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fruits of Syria, and the streams by which it is watered, make it, according to the expression of several writers, a sort of earthly paradise. The fourth is lost in the clouds: the snow with which it is covered, and the severity of the cold, render it uninhabitable and at certain seasons of the year almost inaccessible. On one of these summits are the cedars mentioned in Scripture.

The Lebanon is much more populous than the other mountains of which I have had occasion to treat. It contains numerous villages, inhabited by Mahometans and by Maronite christians, and several monasteries. Among these holy retreats there is a very handsome building, six leagues from this place, on one of the loftiest points of the mountain, belonging to the Fathers of the Holy Land. It is called Larissa. The purity of the air which one breathes, and the peace and quiet that one enjoys there-but, above all, a desire to make the acquaintance of an Austrian monk, called Father Vital, a veteran of eighty, who is regarded in the country as a saint-have made me determine to go and spend a few days at that place. I shall then continue my journey, and I shall not omit to stop at least for a few moments at Antoura, to call upon the good sisters of the Visitation, for whom as I told you I brought alms, which I transmitted to them during my illness in Cyprus.

I have found here packets from Europe waiting for me. This is the first time for a year past that I had received tidings from my friends, and then what a chasm in this correspondence! The deficient letters are precisely those from the persons dearest to my heart. One must be in my situation to feel how extremely painful

DEPARTURE FROM BEYROUT.

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are such privations at so great a distance. Ah! what have I not had to suffer besides from the mère consideration of the grievous losses that may be inflicted by that destructive scourge which is at this moment ravaging the world! It is a trouble, for which I find no relief but at the foot of the altar.

LETTER XLII.

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SHIPWRECKS-DOG'S RIVER-ROAD CONSTRUCTED BY THE EMPEROR ANTONINUS-ANTOURA-CONVENT OF LAZARISTS CONVENT OF THE VISITATION-BLACK NUN-MONASTERY OF LARISSA-FATHER VITAL FILKUKA-ARMENIAN CONVENT.

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Larissa, July 26th, 1832.

. On the 14th, at a very early hour, I quitted Beyrout, where I left all my baggage. M. Laurella, the consul, did me the favour to accompany me to Antoura, four leagues distant. The morning was fine; but it betokened one of those sweltering days so common in Syria, especially at this season. We proceeded along the coast for nearly two leagues. It was rough. The foaming waves rolled in and broke very near us, covering the legs of our horses. I felt a certain pleasure in being amidst this white spray, which seemed to dash on as though to engulph us, and then retreated quaking; and my thoughts were raised with admiration towards Him who hath assigned to it limits which it cannot pass.

After a ride of a league, I perceived on the beach several hulls of shipwrecked vessels: this was to me a fearful sight. The consul told me that among these

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SHIPWRECKED VESSELS.

wrecks there were Tuscan, Neapolitan, and French vessels, lost in the storms of February last, the most violent that have occurred in the memory of man. He related to me, among other facts, that a Tuscan captain was on shore when his ship struck: his son was on board, and the vessel contained his all. In so cruel a situation the unfortunate father did not hesitate to defy the danger throwing himself into a boat, he struggled resolutely against the fury of the waves, which threatened every moment to swallow him up; and, by his exertions, saved not only his son, but the whole crew and part of the cargo.

I know not, my dear Charles, any thing more capable of disposing the soul to meditation, and inspiring serious and salutary reflections, than the sight of a wreck. Alas! is man, be he who he will, any other than a voyager, for a longer or a shorter period, on a sea constantly lashed by the tempest? The fatal hour of shipwreck arrives for him a little sooner or a little later. Happy he, should he then be found worthy to be picked up by his heavenly Father and carried into port!

We soon quitted the shore and found ourselves among rocks. Having proceeded for some time along wretched tracks, great was my surprise to come to a very spacious road, not far from which a river rolled its azure waters between the hills. This river was the Lycus, the Wolf of the ancients: it is now called Dog's River; in Arabic, Nahar-el-Khell.

An inscription informed us that the road was constructed by the emperor Antoninus. It records that this emperor widened the way by cutting down the hills that

ROAD OF ANTONINUS.

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border the River Lycus. Part of the inscription is effaced: the following words are still legible : —

CÆSAR M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS

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LYCO FLUMINI COSIS VIAM DILATAVIT.

This road, now much neglected, is about a quarter of a league in length. On leaving it, you find yourself close to the river, which is very rapid, but so shallow that we preferred fording it, though there is in this place a handsome bridge of five arches.

The heat was oppressive. Our horses, which had travelled for several hours in the sand, were fatigued. We alighted, sat down on the bank, in a thicket of roselaurels, and rested ourselves. We quenched our thirst, but slowly and cautiously: the water of the Lycus is so cold that you cannot at one draught satisfy a burning thirst without danger.

We then began to ascend the arid hills by roads which reminded me of those of Judea, especially that from Rama to Jerusalem. One pass, in particular, was so frightful as to make us shudder. It is that where some years since the legate of the Holy See to the catholics of the Lebanon was thrown, by a false step of his horse, to the bottom of the abyss and killed. Our horses felt their way: the same cause, the least fragment of rock, by giving way, might hurl us to the bottom. I shut my eyes, at times, and found it difficult to repress a feeling of fear..

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But, having cleared this terrible pass, we came to better roads, and were abundantly compensated for the fatigues we had undergone and the perils we had incurred. We were still travelling, it is true, among the mountains; but, in that part where we were, they were covered from their base to their summit with superb mulberry-trees, whose fresh and lively verdure astonished and delighted the eye, especially in a country where no rain falls for eight months in the year.

The charm produced by these vast forests of useful trees keeps increasing as you approach Antoura; and the various monasteries, which you perceive around you on the heights, crown the prospect, if I may be allowed the expression, in the most graceful manner. With what transport did I not again behold the august sign of the redemption, rising from the top of catholic steeples towards the sky; and how did I feel my heart thrill at the first moment, when, balanced above the smiling scenery, the bell sent to my ear its religious sounds, which I had not heard for so long a time! Since I had set foot in Asia, having, I may say, seen nothing but mosques and minarets, surmounted with the crescent, it seemed to me to be an illusion.

It was one o'clock when we arrived at Antoura, and we went immediately to the convent of the Lazarists, who have succeeded the Jesuits in that village. We were received with particular charity and kindness by two French Fathers, whose virtues remind you of those of St. Vincent de Paul, their founder. Their house is small and simple, but arranged and fitted up with great taste; the church is extremely neat, and the garden

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