the Coast.

Cæsarea.

CHAP.XVII, ing thither, Captain Culverhouse, fearful of detaining his frigate a moment after the supplies for the fleet had been completed, judged it prudent to engage a passage for us in one of these boats. We therefore took leave of our aged and respectable host, the English Consul; and upon the evening of July the fifteenth, after sun-set, embarked for Acre, to avail ourselves of the land- i wind, which blows during the night, at this season of the Voyage along year. By day-break the next morning we were off the coast of Cæsarea, and so near in with the land, that we could very distinctly perceive the appearance of its numerous and extensive ruins. The remains of this city, al though still considerable, have long been resorted to as a quarry, whenever building-materials were required at Acre. Djezzar Pacha, as it has been already mentioned, brought from hence the columns of rare and beautiful marble, as well as the other ornaments, of his palace, hath, fountain, and mosque, at Acre. The place at present is inhabited only by jackals and beasts of prey. As we were hecalmed during the night, we heard the cries of these animals until day-break. Forocke mentions the curious fact of the former existence of crocodiles in the river of Cæsarea[1003]. Perhaps there has not been, in the history of the world, an example of any city, that in so short a space of time rose to such an extraordinary height of splendor, as did this of Cæsarea 1004]; or that exhibits a more awful contrast to its former magnificence, by the present desolate appearance of its ruins. Not a single inhabitant remains. Its theatres, once resounding with the shouts of multitudes, ceho no other sound than the nightly cries of animals roaming for their prey. Of its gorgeous palaces and temples, enriched with the choicest works of art, and decorated with the most precious marbles, scarcely a trace can be discerned[1005]. Within the space of ten years after laying the foundation, from an obscure fortress it became the must celebrated and flourishing city of all Syria. It was named Cæsarea by Herod, in honour of Augustus, and dedicated by him to that emperor, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign 1006]. Upon this occasion, that the ceremony might be rendered illustrious by a degree of profusion unknown in any former instance, Herod assembled the most ckilful

musicians, wrestlers, and gladiators, from all parts of the CHAP.XVIII. world[1007]. The solemnity was to be renewed every fifth year. It was afterwards called Colonia Flavia, in consequence of privileges granted by Vespasian[1008]. Fut, as we viewed the ruins of this memorable city, every other circumstance respecting its history was absorbed in the consideration, that we were actually beholding the very spot where the scholar of Tarsus, after two years' imprisonment, made that eloquent appeal, in the audience of the king of Judæa, which must ever be remembered with piety and delight. In the history of the actions of the Holy Apostles, whether we regard the internal evidence of the narrative, or the interest excited by a story so wonderfully appealing to our passions and affections, there is nothing we call to mind with fuller emotions of sublimity and satisfaction. "In the demonstration of the spirit and of power," the mighty advocate for the Christian faith had before reasoned of "righteousness, temperance, and judg ment to come," till the Roman governor, Felix, trembled as he spoke. Not all the oratory of Tertullus; not the clamour of his numerous adversaries; not even the countenance of the most profligate of tyrants, availed against the firmness and intrepidity of the oracle of God. The judge had trembled before his prisoner ;-and now a second occasion offered, in which, for the admiration and the triumph of the Christian world, one of its bitterest persecutors, and a Jew, appeals, in the public tribunal of a large and populous city, to all its chiefs and its rulers, its governor and its king, for the truth of his conversion, founded on the highest evidence, delivered in the most fair, open, and illustrious manner.

As the day advanced, a breeze sprang up, and, standing out farther from the shore, we lost sight of Cæsarea. The heat became intolerable; and the powerful odour from the melons, which constituted the freight of our little bark, produced faintness and indisposition throughout all our party. Towards evening we made the point of Mount Retura to Carmel, and saw the monastery very distinctly upon its summit. Afterwards, doubling the promontory, we entered the Bay of Acre, and were greeted with the welcome sight of the Romulus at anchor. As we drew near, the

Acre.

850

VOYAGE FROM JAFFA TO ARCE.

CHAP.XVIII. Captain's barge came to meet us, and we quitted our vessel. Suddenly, as the boat's crew pulled stoutly for the frigate, a shout from all the sailors on board was repeated from the barge, the men standing with their oars erect, and waving their hats. Supposing this to be intended as an expression of welcome, upon the return of the Captain, we congratu lated him upon the mark of attachment manifested by his crew. This worthy officer shook his head, however, and said he should feel more satisfied without any such demonstration, which amounted to little less than a symptom of mutiny. Upon our arrival on board, we were informed that the men, having been employed in hard labour during the Captain's absence, repairing the rigging and painting the frigate, had thus thought proper to testify their satisfaction at what they conceived to be a conclusion of tyrannical government in the inferior officers,

NOTES.

(1) The description given by Cardinal Isidore, who was an eye-witne69 of the horrible scene which ensued at the capture of Constantinople by the Turkish army, affords a striking example. The art of printing has been scarcely adequate to its preservation; and without it, every syllable had perished. It is only rescued by a very rare work of Bernard de Breydenbach, of Mayence; printed in the black letter, at Spire, in 1490, by Peter Drach; and since copied into a volume of Tracts, published at Basil in 1556. This document seems to have escaped not only the researches of Gibbon, but of every other author, who has written upon the subject of the siege.

(2) Athens itself was not very unlike Constantinople in its present state, if we may credit the statistical testimony of Dicæarchus, who mentions the irregularity of the streets, and the poverty and meanness of the houses.— Vide Stat. Græciæ Geogr. Minor. Hudsoni.

(3) Bazar is the appellation used to signify a market, all over the East. (4) Herodotus, speaking of the Persians, mentions their garments with long sleeves and we learn from Xenophon, that Cyrus ordered two persons to be put to death, who appeared in his presence with their hands uncovered.

:

(5) "Dicæarchus, describing the dress of the women of Thebes, says, that their eyes only are seen; the other parts of their faces are covered by their garments." Bios Exador. Walpole's MS. Journal.

(6) "The city of Constantinople, in its actual state, presents some of those monuments and works of art, which adorned it at the end of the fourteenth century. They are alluded to in one of the epistles of Manuel Chrysoloras; from which I have extracted the three following passages. In the first we have the very form of the modern bazar. I omit, says he, the covered and enclosed walks, formerly seen traversing the whole city, in such a manner that you might pass through it without being inconvenienced by the mud, or rays of the sun : Ἐῶ δὲ σκεπαστοὺς καὶ φρακτους δρόμους δια πάσης ποτὲ τῆς πόλεως δεικνυμένους, ὥστε ἐξεῖναι ἄνευ πηλού Hai anтivos σay Suevas. In the second, he mentions the cisterns, which are still to be seen, supported by granite columns and marble pillars. They were built by Constantine and Philoxenus. 'I omit also the number of "pillars and arches in the cisterns.' Καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς κιόνων καὶ à fidav. In the next, the baths are described, which appear to have been as numerous then in Constantinople, as now. But why should I • speak concerning the baths; the number of which, were I to relate it, would be incredible ?" Τί δὲ περὶ λουτρῶν ἂν λέγοιμι· ῶν τὸ ἱστερούμενον ἐν αὐτῇ γενέσθαι πτλῆθος ἀπιστεῖται;” Walpole's MS. Journal.

(7) The dress worn by the Popes of Rome, upon solemn occasions, corresponds with the habits of the Roman Emperors in the lower ages: and from a representation of the portrait of Manuel Palæologus, (Vid. Imperium Orientale, tom. ii. p. 991. ed. Par. 1711.) it appears that

there is little difference between the costume of a Greek Emperor in the fifteenth century, and a Grand Signior in the nineteenth.→ The mark of distinction worn upon the head of the Turkish Sultans, and other grandees of the empire, of which the calathus was an archetype, is also another remarkable circumstance in the identity of an- · cient and modern customs.

(8) They live in a part of the city which, from its proximity to the Light-house, goes by the name of Phanar.

(9) Of which the church of St. Sophia is a particular instance: and it may be added, that the crescent, which blazons the Turkish banner, is the most ancient symbol of Byzantium, as appears by the medals of the city.

(10)" And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lancets" 1 Kings, xviii. 28

(11) The miracle of the liquefaction of St. Januarius's blood is alluded to by Horace, as practised in his time, under a different name. Hor. Sat lib. I 5.

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(12) Capta a Turcis Constantinopoli, antiqua illa ac veneranda monumenta olim a variis Imperatoribus Christianis magnificentissime constructa, quæ Barbari illi adhuc integra in regia urbe repererant, alia solo æquarunt, alia spoliata suis ornamentis reliquerunt, donec sic neg. lecta in ruinam diffluerent." Bandurii Imperium Orientale, tom. fi. p

(13) Que magnifice exstructa visuntur." Ibid.

(14) Gyllius de Topog Constant. lib. iii. c. 6.

(15) Ibid lib. iv. c. 2.

(16) "Primum Imperatores dissentientes, deinde incendia creberri. ma, non modo fortuita, sed etiam ab hostibus tam externis, quam dissidentibus variarum factionum partibus jacta, &c.

.. Neque modo ab hostibus antiqua monumenta eversa sunt, sed etiam ab Imperatoribus etiam Constantinopoli amicissimis, inter quos primus Constantinus Magnus, quem EUSEBIUS scribit templa deorum diruisse vestibula vastasse, tecta detraxisse, eorum statuas æreas sustulisse, quibus tot sæculis gloriabantur." Ibid. tom. i. p. 427. ed. Par 1711.

(17) The Turks rarely write themselves: they employ scribes, who stand ready for hire in the streets; and afterwards apply a signet, which has been previously rubbed over with Indian ink, by way of voucher for the manuscript.

(18) I have seen similar instances of sculpture, executed even in harder substances; and the Chinese possess the art of perfecting such works. A vase of one entire piece of jade is in the collection of Mr. Ferguson; and a patera, exactly answering Mr. Ferguson's vase, was lately exposed for sale, in the window of a shop in the Strand.

(19) A covered wagon upon four wheels, with latticed windows at the sides, formed to conceal those who are within. It is almost the only species of carriage in use among the Turks,

(20) The Ramadan of the Turks answers to our Lent, as their Bairam does to Easter. During the month of the Ramadan, they impose upon themselves the strictest privation; avoiding even the use of tobacco, from sun-rise to sun-set. They feast all night during this season, and are therefore generally asleep during the day.