titude of people, who were continually thronging after Him: then, lifting up His eyes on His Disciples, He commences His discourse, with Blessed are ye poor &c. This is St. Luke's account, who does not mention our Lord's re-ascending a mountain previously to His beginning His Discourse; which, nevertheless, from St. Matthew v. 1, we are led to infer that He did. When he had ended all his sayings... he entered into Capernaum (Luke vii. 1): He descended, therefore, from the Mount of the Beatitudes, toward the Lake of Tiberias. Now from this very spot, there is a road, passing through a ravine, direct to the Lake of Tiberias; and, from thence, to the present site of Capernaum, the distance hence to the Lake being about two-hours-anda-half. This ravine is the caravan-road from Damascus to the south. Although no absolutely certain evidence is, deducible from this sketch, yet we felt it heighten our interest in the scene, to trace, as nearly as might be, with the Gospels in our hand and the very country before us, every step of our Lord's course.

Considerably further on, we arrived at the spot, where the Christian guides point out the Corn-field, in which the Disciples rubbed the ears of corn and ate of them on the Sabbath Day. But here I felt, that, to particularize the precise position of a single field after a period of eighteen hundred years, by ex-: acting rather too much from my powers of belief, tends rather to weaken the local enchantment. Here, however, the pilgrims, in their sacred route, are wont to halt, and read the appropriate portionof the Gospel to which, though we did it not, I make no objection, provided they will allow me, as

well as themselves, the title and rank of pilgrim. From a distance the tower of Sephoury was now distinguishable; and, soon after, we reached Cana of Galilee.

CANA OF GALILEE.

Cana is, at present, a very small and poor village. With some difficulty we found out the Christian Priest. We went with him to his Church, in which he shewed us, fixed in the wall, one (as he assured us) of those water-pots referred to in St. John ii. 6. This I relate because he said so, not because I believed in it. On the walls are several Greek and Arabic Inscriptions, recording the names of devout pilgrims to this place. But my eye was suddenly attracted by the sight of Abyssinian Characters, to the same effect: the Priest stated that this was written by an Abyssinian Priest about four years ago, who remained here twenty days: his name was Baba Moosé: in the day time, he was constantly in the Church, reading; and, at night, he slept in the church-yard, beneath a tree, under the shade of which we rested to take some refreshment.

A small number of Christians gathered round us, with whom we conversed, and to whom we sold and gave a few copies of the Scriptures. The population they stated to be about thirty houses Mussulman, aud thirty houses Christian, of the Oriental-Greek Church. The total number accords with the appearance of the village. Evidence of the rite to which they belonged, we had in a printed Greek paper, hanging up in the Church, signed by Polycarp, Patriarch of Jerusalem, dated 1816; similar

exactly to the Document mentioned at pp. 25, 26 of "Christian Researches in the Mediterranean."

RETURN TO NAZARETH.

With this village, now so inconsiderable, but where once the glory of the Divine Person of Christ was manifested forth to His Disciples, by the first miracle which he wrought, we closed our present excursion; arriving at Nazareth, which seemed to us, for a moment, like a home, about three o'clock in the afternoon.

PLAIN OF ESDRAELON.

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 1823-We left Nazareth for Jerusalem..

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Our road, for the first three-quarters-of-an-hour, lay among the hills which lead to the Plain of Esdraelon; upon which, when we were once descended, we had no more inconvenience, but rode for the most part on level ground, interrupted by only gentle ascents and descents. This is that mighty plain"-uéya redior, as it is called by Ancient Writers-which, in every age, has been celebrated for so many battles. It was across this Plain, that the hosts of Barak chased Sisera and his nine hundred chariots of iron: from Mount Tabor to that ancient river, the river Kishon, would be directly through the middle of it. At present, there is peace; but not that most visible evidence of enduring peace and civil protection, a thriving population. We counted, in our road across the Plain, only five very small villages, consisting of wretched mud-hovels, chiefly in ruins; and very

few persons moving on the road. We might again truly apply to this scene the words of Deborah (Judges v. 6, 7)—The highways were unoccupied: the inhabitants of the villages ceased-they ceased in Israel. The soil is extremely rich; and, in every direction, are the most picturesque views-the hills of Nazareth to the north-those of Samaria, to the. south-to the east, the mountains of Tabor and Hermon and Carmel, to the south-west.

GENNYN.

About four o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the village of Gennŷn, which is situated at the entrance of one of the numerous vales which lead out of the Plain of Esdraelon to the mountainous regions of Ephraim. One of these passages would' be the Valley of Jezreel; and from the window of the khan where we are lodging, we have a clear view of the tract over which the Prophet Elijah must have passed, when he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. But, in the present day, no chariots of Ahab or of Sisera are to be seen--not even a single wheel-carriage, of any description whatever. The public wells by the road-side have no pulleys on wheels to assist in drawing water for who would expose for public use, what his neighbour would have not the least scruple in secretly stealing away? The roads among the mountains are, indeed, so neglected-such mere single foot-paths-that it is difficult to imagine in what way chariots could now convey the traveller to Jerusalem, or over the chief part of the Holy Land.

Arriving at Gennŷn, we sought out the small body

of Christians here. They have a Priest, and are of the Greek Communion; in number, seven or eight houses. Their quarters are extremely mean; and we found much difficulty in gaining attention to our Arabic Scriptures. The two principal Christians were sitting on the ground with a gaming-board between them, playing at a favourite game of chance, with shells in the holes of the board; and seemed to regard our visit as a troublesome intrusion.

NABLOUS, OR NAPOLOSE.

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 1823-We set off, considerably before day-light, for Nablous. The air was extremely keen for the first two hours; and, gradually, when the sun had risen, its burning heat came upon us, with a doubly-exhausting effect.

It was about an hour after mid-day that we had our first view of the city of Nablous, romantically situated in a deep valley, between the mountains of Ebal on our left and Gerizim on the right. There is a kind of sublime horror in the lofty, craggy, and barren aspect of these two mountains, which seem to face each other with an air of defiance; especially as they stand contrasted with the rich valley beneath, where the city appears to be embedded on either side in green gardens and extensive olive-groundsrendered more verdant, by the lengthened periods of shade which they enjoy from the mountains on each side. Of the two, Gerizim is not wholly without cultivation.

We had always been informed, that the facility of passing by way of Nablous depended very much on the character of the Governor of the city. Our case was singular for we had to learn, what kind of