makes an extraordinary assertion, which may not be unacceptable to those who favour the abolition of them in the colonies.

"It is worthy remark, that with respect to the slaves or Christian captives at Cairo, and in every country subject to the Saracens, we must not listen to the false tales of raving women (mulierum delirantium) who have reported that they are harnessed like oxen to the plough, and flogged, and that they are employed like beasts (bestialiter) in tilling the ground: whilst, in fact, though they are deprived of their liberty, they are well enough off (stant competenter bene), especially masons, carpenters, and other artificers, and whom the Soldan encourages by affording bread and money, according to their earnings; with sufficient humanity, he gives both bread and money to other slaves, with their wives and children; so that, in my opinion, many of them, as far as regards the necessaries of life, are in a better condition than they were in their own country. Still, they grieve much (ad doloris cumulum) that they cannot return to their own country, nor keep the Lord's day, because the Saracens keep the sixth day, which they are likewise bound to observe." P. 56.

We must compress some curious information respecting the dress then worn by the ladies of Cairo, observing only, that it is very minutely given, and corresponds precisely with that of Sandys, who saw them three centuries afterwards. The hennah, or rose-colour dye for the tips of the fingers, was used from the earliest period1; and golden clasps, for the upper part of the arm, and above the ancles, with rich pantaloons of silk.

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We will now resume the itinerary from Cairo to Jerusalem. Our now solitary pilgrim began his journey on the first of December, 1322, with two camels and a Saracen camel-driver, with whom he concluded a bargain for seventy-five drachms, and proceeded through the sandy desert, where the Israelites sojourned during forty years, and which is of great extent. There they were soon overtaken by the Soldan, his court and soldiers, so great and terrible a multitude, that they were spread over the plain, with their horses, mules, asses, and camels, for the space of five miles; as a proof of the truth of which, as we heard from many, not less than thirty thousand people accompany him in hunting, and many live animals are taken likewise, to serve them for food." The two hired camels were laden with tents, bread, water, and victuals. His companions were, Simon, another friar, and John, a boy. They encountered the Bedouin or wandering Arabs, but received no injury from them. The route appears to have been exactly that

Of an extraordinary appli

1 "Ungues manuum et pedum habent tinctos." p. 32. cation of the powder of the Hennah, by women in the baths, see Belon, p. 302. "Et femoralibus sericis pretiosissimis, auro contextis, utuntur communiter." p. 31. Compare this costume with that of the ladies of Cairo, mentioned by Dr. Clarke, Travels, vol. iii. p. 101, 8vo. 1817.

which forms the only communication between Cairo and the Holy City, and has not been much varied by subsequent travellers, down to the present day; and Browne had good reason to observe, that " many travellers will be found imperfect, both in the Arabian names and the topography."

The first station of consequence which they reached was Belbeis, as Sandys says, situate in the land of Goshen. The tract between the desert and the sea Fitz-Simeon describes as being of the greatest fertility 1, and the town very large, and abounding in all necessaries. Catara and Salahieh, the next stages, are of a similar description. They entered Palestine at Gazara, the Gaza of the Philistines, remarkable for the exploits of Samson, which was a maritime city of great consequence from that period to the era of the crusades. It lies about four miles from the sea, with environs of scarcely credible fertility in fruits and flowers. Fitz-Simeon allows, with gratitude, that, by the good government of the Soldan, khans, large buildings for the reception of the caravans, are placed at the end of every day's journey through the Desert, which protect travellers from being plundered by the Bedouin Arabs, who lie in wait for pilgrims as a lion in his den for prey." The ancient Hebron did not immediately occur on the journey; but he turned a few miles out of the road, in order to visit a double sepulchre, which he asserts to contain the remains of Adam, and the three Patriarchs, with their wives. The valleys at the roots of the mountains, in Upper Palestine, excite a devout admiration; although it is very generally agreed that the immediate vicinage of Jerusalem is rocky and barren. They halted at a convent of schismatic Greek monks, under the altar in whose church the cross was hewn for the crucifixion. With great exultation FitzSimeon then hails his arrival at the Holy City. "Venimus civitatem sanctam Jerusalem 2 !"

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Mount Sion, the site of the ancient city, first attracted his notice, overlooking the modern town, and surrounded by the valley of Josaphath, and deep fosses, excavated from the rocks. There stood the Tower of David (turris famosissima et impe

1 Venimus villam magnam, nomine Belbeys, quæ distat de La Kair per unam dietam regalem, et est sita ad radicem deserti, inter quam et mare est quædam contrata pul cherrima quæ in copia bladi summa gaudet et floribus decoratur." p. 64.

2 Fitz-Simeon has neglected to mark the day of his arrival at Jerusalem. Belon calculates the route to Jerusalem at ten days' journey, proceeding with the usual expedition. The Earl of Belmore, accompanied by his lady, son, and other friends, accomplished the same journey in twenty-one days, from the 25th of March to the 14th of April, 1818. Richardson's Travels along the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 238, 8vo. 1822. The usual progress made across the Desert by a caravan of camels, rarely exceeds three miles in an hour, so that a day's journey may be estimated, under all circumstances, at thirty-six miles.

rialissima David) rebuilt by the Saracens, as it now stands, about an arrow's cast from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Fitz-Simeon's account of that and other sacred remains would suffer from abridgment; we will, therefore, offer a translation '. "This is a large and beautiful church, the nave of which is spherical like a pigeon-house, excepting that it is constructed upon columns in the inside, and has an ambulatory which surrounds it. In the centre, there is a small chapel of marble, which contains the glorious sepulchre of our Lord, of nine palms only in length, and is covered with a single slab of white marble. It can neither be touched

The large church of the Holy Sepulchre had undergone the memorable alteration from the invention of the Cross by the Empress Helena, when she caused it to be built over the supposed identical spot, to the year 1808, when the cupola above the sepulchre was destroyed by fire, but the sepulchre itself remained uninjured. It has since been re-erected by the Greek patriarchs at a great expense, but with plain stone, in a style very inferior to the original structure, which was decorated with columns of porphyry, and floors of marble and mosaic. The new chapel encloses the tomb of Christ, and near it all that remains of Mount Calvary, with the holes into which the three crosses were fixed. It stands at the western extremity of the church; and the cupola is 150 feet high, and 58 in diameter. Mr. Turner, in his Tour in the Levant, has given a minute admeasurement of all the holy places and memorable spots to which the observation of the devotee or incredulous visitant is directed by the Franciscan monk who exhibits them.

Sandys is more particular than Fitz-Simeon, but it is not within in the compass of a note even to allude to a bare enumeration of so many as are supplied by divers travellers.

Of late years a very strict topographical investigation has been made by men of great intelligence and curiosity among our own countrymen, who can by no means allow either the locality or genuineness of the present sepulchre to have been the real site of our Saviour's sufferings and his temporary burial. Dr. Clarke decidedly says that "what is called the Holy Sepulchre is mere delusion, a monkish juggle; that there was in fact, neither crypt nor soros, resembling a Jewish place of burial, beneath the dome of that building; that we must look elsewhere for our Saviour's tomb." Vol. iv. p. 336. Two other gentlemen who, soon after him, compared the traditional with the actual appearance, confirm his sentiments, upon the clearest evidence, and by the most cogent arguments."-Turner's Tour in the Levant, 3 vols. 8vo. 1820. Richardson's Travels along the Mediterranean, 2 vols. 1822.

The guardianship of the Holy Sepulchre is equally divided between the Greek and Roman churches. The Armenian, Coptic, and other Oriental Christians, do not aspire to it, but have small oratories within the sacred enclosure. This precedence is annually disputed at Easter, when it is determined by the first lighting of a torch by the holy fire, which is exhibited by the Patriarch of Jerusalem through an aperture in the wall. The tumultuous and disgraceful contests which take place among the pilgrims, who amount to many hundreds, is utterly scandalous to that religion, whose last benediction was peace, and that too upon the very ground, where they believe the great sacrifice to have been offered. Dr. Richardson, who was a spectator of this profanation at Easter, 1818, gives an account of it, in which it is difficult to discover, whether the indignant or the ludicrous feeling prevails. "This year it happened, that the day on which the festival was to be celebrated by the Romans interfered with that on which it was to be celebrated by the Greeks; and we witnessed all the tug of war, the biting and scratching, the pommelling and the pelting, the brick-bats and clubs, the whimpering and the mewling of extatic, spawling, palpitating monks, fighting for their chapel like kites and crows for their nests." Vol. ii. p. 326. Mr. Turner had an opportunity of ascertaining the exact number of pilgrims in 1815: Greeks 2000, Armenians 1655, Copts 500, Syrians 50, beside Roman Catholics who had preceded them, and 500 poor pilgrims, who were excused the tribute paid to the Turks. Vol. ii. p. 198.

nor seen but through three small holes, which are in the eastern side of the chapel. On the outside, on the north, contiguous to the chapel itself, is a lamp, which is constantly attended and kept lighted by a caloyer (a Greek monk) with an associate; and opposite to it, on the south side, there is a lamp within the said chapel, which every holysabbath day (Easter day) is lighted up, without fail, with fire sent from above, to the glory of Christ, who lives and rises again, for ever and ever, amen!" P. 71.

The gates of this church are placed in the south side of it, the most easterly opening to a cloister or quadrangle of stone, entirely paved with white marble; in about the middle of which our Lord rested, as he bore his cross to execution. On the eastern side of these gates, and within the church itself, is Mount Calvary; on the summit of which there is a round hole, on which the cross of Christ was fixed. There are eighteen steps to ascend to it, and from the uppermost of them to the opening are ten feet, where it is said that our Saviour's blood ran through the fissures of the rock. Toward the south, it is evident where the rending was made at the time of the crucifixion equally from the top to the bottom, where, as is asserted, the head of Adam was found, and an altar is erected near. From the lowest of these steps, towards the east, as far as the gate of the subterraneous church which leads to the spot where the Empress Helena discovered the true cross, are eleven paces, and from the gate itself to the first step, seven feet. Descending for thirty-nine steps, there is a beautiful chapel, built upon four columns of marble. There are two altars, one at the east, and the other on the north side. Fitz-Simeon then continues his very minute mensuration of every part of the Holy Sepulchre, and notices a round hole, into which Christ placed his finger, saying, " This is the middle of the world." Every stone has some legend annexed to it, as recording a particular circumstance of the crucifixion. He barely mentions the large convent of Franciscans still subsisting, in the church of which they exhibited the head of St. James the Apostle. In another church is elevated, upon four columns, the stone concerning which the women said, "Who shall roll back the stone for us?" He next is about to direct our attention to the great mosque of Caliph Omar, on the site of Solomon's temple, when the manuscript abruptly closes. Whether this manuscript were left incomplete, as occasioned by the death of its author, or whether it be a mutilated copy, we have no means of ascertaining. It is barely probable that a manuscript which communicated information upon a subject so interesting to those about to undertake the pilgrimage should not have been often copied, and preserved in conventual libraries, but this alone has reached us.

If, in the few accounts by the earliest religious travellers after the first crusade, we are disappointed by the unprofitable read

ing of merely the names of places on the route, and that we may search in vain for valuable information of any kind, a comparative praise is fairly due to Fitz-Simeon. None of his precursors approach him in any degree. We should not estimate his work with reference to what he has omitted to notice', but by that which he has detailed with a certain accuracy of observation; and we must read with indulgence, or pass over, the legendary stories which he mingles with his more valuable narrative, as characteristic of his peculiar profession, and of the age in which he lived. We shall be forcibly struck with the exact accordance of his description of many objects of curiosity with that of modern and enlightened travellers, although he was born in an æra of obscurity and superstition. But it must be remembered that these observations were made of a country where no lapse of time has effected either abrogation or change in the uniformity of its manners and customs.

Memoirs of Zehir-ed-din Muhammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan, written by himself, in the Jaghatai Turki, and translated, partly by the late John Leyden, Esq. M.D., partly by William Erskine, Esq., with Notes and a Geographical and Historical Introduction: together with a Map of the Countries between the Oxus and Jaxartes, and a Memoir regarding its Construction, by Charles Waddington, Esq. of the East India Company's Engineers. London, 1826. 4to.

IN noticing the travels of Bernier in India, principally with a view of displaying the romantic nature of history in the East, we made a sketch of the Mogul dynasty from the popular and current sources of such materials. The remarkable incidents of the life of Baber, with the rest of his race, were touched upon. His autobiography, however, while it is naturally infinitely more minute than the scanty works which relate to this remote period, also shows that great errors have prevailed respecting the situation and conduct of the founder of the Mogul empire. A copy of this most curious piece of biography, which was so scarce as only to have been indistinctly heard of by Sir William Jones, in spite of all his researches, having fallen into good hands, a translation was undertaken by the indefatigable Dr. Leyden. When he died, this formidable task was left unfinished, and Mr.

1 Fitz-Simeon does not mention the Sphynx, though he passed within sight of it, nor the mummies. He is silent with respect to coffee, opium, and tobacco, now so essential a luxury to the inhabitants of Egypt; but it should be recollected that the use of them had not then universally obtained.