Page:Travels from Aleppo to the city of Jerusalem, and through the Holy Land, in the year 1776.pdf/24

Rh people of that country not expressing a due reveration for it, it was three or four years afterwards transported over the gulph into Italy, and at length fixed at Loretto, and a magnificient church, the present cathedral, over it, in the middle whereof it now remains. In it is a image of the blessed Virgin, with a little Jesus in her arms, and a triple crown on her head; her whole person almost covered with diamonds and pearls, and round the statue is a kind of rainbow of precious stones of various colours, the ornaments, altars, and utensils in this place being inexpressibly rich. Pope Sixtus V. first made Loretto a city and a bishoprick, and it is esteemed the most sacred place under heaven, by all good Catholics.

Having now satisfied our curiosity at Loretto, we returned safe to Aleppo. After our travels through this extensive country, we took shipping, and arrived in Old England, to the great joy of our friends, and the great pleasure of coming to our native country.

The history of our records, we hope, will be both intertaining and agreeable, as they are founded on facts, agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.