long, it being taken in the year 1191, by king Richard the First of England, and Philip of France, and given to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. These kept possession of it a whole century, till the year 1291, when the Turks to the number of a hundred and fifty thousand, having pressed this city with a long and furious siege, which was sustained by the knights with the greatest bravery, at last entered it by storm, and razed it to the ground; and it has never been able to recover itself since that fatal overthrow.

When Acre was thus taken by the Turks, there was a fine munnery in the town, of which they tell us the following remarkable story. The abbess, fearing that she, and the virgins under her care, should be obliged to submit to such brutal usage as women frequently meet with from soldiers on the taking of cities. by storm, summoned the nuns together, advising them to cut and mangle their faces, as the only means to preserve their virginity; and immediately cut and disfigured her own, to set them an example. The nuns, animated by the resolution of the abbess, without any hesitation, fell to gashing and tearing their faces, cut off their noses, and made themselves such frightful spectacles, as they were sure would rather excite horror and aversion than lustful desires, and infallibly preserve them from a rape. This, it is said, so enraged the Turkish soldiers, who expected to have found here a kind of paradise upon earth, and to have indulged their wanton flames among the beautiful young nuns, that they put them every one to the sword, in revenge for their disappoint

ment.

PALESTINE;

OR THE HOLY LAND.

Though the country we have travelled through from Sidon to Acre, may, in some sense, be deemed a part of the Holy Land, having been allotted to the tribe of Asher, whose border extended from Carmel to great Sidon;* yet as the people upon the sea coasts were never actually mastered by the Israelites, but left by the judgment of God to be thorns in their sides,† I have spoken of it under its more proper name of Phoenice or Phoenicia. But as we are now approaching to those places that are most frequented by our blessed Saviour and his apostles, made famous by their preaching and miracles, and, in short, the theatre of the greatest part of the scripture history; I shall henceforwards, without regard to geographical niceties and criticisms, consider myself as in the Holy Land, Palestine, or Judea; which name I find used indifferently, though perhaps with some impropriety, to signify the same country.

There are three roads from Acre to Jerusalem; one along the coast, by Cæsarea and Joppa: a second by Nazareth: and a middle way between both the other, over the plain of Esdraelon. They are all of them more or less dangerous, according as the Arabs are at peace or variance with each other; but there are generally divisions amongst the tribes, which the Turks, for po litical ends, take care to foment; for as they are numerous, and almost the sole inhabitants of these parts, if they could but unive

Joshua xix. 26, 28.

† Judges ii. 3.

TRAVELS THROUGH THE HOLY LAND.

223

under any one prince, they might easily shake off the Turkish yoke, and make themselves masters of the country. It happened, however, that they were not very much embroiled at this time, which is always agreeable news to a traveller; and therefore the three roads being equally safe, the French consul chose to take the middle one, as being the nearest. This was not quite agree able to my inclinations, nor to those of several of the company, who had a great desire to see Nazareth and Mount Tabor, both which we should leave considerably to the left by taking the road proposed. But the consul's affairs requiring him to stay three days at Acre, some young gentlemen belonging to the French factory there, and others who came from Sidon, determined to take that opportunity of visiting the above mentioned places. We very willingly joined the party, which consisted of twelve of us in all, besides two Turkish soldiers, every one being well mounted and armed, and prepared to give the Arabs a warm reception, if any should attack us; but perhaps luckily for us, our courage was not put to the trial.

.We set out from Acre on the 25th, in the morning, and travelling along the plain for an hour and a half, we entered a valley between two hills, where we passed by a little village on the left called Satira. In less than two hours from hence we entered the delightful plain of Zabulon, and, having spent an hour and a half in crossing it, we arrived at Sepharia, or Sephoris, a place where Joachim and Anna, the parents of the blessed Virgin, are said to have resided. It was formerly called Diocesaria, according to St. Jerome, and was a considerable city; but it is now reduced to a poor village, though there are still some ruins left, to put us in mind that it once made a better appearance. At the West end of the place great part of a church is still standing, said to have been built on the spot where formerly stood the house of Joachim and Anna. Having travelled almost two hours beyond Sepharia, we passed in view of Cana in Galilee, where our Saviour wrought his first miracle, by turning water into wine at a marriage feast. Keeping our course from hence Eastward, and afterwards turning to the South, we crossed the hills that en

compass the vale of Nazareth, where we soon arrived, and took up our quarters at the Latin convent, except the two soldiers, who provided themselves another lodging.

This convent is a neat and commodious building, inhabited by a dozen Latin fathers, whose life would be much more agreeable, if they were not in such continual fear of the Arabs. Having taken a small refreshment, (for we made no stay upon the road) we spent the remainder of the day in taking a view of Nazareth, which is at present only an inconsiderable village, situate on a high hill in the midst of a valley, almost encompassed with other mountains. From the convent we descend by ten or twelve steps into the church, which is built in a cave or grotto, supposed to be the place where the Blessed Virgin received the salutation of the angel Gabriel, "Hail thou that are highly favored," &c. This church is in the form of a cross, that part of which resembles the tree running directly into the cross, without any other roof over it than that of the natural rock; and the transverse part being built across the mouth of the grotto. Just at the section of the cross are two beautiful granite pillars, erected there by order of Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, about a yard distant from each other; and are said to stand, one on the place where the angel stood to deliver the heavenly message, and the other where the Virgin was when she received it. Almost two feet of this last pillar has been broken away by the Turks just above its pedestal, in expectation of finding some treasure under it; and yet the upper part remains erect, or rather suspended from the roof; which not being easily accounted for, the friars tell us it is supported by a miracle.

Here they also show you the place from whence the chamber of the Virgin is said to have been transported by angels to Lo retto. And yet we were conducted a little distance from the convent, to the house of Joseph, as they call it, where our Sa. viour spent great part of his life, in subjection to his parents * Not far from hence they likewise show us the synagogue where the

*Luke ii. 51.

-1

Jews were so exasperated at our Lord's preaching, that they would have thrown him headlong down a precipice. These places were anciently dignified with handsome churches, by queen Helena, which are now in ruins.

The next morning we set out to visit Mount Tabor, called Itabyrion and Atabyrion by the Greeks, which stands at a distance from any other hill, about half a mile within the plain of Esdraelon. We left our horses at the foot of the mountain, choosing to climb it on foot, though it is not so steep but it may be ascended on horseback. In an hour's time we reached the

top of it, which we found to be a fruitful and pleasant plain, of an oval figure, about a quarter of a mile in length, and a furlong in breadth. There are trees all round it, except towards the South; and it was anciently encompassed with a wall and other fortifications, the remains whereof are visible to this day. We likewise met with several cisterns of good water in this area, which are very agreeable to a thirsty pilgrim.

This mountain is admired for the regularity of its form, being shaped like a sugar loaf, and looking more like the work of art than of nature. The trees that grow upon it from top to bottom, which are most of them oaks, are no small addition to its beauty; and its height, which is near two miles, together with its lonely situation, contribute to render it remarkable. But what has made it particularly famous, and has derived on it the veneration of Christians in almost all ages, is its having been the place of the glorious transfiguration of our Saviour, in the presence of his three apostles, Peter, James, and John. That this is the mountain where that wonderful scene was exhibited, was for a long time universally believed without the least dispute; but it has been made a doubt of by some modern writers: how

*«Tabor being situated in such a separate manner," says Mr. Maundrell, "has induced most authors to conclude, that this must needs be that holy mountain (as St. Peter styles it, 2 Pet. i. 18) which was the place of our Blessed Lord's transfiguration, related Matthew xvii. Mark ix. There you read that Christ took with him Peter, James, and John into a mountain apart: from which description they infer, that the mountain there spoken of can be no other than Tabor.

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