George A. Smith

“ As soon as we reached Rome we began to find the localities referred to in Scripture. It was in the reign of Augustus Caesar, that Christ was born. At that time Judea was a tributary kingdom to Rome, its king being Herod. The decree which went forth from Augustus Caesar, that all the world should be taxed, of course included Jerusalem and the entire kingdom of Judea, which at that time was of considerable extent. Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to be taxed with the house of David, and there being no room in the inn, they took up their quarters in a stable, and there the Savior was born. ”

“ I thought he had got to have some kind of a process to hoist the waters of the Dead Sea above the level of the ocean, so that a stream could run out of it in order for it to be healed. Prophecy says that the waters that should run out of Jerusalem should run down to the east sea, and the waters of the east sea were to be healed, and there was to be a multitude of fishes, but now no living thing can exists in the Dead Sea. ”

“ The rocks have not been made by men. The Valley of Jehosophat is there. Learned men have dug deeply under Jerusalem in search of evidence to determine its original site, but an alarm was created that the monkery of the place might be spoiled by determining that certain localities were not where they are now represented, and the Turkish government was moved, so I was informed by some gentlemen, to stop the investigations and to close up the excavations, and we were not permitted to enter them. ”

“ We stayed about an hour to accommodate these friends, and they passed in with us, otherwise they would have had to go clear back to Jerusalem for a permit. These persons—four gentlemen and two ladies—finding that we were going down to the Dead Sea, went along with us, and made the journey safe and pleasant. We went down to the Dead Sea the day following our visit to the monastery. I have seen a good many rough roads in Utah in the mountains, but of all the rough horseback riding I ever did see, I think that Palestine has the premium. ”

“ They allow no women to enter, and no person can go into their building without a permit from the Greek Patriarch at Jerusalem. We had a permit to enter that convent, but sister Snow and sister Little, of course, had to go to the camp. It would probably have been considered an outrage for them to have come in sight of the gates. Having sent up our permit, we were admitted and passed through the building. There were sixty-five monks there, some of whom had been there thirty-seven years. A man has to be exceedingly holy to be permitted to go there. ”

“ In reading books, you learn the views, thoughts and reflections of the individuals who wrote them, modified more or less by a great desire in the human heart to make books readable, in order that they may sell. It is really true that a great share of the books in the world are written more to be read than to communicate facts. ”

“ The second day we had our noon halt on the brook, which they told us King David got, the stones out of, with one of which he killed the giant of Gath, and that the battle between the Philistines and King Saul took place along the two sides of this stream. It is called a valley, but it was simply a ravine. We saw a considerable number of sheep of various colors there, and some boys tending them, which, of course reminded us of the fact that King David was tending his father's sheep when Samuel went, to his father's house to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to be king. ”

“ Everything that grows in Egypt has to be irrigated from the river Nile. There is little, in fact no other, water, except that which comes from the Nile. I say there is no other water, but a little below the city of On, there is a very old tree—a sycamore I believe, under which the Copts believe that Joseph, Mary and Jesus camped while they remained in Egypt, during their flight from Herod. ”

“ The owner of the tree has put around it a very decent picket fence of pine lumber,—I do not know where he got it,—and any man who will give him a franc, he will lend him a knife and he may cut his name on the fence, but if he will not give him a franc, he must not do that, and he must not carry away any of the tree. ”

“ It occupies the site of the cities of the plain—Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zeboim, upon which, in consequence of their wickedness, we are told that God rained fire and brimstone and destroyed them. The probability is that they were buried by a volcanic eruption, and that they and most of the valley of the Jordan were sunk at the same time. The probability is that that the Jordan ran through these cities, and that this deep basin being formed, the Jordan forms the Dead Sea, which has no outlet, much like our Salt Lake. ”

“ He is a very venerable-looking man—tall, heavy set and a good supply of beard, like the Apostles in the picture. He seemed very much pleased with my visit, treated me with courtesy, showed me their synagogue and the building they were erecting, and returned the visit, accompanied by several of the Jewish elders, at my tent, where we had a very pleasant interview. But there is no infidel on the face of the earth who can disbelieve the mission of the Savior more than they do. He says the condition of the Jews is much improved of late years. ”

“ I did not think they were strong enough, and then its construction and shape were not comfortable and convenient, and in those particulars it was nothing to be compared with a Spanish, or even with a Syrian saddle. I am pretty heavy, and had not been on horseback for fifteen years.
Travelers in Palestine suffer greatly from the sun, but we were early in the season—two weeks earlier than travelers generally set out for Jerusalem. Mr. Cook was fitting out several parties; but they were two weeks after us, and we were comparatively alone, though some few travelers fell in with us incidentally. ”

“ The streets, if they can be called streets, are very narrow, and many of them are so crowded with camels, donkeys and pack-horses, that they, can only pass each other at certain places. The houses are rudely built, of a kind of concrete, or of rock and mortar. ”

“ Port Said receives its fresh water from the Nile. It has got pipes over fifty miles in length to bring that water from the canal at Ismaila to supply the town. Port Said is considerable of a place, and there is a good deal of enterprise there.
On the evening of February 22nd, we sailed from Port Said on the Vesta, one of the steamers belonging to the Austrian Lloyd's. The next morning we came in sight of Jaffa, the Joppa of the Scriptures. Jaffa is a kind of promontory or headland, projecting into the sea. The anchorage is simply an open roadstead, and landing is sometimes very difficult. ”

“ They seem to have an eye to business. They had canes for sale, made from willows which they get the Arabs to bring from the Jordan. None of them are allowed to go out, and they are compelled to have everything brought to them. They had a number of fancy articles of their own manufacture for sale. I bought a small string of shells, which they said were brought from the Dead Sea. They gather a few francs from every party of travelers in this way. There was another party of Americans near by who wanted to visit the monastery, but they had no permit ”

“ I looked at them, and wondered what could induce men to adopt such a life. They showed us one room filled with skulls. They said there were fifteen hundred of them, and they were the skulls of their brethren who had been killed by the Saracens at different times. ”

“ To reach the crater you have to mount about 1,500 feet perpendicular in height above where we could ride on horseback, in loose volcanic sand, and every time a man's foot was placed in it, it would slip back about twice the length of his foot. ”

“ At Pisa there is a burying yard, probably an acre and a quarter in extent, nine feet of earth having been brought from Palestine as a covering for this burial place. It takes a permit from the Pope to be buried in that sacred soil. In the cathedral of San Lorenzo, in Genoa, they showed us the chain with which John the Baptist was bound, and the casket which they said contained his head, and a variety of other relics. In the church of St. Mark, in Venice, they showed us the coffin of St. ”

“ He concealed himself from his enemies a considerable time in caves, but his power increased with the number of his friends, for he gathered around him a good many thousand monks, and they built this immense convent, which was strongly fortified for those times. ”