Early Travels in Palestine: Comprising the Narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell
History
Early Travels in Palestine: Comprising the Narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell
Middle East -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Palestine -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
the holy cross of our Lord was found, he recovered his sight.
After remaining some time at Jerusalem, Willibald set out on another
journey, and came first to St. George, at Diospolis, which is ten miles
from Jerusalem, and then to a town where there is a church of St. Peter
the apostle, who here restored to life the widow named Dorcas. He went
thence to the coast, far away from Jerusalem, to Tyre and Sidon, which
stand on the sea-shore six miles from each other; after which he passed
over Mount Libanus, to Damascus, and so again to Cæsarea, and a third
time to Jerusalem, where he passed the following winter. And then he
went to the town of Ptolemais, on the extreme bounds of Syria, and was
obliged by sickness to remain there all Lent. His companions went
forward to the king of the Saracens, named Emir-al-Mumenin, with the
hope of obtaining letters of safe conduct; but they could not find the
king, because he had fled out of his kingdom. Upon this, they came back,
and remained together at Ptolemais until the week before Easter.
Then they went again to Emessa, and asked the governor there to give
them letters, and he gave them a letter for each two, because they could
not travel in a company, but only two and two, on account of the
difficulty of obtaining food. And then they went to Damascus, and
returned a fourth time to Jerusalem, where they remained a short period.
They now left Jerusalem by another route, and came to the town of
Sebaste, which was formerly called Samaria, and they call the castle
Sebastia. Here repose St. John the Baptist, and the prophets Abdiah and
Elisha; and near the castle is the well at which our Lord asked for
water of the Samaritan woman, and over which well there is now a church.
And near is the mountain on which the Samaritans worshipped; for the
woman said to our Lord, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye
say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."[38]
Here the travellers performed their devotions, and then they proceeded
to a large town on the farthest borders of Samaria, where they reposed
that night. And thence they continued their journey over an extensive
plain covered with olive trees, and they were accompanied by a black
with two camels and a mule, who was conducting a woman through the wood.
And on their way they were met by a lion[39], which threatened them much
with fearful roaring; but the black encouraged them, and told them to go
forwards; and when they approached it, the lion, as God willed, hurried
off in another direction, and they soon heard his roaring in the
distance. They supposed he came there to devour people who went into the
wood to gather olives. At length they arrived at a town called
Thalamartha, on the sea-coast; and they proceeded onwards to the head of
Mount Libanus, where it forms a promontory in the sea, and where stands
the tower of Libanus. Nobody is allowed to pass this place without
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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