614 PALESTINE, COLONIES IN. 



PALMER, EDWARD H. 



PALESTINE, GERMAN COLONIES IN. The first 

 German colony in Palestine was founded in 

 1872, when several families from Wiirtemberg 

 formed a settlement near Jaffa. They were 

 industrious and hardy, and showed themselves 

 well fitted to cope with the numerous difficul- 

 ties that beset them from the beginning. They 

 established, close by the city, model farms and 

 households, manufactories for agricultural im- 

 plements, and shops which turned out excel- 

 lent wagons. Continued success attracted new 

 settlers, and the colony has grown steadily and 

 would enjoy the promise of a still more rapid 

 increase if it could obtain new grants of land. 



At about the same time this colony was 

 founded, another company of Germans ob- 

 tained a grant of a considerable tract of land at 

 CaTpha, at the foot of Mount Carmel, between 

 Cape Carmel and the ruins of Csesarea. This 

 colony, which is much more important than 

 that of Jaffa, has had a very prosperous career. 

 Its forty modest, whitewashed houses present 

 an appearance of order and neatness in marked 

 contrast with the squalid huts of Cai'pha. The 

 colony, numbering about four hundred souls, 

 has its own administration, in a kind of city 

 council, over which the resident consul has 

 supervision. It presents the model of a Ger- 

 man city to the Asiatic population, and an ex- 

 ample of quiet and moral behavior. The peo- 

 ple are moderate Protestants, and free from 

 sectarian strife. Their farms are well appoint- 

 ed, and yield four or five times as much as 

 similar lands in the hands of the native popu- 

 lation. The soil is very productive under any 

 kind of cultivation, and makes extraordinary 

 returns under the care of a good farmer. A 

 third colony has been established in the vicin- 

 ity of Jerusalem, near the Russian hospital. 

 It was founded mainly for purposes of trade, 

 and has prospered. Through the agency of 

 these settlements, German influence has already 

 become considerable in Palestine, and bids fair 

 to be an important factor when the Syrian 

 question again comes up. The Arabs and 

 Turks, who are most strongly impressed by 

 military success, have held the Germans in 

 great respect since they defeated the French in 

 1871 ; while the German colonies, under the 

 care of Prince Bismarck, have enjoyed a steady 

 growth since 1872. Prussia has obtained the 

 convent of the Knights Templars as a present 

 from the Sultan, and on the 7th of April, Prince 

 Frederick Charles took formal possession of 

 the ruins of Cajsarea, an ancient seaport half- 

 way between the German settlements at Jaffa 

 and CaTpha, which the Sultan had conveyed, 

 with the neighboring lands, to the German 

 Emperor. The growth of these two colonies 

 toward each other, if it continues, will bring 

 the whole Syrian coast, from Cape Carmel to 

 Jaffa, under German predominance. 



PALMER, Edward Henry, an English Oriental 

 scholar, born in Cambridge, England, Aug. 7, 

 1840 ; murdered by Bedouin Arabs of the Des- 

 ert about the middle of August, 1882. Both his 

 father and his mother having died while he 

 was a little child, he was educated and cared 

 for by his aunt with the tenderness of a moth- 

 er. He early evinced a fondness for lan- 

 guages, and actually mastered the Romany dia- 

 lect, through the aid of gypsies whom he met 

 and induced to talk with him in their peculiar 

 tongue. For some three years he served as a 

 junior clerk in a London house, during which 

 time he acquired French and Italian, so as to 

 speak them with the accuracy of a native. His 

 conviction was, that any intelligent person can 

 learn, by the natural method, as he called it, 

 which children pursue, any language what- 

 ever, so as to read it in a few weeks, and speak 

 it in a few months. This method he followed, 

 viz., hearing and speaking different languages; 

 he eschewed grammars, after the Greek and 

 Latin manner ; and his success was marvelous 

 in the extreme. 



Mr. Palmer entered St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, and was graduated in 1867. 

 Though not distinguished in other respects, 

 while an undergraduate, he was nevertheless 

 elected to a fellowship in his college, soon 

 after graduation, on the score of his already 

 remarkable attainments in Arabic, Persian, 

 and Hindustani. These he had made through 

 the help of two or three Orientals living at the 

 time in Cambridge. When the Sinai Survey 

 Expedition was sent out in 1868-'69 Mr. Palm- 

 er accompanied it, having in view the investi- 

 gation of the nomenclature, traditions, and an- 

 tiquities of Arabia Petrsea. One of the results 

 of this expedition was the discovery of the 

 route taken by the escaped children of Israel 

 in their journey from the Red Sea, and it was 

 shown that this route led to a mountain in all 

 respects answering to the mountain in which 

 the law was given. Mr. Palmer also collected 

 the curious Arabic and Mohammedan legends 

 and traditions on the subject. The next year, 

 1869-'70, in company with Mr. C. F. Drake, 

 he explored the Desert of the Wanderings (El 

 Teh), and succeeded in fixing many of the 

 localities where the Israelites rested, such as 

 Kibroth Hattaavah, besides making other val- 

 uable discoveries. He also made some stay 

 in Jerusalem, and looked into the interest- 

 ing question to all pilgrims as to the true site 

 of the Holy Sepulchre. He gave his decision 

 against the traditionary site. On his return 

 home he published " The Desert of the Exo- 

 dus : Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of 

 the Forty Years' Wanderings" (1871). 



In November, 1871, Mr. Palmer was appoint- 

 ed the lord almoner's Professor of Arabic in 

 the University of Cambridge, which place 



