DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0299
HOLY LAND, AND CYPRUS. '263
with dry ditch and counterscarp, about fourteen feet in
depth. Behind this are other towers of older date, not very
strong; but commanding the advanced works, and consider-
ably increasing the means of defence; they are Saracenic and
picturesque. The guns and carriages I saw were in the usual
bad condition of Eastern nations, those to the sea totalby
unfit for service. The town itself is entirely enclosed on the
land side with old walls and towers of the Saracenic sort, and
are intermixed with the houses of the town. A sea battery
to the north-west, said to have been strengthened in the time
of Sir Sidney Smith by a strong wall Avith casemates and
loop-holed, was pointed out to me under the name of the
English battery ; by which it Avas known for a long time, till
the present aga forbade it on pain of punishment; and it was
here that the French are said to have entered, when they
stormed and captured the town.
The garrison consisted of about two hundred and fifty
soldiers, by whose means the aga appears to affect indepen-
dence of the present Pasha of Acri, though nominally sub-
ject to him. He is severe, and keeps them in great subjec-
tion. According to various accounts I heard, all women of
the town were forbidden ; each soldier is obliged to attach
himself to some woman, either by marriage or concubinage,
to whose support the aga contributes ; but all promiscuous
intercourse of the sexes was punished with the greatest seve-
with dry ditch and counterscarp, about fourteen feet in
depth. Behind this are other towers of older date, not very
strong; but commanding the advanced works, and consider-
ably increasing the means of defence; they are Saracenic and
picturesque. The guns and carriages I saw were in the usual
bad condition of Eastern nations, those to the sea totalby
unfit for service. The town itself is entirely enclosed on the
land side with old walls and towers of the Saracenic sort, and
are intermixed with the houses of the town. A sea battery
to the north-west, said to have been strengthened in the time
of Sir Sidney Smith by a strong wall Avith casemates and
loop-holed, was pointed out to me under the name of the
English battery ; by which it Avas known for a long time, till
the present aga forbade it on pain of punishment; and it was
here that the French are said to have entered, when they
stormed and captured the town.
The garrison consisted of about two hundred and fifty
soldiers, by whose means the aga appears to affect indepen-
dence of the present Pasha of Acri, though nominally sub-
ject to him. He is severe, and keeps them in great subjec-
tion. According to various accounts I heard, all women of
the town were forbidden ; each soldier is obliged to attach
himself to some woman, either by marriage or concubinage,
to whose support the aga contributes ; but all promiscuous
intercourse of the sexes was punished with the greatest seve-