PART I. pillars, vaults, &c. there being not so much as one entire house left. Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing, who seem to be preserved in this place, by divine Providence, as a visible argument, how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre, viz. That it should be as the top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on, Ezek. xxvi. 14.

In the midst of the ruins there stands up one pile higher than the rest, which is the east end of a great church, probably of the cathedral of Tyre: this having been an archiepiscopal see in the Christian times; and why not the very same cathedral, that was erected by its bishop Paulinus, and honoured with that famous consecration-sermon of Eusebius, recorded by himself in his Ecclesiastical History, b. x. ch. iv.

I cannot in this place omit an observation made by most of our company in this journey, viz. that in all the ruins of churches which we saw, though their other parts were totally demolished, yet the east end we always found standing, and tolerably entire. Whether the Christians, when overrun by infidels, redeemed their altar from ruin with money; or whether the barbarians, when they demolished the other parts of the church, might voluntarily spare these, out of an awe and veneration; or whether they have stood thus long by virtue of some peculiar firmness in the nature of the fabric; or whether some occult providence has preserved them as so many standing monuments of Christianity in these unbelieving regions, and presages of its future restoration, I will not determine. This only I will say, that we found it in fact so as I describe, in all the ruined churches that came in our way, being perhaps not fewer than one hundred: nor do I remember ever to have seen one instance to the contrary. This might justly seem a trifling observation, were it founded upon a few examples only. But it being a thing so often, and indeed universally, observed by us, throughout our whole journey, I thought it must needs proceed from something more

than blind chance, and might very well deserve this anim- CHAP. VI. adversion.

But to return from this digression: There being an old stair-case in this ruin last mentioned, I got up to the top of it; from whence I had an entire prospect of the island part of Tyre, of the isthmus, and of the adjacent shore. I thought I could from this elevation discern the isthmus to be of a soil of a different nature from the other two, it lying lower than either, and being covered all over with sand, which the sea casts upon it, as the tokens of its natural right of a passage there, from which it was by Alexander the Great injuriously excluded. The island of Tyre in its natural state seems to have been of a circular figure, containing not more than forty acres of ground. It discovers still the foundations of a wall, which anciently encompassed it round, at the utmost margin of the sand. It makes with the isthmus two large bays, one on its north side, the other on its south. These bays are in part defended from the ocean, each by a long ridge, resembling a mole, stretching directly out, on both sides, from the head of the island: but these ridges, whether they were walls or rocks, whether the work of art or nature, I was too far distant to discern.

Coming out of the ruins we saw the foundation of a very strong wall, running across the neck of land, and serving as a barrier, to secure the city on this side. From this place we were one third of an hour in passing the sandy isthmus, before we came to the ground, which we apprehended to be the natural shore. This is the account that Mr. Maundrell has lately given us of Tyre.

3.

Proceed we now to its mother city Sidon, one of the most ancient cities in the universe, and the most northern Of Sidon. of all those which were assigned for the portion of the tribe of Asher. It is with great probability thought to take its name from Sidon, one of the sons of Canaan, Gen. x. 15. and did for a long time excel, as all the other cities of Phoenicia, so Tyre itself; nay, it is said by an heathen author to have been the greatest of maritime ci

PART I. ties in general, having for a long time quietly enjoyed a great trade, which brought in vast riches, and made the inhabitants live in great voluptuousness; insomuch that to live quietly and securely in ease and pleasure, is denoted in the holy writings by living after the manner of the Sidonians, Judg. xviii. 7. The men of Sidon being great shipwrights, were famous above other nations for hewing timber, there being none that were skilled to hew timber like the Sidonians, 1 Kings v. 6. And therefore hence Solomon had his principal workmen to build his Temple. Nay the people of this city are represented by authors both sacred and profane, as excellent artificers in several other professions or trades; particularly they are said to be the first makers of crystal glass. The city, Dr. Heylin observes, as it was the mother of Tyre in the times of heathenism, Tyre being, as has been observed, a colony of the Sidonians; so may it be said to be the daughter of Tyre in the times when Christianity flourished in these parts, forasmuch as it acknowledged the Church of Tyre for its metropolitical or mother church. It was formerly very strong both by art and nature, having on the north side a fort or citadel built on an inaccessible rock, and environed on all sides by the sea; which when it was brought under the commands of the western Christians, was held by the Knights of the Teutonick order: it had also another fort on the south side of the port, which the Knights Templars guarded. However it was won by the Turks with the rest of this country from the Christians, and is much ruined by its often changes of fortune. Mr. Maundrell b tells us, that it is stocked well enough with inhabitants, but is very much shrunk from its ancient extent, and more from its splendour, as appears from a great many beautiful pillars, that lie scattered up and down the gardens without the present walls. Whatever antiquities may at any time have been hereabout, they are now all perfectly obscured, and buried by the Turkish buildings.

b Page 44 of his Journey, &c.

On the south side of the city, on an high hill, stands an CHAP. VI. old castle, said to have been the work of Lewis IX. of" France, surnamed the Saint; and not far from the castle is an old unfinished palace of Faccardine's, serving however the Bassa for his Seraglio; but neither of them worth mentioning, had the city afforded any thing else more remarkable. The French merchants have here a factory the most considerable of all theirs in the Levant: their habitation is a large Kane close by the sea, where the consul and all the nation are quartered together. The person, who is the French consul at Sidon, has also the title of consul of Jerusalem, and is obliged by his master the French King to make a visit to the Holy City every Easter, under pretence of preserving the sanctuary there from the violations, and the friars from the exactions of the Turks. And thus much for Tyre and Sidon, in the coasts whereof we left our blessed Saviour.

4.

and Dal

Having staid in those parts as long as he thought good, our Lord again departed from thence, and came to the Of Magdala sea of Galilee, not directly, or to the nearest or western manutha. shore thereof, but fetching a compass through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, and so coming to the eastern shore of the sea, Mark vii. 31. Having performed great cures here, and again miraculously fed the multitude that followed him, he sent them away, and, taking ship with his disciples, came into the coast of Magdala, or (which comes to the same) to the parts of Dalmanutha, Matt. xv. 39. Mark viii. 10. For the

c Faccardine lived in the reign of Sultan Morat, and was the fourth Emir or Prince of the Druses, a people supposed to be descended from some dispersed remainders of those Christian armies that engaged in the crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land: who afterwards being totally routed, and despairing of a return to their native country again, betook themselves to the mountains about Beroot, or Berytus, in which their descendants have continued ever

VOL. II.

place, to which our Saviour

since. Faccardine being Prince
of these people, was not contented
to be penned up in the mountains,
but by his power and artifice en-
larged his dominions down into
the plain, all along the sea-coasts,
as far as from Beroot to Acra, or
Ptolemais. At last the Grand
Seignior growing jealous of such a
growing power, drove this Prince
back to the mountains, and there
his posterity retain their principa-
lity to this day.

PART I. came at this time, lay between or in the neighbourhood ́both of Magdala and Dalmanutha; and these were seated on the same side of the sea where our Saviour was before, viz. on the eastern side; only at another part of the said eastern side. It is not improbably conjectured, that Mary Magdalene was of the town of Magdala, and so took her surname from it.

5.

Of Cæsarea

Philippi.

6.

Of the

After this our Lord continuing his journeyings still on the eastern side of the sea of Galilee and of the course of Jordan, comes first to Bethsaida, Mark viii. 22. and from thence to the coasts and towns of Cæsarea Philippi. This city is situated near the head of Jordan, and was by the Canaanites called Laish or Lechem, Judg. xviii. 7. but being taken by some of the Danites, it was by and from them called Dan. Henceforward it was usually accounted the utmost border northward of the land of Israel, as Beersheba was southward; whence from Dan to Beersheba is an expression frequently used in the Scriptures, to denote the whole length of the Holy Land from north to south. Here it was that Jeroboam placed one of his golden calves. By Gentile writers it was called Paneas, from the adjoining spring Paneum or Panium, mentioned chap. iii. sect. 2. commonly taken to be the true head of Jordan. It with its territories was given by Augustus Cæsar to Herod the Great, who left it to Philip his youngest son, together with the tetrarchy of Iturea and Trachonitis, to which it adjoined. Philip repairing and beautifying it, made it the capital of his tetrarchy, or at least the place of his residence, giving it the name of Cæsarea Philippi, partly to curry favour with Tiberius Cæsar, partly to preserve the memory of his own name, and partly to distinguish it from another Cæsarea, mentioned Acts x. 1. and lying on the Mediterranean sea.

Some time after our Lord taking with him Peter, and mount of James, and John, went up into a mountain to pray; and Transfigu- as he prayed, he was transfigured before them, the fashion of his countenance being so altered, as that his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white and glistering,

ration.