Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-12
TRAVELS IN EUROPE,
A TRIP ON THE ADRIATIC AND
MEDITERRANEAN SEAS.
Ancona and Arch of Trsjan-Brin-
dist and Appian Way-Isle
of Crete-Etc.


| Special Correspondence Of the REcoRD-UNIoN
PORT SAID Egypt, March 81, 1888.
The Gulf of Venice is a commercial
arm Of Adria, and exports the products of
Italy and ancient Illyricum. The Adri-
attic will never cease to be of vital Biblical
interest. The archeologist, also, will find
its continent and its islands Astounding
with antiquities that corroborate the mar
rative of past ages and verify the prophetic
predictions contained in the inspired vol
ume.
At Ancona we saw the Arch of Tralan.
1t was built to his honor in A. D. 104. An
old church of the twelfth century is plainly
seen from the harbor Ancona is still a
military post, and is principally built
upon and terraced in the side of a very
high hill, which gives it a very fine APP
pearance. Since an English line of
steamers touches its harbor new life has
come forth, and in course of years it will
become a city of greater note The Ro-
mans kept many galleys there during her
! foreign wars.
Brindisi is an old Roman town, very
compactly built. The old Roman wall is
still to be seen, and the gateway through
which the Caesars led their conquered
hosts is in condition to stand unbroken
| for centuries to come. The pillar at the
eastern terminus of the Appian Way is
made of red granite, and is a model of the
only model which it appears the political
warriors of ancient times copied. 1t is
unimportant as a relic of antiquity, build
ings have been crowded upon the large
square upon which it was built by Appius
Claudius until it occupies plot not to ex-
| coed forty feet square, and so filthy that
the writer preferred ignorance to nausea
and fled to other quarters via Appian
Way. The city ought to furnish stills at
least to patronizing pilgrims. We shall
later see this old way again, and recall
April Forum, where the Roman Christians
met the Apostle Paul Acts xviii ,15) and
shall follow it into the city where he died.
Brindisi, anciently called Brundusium,
was the great galley port of the Romans.
From this harbor their fleets went to sub
due every unyielding nation of the Levant.
How forcibly the lines of Dryden come to
us here:
| But Rome. it's thine alone with awful sway,
| To rule mankind and make the world obey
| Disposing peace and war thine own majestic
To tame the proud, the fettered slaves to free:
These are imperial arts and worthy thee"
If the Roman soldiers were indubitable,
this walled maritime city was impregnable.
The approach of an enemy was hazardous.
No ancient battering-ram could crush those
walls and to escalade them was certain
death. Her fleets have ceased to block
ade this port, and the glory of her kings has
departed like that of Babylon, Persia and
Greece, and the last vestige of temporal
power no longer appears.
I" Babylon long since has fallen,
Persia too has had its day
While Grecia to the winds is given,
And Rome Is passing fast away"
Brindisi is not desirable place to walk
through, even hurriedly. 1t is the filthiest
town | ever saw. More than ten thousand
people breath its noxious air and eat, with
few exceptions among the natives. their
filthy food. The English and French
have built up new streets and put up resi-
dences and business blocks, and cleaned I'D
some of the rubbish of the old town, and
given it as much of the embryo of decency
as it could discount and hate and as rap
idly as they develop responsibility, and
their faculty to hate filth enlarges. they
will give them more cleanliness to
arouse their anger, hoping that filth and
force will fight it out and clean it up. The
wretchedness to be seen among them is
| revolving to those even who attempt the
rudest toilet. When epidemics visit such
places, the wonder is not that so many die,
but that any survive.
Here we met Rev. J. S. Beaumont, the
gifted Scotch missionary of Buna, India.
The reader will remember that Joseph
Cook was his invited guest while travelling
and lecturing in and near Buna. Mr..
Beaumont has spent So years in India.
His work on "Philology" has attracted
much attention among the erudite, and
corrected many errors among the Parsees
| concerning the origin of nations, and the
development of the religious idea" The
learned doctor has traced language to its
primitive germ.
We could plainly see the mountains of
Southern Greece, and feel the breezes from
the beautiful Island of Crete, and realize
that we were approaching objects of sight
connected with sacred meetings. Paul
had appealed to Cesar for Just and
equitable hearing and trial, and it was
here the ship that carried him should
have remained 'to winter" but the officer
sought "a more desirable haven" \ few days
later a euroclydon came upon them. 1t
was here the disaster began, and after four
teen days and nights ''being driven up and
down in Adria" the ship "struck where
two seas met, and, while it was broken,
"they all escaped, some on boards, and
| some on broken pieces of the ship"
Unlike this trip of old, onr passage
across the Mediterranean was mild and in
spring. We now approach the countries,
which, of all others, enlist interest, and
| shall be able to turn attention to the
very latest surveys and discoveries of
Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Greece,
Pompeii and Rome, and will take pleasure
| in turning from less interesting scenes and
matters of history to those in which your
numerous readers are specially interested
H. J. BECKER.