III.

A VISIT TO ANTIPATRIS.

By the REV. ELI SMITH, Missionary in Palestine.

PROF. E. ROBINSON, D. D. MY DEAR SIR:

Beirut, 10th May, 1843.

The American steamer Bangor having touched here last month on her way to Yâfa, I availed myself of the opportunity, and, in company with the Rev. S. H. Calhoun, who was here on a visit, made a hasty excursion to Jerusalem. On our return to the coast we conceived a desire to follow Paul's track to Antipatris, instead of taking the direct road to Yâfa. His route, we imagined, inasmuch as Gophna was then so important a town, must first have taken him thither, between which place and Bireh we, in 1838, found so many traces of a paved Roman road; and thence down the mountain by a course not yet taken by modern travellers. We therefore chose that direction towards Kefr Saba, which is supposed to be the modern representative of Antipatris. This course would at least lead through a region, which in our map is left nearly a blank, for want of previous observation; and might conduct us in the very track of the Roman road from Jerusalem to Cæsarea, and thus give us opportunity to make some new and valuable observations.

We engaged animals for the 25th of April, intending to take three days for the journey. But through the faithlessness of Jerusalein muleteers, of which you are not ignorant, we were disappointed, and did not leave until the 26th. Thus we were obliged to crowd our observations into two days, in order to reach Yâfa on the 27th by the time the steamer was expected to leave.

I often thought of you, as we rode hastily to Bîreh, over ground which you and myself had repeatedly trodden together. The fields were better cultivated than then, and had an aspect of more fertility. We reached Bireh in two hours and twenty minutes, and just beyond took the usual road to Jufna. The Bâlû'a was again

dry, and the land on the water-shed beyond we found extensively cultivated with vineyards, and fig and olive orchards. The first valley that commences beyond, runs into Wady Ludd. In it, thirty-five minutes from Bîreh, we came to ruins, perhaps of a church, shaded by two or three oak trees, and called Salemîyeh." Here we found that in descending into the valley, we had mistaken our path. So, ascending its bed, through fields of grain, we regained our road, and soon crossed a ridge, beyond which rises the beginning of the Wady that passes by Jufna and becomes the Wady Belât. Our road lay along the right side of it, and opposite to us was the Muslim village of Surda, whose inhabitants cultivate nearly the whole of the soil on each declivity. After a while a summit projected into this valley to the left of our path, and ascending it thirty minutes from Salemiyeh, we took the following bearings:1

While we were engaged in these observations, our luggage passed on, and we were left alone. A shepherd came near us, armed with a musket, as was almost every body we met in the mountains, and in a peremptory tone demanded what we were doing. I as peremptorily ordered him to come and assist us. This ended the parley, which, had we shown any fear, might have terminated more seriously, as there were others at hand. We returned to our road, and, following the right declivity of the "branch Wady," which commences here, reached Jufna at the bottom, in thirty minutes.

We had brought a letter from Dr. McGowan, of the English mission at Jerusalem, to Sheikh Ibrahim, one of the heads of the village, to insure the speedy procuring of such guides as we needed. Dr. McGowan spent a part of the last summer here, and attempted

forming an establishment to make his own wine. The Pasha at the beginning told him that he should allow him neither to buy nor build in the village; and at length, by imprisoning under other pretences the men with whom he had dealings, made his situation so uncomfortable, that he was constrained to leave. We were now told that Jufna contains ninety men, more than double the number confessed when you and I were here together. They are all Christians of the Greek church. The valley in which the village stands, seemed to have increased in beauty. Its bottom was carpeted with verdant fields of grain, its sides clothed with vines and fig-trees, and its summits crowned with villages. Under the hand of industry, fostered by true religion and a good government, it might become a little paradise.

Sheikh Ibrahim gave us his brother and another active mountaineer to guide us; and we soon started again, directing them to take us by the oldest road to Kefr Sâba. We ascended directly to the top of the hill, at the foot of which the village stands, and in 20 m. reached Bîr Zeit. In this distance, we found evident remains of the pavement of a Roman road, affording satisfactory proof that we had not mistaken our route. You will remember that there are two villages called Bîr Zeit, only one of which is inhabited. The latter is the one we visited. It numbers about ninety men, of whom seventy are Christians, and the rest Muslims. 'Atâra was in plain sight; also several other places whose bearings we marked as follows:

As we passed on from the village, our road led us through luxuriant vineyards, and orchards of fig and olive trees, until in 15 m. mountain which overlooks the

it brought us to the brow of the western declivity quite to the plain.

Stopping here a moment upon

an eminence [A] a little to the left of our road, we took the fol

lowing bearings:

طرفين .

The declivity of the mountain, as we overlooked it, seemed to be composed, not so much of ridges, as of eminences, the connexion of which with each other was not always readily distinguished, so as to enable us to trace the course of the Wadies. The same difficulty we experienced during the whole of our descent. I can say little more than that our road led us to the very bottom, on the water-shed between the tributaries of two large Wadies, which serve as drains to all the others. The one on the north, our guides knew only under the name of Wady Belât; which has its commencement, as we formerly found, near Jufna, though I suspect this may be its name only in that vicinity. Unfortunately, when we subsequently crossed it in the evening, no one was at hand of whom we could inquire. The Wady on the south was called by our guides, Wady 'Ain Tuleib,' from a fountain in it in this vicinity. The Wadies which unite with it seemed numerous, and the final drain of them all is Wady Ludd. The Wady Belât forms the boundary between the provinces of Jerusalem and Nâbulus, except that some places, even on its northern declivity, belong to Jerusalem. Of those in sight from the point where we stood, Ferkha is on the north side, and belongs to Nâbulus.

The whole of our way down the mountain was a very practicable, and for the most part a very easy descent. It seemed formed by nature for a road, and we had not descended far from the point where our observations were made, before we came again upon the Roman pavement. This we continued to find at intervals, during the remainder of the day. In some places, for a considerable dis

tance, it was nearly perfect; and then again it was entirely broken up, or a turn in our path made us lose sight of it. Yet we travelled hardly half an hour at any time, without finding distinct traces of it. I do not remember observing anywhere before so extensive remains of a Roman road. That it was the road from Gophna, and in fact from Jerusalem, to Cæsarea, there can be no reasonable doubt. We were therefore actually following the route taken by Paul, with his guard of four hundred and seventy men, when sent by Claudius Lysias by night to Antipatris on his way to Cæsarea.' To discover this road, and mark the region through which it passed, was the particular object of our journey.

Turning a little to the left of our path, after 35 m. we gained an eminence [B], from which the following bearings were noted:

In 25 m. more we reached a small village, called Um Sufah." Near it, the road passes for a considerable distance over an almost unbroken surface of sloping rock, so smooth that both of our baggage animals fell before clearing it. The identity of the name Sufâh reminded me of the place which we supposed to be "Hormah," in the southern borders of Palestine. In both cases it seems to be connected with similar naked sloping rocks, (slio in Arabic meaning a hard sterile rock,) except that the rock here is much less extensive than there. From just without the village we marked the following bearings:

5

3 On the N. side of W. Belât, but belonging to Jerusalem.

صافاه not صفاه 4

5 Bibl. Researches, II. p. 591.