that part neareft the center of the fruit, where they have also small feeds, the furface of which is blackish or reddish, and beneath it a white, foft, and palatable fubftance, and from whence a kind of oil is expreffed, of great ufe in colds, inflammations, and cutaneous diforders. The melons which have a white pulp, are alfo of a very agreeable taste; but not fo much efteemed as the other, probably more from prepoffeffion than any folid reafon. Both, however, may supply the place of drink, as they diffolve in the mouth, quench the thirft, and are of a cooling quality. Nor is there any danger in eating large quantities of them, if ripe, in the Weft-Indies they are even allowed to patients in a fever.

THAT part of this affemblage of mountains, which appears the most barren, is every where covered with oaks and other trees. It likewife produces olives; but they are not cured with that care and fkill as in Provence and Languedoc, being put into jars with only a little falt. The air on all these mountains is very pure and healthy; and though the heat along the coaft and fome other places, is very great, yet, in Syria and Palestine, its excefs is greatly leffened by a fea-breeze, which conftantly blows every morning, and, by its coolness, renders the heats of fummer very fupportable.

THESE mountains afford plenty of pasture to an infinite number of black cattle, fheep, goats, hares, rabbits, chamoifes, and other animals. The chamois is a fpecies of wild goat, but eafily taken, and proves excellent food. Indeed the flesh of all the quadrupeds which live on thofe mountains is remarkably good, from the great number of odoriferous herbs on which they feed. The wild fowl alfo by living amidst fuch plenty of corn are excellent.

HAVING gratified our curiofity, with regard to the mountains of Carmel, we took our leave of the vicar, and returned to Caipha, near which we ob

ferved feveral holes or caverns hewn in the rock. They are the fepulchres of the ancient Jews, according to Benjamin: Ad montis Carmel radices Ifraëlitarum quam plurimorum fepulchra funt. "At the "foot of mount Carmel, are a great number of fe"pulchres of the Ifraelites." In thefe fepulchres, the marks where the bodies have been laid, are ftill visible. In some places we alfo found fteps hewn in the rock, whereby you descend to these subterraneous abodes; but the stone not being fufficiently hard to withstand the corroding hand of time, most of them are in a ruinous condition.

ON our arrival at Caipha, we again visited the Sheik; and met with the fame friendly entertainment as before after our repaft, we fet out for St. John d'Acri, where, after fome days refreshment, we prepared for profecuting our journey to Galilee.

CHA P. II.

Journey to Galilee, particularly to Nazareth, mount Tabor, Cana, the town and lake of Tiberias.

W

E fet out from St. John d'Acri in company with Mr. Ufgate, brother to the English Conful, and fome other gentlemen, among which was a brother of the French Vice-conful. Our whole number, fervants included, amounted to ten, and all of us well armed.

NEAR St. John d'Acri we croffed an eminence, faid to have been thrown up in one night; it commands the city; and from this place, the city, which was once well fortified, was beat down. Here we left the fea-coaft, directing our courfe up the country towards

the

the eaft. Our road lay over a long plain, indifferently cultivated, and which took us up an hour to cross it.

On the right hand we were fhewn the fource of the small river Belus, near which the remains of a temple of Memnon are faid to be ftill visible.

We continued our journey through the mountains, which were every where covered with verdure, along a good and even road, leaving on our left hand a village called Damon, where a Sheik, who has under his jurifdiction all the above-mentioned plain, and feveral villages, refides in a very large manfion-house. A little farther on the right hand is the village Chafamora,which, about three months fince, the above Sheik had affaulted and plundered; the inhabitants not having fhewn any great readiness to execute an order he had fent them. After paffing through feveral woods of oak, we came to another large plain, where we faw, on the left, at the foot of a mountain, a walled village called Kaffer Mender, and defended by feveral fmall forts.

DIRECTLY Oppofite to it on an eminence, is a ruined village, and at the foot of the eminence, a fpring of water, which was very welcome to us. About a mile and a half further we afcended a mountain, and found on its fummit the ruins of a church, formerly dedicated to St. Ann. The vaulted part of it, facing the eaft, is ftill entire, as we find is the cafe with most of the ruined churches in Turkey. We alfo faw on this mountain other ruins, probably those of a cattle. All this mountain is inhabited, and we every where met with houfes, or rather wretched huts, of Arabians, comprehended under the name of the village Sephouri. Some are of opinion, that for> merly a confiderable city stood here; and that it was the native place of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the holy Virgin. Brocard in defcript. terræ Sanctæ, fays, Sephorum oppidum & caftrum, unde Joachim pater

Beate

Beata Virginis oriundus putatur, & est in tribu Afer juxta vallem Carmelon. That is, "The city and ca"ftle of Sephori, where Joachim, the father of the "Bleffed Virgin is faid to be born, lies in the tribe "of Afber, near the valley Carmelon." But we found here nothing remarkable except two broken pillars; though it is faid, that here was formerly a fubterraneous aqueduct.

FROM hence we defcended into a plain; but foon after, as night came on, we entered a very troublefome road among the mountains. Here we met five Arabians on horse-back; two of them rode off, at the firing a piftol by one of our fervants, and the others getting fome distance from the road, cried Sullami, a good journey. The place was not, indeed, at all commodious, for an Arabian on horseback to attack any person who had fire-arms, and poffibly it was to this we owed their speedy departure. In this manner, after climbing another very difficult mountain, we reached Nazareth, about two hours after fun-fet. This place is now, by the Arabians, called Nafra, and, according to fome, derived its name from the Hebrew, Neezer, a crown, Nazareth being formerly fituated on the fummit of an eminence, as a crown placed on the top of the head. of the head. After letting our horfes drink at the fountain of Sta. Maria, we entered the convent, where we met with a very courteous reception.

THIS place, which has always been highly celebrated for the conception of the Saviour of the world, and where he spent the greatest part of his life, is at present one of the meaneft in the whole country. It is fituated in a small valley at the foot of a hill, and furrounded with eminences, most of them very fruitful, and forming a kind of circus; and from which two roads, one of them very rugged, lead down into the plain of Efdraelon, anciently the valley of Jezreel. It feems as if nature had formed it thus, as a

proper

of

proper retreat for Emanuel, till he reached the age maturity; great part of it now lies wafte, being occupied by wild beasts, and the Arabians, who live in wretched huts of clay, and fubfift partly by agriculture and graziery.

HERE are very few trees, having all been cut down and destroyed during the inteftine confufions and foreign wars; though these eminences would admit of the finest improvements in plantations of olives, figs, and vines. It, however, appears that Nazareth did not formerly stand in this valley; for St. Luke tells us, that it ftood on a hill or mountain; and the precipice from which the obdurate Jews, who inhabited the place, were for throwing their Meffiah, is fhewn at fome fmall diftance; as will appear in the fequel.

THE third order of Francifcan monks, or that of the holy fepulchre of Jerufalem, are in poffeffion of the remains of the convent, which, in the time of the emperor Conftantine and his mother, was built here on an eminence; and alfo of the church, which is faid to ftand on the spot covered by the house of the Virgin Mary, and which, after feveral removals, was at laft fettled by the angels at Loretto in Italy, to the infinite advantage of that place, by the multitudes of pilgrims of all ranks, who refort thither to vifit that holy structure.

THE first place that engaged our attention was the church, or rather the spot where the blessed Virgin is faid to have received the heavenly falutation of the angel, Hail thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: bleffed art thou among women. But this, at prefent, is only a grotto, or cave, ufed as a place of worship, in which are two pillars of granite, one of which is broke, at fome distance from the ground; and faid to have been done in the following manner: A certain Sheik having informed the Pafcha of Saphet, that under one of these pillars a treasure was concealed, the Pafcha came in perfon to Nazareth, and ordered VOL. II.

C

the