Page:Travels from Aleppo, to the city of Jerusalem, and through the most remarkable parts of the Holy Land, in 1776.pdf/20

country, Jordan running southward through it, and forming several pleasant and agreeable lakes, and a vast multitude of brooks and rivulets crossing the country on both sides of the Jordan, and a vast multitude of valleys and hills pleasantly diversified; and when the Almighty, b his seasonable warmth and rains blessed the laborious improvers f the soil, it is not in the least incredible how it supported the numerous thousands that once dwelt therein; but the now inhabitants of this once most blessed country, are for the most part wild Arabs said to be the descendants of Ishmael; and if we shall consider the ancient predictions of Scripture, we will find them literally fulfilled concerning them for upwards of three thousand years past; for it was prophesied, that the Ishmaelites should be wild free men; should have their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them; and yet should dwell in the presence of all their brethren, and multiply into twelve tribes, and become a great nation; or, that however they should be pressed, they should never be utterly subdued. See Gen. xvi. II, 12. and xvii. 20. and xxi. from 10, to 13, &c. Ishmael had twelve sons, fathers each of a tribe: they dwelt next to their relations, the offspring of Lot, and of Abraham; by Keturah, and of Esau the father of Edom; they gradually increased till they swallow up their neighbours on either side; and numbers of them began early to trade with Egypt and Tyre. Vast numbers of them roved from places with their cattle, dwelling in tents without any settled abode, and became very troublesome to their neighbours; it became, therefore, the interest of every conqueror to subdue them, or root them out, and they were very often pushed, and hard put to it, yet to this day never subdued. Trojan the Roman Emperor, thought to have conquered them, and besieged Petra their capital; but his troops ⟨was⟩ so terrified with thunder, lightning and hail, and swarms of flies, &c. that they were repulsed upon every attack. And several hundred years after, we find the Arabs sometimes allied with the Persians, and other times with the Romans, but in subjection to none of these grand empires. In the year of our Lord 700, Mahomet, an Arab, became a great impostor, and his countrymen, under the name of Saracens, to propagate his religion, subdued all Arabia, the western Asia, and a great part of Africa, Spain, and several other places in Europe, they constituted an empire of about 7000 miles in length: And though by divisions among themselves, and the growing power of the Turks, and the terrible ravages of the Tartars, &c. between the year of our Lord 960 and 1260, their wide extended empire was greatly reduced; and in the next 300 years after, the Turks and Spaniards reduced almost the rest; yet the original of the Ishmaelites were never subdued. And to this day the Turkish Sultans pay them an annual tribute of a very considerable sum for a safe passage to their holy