Shortly after his arrival at Aleppo, he undertook, in company with a
considerable number of his flock, that journey to Jerusalem which, short
and unimportant as it was, has added his name to the list of celebrated
travellers; so pleasantly, ingenuously, and delightfully is it described.
The history of the short period of his life consumed in this excursion is
all that remains to us; and this is just sufficient to excite our regret
that we can know no more; for, from the moment of his introduction into
our company until he quits us to carry on his pious and noiseless labours
at Aleppo, diversified only by friendly dinners and rural promenades or
hunting, we view his character with unmingled satisfaction. He was a
learned, cheerful, able, conscientious man, who viewed with a pleasure
which he has not sought either to exaggerate or disguise the spots
rendered venerable by the footsteps or sufferings of Christ, and of the
prophets, martyrs, and apostles.
Maundrell and his companions departed from Aleppo on the 26th of
February, 1696, and crossing the plains of Kefteen, which are fruitful,
well cultivated, and of immense extent, arriving in two days at Shogr,
a large but dirty town on the banks of the Orontes, where there was a
splendid khan erected by the celebrated Grand Vizier Kuperli, on the next
day they entered the pashalic of Tripoli; travelling through a woody,
mountainous country, beneath the shade of overarching trees, amused by
the roar of torrents, or by the sight of valleys whose green turf was
sprinkled with myrtles, oleanders, tulips, anemonies, and various other
aromatic plants and flowers. In traversing a low valley they passed over
a stream rolling through a narrow rocky channel ninety feet deep, which
was called the Sheïkh’s Wife, an Arab princess having formerly perished
in this dismal chasm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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