The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1874-07-08
FoR THE CENTRAL PeEspYrEsIAN.
sUMMER-DAYs IN THE EAST.

Hurried tramping on the deck overhead,
and the rush and rattle of the chain running
out through the anchor hole, wskened me at
six in the morning. A pitching sea had kept
me awake till past midnight; the ship was
still rolling, but evidently had cast anchor.
The young Italian Jesuit of the opposite
berth was already dressed. To my look of
wonder he answered-"We are at Jafa,
SeignOre. In few minutes l was on deck,
and there--a quarter of mile away, its
white stcne houses rising terrace-lke from
the surf beaten beach of the hillside to Its
very erest-lsy Jafs, flashing in the bright
morning sunlight. There is no harb9r, and
the ship was tossing in what. they are pleased
to call the "rOadstead. The waves we're
running very high, but the Captain finally
gave his consent to our attempting 70 land.
Three boats had come cat to us, and the
daring fellows who had rowed them were just
climbing up over the ships side. Finding
that | was going ashore, two lusty Arabs
laid hold of me, my knapssck and travelling
cloak, and moment later l found myself
lying all in heap in the midst of the boat,
dancing like cork on the waves. A swell
carried US half way up the shipside, and
another bundle dropped in at my feet: it was
the Jesuit Priest. The three boats belonged
to the rival crews, half of whom on the ships
deck, half in the boats, were yelling and
fighting over the unfortunate passengers and
their baggage as lawful plunder. A bulky
franciscan friar lowered himself tenderly by
the rope ladder and jumped for the second
boat, whose bow suddenly lurohed up under
him. He was seized on two sides by pair
of wrangling, bare legged Arabs. One
jerked him so rudely that, forgetting his
vows, his mOnkhOod, the franciscan delivered
the fellow well directed blow between the
eyes, and stretched him along the bottom of
his boat. Several ladies were handed down
more carefully and packed in dry corner.
With dozen passengers and baggage, be-
sides the crew, We were just about to throw
off from the ship, when an Arab in the second
boat sprsng like tiger upon one of our
rOwers who had been trying to provoke an
attack. They clnched and each tried to put
the other into the sea. In their desperate
struggle they fell in the midst of the boat,
biting, throttling, scratching like a pair of
mad cats, but never once straightout arts
tic blow. Half dozen yelling bowling
Arabs seized and tried to drag them apart;
but did not succeed till the savage COM
batants let go from exhaustion. A big wave
ported our boats, ard the next roll carried
the other over its crest-down the opposite
side out of sight-fsg-staft and all. With
hard rowing and a steady brave hand at the
rudder, We rode through the breakers and
came safely to land. Hardly had broken
my way through the line of shouting natives
who hemmed the narrow landing place, when
a pOrtly fellow in flowing white trowsers
bound round the waist with a broad crimson
Eenar, pointed red slippers and tasseled fe5,
demanded my passport In Arabic In truth
my passport, through the inefGciency of our
Consul, and the negligence of Egyptian off,
eials, had never been returned to me in
Alexandria. Suspecting, however, some
thing in the assumed official manner of this
Ishmaelite, l handed him my students ma
circulation card with the seal of the Berlin
University on it. had heard of the awe
which a seal inspires in an Arab. He looked
at it Carefully-upside down-and returned
it with an approving bow, at the same time
demanding four francs. I recognized him
at once, gave him knowing wink and walked
off.
After boisterous passage from Egypt, it
is pleasant to press the foot on land, even in
the dark narrow alleys of Jaffa. Instead of
going directly through the tOwn-up the steep
slope fronting the Mediterranean, 1 walked
around along the curving seaShore, through
the market place crowded with peasants in
blue gowns, kneeing camels, crying and
growing petulantly, and braying dOnkeys.
I found the only hotel of Jaffa, outside
and east of the walls, on the crest of gen.
tie hill in the midst of orange and ci!ron
gardens enclosed with high hedges of cactus,
and commanding lovely view of city and
sea. It is kept by German, one of the
colony settled here. The first effort at colo
nizing in Jafa was made by piOus Germans
from America. 1t proved failure and was
grated upon by Germans direct from the
Fstherland, principally from Wurtemberg.
They are engaged chiefly in fruit and wine
culture, but owing to paucity of numbers
the colony is, from temporal point of view,
in a languishing state. That at Kaipha,
further north on the sea coast, is much more
Honrishing.
1t so happened that two recruits for the
Jaffa colony had sailed on the same steamer
with me from Trieste to Alexandra. The
elder of these-an old bachelor found to
be an uncultivated man, but a most Jealous
new light believer. A third party asserted
one day at dinner that the world had made
immense progress in the last centuries This
(by no means novel; observation our pi!-
grim friend bluntly pronounced false, and
asserted in turn that the world had been