Chapter III: Introduction (2)

Here I left my former road at Cassareen, and proceeding directly S. E. came to Feriana, the road that I had abandoned before from prudential motives, Feriana, as has been before observed, is the ancient Thala, taken and destroyed by Metellus in his pursuit of Jugurtha. I had formed, I know not from what reason, sanguine expectations of elegant remains here, but in this I was disappointed; I found nothing remarkable but the baths of very warm water[32] without the town; in these there was a number of fish, above four inches in length, not unlike gudgeons. Upon trying the heat by the thermometer, I remember to have been much surprised that they could have existed, or even not been boiled, by continuing long in the heat of this medium. As I marked the degrees with a pencil while I was myself naked in the water, the leaf was wetted accidentally, so that I missed the precise degree I meant to have recorded, and do not pretend to supply it from memory. The bath is at the head of the fountain, and the stream runs off to a considerable distance. I think there were about five or six dozen of these fish in the pool. I was told likewise, that they went down into the stream to a certain distance in the day, and returned to the pool, or warmest and deepest water, at night.

From Feriana I proceeded S. E. to Gafsa, the ancient Capsa[33], and thence to Tozer, formerly Tisurus[34]. I then turned nearly N. E. and entered a large lake of water called the Lake of Marks, because in the passage of it there is a row of large trunks of palm-trees set up to guide travellers in the road which crosses it. Doctor Shaw has settled very distinctly the geography of this place, and those about it. It is the Palus Tritonidis[35], as he justly observes; this was the most barren and unpleasant part of my journey in Africa; barren not only from the nature of its soil, but by its having no remains of antiquity in the whole course of it.

From this I came to Gabs, or Tacape[36], after passing El Hammah, the baths which were the Aquas Tacapitanas of antiquity, where the small river Triton, by the moisture which it furnishes, most agreeably and suddenly changes the desert scene, and covers the adjacent fields with all kinds of flowers and verdure.

I was now arrived upon the lesser Syrtis, and continued along the sea-coast northward to Inshilla, without having made any addition to my observations. I turned again to the N. W. and came to El Gemme[37], where there is a very large and spacious amphitheatre, perfect as to the desolation of time, had not Mahomet Bey blown up four arches of it from the foundation, that it might not serve as a fortress to the rebel Arabs. The sections, elevations, and plans, with the whole detail of its parts, are in the King’s collection.

I have still remaining, but not finished, the lower or subterraneous plan of the building, an entrance to which I forced open in my journey along the coast to Tripoli. This was made so as to be filled with water by means of a sluice and aqueduct, which are still entire. The water rose up in the arena, through a large square-hole faced with hewn-stone in the middle, when there was occasion for water-games or naumachia. Doctor Shaw[38] imagines this was intended to contain the pillar that supported the velum, which covered the spectators from the influence of the sun. It might have served for both purposes, but it seems to be too large for the latter, though I confess the more I have considered the size and construction of these amphitheatres, the less I have been able to form an idea concerning this velum, or the manner in which it served the people, how it was secured, and how it was removed. This was the last ancient building I visited in the kingdom of Tunis, and I believe I may confidently say, there is not, either in the territories of Algiers or Tunis, a fragment of good taste of which I have not brought a drawing to Britain.

I continued along the coast to Susa, through a fine country planted with olive trees, and came again to Tunis, not only without disagreeable accident, but without any interruption from sickness or other cause. I then took leave of the Bey, and, with the acknowledgments usual on such occasions, again set out from Tunis, on a very serious journey indeed, over the desert to Tripoli, the first part of which to Gabs was the same road by which I had so lately returned. From Gabs I proceeded to the island of Gerba, the Meninx[39] Insula, or Island of the Lotophagi.

Doctor Shaw says, the fruit he calls the Lotus is very frequent all over that coast. I wish he had said what was this Lotus. To say it is the fruit the most common on that coast is no description, for there is there no sort of fruit whatever; no bush, no tree, nor verdure of any kind, excepting the short grass that borders these countries before you enter the moving sands of the desert. Doctor Shaw never was at Gerba, and has taken this particular from some unfaithful story-teller. The Wargumma and Noile, two great tribes of Arabs, are masters of these deserts. Sidi Ismain, whose grandfather, the Bey of Tunis, had been dethroned and strangled by the Algerines, and who was himself then prisoner at Algiers, in great repute for valour, and in great intimacy with me, did often use to say, that he accounted his having passed that desert on horseback as the hardiest of all his undertakings.

About four days journey from Tripoli I met the Emir Hadje conducting the caravan of pilgrims from Fez and Sus in Morocco, all across Africa to Mecca, that is, from the Western Ocean, to the western banks of the Red Sea in the kingdom of Sennaar. He was a middle-aged man, uncle to the present emperor, of a very uncomely, stupid kind of countenance. His caravan consisted of about 3000 men, and, as his people said, from 12,000 to 14,000 camels, part loaded with merchandise, part with skins of water, flour, and other kinds of food, for the maintenance of the hadjees; they were a scurvy, disorderly, unarmed pack, and when my horsemen, tho’ but fifteen in number, came up with them in the grey of the morning, they shewed great signs of trepidation, and were already flying in confusion. When informed who they were, their fears ceased, and, after the usual manner of cowards, they became extremely insolent.

At Tripoli I met the Hon. Mr Frazer of Lovat, his Majesty’s consul in that station, from whom I received every sort of kindness, comfort, and assistance, which I very much needed after so rude a journey, made with such diligence that two of my horses died some days after.

I had hopes of finding something at Lebeda, formerly Leptis Magna[40], three days journey from Tripoli, where are indeed a great number of buildings, many of which are covered by the sands; but they are of a bad taste, mostly ill-proportioned Dorics of the time of Aurelian. Seven large columns of granite were shipped from this for France, in the reign of Louis XIV. destined for one of the palaces he was then building. The eighth was broken on the way, and lies now upon the shore. Though I was disappointed at Lebeda, ample amends were made me at Tripoli on my return.

From Tripoli I sent an English servant to Smyrna with my books, drawings, and supernumerary instruments, retaining only extracts from such authors as might be necessary for me in the Pentapolis, or other parts of the Cyrenaicum. I then crossed the Gulf of Sidra, formerly known by the name of the Syrtis Major, and arrived at Bengazi, the ancient Berenice[41], built by Ptolemy Philadelphus.

The brother of the Bey of Tripoli commanded here, a young man, as weak in understanding as he was in health. All the province was in extreme confusion. Two tribes of Arabs, occupying the territory to the west of the town, who in ordinary years, and in time of peace, were the sources of its wealth and plenty, had, by the mismanagement of the Bey, entered into deadly quarrel. The tribe that lived most to the westward, and which was reputed the weakest, had beat the most numerous that was nearest the town, called Welled Abid, and driven them within its walls. The inhabitants of Bengazi had for a year before been labouring under a severe famine, and by this accident about four thousand persons, of all ages and sexes, were forced in upon them, when perfectly destitute of every necessary. Ten or twelve people were found dead every night in the streets, and life was said in many to be supported by food that human nature shudders at the thoughts of. Impatient to fly from these Thyestean feasts, I prevailed upon the Bey to send me out some distance to the southward, among the Arabs where famine had been less felt.

I encompassed a great part of the Pentapolis, visited the ruins of Arsinoe, and, though I was much more feebly recommended than usual, I happily received neither insult nor injury. Finding nothing at Arsinoe nor Barca, I continued my journey to Ras Sem, the petrified city, concerning which so many monstrous lies were told by the Tripoline ambassador, Cassem Aga, at the beginning of this century, and all believed in England, though they carried falsehood upon the very face of them[42]. It was not then the age of incredulity, we were fast advancing to the celebrated epoch of the man in the pint-bottle, and from that time to be as absurdly incredulous as we were then the reverse, and with the same degree of reason.

Ras Sem is five long days journey south from Bengazi; it has no water, except a spring very disagreeable to the taste, that appears to be impregnated with alum, and this has given it the name it bears of Ras Sem, or the Fountain of Poison, from its bitterness. The whole remains here consist in the ruins of a tower or fortification, that seems to be a work full as late as the time of the Vandals. How or what use they made of this water I cannot possibly guess; they had no other at the distance of two days journey. I was not fortunate enough to discover the petrified men and horses, the women at the churn, the little children, the cats, the dogs, and the mice, which his Barbarian excellency assured Sir Hans Sloane existed there: Yet, in vindication of his Excellency, I must say, that though he propagated, yet he did not invent this falsehood; the Arabs who conducted me maintained the same stories to be true, till I was within two hours of the place, where I found them to be false. I saw indeed mice[43], as they are called, of a very extraordinary kind, having nothing of petrifaction about them, but agile and active, so to partake as much of the bird as the beast.

Approaching now the sea-coast I came to Ptolometa, the ancient Ptolemais[44], the work of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the walls and gates of which city are still entire. There is a prodigious number of Greek inscriptions, but there remain only a few columns of the portico, and an Ionic temple, in the first manner of executing that order; and therefore, slight as the remains are, they are treasures in the history of architecture which are worthy to be preserved. These are in the King’s collection, with all the parts that could be recovered.

Here I met a small Greek junk belonging to Lampedosa, a little island near Crete, which had been unloading corn, and was now ready to sail. At the same time the Arabs of Ptolometa told me, that the Welled Ali, a powerful tribe that occupy the whole country between that place and Alexandria, were at war among themselves, and had plundered the caravan of Morocco, of which I have already spoken, and that the pilgrims composing it had mostly perished, having been scattered in the desert without water; that a great famine had been at Derna, the neighbouring town, to which I intended to go; that a plague had followed, and the town, which is divided into upper and lower, was engaged in a civil war. This torrent of ill news was irresistible, and was of a kind I did not propose to wrestle with; besides, there was nothing, as far as I knew, that merited the risk. I resolved, therefore, to fly from this inhospitable coast, and save to the public, at least, that knowledge and entertainment I had acquired for them.

I embarked on board the Greek vessel, very ill accoutred, as we afterwards found, and, though it had plenty of sail, it had not an ounce of ballast. A number of people, men, women, and children, flying from the calamities which attend famine, crowded in unknown to me; but the passage was short, the vessel light, and the master, as we supposed, well accustomed to these seas. The contrary of this, however, was the truth, as we learned afterwards, when too late, for he was an absolute landsman; proprietor indeed of the vessel, but this had been his first voyage. We sailed at dawn of day in as favourable and pleasant weather as ever I saw at sea. It was the beginning of September, and a light and steady breeze, though not properly fair, promised a short and agreeable voyage; but it was not long before it turned fresh and cold; we then had a violent shower of hail, and the clouds were gathering as if for thunder. I observed that we gained no offing, and hoped, if the weather turned bad, to persuade the Captain to put into Bengazi, for one inconvenience he presently discovered, that they had not provision on board for one day.

However, the wind became contrary, and blew a violent storm, seeming to menace both thunder and rain. The vessel being in her trim with large latine sails, fell violently to leeward, and they scarce would have weathered the Cape that makes the entrance into the harbour of Bengazi, which is a very bad one, when all at once it struck upon a sunken rock, and seemed to be set down upon it. The wind at that instant seemed providentially to calm; but I no sooner observed the ship had struck than I began to think of my own situation. We were not far from shore, but there was an exceeding great swell at sea. Two boats were still towed astern of them, and had not been hoisted in. Roger M‘Cormack, my Irish servant, had been a sailor on board the Monarch before he deserted to the Spanish service. He and the other, who had likewise been a sailor, presently unlashed the largest boat, and all three got down into her, followed by a multitude of people whom we could not hinder, and there was, indeed, something that bordered on cruelty, in preventing poor people from using the same means that we had done for preserving their lives; yet, unless we had killed them, the prevention was impossible, and, had we been inclined to that measure, we dared not, as we were upon a Moorish coast. The most that could be done was, to get loose from the ship as soon as possible, and two oars were prepared to row the boat ashore. I had stript myself to a short under-waistcoat and linen drawers; a silk sash, or girdle, was wrapt round me; a pencil, small pocket-book, and watch, were in the breast-pocket of my waistcoat; two Moorish and two English servants followed me; the rest, more wise, remained on board.

We were not twice the length of the boat from the vessel before a wave very nearly filled the boat. A howl of despair from those that were in her shewed their helpless state, and that they were conscious of a danger they could not shun. I saw the fate of all was to be decided by the very next wave that was rolling in; and apprehensive that some woman, child, or helpless man would lay hold of me, and entangle my arms or legs and weigh me down, I cried to my servants, both in Arabic and English, We are all lost; if you can swim, follow me; I then let myself down in the face of the wave. Whether that, or the next, filled the boat, I know not, as I went to leeward to make my distance as great as possible. I was a good, strong, and practised swimmer, in the flower of life, full of health, trained to exercise and fatigue of every kind. All this, however, which might have availed much in deep water, was not sufficient when I came to the surf. I received a violent blow upon my breast from the eddy wave and reflux, which seemed as given me by a large branch of a tree, thick cord, or some elastic weapon. It threw me upon my back, made me swallow a considerable quantity of water, and had then almost suffocated me.

I avoided the next wave, by dipping my head and letting it pass over, but found myself breathless, exceedingly weary and exhausted. The land, however, was before me, and close at hand. A large wave floated me up. I had the prospect of escape still nearer, and endeavoured to prevent myself from going back into the surf. My heart was strong, but strength was apparently failing, by being involuntarily twisted about, and struck on the face and breast by the violence of the ebbing wave: it now seemed as if nothing remained but to give up the struggle, and resign to my destiny. Before I did this I sunk to sound if I could touch the ground, and found that I reached the sand with my feet, though the water was still rather deeper than my mouth. The success of this experiment infused into me the strength of ten men, and I strove manfully, taking advantage of floating only with the influx of the wave, and preserving my strength for the struggle against the ebb, which, by sinking and touching the ground, I now made more easy. At last, finding my hands and knees upon the sands, I fixed my nails into it, and obstinately resisted being carried back at all, crawling a few feet when the sea had retired. I had perfectly lost my recollection and understanding, and after creeping so far as to be out of the reach of the sea, I suppose I fainted, for from that time I was totally insensible of any thing that passed around me.

In the mean time the Arabs, who live two short miles from the shore, came down in crowds to plunder the vessel. One of the boats was thrown ashore, and they had belonging to them some others; there was one yet with the wreck, which scarcely appeared with its gunnel above water. All the people were now taken on shore, and those only lost who perished in the boat. What first wakened me from this semblance of death was a blow with the butt-end of a lance, shod with iron, upon the juncture of the neck with the back-bone. This produced a violent sensation of pain; but it was a mere accident the blow was not with the point, for the small, short waistcoat, which had been made at Algiers, the sash and drawers, all in the Turkish fashion, made the Arabs believe that I was a Turk; and after many blows, kicks, and curses, they stript me of the little cloathing I had, and left me naked. They used the rest in the same manner, then went to their boats to look for the bodies of those that were drowned.

After the discipline I had received, I had walked, or crawled up among some white, sandy hillocks, where I sat down and concealed myself as much as possible. The weather was then warm, but the evening promised to be cooler, and it was fast drawing on; there was great danger to be apprehended if I approached the tents where the women were while I was naked, for in this case it was very probable I would receive another bastinado something worse than the first. Still I was so confused that I had not recollected I could speak to them in their own language, and it now only came into my mind, that by the gibberish, in imitation of Turkish, which the Arab had uttered to me while he was beating and stripping me, he took me for a Turk, and to this in all probability the ill-usage was owing.

An old man and a number of young Arabs came up to me where I was sitting. I gave them the salute _Salam Alicum!_ which was only returned by one young man, in a tone as if he wondered at my impudence. The old man then asked me, Whether I was a Turk, and what I had to do there? I replied, I was no Turk, but a poor Christian physician, a Dervish that went about the world seeking to do good for God’s sake, was then flying from famine, and going to Greece to get bread. He then asked me if I was a Cretan? I said, I had never been in Crete, but came from Tunis, and was returning to that town, having lost every thing I had in the shipwreck of that vessel. I said this in so despairing a tone, that there was no doubt left with the Arab that the fact was true. A ragged, dirty baracan was immediately thrown over me, and I was ordered up to a tent, in the end of which stood a long spear thrust through it, a mark of sovereignty.

I there saw the Shekh of the tribe, who being in peace with the Bey of Bengazi, and also with the Shekh of Ptolometa, after many questions ordered me a plentiful supper, of which all my servants partook, none of them having perished. A multitude of consultations followed on their complaints, of which I freed myself in the best manner I could, alledging the loss of all my medicines, in order to induce some of them to seek for the sextant at least, but all to no purpose, so that, after staying two days among them, the Shekh restored to us all that had been taken from us, and mounting us upon camels, and giving us a conductor, he forwarded us to Bengazi, where we arrived the second day in the evening. Thence I sent a compliment to the Shekh, and with it a man from the Bey, intreating that he would use all possible means to fish up some of my cases, for which I assured him he should not miss a handsome reward. Promises and thanks were returned, but I never heard further of my instruments; all I recovered was a silver watch of Ellicot, the work of which had been taken out and broken, some pencils, and a small port-folio, in which were sketches of Ptolemeta; my pocket-book too was found, but my pencil was lost, being in a common silver case, and with them all the astronomical observations which I had made in Barbary. I there lost a sextant, a parallactic instrument, a time-piece, a reflecting telescope, an achromatic one, with many drawings, a copy of M. de la Caille’s ephemerides down to the year 1775, much to be regretted, as being full of manuscript marginal notes; a small camera obscura, some guns, pistols, a blunderbuss, and several other articles.

I found at Bengazi a small French sloop, the master of which had been often at Algiers when I was consul there. I had even, as the master remembered, done him some little service, for which, contrary to the custom of that sort of people, he was very grateful. He had come there laden with corn, and was going up the Archipelago, or towards the Morea, for more. The cargo he had brought was but a mite compared to the necessities of the place; it only relieved the soldiers for a time, and many people of all ages and sexes were still dying every day.

The harbour of Bengazi is full of fish, and my company caught a great quantity with a small net; we likewise procured a multitude with the line, enough to have maintained a larger number of persons than the family consisted of; we got vinegar, pepper, and some store of onions; we had little bread it is true, but still our industry kept us very far from starving. We endeavoured to instruct these wretches, gave them pack-thread, and some coarse hooks, by which they might have subsisted with the smallest attention and trouble; but they would rather starve in multitudes, striving to pick up single grains of corn, that were scattered upon the beach by the bursting of the sacks, or the inattention of the mariners, than take the pains to watch one hour at the flowing of the tide for excellent fish, where, after taking one, they were sure of being masters of multitudes till it was high water.

The Captain of the small vessel lost no time. He had done his business well, and though he was returning for another cargo, yet he offered me what part of his funds I should need with great frankness. We now sailed with a fair wind, and in four or five days easy weather landed at Canea, a considerable fortified place at the west end of the island of Crete. Here I was taken dangerously ill, occasioned by the bathing and extraordinary exertions in the sea of Ptolometa, nor was I in the least the better from the beating I had received, signs of which I bore very long afterwards.

From Canea I sailed for Rhodes, and there met my books; I then proceeded to Castelrosso, on the coast of Caramania, and was there credibly informed that there were very magnificent remains of ancient buildings a short way from the shore, on the opposite continent. Caramania is a part of Asia Minor yet unexplored. But my illness increasing, it was impossible to execute, or take any measures to secure protection, or do the business safely, and I was forced to relinquish this discovery to some more fortunate traveller.

Mr Peyssonel, French consul at Smyrna, a man not more distinguished for his amiable manners than for his polite taste in literature, of which he has given several elegant specimens, furnished me with letters for that part of Caramania, or Asia Minor, and there is no doubt but they would have been very efficacious. What increased the obligation for this kind attention shewn, was, that I had never seen Mr Peyssonel; and I am truly mortified, that, since my arrival in England, I have had no opportunity to return my grateful thanks for this kindness, which I therefore beg that he will now accept, together with a copy of these travels, which I have ordered my French bookseller to forward to him.

From Castelrosso I continued, without any thing remarkable, till I came to Cyprus; I staid there but half a day, and arrived at Sidon, where I was most kindly received by Mr Clerambaut, brother-in-law to Mr Peyssonel, and French consul at this place; a man in politeness, humanity, and every social quality of the mind, inferior to none I have ever known. With him, and a very flourishing, well-informed, and industrious nation, I continued for some time, then in a weak state of health, but still making partial excursions from time to time into the continent of Syria, through Libanus, and Anti Libanus; but as I made these without instruments, and passed pretty much in the way of the travellers who have described these countries before, I leave the history to those gentlemen, without swelling, by entering into particular narratives, this Introduction, already too long.

While at Canea I wrote by way of France, and again while at Rhodes by way of Smyrna, to particular friends both in London and France, informing them of my disastrous situation, and desiring them to send me a moveable quadrant or sextant, as near as possible to two feet radius, more or less, a time-keeper, stop-watch, a reflecting telescope, and one of Dolland’s achromatic ones, as near as possible to three-feet reflectors, with several other articles which I then wanted.

I received from Paris and London much about the same time, and as if it had been dictated by the same person, nearly the same answer, which was this, That everybody was employed in making instruments for Danish, Swedish, and other foreign astronomers; that all those which were completed had been bought up, and without waiting a considerable, indefinite time, nothing could be had that could be depended upon. At the same time I was told, to my great mortification, that no accounts of me had arrived from Africa, unless from several idle letters, which had been industriously wrote by a gentleman whole name I abstain from mentioning, first, because he is dead, and next, out of respect to his truly great and worthy relations.

In these letters it was announced, that I was gone with a Russian caravan through the Curdistan, where I was to observe the transit of Venus in a place where it was not visible, and that I was to proceed to China, and return by the way of the East Indies:--a story which some of his correspondents, as profligate as himself, industriously circulated at the time, and which others, perhaps weaker than wicked, though wicked enough, have affected to believe to this day.

I conceived a violent indignation at this, and finding myself so treated in return for so complete a journey as I had then actually terminated, thought it below me to sacrifice the best years of my life to daily pain and danger, when the impression it made in the breasts of my countrymen seemed to be so weak, so infinitely unworthy of them or me. One thing only detained me from returning home; it was my desire of fulfilling my promise to my Sovereign, and of adding the ruins of Palmyra to those of Africa, already secured and out of danger.

In my anger I renounced all thoughts of the attempt to discover the sources of the Nile, and I repeated my orders no more for either quadrant, telescope, or time-keeper. I had pencils and paper; and luckily my large camera obscura, which had escaped the catastrophe of Ptolometa, was arrived from Smyrna, and then standing before me. I therefore began to cast about, with my usual care and anxiety, for the means of obtaining feasible and safe methods of repeating the famous journey to Palmyra. I found it was necessary to advance nearer the scene of action. Mr Abbot, British consul for Tripoli in Syria, kindly invited me, and after him Mr Vernon, his successor, a very excellent man, to take up my residence there. From Tripoli there is a trade in kelp carried on to the salt marshes near Palmyra. The Shekh of Cariateen, a town just upon the edge of the desert, had a contract with the basha of Tripoli for a quantity of this herb for the use of the soap-works. I lost no time in making a friendship with this man, but his return amounted to no more than to endeavour to lead me rashly into real danger, where he knew he had not consequence enough to give me a moment’s protection.

There are two tribes almost equally powerful who inhabit the deserts round Palmyra; the one is the Annecy, remarkable for the finest breed of horses in the world; the other is the Mowalli, much better soldiers, but fewer in number, and very little inferior in the excellence of their horses. The Annecy possess the country towards the S. W. at the back of Libanus, about Bozra down the Hawran, and southward towards the borders of Arabia Petrea and Mount Horeb. The Mowalli inhabit the plains east of Damascus to the Euphrates, and north to near Aleppo.

These two tribes were not at war, nor were they at peace; they were upon what is called ill-terms with each other, which is the most dangerous time for strangers to have any dealings with either. I learned this as a certainty from a friend at Hassia, where a Shekh lives, to whom I was recommended by a letter, as a friend of the basha of Damascus. This man maintains his influence, not by a number of forces, but by constantly marrying a relation of one or both of these tribes of Arabs, who for that reason assist him in maintaining the security of his road, and he has the care of that part of it by which the couriers pass from Constantinople into Egypt, belonging to both these tribes, who were then at a distance from each other, and roved in flying squadrons all round Palmyra, by way of maintaining their right of pasture in places that neither of them chose at that time to occupy. These, I suppose, are what the English writers call Wild Arabs, for otherwise, though they are all wild enough, I do not know one wilder than another. This is very certain, these young men, composing the flying parties I speak of, are truly wild while at a distance from their camp and government; and the stranger that falls in unawares with them, and escapes with his life, may set himself down as a fortunate traveller.

Returning from Hassia I would have gone southward to Baalbec, but it was then besieged by Emir Yousef prince of the Druses, a Pagan nation, living upon mount Libanus. Upon that I returned to Tripoli, in Syria, and after some time set out for Aleppo, travelling northward along the plain of Jeune betwixt mount Lebanon and the sea.

I visited the ancient Byblus, and bathed with pleasure in the river Adonis. All here is classic ground. I saw several considerable ruins of Grecian architecture all very much defaced. These are already published by Mr Drummond, and therefore I left them, being never desirous of interfering with the works of others.

I passed Latikea, formerly Laodicea ad Mare, and then came to Antioch, and afterwards to Aleppo. The fever and ague, which I had first caught in my cold bath at Bengazi, had returned upon me with great violence, after passing one night encamped in the mulberry gardens behind Sidon. It had returned in very slight paroxysms several times, but laid hold of me with more than ordinary violence on my arrival at Aleppo, where I came just in time to the house of Mr Belville, a French merchant, to whom I was addressed for my credit. Never was a more lucky address, never was there a soul so congenial to my own as was that of Mr Belville: to say more after this would be praising myself. To him was immediately added Doctor Patrick Russel, physician to the British factory there. Without the attention and friendship of the one, and the skill and anxiety of the other of these gentlemen, it is probable my travels would have ended at Aleppo. I recovered slowly. By the report of these two gentlemen, though I had yet seen nobody, I became a public care, nor did I ever pass more agreeable hours than with Mr Thomas the French consul, his family, and the merchants established there. From Doctor Russel I was supplied with what I wanted, some books, and much instruction. Nobody knew the diseases of the East so well; and perhaps my escaping the fever at Aleppo was not the only time in which I owed him my life.

Being now restored to health, my first object was the journey to Palmyra. The Mowalli were encamped at no great distance from Aleppo. It was without difficulty I found a sure way to explain my wishes, and to secure the assistance of Mahomet Kerfan, the Shekh, but from him I learned, in a manner that I could not doubt, that the way I intended to go down to Palmyra from the north was tedious, troublesome, uncertain, and expensive, and that he did not wish me to undertake it at that time. It is quite superfluous in these cases to press for particular information; an Arab conductor, who proceeds with caution, surely means you well. He told me that he would leave a friend in the house of a certain Arab at Hamath[45], about half-way to Palmyra, and if in something more than a month I came there, and found that Arab, I might rely upon him without fear, and he would conduct me in safety to Palmyra.

I returned to Tripoli, and at the time appointed set out for Hamath, found my conductor, and proceeded to Hassia. Coming from Aleppo, I had not passed the lower way again by Antioch. The river which passes through the plains where they cultivate their best tobacco, is the Orontes; it was so swollen with rain, which had fallen in the mountains, that the ford was no longer visible. Stopping at two miserable huts inhabited by a base set called Turcomans, I asked the master of one of them to shew me the ford, which he very readily undertook to do, and I went, for the length of some yards, on rough, but very hard and solid ground. The current before me was, however, so violent, that I had more than once a desire to turn back, but, not suspecting any thing, I continued, when on a sudden man and horse fell out of their depth into the river.

I had a rifled gun flung across my shoulder, with a buff belt and swivel. As long as that held, it so embarrassed my hands and legs that I could not swim, and must have sunk; but luckily the swivel gave way, the gun fell to the bottom of the river, and was pickt up in dry weather by order of the basha, at the desire of the French merchants, who kept it for a relict. I and my horse swam separately ashore; at a small distance from thence was a caphar[46], or turnpike, to which, when I came to dry myself, the man told me, that the place where I had crossed was the remains of a stone bridge now entirely carried away; where I had first entered was one of the wings of the bridge, from which I had fallen into the space the first arch occupied, one of the deepest parts of the river; that the people who had misguided me were an infamous set of banditti, and that I might be thankful on many accounts that I had made such an escape from them, and was now on the opposite side. I then prevailed on the caphar-man to shew my servants the right ford.

From Hassia we proceeded with our conductor to Cariateen, where there is an immense spring of fine water, which overflows into a large pool. Here, to our great surprise, we found about two thousand of the Annecy encamped, who were quarrelling with Hassan our old friend, the kelp-merchant. This was nothing to us; the quarrel between the Mowalli and Annecy had it seems been made up; for an old man from each tribe on horseback accompanied us to Palmyra: the tribes gave us camels for more commodious travelling, and we passed the desert between Cariateen and Palmyra in a day and two nights, going constantly without sleeping.

Just before we came in sight of the ruins, we ascended a hill of white gritty stone, in a very narrow-winding road, such as we call a pass, and, when arrived at the top, there opened before us the most astonishing, stupendous sight that perhaps ever appeared to mortal eyes. The whole plain below, which was very extensive, was covered so thick with magnificent buildings as that the one seemed to touch the other, all of fine proportions, all of agreeable forms, all composed of white stones, which at that distance appeared like marble. At the end of it stood the palace of the sun, a building worthy to close so magnificent a scene.

It was impossible for two persons to think of designing ornaments, or taking measures, and there seemed the less occasion for this as Mr Wood had done this part already. I had no intention to publish any thing concerning Palmyra; besides, it would have been a violation of my first principle not to interfere with the labours of others; and if this was a rule I inviolably observed as to strangers, every sentiment of reason and gratitude obliged me to pay the same respect to the labours of Mr Wood my friend.

I divided Palmyra into six angular views, always bringing forward to the first ground an edifice, or principal group of columns, that deserved it. The state of the buildings are particularly favourable for this purpose. The columns are all uncovered to the very bases, the soil upon which the town is built being hard and fixed ground. These views are all upon large paper; the columns in some of them are a foot long; the figures in the fore-ground of the temple of the sun are some of them near four inches.

Before our departure from Palmyra I observed its latitude with a Hadley’s quadrant from reflection. The instrument had probably warped in carriage, as the index went unpleasantly, and as it were by starts, so that I will not pretend to give this for an exact observation; yet, after all the care I could take, I only apprehended that 33° 58´ for the latitude of Palmyra, would be nearer the truth than any other. Again, that the distance from the coast in a straight line being 160 miles, and that remarkable mountainous cape on the coast of Syria, between Byblus and Tripoli, known by the name of Theoprosopon, being nearly due west, or under the same parallel with Palmyra, I conceive the longitude of that city to be nearly 37° 9´ from the observatory of Greenwich.

From Palmyra I proceeded to Baalbec, distant about 130 miles, and arrived the same day that Emir Yousef had reduced the town and settled the government, and was decamping from it on his return home. This was the luckiest moment possible for me, as I was the Emir’s friend, and I obtained liberty to do there what I pleased, and to this indulgence was added the great convenience of the Emir’s absence, so that I was not troubled by the observance of any court-ceremony or attendance, or teazed with impertinent questions.

Baalbec is pleasantly situated in a plain on the west of Anti Libanus, is finely watered, and abounds in gardens. It is about fifty miles from Hassia, and about thirty from the nearest sea-coast, which is the situation of the ancient Byblus. The interior of the great temple of Baalbec, supposed to be that of the sun, surpasses any thing at Palmyra, indeed any sculpture I ever remember to have seen in stone. All these views of Palmyra and Baalbec are now in the King’s collection. They are the most magnificent offering in their line that ever was made by one subject to his sovereign.

Passing by Tyre, from curiosity only, I came to be a mournful witness of the truth of that prophecy, That Tyre, the queen of nations, should be a rock for fishers to dry their nets on[47]. Two wretched fishermen, with miserable nets, having just given over their occupation with very little success, I engaged them, at the expence of their nets, to drag in those places where they said shell-fish might be caught, in hopes to have brought out one of the famous purple-fish. I did not succeed, but in this I was, I believe, as lucky as the old fishers had ever been. The purple fish at Tyre seems to have been only a concealment of their knowledge of cochineal, as, had they depended upon the fish for their dye, if the whole city of Tyre applied to nothing else but fishing, they would not have coloured twenty yards of cloth in a year. Much fatigued, but satisfied beyond measure with what I had seen, I arrived in perfect health, and in the gayest humour possible, at the hospitable mansion of M. Clerambaut at Sidon.

I found there letters from Europe, which were in a very different style from the last. From London, my friend Mr Russel acquainted me, that he had sent me an excellent reflecting telescope of two feet focal length, moved by rack-work, and the last Mr Short ever made, which proved a very excellent instrument; also an achromatic telescope by Dolland, nearly equal to a three-feet reflector, with a foot, or stand, very artificially composed of rulers fixed together by screws. I think this instrument might be improved by shortening the three principal legs of it. If the legs of its stand were about six inches shorter, this, without inconvenience, would take away the little shake it has when used in the outer air. Perhaps this defect is not in all telescopes of this construction. It is a pleasant instrument, and for its size takes very little packing, and is very manageable.

I have brought home both these instruments after performing the whole journey, and they are now standing in my library, in the most perfect order; which is rather to be wondered at from the accounts in which most travellers seem to agree, that metal speculums, within the tropics, spot and rust so much as to be useless after a few observations made at or near the zenith. The fear of this, and the fragility of glass of achromatic telescopes, were the occasion of a considerable expence to me; but from experience I found, that, if a little care be taken, one reflector would be sufficient for a very long voyage.

From Paris I received a time-piece and a stop-watch made by M. Lepeaute, dearer than Ellicot’s, and resembling his in nothing else but the price. The clock was a very neat, portable instrument, made upon very ingenious, simple principles, but some of the parts were so grossly neglected in the execution, and so unequally finished, that it was not difficult for the meanest novice in the trade to point out the cause of its irregularity. It remains with me in statu quo. It has been of very little use to me, and never will be of much more to any person else. The price is, I am sure, ten times more than it ought to be in any light I can consider it.

All these letters still left me in absolute despair about obtaining a quadrant, and consequently gave me very little satisfaction, but in some measure confirmed me in my resolution already taken, to go from Sidon to Egypt; as I had then seen the greatest part of the good architecture in the world, in all its degrees of perfection down to its decline, I wished now only to see it in its origin, and for this it was necessary to go to Egypt.

Norden, Pococke, and many others, had given very ingenious accounts of Egyptian architecture in general, of the disposition and size of their temples, magnificence of their materials, their hieroglyphics, and the various kinds of them, of their gilding, of their painting, and their present state of preservation. I thought something more might be learnt as to the first proportions of their columns, and the construction of their plans. Dendera, the ancient Tentyra, seemed by their accounts to offer a fair field for this.

I had already collected together a great many observations on the progress of Greek and Roman architecture in different ages, drawn not from books or connected with system, but from the models themselves, which I myself had measured. I had been long of the opinion, in which I am still further confirmed, that taste for ancient architecture, founded upon the examples that Italy alone can furnish, was not giving ancient architects fair play. What was to be learned from the first proportions of their plans and elevations seemed to have remained untouched in Egypt; after having considered these, I proposed to live in retirement on my native patrimony, with a fair stock of unexceptionable materials upon this subject, to serve for a pleasant and useful amusement in my old age. I hope still these will not be lost to the public, unless the encouragement be in proportion to what my labours have already had.

I now received, however, a letter very unexpectedly by way of Alexandria, which, if it did not overturn, at least shook these resolutions. The Comte de Buffon Mons. Guys of Marseilles, and several others well known in the literary world, had ventured to state to the minister, and through him to the king of France, Louis XV. how very much it was to be lamented, that after a man had been found who was likely to succeed in removing that opprobrium of travellers and geographers, by discovering the sources of the Nile, one most unlucky accident, at a most unlucky time, should frustrate the most promising endeavours. That prince, distinguished for every good quality of the heart, for benevolence, beneficence, and a desire of promoting and protecting learning, ordered a moveable quadrant of his own military academy at Marseilles, as the nearest and most convenient port of embarkation, to be taken down and sent to me at Alexandria.

With this I received a letter from Mr Russel, which informed me that astronomers had begun to cool in the sanguine expectations of discovering the precise quantity of the sun’s parallax by observation of the transit of Venus, from some apprehension that errors of the observers would probably be more than the quantity of the equation sought, and that they now ardently wished for a journey into Abyssinia, rather than an attempt to settle a nicety for which the learned had now begun to think the accuracy of our instruments was not sufficient. A letter from my correspondent at Alexandria also acquainted me, that the quadrant, and all other instruments, were in that city.

What followed is the voyage itself, the subject of the present publication. I am happy, by communicating every previous circumstance that occurred to me, to have done all in my power to remove the greatest part of the reasonable doubts and difficulties which might have perplexed the reader’s mind, or biassed his judgment in the perusal of the narrative of the journey, and in this I hope I have succeeded.

I have now one remaining part of my promise to fulfil, to account for the delay in the publication. It will not be thought surprising to any that shall reflect on the distant, dreary, and desert ways by which all letters were necessarily to pass, or the civil wars then raging in Abyssinia, the robberies and violences inseparable from a total dissolution of government, such as happened in my time, that no accounts for many years, one excepted, ever arrived in Europe. One letter, accompanied by a bill for a sum borrowed from a Greek at Gondar, found its way to Cairo; all the rest had miscarried: my friends at home gave me up for dead; and, as my death must have happened in circumstances difficult to have been proved, my property became as it were an _hereditas jacens_, without an owner, abandoned in common to those whose original title extended no further than temporary possession.

A number of law-suits were the inevitable consequence of this upon my return. One carried on with a very expensive obstinacy for the space of ten years, by a very opulent and active company, was determined finally in the House of Peers, in the compass of a very few hours, by the well-known sagacity and penetration of a noble Lord, who, happily for the subjects of both countries, holds the first office in the law; and so judicious was the sentence, that harmony, mutual confidence, and good neighbourhood has ever since been the consequence of that determination.

Other suits still remained, which unfortunately were not arrived to the degree of maturity to be so cut off; they are yet depending; patience and attention, it is hoped, may bring them to an issue at some future time. No imputation of rashness can possibly fall upon the decree, since the action has depended above thirty years.

To these disagreeable avocations, which took up much time, were added others still more unfortunate. The relentless ague caught at Bengazi maintained its ground at times for a space of more than sixteen years, though every remedy had been used, but in vain; and, what was worst of all, a lingering distemper had seriously threatened the life of a most near relation, which, after nine years constant alarm, where every duty bound me to attention and attendance, conducted her at last, in very early life, to her grave[48].