BATTLE WITH THE ROBBERS.
"The robbers were taken by surprise, but they quickly came to their senses, and made a desperate resistance. The soldiers were victorious; and the robbers that escaped death by the spear, or being thrown over the cliff, were soon made prisoners, and their business was broken up. At the present time the caves are unoccupied, except by a few beggars, who live upon what they get from visitors.
"Back of the caverns are the ruins of the ancient city of Arbela, which is doubtless the Beth-Arbel mentioned in Hosea x. 14. The ruins are overgrown with reeds and vines, and are not worth the time and trouble of visiting them."
From Magdala the boat made a straight course for the mouth of the Jordan, and was carried rapidly forward by a strong breeze from the south. The dragoman said that the lake was liable to be swept by sudden winds, like the majority of inland waters surrounded by mountains, and he predicted that the favoring breeze they had just caught might leave them altogether by the time they reached the point for which they were heading. Sure enough it did so; and as they entered the mouth of the river there was not enough to carry them against the current. The boatmen took to their oars, and in a little while they were a couple of miles from the lake and in front of the ruins of Bethsaida.
The ground for quite a distance is covered with the remains of dwellings, the most of them so overgrown with weeds and bushes that they must be sought for in order to be found. Bethsaida means "house of fish," or "fish-marke;" and there was another village of the same name near Capernaum, so that much confusion has arisen concerning them. It was probably near the Bethsaida on the Jordan, where we now are, that the miracle of feeding the multitude was performed, as described in the ninth chapter of Luke, while it was to the other Bethsaida that Christ sent away his disciples, and went up into the mountain to pray.
As the boat descended the river to reach the lake again Doctor Bronson read from the Bible the account of the stilling of the tempest, and the events connected with it. All were agreed that the miracle must have been performed near the western shore, and close by Capernaum, and the scriptural description seemed to tally exactly with the configuration of the land and lake. It was easy to imagine the scene, especially as the wind by which they had been blown from Magdala had ceased entirely, and "there was a great calm." By steady rowing the boat was brought to Tell Hum a little before sunset, and the voyage around the Sea of Galilee was at an end.
Near Tell Hum the guide called the attention of the youths to a man on the shore standing motionless as a statue, and holding a scoop-net with a long handle.
While they watched him he brought the net to the water with a rapid sweep, and then lifted it almost in the same motion. As he swung it to land a fish was seen vainly struggling to escape from the meshes of the net.