Chapter XVI.

Through the Syrian Gates.

An Inauspicious Departure--The Ruined Church of St. Simon--The Plain of
Antioch--A Turcoman Encampment--Climbing Akma Dagh--The Syrian
Gates--Scanderoon--An American Captain--Revolt of the Koords--We take a
Guard--The Field of Issus--The Robber-Chief, Kutchuk Ali--A Deserted
Town--A Land of Gardens.

"Mountains, on whose barren breast
The lab'ring clouds do often rest."

Milton.

In Quarantine (Adana, Asia Minor), _Tuesday, June_ 15, 1852.

We left Aleppo on the morning of the 9th, under circumstances not the most
promising for the harmony of our journey. We had engaged horses and
baggage-mules from the _capidji_, or chief of the muleteers, and in order
to be certain of having animals that would not break down on the way, made
a particular selection from a number that were brought us. When about
leaving the city, however, we discovered that one of the horses had been
changed. Signor di Picciotto, who accompanied us past the Custom-House
barriers, immediately dispatched the delinquent muleteer to bring back the
true horse, and the latter made a farce of trying to find him, leading the
Consul and the capidji (who, I believe, was at the bottom of the cheat) a
wild-goose chase over the hills around Aleppo, where of course, the animal
was not to be seen. When, at length, we had waited three hours, and had
wandered about four miles from the city, we gave up the search, took leave
of the Consul and went on with the new horse. Our proper plan would have
been to pitch the tent and refuse to move till the matter was settled. The
animal, as we discovered during the first day's journey, was hopelessly
lame, and we only added to the difficulty by taking him.

We rode westward all day over barren and stony hills, meeting with
abundant traces of the power and prosperity of this region during the
times of the Greek Emperors. The nevastation wrought by earthquakes has
been terrible; there is scarcely a wall or arch standing, which does not
bear marks of having been violently shaken. The walls inclosing the
fig-orchards near the villages contain many stones with Greek
inscriptions, and fragments of cornices. We encamped the first night on
the plain at the foot of Mount St. Simon, and not far from the ruins of
the celebrated Church of the same name. The building stands in a stony
wilderness at the foot of the mountain. It is about a hundred feet long
and thirty in heig