On the Valley of the Jordan aiid the Dead Sea. 3 



still more circumscribed. On the west an inhospitable though 

 not a rugged coast, running northeast and southwest, indented by 

 small insecure bays, shows to the traveller skirting along it, five 

 unimportant towns containing each from five to thirteen thousand 

 inhabitants; three of which, Tyre, Sidon and Gaza, were once 

 flourishing and busy seats of wealth and trade.* A vast prairie of 

 sand presses upon its southern border, affording a safe hiding place 

 for the restless tribes of Bedawins, who issue from its pathless 

 depths, and snatching cattle and grain from the cultivated land 

 disappear again within their undiscoverable retreat. The swift 

 little stream of the Jordan on the east, parts Palestine from the 

 barren country of the once turbulent Moabites. The northern 

 boundary, shifting with the fortunes of the Jewish and Israelitish 

 monarchies, is fixed by no natural barriers. Hemmed within 

 limits thus narrow, lies the ancient inheritance of the Jews, a ter- 

 ritory not inconsiderable if contrasted with the earlier Greek states, 

 Sicyon, Agamemnon's monarchy, Corinth, Megara, Eleusis, &c. 

 in several of which a modern medical practitioner might without 

 difficulty pursue a practice at one time ; but which Americans 

 would deem to be a small territory for a state. Such however 

 was the fertility of the soil and the genial character of the climate, 

 exempting the inhabitants from the imperious wants incident to 

 our colder latitudes, namely, substantial houses, clothing and diet, 

 that Palestine in David's time contained six millions of people. 

 It now numbers about one million five hundred thousand, com- 

 prising both the native and Christian population ; a difierence 

 which can be in some measure accounted for by the present neg- 

 lect of agriculture, the insecurity of property, and the rapacious 

 exactions of the Pashas sent from Constantinople. I am not pre- 

 pared to say that the present resources of Palestine, if sagaciously 

 developed, could not maintain the ancient population ; I only al- 

 lude to its present diminished physical capacity, to make a sugges- 

 tion, collateral to others which will be subsequently introduced, 

 viz. that changes, some remote, others recent, depending upon a 

 variety of disturbing causes, have both absolutely and relatively 



* Although the Mediterranean has no tide, the great prevalence of west and 

 southwest winds, creating a strong current in those directions, has sensibly changed 

 the sea-coast of Palestine. The roadsteads of Beyrut, Sidon, Tyre, Jaffa and Acre, 

 now afford very unsafe anchorage, even for the diminutive coasting craft that fre- 

 quent them. 



