rous on account of
the marauding bands of Koords who infest the mountains. These people, like
the Druses, have rebelled against the conscription, and will probably hold
their ground with equal success, though the Turks talk loudly of invading
their strongholds. Two weeks ago, the post was robbed, about ten miles
from Scanderoon, and a government vessel, now lying at anchor in the bay,
opened a cannonade on the plunderers, before they could be secured. In
consequence of the warnings of danger in everybody's mouth, we decided to
take an escort, and therefore waited upon the commander of the forces,
with the firman of the Pasha of Aleppo. A convoy of two soldiers was at
once promised us; and at sunrise, next morning, they took the lead of our
caravan.

In order to appear more formidable, in case we should meet with robbers,
we put on our Frank pantaloons, which had no other effect than to make the
heat more intolerable. But we formed rather a fierce cavalcade, six armed
men in all. Our road followed the shore of the bay, having a narrow,
uninhabited flat, covered with thickets of myrtle and mastic, between us
and the mountains. The two soldiers, more valiant than the guard of
Banias, rode in advance, and showed no signs of fear as we approached the
suspicious places. The morning was delightfully clear, and the
snow-crowned range of Taurus shone through the soft vapors hanging over
the gulf. In one place, we skirted the shore for some distance, under a
bank twenty feet in height, and so completely mantled with shrubbery, that
a small army might have hidden in it. There were gulleys at intervals,
opening suddenly on our path, and we looked up them, expecting every
moment to see the gleam of a Koordish gun-barrel, or a Turcoman spear,
above the tops of the myrtles.

Crossing a promontory which makes out from the mountains, we came upon the
renowned plain of Issus, where Darius lost his kingdom to Alexander. On a
low cliff overhanging the sea, there are the remains of a single tower of
gray stone. The people in Scanderoon call it "Jonah's Pillar," and say
that it marks the spot where the Ninevite was cast ashore by the whale.
[This makes three places on the Syrian coast where Jonah was vomited
forth.] The plain of Issus is from two to three miles long, but not more
than half a mile wide, It is traversed by a little river, supposed to be
the Pinarus, which comes down through a tremendous cleft in the Akma Dagh.
The ground seem