382 
CLARKE 5 ® travel®. 
ration, not only by Christians and Jews, but also by Arabs and 
Turks. The whole distance from Jerusalem to Jaffa does not 
much exceed forty miles;* and this, according to the ordinary 
time of travelling, might be performed in about thirteen hours; 
but owing to rugged and pathless rocks over which the travel¬ 
ler must pass, it is impossible to perform it in less than a day 
and a half. When it is considered that this has been always 
the principal route of pilgrims, and that during the Crusades 
It was much frequented, it is singular that no attempt was ever 
made to facilitate the approach to the Holy City. The wild¬ 
est passes of the Apennines are not less open to travellers. No 
part of the country is so much infested by predatory tribes of 
Arabs. The most remarkable circumstance which occurred in 
this route, although it is a very general characteristic of tho 
Holy Land, were the number of caves, most of them being ar¬ 
tificial excavations in the rocks. It must remain for others to 
determine their origin, whether they were solely used as se¬ 
pulchres, or as dwellings belonging to the ancient Philistines. 
At present, they serve for retreats to bands of plunderers dis¬ 
persed among the mountains. After three miles of as hard a 
journey, over hills and rocks, as any we had experienced, we 
entered the famous Terebinthine Vale , renowned, during nine¬ 
teen centuries, as the field of the victory gained by the young¬ 
est of the sons of Jesse over the uncircumcised champion of 
the Philistines, who had “defied the armies of the living 
God. 55 The admonitus locoruvl cannot be more forcibly 
excited, than by the words of Scripture :f “And Saul and the 
men of Israel were gathered toget her, and pitched by the val¬ 
ley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. 
And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and 
Israel stood on a mountain on the other side : and there was a 
valley between therm” Nothing has ever occurred to alter the 
appearance of the country: as it was then, so it is now. The 
very brook whence David “ chose him five smooth stones” 
has been noticed by many a thirsty pilgrim, journeying from 
Jaffa to Jerusalem; all of whom must pass it in their way4' 
Quaresmius gives the distance from St. Jerora, (Eiuc. T. Sr tom. II. p ; 4) making 
it equal to forty miles. His own knowledge of the country also adds 'weight to the 
high authority he has cited. But Phocas, also a very accurate writer, describes the 
distance of Rama from Jerusalem as equal to thirty seven miles. See Ffioc. Descr, 
Loc. Sand, apnd L , Altai. Rojuji- p- 44. Cot. 1653. If this be true, Jaffa is forty-seven 
miles, at the least, from Jerusalem. 
t 1 Sarm xvii. 2,3. 
| “ Torrens verb ex quo David accepit quinque limpidissimos lapides, quibus de- 
jecitet prostravit gigantem, proximus est, et pert railsitur prosequendo iter versus 
sanctam civitatem.” Quartm. Eluchl.T. S.lib. iv. tom* Il.jJ. 16. Jniv 1639.- S.eg- 
$Iso Mrkhpmms in Judak. warn, 335. Brevard- Itin. 7. Brcidtmach, eocL&J. 
