402. As Eldred accompanied Newberry and Fitch
from England to Basora, this article is, in a great degree, connected
with our present purpose: It may likewise be mentioned, that Eldred is
one of the persons with whom Newberry corresponded. - E.]
Tripolis stands under a part of Mount Lebanon, at the distance of two
English miles from the port. On one side of this port, in the form of a
half-moon, there are five block-houses, or small forts, in which there
are some good pieces of artillery, and they are occupied by about an
hundred janisaries. Right before the town there is a hill of shifting
sand, which gathers and increases with a west wind, insomuch, that they
have an old prophecy among them, that this sand hill will one day
swallow up and overwhelm the town, as it every year increases and
destroys many gardens, though they employ every possible device to
diminish this sand-bank, and to render it firm ground. The city is
walled round, though of no great strength, and is about the size of
Bristol: Its chief defence is the citadel or castle, which stands on the
south side of the town, and within the walls, overlooking the whole
town, being armed with some good artillery, and garrisoned by two
hundred janisaries. A river passes through the middle of the city, by
means of which they water their gardens and plantations of mulberry
trees, on which they rear great numbers of silk-worms, which produce
great quantities of white silk, being the principal commodity of this
place, which is much frequented by many Christian merchants, as
Venetians, Florentines, Genoese, Marsilians, Sicilians, and Ragusans,
and, of late, by the English, who trade more here than in any other port
of the Turkish dominions.
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