hewn away around it, so as to let it stand isolated in the centre of the church, and that it was afterwards shaped into form, and cased with marble, and otherwise decorated, as we now see it. This is certain, that the rock now enclosed within the church, whether it be Calvary or not, has been hewn artificially into the form which it now possesses, in many parts at least, and more particularly in the space between what is called the summit of Calvary, and what is called the tomb. The top of the first of these is many feet higher than the highest part of the last, so that the tomb would be much below the top of the original hill. A fissure is shown in the rock, as the cleft produced by the earthquake at the crucifixion. It was seen by Maundrell, and thought by him to be natural. It is not true, however, that it is upon the same level with the sepulchre, as asserted, though if it were, it would only prove that the cleft had been of very moderate depth. In one place, this is called by Dr. Clarke " an accidental fissure, which had already been the object of traditionary superstition*; and in another, when he says, they say this happened at the crucifixion," he asks, "who shall presume to contradict the tale?" He talks of the "naïveté of the tradition," and of "a farrago of absurdities," and "all this trumpery †," in a way that would almost lead one to infer that he doubted the facts of the story altogether. But surely it is not the calling this tomb of the Living God, "a dusty fabric, standing like a huge pepper-box in the midst of the church ‡," that can disprove its having contained the lifeless corpse of the Great Creator of the universe.

66

In animadverting on the supposed absurdity of conceiving that the rock around the sepulchre had been hewn away (which is nevertheless not only practicable, but rendered highly probable by appearances there,) it is asked, If there had been originally any hill, or rock, wherein the real sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea was hewn for its Jewish possessor, is it likely, or was it possible, + Ibid. p. 543.

* Travels, vol. ii. p. 563.

+ Ibid. p. 546.

that every trace of it should be swept away? Can there be any reason assigned for supposing that Helena would have destroyed what every Christian must have been so anxious to preserve? that, in the construction of a church to commemorate the existence of the tomb, she would have levelled and cut away not only the sepulchre itself, but also the whole of Mount Calvary? This is so little in consonance with common reason, that it is impossible to allow the old tale its ordinary credit." * First of all, however, it is not true that the sepulchre itself, and the whole of Mount Calvary, is levelled and cut away, which may be seen from other parts of this traveller's own testimony; and even if it had, it would be quite as much in consonance with common reason as any other part of this old lady's conduct, in performing a pilgrimage at eighty, or indeed, perhaps, as reasonable as performing one at all.

To conclude, then, this spot shown as Calvary may, for the reasons already assigned, be still considered as the place of the crucifixion of our Saviour, until more unanswerable objections be raised to it than have yet been urged. The sepulchre may also have contained his body, since it is within a consistent distance of the mount or hill where the Evangelist places it. It has apparently been separated from the rock by being hewn round, and though cased with marble, and adorned on the outside, is only of the ordinary size of a small sepulchral cavern within. And, lastly, it is in a rock where other hewn sepulchres were, as arose to our own observation in descending to the place where the cross is said to have been found.

Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 555.

JANUARY 28th. Our preparations for the prosecution of our journey were at length all completed. The route we had marked out to ourselves, was, to cross the Jordan, and go through Jerash and Gamala, two cities, of whose ruins we had heard a great deal in that quarter, Mr. Bankes intending to go off from the latter to Nazareth, and I to pass through Tiberias, on my way towards Damascus and Aleppo. As no one could be prevailed upon to lend us animals on hire for this journey, from its being out of the

common caravan road, we were compelled to purchase horses for that purpose. This we effected without much difficulty, and at a very moderate rate: a good travelling horse, with all its equipment in common furniture, costing about four hundred piastres, or less than twenty pounds sterling.

Our party was composed of Mr. Bankes, Mohammed, his Albanian interpreter, and myself; and our guides were two Arabs of the tribe of Zaliane, one the father of the boy released through Mr. Bankes's interest, and the other this father's friend. Our servants were both left behind at Jerusalem, from the difficulty of taking them with us; my own, a native of Tocat, speaking only Turkish well, and the other, a Portuguese, understanding neither Turkish nor Arabic. The former received a compensation for his services, and a final discharge, from his not being likely to be of further use to me in my way, and the latter was to repair to Nazareth, there to await the arrival of his master.

We were now all dressed in the costume of the country; Mr. Bankes as a Turkish soldier, Mohammed in his own garb as an Arnaout, and I as a Syrian Arab. Our guides wore their own dresses, as Bedouins of the desert. We were each mounted on a horse of our own, there being no animals for baggage, as each person carried beneath and behind him whatever belonged to himself. We were armed but poorly, from the advice of our guides to take with us nothing that could excite the cupidity of strangers, since they wished us rather to depend on our poverty for passing unmolested, than on our force or numbers for defence; and even they themselves carried each a long lance only, rather as a part of their habitual equipment, than as placing much reliance on its use. We took with us a small portion of bread, dates, tobacco, and coffee, and a supply of corn for our horses, with a leathern bottle of water suspended from the saddle, and these completed our outfit.

After discharging all the numerous claims that were made on our purses, by the host of servants and others belonging to the

PP

convent, and paying to the Superior of it for the expences of our living there, at the rate of a Spanish dollar per day, we received their parting benedictions, as we mounted to quit them, amid a crowd assembled round us in the court.

It was about nine o'clock when we left Jerusalem by the Bethlehem gate; turning to the right from this, as we went out of the city, we continued along by the northern wall. In our way, we noticed a fine marble sarcophagus, highly sculptured, and resembling the broken ones seen at the tombs of the kings: it seemed to be used by the way-side as a watering-trough for cattle. The north-east angle of the city wall, had a romantic appearance as we passed it, a portion of the wall there going over a high bed of rock, which presents a cliff to the passenger below.

Descending from the brow of the range of hills on which Jerusalem is seated, and going about north-easterly, we passed through the higher or northern part of the valley of Kedron, leaving Bethany, Bethpage, and the Mount of Olives, on our right, or to the south of us.

In about three hours from the time of our quitting the gates of Jerusalem, having gone the whole of the way over stony and rugged ground, we reached an encampment of the tribe of Arabs to which our guides belonged. There were only six small tents of coarse hair-cloth, and in each of them not more than half-a-dozen persons. The Arabs of this tribe, extending their range over all the country between the Jordan and Jerusalem, branch off into small parties, to obtain pasture for their camels and goats. It was thus that this party occupied a small hollow of the land, in which were a few shrubs very sparingly scattered over the surface, and hardly sufficient to furnish food for their flocks for more than a few days.

We halted here to receive the pledge of protection from our guides, by eating bread and salt with them beneath their own tents. A meal was prepared for us of sour milk and warm cakes, by the wives of our companions, and coffee was served to us by their