The great mass of pilgrims to the Holy City comes, every year, from the East, consisting of Russians, Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Copts, Abyssinians, Maronites, and Mohammedans themselves. The greater part of these arrive at Jaffa in steam-boats or trading vessels, in which they are stowed like merchandise, or like negroes in a slave-ship. Not only men, but also entire families, women, girls, and boys, the aged, the sick, and the maimed, make the long pilgrimage. These all expose themselves to bad weather by sea and land, to great privations, and to all kinds of exactions. They assemble in large companies, carrying their provisions along with them, besides merchandize for driving bargains, together with mats for bedding, and cooking vessels, which they load upon camels, mules, and asses. They, however, in many cases walk, often bare-foot, making short stages, sleeping in the open air, or crowded together in a convent; enduring all these fatigues in order to worship in the places which Christ has consecrated by His sufferings. When they arrive at Jerusalem they betake themselves severally to the convents belonging to their own community, and there, after certain formalities, are distributed into lodgings; where, if Greeks, they are crowded together in heaps; if Armenians, they are more comfortable; and if Russians, they have every comfort. I will not weary the reader by relating what the arrangements of the different communities are with regard to their pilgrims; but will only describe those of the Greeks, as they receive the greatest number of all.