This ancient port was famous both in legend and history. It is the site of the fabled rescue of Andromeda by Perseus, and the city is declared by Pliny to have been standing before the Flood. The cedar-wood for building the Temple was sent hither by Hiram, king of Tyre.[1] Here Jonah, “flying from the presence of the Lord,” found a ship about to sail to Tarshish, “so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it.”[2] Somewhere within the circuit of those grey walls, “widows stood weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas had made whilst she was yet with them.” And amongst the tan-pits on the shore once stood, perhaps still stands, the house of Simon the Tanner, where Peter was taught by vision that Jewish exclusiveness was to end, and that henceforth he should “call nothing common or unclean.”[3] It is our first view of that land, “Over whose acres walked those blessed feet Which _eighteen_ hundred years ago were nailed, For our advantage on the bitter cross.” [Illustration: JAFFA FROM THE NORTH.] A number of boats, manned by half-naked Arabs, howling, yelling, and fighting like demons, cluster round the steamer. In one of them, retained for the use of our party, the fight is so fierce that our dragoman leaps down into it, and lays about him right and left with his heavy _korbash_. This proving of no avail, he seizes one of the Arabs by the throat, and throws him into the sea, to sink or swim as it may happen. Order being at length restored, we take our seats in the boat, are skilfully steered through a gap in the reef, and soon find ourselves at the foot of some black slimy steps, leading to the Turkish custom-house. A crowd of wretched creatures press round us, clamouring for _backshish_. The unpaved road is ankle deep in mud. Foul sights, and yet fouler smells, offend the senses. To most of my companions the sight was altogether new and strange. For myself, having had some previous experience of the filth and squalor of an Oriental town, I was not taken by surprise. But the disenchantment of the rest of the party, as they first set foot on the soil of Palestine, was complete. One American gentleman, who had come prepared to go into ecstasies, and had avowed his intention of falling on his knees on landing, to express his gratitude for being permitted to tread the sacred soil, looked round with a comical expression of bewilderment, and exclaimed, “Is this the Holy Land?”