The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1918-01-18

The town was once fired by the Ro-
man governor of Syria, and it's destruc-
ton, invited by the insurrection Of the
Jews, caused many of the latter to re-
sort to thievery, piracy and brigardage.
More than 5000 of them had been put
to the sword, and the remainder be-
came outlaws.
Mecca for Pilgrims.
vespasian put stop to this sort Of
thing by attacking a band of the
thieves, and massacring more than
1000 Of them. Then he built fort
and around this a new city sprang up.
Later for the first time Jaffa became
virtually a Christian city. 1t had been
pagan and Jewish by turns, but now
it was raised to bishopric. Fidus was
the bishop, and he was present at the
Synod of LYDIA in 415 and at the
Council of Ephesus in All.
1t now became place for pilgrims
from Europe. For centuries they ar.
rived and made their way to the Holy
City. Many of them landed at Ces.
area, further up the coast, but the
biblical traditions of Jaffa caused al.
most all of them to visit it's pictur.
esque walls.
In the seventh century Of our era the
Arabs invaded the country and then
began the reign Of the Saracens and
Turks, which has continued, with Occa.
sional periods of other occupation, I'm.
til the present day.
In all of the eight Crusades, which
began In the eleventh century and con-
tinued internationally for 300 years,
Jaffa was prominent figure in the &C.
counts. The Crusades were begun I'm.
der the missionary work Of Peter the
Hermit, French monk, who, having
visited Jerusalem, found that the pill
grims were unjustly treated by being
taxed highly for admission to the city
of their dreams, and that they were
otherwise unjustly treated by the gov.
eminent.
1t was customary for most of the
Crusaders to land at Acre, which, while
further away from Jerusalem, seemed
to offer more direct route and SAT-
er landing for the ships and galleys
which brought the Knights Templar
and Hospitallers.
Jaffa became the advanced base for
most Of the operations against the Sa-
racens and later the Turks at Jeru-
salem.
Taken by Napoleon.
Napoleon in his Egyptian campaign
took the city of Jaffa, and it was there
that it was declared that he left his
soldiers to die Of the plague, but he
had his eye on posterity and had a
picture painted depicting him in the
convent Of the Armenians going SYM
pathetically among his stricken sol.
diers, whom his enemies declared he
poisoned when he was about to leave.
Mehemet Ali took the town in 1882,
and the Arabs were evicted by the
Turks, who took the town eight years
later, although in the meantime 1t had
been laid partly waste by an earth
quake in 1888.
The guide books will tell the modern
pilgrim that he may still see the ruins
of the house of Simon the tanner, now
covered by mosque, and the pious
may make the journey to that part
of the town where the worthy Tabitha
was raised by st. Peter. He may read
on a signboard, '"Tabitha's Quarter"
but the exact spot where her house
stood has not been transmitted to this
time.
From a small town of about 10000
population, the completion of the rail-
road to Jerusalem about twenty years
ago caused the city to become impor-
tant enough to boast of more than
three times that number Of inhabitants.
The treacherous character of the en-
trance by sea to the town is likely to
stand in the way Of its future great
ness, but as one Of the oldest cities in
the world 1t must always have fasci-
nation for the curious.