TO BETHLEHEM. 
I WAS determined to fee Bethlehem, and there- 
fore received from the Governor an officer, and 
tr °m the Procurator a Monk, to conduft me : with 
. efe I fet out from Jerufalem the 19th in the mornr 
,n S- The country was at firlt pretty level, and the 
Wth till’d and fown with corn ; befides which, fome 
Jactitations of tobacco prefented themfelves to our 
v 'e\v. "When we had reached half way, I was ffiewn 
le place where, it is faid, Elias flept, when the 
revealed himfelf to him. It was an oblong 
^ in a rock, the length of a man, (haded by an 
^live-tree. I know not whether the prophet found 
f 1 Is rock cut out in the manner it now is, or whether 
l^ e people of thefe latter ages have cut out this 
' Ilc i of a bed, to give the (lory a better appearance 
truth : but whatever it be, the place was very 
l^ v ^ n ‘ ent 10 A ee P in- The Greeks have on the 
^ c hand, near this place, an old Convent, bearing 
c name of the prophet Elias, which they fre- 
jkjentjy viflt . but t j ie L at i ns jo not. Dire&ly be- 
j e lr they (hew a grave, faid to be Rachel’s : this 
, 'tn ancient (Irufture, large and well built, with a 
Co tTle ov er it. The other half of the way, the 
iiui ntry Was fton y a nd uncultivated, and produced 
th f C ^ e Glides f° me olive-trees; and the bed of 
e e were deftroyed fome years ago, in a tumult 
1 the 
