$ TRAVELS TO DISCOVER. 



of' that city perfectly known, a traveller in fear ch ofanti-*. 

 quities in architecture would think here was a field for 

 long iludy and employment, . 



It is in this point of view the town appears moft to the 

 advantage. The mixture of old monuments, fuch as the 

 Column of Pompey, with the high mooriih towers and 

 fteeples, raife our expectations of the confequencc of the 

 ruins we are to find, 



But the moment we are in the port the illufion ends, and 

 we diftinguifh the - immenfe Herculean works of ancient 

 times, now few- in number, from the ill-imagined, ill-con- 

 ftructed, and imperfect buildings, of the feveral barbarous 

 maflers of Alexandria in later ages, . 



There are two ports, the Old and the New. The entrance 

 into the latter is both difficult and dangerous, having a bar 

 before it ; it is the leaft of the two, though it is what is call- 

 ed the Great Port, by * Strabo. 



Here only the European fhips can lie; and, even when 

 here, they are not in fafety; as numbers of veiTels are con-, 

 itantly loll, though at anchor. 



Above forty were caft a-ihore and daified to pieces hi 

 March 1773, when I was on my return home, moltly belong- 

 ing to Ragufa, and the frnall ports in Provence, while little 

 harm was done to fhips of any nation accuftomed to the 

 ocean. 



* Strsbo, lib* xvii, p, 932, . 



