ACilE. 
229 
violent contraction of the joints, and appear in the most de- 
erepid state after the immediate danger of the fever has sub¬ 
sided. Various parts of Asia Minor, of Egypt, Greece, and 
Italy, experience only the short period of their winter as a sea¬ 
son of health. During summer, a visit to the islands in the 
south of the Archipelago, (especially to the island of Milo,) to 
the gulphs of Smyrna, Salonichi, and Athens, is as a passage 
to the grave; and over almost all the shores of the Black Sea,- 
end the sea of Azof, it is impossible to escape the consequen¬ 
ces of bad air, without the most rigorous abstinence. In those 
countries, swarms of venomous insects, by the torments they in¬ 
flict, warn mankind to avoid the deadly atmosphere. .No idea 
can be given, from mere verbal description, of the appearance 
they present The noise made by them is louder than can be 
imagined ; and when joined to the clamorous whooping of 
milliontof toads, (such as the inhabitants of northern countries 
are happy never to have heard,) silence, the ordinary charac¬ 
teristic of solitude, is so completely annihilated, that the few 
unfortunate beings occasionally found in those fearful regions 
are strangers to its influence. 
The external view of Acre, like that of any other town in 
the Levant, is the only prospect of it worth beholding. The 
sight of the interior exactly resembles fvhat is seen in Constant 
tinople, and in the generality of Turkish cities : narrow dirty 
lanes, with wretched shops, and as wretched inhabitants. Yet 
some of the early travellers speak of its pristine splendor, and 
of the magnificent buildings by which it was once adorned.^ 
In the discordant accounts that have been published concerning 
its present state, some describe it as interesting in the spectacle 
afforded by remains of former grandeur; while others relate, 
that the Saracens, after the final expulsion of the Christians, 
left not one stone upon another. It is a very common error to 
suppose every thing barbarous on the part of the Mahometans, 
and to attribute to the Christians, in that period, more refine¬ 
ment than they really possessed. A due attention to history 
may show, that the Saracens, as they were called, were in fact 
more enlightened than their invaders ; nor is there any evi¬ 
dence for believing they ever delighted in works of destruction. 
Whatsoever degree of seventy they might exercise toward 
their invaders, the provocation they had received was/unex¬ 
ampled. The treachery and shameful conduct of the Chris- 
* Vid. Theatrua Terrs; Sanctse Christian. Adrichomii. Colon. 1628. p. $, 
X 
