It must be allowed that the governor had done much toward beautifying the city. He had built a small but neat mosque; a caravansery; a bazar; and a town gate (the only entrance to the city), which is much ornamented, and has a very showy appearance: but all these buildings, the gate excepted, are on so diminutive a scale, that the whole do not occupy so much ground as many single edifices in a spacious metropolis. These structures are of stone, as are the houses. The Governor had enriched his masonry from the ruins of Cæsarea, Ascalon, and other cities along the coast, whence he had drawn abundant supplies of granite, marble, and stone, ready shaped to the hand. There is a convent of Franciscans, where, at the time of our arrival, resided not more than six or seven monks: there is also a Greek and an Armenian monastery. The former is pleasantly situated on the quays that run along the edge of the harbour, not far from the warehouses of the merchants, and is the most agreeable residence in the place. The other, converted into an hospital, is said to have been the grave of many Frenchmen, poisoned by order of Buonaparte, when he raised the siege of St. Jean D’Acre.
The environs of the city are planted with fine orchards; and, although the soil seems to be nothing but sand, yet, wherever it is watered, all the productions of the earth thrive. Fine water-melons grow here, and are sent in smacks to every port in Syria. The soil is irrigated from wells, by means of wheels of the rudest construction, round which earthenware pots, fastened to a withy rope, are made to revolve in the manner of a chain pump. These pots, dipping at the bottom, empty themselves at the top into a wooden shoot, which conducts the water to canals of mortarwork, from which it is distributed by trenches to every part of the orchard. In each of the orchards is generally a stone cottage, in which resides the gardener with his family. The gardener does the work either in consideration of a certain proportion of the profits, or else he hires the garden at an annual rent.[28]
Large flights of storks are to be seen in the fields round Jaffa.
The governor was named Mohammed Aga Abu Nabût, rather a handsome man, of middling stature, with a florid complexion, and a well-shaped and becoming beard. He had been a Mameluke of Gezzàr Pasha’s.[29] He exercised rigorously the administration of justice, and was the terror of thieves and robbers: his mildest punishment was amputation of the hand. His retinue was very splendid for his rank, and he already seemed to act the pasha, which indeed he afterwards became. He was very religious, either from conviction or policy.
Like other motsellems, or governors of towns, he had no pension; but, after having transmitted the revenue with which his government was charged in taxes, customs, and the like, he was then allowed to make as much as he could of his place. The public officers of the pasha were sent annually to examine his accounts about April, which is the commencement of the Mahometan year. These accounts were kept by Christians, who are everywhere the bankers and secretaries of the Turkish governors, the highest employments to which a Christian can rise.
Easter was just over. Jaffa being, as we have seen, a small place, with little commerce and few buildings, what was our surprise to find it transformed from a dull fishing-town into a populous mart, by the arrival of the pilgrims from Jerusalem? The number of those who visit the holy sepulchre every Easter varies. This year they amounted, we were told, to about four thousand. As travelling by land subjects the Christians to some danger and much oppression, those, whose destination permits, take shipping at Jaffa for their respective homes. The shipowners of the Levant know the season, and there were vessels of all sizes daily entering the roads to wait for passengers.
The grotesque figures of these poor wearied pilgrims, as they came into the town from Jerusalem, were truly ludicrous. Wheel carriages being unknown in this country, the women are compelled to ride on mules, asses, camels, or horses; and, from timidity or economy, they generally put themselves into a kind of panier. Fear of the Bedouins and mountaineers makes them apprehensive of stopping excepting at Ramlah, the only large village between Jaffa and Jerusalem; and they sometimes travel for fourteen hours without rest.
The pilgrims, in the dresses and with the languages of their different nations, produce a confusion of tongues and costumes that could hardly be exceeded by the Crusaders themselves. Nor is religion the only object they have in view. The great fairs at Leipsic and Frankfort are not more essential to the commercial interests of the Continental Jews than is this pilgrimage to the trade of the Eastern Christians. It is here that they procure their precious gums, valuable medicinal drugs, herbs, &c., for which they barter pearls, precious stones, stuffs, and the like. There is also a great exchange of Damascus silks, Angora stuffs, Barbary shawls, against the productions of European Turkey. In fact, every pilgrim can dispose of what he wants to sell, and can furnish himself with that of which he stands in need.
The pilgrims this year from the western world were but few. There were three from Spain, one from Germany, none from France, and, excepting ourselves, no English.
It will, no doubt, be imagined that, sanctified by the performance of so holy a vow, and filled with religious sentiments arising from the contemplation of the scenes of our Saviour’s sufferings, the pilgrim returns home pure in heart, and with the good resolution of amending his life. But we were credibly informed that this was not always the case; and that the promiscuous assemblage of so many persons gave rise to much depravity of conduct. There is an Arabian proverb which says—“Beware of pilgrims, of Jerusalemites, and of Bethlehemites.”