or GERGESENES,** an ancient people of the land of Canaan, whose habitation was beyond the sea of Tiberias, where we find some footprints of their name in the city of *Gergera*, upon the lake of Tiberias. The Jewish doctors inform us, that when Joshua first came into the land of Canaan, the Girgashites took a resolution rather to forsake their country than submit to the Hebrews, and accordingly retired into Africa. Nevertheless, it is certain that a good number of them stood behind, since Joshua (xxiv. 11.) informs us that he subdued the Girgashites, and they whom he overcame were certainly on this side Jordan.

**GIRGENTI,** a town of Sicily, which occupies part of the site of the ancient *Agrigentum*. It has only one street fit for carriages. It is inhabited by 15,000 persons; but has no remarkable buildings or works of art that deserve mention; the only antiquities to be seen were a Latin inscription of the time of the Antonines, as is pretended, relative to some association between Agrigentum and Lilybaeum; and a piece of ancient masonry in the foundations of a church pretended to be the remains of a temple of Jupiter. At some distance, on the old ground in the vale, stands the cathedral, a clumsy building patched up by barbarous architects with various discordant parts. This church is enriched with no works of modern painters or sculptors that claim any title to praise, but the baptismal font is made out of an ancient sarcophagus faced with very beautiful bas-reliefs. This see is the richest in Sicily, but has the character of being less enlightened and polished than the rest of the island. Among the curiosities belonging to the cathedral is an Etruscan vase of rare size and preservation.

There are also some golden patens of extreme rarity.

The monastery of San Nicolo stands on a little eminence in the centre of the old city, admirably situated. The range of hills towards the south-east sinks gradually, so as to admit a noble reach of sea and of plain, terminated on each side by thick groves of fruit trees. Above appear the remains of ancient grandeur, wonderfully contrasted with the humble straw cottages built at their feet. In the orchard of this convent is a square building with pilasters, which is supposed to have been part of the palace of the Roman praetor.

Girgenti has the convenience of a port; for which, however, it is less indebted to its natural situation than to the recent affluence of art. The harbour is formed by means of a pier carried out in three sides of an octagon, with a battery at the head; the lighthouse is to be erected on the cliffs on shore, as there is no possibility of raising it high enough on the mole without danger of sinking. The work is admirable as to strength and neatness, but the intention of creating a safe and complete haven has not been fully answered; the Sirocco commands it entirely, and drives in great quantities of sand, which it is feared will in time choke up the port; even now ships of burden find it difficult to get in, but the Caricatore is considerable, and the magazines in the rocks along the shore are very spacious.