folio before a crowd of curious idlers had
gathered around him, who, as soon as they saw his intention, began
to annoy him in every possible way. They pushed the children who
stood near against him, so that he received a shock every moment,
and was hindered in his drawing. As he continued to work in spite
of their rudeness, several Turks came and stood directly before the
painter, to prevent him from seeing the fountain. On his still
continuing to persevere, they began to spit upon him. It was now
high time to be gone, and so Mr. S. hastily gathered his materials
together and turned to depart. Then the rage of the rabble broke
noisily forth. They followed the artist yelling and screaming, and
a few even threw stones at him. Luckily he succeeded in reaching
our convent unharmed.

Mr. S. had been allowed to draw without opposition at
Constantinople, Brussa, Ephesus, and several other cities of the
East, but here he was obliged to flee. Such is the disposition of
these people, whom many describe as being so friendly.

The following morning at sunrise Mr. S. betook himself to the
terrace of the convent, to make a sketch of the town. Here too he
was discovered, but luckily not until he had been at work some
hours, and had almost completed his task; so that as soon as the
first stone came flying towards him, he was able quietly to evacuate
the field.

July 5th.

In Damascus we met Count Zichy, who had arrived there with his
servants a few days before ourselves, and intended continuing his
journey to Balbeck to-day.

Count Zichy's original intention had been to make an excursion from
this place to the celebrated town of Palmyra, an undertaking which
would have occupied ten days. He therefore applied to the pacha for
a sufficient escort for his excursion. This request was, however,
refused; the pacha observing, that he had ceased for some time to
allow travellers to undertake this dangerous journey, as until now
all strangers had been plundered by the wandering Arabs, and in some
instances men had even been murdered. The pacha added, that it was
not in his power to furnish so large an escort as would be required
to render this journey safe, by enabling the travellers to resist
all aggressions. After receiving this answer, Count Zichy
communicated with some Bedouin chiefs, who could not guarantee a
safe journey, but nevertheless required 6000 piastres for
accompanying him. Thus it became necessary to give u