513-56 PREFACE. 1 CYPRUS, Syria, and Palestine have made fuch a confpicuous figure in the page of history, that an account of them must prove highly interesting to those who are fond of researches into the fituation of remote nations. No countries, indeed, have oftener changed their masters, or been subjected to more revolutions. The Perfians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Saracens, have all made them the theatres of memorable events; and they are now in the hands of a government, which has banished from them the least traces of thofe arts for which they were once fo famous. Syria and Palestine in particular are celebrated on account of their being fo intimately connected with Sacred Hiftory; and the numberless ruins which they still exhibit to the eye of the curious traveller, while they bald forth a striking picture of the inftability of all human things, afford a noble fubject for the most fublime reflections. Thefe Travels, therefore, which procured the Author a place in feveral learned academies, and which contain a very accurate and just view of the most remarkable places in the Levant, will, the Translator, trusts, meet with the fame approbation |