PREFACE.

ON announcing to the public a new volume of travels through a country apparently so well known as Palestine, some explanation is due to those who may honour the work with their patronage.

The authors who have written in illustration of this small portion of the globe, from Benjamin of Tudela and Sir John Mandeville, down to Dr. Clarke and Mr. Chateaubriand, may be thought to have so completely exhausted the subject, as to leave nothing new to be added by another.

The itineraries of catholic devotees have furnished the most ample details regarding the sanctuaries and holy places; and the names of Phocas, Quaresmius, and Adrichomius, are associated with these early labours. The extended journeys of protestant scholars have enlarged our acquaintance with objects of more general enquiry, and the names of Maundrell, Shaw, and Pococke, stand pre-eminent among these. The profound researches of both English and French critics, have laid open all the stores of learning in illustration of the ancient geography of Judea; and the works of Reland and D'Anville, are monuments of erudition and sagacity that would do honour to any country, while the labours of very recent travellers would seem to close the circle of our enquiries, by the pictures which they have given of the general state of manners and the present aspect of the country, retaining still the freshness of their original colouring.

Yet among all those who have made the Holy Land the scene of their researches, there has not been one who did not conceive

that he was able to correct and add to the labours of his predecessors, and, indeed, who did not really notice something of interest which had been disregarded before. It is thus that Dr. Clarke expresses his doubts and disbelief at every step, and attempts to refute, with indignation, authorities which travellers of every age had hitherto been accustomed to venerate. And it is thus, too, that Chateaubriand confesses, with all the frankness of disappointment, that after he had read some hundreds of volumes on the country he came to visit, they had given him no accurate conceptions of what he subsequently beheld for himself.

I come then, like those who have preceded me, with a profession of dissatisfaction at the incompleteness of all that has been written before, and with the belief and assurance that I am able to add something new and interesting to the general fund of human knowledge, and more particularly to our local acquaintance with the country of Judea.

As the cradle of our religion, and the scene of all that is venerable in Holy Writ; as the birth-place of classic fable, interwoven with Phoenician history; as a theatre of the most heroic exploits during the Jewish, the Roman, and the Saracenian wars; as a field moistened with the best blood of our ancestors in the wild and romantic age of the crusades; and even now, at the present hour, as a fair and lovely portion of the earth, still favoured with the dews of heaven, and blessed with the most benignant sky; it is impossible to pass through it with indifference, and equally so, not to set some value on the impressions which these objects and these recollections excite.

It will be expected that I should say something of my qualifications to execute the task of giving these impressions to the world in a form that may deserve their notice.

As far as my earliest recollections guide me, the desire of visiting distant regions was even in infancy the prominent one of my heart. At the early age of nine years, the gratification of this passion was promised to me by embarking as a sailor on an ele

ment that had more charms for me than terrors. At the age of ten I was made a prisoner of war, and it being at the period of the French revolution, in which the Spaniards were their allies in 1796, I was conveyed with my shipmates to the port of Corunna.

After a confinement of some time there, we set out on our march towards Lisbon, and at this tender age, though exposed to the inclemency of the autumnal rains, often sleeping in the open air, scaling rugged and snow-clad mountains barefoot, and subject to all the privations of prisons in a foreign land; the charm of novelty, and the fascinating beauties of nature which presented themselves alternately in their wildest, their loveliest, and their most romantic forms, made me forget that I was a captive, and often occasioned my young heart to bound with joy under trials, which, without such enthusiasm to support them, would have broken the stoutest spirit.

This infant passion was strengthened rather than subdued by my journey through the finest parts of Spain and Portugal; and, since that period, a series of voyages to America, the Bahama islands, and the West Indies, while they furnished fresh food for enquiry, strengthened more and more the ardent passion for discovery and research.

The Mediterranean next became the scene of my wanderings. Those who have had an early love of classic literature, and a veneration for all that illustrates it, can alone tell what are the feelings excited by a first view of objects in nature which were before known to us only in books. The elegant poetry of Lord Byron is full of them, and though it belongs only to a genius like his to express those feelings well, yet men of humbler talents may and do experience them with equal force.

From the moment of my passing within the portals of Calpé and Abyla, and seeing those pillars of Hercules recede behind my vessel, Egypt, Greece, Phoenicia, Palestine, Italy, and Mauritania, all opened upon my view at once. The desire of visiting them I had always felt this desire was now nurtured into hope, and from

that moment I constantly believed, that I should tread most of the scenes which I have since trodden, and behold with delight the objects which I had so long contemplated with admiration.

It was now that I applied myself, with more than common ardour, to the reading of every book within my reach that was likely to extend my knowledge of the interesting countries by which I was on all sides surrounded; and, unfavourable as the incessant duties, and the hardy life of a sailor are to such studies, every moment that I could spare from the vigilant watch, which squalls, and storms, and pirates, and more open enemies, constantly demanded, and from all the complicated claims which commerce and navigation enforced on my attention, was given to study.

Sicily, Malta, the continent of Greece, the islands of the Archipelago, the coasts of Asia Minor, and the Gulf of Smyrna, gave me only a foretaste, but certainly a most delicious one, of what was yet reserved for me to enjoy.

Alexandria at length received me into her port; and the Pharos, the Catacombs, Cleopatra's Obelisk, and Pompey's Pillar, were all objects of youthful veneration, which I now beheld with correspondent pleasure.

I ascended the Nile, with the Odyssey and Télémaque in either hand; and Homer and Fénélon never interested me more than upon the banks of this sacred stream.

The proud capital of the khalifs "Misr, the mother of the world;""Kahira the victorious," placed me amid the scenes of oriental story. The venerable Pyramids carried me back to the obscurity of ages which are immemorial. The ruins of Heliopolis inspired the recollections of Pythagoras, and the Grecian sages who had studied in its colleges; and the hall of Joseph brought before my view the history of Abraham and his posterity, of Moses and Pharaoh, and of all the subsequent events that befel the race of Israel.

My attention was now directed towards India, by the desire which the mercantile community of Egypt had to renew their