of a vast prison. In short, they exemplify the truth of the descriptions of Jeremiah. What a contrast to the fine streets of Mecca, which are so ornamented and so gay! I never expected to find this disadvantage in a city inhabited for so many ages by Christians; but facta est quasi vidua, domina gentium.' Provisions are abundant, and very cheap; for example half a dozen of fowls may be had for a Spanish piastre. The bread commonly eaten is a sort of bad cake, but there is some very good bread to be had; good vegetables, herbs, and fruits, are in abundance, though they are all produced rather late in the season, The meat is of an excellant quality.'. There is great diversity of costume, every body adopting that which he likes best, whether Arab, Syrian, or Turk; but the lower order of people generally wear a robe or shirt of white and black, or brown broad-striped stuff, as in Arabia; and persons.in easy circumstances, those employed about the Temple, &c. wear the Turkish costume, with the kàouk or high turban. women cover themselves with a large white cloak or veil.' The The From Jerusalem, the traveller proceeded to Jaffa, which he describes as a small town situated on a hill, and fortified so as to be capable of making a considerable defence. Here he embarked for Acre; which, though no longer guarded by the terrors of Djezzar Pacha, is still formidable, the old walls being strengthened by bastions in the European manner, and defended by a scarp, a ditch, and a counter-scarp. reigning Pacha was in former years one of Djezzar's officers, and governs with much more moderation than his energetic predecessor. A short journey across the plain, eastward, brings the traveller in six or seven hours to Nazareth, which is situated on the slope of a mountain facing the E., and contains about 3000 inhabitants, among whom are many Catholics. The total number of monks in the Holy Land is about one hundred and twenty, all Spaniards or Italians, and resident chiefly in Jerusalem. The road from Nazareth to Damascus leads past the small town of Canaa, celebrated for the miraculous change of water into wine; and a farther progress brings the traveller within sight of the sea of Galilee, a beautiful sheet of water, surrounded by high mountains, and extending about 18 miles in length by 5 or 6 in breadth. The Jordan, before it falls into this spacious lake, is not a large river, being at the customary place of crossing (Jacob's bridge) only between 60 and 70 feet wide, with a rapid but not deep current. The best method of travelling in the Turkish dominions, when expedition is the object, is to accompany one of the public messengers called Tartars; who are accustomed to perform their journies with a degree of dispatch which could scarcely be expected from so ignorant and slothful a people as the Turks. In order to be free from the cares of travelling, it is customary to bargain with a Tartar, who undertakes all expences upon the road, such as horses, lodgings, and provisions, for a stipulated sum of money; one half of which is paid to him at the moment of departure, and the other at the end of the journey. I agreed to give my Tartar 800 piastres (100l. sterling) for my journey from Aleppo to Constantinople, and he furnished me with a horse for myself, another for my slave, and a third for my baggage; independent of all expences for provisions, lodging, and accidental charges, which were also at his cost.' Having often spoken of the khans, (or inns,) it appears to me necessary to give a description of the buildings of this kind which I met with in Turkey. A khan is a quadrangular edifice, having sometimes towers at the angles, and is crowned with battlements in the same manner as a fortress. These monuments are more or less considerable. Their usual size is about 133 feet on each side. In the interior they consist generally of two courts surrounded with stables. Some have a mosque, or simply a chapel, in which travellers pray; and there are others that have dwellings. I believe that all the khans have been built by order of government. These establishments are always open. The caravans and travellers enter and go away, without saying a word to any one; in short without asking permission, or taking leave on their departure. Every person stays as long as he thinks proper, with out paying the smallest contribution to any body. So fine an institution in the Turkish empire is an effect of the principle in religious morals, which establishes as one of the indispensable obligations of a Mussulman, that he shall exercise hospitality towards all travellers of whatever nation or religion. In consequence of this principle, there are khans in all places peopled as well as desert, where the traveller has to halt. Those that I visited are very well built of stone, some even with an architectural embellishment; but, as they are all very ancient, some are going to decay, and I believe that they will never be repaired.' A most striking contrast to the indolence and poverty of Mecca is exhibited by the busy and ingenious population of Damascus. Without adopting the current notion, repeated by Ali Bey, that this city contains so many as 400,000 inhabitants, we may safely assert that, with regard to its wealth and industry, the expectations of the traveller, however swelled by oriental imagery and veneration for antiquity, are not likely to experience disappointment. The once famed swordblades of Damascus do not indeed retain their reputation, being now of the same temper as those which are made in other parts of the Turkish dominions: but the surrounding country is fertile, the products both of nature and art exhibited in the markets are of great amount, and a very active intercourse is carried on both with the neighbouring district and and with the more remote cities of Syria and Asia Minor. This fact is curiously exemplified in the surprizing number of joiners and carpenters employed in making packing-cases for goods, who occupy, almost the whole of a suburb of the city. The provision-markets rival and surpass in abundance the bazars for the sale of merchandise. The quality of the different articles is excellent, and I firmly believe there is no country in the world supplied with better victuals; the meat is fat and delicate; the vegetables, herbs, and roots are extremely tender; the succulent fruits are sweet, and of a monstrous size. Game of all sorts is abundant. The honey and milk are delicious. The bread is whiter and better than in Europe. In short, it may be said that this is the best place in the world for animal subsistence. The Arabs bring hither vegetables; and the fire-wood, which is obtained from the gardens and plantations, is common and cheap there is none brought from the forests, by reason of their distance.' Damascus has the great advantage of an ample supply of water; and, though the inhabitants are superstitious, or rather fanatical, they do not forbid the exercise of other religions than their own. The Jews have here eight synagogues; besides which the city contains four Christian churches, and three convents of Franciscan monks: but it is necessary for Europeans to assume the dress of the country, and to make a point of not appearing otherwise than on foot. The women of this, city are deemed handsome, and of modest behaviour, as far at least as the upper and middling ranks are concerned. Many of the houses would be accounted comfortable even in an European city; and the poor are much better employed and provided than in towns of less industry. The journey from Aleppo to Constantinople offered nothing remarkable; except the discovery that several of the places through which the traveller passed, such as Homs and Hama, are not villages, as they are absurdly called in the maps, but large and flourishing towns. They are both placed near the Orontes, on the high road leading northward to Antioch; and Hama in particular is a very considerable city, in a pleasant situation: part of it standing on high ground, while the remainder descends in the shape of an amphitheatre to the bank of the river. The opposite part of the town rises in like manner from the other bank of the Orontes, and incloses a hill of some height within its precincts. Antioch, called by the Turks Antahia, is a city which contains fifteen thousand Mussulmen, three thousand Christians of various rites, and a hundred and fifty Jews. The Greek patriarch of Antioch was at this period at Damascus, and the Catholic patriarch the mountains. 'Modern Antioch occupies but a small part of the scite of the ancient city, of which the vast line of wall still exists, and attests its former grandeur. The walls enclose a space of more than half a league in diameter, and encompass several mountains with ancient fortifications, which extend down to the plain. They are of stone, half ruined, and are flanked with towers at unequal distances. The ancient gate by which I entered is magnificent, but it threatens to fall every moment.' 'The streets of Antioch are narrow, but they have very elevated foot-pavements on each side. The houses are of stone, and have a sombre and monotonous appearance. They were the first that I had seen covered with tiles since I had left Mecca. Every - thing indicates that this is a very rainy country. The inhabitants mix snow with water to cool their beverage. The climate is colder than at Aleppo, where no snow falls. It appears that the principal product of the country is silk. The water and provisions are good. The Arab cakes are the only sort of bread used. I met several women upon my arrival who were perfect beauties.' On arriving at Constantinople, Ali Bey lodged in the hôtel of the Marquis of Almenana, the Spanish ambassador at the Porte; taking the precaution to have the apartments fitted up in the Turkish manner: a precaution which, however, would not have availed him if it had been known that he, a Spaniard and a Christian, had dared to set his feet within the sacred Kaaba of Mecca. He proceeds to give his readers a long description of Constantinople; from which we decline to make any extract, as he possessed no particular means of observation beyond those whose works are already before the public. The whole is concluded with a relation of the journey from Constantinople to Bucharest; written, we know not why, by another person. Having now brought this traveller to the close of his journey, we shall proceed to recapitulate the principal dates in his various peregrinations. The time which he passed in the Morocco dominions was somewhat above two years; viz. from *June 1803 to October 1805. In Cyprus, he continued two months; in Alexandria, nearly six; in Cairo, two. He reached Mecca in January 1807; returned to Cairo in the June of that year; travelled, with little delay, to Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus, Antioch, &c.; and arrived at Constantinople in the end of October 1807. Setting out from that capital in the beginning of December, he passed through Bulgaria and Wallachia, and entered on the Austrian territory in the course of three weeks; - here the present narrative ends: but we are enabled, from other sources, to apprize our readers that he came to Paris in 1808, soon after the completion of his journey; and that he was supposed to have been previously in an understanding with Bonaparte, whose chimerical projects of conquest bear, in fact, a considerable resemblance to his 2 own wanderings. Be this as it may, he had little difficulty in obtaining from the French court a favourable testimonial, with which he went to Madrid; and he was occupied in publishing his memoirs, when his Imperial patron commenced his luckless usurpation of the Spanish crown. King Joseph appointed Ali Bey in 1810 to be intendant of Segovia, and in the next year prefect of Cordova: but fortune soon seemed to envy him his new honours, and condemned him, after the decisive day of Vittoria, to fly with his dethroned sovereign across the Pyrenees, and take refuge in Paris: where he continues to reside, seeming now to regard that capital as his permanent abode, his daughter being married to M. de L'Isle de Sales, a member of the Institute. Arresting now the course of the narrative, we direct our observations to the merits of the book as a literary composition; and here, as we shall have some rather formidable charges to bring against the author, it is fair to set out with a notice of the difficulties with which he had to contend, and to premise that nothing can be more dry and monotonous than an itinerary through so bare a country as Morocco or Arabia. It can record little else than the hour of striking the tents, the direction of the compass which was followed, the aspect of the country, and the spot at which the travellers halted for refreshment at a spring. In this manner they pass over extensive tracts, day after day, without meeting a human being, and sometimes without seeing a single animal, except a few lizards or spiders on the branches of some small sun-burnt plant. Again, in treating of towns, little is to be noticed except old mosques, dark streets, and crumbling walls. To give interest to such uninviting topics, it required the pen of a practised writer; or of one who will pass slightly over trifling or often-repeated incidents, and seek objects of interest or variety either in his own reflections or in the character of his companions and the inhabitants of the country. Nothing of this kind, we are sorry to say, appears in the pages of Ali Bey; who seems bewildered whenever he ventures into the range of historical conjecture, as in the traditionary accounts of a female sovereign of Cythera; or whenever he attempts to moralize on the difference of national character, as in the outset of his book after having crossed the Streights of Gibraltar. All this might pass merely as a slender drawback from a work in which the activity and enterprize of the traveller prepare us for making a large stock of allowances in other respects: but we apprehend that certain predominant features in the character of the present author have led to more important |