It was here that Napoleon I. had several thousand Arab prisoners of war shot. The great chieftain has been severely censured for this “cold-blooded murder.” I am not sure, however, but that his “cold-blooded” critics are as heartless in stabbing him with the pen, as he was in ordering those Arabs executed. He was thousands of miles from home. He had no provisions to feed, and no men to guard, the prisoners. To turn them loose was to strengthen the enemy, who already outnumbered him ten to one. In the name of Mars, I ask, what else could Napoleon do? While in Joppa, staying with one Simon a tanner, who lived by the seaside, Peter went upon the housetop and, in a vision, saw a sheet let down from Heaven, filled with all manner of four footed beasts. There is to-day in Jaffa a tannery, by the seaside. The stone vats are exceedingly old. The most pleasant place in Jaffa is on the housetops. Standing upon the flat roof of the house in the tan-yard, I easily throw pebbles into the Sea. Jaffa is worthy of her name. Situated in the midst of an extensive orange orchard, which slopes at first steeply, and then gently, up from the water’s edge, she may well be called, “The Beautiful.” I have eaten oranges in different countries, but nowhere have I found them so delicately and deliciously flavored as here in Jaffa. The orchard stretches itself along the seashore for two miles, or more, and extends about the same distance back towards the hill-country. Not oranges only, but figs, dates, pomegranates, pears, peaches, bananas, apricots and other tropical fruits flourish about Jaffa. This is a great summer resort for the people of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem. And why should it not be? The sea breeze is refreshing, the foliage of the orange trees is always green, and the blossoms always fragrant. The ten thousand people who live in Jaffa walk through filthy streets, and live in sorry houses, many of them in miserable huts. They are not, however, so poverty-stricken as are their kinsmen in other portions of the country, for the showers of golden fruit are constantly bringing streams of golden coin into the Beautiful City. [Illustration: THE CASTLE OF DAVID AND JAFFA GATE.]