[ 4 ° ] 
On the mercy of his protecting Providence has been 
our foie reliance ; nothing elle could have fupported 
us under the many apprehenfions and dangers we have 
been daily expofed to. 
This unhappy country for fix years pafl has been 
in a very terrible lituation, afflicted during the greateff 
part of that time with many of the Almighty’s fe- 
vered: fcourges. Its troubles were ufflered in by 
a very (harp winter in 1754., which deftroyed almoft 
all the fruits of the earth. The cold was fo very intenfe, 
that the Mercury of Farenheit’s thermometer, ex- 
pofed a few minutes to the open air, funk entirely 
into the bail of the tube. Millions of olive-trees, that 
had withftood the feverity of 50 winters, were blaft- 
ed in this, and thoufands of fouls perifhed merely 
thro’ cold. The failure of a crop the fucceeding 
harveft occafioned an univerfal fcarcity, which in this 
country of indolence and oppreffion (where provifion 
is only made from hand to mouth, and where, liter- 
ally fpeaking, no man is fecure of reaping what he 
has fown) foon introduced a famine with all its at- 
tendant miferies. The (hocking accounts related 
to me on this fubjeCt would appear fabulous, were 
they not confirmed by numberlefs eye-witneffes, both 
Europeans and natives. In many places the inha- 
bitants were driven to fuch extremities, that women 
were known to eat their own children, as foon as they 
expired in their arms, for want of nourifhment.— Num- 
bers of perfons from the mountains and villages ad- 
jacent came daily to Aleppo, to offer their wives and 
children to fale for a few dollars, to procure a tem- 
porary fubftfience for themfelves ; and hourly might 
be feen in our ftreets dogs and human creatures 
lcratching 
