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I could not sufficiently express my gratitude. I saw them set out with deep regret: my most sincere good wishes accompanied them.

The community was not a little alarmed on learning the deplorable cause which had determined us to leave Tiberias without taking a single hour to look at the place. As it is customary to make a pilgrimage thither every year on St. Peter's day, and that festival was approaching, the Fathers had already begun to think of preparing for the journey. After my report, it was deemed prudent to send a messenger to obtain further information concerning the state of the town. Fifteen persons had died since our departure, and the disease did not appear likely to abate. The danger was judged serious, and the Fathers would not expose themselves to it. How did I then applaud myself for not hazarding a stay which might have compromised the lives of the brave men belonging to his Imperial Majesty's frigate, and for having instigated the adoption of those precautions which had preserved us!

June 27.

The plague has made its appearance in the house of a Greek Catholic: yesterday our Fathers were informed of it, and the monastery was immediately closed. Here I am a prisoner! all my plans, all my projects, are disconcerted. May I hope to see the places that I have yet to visit? I cannot tell: and, for this painful and continual uncertainty, I can comfort myself only by recurring incessantly to the special motto of the Order to which I have the happiness to belong: THE HOLY WILL OF GOD. At any rate, it is not probable that

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I shall be able to get away while the disease rages; and, if I could, what security would there be for the continuance of my excursions, and who would consent to be my guide?

To the melancholy circumstances in which I find myself, you will be indebted for a few words concerning the precautions adopted here by our good Fathers in time of plague.

In every monastery in Palestine, the minister (cure) of the place habitually resides. This is always a Franciscan missionary, sufficiently acquainted with the Arabic language to perform, with benefit, the functions of his sacred calling. As soon as the plague breaks out, he goes to lodge out of the convent, that he may be more handy for those who may need his assistance. He visits them, consoles them, cheers them, encourages them by the sublime considerations of religion; he procures for them all the bodily comforts that are in his power; he administers the sacraments to them, taking care to avoid all contact that might communicate the disease to himself or render him liable to communicate it to others. To administer the consecrated bread at the Lord's Supper, he uses a pair of silver tongs, extremely slender, and half a yard long. He is, moreover, provided, as much as possible, with the principal preservatives which medical science has yet discovered. It is, nevertheless, no uncommon thing that, in spite of all these precautions, he falls a victim to his zeal, as the minister of Bethlehem has just done.

It is usually in winter that the plague appears. It extends its ravages in the spring, and considerably

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abates at the time of the great heats, that is, about the beginning of June. Most of those who are then attacked by it recover. St. John's day is considered as the term when the scourge ceases altogether; but this, as you perceive, is not a strict and absolute truth.

The most important precautions for securing yourself against it, when you are residing in an infected district, and you cannot leave it, are, to shut yourself up; not to take in any provisions or other articles but such as the plague has no action upon; and, above all, to destroy the cats, and to prevent them, by all means, from getting into the house. This severity is the more necessary, inasmuch as the disease has no more rapid vehicle than those animals.

LETTER XL.

JOURNEY TO NAIM-AGED ARAB SHEIK OF NAIM VILLAGE OF SEPHORIS-BETHULIA - DEPARTURE FROM NAZARETH-CAIFFAMONASTERY OF MOUNT CARMEL - THE MELON GARDEN WILD BEASTS ON THE CARMEL ST. JEAN D'ACRE-DJEZZAR-PACHA; HIS CRUELTY-IBRAHIM PACHA.

Mount Carmel, July 9, 1832.

It is but a few days since I wrote to you, my dear friend, from Nazareth, under the apprehension of being detained there for a long time, and here I am at Mount Carmel. Forty-eight hours after the monastery in which I was a prisoner had been closed, an unexpected incident opened its doors for me. Some officers belonging to an English frigate, lying at Caiffa, arrived on the 29th at the convent, and solicited permission to see it. At first, the Fathers hesitated; but, as the plague had carried off but one person since it appeared, and the

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first alarm had subsided, they thought it right to admit those gentlemen. I availed myself of this circumstance to leave the house and visit Naim. The reverend Father Gaudenzio Betti, of Pistoia, minister of Nazareth, feeling no apprehension of the progress of the contagion, resolved to accompany me. I was informed that the Bedouins, furious at the reduction of St. Jean d'Acre, infested the environs, and that it would be dangerous to travel without escort: I, therefore, took four Turkish horsemen, armed at all points, and we set out at two in the morning.

The road leading to the plain of Esdrelon, at the extremity of which Naim is situated, is winding and very bad. I was foremost, and in the dark, purblind as I am besides, I had great difficulty to keep the track. All at once I heard a dull sound: I called one of the guides, but received no answer. I called a second time; the same silence prevailed. I continued, nevertheless, to advance. Presently, cries and confused words in the Arabic language reached my ear; and I deemed it prudent to proceed, sword in hand. .. I had no need for my courage: it was merely a file of camels, which the drivers were taking towards Nazareth. It was so extremely dark that I did not perceive them till my horse, coming in an opposite direction, had like to have run against the leader of the file. Meanwhile, the good minister and our four horsemen had overtaken me.

At day-break, we entered the extensive plain of Esdrelon. We were approaching mount Hermon, when we perceived on a little hill a small wretched village, consisting of a few huts built of loose stones, but sur

rounded by numerous ruins, indicating that formerly there must have been a considerable town on that spot. Our people could not tell us its name.

Farther on, we came to a well, at which some hideous Arab women, dressed in rags, with skeleton arms, were drawing up, with toil, buckets of muddy water, and giving to cattle as lean and ill-favoured as themselves.

Three hundred paces from this well, on the right, and at the foot of the mountain, are seen some mean habitations, irregularly built around heaps of stones: this is Naim. Part of these stones are said to have belonged to an old church. Not far off is a ditch, bordered by a wall of ruins, near which are two small mutilated marble pillars. It was there that, according to tradition, Jesus, having stopped those who were carrying the corpse of a widow's son to be interred out of the town, agreeably to the practice of the Jews, raised him from the dead, and restored him alive to his mother. On our arrival there, we knelt down, and the venerable curé, dressed in his stole, read with a loud and firm voice, though deeply moved, the following passage of the gospel, to which I listened in religious silence:

"And it came to pass the day after that he went into a city called Naim, and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

"Now, when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.

"And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.