cried out "Bon' Inglesi! Viva l'Ingilterra!" others, cursing and reviling, called us a set of rascally Christian dogs, and filthy infidels. We could never learn wherefore so much curiosity had been excited; unless it were, that of late, owing to the turbulent state of public affairs, the resort of strangers to Jerusalem had become more uncommon; or that they expected another visit from Sir Sidney Smith, who had marched into Jerusalem with colours flying and drums beating, at the head of a party of English sailors. He protected the Christian guardians of the Holy Sepulchre from the tyranny of their Turkish rulers, by hoisting the British standard upon the walls of their monastery.

REASONING ON THE SITE OF THE

HOLY SEPULCHRE.

We had been to examine the bill which now bears the name of Sion: it is situated upon the south side of Jerusalem, part of it being excluded by the wall of the present city, which passes over the top of the mount. If this be indeed Mount Sion, the prophecy concerning it, that the plough should pass over it, has been fulfilled to the letter; for such labours were actually going on when we arrived. Here the Turks have a mosque, over what they call the Tomb of David. No Christian can gain admittance; and, as we did not choose to loiter among the other legendary sanctities of the mount, having quitted the city by what is called "Sion Gate," we descended into a dingle or trench, called Tophet, or Gehinnon, by Sandys. As

we reached the bottom of this narrow dale, sloping towards the valley of Jehosaphat, we observed, upon the sides of the opposite mountain, which appears to be the same called by Sandys, the "Hill of Offence," facing Mount Sion, a number of excavations in the rock, similar to those already described among the ruins of Telmessus, in the gulph of Glaucus; and answering to the account published by Shaw, of the Crypta of Laodicea, Jebilee, and Tortosa. We rode towards them; their situation being very little elevated above the bottom of the dingle, upon its southern side. When we arrived, we instantly recognised the sort of sepulchres which had so much interested us in Asia Minor, and, alighting from our horses, found that we should have ample employment in their examination. They were all of the same kind of workman,

ship, exhibiting a series of subterranean chambers, hewn with marvellous art, each containing one, or many, reposi tories for the dead, like cisterns carved in the rock upon the sides of those chambers. The doors were so low, that, to look into any one of them, it was necessary to stoop, and, in some instances, to creep upon our hands and knees: these doors were also grooved, for the reception of immense stones, once squared and fitted to the grooves, by way of closing the entrances. Of such a nature were, indisputably, the tombs of the sons of Heth, of the kings of Israel, of Lazarus, and of Christ.

Some of them, from their magnificence, and the immense labour necessary to form the numerous repositories they contain, might lay claim to regal honours; and there is one which appears to have been constructed for the purpose of inhuming a single individual. The Karaan Jews, of all others the most tenacious in adhering to the customs of their ancestors, have, from time immemorial, been in the practice of bringing their dead to this place for interment; although this fact was not wanted to prove it an ancient Jewish cemetery. The sepulchres themselves, according to the ancient practice, are stationed in the midst of gardens. From all these circumstances, are we not authorized to seek here for the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, who, as a pious Jew, necessarily had his burying-place in the cemetery of his countrymen, among the graves of his forefathers? The Jews were remarkable for their rigid adherence to this custom: they adorned their burial-places with trees and gardens: and the tomb of this Jew is accordingly described as being in a garden; and it was "in the place where our Saviour was crucified." Of what nature was that place of crucifixion? It is very worthy of observation, that every one of the evangelists, (and among these, "he that saw it, and bare record,) affirm, that it was "the place of a scull;" that is to say, a public cametery," called in the Hebrew, Golgotha;" without the city, and very near to one of its gates. St. Luke calls it Calvary, which has the same signification.

Upon all the sepulchres at the base of this mount, which," as the place of a scull," we have the authority of the gospel for calling either Calvary or Golgotha, whether the place of crucifixion or not, there are inscriptions, in Hebrew and in Greek. The Hebrew inscriptions

are

are the most effaced: of these it is diffi⚫ cult to make any tolerable copy. Be sides the injuries they have sustained by time, they have been covered by some carbonaceous substance, either bituminous or fumid, which rendered the task of transcribing them yet more arduous. The Greek inscriptions are brief and legible, consisting of immense letters deeply carved in the face of the rock, either over the door, or by the side, of the sepulchres. Upon the first we ob served these characters:

+THCATIAC
CIWN

OF THE HOLY

SION.

There were others with similar Greek inscriptions, and one which particularly attracted our notice, from its extraordinary coincidence with all the circum. stances attaching to the history of our Saviour's tomb. The large stone that once closed its mouth had been, perhaps for ages, rolled away. Stooping down to look into it, we observed, within, a fair sepulchre, containing a repository, upon one side only, for a single body; whereas, in most of the others, there were two, and in many of them more than two. It is placed exactly opposite to that which is now called Mount Sion. As we viewed this sepulchre, and read upon the spot the description given of Mary Magdalene and the disciples coming in the morning, it was impossible to divest our minds of the probability that here might have been the identical tomb of Jesus Christ; and that up the steep which led to it, after descending from the gate of the city, the disciples strove to gether, when “John did outrun Peter,. and came first to the sepulchre." They are individually described as stooping down to look into it; they express their doubts as to the possibility of removing so huge a stone, that when once fixed and sealed, it might have baffled every human effort. But upon this, as upon the others already mentioned, instead of a Hebrew or a Phoenician inscription, there were the same Greek characters, destitute only of the Greek cross prefixed in the former instances. The inscription etood thus.

THCATIA C CIWN the letters being very large, and deeply carved in the rugged surface of the rock.

upon the governor, to thank him for the civilities we had received. Upon this occasion we used all the interest we had with him, by means of Djezzar Pacha's owu interpreter, to obtain admission into the mosque of the temple of SoJomon, or mosque erected upon the site of that temple, by the Caliph Omar, in the seventh century. Dle entreated us not to urge the request, saying, his own life would certainly be required as the price of our admission: we were therefore compelled to rest satisfied with the interesting view it afforded from his windows, which regarded the area of the temple. The sight was so grand, that we did not hesitate in pronouncing it the most magnificent piece of architecture in the Turkish empire; and, considered externally, far superior to the mosque of Saint Sophia in Constantinople. By the sides of the spacious area in which it stands, are certain vaulted remains: these plainly denote the masonry of the antients; and evidence may be adduced to prove, that they belonged to the foundations of Solomon's temple. We observed also, that reticulated stucco, which is commonly considered as an evidence of Roman work. Phocas believed the whole space surrounding this building to be the antient area of the temple; and Golius, in his notes upon the Astronomy of Alferganes, says, the whole foundation of the original edifice remained. As to the mosque itself, there is no building at Jerusalem that can be compared with it, either in beauty or riches. The lofty Saracenic pomp so nobly displayed in the style of the building; its numerous arcades; its capacious dome, with all the stately decorations of the place; its extensive area, paved and variegated with the choicest marbles; the extreme neatness observed in every avenue towards it; and, lastly, the sumptuous costume observable in the dresses of all the Eastern devotees, passing to and from the sanctuary, make it altogether one of the finest sights the Mahometans have to boast,

POLITICS IN JERUSALEM.

MOSQUE OF OMAR.

4P

of

of Syria, howsoever distributed and divided by sects,-Armenians, Georgians, Greeks, Abyssinians, Copts, Nestorians, Catholics, Syrians, Druses, Maronites, together with all distinctions of Jewish worshippers, Samaritans, Karaites, Rabbinists, are ready to bestow upon them their praises and their blessings. Thus, if a Frenchman arrive in Jerusalem, as in the recent instance of De Châteaubriand, they talk to him of the victories of Buonaparté, and the prowess of Frenchmen in the Holy Land, as if they were preaching for a new crusade. If an Englishman, they lavish commnendations and benedictions upon the heroes of the British navy; dwelling with enthusiasm upon the exploits of Nelson at Aboukir; upon those of Sir Sidney Smith at Acre; and upon the glorious fate of the lamented Abercrombie.

THE DEAD SEA.

The Dead Sea below, upon our left, appeared so near to us, that we thought we could have rode thither in a very short space of time. Still nearer stood a mountain upon its western shore, resembling, in its form, the cone of Vesuvius, near Naples, and having also a crater upon its top, which was plainly discernible. The distance, however, is much greater than it appears to be; the magnitude of the objects beheld in this fine prospect, causing them to appear less remote than they really are. The atmosphere was remarkably clear and serene; but we saw none of those clouds of smoke, which, by some writers, are said to exhale from the surface of Lake Asphaltites, nor from any neighbouring mountain. Every thing about it was, in the highest degree, grand and awful. Its desolate, although majestic, features, are well suited to the tales related concerning it by the inhabitants of the country, who all speak of it with terror, seeming to shrink from the narrative of its deceitfu! allurements and deadly influence. "Beautiful fruit," say they, "grows upon its shores, which is no sooner touched, than it becomes dust and bitter ashes." In addition to its physical horrors, the region around is said to be more perilous, owing to the ferocious tribes wandering upon the shores of the lake, than any other part of the Holy Land. A passion for the marvellous has thus affixed, for ages, false characteristics to the sublimest associations of natural scenery in the whole world; for, although it be now known that the waters of this lake, instead

of proving destructive of animal life, swarm with myriads of fishes; that, instead of falling victims to its exhalations, certain birds make it their peculiar resort; that shells abound upon its shores; that the pretended "fruit, containing ashes," is as natural and as admirable a production of nature, as the rest of the vegetable kingdom; that bodies sink or float in it, according to the proportion of their gravity to the gravity of the water; that its vapours are not more insalubrious than those of any other lake; that innu merable Arabs people the neighbouring district; notwithstanding all these facts are now well established, even the latest authors by whom it is mentioned, and one among the number, from whose writings some of these truths have been derived, continue to fill their descriptions with imaginary horrors and ideal phantoms, which, though less substantial than the "black perpendicular rocks" around it, "cast their lengthened shadows over the waters of the Dead Sea." The antients, as it is observed by the traveller now alluded to, were much better acquainted with it than are the moderns: and, it may be added, the time is near at hand, when it will be more philosophically examined. The present age is not that in which countries so situated, can long continue unexplored. thirst of knowledge, and the love of travel, have attained to such a pitch, that every portion of the globe will be ransacked for their gratification. Indeed, one of the advantages derived from the present perturbed state of nations, is that of directing the observation of enlightened travellers to regions they pro bably would not otherwise have noticed.

BETHLEHEM.

The

Bethlehem, written Bethlechem by Reland, is six miles from Jerusalem. This distance, allowed by almost all authors, exactly corresponds with the usual computed measure, by time, of two hours.

The well of Bethlehem still retains its pristine renown; and many an expatriated Bethlehemite has made it the theme of his longing and regret. As there is no other well corresponding in its situ ation with the description given by the sacred historian and by Josephus,-and the text of Scripture so decidedly marks its locality, at the farthest extremity of Bethlehem, (with reference to Jerusalem,) that is to say, near the gate of the town on the eastern side,-this may

have been David's well. It is well known to travellers who have seen the wells of Greece and of the Holy Land, that there exists no monument of antient times more permanent than even an artificial well; that vases of terra colta, of the highest antiquity, have been found in cleansing the wells of Athens: and if they be natural sources, springing from cavities in the limestone rocks of a country where a well is the most important possession of the people, (in which number this well of Bethlehem may be classed,) there seems no reason to doubt the possibility of its existence in the remote ages whereto it is now referred.

The tradition respecting the cave of the nativity, seems so well authenticated, as hardly to admit of dispute. Having been held in veneration from a very early period, the oratory established there by the first Christians, attracted the notice and indignation of the heathens so early as the time of Adrian, who ordered it to be demolished, and the place to be set apart for the rites of Adonis. The situation of the town upon the narrow ridge of a long and lofty hill, surrounded on all sides by valleys, is particularly described by the Abbot of Iona, from the account given to him by Arculfus: and for a description of the interior of the monastery, the reader may be referred to the very recent description given by Mons. De Châteaubriand.* He considers the church as of high antiquity; being unmindful of the entire destruction of the convent by the Mos. lems, towards the end of the thirteenth century. We felt very little disappoint ment in not seeing it. The degrading superstitions maintained by all the Monk ish establishments in the Holy Land, excite pain and disgust. The Turks use the monastery, when they travel this way, as they would a common caravanserai; making the church, or any other part of the building that suits their convenience, both a dormitory and a tavern, while they remain. Neither is the sanctuary more polluted by the presence of these Moslems, than by a set of men whose grovelling understandings have sunk so low as to vilify the sacred name of Christianity by the grossest outrages upon human intellect. In the pavement of the church, a hole, formerly used to carry off water, is exhibited as the place where the star fell, and sunk into the earth, after conducting the Magi to the

* See our last Supplement.

cave of the nativity. A list of fifty other things of this nature might be added, if either the patience of the author, or of the reader, were equal to the detail: and, if to these were added the inscriptions and observations contained in the bulky volumes of Quaresmius, upon this subject alone, the "Guide to Bethlehem," as a work, concentrating the quintessence of mental darkness, would leave us lost in wonder that such a place was once enlightened by the precepts of a scholar whom Erasmus so eloquently eulogized.

TEREBINTHINE VALE.

After three miles of as hard a journey, over hills and rocks, as any we had ex perienced, we entered the famous Tere. binthine Vale, renowned, during nineteen centuries, as the field of the victory gained by the youngest of the sons of Jesse over the uncircumcised champion of the Philistines, who had "defied the armies of the living God." The admonitus locorum cannot be more forcibly excited, than by the words of Scripture: "And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the Valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them." Nothing has ever occurred to alter the appearance of the country: as it was then, so it is now. The very brook whence David “chose him five smooth stones" has been noticed by many a thirsty pilgrim, journeying from Jaffa to Jerusalem; all of whom must pass it in their way.

JAFFA.

Jaffa appeared to be almost in as for lorn a state, from the plague, as Rama; the air itself was still infected with the smell of unburied bodies. We went to the house of the English Consul, whose grey hairs had not exempted him from French extortion. He had just ventured to hoist again the British flag upon the roof of his dwelling; and, he told us, with tears in his eyes, that it was the only proof of welcome he could offer to us, as the French officers, under Buonaparte, had stripped him of every thing he possessed. However, in the midst of all his complaints against the French, not a single syllable ever escaped his lips respecting the enormities supposed to be committed, by means of Buona.

parte's

parte's orders or connivance, in the town and neighbourhood of Jaffa. As there are so many living witnesses to attest the truth of this representation, and the character of no ordinary individual is so much implicated in its result, the utmost attention will be here paid to every particular likely to illustrate the fact; and, for this especial reason, because that individual is our enemy. At the time we were in Jaffa, so soon after the supposed transactions are said to have occurred, the indignation of our Consul, and of the inhabitants in general, against the French, was of so deep a nature, that there is nothing they would not have said, to vilify Buonaparte, or his officers; but this accusation they never even hinted.

These falsehoods were first circulated through the pamphlet of a British agent at Constantinople, and then copied into Books of Travels by the printers and editors to make their works sell, and humour the popular prejudices against Buonaparte; all which were encouraged by the British administration of the day. Vide Asperne, Raworth, Skinner, Morier, Wilson, and

Wittman,-EDITOR.

PETRALOGY..

A TREATISE ON ROCKS, BY J. PINKERTON.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

ed over many interesting details relative to particular minerals.]

THE AUTHOR'S NEW SYSTEM.

IN an attempt to establish a new no

menclature of arrangement, the first requisite is, that it be conformable to the simplicity and harmony of nature; and that it be free from affectation, as even the novelty itself is apt to displease. For this purpose it is necessary to revert to first principles, and if possible to establish the edifice upon foundations universally ad mitted. Natural history has been well and popularly divided into three Kingdoms, the Animal, the Vegetable, and the Mineral. In the two former the kingdom consists of living subjects, who of course may be well considered at divided into Classes, Orders, Genera, and Species; but in the Mineral Kingdom the territory alone con→ It stitutes the subject of discussion. must therefore be received as a funda mental truth or axiom, that the mineral kingdom, being wholly inert, cannot ad mit distinction which belong to vital energy; and that an identity of appella tions cannot therefore be allowed, either in a grammatical or philosophical view. But the very term Mineral Kingdom may of itself lead to a new and more proper nomenclature: for, as the kingdom may be regarded as either vivified with animal and vegetable life, or as an inert tract of country, with certain geographi cal, chorographical, and topographical divisions; so the latter point of views can alone apply to mineralogy, while the former belongs to zoology and botany.

This simple induction will, it is hoped, lead of itself to easy and natural, though new, denominations. For what is more usual than the division of a kingdom inta provinces, districts, domains, &c. while, as it would not only be pedantic, but inadequate to the subject, to carry this species of metaphor too far, some lesser divisions must be borrowed from the na ture of the objects, as they present them-selves to the observer.

HIS GRAND PROVINCES.

I would propose, therefore, in the present advanced state of the science, that the MINERAL KINGDOM be considered as:

2.

divided into three provinces: 1. PETRALOGY, or the knowledge of rocks, orá stones which occur in large masses. LITHOLOGY, the knowledge of gems and 3. METALLOGY, or the small stones. Each of these knowledge of metals. branches is even at present so important, and offers such numerous topics of disqui