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Updated: May 27, 2025
Through glens filled with oleander, we ascended the first slopes of Akma Dagh, the mountain range which divides the Gulf of Scanderoon from the Plain of Antioch. Then, passing a natural terrace, covered with groves of oak, our road took the mountain side, climbing upwards in the shadow of pine and wild olive trees, and between banks of blooming lavender and myrtle.
The olives have the choicest Andalusian flavor, and the pickles lose none of their relish from having been put up in New York. The road from Scanderoon to this place lies mostly along the shore of the gulf, at the foot of Akma Dagh, and is reckoned dangerous on account of the marauding bands of Koords who infest the mountains.
But this was nothing but what the necessity of affairs required, and the merchants at Leghorn and Naples having notice given them, sent again from thence to take care of the effects which were particularly consigned to those ports, and to bring back in other ships such as were improper for the markets at Smyrna and Scanderoon.
We happened very opportunely here upon a Dutchman, who had travelled from Bengal to Agra, the capital city of the Great Mogul, and from thence was come to the coast of Malabar by land, and got shipping, somehow or other, up the Gulf; and we found his design was to go up the great river to Bagdad or Babylon, and so, by the caravan, to Aleppo and Scanderoon.
Yet was he now and then upon the threshold. With streaks of the quack and adventurer in him, he gave out deep notes. With an itch to use his pen as well as his tongue, he had none of the patience, the hankering after perfection of form, of the professional man of letters. His account of his Scanderoon exploit, a sea-log, a little written-up later, was perhaps not meant for publication.
From Scanderoon to Aleppo; over the desert to Bagdat: a voyage from Bussora to Bombay, and along the west coast of India; from Bombay to Mocha; and a journey from Suez to Cairo, are the principal contents. Travels. By John Lewis Burckhardt. Vol.1. Nubia; vol. 2. Syria and the Holy Land; vol.3, in the Hedjaz. 1823. 4to.
He says, that having spent a considerable part of his life at Scanderoon and Alleppo , he frequently made excursions amongst the Arabs; excited by curiosity, as well as to gratify his pleasures.
The household were seated upon the ground, chatting pleasantly with one another, and apparently not in the least disturbed by my presence. One of the Shekh's sons, who was deaf and dumb, came and sat before me, and described by very expressive signs the character of the road to Scanderoon.
I brought up two volumes of the MS. Journals for you to read when you come to town. But I perceive the further you proceed the less can you publish. I dismiss all thoughts of that from my mind, and bequeath the task to posterity. They tell me Dizzy is negotiating another little purchase of Seleucia and Scanderoon. Jerusalem is in the next lot.
Among his MSS. the Memoirs were found with the title of Loose Fantasies, and they were not printed till 1827. It was quite a minor post in the Navy he received in recognition of Scanderoon, and one wonders why he took it. Perhaps to gain experience, of which he was always greedy. Or Scanderoon may have emptied his treasuries.
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