CHAPTER XIV.
JOURNEY TO ANTIOCH AND ALEPPO.
Change of Plans — Routes to Baghdad — Asia Minor — We sail from Beyrout — Yachting on the Syrian Coast — Tartus and Latakiyeh — The Coasts of Syria — The Bay of Suediah — The Mouth of the Orontes — Landing — The Garden of Syria — Ride to Antioch — The Modern City — The Plains of the Orontes — Remains of the Greek Empire — The Ancient Road — The Plain of Keftin — Approach to Aleppo.
"The chain is loosed, the sails are spread,
The living breath is fresh behind,
As, with dews and sunrise fed.
Comes the laughing morning wind."
Shelley.
Aleppo, Friday, June 4, 1852.
A traveller in the East, who has not unbounded time and an extensive fortune at his disposal, is never certain where and how far he shall go, until his journey is finished. "With but a limited portion of both these necessaries, I have so far carried out my original plan with scarcely a variation; but at present I am obliged to make a material change of route. My farthest East is here at Aleppo. At Damascus, I was told by everybody that it was too late in the season to visit either Baghdad or Mosul, and that, on account of the terrible summer heats and the fevers which prevail along the Tigris, it would be imprudent to undertake it. Notwithstanding this, I should probably have gone (being now so thoroughly acclimated that I have nothing to fear from the heat), had I not met with a
