PREFACE.

THE Occasion, the motives, and the manner of the journey, of which these volumes contain the history, are sufficiently detailed at the beginning and close of the Introductory Section. It remains here only to speak of the form, in which the materials have been wrought up.

It was my original plan, to present to the public only the results of our researches in Palestine, without any reference to personal incidents. But the advice of friends, whose judgment I could not but place above my own, was averse to such a course. I have therefore everywhere interwoven the personal narrative; and have endeavoured so to do it, as to exhibit the manner in which the Promised Land unfolded itself to our eyes, and the processes by which we were led to the conclusions and opinions advanced in this work. In all this there is at least one advantage for the public. As we venture to hope, that these volumes contain a considerable amount of new information upon the historical topography of Palestine, this course will enable the reader better to judge of the opportunities for observation enjoyed by the travellers, as well as of the credibility of their testimony and the general accuracy of their conclusions. In all these particulars, we have no desire to shun the closest scrutiny.

A similar doubt existed for a time, in respect to the form of narrative to be adopted;-whether a full and regularly arranged account of each object in succession, as in the works of Pococke and Niebuhr; or a daily Journal, like those of Maundrell and Burckhardt. I chose the latter, for a reason similar to that already assigned, viz. that in this way the reader is better able to follow the process of inquiry and conviction in the traveller's own mind. It is however an evil necessarily incident to this form, that remarks upon one and the same object sometimes occur in different places, instead of being brought together as parts of a whole. Thus, in regard to the Horeb of the present day, the probable place of the giving of the law, the order of time has led me first to speak of it as it appeared on our approach; again, as we measured the plain and took bearings of the mountains around; and then, once more, in connection with our visit to its summit. In like manner, at Beit Jibrîn, the ancient Eleutheropolis, which we examined at two different times, various objects of interest are naturally described under each visit. Yet it seems to me, that this is not an evil of sufficient magnitude, to counterbalance the general advantages of the journal form.

Another more important change of the original plan, arose during the progress of the work, which has had the effect, not only to enlarge the size, but also to increase the labour of preparation more than fourfold. I mean the introduction of historical illustrations, and the discussion of various points relating to the historical topography of the Holy Land. My

first purpose was merely to describe what we saw, leaving the reader to make his own application of the facts. But as I proceeded, questions continually arose, which I could not pass over without at least satisfying my own mind; this sometimes led to long courses of investigation; and when I had thus arrived at satisfactory conclusions, it seemed almost like a neglect of duty towards the reader, not to embody them in the work. Most of these were topics relating to the geography of the Bible, and intimately connected with its interpretation; and I remembered too, that they had never been discussed by any one, who had himself visited the Holy Land.

One branch of these historical investigations, which I cannot but consider as important for the future geographer and traveller, presents a field comparatively untrodden. I refer to the mass of topographical tradition, long since fastened upon the Holy Land by foreign ecclesiastics and monks, in distinction from the ordinary tradition or preservation of ancient names among the native population. The general view which I have taken of this subject, and the principles on which we acted in our inquiries, are sufficiently exhibited in the beginning of Sec. VII. This view has been silently carried out in the subsequent parts of the work; and the attempt made to point out, in most cases, not only what is truth and what is mere legendary tradition, but also to show how far the latter reaches back.

In the history of this foreign tradition, three ages or periods are distinctly marked by documents, which show us, with tolerable completeness, its state and

character at the time. I regret that I have not made these different periods more regularly prominent in the body of the work. The first falls in the fourth century, about A. D. 333, when foreign influence had just acquired a firm and permanent footing, and had not as yet very greatly swerved from the tide of native tradition. Of this period we have a record in the Onomasticon of Eusebius, and the Jerusalem Itinerary. The second is the age of the crusades, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; the traditions of which are best registered in the tract of Brocardus, about A. D. 1283. The third period occurs at the beginning of the seventeenth century; when the volumes of Quaresmius exhibit, in full, the state of the tradition then current in the convents, the great source from which most European travellers have drawn their information.-In comparing these three periods, it is interesting, though painful, to perceive, how the light of truth has gradually become dim, and at length often been quenched in darkness. The Onomasticon, with all its defects and wrong hypotheses, has yet preserved to us much of the tradition of the common people; and contains many names of places never since discovered, though still existing; while the few pages of Brocardus are worth more, in a topographical respect, than the unwieldy folios of Quaresmius. It is certain, that in the long interval between Eusebius and the crusades, very much was forgotten by the church which still existed among the people; and in the subsequent period, the progress of oblivion was perhaps not less rapid. Even within the last two centuries, so far as the convents