[From Buck Whaley's Memoirs]

CHAPTER I.

Departure from Nazareth-Genia-Its Governor-Napolosa-Its Ruins -Jerusalem-Its History-Conquered by King David-By Nebuchadnezzar-By Cyrus-By Pompey-By Titus-Demolished by Adrian-Who Lays the Foundation of a new City-Jerusalem taken by Omar.

ON leaving Nazareth we travelled over an immense plain, the chief product of which was corn and cotton ; after which we passed several hills that were rocky and barren. We were astonished at the number of partridges, which appeared like domestic fowl, running quite near us, without shewing the least sign of fear. We also met many foxes and numerous herds of goats ; and passed several encampments of wandering Arabs, who seemed to be employed in cultivating the ground and tending their flocks.

Before we arrived at Genia,^l we desired Ibrahim's soldier to proceed before us and settle everything with the Jaffars before we came up, in order to prevent any unnecessary delay.

On our entering the town, we found him engaged in a debate with the Chief of the Jaffars ; who insisted on our paying fifteen piastres per head before we were permitted to pass. Our soldier, with whose conduct we had every reason to be well satisfied, espoused our cause very warmly, notwithstanding the virulent abuse to which he exposed himself, by thus taking the part of infidels. I begged of him to comply with their demands : but he was determined in his resolution of not submitting to this exaction, declaring that his compliance would be a direct insult to Ibrahim, his master, whose authority he would maintain at the hazard of his life.

The debate still continued without any hope of an accommodation, or concession on either side, when at last we were obliged to have recourse to the Governor's interference. But before we could see him, we found ourselves surrounded by some hundreds of the savage inhabitants, who were now become so violent and determined in their demands, and accompanied them with menaces of such horrid import, as filled us with the most serious apprehensions for our safety : and thus did this soldier, in order to preserve his master's honour from insult, expose us to the danger of losing our lives.

On our producing the Grand Signior's firman, the Jaffars did not scruple to say that they totally disregarded it ; and we soon perceived that this Governor enjoyed his title without any degree of influence or authority being attached to it. He could not prevail on the people to give up their demands ; but they, at last, consented to reduce them to one fourth of the sum they first insisted on : and the Governor resigned, with pleasure, his share of the tribute, out of respect to Ibrahim's letter. The people of the town soon became our friends when we paid the money. They persuaded us to proceed no farther this day, lest we should be stopped on the road ; and our conductors expressing the same apprehensions, we determined, though reluctantly, to spend the night here.

We had just sat down to supper when a message was brought from the Governor, intimating that he would do us the honour of drinking some wine with us ; and soon after his excellency made his appearance. After a few compliments he sat down ; and though he declared that he had already supped, he devoured a chicken in a moment and eat the best part of a leg of mutton which we intended to reserve for our breakfast the next day.

Seeing some silver forks, he desired, with earnest curiosity, to know their use, which being explained to him he could not help admiring both the ingenuity and assiduity of Christians in promoting whatever tends to the comforts and conveniences of life. This was a very uncommon compliment from a Mahometan : but, however deficient he might have been in respect to these accomplishments he so much admired in Christians, he shewed, at least, by his zeal in libations to the rosy god, that he had a taste for the sweets of life. However, feeling the powerful effects of repeated bumpers, and fearing a discovery of the breach of his Prophet's prohibition, he at last got up, and with some difficulty withdrew to his seraglio, which was close to our habitation.

He had not been long gone, when we were alarmed with an unusual outcry and screaming ; which we were soon informed was the effect of his excellency's intemperance ; for by this time the fumes of the wine he had so copiously swallowed, began to manifest their full power in stimulating him to acts of violence and cruelty towards his unfortunate wives.

The next day we were on horseback by five, and having proceeded a few miles we found ourselves in the midst of the wildest country imaginable. Soon afterwards we passed a castle, built on an eminence, which is said to have been erected by King David. We stopped near a spring to breakfast ; but before we had done, our soldier, whose vigilance and impatience we had observed while we were eating, advised us to make no longer stay as the place was inhabited by hordes of Arabs, who had sworn vengeance against those of Nazareth ; because one of their tribe had been taken in the act of committing a robbery beyond the limits of their district, and was beheaded by the Governor of Nazareth for this encroachment on his exclusive privilege. In such cases blood for blood is the only atonement, and as we did [not] wish that ours should expiate their crimes we instantly mounted and set forward with all speed.

About one we arrived in safety at Napolosa,² the ancient capital of Samaria, mentioned by Herodotus, which we found crowded with people assembled for the purpose of celebrating a victory that the Bashaw of Damascus, just returned from Mecca, had obtained over another Bashaw who had usurped his government during his absence. Knowing that on those occasions the Turks are very insolent, we [went] immediately to the house of a Greek Catholic to whom we had been recommended by the Superior of the Convent of Nazareth ; and at the same time determined not to leave the house until we had made our arrival known to the Governor. We therefore sent our soldier to him, and received a very friendly answer, assuring us we might rely on his protection, and at the same time [he] appointed one of his Guards to accompany us through the town. We then walked out to see the different curiosities that might naturally be expected in this city, once the seat of the kings of Samaria, then called Sichem, the capital of this celebrated country.

There are but a few ruins to attract the notice of the traveller. The most remarkable is a mosque, formerly a magnificent church built by St. Helena, and still in some repair. The gateway is of Gothic architecture, supported on beautiful pillars of white marble : [it] was never decorated with figures of any kind, and though very ancient, is in good preservation, having yet escaped the destructive hands of the Turks. Ruins of temples, numbers of capitals, and fragments of columns lay scattered in different places.

Here our faithful soldier, whom Ibrahim had given us, was to take his leave ; and as the most dangerous road was in this neighbourhood, it became necessary for us to strengthen our guard. We therefore applied to the Governor, who directed us to the Sheik, or Chief, of the Arabs. This man was a brave, enterprising fellow, who, on our request being made to him, offered to accompany us himself : but to this the Governor would not consent. He allowed us two of his captains and two other soldiers. When we expressed some uneasiness at the apparent insufficiency of the number, he laid hold of his beard and swore he would be answerable for our safety. This sacred appeal satisfied us, and we determined to set off at sunset, as we were assured by the landlord and other Christians in the town that our surest way to avoid the danger of being attacked in a wood at some leagues' distance was to pass it in the night-time.

At the close of the evening we left the town as silently as possible. Our guides and guards opened the march ; M-³ and I followed next, and our servants and baggage brought up the rear. By five in the morning of the twentyeighth of February we found ourselves one mile beyond the dangerous wood. Our entire escort consisted of fourteen men, which I considered equal to double that number of Arabs, as we were all well armed with guns, blunderbusses, and pistols. We had nothing more to fear, and as we ascended to the top of a very high mountain our guards showed us, at some distance behind, the tents of the tribe with whom they were at war, whose custom it is to fall upon their enemies from some ambuscade in the wood through which we had passed an hour before.

We met several other tribes of these wanderers, and though all well armed they did not attempt in the least to molest us. At nine we came to a fountain hewn out of the solid rock, where we halted to breakfast and refreshed our tired mules, after having rode eight hours without stopping, at the rate of four miles an hour, over a most rocky country where scarcely a blade of grass could be seen. The hills in this country have a most singular appearance, being formed of strata of rock so regularly arranged that were it not for their magnitude one might be induced to suppose them the work of art.

About one we arrived at some ruins which we were informed had been one of the country seats of King Solomon. Soon after we passed a very high mountain, from whose summit we saw the Levant near Jaffa. Being informed by some Arabs that we were but a short way from Jerusalem M-⁴ and I pushed on as fast as our tired mules would permit us, impatient to get a sight of this memorable city, which had been so long the constant subject of our thoughts. All our anxiety and apprehensions now vanished at the transporting prospect of so soon finishing this expedition and again turning our faces homewards.

We were now in sight of the Holy City, which excited in our breasts emotions not to be described ; but these soon gave place to a most lively sense of gratitude to that Providence which had protected us from all those dangers incident to the undertaking we had now accomplished. While thus our minds were filled with a mixture of gratitude and pious exultation, the recollection of our European friends crowded on our thoughts, and we would that moment give half the world to have been able to communicate to them a knowledge of our situation.

At half-past three we arrived, and entered Jerusalem by the Gate of Nazareth, and proceeded immediately to the Convent of the Terra Sancta, where we delivered our letters from the Spanish ambassador at Constantinople. The Superior and Procurator of the Convent received us in the politest manner, and showed us into very comfortable apartments, which, thirty years before, had been occupied by a countryman of mine, Mr. Smith Barrey [sic].

We afterwards paid our respects to the Mushelim, or governor of the town, to whom we had letters of recommendation from the Captain Bashaw, obtained by means of our good friend Sir R. A-.⁵ The Bashaw was the intimate friend and protector of the Mushelim of Jerusalem, who held this important office through his interest ; and, indeed, the politeness with which he received us, and the friendship he, on every occasion, manifested towards us, may be justly considered strong proofs of his gratitude and high esteem for his benefactor. He even offered us apartments in his palace, an honour, however, we declined, as we were much better à la Chrétienne qu'à la Turque : but he insisted on our accepting the use of his horses during our stay, and a guard of Janissaries to attend us. We promised to wait on him the following day, when we should be determined with respect to our future plans, and accordingly, portion out our time to the best advantage.

Having intimated a desire of visiting Bethlehem and Sodom we were advised by him not to think of going to Sodom with less than fifty soldiers well armed, as the whole road was infested by robbers, who plundered indiscriminately everyone who fell in their way, and even quarrelled among themselves. We therefore consulted our honest Superior, who confirmed the truth of these terrifying accounts by declaring that though he had been in the Convent upwards of forty years he had never yet ventured to go to Sodom, though but eight hours' ride from Jerusalem. He acknowledged indeed that the place, by all accounts, was well worth seeing ; but at the same time would deem it the highest degree of temerity to encounter the many dangers and difficulties that stood in the way to this gratification. We therefore thought it prudent to yield to these reasonings, and rest satisfied with such curiosities as we should find at Jerusalem and at Bethlehem.

We set out with the dragoman of the Convent and two Janissaries, and first stopped at the Temple of Solomon, which through so many ages has been celebrated for its grandeur and magnificence. As no Christian, since the Turks came into the possession of Jerusalem, has ever been admitted into it, we could not expect to be peculiarly favoured in this respect, except on condition of abjuring our faith and being banished for ever from our country and friends. We therefore contented ourselves with viewing the outside only of this stupendous and almost divinely magnificent monument of art.

I shall not, enter into a circumstantial account of events or long historical detail, but merely confine myself to the principal revolutions it has undergone since its first foundation.

King David, after he had conquered Jerusalem, A.M. 2958,⁶ and built many superb edifices, formed the design of erecting a magnificent temple to the Lord, in which he proposed to place the Ark. The prophet Nathan told him that his intentions were acceptable in the sight of God, but that his son Solomon was the person whom the Lord had chosen to fulfil them.⁷ David, however, began to collect materials, in order to facilitate the work for Solomon, but was interrupted by one of his sons, Absalom, who took the city in the year 3009. Absalom being killed by Joab the city became again subject to David, who died in the year 3021.⁸

Solomon soon rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, and filled up with what remained of the rubbish the little valley between the hills Bozeta and Moria that he might have a proper place for the Temple. He began this great building in the twentieth year of his age, four years after the death of his father, and in seven years completed this stupendous work, which for its structure and the riches it contained became the admiration of surrounding nations.⁹

The Temple being ready for the Ark it was brought from Mount Sion, then called the City of David, where it had remained under a magnificent Tabernacle, and was deposited in this Sanctuary. Solomon consecrated the Temple at the same time, and on this occasion offered a peace-offering of twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. This happened at the time of the Jewish Festival, which commonly lasted seven days ; but on account of this solemnization the tabernacles were kept open fourteen days, and on the fifteenth the people, who had assembled to the number of several hundred thousand, left the city. Solomon reigned peaceably forty years after, and died in the sixtieth year of his age, A.M. 3061 . The wealth and splendour of Solomon's court, as mentioned in the Bible, exceeds everything of the kind ever known or recorded. He likewise built a palace for himself, which was the work of fourteen years, not having the materials collected beforehand as his father had for the Temple.

About the year 3436 Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem for the third time. It is from this period we may date the seventy years' captivity. He sent the king, his mother, wives and children, all the great men of his court, and ten thousand men captives into Babylon. He pillaged the Temple of all its treasures, and carried with him the sacred vessels which Solomon had made in the Temple of the Lord.¹⁰

About a century after, Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon. He restored to the Jews the sacred vases of the Temple, which they were permitted to rebuild as the foundations only remained. This memorable event was foretold by Jeremiah the prophet. The Jews returned in crowds to Jerusalem and began to rebuild the Temple in the year 3517, according to certain dimensions given by Cyrus and afterwards by Darius the son of Hystaspes. They met with many impediments which were thrown in their way by the Samaritans, their neighbours and enemies.

In 3991 Pompey laid siege to Jerusalem, on the inhabitants refusing to pay a certain tribute which he demanded. He took the city and entered the Templeeven the Holy of Holies-but did not touch any of its treasures. This event took place in the consulship of Caius Antonius and M. T. Cicero.

In 4045, Herod the Great, who had considerably repaired and improved the city, added greatly to the Temple, which had been erected after the return of the Jews from captivity ; and this he completed in eight years.

In the year of our Lord 70, Titus, who was the emperor Vespasian's Lieutenant in Syria, besieged Jerusalem at a time when it was rent by various desperate factions. The partisans of the two adverse factions meeting in the Temple a dreadful conflict ensued, in which the sacred place was defiled with the blood of the inhabitants. After an obstinate resistance, from the fourteenth of April to the tenth of August, during which time the besieged underwent the severest hardships, the Romans entered the city, but met with such determined opposition that the Jews were not finally subdued till the second of September, in the seventy-first year of our Lord, and thirty-eight years after his crucifixion. The city was sacked by the Roman soldiery and the Temple a second time destroyed, an event which furnishes an awful attestation of the divine mission of our Saviour, as the actual accomplishment of his solemn prediction of those miseries which were to befall that ungrateful city, and the destruction of the Temple. The walls were entirely demolished except at the western side, which Titus suffered to remain as a monument of the power of the Roman arms. The massy golden ornaments of the Temple were conveyed to Rome to grace the triumph of Titus, who entered the city in great pomp, and on that occasion received the title of Cæsar.

Many Jews, however, still remained in Jerusalem, who in the year one hundred and eighteen rebelled under the reign of the emperor Trajan, and again under Adrian, who entirely destroyed the town and thus finally verified what the Lord had said : " There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.¹¹,

In one hundred and nineteen Adrian laid the foundations of a new city, which he called AElia, from his name of /Elius Adrianus. On the spot where the Temple formerly stood he caused another to be built, dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. Thence the city was called AElia Capitolina. The Jews were not allowed to enter it till the year 363, when Julian allowed them to rebuild the Temple. They crowded from all places to engage in this pleasing enterprise ; but scarcely had they began it than all their materials were destroyed by an earthquake, which made them abandon the attempt, and give some credit to the prophecy of Daniel : " He shall make it desolate, even unto the Consummation." ¹²

However, in the year 643, Omar, Caliph of the Saracens and one of the successors of Mahomet, after having taken Jerusalem, began to build a superb mosque on the very spot where the Temple of Solomon once stood, and erected his building over the foundations of the other.

Footnotes

1 ? Jenin
2 Neapolis, or Nablous.
3 Hugh Moore.
4 Hugh Moore.
5 Sir Robert Ainslie.
6 This and other dates in the next few pages are not always accurate.
7 2nd Book of Samuel, Chap. 7. (.Marginal note in MS.)
8 Ist Book of Kings, Chap. 2. (Marginal note in MS.)
9 Ist Book of Kings, Chap. 6. (Marginal note in MS.)
10 2nd Book of Kings, Chap. 24. (Marginal note in MS.)
1 1 Cf. St. Mathew, Chap. 24, v. 2. (Marginal note in MS.)
12 Daniel, Chap. g, v. 27. (Marginal note in MS.)