whole of the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem, was stated to me at 200: but I have no means of verifying the statement.

From the Terrace of the principal Convent, the Court of the Abyssinians is overlooked. At the hour we were there (about mid-day) we saw the poor Abyssinians receiving their daily bread: it is given them as charity by the Armenians.

ABYSSINIAN CONVENT.

Thursday, Nov. 27, 1823-Went to the Abyssinian Convent. The road by which the Priest led us, which was not the direct way, was through the place where they slaughter animals. Hovels and streets so offensively abounding with noisome sights and pestilential smells, I never before witnessed. In the court-yard, and in a small adjacent garden belonging to the Convent of this people, we saw twelve Abyssinians; of whom five were females and seven were men. One of them was pointed out to us as a Priest; but he could speak no other than his native language. In the garden was a wretched hovel, which was the abode of part of this company. Some of them appeared very old; one or two rather young. They all seemed very idle; and indeed their whole object appears to be, to spend their last days in Jerusalem, doing almost nothing. Nor do we see, indeed, any thing in the society by which they are surrounded, which would stimulate them to a higher purpose. We were not able to converse with them, and our accompanying Priest was but an imperfect, and somewhat unwilling, Interpreter. He took us into his own room; and here we sat, for a long time, occupied with his Manuscripts. Among

other books, we found copies of the Psalter published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

This city may be an excellent station for learning the Abyssinian Language; as here is a company of twenty, who, although ignorant, indolent, and utterly inapt to the Art of Teaching, would, nevertheless, to a man who could teach himself from books, furnish pronunciation and practice. As a station for distributing the Abyssinian Scriptures, I imagine it would not answer; for they, who come hither, generally never return to their native country. The motive which brought them hither-blind devotion— and the difficulties which they met with on their way, added to their extreme poverty, operate to fix them in Jerusalem, when once fairly arrived. Yet, possibly, an Englishman, intending to visit Abyssinia, might here find an individual among them willing, for a suitable pecuniary consideration, to accompany him; and he would serve, though on many accounts imperfectly, as a guide and interpreter. My conviction is here confirmed, that whoever visits Abyssinia must go relying, under Providence, on his own resources, and not on any companion. Were it my destination, however, I should certainly, after acquiring a competent knowledge of Arabic, aim at giving twelve or eighteen months to the study and practice of the Ancient and Modern Abyssinian Languages in Jerusalem, rather than any other spot which I have yet seen. There are these additional advantages: the mind would thus become inured to the misery of the circumstances of that people; and, further, a traveller, passing from Jerusalem to Abyssinia, would carry with him, as a visitor from that Holy City, a peculiar recommendation.

I examined several of the Manuscripts in this Convent; and subsequently purchased the whole of the Ethiopic New-Testament, in two Manuscript Volumes. There was, among the Manuscripts, one great folio, written in large characters. The Priest had told others, and he wished to persuade me, that it was the whole of the Old Testament. From the simplest calculation it evidently could not be above the fifth part of it; but when I turned the leaves over, and shewed him that it was only a Lectionary containing Extracts from Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, and other books of the Old Testament, he began to be half angry. · He said that they read this book through in the Offices of the Passion-Week.

I will here add the remainder of that scanty information, which I subsequently obtained in this quarter concerning the Abyssinians. Three or four of them have joined the Greek Communion: so far as I could learn, this conversion has arisen from the hope of improving their condition a little, and eating more bread. They are, at present, residing at the Greek Monastery of Mar Saba, three hours to the East of Jerusalem, on the way to the Dead Sea. There are, likewise, two at the Armenian Convent: I did not see them: but the Abyssinian Priest, who is on friendly terms with the Armenians, said that one was elderly, the other a youth. Of those whom I have to-day seen, one was quite young; not more, probably, than twenty years of age. The person pointed out as a Priest seemed to me not more than thirty-five. The Chief Priest appears upward of forty years of age.

YSA PETROS, A GREEK PRIEST.

The breaking up of the weather here, in the close of this week, interrupted our excursions. I have just made the acquaintance, however, of one of the most interesting characters in this place-Pappas Ysa Petros. He is a Priest of the Greek Communion: being a native, Arabic is his language. He is married, and has several children. He has already been employed as a Translator into Arabic by Mr. Fisk; through whose kindness, two or three Tracts have been put into my possession for printing. During a residence of many years at Damietta, he translated, for an opulent Arab Merchant at Damietta, the whole of Rollin's Ancient History into Arabic, which it is to be hoped may one day see the light: of this work, he has a small part in his possession, which he shewed us: it is the first rough translation, containing the History of Egypt and Carthage: the whole work occupied him six years. He understands, besides his native language, Greek, Italian, and French; and he has studied Syriac, Ethiopic, and Armenian from his natural love of languages. I have seen no one in Syria, who unites so much simplicity and goodness of disposition, with such a compass of literary acquirements.

It is a curious circumstance with regard to names, that not only is the influence of Mahomedanism manifested in the adoption, by Christians, of names not common among their brethren in other countries; but, further, in the name Ysa they have adopted the orthography of the Korân: it is the Mahomedan reading for Jesus.

Sunday, Nov. 30, 1823-We again united with

our countryman, in performing Divine Service in English.

Monday, Dec. 1, 1823—As I was this morning on my way to wait on the Armenian Patriarch, I met a courier just come in with Letters from Malta. They, announce the arrival in Beirout of two more American Missionaries, the Rev. Messrs. Bird and Goodell, with their families. We were already apprized of their intention to proceed either to Smyrna or Alexandria: but this decisive step has rejoiced our hearts more abundantly than we had anticipated. To Mr. Fisk and myself, they appear to have done exactly the right thing; and the kindness with which they have been received on their landing, by our Consul and his family, has not a little gratified us.

REFLECTIONS ON HOLY PLACES.

In the afternoon I went out of the City, and walked round a considerable part of the walls, so as to obtain a general view of the principal objects.

Educated in an early love of Scripture, I cannot describe the emotions excited by beholding the very scene of the most important events recorded in the, Old and New Testaments. I have, designedly, kept myself from attending to the traditionary minutia which are imposed upon the thousands of annual Pilgrims. I envy not those, who, from ignorance and superstitious subjection, are obliged to receive from the lips of hackneyed guides the trifles of Tradition; who can fall down prostrate, and embrace with rapture, the very spot measured to an inch, or the very stone-wall of a house preserved for ten or twenty or thirty centuries, at which some