he learns to be grave, discreet, and prudent-adversity is premature old age.

I find in Eusebius a remarkable proof of this veneration for a sacred relic. He relates that, in his time, the Christians of Judea still preserved the chair of St. James, the brother of our Saviour, and the first bishop of Jerusalem. Gibbon himself could not forbear admitting the authenticity of the religious traditions current in Palestine. "They," (the Christians) says he, "fixed by unquestionable tradition the scene of each memorable event;"-an acknowledgment of considerable weight from a writer so well-informed, and at the same time so prejudiced against religion.

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The

Finally, the traditions concerning places are not so apt to be distorted as those relative to facts, because the face of the earth is not so liable to change as that of society. This is judiciously remarked by d'Anville, in his excellent Dissertation on ancient Jerusalem.* local circumstances," says he, and such as are determined by Nature herself, have no share in the changes which time and the fury of man have made in Jerusalem." Accordingly, d'Anville, with wonderful sagacity, discovers in the modern city the whole plan of ancient Jerusalem.

The scene of the Passion, if we extend it from the Mount of Olives to Calvary, occupies no more than a league of ground; and in this little space how many objects may be traced with the greatest ease! In the first place, there was a hill denominated the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the city and the Temple on the east; this hill is yet there, and has not changed. There was the brook Cedron, and this stream is the only one that passes near Jerusalem. There was an

eminence at the gate of the ancient city where criminals were put to death: this eminence is easily discoverable between Mount Sion and the gate of Judg

*For this Dissertation, see Appendix No. I.

INTRODUCTION.

ment, of which some vestiges still exist.

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It is impos

sible to mistake Sion, because it is still the highest hill in the city. 'We are assured," says the great geographer already quoted, "of the limits of the city in that part which Sion occupied. It is this part that advances farthest towards the south; and you are not only fixed in such a manner that you cannot comprehend a greater space on that side, but the utmost breadth to which the site of Jerusalem can possibly extend in this place is determined on the one hand by the declivity of Sion, which faces the west, and on the other, by its opposite extremity towards Cedron."

This reasoning is excellent, and any one would suppose that it was suggested to d'Anville by an ocular examination of the place.

Golgotha then was a small eminence of Mount Sion, to the east of that mount, and to the west of the gate of the city this eminence, on which now stands the church of the Resurrection, is still perfectly distinguishable. We know that Christ was buried in the garden at the foot of Calvary: now this garden and the house belonging to it could not disappear at the foot of Golgotha, a hill, whose base is not so large that a building situated there could possibly be lost.

The Mount of Olives and the brook Cedron fix, in the next place, the valley of Jehosaphat; and the latter determines the position of the Temple on Mount Moria. The Temple furnishes the site of the Triumphal Gate, and Herod's palace, which Josephus places to the east, in the lower part of the city, and near the Temple. The Prætorium of Pilate was nearly contiguous to Antonia's tower, the foundations of which are known. The tribunal of Pilate and Calvary being thus ascertained, the last scene of the Passion may safely be placed upon the road leading from the one to the other; especially as a fragment of the gate of Judgment is yet left to guide us. This road is the Via dolorosa, so celebrated in the accounts of all the pilgrims.

The scenes of the acts of Christ without the city are

VOL. I.

D

not marked with less certainty by the places themselves. The garden of Olivet, beyond the valley of Jehosaphat and the brook Cedron, is manifestly at this day in the position assigned to it by the gospel.

I could add a multitude of facts, conjectures, and reflections, to those which I have adduced; but it is time to conclude this Introduction, already of too great length. Whoever will examine with candour the reasons advanced in this Memoir must admit, that if any thing on earth has been demonstrated, it is the authenticity of the Christian traditions concerning Jerusalem.

TRAVELS, TO JERUSALEM.

PART THE FIRST.

GREECE.

CHAPTER I.

Motives for Travelling-Milan-Venice-Trieste-Embarkation for the Morea-Aspect of the Mediterranean Sea—A Storm Fano, or Calypso's Island-Sunset-Effect of Climate on Taste-Corfu - Cefalonia-St. Maura-Zante-Modon-The Aga-Banditti -The Author Lands-History of Modon - Departure-Order of March-Journey to Coron.

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 Nature; among the monuments of man, I was yet acquainted with only two species of antiquities, the Celtic and the Roman: I had still to visit the ruins of Athens, of Memphis, and of

52

MOTIVES FOR TRAVELLING.

Carthage. I was therefore solicitous to perform a pilgrimage to Jerusalem :

Qui devoto

Il grand sepolcrò adora, e scioglie il voto.

At the present day it may appear somewhat strange to talk of vows and pilgrimages; but in regard to this subject I have no sense of shame, and have long ranged myself in the class of the weak and superstitious. Probably I shall be the last Frenchman that will ever quit his country to travel to the Holy Land, with the idea, the object, and the sentiments, of an ancient pilgrim. But if I have not the virtues which shone of yore in the Sires de Coucy, de Nesle, de Castillon, de Montfort, faith at least is left me; and by this mark I might yet be recognized by the ancient crusaders.

"And when I was about to depart and commence my journey," says the Sire de Joinville, "I sent for the Abbé de Cheminon, to reconcile myself with him. And I girded myself with my scarf, and took my staff in my hand, and presently I set out from Joinville, without ever entering the castle afterwards, till my return from the voyage beyond sea. And so as I went from Bleicourt to Saint Urban, when I was obliged to pass near the castle of Joinville, I durst not turn my face that way, lest I should feel too great regret, and my heart should be too strongly affected."

On quitting my country again, the 13th July, 1806, I was not afraid to turn my head, like the Seneschal of Champagne; almost a stranger in my native land, I left behind me neither castle nor cottage.

From Paris to Milan the route was not new to me at Milan I took the road to Venice: all around, the country appeared nearly like the Milanese, one