631 
Chateaubriand's Travels in Greece, Palestine, Kc. 
For the fifteenth, Br^idenbach, Tuchor, 
and Langi. 
For the sixteenth, Heyter, Salignac, 
Pascha, &c. 
For the seventeenth, Cotovic, Nau, 
and a hundred more. 
For the eighteenth, Maundrell, Po- 
cocke, Shaw, and Ilasselquist. 
These travels, which are multiplied ad 
infinitum^ are all repetitions of each 
other, and confirm the traditions relative 
to Jerusalem in the most invariable and 
striking manner. 
What an astonishing body of evidence 
is here ! The apostles saw Jesus Christ; 
they knew the places honored by the 
Son of man; they transmitted the tradi¬ 
tion to the first Christian churcli of Ju¬ 
dea ; a regular succession of bishops was 
established, and religiously preserved 
the sacred tradition. Eusebius ap-peared, 
and the history of the sacred places com¬ 
menced. It was continued by Socrates, 
Sozomenes, Ttieodoret, Evagrius, and St. 
Jerome. Pilgrims thronged thither from 
all parts. From this period to the pre¬ 
sent day, an uninterrupted series of tra¬ 
vels for fourteen centuries, gives us the 
same facts and the same description^. 
What tradition was ever supported by 
such a host of witnesses [ 
THE AXJTHOR^S MOTIVES. 
To the principal motive which impelled 
me after so many peregrinations to leave 
France once more, were added other 
considerations. A voyage to the East 
would complete the circle of studies 
which I had always promised myself to 
accomplish. In the deserts of America I 
had contemplated the monuments of Na¬ 
ture; among the monuments of man, I 
was as yet acquainted with only two spe¬ 
cies of antiquities, the Celtic and the 
Homan: I had yet to visit the ruins of 
Athens, of Memphis, and of Carthage. 
I was therefore solicitous to perform a 
pilgrimage to Jerusalem: 
Qui devoto 
II grand sepolcro adora, e scioglle il voto. 
THE MEDlTEKRANEAN. 
The Mediterranean, placed in the 
centre of the civilised w'orld, studded 
\^ith smiling islands, and washing shores 
planted with the myrtle, the palm, and 
the olive, instantly reminds the spectator 
of that sea which gave birth to Apollo, to 
the Nereids, and to Venus; whereas the 
Ocean, deformed by tempests,surrounded 
by unknown regions, was well calcu¬ 
lated to be the cradle of the phantoms of 
Scandinavia, or the domain of those 
Christian nations who form such an aw¬ 
ful idea of the greatness and omnipotence 
of God. 
MARI N'ERS. 
At two o’clock, the nijj;ht heing;. masni- 
nceiU, 1 heard a cabin-boy singing the 
commencement of the seventh canto of 
the Jerusalem: 
Intanto Erminia infra Tombros^ plar.te, 
The tune was a kind of recitative, very 
high in the intonation, and descending 
to the lovrest notes towards the conclu¬ 
sion of the verse. This picture of rural 
felicity, delineated hy a mariner in the 
midst of the sea, appeared to me more 
enchanting than ever. Tiie ancients, 
our masters in every thing, well knew the 
effect of these moral contrasts. Theo¬ 
critus has sometimes placed his swains 
on the margin of the deep, and Virgil 
loves to bring together the recreations of 
the husbandman, and the labours of the 
mariner: 
Invitat genlalis hyems, curasque resolvit: 
Ceu pressae cum jam portum tetigere carinae, 
Puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas. 
APPROACH TO GREECE. 
At eleven in the morning w'e found 
ourselves at the gates of the Adriatic f 
that is to say, between Cape Otranto in 
Italy, find Linguetta in Albania.—I w-as 
now on the frontiers of Grecian anti¬ 
quity, as well as on the confines of Latin 
antiquity. Pythagoras, Alcibiades, Sci- 
pio, Cfesar, Poinpey, Cicero, Augustus, 
Horace, Virgil, had crossed this sea. 
What different fortunes all those cele¬ 
brated characters consigned to the in¬ 
constancy of these same billows! And I, 
an obscure traveller, passing over the 
effaced track of the vessels which carried 
the great men of Greece and Italy, was 
repairing to their native land in quest of 
the muses: but I am not Virgil, and the 
gods no longer dwell upon Oly mpus. 
CORFU. 
The calm continued, and 1 had abun¬ 
dant leisure to survey the island of Corfu,in 
ancient times, alternately called Dre- 
panum, Macria, ScheVia, Corcyra, Ephi- 
sa, Cassiopea, Ceraunia, and even Argos. 
Upon this island, Ulysses was cast naked, 
after his shipwreck. Would to God 
that the country of Alcinous had never 
been celebrated hut for fictitious ^ mis¬ 
fortunes ! ' In spite of myself, I called 
to mind the troubles of Corcyra, which 
Thucydides 
