PALESTINE.

Palestine, though a country of limited extent, has yet 'been the scene of events that will ever be memorable in the history of the world. It was in this fruitful land, flowing with milk and honey, that the chosen people of God, redeemed from Egyptian bondage, and crowned with conquest, were appointed to rest from their toils, after their long and laborious pilgrimage through the wilderness. Here they dwelt in peace, and in the enjoyment of all earthly blessings. Corrupted by prosperity, they provoked the vengeance of heaven by their ingratitude and rebellion, and were again, for their iniquities, swept into captivity in an unknown and hostile land. Restored to their country through the favour of the Persian king, they relapsed into their former evil courses; and filling up the measure of their guilt by putting to death the promised Messiah, they were abandoned by Heaven to the rage of their enemies, and finally escaped, a miserable remnant of unhappy fugitives, from the flame and the sword, which devoured their country and ruined its cities, and were dispersed amongst all nations, an astonishment and a by-word, as it was foretold they would be, to all succeeding generations, and a living evidence of the truth of those prophecies of which they are the subject. In the mean time the Christian revelation published at Jerusalem gradually extended its influence, until its authority was acknowledged by the Roman emperor, and throughout his whole dominions, and, finally, in all those European kingdoms into which the Roman empire was broken by its barbarous invaders; and thus was brought about, not by the violence of conquest, but by the peaceful triumph of a purer faith, one of the most extraordinary revolutions ever known in the manners, laws, institutions, and morals, of a large portion of the civilized world. In the middle ages, the deliverance of the holy city was the reigning delusion of that barbarous time; the war-cry was raised throughout all Europe against the infidels who dishonoured Jerusalem by their presence, and interrupted the pilgrimage to that holy place; the knights of Christendom, obedient to the call, assembled from all quarters round the banner of the cross; and vast armies were transported from Europe to Asia, to contend with the Mahomnιedans for the possession of the Holy Land. A long, bloody, and doubtful war terminated in the triumph of the infidels, and finally consigned the land of Palestine to their barbarous sway. A country which has been the scene of such various revolutions, and of so many marvellous events, in which the light of divine truth was first displayed, once so famed, and now so degraded, cannot fail to be regarded with deep interest in a liberal and enlightened age, affording, as it does, so many curious topics of discussion, and so wide a field of interesting inquiry. It has accordingly been resorted to, especially in modern times, by numerous travellers from Europe, whose works contain the most ample details concerning its natural features, its scenery, productions, animals, its antiquities, the manners of its inhabitants, and its present condition; and it is from the copious information contained in these works that the following narrative has been compiled.

The tract of country known in modern times under the name of Palestine forms, for about 140 miles, from the thirty-first to the thirty-fourth degrees of north latitude, the eastern shore of the Mediterranean; whilst it is bounded on the east by the great Syrian desert, on the north the mountains of Libanus and Anti-Libanus form a natural boundary, and on the south it extends to the Arabian desert. It is 140 miles in length, as already mentioned, and about fifty in breadth; and is distinguished by the inequality of its surface, and by the varied scenery which it presents; “a land,” says Sandys, with his usual force, “that flowed with milke and hony; in the middest, as it were, of the habitable world, and under a temperate clime; adorned with beautiful mountaines and luxurious vallies; the rockes producing excellent waters; and no part of it empty of delight or profit.”^[1. See Relation of a Journey, in four books, containing a description of the Turkish Empire, Egypt, the Holy Land, &c. b. iii. p. 141. ] Along the sea-coast of Palestine, the country consists chiefly of fertile and extensive plains, from which the ground gradually rises by successive terraces or ridges, into the central range of mountains which intersect the country throughout its whole length, and which present, with intervening valleys of singular beauty, all the varieties of bold and rugged scenery, and often sterile and naked rocks. On the eastern declivity of these mountains the country is rich, diversified, and luxuriant; its lofty mountains and sloping hills covered with forests, the deep valleys watered by murmuring streams, and clothed with cultivation, or enlivened with the flocks and herds of the wandering Arabs.^[2. Travels in Palestine, by J. S. Buckingham, vol. íi. chap. xix. p. 118. ]

Those mountains which form the central chain of Judea run parallel, under various names, to the shore of the Mediterranean, being in general at the distance of twenty or twenty-four miles from the sea; Mount Libanus forms the summit, and they divide into two distinct chains, the greater on the west, which looks to the Mediterranean, and the lesser on the east, which bounds the plains of Damascus, and has received the appellation of Anti-Libanus. These ridges, throughout their whole extent, from the northern frontier of Palestine to the Dead Sea, are rugged and barren, and destitute of inhabitants. The country between these two chains is watered by the Jordan, which has its rise in the northern chain of the Libanus Mountains, and flows southward in the central valley through the Lakes of Hoole and Tiberias, until it terminates in the Dead Sea. The country has generally been divided into three regions, namely, Judea, which lies to the south, Samaria in the middle, and Galilee on the north; and to these may be added the region beyond the river Jordan, which, running along the whole length of the country, divides it into two distinct portions.

Judea proper contains the modern district of Gaza, and was formerly the central district of the ancient kingdom of Judah, of which it contained the metropolis. It comprehends the whole country from the Lake of Asphaltites to the sea, a space of about sixty or seventy miles in breadth. The soil consists of a sandy earth; and it rises in far-ascending terraces from the sea to the mountains. The country situated near the Mediterranean consists of low plains, that are both beautiful and fertile. The plain around Rama, says Dr Clarke, is as fertile as any part of the Holy Land. It resembles a continual garden; though at the time that this celebrated traveller passed through the country, cultivation had been neglected, owing to a dreadful plague by which it had been visited.^[3. Clarke’s Travels in the Holy Land, vol. ii. chap, xviii. p. 637. ] The seashore is lined with mastic trees, palms, and prickly pears. The .plains, though neglected, are cloth.ed with the richest vegetation; and Sandys describes the country on the coast between Jaffa and Gaza as luxuriant and beautiful. “We [7:16:740]past this day,” he observes, “thorow the most pleasant and pregnant valley that ever eye beheld. On the right hand a ridge of mountains, whereon stands Hebron; on the left the Mediterranean Sea, bordered with continued hills, beset with variety of fruits, as they are for the most part of this day’s journey. The champaign betweene about twenty miles over, full of flowrie hills ascending leisurely, and not much surmounting their ranker vallies, with groves of olives and other fruités dispersedly adorned.*’^[4. Sandys, lib-iii. p. IðO. ] In his journey southward along the coast to Rama and Joppa, he met with the same luxuriant country. The caravan, he mentions, lay in deep pastures, without controlment of the villagers; and descending through different valleys, having “divers orchards,” towards the sea, he found a want of trees, but no part barren; and the country, he adds, “would prove more profitable if planted with vines and fruités.” Higher up, the country becomes uneven and rocky, and so difficult is the road over rugged and pathless rocks, that though the journey between Jerusalem and Jaffa might be performed in thirteen hours, the distance not being more than forty miles, it generally occupies about a day and a half. The mountains consist of limestone, naked and barren, compared by Dr Clarke to the worst parts of the Apennines, which, however varied, have nothing either of the grand or the picturesque in their appearance. Yet however barren the hills in this district, the intervening valleys are remarkably fertile, and repay the labour of the cultivator by plentiful crops of tobacco, wheat, barley, Indian millet, melons, vines, olives, pumpkins, and cucumbers; while natural groves arise, consisting of the ever-green oak, the cypress, of andrachnes and turpentine trees; and the ground is covered with the rosemary, the cytasus, and the hyacinth. Of these valleys, that of Jeremiah and the Terebinthine Vale are remarkable; the latter famous in sacred history, as the scene of David’s triumph over the Philistine. The entrance into this vale is over hills and rocks; the mountain is still seen on the one side, and the mountain on the other, exactly as it is described in holy writ; and the valley between them, and the very brook in which David “chose those five smooth stones,” with one of which he smote the Philistine, and which has furnished drink to many a thirsty pilgrim, on his journey from Jaffa to Jerusalem.^[5. Sam. xvii. 2, 3; Clarke’s Travels in the Holy Land, vol. ii. chap, xviii. p. 625. ]

The vegetation of these mountains has been compared, for its richness, to that of Crete or Candia. Such is the spreading luxuriance of the forest, that travellers have reposed or dined under the shade of lemon-trees as large as one of the finest European oaks; and sycamores are to be seen, whose expanding foliage is sufficient to afford shelter to a band of twenty or thirty travellers, with their horses. Dr Clarke, in describing his journey to Jerusalem from the north, celebrates in the highest strains the beauty and fertility of the mountainous country through which he travelled. The road, he observes, was mountainous and rocky, and full of loose stones; yet the cultivation, he adds, is even marvellous, and affords one of the most striking examples of human industry that can be anywhere seen. “The limestone rocks,” he continues, “and stony valleys of Judea, were entirely covered with plantations of figs, vines, and olive-trees; not a single spot was neglected. The hills, from their bases to their upmost summits, were covered with gardens; all of these were entirely free from weeds, and in the highest state of agricultural perfection. Even the sides of the most barren mountains had been rendered fertile by being divided into terraces, like steps rising one above another, whereon soil had been accumulated with astonishing labour. Amongst the standing crops we noticed millet, cotton, linseed, and tobacco, and occasionally small fields of barley. In places where the ground is subjected to irrigation, two crops are produced, one of wheat in May, and another of pulse in autumn.”^[6. Clarke’s Travels in the Holy Land, vol. ii. p. 520. ] In many districts fine wines are produced; that of St John, near Bethlehem, is said to be delicious. On the eastern declivity of the central mountains, as they decline into the valley of the Jordan near Jericho, the olives are produced of a large size, which give oil of the finest quality. The mulberry grows in straight rows in the open field, intermingled with the vine, which, hanging in festoons from the branches, presents a graceful appearance; and several of the fruit-trees are continually bearing flowers and fruit in all their stages. This luxuriant vegetation may occasionally languish or be burnt up during the extreme heats and droughts of summer; and at all seasons it is liable to be interrupted, and is only seen in detached spots in more lofty situations; but these exceptions to the general luxuriance of the scene may partly be ascribed to the heat and drought of the climate, and partly also to the indolence and general barbarism of the country. It is certain, that the more deeply we penetrate into these hills, the rugged nature of the scenery and the barrenness of the country increases, and, “as we approach the centre of Judea,” says Μ. Chateaubriand, “the sides of the mountains enlarge, and assume an aspect at once more grand and barren; by little and little the vegetation languishes and dies; even mosses disappear; and a red and burning hue succeeds to the whiteness of the rocks. In the centre of the mountains there is an arid basin, enclosed on all sides with yellow pebble-covered summits, which afford a single opening to the east, through which the surface of the Dead Sea, and the distant hills of Arabia, present themselves to the eye. In the midst of this country of stones, encircled by a wall, we perceive extensive ruins, scanty cypresses, bushes of the aloe and prickly pear; some Arabian huts resembling white-washed sepulchres are spread over heaps of ruins. This spot is Jerusalem.”^[7. Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. chap. xvii. p. 70. ] From the central chain of mountains in Judea a desert extends eastward to the Dead Sea, which is encompassed by two rugged chains of sterile hills. North-eastward, the large and fertile valley of the Jordan, called El Gor, has in all ages been celebrated for its rare and valuable productions. It is described by Josephus as the most fruitful country of Judea, in which numerous palm-trees flourished near the town of Jericho, besides the balsam-tree, which was considered as one of the great staples of the country, and the source of its wealth. All these fine productions, by which in ancient times the country was enriched, have now entirely disappeared; and in the vicinity of Jericho there is not a tree of any description, either of palm or balsam, and scarcely any verdure or bushes, to be seen about the site of this city, which is in ruins, and surrounded with desolation. This is ascribed, however, by Mr Buckingham, more to the neglect of agriculture, and of the ancient aqueducts which were constructed for the irrigation of the land, than to any change in the climate or soil. There are traces in many parts of Judea, of ancient and more extended, as well as more skilful cultivation, such as the remains of walls, which were built to support the soil on the declivities of the hills; also of cisterns, in which the rain-water was collected, and afterwards distributed in canals over the fields. In a hot and dry climate, and a rocky country, water is a main ingredient of fertility; and under an ardent sun a prodigious produce must have been extracted, by means of this artificial irrigation, from the thirsty soil. All the ancient accounts of Judea, accordingly, agree in describing it as a rich, [7:16:741]productive, and well-cultivated country; and, under all the ruthless desolations of war and barbarism to which it has been exposed, it still retains the traces of careful cultivation. It still answers to its ancient character of a land flowing with milk and honey; the flocks of the Arabs finding here luxuriant pastures, and the wild bees still lodging in the holes of the rocks, where they lay up their stores of fragrant honey, that is seen flowing from them.

Every spot in Judea is consecrated by ancient recollections, and has been the scene of some great event in sacred history. Jerusalem, the capital, has been already described under its proper title, and is still a remarkable city, though declined from its ancient splendour. The other towns are Bethlehem, the birthplace of our Saviour, about six miles to the south of Jerusalem, renowned for its antiquity, and for the localities consecrated by the Redeemer’s presence; and especially for an elegant church, on the supposed site of the sacred manger, enriched by offerings from all the nations in Europe. It contains from 1000 to 1500 inhabitants, mostly Christian. Hebron is still farther to the south, in a less arid country, with 1000 or 1200 inhabitants. This ancient city, the seat of David’s kingdom before he took Zion from the Jebusites, is entirely in ruins. Gaza, famous as the scene of Samson’s exploits, is situated near the sea-coast, on a hill in the midst of valleys, and these again surrounded with hills planted with all sorts of delicate fruits. It has now declined, like all the other cities in this country, from its ancient importance; the buildings, says Sandys,^[8. Lib. iii. p. 149. ] being “mean, both for form and matter; some built of mud'; among all, not any comely or convenient ;” “yet,” he continues, “even there some relicks left that testifie a better condition. For divers simple roofs are supported with goodly pillars of Parian marble; some plaine, some curiously carved. A number broken in pieces, do serve for thresholds, jambs of doors, and sides of windows, unto every beggarly cottage.” Ten miles north of Gaza, on the sea-coast, stands Ascalon, celebrated during the Crusades, but now a place of no note. Azotus and Acheron, also on the coast, are places of no account; and Rama, about thirty miles north-west of Jerusalem (not the city to which the prophecy of Jeremiah applies, “In Rama was a voice heard,” &c.), a magnificent city during the time of the Crusades, was found by Dr Clarke to exhibit one scene of ruin. This was no doubt partly occasioned by the plague, which had raged in Judea previous to his visit, but partly also to the general tendency to decline and ruin, which is seen throughout the whole country, from the indolence and barbarism of the inhabitants, and the oppressions to which they are exposed. Tire remarks of Sandys on the incongruities seen in the buildings at Gaza, of marble pillars in the meanest structures, apply generally to the towns throughout the Holy Land; all of which, however mean in their present appearance, bear the marks of former magnificence, and of a happier era. About ten miles to the west is situated the town of Joppa or Jaffa, which owes all its celebrity and importance to its being the port of Jerusalem, being one of the worst harbours in the Mediterranean. It was in ancient times the only port in Judea, to which, from Mount Libanus, were brought the materials for building the temple of Solomon, previous to their being transported by land to Jerusalem. To the north of Jerusalem, on the western slope of the central mountains as they decline into the valley of the Jordan, stood the ancient city of Jericho, now a scene of ruin, so that the site of this city is scarcely known; and Buckingham, one of the latest and most judicious as well as learned travellers, is of opinion that it has been fixed too near the river Jordan, at Rihhah. In a spot near to this he discovered heaps of ruins, the position of which seemed to agree more accurately with the site assigned to Jericho by Josephus than any other in the country.

To the north of Judea lies the country of Samaria, which is the middle division of Palestine, and is now chiefly comprehended in the district of Naplous. This district of the country is, like Judea, mountainous in the interior; but along the sea-shore extends the plain of Sharon, from Mount Carmel on the north, with little interruption, according to Chateaubriand, into Judea, as far south along the shore as Gaza. But this space comprises, properly speaking, four distinct plains, separated from each other by ridges covered with loose stones. The soil of the plains in Samaria, though it is sandy in its nature, is of extreme fertility. It is covered during the spring with many varieties of luxuriant flowers, with white and red roses, with the narcissus, the lily white and yellow, and other beautiful and fragrant flowers and shrubs. Dr Clarke mentions, that he observed the cactus ficus Indicus growing to an enormous size, its gaudy blossoms making a splendid show, and concealing the thorns under them, that inflict severe and even dangerous wounds in this climate.^[9. Travels in the Holy Land, voh ii. chap. xv. p. 502» ] This fertile soil, according to Chateaubriand, languishing under the iron rod of Turkish despotism, produces nothing but thistles, dry and withered grass, mixed with inconsiderable plantations of cotton, millet, and grain. The condition of the country, no doubt, depends on the character of the Turkish pasha, to whose care it is committed; and the fairest promise of prosperity is frequently blighted by the misrule of a cruel and avaricious tyrant. Such was Djezzar Pasha, who ruled the pachalik of Acre at the time Dr Clarke visited the Holy Land; and who, by his cruelty and extortion, converted a fertile district into a desert. But the country that was under the milder rule of the pasha of Damascus bore an entirely different appearance; and Dr Clarke observes, “cultivated fields, gardens, and cheerful countenances, exhibited a striking contrast to the territories of Djezzar Pasha, where all was desolation, war, and gloominess.” Mr Buckingham, however, ascribes this improved aspect of the country less to the influence of the government, than to the difference in the respective characters of the inhabitants of the hill country and the plain. At the later period, when he visited this district, it was ruled by the pasha of Acre, with benevolence and equity; and in the interval that had elapsed from the death of Djezzar, the country might have recovered from the effects of his violence and tyranny. The peasant will not cultivate where he is not sure of reaping the fruit, and, under the extortions of such a tyrant as Djezzar, the most fertile country may languish and decay. But the young corn and verdant spots, seen by Mr Buckingham, even to the mountain top, attest a flourishing state of agriculture scarcely consistent with the barbarous oppression of the former pasha, seeing that the effects of such tyranny are permanent; debasing, as it does, the habits of the people, and fostering an indolence and apathy that paves the way for the desolation of the country. Of the aspect of Samaria Mr Buckingham generally observes, that the face of the country so far resembles Judea, that both are composed of abrupt and rugged hills, differing essentially from the plains of Galilee. But the country of Palestine seems to deteriorate towards the south; it assumes a more bold, mountainous, and rugged appearance, and contains a much larger proportion of arid soil. Thus, in Judea, the hills are mostly completely bare, and it is only the narrow intervening valleys that are fertile; in Samaria, on the other hand, the hills are clothed to the summits with vegetation. These, adds this enterprising and judicious traveller, with the luxuriant valleys which they enclose, pre*
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sent scenes of unbroken verdure in almost every point of view, which are delightfully variegated by the picturesque forms of the hills and vales themselves, enriched by the occasional sight of wood and water, in clusters of olive and other trees, and rills and torrents running among them.^[10. Buckingham’s Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. p. 390. ]

Samaria is divided from the northern province of Galilee by the river Kishon, or by the natural boundary of high ground, about six or eight miles nearly north and south, coming from the plain of Esdraelon, and terminating in the lofty promontory of Mount Carmel, famed of old for its beauty and luxuriant vegetation, and still bearing its native cedars and wild vines and olives, intermixed with brambles, as memorials of its ancient fertility and more careful cultivation, but, in general, consisting of barren and desolate rocks formed of a whitish stone, with flints imbedded in it. Sandys describes it as “rich in olives and vines, when husbanded, and abounding with several sorts of fruits and herbs both medicinal and fragrant, though now overgroune with woods and shrubs of sweet savour.”^[11. Pococke’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 56. ] It has, towards the east, the fine plain watered by the Kishon, which flows past its base into the sea; and on the west, a narrower plain descending to the Mediterranean. It does not exceed 1500 feet in height. During the middle ages this mountain was filled with grottos, cut out of the rock, the abode of numerous monks, who, from this mountain, took the name of Carmelites. To each monastery a chapel and little garden were attached, so that the mountain was entirely covered with them. Mr Buckingham mentions that he saw several of these grottos, all small and rude; and a little below, he came to a sort of caravanserai, built before a fine cave, into which he entered, and found a well-hewn chamber cut entirely out of the rock, and squared with great care, being twenty paces long, twelve broad, and from fifteen to eighteen high. It forms a considerable halt for travellers, as it affords good shelter, and contains a cistern of excellent water. Pococke also mentions one of these grottos near the foot of the hill, “which,” he adds, “is one of the finest I ever saw; it is like a grand saloon, and is about forty feet long, twenty wide, and fifteen high; it is cut out of the rock, and is now converted into a mosque.”^[12. Pococke, vol. ii. p. 4∏. ] The heights of Carmel enjoy a pure and enlivening atmosphere, while, in the interior, the sky is often obscured by fogs; and from the top of the mountain is an extensive prospect of the Mediterranean to the west, the snowy heights of Lebanon towering above the summits of the other mountains on the east, with Acre and the adjacent fertile plains. On the summit formerly stood the monastery which was for a long period the head-quarters of the Carmelite friars, and which is said to have been built near the spot where Elias offered up sacrifices. This monastery, which was not a fine building, is now entirely abandoned, and the monk who has charge of it lives in the town of Caypha, below. It was used as an hospital by the French during their campaign in Egypt, for which its retired and healthy situation, and its interior structure, well adapted it. It has been since greatly injured by the barbarous Turks; its altars have been stripped, and its roofs beaten in, though there still remains, for the edification of devout visitors, a small stone altar, in a grotto dedicated to St Elias, over which a coarse painting is seen of the prophet leaning on a wheel, with fire, and the other symbols of sacrifice beside him. There are few towns of any note in this once flourishing, but now comparatively desolate country. The chief town, however, Nablous or Napolose, Neapolis in the days of Herod, and the ancient Sichem, seems still to be, according to the account of Dr Clarke, the metropolis of a rich and extensive country, abounding in provisions, and all the ne cessaries of life. The white bread exposed for sale here on the streets is far superior to any seen elsewhere in the country. The inhabitants are industrious, and the manufactures of the town, of which soap is the principal, supply a very widely extended neighbourhood. The town is described as being embosomed in the most delightful and fragrant bowers; half concealed by rich gardens, and by stately trees collected into groves, all around the bold and beautiful valley in which it stands.^[13. Lib. iii. p. 203. ]

Sebaste, the ancient Samaria, the capital of the country, is now a village consisting of a few humble dwellings in the midst of magnificent ruins. This place was famous in the ancient Jewish history, and is mentioned as a city of importance by the Roman historians, and also by Josephus. It escaped the notice of Dr Clarke, though he passed near it, and he accordingly mistakes the castle of Sanhoor, or Santomi, for the site of this ancient metropolis. But its ruins are described at length by Buckingham. He saw the remains of one large street, consisting of eighty-three columns erect, and of others which had fallen, but all of them without capitals. On the eastern side of the hill on which the city stood, eight large and eight small columns are still standing, with many others lying near them, and blocks of stone and fallen pillars scattered on the adjacent ground; and in the humble walls of the houses that form the modem village, portions of sculptured blocks of stone are perceived, and even fragments of granite pillars, worked into the masonry, while other remains of former and more magnificent edifices are seen scattered around. The most conspicuous object that still remains at St Sebaste, is a large cathedral, now in ruins, attributed to the piety of the Empress St Helena. It is about a hundred feet in length by fifty in breadth, the northern wall quite plain; the eastern front semicircular, with three open and two closed windows, each contained in arches divided from each other by three Corinthian columns.^[14. Ibid· vol. ii. p. 507∙ ] Most of the other towns here, as well as in Judea, exhibit marks of ruin, amid the memorials of ancient magnificence. The small village of Jennin, about twenty-five miles to the north, contains the ruins of a palace and of a mosque, with marble pillars, fountains, and even piazzas in a perfect state; and the ancient Cesarea, on the sea-coast, is now a scene of ruin, where fragments of fine marble pillars, and of ruined houses, are seen strewed on the ground, which is overgrown with briars and thistles, and the haunt of wild boars, which abound in the neighbouring plain.^[15. Ibid. p. 59. ] Tortura is merely a small village on the coast, for large boats which are forced to put in here by stress of weather. It is generally supposed to be the ancient Dora.

To the north of Samaria is the district of Galilee, celebrated as the scene of many interesting incidents in sacred history. This province, though still hilly, contains a much greater proportion of champaign country than either Samaria or Judea; and its extensive plains have been celebrated by all travellers for their beauty and fertility. The delightful plain of Zabulon is described by Dr Clarke as being everywhere covered with spontaneous vegetation, flourishing in the wildest exuberance; as delightful as the rich vales in the south of the Crimea, and resembling the finest parts of Kent and Surrey.^[16. Travels in the Holy Land, vol. ii. chap. xiü. p. 400. ] The soil, although stony, is exceedingly rich, and well adapted for wheat, as well as for the olive, the vine, and other delicious fruits. The grapes excel so much both in size and flavour, that a cluster of them furnishes out the simple supper of a large family. Maundrell describes these plains as being eminently fertile, well watered, and containing every thing else that can render it pleasant and fertile; [7:16:743]but at the same time desolate for want of culture, and overgrown with weeds as high as the horses’ backs.^[17. Maundrell, p. 52. ] Yet amidst this fertility there are tracts of limestone hills, which present one unbroken scene of sterility as far as the eye can reach. Buckingham mentions that he passed over a ridge of these barren hills in his approach to Nazareth from Acre, and that in most parts the hill was so steep and rugged, that he and his fellow-traveller were forced to descend it on foot. It is by these ridges, hills, or rocks, bare and barren, that the fertile plains of Palestine are separated from each other. Southward from Nazareth, which is situated on a range of rocky hills, extends the fertile and celebrated plain of Esdraelon, which is about two days’journey in length and twenty-one miles in breadth. This plain is covered with a fine red soil; it is the most fertile portion of all the land of Canaan; and though a solitude, lying waste, excepting only a few patches ploughed for cultivation towards its southern edge, it is one vast meadow, covered with the richest pasture, where formerly the tribe of Issachar rejoiced in their tents, and over which now range the wandering Arab tribes, around whose dark-brown tents the flocks are seen to gambol to the sound of the reed, which at night-fall recalls them to their home. The plain of Galilee is almost a continuation of the plain of Esdraelon, and appeared, according to the view that Buckingham had of it from Mount Tabor, to be highly cultivated throughout. The plain of Esdraelon, the plain of Megiddo, the Galilean plain, or the great plain as it is often called by way of distinction, has been from the most ancient times the arena on which hostile armies have contended for the dominion of Palestine. Here it was that Barak, descending with his ten thousand chariots from Mount Tabor, discomfited the host of Sisera; here it was that Josiah fought in disguise against Necho king of Egypt, and was slain by the arrows of the Egyptians; and here it was that the Romans arrayed their hostile squadrons for the conquest of die country. “It has been,” observes Dr Clarke, “a chosen place of encampment in every contest carried on in this country, from the days of Nabuchadonozor, king of the Assyrians (in the history of whose war with Arphaxad it is mentioned as the great plain of Esdrelom), until the disastrous march of Napoleon Bonaparte from Egypt into Syria. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christians, Frenchmen, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, warriors out of every nation under heaven, have pitched their tents upon the plain of Esdraelon, and have beheld the various banners of their nations wet with the dews of Thabor and Hermon.”^[18. Travels in the Holy Land, chap. xv. p. 499. ]

These two latter hills or mounts are often mentioned in sacred history. They are not so remarkable for their height as for their steep ascent from the adjacent ground. Mount Tabor, which rises abruptly from the plain of Esdraelon, is the last to the eastward of a range of four hills of a similar form, but less elevated, and less insulated from the neighbouring hills, and all having passes between them. Its height is 1000 feet, and it is a rounded hill of a globular shape, having its outlines smooth, and its breadth at the base greater than its height. It is clothed, for about one-fourth part upwards, with numerous luxuriant trees and thickets; and the top is an oval plain about a quarter of a mile long, covered with a fertile soil on the west, and having at its eastern end a mass of ruins, seemingly of churches, grottos, strong walls, and fortifications, all of some antiquity, though not of a remote age. These remains here, as in every other part of the Holy Land, afford subjects for monkish fables; and in this manner every remarkable spot in the country is converted into the scene of some memorable incident in holy writ. Here are three grottos, pointed out as the remains of the three tabernacles proposed to be erected by Peter at the time of the transfiguration. In one of these grottos there is a square stone used as an altar; and the night of the sixth August is held as a great festival by all the friars from the convent of St Nazareth, who come with their banners and their host to say mass, accompanied by the catholics in the neighbourhood, and spend the night in festivity, lighting huge bonfires, the wood on the mountains being taken for fuel, and its southern side being in consequence nearly denuded of all the trees which formerly clothed it. There are other scriptural references to Mount Tabor. It was towards this mount that Barak was commanded to draw his forces when he went to meet the host of Sisera; and it seems to have been, in after ages, considered as a good position, as it was, during the invasion of Judea by the Romans, encompassed with a wall, and occupied as a military post when the Jews were besieged by Placidus, the lieutenant of Vespasian. There is also a vague tradition of a city built on the top, which sustained a five years’ siege; and it is certain that it was formerly a place of great strength; and when it lost this warlike character, it became a sanctuary; so that ancient remains, religious as well as warlike, now mingle on its summit in one common ruin. Hermon, about six miles distant, rises from that range of hills which bounds the great plain of Esdraelon on the south. Its lofty peak condenses the vapours of the atmosphere, which descend in copious dews, and produce the most luxuriant vegetation, while the surrounding country is parched with drought; so that this renowned mount completely answers to all the scriptural allusions concerning its fertility and verdure, and the refreshing dews by which it is watered, and which in this country are so profuse as to compensate the long drought, and supply the place of rain.

Galilee is remarkable as the scene of our Saviour’s first preaching and miracles, and its towns and villages are associated with many interesting events of Scripture history. Nazareth contains about 2000 inhabitants, consisting of Catholic Christians, Maronites, Mahommedans, and schismatic Greeks. The Maronite church is built over a grotto, held sacred as the supposed scene of the angel’s annunciation to Mary, of her conception and birth of the Saviour. There is another grotto, with two red granite pillars about two feet in diameter at its entrance, one of which is said to mark the spot where the virgin rested, and the other where the angel stood when he intimated to Mary her favour with the Lord. The grotto, though only about eight feet in height, still remains in its original roughness, the roof being slightly arched. Every spot here has its absurd legend, the credit of which the friars are interested to maintain. The chimney of the hearth is shown on which Mary warmed the food for her infant son, and where she baked cakes for her husband; also the apartment in which her son lived in subjection to his parents; and Buckingham is of opinion that this last tradition is nowise improbable, as excavated buildings in the side of steep hills, such as the one he describes, are more secure and more permanent than others, and as it is known that Joseph and Mary dwelt in this place, where they reared their son. There is no evidence however to prove, that though they dwelt at Nazareth, this house was their residence, farther than the most vague tradition; and Dr Clarke seems to consider, with much appearance of reason, all these legends as inventions of the superstitious and ignorant monks, in order to maintain the reputation of these holy places. The synagogue in which Christ read and expounded the prophet Esaias is shown within the town; and, more than a mile distant to the southward, the precipice is pointed out from which the Jews, offended with his doctrine, would [7:16:744]have cast him headlong. Not many miles to the east of Nazareth is Cana of Galilee, where our Saviour performed his first miracle of changing the water into wine; and about a quarter of a mile from the village there is a delicious spring of clear water, whence the village is supplied and whence was drawn the water which was made wine. Cana is a small village, containing the ruins of a church, erected, according to tradition, on the spot where the marriage-feast of Cana was held; and among these ruins Dr Clarke remarked, that there were large massy stone water-pots, the vessels commonly in use in the country, and answering the description of those used of old by the Jews. About three miles from Cana is the village of Turan, in a field, where they assert that the disciples plucked the ears of corn on the Sabbath-day, and from which the pious devotees from Italy still gather the stalks of wheat as relics to carry back to their own country. From nine to twelve miles north-north-east stands the town of Tiberias, along the edge of the lake of that name. It has all the showy appearance of a Turkish citadel from without, which is sadly contrasted with its wretchedness within; it is supposed to be the Chemeroth of the Hebrews. No antiquities now remain except an ancient church, constructed during the fourth century. Two or three miles southward from the town are warm baths, that have been long in great repute. A small and mean building has been erected over them by the Mahommedans. Extensive ruins are scattered around, supposed to be the remains of Roman edifices. Of the other ancient cities of Galilee, Capernaum, now called Talherom or Tel Hoorn, situated about ten miles in a north-easterly direction from the lake of Tiberias, formerly a place of importance, is now reduced to a station for the wandering Arabs. As is the case, however, with the other towns of Judea, the memorials of former magnificence lie scattered around. The traces of a magnificent building are still to be seen, though its ruin is so complete that its character can no longer be ascertained. The whole space within its extensive walls is covered with blocks of sculptured stone, in friezes, cornices, and mouldings. Bethsaida, also near the Lake of Tiberias, and which was enlarged and embellished by Herod, is so entirely ruined that no traces remain to mark out the site of its walls, or of its temples or palaces. Acre, the Accho of the Scriptures, and one of the strongholds from which the Israelites were notable to dislodge the Canaanites, is celebrated for the bloody conflicts of which it was the scene during the crusading wars, and in modern times for its gallant defence against the victorious legions of Bonaparte. It is situated on the extremity of a plain, at the bottom of the bay of Acre, formed by the promontory of Mount Carmel on the south-west, and the skirts of the plain itself on the north-east, and about ten miles across. A particular description of Acre will be found under its proper title; and we may only add, that Mr Buckingham, in his visit to this town, thought that he discovered the Canaanitish remains of the ancient city of Accho. The workmen were sinking a ditch to surround the outer wall, to the depth of twenty feet below the level of the soil; by which the foundations of very old buildings were exposed to view, constructed of such materials as marked beyond a doubt a very high antiquity; being a “highly burned brick, with a mixture of cement and sand, as well as small portions of stone in some parts, the whole so firmly bound together by age, and the strongly adhesive power of the cement, as to form one solid mass.”^[19. Travels in Palestine, vol. i. p. 116. ]

Judea is intersected throughout its whole length by a ridge of mountains, from which other and lesser branches diverge, and overspread the whole country. These mountains are a prolongation of the Syrian chain, which begins on the south of Antioch, with the huge peak of Caprus, shooting up to the heavens, its needle-like point encircled with forests. This chain, on entering Judea, follows the shores of the Mediterranean, from which it is not above twenty or thirty miles distant. Mount Libanus, which is within the line of perpetual snow, is its highest summit. This ridge divides itself into two, namely, that t of Lebanon, which overlooks the Mediterranean, and another chain, called Anti-Libanus, which looks eastward over the Syrian desert. This chain must be of very great height, as its snowy summits were seen by Dr Clarke in his journey from Nazareth to Tiberias, towering beyond a series of intervening mountains with unspeakable greatness. He considered these mountains as part of the chain of Lebanon, though the Arabs who accompanied him described them as part of the Anti-Libanus chain, near Damascus. “The summit,” says Dr Clarke, “was so lofty that the snow entirely covered the upper part of it; not lying in patches, as I have seen it during summer upon the tops of very elevated mountains, as on Bennevis in Scotland, but investing all the higher parts with that perfect white and smooth velvet-like appearance which snow only exhibits when it is very deep; a striking spectacle in such a climate, where the beholder, seeking protection from a burning sun, considers the firmament to be on fire.”^[20. Travels in the Holy Land, vol. ii. chap. xiv. p. 456. ] Lebanon is still covered with tall cedars, and in ascending its sloping sides, all the varieties of a European climate are experienced, with a corresponding variety of vegetable produce. The ground is enriched with thousands of rare plants, and beautiful and fragrant flowers; the primrose of Libanus, the mountain amaryllis, mingling their brilliant hues with the verdure of the birch-leaved cherry. Not only the summits, but the higher valleys, are covered with perpetual snow. At a lower level, a perennial verdure is maintained, by the humidity and coolness of the atmosphere, and the good quality of the soil; and it is pleasing to remark, in these higher regions, where industry ι is here less harassed by the predatory inroads of the Arabs, that the country exhibits a flourishing appearance; and we here behold those ingeniously contrived terraces, which preserve the fertile earth; well planted vineyards, which produce the finest wines; fields of wheat; plantations of cotton, of olives, and of mulberries, which in the midst of rocky steeps, present the pleasing picture of successful industry. These mountains are chiefly composed of limestone rocks, and abound in those ores which are common in Palestine, and are characteristic of that formation.

The deep ravines of these mountains are watered by numerous streams, which arise on all sides in great abundance. But the principal river of Palestine is the Jordan, which has its rise in the range of Libanus, and, running from north to south, intersects the whole country of Palestine. It forms the small lake of Hoole, and enters the great lake called the Sea of Tiberias, from the southern extremity of which it again issues. Flowing southward through an extensive plain, it passes Jericho to the east, and falls into the Dead Sea or Lake of Asphaltites. The Lake of Tiberias at Gennesareth is twelve or sixteen miles in length from north to south, and in breadth seems to be from six to nine miles. The surrounding scenery is of no common grandeur, the lake is surrounded by precipitous hills, which shelter it from the tempest. Yet it is occasionally liable to dangerous storms, because, when the wind blows violently, it strikes down perpendicularly on the surface, and ploughs it up into the most frightful inequalities. It was in one of these storms that the disciples of our Saviour, who had embarked in one of the small vessels that traverse the lake, were in danger of perishing, when they saw Jesus, about the fourth watch of the night, walking upon[7:16:745] the waves. The barrenness of the surrounding mountains, and the total absence of wood, give an aspect of dul-nesstothe scenery; and this impression is heightened by the dead calm and the silence which reigns over the wide expanse of its waters, where not a boator vessel of any kind is to be seen. The Lake Asphaltites, or the Dead Sea, in which the Jordan terminates, is sixty or seventy miles in length by ten or twelve in breadth. This lake is slightly curved in the form of a bow, sunk between two ranges of mountains, which have no resemblance of form, nor any common properties of soil. It is surrounded, like the Lake of Tiberias, by lofty and barren mountains; and is also remarkable for the death-like stillness of its waters. The surrounding scenery is represented as being in the highest degree grand and awful; and its desolate aspect is well adapted to the marvellous tales which are told of its malignant influence. The waters of this lake were formerly believed to be destructive of animal life, so that no fishes could live in them; that birds flying across were killed by the pestilential exhalations from its surface; that heavy bodies were buoyed up by the specific gravity of its waters; and, finally, a singular species of fruit, called the apples of Sodom, was said to be produced on its shores, which was beautiful to the eyes, but bitter to the taste, and full of ashes or dust within. All these fables have, however, disappeared before the rational inquiries of modern travellers. It is now known, that the supposed deadly waters of this lake swarm with myriads of fishes; that flocks of swallows are seen constantly skimming along its surface; that the absence of other birds arises from the want of vegetable food in the adjacent rocks or barren plains; and that the mysterious fruit found on its shores is as natural as any other vegetable production. Respecting this fruit various theories have prevailed. Tacitus and Josephus are the first authors who mention its singular properties; other authors, describing this fruit as an emblem of worldly pleasures, fair without, but full of rottenness within, gave a romantic and fabulous cast to the story; so that subsequent travellers, such as Pococke and Shaw, doubted the existence of any such production. Hasselquist, however, the botanist, described it as the fruit of the Solanum melongena, found in abundance near the Dead Sea, of which the fruit, when attacked, turns to dust, the skin only remaining entire, and of a beautiful colour. M. Seetzen thought that he discovered the fruit called the apple of Sodom, which contained within a sort of cotton resembling silk; while Chateaubriand describes it as growing on a shrub which he found everywhere within three leagues of the mouth of the Jordan. Before it is ripe it is filled with a corrosive and saline juice; and when dried it contains a blackish seed, that may be compared to ashes, and which has the taste of a bitter powder.^[21. Chateaubriand, vol. i. p. 413. “J’ai cueilli,” he observes, “une démi-douzaine de ces fruits; j’en possède encore quatre desséchés, bien conservés, et qui peuvent mériter l’attention des naturalistes.” ] The water of this lake is of greater specific gravity than any other known, and is remarkably buoyant. Its specific gravity is 1∙211, while that of fresh water is 1000. It is impregnated with a mixture of different saline substances; such as lime, magnesia, soda, sulphate of lime; and the taste is a compound of salt and bitter, extremely offensive.

The valley of the Jordan is a marked feature in thescenery of Judea. It is situated between the lofty and central range of mountains on the west, which rise to the height of from 1500 to 2000 feet, and the range of the Arabian mountains on the east, the height of which does not exceed 1000 feet. Nothing can exceed the forbidden aspect of these western hills; not a blade of verdure is to be seen over their whole extent, nor any sound to be heard; the eastern range is equally barren, except some little dells near the plain, where the rains, being collected, favour vegetation. This is said to be the wilderness in which the Saviour dwelt with wild beasts, while angels ministered to him; and it certainly forms, according to the accounts of all travellers, a most appropriate scene for such an incident. In the mountains are many grottos of the early anchorites, in long ranges, and consisting of separate chambers, now entirely deserted. Here Mr Buckingham observed the remains of a fine Roman aqueduct, consisting of at least twenty arches, and leading from the foot of the mountains, in a direction from west to east, into the valley of Jordan. Here also he fixed the site of the cities of Bethel and Ai, describing the nature of the ground as being extremely favourable for the ambush by which these cities were destroyed. The great plain of Jordan, hemmed in on both sides by mountains, fills up the whole space between the Lake of Tiberias and the Dead Sea, and it is about fifteen miles in breadth. This plain is in some parts unfertile, the soil being covered with a saline incrustation, and having small heaps of a white powder like sulphur scattered at intervals over its surface; in other parts it is more fertile, being covered with a carpet of green. The country that lies beyond the Arabian mountains on the east of the valley of Jordan, is a sort of table-land, though still diversified in its surface: it is a fine country, of an entirely different aspect from the bare mountains of Judea, and rivalling in fertility and picturesque beauty the celebrated plains of Zabulon and Esdraelon in Galilee and Samaria. Mr Buckingham describes with equal delight and admiration the varied beauties of this romantic region, the Decapolis of the Romans, the seat of ten renowned cities, famed for wealth and refinement, but now a scene of desolation, over which the wild Arab ranges with his flocks in quest of pasture or of prey. The country, according to the account of this traveller, is of extraordinary richness, abounding in the most beautiful prospects of thick forests, verdant slopes, and extensive plains. The landscape alone varied at every turn, and gave new beauties from every different point of view. “The general face of this region,” he adds, “improved as we advanced farther into it; and every new direction of our path opened upon us views which surprised and charmed us by their grandeur and their beauty. Lofty mountains gave an outline of the most magnificent character; flowing beds of secondary hills softened the romantic wildness of the picture; gentle slopes, clothed with wood, gave a rich variety of tints hardly to be imitated by the pencil; deep valleys, filled with murmuring streams and verdant meadows, offered all the luxuriance of cultivation; and herds and flocks gave life and animation to scenes as grand, as beautiful, and as highly picturesque, as the genius or taste of a Claude could either invent or desire.” This district of Bothin, or the ancient Battanea, is distinguished by numerous caverns hollowed out of the calcareous mountains, which served formerly as the abodes of the ancient inhabitants, and now of the wandering Arabs. It was here that a modern traveller, Dr Seetzen, discovered, in 1816, the ruins of Djerash, the ancient Gerasa, where temples, superb amphitheatres of marble, and hundreds of columns, are still seen, among other splendid remains of its ancient grandeur. Tlíe finest object which he met with was a long street bordered on each side with a row of Corinthian columns of marble, and terminating in a semicircular open space surrounded with sixty Ionic columns. This city occupied nearly a square about a mile in length, facing the four cardinal points. It stood on the slopes of two opposite hills. The whole surface of the western hill is covered with temples, theatres, colonnades, and ornamental architecture. The plan of the city was distinctly traced by Mr Buckingham, amid its splendid ruins; the main street intersected by two other streets at right angles, [7:16:746]in which the Ionic and Corinthian orders prevail. A detailed description of the temple, the theatre, and the other ornamental buildings which are seen at this place, and of which, though in ruin, a large proportion still remains, would be inconsistent with our present limits; and the reader is therefore referred to the work of Mr Buckingham, which contains ample details on the subject.^[22. Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. chap. xxi. ] Amman, the ancient Philadelphia, one of the principal cities of Decapolis, presents also very splendid ruins; and to the south, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, is found the bleak, barren, and mountainous district of Carac, where are the ruins of Rabboth-Moab, the ancient capital, and formerly a populous and an important place. Farther to the north are found the countries called by the moderns Haouran and Dschaulan, little known until, of late years, they were explored by the travellers Dr Seetzen and Burckhardt. They consist of a vast plain of table-land, stretching southward from Damascus, not watered by any great river, yet rendered fertile by the industry of the inhabitants, who collect the rain-water into ponds for the purpose of irrigation, and thus contrive to raise large crops of grain. Of these countries Haouran is the most celebrated for its luxuriant harvests of wheat; and the undulations of the ripened grain on its extensive fields have been compared to the rolling waves of the ocean. Many hummocks are seen scattered over the plain, the sites generally of deserted villages. All these hummocks, and every stone found in the field, all the building stones, and the whole mountains of Haouran, consist of basalt; and the houses being entirely built of this stone, even to the door-posts, present rather a sombre appearance.

The vegetable products of Palestine have been partly described in the preceding sketch of the country. On the fertile plains of Galilee and Samaria, as well as in the valleys among the hills, are produced abundant crops of grain, namely, wheat, rye, barley, Indian millet, also cotton, linseed, and tobacco, while the limestone rocks and stony valleys are clothed with plantations of the fig, the vine, and the olive trees; pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons are also produced in great abundance and perfection. The water-melons, especially, which are produced at Joppa, are celebrated all over the Levant, and are delicious. They are also found at Damietta in Egypt, and seem to owe their flavour to the peculiar soil of these two places; for when they are transplanted, though they be cultivated in the same manner, they lose their exquisite flavour, and quickly degenerate.^[23. Richardson’s Travels along the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 268. ] The orange tree, dates, and bananas, and other delicate fruits, also flourish in Palestine. Sesamum abounds, which affords oil; and the doura, a species of grain similar to that in Egypt. Maize thrives in light soils, and rice on marshy grounds. Indigo grows wild on the banks of the Jordan, and with care and industry might be brought to perfection. The white mulberry forms the riches of the mountain country of the Druses, by means of the beautiful silks which are obtained from it; and the grapes, that grow especially on the mountains of Lebanon, yield red and white wines, which rival those of France or Portugal. Jaffa boasts her lemons and her water-melons, and Gama possesses both the dates of Mecca and the pomegranates of Algiers. Sugar is cultivated in the adjoining country of Syria; and there is little doubt that it might be transplanted with success to the equally congenial soil of Palestine. The coffee shrub from Arabia might also be cultivated with equal success. Palestine produces a variety of forest trees. The sea-shore is lined with mastic trees, palms, and prickly pears. Higher up, the sycamore tree repays the labour of the cultivator, and natural groves arise, of oaks, cypresses, andraches, and turpentine trees. The oaks of Bashan still remain, and Lebanon is crowned with its stately cedars. The ground is covered with shrubs and fragrant flowers; so that the vegetation on the mountains has been compared to that of Ida in Crete.^[24. Malte-Brun, vol. ii. p. 150. ] In the desert and rocky places are found scanty cypresses, bushes of the aloe and prickly pear, and a few other thorny shrubs.

Owing to the gross ignorance and the wandering and predatory habits of the inhabitants of Palestine, no inquiries have ever been made into the mineral produce of the country; though there is little doubt but the mountains of Lebanon, if they were explored, would yield mineral ores, and other valuable substances. Rich iron mines are said to exist in the country of the Druses, but whether they are worked with any effect does not seem to be known. Nitre is here abundant, but alum and vitriols are less frequent. The only metal found is iron. The mountains along the shores of the Dead Sea consist of granite; and the country in many parts exhibits traces of a volcanic origin. Mr Buckingham, while crossing the river Hieromax in his journey to Nazareth, observed that the dark masses of rock over which it took its course resembled a stream of cooled lava. The stones of its bed were porous, and on the ground were small patches of sulphur in many places; and he was of opinion that all these, together with the hot springs he had visited, the lakes of Cesarea and Tiberias, the sulphureous and unfertile nature of the plain of Jericho in many parts, and the whole phenomena of the Dead Sea, namely, the bitumen, the lavas, and the pumice, which continue to be thrown ashore by its waves, were sufficient indications of volcanic fires, perhaps on the whole range of the long valley, from near the sources of the Jordan, to beyond the point of its issue in the great Lake of Asphaltites. The hot springs mentioned above were seen and examined by Mr Buckingham. One on the banks of the Hieromax emitted a highly sulphureous odour, and its heat was painful if the hand was immersed in its water beyond a few seconds. In the baths near Tiberias the water had also a slightly sulphureous taste, and was of a light-green colour; though the heat was not much greater than that of the atmosphere, the thermometer, which was at eighty-four degrees, rising when immersed in the water only to eighty-six. The hill from which these baths are supplied consists of a black and brittle sulphureous stone, which is found in the neighbourhood, as well as on the shores of the Dead Sea, and in other parts of the valley in which it is situated. Here also is found a species of limestone called the fetid, and emitting a highly offensive smell. The bitumen that is seen on the shores of this lake, or is collected in the middle of it by boats and rafts, rises from the bottom and floats on the surface.

The climate of Palestine varies in different districts, according to the locality and elevation of the ground; and the plains on the sea-shore are subjected to intense heat, accompanied with heavy rains. The plains in the interior, and especially those near Arabia, are subject to drought and to scorching heat; while the Libanus range of mountains, covered with everlasting snow, diffuse a refreshing coolness all around. In these elevated regions the winter, lasting from November to March, is sharp and rigorous. Heavy falls of snow take place every year, and cover the ground to the depth of several feet for months together. The spring and the autumn are mild and agreeable, and the summer is not oppressive. In the plains the heats during summer are most excessive. Dr Clarke mentions, that on the 6th July, at twelve o’clock, Fahrenheit’s thermometer,in a gloomy recess underground, perfectly shaded, stood at 100 degrees. In the course of the same month [7:16:747]the thermometer, before noon, in the shadiest place that could be found, stood at 102. During this excessive heat all nature seems to droop, and every animal seeks the shade. But the chameleon, the lizard, the serpent, and all sorts of beetles, bask in the sun, even at noon, on rocks and sandy places, and seem to rejoice under his scorching rays. These overpowering heats commence as soon as the sun has passed the equator, and continue till October. During this season the simoom, or the south wind of the desert, is frequently experienced. In July, Dr Clarke felt the parching influence of this unhealthy wind, which pervaded all places alike, coming as if from a furnace, and producing a feeling of suffocation. He himself was affected with giddiness and burning thirst from the fierce blast; afterwards with headach, frequent fits of shivering; and, finally, with violent fever. These Winds continue from one to three days. Easterly gales prevail during the spring and part of the summer. In June variable breezes commence, and blow from all points in the course of a single day. During the autumnal equinox, the north-west, which is a clear, dry, and sharp wind, begins to blow with strength. In November the wind shifts to the west and south-west, which invariably brings on heavy rains; the west wind being called by the Arabs the father of rain. Palestine, from its northern latitude, is without the range of the tropical rains; and has in their stead the early and the latter rains in spring and autumn. These are generally copious, though they sometimes fail, when the country is burnt up with drought. The heaviest rains fall generally in December, which in January spread a covering of verdure over the whole country. But when Mr Buckingham was travelling in Palestine, drought had prevailed from October to January, with only an interval of two or three days’ rain; and the whole country had a dry and parched appearance. The winter is so mild in the plains and along the seashore, that orange trees, dates, and bananas, and other delicate fruits, flourish in the open field. It is during this season that, contrary to what is observed in other countries, storms of thunder and lightning generally take place, accompanied by heavy showers of rain or large hail-stones. Maundrell mentions, that he met with a severe storm of heavy rain, with terrible lightning and thunder, on the 3d of March, in his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem.^[25. Maundre1Γs Journey, p. 9. ]

An enumeration of the animals which belong to Palestine is given in the sacred volume; but the particular animal to which the Hebrew name applies is often a question among the learned, and hence the zoology of this country may perhaps be best illustrated from the descriptions of modern travellers. Its domestic animals are chiefly those of Europe, with the addition of the buffalo and the camel. Its wild animals are the ounce or the panther, the hyena, the jackall, and, according to some, lions have been seen among the rushes and thickets on the banks of the Jordan. The gazelle or the antelope, supposed to be the roebuck or tzebi of the Hebrews, is seen in flocks bounding over the grassy plains, and is often hunted by the Arabs. The wild boar is also an object of the chase; and on a plain covered with bushes in the vicinity of Mount Carmel, Mr Buckingham saw a party of soldiers in pursuit of a large wild black boar, which still fled from the horsemen, though wounded and streaming with blood. Among the wild and solitary mountains the fallow-deer is to be found; also the wild goat, with horns bending over the back, a foot or fifteen inches in length; and the wild ass, which is found in all the most desolate parts of Asia. Of the ornithology of Palestine we have no very accurate or scientific account. There is, indeed, in the law of Moses an enumeration of the clean and the unclean birds; but great difficulties occur in translating the Hebrew nomenclature into modern language. The most remarkable of the feathered race may, however, be mentioned, such as the eagle, the vulture with the feathered ring round the neck, and from four to five feet in height,^[26. Buckingham’s Travels in Palestine, vol. i. p. 189. ] the ostrich, the hawk, the kite, the raven, &c.; and of sea-birds, the pelican, the stork, the cormorant, &c. Serpents and other reptiles, quickened into mischievous activity by the heat of the climate, are common in Palestine; and Dr Clarke mentions, that in passing through the streets of Nazareth he perceived a woman issuing hastily from a house, carrying a cradle containing an infant, and frantic with rage and grief. Returning immediately, she was seen beating something violently on the ground, which proved to be an enormous serpent, which she found near her infant, and which she quickly despatched, filling the air all the while with the most piercing shrieks. Dr Clarke does not describe to what species this serpent belonged. The gecko is a deadly reptile of the lizard tribe, resembling a chameleon, his head triangular and large, the eyes large, the tongue flat, rounded at the end, and covered with small scales, and the teeth so sharp as to make an impression on steel. It is of a green colour, spotted with brilliant red, and its bite kills in a few hours. The viper is remarkable for the malignity of its poison. It is about the thickness of a man’s arm, about two feet long, and beautifully variegated with yellow and brown spots. The black serpent is abouta cubit in length, and the thickness of a man’s finger. Its bite is not incurable. The cerastes, or horned viper, described by Bruce, is also found in Palestine; and the asp, the well-known cobra di capello. The former moves with great rapidity backwards or forwards, and has all the cunning of the serpent brood, creeping silently, and with its head averted, towards the object of its attack, until within a sufficient distance for the fatal spring. This is supposed to be the adder of the Scriptures. Other species of serpents are enumerated; and to this frightful catalogue is added the scorpion, whose bite, though not deadly, causes serious illness and pain. The country is occasionally visited by swarms of locusts, in such numbers that they darken the air, and consume grass, foliage, and every description of vegetation.

Palestine has been so often conquered and occupied by foreigners, that its population now presents a mixture of different races, so that it is not easy to say to what class the inhabitants chiefly belong. The Turks, the last conquerors of the country, are numerous, and occupy all the civil and military posts; but the Greek Christians are also a numerous body, and form a great proportion of the inhabitants of the towns. There are, besides, the Druses and the Maronites; the European Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Nestorians; and the wandering Arabs, who range over the desert plains. The Greek Christians enjoy the most ample toleration; and there is scarcely any considerable city without one or more convents. The Christians are generally more active in trade than the Mahommedans, and they have gradually increased in numbers and in wealth. In some places they mingle more freely with the Moslems than in the more civilized parts of Syria, to which the power of the pashas extends; and enjoy a community of privileges, without any enforcement of those odious distinctions of dress, tribute, and name, imposed by the Turkish oppressor, as the badge of servitude. It was asserted to Mr Buckingham, that there are Bedouin Arabs dwelling in tents, who have been converted to the Christian faith, and live in the regular exercise of that religion. But of those remarkable converts he could obtain no account. These Christians, however, profane their creed by an admixture of superstitious rites; and Dr Clarke, as well as other travellers, gave them no credit for the morality of [7:16:748]their lives. The contentions of the different Christian sects in Jerusalem, for admission into the temple, are often stained with blood; and many other examples are given of their gross superstition, and ignorance of the first principles of the Christian faith. After observing, that in Jerusalem there are sects of every denomination, and perhaps of almost every religion upon earth, Dr Clarke observes, “if we add, that, under the name of Christianity, every degrading superstition and profane rite equally remote from the enlightened tenets of the gospel and the dignity of human nature are professed and tolerated, we shall afford a true picture of the state of society in this country.”^[27. Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. chap. xiii. p. 405. ] The Druses, who reside in the mountains of Libanus, are a singular sect, whose tenets appear to incline to deism, as they profess to regard all modes of faith with equal indifference. Their number is estimated at 120,000. They are valiant, and faithful to their emirs or chiefs, and rigidly adhere to the barbarous principle of revenging blood by blood. Of the doctrines, practices, and manners of this singular sect, no very accurate account has ever been obtained. Dr Clarke, who conversed with one of them respecting their peculiar tenets, says that they worship Jonas the prophet, and Mahommed. Their rites are pagan, and they pay the highest adoration to a calf. Those with whom he conversed confessed that the pantheon of the Druses admitted indiscriminately, as objects of adoration, every deity or idol that had been worshipped by Heathens, Jews, Christians, or Mahommedans; all the prophets, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah, as well as Jesus and Mahommed; that every evening the okhals or priests set up a molten idol in the form of a calf, before which persons of both sexes make their prostrations; and then he adds, that a promiscuous intercourse takes place between the sexes. It seems doubtful, however, whether this stain of licentiousness can attach to the whole sect, as it is inconsistent with those habits of strict probity and industry, and that love of independence, which they are admitted on all hands to possess. The same traveller afterwards adds, that it is not true that they betray any inclination to Mahommedanism, because they show every mark of hatred and contempt to the Moslems, while they behave with benevolence and kindness to the Christians, whose religion they respect. Their language is Arabic; in every thing else they are a distinct race of men. From their physiognomy alone Dr Clarke was able to select one of the Druses from a whole company of Arabs. “A certain nobleness and dignity of feature,” he adds, “a marked elevation of countenance, a superior deportment, always distinguished them, accompanied by openness, sincerity, and very engaging manners.”^[28. Ibid. vol. ii. chap. xiv. p. 460. ] Although Mount Libanus be the chief residence of this sect, individuals are scattered over every part of the Holy Land. The Maronites, to the north of the country of the Druses, are inhabitants of the mountains of Syria, though great numbers of them dwell in Palestine. The inhabitants of Sephaury are chiefly Maronites, and they are found in Nazareth, along with Greeks and Catholics, as well as in other cities of Galilee. They are connected with the church of Rome, though they maintain the legality of marriage among the priesthood. Their patriarch resides at Karobin, in Syria, which may be considered as their capital. They are industrious cultivators; the common people, and also the sheiks, living economically, says Malte-Brun, under a rustic roof, and receiving with hospitality and kindness every Christian traveller into the bosom of their families. The Jews are found in considerable numbers throughout Palestine. Of late years they have greatly increased, though they are a degraded race, not only tyrannized and trampled on by the Turks, but exposed to every species of cruel indignity. Mr Buckingham mentions, that while he was travelling from Nazareth to Tiberias, he met a party of Jews mounted on asses, who, considering him, from his Turkish dress and white turban, to be a Mahommedan, all dismounted and passed by on foot. “These persecuted people,” he adds, “are held in such opprobrium here, that it is forbidden to them to pass a Mussulman mounted, while Christians are suffered to do so either on mules or asses, though to them it is also forbidden to ride on horseback without the express permission of the pasha.” The Bedouin Arabs wander in considerable numbers over the desert plains of Palestine. In habits, dress, and manners they very nearly resemble their brethren of the Arabian deserts. They subsist by pasture and robbery, attacking and murdering, without remorse, the defenceless traveller who may fall in their way. The open country is, in this manner, a scene of rapine and violence. The husbandman who sows is never sure of reaping the harvest; his cattle, his corn, may be swept away in a moment by an irruption of Arab cavalry from the eastern deserts. The robbery of the way-faring man when he fell among thieves in his journey among the mountains of Jericho, and the surprise, by three bands of plunderers, of Job’s sons when their camels were carried off and themselves put to the sword, are events often realised in the modern history of Palestine. A certain ill-regulated police prevails in the towns, under the rule of the Turkish pashas, though without any sure protection either for life or property; and their power is as frequently used in plundering as in protecting their subjects. But throughout the deserts there is no form of civil order or authority to control the lawless violence of the Arab hordes, and life and property are only held by the tenure of the sword. All ranks, accordingly, whether cultivators or traders, carry arms; partly, says Mr Buckingham, that their country is sometimes scoured by horse Arabs from the eastern deserts, when they must stand on their defence, “and partly because it is the fashion to be armed, insomuch that the being without weapons of some kind or other is always imputed to great poverty or to cowardice.” Manners are formed by circumstances, and this habit of wearing arms strongly marks a disorderly state of society. 'The unhappy peasantry may be regularly plundered by the pashas, or by a sudden inroad of Arab horsemen. The fields are in this manner neglected; the country in many parts lies desolate; the fertile soil, to use the expression of an eloquent writer, maintaining an unequal conflict between the bounty of Providence to renovate, and the wickedness of man to destroy. In the more barbarous parts, where the cultivators live in a state of complete independence of pashas or other governors, there is no private property in land. It is so abundant that the only claim to any particular spot is having ploughed it, which entitles the person to the produce of the harvest for that season. The dress of those Arabs in Palestine, and throughout all Syria, especially of the men, is simple and uniform, consisting of a blue shirt of cotton cloth descending below the knees, the legs and feet being exposed, or covered with ancient buskin, or with the sandal exactly as it is seen on some Grecian statues. They sometimes wear a cloak of very coarse and heavy camel’s hair-cloth, with broad black stripes passing vertically down the back. It is one square piece, either with or without a seam down the back, as was the garment of our Saviour, for which the soldiers cast lots,—“it was without seam woven from the top;” and on this account it is always esteemed the more valuable. A small turban, or rather a dirty rag, is bound across their temples, one corner of which, sometimes fringed with strings in knots, is allowed to hang down. The Arab women seem as if they took pains to disfigure themselves. According to Dr Clarke, they render their persons [7:16:749] as hideous and disgusting as any barbarians of the South Seas. Their faces, heads, and arms are tattooed and covered with hideous scars; their eye-lashes and eyes are always painted with some dingy black or blue powder; their lips of a deep and dusky blue; their teeth jet black; their nails and fingers brick red; and their wrists as well as their ankles laden with large metal cinctures studded with sharp knobs and bits of glass. Their countenances are further disfigured with other unsightly ornaments. A small button studded with pearl, or a piece of glass or any other glittering substance, is fastened by a plug and thrust through the cartilage of the nose. Sometimes they have a large ring depending from the nose, and covering the upper lip; in short, all the devices of -vanity in this country have the effect of maiming and disfiguring rather than of adorning the persons of the Arabian females. The same state of society and manners prevails among the Bedouin Arabs who inhabit Palestine as among those who traverse the Arabian deserts; and for farther particulars of their peculiar habits the reader is therefore referred to the article Arabia, where their character and customs are fully described.

When the promised land was divided among the ten tribes, Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, Dan, Ephraim, Zabulon, Naphtali, and part of Manassch, were placed on the western, commonly called this side of Jordan, while Reuben, Gad, and the remaining part of Manassch, were placed on the eastern side, commonly called beyond Jordan.

The following table contains the ancient Canaanitish division of Palestine, and its division among the twelve tribes, compared with its division by the Romans.
[table]

The Canaanites and Israelites having long led the lives of shepherds, their limits are not quite distinct. Michaelis could not complete the researches which Reland and D’Anville began, nor can any one. The tribes of Simeon and Dan do not appear to have ever occupied their whole territory. The Philistines lived in them in a state of vassalage. The tribe of Asher was expelled from the seacoast by the Tyrians: Reuben, Gad, and the eastern half of Manassch, appear never to have subjugated all the Ammonites and Moabites.

When the children of Israel took their departure from Egypt, Moses was their ruler and their guide. It was through him that their Divine Legislator gave them laws and statutes, the administration of which was also committed to him; and he led them through the wilderness, where they were fed by the miraculous interposition of heaven. But the burden of his office being too great for him, the judicial duties were divided; all lesser causes being, by the advice of his father-in-law, referred to the rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens,^[29. Exod.-Chap. xviii. ] while those of greater moment were only submitted to the chief judge; the power of making laws in this holy community being the high prerogative of its Divine head, and obedience being all that was required of man. The duties of a Jewish ruler were simplified and greatly abridged, being confined to the guidance of the host through the wilderness or in battle, though even here every important movement was directed by means of the pillar of the cloud by day or of the fire by night.

Moses was succeeded in his office by Joshua and the other judges; and when the host of the Israelites had obtained possession of the land of Canaan, which was to be equally divided as an inheritance among the ten tribes, and where they were to rest from all their toils, new laws were given them by the same authority, adapted to the situation in which they were now placed. The land was partitioned by lot among the different tribes, and was again subdivided among the families of the same tribe, and was declared inalienable, and the perpetual inheritance of the families to whom it was originally assigned. Accordingly, every fiftieth year, which was proclaimed to be a year of jubilee, all debts and mortgages on land were declared to be cancelled, and every man was to return into his own land, which was not to be sold for ever, but on which all burdens that had been incurred were to cease. Other laws were passed for enforcing the purity of divine worship and of moral conduct, and of equity in the transactions between man and man; also for the punishment of idolatry and other iniquities, for it was the peculiar distinction of this community, that the law took cognisance not only of offences against society, but of every breach of the divine commands. The order of the priesthood was also instituted in the family of Levi; gifts and sacrifices were offered by them in expiation of sin; and various acts were enumerated by which the children of Israel became unclean, and which, though innocent in themselves, were yet employed to point out the great defilement of sin, and for which, therefore, certain modes of purification were appointed. The distinction was also laid down between clean and unclean animals, from the latter of which the holy people were commanded to abstain. An enumeration was made in the plains of Moab, of all the males of the children of Israel above twenty years of age, and the sum of them is given at 601,700; the Levites, who were not mentioned among the rest, amounted to 23,000, which makes the sum of 624,700 males above twenty years of age. Every male being liable to military service, Israel could thus bring into the field a powerful military force, by whose irresistible attack, aided by the favouring interposition of heaven, all the minor states of Canaan were overwhelmed. After the death of Moses the supreme rule in Israel was vested in judges, under whom was an inferior officer, namely, the prince of the tribe, or the head of thousands; and under him the princes of families, or commanders of hundreds; though the powers possessed [7:16:750]by the chief judge have never been exactly defined, nor in what relation he stood to the other subordinate rulers in Israel. The Israelites, after their settlement in the land of Canaan, were involved in wars with the surrounding states, and were often given into their hands on account of their disobedience. The land was in this manner frequently wasted, and the earthly happiness of the chosen people interrupted, by the inroads of their neighbours. From these enemies they were saved by deliverers raised up to them, under whose peaceful sway the land enjoyed long intervals of rest. But during the old age of Samuel, in consequence of the perversion of judgment through bribery by unfaithful judges, the people were dissatisfied, and entreated, against the solemn protest of this aged prophet, that they should have a king, like the nations around them; and Samuel was desired to hearken to their request. Saul was accordingly chosen king, from whom, on account of his disobedience, the kingdom was rent, and given to David; and he terminated his fatal course in a disastrous defeat on the mountains of Gilboa, in which he and his son Jonathan were slain. David now ascended the throne without dispute,and commenced a prosperous reign, in the course of which he subdued all his enemies; and although the peace of the country was disturbed by the domestic treason of Absalom, yet he left a flourishing kingdom to his successor Solomon, under whose reign Judea was enlarged on every side, and became one of the most flourishing empires of Asia, extending on the east as far as the Euphrates, and, possessing ports both on the Mediterranean and on the Red Sea, had begun to rival Tyre in arts as well as in commerce. David was a man of war, but Solomon was devoted to peace; and during his reign, accordingly, was constructed that magnificent temple at Jerusalem, which was the wonder of future ages. From the ports of the Mediterranean, also, the trade of Judea was extended to the most distant parts. “Every three years,” it is said, “once came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.”^[30. Chron. chap, ix, ] These are the productions of India, which Solomon had received from these ships, in exchange, it is said, for the fine wheat of Syria, which was largely exported. These ships of Tarshish, it is supposed, descending the Persian Gulf, stretched across the Indian Ocean to the coast of Malabar, whence they again returned with the favourable monsoon; a hazardous voyage in that early age, which, with the time put off in trading at the intermediate ports, might well occupy three years.

After the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Judah was divided into two sovereignties. The tyrannical conduct of Rehoboam, in which he persisted, against the advice of his aged councillors, gave rise to the revolt of the ten tribes, who chose Jeroboam for their king; and thus began that division of the empire which paved the way for its downfall, under the successive attacks of its enemies. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were hereafter ruled by different monarchs, who, no longer joining against their common enemies, waged war against each other; and 1 who, in place of the union that might have been expected in the descendants from a common stock, regarded each other with all the aversion of aliens. In the mean time, the powerful empires of Assyria and Babylon in the east, and of Egypt in the south, were now contending with each other for the dominion of the world. Their vast armies had frequently threatened the comparatively petty state of Judea; and at length, in the reign of Hoshea, 719 years before the Christian era, Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel, was taken by the king of Assyria, the land was conquered, and the whole nation carried into captivity.

We subjoin a list of the kings who reigned in Samaria, with the length of their several reigns, and the period when they reigned.
[table]

The kingdom of Judah, weakened by the loss of the ten tribes, was in its turn assailed by the king of Babylon. During the reign of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Palestine with a formidable army, which the Jews had no means of resisting; and the ruin of the nation was for a time only averted by prudent submission. But the humbled king, impatient of dependence, seizing, as he thought, a favourable opportunity, made a new effort to throw off the yoke of the king of Babylon. The siege and capture of Jerusalem was the consequence of this rash attempt, when the king and all the princes of Judah were carried captives to Babylon. His son Jehoiachin was set up to reign in his stead, who was also brought to Babylon, with all the precious vessels belonging to the temple, and Zedekiah was declared king. He, like his predecessors, took up arms against the king of Babylon, who, incensed by these repeated rebellions, resolved on the destruction of Jerusalem, and the utter extermination of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem was accordingly besieged by a powerful army; the Jews made an obstinate defence, and the siege lasted for about fifteen or sixteen months, in the course of which famine and disease raged within the walls of the city, which was at last taken and sacked, and all the chief inhabitants carried captives to Babylon, the poor of the land being only left to be vine-dressers and husbandmen. The king was severely punished for his rebellion; his sons were put to death before his eyes; he himself was deprived of his eye-sight, and being loaded with fetters, was carried prisoner to Babylon.

The following is the line of kings who reigned in Jerusalem from the death of Solomon to the destruction of the first temple.
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Seventy years were appointed as the term of the Jewish captivity, in the course of which the empire of Babylon was overthrown by Cyrus the king of Persia, under whose auspicious and friendly reign the Jews, consisting now only of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, were encouraged [7:16:751]to rebuild their city, and to return to their own land. Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, and Ezra, were the leaders that presided κ over the restoration of the Jewish kingdom. After many interruptions from the jealousy and power of their enemies, the second temple was at length reared. But it was so inferior in splendour to the temple reared by Solomon, that the aged men wept when they contrasted this modern structure with the glory of the first house. There was wanting, besides, the ark, the holy oracle, with the emblematical light of the Divine presence, the Urim and the Thummim, from which the divine response was given to the inquiries of the high priest. The Jews were now ruled by the Persian king and his lieutenants, in civil though not in sacred things, which were regulated by the law of Moses, as administered by their own high priests; and they enjoyed for a period nearly of two centuries the blessings of a settled government. After the conquest of Persia by Alexander, and the division of his kingdom among his successors, Asia was distracted by new wars among those rivals for the supreme dominion, and the Jews, often embarrassed by these contentions, owed their independence rather to the forbearance of their enemies than to their own strength. At length, however, Antiochus Epiphanes, having heard of insurrections among them, invaded their territory with a powerful army, and besieged and took Jerusalem while it was yet unprepared for defence. He wreaked his vengeance on the unhappy Jews, 40,000 of whom were put to death, and an equal number reduced to slavery. Other unheard-of cruelties were perpetrated by his licentious soldiery, and the holy sanctuary itself was grossly profaned. The temple was plundered of all its sacred utensils, the golden candlestick, the table of shew-bread, and the altar of incense, and an unclean animal, a sow, was offered by his orders on the altar of burnt offerings; part of the flesh was boiled, and the liquor sprinkled around, where only the purifying blood of the holy sacrifice had been seen before. The Jewish nation was at the same time cruelly persecuted; an edict was issued for the extermination of the whole race; and, in furtherance of this barbarous policy, Apollonius, the commander of the troops, when the people had assembled in Jerusalem on the holy Sabbath, made a furious attack with his troops on the peaceful multitude, whom he slaughtered without mercy, or carried into a hopeless captivity. The city was plundered, and set on fire in many places; the walls were broken down, and a strong fortress built on Mount Zion, which commanded the temple and the adjacent parts. Having made these preparations, he proceeded to farther persecutions against the religion of the Jews. They were watched in their visits to the holy sanctuary, and harassed by the troops; the rite of circumcision was prohibited; and a compliance with the heathen idolatries was enforced at the point of the sword. They were compelled to profane the Sabbath, and to eat swine’s flesh. The holy temple was violated by the worship of Jupiter, whose statue was erected on the altar of burnt-offerings, and the licentious revels of the Bacchanalia were substituted for the pure festivals of the Jewish church. The barbarities that were inflicted as the penalty of disobedience to these impious commands exceed all belief, and are too shocking to be detailed. The rage of persecution spared neither age nor sex; and all over the country torture and death were inflicted on the unhappy persons who, remaining stedfast in their faith, refused to participate in these heathenish rites.

But the tyrant who was thus aiming at the extermination of the Jews was scattering over the land the seeds of independence, and insuring his own overthrow. The unheard-of cruelties committed by his command excited the deepest indignation, and at length roused the nation to resistance. The heroic family of the Maccabees, consisting of five brethren, the sons of Matthias, a priest of the race of Asmones, were the champions of the patriotic cause. They were all of incomparable valour; and Judas having headed the insurgents, a determined band, though small in number, defeated the oppressors of his country in many g reat battles, and restored its independence. But he had to, contend against domestic treason as well as foreign war. Alcinus, who was in the interest of the Syrians, assuming the title of high priest, claimed the allegiance of the Jews, and Judas was compelled in self-defence to seek the alliance of the Romans, who willingly sought a pretence for interference in the affairs of their neighbours. In the mean time the Maccabee chief was slain in the field of battle, and was succeeded by his brother Jonathan, who, employing his power in aiding Alexander in his competition for the throne of Syria, was allowed by him in return to unite the spiritual authority of the high priest with the temporal sway; and under this dynasty of the Asmonean princes Palestine was governed for more than a hundred years. Jonathan was succeeded by his son Simon, who secured the tranquillity of the country by cultivating the friendship of Rome. He was ent off, the victim of domestic treason, and John Hyrcanus, his younger son, ascended the throne. His reign was prosperous and successful. He not only threw off the Syrian yoke, but extended his territories eastward and northward. He besieged and utterly destroyed Samaria; and thus gratified the vindictive spirit of the Jews against the Samaritans. The short reign of Aristobulus, his son, followed; afterwards that of Alexander Jannaeus, whose oppressions excited a civil war in the country. The insurgents, calling in the aid of the Syrians, became unpopular; and Alexander, after many reverses, at last succeeded in collecting a powerful army, with which he entered his capital in triumph, and took severe vengeance on his enemies, ordering a thousand men to be executed on the cross, and their wives and children to be butchered before their eyes. He was succeeded by his son, Hyrcanus the second. His brother Aristobulus, after secretly opposing him for some time, at length threw off the mask, and openly aspired to the supreme power. The two competitors were preparing to appeal to arms, when the Romans under Pompey, having subdued the greater part of Syria, were now called into Palestine as peaceable arbiters in this dispute. Aristobulus being, however, impatient, had recourse to arms, and shut himself up in Jerusalem, which was invested by the Roman general Gabinius, the lieutenant of Pompey, and carried by assault with prodigious slaughter. The authority of Hyrcanus was re-established, and Aristobulus was carried prisoner to Rome, whence afterwards making his escape, he raised the standard of revolt in Judea. But he had no force that could oppose the Roman armies under Mark Antony, who speedily re-established the authority of Rome in every part of the country. The rule of Judea was now delegated to Antipater, the minister of Hyrcanus, who appointed his two sons, Phasael and Herod, to be governors, the one of Jerusalem, the other of Galilee. But a new competitor appeared for the supreme authority in Judea, namely, a son of Aristobulus, who, having taken refuge among the Parthians, invaded the country with a powerful army; he laid siege to Jerusalem, which he took and pillaged; he put to death the eldest son of Antipater, Phasael, and rendered Hyrcanus incapable of the priesthood, by the extraordinary contrivance of biting off his ears. The Romans, however, now ruled in Judea; they were the supreme arbiters of its fate, and they placed on the throne Herod, the younger son of Antipater. He was of a cruel and jealous disposition, and in his fury he put to death his beloved wife, the beautiful Mariamne, the grand-daughter of Hyrcanus, her mother, brother, grandfather, uncle, and two sons; nor was he popular among [7:16:752]the Jèws, owing to his attachment to and his open participation in the idolatrous rites of the Romans. He reigned thirty-four years. “A man,” says Sandys, “full of admirable virtues and execrable vices; his acts had deservedly given him the addition of great; fortunate abroad, unfortunate in his family, his life tragical, his death desperate.”^[31. Sandys’ History of the Holy Land, p. 144. ] He died from the effects of a loathsome disease. He employed himself in works of architecture, particularly in the repair of the temple, by which he hoped to obtain favour among the Jews. It was in his reign that the Messiah was born, and it was from his cruelty that he fled into Egypt. He bequeathed his dominions to his two sons; to Archelaus the government of Idumea, Samaria, and Judea; and to Antipas that of Peraea and Galilee. Archelaus was soon after deprived of his great office, on account of mal-administration, and banished into Gaul. Judea was now reduced to the condition of a Roman province, under its own ruler or governor, who resided at Jerusalem, but who was subordinate to the prefect of Syria, which dignity was conferred on Publius Sulpicius Quirinus, who is mentioned in Luke’s gospel under the name of Cyrenius. The government of Judea was conferred on Pontius Pilate, under whose authority the Saviour was crucified. The Jews were far from being a contented or happy people under the Roman yoke. They were exposed to the severe exactions of their delegated rulers, and to outrages and plunder by the Roman soldiers stationed in the province to overawe the people. Rebellion, provoked by these oppressions, and quelled by the legionary troops, became the pretext for fresh cruelties; and misery, disorder, and violence, thus reigned throughout the once happy land. The only portion of the country that enjoyed comparative quiet was Galilee and the country beyond Jordan, which was ruled by Antipas and Philip. It was the latter, Philip Herod, who married Herodias, his brother’s wife, and who was afterwards banished to Gaul by Caligula. His nephew Agrippa was advanced to the government of all Palestine, with the title of king. His policy was conciliatory towards the Jews; he respected their worship, repaired and adorned the temple; while he joined with them in their persecution of the new sect of Christians, having cast Peter and James into prison. His melancholy end, being eaten of worms, is related in the Acts of the Apostles. His son Agrippa succeeded him, before whom, as is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul pleaded his cause. The successors of Pontius Pilate in the government of Judea were Felix, Petronius, Festus, Albinus, and Florus. The provincial government of Rome was a pure despotism, without even those imperfect safeguards from oppression which existed at home. The great men of Rome were enriched by the spoils of the conquered provinces; the distance from the capital exempted them from control; nor was there any legitimate channel through which the aggrieved could seek redress. The discontent of the Jews, their impatience of the Roman yoke, their proneness to insurrehtion under the vain predictions of their soothsayers, that a conquering Messiah was to arise, who would restore the independence and glory of their country, afforded too fair a pretence for the severities of their rulers; and accordingly, though there were some, such as Festus, who followed the maxims of equity, yet the Roman yoke was heavy and oppressive, and the administration of Felix, Florus, and others, was corrupt and tyrannical in the extreme; the people were borne down by heavy exactions, they were irritated and trampled upon by a licentious soldiery; and when they were driven to rebellion by these atrocities, they were overwhelmed by the disciplined legions of Rome, and slaughtered without mercy. The country abounded, ac cordingly, in scenes of rapine and anarchy; the national faith and the holiest rites were despised and trampled upon; and at length, under the administration of Florus, the people flew to arms, and entered on their last and desperate conflict with the Roman power. The insurrection broke out in Caesarea, the inhabitants of which, galled by cruel insults, declared their determination to resist to the last extremity. The Jews in the capital shared in this heroic determination, and made preparations for defence. Cestus, the prefect of Syria, advanced to the gates, and demanded an entrance for the Roman troops. The Jews refused to comply with this summons, and expecting an assault, they beheld the Roman army, to their surprise, in full retreat. They were pursued by the incensed multitude, and being overtaken in a difficult pass of the mountains, they were attacked by the infuriated Jews, and, after a great slaughter, were forced ignominiously to take flight.

The intelligence of these disasters excited the indignation of Nero, who was then in Greece, against the rebellious Jews; and Vespasian, of tried valour and experience, was immediately sent to assume the government of Syria, and to calm the troubles of this distracted province. He entered Judea about the year 67, along with his son the renowned Titus, to whom was committed the conduct of the war. Many sanguinary battles were now fought between the contending armies, in which the tumultuary levies of the rebellious Jews were broken and dispersed by the veteran legions of Rome; towns and fortresses were successively taken; and the Jews, no longer able to face the enemy in the field, were driven within the walls of their capital, to which Titus with his victorious army lost no time in laying close siege. The defence was obstinate; the besiegers were brave and numerous, and employed all the resources of the military art in the attack on the devoted city. In the course of this protracted siege partial successes were obtained by the Jews, who fought bravely, and harassed the besiegers by frequent and successful sallies. But the defences of the city, strong both by nature and art, gradually gave way before the perseverance and skill of the Roman troops; and as Titus proceeded partly by blockade, he shut in the whole city with a wall, and the horrors of famine were added to all the other miseries which the inhabitants suffered. The walls, where they were shattered by the battering rams, or undermined by other arts, were thrown down; the most valiant of the soldiers rushed through the breach, and were engaged in a close and bloody conflict with the besieged, for the possession of the temple. “Both sides,” says Josephus, “drew their swords and fought it out hand to hand. Now, during this struggle, the positions of the men were undistinguished on both sides, and they fought at random, the men being intermixed one with another, and confused by reason of the narrowness of the place, while the noise that was made fell on the ear in an indistinct manner, because it was so very loud. Great slaughter was made on both sides.” But still there was no room for flight or for pursuit, the troops in dense niasses being mingled together in the deadly struggle. It would be endless to detail all the horrors of this protracted siege; famine raged within the walls; every inch of ground was fiercely disputed; and prodigious numbers of men fell on both sides. But the Romans made a steady progress. Their ensigns were advanced on the battlements of the temple, which was set on fire; the battering rams were then directed against the walls of the upper city, and a breach being effected, the place was carried by storm; the inhabitants were everywhere put to the sword or made captives, and sold for slaves. The number of Jews who perished in the siege is estimated at 1,100,000; a far greater population than the city ever contained. But [7:16:753]the annual feast of unleavened bread, which took place at this time, had crowded the city with a vast concourse of strangers from all quarters, who, by the sudden approach of the hostile army, were shut up within the walls. When the Roman soldiers had ceased from their work of slaughter and desolation, because, says Josephus, there were no more people to slay or plunder, the city was consumed with fire; and the wall, except that which enclosed the city on the western side, and three towers which were left as quarters for the Roman garrison, was laid even with the ground by those who “dug it to the foundation; that there was nothing left to make those that came thither believe that it had ever been inhabited.”

The Romans having thus reduced the country, divided that portion of it that was on this side of Jordan into the three tetrarchies of Judea proper, Samaria, and Galilee, the first comprehending the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Dan, and Simeon, the second the tribes of Ephraim, Issachar, and part of Manassch, and the latter the tribes of Zabulon, Asher, and Naphtali. The region to the east of Jordan was divided into the smaller districts of Peraea, Decapolis, Gaulonitis, Galauditis, Batanea, and Auranitis.

After the Roman armies were withdrawn from Jerusalem, many of the Jewish tribes returned to dwell in the ruined city, though the Roman emperor, indignant at the late rebellion, had placed a garrison of 800 troops on Mount Zion, in order to prevent any attempt to rebuild the sacred capital, the capture and sack of which was a fatal blow to the prosperity of the Jews, and was the commencement of a long era of calamity, which ended in the utter dispersion of the nation. A portion of the country was yet, indeed, unscathed by the flames of war; the towns on the coast submitting to the conqueror escaped the horrors of a siege and the penalties of rebellion, while the provinces beyond Jordan enjoyed tranquillity under the rule of the conquerors. But the Jews were discontented and rebellious under the tyranny of Rome; they still fondly believed that an earthly Messiah was shortly to arise, to free them from bondage, and to give them the dominion of the whole earth. They accordingly listened to the tales of every impostor, and were easily seduced into rebellion by vain hopes of national glory, that were never realised. Hence their continual insurrections, which exposed them still farther to the vengeance of the conqueror, and accelerated the crisis of their fate, when they were to be driven from their own land, and dispersed over the face of the earth.

“From the reign of Nero,” says the historian of the decline and fall of Rome, “to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which broke out into the most furious massacres and insurrections.” He then gives a recital of their cruelties, and enters into an enumeration of shocking atrocities, which he accuses them of having committed, on the suspicious authority of the heathen writers, who hated the Jews, and, from Tacitus downwards, give a distorted view of their institutions and national character. The fact however is certain, that, throughout the cities of Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrene, the Jews stirred up fierce insurrections, and flew to arms in order to avenge themselves on their insulting foes. In the course of this internal war great cruelties were committed. But in the end the Jews were everywhere borne down by the discipline of the Roman legions, and paid the penalty of their rebellion with their lives. I heir towns were sacked and destroyed, and it is estimated that half a million of them perished in the field. In the island of Cyprus, where they were encountered by the military skill of the Emperor Hadrian, they were vanquished with prodigious slaughter, and expelled for ever from the island. By acts of mutual cruelty, the animosity of both parties was inflamed; the sword of persecution was let loose against the Jewish religion by their conquerors; the rite of circumcision, the reading of the law and the observance of the Jewish Sabbath, and all the other memorials of the national faith, were forbidden. In the city of Jerusalem, which was to a certain extent repaired, a colony of Greeks and Latins was established, in order to preclude the return of the Jews, and all further hopes of the restoration of their kingdom. But the policy of the Romans was of no avail against the deep-rooted prejudices of this infatuated people; and no sooner had a new impostor arisen, of the name of Barcochab, “the son of a star,” than the deluded Israelites hailed him as the light that was to dawn in the latter days, and usher in the day of their long-expected rest. They accordingly crowded to his’standard; and in a short time he had mustered a powerful army of 200,000 devoted followers. Owing to the absence of the Roman legions, engaged at that time in distant service, important advantages were gained, and Jerusalem was again occupied by the insurgent Jews, besides about fifty castles, and numbers of open towns. But this career of success was speedily terminated by the arrival of Severus, afterwards emperor, with a large and well-appointed body of legionary troops; the Jews were overwhelmed by numbers, discipline, and military skill; their cities were taken and destroyed; and Bither, where the leader of the rebellion, Barcochab, had made his last stand, was stormed with great slaughter, and himself slain. Of the Jews it is estimated that 580,000 died on the field, and the remnant who escaped mostly perished by famine and disease, or amid the flames of their ruined cities. Under these ruthless devastations the country was at last converted into a desert; the inhabitants were either slain or driven into exile; and the divine denunciations were now literally fulfilled against this misguided people, that they should be scattered among all the nations of the earth.

The victors having thus satiated their vengeance, began in due time to relax their stern and intolerant policy. Under the mild rule of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient privileges, to the freedom of worship, and to all their other national rites. They were now mingled with the nations, and were found dwelling in all parts of the Roman empire; and their general condition under the Roman emperors, as described by Gibbon, was not unfavourable. “The numerous remains,” says this eloquent historian, “of that people, though they were excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom of Rome, to enjoy municipal honours, and to obtain at the same time an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of society. The moderation or contempt of the Romans gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which was instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. New synagogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of the empire; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law, or enjoined by the traditions of the rabbis, were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner. Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconciled hatred of mankind, instead of flowing out in acts of blood and violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters in trade; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations[7:16:754] against the haughty kingdom of Edom.”^[32. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ii. chap. xvi. p. 38G. ] This statement, though it has received a colouring from the deep-rooted prejudices of the author against the Jewish religion, is nevertheless substantially true, and contains a just view of the condition of the Jews throughout the .Roman empire. No great change appears to have taken place in the condition of Palestine, until Constantine ascended the imperial throne. He was, as is well known, the first Christian emperor; and under his powerful patronage, and that of his mother the Empress Helena, splendid structures were everywhere erected in the Holy Land, in honour of the Christian faith. The bishop of Jerusalem was ordered to erect a splendid temple on the tomb -of the Saviour; and the Empress Helena repaired to Palestine, in all the ardour of new-born zeal, to explore the country for the relics of the sacred sepulchre, which was buried under an edifice, said to be the temple of Venus, raised by the Emperor Hadrian. Besides the temple which covered the holy sepulchre, she gave orders for the erection of other edifices, one at Bethlehem over the manger of the Messiah, and another over the Mount of Olives, to commemorate the ascension. The land was gradually overspread with these memorials of Christianity; and chapels, altars, and houses of prayer, marked every spot which was memorable for any of the sayings or doings of the Saviour. The Jews beheld with indignation the rise of these Christian monuments within the precincts of the holy city. They were as much opposed to the Christian worship as to the heathen idolatry, but their influence was now at an end. Scattered in distant parts, they could no longer act with consistency or vigour; yet, so attached were they to .their own ancient rites, that, however faint the chance of t success, they were ready in crowds to rally round the stand- .ard of their ancient faith, wherever it was displayed, and to follow any daring leader into the field. But the time was past. They were rejected by the divine decree, and were no longer to be assembled as a nation in their own land. Jerusalem was now filled with the emblems of a new faith, and crowds of pilgrims were attracted from the most distant countries, by the eager desire of contemplating the ρlace of the Redeemer’s passion, and of all the previous incidents of his holy life. These visits were encouraged .from various motives. They evinced, no doubt, the zeal of the new converts; and being at once a proof of piety and a source of profit, they were encouraged by the clergy of Jerusalem. « The zeal,” says the eloquent historian of the Roman empire, “perhaps the avarice, of the clergy at Jerusalem, cherished and multiplied these beneficial visits. They fixed by unquestionable tradition the scene of each memorable event. They exhibited the instruments which bad been used in the passion of Christ; the nails and the .lance that had pierced his hands, his feet, and his side; the crown of thorns that was planted on his head; the pillar at which he was scourged; and, above all, they showed the cross on which be suffered, and which was dug out of the earth in the reign of those princes who inserted the symbol of Christianity on the banners of the Roman legions.”^[33. Ibid. chap, xxiii. p. 101. ] To these deceptions was added a list of pretended miracles, by which the ignorant were duped and robbed of their money; and in the mean time, amid all this pretended sanctity, Jerusalem presented the grossest scenes of immorality and vice. The veneration evinced by strangers for the holy city never seems to have influenced the Jives or practice of these votaries of indolence or pleasure, the relics in their possession being valued merely as a .source of gain, and the means of worldly indulgence.

The reign of Julian was a new era in the history of Palestine, and the Jews anticipated, from his declared enmity to Christianity, his favour for their own purer faith. The policy of this heathen emperor countenanced them in this belief, when be endeavoured, by rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem in its former splendour, to discredit the truth of those prophecies which denounced perpetual desolation on the devoted city. He chose the commanding eminence of Mount Moriah for the site of a new structure, which was to eclipse the splendour of the Christian church on the adjacent hill of Calvary; and he resolved to establish a Jewish order of priests, who might revive the observance of the Mosaic rites, together with as numerous a colony of Jews as could be collected, in the holy city. Such was still the ardour of the national faith, tbat'the Jews crowded from all parts, and exasperated by their insolent triumph the hostility of the Christian inhabitants. All now joined with unwearied zeal in the sacred work of rebuilding the temple. Liberal contributions poured in from all quarters; men and women joined in the pious labour; and the authority of the monarch was seconded by the enthusiasm of the people. But this last effort of expiring zeal was unsuccessful; no temple ever arose on the ruins of the heathen edifices; a Mahommedan mosque-still stands on the ground of the Jewish temple; and the progress of the work, according to a fable generally believed at the time, was stopt by the terrific interposition of heaven, by flames of fire bursting out from the foundations of the temple with loud explosions, by which the workmen were so terrified that they refused on any consideration to continue their labour. This miracle is indeed attested by contemporary historians; but it is justly remarked by Gibbon, that the original evidence of impartial and intelligent spectators would still be necessary to establish its truth. Now this evidence is wanting; for though it is recorded by the Roman historians, among others by Ammianus Marcellinus, yet he reports it merely on hearsay; and it seems probable that, at the distance of twenty years, without any anxious inquiry, he might take the story on credit, that he might “adorn his history with the specious and splendid miracle.”^[34. lbide cbap . xx ∏i. p , i m . ] Thework, however, from whatever causé, was abandoned; and as it was only undertaken during the last six months of Julian’s reign, the fact seems sufficiently explained without the aid of a miracle, by the absence and death of the emperor, and by the new maxims that were adopted during the Christian reign that succeeded.

After the death of Julian it was the policy of the Christian emperors to depress the Jews in Palestine, though they were not ill treated throughout the provinces, and were even granted considerable privileges and immunities. But it is astonishing how carefully the fathers instilled into the minds of their children, along with their ancient faith, the fondly cherished delusion, that some new and happier era of freedom and independence was yet to dawn on Judea; and how eagerly the children, imbibing this idea, became the prey of every impostor, and, under the blind impulse of enthusiasm, rashly entered into new conflicts with their enemies in the field, where they perished the willing victims of a hopeless cause. About the beginning of the seventh century the peace of Judea was seriously disturbed by the Persian invasion of Chosroes. The Greeks and the Persians were for a long period rivals for the dominion of the East; and Chosroes, the grandson of Nush-irvan, now invading the Roman empire, successively stormed and sacked the cities of Antioch and Caesarea. From Syria the flood of invasion rolled southward on Palestine, and the Persian army was joined by the Jews to the number of 24,000, still burning with the love of independence. The Christians and Jews were inflamed against each other by a long course of deep injuries given and received.
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Thoăe of the former nation within the walls were massacred without mercy by their Christian enemies, while the Jews on the outside were burning with the desire of revenge. The advance of the Persians secured the triumph. The city, was stormed by the combined armies, and the Jews were satiated with a full measure of revenge. The Christians neither sought nor found mercy; it was estimated that 90,000 of them perished in the storming of the city. Some were sold for slaves, and others were bought for the purpose of being murdered. The city was sacked, and the magnificent monuments of the Christian faith were mostly consumed by fire. The sepulchre of Christ, and the stately churches of Helena and Constantine, rifled, to use die words of Gibbon, in one sacrilegious day, of the devout offerings of three hundred years, were abandoned to the flames. But this, like all the other triumphs of the Jews, was short-lived. Heraclius was roused from inglorious sloth by the triumphs of the Persian arms, and by the approach of the victorious force to the walls of his own capital. He quickly assembled his veteran armies, by whose aid he defeated the troops of Chosroes; and in the course of a few successful campaigns he recovered all the provinces that had been overrun. He visited Jerusalem after his victories, in the lowly guise of a pilgrim, and prepared new triumphs for the Christians in the restoration of the magnificent churches which had been destroyed, and in the persecution of the Jews, and their banishment, as before, from the holy city, which they were now forbidden to approach within a nearer distance than three miles.

Palestine continued to own the sway of the Greek emperor till the rise of the Mahommedan power in the East. The followers of this impostor, extending their doctrines and their dominion by fire and sword, rapidly subdued Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, when, about the year 637, the victorious Omar turned his arms against Jerusalem, revered alike by Jews, Christians, and Mahommedans, as a holy city. After a siege of four months, during which the Arabs suffered extremely from the inclemency of the winter, a capitulation was proposed and agreed to, when the conqueror entered the city seated on a red camel, which carried a bag of corn and dates, and without guards, or any other precaution, and began to discourse in the most courteous manner with the patriarch, on its religious antiquities. Omar was assassinated in Jerusalem in the year 643, after which the East was for two hundred years distracted by the bloody wars that ensued among the 0mmi- ades, the Abbassides, and the Fatimite caliphs; and Palestine having become an object of contest between them, was for a like period a scene of devastation and trouble. In the year 868, the capital was conquered by Achmet, a Turk; but was again recovered by the caliphs of Bagdad in die year 906. It was reduced by Mohammed Ikschid, of the Turkish race. Towards the end of the tenth century the holy city was taken possession of by Ortok; and in 1076 by Meleschah, a Turk. It was retaken by the Ortokides, and, finally, by the Fatimites, who held possess-sion of it when the Crusaders made their first appearance in the Holy Land.

- Jerusalem, though it was in possession of infidel chiefs, was still revered as a holy city both by Christian and Jew, and was visited by pilgrims from every quarter; among others by Peter the hermit, a native of Amiens. The pathetic tale which he brought to Europe, of the injuries and insults which the Christian pilgrims suffered from the infidels, who possessed and profaned the holy city, excited the deepest sympathy among the people and princes of Christendom. Councils were summoned, and were attended by bishops, a numerous train of ecclesiastics, and by thousands of the laity.* At the council of Trent no fewer than four hundred mitred prelates were present. The mixed multitude were harangued by the zealous enthusiasts of this sacred cause; their pity and indignation were alternately roused by the sufferings of their brethren in the Holy Land; the flame of enthusiasm was propagated by sympathy and example; and the eager champions of the cross, the flower of the European chivalry, assembled in martial array, to march against the enemies of their common faith. To defray the nei cessary expenses of the expedition, princes alienated their provinces, the nobles their lands and castles, peasants their cattle and the instruments of husbandry; and vast armies were transported to Palestine, in order to accomplish the deliverance of the holy sepulchre. These rude and undisciplined bands died in great numbers on reaching the shores of Asia, from disease, famine, and fatigue; and, of the first Crusaders, it is estimated that 300,000 had perished before a single city was rescued from the infidels. Of the leaders in the Christian host, the first rank is due to Godfrey, duke of Brabant and Bouillon, who was accompanied by his two brothers, Eustace the elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and Baldwin the younger. The other chiefs were, Robert of France, the brother of King Philip, and Robert Duke of Normandy, the son of William the Conqueror; Bohemond the son of Robert Guisard, distinguished by his cool policy and ambition, with a small addition of religious zeal; Tancred bis cousin, who had imbibed the true spirit of chivalry, and all the virtues of a perfect knight; and Raymond of Thoulouse, the Duke of Narbonne, and Marquis of Provence, a veteran warrior of mature age and experience. The vast armies that were collected under the guidance of these leaders arrived by various routes at Constantinople, the Greek capital; after having lost, some say, half their number, in the intermediate march through unknown countries, by famine, disease, and the assaults of the inhabitants into whose countries they had made so unexpected an irruption. After some time spent in the capital of the East, they crossed to the opposite shore of Asia. Having taken the towns of Nice and Antioch in the year 1097, they laid siege to Jerusalem about two years after, which was taken by assault, with a prodigious slaughter of the garrison and inhabitants, that was continued for three days, without respect either to age or sex. Women, and children at the breast, boys and girls, were dragged forth and put to death without mercy; and the streets were covered with their dead bodies and mangled limbs. Having thus delivered the holy sepulchre, the Crusaders proceeded, while yet stained with blood, to perform their devotions at the sacredshrine; they ascended the hillofCalvary bare-headed and bare-footed, amid the loud anthems of the clergy, and they kissed the stone of the Saviour’s tomb, and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence the monuments of their redemption.^[35. .Decline and Fall, vol. xi∙ chap, lviii. p. 85. ] To such a degree does blind fanaticism harden the heart and stifle the voice of pity. The grand and leading trait of Christianity is benevolence to man, without which there can be no piety to God. This principle is inculcated both by the precept and example of its divine founder, who took care on all occasions to reprove and put down the spirit of persecution, however cloaked under the specious pretext of religious zeal. Yet we find here his professed followers, under show of deep reverence for his name, shedding without remorse the blood of their fellow-creatures, of women and children, and approaching, with their profane adorations, to the holy sanctuary of the God of peace.

Eight days after the capture of Jerusalem, the Latin [7:16:756]chiefs proceeded to the election of a king, who should preside over their conquests in Palestine, and Godfrey of Bouillon was unanimously raised to this high office. But if it was an honourable office, it was also one of danger; he was not chosen to sway a peaceful sceptre; and he was summoned to the field in the first fortnight of his reign, to defend his capital against the sultan of Egypt, who approached with a powerful army. His signal overthrow in the battle of Ascalon confirmed the stability of the Latin throne, and enabled Godfrey to extend on every side his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem and Jaffa, with about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent districts. The fortified castles, into which the Mahommedans had taken refuge, and from which they made incursions into the open country, were reduced; the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon, were besieged and taken; and the Christian kingdom thus included a range of sea-coast from Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt. “If the province of Antioch,” says the Roman historian, “disdained his supremacy, the courts of Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the king of Jerusalem; the Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the four cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo, were the only relics of the Mahommedan conquests in Syria.”^[36. , .Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. xi. chap, lviii. p. 90. ] The feudal institutions of Europe were introduced into this kingdom in all their purity; and a code of laws, called the assize of Jerusalem, was drawn up, which was attested by the seals of the king, the patriarch, and the viscount of Jerusalem, and deposited in the sepulchre of the Saviour, as an unerring guide in all doubtful questions that might be brought before the tribunals of the holy city.

Godfrey was succeeded in his great office by his brother Baldwin, who ruled with vigour and success. In 1118 his nephew ascended the throne, and still maintained the interests of the kingdom. Melisandra his daughter married Foulques of Anjou, who, in right of his wife, acquired the kingdom of Jerusalem. He lost his life by a fall from his horse, after having reigned ten or twelve years. His son, Baldwin HL, ruled in Jerusalem twenty years; and his reign was remarkable as the era of the second Crusade, and of the rise of the various orders of knighthood, the hospitallers, templars, and cavaliers.

The military force of the first Crusaders, wasted by fatigue, and by losses in the field, was no longer able to oppose the hosts of Turks and Saracens by which it was surrounded. The first victories of the Europeans, and their rapid success, extended far and wide the terror of their arms. But this alarm having subsided, the Mahommedan chiefs collected their armies, and commenced a vigorous attack on the European posts, scattered over a wide extent of country, and gained some important advantages. The accounts of these disasters that were circulated in Europe excited the liveliest sympathy of all Christians for their suffering brethren in the Holy Land, for the defence of which the European princes now entered into a new coalition. A second Crusade was the consequence. It was undertaken forty-eight years after the deliverance of the holy sepulchre, by the emperor of Germany Conrad III., and Louis VII. king of France, and was even more unfortunate than the first expedition. In the course of a tedious march through an unhealthy and hostile country, more than half the army of Conrad was wasted by famine and the sword, and not above a tenth part ever reached the Syrian shore. The subsequent battles with the Saracens reduced them to a miserable remnant; and the emperor was met by Louis and the French troops, who arrived in better condition at the scene of action, on his return with his shattered forces from this unfortunate campaign. The French army, rashly advancing into the heart of the country, was assaulted and overwhelmed by an innumerable host of Turks; and the king with great difficulty made his escape, and finally took shipping with his knights and nobles, leaving his plebeian infantry to the sword of the victorious enemy. The two princes proceeding to Jerusalem, united the poor remains of their once mighty armies to the Latin troops in Syria, and laid a fruitless siege to Damascus, which was the termination of the second Crusade.

The defeat and dispersion of these armies tended greatly to weaken the Christian cause in the Holy Land, and shake the foundations of the Latin throne at Jerusalem. Baldwin, the son of Melisandra and of the Count of Anjou, together with his brother Amanry or Almeric, long maintained the war with considerable success against the infidels. Baldwin dying, was succeeded by his brother, who, after a reign of eleven years, transmitted the throne to his son Baldwin IV., disabled both in mind and body by the disease of leprosy. His sister Sybilla, the mother of Baldwin, was his natural heiress, who chose for her second husband, and consequently for king of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, base in character, but handsome in his person. This choice was universally blamed, and excited the hatred of Count Raymond, who had been excluded from the succession and regency, and who, entertaining an implacable hatred against the king, was seduced into a traitorous correspondence with the sultan. Many of the barons were also so dissatisfied, that they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new king. It was in the midst of these internal dissensions that the kingdom of the Latins was assailed by a new enemy, namely, the Sultan Saladin, who to valour, policy, and military skill, joined all the refined humanity of a Christian knight. He had risen from a private station to the sovereignty of Egypt, and he had been for years extending his influence and his dominions. A fortress had been seized by a soldier of fortune, Reginald of Chatillon, from which he issued with his followers to pillage the caravans and to insult the Mahommedans, and he even threatened the holy cities of Medina and Mecca. Saladin complained of these injuries, and being refused any satisfaction, invaded the Holy Land with au army of 80,000 horse and foot. He advanced against Tiberias, to which he laid siege; and a decisive battle was hazarded by the king of Jerusalem, in defence of this important place. The two armies met in the plain of Tiberias, and in a sanguinary conflict, which lasted two days, the Christians were completely overthrown, with the loss of 30,000 men, and a sacred relic, the wood of the true cross, with which the priests were wont to cheer the drooping spirits of the troops. The king, the Marquis of Montserrat, and the master of the templars, with many of their followers, were made prisoners; and two hundred and thirty gallant knights of the cross were cruelly led out to execution after the battle. This great victory placed the whole country at the mercy of the conqueror. The Christians were left without a head; of the two grand masters of the military orders, one was a prisoner, and the other slain. The fate of the kingdom had been set on a single cast, and its whole military force concentrated on this fatal field. The towns and castles, thus drained of their governors, fell successively before Saladin’s victorious force; and scarcely had three months elapsed when he appeared in arms before the gates of Jerusalem.

This city was in no condition to sustain a protracted siege. It was crowded with fugitives from every quarter, who here sought an asylum from the destroying sword; a [7:16:757]disorderly throng of 100,000 persons was confined within the walls, but there were few soldiers; the queen was alarmed for the fate of her captive husband, and her government was feeble and indecisive. A defence was, however, maintained for fourteen days, during which the besiegers had effected a breach in the wall, and only waited the sultan’s orders for the assault. This last extremity was averted by a capitulation, by which it was agreed that all the Franks and Latins should quit Jerusalem, receiving a safe conduct to the ports of Syria and Egypt; that the inhabitants should be ransomed for a sum of money, and that those who were unable to pay it should remain slaves. These conditions were liberally interpreted and greatly mitigated by the generosity of the sultan, who allowed the poor to be ransomed by wholesale for a moderate sum, and freely dismissed about 3000 more. In his interview with the queen, he displayed the kindness and courtesy of his disposition, comforting her with his words, and even with his tears; he distributed liberal alms among the widows and orphans of those who were slain, and allowed the warlike knights of the hospital to continue their care of the sick for another year. He made his triumphant entry into the city, with banners waving and martial music; the Christian church was converted into a mosque, and the glittering cross was taken down and dragged through the streets, amid the shouts of the Moslems. The whole country now submitted to the sultan, whose victorious progress was first arrested by the resistance of Tyre, which was gallantly defended by Conrad. The sultan, being foiled in all his attempts to take this place, was finally compelled to raise the siege, and to retreat to Damascus.

The capture of Jerusalem by the infidels, and the decline of the Christian cause in Palestine, excited the deepest sorrow; the decaying zeal of the European powers was awakened, and new expeditions were fitted out for the re∞very of the holy city. About the year 1190, Philip king of France, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and Richard I. of England, surnamed Coeur-de-Lion, assembled a large force, and, with the aid of Flanders, Frise, and Denmark, filled about 200 vessels with their troops. The first armaments landed at Tyre, the only remaining inlet of the Christians into the Holy Land, and no time was lost in commencing the celebrated siege of Acre, which was maintained with an enthusiasm that mocked at danger, and by feats of valour that were the theme of wonder, even in that romantic age. This memorable siege lasted for nearly two years, and was attended with a prodigious loss of men on both sides. Famine, misery, and the climate, wasted the besieging army, and still the besieged held out with enduring firmness. At length, in the spring of the second year, the royal fleets of France and England cast anchor in the bay, with powerful reinforcements, and the brave defenders of Acre were reduced to capitulate. A ransom was demanded for their lives and liberties, of 200,000 pieces of gold, the deliverance of 100 nobles, and 1500 inferior captives, and the restoration of the holy cross. Thus was an important town and harbour obtained by the Christians, but by an enormous sacrifice of men. The host that surrounded Acre amounted at different periods to 600,000; of these, 100,000 were slain during the siege of two years, a greater number perished by shipwreck and disease, and it is computed that a very small remnant ever reached their native shores. The place was taken possession of by the Christians on the 12th of July 1191.

The capture of Acre was the prelude to farther operations against the enemy. Richard determined to commence the siege of Ascalon, about a hundred miles distant, and his march to this place was a continual battle of eleven days. He was opposed by Saladin with an army of 300,000 combatants; and on this occasion was fought one of the most memorable battles of this or any other age. Saladin was defeated with the loss of 40,000 men, and the victorious Richard obtained possession of Ascalon and the other towns of Judea. A severe winter interrupted the operations of the field. But Richard, issuing from his winter quarters with the first gleam of spring, advanced with his army within sight of Jerusalem, the great object of his enterprise. Saladin had chosen Jerusalem for his headquarters, when the sudden appearance of the Christian conqueror spread universal consternation. The holy city was however relieved by the hasty retreat of the English king, discouraged by the difficulties of the enterprise and the murmurs of his troops. In the mean time the town of Jaffa was vigorously assaulted by Saladin with a formidable force, and was on the point of surrendering, when Richard, flying to its relief, encountered the besieging army of Saracens and Turks, amounting to 60,000 men, who yielded to the vigour of his attack. In the mean time the miseries of a protracted war began to be severely felt, and the ambitious views of Richard were obstructed by the discontent of his troops. Negotiations were commenced, which were broken off, and as often resumed. The views of both parties varied with the fortune of war. At last, however, both Saladin and Richard were equally desirous of terminating an unpopular and ruinous contest. The first demands of Richard were the restitution of Jerusalem, Palestine, and the true cross. These terms were rejected by the sultan, who would not part with the sovereignty of Palestine, or listen to any proposition for dismembering his dominions. A truce was at length concluded for three years, by which it was stipulated that the Latin Christians should have liberty to visit the holy city without being liable to tribute; that the fort of Ascalon should be dismantled; and that Jaffa and Tyre, with the intervening territory, should be surrendered to the Europeans. Soon after the conclusion of this treaty Richard embarked for Europe; and Saladin, his great rival, did not survive many months the conclusion of peace. He died at Damascus in the year 1193; and before he expired he gave orders that his windingsheet should be carried as a standard through every street of the city, while a crier went before and proclaimed with a loud voice, “this is all that remains of the mighty Saladin, the conqueror of the East.”

The fourth Crusade was encouraged by the zeal of Pope Celestine III. It was directed against the Greek empire, which was too feeble to resist so formidable an attack; and the result was its conquest by the Latins, who ruled over it for fifty-seven years.

In the mean time, in Palestine, though partial successes were gained by the armies of the Crusaders, their power was on the decline. A truce had been concluded with Saphadim, the brother and successor of the Sultan Saladin, for six years. The sovereign of the Latin kingdom at this time was Mary, the daughter of Isabella by Conrad of Tyre, Almeric and his wife being dead. In order to strengthen the government of Jerusalem, it was resolved to request the king of France, Philip Augustus, to provide a husband for Mary. John de Brienne, one of the most accomplished cavaliers in Europe, of tried valour and experience in war, was chosen; and the Christian chiefs were so elated by this union, that they sought a pretence for breaking the subsisting truce between them and the sultan, and bringing matters to the arbitration of the sword. War accordingly ensued, and the new monarch of Jerusalem displayed all the great qualities of a statesman and : a soldier, for which he was chosen; and though his success did not entirely correspond to his hopes or wishes, yet he made a successful defence, and maintained for a time the Latin kingdom against the growing power of its enemies. He foresaw, however, that its gradual decline and final ruin was approaching, being now reduced to two or three [7:16:758] towns, and preserved only in á precarious existence by the divisions and civil wars that prevailed among its enemies.

This intelligence rekindled the dying zeal of the Christian world. A new Crusade was commenced, and in 1216 ; a large force, chiefly of Hungarians and Germans, landed at Acre. The sons of Saphadim, who now ruled in Syria, collected their armies to oppose this formidable attack. But the Crusaders, rashly conducted, and weakened by divisions, advanced into the country without concert or prudence; provisions failed them; they were wasted, as usual, by famine and disease; and at length their leader, the sovereign of Hungary, resolved to quit a country where he had been exposed to hardship and danger, without glory. .The crusading armies, thus weakened and discouraged, had laid aside all further idea of offensive operations, when, in the spring of the following year, a fleet of 300 vessels, that sailed from the Rhine, appeared on the coast, and brought to their aid powerful reinforcements, that recruited their strength, and restored their ascendency in the field. For reasons that do not clearly appear, they now retired from Palestine, and carried the war into Egypt, where they obtained important successes, having taken Damiettaby storm, and spread such consternation among the infidels, that the most favourable terms of peace were offered, and rejected by the Crusaders, who, having wasted their strength on the banks of the Nile, were reduced to the necessity of bargaining for permission to retire to Palestine, by the cession of all their conquests in Egypt.

The next Crusade was undertaken by Frederick II., the grandson of Barbarossa, according to a vow which had been long made, and the performance of which had been so long delayed that he was excommunicated by Gregory IX. By his marriage with Violante, the daughter of John de Brienne, he was the more especially bound to vindicate his right to the kingdom of Jerusalem, which he had received as a dowry with his wife. After many delays, he set sail with a fleet of 200 sail and an army of 40,000 men, and in the year 1228 he arrived at Acre. This was the most successful and the most bloodless expedition that had yet been undertaken. Without the hazard of a battle he entered Jerusalem in triumph. The Saracen power was at this time weakened by divisions; and, owing to suspected treachery among his kindred, the son of Saphadim held rather a precarious possession of the throne. It was his policy, therefore, rather to disarm the hostility of these powerful armies by treating with them, than to encounter them in the field; and accordingly a treaty was concluded, by which Jerusalem, Jaffa, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and their dependencies, were restored to the Christians; religious toleration was established, and the contending parties of Christians and Mahommedans were allowed each to offer up their devotions, the first in the temple of Solomon, and the last in the mosque of Omar. But all these services were performed by Frederic while under the stain of excommunication; and hence the patriarch, when he made his entry into Jerusalem, refused to crown him, or to be present at the ceremonial; and Frederic himself took the çrown from the holy sepulchre, and placed it on his own head. The stipulations of this treaty were not faithfully observed by the Saracens, and the Christians in Palestine ⅞till suffered under the oppression of the infidels. New levies were raised in Europe for the holy war, and a large fprce of French and English, led by the chief nobility of both nations, landed in Syria in 1239. Numerous battles were fought, which terminated in favour of the Saracens; and the French Crusaders, accordingly, after severe losses, were glad to purchase peace by the cession of almost all their conquests in Palestine. Next year, when the English levy under the Earl of Cornwall arrived at the scene of action, he found, to his surprise, that all the territories and privileges that had been ceded to the^emperof of Germany were lost; and that a few fortresses, and a small strip of -territory on the coast, comprised all that the Latins possessed in Palestine. He immediately prepared for the vigorous prosecution of hostilities. But the sultan, being involved in war with his brother in Damascus, readily granted favourable terms as the price of peace, namely, the cession to the Christian armies of Jerusalem, Beritus, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Mount Tabor, anda large tract of the adjoining country. But the kingdom of Jerusalem, thus so happily established, was subverted by a calamity from a new and unexpected quarter. In the interior of Asia the conquests of Ghenghis Khan had brought about the most stupendous revolutions, and the barbarous hordes of the desert, flying before his conquering sword, rushed like a torrent on other nations. The Kharismians, unable to withstand this powerful invader, were driven upon Syria, and the coalesced powers of Saracen and Christian were unable to resist their powerful assault. The Christian host was overthrown in a great battle, which lasted two days, and in which the grand masters of two orders, and most of the knights, were slain. The merciless invaders revelled in the sack and pillage of the holy city, sparing neither sex nor age; and it was not until the year 1247 that they were routed near Damascus, by the Syrians and Mamlouks, and driven back to their former settlements on the Caspian Sea.

Each new disaster of the Christian arms served to rekindle the languishing zeal of the Europeans; and Louis IX. of France fitted out an immense armament for the Holy Land, consisting of 1800 sail of vessels, in which he embarked an army of 50,000 men. He landed in Egypt, and after storming the town of Damietta, he advanced along the sea-coast towards Cairo, when his troops were so wasted by sickness and famine that they fell an easy prey to the enemy. The king, with most of his nobles, and the remnant of his army, were made prisoners; and it was owing to the clemency of the sultan, who accepted a ransom for their lives, that Louis, with his few followers who remained alive, was permitted to embark for Palestine.

The power of the Christians in Palestine, weakened, among other causes, by internal dissensions, was now vigorously assailed by the Sultan Bibars, the Mamlouk sovereign of Egypt. He invaded Palestine with a formidable army, advanced to the gates of Acre, and reducing the towns of Sephami and Azotus, massacred or carried into captivity numbers of Christians. The important city of Antioch yielded to his powerful assault, when 40,000 of the inhabitants were put to the sword, and 100,000 carried into captivity. The report of these cruelties in Europe gave rise to the ninth and last Crusade against the infidels, which was undertaken by Louis, the French king, sixteen years after his return from captivity. But, in place of directing his arms immediately against Palestine, he landed in Africa, and laid siege to Carthage, which he reduced. But he perished miserably on the burning sands of Africa, of a pestilential disease, which proved fatal also to many of his troops; and thus ingloriously terminated this expedition, which was the last undertaken by the Europeans for the recovery of the Holy Land.

The Europeans in Palestine, a feeble remnant, were now confined within the walls of their last stronghold, which was besieged by a Mamlouk host of 200,000 troops, that issued from Egypt, and encamped on the adjacent plain. In this their last conflict with the infidels of the Holy Land, the Europeans fully maintained the glory of their high name. They displayed all the devotion of martyrs in a holy cause, and performed prodigies of valour. But, equalled as they were in discipline, and fearfully overmatched in numbers, by their enemies, they were overborne by the weight and [7:16:759]violence of their attacks, and in the storm and sack of the city all either perished or were carried into captivity. Thus terminated for ever all those visions of glory and conquest by which so many adventurers were seduced from Europe to the Holy Land, there to perish under the complicated perils of disease and the sword. The historian of Rome describes, with his usual force and eloquence, the last struggle of the Europeans in defence of Acre. “Whatever,” he observes, “might be the vices of the Franks, their courage was rekindled by enthusiasm and despair; but they were torn by the discord of seventeen chiefs, and overwhelmed on all sides by the power of the sultan. After a siege of thirty-three days, the double wall was forced by the Moslems; the principal towers yielded to their engines; the Mamlouks made a general assault; the city was stormed; and death or slavery was the lot of 30,000 Christians. The convent, or rather fortress, of the templars resisted three days longer; but the grand master was pierced with an arrow, and, of 500 knights, only ten were left alive, less happy than the victims of the sword, since they had to suffer on the scaffold in the unjust and cruel proscription of the whole order. The king of Jerusalem, the patriarch, and the great master of the hospital, effected their retreat to the shore; but the sea was rough, the vessels were insufficient, and great numbers of the fugitives were drowned before they could reach the isle of Cyprus. By the command of the sultan, the churches and fortifications of the Latin cities were demolished; a motive of avarice or fear still opened the holy sepulchre to some devout and defenceless pilgrims; and a mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the coast, which had so long resounded with the world’s debate.” The other smaller towns which still remained in possession of the Christians yielded without a struggle to the Moslem arms, and, under the religious tyranny of the infidels which succeeded, the Christians in Palestine were everywhere reduced to the lowest degree of debasement. The pilgrims who still visited Jerusalem were exposed to insult and danger; and large contributions were exacted by their oppressors for a free passage through the Holy Land. The Mamlouk sultans of Egypt continued to rule over Palestine till the year 1382, when the country was overrun by a barbarous tribe from the interior of Asia. On their expulsion the sovereignty of the Egyptian sultans was again acknowledged, until the country yielded to the formidable irruption of the great Tamerlane. At his death Jerusalem reverted to the kingdom of Egypt, and was finally subdued by Selim IX. the sultan of the Turks, under whose barbarous regime it has continued for more than 300 years. The country was partitioned into provinces, in each of which a pasha ruled with a despotic authority equal to that of the sultan.

In this condition Palestine remained without any remarkable event in its history, except that for nearly three centuries it was the scene of domestic broils, insurrections, and massacres, until the memorable invasion of Egypt by the French army in 1799. Bonaparte, being apprized that preparations were making in the pachalik of Acre for attacking him in Egypt, resolved, according to his usual tactics, to anticipate the movements of his enemies. He accordingly marched across the desert which divides Egypt from Palestine, and invaded the country at the head of 10,000 troops. El Arish surrendered, and the lives of the garrison were spared on condition that they should not serve against him during the war. Gaza also yielded without opposition; and Jaffa, stormed after a brave resistance, was given up to pillage. And here, in opposition to every feeling of humanity, and to all the maxims of civilized war, was exhibited a scene of atrocity, in the massacre, in cold blood, of4000 prisoners, which vies in cruelty with the darkest deeds of savage life, and has left an indelible stain on the character of the chief agent, and all his accomplices, in this bloody transaction. The plea, that these prisoners were dismissed at Jaffa on the understood condition of not again serving during the war, and that, having violated this condition, they were liable to death, was not supported by any evidence. It was not proved that those who surrendered at Jaffa were the same persons who were dismissed at El Arish; and the story seems indeed to have been fabricated, as the best apology that could be offered for such unheard-of cruelty, after the murder was committed. In the circumstances in which he was placed, those prisoners were a most inconvenient encumbrance to the French general; of which, accordingly, he appears to have freed himself by the short process of a general massacre.

The French army proceeded without delay to form the siege of Acre; and this fortress, the last scene of conflict between the Christians and infidels of former days, became a modern field of battle, in which were exhibited prodigies of valour that rivalled the most renowned deeds of those chivalric times. Bonaparte, though a French convoy with battering cannon and stores for the siege had been captured by a British squadron under Sir Sidney Smith, still persevered in his resolution to reduce the place. The trenches were opened on the 10th of March; in ten days a breach was effected, and a desperate assault took place. For a time the garrison were overpowered, and gave way; but Djezzar Pasha, who had shut himself within the walls, and who was aided by Sir Sidney Smith with a body of British sailors, rushed forward among the thickest of the combatants, and, animating the troops by his example, drove back the enemy with heavy loss. Bonaparte still persevered in a series of furious assaults against the fortress, which were all most gallantly repelled; and after a protracted siege of sixty days, a last assault was ordered, which was equally unsuccessful with all former attempts, and was attended with the loss of some of his bravest warriorĕ. This last failure dictated the necessity of an immediate retreat, which was accomplished with difficulty, in a tedious march through the burning desert, where hardship and privation of every sort was the lot of the wayworn soldier, and the sick and wounded were left in most cases to inevitable death. The French army was attacked during the siege by a powerful body of Turkish troops; and a detachment under Junot, in an engagement which took place near Nazareth, would have been cut to pieces by the Mamlouk cavalry, but for the timely aid of Napoleon. Kleber also, surrounded by an overwhelming body of the same formidable cavalry near Mount Tabor, and who by his presence of mind and military skill had kept the enemy at bay during a whole day, was saved by the artillery of Napoleon, which speedily scattered this cloud of horsemen over the face of the desert.

Of late years a new power has arisen in the East, namely, that of the viceroy of Egypt, who having collected large treasures and a well-disciplined army, openly renounced his allegiance to the grand signior. A war took place, in which the hasty levies of Turkey were broken and put to flight by the veteran troops of Egypt; and a series of brilliant successes fully established the independence of the viceroy. As the price of peace, large districts in Syria and Palestine were ceded to him. We have no certain accounts whether these countries have improved under his sway; but the levies which he imposed on them, of men and money, have, it appears, been severely felt, as the country has been the scene of insurrections which have been with difficulty quelled by his troops. His government is, however, an improvement on the tyranny of Turkey; and in time we may hope that the country will reap the fruits of his wiser policy, (f.) [7:16:760]