1848.] RETURN OF THE PARTY. 517 



lake, the seal and the witness to the fearful judgment pro- 

 nounced by Jehovah himself upon those who had erred past 

 all forgiveness. Within its dark waters thousands of animate 

 beings were suddenly engulfed — cut off, in an instant, 

 while cherishing, as we can well imagine, many of the bright 

 hopes and joys and aspirations that animate our hearts, yet 

 so tainted with the leprosy of vice and crime, that Nature 

 shuddered as she received them in her bosom. Both the 

 infidel and the christian historian concur in the main facts 

 connected with this catastrophe. The former may continue 

 to scoff and doubt, yet his reflections will often give rise to 

 emotions of fear ; but the latter, though trembling with awe, 

 consoles himself with the thought that God is merciful as 

 well as just ! 



(6.) Warned by the rapidly increasing heat, and the 

 debilitated state of his party, that the summer solstice was 

 fast approaching, Lieutenant Lynch broke up his encamp- 

 ment on the shores of the Dead Sea, on the morning of the 

 10th of . May. The boats were taken to pieces, and placed 

 on the backs of the camels ; and the whole party commenced 

 their return journey to the Mediterranean coast, proceeding 

 overland by way of Jerusalem, across 



" Those holy fields, 

 Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 

 Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd 

 For our advantage, on the bitter cross." 



THE END. 



