440 THE HOLY LAND. 
even hinted'. Nor is this alL Upon the evening 
of our arrival at Jaffa^ walking with Captain 
Culverhouse along the shore to the south of the 
town, in order to join some of our party who 
were gone in search of plants and shells, a 
powerful and most offensive smell, as from dead 
bodies, which we had before experienced more 
than once, in approaching the town, caused us 
(l) Some years after, the late uofortunate Captain Wright waited 
upon the Author, at Ilbotson's Hotel, in Vcre Street, London, to give 
an account of what he jocosely termed his scepticisin upon this subject; 
when these and the following particulars were related to him, and 
an appeal made to the testimony of Captain Culverhouse, Mr. Cripps, 
Mr. Loudon, and others who were with us in Jaffa, as to the fact. 
Captain Wright still maintained the charge; and the Author, finding 
the testimony afforded by himself and his friends liable to give offence, 
reserved all he had to say upon the subject until it should appear in its 
proper place, as connected with the history of his travels; always, 
however, urging the same statement, when appealed to for informa- 
tion. A few months after Captain Wright's visit. Captain Culverhouse, 
who had been employed in a distant part of the kingdom, recruiting 
for the Navy, came to London, and meeting the Author in public 
company at table, asked him, with a smile, what he thought of the 
reports circulated concerning the massacre, &c. at Jaffa. The 
Author answered by saying, that it had long been his intention to 
write to Captain Culverhouse upon the subject, and that it was very 
gratifying to him to find the purport of his letter so satisfactorily 
anticipated. Captain Culverhouse then, before the whole company 
present, expressed his astonishment at the industrious propagation of 
a story concerning which the inhabitants of Jaffa were ignorant, and 
whereof he had never heard a syllable until his arrival in England. 
The Author knows not where this story originated ; nor is it of any 
coasequeace to the testimony he thinks it now a duty to communicate. 
