with an Arab conductor, constituted our little caravan; but for greater
safety we attached ourselves to a much larger one than our own, in which
we were swallowed up and lost, consisting of travellers and traders, from
all parts of the world, and who were also on their way to Palmyra, as a
point whence to separate to various parts of the vast East. It would
delight me to lay before you with the distinctness and minuteness of a
picture, the whole of this novel, and to me most interesting route; but I
must content myself with a slight sketch, and reserve fuller
communications to the time when, once more seated with you upon the
Coelian, we enjoy the freedom of social converse.

Our way through the valleys of Libanus, was like one long wandering among
the pleasure grounds of opulent citizens. The land was every where richly
cultivated, and a happier peasantry, as far as the eye of the traveller
could judge, nowhere exists. The most luxuriant valleys of our own Italy
are not more crowded with the evidences of plenty and contentment. Upon
drawing near to the ancient Baalbec, I found on inquiry of our guide, that
we were not to pass through it, as I had hoped, nor even very near it, not
nearer than between two and three miles. So that in this I had been
clearly deceived by those of whom I had made the most exact inquiries at
Berytus. I thought I discovered great command of myself, in that I did not
break the head of my Arab, who doubtless, to answer purposes of his own,
had brought me thus out of my way for nothing. The event proved, however,
that it was not for nothing; for soon after we had started on our journey,
on the morning of the second day, turning suddenly round the projecting
rock of a mountain ridge, we all at once beheld, as if a veil had been
lifted up, Heliopolis and its suburbs, spread out before us in all their
various beauty. The city lay about three miles distant. I could only,
therefore, identify its principal structure, the Temple of the Sun, as
built by the first Antonine. This towered above the walls, and over all