I saw many goats and horned cattle, and a good store of corn lay piled up before the doors.
We were assured that the roads through the mountains inhabited by the Druses and Maronites were very unsafe, and we were strongly urged to take an escort with us; but as we met caravans almost every hour, we considered this an unnecessary precaution, and arrived safely without adventure of any kind at Damascus.
July 3d.
This morning we rode at first over a very good road, till at length we came upon a ravine, which seemed hardly to afford us room to pass.

Closer and more closely yet did the rocky masses approach each other, as we passed amongst the loose shingle over the dry bed of a river.

Frequently the space hardly admitted of our stepping aside to allow the caravans we met to pass us.

Sometimes we thought, after having painfully laboured through a ravine of this kind, that we should emerge into the open field; but each time it was only to enter a wilder and more desert pass.

So we proceeded for some hours, till the rocky masses changed to heaps of sand, and every trace of vegetation disappeared.