FROM SEYDA TO BAIROOT, TRIPOLY, AND THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.

FRIDAY, April 19, 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 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.

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We left the convent a little before noon, and descending into the valley gradually approached the sea-shore, coming in about an

hour to a river called Nahr el Owely, or river the First, having perhaps 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 distance 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 supplied 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 convenience 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 distance 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 Rasel-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

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-Nebbionis :

In about half an hour from hence we passed a khan, with a saint's tomb, and a few palm trees, called Mazār, 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-Sadiāt, 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

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 suspicion 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 structure, 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 sarcophagi 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, therefore, 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.

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 Ullibāt we had opened to us, on the sides of the mountain, a number of scattered 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 many 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 industry 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.