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half in circumference, tolerably well built, the houses in the same stile as those of Bussorah: it has no rampart, but the inclosures round the houses joining together, form a kind of wall, sufficient defence against any sudden attack. This place has formerly been much larger, the ground for near two miles round being covered with broken bricks and ruins. We were very well lodged at the house of an Arab Sheik.

In the morning of the 21st, we saw our baggage loaded on camels, and after long disputes with our Sheik, at last agreed to allow twentyeight camels for it (including six for the mahoffés, and eight for water,) which was more than sufficient, by at least six or seven. There are two ways to avoid this imposition, viz. to have all the baggage weighed, (which, however, is a mode very dis. pleasing to the Arabs) or, to have it packed up in such chests, that two will make a proper load, which, with a light caravan, ought not to exceed four hundred weight.

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The mahoffé is a kind of trough, about two feet wide, and three and an half long; the ends and one side are about four and an half feet high, stuffed with cotton and lined with chintz, and having a kind of canopy or top. Two of these are fixed on one camel, the low side next the animal, and a kind of tent thrown over the whole, so as perfectly to shade you from the sun. They have also a kind of box added to the end of the mahoffé into which you thrust your legs at pleasure, by which means you may lye at length, or sit up occa. sionally; the motion is not so great as to prevent you from either reading or sleeping during the journey.

Burkseer is composed of two small walled villages, within about 300 yards of each other; they stand in a kind of bottom, and are surrounded with a small quantity of ground producing good barley, (now nearly ripe)

onions, musk, melon, bringaufs, (the egg plant,) and some clover. Here are plenty of wells, but the water rather salt.

About one half of the desart we passed over seems to be capable of cultivation, and of producing a great variety of both trees and grain, if pains were taken to preserve and procure water, which might easily be done, by opening the creeks which communicate with the Euphrates, making tanks, or ponds, as in India, to collect the water that falls during the periodical rains, by digging wells, &c. But the nature of the people is so averse to constraint or regular rules of society, that I imagine it will ever remain in its present situa tion, particularly as the stream of commerce is now almost entirely di verted into other channels.

The soil produces spontaneously in many places the following trees, &c. exclusive of many others which I did not know the name of; but the trees are only to be found in the beds of rivers or water courses, and are of a very dwarf kind, viz. The poplar, wil low, a species of the cypres tree, liquorish root, thyme, fennel, poppy, onions, capers, sorrel, endive, oats, and barley.

Great part of the desart is rocky, and it is in some parts covered with sand. The inhabitants are in general below the middle size, and dark complexioned, but well made, (particularly about the legs) strong and robust, and seem equally capable of enduring the extremes of heat and cold. They are lively, and in general obliging in their manners, but have little idea of subordination, and of course treat you with great familiarity, which it is best to permit in some degree. They are all a little too fond of money (of which we had several instances) and are far from thinking it any great disgrace to be detected in a falsehood or even in theft; several of them have sto

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len things out of our tent and mahoffés, and then had the assurance to tell us they knew where they were, but would not return them without a present. The breach of their word has been too often obvious in the course of this journal to require instances. I believe them to be in general brave, and faithful, and in deed there have been several instances of their behaving with great gal lantry in defence of those under their protection.

We were marching-3134 hours from Bussorah to Aleppo, or about 704 miles.

N. B. I imagine that the camels travelled at the rate of 24 miles per hour on an average.

Spent our time very pleasantly among our friends at Aleppo; although the frequency of the burials, which we saw almost constantly passing under our windows, gave us (particularly at first) many disagreeable sensations. It is computed that upwards of sixty thousand people of the city and suburbs have died of the plague since its commencement this year, to the present time; and yet the town has by no means the appearance of being depopulated, nor do the people in general appear to be the least apprehensive, or to use any precautions against the surrounding contagion, being almost all, (particularly the lower class of people) real predestinarians; the better sort of Turks, however, are by no means blind to advantages, which the Franks derive from sequestrating themselves from society and most of them whose business will permit them, now retire to their country houses, or shut themselves up in town under various pretences, not being allowed to assign the real cause, which would infallibly draw upon them the resentment of the populace, as breakers of the law of Mahomet. It is remarkable, that this dreadful disorder generally at tacks the same place three years suc

cessively; the first and third not violently, perhaps not one fifth of the numbers dying as during the second year. It was our fortune to see it in its greatest vigour. It is also no less remarkable, that although the plague be raging with the utmost violence at Constantinople, and on the road betwixt that city and Aleppo, they are never under the least apprehension of its reaching Aleppo; but, on the contrary, when they hear of its breaking out in Egypt or Damascus, they are sure of its visiting them that or next year, for it always holds its course from South to North, and never from N. to S. The same observation holds good at Cyprus, where at this time there are vessels constantly arriving from the coast of Syria with the plague on board, without ever spreading the infection, although there they use no precaution against it,

The city of Aleppo stands upon several hills, on the highest of which stands the castle, which has a very fine appearance, but being built du ring the crusades, and entirely neglec ted for many years by the Turks, is now falling in ruins very fast, as are also the walls of the town.

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The city, including the suburbs,

about seven miles in circumference, and is said to contain between three and four hundred thousand inhabitants. It is built of a kind of stone resembling that found near Bath: the houses are but one story high, and all vaulted, on account of the scarcity of timber; however having a number of small domes, as well as windows towards the side turned from the street, they are sufficiently lighted. The streets are paved, but are all exceedingly narrow; and there being no windows to the houses, and latticed, they have a very mean appearance. The Bazars * are all covered

*Market place.

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on the top, and most of them arched, which serves at present to facilitate the communication between the houses, the terraces being flat. There are a number of very handsome mosques in the city, which having in general large cupolas, and very high minarets, give a very grand appearance to the city from a distance.

A little rivulet runs near the town which serves to supply it in part with water, and for the use of a few gardens, which furnish the inhabitants with vegetables, and fruits of nearly the same sorts as in Europe, but of inferior quality; beyond these gardens is the Desart, which surrounds the city on all sides.

Particular account of the ASSASSINATION of the late EMPEROR PAUL. From Carr's Northern Summer.

A Short time before her demise, Catherine committed to PZ-, her last favourite, whom she highly esteemed, a declaration of her will, addressed to the senate, pur porting that Paul should be passed over in the succession, and that the Grand Duke Alexander should mount the vacant throne. As soon as the favourite was acquainted with the sudden death of the Empress, he flew to Pavlovsk, about thirty-five versts from the capital, where Paul occasionally resided, whom he met on the road; and, after a short ex. planation, delivered up to him this important document. Paul, charmed with his zeal and loyalty, preserved him in all his honours and fortunes, whilst a general and rapid dispersion, to all points of the compass, instan. taneously succeeded amongst the the members of the male seraglio of the Hermitage. The emperor ascended the throne without difficulty, but a total stranger to his subjects. One of the first measures of his reign displayed, in a very singular nanner, the native goodness of his heart, un

der the clouds that rapidly began to overshadow it, in an act of piety towards his murdered father, whose remains he removed from the church of St. Alexander Nevski, called the monastery; and having exhibited them in great funeral state, he consigned them to the sepulchre of Catherine II. in the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. The latter part of this extraordinary transaction has often induced me to think that Paul did not believe that his mother issued the order for the assassination of his father. At this eccentric solemnity, he compelled Count Alexey Orloff, and prince Baratynski, under whose hands the unhappy monarch is said to have perished, to stand on each side afterwards to follow it to the tomb of the body as it lay in state, and as the principal mourners.

Not long after this event, his mind began occasionally to display the most fearful symptoms of distraction; but when his reason was restored, the hapless emperor never failed to endeavour, with the most affecting sensibility, to repair the ruin and havoc which his delirium had occasioned. The deposed Stanislaus, the broken-hearted king of Poland, partook alternately of his beneficence and severity; but with what demonstration of respect and genuine grief did the emperor attend the obsequies of this last of the Sarmates. On that gloomy occasion, he commanded in person the guards who assisted at the funeral and uncovering himself, with the most affecting emotions saluted the coffin as it passed the memory of the hoary and heroic Suvaroff, who fell a broken-hearted victim to the distraction of his imperial master, in periods of agonized and compunctious reflection, he raised a colossal statue of bronze, in the vast area behind Benskoi's palace, opposit to Romanzoff's monument: and on the days when he reviewed his troops there, he used to order

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them to march by in open order, and face the statue, which, he said represented one of the greatest and `bravest generals of his own or any other age.

Notwithstanding the important service which P- Z- had rendered him, the emperor could never separate him, in his mind's eye, from the caresses of his mother, and speedily became disgusted with him; spoke of him with great asperity to his friends, and at length, converting, the bounty of Catharine into a robbery, he denounced him as a defaulter to the imperial treasury of half a million of rubles; and, convinced of the justice of the allegation, proceeded, without loss of time, to sequester the vast estates which belonged to him and his two brothers. Driven to desperation by such conduct, one of the sufferers, the second brother, one day boldly walked up to the em peror upon the parade, and, with manly eloquence, represented the injustice of his measures. Paul received him without anger, heard him without interruption, reflected, and restored the property: but the ori ginal disgust rapidly returning, he ordered P 2- to reside upon his estate, to which he submitted for a considerable time. But the mind of the exile was too ardent to eudure seclusion; ambitious, bold, active, and enterprizing, he determined upon releasing himself from the unjust constraint imposed upon him by his sovereign, the delirium of whose mind now frequently burst forth with all the fury and desolation of a convulsed volcano. Messrs. Otto, Sieyes, and Talleyrand, who at that time formed a diplomatic trio, or rather were spies, at the court of Petersburgh, with the dexterity of talent, and the subtilty of Frenchmen, resolved to turn the gathering storm to the advantage of their own country, by means, which, extending beyond their calculation and their Sept. 1806.

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wishes, finally and rapidly led to the overthrow of the emperor. Under their tuition, a French actress introduced on the boards of the French theatre at Petersburgh, and placed in such situations of allurement, that the eye of the emperor could not but notice her. The ruin of domestic happiness furnished these politicians with the means of their success. A French actress was destied to estrange the emperor from his family, and to create a temporary and terrible change in the affairs of Europe. Madame Chevalier possessed that style of face which, without being regularly handsome, was more sweet, expressive, and captivating, than the exact symmetry of a finished beauty. Her person was small but delicate, and rather en bon point: her manners were of the highest order, and enchanted every one who approached her. The emperor was fond of music; Madame Chevalier excelled upon the harp, and sung to it some sweet and crafty verses, composed by one of her three employers, and which she herself had set to music; the subject, of which was, the martial skill, valour, and generosity, of the emperor. She had not spread her witcheries long, before an evening was appointed for a private gratification of the musical taste and passion of the emperor. This syren very soon became the sole idol of his shattered mind, which she moved according to the direction of her secret principles, until the emperor withdrew himself from his alliance with Austria, recalled Suvaroff and his army covered with glory, crowded the roads to Siberia with British subjects, and filled with terror and consternation the Exchange of the British empire. I mean not to enu. merate all the calamities which followed; they were too signal not to be widely known, too recent not to be well remembered; and, from their very nature, incontestibly proved the

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aberration of those faculties which could alone, by their presence, render the emperor responsible for all the misery, dismay, and ruin, which threatened the very existence of the empire. P- Z resolved upon availing himself of the influence of the fair favourite, to whom he addressed himself with all the insinuation of person, manners, wit, and money having engaged her in his favour, he made her acquainted with Count K-, a man who, from having been about the person of Paul in the menial capacity of a valet, at last ob tained a high place in his affection, distinguished honour, and great wealth. The more firmly to bind K- to his interest, P-Z- feigned an honour able passion for the daughter of the former, who was, like all the sudden favourites of fortune, much pleas ed at the prospect of an alliance with a very distinguished family. Count K-and Madame Chevalier conceived many plans for prevailing upon his majesty to restore Z- to his favour. At length, one evening, when she had tranquillized the mind of the emperor, and excited in him an appearance of gaiety by the vivacity of her wit, and some of her most successful songs, she artfully insinuated that PZ was the most unhappy man alive in being deprived of the emperor's favour, and of the power of promoting the interests of one of the greatest geniuses that ever mounted the Czarian throne, to whom he was most inviolably attached. The emperor paused, and expressed some doubt of the truth of the statement; but upon her re assuring him of its sincerity, accompanied by some of those little blandishments which no woman ever knew how to display with more finished address than Madame Chevalier, Paul granted her petition and recalled Z to the residence, where he flew with the celerity of a courier, and threw himself at the feet of the emperor, by

whom he was graciously received, and from whose presence he withdrew to present his fair advocate with the stipulated reward, a magnificent aigrette of diamonds, valued at sixty thousand rubles. Whatever private pique Z— might have cherished against his imperial master, I believe that it was wholly lost in his review of the deteriorated and dreadful condition of the empire, and in those awful measures of restoration which were afterwards resorted to. Z gradually and warily unfolded his mind to K—, who as cautiously entered into his views, until their confidence was completely established. The result of their deliberations was, that to save the empire, it was necessary that the emperor should be removed. They next prevailed upon Count P—————, the governor of the city, and Count P, a very young noble man, but of considerable family interest, the son of the celebrated general, Count PP, who so eminently distinguished himself in the Turkish war, and also the prince Y--, and some other perSons of great rank and consequence. All of these noblemen were actuated by no other motive, than to prevent the final ruin of their country, and for this purpose they determined to place in peril their lives and their fortunes.

In their conferences, which were managed with admirable discretion, it was resolved that Paul should die ; and, like Cæsar, it was destined that he should perish in the ides of March, on the festival called Maslaintza.

The emperor, from an aversion he had taken to those palaces which formed the favourite residence of Catharine, resolved upon building a palace for himself. The gorgeous magnificence of Zarsco Zelo, and of the winter palace, and all the Oriental voluptuousness of the Hermitage, were hateful to him; indeed to such an elevation had his abhorrence of these places attained, that he had deter

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