343 
their pleasure, I remarked that they were not at all be- 
daubed as the women of Africa; they had only a little 
black round their eyes. 1 sent them a packet of con- 
fectionary, and they threw me a nosegay, (a pretty be- 
ginning to a romance this); but I could not entirely 
make out their costume, which I wished much to have 
ascertained. At eleven o'clock we parted, the best 
friends in the world, and I continued my journey. 
We had first to ascend a very rugged hill surround- 
ed with precipices, the summit of which we attained at 
noon, from whence I discovered the lake Car amort, 
about three leagues and a half distant towards the N. 
N. W. Being arrived at the foot of the mountain at one 
o'clock, among plantations of olive trees, we prepared 
our arms, because the Turcomans and the troops of 
Kouchouk Ali the rebel Pacha, who was near Scand- 
roun or Alexandretta, were making incursions into the 
country, and extending their ravages as far as this spot. 
We arrived about three o'clock upon the right bank of 
the Wad el Aassi or Orontes, near which there is a vil- 
lage called Hamzi. 
We traversed the river, which is not more than a 
hundred feet wide, in a boat, which not being caulked, 
was leaky on all sides. One man steered it with a long 
pole, whilst another was continually occupied in baling 
die water out of the boat, with a large scoop; but as all 
the efforts of this man did not suffice to throw out the 
quantity of water which entered this wretched bark., 
the two boatmen were obliged, after crossing every 
time, to drag it to land and to upset it, with a view of 
getting rid of the water which still remained. To what 
period of nautical knowledge must these poor fellows 
be referred? Having reproached this modern Charon, 
(whose white and venerable beard was not at all inferior 
