FROM JERUSALEM TO BETHLEHEM. 3’?5" 
noticed by Aristotle;* and it can hardly be doubted but that 
their testimonies have some foundation in reality. Maundre!! 9 
attoiiths, as he is emphatically styled by Iieland,f is en¬ 
titled to implicit confidence in this, as in all other matters, 
where he speaks from his own practical observation. 44 Being 
willing,” says he,J 44 to make an experiment of its strength, I 
went into it, and found it bore up my body in swimming with 
an uncommon force. But as for that relation of some authors, 
that men wading into it were buoyed up to the top as soon as 
they go as deep as the navel, 1 found it, upon experiment, 
not true.” There is scarcely a single ancient geographer 
who has not mentioned something concerning this inland sea. 
Josephus, Julius Africanus, and Pausanlas, describe it from 
their own ocular evidence. The first of these often intro¬ 
duces allusions to it under the appellation of lake Asphaltites. 
Its water, although limpid, like that of the sea of Galilee, 
and resulting from the same river, the Jordan, instead of be¬ 
ing, as that is, sweet and salutary, is in the highest degree salt* 
bitter, and nauseous. 5 Its length, according to Diodorus 
Siculus, is above seventy-two English miles, and its breadth 
nearly nineteen.]| Julius Africanus mentions the abundance 
of balsam found near its shores.?^ The observations of Pausa- 
masjf contain merely a repetition of remarks already introdu¬ 
ced. 
The temptation to visit Bethlehem was so great, that, not- 
withstanding the increasing alarms concerning the ravages of 
the plague as we drew near the town, we resolved at all events 
to venture thither. For this purpose, calling all our troop 
together, we appointed certain members of our cavalcade to 
keep a look out, and act as guards in the van, centre, and rear 
of the party, to see that no person loitered, and that none 
of the inhabitants might be permitted to touch us, or our 
horses and camels, on any account whatsoever. In tills 
'•* Ei <E /JU)8oAo < yScri ri'vs?, Iv ITaXaicm'vr) Toiaum Xijuvn, iIs vv i&v 
ns crvvd-hcF.cts dv9-pco7 rov ^ u7ra{ufiov initrhtfv, xai 8 mradostricu mra r§ 
g3«roy, /Jiaprupiov av srn r o~j fipn/jiivois. “ Si autem, uti quidam narrant, in Palaeff* 
tina ej us modi lacus sit, in quern si quis hominem ant jumentum ligatum injecerit, su« 
pernatet nec lnergatur, id ea quae diximus confirniabit.” Aristot. lib. ii. cap. 3* 
Meteorologicorum, Paris, 1629. 
1 Pal. lllqst. tom. I. p. 244. T.raj. Bat. 1714. 
t Manmdreli’s Journ. from Alep, to Jerus. p 84. Gxf. 1721. 
* Ibid. 
jj Vid. Diod. Sic. lib. xix. Amst. 1746. Reckoning the stadium as being equal to 
cur furlong. 
^"Ecnrt. Trap 1 auro TrafJvoXu rS {3aX<r&j48 (puTov. “ Circumquaque magrta balsami 
sogia est. u Jul. African, de Lacu Asphalt, V id. Rel. Pal. Ill. lib. i. c. 38. 
tt tasaoias, lib, v. cap. 7. Lips. 1796. 
