374 Letters of an Afiican Traveller, 



Again returning to Phoenicia I went to Tripoli, to Tortosa, 

 witness of the great congress in the first crusade; to Eleu- 

 therius, Sober; to the city of Gabale, which preserves one of 

 its amphitheatres ; to Laodicea, where the Signer Agostino 

 Lazzari entertained me with more than social treatment ; and 

 penetrating amongst the mountains of the Araarites, worship- 

 pers of dogs and of the base senses, I arrived at the Milky 

 Waters of Orontes and Antioch, an object worthy of contest. 



From Theopolis, by a road covered with abusive inhabitants, 

 I came to the more flourishing Aleppo, thence to the Eu- 

 phrates, and hardly touching Mesopotamia, the sound of 

 Nineveh and Babylon already struck my fancy, and drew it away 

 more rapidly than the steed of Elimaides the chariot of Cyrus. 



Passing again through Aleppo, I kept the other road of 

 Damascus by Apamea, Cima, and Emesa, where the delicately 

 blond-haired, white-complexioned nymphs, display themselves, 

 with their black eyes, more beautiful than whom were never 

 produced by the native of Urbino or by Titian. 



Whilst I was enjoying the presence of Emesa, the cata- 

 strophe of the Palmyrenes came to my memory and the 

 blood of the just Longinus almost drew from me a tear. 



Warmly recommended to the governor of Damascus by 

 the excellent Piciotto, consul-general of Austria in Aleppo, 

 a son worthy of his father, I advanced towards Palmyra 

 in company with an only guide, and after five days of most 

 troublesome journey, reposed in the court of Odenatus and 

 Zenobia. 



But what can I tell you of this memorable spot which so 

 much electrifies the intellects, unless that about thirty towers, the 

 Temple of the Sun, and three hundred columns scattered 

 here and there, over a soil covered with sand, are still standing 

 to eternize to the world the great Palmyra ? What I pass over 

 in silence shall blossom in my future little work. 



Affectionate to the glory of your name, I was spurred on to 

 accomplish my enterprise, and having cut out Ilias upon a 

 marble, added the following : — Frediani stima degne le Rovine 

 di Palmira del genio del divin Canova ! 



