George's--The Christian Massacre --Mohammedan Dread of Pollution--The House of Naaman --The Horrors of Leprosy CHAPTER XLV. The Cholera by way of Variety--Hot--Another Outlandish Procession--Pen and-Ink Photograph of "Jonesborough," Syria--Tomb of Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter--The Stateliest Ruin of All--Stepping over the Borders of Holy-Land--Bathing in the Sources of Jordan--More "Specimen" Hunting --Ruins of Cesarea--Philippi--"On This Rock Will I Build my Church"--The People the Disciples Knew--The Noble Steed "Baalbec"--Sentimental Horse Idolatry of the Arabs CHAPTER XLVI. Dan--Bashan--Genessaret--A Notable Panorama--Smallness of Palestine --Scraps of History--Character of the Country--Bedouin Shepherds--Glimpses of the Hoary Past--Mr. Grimes's Bedouins--A Battle--Ground of Joshua --That Soldier's Manner of Fighting--Barak's Battle--The Necessity of Unlearning Some Things--Desolation CHAPTER XLVII. "Jack's Adventure"--Joseph's Pit--The Story of Joseph--Joseph's Magnanimity and Esau's--The Sacred Lake of Genessaret--Enthusiasm of the Pilgrims--Why We did not Sail on Galilee--About Capernaum--Concerning the Saviour's Brothers and Sisters--Journeying toward Magdela 11 CHAPTER XLVIII. Curious Specimens of Art and Architecture--Public Reception of the Pilgrims--Mary Magdalen's House--Tiberias and its Queer Inhabitants --The Sacred Sea of Galilee--Galilee by Night CHAPTER XLIX. The Ancient Baths--Ye Apparition--A Distinguished Panorama--The Last Battle of the Crusades--The Story of the Lord of Kerak--Mount Tabor --What one Sees from its Top--Memory of a Wonderful Garden--The House of Deborah the Prophetess CHAPTER L. Toward Nazareth--Bitten By a Camel--Grotto of the Annunciation, Nazareth --Noted Grottoes in General--Joseph's Workshop--A Sacred Bowlder --The Fountain of the Virgin--Questionable Female Beauty --Literary Curiosities CHAPTER LI. Boyhood of the Saviour--Unseemly Antics of Sober Pilgrims--Home of the Witch of Endor--Nain--Profanation--A Popular Oriental Picture--Biblical Metaphors Becoming steadily More Intelligible--The Shuuem Miracle --The "Free Son of The Desert"--Ancient Jezrael--Jehu's Achievements --Samaria and its Famous Siege CHAPTER LII Curious Remnant of the Past--Shechem--The Oldest "First Family" on Earth --The Oldest Manuscript Extant--The Genuine Tomb of Joseph--Jacob's Well --Shiloh--Camping with the Arabs--Jacob's Ladder--More Desolation --Ramah, Beroth, the Tomb of Samuel, The Fountain of Beira--Impatience 12 --Approaching Jerusalem--The Holy City in Sight--Noting Its Prominent Features--Domiciled Within the Sacred Walls CHAPTER LIII. "The Joy of the Whole Earth"--Description of Jerusalem--Church of the Holy Sepulchre--The Stone of Unction--The Grave of Jesus--Graves of Nicodemus and Joseph of Armattea--Places of the Apparition--The Finding of the There Crosses----The Legend--Monkish Impostures--The Pillar of Flagellation--The Place of a Relic--Godfrey's Sword--"The Bonds of Christ"--"The Center of the Earth"--Place whence the Dust was taken of which Adam was Made--Grave of Adam--The Martyred Soldier--The Copper Plate that was on the Cross--The Good St. Helena--Place of the Division of the Garments--St. Dimas, the Penitent Thief--The Late Emperor Maximilian's Contribution--Grotto wherein the Crosses were Found, and the Nails, and the Crown of Thorns--Chapel of the Mocking--Tomb of Melchizedek--Graves of Two Renowned Crusaders--The Place of the Crucifixion CHAPTER LIV. The "Sorrowful Way"--The Legend of St. Veronica's Handkerchief --An Illustrious Stone--House of the Wandering Jew--The Tradition of the Wanderer--Solomon's Temple--Mosque of Omar--Moslem Traditions--"Women not Admitted"--The Fate of a Gossip--Turkish Sacred Relics--Judgment Seat of David and Saul--Genuine Precious Remains of Solomon's Temple--Surfeited with Sights--The Pool of Siloam--The Garden of Gethsemane and Other Sacred Localities CHAPTER LV. Rebellion in the Camp--Charms of Nomadic Life--Dismal Rumors--En Route 13 for Jericho and The Dead Sea--Pilgrim Strategy--Bethany and the Dwelling of Lazarus--"Bedouins!"--Ancient Jericho--Misery--The Night March --The Dead Sea--An Idea of What a "Wilderness" in Palestine is--The Holy hermits of Mars Saba--Good St. Saba--Women not Admitted--Buried from the World for all Time--Unselfish Catholic Benevolence--Gazelles--The Plain of the Shepherds--Birthplace of the Saviour, Bethlehem--Church of the Nativity--Its Hundred Holy Places--The Famous "Milk" Grotto--Tradition --Return to Jerusalem--Exhausted CHAPTER LVI. Departure from Jerusalem--Samson--The Plain of Sharon--Arrival at Joppa --Horse of Simon the Tanner--The Long Pilgrimage Ended--Character of Palestine Scenery--The Curse CHAPTER LVII. The Happiness of being at Sea once more--"Home" as it is in a Pleasure Ship--"Shaking Hands" with the Vessel--Jack in Costume--His Father's Parting Advice--Approaching Egypt--Ashore in Alexandria--A Deserved Compliment for the Donkeys--Invasion of the Lost Tribes of America--End of the Celebrated "Jaffa Colony"--Scenes in Grand Cairo--Shepheard's Hotel Contrasted with a Certain American Hotel--Preparing for the Pyramids CHAPTER LVIII. "Recherche" Donkeys--A Wild Ride--Specimens of Egyptian Modesty--Moses in the Bulrushes--Place where the Holy Family Sojourned--Distant view of the Pyramids--A Nearer View--The Ascent--Superb View from the top of the Pyramid--"Backsheesh! Backsheesh!"--An Arab Exploit--In the Bowels of the Pyramid--Strategy--Reminiscence of "Holiday's Hill"--Boyish Exploit--The 14 Majestic Sphynx--Things the Author will not Tell--Grand Old Egypt CHAPTER LIX. Going Home--A Demoralized NoteBook--A Boy's Diary--Mere Mention of Old Spain--Departure from Cadiz--A Deserved Rebuke--The Beautiful Madeiras --Tabooed--In the Delightful Bermudas--An English Welcome--Good-by to "Our Friends the Bermudians"--Packing Trunks for Home--Our First Accident--The Long Cruise Drawing to a Close--At Home--Amen CHAPTER LX. Thankless Devotion--A Newspaper Valedictory--Conclusion PREFACE This book is a record of a pleasure trip. If it were a record of a solemn scientific expedition, it would have about it that gravity, that profundity, and that impressive incomprehensibility which are so proper to works of that kind, and withal so attractive. Yet notwithstanding it is only a record of a pic-nic, it has a purpose, which is to suggest to the reader how he would be likely to see Europe and the East if he looked at them with his own eyes instead of the eyes of those who traveled in those countries before him. I make small pretense of showing anyone how he ought to look at objects of interest beyond the sea--other books do that, and therefore, even if I were competent to do it, there is no need. 15 I offer no apologies for any departures from the usual style of travel-writing that may be charged against me--for I think I have seen with impartial eyes, and I am sure I have written at least honestly, whether wisely or not. In this volume I have used portions of letters which I wrote for the Daily Alta California, of San Francisco, the proprietors of that journal having waived their rights and given me the necessary permission. I have also inserted portions of several letters written for the New York Tribune and the New York Herald. THE AUTHOR. SAN FRANCISCO. CHAPTER I. For months the great pleasure excursion to Europe and the Holy Land was chatted about in the newspapers everywhere in America and discussed at countless firesides. It was a novelty in the way of excursions--its like had not been thought of before, and it compelled that interest which attractive novelties always command. It was to be a picnic on a gigantic scale. The participants in it, instead of freighting an ungainly steam ferry--boat with youth and beauty and pies and doughnuts, and paddling up some obscure creek to disembark upon a grassy lawn and wear themselves 16 out with a long summer day's laborious frolicking under the impression that it was fun, were to sail away in a great steamship with flags flying and cannon pealing, and take a royal holiday beyond the broad ocean in many a strange clime and in many a land renowned in history! They were to sail for months over the breezy Atlantic and the sunny Mediterranean; they were to scamper about the decks by day, filling the ship with shouts and laughter--or read novels and poetry in the shade of the smokestacks, or watch for the jelly-fish and the nautilus over the side, and the shark, the whale, and other strange monsters of the deep; and at night they were to dance in the open air, on the upper deck, in the midst of a ballroom that stretched from horizon to horizon, and was domed by the bending heavens and lighted by no meaner lamps than the stars and the magnificent moon--dance, and promenade, and smoke, and sing, and make love, and search the skies for constellations that never associate with the "Big Dipper" they were so tired of; and they were to see the ships of twenty navies--the customs and costumes of twenty curious peoples--the great cities of half a world--they were to hob-nob with nobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes, grand moguls, and the anointed lords of mighty empires! It was a brave conception; it was the offspring of a most ingenious brain. It was well advertised, but it hardly needed it: the bold originality, the extraordinary character, the seductive nature, and the vastness of the enterprise provoked comment everywhere and advertised it in every household in the land. Who could read the program of the excursion without longing to make one of the party? I will insert it here. It is almost as good as a map. As a text for this book, nothing could be better: EXCURSION TO THE HOLY LAND, EGYPT, THE CRIMEA, GREECE, AND INTERMEDIATE POINTS OF INTEREST. 17 BROOKLYN, February 1st, 1867 The undersigned will make an excursion as above during the coming
