The British Quarterly.

RECENT RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE.*

RESEARCHES in Palestine have begun to assume a new form. Scientific expeditions are taking the place of amateur travellers. The topography and physical geography of the country formerly occupied almost sole attention; now,

(1.) The Comparative Geography of Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula. By CARL RITTER. Translated by W. L. GAGE. 1866.

(2.) Physical Geography of the Holy Land. By

E. ROBINSON, D.D. London: 1865.

(3.) The City of the Great King. By J. T. BARCLAY, M.D. Philadelphia: 1858.

(4) Le Temple de Jerusalem, Monographie du Haram-ech-Cherif, suivie d'un Essai sur la Topographie de la Ville-Sainte. Par Le Comte MELCHIOR DE VOGUE. Paris: 1864.

(5.) Dritte Wanderung nach Palästina im Jahre

1857. Von T. TOBLER. Gotha: 1859.

(6.) Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem. Made with the sanction of the Right Hon. Earl de Grey and Ripon, Secretary of State for War, by Capt. C. W. WILSON, R.E, under the direction of Col. Sir Henry James, R E., F.R.S., etc. 1865.

(7). The Land of Israel. A Journal of Travels in Palestine, undertaken with special reference to its physical character. By H. B. TRISTRAM, M. A., F.L.S. London: 1865.

NEW SERIES-Vol. VI., No. 6.

Old Series Com. plete in 63 vols.

while these are undergoing a more systematic investigation, excavations are being made, and the long-buried monuments of past ages are being brought to the light of day. This is a decided step in the right direction, and if prosecuted vigorously and wisely, important results may be confidently expected. Notwithstanding all that has been done by private enterprise, much still remains undone. Every student knows how many vexed questions in Biblical topography sacred history still require illustration; are still unsolved; how many points of how many sites of old cities and villages, of old temples and tombs, still remain unexplored or unknown. Mere surface examination and archæological discussion cannot clear up such points as these. A week's work with spade and pickaxe

(8.) Voyage en Terre Sainte. Par F. DE SAULOY. Paris: 1865.

(9.) Palestine Exploration Fund,-A Society for the accurate and systematic investigation of the Archæology, Topography, Geology, and Physical Geography, Natural History. Manners and Customs of the Holy Land, for Biblical Illustration. Prospectus, 1865; Reports for 1865-6; Operations for 1867.

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would, in most parts of the Holy Land, do more to supply the information still required than years of learned research or volumes of keen controversy.

Some may think it strange that the geography of Palestine should still be incomplete, and that its archæological treasures should not have been exhausted years ago. The country is small-not quite the size of Wales; and its atmosphere is so transparent, that from almost every prominent peak in its central range of mountains the eye can trace its outmost borders. It has been visited by thousands of travellers. Hundreds of books have been written upon it. Its explorers have not been wanting in courage, perseverance, learning, or literary skill. Why, then, has it not been fully explored long ere this? The reasons will be obvious to any one who has made the country and its history subjects of study. The topics which require investigation are numerous and widely different in character. To prosecute any one of them successfully, a long course of special training is needed. Biblical geography and antiquities, natural history, geology, the manners and customs of primeval races, must all be familiar to those who would thoroughly explore Palestine. A knowledge of the modern language is also essential; and in addition to all, the explorer must have time at his disposal, for a hurried ramble can accomplish little. The painstaking Biblical geographer is often amused at the summary manner in which a passing voyager, nowadays, is accustomed to set aside the carefully-weighed decisions of the profoundest scholar and most laborious investigator, and to substitute some crude theory of his own. Men, and women too, of this class, seem to imagine that the moment they set foot in Palestine they become qualified then and there to dogmatize on difficult points of sacred criticism, topography, and even theology. We have generally found that the confidence with which they propound their views bears an inverse ratio to their knowledge of the subject. It cannot be too widely proclaimed, or too strenuously affirmed, that long, patient, systematic research must be expended on each department, and that hasty journeys and spasmodic treatises can contribute little to the scientific

exploration of Biblical geography. No one man can overtake all the work; nor can individual effort, however enthusiastic and accomplished the promoter, and however munificent the expenditure, ever expect fully to cultivate, much less to exhaust the field.

There is another reason why Palestine has not yet been fully explored. All parts of the country are not safe; and in no part of it is the solitary traveller free from annoyance and interruption, especially if he attempt to sketch, to measure, or to excavate. In many places, and those among the most interesting, a considerable body of armed guards is often needed to protect property and defend life. As a rule, the districts which are least known, and which therefore require the most careful examination, are the most difficult of access, and can only be explored by a determined and fully-equipped staff. We have ourselves had some sharp and painful experience of the truth of this in the remoter regions of the country.

Now that the attention of men of the highest position and influence in this and other lands has been turned to Palestine, we think it well to give a brief resumé of the results of recent explorations. To know exactly what has been done is a good preparation for future work. No time should be lost in going over old ground. All the energies of explorers ought to be directed to new objects of interest. Although our attention is to be mainly directed to the labors of the most recent travellers, yet it will render

ur sketch more complete if we glance at the literature of the subject in past times.

Eusebius and Jerome were the fathers of sacred geography. Their "Onomas ticon" is invaluable as giving lists of Scripture places, and indicating their position. It cannot always be trusted, however, for its authors sometimes paid too much regard to tradition, and in many instances apparently depended on hearsay.

The pilgrims who visited Palestine during the middle ages added largely to our literature, though not much to our knowledge, either of the topogra phy or physical features of the country. Their works are little more than itinera ries, with an occasional description of a

holy place, and an allusion to some Scripture incident, not always appropriate. They are chiefly important for the light they throw upon the rise and fluctuation of traditions. The little work of Brocardus may be mentioned as an exception. It gives a summary of what the resident monks knew of Palestine in the thirteenth century, describing with considerable fulness the natural products, the people, and the cities and districts of land. Of the many travellers and pilgrims who wrote upon Palestine between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, the only one deserving special mention is Quaresmius; and his ponderous volumes are only valuable for their history of ecclesiastical tradition, and of the Latin churches and convents.t

Toward the close of the sixteenth century a change begins to appear in the writings of eastern travellers. Hitherto they had looked at the Holy Land from an ecclesiastical point of view. Sacred shrines, monkish legends and traditions, were the chief objects of interest; and the resident clergy were the chief sources of information. At this period observation began to take a wider range. Physical geography and ancient ruins were noticed, and the antiquities of the country were described, independent of any traditional sanctity. Maundrell was one of the first of the new school. His little work is a model in its way of a quaint, simple, accurate journal. He was followed in the next century by Shaws and Pococke,|| Van Egmond and Heyman, who contributed more than all their predecessors to illustrate the antiquities of Palestine. Hasselquist ** and Russell ff direct attention chiefly to natural history, thus opening up a new and most important field of inquiry;

while Volney delineates with a master's hand the moral, political, and religious condition of the country and people.

The words of the greatest of modern geographers-Carl Ritter-when introducing his sketch of the writings of travellers of the present century, are worthy of record:

He

"The majority of the works hitherto cited have had value rather to general scholars than to geographers; and, in order to obtain even single grains of gold, it has often been necessary for me to pull to pieces great heaps nineteenth century there is a great change. of rubbish. But with the opening of the The amount of geographical material becomes then overwhelmingly abundant, and the facts which have been elicited (although repeated, it may be, again and again) are so embarrassingly numerous, that to examine them all requires an extent of time, and an amount of strength so great, as to cause one to almost succumb and retire from the task."† Seetzen was the first in the field. was sent to the East on a scientific mission; and in the dress and under the name of a Muslem he explored a region, hitherto unvisited, east of the Jordan and round the Dead Sea, copying inscriptions, examining antiquities, and collecting specimens of natural history. Though the disguise he assumed and the dangers he was exposed to were unfavorable to scientific research, and eventually led to his death by poison, he yet amassed a large amount of valuable information. Ali Bey, a contemporary of Seetzen, who also, though a Spaniard, travelled as a Mohammedan, furnishes some interesting descriptions of the Mosques of Hebron and Jerusalem, which were, until very lately, inaccessi

ble to Christians. Recent researches

have tended largely to confirm his narratives.§

But by far the most distinguished and successful of those travellers who, in the beginning of this century, visited Palestine, was John Lewis Burckhardt. Em

* "Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte." Paris, 1787. t "Comparative Geography of Palestine," vol. ii. p. 60.

The works of Seetzen were published in a complete form only nine years ago, under the title, "Reisen durch Syrien, Palästina," etc. Berlin,

1854-9.

"Travels in Morocco, Egypt, Arabia, Syria," etc. London: 1816.