FROM A^RE TO NAZARETH. 121 
the Virgin — Custom illustrating a saying of our 
Saviour — Franciscan Convent — Pretended Miracle — 
Superstitions of the Country — Empress Helena — Other 
Objects of Reverence in Nazareth — Mensa Christi — 
Emmons of the Town — Ordinary Penance of Travellers 
in the Holv Land. 
Upon the third of July, we began our journey chap. 
to Jerusalem ; intending first to visit all those , 
places in Galilee rendered remarkable by the 
life and actions of Jesus Christ. We left Commence- 
ment of the 
Acre ', by the southern gate of the city, at four Author's 
"11 o T 111 • • Journey in 
o clock P. M.* It would be curious to ascertain the iMy 
when this place obtained a name so near to 
its antient appellation, after bearing that of 
Ptolemdis, not only down to the time oi Straho^, 
but to that of Pliny, who also calls it Colonia 
Claudii\ It is moreover named Ptolemdis in the 
Cl) Brocardus maintains that j4cre was never included among the 
places properly belonging to the Holy Land. (Vid. Loc. Tei-r. Sanct. 
Desc.) " Niaiqiiam fuit terra sancta connumerata,nec aJiViis Israel 
unquam possessa : tametsi tribui Aser in sortem ceciderit," It may 
therefore be considered with regard to Phoenicia, which he describes 
as a part of the 7/o/y Land, what Gibraltar now is with reference to 
Sjiain, He makes it the centre of his observations concerning Terra 
Sancta; "taking his departure" always from that city. It was, 
moreover, the rallying place of the Christians, in every period of the 
Crusades. 
(2) About the same hour, 63 years before, Pococke set out upon the 
same journey. 
(3) 5/»a6. Geogr. lib. xvi. p. 1077. ed. Oxon. 
(4) Hist. Nat. lib. V. c. 19. p. 264. ed. L.Bat. 1G35. 
VOL. IV. I 
