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[page 371:]
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REVIEW OF STEPHENS' ARABIA
PETRAÆ.*
————————————————
 MR. STEPHENS
has here given us two volumes of more than ordinary interest — written
with a freshness of manner, and evincing a manliness of feeling, both
worthy
of high consideration. Although in some respects deficient, the work
too
presents some points of moment to the geographer, to the antiquarian,
and
more especially to the theologian. Viewed only as one of a class of
writings
whose direct tendency is to throw light upon the Book of Books, it has
strong claims upon the attention of all who read. While the vast
importance
of critical and philological research in dissipating the obscurities
and
determining the exact sense of the Scriptures, cannot be too readily
conceded,
it may be doubted whether the collateral illustration derivable from
records
of travel be not deserving at least equal consideration. Certainly the
evidence thus afforded, exerting an enkindling influence upon the
popular
imagination, and so taking palpable hold upon the popular
understanding,
will not fail to become in time a most powerful because easily
available
instrument in the downfall of unbelief. Infidelity itself has often
afforded
unwilling and unwitting testimony to the truth. It is surprising to
find
with what unintentional precision both Gibbon and Volney (among others)
have used, for the purpose of description, in their accounts of
nations and countries, the identical phraseology employed by the
inspired
writers when foretelling the most improbable events. In this manner
skepticism
has been made the [page 372:] root of belief, and the
providence of the Deity has
been
no less remarkable in the extent and nature of the means for bringing
to
light the evidence of his accomplished word, than in working the
accomplishment
itself.
Of late days, the immense stores of
biblical elucidation
derivable from the East have been rapidly accumulating in the hands of
the student. When the "Observations'' of Harmer were given to the
public,
he had access to few other works than the travels of Chardin, Pococke,
Shaw, Maundrell, Pitts, and D'Arvieux, with perhaps those of Nau and
Troilo,
and Russell's "Natural History of Aleppo.'' We have now a vast
accession
to our knowledge of Oriental regions. Intelligent and observing men,
impelled
by the various motives of Christian zeal, military adventure, the love
of gain, and the love of science, have made their way, often at
imminent
risk, into every land rendered holy by the words of revelation. Through
the medium of the pencil, as well as of the pen, we are even familiarly
acquainted with the territories of the Bible. Valuable books of eastern
travel are abundant — of which the labors of Niebuhr, Mariti, Volney,
Porter, Clarke, Chateaubriand, Burckhardt, Buckingham, Morier, Seetzen,
De Lamartine, Laborde, Tournefort, Madden, Maddox, Wilkinson, Arundell,
Mangles, Leigh, and Hogg, besides those already mentioned, are merely
the
principal, or the most extensively known. As we have said, however, the
work before us is not to be lightly regarded: highly agreeable,
interesting,
and instructive, in a general view, it also has, in the connexion now
adverted
to, claims to public attention possessed by no other book of its kind.
In an article prepared for this
journal some months
ago, we had traced the route of Mr. Stephens with a degree of
minuteness
not desirable now, when the work has been so long in the hands of the
public.
At this late day we must be content with saying, briefly, in regard to
the earlier portion of the narrative, that, arriving at Alexandria in
December, 1835, he thence passed up the Nile as far as the Lower
Cataracts.
One or two passages from this part of the tour may still be noted for
observation.
The annexed speculations, in regard to the present city of Alexandria,
are well worth attention. [page 373:]
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"The present
city of
Alexandria, even
after the dreadful ravages made by the plague last year, is still
supposed
to contain more than 50,000 inhabitants, and is decidedly growing. It
stands
outside the Delta in the Libyan Desert, and as Volney remarks, 'It is
only by the canal which conducts the waters of the Nile into the
reservoirs
in the time of inundation, that Alexandria can be considered as
connected
with Egypt.' Founded by the great Alexander, to secure his conquests in
the East, being the only safe harbor along the coast of Syria or
Africa,
and possessing peculiar commercial advantages, it soon grew into a
giant
city. Fifteen miles in circumference, containing a population of
300,000
citizens and as many slaves, one magnificent street 2,000 feet broad,
ran
the whole length of the city, from the Gate of the Sea to the Canopie
Gate,
commanding a view at each end, of the shipping, either in the
Mediterranean
or in the Mareotic Lake, and another of equal length intersected it at
right angles; a spacious circus without the Canopie Gate, for
chariot-races,
and on the east a splendid gymnasium more than six hundred feet in
length,
with theatres, baths, and all that could make it a desirable residence
for a luxurious people. When it fell into the hands of the Saracens,
according
to the report of the Saracen general to the Calif Omar, 'it was
impossible
to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauties;' and it is said to
'have contained four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four
hundred
theatres or public edifices, twelve thousand shops, and forty thousand
tributary Jews.' From that time, like everything else which falls in
the
hands of the Mussulman, it has been going to ruin, and the discovery of
the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope gave the death-blow to
its
commercial greatness. At present it stands a phenomenon in the history
of a Turkish dominion. It appears once more to be raising its head from
the dust. It remains to be seen whether this rise is the legitimate and
permanent effect of a wise and politic government, combined with
natural
advantages, or whether the pacha is not forcing it to an unnatural
elevation,
at the expense, if not upon the ruins, of the rest of Egypt. It is
almost
presumptuous, on the threshold of my entrance into Egypt, to speculate
upon the future condition of this interesting country; but it is clear
that the pacha is determined to build up the city of Alexandria, if he
can:
his fleet is here, his army, his arsenal, and his forts are here; and
he
has forced and centred here a commerce that was before divided between
several places. Rosetta has lost more than two thirds of its
population.
Damietta has become a mere nothing, and even Cairo the Grand has become
tributary to what is called the regenerated city.'' Vol. I. pp.
21, 22. |
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We see no presumption in this attempt
to speculate
upon the future condition of Egypt. Its destinies are matter for the
attentive
consideration of every reader of the Bible. No words can be more
definitive,
more utterly free from ambiguity, than the prophecies concerning this
region.
No events could be more [page 374:] wonderful in their nature,
nor more impossible
to have been foreseen by the eye of man, than the events foretold
concerning
it. With the earliest ages of the world its line of monarchs began, and
the annihilation of the entire dynasty was predicted during the zenith
of that dynasty's power. One of the most lucid of the biblical
commentators
has justly observed that the very attempt once made by infidels to
show,
from the recorded number of its monarchs and the duration of their
reigns,
that Egypt was a kingdom previous to the Mosaic era of the deluge,
places
in the most striking view the extraordinary character of the prophecies
regarding it. During two thousand years prior to these predictions
Egypt
had never been without a prince of its own; and how oppressive was its
tyranny over Judea and the neighboring nations! It, however, was
distinctly
foretold that this country of kings should no longer have one of its
own
— that it should be laid waste by the hand of strangers — that it
should
be a base kingdom, the basest of the base — that it should never
again exalt itself among the nations — that it should be a desolation
surrounded
by desolation. Two thousand years have now afforded their testimony to
the infallibility of the Divine word, and the evidence is still
accumulative.
"Its past and present degeneracy bears not a more remote resemblance to
the former greatness and pride of its power, than the frailty of its
mud-walled
fabrics now bears to the stability of its imperishable pyramids.'' But
it should be remembered that there are other prophecies concerning it
which
still await their fulfilment. "The whole earth shall rejoice, and Egypt
shall not be for ever base. The Lord shall smite
Egypt; he shall
smite and heal it; and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall be
entreated
of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall Isaac be the third with
Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land.''
Isa.
xix. 19-25. In regard to the present degree of political power and
importance
to which the country has certainly arisen under Mohammed Aly, (an
importance
unknown for many centuries,) the fact, as Mr. Keith observes in his
valuable
Evidence of Prophecy, may possibly serve, at no distant period, to
illustrate
the prediction which implies, that however base and degraded it might
be throughout many generations, it would, notwithstanding, [page
375:] have
strength
sufficient to be looked to for aid or protection, even at the time of
the
restoration of the Jews to Judea, who will seek "to strengthen
themselves
in the strength of Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt.''
How emphatically her present feeble prosperity is, after all, but the shadow
of the Egypt of the Pharaohs, we leave to the explorer of her pyramids,
the wanderer among the tombs of her kings or the fragments of her Luxor
and her Carnac.
At Djiddeh, formerly the capital of
Upper Egypt and
the largest town on the Nile, Mr. Stephens encountered two large
boat-loads
of slaves — probably five or six hundred — collected at Dongola and
Sennaar.
"In the East,'' he writes, "slavery exists now precisely as it did in
the
days of the patriarchs. The slave is received into the family of a
Turk,
in a relation more confidential and respectable than that of an
ordinary
domestic; and when liberated, which very often happens, stands upon the
same footing with a freeman. The curse does not rest upon him for ever;
he may sit at the same board, dip his hand in the same dish, and, if
there
are no other impediments, may marry his master's daughter.''
Morier says, in his Journey
through Persia
— "The manners of the East, amidst all the changes of government and
religion,
are still the same. They are living impressions from an
original
mould; and, at every step, some object, some idiom, some dress, or some
custom of common life, reminds the traveller of ancient times, and
confirms,
above all, the beauty, the accuracy, and the propriety of the language
and the history of the Bible.''
Sir John Chardin, also, in the
Preface to his Travels
in Persia, employs similar language: — "And the learned, to whom I
communicated my design, encouraged me very much by their commendations
to proceed in it; and more especially when I informed them that it is
not
in Asia, as in our Europe, where there are frequent changes, more or
less,
in the form of things, as the habits, buildings, gardens, and the like.
In the East they are constant in all things. The habits are at this day
in the same manner as in the precedent ages; so that one may reasonably
believe that, in that part of the world, the exterior forms of things
(as
their manners and customs) are the same now as they [page 376:]
were two thousand
years
since, except in such changes as have been introduced by religion,
which
are, nevertheless, very inconsiderable.''
Nor is such striking testimony
unsupported. From
all sources we derive evidence of the conformity, almost of the
identity,
of the modern with the ancient usages of the East. This steadfast
resistance
to innovation is a trait remarkably confined to the regions of biblical
history, and (it should not be doubted) will remain in force until it
shall
have fulfilled all the important purposes of biblical elucidation.
Hereafter,
when the ends of Providence shall be thoroughly answered, it will not
fail
to give way before the influence of that very Word it has been
instrumental
in establishing; and the tide of civilization, which has hitherto
flowed
continuously, from the rising to the setting sun, will be driven back,
with a partial ebb, into its original channels.
Returning from the cataracts, Mr.
Stephens found
himself safely at Cairo, where terminated his journeyings upon the
Nile.
He had passed "from Migdol to Syene, even unto the borders of
Ethiopia.''
In regard to the facilities, comforts, and minor enjoyments of the
voyage,
he speaks of them in a manner so favorable, that many of our young
countrymen
will be induced to follow his example. It is an amusement, he says,
even
ridiculously cheap, and attended with no degree of danger. A boat with
ten men is procured for thirty or forty dollars a month, fowls for
three
piasters a pair, a sheep for a half or three quarters of a dollar, and
eggs for the asking. "You sail under your own country's banner; and
when
you walk along the river, if the Arabs look particularly black and
truculent,
you proudly feel that there is safety in its folds.''
We now approach what is by far the
most interesting
and the most important portion of his tour. Mr. S. had resolved to
visit
Mount Sinai, proceeding thence to the Holy Land. If he should return to
Suez, and thus cross the desert to El Arich and Gaza, he would be
subjected
to a quarantine of fourteen days on account of the plague in Egypt; and
this difficulty might be avoided by striking through the heart of the
desert
lying between Mount Sinai and the frontier of Palestine. This route was
beset with danger; but, apart from the matter of avoiding quarantine, [page
377:] it
had other strong temptations for the enterprise and enthusiasm of the
traveller — temptations not to be resisted. "The route,'' says Mr.
Stephens,
"was hitherto untravelled,'' and moreover, it lay through a region upon
which has long rested, and still rests, a remarkable curse of the
Divinity;
issued through the voices of his prophets. We allude to the land of
Idumea
— the Edom of the Scriptures. Some English friends, who first suggested
this route to Mr. Stephens, referred him, for information concerning
it,
to Keith on the Prophecies. Mr. Keith, as our readers are aware,
contends
for the literal fulfilment of prophecy, and in the treatise in
question
brings forward a mass of evidence, and a world of argument, which we,
at
least, are constrained to consider, as a whole, irrefutable. We look
upon
the literalness of the understanding of the Bible predictions
as
an essential feature in prophecy — conceiving minuteness of
detail
to have been but a portion of the providential plan of the Deity for
bringing
more visibly to light, in after-ages, the evidence of the
fulfilment
of his word. No general meaning attached to a prediction, no general
fulfilment
of such prediction, could carry, to the reason of mankind, inferences
so
unquestionable, as its particular and minutely incidental
accomplishment.
General statements, except in rare instances, are susceptible of
misinterpretation
or misapplication: details admit no shadow of ambiguity. That, in many
striking cases, the words of the prophets have been brought to pass in
every particular of a series of minutiae, whose very meaning was
unintelligible
before the period of fulfilment, is a truth that few are so utterly
stubborn
as to deny. We mean to say that, in all instances, the most
strictly
literal interpretation will apply. There is, no doubt, much unbelief
founded
upon the obscurity of the prophetic expression; and the
question
is frequently demanded — "wherein lies the use of this obscurity? — why
are not the prophecies distinct?[["]] — These words, it is said, are
incoherent,
unintelligible, and should be therefore regarded as untrue. That many
prophecies
are absolutely unintelligible should not be denied — it is a part of
their
essence that they should be. The obscurity, like the apparently
irrelevant
detail, has its object in the providence of God. Were the words of
inspiration,
affording insight into the events of futurity, at all times so
pointedly
clear [page 378:] that he who runs might read, they would in
many cases, even when
fulfilled, afford a rational ground for unbelief in the inspiration of
their authors, and consequently in the whole truth of revelation; for
it
would be supposed that these distinct words, exciting union and
emulation
among Christians, had thus been merely the means of working out their
own
accomplishment. It is for this reason that the most of the predictions
become intelligible only when viewed from the proper point of
observation
— the period of fulfilment. Perceiving this, the philosophical thinker,
and the Christian, will draw no argument from the obscurity, against
the
verity of prophecy. Having seen palpably, incontrovertibly fulfilled,
even
one of these many wonderful predictions, of whose meaning, until the
day
of accomplishment, he could form no conception; and having thoroughly
satisfied
himself that no human foresight could have been equal to such amount of
foreknowledge, he will await, in confident expectation, that moment
certainly
to come when the darkness of the veil shall be uplifted from the
others.* [page 379:]
Having expressed our belief in the
literal fulfilment
of prophecy in all cases,* and having
suggested, as one reason
for
the non-prevalence of this belief, the improper point of view from
which
we are accustomed to regard it, it remains to be seen what were the
principal
predictions in respect to Idumea.
"From generation to generation it
shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
But
the cormorant
and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall
dwell
in it; and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the
stones
of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but
none
shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall
come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof;
and it shall be a habitation for dragons and a court for owls. The wild
beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the
island,
and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech-owl also shall rest
there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl
make her nest, and lay and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there
shall
the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out of
the Book of the Lord, and read; no one of these [page 380:]
shall fail, none shall
want her mate; for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath
gathered
them. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it
unto
them by line; they shall possess it for ever and ever, from generation
to generation shall they dwell therein.'' Isaiah: xxxiv. 5, 10 — 17.
"Thus
will I make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that
passeth
out and him that returneth.'' Ezekiel: xxxv. 7.
In regard to such of the passages
here quoted as
are not printed in Italics, we must be content with referring to the
treatise
of Keith already mentioned, wherein the evidences of the fulfilment of
the predictions in their most minute particulars are gathered into one
view. We may as well, however, present here the substance of his
observations
respecting the words — "none shall pass through it for ever and ever,''
and "thus I will make Mount Seir desolate, and cut off from it him that
passeth out and him that returneth.''
He says that Volney, Burckhardt,
Joliffe, Henniker,
and Captains Irby and Mangles, adduce a variety of circumstances, all
conspiring
to prove that Idumea, which was long resorted to from every quarter, is
so beset on every side with dangers to the traveller, that literally none
pass through it; that even the Arabs of the neighboring regions,
whose
home is the desert, and whose occupation is wandering, are afraid to
enter
it, or to conduct any within its borders. He says, too, that amid all
this
manifold testimony to its truth, there is not, in any single instance,
the most distant allusion to the prediction — that the evidence is
unsuspicious
and undesigned.
A Roman road passed directly through
Idumea from
Jerusalem to Akaba, and another from Akaba to Moab; and when these
roads
were made, at a time long posterior to the date of the predictions, the
conception could not have been formed, or held credible by man, that
the
period would ever arrive when none should pass through it. Indeed,
seven
hundred years after the date of the prophecy, we are informed by Strabo
that the roads were actually in use. The prediction is yet more
surprising,
he says, when viewed in conjunction with that which implies that
travellers
should pass by Idumea — "every one that goeth by shall be
astonished.''
The routes of the pilgrims from Damascus, [page 381:] and from
Cairo to Mecca, the
one on the east and the other towards the south of Edom, along the
whole
of its extent, go by it, or touch partially on its borders, without
going through it.
Not even, he says, the cases of
Seetzen and Burckhardt
can be urged against the literal fulfilment, although Seetzen actually did
pass through Idumea, and Burckhardt traversed a
considerable
portion of it. The former died not long after the completion of his
journey;
and the latter never recovered from the effects of the hardships
endured
on the route — dying at Cairo. "Neither of them,'' we have given the
precise
words of Mr. Keith, "lived to return to Europe. I will cut off from
Mount Seir him that passeth out and him that returneth. Strabo
mentions
that there was a direct road from Petra to Jericho, of three or four
days'
journey. Captains Irby and Mangles were eighteen days in reaching it
from
Jerusalem. They did not pass through Idumea, and they did
return.
Seetzen and Burckhardt did pass through it, and they did not
return.''
"The words of the prediction,'' he
elsewhere observes,
"might well be understood as merely implying that Idumea would cease to
be a thoroughfare for the commerce of the nations which adjoined it,
and
that its highly-frequented marts would be forsaken as centres of
intercourse
and traffic; and easy would have been the task of demonstrating its
truth
in this limited sense which skepticism itself ought not to be unwilling
to authorize.''
Here is, no doubt, much inaccuracy
and misunderstanding;
and the exact boundaries of ancient Edom are, apparently, not borne in
mind by the commentator. Idumea proper was, strictly speaking, only the
mountainous tract of country east of the valley of El-Ghor. The
Idumeans,
if we rightly apprehend, did not get possession of any portion of the
south
of Judea till after the exile, and consequently until after the
prophecies
in question. They then advanced as far as Hebron, where they were
arrested
by the Maccabees. That "Seetzen actually did pass through Idumea,''
cannot
therefore be asserted; and thus much is in favor of the whole argument
of Dr. Keith, while in contradiction to a branch of that argument. The
traveller in question (see his own Narrative,) pursuing his route on
the
east of the Dead Sea, proceeded no farther in this direction than to
Kerek,
when he [page 382:] retraced his way — afterwards going from
Hebron to Mount Sinai,
over the desert eastward of Edom. Neither is it strictly correct that
he
"died not long after the completion of his journey.'' Several years
afterwards
he was actively employed in Egypt, and finally died; not from
constitutional
injury sustained from any former adventure, but, if we remember, from
the
effects of poison administered by his guide in a journey from Mocha
into
the heart of Arabia. We see no ground either for the statement that
Burckhardt
owed his death to hardships endured in Idumea. Having visited Petra,
and
crossed the western desert of Egypt in the year 1812, we find him, four
years afterwards, sufficiently well, at Mount Sinai. He did not die
until
the close of 1817, and then of a diarrhœa brought about by the
imprudent
use of cold water.
But let us dismiss these and some
other instances
of misstatement. It should not be a matter of surprise that,
perceiving,
as he no doubt did, the object of the circumstantiality of
prophecy,
clearly seeing in how many wonderful cases its minutiæ had been
fulfilled,
and withal being thoroughly imbued with a love of truth, and with that
zeal which is becoming in a Christian, Dr. Keith should have plunged
somewhat
hastily or blindly into these inquiries, and pushed to an improper
extent
the principle for which he contended. It should be observed that the
passage
cited just above in regard to Seetzen and Burckhardt, is given in a
foot-note,
and has the appearance of an after-thought, about whose propriety its
author
did not feel perfectly content. It is certainly very difficult to
reconcile
the literal fulfilment of the prophecy with an acknowledgment
militating
so violently against it as we find in his own words — "Seetzen actually
did pass through Idumea, and Burckhardt travelled
through
a considerable portion of it.'' And what we are told subsequently in
respect
to Irby and Mangles, and Seetzen and Burckhardt — that these did
not
pass through Idumea and did return, while those did
pass
through and did not return — where a passage from Ezekiel is
brought
to sustain collaterally a passage from Isaiah — is certainly not in the
spirit of literal investigation; partaking, indeed, somewhat of equivoque.
But in regard to the possibility of
the actual passage
through [page 383:] Edom, we might now consider all ambiguity
at an end, could we
suffer
ourselves to adopt the opinion of Mr. Stephens, that he himself had at
length traversed the disputed region. What we have said already,
however,
respecting the proper boundaries of that Idumea to which the prophecies
have allusion, will assure the reader that we cannot entertain this
idea.
It will be clearly seen that he did not pass through the Edom
of
Ezekiel.
That he might have done so, however, is sufficiently evident. The
indomitable
perseverance which bore him up amid the hardships and dangers of the
route
actually traversed, would, beyond doubt, have sufficed to ensure him a
successful passage even through Idumea the proper. And this we say,
maintaining
still an unhesitating belief in the literal understanding of the
prophecies.
It is essential, however, that these prophecies be literally rendered;
and it is a matter for regret as well as surprise, that Dr. Keith
should
have failed to determine so important a point as the exactness or
falsity
of the version of his text. This we will now briefly examine.
Isahia xxxiv. 10.
|
לנצח — "For an eternity,''
נצח׳כ — "of eternities,''
א׳ז — "not,"
טכר — "moving about,"
בה׃ — "in it." |
"For an eternity of eternities (there shall) not (be
any one) moving about in it.'' The literal meaning of "בה'' is "in
it,'' not "through it.'' The participle "טכר'' refers to one moving
to and fro[[,]] or up and down, and is the same term which is rendered "current,''
as an epithet of money, in Genesis xxiii. 16. The prophet means that
there
shall be no marks of life in the land, no living being there, no one
moving
up and down in it: and are, of course, to be taken with the usual
allowance
for that hyperbole which is a main feature, and indeed the genius of
the
language.
Ezekiel xxxv. 7.
|
ונתת׳ — "and I will give,''
את־רר — "the mountain,'' [page 384:]
שע׳ך — "Seir,"
לשממת — "for a desolation,"
ושממה — "and a desolation."
והכרת׳ — "and I will cut off,"
ממנו — "from it,"
עכר — "him that goeth,"
ושכ — "and him that returneth." |
"And I will give mount Seir for an utter desolation,
and will cut off from it him that passeth and repasseth therein.''
The reference here is the same as in the previous passage, and the
inhabitants
of the land are alluded to as moving about therein, and actively
employed
in the business of life. The meaning of "passing and repassing'' is
sanctioned
by Gesenius, s. v. vol. 2. p. 570, Leo's Trans. Compare Zachariah vii.
14, and ix. 8. There is something analogous in the Hebrew-Greek phrase
occurring in Acts ix. 28. [[Greek text:]] Καί ήν μετ' αύτων
είσπορευόμενος καί εκπορευόμενος έν 'Ιερουσαλημ [[:Greek text]]. "And
he was
with
them in Jerusalem coming in and going out.'' The Latin "versatus est''
conveys the meaning precisely; which is, that Saul, the new convert,
was
on intimate terms with the true believers in Jerusalem, moving about
among
them to and fro, or in and out. It is plain, therefore, that the words
of the prophets, in both cases, and when literally construed, intend
only
to predict the general desolation and abandonment of the land. Indeed,
it should have been taken into consideration, that a strict prohibition
on the part of the Deity, of an entrance into, or passage through,
Idumea,
would have effectually cut off from mankind all evidence of this prior
sentence of desolation and abandonment; the prediction itself being
thus
rendered a dead letter, when viewed in regard to its ulterior and most
important purpose — the dissemination of the faith.
Mr. Stephens was strongly dissuaded
from his design.
Almost the only person who encouraged him was Mr. Gliddon, our consul;
and but for him the idea would have been abandoned. The dangers
indeed
were many, and the difficulties more. By good fortune, however, the
sheik
of Akaba was then at Cairo. The great yearly caravan of pilgrims for
Mecca
was assembling beneath the walls, and he had been summoned by the pacha
to escort and protect them through the desert as far as Akaba. He [page
385:] was
the
chief of a powerful tribe of Bedouins, maintaining, in all its vigor,
the independence of their race, and bidding defiance to the pacha,
while
they yielded him such obedience as comported with their own immediate
interests.
With this potentate our traveller
entered into negotiation.
The precise service required of him was, to conduct Mr. Stephens from
Akaba
to Hebron, through the land of Edom, diverging to visit the excavated
city
of Petra, — a journey of about ten days. A very indefinite arrangement
was at length made. Mr. Stephens, after visiting Mount Sinai, was to
repair
to Akaba, where he would meet the escort of the Bedouin. With a view to
protection on his way from Cairo to the Holy Mountain, the latter gave
him his signet, which he told him would be respected by all Arabs on
the
route.
The arrangements for the journey as
far as Mount
Sinai had been made for our traveller by Mr. Gliddon. A Bedouin was
procured
as guide who had been with M. Laborde to Petra, and whose faith, as
well
as capacity, could be depended upon. The caravan consisted of eight
camels
and dromedaries, with three young Arabs as drivers. The tent was the
common
tent of the Egyptian soldiers, bought at the government factory, being
very light, easily carried and pitched. The bedding was a mattress and
coverlet: provision, bread, biscuit, rice, macaroni, tea, coffee, dried
apricots, oranges, a roasted leg of mutton, and two large skins
containing
the filtered water of the Nile. Thus equipped, the party struck
immediately
into the desert lying between Cairo and Suez, reaching the latter
place,
with but little incident, after a journey of four days. At Suez, our
traveller,
wearied with his experiment of the dromedary, made an attempt to hire a
boat, with a view of proceeding down the Red Sea to Tor, supposed to be
the Elino, or place of palm-trees mentioned in the Exodus of the
Israelites,
and only two days' journey from Mount Sinai. The boats, however, were
all
taken by pilgrims, and none could be procured — at least for so long a
voyage. He accordingly sent off his camels round the head of the gulf,
and crossing himself by water, met them on the Petrean side of the sea.
"I am aware,'' says Mr. Stephens,
"that there is
some dispute as to the precise spot where Moses crossed; but having no
time [page 386:] for skepticism on such matters, I began by
making up my mind that
this was the place, and then looked around to see whether, according to
the account given in the Bible, the face of the country and the natural
landmarks did not sustain my opinion. I remember I looked up to the
head
of the gulf, where Suez or Kolsum now stands, and saw that almost to
the
very head of the gulf there was a high range of mountains which it
would
be necessary to cross, an undertaking which it would have been
physically
impossible for 600,000 people, men, women, and children, to accomplish,
with a hostile army pursuing them. At Suez, Moses could not have been
hemmed
in as he was; he could go off into the Syrian desert, or, unless the
sea
has greatly changed since that time, round the head of the gulf. But
here,
directly opposite where I sat, was an opening in the mountains, making
a clear passage from the desert to the shore of the sea. It is admitted
that from the earliest history of the country, there was a caravan
route
from the Rameseh of the Pharaohs to this spot, and it was perfectly
clear
to my mind that, if the account be true at all, Moses had taken that
route;
that it was directly opposite me, between the two mountains, where he
had
come down with his multitude to the shore, and that it was there he had
found himself hemmed in, in the manner described in the Bible, with the
sea before him, and the army of Pharaoh in his rear; it was there he
stretched out his hand and divided the waters; and probably on the very
spot where I sat the children of Israel had kneeled upon the sands to
offer
thanks to God for his miraculous interposition. The distance, too, was
in confirmation of this opinion. It was about twenty miles across; the
distance which that immense multitude, with their necessary baggage,
could
have passed in the space of time (a night) mentioned in the Bible.
Besides
my own judgment and conclusions, I had authority on the spot, in my
Bedouin
Toualeb, who talked of it with as much certainty as if he had seen it
himself;
and by the waning light of the moon, pointed out the metes and bounds
according to the tradition received from his fathers.''
Mr. Stephens is here greatly in
error, and has placed
himself in direct opposition to all authority on the subject. It is
quite
evident, that since the days of the miracle, the sea has
"greatly [page 387:]
changed'' round the head of the gulf. It is now several feet lower, as
appears from the alluvial condition of several bitter lakes in the
vicinity.
On this topic Niebuhr, who examined the matter with his accustomed
learning,
acumen, and perseverance, is indisputable authority. But he merely
agrees
with all the most able writers on this head. The passage occurred at
Suez.
The chief arguments sustaining this position are deduced from the ease
by which the miracle could have been wrought, on a sea so shaped, by
means
of a strong wind blowing from the north-east.
Resuming his journey to the
southward, our traveller
passed safely through a barren and mountainous region, bare of verdure,
and destitute of water, in about seven days to Mount Sinai. It is to be
regretted, that in his account of a country so little traversed as this
peninsula, Mr. Stephens has not entered more into detail. Upon his
adventures
at the Holy Mountain, which are of great interest, he dwells somewhat
at
length.
At Akaba he met the Sheik as by
agreement. A horse
of the best breed of Arabia was provided, and, although suffering from
ill health, he proceeded manfully through the desert to Petra and Mount
Hor. The difficulties of the route proved to be chiefly those arising
from
the rapacity of his friend, the Sheik of Akaba, who threw a thousand
impediments
in his way with the purpose of magnifying the importance of the service
rendered, and obtaining, in consequence, the larger allowance of bucksheesh.
The account given of Petra agrees in
all important
particulars with those rendered by the very few travellers who had
previously
visited it. With these accounts our readers are sufficiently
acquainted.
The singular character of the city, its vast antiquity, its utter loss,
for more than a thousand years, to the eyes of the civilized world;
and,
above all, the solemn denunciations of prophecy regarding it, have
combined
to invest these ruins with an interest beyond that of any others in
existence,
and to render what has been written concerning them familiar knowledge
to nearly every individual who reads.
Leaving Petra, after visiting Mount
Hor, Mr. Stephens
returned to the valley of El-Ghor, and fell into the caravan route for
Gaza, which crosses the valley obliquely. Coming out from [page
388:] the ravine
among
the mountains to the westward, he here left the road to Gaza, and
pushed
immediately on to Hebron. This distance (between the Gaza route and
Hebron)
is, we believe, the only positively new route accomplished by
our
American tourist. We understand that, in 1826, Messieurs Strangeways
and
Anson passed over the ground, on the Gaza road from Petra, to the point
where it deviates for Hebron. On the part of Mr. Stephens's course,
which
we have thus designated as new, it is well known that a great public
road
existed in the later days of the Roman empire, and that several cities
were located immediately upon it. Mr. Stephens discovered some ruins,
but
his state of health, unfortunately, prevented a minute investigation.
Those
which he encountered are represented as forming rude and shapeless
masses;
there were no columns, no blocks of marble, or other large stones,
indicating
architectural greatness. The Pentinger Tables place Helusa in this
immediate
vicinity, and, but for the character of the ruins seen, we might have
supposed
them to be the remnants of that city.
The latter part of our author's
second volume is
occupied with his journeyings in the Holy Land, and, principally, with
an account of his visit to Jerusalem. What relates to the Dead Sea we
are
induced to consider as, upon the whole, the most interesting, if not
the
most important portion of his book. It was his original intention to
circumnavigate
this lake, but the difficulty of procuring a boat proved an obstacle
not
to be surmounted. He traversed, nevertheless, no little extent of its
shores,
bathed in it, saw distinctly that the Jordan does mingle with
its
waters, and that birds floated upon it, and flew over its surface.
But it is time that we conclude. Mr.
Stephens passed
through Samaria and Galilee, stopping at Nablous, the ancient Sychem;
the
burial-place of the patriarch Joseph; and the ruins of Sebaste; crossed
the battle-plain of Jezreel; ascended Mount Tabor; visited Nazareth,
the
Lake of Genesareth, the cities of Tiberias and Saphet, Mount Carmel,
Acre,
Sour, and Sidon. At Beyroot he took passage for Alexandria, and thence,
finally returned to Europe.
The volumes are written in general
with a freedom,
a frankness, and an utter absence of pretension, which will secure them
[page 389:]
the respect and good-will of all parties. The author professes to have
compiled his narrative merely from "brief notes and recollections,''
admitting
that he has probably fallen into errors regarding facts and impressions
— errors he has been prevented from seeking out and correcting by the
urgency
of other occupations since his return. We have, therefore, thought it
quite
as well not to trouble our readers, in this cursory review, with
references
to parallel travels, now familiar, and whose merits and demerits are
sufficiently
well understood.
We take leave of Mr. Stephens with
sentiments of
hearty respect. We hope it is not the last time we shall hear from him.
He is a traveller with whom we shall like to take other journeys.
Equally
free from the exaggerated sentimentality of Chateaubriand, or the
sublimated,
the too French enthusiasm of Lamartine on the one hand, and on
the
other from the degrading spirit of utilitarianism, which sees in
mountains
and waterfalls only quarries and manufacturing sites, Mr. Stephens
writes
like a man of good sense and sound feeling. |
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