E. D. Clarke to the Rev. William Otter-Jerusalem. to some subterranean works which I found on the Isle of Bequieres, in the bay of Aboukir, on the coast of Egypt. It is also of a very remarkable form; being a cone, or funnel, whose vertex, rising to the surface of the summit of the mountain, affords a small opening to admit light, as well as the only entrance; below this hole, the sides of the cone extend to such a width and depth that I could not determine the immense size of the cavern they contained. I cannot conclude this letter, already swelled to a volume (which convinces me of the impossibility of writing half I wish to add), without mentioning our travels in Galilee, by much the most pleasing part of our journey. I know of no travellers who have visited this portion of the Holy Land, as it lies out of the usual pilgrimage of persons bound merely to Jerusalem. Our plan was to pursue the history of Jesus Christ from His nativity to His death; following His footsteps, with the Gospel in our hands, and reading, at every spot mentioned in it, the passage which had rendered it sacred. For this purpose we went first to Nazareth; from thence into Galilee, visiting Cana, the Lake of Gennesaret, and even the borders of the Desert, to which He retired in His earliest years. Galilee affords the highest satisfaction, because its objects are among the features of nature, and are not liable to receive injury from the barbarous zeal of monks. The scenery there is very grand. The Lake of Gennesaret, or Sea of Tiberias, is more beautiful than the Lake of Locarno, which it resembles; at the same time, it has that grandeur which is ever found where water of such extent is surrounded by high mountains, and hardly yields the palm to the Lake of Geneva. I had the happiness of swimming in its crystal waters; buoyed above its waves by all those emotions which local enthusiasm, E. D. Clarke to the Rev. William Otter-Jerusalem. when called forth by piety as well as memory in scenery so dignified, cannot fail to excite. Returning from Galilee, we took a road by Mount Tabor, passing through the country in which His disciples are said to have plucked the ears of corn on the Sabbath day, and came again to Cana and to Nazareth. At Cana we saw, still in use, those "stone water-pots" which are described, John, chap. ii., 5, 6, as containing two or three firkins apiece." We then crossed the beautiful plain of Erzelon, or Esdraelon, more fertile than the richest gardens; in the midst of which Mount Tabor rises insulated to a great height, of a conic form, and offers a retreat to the wildest bands of Arab robbers. The cavalry of the Pacha of Acre were encamped on this plain, and they received us into their tents, feeding us after the Eastern custom, all out of one dish, seated on the ground, and teaching us to eat pilau and sour milk with our fingers. They afterwards escorted us to a fortress in the mountains, under the government of the Pacha of Damascus, our train consisting of thirty-three armed men on horseback ; while our Arabs kept skirmishing, practising all those feats of horsemanship for which they are so celebrated, firing their pieces, and engaging in sham fights around us, that the distant enemy might not count our numbers, nor be able to survey our strength. Some of the princes of the robbers, Arab chiefs, such as were of old times shepherd kings, came down from the mountains to enter into a league with the general of the cavalry in the plain, and dined by our side, beneath the same tent, but would not eat out of the same dish. The Arabs then encamped had already taken from some of the neighboring tribes 20,000 oxen, 12,000 camels, 10,000 sheep, 8,000 asses, besides horses, E. D. Clarke to the Rev. William Otter-Jerusalem. prisoners, arms, etc. One hundred of the oxen have been given to the captain of our frigate, Captain Culverhouse, of the Romulus, to take back to the fleet at Aboukir. The whole country is a succession of hills and plains. The former are cultivated to their tops, with uncommon industry, and covered with olive and fig trees. The plains produce the richest harvest, except in the perturbed dominions of the Pacha of Acre. Nazareth alone seems to preserve its old character of wretchedness and sterility, the hills around being a bleak, incorrigible rock, and its inhabitants in the greatest poverty; so that one would still exclaim, "Can any thing good come out of Nazareth?" Of the Holy Land in general, the valley watered by the Jordan and the rich plains of Canaan, it is still but truth to style it "a land flowing with milk and honey." The eye ranges over an extent of corn, wine, oil, rice, tobacco, figs, melons, and whatever the earth can yield to fill the granaries of men or gratify their palates. Among these are seen swarms of partridges, wild deer, wild boars, which hardly move at your approach; while the stately camel, moving with dignified step in the long caravans, bearing wealth and power, lifts his tall head above the harvest, and seems with his eye to command immeasurable distance. Such is the Holy Land, or, rather, such the only account I can now give you. Since I wrote last to you I have visited Cyprus, being conveyed there in the Ceres frigate, Captain Russell. I have no time now to enter upon the subject of that island. I had hardly been two days back to the fleet, when the captain of the Romulus offered us a passage to Acre. These are favorable moments for travellers in the Levant, when frigates are daily sailing in all directions, and the English name is so much respected. I can tell you nothing of affairs in Egypt Bishop Heber to Hon. C. W. W. Wynn-First Impressions of India. till I get back, but believe things are much as they were when I sent you my last letter. Cripps unites in remembrance. God bless you. I must beg of you to let my mother see this letter, and also G. Stracey, if you have an opportunity, as you will see the impossibility of writing to all friends in the midst of such fatigue and occupation. XVII.-FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA. Bishop Heber to Hon. C. W. W. Wynn. BARRACKPOOR, Oct. 29th, 1823. MY DEAR WYNN: The first quiet morning which I have had since my arrival in India I cannot employ more agreeably than in writing to those dear and kind friends, the recollection of whom I feel binding me still more strongly to England the farther I am removed from it. The first sight of India has little which can please even those who have been three months at sea. The coast is so flat as only to be distinguished when very near it by the tall cocoa trees which surround the villages; and Juggernaut, which is a conspicuous sea mark, shows merely three dingy conical domes, like glass houses. The view of Saugor is still worse, being *made up of marshes and thick brushwood on the same level line of shore, and conveying at once the idea, which it well deserves, of tigers, serpents, and fevers. During the night of our anchoring under its lee, however, few of us went to bed without reluctance; since, besides the interest which men feel in looking at land at all after so long an absence, I never saw such magnificent sheet lightning in my life as played over it all night. When coupled with the unhealthy and dangerous character of the place, Bishop Heber to Hon. C. W. W. Wynn-First Impressions of India. and the superstitions connected with it as the favorite abode of Rali, it was impossible to watch the broad, red, ominous light which flickered without more intermission than just served to heighten its contrast with darkness, and not to think of Southey's Padalon; and it luckily happened that "Kehama" was on board, and that many of the party, at my recommendation, had become familiar with it during the voyage. By the way, what a vast deal of foolish prejudice exists about Southey and his writings. Of the party on board, some had been taught to think him a Jacobin, some an ultra-Tory, some a Methodist, some an enemy to all religion, and some a madman. None had read a line of his works, but all were inclined to criticize him; and yet all, when they really tried the formidable volume, were delighted both with the man and the poetry. Nor is he the only poet for whom I succeeded in obtaining some justice. I repeated, at different times, some parts of the "Ancient Mariner," without telling whose it was, and had the pleasure to find that its descriptions of nature in tropical countries were recognized by the officers and more experienced passengers as extremely vivid, and scarcely exaggerated. The chief-mate, a very hard-headed Scotchman, a grandson of Lord Monboddo's, was peculiarly struck and downright affected with the shrinking of the planks of the devoted ship when becalmed under the line, the stagnation and rolling of the deep, and the diminished size and terrible splendor of the noon-day sun right over the mast-head," in a hot and copper sky." He foretold that we should see something like this when the Grenville came to anchor in the Hooghly; and verily he fabled not. The day after our arrival off Saugor the sun was, indeed, a thing of terror, and almost intolerable; and the torrent, carrying down trees, sugar-canes, and corpses past us |