leys, it was again recovered, and subjected to the kings of Jerusalem, and so it remained 165 years.

Finally, in the year 1189, Saladine, having first taken Jerusalem, removed his whole army, and sat down before Tyre, drawing his fleet of ships and galleys from Alexandria into the port, this city as then only remaining in the Christian power.

The citizens finding themselves reduced into great famine, and many other miseries, they at once, with certain rafters of timber, fired, burnt, and brake the Saracens' fleet, and, sallying out resolvedly upon his army, slew so great numbers of them, and followed their victory with such fury, as that the Saracens, forsaking their trenches and tents, removed in great disorder and dishonour. Two years after which victory, the body of that famous Frederick Barbarossa (who, by the lamentable accident of following the Christians' enemies over a river unfordable, perished by the weight of his armour therein) was brought and interred in the cathedral church of Tyre, near unto that glorious sepulchre of Origen, garnished and graven with gilt pillars of marble, 940 years before therein buried; but in the year 1289, the Saracens again attempted it and carried it, and it now remaineth subject to the Turks.

§. 4.

Of Ptolomais, or Acon.

THE third city along the coast of the sea, which the Asherites could not obtain on the south bound of Asher, was Acho, which was the ancient name thereof, after Jerome; though other good authors affirm that it took name from Acon, the brother of Ptolomy. P Pliny calleth it Ace, and otherwise the colony of Claudius. It had also the name of Coth, or Cod; and by Zieglerus it is called Hactipos.

But, lastly, it was entitled Ptolomais, after the name of one of the Egyptian Ptolomies; which city also, as it is 1 Macc. xi. another of the 9 Ptolomies infideliously wrested from his son-in-law Alexander, which called himself the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, the same Alexander having marP Plin. lib. 5. c. 19. in descript. ter. sanct.

q Ptolomæus Philometer.

ried Cleopatra, daughter of the said Ptolomy, not long before. Therein also was Jonathan Maccabæus treacherously surprised and slain, as it is 1 Macc. xii. 48. by the perfidiousness of n Tryphon, whom soon after Antiochus pursued, as it is in the story ensuing; and by like reason, about the same time, was the aforesaid Alexander in the war against Demetrius, one of the sons of Antiochus the Great with whom Ptolomy joined, overthrown and treacherously murdered by Zabdiel the Arabian, to whom he fled for succour; and his head presented unto his father-in-law Ptolomy, who enjoyed not the glory of his victory and treason above three days, for God struck him by death.

For the beauty and strength of this city, this Alexander made it his regal seat, two parts of the same being environed by the sea, and the port of safety and capacity not inferior to any other in all that tract. This city is distant from Jerusalem some thirty-four miles; four miles to the north from the mountain Carmel, and as much to the south from Castrum Lamberti; from Tyre, P Antoninus maketh it thirty-two Italian miles. In the midst of the city there was a tower of great strength, sometime the temple of Bel-zebub, and therefore called the castle of flies; on the top whereof there was maintained a perpetual light, like unto that called 9 Pharus in Egypt, to give comfort in the night to those ships which came near and sought that part. It had in it a bishop's seat of the diocese of Tyre, after it became Christian; but in the year 636, (a fatal year to the Christians in those parts,) it was forced and taken by Haomarus the Saracen. In the year 1104, it was regained by Baldwin I. by the help of the galleys of Genoa, to whom a third of the revenue was given in recompense. Again, in the year of our Lord God 1187, Saladine, king of Egypt and Syria, became lord thereof. In the year of Christ 1191, by Richard king of England, and Philip king of France, it was repossessed and redelivered to the Christians. Lastly, in the

n 1 Mac. i. 10.

1 Mac. xi. 18.

P Ant. Itin.

1 Herrold.

r

G. Tyr. Bell. Sac. 1. 10. c. 28. Herrold. 1. 1. Bell. Sac. Tit. 7. et 1. 2. c. 2. et alibi.

year 1291, it was, by the fury of the Saracens, besieged with an army of 150,000, entered, sacked, and utterly demolished, though in some sort afterward reedified, and it is now Turkish.

§. 5.

Of the castle of St. George.

FIVE miles from Ptolomais, towards the east, is the castle of s St. George seated, in which he was born, the valley adjoining bearing the same name. And though for the credit of t St. George's killing the dragon, I leave every man to his own belief; yet I cannot but think that, if the kings of England had not some probable record of that his memorable act among many others, it was strange that the order, full of honour, which Edward III. founded, and which his successors royally have continued, should have borne his name, seeing the world had not that scarcity of saints in those days, as that the English were driven to make such an erection upon a fable or person feigned. The place is described by Adrichomius, in his description of Asher, to have been in the fields of Libanus, between the river Adonis and Zidon. His own words are these: Hoc loco qui ab incolis Cappadocia appellatur, non longe a Beryto, memorant inclytum Christi militem D. Georgium, regis filiam ab immanissimo dracone asservasse: eamque mactata bestia parenti restituisse. In cujus rei memoriam ecclesia postmodum fuit ædificata; "In this place, which by the inhabit"ants is called Cappadocia, not far from Berytus, men say "that the famous knight of Christ, St. George, did rescue "the king's daughter from a huge dragon, and, having killed "the beast, delivered the virgin to her parent. In memory "of which deed a church was after built there." Thus far Adrichomius. His authors he citeth Ludovicus Roman. Patric. Navigationum, l. 1. c. 3. and Bridenbach, Itin. 5. The valley under this castle, sometime called Asher, was afterward called the valley of St. George. If this authority suffice not, we may rather make the story allegorical, figur

• Broch.

Itin. 4. Of the place and memory of his death, see ch. 9. sect. 1.

ing the victory of Christ, than accept of George the Arian bishop, mentioned by Am. Marcellinus.

§. 6.

Of Acziba, Sandalium, and others.

BETWEEN Ptolomais and Tyre, along the sea-coast, was the strong city of Acziba, or Achazib, which " St. Jerome calleth Achziph, and Josephus, Ecdippos, Pliny, Ecdippa, one of those which defended itself against the Asherites. Belforrest finds Acziba and Sandalium, or the castle of Alexander, to be one; but I know not whence he had it.

The twelve searchers of the land, which Moses sent from Cades-barne, travelled as far to the north as Roob, or Rechob, in the tribe of Asser, which Rechob, as also Berothæ, which by Ezekiel, xlvii. 16. is placed in these north borders, belonged, in David's time, to the king Hedarhezer, as it may be gathered out of 2 Sam. viii. 8. and x. 6. and it defended itself against the Asserites, as Zidon, Tyre, Achziph, Ptolomais, Alab, Helbah, and Aphek did.

This Aphek it was, whose wall falling down slew 27,000 of Benhadad's soldiers, after that 100,000 had been slaughtered by the Israelites under the conduct of Ahab. Here Junius finds that the Philistines encamped a little before the battle at Gilboa, though in his note upon 1 Sam. ix. 1. he takes Aphek there mentioned (at which battle the ark was taken) to have been in Juda. Of which Joshua xv. 53. and in 2 Kings xiii. 17. he reads Fortiter, for in Aphek. Where others convert it, Percutiens Syros in Aphek.

The next place along the coast is Sandalium, first called Schandalium of Schander, which we call Alexander, for Alexander Macedon built it when he besieged Tyre; and set it on a point of land which extendeth itself into the sea between Acziba and Tyre; which castle Baldwin the First rebuilt and fortified in the year of Christ 1157, when he undertook the recovery of Tyre.

Not much above a mile from this castle, there ariseth

"Jerom. de locis Heb. Jos. Bell. * 1 Kings xx. 29. 1 Sam. xxix. 1. Jud. 1. 1. c. 11. Plin. l. 5. c. 19.

that most plentiful spring of water, which Solomon remembereth, called the y well of living waters: from whence, not only all the fields and plains about Tyre are made fruitful by large pipes hence drawn; but the same spring, which hath not above a bow-shot of ground to travel till it recover the sea, driveth six great mills in that short passage, saith z Brochard.

Within the land, and to the east of a Acziba and Sandalium, standeth Hosa; and beyond it, under the mountains of Tyre, the city of Achsaph, or Axab, or after St. Jerome, Acisap, a city of great strength, whose king, amongst the rest, was slain by Joshua at the waters of Merom.

§. 7.

Of Thoron, Giscala, and some other places.

FURTHER into the land, towards Jordan, was seated the castle of Thoron, which Hugo de Sancto Abdemare built on the easternmost hills of Tyre in the year 1107, thereby to restrain the excursions of the Saracens, while they held Tyre, against the Christians, the place adjoining being very fruitful, and exceeding pleasant. From this castle, the lords of Thoron, famous in the story of the wars for the recovery of the Holy Land, derive their names, and take their nobility. It had in it a curious chapel, dedicated to the blessed Virgin, in which Humphrey of Thoron, constable to Baldwin III. king of Jerusalem, lieth buried. There were five castles besides this within the territory of Asser; whereof four are seated almost of equal distance from each other; to wit, Castrum Lamperti, Montfort, Indin, or Saron, Castrum Regium, and Belfort. The first near the sea, under the hills of Saron; the next three, to wit, Indin, Montfort, and Regium, stand more within the land, and belonged to the brotherhood and fellowship of the Teutonici, or Dutch knights, (by which they defended themselves, and gave succour to other Christians, at such time as the Saracens possessed the best part of the upper Galilee,) the chief of which order was in Ptolomais Acon. The first fortress was for beauty and strength called Belfort,

y Cant. iv.

z Itin. I.

Josh. xii. 20.