if the Galley below the convent and the town- We found i t r 
even here, necessary to station an armed guard upon the out- 
of the olive ground, which was fenced 'with a low wall, ia 
order to keep 01 T those whom curiosity attracted toward us 5 
and who expressed their astonishment at our fear of them, 
having withdrawn, they said, from the town, expressly to avoid 
the contagion, and therefore considered themselves as little 
likely to communicate infection. The Arab soldiers of our 
escort were, however, of opinion, that we should do well to 
keep them at a distance, and therefore we did not allow then! 
to come within the wall. There was a well, stationed upon 
the outside of our little rampart, near the spot; and as it was 
necessary to send to this place for water to boil our coffee, we 
fixed upon a single individual for this purpose, upon whose 
discretion we could rely. 
Bethlehem, written Belhlcchem by Belaud,* * * § is six miles 
from Jerusalem, This distance, allowed by almost all au¬ 
thors, exactly corresponds with the usual computed measure, 
by time, of two hours. Some inaccuracy might therefore be 
acknowledged to exist in the printed text of Josephus, de* 
scribing (lie interval between the two cities as equal only to 
twenty stadia.f Jerom,| who passed so many years at Beth¬ 
lehem, and therefore was best qualified to decide this point, 
together with Eusebius, Sulpitius Severus, and Phocas,§ all 
agree in the distance before stated. But lieland, with his or¬ 
dinary critical acumen, observes, that the apparent inaccuracy 
©f the Jewish historian arises only from a misconstruction of 
his words; that he is speaking of the distance from Jerusalem 
to the camp of the Philistines in the valley between the two 
cities, and not of their distance from each other.|| There is at 
* Pallaest. Illust; tom. II. p. 642. Utrecht, 1714. 
T T% Tffiv Jv Tn MSijitvru, n ; BnOAdg 
Startivti, cnadlcvs f ifpocroA.upcov d 7 rs'xacrnr -ihodt. “ Gastris vero hostium in ea vulie * 
positis quae usque ad Bethleem urbem pertingit, viginti stadiis ab Hierosolymis dis- 
tantem.” Josephi Ant^q. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 12 tom. II. p. 402, Edit. Havercampi, Ba-- 
lav. 1723. 
t Hieronym. in lib. de Locis Hebraicis; 
§ 'H di. BidXtifj. ,ttoMs antx a tus Afi'as iroXtws wcrfi \x\X\a “ Urbs vero Beth¬ 
leem a sancta civitatesex fere mille passibus distat.” Phocae Descript. T. g. 
apud Leo. Altai, in Eupp. Colon. 1653. 
jj Sed error hie non est Josephi, veriim ex verbis ejus male intellectis natus. In¬ 
spice verba Graeca. Iliad cmxacms relertur ad iroKtus sic ut sensus sit ur- 
hem Bethleem distare 20 staclils ab urbe Hierosolymitana. f^ed refer illud ad voce-mo 
mot jj$o\by, et hostilem exercitum : atque ita Josephus scripsit castra inimicorum, 
qyae erant ia valle se extendente usque ad urbem Bethleem abfuisse Hierosolymbr- 
Z M. 2- 
