course to Cos, and the day following to Rhodes, and from thence to Patara," where he found a ship bound for Phoenicia, and took his passage on board. The sun was setting as we passed beautiful Cos, shining upon the large castle erected by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and on awaking the next morning, we found ourselves, for the second time, moored in the harbour of Rhodes, under circumstances happily far different from those in which I had first reached that place.

I should in vain seek to convey to the reader the charm of this coasting voyage. It gave a singular degree of interest to St. Luke's narrative. The same cities, straits and headlands, rose before our eyes, that had saluted those of the great Apostle of the Gentiles and his accurate historian, near two thousand years ago. The journal of his course was almost like our own log. Add to this, the exquisite beauty of the scenery itself, the memorable sites that we passed, the fineness of the weather, the luxury of the atmosphere; and, I may add, too, the comforts of an excellent steamer, furnished with a well-selected oriental library, all tended to render this cruise one of those vivid passages of travel, which one sighs to think are never likely to be realized for the second time.

From Rhodes, our course lay directly across the open sea to Cyprus, and the first land we made was its eastern extremity, near the town of Baffo, the ancient Paphos. This city was famous, or rather infamous, for its temple to the goddess of pleasure; and here St. Paul, who, embarking at Seleucia, and entering the island at Salamis, had traversed it in his missionary work, until he reached this spot, rebuked Elymas the sorcerer. No spot could look less propitious to luxury and love, than this hot bare-looking coast, along which we advanced towards Larneca, the principal port on the south of the island, where we cast anchor about noon, amidst a considerable quantity of small craft, and a few vessels of larger burthen.

As we were to remain here a few hours, I resolved to go on

shore, and pay my respects to the British consul; who, in this unfrequented place, is not very often troubled with the visits of his countrymen. On landing, I was at once struck with the utter misery of all around. A few scattered white houses ranged along the tree-less shore, backed by lands that ought to have been cultivated, but were evidently left almost in a state of nature. I found the consul arrayed in scarlet and gold, in the act of receiving the congratulations of his brother functionaries, all of them in official costume, it being the birthday of Queen Victoria; and the attempted pomp and parade of this ceremonial painfully contrasted with the utter wretchedness of everything beside. As soon as these gentlemen had taken their departure, it was proposed that we should ride a short distance into the interior. The scene around was miserable and dreary, and I fancied that the spirits of the consul appeared depressed. He was evidently a man of education and refinement, and utterly thrown away in such a place. He had repaired to his post with highly raised expectations; there was something of romance in the very name of Cyprus, but he confessed that he had been bitterly disappointed. Still he was not without hopes of finding in the interior of the island, subjects of interesting research, with which to fill up the time that hung so heavily on his hands at Larneca. Moreover, he was shortly to be married, and the pleasures and cares of a household would contribute to fill up the vacuum. After remaining with him until the steamer was ready to start, I took leave, with many thanks for the courteous manner in which he had welcomed me, sincerely hoping that he might find reason to become more reconciled to his post, and also escape the unhealthy climate to which so many have fallen. victims. It was some months afterwards, that in taking up a stray "Galignani," in a continental café, I learned the fact of his marriage, almost the very next journal conveyed the melancholy intelligence of his death!

On reaching Beyrout, no time was lost in repairing to an

L

English merchant for whom I had a letter of introduction, and whose active kindness procured me a travelling servant, named Achmet, a native of the place, who was directed to lay in a stock of provisions for a two or three days' cruise, and to take our places in a boat sailing that evening for Jaffa. My lady pilgrim, of whom I had lost sight during the confusion of landing, was now sought out; nor was it long before she made her appearance at the merchant's. At first, my friend was rather shy of this part of the business, but the mature age, grave appearance, and simple manners of my new acquaintance, soon set at rest any ungenerous suspicions.

No sooner had this got wind, than we were besieged by one or two other women, who also wanted to go up under escort to Jerusalem; but this additional responsibility it was judged prudent to decline. I might otherwise have made my entry in the same style as the Protestant Bishop, accompanied by such a bevy of ladies, that when the Turks beheld it, and supposed them to be his harem, they declared he was a right good fellow who knew how to live, and not like those miserable monks, who never suffer a woman to come near them.

The evening came, and we repaired on board. The boat proved to be an undecked Arab craft, of the very rudest description, with two masts, and huge latine or triangular sails. A small cabin, about six feet square, into which it was necessary to creep on all-fours, was contrived at the stern, but it was so foul that to take refuge there except in case of a storm was impossible. The rest of the boat had a flooring of sand and shingle, and its rough ribs served for couches, and sofas, and berths, at once. The places of honour, including the aforesaid cabin, had been reserved for ourselves; the rest of the vessel was crowded with a motley collection of passengers.

Having myself roughed it before in this way, I was prepared for what I met with; but nothing surprised me more than the passive indifference of my companion. Though certainly not

A FRENCH DOCTOR.

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cabined," we were cribbed and confined" with a vengeance. Wilkie, when putting up for the night in the one room of a Spanish posada, with a party of ladies and gentlemen, talks of curtains and other contrivances for decorum. I thought of the fastidious delicacy of Hood's "School-mistress" under such alarming circumstances. But there was no remedy. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." All distinctions were literally brought to one level; and when night came on, and we were forced to lie down in the sand, which formed the sheeting of the general bed, with the canopy of heaven for a curtain, we made so tight a fit of it, that, as Stephens somewhere says, "if the bottom of the boat had fallen out, we could hardly have tumbled through."

Among our fellow-companions was a young French doctor, in the employ of the sultan, one of that wandering crew of adventurers, who, unable to find an opening at home, are compelled to seek employment in eastern lands, and contrive to accommodate themselves, far more than our own countrymen can ever do, to the manners and the humours of other nations. Our medico wore an uniform, which had become most wofully shabby, and his linen was none of the cleanest, but this did not affect the liveliness of his conversation, or the unceasing flow of his animal spirits. His stock of baggage and provisions was the slenderest possible, and, somehow or other, he always made one when the smoking platter of pilau was served up for our noonday meal. His entire equipage seemed rolled up in a mysterious blue cloak, an imposing garment, which was only assumed on occasions of ceremony, and which, like charity, concealed a multitude of defects. Apropos of this famous cloak; we afterwards heard, that having missed it at Jerusalem, he taxed his servant with having stolen and sold it. This, the poor fellow strenuously denied. The Frenchman, in a fury, drew his sabre, and threatened him with instant death, unless he confessed the theft, which the terrified creature, falling on his knees, was

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compelled to do, and was put to his wit's end how to invent a parcel of lies, in order to criminate himself. A day or two afterwards the cloak arrived, having been rolled up accidentally by the servant of an English traveller, a fellow-sojourner in the same convent, who had left the city, and who returned it to the owner as soon as discovered.

About dawn we were abreast of the ruins of Cæsarea, and hoisting out the boat, rowed ashore to visit the remains of what was once the principal seaport of Palestine.

The origin of this city is thus described by Josephus: "There was a certain place by the sea-side, formerly called Strato's Tower, which Herod looked upon as conveniently situated for the erection of a city. He drew his model, set people to work upon it, and finished it. The buildings were all of marble, private houses as well as palaces; but his master-piece was the port, which he made as large as the Piræus (at Athens), and a safe station against all winds and weathers, to say nothing of other conveniences. This work was the more wonderful, because all the materials for it were brought thither at a prodigious