We were not, however, fortunate enough to see him, but his place was supplied by the Bey, who represented him and managed his affairs

We found him extremely polite and attentive. He offered us every kind of assistance, and also letters to the governors of any towns we might intend to visit.

After acquainting him that we wished for mules to proceed on our journey the next day, and which, without the assistance of some official person, it would be almost impossible to procure, he very kindly promised to attend to our request, and sent a Janissary to accompany us round the city, and to show us the details of that scene of ruin.

We ascended the ramparts. Among the most striking ruins were the principal mosque and the palace of Abdallah Pasha, which, from their commanding height, afforded the most conspicuous mark for the shells. The beauty of the latter was perfectly annihilated; every thing had been wilfully destroyed, either by the madness of the victors or the despair of the conquered.

The beautiful fountains no longer fell sparkling from their marble basins, refreshing the splendid garden where art had rivalled nature in the effort to give pleasure to a man who, by the caprice of fortune, was now reduced to the condition of the most abject slave. They were now polluted by groups of dirty, noisy soldiers.

The sites of the various buildings were indistinctly marked by confused heaps of broken columns and shattered friezes; but it was quite in vain to attempt to identify any of the magnificent buildings erected by the Crusaders, in whose time it was a place of the greatest importance, both from its position and strength, sustaining several sieges.

I remarked that the walls were much damaged in innumerable points by the cannonade, which appeared to have been carried on with the greatest fury; but I saw no attempts at reparation, excepting in the great breach on the eastern side.

There was a great profusion of artillery, some of the pieces of most beautiful workmanship, principally of French and German manufacture. At sunset I returned to the convent, with my head full of battles and sieges, and in a state of mind rendered melancholy by those reflections which the sight of a theatre of war, deprived of all the illusion and excitement of actual conflict, must naturally excite.

Here was nothing but the ruin without the pomp of military operations, and few I think could avoid being affected by the thought of the immense addition to human suffering and misery which this fierce siege had made. The goodnatured face of the friar, who met us at the door of the convent, his cordial welcome, cheerful conversation, and agreeable curiosity respecting England, soon chased away these cloudy and melancholy impressions excited by the scene of devastation which I had just witnessed.

The next morning, being anxious to leave Acre for Sour, the ancient Tyre, our first care was to make an agreement with a muleteer for the journey, and, in consideration of the delay which we must expect in making the arrangements for our departure, we proceeded to do so immediately after dining with the holy Father, and were in readiness to start at half past one.

I felt but little regret at leaving a place the scene of such ruin, and where the lawless confusion of the troops quartered there, made it a matter of great difficulty to procure even the common necessaries of life: but it was impossible to avoid feeling, more strongly by contrast the value of so hospitable an asylum as I was then on the point of quitting.

The city of Acre, which had fallen into decay after the expulsion of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who occupied it for a long period of time during the Crusades, was restored and re-fortified by the celebrated Djezzar Pasha, who, by means of being master of this place, gained complete influence in Syria, utterly disproportionate to the extent of his territory.

P

The reason of this is as follows: Acre being the port by which all the rice, the staple food of the people, enters the country, the possessor of that place can produce a famine throughout the whole land.

With the intention of profiting by this, the French army, under General Buonaparte, after repeated attempts (twelve, I believe) to carry the place, were obliged to raise the siege. The town was most gallantly defended by Sir Sidney Smith.

The population of Acre has been fixed at about 20,000, but of the correctness of this census our short stay, and the multitudes of troops in the city, prevented us from judging.

The strength of the place arises from its favourable position, being washed by the sea on the south and west. We could discern scarcely any trace of the bay in the east.

Though the remains, both Christian and barbarian, of the former grandeur of Acre were in general destroyed, the immense quantity of fragments of fine marble, bearing traces of skilful workmanship and magnificent proportion, shows how rich in architectural antiquities the place must have been, and, at the same time, exhibits no more to the stranger than excites his regret, without gratifying his curiosity. Many of these fragments have been several times ruins, and have doubled and trebled, as it were, their services.

It would require no great stretch of imagination to suppose that the proportion of marble now lying before our eyes once formed a part of some Roman or Hebrew edifice, that it was then used by the Crusaders in the construction of this fortification, and again did duty in the palace of the Djezzar.

It is ascertained that the latter made use of the extensive ruins of Cesarea, an ancient town on the coast between Acre and Jaffa, as his principal quarry; in particular that he obtained from thence all the marble employed in the decoration of a very magnificent mosque.

There are two roads from Acre to Jerusalem; one by Cesarea and Joppa, running generally along the coast, the way by which St. Paul returned from Macedonia to Jerusalem, and the road by Nazareth, by which we had travelled.

CHAPTER IX.

DEPARTURE FROM ACRE - DULLNESS OF THE ROUTE CHAIN OF THE ANTI-LIBANUS-PASS THE NIGHT IN THE MOSQUE OF ZIB-CAPO BIANCO-LADDER OF TYRUS-VIEW OF LIBANUS -ROMAN ROAD-VIEW OF SOUR, OR TYRE SOLOMON'S CISTERNS-RAS EL AIN-TRADITION-SIZE OF THE CISTERNS -CONSTRUCTION-AQUEDUCT ARRIVAL AT SOUR-FULFILMENT OF THE PROPHECIES-DEFENCES OF ANCIENT TYRE-MEANING OF THE APPELLATION -POPULATION - REMAINS OF COLUMNS, &c. - EAST END OF A CHRISTIAN CATHEDRALCURIOUS OBSERVATION OF MAUNDRELL-UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO PROCEED-ACCIDENT -- QUIT TYRE-CROSS THE RIVER KOSMIA-REMAINS OF A PAVEMENT-SAREPTA-APPROACH TO SAIDE (THE ANCIENT SIDON)-DESOLATION OF THE CITY-VINEYARDS AND ORCHARDS -VIEW OF SIDON BEAUTY OF THE FRUIT - DETERMINE TO GO TO BEIROUT-REST IN A KHAN ACCIDENT WITH A MULE VIEW OF LIBANUS-FERTILITY OF THE MOUNTAININDICATIONS OF IRON IN THE SOIL-GROVE OF PINES-ARRIVAL AT BEIROUT-ORIGIN OF THE NAME-HISTORY OF THE TOWN-SITUATION-FOUNTAINS-WALL-CONCLUSION.

HAVING taken a cordial leave of the kind friar, and contributing a trifle to the support of the convent, we proceeded through the town over heaps of dust and rubbish, till we arrived near the sea-shore, where the road was tolerably good. For three hours and a half the view was monotonous in the extreme; the plain of Acre extended on one side, on the other the ocean, still and unmoving as the former. This scene, though dull in itself, was nevertheless an agreeable contrast to the noise, tumult, and confusion which we had just quitted. Before us, at a considerable distance, rose the majestic summits of the Anti-Libanus, a chain of considerable elevation and imposing aspect. We soon arrived at a small village called Zib, where we took up our quarters for the night in a mosque. This place we quitted the following morning at nine o'clock, and after proceeding on our journey for about two hours, we arrived at Capo Bianco.