Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

174634

PREFACE.

IN the first edition of his work the author omitted part of his tour in the Holy Land; in which he passed through Samaria and Galilee; visited Naplous, the ancient Shechem, the burial-place of Joseph; and the ruins of Sebaste, the fallen capital of Herod, where the columns of his palace are still standing; crossed the great plain of Jezreel, "the battle-ground of nations;" ascended Mount Tabor, supposed to be the place of the transfiguration; visited Nazareth, the Lake of Genesareth, or Sea of Galilee; Tiberias and Saphet, the last supposed to be the ancient Bethulia, referred to in the expression, "the city that is set upon a hill and cannot be hid," both of which have since been destroyed by an earthquake, and more than half of their inhabitants buried under the ruins; from thence he crossed to the Mediterranean at Acre, the St. Jean d'Acre of the Crusaders; visited Caipha and Mount Carmel; and, returning through Acre, passed on to Sour, the fallen Tyre. He has added that part of his tour in the present edition; and, in reference to the whole, he can only say, as before, that in the present state of the world it is almost presumptuous to put forth a book of travels. Universal peace and extended commercial relations, the introduction of steamboats, and increased facilities of travelling generally, have brought comparatively close to

gether the most distant parts of the world; and, except within the walls of China, there are few countries which have not been visited and written upon by European travellers. The author's route, however, is comparatively new to the most of his countrymen; part of it— through the land of Edom-is, even at this day, entirely new. The author has compiled these pages from brief notes and recollections, and has probably fallen into errors in facts and impressions, which his occupations since his return have prevented his inquiring into and correcting. He has presented things as they struck his mind, without perplexing himself with any deep speculations upon the rise and fall of empires; nor has he gone much into detail in regard to ruins. His object has been, principally, as the title of the book imports, to give a narrative of the every-day incidents that occur to a traveller in the East, and to present to his countrymen, in the midst of the hurry, and bustle, and life, and energy, and daily-developing strength and resources of the New, a picture of the widely-different scenes that are now passing in the faded and worn-out kingdoms of the Old World. For the plates on Mount Sinai and Petra he is indebted to the work of Mr. Laborde.

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