EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 381 
The w/V/, or fixed public revenue paid by Tripoli to Con- 
ftantinople, is only about a thoufand pounds fterling, twenty 
purfes, a-year. Syria at prefent contains only four Pafhaliks, 
Damafcus, Aleppo, Acre, and Tripoli ; the laft of which is 
the fmalleft in territory and power. 
On the 30th of April proceeded towards Ladakia, the antient 
Laodicea, built by Seleucus Nicanor in honour of his mother. 
We arrived on the third day at night. The firft appearance 
of this city was moft melancholy, as prefenting all the ravages 
of the earthquake, which in the preceding year (1796) had 
laid a great part of it in ruins, and deftroyed numbers of the 
inhabitants. Ladakia has a convenient but very fmall port, 
acrofs the mouth of which is a bar of fand. The place is fitu- 
ated in a plain, extending on the North and South as far as the 
eye can reach ; but bounded by hills towards the Eaft. It has 
no walls, and only a part is paved ; but the flreets are clean, 
the air is falubrious, and refrefhed by the fragrance of fur- 
rounding gardens. Water is fcarce. The fnow-capt fummits 
of Libanus now vanifh from the eye. 
In the town are eight mofques. It is governed by a deputy 
of the Pafha of Tripoli. 
On the 5th of May departed for Aleppo, in a fmall caravan, 
confifting only of Citoyen Chauderlos, the French conful- 
general, two Turks, and myfelf. On the fecond day pafled 
through one of the moft pidurefque countries which I had 
ever feen. Lofty rocks and precipices, lliaded with luxuriant 
foliage, 
