principal city of his tetrarchy. Its inhabitants often revolted against the Romans, relying on the advantages for defence supplied by its natural position. It is mentioned in the Talmud as the seat of a Jewish university, and was long famous for the learning of its rabbis. Here also was held one of the five sanhedrims authorized by the spiritual governors of Palestine; the others being established at Jerusalem, Jericho, Gadara, and Amathus. But its chief celebrity is connected with the tradition, that it was the residence of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin Mary. The house of St. Anne, observes Dr. Clarke, is the "commencement of that superstitious trumpery which for a long time has constituted the chief object of devotion and of pilgrimage in the Holy Land." No sooner was the spot discovered where the pious couple had lived than Constantine issued instructions to build upon it a magnificent church, the remains of which have been minutely described by the enterprising traveller to whom we have just alluded. "We were conducted to the ruins of a stately Gothic edifice, which seems to have been one of the finest structures in the Holy Land. Here we entered beneath lofty massive arches of stone. The roof of the building was of the same materials. The arches are placed at the intersection of a Greek cross, and originally supported a dome or a tower; their apperance is highly picturesque, and they exhibit the grandeur of a noble style of architecture. Broken columns of granite and marble lie scattered among the walls, and these prove how richly it was decorated. We measured the capital of a pillar of the order commonly called Tuscan, which we found lying against one of granite. The top of this formed a square of three feet. One aisle of this building is still entire; at the eastern extremity a small temporary altar had been recently constructed by the piety of pilgrims; it consisted of loose materials, and was of very modern date. Some fragments of the original decorations of the church had been gathered from the ruins and laid upon this altar; and although they had remained open to every approach, even the Moslems had respected the votive offerings."* The date of this building is incidentally mentioned by * Travels, vol. iv. p. 141. Epiphanius, who relates that one Joseph, a native of Tiberias, was authorized by Constantine to erect a rumber of such edifices in the Holy Land, and that he fulfilled the intention of his sovereign at Tiberias, Capernaum, and DioReland, upon the authority of Theophanes, places its destruction in the year 339 of the Christian era, when the town was demolished on account of the seditious conduct of its inhabitants. cesarea. It is perhaps worthy of notice, that Dr. Clarke examined some pictures which had been recently discovered among these ruins. One appears to represent the interview between our Saviour and the two disciples at Emmaus, when in the act of making himself known to them by the breaking of bread. Another exhibits the Virgin bearing in swaddlingclothes the infant Jesus; and a third seems to illustrate the same subject in circumstances somewhat different. They are said to bear a great resemblance to those used in the churches of Russia, being executed upon a square piece of wood about half an inch in thickness. As they were not valued highly by the person into whose hands they had accidentally fallen, the Englishman bestowed a trifle on the ignorant Mohammedan, and "took them into safer custody."* The Vale of Zabulon divides the village just described from the ridge of hills which look down on Acre and the shores of the Great Sea. This delightful plain appears everywhere covered with spontaneous vegetation, flourishing in the wildest exuberance. The scenery is described by Dr. Clarke as not less beautiful than that of the rich valleys upon the south of the Crimea. It reminded him of the finest parts of Kent and Surrey. The prickly-pear, which grows to a prodigious size in the Holy Land, sprouts luxuriantly among the rocks, displaying its gaudy yellow blossoms, and promising abundance of a delicious cooling fruit. On either side of the road the ruins of fortified places exercise the ingenuity of the antiquarian traveller, who endeavours, through the mist of tradition and the perplexing obscurity of modern names, to identify towns which make a figure in Jewish and Roman history. All remains of the strong city of Zabulon, called by Josephus * Travels, vol. iv. p. 148. the "city of men," have disappeared; and its "admirable beauty," rivalling that of Tyre, Sidon, and Berytus, is now sought for in vain among Arab huts and scattered stones. The plain, which skirts the Mediterranean from Jaffa to Cape Blanco, presents many interesting memorials of Hebrew antiquity and of European warfare. Every town along the coast has been the scene of contention between the armies of Christendom and those of Islamism; whence arises the motive which has determined us to incorporate the history of these cities with the narrative of the exploits whereon their fortunes have chiefly depended. Suffice it to mention as we go along, that the vicinity of Acre invites the attention of the naturalist, on account of certain facts recorded by Pliny, and repeated by subsequent historians. It is said by this writer, that it was at the mouth of the river Belus the art of making glass was first discovered. A party of sailors, who had occasion to visit the shore in that neighbourhood, propped up the kettle in which they were about to cook their provisions with sand and pieces of nitre; when to their surprise they found produced by the action of the fire on these ingredients, a new substance, which has added immensely to the comforts of life and to the progress of science. The sand of this remarkable stream continued for ages to supply, not only the manufactories of Sidon, but all other places, with materials for that beautiful production. Vessels from Italy were employed to remove it for the glass-houses of Venice and Genoa so late as the middle of the seventeenth century. There is another circumstance connected with the same river, which, in the mythological writings of antiquity, makes a still greater figure than the discovery just described. Lucian relates that the Belus, at certain seasons of the year, especially about the feast of Adonis, is of a bloody colour, a fact which the heathens looked upon as proceeding from a kind of sympathy for the death of this favourite of Venus, who was killed by a wild boar in the mountains whence the stream takes its rise. "Something like this," says Maundrell, "we saw actually come to pass; for the water was stained to a surprising redness, and, as we had observed in travelling, had discoloured the sea a great way into a reddish hue, occasioned doubtless by a sort of minium, or red earth, washed into the river by the vio lence of the rain, and not by any stain from Adonis's blood."* The excellence of Carmel, which here rises into view, has in a great measure passed away. The curse denounced by Amos has fallen upon it,-"The top of Carmel shall wither;"-for it is now chiefly remarkable as a mass of barren and desolate rocks. Its sides are indeed graced by some native cedars, and even the brambles are still intermingled with wild vines and olives, denoting its ancient fertility, or more careful cultivation; but there are no longer any rich pastures to render it the "habitation of shepherds," or to recall to the fancy the beauty of Carmel and of Sharon, and to justify the comparison of it to the glory of Libanus. It owes to its name and to its prominent situation on the coast, as a sentinel of the Holy Land, all the interest which can now be claimed for the mountain on which Elias vindicated the vorship of Jehovah, and where thousands of holy Christians have spent their lives in meditation and prayer. The monastery which stands on the summit of the hill, near the spot where the prophet offered up his sacrifice, was long the principal residence of the Carmelite friars. It appears never to have been a fine building, and is now entirely abandoned. During the campaign of the French in Syria, it was made an hospital for their sick, for which it was well adapted by its healthy and retired situation. It has been since ravaged by the Turks, who have stripped its shrines and destroyed its roof; though there still remains, for the solace of devout visiters, a small stone altar in a grotto dedicated to Saint Elias, over which is a coarse painting representing the holy man leaning on a wheel, with fire and other instruments of sacrifice at his side.t * Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 35. CHAPTER VIII. The History of Palestine from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Present Time. State of Judea after the Fall of Jerusalem-Revolt under Trajan-Barcochab-Adrian repairs Jerusalem-Schools at Babylon and TiberiasThe Attempt of Julian to rebuild the Temple-Invasion of Chosroes -Sack of Jerusalem-Rise of Islamism-Wars of the Califs-First Crusade Jerusalem delivered-Policy of Crusades-Victory at Ascalon-Baldwin King-Second Crusade-Saladin-His Success at Tiberias-He recovers Jerusalem-The Third Crusade-Richard Cœur de Lion-Siege and Capture of Acre-Plans of Richard-His Return to Europe-Death of Saladin-Fourth Crusade-Battle of Jaffa-Fifth Crusade-Fall of Constantinople-Sixth Crusade-Damietta taken-Reverses-Frederick the Second made King of Jerusalem-Seventh Crusade-Christians admitted into the Holy City-Inroad of Karismians-Eighth Crusade under Louis IX.-He takes Damietta-His Losses and Return to Europe-Ninth Crusade-Louis IX. and Edward I.-Death of Louis-Successes of Edward-Treaty with Sultan-Final Discomfiture of the Franks in Palestine, and Loss of Acre-State of Palestine under the Turks-Increased Toleration Bonaparte invades Syria-Siege of Acre and Defeat of French -Actual State of the Holy Land-Number, Condition, and Character of the Jews. THE destruction of Jerusalem, though it put an end to the polity of the Hebrew nation as an independent people, did not entirely disperse the remains of their miserable tribes, nor denude the Holy Land of its proper inhabitants. The number of the slain was indeed immense, and the multitude of captives carried away by Titus glutted the slavemarkets of the Roman empire; but it is true, nevertheless, that many fair portions of Palestine were uninjured by the war, and continued to enjoy an enviable degree of prosperity under the government of their conquerors. The towns on the coast generally submitted to the legions without incurring the chance of a battle or the horrors of a siege; while the provinces beyond the Jordan, which formed the kingdom of Agrippa, maintained their allegiance to Rome throughout the whole period of the insurrection elsewhere so fatal, and especially to the inheritance of Judah and of Benjamin. |