54

RETURN TO NAZARETH.

posed in my last relative to the veiled frame which I had seen in the tent of the new-married lady, and which she took along with her wherever she went, determined never to part from it. Perhaps you have guessed it? But, if you still need enlightening, it was a beautiful picture of the mother of Jesus Christ, the kind and tender mother of us all! Farewell!

P.S. Acre has just surrendered. I hear the reports of muskets fired in token of rejoicing. Among the Christians there are many who shout for joy, in the hope of being rescued from oppression. Will this be the case? And is then their happiness ensured because a rebellious subject has unjustly taken a town from his master?

LETTER XXXIX.

OFFICERS OF THE AUSTRIAN FRIGATE, LA GUERRIERE-THE JORDANLAKE OF GENESARETH-CAPERNAUM-TIBERIAS; PLAGUE THERE

ENCAMPMENT OUT OF THE TOWN SYNAGOGUE- POPULATION OF TIBERIAS EXPECTATION OF THE MESSIAH-CATHOLIC CHURCH AT TIBERIAS-DESERT WHERE JESUS MIRACULOUSLY FED THE MULTITUDE-MOUNTAIN OF THE BEATITUDES - CANA; SITE OF THE HOUSE WHERE THE MARRIAGE WAS HELD - RETURN TO NAZARETH DEPARTURE OF THE OFFICERS OF THE FRIGATE THE PLAGUE BREAKS OUT AT NAZARETH-THE CONVENT CLOSED- - CONDUCT OF THE FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES DURING THE PLAGUE.

--

Nazareth, June 20, 1832.

A few days ago, fatigued by an indisposition, from which I have scarcely recovered, I retired to bed at an earlier hour than usual. I slept soundly for some time. It was not yet midnight, when an extraordinary noise suddenly awoke me: people were running to and fro, talking, shouting; the whole monastery was in a bustle,

AUSTRIAN NAVAL OFFICERS.

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and, from the confused sounds that reached me, I was unable to guess the cause. Apprehensive that some accident had happened, I rose in haste, and ran and questioned the first person I met. I was told that the house was full of foreigners. Foreigners! and from what country?"-" They are Austrians."-Austrians at Nazareth! and in great numbers! - the thing appeared incredible to me. It was, nevertheless, true.

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They were the officers of the frigate, La Guerrière, commanded by Commodore Baron Accourti, which had anchored at Caiffa. They had obtained permission to visit Nazareth, set out rather late, and performed the journey on pack-horses, which had rendered their progress slower and more fatiguing. As there was a great scarcity of beds, I hastened instantly to the superior, and begged him to dispose of mine; I then went down to the refectory, where I found the gentlemen taking supper with an excellent appetite. My name was not unknown to them one of them, indeed, was an officer with whom I had had frequent intercourse at Vienna. A conversation, the most frank and the most cordial, immediately commenced. As I had been some weeks at Nazareth, I paid them, in some measure, the attentions of a host, and offered them every thing that I could command. Several proposed to go to Jerusalem, which they longed to see. I informed them that the plague was raging there, as well as in several other towns of Judea; and they relinquished their design. I advised them to make themselves amends for this disappointment by an excursion into Galilee, which was well worthy of their notice, and could not fail to interest their curiosity. Though still

ailing, I thought that I could not help promising to accompany them. They accepted my offer with joy. The party was arranged for the next day, and, meanwhile, we retired to take a few hours' rest.

Very early next morning, we went to the residence of M. Catafago, the Austrian vice-consul, to request him to procure for us the requisite number of horses; and I set out immediately, with the young baron Accourti, lieutenant of La Guerrière, M. de Kissinger, M. Catafago's eldest son, and some other officers belonging to the frigate. Our cavalcade, including janissaries and servants, consisted of about twenty-five persons.

We proceeded first to Mount Tabor, which it gave me real joy to see again. It was not lighted by so brilliant a day as it was at the time of my former visit: but, though the weather was less favourable, still it permitted us to distinguish the places most worthy of remark. My companions were not less struck than myself with the beauty, the grandeur, of the scene that expanded itself to their view. Some, lifting their eyes to heaven, and fixing them stedfastly upon it, exclaimed, with a deeply religious feeling: "Thence it was that issued those divine words: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!"" And I was not less moved than if I had heard the celestial voice uttering them. It seemed as if Jesus was in the midst of us. I said: "It is good to be here;" and these words rang in the recesses of my heart.

In descending, we took the road that leads to the Jordan. We were about six or seven leagues from that river. At noon, we halted under some trees of a mean

LAKE OF TIBERIAS.

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garden, to take a little refreshment, and to rest our horses. We then resumed our march, and soon found ourselves in an extremely fertile country. We met with none but Arabs, busily engaged in harvesting their crops, or gaily singing airs of their own country beside their camels.

It was four o'clock when, from the top of a hill which we were about to descend, we perceived in the plain the lake of Tiberias and the Jordan, which runs through without mingling with it, and proceeds, after long windings, to discharge itself into the Dead Sea.*

The lake presents one of the most imposing sights in the Holy Land. In the mind of every one at all acquainted with sacred history, it awakens recollections so numerous and so grand, that the imagination is overpowered and deeply moved by them. But, independently of the wonderful events connected with this lake, it cannot fail to produce a strong impression by its natural beauty it is, I may say, a miniature of the lake of Geneva; but a miniature the more precious, since the country is almost destitute of springs, and wells are very rare in it.

:

The descent leading to the Jordan is long and rapid. No sooner were we on the banks of the river, than every one was calling to mind the miracles which had rendered it celebrated. One mentioned Joshua passing through it, dry-shod, at the head of the people of God; another, Elijah and Elisha striking the waters with their cloaks, and thus opening themselves a way across; a third, the same

According to some writers, the lake of Tiberias is not only fed but formed by the Jordan.

Elisha bringing to the surface, by the power of his word, the head of the hatchet, dropped into the river by one of the sons of the prophets; but most, the preaching of John the Baptist, the baptism of our Saviour, the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Lamb of God, who hath taken away the sins of the world, &c. Each then thought of marking his visit to the river by some act, or taking with him some memorial of it. Some bathed in it; others filled bottles with its water; this picked up small pebbles; that, seated on a hillock, took out his pencil to draw a view. For my part, after quenching my thirst by a draught of the sacred water, I went to rest myself under an arch of a ruined bridge, near which Messrs. Accourti, Kissinger, Schultz, and the surgeon of the frigate, were bathing. There the Jordan is not deep, but rapid as in the rest of its course. Reflecting that, among all the pilgrims whom devotion brings thither every year, there is not one but deems it a sort of religious duty to plunge into the stream, I felt an irresistible desire to avail myself of this occasion, and, though still unwell, was preparing to strip and join those gentlemen, when I was prevented by the formal prohibition of the surgeon.

Several Arabs, mounted on camels, crossed from one bank to the other: I counted their steps. If I am not mistaken, it took about two hundred in this place, where the Jordan appeared to me wider than any where else, except at its mouth. Six hundred paces beyond the ruins of the bridge where we were, it issues from the lake, and is then not more than forty or fifty feet broad The water is excellent.

at most.