After a journey of two days, through a rugged route along the ridge of the mountain, arrived at the convent of St. John, where the printing-office is. Paper being dear, and no demand for books, the press is stopped. Arabic books alone were edited. On my return by _Zibdané_ observed there a gate of Grecian architecture. Passed through a rich vale, watered by the _Baradé_, formerly the Chrysorrhoas, to Damascus. So numerous are the fruit-trees in the vicinity of this city, that those which die and are cut down, supply it with abundant fire-wood. They are also used for building, together with the walnut-tree and Lombardy poplar. The houses in Damascus are remarkably large and commodious, and well supplied with water; of many the furniture is worth from one to five hundred purses, or from five thousand to twenty-five thousand pounds, in divans or large sophas, of the richest silk, embroidered with pearl, Persian carpets, mirrors, &c. The _melingana_, a species of the solanum, is consumed here in such quantities as a common vegetable, that fifty hundred weight is estimated the daily supply of the city. Returned from Damascus to Aleppo, 7th October 1797, a journey of twelve days. Almost every town or village on the route has its market, so that there is no occasion to prepare provisions; the caravanserais are in a ruinous situation. On visiting the castle of Aleppo, observed a remarkable fact considering the populousness of the city. There were only eighteen prisoners, eight of whom were confined for debt, and the remainder on account of the riot between the Janizaries and Sherîfs. The debtor is not permitted, in the whole Turkish empire, to be confined above one month; during which term, according to the Mohammedan doctors, his property must appear, if he have any, and if none, they consider it unjust to detain him. But this mild regulation is sometimes frustrated; for if a claim lie for four thousand piasters, for example, the creditor may first proceed against him for five hundred, and bring a fresh charge at the end of every month till the whole be paid, or till the debtor have remained in prison one month on every distinct process. CHAP. XXVII. _Journey from Aleppo towards Constantinople — Route — Aintâb — Mount Taurus — Bostan — Inhabitants, their manners and dress — Kaisarîa — Angora — Walls and antiquities — Angora goats — Manufactures — Topography — Journey to Ismît — Topography — General remarks concerning Anatolia or Asia Minor._ On the 21st of October 1797, set out from Aleppo on my journey through Anatolia to Constantinople. I had a horse for myself, and another for an Armenian servant; seventy mules carried the merchandize of the caravan. The direct road lies by Beilan and Adene, Konia, Kutahia, and Bursa, but _Kutchûk Ali_, the Pasha of Beilan, being in a state of rebellion, we were constrained to turn to the North-east by an unusual route, through the cities of Aintab, Kaisarîa, and Angora.