we saw the ship! I put an exclamation point there because we felt one

when we saw the vessel. The long pilgrimage was ended, and somehow we

seemed to feel glad of it.

[

For description of Jaffa, see Universal Gazetteer.] Simon the Tanner

formerly lived here. We went to his house. All the pilgrims visit Simon

the Tanner's house. Peter saw the vision of the beasts let down in a

sheet when he lay upon the roof of Simon the Tanner's house. It was from

Jaffa that Jonah sailed when he was told to go and prophesy against

Nineveh, and no doubt it was not far from the town that the whale threw

him up when he discovered that he had no ticket. Jonah was disobedient,

and of a fault-finding, complaining disposition, and deserves to be

lightly spoken of, almost. The timbers used in the construction of

Solomon's Temple were floated to Jaffa in rafts, and the narrow opening

in the reef through which they passed to the shore is not an inch wider

or a shade less dangerous to navigate than it was then. Such is the

sleepy nature of the population Palestine's only good seaport has now and

always had. Jaffa has a history and a stirring one. It will not be

discovered any where in this book. If the reader will call at the

circulating library and mention my name, he will be furnished with books

which will afford him the fullest information concerning Jaffa.

So ends the pilgrimage. We ought to be glad that we did not make it for

the purpose of feasting our eyes upon fascinating aspects of nature, for

we should have been disappointed--at least at this season of the year. A

writer in "Life in the Holy Land" observes:

691

The Innocents Abroad