PREFACE.

ON announcing to the public a new volume of travels through a country apparently so well known as Palestine, some explanation is due to those who may honour the work with their patronage.

The authors who have written in illustration of this small portion of the globe, from Benjamin of Tudela and Sir John Mandeville, down to Dr. Clarke and Mr. Chateaubriand, may be thought to have so completely exhausted the subject, as to leave nothing new to be added by another.

The itineraries of catholic devotees have furnished the most ample details regarding the sanctuaries and holy places; and the names of Phocas, Quaresmius, and Adrichomius, are associated with these early labours. The extended journeys of protestant scholars have enlarged our acquaintance with objects of more general enquiry, and the names of Maundrell, Shaw, and Pococke, stand pre-eminent among these. The profound researches of both English and French critics, have laid open all the stores of learning in illustration of the ancient geography of Judea; and the works of Reland and D'Anville, are monuments of erudition and sagacity that would do honour to any country, while the labours of very recent travellers would seem to close the circle of our enquiries, by the pictures which they have given of the general state of manners and the present aspect of the country, retaining still the freshness of their original colouring.

Yet among all those who have made the Holy Land the scene of their researches, there has not been one who did not conceive