the satisfaction of religious infallibility, by no means tend to soften or to render more approachable.

It was then with an increased feeling of despondency that I turned to the contemplation of ruins of ancient times, suggestive of fallen glories and of retrospective greatness, suggestions which forced themselves the more strongly upon my consideration, from the very contrast which tradition and history, aided by existing ruins, conjured up in opposition to the existing condition of the East.

Here stood before me all that now remained of a city which, under the Syro-Macedonian dynasty, was always the bulwark of the kingdom of Antioch. Here, besides the greater part of the army, no less than five hundred elephants were kept for purposes of war; and the royal haras, or stables, contained upwards of thirty thousand royal mares, and three hundred stallions. People were employed in training the young offspring of this regal stud, and there were also masters of arms, and of all kinds of military exercises.

When, on the division of the Macedonian empire, Egypt fell to the Ptolemys, it was discovered at once that that kingdom could not exist without Syrian provinces to supply wood for the construction of ships; and at the defeat of the Regent Perdiccas by Nicanor (B.c. 320), Phoenicia and Colo-Syria were seized and garrisoned for that purpose.

The frequent wars which resulted from this state of things, and which were carried on by Antigonus against Ptolemy, were legacied to Seleucus Nicator, and to his successor Antiochus the Great, who first succeeded in overthrowing Egyptian power in the heart of Syria.

It was for the possession of this coveted province that Cleopatra, sister to Alexander the Great, was murdered by Antigonus; it was this province which, having been promised as a dowry to Cleopatra, mother of Ptolemy Philometer, was claimed by the son, sword in hand; and it was the conquest of this province by Antiochus, which first led to Roman interference in the affairs of the East, and finally to the overthrow of the Syro-Macedonian empire.

It was the temple of Apamea, which, on the rise of Christianity, became the constant object of conflicts between Pagans and Christians for its possession, for Sozomenus (lib. 8, cap. 15) relates that the Christians held the temple to the great annoyance of the disbelievers, who made war against the former for its possession. Cellarius also quotes an inscription from a coin, on the reverse of which was an elephant:

ΑΠΑΜΕΙΑΣ THC IEPAC ΚΑΙ ΛΟΥΛΟΥ.

What remains now of this distinction in the arts of war, of peace, and holiness? A rich and luxuriant, but untenanted greensward, out of which rise the fragmentary remains of a Corinthian temple-two pilasters with their capitals, a portion of the walls, and an arched window, being all that now remain of the once coveted edifice! Around, foundations of buildings are still traceable, and there also exist part of a strong wall, and of a semi-circular archway; but with these exceptions, and that of the modern castle which has risen upon the ruins of the peninsulated Acropolis, all is desolate and neglected, where once proud Apamea stood!

A great authority upon such subjects, Strabo (p. 517), derives the names of the different Apamaeas of the Macedonians from Apama,

of whom there were two-one, the wife of Seleucus Nicator, the other the wife of Magas; but Bochart (Phaleg, p. 94) derives the name from a Syrian word, signifying the confluence of waters. Certain it is, that the Shepham of Scriptures, at which, in the time of the Macedonian invasion, a great many Greeks stopped, was first called by them Pella, after the native city of Philip; and Bochart's opinion derives a remarkable confirmation from the fact, that the Apamea of Mesene was at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, Apamea of Sitacene at that of the Royal River and the Tigris, and Apamea Cibotos at the confluence of the Marsyas and the Meander, and it appears almost beyond a doubt, that it was from this circumstance of the junction here of the rivulet of Apamene with the Orontes, that the latter became recognised by classical geographers as the Marsyas of Colo-Syria, and afterwards gave its name to a district. These simple facts admitted, they would explain away many difficulties which present themselves in reading Strabo (lib. xvi., p. 519), Pliny (lib. v., cap. 23), and Cellarius (p. 420).

The peculiarity in the positioning of Apamea is best felt on coming from the south. Thence it is perceived as a stronghold, placed in a defile advantageous for purposes of resistance, and at the same time commanding any further progress, whether by the vale of Colo-Syria, or through Chalcidene and by the Campus Marsyas into the interior and central northern districts. It was on this account that in the rebellion of Cæcilius Bassus, the relief of its siege by Cassius, decided the termination of the war.

From this point I advanced upon the borders of the great Syrian plain or desert, in the centre of which stood Tadmor, and on its limits Chalcis, or "the white city." We all form to ourselves more or less accurate ideas of the great wildernesses of the earth's surface, as conveyed to us by repeated descriptions; but such conceptions do not take away, but rather add, to the zest for contemplating the reality; and it was not without deep emotion that my eyes now wandered over the wide and boundless expanse of barren undulating territory before me. The results of my first impressions can, however, be reduced to a few words an arid and sun-burnt waste of chalky and sandy soil, without water, with little or no vegetation, but more unequal than I anticipated, and without the slightest sand-drift.

We met on our ride some of the pasha's irregular cavalry, who, to the great amusement of my muleteer, greeted the infidel with sundry jests and jokes, the point of which were lost upon him, for want of familiarity with the language. The shades of evening overtook us on the confines of the desert, and we were obliged to seek refuge at a neighbouring tel or eminence, called Zorai, where, in the darkness, I spread my carpet, as I found out the next morning, at the mouth of a dark and damp cave, from which myriads of musquitoes issued forth to attack me with such earnestness, that I was glad to beat a retreat, and seek repose on a higher and more exposed part of the hill.

About noon next day, we broke our fast at Mar'ah, a village with a few huts and guard-house, on the caravan route from Aleppo to Damascus. This spot appears to correspond to the Macra of Strabo, on the border of Chalcidene, or Chalcidice, and of the plain of the Marsyas; for the water shed here still flows to the rivulet of Apamea. This territory corresponds to the Zobah of Scriptures, whose king was

at war with Toi, King of Hamath, and was defeated by David. South of Kínisrín (Chalcis) there exist in the present day extensive ruins of ancient Androna, now called Belad Khan Azra, and situated at the foot of the basaltic range of El Amri, which extends eastward to the Valley of Salt (2 Sam. viii. 3); and six hours further south are the yet unvisited ruins of Seriane.

Evening brought us to the village of El Bárá, where I sat down near to a Mohammedan tomb, while the muleteer went in search of provisions. A crowd of peasants-men, women, and children-gathered around me, and I endeavoured to amuse them for some time, till getting tired of their importunities, I walked away, and after some delay succeeded in finding the guardian of the steeds gratifying his appetite, apparently very much to his own satisfaction, and intending to pass over to me whatever might remain of his repast. The villagers were, however, civil, and extremely anxious that I should sleep in a house; but for want of a better situation I was obliged to spread my carpet on tilled ground, from which there was no slight difficulty in gathering as many dry thistles as would make a fire sufficient to boil a cup of coffee, and for which purpose I had brought with me a small copper vessel of the country, which only held a cup of water, and was a great comfort on my various excursions.

Passing the village of Reihá, with some castellated buildings, we arrived early next day at a considerable collection of stone buildings, which, although in part ruinous, and in tenantless solitude, were very remarkable not only for their freshness and comparative perfection, but also for their solidity and beauty of construction, in which respect they differed totally from any modern buildings in the same country.

These stately-looking edifices were grouped in what might be designated as two separate small towns, situate about half a mile from one another, and the greater portion of the buildings consisted of dwelling-houses constructed of hewn stones, in large squares, and of finished masonry. Many of these dwelling-houses were so extensive that they must evidently have belonged to communities, and constituted the monasteries of the early Christians. Amid these edifices were several churches, quadrangular buildings, with aisles and double colonnades, and arches or arcades closed with masonry behind, and supporting architrave and walls with pilasters on the sides, and windows in front; and above all were pointed roofs of large slabs of stone, the gable ends of which were also ornamented with windows.

Everything was at once massive and solid, and yet light and harmonious. The generally heavy appearance of the architrave, which was straight and simple as in the pure antique style, was removed by the rows of pilasters rising above, to meet the pressure of the superincumbent roof; and while the pilasters also remove the dissonance between the heavy walls and the supports on which it exists, so also they remove the limit imposed to the upward motion of the columns, just as the arch does when taking the place of the architrave in a more refined architecture; and the roof itself, being raised up and supported by pilasters, does not present a load in any way out of proportion to the supporting columns.

The style of these buildings I found afterwards to be characteristic, in all the great centres of early Christianity in northern Syria, more particularly in the ancient province of Oshroene, and in the district

of Mount Saint Simon, as well as in the present once populous locality. It appears to be a very mixed order of architecture-Roman with the general simplicity and character of the Grecian-Doric. The windows have a Tuscan character, and the capitals of the columns appear to be copied from those of the temple of Apamea; but the whole is less exact in its proportions than any other order of buildings-the columns are divested of flutes, and the entablature is not well brought out, and is void of all ornaments. In the interior of the churches the altars were not raised, but were level with the floor, and were not placed in a sanctuary, as in the Greek and Chaldean churches.

Remarkable and interesting subjects of contemplation presented themselves in exploring these tenantless cities, to consider how a land long reckoned as a desert and blank in most modern maps, was in reality covered with that multitude of cities and towns which the historical Scriptures have defined to it, and which from lack of knowledge have been denied to it by many, but which every day's additional examination serves to disclose to an unanticipated and undreamed-of

extent.

There is another subject of consideration even still more remarkable, that, like the cities of Israel and of Judea, the homes of the early Christians should be also thus forsaken and deserted, even when not ruined; and that houses, and monasteries, and churches by hundreds, are still standing in peopled districts, yet that "the cities are desolate without inhabitants, and the houses without man."

A feeling of wonder naturally arises, on thinking that houses, which are still so much superior to any existing dwellings, and from which the lapse of time and the tinge of age have not removed the freshness which strength and solidity give to them, should be without possessors, without claimants, and without tenants, or any one to dwell within them, while a poor poverty-stricken and depressed population is harboured in mud huts close by, and wandering herdsmen around have no better shelter than a tent or a tree.

Some are content to look upon such ruins as "the broken fragments of the once numerous churches that have now seen their seed time, and have yielded up their harvest to the last and final day," (the Rev. Mr. Formby's "Visit to the East," p. 36;) but there are others who, like Dr. Keith, ("The Land of Israel," &c.) relying on the perpetuity of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, still cherish confident hopes of the coming restoration, both of the land and people; be this as it may, the multitude of sacred edifices-the thousands of ecclesiastical structures of North Syria-appear to have been spared, and to have saved towns and cities, while the church, strictly speaking, and the citizens are gone. *

In front of these buildings were large and deep tanks or cisterns for preserving water, which had stairs to descend into them; and as in these rocky and dreary situations, where the buildings stand on a

* These districts, it may be observed, come within the promised land, as described by the Jewish lawgiver (Numbers, chap. 34), the north border of which comprised Zedad, or Zobad (Chalcidene), and went down to the coast from Shepham (Apamea) to Riblah (Antioch), on the east side of Ain, "the spring," (Daphne,) unto the entrance of Hamath (Bay of Antioch). These are identifications admitted in the Chaldean, and by Hieronymus, Jonathan, Bochart, and other writers on sacred geography.

smooth surface of stone, it is impossible to cultivate anything in the neighbourhood: it is perhaps in this peculiarity of position, and to the absence of running water, so indispensable to a hot country, that we may attribute at least one reason for their being untenanted, but it is not enough to explain the phenomenon in all its individuality or separate existence.

Whilst I was exploring these remains of early Christianity, the muleteer had gone on to 'Edlíp, a straggling place, most of the houses being dispersed in gardens, and where, having joined him at the khan, according to agreement, we passed the night.

The next day (July 14th), we entered into the hilly range, to the westward, the road being carried through a narrow ravine, in the rocky pavement of which, the constant passage of horses and mules, had worn holes of from six inches to a foot and more in depth, and succeeding one another, at the regular distance of the animal's step. I naturally expected that the mules would repudiate such a break-leg path, and would carefully choose the level which presented itself between each furrow, but not at all, they seemed accustomed to, and almost pleased with the peculiarity, and plunged away at each successive hollow with unflinching perseverance.

We passed the night at a large village in the mountains, called 'Armanús, or 'Arman-surá; and the next day, gaining the valley of the Orontes, were ferried over at Salcheïn; and after keeping along the plain for some time, re-entered into the wooded and hilly districts of Casiotis, where we bivouacked for the night, in a field near to a small village called 'Arsis. The next day (July 16th) we gained Antioch, which we approached by that remarkable narrow pass which cleaves the hills in twain, immediately behind the town, and up and down the sides of which the ancient walls are carried in so skilful and so singular a manner.

On my return, I found the transport in active progress, and that Colonel Chesney had gone to Port William, where he was organizing a friendly mission to the Arabs. Sickness had, however began to interfere largely with the efficiency of those engaged in the transport. The thermometer in the house at Antioch averaged 86°, but in the open shade was often above 100°. Fitzjames lay at the Pretty Tower, in a state of delirium, from exposure to the sun; and Eden was brought down, a few days afterwards, from the head of the lake, in a low typhoid stupor and persistent coma. A young sailor of the name of Brown had been also left at Antioch, labouring under acute inflammation of the brain, of which he died shortly afterwards, while I was at Amelia depot. The extent of my daily movements was much increased by this state of things; one of the Messrs. Staunton was at Port William, the other at Amelia depot; and I had often to ride the same day and night from Antioch to the Pretty Tower, and the head of the lake, and occasionally to Amelia depot, and back again. The fever of the country had also never quitted me; and I was, when thus on duty, obliged to lay under a tree by the way-side till the obnoxious shaking stage was over, while my quiet horse browsed in the neighbourhood.

On one of these occasions, I was descending by moonlight the winding pathway at the foot of St. Simon's Hill, when I perceived at the bottom a wagon loaded with one of the boilers of the steam ships, but