We left the coast of Egypt on the 10th of August. Early on the morning of the 12th we had the pleasure of seeing the hills of Palestine emerging from the waters. What a thrill was occasioned by the sight! The birth-place of a wide-spread and wonderful religion--the land of a thousand miracles--the original home of a people now spread every where, and every where a miracle; and every where, from Lapland to India, still yearning towards their father-land--the mountains, the plains of Judea were before us. In our earliest infancy we had tried to picture them--they were mingled with the deepest and warmest feelings of our maturer years; in imagination how often had we wandered over the hallowed ground, and here before us was now the reality itself. A stretch of low and whitish coast gradually developed itself; and beyond this, at the distance of several miles, rose a chain of hills, as our glasses informed us, under pretty good cultivation, and sprinkled with villages. By and by the sun was reflected from a mass of white houses on the shore, encircled with walls and towers; this was Jaffa--the Joppa of the Scriptures, and the ancient as well as the present seaport of Jerusalem. I believe I may say there was a very strong sensation excited universally throughout the ship by the scene before us; for the religion of Judea had at least been that of our childhood, and there was probably scarcely an individual among us, in whose mind it was not connected with the tenderness of a good parent, or the kindness of some early friend still dear to our memory. Our noble ship glided on, and began to approach the coast. She was the first American vessel that had ever entered these waters; and in her joyous motion, as she pushed the ripples aside, and threw back the morning rays from a cloud of canvass, we could almost imagine a participation in the feelings of her inmates. The stripes and stars were presently replied to by a similar ensign over the house of our consul at Jaffa; and the other consuls following suite, there was presently a display of nearly all the European flags in that ancient city. The city of Jaffa is built on the side of a hill that rises immediately from the water’s edge; the houses are white, rising tier above tier; many are covered with whitewashed domes; and the white being now relieved by the consular flags, it had quite a pleasing appearance; its walls and towers, and a castle at the upper extremity, gave it also a show of strength; and had we found time for it, this proud array of pennon and battlement, assisted as it was by an encampment of soldiers in the neighborhood, might easily have carried the mind back to the days of chivalry and romance.