DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0359
CHAP. VI.]
JAFFA.
51
Christians wear the Eastern habit. The Superior of the convent
sat with me for some time, and professed to point out the house-
top whereon St. Peter prayed, and saw the great vision of Tole-
rance. This establishment, it seems, is merely a hospice, not a
convent strictly speaking; it is occupied only by four Spanish
Franciscans, whose duty is to receive and cherish pilgrims on
their way to Jerusalem.
The next morning, I visited our Consular agent, a civil old
Arab, who told me I had better wait for a caravan, or take an
escort to Jerusalem, as the road was just then very unsafe. This
is an almost invariable observation in Syria, made by every one
in authority to every traveller who inquires his way. Having
smoked his pipe and declined his offers of service, I rode forth
upon my crippled horse, whose native spirit soon flung off his
weariness; and stepping out as proudly as ever, he seemed en-
deavouring to disguise his stiffness. The town appeared much
better this morning ; the bazaars and markets seemed full of bu-
siness, and looked very gay with Syrian silks and shining arms,
and a profusion of fruit, flowers, and vegetables. The fortifica-
tions are rather respectable for an eastern town, consisting of a
wide ditch, a covered way, and a glacis, together with bastions
and battlements along the walls. Jaffa made an honourable re-
sistance to Buonaparte, and only 3,800 troops were left to sur-
render as prisoners of war, trusting to the faith of mercy which
the deluded infidels supposed was professed by those godless in-
vaders : they were butchered to a man in cold blood upon the
following day.*
The gateway was now filled with Turkish soldiers, and opened
on a vacant space between it and the drawbridge, presenting a
very picturesque appearance : in front is a handsome marble
fountain, engraved with many pious Arabic inscriptions, which
recommended the traveller, as he quaffed the stream, to bless the
Giver of it. An arcade of thickly-clustering vines shaded the
enclosure, round which were recesses thronged with a gowned
and bearded multitude, smoking and chatting gravely, or playing
* Miot (Expeditions en Egypt et en Syrie) and Demon (2d edit.) confirm
Sir Robert Wilson's fearful story of this massacre.
JAFFA.
51
Christians wear the Eastern habit. The Superior of the convent
sat with me for some time, and professed to point out the house-
top whereon St. Peter prayed, and saw the great vision of Tole-
rance. This establishment, it seems, is merely a hospice, not a
convent strictly speaking; it is occupied only by four Spanish
Franciscans, whose duty is to receive and cherish pilgrims on
their way to Jerusalem.
The next morning, I visited our Consular agent, a civil old
Arab, who told me I had better wait for a caravan, or take an
escort to Jerusalem, as the road was just then very unsafe. This
is an almost invariable observation in Syria, made by every one
in authority to every traveller who inquires his way. Having
smoked his pipe and declined his offers of service, I rode forth
upon my crippled horse, whose native spirit soon flung off his
weariness; and stepping out as proudly as ever, he seemed en-
deavouring to disguise his stiffness. The town appeared much
better this morning ; the bazaars and markets seemed full of bu-
siness, and looked very gay with Syrian silks and shining arms,
and a profusion of fruit, flowers, and vegetables. The fortifica-
tions are rather respectable for an eastern town, consisting of a
wide ditch, a covered way, and a glacis, together with bastions
and battlements along the walls. Jaffa made an honourable re-
sistance to Buonaparte, and only 3,800 troops were left to sur-
render as prisoners of war, trusting to the faith of mercy which
the deluded infidels supposed was professed by those godless in-
vaders : they were butchered to a man in cold blood upon the
following day.*
The gateway was now filled with Turkish soldiers, and opened
on a vacant space between it and the drawbridge, presenting a
very picturesque appearance : in front is a handsome marble
fountain, engraved with many pious Arabic inscriptions, which
recommended the traveller, as he quaffed the stream, to bless the
Giver of it. An arcade of thickly-clustering vines shaded the
enclosure, round which were recesses thronged with a gowned
and bearded multitude, smoking and chatting gravely, or playing
* Miot (Expeditions en Egypt et en Syrie) and Demon (2d edit.) confirm
Sir Robert Wilson's fearful story of this massacre.