VIEW OF BEYROOT, LOOKING TOWARD THE HARBOR.
"Down, and down, and down! The air grows warmer, the clouds that were hovering about the mountain-top are breaking, and the sunlight comes pouring through the rifts, warming our shivering frames and gilding the rocks with a tint of gold. The spots of green on the ground below us grow every minute till they develop into villages and orchards, and one, clinging at the edge of the sea, is larger than any of the others. The driver waves his hand toward this spot and pronounces the word 'Beyroot.' There lies the city where our wanderings in Palestine and Syria will come to an end.
"The Mediterranean sparkled in the sunlight, its blue surface stippled with white sails or darkened by the trail of smoke from the funnels of a steamer. An irregular streak of foam marked where the waves broke along the beach and separated land from sea. In one hour of our descent the chill of winter was exchanged for the genial air of spring, and in another hour spring was turned to summer. Oranges and citrons were on the trees, olives and figs abounded, the fields were luxuriant, and it seemed a dream that we had come so quickly from one climate to another.
"We drove to the principal hotel, and our ride was at an end. After arranging our toilets, for which we found ample materials in the welcome trunks that had been sent from Jaffa, we went out for a view of Beyroot.
"We found the streets were not unlike those of Jaffa, Jerusalem, or Damascus in their general features, so far as the old part of the city is concerned. We had expected this, and therefore were not disappointed; but we had not expected to find the streets in the new part of Beyroot as wide and handsome as they are. The place has an appearance of prosperity and activity more than any other we have seen since leaving Alexandria; it has a large European population, and a good many factories, business houses of various kinds, and kindred establishments, all conducted by foreigners. The entire population is said to be more than eighty thousand, and some authorities declare it to be little, if any, short of one hundred thousand. About a third of the inhabitants are Moslems; the remaining two-thirds include native Christians, Jews, Druses, and a good many foreign nationalities.
"Beyroot is the ancient Berytus, and some authorities identify it with Berothah or Berothai of the Bible. It is a very old city, as we have no distinct record of the time when it was founded, and it is known to have been destroyed and rebuilt one hundred and forty years before the Christian era. It has always been a fairly prosperous city, but the period of its greatest advance has been within the past twenty years.
"We hired a carriage for a drive along the coast to Nahr el-Kelb—Dog River—passing the spot where St. George killed the dragon. If you have any doubt about the truth of the story, you can be convinced by borrowing an English twenty-shilling piece and studying the picture of the performance represented on one side of the coin. Dog River runs through a rocky ravine, and on its sides there are Greek, Roman, Assyrian, and Egyptian inscriptions. They are supposed to commemorate the occupation of the country by the armies of the various nations represented: the Assyrian sculptures are estimated to date back at least twenty-five centuries, while the Egyptian are of a period at least six hundred years older.
