209 



The snme fidelity is fdund in profnne histor3\ Cnius Marius, ns he 

 fled from the court of Ilicnipscl of Niimidia, uttered the prophetic 

 words, "Go. say to the Roman governor tliat ihou hast seen the exile 

 Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage," and, embarking in a fishing- 

 boat, was borne beyond the reach of his enemies and pursuers. The 

 illustrious Pompey M'as overtln-own on the plains of Pliarsalia: shel- 

 tered in the hut of a fish(>rjnan the night which followed his ruin, he 

 set sail on the morrow to meet his wife, Cornelia — and to perish. 



The beautiful Mary of Scotland suffered a decisive defeat from her 

 rebel lords: adopting the resolution of throwing herself on the protec- 

 tion of Elizabeth of England, she crossed the Frith of Solway in a 

 fishing-bark, and was safe from her own subjects; but the act was 

 fatal to herself, and gave a new and a strange coloring to the subse- 

 quent part of Elizabeth's life and reign. The battle of Worcester was 

 lost to the second Charles, and he fled for his life; and who was more 

 true to him in his hour of need than the fisherman Tattersal, who, as 

 he bore the fallen monarch from the shores of England, exclaimed, 

 '•By the grace of God, I w-ill venture my life and all f()r him, and set 

 him safe in Fra.nce, if I can!" So, too, the battle of Culloden sealed 

 the fate of Prince Charles Edward, the Pretender, and he also fled : 

 thirty thousand pounds was the price which tempted men to betray 

 him; but he sought the huts and boats of the "ignorant, the super- 

 stitious, and the improvident class of men" who had been faithflil to 

 his dynasty, and eluded the vigilance of his enemies.* 



it became the seat of war. The poorGalileeans in their light fishing boats could not witlistnnd 

 the heavy barks of the R^mians, and were overcoini', ami were slaughtered l»y thousanils. '-The 

 blue waters of the whole lake," says a historian of the Jews, "were tinged with blood, and its 

 clear surfiace exhaled for several days a fu'iid steam. Tli* shores were strewn with tiie wreck.s 

 of boats and swollen bodies that lay rotting in the sun, and infected the air till the conquerors 

 themselves shrunk from the effects of their own barbarities." 



.Sir Thomas Browne, an English physician of great fame in hi.s time, who died in KiH^, wrote 

 a tract entitled " A letter on the fishes eaten by our Saviour with his discijilt's after his resur- 

 rection from the dead." But this treatise, remarks his biographer, "is unsatisfactory in its re- 

 sult, as all the information that diligence or learning could supply consists in an enumeration 

 of the fishes jirodiiccd in the waters of Jndea." 



The travels of modern times coinain sonu- information which relates to our subject. "In 

 the dirty town of Tiberias," says Elliott, in 1S'.'>S, " wher.; Christians and Jews are ban- 

 ished to a distance from their mussulman htrds, a church, with an arched stone roof in tlie 

 form of a tent upside dowTi, perpetuates the memory of the house occupied by St. i'eter; or, 

 as others maintain, of the spot where the disciples conveyed to the shores tlie miraculous 

 draught of fishes." Again, says tht^ same traveller, on the shore of Galilee is the village of 

 Majdal, which gave its name to Mary Magdalene, and was the spot whirlier our Saviour re- 

 tired after the miracle of the louves and fishes." On the northern e.xtieniiiy of the lake ho 

 came to a "mass of rniuii called ■{"ali^iiiMniih, which mark thi' site of an ancient town. The 

 only indications of life are a mill and a few huts made of rushes, occupied by two or three 

 fishermen. Its position points it out as an eligii)le lishing |ilace; and such is the imjiort of tho 

 word Bethsaida, which city, if not situate on this spot, coubl not liave been very far of!" Here 

 we halted, and re4Ue8t<'d the tenant of one of the huts to throw in hi.s line and let us taste tho 

 jiroduce iif the sea. In a i'aw minufes each of us wa.s ))resented with a fish i)roilcd on a plate 

 of iron, according to the custom of the country, and wrapped in a large flat wafer-like cake, a 

 foot in diameter, of which one was spread as a tal>le-cloiii, and two others served as iiai)kins. 

 'thus we niadi- a n-past, on rli.; bunks id' the sea (d' TilMTJas, of what was almost literally 'five 

 loaves and two small fishes.' " 



From the viil.igcs cd" .Mount Lebanon, and liom ])oiMts far above th«! bed of the sea, Elliott 

 procured fossil shell-fish, and a box of fish fomid ind)edded in lime. 



•The fishennen, as a cla-ss, were, I ouppose, loyal to the Stuarts. Iveaders of English 

 history, and pariicidarly of diaries ajid letters of the Beveuteenlii cciiMuy, arrive, probably, 

 at the name conclusion. 



It was said in lOUO, after the RcBtoratiun, by tiie royalists, that during the time of " Red- 



