DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0294
278
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
Paul and I both at once called an island. M.
Seetzen, one of the earliest modern travellers who
visited this sea, imagined that he had discovered
a large island in the same direction ; and though no
one believed in its reality, I had then seen no sat-
isfactory explanation of the appearance. I could
not be deceived in what I saw. There never was
any thing that looked more like an island, and I
afterward received an explanation which to me at
least was perfectly satisfactory. It comes from
one who ought to know, from the only man who
ever made the tour of that sea, and lived to tell of
it; and relying upon the interesting nature of the
subject, I make no apology for introducing it here.
When the unhappy Costigan was found by the
Arabs on the shore of the Dead Sea, the spirit of
the enterprising Irishman was fast fleeting away.
He lived two days after he was carried to the con-
vent at Jerusalem, but he never once referred to
his unhappy voyage. He had long been a travel-
ler in the East, and long preparing for this voyage ;
had read every book that treated of the mysterious
water, and was thoroughly prepared with all the
knowledge necessary for exploring it to advan-
tage. Unfortunately for the interests of science,
he had always been.in the habit of trusting greatly
to his memory ; and, after his death, the missiona-
ries in Jerusalem found no regular diary or jour-
nal, but merely brief notes written on the margins
of books, so irregular and confused that they could
make nothing of them; and, either from indifFer-
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
Paul and I both at once called an island. M.
Seetzen, one of the earliest modern travellers who
visited this sea, imagined that he had discovered
a large island in the same direction ; and though no
one believed in its reality, I had then seen no sat-
isfactory explanation of the appearance. I could
not be deceived in what I saw. There never was
any thing that looked more like an island, and I
afterward received an explanation which to me at
least was perfectly satisfactory. It comes from
one who ought to know, from the only man who
ever made the tour of that sea, and lived to tell of
it; and relying upon the interesting nature of the
subject, I make no apology for introducing it here.
When the unhappy Costigan was found by the
Arabs on the shore of the Dead Sea, the spirit of
the enterprising Irishman was fast fleeting away.
He lived two days after he was carried to the con-
vent at Jerusalem, but he never once referred to
his unhappy voyage. He had long been a travel-
ler in the East, and long preparing for this voyage ;
had read every book that treated of the mysterious
water, and was thoroughly prepared with all the
knowledge necessary for exploring it to advan-
tage. Unfortunately for the interests of science,
he had always been.in the habit of trusting greatly
to his memory ; and, after his death, the missiona-
ries in Jerusalem found no regular diary or jour-
nal, but merely brief notes written on the margins
of books, so irregular and confused that they could
make nothing of them; and, either from indifFer-