ings, through a rugged country, scarce presenting any thing to our view but naked rocks, mountains, and precipices, which are apt to give travellers quite different ideas of the Land of Promise, from those they had formed before from the pleasing description given of it in the sacred writings*. And indeed, at first sight, one would think it impossible for such a land as this to have furnished food for the -vast number of inhabitants that formerly dwelt in it: But we must consider, that these very mountains, which now appear barren, were then cultivated and improved to the best advantage; being either. planted with vines and olive-trees, or else with mêlons, cucumbers, and other garden-stuff, which makes great part of the food of the Eastern nations at the proper season of the year. In order to keep the mould from tumbling or being washed down the sides of the hills, they used to gather up the stones, and build a sort of walls at convenient distances, between which they formed beds of excellent soil, rising one above another from the bottom to the top of the mountains. Some traces of this method of culture may still be discerned in most of the mountains of the Holy Land; and thus the industrious husbandman made the very rocks fruitful, and every spot of ground afford something or other towards the sustenance of human life.

But suppose we grant that some parts of the Holy Land, particularly about Jerusalem, are barren and unfruitful, (which is not true in the main) yet if the far greatest part of the country is wonderfully fertile, as it really is, it sufficiently justifies the description we find of it in the holy scriptures, and ac

* Deut. viii. 7, 8, 9. and xi. 9—15. with many other places.

counts for its once supporting such a prodigious number of inhabitants, and likewise affording its neighbours those supplies of corn and oil, which we are assured it did in the reign of Solomon. That it abounded with oxen, sheep, goats, &c. and also with fowls, appears from the frequent sacrifices of those animals among the Jews; and as they had plenty of cattle, they had milk enough of consequence, one of the distinguishing blessings of the Land of Promise. As to honey, the mountains of this country being many of them covered with thyme, rosemary, and such like aromatic plants and herbs, in which the bees take most delight, we need not wonder that the land was said to flow with it, (as well as with milk) to express its abundance: especially when we consider, that the very woods and desarts of Judea afforded a wild honey, whatever it was, which Jonathan found dropping from the trees*, and which was part of the food of St. John the Baptistt.

Upon the whole, the complaints of some travellers relating to the present barrenness of the Holy Land, and the objections that have been raised from thence. against the truth of several passages of scripture, appear to me to be entirely groundless: For the country is far from being naturally unfruitful; but as it wants inhabitants; and the few that possess it are quite averse to labour and industry, great part of it lies uncultivated and neglected; whereas if it were well peopled and husbanded as it ought to be, the soil is generally rich, and would produce as plentiful crops as the most fertile parts of Syria; and as to the goodness of its wheat and other grain, none can + Matth. iii. 4.

1 Sam. xiv. 26.

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be more excellent than what we meet with at Jerusalem, to which city we are now hastening.

Two hours after we had left Beer, we came to the top of a hill, which gave us the first sight of Jerusalem; having at the same time Rama within view on our right hand, and on our left the plain of Jericho and the mountains of Gilead. Another hour brought us to the walls of the holy city; but as it is not lawful for any Frank to enter the gates without having first obtained permission from the governor, the consul dispatched a messenger for that purpose; who having executed his commission with all possible speed and success, we entered at Bethlehem gate, and were conducted by the consul to his own house, who generously invited us to make it our home during our stay at Jerusalem. We accepted of his invitation with respect to our lodging, but we generally took our meals at the Latin convent, where all Frank pilgrims, as we now reckoned ourselves to be, are usually entertained, though the fathers are well paid for their trouble and provisions.

The little time we had to spare before Easter would not permit us to take an accurate survey of Jerusalem; so that I shall only give some general account of it at present, and defer particulars till that season of devotion is over, when we shall have more leisure to examine them with attention.

This renowned city, though much fallen from its ancient grandeur, is still reckoned the capital of Palestine, and is much resorted to, either out of curiosity or devotion, from all parts of the Christian world. It is situated about thirty miles to the Eastward of the Mediterranean, on a rocky mountain,

with steep ascents to it on all sides, except towards the North; and surrounded with a deep valley, which is again encompassed with hills; being thus placed, as it were, in the midst of an amphitheatre. It is walled round, but the walls are not very strong; nor have they any bastions, but an inconsiderable ditch on one side only. The city has six gates, namely, those of Bethlehem, Mount Zion, Sterquilina or the Dung-gate, St. Stephen's, Herod's, and that of Damascus; besides the Golden Gate which is walled up, because of a prophecy the Turks have amongst them, that by that gate the Christians are to take Jerusalem. The private buildings are very mean, and the streets are narrow, crooked, and many of them full of ruins; and indeed there is a great deal of waste ground in the city, and the whole is but thinly inhabited, though it is scarce three miles in circumference.

The present Jerusalem does not stand upon the same ground that was taken up by the ancient city; for Mount Calvary, which is a small eminence upon the greater Mount of Moriah, and formerly appropriated to the execution of malefactors, was shut out of the walls as a polluted place; whereas since our Saviour's suffering upon it, it has been so reverenced and resorted to by all Christians, that it has drawn the city round about it, and stands now near the middle of Jerusalem; and, on the contrary, a great part of the hill of Zion is left without the walls*. In short, the only thing that renders Jeru

* Dr. Shaw's account of the situation of Jerusalem agrees very well with this of our author. "The hills which stand round about "Jerusalem, says the Doctor, make it appear to be situated as it "were in an amphitheatre, whose Arena inclineth to the East

salem considerable at present is the resort of pilgrims thither; and the accommodating them with necessaries seems to be the principal business of the inhabitants. It is the seat of a Turkish sangiack, whose chief care is to collect the Grand Signior's tribute, to see good order observed, and to protect the pilgrims, and fathers who reside here, from the insults of the Arabs.

On Good Friday, in the Latin style, the French consul was obliged to go into the church of the holy sepulchre, to attend the religious solemnity of that season, and we made no scruple to accompany him, though it was not yet Easter according to our computation. The doors of the church are guarded at these times by Turkish officers and soldiers, who watch that none enter who have not paid an appointed caphar, which is more or less according to the country or character of the persons who want to be admitted. Whoever has once paid this duty may go in and out gratis during the whole feast at public times, when it is usual for the doors to be

ward. We have no where, that I know of, any distant view "of it. That from the Mount of Olives, which is the best, and "perhaps the farthest, is, notwithstanding, at so small a distance, "that when our Saviour was there, he might be said, almost in "a literal sense, to have wept over it.' There are very few "remains of the city, either as it was in our Saviour's time, or "as it was afterwards rebuilt by Hadrian; scarce one stone be"ing left upon another, which hath not been thrown down.' "Even the very situation is altered: For Mount Sion, the most " eminent part of the old Jerusalem, is now excluded, and its "ditches filled up; whilst the places adjoining to Mount Calvary, where Christ is said to have suffered without the gate, are now almost in the centre of the city." Shaw's Travels, p. 334.