Chapter XLI: Letter XXXVIII: Nazareth, 9th November, 1845

You will not, I am sorry to say, receive my last letter of the 26th October from Jerusalem, as the courier of our consul, Dr. Schulz, in whose charge I gave it, with five other letters, was attacked by robbers at Cæsarea, on the road to Berut, maltreated, and robbed of all the despatches, as well as of a small amount of money which he had on his person. There is great disorganisation in this country. The Turkish authorities, to whom the land has been again handed over by Christian valour, are both lazy, malevolent, and impotent, while Ibrahim Pascha knew at least how to preserve order and security, so far as his own government extended.

We spent nearly three weeks in Jerusalem, part of which time I passed in becoming better acquainted with the state of religious matters at the present day, a subject daily becoming of greater importance; partly in making some antiquarian and topographical researches. These delightful days were rendered peculiarly valuable and instructive by the extreme amiability of Bishop Alexander, who overtook us with Abeken from Jaffa, and was willing to impart all that he knew; and by the scientific ability of Dr. Schulz, with whom I had been on terms of friendship since our mutual residence in Paris, in the years 1834 and 1835. An excursion to Jericho, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, and back by San Saba, formed an interesting episode. My journal of this expedition, which I wrote very fully, was, however, contained in that letter, and will probably never reappear, so that I can but imperfectly restore it now.

The 4th of November we left the Holy City. We had some difficulty in procuring horses or mules on account of the war the Pascha of Jerusalem was carrying on with Hebron, which was assuming a more serious aspect. We spent the first night after leaving Jerusalem in a tent in BÎREH. The second day we proceeded by BETHIN (Bethel), ʾAIN EL HARAMIEH (the Robbers’ spring), and SELUN (Silo) to NABLUS (Sichem, Neapolis), and the same evening ascended GARIZIM, the holy mount of the Samaritans, whose remaining population (about 70 men, or 150 souls) we became somewhat better acquainted with the following morning. They still continue to be shunned by the Jews, and have as little communication with the Christians and Mohammedans.

On Garizim we saw the bare rocky surface, surrounded by some remains of an ancient wall, where these SAMARI still, as in past ages, annually offer up the sacrifice of sheep to their God. The following morning, after we had visited the Samaritan place of worship, in which we were shown the old Samaritan manuscript of the Pentateuch, and had seen Jacob’s well, and Joseph’s tomb surrounded by vine branches, we rode on farther, with an armed attendant of Solimân Bey’s, in whose house we were lodging, and proceeded first to SEBASTIEH (Sebaste, the ancient Samaria), where we saw the ruins of the beautiful old church from the period of the Crusaders, said to be built over the tomb of John the Baptist. We spent the night in the woody GENNIN (Egennin). Thence our road led through the wide and fertile, but nevertheless barren, plain of Jesreel (Esdraelon), the great bloody plain of Palestine, to ZERIN and the beautiful spring (AIN GULUT, Goliath’s spring), where Naboth’s vineyard was situated, and where the whole house of Ahab was murdered; then to GEBEL DAHʿI, little HERMON, beyond which TABOR (GEBEL E’ TUR), distinguished by its cupola-like form and isolated position, rose up and arrested our attention, until we once more rode into the mountains to NAZARETH, beautifully situated in a mountain hollow, like an amphitheatre. Yesterday we made an excursion in the morning from this place over Mount Tabor to TIBERIAS, on Lake Genezaret, and have only just returned. In spite of my endeavours to the contrary, we were compelled to take a body-guard of armed Arabs with us thither, as we did to the Dead Sea; and we, in fact, encountered various groups of low Bedouin rabble in their picturesque variegated costume, whom I should have been sorry to have met alone, most of them in the neighbourhood of beautiful wooded Tabor, where they were lying on the road, or riding past across the plain.