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one or two of the coast towns, and in Jerusalem and Damascus, are altogether unknown; but, nevertheless, "for a consideration," perfectly understood, though not formally expressed, he receives travellers under his roof. The plan probably succeeds quite as well as that of presenting a bill. It was all but dark when we reached the town, and some caution was necessary in threading our way along its narrow and unlighted streets. At length we arrived at the door of a large and rather lofty building, standing alone, and fronting one of the convents. After considerable knocking, the door was at last opened, and when the necessary explanations had been made, the whole party were at once admitted. Our baggage was immediately brought in, and deposited in one of the large open paved courts in the interior of the building. Thereafter, we were conducted by a series of outside stairs, in one of the angles of the court, up to the principal roof of the house. Here we found ourselves in a square open space, with a wall of five or six feet high on two sides, and with a range of apartments opening into it on the two others, and with the bright starry sky above our heads. This open space was roofed over at one end; and there, in the midst of a large company enjoying their pipes and coffee, sat our host. He immediately rose to receive us, and, through our Arabic interpreter, expressed his desire to give us such accommodation as his house could afford. There was but one private apartment, a small room with two small beds, which was assigned to the ladies -being kindly given up for their use by an English gentleman on his way from Jerusalem to Jaffa, who had arrived an hour before us. The more public room was large, and being provided with divans or sofas all round the walls, was quite sufficient for the male portion of our party, and for a good many others besides. Shortly after our arrival, one of the attendants served us with sherbet, in the form of a sort of lemonade. Bread, eggs, and coffee were brought in about an hour afterwards, and here we spent our first night in Palestine. To reach it we had made a voyage of 3500 miles across the deep. On the way we had

been rudely buffeted, and more than once driven into harbours of refuge on our own coasts by the fierce equinoctial gales. We had been tossed and driven to and fro on the huge rolling billows of the Atlantic in the Bay of Biscay. We had been pursued, amid thunder, and lightning, and hail, by a furious tempest along the coast of Africa, for six-and-thirty continuous hours. But here we were, safe and well, at last.

There is another voyage on which we and our readers embarked long ago, but which is still uncompleted. It, too, has probably had its storms and perils, and there may be more of these yet in store before it is done. But with a divine chart to direct our course, and with One who taketh up the sea in the hollow of His hand to guard us, faith has nothing to fear. Happy the night that finds us falling asleep in the "desired haven," to awake on the morrow-a morrow never to end—in the heavenly Canaan, the true and the only Holy Land!

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CHAPTER III.

Ramleh and the surrounding country-Approach to the hills-Latroun, the castle of the penitent thief-Its commanding position - Enter the mountain pass-Aspect of the hill country-The resting-place in the olive grove-Extreme ruggedness of the road-Abu-Gaush, the robber chief-Kuriet-el-Enab, the Kirjath-jearim of Scripture-Kolounieh, the supposed Emmaus of Scripture-The approach to Jerusalem-First sight of the Holy City-A night on the Mount of Olives.

NEXT morning we were astir by break of day. The favourite point at Ramleh, for a panoramic view of the surrounding country, is the well-known tower about three-fourths of a mile to the west of the town. There have been many disputes among travellers as to its origin and use; but there seems really no reason to doubt that it was the minaret of a mosque. The architecture is decidedly Saracenic, and the external gallery running round it near the top, obviously connects it with the usages of Moslem worship. As it is about 120 feet in height, and stands on the very summit of the highest ground about Ramleh, no position could possibly be more commanding. Our arrangements, however, for an early start did not admit of a visit to the tower. As the next best thing, I climbed up all alone to the roof of the apartment in which we had slept, and which was the highest part of the house. Standing there, on the summit of the dome-a sort of large, bee-hive looking protuberance, common upon the roofs of Syrian houses-I could look down on the town itself, and far and wide over the adjacent country, without a single intervening object to intercept or limit the view. The reader will perhaps kindly mount up alongside of me, that we may try to gather up a more exact and definite idea of this interesting vicinity than it was possible for us to gain amid the falling shadows of the previous night.

Ramleh means "sand," and the name is evidently descriptive of the soil on which the town is built. We are here at the western or upper end of it, and from this point it straggles away eastwards down the gentle declivity on which it stands, covering, with its large convents, mosques, and not very compact streets, a considerable area. It is interspersed with gardens, fenced as usual with the prickly pear; and it contains about 3000 inhabitants, of whom a third part are understood to be Christians, chiefly of the Greek and Armenian churches. In a straight line, the sea is nine or ten miles off on the one side, and the hills about seven or eight on the other. Northward lies the great plain of Sharon, and southward the equally extensive region of Philistia. Such is the stand point from which we are now to look around us. And first let us turn to the north. That little group of houses, about three miles along the open country, with its white mosque and lofty minaret gleaming out so brightly from these dark olive groves, is Ludd—the ancient Lydda-where Peter spake these words of power to one who had lain palsied upon his bed for eight long years: “Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." That mosque at Lydda, like many others in this land, was once a Christian church-the church, strange to say, of the patron saint of England. St. George, if faith can be reposed in ancient chronicles, was born here in the third century, suffered martyrdom in Nicomedia under the persecution of Diocletian, and was afterwards buried at this his birth-place. The church which had been built over his tomb, standing, as it did, on one of the main roads from the sea-coast to Jerusalem, and turned, as it often was, into a fortress, became the scene of many a fierce conflict between the Saracens and the Crusaders; and hence, perhaps, the prominent place which the saint's name came to acquire in the crusading host, and ultimately in so many of the nations of western Europe.

If it were possible to individualize minute localities at such a distance as twenty miles, one might be able to point out, right

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away over Lydda on the far-off horizon, the site of that Antipatris to which Paul was brought down by night from Jerusalem, under the protection of a guard of Roman soldiers, when sent as a prisoner to Cesarea. Facing round in the opposite direction, and now looking southwards into the great plain of Philistia, we have spread out before us, and stretching far farther than the eye can reach, that fertile and famous country that made so long, so obstinate, and often so successful a resistance to the people of Israel. If it were not for these undulations that swell up in front of us immediately beyond the sandy plain of Ramleh, we should be able to see, about six or seven miles off and a little to the east of south, the village of Akir—the ancient Ekron of the Philistines, whither the captured ark of the covenant was finally carried after that victory over the Israelites that broke the heart of poor old Eli, and in which his guilty sons were slain. It is now nothing but a mud-built Syrian hamlet. Of the other chief cities of Philistia, celebrated in Scripture history-Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Gath-the localities of all have been satisfactorily ascertained excepting the last. There is no Gath now in which to tell with triumph of the disasters of Israel. And though Ashkelon does survive, it is only in the shape of ruins crumbling down from the rocky heights on which it stood, and from which it once looked so proudly upon the sea that foamed and fretted beneath its walls. Gaza, too, is a desolation. Baldness has come upon it, as the ancient prophecy foretold. While Ashdod, the modern Esdûd -the Azotus at which Philip was found after his eventful interview with the Ethiopian eunuch-exists only as a small Moslem village. It lies about ten or twelve miles south-west from Akir, or Ekron, and not very far from the sea-shore. Twelve or fourteen miles farther on, in the same direction, is Ashkelon; and about as much more beyond it lies Gaza, at the south-western extremity of Palestine.

Having already, on the way from Jaffa, traversed the country between Ramleh and the sea, it only remains that we should