and Forts, extending almoft a Mile in length; wherein we may ftill discover fuch certain Tokens of their former Strength, as if every Building in the City had been intended to fuftain a Siege, or to bid Defiance to the Injuries of Time itfelf*. It is well known that this City was for a long time the Theatre of Contention between the Chriftians and Infidels, and frequently changing its Masters, being in the Poffeffion of each alternately for feveral Ages. The Saracens took it from the Chriftians in the Time of Omar; but afterwards, with the rest of Syria, it fell into the Hands of the Turks. It was feveral times taken and retaken in the Holy War. In the Reign of Baldwin the First the Chriftians took it from the Turks; and the Succefs of the Enterprize being very much owing to the Affiftance of the Genoefe, they had a third Part of the City affign'd them as a Reward. The Turks under Saladine recover'd it in 1187, but did not hold it long, it being taken in the Year 1191 by King Richard the First of England; and Philip of France, and given to the Knights of St. John of Je rufalem. Thefe kept Poffeffion of it a whole Century, till the Year 1291, when the Turks, to the Number of a hundred and fifty thousand; having prefs'd this City with a long and furious Siege, which was fuftain'd by the Knights with the greatest Bravery, at laft enter'd it by Storm, and razed it to the Ground; and it has never been able to recover itself fince that fatal Overthrow. WHEN Acre was thus taken by the Turks, there was a fine Nunnery in the Town, of which they tell us the following remarkable Story. The Abbefs, fearing that fhe, and the Virgins under her Care, fhould be obliged to fubmit to fuch brutal Ufage as Women frequently meet with from Soldiers on the taking of Cities by Storm, fummon'd the Nuns together, advifing them to cut and mangle their Faces, as the only Means to preserve their Virginity; and immediate ly cut and disfigur'd her own, to fet them an Example. The Nuns, animated by the Refolution of the Abbefs, without any Hefitation fell to gafhing and tearing their Faces, cut off their Nofes, and made themselves fuch frightful Spectacles, as they were fure would rather excite Horror and Averfion than luftful Defires, and infallibly preferve them from a Rape. This, it is faid, so enraged the Turkish Soldiers, who expected to have found here a kind of Paradise upon Earth, and to have indulged their wanton Flames among the beautiful young Nuns, that they put them every one to the Sword in Revenge for their Difappointment. PALESTINE, PALESTINE, OR, THE HOLY LAND. Τ' HOUGH the Country we have travell'd through from Sidon to Acre may in some Senfe be deem'd a Part of the Holy Land, having been allotted to the Tribe of Afber whofe Border extended from Carmel to great Zidon* yet as the People upon the Sea-Coafts were never actually mafter'd by the Ifraelites, but left by the Judg. ment of God to be Thorns in their Sidest, I have fpoken of it under its more proper Name of Phanice or Phenicia. But as we are now approaching to those Places that were moft frequented by our Bleffed Saviour and his Apoftles, made famous by their Preaching and Miracles, and, in fhort, the Theatre of the greatest Part of the Scripture-Hiftory; I fhall henceforwards, without Regard to geographical Niceties and Criti cifms, confider myself as in the Holy Land, Palestine, or Judea, which Names I find ufed indifferently, though perhaps with fome Impropriery, to fignify the fame Country. |