Letters of an African Traveller. 369 



Departing from Gaza I went to Beer-sheba, to Sorek, upon 

 the borders of which grew Dalilah, to Timnath and Gabaton, 

 known already by the feats of Samson, and getting out of the 

 way of the tribe of Simeon, I advanced into the mounts of 

 Judah and Benjamin, arriving by the plain of Booz at Jerusalem, 

 in the very time of the Greeks demanding from Heaven their 

 sacred fire. 



At the view of the hills of Sion and the Olive, at the 

 appearance of the holy city, I felt myself, both as Christian 

 and philosopher, touched by an hitherto unfelt emotion, 

 which, somewhat retarding my steps, covered my heart 

 with pleasing melancholy, and my mind with incessant me- 

 ditation. Oh ! what a difference between the figurative and the 

 true. 



Having reverenced those places which record the beginning 

 of the greatest religion in the world, I contemplated with inde- 

 scribable transport, the Tower of David, the Temple of Solo- 

 mon, the Palace of Herod, the Fountain and the Pool of Siloah, 

 the Proving Bath, and that of Beer-sheba, the Kedron, the 

 Golden Gate, the Well of Nehemiah, which concealed the 

 true fiery element, the Mount of Offence, and that of Scandal, 

 with the Valley of Tophet, where the priests of Israel sacri- 

 ficed human victims to Moloch ; the Sepulchre of Manasseh 

 in the Garden of Uzza, the Sepulchres of the Kings, and those 

 of Absalom, of Jehoshaphat, of Zachariah, son of Barachiah ; 

 the only architectural objects I thought worthy of you amongst 

 the modern antiquities of the Hebrews. 



You are never satiated with delight over the ruins of Je- 

 rusalem, and taking the advantage of a company of pilgrims, I 

 went with them to Bahurim, whence Shimeis threw the stones 

 at the Psalmist, in Adummim, or Place of Blood, to the Foun- 

 tain of Elijah, to Jericho, which no longer gives odour to the 

 chaste flower, down to Gilgal ; I cleansed myself in the Jordan 

 at Bethabara, where John baptized. 



Before me were Reuben and Gad, with the Plains of Moab, 

 and the Land of the Amorites. 



Amongst the crowd of pilgrims were distinguished the Bri- 



