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his adverfaries not being able to follow him, by reafon of their wounds, he escaped to the other fide. By this means the forwardeft of both parties being flain, the promifcuous multitude, being left without leaders, gave over their trade of fedition for many years after, and betook themselves to their husbandry. This combat happened in the year 1396.

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A Defcription of BABEL.

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HE reader must needs have a curiofity to fee fome account of a city and a tower which employed all the men in the world, for fo many years, in building. The fcripture informs us, that they had made ufe of burnt bricks inftead of ftone, and flime instead of mortar. According to an Eastern tradition, they were three years in making and burning these bricks; each of which was thirteen cubits long, ten broad, and five thick. The flime with which thefe bricks were cemented, was a pitchy fubftance, or bitumen, brought from a city, in the neighbourhood of Babylon, called Is, or Hit. The Oriental authors fay, that the city built by the fons of Noah, was three hundred and thirteen fathoms in length, and one hundred and fifty one in breadth; that the walls of it were five thousand five hundred and thirty three fathoms high, and thirty three broad; and the tower ten thoufand fathoms, or twelve miles high: which dimenfions bear no manner of proportion to each other. Even Jerom affirms, from the teftimony of eye-witneffes, who exa

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empted from the fight, left he might feem lefs valued, or not fo couragious as the reft. After a little pause, an ordinary tradesman comes forth, and offers to fupply the place of him that was abfent, provided, that, if his fide conquered, they would pay him down half a gold dollar of France, and also provide for his maintenance afterward as long as he lived. Thus the number being again equalled, the fight began; and it was carried on with fuch great contention, both of body and mind, as old grudges, inflamed by new loffes, could raise up in men of fuch fierce difpofitions, accuftomed to blood and cruelty; efpecially feeing honour and eftate was propounded to the conqueror; death and ignominy to the conquered. The fpectators were poffeffed with as much horror as the combatants were with fury; as detefting to behold the ugly and deformed mutilations and butcheries of one another's bodies, the lopping off their limbs, and, in a word, the rage of wild beafts under the shape of men. But all took notice, that none carried himself more valiantly than that mercenary and fuppofititious hireling, to whose valour a great part of the victory was to be afcribed. Of that fide that he was of, (that is, of the Macintoshes, whom he joined, though no ways related to that clan), there were ten alive befides himfelf; but all of them grievou! ly wounded. Of the contrary faction, (the is, of the Mackays), there remained only or who was not wounded at all; was fo much odds, and hew fingly to encounter wi himfelf into the river

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mined the remains of the tower carefully, that it was four miles high. But Ado raises the height to no less than five thousand miles. But these are shameful extravagancies. The only account we can depend upon, as to the dimenfions of this tower, fuppofing it the fame tower with that which stood in the midst of the temple of Belus, afterwards built round it, by Nebuchadnezzar, must be taken from profane authors. Herodotus tells us, it was a furlong in length, and as much in breadth and Strabo determines the height to have been a furlong; that is, the eight part of a mile, or fix hundred and fixty feet; which is itself prodigious; for thereby it appears to have exceeded the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids, in height, one hundred feventy nine feet, though it fell fhort of it, at the bafis, by thirty three. It confifted of eight fquare towers, one above another, gradually decreafing in breadth; which, with the winding of the ftairs from top to bottom on the outfide, gave it the resemblance of a pyramid, as Strabo calls it. This antique form, joined to the extraordinary height of the Structure, eafily induces us to believe it to be the fame tower mentioned by Mofes; Nebuchadnezzar finishing the design which the fons of Noan were obliged, by the confufion of tongues, to leave unexecuted.

THAT this moft wonderful city was in a flourishing state, and that several changes of fortune befel it, till at length it was totally deftroyed, is related by feveral hiftorians. The ruins of this celebrated antiquity are fo defaced, that the people of the country are not certain of their fituation; which, confequent

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ly, has occafioned travellers to differ pretty much in their accounts concerning thefe ruins, and have formed various conjectures about them. Most of them, following a tradition of the inhabitants, have judged a place about eight or nine miles to the Weft, or North-west of Baghdad, to be the tower of Babel. Rauwolf fuppofes he found the ruins of Babylon upon the Euphrates, near Felujia, about thirty fix miles to the South-west of Baghdad And Della Valle was directed, by another tradition, to look for it about two days journey lower, near an antient city called Hella, fituate upon the fame river. Here also must be placed the ruins defcribed by a late traveller into these parts.

The Hiftory of the siege of Tyre, by ALEXANDER the Great.

WE may judge of the flourishing condition

of Tyre, at that time, from the stand it made against that victorious prince, fince it ftopped the courfe of his whole army full feven months. As the conqueror approached. the territories of Tyre, the Tyrians fent out ambaffadors to meet him, (amongst whom was the King's own fon), with presents for himself, and provifions for his army but when he defired to enter the city, under pretence of offering facrifice to Hercules, they refufed him admittance; which provoked Alexander, now flushed with fo many victories, to fuch a degree, that he refolved to ftorm the city, and enter it by force. On the other hand, the

Tyrians,

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