346 clarke’s travels. . 
likely, or was it possible, that every trace of it should have 
been swept away? Can there be any reason assigned for sup¬ 
posing that Helena would have destroyed what every Chris¬ 
tian must have been so anxious to preserve? that, in the con¬ 
struction of a church, to commemorate the existence of the 
tomb, she would have levelled and cut away not only the 
sepulchre itself, but also the whole of Mount Calvary ? This 
is so little in consonance with common reason, that it is impos¬ 
sible to allow the old tale its ordinary credit, ll is true, that, 
in order to discuss this topic w ith any attention to accuracy, 
we shall (ind there is much to unlearn ; we must tread back 
the path of history to the time in w hich all the incongruities of 
the age of Constantine were fabricated and put together; and 
having done this, and cast a view over the state of Christianity 
since that period—the absurdities believed and propagated— 
the gross interpolations of scripture record admitted and rever¬ 
ed—we shall perhaps no longer w onder at any difficulty of re¬ 
conciling Helena’s illustrations with gospel history, but admire 
the moderation which contents itself w ith showing the place 
u where Adam's head was discovered ” instead of the head 
itself. 
Continuing our researches along this dingle, as it inclines 
toward the east, before its junction with the larger valley of 
jehosaphat, we came to some sepulchres, w hich had not whol¬ 
ly escaped the notice of former travellers. We find them ob« 
scurely alluded to in the curious literary imposture of Mon¬ 
sieur de Thevenot,* although the author from whom he de¬ 
rived his account of them cannot now be ascertained. The 
sepulchres he mentions are evidently those we observed here, 
because he notices the existence of paintings in a crypt, called 
by him the cave of the Apostles, near Aceldama, f We found 
such remains upon the same side of the mountain we have been 
describing, and near the place commonly shown as Aceldama,\ 
& As not only Mr. Gibbon, but also Monsieur De Chateaubriand, more recently, 
•quqtes the work of Thevenot, (See Trav. in Greece, Pal-ast. &c. y©l. II. p.' 135. 
Lomliail ) as the writings of a traveller who had actually seen the places he described, 
whereby others will perhaps be deceived, it.may be proper here to insert the words 
of Morei eoncerniiag: that publication. Sk li ne vit pourtant qu’ unepartie de l’Europe. 
Mais, s’il mitjdes born.es si etroiles A ses voyages,.ii n’en mitpoint au desir de profiter 
des voyages/des- autres kc.. Ce fut des instructions qu’il recut de leur. louche, et 
des memoires qu’ils :lui communiquerent, qu’il composa les voyages qu’il donna an 
public.” Dictionnaire Mlstorique par Louis Morgri, tom. X. p, 138. Paris, 1759. . 
f See Tbevenot’s work, entitled,* “ Travels into the Levant,” chap. xiix. p. 204. 
Loud. 1687, ; ' 
tThis place, purchased by the chief priests to bury strangers in, now belongs to 
the Armenians. It is still, as it ever* was, a place of burial; and its appearance 
maintains the truth of the tradition, which points it out as the Aceldama of Scrip* 
