My Itinerary.
"We were about two hundred passengers on the ship, men, women, children and old people. As many mats lay ranged in rows on both sides of the steerage. In this kind of republic, each kept house as he pleased: the women looked after their children, the men smoked or prepared their dinners, the popes talked together. On every side was heard the sound of mandolines, fiddles and lyres. They sang, they danced, they laughed, they prayed. Every one was joyful. They said to me, 'Jerusalem!' pointing to the south; and I replied, 'Jerusalem!' In short, but for the fright, we should have been the happiest people in the world; but at the least wind the seamen furled the sails, the pilgrims cried, 'Christos, Kyrie eleison!' When the storm had passed, we resumed our boldness."
Here I am beaten by Julien.
Julien's Itinerary.
"We had to busy ourselves with our departure for Jaffa, which took place on Thursday the 18th of September. We embarked on board a Greek ship, where there were at least, men, women, and children, one hundred and fifty Greeks who were going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which caused much disturbance on board.
"Like the other passengers, we too had our supply of provisions and our cooking utensils, which I had bought in Constantinople. I had, besides, a further and fairly complete supply which M. l'Ambassadeur had given us, consisting of very fine biscuits, hams, sausages, saveloys, different sorts of wine, rum, sugar, lemons, and even quinine-wine against the fever. I was therefore furnished with a very plentiful provision, which I husbanded and only consumed with great economy, knowing that we had more than this one crossing to make: everything was locked up where the passengers were not allowed to go.
"Our crossing, which lasted only thirteen days, seemed very long to me through all sorts of unpleasantness and uncleanliness on board. During several days of bad weather which we encountered, the women and children were sick, throwing up everywhere, so much so that we were obliged to leave our cabin and sleep on deck. There we took our meals much more comfortably than elsewhere, as we decided to wait until all our Greeks had finished their littering."
Mount Carmel.
I passed through the Dardanelles, touched at Rhodes, and took a pilot for the Syrian coast. We were stopped by a calm below the Asiatic continent, almost opposite the old Cape Chelidonia. We remained two days at sea without knowing where we were.
My Itinerary.
"The weather was so fine and the air so mild that all the passengers spent the night on deck. I had contended for a place on the quarter-deck with two fat caloyers, who yielded it to me only after much grumbling. I was lying asleep there at six o'clock in the morning on the 30th of September, when I was aroused by a confused noise of voices: I opened my eyes, and saw the pilgrims looking towards the prow of the vessel. I asked what it was; they shouted 'Signor, il Carmelo!' Mount Carmel! The wind had risen at eight o'clock the previous evening, and we had arrived in sight of the Syrian coast during the night. As I was sleeping fully dressed, I was soon on my feet, asking the whereabouts of the sacred mountain. Everyone was eager to point it out to me; but I perceived nothing, owing to the sun which was beginning to rise opposite to us. That moment had about it something religious and august: all the pilgrims, their beads in their hands, had remained silently in the same attitude, awaiting the apparition of the Holy Land; the chief of the popes prayed aloud: one heard only that prayer and the sound of the running of the vessel, which the most favourable wind was impelling across a dazzling sea. From time to time a shout rose from the prow, when one caught sight of Mount Carmel again. At last I myself perceived the mountain, like a round patch beneath the rays of the sun. I then went on my knees in the manner of the Latins. I did not feel the peculiar trouble which I experienced on discovering the coast of Greece: but the sight of the cradle of the Israelites and the native land of the Christians filled me with joy and respect. I was about to step upon the land of prodigies, near the sources of the most astounding poetry, in the region where, even humanly speaking, the greatest event took place that ever changed the face of the world. . . . . . . . . . .
"The wind dropped at noon; it rose again at four o'clock; but through the ignorance of the pilot we went beyond our aim.... At two o'clock in the afternoon we saw Jaffa again.
"A boat left the shore with three monks. I stepped into the launch with them; we entered the harbour through an opening effected between the rocks, and dangerous even for a ship's boat.
"The Arabs on the beach came out into the water to their waists, in order to take us on their shoulders. Then there followed a rather laughable scene: my servant was dressed in a whitish frock-coat; white being the colour of distinction among the Arabs, they deemed that Julien was the sheik. They caught hold of him and carried him off in triumph, despite his protests, while, thanks to my blue coat, I made my escape humbly on the back of a ragged beggar."
Now let us hear Julien, the principal actor in the scene:
Julien's Itinerary.
"What surprised me greatly was to see six Arabs come to carry me on land, while there were only two for Monsieur, which amused him much, to see me carried like a reliquary. I do not know whether my apparel seemed to them more brilliant than Monsieur's: he wore a brown frock-coat and buttons of the same; mine was whitish, with buttons of white metal which gave off a certain gleam in the bright sunshine: this may, no doubt, have caused the mistake.
"We went, on Wednesday the 1st of October, to the monks of Jaffa, who belong to the Order of Cordeliers, speaking Latin and Italian, but very little French. They received us very well, and did all that in them lay to procure for us all we needed."
I arrived in Jerusalem. On the advice of the Fathers of the convent, I passed quickly through the Holy City to go to the Jordan. After stopping at the monastery at Bethlehem, I set out with an Arab escort; I stopped at St. Sabas. At midnight, I found myself on the shore of the Dead Sea.