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their houses, even if he had been utterly destitute; so great an influence had the patriarch's sentence on their minds. Perhaps they did not consider that in thus communicating with the physician, for their health's sake only, they disobeyed the spirit of the excommunication. His feelings on the Sabbath were not enviable, for he could not divest himself of uneasiness at the sound of the church bells, that called the people together, to hear himself and all his purposes denounced as dangerous and damnable. At last, at the end of two months, perceiving that there was no relaxation in their hostility, that all prospect of usefulness was at present over, he struck his tents, and departed from the beautiful Eden, that had been to him a scene of fiery trial.

From this circumstance, it may be perceived that the obstacles to persuading the people of Lebanon to the purity of faith and hope, are great and numerous: it is true, that of late some of the priesthood have been of a better mind, but the greater part cling obstinately to the errors in which they and their forefathers have lived for so many ages. A number of copies of the New Testament in Arabic, sent out for circulation through the mountain, were lately seized and burned by the order of the priesthood. The inhabitants of Lebanon broken into so many churches, often adverse to each other, have been so unvisited by happier influences, by earnest or powerful efforts for their renovation, that the voices which now call them to it seem to them like strange sounds.-A more hopeful preparation than Dr. W's could not be: they had received the greatest benefits and kindnesses from the stranger; he came and dwelt in their midst, without any selfish motive of curiosity or pleasure-and they all abandoned him: for, out of the whole population, not one shewed kindness; and it was solely for the sake of the hire that the old man went down to Tripoli. Beneath his tent, which, when it rained, or when the winds were high on the mountain, was no enviable home, he felt that he "laboured for nought;" yet Lebanon was a new and exciting field, and no foot, save his own, had hitherto wandered to Eden in such a cause. The first time Dr. W. came here, was to receive the last breath of Mr. A., the consul, whose grave he dug, partly with his own hands, on the hill-side below;-this second visit was one of persecution;-the third, which he is now about to make to Eden, will probably be more blest.

SCANDEROON, FROM THE ROAD TO ISSUS.

This view embraces the position of Scanderoon, with a few ships at anchor; the pass between the mountains up to Beilan is seen behind. It is the port of Aleppo, from which it is eighty miles distant: the unhealthiness of its climate, and the ignorance and aversion to improvement in the Turkish government, made it for a long time a place to be shunned. The bay is a remarkably fine one, but the miserable town is encompassed by marshes on every side: the shore is flat and dreary; it is the saddest hole imaginable for an European, whereas the heights, not a mile

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distant, are picturesque, well wooded, with vineyards and cottages, and of a pure and wholesome air. To look from the neighbourhood of Beilan on the sepulchral Scanderoon, is like gazing from one of the Appenines on the fatal soil of the Maremma. It is difficult to escape, even with the greatest precaution, the fever that prevails here in the summer, occasioned by the excessive heat of the sun, seldom relieved by sea-breezes, and the noxious vapours from the surrounding swamps. During three centuries, the love of gain and commerce has made Scanderoon the residence of Christian merchants: certainly no insurance-office would have taken them under a high premium; and even now, when things are better, the chances would be heavily against the insurer. There is many a noxious spot, of redeeming beauty and fertility, where gold may, figuratively, be gathered by the river side, and plucked from the trees; but around Scanderoon there is not a solitary attraction: the sad splendour of the sun falls on a shadeless soil; nor are the profits so very great. An old traveller speaks of it as "infamous for the death of Christians." "They must be men," he adds, "who love money at a strange rate, to accept of these employments; for the air, like that of Ormus, is generally so bad, especially in the summer, that they who do not die cannot avoid very dangerous distempers. Mr. Philips, the English consul, has been the only person that ever lived two and twenty years at Scanderoon; but you must know that he was a brisk, merry man, and of an excellent temper of body; yet for all that, he had been forced to be cauterized." There is nothing Oriental about the place: neither grove, fountain, or garden; the wind can be heard in the mountain forests, but not felt; the sea, scarcely heaved in summer with the breeze, falls with a long foreboding sound on the melancholy beach. The inhabitants are mostly Greeks and Turks, who reside here on account of the shipping which frequent the port. There is a neat Greek church, and among the tombs are those of a number of Englishmen who have fallen victims to the unhealthiness of the situation. The appearance of those who still remained was ghastly pale: recently, however, the air has been improved, and the situation rendered more inviting, by the draining of the marshes, which was accomplished by the enterprise and skill of Europeans: this is an important event for the future prosperity of Scanderoon, should the Egyptian dominion continue in Asia Minor. During the late war, the hostile fleets anchored here: supplies and troops arrived to Ibrahim Pasha, and the Turkish fleet landed provisions and stores for their army. Granaries were built, and the silent town was full of noise and activity, as well as despair when the defeated Turks fled thither from the field of Beilan. Scanderoon is of great importance to Ibrahim, being the only port that communicates with Antioch, Aleppo, and the surrounding districts: the arrival of vessels, stores, &c. from Egypt, give an extent and activity to its trade which it never before possessed. It was by the direction of Ibrahim that the formidable marshes were drained. The English consul in Scanderoon is Mr. Fornetty, who is kind and hospitable to travellers, though there are very few whose feet wander to this sad town. It is in the diocese of Tarsis, and the bishop frequently spends sometime here. It is the only part of the coast, to a great extent, where there is a solid bottom, and good anchorage for vessels.

THE GREAT MOSQUE AT ANTIOCH.

This is the tallest and noblest mosque at Antioch; its beautiful minaret is worth a hundred of our church steeples. The sun is on the greater part of its white shaft, and on the little gallery towards the top, where the Muezzin walks round three times a day to proclaim the hour of prayer. On its summit is the crescent; a stone staircase winds up its interior, into which a dim light scarcely penetrates through a few little windows. This mosque is near the Orontes, simple, like all the Turkish mosques, in its interior; lofty, cool; a few sentences here and there on the walls, in gold letters, from the Koran; its light subdued; a glare of light is always avoided in their places of worship. No painting or tomb, no escutcheon, carving, or ornament, is in the churches of the Prophet; a naked and dreary simplicity is the character of the smaller, a sublime one of the grander mosques. Sometimes supported and adorned with flights of pillars of marble, and surmounted by a dome: the effect is impressive, particularly when the worshippers, ranged in long rows beside the walls and on the pavement, kneel on the little rich carpets which they bring with them, in prayer, and the morning or setting sun falls through the dome. There are no seats or chairs, or any accommodations, in the greater part of the mosques; but there are a few, where a pasha or governor worships, of more luxurious arrangement. The writer, wandering one evening through a town, looked into a small and elegant mosque, through whose dome the sun cast its last red beams about half way down the walls; while the worshippers below were in the dimness which they loved, as favourable to devotion: the whole of the floor was covered with a rich carpet, and there were raised seats also, richly covered, for the governor and his chief men. The pool at the entrance, at which all who entered first washed their feet, was clear as crystal, being supplied by a rivulet. It was a tasteful and tempting place of worship; there was a little pulpit, such as is seen in most of the mosques, where the Imaun occasionally expounds the Koran, and delivers his discourses on the morality and religion of Mohammed: during these addresses, the genteeler part of the audience are frequently occupied in consulting their Koran, copies of which they bring with them. A few of the finest mosques in the Turkish empire were originally built by the Christians, and exhibit in the interior the noble and massive Gothic architecture. The large and splendid mosque in Nicosia was formerly the Christian church of St. Sophia; it was built by the Venetians in the Gothic style, and consists of three aisles formed by lotty pillars of marble; the pavement is also of marble. Around are the tombs of princes, of knights templars, and Venetian nobles. The great mosque in Damascus, held so peculiarly sacred by the Turks that it is death for any Christian to enter it, was the ancient cathedral, and one of the finest buildings the zeal of the first Christians produced. The architecture is of the Corinthian order; the Turks call this the mosque of St. John the Baptist, to whom it was formerly dedicated. It stands on a rather elevated position, nearly in the centre of the city: the gate opens into an extensive square court paved with marble; near the entrance is a fountain that sends forth a column of water, to

the height of ten or fifteen feet. On three sides of this court is a cloister that consists of two tiers of pointed arches supported by Corinthian columns. These cloistered arches, with their granite pillars, look like a splendid portico. The interior of the mosque is of vast dimensions; its effect is magnificent; its form, that of an oblong square, composed of three long aisles running parallel to each other, and divided by three 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 middle of the central roof, and at the end of each of these there is a minaret. The body of the building is in the shape of a cross, and exhibits above rows of Saracenic windows, raised with small pillars. It is said by some writers that this church was built by the emperor Heraclius, and was at first dedicated to Zacharias, and that it was by agreement continued in the hands of the Christians, but that at length the Mohammedans took it from them. It is most probable that this splendid specimen of early ecclesiastical architecture was raised under the bishops of Damascus, when Christianity was the established religion here. The Arab historians observe, that this mosque was much improved by the Khalif Valid, about the eighty-sixth year of the Hegira.

The mosque of Abraham is the finest in the city of Orfah, in Mesopotamia; perhaps there is no place of worship in the Ottoman empire, which, from the beauty of its site, and ancient associations, is so interesting as this. Orfah is considered, by all the learned Jews and Mohammedans, as well as by many eminent scholars among the Christians, to have been the Ur of the Chaldees, the birth-place of Abraham and Sarah, from whence he went forth to dwell at Haran, previous to his being called from thence to go into Canaan, the land promised to himself and his seed for ever. This mosque, which is called from Abraham, "The Beloved, the Friend of God," stands on the brink of a small lake, that is filled from a clear spring which rises at the extremity of the town. The greater part of the northern bank of the lake is occupied by the grand façade. of the mosque of the patriarch; the centre of this façade is a square pile of building, from which arise three large domes of equal size, and four lofty minarets springing up amid a cluster of tall and solemn cypress trees. At each end of this central pile are flights of steps descending to the edge of the lake, for the ablutions of the pious. Above each flight of steps are open arcades for corridors, where the faithful may sit or walk in the shade. In the cool of the evening and the morning, they prefer to sit without in the open air, on the steps at the borders of the lake, which they contemplate while smoking their pipes. The wings of the mosque are terminated by two solid masses of building, perfectly uniform in design, and completing one of the most regular edifices of this kind to be found perhaps in the East. Beyond, at the west end of the lake, is a large garden filled with fig-trees and white mulberry-trees; the latter are as tall and full in foliage as the largest of our English elms. This lake, from being consecrated to the devotion of the patriarch, is visited as well from motives of piety as of pleasure, and seldom fails to have several parties on its banks. It is filled with an incredible number of fine carp; as the water in which they float is beautifully transparent, they are seen to great advantage; and it is an act of charity, as well as of diversion, for the visiters there, to

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