204 Life awl Letters of Francis Gallon 



Mediterranean through a gorge. At Tripoli I did a foolish thing, viz. slept in the low 

 marshy land and caught an ague that plagued me until I wholly lost it in 1851 in Africa. 

 Riding along the shore towards Beyrout I met Boulton — a joyou.s meeting. We crossed 

 and parted and I never saw him again. He went eastwards and finally being an 

 onlooker at the siege of Mooltan, with General Whish, took up a post of observation 

 through a loophole in a deserted turret and when there a matchlock ball passed through 

 his eye and brain. He was singularly gifted and amiable ; an epicurean in disposition, 

 that is to say a philosophical pleasure seeker and of sterling merit. At Beyrout I found 

 my gi'oom and horses had got into scrapes and I sold the latter. Being unwell with 

 ague I felt unable then to ride to Jerusalem, so I took a place in a common collier 

 sailing to Jaffa, making myself supremely comfortable with rugs &c., on a cleaned corner 

 of the deck. At Jaffa I found baggage camels and in defiance of usage rode one into 

 Jerusalem. The time when the Akka episode occurred and my stay in Mount Carmel 



has quite escaped me. It was there that Mr 's baby died and I performed some 



share in christening it just before its death. Also a Jesuit priest (as I believe) got hold 

 of me and took great pains to convert me. Also I had a scramble at night to find, as 

 I ultimately did, a wretched piece of humanity, a converted Jew, who had wandered 

 about the hill and contrived to get himself into grief and lost himself and was become 

 rather desperate when found. At Jerusalem I planned an expedition, common enough 

 now but then quite new, with one fatal exception of a year or two previous namely, 

 to follow the valley of the Jordan all the way from Tiberias to the Dead Sea. Until 

 Costagan's time (brother of Mrs Bradshaw of Leamington) from that of the Crusader, 

 I believe there was no record of a Christian having attempted the journey owing to the 

 wars of the tribes and the impossibility of getting safely from each to its neighbour. 

 But a time of peace had set in and I availed myself of it. The plan was to get water 

 skins at Jerusalem, take them on horseback to Tiberias inflate and make a raft of them 

 and on it to float down the Jordan. Starting from Jerusalem escorted with spearmen 

 and all mounted, including my native cook and I think one or two others, we ultimately 



slept at overlooking the valley of tlie Jordan, half way along its course (there 



was a row at night and some of the horses tails were cut off in derision by the attackers) 

 thence I descended to the valley and rode up to Tiberias. After a few days stay 

 I started back, rigged out my raft just below the bridge where the Jordan issues from 

 the lake, to the great amusement of the escort, who had orders to ride by the side, and 

 ofi" I floated, the stream was far too narrow and I got capsized twice. Then came a 

 more serious misadventure for the current swirled in a narrow channel under over- 

 hanging boughs nearly touching the water and I was knocked off and got into difficulties. 

 I soon saw that the raft project was not feasible at that season and took again to my 

 horse. It was really a picturesque group. I had to ride in Arab head dress with a 

 fillet and my men with their clump of long spears with ostrich feathers at the top looked 

 very well indeed. After a while we came to a great Arab encampment, that of the Emir 

 Ruabah whose sister, a relative of some kind of my own escorter, Sheikh Nair Abu 

 Nasheer (of Jericho or thereabouts) had married. He was civil but wary and punctilious, 

 and wherever I went I was watched. He had a quantit}' of old chain armour, beautiful 

 Saracenic coats of mail. It was a somewhat uneasy visit to me and I was glad to be off. 

 We finally got to Jericho and thence to Jerusalem, I making various plans with my Sheikh 



