The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-01-30
DR.. StrOng's Palestine Explorations.


and the sin which doth easily beset him?
DIR. StrOng's Palestine Explorations.
A large audience gathered in the Lee
ture-room Of Rev. DR.. J. T. Duryea's
church (Presbyterian,) Classon Avenue.
Brooklyn, Wednesday evening, Dec. 30th.
to welcome home Prof Strong, of the
"Oriental Typographical Corps" who, in
company with nine other gentlemen, spent
the last year in travels through Egypt,
The Desert of the Exodus, and Palestine.
The Rev. DR.. Duryea presided and read
the opening address, and, upon concluding
his remarks, introduced Prof. Jas. Strong,
of Drew Theological Seminary, who spoke
as follows:
l had looked forward to the Expedition
all my life, and it was only Providence
that let me 90 at last. l went out, primar-
lily, to accomplish something of research.
The company might have been differently
constituted. If l had had corps of scien-
tfic men directly under my control, results
more satisfactory would have been accom-
plshed. But all the gentlemen in our
party bore their own expenses, and there
fore controlled their own time.
The results of our expedition have been
quite as satisfactory as any previous one.
Three hundred Photographic views have
been taken, covering the entire route of
the journey through Egypt, the Desert.
and Palestine. These photographs were
left in London to be finished up, and are
expected to arrive on every steamer.
large collection of birds, curiosities, antiq-
quities, and objects to illustrate art and
manners, was also made for preservation.
There is nothing like seeing, after all.
The pictures on my minds eye are more
sharply photographed than in the pictures
took by photography on the spot.
Most of my previous impressions were
confirmed. think if had been Sc. down
in Jerusalem / could have found my way
alone. My dragoman said l did not need
a guide. The Desert was more emphati-
cally desert than had conceived. Such
wilderness ] could not have imagined.
There was vegetation in March. Our cam
els found part of their living on the herb
age. Outside of the valleys was a sheer
rock, not an atom Of soil upon it, ascend
ing at an angle of forty five degrees, per-
fectly impossible, three, four and five hun
dred feet high, and sometimes three and
four Thousand feet higb-naked granite
peaks. Being red granite, they were bril-
liant as brick, cracked and crumbling,
ready to fall down. Blue, green, black,
purple, and brown, with brilliant shades of
red, and red sand stone cap oYerhanging
the whole. the rocks appeared like the
changing pictures of a Kaleidoscope. There
was no mist. The atmosphere was per
fectly dry, with not speck to cloud the
sun. There was wonderful exhilaration
about the air-so pure and clear, yet not
parched, but tolerably warm. The solem
nifty of the place was remarkable; not a
sound of bird or an animal; nothing ex-
cept the noises of our animals feet echo
ing on the rocks as we moved along. This
was the place where the Israelites spent
forty years.
Palestine was more rocky than l had
thought. 1t is a rocky land. Rounded
rocks seemed graded and smoothed off like
series of hay cocks. There are no high
rocks. The valleys only are fertile. Ter
races once covered these rocks. In Leba
non these terraces still remain covered with
grain. Christians live here-Maronites.
In Palestine, where the Arabs live, the soil
is washed off, and it is desolate and forlorn.
Very few trees are seen" Abraham's oak
of Hebron" and here and there solitary
tree. The villages are generally bare of
trees Scrub oaks cover the hills.
Egypt is desolate land. 1t abounds in
misery the most abject, though the native
richness of the soil relieves the sight. The
people are the most degraded set of beings
| ever saw, with nothing to live with, moth
ing to live upon, nothing to live for in this
world or the next.
We went from Alexander TO Cairo; then
to Moab and TO Jerusalem, entirely around
tie Red Sea. down to Beersheba, to the
hills Of Judah. through Central Palestine,
up to Tyre, back to Damascus, up to the
Cedars, and down to Beyrout.
Egypt is the valley of the Nile, literally.
The overflowings of the Nile form the soil.
If the inundation of the Nile fails sin
ole year, famine follows. There is no con-
tinuous rain, and no rainy season, but
occasional rainfalls. There are no wells
not spring; not a tiny ril. Not drop
of water runs in the Nile, but it gives off
a great deal. There is much less water at
the mouth of the Nile than back nearer its
sources. A mere scratch in the soil sufices
fof tilagc, till the latter part of the sea,
son; then water, water, is the only cry
From the earliest daybreak till the shades
of evening the natives raise water with a
pole and a bag of skins, and empty it, three
of them, all day long, to keep alive the
thirsty crops. In mId~inter we saw them
work in. in this way at five cents a day
What DO they live upon Most humble
fare barley bread, commonly cooked and
ground 10y themselves, sticky, black, grindy
sort Of flour, mixed in wooden bowls, with
salt and no yeast, made in a loaf as large
as the two hands, and thick as one hand,
and they bake it in the ashes. The Arabs
most always have a fire at night. 1t keeps
oil the sp:ites, as they suppose. The bar
lev cake is taken out of the ashes halt
baked, black, dirty, sour, every thing that
Is vile. This one cake is all they nave ful
dinner aud supper for two. And this is
Egypt, the great land of the Pharaohs,
that gave letters to the whole world, that