The Jews

Still we are all here safe encamped in quarantine beneath the rocky brow of Mount Carmel close by the sea.

We left Alexandria on the 16th of May, and arrived in Jerusalem in twenty-three days. The first part of our journey, as far as Damietta, we rode upon asses reminding us of the sons of Jacob when they carried corn out of Egypt.-Our track lay by the sea shore, so that we enjoyed a cool breeze tempering the hot air of the desert. We crossed the only two remaining branches of the Nile, and drank of the water.

From Damietta we sailed across Lake Menzalah as far as San-the ancient Zoan. You may believe that the ruins of this once ancient city afforded us matter for deep reflection. For about three miles there are immense mounds of brick and pottery entirely covered with close alluvial matter. At one place we found immense blocks of granite, the remains no doubt of some ancient Temple, two sphynxes were laying close by one, in a very perfect state of preservation, and a great many obelisks beautifully carved.

There are also many petrified stones as if the place had been destroyed by fire, Isa. xix. 12, Ezek. xxx. 14. Psa. lxxviii. 12. when God did his marvelous works upon Pharaoh and his people.

The country round is quite flat, a rich soil; but without water, without cultivation,-desolate. From Zoan to Jerusalem we rode upon camels. Before coming to the land of the Philistines we found it all a waste howling wilderness, "a land of drought, and of the shadow of death."