the largest and best parlour, which we were to occupy by day and by night. But it is a part of oriental hospitality, by day never to leave a guest alone; so that we were really incommoded, by what was meant as kindness and respect. We were hungry, and would have eaten; weary, and would have rested; I felt myself unwell, and would gladly have lain down for repose; but every thing of this kind was out of the question. Our host could not think of leaving us; his neighbours and friends came in to sit with him and pay their respects to his visitors from a remote world; his mother also made us a regular visit, and sat with us for some time, an elderly lady of intelligence and dignified appearance. She came once more to us in like manner the next day; but we saw none of the other females of the family, except at a distance. Our servants, as being Muhammedans, were not admitted to the house; but were lodged in another house belonging to our host not far distant, which was undergoing repairs, and was therefore unoccupied.

Thus passed away the remainder of the afternoon, greatly to our dissatisfaction, without repose, and without our being able to take any step for ourselves or see any part of Tyre. Notwithstanding too all the well meant kindness, we missed here the prompt attention and arrangement, which we had found under similar circumstances at Ramleh. We were tired and hungry; and as dinner had been early announced, we waited with some impatience for its appearance. But we waited long in vain ; and ́ not until 9 o'clock at evening were we summoned to partake of it. Here too a shabby imitation of the Frank style was any thing but welcome. As having often to do with Franks, our host had procured a long clumsy table, and several coarse chairs to be used with it. This was set in an adjacent room, with plates and rusty knives and forks. The dishes and cookery were Syrian, with a miserable red wine, the poorest we tasted in the country. The agent and his brother partook with us; but waiting and weariness prevented enjoyment; and we were glad to break up as speedily as possible. We spread our own beds upon the carpet of our parlour; and I wished myself most heartily back again upon the ground beneath our tent.

Sunday, June 24th. The progress of our journey had now brought us to the sea coast of Phenicia, and into the midst of one of its mighty emporiums. Hitherto along our route, I have everywhere entered into the historical questions connected with the different places; and have thus endeavoured to make the reader acquainted with the outlines both of their past and present state. In respect to Tyre and Sidon also, there are several such questions of great difficulty and grave import; the due consideration of which, combined with historic sketches, might

casily fill out an interesting volume. But they have been often discussed; and they present besides a field too extensive for a work of this nature. These considerations are sufficient, I trust, to excuse me henceforth from entering into such investigations; and also from giving any further historical notices, except such as may arise incidentally, in close connection with the subject in hand.

We spent this day, the Christian Sabbath, at Tyre; but with less enjoyment and profit to ourselves, than we had often done in the midst of the desert. The continual presence of our host was a burden; in the house we could neither read nor write, nor indeed do any thing by or for ourselves. After breakfast, I wandered out alone towards the south end of the peninsula, beyond the city, where all is now forsaken and lonely like the desert; and there bathed in the limpid waters of the sea, as they rolled into a small and,beautiful sandy cove among the rocks. I continued my walk along the whole western and northern shore of the peninsula, musing upon the pomp and glory, the pride and fall, of ancient Tyre. Here was the little isle, once covered by her palaces and surrounded by her fleets; where the builders perfected her beauty in the midst of the seas; where her merchants were princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth; but alas ! "thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that were in thee and in all thy company,"-where are they? Tyre has indeed become "like the top of a rock, a place to spread nets upon!" The sole remaining tokens of her more ancient splendour, lie strewed beneath the waves in the midst of the sea; and the hovels which now nestle upon a portion of her site, present no contradiction of the dread decree: "Thou shalt be built no more!"

We afterwards went together to the same and other points. of interest in the city; and among them to the ancient cathedral. The amount of our hasty survey of the site of Tyre, is contained in the following sketch. In the afternoon I found myself again unwell; and retiring to the house where our servants were lodged, and spreading my carpet in an empty room, I rejoiced in being alone, and slept long in quietness.

The peninsula on which Tyre, now Sur, is built, was originally a long narrow island, parallel to the shore, and distant from it less than half a mile. It was perhaps at first a mere ledge of rocks; and inside of this, the island was formed by the sand washed up from the sea. The isthmus was first created by the famous causeway of Alexander; which was enlarged and ren-. dered permanent by the action of the waters, in throwing the 1 Is. 23, 8. Ez 26, 4. 5. 12. 14. 27, 4. 27.

sand over it broadly and deeply. At present, the isthmus cannot be much less than half a mile in width; and although consisting of loose sand, yet it is covered with traces of the foundations of buildings, probably out of the middle ages. It lies between the shore and the more northern part of the island; so that the latter, as seen from the shore, seems to project further towards the south of the isthmus than towards the north, and forms here a larger bay; although the harbour, or rather road, in which vessels lie, is that on the north. The island, as such, is not far from a mile in length. The part which projects on the south beyond the isthmus, is perhaps a quarter of a mile broad, and is rocky and uneven; it is now unoccupied except by fishermen as "a place to spread nets upon." The southern wall of the city runs across the island, nearly on a line with the south side of the isthmus. The present city stands upon the junction of the island and isthmus ; and the eastern wall includes a portion of the latter. On the north and west, towards the sea, are no walls; or at least they are so far broken away and neglected, as to be like none.

The inner port or basin on the north, was formerly enclosed by a wall, running from the north end of the island in a curve towards the main land. Various pieces and fragments of this wall yet remain, sufficient to mark its course; but the port itself is continually filling up more and more with sand, and nowa-days only boats can enter it. Indeed, our host informed us, that even within his own recollection, the water covered the open place before his house, which at present is ten or twelve rods from the sea and surrounded with buildings; while older men remember, that vessels formerly anchored where the shore now is.

The western coast of the island is wholly a ledge of ragged, picturesque rocks, in some parts fifteen or twenty feet high; upon which the waves of the Mediterranean dash in ceaseless surges. The city lies only upon the eastern part of the island; between the houses and the western shore is a broad strip of open land, now given up to tillage. This shore is strewed from one end to the other, along the edge of the water and in the water, with columns of red and gray granite of various sizes, the only remaining monuments of the splendour of ancient Tyre. At the northwest point of the island, forty or fifty such columns are thrown together in one heap beneath the waves. Along this coast, too, it is apparent, that the continual washing of the waves has in many places had the effect to form layers of new rock; in which stones, bones, and fragments of pottery are cemented as constituent parts.

1

I mean here, of course, Tyre before the Christian era; or at least before it fell under the Muhammedan dominion.

There are also occasional columns along the northern shore. I examined here very particularly the old wall of the port, at its western extremity; where its abutments are at first built up along the shore, before it strikes off into the water. It is here constructed of large hewn stones; and at first I took it to be of very ancient date. But on looking further, I perceived that the foundations rest on marble columns laid beneath; a proof that these portions of the walls at least, if not the whole port in its present form, cannot probably be much older than the middle ages.

The remains of the ancient cathedral church of Tyre, are quite in the southeastern corner of the present city. It was in the Greek style, and must have been originally a large and splendid edifice; but is now in utter ruin. The eastern end is partially standing; the middle part is wholly broken away; but portions are again seen around its western extremity.-The dimensions of the church were two hundred and sixteen feet long, by one hundred and thirty-six feet broad. The area is now wholly filled up by the mean hovels of the city; many of which are attached, like swallows' nests, to its walls and buttresses. In the yard of one of these huts, lies an immense double column of red Syenite granite, consisting of two parallel connected shafts of great size and beauty, once doubtless a main support and ornament of the cathedral. Volney relates, that Jezzar Pasha, in the beginning of his career, attempted to remove this column to 'Akka, to ornament a mosk; but his engineers were unable to stir it from the spot. Other columns of gray granite are strewed in the vicinity, and are seen along the streets. The earthquake of 1837 did great injury to these noble ruins; throwing down a lofty arch and several other portions, which had been spared till then.

There is nothing which can serve to connect these ruins directly with any known ancient church. Yet the supposition of Maundrell is not improbable, that this may have been the same edifice erected by Paulinus, bishop of Tyre in the beginning of the fourth century, for which Eusebius wrote a consecration sermon. The circumstances related by Eusebius, show that it was a cathedral church; he describes it as the most splendid of all the temples of Phenicia. The writers of the times of the crusades make no mention of the cathedral ; although Tyre was then erected into a Latin archbishopric

under the patriarch of Jerusalem. William of Tyre, the venerable historian of the crusades, became archbishop in A. D. 1174; and wrote here his history, extending to the commencement of A. D. 1184. It was probably in this cathedral, that the bones of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa were entombed. " The present Sûr is nothing more than a market town, a small sea port, hardly deserving the name of city. Its chief export is the tobacco raised upon the neighbouring hills; with some cotton, and also charcoal and wood from the more distant mountains. The houses are for the most part mere hovels; very few being more than one story high, with flat roofs. The streets are narrow lanes, crooked, and filthy. Yet the many scattered palm trees throw over the place an oriental charm; and the numerous Pride of India trees interspersed among the houses and gardens, with their beautiful foliage, give it a pleasing aspect.-The taxable men at this time were reckoned at four hundred Muhammedans and three hundred Christians; implying a population of less than three thousand souls. Of the Christians, very few are of the Greek rite; the great body being Greek Catholics. The latter have a resident bishop; while the bishop of the former, who is under the patriarch of Antioch, resides at Hâsbeiya. We heard here of no Jews; though in Jerusalem we were informed, that two years before, a considerable number had taken up their residence in Tyre.

The earthquake of 1837 was felt here to a very considerable extent. A large part of the eastern wall was thrown down, and had just been rebuilt; the southern wall also had been greatly shattered, and still remained with many breaches, over which

1 Will. Tyr. 21. 9. William of Tyre is sometimes spoken of as an Englishman; others have claimed him as of French or German birth; see Bongars' Præf. in Gesta Dei per Francos No. xi. His French continuator says expressly, that he was born in Jerusalem; ibid. Le Quien Oriens Chr. III. col. 1314. Comp. Bibliographie Universelle art. Guillaume, etc.

The emperor Frederic I. (Barbarossa) was drowned in the Calycadnus (some say the Cydnus) in Cilicia, on his march to the Holy Land, June 10th, 1190. His body was first carried to Antioch, and deposited in the cathedral before the altar of St. Peter; Wilken Gesch. der Kr. IV. pp. 139, 143. Raumer Gesch. der Hohenstaufen II. pp. 436, 437. English chroniclers relate, that only his flesh and bowels were ultimately left at Antioch: "Viscera et cerebrum et carnem suam aqua coctam et ab ossibus separatam in civitate Antiochiæ;" Roger Hoved. in Savile Scriptor.

Rerum Anglicar. p. 651. Brompton in Selden Script. Hist. Anglic. p. 1165. His bones only are said to have been entombed at Tyre; Sicard. Chron. in Muratori Tom. VII. p. 612. Dandolo in Muratori Tom. XII. p. 314. By some strange perversion, there prevails a legend, apparently of the sixteenth century, but related by many travellers, that Barbarossa was drowned in the Kasimîyeh, just north of Tyre; see Sandys' Travels, p. 166. Monconys I. p. 331. Pococke II. i. p. 84. Hogg's Visit to Damascus, etc. II. P. 148.