 
 3 K 2 
 
436 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 stuccoed, and now sunk beneath the earth. It appears to have had 
 an arched roof, and, as it was small, might probably have been part 
 of a private bath. 
 
 As the point of view was favourable for such a purpose, I 
 alighted, and took the bearings of the capes along shore, as given 
 below, which detained us but a few minutes only. 
 
 Bearings from the ruined building stuccoed within, and sunk beneath 
 the ground, on Ras-el-Nebhionis : — 
 
 Ras-el-Ohhbeeah 
 
 • • • 
 
 S.W. iS. 
 
 25 miles 
 
 Rock and harbour of Seyda 
 
 , , 
 
 S. W. by S. 
 
 10 miles 
 
 Town of Seyda 
 
 • • 
 
 S.W.by S. *S. 
 
 10 miles 
 
 Point of Ras-el-Jeddra 
 
 . 
 
 s. s. w. 
 
 4 miles 
 
 Point of Ras-el-Sadiant 
 
 • • • 
 
 N. E. by N. 
 
 3 miles 
 
 Point of Ras-el-Uzzaiehj or 
 
 Ras-el^Bairoot 
 
 N. N. E. 
 
 25 miles. 
 
 In about half an hour from hence we passed a khan, with a 
 saint's tomb, and a few palm trees, called Mazar, leaving it on our 
 right about half a mile upon the sea. It is usually made a halting 
 place between Seyda and Bairoot, and alms are demanded of the 
 passengers for the support of the sepulchre there. 
 
 From hence to Ras-el-Dammoor, or Ras-el-Sadiat, as it is 
 sometimes called, the distance is about an hour. It is a point of 
 land similar to those we had already passed, and derives its name 
 from the river of Damoor, which issues into the sea about half an 
 hour to the northward of it. This is the ancient Tamyras, of 
 which its present name is only a corruption adapted to the Arabic 
 pronunciation. Maundrell mentions the fact of a Mr. Spon, 
 nephew to Dr. Spon, the eastern traveller, being drowned here in 
 1692, when returning from Jerusalem in company with some 
 English gentlemen. At that period there was no bridge over it, 
 though the ruins of a former one were still visible ; but at present 
 there is a bridge of four arches, which has been thrown across it 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 437 
 
 within these few years only; and though the style of its architecture 
 and the execution of its masonry is inferior to similar works in 
 Europe, it most effectually answers the purpose of convenience 
 and safety, and has even a pretty appearance when viewed at a 
 short distance. 
 
 We found here some Turks reposing in the shade, and some 
 washing for the prayers of El-Assr ; and we heard from them of 
 the murder of a mountain Arab here by one of his own tribe on 
 the evening of yesterday ; the quarrel originating in some suspi- 
 cion of adulterous practices between the one who was killed and 
 the wife of the murderer. 
 
 From the river we came in an hour to GhafFar-el-Namy, a place 
 at which a toll was formerly demanded, but it is now discontinued. 
 It seems, indeed, both from the account of former travellers as well 
 as from the remains of these toll-houses, that the contributions 
 raised from passengers on the road must have been considerable. 
 In all my progress through the country, thus far, however, I do not 
 remember to have met with these demands, excepting only in the 
 road from Jaffa to Jerusalem ; so that this portion of the Turkish 
 burdens on the people, at least, seems to have been lightened. 
 
 About an hour from this Ghaffar we reached an old ruined 
 tower, called Boorje Khordlee, the lower part of which, with some 
 vestiges of Roman arches, seemed to denote it of ancient struc- 
 ture, though the upper part, with long loop-holes in the walls, 
 appeared more modern. A little distance to the east of it, on 
 the side of the hill, we saw a considerable number of sarco- 
 phagi of stone, most of them ornamented with the usual devices 
 of wreaths, &c., on the sides, and some having still near them their 
 pent-roofed covers with raised corners, exactly like the Roman 
 sarcophagi seen at Gerash, Oom Kais, and other Roman ruins that 
 I had already seen in this country. The tower might have, there- 
 fore, been an ancient military station, and these the sarcophagi of 
 such as died there, as we could perceive no other vestiges of any 
 city of which this might have been the necropolis. 
 
438 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 From hence, in about another hour, we came to a sandy tract, 
 called Ullibat, now gradually receding from the sea, and leaving 
 the point called Ras-el-Bairoot, at the distance of a mile or two on 
 our left, where the whole of the space between the road and the 
 sea seemed to be covered with low sand hills, blown up from the 
 beach by the prevailing winds, in the same way as they are seen 
 along the northern edge or base of the Delta in Egypt, and owing 
 their formation, no doubt, to the same cause. The hills on our 
 right, though approaching close to the sea, had been hitherto bare 
 and uninteresting, but they now became loftier and of a less arid 
 aspect ; and just after our entering the sandy tract of Ullibat we 
 had opened to us, on the sides of the mountain, a number of scat- 
 tered villages and detached houses, the white walls and flat-terraced 
 roofs of which, with the marks of industrious cultivation by which 
 they were surrounded, presented altogether an agreeable picture. 
 The first of these consisted of three distinct villages with mariy 
 separate smaller clusters of dwellings, the whole of which were 
 called by the general name of Shuefat. Above these were pointed 
 out little convents, gardens, and houses, and about a mile further 
 to the north a similar cluster of villages, called Boorje-el-Bradjely. 
 The plain below them, at the foot of the hills, was full of olive 
 trees and lighter verdure, and the whole presented an air of in- 
 dustry and abundance, which seemed drawn entirely from the 
 activity of the Druses and Christians, by whom the mountain is 
 chiefly peopled. 
 
 It was sunset when we approached the environs of Bairoot, 
 the immediate limits of which, to the south, are called Hhurj 
 Isnooba. The grove of pines, said to have been planted by the 
 famous Fakr-el-Din, the prince of the Druses, is still pointed out, 
 and, as we saw it in the twilight, presented the appearance of a 
 noble wood. The road became now hedged in on both sides by 
 sloping walls of earth, crowned with the prickly pear. Gardens 
 were also numerous,. and laid out with order and regularity, and the 
 whole bespoke an entrance to a wealthy town. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 439 
 
 It was quite dark when we reached the principal gate, which, 
 being closed, we made a detour to the northward, and came to 
 another less public one, where we found people within to whom to 
 address ourselves. The mere report of my being an Englishman, 
 come from Lady Hester Stanhope, or the princess, as she is called, 
 at Mar Elias, was sufficient. Information was immediately con- 
 veyed to the governor of our arrival, and when the gate was opened 
 to us we were met there by the English consul, Signor Pietro 
 Lorello, his dragoman and servants, with lanterns, and guards, and 
 conducted in safety to his house. 
 
 Saturday, April 20, 1816. — The fatigue of yesterday's short 
 ride having been greater than I had expected, had made me feel 
 to-day that my strength was not yet perfectly re-established, and 
 we therefore made a halt here to repose. 
 
 After dinner we walked out to see the town and its environs, 
 visiting some Christian families in the way, and examining what 
 was deemed most worthy of the pains, both within and without 
 the walls ; the result of which was considerable pleasure to myself, 
 though but little offered in the way of information that could be 
 called new. 
 
 This town was called by the Greeks B-ripur, which name it still 
 retains in the Bairoot of the Arabs, and this may be quoted as an- 
 other example of the original name being recovered by the natives, 
 after it had been changed by their Roman masters, as this of B^'^ut, 
 or Berytus, from which the idol of Baal Berith is supposed to have 
 had its name, was afterwards called Julia Felix, by order of Au- 
 gustus, who bestowed upon it many important privileges.* 
 
 * The following general description of all the part of the coast, from Pliny, in- 
 cludes a mention of Bairoot under both these names : — ■ 
 
 " Behind Sidon commences the Mount Libanus, which extends ISOO stadia, as 
 far as Smyrna. Over against it is another range, called Antilibanus, with a valley 
 between them, and these two ranges were formerly connected- by a wall. Beyond this, 
 eastward, is the region of Decapolis. Along the foot of Libanus, on the sea-coast, is 
 
440 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 It is seated on the northern edge of a tongue of land which 
 extends itself in a plain towards the sea, from the foot of the 
 mountains, in nearly a western direction, about five or six miles. 
 Its site is, however, on a rising ground, ascending gently from the 
 sea, so as to make its situation dry and healthy, and contribute 
 much to the cleanliness of its interior. 
 
 The extremity of the point of land on which it is situated is 
 called Ras-el-Bairoot, and, in coming from the northward, must 
 form a conspicuous headland, as, from its projection from the 
 general line of the shore, it forms a fine bay to the north of 
 the town, between it and Ras-el-Shakkah, which bears from it 
 N. E. f N., distant about twenty-five miles ; and the bottom of the 
 bay, or the deepest part, bears from the town E. S. E., five or six 
 miles, being near the bight in which the Nahr-el-Bairoot discharges 
 itself. 
 
 The roadstead thus formed by the jutting out of the point of 
 land, is to the N. E. of the town, and secured from the prevailing 
 winds of the coast, which are from the south-western quarter. The 
 holding ground is said to be good, so that vessels ride here at every 
 season of the year ; and when strong northerly winds arise, which 
 are seldom of long duration, there are two or three small sinuosi- 
 ties of the shore, both to the east and west of the town, in which 
 shelter is found. 
 
 The town itself is of an irregular square form, walled on three 
 sides toward the land, and open toward the sea. The walls are 
 
 the river Majoras, also the colony Berytus, called Julia Felix ; the town Leontes, 
 the river Syens, also Palaebyblos, then the river Adonis, and so to the towns of 
 Byblos the new, Botrys, Giganta, -Frienis, Calamos, and Tripolis, under the Tyrians, 
 yidonians, and Aradians, Then the town of Orthosia, and the river Eleutheros, also 
 the towns of Simyra, Marathos, and over against the last the island Aradus, a town of 
 seven stadia, and an island less than a quarter of a mile from the continent. When 
 you are once past the country where the said mountains do end, and the plains lying 
 between, then beginneth the mount Bargylis ; and then, as Phcenicia endeth, so begins 
 Syria again. In which country are. Came, Balanca, Pattos, and Gabale ; also the 
 promontory whereupon standeth the free city Laodicea, together with Diospolis, 
 Heraclea, Charadus, and Posidium." — Plin. Nat. Hist. b. 5. c. 20. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 441 
 
 perfectly Turkish in their style and execution, and would offer but 
 a feeble resistance to artillery. The whole is not more than a mile 
 in circuit, yet it is thought to contain from 7,000 to 8,000 inhabit- 
 ants, about the half of whom are Christians of different sects, and 
 the other half Moslems. It is governed by an Aga, who is also 
 the douanier ; and himself, and about twenty others in various offices 
 under him, are the only Turks in the place ; the military, amount- 
 ing to about 200 men, being all Arabs of the country, and never 
 having suffered, as it is said, either Osmanlies or Arnaouts to dis- 
 place them from their service. 
 
 There is an old castle near the sea, in which are six pieces of 
 cannon, which form all the ordnance of the town ; and in this 
 castle the military reside. There is also a ruined tower, called 
 Boorjee-el-Bahr, built on a rock in the sea, and near the common 
 landing place, as well as some few round towers, of little strength 
 in the walls of the town themselves. The Marino, as it is called, 
 has a good wharf for discharging goods, as boats can approach it 
 sufficiently near for that purpose ; and all along its front are 
 ranged fine shafts of grey granite pillars erect, which are used for 
 mooring the small vessels securely while they lie there. These 
 are some of the remains of the ancient magnificence of Bairoot, 
 once decorating the porticos of temples and palaces, and now pre- 
 senting a striking picture of the changes to which all things are 
 subject, as seen wound round by the cables and hawsers of a few 
 place them small trading boats. 
 
 The bazars, the streets, the dwelling-houses, and magazines 
 of the town are better built than any of those which I had yet 
 seen along the coast ; the streets are sufficiently wide for all the 
 purposes of passage and comfort where carriages are not used, 
 and are all paved with large stones ; the bazars are well furnished 
 with the manufactures of the country and of Europe, as well as 
 with all kinds of provisions ; the dwelling-houses are lofty, spa- 
 cious, and well-built, and some of the magazines near tlie sea-shore 
 are equal to those found in similar sea-ports of England itself. 
 
 3l 
 
442 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 There are within the town three mosques, with their courts, 
 fountains, and minarehs, the latter of a mean form. The Christian 
 churches are four in number, one belonging to the Schismatic 
 Greeks, another to the Catholic Greeks, a third to the Arab 
 Catholics, and a fourth to the Maronites. The first of these, in 
 which we saw the morning mass performed and the sacrament 
 administered by the bishop, on the occasion of their Easter-Eve, 
 is a fine lofty building, recently repaired and set in order, and is 
 fitted up with a splendour almost equal to the Greek church in 
 the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem. The other three were shut, and 
 besides these, there is an hospital or convent of Capuchins, now 
 under the direction of one old father only, who has been thirty- 
 five years in the country. When I paid him a visit, we were 
 shown from his window an adjoining garden in which six English- 
 men were interred, who had died of the wounds they had received 
 at Acre, at the time of Bonaparte's being there. While here, we 
 received a visit from an old French doctor, who, like our consul 
 Damiani, at JaiFa, wore the dre^s of the country with a pink 
 shalloon benish, a neck cravat, a gold-headed cane, and a cocked 
 hat, making altogether a very strange figure. 
 
 The commerce of Bairoot is at this moment greater than 
 that of any other port in Syria, and increases every year. It is the 
 depot for the city of Damascus and all its neighbourhood, and the 
 outlet for all the productions of the mountains near. There were 
 at this time twenty-seven vessels at anchor in the road, besides 
 other smaller ones near the town, and these are thought few. It 
 is said, that during the last year three vessels arrived from- Malta 
 laden with British manufactures, cottons, muslins, cloths, &c. with 
 some bar-iron, lead, coiFee, spices, indigo, and cochineal, the whole 
 amounting to 50,000 dollars, and that all was purchased for ready 
 money in five days after their arrival. 
 
 The returns are made in cotton, corn, silk, and sometimes 
 wine and oil in small quantities ; though it more frequently 
 happens that vessels take from hence specie, and collect their 
 returns from other ports ; carrying wine from Cyprus, cotton from 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 443 
 
 Acre, and oil from Candia. The duties paid by Europeans are 
 3 per cent, and by natives of the country 4 per cent, ad valorem, 
 on all goods exported and imported; besides which, there exist 
 no exactions of consequence either as anchorage-fees, presents, or 
 other charges. 
 
 The environs of Bairoot are really charming ; from a hill, 
 which commands the town to the west, and where there exist 
 many ruins of ancient edifices, we had an opportunity of taking 
 in at one view the whole of the north side of the plain. To 
 the south-east of the town are a number of gardens, and the 
 whole space between the western wall and the extremity of the 
 point called Ras-el-Bairoot is covered with them. In each of 
 these is a small house, to which the proprietor retires when the 
 business of the day is over, and the rich have their families there 
 as in a country house during all the summer. 
 
 The air of Bairoot is found to be generally healthy ; as the 
 vicinity of the sea on the one side, and the range of Lebanon on 
 the other, maintains a constant freshness ; and the water also, 
 though not abundant within the town, is said to be good. 
 
 In every direction are to be seen vestiges of the former mag- 
 nificence of this place when a Roman city. There are three fine 
 grey granite columns still standing, and apparently occupying 
 their original place near to the southern wall of the town, others 
 are scattered up and down in various directions, and remains of 
 ancient buildings are constantly found wherever excavations are 
 made ; so that the present town may have been built, as has been 
 conjectured, chiefly on the ruins of the old. Within the town is 
 still seen, near one of the public fountains, a fine sarcophagus, 
 partly broken ; on the exterior sides and ends of which are sculp- 
 tured, in high relief, a bull's head, and wreaths ; and at the angle 
 of each corner a ram's head, like that of the sphinxes at Thebes, 
 or of the Jupiter Ammon of Egypt, exceedingly well wrought. 
 
 I was shown also a tablet of stone about two spans long, one 
 wide, and four inches thick, which had been lately dug up in the 
 
 5l 2 
 
444 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 neighbourhood. It contained a recess of about an inch deep, 
 formed by two doric pilasters, an architrave, and a pediment, in 
 which were represented a female, seated on a sort of throne, with 
 a footstool beneath it, and a male figure standing before her, 
 whose right hand she held in her own ; the hair of the male was 
 short and curly, that of the female in long natural tresses, and the 
 heads of both entirely void of ornament. The male was barefoot, 
 the female wore sandals, very neatly fastened by bands over the 
 neck of the foot. The dress of both was perfectly Roman, seeming 
 to consist chiefly of one long and ample robe with short sleeves, 
 leaving the neck and the fore-arm bare ; besides which, the male 
 had a sort of shawl thrown over his left shoulder, while with his 
 left-hand he held together the loose folds of his drapery. The 
 attitudes and proportions of the figures seemed to me excellent, 
 and the execution of the drapery beautiful ; the turn of the head 
 was expressive, too, in both, but the features had suffered some 
 injury by being buried in the earth. The height of the relief in 
 the centre was about an inch and a-half, and just level with the 
 pilasters or surface of the outer frame. 
 
 The following is as much as could be read of an inscription 
 apparently of four lines in the original, which could now be traced 
 at the foot of this tablet : — - 
 
 OAAAmNKAIHTYNH. 
 
 SOY0AYBASTIS 
 
 . . . PHSTQIXAIPEr 
 
 A long conversation arose among the party in which this 
 tablet was shown, and many grave and sage speculations were 
 hazarded as to the subject of the design ; but the extravagant 
 value set on things of this nature by most of the inhabitants of 
 the East, when they perceive on the part of Europeans the least 
 desire to possess them, is at once a proof of their extreme igno- 
 rance as to their real worth and estimation even among collectors 
 and connoisseurs, as well as of their own ungovernable avarice. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 445 
 
 I was shown also at the same time, a very beautiful cameo 
 found here, executed in the usual way on a white stone rising 
 from a darker one ; but it was curious also, as well as beautiful, 
 from its representing the head of a negro with a flat nose, large 
 thick lips, high cheeked bones, and crisped hair, the whole cha- 
 racter being perfectly African. The sex was not apparent, so that 
 we could not even conjecture whether it might have been the 
 head of some distinguished African warrior, or of a faithful do- 
 mestic slave. The head was crowned with a wreath of leaves, and 
 the execution and preservation perfect. 
 
 Among a variety of lesser curiosities, I saw also a little copper 
 bird, not unlike a goose with its wings closed, and resembling in 
 size and manner the small Egyptian idols of copper and porcelain, 
 -found in their mummies, and worn about their necks. 
 
 I was desirous of visiting the ruins of the palace of Fakr-el- 
 Din, the celebrated prince of the Druses, who once made Bairoot 
 his capital and his residence; but some knew nothing of its 
 existence, though near the town, and others said it was now a 
 mosque and could not be visited, so that we could get no guide 
 to it. 
 
 In the house of our consul I saw six good portraits on canvas, 
 of the celebrated Venetian family of Canal, in the time of their 
 republic, one of whom was governor in Candia, two captains-general 
 of marine, and the rest in the army, the dates of their execution 
 in the 16th century. They had been found in the Mountain of 
 Lebanon among the Druses, by whom all the six, in gilded oval 
 frames, were sold for three rotolos or about seven pounds of butter, 
 and afterwards to Signior Lorello for a plain white turban of 
 muslin, though they were in as good a state of preservation as if 
 always kept in a cabinet, and, as I thought, executed by some good 
 painter. During the evening there arrived at the house an Italian 
 captain from Malta, by way of Tripoly in Barbary, and Egypt. 
 Conceiving that the consul himself did not speak English, and not 
 suspecting that I was an Englishman, as I sat smoking a nargeel 
 
446 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 in the corner of the sofa, he professed himself to be as proficient 
 in our language as a native of the country, without being at all 
 questioned on the subject ; but when simply asked where he had 
 learnt it, he neither understood the question nor offered a reply, 
 turning the conversation to some other topic. 
 
 Our consul has been resident here as a merchant about 
 twenty-five years, and within his recollection the improvement in 
 the commerce of the place and the wealth of its inhabitants has 
 been considerable. He remembers when the Christians were so 
 poor, that only one benish existed among them, belonging to the 
 Greek bishop, which was let out on marriage festivals to the 
 bridegroom. At present there are more than twenty rich mer- 
 chants, who seldom appear without one, and all else is in pro- 
 portion. Already, in the course of the present year, there have 
 been imported and sold here 800 barrels of cochineal, which 
 were bought up with avidity in ready money for the market of 
 Damascus, and the manufactures of various cloths, silks, &c. in 
 the mountains. 
 
 Sunday, April 21. — We left Bairoot at sun-rise, and going 
 out at the eastern gate continued our course along in that direc- 
 tion by a road leading through extensive gardens, thickly planted 
 with mulberry trees for the silk-worms, bred all over the environs. 
 In about half an hour we crossed a point of land jutting out to 
 the northward, at the extremity of which is a village and an old 
 ruined tower, like the one near the sea at Bairoot, called Boorje- 
 el-Abu-Hhayda. On each side of it is a small bay, in which 
 vessels find shelter, and sometimes repair, though the most fre- 
 quented spot for that purpose is a small basin, formed by a curve of 
 the rocky shore about a mile to the westward of the town. After 
 passing Abu-Hhayda, the space on the left between the road and 
 the sea is said to have been the scene of St. George's conquest 
 over the dragon, one of the most prominent legends of the Greek 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 447 
 
 church, and commemorated by pictures representing the battle, to 
 be seen at the humblest of their altars. 
 
 Soon after this we crossed the Nahr-el-Bairoot, over a toler- 
 able bridge. The river flows down'here from the southward, and 
 discharges a shallow stream into the sea, forming a bar at its 
 mouth. The valley through which it flows has many villages, and 
 is exceedingly fertile. 
 
 From hence we entered on a sandy road, and winding round 
 the deepest part of the bay, continued along the beach of the sea- 
 shore. The land breeze still continued to blow from the east- 
 ward ; and, as the mountains above us were covered with snow, 
 the air was sharp and penetrating. 
 
 In about an hour from hence we forded a stream called Nahr- 
 el-Ohja, which discharged a narrow but deep and rapid current 
 into the sea ; and observed on the side of the hills to the east of 
 us many little scattered villages. 
 
 In another hour we crossed over a small projecting point of 
 land on which is a public khan, and a house of supply far pas- 
 sengers, called Dikkan-el-Jeddoon, with some corn ground near ; 
 and about half a mile further on we came to a rocky promontory, 
 which, though generally low, presents rugged cliffs towards the sea, 
 and appears to have been once used as quarries for stone, as there 
 are still remaining a number of excavated square spaces, steps, 
 and blocks. It is called Ras-el Nahr-el-Kelb, from a river just 
 beyond it to the north, and furnishing a good point of view, I 
 took from thence the following bearings: — 
 
 Ras-el-Bairoot W.S.W. ... 12 miles. 
 
 Centre of the town S.W. by W. i W. Smiles. 
 
 Boorje-el-Abu-Hhayda . . . S.W. by W. . 8 miles. 
 
 Mouth of Nahr-el-Bau-oot . . S.W. .... 7 miles. 
 
 Ditto of Nahr-el-Ohja . . . S.S.W. i W. . Smiles, 
 
 Point of Dikkan-el-Jeddoon . S.S.W. ^ W. . J mile. 
 A northern point of land near, 1 
 
 with a bay beyond 
 
 N.E. I N. . . 1 mile. 
 
 Ras-el-Gebeal N. by E. ^ E. . 15 miles. 
 
448 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 From hence we passed up over the top of the promontory, 
 by a paved road cut down in the rock, and on descending on the 
 other side noticed several human figures, as large as the life, sculp- 
 tured in arched recesses in the cliffs of the rock, with large tablets, 
 like false doors, beside them, as if for inscriptions. I ascended to 
 view the third or fourth of these, and was surprised to find the 
 figure of an Egyptian priest, with a high pointed bonnet, a long 
 square beard, the left arm laid across the breast, and the right 
 elevated at right angles with the elbow. The tablet beside it 
 represented a doorway of six feet by three, with the winged globe 
 extending all the breadth of the architra,ve, and above it a mould- 
 ing and deep overhanging cornice. In the tablet itself, sunk 
 about three or four inches below the surface, were two standing 
 figures, exactly like the Egyptian ones, in form and altitude, one 
 seemingly presenting something to the other ; and below them, 
 the faint vestiges of a long inscription in thirty or forty lines, but, 
 whether in hieroglyphics or what, too much defaced to decide, all 
 much injured by time and the decomposition of the rock. 
 
 About 200 paces below is a tablet, with the following inscrip- 
 tion cut in the rock, and still quite legible : — 
 
 IMP CAES M AVRELIVS 
 
 ANTONINVS PIVS FELIX AVGVSTVS 
 
 PARTH. MAX. BRIT. GERM. MAXIMVS 
 
 PONTIFEX MAXIMVS 
 
 MONTIBVS IMMINENTIBVS 
 
 LYCO FLVMINI CAESIS VIAM DILATAVIT 
 
 PER . 
 
 ANTONINIANAM SVAM. 
 
 Near this also we saw now lying in the road, the broken frag- 
 ments of the stone, on which was the other inscription seen by 
 Maundrell : — 
 
 INVICTE IMP. ANTONINE P. FELIX AVG 
 MVLTIS ANNIS IMPERA. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 449 
 
 These blocks had been apparently used in some late repairs of 
 the way. 
 
 The Nahr-el-Kelb flows just below here, between two high 
 rocky cliffs, and has at this moment a neat bridge of three arches 
 over it, the work of the Amir Busheer, the prince of the Druses, 
 the old one of Fakr-el-Din being destroyed. Near this bridge, on 
 the northern bank of the stream, are about twenty lofty arches of 
 an aqueduct, which is carried along the side of the cliff itself 
 towards the sea, and its water is now used to turn a mill there. 
 The Lyco Flumini was also sometimes called Canis, which name 
 is preserved in the Nahr-el-Kelb of the Arabs, or river of the Dog. 
 It comes from Lebanon, and winds down through a deep and 
 narrow valley, which has on its borders many villages and con- 
 vents, and its stream was at the moment of our crossing it full 
 and rapid. 
 
 We halted at a coffee shed on the northern bank of the 
 stream to refresh, and did not depart from thence until past noon. 
 In about an hour and a half, having come chiefly over the sandy 
 beach of the sea-shore, we rounded a point of land, where the 
 road goes along on a sort of causeway under high cliffs, and 
 entered on the border of a deep bay, the shore of which is called 
 Yunia, and the district of the hills above. El Zook. There were 
 here marks of former quarries, broken masses of rock severed from 
 the cliffs and fallen into the sea, several coffee houses and rest- 
 ing places along the beach, fishing boats at anchor, and other 
 interesting features, forming altogether an agreeable picture. 
 
 In an hour from hence we crossed a stream called Nahr-el- 
 Mehamilenn, over which was once a Roman bridge of one arch 
 only, but constructed of such large stones and so excellently 
 put together that all the lower part or principal of the arch 
 itself remains entire, though the upper part or way across it is 
 destroyed. This is near the termination of the bay, and was once 
 the limits between the pashalics of Tarabolus and Seyda ; but at this 
 period the pasha of Seyda, residing at Acre, commands the whole 
 
 3 M 
 
450 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 of the coast from the frontiers of Egypt to Latakeea, the country 
 north of which is under the government of Aleppo. The moun- 
 tains which approach close to the sea here at the edge of this bay 
 of Yunia, are called by the general name of Gebel-el-Castrawan, 
 and are well peopled by Christians and Druses, under the govern- 
 ment of the Ameer Busheer. Convents, both of Greeks and 
 Maronites, abound on every peak, and it was here that I heard for 
 the first time in Turkey the sound of convent bells. After leav- 
 ing this bay we passed a ruined tower near the sea, and a large 
 arched cave in the rocky side of the hill on our right, with some 
 few rude columns, perhaps intended for mile-stones on the road. 
 We met also several women, who wore, extending from the right 
 side of their head, a horn of metal exactly like a large funnel, with 
 the broadest part outermost, so as to look like a very large ear trum- 
 pet, some of them being at least eighteen inches in length. We 
 were told that these were Christians, and soon had an opportunity 
 of seeing that this strange excrescence differed from the horn of 
 the Druses, as we met a wedding party of these people, in which 
 the bridegroom and his friends were conducting the bride to her 
 new home. There were four men, all armed and well dressed, 
 who were walking on foot, while behind them came first the bride, 
 on a richly caparisoned horse, and next her female attendant on a 
 more plainly furnished one. Both of the females were dressed in 
 very expensive robes, and both wore the horn which distinguishes 
 their class. As the muslin veil which covered both it and the 
 face was finely transparent, I could perceive that the horns 
 were of metal gilded over. They were by far the longest I had 
 yet seen, and were, I should think, not at all less than two feet and 
 a half in length. They preserved nearly the same diameter of from 
 two to three inches, very slightly increasing at the root, and the 
 point was flattened as I had seen them before. They projected 
 from the head in an angle of about 45°, as the emblem of a certain 
 deity 'among the Greeks is represented ; not horizontal, as the same 
 emblem was represented by the ancient Egyptians, and originally 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 451 
 
 by the Greeks also, until they copied the more erect form from the 
 Pelasgi*, according to Herodotus. The circumstance of a new 
 horn of this description being presented by the husband on the 
 day of marriage, and worn by the female ever afterwards, of this 
 shape and in this position, seems certainly very like a relic of 
 the ancient adoration of the deity whose emblem is here alluded 
 to; nor can it be much wondered at, when it is known, that in 
 the north of Syria, in the road from Scanderoon to Aleppo, there 
 is a village of Nessaree, where the wives and daughters are prosti- 
 tuted to strangers, probably also a relic of the ancient devotion to 
 Venus. 
 
 In about an hour and a half we passed a small inlet called 
 Minat-el-Berja, where several fishing boats were assembled for 
 shelter, and observed that the fishermen all used long rods of 
 reed with a line^ as we angle from the banks of rivers in Europe. 
 We noticed too that the Arabic spoken along this portion of the 
 coast was the most barbarous that we had yet heard in Syria. The 
 state of agriculture seemed on the other hand better; most of the 
 corn was nearly at its full height^ some barley was quite ripe, and 
 the peasants were all employed weeding by hand in the fields, 
 which were as clean as could be desired. 
 
 In an hour we reached the Nahr- el-Ibrahim of the Arabs, 
 the ancient river of Adonis, so celebrated in classic story for, the 
 annual rites performed on its banks in memory of that favourite 
 of Venus, who was fabled to have been killed by the boar he 
 hunted in the mountains above. We observed here that the earth 
 upon its shores was of a deep red colour, though the water was 
 but now slightly tinged with it ; yet after sudden floods the waters 
 overflowing these banks might well become sufficiently red to 
 induce the ancient worshippers of Venus to believe that the river 
 became stained with the blood of her favourite, in sympathy for 
 
 * If the classical reader should feel curious to understand this allusion, which, 
 for obvious reasons, cannot be here more plainly expressed, he will find, on turning 
 to Herodotus, in section 51 of his Euterpe, a more detailed explanation of this. 
 
 3 M 2 
 
452 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 his death, more particularly as this is said by Lucian to have gene- 
 rally happened near the feast of Adonis, and naturally in the 
 rainy season.* 
 
 We crossed this river by a large and lofty bridge of a single 
 
 * M. Bailly, in his ancient History of Asia, and dissertation on the Atlantides 
 of Plato, has some extremely curious and interesting speculations on this subject. 
 
 In Phoenicia, Adonis was an object of adoration, born of an incestuous commerce 
 between Myrrah and her father Cinyras. Venus saw him and became passionately in 
 love with him ; she quitted the bowers of Amathon for the forests of Lebanon, and 
 followed her young lover to the chase. Diana, at the request of Mars, stung with 
 jealousy, had the young prince attacked and slain by a wild boar. All that remained 
 to Venus was a flower that grew from the blood of Adonis. It was anemone, or the 
 wind flower. Adonis descended to the shades ; and, destined to captivate the hearts 
 of goddesses, inspired Proserpine with the same tender passion ; and when Venus 
 petitioned her father Jupiter for the recal of her lover, the master of the gods found 
 himself not a little embarrassed between these matrons, one of whom wished to have 
 back what the other was no less desirous to retain. Their claims were the same : they 
 were those of love, and the case admitted of an equitable division. Adonis revisited 
 the light for six months annually, to enjoy the embraces of Venus, and was during the 
 other six months in the arms of his nocturnal mistress. They instituted a festival in 
 his honour, mourned for him once a year, and wept over his memory ; whUe joy and 
 festivity revived with the moment of his return to life. The same festivals were 
 celebrated in Egypt during forty days, in honour of Osiris, who had been lost and 
 found again. It is impossible to deny the conformity of those usages of the two 
 nations. The sun and moon were worshipped in Phoenicia under the names of 
 Adonis and Astarte, and in Egypt under those of Isis and Osiris. 
 
 M, Bailly conceives this worship to have been brought by the Atlantides from 
 their island of Atlantis, in the north beyond Scythia, and to have been established on 
 their passage through Phoenicia, and it must be admitted that his arguments have 
 great weight. That the Atlantides travelled into this country, that they communicated 
 to it some of their institutions, is a fact, says this author, which it is impossible to call 
 into question. Strabo tells us, that the Scythians having become too numerous for 
 their own country by a superabundant population, descended from their mountains, and 
 fell upon the kingdom of Pontus and Cappadocia ; and Acmon, one of their chiefs, 
 built upon the river Thermodon a city named from himself, Acmonia.f He after- 
 wards entered Phrygia, and there built a second Acmonia.| This Acmon was the 
 father of Uranus, who married Titea his sister, as we learn from the text of Diodorus. 
 He was, therefore, one of the chiefs who conducted the Atlantides from Scythia into 
 Phrygia, and the building of those cities was in the number of his achievements. 
 (Bailly, Ant. Hist. Asia, vol. ii. p. 83.) 
 
 As the Atlantides were not natives of Egypt, and as they travelled not by the 
 way of Africa, thev must necessarily have passed through Phoenicia, and there planted 
 
 t Strabo, Geog. lib. 2. 
 t Stephanus upon the word Acmonian, Mythology of Bannier, torn. ii. p. 21. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 45.^ 
 
 arch, and observed that the stream which flowed beneath was 
 broader and more deep and rapid than any other river we had yet 
 
 the worship of the sun, previously to their communicating it to Egypt. This is neither 
 a new supposition, nor a philosophical hypothesis, but a matter of fact, attested by 
 Lucian. According to that philosopher, the worship of Adonis was introduced into 
 Phoenicia by Deucalion. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, a designation which, 
 strictly speaking, might signify nothing more than a descendant of that prince who 
 inhabited Caucasus, where the fable makes an eagle prey upon his liver. Whatever 
 be the real meaning of this fable, Prometheus was born in Asia, his mother was called 
 by the name of Asia, he is related to the Atlantides by his brother Atlas*, and to 
 Caucasus by the rock on which the fable has fixed him. Thus it is to the Atlantides, 
 a people constantly referred back to Caucasus from which they descended, that pro- 
 perly belongs the institution of the worship of Adonis and Osiris. 
 
 We have no reason to doubt that this worship had the sun for its object,- this 
 was the opinion of Plutarch and Macrobius, more learned on this subject than we 
 moderns, because they were much nearer the sources of antiquity. They have been 
 followed by the bulk of writers in late times. Mons. L'Abbe Bannier, however, is 
 by no means of the same opinion ; he cannot admit that the mourning for Adonis, and 
 the joy at his restoration to life, could be emblematical of the absence of the sun, and 
 of his return. " Does the sun (says he,) when he withdraws from us in the winter, go 
 down into the shades ? Does he abandon the human race, particularly in Syria and 
 Phoenicia, where winter is so short, and often more agreeable than summer ? Had 
 they been Laplanders, or Siberians, who instituted this festival, one might have thought 
 that the total absence of the sun had suggested the idea ; but it is impossible to con- 
 ceive this of the inhabitants of Syria, who enjoy a uniformly serene sky, and where 
 the inequality in the length of the day is so inconsiderable. Besides, were this system 
 founded in truth, they ought to have celebrated the festival of Adonis at different 
 times of the year, and at the distance of six months the one from the other ; instead 
 of this its celebration happens only once a year, and in a month remote from both 
 equinoxes, which would have better marked the moment when the sun begins to 
 withdraw from or approach the poles."f 
 
 The learned mythologist cannot believe the ingenious explanation of Macrobius, 
 when he supposes it to be an invention of the Phoenicians, but he would have given 
 it fiill credit if it had taken its rise in Siberia. The difficulties that he sees and 
 complains of are natural. The star of day dies as little m Syria as he does in Egypt ; 
 there winter is unknown ; one scarcely perceives that the sun's elevation is less above 
 the horizon. The individual who suffers no inconvenience from these changes will 
 neither mourn nor rejoice on their account; if he has any thing to complain of, it is 
 the excessive heat of summer and the return of the sun, which is the cause of it. The 
 physical nature of the climate is then contrary to the spirit of the festival ; they ought 
 to have rejoiced at the death of Adonis and lamented at his revival. Yet Syria and 
 Egypt were crowded with temples and cities dedicated to the sun. He was wor- 
 
 * Hesiod Theogony, ii, p. 508. Bannier Mythology, torn, ii. p. 1 17. 
 t Bannier Mythology, torn. i. p. 559. 
 
454 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 seen in Palestine or Syria, not excepting the Jordan itself, which 
 is esteemed the principal. The current ran now at least five miles 
 per hour, and the general breadth of the stream was about 50 
 yards, the banks being lined with the long rushes used as fishing 
 rods on the coast. 
 
 In about an hour from hence we crossed a smaller stream 
 over a stone bridge, called Nahr-el-Fidar ; and passing over a 
 fine cultivated plain at the foot of the mountains or hills which 
 border the coast and form the foot of Lebanon, we came in an- 
 other hour, or near sunset, to the town of Jebal, where we lodged 
 in a small convent of Maronite Friars, who were so poor as to be 
 unable to furnish us with any thing but bread and salad. 
 
 Monday, April 22. — While our horses were preparing, I had 
 an opportunity of making a little tour round the town. It is 
 seated on a rising ground near the sea, at the foot of Lebanon, 
 which here approaches close to the coast. It is walled on three 
 sides towards the land, and open on the west towards the sea, 
 being perhaps in the whole about half a mile in circuit. Without 
 the walls, before the only gate of entrance, are a number of coffee 
 sheds and halting places, with a street bazar for the accommo- 
 dation of those who may not wish to enter the town, or arrive 
 or depart before and after sunset, when the gate is closed. 
 Within the walls the chief building is an old castle, raised by 
 
 shipped under the name of Hehogabalus, in the city of Eraessa.* Near Lebanon 
 stood Balbeck, or Heliopolis, so famous for its ruins to this day. We find another 
 Heliopohs in Egypt, with the great Thebes, more in the vicinity of the tropic ; the 
 city where the phcenix returned to life, and where the sun was still an object of ador- 
 ation.-]- He was likewise worshipped in the city of Tyre under the name of Hercules, 
 as it has been shown by reasons highly probable that the labours and life of this hero 
 were nothing more than allegories derived from the course of the sun.:]; 
 
 Nothing can be more conclusive, I think, than all this to prove that the worship 
 of Adonis in Syria and Osiris in Egypt were both foreign to these countries, and that 
 they were brought from the northern regions, which M. Bailly has assigned to them 
 as the cradle of their birth. 
 
 * D'Anville, Geog. Anc. torn. ii. p. 134. f Houns. Apollo, lib. 2. c. 57. Bailly, v. i. p.2JS. 
 
 t Mr. Gebelin, Oriental Allegories, p. 246. Bailly, Ant. Hist, of Asia. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 455 
 
 modern repairs, and now used as the house of the aga, whose 
 whole force consists of about ten horse soldiers, twenty foot, and 
 three small pieces of cannon. There are, besides, three or four 
 other lofty and open buildings, appertaining to the chief people of 
 the place, a mosque, with a low minareh, and a Maronite church, 
 apparently of some antiquity, from its exterior form and good 
 masonry. The rest of the houses in the town are but of poor 
 construction, and nearly half the space within the walls is filled 
 up by gardens for the use and pleasure of the inhabitants. The 
 population is not estimated to be above 2,000 Mohammedans 
 and Maronites. 
 
 Without the town are seen many large and beautiful columns 
 of red and grey granite, with some sculptured blocks of marble, 
 probably the wreck of the celebrated temple of Adonis, erected 
 to him here on the spot of his nativity, as this Gebaal is held to 
 be the Byblus of the Greeks *, and corresponds in sitviation from 
 its vicinity to the river of Adonis already mentioned. Maundrell 
 saysf, " Gibyle (or Jebaal) is probably the country of the Giblites, 
 mentioned in Joshua, xiii. 5.:]: King Hiram made use of this 
 place in preparing materials for Solomon's temple; as may be 
 collected from the first of Kings, v. 18., where the word, 
 which our translator hath rendered stone squarers, in the Hebrew is 
 □♦Vnji Giblim or Giblites ; and in the LXXH Interpreters Bugx<o/, 
 that is, the men of Byblus, the former using the Hebrew, the 
 
 * This city was surrendered to Alexander on his march through it, along the 
 coast of Syria towards Phoenicia, after the battle of Issus, and before the siege of Tyre. 
 — Quint. Curt. lib. iv. c. 1 . 
 
 Sanchoniathon, who wrote from Phcenician documents, states, that the Phoeni- 
 cians had taken care to have every thing transported into their own country. Ac- 
 cording to them, the first men dwelt in Tyre and Byblos ; and the scene of all past 
 events was laid in the country of Phoenicia, just as the Egyptians confined it to 
 Egypt, and along the banks of the Nile. — Bailly^ Ant. Hist, of Asia, torn. ii. p. 5. 
 
 t Travels, p. 45. 8vo. edit. 1810. 
 
 X Its mention by Joshua as a limit, may be used as an additional proof of Gebel- 
 el-Sheikh, or Gebel-el-Telj, being the principal Hermon of the Scriptures — from 
 Hermon to Hamath, &c. The town of Jebaal preserves its ancient name. It fur- 
 nished caulkers for the ships of Tyre, according to Ezekiel. 
 
456 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 latter the Greek name of this place. The same difference may 
 be observed likewise in Ezek. xxvii. 9. where this place is again 
 mentioned. The ancients of Gebdl, says our translation, following 
 the Hebrew, instead of which you read in the LXXII, again, o* 
 jTgso-gtJTs^oj BoSXiwv, the elders of Bybli or Byblus." * 
 
 The port is formed by a ledge of rocks running out straight 
 westward from the town, but is frequented only by a few small 
 
 * From Benjamin of Tudela the following particulars are collected respecting the 
 state and condition of Gebal in his day. It touched on the limits of the Hhsesissin, or 
 Assassins, who did not follow the doctrines of the Israelites, or Arabs, but of the 
 " Old Man of the Mountain," as he was called, to whom they were extraordinarily 
 devoted. They made war against the Christians or Franks, and against the King of 
 Tripoli, then also called Tarabolous. Their country was then eight days' journey in 
 length, but whether this included the range of Lebanon or the hills of Cyrea, does not 
 appear. These were either the Druses, or the Nesseary or Ansarie ; most probably 
 the latter.f 
 
 There was another Gebal, however, which is called by the same traveller the 
 second or southern one, going down the coast of Syria, and forming the limits of the 
 Children of Ammon. Ini his time, there was discovered the place of an ancient 
 temple of the Ammonites, with an idol on a throne ; the figure was of stone covered 
 with gold, and accompanied by two other statues of females sitting one on each side 
 of him, while before him was an altar in which the Ammonites offered sacrifices and 
 perfumes. J From hence to Bairoot was one day's journey ; and from thence to Saida 
 one day more. Ten miles from Saida were a people at war with the Sidonians, calling 
 themselves Dozzim, and by others called Pagans. They were of no religion, and 
 obeyed no prince, but inhabited deep caverns in the mountains there, living like 
 savages among the rocks. Their district extended three days from near Saida to 
 Mount Hermon, which Benjamin of Tudela fiied at the great Jebel-el-Sheikh, as well 
 as Dr. Pococke and Dr. Seetzen. These pagans committed incest by fathers marrying 
 their own daughters, and they had a yearly feast, in which there was a community of 
 women. Their belief was, that the soul of a good man being separated from his body 
 by death entered into that of some infant just created ; but that the soul of a bad man 
 entered into the body of a dog or some other beast. No Jews lived among them ; 
 but such as went there to exercise their arts or trade were treated with humanity, and 
 unmolested. They were a people so fitted for a mountainous life, and traversed the 
 hills with such facility, that there was no subduing them.§ 
 
 f In Richardson's Arabic Grammar, an astonishing instance of the self-devotion of these subjects 
 of tho Old Man of the Mountain to his wishes, is mentioned. 
 
 \ This description would seem to apply to a figure of Osiris, Isis, and some other female divinitj', 
 with sculptures of Egyptian sacrifices on the altar. There are also a great number of such combin- 
 ations seen among the ruins of Egypt. 
 
 § This description would still suit very accurately either the Druses or the Ansarie, according to 
 the popular traditions of their faith and practice, current among their neighbours. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 457 
 
 fishing boats, as it is a place of no commerce, and its inhabitants 
 live chiefly by the labours of agriculture. 
 
 We left Jebal at sunrise, and observed, on passing to the 
 eastward of the gate, that the town had been once surrounded by 
 a ditch, which is now used chiefly as garden land, and in which we 
 saw men ploughing in a plot of ground appropriated to mulberries. 
 The walls have square towers in them at the distance of about 
 100 feet from each other, in the construction of which are used a 
 number of granite pillars broken into convenient blocks, and 
 pointing their circular ends outwards. These are portions of the 
 wreck of the former magnificence of Byblus. 
 
 In about three-quarters of an hour from Jebal we passed over 
 a point of land, with a small ruined village on its extremity, called 
 Amsheer. The ground is planted with mulberries for the silk- 
 worm ; the trees being here, as elsewhere, laid out in regular rows 
 and at equal distances from each other. We observed in our way 
 a spring of fresh water issuing from the sand close to the edge of 
 the sea, as well as many cisterns along the coast upon the beach, 
 which were frequented by the females of the few Arabs who feed 
 their flocks upon the rocky brows of the adjacent hills. 
 
 In half an hour from Amsheer we passed under a high point 
 of land, on the top of which stood a large ruin, called by the 
 natives, Boorje Rowahan, with some rude fragments of pillars 
 below it near the road, apparently portions of mill-stones and 
 not the remains of any building. 
 
 In an hour from hence we crossed the dry bed of a torrent 
 over a small bridge of one high arch, which bridge, from being 
 altogether below the level of the soil on the banks which it unites, 
 and crossed by a straight path over it without the slightest rise, 
 is called Jisser-el-Medfoun, or the buried bridge. 
 
 In half an hour more, passing over a slip of well cultivated 
 corn land between the foot of the hills and the sea, with a por- 
 tion of rocky road in the way, we came to the town of Batrone. 
 This is a small place without walls, containing about 100 small 
 
 3 N 
 
458 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, 
 
 dwellings, the ruins of a large Christian church, and two smaller 
 ones, now perfect and in use. The population does not exceed 
 1000, and these are chiefly Arabs of the Greek communion. There 
 is a small port to the north of the town, with some few boats 
 riding securely at anchor, and an excellent coffee-house on the 
 beach ; there are a great number of these places of refreshment 
 indeed all along the road from Bairoot. 
 
 This place is thought to be the ancient Botrus ; though, as far 
 as our hasty passage through it would admit of examination, we 
 saw no vestiges of antiquity or of former grandeur there. 
 
 We did not depart from Batrone until past noon, being 
 detained there full three hours by the exchange of one of my 
 mares which was too weak for the journey, for a strong ghadeesh 
 or gelding, and the payment of 200 piastres in money. 
 
 In an hour from Batrone, receding gradually from the sea 
 shore, we turned up to the eastward and entered a narrow val- 
 ley. This was once a military post, as may be seen from an old 
 Mohammedan castle still remaining there. It is singularly 
 situated on the top of a rock which stands isolated in the middle 
 of the pass, and is nearly perpendicular on all sides round. The 
 form of the building is adapted to the shape of the rock itself, 
 and is extremely irregular ; the rock being naturally steep and 
 isolated, and not hewn down for the castle. The building is 
 small, and in some parts extremely narrow. Loop-holes are 
 seen in the walls; and the ascent is by a steep flight of steps 
 on the northern side. The castle is called Khallet-el-Muselleh, 
 and a stream that flows down through the valley near it is called 
 Nahr-el-Muselleh. 
 
 From hence we ascended a steep road, in order to cross over 
 the neck of the great promontory called Ras-el-Shakkah, which is 
 so steep as to admit of no passage round its edge by the sea. It 
 was an hour and a half before we gained the foot on the other side, 
 having come over most irregular ground and a rugged road, chiefly 
 of rock and chalky earth. 
 
AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 459 
 
 The promontory has a still steeper appearance from the north 
 than from the south, rising almost perpendicular from the sea, and 
 being, I should conceive, little less than 1000 feet in height. Strabo 
 calls it ro ToO 0£oo ziT^oa-eoTTov, or the Face of God, (Strab. lib. 16. 
 Pomp. Mela. lib. i. cap. 12.) and considers it as the end of Mount 
 Libanus, though it is nearer the centre of its length. It is, how- 
 ever, by far the most prominent point which this range presents 
 towards the sea, and might therefore have been thus considered by 
 the mariners among the ancients, who are the persons that gene- 
 rally bestow the first names on places, and furnish the earliest in- 
 formation to hydrographers, for the construction of their charts. 
 
 We continued now along the sea shore at a short distance 
 from its edge, and in two hours passed over a low projecting point, 
 at the extremity of which was a Greek convent, called Deer Na- 
 toor. It was here that two English gentlemen, Mr. Davidson and 
 Mr. Colter, were lodged, during the plague at Tripoly, in the year 
 1813, when both were ill of malignant fevers, and Mr. Colter fell 
 a victim to the disease. 
 
 In the road above this we passed by the ruins of a building 
 constructed of very large stones, with the posterns and architrave 
 of a doorway still remaining, each of them of one block of stone. 
 We saw no column here, nor any other remains of more extended 
 buildings ; but, it being the only place in which any vestiges are 
 seen by the way, it may probably mark the site of the ancient 
 Trieris, placed by Strabo between the promontory of the Face of 
 God and Tripolis. 
 
 Our road now became extremely rugged over beds of rocks, 
 and scarcely passable on horseback ; and this continued until we 
 reached Culmone, which occupied about an hour. This is a small 
 village near the sea, with a mosque and minaret, and several 
 gardens around it ; being inhabited chiefly by Mohammedans. 
 Above it, on the left, is a Greek convent called Belmont ; and 
 about half an hour beyond it another called Deer Yacoube, both 
 seated high on the brow of the hill. 
 
 3n 2 
 
460 FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, &c. 
 
 Here we entered on a sandy beach, and quickening our pace, 
 we reached the gate of Tripoly, or Tarabolus, a few minutes after 
 sunset. Directing our course to the house of Mr. Katchefflis, 
 a Greek merchant who performs the duties of British consul there, 
 we met a welcome reception, and were comfortably accommodated.. 
 
CHAP. XXII. 
 
 STAY AT TRIPOLY, AND JOUKNEY FROM THENCE ACROSS THE 
 MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON TO BALBECK. 
 
 Tuesday, April 23. — I had been charged by Lady Hes- 
 ter Stanhope, on my departure from Seyda, with the dehvery of 
 a pair of English pistols to Mustapha Baba, the governor here^ 
 which I had promised to present with my own hands, and accom- 
 pany by the necessary explanations. Information was accordingly 
 sent to him of my arrival, and my wish to pay him a visit when it 
 might be convenient ; and the answer returned was, that his affairs 
 were to-day so pressing that he could wish my visit to be post- 
 poned until to-morrow. The day was therefore devoted to an 
 examination of the town and its environs. The town of Tarabolus 
 is situated at the foot of Lebanon, and from it extends out a flat 
 triangular piece of land to the N.W. for the distance of nearly 
 two miles ; but on each side of this triangle, in the north-eastern 
 and south-western bay, the sea reaches to within the distance of 
 
462 STAY AT TRIPOLY. 
 
 less than a mile from the houses. The town is not regularly 
 walled, though it has several gates of entrance ; but on a hill which 
 overlooks it on the S.E. is a large castle, of Saracen construction, 
 which serves for the residence of the military. The whole of the 
 buildings occupy a space of about two miles in circuit ; and as 
 the houses are generally crowded together, Tarabolus may be 
 esteemed as inferior in size and population only to Aleppo, 
 Damascus, and Jerusalem. The houses and magazines are infe- 
 rior to those of Bairoot, and the bazars to those of Accha, or Acre, 
 though the streets are generally paved, and the markets and shops 
 well furnished. There are in the town eleven mosques, chiefly 
 having domes and minarets, and the largest of these is a very fine 
 old building of the Saracenic order, with a court and fountain, and 
 a number of old Arabic inscriptions. There are four Christian 
 churches ; two Greek, one Maronite, and one Latin in the con- 
 vent of the Capuchins. The proportion of the population may be 
 therefore judged from this ; the Mohammedans being the most 
 numerous, the Greek Christians next, and lastly the Catholics. 
 
 We noted only a few Osmanlies ; but we saw here more per- 
 sons wearing green turbans, as descendants of Mohammed, than 
 even in Damascus itself, where they are particularly numerous. 
 
 The environs of Tarabolus are chiefly laid out in gardens, in 
 which the orange and lemon trees abound. A fine stream, called 
 Nahr-el-Meloueea, comes from the S.E., and flowing at the foot 
 of the hill behind the castle, passes by the dwellings on the north- 
 eastern edge of the town, and discharges itself into the sea. Be- 
 hind the castle in the valley is a coffee-house, visited as a place 
 of recreation, to enjoy the solmd of the water, the verdure, and the 
 shade, and several other smaller ones are seated on its banks 
 nearer the town. 
 
 There is a place called Bedoowe, also about two miles to the 
 N.E. of the town, where is the tomb of a saint of that name, with 
 a mosque raised thereon. Attached to this mosque is a circular 
 basin o f beautifully clear water, in which are kept a number of 
 
STAY AT TRIPOLY. 463 
 
 fishes that are not suffered to be caught or eaten, out of respect 
 to the memory of him who is buried near. We saw, I should 
 conceive, not less than 2000 fishes within the circumference of 
 less than 100 paces ; some of them large enough to weigh five or 
 six pounds, flat-headed, covered with fine scales, of a silver grey 
 colour, and in excellent condition. There is a coffee-shed near 
 this, at which we halted to refresh. 
 
 The cemeteries of Tarabolus are the most extensive I had ever 
 seen for a town of its size, the population not exceeding 10,000, 
 and the graves being, I should think, almost as numerous as in 
 Damascus. This seems to confirm all that is said of the insalubrity 
 of its air in summer ; though the inhabitants happily believe that 
 no place in Syria is more beautiful, or more healthy, than theirs, 
 which they call Sham-el-Sogheere, Damascus the Little, or, as we 
 should say, a miniature of the capital. The tombs are much more 
 handsome than at Damascus, and more in the true Turkish style 
 of Constantinople and Smyrna, all daily furnished with myrtle, 
 freshly watered, and visited and strewed with flowers by surviving 
 female relatives and friends. 
 
 After a busy day, we passed the evening with the family of 
 Mr. Katchefflis, who had a young wife and four beautiful children; 
 heard all his own history, and a hundred interesting anecdotes of 
 celebrated travellers whom he had known, from Wortley Montagu 
 onwards to later individuals journeying this way, as well as of affairs 
 in the country, he having been thirty-five years consul here. 
 
 Wednesday, April 24. — We received word this morning, that 
 the Aga would be prepared for our visit about three o'clock, or 
 el-Assr, so that, having the forenoon at leisure, we set out after 
 breakfast to go down to the Meena, or port, taking the following 
 bearings of objects from our terrace before we left the house : — 
 
 Village of Culmone .... S. W. s "W. . 4 miles. 
 Ras-el-Shukkah high ... S. W. by W. . 15 ditto. 
 Deer Natoor low . . . W. S. W. . . 7 ditto. 
 
464 STAY AT TRIPOLY. 
 
 Town of the Port .... N. W. ... Smiles. 
 
 Islands of ditto N. W. by N. . 6 to 8 ditto. 
 
 Extreme noitU jj^/liil, .... N. N. E. J ^i. .40 ditto. 
 Derryah, a small village on the i 
 
 edgeofthecoa^t . . .} N. E. by E. 15 ditto. 
 
 Castle of Tarabolus ... S. S. E. . . . J ditto. 
 
 The road to the Meena led us first over a small sandy hill, on 
 which are sheds and booths of entertainment ; and afterwards on a 
 grassy plain all the rest of the way. The port itself being on theN. E. 
 of the point of land, is well sheltered from the prevailing winds of 
 the coast, which are from S. to W., and is sufficiently capacious to 
 contain a great number of vessels. There were about 15 sail, 
 large and small, now lying there. The water is said to be of 
 convenient depth, and the anchoring ground clear and good. 
 The port is altogether formed by the extremity of the point itself, 
 and a few small rocks scattered near it, and not by the two islands 
 off it, which are much too distant to afford any shelter to vessels 
 riding near the shore of the continent. 
 
 There is a little town at the port, containing from 2 to 3,000 
 inhabitants, an excellent khan, several large magazines, a boat-yard, 
 and shops of all kinds, chiefly kept by Syrian Greeks. 
 
 To the S. and S. E. are many vestiges of the former settle- 
 ments here, in destroyed buildings, granite columns, &c. scattered 
 on the beach of the sea. From a point on which were many of 
 these, and which formed the outermost extremity of the tongue of 
 land, I noted the following bearings : — 
 
 Culmone S. S. W 4 miles. 
 
 Belmont 
 
 Ras-el-Shakkah 
 
 Deer Natoor 
 
 Geziret-Erwede, steep southern bluff 
 Geziret-el-Nagel, with a few date "i 
 
 trees . . . J 
 
 Town of the Port 
 
 Deepest part of the northern bay : 
 
 within the port 
 
 S. S. W. i w. . 
 
 . 5 ditto. 
 
 S. W. i w. . 
 
 . 16 ditto. 
 
 S. W. 3 w. . . 
 
 . 8 ditto. 
 
 N. W. by N. i N. 
 
 . 6 ditto. 
 
 N. N.W. . . 
 
 . 5 ditto. 
 
 East .... 
 
 . i ditto. 
 
 ■} 
 
 E. S. E. . . . S ditto. 
 
STAY AT TRIPOLY. 455 
 
 Castle of Tarabolus .... S. E 2 miles. 
 
 Deepest part of the southern bay -j 
 
 near the town . . . j ' ^ 
 
 We saw in the course of our way several remains of ancient 
 buildings, from which we inferred that the colonies founded by 
 Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, which gave the name of Tripolis to the 
 large city they at length jointly formed, must have extended 
 close down to the sea at the very end of this point. * 
 
 Along the beach of the north-eastern shore, from the town of 
 the harbour to the outlet of the Nahr-el-Meloueeah into the sea, 
 are several square towers ; one of them, called Boorje-el-Beagh, or 
 the tower of the lion, being very large. They are all, apparently, 
 of Mohammedan construction. Fragments of the shafts of broken 
 pillars have been regularly worked into the masonry endwise ; and 
 by the dark colour of their granite being opposed to the yellow hue 
 of the other stones, they look from a distance like round windows. 
 These towers are now, however, mostly in ruins. 
 
 On our return to the town we visited some excellent baths, 
 and a large soap manufactory ; and saw, in our way, a noble 
 sarcophagus at one of the towers. We also paid a visit to Mustapha 
 Baba, whose character and appearance, as well as history, were 
 interesting. On my presenting him the pistols from Lady Hester 
 Stanhope, he expressed his profound respect for her name, in 
 which every one present seemed to join. 
 
 The evening was passed with the family of the Consul, whose 
 conversation was full of curious matter ; but I had neither time nor 
 inclination to record any of the many anecdotes which I heard from 
 him, connected with this place. After the family had retired, I con- 
 tinued up until past midnight, writing to Lady Hester Stanhope, 
 
 * In Phoenicia there is a famous city called Tripolis, its name agreeing with the 
 nature of the place ; for three cities are contained within its bounds, a furlong distant 
 one from each other, one called the city of the Aradians, the other of the Sidonians, 
 and the other of the Tyrians. It is the most eminent of all the cities of Phoenicia, be- 
 ing that where the general senate of all the Phoenicians do usually meet, and consult 
 about all the weighty affairs of the nation. — Diodorus Siculus, book xvi. c. 8. 
 
 3 o 
 
466 FROM TEIPOLY TO BALBECK, 
 
 Mr. Barker, and Dr. Meryon ; and in putting into some order the 
 few notes that I had been able to make, in writing, on the road from 
 Batrone to this place. 
 
 Thursday, April 25. — During our short stay atTripolis, I had 
 been assured that we should find the route from hence across the 
 mountains to Aleppo more safe, as well as more agreeable, than that 
 by the way of the coast ; and as there was now no longer a hope of 
 my being able to reach India in time for the monsoon, and conse- 
 quently a less urgent lieeessity for the risk or speed which, under 
 other circumstances, might have been undertaken, I readily yielded 
 to the change ; more particularly as I had reason to expect that 
 Mr. Bankes might join me at Balbeck, and that we might then per- 
 form our journey from thence to Aleppo together, to our mutual ad- 
 vantage in all respects ; and particularly as it regarded mutual 
 protection in the latter and most dangerous part of the way. 
 
 My servant, Hadjee Ahmed, furnished me by Lady Hester Stan-t 
 hope, professing to know every part of the roads in this direction, 
 no other companion or guide was necessary ; and accordingly we 
 quitted Tarabolus about eight o'clock in the morning, to go across 
 the mountains as proposed. Proceeding on our way in a direction 
 a little to the southward of east, we crossed the river called Nahr- 
 el-Meloweeah over a stone bridge within the town, the stream ap- 
 pearing to wind through the greater part of it. Following this 
 stream we entered the valley behind the castle on the S. E. of the 
 town, and, ascending its steep bank, came on an elevated plain, 
 finely cultivated with corn and olives. In less than an hour we 
 reached its extremity, near which was a small village called Ardeat, 
 with a number of others in sight around us on the hills. From 
 hence we descended into a beautiful valley, through which ran a 
 winding stream called Nahr-el-Zegherta, being a branch of the 
 Nahr-el-Meloweeah, which discharges itself into the sea to the 
 Southward of Tarabolus. We saw here the fragments of an old 
 Roman bridge, lying in detached masses of masonry, held firmly 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. 467 
 
 together by the strength of the cement, and one of the arches still 
 perfect. After ascending its southern bank we came upon a second 
 cultivated plain of less extent, which was followed by a small valley, 
 having also villages, olive grounds, and corn fields. 
 
 After passing this, our ascent became more regular and con- 
 tinued, and our course generally directed to the S. S. E. Our way 
 up the side of Lebanon was steep, and in many parts difficult ; but 
 we were repaid by the delightful freshness of the air as we mounted, 
 and the grandeur of the views on every side. 
 
 It was about noon when we reached a small stream flowing 
 down from the mountain, on the banks of which we halted to refresh, 
 and soon after reached the village of Sibbeehel above it. We saw 
 here some ancient sepulchres in the rocks, and a new church just 
 finished, the inhabitants being all Christians of the Greek commu- 
 nion. There was an appearance of fresher health and vigour in the 
 men than is seen in the plains, and the women were fairer than their 
 lowland neighbours. The former were dressed in the usual costume 
 of the peasantry of the country ; but the latter wore a horn of metal, 
 differing in shape and position from any that I had yet seen. It 
 was placed on the crown of the head, pointing rather backward, like 
 a small diadem ; and being flat at the top, and larger there than at 
 the bottom, it looked exactly like one of the small boiling kettles 
 of the country reversed. There is a fine spring, in an arched well, 
 just above Sibbeehel, over which is a cross, and at which we drank. 
 The population of the place might amount to 200 persons ; and 
 the state of their grounds spoke favourably of their industry. 
 
 In about an hour from hence we passed under another Christian 
 village on the summit of a high hill on our left. This was called 
 Avtou, and, though small, had several large and well built dwellings 
 in it. The road became here so fatiguing to our horses, as to re- 
 quire occasional halts. It was in many places dangerous too, as it 
 presented only a bed of smooth stones, on which the foot could 
 take no hold. The layers of rock having exactly the same form as 
 the surface of the soil and shape of the mountain, presented, in 
 
 3o 2 
 
468 FROM TRIPOLY TO BALBECK, 
 
 masses, a steep smooth side, over which it was necessary to lead 
 our animals, and use great caution ourselves. This same cause 
 renders many parts of the road along the coast disagreeable. 
 
 It was fully another hour before we reached the summit of the 
 mountain, this part of which is called Jebel Arrneto. The whole 
 body of this is white lime-stone rock of different qualities, and here 
 the stone has streaks, or layers of red, as if coloured by the oxide of 
 iron, or some other metal. There was, at this moment, snow still 
 remaining here, though the heat of the sun was nearly equal to that 
 of an English summer. Flocks of large white long-haired goats 
 were browsing on the rocks under the care of boys and their faith- 
 ful dogs ; and pines and young cedars of a smaller size were 
 abundant. The view from hence, on looking westward, commanded 
 an unbounded horizon at sea, with the whole of the coast from 
 Ras-el-Shukkah to the extreme northern point of land seen from 
 Tarabolus. The port and islands of that town bore from us about 
 N. by W. ^ W., perhaps fifteen miles ; but the town itself was not 
 visible, from the intervention of the hill which overhangs it. The 
 whole of the plain below, with the deep valleys which intersect it, 
 looked beautiful from hence, presenting corn lands of the freshest 
 green, bare patches of ploughed land, showing a deep red soil, and 
 olive trees, and streams of water in abundance. The bluff point of 
 Ras-el-Shukkah, which had been called, according to Strabo, the 
 Face of God, from an idea of its being the end of Lebanon, looked 
 from hence quite insignificant, from being so much lower than our 
 own level ; and the white hills and valleys, over which we had 
 crossed with much fatigue, now looked like the little eminences 
 raised by ants, and resembled very much the white hills on the banks 
 of the Jordan, as seen in that valley from the Mount of Olives near 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 We descended over the eastern side of this Jebel Arrneto, 
 and opened a narrow but exceedingly deep valley, called Wadi 
 Khezheyah. The descent down the perpendicular cliffs of the 
 eastern part of this hill was by winding steps, cut originally in the 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. 4.QQ 
 
 rock in some places, and formed by stones and earth in others, over 
 which it was necessary to lead our horses down with great caution. 
 The valley was watered by a fine stream running through it, and 
 presented on all sides marks of the most active industry. I noticed 
 here, as in several other parts of Syria, where the sides of the 
 mountains are steep, that the trees did not shoot up perpendicu- 
 larly, but followed the inclined slope of the surface ; so that Sir 
 Humphrey Davy's opinion, that, from the power of gravitation on 
 roots, no more could grow on a hilly ground than on a level, how- 
 ever much more extended the surface of the former, seems liable to 
 some exceptions. 
 
 Nearly in the bottom of this valley we saw several masses of 
 rock, of a deep brownish purple colour, of which I took some fresh 
 fractured specimens. * One of the villagers whom we had taken 
 from Sibbeehel to show us the road told us that this was the stone 
 from which iron was procured ; and spoke of a mine now still 
 worked, a few hours' journey to the southward of this. 
 
 In the valley were two or three small villages, called only by 
 the name of the Wadi itself j the ground about these was laid 
 out in narrow slips, or terraces, raised one above another, in which 
 were planted corn, vines, olives, and mulberries, and the inaccessible 
 parts were covered with pines and wild shrubs, among which were 
 some fine springs of excellent water. 
 
 On the eastern side of this valley we passed under a modern 
 arch, which has been made to connect two natural masses of rock, 
 standing erect like the posterns of a door. Over it is a crucifix ; 
 and the place is reverenced and kissed by all the Christians who 
 pass under it. From this we went down into a second valley, 
 which was of the most romantic kind, being hemmed in on all sides 
 by lofty cliffs of overhanging rocks, so as to remind one of the 
 
 * The mineralogical specimens collected in the course of this journey were pre- 
 served, and sent from Aleppo to my friend, Mr. Babington, in England, by whom they 
 were presented to the Geological Society of London, in the cabinets of which they now 
 remain. 
 
470 FROM TRIPOLY TO BALBECK, 
 
 happy valley of Rasselas, from which there was no outlet. Grottoes 
 were seen in these cliffs ; formerly, perhaps, the residence of her- 
 mits ; and no solitude could be more complete, or at the same time 
 more delightful, than this. Through the bottom of this valley ran 
 the same stream which watered the preceding one, and which we 
 learnt was the head of the Nahr-el-Meloueeah and Nahr-el-Zegherta, 
 before the division of the stream into these two branches. The 
 steep sides of the valley were laid out in cultivated terraces as 
 before, and the whole presented a most interesting picture. 
 
 It was past El-Assr when we reached the convent, which is si- 
 tuated at its eastern extreme ; and as the station of Eden, or Busher- 
 rah, could not be reached before sunset, we halted here for the night. 
 Our reception was the kindest and warmest that could be desired, 
 and that too before it was at all known from whence we came. Our 
 horses were taken from us and placed at grass ; and we ourselves 
 were shewn into a comfortable room, with a carpet, mats, and two 
 clean beds on the floor. After a repast of eggs and milk had been 
 set before us, it was then first asked who we were ; and when it was 
 answered that I was an Englishman, and my servant a Moslem, a 
 hope was expressed that I was a Christian, as if the mere' circum- 
 stance of being an Englishman rendered that doubtful. By one of 
 the young men, whose office it appeared to be to take care of 
 strangers, I was shown over the whole of the establishment, and 
 was much gratified with what I saw, as well as with the kind manner 
 in which it was done. It would seem, indeed, that in proportion 
 as people live aloof from the great and busy world, they become 
 more hospitable rather than more misanthropic : as the Bedouins, 
 Highlanders, and others. 
 
 This convent, which is called Deer-el-Mar-Antonios-el-Khez- 
 heyeah, is founded on a spot said to have been frequented by a saint 
 of that name, about a century and half ago. It is built on the side 
 of a steep cliff, about halfway up its height, from the bottom of the 
 valley to the summit ; and some part of it is indeed excavated from 
 the cliff itself. In contains a small caverned church, and a long suite 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. 47 1 
 
 of small but comfortable rooms in two stories, for the accom- 
 modation of its inhabitants. ' There are at present ninety-two 
 Maronite monks here, every one of whom, except the Reis, or 
 chief, is employed in some mechanical labour, since every article 
 they require or use is manufactured by themselves. We saw their 
 weavers at the loom, masons and carpenters at work, shoe-makers 
 and taylors employed, besides all the household occupations of 
 cooking, washing, &c. carried on by members of the body, who 
 seemed fully to understand the advantages of the division of la- 
 bour. What gratified me most, however, was the sight of a printing- 
 press and Syriac types here, from which they produce their church 
 books, quite equal to those of Rome. The types are all Syriac, 
 though the language they represent is Arabic ; and there are four 
 founts of these, about the sizes of Long Primer, Pica, English, and 
 Canon. From the multiplicity of single and combined forms which 
 the letters take, their cases are numerous, and occasioned compo- 
 sition to be slow, though every cell or box is marked with the 
 character it contains. I could not see the type foundery, from the 
 absence of the Reis, which I regretted, as the founts were, I think, 
 quite equal to the ordinary types of Europe. 
 
 The composing-sticks were of hard wood, and their gallies very 
 rude ; the iron chases, however, were excellent ; and instead of side- 
 sticks and quoins, gutter-sticks were used throughout, and the form 
 locked up by screws going through the sides of the chase, and pres- 
 sing their points equally against the gutter-sticks at the distance of 
 about two inches from each other. 
 
 The press and its furniture nearly resembled in shape the 
 common printing press used in England, but was much inferior to 
 it in workmanship. As great pains were taken, however, with the 
 plattin and tympan, the stone well bedded, and the forms locked 
 thereon by iron screws similar to those in the chase, passing through 
 the raised corners of the coffin against the chase itself, the work 
 produced was good, more particularly as the workmen were never 
 hurried in their labours. 
 
472 FROM TRIPOLY TO BALBECK, 
 
 The inking balls were made of red sheepskin leather, and 
 answered very well ; the ink was of the same composition as that 
 used in England, though not so good ; and the paper was wetted 
 by a large sponge drawn over every fourth or fifth sheet. 
 
 I went also to see the book-binding room, where four or five 
 persons were now at work. The process observed was exactly like 
 that used in England, but much slower ; and their ploughs, cutting 
 presses, standing press, &c. were all very small. There was no 
 beating stone, or colouring used for the leather, and only two or 
 three gilding tools, as they chiefly bound in red or black leather, 
 and finished the backs and sides without gold. Every body worked 
 sitting, and the process was tardy throughout. Gi'eat surprise was 
 expressed at my knowledge of these two "mysteries," as they were 
 here considered, which I did not wonder at, as they had never yet 
 had an European here who had ever seen the mechanical operation 
 of printing in Europe ; and, as a reward for my being in some degree 
 better informed than other strangers on this subject, I was allowed 
 to take with me three sheets of three different books, printed in Sy- 
 riac and Arabic, in folio, in octavo, and duodecimo sizes, which I 
 had been allowed to take the impressions of myself at the press, 
 and preserve as memorials of my visit. 
 
 This convent has been founded about 120 years, but the 
 printing press has not been erected more than ten years. The 
 convent of Mar Hanna established the first press in Syria, of which 
 Volney has given the history.* There they still print Arabic books 
 
 * The more closely M. Volney's work on Syria and Egypt is analyzed, the more 
 it is found to be exceedingly inaccurate in its topographical notices, and particularly of 
 places in Syria : many proofs might be produced in confirmation of the opinion which 
 is generally entertained here, that he had seen but a very small part of it, and that 
 he wrote his book chiefly in the convent of Mar Hanna, in Lebanon. Among 
 some remarkable instances of inaccuracj', omitting his description of the cedars, the 
 valley of Hama, and the course of the Orontes, with the port of Seleucia at its mouth, 
 which are all faulty, he places the town of Tiberias on the east side of the lake of 
 that name, and Safad seven leagues to the north of it. He states the sources of the 
 Jordan to arise in the chain of lofty mountains called Jebel-el-Shaik, which sends 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. 473 
 
 in Arabic characters, and here Arabic books in Syriac characters, 
 with some few in Syriac itself, which none of them understand. 
 The paper is all made in Europe. This place is also called some- 
 times Bish-el-Mejeneen from a large natural cavern near it, which 
 has the reputation of restoring mad people and fools to their 
 senses. A hundred stories were told me of people who had been 
 brought here, and after a few days recovered : and more particu- 
 larly of a Turk from Constantinople, who was a Moslem, and did 
 not understand a word of Arabic, but who being sent to this place 
 by his friends, remained ten days, and went away sane, though 
 unconverted. In this cave they say St. Antonius studied and* 
 performed his penances and devotions. The madmen and fools 
 are therefore placed here, chained to the rock in the dark, and 
 kept upon bread and water, until it pleases the spirit of the patron 
 saint to come and release him by restoring him to his senses. Some 
 are sent here by the governors, particularly the Emir Bushea, who 
 is very liberal in his donations ; others are sent by their friends, and 
 some are sent by the priests. We were shown, at this moment, a 
 maniac there, who wore a large iron collar, and was fastened to the 
 rock by a chain of 30 lbs. weight. He was nearly naked, slept on 
 the ground, and ate only bread and water ; a discipline which, re- 
 peated for any length of time in a dark cave like this, would either 
 
 forth several rivulets to vrater the plam of Damascus, all of which is exceedingly erro- 
 neous, and could not have been stated if he had ever visited these parts ; \yhile the ob- 
 jects enumerated in the view from mount Tabor proves beyond doubt that he nevei" 
 ascended it himself, but that he gave his accounts from the information of others. 
 See pages 229 to 231. vol. ii. 8vo. edit. English translation. 
 
 In speaking of the Hauran, M. Volney supposes whatever ruins were there to 
 have been of earth, as there was no stone, he thought, throughout these plains. 
 No part of the world, however, presents so many ruins in the same given space, all 
 of stone, even to the beams, ceilings, doors, &c. usually constructed of wood. — See 
 page 99. vol. ii. 8vo. edit. 
 
 Notwithstanding these defects of local and topographical information, however, 
 there is no book that has ever been written on these countries that contains more accu- 
 rate or philosophical views of the general aspect and condition of the countries them- 
 selves, and particularly of the character of their governments and people. 
 
 3 p 
 
474 FROM TRIPOLY TO BALBECK, 
 
 drive the man, .who really possessed his faculties, effectually mad, 
 or restore them to those who had not irrecoverably lost them. 
 
 We were treated with an excellent supper of stewed fowls, a 
 pilau, and good wine, made here. By an old regulation no woman 
 is permitted to enter this convent. Lady Hester Stanhope, coming 
 here with her suite, was at first refused admittance ; but having 
 with her some soldiers of the government, she was at length ad- 
 mitted. The whole of this story was told to us at supper. After 
 the evening bell had collected all the religious to prayers, I went 
 into the church, where the service was nearly as in the Latin one. 
 My evening was passed on the terrace, admiring the romantic 
 scenery of the valley by the light of the stars. A bit of blue sea 
 was seen between the opening of the hills, beneath a rich sky, still 
 warm with the glow of sunset : — the whole was one of the finest 
 pictures of nature in her mildest form. 
 
 Friday, April '26. — Having now to ascend to the highest sum- 
 mit of Lebanon, which was covered with deep snow, it was neces- 
 sary to take from hence a guide well acquainted with the tracks 
 over the mountain, as well as to depart early, as it was a matter of 
 great uncertainty whether we should be able to traverse the snows 
 or not. 
 
 We accordingly quitted the convent of Mar- Anton ius-el- 
 Kezhyeh at sunrise, and going down into the deep valley beneath 
 us, crossed the stream there, and ascended on the other side by a 
 a road of winding steps, so steep as to oblige us to go up all the 
 way on foot. We saw at setting out the greater part of the monks 
 going out to their labours, among which were a small party to the 
 corn-mill turned by the stream in the valley, and others apparently 
 gardeners and husbandmen, with their implements of labour on 
 their shoulders. 
 
 In half an hour we came on an elevated plain well cultivated 
 with grain, and soon afterwards to a small Christian village called 
 Bein, containing a Maronite chapel, and about 200 inhabitants. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. 475 
 
 The women here wore no horns, and their veils were of white cloth, 
 one part covering the forehead to the eyes, and another wrapped 
 across the mouth, after the Turkish or Constantinople fashion. 
 
 From hence we went down into a second valley, and ascending 
 it on the other side came on a larger plain, in which were several 
 marshy pools, filled with frogs. We saw from hence the villages 
 of Ain Towry and Keferrsal, in the valley on our left ; and the 
 larger one of Eden on the brow of the hill above these to the 
 north, distant about a mile. The whole of the ground here, both 
 valley, hill, and plain, was cultivated with great industry, and pro- 
 mised a harvest of abundance. 
 
 In about an hour we reached the brink of a deep chasmj 
 seemingly the head of that in which the convent of Mar Antonius 
 is situated, as it winds that way. In the very bottom of it stood a 
 large village called Bisherry, and close by it is the source of the 
 Nahr-el-Meloweea, which runs through Tarabolus. The spring is 
 called Nebbeh- Ain -Beit, and its stream is even here considerable, 
 besides which it receives several others in its couri^e. 
 
 Leaving Bisherry on our right we ascended for an hour over 
 light snow, until we came to the Arz-el-Libenein, or the cedars of 
 Lebanon. 
 
 These trees form a little grove by themselves, as if planted 
 by art, and are seated in a hollow, amid rocky eminences all around 
 them, at the foot of the ridge which forms the highest peak of 
 Lebanon. There are, I should think, at present about 200 in 
 number, all fresh and green.* They look on approaching them like 
 
 * It is commonly thought that the box, the ebony, the cypress, and the cedar 
 wood are everlasting, arid will never be done. An evident proof thereof, as touching 
 all these sorts of timber, is to be seen in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, for the 
 most skilful architects of all Asia set their helping hand to this temple, and the rafters, 
 beams, and spars, that were used in the construction of the roof, were chosen by all 
 of them to be of cedar, for its great durability. There was also a famous temple of 
 Apollo at Utica, where the beams and main pieces of timber, made of Numidian ce- 
 dars, remained as whole and entire in the days of Pliny, as when they were first set 
 up, which was when the city was first founded, and that by computation was then 
 
 3p 2 
 
476 FROM TRIPOLY TO BALBECK, 
 
 a grove of firs, but on coming nearer are found to be in general 
 much larger, though the foliage still keeps its resemblance. There 
 are about twenty that are very large, and among them several from 
 ten to twelve feet in diameter at the trunk, with branches of a 
 corresponding size, each of them like large trees extending out- 
 ward from the parent stock, and overshadowing a considerable space 
 of ground.* 
 
 From the cedars our ascent became exceedingly steep, so 
 much so that it might be said we were obliged to climb up the 
 brow of the mountain. We met here a party descending, who 
 advised our returning to Bisherry to sleep, and attempting it early 
 in the following morning, that we might have the whole day before 
 us. As we were thus far advanced, however, we determined to 
 proceed, and our perseverance was crowned with success. The 
 snow was of an unknown depth, as, although our horses were al- 
 ways up to the belly, and frequently so buried that it cost us much 
 
 1188 years. The image of Diana at Ephesus was said to be made of the vine wood, 
 by the choice of Carretias, who carved it, and this was never altered or changed 
 through seven successive destructions and rebuildings of that temple ; but it was said 
 to owe its preservation to its being embalmed within with spikenard, which was thought 
 to nourish it ; and the historian gives it as his opinion, saying, " Howbeit this we may 
 resolve upon, that the more odoriferous any wood is, the more durable also it is and 
 everlasting." Plin. Nat. Hist. b. xvi. c. 40. 
 
 * The greatest tree that had been ever seen at Rome was one brought there for 
 rebuilding the bridge of Naumachiaria. Tiberius Caesar had it open to public inspec- 
 tion, and intended it to remain as a singular monument, on account- of its great size, 
 to all posterity. It remained entire and whole until Nero built his stately amphithea- 
 tre. It was the trunk of a larch tree, and was 1 20 feet in length, and two feet in 
 diameter from one end to the other. There was also a most extraordinary fir-tree, 
 that formed the mast of the vessel which, in the time of the Emperor Caligula, 
 transported out of Egypt into Italy, the obelisk which was set up in the Vatican hill 
 within the circus there, as well as the four large stones used as supporters to it. This 
 mast was of a height above all others ; and certain it is, say the ancients, that there 
 never was known a more wonderful ship to float upon the sea than this was. She re- 
 ceived 120,000 modii of lentils for the very ballast ; she took up in length the greater 
 part of the left side of Hostia harbour, for Claudius the emperor caused it there to be 
 sunk, together with three mighty great piles or dams, founded upon it, and mounted 
 to the height of towers, for which purpose there was brought a huge quantity of 
 earth or sand from Puteoli. The main body of this mast contained in compass four 
 fathoms full. Plin, Nat. Hist. b. xvi. c. 40. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. 477 
 
 pains to extricate them, yet we never saw the earth at the bottom. 
 This fatiguing exercise frequently repeated, added to that of 
 ascending ourselves the whole of the way on foot, almost exhausted 
 our strength. From the united effects of the constant glare of the 
 snow, the lightness of the air, the height of our point of view, and 
 the fatigue of the ascent, I experienced a giddiness similar to that 
 of a drunken man, and found it difficult to walk in a straight line. It 
 occupied us nearly four hours from the cedars to the summit, 
 where we stretched ourselves out upon the snow, and lay there 
 for nearly an hour, to recover breath and repose. 
 
 From hence the view was, as may be easily imagined, grand 
 and magnificent. To the west we had a prospect of all the side of 
 Lebanon down to the plain at its foot, and, beyond, a boundless sea, 
 the horizon of which could not be defined, from its being covered 
 with a thick bed of clouds. The town of Tarabolus could not be 
 distinguished from hence, but the high cape of Ras-el-Shakkah 
 was distinctly seen, looking like a small projecting point. 
 
 To the east we had the valley of the Bukhah, which we could 
 see from hence was on a much higher level than the sea ; the de- 
 scent to it on the east, appearing to be about one-third less in depth 
 than the descent to the plain at the foot of Lebanon on the west, 
 and scarcely more than half of that to the line of the sea. The 
 range of Anti-Libanus, or the Jebel-el-Wast of the Arabs, which 
 forms the eastern boundary of the Bukhah, was also covered with 
 snow at its summit, but not so thickly as at this part of Libanus 
 where we were, and which seemed to us the highest point of all.* 
 
 We could distinguish that from the northward towards Bal- 
 beck, the Jebel-el-Wast was one even range, without pointed 
 summits like this, and that from thence there extended two forks 
 to the southward, the eastern or principal one ending in the Great 
 Jebel-el-Sheick, or Jebel-el-Telj of the Arabs, the Mount Her- 
 mon of the Scriptures ; and the western or lesser one in the point 
 
 * The range of Libanus was generally placed by ancient geographers in the middle 
 of Syria ; and the hills are said, in the exaggerated language of the old writers, to 
 reach up to the very clouds. Plin. Nat. Hist. b. vi. c. 28. 
 
478 FROM TRIPOLY TO BALBECK, 
 
 which I had passed in going to Banias, the valley between them 
 being called Wadi Ityne, as before remarked. The range of Anti- 
 Libanus, though of less height than this, completely intercepted 
 our view of the country to the eastward of it ; although, as before 
 said, we were on the highest point of view which it admits. Mr. 
 Volney, therefore, must have imagined the unlimited view, which, 
 he says, this mountain aflfbrds across the eastern desarts to the 
 Euphrates ; and, indeed, from his description altogether both of 
 the mountain and the cedars, there is reason to believe that he 
 travelled but little over it. 
 
 Before we descended I took from hence the following bear- 
 ings : — 
 
 Ras el Shakkah . . . N.W, by W. ^ W. . 20 miles. 
 
 Village of Eden . . . N.W. by N. . .7 miles. 
 
 Bisherry .... N.W. by N. . . 3 miles. 
 
 Cedars of Lebanon . . N.N. W. ... I mile. 
 
 Balbeck, amid trees . . S. by E. i E. . . 10 miles. 
 
 The distances were estimated by the eye, and in a straight line, 
 without taking into account the windings of the roads. 
 
 We now descended on the eastern side of Libanus, having 
 taken a specimen or two of the stone on the summit ; and our way 
 was equally as steep as before, though less fatiguing to ourselves. 
 It was near three o'clock when we reached the foot of the steepest 
 part, where we halted at a fine spring, called Nubbeh-Ain-Eaty, and 
 parting with our guide there, we mounted our tired horses and pro- 
 ceeded alone. We had now to cross a lower range of hills covered 
 with trees, and following the road which led through their winding 
 valleys, we came in about three hours to the edge of the plain by 
 a small village, called Deer-el- Akhmar. We noticed here some 
 rude sepulchres in the rock, and some old stone quarries. The 
 village was small and peopled by Christians, and in it was a large 
 building constructed apparently from former ruins, as some of the 
 blocks near the foundation were very large. Its north-western 
 front was also built of large stones of a reddish tinge, which pro- 
 bably gave the name of Deer-el- Akhmar, or the Red Convent, to 
 the village itself. 
 
ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. 479 
 
 From hence we went straight across the plain towards Balbeck, 
 passing a tract of loose red soil mixed with gravel, covered with 
 brush-wood in some parts, and sown with oats in others. In an 
 hour we passed a ruined Roman arch with indefinite remains of 
 some old work there, and continued our way along a marshy 
 ground, near which was a small lake with frogs and a slow and 
 sluggish stream. 
 
 In another hour we reached a single column standing isolated 
 in the plain ; it was of the Corinthian order, its mutilated capital 
 still remaining, and appeared to be about sixty feet in height and five 
 in diameter. It stood on a high pedestal, formed of four ranges 
 of steps all around it, and its shaft was composed of fifteen blocks. 
 A tablet for an inscription, of a small size and rude form, was still 
 visible on its northern face, but no lettei's could be traced there. 
 
 It was now sunset, and we saw large flocks of dusky grey sheep 
 collecting by their herdsmen, who were Koordi, and scarcely under- 
 stood Arabic. They come from Koordistan, north of Aleppo, in 
 the spring, and live without women or tents, sleeping in the open 
 air, and feeding chiefly on bread bought in the villages, and the 
 milk of their own flocks. 
 
 It was quite dark when we passed through a small village 
 called Yead, where we saw large blocks of stone, as if of older and 
 better works, and a full hour from this before we reached Balbeck. 
 We entered at a ruined gate through which a stream of water 
 flows, and wandered about for more than half an hour among 
 ruined houses before we could hear a voice or see a light; the 
 barking of dogs at length led us among the living, when we found 
 our way to the Greek church, and were there received. 
 
 I found a letter here from Mr. Bankes *, who had halted for a 
 day at Balbeck, and had since gone into the Hauran ; and after a 
 light supper I retired early to a hard bed, which fatigue rendered 
 a welcome one. 
 
 . a : , , , 
 
 * This letter will be given in the Appendix with other docuipents. 
 
CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 STAY AT BALBECK, AND JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO HHOMS. 
 
 Saturday, April 27. — Our horses were so completely ex- 
 hausted by the long and fatiguing journey of yesterday across the 
 mountains, that it was impossible to proceed further, without 
 affording them a day's rest. It was late before we rose, and 
 the assemblage of a large party of enquirers detained us in 
 the priest's room until nearly noon. It was not until then 
 that we went out to see the celebrated Temple of the Sun, 
 whose ruins were within a few paces of our lodging. I wan- 
 dered over it for nearly four hours in a state of mind not easy 
 to be described, partaking equally of astonishment, of admira- 
 tion, and regret. As I had with me the octavo edition of Maun- 
 drell, 1810, and of Volney, An. vii., I had an opportunity of 
 comparing them on the spot. The plate of the former, which is 
 
STAY AT BALBECK, &c. 481 
 
 called a Prospect of Balbeck, must have been from a very rude 
 sketch, and filled up afterwards, though its outline is sufficiently 
 accurate to induce a belief of its having been done on the spot. 
 The architectural drawings in Plate IX. and X., which profess to 
 give the perspective of the temple, must have been entirely made up 
 by the artist from what then remained perfect ; as at this moment 
 there is scarcely any resemblance to be traced between the draw- 
 ings and the object itself, and many parts are evidently erroneous. 
 As these are not given as the work of Maundrell himself, they 
 were probably taken from some subsequent work to adorn this 
 new edition. The simple description of this traveller is much 
 more accurate, and depicts faithfully that which he must have seen 
 at the period of his visit. Since that period, however, several 
 important parts are destroyed, and even the place of the temple 
 at the end of the great court, which was probably the principal 
 edifice of the whole, cannot at this day be made out. 
 
 The " Vue de la Cour quarree du Temple du Soleil a Balbek," 
 which accompanies Volney's work, is, with the exception of some 
 very trifling inaccuracies, an admirable representation of these 
 magnificent ruins. The plan which is annexed to it is entitled to 
 a still higher degree of praise, as being much more difficult of 
 execution. These were probably both from Mr. Wood's celebrated 
 work, which, if it be so full and complete as that on Palmyra, must 
 be highly valuable. The description, too, which Volney gives of 
 the whole, whether from his own examination or from that of 
 others, is so complete and perfect, that nothing can be added to or 
 amended in it. This conviction, added to the knowledge of the 
 task having been executed by so able an hand as that which has 
 described Palmyra, made me despair of adding any thing new 
 thereon. It may suffice to say, that the enormity of scale, and the 
 magnificence of design, seen throughout the whole of the archi- 
 tecture, with the boldness of the drawing, and the exquisite finish 
 of the sculpture, impressed me with an idea of a labour more than 
 human. I should conceive, that in no country was to be found so 
 
 3 Q 
 
482 STAY AT BALBECK, AND 
 
 superb a monument of the inimitable perfection of ancient archi- 
 tecture. The temples and the tombs of Egypt were here equalled 
 in the enormity of the masses that composed them, and the 
 chamber of the pyramids rivalled in the closeness of the masonry ; 
 while the monuments of Athens itself, in the age of Pericles and 
 Praxiteles, were, at least, equalled in the richness and beauty of the 
 sculptured ornaments that adorned them. It appeared to me, 
 that the temples of Edfou, Tentyris, and Thebes, fell far short 
 of this, as a whole ; for here the ponderous strength of the 
 Egyptian, and the chastened elegance of the Grecian school, are 
 both most happily combined. 
 
 The direction of the temple by compass is exactly E. } N. and 
 W. |- S. * The little circular building a few paces on the north of 
 it, which was used as the Greek church in the time of Maundrell, 
 is now entirely deserted, though the painted saints on the stucco of 
 its walls still remain to be traced. Its interior resembles that of 
 the semicircular building which fronts the grand street nearly in 
 the centre of Jerash. 
 
 An examination of the Mohammedan additions and repairs, 
 when they converted the ruined Temple of the Sun into a fortified 
 place, decided my opinion on a matter that was before doubtful to 
 me. From the rustic masonry, fan-niches, round arches, &c. seen 
 in the castles of Jerusalem, Assalt, Adjeloon, Bosra, Salghud, and 
 Damascus, mixed with pointed arches, Arabic inscriptions, and 
 other marked features of Mohammedan work, it seemed to me 
 very uncertain whether they were of Roman or of Saracen execu- 
 tion. After seeing the building to the north-east of the outer tem- 
 ple of Balbeck, and close by it, I am inclined to think them 
 
 * Mr. Volney had deduced, from this fact principally, that all the ancient temples 
 faced the east ; and Mr. Bailly, in his History of Ancient Asia, entertains the same 
 opinion, namely, that among the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Indians, and the 
 Chinese, the four most ancient nations of the world, the usage of making their build- 
 ings face the east uniformly prevailed, vol. i. p. 133. This, however, is far fi'om being 
 true ; as the temples, in Egypt particvdarly, have their faces most frequently towards the 
 Nile, and thus front every quarter of the compass in succession. 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO HHOMS. 433 
 
 of Roman origin and of Saracen repair ; in some cases such repairs 
 ai"e more particularly evident, and in others the whole edifice is 
 altogether of Saracen work, particularly at Assalt, Salghud, and 
 Damascus. 
 
 The masonry of the Mohammedan repairs at Balbeck is, in 
 many places, excellent, and would look still more so if not con- 
 trasted on the spot with the superior work of their heathen pre-" 
 decessors ; but as there appears to have been different periods even 
 of these, some of the former are quite contemptible. 
 
 The town of Balbeck is, at present, so ruined, that there are 
 not counted more than fifty habitable dwellings in it ; though the 
 whole number within the walls may be estimated at 500. 
 
 The inhabitants are Moslems, Metowalis, and Greek Christians, 
 in about equal numbers. The former have a large ruined mosque, 
 in which are three rows of columns, some having noble shafts of 
 fine red granite, and others of white marble, with Corinthian capi- 
 tals, all from the ruins of the great temple near. In the outer 
 court, around the central reservoir and fountain used for ablutions, 
 are four pieces of beautiful porphyry, the fragments of two plain 
 columns of about two feet in diameter, each of the pieces about five 
 feet in length. We tried to get a small piece from off one of them, 
 but could find no stone hard enough for the purpose, and were ob- 
 liged to content ourselves with two or three very little bits, which 
 the Arabs made many objections to our taking away at all. 
 
 There is still a covered bazar at Balbeck ; a bath, now in use ; 
 and a manufactory of cotton cloth superior to that of Nablous. We 
 found here some merchants from Bairoot, purchasing the latter for 
 sale at that port. The Moslems frequent the ruined mosque de- 
 scribed, the Metowalis pray apart, and the Christians have a humble 
 church in the house in which we lodged. 
 
 The chief occupation of all classes is agriculture, as they have 
 the whole of the. plain between Libanus and Anti-Li banus to labour 
 on. The town is agreeably situated at the foot of the latter, at the 
 eastern extremity of the valley ; is watered by a clear and abundant 
 stream, surrounded by trees and cultivated fields, and refreshed 
 
 3q 2. 
 
484 STAY AT BALBECK, AND 
 
 by cool winds from the snowy summits of the mountains on either 
 side. 
 
 The women are many of them handsome, and wear the blue 
 gown with red apron, as in the villages west of Damascus, with a 
 white upper veil, and a coloured one that covers the whole face, 
 being of transparent muslin. 
 
 In examining the wall built up against the great eastern front 
 to make the temple into a castle? I observed several inscriptions 
 on the pedestals of columns built into the wall. They were visible 
 on two pedestals only, each the third from the end, and consisted 
 of three lines each ; the first in Latin, with the letters large 
 and wide apart, the two under ones in Greek, small, slender, 
 and so closely crowded together, that it was impossible to read 
 them from below. They occupied the same part of the pedestal 
 as the inscriptions on the temple at Gunnawat. As they were 
 built into a wall of evidently subsequent construction, it is doubtful 
 whether they might have been the pedestals of the great eastern 
 front, more particularly as their proportions seem too small for that 
 purpose. 
 
 We went through the subterranean passage which leads from 
 the outer point of the great temple, south of the octangular portico 
 or court, to a place near the smaller temple, which is the most per- 
 fect of the two. This passage begins with an arched door, and ends 
 in a square one. It is long, large, and lofty, and is arched through- 
 out, with several other passages and chambers branching from it, 
 the whole of which is of the most excellent masonry and imposing 
 appearance. 
 
 We saw also, in the wall of the city, many sculptured stones, 
 and others with Roman letters on them, as noted by Maundrell ; as 
 well as the words KENTVPIA nPIMA on the side of one of the 
 south-western gates, as remarked by Volney. 
 
 Our evening was passed in the priest's room ; and there being 
 a Moslem, from Bairoot, of the party, as well as my servant Ahmed, 
 both Hadjees from Mecca, the conversation was purely controver- 
 sial, and carried on with great bitterness on both sides. The mem- 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO HHOMS. 485 
 
 bers of the Greek church seem to have the itch of controversy 
 more strongly than any other sect which I have seen, whether in- 
 fidels or believers. 
 
 We had been suffered to visit the ruins here perfectly free from 
 interruption ; but while we remained in the house, all the Christian 
 women and children came to see us, exercising quite as much cu- 
 riosity in that particular as one would find in Nubia, or in the 
 Arabian Deserts. 
 
 There were many inferior vestiges of antiquity within the town 
 and in its vicinity, as well as the quarries to the S.W. of the town, 
 which we did not see, from want of time, besides the ruins of 
 eight or ten smaller mosques, whose minarets still remain. * 
 
 Sunday, April 28, 1816. — We were detained by the service of 
 the church for about two hours in the morning, after which we 
 took coffee with the priest, and prepared to depart. I had given 
 to the head servant, for our stay there, a Spanish dollar, besides 
 some paras to each of the inferior ones, and having paid for our 
 corn, &c. had thought this sufficient ; but the priest himself, who 
 
 * Balbeck is described by Benjamin of Tudela under the name of Bagh-el-Beik, 
 in the valley below Mount Lebanon. He says it was built by Solomon in favour of 
 the daughter of Pharaoh, on his marriage with whom the Canticles were composed. 
 The palace, as he calls it, was then ruined ; but he noticed the large stones, twenty 
 palms long and twelve broad, and connected without cement, as well as the common 
 opinion of its being the work of genii : he speaks also of the beautifiil fountain which 
 still continues to embellish this agreeable spot. 
 
 Tadmor in the Desert, or Palmyra, was also known to this early traveller (although 
 the general impression is, that its ruins were unknown from the time of the Romans 
 till they were discovered by some merchants from Aleppo at the beginning of- the last 
 century). He speaks of Tadmor as having been built by Solomon upon the same plan 
 as Balbeck, and with stones of equal grandeur. He says, that in his tune there were 
 400 Jews at Tadmor (so that it must have been then well-peopled, as these were 
 doubtless not the only inhabitants), who were courageous and expert in war, and who 
 committed hostilities against the Christians as well as against the Arabs ; these last 
 were then under the dominion of Noraldin (Nour-al-deen, the Light of Day), the king 
 of the Turks, and who came to the succour of the Ismaelites, or Bedouin Arabs, their 
 neighbours. The chief of these Jews was Isaac, surnamed the Greek, and Nathan 
 and Uzziel. 
 
486 STAY AT BALBECK, AND 
 
 knew all this, did not scruple to ask for a bakshish when we 
 mounted our horses. To set such a demand in its proper light, I 
 desired him to enumerate the actual expence we had occasioned 
 him in bread, milk, and eggs, and reckoned a piastre per night for 
 the use of an empty room, without even a mat ; when he found it 
 did not amount to more than half the sum distributed among the 
 servants, and was forced to acknowledge, by my pressing the 
 question hard upon him, that the dollar given to the principal 
 one would be claimed by himself, and a few paras given to the 
 holder of it as his sufficient reward. 
 
 This affair being adjusted, we left Balbeck about eight o'clock, 
 and going out over a pass in the ruined wall of the town, kept 
 along the foot of Anti-Libanus, over barren eminences covered 
 with a light clayey soil. From thence we turned round occasion- 
 ally to enjoy a view of Balbeck, the splendid ruins of which, sur- 
 rounded with trees and cultivated ground, presented the most 
 picturesque appearance from hence. 
 
 By keeping on the summits of these rounded hills, and a little 
 to the left of the beaten road, we passed several sepulchral grottoes, 
 all plain, as well as some large stone sarcophagi, with pent-roof 
 covers, raised at the corners like those of Jerash. We had seen a 
 sarcophagus of white marble, sculptured with the usual devices of 
 wreaths, among the ruins of the town ; but these were of a 
 coarse dark stone, and quite plain. Soon afterwards, and within an 
 hour from the time of our setting out, we came to a valley with 
 steep rocky banks on each side, which appeared to have been the 
 necropolis of the ancient city, as we saw both grottoes and sarco- 
 phagi there, and a large square isolated mass at the head of the 
 valley, which looked like a tomb constructed of masonry, and 
 resembling, both in form and size, the one seen near Gherbt-el- 
 Sookh in Belkah, on the road from Amman to Oom-el-Russas. 
 
 This little vale, which looked like a rupture in the side of the 
 mountain, was watered by a fine clear stream descending from 
 above, and its narrow bed well cultivated, but we could not learn 
 its name. 
 
JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO HHOMS. 437 
 
 From hence our track was barren and uninteresting for nearly 
 three hours, until we reached a small village half in ruins, called 
 Loobby, when we again saw cultivation and trees. This village is 
 seated also in a valley, and is well watered by a clear stream run- 
 ning down from the side of Anti-Libanus into the middle of the 
 plain, and forming there a river called Nahr-el-Hanny. We could 
 trace its winding course to the N. E. by the poplars growing along 
 its banks, and it is said to run in that direction for about two hours, 
 when it joins the Nahr-el- Assy (the Rebel Kiver), or the Orontes, 
 to the northward of it. 
 
 We went from this village along the banks of an artificial 
 canal, the stream of which was so slow that it was called Moyah-t-el- 
 Mejerrh, or the tardy waters, in contradistinction to the Nahr-el- 
 Assy, or the rebellious river, from the rapidity of its course. The 
 stream of this canal falls at last into the Orontes ; but its use at this 
 moment was not apparent, though it might formerly have assisted 
 cultivation, and conveyed water to some' town. 
 
 In about an hour from hence we reached the village of Ain, 
 seated in a narrow valley, and having many gardens and mulberry 
 trees near it. In another hour we came to Feeky, a larger village, 
 enjoying a similar situation ; and in an hour more to Has, a smaller 
 settlement, mostly in ruins. The whole of these are inhabited b}' 
 Christians at present, and do not now contain more than from 200 
 to 300 inhabitants each. They are governed by their own peculiar 
 sheiks, subject to the Aga of Balbeck, and live in a sort of enmity, 
 amounting almost to war, with the Metoualis, at the foot of Libanus, 
 on the other side of the plain. 
 
 Our course had been thus far about N. E. by E., the direction 
 of the great valley between the two ranges of mountains being 
 about N. E. It is not called the Bukhah by the natives from Bal- 
 beck, northward, but by the name of the nearest town, or the go- 
 vernment which it happens to be under. The range of inferior 
 hills to the east of Libanus, or, as it may be called, the base of 
 Libanus itself, approaches- in some places so near to the foot of 
 
488 STAY AT BALBECK, AND 
 
 Anti-Libanus, that the valley between them varies from ten to 
 two miles in breadth. Libenein continues to preserve its name 
 throughout ; but the eastern range, called, to the southward of 
 Balbeck, Jebel-el-Wast, is here known only by the nameof Jebel- 
 el-Shurk, or the eastern mountain. 
 
 From the hill above the village of Ras we could see a large 
 lake formed by the Orontes, bearing north of us from fifteen to 
 twenty miles, and the hills of Hamah to the N. N. E., distant at 
 least fifty. Both Libanus and Anti-Libanus taper away here to 
 low hills, and receding equally from each other, leave between 
 them a wide plain, extending for an indefinite distance to the 
 northward, interrupted only by the hills of Hamah to the N. N. E., 
 and having an unbounded horizon to the N.E. and E.N.E., where 
 the level gradually rises in that direction towards the great Desert 
 of Palmyra. 
 
 From Ras we made a little bend for half an hour to the north- 
 ward, and then went again N. K, over a stony and arid plain, for 
 nearly three hours, passing by a ruined khan, with loop-holes in its 
 walls, and arriving just before sunset at a small ruined village called 
 El-Ghah. We drank at the only well here, about a furlong to the 
 south of the town, and, alighting, sought out the sheik. We were 
 at first very coolly received, and told that we might sleep among 
 the ruined huts ; until assuming a high tone and military air, we 
 were treated as Turks generally are when they visit such of their 
 Arab subjects as dare not defy them : for my servant, who was him- 
 self a green-turbaned Hadjee, had insinuated that I was from the 
 governor of Damascus, going to Aleppo. 
 
 The place in which we were received was an old Mohamme- 
 dan castle with round towers in its walls, and a range of small 
 chambers around an open court on the inside, like a khan. We 
 were served with a supper of rice, kid's flesh, and some milk, but 
 were obliged to sleep on the terrace in the open air, as we found 
 most of the people themselves did. After sunset the cattle and 
 flocks were driven in, and all the village took shelter on the inside 
 
JOURNEY FROM THKNCE TO HHOMS. 439 
 
 of the walls, the houses on the outside being ruined, and the neigh- 
 bourhood infested by robbers. They live, too, in a sort of war 
 with the Metoualees, to the west of them ; so that this retirement 
 within a small space, is necessary to their security. 
 
 The inhabitants of El-Ghab are all Christians, and have a 
 priest among them, their whole number amounting to about 100. 
 Many of the women and children are handsome, and they wear the 
 blue gown and narrow red apron, as in the villages N. W. of Da- 
 mascus. They go with their faces unveiled, and wear over their 
 head a coarse muslin cloth of blue, with red border and large red 
 flowers in the centre, which hangs down the back, and is sometimes 
 folded round the neck. 
 
 Monday, April 29. — The noise of a hundred animals, com- 
 bined with a storm of wind from the S. W., and several showers of 
 rain, prevented our obtaining any sleep, and occasioned us to be 
 stirring before the dawn. From the conversation of the preceding 
 evening, as well as the information we had received at Balbeck, the 
 road from hence to Hhoms seemed unsafe to be travelled without 
 an escort. We were content to desire one horseman only from the 
 sheik, and this chiefly as a guide, "since the many cross paths over, 
 the plain rendered that absolutely necessary. No one among 
 them, however, could be found content to go alone ; and when we 
 consented to take two, these would not go under ten piasters 
 each, as it required a long day to reach that place, and another day 
 to make the journey of return. 
 
 While this affair was in suspense, I made some enquiries re- 
 specting the source of the Nahr-el-Ahssy, or Orontes, which rises 
 in the neighbourhood of this place. It was pointed out to me near a 
 small hill at the foot of Lebanon, and bore, by this direction,W. N. W. 
 about four hours' journey for a man on foot. On the hill itself 
 is a high and large tower, seen at a great distance, and called 
 Koormee, bearing N. W. by W. three hours distant ; and behind it, 
 in the hollow between the hill and the mountain, is a large village, 
 
 3e 
 
490 JOURNEY FROM BALBECK, 
 
 called Hhermil, seated among trees, and inhabited entirely by 
 Metoualees. The waters of the Orontes, at the source, are said to 
 issue out in a large stream from the solid rock, in the side of a cliff 
 at the foot of the hill spoken of. It then takes a bend to the east- 
 ward, receiving several smaller streams in its course, till it at last 
 winds along to the N. E., through the plains of Hhoms and Hhamah. 
 They have a fable here of these waters coming from the Nile, some 
 sayingby a sub-marine passage, and others conceiving it to be by some 
 miraculous process. There is said, also, to be fragments of buildings, 
 and inscriptions, and sculpture, both at the source and at the tower 
 on the hill near it ; but the reports of my informers were, as usual, 
 so vague and contradictory, that I could but regret our not being 
 able to visit the spot itself without a deviation from the straight road, 
 and the probable loss of a day if we did not reach Hhoms to-night. 
 The Metoualees, who inhabit Hhermil, are nominally under the 
 government of the Emir Busheer, as within the precincts of Le- 
 banon on the land side; but being remote from his seat of govern- 
 ment at Deer-el-Khumr, or the Convent of the Moori, near Seyda, 
 they are said to be under no control. Stories were told us of their 
 having betrayed and murdered passengers through their territory ; 
 but as there is an open and avowed enmity between these people 
 and those by whom their character was thus painted, there is great 
 reason to suspect its truth. 
 
 Our guides being ready, we left the Khalet-el-Ghah soon after 
 sunrise, and continued our course to the north-east over an arid 
 plain, scarcely affording food for a few flocks fed here by Bedouins, 
 from the eastward. 
 
 In about an hour we passed to the left of a ruined town, 
 pointed out about three miles to the eastward of us, on the side 
 of Anti-Libanus, and called El-Jussee. It was said to be a large 
 city, and to have pillars and aqueducts and castles in it; and 
 below it, on the plain, about two miles to the north of it, was an- 
 other town, called Jussee-el-Jedeed. The former was now entirely 
 deserted ; but the latter still retained some inhabitants ; and in it 
 
BY THE ORONTES, TO HHOMS. 492 
 
 was a ruined mosque, thought by some Turks, who had visited it, 
 to have been built on the ruins of an early Christian church. 
 
 In another hour we passed through a small cluster of houses, 
 called Rabla, where we first saw the Orontes, this being the elbow 
 of its bend to the E. N. E. It was here a small stream, being not 
 more than twelve or fifteen feet wide, and perhaps three deep ; 
 flowing, however, with some rapidity through banks covered with 
 long grass, and aiding the cultivation of a few corn fields and mul- 
 berry trees near it. 
 
 In about an hour from hence we came opposite to a large vil- 
 lage, called Zirhagh, having cultivated grounds, with an abundance 
 of trees around it. We passed about a mile to the left of it, and 
 crossed a small stream, which descended from thence into the 
 Ahssy, or Orontes river. 
 
 In another hour we came to a division of the roads, one pass- 
 ing through the village of Kosseir, nearly as large as Zirhagh, and 
 the other going along the eastern bank of the Orontes. We pre- 
 ferred the last, and followed the course of the stream to the N. E., 
 leaving it only when its windings deviated from a straight line. 
 Near this we passed a mill, and a stone bridge of one arch near 
 it, as well as several small islands in the middle of the stream, now 
 become wider, deeper, and more rapid. Parties of Bedouins were 
 occasionally seen fording it in diiFerent directions ; and we our- 
 selves passed through a small troop of Arab horsemen, but without 
 our receiving any interruption. 
 
 It was full two hours before we reached Arjoon, a small village 
 seated beneath an apparently artificial mound of earth, on the sum- 
 mit of which was a sheik's tomb, and some few buildings around it. 
 The road here branched off again from the stream : as this last 
 bent to the northward, and our general course was about N. E. ; we 
 passed, therefore, on the right of Aijoon, as well as of Cafr-el-Moosa, 
 and another small village about half an hour beyond it, and all on 
 the edge of the stream. 
 
 3r 2 
 
492 JOURNEY FROM BALBECK, 
 
 The river, which has here grown to a considerable size, per- 
 haps from an accession of waters on the west, as we saw none in 
 our track on the east, swells out suddenly into a large lake, extend- 
 ing itself for at least five miles to the N. E., and being in some 
 places nearly two miles wide. Its surface was now roughened by a 
 strong S. W. wind, which brought us some rain, and whitened over 
 the summits of Lebanon with a fresh sheet of snow ; but its course 
 still continued to be rapid. We approached the edge of this lake 
 in about an hour after passing Aijoon, and halted on its banks to 
 water our horses, and to refresh. We had noted, almost abreast of 
 Cafr-el-Moosa, an island in the centre of the stream, looking like 
 an artificial tumulus, and steep on all sides round. Near to where 
 we halted was a similar one, that jutted out, like a promontory in 
 miniature, from the edge of the plain. The banks here were chalky, 
 and the soil had varied from a meagre light yellow clay, mixed with 
 sand and gravel, to a fine deep red earth of the purest kind. We 
 saw all along, however, blocks of the black porous stone which is 
 found from the sources of the Jordan to the Dead Sea, and through- 
 out all the Hauran. We had met with it in small quantities from 
 our first falling in with the banks of this river, and found it gradu- 
 ally increase as we followed up its course. 
 
 The ground became now cultivated throughout with grain ; 
 turtle doves were in abundance, and fine large red hawks hung 
 aloft in numbers, on the wing for smaller prey below ; while the 
 great white stork that we had seen so frequently on the barren 
 plains over which we had passed, seemed to confine itself to that 
 arid solitude, and not to intrude upon the more fertile lands. 
 
 As we halted near a small inclosed village, called Sain, on the 
 edge of the lake, my servant went up to seek some milk; offering, as 
 usual, to pay for it ; but when a large bowl was brought down to 
 us by the water side, though the female waited on the grass for the 
 vessel that contained it a full half hour, she rejected the money that 
 was offered to her, and it was with difficulty that we could prevail 
 
BY THE ORONTES, TO HHOMS. 493 
 
 on her to accept a coarse pocket-handkerchief, the only other re- 
 ward which I could offer her for so much disinterestedness. 
 
 This trait of hospitality was most probably borrowed from the 
 Bedouins, with whom they live in frequent intercourse and great 
 amity. We saw here a large party of them, chiefly females and 
 boys, filling water in skins from the lake, and placing them in khordj, 
 or saddle bags, on asses, to carry to their tents. The water was ex- 
 tremely turbid, from the strong wind that agitated it, but was of a 
 pure and excellent taste. 
 
 From Sain we gradually receded from the edge of the lake, 
 keeping now a course of nearly E. N. E., directly for Hhoms, the 
 castle of which on a raised mound, and square minarets, were now 
 distinctly seen. 
 
 The approach to a more populous town was every moment 
 more visible, in the superior state of the cultivation, and the 
 sight of peasants, cattle, and passengers on the road, which con- 
 tinued until we entered the gate of the city, about an hour before 
 sunset. By my servant's direction, who had been here before, we 
 addressed ourselves to the protection of a Mallim Scander, in the 
 service of the government, and met a kind reception at his house. 
 I learnt here that Mr. Bankes had set out only to-day at noon, with 
 an escort from the government, for El-Hhussan, a large castle 
 which we had seen to the N. W., on our coming up the plain, and 
 his baggage at the same time for Hhamah. He had been desirous 
 of going to Palmyra from hence, as the nearest point of depar- 
 ture ; but the existing wars among the Arabs of these parts 
 rendered it impracticable for the present, so that he had gone for- 
 ward, under the hope that with a little delay it might be done from 
 Hhamah. 
 
 Tuesday, April 30. — The road from hence to the northward 
 was rendered so unsafe by the wars of the Arabs, who pursued each 
 other in and upon the borders of the cultivated land, that there 
 
494 JOURNEY FROM BALBEGK, 
 
 was no moving on it without a large escort, for which I should not 
 have felt myself justified in paying ; I was assured, however, that, 
 by waiting a day, I might have the benefit of a caravan going 
 to Hhamah, which, of course, would afford all the protection 
 needed. 
 
 The governor, having heard of my arrival through the medium 
 of his secretary, Scander, had signified his wish to see me, and I 
 accordingly, paid him a visit. I found him an affable, unafi'ected, 
 and not an ignorant man ; an Arab by birth, and perfectly so in his 
 dress and manners. In his party was a Turk, from the borders of 
 Persia, who spoke Persian well, and understood a little of Hindoo- 
 stanee, in which language we exchanged some enquiries and com- 
 pliments. There were no Osmanlies or Turks even in attendance ; 
 and when we left the party, no servant pressed forward to receive a 
 present, which was a singular deviation from the common routine 
 of a visit to a governor. 
 
 Having received permission, and being accompanied by a 
 servant from the house, we went up to the ruined castle, which is 
 on the S. W. of the town. It is an old Mohammedan work now 
 completely in ruins, but might have been rebuilt or repaired from 
 some older and better structure. It stands on a high artificial mound 
 of earth, the sides of which were originally cased all round with ma- 
 sonry, and, rising in a steep slope, resembling the lower part of a pyra- 
 mid. It was surrounded by a broad and deep ditch, lined also with a 
 wall of stone; but what remains of the upper structure of the castle is 
 not proportionate in strength and solidity to the bottom. It is now 
 so entirely ruined, that no description could be given of its plan, 
 except that it was a fortress erected on the summit of an artificial 
 mound, of an oblong square form, about one hundred feet in 
 height. 
 
 It afforded us, however, a complete view of the town below, 
 and an extensive prospect of the country around ; and I took from 
 thence the following bearings : — 
 
BY THE OHONTES, TO HHOMS. 495 
 
 Opening of the valley of the Bukhaah . . . S. W. ^ S. 
 
 Highest peak of Anti-Libanus S. S. W. ... 50 miles 
 
 North-eastern extreme of ditto S. by W. ... 25 miles 
 
 Highest peak of Libanus S. W. by W. | W. SO miles 
 
 Northern end of the same range West .... 35 miles 
 
 Hhamah (not seen from hence) N. N. E. ... 30 miles 
 
 A range of hills in the desert, behind which 
 
 Palmyra is said to be situated . . . . E. to E. S. E. . . 60 miles 
 
 Lake of the Orontes W. S. W. ... 6 miles 
 
 Town below N. N. W. to E. 
 
 The points of view between the ranges of mountains and hills 
 enumerated, presented an unbounded horizon of plain, and parti- 
 cularly in the east, towards Palmyra.* 
 
 On descending from the castle we went to see a ruined struc- 
 ture, called El-Somah, or the tower, situated at about a furlong to 
 the N. W. of it, and in the middle of a modern burying-place. 
 
 We found it to be an ancient structure, and most probably a 
 tomb, since it resembles some of those found in the valley of Je- 
 hoshaphat, below Jerusalem. It commences at the base by a square 
 of about twenty-five feet, rising to a height of about fifteen, and there 
 forming a first stage. The second is but merely a receding inward 
 from this, of perhaps a foot or two on each side, and rises to a 
 height of about fifteen feet. Above the whole a pyramid rears 
 itself to a height equal to the dimensions of the base, or nearly 
 twenty-five feet, as before mentioned. On each part of the square 
 stages at the base were three marble pilasters, the pedestals of 
 which remain on the western, and the plain capitals on the north- 
 ern side ; and between these stages, in a sort of deep frieze, were 
 sculptured four pediments, with a festoon between the two central 
 ones. 
 
 * Hhoms, or Hemessa, was said to border on the desert of Palmyra. Hierapolis, 
 Beroea, and Chalus, are placed in the country called Stelendena, which must be that 
 about Aleppo. — Plin. Nat. Hist. b. 5. c. 26. 
 
496 JOURNEY FROM BALBECK, 
 
 The whole of the exterior, from top to bottom, including also 
 the pyramid above, was cased with a chequered work of black and 
 white stones, in alternate diagonal squares. 
 
 Within, the first stage has a corresponding square chamber, 
 with a vaulted roof, rising in a pointed arch ; the second stage has 
 also a corresponding chamber, which is roofed with a flattened circu- 
 lar dome, and has around it Roman-arched windows, closed up, as it 
 would seem, from the beginning ; while the interior of the pyramid 
 above rises in a circular cone to a perfect point at the top, with 
 four small oblong square windows, one on each point, though not 
 visible from without. 
 
 The masonry of the interior is of Roman tiles j and the central 
 part of the walls is formed of small stones, inlaid in a thick bed of 
 cement, while the outer parts are cased with chequered stone, in 
 the way described. The interior walls seem also to have been stuc- 
 coed and painted. Like the sepulchral towers in the Hauran, there 
 is no visible passage of communication from one story to another ; 
 so that they were probably held inviolate when once closed, like 
 the pyramids of Egypt. 
 
 Tradition here says, that a Roman emperor came to make war 
 against the queen of Palmyra, and halting at this spot on his way, 
 built this sepulchre for himself and his sons, as he thought it likeh 
 they might die in the expedition, and he was unwilling to leave his 
 bones in the Desert. 
 
 The southern and eastern fronts are almost entirely destroyed, 
 apparently by force, as if in search of treasure. The western one 
 still remains ; but the northern one is most perfect ; and near the 
 top of the second stage in this is an inscription in Greek, which 
 Mr. Rankes is said to have copied by the aid of a ladder furnished 
 by the governor, but it cannot be read from below. 
 
 From hence we visited the interior of the town, the bazars, 
 &c., and did not return until nearly sunset. No more remains of 
 the ancient city of Emessa than perhaps the basework of the castle, 
 the sepulchral monument described, and some granite pillars and 
 
BY THE ORONTES, TO HHOMS. 497 
 
 stone sarcophagi, scattered up and down, and sometimes used in 
 the construction of the more modern buildings. The present town 
 is more than a mile in circuit, of an irregularly circular shape, and 
 was surrounded by a wall with round towers in it, and a dry ditch. 
 The wall is, in many places, now only a continuation of the sides 
 of houses, and the ditch is cultivated with grain. There are seven 
 gates, one to the south-west being closed up, and each have their 
 peculiar name, as Bab-el- Sookh, the market gate, entering from 
 Hamah and Haleb ; Bab-el-Tadmor, which leads to Palmyra ; and 
 Bab-el-Turcoman, the general inlet of the people of that tribe. 
 
 The houses are almost all built of the black stone used in the 
 Hauran ; there are some few of the inferior ones with a base of 
 stone, and the upper part of dried earth. The walls are also con- 
 structed of the same stone, and the streets are paved with it through- 
 out. There is no other peculiar feature in the ordinary buildings 
 that I am aware of, as the alternate use of the black and white 
 stone in their arches, and sometimes in the layers of their walls, is 
 perfectly in the Arabic taste, and seems, in the sepulchral monu- 
 ment without the town, to have been used also by their prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 There are about ten mosques here, and a number of high 
 square towers, like those seen at Bosra, some of which have Arabic 
 and others Cuphic inscriptions, all of old Mohammedan construc- 
 tion. There are also a few baths, many coffee-houses, and some 
 excellent covered bazars, not inferior to those of Cairo. The po- 
 pulation of the town is thought to amount to 10,000, of whom 
 8,000 are Moslems, a few hundred Metoualees, and the rest Greek 
 and Syrian Christians. The Greeks have two churches here, and 
 the Syrians one ; but neither Druses nor Nessearys are found among 
 the residents. Besides the fixed population, there are generally 
 2,000 or 8,000 strangers in the town, chiefly Arabs from the east- 
 ern Desert, and from Palmyra, as this is the nearest point of de- 
 parture for them, and is, therefore, their chief market and place of 
 resort. 
 
 3 s 
 
498 JOURNEY FROM BALBECK, 
 
 There are many manufactories here of the common garments 
 worn by the Arabs, particularly of the zennaar, and party-coloured 
 abba, some of which are executed with great taste and skill. 
 
 In the course of our ramble we visited an old mosque, in 
 which bread is now made for the Hadj, and furnished to the pilgrims 
 by the governor of this place ; and a large coffee-house, in which 
 were men playing at single-stick with small canes and hard leather 
 shields. 
 
 The invitation to the combat took place by the sound of a tam- 
 bour and a shrill pipe, in a slow strain; when the combatants entered 
 the lists, a graver pipe was used, and the strain was more animated. 
 As the fight became closer, the drum was beat in a still quicker 
 movement, till it followed up the fury of the combat with a cor- 
 responding music, in a way that displayed great natural taste and 
 judgment, though the execution would not please European ears. 
 
 The governor here is subject to the pasha of Damascus, and 
 has a force of about_200 soldiers only, composed of Delhis, of Arab 
 horse and foot, and a few Osmanlies. 
 
 On our return to the house we found a large party assembled 
 in the divan of Mallim Scander, overlooking his garden. There 
 were to the number of about fifty, all Christians ; they were seated 
 round the sides of this open place; and in the centre stood a small 
 stool with a large salver, on which were glass jars of rakhee, brandy, 
 wine, and sweetmeats. Each was provided with a pipe, or nargeel, 
 and all seemed to abandon themselves to pleasure. Among the 
 party were half a dozen who sat together in a group, and amused 
 the rest with Arabic songs, while the listeners occasionally joined 
 in the chorus. It was the first time of my ever having heard any 
 thing like harmony in the music of the country ; for here there 
 were two among the rest who sang in thirds and fifths, and one 
 who sang an octave to the strain. 
 
 About eight o'clock all retired to a divan in an open court to 
 supper, and seated themselves on the ground around a large salver 
 of metal, at least fifteen feet in diameter. On this was arranged 
 
BY THE ORONTES, TO HHOMS. 499 
 
 nearly a hundred dishes, so thickly placed that they rose like a 
 pyramid one over the other, the central one being an immense 
 bowl of rice, and the surrounding ones smaller plates of stewed 
 meats and sweet dishes. 
 
 Large as the salver was, there was yet not room enough for 
 the accommodation of all ; so that the master of the feast and the 
 singers stood around us while we ate, and seated themselves only 
 when the first comers had finished. 
 
 I observed here a striking proof of the distance at which 
 children are kept from their parents among the Arabs. The 
 females of the family were as perfectly secluded as in a Turkish 
 haram ; but the two sons, one about twenty-five and the other fif- 
 teen years of age, we occasionally saw when they served the coffee 
 or nargeel, or attended to put on the benish of the father, always 
 standing and remaining silent in his presence. Here, at this feast, 
 both of them served in quality of attendants, standing the whole 
 of the time ; and when the rest had retired, they seated themselves 
 at the table among the servants of the visitors. 
 
 From the supper we withdrew to a large hall, very richly fur- 
 nished ; and as by this time the copious draughts of rakhee had 
 begun to operate, the mirth of the party grew more loud and bois- 
 terous. Among them was a grey-bearded doctor, who was the 
 buffoon of the company, and gave in readily to all the jokes prac- 
 tised on him. This man danced in the lascivious manner of the 
 Nautch girls, or prostitutes of the country, with a handkerchief 
 twisted tightly into a horn, and bound round his forehead like that 
 of the Druse women, as if to represent the same emblem. The 
 most indecent allusions were called forth by this exhibition, and 
 there seemed no bounds to the libertinism of speech or action. It 
 was altogether a forcible but melancholy proof of the degraded 
 state of manners which may result from the exclusion of women 
 from the society of men. At the breaking up of the party, which 
 was not until near daybreak, the doctor was rewarded with a new 
 benish of blue cloth, of the value of five guineas at least, from the 
 
 3s 2 
 
500 JOURNEY FROM BALBECK TO HHOMS. 
 
 hands of the host ; and others gave him smaller garments as well 
 as money, all of which he readily accepted. It seemed, from all 
 that I could gather by indirect enquiry, that this man being the 
 physician of the Christian community at Hhoms, the feast had 
 been given expressly on his account, as an annual occasion for him 
 to try the liberality of such of his patients as had not yet fallen 
 victims to his prescriptions. 
 

 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 FROM HHOMS, OR EMESSA, BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN AND 
 
 THE MONUMENTS OF THE ARADII, TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 THE ANCIENT ORTHOSIA. 
 
 Hhoms, May 1. — I was desirous of proceeding directly 
 from hence through Hamah to Aleppo ; but the wars of the Arabs, 
 and their encroachment on the road, rendered that route impos- 
 sible to be traversed without a large escort, or the protection" of a 
 caravan ; the first I was not in a condition to pay for out of my 
 own purse : nor did the urgency of the case require it ; the last 
 was not expected to depart for a period of ten days at least. It 
 was, therefore, recommended to us to go down by Hhussan to the 
 sea coast, which road, although by no means safe, was still more 
 so than that of Hamah, and could be passed with an escort of two 
 persons besides ourselves; while this, upon the whole, would be also 
 the most expeditious. These two men were accordingly procured 
 
5Q2 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 for US from the Governor, by Mallim Scander, and we set out 
 together about nine o'clock. 
 
 Going out by the ruined monument called the Soura, we saw 
 a number of females sitting among the tombs there, after the 
 manner of the country, and these were all habited with the blue 
 checked cloths worn by the women in Egypt, but whether used 
 here as a dress of mourning only I could not learn. 
 
 After leaving Hhoms by the Bab-el-Turcoman in the southern 
 wall of the town, we continued to go west for about an hour over 
 a level plain, the latter portion of which was laid out in a broad 
 and excellent road, lined with gardens on each side. This brought 
 us to the Nahr-el-Ahssy, which we crossed by a poor bridge having 
 a mill on it. The stream was here contracted into a narrow 
 space, but was deep and rapid, its course being scarcely less than 
 four miles per hour, its waters a dull yellowish white, from the 
 clayey and chalky soil of its banks in the lake above. 
 
 We entered now on a barren ground of gentle ascent, being 
 the southern point of the first range of hills west of the Orontes. 
 The whole extent of it was covered with the black porous stone 
 seen almost all the way from hence to the Dead Sea ; and the 
 only productions of the soil were a dry and straight plant, rising 
 to the height of a foot, and covered with olive brown berries 
 about the size of peas, and a large branching thistle, whose head 
 was of the colour of the finest port wine. 
 
 After going about three hours over this ground, meeting only 
 a few cattle near ponds formed by rain, we passed under the small 
 village of Tenoon, leaving it a few yards only on our right. It is 
 seated on an eminence, and has some few cultivated spots of 
 ground near it ; but, on the whole, it presents an aspect of great 
 poverty. 
 
 We continued a westerly course for about two hours more, 
 gradually but gently ascending, until we came in sight of the 
 castle of Hhussan, bearing from us nearly N.W. From hence, 
 therefore, we kept in that direction, and our road became much 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. 503 
 
 more interesting, as we went down over successive beds of round- 
 ing hills into an extensive and beautiful plain. We still saw the 
 black porous stone throughout our track, and passed over several 
 beds of sulphureous streams, in which these black stones were 
 coated over with a crust of white deposit from the water. 
 
 This plain, of which we could learn no other name than that 
 of Wadi-el-Hhussan, went up until it terminated in a narrow 
 valley to the north, but extended itself widely until it met the 
 northern feet or points of the range of Lebanon on the south, 
 when it stretched away S.E. into the great plain of the Orontes, 
 towards the lake already described. It was bounded on the west 
 by the hills of Hhussan, on the north by higher mountains, and 
 on the east by the hills which we had traversed, all of them cul- 
 tivated to their very summits with corn and olives, which, added 
 to the fertility of the plain itself, its light green fields and darker 
 lines of trees, presented as rich and beautiful a picture as I had 
 yet seen in the country. The lofty range of Lebanon terminates 
 in several sloping points to the northward, and in the interval of 
 plain between these points and the beginning of the hills of 
 Hhussan, perhaps some of the rivers between Tartoose and Tripoly 
 flow down. There are seen indeed from hence several streams in 
 the plain below, some of which may also go to the lake of the 
 Orontes, it being difficult else to conceive how that river so sud- 
 denly increases and expands itself there. 
 
 Crossing this plain for nearly two hours, we passed, at the 
 end of it, some few mills near the stream, and ascended up a rising 
 valley to the north of Hhussan, leaving it on our left. The castle 
 there is seated on the peak of a round hill, and enjoys a com- 
 manding situation. As we went close under it, the style of its 
 architecture appeared to be purely Saracen, as its masonry was 
 smooth, and its outer wall filled with round towers at equal dis- 
 tances. Within, rose a square building of greater height than the 
 outer wall, and the whole of the interior is filled with dwellings 
 inhabited by Moslem families, with a chief, and a few Moham- 
 medan soldiers. The sight of this building again altered my 
 
504 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 opinion with respect to the castles in Belkah, Adjeloon, and the 
 Hauran, and induced me to think that they were all Roman, since 
 this Saracen one was so diflPerent from them in style and con- 
 struction. 
 
 On the north of the castle, at a short distance only, is the 
 town of Hhussan, seated on the point of a lower and smaller hill. 
 It is peopled by Nessearys and Christians, and has in it a square 
 tower, like those which form the minarehs of the mosques at 
 Hhoms. 
 
 As there was a convent a little farther on, we did not halt 
 here, but descended over a gentle slope towards a narrow valley, 
 and at sunset reached the station of our repose. This convent, 
 inhabited by Arab priests of the Greek church, and dedicated to 
 St. George, looks also like a small castle at a distance, and is 
 romantically situated on the southern brow of a hill, amid a wood 
 of olives, with a deep valley and other steep hills immediately in 
 front of it. We found crowds of people assembled here for the 
 approaching festival of St. George, which would be on Sunday 
 next ; and on our expressing surprise at the number, we were told 
 that there would be at least ten thousand persons here from all 
 the country between Aleppo and Damascus. Devotion is not 
 the sole object which attracts so many persons from their homes ; 
 for as this is an annual feast, a large fair is held at the same 
 time, and every sort of commodity bought and sold under the 
 protecting auspices of the patron saint. Under the supposition of 
 my being a Turk, we were at first refused admittance ; but on 
 declaring myself to be an Englishman, every civility and attention 
 was shown to the whole of our party, and we were furnished with a 
 room on the inside, while the mass of devotees slept in the open 
 air without. We entered the convent by a small aperture, scarcely 
 more than three feet square, and closed by a stone door, as the 
 ancient buildings in the Hauran. A confused fable was recounted 
 to us of St. George having passed through this hole on horseback, 
 and of his having the power still to cause horsemen who had faith 
 therein to enter also. As neither of us were, however, of that 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. gQg 
 
 number, we were obliged to leave our animals without ; while the 
 superior of the convent- took occasion of this want of faith on our 
 parts to explain the scriptural passage, which says, " Strait is the 
 gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there 
 be that find it ; but broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, 
 and many there be that go therein." We were content to remain 
 under this anathema, provided they gave us the shelter required ; 
 and this the all-powerful influence of gold and silver was sure to 
 command for us, whether we were Moslems, Infidels, or even 
 Idolaters ; while the Christians who possessed not this talisman, 
 could not open the thrice barred gate. 
 
 Thursday, May 2. — The preceding day had been calm and 
 sultry, and the sun obscured throughout. The present morning 
 opened with a high wind from the S. W., accompanied with showers 
 of rain. Great unwillingness was displayed on the part of our escort 
 to move ; but by my insisting on this they set out with me soon 
 after sunrise, when we went down into the narrow valley in front 
 of the convent, and followed its windings in nearly a westerly 
 direction. The hills of Hhussan, from Lebanon northward, end 
 here in steep and woody points ; and after the straight vale be- 
 tween, another range of gentler ones commence, on the southern 
 brow of which the convent of St. George is built. The whole of 
 the country around is called Belled-el-Hhussau, and is thought by 
 the people here to be the most fertile and the best cultivated land 
 in Syria. It is peopled chiefly by the Nesseary or Ansarie, a sect 
 of whom Volney has given an account, but who are seemingly little 
 known either by the few Moslems or Christians that live among 
 them, owing, probably, more to the indifference of the latter than 
 to the reserve of the former. They bear, however, among all 
 classes, a very bad character, and are said to be guilty of every 
 sort of crime. 
 
 In passing down through the valley, we crossed repeatedly 
 the bed of a large stream, which rose to the northward and east- 
 
 3 T 
 
506 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 ward, among the hills on that quarter of Hhussan, and wound its 
 way down here. The black porous stone was seen throughout its 
 bed, and its channel was so wide and deep as to induce a belief of its 
 having been once a considerable river, the original source of which 
 had either been dried up, or the waters of its fountain head diverted 
 into some other direction. We continued for about three hours in 
 this valley, enjoying a succession of the most beautiful views, and 
 going generally about west, in the course of which we passed a 
 spring that now filled the bed of the river, and went away in a 
 line of W.N.W. to the coast. 
 
 After quitting the valley, we made a bend to the southward, 
 by an old square tower, having been directed that way by a pea- 
 sant on the road, and went over a richly cultivated land, opening 
 upon a view of considerable extent and great beauty. The land- 
 scape to the north presented successive beds of gentle hills, with 
 a profusion of wood. To the south was an immense plain, from 
 which the northern sides of Lebanon seemed to rise abruptly, 
 while a band of clouds encircled its centre, and its snowy summit 
 was clearly seen above them all. To the west the dark blue sea 
 bounded the horizon of the view ; and behind us, to the east, was 
 the narrow valley which we had just left. 
 
 About noon we halted at a small village called Arzoon, when 
 we found that we had come several miles to the southward of the 
 route, and were directed for better information to some Arab 
 tents which were close by. We alighted here, and took some 
 warm sheep's milk with dourra bread. We observed that the tents 
 were here composed partly of mats raised on woven twigs, and 
 partly of the dark hair cloth generally used by the Arabs ; and 
 that they were pitched without any regard to uniformity of situa- 
 tion, their tenants being almost stationary. 
 
 We were assured here that the danger on the road was by no 
 means magnified, and that even our party of four persons was 
 scarcely sufficient to ensure our safety. There was now no aug- 
 menting the number without an additional expense, so that we 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. CQ? 
 
 pushed on as before. Going about a league due north from this en- 
 campment, we went through a pass between the hills, called Bab-el- 
 Howa, or the gate of the wind, and opened on another extensive 
 and still more beautiful view than that which we had left. 
 
 From this pass we went about W.N.W., and in an hour 
 crossed a wide but shallow stream, the name of which we could not 
 learn, but which appeared to me to fill the dry bed we had seen 
 near Hhussan, and which we had followed until it became watered 
 by a lower spring. We had now come among the Nesseary, who 
 certainly did not return our salutes with the usual replies ; and 
 who eyed us, both as we approached and as we left them, more 
 like enemies than friends. The men were dressed as other Arabs 
 usually are ; the women wore coa-rse robes, but all of white, with 
 a cap like the poll of an English hat without the rim, sometimes 
 wound round with strings of silver coin overlapping each other, 
 and always ornamented with metal. The chemise, of the women 
 and children of both sexes, was fastened at the breast by a large 
 brooch of silver, about the size of a Spanish dollar, but appa- 
 rently thinner. These were peculiarities of dress that we had 
 not before seen, and marked most decidedly our entrance among 
 a new sect or class of people. Our ride was now through one 
 continued park of indescribable beauty ; and although chiefly over 
 a level ground, yet, by the profusion of its wood, and here and 
 there some gentle eminences,, the landscape varied at every point 
 of view. The state of agriculture was here, too, more perfect and 
 more flourishing than we had hitherto seen it elsewhere. The 
 fields were free from weeds and stones, and many of them were 
 enclosed by light fences of twig-work. Some of the barley was 
 nearly ripe for the perennial harvest ; and other grounds were 
 tilling by four ploughs in succession, each followed by a sower 
 distributing the grain from a basket for the autumnal one. Fine 
 fat cattle were seen in numerous herds, with some few buffaloes 
 among them, and all wore an appearance of wealth, activity, and 
 abundance. We thought it remarkable, therefore, that in all our 
 
 3x2 
 
508 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 way from Hhussan hence, we had not yet seen a village of any 
 size, having passed only a few hamlets scattered about on the hills, 
 until about three o'clock we passed through one called Yahmoora. 
 We found extensive ruins here of some former settlement, among 
 which were many shafts of granite columns, large blocks of hewn 
 stone, and the pent-roofed cover of a sarcophagus, with raised 
 corners in the Roman style, now built into a modern wall. 
 
 From the existence of the ruins here, and the resemblance of 
 the name, it is probable that this may be the site of the ancient 
 Ximyra, which Strabo places hereabouts. It is called by Pliny, 
 Simyra, (Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 20.) and, as conjectured by Maun- 
 drell, (p. 31.) when applying it to some ruins south of Tartoose, 
 nnay possibly be the same with the country of the Zemarites, men- 
 tioned in Genesis x. 18., more particularly as that people are 
 placed between the Arvadites and the Hamathites, the situation 
 which this site precisely occupies. 
 
 There is now here a modern castle of Mohammedan structure, 
 surrounded by a ditch, and inhabited by the Nesseary or Ansa- 
 rians, the whole in good repair. 
 
 After passing Yahmoora, we descended to the W.N.W., and 
 soon came to some Arab tents, forming a settlement similar to 
 that which we had seen at noon. We halted here to obtain fresh 
 information respecting the road, and were regaled as before with 
 warm milk and bread of dourra. Our stay here was short, and 
 after a hasty meal we remounted to continue our journey. 
 
 On quitting the Arabs' tents, we were directed, as the safest 
 and easiest way, to proceed straight down to the sea coast, and 
 there falling into the road from Tarabolus to follow it up to Tar- 
 toose, by which means we should avoid the Nesseary, who are 
 spoken of as great villains hereabout, and at the same time be sure 
 of not missing our way. We were now about two miles west of 
 Yahmoora, and accordingly went down about W.S.W. to the sea, 
 which was in sight before us. Our road necessarily lay across 
 corn fields, and sometimes stony tracts obstructed by bushes ; 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. 509 
 
 when about four o'clock we came among what appears to have 
 been ancient quarries, and saw near there, among the wild shrubs 
 which grow upon the inner edge of the sand hills that line the 
 shore, some rude monuments, which we halted for a moment to 
 examine. 
 
 The first of these was a square mass of rock hewn down, per- 
 pendicularly on all sides, and facing N.W. hy N. and S.E. by E. 
 It was twelve paces on each front., and from twelve to fifteen feet 
 high, being plain on three of its sides, and having on the S.E. one, 
 a square passage in the centre, which led by four or five steps to 
 the top. Beneath the square aperture ran along a line of niches, 
 as if for some fixed purpose, though rudely cut. The top was 
 perfectly flat, and excepting the passage up to it by the square 
 aperture and the steps described, it was one solid mass of rock, 
 into which we could see no opening, either above, around, or 
 below. Whether, therefore, it was a tomb, an altar, or a place 
 of prayer, it was difficult to decide, though either of the two latter 
 seemed the most probable. The stone was now rent in two or 
 three places, and the whole had an air of great rudeness and great 
 antiquity. 
 
 Due west from it, about 200 yards, was a work of masonry. 
 N.N.W., about a quarter of a mile, two ruined towers ; and N.W. 
 of it four or five miles, the Island of Arwad, the Arphad of the 
 Scriptures, and the Aradus of the Greeks and Romans, with seve- 
 ral vessels riding between it and the main land, at the distance of 
 less than half a mile. The building to the west of this was so 
 buried in the thickets that surrounded it, that it was with great 
 difficulty we could gain access to it at all. We found it to be an 
 edifice of fifteen paces square, and at least thirty feet high. The 
 stones of which it was constructed were so large, that, besides the 
 foundation, which projected about three feet from the main body, 
 in the form of a pedestal, two tiers of them were sufficient for the 
 height, and two stones for the whole breadth of each front. 
 Above was a layer of smaller stones, as if for a deep frieze, and 
 
510 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 the whole was crowned by a convex, moulded, and overhanging 
 cornice. The interior consisted of two chambers, each occupying 
 the whole square of the building, excepting only the thickness 
 of the walls, which was about ten feet, and in their height 
 extending from the base to the summit of the edifice. This 
 building faced N. by E. and S. by W. ; and on the northern 
 side were the chief entrances into each of the chambers. The 
 passage into the lower-chamber was from four to five feet wide, 
 and its top flat. It appeared to have been once fastened by a 
 door, as the sill for a bar still remained, but the upper stone was 
 too much fretted and broken to trace those for the hinges, 
 although in the upper one were round cells like those used for 
 the stone doors in the Hauran ; they were here double. The room 
 within was not now more than six feet high, though evidently 
 much filled up by dirt, as at the southern end, where highest, were 
 seen the tops of three shallow niches, just appearing above the 
 rubbishy occupying the whole breadth of the room, and divided by 
 pilasters. A portion of something like a head remained near, and 
 the whole seemed like the shallow niches for statues found in many 
 of the tombs of Egypt, and more particularly in the Great Cave at 
 Gartasi. At this end was the appearance of a smaller entrance 
 above the niches, now filled up with stones ; and either robbers or 
 others had lately harboured here, as there were marks of recent 
 fires, with straw and ashes, and the place was swarming with 
 fleas. There was no visible communication between this and the 
 upper chamber, nor were there any steps leading up to the proper 
 entrance to it from without, so that it could only have been intend- 
 ed to be entered seldom, if at all, after being once closed. This 
 chamber is more lofty, perhaps twenty feet high, and each of them 
 are roofed over with two large beams of stone, that suffice to cover 
 them completely. The original work was massy and excellent, 
 but time and the effects of earthquakes have shaken it, and severed 
 the stones in many places. On the central stone of the small 
 layer, like a frieze, on the northern front, and exactly over the 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. 511 
 
 doors of entrance into the chambers, are apparent traces of an 
 inscription, but too much worn to decypher even in what charac- 
 ter it was cut. It was probably a tomb of the ancient Aradii or 
 Arphadites.* 
 
 To the north of this, about a quarter of a mile, and a little on 
 the right of the common road, on an eminence hewn throughout 
 with old quarries, we came to what appeared like the pedestal of 
 a large square obelisk. Its base was seven paces square ; and, 
 after two ranges of steps, was a square pedestal, about eight feet 
 square every way, with a square block of stone upon it, sloped 
 away at the top in a pyramidal form, but not going high enough 
 to come to a point, so that its top was flat ; the whole might be 
 about fifteen feet in height, and composed of two stones besides 
 the base. It faced E.S.E. and W.N.W., and on its western face 
 had been an inscription, but the stone being soft, and eaten out 
 
 * The former power and importance of Aradus, and the bad character of its 
 inhabitants, may be inferred from the particulars of the history in the ancient writers, 
 some extracts from which may be sufficiently interesting to be introduced hei'e. 
 
 This island was surrendered by its king, Strato, to Alexander, as well as the city 
 of Marathus, opposite to it. — Quint. Curt.Yib. iv. c. 1. Fr. ed. p. 409. 
 
 When Alexander was marching from Tripolis towards Phoenicia, after his 
 victory over the army of Darius at Issus, he was met on the way by Strato, the son of 
 Genostratus, who was the king of Aradus, and of all the neighbouring islands. 
 Quintus Curtius says, the neighbouring coast, which is probably more accurate, and 
 this prince putting a crown of gold on the Macedonian conqueror's head, surrendered 
 into his hand the island Aradus, and Marathus, a wealthy and populous city on the 
 continent, over against it, as also Marianne, and whatever territories besides he had 
 in possession. — Arrian. Hist. Alex, book ii. c. 14. 
 
 The Aradians growing high crested and insolent, abused the Marathenian 
 ambassadors, who crying out against their impiety, challenged the sacred regard that 
 ought to be had to supplicants, and the security and protection due to ambassadors ; 
 upon which some of the audacious young fellows presently knocked them on the head. 
 Then these murderers and their co-partners got together in a general assembly, and, 
 adding one piece of wickedness to another, contrived an impious and vile design 
 against the Marathenians ; for, taking the rings off the fingers of them that were mur- 
 dered, they writ letters to the Marathenians, as from the ambassadors, by which they 
 informed theni that the Aradians would within a short time send them aid, to the end 
 that the Marathenians might receive the Aradian soldiers into their city, and so be 
 surprised, thinking they were really and without fraud sent to them as auxiliaries. 
 
512 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 by the sea air, like the stones at Alexandria, it was almost obli- 
 terated. I could trace an A in the centre of the upper line, and a 
 r at the end, and in the second line these letters were just visible 
 
 in succession, 
 
 YAKON, 
 
 very rudely cut and disproportionate to each other in size. From 
 this pedestal, the two towers and the island of Arwad bore N. W. in 
 one, the former about 300 yards, the latter from four to five miles. 
 Due north by east of this pedestal, about twenty paces, was a 
 passage of entrance into sepulchres below. This lay N.N.E. and 
 S.S.W., the entrance being on the northern side by a gentle decli- 
 
 But the Aradians failed in their wicked design ; for, when they had laid an embargo 
 upon all the ships, that none might discover their treachery to the Marathenians, a 
 certain seaman, a neighbour to the Marathenians, commiserating their condition, and 
 being accustomed to sail on the neighbouring sea, took a ship, and in the night passed 
 over that narrow cut, about eight furlongs in breadth, and discovered the fraud of the 
 Aradians to the Marathenians. The Aradians, therefore, when they understood their 
 plot was discovered, forbore sending the letters. — Fragments of Diodorus Siculus, Book 
 xxvi. c. 97. Ante Christ. 140. See also Strabo, lib. xvi. 
 
 The Aradians supposing that they had got an opportunity to destroy those of 
 Maratham, sent privately to Ammonius who was viceroy of Syria under Alexander 
 Bala, and with a bribe of 300 talents, prevailed with him to deliver up Maratham (a 
 city of Phoenicia) ; whereupon Ammonius sent Isidore to the Marathenians, who by 
 his speech was to pretend some other matters, but, in truth, went to seize upon the city, 
 and to deliver it up to the Aradians. The Marathenians being ignorant that they 
 were designed for destruction, yet, observing how that the Aradians were higher in 
 the king's favour than themselves, refused the king's soldiers entrance into their city, 
 and resolved to make their addresses as supplicants to the Aradians. They forthwith, 
 therefore, sent ten of the most eminent of their eldest citizens as ambassadors to 
 Aradus, who brought with them an humble address and supplication, and the oldest 
 images of their gods which they had in their city, hoping that upon account of their 
 kindred, and moved with reverence to the gods, the Aradians would be appeased, and 
 their anger diverted. As soon as they landed, according to the commands given, they 
 addressed themselves as supplicants to the people ; but the Aradians' blood being up, 
 they slighted the usual and common laws of supplicants, and cast off all reverence of 
 their kindreds' images and the gods ; and therefore broke the images and trampled 
 them most shamefully under their feet, and attempted to stone the ambassadors ; but 
 some of the senators interposing themselves between them and the rage of the people, 
 (scarce restrained from stoning them, notwithstanding the reverence tliey owed the 
 senators,) commsinded them to be conveyed to prison. — Fragments of Diodorus Siadits, 
 b. xxxiv. c. ?9. 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. 513 
 
 vity and a flight of ten steps. The passage was about five feet 
 broad, and ten feet high at its end, hewn down out of the solid 
 rock, and covered by one large block of stone extending all its 
 length and breadth. At the end of this passage was a small 
 arched doorway, which led into a chamber, excavated on a gentle 
 descent, being eight paces long, four broad, and about six feet 
 in height. On each side were three cells for sarcophagi, going in 
 endways into the rock, and being about the ordinary size in height 
 and breadth, but extending in a great way, each of these following a 
 few inches lower than the other in the sloping line of the chamber. 
 At the end of this was a plain doorway leading into another cham- 
 ber now nearly filled with dirt, and beyond this a third, over which 
 must stand nearly, if not exactly, the monument described above, 
 and which was, no doubt, intended to mark the innermost of these 
 chambers, as the principal pai't of the sepulchre. We could find 
 no traces either of painting, stucco, sculpture, or inscriptions, or 
 any marks of the fastenings of doors. 
 
 The two towers to the N.W. are also sepulchral monuments, 
 and are very similar in design and execution to the last described. 
 The first or southernmost of all these has a circular pedestal of 
 about six feet high, with four fronts of lions or sphinxes, showing 
 their heads and standing on their fore-feet only, forming four pro- 
 jecting corners, and making the square of the pedestal just eight 
 paces. The lions are much disfigured, but in the S.E. one the 
 features are still perfect, as well as a deep collar that went around 
 under the neck and ears. 
 
 Above this pedestal stands a circular column of one single 
 stone, about twenty feet high, formed into two divisions by mould- 
 ings, the lower divisions being about twelve and the upper eight 
 feet high. The upper one recedes inwards about a foot from the 
 under one, so as to be of less diameter ; and about two-thirds up 
 its height the same moulding as below is repeated, from which 
 the top rounds away into a concave serai-globe. The stone is 
 much decayed by the sea air ; and a tree, which has thrust itself up 
 
 3 u 
 
514 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 through the pedestal on the eastern side, has torn away ahuost half 
 of the upper column on the same front, like the banian trees of 
 India, which operate more than time to destroy the monuments of 
 that country. 
 
 The sepulchre of this is a few paces to the south of it, and 
 descends by steps into chambers for sarcophagi, as described by 
 Maundrell faithfully, as far as we could see, though now the inner 
 chambers could not be reached. 
 
 To the N.W. of this was the second tower, consisting of a 
 square pedestal at the base, eight paces on each side, and about ten 
 feet high. On it stood a circular shaft, about fifteen feet in height 
 and twelve feet in diameter, and above it was another stone, about 
 six feet high, in the form of a six-sided pyramid. The sepulchre of 
 this was on its south side, but now quite inaccessible, large bushes 
 choking it completely up. 
 
 Both of these fronted within a quarter of a point of the four 
 cardinal points, but we could see no traces of an inscription on 
 either of them. Near them are many square spaces left by 
 quarries ; some seemingly designed for other uses, but now sown 
 with corn, as the rain drains in here and fertilizes the soil. 
 
 N.E. by N. from hence we saw a sort of open temple, the 
 walls of enclosure being four feet thick and twelve high, hewn 
 down out of the solid rock. There were small arched and other 
 square doors of entrance, and on the inside were portions of rock 
 wall, as if of former divisions ; the sills for the bar of the arched 
 door, as well as the sockets for its hinge, were visible, the original 
 door no doubt being of metal or stone. Within are seen niches 
 in the walls as if for offerings ; and without, in one or two places, 
 appearances of mutilated statues. The whole appeared to be about 
 100 feet square, and was, perhaps, an open temple to one of the 
 Phoenician divinities; 
 
 To the N.E. of this, at the distance of less than a quarter of 
 a mile, we met with a still more decided monument of that kind. 
 This was a large open court seventy-five paces square, or about 150 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. 51 5 
 
 feet ; the sides hewn down out of the solid rock, but not forming 
 isolated walls as in the last, for here the cultivated ground was on 
 a level with the top of the sides all round, and the corn seen high 
 above it. It faced nearly the four cardinal points, being closed on 
 three sides and open on the north. The side walls commenced 
 there by a slope, growing gradually higher till they reached the 
 centre, and then going in a straight line. They were here, 
 about twelve feet high, and in the centre of the southern wall 
 at least fifteen. In each of the two innermost corners were iso- 
 lated pillars, joined in angles, as if forming the angular pillars of 
 a square colonnade. They were of a square form, and at the east 
 end of the open front were two similar ones, but no traces of 
 others in correspondent directions. Oblong square niches were 
 seen at regular distances ai'ound the wails ; and as they would not 
 require lamps in an open temple, they were probably for offerings. 
 
 In the centre of this court stood a pedestal of rock, eight 
 paces square, and about ten high, left excavated all around. On 
 it was raised a sort of throne of masonry, open towards the 
 north or front of the court. It appeared about twelve feet high, 
 and ten wide in the clear of the inside. The inner front had a 
 flat arched top, once stuccoed, as some of the stucco remains ; the 
 outer or overhanging part of the canopy is flat, and has four 
 gutters in what may be called the soffit. The whole is crowned 
 with a plain frieze in front, and a torus and cornice all around, 
 perfectly Egyptian ; thus differing from that of the tomb first 
 described, as that was a concave moulded cornice, while this is 
 convex like those of Egypt. This was, probably, a temple, and the 
 central edifice the throne of the idol, probably the sun, to which 
 the Phoenicians were accustomed to pay adoration in open temples. 
 
 We were now nearer the upper road to Tartoose, as there is 
 one close by the sea, and the other about half a mile distant from it. 
 We therefore went up into it, and in a few minutes after entering 
 it passed over a ditch hewn down into the natural rock, its sides 
 descending in steps to the bottom. It lies nearly east and west, and 
 
 3 u 2 
 
516 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, 
 
 extends for four or five hundred yards ; but what was the original 
 intention of this did not suggest itself to me on the spot. It lies 
 about N.E. from the open temple last described, about 500 yards, 
 and might possibly have had some connection with it. 
 
 From hence we continued our way along the upper road to 
 Tartoose, passing many old quarries and sepulchres in the rocks 
 by the way, no doubt the works of the ancient Aradii, and in 
 about half an hour we came to the river called Nahr-el-Roumtra. 
 It was easily fordable, being about 25 feet wide and three deep, and 
 its bed firm and hard. Just below where we crossed it, were the 
 ruins of a bridge, with an apparently artificial mound of earth on the 
 southern bank, of an oblong form, sloping at the ends. The island 
 of Arwad bears from the mouth of this river W.S.W., distant from 
 two to three miles, and all along from its southern point in the 
 direction of the coast runs a line of rocks and breakers, extending 
 for several miles. There is every reason to think that this river 
 is the ancient Eleutherus, and probably a continuation of that, 
 the dry bed of which we saw in the valley of Hhussan, and after- 
 wards observed filled by other springs in our journey of this 
 morning. It would thus unite what have been thought discordant 
 testimonies, and perfectly correspond with all the authorities cited 
 for its position, except that of Ptolemy as quoted by Terrarius, 
 who places it between Orthosia and Balanea, or Tartoose and Bei- 
 neas, which is somewhat more to the northward. " Strabo," says 
 Maundrell, " will have it somewhere between Orthosia and Tripoli, 
 as a boundary dividing Syria from Phoenicia (page 518). Pliny 
 places it near Orthosia, emptying itself into the sea over against 
 Aradus (Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 20.) ; and the writer of the Mac- 
 cabees lays it in the land of Hamath, which country, whatever it 
 were, was certainly without the borders of Israel, as appears from 
 the same author. To this Joseph us agrees, placing Eleutherus to 
 the north of Sidon as may be collected from him, (Ant. Jud. lib. 
 xiv. cap. 7, 8.) where, speaking of Mark Antony's donation to 
 Cleopatra, he reports how that extravagant gallant gave her all 
 
BY THE CASTLE OF EL-HHUSSAN, &c. 51 7 
 
 the cities between Eleutherus and Egypt, except Tyre and Sidon." 
 p. 23. 8vo. edit. 
 
 It seems remarkable that Maundrell, who resided at Aleppo, 
 should not liave thought of the present Hamah, the largest city 
 near Aleppo, and in constant intercourse with it, as the land of 
 Hamath, mentioned and called in the Scriptures, Hamath the 
 Great* It is mentioned as a northern boundary, in contrast to 
 Baal-Gad under Mount Hermon, the land which yet remained 
 for the Israelites to possess after they had secured the land of 
 Canaan. In this land, the river in question actually rises ; whether 
 it be the one whose dry bed we saw near Hhussan, or any of the 
 others that we observed flowing through that plain. It empties 
 itself into the sea over against Aradus, and it is situated between 
 Orthosia and Tripoli. It seems unaccountable, therefore, that this 
 river should have been assigned by any modern geographers to the 
 river between Tyre and Sidon, called Cassimere, as that rises near 
 Balbeck, and has not one local feature in correspondence with 
 those assigned to it. 
 
 We continued our way now still nearer to the sea, and over a 
 sandy road, in which we saw a large black serpent, and a number 
 of the beautiful birds called by the French, syrens. They are said 
 to be birds of passage, and to come from Europe to Egypt and 
 the north of Africa in the autumn. I remember to have seen 
 them in great numbers both at Alexandria and on the Nile about 
 that season, but there was no one near to inform us whether they 
 were stationary here ; or, if not, what was the usual period of their 
 visit. 
 
 On approaching Tartoose, the large Gothic church without the 
 town was a very conspicuous object, and seen a long way off. In 
 half an hour after crossing the river, and just at sunset, we reached 
 
 * Hamath is spoken of by Benjamin of Tudela as retaining its ancient name, and 
 being seated along the river Jabok. He states that 15,000 men had perished there in 
 a single day by an earthquake, which so completely destroyed the town as to leave 
 only 70 of its inhabitants alive. 
 
518 FROM HHOMS TO TARTOOSE, &c. 
 
 the town. There being no entrance at the southern end, we were 
 obliged to make the circuit of it on the east, and enter by the 
 northern gate on a stone bridge leading over a ditch, and ending 
 in a porch of Gothic architecture. Beyond this we passed a 
 second ditch, and saw some vestiges of noble Christian ruins ; 
 when, getting into the centre of the town, we alighted at the 
 public coifee-house, and after passing the evening with a large 
 party of mule-drivers from Latikea, sailors from Arwad, and der- 
 vishes and chess-players going to Sham or Damascus, we stretched 
 ourselves out upon a bench among the rest to repose. 
 
CHAP. XXV. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF ORTHOSIA AND AEADUS, AND JOURNEY THROUGH 
 
 GABALA, TO LAODICEA. 
 
 Friday, May 3, 1816. — The S.W. gale of yesterday still 
 continued, and instead of showers, it brought down steady torrents 
 of rain, so that there was no moving in the morning at least. 
 Our escort from Hhoms now left us, as their commission had 
 ended, though they delayed their departure until to-morrow. I 
 had been advised to apply to the Aga for three or four of his men, 
 but this would have required a handsome present both to the 
 master and the servants. I would have gone over to Arwad, and 
 sought a passage up by sea, but there was no possible commu- 
 nication with the island, except in fine weather. The roads were 
 represented by all to be the most unsafe in Syria, from the depre- 
 dations of the Nesseary ; and stories were told us of a Frank and 
 six people of the country being murdered between this and Lati- 
 
520 DESCRIPTION OF ORTHOSIA, 
 
 kea within the last four months, beside poor Colonel Boutain. At 
 this moment, too, they were even more insolent than usual ; since 
 some soldiers had been sent into the mountains by Mustapha Baba, 
 at the request of Lady Hester Stanhope, to search out and punish 
 the murderers of that French traveller. There was no alternative, 
 therefore, but that of seeking out some companions ; and fortu- 
 nately, by enquiry, we found some who were bound that way, and 
 agreed to depart a day sooner than they intended for the sake of 
 our mutual protection. The weather confined us all to the coffee- 
 house until nearly sunset, when it broke off, and enabled me to 
 breathe a free air after being suffocated by smoke and stunned by 
 noise. My walk was of short duration, though it admitted of my 
 seeing all the few remains of antiquity in the town. 
 
 The fort of Orthosia, for this was the ancient name of that 
 place under the government of the Crusaders, remains still nearly 
 entire, and presents an appearance of tolerable strength. The 
 circuit of its outer wall, including also the side towards the sea 
 which is open, is, perhaps, nearly half a mile. The wall is con- 
 structed of very large stones and excellent masonry, with square 
 buttresses at equal distances, and a wide and deep ditch before it. 
 Within this outer wall is a second ditch, partly hewn down 
 out of the firm rock, and the inner wall is then formed by the 
 sides of large buildings presented towards it. Rustic masonry 
 is seen only in some parts, the greater portion being smooth, 
 and loop-holes are frequent in the walls ; but whether any part 
 of this was Roman work and anterior to the Norman buildings 
 within, seemed difficult to determine. The form of the fort is 
 nearly a square, presenting three of its sides to the land, and the 
 fourth to the sea, at right angles with the dii-ection of the coast, 
 or nearly N. and S. The only entrance into it is at the N. W. angle, 
 within a few yards of the water's edge, and over a ruined paved 
 way. The first gate, which has a pointed arch, with rustic masonry 
 and the trefoil sculptured on its central stone, leads to a Gothic 
 porch, the vaulted roof of which is banded with cross ribs, having 
 
DESCRIPTION OF ORTHOSIA. 521 
 
 the rose at the point of intersection, quite in the Norman style ; 
 and yet every part of this work, within and without, seems coeval 
 in point of date. 
 
 On passing through this porch, the inner ditch is crossed, and 
 on the opposite side of it is laid open the interior of a large 
 building called the Divan. This is a long and lofty room, of 
 about 100 feet in extent, having a vaulted roof without pillars, 
 and running nearly E. and W. Its side toward the ditch is partly 
 broken down, but enough remains to show that it formed a portion 
 of the inner works of fortification, as there is here a long covered 
 way with embrasures and loop-holes for archery. The southern side 
 of the building, which still remains perfect, shows a range of large 
 windows, with the broad Saxon arch, and some smaller ones of a 
 pointed form. The masonry is smooth throughout, but all solid 
 and good. Within, the vaulted roof is banded by cross ribs, like 
 the outer porch ; and at the points from which they spring to 
 diverge over the ceiling, falling between every two windows, are 
 seen a succession of crowned heads, from which these bands seem 
 to issue, or on which they may be supposed to rest. These heads 
 have some expression given to them by the turn of the neck, and 
 are executed with a free hand. The crowns are all varied, though 
 the trefoil and the fleur-de-lys are, I think, seen in each. The 
 features are much mutilated by the Arabs, the iconoclastic prin- 
 ciple of whose religion induces them often to disfigure the most 
 intei'esting parts of sculpture. Enough remains, however, to 
 show that the heads, as well as the crowns, were varied ; and it 
 struck me on the spot that they might possibly be portraits of 
 the sovereign princes and warrior chiefs who were united in the 
 redemption of the Holy Land from the hands of the infidels. 
 The chronicles of these dark times often speak of Orthosia as a 
 strong and important station of the Christian armies, and it was 
 honoured with a bishop's see in the province of Tyre ; so that 
 this might have been, as the Arabs term it, a divan, or hall of 
 council, since it neither resembles a church nor a mere place of 
 strength. Attached to it are extensive buildings, now made so 
 
 3 X 
 
522 DESCRIPTION OF ORTHOSIA 
 
 indistinct by the erection of modern dwellings on their ruins, that 
 no plan of them could be traced. 
 
 Besides the edifice described, there is a portion of a lofty 
 semicircular wall, with windows in it, now crowded with buildings 
 also, and several inferior vestiges of former days. 
 
 The whole of the modern town of Tartoose is within the walls 
 of the ancient fort. Its habitations are of the ordinary kind. It 
 has a new mosque with a minaret near an open square, and a 
 coffee-house, but neither manufactories or public bazars. The 
 population are estimated at about 500, wholly Moslems, and the 
 Aga who governs the town has merely a personal guard of about 
 twenty men. 
 
 Without the fort are traces of a more extensive ditch and wall 
 that encompassed the ancient city, and fragments of buildings 
 and granite pillars, mark the place of former grandeur. Amid all 
 these scattered remains, the only edifice left standing is a large 
 Christian church, at a short distance to the S.E. of the town. Its 
 interior is 65 paces in length, 45 in breadth, and its height from 
 50 to 60 feet. It faces due E. by N., and is divided into three 
 aisles, by two rows of clustered pillars, like those of our cathedrals 
 in England. Some of the capitals of these are a bastard Corinthian, 
 others contain a succession of broad leaves folding over each other, 
 and others again exhibit the folds of drapery united by a brooch in 
 the form ot a rose. The roof is banded by cross ribs, with roses 
 at the point of intersection, and the whole has perfectly a Gothic 
 air throughout. The mouldings of the arch of the great front 
 door were broken away, we were told, by a Turkish Aga, who is 
 reported, as usual, to have found immense treasures concealed there. 
 It has an architrave of red granite, perhaps from some still older 
 ruined work here, but excepting this injury, the edifice remains 
 surprisingly perfect, and might be easily repaired. It is now 
 appropriated to no other use than as a shelter for herds of cattle. 
 
 The island of Arwad, which bears from hence S.W. by S. 
 distant about three miles, has a larger and more populous town 
 than Tartoose, and is visited by vessels from every part of the 
 
AND THE ISLAND OF ARADUS. 523 
 
 coast. It appears, both in form, size, and relative situation to the 
 continent, to be exactly what Tyre must have been before it was 
 connected to the main land by the isthmus of Alexander. Like 
 that renowned mart of commerce, it must have anciently enjoyed 
 a high consideration, and seems to have been itself a kingdom, as 
 Rab-shekah when he despatches messengers of reproof to Heze- 
 kiah, says to him, " Where is the king of Hamath and the king 
 of Arwad, and the king of the city of Tepharvaira, of Hena and 
 Ivah?" (2 Kings, xix. 13.) It furnished mariners and soldiers to 
 Tyre, as may be gathered from the lamentation which Ezekiel is 
 ordered to take up for that city. *' The inhabitants of Zidon 
 and Arwad were thy mariners. The men of Arwad with thine 
 army were upon thy walls round about." (xxvii. 11.) As the 
 Aradus of the Greeks and Romans, it helped, in conjunction with 
 Tyre and Sidon, to form the city of Tripolis, by the union of these 
 three colonies ; and enjoyed, besides, a command upon the con- 
 tinent as far as Gabala, or the Jebelee of the present day. The 
 advantages of an insulated situation, and the wealth and power 
 which may be attained by maritime commerce, are strikingly illus- 
 trated by the history of these celebrated marts, the whole source 
 of their greatness being apparently founded in these. 
 
 The island of Arwad has, at the present moment, a population 
 of from 1500 to 2000, besides strangers, which may ordinarily 
 amount to 500 more. As belonging to the department of the sea, it 
 is independent of all the governors on the coast, and acknowledges 
 only the authority of the Cabudan Basha, (or, as it is usually written, 
 Capitan Pasha,) who sends here annually an Aga from Constantino- 
 ple. It is low, rocky, and covered with buildings, having no cul- 
 tivated soil, so that it draws its supplies of provisions from the 
 adjacent shore. From its southern edge extends a long broken reef, 
 showing itself above water at intervals, and following nearly the 
 direction of the coast. It has a clear entrance, however, round the 
 northern point, and within this is good shelter from the prevailing 
 
 winds of the sea between the island and the main. The inhabitants 
 
 3x2 
 
524 JOURNEY FROM TARTOOSE OR ORTHOSIA 
 
 are wholly occupied in commerce; and we counted, at the present 
 moment, twenty-five sail of vessels, large and small, at anchor 
 there. From all enquiries, it seemed that, like New Providence 
 in the West Indies, and Malta in the Mediterranean, it was 
 purely a mart of transit, and that it owed this chiefly to some 
 favourable exemptions from duties exacted in the ports of the 
 continent near. 
 
 I could not obtain any information of ancient ruins there, 
 though some might certainly be expected, nor of the spring of 
 fresh water in the sea mentioned by Pliny*; but, perhaps, the ig- 
 norance and indifference of those, whom I questioned, was the 
 cause of their not having attracted their notice. 
 
 Saturday, May 4. — We were all stirring at day-break, and, 
 our little caravan assembling before the door, we took a morning 
 cup of coffee, and left Tartoose before the sun appeared. Conti- 
 nuing our route along by the sea-shore, we came in about an hour 
 to Nahr-el-Hussein, a river, with a stream not fordable, and which 
 we crossed over a stone bridge of good construction. In two 
 hours more we passed a second river, of less depth and rapidity, 
 called Nahr-el-Merkeeah, from a village of that name above ; and, 
 in about an equal space of time, we came beneath the castle of 
 Merkub, having it about a mile within us on our right. It is larger 
 than the castle of Hhussan; though, like it, apparently a Saracenic 
 work. It is seated on the summit of a round hill, and built in a 
 triangular form, having its outer angle facing about N.W. towards 
 the sea. At this angle is a large round tower, and several smaller 
 ones are seen along the outer wall. The mixture of black and 
 white stone, in alternate layers, is also visible from hence, and 
 quite in the Mohammedan taste. It is commanded by a still 
 
 * Between the island of Aradus and the continent there was a fountain of fresh 
 water, arising at the bottom of the sea, where it was 50 cubits deep, and from whence 
 the water was conveyed to the surface through pipes made of leather. — Plui. Nat. 
 Hist. b.v. c.3. 
 
TO JEBELEE OR GABALA. 525 
 
 higher hill above it to the south, and is otherwise of very little 
 strength, but suffered to fall into gradual decay without repair, 
 and is now inhabited by the families of such Moslem peasants as 
 venture to live here among the Nessearies. It is thought by 
 Maundrell that this may be probably the same castle mentioned by 
 Adrichomius and others, to which the bishops of Balanea and 
 others were forced to translate their see, by reason of the insults of 
 the Saracens.* 
 
 As we passed along the beach of the sea here, we noticed sin- 
 gular clusters of small hills, like the effects of some convulsions in 
 the earth ; and towards the beach itself, were large severed masses, 
 presenting cliffs, in which small pieces of the black porous stone 
 were imbedded in a yellowish sand and clay ; some of these masses 
 being from twenty to thirty feet in height. I took from thence 
 two specimens, which, on closer examination, looked almost like 
 cinders: the whole of the stone along the shore here was of the 
 black porous kind, and the sand of the beach was like fine steel 
 filings or powder of iron. On the west side of the hill, fronting 
 the sea, was a small Moslem village called El-Beathy; and below, 
 just after passing the cliffs described, we came to a large ruined 
 building called El-Bos, apparently arched on the inside. There 
 was near this, a square tower on the hill above, called Boorje-el- 
 Bos; but around the ruin below were seen granite pillars, and 
 other vestiges of more extensive works, which marked the site of 
 some former town. Whether this might be the Paltus of Strabo, 
 which he places here on the coast of the Aradii, between Jebelee 
 and Arwad, is not easy to decide. The pillars here, however, are 
 evidently ancient, and this is the only name which he gives that 
 would bear a resemblance in its most corrupted form. On the 
 north-east of the castle, on the top of a lower eminence, is the 
 town of Merkub or Merghub, which is peopled by Moslems, and 
 shows a large cluster of houses, with a tall minareh rising from 
 
 * Maundrell's Travels, 8vo. p. 23. 
 
526 JOURNEY FROM TARTOOSE OR ORTHOSIA 
 
 among them. If the castle itself may be thought to be the same 
 with the Margatto of Adrichomius, the town now going under the 
 same name may well be the-Marathus of Strabo, which he places 
 also on this coast ; but the existence of some vestiges, of decided 
 antiquity, would be necessary to support that assumption, as the 
 resemblances of names alone can seldom be deemed sufficient. 
 
 It was about noon when we reached Banias, where we halted 
 at a coffee-house to refresh. This was a large arch-roofed building 
 of about 150 feet in length, and of a proportionate height and 
 breadth, similar to the one we had seen in a more ruined state at 
 El-Bos. There were here also several fragments of granite pillars 
 scattered about ; and on an artificial eminence, amid the few huts 
 of the present inhabitants, were seen the vestiges of what appeared 
 to have been a fort of Roman construction. It is seated at a short 
 distance up from the sea ; and has near it a small, but sweet and, 
 clear, stream, and a bay formed by a gentle concavity in the line of 
 the shore. It may be safely assumed, therefore, as the Balanea 
 of Strabo, which he numbers among the towns of the Aradii 
 on this part of the coast. 
 
 During our stay of about an hour at Banias, there halted at it 
 some Turkish Christians, who scarcely understood a word of Arabic, 
 returning to Anadolia from their pilgrimage of Easter at Jerusalem. 
 Almost at the same time there stopped to repose a party of nine 
 Indians, five males and four females, who had come from Hindoos- 
 tan to Bagdad, from thence to Aleppo, and were now going down 
 the coast, intending to reach Egypt, and from thence perform the 
 pilgrimage of the prophet to Mecca, 
 
 These last spoke Arabic better than the Turks, whom they thus 
 crossed in their way. As they had been already nine months from 
 their homes, and had come all the distance on foot, subsisting by 
 the charity of those they met, their surprise was extreme at hear- 
 ing me address them in their own tongue, for since leaving Bagdad 
 they had not met with one who understood it. 
 
TO JEBELEE OR GABALA. 527 
 
 We quitted Banias after our i-epast; and, still continuing along 
 the sea^shore, we came, in about an hour, to the Nahr-el-Boorje, so 
 called from a square tower near it. There was here a ruined bridge, 
 no longer passable, so that we forded the river, and saw in its 
 stream several small sea turtles, which had no doubt come up 
 there from the coast. In half an hour more, we came to Nahr-el- 
 Khan, so called from a large khan and the tomb of its founder near 
 it ; and here also was a broken bridge, which obliged us to ford 
 the stream, where we saw again the small sea turtles mentioned 
 before. 
 
 From thence we were about an hour in reaching a large river 
 called Nahr-el-Sin*, from a town of that name above it, peopled 
 by Nessearies. There are stationary Arabs, who live upon its banks 
 in tents of reed and straw, called Arab-el-Mulook, or Arabs of 
 the king, or of the country ; and the river is thence called Nahr- 
 el-Melek, or the king's river. The stream is broader, deeper, 
 and more rapid than either the Jordan, the Adonis, or the 
 Orontes ; it is at the same time beautifully clear, and has over it a 
 good stone bridge of two large and wide arches. At its mouth 
 are the ruins of a large building, probably a fortress, and on its 
 northern bank are seen several granite pillars, with other marked 
 remains of antiquity ; but what station might have occupied this 
 eligible site does not immediately appear. 
 
 In half an hour from hence we passed a smaller stream, called 
 Nahr-el-Besaeteen, and in another half hour we reached the town 
 of Jebelee. As it was yet early, I was desirous of pushing on for 
 Ladikea (or Laodicea), but my companions were not to be hurried. 
 We accordingly halted here, and put up at the public coifee- 
 
 * It was at the source of this river, the Nahr-el-Sin, which is only a few hours' 
 journey from its mouth, that Mr. Boutain was assassinated : he had left the common 
 road for the purpose of tracing the river to its head, and was shot by a party of two 
 or three Nessearies there. This information was given to us by some persons whom 
 we met near this spot. 
 
528 DESCRIPTION OF JEBELEE OR GABALA. 
 
 shed. The importunities of those around us, who had learnt from 
 the rest of our party that I was from the country of the Franks, 
 scarcely permitted me to see any thing of the town, or indeed even 
 to stir from the crowd by which I was encircled, until I caught a 
 moment for that purpose, while the assembly dispersed to evening 
 prayers. This itself took place in so singular a way that it is, 
 perhaps, worth describing. Our station was in a long covered 
 passage, being the continuation of a street over which rooms had 
 been built. The coffee-house was at one corner of this, and on 
 the outside were benches of stone covered with a temporary awn- 
 ing of reeds and leaves. Along the side of the passage, beneath 
 these benches, and on different parts of the little hill near, were 
 assembled at least 500 people, some smoking, others singing, 
 others playing at chess, and all engaged in recreations. When the 
 sun had set, an elderly man came to the door of the mosque, 
 which fronted immediately towards the middle of the company, 
 and ciried aloud " Is it yet Muggrib or not ?" In so mixed a mul- 
 titude, unison of opinion, where there was the least room to doubt, 
 would have been singular indeed. Some replied that it was long 
 past, and accused him of negligence ; others, that it was not yet 
 arrived, and blamed his impatience. Warm disputes occurred, and 
 the whole party was set in agitation, until the crier, finding it, per- 
 haps, best to follow his own estimation of time, exclaimed aloud, 
 " God is great! God is great! God is great!" following it by the 
 usual invitation to prayer. Some laughed and jested on the pre- 
 vailing difference of opinion ; others were more grave and devout : 
 some said, " Let me first finish my nargeel ;" and those of our 
 own party contented themselves with enquiring afler the rice for 
 supper. When the invitation ceased, the muezzin, or crier, himself 
 joined in the jest, and uttered some pleasantries on those who had 
 been loudest in the dispute! 
 
 The town of Jebelee is thought to contain about 400 houses, 
 and from two to three thousand stationary inhabitants. It has 
 
DESCRIPTION OF JEBELEE OR GAB ALA.. 529 
 
 three mosques, two large coffee-houses, a small bazar, and many 
 separate shops. It is seated near the edge of the sea ; but is not 
 frequented by vessels, having no good shelter, and its population 
 subsisting chiefly by inland trade and agriculture. The greater 
 part of the country which we had passed in our journey of to-day 
 was inhabited by Nessearies, who draw their chief supplies from 
 hence, where the people are all Moslems. The range of mountains 
 from Tartoose to Jebelee, as well as the extensive plain between 
 them, and the sea-shore throughout all that tract, are almost as 
 fully peopled as the range of Lebanon; and the same activity and 
 industry prevailing among the Nessearies as among the Druses, 
 the same demands exist, and the supplies drawn by them from the 
 coast are equally great. Their returns are made in the produc- 
 tions of the soil ; and, next to Ladikea, Jebelee is the town which 
 profits most by this mutual intercourse. 
 
 This is the ancient Gabala, which is fixed by Strabo as the 
 boundaries of the Aradii on the continent northward, and is men- 
 tioned also by other ancient writers. " In the time of the Greek 
 emperors," says Maundrell, " it was dignified with a bishop's see, 
 in which sometimes sate Severian, the grand adversary and arch- 
 conspirator against St. Chrysostom." 
 
 The usual wreck of former magnificence is here left to confirm 
 the care with which the most inferior of the Roman stations were 
 embellished and improved. Near the sea are the ruins of a mole 
 of masonry, anciently used for the security of shipping ; but being 
 now ruined, the smallest boats take shelter in a little bay in the 
 bed of rock before the town. Granite pillars, hewn blocks, exca- 
 vated sepulchres, &c. all testify the works of former days ; but the 
 only interesting monument remaining is part of a fine Roman 
 theatre. This faced towards the north, and appears to have had a 
 closed front, which is now occupied, as well as the whole of the 
 space between the niches and the stage, by modern dwellings 
 erected there. The entrances into these dwellings are by the 
 
 3 Y 
 
530 DESCRIPTION OF JEBELEE OR GABALA. 
 
 arched doors, which served the same purpose to the audience of 
 the theatre ; some of them being partly filled up, and others left 
 nearly in their original state. The outer front of the semicircular 
 wall had, above the lower range of doors, a colonnade of Doric 
 pilasters going all round the second story, and was the only theatre 
 I had yet seen with this exterior ornament. Above these but 
 little of the wall remained. The benches for the spectators, and 
 the flights of steps intersecting them, could still be seen from the 
 outside J but there was no getting within, without intruding upon 
 the families residing there. 
 
 The extent of the front, imperfectly measured, was about a 
 hundred paces ; and it seemed on the whole inferior only to the 
 theatres of Amman and Bosra, in extent or beauty. 
 
 Immediately facing this monument of the Roman love of plea- 
 sure, is a more modern proof of the attachment of their successors 
 to austerity and voluntary privation. This is the great mosque 
 and tomb of Sultan Ibrahim, whose history is told, and whose se- 
 pulchre is described by Maundrell. People of all religions, even 
 Idolators and Jews, are admitted to pay it reverence : but the night 
 was now so set in that we could not examine it. It appears very 
 large, has a fine minareh, two domes, some excellent gardens, a 
 fountain, and a bath attached to it, and enjoys an agreeable situation, 
 being without the precincts of the town, and surrounded by culti- 
 vated land. In a modern cemetry here I noticed several tombs 
 that were covered with pent-roofed stones, raised at the corners, 
 exactly like those used over the sarcophagi of the Romans, and 
 probably handed down from age to age as a copy of them. 
 
 On our return we found an excellent supper of rice and milk, 
 furnished to our party by the keeper of the tomb of Sultan Selim, 
 who was himself a mufti, and a man of greater consideration here 
 than the governor himself We went in the evening to pay him a 
 visit, and found him surrounded by grave and green-turbaned 
 Shereefs: but though he had performed to us this act of hospitality, 
 
JOURNEY FROM JEBELEE TO LADIKEA. 53 J 
 
 he scarcely deigned to open his lips to any of the company, and 
 certainly for more than half an hour not a breath was heard in his 
 presence. 
 
 Our return to the coffee-house was welcomed by more free- 
 dom and gaiety. A number of lamps were hung from side to 
 side of the street, as in Egypt, and as numerous a party as that of 
 the afternoon were assembled. The cocoa nut-shell, for the bot- 
 tom of the nargeel, is here discontinued, and a long coarse green- 
 glass vessel is used in its stead, apparently of German manufacture. 
 The men wear jubbes or outer cloaks of white shalloon, instead of 
 cloth or cotton ; and in their features gradually lose that of the 
 Arab race, and approach insensibly toward that of the Turkish. 
 
 Sunday, May 5. — We had lain down on the benches beneath 
 an awning of leaves, but obtained no rest from the myriads of fleas 
 that revelled on our blood. We were all up, therefore, a full hour 
 before the dawn, and quitted Jebelee as soon as it was light. In- 
 stead of the cultivated plain which we had passed from Tartoose 
 to this place, we had now a dry heathy road on a sandy soil. In 
 half an hour we passed a small stream called Nahr-el-Jebelee, and 
 in half an hour more we passed another called Nahr-el-Metheek, 
 both barely fordable. Beyond this we met several parties of fal- 
 coners, with grey hawks held on a glove on the left hand, having 
 strings to their feet, and small brass bells on their tails, but we 
 saw no exercise of the sport. 
 
 In about an hour from hence we crossed a large stream, called 
 Nahr-el-Soba, and we here saw several suspicious parties, of two 
 or three men in each, who, our companions insisted, were lying in 
 wait for the unwary passengers. Turning up from the line of the 
 coast more to the eastward, we came in an hour to Nahr-el-Ladikeia, 
 or, as it is also called, Nahr-el-Kebeer. We crossed this by a large 
 stone bridge of five arches, of the most singularly barbarous con- 
 struction, the central arch being the smallest, and the upper pave- 
 
 3y 2 
 
^32 DESCRIPTION OF LADIKEA. 
 
 ment of the bridge ascending and descending like the waves of the 
 sea ; so that the centre was actually the lowest part, and presented 
 the appearance of a bridge in the act of breaking in two. 
 
 The ground was here cultivated, and, after an hour's smart 
 ride, we went up over a gentle hill, and came immediately into 
 Ladikea ; the whole of the coast between it and Tarabolus forming 
 a shallow bay. Our Moslem companions now left us, and being 
 taken to the house of Signior Monsi Elias, the British consul or 
 agent there, we met a welcome reception. 
 
 The remainder of the day was entirely passed in receiving the 
 visits of some Franks, and other Christian merchants, who were 
 disengaged from business ; and the evening was passed with a large 
 party of the consul's friends. 
 
 Monday, May 6. — The road from hence to Aleppo could 
 no more be traversed in safety without an escort or a caravan, than 
 that by which we had recently come here ; and none being on the 
 point of departure, it was thought necessary to wait for one. The 
 interval admitted of my making an excursion round the environs 
 of the town, and seeing the greater part of its interior. 
 
 Ladikea is situated on the northern edge of a tongue of land 
 which projects from the general line of the coast, and terminates 
 the bay between it and Tarabolus. The town stands chiefly on a 
 level ground, being open to the sea on the W. and N. W., and hav- 
 ing behind it, on the S. E., a ridge of low land running out in the 
 line of the promontory itself. To the north is an extensive line of 
 flat coast ; to the east a plain of cultivated land, going back to the 
 hills leading up to the country of the Nessearies ; to the S. E. the 
 bottom of the bay, in which is seen the town of Jebelee, bearing 
 S. by E. ^ E. from 15 to 18 miles ; to the south the snowy heights 
 of Lebanon, the extreme western point visible bearing S. by W. 60 
 or 70 miles ; and to the west the broad expanse of the ocean. The 
 town is of an irregularly circular form, and may be about two miles 
 
DESCRIPTION OF LADIKEA. 533 
 
 in extreme circuit. It stands at the distance of less than a mile 
 from the sea, and has its mina, or port, distinct from it. The 
 streets of the town are in general narrow, and often covered. 
 Some few, indeed, are wide and open, but they are found to be in- 
 convenient from their free admission of the sunshine. The houses 
 are chiefly built of stone, but can boast no peculiar excellence. 
 
 There are here twelve mosques, four baths, five churches of 
 the Greek communion, one Maronite, and one attached to that of 
 the Latins. The bazars are of ordinary construction, but well fur- 
 nished, and the resident population is estimated to amount to eight 
 thousand. 
 
 The port, which is situated to the westward of the town at 
 about a quarter of an hour's distance, is a small bason, capable of 
 containing, when closely moored, from thirty to forty sail. Its en- 
 trance is narrow, and, being open to the sea, is difficult in blowing 
 weather ; but the shelter is excellent within, as the port is, indeed, 
 a complete pier. There were now in it eighteen shaktoors and 
 small coasting vessels of the country, and a French brig, of about 
 200 tons, lying moored to the rocks. Larger vessels, it is said, cannot 
 enter from want of a sufficient depth of water ; a defect which Suli^ 
 man Basha, of Acre, under whose government the greater part of 
 the coast of Syria lies, has endeavoured to remedy, by sending to 
 Malta for men and engines to deepen it. At the entrance of the 
 port is an old Turkish castle, now in a very ruined state, though it 
 is, itself, erected on the remains of former works, as near its base 
 are seen large piles of granite pillars used in its construction. 
 There is a good wharf for landing goods from boats ; and the 
 custom-house, the magazines, and all the mercantile offices are 
 near; so that the Mina, as it is called, forms a little town of itself, 
 as at Tarabolus, having also a mosque there for the accommodation 
 of the faithful. The chief export from this port is tobacco, grown 
 in the mountains east of the town, and celebrated all over Turkey, 
 but particularly esteemed in Egypt. It is estimated that there are 
 
534 DESCRIPTION OF LADIKEA. 
 
 at least fifty cargoes sent annually to different parts, of which 
 twenty-five find a ready sale at Damietta. There is, besides, a 
 small export trade of cotton and oil to the southern ports upon the 
 Coast, with some few bales of silk. The imports are much more 
 various ; rice, and even corn, from Egypt ; wine, soap, and cheese, 
 from Cyprus ; coffee, sugar, and all kinds of British manufactures 
 from Malta, with assorted cargoes from the south of France and 
 the Adriatic ; all of which are distributed through the country, by 
 way of the great marts of Aleppo, Hamah, Hhoms, and Damascus. 
 
 It is well known that this town was founded by Seleucus 
 Nicator, who governed Syria after the death of Alexander, and that 
 he called it, in honour of his mother, AaoS«xs»a. This name is 
 still so well preserved, that if an Arab were to hear the original 
 one from the mouth of a Greek, he could not pronounce it any 
 otherwise than he now does, as Ladikeia ; and if a Greek were to 
 hear the Arab pronunciation of it, he would probably write it in 
 the characters of its original orthography. 
 
 It is said to have been adorned with great magnificence, both 
 by its founders and his successors ; and there are sufficient proofs 
 remaining of its having possessed some fine monuments of art. The 
 principal of these is a square building in the S. E. quarter of the 
 town, about fifty feet long on each side, and of an equal or perhaps 
 greater height. It is now so surrounded by modern dwellings, that 
 one cannot see all its parts ; but from that which is accessible it 
 appears to have been either a triumphal gate, or a small votive 
 temple to Mars. Each of its faces presents a fine arch, occupying 
 the whole breadth of the building, excepting only the angular 
 pilastres and side architraves ; above is a pediment with a sculp- 
 tured soffit, a rich frieze, and perhaps a cornice, but now broken 
 away. In the frieze are seen a succession of war emblems, such 
 as the shield, the spear, the helmet, and the body armour of the 
 Roman soldier ; which devices, from their resemblance to those on 
 the Doric tomb at Soeda in the Hauran, would have induced me 
 
DESCRIPTION OF LADIKEA. ^35 
 
 to think this also a sepulchral monument, had it not been open on 
 all sides by arches in the way described. These are now built up 
 by paltry walls of modern masonry, and the whole is occupied by a 
 Moslem family who reside there, so that we could not examine the 
 interior without their permission. The order of this interesting 
 edifice is Corinthian, the style chaste, the execution good, and the 
 whole in a state of high preservation, considering that it is sur- 
 rounded by other buildings, and used as a common dwelling. 
 
 Not far from this are four Corinthian columns, with their 
 architraves, still remaining erect, and apparently the portion of a 
 portico to some ancient temple ; these also are in a pure taste, and 
 remain still very perfect. 
 
 In different parts of the town, particularly in a street north of 
 these, and in the Sookh-el-Serdj, or Saddle Bazar, there are seen 
 ranges of granite columns still erect, and incorporated with the 
 modern buildings. They were probably remaining portions of 
 colonnades to some public edifices which still remained standing 
 after the general destruction of the buildings to which they be- 
 longed ; and advantage might thus have been taken to build the 
 walls of the modern dwellings in a line with them, so as to include 
 them in the walls themselves, and thus contribute considerably to 
 the strength of the fabric. 
 
 On the hill which overlooks the town on the S. E. stood 
 anciently the castle, of which nothing remains but heaps of rub- 
 bish, now partly covered by a wood of olives. Large and deep 
 cisterns, and wells, are also seen on the hill to the south of the 
 town ; and from one of them, containing an excellent spring, water 
 is brought to the town, and sold at eight paras, or about two-pence 
 sterling, per large goat-skin. 
 
 The Necropolis of the ancient city was near the sea, on the 
 north and north-west of the buildings, which do not ever appear 
 to have extended close to the water in that direction. There are 
 here, still remaining, many ancient sepulchres hewn out of the rock. 
 They are descended to by flights of steps, like those south of 
 
536 EXCURSION TO A NESSEARY VILLAGE. 
 
 Tartoose, when a square, and sometimes an arched door, leads to 
 dark chambers in which the sarcophagi were deposited in cells, in 
 the usual way. The rocks here seem also to have formed the 
 quarries for the buildings of the living, as appearances of that kind 
 are seen all around. 
 
 The environs of Ladikea having many olive grounds, gardens, 
 little country retreats, and places of pleasure ; the inhabitants are 
 all fond of rural recreation ; and those who cannot afford time for 
 a longer excursion, seat themselves along the sides of the public 
 roads, both in the morning and in the evening, to enjoy the fresh- 
 ness of the air, and, as they themselves say, to lengthen out their 
 days by delight. 
 
 Tuesday^ May 7. — The day was devoted to an excursion 
 into the country, at a small village of Nessearies, called Bisneada, 
 where some Frank families were then remaining. 
 
 It is situated at the distance of about an hour from Ladikea 
 to the N. E., and being on a hill, enjoys a pure air and delightful 
 prospect. It commands a view of all the wide and extensive line 
 of plain along the coast from north to south, terminated in that 
 quarter by the snowy range of Lebanon ; behind it are the moun- 
 taiiis of the Nessearies, among which, a peaked one, called Jebel 
 Okrah, or the bare mountain, is conspicuous ; and before it is the 
 tov^n of Ladikea on the coast, and the blue line of the western sea. 
 
 There is, in this village, an ancient fountain, over which is a 
 semi-dome of excellent masonry, the concave part of the semicircle 
 below having a sculptured moulding, and a line of niches for 
 statues, the whole of Greek or Roman construction. Its waters 
 are pure and excellent. An English Consul, named Broad, had, 
 about a century ago, chosen a platform in the middle of this vil- 
 lage for the site of his country house, and had built there, accord- 
 ing to report, a little palace, with every Eastern luxury, of fountains, 
 courts, and gardens in miniature. In one of those frequent revo- 
 lutions which happen in this country, it was chosen by a rebel 
 
EXCURSION TO A NESSEARY VILLAGE. 537 
 
 pasha as a military station, and the whole fabric was totally demo- 
 lished. The foundations are now shown as a proof of the insta- 
 bility of every thing among this people. We were kindly received 
 here by the French consul, M. Guys, grandson to the celebrated 
 Guys, who published the " Voyage Itineraire dans la GrSce," and 
 nephew to the present M. Guys, Consul General of France at 
 Aleppo. We found him an intelligent and amiable young man. 
 There was here also the wife of the former French consul of 
 Ladikea, with her children, among whom was a daughter who had 
 been married to the consul of Bagdad, who was recently dead. 
 This young girl of eighteen had come with an infant child across 
 the Desert from Baghdad to Aleppo, and was sixty days by the 
 caravan on the road. We had an Armenian singer, who accom- 
 panied himself on the tamboura, or hand-drum ; and a Jewish 
 musician, who played on an instrument called, in Arabic, canone, 
 in French, psalterion, and by us, the dulcimer; and among the 
 audience were Mohammedans, Christians, and Nessearies. We 
 passed our day most agreeably, and returned to town in the cool 
 of the evening. 
 
 3z 
 
CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 
 
 Wednesday, May 8. — There being a small caravan going to 
 Antaky, or Antioch, I was advised to profit by it, as it was but 
 little out of the direct road to Aleppo ; and we accordingly pre- 
 pared early for our departure. 
 
 It was about nine o'clock before we left Ladikea, when we 
 set out in a party of eight persons, with about 18 mules, some 
 laden and others light. We directed our course about N.N.E. 
 having the lofty peak of Jebel Okrah, or the bare mountain, right 
 before us, and in an hour passed between the villages of Bisneada 
 and Dumserkah, the former on a hill on our right, the latter in the 
 plain on our left, both distant about half a mile. We met several 
 parties of Nesseary peasants, going with fire- wood to Ladikea j 
 
JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA TO ANTIOCH. 539 
 
 their features were peculiar to themselves, and neither Turkish nor 
 Arabian ; their complexions often rosy, and their hair light ; such 
 of the women as we saw were in general very ugly, and unveiled. 
 
 In half an hour from hence we crossed a small stream by a 
 little bridge, called Moyat-el-Kanjara, from a village of that name 
 above, and saw there several small turtles. As this was distant 
 from two to three miles from the sea, while the water was almost 
 stagnant here, and the bed of the stream dry in many places, it 
 is not likely that they came up from the coast ; they were fur- 
 nished with fins, and not feet, as in the land tortoise, and were 
 generally about a foot in length. We met near to this a small 
 caravan of mules from Antaky, in which were Turcoman soldiers ; 
 the dress and features of the people approached gradually to that 
 of the Turks in Asia Minor ; and we were now saluted in Turkish, 
 and not in Arabic, as we passed. 
 
 In half an hour we crossed another small stream, called Moyat- 
 el-Kersanah, with a village of that name on our right close to the 
 road ; and on the left, farther off, one called Mukautry. In another 
 hour and half we reached a clear torrent, called Nahr-el-Arab, in 
 a small valley, where all the party halted to refresh, while the 
 animals grazed on its banks. 
 
 We quitted this spot about an hour after noon. Hitherto 
 we had passed through a cultivated land, but now our track lay 
 over a ridge of limestone hillocks, covered with box, myrtle, and 
 other wild shrubs in profusion. Our course was still about 
 N.N.E. over this, which brought us in about an hour to a fine 
 little valley and plain, called Wadi Kandeel, through the midst of 
 which flows a clear and swift stream bearing the same name. We 
 here saw the sea again, and crossed the stream within less than a 
 mile of its edge. 
 
 After about an hour's ride across this plain, having many 
 spots of corn land on both sides of our way, we came into the 
 narrower part of the valley. In this, we crossed the serpentine 
 windings of a stream upwards of twenty times, still following 
 
 3 z 2 
 
540 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 up its general line of direction towards the source. The pebbles 
 of its bed were a hard, close-grained, and heavy grey stone, 
 speckled with white and black, and having the appearance of a 
 fine granite; I preserved some fresh fractured specimens of it. 
 The hills on each side of our way were of limestone, and their 
 soil white and dry. They were steep, and sometimes inaccessible, 
 except to goats ; yet they were well clothed with a profusion of 
 wild shrubs, and fine trees growing out of their nearly perpen- 
 dicular sides, as well as on their summits. There were here also 
 in this narrow valley some fine corn-fields, with enclosures of 
 wicker hedge. From its being well watered, the verdure was 
 every where luxuriant. Some large oaks were already well clothed 
 with their new foliage, and the spring was in its richest dress. 
 The fresh odour sent forth by the productions of the vegetable 
 world which nature had assembled here was also delightful ; and 
 all, in short, contributed to render our journey most agreeable. 
 
 After half an hour's halt by the stream, we ascended a steep 
 hill, covered with pines and other trees, and in about an hour 
 opened from its summit a deep valley to the northward of it, 
 called El Bujak. No combination of forms and colours could 
 be more romantically picturesque than this secluded spot. We 
 had mountain, valley, hill, and dale, with rugged rocks and fertile 
 plains, and all the shades between the richest cultivation and the 
 wildest forest scenery, concentred in one little spot ; to complete 
 the beauty of which, a piece of the blue sea was seen through 
 the space left by the sloping brows of two approaching hills, its 
 level line marking the boundary of the western horizon. There 
 were in this enchanting vale a number of scattered hamlets, con- 
 sisting of three or four cottages each, and many cattle, horses, 
 goats, and sheep. Agriculture seemed to be performed with un- 
 usual neatness and care, and it was here for the first time that I 
 met with barred gates, as used in England, having never seen them 
 before in any part of the Turkish Empire. 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 54 1 
 
 It was about half an hour before sun-set when we reached - 
 the small hamlet of Kasla Joak, where we alighted at the residence 
 of the Aga or chief of the district, and were hospitably received. 
 
 All was now decidedly Turkish. The peasants were of a 
 different physiognomy, as well as dress ; and one marked pecu- 
 liarity of contrast was, their wearing long boots reaching to the 
 knees, of black leather, and shaped like European ones, without 
 drawers ; while the Arabs of Syria all wear long full drawers, and 
 either red shoes, or, as often happens, go barefoot. The Aga him- 
 self could just express his wants in Arabic ; and as I understood 
 scarcely a word of Turkish, my conversation with him was through 
 the medium of one of our party as an interpreter. He appeared 
 very devout, having a long string of beads, in numbering which he 
 muttered certain prayers, but in the midst of these he would often 
 break off to converse and laugh, and then resume the thread of 
 his devotions again. 
 
 As an Englishman, I was placed on his divan, beside himself, 
 while the rest of the passengers of our caravan being Moslems, 
 mostly stood or sat at a respectful distance. This distinction I 
 owed chiefly to the impression which the liberal conduct of Lady 
 Hester Stanhope, and Mr. Barker, towards the people of the 
 country, had made in favour of our nation. They had both been 
 in this neighbourhood, were personally known to the Aga, and 
 were spoken of by all with admiration. 
 
 We partook of an excellent supper, and on retiring to rest I 
 was furnished with a good mattrass and pillow, a pair of clean 
 sheets, and a new cotton quilted coverlid; an attention to my 
 comfort, for which I had it not really in my power to make an 
 adequate return, and all this was done too in the kindest possible 
 manner, without the least profession or affectation of parade. 
 
 Thursday, May 9. — Our caravan prepared early for departure. 
 The Aga pressed me strongly to remain a few days with him to 
 enjoy the scenery which I so much admired, promising to send an 
 
542 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 escort with me to Aleppo whenever I might desire ; but compli- 
 ance would have required a greater sacrifice of time and expence 
 than I was at liberty to make. I felt, therefore, the necessity of 
 persisting in my refusal, so much so, as to leave an impression of 
 rudeness or of insensibility to hospitable treatment, on the mind 
 of my entertainer. I had been often before thus painfully situated, 
 and could only regret, as then, that I was not sufficiently the master 
 of my own time, my purse, or even my inclination, to make either 
 myself or others so happy as I could wish. 
 
 On leaving Kasla Joak, we ascended the summit of the hill 
 above it, and travelled for about three hours in a thick forest of 
 pines, alternately ascending and descending over rugged roads, and 
 often obliged to make wide circuits, from the way being obstructed 
 by large fallen trees recently felled by the woodmen. This brought 
 us to a beautiful little circular plain of grass land, called Merj-el- 
 Kazhoak, where some Turcoman shepherds were feeding their 
 flocks. In the woods we saw several detached huts of these people, 
 formed of reeds, having conical roofs, with the usual kitchen im- 
 plements, and the fire in an open space on the outside. The huts 
 were guarded by large shaggy dogs, and only the women and chil- 
 dren were seen within the dwellings. In half an hour from this 
 plain, still through thick woods of pine, and of another tree, 
 called in Arabic, Sedjer-el-Azzer, we crossed a small bridge, called 
 Jisser-el-Mahamany, under which runs a stream of the same name, 
 which, after a winding course, goes into the Nahr-el-Kebeer, south 
 of Ladikea. This stream forms the boundary between the govern- 
 ment of Aleppo, and that of Acre, under their respective pashas ; 
 north of this, even on the sea-coast, all is subject to the latter, as 
 far as Karamania. In an hour from the bridge we entered another 
 cultivated valley, called Wadi-el-Kussub ; corn, grass, and herbage 
 generally, was more abundant here, and we drank at the clear stream 
 of Nahr-el-Mahamany, which ran through it; but the hills became 
 less profusely wooded, and above us to the N. N.W. was the high 
 peak of Jebel Okrah, or the bare mountain, well deserving that 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 543 
 
 name, in contrast to the richly clothed summits of the hills that ' 
 surround its feet. 
 
 From hence we passed over a small ridge of hills, and soon 
 entered another cultivated valley, called Wadi-el-Erjey. We now 
 went on the east side of Jebel Okrah, and continued our course 
 almost due north, leaving behind us a fountain called Ain-el- 
 Haramy, from the traditional report of this having been anciently a 
 haunt of robbers ; and, indeed, two men had been lately murdered 
 there. 
 
 On the east of this Wadi-el-Erjey was pointed out to us the 
 town of Eurdy, containing about 300 dwellings, and inhabited 
 solely by Turks, about three-fourths Moslems and one-fourth 
 Christians. Streams and springs of excellent water are here 
 abundant, and we drank at two in the way, one of which was 
 called Ain-el-Ajoon, issuing like a body of crystal out of the 
 living rock. 
 
 The preceding day had been calm and sultry, and the sun 
 overcast. During the night it had blown a gale from the east- 
 ward, and this morning we had cloudy weather, a S.W. wind, and 
 some flying showers. About noon, however, it began to pour 
 down torrents of steady rain, insomuch that our caravan thought 
 only of a place of shelter. We were exposed to it for fully three 
 hours before we reached the valley and plain of Lulakjee, at the 
 foot of which were some caves, into which we entered, leaving our 
 beasts without. This place must have been the site of some 
 Roman settlement; for, besides the caves, which might have been 
 either sepulchral, or troglodytal, there are vestiges of a very large 
 building now completely ruined. Its scattered blocks of hewn 
 stones occupy a considerable space, being grown over with trees, 
 and among them are seen portions of pillars and reversed sarco- 
 phagi. We saw, too, the portion of a building yet standing, rearing 
 its head amidst the thickets in which it was enveloped ; and some 
 of our party who knew the spot, called it the ruined church, but 
 there was no stirring to examine it. The most decided feature of 
 
544 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 the antiquity of these remains was a large stone sarcophagus, still 
 perfect, and occupying apparently its original place above ground. 
 Its sides were sculptured with festoons and wreaths, in the usual 
 way; and its cover, which was pent-roofed and raised at the corners 
 after the Roman manner, still continued to close it so perfectly, 
 that it was doubtful whether it had ever been opened. 
 
 Violent and successive peals of thunder, lightning, and hail, 
 kept us in these caves full three hours, so that it was sunset 
 before the storm was sufficiently abated for us to venture out. We 
 then made our way toward a cluster of two or three cottages on 
 the hill, while some determined to remain in the caves all night. 
 We reached the object of our search with some difficulty, and were 
 hospitably received by the Turkish peasants there, furnished with 
 an excellent supper, a mattrass, pillow and coverlid, quite as good 
 as at the Aga's on the night before. 
 
 We observed here a material improvement in the construc- 
 tion of the peasants' dwellings, and in their interior arrangement. 
 We had a chimney for the fire, as in England, and small windows 
 to carry off the superfluous smoke. The wife of the Turkish pea- 
 sant was fair and pretty, yet she went entirely unveiled ; the cook- 
 ing utensils and dishes were all of metal, and numerous ; every 
 one slept on a bed with a coverlid ; the children were clean and 
 decently dressed; the men were also of a more respectable appear- 
 ance than usual ; and all announced our being among a people more 
 attentive to their comforts, at least, than those we had left. 
 
 Friday, May 10. — Our party all assembling in the plain of 
 Lulakjee below, we joined them at sunrise, and proceeded on our 
 way. We kept now a course of N.N.W. to come out upon the 
 sea-shore ; and after passing through a succession of narrow and 
 wooded valleys, we came on a broad road, with a paved causeway, 
 probably an ancient work. This brought us, in half an hour after 
 our setting out, to the village of Karakujee, which contains about 
 fifty good stone dwellings. It is inhabited solely by Turkish 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 545 
 
 Moslems, and some of the houses are here pent-roofed, with tiles ; 
 None of the women veiled themselves, or even affected to do so on 
 our approach, but returned our salutes with cordiality. The envi- 
 rons are well cultivated with corn, mulberry and fig trees, and 
 they have many cattle. 
 
 About another hour from hence, constantly descending, 
 brought us to a small slip of plain between the foot of the hills 
 and the sea. We came out here by a large village called Mea- 
 doo, consisting of about fifty or sixty houses, but these all large, 
 and each surrounded by a small piece of ground. The cultiv- 
 ation is the same as at Karakajee, but here all the houses are 
 large, pent-roofed, and covered with red tiles. Both men and 
 women wear long boots ; and the former, instead of the red tar- 
 boosh, a white pointed woollen cap, like our coasting sailors, with 
 generally a white cloth turban wound round it in smooth plaits. 
 We could see from hence that the points of the range of Jebel 
 Okrah, running nearly east and west, descend abruptly into the 
 sea, forming a succession of high promontories, and leaving no 
 room upon their steep edges even for a road around their base. 
 This slip of plain on which we came out, is the only piece seen, 
 and is about half a mile in breadth, and, much more in length, 
 from its commencement southerly to the mouth of the Orontes, 
 north. The road runs along from hence under high cliffs of 
 limestone, from which issue, in many places, fine clear springs 
 of excellent water, distributing themselves in meanders over the 
 plain below. At one of these springs we saw a hewn cistern, and 
 an aqueduct leading from it. 
 
 In less than an hour after entering the plain we came to the 
 Orontes, which was here about as broad as the Nile from the 
 Island of Rhoda to Jeeza, or the Thames in the Pool below 
 London Bridge, between the two outier tiers of shipping. We 
 crossed it with our horses in a boat, and the rest of the caravan 
 followed in the same way. There were three of these boats, 
 each large, though managed by one pair of oars. They had been. 
 
 4 a 
 
546 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 apparently, ships' launches. We found the stream nine feet deep 
 in the centre ; and the rate of its current about two miles per hour. 
 It might, therefore, be easily navigated, if not from the sea, at 
 least within. The bar, as far as we could perceive it from above, 
 seemed tolerably smooth. There was a small island in the centre 
 of the stream, just below where we crossed it, which was now culti- 
 vated with mulberry and fig trees in considerable numbers.* 
 
 While the rest of the caravan distributed themselves among 
 the villages in the valley to halt here for the day, we profited by 
 the delay to go down to the ruins of the ancient Seleucus, near 
 the sea. Our road was across a low, and sometimes marshy, land ; 
 though here and there we passed through good roads, hedged in 
 with bushes, on which grew a red flower, now in bloom, and saw 
 corn fields, cottages, and cattle in abundance. In about an hour 
 we came again under cliffs to the northern extremity of the plain, 
 of which the discharge of the river is about the centre.f This 
 place was called El-Moghyer^ or The Caves, from the number of 
 excavations seen here. It was doubtless the Necropolis of the an- 
 cient settlement below, as we saw here many sarcophagi of stone, 
 some broken, others quite perfect ; some ornamented with bulls' 
 heads, festoons, roses, &c., and others plain ; and we passed three 
 in the public road with their pent-roofed covers still on, as if in their 
 original places. Going down westward to the sea, we passed an 
 arched gate with a circular bastion on each side of it ; the arch 
 Roman, the masonry not very good ; perhaps a Mohammedan work. 
 
 * Beyond Laodicea, the country was called Syria Antiochena. On the sea coast, 
 upon the very cape of this name, was the free city Seleucia, named also Pieria ; and 
 within land was the noble and free city of Antioch, surnamed Epidaphne, through the 
 midst of which ran the river Orontes. — Plin. Nat. Hist. b. v. c. 21. 
 
 -)- The river Orontes was reported to keep its own waters distinct from those of 
 the streams tributary to it, and to carry them separately, or in veins, to the sea. — 
 Plin. Nat. Hist. h. ii. c. 103. 
 
 " Le fleuve Orontes, apres avoir baign^ les pieds du Mont Casius, se perd dans 
 la mer Parthenienne. — Ammian. Marcellin.lh.'x.lv. c. 8. In liv. xxii. c. 16. this 
 " mer Parthenienne" is also called " la mer Issiaque." 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 547 
 
 We then went along by what seemed to have been the walls of the 
 city, of an irregular form, but the foundations still mostly perfect. 
 The stones were large at the bottom, but above these there were 
 alternate layers of large and small ones, the last placed endwise in 
 the Saracen mode. As the material was a soft limestone, the effects 
 of the air and rain, in the course of time, had worn the whole 
 surface much away, and rendered it difficult to pronounce on the 
 quality of the work. This wall went for nearly a mile in length, 
 westward, till we reached the sea, where was pointed out, by the 
 man who accompanied us, a circular space about a furlong up from 
 high-water mark, certainly lower than the level of the sea, but now 
 grown over with marshy weeds. This he called the Mina, or port, 
 and said it was traditionally considered so. It might be capable of 
 containing 1,000 vessels of the ancients, when moored as in a pier ; 
 as it occupies a much larger space than either the East or West 
 India Docks in London. From the point where we halted to ob- 
 serve it, I took the following bearings : — 
 
 Cape formed by the point of Jebel Okrah S. S. W 18 miles. 
 
 High peak of Jebel Okrah .... South 15 miles. 
 
 Discharge, or mouth of the Orontes . . S. by E 5 miles. 
 
 Village of El-Jedeady S. E. by S 5 miles. 
 
 Cliffs fuir of Caves, or El-Moghyer . . S. E. by E. to N. W. by W. 1 mile. 
 
 Village of Choleek N. by E a mile. 
 
 Northernmost point visible N. N. W. ^ W. ... 1 mile. 
 
 We went from here to the N. W., about a quarter of a mile, 
 following the wall all the way, which enclosed even the port too, 
 till we came to the moles which formed its entrance. These ran 
 out into the sea, in nearly a westerly direction, and appeared to be 
 from SOO to 400 feet apart, with a beach of fine sand between them. 
 The northernmost one is almost entirely destroyed, though yet 
 visible. The southernmost has a good portion remaining, and is 
 composed of massy stones, about ten paces in length, five in 
 breadth, and of an equal depth. I had walked over it twice before 
 I had perceived it to be a work of masonry, thinking it to have 
 
 4 A 2 
 
548 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 been a mole cut down out of a vein of rock found there originally. 
 It seems to have been nearly 100 feet wide, but its length cannot 
 well be ascertained, as it is much demolished at the outer end 
 towards the sea, as well as on each side. Vessels, after entering 
 here, passed directly through a sort of gateway, about 150 feet 
 wide, made by cutting through the solid rock, a portion of which 
 is still standing on each side, with fragments of buildings on the 
 northern one, perhaps of a watch-tower or light-house. The port 
 within extends from N. E. to S. E., forming an irregular circle ; the 
 first part near the entrance being covered with firm soil is culti- 
 vated ; and the inner, or lower part, is marshy, as before described. 
 There is now a wall of inclosure built across the mouth, merely to 
 protect the corn within, and this is a work of the peasants them- 
 selves. In the mass of rock left as a pier on the right or south of 
 the entrance, is a large cave in its inner face, supported by square 
 pillars, most probably used anciently as a place of security for boats 
 near the gate. The port within was well sheltered from all winds 
 from the northern and eastern quarters, by the high range of moun- 
 tains above, called Jebel-el-Moosa, and from the southern and 
 western ones by the walls of the port itself We saw here, around 
 the outside, as' usual in all Roman ruins, an immense quantity of 
 broken pottery, of the deep red and ribbed kind ; but we noticed 
 no portion of buildings remaining in which were sculptured co- 
 lumns or other marks of architectural care. 
 
 We went from hence to examine the caves in the cliffs, above. 
 There were of these scarcely less than 300 in all, a number equal 
 to those of Thebes in Egypt, and sufficient of itself to prove that 
 this settlement must have been once highly peopled. Some of 
 these were very large, but more generally they did not exceed fif- 
 teen or twenty feet square ; the entrances were mostly arched, either 
 in a complete semicircle or by an arch over square doorways : and 
 some consisted altogether of one open recess of a semicircular form. 
 In these were raised benches for depositing the bodies, generally 
 one on eacii side, and facing the doorway, but sometimes more 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 549 
 
 multiplied where the chamber was larger. We saw no places for 
 letting in the bodies endwise, as in the sepulchres south of Tar- 
 toose, nor did we find any sarcophagi within the caves, the practice 
 of burial seeming to have been to deposit the bodies in the 
 shallow repository of these lateral benches, which were all in 
 arched recesses, as common elsewhere. Numerous sarcophagi were 
 seen in different parts of this extensive necropolis without, and 
 many 'of them certainly occupying their original place unmoved.' 
 Among these were some of the largest I had ever seen, measuring 
 about nine feet in length by four and a half and five feet in 
 breadth, taken from the outer extremes, and many of them highly 
 ornamented. 
 
 This settlement, founded by Seleucus Nicator, the builder of 
 Antioch, must have been intended by him chiefly as the sea-port 
 of that capital, for the shelter and rendezvous of his Syrian fleet ; 
 and for this, no better situation could be chosen than that within 
 the southern edge of the range of mountain described, as it fur- 
 nished the best shelter, apparently, throughout the bay. If a port 
 of commerce had been intended, to have communicated from 
 thence with Antioch, then some spot on the banks of the Orontes, 
 near its mouth, would have been chosen, as boats with merchan- 
 dize might easily navigate its stream. 
 
 This ruined port is nearly five miles from the discharge of 
 that river ; but, as a naval station, it is more capacious, and capable 
 of affording more complete shelter. As it was now past El-Asser, 
 and we had yet tasted nothing but our morning cup of coffee for 
 the day, we went to one of the houses on the brow of the cliff 
 above, to seek some momentary refreshment. We were hospitably 
 received there by a Toorkman farmer, he being a cultivator and 
 proprietor of flocks at the same time, who furnished us with a meal 
 of bread, milk, cheese, and hard butter from his own dairy. 
 
 There were three houses here, inhabited by persons like him- 
 self, the dwellers in which came and joined us on the grass. 
 Each of these were the best built and most commodious dwellings 
 
550 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 I had yet seen any where in the country without the limits of 
 towns. They were each of two stories, with balconies, arched win- 
 dows, window frames, and window shutters of wood, and had each 
 a large court before them, with the kitchen and other domestic 
 offices apart. Over the door of one of them was an Arabic inscrip- 
 tion in marble, and the whole presented an appearance of wealth 
 and comfort extremely rare among the cultivators in other parts 
 of Syria. 
 
 The valley in which the Orontes winds down and discharges 
 itself into the sea is well seen from hence. Its southern boundary 
 is the range of Jebel Okrah, the steep sides of which seem to 
 rise abruptly from the sea and continue their ascent until they 
 terminate in its grey and bare peak, at the height of perhaps 
 5,000 feet from the base.* Its northern boundary is the range of 
 mountain called Jebel Moosa, the western extremity of which slopes 
 down into a cape at the distance of less than a mile north of the 
 moles and entrance of the ruined port described, and its even 
 summit runs along to the eastward until it loses itself among more 
 uneven hills. The inner or eastern parts of these ranges gradually 
 
 * Above the city Seleuca there is another mountain, called Casius, as well as 
 that other of the same name near Pelusium, in Egypt. This hill is of that height 
 that if a man be on the top of it in the dark night, at the relief of the fourth watch, 
 he may behold the sun arising. So that with a little turning of his face and body, he 
 may at one time see both day and .night. To get up by the ordinary high way to the 
 very pitch of it, a man might fetch a compass of nineteen miles ; but climb directly 
 upright it is but four miles. In the borders of this country runneth the river Orontes, 
 which ariseth between Libanus and Anti-Libanus, near to HeliopoUs. — Plin. Nat. 
 Hist. b. V. c. 22. 
 
 In describing the sacrifice to Jupiter, which was offered by Julian, fi-om the top 
 of the Syrian Mount Casius, another historian says, " This mountain, which is of a 
 round form, and even in its outline, is covered with wood, and rises to such an ele- 
 vated height, that before the fourth watch of the night,'the first rays of the rising sun 
 maybe seen from its summit." — Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxii. c. 14. 
 
 These are merely cited as specimens of the exaggerated and hyperbolical descrip- 
 tions of the ancients. If these were their real impressions respecting the prospect 
 from a height of 5,000 feet; what would they have said of the Himalya, which rises 
 25,000 feet above the level of the sea ? 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 551 
 
 approach each other till they seem to meet, thus leaving a trian- 
 gular valley, or plain, between them, its base line being the edge of 
 the sea-coast, and its whole length from eight to ten miles. It 
 is nearly in the centre of this that the Orontes winds down its 
 course, and the whole of the space on its northern bank is occupied 
 by corn fields, mulberry grounds, gardens of fig trees, and detached 
 cottages, all excellently built, and mostly of two stories, with slop- 
 ing and tiled roofs. 
 
 There is no one town particularly called Swedeeah, this being 
 the name given to the whole valley, and to all the villages generally 
 that are contained within it. The residence of the Aga, and the 
 winter abode of most of the cultivators here, is at a town on the 
 range of Jebel Moosa above, called Zeitoony, and distant from the 
 valley about an hour and a half to the N. E. It is said to contain 
 nearly 300 dwellings, and to have at least 3,000 inhabitants in 
 the winter season. In the spring and summer the landholders 
 come down here to attend themselves to the management of their 
 farms; and the country is at this time, consequently, full of popul- 
 ation and activity, presenting a most agreeable picture. 
 
 After our repast with the Toorkmans, we descended from the 
 hill, and drank at a fountain below, called Ain-el-Kebeer. The 
 cliffs here, as we had remarked at the southern edge of the plain, 
 send out various springs of excellent water, and this bears its pre- 
 sent name from its pre-eminence over the rest in size and abund- 
 ance. Its source seems to have been valued, and perhaps vene- 
 rated by the ancients, according to their usual practice ; for over 
 the spot where it issued out in a crystal stream from the hard 
 rock, a fine arch had been excavated, and other ornaments were 
 apparently intended to have been lavished on it. Time has now 
 broken down the upper part ; but enough remains to prove that 
 great care and labour was bestowed on the work. The waters, 
 like all the others in the plain, are of a pure and excellent taste, 
 and run in a full stream down to the sea. 
 
 We went from hence to the house of the Kaihia, or deputy of 
 
552 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 the governor, to demand shelter for the night, and were received 
 with great welcome. As the whole of this district was Moslem, 
 and the people mostly Turks, we were surprised to find our host a 
 Christian of the Greek communion, and almost the only one we 
 had met since leaving Ladikea who could converse with us in Ara- 
 bic. We were shown into an upper room with three large grated 
 windows looking out on a balcony that faced the garden, and after 
 sunset we were served with an excellent supper of rice pilau, with 
 milk and butter, and some fine-flavoured fish from the Orontes. 
 It being a fast of the Greek church, our host was confined in his 
 diet, but we all drank profusely of the wine of his own vintage, 
 which was quite equal to any of the wines of Lebanon. At night 
 we were furnished with mattrasses and sheets for repose ; but here, 
 amidst so many promising comforts, that perpetual Asiatic tor- 
 ment, of myriads of fleas, was almost unendurable ; as, from their 
 size, their numbers, and their voracity, they scarcely suffered us to 
 catch a moment's sleep. 
 
 Saturday, May 11. 1816. — The morning opened with heavy 
 showers of rain, the wind blowing still a tempest from the west- 
 ward. This occasioned us some detention, but our scattered caravan 
 being at length assembled, we quitted our host about nine o'clock, 
 and proceeded on our way. 
 
 Our course was directed to the E.N.E. over a gentle ascent, 
 and in less than an hour we gained an eminence, from which we 
 opened the beautiful valley of Moghyeroon on our right. Above 
 it stood a village of the same name, on the northern brow of a 
 ridge of hills that divided this valley from that of the Ahssy or 
 Orontes, properly so considered, the river flowing to the south 
 of them. This valley was full of trees and cultivation, and studded 
 over with well-built cottages, presenting altogether an enchanting 
 picture. On our left we soon opened the town of Zeitoony, seen 
 in the hollow of the southern brow of Jebel Moosa on the north 
 of us, with two other villages further on, called Meshernakey and 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 553 
 
 Hhabbabhee, the former peopled by Turkish Moslems, the latter 
 by Armenian Christians, each containing about 100 inhabit- 
 ants. We could now perceive the eastern termination of Jebel 
 Moosa, in a bluff point, and beyond it was continued a higher 
 range, called Jebel Ahhmar, or the Red Mountain, from the colour 
 of some of its cliffs. The former may be about 4,000 feet from 
 the level of the sea ; the latter, however, is nearer 6,000 in 
 appearance, and is the only one around here that has snow on it 
 in the- winter, excepting only the very peak of Jebel Okrah. 
 On the south-side, the whole range of mountain bears this 
 name, from the sea to Antioch, as it is nearly one continued 
 ridge ; but the peasants have, of course, peculiar epithets for the 
 several districts, which would not be noticed in a geographical 
 division. 
 
 The northern range of Jebel Moosa and Jebel Ahhmar runs 
 about E.N.E. and the southern one of Jebel Okrah N.N.E., until 
 they approach near each other above Antioch. The plain be- 
 tween their terminating points at the sea-coast has been already 
 described. On ascending to the N.E., the valley between them 
 becomes a succession of smaller eminences, presenting bare hills 
 and cultivated valleys, with the stream of the Orontes flowing 
 along the foot of the southern mountains as it makes a circuit 
 that way in its course. In about two hours we reached a narrow 
 but deep and rapid river, called Nahr-el-Karatchiz, which rises in 
 the side of Jebel Moosa and flows down into the Ahssy. It was 
 barely fordable in the shallowest places, and its stream ran at the 
 rate of at least five miles per hour. In the course of the next hour 
 we crossed four branches of this river, as the rapidity of its course 
 occasions it often to take new channels and multiply the number 
 of its streams, and all were as deep and as rapid as the first. From 
 the last of these we ascended to a hill, and reached a sort of 
 opening or pass, near which was a paved road, probably an ancient 
 work. From hence we possessed a commanding view of the vale 
 of the Orontes, and for the first time saw that river winding along 
 
 4 B 
 
554 JOURNEY FROM LADIKEA, 
 
 its bed, here making the southern bend before described. A 
 number of small hamlets and detached dwellings were scattered 
 around ; and the grandeur of the mountains, with the rich fertility 
 of the plain they enclosed, was as delightful a picture as could be 
 viewed. 
 
 Our road became now gradually less interesting, for after 
 passing close to the edge of the river which makes a northern 
 bend here, we went up on a high plain, covered mostly with wild 
 shrubs, and uncultivated. The river appeared to be not more than 
 fifty feet wide, and had, evidently, very little depth, its rate in mid- 
 channel being about three miles an hour. We still saw, however, 
 some few villages on our left, and still more on our right, along 
 the banks of the stream. It was past noon when we first obtained 
 a view of Antaky, or Antioch, which presented the appearance of a 
 larger town than any on the coast of Syria from Jaffa to Ladikea, 
 and equal in size to Jerusalem or Hhoms. It was seated at the foot 
 of the steep and rocky extremity of Jebel Okrah, rising on a very 
 gentle ascent. We counted twelve minarehs of mosques, besides 
 several domes ; the former were all high and slender, having a 
 white body and blue pointed top, with round close galleries, in the 
 Turkish and not in the Arabic style. The houses were generally 
 pent-roofed and tiled, which is the case with all the dwellings we 
 had seen from Swedeea thus far. A most striking feature of this 
 place on our approach, was an ancient wall with square towers, 
 which went up the steep side of the mountain to the south of the 
 town, and there seemed to turn to the northward, as if to enclose 
 the hill. 
 
 The range of Jebel Okrah here terminates in a ragged point, 
 and the town is within a mile or two of its northern extremity. 
 On the other side, the range of Jebel Ahhmar seems, also, to end 
 in a high peaked mountain, of a pyramidal form. The space 
 between them presents the appearance of an elevated plain, which 
 is said to continue all the way to Aleppo. It is here about ten 
 miles wide, and mostly uncultivated. 
 
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, TO ANTIOCH. 555 
 
 About two o'clock we crossed a three-arched bridge, over a 
 stream called Nahr-el-Hannah, which goes into the Ahssy, and 
 before El-Assr we came to the latter river, or the Orontes, 
 which we crossed over a larger bridge, and immediately entered 
 the gate of Antioch, when, winding through some narrow 
 streets, we alighted at the house of a young Christian merchant, 
 called Abd-el-Messiah, or the Slave of the Saviour, to whom we 
 had been directed by our host, Abdallah, at Swedeea. Our 
 reception was cool, and many enquiries were made of us, as if 
 we were suspected ; but as our stay was intended to be only for 
 the night, we endeavoured to be content. During the interval 
 which yet remained to us before sunset, I profited by our stay 
 here, to see something of the town, and the remains of antiquity 
 in its neighbourhood. 
 
 » '2 
 
CHAR XXVII. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH, AND JOURNEY FROM 
 
 THENCE TO ALEPPO. 
 
 The city of Antioch, now called by its inhabitants Antaky, 
 is seated at the foot of a steep and bare hill, which terminates the 
 range of Jebel Okrah, the Mount Casius of the ancients, standing 
 on its north-western side, and having open before it a wide valley, 
 and the range of Jebel Ahhmar from West to North, at the distance 
 of from ten to fifteen miles. It thus resembles, very nearly, the 
 situation of Balbeck in the valley of the Bukhah ; as these moun- 
 tains are not much inferior to Libanus and Anti-Libanus in height, 
 and the valley between them is about the same breadth, and takes 
 the same direction of N.E., leaving an unbounded plain in that 
 quarter : but here the hill that overlooks the town is steeper and 
 more abrupt than at Balbeck, and the vale in which it stands is more 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. 557 
 
 thickly wooded and highly cultivated, as the course of the Ahssy 
 through it distributes fertility along its winding way.* 
 
 The town, though inferior only to Aleppo, Damascus, and 
 Hamah in size, and, consequently, larger than any of those on the 
 coast, is not so well built as these generally are, and has no large 
 public buildings of any beauty. The houses are mostly constructed 
 of stone, and are all pent-roofed and covered with red tiles ; many 
 of them are three stories high, but more generally two, and the 
 upper part is then constructed of wood. The streets are narrow, 
 having a high, raised causeway of flat pavement on each side for 
 foot passengers, and a very narrow and deep passage between these 
 for horses, seldom wide enough to admit of two passing each 
 other. The bazars are mostly open, and resemble those of the 
 country generally. They are unusually numerous, however, in 
 proportion to the size of the town, as this is a mart of supply for 
 an extensive tract of country around it. All the articles in 
 demand are found here in abundance ; and the manufactures of the 
 town itself consist in coarse pottery, cotton, cloth, some silk 
 twist, several tanneries, and sadlery ; for which last article, particu- 
 larly bridles, martingales, &c. of fancy work in leather, the 
 workmen- of Antaky are celebrated. 
 
 The population here is thought to exceed ten thousand, 
 among which there are counted about 150 Christian families, 
 and 20 Jewish ones. The language of the people is Turkish, 
 the Mohammedans speaking no other, and the Christians only 
 imderstanding Arabic from their connection with the country to 
 
 * In describing Syria, as contradistinguished from Phoenicia, and alluding to the 
 importance, as well as beauty, of the place, the historian says — 
 
 " La Syrie s'ouvre et s'etend en une belle plaine; elle se distingue par la fameuse 
 ville d' Antioche, a la quelle il n'en est point qui puisse la disputer, soit par les richesses 
 qu'elle renferme, soit par ceUes qui y abondent de tons cotes ; par Laodicee, Apamee, 
 et Seleucie, qui fleurissent depuis leur origine." — Ammian. Marcellin. liv. xiv. c. 8. 
 
 Antioch is described by Benjamin of Tudela to be situated in the valley of Jabok, 
 upon the river Pir, which comes from Lebanon through the land of Hamath. It 
 was thought, in his day, to be the best fortified place in the hands of the Gentiles. 
 
558 DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. 
 
 the southward in their commercial transactions. The Moham- 
 medans have fourteen mosques, six of which are ornamented with 
 tall and slender white minarehs with round close galleries, and 
 blue pointed tops, surmounted by the crescent, in the purely 
 Turkish taste ; six others have lower and thicker minarehs of 
 octangular shafts, with open galleries, and a sort of flat dome or 
 umbrella top, in the Syrian- Arabian style, and two are merely small 
 venerated tombs used as places of prayer. There are two khans, 
 and several fountains, all of them of a very ordinary kind. We 
 noticed one of the last, called Ain-el-Omra, or the fountain of life, 
 between the stones of which were driven in some thousands of 
 nails. Its waters are, indeed, excellent, and, being esteemed as 
 possessing several medicinal virtues, the afflicted who drink of 
 them drive in a nail near the spot, either as a propitiatory offering, 
 or a token of gratitude after recovery, to the supposed genius of 
 the stream. There is a cavern, too, within the town, which is 
 celebrated for bestowing fecundity on barren women, as well as 
 opening the springs of life to the infant, in the breasts of mothers 
 before destitute of milk ; but, for the obtaining of these blessings 
 certain rites are necessary to be performed, and women only are 
 admitted to them. Both of these would seem to be vestiges of 
 ancient superstitions, though now difficult to be traced up to their 
 original source. 
 
 The Christians have made several unsuccessful efforts to build 
 a church for themselves here ; but, though they are not wanting in 
 wealth, and successive firmans have been obtained from Stamboul 
 for that purpose, yet, the fanaticism of the Turks and some unfor- 
 tunate fatality which they think attached to the town itself, has 
 hitherto always obstructed its execution. They resort, therefore, 
 to a cave on the east of the town for the performance of their 
 religious duties, in which they are additionally devout, from the 
 apparent persecution under which they live, in this respect at least. 
 The Jews assemble on their Sabbath in a small room devoted to 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. 559 
 
 their synagogue in the house of their chief, and are there un- 
 molested. 
 
 The government of the town is in the hands of a Motesellem, 
 subject to Aleppo, who has only 50 or 60 personal guards. The 
 men dress mostly in the Turkish manner, with large cloth kaooks, 
 long robes, red shalloon trowsers, and yellow boots and slippers. 
 The women wear upper cloths of white muslin, arjd veil their 
 faces with a stiff black gauze, also in the Turkish style. The 
 fashion of their boots is to have them as small and tight about the 
 foot and ancle as possible, while the upper part swells out suddenly 
 to a size large enough to admit the thigh, and loosely overhangs the 
 lower part ; they are made invariably of yellow leather, reach to 
 about the beginning of the calf of the leg, and are bound with blue, 
 raised in front, and furnished there with a blue silk tassel, resem- 
 bling very much, in general form, the wide mock Hessian boots 
 formed in the loose overhauls of some of our dragoon regiments. 
 
 The amusements of all classes are also as purely Turkish as 
 their dress and language ; for, instead of the more retired and soli- 
 tary pleasures of the Arab, either in the corner of the coffee house 
 or in his own divan, the people here repair to the banks of the 
 Ahssy, which flows immediately before their town, and there enjoy 
 upon its banks the united gratifications of wood and water, shade 
 and verdure, the freshness of the summer breeze and a cool and 
 healthy air. 
 
 The river at the bridge is from 100 to 150 feet wide, and its 
 stream flows at the rate of about three miles an hour. It might, 
 if its channel be clear below, be easily navigated, as Pococke had 
 before observed. It is remarkable, that Mr. Volney, who seems 
 never to have been here, takes occasion to contradict that traveller 
 upon a point in which he betrays his own ignorance of the sub- 
 ject on which he writes. The English traveller had observed, 
 that boats might easily sail up here j but Volney says, " L'on 
 pourroit remontre ce fleuve a la trainee, mais non pas a la voile, 
 
560 DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. 
 
 comme I'a pretendue Pococke,parce que son courant est trop rapid," 
 —or words to that effect. He ought to have known that the sail 
 is by far a more powerful agent than any force applied to tow ; and 
 on the Nile, the current of which at its height is at least twice as 
 rapid, he must have seen that boats make a swift progress against 
 its strongest stream in mid-channel, by sails only ; while in parts 
 of the river where they are obliged from want of wind to tow, it is 
 with the utmost difficulty that they can stem the torrent in its eddy 
 close to the shore, by the application of all their towing force. 
 
 After passing through the interior of the town, we went to 
 see the ancient walls in the southern quarter. These appear to 
 have enclosed a space of nearly four miles in circuit ; the north- 
 western one going along by the banks of the Orontes ; the south- 
 western one climbing up the steep side of the hill which over- 
 looks the city; the south-eastern one going along its summit; and 
 the north-eastern one descending again over the side of the hill at 
 the opposite extreme of the city, to meet that which ran along 
 the river's banks ; the whole thus forming an irregular square. 
 They are generally about from thirty to fifty feet in height in their 
 extremes, and fifteen feet thick throughout, having also square 
 towers from fifty to eighty feet high, at intervals of from fifty to 
 eighty yards apart. These towers are ascended by winding steps, 
 not of a circular but square form, going up by flights of four or five, 
 and landing on a platform. Their interior is divided into stories 
 or chambers, finely arched over at their roof with a solid masonry 
 of thin Roman tiles imbedded in thick layers of lime cement, and 
 having in their sides embrasures for arrows or other missile wea- 
 pons. Thes tones of which these walls are constructed are not 
 large, nor is the rustic work any where seen ; but the masonry is, 
 notwithstanding, solid and good. In some of the broken towers, 
 alternate layers of thin tiles with lime cement, and the common 
 stone work are seen in the construction, and the niches of the doors 
 and windows are often formed of tiles alone. Around the inner 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. gQi 
 
 front of the city wall ran a projecting cornice, formed by the over- 
 hanging of the upper stones, which are longer than the rest. These 
 leave a space that admits of a passage from one tower to another 
 on the top of the wall itself; and where the ascent is steep, as on the 
 side of the hills, these projecting stones of the cornice are arranged 
 as a flight of steps for the greater facility of communication. In 
 the S.W. quarter the walls and towers are in one portion perfect, 
 and in another, close by, much destroyed ; until they disappear 
 altogether, leaving a wide space between their last fragment here 
 and the portion that continues along the banks of the river. 
 
 In the architrave of one of the southern doors is seen a Maltese 
 cross, coarsely sculptured, which probably gave rise to the opinion 
 of these walls being the work of the crusaders. An examination 
 of the masonry itself, and the general style of their construction, 
 is sufficient, however, to convince any one the least conversant 
 in antiquities, that the whole is either a work of the Romans, or of 
 Seleucus Nicator, the founder of the city, at the death of Alexan- 
 der, and that the cross is, therefore, a more recent addition. 
 I remarked, as a great singularity, that the architrave, which is 
 generally composed of one large stone reaching from postern to 
 postern, is here composed of five, the two end ones about five feet 
 long each, and the three central ones not more than a foot in 
 breadth, being dove-tailed into each other in the Turkish and Ara- 
 bian manner, as if a modern work, or as if done at the time of 
 placing the cross there, this emblem being on the central of the 
 three smaller stones. This was the idea which suggested itself on 
 the spot, at first sight of this singularity ; but the same thing was 
 afterwards seen in the great southern gate of the city, where no 
 cross was, and it then seemed to me quite inexplicable, as surely 
 neither the strength nor the beauty of the fabric could be aug- 
 mented by having these smaller stones dove-tailed into the centre, 
 instead of having one single block for the architrave as usual. The 
 doors themselves seem to have been hung exactly as the large stone 
 
 4 c 
 
562 DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. 
 
 doors in the tombs at Jerusalem, at Oom Kais, and the buildings 
 of the Hauran ; they were double or folding ones, the upper sockets 
 for the pivots still remaining in the bottom of the architrave, and 
 the square sills for the inner bars being still seen in the sides below. 
 
 Near to the southern door on which the cross is sculptured, 
 is a new fountain, built by Djezzar, the late pasha of Acre, and 
 ornamented by Arabic inscriptions in marble tablets. Close by 
 these, are also two ancient bridges, originally of Roman work, going 
 across a little torrent coming down from the steep sides of the hill 
 without the wall. The first of these is of four arches, the inner 
 parts of which are now nearly filled up with large masses of petri- 
 fied water in the form of stalactytes, as seen on the ancient aque- 
 ducts at Tyre. It has received a modern repair, and is still used 
 as a common road. The other of these arches is more perfect, but 
 both are evidently of Roman work. 
 
 The view of the town and valley from the towers above is 
 highly picturesque and interesting. The northern portion within 
 the ancient walls is now filled with one extensive wood of gardens, 
 chiefly olive, mulberry, and fig-trees ; and along the winding 
 banks of the rivei*, tall and slender poplars are seen ; but the groves 
 of Daphnis, once so famous here, are not now to be recognised 
 among them. On the very summit of the hill, a ruined castle is 
 spoken of as being nearly in the centre of the upper wall, but not 
 seen from hence ; and on the north-eastern quarter is the gate 
 leading to Aleppo, called here, by all classes, Bab Boulous, or the 
 gate of St. Paul. This name may probably have been conferred in 
 the very earliest age of Christianity, as that apostle was himself 
 baptized in the Orontes, and preached often at Antioch ; and it 
 was here that the disciples and followers of Jesus first took the 
 name of Christians by which they are now known. 
 
 Our evening was passed at the house of Abd-el-Messiah, with 
 a large party of his friends who had assembled to see the strangers ; 
 and the same free use of rakhee was practised here in pledge of 
 
DEPARTURE FROM ANTIOCH. 553 
 
 welcome as I had so often seen in the circles of Eastern Christians 
 before.* 
 
 Sunday, May 12. 1816. — It being thought that we might 
 travel from Antioch to Aleppo without an escort, we prepared to 
 set out alone. It may be remarked as a striking proof of the 
 singular changes and revolutions which so frequently take place 
 in this country, that until about four years since the road from 
 Antioch to Aleppo was one of the most dangerous in all Syria. 
 The tract of country between these cities was then possessed by 
 
 * The following extracts from various writers, relative to Antioch, which I had 
 made, as occasion offered, in the course of my previous reading, may, perhaps, be 
 appropriately introduced here, as illustrative of some points of interest in the ancient 
 history and character of the people described. 
 
 " In Syria, king Alexander, being far unfit for so high a station, by reason of 
 his sloth and meanness of spirit, gave up the government of Antioch to Hierax and 
 Diodotus." — Fragments of Diodorus Siculus, B. xxvi. s. 95. 
 
 " This was Alexander Balas, a counterfeit son of Antiochus Epiphanes, before 
 Chi'ist, 140." — See also Josephus, lib. xiii. c. 8. and Livy, lib. xl. 
 
 " The Syrian king Alexander, after being defeated in a battle with Gryphus, (a 
 son of Demetrius, so called fi-om the greatness of his nose,) fled to Antioch ; and being 
 there destitute of money, he commanded the effigies of victory, being all of solid gold, 
 to be taken down fi-om the temple of Jupiter, laughing at the sacrilege, with the scorn 
 of profane wit ; for ' Victory,' he said, ' was lent him by Jupiter.' Not long after, 
 when he commanded the effigies of Jupiter himself, being also all of beaten gold, and 
 of an infinite weight, to be tfken away, he was met with in the act of the sacrilege, and 
 enforced to fly, by reason of the concourse of the multitude ; and a great tempest 
 following him, he was taken by thieves, being forsaken of his own men, and was by 
 them brought unto Gryphus, who put him to death." — Justin, B. xxxix. 
 
 " Julien irrite contre les habitans de cette ville, comme contre des rebelles et des 
 seditieux, composa un ouvrage satirique, qu'il intitula I'Antioeheen, ou le Misopogon 
 [c. a d. ennemi de la barbe). II y fait I'enumeration des defauts de cette ville, et lui en 
 prete meme plusieurs. Cette ouvrage I'exposa a bien de railleries ; mais force dissi- 
 muler, il n'en fut que plus outre interieurement. On se jouait de lui, en I'appellant 
 Cercops, petit homme a larges epaules, a barbe de chevre, et qui marchait aussi fier- 
 ment que s'il ^tait frere d'Otus et d'Ephialle, dont Homere eleve si excessivement la 
 taille, {Odys. liv. xi.) Les Cercopes ^taient un peuple qui habitaient une isle voisine 
 de la Sicile. lis ^taient si mechans, que Jupiter les changea en singes." — Ovid. Met. 
 liv.xiv. Ammianus Marcellin. Uv. xxii. c. 14. 
 
 " The kingdom of Syria being now brought low, and Demetrius being the only 
 surviving bi'anch of the royal stock, believing himself to be out of all danger, dis- 
 
 4 c 2 
 
564 FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 
 
 Koord and Toorkman hordes, who levied contributions, or plun- 
 dered all who went that way, insomuch that caravans composed of 
 considerable force and numbers made a tour to the southward to 
 get into the road from Ladikeia, by which they were five and often 
 six days in performing a journey that may now be done by the same 
 caravans on the direct road in three. The cause of this existing 
 safety and tranquillity of the way, seems to be the retirement of the 
 tribes that obstructed it, to the country farther east, rather than to 
 any change in their manner of life, so that its duration is likely to 
 be no longer than while their absence is continued. 
 
 regarded the deportment of the former kings, who studied to ingratiate themselves 
 .into the good opinion of their people, by their affable and courteous behaviour. But 
 he growing every day more and more unsufFerable, feU at length to downright cruelty, 
 and all sorts of heinous enormities. The cause of all which is not only to be attributed 
 to his own corrupt disposition, but to one of his friends who had the management of all 
 the affairs of the kingdom ; for, being a wicked and rash fellow, he invited, by his 
 flattery, the young men to all manner of wickedness. At first, therefore, he put to 
 death all that had sided against him in the war with unusual sorts of punishments. 
 Afterwards when the Antiochians taunted and jeered at him, as they were wont to 
 do, he got together a company of mercenary soldiers against them, and commanded 
 that they should be disarmed ; but the Antiochians refusing to deliver them, some he 
 killed as they fell into his hands, others he murdered in their own houses, together 
 with their wives and children ; upon which a great uproar being raised in the city, he 
 burnt down most of the town to the ground, and many that were accused to be heads 
 of the commotion were put to death, and their estates confiscated and brought into 
 the king's exchequer." — Fragments of Diodcrrus Siculus, ^. ■kxy'u s. 96. — See alsojose- 
 pkus, lib. xiii. c. 3. and 1 Mace. xi. 
 
 In the history of the Sassanides, translated from the Persian of Mirkhond by 
 SUvestre de Sacy, it is said of Nauschirvan, one of the Persian monarchs who resided at 
 El-Madan, a city built on the ruins of the two famous ones of Selucia and Ctesiphon, 
 after describing his conquests in Jezireh or Mesopotamia, — "II fit pareillement la 
 conquete de Kennassdrin et d'Alep, villes de Syrie. Lorsqu'il fut arriv(! pres d'An- 
 tioche, la plus belle ville de la Syrie, elle lui plut tellement, qu'il la fait dessiner sur 
 un papier, et ordonna qu'on en construisit une absolument pareille, sans la moindre 
 difference, a peu de distance de Madain. Cette ville fut nommiJe Roumia ; et quand 
 elle fut achevde, Nauschirvan ordonna a tons les habitans d' Antioche de se transporter 
 dans sa nouvelle ville. Les rues, et les places de ces deux villes, se ressemblerent 
 si parfaitement, que chacun des habitans d' Antioche, une fois entre dans la ville 
 de Roumia, se rendait, sans y penser, a sa maison. On dit qu'il n'y avait autre diffe- 
 rence entre ces deux villes, si ce n'est qu'un blanchisseur de toiles, qui avait un arbre 
 dans la maison qu' il occupait dans I'ancienne ville, n'en trouva pas dans la nouvelle. 
 Ce trait est un de plus singuliers que I'on connoisse." — De Sacy, Mimoires sur les 
 Antiquites de la Perse. 4ito. Paris, 1793. p. 366. 
 
FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. SQg 
 
 We left the house of our host about nine o'clock, and going 
 north-easterly through the town, went for nearly half an hour over 
 a road hedged in by gardens on each side. This seemed to have 
 been anciently the great street which passed through the city in a 
 direct line from N.E. to S.W., and near its extremity still remains 
 a portion of the original pavement ; yet, in passing over it we had 
 on our left, at a distance of perhaps a furlong, the city walls near 
 the river, the towers now overgrown with a profusion of briars 
 and wild shrubbery, and only seen at intervals through the thick 
 wood of trees that often hid them. On our right, in the cliffs of 
 the lofty hill before described, and at about an equal distance with 
 the former, were a considerable number of sepulchral caves, so that 
 the Necropolis must have been here within the general enclosure 
 formed by the walls, though not within the immediate precincts 
 of the city ; as the foot of the hill, where its more abrupt ascent 
 commenced, formed of course a natural boundary to the limits of 
 the town in that quarter. The only apparent purpose for which the 
 great wall was carried further up, was to enclose the summit of 
 the hill itself, and to prevent its being possessed by an enemy, as 
 it completely commanded the city below, and when once gained 
 by an invading force, would lead inevitably to complete conquest 
 or destruction. It is in one of the largest of these caves that the 
 Christians assemble for prayer. 
 
 The portion of the ancient pavement spoken of as remaining 
 near the north-eastern extremity of this great street, brought us to 
 the gate of St. Paul, through which we passed on our way out. 
 The walls, the towers, with the gate itself, and some fragments of 
 other buildings within it, appeared to be all Roman ; but from being 
 considered, perhaps, more as a military enclosure of defence than 
 as the chief entrance to the ancient city, all was plain and solid, 
 and destitute of architectural ornament. Here, in the architrave 
 of the gateway, the same singular dove-tailing of smaller stones 
 between two larger ones was again repeated, so that it really might 
 have been original and coeval with the building itself, if it were 
 
see FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 
 
 not the work either of Christians or Mohammedans at some sub- 
 sequent period. It is more in the style of the latter than the 
 former, as such a mode of inlaying the stones is frequently seen in 
 the construction of their private as well as public buildings ; but 
 the motive of such a work is not immediately apparent. All else, 
 however, seemed to me so perfectly Roman, that the existence of 
 this, though so frequently repeated, was not sufficient to shake my 
 original persuasion of the walls and towers being more ancient than 
 either the Mohammedans or the Crusaders who succeeded them. 
 
 From the gate of St. Paul, we continued our way beneath the 
 gradual slope of the hills which fall or taper down from the more 
 abrupt termination of the range of Jebel Okrah near the town. 
 In these were many small springs, the streams of which went down 
 into the vale below ; and some were made to issue from foun- 
 tains erected by the way side for the ablution of the devout, or 
 the gratification of the thirsty traveller. 
 
 At about half-past ten o'clock we entered on a plain of light 
 and meagre soil, chiefly producing a long wild grass, and but 
 slightly cultivated throughout. From this we opened a range of 
 hills in the distance before us, going about N.E. and S.W,, though 
 appearing to cross our track, which was nearly east, at almost right 
 angles. 
 
 It was about noon when we reached the Ahssy, which we 
 had yet kept on the south of, as it makes a wide curve to the north 
 and north-west between this and the town. We crossed it by a 
 bridge of four arches, on the south side of which are a few poor 
 houses, inhabited by families who furnish the humble refresh- 
 ments of bread, milk, &c. to passengers. There are two gates, 
 one at each end of the bridge ; that on the northern side more 
 particularly seems to have been constructed for defence, having 
 loop-holes in the walls, so that it might have been once used as 
 a military post. The stream is here about 100 feet wide, and 
 its rate about two and a half miles per hour ; below the bridge 
 a portion of it is made to flow through a hollow cage work of 
 
FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 557 
 
 wood, probably for taking such fish as may be brought down here 
 by the current.* 
 
 Having crossed the bridge, we continued in nearly a S.E. 
 direction along the bank of the river, which was of a dull yel- 
 lowish white, and had its surface rising to within eight or ten 
 feet of the highest brink of its banks. These were, as usual, a 
 perpendicular cliff on one side, and a shelving slope on the other, 
 changing alternately as the strength or eddy of the current directed 
 itself in its winding course. Besides the swallows which skimmed 
 its surface, we saw here great numbers of the beautiful bird, called 
 by the French, syrens, and by the Arabs, war-war, from an imi- 
 tation of their chirp ; and at the same time there floated silently 
 down the stream one of the largest pelicans that 1 had ever seen. 
 On first perceiving it at a distance, its white body appeared like 
 the swoln carcass of a sheep or other dead animal, and its broad 
 bag and bill seemed like some large bird of prey regaling on it. 
 It came almost opposite to us without alarm, but on being roused 
 to fly by clapping of the hands, it displayed a breadth of wing 
 which appeared to be at least nine feet from one extremity to the 
 other when expanded. 
 
 In half an hour after crossing the bridge we turned off E.S.E., 
 leaving the river on our right, and continued for nearly two 
 hours in that direction over a wide plain of light soil, chiefly 
 covered with thick grass. We saw large flocks of the white bird 
 about the size of a duck, but higher on its legs, which abound 
 on the banks and islands of the Nile, and some few storks 
 also. Our horses were heje tormented by large green-headed 
 flies, which fastening on their shoulders, neck, and haunches, drew 
 blood by their bite, and left the hair quite clotted by the small but 
 numerous united streams of it that oozed from the wounds. 
 
 On reaching the end of this plain these flies disappeared, but 
 were succeeded by as numerous a body of common ones to feast 
 
 * Ovid in his Metamorphoses, book ii., mentions the Orontes as one of the largest 
 rivers then known. 
 
568 FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 
 
 on the blood thus drawn ; so that our ride was thereby rendered ex- 
 ceedingly unpleasant. We drank here, at the foot of the hill, from a 
 clear and cool spring, and now ascended over a soil of a deep red 
 colour, well cultivated. After passing this eminence, we came into 
 a plain of similar soil, covered with rich clover grass in some 
 parts, in others bearing corn, and in others ploughing for the 
 second harvest. At the foot of the range of hills which bounded 
 this plain on our right, we saw a small village embosomed in trees ; 
 and as we knew not of any other, further on, that could be reached 
 before sunset, we made towards it, for enquiry. We reached it with 
 difficulty, as a portion of the way between was thickly covered with 
 tall thistles, impenetrable to the horses, and a winding stream also 
 offered repeated obstacles. ■ We found it to be the remains of a 
 once more important settlement, and called Khallet-el-Hhearim, 
 from a castle, the ruins of which still exist there. 
 
 This castle is on the south of the town, and stands on the 
 summit of an oblong pyramidal mound, exactly like that at 
 Hhoms, and like it, too, cased with stone on the sides. Here, 
 however, the base of the mound^ itself has been cut off from the 
 side of the hill, leaving between a wide and deep ditch cut through 
 a solid rock. The mound, and its casing of masonry, may, like 
 that at Hhoms, have been originally a Roman work ; but the few 
 remains of the castle on it here, is, as well as that at the former 
 place, are evidently Mohammedan. Nothing would be more likely 
 than the destruction of the inferior parts of military posts and 
 places of defence by an invading and conquering people, except, 
 perhaps, that of their taking advantage of the same local situ- 
 ations, to repair such broken works, or erect others upon their 
 ruins for their own security, both of which seem to have happened 
 here. On the west of the mound, and at a short distance 
 from its base, is an octagonal tower, standing on a square pe- 
 destal, and looking at a little distance like a Greek column; but 
 this, too, is Mohammedan, though there are no marked remains of 
 any mosque attached to it. 
 
FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 569 
 
 The town itself stood on the N.E. of the castle, at the foot 
 and on the side of the hill. It was walled all around, and a great 
 portion of the enclosure remains, showing loop holes in the upper 
 part. On the inside there are seen the ruined arches of a khan, 
 or other large public building, and a part of another old edifice is 
 now used as a mill, turned by a fine clear stream, descending from 
 the hills above. There were about twenty Mohammedan families 
 here, governed by their own Sheick, and their sole occupation 
 was in the culture of the plain before them. We could obtain no 
 very satisfactory information as to the road beyond this ; for though 
 every one replied that there were villages in the way at which we 
 might pass the night, yet no two persons were agreed as to their 
 distances. 
 
 We proceeded, however, in hopes of finding some place of 
 repose, either early or late, going from hence in a N.E. direction, to 
 turn round the point of the range of hills, at the foot of which the 
 Khallet-el-Hhearim stood ; and in half an hour we continued our 
 course about E.S.E. behind them. In half an hour more we 
 reached a clear stream, over which were the ruins of an ancient 
 causeway with low arches. Above it, after crossing the stream, 
 we saw a considerable number of scattered fragments of former 
 buildings ; and on an eminence near this stood the portion of a 
 small fort, more complete. The base was formed of very large 
 stones, and good masonry, and in a lower door-way was a fine 
 Roman arch still perfect. 
 
 On these foundations was erected a modern building, appear- 
 ing to have been deserted in an unfinished state ; for though pre- 
 pared for a pent- roof, none had ever been placed on it. Such trifling 
 features are too characteristic of the country and its government to be 
 omitted ; for here it may be said, with the strictest propriety; that 
 he who begins to build a house knows not whether himself or an- 
 other shall finish it, and that he who sows is not always sure of reap- 
 ing. Large hewn blocks, some sculptured stones, the cover of a Ro- 
 man sarcophagus, and other vestiges, continued to line our road for 
 
 4 D 
 
570 FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 
 
 nearly half a mile ; and half an hour beyond their discontinuance 
 we passed through other ruins of a similar kind. 
 
 There was here still remaining the base of some large and 
 fine edifice ; and close by it several arches, fallen fragments of 
 masonry, large hewn blocks, and other wreck of former days. 
 These were, probably, the extremes of some large settlement now 
 completely destroyed ; but we could not learn its present name, as 
 we met not a single passenger on the road. 
 
 We had scarcely quitted these remains half an hour, before 
 we saw, about a mile on the right of our road, another group of 
 ruins, in which were again seen Roman arches, and many portions 
 of ruined buildings, still standing. 
 
 It was now sunset, and no habitable place had yet appeared to 
 us on the road, since leaving Khallet-el-Hhearim. We still pushed 
 on, however, in the same hope as before. In half an hour we 
 passed a cluster of ruined dwellings on our left, and coming to the 
 end of the plain began to ascend a bare ridge of limestone hills. 
 We continued thus ascending and descending, for an hour and half, 
 over rocky eminences, and the narrow and confined vallies be^ 
 tween them, till we reached a deep hollow on our right, where 
 was a mass of ruins, from the centre of which rose a tall square 
 tower, like those in the towns of the Hauran. 
 
 As it was now late I intended halting here, and taking up our 
 quarters below for the night ; but neither arguments, threats, 
 nor intreaties, could prevail on my servant to sleep in a deserted 
 spot. We accordingly continued our way until we reached a few 
 trees at the end of a barren valley ; and the road becoming now 
 indistinct, we halted here until the moon should rise sufficiently 
 above the eastern hills to light us on our way. 
 
 Having both fallen asleep from fatigue, it was nearly mid- 
 night before we remounted, when, in half an hour, we passed a 
 small Roman ruin on our right, and in less than another hour we 
 came to a more extensive one. We listened with the utmost at- 
 tention, and as we could neither hear the sound of dogs, nor per- 
 
FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 57^ 
 
 ceive any other marks of a village being near, I determined to 
 catch a few hours' repose here until daylight, notwithstanding the 
 objections that were made to it by my companion. 
 
 It may be observed here, by the way, that the Mohammedans, 
 whom one may take either in the capacity of servants or guides on 
 the road, must generally be admitted on a footing of much greater 
 familiarity than is allowed to the same class of people in Europe. 
 They almost invariably eat out of the same dish, and at the same 
 time with their master, unless he be a pasha, a bey, or a person of 
 similar rank ; and I have seen repeatedly that, among the higher 
 classes of merchants, who do not admit of such a freedom in their 
 houses, it is practised when travelling on the road. On the halt 
 of a party by the way, or on the arrival at a place of repose for the 
 night, whatever is brought as a hospitable pledge of welcome is 
 presented to all, and all sit around to partake of it, even the mule 
 driver, or the humblest of the number. In the same way, when 
 visits are made to pashas and the most distinguished personages, 
 coffee is presented to the servant as well as the master ; and the 
 only distinction there made is, that the latter sits while the former 
 either kneels or stands ; but it is only among the very great that 
 even such distinctions are ever made at all. 
 
 This custom of travelling-equality gives rise, therefore, to a 
 degree of freedom on the part of servants, which is difficult to be 
 borne by one accustomed to command rather than to reason with 
 his dependants ; but, to pass tranquilly through a strange country, 
 the manners of that country, however strange they be, must be 
 observed, towards its own race at least. 
 
 The ruins at this place of our halt, of which we could not 
 learn the name, contained a portion of a high square tower with a 
 building attached to it, on the right of the road. Behind it is a 
 small square guard-post with a sloping roof, formed of large stone 
 planks. On the opposite side, or on the left of the road, are lines 
 of arcades and columns which seem to have surroimded some 
 
 4 D 2 
 
572 FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 
 
 mass of building now destroyed. The plan of the edifices of which 
 these were the remains was extremely indistinct, and was but im- 
 perfectly seen by us at this hour of the night ; but it appeared 
 more like that of a military station than any thing else, and was 
 also seemingly a Roman work. 
 
 Monday, May 13. 1816. — We could obtain no sleep from the 
 cries of the jackals that surrounded us, and from the constant 
 alarm which my servant expressed at being in a place haunted, as 
 he thought, only by devils and genii. 
 
 We therefore started again about two hours before daylight, 
 to continue on our way. From these ruins we went over a paved 
 road, strewed with blocks of hewn stone on each side for about a 
 quarter of an hour, which brought us to a sort of street, on each 
 side of which the posterns and architraves of many square door- 
 ways remained standing, though the buildings themselves, or the 
 connecting walls of these doors, could not be seen. Within those 
 on the left were several lines of arches, as if of covered streets or 
 bazars, leading inward at right angles with the road itself j and 
 between the front of these arched passages and the outer front of 
 the street, formed by the square door-ways before-mentioned, were 
 seen other arches at stated intervals, at right angles with those 
 described, as if for a longitudinal covered way along their front, in 
 the same right line as the principal street itself, or a sort of piazza 
 to it. This was evidently connected by the street in question 
 with the ruins below, and the arches here were all Roman ; but 
 whether the passages were those of a great public market, or of 
 what other nature, it was not easy to determine. 
 
 After quitting this place we lost our road, and wandered about 
 among corn fields until daylight, when we perceived a village to 
 the north of us, and made directly for it. The stony and hilly 
 tract over which we had passed, terminated just beyond the arches 
 described, and beyond this was a plain of fine dark soil similar to 
 
FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 573 
 
 the mould of the Nile, in general free from foreign matter, and 
 highly cultivated throughout. We reached the village, which was 
 called Dana, about sunrise, and even at that early hour found a 
 hospitable meal at the house of the Sheick, who placed it himself 
 before us, without even the common question of our destination 
 being yet asked, though our. appearance at so unusual a time might 
 well have suggested suspicion. 
 
 The village of Dana is built on an eminence of rock in the 
 middle of the plain, like the towns generally in the Hauran. The 
 houses here are almost all constructed of the ruins of former 
 buildings, as this seems to have been the site of some more consi- 
 derable settlement. A Roman gateway is still remaining per- 
 fect, and porticos of several other edifices are seen, some standing 
 alone, and others built on, for the dwellings of the present inhabit- 
 ants. Our attention was attracted by the site of a pillared ruin to 
 the west of the town, which having all the dilapidated appearance 
 and yellow hue of antiquity, promised much at a distance. We 
 found it, on a nearer approach, to be a very singular building, with 
 two tiers of columns in front, one over the other, the archi- 
 trave of the under range serving for the base of the upper one. 
 These columns were not more than two feet in diameter, they 
 were placed on high square pedestals, and crowned by capitals of 
 the most barbarous kind, each of them different, though all an 
 attempted variation of the Ionic in the most corrupt taste ima- 
 ginable. 
 
 Of the building itself there were not sufficient remains to 
 decide on the purpose to which it was appropriated. It might, 
 possibly, have been a Christian church, constructed in the very 
 worst age of architecture, yet even for this it seemed too small, 
 and too different from the usual and prescribed form of such build- 
 ings. Its roof, which was by far the best part of the whole, was 
 flat, and composed of large beams of stone laid across from wall 
 to wall, in the style of the Egyptian temples, and the dwellings in 
 the Hauran. 
 
574 FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 
 
 In the rocky bed to the north-east of the town are many 
 excavated sepulchres, with some fragments of Roman sarcophagi. 
 One of the caves that we saw, had a descent into it by steps, hke 
 those at Ladikeia ; the others were entered by square, and some- 
 times arched, door-ways. Their interior arrangement was in 
 long niches and recesses, formed for placing the bodies laterally 
 along the walls, after the Roman manner, and not placing them 
 endwise into deep and narrow cavities, like those of the Egyptian 
 Necropolis at Alexandria, of the Sidonian tomb near Abra, 
 or of the Arvadite sepulchres, opposite to the island, south of 
 Tartoose. 
 
 We observed that two of the arched entrances of" these caves 
 were executed with greater care than usual, having sculptured 
 pillars at their portals ; immediately over these was the most in- 
 teresting monument that remains there, and, indeed, the only 
 one that is perfect as an original one. From a base of about 
 fifteen feet square, by eight feet high, and of good masonry, rise 
 four pure Ionic columns, forming themselves a square, as standing 
 at the angles of the base below, and supporting a roof composed 
 of three large blocks of stone, the under parts of which are flat, and 
 the upper formed into a pyramid, which terminates the whole. 
 We noticed no inscription on this monument, though from want 
 of time our search was not so scrutinizing as to be able to pro- 
 nounce that no vestiges of one could be traced. 
 
 Near to this is a large subterraneous cistern, similar to those 
 at Alexandria, and apparently formed here as a reservoir for rain- 
 water, there being no streams in the plain. The roof of this 
 is formed of large flat beams of stone, as in the monument de- 
 scribed, and these are supported from below by several ranges of 
 square pillars, the shafts of which, though unpolished and rudely 
 hewn, are many of them in one piece of 20 feet in length. 
 
 The present town has a population of about 500 souls, all 
 Mohammedan, for whose accommodation there is a small mosque 
 with a square minareh, and six domes in two ranges, probably 
 
FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 575 
 
 crowning two correspondent aisles within. The women here wear 
 the open-front blue gowns, and narrow red aprons, with white 
 upper cloths for the head, which are merely crossed over the neck, 
 and leave their faces unveiled, like the costume of the female 
 peasants in the villages near Damascus. 
 
 On the west and north-west of the town, at the distance of a 
 mile or two, is a range of stony hills, branching off from those we 
 had crossed in the night, and on these were seen many ruined 
 villages, all, perhaps, the remains of old Roman settlements. To 
 the south was also -a. large village, at present inhabited, called 
 Ekbrihh, and distant, apparently, about three miles. 
 
 We left the village of Dana about an hour after sun-rise, and 
 went easterly over a plain of rich soil, partly covered with corn 
 nearly ripe, and partly now ploughing for the second harvest. 
 Agriculture seemed to be well understood here, and its labours 
 performed with as much care and neatness as in Europe. The 
 absence of enclosures occasions very large portions of ground 
 to be ploughed on in continuance; but though many of the furrows 
 were of a length not to be measured by the eye, they were all per- 
 fectly strait at regular distances ; such, indeed, as the best of our 
 ploughmen might not be ashamed to have turned up. 
 
 The improved state of cultivation here was followed by its 
 necessary consequence, a more abundant population. Besides the 
 villages of El-Ekbrihh and Dana, we passed, at the foot of the 
 range of hills on our left, three other larger ones in succession, 
 namely, El-Hhuzzeny, Tal-deady, and El-Hhaleaka, all at the 
 distance of about a mile from each other, and the last at the foot 
 of a high peaked mountain, the name of which we did not learn. 
 These villages are all peopled by Moslems, and, as far as we had 
 an opportunity of judging from the appearance of the peasantry at 
 work in the fields, they were active, industrious, and far above the 
 distress of want. 
 
 An hour after leaving Dana, going always nearly east, we 
 came to the end of the plain, and began again to ascend a ridge 
 
576 FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 
 
 of bare lime-stone hills, called generally by the name of Jebel 
 Seman. We saw many scattered ruins here also, particularly one 
 of a large town, called Dirrhman, said to be Shookl Koofar, or the 
 work of infidels, now entirely deserted, and standing on the summit 
 of one of the ridges described. 
 
 Ascending and descending alternately for about an hour, in 
 the course of which we passed one narrow valley cultivated with 
 corn, and saw ruined villages and detached buildings on both sides 
 of us, we reached the highest summit of the range. There was 
 here a small inhabited village, and a larger deserted one, with 
 several wells and cisterns hewn out of their rocky bed ; the whole 
 surrounded by small portions of the soil planted with fig-trees. We 
 could see from hence, that the line of Jebel Ahhmar on the north 
 was continued by a higher range of mountains running also nearly 
 east, and having many parts of its summit covered with snow ; the 
 whole line being, no doubt, a ramification of the Great Taurus of 
 the ancients, or that south-western branch of it which divides 
 Asia Minor from Syria. 
 
 Continuing our way E.S.E. for about an hour and half over 
 very stony and uneven ground, but slightly cultivated, and strewed 
 with ruins of villages here and there, we came on the top of an 
 elevated plain, from which we had the first sight of Aleppo ; the 
 minareh of its high castle being but barely visible. It bore from us 
 exactly E. by S., said to be distant four hours, and apparently about 
 twelve miles off. The highest part of Mount Taurus, which was 
 covered with snow, and resembled in form and size that portion of 
 Lebanon occupied by the cedars, bore from us, at the same time, 
 N.W. by N., and appeared to be distant about fifty miles. Our 
 level was now at least two thousand feet above that of the sea, and, 
 though on a plain, many of the distant hills around us looked 
 comparatively low. The peak of Jebel Okrah could not be seen, 
 nor that abrupt termination of the range which overlooks the town 
 of Antaky, so that no bearing of it could be taken to fix the rela- 
 tive position of these points from Aleppo. 
 
FROM ANTIOCH TO ALEPPO. 577 
 
 We had now gone over nearly the whole of the direct road 
 from the port of Seleucus to the city of Antioch, and from thence 
 to the Berea of antiquity, which Aleppo is thought to be. Every 
 part of it, as maybe seen, offer proofs of the once highly populated 
 state of the country, and the corresponding existence of public 
 roads, towns, and edifices by the way, under the government of the 
 Romans, when Syria was but a small province of their mighty 
 empire. The contests between their successors for the disputed 
 triumph of the crescent or the cross, first began to sweep away that 
 population, and demolish its monumental labours ; and those slower 
 but equally certain destroyers, an overgrown military force and a 
 purely despotic sway, have contributed to prolong that gradual 
 decline, until no hope remains of this country ever attaining the 
 abundance, the comfort, the wealth, and the strength it once 
 possessed, until it shall pass into other hands. 
 
 From the plain last mentioned, we continued our way over a 
 stony and barren road, until, about El-Assr, we saw the high castle 
 of Aleppo rising from behind a round ridge, or wave of the land, that 
 had until then intercepted it, and soon afterwards the whole town 
 opened on our view. From the bareness of the hills around, and 
 the general monotony of the city itself, when viewed at this 
 distance, the prospect of the whole was far from prepossessing. 
 The buildings seemed crowded in one indistinct mass of white; 
 the minarehs and domes were few, in comparison with the number 
 of those seen in Turkish cities in general; and, excepting only 
 some small gardens in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, 
 there was neither wood nor verdure to give relief to the scene. 
 
 4 E 
 
CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 STAY AT ALEPPO, AND RECORD OF TRANSACTIONS THERE. 
 
 On entering Aleppo we proceeded through many streets, 
 until we reached the house of Mr. Barker, the British consul 
 here, where we alighted ; and going up into the ante-room 
 I desired the janissary to announce my arrival. There was a 
 delay, and enquiries, and messages, for at least half an hour, which 
 I did not at all understand, until I was at length desired to walk 
 into the hall of audience. Here I was received with a very 
 marked coldness, which I could not but notice ; my questions were 
 replied to with studied brevity, my observations often scrutinized, 
 and, in short, the treatment such as could leave me no longer in 
 doubt of there being some cause for it, of which I was entirely 
 ignorant. A younger brother of Mr. Barker, whom I had known 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 579 
 
 at Smyrna, in the service of Mr. Wilkinson, was in the house at the 
 time, but purposely absent, and all was too plain to be misunder- 
 stood. After a cup of coffee had been taken, the explanation 
 came. Mr. Barker observed, that having no personal knowledge 
 of me or of my family, and my not having been mentioned to him 
 in any way by any of his correspondents or friends, he had refused 
 acceptance to a bill which I had drawn on him for 1000 piastres 
 from Damascus. 
 
 The circumstances under which that transaction took place 
 were these : — I had left Alexandria with fifty sequins in gold, and 
 a letter of credit furnished me by Mr. Lee, for any sum which 
 might be necessary for my journey to India, addressed to Mr. 
 Barker here. In my attempt to get across the Desert direct to 
 Bagdad, that money brought with me was all expended, and on 
 my arrival at Damascus I had even a debt to discharge to Georgis, 
 the man who was my guide from Nazareth to Assalt, and from 
 thence up through the Hauran. Having no duplicate of my letter 
 of credit, and conceiving there would be always greater risk of its 
 loss while in other hands than while in my own, as well as that, if 
 so lost, my distress would be irretrievable, I forwarded to Mr. 
 Barker a copy of that letter, at the same time advising him of my 
 having drawn the sum in question, not doubting but that he would 
 accept it. I had supplied my wants therefrom, and had now come 
 safe to Aleppo on the remainder, where, for the first time, I heard 
 of the bill being refused payment, and protested. 
 
 The motives assigned by Mr. Barker for such a step were 
 these : ■ — He said, upon the face of the thing itself, it appeared 
 highly improbable, that a merchant from his cradle, as Mr. Lee 
 was, would give an unlimited letter of credit to any man ; that it 
 was also usual in such ti'ansactions for a letter of advice to be 
 forwarded at the same time by some other hand, limiting the sum, 
 or making such other observations as might be thought necessary ; 
 but that, in the present case, no letter of any sort had reached him 
 
 4e 2 
 
580 • STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 (Mr. Barker) from Alexandria, since the date of this supposed, or 
 pretended, letter of credit, of which I had sent a copy ; that in 
 all the correspondence of Mr. Lee, of Colonel Misset, of Sheikh 
 Ibrahim, and of Mr. Bankes, each of whom I reckoned among 
 the number of my friends, my name had never been mentioned in 
 the most remote way ; so that, except from myself, he knew not 
 that there was really such a person in existence. 
 
 The protesting of this bill had been accompanied by orders to 
 the consuls on the coast, not to suffer me to depart out of their 
 district, without refunding the sum thus thought to be fraudulently 
 obtained ; messengers had been pursuing me all across the 
 country ; and it seemed miraculous that I should have escaped 
 them all, without designing so to do, or, in fact, without knowing 
 of their pursuit. As it was, however, the fact of my bill having 
 been protested, had become publicly known to every one, and my 
 character was, for the present, established as that of a vagabond 
 and a swindler. Mr. Barker offered me so many repeated assur- 
 ances that this rigorous measure was not founded on any know- 
 ledge of my deserving it, but purely from the most complete 
 ignorance of my name or character in any way, that I could not 
 construe it into a personal offence. I was stung, however, with 
 the most mortifying regret, and Mr. Barker himself expressed the 
 same feeling. 
 
 On my departure from Ladakeia, not knowing what would 
 be the state of the roads from Antioch to Aleppo, I had been 
 advised to leave whatever I might deem valuable with our consul 
 there, that he might forward it after me by the direct caravan; 
 being assured that, although it might arrive later than myself, it 
 would be additionally safe in going under the protection of ti 
 large company. As I thought that my arrival in Aleppo a few 
 days before my baggage would make no difference in my reception 
 there, while it would enable me to make enquiries and prepa- 
 rations for my departure, which always require time, I assented 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 581 
 
 to this proposal, and left behind my small portmanteau, containing 
 all my papers, to be forwarded' by the way advised. 
 
 This had not yet arrived ; and when asked for this letter of 
 credit, which from the beginning was thought to be a forgery, 
 the only explanation I could give of my not possessing it at the 
 moment, was a simple recapitulation of the facts detailed. This, 
 however, instead of being thought satisfactory, was looked on as a 
 direct confirmation of guilt. Mr. Barker then added, that he had 
 written to Lady Hester Stanhope on the subject, which letter^ 
 having reached a day or two after my departure, had been already 
 replied to by express. In this her ladyship expressed her own 
 entire conviction of my really possessing the letter of credit 
 presumed on, and of my being truly the person and the character 
 which I professed to be. She said, also, that I was furnished with 
 letters from Colonel Misset to Sir Evan Nepean, but added, that 
 she had, of course, seen neither of these documents herself Her 
 ladyship had, however, so far presumed on my innocence, as to 
 issue orders to the consuls on the coast to let me pass in safety to 
 Aleppo, where all would be arranged, and held herself responsible 
 for the consequences. 
 
 So true is it that suspicion, like jealousy, views the most 
 trifling incidents through a distorted medium, that even this reply 
 of Lady Hester's, instead of being deemed satisfactory, was thought 
 to cloud the affair with darker doubts ; because, from this, it ap- 
 peared that her ladyship had never seen, for herself, the documents 
 pretended to be possessed. 
 
 My answer to all these united objections were successively 
 these : — My departure from Alexandria for Aleppo was so shortly 
 after my arrival from India, that no one knew of my intention 
 even to visit that place; more particularly as it was at first in- 
 tended to go by way of Constantinople, and, therefore, no mention 
 of me had been- made to Mr. Barker by his correspondents from 
 Egypt. When I had so departed, it was thought that I should 
 arrive there sooner than any letter by any other channel ; and, 
 
582 STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 consequently, from the supposition of my having already passed 
 through on my way to Baghdad, no further mention of me would 
 be likely to be of service. 
 
 Mr. Lee having given me an unlimited letter of credit, I inter- 
 preted only as a pledge of his confidence in my integrity in the 
 use of it ; though, for his omission of the usual formalities of second- 
 ary advice by other channels, I could assign no competent reason, 
 as that was a step, the importance of which rested purely and 
 entirely with himself. My not having sent the original of the 
 letter of credit from Damascus, was for the reason before stated, 
 namely, my unwillingness to risk in other hands that on which the 
 accomplishment of my journey depended. My not having shown 
 this letter to Lady Hester Stanhope was still more easy to con- 
 ceive, as I had been received by her Ladyship as a guest, and . 
 treated with that kind familiarity and warm hospitality which 
 made me sure of her esteem being sincere ; and to show to her a 
 letter of credit destined for another, without any peculiar occasion 
 suggesting such a step, was not likely to happen. Mr. Bankes's 
 omitting to mention me to Mr. Barker in his letters, was, no doubt, 
 from a belief that we should arrive at Aleppo together; as, if it had 
 been consistently practicable, it was intended that we should have 
 gone in company with each other to Palmyra, and returned here 
 together from thence, if I could get no further ; or go on to 
 Baghdad without visiting Aleppo in person, if I could ; either of 
 which circumstances rendered any mention of me unnecessary. 
 
 Thus far, all was merely the conduct of one man to another 
 who was a perfect stranger to him ; and as such, I could only feel 
 regret, without sufficient justification for anger. I considered my- 
 self, however, though a perfect stranger, yet an Englishman, in 
 a foreign country, alone and without friends, in a large city, where 
 there were neither lodging-houses nor convenient inns, and where 
 we had a Consul in the pay and service of our government. As 
 such, I expected that Mr. Barker would have treated me as one 
 who, though he possessed no other claims upon him than these, yet 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 583 
 
 of whom he knew no positive ill, and of whose character he was, ac- 
 cording to his own confession, totally ignorant. I thought, therefore, 
 that he would have said, " Sir, until this doubtful affair be brought to 
 an issue, accept of me the common rites of hospitality. Become 
 my cool and distant guest, if you are willing to be received on 
 such a footing; with this condition, that if you have deceived me, 
 and proved the impostor I have supposed, you will be turned out 
 from beneath my roof in disgrace, and punished as rigorously as 
 my power to do so extends." 
 
 The Arabs of the Desert, and the poorest people of the 
 country, give the stranger food and shelter, while he sojourns among 
 them, be he Christian, Jew, or Infidel. What then was my surprise 
 when Mr. Barker quitted me abruptly, desiring his servant to take 
 me to some public khan, where I might find a lodging ; and this 
 too in the midst of a city where, besides his own family, I was the 
 only Englishman amid a population of a hundred thousand souls ! 
 
 I had heard from every body in my way, that Mr. Barker was 
 one of the most amiable, most benevolent, and liberal of men ; 
 that his heart was capable of feeling tenderness towards those who 
 did him evil, and that he was a model of all that was good and 
 excellent in nature. This consideration only increased the poign- 
 ancy of my own feelings, since, to receive such treatment from the 
 hands of such a man, I must have been considered as the focus 
 of all that was bad and execrable in the human race. I was stung 
 even to the stealing down of silent tears, and my breath was 
 occasionally choked by the conflict of feelings without a name. I 
 returned, however, too proud and too innocent to murmur, and 
 after supping with my servant on some bread and sour milk pro- 
 cured from the bazar, spread my mat in a small dark chamber, and 
 lay down to be tormented by the swarms of vermin with which 
 such places are always infested. 
 
 Tuesday, May 14. 1816. — To shake off as much as possible of 
 the weight that hung upon my spirits, I left my dark abode at day- 
 
584 STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 light, and as new objects bring with them a greater charm for grief 
 than almost any other medicine, I went into the great mosque at 
 the hour of morning prayer. It is by far the most beautiful that I 
 have ever seen, taken as a whole. It has not the fine Corinthian 
 columns of the great mosque at Damascus, but its spacious court 
 of mosaic pavement in marble, its long avenues richly carpeted 
 within, and the general eiFect of all combined, is as beautifully 
 impressive as any religious building could be made to be. I had 
 enough to do to return the Mohammedan salutes, and avoid 
 attracting observation by any gazing curiosity ; nor, indeed, was I 
 in a state of mind, had it been practicable, to examine and preserve 
 details. 
 
 The rest of the morning was passed successively in three or four 
 of the largest coffee-houses in this city, some of which are capable 
 of containing at least 1000 guests. Here I met with one man from 
 Yambo, and another from Macullah in Arabia, a third from Assiut 
 in Upper Egypt, and one from Cosseir on the shores of the Red Sea ; 
 with each of whom I became immediately a friend, and was treated 
 with a nargeel and coffee, not from being a fellow countryman, but 
 merely from having visited the places of their birth. This conduct, 
 contrasted with that of our Consul towards me, in a place which, 
 though a large city, contained no other Englishmen than ourselves, 
 augmented my mortification ; and since busier scenes, instead of 
 dissipating, had thus heightened my distress of mind, I returned 
 at noon to the solitude of my chamber again. 
 
 A pacquet of letters was now put into my hands, which had been 
 addressed to me " en route," by Lady Hester Stanhope, and sent 
 by a messenger express, who had followed my steps throughout my 
 journey, without having overtaken me by the way. This pacquet 
 contained a letter from her ladyship, expressing her sincere regret 
 at the temporary stain which had thus been thrown on my 
 character, and advising me to hurry on to Aleppo with all possible 
 speed, to clear up the doubts which hung thereon. Enclosed was 
 a letter from Mr. Chabo9eau, nearly to the same purport, with 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 585 
 
 copies of Mr. Barker's protest, and of the letters sent by her 
 ladyship to counteract his orders of arrest, and allow me to pass 
 in peace, for which she held herself answerable. There was, also, 
 a note from Mr. Bankes at Balbeck, very kindly expressing sor- 
 row for the illness which had detained me at Damascus, and regret 
 at my not having joined him there, as intended for our joint ex- 
 cursion to Palmyra.* All these, after having read them, were sent 
 to Mr. Barker for his perusal, who returned them without even a 
 verbal answer ! ! 
 
 In the midst of all this I received a letter from the young 
 Frenchman whom I had found in distress at Jaffa, and relieved 
 to the extent of my ability so to do. The warm expressions of 
 gratitude which this letter contained, from one of whose very name 
 I was before ignorant, afforded me some faint consolation, inasmuch 
 as it reminded me, that though thus treated as a villain of the 
 darkest cast, and denied the common rites of hospitality, from 
 one of whom I had a right to claim assistance and protection, I had 
 not myself been entirely insensible to the common duties of charity 
 towards the poor and friendless stranger. 
 
 My afternoon was passed in the dark hovel to which I had 
 been driven, yet here I was not suffered to be at rest, nor enjoy 
 even the retirement which I courted. The khan below was filled 
 with Arabs, and Turkish soldiers, as passengers through the town ; 
 and in the gallery above, in one corner of which my room was, 
 were shoemakers, silkthread spinners, and other mechanics, who, 
 not yet being wealthy enough to rent abetter station, pursued their 
 respective labours here in chambers similar to my own, for which 
 the highest pay was three piastres per month, or about sixpence 
 sterling per week. 
 
 All these having learnt, from the Consul's servants who con- 
 ducted me here, that I was an Englishman, and judging from my 
 
 This note will be found in the Appendix. 
 4 F 
 
586 STAY AT ALEPPO, 
 
 horses and servant that I was a stranger and a traveller on my 
 journey, naturally expressed their surprise at my being turned away 
 from his house, where all other Englishmen that they had before 
 seen were always kindly and honourably received. Many of these 
 forced themselves into my room, and sitting beside me asked a 
 thousand questions ; a staring crowd was gathered round the door, 
 and every one pointed their finger at me as a suspected character^ 
 by far the greater part, however, openly pronounced me an impos- 
 tor, saying either that I was not an Englishman, as pretended, or 
 that if so, I must be some criminal escaped from my country, 
 and arrested by the Consul, since they considered my being con- 
 ducted here by his people, as a consignment to a sort of prison ; 
 more particularly as one or other of these attendants came fre- 
 quently to the khan, with a view, perhaps, to watch my motions, 
 and prevent my making an escape. My refusal to enter into the 
 explanations demanded of me, my having the appearance and 
 manners of a Mussulman, with a full beard, and speaking the Arabic 
 language, were all so many received confirmations of my guilt ; 
 and the ultimate general impression was, either that I had been 
 exiled from my country for crime, or had forcibly escaped from 
 condemnation there, and sought refuge and protection in becom- 
 ing a renegado, abandoning my faith, and giving myself up to the 
 Sultan as a convert to Islam. 
 
 My situation was more full of misery than can be described ; 
 and even the consolations of innocence and integrity, sweet as 
 they may be, and as they are, under most circumstances of perse- 
 cution, were scarcely sufficient to outweigh all the complicated 
 evils of contempt, disdain, and public scorn, to which I was con- 
 demned. 
 
 Wednesday, May 15. 1816. — My night was almost as void of 
 repose as the preceding one, and from the same causes, a foul 
 and suffocating air, and crawling myriads of vermin, evils in 
 themselves of but a temporary and even trivial kind when encoun- 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 537 
 
 tered in the common course of one's way ; but here augmented 
 more than a hundred fold, by the consideration that I was suffer- 
 ing them as a punishment for supposed crime : — so true is it that 
 the lightest chains of iron, which fasten the captive to his cell, hang 
 more weightily upon his neck than far heavier ones of gold would 
 do, if worn like those of Daniel, as an emblem and a pledge of 
 honour. 
 
 I remained within, during the whole of the day, and closed my 
 door for greater privacy, preferring all the inconveniencies of dark- 
 ness and a stagnant atmosphere, to the gazing stare of those who 
 came to regard me as a beast of prey, secured to his den, after 
 escaping and preying on his species. My appetite had now entirely 
 failed ; my health was beginning to be affected by languor, and I was 
 alternately tormented by impatience for the arrival of my baggage, 
 and by a longing desire to breathe again the free and hospitable air 
 of the Desert. 
 
 As I was perfectly alone, and without occupation, 1 beguiled 
 the time by committing to writing, in these preceding pages, the 
 circumstances of my reception, my treatment, &c. They form no 
 part, properly speaking, of such notes as are devoted to the 
 collection of new information regarding the countries through 
 which my route lay ; but, since they show to what mortifications 
 one may be subject in the way, and that, too, when least of all 
 expected, the record of them may not, perhaps, be without their 
 use, either to myself or to others, whom it may be my lot and duty 
 to advise. 
 
 Aleppo, May 16 to 26. — During the ten days included within 
 these dates, my stay having been prolonged for that period at 
 Aleppo, from the difficulty of finding a safe and fit opportunity 
 for proceeding, I was as much overwhelmed with the kindness and 
 hospitality of Mr. Barker, as I had been before subjected to unde- 
 served indignity and mortification by his unnecessary harshness 
 and severity. To render his character ample justice, it is necessary 
 
 4f 2 
 
588 STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 to place the acts alluded to on record, in doing which I shall 
 observe the strictest possible impartiality. 
 
 It was on the morning of the 17th that Mr. Bankes reached 
 Aleppo, from the southward ; and waiting on Mr. Barker, his first 
 enquiry was directed after me. His surprise was extreme to learn 
 that Mr. Barker doubted my ever having been furnished with a 
 letter of credit by Mr. Lee, in which doubt he had refused ac- 
 ceptance to my bill from Damascus, and denied me shelter in the 
 Consular building until his doubts should be removed. Mr. Bankes 
 said all he could to assure Mr. Barker of my being, as he believed, 
 an honourable man, and enjoying the friendship of the individuals 
 named ; offering, as he afterwards assured me, to become surety, 
 if required, for my really proving myself to be possessed of what 
 I had asserted. 
 
 Mr. Barker was so satisfied with this, that he commissioned 
 Mr. Bankes, in waiting on me, to signify his perfect readiness to 
 receive me into his house ; and hoped, that as he had acted under 
 erroneous impressions, the past would be forgotten. 
 
 Mr. Bankes accordingly hastened without delay to the khan 
 in which I was staying. In embracing me, which he did with the 
 warmth of an old and sincere friend, he could not contain his 
 indignation, as well as regret, though he qualified the former by 
 saying, if any other man than Mr. Barker had acted in this man- 
 ner, he should have his conduct represented to the proper autho- 
 rities at home ; but that Mr. Barker was so mild and amiable a 
 man, that nothing, but a sincere conviction of his erroneous im- 
 pressions being really correct, could have induced him to treat me 
 as he had done. It appeared to me, however, that no im- 
 pression, short of a conviction of guilt, could have justified his 
 treating a fellow countryman in such a manner and in such a 
 place. 
 
 Mr. Bankes very strenuously intreated me to receive Mr. 
 Barker's visit in the khan, or to go with him to the Consular-house, 
 as Mr. Barker would accede to either ; so th^t an end might be 
 put at once to this distressing scene. In proportion, however, as 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 589 
 
 I knew my innocence, so I felt proud and unbending. I resisted 
 all his intreaties ; and declared that I would not quit my present 
 abode until the arrival of my baggage from Ladikeia, when I 
 should send my letter of credit to Mr. Barker himself; and if, 
 after seeing it, he should be prepared to make me reparation by 
 coming to wait on me first, and acknowledging* his error, I should 
 be glad to receive him, and would then be as ready to meet, as he 
 could be to offer, any of those civilities due from one Englishman 
 to another in a foreign land. 
 
 Mr. Bankes remained with me for several hours in this con- 
 ference, and quitted me in the evening, with a repetition of his 
 regret that an accommodation could not be made at once, though 
 he did not venture to condemn the feeling which had induced me 
 to form and adhere to my declared resolution. 
 
 On the following day (the 18th) my baggage arrived from 
 the Consul at Ladikeia, and was instantly brought to the khan by 
 the caravan-bashi, to whom it had been confided, accompanied by 
 a servant from the Consular-house, where it was addressed to me, 
 and where, indeed, it had been delivered. I immediately unlocked 
 the portmanteau in which my papers were, took from thence, in the 
 presence of the Consul's servant, the original letter of credit from 
 Mr. Lee, and sent it by his hands, without note or message, to his 
 master, desiring him only to authenticate the fact of its being 
 taken out of the portmanteau in his presence on the moment of 
 its reaching my hands. 
 
 Before an hour had elapsed, Mr. Barker came himself to me 
 in person, accompanied by his janissaries, servants, and all the 
 usual retinue of state ; and on entering the apartment, before he 
 took his seat on the floor, there being no elevated seats in the 
 room, he made the most ample apology for having indulged such 
 groundless apprehensions respecting me ; endeavouring, at the same 
 time, to soften down or palliate its severity, by reciting some former 
 instances in which he had been deceived by persons pretending to 
 be what they really were not. 
 
590 STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 Mr. Bankes shortly after joined us ; and there being as great a 
 disposition on my part to concede, as on the part of Mr. Barker to 
 make amends, our reconciliation was soon completed. The ge- 
 nuineness of the letter of credit was fully acknowledged, and 
 every thing else was supposed to be equally correct and well 
 founded. 
 
 To repair, as soon as possible, the evil of any impressions that 
 might have gone abroad respecting me among the Consuls of other 
 European nations at Aleppo, Mr. Barker proposed that we should 
 without delay commence a round of ceremonious visits to them 
 all ; which, as they did not live far apart from each other, and 
 these visits never occupied more than half an hour each, might be 
 easily accomplished. I readily consented to this proposal, and 
 Mr. Bankes accompanying us, we paid our personal respects to all 
 the principal Consuls in the course of the day, and the secondary 
 * ones on the following. 
 
 I was now removed to Mr. Barker's country-house, at the 
 distance of a few miles only from Aleppo, where Mr. Bankes and 
 myself were admitted as members of the family, each having also 
 a separate apartment in the Consular-house in town, and each 
 being treated with all the respect, kindness, and honour that we 
 could wish ; Mr. Barker, and all his family, appearing to do every 
 thing in their power to obliterate the painful impressions of the 
 past, and to make the present as agreeable as possible, without 
 neglecting the exertion of their efforts to procure for me a safe 
 and easy journey, through the rest of my way. 
 
 Mr. Bankes having heard of the death of some rich relative, 
 by whose will he had been bequeathed a large property, in addi- 
 tion to his already ample fortune, had determined on hastening 
 home ; and accordingly made arrangements for visiting Palmyra 
 from hence, and returning direct to Aleppo, from whence he pro- 
 posed going with all speed to England, while my journey had to 
 be still extended farther eastward, even to India. Mr. Bankes was 
 very desirous that I should accompany him in his journey to Pal- 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 592 
 
 myra, as we had always contemplated the probability of our going 
 there together ; in the belief that Arab guides might be found at 
 Aleppo, who would take any person bent on the journey from 
 thence to Baghdad, across the Desert, in eight or ten days at the 
 utmost. Our enquiries were very assiduously directed after such a 
 guide ; but the troubled state of the whole Desert, south and east of 
 Palmyra, then in commotion from the wars of the Wahabees, was 
 such, that no one could be found who would venture to go beyond 
 Palmyra, and not many, indeed, who felt disposed to go even so 
 far. At length, however, a party or escort was got together for 
 this purpose. Mr. Bankes again urged me to accompany him in 
 the excursion ; but, although it would not have taken more than 
 ten days at the farthest to go and return to Aleppo, I resisted this 
 highly tempting opportunity of visiting the most attractive ruins 
 in the world, without the shadow of a hope of my ever having it 
 in my power to repair this loss at any future period, merely from 
 a sense of duty, which induced me to think that as my journey to 
 India had been already so much delayed by circumstances alto- 
 gether beyond my power to obviate or controul, I should not 
 willingly add to that delay by any interruptions beyond the many 
 that were still likely to occur without my agency or consent, in 
 the future progress of my way. I accordingly yielded to this con- 
 viction, and thereby lost an opportunity of seeing Palmyra, which 
 was never likely again to be enjoyed. 
 
 When the period of Mr. Bankes's departure from Aleppo had 
 arrived, which was between the 20th and 26th of May, we passed 
 the whole of the morning together in the most friendly conference. 
 The high opinion which he then entertained of my character was 
 such as to induce him to give me, unasked, a commendatory letter 
 of introduction to Sir Evan Nepean, Baronet, the governor of Bom- 
 bay, and a personal friend of his father, the Member for Corfe 
 Castle; Sir Evan being a resident neighbour of the family in Dor- 
 setshire, before he quitted England. He also intreated me to 
 write him on my arrival in India, giving me his town address in 
 
592 STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 Old Palace Yard, Westminster ; and assured me that it would give 
 him great pleasure to maintain, in after yearsj a correspondence 
 with one whom he had known but for a short period, it was true, 
 but whom in that brief space he had learnt sincerely to esteem. 
 This disposition was reciprocal on my part, and was, therefore, met 
 with corresponding professions. 
 
 " Before we separate, however," said Mr. Bankes, " and that, 
 perhaps, for a very long period, there are two favours I have to ask 
 of you, neither of which you will, I know, refuse me." I desired 
 him to name his wishes, and assured him of my readiness to com- 
 ply with them as far as they might be practicable. - He then said, 
 the first favour he had to ask was that I would allow him to receive 
 back all the various letters and notes that he had written to me 
 from time to time in Syria, from our first meeting at Jerusalem up 
 to the present period. He observed that the request would no 
 doubt seem to me an odd one ; but he assured me that his real 
 motive for making it was simply this : His naturally indolent 
 habits with respect to writing, and the reliance he had placed on 
 his sketches assisting his memory, had prevented his taking any 
 notes whatever of his journies, excepting only the few unconnected 
 remarks which he might have scribbled on the margins of his 
 sketches and drawings from time to time as they were made. It 
 was only when he sat down to write to me, that this indolence was 
 overcome. He had never, he said, written to any one so fre- 
 quently, nor ever communicated to any one, so fully and freely, 
 his sentiments and opinions on points connected with his present 
 pursuits, as to myself. His letters to me, he considered, therefore, 
 as of more value than almost any he had ever written : and it 
 would give him great pleasure to receive them back again for his 
 own future use : " while," he added, " the loss of them to you will 
 be of no importance, considering how copious and abundant are 
 your own notes on every part of the country through which you 
 have ever passed." 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 593 
 
 I saw nothing unreasonable in this request, and therefore 
 promised immediate compliance ; pressing him at the same time 
 to use equal frankness in stating the second. He then said that 
 his next wish was to receive from me all the information I could 
 furnish him respecting Nubia, or such parts of the Nile as I had 
 visited above the Cataracts of Assouan. In the course of our 
 many previous conversations, I had informed Mr. Bankes that 
 among my papers then in Egypt, but which would be sent to me 
 in India if I should settle there, were many ground plans of tem- 
 ples, tombs, and excavations in Nubia, with very copious notes on 
 the state and condition of the country, as well as descriptions of 
 the monuments in that interesting and then almost untravelled 
 part of the globe. He had learnt from me, also, that I had never 
 entertained the idea of publishing these notes, having made them 
 entirely for the gratification of my family, and for my own future 
 satisfaction. On the other hand, he told me, that, independently 
 of the joint work on Syria, proposed by him to be executed by 
 Mr. Burckhardt, Mr. Bankes, and myself*, he had long determined 
 to publish something on Nubia, having been more fortunate than 
 most of his predecessors in his discoveries there ; " and," he 
 added, " if you have no intention of making any public use of the 
 materials collected by yourself, during your stay in that country, 
 you will confer a great favour on me by sending them to me from 
 India, to be incorporated with my own." To this, also, I readily 
 assented: and promised that I would embrace the earliest oppor- 
 tunity of complying with his wishes.f 
 
 As soon as this conversation ended, -I repaired to my room, 
 and after searching among my papers, I found a great number of 
 Mr. Bankes's notes and letters addressed to me, and received at 
 different places on my way, which I instantly returned to him, 
 
 * See the first mention of this subject at page 303. of the present volume. 
 t These materials were subsequently sent from India to Mr. Bankes in Eng- 
 land; as alluded to in a letter, which will be found in the Appendix. 
 
 4 G 
 
594 STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 though I felt at the same time that it would have given me great 
 pleasure to have retained letters so full of compliments to my 
 talents and understanding, and testimonies of my enjoying the 
 good opinion of the writer, as these almost uniformly evinced. 
 On Mr. Bankes examining these letters, he found only one 
 missing, as he thought, out of the whole collection ; but he 
 remembered this particularly, as it was written in the Hauran, was 
 pretty full on the subject of the ruins there, and supplied a blank 
 that none of the others could fill. On his describing the letter to 
 me, I remembered it also, and made a vigilant search after it 
 accordingly, but without effect. Every article of my baggage was 
 ransacked with the greatest care, and the letter not being found, 
 it was supposed by us both to have been lost, or destroyed. As it 
 was but one, however, out of a large collection, it was the subject 
 of only a momentary regret, and was soon forgotten by us both 
 accordingly.* 
 
 * The history of this lost letter, which was afterwards found, is one of the most 
 remarkable that perhaps ever occurred ; and, in any other age than the present, would 
 certainly have been regarded as being directed by the immediate agency of a super- 
 intending Providence. The consequences of finding this lost letter will be detailed at 
 length in the Appendix. It will be sufficient, therefore, to say, in this place, where it 
 was concealed, and how it afterwards came to light. Among the packages in which 
 my baggage was contained, was a small portmanteau, lined with cotton ticking ; and 
 in the upper part of this, generally appropriated to dirty linen, loose letters and papers 
 were also frequently put ; this being the package constantly near me, serving often for 
 my pillow at night, and being always in use. Mr. Bankes's letters being sealed with red 
 EngUsh seahng wax, this particular one had, by its seal being next to the cotton 
 lining, and the heat of the sun through the black leather of the outside melting the 
 wax, stuck fast to the ticking, with another letter enclosed in it, written at Acre, which 
 being of much less importance, neither of us had missed. In this state of adherence 
 to the inner lining of the portmanteau, near one of the ends, and entirely out of sight, 
 these two letters had remained fixed during eight or nine months, without being per- 
 ceived, until, after the journey was at an end, I gave to my servant at Bombay all my 
 old travelling baggage, now no longer of use to me, with permission for him to sell it 
 on his own account. In the search which he made, however, into the corners of the 
 packages in question, he found these letters stuck fast by the wax as described ; and 
 on bringing the portmanteau to me that I might tear them off myself, I was agreeably 
 surprised to find the lost letter of Mr. Bankes, with another of an earlier date included 
 in it. The result of this remarkable recovery will be told hereafter. 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 595 
 
 After parting with Mr. Bankes, all my attention was directed 
 to securing a safe journey from Aleppo to Baghdad, in which Mr. 
 Barker rendered me every assistance that I could desire. Through 
 his influence, principally, a respectable merchant of Moosul, who 
 had halted at Aleppo on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca 
 to purchase goods, and was about to return to his native city with 
 a large caravan, consented, for a moderate sum, to take me under 
 his protection as one of his party ; enjoining only a certain con- 
 dition on my part, that I should conceal the fact of my being an 
 Englishman or Christian from all but himself and his immediate 
 dependants ; and that I should conform in every respect to what- 
 ever rules he might think proper to lay down for the guidance of 
 all the individuals of his party during the journey. To this I 
 readily consented. I was to provide my own horse and baggage 
 for the way ; but as I could now speak the Arabic language pretty 
 fluently, neither servant nor interpreter were needed ; and I had 
 the prospect before me of as safe and pleasant a journey as can 
 well be expected in a caravan made up of all sorts of characters, 
 and passing through so unsettled and uncivilized a country. 
 
 The day of our departure was fixed for the 26th, and I em- 
 ployed the short time that remained before this should arrive in 
 writing letters to my friends in Europe, and in completing all the 
 preparations that I thought necessary for the journey. The cir- 
 cumstances of my stay at Aleppo had been extremely unfavourable 
 to the indulgence of my usual habit of visiting every place of 
 interest, and preserving daily notes of what I saw and heard ; from 
 which alone faithful pictures of persons, places, or things, can be 
 afterwards drawn. My confinement in the khan had so depressed 
 my spirits as to render me absolutely incompetent to do more 
 than preserve a narrative of that confinement itself. And after my 
 removal to Mr. Barker's house, every successive day, from morning 
 to night, was one entire round of entertainment and pleasure, 
 excursions to gardens, visits of ceremony, evening parties, &c. 
 which rendered it impossible either to read, write, or reflect with 
 
 4g 2 
 
596 STAY AT ALEPPO. 
 
 advantage, so that these duties were necessarily abandoned. In 
 consequence of these obstacles, I preserved fewer recollections of 
 Aleppo than of any other place in which I had passed so many 
 days ; but, as this city has been much more frequently described 
 than any other in Syria, and has had even a separate history of it 
 written by Doctor Russell, who resided there as an English phy- 
 sician for many years, it is of the less importance.* I can only 
 say that it appeared to me one of the best built of all the cities of 
 the East that I had yet seen ; and though a considerable distance 
 from the sea, it has a greater number of European residents, and 
 these all enjoying greater freedom, than any of the larger cities 
 subject to Turkish government, excepting only Constantinople, 
 Smyrna, and Alexandria. The native population appeared also 
 more actively happy, and in better condition, than the subjects of 
 irresponsible despots usually are. 
 
 The character of the present governor was sufficient to 
 account for all this. Though possessing unlimited power, like all 
 his predecessors, it had been retained in the family of his imme- 
 diate ancestors for several years back, and he wished to transmit 
 it to his children. He silently acknowledged, therefore, the in- 
 fluence of public opinion, and thought it not derogatory to his 
 dignity to consult the welfare of his subjects in most of the mea- 
 sures that he pursued. The result was increased happiness to 
 
 * Haleb or Hhaleb was called anciently Aran Tsaba, according to Benjamin of 
 Tudela, where the sultan Noraldin had a palace surrounded by a high wall. There 
 were neither wells nor fountains in the town ; and the inhabitants drank chiefly of 
 rain preserved in cisterns, there called Al Gub. There were then 1500 Jews there. 
 
 On doit savoir, que le nom de Halep vient du Syrien, qui est Chalybon ; et que, 
 pour rendre la lettre initiale, il faut y employer I'aspiration dure, ou le Hha plutot que 
 le He, dont on ne fait usage ici que par adoucissement. Les Ecrivains Grecs du Bas 
 Empire ont remplac^ la lettre dont il s'agit par un Chi-X; et dans Robert de St. 
 Michel, la voyelle que suit est preced^e d'une consonne, en ^crivant Galapsa. Sous les 
 Seleucides, le nom de Bei-cea, tir^ de la Macedoine, etoit transport(5 a cette ville. — 
 D'Anville, sur le Tigrc et VEuphrate, p. 22. 
 
 Ptolemy had made Beroea separate from Chalybon, which was placed near 
 Hierapolis : but this the French geographer has successfully combated and confuted. 
 
STAY AT ALEPPO. 597 
 
 them, and increased popularity and security to himself; and, 
 though far short of the freedom which men ought to enjoy, the 
 condition of the people at Aleppo appeared to me to be more 
 favourable than in any other part of Syria, because their industry 
 was less taxed, and their governor was more liberal and more en- 
 lightened than Turkish rulers in general. 
 
 The continuation of this comparative state of happiness 
 depended, however, entirely on the continued life or continued 
 disposition of the individual then at the head of affairs. Securi- 
 ties for good government there were absolutely none. The laws 
 were uncertain and unknown ; the people had no share whatever 
 in the administration of their own concerns ; and if the present 
 pasha, from caprice, or evil disposition, should determine on 
 taking off the heads of the most innocent individuals in the city, 
 there was no power that could prevent the indulgence of his 
 cruelty. Such are the blessings of absolute and irresponsible 
 despotism ! 
 
APPENDIX: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A REFUTATION OF CERTAIN UNFOUNDED CALUMNIES 
 
 INDUSTRIOUSLY CIRCULATED 
 
 AGAINST THE AUTHOR OF THIS WORK, 
 
 BY 
 
 Mr. LEWIS BURCKHARDT, Mr. WILLIAM JOHN BANKES, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. 
 
 XT may appear to many persons, unacquainted 
 with the causes of the delay, as somewhat surprising 
 that certain unfounded calumnies contained in The 
 Quarterly Review so long ago as the com- 
 mencement of 1822, should not have been publicly 
 answered in England before the approach of the year 
 1825. As this impression, wherever entertained, 
 cannot fail to be unfavourable, I take the earliest 
 opportunity to remove it, even before entering on 
 the merits of the case : being ready to admit, that 
 whoever remains for a long period voluntarily 
 silent under imputations that deeply affect his cha- 
 racter, furnishes presumptive evidence of his in- 
 difference to the good opinion and esteem of man- 
 kind, and consequently deprives himself of all just 
 claim to their sympathy and regard. 
 
 I shall state, therefore, that when these calum- 
 nies first appeared in January 1 822, 1 was residing 
 in India, where the number of the Quarterly Re- 
 view in which they were contained (No. 52.) did 
 not reach until August of the same year. It had 
 not been landed in Calcutta, however, three days, 
 before a most ample refutation, containing most of 
 the important matter included in this Appendix, was 
 issued from the press, and by sale and gratuitous 
 distribution about 2000 copies were placed in the 
 hands of the British Indian public. 
 
 Copies of these documents were then sent im- 
 mediately to England, for re-publication here, 
 either in any periodical work, or in a separate form. 
 By the time of their reaching England, upwards 
 of a year had elapsed; and it was then thought, by 
 the parties to whom they were sent, that the in- 
 terest of the subject had gone by, and that the 
 refutation would not be extensively read if pub- 
 lished in a separate form ; while none of the pe- 
 riodicals could include it in their sheets in that 
 perfect state in which alone it could be read with 
 advantage. Funds were also sent to England at 
 the same time for commencing a prosecution 
 against the parties ; but it was thought that this 
 
 could not be satisfactorily conducted without my 
 presence ; and thus every step that I had yet taken 
 to obtain reparation or redress had been ineffectual. 
 
 Towards the close of 1823, I arrived in England 
 myself, and the very first step taken by me was to 
 commence legal proceedings against the principal 
 agents in creating and spreading the calumnies 
 adverted to. From that moment to this I have 
 never relaxed in my endeavours to bring the case 
 to trial ; but delay has succeeded to delay, in such 
 a manner as to make it quite uncertain when the 
 proceedings may be brought to a close. 
 
 During this interval, the present Volume of Tra- 
 vels has been passing through the press, delayed 
 unavoidably, from time to time, in its progress, by 
 the multiplicity of other occupations on my hands ; 
 and even now brought out under the most dis- 
 tracting and incessant cares, and perpetual inter- 
 ruptions, the most unfavourable to the satisfactory 
 execution of any literary labours, but particularly 
 those involving in their very nature great care and 
 research. 
 
 The publication of this volume has always been 
 regarded by me as the fittest and best opportunity 
 for printing, in an Appendix, the calumnies of the 
 several individuals named before, and the refut- 
 ations which were instantly opposed to them, on 
 the first appearance of the calumnies themselves in 
 India. It is essential that the readers of the pre- 
 sent volume should see the real grounds on which 
 the accuracy of my preceding one has been im- 
 pugned, and the facts and arguments by which 
 such imputations on its fidelity have been repelled. 
 It is desirable that the literary world in general 
 should also see recorded, what authors can say of 
 critics, as well as what critics can say of authors. 
 
 The Reviewers have carried their insolence and 
 injustice to a pitch beyond endurance: and far 
 bej'ond what any one of them would have dared 
 to do, if writing in his own name, and under all 
 the responsibility of open and avowed authorship. 
 * 4 G 
 
600 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 It is one of the great evils of anonymous criti- 
 cism, that masked slanderers dip their weapons in 
 poison, and care not who they wound, provided 
 their stabs are but considered to be skilfully made. 
 The phrase of being " cut up" in a Review has, 
 indeed, grown into common use, as if men's very 
 hearts ! were ■ there actually laid open with all the 
 brutality of a butcher preparing a victim for the 
 shambles. 
 
 The envious, form so large a class, that the more 
 bitter the invectives of Reviews, the more exten- 
 sive is their circulation likely to be. Ten thousand 
 copies of The Quarterly will blast the fame of any 
 man, and carry the stigma which it affixes to his 
 name to the uttertnost corner of the earth. If the 
 object of its calumny be in another hemisphere, 
 and at the distance of a year's voyage or journey 
 in point of time, his reputation is damned through- 
 out Europe, before even the rumour of the injury 
 done to him reaches his own ears': and when it 
 does, and he replies, however complete his refut- 
 ation may be, he is told that the injury is irre- 
 parable ; that his countrymen have seen the calum- 
 nies to .remain unanswered for a whole year, and, 
 therefore, they believe them true ; while, now, other 
 subjects engross their attention, and they will not 
 turn aside to examine a question, the very name of 
 which sounds stalely in their ears ; which they have 
 been accustomed to consider as long since decided; 
 and which they will not, therefore, disturb them- 
 selves even to look at again. 
 
 This is no exaggerated picture. It has been 
 my case ; and will be the case of others, no doubt, 
 who may be equally distant from their country at 
 the time that their characters are assailed. The 
 Reviewers have now and then had some severe 
 castigations in return, from those who have been 
 nearer at hand ; but these, as compared with the 
 number of others who have remained silent, and 
 thereby given a colour of justice to their slanders, 
 have been few indeed ; while, like daring smug- 
 glers, or still more desperate pirates, the Reviewers 
 think themselves sufficiently triumphant if they are 
 successful in most of their iniquitous violations of 
 the property and character of others, notwith- 
 standing they may now and then, like the outlaws 
 of the ocean, get a severe lesson taught them in 
 an occasional conflict with one whose strength 
 they had underrated, and who had, consequently, 
 proved more than a match for them, and com- 
 pelled them to abandon the encounter, or retreat 
 under cover of their own noise and smoke. 
 
 Previous to entering on the publication of the 
 documents necessary to the refutation of the ca- 
 lumnies before adverted to, it will be advantageous 
 to give a brief narrative of the principal facts, 
 for the information of those to -whom the question 
 may be entirely new. 
 
 In the year 1816, being at Alexandria in Egypt, 
 and but recently returned to that country from 
 India, where I had been on affiiirs of private busi- 
 ness, partly connected witli endeavours to restore 
 the ancient commerce between Egypt and India 
 by way of the Red Sea, I was solicited by Mr. Lee, 
 the British consul there, and member of the firm 
 
 of Briggs and Co. of the same place, to undertake 
 a second journey to India by land, partly to be 
 the bearer of a treaty of commerce drawn up be- 
 tween Mohammed Ali Pasha, the viceroy of the 
 country, Mr. Lee, the British consul, and myself; 
 and partly to be in Bonabay at the time the first 
 ships should come up the Red Sea, in order that I 
 might navigate them through the difficult passages 
 of the Arabian Gulf, with which I had made myself 
 practically acquainted. 
 
 I consented to undertake this journey, on the 
 condition of my bare expenses being paid ; for 
 which purpose an unlimited letter of credit was 
 given me on Mr. Barker, the consul at Aleppo, 
 the route by which I intended to go, although 
 this was left open, to be determined as circum- 
 stances might direct. 
 
 Events altogether beyond my controul, and de- 
 tailed at length in the volume already published 
 under the title of " Travels in Palestine," as well 
 as in the present, retarded my journey more than I 
 either expected or wished. I arrived, however, 
 safely at Bombay, where the notes that I had 
 made on the journey having been read by some of 
 the most distinguished literary characters of the 
 place, I was advised to prepare them immediately 
 for publication. I readily yielded to this sugges- 
 tion, and at length completed the task. Some 
 portions of the work were read at the meetings of 
 the Literary Society at Bombay ; and others were 
 afterwards read at the meetings of the Literary 
 Society at Madras. The whole of the manuscript 
 passed through the hands of many individuals in 
 succession, and approbation of its contents was 
 very generally expressed. 
 
 I went soon afterwards to Bengal, where the 
 materials were again shown to several of the lead- 
 ing characters in Calcutta, and I was urged on all 
 sides to hasten its publication. I took immediate 
 steps to effect this ; and after a series of obstacles 
 which will hereafter be detailed, the work appeared 
 at the close of 1821. In the beginning of 1822, 
 the Quarterly Review published its slanderous 
 article on it ; and on that Review reaching India, 
 an immediate refutation was published there. On 
 reverting to the whole series of discussions which 
 arose out of this controversy in India, it is a source 
 of great satisfaction to me to remember that my 
 triumph was complete, both in the arena of written 
 controversy and in the trial of my calumniators for 
 libel in the Supreme Court of Justice at Calcutta, 
 where I obtained a verdict against them with 
 damages, and where their libels were pronounced 
 by the judge to be such as could not even be 
 thought of without horror. It appears to me, 
 therefore, that I cannot do better than republish 
 here the principal articles that appeared in the 
 Indian papers at the time, omitting such as are 
 unimportant, amending the style of others ; and 
 changing the editorial plural " we" into the per- 
 sonal pronoun "I," as it is no longer as the edi- 
 tor of the Calcutta Journal, but as the author of 
 the Travels in Palestine, that I now appear be- 
 fore the reader of the present volume. To this 
 task, therefore, I shall at once proceed. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 601 
 
 (From the Calcutta Journal of August 13, 1822.) 
 
 After the Travels in Palestine had been reviewed and 
 eulogized by some of the most respectable periodical pub- 
 lications in England, I expected ray full share of virulent 
 abuse from The Quarterly, — and I have not been dis- 
 appointed. I have been just permitted to glance over 
 the article in this Review, a copy of which has been lent 
 to me for perusal; but when I receive a copy of which I 
 can make use, (for the purpose of reprinting it, accom- 
 panied with comments, in these pages,) I shall let the In- 
 dian pubHc see how truly The Quarterly maintains its 
 established reputation for malignant detraction, — and 
 show them that it can publish known falsehoods with as 
 much unblushing impudence as ever, whether the nature 
 of its hatred and animosity be of a political, religious, 
 or merely critical description. I shall then also give pub- 
 licity to certain documents, which will illustrate the true 
 character of the Editor of that publication, as well as of 
 Mr. Bankes, who appears to have furnished the same 
 scandalous and unfounded complaints to him as the 
 groundwork of his Review, that were sent to India by a 
 gentleman now in the country, and which were then 
 most triumphantly refuted. 
 
 I must here, however, confine mjself to a very brief 
 outline of this disreputable transaction, which the details 
 will show in all its glowing colours. In the year 1818, 
 the notes of the Travels in Palestine, having been put in 
 order for publication, were placed in the hands of the late 
 lamented Dr. Middleton, Lord Bishop of Calcutta, whose 
 piety and learning no man could douht, The object of 
 placing the MS. in his Lordship's possession was avowedly 
 to ascertain his candid and undisguised opinion as to its 
 merits and defects, and as to its fitness for publication in 
 the state in which it was then presented to him. It re- 
 mained in the Bishop's possession for several weeks, dur- 
 ing which time his Lordship was confined to his room by 
 a temporary indisposition, and during which he went 
 through several portions of it, having a full opportunity 
 at the same time, of inspecting the whole : when on re- 
 turning it for transmission to England, he permitted the 
 use of his name in the prospectus published in India, as 
 well as in the preface of the work itself, approving gene- 
 rally of the nature of the whole, and never once raising a 
 single objection either to its moral or religious tendency. 
 
 The original MS. was taken from Calcutta to England, 
 by Mr. Eneas Mackintosh, formerly of this city, and the 
 duplicate by Captain Sydenham of the Bengal army, and 
 placed in Mr. Murray's hands for publication. This book- 
 seller considered the work so likely to be acceptable to 
 the public, as to undertake that it should be out in a few 
 months; and he so far approved of it as to engage to give 
 200 copies, each value six guineas, for the MS., and take 
 all the risk of publication on hhnself. After these terms 
 had been fixed on, Mr. Gifford, the Editor of The Quar- 
 terly Review, had the examination of the MS. entrusted 
 to him ; and finding in it certain proofs of the blunders of 
 The Quarterly Review in its remarks on Dr. Clarke's 
 Travels, he wished Mr. Murray to allow him to curtail the 
 ■work some forty or fifty pages, admitting, however, that it 
 contained much that was new and interesting, and that 
 deserved publication as such. Soon after this, Mr. Bankes 
 set up a pretext of the work not being original, but being 
 mostly compiled from his notes (although he had not seen 
 the work at all); and from these joint causes, Mr. Murray 
 declined the fulfilment of his engagement. 
 
 Reference being made to me in India, I collected a few 
 of my friends, and exhibited to them such documents as 
 convinced them that Mr. Murray's breach of engagement 
 was unwarrantable; that Mr. Gilford's objections were 
 wholly untenable ; and that Mr. Bankes's assertions were 
 in direct contradiction to his own letters addressed to me 
 in Syria, the originals of which I fortunately had in my 
 possession. 
 
 A notarial paper, stating all these facts, was drawn up 
 by Mr. Smoult, of this city, Calcutta, and transmitted to 
 England, with the documents in question. The result 
 was, that Messrs. Longman and Co. to whom the MS, was 
 then offered for publication, were so satisfied of the jus- 
 tice of the author's case, that they undertook the public- 
 ation immediately, and got the work out with all possible 
 dispatch. It was advertised in all the public papers as 
 preparing for publication. It was announced in the most 
 public way, when completed; and continued to sell rapidly, 
 and to be reviewed favourably, by publication after pub- 
 lication, without Mr. Bankes offering it any public oppo- 
 sition, though he was in London during the whole of this 
 time, and was fully informed of all that had taken place. 
 His behaviour in this scandalous transaction will deserve 
 a more detailed notice; and he deserves richly that his 
 conduct should be shown in its true colours; because, 
 although he has not had the courage or the manliness to 
 come forward in his own name in a public manner upon 
 this question, he has, under shelter of The Quarterly Re- 
 view, sought to impress the public with the most unfavour- 
 able impressions regarding the character of one who was 
 guilty of the great sin of being more active, more indus- 
 trious, and earlier than himself in the field as a candidate 
 for public favour. It may suffice here to say, that Mr. 
 Bankes, after having paid the highest compliments that 
 one man could pay to another, and bowed with deference 
 to what he considered the superior judgment and under- 
 standing of his companion, traduces that same individual, 
 and declares him to be incompetent, from his extreme 
 ignorance, even to copy an inscription ! This same Mr. 
 Bankes, after having acknowledged in writing his own in- 
 dolence as preventing him from making notes, and ad- 
 mitted his having derived information from consulting 
 those of his more careful fellow-traveller, accuses that 
 same individual of never having made notes, or even hav- 
 ing paper to write them on, and of copying from him, 
 who seldom made any! ! The Quarterly Reviewers, under 
 whose wing he has taken shelter, are of the same stamp 
 and value as himself; for they, or Mr. Gifford, its editor, 
 after having admitted in writing that the MS. contained 
 much that was new and interesting, and that by curtailing 
 it forty or fifty pages it would deserve publication, — 
 now pronounce the same book, which has undergone no 
 alteration since then, to be a tissue of ignorance and vul- 
 garity, full of egregious blunders; and the conduct of 
 the author, from beginning to end, as that of a dishonour- 
 able, infidel, illiberal, and pilfering ignoramus! ! ! 
 
 The world may well wonder at such irreconcileable 
 contradictions as these. At an earlier period they might 
 have done me irreparable injury, though I now regard 
 them with as much indifference as scorn. But after the 
 eulogistic testimonies of some of the most respectable pub- 
 lications in England in favour of the " Travels in Pales- 
 tine," it would be a waste of time, perhaps, to show that 
 the abuse of The Quarterly must fall pointless to the 
 ground. 
 
 The Review from the Literary Gazette has been partly 
 given to the Indian public: at the close of the second 
 portion of the remarks offered on the Travels in that pub- 
 lication, is the following paragraph: — 
 
 " It is not possible, in a few desultory extracts, to do justice 
 to this important volume. We have endeavoured, for the in- 
 formation of our readers, to furnish an outline of Mr. Buck- 
 ingham's tour, but have been unable to record, in an abbrevi- 
 ated form, any of the numerous and valuable illustrations of 
 the sacred writings with which this work abounds. If to throw 
 a light upon the pages of the poet, historian, or philosopher, 
 deserve our thanks, that writer has surely a greater claim to our 
 countenance and acknowledgments, who, by his useful and im- 
 portant researches has illustrated several of the obscure texts of 
 a book, the due knowledge of which can only enable us to 
 become ' wise' in the best and most extended sense of the 
 term." 
 
 4 H 
 
602 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The Eclectic Review, which is known to be one of the 
 most exemplary publications of the day, as far as regards 
 the religious and moral tendency of works in general, has 
 the following paragraph; — 
 
 " His volume is both interesting and valuable in more than 
 an ordinary degree. He has been enabled to suggest some im- 
 portant corrections of geographical errors, and to add consider- 
 ably to our knowledge of the more distant and less frequented 
 regions." — Eclectic Seview, Jan. 1822. 
 
 The British Critic, a publication of some repute as a 
 critical work, in speaking of the Travels in Palestine, has 
 the following remark : — 
 
 " Mr. Buckingham has given ample proof, in the course of 
 this volume, of his activity, resolution, energy, and observa- 
 tion." — JSritish Critic, Dec. 1821. 
 
 The Monthly Magazine, published by Sir Richard 
 Phillips, in speaking of the work, calls it one " of great 
 interest and importance, forming a valuable addition to 
 the_ numerous volumes of Travels into the Holy Land 
 which have been published during the last ten years." It 
 ends by saying ; — 
 
 " To make amends for the want of novelty consequent upon 
 all details respecting Palestine, Mr. Buckingham has intro- 
 duced numerous and learned disquisitions illustrative of the 
 sacred writings, and has corrected many errors, which, like the 
 mummies of the Egyptians, have only been consecrated for their 
 antiquity. Tyre, Acre, Nazareth, Mounts Tabor and Carmel, 
 Cesarea, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Ramlah, and the holy places round 
 the sacred city, have all been described by Mr. Buckingham's 
 predecessors. Those portions of his volume, therefore, will be 
 found to be most important, which are the details respecting 
 the country beyond the Jordan, in which he has not been anti. 
 cipated by other travellers. The minute descriptions of Gera- 
 za, Soof, Oomkais, the ruins of the ancient Gamala, Naza- 
 reth, Tiberias, Shechem, Mount Ebal, Gerizim, and the Wells 
 of Samaria, are full of interest ; and as they have not been 
 touched upon before, afford valuable records of a country which 
 has been an object of curiosity from the earliest ages. The style 
 is worthy of the materials ; numerous curious and erudite notes 
 are scattered over the work." 
 
 The New Monthly Magazine, edited by the celebrated 
 author of the " Pleasures of Hope,"— Mr. Thomas Camp- 
 bell, — whose judgment and good taste on subjects of 
 general literature will scarcely be disputed, commences 
 and closes his notice of the Travels in Palestine, with the 
 two following paragraphs: — 
 
 ** -Mr, Buckingham combines what are scarcely ever found to 
 meet in the same individual, the fearless and hardy habits of a 
 sailor by profession, with the reading of a scholar. Early 
 smitten with a passion for travelling, he began to indulge it at 
 the age of ninp years, in a maritime capacity, and in the course 
 of the succeLding years of his life he has visited most of the 
 places of any note in the four quarters of the globe. From the 
 mass of his observations during his extensive wanderings, he 
 has selected those which regard Palestine, and the country which 
 surrounds it, wherewith to commence the character of author. 
 That part of his route which was directed through the country 
 of Bashan and Gilead, east of the river Jordan, has hitherto 
 been the boundary of all our knowledge regarding the ancient 
 Judea. As this part of Mr. Buckingham's travels is the most 
 attractive in itself, so likewise is it that which is the most pleas- 
 ingly written. The exquisite beauty of the country which lay 
 before his eyes, as he descended the second range of hills on 
 the east of Jordan, its natural fertility, joined to an enchanting 
 wildness, and the associations irresistibly connected in his mind 
 with the ground over which he was passing, the most famed pos- 
 session of the Jews, the scene of many of the most interesting 
 events in scripture history, and the scat of ten Roman cities, 
 giving the name of Decapolis to the region in which they were 
 placed, all warm his imagination into more luxuriant and ani- 
 mated description than he is in the habit of indulging in." 
 
 " We now take our leave of Mr. Buckingham, feeling as- 
 sured that it is only necessary to draw the attention of the 
 
 public towards his work, to make them anxious to judge of it 
 for themselves, marked as it is by research, impartiality, and a 
 sober simplicity of style, which makes amends for the absence 
 of more attractive graces. " 
 
 The Britieh Review, which yields to none in its rigjd 
 criticism of all works on scriptural subjects (being under- 
 stood to be edited by a body of divines of the Church of 
 England,) has the following paragraphs : — 
 
 " Dissatisfied with the imperfect results of the labours of 
 preceding travellers, and persuaded that he can add something 
 new to our local acquaintance with the country of Judea and 
 its interesting relations, Mr. Buckingham offers to the accept- 
 ance of the public the elegant volume of which we are now to 
 give some account to our readers." 
 
 "At this period, the travels announced in the present volume 
 commenced ; and the preceding abstract of his introductory nar- 
 rative, as well as every page of his elegant and interesting 
 volume, will show that he undertook them possessed of that 
 ardour in the pursuit of inquiry, that fortitude of mind, physical 
 strength, competent knowledge of the native languages, and, 
 above all, that intimate acquaintance with the national habits 
 and religion of the people with whom he was about to associate, 
 and that capacity of adapting himself to foreign manners which 
 are so essential to those who wish to explore a country lying 
 unhappily under the dominion of the Turks. " 
 
 " Mr. Buckingham bears testimony to the fidelity of Jose- 
 phus's description of this lake (Tiberias), the features of which, 
 he says, are drawn by the Jewish historian with an accuracy 
 that could only have been attained by one who had resided m 
 the country." 
 
 " Before we conclude this article, we cannot but advert to 
 'the contemptuous epithets which - Mr. Buckingham very libe- 
 rally pours forth in some of his strictures on the reputed holy 
 places, and on the gross and absurd impositions practised in 
 Palestine on the credulity of pilgrims and travellers. We con- 
 fess, that we could wish such epithets and remarks had been 
 omitted, as we have heard tliat they have been considered as 
 ' displaying a contempt for religion itself.' As, however, this 
 intelligent traveller, in his preface, disclaims any such intention, 
 we have (to borrow his own expression) * put the most favour- 
 able construction' upon the passages in question ; especially as 
 he has every where made a laudable application of his researches 
 to the elucidation of the Scriptures, and (as our extracts will 
 shew) has, in many instances, happily succeeded in throwing 
 much light on sacred geography," 
 
 Lastly, the reverend Samuel Burder, D.D. author of a 
 well-known work on the Illustrations of Scripture, which 
 has passed through several editions, and which evinces an 
 extent of reading on all subjects connected with the his- 
 tory, antiquities, and state ot Palestine, beyond all former 
 parallel ; his book being, indeed, a compendium of every 
 thing that is known on the subject in the writings of 
 ancient and modern geographers, critics, and travellers ; 
 expresses himself to the following effect, in a note to the 
 publishers, on returning the Travels in Palestine, which, 
 had been lent to him for perusal just as the book was 
 ready to issue from the press. The original note is now 
 in this country, having been inclosed to the author by a 
 friend in England, and is as follows : — 
 
 " Blr. Burder returns ' Buckingham's Travels in Palestine,' 
 with many thanks to Mr. R — for the perusal of it. He has 
 made many extracts from it for tlie new edition of the ' Oriental 
 Customs,' and his now work in continuation of it. He con- 
 siders Buckingham's Travels the very best book he ever perused 
 of the kind, and thinks it will stand high in the first rank of 
 tliat kind of literature. " 
 
 I was content to receive all these unsought encoiniiuns, 
 in humble gratitude and silent satisfaction at havingde- 
 served well of persons for whose judgment I was com- 
 pelled to entertain a feeling of respect. I would still 
 nave confined these complimentary and eulogistic expres- 
 sions to my own private circle, and have suffered them to 
 remain unnoticed, had not the rancorous spirit of The 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 603 
 
 Quarterly Review rendered it necessary to show that that 
 bigotted and insolent publication stood alone in its malig- 
 nant censures. In self-defence, therefore, I am constrained 
 to publish my own praises, as well as to show the sup- 
 porters of the work in India that they have a large ma- 
 jority of the most respectable opinions in favour of what 
 they deemed deserving their patronage, and that the poi- 
 son of The Quarterly is not without an antidote. The 
 other publications before enumerated have indeed re- 
 viewed the Travels, supporting their t)pinions by extracts 
 from the work itself, and not by bare assertion only : but 
 to show that The Quarterly wages no such honourable 
 warfare, it will be quite sufficient to give the article from 
 the " Index," in which the book is again noticed almost 
 as much at length as in the body of the Review itself, as 
 if to secure the unfavourable impressions of the reader 
 before he even entered on its perusal. In all critical 
 publications except The Quarterly, an Index is merely 
 meant to indicate where particular articles may be found, 
 without applying abusive epithets in every line ; but in 
 the Index here spoken of, there is almost as much abuse 
 and vilification as in the article to which it refers, a cir- 
 cumstance without a parallel perhaps in the history of 
 criticism, and which of itself is sufficient to show the ran- 
 corous spirit with which the whole is written, and conse- 
 quently to divest it of all claim to serious consideration. 
 This elegant specimen of impartiality and gentlemanly 
 candour is as follows : — 
 
 " Buckingham (J. S. ) Travels in Palestine, 394 — notice of 
 an egregious blunder in the title page of this work, ib. — re- 
 marks on the blunders in the preface, ib. 375 — geographical 
 blunders respecting the site of llamah, 375, 376, and Bosor,376 
 — specimens of liis ignorance and bookmaking, 377 — profane 
 and infidel allusions to the Scriptures, 378 — his account of tlie 
 lake of Tiberias, false, ib. — blundering account of the ruins of 
 Caesarea, 379, 380 — ignorance of Arabic, 380, S81 — incorrect 
 account of the convent at Jerusalem, 381 — illiberal disparage- 
 ment of Nathaniel Pearce, 382 — dishonourable conduct of 
 Mr. Buckingham towards his employers, and Mr. Bankes, ib. 
 note — arrival of the latter gentleman and of Mr. Bucldngham 
 at what the latter calls the ruins of Geraza, 383 — which, most 
 probably, are those of Pella, ib. 384. — blunders committed by 
 Mr. Buckingham in his account of the antiquities actually dis- 
 covered there, 385 — 387 — his plan of them, and transcripts of 
 inscriptions pilfered from Mr. Bankes, 387 — further specimens 
 of Mr. Buckingham's blunders, 388 — the ruins at Oomkais, 
 which he gives for those of Gamala, proved to be the ruins of 
 Gadara, 389 — remarks upon the ignorance displayed in his 
 plates, which are pilfered from those of former travellers, 390, 
 391." 
 
 On this tissue of censure and falsehood, so artfully 
 mixed up with each other, I shall only say that simple 
 assertion will not pass in India for proof, even from The 
 Quarterly Review; and I have it in my power to show 
 that the greater part of this is nothing more. It will not 
 be easy to persuade the Indian public, (nor I hope the 
 English community) that the editors of all the several 
 Reviews and Publications, before enumerated, are such 
 dolts and idiots as they must be if they are all wrong, and 
 The Quarterly alone is right. For myself, I feel that the 
 opinion of Dr. Middleton before publication, and that of 
 Dr. Burder after it, from their eminence as men of learn- 
 ing, piety, and great critical research, are worth those of 
 the whole of the Reviewers put together; but when the 
 approbation of such venerable and estimable critics as 
 these is joined to that of all the Reviewers who have no- 
 ticed the work, excepting only one : — when, moreover, the 
 disappointed rage of Messrs. Bankes, Muri-ay, and Gilford, 
 is so easily accounted for on other grounds than mere dif- 
 ference of opinion : the first being convicted from his own 
 letters of wilful falsehood ; the second from his own acts 
 of a breach of faith and breach of promise ; and the last 
 being ^rowd guilty of unpardonable ignorance on a sub- 
 
 ject on which he pretended to correct Dr. Clarke and 
 D'Anville, wholly unworthy a public reviewer : it is not 
 to be wondered at that they should spit forth their venom 
 in concert, and endeavour to decry that which they have 
 so much reason to dread. 
 
 For the present I shall be content to leave them to the 
 ignominious fate that is likely to await their share in this 
 transaction, and relying on the good sense of the public 
 to exercise their own judgment on this subject, submit 
 my reputation to that test of public opinion from which I 
 shall never shrink, and without which I should hold nei- 
 ther praise nor censure to be of any value. 
 
 I have to apologize to several of my correspondents for 
 a delay that must be still protracted another day, till I 
 have disposed of The Quarterly Review, and of Mr. 
 Bankes who fights behind its shield. I hope to do this 
 satisfactorily to-morrow, accompanied with documents, 
 which, when they are made as public in England as in 
 India, will put them both to shame. The multifarious 
 details inseparable from the management of a daily paper, 
 are most unfavourable to the critical accui-acy required in 
 a literary warfare like this, where I am called upon to 
 answer in a day, an article that it has taken the Reviewer 
 perhaps months to prepare, and to hunt him from shift to 
 shift, through pages of misquotation, misstatement, and 
 misrepresentation. But I shall not shrink from the con- 
 test, shackled though I am by the claims on every mo- 
 ment of my time : well-knowing that — 
 
 " Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just. 
 And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel. 
 Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted." 
 
 Though The Quarterly Review is perhaps the most 
 powerful antagonist by which I could be assailed, with its 
 favourite weapons of arrogance and abuse, it happens for- 
 tunately for me that the cause of my contest with it is the 
 one of all others in which 1 have ever been engaged, from 
 which I am sure to come out triumphant ; and if my con- 
 troversial labours have ever before entitled me to the 
 laurels of victory over literary or political opponents, 
 the present will, indeed, bring "crowning honoin's" 
 on my head . I regret the impossibility of getting relieved 
 from my daily duties so as to publish a volume on the 
 subject ; for many an accusing falsehood may be com- 
 pressed into a line, which it would require whole pages for 
 one defending himself to refute. As it is, however, I shall 
 find time and space to meet assertion with assertion, 
 oppose argument to arrogance; and out of their own 
 mouths to convict them of the basest and most unprin- 
 cipled falsehood and hypocrisy. 
 
 The foregoing observations were published in 
 the Calcutta Journal of the 1 3th of August, after 
 having a copy of The Quarterly Revievr in my 
 possession for about an hour on the 12th. The 
 Journal had not been issued many hours, however, 
 before a copy was sent me by a friend to make 
 such use of as I might require ; and being deter- 
 mined that not a moment should be lost, I suc- 
 ceeded in preparing my reply in the course of the 
 same day ; so that the article from The Quarterly, 
 and my refutation of its calumnies, both appeared 
 in the same Paper, on the following day. I shall 
 reprint them here, in the form in which they ap- 
 peared then ; hoping that the reader will make due 
 allowance for the hurried manner in which the Reply 
 was necessarily completed. The figures at the 
 commencement of the paragraphs will be referred 
 to in the Reply, for the more accurate indication 
 of the parts commented on. 
 4 H 2 
 
604 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 PROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, No. LII. 
 
 (Republished in the Calcutta Journal, Aug. 14. 1822.) 
 
 Travels in Palestine, through the Countries of Sashan 
 and Gilead, East of the River Jordan ; including a Visit to 
 the Cities of Geraza and Gamala, in the Decapolis. By 
 J. S. Buckingham, Member of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 
 and of the' Literary Societies of Madras and Bombay. 
 London, 4to. pp. 530. 1821. 
 
 1. It is a distinction reserved, we believe, for the work 
 before us, to display a blunder of the first magnitude upon 
 its title-page. The names of two ancient cities only {Ge- 
 raza and Gamala) are there set forth in capitals ; and of 
 these two, the one is certainly wrong, and the other doubt- 
 ful. We must, therefore, commence our strictures with 
 assuring — 'the member of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, 
 and of the Literary Societies at Madras and Bombay,' that 
 he, decidedly, was never at Gamala, and very possibly not 
 at Geraza, in the whole course of his journey. Such an 
 outset is not encouraging; but let us nevertheless follow 
 our traveller to his preface, where he presents us with 
 some choice flowers of rhetoric : we cull the first that 
 comes to hand: — 
 
 "Alexandria, at length, received me into her port ; and the 
 Pharos, the catacombs, Cleopatra's obelisk, and Pompey's pil- 
 lar, were all objects of youthful veneration, which I mow beheld 
 with correspondent pleasure. I ascended the Nile with the 
 Odyssey and Telemaque in either hand ; and Homer and Fene- 
 lon never interested me more than upon the banks of this sacred 
 stream.", 
 
 " The proud capital of the Khalifs, ' Misr, the mother of the 
 world,' ' Kahira, the victorious,* placed me amid the scenes of 
 oriental story ; the venerable pyramids carried me back to the 
 obscurity of ages which are immemorial. The ruins of Heliopo- 
 lis inspired the recollection of Pythagoras, and the Grecian 
 sages who had studied in its colleges ; and the hall of Joseph 
 brought before my v'levi the history of Abraham and his posterity, 
 of Moses and Pharaoh, and of all the subsequent events thai befel 
 the race of Israel." p. viii. 
 
 ' 2. to 5. Almost every one, without visiting Alexandria, 
 knows, what Mr. Buckingham, who has been there, it 
 seems, is ignorant of, that the ancient Pharos does not 
 exist, and that its vestiges are to be found only at the 
 bottom of the sea ! The Odyssey and Telemaque, it will 
 be admitted, were very singular guide-books upon the 
 Nile ; and we can hardly imagine what confusion of ideas 
 could recommend them as appropriate companions for 
 such a voyage ; they might, however, be sufficient for one 
 whose classical perceptions were so acute, as to enable 
 him to find ruins at Heliopolis, where a single obelisk still 
 erect, and a small spring still flowing, are the only indic- 
 ations, to ordinary travellers, of the site ; but when he 
 mistakes the Saracenic hall, built and named after one of 
 the Mahommedan governors of Egypt, not 800 years ago, 
 in the heart of a city that is itself but little older, for a 
 work of the patriarch Joseph, and the children of Israel, 
 we must in conscience absolve his guides, incompetent as 
 they are, and give the whole credit to himself. The in- 
 genious personage who confounded Alexander the Great 
 with Alexander the coppersmith, was but a feeble type 
 of our author. 
 
 6. The main object of the preface, he himself informs 
 us, is to give us some measure and standard of his quali- 
 fications as a traveller and writer ! Upon these, he en- 
 larges with an amiable complacency, as conceiving himself 
 one destined, and even in a manner 'compelled^ under 
 the penalty of ' reproach, to add to the common fund of 
 human knowledge ; and ' one to whom the Periplus of the 
 Erythrean sea offered a fine field for commentary and cor- 
 rection.' We admit, however, that the preface affords a 
 fair sample of the work, which, like that, is made up of 
 very large phrases, and very small facts, with a copious 
 
 admixture of extracts from some authors -which are in 
 every body's hands, and of the hard names of some others 
 which, we are very sure, were never in Mr. Buckingham's; 
 insomuch that we were constantly reminded of that first 
 of ' cosmogonists,' the celebrated Mr. Jenkinson, and 
 looked forward with anxious expectation for the names of 
 Sanchoniathon and Berosus. These, however, do not ap- 
 pear: but that of Quaresimus (which is found in the 
 second paragraph) frequently occurs in his erudite refer- 
 ences, although there is internal evidence that he has not 
 read this author, in a gross mistake which he could not 
 have committed had he ever consulted him : a mistake 
 into which it is hard to conceive how any person could 
 fall, who has actually visited the Holy Land. At Ramlah, 
 or Ramah,* in his way from Jaffa to Jerusalem, he enters 
 into a long disquisition to prove this to be the birth-place 
 and burial-place of the prophet Samuel. Now, so far as 
 the site of any place in scripture geography is identified, 
 the Ramah of Samuel is, and has always been, perfectly 
 well known. It lies almost as wide from this place as 
 Jerusalem itself does, being on the left hand of the road 
 from the holy city into Samaria, and standing so con- 
 spicuously on an eminence, that any one of the monks 
 (' ignorant' as he represents them to be) could have 
 pointed it out from the convent at Jerusalem. The pro- 
 phet's tomb is there shown in a mosque, and held in vener- 
 ation by both Christians and Mahommedans. All this he 
 might have found in Quaresimus; he might have found it, 
 too, at some length in Pococke, whose name he frequent- 
 ly introduces without the slightest acquaintance with his 
 work, unless perhaps with his margin and his index ; and 
 the reason that these have been of no avail to him in the 
 present instance, is, that the place in question is not 
 now called Ramah, but simply Samuele. An error in 
 name is fatal to one who relies on an index, but not to 
 one who peruses an author. 
 
 7. 8. Mr. Buckingham does not appear to be very 
 scrupulous in examining the sense of his extracts, since 
 we frequently find him setting down a passage in his note 
 that makes directly against some sagacious conclusion in 
 his text ; as p. 335. where, anxious to identify a village 
 called Boorza, with the Bosor of the Maccabees, he sub- 
 joins a Latin sentence, in which Bosor is termed a city of 
 the Moabites, ^^hereas hehas just told us that he was now 
 in the land of Bashan. At p. 323. he and his own witness 
 are at issue upon a point of a similar nature ; thus he 
 either convicts his authorities of error, or himself, and 
 we shall hardly be disposed to balance long between them. 
 In order to establish that Emmaus was near to Gamala, 
 he brings forward (p. 434.) a passage from Josephus, 
 which neither says nor implies any such thing; and we 
 can venture to assure him that Vespasian, in passing from 
 one to the other, must have marched round nearly one 
 half of the lake of Tiberias, (the two places lying on oppo- 
 site sides of it,) and that the hot springs, in favour of 
 which this notable extract is introduced, have no more 
 relation to Emmaus, than the city, at whose feet they lie, 
 has to Gamala. The complicated ignorance and absur- 
 dity of the following illustration will not easily be match- 
 ed. Good wine from Libanus was, it seems, set before 
 him at Nazareth. This simple fact provokes the follow- 
 ing gratuitous information : — • 
 
 * Ramah is said, by St. Jerome, to be in the tribe of Ben- 
 jamin, seven miles distant from Jerusalem, near to Gibea of 
 Saul, and not far from Bethel ; all of which circumstances cor- 
 respond with that place now pointed out, (as well as his inter- 
 pretation of Ramah in Hebrew, i. e. high); but not one will 
 tally with Ramlah (Arimathea,) which is three or four times 
 farther from Jerusalem, is not in Benjamin, nor near to Be- 
 thel, and stands low. The passage is in St. Jerome's Com- 
 mentary on Hosea. 
 
 The meaning of the word Ramlah, Mr. Buckingham's Asiatic 
 scholarship should have taught him, is not '/ligA' but ' sand.' 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 605 
 
 " It seems to have been peculiar to the Nazauites to suffer 
 their hair to grow long, and to abstain from the use of udnef on 
 making a sacred vow ; and the story of Delilah, and Samson, 
 who was a Nazarub, is/amiliar to all." 
 
 9. Nazarite, this critical inquirer takes for granted, 
 must mean a native of Nazareth ! but there is yet no dan- 
 ger of his reader being deceived, since he makes, as usual, 
 his appeal to a testimony that contradicts him ; for all to 
 
 .whom the story of Samuel is familiar, well knovp that he 
 was of Zorah, and had no connection whatever with 
 Nazareth; and that consequently a Nazarite is not a 
 Nazarean. This mode of producing evidence against 
 himself really spares us so much trouble, that we cannot 
 feel too grateful for it. 
 
 10. His field of compilation is not, however, confined to 
 the writers of antiquity — ' as the storm drives at any door 
 he knocks." Nearly six pages (367— 373.) are allotted to a 
 paper 'by an anonymous author in the Gentleman's 
 Magazine j' and we know not whether we owe it to the 
 ignorance of Mr. Urban's ingenious Correspondent, or to 
 his own, or to both, that he writes ' Arena,' for Podium, 
 in his details of a theatre ; and Pirceum more than once 
 for the Pirwus of Athens. 
 
 10. We shall not be accused of bestowing an undue 
 share of attention on the examination of the nature of 
 Mr. Buckingham's citations, when we inform the reader 
 
 , that they occupy the full half of the volume. The day, 
 however, is happily gone by when such a mode of book- 
 making could pass upon the world for learning. Pedan- 
 try is not the name for it, because that seems to imply 
 something, at least of erudition and research; whereas 
 this is that sort of fitting on of ready-made extracts from 
 indexes and margins, and gazetteers, and magazines, which 
 is the legitimate resource of provincial guide-books, and 
 tours to lakes and watering-places, where it is easy to gain 
 a few pages by setting out from ' the Druids, and the An- 
 cient Britons, and Boadicca.' This class of literature, it 
 fortunately does not fall within our province to notice ; 
 but we can hardly suppress our disgust when we find this 
 beggarly process introduced into the classic and holy re- 
 gions of the East, and obtruded upon our notice in the 
 pages of a quarto volume. 
 
 11. There is yet a charge of a more serious nature 
 which lies against this work, and which we will simply 
 preface with an extract from the author's introductory 
 observations : — 
 
 " At every step of a traveller's progress through Palestine, 
 his indignation is so roused by attempted impositions on his 
 judgment, and sometimes even on his senses, that his warm ex- 
 pression of it, in pouring forth epithets of contempt for such 
 absurdities, may sometimes be conceived to display a contempt 
 for religion itself. " 
 
 ** Whenever the render meets with such 2>assnges, he is intreated, 
 in the true spirit of that Christian charity ' which is not easily 
 jjrovoked, which thijtketh no etnl, which heareth all things, believeth 
 all things, hopeth all things, crediteth all things' to put iJie most 
 fauourable construction on ttte passage that ii wi/l bear ; and if 
 
 THE BEST OF THESE IS BAD, TO PASS IT BY. " 
 
 '* There are some anecdotes detailed, more particularly those 
 witnessed at Jerusalem, which may be thought also unfit for the 
 public eye, but they are too descriptive of the state of manners 
 there to be wholly omitted. If I have given a colouring to 
 these, which is not in conformity vjith the reigning taste, I request 
 the reader to pass them over in silence also, and attribute both 
 these defects rather to my ignorance of tlie state of public feeling 
 on tltese subjects, among my own countrymen, from having mixed 
 much more with foreigners, than to any wish to shock the pre- 
 judices of the one class, or the delicacy of the other. " p. xviii. 
 
 Decency and piety, then, are conceived by Mr. Bucking- 
 ham to be mere matters of local fashion and convention ; 
 and should the reigning taste not revolt at it, he holds an 
 author fully justified in disregarding both ! He does, in- 
 deed, (in a wanton profanation of one of the most tender 
 
 and beautiful passages of Scripture), obligingly invite lis ' to 
 pass over such passages as offend.' As readers,we possibly 
 might; as reviewers, we cannot : and we have found ac- 
 cordingly, as he had led us to expect, a sneering and irre- 
 verent tone in almost every paragraph where matters con- 
 nected with sacred history are spoken of, and this upon 
 those spqts the most calculated to inspire very opposite 
 sentiments in a well-regulated mind. Not unfrequently 
 we detect him covertly aiming a side-blow at the miracles 
 of the gospel. 
 
 " This lake (of Tiberias), like the Dead Sea, with which it 
 communicates, is, for the same reason, never violently agitated 
 for any length of time. The same local features, however, render 
 it occasionally subject to whirlwinds, squalls, and sudden gusts 
 from the hollow of the mountains, which, as in every other 
 similar basin, are of momentary duration, and the most furious 
 gust is instantly succeeded by a calm." — p.468. (Note.) " And 
 they launched forth : but as they sailed, Jesus fell asleep, and 
 there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were 
 filled with water and were in jeopardy, and they came to him 
 and awoke him, and said. Master, Master, we perish : and he 
 rebuked the wind, and the raging of the sea, and theke was a 
 CALM. — Luke, chap. viii. " 
 
 The drift and intention of this commentary cannot be 
 mistaken, but the assertion itself is untrue ; since, first of all, 
 there are not the same causes of stillness in the waters of 
 this lake as in that of the Dead Sea, whose specific gravity 
 is so much greater, that it has been proved, by recent ex- 
 periment, that persons unable to swim elsewhere, v/iU 
 actually float upon their surface : the ridges of moun- 
 tains, also, that border the Dead Sea, are higher, and more 
 continuous, and nearer to the margin ; so that there are 
 fewer directions in which the winds can act upon it ; while 
 the effects from the snows on Libanus and Antilibanus, 
 which are so near as to be sensibly felt at Tiberias, are too 
 remote to extend to the other. These constitute very 
 broad lines of distinction ; and the fact is, that the lake of 
 Tiberias is as subject as other lakes to violent and continued 
 agitation, especially by winds blowing from the snowy 
 summits to the northward ; and whoever has seen the 
 waves of the Lago di Garda, or even of Como, under such 
 circumstances, will not talk slightingly either of the force • 
 or duration of a freshwater tempest. 
 
 We have not room to comment upon the traveller's 
 very tender and pathetic parting from his ' tried and well- 
 loved' friends at Alexandria, which he terms 'the most painful 
 of all Gui'LihEss feelings,' nor upon the thirty-two succeed- 
 ing pages, which are consumed in a passage by sea, from 
 Egypt to Syria, enlivened as they are with the customary 
 ingredient of a storm ; and shall therefore pass at once to 
 themiddleof the volume, where we first find him attached 
 to Mr. Bankes's expedition. All that precedes, is drawn 
 from Maundrel, Le Bruyn, Dr. Clarke, or the Gazetteer, 
 with the exception of a few embellishments and errors, 
 which are the writer's own. 
 
 12. We have early opportunities of remarking a rare 
 degree of architectural and antiquarian sagacity. At Tyre, 
 an aqueduct ttpon arches is ascribed to the time of the 
 Macedonian conquest J it is, indeed, modestly termed : — 
 
 ''Merely a conjecture that both the fountain and the aqueduct 
 are the work of the same lofty and magnificent genius who con- 
 nected the Island of Tyre, like that of Clazomenaa, in the Gulph 
 of Smyrna, to the Continent, and whose works of grandeur, 
 made subservient to public utility, soften, in some degree, the 
 darker shades of his all-conquering character." 
 
 13. to 16. He is still more fortunate in his discovery of 
 ' Canaanitish remains in the ditch at Acre.' Whether it was 
 the circumstance, alone, of their being in the ' ditch,' which 
 led to this conclusion, he has not given us the means of 
 knowing; and has thus left us with a painful misgiving 
 upon our minds, that we may possibly ourselves have oc- 
 casionally seen such ' Canaanitish remains,' without once 
 suspecting it. Our faith, howsver. in his antiquarian re- 
 
606 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ferences is somewhat shaken, by observing how short a 
 time he adheres to them himself. He says (p. 137.) of Cae- 
 sarea, ' the fort itself, as it stands, is evidentlv a work of 
 the Crusaders :' — two pages afterwards, describing a ruin 
 at El Mukhelid (Antipatns), he tells us that it ' showed 
 equally good masonry with that of the Fort of C^esarea, 
 THE STYLE OF WHICH IT RESEMBLED, and then goes On to 
 enlarge upon a tower called ' Aphek,' by Josephus (mis- 
 conceiving this to have stood at Antipatris *), and con- 
 cludes, that ' the portion of the fortified building which 
 still exists here, may be the remains of the identical build- 
 ing.' Thus of two structures, the style of which he himself 
 observed to be similar, he would ascribe the one to the 
 Crusaders, and the other to we know not whom, before 
 the reign of Nero ! Whatever objections there may be, 
 however, to his inductions, two grand architectural dis- 
 coveries in two buildings, which we had conceived to be 
 sufBciently well-known, are enough to establish his repu- 
 tation. _ The dome of St. Pauls is said to be of the same 
 form with that of the great mosque at Jerusalem, that is to 
 say, it contracts and curves inwards towards the bottom, 
 a fact of which Sir Christopher Wren was not, we believe, 
 aware : and ' a pair of stone doors (he assures us) are still 
 hanging in the Pantheon at Rome !'t 
 
 17. As he seems to have had no suspicion that the ex- 
 isting walls at Csesai-ea do not coincide with those of the 
 Roman city, we are not surprised to find him asserting, 
 that the 'forum, theatre, &c.' are not 'distinguishable;' 
 whereas, had he strayed but a few paces beyond their cir-. 
 cuit to the southward (if he knows the form of a Roman 
 theatre at all), he would very plainly have distinguished 
 one. But we should weary the reader were we to enter 
 into the wide field of all that he did not see, and did not 
 inquire for. Neither have his inquiries (when he did make 
 them) led to very accurate information. He says (p. 90.), 
 that ' the very ruins which remained of the house of St. 
 Anna (at Sepphoury) had been entirely demolished :' 
 whereas they then were, and probably still are, in precisely 
 the same state as when visited by Dr. Clarke. 
 
 18. Our author would have us believe (p. 213.) that he 
 understood and spoke Arabic better than Mr. Bankes's in- 
 terpreter, who, he himself tells us, had made the pilgrimage 
 to Mecca and Medina, and who, we happen to know, had 
 been resident several years at Caii'o, and married to a 
 wife there who spoke Arabic only. So high a degree of 
 proficiency must (one would have supposed) have ensui'ed 
 great accuracy in all that he tells us of the local customs 
 of the country. Did he then at Caypha, make no inqui- 
 ries ? or did his Arabic scholarship extend no farther than 
 a few stammering names for the mere necessaries of life ? 
 The population of Caypha he says, (p, 1 1 5.) being made up 
 of Mahommedans, Christians, and Druses, the women of 
 the last-named sect are distinguishable from both the 
 others by a horn worn upon their heads, and from those 
 also of their own persuasion upon Mount Libanus by the 
 fashion of pointing it backwards instead of forward. Now 
 as far as accuracy is of any value in such trifling details, 
 here are, at least, three false statements. First, though 
 Druses do frequent the markets, both of Acre and Caypha, 
 they form no part of the population of either, and any 
 
 * This Aphek was, from the context of the passage in Jo- 
 sephus, a place quite distinct from Antipatris, and apparently 
 in the road from thence to Lydda. The king of Aphek is 
 enumerated among those whom Joshua smote, (Josh. xii. 18.) 
 and Apheca is spoken of, Joshua xv. 5., as allotted to the tribe 
 of Judab ; Xlvfyos should be rendered here, therefore, not a 
 tower, but a fortress, or strong hold. It is, probably, in the 
 same acceptation of the word, that 'Z'rptt.ruvo^ Tvpyos was the 
 name of the place upon whose site Cesarea was afterwards 
 founded. 
 
 f These two curious particulars will be found in pages 
 205. and 298. 
 
 women seen there wearing the horn, were most certainly 
 not natives of the place : secondly, this could not serve to 
 distinguish the Druse women from the Christians ; since, in 
 every village where the two sects are intermixed (and 
 there are very few on Mount Libanus where they are not), 
 this form of head-dress obtains equally with those of both 
 religions : and thirdly, in the different districts of Libanus, 
 the horn is worn in every direction in which it is possible 
 to protrude it ; to the front, to the back, to the right side, 
 to the left, and in every fanciful variation of obliquity. 
 
 1 9. Our accomplished traveller (designated, as he tells 
 us he was, by the prior of Nazareth, as ' Milord Inglese, 
 richissimo, affabilissimo, edanche dottissimo') repays the com- 
 pliment of the fathers to his learning, by continually harp- 
 ing upon their lamentable ignorance. We must remind 
 him, however, that ignorant as those monks may be, there 
 are many points upon which it is not probable, and some 
 upon which it is not even possible, that they can be so ill- 
 informed as himself. For instance, when he is willing, at 
 Jerusalem, to bring before us no very decorous picture of 
 their manners and morals, he introduces us to the cook of 
 the convent, not at all aware that the said cook was (and 
 is always) simply a servant of the society, and a layman, 
 wearing the habit, so that it is just as judicious in him to 
 give us the details of this cook (even supposing them to be 
 true) as a sample of the lives of the friars, as it would be 
 
 _in a foreigner to cite as a picture of an Oxford education, 
 the incidental view of a scout tippling in an ale-house, 
 
 20. Whilst we remark so much ignorance as to the in- 
 ternal economy of the convents where he resided, we give 
 full credit to the penetration manifested in discovering, 
 among its external dependencies, what is delicately termed 
 (p. 245.) 'the brothel of the Catholic monk's; — an establish- 
 ment, of which we are assured, that travellers who have 
 been often at Jerusalem, and long resident there, had 
 never the good fortune to hear before. On his amour 
 with the Abyssinian lady, ' which was so conducted that,' 
 as the fortunate object of her passion himself tells us (and 
 as we are inclined to believe), 'it could not be perceived 
 even by those who were in the same room at the time,* 
 we should have made no comment, had it not given occa- 
 sion for his speaking in terms of disparagement of poor 
 Nathaniel Pearce, whom he represents as a ' common 
 sailor, who could hardly read.' That Pearce had been a 
 common sailor is true, but he was very far from being a 
 common man; and not only could he read, and that in 
 French as well as in English, but he wrote a very beautiful 
 hand. He has left behind him journals of all that passed 
 during his long residence in Abyssinia, which, when given 
 to the press, as we trust they will be, by Mr. Salt, to whose 
 care he bequeathed them, will, perhaps, throw more light 
 upon the actual state of that singular country than any 
 other work that has been written. Gladly would we ex- 
 change ten such quartos as this, go/ up by this 'member of 
 so many flourishing literary societies,' for a few pages from 
 this ' common sailor ivho could hardly read.' 
 
 The charge of ' low origin and ignorance' (with however 
 odd a grace it may come from such a quarter) is not re- 
 stricted to Nathaniel Peai'ce ; two respectable Germans, 
 who seem to have committed no other offence than that 
 of having been assisted by Mr. Bankes, in the very same 
 manner as the writer himself was almost immediately after- 
 wards, are described as ' young men, who were evidently 
 persons of low origin and confined education, and their man- 
 ners WERE DECIDEDLY VULGAR,' 'Although travelling (he 
 indignantly adds) without any professed object beyond 
 their own pleasure, they were both so poor and destitute 
 as to SUFFER Mr. Bankes to pay their expenses.' It is to 
 be hoped that Mr. Buckingham does not intend to upbraid 
 them, in this place, with a degree of sufferance, vrhich he 
 soon found it convenient to imitate, more especially as we 
 have the best assurances, that these young men neither 
 violated the confidence of any employers to whdm they 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 607 
 
 were responsible *, nor abused the indulgence of their 
 benefactor, by procuring tracings from his papers, in order 
 to turn them afterwards to account. 
 
 On entering upon the journey beyond Jordan, to which 
 we have more than once referred, it may not be amiss to 
 premise, that the term we, which, up to this place, must 
 be shared between the writer, his muleteer, and an old man 
 from Tocat, henceforward signifies himself and Mr.Bankes, 
 he having generously allowed that gentleman to become 
 the associate of his labours. We acquit him, however, of 
 deriving any material benefit from such assistance ; since, 
 whatever he may have drawn from that source, he has 
 made his own by such a felicity of misapprehension, and 
 overlaid with such a cumbrous drapery of fustian and 
 common place citation, that we believe it would be very 
 hard for his companion to recognise much of his own, ex- 
 cepting the groundworks of what he has given as his plans, 
 which have also undergone their full share of erabellish- 
 , ment for effect. 
 
 21. Our travellers, having crossed the Jordan, found 
 themselves, on the fourth day, among the ruins of Jerash, 
 which Mr. Buckingham assumes (upon no other grounds 
 than the resemblance of name) to be those of Geraza ; and 
 turning to his geographical dictionary, pours out upon us 
 all that he can find there about that obscure city : this 
 dictionary, unfortunately, did not furnish him with the 
 only passage that gives any colour to the supposition that 
 it really was Geraza. 
 
 In the mean time, many concurring circumstances might 
 appear rather to fix Fella at this spot. First, that city 
 being much oftener mentioned in history than Geraza, it 
 seems reasonable to presume that it was more considerable. 
 The geographical position would correspond sufficiently 
 well. Pella was termed ' civitas aquarum.' The fine 
 spring rising in the heart of these splendid ruins (no 
 ordinary appendage in those climates) accords well with 
 such a designation ; but, above all, a feature in the remains 
 there which Mr. Buckingham (inconceivable as it is) has 
 totally overlooked, gives a very strong presumption upon 
 that side. There exist the ruins of seven or eight Christian 
 churches, more or less preserved, some with crosses and 
 legendary inscriptions on them. It was to Pella that the 
 Christians retired, when the holy city was besieged by 
 Titus ; and they established themselves there, and called it 
 the New Jerusalem. No such thing is recorded of Geraza ; 
 
 * Mr, Buckingham had undertaken to carry letters for a mer- 
 cantile Ijouse to India, over land, by the most direct and expe- 
 ditious route, and with all attention to economy, the firm agree- 
 ing, on their part, to bear his expenses. From the first mo- 
 ment, however, of his setting foot in Asia, we find him act- 
 ing as if both his time and funds were his ov/n. How he may 
 have since arranged matters with his tried and well hvedfriends 
 at Alexandria, we know not ; but this we do know, that so soon 
 as his conduct reached their ears, Mr. Barker, the British con- 
 sul at Aleppo, was authorized to take from him the dispatches, 
 and to dismiss him ; and that he being now already on his way 
 to Bagdat, a Tartar was sent expressly after him for his recall, 
 but died accidentally upon the road f So that it is to the timely 
 death of this Tartar that ' the Asiatic Societies at Calcutta, 
 and Literary Societies at Madras and Bombay,' are indebted 
 for their distinguished member. 
 
 His transactions with Mr. Bankes seem to have been an 
 episode in his plan ; we have not only the statement of that 
 gentleman with respect to them, but have seen also the deposi- 
 tion upon oath, of his servants, (the same who are spoken of in 
 this work,) tliat Mr. Buckingham bore no part whatever either 
 in the dispositions or the expences of the journey beyond Jor- 
 dan, &c.; that he never made a single sketch during this time, 
 nor had materials for doing so, and has, moreover, been heard 
 to lament his inability ; that the plan, which is the ground- 
 work of that hero given of Djerash, was made by Mr. Bankes, 
 and traced, by his permission, at a window of the convent of 
 Nazareth by Mr. Buckingham, upon a direct promise that it 
 should not be published ! 
 
 and so great a number of considerable Christian edifices 
 seems to offer additional ground for placing Pella here. 
 
 22. That Pella and Geraza were places distinct from 
 each other, there are abundant passages to prove. We 
 have stated the pretensions of Pella. Upon the side of 
 Geraza, we know but of one passage that makes it at all 
 probable that these are its remains. It is that in which 
 AmmianusMarcellinusjpraises the wallsof Geraza, coupling 
 them with those of Bostra. It is surprising, that Mr. 
 Buckingham should have missed this passage, since it 
 might be found in the index to Gibbon. To have been 
 coupled at all with Bostra, proves Geraza to have been a 
 place of some consequence. The walls remaining at 
 Jerash are worthy of the commendation bestowed on those 
 of Geraza ; and as there are no others at all comparable 
 to them within that district of the Decapolis, which must 
 certainly have included this city, this may, perhaps, strike 
 the balance upon that side, especially as it is doubtfijl 
 whether Pella was walled. Should this evidence, coupled 
 with the similarity of name, be deemed decisive, we are 
 left in full possession of the surprise which it must occa- 
 sion, to find ruins of an extent and multiplicity almost 
 without parallel, at a place of which history has recorded 
 so little beyond its bare existence. 
 
 23. Let us now see how our traveller acquits himself in 
 the description of those extraordinary remains. At the 
 outset (p. 343.), in his notices on the triumphal arch, we 
 find him retailing an observation, which it is fair to suppose 
 not his own, as it is very evident that he does not under- 
 stand it. ' This bore (he says), a striking resemblance to the 
 work seen in the ruined city of Antinoe, in Upper Egypt.' 
 He does not inform us by whom it was seen, or what was 
 the nature of the work. This is very guarded we must 
 allow; but the fact is, that the resemblance which he 
 heard cited was not in the ' work ;' it was in that peculiar 
 and florid taste only of decorating the lower part of the 
 shafts of Corinthian columns with foliage, of which there 
 are a few very large and striking examples at Antinoe, 
 which, if our author had ever walked through those ruins 
 he must have seen and remembered. 
 
 24. to 26. We cannot refrain from noticing, in passing, 
 the audacious imposition attempted upon the reader, in 
 referring him to ' the vignette at the head of the chapter^ as 
 to a view of this triumphal arch. We have not ascertained 
 from what obsolete work this pretended view is purloined ; 
 it is not among Le Bruyn's, to whom we have traced 
 almost all the others; but we have only to confront the 
 print with his own description, and the ground-plan given, 
 to be satisfied that Mr. Buckingham is not in possession of 
 any sketch whatever made on the spot, and of the impos- 
 sibility of its having any resemblance. Over each of the 
 'side arches for foot passengers,' he says, was 'an open 
 square window,' and that 'as all the columns were broken 
 near their tops the crowning capitals were not seen ;' and he 
 adds, that ' the frieze was destroyed.* Upon turning to the 
 vignette, we find two out of four of the ' crowning capitals' 
 (as he terms them) still in their places : there is nothing 
 that the most ignorant could possibly describe as 'an open 
 square window over the side arches ;' and the frieze is very 
 entire! The next point to which he comes he calls a 
 naumachia, because he found that word marked upon the 
 plan from which he traced. The form itself was sufficient 
 to denote it for a stadium, and it was only necessary, upon 
 so hasty a draught as this seems to have been, to note 
 down the peculiarity of its being occasionally floated for 
 aquatic exhibitions: but our unfortunate friend had no 
 notion that a naumachia might, possibly, be exhibited in a 
 circus.* Be this, however, as it may, it is clear that he 
 never looked at it on the spot; since he says, (358.) 
 ' there are no appearances of seats or benches for the 
 
 * Calpurnius mentions, that he had seen such exhibitions 
 in the Circus Maximus at Rome. 
 
608 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 spectators :' whereas, we believe, that there is no other 
 circus known (excepting, perhaps, one at Laodicea), where 
 the seats are so well preserved as they are in this. ' Nor 
 (as he confidently assures us) are there any conclusive ap- 
 pearances of there having been any other than these two 
 entrances to the city.' We venture, in all humility, to 
 suggest that fhere are four, all principal gates. Again, ' in 
 the centre, or nearly so, of this central space, was a noble 
 PALACE, probably the residence of the governor.' This is to 
 be in luck ! The edifice of which he is speaking, is the great 
 propylaeum to the temple on the hill, probably the most 
 entire example of that kind of structure extant. He de- 
 scribes (356.) ' an aqueduct that crossed the stream upon 
 arches' There is not any such thing, nor any necessity 
 for one ; what he mistook for it, is a tall bridge, over 
 which passes the great transverse street of the city. 
 
 On what he terms ' the most imposing edifice among 
 all the ruins /or size,' (which it is not,) we have the fol- 
 lowing passage : — 
 
 " Tlie impression which the noble aspect of this building 
 made on us, as we beheld it from every quarter of the city, was 
 such, that WE both constantly called it the temple of ' Jupiter,' 
 in our conversation and in our notes. This was done without 
 our ever suggesting the propriety of the title to each other, 
 without our having sought for any reason to justify its adoption, 
 or at all arguing the claim in our minds." (.382.) 
 
 All this may be very true, so far as respects Mr. Buck- 
 ingham, who appears to have echoed what he heard, with- 
 out knowing why or wherefore. But we may very safely 
 take upon ourselves to hint to him, what his companion's 
 reason was. Vitruvius assigns such elevated situations as 
 command a view of nearly the whole circuit of the walls, 
 to the temples of the tutelary deities; and of these he 
 enumerates Jupiter as the first; whilst of temples conti- 
 guous to theatres, he says, that they should be dedicated 
 to Apollo or Bacchus. There are but two principal tem- 
 ples at Jerash : the one almost abutting on a theatre ; the 
 other, of which he is speaking, detached and central, and 
 on such an eminence as to command an uninterrupted 
 view of the whole walls ; it was natural in any one, con- 
 versant with this passage, and wanting names on the spot 
 to distinguish the one from the other, in speaking of them, 
 to term this the temple of Jupiter ; though, we cannot 
 conceive, that Mr. Bankes could have had the ill taste to 
 assume his conjecture for a fact, and boldly give it this 
 title upon two ground-plans. But there is nothing so po- 
 sitive as ignorance. We have to remark, on the pre- 
 tended ground-plan of this temple, (p. 382.) first, that 
 there are no doors (as there given) opening from the ex- 
 terior to the back of the cells, either in this or in any other 
 temple ; secondly, that there is not the least appearance 
 of there having been any peristyle ; and thirdly, we must 
 suggest, that it is one of the ' curious felicities' of our 
 author's mode of observation, that he uniformly, in 
 describing it, represents this as much the largest of the 
 temples, whereas it happens not to be so in any one re- 
 spect, but inferior to that near the theatre, in every pro- 
 portion, by at least a third. 
 
 27. He has also mistaken a portion of the city wall for 
 a military guard-house, and a Christian church in the val- 
 ley for a Corinthian temple ! but all the stores of his 
 learning are lavished on the details of the theatre. Ho 
 has astonished us with a discovery, that ' the theatre of 
 Bacchus at Athens was called Hecatompedon.' (367.) We 
 were taught,or asit now appears, raistaught, at school, that 
 this designation belonged not to the Theatre of Bacchus, 
 but the Temple of JVlinerva. With such exactness does 
 he give us the dimensions of the seats, and other minutia; 
 of the ' Hecatompedon' Theatre at Athens, that it may be 
 some disappointment to him to learn, that no such edifice 
 exists, nor did exist there ' upwards of two centuries ago,' 
 Vhen he tells us that it was measured. A smooth turf 
 
 then covered, as it does now, the site of the Theatre of 
 Bacchus ■; and the only theatre existing there, that of He- 
 rodes Atticus, had not seats in it, when Spon and Wheeler 
 saw it, any more than it has now, so that neither will 
 that serve his turn. He, however, balances his accounts 
 with theatres ; for while he ascribes to one at Athens what 
 it has not, he suppresses in one at Jerash what it has, both 
 describing and engraving one of those there without any 
 proscenium ! 
 
 28. Besides quoting the two ingenious anonymous 
 writers in the Gentleman's Magazine,' (one of whom treats 
 by-the-bye, not of theatres, but of an amphitheatre, and 
 measures the seats at Nismes, where there are not any,) he 
 has the courage to extract very largely from De la Gfuil- 
 letierre's Travels. He could not possibly have made a 
 more appropriate choice. We know of no book of tra-' 
 vels to which we can ?o well compare his own as to this of 
 De la Guilletierre. Dr. Spon published, so long ago as 
 1679, a catalogue of 112 errors in that little volume, re- 
 plete as it is with disquisitions and learning, after the man- 
 ner of Mr. Buckingham. One broad line of distinction 
 we must, indeed, admit, and that is, that on the one 
 hand it has been pretty satisfactorily made out that no 
 such person as this De la Guilletierre ever existed; 
 whereas the house of Briggs, at Alexandria, we believe, 
 and Mr. Bankes, could furnish evidence of the reality of 
 Mr. Buckingham.* 
 
 The ground-plan given of Jerash is founded on a tracing 
 obtained from Mr. Bankes at Nazareth t; but so little did 
 the borrower comprehend what he copied, that, hasty and 
 incorrect as the original necessarily was, its errors are 
 multiplied tenfold, both on the general plate, and in those 
 of separate edifices, which are only enlarged from it. 
 There is a zeal for deception in this, altogether extraordi- 
 nary, for the alteration is systematic, and not accidental. 
 In this general plan, when reduced to the size of a quarto 
 page, it was found that the individual buildings would 
 make but little figure if kept to their proportions, and 
 perhaps disappoint expectation. The precaution has, 
 therefore, been taken of exaggerating all in a twofold and 
 threefold, and some even in a sixfold proportion, and up- 
 wards. He has himself given us a scale for detecting this, 
 by telling us that the length of the city is about 5,000 feet. 
 If what he is pleased to call the greatest temple (which is, 
 in reality, the second only) be compared with this scale, it 
 will appear to be of larger dimensions than any existing 
 temple in the world ; and some of the arched vaultings in 
 the bath would prove, by the same proportion, to be at 
 least one hundred and fifty feet in the span. And yet this 
 
 * It may possibly have been the adroit manner in which 
 the ' supposed traveller' represents himself to have made use of 
 some Englishman whom he met, and joined company with, that 
 has so charmed our author, as to make him almost identify him 
 with himself during several pages. ' BIy fellow travellers sup- 
 plied me, and all things went on very well, and very honour- 
 ably for me ;' * however, I would needs have it thought that I 
 borrowed it only, though, perhaps, they might have given it as 
 well.' — Athens, Ancient and Modern, by M. de la Guille- 
 tierre, p. 6. 
 
 f Of his plate of inscriptions, he says, ' these inscription"! 
 were given by Mr, Burckhardt to Mr. Bankes, as well as to 
 myself This we know to be totally false, so far as respects 
 himself, and that he obtained them only from a transcript 
 In the margin of Mr, Bankes's ground-plan, who, not wish- 
 ing to hazard the loss of the originals in a dangerous jour- 
 ney, had copied them on tii&t paper for the purpose of collat- 
 ing them on the spot. It happened, as we also know, that, 
 from many inscriptions belonging to Jerash, given to him by 
 Mr. Burckhardt, Mr. Bankes extracted four or five only, and 
 these are the very same that are here given ; whilst of the re- 
 mainder, which equally belong to Jerash, and were equally 
 communicated by Mr, Burckhardt, not one makes its ap- 
 pearance. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 609 
 
 writer seriously tells us, in his preface, that he is sure that 
 Mr. Bankes's liberality would have ' admitted of his 
 drawings being brought before the public in such a work 
 as this !* 
 
 29. We now proceed towards the site of another great 
 mass of ruins, called at present Oomkais. In the way 
 thither we are told of a place named Abil ; this, it was 
 suggested to Mr. Buckingham, might be Abile, and he, 
 having never before heard of any other Abile but that of 
 Lysanias mentioned by St. Luke, concludes, of course, that 
 the Abilene was hereabouts. His proofs of this are most 
 unfortunate, for he himself cites a passage which places 
 Chalchis in the Abilene ; now Calchis, we know, was in 
 the Hollow Syria, under Mount Libanus. But there is 
 not, in fact, any position more certainly ascertained than 
 that of Abila of Lysanias. It stood upon the river Bar- 
 rady, on the road between Damascus and Baalbec, where 
 its tombs are still to be seen ; and Mr. Bankes has brought 
 home a long inscription, not observed by former travel- 
 lers, copied from the face of the rock there, in which the 
 Abilenians record the making of a new road to their city. 
 The very circumstance of its being termed Abila ' of Ly- 
 sanias' might have wakened a suspicion that there were 
 two of the same name, the other was the Abila of the 
 Decapolis; (so styled in a curious inscription in Greek 
 and Palmyrene, in Lord Besborough's collection ;) it is 
 enumerated in Pliny's list of the ten cities, and there can 
 be little doubt that the Abil, upon which all the common 
 places belonging to another city are thrown away, is really 
 that Abila. We believe that our author is only retailing 
 a conjecture of Dr. Seetzen, when he suggests that the 
 district now called Adjeloon may, probably, answer to the 
 Gaulonitis of the Romans. He is unlucky in what he 
 borrows; for we apprehend this to be a mistake; Adjeloon 
 is, probably, within the ancient Batanea; Gaulonitis, we 
 conceive, lay farther to the north ; and that the modern 
 district of Jolan, which is extensive, and includes some 
 pretty considerable places, is more likely to represent it. 
 
 .30. We now reach the consummation of Mr. Bucking- 
 ham's blunders. The ruins of Oomkais he gives us for 
 Gamala. What obliquity of intellect could have led him' 
 to such a conclusion, when Dr. Seetzen had already given 
 the place its right name, it is impossible even to conjec- 
 ture. He cites a number of second-hand passages, and 
 they every one make against him ! The case is so clear, 
 that it is hardly worth stating the grounds of it as a ques- 
 tion. Gadara stood high, the Hieromax ran below it, and 
 at its feet were hot baths, so celebrated as to be consi- 
 dered second to none, excepting to those of Baia; : its 
 remains were likely to exhibit traces of magnificence, since 
 it was restored by Pompey the Great in honour of one of 
 his freed-men. It is not possible for any remains to an- 
 swer all these conditions more exactly than those at 
 Oomkais do ; two theatres are in the body of the city, 
 and one below, near the bath, which Mr. Buckingham 
 contrived not to see. 
 
 Gamala was situated on the lake of Gennazareth, and 
 on the opposite side of it from Tarichea. The Hieromax 
 cannot, therefore, have flowed near it, nor are hot springs 
 any where spoken of as connected with it ; we read little 
 
 * Mr. Bankes made, we understand, three subsequent 
 visits at different times to Jerash, during one of which he was 
 enabled to continue there during several days ; and, with the 
 co-operation of Captains Irby and Mangles, R. N. who were 
 with him, and indefatigable in their desire of rendenng him as- 
 sistance, was enabled to lay down very accurate and detailed 
 plans of every part of the ruins, so as to supersede what was 
 hastily done in his first expedition. But without this, we must 
 be permitted to say, that the work of Mr. Buckingham pleads 
 strongly for the publication of this gentleman's papers and re- 
 searches upon these interesting provinces, in order that such 
 wretched and surreptitious substitutes as those before us may 
 be done away. 
 
 of any other edifices there except its walls. The vestiges 
 of Gamala might be expected, therefore, to offer little 
 besides a steep and fortified site. Such Mr. Bankes found 
 them in one of his subsequent journies, (not at Phik, 
 where Dr. Seetzen had conjectured them to be, but) at 
 El Hossn, a remarkable but abandoned position on the 
 east side of the lake. The remains are considerable, but 
 not splendid. 
 
 31. We cannot help feeling a sort of pity for a travel- 
 ler who can have wandered through the singular sepul- 
 chres of Oomkais, and have bathed in its hot waters, un- 
 conscious that those were the tombs and this the bath of 
 Gadara, For, doubtless, it was among these very tombs 
 that the Demoniac of the Gospel resided, and that our 
 Lord performed his miracle ; and in this very bath it is 
 that the strange scene of incantation is laid in the life of 
 lamblicus, by which he is said to have called up the spirits 
 of Eros and Anteros; a circumstance which our traveller 
 is so far from knowing, that he gravely asserts his own be- 
 lief that baths near to Gadara are not mentioned by any 
 author, (p. 434.) Had he but looked into one half of 
 those whom he cites, without going any farther, he must 
 have known better. Oomkais becomes thus a field of 
 most interesting and varied associations; adorned by the 
 rival of Caesar, and, by a strange coincidence, the scene 
 of one of the most remarkable miracles which the Gospel 
 attests, and of one of the latest which paganism in its dot- 
 age pretended to. But all this was lost on Mr. Bucking-- 
 ham ; for he, forsooth, supposed himself at Gamala! We 
 might here safely have dismissed him, did he not seek out 
 one more opportunity for a blunder before he recrosses 
 the Jordan, in boldly assuring us that Sumuk (Samek) is 
 Tarichea. Tarichea it cannot possibly be, as it stands on 
 the wrong part of the lake, and on the wrong side of the 
 river ; for we must warn the reader that Samek is impro- 
 perly placed on the map, it really lying a considerable 
 distance eastward from the issue of the river out of the 
 lake, upon the very centre of the southern shore. It is 
 a small modern village. 
 
 32. The real site of Tarichea Mr. Bankes both visited 
 and mapped in another of his excursions; it lies as de- 
 scribed by Josephus, both with respect to Tiberias and 
 Gamala, and has now no inhabitants. It is a highly inte- 
 resting fact with regard to it, that the trench which the 
 Jewish general and historian dug, and has described, in 
 order to insulate the city, can still be clearly traced, and 
 is filled with the waters of the Jordan to this day when 
 they rise. Other parts of Josephus's details of the Jewish 
 war, Mr. Bankes was lucky enough to discover to be sur- 
 prizingly illustrated at Tiberias ; the walls built there by 
 the historian remain, excepting precisely that part which 
 we are told was razed at the back of the camp of Vespa- 
 sian, which was near the hot springs of EmmHus : but we 
 are wandering from the matter before us ; for it was not 
 in this expedition that Mr. Bankes ascertained those points, 
 and consequently Mr. Buckingham remained as ignorant 
 of them as his precursors ; had it been otherwise, all 
 this would, doubtless, have made a part of Mr. Buck- 
 ingham's pretensions to ' contribute,' as he terms it, ' to 
 the common fund of human knowledge.' 
 
 33. One word more upon Mr. Buckingham's plates, 
 and we have done with him. The paragraph in which he 
 announces them, in his Preface, is most warily drawn up. 
 ' Many of the vignettes are from original drawings ynade 
 after sketches taken on the spot.' (p. xx.) He carefully 
 abstains from stating which of them, by whom made, and 
 when : thus if his reader be deceived, the author has pro- 
 vided a retreat for his conscience, in not having hazarded 
 the ' lie direct.' In a subsequent page we find the follow- 
 ing burst of ' honest indignation' in his animadversions on 
 the plates in an edition of Maundrell's Journal. ' Some 
 well-meaning friend, or some interested booksellers, subse- 
 quently caused these drawings to be composed from the 
 
 4 I 
 
610 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 printed descriptions and charts of the places they profess to 
 represent, and thus embellished, they thought, while they 
 really disgraced the book. This is the more propable, as 
 po name is given either of the painter or engraver. Such 
 a practice, however, cannot be too severely reprehended, 
 as these plates only give false impressions which are avow- 
 edly worse than none at all.' Who would suppose it possi- 
 ble, after this, that ' no name should be given either of 
 the painter or engraver' on any one of the plates in Mr. 
 Buckingham's volume ? Yet so it is. As ' the practice,' 
 however, is so ' reprehensible,' we will do him the kind- 
 ness to mention that most of them are copies from the 
 prints in Le Bruyn's travels, published more than a cen- 
 tury ago. These, then, are the vignettes from original 
 drawings made after sketches taken on the spot, whether by 
 Mr. Buckingham in 181.5, or by Le Bruyn in 1681, mat- 
 ters not, of course. It is true, that this confusion of 
 widely distant periods may lead to a few ' false impres- 
 sions,' as for instance, where Tyre (chap, ii.) is presented 
 to us as a mere heap of ruins (which it was when Le Bruyn 
 visited it), though it is now a flourishing place ; or where 
 Jaffa appears (p. 144.) as it then was, an open scattered 
 village, though it is now a walled city ; still, however, as 
 it is probable that Le Bruyn's sketches were really made 
 on the spot, Mr. Buckingham's word is saved ! As to all 
 the remaining views (which do not exceed three or four), 
 it is quite certain that not one of them was made upon 
 the spot; though whether taken out of other books, or 
 ' composed' in the manner the ' interested booksellers' 
 (greatly to the scandal of our author) treated poor Mr. 
 Maundrell, we cannot determine ; the fraud, however, is 
 as clumsy as it is gross, for had we never met with Le 
 Bruyn, nor suspected our author to be no draughtsman, 
 his own descriptions would have enabled us to pronounce 
 that the views do not belong to his work.* 
 
 34. The map is D'Anville's with all its errors ; for it is 
 one of the least correct of the productions of that extraor- 
 dinary genius ; and the ground-plans of Jerusalem are 
 taken out of a translation of Josephus. Upon the whole, 
 we are compelled to say of this dull and tiresome volume, 
 which we have gone through with more care than it de- 
 served, that the plates are worthy of the letter-press, and 
 both of them, we verily believe, of the author. 
 '.' So much for Buckingham!" 
 
 REPLY TO THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. 
 (Published in the Calcutta Journal of August 14, 1822.) 
 Having now seen the article in The Quarterly Review, 
 on the Travels in Palestine, which I have republished at 
 full length in my paper of to-day, I think it so wholly un- 
 worthy the character of fair criticism, that it is sure, by its 
 very dogmatism and arrogance, to defeat its own end; and 
 instead of suffering any pain from such a tissue of asser- 
 tions without proofs, I am rather pleased at the intem- 
 perate manner in which the whole is got up, as I may 
 fairly expect the Travels in Palestine, like Lady Morgan's 
 Italy, to have its sale extended and its reputation strength- 
 ened by the aim of The Quarterly Review to injure the 
 one and destroy the other. 
 
 Had it been the intention of the writer of the article 
 to which I allude, to review the work, he would have 
 commenced, at least, with some appearance of a desire to 
 set the merits and defects of the publication fairly before 
 
 • The very first vignette offers an amusing instance of this. 
 In describing the vessel in which he had embarked, he says, 
 ' small as it was it had three masts;' he then enlarges upon the 
 rigging and appearance of them, and boldly subjoins, ' See the 
 vignette at tlie liead of this chapter, p. 3.' We accordingly 
 turned to it, and found two vessels represented there, of which 
 the one has one mast only and ttie other two. It would he hard, 
 however, to blame M. Le Bruyn for not having represented Mr, 
 Buckingham's boat with fidelity. 
 
 the reader ; but the mailignant spirit with which the task 
 was set about, is so abundantly displayed in the ' Index' 
 published yesterday, that no one, after seeing that specimen 
 of the animus of the writer, could place any reliance on 
 the value or sincerity of his opinions. I shall notice, 
 however, as I go along, all the serious charges that he 
 attempts to set up against me, absurd and groundless as 
 they are, to show to the world that there is no scrutiny 
 or criticism through the press, from which I would ever 
 shrink, or which I have any reason whatever to dread. 
 
 1. The Reviewer says, that there is a blunder on the 
 very title page ; for, of the names of the two cities there 
 mentioned, Geraza and Gamala, the one is certainly 
 wrong and the other doubtful. To this mere assertion, 
 unsupported even by argument or proof, I can only op- 
 pose the reasoning and authorities cited in the body of the 
 work, to show the grounds of my belief, that the ruins so 
 named are those of the cities in question : — and if argu- 
 ment and authority be superior to mere assertion, I have 
 both on my side.* 
 
 2. He says, the Pharos of Alexandria is at the bottom 
 of the sea, and, therefore, I could not have seen it. The 
 ancient Pharos, as is well known, has long disappeared : 
 but it was not that of which I spoke : — the modem build- 
 ing, which stands out from the point, and has over the 
 castle a Isntern and light for the guidaijce of ships enter- 
 ing the harbour, is still called the Pharos of Alexandria, 
 by all writers, as well as by the inhabitants of the place, 
 whose authority on such a point is worth more than that 
 of The Quarterly Review, as most persons will, no doubt, 
 be ready to acknowledge. In the Geometrical Survey of 
 the City of Alexandria, by Henry Salt, Esq. the present 
 Consul General in Egypt, who is considered by the Quar- 
 terly Reviewers themselves as unexceptionable authority 
 on all subjects connected with the present state of that 
 country, the modern building now existing, of which I spoke, 
 is expressly called ' Pharos,' and the small tower on the 
 opposite side of the harbour of Alexandria, is called the 
 ' Little Pharos,' to distinguish it from the larger one. 
 
 3. The Reviewer considers the Odyssey and Telemaque 
 to be very singular guide-books on the Nile; and can 
 hardly imagine what confusion of ideas could recommend 
 them as appropriate companions for such a voyage. He 
 may enjoy his own opinion; but I put it to the good 
 sense of all who know any thing of the scene of the 
 Odyssey and Telemaque, whether those books could be 
 ever read with greater advantage or pleasure than along 
 the coast of Egypt, and on the banks of its classic 
 stream. 
 
 4. The Reviewer insinuates that I was wrong in speak- 
 ing of ruins at Heliopolis, although he admits that there 
 is an Egyptian obelisk still erect there. I can add, that 
 there are large mounds formed of the de'bris of buildings ; 
 but if there was nothing but the obelisk, which he admits, 
 it would still deserve to be called a ruin, as such obelisks 
 were always attached to buildings of some description, 
 and never stood originally alone. 
 
 5. The Reviewer says, I mistook the Saracenic hall of 
 Joseph, for a work of the patriarch of that name. I reply, 
 that I did no such thing. The people of the country 
 attach a traditionary story to this building, of its being 
 the hall in which Joseph assembled liis brethren, and in 
 which the corn was laid up for the years of famine ; and 
 when I said that this hall, with the traditionary tales 
 
 • It should be added, that in the published volume of Mr. 
 Burckhardt on Syria and the Hauran, tlie names of Geraza and 
 Gamala are given to the same places to which I have affixed 
 them. This traveller is, however, one whom the Quarterly 
 Reviewers take every occasion to eulogize ; and it would not 
 suit their purpose to discover errors in any thing which came 
 from his pen. With them, what is an unpardonable blunder in 
 one man, is an excusable conjecture in another! Such is the 
 impartiality of modern criticism. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 611 
 
 attached to it (which I have no where said I believed), 
 brought to my recollection the history of Abraham and his 
 posterity, I spoke that which I felt ; and no mind but the 
 tortuous one of a Quarterly Reviewer, could possibly have 
 said that this implied a belief on my part that Joseph the 
 patriarch was the builder of it. The pyramids might re- 
 mind some future travellers in after ages of the brilliant 
 battle fought by the French at their feet, and of Buona- 
 parte the leader of that expedition ; but it is hoped, that 
 no Reviewer of that age would be found stupid enough to 
 say, that such a traveller meant to express his belief, that 
 Buonaparte and his followers had built the said pyramids, 
 instead of merely fighting near them. I may retort upon 
 the Reviewer his own remark, and say of him, that the 
 ingenious personage who confounded Alexander the Great 
 with Alexander the coppersmith, was but a feeble type of 
 this blundering critic of The Quarterly. 
 
 6. The Reviewer considers me wrong in having quoted 
 some portions of Quaresimus, because I have not given 
 others. To this I can reply, that quotation implies selec- 
 tion, and selection is generally confined to parts and pas- 
 sages that are considered applicable to the writer's purpose 
 and illustrative of his point. It is already a subject of 
 complaint against me that I have quoted too largely, yet 
 the Reviewer's suggestion would have only increased the 
 evil. On the disputed question of the situation of Ramlah, 
 I can only say, that although Quaresimus and Pococke 
 agree, the authorities cited in proof of the position being 
 that assigned by me, are not even touched on by them ; 
 and there are abundant instances to prove that names, 
 though generally founded on accurate tradition, are not 
 always so. America is a striking instance of the discoverer 
 of a new world being so far forgotten as to have his name 
 supplanted by another; and if this may apply to a quarter 
 of the globe, what weight could be attached to the mere 
 name of a village when standing alone and unsupported 
 by other corroboratory circumstances? The Quarterly 
 Critic knows this well enough, but his object is detrac- 
 tion, not argument. 
 
 7. The Reviewer says, I have confounded Moab with 
 Bashan, in calling Bosor a place in the land of Ba- 
 shan, and citing a passage which proves Bosor to have 
 been one of the cities of the Moabites. I have made no 
 such confusion, though it is clear that a great deal exists 
 in the Reviewer's own mind. The land of Bashan, and 
 Gilead, and Moab, were all east of the Jordan ; and their 
 boundaries are even at present so imperfectly defined, from 
 this part of the country being a perfect blank in our mo- 
 dern maps, that no one can say clearly where the one 
 begins or the other ends. Besides, we know that cities, 
 and particularly fortresses, as this Bosor is described to be, 
 were as frequently called after the people who occupied 
 them, as ' a city of the Hivites, Canaanites, Moabites,' 
 &c. as after their local and geographical place ; thus, Gib- 
 raltar is considered a garrison of the English, though it is 
 seated in Spain; and Jedda is a garrison of the Turks, 
 though it is in Arabia. Truth and candour were not, 
 however, what the Reviewer aimed at. 
 
 8. It is asserted also, that I have quoted Josephus to 
 prove that Emmaus was near to Gamala, and that the 
 passage implies no such thing. I refer the reader to page 
 434 of the Travels in Palestine. Let the context be ex- 
 amined, and the argument on it will be seen. 
 
 9. I am accused of confounding a Nazarite with a Na- 
 zarene, or one of the country of Nazareth. I know, as 
 well as the Reviewer, that a Nazarite was one who made 
 a vow of separation to the Lord, and that this distinction 
 existed before the Jews entered Canaan; but, I do not 
 know still, whether Nazareth was not so called from being 
 a city or town of the Nazarites, separated originally for 
 their settlement*, as there are ' Yahoodeea' in several 
 
 * I have since seen, in notes to an edition of the Bible (I think 
 
 parts of the East, to signify a place or quarter inhabited 
 by Jews. They may not be the same : and I never said 
 that they were; but the Reviewer has shown no rea- 
 son whatever for their not being so. He says, that ' Sara- 
 son, who was a Nazarite, was of Zorah, and had no con- 
 nection whatever with Nazareth ; and consequently a Na- 
 zarite is not a Nazarene,' The segiiitur is not warranted 
 either by reasoning or analogy; because we all know that 
 persons were as frequently called after the city of their 
 parents, or their education, or childhood, or even ad- 
 vanced age, as after the city of their birth, and that 
 though Samson was ' of Zorah' he might still be a Naza- 
 rene. Can they be ignorant that Jesus of Nazareth, the 
 place which has given its name ' Nassara' to all the 
 Christians of the East, was, strictly speaking, a Bethle- 
 hemite, as being born in Bethlehem, a city of David, and 
 many days journey distant from the city after which he is 
 always called ? But Reviewers are not bound to remem- 
 ber so simple a fact, though known to the humblest child 
 and believer in the religion of Christ, and yet these are 
 the men to revile and put down others as ignorant, blun- 
 dering, and idiotic. 
 
 10. The next subject of complaint is, my having made 
 use of an ingenious and interesting paper from one of the 
 most entertaining compilations in the English language, 
 namely, ' Selections from the Gentleman's Magazine.' 
 This is done, however, with a full acknowledgement of 
 the authority to which I referred, and if there be errors 
 in that, as the measurements of theatres, the terms used 
 in describing them, &c. they are not mine, but the writer's 
 own. ' This class of Literature (says the Reviewer, con- 
 temptuously, in speaking of a Magazine in which Dr. 
 Johnson and some of the first men of his day frequently 
 wrote), it does not fall within our province to notice.' It 
 would have been more creditable to him if it did — ' But 
 (he adds) we can hardly suppress our disgust when we find 
 this beggarly process (that of condescending to notice a 
 paper in a Magazine, though his own work differs from it 
 only in being called a Review) introduced into the classic 
 and holy regions of the East ; ' as if it could be a matter 
 of any importance whatever from what source information 
 was drawn to illustrate a question of dispute in Palestine, 
 any more than in any other country of the earth. 
 
 11. I am next charged with aiming a side-blow at the 
 Miracles of the Gospel. The reader will hardly credit 
 the possibility of such wilful perversion as the Reviewer 
 here displays. It is this : I have stated that the local 
 features of the Lake (Tiberias) render it subject to sudden 
 gusts of wind, and sudden calms. This, as a question of 
 fact, I repeat ; and defy authority to the contrary. The 
 passage of St. Luke (viii. 25.) describing the stilling the 
 tempest, is added at the foot of the page in a note ; but 
 the malignant and perverted mind of the Reviewer alone 
 makes the connection, and considers this introduced for 
 the purpose of proving that the miracle was a mere na- 
 tural event. I did not even insinuate, much less labour 
 to prove, such an inference; but what to all others was 
 innocent and harmless, was in the mind of this Reviewer 
 devilish and abominable. 
 
 12. It is urged as a proof of great ignorance, to suppose 
 that an aqueduct with arches could refer to the time of 
 the Macedonian conquest. The writer seems to think 
 the origin of arches quite a settled point, although he 
 himself knows that it is still a disputed one, and that 
 arches have been found in Egypt, supposed to have been 
 
 Mant and D'Oyly's) that the conjecture here assumed by me, 
 of Nazareth deriving its name from its being originally a city, 
 set apart for the residence of Nazarites, who separated them- 
 selves from the rest of mankind, and wliose very name comes 
 from the Hebrew verb 113 nazar, to separate, is entertained by 
 others. While thus inhabited, therefore, a Nazarite and a Na- 
 zarene would be strictly synonymous. 
 
 4 I 2 
 
612 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 of a date long anterior to Philip of Macedon or Alex- 
 ander. 
 
 13. The joke on the ditch at Acre is quite unintelligi- 
 ble to rae, though it would, perhaps, be worth laughing at, 
 if I could understand it. 
 
 14. The supposed incongruity of a resemblance in the 
 masonri/ of two works built at veVy different periods, Ce- 
 sarea and Antipatris, implies no absurdity whatever. The 
 masonry (by which is meant merely the quality and kind 
 of work shown in the. union of blocks of stone, without 
 reference to the order of architecture) was nearly the 
 same with the Egyptians and the Greeks, in the best 
 works of each; and the front of Newgate Prison in Lon- 
 don, has exactly the same kind of rustic masonry as is 
 seen in what is called the Castle of the Pisans, a supposed 
 Roman building at Jerusalem. All this the Reviewer 
 knew well enough, but his aim and object is to misrepre- 
 sent, and not to examine. 
 
 15. The resemblance of external form between the 
 dome of the Great Mosque at Jerusalem and that of St. 
 Paul's is very striking ; but it is no where said, that either 
 of these ' contracts an;l curves inwards towards the bot- 
 tom.' This is the Reviewer's blunder or mis-statement, 
 and one for which I am not at all responsible. 
 
 16. The mention of the stone doors at the Pantheon at 
 Rome, was coupled with the phrase 'said, in this par- 
 ticular, to resemble the stone doors,' &c. (p. 208.) and 
 evidently introduced not as a matter that I spoke of on 
 my own authority, but as a thing spoken of by another, 
 and that person was no other than Mr. Bankes himself. 
 
 17. The Reviewer questions whether I know the form 
 of a Roman Theatre at all, although there are plans given 
 of two at Geraza, which, whether original or borrowed, 
 were at least as likely to have been seen and understood 
 by the individual describing them, as by any other person ; 
 although sitting in his closet in London, the Reviewer 
 pretends to see at Cesarea what I did not see, as well as 
 to contend for the non-existence in other places of what 
 I did see. In short, if I had spoken of a Theatre there, 
 he would have declared there was no such thing; but not 
 having spoken of such a building, he exclaims, ' Oh ! but 
 if you had only strayed a few paces further, you would 
 have very plainly distinguished it.' It was for this arro- 
 gant pretension of the Reviewer, in telling a traveller 
 what he did and what he did not see, in opposition to the 
 evidence of his own senses, that he was handled so roughly 
 on his blunders in attempting to correct Dr. Clarke and 
 D'Anville, and this is at the bottom of all this perverse 
 and wrong-headed obstinacy on the part of this convicted 
 critic, who pretends to tell a traveller from his elbow 
 chair, that he cannot trust to the evidence of his own 
 eyes on the spot, but must yield up his senses as well 
 as his. understanding to his implicit guidance. If this 
 be reviewing, the office of a Reviewer is an easy one 
 indeed. 
 
 18. Again, he says, ' Though Druses do frequent the 
 markets of Acra and Caypha, they form no part of the 
 population of either, and any women seen there wearing 
 the horn, were certainly not natives of the place.' To 
 this I can only say, that strangers and visitors of every 
 place are considered a part of the population of it, as long 
 as they remain in it ; and that to say the population of 
 any place contained at any given period a certain number 
 of Druses, does not necessarily imply that all these Druses 
 must have been born there. But, after all, how does the 
 Reviewer know that Druses are not even settled in these 
 to\yns? There is no law or rule to prevent it, or he 
 would readily have urged that as a reason. Surely he 
 cannot have a Directory of every Syrian village to tell 
 him who are fixed residents, and who sojourners within 
 its boundaries. The truth is, he knows nothing at all on 
 the subject ; and conceiving that his readers are equally 
 as ill-informed as himself, he puts forth a bold assertion 
 in the hope that its very boldness will make it pass for 
 
 truth, and this is the key to his impudent and barefaced 
 denial of the plainest facts throughout. 
 
 19. He next objects to my taking a cook of a convent 
 as a specimen of the whole order. I did no such thing. 
 The cook was spoken of as a brandy-loving friar, and 
 described individually, and instances in abundance were 
 given to justify the opinions entertained of the body to 
 which he belonged. 
 
 20. Of the alleged disparagement of Nathaniel Pearce, 
 as a charge of a moral rather than a critical nature, I shall 
 speak hereafter; as well as of the accusation made against 
 me of dishonourable behaviour towards Messrs. Briggs 
 and Co. ; and, above all, of being dependant, for inform- 
 ation as well as the means of travelhng, on Mr. Bankes. 
 These charges are of too serious a nature to be passed 
 over lightly, or dismissed with mere denial; and I shall 
 go into them more fully hereafter. For the present, I 
 resume the critical part of our dispute. 
 
 21. The Reviewer comes now to Geraza, and -first 
 accuses me of turning to a Geographical Dictionary, and 
 then pouring out all that I could find in it about that 
 obscure city. Can the reader suppose it possible, that a 
 city can be at once obscure and yet be fully described in a 
 Geographical Dictionary ? This is something quite new. 
 The truth is, and the Reviewer knew this, that there is 
 no book extant in which any description whatever is to be 
 found of this obscure city. Its very name, Jerash, was 
 unknown in Europe till Doctor Seetzen visited it but a 
 few years before, and the best maps of the whole region 
 were a perfect blank. There were no Dictionaries or any 
 other books that could be referred to for descriptions of 
 this place. The Reviewer would have been too happy to 
 have quoted them if there were; but he knows there are 
 none; and the wilfulness of his falsehood, and the malig- 
 nity of his motive are, therefore, equally apparent. Here 
 also HE sees what no man else had discovered, and trans- 
 forms by a stroke of his wand a Corinthian Temple into 
 a Christian Church, forgetting that the one is not at all 
 incompatible with the other, as even Egyptian edifices 
 have been used for Christian worship. But the blindness of 
 his determined spirit of detraction is most apparent in this. 
 He admits, that the doubt whether the city in question be 
 Pella or Geraza is so nicely balanced, that we may incline 
 to the one as readily as to the other. He then refers to 
 a passage of Ammianus Marcellinus, praising the walls of 
 Geraza, and coupling them with those of Bosra, saying, 
 immediately afterwards, with a sneer " It is surprising 
 that Mr. Buckingham could have missed this passage, 
 since it might be found in the Indej: to Gibbon." I did 
 not miss the passage, although I did not find it in the 
 Index to Gibbon, but in the body of the work ; and if the 
 Reviewer had redd the Travels in Palestine for the pur- 
 pose of giving an impai'tial judgment on it, instead of de- 
 crying it, he would find at page 402, that I had said 
 ' Gibbon enumerates this city (Geraza) among the line of 
 fortresses, from Bosra to Petra, which formed the frontier 
 of the Syrian provinces in the Lower Empire, and the 
 barrier which was opposed to the Saracen invaders of 
 that country from the East." He most probably saw this 
 passage; his object, however, was not fair criticism, but 
 condetnnation ; and, therefore, he kept it out of sight. 
 The only passage in Gibbon to which this could refer, is one 
 in his account of the siege of Bosra, (vol. ix. e. 51. p. 383.) 
 where he says ' The country was enriched by the various 
 benefits of trade, by the vigilance of the emperors it was 
 covered with a line of forts, and the populous cities of 
 Gcrasa, Philadelphia, and Bosra, were secure at least from 
 a surprise by the solid structure of their walls.^ It is for 
 this passage that the authority of Auunianus Marcellinus 
 is given in a note at the foot of the same page; and un- 
 less the Reviewer conceives that an author can, like him, 
 read one portion of a sentence and wilfully shut his eyes 
 to another, he must have believed that I saw the passage 
 which he so impudently asserts that I missed. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 613 
 
 22. The Critic goes on to admit that the similarity of 
 name and the strength of the walls, are strong evidences 
 in favour of Jerash being Geraza, (though he commenced 
 his article by noting this as one of the blunders made by 
 me on the very title page of the Travels;, and says, 
 ' Should this evidence, coupled with the similarity of 
 name be deemed decisive, we are still left in full posses- 
 sion of the surprise which it must occasion, to find ruins 
 of an extent and multiplicity almost without a parallel, at 
 a place of which His1"oky has kecorded so little be- 
 yond ITS BARE EXISTENCE.' Here is a consistent Re- 
 viewer ! In the page preceding that from which I make 
 the above quotation, he accused me of turning to a Geo- 
 graphical Dictionary, and pouring forth all that I could 
 find in it about Geraza; and only twenty lines farther on, 
 he admits that nothing whatever is known of this place 
 beyond its name, and that history has recorded nothing 
 regarding it beyond its mere existence I ! ! Can it be ne- 
 cessary for me to proceed with such a blundering and self- 
 condemning Ci-itic as this, who is convicted out of his 
 own mouth of such wilful perversion, and blind and heed- 
 less inconsistency ? The reader will judge, however, how 
 bad a cause must be, which is so clumsily defended. That 
 the Quarterly Reviewers should desire to decry the Tra- 
 vels in Palestine, I had reason to expect; but that they 
 should consent to the certain disgrace of themselves, for 
 the doubtful chance of injuring another, is only to be 
 accounted for by that headlong fatality, generally ex- 
 plained by the saying ' Quem Deus vult perdere, prius 
 dementat.' 
 
 2.5. I come next to the Critic's pretended corrections 
 as to the actual remains, which he commences, by saying, 
 that I was retailing an observation which it was fair to 
 suppose not my own, as I did not understand it; namely, 
 the resemblance between the triumphal arch at Geraza, 
 and the ruins at Antinoe in Upper Egypt. He insinuates 
 that 1 knew nothing of those ruins, and, therefore, nuist 
 have merely repeated an observation which I heard cited 
 on that subject, he does not say by whom: had the Re- 
 viewer read the Travels in Palestine, with any other object 
 than that of decrying them, he would have remembered 
 this passage in the Preface of the Work, which would have 
 convinced him, that when I spoke of a resemblance to 
 Antinoe, I referred to ruins with which I was well ac- 
 quainted. The passage in the Preface is this : ' I did not 
 pass Hermopolis and Antinoe, Panopolis and Abydos, 
 Diospolis and Tentyra, without an enthusiastic, and I may 
 say a minute, examinatUm of their fine remains.' But it 
 was not the Reviewer's aim or intention to remember any 
 thing that could be favourable. It was his object to throw 
 all into shade, and not to leave even a single ray to light 
 the picture. 
 
 24. Next comes the ' audacious imposition,' as it is 
 called, of referring to a vignette at the head of the chap- 
 ter, because it differs in two slight particulars from the 
 printed description. The Reviewer, who had again already 
 forgotten the expression of his surprise, that such fine re- 
 mains should exist of a place, regarding which History 
 
 HAD left no BECOBD BEYOND A MERE NAME, and wllicll 
 
 he knew had never been visited, described, or delineated, 
 in any book of Travels before the present, says of this 
 sketch of a ruin in this unknown and unvisited city, 
 ' We have not acertained from, what obsolete work this 
 pretended view, is purloined.' Certainly, no one but a 
 Quarterly Reviewer, to whom inconsistency is of ,no con- 
 sequence, provided he can blacken his author, coidd have 
 talked at this rate, or supposed it possible that there was 
 any obsolete work which was not equally accessible to him- 
 self as to us, or that there was any work at all on a city 
 of which the very name and existence was unknown up 
 to the present period ! ' It is not among Le Bruyn's' 
 he continues ' to whom we have traced almost all the 
 others.' No one but a person whose rage had blinded 
 
 his recollection, would have thought of looking into Le 
 Bruyn for any thing relating to a country in which he 
 never set his foot; for all are agreed, even the Reviewer 
 himself, that the Jordan was the boundary of all our 
 knowledge of Judea until now; that no European foot 
 had trodden the countries East of it ; and that our very 
 maps were either blank, or filled up from conjecture only. 
 The simple circumstance of a want of exact correspond- 
 ence between the printed description and the vignette 
 itself, would, in any honest mind, have been taken as 
 conclusive evidence that the one was not « holly made up 
 from the other; because, in such a case, no one but an 
 idiot could have, failed to make them exactly correspond. 
 The truth is, that a hasty outline sketch of this arch ivas 
 taken on the first passage through it, made with a pen on 
 a blank leaf of a small memorandum book, and done in 
 the hurry and stealth which almost every thing requiring 
 the use of pen, ink, and paper enjoined. Mr. Bankes's 
 drawings, of which I always spoke with the admiration » 
 they deserved, were of so superior a kind, that if copies of 
 them had been given to me, as they were promised, neither 
 this nor any other of the rude sketches made by me on 
 the spot, would have been afterwards finished into vig- 
 nettes for publication : but not being able to obtain the pro- 
 mised drawings in question, the next best thing was to 
 make use of the materials within my reach, and accord- 
 ingly some very masterly and accurate views of a French 
 artist, Casas, of various places on the West of the Jordan, 
 as well as original drawings made from sketches taken 
 with more care and leisure than they could be on the 
 East of that stream, were sent home to be engraved for 
 the larger plates ; but the delay that took place in the 
 publication, and the probable decline of interest in the 
 subject by such delay, induced the booksellers, Messrs. 
 Longman and Co., to omit all that Mr. Murray would 
 have originally included, as tending to protract the pub- 
 lication in point of time, and add largely to its expense, 
 and confining themselves to the vignettes only, engraving 
 these on wood instead of copper, and considering them 
 only in the light in which they were intended, as merely 
 appropriate embellishments, after all the more finished 
 subjects had been necessarily excluded, because of the 
 time and cost it would have taken to get them properly 
 engraved. The portion of the MS. Preface which related 
 to these larger drawings, has been omitted along with the 
 subjects to which it referred; and the latter part of the 
 paragraph only, relating to the vignettes, has been published. 
 In the part omitted it was explicitly stated, that the vig- 
 nettes were among the least perfect of the subjects sent; 
 but even in that which remains, there is sufGcient to show 
 that nothing like an attempt at imposition was made; for, 
 after stating that many even of the vignettes were from 
 original drawings, made after sketches taken on the spot; 
 it is added, that 'as this was the least expensive and 
 humblest way of adding graphic illustrations of the text, 
 appropriate subjects had been selected from other sources, 
 but invariably with a view to the elucidations of scenery, 
 costume, or manners, and the accurate representations of 
 places spoken of in the body of the work.' With respect 
 to the plates, there is but one among the whole that is 
 not original, which is the plan of the ancient Jerusalem, a 
 thing that must have been borrowed, if given at all, unless 
 it is supposed that a traveller could draw upon the spot 
 in the present day, a plan of a city as it existed a ftw 
 thousand years ago. But this is so distinctly stated in the 
 Preface, as to leave the Reviewer without excuse. It is 
 .mentioned in these words: — ' The plan of the ancient 
 Jerusalem, from the best authorities, is that which usually 
 accompanies the Works of Josephus, and it will illustrate 
 better than any written description, the changes which 
 have taken place in the site of this city.' Of the vig- 
 nettes, the whole of those on the East of the Jordan are 
 original, and the few which were from other sources, in- 
 
614 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 eluding Maundrell and Le Bruyn, besides being acknow- 
 ledged, were only used by the publisher as illustrations of 
 the text in the manner that Dr. Clarke's and other Travels 
 have been illustrated, without its eliciting from this Re- 
 viewer a single observation. He could not deny their 
 accuracy and approjiriateness, and he could not indicate 
 a single error in their use ; so that driven to his last shift, 
 he has attempted to fasten on me the charge of borrow- 
 ing from some " obsolete work" a view of a place never 
 before heard of or described, merely because two square 
 holes above the side arches of a gateway are mentioned 
 in the text and not given in the view ; and because the 
 Corinthian capitals were said in the text to be broken on 
 the top, whereas in the view they are clearly seen. I 
 appeal to any one who has ever been placed in circum- 
 stances, where, desirous of conveying to others some idea 
 of a ruined building or a general view, he could only ob- 
 tain from haste or other causes, a dozen lines with a pen, 
 to be filled up by memory, whether such a view would 
 not, in his estimation, have all the merit he aimed at, if it 
 were correct in substance, and merely inaccurate in some 
 item of minor detail ? The views in every book of Travels 
 that I have seen, present some instances of this ; and the 
 Reviewer, if he had any experience, must have known 
 this. But the sketch being made at one time, and the 
 written description at another, their want of perfect cor- 
 respondence throughout is not at all wonderful. Had 
 there been any feeling of a dishonest tendency, leading to 
 imposition, any person in his senses would have referred 
 to the written details for the filling up required; but there 
 was no such intention, and accordingly both were suffered 
 to remain as they were, without attempting to accommo- 
 date the one to the other. Had the Reviewer one grain 
 of gentlemanly feeling or candour about him while writ- 
 ing his article, he would have adverted to an exactly 
 parallel case, in illustration of this honesty and plain deal- 
 ing on the part of the author, but this would have de- 
 feated the end he had in view, which was to condemn me, 
 right or wrong. At page 394 of the Travels in Palestine, 
 there is the following Note on a similar disagreement be- 
 tween the plan and written description of one of the 
 streets of Geraza. ' The written description here is not 
 in perfect harmony with the plan. The last was laid 
 down from a set of bearings taken with a good compass : 
 the first was composed also on the spot. The error is in 
 the point of bearing only; but which of the two is more 
 correct, my recollection does not allow me to decide; so 
 that I have suffered both the authorities to remain un- 
 altered.' I ask whether this was not the most frank and 
 honest course that could be pursued in any similar case 
 of doubt? That is the course which I have pursued, and 
 if the Reviewer had any other than a crooked and tor- 
 tuous mind, bent on my defamation, he would himself 
 have applauded it. 
 
 25. I proceed, however, with my task : — for there is not 
 a single accusation that I do not hope successfully to rebut. 
 The next error attributed to me is, that of having used 
 the word Naumachia, for what the Reviewer would have 
 to be a Stadium, although he admits that it might have 
 been occasionally floated for aquatic exhibitions. It was 
 then, at least, according to his own showing, as much a 
 Naumachia as a Stadium, and since the same exhibitions 
 might take place also in a Circus, it was as much a Circus 
 as either of the former. The claims are so equally ba- 
 lanced, that either name might have been used with pro- 
 priety, in the same manner as a Theatre in England might 
 be used for an Opera, an Oratorio, Equestrian feats, or 
 Aquatic exhibitions, and be designated by either of the 
 names appropriate to these performances, according to 
 the light in which it might most strikingly appear to any 
 future traveller describing its ruins. No person can be so 
 blind as not to perceive the shallowness of such criticism 
 as this. I have called it Naumachia j it is then his aim to 
 
 show it might as well have been called a Stadium : and if 
 that name had been adopted by me, he would, no doubt, 
 then have contended that it should have been called a 
 Circus. 
 
 26. He next says, that whether it be admitted to be the 
 one or the other, it is clear that I never looked at it on 
 the spot. Without stopping to ask how he can possibly 
 know this, I beg merely to refer the reader to the descrip- 
 tion of this work at page 344 and 358, and to leave him 
 to judge whether the details there given, are such as could 
 be collected without examining it minutely. After stating 
 the dimensions (the accuracy of which the Reviewer does 
 not dispute), after noticing the difference of masonry in 
 the inner and outer faces of the building, and mentioning 
 the depth (about 8 feet) now seen below the upper edge, 
 I added, what I still repeat, that there was no appearance 
 then above the soil of any seats or benches for spectators. 
 The Reviewer says, on the contrary, that there is no other 
 Circus known (excepting, perhaps, one at Laodicea) where 
 the seats are so well preserved as they are in this. I again 
 ask, who shall decide on a mere fact, tangible only to the 
 senses ? and is it likely on such a point, that a Reviewer 
 in London should know better than a traveller on the 
 spot ? If it be Mr. Bankes, who has furnished this in- 
 formation about the seats discovered in some subsequent 
 visit, by excavating below the surface of the soil, would it 
 not be ingenuous to say so ? and could a traveller be blamed 
 for not seeing what was hidden beneath the earth and 
 brought to light only by a subsequent excavation? It 
 would be as just to blame an ancient traveller in Italy for 
 giving no description of Pompeii or Herculaneum before 
 they were uncovered ; or to take all the various travellers 
 in Egypt to task, for not describing the feet of the sphinx, 
 before Mr. Salt and others had ascertained by excavation, 
 whether it had any or not. The same reasoning will apply 
 to the Reviewer's assertion, that there were four gates to 
 the city, and not two. I never attempted to describe 
 more than I saw ; I leave to such men as the Reviewer, 
 the peculiar felicity of bringing unseen things into exist- 
 ence, and annihilating those that are known, just as it 
 may serve the argument or assertion that he wishes to 
 enforce. So also of the palace and the aqueduct, which 
 he will have to be a propyUeum and a bridge ; of the 
 temple of Jupiter, which he will have to be the smallest 
 instead of the largest; of there being doors, where I 
 have described none ; and no doors where I have marked 
 them. Well might he say, indeed, that ' there is nothing 
 so positive as ignorance ;' I was never more convinced of 
 this truth than now; and nothing but his assurance of the 
 general ignorance of the public on a subject, on which he 
 well knows that no person but one who has visited Ge- 
 raza can decide, would have permitted the Reviewer to 
 hazard assertions like these, which can only be met by 
 assertions of as bold and positive a kind. There is this 
 difference between us, however, that my object was to 
 inform, and I could have had no sufRcient motive for mis- 
 statement, because the account of Geraza would not be 
 increased or lessened in interest by the position of a door, 
 or an aqueduct, or a bridge ; while the object of the Re- 
 viewer, which is seen by the first paragrajih of his article, 
 is to decry and defame, and he has, therefore, a very pow- 
 erful motive for mis-statement, because it serves the only 
 purpose he has in view. Moreover, when I wrote and 
 ventured on publication, I knew well there would be 
 critics on the spot to point out immediately any glaring 
 errors; while the Reviewer, knowing that the author, who 
 alone could expose him, was resident in India, and that 
 no reply to his Review could reach England for twelve 
 months, when thousands who had read his accusations 
 would never see my reply, and the few who might see it, 
 would have forgotten or lost all interest in the subject, 
 was sure of a temporary triumph, which would serve his 
 malignant purpose, and, as far as he could accomplish it. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 615 
 
 damn the fair fame of one whom he had determined to 
 revile. But, as J said before, he is, fortunately for me, 
 too late in the field: for not even the readers of The 
 Quarterly can be such dupes as to suppose that all the six 
 Reviews which appeared before it, were edited by fools 
 and blockheads, who had uniformly praised what The 
 Quarterly alone condemns. 
 
 27. I am next taxed with error in putting faith in the 
 description of a Theatre at Athens, said by the Reviewer 
 to be the pretended work of a person who never had any 
 existence. Be it so : I am answerable for no man's errors 
 but my own. The reference to the description of the 
 Theatre in question (made for the purpose of comparing 
 it with those of Geraza), was clearly ackowledged at page 
 566 of the Travels, from a work recommended by Gibbon, 
 originally contributed to by Dr. Johnson, and published 
 by the celebrated literary character, Nichols, no mean 
 names, even when contrasted with those of GifTord, 
 Bankes, and Murray, the trio who are united against me 
 on this occasion. If the descriptions of the Theatre at 
 Athens, and the Amphitheatre at Nismes, there referred 
 to, are wrong, I am not to blame. They are believed by 
 the editor of that publication to be right, and I had no 
 means of knowing whether they were so or not ; nor 
 have I now, indeed, any better authority than the asser- 
 tions of the Reviewer. But, admitting this to be correct, 
 I have only committed an error to which every man is 
 liable, that of giving credit at one period to what is sub- 
 sequently found not to have deserved it ; and this, I hope, 
 will be the case with all who may have placed any reli- 
 ance on the accuracy or impartiality of this article of The 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
 28 i On the subject of Mr. Burckhardt, Mr. Bankes, 
 and Messrs. Briggs and Co., who are all here joined toge- 
 ther, to make as formidable an array as possible, I shall 
 merely repeat in this place that the Reviewer is as wrong 
 as in every other part of his assertion ; but these charges 
 being rather of a moral than a critical nature, I reserve 
 them for the last. So also of the ground plan of Geraza, 
 which I am said to have " pilfered" from Mr. Bankes. 
 On these points there will be found documentary evi- 
 dence to prove that the charges are not merely unfound- 
 ed, but wilfully and gratuitously false. 
 
 29. The conjecture regarding Abil, which is only correct- 
 ed by a Greek inscription taken home by Mr. Bankes from 
 another place, after our separation, and another in Greek 
 and Palmyrene from Lord Besborough's collection, of 
 which I could know nothing, is of no importance. I 
 merely mentioned this place in a paragraph of a few lines 
 as being ' prohahly ihe Abila of Josephus,' (p. 412); and 
 I am neither so ignorant nor so positive as to suppose, as 
 this Reviewer evidently does, that it is impossible, even in 
 a conjecture, to be wrong. I therefore pass over this im- 
 material point, and come to the ruins of Oomkais, which 
 the Reviewer calls ' the consummation pf Mr. Bucking- 
 ham's blunders;' had he said, ' the consummation of the 
 Reviewer's perversity,' he would have been nearer the 
 truth. Let us proceed. 
 
 30. He begins by insinuating that I either did not know, 
 or did not attach any value to. Dr. Seetzen's account of 
 this place ; for he says, ' The ruins of Oomkais, he (Mr. 
 Buckingham) gives us for those of Gamala. What obli- 
 quity of intellect could have led him to such a conclusion, 
 when Dr. Seetzen had already given the place its right 
 name, it is impossible even to conjecture.' To prove that 
 I had neither obliquity of intellect nor of purpose, I shall 
 show the reader in what a candid and straight forward 
 manner I entered on the inquiry, with a full knowledge 
 that this was not considered to be the position of Gamala 
 by the maps, and that Dr. Seetzen had considered it to be 
 Gadara. The passage which opens the dissertation on this 
 subject in the Travels in Palestine is as follows, (pages 
 419,420.) 'As the ruins here described are not immedi- 
 
 ately on the position generally assigned to Gamala on the 
 maps, and as the only person who has given any notice to 
 the world of having visited them inclines to think they are 
 thoseof Gadara*, it may well be to insert the description of 
 the former place (Gamala) by the historian who was con- 
 temporary with its destruction by Vespasian, and who in- 
 deed himself fortified and fought in it.' To this succeeds 
 nearly twenty pages of investigation, comparison, and 
 dissertation, on the relative claims of Gadara and Gamala, 
 in which the following authorities are cited in favour of 
 the decision to which this inquiry had led me : Josephus, 
 Ptolemy, Grotius in his interpretation of a passage of the 
 first as quoted by Dr. Hudson and Whiston the translator, 
 D'Anville on the site of Gamala, Cellarius, Reland in 
 Palestina Illustrata, Pliny, and Ciuverius, each in several 
 and various passages ; so that there was neither blindness 
 nor obliquity in the search, for the Reviewer is unable to 
 cite one solitary instance of misquotation among all these 
 authorities, or to show that 1 have misinterpreted or mis- 
 understood any one of the various passages. And yet he 
 has the impudence to say, ' He cites a number of second- 
 hand passages, and they every one make against him :' 
 but instead of selecting even one of those authorities to 
 show that it made against me, he confines himself to a 
 sweeping assertion of the most dogmatic and arrogant 
 kind, by saying, ' The case is so clear, that it is hardly 
 worth stating the grounds of it as a question.' If this were 
 so, he would have been too happy to have made it as 
 clear to others as he pretends it is to himself; but his ob- 
 ject is to blind those who can see, and not to open the 
 eyes of those who cannot. I cannot reprint these twenty 
 pages of dissertation on the disputed cldims of Gamala and 
 Gadara, or I should gladly do so. All those, however, who 
 can refer to the Travels themselves (and to such alone can 
 this subject be of any interest) may then judge for them- 
 selves, whether I have assumed without reason, argument, 
 and authority, the decision to which I was led ; or whe- 
 ther the unbacked assertion of a Reviewer, with a mere 
 dash of his pen, is to be considered as sufficient to over- 
 turn a patient, candid, and impartial investigation of a 
 question, in which there could be no possible motive for 
 preferring one decision to another. 
 
 31. The Reviewer, after admitting that Dr. Seetzen was 
 wrong in a conjecture that he had made about Gamala 
 (without attaching any importance to his being in error), 
 goes on to say of me, ' We cannot help feeling a sort of 
 pity for a traveller who can have wandered through the 
 singular sepulchres of Oomkais, and have bathed in its hot 
 waters, unconscious that those were the tombs, and this 
 the bath of Gadara. For, doubtless, (he continues,) it 
 was among these very tombs that the Demoniac of the 
 Gospel resided, and that our Lord performed his miracle,' 
 &c. Who would not suppose from this, that the story of 
 the Demoniac, here alluded to, was wholly unknown to 
 me ? or at least that no allusion had been made by me to 
 that affecting narrative? Yet, will the reader believe it? 
 this very dissertation on the disputed claims of Gamala 
 and Gadara is closed by the following paragraph : ' The 
 account given of the habitation of the Demoniac, from 
 whom the legion of devils was cast out hei-e, struck me very 
 forcibly, while we were ourselves wandering among rugged 
 mountains and surrounded by tombs, still used as dwell- 
 ings by individuals and whole families of those residing 
 here.f A finer subject for the masterly expression of the 
 
 * " Vide a letter of Dr. Seetzen to the editor of L'Ambigu, 
 inserted in number 253 of that work." — Note to the Travels in 
 Palestine. 
 
 f " And when he was come out of the ship, immediately 
 there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 
 who had his dwelling among the tombs ; and no man could 
 bind him, no, not with chains ; because that he had been often 
 bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked 
 
616 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 passions of madness in all their violence, contrasted with 
 the serenity of virtue and benevolence in Him, ' who 
 went about doing good,' could hardly be chosen for the 
 pencil of an artist ; and a faithful delineation of the rug- 
 ged and wild majesty of the mountain scenery here on the 
 one hand, with the still calm of the waters of the lake on 
 the other, would give an additional charm to the picture." 
 32. The last effort, and a sad failure it is, is to attach 
 blame to me for not knowing, at one period, what Mr. 
 Bankes had subsequently discovered at another, with re- 
 gai'd to Tarichea and Semuk, neither of which I pretended 
 to describe otherwise than as to the supposed position of 
 the one, and the actual bearing from Tiberias of the other. 
 But the Reviewer is himself soon ashamed of such a fee- 
 ble sally as this, and instantly corrects himself, by admit- 
 ting that as these points were ascertained by a visit made 
 after the period at which I wrote, no blame could attach 
 to me for not being acquainted with them. 
 
 S3. The charge respecting the plates has been answered 
 before; and if it were 'to provide a retreat for conscience 
 that I abstained from particularizing which were original 
 and which were not;' what must be the motive of the 
 Reviewer for steering eqita/ii/ clear of all particular indica- 
 tion ? Can it be a crime in the one, and a virtue in the 
 other ? The truth is, that though the Reviewer has not 
 succeeded in convicting me of misrepresentation in any 
 OTie instance, he is himself without a retreat either for his 
 conscience or his reputation; for when he says that 
 there is not one of these plates that was made from 
 sketches taken on the spot, I can give him the ' lie di- 
 rect,' to use his own elegant phrase, and tell him that all 
 the plates (with the exception onlt/ of the ancient plan of 
 Jerusalem, which could not have been done by a modern 
 hand) are original; that _fif teen of the vignettes are from 
 original, sketches, namely. Harbour of Alexandria, Tomb 
 of Rachel, the Pass to Jericho, Crossing the Jordan, Arab 
 Camp in Gilead, Arch of Geraza, Ionic Colonnade, Sar- 
 cophagi of Geraza, Bath on the Hieromax, View of Tibe- 
 rias, Riiins of Capernaum, Baths on the Lake, Sarco- 
 phagi of Esdraelon, Mountains of Samaria, Castle of 
 Sanhoor; leaving nine to be divided among Le Bruyn, 
 Maundrell, Pococke, and Casas, while many more of the 
 originals sent home have been omitted altogether. The 
 complaint urged by me as to some of the plates in Maun- 
 drell, evidently put into a later edition of his book long 
 after his death, was a well-founded one, because these 
 were not merely inaccurate, but bore no resemblance 
 whatever to the places they were said to delineate; 
 whereas, of the few that were selected by me to add to 
 the original sketches, they were avowedly chosen because 
 of their fidelity; and notwithstanding what is said of Tyre 
 and Jaffa, the only two places named, they are still, though 
 imperfect, the best views known to me of the places in 
 qaestion. The wilful falsehood of the assertion, that 
 ' the remaining views are only three or four,' instead of 
 fifteen, and the gratuitous assertion of what he could not 
 possibly know, that none of these were sketched on the 
 spot, is a finishing stroke to the arrogant pretensions of a 
 Reviewer, who affects to know as accurately what persons 
 did not do, as what they did. The amusing instance, as it 
 is called, of the description of a vessel with three masts, 
 and reference to a vignette showing a vessel with only two, 
 merely proves the Reviewer's ignorance of what he wrote 
 about. The description says, ' the vessel, small as it was. 
 
 asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces ; neither could 
 any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in 
 the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself 
 with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and wor- 
 shipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, ' What 
 have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? 
 I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not." — Note to 
 the "gravels in Palestine, 
 
 had three masts, two of them being fixed nearly at the ex- 
 treme points of the frame, and the principal one a little 
 before the centre of the hull. On the /ore and rmxen 
 masts were carried a lateen sail, exactly similar in size and 
 fo7'm to those worn by the Egyptian jerms ; and on the 
 main-mast were a square course, a topsail, and a topgal- 
 lant sail, all fitted like the central sails in a polacca 
 ship, and the mast rigged in the same way.' Any one 
 who will turn to the vignette will see that the headmost of 
 the boats corresponds exactly with this description ; there 
 aretwo/a/eere sails (if the Reviewer knew what they meant) 
 of a triangular form, at each extremity of the hull, with a 
 small jib beyond the foremost one; and at the head of the 
 jib, the upper extremity of a short mast raking forward at 
 an angle of 45° is distinctly seen; the rest of the mast is 
 hidden by the lateen sail : but because the dark stroke 
 does not appear through the canvas, the Reviewer fancies 
 there could be none intended. Yet he must know that in 
 the finest sea pieces, whether in water colours or oils, the 
 square masses of white sails are often represented without 
 any stroke to indicate a mast at all, or a line to pourtray 
 the rigging, it being, of course, inferred that sails could 
 not be supported without masts, nor these without ropes, 
 and that the exact delineation of these is no more requi- 
 site in a small object, than the distinction of human hairs 
 on the head of a miniature. There was a more striking 
 inaccuracy in a view of the Lake of Tiberias (at p. 464), 
 if this blind Reviewer could have seen it; for there a 
 boat is introduced on a lake, of which it is mentioned as 
 one of the peculiarities, that no boat was to be seen over 
 all its extent 1 This was a touch of the engraver or some 
 one else at home, where it is far from uncommon, as I have 
 understood, to have still greater liberties taken ; but the 
 genera! accuracy of the whole is still preserved. 
 
 34. The closing sentence of the Reviewer is worthy of 
 himself. He commences it with a blunder, by saying that 
 ' the map is D'Anville's with all its errors, it being one 
 of the least correct of the productions of that extraordi- 
 nary genius.' The Reviewer must have been reading the 
 preface when he wrote this, instead of looking at the map 
 itself. In the preface, it is said, 'The ancient map of 
 Palestine is -taken, with very trifling alterations, from 
 D'Anville, as the most generally known and approved au- 
 thority on this subject, and the most frequently referred 
 to.' Unfortunately, however, for the critical reputation 
 of the Reviewer, this map was thought by the publishers 
 unnecessary, and has not been engraved at all I ! The only 
 map issued with the work is one that was wholly con- 
 structed from an original book of bearings and distances, 
 here in the Surveyor-General's Office in Calcutta, and has 
 a large portion of country and many places included in it 
 wholly unknown to D'Anville, or any other authority, as 
 anj' one may see by comparing them together. Such a 
 discovery was, indeed,worthy of the sagacity of The Quar- 
 terly Review. Of the ground plan of the ancient Jerusa- 
 lem from Josejihus, I have before spoken ; and should 
 be glad to know where the Reviewer could direct me to 
 find a better. 
 
 " Upon the whole, (says this writer,^ we are compelled to say 
 of this duU and tiresome volume, wliich we have gone through 
 with more care than it deserved, that the plates (which he contends 
 are not original) are worthy of the letter press (which he insi- 
 nuates is also borrowed or stolen); and both of them of tlie 
 author," who, (according to his own showing, could have no 
 just claim to either ! ) 
 
 " So much for Buckingham." 
 
 Had he said, ' Off with his head,' he would have given 
 utterance, probably, to the inmost wishes of his heart. 
 But, as it IS, never was Bathos, or the Art of Sinking, 
 more strikingly displayed. ' To begin with a blunder," 
 was reserved, it would seem, as a distmction for my book! 
 still I had abundant room before me, in which to re- 
 deem my error. But to begin with a blunder, and end 
 with an absurdity is a distinction of a higher kind, and 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 617 
 
 reserved for my Reviewer, who, having exhausted his store 
 of learning, is reduced to the necessity of proving that his 
 Author's text is not his own, and his embelHshments still 
 less so; but that nevertheless he alone is answerable for 
 the demerits of both ! ' O ! most lame and impotent con- 
 clusion.' We have before us an exact picture of this 
 wretched critic in the Dunciad, 
 
 ' He gnaw'd his pen, then dash'd it on the ground, 
 Sinking from thought to thought a vast profound : 
 Plunged from his sense, but found no bottom there, 
 Yet wrote and flounder'd on in mere despair. ' 
 
 I had thought at first that I should have found the Re- 
 view too long to continue a close analysis of it like this 
 throughout ; but the specimens already given (and I have 
 missed nothing intentionally, but have gone on from pa- 
 ragraph to paragraph in the order in which they follow 
 each other,) will have shown that every portion of it can 
 be refuted and put down almost without an effort. The 
 Reviewers address themselves to general readers ; and their 
 attention not having before been drawn to the subject, they 
 are led away by authoritative and dogmatic assertions, as 
 if they were truths : while, because such readers cannot 
 refute them, they may suppose them unanswerable. I 
 have shown that almost every sentence contains a specimen 
 of false quotation, perverted reference, or known and 
 wilful untruth. But having now disposed of the details of 
 their contemptible criticism, if such abuse can deserve the 
 name, I come at once to the great and serious points of 
 the accusations affecting moral character, which for my 
 own sake, and not for theirs, I am bound to defend. 
 
 It is insinuated that I knew nothing of Arabic, although 
 this is numbered among one of the qualifications that I 
 had the good fortune to possess for such an undertaking. 
 And if this were unfounded, I should, of course stand 
 convicted of wilful falsehood. The best answer to such 
 an insinuation is, perhaps, the fact that I came from 
 Aleppo all the way to IJagdad as an Arab, without 
 servant, interpreter, guide, or assistant of any kind, 
 through a country in which Arabic was the only lan- 
 guage spoken; and there are persons at Bombay, Madras, 
 and even at this city (Calcutta), among whom are the Pro- 
 fessor of Arabic, and the Secretary to the College of Fort 
 William, who can testify, I believe, as to my capacity at the 
 period of my arriving here (two years after this journey, and 
 when disuse had impaired a practical fluency in the lan- 
 guage) to maintain a conversation with a native of Yemen, 
 the part of Arabia in which the Arabic language is still 
 used in its greatest purity. 
 
 It is said that I have spoken in illiberal disparagement 
 of Nathaniel Pearce, of whom I had only made mention to 
 show the state of manners in Abyssinia, for I had been told 
 that Mr. Pearce, when left in Abyssinia by Mr. Salt, as a 
 common sailor, and therefore not to be expected either 
 to read or write, any more than thousands of the bravest 
 and best seamen in the British navy, was held to be a 
 prodigy of wisdom ! This is what is called illiberal dis- 
 paragement. Surely the Reviewers must suppose their 
 readers destitute of all understanding. 
 
 The next important charge, which I purposely reserve 
 for the- last, is, that of my having pilfered Mr. Bankes's 
 notes, drawings, plans, &c.; of my having had my expenses 
 paid by this same Mr. Bankes ; and of the Reviewers hav- 
 ing the statement of that gentleman, as well as the deposi- 
 tions on oath of his servants, that these accusations were 
 true. The assertion of dishonourable transactions on my 
 part towards the house of Briggs and Co. in Alexandria, 
 ought to have been reversed, for their behaviour was fully 
 deserving that epithet; and as to the story of the Tartar, 
 who died on his way from Aleppo to Bagdad, it is quite 
 hew to me, and may or may not be true; but I happen to 
 have possessed, up to the hour of his death, the friend- 
 ship, good opinion, and esteem of the late lamented Mr. 
 
 Rich, of Bagdad, to whom the Tartar was said to be 
 despatched, and who subsequently was made acquainted 
 with the most minute transactions between myself and 
 Briggs and Co., on which both he and Mr. Bruce, the East 
 India Company's resident at Bushire, to whom these ex- 
 planations were made, never expressed but one opinion, 
 namely, that my conduct had been honourable and correct 
 throughout : and there are many besides Mr. Bruce happily 
 still alive to confirm what I say. 
 
 But to return to the transaction with Mr. Bankes, 
 which is the main part of the whole, and is, indeed, almost 
 the only thingworth serious notice in the wholeReview,! 
 shall give at length the documents, long since drawn up 
 and sent to England, on that affair, which I hope will show 
 that person in his true colours, and set the matter at rest 
 for ever. 
 
 I must here intreat the indulgent forgiveness of those 
 whose names will appear in these pages, as bearing testi- 
 mony to the accuracy of the documents in question ; but, 
 however I may hold in contempt the critical confusion of 
 The Quarterly Reviewer, who has even outdone himself 
 in virulence and blindness in his pretended criticisms on a 
 work that he did not read to understand, but purposely sat 
 down to decry, I cannot remain silent under accusations 
 which must,-if unanswered, go to throw doubts, at least, on 
 my moral character. I shall have to request, therefore, 
 the patient attention of all who think it of any value that 
 I should be able to defend my reputation from the suspi- 
 cion of dishonour, to the documents that will follow this 
 to-morrow, as a want of space obliges me to break off 
 here to-day ; and to their impartial judgment I shall be 
 willing to submit my case. 
 
 On the following day, August 15, the Notarial 
 Documents, before alluded to, were published in 
 the Calcutta Journal, accompanied by several ex- 
 planatory letters, and preceded by a brief intro- 
 duction. Copies of the whole are here submitted. 
 
 NOTARIAL DOCUMENTS, 
 
 IN REFUTATION OF THE CALUMNIES OF 
 MR. BANKES ON MR. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 I hav.e now the satisfaction to present to the Indian 
 public the documents adverted to in the Journal of yester- 
 day. I shall preface them wdth one observation- only, — 
 namely, that feelings of delicacy towards even the person 
 who had forfeited all claim to such consideration, as well 
 as a sense of the unmanliness of attacking the absent on 
 points affecting moral character, which should only be 
 done where the individual possessed the means of imme- 
 diate defence, have hitherto deterred me from making 
 these documents pubUc. Since, however, Mr. Bankes 
 has been restrained by no such feelings of delicacy or just 
 tice towards rae, but on the contrary has lent the au- 
 thority of his name, as well as his information, to The 
 Quarterly Review, in order to spread throughout England 
 and the whole civilised world, accusations which cannot 
 be replied to for months after their appearance, and which 
 will be seen and beheved by thousands who will never 
 have an opportunity of seeing my defence, it would be- 
 injustice to myself to preserve silence for a moment longer. 
 I have only now to intreat again the indulgent forgiveness 
 of those whose names will necessarily appear in these 
 pages, bearing testimony to the accuracy of the documents 
 in question, as without these proofs of authenticity the 
 documents would lose much of their weight; and to beg 
 the attentive and impartial perusal of all that follows, 
 relying on the good sense of the public to examine for 
 themselves, and decide according to their conscientious 
 estimate of the evidence laid before them. 
 4 K 
 
618 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTARIAL PREAMBLE. 
 
 I, William Hunter Smoiilt, notary public, by royal autho- 
 rity constituted and appointed, and duly admitted and sworn, 
 residing and practising in the town of Calcutta, Fort William, 
 in the province of Bengal, in the East Indies, do hereby cer- 
 tify and attest unto all whom it may concern, that the paper 
 writings hereunto annexed, marked respectively with tlie letters 
 A, B, C, and Nos. 1,2,3,4,5, 6,7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, are true 
 and faithful copies of several paper writings which were pro- 
 duced and exhibited to me by James Silk Buckingham, of the 
 town of Calcutta aforesaid, Esquire, as and for original docu- 
 ments ; the paper writing marked with the letter A, being a 
 copy of a letter from the said James Silk Buckingham, ad- 
 dressed to Benjamin Babington, Esquire, London, dated Cal- 
 cutta, the 3d and 10th days of June, 1820 ; the paper writing 
 marked with the letter B, a copy of a letter from William John 
 Bankes, Esquire, to the said James Silk Buckingham, dated 
 Thebes, June 12th, 1819; the paper writing marked with the 
 letter C, a copy of a letter from the said James Silk Bucking- 
 ham to the said William John Bankes, dated Calcutta, June 
 22d, 1820; the paper writing marked No. 1, a copy of a letter 
 from the said William John Bankes, addressed ' Al Senor 
 Buckingham, Caballero Yngles, en el Conbento de la Terra 
 Santa, Damasco,' dated Acra, February 28, 1816; the paper 
 writing marked No. 2, a copy of a letter from the said William 
 John Bankes, addressed to the said James Silk Buckingham, 
 ' to be sent forward should he be on his way to Balbeck,' dated 
 Damascus, April 12, 1816; the paper writing marked No. 3, 
 a copy of a red book of disbursements, containing an entry of 
 the payment of the said James Silk Buckingham's portion of 
 joint expenses on his journey from Jerusalem to Jerash with 
 the said William John Bankes ; the paper writing marked No. 
 4, a copy of the Tracing of the Plan of the Ruins of Jerash ; 
 the paper writing marked No. 5, a copy of a Tracing of two 
 Tombs at Oomkais ; the paper writing marked No. 6, a copy of 
 a letter from the said Benjamin Babington, written at Madras 
 to his brother Stephen Babington, in Bombay, refuting Mr. 
 Burckhardt's calumnies on Mr. Buckingham ; the paper writ- 
 ing marked No. 8, a copy of original notes contained in a me- 
 morandum book of Arabic paper, marked thus on the outside, 
 ' No. 11, from Assalt to Jerash, Adjeloon, and Mezereibe, in 
 the Hauran,' stated to contain all the notes made by the said 
 James Silk Buckingham on his visit to Jerash, when the said 
 William John Bankes was not with him ; the paper writing 
 marked No. 9, a copy of a supplementary letter from the said 
 James Silk Buckingham to the said Benjamin Babington, in 
 London, dated Calcutta, July 4, 1820; the paper writing 
 marked No. 10, a copy of declaration of Mr. Henry Haiuil- 
 ton, assistant surveyor in Calcutta, as to his construction of a 
 Plan of Jerash, wholly from MSS. notes and bearings furnished 
 to him by the said James Silk Buckingham, without any aid 
 whatever from the tracing of the said William John Bankes ; 
 the paper writing marked No. 1 1, a copy of a letter of the said 
 James Silk Buckingham, addressed to John Murray, Esq., 
 publisher, Albemarle Street, London, dated Calcutta, July 7, 
 1820, complaining of breach of confidence, and acquainting 
 him that Mr. Benjamin Babington had been authorized by him, 
 the said James Silk Buckingham, to withdraw the MSS. of 
 the Travels in Palestine from his bands, and to seek redress for 
 any injury sustained by him the said James Silk Buckingham, 
 by the conduct of the said Mr. Murray : — all which said seve- 
 ral documents are more particularly referred to and described 
 in the said paper writing marked A. And I, the said notary, 
 do further certify that I know and am well acquainted with the 
 respective hands writings of Sir Charles D'Oyley, Bart., John 
 Palmer, James Young, James Calder, John Melville, John 
 Young, Henry Chastenay, George Chinnery, and Paul IMar- 
 riott Wynch, whose names are subscribed to the several original 
 certificates, of which copies are annexed to the said paper writ- 
 ings marked Nos. 3 and 8, and that the said signatures are of 
 the proper hands writing of the said several parties whose 
 names appear subscribed to the same respectively ; and I do 
 further certify, that the above-mentioned Henry Hamilton, an 
 assistant surveyor in the oflficc of the Surveyor- General, in the 
 service of the Honourable East India Company, personally 
 appeared before me, the said notary, and declared for truth 
 that he has held such situation for upwards of thirty years, and 
 
 is therefore well acquainted with the drawing of plans, and that 
 he has carefully examined the paper writings hereunto annexed, 
 marked Nos. 4 and 5, with their respective originals, and found 
 them to agree in every respect. And I do further certify, that 
 the originals of the said paper writings marked Nos. 3 and 8, 
 have been carefully perused and examined by me, and that the 
 same bear every mark of authenticity as original documents, 
 and are respectively in the proper hand writing of the said 
 James Silk Buckingham. An act whereof being requested, I 
 have granted the same under my notarial form and seal of 
 office, at Calcutta, aforesaid, this twenty-eighth day of July, in 
 the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty, 
 to serve and avail as occasion shall or may require. 
 
 Quod Attestor, 
 (Signed) W. H. SMOULT, Notary Public. 
 
 Notarial 
 
 Seal. 
 
 B. 
 
 Copi/ of a Letter from Mr. W.John Bankes, dated Thehes, 
 June 12, 1819, sent hy the hands of H. W. Hobhouse, Esq. 
 
 Mr. Buckingham, 
 
 After some anecdotes respecting your conduct, which you 
 cannot but suspect must have come, however late, to my know- 
 ledge before this time, you cannot expect that I should addre^ 
 you otherwise than I should the lowest of mankind. It is, in- 
 deed, with reluctance that I stoop to address you at all. It 
 will require, however, no long preface to acquaint you with the 
 object of this letter, since your own conscience will point it out 
 to you from the moment that you shall recognise a hand-writ- 
 ing which must be familiar to you, since you have copied it, and 
 are about to turn the transcripts to account. You have hoped 
 that the distance of place would befriend you ; you have hoped 
 that I should shrink from proclaiming that I have been imposed 
 upon. It would have been far more politic in you to have 
 shrunk from being proclaimed the man who has imposed. 
 
 In that advertisement by which you announce as your own 
 the works of another, you have at least spared me the humilia- 
 tion of being named in the list of your friends (the motive of 
 this is sufficiently obvious, and it furnishes in itself both a proof 
 and an aggravation of your culpability). Yet some of those 
 who are made to appear in that list would rather, I am per- 
 suaded, that you had invaded their property as you have mine, 
 than have subjected them to so unmerited a stigma. One 
 amongst the number (whom you would not have dared even to 
 allude to had he been alive) is unhappily unable to repel the 
 imputation in his own person, I mean the late Mr. Burckhardt, 
 whom you so imprudently tite as your bosom friend. The 
 boast is rash and ill-timed. 
 
 Are you not aware that copies of a letter are extant in which 
 he styles you a villain, in which he says that the rogue can be 
 brought to a sense of duty only by a kick. Do you wish then 
 to publish your own disgrace by letting the world know how 
 well you were known to that excellent person, who, during the 
 two last years of his life, lost no opportunity of testifying his 
 contempt and aversion for your character. Do not imagine 
 that these sentiments were confined to the pages of a single 
 letter. Sheik Ibrahim w^as too open and too honourable to 
 wish others to be deceived as he had been for a time himself; 
 had his letters to me reached me sooner than tliey did I should 
 have had timely warning to beware how I trusted you, and you 
 would never have had the opportunity wliich you have seized of 
 abusing my kindness and confidence. 
 
 It is beneath me to expostulate with you, but I will state 
 some facts to yourself which I have already stated to others, 
 that the Journey beyond Jordan to Dgerash and Oomkais was 
 arranged, and the Arabs under engagement to conduct me 
 thither, before I ever saw you ; that you introduced yourself to 
 mo by letter, stating that you were intimate witli some of my best 
 friends/ and studiously concealed from me, botli then and after- 
 wards, that you were in any person's employ ; that it was at my 
 invitation (1 being always under the supposition that you were 
 a free agent) that you went witli me, having 2)reviously agreed to 
 take doivn my notes and the journal, when I should wish it ; that 
 the expenses of the journey were upon me; that tlie notes and. 
 journal were in great part taken down from my mouth (especi- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 619 
 
 ally what relates to Dgerash), with the exception of that of tlie 
 two or three last days, whicli were written with my oum hands 
 and afterwards copiedjciir by you j but above all, that the plan 
 of the ruins of Dgerash was constructed and noted with my 
 own hand, and that the assistance that I derived from you, even 
 in collecting the materials for it, was in your ascertaining for 
 me the relative bearings of some of the buildings witli my ccm-. 
 pass ; that, as to the plan of the theatre, you did not even know 
 that I bad made it till you saw it at Nazareth. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to remind you that you neither copied 
 a single inscription, nor made a single sketch on the spot, since 
 you are, I know, incapable of the one, and your ignorance of 
 Latin and Greek must, I should suppose, unfit you for the 
 other: add to which, you had not a single sheet of paper oii 
 which you could have done either, if I except a pocket-book 
 about four inches square. 
 
 The great ground plan was traced at a window of the Convent 
 of Nazareth (as both my servants can testify), and you have 
 copies from my drawings of the tombs of Oomkais, taken at 
 the same time ; these last are probably to furnish the vignettes 
 and appropriate engravings which are announced. 
 
 Surely you must laugh at the simplicity of your subscribers, 
 when you are alone, with whom you are to pass for a draughts- 
 man, being ignorant of the very first principles of design ; for 
 an accurate copier of inscriptions, being ignorant of all the 
 ancient languages ; and for an explainer of antiquities, being 
 incapable of even distinguishing between the' architecture of the 
 Turks and the Romans. I have said enough ; it is in vain to 
 attempt to make a man sensible to ingratitude, who has been 
 guilty of fraud. What I demand is, the immediate restitution 
 of those copies from my papers without exception, and without 
 your retaining any duplicate of them. Let them, be put into 
 the hands of Sir Evan Nepean, whom I have begged that he 
 will do me the favour to take charge of them ; and let all that 
 portion of the work advertised, that treats of a journey made at 
 my expense and compiled from my notes, be suppressed. I 
 leave you otherwise to take the consequences ; should you per- 
 sist, the matter shall be notified in a manner that shall make 
 your character as notorious in England and in India, as it is 
 already in Egypt and Syria. You will find that you have not 
 duped an obscure individual who is obliged to bear it and hold 
 his tongue. 
 
 WM. J. BANKES. 
 
 When this letter was written I did not know that the person 
 to whom it is addressed, was editor of the paper in which his 
 long-winded advertisement appeared, but supposed him to be 
 still at Bombay. * 
 
 C. ' 
 
 Copi/ of Mr. Buckingham's Reply to the foregoing. 
 
 Sir, Calcutta, June 22, 1820. 
 
 I received your insulting and infamous letter, dated Thebes, 
 June, 1819, only a few days since, as well as its copy sent here 
 by the hands of Mr. Hobhouse. 
 
 I shall enter into no further remarks here on the subject, 
 than to state that it contains a tissue of most abominable false- 
 hoods ; that T regard you, therefore, as having forfeited the 
 character of a gentleman ; and that I shall use the means which 
 
 * It should be stated, that the original of this letter was 
 sent from Thebes, in Egypt, through Alexandria and Suez, to 
 India, and was just a year on its way to Calcutta. The copy 
 of it was given to Mr. William Henry Hobhouse, at Trieste, 
 where Mr. Bankes and he met ; and, as tJie latter was coming 
 to India, he had the letter given to him open, with instructions 
 to make it as public as he chose, on his way to that country. 
 Mr. Hobhouse, having no reason to believe its contents other- 
 wise than true, mentioned the circumstance of his being charged 
 with such a letter to some of the gentlemen whom he saw soon 
 after his landing in Bombay. By these he was at once assured 
 of the entire want of foundation for Mr. Bankes's aspersions ; 
 and being unwilling to become the instrument of propagating 
 unfounded calumnies against one he had never seen, and of 
 whom he knew no evil, he made no further public use of the let- 
 ter, until he reached Calcutta, when it was given to Mr. Palmer, 
 and by him, with Mr. Hobhouse's consent, delivered up to me. 
 
 your own previous letters to me in Syria (fortunately preserved) 
 furnish, of proving to the world the baseness of your conduct. 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 To W. John Bankes, Esq. 
 
 A. 
 
 Copy of a Letter from Mr. BucJcingham to B.Babingion, 
 Esq. London. 
 
 Calcutta, Sunday, June 3, 1820. 
 
 Mr DEAR BABINGTOy, 
 
 I have just received a most insulting letter from Mr. William 
 J. Bankes, dated Thebes, June, 1819, a whole year ago, in 
 which, having received all that Mr. Burckhardt had so falsely 
 said of me as true, he sets me down as having also announced 
 to the world the publication of what is not my own, namely, 
 the plan and description of Jerash, upon these grounds : — 
 First, * That I never knew of the name or existence of the 
 place till I met him at Jerusalem ;' — Secondly, ' That I ren- 
 dered no assistance in making the plan, except taking the rela- 
 tive bearings of some of the buildings with his compass ;' — 
 Thirdly, '■ That the whole expense of the journey was defrayed 
 by himj' — and Fourthly, 'That I traced the copy of the 
 plan from his own in the convent of Nazareth, and copied all 
 my notes from his manuscript.' Consequently, he commands 
 me to desist from using any of the information so obtained, re- 
 garding Jerash, as my own; — insists on my giving up every 
 scrap of paper I ever had belonging to him, to Sir Evan 
 Nepean, at Bombay ; or, on refusal to do so, he threatens that 
 he will take such public notice of it in England as will blast 
 my character for ever. 
 
 The readiness with which you stepped forward to do me 
 justice against the unfounded calumnies of Mr. Burckhardt, and 
 the pleasure which every honest man must feel in seeing equity 
 rendered in similar cases, are my best hopes for your receiving 
 readily my replies to these false and foul accusations, which I 
 shall answer in regular order as they are above stated. 
 
 First. — That the Hauran generally, and consequently one of 
 its principal cities, Jerash, was long contemplated as the subject 
 of my examination, I need only to refer to a. letter from Mr, 
 Burckhardt, written to meat Esne, dated December 13, 1813, 
 the original of which is with Mrs. Buckingham, and the copy 
 to be found in the Calcutta Journal of November 24, 1818, 
 since reprinted in the Quarterly Journal of Science, publibhed 
 at the Royal Institution, and in the Journal of Voyages and. 
 Travels, published by Sir Richard Phillips in London. In 
 this Mr. Burckhardt says, * I shall be much interested to 
 receive from you some details relative to your excursions in 
 Syria, more particularly those trans-Jordanem,'* alluding to 
 our former conversations about Jerash, and other remarkable 
 cities of the Hauran, . 
 
 Secondly. — Mr. Bankes admits, in his own letter, that I did 
 at least take the relative bearings of the principal buildings of 
 of Jerash with his compass, which all who know any thing of 
 plan drawing will admit to be of some assistance ; but I assert 
 that I did much more ; I traversed the city on foot from end 
 to end, measured the length and breadth of streets and build- 
 ings by paces, took the bearings of buildings ' with my oiv?i 
 compass, the one I bought in Bombay and used with you in 
 our joint voyage, and, moreover, measured the proscenium of 
 the theatre with a line (the cord was Mr. Bankes's I admit), 
 measured the benches of the theatre by spans (using my own 
 fingers), and counted the steps by going over them (with my 
 own feet) , during the time that Mr. Bankes was snugly sheltered 
 in a niche of one of the vomitories, making a drawing of the. 
 front, of which he promised me a copy, as he then conceived 
 our labours equal, but never gave me one. So much for the 
 share we each had in the plan. 
 
 Thirdly. — Mr, Bankes's party consisted of two Bedouin 
 guides, an Albanian servant, and himself, four in number, and 
 I was alone, having neither servant nor interpreter ; yet so far 
 from Mr. Bankes having paid the whole expence, he did not 
 pay even the portion which he ought, but demanded of me one 
 half, which I paid him in the convent of Nazareth, on making 
 up my accounts ; as a leaf of my memorandum book which I 
 enclose will show you, there stated at 108 piastres, wliich, as 
 far as my memory goes, is quite correct. I could tell a hundred 
 anecdotes of his meanness and parsimony wliich would make 
 
 4 K 2 
 
620 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 him blush, but Lady Hester Stanhope could relate still more. 
 We may spare him, howeverj this mortification. 
 
 Fourthly — I acknowledge that I did trace tlie copy of the 
 plan when it was completed, in the convent of Nazareth, with 
 Mr. Bankes's knowledge and cognizance, as a thing to which 
 I had a right, since I had not only done the largest portion 
 towards it, in collecting the materials of bearings, distances, &c. 
 on the spot, but even in this convent I was constantly refeiTed 
 to by him on doubtful points, while he was reducing it to paper. 
 An amanuensis, who wrote a letter at the dictation of another, 
 might almost as well call the letter Ais, as Mr, Bankes could lay 
 claim to this plan of Jerash. I should never have disputed his 
 using it as he pleased, since he was there, and made the best 
 use of his eyes and fingers as well as myself; and while I was 
 planning he was drawings which was equally useful. If he 
 benefited by my labours, however, he should have made me a 
 participator in hisj and given copies of his drawings in exchange 
 for my measurements and bearings of the plan, instead of which 
 he would deny me all right whatever. — There is no name suf- 
 ficiently bad for such illiberality of conduct as this,- 
 
 Lastly. — As it regards my copying all his manuscript notes, 
 you who travelled with me, and know my unwearied industry 
 and precision in this particular, will easily discredit such a thing 
 at once. The fact is, and I think I have so stated it in my 
 account of this journey of ours to Jerash in the book sent home 
 to be printed, that, from Jerusalem to this place, no safe or 
 proper opportunity occurred of either of us showing such things 
 as pen, ink, or paper : but on reaching Jerash, after we had 
 during the first short visit made a few hasty measurements, co- 
 pied one or two inscriptions, &c. we went down to a spring, 
 and it was agreed between Mr. Bankes and myself that I 
 should stay under a rock there, keeping the guides* attention 
 directed from him, &c. and writing up all I could recollect of 
 our journey, while he went to a spot above and took a general 
 view of the city, which he did. A copy of this was mine by 
 right also ; as, without my aid, he could not have taken it, and, 
 like the other, it was promised but never given. All our mea- 
 surements were made in a visit we repeated from Soof, amidst- 
 heavy rain, on the next day, all of which you will find in the 
 little red books I left with you at Madras. — I declare, upon 
 my honour, that I do not believe Mr. Bankes ever made a note 
 during all this tour ; for, besides that his attention to drawing, 
 whenever he had an opportunity to show paper, prevented it, 
 his indolence on this subject is avowed ; for, in a letter to me 
 from Damascus, dated April 12, 1816, he says at the close of it : 
 * Do me the favour to keep this letter, not for your use, but 
 mine, you know how indolent I am about writing, and I have 
 thrown together many things here upon paper which I may 
 never do again.' Is it likely that I should have been reduced 
 to copy such a man's notes? I am sure you will laugh at such 
 an idea. 
 
 But, with all our joint pains, the plan of Jerash was very 
 defective ; and accordingly, after I had parted with Mr. Bankes, 
 and went to Assalt, on the east of the Dead Sea, I made a third 
 visit to Jerash, accompanied by two guides of my own ; and 
 being unmolested through the whole of the day, had an oppor- 
 tunity of making a new and more accurate plan of the town 
 generally, besides plans of the separate edifices, with bearings 
 of all the principal points, and memoranda of every useful par- 
 ticular, from which, and not from our former joint imperfect 
 draft, the plan I have announced for publication is taken. 
 
 Although I am sure that my solemn pledge and assurance 
 would be of equal weight in your mind with any thing Mr. 
 Bankes could say to the contrary ; yet, for your further satisfac- 
 tion, as well as to enable you to refute his calumnies more satis- 
 factorily to others, I enclose you the following documents, as 
 proofs positive of the truth of what I say ; — 
 
 No. 1. A letter written from Acra, February 28, 1816, to 
 prove that Mr. Bankes was desirous of joining me in my 
 excursions through the Hauran, but that, though he had re- 
 solved to come to me, he could get no one to undertake to carry 
 him on account of tlie danger of the expedition, ending by a 
 hope that we should meet at Aleppo, and make our journey to 
 Palmyra together. — This will show that I did not inti-ude on 
 him. 
 
 No. 2. A letter dated Damascus^ April 12tb, in which is the 
 
 following paragraph : — * I have been careful and exact in my 
 drawings, which are in great numbers, and I do not think you 
 will be ashamed of having your name associated with what I- 
 may, one day or another, throw together in form. Do me the 
 favour to keep this letter, not for your use, but my own y — 
 you know how indolent I am about writing, and I have thrown 
 here many things upon paper which I, perhaps, may never do 
 again.' This will prove, first, that Mr. Bankes really did con- 
 template our labours being jointly made pvhlic, and that he 
 thought me entitled to association ,* next, that he scarcely ever 
 wrote, from avowed indolence, on this subject ; and therefore, 
 that it is highly improbable that I, who had nothing to divert 
 my attention from writing, who have kept journals of the fullest 
 kind for years past, and whose industry in this respect you have- 
 so often witnessed and expressed your surprise at, should have 
 copied any of Mr. Bankes's notes. 
 
 No. 3. A little red book, one of the set, containing my loose 
 notes, in Syria, Palestine, and the Hauran, of which I left with 
 you the greatest number at Madras, and which you, no doubt, 
 still have. I began this with a view of entering all my expences 
 to India, but left it off after I quitted Nazareth. Luckily, how- 
 ever, it includes the item of expences to Jerash, of which I paid, 
 as my portion (which was one half, thoughit ought to have been 
 only one Jiflh), 108 piastres. You remember well the accuracy 
 of my accounts when we made our voyage from Bombay to 
 Suez together, and you will therefore easily appreciate my pre- 
 cision in this. 
 
 No. 4. A tracing of the plan of Jerash, made by me from 
 Mr. Bankes's in the convent of Nazareth, the original of which 
 I furnished the materials for, and assisted by my advice and 
 correction in putting it to paper. I could have done it, how- 
 ever, myself, as chart drawing is professionally familiar to me, 
 and I have, besides, plans of buildings in Egypt, drawn before 
 I ever saw Mr. Bankes, much better done ; but this was traced, 
 as the quickest method, for I was ill at Nazareth, and had 
 enough to do besides. The purport of enclosing this, is to have 
 it compared with my own plan, as sent with my book to be pub- 
 lished, which, being made up from a third visit to the city, and 
 from more correct observations than could have been made 
 before, is more accurate, and so different from this, that it ren- 
 dered the tracing useless, and so in fact it has been. 
 
 No. 5. Two sketches of tombs at Oomkais, hastily copied by 
 me from pencil sketches of Mr. Bankes at Nazareth, the oply 
 things of his I ever possessed, though, as I said before, he con- 
 ceived that I was entitled to copies of all his drawings made 
 when we were together, and promised them, but never performed 
 his promise. These have been Jinished into drawings of a better 
 kind by an artist, who did many of the. vignettes for my book 
 from rude and imperfect sketches and descriptions of my own, 
 which T have acknowledged and explained in my preface ; and 
 these, if Mr. Bankes holds them to be any value, he may have 
 back again, though he gave them to me as freely as he promised 
 me what he never parted with. 
 
 No. 6. A copy of your letter to your brother Stephen, which 
 you may not have preserved, in order to refute the calumnies of 
 Mr. Burckhardt, in which Mr. Bankes has so inconsiderately 
 joined. 
 
 No. 7. The identical compass with which I took all tlie bear- 
 ings of Jerash, and every other place during the voyage, and 
 which you will easily recognise as the very compass we had 
 together from Bombay to Suez, and which I have preserved 
 through all diflficulties up to this hour. 
 
 No. 8, And lastly, The original manuscript notes of my 
 journey alone (i. e. with Arab guides only), for the thir^ time 
 to Jerash, in which you will see that my notes, though hastily 
 made, were very full ; the plans of the buildings (though rude) 
 made with my own pen, and suflEiciently intelligibl.e to me, co- 
 pics of the Greek inscriptions found there, and, in short, all 
 that was remarkable. All this was done after IMr. Bankes and 
 I parted ; it is from this that my account of Jerash is drawn 
 up ; and I declare, upon my honour, that I not only never 
 copied, but I never saw a note of his in all the journey ; and I 
 firmly believe that he never made any, except in letters to his 
 friends, relying wholly on his drawings to refresh his memory. 
 
 Sunday, June 10, 1820. — Since I wrote the above (for it is 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 621 
 
 only on Sundays that I can steal a moment for private corre- 
 spondence) I have seen a letter from Mr, E. Mackintosh, by 
 whom I sent home the manuscript and drawings of my journeys 
 to his friend and partner, Mr. Calder, here. I should first tell 
 you, that in a letter of Mrs. Buckingham's to me, dated either 
 in August or September, she mentioned that she had seen 
 Mr. Murray, who had closed a satisfactory bargain with. Mr. 
 Mackintosh for the work, and that it would be ready for pub- 
 lication in November or December. Although I had no direct 
 communication from Mr. Murray on the subject, yet, on the 
 faith of tills, on which, of course, I placed the greatest reliance, 
 I announced to the subscribers here, that accounts had been 
 received by me from England, which gave me reason to believe 
 that the work would be ready in December, and be here pro- 
 bably in June. A subsequent letter of Mrs. Buckingham's, 
 dated in November, says, that having called on Mr. Murray to 
 make enquiries regarding the progress of the publication, she 
 was surprised to find, not only that it would not be ready in 
 December as originally promised, but that it was not yet begun, 
 and could not be commenced on till further communication with 
 Mr. Mackintosh. 
 
 This gentleman being then in Scotland, Mrs. Buckingham 
 wrote to him, and received for answer, that before his leaving 
 England every thing had been arranged for immediate public- 
 ation, and that the delay was not only unaccountable, but a 
 breach of engagement on the part of Mr. Murray, whom he 
 would call on the first thing after his return to London. This 
 was accordingly done, as I learn from the letter of Mr. Mackin- 
 tosh to his friend Mr. Calder. In this Mr. Mackintosh says. 
 that after calling repeatedly at Mr. Murray's without being 
 able to see him, he at length determined to wait at his house 
 till he should find him visible. When he saw hira, Mr. Murray 
 excused his delay by the following explanation : — 
 
 First. — Being somewhat doubtful of the proper tendency of 
 the work, as it regarded religion and politics, he put it into 
 the hands of Mr.GifFord, the editor of The Quarterly Review, 
 which was itself a great breach of confidence, as he had no 
 right or authority to do so, and The Quarterly Review is, 
 besides, the last standard by which I would consent to be 
 judged on two such points as religion and politics, in which my 
 notions, right or wrong, are diametrically opposite to those of 
 that publication. After going through the Manuscript, Mr. 
 Gilford, as might be expected, says to this effect (for 1 cannot 
 get the letter to quote the precise words), that he had read 
 the book, which contained much jiew and curious information, 
 that would be both valuable and acceptable ; but that it was un- 
 fortunately so mixed up with sentiments that were highly ob- 
 noxious, that it must be submitted largely to the pruning knife 
 before it could be fit for the public eye, and that it would be 
 better to reduce the quantity by forty or fifty pages, than spoil 
 the whole by letting these obnoxious parts go abroad. More- 
 over, he thought these parts so dangerous^ that he even advises 
 their being not merely crossed out, as they would be liable to 
 corrupt even the printers, who would thus be able to see them, 
 for THEY also have souls to be saved ; but that they should be cut 
 out altogether and destroyed. He then goes on to revile me, as 
 being devoid of all generous sentiments, my having all the 
 venom of "Voltaire, &c. &c. in the style of The Quarterly 
 Review ; but recommends, nevertheless, on the whole, that 
 with the judicious retrenchments proposed, the work should be 
 ^mbllshed. It appears by this, from the circumstance of Mr. 
 Murray being the favourite publisher of church and state, and 
 the proprietor of their avowed advocate, The Quarterly Re- 
 view, that lately (perhaps since the publication of Don Juan) 
 he submits the MSS. of all works to Mr. Gilford, and pub- 
 lishes only what he approves, depending on the praise of l"he 
 Quarterly Review for the sale of the book, rather than its 
 own merits. The silence of The Quarterly (so chaste, so 
 moral, and so indignant on every other occasion) with respect 
 to Don Juan, which it has not dared to condemn because 
 Mr. Murray published it, though all other presses in the kingdom 
 have been employed to cry it down, is another proof of the 
 base coalition that exists between the Reviewers and the publisher, 
 to which coalition the interests of truth and of private indivi- 
 duals must thus be sacrificed. 
 
 In my letter of instructions to Mr. Murray, dated Novem- 
 ber; 1818, and sent by Mr. Mackintosh, with the MSS. I 
 
 said, * with regard to any thing that may appear objectionabU 
 in the body of the work, I should have no disinclinalion to see 
 it altered for the better, or even expunged, if necessary; but 
 you will perceive, I am sure, the propriety of making this liber- 
 ty a restricted one, and accordingly see that the corrections and 
 emendations of this nature are made with a very sparing hand.* 
 In saying this, I certainly meant the erasure or omission of all 
 that might be thought unfit for the public eye generallyt parti- 
 cularly some anecdotes of the licentiousness of the monks and 
 pilgrims at Jerusalem, and some of the gross absurdities be- 
 lieved and practised there. But in requesting this to be done 
 with a sparing hand, I did not mean that the work should be 
 submitted to Mr. Gifford, or any other writer in The Quar- 
 terly Review, the last standard, as 1 before said, by which I 
 should consent to be judged, and whose censure would be 
 more agreeable to me than their praise, because, according to 
 my notions they often censure in religion and politics, that 
 which I most admire; and, vi^e versa, praise in both, that which 
 I cordially and heartily detest. 
 
 My book, if published, might have as many enemies as my 
 paper has obtained me here j but, like it, it would have its ad- 
 vocates too. Its chief merit would be its having the courage 
 and the candour to speak the truth, to expose impositions, and 
 to undeceive mankind in many points in which they have 
 been grossly misled regarding the state of manners in the Holy 
 Land. The same frankness which has been used in the ma- 
 nagement of my paper, is used generally in my book : and 
 thougli my paper has made me some enemies by its freedom, 
 yet XhQ friends it has secured to ine are men whom, without 
 such coincidence of sentiments, I should, for their own in- 
 trinsic merits, esteem and love ; so my book might have been 
 condemned by the illiberal and bigotted spirit of The Quarterly 
 Review, whose praise I should not covet ; but I have reason to 
 believe and hope that it would be read with pleasure and ap- 
 probation by men, who were friendly to candour, liberality, 
 and truth. 
 
 Secondly. — Besides the objections urged by Mr. Gifford, it 
 appears from Mr. Mackintosh's letter, that Mr. Murray had 
 also received a letter from Mr, Bankes's father, the member for 
 Corfe jCastle, which in substance stated, that he had just re- 
 ceived a letter from his son, dated Thebes, in which he had 
 stated that I had introduced myself to him at Jerusalem as a 
 friend of Colonel Missett, and the late Mr. Burckhardt; in 
 consideration of which he had ptermitted me to accompany him 
 in his tour through the Hauran, paying my expences for the 
 same; that I had, during that tour, made copies of his notes 
 and plans, as I was incapable of making either for myself; and 
 that my book, as announced for publication, was therefore made 
 up of his (Mr. Bankes's) materials ! The father, therefore, 
 urged Mr, Murray not to undertake the work, as his son would 
 shortly be in England, and would be prepared to give a much 
 fuller and better account of these countries, from his own 
 materials, than I possibly could, who had only made use of 
 another's.* 
 
 * Since this was published in India I have obtained the ori- 
 ginal letters of Mr. Gifford and Mr. Henry Bankes, senior. 
 They offer such excellent illustrations of the minds and cha- 
 racters of the writers, that I readily publish them entire ; and 
 thus assist to preserve them as literary curiosities, for such 
 they cannot fail to be considered by posterity. They are as 
 follows : — 
 
 Letter fvovi Mr. Gifford, Editor of the Q,ihaHerly Reiiew, 
 to Mr. John Murray, the Publisher. 
 
 My dear Sir, James's- street, June 7, 1819. 
 
 I return you the MS, wliich I have read. It is certainly in- 
 teresting and important in some degree ; but will, T suspect, 
 appear tedious in more places than one. 
 
 The writer is the most unamiable person tliat I ever travel- 
 led with, and I have travelled with a good many. I have not 
 marked one generous sentiment, one traSt of liberal and correct 
 feeling. He is a daring, but an ignorant infidel ; and proudly 
 imagines, while he is only combating the idle trash of a few 
 poor bigotted and illiterate monks, which no protestant thinks 
 worth notice, that he is demolishing Christianity, Of OUJ 
 
622 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr, Bankes, the member for Corfe Castle, being a govren- 
 ment man of some weight, and Mr. Giiford being the cham- 
 pion of church and state, and both my book and paper now be- 
 fore them, proving that I was not only a humble individual, 
 but contemptible in their eyes, from not advocating the civil 
 and religious tyranny which these men and their party would 
 exercise over us, the probability is, that Mr. Murray will sup- 
 press my work altogether, and hurry Mr. Bankes's out before 
 
 blessed Saviour and his Apostles he speaks, not only with the 
 rancour of an apostate, but with the revengeful malice of one 
 Who had received a personal injury from them. He has the 
 venom of Voltaire, without an atom of his wit; and the fury 
 of Condorcet, without a spark of liis vivacity ; he is, besides, 
 obscene and even filthy. I am sorry to speak so severely of 
 any man ; but in saying- that the Bishop of Calcutta approved 
 his MS., 1 firmly believe that he has advanced an atrocious ca- 
 lumny. 1 know Dr. Middleton too well to think for a mo- 
 ment that he would lend the sanction of his name to the ex- 
 ploded ravings of blasphemy, vented in the language of the 
 brothel. I would say this to the author's face ; and at any rate 
 it is better to say it now than after such a work has met the eye 
 of the world. 
 
 With all this, I rather wish that you would publish it. It 
 cannot be enlivened, but it may be rendered far less objection- 
 able, and this with no great trouble. Omission is all that is 
 required : the MS, seems already to have fallen into the hands 
 of some timid, but judicious friend. Let him only exert his 
 pruning knife with a bolder hand. There is, at present, too 
 much quotation, and that from books in every one's hands, 
 Josephus, the Bible, &c. It is surely better to reduce the vo- 
 lume forty or fifty pages than to have it unreadable. 
 
 Another word. I do not see why the printers are to be cor- 
 rupted ; they have souls to be saved, I suppose, as well as the 
 rest of the world. I should, therefore, make it a point (if the 
 MS. is not to be recopied), that the profaneness and obsce- 
 nity should not only be crossed, but fairly erased and blotted 
 out, before it is put into their hands. 
 
 Ever, dear Sir, your's, &c. 
 
 To John Murray, Esq. W. GIFFORD. 
 
 Letter from Mr. H. Bankes, the elder, of Corfe Castle, to 
 Mr. John Murray, Publisher. 
 Sill, 
 
 I have received a letter from my son, dated Thebes (in 
 Egypt), 12th June, which is the occasion of my troubling you. 
 He informed me that a person, named J. S. Buckingham, in- 
 troduced himself to him some time ago at Jerusalem, under 
 the pretence of being an intimate friend of Colonel Missett, 
 and also of the late celebrated traveller Mr. Burckhardt; that 
 in consequence of this supposed friendship with two so respect- 
 able men, and so well known to my son, he permitted Mr. 
 Buckingham, whose destination was tolndia, to accompany 
 him for some time, and to take a copy of that part of his 
 journal which was kept during this portion of his travels. 
 
 This ill-placed confidence has been requited in the way that 
 such acts of kindness usually are by ungrateful and" worthless 
 people. Mr. Buckingham announces liis intention of pub- 
 lishing his own travels, of which I have now before me an 
 elaborate and pompous prospectus, in a Calcutta newspaper. 
 
 I know not whether you have ever heard of tliis projected 
 work ; but as it is intended to be printed and published in 
 liondon in a splendid manner, it is very probable that appli- 
 cation may be made to you before it sees the light j in which 
 case I wish to put you upon your guard against having any 
 transactions with such an author as Mr. Buckingham, and also 
 against laying before the public, parts of a very extensive and 
 curious tour, in an imperfect state, which I hope and trust 
 that my son will be induced to submit to them in the best and 
 most complete form that he can put his valuable researches to- 
 gether, whenever he returns. 
 
 You will oblige me by making known what I communicate, 
 with regard to the character of Mr. Buckingham and his in- 
 tended work, in any way that you may deem proper, and I 
 remain. Your obedient servant, 
 
 Kingston-Hall, H. BANKES. 
 
 Wimborne, 3d Oct. 1819, 
 
 it, by which I shall sustain great pecuniary loss, besides all the 
 reputation of enterprise and novelty, and perhaps, too, my 
 character for truth and consistency in the eyes of my subscribers, 
 to whom it will appear that I have pledged myself to what I 
 was not able to perform, and to whom I must instantly return 
 all the money paid in advance for the work, with explanations 
 liable to all possible misconstructions, leaving me nothing but 
 the consciousness of being undeservedly injured to bear up 
 against these evils. 
 
 If it is not altogether suppressed it will be published in a 
 mutilated form, under Mr. GifFord's and Mr. Bankes's eyes j 
 the one leaving out all that would make it worth being read, as 
 far as freedom of sentiment goes, and many excellent parts in 
 which I have convicted The Quarterly Reviewers of gross ig- 
 norance in their review of Dr. Clarke's and other travels lying 
 in my way ; and the other omitting all that could interfere with 
 his son's route ; and by their depriving my book of all its best 
 parts, they would together leave a stupid, empty, flat, and stale 
 performance, not worthy of being published, read, or even 
 spoken of. 
 
 If I were in England, I should know how to act. But not 
 being on the spot, and being unable to go home for that pur- 
 pose, without destroying all my future prospects, which are 
 now too good to be hastily abandoned, all I can do is to confide 
 the matter to you, by first entering my decided protest against 
 Mr. Gifford or The Quarterly Reviewers having any thing to 
 do with the manuscript ; and requesting you to withdraw it 
 wholly from Mr. Murray's hands if not too late ; and secondly, 
 by enclosing to you all the documents herewith sent, to deposit 
 with any other publisher you like, for the refutation of the 
 abominable falsehoods thus circulated against me by a coalition 
 of jealous enemies. 
 
 The basis of these misrepresentations of my character first 
 originated with Mr. Burckhardt, from jealousy of my being 
 able to give a better account of the countries east of the Jor- 
 dan than himself; and the same stories of Mr. Burckhardt, 
 with some additional embellishments and falsehoods of his own, 
 are now taken up by Mr. Bankes, from sheer envy, I believe, 
 at my anticipating him in time, and giving a better account of 
 the Hauran than he is likely to do ; as he seems to insinuate 
 that he will remain quiet if I will suppress the pubhcation of 
 my book, in order that his may came out before it ; but that he 
 will, if I persist in proceeding, make such a statement to the 
 world as shall undermine my fair fame, and blast my reputa- 
 tion for ever. 
 
 If no undue influence or unfair means be used, however, I 
 do not fear any scrutiny ; and as I know that my character will 
 stand the test of the closest examination, I ask only the justice 
 of impartiality. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTERS AND 
 PAPERS REFERRED TO BEFORE. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Letter addressed thus, ' Al Senor Suckingham, Caballero 
 Yngles, en el Conbento de la Terra Santa, Damasco,' 
 dated Acra, Feb. 28, 1816. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 There is some fatality about my travelling engagements, I 
 never made one in my life but circumstances turned out so as 
 to prevent my fulfilling it. Anotlier letter from Seyde, and 
 above all the radical change in tlie weather, determined me 
 upon deferring my scrambling expedition to tlie Hauran, and 
 turning at once upon the coast. I did not, however, give up 
 the idea of joining you at once, but made an attempt from St. 
 Hoor (whore that excellent man Hadjee Hamet entertained 
 mo with the same hospitality, and almost affection, which you 
 had described to mo). Beisan, which is the ancient Scythopo- 
 lis, is witliin a day's journey, and in the same jurisdiction; it lies 
 in the plain of the Jordan; and is within a long day of Salt. 
 I resolved to go to Beisan, and so make my way to you, if I 
 could find any body to carry me. \^^len I came, I found that 
 nobody would undertake it ; for but the day before (my good 
 fortune always brings me a day before or a day after such ad- 
 ventures) tlie Bedouins had completely pillaged and stripped a 
 party of merchants from Damascus, within two hours of the 
 village, so there was an end of that scheme. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 623 
 
 I am a great loss to know what I ought to do with the bag- 
 gage which you left in Antonio's charge, I cannot trust it 
 alone to Damascus, and yet am afraid that you will feel em- 
 barrassed without it on your arrival there. As I reckon that 
 you will pass from thence across to Seyde, I shall take it with 
 me so far, and leave it in Lady Hester Stanhope's charge. 
 As you have no visits of ceremony to make at Damascus, 
 perhaps you may continue your Bedouin habit, during 
 your short stay there, without inconvenience (and I am dis- 
 posed to hope that your stay will be as short as possible). I 
 shall remain with Lady Hester Stanhope about iive days, and 
 if I do not turn round for Damascus, which will depend a 
 good deal upon her advice and upon circumstances, I shall 
 make my way pretty direct for Aleppo, lengthening out my road 
 by excursions, however, here and there, to give you time to 
 come up to me, so that I trust that at the latest we may meet 
 in Aleppo, and Tiiake our journey to Palmyra together. 
 Believe me, my dear Sir, most faithfully yours, 
 
 WM. JOHN BANKES. 
 
 We certify these to be true extracts from the original letter 
 of Mr. William John Bankes. 
 
 (Signed) C. D'OYLY, J. C ALDER, 
 
 J. PALMER, HY. CHASTENAY, 
 
 J. YOUNG, P. M. WYNCH, 
 
 J. MELVILLE, G. CHINNERY. 
 JOHN YOUNG, 
 
 No. 2. 
 Letter addressed thus, 'J. Suckingham, Esq. to be sent 
 forward shovMhe be on his way to Baalbec' dated Da- 
 mascus, April 12, 1816. 
 
 Mt dear Sib, 
 Since I knew nothing of your illness until now, when I hope 
 it is quite at an end, I can only rejoice in your recovery. At 
 the same time, I am afraid that the same wintry weather which 
 tfas distressed me very much in the Hauran, must have made 
 your passage across the mountains very disagreeable, if not 
 dangerous. I have to regret that my letter from Sunnymene 
 never reached you, as I there detailed to you my plans, and 
 mentioned that I wished our meeting to take place a few 
 days jater than that which we had fixed on together. None 
 can be better than about the 1 9th or 20th. 
 
 * # # * * * * 
 
 At (I) is a temple of the Antonines, there is another ex- 
 cellent specimen in a ruined village called (2), near the road 
 
 from Shibley's village (3)toBostra. But even this difficulty 
 
 was removed by the sight of those at (Nedjeran) Madgdal (4), 
 which have set the matter past a doubt. 
 
 I do not know whether in the hasty view you took of Salk- 
 hud you examined the town ; you would, I think, have ob- 
 sreved that the houses there are apparently of a less remote an- 
 tiquity, and of a worse construction than usual, and the mosque 
 entirely of Saracen work, with shell niches in the minaret. 
 By the bye, from the description in your notes of the 
 fortress of Adjeloon, I axa almost persuaded, that that also is 
 Saracen work. Bostra, you will remember, has the rustic 
 masonry all over it, and instances of the fan or shell niches are 
 without number; though I know you are of a different opinion, 
 
 AND I WILL NOT VENTURE TO SET MINE AGAINST IT. 
 
 I have been very careful and exact in my drawings, which 
 are in great number, and I do not think tou will re 
 
 ASHAMED OF HAVING YOUR NAME ASSOCIATED TO WHAT I 
 MAY ONE DAY OR ANOTHER THROW TOGETHER INTO FORM. 
 
 Do me the favour to keep this letter, not for your use, but my 
 own ; YOU know how indolent i am about writing, and I 
 have thrown here many things upon paper, which I may per- 
 
 (1) (2) (3) (4) These three instances of names being for- 
 gotten altogether, and one first written wrongly, and subse- 
 quently corrected by another being written over it, are selected 
 as proofs that the writer of the letter, Mr. Bankes, did not take 
 notes on the spot, in his tour; because, if he had done so, 
 such omis sions and mistakes in such important points as names 
 of towns, could not have occurred. 
 
 haps NEVER do again. I shall set oflf the day after to-morrow 
 for Banias, and so make my way to Baalbec, where I hope 
 10 JOIN TOu about the 1 9th or 20th. 
 
 Faithfully your's 
 
 WM. JOHN BANKES. 
 
 We certify these to be true extracts from the original letter 
 of Mr. Wm. John Bankes. 
 
 (Signed) C. D'OYLY, J. CALDER, 
 
 J. PALMER HY. CHASTENAY, 
 
 J. YOUNG, G. CHINNERY, 
 
 J. MELVILLE, P. M. WYNCH. 
 JOHN YOUNG, 
 
 No. 3. 
 Extract from a small red memorandum book, containing an 
 account of disbursements on a Voyage and Journey from 
 Egypt to India by luay of Syria, began December 1815. 
 
 Feb. 5th, 1816. — Paid the whole expenses of our journey 
 across the Jordan to Jerash, and return to Nazareth, including 
 guides, provisions, &c. (my portion) piastres 108 O, 
 
 We certify this to be a true extract from the original book of 
 memoranda exhibited to us by Mr. Buckingham, 
 
 (Signed) C. D'OYLY, JOHN YOUNG, 
 
 J. PALMER, HY. CHASTENAY, 
 
 J. YOUNG, G. CHINNERY, 
 
 J. CALDER, P. M. WYNCH. 
 
 J. MELVILLE, 
 
 Nos. 4 and 5. 
 Plan and Sketches of Jerash and Oomkais, sent; copies 
 retained. 
 
 No. 6. 
 Extracts of a letter from Mr. Benjamin Babington, at 
 Madras, to his brother, Stephen Babington, at Bombay, 
 dated June 1818, commenting on a letter of Mr. Burck- 
 hardt, in which that gentleman had cited Mr. Babington 
 as his authority for several gross falsehoods and, calumnies 
 regarding me. 
 
 I am sorry to observe, however, that all which is ad- 
 vanced (by Mr. Burckhardt) as well respecting my opinion of 
 Mr. Buckingham, as on the state of our accounts, cannot but 
 
 be WILFUL MISREPRESENTATIONS. 
 
 In the foregoing defence, I may have omitted some points 
 that, if my memory served me, I could throw light upon. If, 
 however, I have disproved even one unjust accusation, I shall not 
 have taken up my pen in vain ; for a single falsehood, whether 
 uttered intentionally, or from erroneous impressions, must 
 affect the credit of every assertion from the same source, and 
 make an impartial judge suspend his opinion, at least, till he 
 has heard both sides of the question. 
 
 ****** # 
 
 I cannot close my letter without expressing my disgust at 
 the abusive style of language used throughout the " Paper on 
 Buckingham," language which even if applicable to the object 
 against which it was levelled, it is surely beneath the dignity of 
 a gentleman to use. If we contrast this abuse with the uncom- 
 monly kind expressions of extreme regard uttered at the very 
 time when the feelings which gave rise to the accusations were 
 the strongest, we shall find it diflScult to put much faith in Sheik 
 Ibrahim's (Mr. Burckhardt's) sincerity, in expressing either 
 his regard or contempt; and this circumstance alone must 
 weaken our confidence in the disinterestedness of his as- 
 sertions. 
 
 (Signed) B. BABINGTON. 
 
 P. S. Since writing the above, I have learnt with much 
 regret the death of Sheik Ibrahim. This circumstance makes 
 it more necessary than ever that the truth should be known 
 with regard to Mr. Buckingham's character; because the 
 Sheik's papers may do him irreparable injury. I do not think 
 it worth while to alter this letter. * B. B. 
 
 * To preserve the continuity of subject, these short extracts 
 only are given here ; — ^the whole letter, however, is so important 
 that it will be given immediately after this is closed. 
 
624 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 Is a small pocket compass, with traversing card, in a red 
 morocco case, purchased by Mr. Babington and myself, in 
 Bombay, in the middle of the year 1815, used by us jointly 
 on our voyage together from Bombay to Cairo, and after- 
 wards by myself on my subsequent journey in 1816, from 
 Cairo to India by land, the journey in which I met Mr. 
 Bankes, in whose presence I repeatedly used it for collecting 
 materials for maps and plans. 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 Original manuscript notes, on Arabic paper, made on my 
 THiRn visit to Jerash, subsequent to the two hasty visits made 
 with Mr. Bankes, and containing outline plans of buildings 
 not even mentioned in the tracing from Mr. Bankes*s plan ; 
 many sets of bearings for the general plan of the city ; copies 
 of Greek inscriptions from the ruins j and copious notes of all 
 the most remarkable features there. 
 
 The following extracts are deemed sufficient to establish the 
 fact of their originality . — 
 
 Wednesday, March 7, 1816. Left Salt at 8. Go up to 
 the north, woody country, half an hour came to the hill in sight 
 of Gor Waadi Stezibaan, the name which the Arabs give to 
 the vale of Jordan. Descend and pass ruined villages, a cis- 
 tern, &c.; half an hour came to Zey, a ruined town, pillars, 
 and sarcophagus as under (referring to a rude sketch) ; many 
 houses and large stones all destroyed ; trees growing over it, 
 wild boars, &c. near, abundance of pines, clay, soil. Descend- 
 ing, see Oud-el-Nebba-Gerash, 15 miles N. E. by E. In an 
 hour came to UUaan, Beni Aioobe of Salt, now ruined, old 
 caves of burial there, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Jerash, Thursday, March 8, 1816. While our morning 
 coffee was preparing, I stole an hour as at Ammaan, to take 
 another daylight tour round the ruins here', and collected in 
 the course of it the following additional particulars. 
 
 After this follow ten pages of small closely written memo- 
 randa, regarding Jerash, at which I prolonged my stay till past 
 noon ; — these pages containing corrections of many errors in the 
 joint plan of Mr. Bankes and myself, more hastily drawn up ; 
 besides five outline traces of separate edifices, six regular sets 
 - of angular bearings by compass at different points in the gene- 
 ral view of the ruins ; and four separate Greek inscriptions, 
 copied from a fallen column, a broken altar, and the frieze of a 
 semicircular recess in a temple : from which manuscript, the 
 full and complete account of Jerash, as well as the general 
 plan of the city, and plans of particular buildings, ail sent 
 home to be published, have been drawn up. 
 
 P. S. Mr dear Babington. — The foregoing compre- 
 hends all that I think necessary to send home to you for the 
 purpose required, and I have now only to request, that if Mr. 
 Murray shall have entirely suppressed the publication of the 
 book, you will withdraw it from his hands immediately, (ori- 
 ginaVand duplicate, including all that belong to both), and 
 after submitting it to revision, put it into the hands of some 
 respectable publisher, on terms as near to those which Mr. 
 Mackintosh was commissioned to make with Mr. Murray, as 
 may be practicable, so that the publisher purchase the MS. 
 and undertake the risk of publication. &c. If the book should 
 be already published in a mutilated manner, you nill then be 
 at liberty to make any public or private use you think proper of 
 the information contained in this letter. If Mr. Bankes, Mr. 
 Murray, or Tlie Quarterly lieviewers publish any thing on 
 these subjects derogatory to my fair fame, it will then be ne- 
 cessary, I think, that these explanations should be as public, 
 and all I require is to mei-t them on fair grounds. 
 
 The book was read in different portions by Mr. Erskine, 
 Mr, Wedderburn, Mr. Henderson, and your brother Stephen, 
 at Bombay, as well as before the Literary Society there, in suc- 
 cessive readings ; it was read by you at Madras, and my ac- 
 count of .Jerash read to the Literary Society there. The whole 
 manuscript was in the hands of the Lord Bishop of Cal- 
 cutta for several weeks, though I do not know whether he read 
 more than parts. The whole was also in the hands of Doctor 
 Lumsden, the Arabic Professor of the College, and partially 
 seen by Captain Lockott and Mr. Calder. Indeed I was so little 
 bigotted to my own standard of fitness for publication, that I 
 repeatedly made trifling alterations at their several suggestions; 
 
 but no material ones were ever mentioned to me as necessary. 
 Even after that, it was again and again revised ; I think, there, 
 fore, that Mr. GifTord's censorship is unnecessary and intolerant j 
 and I know there is nothing that I could ever write, of which 
 such a mai) would be likely to approve. Your friendship will 
 excuse the length of this epistle ; and, placing every thing to 
 which it alludes at your entire discretion, 
 I remain, my dear Babington, 
 
 faithfully and sincerely yours, 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 We, the undersigned, residents of Calcutta having teen pre- 
 sent together on the 16th of June, 1820, have examined and 
 compared this copy with the original letter to Mr. B. Babington, 
 transmitted to England by the ship Fame, Captain Eastgatc, as 
 well as the extracts from Mr. Buckingham's journals therein 
 referred to, with their originals, and certify that they are accu- 
 rate transcripts ; and that the originals, to our conviction, bear 
 all the marks of perfect authenticity. We have likewise com- 
 pared with the originals, and hereby verify, the extracts made 
 from the letters from Mr. Bankes, exhibited to us by Mr. 
 Buckingham, and which letters also bear the same marks of 
 perfect authenticity. 
 
 (Signed) C. D'OYLY, JOHN YOUNG, 
 J. PALMER, JAS. CALDER, 
 J. YOUNG, G. CHINNERY, 
 HY. CHASTENAY, P. M. WYNCH.* 
 J. MELVILLE, 
 
 I, William Hunter Smoult, notary public, by royal authority 
 constituted and appointed, and duly admitted and sworn, re- 
 siding and practising in the town of Calcutta, at Fort William, 
 in the province of Bengal, in the East Indies, do hereby cer- 
 tify and attest, unto all whom it may concern, that the several 
 signatures set and subscribed to the foregoing certificate, are all 
 of the respective hands writing of the several parties signing 
 the same. I, the said notary, being personally acquainted with 
 the said several parties, and knowing their respective hands 
 writing, therefore, full faith and credit ought to be given there- 
 to, in court and thereout. 
 
 Done and passed in Calcutta aforesaid, this 10th day of 
 July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 twenty. 
 
 No. 9. 
 
 Supplementary Letter from Mr. Buckingham to B. Bab- 
 ington, Esq. in London. 
 
 My dear Babington, Calcutta, July 4th, 1820. 
 
 Since these letters and papers have been prevented going by 
 the Fame, Captain Eastgate, as originally intended, as it was 
 thought advisable to retain notarial copies of the whole, I shall 
 add here, as a supplementary note, a very striking discovery, 
 which has arisen in the course of enquiry. It is this : — 
 
 It had been suggested to Mr. John Palmer, in the course of his 
 conversations with otliers on this subject, that it was possible I 
 might have concealed from Mr. Bankes the fact of my having 
 visited Jerash a third time, or subsequently to our joint visit 
 there, and that he being consequently ignorant of my having 
 collected any materials in addition to those which we collected 
 jointly, might have supposed tliat in giving an account of 
 Jerash, I could only have made use of such information as I 
 had acquired in company with him, which he, considering to be 
 obtained through his means, would be borne out (consistently 
 at least witli that consideration) in condemning, as a breach of 
 confidence, and an unwarrantable use of his or our joint ma- 
 terials, as exclusively my own. 
 
 When Mr. Palmer waited upon me to ask me wlietlier I 
 possessed any means of removing this objection, I staled to him 
 that I did not think I had any proof in writing of Mr. Bankes's 
 having seen my notes, bearings, and traces of plans made in 
 my third visit to Jerash ; but that I had a perfect recollection 
 of his liaving seen them, and of our conversing together there- 
 on, both at Damascus and Aleppo, where we afterwards met. 
 
 * Having been prevented from attending on the 6th, as he 
 griginally intended, subsequently, on the 17tb, examined the 
 papers, and attests their accurficy. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 625 
 
 I was prepared to pledge my honour to this fact; but we both 
 regretted, as every other point had been satisfactorily met by 
 documentary evidence, that this could not be equally so. 
 
 Just as l\Jr, Palmer was about to leave me, it occurred to 
 my recollection, however, that in one of Mr. Bankes's letters 
 to me in Syria, No. 2. dated at Damascus, April 2, 1816, in 
 speaking ol' the ruined places of the Hauran generally, and 
 particularly of the difficulty of deciding about Roman and 
 Saracen fortresses, he says : — * By the bye, from the descrip- 
 tion in your notes of the fortress of Adjeloon, I am almost 
 persuaded that that also is a Saracen work (Bo&tra, you will re- 
 member, has the rustic masonry all over it, and instances of the 
 fan and shell niche are without number) ; I know you are of a 
 different opinion, and I will not venture to set mine against 
 it.' And remembering that the only notes I had on Adjeloon 
 were in the veri/sa?ne book with those containing all the notes 
 of my third visit to Jerash, I produced the original to Mr. 
 Palmer, which he recognised as one of those laid before the 
 gentlemen who had met at my house on the 16th of June. It 
 is a small memorandum book of Arabic paper, containing notes 
 of my journey, made on the spot. It is marked on the outside 
 thus, ' No. 11. from Assalt to Jerash, Adjeloon, and Meze- 
 reebe, and Bozra in the Hauran.' It begins with Wednes- 
 day, March 7, 1816, on my leaving Assalt to visit Jerash a 
 third time ; fourteen pages are occupied wjth the road between 
 these two places ; then follows immediately after, eleven pages 
 devoted wholly to additional particulars collected at Jerash on 
 my third visit, when Mr, Bankes was not with me.- Imme- 
 diately following the page where my account of Jerash closes, 
 begins the first account of Adjeloon, in these words, ' See 
 the castle of Adjeloon, like that of Assalt; below it, at its 
 immediate foot, Arrubbudth, now deserted,^twenty soldiers 
 in the castle from Damascus.* Two pages only beyond this, 
 is the following passage, * Mr. Burckhardt, Sheikh Ibrahim, 
 had been at the castle of Adjeloon about three years since. It 
 is in situation and construction like Assalt and Karak, and like 
 them, no doubt, an old Roman work with Saracen repairs.' 
 Eleven pages beyond this begins, ' Saturday, March 10th,' 
 when I left Cafr Injey, a small village in tlie valley of Adje- 
 loon, to pay a visit to the interior of the castle, in which day's 
 journal is the following passage : — 
 
 * Ascended from hence to the castle, and saw some cisterns, 
 many hewn stones, and part of a public road in the way. The 
 castle is, like tliat of Assalt, situated on a high hill, and is 
 about 400 paces in circumference, being nearly square, with a 
 central buttress, or square projection on each side. It is built 
 on a limestone rock, and is surrounded by a broad and deep 
 ditch, hewn out of the rock, and formerly lined with masonry, 
 where necessary. The foot of some part of the castle rock is 
 sloping, and also cased with masonry; the architecture is evi=- 
 dently Roman, large square hewn stones, rough in the centre, 
 and loop-iioles in fan-niches of Roman arch ; yet within, the 
 ■pointed and the round arch, as well as the flat one, are all used 
 in the same room ; the pointed arch-work of the interior is 
 amazingly solid, and certainly coeval with the building itself. 
 The embrasures for arrows resemble the modern ones for can- 
 non, except in the size of their mouths, and there are a consi- 
 derable number of them within. It is now in ruins, but we 
 mounted with difficulty oh the top, and I took the opposite 
 bearings. There is an Arabic inscription of Sultan Salahed- 
 din-el-Mullela-ibn-Yuseff, in the year (no date) ; for which 
 purpose the rough surface of the Roman stones were smoothed 
 down. It is in a small oblong tablet, on the east side, under- 
 neath the two fan niches of Roman work. The castle faces 
 nearly the four points.' 
 
 Then follows a page containing a set of bearings by com- 
 pass, of seventeen remarkable objects; towns, villages, moun- 
 tains, lakes, &c., collected for the construction of a map of the 
 country. In the next succeeding page is the Arabic inscription 
 spoken of, and in the following one, part of a Greek inscrip- 
 tion from a ruined Greek monastery, called Deer Mar Elias, 
 which I visited after I quitted the castle of Adjeloon. 
 
 These are all the notes I ever made of this fortress, as I never 
 visited it but once, immediately on coming from my third visit 
 to Jerash, of which it is witliin a short day's journey, and it will 
 be seen that these notes, which speak of Roman arches and 
 rustic masonry, and fan and shell niches, could be the ojdj/ notes 
 to which Mr. Bankes's observations could apply, when he says, 
 
 ' By the bye, from the description in j'our notes of the fortress 
 of Adjeloon, I am almost perbuaded that that also is a Saracen 
 work (Bostra, you will remember, has the rustic masonry all 
 over it, and instances of the fan and shell niches are without 
 number) ; though I know you arc of a different opinion, and I 
 will not venture to set raineagainst it.' 
 
 As Mr, Bankes read those notes of mine on Adjeloon, &c, 
 attentively, and as they begin on the very back of the same leaf 
 where the account of my third visit to Jerash ends, it will be 
 admitted as very strongly conclusive evidence, that he read all 
 that related to Jerash alsoj as a part about which he must neces- 
 sarily have been more interested than about Adjeloon, where he 
 had never been, and did not, as far as I am aware, ever intend 
 to go. 
 
 With this knowledge, therefore, of my having been at Jerasli 
 alone, subsequent to our joint visit, and with tlie proofs in his 
 hand of my having collected very copious additional materials 
 of bearings, traces of plans, inscriptions, &c., it became a wil- 
 fvl falsehood to say, that in announcing to the world an account 
 of Jerash, I had made an unjust use of his materials, and to 
 say, as he has done in his letter sent by Mr. Hobhouse, * that 
 I took down no notes of this place, but such as I set down at 
 his dictation from his own mouth, or copied from those written 
 by his own hand ; that the few bearings I took were with his 
 compass; and that I could not copy Greek inscriptions, as I 
 was ignorant of the learned languages, and was so far from an 
 antiqu:u*ian, that I-did not know a Roman ruin from a Turkish 
 one.' He must have known distinctly and unequivocally that 
 I had taken notes of my own, hearings with my own compass, 
 Greek inscriptions several in number, and traces of buildings 
 not to be found in his plan ; and with these facts before him, 
 his assertions to the contrary can be called no other than deli- 
 berate, wilful, and malicious representations and untruths. 
 
 In pursuing this enquiry a little farther, after Mr. Palmer 
 left me, (which he did with an expression of his satisfaction at 
 the fulness of the proofs submitted to him by me, of Mr. 
 Bankes's being acquainted with my third visit to Jerash, and of 
 my not having concealed any thing of this from him,) circum- 
 stances arose to render it highly probable that Mr. Bankes 
 has also seen the very item of disbursement in my little me- 
 morandum book, which stated the sum I had paid as the por- 
 tion of my expences for the journey we made together from 
 Jerusalem to Jerash. It is this : at the end of tliis book, 
 marked ' No. 11. from Assalt to Jerash, Adjeloon, and Me- 
 zereebe, and Bozra in tlie Hauran,' (in which, as has been 
 shown, he had read my notes on Adjeloon attentively,) in the 
 last page is tlu's passage. * Half an hour from hence we 
 passed a stream called Aba Hamaghur, and in another half 
 hour entered Bozra.' The remarks on Bozra, with the in- 
 scriptions copied there, &c. , are contained in the end of the 
 small red book appropriated to disbursements, as they were 
 chiefly written in the streets as I went along ; this passage is 
 under date of * Wednesday, March 14th, 1816,' and the ac- 
 count of my disbursements was left off in the February pre- 
 ceding. The item regarding our joint expences, and tfie pay- 
 ment of my portion of it, was entered on the 5th of that 
 month, or a full month prior to my account of Bozra being 
 written, and both were contained in the san^e book. Now I 
 can prove, by Mr. Bankes's letter to me (No. 2. the same that 
 acknowledges his having seen in my notes the description of 
 Adjeloon), that this red book, which contained my disburse- 
 ments, and the notes on Bozra and Salkhud altogether, was also 
 in his possession, and the notes of it read by him ; which renders 
 it equally probable, that he did see the very item entered of my 
 portion of expences paid for our joint journey to Jerash; or, 
 at all events, it will prove that I did not scruple to put this 
 into his hands, and that there was nothing relating to our 
 travels, whether when togetlier or when separate, that I ever 
 wished or endeavoured to conceal from him. 
 
 In this letter of Mr. Bankes's, he says to me, * At Bostra, 
 I think you are mistaken in supposing the tlieatre consisted of 
 only seven or eight ranges of seats. It is true, that those wliich 
 we see are the uppermost, but there are two if not three stories 
 of high arched vaults of Saracen work below, which occupy the 
 height of at least two more flights of steps {which are even 
 visible in many places), and the scene consisted in three if not 
 four orders of architecture, one above the ether, of which there 
 is ocular demonstration, the irregular Doric order which is 
 
 4 L 
 
626 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 visible being the uppermost range. ' The points in which Mr. 
 Bankes thought me mistaken, and the only place in which he 
 could have seen any notes of mine on the tlieatre at Bozra, are 
 contained in the little red book appropriated originally to dis. 
 bursements, and the passage to which he .particularly alludes, 
 is the following: — 'Within the castle (of Bozra) in the 
 centre, is a fine Roman theatre, it faces exactly N.N. E., had 
 a closed front ; with Doric wings, fanned-topped niches, and 
 Doric doors below, and a range of pilasters above them. There 
 was only one flight of seats, seven or eight in height, and the 
 upper one had behind it a Doric colonnade running all round 
 the semicircle ; the pillars about three feet diameter, supporting 
 a plain architrave. The circuit of the upper range of seats is 
 230 paces, and the whole extremely chaste and fine ; there 
 are nine flights of cunii, moulded as well as the benches. 
 The entrance was made from about thirty arched doors from 
 without, and small steps led to the benches above.' — In this 
 small red book, which contains the only notes I ever made of 
 Bozra, and which Mr. Bankes had witli tlie rest for his perusal, 
 are fifteen Greek inscriptions, some of great length, with very 
 copious notes, all made when we were separate ; and offering 
 additional proof that he uttered a wilful falsehood, when he 
 stated I neither made notes, nor copied inscriptions, from 
 want of paper, incapacity, and ignorance of the learned lan- 
 guages. _ 
 
 One instance more may be selected to prove that this book 
 of disbursements was in Mr. Bankes's hands, long after the 
 account was closed and discontinued. It is this ; — In his letter, 
 after enumerating the arguments which presented themselves 
 to his mind, in favour of the castle of Salkhud being a Saracen 
 work, and not any part of it Roman ; he says, * I do not 
 know whether in the hasty view you took of Salkhud, you ex- 
 amined the town. You would, I think, have observed that the 
 houses there are apparently of a less remote antiquity, and of 
 a worse construction than usual, and the mosque entirely of 
 Saracen work, with shell niches in the minaret. By the bye, 
 from the description in your notes of 'the fortress of Adjeloon,' 
 &C.&C. — Now, the only account I ever had of Salkhud is in the 
 savie book with that of Bozra, from which place I made a hasty 
 visit to it, leaving Bozra at noon, reaching Salkhud at 3 p. m. 
 and leaving it again at four, returning to Gheryah, a village 
 near Bozra, an hour after sunset, the whole notes of this * hasty 
 view,' occupying only four pages of a small book, about four 
 inches square. 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 No. 10. 
 
 A Memorandum relating to the Construction and Drawing 
 of the Plan of Jerash, or Geraza, for J. S. Buckingham, 
 Esq. 
 
 At the time Mr. Buckingham was living at Colonel Mac- 
 kenzie's, the Colonel put into my hands a tracing of Jerash, 
 with directions to reduce it to a quarter the size of the original, , 
 and colour and finish it as Mr. Buckingham should direct. 
 Having reduced the sketch as directed, I showed it to Mr, 
 Buckingham, who then gave me a MS. paper, containing a 
 series of bearings, and requested me to try the positions of all 
 the places according to the bearings. I set about it, but find- 
 ing I could not bring any of the bearings to agree, I stated it 
 to Mr. Buckingham ; and also added, that I was of opinion, 
 the sketch I had been directed to reduce, had not been regu- 
 larly laid down by the rules of surveying, from the bearings 
 not agreeing in any one place, though the measurements of 
 length and breadth seemed to be pretty correct, and coincided 
 with his. Mr. Buckingham told me, he was very anxious to 
 possess as correct a plan as possible of the ruins of Jerash, and 
 requested me to construct one afresh, laying down every place 
 in its proper position, according to the bearings given me by 
 him. I experienced very little difficulty in performing this 
 new task. I was engaged in the penciling part of the work 
 about three days ; during this time, Mr. Buckingham would 
 frequently call and give his directions. The several buildings in 
 Mr. Buckingham's plan, many of which are not to be found in 
 the tracing, have all been reduced from separate sketches from 
 Mr. Buckingham's book, and adjusted to the scale on the 
 plan. The lesser details have been partly put in, in pencil, by 
 Mr, Buckingham's own hand. When the plan consti-ucted 
 
 from Mr, Buckingham's bearings was finished, it was so dif- 
 ferent in all its essential parts from the tracing of Jerash, that 
 no assistance could be said to have been derived from it ; and 
 had this sketch or tracing not been put into my bands, I could 
 have constructed the plan from the bearings without it. It will 
 be observed, that in the plan I constructed of Jerash, all the 
 buildings being accurately delineated by the proper measure- 
 ments, as contained in Mr. Buckingham's notes, but not men- 
 tioned in the tracing, they are actually much larger, though on 
 a smaller proportional scale in comparison to what they appear 
 on the larger tracing of Jerash. 
 
 (Signed) HENRY HAMILTON, 
 
 Calcutta, June 27, 1820. Assistant Surveyor. 
 
 We, the undersigned, inhabitants of Calcutta, certify that 
 the writer of the aforesaid memorandum, Mr. Henry Hamilton, 
 
 Assistant Surveyor, appeared before us personally on 
 
 and stated verbally to us the substance of this paper, which at 
 our joint request, he subsequently reduced to writing, 
 (Signed) 
 C, D'OYLY, HENRY CHASTENAY, 
 
 J, PALMER, P. M. WYNCH. 
 
 J. YOUNG, 
 
 No. 11. 
 Letter from Mr. Buckingham to Mr. Murray, the Pub- 
 lisher, in London. 
 Sir, Calcutta, July 7, 1820. 
 
 I have waited with considerable anxiety and impatience, to 
 hear from you on the subject of the MSS. and drawings of the 
 Travels in Palestine, which were placed in your hands for pub- 
 lication, but to this hour I have been disappointed. As, how- 
 ever, Mr. Mackintosh, to whom this affair was intrusted, was 
 understood by me to have made a final bargain with you for the 
 work before he went into Scotland, and as Captain Sydenham, 
 who delivered to you the duplicates, assured me from yourself, 
 that the book was in progress, which Mrs. Buckingham con . 
 firmed to me, by saying you had told her the work would be out 
 in November or December 1819, I rested satisfied in your ho- 
 nour and integrity as a man of business, for the due fulfilment 
 of what you had undertaken. Judge then of my surprise, at 
 learning from indirect sources, (for I am still unaccountably 
 without any advice directly from you,) that in the month 
 of December, when the book was promised to appear, it 
 had not been begun. The reasons urged for this delay appear 
 to me most extraordinary. The first is, as I understand, 
 a censorship exercised over the MSS, by Mr, GifFord, the 
 editor of The Quarterly Review, to whom it appears you 
 submitted the work for the purpose of expunging such parts 
 as he thought proper, and that the retrenchments were to 
 extend to forty or fifty pages. If you had submitted the 
 MSS. to any one (no matter who), before you closed a bar- 
 gain with Mr. Mackintosh, I conceive you would only have 
 consulted your interest fairly, and might have accepted or 
 declined the task of publication with perfect justice ; but 
 such an act after a positive engagement to publish, appeal's to 
 me, and to all else whom I have consulted on the subject, to 
 be a breach of confidence wliich nothing could justify. The 
 evil of this appears to have extended, however, only to the 
 delay and mutilation of the book, since Mr, GifFord is said to 
 have acknowledged that it contained some things that were 
 new and valuable, and with the judicious retrenchments pro- 
 posed by him, recommended it to be published. Another ob- 
 stacle appears then to have arisen in the fact of Mr, Bankes, 
 son of the Member of Corfe Castle, having traduced my cha- 
 racter generally, and set up in particular a claim to all the 
 information contained in my book regarding Jerash, as exclu- 
 sively his own, and as stolen by me from him, on which ac- 
 count, as far as I can learn or conjecture, the publication was 
 to be suppressed altogether. 
 
 I regret that the unaccountable silence you have maintained, 
 in not having written me a single line on this subject, should 
 leave me so much in dark. It is barely possible that what 
 I have stated above, may not be true to the extent there 
 given; but it is precisely what I have gathered, without tlie 
 slightest addition of my own, from the letter of Mr, Mack- 
 intosh to his friend and partner, Mr, Calder, here; and, if 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 627 
 
 correct, you must be too experienced a man of business not to 
 know, that I have been subjected unwarrantably to an injury 
 of great extent, for which redress could be obtained at law. 
 
 Your right to follow the advice of any one you choose, no 
 man can dispute ; but when that advice goes to defeat the juit 
 hopes and expectations of another, founded on a positive en- 
 gagement on your part, common equity requires that you 
 should be held responsible for the consequences, and be bound 
 to remunerate the positive loss sustained. In the case of Mr. 
 Bankes's claim to information contained in my book as his 
 own, he could not possibly have offered you any proof of this 
 beyond his bare assertion ; and if you, under the pledge you 
 had made, thought proper, on such slight grounds as the asser- 
 tion of a deeply-interested individual, to suspend the publica- 
 tion, you must be held equally responsible, as the cause was 
 wholly insufficient for the loss of .reputation and profit which 
 may accrue to me from such a step. 
 
 It happens, fortunately, that I am in possession of proofs the 
 most unequivocal and undeniable, which will go to prove that 
 Mr. Bankes, in setting up these charges against me, has been 
 guilty of known and wilful falsehood, from the beginning to 
 the end ; and these proofs, damning as they will be to his cha- 
 racter for ever, if they are laid before the public, must and will 
 be printed in England, if he shall have dared either to persist 
 in his claims, and thereby have effectually delayed or suspended 
 altogether the publication of my book, or if, not having suc- 
 ceeded in this, he shall have ventured, either by insinuation, or 
 any other means, to impeach my character publicly in any shape, 
 or through any channel whatever. 
 
 My friend, Mr. Benjamin Babington, who will, I hope, de- 
 liver you this, has, therefore, my full authority to withdraw the 
 work wholly from your possession, if it be not already pub- 
 lished, or in such a progressive state as may ensure its public- 
 ation soon. If published, he is equally authorised by me to 
 make any use, public or private, tliat may seem best to him, 
 of the information and documents I have transmitted to him 
 by this opportunity, for the removal of any slander which Mr. 
 Bankes may think fit to affix on my name and character, as 
 well as for the exposure of any injustice which he may con- 
 ceive I have received from you, and for the institution of any 
 suit that may be deemed necessary, whether for libel on the part 
 of Mr. Bankes, or breach of contract on your own ; as, besides 
 the injury in reputation, and in a pecuniary way, which these 
 proceedings may occasion me in England, I have already sus- 
 tained serious damages here, in the slanders to which this delay 
 and suppression of my work has given rise, as well as the dis- 
 appointment to myself and my subscribers, to whom I have 
 felt myself bound to offer a refund of the deposit made with 
 me on account of the book ; and the stop which has thus been 
 put to any further subscriptions being received for the work, 
 though these were in so progressive a state that within the 
 month preceding the account of this suppression having reached 
 me, upwards of twenty additional names were sent to me, for 
 copies of the work when published. 
 
 I have nothing further to add, than to desire you will con- 
 sider Mr. Benjamin Babington, or any other person he may 
 appoint, (should any accident prevent him from undertaking 
 the task,) as my chosen and accredited agent, to seek redress in 
 my name for any injuries he may conceive I have unjustly sus- 
 tained, and for all other matters affecting tlie publication of my 
 Travels. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 P. S. To assure you of the grounds on which I make my 
 complaint against you being secure ones, I think it right to 
 add, that I have heard the letters of Mr. Gilford and Mr. 
 Bankes the elder to you, on account of which my book was sus- 
 pended, read to me by the friend to whom Mr, Mackintosh 
 communicated their contents here. 
 
 One ongma/ letter of Mr. Bankes's still remains with 
 me, as unimportant to be sent home with the others, but 
 it is worth introducing here, for the sake of showing 
 his expression of regret at not meeting me at Baalbec 
 as he had hoped, and his great desire to have the benefit 
 of MY COMPANY, although generally speaking his aversion 
 to a party in travelling was such as nothing but a high 
 
 estimation of the value of any particular individual's com- 
 pany could overcome. The letter and the certificate ap- 
 pended to it are as follow : — 
 
 My dear Sib, 
 
 I am sorry not to find you here, and still more to learn by 
 your letter, which has been just put into my hands, that illness 
 and a course of medicine had been, in some measure, the cause 
 of the delay. My journey towards Hamah is fixed for to- 
 morrow, or at the latest the day after; and the news you give 
 me of the English or rather Irish travellers at Jerusalem, is a 
 reason for my not retarding, as of all things in the world any 
 thing in the shape of a party in travelling is to me the most 
 disagreeable, and, indeed, what I would by no means be 
 brought to join in. I am here in the hovel that is dignified 
 with the name of a convent, and will leave a note specifying 
 my intended route, so far as I myself can form any judgment 
 upon it, which (for I must depend a little upon circumstances) 
 will not be easy. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 WM. JOHN BANKES. 
 
 Baalbec, April 20, 1816. 
 
 We hereby certify, that the hand-writing of this letter ap- 
 pears to us to be the same as that of two original letters. No. 1. 
 dated ' Acra, February 28, 1816,' addressed ' Al Senor Buck- 
 ingham, Caballero Yngles en el Conbento de la Terra Santa, 
 Damasco,' and No. 2. dated * Damascus, April 12th, 1816,' 
 addressed ' J. Buckingham, Esq. to be sent forward should 
 he be on his way to Baalbec,' sent to England by the ship 
 Fame, Captain Eastgate, which appear to be authentic, all 
 bearing the same signature of \Vm. John Bankes. 
 ( Signed) 
 C. D'OYLY, HENRY CHASTENAY, 
 
 J. PALMER, JOHN YOUNG, 
 
 J. YOUNG. JAMES CALDER, 
 
 J. MELVILLE, 
 
 ACCUSATIONS OF MR. BURCKHARDT. 
 
 The accusations of Mr. Burckhardt, circulated against 
 me in Egypt, within a few weeks only of the very time 
 that he was writing to me the most kind and friendly 
 letters, were directed chiefly to these points : First, That 
 I had persuaded Mr. Babington to go to England over- 
 land, for the purpose of getting him to take me with him, 
 and having my expences paid; Secondly, That I had 
 given him letters to pretended friends of mine in London, 
 who knew nothing of me whatever ; and Tliirdly, That 
 I had deserted my wife and children, who. were depend- 
 ent on charity for subsistence. These were the leading 
 points of a written paper, circulated by Mr. Burckhardt, 
 with these words at the head, ' On Buckingham,' no 
 copy of which was retained by me, though it was seen by 
 many persons who can vouch for such a paper having 
 been written, and among those my friend Mr. Babington, 
 who had once heard it read to him, and was indignant at 
 finding his name unjustly used in it as an authority for 
 calumnies of which he had never before heard ! * 
 
 Extracts of Mr. Babington's letter on this subject are 
 given at No. 6. but it well deserves publication as a 
 whole, and will appear hereafter in its proper place. 
 
 SUBSEQUENT CORRESPONDENCE. 
 The following portions of subsequent correspondence 
 on the same subject are all that will be necessary, it is 
 hoped, to put the Indian public in full and cotnplete pos- 
 session of the real merits of this perverted and perhaps 
 unparalleled case. When the book had been withdrawn 
 from Mr. Murray's hands, it was offered to Messrs. Long- 
 
 * Two errors appeared originally in this paragraph : one 
 stating that the accusations were circulated at the vei"y time the 
 friendly letters were writing, whereas it appears that it was a 
 few weeks after : the other, that a copy of the ' paper' was 
 not seen by me, instead of not retained. These errors are here 
 corrected. 
 
 4l 2 
 
628 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 man and Co., who agreed to publish it, but were not pre- 
 pared to give such favourable terms as Murray had 
 offered, in consequence of the delay that had been occa- 
 sioned. Their agreement was, however, still a liberal 
 one; and they would have published the book at once, 
 but for the necessity which Mr. Bablngton felt himself 
 under of showing Mr. Bankes' letter previously to closing 
 any engagement. Messrs, Longman and Co., therefore, 
 very naturally wished to wait for further advices from 
 India, till which they -would suspend the publication ; 
 they having no other objection to sending it out imme- 
 diately, except the claim of Mr. Bankes to the mateiials 
 of which it was composed. 
 
 The following is the second letter that was received on 
 this subject, as supplementary to one of a month earlier 
 date, and the reply to both immediately follows it: — 
 
 Aldermanbury, Monday, 28th Feb. 1820. 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 In a letter which I wrote you the end of last month, I 
 detailed to you all the circunn stances respecting my having 
 undertaken the management of the publication of your work ; 
 I also stated the various difficulties which opposed the execution 
 of your wishes. It now rehiains for me to inform you of my 
 attempts to surmount them, and I am very sorry to add of their 
 complete failure. When Mr. Murray declined publishing the 
 MS. it was of course returned, and from Jlr. ^Mackintosh's reluct- 
 ance to receive it, it came into my hands. In order to place it 
 in an advantageous manner in the hands of Messrs. Longman 
 and Co., whom I found on enquiry to be the most respectable 
 
 men in London in their line, I consulted Mr, A A , 
 
 a literary gentleman of considerable eminence. He looked over 
 the work, and after passing an opinion on it, of which I enclose 
 a memorandum, expressed his willingness to be of service, and 
 granted me permission to use his name to Longman's. After a 
 time, I received a letter of which I enclose a copy, offering 
 certain terms, and even these were more advantageous than 
 others which were tendered to me in person. 
 
 It was impossible to close any negociation at Longman's 
 without showing Mr. Bankes's letter, and I therefore took it to 
 them immediately, stating, however, in the strongest terms, my 
 conviction of your innocence. The result was as I expected. 
 They withdrew their offer, and declined undertaking the pub- 
 lication ; expressing, however, their regret that Mr. Bankes 
 should have acted in a manner which they themselves felt suf- 
 ficiently convinced was unwarrantable. Here, tlien, all further 
 proceedings must end until we hear from you. Longman and 
 Co, advise you to prosecute Mr. Bankes for the injury which 
 you have sustained solely through his letter, and I cannot but 
 agree in thinking that you should endeavour to have this question 
 settled in a court of justice, and to make up for your lobses by 
 the recovery of damages. 
 
 After all, your work was considered valuable, and the offer 
 of a clear 4001. to an author entirely unknown to the public, 
 sufficiently evinced this to be the case. Be not therefore dis- 
 heartened ; and depend on it, that if you have any thing else 
 ready, it will meet with a better fate. I trust you will believe 
 that exertion has not been wanting on my part, and that, should 
 you need my services in future, they will be at your command. 
 I have undertaken to defray all the charges which Murray has 
 been at in receiving your parcels, and they will amount, I be- 
 lieve, to nearly 30l.: when I know the exact sum I will let you 
 know. Believe me to remain, my dear Buckingham, 
 
 Yours ever sincerely, 
 B. BABINGTON. 
 
 Calcutta, August 30, 1820. 
 My DEAR Babinoton, 
 I fulfil my promise of yesterday, by replying to your letter of 
 January, and tliu supplementary one of February 28. Your 
 obtaining from Murray a copy of Mr Clifford's letter, as well 
 
 as that of Mr. Banlics, and your consulting Mr. A on tiic 
 
 merits of the work, were all steps of which I must cordially 
 approve. Your ap))lication to Longman and Co., and the 
 manner in wliicli you conducted your negotiation with ilicm, 
 was such as to deserve my thanks in a still higher degree tiian 
 theirs, which they so properly bestowed on you at its close. 
 
 As to Mr. Gifford's harsh criticism, and his desire to have 
 the book submitted to his censure and pruning before it 
 went before the world, nobody can be at a loss to account for it, 
 when it is known that there are some passages in it which go 
 to affect deeply the character of The Quarterly Review, of 
 which he is the editor, as showing its criticisms on D*AnviIle, 
 Dr. Clarke, and others, to be illiberal and erroneous. But we 
 have been all much amused with the difference of opinion be- 
 tween Mr. Gifford and Mr. A , who both profess to have read 
 
 the book, and to give their candid judgment on it, and who yet 
 come to the most opposite conclusions. Mr. Gifford begins by 
 saying, ' It is certainly inleresthifi and impoiiant in some degree ;' 
 and after more abuse and invective in one page than his Divine 
 Master or his apostles, of whose characters he seems so jealous, 
 ever vented on their bitterest enemies during the whole course 
 of their lives or writings, he concludes with recommending the 
 book to be pul)lished ; urging, however, that before this can be 
 done, it must be wholly re-written, as blasphemy and obscenity 
 are so mixed up in every page, that it would not be safe even to 
 put it into the hands of the printers (whom it would be certain of 
 corrupting), as they had souls to be saved as well as other 
 people ! Without stopping to enquire how much this meek 
 disciple of a master from whose precepts he has profited so little, 
 libels the cause of Christianity by supposing it to stand on so 
 tottering a foundation, that * the exploded ravings of blasphemy, 
 vented in tlie language of the brothel,' (as he is pleased to style 
 my writings,) could even so corrupt the printers, that their souls 
 (which he liberally supposes they really have), otherwise destined 
 to be saved, should be sent to eternal perdition by the all-sub- 
 duing and destroying power of my pen ; — it will be worth 
 while to contrast it with that of Mr. A , which seems its per- 
 fect antipode. Both-cannot be right, but 
 
 ' Who shall decide when doctors disagree. 
 And soundest casuists doubt, like you or me ?* 
 
 Mr. A declares, in opposition to Mr. Gifford, ' that the' 
 
 author had notj like many, tinged his writings with his ojnnions, 
 and that these passages might, without any difficulty, be altered.' 
 For my own part, considering Mr, Gifford's known character 
 as an abusive calumniator of every writer whose opinions do 
 not come up to his own standard ; knowing him to be an 
 interested party in this case, as the book impeached the accu- 
 racy of his criticisms in The Quarterly Review : and, re- 
 garding Mr. A as a probably impartial man, I have no 
 
 hesitation in giving a decided preference to his dictum in this 
 instance. The book may be dull, heavy,~unlearned, and unin- 
 teresting ; this is a matter of opinion. But the absence of 
 blasphemy and obscenity, which Mr. Gifford says is mixed up 
 in every page, is a mere question of fact ; and in this I think. 
 
 Mr. A has not been mistaken, because, as far as I can 
 
 remember, there is, as he asserts, less of opinion xa'ixed up with 
 my narrative, than is to be found in the writings of most other 
 men. 
 
 As to the conduct of the Bankes*s, I hold it to be most un- 
 warrantable. The son proceeds on falsehoods known to himself 
 to be such ; but-even if he had supposed, or was quite certain, 
 that I had copied any of his notes, it was impossible for him, 
 without having seen my book, to say that I had used them in 
 the MS. sent home for publication. Still less could the father 
 vouch for the truth of his son's statements ; and witliout knowing 
 them to be true (for believing them was not sufficient), he was 
 not warranted in writing a letter for tlie express purpose of de- 
 feating all my prospects, and indeed effectually doing so. He 
 says, on the information of his son, tliat I introduced myself on 
 the jiretcnce of being the intimate friend of Colonel Misset and 
 Mr. Burckhardt, and that, on the faith of this supposed friend- 
 ship, his son permitted me to accompany him, &c. He means 
 1 >y this, of course, that the pretence was a false one, and tliat the 
 supposed friendship did not exist. If it were true, there could 
 be nothing to complain of. I used, in fact, no pretence what- 
 ever, as I was i?i the convent of Jerusalem before Mr. Bankes 
 arrived, and lie introduced himself to »te; but if I had used 
 such a pretence, you, who \\'cre an ocular witness of the friend- 
 ship of Colonel Misset and Mr. Burckiiardt to me, during our 
 joint stay in Egypt, before I set out on this journey, know it to 
 be true, that they were, as far as the warmest and most unequi- 
 vocal professions could go, both my open and avowed friends ; 
 and Mr. Burckhardt's subsequent treachery, you yourself for* 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 629 
 
 funately had it in your powef most effectually to expose. The 
 full refutation of the younger Mr. Bankes's calumnies will be 
 found in the large packet sent to you for my defence, but the 
 conduct of the elder Bankes I have not, I believe, there touched 
 on. fie, upon the mere dictum of his son, who had not seen me 
 for three years, and my 600/1; not at all, puts Mr. Murray * on his 
 guard against having any transactions with such an author as Mr. 
 Buckingham,' and also * against laying before the public parts 
 of a very extensive and curious tour in an imperfect state,' 
 which, says he, ^ I hope and trust that ray son may be induced 
 to submit to them in the best and most complete form that 
 he can publish his valuable researches together, whenever he 
 returns. ' 
 
 First of all, knowing nothing evil of my character, but by 
 report, he had no right to warn others to guard against it as 
 a had one, particularly when transactions, such as mine with 
 Mr. Murray, might go forward, without necessary contamin- 
 ation, between a demon and an angel ; the one being in Calcutta 
 and the other in London ; and, moreover, particularly after a 
 positive engagement had been ratified. Next, as he is not yet 
 appointed a censor of the press by government, he had no 
 authority to decide whether a part of an interesting and curious 
 tour might not be as acceptable to the public, if given early, as 
 the whole or the said curious tour at the period of his son's re- 
 turn. Again, as he has not seen even this my part (or at least 
 he had no right to have seen it, and could only have done so 
 through Mr. Murray's treachery), he could no more pronounce 
 that mine was * in an imperfect state,' than he could that his 
 son's 'researches were valuable,' or that they would be pub- 
 lislied in the best and most complete form . Lastly, when after 
 all this unfounded calumny against my charactevj of which he 
 knew nothing, and a premature condemnation of my writings, 
 which he could not honestly have seen, he proceeds to say, ' you 
 will .oblige me by making known what I communicate with 
 regard to the character of Mr. Buckingham and his intended 
 work, in any way that you may deem most proper ;' surely, 
 when copies of this are sent into circulation through more 
 channels than one, he is guilty of an unwarrantable libel on my 
 character, for which I am entitled to redress at law. I should 
 be less confident in saying all this to you were it my solitary 
 opinion [as I might suspect my judgment to be biassed by my 
 feelings) ; but it seems to be the opinion of Messrs. Longman 
 and Co., in England, and it is, without exception, the opinion 
 of all my friends here, that I should institute a prosecution 
 against Mr. Bankes the younger, Mr. Bankes the elder, and 
 and Mr. Blurray, either separately or collectively, as might be 
 deemed best. Mr. Gifford, the critic, we shall leave to himself, 
 and combat him when he chuses to enter the lists, with his own 
 weapons. 
 
 If it had been possible to have put a locum tenens in my 
 place, who would have done me justice while absent, I should 
 certainly have set off for England forthwith. On the passage 
 I might have got several volumes ready to have given the hook- 
 sellers their choice, and, after doing all that was necessary in 
 England, have returned here to my duties again. But such a 
 person is not easily to be found, and my present business is too 
 good to be hastily abandoned for any other, as it aflirds me a 
 prospect of competence for my family; and if I were entirely to 
 forego my hold here now, I know not where I should gain an- 
 ot'ner. Under the present impossibility, tlierefore, of my visit- 
 ing England immediately, without great disadvantage to my 
 future prospects, I have, with tlie advice of my friends, had a 
 power of attorney prepared, authorising a prosecution against 
 Mr. William John Bankes, the son, Henry Bankes, the fa- 
 ther, and John Murray, publisher, for damages sustained 
 by the defamation of the first, the threat and forbidding letter 
 of the second, and the breach of positive engagement of the 
 third, in consequence of which I have already sustained losses 
 here, in the withdrawal of monies deposited for the travels, in 
 . the calumnies spread abroad regarding the book as a foul pla- 
 giarism, affecting my character and gains in other respects, 
 and the impossibility of my receiving any farther subscriptions, 
 though, on the average, I had five or six names sent me every 
 month. Add to this, the positive loss of so much money as 
 the MS. would have brought me in England at the time, the 
 loss of the fair foundation it might have laid for a future fa- 
 vourable reception of other works, and the diminished value of 
 tlie book when it may appear, from delay, and from the 
 
 probable previous publication of BIr. Bankes on the same 
 subject. 
 
 I have implicit confidence in your judgment, and shall al- 
 ways remain, my dear Babington, 
 
 Your obliged and grateful friend, 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 The next letter that was received from Mr. Babington, 
 contained a new charge of ' imprisonment,' but success- 
 fully rebutted the imputation of my having copied Mr. 
 Bankes's drawings. It was as follows: — 
 
 Aldermanbury, March 12. 
 Mr DEAR Buckingham, 
 
 I wrote you a long letter in January, and another on the 
 28th ultimo, stating in detail the causes which have put a stop, 
 for the present, to all proceedings regarding the publication of 
 your travels, and enclosing a numberof papers (copies) connected 
 with the subject. I now find, however, on looking over the 
 contents of my desk, that I must, by some accident, have 
 omitted to enclose one of the most important of these, namely, 
 a copy of the agreement which Messrs. Longman and Co. 
 were wiUing to enter into, but which tliey retracted on the 
 perusal of Mr. Bankes's letter. In furnishing you with this, 
 as I now do, T may as well make this short letter a kind of ab- 
 stract of the contents of the last, so that it may serve the pur- 
 pose of a duplicate. On taking charge of your papers, I sub- 
 mitted the MS. to Mr. A. A , whose opinion respect- 
 ing it you have, and by his means I obtained an advantageous 
 introduction to Longman and Co. They could not be pre- 
 vailed on to undertake your work on the scale which you had 
 anticipated, but made the enclosed offer in writing, after hav- 
 ing proposed a still less advantageous one verbally. While 
 consulting with friends respecting the acceptance of it, which 
 you may suppose was a very doubtful point, I received from 
 Mr. Mackuitosh the letter which Mr. Bankes wrote to Murray 
 about you, in which he asserts that under pretence of intimacy 
 with Mr. Burckhardt and Colonel Missett, you had become 
 acquainted with his son in Syria, and had obtained a copy of 
 parts of his Journal, which you are now about to publish. He 
 concludes by warning Mr. Murray against a person of your 
 character. It is solely on account of this letter that Messrs. 
 Longman and Co, decline to publish your work, and this was 
 no doubt tlie stumbling-block with Murray. Since I wrote 
 to you I have become acquainted with Dr. Meryon, Lady 
 Hester Stanhope's physician. He has mentioned to me the 
 circumstance of your having been imprisoned by Mr. Barker 
 in Syria, but states that tliere is a diversity of opinion respect- 
 ing the justice of that gentleman's proceedings. 
 
 I was much relieved, on showing Dr. Meryon your vignettes, 
 to find that he did not recognize more than one or two as 
 RESEMBLING AT ALL Mr. Bankes's drawings, alt of which he 
 had seen. As for your materials, which alone you are accused 
 by Mr. Bankes, sen, of having copied from his son, 1 feel 
 confident that they must be your own. I have too good an 
 opinion of your honour, your judgment, and your talents, to 
 think you eidier capable or desirous of publishing the observ- 
 ations of another on what you yourself have seen. 
 Yours, ever, 
 
 B. BABINGTON. 
 
 Messrs. Longman and Co.'s Agreement. 
 
 Messrs, Longman and Co, present their compliments to Mr. 
 Babington. They have reconsidered the subject of Mr. Buck- 
 ingham's MS. &c, and beg to propose to publish the woik on 
 the following plan; — to print the MS. in one quarto volume, 
 with a selection of the drawings, including the map and the 
 ground-plans, so as to form a book to sell for three guineas. 
 Messrs. Longman and Co. to be at the entire expense of the 
 publication, and to give the author out of the 500 copies 
 which they shall print, 125 for himself, to be disposed of only 
 in India, as a consideration for the copy-right. These, of 
 course, at the retail price, would be equivalent to nearly 400^. 
 It is not the intention of Messrs. Longman and Co. to engrave 
 any of Casas's large views, 
 
 Patcrnoster-Row, Feb. 19, 1820. 
 
630 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Messrs. Longman and Co.'s IVithdraival. 
 Messrs. Longman and Co. present ilieir compliments to 
 IMr. Babington, and, from the perusal of Mr. Bankes's letter*, 
 they regret they must decline the publication of Mr. Bucking- 
 ham's Travels ; and, consequently, they withdraw tlie proposal 
 they made for the publication of tliat work, in their note of the 
 19th instant. At the same time, Messrs. Longman and Co. 
 beg to return Mr. Baljington their very best thanks for his 
 very handsome and candid conduct in the negotiation. 
 Paternoster- Row, Feb. 26, 1820. 
 
 Mr. Buchingham's Repli/ to Ike foregoing letter of 
 Mr. Babington. 
 
 The original of the following was sent by the Reverend 
 J. Young, LL.D. per ship Belle Alliance, Captain Rolfe, 
 and duplicate by Major W. Colebrooke, R. A. per ship 
 Albion, both left in January 1821. 
 
 Calcutta, Sunday, Dec. 31, 1820. 
 My dear Babington, 
 , I embrace the first moment of leisure I can command, to 
 reply to your kind letter of the 12th of March, per ship Heroine 
 (which, from that vessel having touched at several places on her 
 way out, has only reached me three days ago, though we have 
 London papers to the end of July in town). As it is mostly 
 an abstract of what you wrote before, and to which I have al- 
 ready replied at great length, I shall confine myself to the 
 points in it which are new." 
 
 The agreement of Messrs, Longman, of which you enclose 
 a copy is, I think, a very liberal one, and such as, I hope, 
 they will still be induced to follow up, when they shall be put 
 in possession of the full refutations of Mr. Bankes's false and 
 scandalous -charges ; and this agreement having been departed 
 from entirely on account of Bankes's aspersions through his 
 father, forms, in the opifiion of legal men here, a just ground 
 for an action of damages. I am glad you have seen Dr, 
 Meryon, as, indeed, I should be rejoiced to learn that you had 
 fallen in with any other person from that quarter of the world, 
 to consult and examine about my movements and character ; 
 because I am satisfied that the more they are probed and en- 
 quired into, the more 1 shall appear to have been unjustly ca- 
 lumniated. The Aleppo story, which he mentions to you, I 
 thought you had fully known, for it was detailed at length in 
 the small books of my notes, the whole of which were in your 
 possession during my stay at Madras, and the only reason I did 
 not advert to it again in my late correspondence with you, was 
 simply that I did not imagine it would have any bearing on 
 the question at issue, for I have really nothing to disguise or 
 suppress of any kind whatever. As it has been mentioned, 
 however, to my disadvantage, and called an 'imprisonment,' 
 which term alone shows how much it has been misconceived, I 
 enclose you an extract of the whole affair from my original notes, 
 written at Aleppo, wherein you will see whether Mr. Barker 
 was justified in his treatment of me or not. The outline of the 
 case was this : — 
 
 On my leaving Alexandria, as you know, Mr. Lee gua- 
 ranteed the payment of my expenses to India, furnishing 
 me with some ready cash for my journey to Aleppo, and 
 giving me a letter of credit on Mr. Barker there for such 
 money as I might need for the rest of my jo^irney, without 
 specifying the sum. On my landing on the coast of Syria, I 
 was driven by various causes detailed in my journal to move in 
 a direction contrary to that originally proposed ; and at last 
 seeing little hope of getting on with any speed by way of 
 Aleppo, I attempted to go from Nazareth, when I parted with 
 Mr. Bankes there, by way of Assalt and the Desert east of the 
 Dead Sea to Baghdad, as I had heard of such a road being 
 practicable. As it was doubtful, however, I made provision 
 for my returning to Damascus in case of failure, and to pursue 
 my original plan at leisure, since it was too late to hope to 
 reach India after these delays, for the particular monsoon I was 
 expected to come back by. I could not get on by this desert 
 route, and came back to Damascus, through the Hauran. I 
 reached there in great distress, suffering much in health, and 
 being destitute or nearly so of money. As I had my original 
 
 * Letter of the elder Bankes to Murray. 
 
 letter of credit on Mr. Barker still with me», I showed it to 
 Mr. Chaboceau, a French merchant there, who, on the faith of 
 it, cashed for me a bill of 1 ,000 piastres on Mr. Barker at 
 Aleppo, to whom I wrote, enclosing a copy of my letter of 
 credit, and apprising him of what I had done, reserving the 
 original till I came to see him myself. From this letter being 
 couched in what Mr. Barker thought unmercantile terms, and 
 naming no limited sum, he suspected it was a forgery of mine, 
 protested my bill, and returned it to Mr. Chaboceau. It was 
 immediately given out that I was a swindler ; and but for Lady 
 Hester Stanhope's influence, which she exercised by writing to 
 all the Consuls, and other people in my way, to assure them 
 she was satisfied of Mr. Barker's suspicions being unfounded, 
 and taking on herself the responsibility of their letting me pass 
 unmolested, I should have been arrested, and, perhaps, impri- 
 soned, as a swindler, on the road. 
 
 At length, however, I reached Aleppo, in entire ignorance 
 all this while of the clamour abroad against me, and waited on 
 Mr. Barker in expectation of a kind reception. I was met 
 by him with great coldness, and obliged to put up at a cara- 
 vanserai instead of at his house, where I remained at perfect 
 liberty, however, and not in any shape under the least restraint, 
 until my baggage came from Latakea, that I might produce 
 my original letter of credit, and set all to rights. In the 
 mean time Mr. Bankes arrived at Aleppo, was much shocked 
 at my treatment, called to see me in my quarters, solicited me 
 to let him take me to Mr. Barker's, whom he had assured of 
 my being incapable of the dece'ption he thought me guilty of, 
 and behaved to me throughout with great kindness and friend- 
 ship. I was firm, however, and would not move until my 
 baggage came, when I sent Mr. Lee's letter, which convinced 
 Mr. Barker of his error ; and then he himself waited upon me 
 in the caravanserai, to express his regret, to make apologies, 
 and to repair his conduct by every thing in his power. He ac- 
 cordingly took me to the foreign consuls on a visit of ceremony 
 and introduction, lodged me in his house, where I remained 
 with Mr. Bankes for several days, showed me every honour 
 and attention, advanced me all the money I needed, made a 
 bargain with a Moosul merchant to make me one of his party 
 on the journey to that city, sent his brother several miles out of 
 town with me when we set out, and in short by a train of good 
 deeds attached me very much to him, and made me entirely 
 forget all that had happened before. 
 
 t have since heard, through Mr. Rich at Baghdad, that some 
 weeks after I had left Aleppo, Mr. Barker received a letter 
 from Alexandria, stating that Mr. Briggs had arrived at that 
 place, had disapproved entirely of Mr. Lee's project, and of 
 his undertaking to pay for my journey, and having learnt that 
 I had been much longer getting to Aleppo than was expected, 
 had written to Mr. Barker to say that, if the money for my 
 journey'had not been advanced, he was not to do so ; and if it 
 had, he was to write on to Baghdad to Mr. Rich to authorise 
 him to recover it, as I had not made the haste I ought to have 
 done, and had therefore forfeited my claim to their stipulation 
 of paying my expenses. I shall not stop to say how unhand- 
 some this return was for' my endeavours in their service. You 
 remember well enough that when I was at Alexandria, I should 
 not have thought of setting out again to India, indeed I had 
 not the means, were it not for tlie pressing instances of Mr. 
 Lee, who voluntarily offered to pay my way, on Briggs and 
 Co.'s account. No time was limited, no route was positively 
 fixed, and no sum was named. It was generally understood 
 that I should go as quickly and as cheaply as I could, and that 
 whatever the actual cost was I should be repaid. Every one 
 must know that to me,who had a dependent family in England, 
 the mere payment of my actual expenses (which was all they 
 promised or I claimed), was but a poor remuneration for all the 
 risks and inconvenience of a journey to India by land, the loss 
 of all the time it occupied, and tlie probable chance of being 
 sent out of the country a second time for the want of a licence 
 when I got there. But to give orders to arrest me, and stop 
 all my supplies in the middle of Asia, leaving me no means of 
 going forward or returning, was an act of cruelly and barba- 
 rity which until then I thought no English gentleman could be 
 capable of, more pai-ticularly as / had done my best to get on, 
 
 * It was sent over, with my other papers and baggage, from 
 Seyda to Damascus. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 631 
 
 whatever they might have thought ; and the impediments of a 
 disturbed country, unsafe routes, sickness, &c. by which I was 
 so constantly obstructed, were not of my own seeking, nor 
 within my power to remedy. This order of theirs was, how- 
 ever, ineffectual ; for long before it had even reached Mr. Rich 
 at Baghdad, I was at the end of my land journey in Persia, 
 and soon after arrived in India, where the Red Sea scheme 
 ended ; and after losing a whole year in time (and having not 
 one rupee of reward beyond the actual payment of my ex- 
 penses), I was thrown completely on ray own bottom, and 
 obliged to look out for employment to get my bread. 
 
 I entered then, as you know, on the command of the ship 
 Humayoon 'Shah, for a voyage to Bussorah, This I made, 
 and on my return to Bombay, Mr. Briggs himself was there. 
 A demand was now made by him on me, to refund the whole 
 of the money I had received on their account for my journey, 
 on the plea that I had not made the best of my way across, 
 and that, therefore, the purpose which I set out to accomplish 
 was not effected. I replied, that it was no part of our stipu- 
 lation, that my expenses were to be paid if the object of the 
 Red Sea trade succeeded, or to be refunded if it did not suc- 
 ceed; for on such uncertain conditions I could not have set 
 out. My journey was simply to bring to India the original of 
 a treaty of commerce with Mohammed Ali Pasha, to which I 
 was a party, promising security and easy duties to such mer- 
 chants in Bombay as chose to rely on his faith, and to follow 
 this up by any thing I might think useful to be added in con- 
 firmation of this from my own knowledge. This journey I 
 did perform ; this treaty / did bring ; and these representations 
 / did make. In the execution of this task I had met with 
 unexpected and unsought obstacles, which nothing but great 
 perseverance could overcome. I had been several times in 
 danger of losing my life, and was delayed by sickness; but 
 during the whole of this protracted period of nearly twelve 
 months, I had spent only about 400^ sterling. My friends in 
 Bombay, indeed, said, I was not only fully entitled to this, 
 but that, if Mr. Briggs had done his duty, he would have made 
 me a present of 400/. besides, as salary for that period. 
 However, I claimed no more than I had actually spent ; while 
 he demanded it back again, knowing at the same time that I 
 was deeply in debt, and had not a rupee- in the world ! In this 
 dilemma, I agreed to refer it to arbitration, letting him select 
 one judge, myself another, and these two between them a 
 third ; this he refused, by saying, that the liberality of Indian 
 arbitrations would grant me rupees instead of shillings, and 
 that I should be sure of loo favourable an award. He then 
 consented to receive back half; expressing his conviction at 
 tlie same time, that the whole 400/. had been spent on the 
 journey, and his belief that no portion had been applied un- 
 necessarily, as he could not conceive a journey occupying so 
 much time being made for less money ; but it was my claim 
 to any -part of it that he resisted; and he spoke of this compro- 
 mise of half, as a favour, threatening that if I did not accede, 
 he would commence an action in the courts of law for the 
 whole. I was, myself, prepared to do any thing lliat was 
 just, but my friends wished me to do that which was most 
 prudent. Mr. Erskine and Wedderburn were both of opinion, 
 that though I had right on my side, yet, if I made it a matter 
 of law, I might in its uncertainty be cast in damages and costs ; 
 and even if I got off, that expenses might fall on me as heavy 
 as the 200/. demanded. I was, therefore, advised to consent, 
 and accordingly I gave to Mr. Briggs three promissory notes, 
 one for 50Z. at six months, one for 50/. at twelve months, and 
 one for 100/. to be paid on the publication of ray Travels in 
 Palestine; for, he said, as my observations on that country 
 could not have been made, had it not been for my mission for 
 his house, it was right they should participate in the profits! 
 He then gave me a letter, of which I enclose a copy, absolving 
 me from all claims on the part of his establishment. The two 
 50/. notes I have paid off since I have been in Calcutta, the 
 100/. note is lodged with Messrs. Remington and Crawford in 
 Bombay; and will be paid when the book is out. 
 
 I believe that almost all I have said to you here, is known 
 to you already : but since the Aleppo affair was not familiar to 
 your recollection, I would rather tire you with a long story, 
 than leave any room to suppose ~that I had any thing in my 
 own breast which I would willingly conceal from you. I add 
 an extract from a letter of Lady Hester Stanhope's, also re- 
 
 ceived since I have been in Calcutta, to show how she refers to, 
 and speaks of Mr, Barker's behaviour to me. 
 
 From the very strong party which will be formed against me 
 in England, with all the wealth and influence of the Bankes 
 family, as well as the religious and political bigotry of The 
 Quarterly Review and its satellites, arranged in direct hostility 
 to any thing bearing my name, I am prepared for a flood of 
 calumny to be spread over the world, and to see my name 
 coupled with all that is unprincipled and abominable; but I 
 feel with Shakspeare * Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel 
 just. ' I am strong in my innocence ; and powerful as is the 
 host against which I have to contend, I may be overwhelmed for 
 a moment, but they shall not bear me for ever down. I count 
 it, my dear Babington, one of the greatest blessings that could 
 have befallen me, to have my cause in your hands. I have 
 only to say, therefore, what I have so often said before : — Act 
 exactly for me as you would do for yourself; no manoeuvering 
 or concealment is necessary, nor could either you or I descend 
 to it, if it were ; so that the frank and straight- forward course 
 of honourable and conscious integrity is all we need for our 
 victory, \\i\h best regards to all your respected family, be- 
 lieve me always, 
 
 My dear Babington, 
 
 Your grateful and faithful friend, 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 The letters and original notes referred to in the fore- 
 going letter, were shown to a friend in Calcutta,before they 
 were sent off^ and returned with the jiccompan}ang note. 
 
 Dear B. 
 I return Lady Hester's and Mr. Bankes*s letters, and your 
 * four -inch* book of notes. They contain enough to satisfy 
 impartiality, that you have been foully misrepresented ; and 
 your friends, that you are a martyr to the vanity, insolence, 
 and cruelty of disappointed competitors. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 Sunday. J. P. 
 
 The acknowledgment of Mr. Briggs, also referred to 
 in the foregoing, is still in my possession. The promissory 
 notes there enumerated have all now been paid. The 
 following is a copy of the letter : — 
 
 Sir, Mr. J. S. Buckingham, Bombay. 
 
 In consequence of your engaging to pay the sum of two 
 hundred pounds sterling, to the order of my house at Alexan- 
 dria, under the iirra of Briggs and Co. viz, 
 ^"50 — at six months from this date ; 
 
 50 — at twelve months ditto ; 
 100 — on the day of the publication of your Travels 
 
 ■ through Palestine, &c. for which you have given 
 
 j£200 me three promissory notes in duplicate, I hereby 
 
 declare that on payment of the same, all claims of 
 
 my house on you will be discharged, and the present shall be 
 considered a final settlement. 
 
 I am, Sir, your very' obedient Servant, 
 
 For BRIGGS and Co. — S. BRIGGS. 
 Bombay, 18th March, 1818. 
 
 The next letter that is of any importance to be made 
 known, is the following acknowledgment of my first 
 letter, which preceded the notarial papers, having reached 
 home; — 
 
 17, Aldermanbury, Feb. 18, 1821. 
 My dear BogkincJham, 
 
 I have received your letter by the Fame, dated the 22d of 
 June last, in which you give me an account of the nature of 
 your acquaintance and connection with Mr. Bankes, jun., and 
 state to me the substance of the accusations which he has 
 charged upon you in a letter from Thebes, written in June, 
 1819. You will long since have been made acquainted, 
 through the medium of my communications, as well as those 
 of Mrs. Buckingham, with tlie particulars that have taken 
 place with regard to your work.. On that head, therefore, I 
 need only say, that every thing remains as when I wrote to yoa 
 last. The full communications by the Vittoria, Captain Driver, 
 to which you now allude, have not yet arrived, and I of course 
 
632 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 shall take no measure whatever, until I receive tiiem. In the 
 mean time, for myself, I am relieved of much anxiety on your 
 account, from what you have already stated ; and the original 
 scraps of notes which have been delivered me by your desire 
 through Mrs. Buckingham, convey a sufficient conviction of 
 the purity of your conduct in this unpleasant business, at least 
 to your own friends. If your case be made out as satisfac- 
 torily as I liave no doubt it will l)e, it occurs to me, as well as 
 to one or two friends, whom I have consulted, that it would be 
 far better to publish tlie whole transaction, letters, &c., and let 
 the public judge between you. You will tlius appear in the 
 arena on equal terms with your antagonist; your character will 
 be as completely cleared as if you obtained a verdict in a court 
 of law J and as many more people will read your defence in 
 this way than would ever hear of it as a law proceeding, your 
 interest, as far as the sale of your book is concerned, would be 
 as effectually served, as if you got damages of three or four 
 hundred pounds, which is the most that you can expect. Adieu, 
 my dear T3uckingham, for the present, and believe me, as sin- 
 cerely as ever, Yours, B. BABINGTON. 
 
 The next letter that reached me after the receipt of the 
 papers above referred to, was the following : — 
 
 17, Aldermanbury, April 28. 
 My DEAR Buckingham, 
 I received, al)out six weeks since, the very full and satisfac- 
 tory communications which you have sent me, in refutation of 
 the charges brought against you by Mr. Bankes. Being at 
 Cambridge when these papers arrived, and keeping the latter 
 half of the term, I was unable to absent myself from the Univer- 
 sity even for a single day, and I was therefore obliged to commu- 
 nicate my wishes by a letter, which caused some delay. It was 
 the advice of my friends to lay the matter before Longman 
 and Co., who, if they were convinced of the justice of your 
 cause, would publish your work without any further difficulty. 
 I am happy to inform you, that on the adoption of this course, 
 the result has turned out as was hoped. Messrs. Longman and 
 Co., after a careful perusal of your letters and documents, be- 
 came convinced of the unjust treatment which you had received 
 from Mr. Bankes, and declared their willingness to piiblish 
 your work on the same terms which they had offered a year 
 before. To these terms I have thought it for your interest to 
 agree ; for I am persuaded, as indeed are several friends, whom 
 I have consulted, that they are as good as could be procured 
 from any publisher, and as advantageous as any author could 
 expect for his first book of travels, and tliat a single quarto. I 
 believe I furnished you with a copy of Messrs. Longman and 
 Co.*s letter, but lest you sliould not have it by you, I may re- 
 mind you, that the terms of agreement are, that you are to have 
 125 copies of the work, to be sold only in India, and that 
 Longman and Co. are to be at all expenses of publication. 
 Longman and Co. will not themselves send any copies to India 
 on their own account. The work was announced as in course 
 of publication in three of the principal newspapers a week ago, 
 and I liave not heard that Mr. Bankes has held any communi- 
 tion with Longman in consequence. The latter is in possession 
 of your documents, so as to be in a condition to answer him if 
 he should think fit to come forward. With regard to the text 
 of the work itself, I must candidly confess, that I fear it will 
 be thought deficient in incident ; and that those who know you 
 will feel that you have not sufficiently enlivened it with those 
 anecdotes and observations on men and manners, which, tra- 
 velling as an Arab, you had so good an opportunity of making, 
 and which, that you actually did make, is evinced by the enter- 
 taining and instructive tenor of your personal conversation. 
 Any one who should form an estimate of your talents and 
 habits of thinking from your book, would, I am confident, un- 
 derrate you. These appear to me to be the points most open 
 to criticism, but I should be sorry that you supposed me in- 
 sensible on the other hand of very considerable merits. The 
 clearness of your descn'ptions, the air of truth throughout the 
 whole work, the industry with which you have amassed a copious 
 stock of information, and digested it into a perspicuous narra- 
 tive, are not only matters of •^ramendation, but must excite 
 astonishment in all who will consider tlie hurried manner in 
 which you passed through the country which you describe. 
 The novelty of some portions of your work will, I have little 
 
 doubt, be more than a balance for the want of interest in other 
 parts ; and I confidently hope that on the whole you will be 
 supported by a numerous class of readers. Longman and Co. 
 inform me that they hope to effect the publication of the work 
 by the beginning of June. It will certainly be as much their 
 interest as your own to use all expedition, and I therefore have 
 some reason for believing that they are not likely to delay much 
 beyond the time I have mentioned. I would not advise, how- 
 ever, your announcing any thing precise with regard to time, 
 until you hear further from me on the subject. In the mean 
 time, believe me to remain, my dear Buckingham, 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 B. BABINGTON. 
 
 Soon after this, a private letter was received by me 
 from England, front a most unexceptionable quarter, the 
 original of which is still with me, of which the following 
 extract will be sufficient : — 
 
 You are not the only person who has suffered from Mr. 
 Bankes's aspersions. Dr. M'Michel, in the course of convers- 
 ation, stated that he had learned through his publisher, Murray, 
 that Mr. Legh, the Egyptian traveller, had lately received 
 a most extraordinary letter from Mr. Bankes, accusing him 
 of having copied his, Mr. Bankes's notes; although Dr. 
 M'Michel stated, that, to his certain knowledge, his friend 
 Mr. Legh had never seen any one of Mr. Bankes's notes. A 
 Captain Mangles, also, who was about to publish his travels, 
 had received some accusations or threats from the same quarter. 
 Dr. M'Michel is himself an author of repute, and these cir- 
 cumstances coming from him are, I have no doubt, correctly 
 stated. 
 
 The foregoing documents were all included in 
 the Calcutta Journal of the 1.5th of August; and 
 the 16th and lYth passed without much advert- 
 ence to the subject of this controversy in the public 
 prints of Calcutta, when, on the 18th of August, a 
 letter appeared in the Indian John Bull, calculated, 
 if unrefuted, to create a most injurious impression. 
 On the 19th, the day following, it was republished, 
 for the sake of being accompanied by its proper 
 refutation, and preceded by the following intro- 
 duction : — 
 
 I had supposed, in common I believe with most other 
 persons, that the Travels in Palestine would have re- 
 mained unnoticed by the newspapers for a great length 
 of time to come, at least, if not for ever. There are some 
 busy meddlers, however, who are not so easily satisfied, 
 and who think, perhaps, that there is no more limit to the 
 patience of others, than there is to the scepticism and ill- 
 nature of themselves. Be it so: — I am ready to meet 
 every enquiry that can be made, either publicly or pri- 
 vately, and to satisfy every doubt that can be urged, 
 either through the medium of the press, or by the exhibi- 
 tion of original documents to any persons who may desire 
 to see them, and will do me the honour of a visit tor that 
 purpose. 
 
 The book has been now upwards of three months in 
 India. It has been read, as I happen to know, by many 
 persons here, for the express purpose of searching after 
 blemishes, and great indeed was the disappointment that 
 attended their search. They have Witited patiently, how- 
 ever, for the Quarterly Reviewers, and they have now 
 seen that with all the learning, all the influence, and all 
 the malignity that even they could bring to bear on this 
 devoted volume, having months before them to prepare 
 for the dissection and disembowelling which they in- 
 tended to give it, without mercy towards the author, or 
 consideration for his character or feelings, the painful 
 struggles of the labouring mountain have ended in the birth 
 of something more contemptible than even that which the 
 poet chose as the emblem of disappointed expectation. 
 
 It might have been expected, if^ I were really so incom- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 633 
 
 petelit to write a book, as Mr. Bankes has pretended, that 
 some remarkable difference of style and matter would 
 have been observed between the first portion of my vo- 
 lume, written before I joined, and the last portion of it, 
 written after I quitted my fellow traveller, as well as 
 the portion between these, which related to the period 
 when we were both together. All the details of the 
 voyage and journey from Alexandria to Jerusalem were 
 written before I ever saw Mr. Bankes, and related to 
 places aj; which Mr. Bankes had never been. All the de- 
 tails which followed the return from Jerash, including the 
 journey to the Lake of Tiberias, Naplous, and other parts, 
 were written after we had separated ; and the small por- 
 tion relating to Geraza and Gamala, which we visited 
 together, does not even in quantity form more than one- 
 fourth of the whole book. The preface, which is perhaps 
 the best written portion of the whole, was moreover com- 
 posed at the residence of Colonel Mackenzie in Calcutta, 
 where the aid of Mr. Bankes could not well have been re- 
 ceived. Yet among all the Reviewers, and all the readers, 
 as far as I have yet heard, no one has made a single remark 
 as to any slight shade of difference even between the one 
 portion and the other, in the style, the matter, the learn- 
 ing, the reasoning, or any other feature of the whole ; 
 but, as if it were destined that The Quarterly should par- 
 ticularly distinguish itself by its absurdities in this contro- 
 versy, it has not only omitted all notice of any discrepancy 
 of the nature alluded to, but it has chosen the very time 
 when it is said that I had abandoned my own imperfect 
 guidance to place my reliance on my better informed 
 companion, Mr. Bankes, for the greatest blunders that are 
 to be found in my book, namely, those relating to Geraza 
 and Gamala, the only two places we visited together ! It 
 would have been logical as well as charitable in those who 
 thought these blunders proved, (though I have shown on 
 what a shallow foundation they were assumed to be such,) 
 to have concluded that the author, whose book presented 
 but few errors when he was alone, while it abounded with 
 blunders when he copied from another, was not quite so 
 ignorant as his companion ; and that his book would, ac- 
 cording to their own showing, have been a much better one, 
 if his ' well-informed' companion had never fallen across 
 his path ! 
 
 But enough of The Quarterly, which never plunged 
 more deeply in the mire of contradiction than on this 
 occasion ; and enough too of Mr. Bankes, who has been 
 now six years (since 1816)* possessed of leisure, fortune, 
 influence, health, and all other requisites, and who has 
 never yet produced a volume out of all his ' valuable 
 and accurate materials;' not from want of will, it must 
 be evident, for his. desires are sufficiently made known in 
 the Review; but for the want of that industry and ability 
 which he envies and hates so much in others, because it 
 enables them under every disadvantage to carry away 
 honours that he would monopolise to himself, without 
 having the energy to contend for them through those 
 struggles by which alone reputation can be won. 
 
 I turn from this long digression, to notice a letter 
 which appeared in the John Bull of Saturday, and to 
 comply with the suggestion offered by the writer of it. 
 I had said that the manuscript of the Travels in Palestine 
 was placed in the late Bishop's hands ; that it remained in 
 his possession several weeks ; that he read some portions 
 of it, and permitted the use of his name as approving 
 generally of the nature of the undertaking, and making no 
 objection to its moral tendency or critical inaccuracy; the 
 emendations made by his lordship being of too trifling a 
 nature to deserve either of these appellations. The prin- 
 dpal motive of stating these facts, was to show that it 
 was impossible that any person, having a design hostile to 
 religion or morality, could in his senses ask a bishop to 
 
 * Now eight years, in 1824, 
 
 revise his writings; and equally impossible that a book 
 said to contain even now ' a sneering and irreverent tone 
 in almost every paragraph where matters connected with 
 sacred history are spoken of*,' could remain in the 
 bishop's possession for several weeks without his meeting 
 with many such passages, as he did read several parts of 
 it, and without his returning the whole with indignation, 
 at his being so grossly insulted. The result was, however, 
 that long after the manuscript was returned and sent to 
 England, I had the pleasure to be numbered among the 
 Bishop's guests, dining at his table, and frequently con- 
 versing with him at his own house, at the College, then 
 in Chowringhee, at Colonel Mackenzie's, and elsewhere, 
 on the subject of the Travels in Palestine, without hearing 
 from him a word that gave me reason to suppose his 
 lordship thought otherwise than favourably of them. 
 
 At length, however, when the late vestry discussions 
 were agitated in Calcutta, and 'motives of hostility to' 
 the church' were falsely imputed as the ground of oppo- 
 sition to the doctrines of self-election and irresponsible 
 trust, the Bishop heard, and perhaps with pain, that 
 various rumours were abroad regarding myself and my 
 Travels ; and the natural consequence of his hearing only 
 one side of the question was, no doubt, an alarm for his own 
 reputation, and a fear that he had given the sanction of 
 his name to something that was not worthy such an ho- 
 nour. At length, when Mr. Bankes's and Mr. Murray's 
 conduct became distinctly known, I addressed the Bishop 
 on the subject, and received soon after his lordship's 
 reply. Delicacy on my part to the memory of this la- 
 mented prelate, prevented my giving these letters a place 
 among the others published a few days ago ; but as they 
 are now demanded of me by a person who asserts that the 
 Bishop said what he did not say, I shall best show my 
 respect to his memory by printing the letters in question, 
 to which I shall append only a few brief remarks, and 
 leave the public, as before, to judge the merits of the case 
 for themselves. 
 
 I shall first, however, insert the letter to the editor of 
 the John Bull, of Calcutta, which has called forth this from 
 me. It is necessary for my justification, and is as follows : — 
 
 Sib, 
 
 To the Editor of John Bull. 
 
 I liave not read the ' Travels in Palestine,' therefore I can 
 be no judge of their merit ; but as I understand a difference of 
 opinion does exist on that point, I cannot but think the author 
 should have felt some delicacy in bringing forward the name of 
 our late highly estimated prelate, as an approver of his work, 
 unless he is able to prove the correctness of his assertion. I, 
 too, will assert my belief that the late Bishop estimated Mr. 
 Buckingham's work very differently from what the author has 
 been pleased to declare to the public ; that after a cursory in- 
 spection he returned the MS., informing the author he had not 
 had time to read it, but that on looking into it here and there 
 he observed some passages so objeciionabls, and otliers so differ^ 
 ent from, the statements of former accredited travellers, that he 
 recommended a careful revision of the work previously to its 
 publication, (Query, has not one volume been curtailed?) 
 I do not speak from authority, but no doubt there are persons 
 in this settlement whose intimacy with the late Bishop will en- 
 able them to contradict this statement, if it is not generally 
 correct. The best explanation on the part of the author, will 
 be the publication of the Bishop's letter. 
 
 X. X. 
 
 Boitaconnah, August 13. 
 
 To satisfy this enquirer that I have nothing to conceal, 
 and that the Bishop himself, amid all his timid, but yet 
 perhaps pardonable alarm on this subject, did not remem- 
 ber any such objections as those put into his mouth by 
 Mr. X.X., I give here my letter to the Bishop, and his 
 lordship's reply: — 
 
 * Quarterly Review, vol. xxvi. p. 378. 
 4 M 
 
634 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Calcutta. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Some unpleasant and unexpected obstacles having been 
 thrown in the way of the immediate publication of my book, 
 the ' Travels in Palestine,' which is likely to be delayed for 
 some months to come, I feel it as a duty I owe to your lord- 
 ship, in return for the kind interest taken by you in the work, 
 when originally announced, to state briefly the grounds on 
 which this delay has taken place. 
 
 In the preparation of my manuscripts for the press, I had so 
 little confidence in my own qualifications, and so humble an 
 opinion of my own judgment as to their fitness for the public 
 eye, that I submitted the whole for correction and revision, to 
 many of my most esteemed friends in Bombay, Madras, and 
 Calcutta, and, finally, to your lordship, with whom the MS. 
 remained some time, under the hope, which I then indulged, of 
 Its having the revision of your able correcting pen, wherever it 
 might appear to your superior judgment to need it. This 
 favour, indeed, your lordship did confer on me, in more in- 
 stances than one, when I was eagerly ready to adopt the emend- 
 ations suggested by the marginal notes of your pencil ; and on 
 the return of the MS. to my possession, I learnt with regret, 
 that various important avocations had prevented your lordship 
 from giving it the attentive and thorough perusal, which, under 
 circumstances of greater leisure, you might have been disposed 
 to bestow on it : at the same time that I received with pride 
 and pleasure, the kind corrections which you had made in such 
 places as had fallen under your lordship's observation, both in 
 the book and in the prospectus by which it was announced, as 
 well as the benevolent expression of your hope, that the public- 
 ation would yield me both the reputation and emolument which 
 my personal sufl^erings, zeal, enterprise, and perseverance, ap- 
 peared to your lordship's indulgent view of my humble labours 
 to deserve. 
 
 The only end and intent of this recapitulation is to satisfy 
 your lordship that, as far as was within my power, I had ex- 
 pressed every wish, and employed every means, to render the 
 work worthy of the distinguished patronage which the Marquis 
 of Hastings had granted it, as well as of the association of your 
 lordship's name with that of the Marquis, in the prospectus, 
 as approving generally of the nature and object of my under- 
 taking ; and that the chief desire of my heart was, that it 
 should be acceptable to all, and objectionable to none. 
 
 The work was transmitted to England by the hands of Mr. 
 Eneas Mackintosh, a respectable merchant of this city, who 
 deposited it safely with Mr. Murray, the publisher, with whom 
 he closed a final bargain for the work, and obtained Mr. Mur- 
 ray's pledge, that it should be out in December. Mr. Mack- 
 intosh, reposing in the publisher's fidelity, went into Scotland, 
 but on his return to town in December, when he expected the 
 work would have been ready, he was surprised to find that it 
 had not been begun. The reasons urged for this were two 
 very extraordinary ones. The first, that in Mr, Mackintosh's 
 absence, and subsequent to Mr, Murray's pledge to publish, the 
 manuscript had been submitted to Mr, GifFord, the editor of 
 The Quarterly Review, who had given a written opinion on it, 
 in which he had said, that although there was much new and 
 interesting information in the book, which would be highly ac- 
 ceptable, yet it was mixed up with much that was obnoxious, 
 and required to be expunged ; that there was also too much of 
 quotation in it from works in every body's hands, such as 
 Josephus, &c,, and that he considered it necessary that the 
 work should be reduced forty or fifty pages at least, after which 
 he strongly recommended it being published. It may appear 
 ungenerous in me to suspect Mr, GifTord, of whom I know 
 nothing, of being influenced by unfair motives in the exercise 
 of this previous censorship ; but I should not conceal from 
 your lordship, that in the course of my observations, I have 
 taken occasion to show that the Quarterly Reviewers, in their 
 strictures on D'Anviile's Geography, or Topography of Pales- 
 tine, had committed very striking errors, and that their con- 
 demnation of this accurate writer on some local points was 
 premature and unfounded ; as well as that their criticisms on 
 Dr. Clarke and others, who had recently visited the Holy Land, 
 were full of assumptions that were quite untenable. I cannot 
 help thinking it, therefore, highly probable that these passages 
 would be included in the proposed retrenchment, and that, 
 ■under the plea of obnoxious sentiments and over-abundant 
 
 quotations, Mr. Gifford would exercise a censorship for which 
 I conceive he had no authority whatever, and which I consider 
 as a great breach of confidence, as well as of a positive engage- 
 ment, in Mr, Murray to submit to or to follow. 
 
 But, perhaps, the most serious obstacle of the two is that of 
 a claim set up by Mr. Bankes, a gentleman whom I met at 
 Jerusalem, and who was my companion in a visit to Jerash, to 
 the exclusive use of all information regarding that city, on 
 these grounds : — 1 st. That he permitted me, as an especial 
 favour, to accompany him there j 2dly, That he defrayed the 
 whole expense of this journey ; and Sdly, That the only notes 
 or plans I possessed of this place were taken either from his 
 mouth or copied from his own notes, as I was wholly incapable 
 of making any observations of my own ! 
 
 To you, my lord, whose habits, studies, pursuits, and per- 
 sonal intercourse, lead you so much more among actions, opi- 
 nions, and persons that are amiable and good, than among those 
 that are base "and dishonourable, it will appear incredible that 
 an English gentleman of family, fortune, and education, 
 should have advanced such serious charges against another, as 
 Mr. Bankes has urged against me, unless they were undoubt- 
 edly true and capable of proof to others. Nevertheless, such 
 is the powerful prevalence of evil in some minds, as to blind 
 them even to facts within their own knowledge; and in the pre- 
 sent instance it providentially happens that I am enabled satis- 
 factorily to disprove the accusations of Mr. Bankes from the 
 most unquestionable authority, namely, original letters under 
 his own hand, addressed to me during our joint stay in Syria, 
 and original manuscript notes, plans, &c. in my own hand, 
 fortunately preserved, as if destined to become useful in re- 
 moving so foul a stain as these charges, if unrefuted, would in- 
 evitably leave upon my reputation. 
 
 Mr. Bankes had made a representation of these charges to 
 his father, the member for Corfe- Castle, on seeing the prospectus 
 of my book, and urged him to use his influence with Mr. 
 Murray to suspend the publication of it, on the ground that all 
 the information I could have possessed myself of, regarding 
 Jerash, must have been obtained from him, and that therefore I 
 had no right to make any use of it ; adding, that he should 
 soon be in England, when he would be able to give a much 
 better account of those countries, from his own materials, than 
 I could possibly do from the materials of another. 
 
 This representation appearing to have been effectual, and to 
 have caused all proceedings regarding my book to have been 
 suspended, I deemed it my duty to conamunicate with my 
 friends here immediately on the subject ; and, accordingly, the 
 following gentlemen, whom I have the honour to reckon 
 among the most intimate of them, met by invitation for the 
 express purpose at my house, namely. Sir Charles D'Oyly, Mr. 
 Palmer, the Rev, Dr, Young, Colonel Young, Mr. Melville, 
 Mr. Calder, Mr. Chastenay, Mr. Wynch, and Mr. Chinnery. 
 To these gentlemen the original letters of Mr. Bankes, with 
 my own manuscript notes, plans, &c,, were shown, and the 
 affair discussed and examined at a considerable length ; the 
 result of which was, their perfect conviction of tlie falsehood 
 of Mr, Bankes's charges, the accuracy of the statements which 
 I had urged in my defence, and the perfect genuineness and 
 authenticity of the original documents exhibited to them as 
 those on which my defence from tliese aspersions was grounded; 
 which they have testified by their signatures to papers that are 
 going to England for the purpose of rescuing my name and 
 character from slanders of so injurious a nature. 
 
 1 have endeavoured, in this brief statement, to lay before 
 your lordship the leading facts of the case, from a desire to 
 convince you that I was incapable of seeking the honour of 
 your lordship's name, either as an encourager of, or subscriber 
 to, a work made up of obnoxious sentiments of my own, and 
 the borrowed, or rather stolen, materials of others. 
 
 My kind friend, Mr, Palmer, has this morning taken up to 
 the Marquis of Hastings, at Barrackpore, tlie statement of the 
 facts, in order to add thereto such personal assurance as his ac- 
 quaintance with all tlie details must qualify him to make ; and if 
 your lordship should feel sufficient interest in an affair so purely 
 personal as this may be deemed to me, to wish that any friend 
 of mine might be deputed to show you the originals, and ac- 
 quaint you with the sentiments of the gentlemen named before, 
 as meeting at my house for the purpose of deliberating thereon, 
 or to desire that I myself might wait upon your lordship, for the 
 purpose of answering any questions Uiat might arise on this 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 635 
 
 subject, I shall be proud and happy to fulfil your lordship's 
 commands. 
 
 In the hope that I shall be indulgently pardoned for any un- 
 due liberty which I may appear to have taken in thus intruding 
 at such length on your notice, 
 
 I have the honour to remain, my lord. 
 
 Your lordship's obliged and faithful servant, 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 Calcutta, June 27, 1820. 
 
 On the evening of the subsequent day, I received from 
 the Bishop the following reply : — 
 
 To J. S. Buckingham, Esq. 
 Sir, 
 
 I received your letter yesterday evening, at a time when I 
 could not conveniently reply to it. I thank you for the offer 
 contained in it to lay before me certain statements relative to 
 one of the causes, which, as you inform me, have delayed the 
 publication of your Travels. I must, however, decline the 
 proposal, not wishing my name to be more closely connected 
 with the work in question than it is already. 1 have, indeed, 
 some reason to apprehend, that more is believed upon this sub- 
 ject than is actually true. After having done me the favour to 
 send me copies of some Greek inscriptions collected by you, in 
 which, as being remains of Christian and classical antiquity, 
 I took some interest, you sent me your MS. travels, with an 
 intimation that my revision of the work would be acceptable to 
 you. 1 informed you, however, on receiving the MS., that I 
 could not think of taking upon myself any such responsibility ; 
 and I requested that no use whatever might be made of my 
 name beyond what was already said in your prospectus, of my 
 thinking favourably of the nature of your undertaking ; to 
 this I did not object, as implying nothing more than the re- 
 spect which is excited by zeal and enterprise in exploring tracts 
 highly interesting, and some of them hitherto but little kno%vn. 
 Still, I told you that I would look at a few places of your MS., 
 and if any thing occurred to me, I would readily suggest it. 
 All that I remember to have actually read was a chapter near 
 the beginning, describing your voyage from Egypt to some 
 part in the Holy Land, and a chapter upon the ruins of Jerash ; 
 and, on those portions of the book, I objected to the use of 
 (I believe) two expressions, 'supernatural' and 'miraculous,' 
 which were incorrectly, and might seem to be profanely applied ; 
 not that I could suppose any evil intention, as I had heard you 
 speak with reverence of the Scriptures, and remark, I think, 
 the very first time I saw you, how entirely your own observ- 
 ations bore witness to the accuracy of their local details. I 
 felt it, notwithstanding, to be my duty to advise you to look 
 over your MS. with especial reference to any similar blemishes, 
 which might produce a mischievous effect, though none were 
 intended ; and such passages, if any such still remain, may 
 very well have been classed among the obnoxious matter, to 
 which your letter alludes, as one of the alleged reasons for 
 suspending the publication. I recollect, also, that I marked a 
 sentence in a passage quoted by you from the Latin translation 
 of some Greek author (I think Josephus), as not giving the 
 true sense of the original. Whether I might not put a pencil 
 mark against one or two other passages, which presented them- 
 selves casually, and seemed to be capable of improvement, I 
 cannot, after this interval of time, precisely aflBrm ; but I am 
 confident that my connected perusal was confined to the two 
 chapters already mentioned ; and even those I did not examine 
 with the severity which I should have thought indispensable, if 
 I had considered myself as being in any way pledged to the 
 revision. What I read, I read lying on my couch, to which I 
 was confined during nearly the whole of the time that your 
 papers were with me ; and I believe that you called upon me 
 only a day or two before I returned them, and found me in 
 that situation. I by no means, however, wish you to infer that 
 I consider the statement in your letter as being substantially at 
 variance with this account, or that I attribute, any erroneous 
 notions on this subject, which may have gone abroad, to the 
 representations made by yourself; a knowledge of the circum- 
 stance that your MS, was even in my hands, may easily have 
 created a belief, that it was received for a purpose, which, on 
 my receiving it, I expressly and unequivocally disclaimed. 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Chowringhee, June 2^ 1820. T.F. CALCUTTA. 
 
 Let any impartial person read this letter, written evi- 
 dently under the influence of a timidity and alarm, natu- 
 ral and even honourable to a man holding so distinguished 
 a situation as head of the church in India, and let him say 
 whether it breathes even an insinuation of reproach ? It 
 was rather too much to expect that an author, who went 
 to sea at nine years of age, who never had any education 
 since that early period, but such as he could steal for him- 
 self, whose life has been necessarily passed more with 
 persons of loose and profligate habits, such as every ship 
 exhibits, than among those who are more choice in their 
 expressions than sailors will ever be; it was too much 
 to expect that a book written by such a person should 
 come out of a bishop's hands untouched. But after all, 
 to what did the emendations amount? To a correction 
 of a few expressions that admitted of improvement, and 
 to an inaccurate use of the terms 'miraculous' and 
 ' supernatural,' the distinction between which might have 
 been clearly understood by a learned and eminent divine, 
 but which are even to this hour far from clear to the in- 
 dividual who had then used them, it seems, in a wrong 
 sense, but who, having no intention to apply them wrong- 
 ly, altered them without a moment's hesitation, as the 
 Bishop had suggested. 
 
 I hope that no remarks which I have here made will be 
 construed unto disrespect for the Bishop's talents, charac- 
 ter, or memory. I think as liighly of the former as any 
 man can do, and I showed my sense of it by making the 
 use that I did of his kindness and intimacy. His letter 
 will sufficiently show whether X.X. who addresses the 
 John Bull, could have known any thing of this aifair or 
 not; and whether he has not attributed to the Bishop's 
 pen, objections to the Travels in Palestine which never 
 had existence in that prelate's mind, and perhaps wholly 
 originated in the writer's imagination. 
 
 Soon after this, about the middle of October in 
 the same year, there arrived in India a certain 
 Presbyterian clergyman, the Reverend Doctor 
 James Bryce. This individual had been formerly 
 editor of a Calcutta newspaper, which had died a 
 natural death, principally in consequence of the 
 rising popularity of the Calcutta Journal, and 
 within a few months only after the latter was esta- 
 blished. This reverend editor had, however, some 
 other reasons, and very powerful ones, to feel un- 
 comfortable at prolonging his stay in India, and 
 he accordingly obtained leave of absence, and re- 
 paired to Europe for three years. His return to 
 Calcutta was marked by a fresh infusion of viru- 
 lence into the newspaper press, in which he had 
 always before taken a very active interest, and 
 with which it was, therefore, expected by most 
 persons that he would renew his alliance. Be this 
 as it may, within a short period after his landing 
 in Calcutta, a most atrocious letter appeared in 
 the Indian John Bull, of the 9th of November, 
 which excited, as it was calculated to do, a most 
 extraordinary sensation in Calcutta ; and which 
 was republished, with the following introduction 
 and comment, in an extra sheet of the Journal, 
 issued on the evening of the same day. 
 
 SOMETHING IN SELF-DEFENCE. 
 (From the Calcutta Journal of November 9, 1822.) 
 
 The Indian public have had sufficient proof of my con- 
 stant readiness to meet my opponents in argument, pn 
 any topic of dispute that might fairly belong to pubKc 
 subjects of discussion, such as political doctrine, literary 
 4 M 2 
 
636 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 merit, or the public conduct of public men. I can 
 safely say that from this fair ground of open and public 
 controversy I have never shrunk, and as long as it may 
 be my lot to occupy my present post, I trust I never 
 shall. 
 
 During my editorial labours, various occasions have 
 happened, in which, instead of arguments or reasons to 
 refute my opinions, calumnies of the basest and blackest 
 kind have been put forth against my private character, 
 and dark threats and menaces held forth by unknown 
 writers, the very perusal of which was enough to make 
 honest persons shudder with horror at the idea of there 
 being any individual member of their society against whom 
 such threats and menaces could be directed. But, after 
 an experience of four years, these stabs in the dark have 
 inflicted no wound on my reputation, however much they 
 may have tortured my feelings, and still more the feelings 
 of all those who are near and dear to me, whose sensibility 
 may be greater though their firmness may be less. I 
 have lived, during this long and eventful period, literally 
 in a glass house ; every word, and deed, and thought, anar 
 lysed with the severest scrutiny, a host of enemies and 
 rivals (whether without sin or not) casting stones in every 
 direction, and mostly from unseen hands; yet what has 
 been the result ? Not a single serious charge has been 
 made against me that has not been repelled almost as soon 
 as it was uttered ; and that such refutations were gene- 
 rally deemed complete and triumphant, I have every 
 reason to infer, from the often repeated and still undeni- 
 able fact, that the number of my patrons, friends, and 
 supporters, is greater at the present moment than at any 
 former period. Indeed it is rather a matter of wonder 
 and admiration to most persons, that so little should be 
 capable of being advanced against one, whose every action, 
 word, and thought, has been subjected to such a continued 
 and trying scrutiny, than that an unknown calumniator 
 should every now and then start up, in the hope of mak- 
 ing an unfavourable impression on the public mind, by 
 uttering vague and general charges, dark and vengeful 
 threats, and menacing the disclosure of what has been 
 menaced a hundred times before, and never yet attempted 
 to be put in practice, without being refuted so triumph- 
 antly, as to leave only a feeling of contempt for the secret 
 assassinators of character, who could descend to suqh un- 
 paralleled baseness. 
 
 I had hoped that this species of secret war against 
 all that man holds dear, had ceased : but I had forgotten 
 that they who are the first to inflict injuries are the last 
 to forgive ; and that there is more hope of honourable 
 treatment from one who has been calumniated, than from 
 those who first seek to ruin, and failing in that, do all 
 they can to justify the diabolical purpose on which they 
 were bent. 
 
 Accordingly, the John Bull newspaper, or rather the 
 party that support it, having been so completely discom- 
 fited in argument, as to conceive an irrevocable hatred 
 against the person most instrumental in showing the shal- 
 lowness of their pretensions, and the badness of their 
 cause, have returned again to the original weapon of 
 attack, and begun to renew the use of those poisoned 
 arrows, shot from behind a mask, which are fit instru- 
 ments of men who dare no longer meet their enemy in 
 open, fair, and honourable contest. Deeply as these shafts 
 are tinged, however, with the most rankling venom, they 
 fall harmless when directed against the armour of inte- 
 grity: and I shall, as I have often done before, lay 
 bare to public view the attack of my unknown enemy, 
 for the purpose of showing how pointless it becomes the 
 moment it is closely exammed. 
 
 The public already know, that there have been no less 
 than four several editors to the John Bull since its first 
 establishment; and that the last quitted it after a service 
 of three days only, disgusted with the conditions imposed 
 
 on the free exercise of his judgment, and refusing to lend 
 himself as the instrument of a party hostility to one man. 
 Under whose management that paper has been, since the 
 abandonment of the fourth editor, I have no accurate 
 information, but the public being under the impression 
 that it is without an editor altogether at the present mo- 
 ment, naturally look to the proprietors as the responsible 
 persons. 
 
 Whether it is that advantage has been taken of this 
 moment of anarchy and division, to send for insertion in 
 this paper, articles of a nature so atrocious, that there 
 would be no hope of getting them printed, had there been 
 any responsible superintendant, I know not : but it is a 
 fact, that the John Bull of this morning contains, among 
 many other infamous calumnies and personalities point- 
 edly levelled at me, and, as usual, not even sparing my 
 domestic establishment, one of so gross and unprecedented 
 a degree of atrocity, that I cannot suffer the sun to go 
 down, without presenting it to my readers in its own 
 hideous colours, and offering a word or two on its accu- 
 sations, to prevent the possibility of even one person retir- 
 ing to his pillow, with a belief that there was any indivi- 
 dual member of the society in which he lived, who could 
 deserve a calumny so deep as that which is here attempted 
 against me. 
 
 The letter is as follows : — 
 
 Sir, 
 
 To the Editor of John Bull. 
 
 On my arrival liere, about a month ago, a defence of Buck- 
 ingham's ' Travels in Palestine,' against the strictures in ' The 
 Quarterly Review,' was put into my hand. I have to beg 
 that the Indian public will suspend their judgment on the 
 merits of this dispute, so far as the character and conduct of 
 Mr. Bankes are implicated, until that gentleman's reply ; and 
 I pledge myself that a scene of iniquity and falsehood will be 
 displayed which will astonish and disgust every man of honour- 
 able feeling. You have long been duped by the most artful of 
 adventurers ; but the hour of exposure approaches. 
 Yours, &c. 
 A FRIEND OF MR. BANKES. 
 
 My remarks on this letter will be very brief; but I 
 hope strictly to the purpose. 
 
 1st. It is almost morally impossible that the letter coiiW 
 have been written by a friend of Mr. Bankes. It is with- 
 out date, so that I know not when it might have been 
 sent to the paper for publication. This, however, I 
 gather from the confession of the letter itself, that it was 
 not even written until ahout a month after the writer had 
 read the defence of the Travels in Palestine, which ap- 
 peared to him to affect so defeply the reputation of his 
 friend. I ask any thinking man, whether it be possible 
 that an individual, really a friend of another, finding that 
 person, as he conceived, unjustly calumniated, could re- 
 main at ease for a whole month, and then address himself 
 anonymously to the public through a newspaper, giving a 
 pledge without a name, and threatening to do hereafter 
 what, if he could do at all, there was no obstacle to his 
 doing at once without a moment's delay, either by address- 
 ing himself to the pretended injurer of his friend's reput- 
 ation, gr sending forth his facts and name to the world as 
 a guarantee and pledge of his ability to perform what he 
 threatens. I believe the letter, therefore, to be a mere 
 bravado, ad captandum vulgus, and written by a person 
 who is incapable of substantiating his assertions, and, 
 therefore, consistently enough, concealing himself behind 
 a mask, though that alone must deprive his statement of 
 all weight or authority in the minds of honest men. 
 
 2d. He begs that the Indian public will suspend their 
 judgment on the merits of this dispute, so far as the con- 
 duct and character of Mr, Bankes are implicated, until 
 that gentleman's reply be received. That gentleman, 
 however, without offering such an act of courtesy to me, 
 made various accusations against me of the most flagrant 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 637 
 
 nature, which it became my duty to repel. Surely, this 
 pretended friend of Mr. Bankes must know very little of 
 his history or concerns, if he believes that / was the 
 attacking party, and that Mr. Bankes has to reply. All 
 the Indian world (himself perhaps excepted) know that 
 the attack was made by Mr. Bankes ; and that the only 
 means of defence used by me, was his own letters, fortu- 
 nately in my possession, which of themselves alone were 
 sufficient to overthrow all he had subsequently advanced. 
 If he could prove that such letters had no existence, it 
 might serve his cause ; but while the notarial records of Mr. 
 Smoult's office exist, and exhibit such respectable testi- 
 monies of their authenticity, as the names of Mr. Palmer, 
 Sir Charles D'Oyly, Colonel Young, Mr. Melville, Mr. 
 Chastenay, Dr. Young, Mr. Calder, Mr. Wynch, and others 
 of unexceptionable integrity, it will be impossible for him 
 to do this : and if the pretended friend of Mr. Bankes 
 should doubt even the value of such names, whenever he 
 may desire it he can see still with me, the originals them- 
 selves, and declare whether his friend's letters have been 
 faithfully transcribed and accurately published or not. It 
 is rather too late, therefore, when an attack from Mr. 
 Bankes on me has been before the English public twelve 
 months before my reply could reach home, to call on the 
 Indian public to suspend their judgment till the original 
 calumniator is heard again. He has put forth his accus- 
 ations, and certainly with no want of will to make the 
 most of them. He has said all that he could say which 
 could tend to defame or injure me. He has been heard 
 to the full : and every single asseveration made, has been 
 overturned on the evidence of his own letters, testified by 
 some of the most respectable names in India. What can 
 the Indian public need more ? One of the very first of 
 his assertions was, that the materials of the Travels in 
 Palestine could not be my own, as I was incapable, 
 from sheer ignorance, of making any observations on the 
 country, not knowing a Turkish building from a Roman 
 one, or a Greek inscription from an Arabic, and being, in 
 short, as much an idiot as he pretended to be a sage ? If 
 it were only this accusation alone, the Indian public, who 
 have had four years' experience of my capacity to get 
 through a more difficult labour than writing twenty books 
 of travels, would laugh it to scorn, and I only revert to 
 it as a specimen of the folly, as well as wickedness, of such 
 groundless mis-statements. 
 
 3d. If, however, the pretended friend of Mr. Bankes 
 had confined himself to the simple fact of entreating the 
 Indian public to wait for Mr. Bankes's rejoinder, I should 
 have said ' content.' Mr. Bankes made serious criminatory 
 accusations, all of which were refuted, and to this I 
 confined myself. If he has any more to make, by all 
 means let him be heard, but let him also be prepared to 
 abide the odiuin that always must attend the advancing 
 accusations, against another, which cannot be substantiated 
 by proof, and therefore fall to the ground. 
 
 4th. But this writer in the John Bull goes further. He 
 says, ' I pledge myself that a scene of iniquity and false- 
 hood will be displayed, which will astonish and disgust 
 every man of honourable feeling.' The atrocity of such 
 a threat as this cannot be exceeded ; its malignity cannot 
 be surpassed; but happily its force is not equal to its base- 
 ness,, or it would be great indeed. Let us see on what 
 foundation this empty pledge rests, even divested of the 
 consideration of its being a nameless one, which of itself 
 would be sufficient to deprive it of all value whatever. 
 This friend of Mr. Bankes can hardly be supposed to 
 know more evil of me than Mr. Bankes himself. Mr. 
 Bankes, then, whose desire to exaggerate every charge can 
 scarcely be doubted, said all he could say three years ago. 
 The whole of this was rebutted, not by bare assertion, or 
 anonymous recrimination, but by written evidence and in- 
 controvertible proofs, signed, sealed, and attested, in due 
 orm. of law.. The writer in The Quarterly Review (whom 
 
 there is every reason to believe to be Mr. Bankes himself, 
 or some person in close communion with him,) cannot 
 certainly be suspected of a want of will to stigmatise the 
 character of the author he reviewed, with every thing that 
 could blacken or degrade him j for it is admitted on all hands, 
 that a more virulent article never appeared in print since 
 Reviews have been known. This writer, then, said all lie 
 could say also : and even this has been refuted, and that, 
 too, so triumphantly, that there is no circle of society in 
 India, in which the conduct of the Reviewer is not repro- 
 bated as a stigma to literature. Well, then, this friend of 
 Mr. Bankes, who arrived about a month ago, must have 
 left England soon after this Review in The Quarterly was 
 published. If he had really been the friend of Mr. Bankes, 
 as he pretends, that person knowing he was coming to 
 India, where he knew I had been established since 1818, 
 would naturally have authorised him to use such inform- 
 ation as he thought necessary to- rebut the notarial docu- 
 ments alluded to ; for, be it remembered, that though first 
 printed in the Journal a few months since, attested copies 
 of these, as well as the originals, were sent to England in 
 the year 1820, and were known to Mr. Murray, Mr. Gif- 
 ford, Mr. Bankes, and others in London, many months be- 
 fore this pretended friend left England ! for it was as 
 familiar in the coffee-houses and clubs at home, where 
 books and booksellers are subjects of conversation, as it 
 had become here before it was sent out from the notary's 
 office. Yet, though the Travels were known to be pub- 
 lished by Longman and Co. on the strength of these 
 documents, though Mr. Bankes was in London at the 
 time, and saw the book go to a second, edition within an 
 unusually short period, he remained silent ; he had said 
 all he could say before, as far as character was concerned, 
 and that all was overturned ; while his impotent attempts 
 to damn the book by criticism on- its merits, met, if pos- 
 sible, a still more signal defeat than his efforts to destroy 
 the moral character of its author. The pretended friend of 
 Mr. Bankes, therefore, who could sit a whole month quietly 
 under all that he now complains of, could not have known 
 more than Mr. Bankes when he left London; and his pre- 
 tended scenes of iniquity and falsehood, which are to dis- 
 gust every honourable mind, must have been dreamt of on 
 the passage. 
 
 5th. The close of his letter appears to have been ad- 
 dressed, not to John Bull, but to the Indian public, for it 
 says, ' You have been duped by the most artful of adven- 
 turers ; but the hour of exposure approaches.' It is un- 
 necessary, I presume, to say much on this. If I have 
 ' duped' the Indian public, they have been duped with 
 their eyes open; for never man came before them whose 
 conduct has been so thoroughly sifted, investigated, ex- 
 posed, and misrepresented as my own. If they still be- 
 lieve me upright and honest, it must be, therefore, from a 
 conviction sufficiently powerful to outweigh even all this. 
 If I am ' artful,' the only arts I use are open appeals 
 to reason and common sense ; and the Indian public must 
 be fools indeed, if, through a space of four years, with 
 every eye upon my conduct, I have practised arts which 
 none among them could detect. This, though intended to 
 stamp me with shame, is the greatest compliment to my 
 talents that could be paid, and shows, at least, that if 
 Mr. Bankes thinks me an idiot, his friend entertains a very 
 different opinion-. 
 
 6th. I can only say, that if a certain hour is fixed by fate 
 or necessity for my exposure, the public must, as the friend 
 says, ' suspend their judgment until it approaches.' But 
 for myself I say the hour is come. But the friend of 
 Mr. Bankes cannot surely threaten to disclose what he 
 does not know; he cannot have been so unjust as to talk 
 of iniquities and falsehoods which he cannot prove; he 
 cannot stigmatise me as the most artful of adventurers 
 without knowing what those arts are; or talk of an ap- 
 proaching exposure without knowing the/«cfo that are to 
 
638 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 come out in evidence against me. I invite him, then, 
 thus publicly, in the face of all mankind, to give his facts 
 and name to the world at once. I do not desire to 
 postpone the disclosure of any thing that can be substan- 
 tiated against me, not even for an hour. If he be really 
 Mr. Bankes's friend, and think him innocent, he cannot 
 be ashamed to avow himself as such. If he be desirous 
 only of establishing the truth, and doing justice between 
 man and man, he cannot hesitate to proclaim his cause, 
 and own himself its champion. He has already pledged 
 himself that a scene shall be disclosed which will disgust 
 svery man of honourable feeling. If he can do this, he 
 will carry nearly all India with him, for I believe there 
 is no country on the globe where there is more of ' ho- 
 nourable feeling' than among my countrymen in India. 
 
 Let him only take care to be accurate in his facts, and 
 fortified with ample proofs. I hope the law that affords 
 protection to all, will extend its shield to me also, until I 
 shall be proved to be so criminal as to be beyond its pale. 
 To that law I never desire to apply but for the redress of 
 injuries that cannot otherwise be remedied, and for the 
 preservation of character from unwarranted and unme- 
 rited calumny. That calumny has already been pro- 
 nounced. I boldly declare it false, foul, and incapable 
 of substantiation. I ask the Indian public to do me the 
 common justice of suspending their belief, till they see the 
 name, know the character, and hear the proofs of my 
 accuser. I have given them all these in every case in 
 which they were requisite for my defence. They know 
 me by my daily labours ; they know me by a life of four 
 years' irreproachable conduct among them ; they know me 
 by my domestic relations and my private duties to so- 
 ciety, as well as by my public principles. Let my un- 
 Icnown calumniator declare himself as freely; let him 
 establish the same claim to their attention; and let him 
 instantly redeem his pledge. If not, he must be content 
 to have his conduct branded with infamy as long as he 
 wears the mask, and his name stamped with the execra^ 
 tion it deserves, if the searching powers of the law, or any 
 other honourable means, should subsequently disclose it to 
 the world. 
 
 To this, no reply whatever was made for upwards 
 of a week, though the individual, whoever he was, 
 and whom almost every one believed to be the 
 Reverend Doctor Bryce, was on the spot to redeem 
 his pledge, if he could. On the 18th of Novem- 
 ber, (nine days afterwards,) the writer published a 
 second letter, in which, instead of redeeming his 
 pledge, or avowing his name, he offers the follow- 
 ing explanations : — 
 
 1st. That the term ' artful adventurer' was too 
 trifling to be considered as an accusation of any 
 importance ! 
 
 2d. That the person calling himself ' Friend of 
 Mr. Bankes,' had really no personal acquaintance 
 with, and no personal regard for him, having 
 merely assumed the title because he wished to es- 
 pouse his side of the question ! ! 
 
 8d. That as to ' iniquity and falsehood,' it was 
 clear that it existed somewhere ; and that the rank 
 in life and high respectability of Mr. Bankes was 
 a sufficient guarantee that it could not be with 
 him ! 1 ! 
 
 Such were the explanations gravely offered on 
 the infamous letter before adverted to. Such a 
 miserable defence was of course exposed, and out 
 of this a further controversy arose, which continued 
 for upwards of a month ; exciting, perhaps, a more 
 
 intense interest throughout all India, than any per- 
 sonal controversy that ever before occurred in 
 that country. The Indian government, who at 
 once dreaded and hated me, as the uncompromis- 
 ing advocate of that freedom of discussion which 
 they wished to put down and destroy, encouraged, 
 in the most marked and unequivocal manner, the 
 propagation of the vilest calumnies on my private 
 character ; and in consequence of this encourage- 
 ment, evinced by their appointing to places of 
 honour and profit the most active agents in this 
 scandalous warfare, a degree of violence and bold- 
 ness was assumed by all the writers in the John 
 Bull of India, and by this pretended ' Friend of 
 Bankes,' in particular, not only without a parallel 
 in the annals of that country, but equally so in 
 this, and surpassing by far even the virulence of 
 the John Bull of England. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the force arrayed against 
 me, and the immense advantages enjoyed by my 
 opponents, in being all of them anonymous, and 
 backed by the support of the ruling power of the 
 state, I did not shrink from the contest, but met 
 them all single-handed, and, as the result proved, 
 came off triumphant. 
 
 As considerable pains have been taken, by the 
 circulation of the accusatory matter contained in 
 these letters of the pretended ' Friend of Bankes,' 
 to create the most unfavourable impressions against 
 me in England ; where my defence against these 
 accusations has never, for the reasons before as- 
 signed, obtained the same degree of publicity ; I 
 shall close this Appendix, by inserting here the 
 defence which I published in India, after the whole 
 of the accusations against me had appeared : omit- 
 ting only such parts as may be of little or jio im- 
 portance ; and from the manner in which the whole 
 is classed and arranged under separate heads, the 
 accusations will be seen, as well as the replies 
 offered to them. The following is the defence 
 alluded to : — 
 
 REVIEW OF PAST DISCUSSIONS. 
 
 (From the Calcutta Journal of Sunday, Dec. 22, 1822.) 
 
 If it be lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, I shall 
 need no justification, and shall therefore plead no excuse, 
 for intreating the earnest and close attention of every indi- 
 vidual into whose hands these sheets may fall, to the clear, 
 simple, and, I hope, satisfactory statement which they 
 contain. I have prepared it in such intervals as I could 
 snatch from duties already too weighty and too embai'- 
 rassing for any single person, and I have chosen to address 
 the public in my own name, because it is confined to a 
 vindication of my own reputation. I have, for the same 
 reason, separated it from the general matter and desultory 
 controversies of the Calcutta Journal, for the purpose of 
 bringing the whole question at once under review, without 
 taking the large space it would necessarily occupy, from 
 the regular pages of the daily newspaper. I have preferred 
 issuing it on this day, Sunday, also, that it might not be 
 considered as one of the ordinaiy Journals of the week, 
 and that it may claim a more close and attentive perusal 
 amid the leisure of such a day, by all who think it a duty 
 to examine and judge for themselves, before they join in 
 the interested clamour of a few unknown individuals, 
 and at their bare suggestion stamp an honest name with 
 infamy. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 639 
 
 Task only a calm and patient hearing, and shall leave 
 the result to the verdict of the pure and honourable 
 hearts that animate the bosoms of my friends, my asso- 
 ciates, my supporters, and my fellow countrymen. My 
 enemies I may confound and put to deserved shame, 
 though I cannot hope either to silence or convince them. 
 But I enter the field against them all, with a single lance, 
 secure in that triple armour with which innocence and 
 justice clothe all who fight under their banners. 
 
 I had originally commenced this defence in the hope 
 of being able to include it within the Asiatic sheets of a 
 single journal, but observing the matter to grow under 
 my hand, until it attained its present expanded limits, I 
 find it necessary to form it into this separate publication. 
 I shall, however, give the introductory paragraphs exactly 
 as they were originally written, having no desire to alter 
 a single phrase, or break the simple and consecutive order 
 in which the subject opens and is continued. I enter, 
 therefore, at once on the task. 
 
 When the John Bull contained, day after day, whole 
 pages full of reiterated accusations against me, I selected 
 from among them such as appeared to me to desei-ve any 
 attention, for the purpose of refutation. It was then 
 urged, that such assertions as I neither noticed nor denied, 
 vcere admitted by me to be true; and hence it was said 
 that I confessed myself to have pretended to a knowledge 
 of Greek without understanding its alphabet : that I pro- 
 fessed to have enjoyed Mr. Burckhardt's friendship up to 
 the day of his death, though I knew he had used every 
 means to convince me to the contrary ; that I had con- 
 fessed to have been guilty of a breach of trust to Briggs 
 and Co. and of ingratitude to one who had helped me in 
 distress, &c. &c. — all of which are as gross untruths as 
 ever were uttered, and nothing but the most artful malig- 
 nity could ever wrest such a construction from my silence. 
 I was not so weak as to imagine that there were any men 
 in this society, whose opinions were worth any thing, that 
 VFOuld consider a thing proved merely because an anony- 
 mous writer, in a hostile paper, asserted it to be so. I 
 had a higher respect for their sense and justice, and I be- 
 lieved that they would credit nothing against me from 
 such a source, that was not proved by something more 
 than the ipse dixit of men who had been called on to come 
 out and show their claims to credit, but were either afraid 
 or ashamed to answer that call. It was for this reason 
 principally that I did not condescend to answer fifty 
 things that were said, but only said, because I left it to 
 the common sense and justice of the world to see that 
 they rested on no foundation, and were not worth atten- 
 tion. Another reason, and a very powerful one, for my 
 not republishing all that the John Bull contained, for 
 the purpose of refuting it, was the utter impossibility of 
 doing this without excluding every other topic from my 
 journal, so as to change its character from a newspaper 
 into a mere vehicle of personal debate : and as I receive 
 support for something more than this, it would have 
 been at once an insult to, and a fraud upon, my sub- 
 scribers, to have called on them day after day, and 
 week after week, to read and pay me for this single com- 
 modity, in lieu of the novelty and variety which I am 
 bound to furnish them for their subscription. 1 am ex- 
 ceedingly glad that I had the penetration to make this 
 decision, for it has, perhaps, saved me from the extensive 
 injury which I must have sustained, by wearying or dis- 
 gusting those whom it is my object and my duty as a pub- 
 lic journalist to please. 
 
 Now, however, that some breathing time has been al- 
 lowed to the world, and that persons may be conceived 
 to have recovered, in a slight degree, from the din and 
 confusion— into which it was one great object of my ac- 
 cusers to steep the bewildered attention of those before 
 whom they poured out those floods and torrents of ca- 
 
 lumny, invective, and denunciation, by Which they Sought 
 to overwhelm me — I may return to a subject brought with- 
 in practicable limits, and as long as those limits are not 
 unreasonably extended, I shall have no objection to give 
 up a portion of my time and space to their consideration, 
 when any thing new or important is started that may seem 
 to require refutation. I shall still, however, rely on the 
 good sense of my readers to excuse my going for the fifth 
 or sixth time over matters disproved long ago, and in re- 
 turn I shall do my best neither to weary their patience, 
 nor intrude too largely on the space that should be given 
 to other subjects. 
 
 I have been expecting, for some days past, the separate 
 publication of the Letters of the Feiend of Bankes, 
 which seemed to have been promised to be sent out in a 
 pamphlet : and I had hoped that before this, I should have 
 seen an abstract of the facts supposed to have been proved, 
 with the grounds of proof attached, so that I might know 
 to what my enemies expected me to reply. This not hav- 
 ing yet appeared (at least as far as I am aware), I suppose 
 the design is abandoned * ; and though it can hardly be 
 considered my duty to draw up such an abstract myself, 
 for the purpose of going over the whole ground again 
 yet, as far as I remember the chief points alleged; and 
 the explanations given, I am willing to give them a reca- 
 pitulation, for the purpose of showing the public of India 
 how they have been attempted to be imposed on by my 
 accusers ; for the number, if any, who have been really 
 deceived by their bold yet shallow pretences must be very 
 few indeed. 
 
 In order to assist the reader in the classification of the 
 several charges that have been advanced, some of which 
 have been subsequently abandoned, while others are still 
 persisted in, I shall place them conspicuously under their 
 several distinct heads. 
 
 1. ' MOST ARTFUL OF AOVENTUKERS.' 
 
 It was asserted that Mr. Buckingham was ' the 
 most artful of adventurers.' This was subsequently ex- 
 plained by saying that ' an adventurer' was merely a man 
 who went abroad to seek his fortune without any particu- 
 lar object, and that it was absurd and ridiculous to make 
 such a noise about so unmeaning a term : an explanation 
 quite as satisfactory as that of the signature, which said 
 that a man might consider himself as numbered among the 
 friends of any particular person whose cause he chose to 
 espouse ! 
 
 II. ' SCENE OF FALSEHOOD AND INiaUITY.' 
 
 It was asserted that a ' scene of falsehood and ini- 
 quity would be displayed, which should disgust every man 
 of honourable feeling.' This was explained by saying, 
 that falsehood and iniquity must rest somewhere, and as 
 Mr. Bankes was a man of rank and fortune, it would be 
 wrong to suspect hnn; therefore the falsehood and ini- 
 quity must be on Mr. Buckingham's shoulders ! 
 
 III. GENUINENESS OF MB. BANKEs's LETTERS. 
 
 It was asserted that the pretended letters of Mr. 
 Bankes, on the evidence of which his accusations were 
 disproved, might not be genuine ; and also, that supposing 
 them to be so, they were only extracts. This was answered 
 by inviting the writer, or any one else, to come and in- 
 spect the letters for himself, and read the whole of them ; 
 but no one came. Both these points, however, were ul- 
 timately yielded to me as untenable by those who had ad- 
 vanced them. 
 
 IV. THIRD VISIT TO GERASH. 
 
 It was asserted that ' Mr. Buckingham had never 
 been a third time to Gerash, and^that no traces of such 
 third visit were to be found in his book.' Both these 
 charges were rebutted ; the first by the living evidence of 
 a gentleman in Calcutta, who had seen and conversed 
 
 * Such a compilation never did appear. 
 
640 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 with the guide who accompanied me there alone *; and 
 the second by a reference to the preface of the book 
 itself, where the third visit was distinctly mentioned. 
 Both these points were also abandoned, like all the 
 former ones, as untenable, and accordingly given up. 
 
 V. NOTES ON ADJELOON. 
 
 It was next asserted, that the statement contained 
 in Mr. Bankes's letter, of his having seen Mr. Bucking- 
 ham's notes on Adjeloon, could not have been true ; as 
 we could not have met any where between the 14th of 
 March, the time of our separation, and the 12th of April, 
 the date of the letter in which this statement was con- 
 tained. To this I replied, by mentioning the date of the 
 third journey to Jerash, as the 7th of March ; the date of 
 our meeting at Damascus, when Mr. Bankes read all the 
 notes on that place, as the 23d of March ; and the date 
 of the letter alluding to this meeting, as the 12th of April. 
 I give here an extract from my manuscript notes of 
 March 22 and 23, the original of which may be seen with 
 me. The letter of April 12, referring to this, I shall in- 
 troduce in its proper place, 
 
 Damascus, March 22, 1816. Thursday. 
 
 At daylight I was accompanied to an excellent bath by one 
 of the servants of the convent, and remained there in the de- 
 lightful enjoyment vfhich it afforded until nearly noon. This 
 bath is called the Bath of Musk, and belongs to the family of 
 Ahmed Bey, a family which has furnished more pashas than any 
 other throughout all Turkey, in Europe or in Asia. As that 
 family is, however, now comparatively poor, and great funds 
 are necessary to support an appearance correspondent to its 
 nobility, the palaces, gardens, baths, &c. belonging to it, are 
 many of them appropriated to public use, of which this is an 
 instance. The interior arrangement of the establishment was 
 superior to any thing I had seen in Egypt, and my pleasure 
 was extremely great. 
 
 On ray return, I was visited by several Christian merchants, 
 and by Dr. Chaboceau, an old French gentleman, nearly eighty 
 years of age, and now quite deaf, with his interpreter, Ibrahim, 
 who was equally as old and as deaf as himself. This man 
 bad been more than fifty years in the Levant, at Constan- 
 tinople, Cairo, Aleppo, Damascus, and yet could speak no 
 other language than French, and understood Italian but imper- 
 fectly. His manners toward me were extremely kind, and I 
 was entertained by a thousand anecdotes of the travellers who 
 had passed this way, particularly Mr. Browne, Pedro Nunnes, 
 or All Bey el-Abassi, a Spaniard, several Frenchmen, and 
 Dr. Seetzen and Sbeik Ibrahim, all of whom had been personally 
 
 * The following is a copy of the note in question, the original 
 of which may be seen at my house, by any one desiring it. 
 
 Half-past 4, Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 20, 1822. 
 Dear Buckingham, 
 
 I have this moment received your note, and will be happy to 
 give such confirmation as lies in my power to your having paid 
 a visit to the ruins of Gerash subsequent to those made in com- 
 pany with Mr. Bankes. 
 
 The son of your guide, who was a Christian Arab at Naza- 
 reth, showed me a written character which you had given his 
 father at Damascus, after having performed the journey across 
 the Jordan alone ; and my recollection serves me perfectly in 
 your describing in that document the safety of the route from 
 Nazareth to Damascus by the way of Gerash, when you passed 
 as a single traveller. I afterwards met your guide at Aleppo, 
 who often adverted to the same journey, and you may make any 
 reference you please regarding the authenticity of this state- 
 ment to Yours, very faithfully, 
 
 R W . 
 
 (The writer of this letter, and the hand-writing, are known 
 among others to Messrs. Colvin and Co. of this city, so that 
 there can be no difficulty in proving its authenticity. ) 
 
 It may be now added, that the writer was Mr. Robert Wil- 
 son, a gentleman who had himself made extensive travels in 
 Asia, and who is now the private secretary of the Marquis of 
 Hastings, at M;dta — 1824, 
 
 known to him. He had known also Mr. Bruce (the Abys- 
 sinian] at Cairo, and Mr. Volney at Acre, and though he praised 
 the work of the latter on Egypt, he said that all he has written 
 on Syria was done in a Maronite convent, for that he had scarcely 
 seen any part of the country ; our interview lasted nearly two 
 hours, and was followed by an invitation to his house. 
 
 On inquiring if any news had been received of Mr. Bankes, 
 I learnt that he had been, for the last twenty days, with Lady 
 Stanhope at the convent of Mar Elias, near Seyda, and that it 
 was thought he would visit Baalbeck and Palmyra from thence, 
 and take Damascus in his return to the coast. The portion of 
 my effects which I had thought it imprudent to take with me in 
 my attempt to force a passage to the eastward from Karak, such 
 as a watch, a sword, the notes of my voyage from Egypt to 
 Syria, and journies in Palestine, &c. with my letter of credit on 
 Mr. Barker, and other papers, were left with Mr. Bankes at 
 Nazareth, to be taken by him to Damascus or Aleppo, as cir- 
 cumstances might direct ; as, in the event of my being forced 
 back, which had really happened, these things would still be of 
 use to me. Finding myself, therefore, now at this place, without 
 money or credit, and therefore fettered in all my movements, I 
 despatched a messenger on foot to Seyda, with a letter to Mr. 
 Bankes, informing him of my situation, and directing it to 
 be opened by Lady Stanhope, in the event of his having departed 
 from thence to the northward. The messenger departed soon 
 after noon, under the promise of returning in five days, and 
 the price stipulated to be paid him was twenty piastres, or about 
 3 J Spanish dollars. My evening was passed with the friars in 
 hearing the miseries of their situation, and the cruel treatment 
 of the Turks towards them, though, as faras I could perceive, 
 they enjoyed an enviable degree of comfort, in a large estab- 
 lishment, with gardens, courts, terraces, and fountains, and 
 excellent apartments, a heavenly climate, an abundance of the 
 necessaries of life, undisturbed tranquillity, and great respect 
 from all those over whom they presided, the only persons, indeed, 
 they almost ever saw. They were all Spaniards, and quite as 
 ignorant as their countrymen at Jerusalem ; like the people of 
 Assalt and the Hauran, they dwelt with delight on the partition 
 of the Turkish empire, and thought it shameful that the princes 
 of Christendom should leave the sanctuaries of the Holy Land 
 so long in the hands of such infidels as the Turks. 
 
 It was some time after sunset when strangers were announced 
 at the convent door, and, as much to my surprise as satisfaction, 
 it was my friend and companion, Mr. Bankes, with his servant 
 and dragoman, a second interpreter for Arabic from Lady Stan- 
 hope, a muleteer and four mules, besides tlae horses, just arrived 
 from Mar Elias. Our meeting was really a happy one, and we 
 continued up late in recounting to each other what had passed 
 since our separation. Having heard no news of me since my 
 departure, and not expecting to find me here, Mr. Bankes had 
 not brought over my effects consigned to him, but had left them 
 with Lady Hester Stanhope to be disposed of according to cir- 
 cumstances and further directions. His journies since we had 
 separated had been interesting. From Nazareth he went to 
 Nablous, and on the way there visited Sebasta, where he found, 
 on the west side of the hill on which the city stood, a long street 
 with an avenue of columns on each side, to the number of eighty- 
 three, now standing, but all without capitals, either on them or 
 near. Dr. Clarke's conjecture, therefore, that the fortress of 
 Sanhoor was Sebasta, while this place not only contains these 
 considerable remains, but has also presei-ved its ancient name in 
 the Sebusty of the Arabs, is unpardonable, however much the 
 editors of The Quarterly Review may praise it. From Sanhoor 
 Mr. Bankes went down to Baisan, on the western bank of the 
 Jordan, and found there many columns, some of marble, and 
 the remains of a small and ordinary tlicatre much ruined. His 
 stay with Lady Stanhope had been agreeable, and he had visited 
 many curious places in the neighbourhood, under the guidance 
 of her physician. Dr. Meryon. 
 
 Damascus, Friday, March 23, 1816. 
 We remained in the convent the whole of the day to repose, 
 and it was passed in reading to Mr. Bankes the rough notes of 
 my journies since our separation, and in comparing the inscrip- 
 tions which I had copied in the Hauran with those wliich had 
 been copied by Mr. Burckhardt, and which he had given a set 
 of to Mr. Bankes. We found that I possessed several which 
 lie did not, and vice versa ; as well as that in those which we had 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 641 
 
 both copied, tliere were some that agreed in every letter, and 
 some that had slight differences. 
 
 In showing him my notes on the journey through Belkah, 
 Adjeloon, and tlie Haiiran, he formed the determination of going 
 down as far as Bosra from hence, and if practicable, to go on to 
 Assalt and Ammaan, and from thence across to Jerusalem, lo 
 pass the holy week at Easter, an excursion which I encouraged 
 rather than otherwise, as no drawings had yet been made of the 
 interesting monuments there, and no one was more capable than 
 Mr. Bankes of executing them with fidelity. As he found it 
 impossible to make drawings and notes too, without a greater 
 sacrifice of time than he was willing to make in these countries, 
 and as he found, indeed, many obstacles to his collecting accu- 
 rate information from his ignorance of the language, he pro- 
 posed an union of my observations with his drawings, to which 
 I readily assented ; and to render the combination still more 
 perfect, a letter was written to our joint friend, Mr. Burckhardt, 
 at Cairo, proposing that he should contribute his share towards 
 a work on the countries east of the Jordan, and the less frequented 
 parts of Syria, and that it should be published in our joint names. 
 
 This examination, with the conversations to which it gave 
 rise, the writing the letter, &c. occupied us all the day. We 
 dined together at sunset, and spent the evening with the friars. • 
 
 I offer to throw open my house to as many men as 
 choose to come and see all these documents and dates for 
 themselves ; but no one comes : and I further show how 
 blind a man must be who seeks in a book, ending in Fe- 
 bruary, for transactions happening in the month following. 
 All this is, at last, so plain, that though one whole letter 
 of the Fkiend of Bankes was filled with this, as one of 
 the strongest points against me, that also, like all the pre- 
 vious ones, fell to the ground ! 
 
 VI. TAKING DOWN MB. BANKEs's NOTES. 
 
 It was next asserted that I had admitted the charge 
 of having agreed to accompany Mr. Bankes and take down 
 his notes, merely because I had not denied it. To this I 
 reply, that I never did any such thing. The reason 
 assigned by Mr. Bankes for my not taking notes of my 
 own was, that my ignorance and incapacity unfitted me 
 for the task, and that I had no paper but a four-inch book. 
 This was too absurd to deserve a reply. To show, how- 
 ever, that I could and did take notes of my own, and co- 
 pious ones too, I quoted an attested letter of Mr. Bankes, 
 in which he admits having read them ; another part of 
 the same letter where he compliments me on my supe- 
 riority of judgment to himself; and another where he ac- 
 knowledges his own indolence as to writing, and begs that 
 letter to be preserved for his future use, as he had put 
 notes on paper there which he might never take the trou- 
 ble to write again. I have before asserted, most solemnly, 
 that I never made any engagement to take down Mr. 
 Bankes's notes, that he did not pay even the portion he 
 ought to have paid of his share of the expence of the 
 journey; that he made no notes at all, as far as I could 
 learn, of the journey from Jerusalem to Jerash; that 
 whatever was written on the subject, and appears in the 
 Travels in Palestine, was the work of my own eyes and 
 hand; and that I derived no aid whatever from Mr. 
 Bankes's information, pen, or pencil. The strongest cor- 
 roborating evidence I can produce of this, is the fact that 
 when Mr. Bankes wrote his threatening letter from 
 Thebes, accusing me of being about to publish his mate- 
 rials, he had no means of knowing what I was going to 
 publish, since he had never seen the manuscript; that he 
 knew of my having made a journey of many months in , 
 time, and hundreds of leagues in space, between' Cairo 
 and Calcutta without him, while this journey to Jerash in 
 his company was an affair of a few days, and quite a speck 
 in the whole routef : and that though my book was pub- 
 
 * These are the original rough notes from which the more 
 finished account was drawn up, commencing at p. 298. of the 
 text, in the present volume. A comparison of the two with each 
 other, will show how slight is the real difference between them. 
 
 f The whole time occupied by this journey to Jerash, in 
 
 lishedin Oct. 1821, with the account of Jerash included in 
 it, I have had no information of his having claimed any 
 portion of it as his own, up to July, 1822, though he was in 
 London, and possessed all the means of doing this, if he 
 could have substantiated it. 
 
 VII. EULOGIUM ON MR. BANKES. 
 
 It was next asserted, that with Mr. Bankes's accu- 
 satory letter of June, 1819, in my pocket, I had pub- 
 lished, in my volume of travels in 1821, an eulogiuni 
 on Mr. Bankes's talents, taste, and erudition, and this is 
 called inconsistency. To this I reply, that the preface to 
 the Travels was sent home in Nov. 1818, that Mr. Bankes's 
 letter did not reach Calcutta till June 1820; but that 
 even if it had, my opinion of Mr. Bankes's taste, talents, 
 and erudition could not have not been changed, as Mr. 
 Bankes's was of mine, by either jealousy, anger, or any 
 other feeling. I have never failed, on every occasion, to 
 speak of Mr. Bankes's talents for drawing particularly 
 with praise ; and my opinion on that point cannot be 
 changed by his subsequent misconduct. It is left for such 
 men as Mr. Bankes, Mr. Burckhardt, and their friends, to 
 pronounce a man to be a person of talent at one time, 
 and a fool at another, though no change has taken place 
 except in their angry and heated minds. But whatever 
 change of opinion was wrought in my mind as to Mr. 
 Bankes's liherality, for which, in 1 8 1 8, 1 readily gave him 
 credit, as the preface and the book professed to give a 
 true narrative of the events confined within the period to 
 which they related, it would have been a departure from 
 truth and accuracy to have made any alteration of any 
 parts of them, even had it been practicable, which how- 
 ever it was not, as the manuscript was at home. As to 
 Mr. Bankes's indolence, it stands confessed in his own 
 letter ; and as to his wasting his time since the period we 
 were together, it is sufficient to mention that he is a man 
 of fortune who has nothing to do but what he chooses, 
 and though he has been preparing to publish for these 
 seven or eight years past, he has produced nothing ; 
 while I, his companion, who had immense difEculties to en- 
 counter, and my living to get besides, have published my 
 account of the countries we traversed before him. This 
 is the unpardonable sin ; for if I would have only been 
 weak, or timid, or subservient enough, not to have come 
 before the public to reap the harvest first, Mr. Bankes 
 would have held his tongue, and, perhaps, served me into 
 the bargain. I despised alike, however, his threats and his 
 insinuations ; because, knowing my own honesty and in- 
 tegrity in the whole of this transaction, I feared no man, 
 and my whole conduct in opposing such a mass of influ- 
 ence united against me in this persecution may be cited in 
 proof of my fearlessness, at that period, as well as at the 
 present moment. 
 
 VIII. EXTRACTS ONLY OF ME. BANKEs's LETTEHS. 
 
 It has been urged with great pertinacity, and re- 
 peated over and over again, that I had given only extracts 
 of Mr. Bankes's letters, while it has been asserted that I 
 should have given the whole. It would be thought extra- 
 vagant enough if I, in reply, were to call upon any other 
 person to puMish the whole of a man's correspondence, in 
 order to prove that two directly opposite assertions in any 
 two of his letters were at variance -with each other. Mr. 
 Bankes, in his last letter to me from Thebes, laid certain 
 crimes to my charge; I select from portions of his letters 
 in my possession, passages which show not that he had 
 merely changed his opinion of me, but that if the accuracy 
 of the one letter could be relied on, the accusations of 
 the other cotdd not he true. This is all I am bound to 
 
 company witli Mr. Bankes, was only seven days ; as we left 
 Jerusalem on the 2?th of January, and arrived at Nazareth on 
 the 3d of February: so that the portion of the journey performed 
 with him was as 1 to SO to that performed without him, in point 
 of time ; and as 1 to 100 only, in point of space ! 
 
 4 N 
 
642 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 prove ; but I shall now go farther ; and that no portion of 
 this defence may be incomplete, I shall republish the two 
 letters from which I gave extracts, in their full and entire 
 state, and trust to the reader's indulgence for a task 
 which I perform, in order that my enemies may not have 
 even a loophole to escape through. 
 
 The first of the letters will show, that it was next to 
 impossible that a person should be so anxious to make his 
 way to me, and join me in my journey in the Hauran be- 
 yond Jordan, if I was to be had upon such easy terms as 
 copying his notes, while he paid- my expences ; for then 
 I could be of very Httle value indeecl. It will prove that 
 his anxious desire to join me indicated, at least, that he 
 deemed it of great advantage to be in my company, which 
 was the fact; as 1 am no more ashamed to say that my 
 qualifications for ensuring a safe journey as a traveller 
 among Arabs were infinitely superior to his, than I am 
 ashamed to acknowledge that, as a scholar and a drafts- 
 man, Mr. Bankes's more finished education made him, 
 for a book-maker, much superior to me. 
 
 The second letter is, perhaps, the longest that he ever 
 wrote in his life, and contains more than all the notes 
 that I ever saw in his possession, or that I believe he ever 
 took during the whole of his stay in Syria, as one ex- 
 pression in it seems indeed to indicate, where he says he 
 had put many things on paper there which he might never 
 ,do again, and desires me to preserve that letter particu- 
 larly for his sake, and not for my own, as he was so indo- 
 lent about writing that the loss of this would be irrepara- 
 ble to him. 
 
 This leads me to mention an anecdote respecting these 
 letters, which I have never before intruded on the Indian 
 public, but which I think too important and too interest- 
 ing to be omitted. 
 
 On my parting with Mr. Bankes at Aleppo, he for 
 Palmyra, (where, if I could only have forgotten Briggs 
 and Co. for ten days, I might have gone with him, of 
 which I have written evidence,) and I with a dull caravan 
 across the Euphrates into Mesopotamia, he gave me a 
 kind and highly complimentary letter to his father's par- 
 ticular friend and Dorsetshire neighbour. Sir Evan Ne- 
 pean, the governor of Bombay, which did me some service 
 in saving me from a second transmission, as my licence did 
 not reach India until after my arrival at Bombay. At 
 that moment, as we were about to part for many years, 
 and perhaps for ever, while we stood on the steps of Mr. 
 Barker's dwelling, Mr. Bankes said to me as nearly as. I 
 remember; — ' I believe I have no notes whatever of my 
 journies, except the drawings I have made, and the let- 
 ters that from time to time I have written to you. The 
 first are numerous, and the last are, I believe, longer let- 
 ters than I ever wrote to any body before. As you are 
 not in my cjise, but have very copious notes of your own, 
 1 hope you will give me my letters back again. Indeed, if 
 I mistake not, he added, I have hinted to you in some of 
 them that I should, perhaps, wish them again for my own 
 reference and assistance.' I did not hesitate a moment, 
 but opened my baggage, all then packed (little as it was), 
 got out my papers from the upper part of a small old 
 English portmanteau, the part where loose clothes are 
 generally stuffed, and returned him every letter of his 
 that I could find. There was one only that he remem- 
 bered to have been missing, which was the longest of the 
 whole, and one of those that he had particularly mentioned 
 as desiring me to keep for his own use. We tumbled the bag- 
 gage over and over-again, but it was not to be found; we 
 both regretted it ; but, as I had promised to send him home 
 from Bombay, copies of some plans and descriptions of tem- 
 ples in Nubia, which I offered to give him to incorporate in 
 a work that he intended writing on that country, and to 
 add gratuitously to the stock oi his materials, I promised 
 that when I sent these home to him I would also send, if 
 I ever found it, a copy of his letter, or the original. 
 
 We parted with mutual expressions of regret, prayers 
 for eur safety, promise of future correspondence, &c. &c. 
 in all of which Mr. Barker and his family sympathised and 
 joined, and I at length reached Bombay. 
 
 Soon after my arrival there, when intending to get rid 
 of my old and worn-out travelling packages, I gave, 
 among other things, the little leather portmanteau to my 
 servant, to sell for himself, or make any use of he thought 
 proper; and as servants sometimes look sharper into holes 
 and corners than their masters, mine brought me back 
 the portmanteau the next day, to show me that two let- 
 ters had stuck fast in the very inner part of the covering, 
 from whence they were detached, having closely adhered 
 to the cotton ticking cloth, by the heat melting the 
 English wax, and one letter being within the other. I 
 was both surprised and pleased to find these to be letters 
 of Mr. Bankes, and one particularly the long one that 
 was remarked to be missing, and for which we had made 
 such diligent search at Aleppo in vain ; I never dreamt, 
 however, that they would prove of such essential service 
 to me, and therefore attached no importance to this 
 event at the time, though at this moment I regard it with 
 mingled feelings of wonder and gratitude. 
 
 It was after Sheik Ibrahim's ' paper' on me reached 
 Bombay that I sent home to Mr. Bankes, as I had pro- 
 raised him, my manuscript plans and notes on Nubia, ad- 
 dressed to him in Palace-yard; but as I thought his letter 
 too valuable to be risked (on account of its interesting 
 contents only), I sent a copy, which I knew would 
 answer Mr. Bankes's purpose, and kept the original, 
 which is now in my possession, and which I shall preserve 
 to the day of ray death, if possible, as a memento of how 
 much I owe to this providential preservation of a sheet of 
 paper. 
 
 As Mr. Bsnkes continued out of England, I believe, 
 from the time I left him till he wrote me his letter from 
 Thebes, my Indian letters could not .have reached him, 
 so that he had no reason to believe that I had preserved 
 a single scrap of paper in ray possession that bore his 
 name. It may seem unwarrantable in me to say it, but 
 1 nevertheless firmly believe, that at the moment of Mr. 
 Bankes writing me his insulting, and to him disgraceful, 
 letter, he was fully convinced that I had not a single tittle 
 of evidence beyond my bare assertion with which to op- 
 pose his statement. With him it was a seemingly safe 
 game to play. There were, at least, a hundred chances 
 to one that he should win, and he embarked his all, (for 
 reputation must be that to every man who would maintain 
 the rank and character of a gentleman in England,) but 
 Justice held the balance, and his hundred chances were 
 but as a feather against the one that fortunately weighed 
 them all down. 
 
 But it is time that the letters should be given. They 
 are the only ones, except two or three very short notes, 
 that I retain, out of more than twenty that I received 
 from him at various times and places, many of which 
 might have contained more mai-ked proofs than even 
 these, on many points of dispute ; but, thank heaven ! 
 these are quite enough. The letters are as follow : — 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Addressed — Al Senior Buckingham, Cahallero Yngles, en el 
 Conbento de la Terra Santa, Damasco. 
 
 My dear Sir, Acra, February 28, 1S16. 
 
 There is some fatality about my travelling engagements ; I 
 never made one in my life but circumstances turned out so as 
 to prevent my fulfilling it. Another letter from Seyde, and, 
 above all, the radical change in the weather, determined me 
 upon deferring my scrambling expedition to the ruined cities 
 and the Hauran, and upon turning at once towards tlie coast. 
 I did not, however, give up the idea of joining you at once, but 
 made an attempt from St. Hoor (where tliat excellent man, 
 Hadge Hamit, entertained me with the same hospitality, and 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 643 
 
 almost afFection, which you had described tome). Bisan, which 
 is the ancient Scythopolis, is within a day's journey, and in the 
 same jurisdiction ; it lies in the plain of the Jordan, and is within 
 a long day of Salt. I resolved to go to Bisan, and to make my 
 way to you, * if I could find any body that would carry me.* 
 When I came, I found that nobody would undertake it, for, 
 but the day before fmy good fortune always brings me a day 
 before or a day after such adventures), the Bedoweens had 
 completely pillaged and stripped a party of merchants from 
 Damascus within two hours of the village. So there was an end 
 of that scheme. The remains at Bisan are prodigiously exten- 
 sive, and it is easy to trace the circuit of the outer walls as Well 
 of the citadel which stood on a high insulated hill ; of the build- 
 ings nothing remains in any state of tolerable preservation, ex- 
 cepting one theatre, which appears to be of a larger span than 
 those of Djerash ; a second theatre may be traced, and there 
 is a row of Ionic columns of a respectable size, and of a very 
 delicate marble (that appears to me to be Greek) standing more 
 or less well preserved ; hewn stones, and masses of masonry, lie 
 scattered over the whole extent of surface. The situation must 
 have been delightful, for there are several brooks clearer than 
 crystal, that flowed through the lower part of the city in dif- 
 ferent directions, and united at the foot of the citadel ; yet the 
 modern village is small and ragged. I did not stumble on a 
 single inscription. 
 
 But to tell the truth, what has surprised me most are the re- 
 mains at Sebaste ; it seems a strange fatality that an avenue of 
 eighty-three columns, for there are no less still erect (though 
 without capitals), should have escaped the notice of former 
 travellers ; they determine the direction of the grand street, and 
 lead to the remains of the city gate. These columns, that pass 
 for having been part of Herod's palace, may, I think, very well 
 have been so. There is a better area about them than could, 
 perhaps, have been found elsewhere upon all the hill, those below 
 (which you must have seen in passing) I am much inclined to 
 suspect, were avenues to a theatre which I could not positively 
 identify, but am led, from the form of the ground, to place 
 (always a mere conjecture) thereabouts. 
 
 It is pleasant to find much where one has been led to expect 
 little, and Dr. Clarke's ingenious conjecture (if I am not mis- 
 taken) that Djenain is the ancient Sebaste, becomes very amus- 
 ing, especially as he must have passed under the village that 
 still retains its old name. I am at a great loss to know what I 
 ought to do with the baggage wliich you left in Antonio's charge, 
 I cannot trust it alone to Damascus, and yet am afraid that you 
 may feel embarrassed without it on your arrival there. As I 
 reckon that you will pass from thence across to Seyde, I shall 
 take it with me so far, and leave it in Lady Hester Stanliope's 
 charge. As you have no visits of ceremony at Damascus, 
 perhaps you may continue your Bedoween habit during your 
 short stay there, without inconvenience (and I am disposed to 
 hope that your stay will be as short as possible). I shall re- 
 main with Lady H. about five days, and if I do not turn 
 round for Damascus, which will depend a good deal upon her 
 advice and upon circumstances, I shall make my way pretty 
 directly for Aleppo, lengthening out my road by excursions, 
 however, here. and there, .to give you time to come up with me, 
 so that I trust that at the latest we may meet in Aleppo, and 
 make our journey to Palmyra together. 
 
 Believe me, my dear sir, most faithfully yours, 
 
 WM. JOHN BANKES. 
 
 Gabrielli is still here in the consul's house, but expects to sail 
 in the course of to-day or to-morrow at the latest, for Beyroot. 
 
 As it has been insinuated, if not asserted, that those 
 who attested the extracts of this and the next letter, be- 
 fore jjublished, might not have read the whole, I take this 
 occasion to say, that full and complete copies of these 
 originals were attested, and notarially sealed and signed : 
 and that it is to the full and entire copy of each, that the 
 following attestation is appended : — 
 
 We certify this to be a true copy of the original letter of Mr. 
 Wm. John Bankes. 
 
 (Signed) C. D'OYLY, JAS. CALDER, 
 
 J. PALMER, p. M. WYNCH, 
 
 J. YOUNG, G. CHINNERY, 
 
 J. MELVILLE, HY. CHASTENAY. 
 JOHN YOUNG, 
 
 This letter was written after my two first visits to Jef ash 
 in company with Mr. Bankes, and has of course no refer- 
 ence to our junction on that journey ; — but it proves, be- 
 yond a doubt, that I could, and did travel east of the 
 Jordan, without Mr. Bankes's aid, company, or money; 
 — that he was on a footing of th e most perfect equality with 
 me, which he could not have been if I had agreed to take 
 down his notes, as the service to be rendered by me for 
 his paying my expences ; — that he was very desirous of 
 coming to join me again, after we had separated ; — that the 
 dangers of the road (to which all my delays and circuitous 
 routes were owing) was such as not only to deter him, 
 but to frighten even the natives of the country from ac- 
 companying him to follow in my track j — and that it might 
 have fallen to my lot, as well as to that of the merchants of 
 whom he speaks, to be pillaged, and murdered if I resisted, 
 while doing my utmost, and running almost unwarrantable 
 risks of life and property, to discharge my trust to Briggs 
 and Co., which it is so falsely and so impudently asserted 
 that I had neglected. 
 
 The second letter, however, which is of far greater im- 
 portance, is as follows: — 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Addressed — J. S. Buckingham, Esq. to be forwarded, 
 should he be on his way to Baalheck, 
 
 Mt deah. Sib, Damascus, April 12, 1816. 
 
 Since I knew nothing of your illness until now, when I 
 hope it is quite at an end, I can only rejoice in your recovery. 
 At the same time I am afraid that the same vrintry weather 
 which has distressed me very much in the Hauran, must have 
 made your passage across the mountains very disagreeable, if 
 not dangerous, I have to regret that my letter from Sunny- 
 maine never reached you, as I there detailed to you my plans, 
 and mentioned that I wished our meeting at Baalbec to lake 
 place a few days later than that which we had fixed on together. 
 None can be better than about the 19th or 20th. The in- 
 tense cold, with storms of rain and snow, prevented my pene- 
 trating from Salkhud to German, and even to Oomydgimel, 
 which, in spite of all objections and diflSculties, I was much 
 set upon ; however, in some directions I have extended my re- 
 searches considerably farther than you did. I visited El Kofibr, 
 which does not deserve its reputation. Hebrawn, where there 
 is a temple. Shakkah, where there are some interesting early 
 Christian antiquities, and a curious tower with inscriptions* 
 Haytu, where there is one of the most unintelligible buildings 
 in all the Hauran, that seems to have been, as I should conceive, a 
 sort of college for priests, and some of the best specimens of 
 private houses. Amrah is full of inscriptions, chiefly Christian. 
 
 At * is a temple of the time of the Antonines. At 
 
 Shaarele, in Ledja, I found little to interest me ; there is a 
 small Roman bath. At Medgdel is by far the most entire of 
 all the temples. Its architecture is (like all the rest through- 
 out that country, so far as I saw it) of a very bad sort, with 
 high stilted pedestals, and loaded with unmeaning ornaments. 
 But it is curious as a specimen, and full of Greek inscriptions. 
 The prettiest temple in the Hauran, to my mind, is a little one 
 that wants little else besides its roof, at Sunnymaine ; it makes 
 no figure upon the exterior ; some of the towers there also are 
 very interesting, but less so than that at Medgdel, which you 
 must have seen. Of private houses I saw several far superior 
 to that at Ezra. I was carried into one at Bostra, where there 
 are Ionic columns and pilasters all round the principal apart- 
 ment, and a lesser one with a smooth ceiling and arched above 
 within it. There is another excellent specimen in a ruined 
 
 village called * near the road from Shibley's village 
 
 * to Bostra, with two or three stories, and several at 
 
 * These three instances of names being forgotten alto- 
 gether as the spaces are blank in the original ; and one name 
 first written wrongly and subsequently corrected by another 
 being written over it, are selected as proofs that the writer of 
 the letter, Mr. Bankes, did not take notes on the spot, in his 
 tour ; because, if he had done so, such omission and mistakes, 
 in such important points as names of towns, could not have 
 occurred. 
 
 4 N 2 
 
644 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Hayt. There is quite a tnansioil at Medgdel, with ornaments 
 in all the angles of the ceilings, and the masonry all wrought 
 smooth. There is a good one, too, at Nedjerawn. Did you 
 observe the theatre at Soayda ? It is pretty large, and much 
 ruined, and faces towards the great church to the north. The 
 temple there is Roman past all dispute, but of the worst times. 
 1 am surprised at any thing so bad before the Xtian sera, or 
 rather, I mean, before Christianity became the established reli- 
 gion of the empire. For a temple it certainly was, and not a 
 church. At Bostra I think you are mistaken in supposing 
 that the theatre consisted In only seven or eight ranges of scats. 
 It is true that those which we see are the uppermost ; but there 
 are two if not three stories of high arched vaults below of Sa- 
 racen work, wliich occupy the height of at least two more flights 
 of seats (which are even visible in many places), and the scene 
 consisted in three if not four orders of architecture, one above 
 the other, of which there is ocular demonstration, that irregular 
 Doric order which is visible being the uppermost range. I v/ill 
 demonstrate this to you from my plans. 
 
 Now, from a general view of the architectural remains of 
 the Hauran, &c., my opinion is very decided, that there is no- 
 thing to justify an opinion that any of it belongs to a period 
 more remote than that in which it became a province of the 
 Roman empire. As to the temples and larger buildings, there 
 cannot remain a doubt upon any body's mind that is conversant 
 with antiquities ; the same applies to the theatres and the baths. 
 "With respect to the private dwelling houses, we have less means 
 of comparing them, but the inscriptions fix the aera of many of 
 them, and wherever there is any ornament it is purely Roman, 
 or corrupted from the Roman, and precisely such as occurs 
 about the temples or early Christian churches ; the best of all 
 the private houses having its roof supported on a row of de- 
 based Ionic pillars, not to mention the arch, whicli occurs 
 almost universally, and is in itself a sufficient objection to any 
 higher antiquity being assigned to thege buildings. It is true, 
 that private dwellings must have existed previous to tlie Roman 
 conquests, and from the nature of the materials, might and may 
 exist to this day ; but when we find that we must exclude from 
 the number all where the arch occurs, or where there is any or- 
 nament or inscription (generally speaking), by far the greater 
 number, and the best specimens must be struck positively off 
 the list, and a few huts and hovels only will remain, which may 
 be pretty near the truth. It is most probable to suppose that 
 the Romans introduced into these countries a more spacious 
 and commodious mode of building, adopting from the natives 
 a mode of construction which necessity (from the total want of 
 timber) had originally taught them. 
 
 After all, upon reflection, the decision which I have come to 
 upon this point (and in which I have not found any thing to 
 shake me), does not diminish the interest which these antiquities 
 ought to excite. With the single exception of Pompeii, where 
 shall we find the private dwellings of the Romans? We have 
 them here in infinitely greater numbers, still habitable or in- 
 habited, closed by their original doors, and sheltered by their 
 original roofs, and the horses eating out of the same mangers 
 as they did sixteen hundred years ago. As for the towers, they 
 were sepulchral, and are to be referred to the same time (I mean 
 the earliest of them). You will find that they are exactly si- 
 milar to those about Palmyra j and though the form of a tower 
 seems oddly chosen for a place of interment, it was a favourite 
 one with the Romans, who, in their own country and about 
 their capital, seem generally to have preferred a round form 
 like the little one outside the great gate of Bostra. Their 
 mouldings and Cornishes are purely Roman, and every thing 
 tended to confirm me in my first conjecture, with the exception 
 of the single circumstance, that these towers are often found 
 within and in the very heart of the villages (though, certainly, 
 oftcner about the skirts of them). But even this difficulty was 
 
 removed by the sight of those at Nedgeraun *, Medgdel, 
 
 wliich have set the matter past a doubt in every respect. The 
 sarcophagi there, in both instances, remain in tlieir places ; and 
 on the one we read the names of the persons that occupied 
 them, with the additional circumstance that they are of Chris- 
 tian times. And, as if it were on purpose to obviate every 
 possible objection of the tower having been converted to this 
 purpose after the sera of its construction, we have the same 
 ornament repeated from the part of the sarcophagus upon tlie 
 
 * See note in preceding page. 
 
 ceiling, and the whole taste and style corresponding throughout 
 These towers at Medgdel are as much in the heart of the vil- 
 lage as any whatever, so we have no alternative, but to suppose 
 either the other buildings posterior, or that in the Hauran, con. 
 trary to the usual practice, they did bury within the towns. At 
 Shakkah there is another of these towers, standing detached in 
 the field, that seems, from some long poetical inscriptions, to 
 have been the burial place of the family of Bassus, whose name 
 occurs often in the inscriptions of the Hauran. The bones of 
 him and his family have been rooted up, and are lying scattered 
 at the door of the tower. What strikes me with surprise is, 
 that in many of these towers I could discover no means of get- 
 ting at the upper stories. I may, perhaps, find it explained at 
 Palmyra, which will furnish the best commentary on them. 
 Of the pointed arch, which occurs frequently, I know not what 
 to think ; that some are very ancient I am satisfied, and that 
 most of them are to be referred to Saracen times or since. But 
 my chief difficulty occurs in having found them in several 
 large Christian churches, which can hardly be supposed to have 
 been erected subsequent to that sera, and still less by that 
 people. 
 
 As for the castle at Salkhut, I am satisfied that it is a Sara- 
 cen work altogether, and no part of it, as it now stands, Roman, 
 or of any higher antiquity. The very circumstance of the 
 manner in which older inscriptions and ornaments are found 
 patched into it, whilst it is proof that something did exist here 
 previously, puts it past a doubt that the present is not a fabric of 
 those times, but is to be referred to the period of the great 
 Arabic inscriptions that are carried in bands round it. The 
 grandeur and solidity of its construction form no objection, 
 when it is observed that the castle at Bostra, which, in the ge- 
 neral plan, it resembles very much, is fully equal to it in this 
 respect, which, from being grafted on the ruins of a noble 
 Roman theatre, sufficiently determines its own a?ra, without 
 reference to the inscriptions that abound upon it. I do not 
 know whether, in the hasty view you took of Salkhut, you ex- 
 amined this town. You would, I think, have observed that 
 the houses there are apparently of a less remote antiquity, and 
 of a worse construction than usual, and the mosch entirely of 
 a Saracen work, with shell niches in the minaret. By the bye, 
 from the description in your notes of the fortress of Adjeloon, 
 I am almost persuaded that that also is a Saracen work ( Bostra, 
 you will remember, has the rustic masonry all over it, and in- 
 stances of the fan or shell niche are without number) , though 
 I know you are of a different opinion, and I will not venture 
 to set mine against it. I found an interesting little spring in a 
 valley not far from Salkhut, to the N. W., over which there has 
 been a rich little temple, and an inscription of the time of the 
 emperor Gordian. I have been careful and exact in my draw- 
 ings, which are in great number, and I do not think you will 
 be ashamed of having your name associated to what I may one 
 day or another throw together into form. Do me the favour to 
 keep this letter, not for your use, but ray own ; you know how 
 indolent I am about writing, and I have thrown here many 
 things upon paper, which I may, perhaps, never do again. 
 
 I shall set off the day after to-morrow for Banias, and so 
 make my way to Baalbcc, when I hope to join you about the 
 19th or 20tli. 
 
 FaitlifuUy yours, 
 
 WM. JOHN BANKES. 
 
 Remember me kindly to the Doctor. 
 
 Enter old Chaboceau and tlie toad-eater ! ! so adieu. 
 
 The full and entire copy of this letter also is notarially 
 attested, signed, and sealed ; and the following certificate 
 appended : — 
 
 We certify this to be a true copy of the original letter of 
 Mr. Wm. John Bankes. 
 
 (Signed) C. D'OYLY, 
 J. PALMER, 
 J. YOUNG, 
 J. MELVILLE, 
 JOHN YOUNG, 
 
 J. CALDER, 
 HY. CHASTENAY, 
 G. CHINNERY, 
 P. M. WYNCH. 
 
 I have printed the foregoing letter in its complete and 
 perfect state, as it was insinuated that it might contain 
 some account of my notes which, Mr. Bankes professes to 
 have seen, being sent to him by letter, so as to invalidate. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 645 
 
 if possible, my assertion of its relating to his inspection of 
 these notes at the time of our meeting in Damascus. The 
 account of that meeting on the 23d of March 1816, has 
 been already given in illustration of the 4th head of the 
 charges enumerated ; and the parts of this letter which 
 speak of my notes on Adjeloon, of my joining my name to 
 that of Mr. Bankes and Mr. Burckhardt in a joint public- 
 ation, &c. all relate to this meeting, as may be seen by 
 comparing them together. His compliments to my supe- 
 rior understanding, and his hope that I should not be 
 ashamed to see my name associated with his, may not 
 have been deserved : but it is certainly not from such a 
 (juarter that one would expect to be soon afterwards set 
 down as ignorant and incapable of making any notes 
 worth publication I Such is the virtue and consistency 
 for which rank, family, and respectability of connections, 
 are considered guarantees. 
 
 I am almost ashamed to dwell longer on this subject ; 
 but I hope the reader will grant me a few moments pa- 
 tience, while I show what was my conduct towards Mr. 
 Bankes during the period that he was slandering me. I 
 had sent him home plans and manuscripts of my own, 
 respecting Nubia, from Bombay, to use as he thought 
 proper, without asking even an acknowledgement. I had 
 written him, also, several of the most friendly letters from 
 Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, some of which must have 
 reached him. His insulting letter to me from Thebes, was 
 dated June 1819. In August 1819, I was occupied with 
 the most friendly intentions to him, in utter ignorance of 
 what awaited me. My friend, Captain Cloete, of the 
 King's 21st Dragoons, left Calcutta about that period, 
 with the intention of going to England. Among other 
 persons there, to whom I was desirous of sending letters 
 by his hands, was Mr. Bankes. I accordingly gave him 
 the following letter open, with directions that if he should 
 remain at the Cape, which he thought possible, he should 
 seal it, and enclose them all to Mrs. Buckingham, who 
 would forward them to their respective addresses. 
 
 The following is the letter which I addressed to Mr. 
 Bankes, supposing him to be in England, just two mouths 
 after his insulting and infamous letter was despatched 
 from Thebes to me in India, but long before it reached 
 me, as that was twelve months on its passage here. 
 
 My dear Sib, Calcutta, August I, 1819. 
 
 I have written to you several times since my arrival or rather 
 settlement in India, but as I have not heard from you in return 
 I suppose that some of the letters at least must have miscarried, 
 which I can the more readily believe from knowing how care- 
 lessly every thing connected with the Indian post-office is 
 managed. 
 
 The object of my present letter is partly to make you ac- 
 quainted with a gentleman in every respect entitled to your re- 
 gard, and partly through him to say something to you respecting 
 myself, as I naturally believe that it is impossible for men to 
 have passed through scenes which we shared together, and soon 
 after entirely forget each other. I can very safely say that such 
 is not the case on my part, and I am willing to do you the jus- 
 tice to believe it is not so on yours. 
 
 Captain Cloete, of H. M. 21st Dragoons, who will have 
 the honour to present you this, is one of my most intimate and 
 familiar friends, and will give you every information regarding 
 my present occupations and pursuits that you can desire to 
 know ; and at the same time that you may gratify your wish in 
 this particular, you will, I am sure, be delighted with the chan- 
 nel through which it is effected. You will, long ere this, of 
 course, have seen the prospectus of my book, and have heard 
 all the particulars regarding it from Mr. Murray. If it had 
 been possible to have formed the coalition which we talked of 
 at Damascus, and which Sheik Ibrahim so indignantly re- 
 jected, I should have been much pleased, and the union of our 
 separate labours would have made a more perfect work than 
 either will make alone. I had been led to expect, from some 
 mention of your name in the Quarterly Review, that a work 
 of your own was in the press, and would very soon appear ; I 
 hope so indeed for the gratification of the world at large, and 
 
 more particularly that portion of them who desire to be possess. 
 ed of the best information regarding the most interesting 
 countries on the globe, which you will have it in your power 
 to write so ably, and illustrate so beautifully by the masterly 
 efforts of your pencil' I sent you home by the Swallow, from 
 Bombay, upwards of fifteen months ago, the plans and de- 
 scriptions of the temples in Nubia to incorporate with your 
 own work, as I had promised to do, but I have not heard of 
 their arrival, though the ship, I believe, got safe, but has not 
 returned, as far as I can learn, to this country. They were 
 addressed to you in Palace-yard, Westminster, where I sup- 
 posed they would reach you ; and if they have, I hope you w ill 
 make free use of them. 
 
 A subject that presses very deeply on my mind, is the injury 
 done to me by Mr. Burckhardt, whose good opinion I once en- 
 joyed to a high degree, as you are aware, and who, all at once, 
 almost without deigning to assign a cause, not only changed 
 his sentiments towards me, but became my bitterest enemy, by 
 giving publicity to distorted facts, positive falsehoods, and wil- 
 ful misrepresentations, tending to undermine my reputation. 
 It fortunately happened, however, that Mr. Babington, the 
 companion of my voyage from India, whom Mr. Burckhardt 
 cited as his authority for many of the facts alleged, saw this 
 paper, and instantly wrote a very full and able refutation of 
 the charges laid to my name by the Sheik, copies of which have 
 been sent to England. This gentleman, however, who is the 
 son of Dr. Babington, a physician of some eminence in the 
 city, is fortunately now in London, and is able to repel verbally, 
 as well as by writing, the malicious accusations of my enemy. 
 It is possible you may have met with Mr. Babington before this ; 
 but if you should not, and desire to be set right on the subject, 
 I should rather refer you to that gentleman, who was my fellow 
 voyager for six months, than urge any thing on my own part in 
 explanation or reply. 
 
 I have reason to believe that my wife and children are in your 
 county, at Charmouth, in Dorsetshire ; my daughter Virginia 
 being with Mrs. Corbyn at that place. If it should be near 
 Corfe-Castle, or occasion should ever call you that way, it would 
 give them great pleasure to see and know one who had shared 
 the dangers and the pleasures of their best friend, more parti- 
 cularly as our journey was since I have seen them, having left 
 England in ISl."?, and never had occasion to return to it since. 
 I hope, and believe too, that you would find them worthy of 
 your regard. 
 
 I have heard from Lady Hester Stanhope, since my arrival 
 in Bengal, and have written her by this occasion, as I suppose 
 her ladyship will be in England when this reaches you. Cap- 
 tain Cloete will be able to tell you all about my present occu- 
 pations and pursuits, which are necessarily impermanent, and 
 may cease at a very short notice ; but, as long as they last, they 
 will entirely preclude the possibility of my attending to any 
 thing for publication in England ; should they cease, I shall 
 have that as a subject to turn my immediate attention to. 
 
 In such an event, however, I should certainly quit a country 
 where fortunes are no longer to be made by a ten years' resi- 
 dence as formerly, but where, though the chances of gain are 
 lessened, the certainties of evil from climate and society are, I 
 should think, as great as ever, and repair to the re-enjoyment of 
 my family and my native land. 
 
 Under the hope that I shall occasionally be favoured with a 
 line from you to hear that you are well, and happily occupied, 
 I remain, my dear sir, faitljfully yours, 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 To W. J. Bankes, Esq. 
 
 As Captain Cloete remained at the Cape, this was sealed 
 by him and sent on to England as directed. Mrs. Buck- 
 ingham accordingly finding on enquiry that Mr. Bankes 
 had arrived in town, enclosed it in a note to him as ad- 
 dressed : and to her great surprise received it back again 
 by the post, with the seal unbroken, and enclosed in the 
 following envelope : — 
 
 Mr. William Bankes presents his compliments to Mrs. Buck- 
 ingham, and begs that the answer which he thinks it necessary 
 to return to her note may not be construed into any incivility 
 towards her. Having determined that he will have no further 
 
646 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 communication with Mr. Buckingham, either by letter or other- 
 wise ; he takes the liberty of returning to her the enclosed, with 
 a request that it may be transmitted to him. unopened. 
 Old Palace Yard, Tuesday, June 13. 
 
 Was this the act of an innocent man? or was it not 
 rather the sullen obstinacy of one who knew he had done 
 wrong, and who would, therefore, hear of nothing which 
 might relate to a person of whose verj' name, as well as 
 letters, he had so much need to stand in dread ? This is 
 only of a piece, however, with the whole transaction, as 
 showing that in return for the kindest and best intentions 
 towards these men, Mr. Burckhardt and Mr. Bankes, it 
 was my fate to receive, and their disgrace to offer, nothing 
 but insults and injuries in return. 
 
 This letter, with Mr. Bankes's envelope, and Captain 
 Cloete's seal, which has been verified at the office of 
 Messrs. Palmer and Co. his correspondents here, are with 
 the rest, now in my possession, having been brought back 
 from England with the various other papers and letters 
 from thence; and add another link to the wonderful chain 
 of evidence, by which this whole case is so strongly con- 
 nected and held together. 
 
 IX. ALLEGED BKEACH OF TKUST TO BRIGGS AND CO. 
 
 The next point urged against me is an alleged 
 breach of trust to Briggs and Co. of Alexandria, as con- 
 nected with this journey. Though this is affected to be 
 considered the strongest point of all, it is of all others the 
 weakest ; for there is not a shadow of evidence that can 
 be brought to substantiate it. The trust reposed in me 
 by Briggs and Co. was simply this ; On my return to 
 Egypt from Bombay, having brought letters from Forbes 
 and Co. and others of that place, which went to encourage 
 a commerce between the two countries, if security could 
 be guaranteed, it was proposed by Mr. Lee, then head 
 partner of Briggs and Co.'s house on the spot, (Mr. Briggs 
 himself being on the Continent of Europe on his way out 
 to Alexandria,) that a treaty should be obtained, if pos- 
 sible, from the Pasha, to which Mr. Lee and myself should 
 be parties. This was done, and the next step was as to 
 the best mode of conveying the said treaty and letters to 
 India. It was proposed to me to be the bearer, as I could 
 follow it up by personal assurances likely to be of some 
 weight, and of much benefit to Briggs and Co.'s interests; 
 and after many promises of future benefit to me, I was pre- 
 vailed on to undertake to convey these by land, the Red Sea 
 passage being then closed from the season. No particular 
 stipulations of any kind were made. I was not salaried 
 or paid wages by Briggs and Co., and not in any sense a 
 servant of theirs or in their employ. The general under- 
 standing was this. As it would be for the mutual ad- 
 vantage of both parties that / should convey the letters, 
 I was to go by the circuitous route of Aleppo, Mardin, 
 Mosul, Bagdad, and Bussorah, if practicable, and the mere 
 expences of the journey were to be defrayed by Briggs 
 and Co. The money was their part of the contribution 
 to this object; the fatigue, peril, risk of life from the 
 dangers of the road and disease, were mine; which was 
 the greater, let any honest man say; and also let any man 
 consider for a moment, whether if Messrs. Palmer and 
 Co. were to say to a person, ' If you will take important 
 letters of ours from hence to Pekin by land, in order that 
 you may add to their weight by the personal explanations 
 which you are so well qualified to give, we will bear you 
 free of expence,' whether the merchant would not be 
 under as great an obligation to the messenger, as the mes- 
 senger to the merchant. In short, on my part, it was 
 giving to Briggs and Co. the value of six months of time, 
 besides all the fatigue and risk, without compensation ; 
 for mere maintenance is no more than negroes and slaves 
 in all countries can command. The favour done, there- 
 fore, was to Briggs and Co., and if breach of tmst could 
 be laid to any one's charge, it might be laid to theirs : 
 
 since they had agreed to pay the expences, on condition 
 of the letters being conveyed, and although the letters 
 were conveyed, and with as much expedition as was prac- 
 ticable, they afterwards, on the arrival of an absent partner 
 who disapproved of what those present had done, did all 
 they could-4o stop the supplies they had engaged to fur- 
 nish, and leave the man who was doing them a service, at 
 the daily risk of his life and loss of time and fortune, to 
 perish in the heart of the deserts of Asia ! which, had 
 their designs been carried ipto effect, must have been 
 the case. 
 
 The manner in which I discharged this trust, was such 
 as I can prove to have been most faithful, honourable, 
 and even at more hazards than I was bound to do. On 
 my landing at Soor, in January, about ten days after leav- 
 ing Alexandria, the country was found to be in such a 
 state of commotion, from political feuds between the 
 Pashas, that there was no moving without their Firmans 
 and protection; and all the conversation which I had 
 with the persons of that place leading to a belief, that 
 the difficulties of getting through the country would in- 
 crease rather than diminish with time, I was determined 
 that Messrs. Briggs and Co.'s interests should not suffer, 
 as far as I could prevent it, and, accordingly, as soon as it 
 was decided that I could not convey their despatches as 
 speedily as they might be sent through the foot-messengers 
 of the country, who can travel in safety where a stranger 
 would risk being plundered, and perhaps murdered, I 
 obtained through a merchant of Soor, a faithful person 
 to convey these letters direct to Aleppo, with instructions 
 to Mr. Barker, the Consul there, to forward them through 
 Bagdad by an Arab on a dromedary, without delay ; add- 
 ing, that as the chief object of my journey was to follow 
 up these letters by personal explanations, on which ac- 
 count Briggs and Co. had given me a letter of credit for 
 the mere expences of the road, I should come after them 
 as speedily as could be effected without risk, which I was 
 bound both on my own account as well as on account of 
 the ultimate end in view, not heedlessly to encounter. 
 To show that this trust of Briggs and Co. was thus faith- 
 fully discharged, by my thinking of their interests before 
 my own, and that I also hoped to get to Aleppo soon 
 after, I insert here the following copy of a letter, with 
 date, signature, &c. complete, which will show that not a 
 day was lost in the great object of discharging the trust 
 reposed, as far as circumstances over which I had no con- 
 troul would possibly permit. The original of the letter is 
 in my possession, and may be seen by any one desiring to 
 inspect it : the copy is as follows : — 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 Addressed — James S. Buckingham, Esq. to the care of 
 Signer Moussa Elias, British Agent, at Latachia. 
 
 Dear Sir, Aleppo, Jan. 25, 1816. 
 
 I had yesterday the pleasure to receive your favour of the 
 8th instant, and there being no conveyance for your letter for 
 Messrs. Forbes and Co., I have sent it by an express messen- 
 ger to the resident at Bagdad, witli a request that he will for- 
 ward it by first opportunity to Bombay. 
 
 The charge of that expedition will be Ps. 160, say piastres 
 of the G. S. As you said you would incur the expence of 40 
 to 50 dollars for an express, I presume you meant tallari or 
 hard dollars ; in whicli case I have not exceeded your limits for 
 that object; but if by dollars you mean piastres of the G. S., 
 I shall be sorry not to have fulfilled your intentions. 
 
 As you do not inform me when I may expect the pleasure of 
 seeing you, I shall take the liberty not to put off a shooting 
 party that I have projected, as soon as the weather will permit. 
 But if you should arrive during my absence, which will be of a 
 fortnight, my family will have the honour of performing the 
 rites of hospitality until my return. 
 
 INIy shooting station is in the ^mk, at a noted place called 
 El Sarai Morseloglu, on the direct road between Antioeh and 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 647 
 
 Aleppo, about ten hours distant from the former, and eleven 
 from the latter. If you should be fond of shooting, and will 
 do me the honour to join my party, I promise to show you ex- 
 cellent sport. 
 
 Mr. Vigoroux is not yet arrived here. I need not say that 
 due honour will be shown to Mr, Lee's letter of credit in your 
 favour. 
 
 I have desired my Agent at Latachia, to whom I send this 
 letter, to furnish you with money, if you should be in want of 
 any. 
 
 I have the honour to be truly, dear sir, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 J. BARKER. 
 To Jas. S. Buckingham, Esq. 
 
 All the reasons which forced me to go to Jerusalem, 
 (where I did not go by choice) are detailed in the Travels 
 in Palestine. When there, the inducement to go with 
 Mr. Bankes by Jerash and the east of Jordan, to which he 
 invited and pressed me for his own advantage, as he could 
 not speak a word of the language, was, that while the 
 whole of the country under the Pasha's dominions was 
 unsafe to move through, the independent country of the 
 Arabs of the east of Jordan, was subject only to the or- 
 dinary dangers of Bedouin intruders, not half as important 
 as those of political disturbance in the peopled territory. 
 Fn doing this, therefore, I was actuated by strict attention 
 to the trust reposed in me, though I gratified my curiosity 
 at the same time. On coming near Tiberias, it was my 
 intention to part from Mr. Bankes and to proceed straight 
 on to Damascus, and thence to Aleppo, without a mo- 
 ment's loss of time ; when the unfortunate accident de- 
 tailed in the printed volume, of the fall of my horse, and 
 a severe injury sustained by me from the fall, compelled 
 me to turn into Nazareth to receive medical aid and 
 repose, till the wound was sufficiently recovered to pro- 
 ceed. After some delay and recovery there, another 
 attempt was made to get to Damascus and Aleppo by the 
 way of Tiberias, which was interrupted by the road being 
 infested with robbers, so that my guides would not pro- 
 ceed, and we were obliged to retrace our steps. An at- 
 tempt was then made to go with a caravan from Nablous, 
 but this was also frustrated. The details of all these in- 
 terruptions and their causes, are given in the printed 
 volume already before the world, and cannot be unknown 
 to those who have read it. 
 
 Finding all hope, therefore, of getting on as expedi- 
 tiously or as straightly as I had expected by Aleppo and 
 Mesopotamia, some other route was necessarily thought 
 of; and meeting with a Christian Arab at Nazareth, who 
 undertook to act as my guide in a journey from thence to 
 Assalt on the S. E. of the Dead Sea, where he assured 
 rae I could procu.^e Arabs who would take me straight 
 across the Desert from thence to Bagdad, the plan appear- 
 ing feasible, and offering a hope of my yet following soon 
 after the letters sent to that city, I prepared for this really 
 perilous and hitherto untried journey. The whole of this 
 was subsequent to the period at which the Travels in 
 Palestine close, but notes of all the time are fortunately 
 preserved. My small stock of baggage was left with Mr. 
 Bankes, to be taken by him to Damascus, the only place 
 to which I could return in the event of my being driven 
 back, which it was necessary to provide for ; and in the 
 dress of a Bedouin Arab, without servant, groom, inter- 
 preter, or assistant of any kind beyond that of the guide, 
 I set out, with a poor horse (to avoid all temptation to 
 robbery), without a single change of linen, and only bread, 
 water, and dry dates, in a sack, to undertake a journey in 
 which there was a positive certainty of much suffering, 
 imminent risk of plunder and murder, and nothing then 
 known but a waste country and a sandy desert to see ! 
 These were the risks which I encountered to fulfil to the 
 best of my ability the second portion of the trust of Briggs 
 and Co. (the first having been discharged), and force my 
 way to India (with the additional risk of banishment also 
 
 when I got there) to do a vast benefit to these merchants, 
 for the paltry consideration of a slave's allowance, bare 
 maintenance while employed; and even this I should 
 never have accepted, but that, like many honest and un- 
 fortunate men before me, I had not the means to pro- 
 cure bread, except at the risk of my life for the benefit 
 of others. 
 
 I passed, after much difficulty, five or six days' journey 
 south-east of the Dead Sea, near to Karak Moab ; but 
 here, new obstacles arose, and we were driven back, being 
 obliged to fly and retrace our steps to Assalt, an inde- 
 pendent mountain station of Christian Arabs, who are 
 almost constantly at hostility with one or other of the 
 Mohammedan tribes of Arabs around them. We were 
 detained here some days, and finding further progress to 
 the southward impracticable, I determined on going to Da- 
 mascus through the Hauran in nearly a straight line, so 
 as to try again to reach Aleppo. It was in this retreat, 
 if it may be so called, that the third visit to Jerash was 
 made, not to gratify an idle curiosity, but because it lay 
 in the direct route, and could not without a detour be 
 avoided. Adjeloon fell into the same track, and the 
 whole of the Hauran that was subsequently traversed was 
 in the straight prosecution of my journey. During this 
 stay at Damascus, my meeting with Mr. Bankes took place 
 on the 25d of March, when all the notes of the journey 
 made during his absence were shown to him, to which he 
 subsequently referred in his letter of April 12; and from 
 that time onward, during which I was detained by illness 
 with Lady Hester Stanhope, and by various obstacles else- 
 where, not a day was lost in getting to Aleppo as fast as 
 possible, where I arrived safe, after greater dangers than 
 almost any former traveller in Syria had ever run, in the 
 month of May, 1816. 
 
 Here Mr. Bankes again met me, arriving a few days 
 after I reached the town : but to show how lightly the 
 greatest objects of curiosity weighed in my mind, com- 
 pared with the faithful discharge of my duty, I may men- 
 tion this fact, that Mr. Bankes was pressingly urgent for 
 me to accompany him to Palmyra, a journey of four or 
 five days only; and although the ruins of that city are 
 perhaps better worth seeing than all Syria put together, I 
 resisted his solicitations, and rather than sacrifice even so 
 small a portion of time, lost an opportunity of seeing the 
 finest ruins in the world, and went with a dull and weari- 
 some caravan through the only route then open, of Orfa, 
 Diarbekr, and Mardin, to Mosul. 
 
 It will be seen by Mr. Barker's first letter to me, dated 
 January 25, 1816, that he acknowledged having received 
 despatches from me for India, which he had forwarded by 
 an express messenger to Bagdad ; and that I had informed 
 him of my having a letter of credit on him from Mr. Lee, 
 which he promised should be duly honoured. Even this 
 alone would have justified my drawing on him for so small 
 a sum as 1000 piastres, (not more than soo I'upees, or 40/. 
 sterling) but, as if he had forgotten the former letter alto- 
 gether, he protested my bill ; and the following letter and 
 its enclosure, which had been following me on my way, 
 but had not overtaken me owing to my moving so quickly, 
 reached me first at Aleppo, where I arrived in perfect ig- 
 norance of the whole affair. These I have also still in 
 their originals, but copies of them are worth printing. 
 The lettei; and enclosures (which are faithfully transcribed) 
 are as follow : — 
 
 LETTRE. 
 Addressee — a Monsieur^ Zfonsieur Z. S. Buckingham^ Voi/ageur 
 Anglais, d Abra, vel ubicunque* 
 Monsieur, Damas, April 20, 1815. 
 
 Je souhaite que votre voyage ait ^t^ des plus heureuse, et que 
 votre sant^ soit enti^rement retablie. On m'a dit quevous aviez 
 renonc^ pour le present a votre voyage de Balbek, Palmire, &c. 
 et que vous deviez rester quelque tems aupr^s de son excellence, 
 la tr&s honourable Mil^di Stanhope. 
 
 C'est avec peine qu je dois vous prdvenir que Monsieur Barker 
 
648 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 n'a point accept^ votre lettie de change de mille piastres, que je 
 vous avais procur^e ; vous sentez qu*en ayant repondu au Juif, 
 Joseph Harari, que I'a fournie, je me trouve fort en peine pour 
 avoir voulu vous obliger. Faiths moi savoir, au plut6t, comment 
 cette -aiFaire doit se terminer. M. Barker me marqiie, comme 
 vous 1e verr^s, qu'il n'a pas I'honneur de vous connoitre, vous 
 n'auriez pas du tirer sur lui, sans au pr^alable Ten avoir pr^venu. 
 Tachez de terminer le plus promptement cette affaire, pour me 
 tirer de I'embarras. 
 
 J'ai I'honneur d'etre, avec la plus haute consideration, 
 Monsieur, votre tres humble & tres obeissant serviteur, 
 RICHARD CHABOCEAU. 
 
 (COPIE.) 
 
 Alep, lell Avril, 1816. 
 Damas, Mr. Richard Chaboceau, 
 
 J'ai recu la lettre dont vous m'avez honor^ le 28 Mars dernier. 
 Je vous dois bien de remercimens pour le bon accueil que vous 
 avez fait a Mr. W. Bankes ; et je ne m'attendois pas h moins de 
 votre part, connoissant votre bon creur et votre civility. 
 
 J'ai 6t^ fort fach^ de voir que Mr. Buckingham se soit pre- 
 valu sur moi de Ps. 1000 ; .et je vous previens que je n'ai pas 
 accept^ sa traitte, n'ayant aucun fond ^ lui, ni aucun document 
 en main qui put m'engager a payer pour lui cette somme. 
 Ainsi sa traitte retourne a Damas par cette occasion au nomm^ 
 Yousef Harari, a I'ordre de qui elle est ; et comme les gens du 
 pays ne font aucune formalite en chancellerie, en pareil cas, 
 pour ses protets, j'ai cru necessaire de vous joindre ici ma de- 
 claration en triplicate de non acceptation et non payement de 
 cette traitte, a fin que le nomme Yousef Harari puisse se faire 
 rembourser cette somme de Mr. Buckingham, et qu'il puisse 
 faire ses diligences k la cote s'il etoit dejk parti de Damas. 
 Comme je n'ai pas I'honneur de connoitre Mr. Buckingham en 
 aucune manifere, vous ne serez pas surpris que j'en agisse ainsi ; 
 mais je ne suis pas moins fach6 d'avoir ^t^ dans le cas de refuser 
 ce payement pour le bon regie et pour ne pas compromettre ce 
 petit fond. Je vous joins ici une lettre pour Mr. Catzifles de 
 Tripoli, pour le prier de faire les demarches qui seront neces- 
 saires pour faire rembourser ces 1000 piastres ^ Mr. Bucking- 
 ham, s'il se trouvera sur cette echelle. pans tel cas, le nomme 
 Yousef Harari pourra envoyer la lettre de change et ma decla- 
 ration a Mr. Catzifles par votre entremise, etje suis persuade 
 ^u'il ne le laissera pas partir sans avoir cet argent. 
 
 Comme je veux faciliter, autant qu'il depende de moi, le 
 iiomm^ Harari pour lui procurer les moyens d'un prompt rem- 
 
 boursement, surtout dans I'idee que vous pourriez ^tre 
 
 si par cas vous aviez garanti a ce Juif le payement qu'il a fait k 
 Mr. Buckingham, j'ai pris la determination de vous envoyer la 
 presente par un messager ad hoc, que vous me renverrez ensuite 
 a votre commddit^. Le Juif, porteur de la lettre de change, 
 n'a pas voulu profiter de mon messager pour la renyoyer au 
 nomm^ Harari, et il I'a, remise par la Caravanne, qui part 
 demain matin pour Damas. 
 
 J'ai I'honneur de vous saleur bien cordialement, 
 (Sign^) J. BARKER. 
 
 P. S. — Vous ne trouverez plus ci joint la lettre pour Mr. 
 Catzifles, la lui faissant pai-venir voye de Hama, afin qu'il la 
 re9oive plutot. 
 
 (COPIE.) 
 
 Je soussign^ declare qu'il en a et^ present^ ce jour une traitte 
 sur moi, tiree par Mr. J. S.Buckingham, datfe de Damas du 
 26 Mars, 1816, k 3 jours de viie pour la somme de mille 
 piastres en monnoye du G. S. a I'ordre de Yousef Harari, 
 negociant Juif de Damas, et que j'en ai refus^ I'acceptation et 
 le payement au porleur Juif du pays qui me I'a present^, at- 
 tendu que je n'ai aucun fonds en mes mains pour compte du 
 tireur, et qu'il ne m'a pas mfimo exhibJ aucune lettre de credit 
 valable en sa favcur sur moi. Au foi de quoi j'ai sign^ la pre- 
 sente declaration pour servira il qui de droit. 
 Fait triple k Alep de 11 Avril 1816. 
 
 (Sign^j JOHN BARKER, 
 
 Consul de S. M. Britunnique d Alep. 
 
 X. -MR. BAHKER, consul of ALEPPO. 
 
 As my differences with Mr. Barker at Aleppo are 
 laid great stress on, notvifithstiinding his subsequent 
 
 avowal of error and kind treatment of me, as well as 
 friendly letters, I shall refer here to the detail already 
 given of that affair in my letter to Mr. Babington, pub- 
 lished among others on the 1 5th of August last. I sup- 
 ported this by sending him home the manuscript journals, 
 containing the more full details of the affair, which having 
 been since returned to me, I am willing to show to any 
 one who may desire it here.* 
 
 To corroborate the fact stated in my notes, of Mr. Bar- 
 ker becoming subsequently my friend, and doing all he 
 could to atone for this harsh and suspicious treatment of 
 me, I subjoin a letter of his (the original of which is in 
 my possession) written after ray leaving Aleppo on my 
 way to Mosul and Bagdad, for which journey he had 
 furnished me all the money and credit I required, and 
 procured a merchant of the first named city to take me 
 with him as one of his party in the caravan. 
 
 Mr. Barker's first acknowledgment of the receipt of my 
 despatches for Forbes and Co. and his expression of wil- 
 lingness to honour the letter of credit which I held from 
 Mr. Lee, is dated January 2 5, 1 8 1 6. His refusal to accept 
 my draft for 1000 piastres, and orders to arrest me on the 
 road to recover the money, if necessary, is dated April 1 1, 
 1816. Our meeting and reconciliation at Aleppo took 
 place in May 18, 1816, and the following is a letter bear- 
 ing date about June 11, 1816, in reply to a letter of mine, 
 complaining of the conduct of a man of the Mosul mer- 
 chant's suite, who had been expressly paid to attend on 
 my horse. 
 
 LETTER. 
 Babala, Tuesday, (I believe the 11th June) 1816. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Your letter of the second and third instant, from near Orfa, 
 reached me yesterday, and afforded me much pleasure that you 
 had proceeded so far on your journey without any serious ac- 
 cident, and that you were satisfied with the behaviour of your 
 host. But nothing could exceed my surprise and indignation 
 on learning that the nephew of Hagi Abdrahraan had denied 
 that his uncle had received the 150 piastres, which it had been 
 agreed should be paid for your baggage, your board and lodging, 
 and the attendance of a servant of the caravan upon your horse. 
 
 The money was paid in rubies into the hands of Abdal Lateef, 
 in the presence of the son of Hahmet Hashen, by Nahum. 
 
 I am perfectly aware of the disagreeable position in which you 
 have been thrown by the unaccountable effrontery of that de- 
 nial ; and you must well imagine that I cannot be insensible 
 to the slur that has thereby been laid upon the character of one 
 of my confidential dependants. It is, therefore, as much on his 
 as your consideration, that I now despatch an express messenger, 
 at my own charge, in the hope of his being able to remit you 
 this letter before you quit Mousul ; and consequently in time 
 to allow of your coming to an understanding with Hagi Abdrah- 
 man and his nephew, which, I trust, the enclosed letter will 
 enable you to do, and the result will be your full conviction 
 that the duplicity, not to give it a harsher term, in this trans- 
 action, belongs entirely to Abdal Lateef, and that Nahum faith- 
 fully fulfilled mine and your intentions. 
 
 Your horse was sold for 1 70 piastres ; but the whole of the 
 money has not yet been received, and there will be some trifling 
 deductions for brokerage to those who co-operated in its sale. 
 
 For the balance, whatever it may be, after paying Nahum for 
 a kamar, four locks, and leather bag, and old Chaboceau for the 
 charges attending his express to Lady Hester, I shall account 
 with Blr. Lee. 
 
 Mr. Bankes succeeded in compelling, through Malem Usuf, 
 the rogue Nazser to accept of 1000 piastres for a safe conduct 
 and escort to Palmyra. He set out from Hamah on the even- 
 ing of the second instant, after having waited four or five days 
 in vain for the arrival there of the two Irish gentlemen. 
 
 My family join me and Mr. Maseyk in best wishes for the 
 future happy prosecution of your journey, and I remain, 
 
 Dear sir, your most obedient servant, 
 J. BARKER. 
 
 * See this letter inserted at p. 630, as well as the details of 
 the affair in the text towards the close of the present volume. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 649 
 
 ft is hoped that these will be quite sufficient to prove 
 that as far as the Aleppo transactions are concerned, JVIr. 
 Barker was entirely satisfied of my innocence and inte- 
 grity. If any subsequent change took place in his opi- 
 nions, it must have been in consequence of the receipt of 
 Mr. Burckhardt's 'paper;' and I should not wonder at 
 any man being staggered by such a bold and strong accu- 
 mulation of -charges as that paper contained; but Mr. 
 Barker being an old and zealous Mend of Sheik Ibrahim, 
 and having already suspected and ill-treated me, (though 
 afterwards atoned for,) he would have a double reason to 
 receive readily such a host of new charges ; one, because 
 of his long standing acquaintance with Sheik Ibrahim, and 
 his slight knowledge of me; and another, from his naturally 
 suspicious disposition, and the natural desire to justify to 
 others his former harsh misconception of my character 
 as correct. If it be so, I can only say, that as Mr. Bab- 
 ington's refutation of Mr. Burckhardt's charges entirely 
 satisfied Mr. Rich ; so I think they ought to satisfy Mr. 
 Barker ; but even if it did not, the good opinion of Mr. 
 Rich, who had no such secret causes for a bias, either one 
 way or the other, is worth more than that of a man who 
 had so many temptations to yield to one side of the ques- 
 tion in preference to another. As this publication may be 
 read by those who may not have seen Mr. Rich's letter in 
 the Calcutta Journal ot the 1 9th instant, 1 repeat it here : — 
 
 Bagdad, April 7, 1820. 
 My DEAR. Sir, 
 
 I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the 
 25th December, and I believe I have to plead guilty to the 
 charge of not having answered several of your former commu- 
 nications, but T have unfortunately the best excuse,' in the 
 continued ill health with which I have had to struggle for a 
 very long time past, and which has rendered existence a 
 burthen and a torment to me. It was with the utmost pain 
 that I could get through my indispensable duties ; my private 
 correspondence! was obliged to sacrifice all together. The 
 return of the cold weather brought me scarcely any relief. A 
 little excursion I have lately made to the frontiers of Persia was 
 attended with rather more success, and though it has not re- 
 stored me to the enjoyment of health, it has given me just 
 strength and spirits sufficient to prepare for a journey northward 
 towards Courdistan, where I mean to remain till the approach- 
 ing heats are passed. So extraordinarily bad was our last 
 summer, so fearfully exceeding any thing you experienced here 
 (though you had a tolerable specimen of our climate) , that I 
 had, at one time, a notion of sending a description of it to your 
 excellent paper (which, by the way, always affords me the 
 greatest pleasure), but I shrunk from the task, as the operation 
 of writing is peculiarly painful to me. 
 
 I have received Mr. Babington's letter, and consider it as a 
 COMPLETE KEFUTATION of Sheik Ibrahim's charges against you. 
 As those charges were sent through Aleppo, I intend, as soon 
 as Barker returns to that place, to forward him Mr. Babington's 
 letter, which will, I hope, have tlie same effect on him as it has 
 had on my mind. 
 
 Your book I had requested Mr. Erskine to put down my 
 name for, before I was aware of your kind intention. I shall 
 accept the copy you offer witli pleasure, and read it, I am cer- 
 tain, with great interest. I have so much to do in preparing 
 for my journey, and am still so weak, that I must conclude my 
 letter. 
 
 I remain, my dear sir, very truly yours, 
 CLAUDIUS JAMES RICH. 
 
 XI. LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 
 
 Some pretended fragments of letters from Mr. Bar- 
 ker to Lady Hester Stanhope have been published in 
 the John Bull, without date, expressive of his disappro- 
 bation, which he might well desire to justify, in excuse for 
 his own previous suspicions*; and some mysterious 
 
 • To show what credit is due to these pretended fragments, 
 for no proof whatever is given of their authenticity, it is suf- 
 ficient to notice one short paragraph, wherein Mr. Barker is re- 
 presented as saying of me : 
 
 story about a shawl of Lady Hester Stanhope's has been 
 darkly alluded to, as referring to this period, which I un- 
 derstand as little as those who allude to it, unless it may 
 relate to her ladyship commissioning me to send her a 
 shawl from India of my own choice, which I feel pride in 
 acknowledging. It is fortunate that I happen to have in 
 my possession the letters of Mr. Barker after I had re- 
 ceived his personal apologies for his harsh and unwarranted 
 suspicions ; after I had received from him even painful 
 civilities, intended to repair, as well as these could repair, 
 the injuries of the past; and after being accompanied by 
 his brothers from the city of Aleppo to the place of en- 
 campment, to bid me farewell, and see me safe on my 
 journey. I have also letters from Lady Hester Stanhope, 
 received from Syria since my residence in Calcutta, which 
 furnish proof of her favourable opinion of my part in the 
 p»st transactions, long since Mr. Barker's correspondence 
 ceased, and long since my quitting that country. 
 
 I shall content myself here with a few very short ex- 
 tracts from one of this high-minded and honourable lady's 
 letters, long since the transactions referred to, which 
 with every candid mind will be enough. Her ladyship 
 says : — 
 
 Mr. Salt is, you know, arrived in Egypt, and has been ap- 
 pointed East India agent, which I am vastly glad of, as it will 
 put it in his power to serve you, which I make no doubt he will 
 do with pleasure, since ymi turn out to be the honourable cha- 
 racter I took you for. — I shall set all things right with him. 
 
 I hope that what has already happened will teach you to be 
 very exact in the way of business, and in all money transactions, 
 and that you will have completely made it up with Mr. Barker 
 before leaving Aleppo. He was once so cheated by a Sir Some- 
 body Callender, that I do not wonder that he was upon his guard, 
 and that every little thing awakened his susiricion. As it is always 
 a good principle to return good for evil, I hope, if it is in your 
 power upon your return here, to be useful to his brothers in 
 placing one of them in an agency house, that you will not allow 
 the recollection of the past to dwell upon your mind. The idea 
 that you will not, is, IthinlCf the highest encomium I can pass ui^oii 
 your liberality and goodness of heart. 
 
 ' Tliat Mr, Bankes pressed him, when at Aleppo, to accompany 
 him to Palmyra, but that the sense of his duty was so strong as to 
 overpower his ardent desire to see the only remaining antiquities of 
 Syria which he had not visited ; while I know that Mr. Bankes 
 
 HAD NO DESIRE OF HIS COMPANY.' 
 
 In answer to this unattested and unauthenticated fragment of 
 Mr. Barker's letter, I need only oppose the attested and au- 
 thenticated letter of Mr. Bankes himself, testified to by nine 
 of the most respectable individuals in India, and the original of 
 which is in my possession for any man to see, which he closes 
 with these remarkable words : — 
 
 * I shall make my way pretty direct for Aleppo, lengtltening out 
 my road by excursions, however, here and there, to give you time to 
 come up to vie, so that I trust that, at the latest, we may meet in 
 Alejypo, and make our journey to Palmyra together.' 
 
 Mr. Barker is made to say also, that he would not have ad- 
 vanced the money if I had attempted to go by Palmyra ! Now 
 every one must know, that if I could have got a guide to take 
 me through Palmyra to Bagdad (and my not being able to do 
 so was the only reason of my not going by that route), I might 
 have got to that city in fourteen days by the Desert, allowing 
 four for a halt at Palmyra, and at a small expence, instead of 
 being from two to three months by the caravan through Mardin 
 and Mosul, and at four or five times the cost, for which Mr. 
 Barker did advance the money ! The inconsistency and folly of 
 such an assertion (if Mr. Barker ever made it,) is therefore too 
 palpable to need a word of comment. 
 
 He is made to talk also of the * large sums of money taken up 
 at Aleppo to prosecute his Travels in Persia,' when, by Briggs 
 and Co's own evidence, the whole sum expended during twelve 
 months of a most eventful period, and often of pressing and 
 urgent demand for expence, was less than 4000 rupees (or iOOl, 
 sterling), though on my letter of credit, being unlimited, I might 
 have taken up and been supplied with 10,000, if I had dishonest 
 motives, and were disposed to ask it. 
 
 4 o 
 
650 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I have scolded you a great deal, but I have meant it for your 
 good ; and it has not diminished the interest I feel in the wel- 
 fare of a person who has held up against misfortune with so 
 much fortitude, and made so many praiseworthy efforts to 
 place himself in a respectable situation in life. 
 
 Looking into an army list the other day, I found that Colonel 
 Murray (remember, Murray in the dragoons, for there are two 
 in India) was in Bengal. Perhaps, therefore, you may not see 
 him ; if so, it is not worth while, hardly, to send him the letter, 
 as it was to introduce 7/ou, and give me an opportunity of hear- 
 ing of the welfare of a very honest and amiable man, which I 
 think you will acknowledge him to be if you make his acquaint- 
 ance. His really amiable character caused him to be a great 
 favorite of Mr. Pitt, when he was stationed at Waliner Barracks. 
 Should Sir Evan Nepean be still at Bombay, present my com- 
 pliments to him, &c. &c. 
 
 These are perhaps more than sufficient to satisfy the 
 most sceptical ; and if their authenticity is doubted, I am 
 prepared to produce the original letter to any one who 
 may desire to see it. 
 
 It is painful to me to be forced even to allude to mat- 
 ters of so strictly private a nature : but when my enemies 
 leave no means untried to blast my reputation, I am com- 
 pelled to show them to be wrong ; and any one who will 
 do me the justice to examine these documents for him- 
 self, will see how easily I can rebut every charge that has 
 been raised against me. 
 
 I have already stated in the preface to my Travels in 
 Palestine, what were my obligations to this excellent 
 lady, of whom I shall never cease to think, with esteem 
 and respect* ; and I take occasion to repeat here, that it 
 cannot possibly give her generous heart a greater degree 
 of pain, than it does my own, to be forced in any manner 
 to associate her name in the same pages with those of 
 persons so unwortiiy of that distinction as the enemies 
 against whom I am defending myself. I know, however, 
 that her heroic spirit, gentle and mild as it is in the exer- 
 cise of benevolence, forgiveness, and every virtue that 
 can adorn her sex, would yet fire with indignation at 
 hearing her name cited, as lending weight to injuries and 
 calumnies against the innocent; Ibelieve that hertrulynoble 
 bosom will swell with indignation, if these pages should 
 ever reach her eye, at finding the use that has been made 
 by unknown slanderers liere, of her unsullied name ; and 
 that I shall receive her forgiveness for having ventured 
 to tell them the true nature of her generous and admir- 
 able conduct towards me, who had no claim whatever on 
 her friendship or her protection. 
 
 XII. DELAYS ON THE JOURNEY TO INDIA. 
 
 To return to the journey to India. Every one who 
 has' heard of caravan travelling, knows how slow it 
 is. From Aleppo to Mosul, I was still longer than the 
 usual time, from the road being obstructed by the Waha- 
 bees. At Mosul, I took Tartar horses, and went to Bag- 
 dad with Turkish couriers, riding 60, 70, and 80 miles a 
 day, in a burning sun, with the thermometer from 120 to 
 125 in the shade; and on arriving at Bagdad, I was laid 
 up in Mr. Rich's house, ill for more than a month, and 
 unable to proceed. Dr. Hine, the medical gentleman 
 
 • Tlie passage in the Preface to the Travels in Palestine is 
 this (p, 15.) : — 
 
 ' This journey of twelve long months was protracted by 
 dangers and obstacles which no one had foreseen, and rendered 
 tedious by repeated illness, arising from sufferings and privations 
 in the way. My recovery from these I owed, in one instance, 
 to the hospitable attentions which I received in the convent of 
 Mar Elias from the hands of the amiable Lady Hester Stanhope, 
 a name that deserves to be immortalized, if talents and virtues 
 of the highest order give claim to immortality ; and, in another, 
 to the friendly offices of Mr. and Mrs. Rich, in the bosom of 
 whose family at Baghdad I found all the consolations which 
 benevolence and sympathy could bestow, and all the pleasure 
 that learning, accomplishments, and refined taste could yield.' 
 
 there, strongly objected to a descent to Bussorah at that 
 season of the year ; as, after a severe illness, a Bussorah 
 fever wopld be almost certain of bringing death in its 
 train. It was necessary, therefore, to go through Persia 
 to Bushire.* This was another long and tedious journey, 
 and accomplished with risk, difficulty, and suffering. 
 From Bushire there were no vessels to sail for Bombay 
 for many weeks ; but an indirect opportunity offered of 
 getting on, by accompanying a bombarding squadron of 
 ships of war going to Ras-el-khyma, to chastise the Joas- 
 samee pirates. Safety was a duty doubly incumbent on 
 me ; first for my family, and next for the interests depend, 
 ant on the personal explanations I was deputed to make 
 on reaching the end of my journey ; yet my desire to get 
 as soon as possible to the place of destination superseded 
 this, and I accordingly accompanied the squadron to the 
 port of the pirates. While there, though neither fame 
 nor fortune awaited me from the contest, I volunteered 
 my services to act as Arabian interpreter, and actually 
 accompanied Captain Brydges, of H. M. ship Challenger, 
 the commander of the squadron, on shore, both of 
 us unarmed, and went through the heart of the Arab 
 town, pelted by some, menaced by others, and sur- 
 rounded all the way by a ferocious band of the most law- 
 less ruffians, all armed, and wanting only a provoking 
 word or look to cut our throats ; sat in the assembly of 
 the chiefs during two hours' warm deliberation, without 
 our haviug any protection to warrant this temerity, and 
 returned to the ships in a safety little expected by many 
 who had watched our landing, and who never expected to 
 see us return alive. 
 
 This was the last event worthy of notice before my 
 arrival at Bombay, where I went in one of the ships of 
 the squadron, and fortunately found, on my coming there, 
 that Messrs. Briggs and Co.'s interests had suffered no- 
 thing from this succession of delays, as the despatches had 
 arrived safe, months before ; and the only person who had 
 really sustained injury by the delay was myself, who had.be- 
 sides infinite sufferingand privation, been threeorfour times 
 in imminent peril of my life from deadly assaults, not to 
 mention lesser skirmishes, and twice from dangerous ill- 
 ness ; who had lost nearly a year in time, with the addi- 
 tional evil of a suspension of all correspondence with 
 England, so that my family knew not whether I was 
 alive or dead ; and all this for the paltry consideration of 
 having my bare expences paid, to which the meanest slave 
 and menial is entitled during the time that he labours for 
 another. This mighty charge of a breach of trust, on 
 which so much stress has been laid by those who neither 
 understood nor would use the plain and honest means of 
 informing themselves on the matter, is therefore, of all the 
 charges that have been alleged, the most groundless and 
 untenable. 
 
 The only crime that can be truly laid to my charge, is 
 that of having travelled with my eyes open, and made use 
 of my reading to illustrate the description of a country 
 full of interesting objects at every step. If Messrs, Briggs 
 and Co. had sent their letters and verbal explanations by 
 a person who could neither read nor write, he might have 
 met with the same obstacles, have spent as much money, 
 and have been unable to give their cause any assistance 
 when he reached his journey's end : — but having entrusted 
 
 ■* The Friend of Burckhardt, in the blindness of his rage, 
 makes sad havoc with his geography ; for I neither visited 
 ' Kirbilla' as he writes it, nor the ruins of Susa : and ' Shapoor" 
 is not, as he supposes, to the eastward, but joestward of Shiraz, 
 whether the bearing be taken by a ' pocket compass,' or a ' brass 
 binnacle tell-tale,' lying nearly in the direct road from Shiraz to 
 Busliire ; though his object is to show, that in visiting Shapoor, 
 I went away to the eastward of Shiraz in quite an opposite di- 
 rection to that in which my business lay. If this gentleman's 
 authority as to yac(s is no better than as to bearings, it is worth 
 very little indeed. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 651 
 
 this task to one who could read and write, and who ap- 
 plied immense labour, long after the journey was made, 
 to put his hasty notes into form for the public" eye, like 
 petty and needy traders, rather than like liberal English 
 merchants, they insist on having a share of the pro- 
 fits, forgetting that they had no hand in furnishing the 
 mind and talent, which was the real capital, nor any 
 share in the labour of production ; though they were 
 mean enough to insist, that since I could not have writ- 
 ten a book on Palestine without passing through that 
 country, and since I should not have passed through it 
 unless I had been charged with their letters, therefore 
 they were entitled to a share of the profits derived from 
 the book in question ! They might as well claim a share 
 in the profits of the Calcutta Journal, because they might 
 also contend, that unless they had helped me I should 
 never have come to India, and unless I had come to India 
 theJournal would, probably, never have been established!! 
 
 I have regretted, often and often, since the period of 
 consenting to give up any portion of the sum expended, 
 that I was ever prevailed on to do so ; but I gave the 
 strongest possible proof of my desiring nothing but justice, 
 in my readiness to submit the matter to arbitration, which 
 Mr. Briggs, as if suspecting the weakness of his claim, 
 would not accede to. A law-suit, to one unused to such 
 proceedings, as I was then, is an appalling thing, and more 
 particularly to one who has no money, who must work to 
 earn his bread, and whose profession (of a sailor) requires 
 that he should be free to move wherever and whenever 
 duty calls. It was, therefore, to avoid this, in which 
 even triumph is sometimes ruinous, that I consented, as 
 the lesser evil of the two, to give three proinissory notes, 
 one for 50/. at six months, one for 50l. at twelve months, 
 and one for 100/. on the day the Travels might be pub- 
 lished, all of which have been paid; though, if Mr. Briggs 
 had a real claim to one farthing of it, he had to the 
 ■whole, since he never attempted to dispute the fact of its 
 being all expended on the journey in question. 
 XIII. supphessed volume of thavels. 
 
 The next point in order, that I remember as charged 
 against me, is, that two volumes of the Travels in Pafe- 
 tine were promised, and that only one has appeared; 
 from which it is affected to be inferred that one whole vo- 
 lume has been suppressed, and that this suppressed part 
 may contain the notes of Mr. Bankes relating to Jerash. 
 The manuscript sent home, from being widely and largely 
 written, appeared bulky enough to furnish two thin vo- 
 lumes, which were thought preferable to one thick vo- 
 lume. On making it up in type, however, it was found 
 that the bulk had been over-rated, and that there was not 
 more than enough for one good-sized quarto book. The 
 only part claimed by Mr. Bankes is that which relates to 
 Jerash; and the large space which this occupies in the 
 volume, will show that no part of it can have been omit- 
 ted. As to the rest, I declare most solemnly my entire 
 and sincere belief that not five pages, out of upwards of 
 five hundred, have been reduced from the original sent 
 home, and these I believe to have been either anecdotes of 
 manners that were thought unfit for the public eye, how- 
 ever necessary to a just appreciation of character, and 
 freely enough told by all old travellers, and some quo- 
 tations from Josephus and others, which were thought too 
 long. 
 
 *XVI. IMPOSITION ON THE I-ATE BISHOP. 
 
 It is charged against me also that I deceived the 
 late bishop, by keeping from his view the preface of the 
 book, in which he was made to appear as approving of it. 
 This is as false as every thing else that has been asserted 
 
 * Nos. XIV. and XV. relate to an error already corrected, 
 under the head ' Accusations of Mr. Burckhardt,' p. 630. ; and 
 to a blunder of Captain Boog's, confounding a binnacle with a 
 pocket compass, which is not worth repeating. 
 
 from the same quarter. The late bishop_ saw the pro- 
 spectus, in which his name was used, before it was printed, 
 and afterwards also ; and the preface of the book was in 
 the bishop's hands several weeks, with the rest of the 
 MS., nor was there a single word added to, or taken 
 from, the book, after it came from the bishop's hands, till 
 it was sent home, the trifling pencil emendations alluded 
 to in his letter having been made at his own house. 
 
 XVII. PRETENSIONS TO GBEEK LEAKNING. 
 
 The next grave charge is, that I have pretended to 
 be a jjerfect Greek scholar, while I do not understand the 
 Greek alphabet. Both of these, it is impudently asserted, 
 that I have admitted ; merely because I thought the 
 charge fit only to be laughed at. In the first place, I never 
 once pretended to be deeply versed in Greek learning ; 
 though, with the help of a Lexicon, I can understand the 
 sense of a passage in Josephus, in Strabo, and in other 
 prose writers : and I should like to know, from this sage 
 critic, who contends that no man can be said to read 
 Homer who does not read him in Greek, and whom I 
 laughed at by saj'ing, if this were true no man could be 
 said to read his bible who did not understand Hebrew, I 
 should like to know of this Leviathan in logic, how it 
 could possibly" happen that if a person knew not Greek 
 from Turkish (which "ds nearly what Mr. Bankes, and his 
 friend too would maintain), he could fill a book with 
 Greek notes to illustrate the text, and contrive to fit 
 every note in its right place ! The Quarterly Reviewers 
 are no mean Grecians, and they would have been too 
 happy to show that the Greek notes were all strewed at 
 random, probably purloined from Mr. Bankes, and ranged 
 like empty boxes to make up a show, wherever they would 
 look best. But the learning of the book has defied even 
 their criticism, and in the few places in which they ventured 
 to touch me in that, my most vulnerable part, they were 
 more completely foiled than I had ever had the vanity to 
 suppose possible by one who is ' no noble, ignorant of the 
 arts, and a simple mariner,' as Euryalus said to Ulj'sses. 
 So far from ever pretending to deep learning of any kind, 
 I have invariably regretted my want of it, and confessed 
 that, being sent to sea at the early age of nine years, I 
 never had an opportunity of receiving any education since 
 that period. I have long since been convinced, however, 
 that a good cause, a pure heart, and a sound mind, are 
 more than a match forall the learning of all the universities 
 on earth, when mere questions of plain fact and simple 
 reasoning are under discussion. With respect to the notes, 
 however, whether in Greek or in any other language, 
 I can assert with truth, that I derived no assistance from 
 any individual in their compilation ; and that the writing, 
 reading, and illustration by notes, of the whole work, 
 was entirely my own. 
 
 XVIII. IMPOSITION ON MH. PALMER. 
 
 It is next said, that I have imposed upon Mr. John 
 Palmer, and practised on him the greatest deceit 
 and duphcity. That fearless and just man would be, 
 however, the last to continue the appearance of his 
 friendship to one whom he did not truly and heartily 
 esteem as worthy of his countenance and protection. It 
 happens that he, who has been made most intimately ac- 
 quainted with all that has transpired, is only on that account 
 tlie more satisfied of the totally groundless nature of the 
 charges preferred against me ; and all, who like him have 
 examined the matter for themselves, have risen with a 
 conviction of va^ innocence. Shall I. put into the scale 
 against such honest men as these, persons whom apathy 
 or any other cause deters from looking into the merits of 
 the case, or probing matters to the bottom, and who yet 
 suffer themselves to be carried away by unsupported as- 
 sertion, while they have neither the courage to stem the 
 influence of party, nor the candour to avow themselves 
 4 O 2 
 
65^ 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 either friends or enemies? Away with such heartless 
 trimming as this ! Let the party of Government be wor- 
 shipped, and their victim destroyed, if this be the only 
 path to favour ; or let the party be contenmed as they 
 deserve to be, if nothing but the unjust destruction of the 
 innocent will serve their purpose. But men who are afraid 
 to approve, though their hearts will not allow them to 
 condemn, are quite unworthy of consideration. 
 
 XIX. TRANSACTIONS WITH MR. BURCKHAHDT. 
 
 The next charges that remain to notice, are those 
 of my having professed to have been honoured and re- 
 spected by Mr. Burckhardt up to the day of his death, 
 though I knew he had taken every means of showing his 
 hatred of me ; — of my having been received at the tables of 
 many families in Calcutta, because I professed myself to 
 be the bosom-friend at that time of Mr. Burckhardt, who 
 I knew had reviled me ; — of my having been guilty of the 
 basest ingratitude towards the same Mr. Burckhardt, by 
 calumniating the man who had relieved my distresses at 
 Jedda; — andof my having ungenerously introduced to the 
 world Mr. fiabington's letter, exposing his calumnies and 
 contradicting his assertions, though the said calumnies had 
 not appeared against me in print, and though I knew the 
 person who first uttered them was dead. To all these se- 
 rious charges, which are just as false as every thing else 
 that belongs to this guilty drama and its guilty agitators, I 
 shall reply seriatim ; and after these, 1 do not remember 
 a single important or even unimportant point that will not 
 have been reverted to and repelled. 
 
 My first meeting with Mr. Burckhardt was when ascend- 
 ing the Nile, in November 1813. Nothing could be more 
 enthusiastic than the romantic feeling of attachment, 
 which I firmly believe we both sincerely felt towards each 
 other after a short acquaintance of only two days. The 
 following paragraph of a letter of Mr. Burckhardt to 
 me (the original of which is in my possession) dated with- 
 in a few weeks after that meeting (Dec. 13, 1813,) will 
 show what he thought of nie then : — 
 
 My dear Sir, — The regret I feel at being obliged to leave 
 Esneh before you return, much outweighs the pleasure I should 
 else have experienced from being at last enabled to put an end 
 to my tedious stay in Upper Egypt. But thus is the unfortu- 
 nate lot of travellers. They must suddenly part with persons 
 whose character and acquirements have inspired them with the 
 greatest esteem, in order to mix for months with beings, the 
 shapes of whose bodies alone entitle them to the name of 
 human. The hope of mutual remembrance is then the only 
 consolation : and on my part I beg you to rest assured that the 
 memory of the two days you granted me at Esneh shall never 
 be obliterated from my mind and heart. 
 
 The next place of my meeting with Mr. Burckhardt was 
 at Jedda. I had arrived there from Suez in extreme dis- 
 tress, having been shipwrecked on the passage, and lost 
 almost every thing I possessed, my papers only excepted, 
 besides being almost unable to move, from a fever con- 
 tracted by exposure to a burning sun by day, and heavy 
 dews by night, in an open boat for many weeks, besides 
 suffering hunger, thirst, and every possible inconvenience. 
 I was so weak as to be unable to walk, and was carried on 
 shore, where I should, probably, have ended my days, had 
 I not been removed on board an English ship then in the 
 harbour, of which more hereafter. Mr. Burckhardt was 
 then at Mecca ; but hearing of my being at Jedda, his un- 
 abated friendship induced him to write me another warm 
 and enthusiastic letter, the original of which is in my 
 possession, but of which the following extract will show 
 the spirit and tone : — 
 
 My dear Sir, — Othman Aga arrives this moment, and tells 
 me that you are at Jedda. My joy at knowing you so near is 
 damped only by the news of your illness, I should have im- 
 mediately set out for Jedda to see you before the Hadj ; but 
 after to-morrow the gates of Jedda will be shut, and there will 
 
 be no means of conveyance between that place and Mekke till 
 after the Hadj. My project was to go immediately after the 
 Hadj to Medineh, but I sacrifice it willingly for the purpose of 
 shaking hands with you, and consoling you a little during your 
 tedious stay at Jedda. You may therefore expect me about 
 the 14th or 15th of this month. 
 
 Mr. Burckhardt came down to Jedda as promised, re- 
 mained on board the ship with me for several days, which 
 were passed in the happiest manner possible; and at 
 length left me with the deepest and, I believe then, most 
 sincerely expressed regret. On referring to my notes of the 
 following day, Dec. 8, 1814 (the original of which, like all 
 the other papers I have, are open for the inspection of all 
 the world,) I find the following account of the money 
 lent me by him, which I prefer giving in its original shape, 
 affirming its strict accuracy : — 
 
 Jedda, Thursday, Dec. 8. — Having related to Ibrahim, 
 among the other incidents of my voyage from Suez to this 
 place, the upsetting of the vessel in which we were embarked, 
 and the consequent loss of all my cash, with some trunks of 
 apparel, papers, arms, &c., he had entreated me repeatedly, be- 
 fore his departure, to receive from him the loan of a small sum 
 equal to meet my immediate wants in India on landing there, 
 he having received a remittance from Mr. Boghos, of Cairo, 
 but I had as repeatedly refused it, hoping to acquire a sufficient 
 sum for that purpose from the sale of my Turkish clothes, 
 sabre, &c., now no longer necessary, and which I had already 
 consigned to Othman Aga to be disposed of. What was my 
 surprise, however, when this young Highlander (Othman) who 
 visited us to-day, brought me oiF a sealed bag, containing three 
 hundred Spanish dollars, sent to me from Ibrahim, who left 
 Jedda on the evening of yesterday, and would depart froni 
 Mecca in the course of to-morrow. There are actions which, 
 from the disinterested nature of their generosity, and the deli- 
 cacy of the manner in which they are performed, absolutely 
 overwhelm the object of them with confusion, arising, perhaps, 
 from the combined effects of the consciousness that he feels 
 aright when he estimates them as far beyond his merit, and the 
 wonder and surprise which seizes him when bestowed unex- 
 pectedly. This action of Ibrahim's was precisely one of that 
 description, and occasioned me all that embarrassment of feel- 
 ing which it was so well calculated to give birth to, and is at 
 the same time so difficult to express. 
 
 Very soon after this, on the 25th of December, I re- 
 ceived another letter from Mr. Burckhardt, of which, to 
 to show his undiminished regard, I shall quote only the 
 closing paragraph, which is as follows : — 
 
 ITiis is, perhaps, the last letter you will ever receive from 
 Mekke, I ought therefore to make it a long one, but I have 
 really nothing to tell you of immediate interest, and the boy 
 comes this moment to ask for the letter. Therefore farewell, 
 my dear sir ; may your hopes be realised, may your good for- 
 tune enable you to provide for your dear family in Indian 
 climes, and may we once meet again, both satistied with the 
 result of past time and labour. Wherever fate carries you, 
 remember, I beg you, an honest Swiss, who reckons himself 
 amongst the most sincere of your friends. 
 
 The next letter I received from Mr. Burckhardt is 
 dated Mekke, 2d January, 1815, of which a single extract 
 will suffice. In endeavouring to encourage me in stemming 
 the difficulties I had to encounter, in pursuits which were 
 painful to me, though necessary to my subsistence, he 
 says : — 
 
 Your pursuits are SmctiHed by honour, by duty, by paternal 
 love, and by connubial attachment, the strongest ties which 
 nature possesses to bind a generous heart ; they are noble be- 
 cause they are virtuous; their object belongs to those dear beings 
 whose existence is interwoven with yours, and to become and 
 to have been the author of tlieir happiness and their comforts, 
 will indeed *be ever to you a source of sweeter and of purer 
 joys than those which feeble Fame bestows with her bounty 
 upon her votaries. You exert yourself for your own comforts, 
 but still more for the happiness of those whom nature and your 
 own arras have placed nearest to your bosom. I should be- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 653 
 
 guile trulh if I was denying that the prospect of ease and 
 comfort has not h'kewise a considerable share in my exertions. 
 It is true, I hope to wrest a wreath from tlie hands of Fame, 
 but I much doubt whether the possession of that wreath will 
 be productive of as much heartfelt joy and satisfaction to me 
 as will be once to you the endearing thanks and blessings of 
 your family. 
 
 I shall intreat the reader's patience for a moment to in- 
 dulge me with the insertion of a single paragraph from my 
 reply to this letter, of which I have a copy preserved, as 
 it may be of use by-and-by, when the fact of Mr. Burck- 
 hardt's subsequent circulation of calumnies against me 
 for ill-treating and deserting my family, comes to be con- 
 sidered ; as he could not but have known both from my 
 wife's letters to me, many of which he had seen, and 
 from my children forming almost a constant topic of our 
 conversation, that we all loved each other with too pure 
 and too refined an affection for such a calumny to be cre- 
 dible, even to himself, at the moment of his circulating 
 it as worthy of the belief of others. In reply to this 
 particular part of his letter, respecting the nature of my 
 pursuits, I said: — 
 
 In those hours which I steal from my accustomed occupa- 
 tions to enjoy in privacy a communion with my own heart, I am 
 often consoled and supported by the very considerations which 
 you urge to me, and say with you, that labours sanctified by 
 honour, by duty, by paternal and connubial attachment, cannot 
 be in themselves degrading, whatever may be the rank assigned 
 to them by the general estimation of mankind. Were it not 
 for this reviving cordial, hope would long ago have taken flight, 
 and fortitude would have deserted me. But when the recol- 
 lection of those dear beings, who hang upon me for support, 
 rushes on my heart, I am all-devoted, every nerve, to wear 
 away my life in toil for them, if their happiness could not 
 otherwise be secured. 
 
 The next letter I received from Mr. Burckhardt (the 
 original of which is in my possession) was dated Mekke, 
 9th January, 1815, and contains the following para- 
 graph :— 
 
 Hearing that you should leave Jedda on Friday, I was 
 greatly tempted to bid you a personal adieu, and I am ashamed 
 to confess that the dread of the fatigues of a jack-ass ride alone 
 prevents me from executing that design. But I shall myself 
 depart fi'om here on Friday with the caravan, and I am afraid 
 that a hasty journey to Jedda and back again, with the pleasure 
 of seeing you, and the regret of again parting with you, would 
 cause such a revolution in my blood as to make a relapse of my 
 fever not improbable. Receive, therefore, these lines, my dear 
 sir, in lieu of the heartiest hand-shake. If a sympathetic feel- 
 ing, which has seldom misled me, does not prove false in the 
 present instance, my heart whispers to me that we shall see each 
 other again, not as at present to talk of mutual hopes only, but 
 to express our satisfaction at realities. May Neptune and 
 Mercury be propitious to you, and guide you into the harbour, 
 even before I shall reach it. I shall always remain, my dear 
 sir, with sentiments of the warmest friendship and the sincerest 
 esteem, truly and faithfully yours, 
 
 HADJ IBRAHIM. 
 
 My next meeting with Mr. Burckhardt was at Cairo on 
 my return from India, in December 1815. Of that inter- 
 view Mr. Babington was a witness, and he has already 
 testified to the warm sentiments of regard and esteem 
 which he professed for me during his stay with him at 
 Cairo, after my business had compelled me to quit that 
 place for Alexandria. If any thing were wanting to con- 
 firm this continuance of his professed regard, it may be 
 found in an extract of a letter written to me on the 3d of 
 December 1815, only the day preceding that of Mr. 
 Babington's leaving Cairo, which, indeed, the letter itself 
 mentions. In this letter Mr. Burckhardt says to me : — 
 
 Mr. Babington has just communicated to me the news of 
 your speedy departure from Alexandria. Truly sorry as I am 
 to forego the pleasure of seeing you again at Cairo, I still feel 
 some satisfaction in thinking that I can evince at least my sin- 
 cere desire of becoming of some service to you, in transmitting 
 
 to you such local information on your intended land journey 
 as may help you to perform it with increased hopes of success. 
 
 The letter then points out the dangers of travelling in 
 Syria, the disturbed state of the country rendering it in- 
 dispensable to travel under the firman and protection of 
 the several pashas, &c. and urges nie again and again to 
 consider whether I should not do better to offer my ser- 
 vices to the pasha, than go on a message for people who 
 would reward me but slightly, and who had none but the 
 most self-interested motives in prevailing on me to under- 
 take the journey they had projected for their own benefit. 
 This letter closed with these words, referring to the 
 doubts of my being well or sufficiently remunerated for 
 my pains : — 
 
 Perhaps I go too far in my doubts ; I most anxiously wish 
 to be mistaken. Believe me, they arise in my anxiety about 
 your welfare ; and above all, rest assured that whatever you 
 may determine upon, my warmest wishes for your ultimate 
 success accompany you. It grieves me to part so soon again 
 from you without having any reasonable hope of seeing you for 
 many years. Do therefore remember me, for I shall ever be,' 
 with warmth and truth, my dear Buckingham, very sincerely 
 yours, &c. 
 
 All the history of Mr. Bnrckhardt's conduct after 
 this has been detailed in Mr. Babington's reply to the 
 celebrated ' paper' (some extracts of which have al- 
 ready been given.) When this paper was first writ- 
 ten, or first circulated, I have no accurate knowledge ; 
 but at the most it must have been within two, or 
 say even three, months after the date of his letter to 
 me of December 3, 1815, and after his parting with Mr. 
 Babington. I regret exceedingly that I have not a copy 
 of the paper itself, that it might be printed at full length, 
 dreadful as some portions of the language and accusations 
 are, but the substance of it is sufficiently known. The 
 calm and circumstantial reply of Mr. Babington to this 
 paper, and after he had seen the last rejoinder also, is, 
 however, so important to the case, that I hope I shall be 
 forgiven for introducing it, at length, in the course of this 
 defence to render the whole complete. I shall give it there- 
 fore a place in a subsequent page. 
 
 The only reasons that I have ever yet heard alleged for 
 this change in Mr. Bnrckhardt's mind, from the extreme 
 of enthusiastic regard and admiration, to the extreme of ha- 
 tred and detestation, are these : — 1st, That having seen and 
 compared all my different letters to different individuals 
 in Egypt from Syria, he was of opinion that I was not 
 pursuing my journey as I ought to do, and was thereby 
 injuring Messrs. Briggs and Co.; 2dly, That in those let- 
 ters he discovered that I had spoken to Briggs and Co of 
 my being advised by friends (meaning himself), before I set 
 out on this journey, not to undertake it; and that this was- 
 a breach of confidence which was unjustifiable on my part. 
 
 Now supposing it, for the sake of argument, to be 
 quite true, that 1 had delayed my journey unnecessarily, 
 and travelled on Briggs and Co.'s money ; and that I had 
 even named him to them as the friend who had advised 
 me not to undertake the task. Surely these new facts could 
 not affect what passed between us on the Nile two years 
 before, nor what happened at Jedda one year before. This 
 discovery could not make my conduct to my family in 
 England at all different from what it really was : it could 
 not change me from a man ' whose character and acquire- 
 ments were calculated to inspire admiration and esteem,' 
 into ' a brute, a scoundrel, and a fool;' nor could it make 
 my pursuits, which were before ' noble, honourable, and 
 virtuous, because sanctified by love and duty,' — all at once 
 ' the fraudulent arts of a cunning yet awkward impostor.' 
 Yet these were the changes in Mr. Bnrckhardt's expres- 
 sions, within three months, at the farthest, after his 
 last friendly letter, and his parting from Mr. Babington ; 
 and all that until this had appeared to him noble and 
 good, was changed, as if by magic, into execrable and 
 
654 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 devilish, from the period of our first meeting up to his 
 imprudent citation of Mr. Babington as an authority for 
 assertions which he afterwards most solemnly denied ! 
 
 But the aggravation of Mr. Burckhardt's conduct is the 
 greater, from the circumstance, that slight, trivial, and 
 inadequate as the alleged causes were, they were not 
 TRUE. I have shown how I had discharged the trust of 
 Briggs and Co. as one of the assigned causes of his anger; 
 and with regard to the pretended breach of confidence, it 
 was simply this: — Mr. Burckhardt had urged me most 
 strongly not to undertake the journey, as he did not be- 
 lieve I should be adequately rewarded; and in doing this, 
 he made no injunction of secrecy whatever. On Mr. 
 Lee's writing to me in Syria as to the deviation from the 
 straight line which I appeared to him to have made, and 
 reproaching me with what to him appeared unnecessary 
 delay, I defended my conduct by showing the necessity 
 that had occasioned it; and in reply to his angry re- 
 proaches, said, I regretted having had any thing to do 
 with it, though having begun I should now go on ; adding, 
 ' There were not wanting friends who advised my not un- 
 dei'taking this journey, and who recommended the offer of 
 my services to the pasha.' If it were a breach of confidence 
 in me to say this, it was a greater breach of confidence to 
 show my letters to the person to whom it applied, for the 
 purpose, perhaps, of asking him whether he did not think 
 he wSis the person alluded to, and thus exciting his anger. 
 I\Ir. Burckhardt having given me this advice without any 
 restraint as to its use, I should have been fairly justified 
 even in mentioning him by name as the person who had so 
 advised me ; but why any man should give another advice 
 on so important a matter, and hate him afterwards for 
 making it known, even without mentioning his name, is to 
 me quite inexplicable. 
 
 For myselfj I fia-mly believe Mr. Burckhardt's en- 
 mity to me to have arisen from other causes. If I had 
 gone by the sea coast to Aleppo, I should not have 
 "trodden any new ground, nor have trenched at all on pro- 
 vinces of which he was, till that period, the only person 
 who had any information. The change of route drove me 
 into a portion of the country which he knew I should 
 bring away ample accounts of, though travelling in haste, 
 from my known industry, method, and indefatigable 
 habits: he knew also that if I ever published I should make 
 a better book than himself, and not only forestall, but 
 probably also eclipse, his account of those unvisited re- 
 gions. I believe that he would have done any thing to 
 have damned my reputation, as the best mode of defeat- 
 ing this, just as Mr. Bankes threatened to do, unless I 
 gave up to him materials of my own, so as to give him 
 also a monopoly of what Mr. Burckhardt equally desired 
 for himself; and of which the one has yet published no- 
 thing, after years of leisure and health for preparation ; 
 and the other has furnished materials for a book, which 
 the Literary Gazette, a review rather favourable to his pro- 
 ductions than otherwise, says, is ' neither calculated to 
 jnstruct the few, nor entertain the many.' 
 
 XX. ' PAPEll ON BUCK1^'GHAM,' BY SIir.IK IFRAHIM. 
 
 When I had been in Bombay about three months 
 (as I nearly as I remember), and while I was living with 
 my excellent friends Mr. Erskine and Mr. Yfedderburn, 
 the celebrated ' Paper' of Mr. Burckhardt's, which had 
 been sent through Aleppo, Bagdad, Bussorah, and Bu- 
 shirc, came to Bombay. It was enclosed to me in the 
 most delicate and friendly manner, by the friends above 
 named, to spare me the pain which a personal presentation 
 of such a document would necessarily give to any man. 
 I read it with as much sorrow as astonishment ; and both 
 these were increased by the recollection of my former 
 friendship for the individual who had thus unaccountably 
 become my accuser. Still, however, my impression was, 
 that Mr. Burckhardt had been misled by anger and irrit- 
 
 ation, and that in his cooler moments he would really be 
 sorry for what he had done, and like an honourable man 
 do his best to repair it. It is not easy (at least I do not 
 find it so) to hate even a person who has inflicted the 
 deepest injuries, if that person were ever close in one's 
 confidence and friendship, as Mr. Burckhardt had been in 
 mine; and it is always more agreeable (at least so I find 
 it) to cherish sentiments of esteem and good will than 
 those of hatred and animosity. I accordingly waited till 
 the commotion of my feelings had in some degree sub- 
 sided, and instead of sending back a series of similar 
 sheets, filled with intemperance and abuse, I sat down to" 
 give the man whom I considered to have been deluded, 
 and whom I wished still to recal from error as my friend, a 
 kind, a calm, yet a detailed and honest reply. 1 feel even 
 now a considerable reluctance to intrude this document 
 on the world, not for my own sake, so much as a linger- 
 ing feeling of unwillingness that still hangs ar6und me, and 
 makes me slow to speak evil, even when deserved, of 
 either the absent or the dead. Of my own chequered and 
 unfortunate life, it reveals only a scene of poverty, 
 embarrassment, and distress, of which I ought not justly to 
 be ashamed, because it was neither the result of indolence 
 nor misconduct ; but which I should still have wished to 
 conceal, on the same principle that induces us all to throw 
 a veil over such portions of the history of private life as 
 are known only to one's immediate family and friends. 
 Of Mr. Burckhardt's conduct it presents, however, a far 
 more distressing picture ; and I only regret that his inju- 
 dicious ' friends,' who affect to venerate his memory, and 
 take up his defence, should have forced upon me the 
 necessity of its publication. When, however, the ques- 
 tion is, whether iniquity shall prevail against the living, 
 or justice be maintained even at the expense of violating 
 the sanctity due to the dead, no honest man should 
 pause : and this is the only shield I present to those who 
 may condemn me for considering the preservation of my 
 own reputation a matter of far more importance to me 
 than the maintenance of a false credit given to that of 
 another. 
 
 I have before expressed my regret that I have not a 
 copy of Mr. Burckhardt's original paper ; but fortunately, 
 among the documents so providentially preserved to me, 
 I have the original draft of my reply, from which the fair 
 copy written to him was taken ; and this goes into such 
 minute detail, that it will enumerate all the accusations, 
 as well as show what were the explanations I offered to 
 him in my defence. The reply was as follows : — 
 
 Mr. Buckmghavi's Reply to Sheik Ibrahim, 
 
 Bombay, March 30, 1817. 
 Mt dear Ibrahim, 
 
 In taking up my pen to reply to a paper of yours, animad- 
 verting on my conduct, a paper which, long as it has been writ- 
 ten, has come upon me suddenly, while all the recollections of 
 our former intercourse are yet fresh in ray memoi-y, and all the 
 sentiments of friendship which I have so long cherished toward 
 you, yet warm and undiminished, it is impossible to describe 
 what my feelings are. Such a mixture of truth as to facts 
 and misconception as to motives, such a harsh colouring given 
 by anger to that which was so differently conceived of in cooler 
 moments, can only be answered by following it in detail. In 
 doing this I am quite as desirous of convincing you of the 
 erroneous nature of the conclusions which you have dra>\'n, as 
 I am of defending myself from the foul calumnies which these 
 opinions, spread abroad by you to the world, have stamped 
 ui^on my cliaracter. 
 
 When we first met in November, 1813, on the Nile, atEsne, 
 in Upper Egypt, I intended going into Nubia, and from thence 
 returning to Keneh, cross to Cosseir, and embark for Jcdda in 
 tlie Red Sea. The vessel in which you describe me as voyag- 
 ing like a gentleman of fortune, was one of the smallest boats 
 or cayasses used on the river, and as I wore then an English 
 dress, and knew nothing of the language, there was no cheaper 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 635 
 
 way of my passing tiirougb the country. When in our mutual 
 interchange of histories, I mentioned to you both the good and 
 the ill of my own, it was merely in that frankness of my cha- 
 racter which has, on all occasions been, perhaps, too unreserved 
 in these particulars; and, as you yourself admit, was not here 
 prostituted to any unworthy purposes. I do not remember 
 your remarking any thing on my expensive mode of travelling ; 
 and the English gun, had at Siout, as estimated at 2000 pias- 
 tres, was only part of an exchange made with me of this gun 
 and a pair of English pistols, for a pair of gaudy but ex- 
 pensive Turkish ones, had from Mr, Schutz, in Cairo ; as I 
 conceived, a change to my advantage. I explained to you re- 
 garding my family only that they were living with my wife's 
 mother, who was enabled to receive them without incorlve- 
 lonce, but not sufficiently rich to spare any thing from the 
 maintenance of her own ; and neither stated her income at 
 600/. a year, nor said that they were then of no care to me. I 
 was quite as intimate with Mr. Renouard, the chaplain of the 
 factory at Smyrna, as with Colonel Missett, since I had been 
 oftener in his company, frequently received visits from him, 
 both in my ship and on shore, and scarcely received a letter 
 from that place, after my departure, without hearing of him 
 particularly in it. 
 
 We met again at Djedda, in November, 1814; at which 
 place I had arrived in great distress, partly from losing money 
 and clothes by the way, but chiefly from severe illness. When 
 I heard of your being at Mekka, I sent the letters which I had 
 for Djellany, the merchant, and for Mohammed Ali Pasha, to 
 your care, and it was at your own suggestion that you came 
 down to visit me after the Hadj. During the many days^which 
 you remained with us on board the ship, almost all our con- 
 versations were in the hearing and presence of Captain Boog, 
 and I remember none of a personal nature in which he did not 
 join. It is quite true that I had, until tliat period, been free 
 of pecuniary obligations to any one, and that Mr. John Lee, 
 of Smyrna, to whom, as a merchant, my ships had always been 
 addressed, had more than once offered me such assistance, which 
 I declined. Previous to my finally leaving Egypt, I had been 
 obliged to part with articles of personal baggage to pay for 
 others more necessary on my intended voyage to India ; and 
 Colonel Missett, unasked, sent to me by the hands of Mr. 
 Thurburn, 1000 piastres*, only a few days before my depar- 
 ture, declining even to hear the reasons which I assigned for 
 my refusal. It is true, that a great portion of this was lost, 
 with other effects, in boxes washed overboard in coming down 
 the Red Sea, as a part only was expended on my outfit. I 
 never stated this sum to be greater or less than it really was, 
 with a view to enhance Colonel Missett's liberality, or thereby 
 to challenge your own. My intentions of returning from 
 Bombay to Suez, and settling there as an agent, were built on 
 the promises made to me by Mr. Lee, of support in that cha- 
 racter. It is not true, that the 600 dollars wluch came to you 
 at Jedda were on board the ship which brought me, or that I 
 knew of its being come to you, but through yourself. I think 
 we did not hear of it until several days after you had come to 
 us on board the Siiffenvt-id-Russool. Your offer of 300 of 
 these to me was voluntary, and though often repeatedly pressed 
 upon me was as often declined, till you yourself drew for me a 
 picture of the inconveniencies to whicli I should be subject, on 
 my finding myself set down in India among strangers without 
 money, and declared that my persisting in refusal would be in- 
 terpreted by you as a want of confidence on my part in the sin- 
 cerity of your professions. You added to this an assurance 
 that you were not likely at all to want it, as well as of your be- 
 lief that my Indian prospects would soon be sufficientlyVealised 
 to enable me to pay it with ease to myself, unlil which you would 
 willingly defer it. Aslknowthat my own motives for the refusals, 
 which you admit that I made, were sincere, so I believe your 
 desire to overcome them was equally so ; since I can no more 
 doubt the purity of your friendship then, than I do the sincerity 
 of my own at the same moment. -j- 
 
 * The piastre of Egypt was at that period the eighth of a 
 Spanish dollar. 
 
 f In the draft of tlie original I find a passage, which, from 
 being crossed through, was, probably not included in the fair 
 copy sent to Mr. Burckhardt, from an unwillingness to mix 
 up sarcasm with calm reasoning on so serious a subject ; but it 
 
 In November, 1815, we met a third time at Cairo. It was 
 the very high opinion which I entertained of your ability to 
 direct and assist Mr. Babington there, and the lirm perbuasion 
 of your willingness to do so, added to the prospect of returning 
 again to Cairo before he should quit it, which induced me to 
 leave that gentleman in your charge, after so short a stay there. 
 You yourself advised me to go down to Alexandi'ia imme- 
 diately, as the Pasha, Colonel Missett, and Mr. Lee, were all 
 there. You offered to do every thing for Mr. Babington in 
 my absence that he could need, and he expressed himself ("and 
 to me appeared really to be) quite satisfied with this, I did 
 say to you, that I still hoped the trade between India and Egypt 
 would be opened, and also mentioned that Forbes and Co. had 
 entrusted me witii a commission to the amount of 12,000 dol- 
 lars, which was true. 
 
 The facts which you obtained a knowledge of, after a fort- 
 night's stay with Mr. Babington in the same house, getting in 
 that time, as you say, to the bottom of his opinion of me, are 
 equally wrested from the interpretations which he himself must 
 have given of them. I did arrive in Bombay with from 400 to 
 500 dollars in money, which defrayed my expences at that place, 
 enabled me to purchase a bill of 25/. from Forbes and Co. to 
 send to my family, and still left me more than 200 dollars, 
 besides twenty Venetian sequins given me by Mr. Wedderbum 
 in cash, before my departure, to set out with. I also received 
 from this gentleman, and from i\Ir. Erskine, two bills of ex- 
 change on England for 50/, each, which were voluntarily 
 offered on their parts, and not declined on mine, as I knew not 
 then that there would be any other means afforded me of get- 
 ting back to India from Egypt, a return which I always con- 
 templated. I was obliged to quit Bombay, because I had not 
 the licence of the East India Company to remain in India, and 
 a vessel being just at that moment unexpectedly appointed 
 to sail to Mokha, a passage was permitted me to be taken in 
 her by the government. Mr. Babington seized this opportu - 
 nity of going thus far, to secure a passage to England by the 
 Red Sea, as I myself did for the sake of getting to Egypt, 
 where my business lay. I was not at all the instigator of his 
 coming by this route, nor did I pitch upon him to be my trea- 
 surer as far as Cairo. The interest of this route was as well 
 known to him as to myself, and no persuasion was necessary to 
 induce him to pursue it, Mr, Babington took with him to 
 Cairo, from this place, a letter of credit, the only letter abso- 
 lutely necessary, and this addressed to the only house of whom 
 there were any correspondents in Bombay, so that any other 
 would have been difficult to be had. I did express a hope that 
 the number of my acquaintances in Cairo would render any 
 otlier letters unnecessary, and that on this account IMr. Babing- 
 ton might be at ease. When you undertook to receive Mr. 
 Babington from my charge, and introduce him to all your 
 acquaintance for me, I thought he was in still better hands, 
 from your being even a longer resident than myself. The bills 
 brought by me from Bombay were taken to Egypt. The 500 
 dollars taken from Jedda to that place were not spent in foolish 
 frolics among the fashionables of Bombay ; but at least 300 of 
 them, with tlie twenty sequins given me by Mr. Wedderburn 
 in cash, went into the joint fund for defraying our expences up 
 the Red Sea. The whole of the provisions laid in at Bombay, 
 which formed the chief article of expence in that way, was paid 
 for also by Mr. Wedderburn, and, as I considered myself thus 
 
 is sufficiently curious to be given here, as showing that Mr. 
 Burckhardt admitted my having repeatedly refused his pressing 
 oflers to lend me money, so that even at last I yielded with re- 
 luctance to his solicitations ; while it will show the tone and 
 temper of his mind when he wrote, from the unfeeling and dis- 
 creditable simile that he chooses, to illustrate scruples, which, 
 when they were made, he at the same time admired, though he 
 endeavoured to silence and succeeded in overcoming them. The 
 suppressed passage is this : — 
 
 * If I were disposed to indulge in such unmerited sarcasms 
 as you play off upon me, I might say, that if ** / made as much 
 Juss to receive the money as a well-bred woman of the town does 
 before she is led to the sofat*' * (these are Mr. Burckhardt's own 
 words quoted from liis * paper,' which is full of still worse lan- 
 guage,) * your pressure of it (on me) was like that of an old 
 usurer on a spenddirift minor, to get him to sign a bond, and 
 have him thus in his power,' 
 
656 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 much additionally in his debt, holding myself bound for its 
 return, the amount was also passed as an advance of mine ; 
 which, added to the cash enumerated, made up the half of the 
 whole expenditure of the voyage from Mokha to Suez, except- 
 ing some piastres, which remained as a balance due from me. 
 The passage from Bombay to Mokha was given me by the 
 lieutenant of the cruizer, under the knowledge of my being a 
 sailor, from whom it is not usual to receive money for passage 
 in India, but more particularly if they are not rich. Mr. 
 Babington's paying a sum, and my not doing so, was therefore 
 consistent. The sum of 1871. for our joint expences from 
 Mokha to Cairo was not extravagant, as we paid 500 dollars 
 from Mokha to Jedda, and, I think, 400 dollars from Jedda to 
 Suez, for our cabins alone; besides which, we had a cook to 
 return to Mokha, all utensils of cooking and constant supplies 
 of fresh provisions to buy for nearly four months, with large 
 presents to the servants of the factory ; the expences of our 
 living there, as it was then empty ; presents by the way, and 
 journey to Cairo by the Desert, all included. Mr. Babington, 
 indeed, as well as myself, thought it economical. It is not 
 true, that Mr. Babington knew nothing of my circumstances 
 when in Bombay, as they were fully detailed to him, both by 
 me and by his brother and friends, to whom they were known, 
 and not concealed until we got to sea. The reasons for my 
 sudden and hasty departure from Cairo are already detailed, 
 and I have letters by me of your own now, which prove that 
 you expected, as well as myself, that I should return to Cairo 
 again soon. 
 
 My stay at Alexandria was so short, that I had scarcely de- 
 livered my letters, and explained the state of mercantile feeling 
 at Bombay with regard to a trade with Egypt, before it was 
 thought necessary for me to return to India, with a copy of the 
 treaty made with the Pasha, and to be myself on the spot to 
 bring up such vessels as might be sent to Suez on the faith of it. 
 It was immediately on this being decided, that I wrote to you 
 regarding the 300 dollars which I was indebted to you. The bills 
 of exchange on London given me by Mr. Wedderburn and 
 Erskine were sent to my family, whom I knew, from their not 
 having received any thing from me since my gmtting India, 
 must have been in want of money ; Mr. Babington finding his 
 expences as far as Egypt less than he had calculated on, and 
 being still in possession of 400^. out of the 500/. for which he 
 had credit, while he thought 300/. would be enough for the re- 
 mainder of his journey, pressed upon me the acceptance of lOOZ., 
 which I declined. He said he knew that Briggs and Co. were 
 to pay my expences only, without giving me any thing for my 
 loss of time or trouble ; and as the expectations I entertained 
 might fail, he knew that I should then be without funds, and 
 urged this, as well as the assurance that he himself should not 
 want it, and would not think of its repayment until I was more 
 fortunate, to induce me to accept it, but I persisted in ray re- 
 fusal. It is true, that out of this advance, if accepted, I might 
 have paid my debt to you ; but you had yourself made me 
 exactly the same assurances when you pressed the 300 dollars 
 on me, as Mr. Babington had done when he offered me the 100/., 
 and, as I thought, with the same degree of sincerity. This 
 transfer of debt seemed to me, therefore, to promise no ad- 
 vantage to any party, as I thought it quite as probable that 
 Mr. Babington might want money, as that you should yourself. 
 I was already in arrears to Mr. Babington some piastres on our 
 joint account of disbursements for the voyage. I had received 
 from him, at Cairo, five or six sequins to defray my expences to 
 Alexandria, and, I think, twenty or twenty-five sequins on my 
 finally leaving that place, to provide for my unexpected need of 
 any thing by the way, as 'M.r. Lee had given me a letter of 
 credit on Aleppo for the expences of the journey. These, al- 
 together, I know, made the sum of 500 Egyptian piastres, or 
 less than 201. sterling, according to the rate of exchange there, 
 in Mr, Babington's debt, which he was desirous of cancelling, 
 but which I insisted on should remain still against me, and we 
 exchanged copies of account current to that effect. As the 
 money furnished me by Mr. Lee was in a letter of credit on 
 Aleppo for the payment of the bare'expences of my journey, 
 without giving me any thing for my trouble, or even naming a 
 specific sum, I could not, either in propriety or fact, discharge 
 my debt to you out of that. What then was to be done ? I did 
 even try myself to dispose of a gold watch and a sword which I 
 possessed at the time, but for the one I oould find no purchaser, 
 
 and for the other a price was offered so low, that it would have 
 been almost throwing it away without its enabling me to effect 
 my wishes with regard to you. I then thought of a sale by 
 auction of all my effects there, containing books, instruments, 
 clothes, See. for the purpose of raising an immediate supply to 
 pay you with, but I was persuaded by those whom I consulted, 
 that this measure would excite the most scandalous construction 
 among the Franks, to whom only such articles would be of use ; 
 and that in Aleppo I might sell my sword and watch to such 
 advantage as to be able to raise the sum I needed. I did then 
 write to you a day or two before my departure, whicli was too 
 suddenly determined on for me to hear from you in answer, 
 that ' I was on the rack' to know whether you would be in want 
 of the money which I owed to you ; and which it was tacitly 
 agreed should be refunded to you when my success in India or 
 other better fortune enabled me to do so. I did also state to 
 you thai ' I had then no money,' the bills being sent to my 
 family to relieve their wants, which I always considered a pa- 
 ramount claim on me to all others, though, perhaps, in this 
 case, my feelings led me equally with my duty. 1 stated to 
 you the objections to the sale of my effects as before enumerated, 
 and promised, if possible, to send you the sum from some other 
 place. It was the conviction of being able to do this which 
 alone justified my delaying it in my own mind, and I did not 
 hold so cheaply as you think what I myself thought my duty ; 
 because, had I not entertained such conviction, I should have 
 submitted to the public sale, however it might have been 
 construed. 
 
 The last letter I ever received from you was only the day be- 
 fore Mr. Babington left you, and dated the 3d of December, 
 1815, in which you say, ' Mr. Babington is setting off to- 
 morrow.' In this you say to me, < Mr. Babington has just com- 
 municated to me the news of your speedy departure from 
 Alexandria. Truly sorry as I am to forego tjje pleasure of 
 seeing you again at Cairo, I still feel some satisfaction in think- 
 ing that I can evince, at least, my sincere desire of becoming 
 of some service to you, in transmitting to you such local in- 
 formation on your intended land journey as may help you to 
 perform it with increased hopes of success.' In this you point 
 out the dangers of travelling in Syria, the disturbed state of the 
 country, &c. and advise the getting the firman of the pashas of 
 Acre and Damascus as a passport through their provinces. 
 You desire me to give you from Aleppo a full account of my 
 Syrian tour, and conclude by saying, ' It grieves me to part so 
 soon again from you, without having any reasonable hopes of 
 seeing you for many years. Do, therefore, remember me, for I 
 shall ever be with warmth and truth, my dear Buckingham, 
 very sincerely yours. * All this is quoted to prove, that though 
 your intercourse with Mr. Babington had ceased at the time 
 that this was written, and that you say you got at the bottom of 
 his opinion regarding me during the fortnight you were to- 
 gether, yet that your own opinion of me must have been favour- 
 able, if your professions here were sincere. And that Mr. Bab- 
 ington's opinion was so, after our long voyage together, his 
 kind behaviour to me during our subsequent stay at Alexandria 
 after he left you, is, I should think, an equally presumptive 
 proof. Those parts of the contents of this letter wliich offer me 
 advice on the subject of my own prospects in this journey, and 
 ask me again and again, why I do not offer my services to the 
 pasha, where I am sure of a certain gain, while here I have 
 very faint hopes, from the interested motives of those who 
 employ me, being the chief reason of their advancing mc money ? 
 &c. &c. I need n^t quote in detail. I may have appeared to 
 you to have imprudently and unguardedly abused your con- 
 fidence, in saying that ' there were not wanting friends who 
 advised my not undertaking this journey, and recommended 
 the offer of my services to the pasha,' in my replies to one of 
 Sir. Lce'h angry letters to me ; but it was without a thought of 
 this being applied to you by him, and therefore not considered 
 a breach of confidence by me. I may have unintentionally 
 given this clue to such an inference on Mr. Lee's part, but I 
 did not, as you say, ' impudently misquote your letter in any 
 one expression.' Even these remonstrances and suggestions 
 enumerated by you close by saying, ' Perhaps I go too far in 
 my doubts; I most anxiously wish to be mistaken. Believe me 
 they arise in my anxiety about your welfare, and, above all, rest 
 assured, that whatever you may determine upon, my warmest 
 wishes for your ultimate success accompany you.' Your 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 657 
 
 Opinion of my integrity could not, I tliink, if this be true, have 
 been at all altered by your intercourse with Mr.Babington, as 
 you affirm. 
 
 It is not true, that on my arrival at Soor I went from thence 
 to Jerusalem in quest of Mr. Bankes ; not knowing of his 
 being there until I reached Jaffa, through which place he had 
 but just passed. The procuration of a firman from the pasha of 
 Acre led me from Soor to that place ; and, indeed, all the rea- 
 sons for my deviation from the seeming straight line, have been 
 already fully detailed in my correspondence with Mr. Lee. 
 
 Your opinion of my character seems to have been first altered, 
 or at least first declared to be so, after the arrival of Mr. Briggs 
 at Alexandria. Mr. Briggs never had any personal knowledge 
 of me, except, as far as I remember, a momentary interview at 
 Mr. John Lee's, at Smyrna, when he was on the point of depart- 
 ing for England (in 1811J. Mr. Briggs might have been dis- 
 pleased at the employment which Mr. Peter Lee had given me, 
 for many reasons ; but I do not believe that any Knowledge of 
 dishonourable conduct on my part could have been one of them. 
 When Mr. Briggs left England, my family were, to ray positive 
 knowledge, in the country, and the letters I received from them 
 of about that date, while in Alexandria, contained only expres- 
 sions of regret at our prolonged separation, with hopes of our 
 soon meeting, and of my prospects improving, but not a word of 
 particular distress, though I knew, from the inadequacy of my 
 1-emittances, that they must have been generally confined in their 
 means, I do not believe, therefore, that a subscription was 
 opened to relieve them, just before Mr, Briggs's departure ; nor 
 do I believe that he knew any thing regarding their peculiar 
 circumstances, since they were in the country, living with 
 Mrs. Buckingham's mother; and, as far as I am aware, they 
 have not even acquaintances in London through whom Mr. 
 Briggs could know this, even had it been true, which I do not 
 in the slightest degree think probable. 
 
 It is true that I have debts in England, to which place I do 
 not intend or wish to return until I can pay them. But it is 
 not true that I took up goods and left the country without 
 thinking to pay for them. I purchased very largely with money 
 bf my own, earned in my voyages to the West Indies and the 
 Mediterranean as sea-captain, such goods as I thought suited 
 to the market of Malta ; and I had, in addition to this sum, 
 embarked goods on credit for about 500/. more, from various 
 persons in London, with whom I before dealt in the same way. 
 When I left England, it was with a view to settle at Malta, as 
 I had hoped to have quitted the sea-service; and I brought 
 with me many letters explaining this to be my intention, from 
 several respectable houses to whom I was known in London ; 
 more particularly Messrs. Lee and Sons, Mr. Braut, Mr. Harris, 
 Mr, Hoskin, St. Barbe and Co., and others, all known to 
 Mr. Lee, to whom, as well as to the principal merchants of 
 Malta, these letters were addressed. Mr. Lee himself, who 
 was then at Malta, about to embark for Alexandria with his 
 family, gave me the kindest welcome on the strength of these, 
 by coming alongside to see me when all the harbour was in 
 quarantine, and all the town confined within barriers from the 
 existence of a raging plague. The chief part of my investment 
 landed here was consigned to Mr. James Stowe, formerly the 
 partner of Mr. Lee himself, and some other smaller dealers ; 
 but I was myself obliged to go to Smyrna, since no one was 
 permitted to land here. A portion of my investment was also 
 taken to Smyrna with me, and consigned to Mr. James Brant 
 there. After waiting some time at that place, with no prospect 
 of the plague abating at Malta, I went, by Mr. Brant's advice, 
 to Alexandria, to see if any business was likely to be done 
 there, where Mr. Lee, then arrived with his family, and filling 
 the post of English consul, gave me a kind reception. 
 
 From that time until the present moment the only sums 
 which I received from those with whom my investment was 
 lodged, amounted to about 300^, except some sums which were 
 transferred in account towards the liquidation of my debts. 
 Out of this, lOO;. was remitted in separate bills of 50/., 25/., 
 and 251. to my family at different periods, and 200/, spent by 
 me, and lost when pillaged on my first attempt to get to 
 Cosseir from the Nile. Mr. Stowe, to whom the chief part of 
 the investment left at Malta was confided, could not sell the 
 goods at once, from the confusion and stagnation of the trade 
 there. He has since, as I hear, removed to Marseilles, though 
 I have had no direct communication from him for these nearly 
 
 three years. The other persons I have heatd nothing of. I 
 have frequently written to Malta without receiving answers^ 
 and have not been able to get there myself. Some of the people 
 I know to be bankrupts, others dead, much property was even 
 consumed by fire in the island, and the losses from bad sales 
 and other causes were great among all classes, so that I liave 
 even now but very faint hopes of any further receipts. 
 
 The whole amount of my debts in England, however, whether 
 domestic or mercantile, does not, to the best of my belief, ex- 
 ceed .500/. sterling. That which I owe to yourself, Mr.Babing- 
 ton, Mr, Wedderburn, and Colonel Missett, as since contracted, 
 though the last always insisted on my not considering his 
 advances as such, may, at the utmost, make 400/. more. Had 
 any other causes than constant disappointment led to this, I 
 should blush to be burthened with such a load ; but as I am 
 conscious of the most upright intentions from the first to the 
 last in my conduct, I am rather alarmed than ashamed. I 
 have lost all my own hard-earned gains, for which, perhaps, I 
 do not sufficiently repine. I consider myself as setting out 
 a second time, witli a heavy debt of a thousand pounds to clear 
 off. My own determination is, however, to leave no stone un- 
 turned to redeem it ; I hope to continue to exercise my own 
 profession in India until that at least is done, and I profess, 
 both to you and to the world, my intention to appropriate every 
 sliilling of my gains, above what is absolutely necessary for the 
 most moderate maintenance of myself and family, to the dis- 
 charge of these claims against me. 
 
 There remains but little to answer after this. This calumny, 
 with which you asperse my conduct to my wife at Smyrna, I 
 do not believe it possible for you to be the author of; though I 
 deny it with my oath, and would resent it on the fabricator of 
 such a falsehood witli the chastisement it deserves, should I ever 
 meetTiim. The instance of brazenfaced impudence which you 
 adduce of my having taken from you twenty-three piastres, 'in 
 change *,* for my journey to Alexandria, without ever thinking 
 of reimbursing you, was in consequence of your pressing upon 
 me this small sum * in change,^ as you yourself express it, merely 
 because there was not time to send to a Shroff, and you told me 
 that piastres and paras would be constantly wanted by the way, 
 as we all knew. My requesting you to take charge of the bag- 
 gage of Mr. Babington and myself on its arrival from Suez, was 
 certainly not done merely to put you to the expence of sixty or 
 eighty piastres for the freight. Both those little incidents, in- 
 deed, show how even the commonest acts of reciprocal con- 
 fidence and kindness may be miscontrued under the influence of 
 anger, while, by a cool observer, they would be merely inter- 
 preted as friendly oflSces between intimate acquaintances not 
 possible to be mistaken. The 400 piastres given me by Colonel 
 Missett at Alexandria was before Mr. Babington's arrival, to 
 purchase some articles which I needed after so long a voyage, 
 and meet my current expences of the moment ; and this, like ^1 
 the kind acts of that benevolent man, was given in the anticip- 
 ation of my wants, and done in such a way, that there was only 
 to choose between acceptance and offence. 
 
 I certainly did not state the commission of Forbes and Co. to 
 be 40,000 dollars, but 1 2,000, as it really was ; and, indeed, 
 the first communication I made of this was by showing the letter 
 of the house itself to Mr. Lee, when it became necessary, by my 
 departure, to transfer it to him, so that he could not have been 
 mistaken. The Indian gentlemen, it is true, had given me 
 nothing for my trouble, nor charged me with money, because 
 my return to Egypt was forced, and not at their request ; but, I 
 did not express offence at my voyage being called an 'errand,' of 
 which I have not even a recollection; andif I might myself have 
 used the term * mission,' it was not in contradistinction to any 
 other, but simply as a phrase in common use, without attaching 
 any higher meaning to it than I * should have done to errand or 
 to message, and certainly without considering Lord Castlereagh 
 as a menial clerk in comparison of my own importance.' 
 
 From Syria I did write to Mr. Thurburn, requesting him to 
 sell my effects left in his charge, and reimburse you the sum of 
 300 dollars therefrom; because I had met with the same dif- 
 ficulty in raising the sum from my own funds there, as I had 
 before met at Alexandria. I desired the overplus to be remitted 
 to my family, if any, because I thought, if my instruments and 
 books found purchasers, there would be more than the sum re- 
 
 ♦ Less than thre§ dollars, or six rupees ! 
 
 4 p 
 
658 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 quired. I also requested Mr. Thurburn, if this should fall 
 short rather than exceed, to make up the deficiency for me, be- 
 cause Mr. Thurburn had, to the hour of our parting, professed 
 his great readiness to serve me, as he had always done through 
 an intimacy of nearly three years, and because I was myself 
 charged with a commission from Mr. Thurburn to purchase 
 things for him in India, wliich would have required a much 
 larger advance than the whole 300 dollars from me to effect, and 
 which has been since transferred by me to Mr. Martucci . If, as 
 Mr. Thurburn told you, the sale of these effects would not can- 
 cel one-third the sura, they must be estimated at much less than 
 one-third of their real value, and this was my misfortune rather 
 than my fault, since, little or much, it was, as I expressed to 
 him, all that I possessed in the world. I can hardly thank you 
 for ordering it to be sent to my family, when your motive for it 
 was as you express. You ask me why I did not repay Colonel 
 Missett and Mr. Babington, who were both as poor as yourself, 
 and living by their salary. I can only answer, that I had it not 
 in my power to pay either, for the reasons before stated ; besides, 
 that you had all assured me that you could not be inconvenienced 
 by the accommodations you had afforded me, and that you 
 would be satisfied to defer its payment until my fortune grew 
 better; but, believing it more probable that you might want 
 money than either of the others, I had made this sacrifice to 
 prevent, if possible, its happening. I declare most solemnly, 
 that such a motive as that which you ascribe to me, of ' bribing 
 you by such means over to my side,* never once presented itself 
 as even possible to be conceived. My letters from Syria gave 
 to you the same details of my- movements, and the causes which 
 directed them , as they did to Mr. Lee. I hid nothing from either 
 of you ; and though Mr. Bankes wrote to you, expressing his 
 desire that our joint labours should be given together to the 
 public, this was from a suggestion of his own, and merely ac- 
 quiesced in by myself, .as I always considered myself on a mes- 
 sage of business, and certainly made my pleasures, and even 
 my cui'iosity, a secondary consideration, however much I might 
 have aimed to gratify the one while prosecuting the other. 
 
 The whole of these comprehensive epithets, * rascal, scoundrel, 
 liar, and fool,* with the accusation of having * tricked you out 
 of 100^., assuming the mask of honour and virtue to work upon 
 the feelings and impose on the understandings of liberal friends 
 by barefaced frauds and lies ;* the assertion, ' that every one 
 who had fallen in my way had become, without exception, the 
 dupe of a cunning yet awkward impostor;* and the opinion that 
 ' excess of folly and of vanity can alone drive me on in the 
 track I now pursue, since, after all, you believe me to be a 
 grea'.er fool than rogue : * all these I can only treat as the rav- 
 ings of a heated imagination, and the first bursts of passion from 
 an angry mind. Had all you say of my motives been true, I 
 should have deserved reprobation. They can be known to no 
 one, I am aware, so accurately as to myself; but I affirm them 
 to have been always pure, and I regret that there is nothing 
 more powerful than this my own assertion to prove it by. 
 
 I am destitute, at the present moment, of many letters and 
 papers which would have aided me in this respect, but I have 
 followed the simple task of answering your accusations in the 
 order in which they are made. To your bare assertions, I can 
 only oppose my own ; and these I am ready to seal both to you 
 and before all mankind, with the most solemn pledges for their 
 truth. 
 
 If I began to address you with feelings difficult to be de- 
 scribed, so I close. Anger it is hardly in my nature to feel ; 
 but against one whom 1 have loved and esteemed so warmly 
 and highly as you, against one whom I have been, till the pre- 
 sent hour, accustomed to remember as a brother, even more 
 closely allied by romantic meetings, frequently repeated 
 pledges, and indeed all that can endear men to one another, I 
 believe it would be impossible. Let me not conceal from you, 
 however, that if my almost yet undiminished regard for you 
 has made me incapable of anger ; that very feeling lingering 
 round my heart still serves but to give a deeper torment to my 
 sorrow. The accusations and abuse of common men I should 
 have resented in a common way ; but stabs plunged into the 
 bosom by what we have ever before deemed friendly hands, how 
 are they to be borne ! 
 
 I shall say nothing to you of the irreparable injury you have 
 done me as a member of society, by the publicity with which you 
 have given these aspersions on my character to the world. It 
 
 must shake the confidence of my firmest friends, give high tri. 
 umph to my enemies, for some it seems I have, and occasion 
 even those who are otherwise indifferent to me to treat me with 
 the suspicion which so foul a reputation justifies. May you 
 never feel a stroke like this ! to which, I think, all the thunder- 
 bolts of misfortune, hurled together on a man, can hardly be 
 equal ; and may we one day meet, you to be convinced of your 
 harsh misconceptions, and I to find that I have not irretrievably 
 lost your good opinion. 
 
 I am still, as ever, your faithful friend, 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 P. S. Captain Boog, by whom this is sent, will, if he should 
 have the good fortune to see you, help to remove your miscon- 
 ceptions on some points more immediately known to him ; and 
 I have succeeded in making an arrangement which will enable 
 him to pay you the 300 dollars and 28 piastres, of which you 
 thought so meanly of me as to suppose that I really intended to 
 defraud you. 
 
 XXI. CAPTAIN BOOG. 
 
 'This reply was delivered into the hands of Cap- 
 tain Boog, the person named in the postscript, who is 
 now in Calcutta; and of whom, on that account, it is 
 necessary to say a few words more. 
 
 Captain Boog is the gentleman mentioned in the pre- 
 face to the Travels in Palestine, as the commander who 
 so humanely took me on board his ship, when nearly 
 dying at Jedda, to which circumstance, probably, I owe 
 the preservation of my life ; and for which service I have 
 never omitted any occasion to express my sincere and 
 unfeigned gratitude. Captain Boog was a personal wit- 
 ness of almost all that passed between Mr. Burckhardt 
 and myself at Jedda; saw all our correspondence, and 
 had an opportunity of seeing my character as clearly as 
 the most frank and confidential intercourse would allow, 
 after a period of six months on board the same ship, on a 
 most tedious and annoying voyage, where we were the 
 only associates on board, and where nothing that I ever 
 said or did, as far as I could learn, ever met his disap- 
 probation. On my arrival in Bombay, Captain Boog 
 continued to possess the most favourable opinion of me, 
 and lost no opportunity of testifying his wish to have me 
 near himj and his desire to serve me. It was partly 
 through his influence, conjoined with that of other friends, 
 that I obtained an appointment to the command of a new 
 China ship then just launched and brought down to Bom- 
 bay from Damaun. I have at this moment letters in my 
 possession in Captain Boog's own hand, from 1815 to 
 181 7, both inclusive, which wiU show that, after the closest 
 intimacy of six months, in the most trying of all situations, 
 and the subsequent experience of a year and a half more 
 in the circle of my Bombay friends, he had neither seen, 
 heard, or known any thing of my character which induced 
 him to lessen the warmth of his friendly expressions to 
 me. Some of the notes and letters I may quote extracts 
 from, without a breach of confidence, as tket/ reveal tm 
 private affairs, but simply show his feeling of regard and 
 respect for me after this long acquaintance. The follow- 
 ing will perhaps suffice : — 
 
 It is most probable that after docking (the ship), we shall 
 proceed to Calcutta. I request you will let me know before 
 you think of making any arrangements *as to your passage in 
 any other ship. Our detention here will not, I think, exceed 
 one month more, so that I really flatter myself with the hopes 
 of enjoying the pleasure of your society on board the Svffenut 
 vi ijussooi again. — April 15, 1815. 
 
 A representation has been made to government respecting 
 the Imaum's ship, requesting British passport and register, to 
 enable Mahomet Aly to send her to China under English co- 
 lours. I have little doubt but tliat the application will be suc- 
 cessful, and I sincerely hope that you will be able to take ad- 
 vantage of the opportunity which offers of your commanding 
 her. The two ships will, no doubt, be in Cliina at the same 
 time, and I look forward with pleasure to out meeting and 
 living together in Cliina, — May 17, 1815. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 659 
 
 I uniJerstind Mahomet Aly Khan has succeeded in his ap- 
 plication for a passport, and I cannot imagine that the govern, 
 meat will be so brutal as to prevent you from taking the com- 
 mand of the ship. If you do not shortly receive an answer, I 
 shall be convinced that they do not mean to prevent your re- 
 maining in the country. — May 28,1815. 
 
 I am sorry, indeed, that we are living at so great a distance, 
 and are likely to have so few opportunities of meeting, and, on 
 that account, I wish more to insist upon your coming to pay me 
 a visit. I cannotexpress to you with what anxiety I opened your 
 note, concluding that I was to be made acquainted with either 
 a happy prospect opening upon you, or another instance of un- 
 merited misfortune. — May 29, 1815. 
 
 I received your note last night, and I need not tell you how 
 much I am affected at the unhappy result of your appli- 
 cation; you have, my dear sir, so many friends whose know- 
 ledge and judgment are so superior to what I possess, that any 
 suggestions of mine respecting any further steps to be taken may 
 appear presumptuous ; but I feel, that I should be dissatisiied 
 with myself, if any false delicacy should prevent me from hint- 
 ing any thing that appeared to have the most distant probability 
 of turning to your advantage. Might not a representation from 
 your friends, drawn up in the form of a petition to the gover- 
 nor, be likely to avert the threatened measures of government ? 
 I can easily prevent the Khan from disposing of your promised 
 appointment until the result of any future application may be 
 known. If an affidavit of mine, asserting my belief of your 
 being a nautical man, will be of any service, it could be done 
 immediately. Let me assure you, as far as my slender means 
 will allow me, I shall be ever proud to assist you, and to 
 reckon myself among the list of your friends, — Bombay, June 
 3, 1815. 
 
 These vi'ere the warm, and I firmly believe sincere, ex- 
 pressions of interest in my behalf, used by Captain Boog, 
 after he had been a personal witness of all that had passed 
 between Mr. Burckhardt and myself on board his own 
 ship; after he had known of my receiving the 300 dollars 
 Vfhich that traveller pressed upon me against my inclin- 
 ation, and out of funds supplied to him by a public body 
 in England, the African Association, which, he declared 
 he did not and should not want until it might be conve- 
 nient for me to return them from India; after I had been 
 with him six months on board his ship, living in the most 
 frank and confidential intercourse that could exist be- 
 tween man and man. I must add here, that indepen- 
 dently of Captain Boog desiring me to take a passage 
 with him round to Calcutta, as I had done from Jedda to 
 Bombay, he himself offered to lend me money if I should 
 go by any other vessel, and introductions to the persons 
 with whom he had formerly done business here, as he knew 
 that my means were most limited. I decUned, however, 
 all his pressing, and, I believe, sincere and well-meant, offers, 
 and did not receive the assistance he would have given 
 me, though I should certainly have taken it if my objects 
 were as fraudulent as have been pretended. 
 
 Although appointed to the command of the China ship 
 above alluded to, and with the fair prospect of a fortune 
 before me in a few years, the then governor of Bombay, 
 Sir Evan Nepean, had the cruelty to order me away from 
 the country, for no other reason than because I had not 
 a license, (having left England without any intention of 
 coming to India, and therefore never thinking of apply- 
 ing for one,) though at the same time his opinion of my 
 character, abilities, and pursuits, was so favourable, that 
 he himself placed a commendatory minute of these on 
 record, which was ofiicially transmitted to the Court at 
 home, as the grounds of a recommendation for a license 
 being sent out to me. I returned to Egypt with Mr. 
 Babington, made the Syrian journey, and returned again 
 to Bombay. Captain Boog was either then there, or ar- 
 rived about the same time; and to show that during this 
 period of nearly two years, no change had taken place in 
 his favourable opinion of me, I subjoin an extract of a 
 note received from him a few days after my arrival : — 
 
 I was very happy, indeed, when I heard of your being herct 
 
 I am very anxious to see you, having much to say, and many- 
 inquiries to make. I have taken a very comfortable bungalo at 
 Coulaba, where I shall be most happy if you will do me the 
 favour to spend a few days with me. I need make no apology 
 for not calling upon you immediately, as you are well aware of 
 my being necessarily very much engaged on the first day after 
 my arrival. If you are in the fort in the forenoon, I am always 
 to be found at Mahomet Aly's office, but I shall not be satisfied 
 with a short interview of that kind, and must insist upon your 
 giving me the pleasure of your company at my house for a few 
 days. — January 15, 1817. 
 
 It is remarkable enough that the very next letter which 
 I received from Captain Boog contains an appeal to my 
 love of justice and rectitude, and entreats me to do for 
 him, what every honest man must feel a pride in doing 
 for another, be he friend or foe; but the delight of 
 doing which, for those we esteem, can be known only by 
 such as have experienced it. The letter itself relates to a 
 private matter in which Captain Boog had become a party, 
 andofcoursel shall keep that in the secrecy which I 
 owe it to my own love of justice to maintain : but the 
 close of the letter will show what he thought of me in 
 January, 1817, two years and upwards after our first ac- 
 quaintance. It is this : — 
 
 You may easily conceive how mtich I am hurt at the occur- 
 rence of so unpleasant a circumstance, and how much reason I 
 have to fear of its being misrepresented. You, I am sure, 
 will do me the justice to believe, that the account which I gave 
 you yesterday, and what I tell you now is perfectly correct ; 
 and will do what is in your power to prevent its being told to 
 any of our friends to my disadvantage. — Jan. 21, 1817, 
 
 I did Captain Boog this justice, and put down those 
 who misrepresented him, wherever I met them ; as I 
 would do again were I to hear any ill spoken of him, 
 which I knew he did not deserve. Had Captain Boog 
 been influenced by that first maxim of Christian morality, 
 to do unto others as he would that others should do unto 
 him, he would have followed my example, and have done 
 me the justice which he has more than once received at 
 my hands. But that account must be settled with his 
 own conscience: it is no longer an affair of mine. 
 
 Whatever he had deposited in my bosom, in that con- 
 fidential intercourse, which it is not necessary for me to 
 say existed between us, since his letters prove it, and 
 these he will not deny, I, as an honest and honourable 
 man, have kept in that secrecy which no subsequent 
 change of opinion can justify any man in betraying. Of 
 me, he has not only published that which I might have 
 told him, but has added other matters which I did not 
 and could not have said, which have no foundation what- 
 ever, and which it is as disgraceful for any man to publish 
 as it is discreditable to any one to sit down deliberately 
 to write. This, however, must be quite satisfactory to 
 every one, that whatever I may have said of any part of 
 my former life to Captain Boog, whatever he may have 
 heard from my lips or those of others, up to the early part 
 of the year 1817, when his last letter to me is dated, 
 when our acquaintance had been of two years' duration, 
 and when we separated for the last time on terms of the 
 greatest friendship, if he be not the greatest hypocrite in 
 existence, and more double-faced than either Mr. Barker, 
 Mr. Bankes, or Mr. Burckhardt, such knowledge, whe- 
 ther of my earlier or my later history, could have made 
 no change in his favourable and friendly opinions of me ; 
 since up to that period, when we became separated, he 
 esteemed me so highly as to insist on my coming to live,^ 
 with him for some days, and made vw the depository of 
 his confidence, me the agent of setting his friends right 
 with regard to misrepresentations that had gone abroad 
 respecting him, and me the channel of advocating his cause 
 and rendering him justice in the eyes of others 1 If shame 
 and remorse can be felt for any thing, Captain Boog must 
 feel it on contrasting this with his attempts to degrade me 
 4 P 2 
 
660 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 in the estimation of mankind now. He began here, by 
 doing- a generous act, that of endeavouring to lessen, if 
 possible, the weight of odium which lay on the memory 
 of a man he esteemed. His generous intention was met 
 by a correspondent feeling on my part, and as the action 
 was a well-meant and an honourable one, I need not and 
 do not repent it. Had Captain Boog rested here, his 
 name would never have been called in question. But 
 after a month's silence, which every one must interpret 
 as indicating satisfaction, he joined the outcry raised by 
 the pretended Friend of Bankes, and what he had not the 
 firmness to do alone, he does when backed by others : 
 he acknowledges, that in consequence of the appeal of 
 Bankes's friend, he again entered the field; and not con- 
 tent with endeayourmg to whitewash Mr. Burckhardt's 
 deeds, he joins the rest in endeavouring to blacken mine : 
 he goes back even to the years of boyhood; he drags be- 
 fore the world, what, if ever told to him, must have been 
 in moments of the most implicit confidence, and which 
 can have no relation whatever to subsequent events in 
 manhood : he violates every bond that men hold sacred 
 among each other; and, blind with rage and disappoint- 
 ment, and rendered furious by defeat, he adds to his own 
 shame, confusion, and discomfiture, by making the last of 
 his acts more violent and unjustifiable than any that have 
 gone before, till he is in the condition of that man who 
 combined with seven other spirits more wicked than him- 
 self, and became in his last state infinitely worse _than at 
 first. 
 
 These are facts on which the world will not fail to pro- 
 nounce a right opinion; and to their judgment I shall 
 leave them, while I return to the narrative thus for a mo- 
 ment interrupted. 
 
 The nature of the intercourse between Captain Boog 
 and myself, up to the period of our parting at Bombay, 
 in April, 1817, was the most friendly that could be main- 
 tained ; and when the celebrated ' paper' of Mr. Burck- 
 hardt reached Bombay, about February, 1817, and was 
 shown to him among others, he was one of those who 
 expressed himself most shocked at its violence, and who 
 imhesitatingly confessed that he considered my reply to 
 the charges it contained, as full and satisfactory ! No 
 change took place in his friendly demeanour; and he 
 knows well that no change took place in the friendly 
 countenance of any of my Bombay friends, by whom the 
 ' paper' and my reply to it were seen. He knows that 
 such was his professed friendship for me, after that paper 
 had been read and answered, that he readily took charge 
 of the 300 dollars sent from Bombay to repay Mr. Burck- 
 hardt, that he took charge of a copy of my reply to 
 deliver to him, which he read and approved, and that I 
 accompanied him out of the harbour on board his own 
 ship, took a parting dinner while the vessel was under 
 way on her voyage to Suez, and after the most friendly 
 interchange of good wishes, returned with the pilot who 
 took her out. 
 
 After parting with Captain Boog on this occasion, I 
 went in my own ship to the Persian Gulph, and on my 
 return about twelve months after. Captain Boog was still 
 absent ; but nothing had reached Bombay from Suez or 
 Egypt in this interval, which had changed the opinion of 
 any one of my Bombay friends towards me. If it were in 
 this interval that Captain Boog delivered Mr. Burckhardt's 
 reply to Mr. Wedderburn in my absence, I can only say 
 that it produced a more unfavourable opinion of its writer 
 than the first ' paper' on the minds of those who saw it ; 
 since, in return for the most generous attempt to retrieve 
 a person from error, and to bring him back to reason 
 and truth, only fresh insults, fresh calumnies, vituper- 
 ation, and abuse, were offered; and having once inflicted 
 injury, it seemed that he never could relent or forgive. 
 What was the fate of that reply I have at this moment 
 no recollection, any more than I have of the date on 
 
 which I first received it; but of its merits this may be 
 considered a fair test, that not a single friend in Bombay 
 who had before honoured me with his esteem and confi- 
 dence, at all changed his behaviour towards me ; and that 
 Mr. Babington, the very best judge of the whole question 
 in dispute, wrote his letter to his brother to defend me 
 from these aspersions, after having heard the original 
 ' paper' read to him, after having seen my reply, and after 
 having also seen the last answer of Mr. Burckhardt which 
 closed our correspondence; so that he wrote after being 
 in full possession of all that had been written on both 
 sides, and then pronounced his opinion of Mr. Burck- 
 hardt's criminality, and of my innocence of all that he 
 had laid to my charge, as far as his knowledge, conviction, 
 and belief extended. This document is so important that 
 I trust I shall be forgiven for republishing it, as promised, 
 here : — 
 
 LETTER AND ENCLOSURE. 
 
 Tannah, April 4, 1819. 
 My dear Buckingham, 
 At the request of my brother Benjamin, I have the pleasure 
 to forward to you the copy of a letter which he prepared and 
 transmitted to me, on a subject immediately connected with 
 yourself ; and I have the more gratification in complying with 
 his wishes, as it affords me the opportunity of letting you know 
 how we and the rest of your friends in this quarter of India 
 have been getting on since you left us. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 S. BABINGTON. 
 
 Letter from Benjamin Babington, Esq. of the H. C. Civil 
 Service, Madras, to his brother, Stephen Babington, Esq. 
 of the H. C. Civil Service, at Bombay. 
 
 My dear Stephen, 
 
 I take up my pen to remark on certain ill-founded assertions 
 which have been made public by Sheik Ibrahim (Mr. Burck- 
 hardt), of Cairo, apparently for the purpose of injuring the 
 character of Mr. Buckingham, and I wish to make you the 
 medium of communicating to his friehds at Bombay what. I 
 am about to say in refutation of them ; as well because you 
 are acquainted with most of those concerned, and are interested 
 in the welfare of my companion, as that you may exercise your 
 discretion in correcting any of my expressions which appear to 
 you misplaced or intemperate. 
 
 I am in possession of Mr. Buckingham's answer to Sheik 
 Ibrahim, and the consequent reply of the latter. The paper 
 ' on Buckingham' was also once read to me, but I have it not 
 at hand, which I regret, because I shall not, perhaps, be able 
 from memory to state all that might occur to me on a deliberate 
 examination of the accusations. 
 
 It would be going out of my way to touch on any facts but 
 those regarding which my testimony, as an eye-witness, must 
 be held worthy of some credit ; but to withhold my evidence on 
 these would not only be unjust to Mr. Buckingham, but, as I 
 am especially called on, u disappointment to Sheik Ibrahim 
 himself. 
 
 You cannot but be aware that my mind was directed to the 
 going home overland, long before I knew even of IMr. Buck- 
 ingham's existence. Before I left Madras I received a letter 
 from you, stating the practicability of tlie route, and in the 
 first page of my journal, written about tlie same time, the op- 
 portunity afforded of getting to Bussora, or the Red Sea, is 
 mentioned as one cause of my proceeding first to Bombay. I 
 am willing to admit that an account of the entertainment I 
 should receive by the way had some effect in determining my 
 choice ; but I deny that it was a false account, for I verified, 
 on experiment, all I heard. Mr. Buckingham's descriptions, 
 if I mistake not, were given at a time when he had no intention 
 of going to Egypt, and my inclination to take the Red Sea 
 route was still stiong when he was likely to become master of 
 the Wellesley • ; surely, then, he stands exonerated from any 
 
 * A new 74-gun ship built at Bombay, and just launclied, 
 to which I was then about to be appointed. — J. S. B. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 661 
 
 sinistet design ih dfawing a lively picture of the scenes he had 
 just been delighted by visiting. 
 
 For Sheik Ibrahim's attention to me while in Cairo I am 
 very much obliged to him. They were such as one gentleman 
 would be likely to pay another, and which I should much wish 
 an opportunity to return. He finds fault with Mr. Bucking- 
 ham, however, for having left me on his hands : and he cer- 
 tainly does not increase my debt of gratitude by the remark. 
 But let us examine how far it is correct. Mr. Buckingham 
 lodged me in the Catholic convefit, where I messed, and was 
 provided with every thing I needed, and the Sheik was merely 
 requested to give me advice respecting my visits to the pyramids, 
 &c. , and to introduce me to his acquaintance among the Franks ; 
 surely there was nothing very difficult in the task of hospitality 
 he had thus to perform. 
 
 He pretends, indeed, that in his character as an Arab it was 
 peculiarly dangerous and injurious to his views to be seen in 
 my company ; but how is this borne out by his general conduct? 
 He was in the habit of visiting at the houses of several Franks 
 while I was in Cairo ; and, by his own account, he had been 
 often with Messrs. Legh and Smelt, as their work indeed shows ; 
 often with Mr. Bankes ; and still oftener with Colonel Missett. 
 Sheik Ibrahim cannot seriously suppose that among Arabs he 
 passes for one. I have it from excellent authority that he could 
 not open his lips before a native of the country without betray- 
 ing that he is a foreigner. If we apply the case to a foreigner 
 in our own country, especially if he be an Arab, we shall feel 
 convinced that it could not be otherwise. There is not, I be- 
 lieve, any doubt in the mind of the natives, certainly not in that 
 of my informer, as to his being a Mussulman, since there are 
 renegadoes of all nations. 
 
 I must here observe, that when Sheik Ibrahim mentions my 
 being in the same house with him for a fortnight ( I think this 
 is his expression), it is a mistake or inadvertency. I never 
 lived in the same house with him, as my journals, written at the 
 time, will show. He affirms that his residence with rae enabled 
 him to get at the bottom of my opinion of Mr. Buckingham ; 
 and that I told him of my having paid all our joint charges on 
 the way from India to Suez. How far a gentleman is justified 
 in publishing a private conversation involving the opinions of 
 another I will not stop to inquire. I averred to Sheik Ibrahim 
 my belief, that I had borne the greater part of the current ex- 
 pences of our voyage, and that the account when balanced 
 would appear much in my favour, I also coincided with 
 him in thinking Mr. Buckingham's history so es^traordinary, 
 that it yet required proofs to establish its truth; I qualified 
 these remarks, however, by saying, that I had never discovered 
 him in a falsehood, and that doubts respecting the state of our 
 accounts still remained, as we had never settled them. This, as 
 far as I recollect of a conversation which took place nearly 
 three years ago, is the substance of what passed between us, 
 and I believe we never spoke but once on the subject. 
 
 On reaching Alexandria I found out the error of my calcu- 
 lation. This arose from my having omitted to take in the ex- 
 pense of provisions that had been procured in Bombay for our 
 voyage, which cost a larger sum than I had expended on the 
 passage, and to the purchase of which I had not contributed. 
 Whether these provisions were furnished at Mr. Buckingham's 
 or at Mr, Wedderburn's expense, it was not my business to 
 inquire ; but as a proof that the former did not wish to deceive 
 me in this respect, I shall here give an extract from a letter 
 dated December 6, 1815, which he wrote me regarding our 
 accounts, at a time when he expected to quit Alexandria before 
 I should arrive there : — 
 
 ' The account of disbursements on our voyage from Bombay 
 to Cairo I have left here for your inspection. By it you will 
 see that the whole sum expended has been 669 dollars ; that 
 the united sum of what was paid by Mr. Wedderburn for me 
 in Bombay for our stock, with 135 dollars and sequins brought 
 from thence in money, amounts to 334 dollars ; that tlie sum 
 advanced by you at {HfTerent dates and places specified in the 
 account, amounts to 343 dollars ; and that the balance remain- 
 ing due to you is, therefore, by this statement, nine dollars, or 
 ten including all fractions.* 
 
 If we consider the advances made by Mr. Wedderburn as 
 borrowed, I cannot perceive that Mr. Buckingham was guilty 
 of the least impropriety in charging me with the provisions ; 
 it would have been giving them to me not to do so ; and all 
 
 will allow that he was not In circumstances to make it laudable 
 or even honest to make me a present. 
 
 I am sorry to observe, however, that all which is advanced, 
 as well respecting my opinion of Mr, Buckingham, as on the 
 state of our accounts, cannot but be wilful misrepresentation ; 
 for no sooner did I arrive at Alexandria, and discover the error 
 that I had laboured under, than I wrote to Sheik Ibrahim, 
 acquainting him in a detailed manner with the circumstance, and 
 stating the confirmed belief I had in my companion's integrity. 
 
 I made no copy of this letter, and I repeat its substance 
 from memory, but to the fact of having written it I am ready 
 to swear. 
 
 As for Mr. Buckingham's * brushing up a bill of fare to 
 balance arrears with m^e,' I should express myself far otherwise 
 than temperately, were I to give way to my feelings regarding 
 that assertion. It is at least as severe an attack upon my 
 understanding, as on my friend's principles. 
 
 The account that was delivered to me was the original that 
 had been written at the time the several charges arose ; and as 
 I was present at all purchases and bargains, there could be no 
 deception. 
 
 The very amount of the sum expended is a sufficient proof 
 that the account was genuine; and I feel very confident, 
 though I have long lost or destroyed the statement, that I could, 
 at this distant period, call to mind items that could make up at 
 least three-fourths of it. 
 
 That I offered to lend Mr. Buckingham a hundred pounds, 
 and even pressed him to accept it, is perfectly true, and equally 
 so that he borrowed only twenty sequins. My desire to serve 
 him would not, as he knew, have been at all lessened by his 
 acceptance of either sum ; nor could he, if dishonourable, have 
 had any motive for refusing the larger one. His reason for 
 doing so was, as he stated, that he only wanted sufficient money 
 to carry him to Syria, whence his expences were to be paid by 
 his employers as far as India. 
 
 The assertions that he had ill treated and abandoned his wife, 
 and that a subscription had been raised for her on account of 
 her extreme poverty, did not, I believe, originate with Sheik 
 Ibrahim ; though, by inserting them among his own accusa- 
 tions, he has become responsible for their truth. 
 
 Without enlarging on the improbability that Mr. Bucking- 
 ham would direct his endeavours to having that wife whom he 
 had ill-treated and abandoned brought out to India (and this I 
 could prove that he has done, if it were worth while), I shall 
 appeal to the testimony of the lady herself, who must be ad- 
 mitted as an incontrovertible evidence in this case. In so doing 
 I have to apologise to her for quoting passages of her letters to 
 me, which I trust she will excuse, on consideration of the end 
 which is thus to be answered. The following are extracts frojn 
 a letter dated January 9, 1817 : — 
 
 * You say it is your intention to quit this country for India, 
 about the middle of the ensuing February. What extreme 
 pleasure would it afford me were I so soon to leave it ! for, 
 believe me, I am heartily tired of being so long separated from 
 my dearest connections. 
 
 * Notwithstanding that I am settled in the bosom of my 
 family, and that the happiness of being surrounded by those 
 who are endeared to us by the ties of kindred is one of the 
 highest kind, yet it affords but a very inadequate compensation 
 for the loss of the society of him who is dearer to me than my 
 own existence. I trust we shall not much longer be separated; 
 for I feel my own happiness so essentially interwoven with a 
 participation in his fate, that nothing but the hope of our soon 
 meeting again affords me a gleam of consolation. Were I to 
 give way to my feelings I should go on to panegyrise him ; but 
 I will wave so unnecessary a task, under a conviction that no- 
 thing that I might feel or express could possibly increase a 
 merit so conspicuous, and which I am persuaded, however 
 highly I may estimate it, I do not view through too magnifie'd a 
 medium, 
 
 * It is, indeed, extremely gratifyng to me to observe that he 
 has met with so much attention everywhere, and that even 
 strangers have conferred on him the most unlimited kindness, 
 a circumstance which will always afford the most pleasing 
 recollections. I sincerely hope he may remain in India, as I 
 think it will be more advantageous to him. If so, you will no 
 doubt meet him on your arrival there ; under this idea I have 
 requested Captain , if possible, to see you, and give you 
 
662 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 every information in his power relative to my dear little chil- 
 dren, that you may be enabled to tell their father how much they 
 are grown, the good state of their health, &c. 
 
 ' Since I had the pleasure of hearing from you I have re- 
 ceived a very long and interesting letttr from him,' &c. 
 
 I have another letter from Mrs. Buckingham, expressing 
 throughout the same glowing affection for her husband ; but 
 what I have already quoted will be sufficient to remove all 
 doubts as to their reciprocal feelings. My letters to Mrs. 
 Buckingham were partly on the subject of her affairs ; and her 
 total silence as to distress is enough to convince that she was 
 never reduced to the straits mentioned by Sheik Ibrahim ; at 
 least if his assertion applies to any period prior to January, 
 1817, and I think his ' Paper on Buckingham,' is of earlier 
 date ; but further, I saw Mr. Buckingham's sister, Mrs. 
 Humphries, in London, in December, 1816, and though I 
 made particular inquiries respecting his family, nothing of the 
 kind was stated. I also saw Mrs. Buckingham's friends, Blr. 
 Brant and Mr. Hoskin, who, if money was to be advanced 
 for her support, would have been no doubt among the first to 
 come forward. Though I was consulting with these gentle- 
 men on the very subject of Mrs. B.'s affairs, they mentioned 
 not any pecuniary distresses. All were silent on this point ; 
 while all confirmed the truth of Mr. Buckingham's extraordi- 
 nary history. 
 
 This was to be expected ; and the Sheik's abusive remark, 
 that ' my companion was more fool than rogue,' would indeed 
 have been verified, if he had introduced me to people whom he 
 did not know, or who were likely to be the means of detecting 
 liim in falsehood. 
 
 It is brought as an accusation against him that he did not 
 pay for his passage to Mocha ; Captain Maillard can settle this 
 point, by saying whether any deceit was used by Mr. Buck- 
 ingham in holding out hopes of remuneration for his passage, 
 and whether such remuneration be deemed customary between 
 gentlemen of the same profession. Captain Boog, also, should 
 be called on for his testimony respecting the truth of such ac- 
 cusations as refer to events transacted in his presence, * 
 
 So extended, indeed, is the period to which these accusations 
 apply, that even supposing them false, it cannot come within 
 the compass of any one person's positive knowledge that they 
 are so. 
 
 In the foregoing defence I may have omitted some points 
 that, if my memory served me, I could throw light upon. If, 
 however, I have disproved even one unjust accusation, I shall 
 not have taken up my pen in vain ; for a single falsehood, 
 whether uttered intentionally, or from erroneous impressions, 
 must affect the credit of all assertions from the same source, 
 and make an impartial judge suspend his opinion, at least, till 
 he has heard both sides of the question. 
 
 I cannot close my letter without expressing my disgust at 
 the abusive style of language used throughout the ' Paper on 
 Buckingham ;' language which, even if applicable to the object 
 against which it was levelled, it is surely beneath the dignity of 
 a gentleman to use. If we contrast this abuse with the uncom- 
 monly kind expressions of extreme regard uttered at the very 
 time when the feelings which gave rise to the accusations were 
 the strongest, we shall find it difficult to put much faith in 
 Sheik Ibrahim's sincerity in expressing either his regard or 
 contempt ; and this circumstance alone must weaken our con- 
 fidence in the disinterestedness of his assertions. 
 Believe me, my dear Stephen, 
 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 B. BABINGTON. 
 
 P. S. Since writing the above I have, with much regret, 
 heard of the death of Sheik Ibrahim. This circumstance 
 
 * Captain Boog was the person who took my reply to Egypt; 
 who read and approved of it before it was sent ; and who then 
 considered the charges of Mr. Burckhardt's ' paper' false and 
 unfounded ; who took back for me the 300 dollars to repay 
 Sheik Ibrahim, and whose behaviour to me up to the period of 
 our parting in Bombay was such as to furnish the strongest 
 possible testimony of his considering me an innocent as well as 
 an injured man ; unless his thoughts and deeds were at variance 
 with each other, of which of course he alone can be a judge. — 
 J. S. B. 
 
 makes it more necessary than ever that the truth may be known 
 respecting Mr. Buckingham's character, because the Sheik's 
 papers may do him irreparable injury. I do not think it 
 worth while to alter this letter. 
 
 I shall not attempt to weaken the value of this testi- 
 mony, by adding any comment of my own to a reply at 
 once so clear, so manly, and so entirely in the spirit of an 
 upright witness, a perfect gentleman, and a smcere yet 
 conscientious friend. I need only mention that up to the 
 latest period of my advices from England, three years 
 after this was written, I have no reason to believe the 
 slightest change has taken place in the opinions there ex- 
 pressed. I pass on, therefore, to the consideration of 
 another charge, on which, as on all the others, great stress 
 has been laid, though its foundation is quite as sandy as 
 all the preceding ones. 
 
 XXII. SELF-INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIETY OF CALCUTTA, 
 AS MB. BUECKHAKDt's BOSOM FRIEND. 
 
 I came round to Calcutta in my own ship, where I 
 arrived in June, 1818. In September of the same year, 
 at the suggestion of several friends, who thought favour- 
 ably of my capacity for the task, I undertook the duties 
 of a public editor, and in October folio wing, I published the 
 first number of the Calcutta Journal. I had by this time 
 digested the materials of the Travels in Palestine, had had 
 a long interview with Lord Hastings, and obtained his per- 
 mission to dedicate the book to him, had passed many days 
 with the late Bishop, and had seen and become intimate 
 with the principal literary characters and families of dis- 
 tinction in this city. I enumerate these particulars not 
 from vanity, but for the purpose of challenging contra- 
 diction, when I assert, that with the single exception of 
 Lord Hastings himself, I did not meet with one indiWdu^ 
 in this whole city, to whom Mr. Burckhardt was known; 
 and he was known to his lordship only as a young Swiss, 
 sent out at the expence of the African Association, of 
 which Lord Hastings was a member; nor do I believe 
 there were ten individuals in Calcutta who had ever heard 
 of Mr. Burckhardt, and certainly not one to whom my 
 calling myself his friend, could have been the slightest 
 recommendation whatever. It is asserted, however, by 
 the Fhiend of Bankes, that I introduced myself to 
 this society as the bosom friend of Mr. Burckhardt, whose 
 esteem I professed to have enjoyed up to the day of his 
 death ; and that I was received at the tables of several 
 families in Calcutta, as a friend of this Mr, Burckhardt, 
 whom not a single family in Calcutta knew, or had ever 
 heard of, either as a traveller or a man ! My introductions 
 to most of the first families of Calcutta were by letters from 
 their friends at Bombay, Madras, and elsewhere; and b^ 
 yond this, my acquaintance was never once made with 
 any single individual as ' the bosom friend' of Mr. Burck- 
 hardt. Indeed it would have been as absurd to look for 
 a kinder reception on that account, as fi-om being a friend 
 of Mr. Bankes, who was then quite as unknown as Mr. 
 Burckhardt to any member of this ' limited society,' and 
 who has even now, it would seem, no better ' fbiend' in 
 it, than a man who professes that he has no personal 
 acquaintance with him and no personal regard for him ! 
 and who, I believe, only advocates his cause, and openly 
 calls himself his friend, because he is mi/ secret though 
 bitter enemy. 
 
 This material charge of my having represented myself 
 to this society, with a view to deceive them and benefit 
 myself, as the bosom friend of Mr. Burckhardt, and as 
 having enjoyed his respect and esteem up to the day of his 
 death is, however, as false as every other that has been 
 advanced against me, and I hope to satisfy even my ene- 
 mies that I am not guilty of it. When the prospectus of 
 my Travels in Palestine was published, Mr. Burckhardt's 
 death was known to me. Those very persons who now 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 663 
 
 cry out against the baseness of my calumniating the absent 
 and the dead, will surely applaud my forbearance, under 
 the influence of the very feelings which they profess to 
 entertain. I had loved and esteemed Mr. Biirckhardt as 
 a brother ; for mt/ professions of regard were neither 
 hollow nor affected. He had striven to do me unmerited 
 injury; and had returned aJl my subsequent indulgence 
 and forbearance with new and aggravated insults. But he 
 was numbered with the dead ; and even had I any lurking 
 desire of vengeance (which I thank God I never did en- 
 tertain towards any living being for more than a mo- 
 ment), the thought of his death, and of his being gone to 
 give his last account before a higher tribunal, would have 
 stayed my hand. 
 
 Do we live among Christians, who preach forgiveness 
 of injuries as the highest of virtues, who tell us to bless 
 those who persecute us, to pray for those who despite- 
 fully use us, who enjoin us to return good for evil, and 
 bid us imitate the example of that bright pattern whose 
 last prayer for his murderers was — ' Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do ?' Must we hear this as 
 the essence of the highest and most sublime morality ; and 
 shall forbearance towards a dead and deluded enemy be 
 accounted a crime ? Shame on such Christians, who know 
 so little how to practise what they preach ! 
 
 In the prospectus to the Travels in Palestine, which was 
 a mere narrative of the events connected with my jour- 
 nies,I spoke of Mr. Burckhardt, as ' the late lamented and 
 accomplished traveller,' epithets which were strictly true; 
 and he was by none more sincerely lamented than by my- 
 self; for I believed then, and I believe to this hour, 
 that, had he lived, a day would yet have arrived when he 
 would have done his utmost to render me justice, as I am 
 quite sure I should do to any man breathing whom I 
 thought I had wronged. In another part of the same pro- 
 spectus, I spoke of Mr. Burckhardt as my 'former friend ;' 
 in what sense I used that phrase I do not now remember : 
 it might have been as relating to his death, or as relating 
 to his change of sentiment ; it is at least capable of the 
 last interpretation, and charity would so construe it : but 
 the malignity against which I have to contend would, of 
 course, never listen to such a reading. Be this as it may, 
 there is no portion of the whole prospectus which either 
 asserts or insinuates that I enjoyed Mr. Burckhardt's 
 friendship beyond the period there adverted to ; and that 
 I did then, his own letters unequivocally prove. 
 
 The mighty crime of which I have been guilty towards 
 this mistaken and deluded individual is, therefore, this; 
 that with all the recollections of our former intimacy, 
 added to the knowledge of his subsequent death, I did not 
 obtrude either upon the world or on private society, the 
 tale of Mr. Burckhardt's unwarrantable attempts to ruin 
 and degrade me ; and though I never asserted to any hu- 
 man being that I enjoyed his friendship up to the hour of 
 his death, I was yet so moved to forbearance by the 
 knowledge of that sad event, as to bury the injuries he 
 had done me in my own bosom, and to speak of his gene- 
 ral accomplishments, and general character, as if his con- 
 duct to me had been blotted out from the record alto- 
 gether. I am vain enough to believe that there are few 
 men who would have had the magnanimity to do this ; 
 and that a sullen silence would have been all that even 
 welWisposed and ordinarily generous men would have 
 observed. But surely those who still hold up Mr. Burck- 
 hardt as a ' venerable (dying at the age of 50), pure, and 
 immaculate character,' and who tax me with base ingrati- 
 tude for saying ant/ thing to his discredit, should be 
 the last to charge me with the crime of keeping what I 
 did know to his shame, from the public eye, when he was 
 laid in the silent grave ! Yet these are the very men who 
 are loudest in their reproaches. Such is the blindness 
 and inconsistency into which hatred plunges even sensible 
 minds; like the intoxication of any other passion, that of 
 
 hatred amounts almost to madness, and never was rage 
 more blind in the direction of its fury than in the present 
 instance. 
 
 In the month of November, 1818, the authentic ac- 
 count of Mr. Burckhardt's death, which had before 
 reached this country from Egypt, came to India in a num- 
 ber of The Quarterly Review. This was republished in 
 the public papers here ; and observing the interest that it 
 then excited, I should have been deservedly condemned, if 
 I had attempted to blot the fair fame with which his name 
 was associated, by obtruding his quarrel with me upon the 
 world. With the single exception of myself, he may never 
 have behaved ill to any one : he had never met with an- 
 other, perhaps, of whom he had so much reason to be 
 jealous, if fame as a traveller in Palestine were his object, 
 nor with any one from whose frank and unsuspecting dis- 
 position he had been able to learn so much that was ca- 
 pable of being perverted and distorted to his injury. At 
 all events there was now, as before, the ' still small voice' 
 which whispered that the grave contained his earthly re- 
 mains, and that he was no more able to answer in his de- 
 fence. I therefore added to the account of his last 
 moments, which appeared in a letter from Mr. Salt at 
 Cairo, several extracts from my manuscript journal, detail- 
 ing all that I could find interesting relating to Mr. Burck- 
 hardt, and the history of our meetings on the Nile and at 
 Jedda more particularly, including all that occurred in the 
 presence and hearing of Captain Boog. Even this, how- 
 ever, I introduced by saying, that ' though the form and 
 style of a journal, written while all the impressions it re- 
 cords are yet warm upon the mind, are objectionable to 
 some; yet, in our opinion, it is this very freshness and ge- 
 nuine glow of truth about them, which give to loose 
 memoranda of this description, their highest charm ; and 
 with this belief we choose rather to hazard the imperfections 
 they may contain than alter a single phuase of the 
 journal in which they are, preserved.' — Nor did I. — I 
 spoke of this traveller as I then found him, and then 
 believed him to be; and left for Mr.Burckhardt, Mr.Bankes, 
 and their avowed frierids, the task of pronouncing a man 
 at one period every thing that is admirable, and at 
 another every thing that is contemptible, merely be- 
 cause they have done him deep and grievous injuries, 
 and therefore seek to justify a hatred of which they have 
 not the courage to avow the true cause, envy of superior 
 skill and industry, and jealousy of the fame and fortune 
 that is likely to reward a perseverance in an honest cause, 
 and a firmness that they know not how to imitate or ap- 
 preciate. 
 
 Throughout the whole of what I then published, how- 
 ever, I never said that I enjoyed Mr. Burckhardt's friend- 
 ship or esteem up to the day of his death ; I spoke of him 
 as an accomplished traveller, and an excellent man, which 
 I was still inclined to hope that he might be, notwithstand- 
 ing the delusion under which he laboured with respect to 
 myself; and even still more lately I gave it as my opinion, 
 that if he had lived he might have been made sensible of his 
 errors ; and, if so, that he would have had the virtue to en- 
 deavour at least to atone for them. This, then, is the way 
 in which I have revenged myself for Mr. Burckhardt's inju- 
 ries to me, by keeping back the tale of his misdeeds, and 
 suffering my respect for the sanctity of the dead, and 
 my remembrance of past kindness, to obliterate from my 
 heart every rising desire of retaliation that nature would 
 necessarily prompt. This is my crime; and they who call 
 themselves Christians would denounce me as an outcast, 
 for practising, at the expence of many a hard struggle, the 
 purest and most sublime virtue of their creed ! Shame on 
 such hypocritical perversion of all that is open and manly ! 
 
 Not long after this, Captain Boog was in Calcutta; and 
 it was then, for the first time, that I learnt any change in 
 his sentiments towards me. At that period, all that I had 
 said of Mr. Burckhardt was before the world, and known 
 
e6i 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 no doubt to him also ; so that if my conduct had appeared 
 wrong in giving myself out as the bosom friend of an 
 individual who had done all he could to express his en- 
 mity to me, it was in the power of Captain Boog to have 
 undeceived the world at that early period, had he thought 
 it a matter of importance so to do. He then had an op- 
 portunity of seeing also the reply of Mr. Babington to 
 the charges of Mr. Burckhardt, written after Mr. Babing- 
 ton had seen Mr. Burckhardt's original paper and his last 
 rejoinder; and if this made no impression on his mind, it 
 only proves how much less open to conviction it was, than 
 the mind of my friend who penned it, and who was the 
 most competent witness that could be cited in the case. I 
 had the same desire to retain Captain Boog's good opinion 
 as I had to retain Mr. Burckhardt's ; and gratitude to 
 both those individuals influenced me more than it appears 
 either of them conceived, in confining the story of our 
 differences to my own breast ; for I did not even commu- 
 nicate them to many of ray confidential friends ; and 
 ishould never have thought of adverting to them in a pub- 
 lic paper, had I not been driven to the necessity of either 
 doing this, or suffering my reputation to be blasted for 
 •ever, 
 
 XXIII. CHARGE OF UNJUSTIFIABLE FUSLICATION. 
 
 Next came the letter of Mr. Bankes from Thebes, ac- 
 cusing me of being about to make use of his notes, though 
 he knew not what I was going to publish ; of ignorance, 
 incapacity, &c. &c. In this letter, Mr. Bankes admits that 
 Mr. Burckhardt's letters to him first changed his good 
 opinion of me. He then copies some of the most insult- 
 ing expressions of Mr. Burckhardt's ' paper' as applied to 
 myself; and tells me that these sentiments were not con- 
 fined tothe pages of a single letter, but that during the 
 last two years of his life this ' excellent person' lost no 
 opportunity of testifying his contempt and aversion for my 
 character. 
 
 All this I bore with that calmness and fortitude which 
 it is in vain to affect, and which none but the innocent 
 can know. I assembled together my friends, to lay before 
 them certain accusations which, had I been guilty, I 
 should have been too happy to have kept an inviolable se- 
 cret. My first step was to prove to them, from Mr. 
 Bankes's own letters, that much of what he said of me 
 could not be true ; next to show them my notes of the 
 journey made to Jerash after our separation ; and, lastly, 
 to produce the draftsman who constructed the plan of 
 that city from my own materials, though Mr. Bankes in- 
 sisted on it that it was copied from a tracing of his own, 
 which on comparison it scarcely at all resembled. When 
 nine of the most estimable and respectable members of 
 this society were satisfied on these points, I produced to 
 them also Mr. Babington's complete refutation of Mr. 
 Burckhardt's calumnies, on which calumnies Mr. Bankes 
 admitted that his contempt for me was originally grounded, 
 ■SPhey were equally satisfied with this; and every new en- 
 quiry only served to make their conviction of my inno- 
 cence clearer and stronger than before. 
 
 I was even then urged by many to publish the whole of 
 these transactions from beginning to end ; but my answer 
 to all such intreaties was invariably this ; — that, as one of 
 the individuals was absent and the other dead, and as 
 their calumnies against me had not been issued to the 
 world through the press, I should for the present content 
 myself with obtaining notarial copies of all these docu- 
 ments, and send them to England for the purpose of coun- 
 teracting the influence which such misrepresentations 
 might be supposed to have there, and await the publication 
 of my book for further measures. 
 
 This was accordingly done. The papers were sent home 
 in 1820, and reached England in triplicate, about the 
 beginning of the next year. . I have evidence of Mr. 
 Bankes being in England from 1880 up to 1822, I have 
 evidence of his having received a letter from me in June, 
 
 1820, which he returned unopened ; and he was in town 
 during the whole of the period the book was advertising 
 by Longman and Co., during the time it was. publishing, 
 and while it was reviewing. He knew also of the transfer 
 of the book from Murray to Longman, and of the latter 
 having only consented to publish it after a delay of nearly 
 two years, in consequence of their entire satisfaction with 
 the refutation of Mr. Bankes's and Mr. Burckhardt's ca- 
 lumnies sent home to them. Yet during all this time he re- 
 mained silent. At length came The Quarterly Review, 
 and after my book had been praised by every other pe- 
 riodical publication, spoken of highly in private literary 
 circles, quoted from extensively in Dr. Burder's new edi- 
 tion of Scriptural Illustrations, and, above all, passing into 
 a second edition within an almost unprecedented short 
 space of time for a book of travels. The Quarterly at- 
 tempts to stamp it with every species of reprobation that 
 the ingenuity and malignity of its conductors could sup- 
 ply. In their review, if such a tissue of malevolent mis- 
 representation can be so called, they say, — 
 
 His transactions with Mr. Bankes seem to have been an 
 episode in liis plan ; we have jiot ortly the statement of that 
 GENTLEMAN with respect to them, but have seen also tke dejiosi- 
 tion upon oath of his servants, that Mr. Buckingham bore no 
 part whatever, either in the dispositions or the expenses of the 
 journies beyond the Jordan ; that he never made a single sketch 
 during this time, nor had materials for so doing, and has, more- 
 over, been heard to lament his inability ; that the plan which is 
 the ground-work of that here given of Djerash was made by 
 Mr. Bankes, and traced, by his permission, at a window of the 
 convent of Nazareth, by Mr. Buckingham, upon a direct pro- 
 mise that it should never be published. 
 
 Here is a direct avowal of Mr, Bankes giving his state- 
 ments and the depositions of his servants on oath to the 
 Reviewer as materials for his review, Mr. Bankes is then 
 a party, and a principal one, to the calumnies therein 
 contained. It is true, that his statelment and the oath of 
 his servants (one an Albanian renegado, and the other a 
 Portuguese valet), were equally destitute of value ; since 
 incontestible evidence of a much safer kind (Mr. Bankes's 
 own letters in my possession, and the written testimony of 
 the gentlemen in Calcutta) proves my having gone over a 
 large portion of the country beyond Jordan, not only free 
 of Mr. Bankes's ' dispositions or expense,' but without his 
 company, and that he knew of this, and acknowledges 
 seeing my notes on these very portions; while the deposi- 
 tion of Mr. Hamilton, of the Sul-veyor-General's ofiice 
 in Calcutta, and a comparison of the tracing and the en- 
 graved plan prove that the one was of no use whatever in 
 constructing the other ! So much for the accuracy of 
 this gentleman's statements and his servants' oaths, But 
 my object in adverting to this is to show, that Mr. 
 Bankes having made himself a party to the calumnies in 
 The Quarterly Review, (if he did not write the article 
 itself, which I still think probable,) the time for me to re- 
 pel these calumnies as publicly was arrived, and the limits 
 of just forbearance were broken down. The John Bull, in- 
 deed, sagaciously surmised, that as none of the Calcutta 
 papers had republished this article from The Quarterly 
 Review, I was not justified in repelling it through my 
 paper, or introducing the subject through that channel to 
 the Indian public. Profound reasoner ! Why, for one 
 copy that is circulated of the John Bull, there is perhaps 
 a hundred of.The Quarteriy Review, and its articles are 
 copied and recopied from paper to paper in all quarters of 
 the civilised worid, till, perhaps, a million of impressions 
 may be made in the aggregate of any article that has the 
 particular charm of personality and malignity, like that on 
 the ' Travels in Palestine,' to recommend it. I was 
 bound, therefore, to repel these calumnies without delay, 
 and in the most public manner possible. My own 
 paper was the only channel in which 1 could hope to do 
 this effectually, in India, and that I accordingly chose. In 
 entering on the subject it was necessary to go to the root. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 665 
 
 With a fairness and honesty, therefore, seldom seen in 
 literary controversj', I republished the whole article from 
 the Review, and never, perhaps, were its mere criticisms 
 made to appear more contemptible than on that occasion. 
 In entering into the moral charges, I could do no less 
 than publish all the notarial documents relating to them ; 
 and as Mr. Bankes, in his letter from Thebes, had made 
 Mr. Burckhardt's calumnies the ground of his original ha- 
 tred to me, and laid considerable stress on the authority 
 of ' that excellent man,' as he called him, I was also 
 bound to show that his authority was not to be relied on, 
 and to introduce Mr. Babington's letter to his brother as 
 the safest and most unexceptionable refutation that could 
 be offered. 
 
 XXIV. CHABGE OF INGRATITUDE. 
 
 This brings me, therefore, to the charge of ingrati- 
 tude, which is urged against me, for having, it is said, 
 gratuitously and unnecessarily brought before the public 
 the misdeeds of one who had relieved me when in dis- 
 tress ! Surely never was there such a perversion of terms 
 as this; — /,who had, in memory of this man's former kind- 
 ness and friendship, exercised a forbearance almost above 
 humanity, — /, who had returned all his insults with mild- 
 ness and expostulation, — I, who when he had even reiter- 
 ated his calumnies and added fresh injuries to those he 
 had before inflicted, still buried them in my own bosom, 
 because the grave contained his earthly remains, and an- 
 otheir world his, perhaps, repentant spirit, — /, who had li- 
 terally blessed him who had persecuted me, done good to 
 him who spoke only evil of me, and prayed for him who 
 had despitefiiUy used me, — /, to be charged with ingrati- 
 tude, because I would not also suffer my own reputation 
 to be blasted for ever, rather than disturb the repose of 
 the dead, by which alone I could with justice defend my 
 good name ! Of all the ■hypocritical affectations of my 
 enemies I know of none that equals this. When I ab- 
 stained from intruding on the world, without extreme ne- 
 cessity, the story of Mr. Burckhardt's unjust treatment 
 of me, I was called an artful impostor, covered with false- 
 hood and iniquity, became I kept these injuries to myself! 
 When the extreme necessity arrives, and, as either my 
 fair fame and honest reputation, or Mr. Burckhardt's me- 
 mory, must be tarnished, I put forth, in the most tempe- 
 rate and well attested form, the true state of the case, I 
 am then called a villain and assassin, became I tell these 
 injuries to the world ! ! Never, never, surely, was pre- 
 varication and crookedness so marked as this ! 
 
 At length, some few months after this publication, 
 Captain Boog addressed me a note, saying I had commit- 
 ted an error in stating that Mr. Burckhardt's ' paper' was 
 circulated at the time he was writing me friendly letters; 
 as the change in his sentiments was subsequent to this by 
 a month or two, and arose from the causes already de- 
 tailed, and calling on me to correct, as far as I could, the 
 impression which this seeming duplicity had, no doubt, 
 made to Mr. Burckhai-dt's prejudice. What was the re- 
 sult ? At the sight of a name so familiar to me as that of 
 a man to whose kindness I probably owed my life, when 
 taken on board his ship in an almost dying state at Jedda. 
 and at the thought also of having possibly borne too 
 heavily on the memory of another/ormer friend, who was 
 numbered with the dead, my heart relented. I yielded a 
 ready assent to what I believed to be a just, and knew 
 and felt to be a grateful, task, and I accordingly wrote in 
 my i)aper of the following day, an article of the most 
 conciliatory nature, such as I never could have been pre- 
 vailed on to think due to any, but a man now in the 
 grave, who had, perhaps, repented of the injuries he had 
 done me before his last breath escaped, and who, at least, 
 was gone to his last account before another and a higher 
 tribunal. This conciliatory and exculpatory article I 
 closed with the following sentence : 
 
 " But, as we before observed, we rejoice as much as any one 
 could possibly do, at the opportunity offered us to remove any 
 portion of error that is capable of correctioii ; and having 
 always regarded Mr. Burckhardt as one of the most promising 
 travellers of the age, and long esteemed him as a man, our re- 
 gret at any change of sentiment, more particularly when arising 
 from misapprehension and error, is only heightened by this 
 association. We lament that he did not live to prosecute his 
 intended discoveries, as well as to be convinced, as we believe 
 he would have been had his life been spared, of his having 
 yielded too readily to false impressions, when we are satisfied 
 he would have promptly avowed his conviction." 
 
 What was the return I received for this, by those too 
 who dwell so loudly on my ingratitude ? Captain Boog, 
 after remaining silent a whole month, from which every 
 reasonable person would infer that complete satisfaction 
 had been rendered, and that nothing more was intended 
 to be demanded, joins in the train of the pretended Friend 
 OF Bankes (who is of course no impostor, though he calls 
 himself one of the friends of a man with whom he admits 
 he has no personal acquaintance, and for whom he says he 
 has no personal regard), and they play into each other's 
 hands with scraps and extracts of letters, without name, 
 date, or any of those attested securities with which I have 
 stamped every document brought forward in my de- 
 fence ; and lay hold of the most trifling circumstance 
 to make some impression or even some diversion in their 
 favour. 
 
 It is really like the vultures of the desert trying with 
 their beaks to make an impression on the pyramids. They 
 may detach a loose fragment here and there, but the proud 
 mass stands firm on its base from which no human power 
 can shake it. They have made the mighty discovery that a 
 paper was seen, though from some error of the press it was 
 said not to have been seen ; and they have corrected the 
 exact period of its first circulation. They have doubted 
 whether I had a binnacle compass or a pocket one,and whe- 
 ther Mr. Palmer is satisfied or not. But what have they 
 done to overturn one tittle of the evidence on which the 
 whole case rests ? I answer, absolutely nothing. The 
 accusations of Mr. Burckhardt and Mr. Bankes remain 
 exactly where they stood on the 15th of August last, when 
 the refutation of them was first made public ; that refuta- 
 tion is founded on evidence of the most invulnerable de- 
 scription, and if fifty Bulls, with all the functionaries of 
 India to back them, and all the influence of all the great 
 men and women of the earth (not to say of India merely) 
 were exerted to overthrow it, they would fail ; since it has 
 candour and innocence for its origin, truth for its basis, 
 and justice for its end. 
 
 Having brought this detailed examination of the several 
 heads of charges urged against me to a close, I am com- 
 pelled to ask — Is it for these transactions, in a distant coun- 
 try,with men unknown and (in the ordinary sense of the term) 
 friendless here ; or is it for events stUl farther back, and 
 still unveiled to the prying gaze of an anxious and expefct- 
 ant world, that the call is made, for every man to lift his 
 hand against me, for every assassin to have his secret stab 
 at my name and reputation in the dark? Is it for a series 
 of struggles and exertions, of which few can produce so 
 long and unexceptionable a catalogue, amidst the pressure 
 of every thing appalling and discouraging to perseverance, 
 that the call is made to hunt me from the civilised world, 
 and draw the daggers of every man against my single 
 bosom ? 
 
 No, no ! There are deeper-seated causes of hatred 
 to me than this ; and the passion burns stronger in the 
 breasts of men who never heard of Bankes and Burck- 
 hardt before, and who do not value their reputation a jot, 
 than in the breasts of those poor deluded instruments 
 whom they have first seduced to arm, and then pushed 
 into the front of the battle. 
 
 4 Q 
 
666 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 It is the 'FREEDOM OF THE INDIAN PRESS' 
 which is the object of all this hatred and scorn ; that free- 
 dom which it was the fashion for every one to eulogise as 
 the greatest of blessings, when authority, power, rank, 
 place, and patronage were the banners that floated over itj 
 and which it is now the fashion to denounce as the greatest 
 of curses, by those subservient slaves, who would lick the 
 dust beneath the feet of their masters, and whose tone 
 is changed, because the banners by which the free press of 
 India was first protected, have been since unhappily aban- 
 -doned, deserted, and ingloriously furled, by the very hands 
 that were the first to unfold and wave them in pride and 
 exultation over our heads. 
 
 This is the secret cause of the murderous and death- 
 exciting irritation with which the warfare of its enemies is 
 now carried on. They have seen that a? far as the press 
 is engaged, ' the blood of Douglas can protect itself;' 
 they have seen that whether in the vestry room, the coun- 
 cil chamber, the court, or the field, whenever it became 
 the duty of its friends to meet their opponents, they 
 never shrunk, as long as the grounds of contest were fair 
 and honourable. They have seen six successive newspa- 
 pers disappear from the arena of publication before the 
 influence of that press, which was the first to assert, the 
 most strenuous to defend, and will, I trust, be ever the 
 most faithful to maintain its freedom. They have seen six 
 successive editors beaten and discomfited in their manage- 
 ment of a paper,which has reserved to itself the peculiar ms- 
 grace of courting, hugging, and rejoicing in its political 
 chains ;. while, with demoniac fury, it goes about like one 
 possessed of devils, whom no bonds can bind, tearing 
 asunder all those tieswhich render private life and honour- 
 able confidence sacred. They have seen all this, and 
 therefore they hate, and would, no doubt, triumph, in 
 the destruction of that press which I conduct, and in the 
 disgrace of all those who conscientiously lend their aid to 
 maintain its honourable freedom. 
 
 If any doubt remain as to this being the only true cause 
 of the hatred and persecution against me, I entreat the 
 reader's attention to the following confession, in the very 
 last of the Series of Letters written by the pretended 
 Friend of Bankes, wherein he freely explains what were 
 the motives that led him to this contest, for which the 
 names of Bankes and Burckhardt were mere convenient 
 watchwords. He says : — 
 
 ' It was also my aim to draw the Journalist forth in all his 
 strength ; and those who remember his ' Something in Self- 
 Defence' must, like myself, have anticipated a fierce and for- 
 midable contest. It is not my fault that public expectation has 
 not been gratified ; and had my only object been to iUence the 
 wordy Journalist, I had long ago retired from public notice. 
 Had it been to gratify public curiosity, it would hardly have 
 been deemed a very worthy motive ; had it been to feed the 
 revenge of those have suffered under the lash of Mr. Buck- 
 ingham's pen, it would hiave deserved the severest reprehension. 
 They do me injustice who ascribe my appearance in the arena 
 to any such motive. I have aimed at higher objects than these ; 
 whether I have attained them remains to be seen. I have, at 
 least, attempted to stem a current of licentiousness issuing firom 
 a press boasting to be free, and employing its freedom in sow- 
 ing the seeds of every thing disorderly and disreputable among all 
 ranks and denominations of Englishmen in India, insulting 
 public authority with an effrontery that, tolerated a little longer, 
 cannot fail to shake it to its foundations, and in ungratefully 
 vilifying the grace to which it owes its liberty. The Indian 
 public may still choose to drink from the stream ; but I deemed 
 it a duty, and a service, to warn society of the poison which it 
 draws from a contaminated source. The phenomenon of a 
 Journalist venting his sentiments without the aid of a censor is 
 but new in India ; and it was manifest that in this country 
 such a man might prove the instrument of incalculable evil. In 
 looking around me I beheld the evils that might be i^ared, ac- 
 tually occurring. I saw them insinuating themselves into the 
 very strong hold of our power, and possibly paving the way for 
 
 an event which the enemies to this power have hitherto at^ 
 tempted in vain. Entertaining these views, the coNcucroR op 
 
 SOCH A PSESS BECAME IN MY EYES A PUBLIC ENEMV ; and rest- 
 ing his power, as he did, as well on his character as his princi' 
 
 pies, HIS REPUTATION BECAME A FAIR AND A LEGITIMATE OBJECT 
 
 or AJTACK, and its overthrow a mlject of honest triumph to every 
 lover of his country. If, in the course of this argument, I have 
 shaken this reputation, I must, on his principles, have necessa- 
 rily weakened his arguments, and paralysed the evil influence 
 of his doctrines. Were I called upon to combat these doctrines 
 in themselves I should not shrink from the task, nor should I 
 fear being able to prove, that the freedom oi^ the press, which 
 he advocates, is inconsistent with the government under which 
 we live, and would prove the worst of evils that could overtake 
 us. While the press in India is in the hands of honourable 
 men, freedom from censorship must prove a blessing ; and it is 
 due, in justice to the gentlemen connected with it, to say, that 
 with the solitary exception of the Journalist, this blessing ha? 
 not been abused. He alone has converted it into a curse. '• 
 
 Here, then, is the secret of all this blood-thirsty and 
 devouring persecution. The Freedom of the Press is the 
 monster that is hated ! and a Journalist venting his sen- 
 timents without the aid of a Censor, is the man that is 
 to be denounced ! ! Any conductor of such a press, who 
 dares do his duty to his country or mankind, is the public 
 ENEMY to be expelled from society ! and if the good 
 character he enjoys gives we^ht to his principles, his re- 
 putation is then a fair and legitimate object oi attack, and 
 its overthrow a subject of honest triumph to every lover 
 of his country ! ! ! 
 
 Never was any thing so monstrous as this ushered to the 
 world through any press tiU now; written by the very 
 hand that affects to oppose licentiousness, and paints the 
 principles of the Calcutta Journal as converting a blessing 
 into a curse ! My enemies have tried every method to 
 eflect my ruin and have failed. In every contest with au- 
 thority I have had reason and public sympathy on my side. 
 In the great struggle made before the common tribunal of 
 our country, I had the verdict of an honest jury, and the 
 cheers of a crowded court, to grace my triumph. In my 
 editorial contests it has been my fate to see papers sink 
 into annihilation, and editors retire in defeat or dissatis- 
 faction ; while I have had the cordial support of thousands 
 of my fellow-countrymen in India to sustain me in my 
 unwearied labours. 
 
 Strong in all these points, a band of moral assassins 
 appears, at the head of whom ranks one who avows that 
 because my character gives weight to my principles, and 
 because my principles cannot be shaken by any other 
 means, it is fair, legitimate, and honourable, to attack, 
 to overthrow and to ruin that character, and he calls on 
 every miscreant like himself to join him in this dark and 
 murderous purpose ! 
 
 If there be yet British blood in the veins of my coun- 
 trymen; if their hearts swell with British, feeling ; if 
 truth, justice, honour, and high .mindedn ess be yet reck- 
 oned among their virtues ; and if the dearest rights of 
 British subjects have any value in their eyes, I know they 
 will not suffer them to be trampled on. For myself, indi- 
 vidually considered, I ask no aid, no sympathy, no sup- 
 port. I am strong in my innocence and integrity, and can 
 face a host. But for that freedom of thought and speech, 
 which alone can give dignity to man, or distinguish the 
 free from the slave, for that cause which must be ever 
 dear to British bosoms, for the preservation of that ' no- 
 
 * It should be stated here, tliat the Journalist here alluded 
 to, Mr. Buckingham, was never once convicted of a libel, pri- 
 vate or public ; wlule, on the other hand, the proprietors and 
 editor of the John Bull were convicted in the Court of Calcutta, 
 of libels against this very Journalist, which the Judge on the 
 bench declared to be so atrocious that they could not be even 
 thought of without horror ! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 667 
 
 : spirit to be found only in men accustomed to indulge 
 d express their honest sentiments,' I do implore their 
 
 ble 
 
 and expr 
 
 general co-operation, their countenance, their protection, 
 and their support. I ask it of that noble lord, who first 
 taught us to revere and cherish this proud spirit in an In- 
 dian clime. I ask it of those honourable councillors who 
 stood by approving, when they heard that noble lord's 
 eulogium on public scrutiny and an unshackled press pro- 
 nounced. I ask it of those high functionaries who them- 
 selves joined in the general encouragement and applause 
 bestowed by India, England, and even America, on the 
 emancipation of our minds from Asiatic slavery. I ask it 
 of that extended civil service, to whom a free press ought 
 to be valuable, if it be well to distinguish active merit 
 from indolent incapacity. I ask it of that proud army, 
 whose chief was the first to set the proud example; and 
 to whom the press that records their deeds of valour, and 
 holds them up to the admiration of the present age as 
 well as of posterity, ought to be, and must be dear. I 
 ask it of every Briton who remembers the history of his 
 country, who reveres her constitution, or who respects 
 her laws. And above all, I ask it of every philanthropist 
 and Christian, to whom the spread of knowledge and 
 of virtue, the increase of morality and happiness on the 
 earth, are dear; for to the freedom of the press these 
 have been, and must still be, more indebted than to any 
 other human cause. 
 
 I implore them all to watch over this talisman, by 
 which every thing great and good may be effected ; and 
 for all the abuses of which, the law, administered by an 
 upright judge and honest jury, provides abundant remedy. 
 I ask them not to think of me, but of that noble cause of 
 civil and moral liberty, which spurns the chains and 
 shackles of the soul, and fulfils the high behest of heaven, 
 in bidding the mind be free. It may be my fate to quit 
 India, or to end my existence, before a few brief days are 
 past ; but whether I am spared to live, or be mingled with 
 the dust, the cause of freedom must be dear to all who 
 feel that they possess an immortal spirit. When that 
 spirit is rendered up to God who gave it, it will be my 
 pride to remember, that it never lent its aid to tyranny, to 
 persecution, or proscription j it will be my pride to re- 
 member, that for insults and injuries I did my besttore- 
 turn forbearance and forgiveness ; it will be my pride to 
 remember, that I opposed the iron rod of oppression, 
 stemmed the torrent of prejudice, and long and ardently 
 toiled to promote the cause of public virtue and intel- 
 lectual liberty. I ask only of others the fiilfilment of 
 those duties, whether public or private, which I strive zea- 
 lously, and I hope successfully, to perform ; and if they 
 answer the call, the proud cause, of which I am the fer- 
 vent though humble advocate, is yet safe from all the 
 machinations of its most devoted enemies, and as long as 
 that cause prospers I shall be happy. 
 
 Calcutta, Dec. 21, 1822. J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 The publication of the foregoing Defence in 
 India appeared to produce all the effect I could 
 desire. I was literally inundated with congratula- 
 tions from every quarter, and my triumph was 
 considered complete : so much so, indeed, that had 
 not legal proceedings been already commenced 
 against the propagators of the scandalous aspersions 
 here refuted, they would not have been thought 
 necessary, for the redemption of my character from 
 unjust imputations, the only object I had in view in 
 undertaking them. 
 
 The truth is, the controversy had been main- 
 tained for several weeks, increasing every day in 
 virulence on the side of my accusers ; and it was at 
 last marked by such false and scandalous imput- 
 ations of crime, that there was no longer any virtue 
 in forbearance. Accordingly, the writers in the 
 Indian John Bull were invited to disclose their 
 names and prove their assertions ; or, in default of 
 this, they were told, the publishers would be pro- 
 secuted in a court of law. They were afraid or 
 ashamed to make themselves known, and rejected 
 the alternative offered to them. A civil action for 
 damages was accordingly instituted against the pro- 
 prietors and editor of the John Bull, in which the 
 letters of the pretended Friend of Bankes, and 
 others, had appeared. The proprietors of this 
 paper were, Mr. John Trotter, Mr. John Pascal 
 Larkins, Mr. Richard Chichely Plowden, civil 
 functionaries of the Bengal government ; and Mr. 
 Thomas Lewin, clerk of the crown in the Supreme 
 Court of Calcutta. The principal writers in it 
 were known to be members of the Bengal govern- 
 ment, and were generally understood to include 
 Mr. John Adam, Mr. William Butterworth Bayley, 
 Mr. Charles Lushington, Mr. Archdeacon Loring, 
 the Reverend Mr. Hawtayne, the Reverend Doctor 
 Bryce, Doctor Jamieson, Captain Lockett, and 
 other distinguished persons in the pay and service 
 of the East India Company ; and its sixth editor 
 
 (within little more than six months), was Mr. 
 Charles Beckett Greenlaw, himself also the son of 
 a clergyman, and filling the office of coroner of 
 Calcutta; all the proprietors, writers, and editors, 
 being thus in the public service of the Indian go- 
 vernment and the Supreme Court. 
 
 A civil prosecution was chosen by me, in order 
 to give my accusers the fullest opportunity of esta- 
 blishing their assertions by proof; and as there are 
 no juries in civil cases in India, they would have 
 had whatever advantage might be supposed to arise 
 from their case being decided by a judge to whom 
 all the proprietors of this libellous paper were well 
 known ; one of them being his own son-in-law, two 
 others his intimate friends, and two officers of his 
 own court. When the day of trial came, however, 
 they confessed themselves unprovided with proofs 
 by which to substantiate their accusations ; and 
 asked for further time, with permission to send to 
 Syria and Egypt, to see whether proofs could not 
 be collected there. The judge resisted the appli- 
 cation, and said, that those who thought proper to 
 slander the character of another ought to take care 
 that they possessed the proofs in their hands ; for 
 otherwise no man's character would be safe ; it 
 would be sufficient to lay the scene of imputed 
 crime in some remote quarter of the globe, to be 
 secure of impunity. Further time was, however, 
 granted, though not sufficient for the purpose for 
 which it was asked ; but when the day of trial 
 again arrived, the prosecuted parties were still 
 obliged confess that they could not to prove their 
 assertions, and were accordingly unable to make 
 a satisfactory defence. 
 
 The judge then proceeded to pass his decision ; 
 in doing which he confessed that the libels were so 
 atrocious that they could not be even thought of 
 without horror ; and he accordingly awarded me 
 damages of 1,000 rupees, with costs; expressly stat- 
 ing, however, that as I had professed my view in 
 * 4 Q 2 
 
668 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 coming before that court to be merely to redeem 
 my character, and not to seek for large pecuniary 
 compensation, he was precluded by such a profes- 
 sion from granting the heavy damages which he 
 should otherwise have felt it his duty to adjudge. 
 
 It should be added, that it was while this action 
 was pending ; while I stood before the supreme 
 court of justice as a plaintiff, seeking reparation for 
 injuries inflicted on my character by the libellous 
 publications before adverted to, that Mr. John 
 Adam, acting as temporary governor-general of 
 India until Lord Hastings's successor should arrive, 
 thought proper to issue his decree, and to banish 
 me from the country, without a trial or a hearing, 
 on the frivolous pretence of my exciting a laugh at 
 the appointment of the Reverend Doctor Bryce to 
 be a clerk to the committee for supplying sta- 
 tionery ! which there was every reason to believe 
 was bestowed on him as a reward for his zeal in 
 the transactions hereinbefore detailed. 
 
 It was after my banishment from India, there- 
 fore, that the decision of the judge was pronounced. 
 Though Mr. Adam had done his utmost to remove 
 me from India before this trial came on, as well as 
 to stamp me as a person suffering under the most 
 marked displeasure of the government, — thereby 
 depriving me of whatever advantages might have 
 resulted from my prolonged stay in India, and my 
 freedom from the public disapprobation of persons 
 in authority, which is certainly not calculated to 
 give either a plaintiff or defendant a very strong 
 recommendation in the eyes of any judge ; — yet, 
 the wrongs I had suffered were so flagrant, and the 
 utter want of evidence on the part of my accusers 
 so visible, that the judge could not do otherwise 
 than decide in my favour ; and, therefore, to the 
 signal triumph of the most complete victory in 
 controversy, was added the conviction of my slan- 
 derers by the sentence of a court of law. 
 
 With this I was perfectly satisfied ; and, accord- 
 ingly, on the intelligence of this reaching England, 
 a civil action for damages was also commenced 
 against Mr. William John Bankes, the writer of the 
 libellous letter sent to India by Mr. Hobhouse ; 
 against Mr. Henry Bankes his father, the writer of 
 the prohibitory letter to Mr. Murray ; and against 
 Mr. Murray himself, as publisher of the Quarterly 
 Review. After various delays, on grounds unknown 
 to me, about the month of August last, an afiidavit 
 was put in by Mr. Wm. J. Bankes, stating that he 
 could not go to trial without the evidence of a cer- 
 tain Mohammed (whom he did not otherwise cha- 
 racterise, but who is understood to be an Albanian 
 soldier of that name who had abjured the Christian 
 faith and embraced the Mohammedan, changing 
 his name accordingly, and who acted for some time 
 as interpreter to Mr. Bankes in Syria, from his 
 speaking Arabic, Italian, and Romaic, but under- 
 standing no other European tongue) ; and as he 
 had reason to believe the said Mohammed to be in 
 some part of Egypt or Syria, he begged the trial 
 to be further postponed until he could send to 
 those countries to find out, and bring over from 
 thence, the witness in question. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the main features 
 
 of Mr. Bankes's accusations against me. Were these ; 
 1st, That I was incompetent to make notes by ray- 
 self (which I am able to rebut by his own letters, 
 acknowledging his having read my notes, and 
 highly approving of them) ; and 2dly, That I copied 
 his notes and gave them to the world as mine 
 (which I am also able to rebut by his own letters, 
 acknowledging that he seldom or never made any ; 
 as well as by the fact of his never having shown, 
 during a period of three years since their public- 
 ation, a single line of mine to have been copied 
 from him). Supposing, therefore, that this Mo- 
 hammed should really be found and brought over 
 from Egypt or Syria ; and supposing him to be 
 wholly uninfluenced by a desire to shape his tes- 
 timony to the wish of the person from whom he 
 would receive his reward ; there would be this in- 
 superable obstacle : — he must be totally unable to 
 recognize Mr. Bankes's notes, unless he thoroughly 
 understands English ; and equally unable to prove 
 their being used in the Travels in Palestine, if they 
 should be put into his hands, so that his being able 
 to help Mr. Bankes in his dilemma seems utterly 
 impossible. In short, Mr. Bankes himself has been 
 unable, during three years of leisure, with his own 
 notes (if they exist) and my volume both before 
 him, to prove that I have taken a single sentence 
 of his, and given it to the world as my own. What 
 then can this Mohammed do in such a matter ? 
 
 The judges, however, granted the prayer of Mr. 
 Bankes, notwithstanding the objections set forth 
 against it, and allowed him the necessary delay, 
 to send out in search of this Mohammed, without 
 whose evidence he admitted that he was not pre- 
 pared to go to trial ! This needs no comment. 
 Time win reveal the result. The reader will draw 
 his own conclusions as to the motive for asking, 
 and the reason for granting, the delay obtained. 
 That it should further the ends of justice appears to 
 me impossible. But it may increase the expence 
 of the proceedings, it may weary the patience of the 
 injured party, and it may postpone the period "of 
 conviction and disgrace. 
 
 Be the issue of this question, however, what it 
 may, the facts of the case cannot be altered ; and 
 until Mr. Bankes shall be able to annihilate or dis- 
 prove the authenticity of the letters inserted in the 
 preceding collection, and bearing his signature, he 
 must be content to go down to posterity as a man 
 convicted of the most glaring self-contradiction, 
 and as one capable of calumniating an individual 
 on such insufficient grounds, that when called on 
 to substantiate his accusations by proof, he is 
 obliged to send around the world in search of an 
 obscure and ignorant Mohammedan, to assist him 
 with his testimony on a question of alleged plagia- 
 rism, in a language of which he cannot have a com- 
 petent knowledge ; and which, if it had any found- 
 ation in truth could be substantiated at once, with- 
 out a moment's delay, by the production of Mr. 
 Bankes's original notes, and a comparison of them 
 with the contents of my printed volume. This he 
 has never yet attempted to do. Let the reader 
 draw the imavoidable mference. 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
POSTSCRIPT, 
 
 London, March 15. 1825. 
 
 i HE present Volume, with its Preface and Appen- 
 dix, was ready for publication early in December 
 last, and was intended to have been then issued 
 from the press. Having been given to understand, 
 however, that there was a slight hope of the causes 
 against Mr. Murray and the elder and younger 
 Messrs. Bankes coming on within a month or two 
 at farthest, the publication was suspended, in 
 order that no suspicion, even, might arise, as to 
 any wish or intention on my part to influence the 
 verdict of the jury. 
 
 When these actions were commenced, I was 
 assured that they might be terminated in a few 
 months ; and that the whole of the costs to be in- 
 curred by me in the proceedings could not exceed 
 a moderate sum. More than three times the period 
 allotted has already passed away, and three times 
 the sum named has already been expended, appa- 
 rently without my being much nearer to a close of 
 the affair than when it was first entered on. A brief 
 sketch of the progress made, and a statement of 
 the obstacles intervening, will explain to the reader 
 the difficulties under which I have laboured. 
 
 The solicitor, to whom the management of these 
 causes was confided, had been strongly recom- 
 mended to me, as a person of great professional ta- 
 lent and knowledge ; and in his hands were placed 
 the letter of Mr. William John Bankes, sent to 
 India by the hands of Mr. Hobhouse ; the letter of 
 his father, Mr. Henry Bankes, addressed to Mr. 
 Murray ; and the article in the Quarterly Review 
 on the Travels in Palestine : the three principal 
 documents on which the three several prosecutions 
 were to be founded. 
 
 It was necessary to prove the publication of each 
 of these, as the first step in the proceeding, with- 
 out which all other measures would be useless. 
 The publication of the Review could be proved by 
 any purchaser of the work ; and the publication of 
 the elder Mr. Bankes's letter could be proved by 
 Mr. Murray, to whom it was addressed, and by 
 whom it was given up ; — but the publication of the 
 ■younger Mr. Bankes's letter could not apparently be 
 proved without the evidence of Mr. Hobhouse, by 
 
 whom it was sent open to India. On this point my 
 solicitor was consulted ; and, after a reference made 
 by him to some legal authority, in whom he had 
 confidence, he assured me there would be no dif- 
 ficulty in the case, as it had been legally decided 
 that the bare possession by any one person of a li- 
 bellous letter written by any other person whose 
 hand-writing could be proved, placed on the 
 writer of such letter the onus of showing how it 
 had passed out of his own possession into that of 
 the person on whom it was found, this being of 
 itself an act of publication in law. 
 
 In the case of the letter in question there were 
 also these peculiarities. It was without a seal of 
 any kind ; it contained on the top of the first page, 
 the following words in the hand-writing of Mr. W.J. 
 Bankes, " Copy of a letter to Mr. Buckingham, 
 dated from Thebes, June 12th, 1819;" — and pre- 
 viously to its .passing out of the possession of 
 Mr. Hobhouse, to whom it was given for the pur- 
 pose of showing it to whomsoever he pleased, this 
 gentleman had blotted out a motto of five lines 
 in Italian, too atrocious to be repeated, and written 
 underneatK it the following words, which still re- 
 main : " I desire this motto not to be noticed, 
 Henry William Hobhouse." 
 
 Having full confidence in the legal opinion above 
 adverted to, and conceiving that these peculiarities 
 might render furiher proof of publication unne- 
 cessary, this cause against the younger Mr. Bankes 
 proceeded equally with the others. Circumstances 
 arose, however, which lessened my confidence in 
 the accuracy of those authorities on which my 
 solicitor so strongly relied ; and this, coupled with 
 the multiplicity of errors found in the plead- 
 ings and other papers drawn up in the course of 
 the proceedings, rendered it necessary to transfer 
 the management and conduct of the causes to 
 other hands, which was accordingly done. Having 
 now discovered the error of supposing the evidence 
 of publication in the case of the younger Mr. 
 Bankes's letter complete, new and more active 
 exertions were instantly applied to remedy this 
 defect. Two of the gentlemen whose names are 
 appended to the notarial documents given in the 
 Appendix, being in London, were examined on 
 
666* 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 this point; but though each of them recognised 
 the letter of the younger Mr. Bankes as the iden- 
 "tical one produced by Mr. John Palmer at the 
 meeting of June 16th, 1820, in Calcutta ; although 
 one of them had heard Mr. Palmer state that he 
 received this letter from Mr. Hobhouse to give to 
 me ; and the other had heard Mr. Hobhouse de- 
 clare that he received it open from Mr. Bankes, 
 for the purpose of publication in any manner he 
 might choose ; yet, neither these facts, nor the 
 existence of Mr. Hobhouse's own hand-writing on 
 the face of the letter itself, amounted to that kind 
 of evidence which a court of justice would admit 
 as proof. Nothing but the testimony, on oath, of 
 Mr. Hobhouse himself, that he received it open, 
 for the purpose of publication, would do ; and Mr. 
 Hobhouse being in India, that evidence could not 
 be immediately obtained. 
 
 It should here be observed that Mr. Bankes, not 
 being aware of any deficiency in the legal evidence 
 of the publication of his letter, had, in his justifica- 
 tion, pleaded the truth of all that it contained, and 
 stated his being prepared with proof. For this 
 purpose he had (or at least pretended to have), at 
 great expense, succeeded in finding out, and 
 bringing over to England, the Albanian, named 
 Mohammed, and a Portuguese, named Antonio, 
 both servants of his, and the only witnesses he pro- 
 fessed to need. Nay, he had even pressed the 
 Court to make a special appointment for the trial 
 of the action against himself, on the pretence that 
 these two witnesses were here waiting to be called, 
 and could not be further detained without consi- 
 derable expense. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it appeared to me 
 that there could be no difficulty in prevailing on 
 Mr. Bankes to admit the publication of his own 
 letter. His hand-writing was undoubted, and 
 could be proved by others ; so also could that of 
 Mr. Hobhouse ; he had already pleaded the truth 
 of every part of the letter, in justification of his 
 having written it ; and he had (or pretended to 
 have) under his own care and keeping the only wit- 
 nesses he needed, to substantiate his case. Will 
 it be believed, that after all this, when applied to, 
 on two separate occasions, by my former as well 
 as present solicitor, to admit the publication, and 
 thus remove the only obstacle to our going imme- 
 diately to trial, — will it be believed, that he refused 
 to admit it ? and thus shrunk from a scrutiny 
 which he, who pretended to have written nothing 
 more than was strictly true, should have done all 
 in his power to seek rather than to shun. Yet so 
 it was ; and this act alone cannot fail to determine 
 the moral merits of the question in the minds of 
 honourable and reflecting men. 
 
 There was yet, however, one hope of a remedy 
 remaining. As the Court of King's Bench had 
 granted Mr. Bankes permission to send to Syria 
 and Egypt, for the purpose of finding out and 
 bringing over from thence the person called Mo- 
 hammed, to help his master with proofs of the 
 truth of his libellous letter (although other Courts 
 have held, that whoever libels another should have 
 
 the proofs in his own possession) ; and as the trial 
 had been delayed for many months in order to 
 give Mr. Bankes this important assistance ; it was 
 conceived that no objection could possibly be 
 raised to my sending to India to get the deposi- 
 tion of Mr. Hobhouse, a step forced on rae by 
 Mr. Bankes's declining to admit the publication of 
 his own letter, though he professecl to be ready to 
 prove its truth. A motion was accordingly made 
 in the Court of King's Bench for a rule to show 
 cause why a commission should not be granted to 
 send for the evidence required. It was said, how- 
 ever, to be too late in the term to grant the rule 
 to shoixi cause; and it was added, that the rule 
 could not be made absolute, without Mr. Bankes's 
 consent. This consent not being obtained, the 
 motion was accordingly refused. 
 
 The contrast is remarkable: — Mr. Bankes has 
 been permitted to send to a foreign country wholly 
 beyond our jurisdiction, to find out a man whose 
 name was not known *, and without stating where 
 he was to be found, or what he was to prove when 
 he came ; while I have been refused permission to 
 send to a dependency of our own, having a British 
 court of justice on the spot, to obtain the testi- 
 mony of a gentleman, whose name, occupation, 
 and present place of abode, are all distinctly stated 
 and accurately known, and who would be required 
 to depose only to one particular and specified fact 
 — a fact which Mr. Bankes himself will not admit, 
 though it is one which he cannot deny — notwith- 
 standing which, he persists in refusing the ad- 
 mission which would render further delay un- 
 necessary, and enable us to go at once to trial. — 
 From this also the reader will draw his own un- 
 biassed inference. 
 
 The consequence of all this is, that after a large 
 expenditure of money, after infinite labour, anx- 
 iety, and sacrifice of time on my part, the action 
 against the younger Mr. Bankes is of necessity sus- 
 pended, because he is not prepared to admit the 
 publication of his own letter, and the Court with- 
 out his consent cannot grant a commission to ex- 
 amine Mr.*Hobhouse in India ; thus obstructing 
 the progress of the trial, which, but for this ob- 
 stacle, that a single word of his would remove, 
 might be brought to an immediate conclusion. 
 Should Mr. Hobhouse not live to return to Eng- 
 land (which may Heaven forbid!), Mr. Bankes may 
 escape the consequences which his evidence would 
 render certain. Even should Mr.Hobhouse at some 
 future period come home, it may not be for 
 many years hence, when I may perhaps be in my 
 grave, and the evidence now within reach on my 
 behalf be scattered through the four quarters of 
 the globe. The object which Mr. Bankes obtains 
 by his refusal is therefore clearly enough to be 
 seen. But which of us is most anxious to promote 
 the ends of justice let the world decide. 
 
 • The sending from London to Syria and Egypt for a man 
 named Mohammed, is like sending from Cairo to England 
 and Ireland for a man named John, — except that there are 
 more Mohammeds in Turkey than Johns in all the world. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 667 
 
 Respecting the other two causes, against the elder 
 Mr. Bankes and Mr. Murray, there is nothing yet to 
 complain of, beyond the ordinary evils of expence, 
 vexation, and delay ; evils which are inseparable 
 from our system of law, and which all who seek 
 redress through its means must be prepared to suf- 
 fer. We had advanced to the very eve of trial in 
 both these cases, which were set down for hearing 
 in the sittings ending on the 5th of March : but these 
 have terminated without either of them being called 
 on ; and those who are competent to judge of pro- 
 babihties in such cases, assure me that they may 
 even stand over until next December. 
 
 I have thus remained for three years under the 
 stigma affixed to my character by the Quarterly 
 Review, as an ignorant, pilfering, and fraudulent 
 pretender. I have shown my deference to public 
 opinion, by publishing my defence as soon as I 
 could in India ; and I have evinced my respect for 
 the laws, by appealing to them for protection as 
 soon as I set my foot on the soil of England. 
 Nearly two years have passed awa}', and legal re- 
 dress appears to be as remote as ever. Thou- 
 sands who have read the slanderous article in the 
 Quarterly Review have never yet seen any con- 
 tradiction of its aspersions, or any defence against 
 its calumnies, from under my hand, although it is 
 publicly known that I have been in England so long. 
 I cannot, however, consent to remain silent for an- 
 other year, under imputations from which my mind 
 revolts with horror : and as I have hitherto failed 
 in my attempts to obtain justice, fronv the refusal 
 of my chief accuser, Mr. W. J. Bankes, to remove 
 the only obstacle which now exists to our going 
 together before a jury of our countrymen, I feel 
 myself justified in laying at once before the world 
 the story of my wrongs, and asking their impartial 
 judgment on the facts laid before them. 
 
 I am not ignorant of the disadvantages against 
 which I may have to contend hereafter, in conse- 
 quence of this determination : but I am prepared to 
 hazard something, rather than remain longer silent 
 under calumnies that are utterly without foundation. 
 In the pending proceedings, let them come on when 
 they may, Mr. Murray will have the younger Mr. 
 Bankes to place in the witness box, to support by 
 his oath the truth of the article (probably written 
 by himself) in the Quarterly Review ■ the elder 
 
 Mr. Bankes will also have the testimony on oath 
 of his son to support the allegations contained in 
 his letter to Mr. Murray ; whilst I cannot be heard 
 at all, either in refutation or reply. To these dis- 
 advantages will perhaps be added the topic of my 
 having taken into my own hands a defence that I 
 should have left to the slow but certain operation 
 of the law*, whose decision I may never live to see. 
 But a moral triumph is equally the object of my 
 desire; of this the world can judge from the ma- 
 terials now laid before them ; and this I feel con- 
 fident that I shall obtain. 
 
 If Mr. Bankes should follow my example, and 
 defend himself through the press, by writing a vo- 
 lume in his own proper name, and not by concoct- 
 ing his secret malice with the spleen and ill will of 
 others, in an anonymous article in a newspaper or 
 a review, I shall be ready to meet him on that fair 
 and open ground. If he should prefer the prosecu- 
 tion, by civil process, of the publishers of this work 
 and its appendix, I will then come as readily into 
 the witness box to support them, and defend what 
 I have written in my own name, as he will do to 
 support Mr. Murray, and defend what he himself has 
 written without a name. My statement will then 
 be heard in Court, as well as his own : and I shall 
 be prepared to undergo the cross-examination to 
 which he will be subject, with as little fear of the 
 consequences as himself. Let him take his choice 
 of the remedies proposed ; and the issue will deter- 
 mine which of us is most worthy of belief. 
 
 To conclude, I place before my countrymen the 
 present portion of my labours, in the same humble 
 hope of approbation which first led me to appeal to 
 their judgment, on the portion already in their pos- 
 session. With the favourable reception of that, in 
 all quarters save one, I was abundantly satisfied. 
 May this be deemed equally worthy of me to offer, 
 and of them to receive! 
 
 Cornwall Terrace, 
 Regent's Park. 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 • On the very day on which the trials were to have come on 
 in the King's Bench, March 5. 1825,) Mr. Scarlett opened a 
 case, and began by stating it to have been already before the 
 public upwards of twenty years ! 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abana, river of Damascus, enquiry concerning, 389. 
 
 Abd-el-Azeez, a Bedouin chief, place of his entombment, 
 157. 
 
 Abd-el- Messiah, a Christian merchant at Antioch, 5$5. 
 
 Aboo Tope, the Arabic name for the Spanish dollar, 95, 
 96. note. 
 
 Abu Adoor, a soldier of Aleppo, engaged as guide in Da- 
 mascus, 307. 
 
 Abu-el-Beady, village of, 12. Named after a sultan of 
 Yemen, ib. His tomb, 13. 
 
 Abu Fdrali, an Arab guide from Assalt, 58. His conduct, 
 at Amman, 72. His reproofs, 80. On returning to 
 Assalt recites the adventures of the journey, 113. His 
 exaggerations, 114. Attends the author to Jerash, 
 121. His suspicion as to the motives ofthe visit, 128. 
 His behaviour at Suwarrow, 175. His rigid observ- 
 ance of Greek Lent, 183. Ridicules Georgis at Ned- 
 jeraun, 254. Takes his leave at Ezra, 282. 
 
 Abu Wiayda, village of, 446. 
 
 Ahu Kummhe, Father of Corn, village so called, 398. 
 
 Abu Suliman, sheikh of Amman, altercation with, 79. 
 
 Abu Temeis, mountain of, near Shuhubah, 259. 
 
 Abydos on the Nile, remains of, arched passages in, 525. 
 
 Adjeloon, valley and castle of, journey to, 133. General 
 appearance of the castle, 155. Supper at the house 
 of MaaUim Yakoube, 137. The neighbouring district 
 well wooded, 141. Hunting parties at, 148. Visit to 
 the castle, 1 50. Mixture of Roman and Saracenic 
 work in its architecture, 151. View of a village in 
 the valley, 155. Place of Joshua, 156. Question 
 respecting the origin of its castle, 207. 
 
 Adonis, river, the Nahr-el-lbrahim of the Arabs, 451. 
 
 Adrichomius, cited respecting Selcha, or Salghud, 219. 
 note. 
 
 Aehhrah, town of, 189. Visit to the Sheikh Shibley, 190. 
 Fragments of old buildings, 191. 
 
 Aehrrah, town of, arrival at, 229. Divine worship, at, ib. 
 
 Ahheatherah, ruins of, 134. 
 
 Ahmed Bey, his palace at Damascus, 344. 
 
 Ahmed ibn Harouf, the Druse Sheikh of Nejeraun, 265. 
 
 Aihah, town of, 393._ 
 
 Ain, in Arabic, a spring or fountain, 215. 
 
 — .village of, 487. 
 
 Ain-el-Ajoon, 543. 
 
 Ain-el-Feejy, architectural ruins at, 382. 387. 
 
 Ain-el-Hardmy, 543. 
 
 Ain-el-Hhor, ruins at, 240. Inscriptions, 241. 
 
 Ain Jerrah, village of, 155. 
 
 Ainrel^Kebeer, 551. 
 
 Ain-el-Lutka, 240. 
 
 Ain Towry, village of, 475. 
 
 Aioobe, a merchant of Assalt, his house described, 34. Card 
 party at his house, 1 1 5. Conversation, 116. Advice 
 respecting the route to be pursued, 117. 
 
 , or Job, an old sheikh of Mahadjee, 292. 
 
 Aioon, town of, 214. 
 
 AJceby, village of, 396. 
 
 Alamoom, ruined village of, 124. 
 
 Aleppo, (Hhaleb) influence of the Christians on its govern- 
 ment, 380. Journey to, from Antioch, 564. Arrival, 
 578. Occurrences there, 579 — 591. State of the 
 population, and character ofthe governor, 596. 
 
 " Allah kereem!" meaning ofthe expression, 26. 
 
 Amatha, ruins of, 11. 
 
 America, state of education in, 367. 
 
 Amir JBusheer, bridge erected by him over the Nahr-el- 
 Kelb, 449. 
 
 Amman (Philadelphia), ruins of, journey from Assalt to, 60. 
 Approach to, 67. Castle described, 68. Architectural 
 ruins, 70. Inscriptions in Greek characters, 71. Halt 
 among the Bedouins, 72. General survey of the ruins, 
 73. Theatre, 75. Site of, visible from the castle of 
 Salghud, 217. 
 
 Ammianus Marcellinus, cited on the appellation of Saracens 
 given to the Arabs of the desert, 215. On Sidon, 416. 
 note. On Syria, as distinguished from Phoenicia, 557. 
 
 Amsheer, ruined village of, 457. 
 
 Anab, town of, 61. Antiquity ofthe caves, 62. 
 
 Anti-Libanus, viewed from Lebanon, 478. 
 
 Antioch (Antaky), journey to, from Ladikea, 538. Arrival 
 at, 554, 555. Modern aspect of the city, 556. Its 
 extent, manufactures and population, 557 , Mosques, 
 558. Khans and fountains, ih. Government, 559. 
 Ancient walls, 560. Bab-Boulous, or gate of St. Paul, 
 562. Ancient authors cited respecting this city, 565. 
 
 Aqueduct, Roman, near Dahhil, 167. 
 
 Arab-el-Mulook, stationary Arabs, near Nahr-el-Sin, 527. 
 
 Arab robbers, encounters with, 11. 14. 18. 
 
 Arabesque sculpture, at Amman, 69. 
 
 Arabia, Great Desert of, in a state of war, 219. 
 
 Arabian architecture, peculiarity in the style of, 544. 
 
 Nights, Tales from, recited at Assalt, 53. 
 
 [4 8] 2 
 
670 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Arabic inscriptions in an edifice at Bosra, 197. 
 
 Arabs, encampment of, east of the Dead Sea, 82, 
 
 , distinguished into Khydli, Zellemi, Fellaheen, and 
 
 Bedowee, 87. Those only who dwell in the desert 
 and in tents, strictly called Arabs, 88. 
 
 , various tribes of, their incursions in the Hauran, 
 
 169. 
 
 , predatory, in the HaurSn, particulars relative to, 
 
 179. 
 
 , subjection in which they keep their children, 499. 
 
 Aradii, or Arphadites, ancient writers cited respecting, 
 511. 
 
 Aran Tsdba, the ancient name of Aleppo, 596. note. 
 
 Arbagheen, village of, 9. 
 
 Architecture, instances of Roman and Saracenic united, 
 273. 323. 
 
 , domestic, of Syria and Egypt, remarks on, 
 
 278. 
 
 Argob, region of, 219. 
 
 Arjoon, village of, 491. 
 
 Armoury, at the palace of Damascus, 322. 
 
 Arkool Massaloobeah, hill of, 1 6. 
 
 Arrhuhbath, village of, 135. 
 
 Arrian, cited on the climate of Damascus, 372. On the 
 Aradians, 511. 
 
 Arsinoe, head of, on an antique gold coin at Damascus, 
 381. 
 
 Artaxerxes Ochus, his conquest of Sidon, 412. 
 
 Arwad, island of, 509. The Arphad of the Scriptures, ib. 
 Its distance from Tartoose, 522. Population, 523. 
 
 Arz-eULibenein, the cedars of Lebanon, 475. 
 
 Arzoon, village of, 506. 
 
 Asiatic manners, instance of the humiUty of, 343. 
 
 Asiatics, their tendency to exaggeration exemplified, 380. 
 
 Askalon, antiquities at, 103. 
 
 Asphaltes (Dead Sea), extracts from various authors rela- 
 tive to, 54. note. 
 
 Assalt, journey to, from Nazareth, 1. View of the town 
 and castle, 21. Card parties at, 23. Supposed to be 
 the " SaW mentioned in the book of Joshua, 26. note. 
 Influence of the Sheik-el-Belled, 27. Christians resi- 
 dent in, 28. Church of, 30. Mode of worship, 31. 
 Dearness of provisions, 33. Dwelling-houses, 34. 
 Credulity of the people, 36. Peculiarities in their 
 conversation, 58. Interior of an Arab dwelling, 40. 
 Description of the castle, 41 . Mosque, 42. Bearings 
 and distances of towns from, 44. Conversation with 
 an Arab priest, 46. Evening service by a Greek di- 
 vine, 47. Early marriages, 49. Mutual toleration of 
 the Christians and Mohammedans, 51. Mode of living 
 much ruder than in Egypt, 55. The Christians all of 
 the Greek church, 57. Journey from, to the ruins of 
 Amman, 60. Return to, from Oom-el-Russas, 110. 
 Local information of the people very fallacious, 113. 
 Their indolence, 118. Visit from a party of Moham- 
 medans, 119. Antipathy between them and Chris- 
 tians, ib. Question respecting the origin of its castle, 
 206. . 
 
 Asychis, king of Egypt, brick pyramid built by, 325. 
 
 Atheel, ruined town of, 239. Ruins at, 249. Greek in- 
 scriptions, ib. 
 
 Athlete, castle of, observation of Mr. Bankes on its archi- 
 , tecture, 323. 
 
 Atlantides of Plato, Bailly's Dissertation on, cited, 452. 
 
 Auctions, pubHc, at Damascus, 335. 
 
 Aytore, village of, 467. 
 
 Aziz Ibn Sultan Hasiani, tomb of, 189. 
 
 B. 
 
 Baal-Gad, land of, 517. 
 
 Bab-Bouhus, gate of St. Paul, at Antioch, 562. 565. 
 
 Bab-el-Howa, the western gate of Bosra, 200. 
 
 Bab-el-Sook, market-gate of Hhoms, 497. Names of the 
 other gates, ib. 
 
 Bab-el- Ullah, one of the gates of Damascus, 294. 
 
 Babington,Ji.'E,s({., correspondence with, 619. 624. 628. 
 630. 661. 
 
 Bahr-eUHouly, the lake Samochinites, 399. 
 
 Bahr-el-Loot, the Dead Sea, so called by the Arabs, 19. 
 
 Bahr-el-Tabereeah, the lake of Tiberias, 399. 
 
 Bailly, M. cited on the river Adonis, 452. note. 
 
 Bairoot, approach to, 438. Its ancient names, 439. Its 
 site, 440. Population, 441. Bazars, ib. Mosques 
 and churches, 442. Commerce, i4. Vestiges of former 
 magnificence, 443. Beautiful cameo found at, 445. 
 Its commerce improving, 446. 
 
 Bdlbeck, journey to, from Tripoly, 466. Arrival, 479. 
 Ruined temple of the Sun at, 480. Town thinly 
 peopled, 483. Inscriptions at, 484. 
 
 Banias, ruins at, 401, Niches and inscriptions at, 403. 
 Anciently called Paneade, 404. Afterwards Caesarea 
 Philippi, ib. Described by Benjamin of Tudela, under 
 the names of Belinos and Dan, 405. The Balanea of 
 Strabo, 526. 
 
 Banlces, Mr., his excursion to Nablous, 2. Letter sent 
 to, from Damascus, 300. His arrival there, 302. His 
 account of his excursions, ib. Proposition made by 
 him, 304. Letter to Mr. Burckhardt, 305. Visit with 
 to Mallim YuseflJ 339. To a Christian merchant, 343. 
 To El Mezey, 345. To the Dikan-el-Sheikh, 347. 
 His departure, 348. His observation on the mixed 
 architecture of the Syrian castles, 323. His intended 
 excursion to the Hauran, 337. Letter from, received 
 at Balbeck, 479. His departure from Hhoms to El 
 Hhussan, 493. Note from, received at Aleppo, 585. 
 His arrival there, and ofier to become surety for the 
 author with the British Consul, 588. His invitation 
 to accompany him to Palmyra declined, 59 J. His 
 request to receive back his letters and notes written 
 to the author, 592. And for information on Nubia, 
 593. Complied with, ib. Subsequent recovery of a 
 letter from him which could not then be found, 594. 
 note. Refutation of his calumnies, 601. Notarial 
 documents, 617. Letters from, 627. 642. 643. Letter 
 to, 645. 
 
 Barber-surgeon, Arab, a skilful phlebotomist, 354. 
 
 Barker, Mr., British Consul at Aleppo, letter of credit 
 on, 337. His conduct toward the author, 578. 579. 
 Letter to, from Lady H. Stanhope, 581. His change 
 of conduct after the arrival of Mr. Bankes, 588. 590. 
 Letter from, 646. 
 
 Barrady, river near Damascus, 545. Its water considered 
 unwholesome, 559. Scene near, on leaving Da- 
 mascus, 385. 
 
 Barthema Ludovico, his account of the Houari Arabs, 162. 
 
 Batrone, town of, 457. Thought to be the ancient Botrus, 
 458. 
 
 Bazars of Damascus, 309. 330. 334. 
 
 Bedowee, meaning of the term, 87. 
 
 , near Tripoly, mosque and fish-pond at, 462. 
 
 Bedouins, of the country near Assalt, 50. Party of, near 
 Delilat, their hospitality, 92. Conversation with, 94. 
 Eastern tribes of, not so daring as the Beni Szakker, 
 267. 
 
 Beeout Hadjar and Beeout Shaur, meaning of those terms, 
 88. 
 
 Bein, Christian village of, on Lebanon, 474. 
 
 Beisan, the ancient Scythopolis, 9. 
 
 Beit Caefy, village of, 396. 
 
 Beit Lyah, village of, ib. 
 
 Bekdh, valley of, 407. 
 
 Bclkah, plain of, its extent and fertility, 85. 86. 122, Its 
 inhabitants ill informed on the remains of ancient 
 cities in, 113. Well wooded, and its climate de- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 671 
 
 lightful, 141. plains of, visible from the castle of 
 Salghud, 217. 
 
 Belled-AraU, the country of the Arabs, 88. 
 
 Belled-el-Hhussan, country of, 505. 
 
 Belled-el-Kelb, opinion of the Arabs respecting, 36. 
 
 Belled el-Yosh, or place of Joshua, 156. 
 
 Belled Sheal, subterranean works at, mentioned, 239. 
 
 Belmont, Greek convent of, 459. 
 
 Benkadad, his palace at Damascus, opinion of Benjamin 
 of Tudela respecting, .^08. 
 
 Beni-Abad, Arabs of the tribe of, 15. Their encampment, 
 18. Visit from two of the tribe, 25. 
 
 Beni-Ameer-el-Ghazowee, an Arab tribe, 7. 
 
 Beni Hassan, Arabs of the tribe of, 86. 
 
 BenirSheik Hussein, an Arab tribe, 9. 
 
 Beni-Szakker, Arab outcasts of the tribe of, 14. Arabs of 
 the tribe of, 87. An encampment of, near Delilat, 
 92. Dangers apprehended from, 59. 
 
 Bennah Beida, stony tract of, 158. 
 
 Berea, by some identified with Aleppo, 577. 
 
 Berralcoot, Aov/ers, their medicinal properties, 122. 
 
 Beseemia, village of, 386. 
 
 Betlileliem, visible from the hill of Heshbon, 107. 
 
 Bilgah, the Pisgah of the Hebrews, 38. 
 
 Bint-el-Melek, and Bint-el- Sultan, Lady H. Stanhope so 
 named in Syria, 426. 
 
 Birket Jehouly, lake of, 406. 
 
 Bish-el-Mejeiieen, cavern near, in repute for curing the 
 insane, 473. 
 
 Bisherry, village of, 475. 
 
 Bisneada, village of, 536. 
 
 Blue, robes of, the mourning of the Turks, 344. 
 
 Boar-hunting, near Adjeloon, 148. 
 
 Boog, Captain, statement i-elative to, 658. 
 
 Book-binding establishment, at a convent on Lebanon, 
 472. 
 
 Boorje-eUAbv^Hhayda, village and tower of, 446. 
 
 Boorje-eUBdhr, ruined tower at Bairoot, 441. 
 
 Boorje-el-Bradjely, a cluster of villages, 438. 
 
 Boorjee Khordlee, ruined tower of, 437. 
 
 Boorjee Rowahan, ruins at, 457. 
 
 Boormah, supposed to be identical with Boorzah, 1 23. 
 
 Basra, journey to, from Gherbee, 1 75. Arrival at, 1 93. 
 Edifices and inscriptions, 196, 197. El Hamam, or 
 the bath, 198. Extent of the town, 200. Streets 
 and buildings, 201. Castle of, 202. Roman theatre 
 in, 204. Question respecting its antiquity, 206. In- 
 habited by Mohammedans, 208. No traditions rela- 
 tive to the city preserved, 209. Insect peculiar to, 
 210. Religious dispute at a breakfast party, 211. 
 
 Boudain or Boutain, Colonel, 429. Murdered in the 
 mountains of the Ansarie, 430. Exertions of Lady 
 H. Stanhope to bring to justice the assassins, 431. 
 Soldiers sent by Mustapha Baba to apprehend his 
 murderers, 520. 
 Bread, terms for, in the Arabic of Egypt and Syria, 382. 
 
 Broad, Mr., an English consul at Ladikea, his country- 
 house demolished by a rebel pasha, 536, 537. 
 Bryce, Rev. Dr., 635. 638. 
 Bukhaah, valley of, 396. Seen from Lebanon, 477. Its 
 
 two ranges of mountains, 487. 
 Buonaparte, a favourite hero among the Christians at 
 Assalt, 58. Remark on his profession of Moham-. 
 medanism at Cairo, 1 20. 
 Burckhardt, Mr., notice on his visit to Assalt, 23. Facts 
 related of him at Assalt, 37. Erroneous information 
 given to him respecting Oom-el-Russas, 115. In- 
 quiries of Sheikh Shibley respecting, 1 90. Proposi- 
 tion to him from Mr. Bankes and the author, 306. 
 Refutation of his calumnies, 60) . 627. Transactions ' 
 with, 652. 654. 662. 
 Burrazein, ruins of, 86. 
 
 Burreatchy, town of, 256. 
 
 Busseer, town of, 292. 
 
 Busserah, station of, on Lebanon, 470. 
 
 Bussr, town of, 265. 
 
 Butter, quantities of, eaten by the people of Assalt, 32. 
 
 Byblus, of the Greeks, now Jebaal, 455. 
 
 C. 
 
 Ccesarea Fhilippi, now called Banias, 404. 
 Cafr-el-Moosa, village of, 491. 
 
 Cain, hill where he is supposed to have slain Abel, 346. 
 Calcutta, Bishop of, letter to from the author, 634. 
 
 Answer, 635. 
 Journal, extracts from, 601. Review of past dis- 
 cussions, 638. 
 Camels, numerous on the plain of Hauran, 171. 
 Cameo, beautiful, found at Bairoot, 445. 
 Canaan, remarks on its early population, 62. 
 Canal, Venetian family of, portraits of, purchased by 
 
 Signior Lorello, at Bairoot, 445. 
 Canat-el-Zeiny, stream of, 231. 
 Candter Pharaoun, a Roman aqueduct, so called by the 
 
 Arabs, 167. 
 Cantara, stream of, 231. 
 
 Caparisons for horses, superb, at Damascus, 333. 
 Caphar, or place for collecting tolls, 407. 
 Caravanserai, interior of one, in the Hauran, 1 74. 
 Caravanserais, at Damascus, 335. 
 Card parties, at Assalt, 25. 
 Casius, Mount, in Syria, 550. 
 Cassidonie, or alabaster found near Damascus, according 
 
 to Pliny, 38 1 . 
 Cassimere, river, between Tyre and Sidon, 517- 
 Cassr Assouan, tower of, 239. 
 
 Castle of Damascus, 323. View from its summit, 327. 
 Catholic Christians, convent of, at Damascus, hospitable 
 reception at, 296. Conversation of the friars, 301. 
 Mass and sermon at its church, 354. Superstition 
 of the president, 373. 
 Cawasses, or soldiers, Turkish, at Damascus, 321. 
 Cedars of Lebanon, mountain scene near, 461. (see ie- 
 
 banon.) 
 Cemeteries of Tripoly, extensive, 46.3. 
 Cemetery, Turkish, near Damascus, 316. 
 Chaboceau, Dr., a French physician at Damascus, 299. 
 European travellers known by him at, ib. Visit to, 
 329. Money furnished by, 337. Visit with, to Mallim 
 Yuseif, 339. To the principal (Christian merchants of 
 Damascus, 343. His medical aid, 353. 372. 385. 
 Letter from, 648. 
 Chalybon, the original name of Aleppo, 596. note. 
 Children of Arabs kept in great subjection by their parents, 
 
 499. 
 Christian religion, observations on its teachers, 362. 
 Christians, unable to build a church for themselves at 
 
 Antioch, 558. 
 Churning, mode of, practised at Mahadjee, 288. 
 Coffee, mode of preparing, in the coffee-houses of Damas- 
 cus, 352. 
 Coins and medals, belonging to a Christian priest at Da- 
 mascus, 380. 
 Colter,. Mr., died of the plague at Deer Natoor, 459. 
 Corinthian order, specimens of, at Amman, 75. 79. 
 Corinthian edijices at Gunnawat, 243. 
 Corn, dearness of, in the plain of the Hauran, 172. 
 Constantinople, proverb among the people of, relative to 
 
 the Russians, 426. 
 Crucifixion, sermon on, at Damascus, 554. 
 Cuckoo, called by the Arabs Teer-el-Yaccoub,'592. 
 Cufic inscriptions at Bosra, 199. 
 
 Cufr Injey, halt at, 136. Its distance from Jerash and 
 Nazareth, 139. The site of an ancient settlement, 145, 
 Culmone, village of, 459. 
 
672 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 D. 
 
 Daboak, ruined town of, 65. 
 
 HaMal, ruined town of, 161. Curious buildings in, 165. 
 
 Black porous stone used for mill-stones, 166. 
 Damascus, journey to, from Ezra, 269. Arrival at, 294. 
 Character of the buildings and aspect of the people, 
 295. Convent of the Catholic Christians, 296. Great 
 mosque, 507. Bazar, 309. Remarkable minareh, is. 
 Mosque of the Dervishes, 310. Silk manufactory, 
 31 1_. The suburb Salheyah, ii. Turkish females, 312. 
 Visit to the palace, 321. Armoury, 322. Castle, 323. 
 Remains of its old walls, 328. One of the earliest 
 cities named in Scripture, ii. Eastern gateway, 329. 
 Streets and bazars, 330. An eligible market for Indian 
 commodities, 331. English manufactures, 332. Wear- 
 ing apparel brought from Constantinople, ib. Capa- 
 risons for horses, 333. Domestic manufactures, 334. 
 Public auctions, 335. Caravanserais, ib. Visit to 
 Mallim Yuseff, 339. To the principal Christian mer- 
 chants, 343. Visit to El Mezey, the supposed site of 
 Eden, 345. To the Dikan-el-Sheikh, 347. Appear- 
 ance of an idiot in the public streets, 350. China and 
 earthenware from England or India, 351. Coffee- 
 houses, ib. Iced sherbets, 353. Eloquent sermon in 
 Arabic, 354. Population, 359. Priests, 360. 368. 
 Climate, 372. Occurrence preceding the death of 
 the Pasha, 376, 377. Tea-tree, 378. Soldiers trou- 
 blesome to the government and citizens, 379. Polite- 
 ness of the people towards each other, 382. Inform- 
 ation on the present s{ate of the city, difficidt to obtain, 
 383. Contrast of London with, 384. Considered by 
 some writers as the original city of the Jews, 319. 
 note. Supposed origin of its name, ib. note. Why 
 called one of the gates of the pilgrimage, 426. 
 
 Daviietta in Egypt, rice imported to Sidon from, 417. 
 
 Dana, village of, 573. Antiquities at, 574. 
 
 D'AnviUe cited, on Aleppo, 596. note. 
 
 Dashour, brick pyramid near, 325. 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphrey, his opinion on the power of gravit- 
 ation in roots, liable to exceptions, 469. 
 
 Dead Sea, called by the Arabs Bahr-el-Loot, 19. Igno- 
 rance of the Arabs of Assalt, respecting, 54. {See 
 Asphaltes.') Encampment of Arabs near, 82. Its west- 
 ern shore visible from Heshbon, 107. 
 
 Deedy, village of, 292. 
 
 Deer, ruined village of, 1 26. 
 
 , or Ibn Eklaf, town of, 188. 
 
 Deer Aioobe, at Gunnawat, 243. 
 
 Deer-el-A/ckmar, village of, 478. 
 
 Deer-el-Bukt, town of, 293. 
 
 Deer-el-Lebben, town ofi 256. 
 
 Deer-el-Mar-Antonios-el-Khezheyeak, convent of, 470. 
 Printing-press at, 47 1 . 
 
 Deer-el-Mukarrin, village of, 389. 
 
 Deer-eUNassara, or convent of the Christians, 64. 
 
 Decr-el-Zahardny, 408. 
 
 Deer-el-Zebear, ruined town of, 193. 
 
 Deer Kanoon, ruined town of, 390. 
 
 Mar Elias, or convent of St. Elias, 155. 
 
 Natoor, Greek convent of, 459. 
 
 Yaeoube, Greek convent of, 459. 
 
 Delildt, encampment of Arabs near, 82. Four ruined vil- 
 lages, so called collectively, 92. 
 
 Demess, ruined town of, 390. 
 
 Derb-el-Hadj, road of the pilgrims from Damascus to 
 Mecca, 161. 
 
 Derb-el-Hadj-el-Nebbe, 89. 
 
 Derb-el'Sidtani, 89. 
 
 Derb-eUZeen, village of, 408. 
 
 Dervishes, mosque of, at Damascus, 310. 
 
 De Sacy, cited on Antioch, 563. 
 
 Dibbeen, deserted town of, 125. 
 
 Dibbs, sweetmeats made of raisins, 260. 
 
 Diffin, ruined town of, 213. 
 
 THkkan-el-Sheikh, the hermit's shop, 347. 
 
 Dikkan-el-Jeddoon, house of supply for passengers, 447. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, cited on the Nabathean Arabs, 51, 53. 
 On the lake Asphaltes, 56. note. On ancient Sidon, 
 412.414. On Tripoly, 465. On the Aradiaus, 513. 
 On Antioch, 563. 
 
 Dirrhmdn, town of, 576. 
 
 Dispe, a syrup prepared by the Arabs, 52. 
 
 Dooery, deserted village of, 266. 
 
 Druse female, exclamation of one, when Lady H. Stanhope 
 visited Damascus, 426. 
 
 Druses, mountains of the, near Lebanon, 66. 159. 
 
 , remarks on their character, 189. 191. Eastern, 
 
 Soeda their capital town, 231. Their limits westward 
 in the Hauran, 265. Aspect and manners of those at 
 Gunnawat, 246. Their mode of salutation, 257. At 
 Kufr-el-Hook, 392. And Rasheyah, 393. Their do- 
 mestic mode of worship, 394. Notion respecting 
 them entertained by the Mohammedans and Christians, 
 394. 
 -, costume and ornaments of their women, 450. 
 
 Dvlcimer, called in Arabic canone, 537. 
 Dummar, village of, 386. 
 Dumserkah, village of, 538. 
 Dyeing still practised at Sidon, 417. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eckfaire, village of, 397. 
 
 Eden, garden of, its supposed site at Damascus, 314. 
 
 , station of, on Lebanon, 470. 475. 
 
 Edrei, in Bashan, 168. note. 
 
 Education of the lower orders, remarks on, 365. 367. 
 
 Eesa, or Jesus, a common name among Christians of the 
 East, 213. 
 
 Eesa, or Jesus, of Mahadjee, his hospitality, 284. 
 
 Effendi, the emir or governor of Kerayah, 394. 
 
 Egypt, allusion to the mode of living in, 56. In the hands 
 of the English, might be a connecting link for the 
 commerce of India and Great Britain, 331. The 
 Arabic of, purer than that of Syria, 382. 
 
 Egyptians, ancient, unacquainted with the structure of 
 the arch, 324. 
 
 El Anab, 46. 
 
 El Araba Medfoun, on the Nile, arched passages in, 325. 
 
 El Arish, monolith at, 103. 
 
 El Beathy, village ofi 525. 
 'El Birket, or lake, in Gheryeh, 225. 
 
 El-Bos, viWa^e. of, 525. 
 
 El Bourge, rustic building at Banias, 402. 
 
 El Bujak, valley of, 540. 
 
 El Draah, or Idderahh, town of, 168. note. 
 
 Eleutheriis river, supposed to be theNahr-el-Roumtra, 516. 
 
 El-Ekfaire-el-Feite, village of, 389. 
 
 El-Ghah, village of, 488. Its inhabitants Christians, 489. 
 
 El Ghadjar, village of, 400. 
 
 El-Ghoffy, town of, 292. 
 
 El Hlialeaka, village of, 575. 
 
 El Hherry, ruined town of, 97. 105. 
 
 El Hhussen, village of, 159. Its population, 160. 
 
 El HImzzeny, village of, 575. 
 
 El-Hus.icnecy, village of, 390. 
 
 Eliezer, steward of Abram, born at Damascus, 319. 
 
 El Jcliennah, 46. 
 
 El Jussec, ruined town of, 490. 
 
 El Kiiris, village of, 214. 
 
 El Kassr-el-Nejjemy, or astronomer's tower, 258. 
 
 El-Khods-cl-Shereef, the holy and the noble, appellation 
 given to Jerusalem, 294. 
 
 El-Koddem, near Damascus, deemed a paradise by Mo- 
 hammed, 314. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 673 
 
 El Kuff, noted for its ruins, 258. 
 
 El Mejeamer, village of, 191. 
 
 Elmet/, ancient buildings at, 1 74. 
 
 El Mezey, near Damascus, 545. Believed by the people 
 to be the site of the garden of Eden, ib. 
 
 El Moghyer, the caves, near the ruins of Seleucus, 546. 
 
 El Shereeah, the river Jordan, so named by the Arabs, 
 121. 
 
 El Simla, a wild beast, resembling the badger, 91. 
 
 El-Somah, or tower, at Hhoms, 495. Tradition respect- 
 ing, 496. 
 
 El Thany, stream of, 407. 
 
 El ThemedjVieih and cisterns of, 98. 
 
 El Zook, hills of, 449. 
 
 Ekbrihh, village ot; 575. 
 
 Emessa, or Hhoms, 493. 495. Ruins, 497. 
 
 Emir-el-Hadj, or prince of the pilgrims, a title of the 
 Pasha of Damascus, 377. 
 
 England, state of education in, 367. 
 
 Englishmen, dif&cult for them to conform to the manners 
 of the Arabs, 94. 
 
 Eremoon, Mohammedan tomb at, 153. 
 
 Errvibedth, rmns oi, 152. 
 
 Esdraelon, plain of, 5. 
 
 Eshcol, brook, conjecture respecting, 65. 
 
 Ezra on the plain, journey to, from Gunnawat, 248. Ap- 
 proach to, 266. Greek church and inscriptions, 269, 
 270. Sarcophagus, 271. Old mosque, 272. Greek 
 church, 274. Fine specimens of ancient houses, 277. 
 Bearings and distances of places from, 279. Super- 
 stition of the people, 281. Dwellings ®f the Christians 
 marked with the emblem of their faith, 282. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fahaez, ruined town of, 64. Modern tomb of St. George 
 
 near, 110. 
 Falmris ruins of, 10. 
 Fakr-el-JDln, grove of pines planted by, 438. Enquiry 
 
 concerning the ruins of his palace at Bairoot, 445. 
 Feejy, village of, 386. 
 Feeky, village of 487. 
 Fege, river, near Damascus, 345. Its water reputed to be 
 
 excellent, 359. 
 Fellaheen, a term of distinction among the Arabs, 87. 
 Fellahs of Lower Egypt, their I'esemblance to the people 
 
 of the Hauran, X81. 
 Ferdeese, village of, 398. 
 Finjan trees, 65. Called Sinjan trees at Oom-el-Jelood, 
 
 135. 
 Flies, troublesome on the journey from Antioch, 568. 
 Fountain, horsemen and females at a, 60. 
 
 of Health, at Damascus, 359. 
 
 Fry, Mrs. housekeeper to Lady Hester Stanhope, 422. 
 Fush tree, 65. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gabala, ancient, now Jebelee, 529. Once the see of 
 
 Severian, adversary of St. Chrysostom, ib. Roman 
 
 theatre, 530. 
 Gaegob tree, 65. 
 
 Galheyak, pleasant scenery near, 386. 
 Gau Kebeer, or AnttEopolis, in Upper Egypt, monolith 
 
 seen at, 104. 
 Garhib, town of, 293. 
 
 Gartaasi in Egypt, great cave of alluded to, 510. 
 Gaza, extensive i-uins at, 103. 
 
 Gebaal, or Jebdl, held to be the Byblus of the Greeks, 455. 
 Gebel-el-Castrawan, mountains of, 450. 
 Geezah, castle of, 89. 
 Geological Society of Lcmdon, specimens from Lebanon 
 
 presented to, 469. note. 
 
 Georgii, a Christian Arab, engaged as guide, 2. Delay 
 occasioned by him, 4. His loquacity and good hu- 
 mour, 8. His credulity, 36. Relates the history 
 of Moses, 38. His powers as an improvisatore, 53. 
 Attends the author to Jerash, 121. His credulity and 
 suspicion, 128. His horse stolen, 129, 130. Another 
 lent to him by Yakoube, 139. His behaviour at Su- 
 warrow, 175. His talent for story .telling, 183. His 
 debate with a Greek priest at Bosra, 209. Discusses 
 theological points with the priests at Nedjeraun, 254. 
 His habit of exaggeration, 280. His religious specu- 
 lations at Mahadjee, 285. 
 
 Geziret-el-Waak, notions of the Arabs respecting, 36. 
 
 Ghaffar-elr-Ndmy, toll at, now discontinued, 437. 
 
 Ghazee, halt at, 408. 
 
 Gherbt-el-Ghazaly, town of, 293. 
 
 Gherba, or Gherbee, supposed to be the native place of 
 Job, 168. Inscriptions in unknown characters at, 
 169. Description of a house at, 170. 
 
 Gherbt-el-Wali, town of 292. 
 
 Gherbt-el-Sookh, antiquities at, 83. 
 
 Gheryeby, village of, 399. 
 
 Gheryeh, town of, 212. Return to from Salghud, 221. 
 Its reservoir for water, 224. Portico, 225. Church, 
 £26. Agriculture, 227. 
 
 Ghiddeny, ruined town of, 124, 125. 
 
 Ghore-Dan, the origin of the name of Jordan, 405,406. 
 
 Ghore, the valley of Jordan, so named by the Arabs, 121. 
 
 Ghussun, ruined town of, 227. 
 
 Giblites mentioned in Joshua, Jebal probably their coun- 
 try, 455. 
 
 Gifford, Mr., letter from, to Mr. Murray, 621. 
 
 Glass, the manufacture of, now unknown at Sidon, 416. 
 
 Grapes, abundant, near Assalt, 52. 
 
 Graves, custom of decorating, very ancient, 316. 
 
 Greek inscriptions, at Adjeloon, 1 56. Over the door of 
 an old edifice at Bosra, 196. At the castle, 202, 203. 
 207. At Ain-el-Hhor, 241, At Gunnawat, 242. At 
 Atheel, 249. At Mijdel, 250. At Reemy, 255, 256. 
 At Shuhubah, 259. 261. At Nedjeraun, 263. At 
 Ezra, 270. 274. 275. At Kufr-el-Kook, 393. At 
 Banias, 403. At Bairoot, 444. 
 
 Greek Lent, rigid observance of, 183. 211. 
 
 worship, description of, 230. 
 
 Greeks, early, unacquainted with the structure of the arch, 
 324. 
 
 Gunnawat in the mountains, journey to, 224. Aspect of, 
 240. Arrival at, 242. Antiquities, 243. Roman 
 theatre, 244. Manners of the Druses at, 246. Ro- 
 man ruins, 248. 
 
 , stream of, course of its two branches, 25.5. 
 
 Gussawah, ruins of, 292. 
 
 Gustvl, ruins of, 89. 
 
 Guys, M., his hospitality, 537. 
 
 H. 
 
 Haboash, famous for its figs, 408. 
 
 Hadeijey, village of, 158. 
 
 Hadjee, a title of respect among the Arabs, 1 1 9. 
 
 Hadjee Ahmed, guide, from Seyda, 434. To Tripoly, 460. 
 
 And Balbeck, 466. 
 Hadjee Ahmet Jerar, his benevolence, 6. 
 Hakivi Moosa, name assumed by Dr. Seetzen, 22. 
 Hamah, near Aleppo, the Hamath of the Scriptures, 517. 
 Hamdm, or Bath, at Bosra, 198. 
 Hdmi, hot springs of, near the source of the Hieromax, 
 
 163. 
 Hamilton, Mr., memorandmn on the plan of Geraza, 626. 
 Hamsa, ruined town of, 124. 
 Haraak and Haryik, deserted towns of, 184. 
 Hardware, at Damascus, of English manufacture, 351. 
 
674 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Harem Turkish, often a scene of cruelty, 323. 
 Haurdn, hills near, 66 . Extensive plain of, its boundaries, 
 1S7. Frequent migrations from one town to another 
 in, 169. On a high level, 159. Camels numerous on 
 it, 172. Its supposed identity with the land ofUz, 
 ib. Dearness of corn in, ib. Tovpns of, frequently 
 plundered by the Arabs, 179. All nominally subject 
 to Damascus, 180. Aspect and costume of the peo- 
 ple, 181. Scarcity of earthenware in, 185. Formerly 
 very populous, 187. Appellations of the seven 
 largest towns in, whence derived, 222. Scene in 
 the mountains to the eastward, 224. Caravan on 
 the plain of, 269. 
 
 Haurdrd, 293. 
 
 Hawks, red, numerous near the banks of the Orontes, 492. 
 
 Hebrdn, ruined town of, 227. 
 
 Hejeja, ruined village of, 10. 
 
 Heraclius, Emperor, supposed to have founded a cathedral 
 at Damascus, .508. 
 
 Herman, identified by Pococke, with Jebel-el-Telj, 395. 
 
 Herodotus, cited respecting the brick buildings of the 
 Egyptians, 325. note. On the horns worn by the 
 Pelasgi, 451. note. 
 
 Hhdbbabhee, village of, 553. 
 
 Hhaleb, 428. 578. (See Aleppo.) 
 
 Hheazbdni, river traversed, 406. 
 
 Hheazley, town of, 397. River of, traversed, 400. 
 
 Hhermil, village of, near the source of the Orontes, 490. 
 
 Hkezhdn, the Heshbon of the Scriptures, 88. Visit to the 
 ruins of, 105. Singular building at, 106. Jerusalem 
 visible from the summit of the hill, 107. 
 
 Hhoms, journey to, from Balbeck, 485. Arrival, 493. 
 Visit to the governor, 494. Ruined castle near, ih. 
 Bearings from, 495. Tower called El Somah, ib. 
 Ruins of the ancient city, 496. The gates, 497. Po- 
 pulation, ib. Governor subject to the Pasha of Da- 
 mascus, 498. View of the castle and plain, 501. 
 
 Hhubbeen, ruined town of, 1 57. 
 
 Hhurj Isnooba, the boundaries of Bairoot, 438. 
 
 Hhussan, castle of, 502. Style of its architecture, 503. 
 Town of, 504. 
 
 Hihl, town of, 398. 
 
 Hieromax, called by the Arabs Shereeaht Mandoor, 163. 
 
 Holy Alliance, opinion respecting its object among the 
 Christians or Assalt, 58. 
 
 Horns and Hamath, plain of, 396. 
 
 Hoopoes, crested, numbers of, near Ghiddery, 125. 
 
 Horns, worn by females near Jebel-el-Castrawan, 450. 
 
 Horse-shoe arch, at Jerash, 127. 
 
 Houses, ancient, specimens of, at Ezra, 287. 
 
 Howdrah, ruined village of, 160. 
 
 Hussein Amaddn, the Druse prince resident at Soeda, 
 239. 
 
 Huzzar, ruins at, 135. 
 
 I, 
 
 Ibn Eklaf, town of, 188. 
 
 Ibrahim, Sultan, tomb of, at Jebelee, 530. 
 
 Iddoor, town of, 265. 
 
 Idderahh, or El Draah, town of, 168. note. 
 
 Idilly, Roman aqueduct commencing at, 167. 
 
 Idiot, appearance of one, in the public street of Damascus, 
 
 350. Banished by the Paslia, 376. Why recalled, 
 
 377. 
 Ikketeby, town of, 168. 293. 
 Ilsass, town of, 231. 
 Indians, ancient, unacquainted with the structure of the 
 
 arch, 324. 
 Inscription, fragment of, from a sculptured cornice at 
 
 Heshbon, 108. 
 Insect, troublesome, peculiar to Bosra, 210. 
 Irak-el-Emir, reputed antiquities at, 114. 
 
 Irak-el-Wehheir, caves at, 150. 
 
 Irak-eUMellesh, party of Moslem females bathing near, 
 
 144. 
 Ireland, state of education in, 367. 
 Isaiah, passage from, relative to Bosra, 209. 
 
 Jabool, village of, 6. 
 
 Jackals, their cries annoying during the night, 572. 
 
 Jacob, bird of, the cuckoo so called by the Arabs, 392. 
 
 Jebdl, town of, 454. Situated at the foot of Lebanon, ib. 
 Antiquities near it, 455. Its port, 456. 
 
 Jebel Adjeloon, mountain of, 10. District of, 122. Pro- 
 spect from its summit, 134. 
 
 Jebel Ahhmar, or red mountain, 553. Range of, 576. 
 
 Jebel Annter, mountain of, 391. 
 
 •lebel Arbel, hills of, 396. 
 
 Jebel Arrnelo, a part of Lebanon, 468. View of the coast 
 from, ih. 
 
 Jebel Assalt, mountain of, 17. Its summit supposed to be 
 that of mount Nebo. 
 
 Jebel Asswete, district of, said to contain three hundred 
 and sixty-six ruined towns and villages, 124. 
 
 Jebelee, town of, 527. Evening prayers of the Arabs at, 
 ,528. The ancient Gabala, 529. Antiquities, 530. 
 
 Jebel-el-Belkah, tradition respecting, 38. 
 
 Jebel-eUHruse, mountainous range of, 391. 396. 
 
 Jebel-el-Sheikh, mountain of, 392. 
 
 JebeUel-Shurk, eastern range of Libanus, 488. 
 
 Jebel-el-Telj, the north-western boundary of the Hauran, 
 159. Snow broughtfrom,toDamascus, 353. Identified 
 by Pococke with the Hermon of the Scriptures, 395. 
 
 Jebel-el- Wast, apparently the Anti- Libanus of the ancients, 
 391. Its extent, 401. 407. Range of, seen from Le- 
 banon, 477. 
 
 Jebel Jowaleen, range of, 401. 408. 
 
 Jebel Libanein, or Mount Lebanon, 407. 
 
 Jebel Mokaftui), or " written mountain," near Horeb and 
 Sinai, question relative to, 98. 100. 
 
 Jebel Moosa, 552. 
 
 Jeddoori, 293. 
 
 Jerim Mooz, tombs at, 10. 
 
 Jebel Okrah, or bare mountain, near Ladikea, 536. The 
 Mount Casius of the ancients, 556. 
 
 Jebel Semdn, 576. 
 
 Jedda, strong prejudice against the Christians at, 427. 
 
 Jejazy, ruined town of, 124. Described, 125. 
 
 Jelool, ruins of, 89. 
 
 Jeroboam, son of Naban, place where he erected the 
 golden calf, 405. 
 
 Jerusalem, visible from the hill of Heshbon, 107. Great 
 authority of the Turks there, 380. Tradition respect- 
 ing its future recovery by the Jews, 427. 
 
 Jemiak, village of, 407. 
 
 Jerim Moaz, ruins at, 138. 
 
 Jerash, third visit to, 112. Arrival at, 126. Tombs, 127. 
 The horse of one of the guides stolen, 129. Account 
 of the ruins of, given in the Travels in Palestine, 132. 
 
 Jemereen, town of, 193. 
 
 Jews, adhere to the names of their prophets and leaders, 
 289. Ceremony observed by, in passing through their 
 doors, 341. Their influence at Damascus, 380. 
 
 Jezzar, Pasha of Acre, his affected simplicity, 321. 
 
 .lisser-el-Medfoun, or Buried Bridge, 457. 
 
 Jisscr-cl-Mahdmany, bridge of, 542. 
 
 Job, supposed place of his birth, 168. Book of, cited on 
 the subject of early architecture, 326. 
 
 John Bull, Indian newspaper, statements in refuted, 632. 
 635. 
 
 Joolan, district of, 162. 
 
 Jordan, valley of, 1. 6. How named by the Arabs, 121. 
 Constant communication between the towns east and 
 
INDEX. 
 
 675 
 
 by 
 
 Steziban, 399. Springs of, at Tal-el-Cadi, 405. Their 
 
 Arabic names, ih. 
 Joshua, place of, in the valley of Ajalon, 156. 
 Jubbes, or outer cloaks, of the Arabs at Jebelee, 531. 
 Jussee-eUJedeed, town of, 490. 
 Justin, cited on the lake of Asph'altes, 54. note. On the 
 
 Tyrians, 417. note. On Antioch, 563. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kafera, village of, 6. 
 
 Kanaby, village of, 397. 
 
 Karak, Greek church at, 29. note. Relative to the town 
 
 of, ib. 
 , road to, from Oom-el-Russas, said to be infested 
 
 with the Wahabees, 101 . Considered to be the ancient 
 
 Pella, 102. 
 Karak Shaubak, its distance from Karak, 103. 
 Karakujee, village of, 544. 
 
 Kasla Joak, hamlet of, 541. Hospitality of the Aga, ib. 
 Kasser-ibn-Gowash, tower of, 293. 
 Katcheffiis, Mr., at Tripoly, visit to, 463. 
 Kedar, princes of, remark on, 52. note. 
 Keferrsal, village of, 475. 
 Keffeah, or handkerchief of the Arabs, 2. 
 Keneisy, ruined village of, 392. 
 Khahaf, ruined village of, 83. 
 
 Khallet Amman, 67. Description of that fortress, 68. 
 Khallet-el-Banias, ruins of, 400. 
 Khallet-el-Belled-eUShakiff, ruined castle of, 407. 
 Khallet-el-Muselleh, 458 . 
 Khallet-el-Sumia, ruined village of, 109. 
 Khallet Errvhbedth, a name given to the castle of Adje- 
 
 loon, 152. 
 
 — ; Hhearim, 568. 
 
 Melfoof, circular building at, 67. 
 
 Khan Denoon, caravanserai of, 293. 
 
 Khan-i-Dibbs, at Shuhubah, 260. 
 
 Khan-elr-Hheazbey, 397. 
 
 Khan-el-Mesenoon, 591. 
 
 Klians, or caravanserais of Damascus, 335. 
 
 Khurdj, or travelling bag of the Arabs, 72. 349. 
 
 Khyale Beni Szakker, a powerful tribe of Arabs, 87. Khyaii, 
 
 the designation of mounted Arabs, ib. 
 Kihyah Bey, or prime minister of the Pasha of Acre, his 
 
 locum tenens, 319. Visit to, 320. 
 Kissawee, town of, 294. 
 Koordi, herdsmen from Koordistan, 479. 
 Koormee,hili near the source of the Orontes, 489. 
 Kou Kubba, village of, 399. 
 Krift, town of, 193. 
 Kvbt-el-Nasr, near Damascus, prospect from, 314. Aspect 
 
 of the city from, 315. 
 Kufr-el-Kook, town of, 392. Inscription on a gateway at, 
 
 393. 
 Kufr Kully, village of, 407. 
 Kufr Ulm, a deserted town, 122. 
 
 Ladikea, how situated, 532. Its port, 533. Its origin, 
 and former name Laodicea, 534. Sookk-el-Serdj, or 
 saddle-bazar, 535. The Necropolis, ib. Environs, 536. 
 Mosque and valley near, 538. Portmanteau and 
 papers left there, 580. Arrival of, at Aleppo, 589. 
 
 Lebanon, and Anti-Lebanon, appearance of, from the plain 
 near Khallet-Amman, 66. Called Jebel Libanein, 407. 
 Mountain scene near the cedars of, 461. Journey 
 up the side of, 467. Arrival at the convent of Khez- 
 heyeah, 470. At the cedars, 475. Steep ascent to 
 
 the summit, 476. Magnificent view from thence, 477. 
 Bearings from, 478. 
 
 Ledjah, rocky district of, 266. 279. Said to contain 366 
 ruined towns, 280. Its quarries of mill-stones, 283. 
 
 Lee, Mr., Letter of credit received from, on leaving Alex- 
 andria, 579. Doubted by Mr. Barker, British consul 
 at Aleppo, ib. Sent to him, 589. 
 
 Lesjoof, or Lejhoof, a coiintry of the Wahabees, 290. 
 Described by an old man at Mahadjee, 291. 
 
 Libanus, range of, 396. 
 
 Loobby, village of, 487. 
 
 Lorello, Signior, English consul at Bairpot, 439. Por- 
 traits of the Venetian family of Canal in his posses- 
 sion, 445. 
 
 Lulakjee, plain of, 544. 
 
 M. 
 
 MaalimYakouhe, his hospitality, 136. And kindness to 
 
 the guide Georgis, 139. Occupations of his family, 
 
 140. His fame as a physician, 142. His collection 
 
 of coins, 149. 
 Mahadjee, town of, 284. Bearings and distances of places 
 
 from, 286. Fragment of a Greek inscription, 287. 
 Maat Salaami, or benediction of peace, 184. 
 Maka, encampments of Arabs at, 9. 
 Makhrook, passage thrbugh the rock, 15. 
 JMdllim Georgis, 2. (See Georgis). 
 Mallim Haim, the great Jew at Acre, 318. 
 Mdllim Scander, reception at his house at Hhoms, 493. 
 
 Supper party, 498. 
 Mdllim Yuseff, visit to, 318. His demeanour before the 
 
 Kihyah Bey of Damascus, 320. Early visit to him, 
 
 339.341. His splendid house, 342. Letter of credit 
 
 on, from Lady Hester Stanhope, 336. 
 Maltese cross sculptured on a tower at Antioch, 561. 
 Maniac, in the cavern of Bish-el-Mejeneen, 473. 
 Mansoor, the emir or chief of Kufr-el-Kook, 392. 
 Mar Elias, at Ezra, 269. 
 , convent at Sidon, arrival at, 409. Hospitality 
 
 of Lady Hester Stanhope, 410. 
 Mar Georgis, or St. George, modern tomb of, near 
 
 Fahaez, 110. 
 
 , at Ezra, 276. 
 
 Mar Hanna, convent of, printing carried on there, 472. 
 Mash, a kind of gruel prepared for the sick, at Damascus, 
 
 373. 
 Massaera, probably the site of Machaerus, 17. 
 Maundrell, cited on the profanation of the holy sepulchre, 
 
 309. Cited respecting Jebal, the Byblus of the 
 
 Greeks, 455. Remarks on his prospect of Balbeck, 
 
 480. Cited on the river Eleutherus, 516. 
 Mazar, khan and tomb at, 436. 
 Meadoo, village of, 545. 
 Meary, village of, 399. 
 
 Meena, or port of Tripoly, 463. Little town at, 466. 
 Megibbely, village of, 126. 
 Mehanafish, ruins at, 85. 
 MejeadthU, ruined village of, 231. 
 Mejeamer, town of, its-population, 229. 
 Melek-el-Aadel, brother of Salah-ed-Din, account of, 29. 
 
 note. 
 Menjah, ruins at, 88. 
 
 Mentor, General, of the Sidonians, his treachery, 413. 
 Merj, village of, 126. » 
 
 Merj Aioon, 407. 
 Merj-eUKazhoak, plain of, 542. 
 Merkub, castle of, 524. Town of, 525. Probably the 
 
 Marathus of Strabo, 526. 
 Meryon, Dr., physician to Lady Hester Stanhope, 305, 
 
 Excursions with, 432. 
 Mesenoon, spring of, ancient building near, 390. 
 4 R 
 
676 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Meshemakey, village of, 3S2. 
 
 Metouali, a sect of Mohammedans, 404. At Balbeck, 483. 
 
 At Hhermil, 490. 
 Metvlly, village of, 406. 
 Meze, village of, 386. 
 
 Mezereehe, castle of, 162. Passage respecting, from Mur- 
 ray's Historical Account of Travels in Asia, 162. 
 Mibn-el-Beit, deserted town of, 251. 
 Mijdel, bearings of places from, 250. Safcophagi at, 263. 
 MiWs British India, cited, 250. Land tenures and taxes, 
 
 227. 
 Mittstones, of the quarries of Ledjah, 283. 
 Miniss, village of, 397. 
 Mindreh, remarkable, at Damascus, 310. 
 lUinat-eUBerja, small harbour of, 451 . 
 Mines de POrient, extracts from, 27. 29. note. Letter 
 
 of the author inserted in, 37. note. 
 Mishaly, fountain at, 253. 
 Misser)ia, a town of Ledjah, 291. 
 
 Moab, tower and ruins in the land of, 97. Described, 99. 
 Moghyeroon, valley of, 552. 
 Mohammed, said to have found Paradise near Damascus, 
 
 314. 
 Mohammedan family, house of, at Cufr Injey, described, 
 
 146. 
 Mohammedan guides, their familiarity in travelling, 571. 
 Mohammedan profession of faith, inscribed over the doors 
 
 in the castle of Bosra, 206. 
 Mohammedans, orthodox, privileged colours of, 320. 
 Mmya Jeheer, spring of, near Bosra, 200. 
 Mokha, African breed of sheep at, compared with those of 
 
 Belhah, 93. 
 Monolith, at El Arish, 103. Of Egyptian origin, ih. 
 Monuments, ancient, near Yahmoora, 509. 
 Moslem Dervish, at Damascus, 520. 
 Mosque between Geraza and Adjeloon, 1 33. 
 
 , curious, at Ezra, 272. 
 
 , great, of Damascus, 307. Opinion respecting its 
 
 origin, 308. 
 Motliebein, tovi'a of, 293. 
 Moya Karatta, spring and stream of, 265. 
 Moyat-eUMejerrh, canal of, 487. 
 Moyat-el-Kanjara, 559. 
 
 Mudd, a measure of liquids among the Arabs, 53. 
 Muggrebins, miraculous powers ascribed to, by the Arabs 
 
 of Assalt, 36, 37. 
 Mukautry, village of, 539. 
 Mulberry-tree, much cultivated at Sidon, 416. 
 MuUoal, near Damascus, numerous grottos at, 381. 
 Murdook, ruined town of^ 256. 
 Murray, Mr. letter to, from the author, 626. 
 Musk, bath of, at Damascus, 299. 
 Mustapha Baba, governor of Tripoly, present to, from 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope, 461. Visit to, 465. 
 
 N. 
 
 Naaman the Syrian, his preference for the rivers of Da- 
 mascus, 346. 
 
 Nabathean Arabs, their character little altered during 
 many centuries, 51. 
 
 Nahaly, ruined village of, 126. 
 
 Nahr-Derb-el-Seen, stream of, 409. 
 
 Nahr-el-Assy, river of the Orontes, 487. 
 
 Nahr-el-Bailais, stream of, 401. 
 
 Nahr-eUBesaeteen, stream of, 527. 
 
 Nahr-el-Boorje, river of, 527. 
 
 Nahr-el-Fidar, stream of, 454, 
 
 Nahr-el-Hannnh, near Antioch, 555. 
 
 Nahr-el-Hanny, river of, 487. 
 
 Nahr-el-Heazhey, river, its source, 397. 
 
 Nahr-el-Hussein, river of, 524. 
 
 i^ahr-el-Ibrahim, river, the ancient .^donis, 451, 
 
 Nahr-eUJermak, stream of, 407. 
 
 Nahr-el-Karatchiz, river, 55Z. 
 
 Nahr-el-Kebeer, 531. 
 
 Nahr-eUKelh, stream of, 449. Its former names and 
 
 source, ih. 
 Nahr-eUKhan, river of, 527. 
 Ndlir-el-Ladikea, 531. 
 Nahr-el-Mehamelertn, 449. 
 Nahr-eUMeloueea, stream of, at Tripoly, 462. Traversed, 
 
 466. 
 Nahr-eUMerkeeah, river of, 524. 
 Nahr-eUMeiheeh, 551. 
 Nahr-el-Mmilleh, 458. 
 Nahr-el-Ohja, 447. 
 Nahr-el-Otvely, river of, 434. Supplies the town of Seyda 
 
 with water, 435. 
 Nahr-eURoumtra, 516. Held to be the ancient Eleu- 
 
 therus, ib. 
 Nahr-eUSin, river of, 527. M. Boutain assassinated near 
 
 its source, ib. note. 
 Nahr-eUSoba, 531. 
 Nahr-eUThany, stream of, 407. 
 Nahr-Zaharany, 408. 
 Nahr-cl-Zegherta, stream of, 466. 
 Nargeel, the smoking implement of the Syrians described, 
 
 351. 
 Naimry, village of, 158. 
 iVaaarei^, journey from, to Assalt, 1. 
 Nebbeh^Ain-Beit, the source of the Meloweea, 475. 
 Nebbe Osha, or the prophet Joshua, tomb of, 20. 
 Nebo, mount, its position according to the Arabs, 20. 
 N^ecropolis of Ladikea, 535. 
 Nedjeraun, town of, 251. Curious kind of stone near, 252. 
 
 Population, 254. 
 Nesseary, a people or sect so called, 400. Of bad character, 
 
 505. Their costume and behaviour, 507. 
 Niebuhr, cited respecting certain ejaculations of the Arabs, 
 
 116. 
 Kotariai documents in refutation of the calumnies of 
 
 Mr. Bankes, 617. 
 Nuibuh-el-Etheari, the springs of Jordan, 405. 
 Nebbe Suffa, hill of, 397. 
 Nubbuk-Ain-Eaty, spring of, 478. 
 
 O. 
 
 Og, his kingdom in Bashan, 219. 
 
 Ooda-el-Nebbe, tomb of, 122. 126. 
 
 Oom-el-Allak, deserted town of, 251. 
 
 Oom^el-Jelood, ruins at, 155. 
 
 Oom-el-Jemal, distance of, from Bosra, 200. 203. 
 
 Oom-el-Keseer, ruined town of, 91. 
 
 Oom-el-Keseine, 105. 
 
 Oom-el-Eussds, the mother of lead, 6. Places in the road 
 to, from Assalt, 44. Arrival at, 99. Conversation 
 with a party of Arabs at, 101. Origin of its name, 
 
 104. 
 
 Oom-el-Semak, ruined town of, 66. 
 
 Oom-el-Meleed, ruined town of, 92. IDS. 188. 
 
 Oothubba, ruined fort of, 256. 
 
 Orontes, tributary streams of, 487. Its source, 489, 490. 
 First sight of, 491., Expands into a lake near Arjoon, 
 492. Traversed, 502. 545. Its width at Antioch, 559. 
 
 Orthosia, fortifications and harbour of, 519, 520. An im- 
 portant post for the crusaders, 521. 
 
 Osha-el-NebbS, or Joshua the prophet, tomb of, 121. 
 
 Ottendthy, village of, 158. 
 
 Pasha, Turkish, and his suite, 558. 
 Palestine, Travels in, referred to for an account of the third 
 visit to Jerash, 132. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 677 
 
 Palmyra, observations on Lady H. Stanhope's visit to, 428. 
 
 Paneade, the ancient name of Banias, 404. 
 
 Paradise, supposed site of, near Damascus, 345. 387. 
 
 Partridges, numerous, near Ghiddery, 125. 
 
 i'oiAa of Damascus, visit to his palace, 321. Armoury, 
 322. Superstitious notion of the cause of his death, 
 377. 
 
 Paul, St., gate named after him at Antioch, 562. 
 
 Pehsgi, allusion to the horns worn by them, 451. 
 
 Pelusium, extensive ruins at, 104. 
 
 Pharphar, river of Damascus, enquiry concerning, 389. 
 
 Philip the Tetrarch, Paneade distmguished by his name, as 
 Caesarea Philippi, 404. 
 
 Pkasnicians, conquest of their city Sidon, by Artaxerxes 
 Ochus, 412. 
 
 Pickersgill,MT., remark on his picture called " The Oriental 
 Love-letter," 425. note. 
 
 Pigeons, large flocks of^ near Ghiddery, 125. 
 
 Pisgah, Mount, 121. Tradition respecting, 38. 
 
 Pius VII., pope, pretended miracle wrought on him, 373. 
 
 Pliny, cited on the lake Asphaltes, 55. note. His observ- 
 ation on the horticulture of the Syrians, 315. Cited 
 on the discovery of glass-making at Sidon, 417. On 
 the coast of Syria from Sidon to Bairoot, 439. note. 
 On the durability of cedar, 475. note. On the river 
 Eleutherus, 516. On the ancient Seleuca, 551. Bote. 
 
 Pococke, cited on the identity of Jebel-el-Telj, and the 
 Hermon of the Scriptures, 395. On Caesarea Philippi, 
 404. On Antioch, 559. 
 
 Pottery, fragments of, numerous near the ruined cities of 
 Syria and Egypt, rare near those of the Hauran, 185. 
 
 Priests at Damascus, remarks on, 360. 368. 
 
 Printing-press at the convent of Khezheyeah on Lebanon, 
 471. Bookbinding process, 472. 
 
 Protestant clergy contrasted with the priesthood of the 
 church of Rome, 363. 
 
 Ptolemy, cited on the river Eleutherus, 516. 
 
 Q. 
 
 QxMrterly Reviewers, inaccuracy of their criticisms on 
 Dr. Clarke and D'Anville, 302. Their dishonourable 
 aspersions, 349. Their calumnies refuted, 601. Their 
 review of the Travels in Palestine, 604. Reply to, 
 610. 
 
 R. 
 
 Raajib, ruins of, 12. 
 
 Rahla, village of, 491. 
 
 Rajih, village of, 141. 
 
 Ramadan, fast of, observed among the Druses, 247. 
 
 Ras, village of, 487. 
 
 Ras-el-Bairoot, point of land so called, 438. 
 
 Ras-el-Damoor, the ancient Tamyras, 437. 
 
 Ras-el-Jeddra, headland of, 435. 
 
 Ras-el-Nahr-el-Kelh, promontory, bearings from, 447. 
 
 Ras-el-Nehbionis, tongue of land so called, 435. Bearings 
 from, 436. 
 
 Ras-el^Shakkaht^Tomontory of, 458. How called by Strabo, 
 459. 
 
 Ras-el-Bezery, lake of, 162. 
 
 Reemy, town of, 255. Greek inscription at, 256. Reser- 
 voir and antient tomb, 262. 
 
 Religious imposture, remarks on, 374. 
 
 Reymoon, ruined village of, 126. 
 
 Rgotha, ruined village of, 189. 
 
 Rich, -Mr. Claudius James, letter from, 649. 
 
 Richardson, cited respecting Basra or Bussorah, 210. 
 
 Rikhter, Mr., a Russian traveller, 307. 
 
 Rimzah, town of, 161. Roman aqueduct passing through, 
 167. Robbed of cattle by the Arabs, 169. 
 
 Roboeh, pass of, 386. 
 
 Roman aqueduct near Dahbil, 167. Characters marked on 
 the stones, 168. Only a single specimen found at 
 Assalt, 43. Specimens of, at Amman, 69. At Adjeloon, 
 155. 
 
 Roman edifices at Bosra, 200. 
 
 Roman inscriptions at Ras-el-Nahr-el-Kelb, 448. At Bal- 
 beck, 484. 
 
 Roman road and ancient sculptures on the coast of Syria, 
 
 434. 
 
 Roman ruins at Gunnawat, 248. At Dana, 573. 
 
 Roman theatre in the castle of Bosra, 204. At Bhuhuhah, 
 259. At Gabala, 529. 
 
 Romans, instance of their magnificence at Amman, 77. 
 Specimens of their architecture at Gherbt-el-Sooldi, 
 33. At Yedoody, 84. At Oom-el-Keseer, 91. Speci- 
 mens of their architecture at Oom-el-Russas, 100. 
 
 Roomehea (European Turkey), caparisons for horses sup- 
 plied to Damascus from, 333. 
 
 Rukkum, ruined and deserted town of, 185. 
 
 Rumza, town of, 159. 
 
 Rusheyah, town of, 393. Seated at the foot of Jebel-el- 
 Telj, 395. 
 
 Russians greatly admired by the Christians of Assalt, 57. 
 
 Saddlery, Antioch celebrated for, 557. 
 
 Sahana, village of, 265. 
 
 Saire, village of, 492. 
 
 Saint Antonius, cavern in which he studied, 473. 
 
 Elias, convent of, 155. 
 
 George, church of, at Ezra, 276. Convent of, near 
 
 Hhussan, 504. Its narrow gate, 505. 
 
 Sakkara, ruined town of, 1 57. 
 
 Salak-ed-din-el-MtUlela-iin-Yusef, inscription to, at At^e- 
 loon, 152. 
 
 Salghud, castle and ruins of, 1 94. Distance of, from Bosra, 
 200. Arrival at, 214. Description of, 215. Its com- 
 manding position, 216. Bearings taken from, 217, 
 218. Towns eastward of it all deserted, 218. In 
 ancient times called Selcha, 219. 
 
 Salheyah, a suburb of Damascus, 311. 
 
 Samockinites, lake, called Bahr-el-Houly, 399. 
 
 Sampta, ruined village of, 157. 
 
 Sanchoniathon, cited respecting Tyre and Byblos, 455. 
 
 Saracenic architecture, specimens of, at Amman, 78.. 
 
 Saracens, the Arabs of the desert, why so named, 215. 
 
 Sarcophagi near Amman, 82. 
 
 Sarcophagus, cover of one, neai' Amman, 67. 
 
 Sareeagh, village of, 1 60. 
 
 Schawah, ruined town of, 231. 
 
 Scotland, state of education in, 366. 
 
 Scriptural names of frequent occurrence among the people 
 of Ezra, 289. 
 
 Seas, only four,; in the world, according to the Arabs of 
 Assalt, 28. 
 
 Sedier-eUAazer, a species of tree, 542. 
 
 Sedjer-el-Finjan, 65. El Fush, ib. 
 
 Seedy Yooda Ibn Yacoob, tomb so called, 405. 
 
 Seetzen, Dr., his assumed name of Hakim Moosa, 23 
 Facts related of him at Assalt, 37. Cited on the 
 springs of Jordan, 405. 
 
 Seleucus Nicator, founder of Laodicea, 534. Of Seleucus 
 and Antioch, 549. 
 
 , ancient city, ruins of, 546. Bearings from, 547. 
 
 Caves 548. Hospitality of a Toorkman farmer, 549. 
 
 Selim, Sultan, tomb of, at Jebelee, 530. 
 
 Sepulchres near Yahmoora, 512. 
 
 Serait-el-Mnt-el-Yahoodi, at Bosra, 200. 
 
 Serait-cl-Sultdn, at Amman, 76. 
 
 Sermon, eloquent, preached by a young Spaniard at Da- 
 mascus, 354. Reproached his female hearers for their 
 levity, 356. 
 
 4r 2 
 
678 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Seyda, Jetter from Lady Hester Stanhope at, 338. The 
 ancient Sidon, castle and port of, 410. {See Sidon.) 
 Extent of country subject to its Pasha, 449. 
 Shah Abbas of Persia, his example recommended to the 
 
 ruler of Turkey, 228. 
 Shahtoors, or coasting vessels of the Syrians, 533. 
 Sham, the name of Damascus, 293. 
 Sham-el-Sogheere, appellation given to Tripoly, 463. 
 Shdmi, 293. 
 
 Sheikh-eUBelled, of Adjeloon, visit from his wife, 142. 
 Sheik-Hussein, tribe o^ 9. 
 
 ; , tomb of, bearings and distances of places 
 
 in the Hauran from the eminence near it, 187. 
 Sheikh Shibly, chief of the eastern Druses, his station, 189. 
 
 Visit to, 190. 
 ShellSl, in Egypt and Nubia, signifies a fall of water, 253. 
 Shereeaht Mandoor, the Hieromax, so called by the Arabs, 
 
 163. 
 Shufammer, a new building near Khallet-el-Sumia, 109. 
 Shuefdt, villages of, 438. 
 
 Shuhvhah, excursion to the ruins of, 355. Description of, 
 257. Bearings and distances of places from, 258. 
 Roman theatre, 259. Population, 261. 
 Shukkarah, town of, 283. 
 Shukkub, station of, 293. 
 Shuttemah, village of, 158. 
 Sibbeheel, village of, 467. 
 
 Sidon [Seyda], arrival at the convent of Mar Elias near, 
 409. Excursion to, with Dr.Meiyon, 411. Historical 
 notices concerning, 412. Situation and extent of the 
 present town, 415. Population, ib. Climate, 416. 
 Occupations of the people, ib. Its silk manufacture, 
 416. Dyeing still practised, 417. Whence supplied 
 with provisions, ib. 
 Siffeeny, village of, 397. 
 
 Sihhan, town of, fragments of Roman masonry near, 1 23. 
 Silk manufactory at Damascus, 511. The silk chiefly from 
 China and India, 334. 
 
 , produced in great abundance at Sidon, 416. 
 
 Sinai, Mount, route to, from Karah, circuitous, 103. 
 Single-stick, game at, played at Hhoms, 498. 
 Sinjdn trees, forest of, near Adjeloon, 156. 
 Sketch-book of Geoffi-y Crayon cited on English graves, 
 
 316. 
 Smoking, habit of, among the Damascenes, 352. 
 Snow used at Damascus for cooling sherbet, 353. 
 Soeda, mountain stream from, 188. Town of, capital of 
 the eastern Druses, 231. Its population, 252. Houses 
 and doors of stone, ib. Ruins of a Christian church, 
 233. Buildings resembling an Egyptian temple, 234. 
 Roman monument, 235. Inscriptions, 236, 237. El 
 Jama, or mosque, 238. Astronomers' tower, ib. 
 Solomon, fishpools of, their probable site, 108. 
 Soof, village of, 157. 
 
 Sookh-el-Serdj, or Saddle-bazar, of Ladikea, 535. 
 Soolikhat, ruined village of, 10. 
 Soura, ruined monument near Hhoms, 502. 
 Spanish dollar called Abco Tope by the Arabs, 95, 96. 
 Span, Mr., drowned at Ras-el-Damoor in 1 692, 436. 
 Stalacliles, ornaments in Turkish architecture, resembling, 
 
 342. 
 Stanhope, Lady Hester, said to have discovered an ancient 
 statue at Askelon, 103. Her residence at the convent 
 of Mar Elias, near Seyda, 300. Letter from, 336. Her 
 hospitable reception of the author, 409. A near re- 
 lative of the late Mr. Pitt, 419. Her travels after his 
 death, 420. Her determination to reside in Syria, 
 421. Her domestic establishment at Mar Elias, 422. 
 Mode of life, ib. Character, 424. Veneration in which 
 she is held, 425. Observations on her first visit to 
 Damascus, 426. On her journey to Palmyra, 428. 
 Her exertions to bring to justice the murderers of 
 Colonel Boudain, 429. Advantages derived from the 
 
 visit to, 432. Letters of introduction received from, 
 433. Remark on her visit to the convent of Mar- 
 Antonius-el-Khezyeh, 474. Her letter to Mr. Barker, 
 the British consul at Aleppo, 581. To the author, 584. 
 Extracts from her letters, 649. 
 
 Stone of the buildings at Ezra originally black, assumes a 
 yellow surface by exposure to air, 278. 
 
 door to a house at Suwarrow described, 177. Nu- 
 merous at Bosra, 205. Very massive and ponderous, 
 221. 
 
 Strabo, name given by him to the Ras-el-Shakkah, 459. 
 Cited on the river Eleutherus, 516. 
 
 Sub-el- Pharaoon, hills of, 293. 
 
 Subordination, remarks on, 368. 
 
 Subterranean cistern near Dana, 574. 
 
 Suffed, ruined town of, 162. 
 
 Sukkara, in Egypt, brick pyramid near, 325. 
 
 Suliman, Sultan, founder of a silk manufactory at Damas- 
 cus, 3] I. 
 
 Sulphur, patches of, on the surface of the soil near Jelool 
 90. Inferences drawn from this fact, ib. 
 
 Sumia, ruined village of, 123. 
 
 Summah, ruined town of, 1 63. Altar of yellow stone at, 
 163. 
 
 Summud, village of, 158. 
 
 Sun, ruined tenaple of, at Balbeck, 480. 482. 
 
 Sunnymein, town of, 292. 
 
 Superstition, remarks of, 374. 
 
 Suwarrow, town of, 175. House at, described, 176. Sup- 
 posed to have been a pagan temple, 178. Alarms at, 
 respecting robbers, 181. Arrival of two horsemen who 
 had been plundered, 182. 
 
 Swedeeah, valley of, 551. 
 
 Sydoniaia, exaggerated report on the number of ruinea 
 convents in, 380. 
 
 Syrens, birds so called by the French, numerous near 
 Turtoose, 517. Called War-War by the Arabs, 567- 
 
 Syria, the Arabic of, less pure than that of Egypt, 382. 
 
 Syrians, according to Pliny, proverbial for their horticul- 
 ture, 315. 
 
 Tabakat-FehhU, tombs at, 10. 
 
 Tablet, curious, dug up near Bairoot, 444. 
 
 Tartoose, Qrthosia, approach to. {See Orthosia.) The 
 modern town enclosed within the fort, 522. 
 
 Tabor, Mount, view of, 4, s. 
 
 Tadmor, or Palmyra, Lady Hester Stanhope's visit to, 428. 
 
 Tal-deady, village of, 575. 
 
 Tamyras, now called Ras-el-Damoor, 436. 
 
 Tarabolm, 460. See Tripoly. 
 
 Tayeby, village of, 5. 
 
 Tchatchy, ruined and deserted town of, 185. 
 
 Tea-tree, account of one, at Damascus, 378. 
 
 Teer-el-Yaccoub, the Arabic name of the cuckoo, 392. 
 
 Tal-el-Cadi, springs of the Jordan at, 405. 
 
 Tennes, a commander of the Sidonians, his treachery, 413. 
 
 Tenoon, village of, 502. 
 
 Tents, how distinguished from houses in the Arabic lan- 
 guage, 88. 
 
 Thebes, its ruins contain constructed arches, 325. 
 
 Theatre, ruins of, at Amman, 75. Called by the Arabs 
 Serait-el-Sultan, 76. Roman, in the castle of Bosra, 
 204. 
 
 Tiberias, lake of, called Bahr-el-Tabereeah, 399. 
 
 Tobacco, the chief export from Ladikea, 533. 
 
 Togarmali, or Turcomans, 308. note. 
 
 Tomb, remarkable, near the village of Sampta, 158. 
 
 Toobbery, village of, 292. 
 
 Topography, scriptural, means of elucidating, 46. 
 
 Torrah, town of, 161, 
 
 Towaheen, aqueduct of, 126. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 679 
 
 Tub-kut Fehhel, ruins at, 138. 
 
 Tudela, Benjamin of, cited on the great mosque of Da- 
 mascus, 308. note. On the ancient names of Banias, 
 405. On Jebal, 456. On Balbeck, 405. note. And 
 Tadmor, ih. On Antioch, 557. note. On Aleppo, 596. 
 note. 
 
 Tuffus, large ruined town of, 164. 
 
 Turcomans, race of, have a worse character than the Arab 
 Bedouins, 400. 
 
 Turkey, remarks on the state of society in, 367. 
 
 Turkish architecture, ornaments peculiar to, 342. 
 
 Effendi, reasons of Lady Hester Stanhope for 
 
 adopting the dress of a, 424. 
 
 fem^es at the tombs of their husbands, 318. 
 
 Costume of, at Damascus, 312. 
 
 Turks, effects of ignorance and misgovernment among 
 them, 371. 
 
 Turtle doves, numerous near the banks of the Orontes, 
 492. 
 
 Trieris, probable site of, 459. 
 
 Tripoly,oT Taraboliis, axmaX at, 4:60. Its site, 461, Popu- 
 lation, 462. Environs, ib. Cemeteries very extensive, 
 463. The meena, or port, ib. Origin of the name 
 Tripolis, 465. Visit to Mustapha Baba, ib. Departure 
 for Balbeck, 466. 
 
 Tyre, origin of, according to Justin, 417. 
 
 U. 
 
 Ullakoom, ruined village of, 125. 
 
 UUdn, ruins of, 17. 
 
 Ullan, a deserted Christian town, 122. 
 
 Ullibdt, sandy tract of, 438. 
 
 Ulsdn Arabi, the tongue of the Arabs, 88. 
 
 Uz, land of, supposed to be the plain of the Hauran, 172. 
 
 V. 
 
 Valid, Kalif, supposed founder of the great mosque of 
 Damascus, 308. 
 
 Venus and Adonis, allusion to the fable of, 451. 
 
 Vincent, Dr., cited on the Dipse of the Arabs, 52. note. 
 On Basra, or Bussorah, on the Persian gulf, 209. 
 
 Volcanic convulsions, evidences of, near the Lake of Tiberias 
 and the Dead Sea, 90. 
 
 Volney, observations of Dr. Chaboceau respecting, 300. 
 His work on Syria and Egypt inaccurate in its topo- 
 graphy, 474. note. Remark on his view of the Tem- 
 ple of the sun at Balbeck, 481. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wadi-Ammun, valley of, 73. 
 Wddi-JJarah, stream of, 191. 
 Wadi-el-Ajam, valley of, 294. 
 Wadi-el-Erjey, 543. 
 Wddi-el-Harrdm, stream of, 292. 
 Wddi-el-Hhesh, torrent of, 6. 
 Wddi-el-Hhussan, plain of, 503, 
 Wddi-el-Keseer, ravine of, 92. 
 Wddi-el-Kussui, valley of, 542, 
 
 Wddi-el-Tliemed, stream of, 92. Inscriptions on the wells 
 and cisterns, 98. 
 
 Wddi Esseer, valley of, 109. 
 
 Wddi Hhuzbdn, valley of, 108. 
 
 Wddi Ityne, 392. Traversed, 395. Direction of this valley, 
 
 398. 
 Wddi Kandeel, valley and plain of, 539. 
 Wddi Khezheyah, deep valley of, 468. 
 Wddi Lezerack, valley of, 63. Traversed, 110. 
 Wddi Mesenoon, valley of, 390, 
 Wddi Moosa, or valley of Moses, 103, 
 Wddi Nahaly, stream and valley of, 126, 
 Wddi Rammdn, bed of the stream of, 292, 
 Wddi Soeda, stream of, 253. 
 Wddi Stezibdn, the valley of Jordan, 121, 399. 
 Wddi Shelldly, valley of, 160. 
 Wddi Thalith, stream of, 188, 
 Wddi Zeidy, stream of, 161. 195. Traversed, 212, 
 Wahdbi Arabs, dangers apprehended from, 59. Increase 
 
 of their converts among the Arabs of the Desert, 102. 
 
 Their encroachments on Asia Minor, 219, 
 Walter, village of, bearings and distances of places from, 
 
 192. 
 Webb, a fowling piece made by, seen at Gunnawat, 247, 
 Wells, ancient, of Wadi-el-Themed, 98. 
 Williams, Miss, attendant on Lady Hester Stanhope, 422. 
 Wine-calces, served up for dessert at Adjeloon, 137. 
 Wifkitty, ruined village of, 126. 
 Wives, prices of, among the Arabs, 1 43, 
 Women, degraded state of, among the Arabs, 143. 
 Wood, Mr., allusion to his plan of the ruins at Balbeck, 
 
 481. 
 Wynn, Mr., mention of his name at El-Hhussen, 1 59. 
 
 X. 
 
 Ximyra, probable site of, 508. 
 
 Yahmoora, village of, 508. Rude monuments near, 509. 
 Yedd, village of, 479. 
 Yedoody, antiquities at, 8 4. 
 Yembeah, or dagger of the Arabs, 3. 
 Youm-el-Arbdh, fourth day of the week, deemed inauspi- 
 cious by the Arabs, 59. 
 Yubba, town of, 6. 
 Yunia, bay of, 449. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zeady, stream of, 212. Its som-ce, 213. 
 
 Zebeaery, village of, 590, 
 
 Zeineiba, ruins of, 105. 
 
 Zeiny, castle of, 251. 
 
 Zeitoomy, town of, 551. 
 
 Zellemi, a term of distinction among the Arabs, 87. 
 
 Zemarites, probable country of, 508. 
 
 Zerkah, stream of the, 15. Passage of, 112. On the 
 
 journey to Jerash, 123. 
 Zey, ruined town of, 121. 
 
 Zeyla, peculiar breed of sheep, procured from, 93. 
 Zifteeah, village of, 408. 
 Zirhdgh, village of, 491. 
 Zubbah, an encampment of Arabs at, 7. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LoKBOir : 
 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 
 
 >rew-Street- Square. 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO 
 
 TRAVELS IN PALESTINE. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. S. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 A. 
 ■aBIL, ruins at, 411. Probably the Abila of Josephus, 
 
 412. 421, 
 Abou Farah^ an Arab guide, adventure of, 320. 
 Abram, supposed scene of his meeting with Melchizedek, 
 
 195. 
 Absalom, reputed tomb of, 195. 
 Abu GoiA, village of, 172. 
 Abulhasen, cited respecting Ramah, 168, 
 Abuna, a name given to Christian pastors by the Arabs, 459. 
 
 Visit to the Abuna of Tiberias, 461. 
 Abylene, district of, how situated, 421. 
 Abyssinian girl, interview with, 213. 
 
 Prince (Moosa), visit to, 183. 213. 
 
 Acra, Mount, at Jerusalem, its situation, 267. 280. 
 jlcre, its appearance from the sea, 27. Plain of, 61. Ap- 
 proach to the town, 63. 66. Description of, 71. Its 
 
 history, 72. Grecian, Saracenic, and Christian ruins, 
 
 74. Its present state, 76. Population, 78. Harbour, 
 
 79. View of its bay, 86. Journey from, to Nazareth, 
 
 86. 
 Adam, supposed mark of his foot at Ceylon, 202, note. 
 
 Tradition concerning his skull, 283. 
 Adrichomius, cited, on the bridge over the brook Kedron, 
 
 193. 
 Affooli, village of, 495. 
 Aga, house of the, at Tiberias, 480. 
 Agatharchus, inventor of artificial perspective in theatres, 
 
 372. 
 Agrippa the elder, grandson of Herod, boundaries of his 
 
 kingdom, 420. Territory bestowed on by Claudius, 
 
 423. 
 Ahab, besieged in Samaria by Ben-hadad, 502. 
 Ahaz, place of his sepulture, 277. 
 Ai, city of, its supposed site, 311. 
 Ain Mahhil, village of, 455. 
 Ain-el-Sherrar, springs of, 108. 
 Ain-el-Scanderoni, fountain so called, 59. 
 Aioode, village of, 348. 
 Alexander, his conquest of Tyre, 35. 56. The causeway 
 
 constructed by him, still perfect, 46. His vengeance 
 
 on the Samaritans, 508. 
 Alexander Jannius, his unavailing opposition to Antiochus, 
 
 141. 
 Alexandria, Pharos of, 1 . Departure from, ib. Hippo- 
 
 dromus at, its magnitude, 374. 
 
 Al Harrem, mosque of, at Jerusalem, 205. 
 Al Sakhara, mosque of, at Jerusalem, 204. 242. 
 Ammianus Marcellinus, cited on the hot springs of Pales- 
 tine, 486. 
 Amman, or Philadelphia, remark relative to its position, 
 
 337. 
 Ammonites, land of the, how situated, 327. 
 Amorites, boundaries of their lands, according to Josephus, 
 
 325. 
 Amos, passage from, relative to the Samaritans, 507. 
 Ananias, the high priest before whom Paul pleaded, 132. 
 Andromeda and Perseus, fable of, its scene said to have 
 
 been Joppa, 148. 
 Anna, Saint, mother of Mary, her supposed tomb, 196. 
 Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas, supposed house of, 239. 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, his persecution of the Jews, 533. 
 Antipas disputes the sovereignty of Archelaus, 420. 
 Antipatris, notices respecting, 1 40. 
 Antoninus Pius, amphitheatre of, at Nismes, remark on 
 
 371. ' 
 
 Aphek, tower of, its supposed site, 141. 
 Apollonias, its site according to D'Anville, 146. 
 Apostles, grotto of the, 203. 
 Aqueducts, portions of, seen on the journey from Jerusalem 
 
 to Jericho, 294. 
 Aqueducts at Geraza, 393. 595. 
 Arab tribe, removing their encampment, 321. A party of 
 
 Arabs on foot, described, 328. Escort of, passing 
 
 from Jerusalem to Jericho, 288. Encampment of 
 
 290. ' 
 
 Arch, triumphal, ruins of, at Geraza, 556. 
 Archelais, a village built by Herod, 311. 
 Archelaus, appointed by Herod, ethnarch of one half of his 
 
 dominions, 420. 
 Argol, the kingdom of Og, in Bashan, 398. 
 Arimathea, supposed by St. Jerome to have been Ramah 
 
 167. 
 Arimza, town of, 409. 
 Armenian convent, at Jerusalem, 237. Its church described 
 
 238. ' 
 
 Armenians at Jerusalem, 261. 
 Arreyna, village of, 492. 
 Arrian, his description of Tyre, 39. 
 Artaxerxes, interrupts the rebuilding of Jerusalem 506 
 
 507. 
 Ascension, supposed scene of the^ 201. 
 Astarte, a medal of, struck at Sebaste, 513. 
 A 
 
11 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Athens, remarks on the Hecatompedon at, 367. 373. 
 
 Athlete, ruins of, 121. 
 
 Ai/n Kareem, village of, 173. 227. Described, 228. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacchus, theatre at Athens dedicated to, 367. 373. 387. 
 
 Backshish, a Persian word used by the Arabs, 464. 
 
 Bahrahah, village of, 410. Sarcophagi at, 4 1 1 . 
 
 Baillt/'s Ancient History of Asia, cited respecting Tyre, 38. 
 
 Balsam trees, of the valley of Jericho, 299. 
 
 Bankes, Mr. his return from an excursion to the Jordan, 
 
 182. Visit to an Abyssinian prince, 213. His valuable 
 
 drawings, 215. Visit to the holy sepulchre, 246. 
 
 Journey with, to Jericho, 289. To the ruins of Ge- 
 
 raza, 347. 351. 592. Suspicions of the Moslems on 
 
 his visit, 404. Journey vnth, to Nazareth, 441. His 
 
 departure to Acre, 452. 
 Basaltic sarcophagi, at Gamala, 41 7. 
 Barbarossa, Frederick, emperor, buried at Tyre, 44. 
 Bashan, territory of, 326. 
 Batanea, district of, 117. 
 Bathshehc^s Pool, 186. 
 Baths, ancient, at Geraza, 390. 393. 
 , , near the lake of Tiberias, 465. View of, 
 
 478. 
 Beaufort, Captain, his description of tombs in Asia Minor, 
 
 416, note. 
 Bedouin Arabs, account of an artificer who travelled 
 
 among them, 319. 
 Beer-el-Jaroush, 90. 
 Beit-Eiba, village of, 521. 
 Beit-el-Ras, hamlet of, 41 1. 
 Beit-Emireen, village of, 501. 
 Beit-Jallah, village of, 227. 
 Beit-Sasafa, village of, ih. 
 Belled-EskaU, village of, 450. Probably the site of Xaloth, 
 
 451. 
 BeUed-eUMelhhe, the country of salt, 227. 
 Belled-eUSheikh, village of, 1 14. 139. 
 Beloe, cited on the Syrian Ecbatana, 117. 
 Belus, river, glass first made from its sands, 87. 
 Benhadad, king of Syria, his overthrow in Samaria, 503. 
 Beni Sheikh Mohammed, tribe of Arabs so named, 446. 
 Benjamin, territory of the tribe of, 316. 
 Benjamin, Rabbi, cited respecting Joppa, 1 S5. 
 Bethannabris, conflict of the Jews and Romans at, 432. 
 Bethany (Beit-Ania), village of 199. Sepulchre of Lazarus 
 
 there, 200. 
 Beth-haccerem, supposed site of, 222. 
 Bethlehem [Beit-hahhrn), excursion to, 215. Church of 
 
 St. Helena, 219. Grotto of St. Jerome, iJ. Grotto 
 
 of the Nativity, 220. Town described, 222. 
 Bethsaida, city of, named Julius, by Pliny, 490. 
 Bethshan, why called Scythopolis, 334. 340. 
 Bethulia, city of, its supposed site, 109. 
 Bezer, one of the cities of refuge appointed by Moses, 331. 
 Bezetha, a hill at Jerusalem, its situation, 268. 270. 
 Bir-el-Yakoob, or Jacob's Well, enquiry concerning, 543. 
 Bir-Yusef, or Well of Joseph, 475. Frequented for water 
 
 fi-om Nablous, 544. 
 Birreheen, village of, 551. 
 Blood, fie\(!i of, near Jerusalem, 187. 
 Bochart, cited on a fable connected with the river Belus, 
 
 87. note. 
 Boghaz, its derivation and meaning, 17. 
 Boorza, village of, 330. Inquiry on its identity with 
 
 Bosor, 331. 
 Bouillon, Godefroy de, and Baldwin his brother, their 
 
 tombs destroyed by the Greeks, 248. 
 Bouleuticon, in Grecian theatres, 369. 
 Boutain, M., a French traveller, murdered, 69. 
 
 Brown, Mr., cited respecting Nazareth, 93. On the ap- 
 proach to Jerusalem, 175. 
 
 Burckhardt, Mr., his assumed name of Sheikh Ibrahim, 51. 
 Inscriptions at Geraza and Soof, copied by, 405. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cabaat, village of, 497. 
 
 Cabr Sabt, village of, 449. 
 
 Ccenopolis, or Bezetha, at Jerusalem, 281. 
 
 Ccesar, C. Julius, exempted Joppa from tribute, 1 52. 
 
 Ccesarea, ancient, ruins of, 126. Josephus cited respecting 
 127. Built by Herod, 130. Often visited by the 
 Apostles, 131. Visited by Titus, 133. Taken by the 
 Saracens, ib. The ruins described, 134. Massacre 
 of Jews at, how revenged, 400. 
 
 Caf asses, meaning of the term, 25. 
 
 Caipha, on the bay of Acre, 79. 
 
 Callirhoe, fountain of, at Ras-el-Ain, 46. View of, 55. 
 
 Calvary, and the tomb of Christ, visit to, 246. Enquiry 
 concerning its site, 265. 281. Its small elevation, 284. 
 
 Camels, descending to drink at the river Jordan, 305. 
 
 Campo Santo, at Jerusalem, 187. 
 
 Cana of Galilee, present state of, 112. Now called Kufr 
 Kelna, 492. Once the abode of Josephus, and the 
 head quarters of Vespasian's army, iJ. 
 
 Canaanites, ancient, caves in which they dwelt, 123. 
 
 Capernaum, ruins of, 464. 469. View of the lake of Gen- 
 nesareth from, 471. Its ancient importance, 473. 
 
 Caramania, Capt. Beaufort's account of, cited, 416, note. 
 
 Carmel, Mount, seen over the plain of Acre, 61. View ol^ 
 86. Topographical remarks on, 1 13. Ascent to its 
 summit, 115. Spot of Elijah's sacrifice, 116. Found 
 to be a range of hills, 119. Bearings taken from, ib., 
 note. 
 
 Catamarans, used by fishermen on the shores of Arabia 
 Felix, 460. 
 
 Caypha, town of, 114. Thought to be the ancient Cala- 
 mon, 115. 
 
 Cebir, Hebrew word, its meaning, 1 63, note. 
 
 Cellarius, cited on the distance of Antipatris from Joppa, 
 142. And on the distinction between Dora and 
 Casarea, 142. Respecting Ramah, 166. note. On 
 the situation of Gamala, 429. note. 
 
 Cestius, his march to Jerusalem, by Antipatris, 141. His 
 retreat and flight, ib. 
 
 Ceylon, peak of, supposed mark of Adam's foot on, 202. 
 note. 
 
 Chabarzaba, a name given to Antipatris, 142. 
 
 Chateaubriand, cited respecting Ramah, 165. On the life 
 of the religious, in the holy land, 181. On the sup- 
 posed tomb of Herod, 208. On the holy sepulchre, 
 and the tomb of Christ, 251. His description of the 
 Jews dwelling at Jerusalem, 258. Remark on his 
 description of the city, 263. His observations on the 
 traditionary localities in Palestine, 491. 
 
 Chinnereth, a name once given to the lake of Gennesareth, 
 470. 
 
 Christ, spot where he was betrayed, 187. Local traditions 
 respecting, near Jerusalem, 1 94. Reputed scene of 
 his agony, 197. Rock where he predicted the de- 
 struction of the temple, 199. Where he ascended 
 after his resurrection, 201. Tomb of, 246. Des- 
 cribed, 250. Supposed place of his baptism by John, 
 316. Tradition, respecting the precipice near Naza- 
 reth, 453. His voyages across the lake of Genne- 
 saret, vaguely described by the evangelists, 467. His 
 denunciation against Capernaum, 474. His confer- 
 ence with the woman of Samaria, 535. 
 
 Circys, in Grecian theatres, its purpose, 371. 
 
 Cisterns, subterranean, remains of, at Ramlah, 169. 
 
 Cities of Refuge, appointed by Moses, east of Jordan, 5Z l . 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Clarke, Dr., cited on the distance of Ramali from Jeru- 
 salem, 165.. On the approach to Jerusalem, 175. On 
 the sanctuary at Bethlehem, 221. Respecting Cal- 
 vary and the holy sepulchre, 265. On the excava- 
 tions around Mount Sion, 276. On the holy sepul- 
 chre, 285. His error respecting the site of Sebaste, 
 513. note. 
 
 Cleopatra, part of her revenues derived from the balsam 
 trees of Jericho, 300. 
 
 Cluverius,'fitroT of, respecting the site of Nazareth, 93. 
 Enumerates Gadara among the cities of Decapolis, 
 437. 
 
 Conktra, in Athenian theatres, its purpose, 367. 
 
 Constantine, son of Heraclius, abandons Csesarea to the 
 Saracens, 133. 
 
 Coptic convent, adjoining the holy sepulchre, 212. 
 
 Corinthian temple, ruins of, at Geraza, 382. Another in 
 
 ! the valley, 392. 
 
 CrocodUon of Pliny, conjecture respecting, 138. 
 
 Crown of thorns, of what tree supposed to have been made, 
 306. 
 
 Cucina delta Santa Madonna, at Nazareth, 98. 
 
 Cufr Cadi, village of, 551. 
 
 Cufr Sou, hamlet of, 412. 
 
 Cutheans, established in Samaria, 506. Composed of five 
 different nations, ib. 
 
 Cypros, a town built by Herod, 310. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dalmanuiha, affinity of its name with that of Tal-hewn, 
 474. 
 
 Damascvs, danger in travelling to, 463. 
 
 Damiani, Signor, English consul at Jaf&, 147. 
 
 Danites, their lot, in Canaan, 124. 
 
 D'Anville, cited, respecting the situation of Nazareth, 93. 
 On the area of ancient Jerusalem, 268. On the posi- 
 tion of Maresha, 309. Respecting Gaulon, 424. note. 
 On the identity of Gadara and Kedar, 435. 
 
 David, his flight to Ramah, 163. Account given by Jose- 
 phus of his escape, 1 63. His sepulchre, and castle, at 
 Jerusalem, 204, 205. His conquest of Jerusalem, 274. 
 
 Dead Sea, seen from the Mount of Olives, 199. Its west- 
 ern shores described, 318. 
 
 Deborah, village of, described, 102. Named after the pro- 
 phetess, 103. Adventure with the inhabitants, 111. 
 
 Decapolis, country of, 327. Plan of the ruins of Geraza, 
 542. This name given to Gilead when colonized by 
 the Romans, 399. Pliny cited respecting, 434, note. 
 
 Deer-el-Ranaah, 336. 
 
 Demetrius, king, letter from, to his father Lasthenes cited, 
 164. 
 
 Demoniac, mentioned in St. Mark, scene where he abode, 
 437. 
 
 Diazoma, in Grecian theatres, purpose of, 368. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus cited respectmg ancient Tyre, 37. On 
 the manners of the Nabathseans, 329. 
 
 Disciples, grotto of the, near Jerusalem, 193. 
 
 Djezmr Pacha, improved the fortifications of Acre, 16. 
 Events that led to his death, 80. 
 
 Dolesus, murder of, at Gadara, 430. •• 
 
 Door, ancient, at Gamala, described, 415. 
 
 Dor, of the Scriptures, probabljr the modern Tartoura, 
 123. Besieged by Antiochus, 124. 
 
 Doric order, no specimen of, in the ruins of Geraza, 396. 
 Few in those of Gamala, 419. 
 
 Dourra, millet so called in Egypt and Syria, 10. 
 
 E. 
 
 Ebal, mountain of, 524. 545. 
 
 Ecbtttarut!, of Syria, supposed site of, 116. 
 
 Echea, in Grecian theatres, their purpose, 387. 
 
 Edinburgh Review cited respecting Calvary, 285. 
 
 Edar, tower of, its supposed site, 221. 
 
 Edward (I.) Prince, took Nazareth, 99. 
 
 Egypt, voyage from, to Syria, 1. Description of the 
 vessel, 3. Crew, 4. Passengers, 5. Particulars of the 
 voyage, 9 — 27. Arrival at Soor, 30. 
 
 , Upper, remarks on the grottos in, 210. 
 
 Elah, brook and valley of, 228. 
 
 Elias, school of, on Mxiunt Carmel, 120. 
 
 Elkanah, remark on the place of his abode, 163. 
 
 EUHami, spring of, 487. 
 
 EUHussan, ancient castle of, 469. 
 
 Elizabeth, house and grotto of, 228. Place where she gave 
 birth to John the Baptist, 229. 
 
 Elijah, spot of his sacrifice on Mount Carmel, 1 16. School 
 of, 120. 
 
 Elisha, passage respecting, cited, 294. 
 
 El-Mufshoor, village, described, 64. Fountain near it, 65. 
 
 El-Mukhalid, village of, 139. Its situation corresponding 
 with that of Antipatris, 140. 
 
 Emmaus, hot-springs of, remark on, 444. note. Various 
 places of that name, 445. 
 
 Endor, site of, 108. 
 
 Ephraim, supposed site of, 291. 
 
 Ephrah, tomb of Rachel, near, 216. 
 
 Ephron, its position not ascertained, 335. 
 
 Esdraelon, plain of, seen from Mount Tabor, 107. Tra- 
 versed, 113. 449. Ruined sarcophagi on, 493. Its 
 dimensions, 552. Its soil every where capable of cul- 
 tivation, 553, 
 
 Essa, mentioned by Josephus, supposed to be Geraza, 399. 
 
 Etham, mentioned by Josephus, supposed to be the cisterns 
 of Solomon, 226. 
 
 Etleery, ruins of, 121. Magnificent ruins of Athlete near 
 it, 122. 
 
 Eumenicus, portico of, in the temple of Bacchus at Athens, 
 remark on, 388. 
 
 Ezion-geber, its site, 149. 
 
 Ezra, state of Samaria in his time, 506. 
 
 Fellaheen, or peasantry at Sook-el-khan, 457. 
 
 Festus, St.Paul's pleading before, 132. 
 
 Fish, from the lake of Tiberias, difficult to procure, 460. 
 
 Foharrah, village of, 412. Its site, and present population, 
 
 413. 
 Fooli, village of, 494. 
 Franciscan convent at Nazareth, 94, Superior to those of 
 
 Smyrna, Alexandria, and Cairo, 95. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gabinius, said to have restored Samaria, 510. 
 
 Gadara, devastated by the Jews, 400. Taken by Vespa- 
 sian, 430. The metropolis of Perea, 431. Distance 
 from, to the Jordan, 433. Various places of that 
 name, 435. 
 
 Gadarenes, country of, how situated, 437. Its probable 
 extent, ib. 
 
 Galilee, lower and upper, boundaries of, 451. 
 
 . sea of, the lake of Gennesareth why so called, 47 1 . 
 
 Gamala, ancient, ruins of, 414. Tombs, 415. Sarcophagi, 
 417. Extent of the city, 418. Theatre, 419. Pre- 
 valent architecture Ionic and Corinthian, ib. His- 
 torical notices respecting, 420. Its capture by the 
 Romans, 428. 
 
 Gaidonitis, how separated from the Tiberiad, 117. Its 
 fertility and beauty, 327. Formed part of the king- 
 dom of Og, king of Bashan, 398. Laid waste by the 
 Jews, 401. 
 
 A 2 
 
IV 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Gaza, added by Caesar to the province of Syria, 423. 
 
 Gebel-el-Telj, or Mountain of Snow, 109. Estimate of its 
 elevation from the level of the sea, 489. 
 
 Gennesaret, lake of, seen from Mount Tabor, 108. 
 — — — , town of, its supposed site, 466. 468. 
 
 Geraza, plan of the ruins of, 342. The Necropolis, 347. 
 351. Circular colonnade, 353. General survey, 354. 
 Naumachia,3S8. Peripteral temple, 361,362. Theatre 
 with closed scene, ib. Temple of Jupiter, 382. 
 Another theatre, 386. 389. Bath, 390. Corinthian 
 temple in the valley, 392. Aqueduct, 393. Remarks 
 on the style of architecture in the ruins, 396. The 
 city supposed to have been the Gergashi of the 
 Hebrews, 397. Why devastated, 400. Completely 
 demolished by Vespasian, 402. Ancient sarcophagi 
 at, 406. 
 
 Gergasha, in Gilead, 398, Its early history uncertain, 399. 
 
 Gerizim, mountain of, 524. 545. 
 
 Ghaxelles, flocks of, near Nazareth, 489. 
 
 Ghearbi-elSummara, village of, 476. 
 
 Ghierbee, village of, 1 13. 
 
 Giants, dwelling of the, an appellation given to ancient 
 Jericho, 302. 
 
 , valley of, at Jerusalem, 271. 
 
 Gibbon, cited respecting the prowess of Richard Coeur de 
 Lion, 156. Respecting Mount Sion and Acra in 
 Jerusalem, 276. note. 
 
 Gihon, its identity with Siloah, proved by Cellarius, 271. 
 
 Gilboa, mountains of, 109. 
 
 Gilead, extent of the territory of, 327. note. Journey 
 through the mountains of, 321. Site of Ramoth, 337. 
 And Jabesh, 338. Beauty of the country, 341. Over- 
 run by Moses after he had passed the Jabbok, 398. 
 
 Cfilgal, enquiry concerning the encampment of Joshua at, 
 515. 
 
 Ginnen, one of the boundaries of Samaria, 500. 
 
 Glass, art of making, where first known, 87. 
 
 Golan, one of the cities of refuge appointed by Moses, 331. 
 
 Golgotha, enquiry concerning its situation, 281. Meaning 
 of the word, 282. 
 
 Great Plain, or valley of Jordan, 293. 
 
 Greek Chapel, on the supposed spot of the temptation of 
 Christ, 307. 
 
 Greeh Church at Jerusalem, 237. 
 
 Greeks, most numerous of the Christians at Jerusalem, 
 261. 
 
 Grotius, cited respecting Geraza, 397. Respecting Abilene, 
 422. 
 
 Guilletihe, M. de la, cited on the theatre of Bacchus at 
 Athens, 367. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hadjee Ahmet, Pasha of Acre, commonly called Jezzar, 
 account of, 80. 
 
 Hadjee Ahmed Gerar, chief of Sanhoor, visit to, 497. His 
 benevolence, 499. 
 
 Hami, its signification in Arabic, 447. 
 
 Hanoverian travellers, two, at Jerusalem, 1 76. 
 
 Hauran, plain of, 409. 
 
 Hecatompedon, theatre at Athens, allusion to, 367. 
 
 Helena, queen of Adiabene, tomb of, 281. 
 
 Hemman-el-Aioobe, the bath of Job, 469. 
 
 Heram, village of, described, 14,T. Scarcity of provisions 
 there, 144. 
 
 Hercules, temple of, at Tyre, described by Herodotus, 36. 
 
 Herman, range of hills, supposed to be the, 108. 
 
 , of the Scriptures, remark on its position, 552. 
 
 Herod, cities built by him, in honour of Caesar, 126. Sup- 
 posed tomb of, 208. Towns built by, in honour of 
 his kindred, 312. Boundaries of his kingdom, 420. 
 Said to have built Tiberias in honour of Tiberius, 481. 
 Founded Sebaste in Samaria, 510. 
 
 Herodotus, cited respecting Tyre, 36. 
 
 Hiel, the rebuilder of Jericho, 298. 
 
 Hieromax, hot springs and baths near the, 441. Passage of 
 
 the stream, 442. Its source, 447. 
 Hinnom, valley of, 187. Supposed to have been the Ge- 
 
 hinnon, or Gihon, 271. Also called Topheth, 272. 
 Hippos, added by Caesar to the province of Syria, 423. 
 Hiram, his correspondence with Solomon cited, 151. 
 Holy Cross, Greek convent of, 230. 
 Hoh/ Land, description of, by an English pilgrim in 1600, 
 
 209. note. 
 Holy Sepulchre, at Jerusalem, view of the domes and 
 
 tower of, 231. Female establishment of the- friars, 
 
 243. Interior of the sepulchre, 246. Tomb of Christ, 
 
 250. 
 Horn, silver, an ornament worn by Tyrian women, 49. 
 
 Scriptural allusions to, ib. 50. 
 Hosea, the prophet, his allusion to the ruin of Samaria, 
 
 505. 
 Hoshea, king of Samaria, subdued by Shalmanezer, 505. 
 Hot Springs near the Hieromax, 441. 443. At Tahhbahh, 
 
 468. 
 Hussun, village of, 409. 
 Hyrcanus, his subjugation of Samaria, 509. 
 
 I. 
 
 Idumea, tributary to Archelaus, 421. 
 
 Inscriptions copied at Geraza and Soof by Mr. Burckhardt, 
 405. 
 
 Ionic order of Architecture, remark on, 375. 
 
 Iron mountain, a ridge of hills so called by Josephus, 522. 
 
 Isaiah cited respecting Tyre, 34. 
 
 Ishmaelites, spot where Joseph was sold to them, 475. 
 
 Isidore, Padre, account of, 253. 
 
 Isniael Pasha, account of, 82. Succeeds Jezzar at Acre, 
 84. His fate, 85. 
 
 Issus, battle of, decided the fate of Tyre, 41. 
 
 Itabyrius, or Tabor, scriptural references to, 105. 
 
 Jacob, memorial of his covenant with Laban, 398. 
 
 Jael, spot where she slew Sisera, 1 03. 
 
 Jaffa (Joppa), approach to from the northern beach, 145. 
 Description of the town, 146. Signer Damiani, the 
 English consul at, 147. Historical facts connected with, 
 148. Exempted from tribute by Julius Caesar, 152. 
 Taken by Vespasian from the pirates, 153. An im- 
 portant point to the Crusaders, 155. Atrocity com- 
 mitted there by Bonaparte, 157. 159. Description of 
 the town, 157. 
 
 James St., the brother of John, place where he was 
 killed, 238. 
 
 Jamnites, their fleet burnt at Joppa by Judas Maccabeus, 
 159. 
 
 Jebusites, when expelled from Jerusalem, 274. 
 
 Jehoshaphat, valley of, ancient tombs in, 185. Historical 
 enquiries respecting, 194. 
 
 Jejaz, ruins of, 336. Whether those of Jabesh Gilead, 33S . 
 
 Jejean, village of, 412. 
 
 Jemel, the Arabic name for a camel, 424. note. 
 
 Jeneen, journey to, 493. Description of, 496. 
 
 Jerash, journey to, 342. Ruins of, 343.351.353. Its 
 name identified with Gergashi and Gorosa, 397. 
 
 Jeremiah, grotto of, 210. 
 
 Jericho, journey to, from Jerusalem, 288. Enmiiry respect- 
 ing the site of the ancient city, 296. Rebuilt after 
 its destruction by Joshua, 298. Vale of, formerly 
 celebrated for balsam trees, 299. 
 JcriMo/ra!, not visible from Joppa, 158. Approach to, 174. 
 Convent of Terra Santa, 179. Ancient tombs in the 
 valley of Jehoshaphat, 185. 190. View of the city 
 from the Mount of Olives, 203. Its interior ex- 
 amined, 231. Plan of the ancient city, and its di- 
 visions, 232. Height of the present walls, 241. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Bazars, 242. Holy sepulchre and tomb of Christ, 
 246. Visit to the Jewish synagogue, 254. Retrospect, 
 259. Population, 260. How governed, 262. Dear- 
 ness of provisions, 263. Topographical enquiries, 266. 
 Plan of the modern city, 268. Supposed date of its 
 original foundation, 274. When taken by the Jebu- 
 sites, ib. Journey from, to Jericho, 388. 
 
 Jews inhabiting Jerasalem described, 241. Visit to their 
 synagogue, 254. None resident at Nablous, 539. 
 
 Jissera-el-Shereeah, ruins of, 448. 
 
 Joel, the prophet, cited on the valley of Jehoshaphat, 191. 
 
 John the Baptist, supposed place of his birth, 229. 
 
 Jonah said to have embarked at Joppa on his flight to 
 Tarsus, 149. 
 
 Joppa, 1 45. See Jaffa. 
 
 Joram besieged in Samaiia by Benhadad, 504. 
 
 Jordan, river, valley of, 293. Its junction with the Dead 
 Sea, ii. Remark on its course, 418. Passage of the 
 river, 305. Valley, 313. Its periodical overflowing, 
 314. Its waters pure, 315. Recrossed on returning 
 to Nazareth, 448. 
 
 Joseph and Mary, their supposed residence at Nazareth, 
 98. Tomb of Joseph, 196. 
 
 Josephus, cited respecting the village of Dora, 124. Re- 
 specting Cassarea founded by Herod, 127. Respecting 
 the seizure of Joppa by Vespasian, 1 53. On a passage 
 respecting David, 163. His description of Jerusalem, 
 266. Details respecting Maresha, 308. Respecting 
 the situation of Jericho, 317. On the lands of the 
 Amorites, 325. On the ruins of Geraza, 398. On 
 those of Gamala, 420. 426. 431. 432. And Gadara, 
 436. On Kaloth, 451. And Bethsaida, 474. no^e. His 
 description of the lake of Gennesaret, 470. Cited 
 respecting Tiberias, 481. 483. And Samaria, 509. 
 
 Joshua, his conquest of Jericho, 297. In high estimation 
 among both Jews and Mohammedans, 303. Stratagem 
 by which he took Ai, 31 1 . 
 
 Judas Maccahceits, his revenge on the people of Joppa, 151. 
 
 Judea, view of its mountains fromRamlah, 171. 
 
 Judges, sepulchres of the, near Jerusalem, 206. 
 
 Julio, Padre, at Caypha, his hospitality, 114. 
 
 Jupiter, temple of, at Geraza, 384. 
 
 Juria, balsam trees of, 299. 
 
 Justinian, his slaughter of the Samaritans, 538. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kaissariah ffiam, Caesarea so named by Arabic writers, 134. 
 
 Kalioon, village of, 173. 
 
 Kedar, the present name of Gadara according to D'An- 
 
 ville, 435. 
 Kedron, brook of, 190. Bridge over, 193. Connected 
 
 with a tradition relative to Christ, 194. 
 Khallat-el-Ateek, or old castle near Tartoura, 123. 
 Khamsi Khahshaat, place of the five loaves, 489. 
 Khan-eUMunney, near the lake of Tiberias, 466. 
 Kings, tombs of the, at Jerusalem, 207. 
 Kishon, river, its source, 109. note. Called Nahr-el-Mu- 
 
 kutta, 114. 
 Kissary, Csesarea, so named by the Arabs, 126, 
 Kufr Kelna, the Cana of Galilee, 492. 
 
 Lazarus, sepulchre of, 200. 
 
 Lebanon, timber from, for Solomon's temple, brought by 
 
 sea to Joppa, 151. 
 Le Bruyn, cited respecting Jaffa, 157. 
 Libanus, summit of, seen on the journey to Nazareth, 489. 
 Loaves and Fishes, remai'ks on the scene of that miracle, 
 
 490. 
 Lockman, the Arabian sage, enquiry concerning his tomb, 
 
 170. 
 
 Loohee, village of, 491. 
 
 Lord's Prayer, supposed place where it was taught, 205. 
 
 Loretto, chapel of, its supposed original site, 96. 
 
 Luke, St. cited respecting Abylene, 422. On the voyages 
 
 of Christ across the lake of Gennesareth, 467. 
 Lusignan, Jaffa added to the fragments of his kingdom, 
 
 156. 
 Lydda, town of, 162. 
 Lysanias, tetrarchy of, 423. 
 
 M. 
 
 Maccabees, history of the, Ramah mentioned there, 164. 
 Magnificence of their sepulchres, 228. Their achieve- 
 ments in the land of Gilead, 332. 
 
 Makkaebly, village of, 495. Return to, B55. 
 
 MalaganJia, Signor, English consul at Acre, 68. 79. 86. 
 
 Mallini Haiin, Jewish priest at Acre, 78. 
 
 Mamlouks of Egypt seized the maritime towns of Syria 
 from the Crusaders, 156. 
 
 Manasseh, district of the half tribe of, 327. 
 
 , brother of Jaddua, story relative to, 531. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, his name found among the ruins of Ge- 
 raza, 346. 
 
 Mariti, Abbe, cited respecting a ruin near Ayn Kareem, 174. 
 
 Maronites, church of, at Nazareth, 94. 
 
 Maundrell's account of Tyre cited, 45. His description of 
 the fountains at Ras-el-Ain, 56. His account of Acre, 
 75. His errors relative to the country seen from , 
 Mount Tabor, corrected, 109. Cited respecting the 
 fertility of the mountains of Judea, 172. On the 
 tombs of the kings at Jerusalem, 208. On the cisterns 
 of Solomon, 225. On the profanation of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, 252. On the fissure in the rock of Calvary, 
 286. His conjecture respecting the Syrian goad ju- 
 dicious, 439. 
 
 Melchixedek, king of Salem, 273. 
 
 Mmnnon's monument near Acre, no trace of, 88. 
 
 Mertha, supposed to be the Maresha of Josephus, 30§. 
 309. 
 
 Mesjed-el-Nebbe Moosa, a mosque, why so called, 182. 
 
 Mesra, village of, 494. 
 
 Migdal, village of, 466. Supposed to be the Magdala of 
 the Gospel, ib. 
 
 Min Tabos Aboora, 138. Meaning of the name, ib. note. 
 
 Minareh, meaning of the terra, 15. note. 
 
 Moallim Zacharias, an old Rabbi, his account of the 
 Jewish worship at Jerusalem, 255. 
 
 Mohammed, Mr. Bankes's servant, an Italian renegado, 
 213. His conference with a Franciscan friar, 255. 
 Instance of his adroitness, 408. 
 
 .^^^— — Mamlouk, a German by birth, 487. 
 
 Mohaimnedans, numerous proportion of, at Jerusalem, 
 261. 
 
 ikfoncowys, cited respecting Jaffa, 157. 
 
 Moriah, mount, 190. Its situation, 267. One of the two 
 great hills on which Jerusalem stood, 268. Its whole 
 summit once occupied by the temple of Solomon, 
 280. 
 
 Moses, supposed tomb of, 182. His conquest of Bashan, 
 398. 
 
 Moosa, an Abyssinian prince, interview with, 183. Visit 
 to, in company with Mr. Bankes, 213. Adventure 
 near the Holy Sepulchre, 243. 
 
 Munos, Padre Francisco, the happy Spanish friar mentioned 
 by Chateaubriand, 181. 
 
 Mutesellim, or governor of Jerusalem, 263. 
 
 Myrobalanimi tree, conjecture respecting, 306. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nabathceans, country of, in Ar'ibia Petrasa, 
 Nablous, mountains of, 407. 
 
 334. 
 
VI 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nablout, town of, arrival at, S21. Its former names, 
 Shechem and Neapolis, 527. Its population, ib. 
 
 Nahr-el-Arzoof, stream of, 145. 
 
 Nahr-el-Hami river, the ancient Hieromax, 4 1 7. 
 
 Nahr-eUZebeen, stream of, 342. 
 
 Nahr-el-Zerkak river, the Jabbock of the Scriptures, 325. 
 
 Nain, not distinguishable from Mount Tabor, 109. note. 
 
 Nahhora, promontory of, 60. 61. The Scala Tyriarum 
 mentioned by Josephus, 62. 
 
 Napolose, road of, approach to Jerusalem from, 175. 
 
 Nargeel, meaning oi the term, 498. 
 
 Nasdf Pacha, account of, 81. 
 
 Nativity, grotto of the, at Bethlehem, 220. 
 
 Naumachia, at Geraza, 358. 
 
 Nazareth, journey to, from Acre, 86. Arrival at, 91. 
 , Description, 93. Population, 94. Franciscan convent, 
 95. Grottos, 96. The ancient Synagogue, 99. The 
 precipice, ib. Return to, 452. Excursions from, 455. 
 Return to, from Tiberias, 492. Journey from, to 
 Jeneen and Sanhoor, 495. Return to, from Samaria, 
 550. 
 
 Neapolis, name given to Shechem in the time of Vespasian, 
 526. 
 
 Necropolis of Geraza, .547. 351. 
 
 Nehemiah, passage from, relative to the Samaritans, 530. 
 
 , his well, near Jerusalem, 188. 
 
 Nicopolis, of Julius Africanus, 445. 
 
 Nile, remarks on its junction with the sea, 3. 7. 8. 
 
 Nismes, Roman amphitheatre at, compared with that of 
 Geraza, 369. 
 
 Noori, village of, 495. 
 
 O. 
 
 Obadiah, supposed to have been buried at Samaria, 516. 
 
 Odeon, theatre of, at Athens, remark on, 372. 388. 
 
 Offence, mount of, at Jerusalem, 188. 
 
 Og, king of Bashan, the land of, 326. His longevity, 310. 
 
 Okellas, at Acre, described, 77. 
 
 O&e*,- Mount of, 190. Traditions respecting, 198. 199. 
 
 View from its summit, 201. 203. 
 Om-el-Hamid, ruins at, 60. 
 Omri, foundation of Samaria ascribed to, 501. 
 Oom-el-Jebeeal, village of, 456. 
 Oovi Kais, a modern settlement on the site of ancient 
 
 Gamala, 413. Its population, 439. Journey thence 
 
 to Nazareth, 441. 
 Ophir, its site not determined, 149. note. 
 Opobalsamum, of the vale of Jericho, 299. 
 Origen, buried at Tyre, 44. 
 
 P. 
 
 P, the Arabs have not this letter in their alphabet, 527. 
 note. 
 
 Palms, city of, Jericho so called, 297. 
 
 Palmyra, remark on a gateway at, 361 . 
 
 Pavl, St., his pleading before Festus, and appeal to Caesar, 
 132. 
 
 , tower of, at Bethlehem, 221. 
 
 PeUa, devastated by the Jews, 400. 
 
 Peniel, site of, 326. 
 
 Perea, its capital Gadara, taken by Vespasian, 430. 
 
 Peripteral temple at Geraza, 36 1 . 
 
 Perseus and Andromeda, supposed site of the fable of, 148. 
 
 Peter, St., his vision, at Joppa, 152. 
 
 , house of, a Christian place of worship at Tibe- 
 rias, 480. 
 
 Phasaelus, built by Herod in honour of his brother, 312. 
 Bequeathed to his sister Salome, 313. 
 
 fhik, village of, supposed by Seetzen to be the site of 
 Gamala, 434. 
 
 Philadelphia, devastated by the Jews, 400. 
 
 Philip's baptism of the eunuch, supposed scene of, 227. 
 
 Philip, son of Herod, his share in the division of the king- 
 dom, 420. 
 
 Philoe, temple of, allusion to a peculiarity in its architec- 
 ture, 361. note. 
 
 Philos, architect of the temple of Bacchus at Athens, 367. 
 387. 
 
 Phocas, cited on the distance of Ramah from Jerusalem, 
 165. 
 
 Pilate, palace of, at Jerusalem, 242. 
 
 Pilgrims to Jerusalem, how called by the Christian priests 
 at Soor, 30. 
 
 Pisans, castle of, at Jerusalem, 186. 
 
 Pliny, his description of Tyre, 38. Mentions Joppa as 
 existing before the deluge, 148. Cited on the balsam 
 trees of Jericho, 299. On the situation pf Gadara, 
 433. Names Gadara among the cities of the Decapolis, 
 434. 
 
 Ploughs, small and light, used in Syria, 57. 
 
 Pocoelce, remark on his plan of Csesarea, 137. Cited re- 
 specting Ramah, 165. On the people pf Bethlehem, 
 223. On the circumstance of ancient and modem 
 Jerusalem, 269. Respecting Mount Sion, 278. On 
 the^zoccum tree, 306. 
 
 Polybius, cited respecting Atabyrium, 106. And Calamos, 
 115. 
 
 Pompey, cities rebuilt by him in Judea, 125. Encamped 
 at Jericho on his march to Jerusalem, 298. 
 
 Pomponius Mela mentions Joppa as existing before the 
 deluge, 148. 
 
 Porphyrion, ruins of, 118. Said to have been built by 
 St. Louis, 121. Probably only fortified by him, ib. 
 
 Precipitation, mountain of, near Nazareth, visited, 452. 
 Absurdity of the tradition respecting it, 453. 
 
 Prophets, sepulchres of the, at Jerusalem, 205. 
 
 Proseucha, or place of prayer, formerly in Tiberias, 483. 
 
 Psephinus, tower of, at Jerusalem, prospect from, accord- 
 ing to Josephus, 158. 
 
 Ptolemais, traces of its splendour at Acre, 74. 
 
 Ptolemy Lagus, said to have laid waste Samaria, 509. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quaresniius, cited respecting the Holy Sepulchre and 
 
 Calvary, 265. 
 Quarterly Reviewers, their error respecting Nazareth, 93. 
 Qidntus Curiius, cited respecting ancient Tyre, 39. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rachel, wife of Jacob, tomb of, 212. Described, 216. Pas- 
 sage relating to her, 398. 
 
 Ralihab, its signification in Hebrew, 302. 
 
 Ramlah, town of, as seen from the west, 161. Enquiries 
 into its history, 163. Once a considerable city, 168. 
 Its present state, ib. 
 
 Ramoih Gilead, enquiry concerning its site, 336. 
 
 Ramza, convent of, 336. 
 
 Raphon, its site not ascertained, 335. 
 
 Ras-el-Abiad, promontory of, 58. 
 
 Ras-el-Ain, springs of, the fountain of Callirhoe, 46. View 
 of, 53. Description, 56. 
 
 Ras-cl-Nakhora, how situated, 27. 
 
 RegiUa, theatre of, at Athens, remark on, 372. 
 
 Reis, meaning of the term among mariners, 12. 
 
 Reland, cited respecting the situation of Tyre, 34, note. 
 Concerning Ramah, 164. note. Concerning Golgotha, 
 283. Respecting Gamala, 435, note. 
 
 Renny, wells o^ 1 12. A sarcophagus between them, ib. 
 
 Rephaim, valley of, 216. 
 
 Reuben, territory of the tribe of, 316. 326. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Vll 
 
 Rhodopg, tomb of, its site indicated, 45. 
 
 Richard (Coeur de Lion), his palace at Acre, no trace of 
 its ruins, 75. His achievements in Palestine, 155. 156. 
 
 Rikha, the supposed site of ancient Jericho, 295. De- 
 scription of, 301. 
 
 Roman bath, near th& Hieromax, 443. 
 
 theatre, at Geraza, one of the most perfect in the 
 
 world, 365. 
 
 Rowghwan, name given in Syria to monks and hermits, 
 543. 
 
 Ruth, scene of the eclogue of, 218. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saint Elias, convent of, 216. 
 
 — — George the Martyr, no trace of his tomb at Ramlah, 
 
 169. 
 Giovanni, Latin convent of, 228. Its beautiful 
 
 church, 229. 
 — — Helena, church of, at Bethlehem, 219. Said to have 
 
 founded a church at Sebaste, 516. 
 Jerowe, visited Joppa, 155. Cited respecting Ramah, 
 
 167. His grotto, at Bethlehem, 219. Cited on the 
 
 situation of Ramoth Gilead, 337. 
 
 Louis, said to have fortified Porphyrion, 121. 
 
 Pelagia, cave of, 203. 
 
 Veronica, tradition respecting, 243. 
 
 iSa^ village of, 409. 
 
 Salah-el-deen, conquered Joppa, 155. 
 
 Salem, the former name of .Jerusalem, 273. 
 
 Samaria, description of the country so named, 500. City 
 
 of, 501. Historical facts relative to, 502. 505. 508. 
 
 View among the hills of, 520. 
 
 , woman of, conference of Christ with, 536. 
 
 Samaritan, the good, force and beauty of that parable 
 
 pointed out, 293. 
 Samaritans, sect of, why obnoxious to the Jews, 528. In- 
 different to their particular religion, 532. Conquered 
 
 by the Romans, 336. Few now remaining, 539. Their 
 
 account of their own origin, ib. Their disputes with 
 
 the Jews on the position of mounts Gerizira and 
 
 Ebal, 545. 
 Samoeeah, village of, 113. 
 Samoon, village of, 409. 
 
 Samuel, the prophet, his residence at Ramah, 1 63. 
 Sanballat, a chief of the Samaritans, 531. Joins Alexander 
 
 the Great, 532. 
 Sanhoor, journey to, 493. Arrival at, 497. Conference 
 
 with the chief, 498. Approach to the castle of, 548. 
 
 Description of the town, 550. 
 Saphet, city of, supposed to be the ancient Bethulia, 109. 
 Sar, village of, 412. 
 Sarcophagi, ruined, at Geraza, 359. On the plain of Es- 
 
 draelon, 493. View of those at Geraza, 406. Those 
 
 at Gamala described, 417. 
 Saul, his body recovered by the men of Jabesh Gilead, 339. 
 Scaliger, cited on the Samaritans, 541. 
 Scaurics, Marcus, capaciousness of the theatre built by, at 
 
 Rome, 371. 
 Sciadion, the parasol of the Athenians, 373. 
 Scythopolis, inquiry respecting the site of, 331. 341. De- 
 vastated by the Jews, 401. 
 Sebaste, in Samaria, founded by Herod, 510. Its ruins, 
 
 513. Church founded by St. Helena, 516. Mosque, 
 
 518. 
 Seetzen, Dr., the first discoverer of the ruins of Geraza, 
 
 405. Cited on the ruins of Gamala, 420. His opinion 
 
 on the site of Gadara, 430. Cited respecting Gamala, 
 
 lb., and Gadara, 434. 
 Sepphoury, village of, its antiquities destroyed, 90. Its 
 
 former state, 91. note. 
 Sepulchral caves, at Geraza, 357. 
 
 Sepulchre, Holy, objections to its identity considered, 285. 
 Screen, village of, 449. 
 
 Sermon on the Mount, place where it is supposed to have 
 been delivered, 109. 
 
 Setty Sken^, near Tiberias, 484. 
 
 Seyfeen, village of, 413. 
 
 Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, his conquest of Samaria, 505. 
 
 Sham, the modern name for Damascus, 315. 
 
 Shamgar, his slaughter of the Philistines with an ox-goad, 
 440. 
 
 Shaw, Dr., cited respecting the tomb of Christ, 285. 
 
 Sheba, queen of Ethiopia, supposed to have introduced 
 the balsam tree into Judea, 300. 
 
 Shechem, 520. Passages from scripture relative to, 522. 
 Called Neapolis in the time of Vespasian, 526. 
 
 Sheikh Ibrahim, an amateur gunsmith, 498. 
 
 , name assumed by Mr. Burckhardt, 51. 
 
 Shereeah, the river Jordan so named by the Arabs, 418. 
 
 Shimmah, village of, 57. 
 
 Shufammer, village of, described, 89. 
 
 Shughl-beni-Israel, Work of the Sons of Israel, 325. 
 
 Shuldoon, a vessel adapted for navigating the Syrian 
 coast, 3. 
 
 Sichem, 521. The name originally applied to a district of 
 country, 522. 
 
 Sidon, art of making glass, known at, 87. , 
 
 Siloa , valley of, 1 8 8 . 
 
 Siloam, pool of, ib. 
 
 Siloane, village of, ] 89. 
 
 Simma, village of, 412. 
 
 Simon of Cyrene, place where he was compelled to bear 
 the cross, 243. 
 
 Magus, his conversion and subsequent expulsion, 
 
 536. 
 
 Sion, Mount, 186. Its situation, 267. 273. Excavations 
 roimd its sides, 276. Inscriptions, 279. 
 
 Sisera, scene where he fell by the hand of Jael, 103. 
 
 Siterie, a name given to Caesarea, 134. 
 
 Sogana, united with Seleucia, by Agrippa, 423. 
 
 Solomon, memorials of his idolatry, 188. His wives and 
 concubines, 189. Mosque of, at Jerusalem, 205. 242. 
 Cisterns of, near Jerusalem, 224. 
 
 Solyma, a name for Jerusalem, 276. 
 
 Soof, village of, 349. Revisited, 403. Journey from, to 
 Oom Kais, 407. 
 
 Sook-el-Khan, village of, 456. 
 
 Soar, the ancient. Tyrus, approach to, from the sea, 27. 
 Its dangerous bar, 28. Remarks on its site, 34. De- 
 scription of the town, 47. Its population, ib. Costume, 
 48. Journey from, to Acre, 53. 
 
 Starlings, great numbers of, near Heram, 143. 
 
 Strabo, mentions Tyre as an island, 37. Passage in, re- 
 specting Joppa, explained, 158. 
 
 Subussta, ruins at, 501. 
 
 Suliman Abd-el-Melek, supposed to have built Ramlah, 
 167. 
 
 Sidiman Pasha, his palace at Acre, 76. The successor of 
 Ismael, 85. 
 
 Siimuk, on the banks of Gennesaret, 417. Its distance 
 from Tiberias, 476. 
 
 Synagogue, Jewish, at Jerusalem, visit to, 254. 
 
 Syria, voyage to, from Egypt, 1 . 
 
 Syrian plough, 439. 
 
 Syrians at Ccesarea, their contest with the Jews concern- 
 ing privileges, 131. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tabareeah,'i18. — (See Tiberias.) 
 
 Tabaria, Hugh and Gerard of, interred at Nazareth, 100. 
 
 Tabernacles on Mount Tabor, 104. 
 
 Tabitha, raising of, by St. Peter, at Joppa, 152. 
 
Vlll 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tabor, Mount, ascent of, 101. Antiquities on its summit, 
 104. Grotto of the disciples, ib. A strong hold of 
 the Jews, 105. Seized by Vespasian, ib. View from, 
 described, 107. Its sides richly clothed with wood, 
 449. Its Arabic names, 459. 
 Tahhbahh, hot springs at, 468. 
 
 Tal-hhewm, formerly called Caphernaoom, 469. 472. 
 
 Tarichcea, its site, according to Pliny, 4.33. On the 
 ■ southern shore of the lake Tiberias, 474. Now occu- 
 pied by the vUlage of Sumuk, 476. Its distance from 
 Tiberias, 4S3. 
 
 Tarihh Montehheb, cited respecting Joshua's first battle 
 in Canaan, 303. 
 
 TarsMsh, distinguished from Tarsus, 149. 
 
 Tartoura, village of, 1 23. 125. 
 
 Tasso, his description of Jerusalem, 260. 
 
 Temple, at Jerusalem, sign which followed its destruction, 
 273. 
 
 Temples, ancient, remarks on, 384. 
 
 Temptation of Christ, supposed scene of, 307. 
 
 Terfoon, well of, 122. 
 
 Terra Santa, Latin convent of, at Jerusalem, visited, 175. 
 Chiefly peopled by Spaniards, 179. Description of, 
 232. Life led by the friars, 235. 
 
 Theatre, at Geraza, 362. 
 
 Tibbary, town of, 412. 
 
 Tiberias, sea of, seen from Mount Tabor, 108. 
 
 , town of, seen from Oom Kais, 417. View of the 
 
 lake and town, 455. Description, 458. No boats on 
 the lake, 460. Journey along its banks, 465. This 
 lake, the scene of naval battles between the Jews and 
 Romans, 472. Return to, and hospitable reception 
 at, 476. Description of the town, 478. Population, 
 481. Ruins of the old city, 484. Visit to the hot 
 baths, 485. 
 
 Titus in his march from Egypt, said to have halted at 
 Caesarea, 133. 
 
 Tombs, at Gamala, described, 415. 
 
 Tophefh, another name for the valley of Hinnom, 272. 
 
 Toussoun Pasha, rumour of his designs on Damascus, 463. 
 
 Tree of Relics, near Tiberias, 485. 
 
 Tvdela, Benjamin of, his description of Tyre, 43. Of Acre, 
 79. His opinion respectmg Ramah, 1 64. Cited on 
 the tomb of Rachel, 217. On the population of 
 Jerusalem, 261. Respecting Tiberias, 48 1 . nofe. Re- 
 specting the Samaritans, 538. 
 
 Tagbool, village of, 412. 
 
 Tur/i:*, proportion of, in the population of Jerusalem, 261. 
 
 Tj/re, (Soor), as viewed from the sea, 32. Question re- 
 lative to the site of ancient Tyre compared with 
 that of Soor, 34. Authorities cited, 36. Its resist- 
 ance to Alexander, 41. Conquest of, by Salah-el- 
 deen, 43. Visited by Benjamin of Tudela, 43. Wil- 
 
 liam, its first Archbishop, 44. Plan of, from Barbie 
 du Socage, 45. Traces of its aqueduct, 54. 
 Tyropceon, or valley of cheesemongers, at Jerusalem, 271. 
 
 U. 
 Uriah, house of, at Jerusalem, 237. 
 
 Vespasian, halted at Antipatris, on his career of desola- 
 tion, 141. Took Joppa from the pirates, 153. De- 
 molished Geraza, 402. Subdued Gamala, 429. His 
 conquest of Gadara, 431. 
 
 Vincenfs Periplus of the Erythrman Sea, cited respecting 
 Tyre, 41. 
 
 Virgin Mary, grotto of, at Nazareth, 96. Fountain of, 
 near Jerusalem, 188. Reputed sepulchre of, 196. 
 
 Vitruvius, cited respecting ancient theatres, 366. 
 
 Volney, cited on the situation of ancient Tyre, 34. note^ 
 41. note. 
 
 w. 
 
 Waad-el^Ajal, passage of, 122. 
 Waad-el-Tarah, a valley so called, 312. 
 Wages of labour at Jerusalem, 263. 
 Well of Samaria, 54.5. 
 
 Whiston, his notes to Josephus, cited respecting Abilene, 
 422. 
 
 X. 
 
 Xaloth, site of, at Belled Eksall, 451. 
 
 Yakovhe-eUHakeem, the Abyssinian name of Bruce, 183 
 Yermuk, present name of the Hieromax, 435. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zacharias, tomb of, 1 9 1 . 
 
 Zaliane, Arabs of the tribe of, their hospitality, 314. 
 
 Zara, in the valley of Cilices, its probable site, 323. 
 
 Zaraheen, village of, 495. 
 
 Zebeen, tower of, 343. 
 
 Zenodorus, house of, tributary, to Philip, tetrarch of Iturea, 
 
 422. 
 Zerkah, in Gilead, enquiry respecting, 323. 
 Zib, town of, described, 62. 
 Zirka, supposed by Pococke to have been the Crocodilon 
 
 of Ptolemy, 138. 
 Zoccum-tree, mentioned by Pococke, 306. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London: 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoodc, 
 New- Street- Square. 
 

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